live from washington, this is bbc news. president biden holds a series of election campaign fundraisers as he seeks to put a lacklustre debate performance behind him. uk labour leader sir keir starmer urges voters to give his party a clear mandate for change on the final weekend before the election. and iran will hold a run—off presidential vote after the country's lowest turnout in decades. hello, i'm carl nasman. president biden is ramping up his campaign efforts this

weekend after a faltering performance in a televised debate against donald trump fuelled concern about his candidacy. the president spent saturday attending back—to—back fundraising events in two democratic stronghold states, in new york and newjersey. it all comes as his campaign says it has raised more than $27 million between debate day and friday evening. on saturday at chicago tribune editorial urged mr biden to step down, one day after the new york times editorial board said he should leave the race for the presidency. but campaign officials and the president himself say that he is not going anywhere. to hear more about those calls for mr biden to drop out of the race, i spoke to hugo lowell, a senior political correspondent for the guardian. let's first of all start with these newspaper editorials. the new york times editorial board — i mean, that is incredibly influential, calling for president biden to drop out of the race. what kind of effect do you think this will have? that kind of newspaper will certainly end up

on the desk of the oval office at some point. it will, and i just don't think it's going to have the effect that the times wants it to. you know, i think biden very famously — insiders in his circle and democratic congressional campaign aides don't like listening to the new york times and the major media. they think they're always naysayers and have always been questioning his ability. i think, if anything, the times running an editorial like this, based on conversations over the weekend, will probably encourage him to stay in more. the people who have influence with biden and his thinking are his family and his closest advisers. and the moment any of them, like anita dunn, president obama, come in and say, "joe, you need

to step down," that is the sort of thing that's going to have an influence, but not the new york times. what do you think comes next? i mean, we're still kind of sorting through the fallout of this debate, the president attending a couple of fundraisers today. what does he need to do to start to move ahead and really prove to his own party that he is the man to take on and to defeat donald trump? look, president biden needs a reset. that is abundantly clear. i cannot tell you the number of millionaires, billionaires — the people who are big—dollar donors to biden�*s campaign — who had a collective freak—out after the debate. and the one thing that president biden had to do is to convince people that his age is not going to be an issue, and he struggled and frankly just failed at that at the debate. and the other point he has to make — and this is one he's doing well, and so i think he should get credit for this — is democracy is on the ballot in this election. his campaign and kind of biden surrogates have always been making the case that it's a contest between an authoritarian—like figure in donald trump, who wants to reset the way the us government works to his own benefit, and biden is the guy that is going to keep democracy as it is.

that is the point that he has to stress to donors to keep them onside. let's actually talk about donald trump for a second. his performance was filled with a number of falsehoods. do you think that, on the other hand, donald trump might be let off the hook a little bit here for a performance that maybe wasn't as strong as some people think it was? i think that's fair. trump had so many falsehoods and lies in every response he gave during that debate, and yet it got overshadowed by biden�*s performance, and that's just not the place that biden needs to be or wants to be. and the fact of the matter is trump is going to lie all the way through this, and it ended up being incumbent on biden to fact—check him, because the moderators weren't going to do that. this wasn't a debate where the moderators were going to fact—check him, and biden struggled on that front as well. we're seeing some reports, some calls in the media among republicans, calling on the president's cabinet to invoke the 25th amendment of the constitution. this would basically declare joe biden unfit to serve. it would remove him from office now, not even talking about the election. is this just a political ploy,

do you think, on behalf of the republicans? oh, yeah. i mean, look, this is pressure from the republicans to try and cause chaos in the democratic ranks and inside the west wing. it is abundantly clear that we're nowhere near that point where the president has to be removed. you know, at worst, he had a bad debate night where he struggled to finish some answers, he struggled to recollect some things late at night. he is old. they're actually both similarly close in age, and the fact of the matter is biden has been actually pretty good at legislating and governing. he's got a pretty good team around him. he's been in this game a long time. he's been doing the nuts and bolts of government for a long time. so i don't think there is a competency question, but i think there is an age question, and whether he were to return to the white house next year for a second term — whether that would be continuable through four years. hypothetically — and you can tell me what the odds you think are of this — ifjoe biden were to step down, who might be able to step into that

