a controversial new law on foreign funding that's sparked weeks of protests. hello i'm helena humphreys. we begin in the middle east. tens of thousands of protesters gathered in israel amid anger over prime minister benjamin netanyahu's failure to secure the release of hostages still being held in gaza. these were 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 quit the 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. benny gantz cannot bring down his government. 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 war, 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. ukranian president volodymyr zelensky 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. 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 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 has been quite specific on what he both needs and lacks. he wants more air defence systems. he says he's only 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 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. for more on this, i spoke to mark cancian, a senior adviser at the center for strategic and international studies. president zelensky, as we were just hearing there, calling this moment a pivotal one. what do you make of that? how pivotal do you see it as being? could this be a make—or—break moment? well, every moment is pivotal for ukraine's survival. they can't afford to lose at any moment. this is pivotal because of two things. first, the us aid is just starting to arrive and the ukrainians, of course, have run down many of their previous supplies, so they are at a particularly weak time. and it's also pivotal

because the russians are trying to stretch the ukrainians out, hoping that at some point they can break through. they're attacking in about half a dozen areas along the front lines. well, talking about those attacks that are going on, particularly around the north—east of the country in kharkiv, in the region there, president putin had said that his forces were not looking to take over kharkiv itself, the second—largest city in ukraine, but to create a buffer zone instead. what do you make of that? do you trust him on that? well, i would never trust putin, but i think in this case, he is telling the truth, that is the russians have not massed the kind of combat power they would need to break through to kharkiv. they tried that, of course, at the beginning of the war and they failed with much larger forces. they seem to have actually stopped after moving maybe two miles, two and a half miles into ukraine, but what they're trying to do is to stretch the ukrainians. you have to keep in mind

that the active front in the east is about 600 miles long, and that's where most of the fighting has occurred over the last two years. but there's also 400 miles of border between ukraine and russia that's been very quiet and then there's another 400 between ukraine and belarus, and what russia's trying to do is to make ukraine defend all of this and pull forces away from the active fronts in the east, so that there may be a breakthrough some place, you know, in their active attacks. mark, i mean, ukrainian forces clearly already are stretched thin. they're outmanned. we know that there has been now this law which means that prisoners can fight on the front line for ukraine, but presumably they have to undergo training first. so might it take a while before they can actually be deployed into this war and make a difference? well, the ukrainians are having the problem that any military has when it gets into a long

war and that is they're running out of infantry. every country experiences this. the russians experienced it. so the ukrainians have, for example, reduced the draft age from 27 to 25. now they're allowing convicts to serve. these troops will need to be trained, but they're going to need a lot more. armies in conflict need a lot of infantry. there's, i think, a feeling that forces, personnel, are at equal risk. that's really not true. 80% of the casualties are in the infantry. they need constant replacements. if you look back through history of russian wars, often what you'll see in these long, protracted wars, as you well know, is russia make tactical errors and then, over time, essentially, they learn from those mistakes and have gone on to victories. do you think we could be seeing something similar play out here? well, it's certainly possible. russia made many

errors early on. their initial strategy, of course, was badly flawed. they thought that the ukrainians would collapse. but over time, they have learned. they've become more proficient. they've also increased their production of weapons and the number of personnel. we saw that they were able to defeat the ukrainian counter—offensive by digging extensive fortifications. we understand that on the front lines there's a, you know, measure, counter—measure, counter—counter—measure, with regards to drones for example. so the russians have been learning. they're getting better but, to be fair, so are the ukrainians and the ukrainians are now going to be getting more supplies from the united states. mark, president putin also said this week that he is open to dialogue on ukraine. he did use the word "negotiations". do you think that there's any realistic prospect that either side will sit down at this particularjuncture in the war, where the map currently stands, for talks? well, we always hope that there'll be some formula

that the two sides can agree on, but there doesn't look like a lot of overlap between the two positions. the russians are talking about, you know, maybe a ceasefire where they are right now. that would cede about 18% of ukraine to russia. the ukrainians have showed no indication that they're willing to do that. in fact, not only do they want to get back what they've lost in the last two and a half years, they want crimea back, they want reparations, they want war crime judgements. there doesn't seem to be overlap yet. i don't think each side is really desperate enough to give up on some of their desired goals. 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 organisations 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 to join 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, i spoke tojorgi reveshvili, former senior advisor to the national security council of georgia. this move from the president is largely symbolic. the majority party could overturn it. what do you think the president is hoping to achieve through that veto? despite georgian dream to override the veto, it was a timely move. as a place of the entire political responsibility on georgian dream and limits their manoeuvring space. now they have to develop repugnant or veto it. another ball is in the georgian court. they pushed the idea of modifying the law once it finally passed which could be regarded as a smokescreen

that aims to drag out process and wear out protests. it was the right move from the president because now georgian dream are in the corner and have to make a move. the first two, keeping the law panning and revoking it, it could mean defeat in terms of upcoming opponents. it would be huge reputational damage. if georgia dreams decide to operate the veto, sanctions are limited because georgia�*s national partners including the notices and european union make a signal that sanctions could be used against the georgian dream party. faced with all of these options, but i am curious about is why georgian dream actually brought this law forward in the first

