live from washington. this is bbc news. hamas submits its response to a us—led ceasefire proposal, but says israel needs to commit to "completely" stopping the war. us presidentjoe biden�*s son hunter, is found guilty on all three charges in his federal gun case. and malawi's vice president, saulos chilima was killed in a plane crash, along with nine other passengers. i'm sumi somaskanda. it's great to have you with us. the white house says its evaluating an official response by hamas to the latest proposal for a truce in the gaza conflict. us presidentjoe biden submitted the proposal about 12 days ago.

earliertuesday, hamas said it has a positive view of the plan, but wants several guarantees. citing israeli officials, two us media outlets are reporting that hamas has now rejected an israeli proposal for a ceasefire and hostage exchange. hamas has not confirmed the claim and said the proposal "opens up a wide pathway" to reach an agreement. from jerusalem, our middle east correspondent hugo bachega has more. hamas has expressed readiness to reach a deal, but it's sticking to its initial demands, and they include a guarantee that there will be a permanent ceasefire in gaza, and also the complete withdrawal of israeli forces from the territory. now, qatar and egypt, which have been mediating the talks, say they have received this response from hamas, and that they will co—ordinate the next steps in these negotiations with the united states. now, the deal being discussed is a three—stage plan that was announced by president biden. he described it as an israeli proposal. the first stage of this plan would see the release of hostages being held in gaza, and then pave the way

for a permanent ceasefire. now, hamas wants a guarantee of a permanent ceasefire because they fear that once the hostages are out, the israeli military may return to gaza to continue with its military operation against the group. now, the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu had previously said that israel would not commit to an end of the war without achieving its goals of destroying hamas�*s military and governing capabilities in gaza. despite prime minister netanyahu's hardline stance that the war will not end until hamas is fully defeated, us secretary of state antony blinken says the plan has israel's backing and that it is hamas who is holding up any agreement to a plan. secretary blinken is in the region for an all—out push for a ceasefire in gaza. a day after talks with mr netanyahu — america's top diplomat travelled to jordan tuesday for an emergency

humanitarian aid conference. while there he announced more than $400 million in aid for palestinians and called on others to provide more assistance. un secretary general antonio guterres also attended, and backed the truce proposal put forward by the us. his appearance came as he released his annual report on children and armed conflict, where for the first time, israeland hamas were added to the list of offenders responsible for violating children's rights. here's mr guterres discussing the crisis facing children in this war. over 50,000 children required treatment for acute malnutrition. and despite the ocean of needs, at least half of all humanitarian aid missions are denied access, impeded or cancelled due to operational or security reasons. the horror must stop. it is high—time for a ceasefire along with the unconditional release of hostages. i welcome the peace initiative recently outlined

by president biden and urge all parties to seize this opportunity and come to an agreement. and on all of these developments i spoke to frank lowenstein, a former adviser to us secretary of statejohn kerry, who also previously served as us special envoy for middle east peace. i just want to get the latest here on this back and forth on this ceasefire proposal. hamas and the palestinian islamichhad saying that they had readiness to positively reach a deal. they have submitted a response to mediators. we're hearing some reports that they may have rejected it. what are your thoughts on where this all stands right now? the fundamental issue between israel and hamasjust has not been resolved and that is whether this is going to be a permanent ceasefire — which is what hamas wants — or a temporary ceasefire — which is what the israelis are willing to agree to. in effect, what you have is really both sides just trying to shift blame to other side, rather than undertaking any serious efforts to reach an agreement. i think secretary blinken is doing his best to put the onus on sinwar and hamas

but it is just extremely difficult to pressure terrorists hiding in tunnels — they don't care what happens at the un, they don't care what the jordanians or the saudis or anybody else says and you heard sinwar saying today that he thinks he has the israelis right where they want them. he is going to sacrifice untold numbers of palestinians for the cause. so i think the us is coming to the point where we are at the end of the line for the ceasefire effort. isn't the point then that they can get into a temporary ceasefire that would then perhaps lead to negotiations for what the end of the war could look like? yeah, that is the premise but the problem is that the israelis have made clear in any number of different ways that they have no intention of moving to phase two. they plan for those negotiations to fail at the end of phase one and to resume the war. that is what they keep o saying, we are going to continue to prosecute the war against hamas until we have destroyed them. for hamas, they are just not willing to agree to any kind of a temporary ceasefire and they are not blind here, they understand what israelis are saying, they understand what is really going on, which is this is a short—term ceasefire at best for them and i think yahya sinwar does