void and actually run on the democratic ticket? yeah, it's a tricky question, and i think the likelihood of that happening is zero, from a logistical standpoint but also from a president biden perspective. for biden to step down, that is a decision that he's going to make himself. and at the moment, as of right now, he is nowhere close to that. we spoke to multiple people close to the president today, and he is not in that frame of mind. he thinks it was just one bad night and he can ride it through to november. and also, with respect to the convention, look, what are democrats going to do? president biden won those primary states. he's got those delegates. you can'tjust take them away from him. you can'tjust put up a new candidate. the only way biden is not the nominee on the democratic ticket is if biden himself steps down, and that's just nowhere close to happening. believe it or not, we are less than five days until the uk

general election. prime minister rishi sunak and opposition leader keir starmer have been out campaigning on defence and support for vetera ns. at an event in london earlier, the labour leader warned that nothing had been decided, even though opinion polls do suggest that labour is on course to win. visiting a temple on saturday night, the prime minister said his hindu faith guides him in his public service and said he is proud that the united kingdom is the world's most successful multi—ethnic, multifaith community, adding we should all be uplifted by that. meanwhile, reform uk has withdrawn support from three of its candidates because of offensive comments they reportedly made. our political correspondent ben wright reports. the finishing line is in sight. we've had the manifestos, the pitches and promises. now the campaigns are all about persuading supporters to get out and vote. change is possible. most of all, they need to be convinced to vote for it, because change doesn't happen unless you vote for it. labour's leader, sir keir starmer, has been rallying his party at an event

in london this evening. there is a buzz within labour, confident but terrified of complacency too, far ahead in the opinion polls but knowing it still needs to mobilise the party's voters. rishi sunak has been on the stump tonight, too, at a temple in west london. the conservatives have spent the last few weeks defending the seats they currently hold and warning voters not to risk a change of government. education, hard work, family. those are my values, those are your values, those are conservative values. still having more fun than any other leader on the campaign trail, the liberal democrats�* ed davey began his final tour of the country in scotland. we are here to win as many seats as we can, because if we have lots of liberal democrat mps in the next parliament, we will be able to get changes in our nhs and care system. we will be able to tackle the sewage scandal. meanwhile, the snp leader said only his party would stand up to spending cuts

at westminster. people will only get that if they vote for| the scottish national party and elect a strong group . of snp mps. one thing that has united all party leaders today is fierce criticism of reform uk. this was a comedy act, but it was designed to hurt us. and sadly, sadly, some people believe it. i've always been a tory voter, but what annoys me... nigel farage has insisted a reform uk canvasser racially insulting rishi sunak in an undercover report for channel 4 was a setup. channel 4 has again strongly rejected that claim, saying it was rigorous, impartialjournalism. but last night mr farage was also challenged about racist or offensive comments made by three of his candidates. the party now says they've been dropped. you know, we've been running, as it were, to catch up with the electoral timetable. and it seems that we have made some mistakes, but we've, you know, corrected those mistakes to the extent possible at this stage by dropping those candidates.

but, as we speed towards polling day, this is not the sort of scrutiny reform uk wants. iran will hold a run—off presidential election after results released saturday showed the lowest turnout in decades. voters will now choose between conservative candidate saeed jalili and reformist masoud pezeshkian on 5july. both failed to secure a majority in the first round, which saw only about 40% of iranians vote. that is a record low since the 1979 islamic revolution. the election will decide who replaces ebrahim raisi, who was killed in a helicopter crash last month, along with iran's foreign minister and six other people. i talked about the run—off election with negar mortazavi, an iranian—americanjournalist and senior fellow at the centre for international policy. what more can you tell us about these two candidates now in this runoff election and the pretty big differences between them? great to be back, carl. as you said, one of them,

