with their chins held at an extraordinary angle. a woman in traditional dress and a bouquet of flowers waits to deliver it to the visiting russian leader. all the while, the north korean leader paces up and down here's mr putin coming down the steps to greet his host — at the bottom there's a handshake, a hug and an air—kiss. it all seems very cordial as the translators move in for the pleasantries. eventually the flower lady gets to present her blooms to the russian president — there's a slightly awkward bow, but it all seems to go down well. then, after a bit more chit—chat they're off. they've lots to talk about — presumably after some sleep. here's our diplomatic correspondent paul adams. vladimir putin's first trip to pyongyang in almost a quarter of a century — a measure of this relationship's growing importance. a warm welcome from the north korean leader, two men shunned by much of the world, united in defiance of the west, each bearing a shopping list, their embrace a source of deep anxiety in washington. deepening cooperation between russia and the dprk is a trend which should be of great concern to anyone interested in maintaining peace and stability in the korean peninsula, upholding the global nonproliferation regime, abiding by the un security council resolutions and supporting the people of ukraine as they defend their freedom and independence. for vladimir putin, it's all about the war in ukraine. the russian economy may already be on a war footing, but mr putin needs every artillery shell and rocket he can get. north korea is a willing supplier, helping russia to outgun ukraine. before arriving, putin is to kim jong—un for firmly supporting the war. north korea, the regime, shows little regard for human life, even the lives of its own people. so i would not be surprised if putin and kim work out a deal for north korea to sent into russia, not only labourers, but also technicians and perhaps even combat troops in the months to come. the two leaders are drawing ever closer, this their second meeting in less than a year. what's in it for mr kim? like russia his country is under strict international sanctions. the two men pariahs in arms. but the north korean leader as his own ambitious plans, for nuclear weapons and space technology. a recent spy satellite failed, russia for its limitations can still offer vital assistance. north korean tv has firmly set the mood for this high—profile visit. russian martial music conjuring the sort of patriotic fervour audiences in pyongyang are used to. and video screens making the agenda abundantly clear. these are two men under pressure, keen to demonstrate they still have allies and options and to show the west that, for all its sanctions and condemnation, this is a mutually beneficial relationship. sue mi terry, was director for korea at the us national security council and is now seniorfellow for korea at the council on foreign relations. she told me what north korea hopes to gain from closer cooperation with russia. north korea is certainly getting food, fuel, other things out of it but the concern here is that he is pushing for something more. that he wants incident of military technology, sensitive technology from russia that would accelerate the north korean weapons of mass destruction nuclear capability. so that is the question here, what is putin willing to provide to north korea in terms of technology because there's a lot that they could provide. they could provide submarine, large ballistic missiles, they could help, the russians with a lot so it is a concern.— lot so it is a concern. that is precisely — lot so it is a concern. that is precisely with _ lot so it is a concern. that is precisely with the _ lot so it is a concern. that is precisely with the west - lot so it is a concern. that is precisely with the west is i precisely with the west is concerned about so what options do they have to disrupt the arms treaty? unfortunately these are — arms treaty? unfortunately these are both _ arms treaty? unfortunately these are both very - arms treaty? unfortunately | these are both very isolated countries, they are both pariahs states. by the time putin is now turning to north korea, one of the poorest countries in the world to help its war effort, the problem is they are both already isolated, they're heavily sanctioned so in terms of curbing their behaviour, i'm not sure there is a lot of leverage, either the united states or its allies have two stop putin from providing sensitive military technologies or stopping kim jong—un providing ammunition and artillery shells and ballistic missiles to russia. again, there is not much we can do. all we can do is work with allies like south korea, the us since japan allies like south korea, the us sincejapan in allies like south korea, the us since japan in terms of strengthening their trilateral cooperation with is now a lot we can do in terms of stopping this behaviour. i’m we can do in terms of stopping this behaviour.— this behaviour. i'm curious to understand. _ this behaviour. i'm curious to understand, what _ this behaviour. i'm curious to understand, what do - this behaviour. i'm curious to understand, what do closer l this behaviour. i'm curious to i understand, what do closer ties between north korea and depression mean for china and what role can beijing play here, how will they be watching developments? i here, how will they be watching developments?— developments? i think china is ultimately _ developments? i think china is ultimately ambivalent - developments? i think china is| ultimately ambivalent watching this, watching this with weary eyes because on one hand, china and russia share similar interests when it comes to north korea. china's north korea's number one trading partner and 90% of north korea trade is with china so china price everything for north korea. so it would not mind for russia to provide some of that support to prop up the regime. on the other hand, they will be wary about too much of a close cooperation between russia and north korea. north koreans know that. kimjong—il and north korea. north koreans know that. kimjong—iland has that. kim jong—il and has always that. kimjong—iland has always been trained to reduce the north korean reliance on china so i think from the chinese perspective, the whole situation is little bit tricky and they will be watching this carefully to see how things unfold —— kimjong—un. to the us now and president joe biden has announced a new policy that would protect hundreds of thousands of undocumented husbands and wives of us citizens from deportation. the