live from washington. this is bbc news. israel orders more evacuations in rafah as it intensifies military operations. the most powerful solar storm in more than two decades hits the earth, triggering spectacular light shows expected to continue throughout the weekend. plus: the eurovision song contest crowns switzerland as it's winner — we get reaction from malmo in sweden. hello i'm helena humphrey. glad you could join me. israel has ordered thousands more people to leave the city of rafah in southern gaza — as it presses on with its military campaign there against hamas. the israel defense forces have declared a narrow coastal strip at al—mawasi to be a safe humanitarian zone, but the un says it has no running water or proper sanitation.

israel says that since monday, about 300,000 palestinians have already fled rafah. the us is still urging israel not to mount a full—scale assault on the city. and in the north — there are evacuations in the city of jabalia as the idf says that it has been carrying out air strikes. it says hamas fighters are regrouping there. from jerusalem, here's our middle east correspondent, yolande knell. another desperate exodus. palestinians fleeing in their thousands, as israel signals it is now set to push further into gaza's southernmost city, issuing new evacuation orders. "what should we do?" hanan asks. "do we wait until we all die on top of each other? "we've decided it is better to leave." israel has said it's taking action against hamas in one of its last strongholds and trying to bring home hostages. meanwhile, with israel's capture of one main border crossing and another blocked off by fighting,

no aid is getting into southern gaza. there are now severe shortages of food, deepening the humanitarian crisis. so far, israel's military is describing its offensive in rafah as limited but the world is watching, to see if this turns into the full scale invasion that the country's allies have been warning against. and as israeli tanks and troops await orders near the gaza border, there has been another strong statement from washington. it says that with some of the strikes in gaza, israel may have used american supplied weapons in breach of international law. israel has consistently denied any violations and yet, the new report may have an impact on plans back here in rafah, where there is already a growing sense of emergency. yolande knell, bbc news, jerusalem. for more, i spoke to aaron david miller, a senior fellow at the carnegie endowment for international peace and a former us state department official.

i want to start with what we are seeing on the ground in gaza. there appears to be moved ahead of a broader offensive on the ground in rafah. as we know, it is something washington has said would be a red line if it goes ahead in that full—scale capacity. if it does happen, what does that mean that we could see from washington, do you think? when it comes to the us israeli relationship, red lines sometimes turn pink. the key question is what israel will do in rafah. they are clearly expanding their area of operations down from the east end to the southern part of rafah. and they are engaging hamas fighters. whether or not what the israelis plan to do as they expand will remain under what the biden administration believes to be is their bottom line, the redline, which would involve a major israeli ground campaign into densely populated areas where hamas

is coordinating its military assets, the remaining four battalions of its organised structure in rafah, that is the question. we don't know the answer to that. in the next several days we will probably find out. the other point is hamas is researching in gaza in the north. israeli have cleared jabalia and they had to play it again and that's the real problem with the entire israeli operation. they can clear, they can't hold and they don't want to build. that really raises questions about where this will go. just coming back to that operation there in rafah, it appears to be the biden administration may be trying to offer the war cabinet some way back, saying for example, we could give you instead pinpoint intelligence about the whereabouts of hamas leaders for example. do you think that the war

cabinet, that netanyahu may decide to go with that as opposed to a broader offensive there in rafah? i'd be stunned to the point of head explosion if the administration or the long since october seven hadn't been helping the israelis identify where these people are, the key three leaders in the october terrace surge. i suspect they have been feeding israelis information. it is seven months now. israelis are on the ground in gaza. they are communicating with external leadership somehow, certainly not through these networks. i don't think that will be enough of an incentive. i think the americans have been doing that already. again, the question is how restraint will be israelis be

under these circumstances? frankly, i don't think there is a really good answer, i don't have one to that question. i want to ask you, who do you think has more sway over mr netanyahu? we know that far right ministers in his war cabinet want an all—out ground offensive there in rafah. we know what washington has said as world and the possibility to withhold military supplies. ultimately who do think netanyahu will listen to more? all politics is local and it seems to me that most important constituency benjamin netanyahu has is not in washington, it is not at the united nations, not the international communities, probably not the hostage families. it is the reality that without this government staying in a coherent form or if they went to elections, neta nyahu would probably lose.