saeed jalili, a former nuclear negotiator and ultra hardliner and conservative belonging to really the core of that hardline faction of the regime, and by many believed to be the favourite or one of the top favourite candidates for the supreme leader in the hardline side of the regime. massoud pezeshkian, a former health minister in the reformist administration of the reformist president, is a reformist five—time member of parliament. and it was a surprise even that he was allowed to run or the that he was qualified for the election as the sole reformist candidate. the expectation was that nobody would be able to run, and he essentially brought this upset result, surprise result, and is leading. he's not the winner, not the president yet. they have to go to a runoff,

but he came out with the highest number of votes in an election, as you said, with the lowest turnout in the islamic republic. you said you were surprised that massoud pezeshkian did as well as he did. he seen as a reformist. what does that actually mean in iran? i've heard he is someone who's actually spoken out against the against the way the regime has treated some of those protests we've seen in recent years. yes, so if we look at what is allowed within the system, the regime of the islamic republic, what's considered legal opposition, these reformist factions within the regime or the relative moderates have different economic, political, social and cultural policies and views when it comes to the comparison with the hardliners, and obviously the conservatives. they're seen as the more liberal faction within the islamic republic. and massoud pezeshkian is one of those. the economic policies he's been promoting, the foreign policy as far

as relations with the world, talking to the world, not fighting everyone, not sort of having conflict with everyone, with our neighbours, as he says. and as he says, critical of the social and cultural policies including the morality police. as he says, the way women and girls are being treated on the street, which is also a reference to the death in custody of a protester nearly two years ago. the turnout for this preliminary round was not very high, the lowest since 1979. there seems to be a big movement to boycott this election. do you think people might come off the sidelines if they have a chance to vote for somebody who they see as a reformist? well, the islamic republic is dealing with very high voter apathy for obvious reasons, with a lot of grievances that the state is not responding. they've also closed the space for what were relatively competitive elections in the past by eliminating and disqualifying reformist and moderate candidates, and reallyjust giving very few options to the constituents to choose. and also, protest after protest

has been met with violent crackdowns and really brutality by the state. so this high level of apathy is seen in the low turnout of this presidential election and the one before. but the run—off usually has a specific feel to it. maybe part of the constituency of the voters of the reformists will realise that their vote is really critical right now — that massoud pezeshkian was indeed able to pass through that filtering, that he was able to deliver this leading vote within that framework, and that if they don't come to the ballots, they would have to live with someone like saeed jalili, an ultra—conservative, very hardline candidate, for the next four to eight years of their lives. so there is potential that massoud pezeshkian can pull this off and even come out as the winner in the runoff next week. negar, we have about a minute left, but if you could just remind us — it has been a really interesting time

for iran, just embroiled in all kinds of turmoil. just remind us about the background that iran is going through in these elections. well, as i said, coming out of about a year of protest, the woman, life, freedom protests after the incarceration of the young woman by the morality police two years ago. iran is indirectly involved in the middle east war and what's going on between israel and notjust hamas but the so—called axis of resistance to our allies and supported by iran. also economic sanctions — very strict economic sanctions have been impacting the country's economy, combined with corruption and mismanagement. these all have been themes that have been discussed in debates, but nevertheless, they were not able to bring a big majority of voters to the polls. palestinian health officials say israeli strikes have killed

at least a0 people in 2a hours. two soldiers were killed in fighting in the shejaiya neighbourhood of gaza city on friday. both hamas and the palestinian armed group islamichhad say they are fighting israeli forces. the united nations humanitarian agency estimates that 60,000 to 80,000 palestinians were displaced from the shejaiya area this week and people are living in, quote, "unbearable conditions". one senior official based in neighbouring lebanon said on saturday that negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage release deal with israel have not made any progress. a report by the us media outlet axios says us officials have drafted new language in the ceasefire proposals to bridge that gap between israel and hamas. in ukraine, the president has called allies to make faster decisions about aid, especially air defence systems. his comments come after a series of strikes in southern and eastern ukraine on saturday. officials said russian armed forces fired

missiles at a town outside a ukrainian city, killing seven people including two children and injuring 31 others. the regional governor said the attack happened in the middle of the day and that missiles hit civilian infrastructure. overall, 11 people were killed in strikes across the country on saturday. the president said more long—range weapons are needed to stop what he says our daily attacks on his country. officials in kenya are preparing for more protests. kenya's defence minister says the army will remain on the streets until calm is restored, following weeks of unrest and political turmoil. but human rights groups warn that using force could worsen the situation on the ground. at least 23 protesters were killed at the peak of the demonstrations, when activists broke into the parliament building and set part of it on fire. the law society of kenya says an intelligence police unit abducted an estimated 35 people suspected of leading the protests.

