live from london. this is bbc news. rishi sunak says he'll bring back mandatory national service for 18—year olds if the conservatives win the general election. meanwhile, labour's been answering questions on its plan for the economy — it promises not to increase income tax if it wins on polling day. protests in georgia continue over a russian—style law against foreign influence, on the day the nation celebrates its independence from the soviet union. and manchester city celebrate winning their fourth premier league title in a row, with a victory parade. i'm with a victory parade. olly foster high above the parade i'm olly foster high above the parade route where thousands the of those city supporters will be trying to put the disappointment of the fa cup final behind them.

hello. we start here in the uk, and the fourth day of campaigning ahead of the general election on the 4th ofjuly. labour says it won't raise income tax or national insurance, if it wins power. the pledge was made by the shadow chancellor, rachel reeves, speaking to the bbc, but she didn't rule out some spending cuts, saying there would be "difficult decisions" to make. leila nathoo has more. thank you very much. she wants to decide how taxpayers�* money is spent. rachel reeves making her pitch in west yorkshire this afternoon, promising a labour government would ensure economic stability. today, she said if she became chancellor there would be no rises in income tax or national insurance. but she acknowledged she would face difficult decisions and that public services were struggling. we're not going to be bringing back austerity, but we have got that immediate injection of cash into our front line public services. that's a down payment on the changes that we want to make. but in the end, we have to grow the economy.

rachel reeves insisted all of her plans would be fully costed. she didn't rule out having to make cuts to public spending. there was no public campaigning from the tories today, butjunior treasury minister bim aslam said in a statement in response. both labour and the conservatives are committed to getting debt falling as a share of national income. but there's a warning that whichever party gets into government would find itself hemmed in. rachel reeves and jeremy hunt are both desperately trying to square a very difficult circle at the moment. if there's going to be no tax increases over the next several years, then it's going to be desperately difficult to find enough moneyjust to avoid cutting spending on some public services, let alone finding money to increase them. this is how the liberal democrats will be getting from a to b during this election campaign.

an echo of labour's promise from them too. we were already pledged not to raise taxes for ordinary people. _ people are paying far too much tax under the conservatives. _ the conservatives have raised taxes to record amounts in this— parliament the conservatives have raised taxes to record amounts - in this parliament and during a cost of living crisis that's hurting - people really hard. a long road ahead to polling day. all parties will be trying to attract attention until then. elsewhere, the conservatives have announced they will introduce mandatory national service for 18—year—olds if they win the election. it's a plan labour have called desperate and unfunded. the home secretary, james cleverly, has been giving more details on sunday with laura kuenssberg. what we're putting forward is a mandatory national service, a small element of which will be with the military, and anyone taking that route will volunteer to do so. so whilst you will be compelled to take part in the national service, no—one will be compelled

to do the military bit. and it's about addressing the fragmentation that we've seen in society — too many young people living in their own bubble, whether it be a digital bubble or a social bubble. and we want to get back to the situation where people are mixing with young people from different areas, different economic groups, different religions, to try and find a way of addressing the kind of fragmentation that we see too much. sounds a bit like social engineering. i mean, if the many thousands of teenagers don't want to go into the army, you've only got 30,000 places for people to go into the military. so the majority of them would take the other option. but what kinds of things would they have to do? well, it could be a range of things. it could be a kind of uniform public service, whether it be something like special constable or on—call firefighter or emergency health responder or environmental protection, flood defence work. so we're looking to keep this open. so what do young people make

of the suggestion to bring back national service? we asked some of the people at radio 1's big weekend fesitval in luton or not, but more people will be more inclined to do it at the start and if the government needs help, why not? it is about what you will learn from it and i think anything that you do that is new and you get a learning experience out of it and it can help you down the line. people will probably go for it. but again, i think it would kind of have a big backlash because you're being forced to do something and not a lot of people want to be forced to do something. like, we live in a free country. i mean, ithink it'd be pretty good because the army isn't doing - too well with recruits, and the whole thing . with russia would be good with a lot more recruits. . but it does infringe a lot on the current human i rights that people know. i don't know, ijust think it would be a large change .