so the reality is the constituency that counts for him is his own political constituency. do you think that could potentially hurt the us — israeli relationship going forward? i think there are all kinds of potential friction points as we move forward but i think the biden administration, for any number of reasons, does not want a sustained, open breach, fracture with this government because the president has concluded that if he wants to de—escalate israeli military activity, search humanitarian assistance into gaza, free the hostages, including six americans and open the door potentially for a broader regional initiative, which involves the israeli saudi normalisation, however fanciful that may appear to be at the moment, he will add to figure out a way

to get the israelis and hamas into a negotiated agreement. that is the only mechanism that will extricate the president and frankly, everyone else who is affected by this terrible ongoing conflict, out of it, to broaden some space to move into something hopefully may be in a biden second term, may be with new leadership in israel, the pathway, i know it's hard to envision but i think that is the hope. ukraine's president, volodymyr zelenskyy, says his forces are now fighting to defend seven villages in its kharkiv region. his comments come a day after russia launched a surprise incursion across the border. mr zelenskyy claimed none of the villages have been lost. but the institute for the study of war, an independent think tank, says it's likely russia now controls at least five.

the local government says least 1,800 people have been evacuated. kyiv has been expecting a russian summer offensive for some time — including a possible attempt to capture kharkiv, ukraine's second city. our correspondent in kyiv, james waterhouse, has more. it creates for ukraine an unwanted new north—eastern access to the front line and this is a front line at the moment which is more than 1000km long and it is a front line which ukrainian forces are struggling to contain, with the delays of the arrival of american ammunition and weaponry and with russia continuing to make its size count and taking ukrainian territory further south. crucially for kyiv, it is having to redeploy already stretched personnel to the kharkiv region to contain this incursion which we are told is being contained for now. there has been heavy fighting really for the past 2a hours and i think while few

think they are able, even with the gathering of tens of thousands of russian troops across the border, few think they are able to take cities like kharkiv because they failed the first time around. but it appears for now to be russia trying to form a buffer zone, try to extend the distance between russian territory and the fighting it is waging in ukraine, because ukrainian forces have been increasingly shelling targets inside russia. so the question really, as president zelenskyy admits, is what is going to happen next, we are containing it for now but is this russia building for something more? in georgia, protestors have taken to the streets to take part in pro—european demonstrations, against the government's plan to adopt a controversial law which critics say would push it farther from joining the eu and silence dissent. earlier our south caucasus and central asia correspondent rayhan demytrie in tbilisi sent this update people are marching from different directions, just take a look, on that side of the river there

are thousands of people with the eu and georgian flags all marching towards tbilisi's europe square. and on this side, it's the same... it's the same story. look at this sea of people. these protesters oppose this controversial bill, which the georgian government says it will adopt no matter what, on the transparency of foreign funding, dubbed by the protesters as the russian law because of the similarities that exist with the legislation that exists in russia. and they are saying that with its adoption, it would damage georgia's democracy, it would silence critical voices, but most importantly, people are worried that if this law gets adopted, georgia will lose its once—in—a—lifetime opportunity tojoin the european union. after protests and controversy, the winner of the 68th eurovision song contest in sweden has been announced... representing switzerland, nemo took the title —

with their song the code. they came top of the leaderboard in a nail—biting finish with croatia in second place followed by ukraine in third. here's nemo speaking shortly after the win. i want to say thank you so much. i hope this contest can live up to its promise and continue to stand for peace and thank you to every person! the event hosted in the city of malmo has seen divisions over israel's involvement, sparking pro—palestinian demonstrations — and a last—minute disqualification of the netherlands. 0ur arts correspondent, david sillito, reports from malmo. malmo, at the beginning of the contest, unlike any other. welcome to the grand final of the eurovision song contest 202a.

fans who had to file into the arena amid a small melee of police and protesters, the presence of israel in the final has provoked demonstrations and discomfort from some of the competitors. but when israel's performer took to the stage, all passed without incident. the israeli prime minister said he presence meant she already won, but there werejeers from some parts of the crowd. for eurovision, always anxious to keep the event politics free, there was a close eye on what appeared on stage. bambie thug was told to remove the word "ceasefire" from her body writing and pulled out of rehearsal but her three minutes on stage in the end was politics free, and spectacular. for the uk, 0lly alexander's performance of dizzy was definitely dizzying.

the cheer at the end, whatever the voters thought the uk's pride was intact. and then, this. big lasagne�*s rim tim tagi dim had been a standby song, by the time it got to malmo it was the odds on favourite. he's done it! switzerland have one the 68th eurovision... and then the voting, the politics of the evening lead to last—minute changes to presenters but by the end it was switzerland heading for a runaway victory with nemo�*s song, the code. and it was down to croatia versus switzerland. with victory for switzerland. the uk came 18th but a contest marked by protest and a disqualification and deep discomfort by some competitors ended with victory of a song truly eurovision.

normality or what for normality appears to be restored. david sillitoe, bbc news, malmo. from malmo, i spoke to william lee adams, author of wild dances: my queer and curiousjourney to eurovision. it was tight at the top but switzerland prevailed — what pushed them to victory? great to be here. i think switzerland brought a really unique product, the song spans different genres from drum and bass to r&b to rap. it had beautiful staging to match. it tells the story of a young person's journey to discovering they are non—binary. they say they are neither male nor female and that balancing act, figuring that out is brought to life on stage with the singer balancing on i guess you could call it a satellite dish, some kind of space plate. there is a lot of balancing going on, strong thigh muscles but you can sense a struggle and people connected with that, the sense of struggle certainly the professionaljury did.