on wednesday, president william ruto said all of them have been released, but the law society believes at least ten activists are still reportedly missing. the bbc is working to verify those reports. for more i spoke with ernest cornel, a kenya human rights commission official. now, i understand that you are on the front lines covering these protests and the government response. can you first of all just tell us, what did you personally witness? so what i witnessed was a large, large number of young kenyans coming out on the street to protest the high taxes that were proposed in the finance bill of 2024. what i witnessed on the street was police using live ammunition to take out peaceful protesters who were asking the government, who were asking

their mps and the president, to reject the bill. i witnessed police shooting five protesters outside parliament, and two of them died instantly. one of the persons who was shot dead had his head blasted off. another one was hit and he died on the spot. the three that i witnessed getting shot were... the other three were put in an ambulance and rushed to the hospital. these young protesters were chanting anti—finance bill slogans all through the nairobi streets. i witnessed police tossing teargas to them, using water cannons to try and disperse them, and also in some instances firing stun grenades. these groups were largely peaceful, and this peace was momentarily interfered with when police started using force. given what you've just described there, what does your organisation make of the government response, and what are you asking or calling

on the government to do now? what we are asking is for accountability. a life of a human being cannot be lost without accountability. whoever pulled that trigger must be held accountable. and it is not only that person who pulled the trigger must be held accountable, but also their bosses that gave the command. that person must be held accountable. we have also been hearing reports that the bbc is working to independently verify that there have been abductions in kenya as well, surrounding these protests, allegedly carried out by a police unit. can you tell us anything more about that? yes, so what appeared to be happening is that security forces in kenya were rounding up people that they thought were influential in mobilising for these protests. these are mostly people who have a huge following in their online presence on tiktok. so i went to the demonstration on tuesday and most

of them were abducted. and by the time they were released, the demonstration had already taken place. this was contrary to the law, because the law says that if someone is arrested forjustifiable crimes, they need to be produced before a court of law within 2a hours. but there are instances where people are arrested and not produced in court for the next 2a hours, only later to be released without any charge. we think and we believe that these were intimidation tactics, so that they could not effectively mobilise people to come out to the street and protest the punitive taxes that are contained in the finance bill. a kenyan government spokesperson has said, quote, criminal elements who wanted a coup d'etat used these peaceful protests to their advantage. we do know that protesters stormed the parliament building and part of it was set on fire. there were several lawmakers that reportedly ran to safety in an underground tunnel. given all of that, could it be argued that the use of force

during these demonstrations was justified? no, at no point was the use of force justified, and when that government spokesperson said that there was a coup d'etat, i don't know whether that was the case. using force against an unarmed protester is just unacceptable. yes, there are pockets of violence and there were reports reports that these largely peaceful demonstrations that were led by a young kenyans could have had ulterior motives, but the police are trained to control such a crowd. they are not allowed to use force to eliminate someone�*s lives. ernest, i want to talk about what comes next here. we have heard that president ruto has pledged to withdraw this finance bill. do you think that could satisfy this protest movement? the finance bill was just one aspect.

