prime minister. the gaza health ministry says an israeli strike on a school has killed at least 16 people. and iran's president—elect acknowledges there's a "difficult path ahead". i'm helena humphrey. good to have you with us. us presidentjoe biden is under increasing pressure to end his 2024 re—election campaign. on saturday, a fifth democrat in the us house of representatives issued a statement, calling for mr biden to step aside. congresswoman angie craig of minnesota said she admires president biden, and takes pride in the legislation passed in his first term. however, she then went on to say...

ms craig cited last week's cnn debate, where president biden appeared lethargic up against donald trump. his performance sparked concern among democrats about his age and mental fitness. the 81—year—old president has responded to the growing scrutiny by hitting the campaign trail. he also sat down for an exclusive interview with abc news anchor george stephanopoulos, rejecting any notion that he is considering withdrawing his candidacy. the bbc�*s peter bowes has more. reporter: mr president, - do you want to talk about your message in wisconsin? on a mission to prove himself, that he can still do the job of president and win the election. joe biden is in damage—control mode, after that disastrous debate performance against donald trump. here he is at a rally in wisconsin. again, answering the question everyone is asking. "is he going to drop out? "what's he going to do?" well, here's my answer — i am running and going to win again! cheering. a rousing reception here, but the unease amongst fellow democrats in washington is palpable. five members of the house

of representatives have called on mr biden to step aside. the latest to come forward is angie craig, a member from the state of minnesota. the president needs to get out there and show the american people that he's up to it. that was four days ago. now, she says he has to go, explaining, in a statement, that she didn't believe that the president could "effectively campaign and win against donald trump". mr president, thank you for doing this. thank you for having me. in his exclusive interview with abc's george stephanopoulos, the president again blamed his stumbling debate performance on a bad cold. i was feeling terrible. matter of fact, the docs with me, i asked if they did a covid test because we were trying to figure out what was wrong. they did a test to see whether or not i had some infection, you know, a virus. i didn't, ijust had a really bad cold. and did you ever watch the debate afterwards? i don't think i did, no. the president was asked whether he'd take a cognitive test and release the results.

he said it wasn't necessary. every day, i have had tests, everything i do. you know, not only am i campaigning, but i'm running the world. he warned of dire consequences if donald trump were to win the election, and insisted he was the most qualified candidate to stop the former president. and if you stay in, and trump is elected and everything you're warning about comes to pass, how will you feel in january? i'll feel, as long as i gave it my all, and i did the goodestjob as i know i can do, that's what this is about. mr biden added that only the lord almighty could convince him to abandon his bid for a second term in the white house. peter bowes, bbc news. former president donald trump has distanced himself from project 2025, which aims to transform the government if trump wins the election. the 900—page plan was put together by the heritage foundation, a conservative think tank. it calls for sacking thousands of civil servants, and dismantling several federal agencies. it also proposes expanding

the power of the president, while making sweeping tax cuts. it's common for think tanks to publish policy wish—lists like this. but democrats have taken aim at the heritage paper due to its wide—ranging — and drastic — measures. online, trump posted... for more, i spoke to our reporter mike wendling. it is a huge, sprawling document. it sets out the number of policy proposals that the heritage foundation and hundreds of other conservative think tanks, organisations and advisers would like to seek out of a second donald trump administration.

you mentioned some of the more controversial proposals. this document has been around for awhile, and the heritage foundation regularly makes these policy proposals, saying, if a republican is elected, this is what we would like to see them do. so it is not official, it is not law, it is not even really a proposal of laws, but it certainly is an influential document that has been talked about quite a lot in washington right now. so, mike, tell us more about who created it, who is behind it? yeah, so the heritage foundation is a very very influential, right—wing think tank. they not only have their own experts, but they collected a whole range of conservative organisations, including some people who worked in the first trump administration, or who were very influential in that administration. so when donald trump distances himself, and says he knows nothing about project 2025, or who is behind it, you have to take that with a massive grain of salt. these are some priorities that

have been long—standing. for instance, about reproductive rights and stopping the abortion pill, about deportations of immigrants and beefing up the deportation regime and the immigration forces, and also things like completely destroying the department of education, abolishing it. these are conservative priorities and have been for some time. he is aware of that and the people who are, i suppose, jockeying for potential influence in a potential second trump administration know that, that's why they put this document out, to try and guide the conversation. and what about democrats on the other side, how are they are reacting to it, what are they saying? so this is being talked about in democratic circles i think, notjust because this document exists but because of those supreme court decisions last week, about presidential immunity and about government agencies. this is kind of all swirling

around, as donald trump has taken a little bit of a bigger lead in the polls, they are trying to sound the warning bells about what a second trump administration will be like. but this is filtering down, it is notjust a preoccupation of the democratic leadership. i was on that rally in wisconsin that president biden held yesterday, and several democratic voters brought up this document, and said to me they are worried to me about project 2025. i didn't even need to ask the question, so clearly this is something that democrats are worried about, and some of the details in there, they are very concerned that donald trump would implement them. it is clearly a way that they think they can win some ground back from donald trump, right, and i think that probably explains why the former he president has come out i and tried to distance himself from this document.