not want to let benjamin netanyahu and israelis off the hook. what about secretary blinken in all of this because he has continued to express optimism that this deal could reach a ceasefire, whether temporary or permanent down the road — is thatjust the secretary putting on a brave face? they are doing the absolute best they can. i have been in the same situation that secretary blinken is in right now in 2014 when we were trying to negotiate a ceasefire between israel and hamas and at the end of the day, if we want it more than they do, that he parties have a number of different ways to avoid reaching an agreement so i think the biden administration has done literally everything they possibly could to try to get the parties to agree. it's just that there is a fundamental disagreement at the core of this that remains unresolved and there is really not much more they can do to change that. the key conversation partner in the war cabinet in israel, benny gantz, has stepped down from his position which complicates things. what about where prime minister netanyahu stands because his far—right coalition partners have said they will leave the government and collapse the government indeed, if he were to accept the ceasefire deal, but there is popular pressure at home, specifically from the families of the hostages, to accept it.

so it would appear he really is in a lose—lose situation in many senses? that is a great question. i think his goal is really to have hamas be blamed for the failure of the ceasefire. i do not think benjamin netanyahu really wants a ceasefire. i think he is sort of boxed in a little bit because the us has presented his own offer back to hamas so they are not able to really walk away from it but at the same time they are saying the kind of things that will make it impossible for hamas to agree, which is that they are going to continue the war, no matter what the agreement says. so i think the way bibi is trying to split the difference here is to say yes and mean no and try to keep this coalition as quite as he can so that he can put the blame on hamas. the bigger issue with benny gantz is what is going t happen in lebanon. benny was really a force of moderation inside of the war cabinet and without him there, i think some of the right—wingers, smotrich and ben—gvir, their voices will get even louder. israel killed a very senior hezbollah commander.

if i was secretary blinken i would be very concerned and not just about the ceasefire in gaza but whether they are looking at another war with lebanon. one last quick question. but pressure can antony blinken still have at his disposal? we possibly played our last card. they threatened to kick out the hamas leadership. if they did not agree they threatened to get rid of the leadership. there are terrorists hiding in tunnels are prepared today and prepared to sacrifice their own people and they will continue to push as hard as they can. i do not think that will ever say we will not try anymore but i do not think they have any cards left. always great to have you on bbc news. thank you forjoining us again tonight. ukraine's far east has come under intense russian bombardment over the last few months. but now, the mayor of kharkiv says there have been fewer russian attacks ever since the us allowed ukraine to strike targets across the

border using american weapons. it comes as president volodymyr zelensky is in germany to appeal for more support to protect ukrainian cities hoping to encourage european nations to invest in the country's post—war reconstruction. 0ur damien mcguinness has more details on mr zelensky�*s push for recovery efforts in berlin. thousands of delegates from all over the world were in berlin to plan the reconstruction of ukraine after the war. they include governments officials from around 60 countries, as well as business leaders, and that's because the main point of this conference is to get private investment into ukraine. politicians say that state funds are not going to be enough. no matter how many billions of euros and dollars get pumped into ukraine, they need businesses to get involved. and on the one hand, it's immediate reconstruction for bond infrastructure, for example, to provide energy, say, or water to people here and now, on the other hand, it's about rebuilding ukraine in the future, when the warfinishes. and that's more difficult because no—one knows how long

this is going to last. after the conference, president zelensky went to the bundestag, the german parliament, to deliver a speech. the mps there applauded, gave him a standing ovation, it was a moving moment. but not all mps attended. mps from the far—left and the far—right boycotted president zelensky�*s speech, accusing him of escalating the war. and i think as we see national elections here in germany approaching next year, those voices on the extreme are going to get louder. mainstream germany, though, still very much supports ukraine, and they back german chancellor 0laf scholz�*s line that peace in europe is only possible if ukraine is fully supported. both mr zelensky and german chancellor 0laf scholz will attend the group of seven summit of major western powers later this week. boosting support for ukraine is top of the g7�*s agenda, and the white house said on tuesday it plans to announce new sanctions during the conference, including steps to use frozen russian assets to benefit ukraine.

