welcome to newsday. reporting live from singapore, i'm steve lai. the headlines. russia's long—serving defence minister sergei shoigu has been removed from his post. we'll examine the significance of the kremlin reshuffle. it comes as fighting intensifies in ukraine's northeast kharkiv region. we'll bring you a special report from the frontline. this devastation — one man's house — was created and that's the sound of a jet somewhere. explosions. israel says it's opened a new humanitarian crossing into gaza as the us warns a full—scale invasion of rafah would be disastrous. hello and welcome

to the program. we begin in russia where president putin has carried out a rare reshuffle of his security chiefs. his top defence minister, sergei shoigu has been removed from his post. he's a long—standing ally of vladimir putin and has served as defence minister since 2012, playing a key role in russia's invasion of ukraine. his replacement will be andrei belousov, an economist and the deputy prime minister. earlier our russia editor steve rosenberg explained that at the kremlin, reshuffles are unusual. whoever the russian government ministers are, whoever�*s sitting around that cabinet table, there is one man and one man alone in russia who calls the shots, and that is vladimir putin. he's the man with all the power. having said that, a government reshuffle in russia is interesting, particularly when key ministers like the defence minister is being changed. they don't happen too often.

the foreign minister, he's been in his post for 20 years. mr shoigu, he has been defence minister for 12 years. he was appointed by vladimir putin in 2012, i think. the two men were said to be pretty close for a long time. they even went on holiday a few times to siberia together. last week, we were on red square watching the victory day parade and defence minister shoigu was there inspecting the russian troops. but there had been rumours for some time that he could be moved, he could lose hisjob, and it seems that's what's happening. he still has a job to go to. he's being moved to the russian security council as the head of the security council. but i think that's a demotion

compared to being defence minister. who's coming in, who's replacing him? someone called andrey belousov, who's an economist, and i think that reflects the fact that over the last couple of years, president putin has put the russian economy on a war footing and wants an economist to run things because it's vital, as far as he's concerned, that the defence industry has enough money to fund this war. i've been speaking to russia expert, ariel cohen, a senior fellow at the atlantic counil in washington dc situation. shoigu who was an unpopular defence minister, to say the least. a lot of people in the military blamed him for the failures of the first year, year and a half of the war with ukraine. yevgeny prigozhin, the rebel of 2023, he rebelled injuly and was put down and then murdered, was demanding that putin fire shoigu. so, shoigu is kicked upstairs to the security council. but the most important thing

here is the removal of a very powerful man, nikolai patrushev. patrushev is a spook. he is, in fact, a security manager, vehemently anti—western. and now apparently he is going to the russian senate, which means it's also kicked upstairs. so, mr belousov, whom i met, who is a very statist economist, is not a free—market economist who advocated things like emergency taxes on extractive industries and whatnot, so he will be somewhat of putin's albert speer, the german architect who supervised very efficiently the end game of the third reich in the military industrial sphere. and i think belousov, who actually was a part

of a quite successful economic team together with the central banker, is going to be in charge of military production and financial issues, including evasion of the western sanctions. and what will be the implications then for the ongoing war in ukraine? more money, more economic swaps. we are hearing about russian gold being sold to earn revenue for russia in the middle east and elsewhere. more dealings as we saw when russia sells, for example, oil to india, and then that oil is smuggled back or sold back to europe and keeping the russian economy on the straight and narrow as much as they can. and i hearfrom my moscow sources that belousov is a defence minister,

not just for the war in ukraine, but if the war in ukraine succeeds, possibly russia will continue its push to the west, be it the baltic states or poland, which makes the whole thing much, much more dangerous for the west because that will be a war with nato. and also belousov is not going to run military operations. there are generals and mr putin, who is increasingly comfortable in his role as a commander in chief. things in ukraine are going betterfor russia. they are attacking from the northern border of ukraine, russian ukrainian border in the direction of kharkiv, the second largest city in ukraine. so, putin doesn't want to share the laurels with shoigu, with patrushev or anybody else. president zelensky says there's fierce fighting along a large part of the kharkiv border in eastern ukraine. russia says it has captured

another four villages in the region — an area where russian troops had been pushed back nearly two years ago. it means that since they launched their surprise offensive two days ago, they have taken nine villages. today there have also been strikes on the russian side of the border in belgorod with russian military saying a ukrainian air strike destroyed a section of a io—storey apartment block. with the latest on the conflict, our defence correspondentjonathan beale reports from vovchansk. the road to russia, just a few miles from the border. and proof that the russians are back in the kharkiv region again. the town of vovchansk was liberated in a surprise ukrainian offensive less than two years ago. now it's at risk of falling back into russian hands. alexi, a local policeman, is once again telling the population to leave. he says it's better than dying.

