a close ally of the late russian opposition leader alexei navalny tells the bbc he will "never give up" fighting putin. he asked us to never give up and to continue our work and defeat putin and build this beautiful russia of the future. hello, i'm lukwesa burak. welcome to bbc news. the head of the un agency for palestinian refugees, says more than 800,000 people have been forced to flee rafah in southern gaza due to the ongoing israeli offensive.

philippe lazzarini said they were leaving without safe passage or protection, heading to areas with little water or sanitation. more than a million palestinians had taken refuge in the city after it was designated a "safe zone" early on in the conflict. this development comes as israel's military says it's recovered the body of another hostage inside gaza. the remains have been identified as ron benjamin, who the military says was killed in the october 7th attack by hamas. and in a further development, the israeli war cabinet minister, benny gantz, is threatening to bring down prime minister benjamin netanyahu's government if he doesn't agree to his post—war plan for gaza within three weeks. here's what he said. translation: the people of israel are watching you. i you must choose between zionism and cynicism, between unity and factions, between responsibility and lawlessness, between victory and disaster.

if you put the national over the personal and chose to follow in the footsteps of herzl, ben—gurion, begin and rabin, you will find in us partners in a struggle. but if you choose the path of fanatics and lead the entire nation to the abyss, we will be forced to quit the government. let's speak to paul adams injerusalem. first off, could we start with an update on those protests in tel aviv? we saw scenes of some of those protesters being taken away by police. protesters being taken away by olice. , , ., , , police. yes. these have been very familiar scenes. _ police. yes. these have been very familiar scenes. we _ police. yes. these have been very familiar scenes. we have - police. yes. these have been very familiar scenes. we have seen - police. yes. these have been very l familiar scenes. we have seen them every week now for many weeks. we had first of all a rally of solidarity with the hostages, a rally in which a number of

celebrities and foreign ambassadors spoke once again saying everything should be done to get hostages out, but then we also had separate to that there was anti—government protesters who believe that the netanyahu government is not putting the fate of the hostages at the top of the list of their priorities and they took to the streets and clashed once again with the authorities. we have seen the scenes repeatedly and i suspect we will continue to see them as long as this war goes on. we have the pressure of these protests in tel aviv and then we have this intervention by benny gantz as well. how significant is this? he intervention by benny gantz as well. how significant is this?— how significant is this? he is the second of the _ how significant is this? he is the second of the ministers - how significant is this? he is the second of the ministers in - how significant is this? he is the second of the ministers in the i how significant is this? he is the l second of the ministers in the war cabinet, the heart of the netanyahu government, to voice deep concerns about the lack of a future

direction. we have had yoav gallant, the defence minister, earlier in the week expressing his frustration as what he saw as the prime minister's inability to really point to clear path forward, and now we have benny gantz saying if the government does not adopt a six—point plan that he spelt out within the next three weeks, he will lead his party out of the ruling government. that plan that he outlined included a plan to defeat hamas, bring hostages home, to create some kind of mechanism for the future governance of the garzo strip, and a number of other conditions. i think the point worth remembering about this is he is not any position to bring the government down. —— the governance of the gaza strip. mr netanyahugovernment will hold together, provided he can

retain the support of the far right members of the coalition. they come in this country believe, helping to direct the prime minister's course of action. it is significant. we have these two senior members both saying, warning that the government is heading for an abyss, but no obvious sign at the moment that will cause immediate political damage, fatal damage to the prime minister. paul adams live from jerusalem, thank you very much. this here in the uk — south west water has lifted restrictions on more restrictions on more than 80% of properties which had been affected by a parasite in the water supply. when the outbreak was first identified in devon earlier this week, some 17,000 households and businesses were told to boil their tapwater. but today 14,500 of them, in the alston supply area, were told they could resume