place when presumably, based on previous scenes, demonstrations and someone they knew this would be unpopular. yes. but georgian dream�*s objective is to remain in power at all costs. they see the country as a democracy. the institutions are quite weak. there is no genuine checks and balances. civil society and independent media basically serves as pillars in checking and balancing the government. they wanted to repress and suppress and basically silence all critical voices before the upcoming parliamentary election. they will ensure victory. that is the whole idea of reintroducing this deal. do you think it will perhaps give the european union pause for thought about membership and should it? georgia is a nascent democracy, you think it does not have the checks

and balances yet. well, the european union and nato and the united states and other key partners of georgia criticised the decision because the law is not comparable with the georgians. the west openly underscores this legislation it will be impossible to become a nato and eu member and why tens of thousands of georgians have been demonstrating almost two months and i determined and that fast in the process to pressure the government

to revoke the law. we also need our own national partners to be more decisive in their action and these two cumulative factors might pressure be georgian dream government and be as draconian and undemocratic law. i want to ask you as a promising advisor to the national security council of georgia what message do you think this is sending right now to moscow? do you think it could embolden russia? the only country this law favours as the russian federation. the existential threat to georgia. because russia and moscow wants to see georgia isolated from the west and if there is a problem and obstacle on our path to european union and nato, it only favours moscow because it will increase influence over georgia and the georgian government will only have the situation in an isolated space to either tilt and drift back into the russian sphere of influence. that is why this law

should not be passed because otherwise it will undermine the very crucial national security interests of georgia. thank you very much. thank you for the privilege. 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. mr volkov was badly beaten in a hammer attack in march in lithuania which he believes was ordered by mr putin�*s regime. in his first interview since that attack, he also backed mr navalny�*s widow yulia to lead the opposition campaign against the russian president. he spoke with bbc�*s laura kuensberg. attacked outside his own home, leonid volkov�*s fight against putin was nearly a fight for his life. the close friend and confidant of the late alexei navalny was assaulted in lithuania, where he�*d tried to find safety from the russian regime. he was not saying anything,

there was no message. like, the message, the attack was the message — we know where you live, we can kill you. the attack was just weeks after the death of navalny, the charismatic leader who had been both critic and target of the kremlin for many years. my message for the situation when i�*m killed is very simple. not give up. he died in prison after being locked up by the regime for his beliefs, but leonid says the battle for democracy must go on. he asked us to never give up and, like, to continue our work and to build this, to defeat putin and to build this beautiful russia of the future that alexei dreamed for so many years is the only practical way to preserve his legacy and to make his ultimate sacrifice not to be in vain.

putin is capable of anything. the mantle to lead the movement now passes to navalny�*s wife, yulia, a job she never chose, but a role she now plays. yulia has 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 us, for navalny�*s organisation, the teams that navalny organised and gathered together. it�*s very clear and natural that our task in this situation is just, like, to support yulia in all her endeavours. putin�*s new aggressive push in ukraine, a reminder of the risk he poses. a danger some of his opponents have to live with every day.

laura kuenssberg, bbc news. let�*s turn to some other important stories around the world: slovakia�*s deputy leader says the country�*s 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. 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. parts of northwest india are dealing with extreme heat, including the capital of new delhi. parts of the city got up to 47.1 degrees celsius, or 116 degrees fahrenheit. and those temperatures are expected to last for several days. the extreme temperatures come during a 6—week long general election in india. from the frontlines

to world champion, ukrainian boxer 0leksandr usyk wins the heavyweight title, defeating briton tyson fury early sunday morning. in a split decision, usyk becomes the first undisputed heavyweight champion in nearly 25 years. the fight took place at a sold—out kingdom arena in riyadh, saudi arabia. the two men will face each other again in a rematch planned in october. bridgerton has been a fan favourite on netflix for four years and it has just returned for a third outing. set in the early 1800s, the series showcases the regency era with its decadent gowns and grand ball rooms and grimsthorpe castle, in lincolnshire, has served as the backdrop to some of this year�*s scenes. we�*ve been open since about 1978, so we�*ve been open a long time. but you don�*t really see us,

you know, that much on the internet or anything like that. so, yes, seeing usjust randomly scrolling through your phone, you�*re like, "oh, that�*s grimsthorpe castle in a little advert by netflix." yeah, it was really cool. you look especially beautiful tonight, miss featherington. this is the vanbrugh hall, and this is where they filmed their ballroom scene, and it was amazing. so they... they hung these beautiful blue curtains and they made sure they matched the colours, blue and gold, to the grimsthorpe colours, so we�*re blue and gold. so this floor, you can see, is stone and marble, and because they wanted to bring in 200, you know, dancers, film crews, as you can imagine, that�*s heavy trolleys, lots of cameras, lots of lights. so they built a fake floor. it was the first night. they filmed coming out of the carriage and they came in the doors and you could just see their faces change. they were sort of...

were acting, came in, and then theyjust stopped, looked around, and were like, "whoa!" and they said it was amazing, and that it was one of the most beautiful properties they�*ve actually filmed in. so that was nice to hear. i�*m really hoping it�*s going to bring more visitors to grimsthorpe, more visitors to lincolnshire, and a slightly different demographic as well, maybe like a younger audience that don�*t normally visit stately homes. 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. 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 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.

voice-over: this is bbc news. we will have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. 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 40 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. i�*m a haemophiliac. if i twist an ankle or cut myself, the bleeding, in my case, itjust carries on, basically. very little clotting, so i�*d need to get treatment. when i was eight years old, i was infected with hiv through my medical treatments. i�*m one of the few survivors of the hiv scandal.