on foreign funding that's sparked weeks of protests. hello, i'm helena humphrey. glad you could join me. we begin in the middle east, where thousands of protesters have gathered in israel amid anger over prime minister benjamin netanyahu's failure to secure the release of hostages still being held in gaza. these are the scenes in tel aviv. police have arrested some demonstrators and used water canon to disperse two rallies, which had merged. in the latest development, the israel defence forces say that they recovered the body of another hostage — identified as ron binyamin. in the latest sign of divisions within mr netanyahu's war cabinet, benny gantz has threatened to bring down the prime minister's government, unless he agrees to a far—reaching plan for gaza with a deadline to do so in around three weeks time. meanwhile, the united nations

says more than 800,000 people have now fled rafah in southern gaza. many have been forced to head northwards to areas which the un says have little clean drinking water or sanitation as the israeli offensive continues. 0ur diplomatic correspondent paul adams sent this report. street battles injabalia. israeli forces have been fighting here for days. gunfire. hamas, they say, is back, and needs to be dealt with. this is dangerous urban warfare, at close quarters. the israelis were here months ago and moved on. these, some warn, early signs of an insurgency that could last for months. israel has been attacking from the air too. scenes today reminiscent of the war�*s terrifying early stages. buildings flattened, bodies trapped under the rubble. gunfire. more street battles, this time in the south.

the israeli army still advancing on rafah, the only city yet to experience a full—scale assault. but 800,000 palestinians have already fled the area, to the coast or to other devastated cities. with israel issuing fresh evacuation orders in the north, as many as a million palestinians have been displaced in the past two weeks — almost half gaza's entire population. some aid is getting in — some of it along america's new maritime corridor. it's a welcome new route. but with other key crossings still closed or not functioning as they should, it's not enough. tonight, in tel aviv, another display of support for israeli hostages still in captivity. the mood sombre, after news that the bodies of four hostages had been retrieved in the wreckage of gaza. the fourth, ron benjamin, identified today.

my heart goes out to those families who received the news yesterday that their loved ones are not alive. time is not on our side. time, for a long time already, has not been on our side. and pressure is building on the prime minister. a senior cabinet member threatening to resign in three weeks unless the government spells out a clear strategy. translation: at the fateful. crossroads where we are now, the leadership must see the big picture to identify risks and identify opportunities, formulate an updated national strategy so we can fight shoulder to shoulder. this war is exposing deep political divisions. two senior ministers now pleading with mr netanyahu to explain his endgame, soon. for more on the political situation in israel, paul adams also sent

this update. the prime minister has the support of far right political parties and they guarantee his coalition majority. benny gantz can pull his party out but the government will survive. he knows that and there are some sceptics tonight who say they are doubtful will carry out his threat in three weeks time. but the point is he is now the second senior member of that government in the last few days to voice extremely serious concerns about the lack of a future plan for the poor, for the end of the war and crucially for the day after. that is an indication that the sense of unity that surrounded the government at the beginning of this crisis seven months ago with the whole government and

political parties pulling together at a moment of crisis, that sense of unity has been fraying for months now and is starting to crumble rather visibly. earlier i spoke to itamar rabinovich, former israeli ambassador to the us, to discuss this further. i would like to begin, if i may, with the comments that we've heard today from benny gantz. something of an ultimatum issued to prime minister netanyahu, saying that if there is not a plan for a post—war period in gaza, if it doesn't have that plan by the eighth ofjune, that he would threaten to withdraw the support, to withdraw his centrist party from the government. what did you make of that? quite a bit. and actually, there were six items to the ultimatum, and an ultimatum, it is. and it is not a stand—alone ultimatum because a couple of days ago, the minister

of defence, mr gallant, came out and openly criticised mr netanyahu for the conduct of the war. and his refusal, or evasion of making some clear decisions regarding the future or what you call "the day after". so he put together that with the minister of defence and the ultimatum by mr gantz — who, by the way, is not a full member of the government or the cabinet. he and his party only joined the war cabinet because of the emergency, but they are not full members of the government. in any event, if he does leave the government, it would probably be a very important step. the end of the netanyahu government and the holding of new elections.