the shelling is constant and chaotic. and it's all over the town. we quickly move on at the sound of a russian drone. this is all that's left of sergei's home. the familiar russian tactic of reducing towns to rubble. but sergei says he can't leave. he needs to look after his goats — now his only worldly possessions. you can still hear the artillery battle going on. it was more intense yesterday. this devastation — one man's house — was created by a russian glide bomb. jet roars nearby. and that's the sound of a jet somewhere. explosions.

ukraine's outgunned and outnumbered, and russia's using aerial glide bombs to devastating effect. alexi simply says, "look at what's happening". for some, it's made the decision to flee unavoidable, though it's still heartbreaking for olexander. this was the home he grew up in. he doesn't know if he'll ever return. ukrainian officials insist they were ready. not everyone agrees. this drone footage appears to show russian troops crossing

the border unopposed. i've been in front line. for something you've already fought for before in 2022. same again. you're angry? very angry. denys, a ukrainian reconnaissance commander, helped push back the russians in 2022. now he's having to fight for the same territory again. translation: there was no first line of defence. - we saw it. the russiansjust walked in. where were the minefields? they just walked in. ukraine says it's repelling this attack with reinforcements, but russia's been probing the entire 800—mile front, and in kharkiv, it's exposed the weakness. jonathan beale, bbc news, vovchansk. to the war in gaza now and the israeli military says it has opened a new aid

crossing into gaza, in co—ordination with the us government. the opening is called the western erez. it's exact location has not yet been confirmed — and it's not yet known whether it will make a difference to aid reaching those most in need. meanwhile, more palestianians have been told to leave the southern city of rafah towards a coastal area around al—ma—wasi, which israel calls an "expanded humanitarian zone" the un says there is no sanitation or clean running water in the area. (biv 0ur middle east correspondent, lucy williamson, reports from jerusalem where citizens are marking israel's remembrance day. a country increasingly divided by its war aims, brought togetherfor a day by its war dead. israel's prime minister marked the start of the nation's annual remembrance day, honouring those who died at the hands of israel's enemies, and seven months after the hamas attacks, the soldiers now fighting

in gaza, who he said wanted to finish the war. translation: all of them, without exception, - even the amputees, told me that the spirit of our people lifts them. "keep going until victory", and we will. netanyahu has insisted he will keep going in gaza, even as warnings increase over the future cost of war. america's president has said he will not supply weapons for a major ground assault on the town of rafah. he doesn't want to see american weapons used in that kind of operation. that's not to say that he is going to abandon israel or cut them off from weapons. he was focused on a particular operation that he doesn't believe will succeed in defeating hamas and that will cause grievous harm. israel's army is still fighting hamas across the gaza strip, returning to areas it once labelled clear. and in rafah, once labelled safe, carrying out

what it calls a precise operation. some of the one million palestinians sheltering there have begun moving out from eastern areas as the army edges in, lives shrinking with every move. zeinab ignored three evacuation orders before moving herfamily to the coastal area of deir al—balah, the tent that sheltered them for five months in rafah too worn out to mend. translation: my children and i ran under fire. - people died in front of us. shrapnel hit our faces and houses were hit by strikes while we ran. we have no money. 0ur situation is very hard. i came here and there is no place to stay. siren wails. tonight, a siren marked the start of the remembrance ceremony

byjerusalem's western wall. israel's military chief taking personal responsibility for those killed and kidnapped by hamas. but many here tonight will be thinking of those still fighting in gaza, where palestinians are also counting their dead. lucy williamson, bbc news, jerusalem. i'm joined now by ben scott — former australian representative to the palestinian authority and senior advisor at the australian national university's national security college. hejoins us now from canberra. depite warnings from the us and others, israel is already carrying out military operaions in rafah. are they getting close to their end game or wiping out hamas? i think israel is a very long way from its and game of trying to wipe out hamas and i think there is increasing recognition in israel that that is not a realistic objective, if we're