using it as normal. 46 cases of cryptosporidiosis have been confirmed, and more than 100 other people have reported symptoms of sickness and diarrhoea. ben woolvin reports from churston. the english riviera — where until this afternoon, 17,000 homes and businesses were being told to boil their water. 2,500 customers are still being told its not safe and investigations are ongoing. the important thing now is to look in the hillhead area and make sure we absolutely have confirmed the source of the issue, to fix that issue and then to make sure that we have got evidence that supports that the water is absolutely safe to drink. south west water believes a damaged air valve on a pipe in a field containing livestock is how the parasite, which can be found in animalfaeces, got into the system. the other side of that hedge is the water tank, where tests confirm the presence

of the parasite cryptosporidium early this week. the water company says it was drained last night and has been thoroughly cleaned today. it's the customers served by this water tank that are still being told to boil, probably for another week. the compensation they're being offered has today been increased to £215. i've been looking at different water cooler options. i don't think we will be drinking the tap water around here. michaela lewis' daughter evelyn is still having bad stomach pains today, two weeks after she first came down with severe diarrhoea. to say the water is safe when they didn't genuinely have adequate evidence to back that up — that's not okay. as a mother myself, i find that incredibly distressing and i can only apologise. lifting this boil notice is a joint decision. it's not just for south west water and so where customers are concerned about this position, they can take comfort

from the fact that this is not only south west water, but we do have scientists and experts making the decision. some businesses have told us they've already lost thousands of pounds. south west water says it will negotiate individual compensation offers for them. ben woolvin, bbc news, torbay. now to ukraine — where president zelensky says his country only has about a quarter of the amount of air defences it needs to fight off russian attacks. he said ukraine needed up to 130 f16 fighterjets. dozens are due to arrive sometime this yearfrom european donor countries, and ukrainian pilots are currently being trained. according to the president, the military was still short of manpower and russia could increase its attacks in ukraine's northeast following its recent gains near the city of kharkiv. translation: we need to staff the reserves. i

there are a serious number of brigades which a large number of them are empty. we need to do this so the guys can have a normal rotation, then their morale will be improved. 0ur ukraine correspondent, james waterhouse, outlined how stretched the country's defences are. well, i mean, he always plonks air defences at the top of his wish list. that's been the case for the past year or so because of two things, really — russia has continued to launch missile attacks on cities across ukraine, but also russia has become far more superior, more dominant in the air right across the front line. so what that means is when you have exhausted, thinly—stretched ukrainian troops trying to defend cities, you have russian fighter jets flying in and dropping missiles and glide bombs. and as of the situation in the north—east, where this incursion is taking place,

you know, we're hearing from the authorities around the town of vovchansk, which is on the border — they're saying thousands of glide bombs have been dropped, which reflects, i think, russia's ability to mount these kind of strikes unchallenged. so president zelensky, he's been quite specific on what he both needs and lacks. he wants more air defence systems. he says he's got a quarter of what he needs, as you say, and then he specified how many f—16 fighterjets he would like. it's worth pointing out that despite ukrainian pilots being trained by western allies in the uk, for example, and others promising them not one has been used operationally by ukraine. it was once predicted they would arrive last year. that hasn't happened. here we are halfway through 2024 — no fighterjets yet, but he's not giving up on that clearly. james waterhouse there. to address the issues ukraine is facing with staffing and morale,

a mobilisation law which came into force today will make it easier to identify every conscript in the country. it also provides financial incentives to soldiers. earlier, i spoke to the ukrainian mp, lesia vasylenko, and started by asking her about this new legislation. it's one of the most debated laws in ukraine as of today. the biggest issue with this law on mobilisation is that it doesn't cover... it doesn't have provisions on demobilisation. that means letting go of the people who have been serving since 2022 and possibly even earlier than that, essentially giving them a break, giving them some time with theirfamilies, the possibility to recover properly from their wounds, for example, the nonvisible wounds, which might be mental health wounds. why is that? i mean, surely mr zelensky has addressed this point. what reason has he given for not allowing his troops to recuperate?