the comments from yoav gallant, as well as benny gantz, who today said netanyahu must choose between victory or disaster, does this reflect broader concerns in gaza as to how netanyahu is prosecuting this war, and also his failure to secure any kind of deal to secure the release of any kind of hostages? yes, that is correct. and of course, mr netanyahu has his base that stays with him, and the country is torn or divided between people who support him and a majority, according to the polls, who are now critical of him, and in the event of an election, they would vote against him. so he is obviously not interested in an early election. and the issue of the hostages occupies a very high place on the agenda. ironically, if you want to know how bad the situation is, we had some — unquote — good news. four bodies of hostages were retrieved from the gaza strip. so, in today's israel, this is called — quote unquote

— good news. i want to touch on the situation as well in gaza. four palestinians there, according to the un agency. the head of the agency, philippe lazzarini, has said 800,000 palestinians have had to flee rafah. and he says they are doing so without safe passage, without protection. they are going to places without sanitation, clean drinking water and so on. doesn't israel have an obligation to make sure that those people who are having to flee, amid a ground operation, have somewhere to go to? it should be the case, but it is not at all certain that a large—scale operation will take place in rafah. at this point, what is happening in rafah is a limited operation. i should say the american national security advisor is coming to israel tomorrow to

discuss precisely that point. the us is not interested in an expanded israeli operation, and it would be a topic high on the agenda of his conversations with mr netanyahu. so we will have to wait until this meeting and perhaps other conversations take place to know whether the kind of large—scale operation that would require 800,000 — or any large number of palestinians — to move yet again would be a reality or a speculation. well, that will be a very interesting conversation. of course, we will be monitoring what comes out of it. but it also comes at a time when there have been warnings from the united nations, when we've seen the pictures ourselves of children suffering from acute malnutrition. is there the risk, faced with this situation, that washington could withdraw some of its support for israel? i doubt that the united states will withdraw its support from israel. and let me also mention the exotic possibility that the leadership of hamas would agree to make a hostage deal.

in that event, there would be a ceasefire of 45 days. there will not be a large—scale operation. and a lot of suffering from the palestinian population could be averted. so, it's not israel alone, hamas is also a party to this. ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy says his country only has about a quarter of the amount of air defences needed, to fend off russian attacks. his comments comes as russian forces continue their summer offensive. so far, moscow claims it has seized a number of villages on ukraine's north—eastern border near kharkiv. president zelensky added ukraine needed up to 130 f—i6 fighterjets to continue to defend its skies — and that his military was short on manpower. speaking to the afp news agency, he described the current moment in the war as a pivotal one. translation: we are in a nonsense situation, - where the west is afraid that

russia will lose the war, but it doesn't want ukraine to lose it either. because ukraine's final victory will lead to russia's defeat. and the final victory of russia will lead to ukraine's defeat. and here we are, right now, in such a moment and such a challenge for everyone. 0ur ukraine correspondent james waterhouse has more on the president's comments from kyiv. 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 fighterjets flying in and dropping missiles and glide bombs. and as of the situation in the northeast, 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—i6 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. joining me to discuss the developments is mark cancian, a senior adviser at the centre for strategic and international studies. president zelenskyy calling is a pivotal moment. how pivotal do you see this as being? every moment is _ do you see this as being? every moment is pivotal— do you see this as being? every moment is pivotal for _ do you see this as being? every moment is pivotal for ukraine'sj moment is pivotal for ukraine's survival. they cannot afford to lose at any moment. this is pivotal because of two things. first, the us aid isjust starting to arrive and the ukrainians have run down many previous supplies so they are in a particularly weak time and it is also pivotal because the russians are trying to stretch the ukrainians out, hoping at some point they can break through, about half a areas along the front line. talking

about those _ along the front line. talking about those attacks - along the front line. talking about those attacks going i along the front line. talking | about those attacks going on for the particularly around the country. president putin said his forces were not looking to take over kharkiv but to create a buffer zone instead. do you trust him on that? we a buffer zone instead. do you trust him on that?— trust him on that? we never trust him on that? we never trust putin _ trust him on that? we never trust putin but _ trust him on that? we never trust putin but in _ trust him on that? we never trust putin but in this - trust him on that? we never trust putin but in this case l trust him on that? we neverl trust putin but in this case he is telling the truth. the russians have not mastered the kind of power they need to break through. they tried at the beginning of the war and failed with much larger forces. they seemed to have stopped after moving maybe two miles, 2.5 miles into ukraine but what they are trying to do is stretched ukrainians. have to keep in mind the active front member it is about 600 miles long and that is what most of the fighting has occurred over the fighting has occurred over the last two years. there is also form 100 miles of border

