the us secretary of state warns israel an all—out attack on rafah will provoke anarchy without eliminating hamas. russia's defence minister sergei shoigu is out — as vladimir putin replaces him in a rare cabinet shake—up. new evidence the british government was warned by its own staff about the risk of hiv from contaminated blood in the early �*80s. and the man for an overhaul of maternity care as mp say urgent action is needed to reduce the trauma experienced by many women during childbirth. —— demand for an overhaul. —— demand for an overhaul. hello. i'm lauren taylor. america's top diplomat is warning that an all—out israeli attack on the city of rafah in southern gaza would provoke "anarchy" — without eliminating hamas. it's antony blinken�*s latest attempt to deter israel from carrying out a ground assault.

an israeli bombardment in the eastern parts of rafah has already displaced tens of thousands of palestinians. mr blinken has been talking to cbs news: as we look at rafah, they may go in and have some initial success, but potentially at an incredibly high cost to civilians. but one that is not durable, one that is not sustainable, and they will be left holding the bag on an enduring insurgency because a lot of armed hamas will be left, no matter what they do in rafah. or if they leave and get out of gaza, as we believe they need to do, then you're going to have a vacuum and a vacuum that is likely to be filled by chaos, by anarchy, and ultimately by hamas again. so, we've been working for many weeks on developing credible plans for security,

for governance, for rebuilding. we haven't seen that come from israel. we've been working with arab countries and others on that plan. we need to see that, too. pick we have the same objective as israel. we want to make sure that hamas cannot govern gaza again. we want to make sure it's demilitarised. that israel gets its leaders. that's what we are determined to do. we have a different way and, we think, a more effective, durable way of getting that done and we will remain in conversation with israel about exactly that. i spoke to our middle east bureau chief, jo floto, and asked how much criticism israel's strategy in gaza is attracting domestically. well, i think in the run up to today, it certainly come to today, it's certainly come out to the surface. we've had senior military officials, albeit anonymously, briefing the israeli media about their dissatisfaction or their concern, rather, that there isn't a proper political strategy for how to end this war. and that, in other words, in order to defeat hamas, you have to replace hamas. and that's something we haven't seen set out in detail by the israeli prime minister. but you're right, today, just a couple of minutes ago, we've had sirens sounding across the whole of israel

as the country marks its memorial day remembering those who've died in all of israel's wars, but in particular those who've died since october the seventh. and that is a price that israelis are continuing to pay because the military offensive carries on. more soldiers are dying. and, of course, there is concern about the fate of hostages who remain in gaza. now we think of more than 35 of those 130 odd people have been killed. how many of the remainder survive is a different question. but the anxiety of the families of those hostages is huge, palpable and is often angry as they protest on israel's streets. but today the mood is somber. it's reflective. but there is also concern about how long this war, which has lasted 220 days so far, how long it's going to carry on for. and on that, i mean, the israeli army appears to be having to go back into areas which it had originally said it had cleared, for instance, in northern gaza. how difficult is that to for the israeli public to see —— and on that, i mean, the israeli army appears and on that, i mean, the israeli army appears to be having to go back into areas which it had originally said it had cleared, for instance, in northern gaza.

how difficult is that for the israeli public to see that happening again, to see those areas being fought over again? i think this goes back into the divisions over what the strategy should be. so you're right, the idf are injabalia. they're in a what used to be a stronghold of hamas, one that they thought they had cleared of hamas gunmen months ago. but they're back in because in their view, hamas has regrouped in that area. and similarly, we saw in zeitoun, which is south of gaza city, the idf having to go in for the third time now. if you listen to the israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, he wants to maintain israel's ability to keep going into gaza, to suppress any regrouping of hamas at any point, even after a ceasefire. and that is something that obviously hamas doesn't want. but there are increasing numbers within the military establishment here. who think that's not a strategy for victory. it's a strategy for