also later this week, switzerland will host a summit that aims to create a pathway for peace in ukraine although russia won't be in attendance. for more on ukraine's recovery and economic situation, i spoke to tymofiy mylovanov. he was ukraine's former minister of economic development and trade. look the ukraine recovery conference taking place in berlin, how is it possible for ukraine and its partners to talk about recovery and rebuilding when the war is still raging on? it is actually a resilience conference rather than recovery. and president zelensky today spoke about the priorities and one of them the first one at the conference was an offence. — air defence is needed both to protect ukrainian civilians but also to protect the economy. and you cannot have proper defence, proper resistance to russia without a viable economy. the second one was about recovery or the energy

generation believes that russia has been systematically targeting, so these things are extremely interconnected. if we talk about recovery and you mention that you go's energy infrastructure just be me tara rushton attacks, this what is it possible to give us any idea of the scale of money that it would need to rebuild that infrastructure? it is a bit of a sensitive topic, but there are still numbers, for example there is recent research by the kyiv school of economics which shows the numbers in the range of $50 billion. that is what you would need to recover. in terms of the amount or the percentage of generation abilities or capacity that has been affected it is above 50%, that is what observers are saying. this is a significant amount, of course, and if we look at where the funds are going to come from, the european commission said injuly the first 1.5 billion euros of revenue from frozen russian assets will be transferred to ukraine and the white house says this will also be a topic

of discussion at the g7. but ukraine's prime minister said ukraine's prime minister said ukraine will need between $10 billion and $30 billion of annual investment over the next ten years. so beyond frozen assets, where do you think those funds will be generated from? ~ ., ., ,, , from? well, the frozen assets actually $300 _ from? well, the frozen assets actually $300 billion - from? well, the frozen assets actually $300 billion and - from? well, the frozen assets actually $300 billion and so i actually $300 billion and so this is plenty. it's enough. now politicians are talking about just now politicians are talking aboutjust some proceeds which are really minuscule, almost a joke. i mean, it's great to have this 1.5 or $5 billion, but $300 billion align there. but if that resistance is overcome, these assets will be confiscated otherwise it's taxpayers' money.- confiscated otherwise it's taxpayers' money. what do you think is the _ taxpayers' money. what do you think is the most _ taxpayers' money. what do you think is the most important - think is the most important message that will be taken away from this recovery conference especially as we look ahead to the peace formula summit that will take place in switzerland this weekend?— this weekend? indeed. right after the conference, - this weekend? indeed. rightj after the conference, there'll be the peace forum meeting in

switzerland focusing on three aspects — security, nuclear security, then maritime security, then maritime security and then prisoner protection and children protection. so this isjust going to go right immediately after the conference. what the conference shows is that the europeans are taking the threats from russia seriously, are willing to engage with the ukraine and support its economy. there is a lot of actual talk about the defence part of the economy, how it can be both strengthened to be resilient but also how ukraine can produce more defence equipment there. so this — this conference is this week complement each other. if you look ahead _ complement each other. if you look ahead to _ complement each other. if you look ahead to that _ complement each other. if you look ahead to that peace - look ahead to that peace formula summit, you can really want to engage the global south including, of course, china, but beijing has said it is not sending anyone to this conference, well at least that's the latest we heard from beijing. do you think that

takes away from what this conference achieves?- takes away from what this conference achieves? no, i don'tthink_ conference achieves? no, i don't think so. _ conference achieves? no, i don't think so. there'll - conference achieves? no, i don't think so. there'll be l don't think so. there'll be about 100 countries participating in this summit, shows a commitment and importance of this summit. it is also important to recognise that first to build the coalition and agree on the opposition, and then you go to negotiate with the opponent. i'm not saying we're quite there yet but it's very important that, first, the countries who are on this side of the democracy and the rule of the democracy and the rule of law, they have to get together to converge on their position. together to converge on their osition. ~ ., ., i. together to converge on their osition. ~ ., ., , ., ~ position. what do you think president — position. what do you think president zelenskyy's - position. what do you think - president zelenskyy's message is going to be to countries in the global south that until now have been hesitant, perhaps, to criticise russia and to give ukraine its own full support? many of them have tried to stay out of it, at least publicly, and russia has been campaigning to put pressure on them to — if not side with russia, then not to side openly with ukraine.

well, so russia is the major disruptor and destabilising factor and it will go after the global south as it sees it fit. so it's in the interest of those various countries to support the order, some kind of security and stability. plus they're very pragmatic implications. food security, russia is trying to weaponise food security especially in global south, arguing to be the only state which can provide food security which is actually not true. it's the only state which undermines food security globally. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news. let's look at a story making news in the uk. historians in england have found eight perfectly preserved giant stone balls in warwickshire which they believe were catapult missiles in the year 1266. they've been found by english heritage and its believed the were used to attack kenilworth castle. historian will wyeth has been telling us about them.