for a lot of people. let's speak to paul o'neill. he is a senior research fellow at the royal united services institute. than you very much for being with us, what do you make of the idea in good evening 678 thank you would be. for me it depend on what you are trying to achieve. if as a home secretary it is about social fragmentation i can see value in creating a common experience for young people. however, iam nervous about it from the military angle, because it certainly isn't a way of expanding military capability. the armed forces have been professional for a long time, and there is a reason for that, it takes a lot of time to train and bring up to an op rangesal standard individuals and one year seems to be a bit too short, so, what we will probably find with this is you will end up

diverting regular and potentially reserve service personnel who are at high levels of training, in order top undertake a training task which will bring relatively little military value i think. 50 will bring relatively little military value i think. 50 you are suggesting _ military value i think. 50 you are suggesting it _ military value i think. so you are suggesting it wouldn't _ military value i think. so you are suggesting it wouldn't have - military value i think. so you are suggesting it wouldn't have anyl suggesting it wouldn't have any effect on trying to bring up the numbers that are dwindling there the armed forces? it numbers that are dwindling there the armed forces?— armed forces? it will have an im act, armed forces? it will have an impact. in _ armed forces? it will have an impact, in both _ armed forces? it will have an impact, in both direction, - armed forces? it will have an i impact, in both direction, one armed forces? it will have an l impact, in both direction, one it will make it harder, because you will make it harder, because you will have to divert people who are currently regular or reserves and therefore available to deliver an operational output and put them into a training system that has been thinned down because since the end of the cold war, the armed forces have reduced and they have prioritised efficiency, which means reducing the number of training place, the real estate available, the amount of accommodation, and so to grow it by 30,000 which is the entire size of the british army reserve, peryear, entire size of the british army reserve, per year, would be a huge drain on those resources. what it might do, longer term,

drain on those resources. what it might do, longerterm, is drain on those resources. what it might do, longer term, is give you an element of society that if you had to mobilise, at pace, would be at a slightly higher level than otherwise would be the case. but depending on how long ago you did your one year it depends on how quickly your skills fade so don't see it as a particularly effective military sloughs and more effective would probably be investing in the reserves that we already have and growing the size of those. find reserves that we already have and growing the size of those. and what would ou growing the size of those. and what would you think _ growing the size of those. and what would you think of _ growing the size of those. and what would you think of the _ growing the size of those. and what would you think of the funding - growing the size of those. and what would you think of the funding of. would you think of the funding of it, how do you think it would be funded? ~ ,., �* , funded? well, the government's - ro osal funded? well, the government's preposal seems— funded? well, the government's proposal seems to _ funded? well, the government's proposal seems to be _ funded? well, the government's proposal seems to be a - funded? well, the government's proposal seems to be a little - funded? well, the government's proposal seems to be a little up| proposal seems to be a little up clear at this stage shall we say. i am always nervous about we are going to make efficiencies or clampdown on tax dodgers to fund these things so there isn't a clearfunding line i have been able to detect. and 2.5 billion in advance of the royal commission, the government sensibly has announced as being the body

which would explore this in greater detail seems to be a bit, a little bit of a finger in the airjob, because these people will need to be paid, they will need equipment, uniforms, there will be pension implication, impact on medical services and other parts of the armed forces mainly to grow in order to accommodate it so this 2.5 billion is a large number but how accurate it is i would like to see. thank you very much. and a quick reminder, you can find all the latest on the general election here in the uk. we're running a live page with continuous coverage. you can find plenty of updates and analysis on the bbc news app and on our website. some life picture of the state visit by the french president. this is the first time he has been in germany recently.

it is the first state visit for 2h year, he is being welcomed by the german president at the bell view palace in berlin. keep an eye on those for you and bring you updates on the macron visit to berlin as the evening goes on. visit to berlin as the evening goes on. georgia is celebrating the anniversary of its independence from russia, with official ceremonies being held in the capital tbilisi. it comes as the country continues to grapple with the mass protests against a controversial, so—called "foreign agents" law which opponents believe would put georgia's independence at risk. our south caucasus correspondent rayhan demytrie is in tbilisi now and gave me this update. there are some celebrations, the street parties wrapping up and there are a lot of people earlier todayjust buying food and celebrating georgia possible