continuing this war forever. now to georgia , where overnight protests have continued into the morning in a last—ditch effort to prevent the passing of a controversial law. the bill requires organisations receiving more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as agents of foreign influence or face fines. western countries and georgia's opposition have denounced it as authoritarian and russian—inspired , but the country's prime minister vowed on sunday to push ahead with the law. our south caucasus correspondent rayhan demytrie says despite the efforts of protesters, the law is unlikely to be voted down. well, it looks increasingly unlikely given that it tookjust 67 seconds for the legal affairs committee that held the third and final reading of this controversial law this morning to pass the third reading. you can see behind me, some protesters still remain in the street and they're blocking this main thoroughfare here in tbilisi, here outside parliament. they're sitting on the ground and holding their ground. they're waiting for more students to join the protest. i was just talking to one

of the students from the medical university, and she says that they have about 6,000 students at the university. they're all boycotting their studies and they're planning to join the protest. and we know that the similar picture is happening at other several other universities here in tbilisi. so the students want to come to reinforce what's been happening overnight. and they're still hoping that the government might hear their voices and withdraw this controversial bill. and tell us what the impact would be if the bill did go through. well, what these people are worried about the most is, of course, that it would restrict the democratic freedoms in the country. they're worried that by introducing this law, although the government says, "look, it's just about, you know, transparency orfinancing, just submit your annual report and tell us where the money is coming from and what are you spending it on." but this bill also comes with the title that these organisations and independent media, they would have to label themselves

as an organisation, acting in the interests of a foreign power. and protesters are worried that it would ultimately kind of silence these organisations. but more than that, they're worried that by adopting this law that the government is kind of making a u—turn on georgia's foreign policy. and we know that more than 80% of georgians want and see their country's future as part of the eu. and as they dubbed this law the russian law, they're worried that its adoption would mean that they're somehow going back to russia. and there's been some opposition, hasn't there, from or at least some criticism of this from the us in particular. that's right. there's been a lot of criticism, a lot of calls towards the georgian government to halt this law, to have more discussions, not to adopt the law. and a number of european leaders

and european institutions have been saying that, look, if you adopt this law, it would not help you with your current process of accession to the european union, because georgia is a candidate country and to join the e.u., it received this status late last year, hard won status. and that's why people are so worried that they have this once in a lifetime opportunity for their country to become a member of the eu. but this law, they're worried, would stop it from becoming an eu member. let's speak to alex scrivener — executive director of the democratic security institute, a pro—democracy think tank based in tbilisi. your at the demonstrations overnight, do you hope it might still prevent the government passing this law? , ., , still prevent the government passing thislaw? , , this law? historically protest in geora ia this law? historically protest in georgia do _ this law? historically protest in georgia do work. _ this law? historically protest in georgia do work. this - this law? historically protest in georgia do work. this law - this law? historically protest in georgia do work. this law was | georgia do work. this law was attempted to pass, something very is attempted to pass, something very is at last year and mass street protests forced the government to u—turn but this time unfortunately government much more intent on putting it's all through and that has caused even larger protests. we are at a stage now where there is a stand—off with a t — 90% of georgians support eu membership around supporting —— are out supporting these protests. the government lost in 2020 —— this government lost in 2020 —— this government won in 2020 on the mandate of supporting eu membership and now we have one that is

insistent in passing this and eu officials have been clear in saying it is incompatible with eu membership.— it is incompatible with eu membershi-. . , ~ ., membership. last week we had the resident membership. last week we had the president of — membership. last week we had the president of the _ membership. last week we had the president of the european - membership. last week we had the i president of the european commission also have underlain saying georgia was on the road to europe so do you think it would just jeopardise was on the road to europe so do you think it would justjeopardise that path to europe if it does go ahead —— ursula von der leyen. ahead -- ursula von der leyen. no ahead —— ursula von der leyen. iii? question. this ahead —— ursula von der leyen. in? question. this would impede georgia public progress to eu membership and thatis public progress to eu membership and that is clearfrom public progress to eu membership and that is clear from statements from eu officials and legal analysis of the text. it is basically a copy paste job with similar legislation in a whole range of authoritarian countries, most controversially russia but also azerbaijan, hungary and other places where there have been crackdowns on civil society