they would have been terrifying. historic sources talk about how once the king henry the iii set up the siege, he told his nine war machines to fire continuously for 192 days. it would have been cinematic quality siege that these stones are a part of. the seige on kenilworth castle was one of the longest in english history and happened when the country was in the grip of civil war. the occupents eventually surrendered the castle to the king. the uncovered stone projectiles range in size from 1 kilogram to 105 kilograms — or about 2 to 231 pounds. they were found while english heritage was working on a project to promote accessibility at the castle. they were able to link them to the seige because of a previous discovery at the site. you're watchling bbc news. the son of the us president is facing up to 25 years in jail, after being found guilty of lying about his drug use in order to purchase a firearm. a federaljury found hunter biden guilty on all

three felony charges brought against him forfailing to disclose his drug use when buying a gun in 2018. it's the first criminal prosecution of the child of a sitting us president. hunter biden�*s lawyers say they are disappointed by the verdict and will pursue legal challenges. president biden said he would respect the result, and said he and his wife, jill, were proud of hunter for overcoming his drug addiction. but special prosecutor david weiss said the case was not about addiction, but about crime. while there has been much testimony about the defendant's abuse of drugs and alcohol, ultimately this case was not just about addiction, a disease that haunts families across the united states, including hunter biden�*s family. this case was about the illegal choices the defendant made while in the throes of addiction — his choice to lie on a government form when he bought a gun and the choice to then possess that gun. the bbc�*s carl nasman was covering the trial in delaware. i spoke to him earlier

what do we know about how the jury reached this verdict? well, we know it came pretty quickly. after a week—long trial, so many different witnesses called, so much evidence introduced here it only took them about three hours of deliberation to reach that unanimous guilty verdict on all three charges here in delaware. we've also actually been speaking with one of the jurors themselves, we will keep them anonymous and call them juror number 10, and what he told us was despite the last name of the defendant in this case, politics did not play a role inside the deliberation room itself. here is some of what he told us during that interview. he said "i was never thinking of presidentjoe biden, "even though mrs biden," jill biden, the first lady, "was there in the courtroom. "somehow you block it out of your mind. "his dad was not on trial." so despite all the talk and analysis of how political this trial may be, in terms of the 12jurors, six men and six women, to them when they were in that room

they tell us, at least one juror says it was not a political discussion, this was all about the facts in the case. so much attention paid to this case. what have some of the reactions to the verdict being? the reaction is getting pretty political, if you talk about the democrats, for a long time they really didn't want to discuss hunter biden and his criminal issues, his behaviour issues, that was something that was a bit embarrassing. now we're starting to hear more democratic politicians come out and really react to this, one of them, alexandria 0casio—cortez, a representative from new york, said this verdict really does a lot to disapprove former president donald trump's claims of somehow the justice system is rigged against him, is out to get him, prosecuting him in his own criminal trials. she says, hey, this son of the current sitting president has just been convicted of his own crime, that should go a long way towards disproving those claims. in terms of republicans,

what some of them are saying, it has really been a mixed reaction, but they have been trying to link presidentjoe biden to his son for a long time, that rhetoric wrapping up again, a trump backer, a potential vice president candidate amongst them, calling it the biden crime family. that is something we have been hearing a lot now today and over the past few years. we have about 30 seconds left. let us know what happens next. we don't have a sentencing date yet. that is expected to come in the next 120 days or so, that is when will find out exactly what hunter biden�*s fate will be. we have heard it could be a 25—year sentence, it is likely be much less than that. looking down the line, though, not the end of hunter biden�*s legal problems. he has another criminal trial in california. that is expected to begin in september. for more analysis of the verdict, i spoke to shan wu, a former

federal prosecutor. i saw you wrote a little bit earlier today, merrick garland, the attorney general, strives to run the department ofjustice without fear orfavour, but the hunter biden prosecutions exemplify him doing both. what you mean by that? merrick garland is a very honourable man, he has a tremendous fear of the department and him looking partisan, probably like a ptsd from the leftover effect of bill barr having looked very partisan as the attorney general. because of that to me and a lot of prosecutors he allowed this case to go forward in a very unusual circumstance. it is very, very rare, in fact i never heard of it before, for someone to be convicted of this crime, which is lying on the certification for possession of a gun, if the gun wasn't used in any other crime. when we see that from the original attempt to dispose of the case through something called diversion which is no criminal conviction at all. that is the sort of fear part — so worried about looking partisan so he allowed this to go forward on its own.

