BBC News Briefing

28 April, 2026

Alex has short blonde hair and blue eyes. She is smiling and wearing a black turtleneck

Alex Binley

Hello. The partnership between the UK and the US is "more important" than ever, King Charles has said in an address to Congress, in which he spoke of the two countries' shared history. We'll bring you the latest on the second day of his state visit. Forty years on from the Chernobyl disaster we meet the DJ whose open air sets kept spirits up in the wake of the nuclear accident. And finally, watch as a humanoid robot gets to work at a Tokyo airport.

TOP OF THE AGENDA

King Charles delivers historic speech to US Congress

King Charles stands behind a microphone and behind him, sat behind wooden pannelling are two men, both with brown hair parted on the side, wearing navy blue suits, white shirts and red ties. Charles wears a blue pinstripe suit, white shirt and pale blue tie. He is holding up his hands and appears to be speaking. There is a large US flag behind them.

King Charles is the first monarch to address Congress since his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth, did so in 1991. Credit: Getty Images

King Charles has spoken of the UK's "highest regard and friendship" with the US, in a speech to lawmakers in which he said the "challenges we face are too great for any one nation to bear alone". The speech comes amid strained relations over the Iran war and was written on the advice of the UK government. It marked the centrepiece of the second day of the state visit, which also saw Charles and Queen Camilla visit the White House, where they were met with a ceremony full of pomp and pageantry - you can see some of the best pictures here. Afterwards, Trump, the King and senior officials met in the Oval Office. Later, the King and Queen will attend a state banquet at the White House.

What else King said

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NEWS FROM THE UK

Sir Keir Starmer: MPs rejected calls for the PM to face an inquiry into whether he misled the Commons over the ex-ambassador to the US's vetting.

Population projection: Deaths are expected to outnumber births in the UK every year from now on, according to statistical projections.

Dr Ittai Gradel: The academic turned antiquities dealer who exposed the theft of hundreds of items from the British Museum, has died of cancer, aged 61.

AT THE SCENE

Slavutych, Ukraine

The pioneering DJ who held discos for Chernobyl's evacuees

An older man with longish white hair and a beard wears a black Hard Rock cafe hoodie and holds an old black and white lanyard and ID badge around his neck. He is resting his head on his hand and sat in front of a blue background with a yellow stripe on it.

Once the evacuation was announced, Alex and his regulars would never be able to live in Pripyat again.

From Our Own Correspondent: As thousands of workers moved to the city of Pripyat to work at Chernobyl, the city ballooned in size. Parks and swimming pools were built, a football team was formed and nightlife took off. DJ Alexander Demidov worked there and later in Slavutych, the city that housed the same workers after they escaped the nuclear disaster, and where he later held discos in town squares in a bid to keep up morale.

Jordan is standing outside and high up, with buildings seen in the background. He is wearing a salmon-coloured shirt over a white T-shirt. He is smiling and has short, light brown hair and is wearing glasses.

Jordan Dunbar, reporter

"There was nowhere else like it," Alex says, sweeping his arms over photos of '80s clubbers with big hair and even bigger smiles in Club Edison 2... but it wasn’t entirely free-spirited. “Before each disco, we had to fill out a playlist and it was checked by the Soviet culture department." Alex, however, always had a stash of Western records, smuggled in by travelling diplomats and sailors. The nights became fabled in '80s Ukraine.

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He had planned a party for the night after Reactor 4 exploded. "The playlist never got played, but it remains in memory. In memory of the disco that would never take place," he reminisces.

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