and dependence but further up this main street and outside of parliament, there is some thousands of people gathering and marching towards the park to protest the transparency for influencing government introduced back in april and it is provoking this weeks of mass protests and it is controversial because people fear that the russian law because of the similarities between this, they fear that it can be used to silence dissent in georgia and it all comes out of the parliamentary elections in october and we have seen over the past several weeks, georgia fell out with its traditional allies, the united states, the european union and there

are talks this week, talks from the us state department about visa restrictions as it was said in a statement undermined georgia's democracy. it is in candidacy status to join the european union but we have heard from many european leaders repeating over and over again to the georgian governmentm urging them to withdraw this bill and to return to its path and is seen as not a liberal legislation and people are out in the streets for weeks and days, mainly young people and they fear that the adoption of this law will mark a u—turn and georgia's form policy towards progression. and it seems this anniversary day has not been seen as a moment for

unity as we have had the georgian prime minister accuse them of betrayal. tell us more about that? well, that is right. earlier today there was an official ceremony in there was an official ceremony in the square, not far away from here, and we have heard a speech from the country's ceremonial president, who vetoes this bill last week, and she talked about the enemy that georgia has and she said it is russia that occupies 20% of georgian territory, and after the president's speech we have heard from the country's prime minister, who said that georgia's independence is in danger, and he indeed accused the president of betrayal, perhaps hinting at this veto which the president put on this controversial law. so the president and the prime minister and the government, they are at odds, but the president does not have any executive pow other, she did what she could, with the veto but in two

days' time, the parliament, which is dominated by the governing georgian party, is set to override the presidential veto, the government's argument is that this legislation which they are pushing for, they are saying silt the most georgian legislation and they are saying it will ensure georgia's sovereignty. now it's time for a look at today's sport with hugh ferris. the premier league line up for next season is complete after southampton won promotion in the english champinoship playoff final. they beat leeds 1—0 at wembley. a typically tense affair was settled by adam armstrong's 24th goal of the season in the 24th minute, helping southampton return to the top flight at the first attempt after last season's relegation. for leeds it's another unsuccessful playoff campaign, while their historic struggles at wembley continue as well. but southampton�*s victory in what's billed the richest game in football stands to make them around 140 million pounds.

inigh we i nigh we were going to winger i had the feeling but it was tense at the end, because the ten minutes added time and the two minutes after was just scary but we won eventually so it is good. ? first just scary but we won eventually so it is good.? first time i saw just scary but we won eventually so it is good. ? first time i saw them was 71 at the dell and this is one of the top days in our history. on days like it this it comes out and you see how well supported the club is as a city, it means everything to be back where we belong. while a southampton victory parade would be something of a rarity, it's becoming pretty run of the mill for manchester city. despite losing the fa cup final on saturday, the plans for one in the city remained in place. olly foster is there. olly, that is because a fourth premier league title is for those people below you and the players, enough of an achievement to celebrate. enough of an achievement to celebrate-— enough of an achievement to celebrate. , , , celebrate. absolutely it is becoming somethina celebrate. absolutely it is becoming something of— celebrate. absolutely it is becoming something of an _ celebrate. absolutely it is becoming something of an annual— celebrate. absolutely it is becoming something of an annual event - celebrate. absolutely it is becoming something of an annual event now, | something of an annual event now, fourin something of an annual event now, four in a row, never been done before, they will have to put that fa cup final defeat to one side. how

they would dearly have loved to have that at the front of their open topped bus which hasjust that at the front of their open topped bus which has just set off from the top of deansgate. the main thoroughfare that runs through manchester city centre, we are seeing those aerial shots, the players have been presented to the fans up that end over the last half an hour or so, fans up that end over the last half an hour orso, a huge roarfor fans up that end over the last half an hour or so, a huge roarfor phil foden who in the last couple of hours was named manchester city's player of the season, his 19 league goals helping them get over the line in front of arsenal, on the final day of the season. he has really stepped up, a breakthrough season for phil foden, england fans will hope that continues into the summer at the euro, they are all onboard now and heading down here, they will take their time, stop off on a few stops on the way down and address the fans before there is a platform down at the south of deansgate where the music has been blaring for the last couple of hours or so, also at the front of the bus i would expect