between ukraine and russia that has been very quiet and another 400 between ukraine and belarus and what rice is trying to do is make ukraine defend all of this. and pull forces away from the active front in the east. so that there may be a breakthrough someplace in active attacks.— active attacks. ukrainian forces clearly _ active attacks. ukrainian forces clearly already . forces clearly already stretched thin. 0ut man. we know there has now been this law which means prisoners can fight on the frontline for ukraine but presumably they have to undergo training forests. might it take a while before they can actually be deployed into this and make a difference?— deployed into this and make a difference? the ukrainians are havin: a difference? the ukrainians are having a problem _ difference? the ukrainians are having a problem every - difference? the ukrainians are | having a problem every military has been a get into a long war and that is the running out of inventory. every country experiences this. the russians experienced at. the russians have produced the draft age

from 27 to 25 and now are allowing convicts to serve. these trips will have to be trained but will need a lot more. i'm is in conflict need a lot of inventory. there is a feeling forces, personnel 0r equal risk, that is not frivolous of 80% of casualties are in the inventory and need constant replacements. if you look back _ constant replacements. if you look back through _ constant replacements. if you look back through history - constant replacements. if you look back through history of. look back through history of russian war, often what you will see in this long protracted war as is russia make tactical errors and overtime essentially they learn from those mistakes and have gone on to victories. you think we could be seen something similar play out here? it is certainly — similar play out here? it is certainly possible. - similar play out here? it 3 certainly possible. russia made many errors early on. the initial strategy was badly flawed, they thought ukrainians could collapse. 0ver flawed, they thought ukrainians could collapse. over time they

learned that could become more proficient and increased the production of weapons and number of personnel. we saw they were able to defeat ukrainian counteroffensive by digging extensive fortifications. we understand on the frontline there is a countermeasure with regards to drones. the russians have been learning, they are getting better but ukrainians are no good to be getting more supplies from the united states. , ,., states. president putin said he is 0 en states. president putin said he is open to _ states. president putin said he is open to dialogue _ states. president putin said he is open to dialogue on - states. president putin said he | is open to dialogue on ukraine, he didn't use the word negotiations. do you think there was any realistic prospect that either side will sit down at this particular juncture in the war where the map currently stands for talks. we hope they will be some formula the two sides can agree on but it doesn't look like a lot of overlap between the two

positions. russians are talking about a ceasefire, where they are right now, they would see about 18% of ukraine to rush ukrainians have so no indication they are willing to do that. not only did they want to get back what they have lost in the last two and a half years, there what crimea back, they want operations, warcry judgements, it does not seem to be overlap yet. i don't think it's be overlap yet. i don't think its side is desperate enough to give up some of their desired goals.— to give up some of their desired goals. to give up some of their desired coals. �* , ., desired goals. always good to net our desired goals. always good to get your take- _ desired goals. always good to get your take. thank - desired goals. always good to get your take. thank you. - get your take. thank you. thanks for having me on the show. georgia's president has vetoed a controversial new law on foreign funding. that's sparked weeks of mass protests largely led by the country's youth. the president says the legislation was an obstacle on georgia's path to eu membership and was russian in both its essence and spirit. but she acknowledged her veto is largely symbolic and will likely be overruled

by parliament. the foreign agent law would require non—government organizations and media to register if they receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad. 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. for more on this controversial law, i spoke to the former parliamentary secretary to the president of georgia and the leader of georgian political party for the people anna dolidze. we know the president has now vetoed the law. you think that will do anything? do you think that will concretely stop it or do you think instead the governing party will essentially overturn the veto? this is a very important step from the president as it opens up from the president as it opens up a window, perhaps a final window for the government to change its mind and change the course to withdraw the bill or amend it. all brother withdraw it or postpone it as an option. however, i am quite sceptical the government will do it considering i am convinced as many of my colleagues but as part of a larger political