freedoms and the eu has been very clear that if georgia passes this then eu membership is off the table while it is on the books.— while it is on the books. thank you very much — while it is on the books. thank you very much for— while it is on the books. thank you very much for your _ while it is on the books. thank you very much for your thoughts - while it is on the books. thank you very much for your thoughts on - while it is on the books. thank you | very much for your thoughts on the subject. the metropolitan police say they've charged three men under the national security act with allegedly assisting the hong kong intelligence service — and foreign interference. scotland yard said a number of arrests had been made — and searches carried out across england. the three men will appear before magistrates later today. officers say this operation is not connected to a recently reported counter terrorism policing investigation linked to russia. russia's defence minister, sergei shoigu, is being removed from his post and will become the new secretary of russia's security council. 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.

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? president zelensky says there's fierce fighting along a large part of the kharkiv border in eastern ukraine as russia attempts to regain territory it lost nearly two years ago. thousands of civilians have been evacuated from the area where russia claims to have captured nine villages since they launched their surprise offensive on the region three days ago. strikes were also seen on the russian side of the border in belgorod yesterday,

with russian military saying a ukrainian air strike destroyed a section of a ten—storey apartment block. i asked our ukraine correspondent james waterhouse about the events. it certainly is causing ukrainian forces some concern. we saw the first meaningful border crossing by russian troops since the initial full—scale at the end of week, and they aren't just hanging around, they are taking the territory and claiming they have taken nine villages now and claiming to be inside a town called vovchansk which has come under heavy bombing over the past couple days. that is something ukraine disputes, saying there is still heavy fighting going on. but there are also growing fears that when you have thisjoint incursion, as they try to move in on this new north—eastern axis of the front line, they are approaching ukraine's second city, kharkiv.

now, while it'snot thought these troops are capable now, while it's not thought these troops are capable of taking that city, if they could get within 30km, that would put them an artillery range, and air defences can do nothing about artillery shells. and there people living there, as we've seen in the east, cities can then come under such heavy damage and in a worst—case scenario for ukraine, you have russian soldiers moving in, pinning a flag and calling it liberation. so these are worrying times for the kharkiv region. it's clear that russia was looking to capitalise on the delayed american ammunition and weaponry, and all ukraine can do at the moment, as it acknowledges, is to try to do everything it can to hold the line, by dragging already overstretched personnel to the area to try to hold on. what is the impact of a key departure in the russian military?

i think few expect things to change in the battlefield as a direct consequence of the defence minister being replaced. things have changed in a very unwelcome way for kyiv and the enf of last week. one official said, if they are changing their defence minister, it signals how things are going, but that was a slightly rose tinted interpretation. one economist put it as bad news, because mr belousov is an economist, as you heard steve say there, someone central to russia's war footing, central to its economy moving towards manufacturing armoured vehicles, tanks, as part of a country continuing to mobilise hundreds of thousands of men. russia making its size count, and this apppointment suggests that's a strategy that will continue for some time. so you have those nerves further afield, but what is happening on the ground changes little for ukraine.

around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news.

new evidence has been uncovered that the british government was warned by its own embassy staff in the united states about the risk of hiv from contaminated blood in the early 1980s. it's now thought more than 1200 nhs patients with the blood disorder haemophilia were infected with the virus, many after being given a treatment made from american blood plasma. our health reporter jim reed has this report. from the 19705 to the early �*90s, tens of thousands of patients were infected with hiv and hepatitis c. something that should have saved their life... ..killed them. and still, a0 years later,

there's no answers to that. as a child, laura's brother stuart was given a new treatment for his blood disorder, haemophilia. but factor viii was made from thousands of mixed blood donations. ifjust one donor was carrying a virus, the whole batch could be contaminated. we went in for an appointment. and we went into this room and we were informed that he was hiv—positive. we were absolutely devastated. i mean, you know, to be told something like that is just mind—blowing. at the time, most factor viii was imported from the united states. their high—risk groups — including prisoners and drug users — were paid to give blood. stuart died of aids in his 20s from the treatment he was given. there were so many people that didn't deserve to die. they were given a death sentence. a public inquiry opened in 2018. it's had access to thousands of documents held in archives. now panorama has seen

this five—page letter sent back in 1983 from the british embassy in washington to the department of health, clearly warning that haemophiliacs were most at risk from american factor viii. they've literally torn my family apart, ripped them away from me. sam's father, gary, was another infected with hiv through factor viii. sam lost his entire family by the age of three. my grandad actually was the first person to tell me. he explained about my dad being haemophiliac and was infected with hiv. subsequently passed that on to my mum, who was pregnant with my sister. all three have passed away.