and if you want to find out more about project 2025, mike wendling breaks down all the details in this explainer article, which you can find on the bbc news website — bbc.com/news uk prime minister sir keir starmer said his party's landslide victory in the election has provided a clear mandate for change in all four nations. but in a press conference, after chairing his first cabinet meeting, he cautioned that transforming the country will not be an overnight exercise. here's our political editor chris mason. is this the day you dreamt of, deputy prime minister? there was a first—day—at—school vibe in downing street this morning. is it quite something to have the red folder? is it good to be back? it's good to be back. an excitement and pride from those now at the top of government, heading in for a cabinet meeting. laughter. levity, yes, but a sense of the gravity of all this, too. it was the honour and privilege of my life to be invited by the king, his majesty the king, yesterday, to form a government.

so what do you want from the new government? here are some folk in bury, in greater manchester. honesty. just plain and simple honesty, and i'd like every politician to do a professionaljob. the priorities needs to be a massive increase in budgets, and that's throughout all of the education sector. more focus on our borders . and border control and other systems. um, disabled. i work with disabled adults. levelling up for the north. really, we're a bit fed up of our tired trains. at lunchtime, a news conference from the new prime minister. good afternoon and thank you very much for coming. yesterday, the work of change began. we're a changed labour party, and yesterday we started the work of changing the country. you've said that change can't be delivered by flicking a switch, but plenty of people might want lots of switches flicked, pretty quickly, and so i wonder how soon you can actually start

delivering concrete change. i'm restless for change, and i think and hope that what you've already seen demonstrates that. not least the appointment yesterday of patrick vallance and james timpson, two individuals who are associated with change and delivery. meanwhile, conservatives are pondering what the future looks like this weekend, and a recurring question... are you going to be the next tory party leader? no announcements. we have to take our time. are you up to the challenge? do you think it will be a difficultjob? it has been a really bad result, no two ways about it. back at number ten, that sense of novelty. have you unpacked yet, have you found your way around? i have a basic understanding of the rooms i have used so far here, and that's good,

but there are plenty of places i am yet to discover. and no, we are not unpacked quite yet, but we will be soon and we will be moving in soon. the address is very familiar, but for him and for the rest of us, much that is new to get used to. chris mason, bbc news, westminster. for more, i spoke to dan bloom, politico's senior london playbook author. sir keir starmer�*s first full day in office, at a press conference today we heard him say don't expect change overnight. what is the scale, do you think, of the challenge ahead of him now? the scale is enormous, to put it bluntly. we have a big piece up on the politico website today that we were putting together through the whole campaign, going to seat after seat that did change during this campaign, went labour for the first time, or the first time in a long time,

and we heard the same message from people on the ground again and again, and that is that they were totally disillusioned with politics and politicians, that they didn't really trust anyone to fix the problems of society, but that a change could only be good at this point, and they talked about public services creaking and broken. you know, things like waiting lists for the nhs going up, and schools rebuilding programmes being back and back, and just feeling like nothing quite works exactly the way you want it, and the problem for labour is that the amount of money they set out to raise during the campaign was, in big fiscal terms, quite small, and so it bakes in a lot of spending cuts in future years that were already kind of baked into the system, and keir starmer talked in that press conference you just mentioned about taking tough decisions and dealing with them with honesty.

he was keen to stress it doesn't mean he will hit everyone with a tax cut, but he only has limited options here, and it might come to a budget, when it comes in september, probably, that he feels he has no other option, and does end up unveiling something he did not promise during the campaign. so this begs the question then, and you just said people were telling you they were feeling disillusioned, so along with that change that he spoke about extensively, he also spoke about efforts to regain the trust of voters. so how can we expect him to go about that? well, there are two strands to this, really. so, when it comes to, specifically, trust in politicians after scandals and sort of ethics scandals, he is doing things like, you know, he talked on his first day of the independent adviser on ministers interests, they have promised an ethics and integrity commission, they have promised these various independent bodies to police ethics in government.