white house believes more than half a million spouses will benefit. the policy applies to those who have been in the country for at least 10 years and it will allow them to work in the us legally. the white house also believes the new spouses policy will benefit 50,000 people under 21 who have a parent married to a us citizen. the issue of immigration has proven to be a bit of a headache for mr biden, who recently issued a sweeping executive action to curb record migrant arrivals at the us—mexico border. polls show that the issue is a primary concern for many voters in the run—up to november's presidential election. here's a little of what president biden said as he announced the spouses policy. i want those who'vr been educated in us college universities put their skills and knowledge to work here in america. i want to keep building the strongest economy in the world with the best workforce in the world. we've already created 15 million newjobs, a record. we're seeing record economic growth, a record of small business growth. and i doubt why the action we're taking today matters. if you wonder about that, just as business leaders, ask labour leaders, ask economists, ask elected officials. they know it's good for american business. for the american economy. they know it's good foramerica, period. here's more from the bbc�*s nomia iqbal who has been following the story for us. well, this policy benefits those people who have been living in the us for more than a decade. they've built their families and lives here. so if you marry an american, then that is eventually a pathway to to citizenship. however, if you enter the country illegally without a visa or a visa expires and you marry an american and then you want to apply for citizenship, you have to leave the country and go back to your home country to do that. and that's involves splitting up families because the process to pursue legal status takes years. so what president biden essentially is doing with this programme is allowing people to stay in the country with their families whilst they pursue legal status. there are some conditions, though. you have to have at least been in the us for a decade and you have to have been married as ofjune the 17th. also, you mentioned they're about children, so the policy would also help, as you mentioned, about 50,000 children of those undocumented people who whose children then would were were taken in by those american citizens. so it's worth mentioning that this policy does affect a pretty narrow it's a substantial group of people, but it's quite narrow in terms of the focus of the policy. let's turn to the uk general election now — and things really aren't getting any better for the prime minister and conservative leader rishi sunak. as this polltracker shows, with just over two weeks to go, the main opposition labour party have opened up and are maintaining a huge lead — a gap of around 20 points. now a billionaire conservative donor has told the bbc he will vote labour for the first time in his life next month. john cauldwell said he thought mr sunak was quote — an "absolute dud". here's chris mason. in mayfair, it's obvious pretty quickly why it is the price is spot on the monopoly board. there are the cars, houses, even the flowers. no, i've no idea how many bulbs there are in those chandeliers either. mayfair and the labour party are not words that often feature in the same sentence, but the party wants to show off their new supporter, and invited me to interview him. the last general election, you gave £500,000 to the conservatives. you are now saying, "back labour." why? well, the reason, of course, for backing the conservatives was we couldn't possibly stand a corbyn government, and i am still of the exactly same view there, but what i've witnessed, especially over the last couple of years is a complete change, getting rid of what i would call the loony left, with extreme socialist policies, ratherthan creating a wealthy britain. what i see is a labour party committed to gdp growth, committed to the environment, and they are my hot buttons because, without grows, you can't look after social services and, without focusing on the environment, there will be no world to look after. tell me about the courtship between the billionaire and the socialist, between you and keir starmer. i don't know whether i'd call it a courtship, to be honest. i did go to dinner with tony blair and keir injanuary. up to two or three months ago, my thoughts on labour historically were very negative. and what i've seen now, the more and more i've looked at labour, is a transformation. is this going to be the first time you'll have voted labour? first time in 51 years, yes, and honestly it took a lot of me soul—searching. because i guess you voted for the conservatives a lot in the past, is that right? yes, and it wasn't really because it was the conservative party, it's conservative principles i believe in. i believe in wealth creation, protecting the poor but by making money within the uk, because we can't create money out of thin air, we can't tax rich people in order to help the poor because they will go off to monaco and other places. we have to create real, genuine wealth. what, in your view, has gone wrong for the conservatives? is rishi sunak a dud? oh, absolute dud. if you go back to his chancellor, everything he did in covid was wrong. he would argue he gave people lots of money when they needed it. all the criticisms that i made of rishi during his chancellorship, i think, were pretty much evidenced in the d—day situation, a complete lack ofjudgment. are you going tojoin the labour party? will you consider giving money to them in the way you have to the conservatives in the past? the labour party, in my estimation, as much i disagree with some of the policies, are the absolute very best for britain going forward. it's quite possible i might support them financially if they needed it next time round, if i think they have done an amazing job. nice to talk to you, and thanks for having us. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news. extreme weather is affecting parts of north america, south america, europe and asia. in china, state media reports that at least nine people have died in torrential rain and landslides in several provinces. another 2a are missing. in other areas, a prolonged heat wave has forced authorities to issue drought warnings. in greece — locals and tourists have been warned to prepare for extreme weather conditions. parts of the mediterranean are experiencing severe heatwaves bringing record temperatures. in ecuador — more than twenty people were killed when heavy rains caused widespread damage. floods and landslides destroyed roads, bridges and homes across the country. while 13 people have died in flooding and landslides in el salvador, honduras and guatemala. in the us, firefighters in california are tackling the state's biggest blaze of the year so far. about 70 million people, that's more than 20% of the population, are currently subject to extreme heat alerts. forecasters are warning that the early summer heatwave could be the longest in decades. our north america correspondent peter bowes sent this update. well, the latest on the fires, which are the closest to me here in los angeles, about an hour and a half drive of los angeles, is that the firefighters are actually making some pretty decent progress. the temperatures here have actually fallen a little bit in the last 2a hours. it was searingly hot at the weekend when this fire first started. but the falling temperatures and slightly reduced winds, which have really been the big problem for the firefighters, the gusts of winds, they just fan the flames, making it extremely difficult to bring a fire like this under control. they have dropped a little bit and the fire is now about 24% contained. so roughly a quarter of the perimeter of the fire. the firefighters are fairly confident that the blaze will not spread any further, which is always good news. so it seems as if they're beginning at least here to get the upper hand on that fire. so some progress being made on battling those fires. but in terms of the heat wave across the country, peter, what's that looking like? how bad is it? it's looking potentially deadly. and this really is quite a separate issue because this is one of these and we hear a lot about them, don't we, recently these heat domes thatjust settle over the country and move very slowly from region to region. this is extremely high pressure causing the air temperature in the upper atmosphere to heat, heating the air below it. and that's what causes what's often described as a bulging dome thatjust hovers over a particular area. and they're predicting that this could take several days to move from the northeast, the midwest, along the east coast, and gradually to the south, where it will dissipate. but temperatures already are searingly high in some of those midwestern cities. chicago, washington, dc, new york, boston, philadelphia, all likely to experience extremely hot temperatures. and local officials just warning people, look, this is going to be very serious. do what you can to stay in air conditioning, drink plenty of water, just stay out of the heat, if at all possible. thailand's upper house of parliament has approved a law to give equal marriage rights to same sex couples. it will now be sent to the king for royal assent. the legislation will replace all gendered terms in marriage law, such as man and woman, with gender neutral alternatives. our reporter in bangkok panisa aemocha has more details. this has been decades for us, for the thai people, especially for the lgbt group and advocate to fight for the bill, to be to be here finally. but the officials ones date back to about 2012 and now thailand is the first asian country, this country, to pass the same sex marriage legislations. so, yeah, at the moment, the thai people, the international organisations also congratulates on the passing of the bill. there's still opposition even to the senate parliament today, as we mentioned, that the term for gender—specific term, such as husband and wife, has been removed from the bill. and some of the senate argue that the fact that the bills remove all the gender—specific term or will undermine, quote unquote, undermine the family structures and jeopardise the right of heterosexual, men and women. but alas, the parliament has passed the bill. let's take a look at some other stories in the headlines. the us federal trade commission has referred a complaint to thejustice department against the social media platform tiktok over potential violations of the children's online privacy act. the commission could resolve a probe into tiktok over allegedly faulty privacy and data security practices by either filing suit or reaching a settlement. a kenyan government spokesman has defended the use by police of tear gas and water cannon against protesters in nairobi. dozens were arrested as they marched to denounce plans for new taxes. human rights groups have called for the release of the protestors who were demonstarting what would you do if you accidentally ordered hundreds of dollars�* worth of chicken nuggets? that's what one mcdonald's customer experienced when attempting to order using the fast food giant's artificial intelligence technology. that's just one of a whole host of system malfunctions being shared by customers online. as a result, mcdonald's is removing its voice recognition technology from its drive—through restaurants in the us, but says it's confident that the tech would still be "part of its restau ra nts' future. " myra wilson — an ai expert at abuhristwith university — explained what appears to be going wrong. i think they expect it's going to be a work in progress with voice recognition. you've got so many different things. i mean, even human beings sometimes can't understand each other. so therefore expecting something artificial to be able to get both the contextual information. you know, i know that kind of ordering from mcdonald's is possibly a limited menu, but there's still a lot of different things. you know, as you say, with ordering bacon with ice cream, how does any ai system know that that doesn't normally go together? well, i think you've got to take ai in context of where it's being used. there are some places where artificial intelligence is very, very useful, where there's logic in place, where there's rules to be followed. again, those kind of systems, you can trust what you're getting out of the ai system. but when there's a lot of contextual information where it's a difficult problem, i mean, even with the voice recognition, if you have some background noise, that can really change how the recognition system takes in the input. singerjustin timberlake has been arrested on drunk driving charges in new york. he appeared in court on tuesday, where he was formally charged and released without bail. nada tawfik has more. justin timberlake was out for the night on monday in the hamptons, a wealthy new york beach destination popular with celebrities in the summer. he was out with friends when he was