them to have the club world cup trophy as well, because this season they were named world champions, as they were named world champions, as they would like to call themselves after winning the club world cup going into this season as european champions, but yeah, yes the premier league and that to shout about this season but my word, it is another winning season isn't it, for manchester city, this decade plus period of domination against all comers in the premier league, and beyond. olly, thank you, if people remember last year's parade they will be pleased to see olly is not drenched and most attending last year's parade were, we will check back in with you later on. thank crow bayer leverkusen have celebrated their historic double of bundesliga and german cup with their fans at their bayarena stadium. warning, these pictures contain flashing lights. after securing the dfb pokal yesterday with a 1—0 win against second division side kaiserlautern, xabi alonso's side

were given a hero's welcome at their home ground as they paraded both trophies they won in season that saw them go 51 games unbeaten and only lose once in the europa league final. it's been a big day in the calendar for formula one. ferrari's charles leclerc has won the monaco grand prix. it's the first time leclerc has won his home grand prix, and he led from start to finish with oscar piastri in the mclaren behind him and leclerc�*s ferrari team—mate carlos sainz rounded out the podium. championship leader max verstappen finished sixth. in fact, the top ten in qualifying finished the race in the same positions. that was despite an opening lap crash that meant the race had to be restarted. a lengthy delay followed the collision between the red bull of sergio perez and the haas of kevin magnussen, which resulted in a red flag and brought an end to both drivers�* races almost before it had begun. magnussen's team—mate nico hulkenburg also saw his race finished by the incident. it's day one of the french open at roland garros, and third seed carlos alcaraz,

one of the favourites to win the tournament, has already made it through to round two. the spaniard is on the hunt for a first title at roland garros and improve on his run to the semis last year. he's won his opening round match against quialifierjj wolf of the us, dropping just four games on the way to victory. earlier sixth seed andrey rublev won his first round match against taro daniel. britain's andy murray is under way in his first round match against stan wawrinka. that's currently 5—4 to wawrinka in the first set. four—time grand slam winner naomi osaka is through to the second round after beating lucia bronzetti in three sets. she's never been past the third round at roland garros before, elsewhere 2017 winner jelena ostapenko is thorugh after beating jacqueline cristian. kolkata knight riders have won the indian premier league for a third time, beating sunrisers hyderabad in a one—sided final in chennai. mitchell starc proved why he'd become the most expensive player in ipl history.

the australian fast bowler providing an opening spell that helped the knight riders bowl their opponents out for just 113 — the lowest total in the history of the competition's finals. the kolkata batters then rattled off their target in just over 10 overs to win by 8 wickets. taday pogarcher has been crowned champion of cycling's first grand tour of the year, the giro d'italia. the slovenian rode into rome unopposed with his team mates, but was at the front of the field as they built up to a sprint finish. belgium's tim merlier beat jonathan milan to the stage victory. colombia's dani martinez was second overall with britain's geraint thomas completing the podium. and that's all the sport for now. ukraine says it's managing to hold back russian forces, near the northern city of kharkiv, and inflicting severe casualty numbers. the russians are being pushed back using artillery, but also drones, which are playing a key role in the war.

jonathan beale tells the story of one ukrainian drone unit, on the front line, in the kharkiv region. they are now one of the most potent weapons of this war. cheap, mass—produced drones being used to deadly effect. and here on the front, they're helping ukraine slow russia's advance — but still not enough. translation: we can hold them back with drones and hurt them badly. - but win with them, unfortunately, no. what do you call them? this is peaky blinders. it's what they call themselves — peaky blinders, after the cult tv series. but flat caps are where the similarity ends. they've been trained by western special forces. in just a few weeks, they've hunted down more than 100 russian soldiers. terror from the sky.

today, they appear to be hiding, so they look for something else. so you're stealing russian rifles from the russians, yes? yes, yes. it's russian, ok. this is the second time that oleksandr�*s fought for this territory, his home. he once farmed the fields nearby. then he grew strawberries. now, he's planting bombs. but he knows what they're doing won't end this war. translation: right now, - it's like two more or less equal gladiators fighting each other, and neither can defeat the other. yes, the conflict might be frozen maybe for several years or even decades, but this war will last a very long time. the russians are learning too. when the peaky blinders tried to fly a kamikaze drone into a target... ..their signal gets jammed. continuous bleep.