the government has said it will establish a new body to compensate people like sam. it declined to comment on the new documents seen by panorama ahead of the public inquiry�*s final report next week. jim reed, bbc news. andjim reed joins us live from the newsroom. jim, the findings of this public inquiry will be published next week. what can we expect? i think this will be a huge moment for many of the families involved. as you just out from that report, some families, survivors, campaigning for the best part of a0 years to get answers to this scandal and most of the infections took place in the 19705, 19805, after 1991 so it really has been a long fight to try and get these answers and some form ofjustice. one thing the inquiry is bound to look into, as hinted at in that report, is how a5 hinted at in that report, is how much was known at the time and whether stronger action could and should have been taken to protect

nhs patients. that report you just heard is quite focused on young people who were infected with hiv but if you would back further in time to the 19705 and that same product, factor eight, wa5 time to the 19705 and that same product, factor eight, was given to him if you like haemophiliacs and people with bleeding disorders wa5 people with bleeding disorders was already leading to the hepatitis b and later hepatitis c which can lead to liver cancer and liver failure and a5 to liver cancer and liver failure and as you get into the early part of the 19805 as a scent hiv becomes a recognised problem, 81, it 83 cb blood products start to be infected with that virus a5 blood products start to be infected with that virus as well so there is large numbers of people, 30,000 or so people who will be looking for answers next week when this inquiry report into what the authorities knew at the time, what 5trong action could have been taken to protect nhs patients, and whether there was some attempt by the health authorities to cover up what went on back then because there are indications coming through from the inquiry that a lot

was known at the time but not that much 5trong action was taken, where there are attempts to cover this up after the event? how important of a moment is this for the families involved? you how important of a moment is this for the families involved?- for the families involved? you got an idea again _ for the families involved? you got an idea again from _ for the families involved? you got an idea again from that _ for the families involved? you got an idea again from that report, i for the families involved? you got | an idea again from that report, this is notjust about an idea again from that report, this is not just about the an idea again from that report, this is notjust about the health impact i5 notjust about the health impact of the infections, it was about the wider impact as well so when it came to something like hiv, one in three of the nhs patients infected with hiv were children at the time, 380 children infected and often the families had to live with such high levels of stigma, this was the 19905, there was a lot of fear around hiv and aids at the time, we spoke to people who went to school as 8—9 —year—olds after being diagnosed with hiv who found out our children were being pulled out of class because their parents are so worried about the possible infection ri5k worried about the possible infection risk and we now know that infection ri5k risk and we now know that infection risk is very minimal but at the time it was a very difficult situation

and otherfamilies it was a very difficult situation and other families have it was a very difficult situation and otherfamilies have spoken it was a very difficult situation and other families have spoken about how they had 5ituations and other families have spoken about how they had situations where around that time neighbours, people they lived with would daub stuff on the outside of their houses, get certain levels of abuse as well so i think it is the wider impact of this inquiry which many of the families want to see addressed and wider things relating to the scandal they will want to see addressed in the enquirer report5 next week. will want to see addressed in the enquirer reports next week. thank ou. there you'll find details of a special programme called infected blood: time for answers, which is part ofjim reed's investigation. "harrowing evidence" from more than a thousand women — including some who said they were left in blood—soaked 5heet5 — will be presented to the uk government today, as part of the findings of the birth trauma inquiry. it's calling for an overhaul of the britain's maternity and postnatal care after finding poor care is "all—too—frequently tolerated as normal". our correspondent, louisa pilbeam, reports. the birth of gill castle's baby boy was traumatic —