so there is... ok, this is a complex question, but the simple answer to that is that another law is on the way that will allow for the demobilisation of the existing soldiers. right now, ukraine is in such a position that we need as many men and women, for that matter, who can fight and who can hold the ukrainian defences, and so this law on mobilisation actually does exactly that, making sure that the army will not be short of resources. it doesn't mean that all of a sudden tomorrow there will be military commissariats out on the street, grabbing every man possible and sending them off to the front lines. that's not the way that it works. the troops that are fighting today for ukraine's freedom, they are well—trained troops that need to go through training centres, that need to go through education centres for them to be able to properly do theirjob. this is exactly the reason why it's

not possible all of a sudden to let go of the men and women who are well—trained, well—skilled to counter russia's offensives on the battlefields. this needs to be done in a systemic way, and that systemic way is exactly what is being prepared by the legislators today. are those the incentives, the incentives that have been included as part of this new law, is that enough to recruit soldiers? it's a step in that direction. definitely there need to be more incentives within the army itself. these are dependent largely on the military aid that ukraine actually gets, not only gets pledged or promised, but that actually arrives in ukraine, and that largely depends also on the financial capabilities of the budget of ukraine. you understand that we cannot have, for example, financial motivations and incentives if there is no investments into the economy and if the economy is at a standstill.

also, there is no way of guaranteeing that you will have all the equipment that you need to carry out yourjob in the army if that equipment is not coming because the aid is not coming to ukraine. the former chief of staff to the russian opposition leader alexei navalny has vowed to never give up fighting against president putin. mr navalny died in february in a russian prison. leonid volkov said the fight to change the country must go ahead despite his death. the politician, who was badly beaten in a hammer attack in march in lithuania, believes the brutal assault was ordered by president putin's regime. in his first interview since that attack, he also backed mr navalny�*s widow, yulia, to lead the opposition campaign against mr putin. he was speaking to the bbc�*s laura kuenssberg.

alexei was a close friend, a great guy, an inspiring personality, a true hero, and a great and very capable political leader. there is no substitution for him, and this loss will always be just like an open wound in our hearts, in the hearts of his colleagues and friends. but we also know that he asked us to never give up and to continue our work and to defeat putin and to build this beautiful russia of the future that alexei dreamed of for so many years is the only practical way to preserve his legacy and to make his ultimate sacrifice not to be in vain. yulia is also a very strong personality and

a charismatic leader. she never wanted to be in this public role, and she was always a very close political adviser to alexei, and for us, as for me, navalny�*s organisation, the teams that navalny organised gather together, the teams that navalny organised, gathered together, it's very clear and natural that our task in this situation is just like to support yulia and all her endeavours in everything that she does. and that's what we are doing now, of course. leonid volkov speaking there. and viewers in the uk can watch the full interview on sunday — with laura kuenssberg on bbc one at 9am. georgia's president has vetoed a controversial new law on foreign funding that's sparked weeks of mass protests. salome zourabichvili says the legislation was an obstacle on georgia's path to eu membership.

0ur correspondent rayhan demytrie has more from tbilisi, where protesters gathered following the president's announcement. and these protesters, they favour their president, salome zourabichvili, who has been campaigning relentlessly last year to ensure that georgia gets its candidate status with the eu, and georgia did indeed receive this candidate status, but the problem now that these people see that the adoption of this law may derail the country from its chosen path tojoin the eu. that is why we have seen such a huge reaction here from the youth. these protests have been driven by georgia's youth, students, schoolchildren, and they believe that georgia's european future is at stake. flash floods triggered by heavy rains have killed at least 50 people in central afghanistan. last week, hundreds died in flooding

in the north of the country. my colleague charliejones has been following the story. another part of the country has been devastated by unseasonably heavy rain. this was in central afghanistan yesterday where dozens of people were killed, key roads that were cut off and buildings submerged, thousands of which remain trapped under water. today, people in the region are dealing with the loss of homes, businesses and family members. this man says the floods have destroyed property, cattle, sheep, villages, trees, everything, while another resident talks about how there's no food or drink left for anyone, even the children. last week, the un estimated 300 people were killed when floods tore through villages in the north of the country. and while there were some tales of heroism — this girl who was taken by the water was rescued by a stranger —