they put this first, the public put it down in fourth but a good showing in both halves of thejudging. it was certainly quite tense leading up to this finale. i just wonder if that atmosphere carried through on the big night? how did it feel? absolutely. the fact is eurovision is meant to be a joyous celebration of music, people putting down their arguments and coming together through song and we've not really felt that this year. most notably this evening when the israeli singer took the stage there was a mixture of cheering and booing and the booing side was trying to outdo the cheering side and it was escalating and you heard this at the end of the song. viewers would not have noticed because producers wanted to keep the air of stability and happiness are they piped in fake applause over it. in the arena it felt incredibly tense and indeed artists afterwards after they performed

gave messages like let there be peace and let us come together because they felt they had to do something to calm the crowd and let the world know they were aware of the tensions on the ground. after this, do you think that the ebu of course which organises this will have to go back home, incidentally to switzerland and have a conversation about where it goes from here? it's a really interesting question. in terms of israeli participation the ebu has always been clear that this is a conversation between broadcasters and not a competition between governments and because of that they say we should invite everyone so they can begin dialogue with each other. i don't think the ebu's stance on that issue will change. however they may want to work on their communications. throughout the past two weeks it has been incidents and the ebu has not always responded quickly, for instance with the disqualification

of the dutch contestant is a great deal of ambiguity about what happened and i spoke to lots of dutch reporters and journalists and members of the team and they want answers and they want them fast. let's cast ahead to next year, it will be held in switzerland. geneva is the home to the ebu, legano if i'm not mistaken it might have been where the first eurovision song contest i think was held. we have any indication which city or region play host? fans in the pressroom had been joking that they will call the show feel the burn and take us to switzerland but we don't know. most countries take an internal bid process because a lot of tourism dollars are at stake so you can expect over the summer switzerland's government put out an open call to cities and they will have to file a brief on to why they should be the city and go from there. i have to ask you on a personal note now that we know that the voting has concluded and of course we know who the winner is. did you have a favourite entry this year?

i sided with the people, but vote winner of croatia was my personal winner. baby lasagne was the singer, these are good cards and the song was not cheesy at all. rim tim tagi dim, he was rocking out, he had neon cuts and i'm actually wearing a cat t—shirt and the song sounds silly it carries an important message. it tells a story of someone leaving croatia in pursuit of better opportunities and the pain that comes with that. at one point the singer looks to his cat and says please meow but the cat is not meowing and it breaks the singer's heart. let's turn to some important news around the world. five days after a deadly building collapse in south african a survivor has been pulled from the rubble. the premier of western cape province, described the rescue as nothing short of a miracle. the condition of the man is unclear. at least 14 people are confirmed to have died. many others are still unaccounted for. thousands of canadians have been ordered to leave their homes at fort nelson in the province of british

columbia, which is under threat from a wildfire. the blaze began on friday and was described by officials as "exhibiting extreme fire behaviour". wildfires have also led to evacuation alerts in the neighbouring province of alberta. police in england say an officer who was shot with a crossbow has been discharged from hospital and is in good spirits. he was wounded after responding to a stabbing in high wycombe, north of london. the suspected attacker was shot by armed police and remains under arrest in hospital. the northern lights dazzled millions across the globe on friday with people being able to see extraordinary colours across europe, the us and new zealand. in germany, people were treated to a display of pinkish—green hues to blueish—green hues in a matter of hours. in the us — you can see this beautiful pink and green display in nashville, tennessee. lights were exposed after one of the strongest geomagnetic storms in decades hit the earth. the last time there was such

a strong storm was in 2003. for more on this, i spoke to shawn dahl — a space weather forecaster at the national oceanic and atmospheric administration. some really extraordinary scenes. northern lights dazzling, southern lights in some cases as well. how rare is something like this? thanks for having us on your show. it's great to be here. it's very rare. this is the last time we had this level of activity was 2003. when we were expecting this type of activity, when we put the g4 watch, that was the first time since 2005. it was a measure of confidence. material from the sun in a strong magnetic field coming towards earth and that's what arrived with some force earlier yesterday and it worked its way on through the night where everybody almost globally got to see the aurora at much

further equatorial latitudes than usual. it has been extraordinary. some gorgeous scenes but ijust wonder, with this there is the potential for communications for example to be disrupted, satellites and so on, something the biden administration has said it is monitoring. have we seen anything disrupted through this solar storm? yes, we sure have. reports have been coming in for exactly that, communications issues, whether it's signal loss, disruption is on certain frequencies, we expect this with high frequency communications and that's no surprise because our protective atmosphere is very messed up right now for this storm and it is making signals wobbly as they try to go through the atmosphere. we have also had reports from the power grid trying to work to make sure

