the proud boys were among the first to march on the capitol the day of the riot. they overran police lines and stormed the building to prevent congress from ratifying joe biden�*s 2020 presidential election victory. tarrio joins zachary rehl, ethan nordean, joseph biggs and dominic pezzola as prominent members of the proud boys who have been sentenced. our correspondent wyre davies was at the courthouse as the sentence was handed down. enrique tarrio was the last and most senior member of the proud boys to be sentenced for his role in the violent insurrection of january the 6th 2021 when supporters of donald trump tried to violently stop the constitutional and peaceful transfer of power from one president to another. even though he wasn't present here in washington, dc on the day of the riot, after he had been arrested and stopped from coming to the city two days earlier,

the prosecution said enrique tarrio organised, orchestrated and took credit for what happened that day. the 39—year—old was dressed head to toe in a prison issue orange jumpsuit as he listened to his lawyers urge thejudge for clemency. the state had asked for 33 years in jail, but as tarrio himself took the stand, he sounded contrite, he apologised for his actions and said he was embarrassed by what he had done. he also said he now believed donald trump had lost the 2020 election. nonetheless, the judge said he should be sentenced to 22 years in jail, and thus, the most important and most senior member of the proud boys to take part in the riot of january the 6th will now serve the longest prison sentence yet handed down to orchestrators of what happened that day. more than 1,100 people who participated in or plotted the events of january 6th have been arrested and around 500 of them

have been sentenced to prison or house arrest. tarrio�*s lawyers said that they "will definitely" appeal the sentence. turning now to two developing stories — both involving russia's war in ukraine, and both involving old cold war ties. in a moment we'll look at reports that president vladimir putin may host north korea's kimjong—un for arms talks. moscow has refused to comment on whether or not it's happening. but first to cuba, where officials say they've uncovered a human trafficking ring out of russia aimed at recruiting cubans to fight for russia's war in ukraine. cuba's foreign ministry says that cubans living in russia, and even some still at home, have been incoporated into the military forces taking part in the war. russia has not yet responded to the claims, and cuba's foreign ministry did not specify who was behind the operation. russia and cuba have been forging an ever tighter relationship in recent months. cuba's prime minister met

with putin in moscow as recently as june. but in a rare rebuke of russia, cuba's foreign minister issued a statement saying: pascal fletcher from bbc monitoring joined me earlier to talk about all this. thank you for being here. what more do we know about this alleged operation, and how this trafficking might have worked? well, first of all i wouldn't have necessarily described it as a rebuke to russia. what the cubans have said is that they are treating this as a trafficking operation, a human trafficking network, but of course this follows days, almost a week of news coming out of the cuban exile community which has been publishing information about two young cubans complaining they were duped, swindled into taking up a contract in russia

and finding themselves on the ukraine front line. so this is, if you like, the official cuban response, it has been a while coming and they have chosen to present it in this form, as a trafficking operation, but i would say there are still quite a lot of questions about who was exactly involved and whether those persons, and apparently there are people who were wearing military uniforms, and that's how these young cubans were received in russia, it is still not clear what links they might have with either the military in both countries, or with state entities, so there are still a lot of unanswered questions about this. diving a bit deeper into those unanswered questions, cuba and the former soviet union obviously were cold war allies, what do you think is behind russia potentially operating this kind of scheme instead of being more open in recruiting cubans or seeking some other sort of military partnership? well, i think it is still,

as i say, not clear how open this was. it seems to have been that the young people involved, or the young people who have been testifying to the cuban exile media have been saying they found these numbers on facebook and they made contact with a russian and a cuban woman in moscow, and they sorted it out, they then signed contracts in russian including life insurance in russian, they understood they were going to work as constructors, possibly cooks in russian military units, but then they say they were duped and found suddenly they were on the ukraine front line. that is their version, but as i say, the cubans are presenting it as a trafficking thing, they are presenting that they are acting against it. they do make very clear that they do not form part of a war in ukraine — that was interesting, that they would be so specific. but there is no suggestion necessarily that their political alliance is necessarily particularly damaged here...

that's what i wanted to ask you, because we are looking at pictures of the previous meeting in moscow between a delegation of cubans, the prime minister and vladimir putin. where does this relationship stand right now and could we be seeing signs of russia reaching out to these former or current partners that were part of the cold war alliance? certainly i think the relationship is still very strong and there is no question that the cubans have made very clear that they support the russian position over the war in ukraine — the cuban state media constantly echo moscow's talking points and that has been specifically expressed by the cuban president saying they oppose nato expansion, basically agreeing with russia's reasons for going to the war. but that is one thing, that's their political position. we are no longer in the days where cuba sends troops with russian cooperation to parts of the world to fight against the us or the south africans in angola — let's remember, 35 years ago