half a million people are still estimated to be dealing with the devastation. and charities say they're particularly concerned about women and girls because the taliban's restrictions on their freedom may mean they don't get access to the life—saving services they need. now, the un says afghanistan is one of the lowest emitters of greenhouse gases yet bears the brunt of being one of the countries hardest hit by the impacts of climate change. it's also got few defences and it still faces a boycott by some aid agencies because of the taliban. cubans are enduring some of their bleakest economic times since the cold war amid worsening inflation, a scarcity of basic goods and a decades—long us economic embargo. in an unexpected move, the country's economy minister, alejandro gil fernandez, was arrested in march for corruption. but many think it will take more than one ministerial head to roll to pull cuba from its economic woes.

0ur correspondent will grant travelled to the heartland of one of cuba's most quintessential industries — sugar — to see how tough the situation has become. sugar is in cuba's dna. in fact, there is a saying on the island, "without sugar there is no country". but this year the harvest will be one of the poorest on record. sugar, supposed to be the mainstay of the cuban economy, is as emblematic to the island as its tobacco but a series of factors, principally the lack of available fuel and years of underinvestment have made cuban sugar an industry in near terminal decline. "there are not enough trucks and the fuel shortages mean that sometimes we cannot work four days," says this man. it is a situation made worse by the decades—long us sanctions on the island. "still, cuba needs the sugar," he adds. it certainly does —

in part because of its famous rum. but the problems are notjust the fault of the us embargo. they are also from mismanagement of the centralised economy. this 19th—century sugar mill runs on rusting, obsolete technology, and it is one ofjust two dozen working mills on the island. 0nce unthinkable, cuba now imports sugar to meet domestic demand — a far cry from the glory days when cuban sugar was exported to the world. one man who cannot get his hands on enough sugar is martin, ——0ne man who can get his hands on enough sugar is martin, part of a new breed of cuban entrepreneurs. his business produces yoghurt and ice cream. the production of foodstuffs in private hands is a big change in cuba but it is being hailed by the cuban president as a model for the future. this is capitalism, pure and simple, no matter how much the businessmen behind it display their revolutionary credentials. translation: the government has never promoted anything that - translation: the government has

never --proposed anything that - benefits me economically. it treats me like a private entrepreneur with no special privileges whatsoever. amid spiralling inflation the government announced a fivefold increase on levies at petrol pumps. 0rdinary cubans say they are suffering more than at any other time since the cold war. us election brings no hope of respite from washington, no matter who wins. but cuba's problems extend beyond the race for the white house. with its sugar plants barely operational, the island is in danger of losing part of its soul — its once iconic trade now a ghost industry, a mere shadow of its former self. will grant, bbc news, cuba. let me show you these pictures from here in london. a single—storey bus was destroyed after it caught fire on richmond road on saturday afternoon. video footage from the scene in twickenham showed firefighters battling huge flames and billowing black smoke.

no—one was hurt and the road was closed for the investigation. cctv footage has emerged of the rapper sean diddy combs physically assaulting his then—girlfriend cassie ventura in the corridor of a hotel in 2016. ms ventura made allegations of rape and physical abuse against him in a lawsuit that was settled last year. combs is at the centre of several civil lawsuits accusing him of sex offences. this report from emma vardy has some distressing images. cassie ventura claims she suffered years of abuse in her relationship with p diddy, one of the most influential artists in hip—hop. in the cctv footage, she is seen leaving a hotel room. sean combs appears to run after her, before carrying out a violent assault. the full tape shows her being kicked as she lies on the ground. after taking her items, next,

the rapper seems to be seen throwing an object towards her. the video — obtained by the american news channel cnn — has not been independently verified, but lawyers for cassie ventura, who has not objected to it being shown, say it confirms p diddy�*s disturbing and predatory behaviour. last month, homes linked with sean combs were raided by police in what they said was an ongoing investigation into sex trafficking. 0fficers searched properties in beverly hills, new york and miami associated with his production company. cassie ventura had previously brought a lawsuit against sean combs in relation to the incident in the video, said to be at a los angeles hotel. she settled out of court, but since then, several others have come forward, accusing him of sexual abuse. sean combs has previously denied all the allegations. in march, his lawyer called it a witch—hunt.