electricity still flows on the grid here in north america and they have been doing so because we warned them to make sure they are able to do that. gps signals, we've got reports from farmers in the plain states operating their tractors with precision gps and they were badly affected on timing signal loss and accuracy. they couldn't use their systems yesterday but fortunately they are able to do so today because we are in a bit of a lull between these storms. you mentioned wobbly signals and the effect they can help. how long could we potentially see an impact because of this? like you said, we are expecting this to go through the weekend just at varying levels of intensity. yesterday we kept hitting those g4 and g5 levels routinely so things were connected favourably to the sun and to do that, that magnetic field has to be opposite arthur's that was the case for almost 2a hours. right now it has turned a bit.

they are repelling so things are in a lull it's not as active but we are still reaching g3 conditions and tomorrow we are expecting the arrival of another fast moving, doubled the speed of anything we have seen recently, spin activity well up again. i imagine once this is over, you and your team might be breathing a sigh of relief but of course you are there in colorado, i do have to ask if you manage to get outside and catch a glimpse yourself. isure did. i was working from home last night doing interviews and i stepped outside in a break and i could see the northern lights myself. they were faint but when i used my camera, i captured that beautiful red glow. my colleagues took turns and got magnificent pictures of the aurora to the north. any tips about the best way to go outside and enjoy them, to catch a sight of them?

absolutely. the best time would be ten o'clock in the evening to two o'clock in the morning local time is, that's usually the prime time to see them. the other thing is to get under a dark sky, we still have a very young moon, it is up there now but shouldn't be enough to contaminate anybody �*s view with too much light. if you're not seeing it, use your cell phone or digital camera because the technology will pick up signals that our eyes are not detecting. some great tips there. great to have you with us, sean. thanks so much. it might be a good member debt outside and check out the skies, will have more at the top of the hour.

hello there. it's the warmest day of the year so far across all four nations on saturday, with temperatures peaking at 26 degrees celsius in the highlands and also in east sussex, too. but change is on its way on sunday in the form of heavy, thundery showers for much of the western half of the uk, whereas further east, it should stay largely dry. all this change is brought about, of course, because the high pressure that's been keeping us dry, settled and warm over the last few days is gradually drifting further eastwards towards scandinavia, allowing for these weather fronts to approach from the west. but it's a mostly dry start to the day on sunday with some sunny spells, any early mist and fog will lift and clear really quite readily. but it won't be too long through the late morning before we see the showers pop up across western scotland, down through northern ireland, wales and the south west of england. and if we just take a little tour at around four o'clock across northern and western scotland gradually drifting further east with some of

the showers really quite heavy. it's still quite warm, 22 degrees celsius in glasgow, but certainly cooler than on saturday. more showers across northern ireland, some of the showers particularly heavy across wales. there could be some localised flooding perhaps as well. more isolated showers for central southern england, maybe 26 or 27 degrees celsius in south east england. cooler and breezier towards those north sea facing coasts. and overnight, those showers will continue to drift further eastwards. but this is the main driver of monday's weather, this deep area of low pressure that's going to roll this weather run in from the south west. so, again, a largely dry start to the day for the vast majority, but cloud thickening from the south west, rain pushing into wales from south west england and eventually northern ireland through the afternoon, as well as scattering showers across scotland and northern england. but again across many eastern areas of england. it could stay largely dry, but it will be cooler across the board. but still temperatures peaking in the low twenties out towards the east. but the area of low pressure

just continues to roll its way further northwards and eastwards as we head through tuesday and into wednesday. so there will be further showers around at times for many in general. here's the outlook for our capital cities as we head through next week and see those temperatures really start to drop off. there will still be some sunshine around. lots of dry weather at times, but also some showers, too. bye— bye.

this is bbc news. we will have the headlines for you on the hour, which is straight after this programme. this is bbc news. hello and welcome to our new season. what's binyamin netanyahu planning now in gaza and why? he netanyahu planning now in gaza and wh ? ., netanyahu planning now in gaza andwh ? ., ., , and why? he would say the only wa for and why? he would say the only way for israel _ and why? he would say the only way for israel to _ and why? he would say the only way for israel to have _ and why? he would say the only way for israel to have peace - and why? he would say the only way for israel to have peace is l way for israel to have peace is to have security.— to have security. more than a touch of gloom _ to have security. more than a touch of gloom in _ to have security. more than a touch of gloom in ukraine, i to have security. more than a| touch of gloom in ukraine, as its people face some

unpalatable realities.