they sent 50,000 troops to angola who were equipped with russian weaponry and tanks, so i think we quite a long way from that and that is a completely different thing and i don't think that is what we're seeing here. i do think that there seems to be some sort of contract where cubans can go and serve in some capacity, maybe constructors, maybe even as military if they are already in russia. we will have to leave it there, very interesting stuff. thank you very much. cuba's accusation against russia comes as the us claims north korea's leader, kim jong—un, plans to visit russia this month for talks with vladimir putin. the pair are expected to negotiate supplying weapons to russia for its war in ukraine. however, the us says if north korea does supply weapons for use in ukraine, it will pay a price in the international community. i think it says a lot that

russia is having to turn to a country like north korea to seek to bolster its defence capacity in a war that it expected would be over in a week, but in september 2023 it is going to north korea to get munitions to try to continue to grind out on the battlefield in ukraine. while russia is looking for extra support, ukraine's first lady is speaking out about the impact of the protracted war beyond the battlefield. she spoke to the bbc�*s yalda hakim. of the protracted war beyond the battlefield. she spoke to the bbc�*s yalda hakim. translation: really, for a year and a half now, we cannot be - sure about tomorrow. we don't have confidence in ourfuture, in one month or two. we have a huge hope for victory, but we do not know when it comes. and this long wait, constant stress, it takes its toll. so everyone finds their own way here to deal with it. for me, such stimuli are work, including our interview, because when you have the reason to wake up and go to work, it doesn't give you a chance to stop and think why this is happening to us.

and i am very much supported by inspiring stories of ukrainians every day, because in every tragedy, there is a story of saving, help, heroism and it inspires me a lot. i'm holding on due to that, and i think so are my colleagues and friends. how do you deal with other strains on yourfamily? for example, your husband being compared to winston churchill, how do you respond to that? translation: well, it depends on the way you would like - to look at winston churchill. of course, he is a historicalfigure. i did not dream about my husband becoming a historic person. maybe it's selfish, but i need my husband, not a historical figure beside me.

but, on the other hand, if it is about a leader who led his country through the difficulties of war, if that kind of comparison would be accurate, i'd love it. he really does has the energy, the willpower, the inspiration and stubbornness to go through this war so we finally see our long—awaited victory. i believe in him. and i support him. i know that he has enough strength. for any other person i know, i think it would be much harder to handle this situation. he really is a very strong and resilient person and this resilience is what we all need right now. the us senate returned from its summer break tuesday with a critical agenda item — fund the government or risk a shutdown. a short—term funding measure is expected to be on the to—do list, alongside funding for ukraine

and disaster relief aid. but time is running out to get those bills passed. if congress can't find a consensus, lawmakers could threaten a full or partial shutdown of the federal government. here's what that would mean. each federal agency develops its own shutdown plan — for which activities will not continue until funds a re restored. federal employees are told not to report for work — those deemed essential may continue to work without pay. shutdowns can also disrupt government processes such as applications, loans, and benefit distribution. earlier, my colleague caitriona perry spoke with andrew desiderio, senior congressional reporter at punchbowl news about what to expect in the weeks ahead. the clock is ticking, just 25 days until a potential shutdown if politicians don't agree appropriation bills to fund the federal government through the next fiscal year. is the senate bracing for that? yes, i would say absolutely that's the case.

first and foremost, you have the senate versus house divide right now. we have members of the house majority, calling for all these conditions to be added to a government funding bill, even a short—term one, whereas in the senate theyjust want to pass something clean to buy themselves time. so you're really going to see this come to a head with senate republicans and house republicans starting to increasingly speak out and make their views known on this. of course senate republicans and house republicans will not be in the same page here. so do you expect them to be able to make a deal? i think it is always possible. having a deadline always motivates people, especially last minute, to reach some sort of agreement, but as of right now nobody quite knows how to get there. we are in a situation where we know what the solution is, the solution is the stopgap short—term funding bill but nobody knows how to get to that point right now and once the house

comes back into session, the senate is already back, those conversations will accelerate but they will need to do some sort of short—term patch in the meantime because they do not have enough time to pass all of the fiscal year appropriation bills before the end of this month, it's just not realistic. the senate majority leader has been warning people against what he described as the brinkmanship and hostagetaking seen earlier this year but based on what you're saying, if any bit of a deal is to be done it sounds like it would be right at the 11th hour? kevin mccarthy is in a really difficult spot right now with his conference because he is the one basically saying, we need to kick the can down the road a bit more, give us more time to have an upper hand with the senate, whereas there are a lot of rabble rousing conservatives in the house that are saying they will not go along with that request and they will make it as painful as possible for him and as you mentioned, up until the last minute, it could be a big issue. do you think kevin mccarthy