hold on, because there was a crime committed here, correct? yes. i mean, hunter biden did fill out a form saying he wasn't using drugs and we heard throughout the course of the testimony that he was still in the throes of addiction and did put down on that form that he wasn't when he bought it. correct, yes, that's absolutely a crime. it's just one is very rarely charged if the only issue is that the person lied about being a drug addict and the gun wasn't used in any other violent crime. so what you're saying is you think the doj was pushing this case forward to give the appearance of being unbiased? yes, i wouldn't say garland was pushing it forward himself but he allowed itjust to keep going, it was a very unusual case, the investigation prosecution has lasted almost a half decade for such a minor kind of charge. the president of malawi has confirmed that vice president, saulos chilima, has been killed in a plane crash. in a sombre address to the nation, lazarus chakwera said the aircraft,

which was carrying chilima, and nine others. a search and rescue team has found the aircraft near a hill in the chikangawa forest and they have found it completely destroyed, with no survivors, as all passengers on board were killed on impact. words cannot describe how heartbreaking this is and i can only imagine how much pain and anguish you all must be feeling at this time. for more on the search mission, the bbc�*s kalkidan yibeltal sent this update. the search mission has been complicated because of the landscape of the area. the aircraft was believed to be missing around the forest and because of bad weather. so, the plane was not found and even today, in the morning, the government came out and they said that because the area was foggy, they were having reduced visibility which was making

their efforts difficult. however, there were fears that the plane might�*ve crashed in the forest and maybe the people on board might have died. we do not know what caused the air crash and investigations — we are waiting for the results of the investigations to come out and to tell us but we can understand now that the vice president and his fellow passengers are all killed in this incident. and there is an expectation that there could be a funeral in the coming days. before we go, a us court has found that the multi—national fruit company, chiquita brand national is liable for financing a colombian para—military group. chiquita has been ordered to pay over 38 million dollars in damages, following a civil case brought by eight colombian

families whose relatives were killed by the united self—defence forces of colombia. the company says it intends to appeal the verdict. that's all for this hour. thanks for watching bbc news. stay with us. hello there. it's felt quite pleasant in any strong june sunshine. but generally temperatures have been below par for this time of year and wednesday looks pretty similar to the last few days. some spells of sunshine, variable cloud and further showers mostly across eastern areas. i think there'll be fewer showers around on wednesday because this is a ridge of high pressure, will tend to kill the showers off. the winds will be lighter, but we're still got that blue hue, that cold arctic air hanging around for at least one more day before something milder starts to push in off the atlantic, but with wind and rain. so it's a chilly start to wednesday. temperatures could be in low single digits in some rural spots. these are towns and city values. a little bit of mist and fog where skies have cleared overnight, but it's here where you'll have the best of the sunshine, northern and western areas. a bit of cloud across eastern scotland, eastern england, one 01’ two showers. through the day, it'll be one of sunshine and showers, but the clouds will tend

to build most of the showers eastern areas, tending to stay drier towards the west with the best of the sunshine. so it could be up to 17 or 18 degrees in the sunniest spots, but generally cool, ten to 15 or 16 celsius. and then as we move through wednesday night, any showers fade away, lengthy, clear skies. the temperatures will tumble against mist and fog developing. temperatures in rural spots dipping close to freezing in a few places. generally, though, in the towns and cities, we're looking at 4 to eight degrees. now we'll start to see some changes into thursday. we change the wind direction, we lose that cooler air, something a bit milder. but this frontal system tied into low pressure will start to bring wet and windy weather initially into northern ireland, spreading across the irish sea, into western britain and pushing its way eastward. so we start dry with some early sunshine across eastern areas and it should stay dry, i think in eastern england, eastern scotland until after dark. we change the wind direction despite more cloud around, 17 or 18 degrees. and it means thursday night will be milder. so a milder start to friday, but low pressure across the country bring stronger winds, sunshine and showers or longer spells of rain. some of these showers

will be heavy and thundery, particularly across southern and western areas. but despite that, in the sunshine, it'll feel a little bit warmer, maybe 19 or 20 degrees. not much change into the weekend, low pressure dominates the scene. it'll be breezy at times. there will be showers or longer spells of rain again, some of them heavy and thundery. but in the sunnier, brighter moments, it'llfeela bit warmer, 19 or 20 degrees. and another thing you'll notice, it will feel milder at night. take care.

voice-over: this is bbc news. we will have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur. of all the world's continents, africa is the one likely to see the greatest transformation in the course of this century. it will likely be home to almost 40% of all humanity by 2100. if, by then, africans have benefited from sustainable development, their global economic power will be enormous. if they haven't, then they could be facing cataclysmic levels of economic and environmental breakdown.