the other side of it is that it is just a general kind of, he is trying to give up the message to voters of competence and ethics and high standards, and downing street, when they put out a release from the first cabinet meeting this morning, they were talking very much about how the new prime minister talked to his cabinet about how he is going to have very high standards, and he won't tolerate a falling below those, so it is kind of a general message to the voters. the problem with that always, and what previous governments have found, is that when you make ethics and integrity your big thing, then you might find that in the end someone does fall below that standard, and then you are in bigger trouble, because you saw yourself as mr rules, as keir starmer was once called by one of his colleagues, and if one of your ministers falls below that, either they have to be sacked very quickly, or it reflects very, very badly on the government. the results also showed independents, reform uk, the greens making gains. i wonder what you think that tells us about the political environment more broadly in the uk, asidejust from labour's landslide win?

it is a huge part of the story. reform got a really big vote share, i haven't got it in front of me, but it's something like 12 or 13% from memory, or even higher, and what that means is there was a big anti—tory vote going on here. the labour vote share was actually lower, quite significantly, than when labour lost the 2017 election against the conservatives, and the reason for that being that in 2017, everything narrowed around brexit, and it became a two—party focus, where the two main parties got quite high percentages but the tories pipped labour to the post. what's happening now is you have a fracturing of this coalition. the liberal democrats, who i don't think you mentioned in the question, but they have picked up 71 seats. that is an all—time record for them, and they have done that

by taking disaffected tory areas of the south that won't contemplate voting labour but would vote liberal democrat. then you also have reform on completely the other side of the argument, the eurosceptic argument and so forth, from the lib dems, they are splintering the vote, as well, not picking up as many seats, but picking up a lot of tory discontent and therefore splitting that vote and allowing labour to come through. so labour has obviously turned around its party from five years ago, but has also benefited from a lot of these factors, and has ended up with a majority quite so big because there is so much anti—government, anti—tory disaffection that it has basically allowed labour to do better than it would have. following the new uk government's decision to scrap the rwanda deportation scheme, the home office has said the two migrants in detention, pending removal, will be bailed in the coming days. a further 218 people who were being held were released by the previous government during the election campaign. they were due to be deported to the african nation, as part of previous prime minister rishi sunak�*s policy to tackle illegal immigration. on his first full day as prime minister,

sir keir starmer confirmed the rwanda deportation scheme is "dead and buried". so what comes next for prime minister starmer and his cabinet? britain's new foreign secretary, david lammy, has travelled to germany. his counterpart there, annalena baerbock, says... "we are working with the new uk government to see how the uk "can move closer to the eu". the pm is touring the uk on sunday, and will then also shift his focus abroad. the prime minister has already held his first official phone call with us presidentjoe biden. number ten has released a video of that moment — take a listen. joe biden on speakerphone: mr prime minister, congratulations. what a hell of a victory. congratulations. thank you, mr president, it has been a long night and day. i've been busy appointing my cabinet during the course of this afternoon. well, there is no doubt

on your leadership. our two countries will continue our special relationship, we are working together on just about every issue, supporting ukraine, managing the competition with china, and advancing cooperation in the indo—pacific with aukus. and the prime minister will be visiting the us next week. the bbc�*s gary o'donoghue has more from downing street. late on tuesday, it is trying to find a way of working with the blade in house but also to try and think about what would happen in four months�* time if donald trump won the presidency. gaza�*s health ministry says at least 16 people have been killed, and dozens injured, in an israeli strike on a school, sheltering displaced people in al—nuseirat. witnesses told the bbc that the raid hit the upper floors of the school, which is near a crowded market. the israeli army says

it was targeting militants in the area, and that it tries to minimise harm to civilians. efforts to secure a ceasefire between israel and hamas have gained momentum in recent days. saudi arabia is among several nations congratulating moderate candidate masoud pezeshkian has won iran�*s runoff presidential election. russia and china expressed hopes to reinforce ties with iran after he defeated hardline rival saeed jalili. the european union said it is "ready to engage "with the new government in line with eu policy". dr pezeshkian, who�*s a heart surgeon, secured 53.3% of more than 30 million votes counted. mrjalili won 4a.3% of votes cast. the runoff came after neither candidate secured a majority in a first round of voting injune. that vote saw a historically low voter turnout. dr pezeshkian ran on a promise to reach out to western countries, and ease enforcement of a mandatory headscarf law, which people have protested in recent years. but he did not pledge major changes to iran�*s islamic theocracy.