will be able to get that freedom caucus under control? well, he has shown a willingness to entertain their requests ever since he got elected as speaker injanuary but he hasn't shown much success in actually mollifying or satisfying them. another big issue is the farm bill, that are set to expire on the 30th of september, really important. do you think they will hit that deadline? i think you have to pair that built with faa reauthorisation. those are long—term authorisations, things that you can extend with a short—term patch. it's quite difficult to do so but it sounds like they are going to need to do that. the house has already cleared their version of the faa, neither chamber has touched the farm bill so there is a lot of work to be done and as i mentioned it is not realistic to expect it all gets wrapped up before the end of this month, so they're going to need to do

some sort of short—term patch. the most realistic way to do that would be to loop government funding, the faa, the farm bill and maybe some of president biden�*s supplemental appropriations request into one piece of legislation. the latter part of that is disaster recovery money for the wildfires, the flooding in vermont, the hurricane we just saw in florida, plus of course money for ukraine and for the us—mexico border. so that will be something that if you're talking realistically, the way to get all this done in a timely matter is to put them together in one piece of legislation. if i could ask briefly about mitch mcconnell, what's the latest? his office put out a letter saying that he consulted with mr mcconnell�*s neurology

team and concluded there was no evidence of a seizure disorder or evidence he had suffered any sort of stroke or that he is suffering from tia or parkinson's, they said it was basically the normal course of his recovery from that fall he had in a washington, dc hotel in march this year. dduring which he had concussion and broken rib. he spent six weeks away from the capitol recovering from that injury and what the doctors are saying is basically this is something that can happen is you are recovering from this type of injury. the problem is that his office has not given much detail other than what i just outlined. a lot of republicans very quietly are wondering how much longer mr mcconnell can go on as senate minority leader and as leader of the senate republican conference knowing that so many critical

stretches coming up, they will need someone who is in that leader spot who is 100% there, ready to fight for what they say they're going to do in government. thank you forjoining us. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news. let's look at some other stories making the news. hong kong's top court issued a landmark ruling on tuesday ordering the government to create a framework for recongising same—sex partnerships. the ruling did not grant full marriage rights to same—sex couples, but the case is still seen as a victory by equality advocates within hong kong. torrential rains and winds from a cyclone have killed more than 20 people in southern brazil. the storm forced hundreds of people from their homes, and many roads in the region are closed because of flooding. the governor of rio grande do sul said it was the state's worst—ever weather—related disaster. the british government is preparing legistlation to classify the wagner mercenary group as

a terrorist orgnisation. that means it will be illegal to be a member or support the group. wagner's assets could also be seized. the group has played a key role in russia's invasion of ukraine, as well as operating in countries in africa including syria, libya and mali. you're live with bbc news. dozens of girls in france have been sent home from school for insisting on wearing the abaya — a traditional muslim dress. the french government announced a ban last month, arguing that wearing the garment broke rules on keeping education secular. there is now a legal challenge in front of the courts on the matter. azadeh moshiri has more on this. here's how the first day of the ban played out. according to official figures, 298 girls turned up to school in an abaya. now, a strict protocol was already in place, and so each student then had a dialogue with school staff. in most cases, they changed

and were able to start their classes, and yet 67 of them refused. and so instead they were sent home. now, according to the government, 12 million boys and girls started their school term on monday. and so as far as they're concerned, they believe the ban was widely accepted. and yet this comes after months, if not years, of debate over whether the abaya is fit for purpose in france's classrooms. some context — france has a strict ban on any religious items of clothing in state schools as well as government buildings. that includes things that the government believes are ostentatious, like large christian crosses, and that's because they believe these items go against france's secular system. and so they made it official in 2004, they passed a law banning headscarves in state run schools. in 2010, they went further, they banned full face veils in public. now, this caused protests both inside the country as well as outside of it.

and yet that wasn't the end of it. france went further and in 2016 banned full body swimsuits, also known as burkinis. now, that one was then overruled in courts. and so what took so long to make a decision about the abaya ? well, that's because people consider it a lot more complicated as an issue, because the abaya, unlike other banned items of clothing like the burqa, the niqab or the hijab, is more of a loose fitting dress, a robe from the shoulders down. and so even within the muslim community, there's debate over whether this is a religious item or a cultural one. but as far as president emmanuel macron is concerned, he backs the ban. his education minister, gabriel attal, explained... the government believes that this principle is at the core of france's secular society.