talking about out hamas altogether. doing serious damage with militate abilities is a realistic goal but not much plan of what happens on the day after. what has been underlined by the fact that we see more fighting northern gaza and areas as your reporter said which is villa that were cleared, hamas is coming back, giving rise to much more frustration inside israel's national security establishments and more general, speaking more openly and criticising the prime minister. what's your take on israeli prime minister netanyahu's decision to ignore pleas for restraint — from the us and other countries including australia? prime minister les bennett now has a series of goals, his most immediate one is to keep his calls and together as long as

possible which means continuing the military operation which the military operation which the right wing of his coalition is very much in favour of. he wants to stay in office long enough so when the day of reckoning comes isjudged less on the failures that lead to october seven and more on what 0ctober seven and more on what has happened since and so you really need something that can be shown domestically to be a win. to that end, he is really trying to turn this more adversarial relationship with the us to his advantage. you have held — the us to his advantage. you have held dramatic _ the us to his advantage. you have held dramatic posts. you've held diplomatic posts in both ramallah and tel aviv — can i ask about the prospects for diplomacy and if you see scope still for a peace deal? a long—term peace still is something a long way in the

future but much more can be donein future but much more can be done in the meantime to save the environment around the parties. so this was a lesson we saw at the united nations to give a little bit more recognition to the palestinians in the un is a minor step in that direction. i think the international community can do much more to lay out what the parameters of a two state solution looks like. we will leave it there, _ solution looks like. we will leave it there, thank - solution looks like. we will leave it there, thank you . solution looks like. we willl leave it there, thank you for talking to me. ben scott — former australian representative to the palestinian authority and senior advisor at the australian national university's national security college. thank you very much. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news.

you're live with bbc news. to spain, where a separatist coalition in catalonia has lost its decade—long majority after sunday's elections for the regional parliament. with most votes counted,

the socialist party which governs spain nationally, is emerging as the biggest in the catalan chamber. it would still need to make alliances to govern. 0ur correspondent guy hedgecoe has been following developments from madrid. this was a clear victory for the socialist party of spanish prime minister which made gains on the last election in catalonia in 2021. however, it is not clear whether a socialist will be able to form a new catalan government because of the fragmented nature of the region �*s politics. the other major development with this result was the fact the pro—independence parties lost their majority in the regional parliament. something that has not happened for a long time and it will be seen as a major setback for the independence movement. having said all that, together catalonia party, the hardline pro—independence party, a former catalan president that has been in self exiled for the last 6.5 years

did perform relatively well and came in second. because of the fragmented nature of catalonia �*s politics, there is a possibility instead of the socialist forming a new government, it could be this part of the spider that could form a lot will depend on the conversations that take place the coming days and weeks between different parties across political spectrum. georgia's government has issued a warning to protesters that it would arrest anyone who blocked the parliament — ahead of an expected late—evening rally against a russian—style "foreign agent" bill. demonstrations have gripped the tiny caucasus country for weeks over a bill targeting ngos. dubbed the "russian law", it mirrors repressive legislation used by the kremlin to silence critics. 0ur south caucasus correspondent rayhan demytrie is in tbilisi and sent us this. protesters are back on the street outside parliament and

this time around they are planning to spend the night here. we have seen some demonstrators with sleeping masks, camping gear. we've met protesters of different generations here. there are parents with their children and even grandparents with their grandchildren. actually, i'm here to protect the independence of my country. i don't want to go back to ussr. i don't want to be back to the russia's influence. my final expectation is that we're going to win since this is going to be out, we're going to win the election. and we already see that georgian people is so ready to be part of the european union. it is peaceful so far. some of the demonstrators are playing games to entertain themselves or making a lot of noise. the reason why they want to spend the night here is because on monday, mps from the governing georgian dream party will be meeting in this building to hold the third and final reading of this controversial law, which these people here in the streets have been

opposing for several weeks now. the protesters call it the russian law, and they are determined to make the government hear their voices. they are worried that with the adoption of this law that georgia might lose its chance to one dayjoin the european union. let's turn to some important news around the world. flash flooding across northern afghanistan has devastated villages, killing at least 315 people and injuring more than 1600. the flooding, caused by recent heavy rains, hit five districts in afghanistan's baghlan province on friday. the taliban—run refugee ministry said thousands of homes have been damanged and livestock wiped out. elsewhere, in western indonesia, at least 3a people have died and 16 more are missing after flash floods and cold lava flow from a volcano. hours of heavy rain caused flooding in two districts in west sumatra province on saturday and sent sweeping ash and large rocks down