today those lawyers said they no longer represent him. the video appears to corroborate one of the incidents described in cassie ventura's case. her accusations and others against p diddy — a self—proclaimed bad boy — now part of a dramatic downfall for one of hip—hop's biggest names. emma vardy, bbc news, los angeles. can find more on this story on the bbc news website. see without hearing bbc news. —— stay with us here on bbc news. hello, thanks forjoining me. fairly quiet on the weather front across most of the uk right now. the storms have also cleared from south—western england as well as wales. this is what we had during saturday — flash floods in places. how about the weather on sunday? it's actually not looking bad at all for most of us.

a lot of bright, if not sunny weather on the way. however, some coastal areas, particularly around the north sea, could be grey and chilly. so this is how we start the day. inland and out towards the west, the weather's looking fine and sunny right from the word go. but these eastern counties, or here, it may take time for that sunshine to break through that layer of gray or that stratus and sea fog that will have rolled in overnight. so the afternoon looking pretty sunny across most of the uk, again, with the exception of some coastal areas. could be some showers across south western parts of scotland, maybe the south—west of england. inland 22 or 23 celsius in that strong sunshine. but where the low, grey clouds stick around anywhere along the north sea coast, but particularly the further north you are, it will be chilly, maybe no higher than around 12 degrees. we have that on saturday. could happen again on sunday. so through the course of the evening, you can see that low grey cloud once again. once again it's going to roll inland

out towards the west, it's going to stay generally clear. now, here's monday. cloudy skies out towards the east, but then the sun comes out and it's a repeat performance. a fine day on the way. again, temperatures in the low 20s inland, closer to the coast closer to around the mid—teens. now, on tuesday, subtle changes. showers will appear in different areas. we could see some forming across scotland, northern ireland, the lake district as well. but i think the further south you are, the better the weather will be. temperatures won't really change an awful lot. in fact, overall, the first half of the week for most of us isn't looking too bad. but, as we head through wednesday and thursday, this low pressure sweeps in out of the east this time. it'll bring quite breezy weather and also a spell of persistent rain, and at times it will be heavy. so a change on the way second half of the week, and that's reflected in the forecast here. not really bad at all until around about tuesday, bar a few showers here and there. but then wednesday, thursday and friday, it's all change and it's hello low.

bye— bye. this is bbc news. the headlines: the head of the un agency for palestinian refugees says 800,000 people have been forced to flee rafah since an israeli offensive began in the southern part of the gaza strip nearly two weeks ago. president zelensky says ukraine only has about a quarter of the air defences it needs to fight off russian attacks, warning that russia could increase strikes in the north east of the country following recent gains near kharkiv. a close ally of the late russian opposition leader alexei navalny tells the bbc he'll "never give up" fighting putin, months after a brutal hammer attack outside his home in lithuania, where he lives in exile. thousands of people who were having to boil their water in devon due to a parasite outbreak are being told they no

longer have to. traces of cryptosporidium were identified on wednesday. now on bbc news — ahead of the release of the official report into infected blood, panorama. i have always blamed myself for taking him to have his treatment, which infected him. it's been called the worst treatment disaster in nhs history. from the 19705 to the early �*90s, 30,000 people were infected with hiv and hepatitis c through blood treatments and transfusions. almost 3,000 have died. i should be sat here with him next to me.

but i'm here on my own because... ..he didn't make it. i'mjim reed. for almost a decade, i've been reporting for the bbc on the infected blood scandal. the full story of what happened is only now coming to light. over the last a0 years, it continued to be covered up, not dealt with. for nearly six years, a public inquiry has been investigating how so many were infected. an injustice has been done and we need to sort it out. was it mistakes? was it purposeful? was it just incompetence? that constant gutting feeling of sadness — why did it have to happen? something that should have saved their life..| ..killed them. and still, 40 years later, . there's no answers to that. i'm pete.