she was left needing a stoma bag after mistakes in her maternity care. she spoke to bbc breakfast earlier this year. i ended up with a fourth—degree tear and a rectovaginal fi5tula. i had a missed absce55, as well — which burst. none of this was diagnosed till five days after the baby was born. gill is not alone. the first uk inquiry into birth trauma has heard what it calls "harrowing evidence" from more than 1,000 women. some women said they were left in blood—soaked 5heet5 on maternity wards without help, evidence was given about babies who were injured during birth, and many women said they weren't listened to. birth trauma is thought to affect 30,000 women a year in the uk — a term which refers to negative birth experiences, such as serious blood loss and emergency caesareans. one in 20 women develop post—traumatic stress disorder. it's really patronising, in my opinion, not to give women

the information about what it's like to have a baby, because we are able to cope with this kind of information. the report from an all—party parliamentary group calls for urgent change — including ending the postcode lottery on perinatal care, a call for a new maternity commissioner to be appointed, and the government to publish a new national maternity 5trategy. the report also calls for more support for partners of those having a baby, and for ethnic minorities. the findings of the inquiry will be officially presented today, and the health minister will set out the government's response. louisa pilbeam, bbc news. in response to the report, the government says it will complete a rollout of new physical and mental health services for new mums in england by the end of the year. stay with us here on bbc news. hello again.

the weather this week is going to be more unsettled than it was last week. and that's because low pressure is very much going to be with us for a lot of this week. today, it's bringing in some rain from the southwest, very slowly, pushing northwards and eastwards. some of that rain will be heavy acro55 parts of south—west england, south wales and northern ireland. and the clouds are going to continue to build ahead of it. there'll be some harr coming offshore at times acro55 eastern parts of scotland, but in between, a lot of dry weather, sunny and warm conditions, with temperatures fea5ibly up to 2a degrees somewhere in eastern england. and as we head through the evening and overnight, the rain continues itsjourney, moving eastwards and also northwards. further showers come into the southwest and we see a return to localised mist and murk across eastern areas. but it is going to be a mild night. in fact, for some of us it will feel warm for the time of year. so as we go through tomorrow, the low pressure's still with us, the weather front pushing ever further east. and it will be a breezy day, perhaps

not quite as breezy as today. we still will have the low cloud, mistand murk along the wast coast. here's our rain. follow it all the way around and you can see a plethora of showers coming in across the south and the west. but in between, there'll be some sunshine, as there will be across parts of northern scotland. temperatures through the course of tomorrow ranging from 12 in lerwick, and 20 in inverness to about 19 as we push down towards norwich. now, on wednesday, we still do have that weather front affecting parts of northern and eastern england with some increasingly patchy rain on it. on either side, for northern scotland, for northern ireland, much of wales and southern england, there'll be a lot of dry weather, bar a few showers and some sunshine, with temperatures again up to 20, maybe 21 degrees. moving from thursday and towards the end of the week, the low pressure sinks a bit further south, but we do import more showers from the near continent. so during the course of thursday, you can see how we start off with showers across the southeastern corner. but they become more widespread across england and wales through the day. some of those heavy and thundery

move further north and we're looking at drier conditions with fewer showers and top temperatures, again, round about the 20—degree mark. beyond that, it still is changeable. we're looking at sunshine. we're looking at showers. and temperatures roughly where they should be, orjust above.

this is bbc news — the headlines: the us secretary of state tells israel — an all—out attack on rafah will provoke anarchy — without eliminating hamas. russia's defence minister sergei shoigu is out — as vladimir putin replaces him in a rare cabinet shake—up. prime minister rishi sunak is to warn that britain stands at a crossroads before what he will call some dangerous years. and — making a splash — a record number of wild swimming spots in england are designated as bathing sites. hello, i'm lauren taylor. the prime minister will shortly argue in a major speech that britain stands at a crossroads before what he will call some dangerous years in which almost every aspect of life will change. rishi sunak will seek to set out the choices facing in the country ahead of an election expected later this year. the labour leader sir keir starmer will spend the day with labour's newly elected regional mayors.

we can cross live to westminster and our political