mount marapi, the most active volcano on the archipelago's sumatra island. top boy, happy valley and the sixth commandment were the big winners at tonight's bafta television awards. the most prestigious award — the bafta fellowship went to baroness floella benjamin. 0ur entertainment correspondent, lizo mzimba was at the royal festival hall in london. some of the biggest names on the small screen turned out for this year's awards, presented for the second year running by rob beckett and romesh ranganathan. welcome to the 2024 bafta television awards. three very different shows shared the honours, winning two awards each. best drama went to the gritty gang drama top boy, with jasminejobson also taking home the award for best supporting actress. i did it, i did it! i love you.

thank you so much for the love and support. your girl finally brought it home. you reduced her to nothing with your endless, endless abuse and your nasty little threats. happy valley won a memorable moment for the climax of its final episode, while sarah lancashire won best actress for the second time. it goes to sarah lancashire. she paid tribute to her fellow cast members and to the bbc. i feel very, very privileged to have been surrounded by these brilliant actors, and to charlotte moore and the bbc for giving this very british drama a very british home. i wondered if you had a man to share your life with. best limited series went to the real—life crime drama the sixth commandment.

and the bafta goes to... ..timothy spall. and one of its leeds won best actor. the reality is, sometimes you get a chance to play, you know, people that are, have had a terrible thing happened to them, and all they wanted was love. and it's a beautiful thing to be able to tell a story about something like that. next week, strictly come dancing celebrates its 20th birthday. it received an early present, winning best entertainment show. i'm thrilled that you are receiving the bafta fellowship this evening and i send my heartfelt congratulations. and there was a message from the prince of wales and a standing ovation as floella benjamin received the bafta fellowship. lizo mzimba, bbc news. congratulations to the winners. goodbye for now.

hello. there were definitely two sides to sunday's weather story. 0n the one hand, it was very warm. in fact, it looks like it was the warmest day of the year so far. temperatures touching 27 celsius to the west of london, but we saw some really intense downpours and thunderstorms breaking up, especially across western and northern parts of the uk, ushering in a change. low pressure taking charge of our weather through this week, which will bring rain at times, not least across the southwest of england, wales and northern ireland through monday. that rain arriving through the morning and then sticking in place right through into the afternoon. could be enough rain to give some localised flooding and travel disruption, — and under the cloud and rain not feeling particularly impressive — 15 or 16 degrees, but for a good part of scotland, central and eastern parts of england, we will hold on to some sunshine and some warmth, maybe 23 or 2a degrees. in fact, for some north sea coasts,

it is likely to be warmer on monday afternoon than it was over the weekend. now, through monday nights, this band of rain will be moving slowly, northwards and eastwards on what will be a very mild, even warm night, with temperatures holding up at between 9—11; degrees. so, we start tuesday with our area of low pressure still in place. this frontal system wraps around the low, continuing to drive some outbreaks of rain. this time, the rain bands sitting across the south—east of england, east anglia, parts of the midlands, northern england, still some further rain to come across northern ireland, and then that rain pulling northwards across scotland. sunny spells and showers following on behind. temperatures broadly 17, 18 degrees, but still up to 20 in the north of scotland. those temperatures still a touch above the average for the time of year, just not as warm as it has been over the last few days. now, this is wednesday's forecast. still a weakening weather front likely to bring rain for a time in northern england. then it's a sunshine and showers day, and temperatures 17—20, maybe 21 degrees. now, our area of low pressure

will still be with us through the second half of the week, but it will tend to loosen its grip, the centre of the low, pulling away southward. so, while there will still be some showers, especially in southern parts, more in the way of dry weather, some spells of sunshine, actually will dry up for some of us as we head into the weekend. and those temperatures still a touch above normal for the time of year.

we are in inflation watch. the latest data suggests beijing's policies may be boosting consumer confidence in the world's second—biggest economy. do you get ai's help to do your resume? we ask an expert if that's a good idea. hello and welcome to business today, i'm steve larkham. let's start in china with an loudest data shows inflation is starting to pick up. consumer prices rose for a third mother in april which signals a and demand. while they been battling the cost—of—living crisis, they fell into deflation last year which means prices fell. beijing has announced measures to boost consumer confidence. in the us it's a very different story. the focus is the latest inflation figures out this week

because of consumer