people are complaining about governance. people are complaining about corruption. people are complaining about ruto being in government. people are complaining about wastefulness. people are complaining that the promises that were made in 2022 are not being met. so that is just one aspect of it, and i'm sure people will keep agitating for more. meanwhile, saturday marks ten years since the so—called islamic state group declared its caliphate in iraq and syria. also known as is, isis or daesh, it no longer controls significant amounts of territory, but its ideology remains. is has expanded across several continents, carrying out most of its attacks in sub—saharan africa, but the group has also claimed responsibility for deadly attacks in other parts of the world, including in russia and iran. ten yea rs ten years on from the formation

of isis, or daesh, in the middle east, they are down but not out. they have transferred a lot of their activities away from the middle east to africa, not necessarily in terms of retreating. we're not seeing the level of people flocking to their core activities level in areas in the way that it happened in around 2015 when we saw a lot of european volunteers going into fight for isis. that isn't happening in the same way. but they are very strong in parts of africa, particularly in sub—saharan africa, mozambique, the democratic republic of congo, in areas of the sahal, the mali, burkina faso, lake chad area. 20 thirds and 85% of the attacks on the last 12 months have taken place there. why is this? they are still active in syria, but less so in iraq, so they have lost their physical

caliphate that they had. they were defeated physically in 2019 at a place in syria. that's when the last remaining stronghold of isis was wiped out. but the ideology has not gone away. it is still attractive to some people in countries with poor governments, with porous borders, where young people see absolutely no hope. so it still is a force to be reckoned with in afghanistan, for example, where they are fighting, believe it or not, the taliban. they hate the taliban. they are active in those african countries i mentioned, and the threat to europe hasn't gone away. in terms of counterterrorism, don't forget we've got the olympics coming up we've got the olympics coming up in france this summer. the threat to european cities and european communities is definitely still there. the radical icing effect of nine months plus of war in gaza has certainly helped isis to recruit in some areas. so it is

one to watch. just because we haven't heard from them in europe, doesn't mean the threat is gone. stay with us on bbc news. hello, thanks forjoining me. let's see what the weather's got in store for the rest of the weekend. and here's the headline — for most of us, it's not looking too bad. some sunshine, but at times it will be cloudy. could be a few showers as well. now, recently there was a weather front across northern wales and northern england. it brought some damp weather on saturday. that should be mostly out of the way come sunday, as this ridge of high pressure tries to build across the uk. remnants of that weather front still visible in the morning across east anglia and the south—east, all the way to south—western parts of england. so quite cloudy, with some spits and spots of rain for a time. 16 in london. north of that, i think sunshine to greet us in the morning. through the morning into the afternoon, those cumulus clouds will be

developing and then eventually spreading, so i think it is going to be quite a cloudy afternoon for many of us during sunday. some showers as well, possible almost anywhere. your best bet for sunny skies is actually around coastal areas, almost anywhere, especially looking out to sea — blue skies. temperatures 20 in london, high teens further north. nothing spectacular, and actually similar temperatures and weather for the football in germany. ok, onto the forecasts now for monday. another weather front approaches from the west. this is going to bring thick cloud and some outbreaks of rain initially to northern ireland, to scotland, the irish sea, and then eventually that weather front will move eastwards across the country. so i think most of us are in at least for a little bit of rain. a short spell of rain on monday, but come the afternoon, skies will brighten across western areas of the uk, so there will be some clearer skies towards the end of monday. it may take time for that weather front to clear the east coast. and then the azores high is still here on tuesday

and indeed wednesday, but we're just on the edge of that high pressure, and often on the edge of high pressures there's a lot of cloud. good chance of catching a shower, and that's pretty much what we've got on tuesday. i think your best bet for the dry, sunny weather will be further south—west on tuesday, for example in plymouth and in cardiff, whereas in the north—west of england, the chance of a few showers. so here's the week at a glance. if you want really warm weather, it's not so great because temperatures are below the average. if you like cloudy, changeable, cool weather, well, it's perfect for you. bye— bye.

voice—over: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. hello and welcome. on this week's media show, as the wikileaks founder julian assange walked free, we ask what lessons journalism can learn from his case and his career. and i was also joined by a tv icon — the scriptwriter and executive producer of global hits including sherlock and doctor who, as he launches a new tv series about cancel culture. that's all coming up. let's start with the julian assange story, because the founder of wikileaks has walked free from a us court after pleading

guilty in a deal that ends a 1a—year legal battle.