the spanish women's head coach was fired amid an ongoing controversy within the spanish soccer federation. jorge vilda is accused by players of outdated methods and controlling behavior. former player montse tome replaces him, becoming the country's first female head coach. 0ur guy hedgecoe has more. jorge vilda has been under pressure because of his association with luis rubiales since that controversial world cup kiss at the final in sydney. the feeling is that he has been sacked in great part because of his close relationship with luis rubiales, the controversial president of the federation who has been provisionally suspended by fifa, football's world governing body, because of that kiss that he gave a spanish player, jenni hermoso, at the end of the world cup final in sydney, a kiss he says was consensual and she says was not. now, the government is trying to remove mr rubiales

from his post and the process is taking longer than the government would like. however, the federation is taking this measure to remove his allyjorge vilda and that is seen as a significant step, as the federation tries to turn the page on this whole affair, even though mr rubiales remains in his post. a new coach has been appointed, montse tome, a former player for barcelona, who was injorge vilda's coaching staff and she is the first female coach of spain's women's team. day two of the africa climate summit in nairobi closed with the us pledged 30 million dollars for climate resilient food production. us special presidential envoy for climate, john kerry, also called out the 20 countries including the us, that produce 80% of emissions. 0ur anne soy sent

this from nairobi. the message coming out of the inaugural africa climate summit is that africa can lead the world in transitioning to green energy and the kenyan president has called it green growth. the un secretary—general antonio guterres said that africa has the opportunity to do that. they have the minerals needed to make that transition. they have the resources on the continent to do that. however, the debt burden stands on the way and he called for change of course in the way the international financial systems work. he urged for the creation of a mechanism that will allow for debt relief, that will allow countries to have longer pay terms to repay their debt and pay suspension. the president did talk about interest rates that african countries have to pay, up to five times more than the rest of the world

because of the perceived risk and said that this needs to be changed to enable african countries to make that transition. they are calling this climate justice. and adding to that message was the us envoy for climate and he said that the biggest polluters, the 20 biggest polluters which account for 80% of carbon emissions, which include the united states, must step up. they must meet their commitments, the commitments they have made to ensure that global warming is minimised. two construction workers in china have been arrested for allegedly damaging to a section of the iconic great wall with an excavator. according to officials, the suspects admitted to digging a short—cut going through part of the ming dynasty—era wall. the damaged historical monument has sparked outrage and concern across the globe over its preservation.

that's all from us here in washington — we leave you with these live pictures of london as we hand off to our colleagues there. hello there. 0ur september heatwave is set to continue with more sunshine around the corner over the next few days. now, temperatures on tuesday reached 30.8 celsius in hampshire. we don't see 30 degrees every single september. we had similar kind of temperatures back in 2021 and 2020. now, so far this year, the highest temperature we've recorded all year was 32.2 celsius and we're going to get really close to that during wednesday. if we get past 32.2, well, that becomes something quite unusual. there have only been four years in the last century that have had the hottest temperature of the year recorded in a september. so we'll be keeping a close eye on that stat. now, right now, we've got some low cloud filtering in and around some of our

north sea coasts, a little bit of mist and fog around as well, but otherwise clear and starry skies and pretty warm as well. temperatures only towards dawn getting down to around 15 to 17 celsius. now, you might have been hearing about the extreme rainfall we've seen across south—east europe with some severe flooding here. we're underneath this area of high pressure, though, and that's what's bringing us the fine, settled and sunny weather. so we've got more of that to come on wednesday. any morning mist and fog, low cloud will tend to burn away from these eastern coasts and then the sunshine comes out. it's going to be another hot day. temperatures quite widely in scotland and northern ireland reaching the mid 20s. but for england and wales, somewhere between 26 and 32 degrees for most of us, very hot for the time of year and could be the hottest day of the year so far. now, for thursday, more of the same to come. a few subtle changes — there'll be a little bit more in the way of high cloud across north—western areas, making the sunshine little hazy. and you'd be unlucky, but you could see an odd shower in the west as well. most, though, will continue

with the hot, dry, sunny weather with those high temperatures as well. for friday, probably a little bit more in the way of mist and fog patches running both through the irish sea coasts and also our north sea coasts. but aside from that, it's another dry day with lots of sunshine around for the vast majority. top temperatures, well, again, mid to high 20s, pretty widely. low 30s in the very hottest areas. and we've got more of the same into the weekend. it's only really probably during the second part of the weekend and more especially next week, that we start to see the weather pattern breaking down, rain starts to arrive and those temperatures drop closer to normal for the time of year.

welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur, today on the shores of lake como in northern italy at the annual ambrosetti forum, where power brokers from across the world gather to talk geopolitics. in this era of great power rivalries, there is much focus on political uncertainty in the united states,

with a presidential election looming next year. my guest is republican senator lindsey graham — an ally of donald trump. is the seemingly never—ending trump soap opera about to plunge the us into turmoil? senator lindsey graham, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. senator, you are one of the strongest republican supporters of ukraine and of us military assistance to ukraine. right. would you acknowledge that, right now, the war isn't going the way you wanted it to, or indeed the way you expected it to just a few months ago? not at all. i think it's going exceedingly well. i just got back from ukraine last wednesday.

there's major breakthroughs in the south.