russian drones are as much of a threat to ukrainian forces. most take shelter under trees. easy now, but harder in the winter. for both sides, it's a constant game of hide and seek. explosion. ukraine says it has now slowed down the russian front line. it has stabilized the situation, but there's still quite a fierce artillery battle going on. the much harder task will be to push the russians back. explosions nearby. they might just weather this storm with the arrival of more western weapons. but what ukraine really wants is permission to use those weapons

to strike inside russia. just a mile from the border they're doing the best to intercept russian resupplies, but they're hamstrung. we can't stop the preparing of attack. so you need to target inside russia to stop them advancing here? of course. but you're not allowed to? no. and does that make sense to you? laughing: no. not at all. ukraine remains determined to fight, but they're still looking to the west to give them the tools to win. jonathan beale, bbc news, kharkiv. tributes are being paid to one of hollywood's most successful songwriters, richard m sherman, who has died at the age of 95. he wrote over 150 songs with his brother, robert, for classic films such

as mary poppins, thejungle book and chitty chitty bang bang. across his 65—year career, richard sherman became part of walt disney's "inner circle of creative talents". the sherman brothers were inducted into the songwriters hall of fame in 2005 and received the us national medal of the arts in 2008. and just before we go, let's leave you with these pictures. it's a giant picnic on paris's most famous avenue, the champs—elysees. you can see here, the french capital's iconic boulevard was laid with a 216—meter—long red—and—white chequered rug, thought to be the world's largest picnic blanket. but it wasn't open to everyone, nearly 273,000 people applied to take part in the event, and only 4,000 were chosen. eating on a slightly different scale, at a state banquet we have the german president hosting the french president for a state visit, we are keeping an eye on that, do

stay with us hello. this is probably not the sort of weather you'd hope for in a bank holiday weekend. yes, it's been warm when the sun was out, but we have seen a lot of showers, heavy thundery downpours, really bringing a soaking in a short space of time. this was the radar picture from earlier on. you can see all those thunderstorms dancing away across england heading up into southern scotland. but gradually, overnight, we're going to see those tending to fade away for most areas, some clearer spells for england and wales, but more cloud and still some wetter weather as you move further north, that will keep temperatures a bit higher. but where we have the clearer skies, where the south temperatures could dip away to seven or eight degrees. there could be some early sunshine, though, for central and eastern parts of england. and we'll continue to see some sunshine on bank holiday monday. but there will be more showers around as well. and quickly, the cloud will build up as temperatures rise.

that will lead to a scattering of showers developing. but the focus for the heavy thundery ones. this is more towards northern and eastern parts of scotland, bringing the risk of some travel disruption and some local flooding. it will be warm in the sunshine when it's out and typical temperatures are going to be 16 or 17 degrees. one area of low pressure that's bringing all the showers at the moment will be replaced by another one. this one coming in from the atlantic and sort of keeping the unsettled theme going into tuesday and beyond. so we've got more cloud coming in from the west that's going to bring with it the showery outbreaks of rain. it'll get wetter later in northern england, but this time the driest weather may well be across the north east of scotland with some sunshine here for much of the day. typical temperatures, again, 16 or 17 degrees. but there is some wet weather around on tuesday and that will continue into wednesday. that area of low pressure pushing its way across the uk right in the middle of the low.

this is where we may well have the wettest weather first thing on wednesday morning, but that wet weather will push down across england and wales, followed by some sunshine but maybe some heavy thundery showers for scotland. and this time the driest weather is likely to be across northern ireland and a northwesterly breeze this time and again. those temperatures not really changing much right the way through the weekend. in actualfact, those numbers are near what we'd expect at this time of the year. but a mixed week ahead. heavy showers, longer spells of rain, but signs of hope are later next week, higher pressure should turn it drier and brighter.

this is bbc news, the headlines. rishi sunak says he'll bring back mandatory national service for 18—year olds if the conservatives win the general election. meanwhile labour's been answering questions on its plan for the economy — it promises not to increase income tax — if it wins on polling day. sirens blare. sirens heard across tel aviv — as hamas says it's launched a large missile attack on the city — the first in months. no direct hits or injuries have been reported. eight people on a flight from doha to dublin have been taken to hospital after being injured during turbulence. the incident comes less than a week after 73—year—old geoff kitchen, from the uk, died during severe turbulence on a singapore airlines flight. officials say this latest flight encountered rough weather conditions over turkey. it landed as scheduled

at lunchtime at dublin airport.