turn, no longer but this law come on the curbing western grant funding, a wider geopolitical tone that moves georgia from our historical orientation towards the west towards russia.— orientation towards the west towards russia. watching this, what do you think _ towards russia. watching this, what do you think the - what do you think the protesters will be making all of this? you have been at the protesters speaking to people, do you think this will calm them or do you think they will continue to have the scepticism you just express? we continue to have the scepticism you just express?— you 'ust express? we have to sa you just express? we have to sa it is you just express? we have to say it is the — you just express? we have to say it is the 38th _ you just express? we have to say it is the 38th day - you just express? we have to say it is the 38th day of - say it is the 38th day of peaceful protest and i am incredibly proud of georgian people. this level of resilience and determination was a great surprise and for the government itself, don't think they expected this kind of commitment and the spirit of protesters are amazing a big celebration of georgian national identity. i think the protests will continue because this is not only something

geopolitical or technical people, it resonates with georgian annexation in 1921 when georgia became part of the soviet union and resonates with the trauma of losing georgian national identity. it is a new national identity. it is a new national moment, it will continue with my transform, might be more fragmented but finally will culminate in the parliament election 0ctober parliament election october 2024. . ., parliament election october 2024. 2 2, 2024. the chief on saturday set not 2024. the chief on saturday set got george _ 2024. the chief on saturday set got george again _ 2024. the chief on saturday set got george again a _ 2024. the chief on saturday set got george again a moment - 2024. the chief on saturday set got george again a moment for| got george again a moment for further reflection after the veto. are you concerned that what has happened, the international attention are guided could actually put the brakes on membership of the european union? it is absolutely _ european union? it is absolutely black- european union? it is absolutely black on i european union? it is - absolutely black on white. unfortunately. that is why this is not only about curbing ngos, it really puts a major obstacle

towards george's approximation towards george's approximation towards the european union. this has been said many times from the highest levels from the eu and this is what georgian people think they are losing. losing their chance for better welfare and better standards of life, more safety and security, all of the things the eu is associated with in georgia. unfortunately, this is the case, the risks are high and therefore i think the government should take further time to contemplate what kind of damage incurred to be georgian population. what your assessment _ georgian population. what your assessment the _ georgian population. what your assessment the situation - georgian population. what your l assessment the situation moscow would be making of this situation, laying out a particularly tense time. many georgians still what happened in 2008 as well. what you think the kremlin would making of this? , , ., ., the kremlin would making of this? , ., . this? this is another instance of russia _ this? this is another instance of russia flexing _ this? this is another instance

of russia flexing its - this? this is another instance of russia flexing its muscles | of russia flexing its muscles to the west. this issue is not local, not even caucus related, regional. russia pulls its strings and flexes its muscles in its neighbourhood, or the area it considers its neighbourhood and definitely this move is a part of hybrid warfare that russia conducts against sovereign and public that long announced its wish to be independent from the russian influence a big chance is as collision of conflict, protest and instability in georgia will be used by russia as one of the bargaining chips visit the west. let's turn to some other important stories around the world. slovakia's deputy leader says the countries prime minister robert fico is steadily approaching a "positive prognosis" after being shot on wednesday. he is currently in serious condition and has undergone

several surgeries. mr fico was shot four times at close range as he greeted supporters. meanwhile, the man charged with his attempted murder appeared in court and will be held in custody until trial. flash floods triggered by heavy rains have killed at least 50 people in afghanistan. officials in the province of ghor in central afghanistan say thousands of homes have been damaged or destroyed and about 2,000 shops are under water. many key roads have been cut off. 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 southwestern england as well as wales.

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 southwestern parts of scotland, maybe the southwest 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 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.

no—one can touch me, no—one can beat me, no—one could even get close to me.

everyone's always going to define me by my failures but i know that i created the most efficient fighting style that ever existed and i'm proud of that. ronda rousey is an icon of the mixed martial arts world and a trailblazer for women in combat sport, an olympic medallist injudo... commentator: ronda rousey, the usa's first women's - olympic medallist. ..the first woman to win an ultimate fighting championship title, a professional wrestler... ..now a tv personality and hollywood actress and a regenerative farm owner. but despite ronda's seismic success and achievements, she's had to embrace deep challenges throughout her career — something she hasn't shared openly until now. i always thought that i could will my body to do whatever i needed it to do and it was at that point it

just kind of quit on me.