iran�*s government is largely led by hardline conservatives. here�*s the iranian president—elect, speaking earlier. translation: congratulations to the knowledgeable and dearj people of iran on their victory. you have completed the work and taken a great step forward. earlier i spoke with karim sadjadpour — a senior fellow at the middle east program at the carnegie endowment for international peace. what more do we know about the new iranian president—elect and what can we expect from his presidency, most crucially? well, helena, he has been described in the western media as a reformist and i think that is an inaccurate label. he is really a moderate regime loyalist, in that he is not promising any meaningful reforms, and he�*s already voiced his loyalty to the supreme leader, the ayatollah, the main power and he�*s promised to adhere to and honour his agenda, so i do not think we should have any expectation that he will meaningfully

change the iranian internal and external conduct. he�*s not going to challenge the iran�*s supreme leader, he�*s not going to restorative regime�*s lost legitimacy and i don�*t think he is going to pacify public discontent, so i don�*t think this was a terribly consequential election. so, for example, on issues such as women�*s rights in iran, you don�*t anticipate any kind of change? i don�*t anticipate meaningful change, as long as the supreme leader remains. for the hardline leadership in iran, the people who really have power, the mandatory veiling of women is one of the flags of the islamic republic, and all presidential candidates over the years, they have paid lip service to these issues while running, but once they come to power, none over the last 45 years has

really challenged the issue like the mandatory hijab. what about where washington stands in all of this, because we know that dr pezeshkian has advocated working with or reaching out to the united states, i should say, with regards to the nuclear programme, trying to get those economic sanctions softened, if not lifted, in some part. how receptive do you think washington would be to any kind of moves from the new president—elect? the official slogans of the islamic republic — "death to america, death to israel" — that�*s not going to change. so the president of iran, pezeshkian, cannot change the regime�*s long—time grand strategy, but presidents can be impactful in changing the tactics of the regime, and i think what pezeshkian will seek to do is bring in foreign policy advisers who are perceived to be more competent, less ideological, and that will, frankly,

present in my view, a dilemma for any us administration, whether it�*s biden or trump, because on one hand, it will make it a little bit easier to engage with iran, but at the same time it will make it more difficult to isolate iran. ijust wonder, and i want to talk about more on voter turnout, because once again it was low, and you�*ve said dr pezeshkian, in your view, should not be described as a reformist, but more as a moderate loyalist instead. do you think that is something that voters do feel keenly aware of, and perhaps explains that lower turn out that we saw? absolutely. those living inside iran understood what this election was about. it was a choice that they had between someone who was unpalatable — pezeshkian — and someone whom they viewed as disastrous, and that was his opponent, saeed jalili, who is a hardline ideologue, who many iranians feared would increase the risk

of conflict with the us, and increase the economic sanctions, which have been suffocating the country. so i don�*t think voters inside iran have any illusions that pezeshkian is going to bring about real change. i think everyone knows that there is likely not to be any change in iran, as long as this current 85—year—old supreme leader remains in power. let�*s just touch on the fact that, of course, the israel—gaza war continues. any potential impact there, do you think? i don�*t think so. the president of iran does not control iran�*s foreign policy, in particular, iran�*s regional policy — that will remain the domain of the supreme leader and the revolutionary guards. as i said, there may be more competent, less ideological

iranian diplomats at the helm, but we have seen those diplomats in the past as well, and according to themselves, they don�*t control iran�*s foreign policy, so i think that pezeshkian�*s arrival as president is not going to meaningfully impact the iranian internal or external conduct. stay with us here on bbc news. thank you for your company. we will have more global news for you at the top of the hour. join me then if you can. goodbye for now. hello, there. we had a very wet start to the day on saturday, with low pressure in charge, extensive and pretty heavy outbreaks of rain. the afternoon got a bit better, sunny spells came through, but we also had quite widespread showers, like this shower cloud working across

the horizon in the scottish borders. now the wettest place in the whole of the uk was rothamsted, in hertfordshire, near luton, and here, we had 37mm of rain — that compares with the monthly average of 52. so, in other words, we had, well, nearly three—quarters of a month�*s worth of rain in just the space of 2a hours. now, showers have continued to affect eastern areas of scotland, northeast england into the first part of the night, but over the next few hours, many of the showers will tend to fade away, but i think we�*ll see another clump working into wales and southwest england, as we head into the first part of sunday. now, sunday is overall the better of the two days of the weekend. many of us will start off with some sunshine, first thing in the morning, but we�*ll have those showers from the word go, across wales and western england, and through the day, those showers push eastwards. it is always across england and wales that the heaviest downpours are likely to be, with some hail and thunder mixed in, and, to a degree, northern ireland seeing heavy downpours, too.

in scotland, there will still be showers, but they perhaps won�*t be quite as heavy as the ones we�*ve seen over the last 2a hours. now, monday�*s forecast, it�*s another pretty unsettled day, again, starting off on a promising note. many areas will start the day dry and sunny, but showers will develop across northern areas of the uk, and it looks like we�*ll see another area of rain start to work into the southwest, so that could affect southwest england and parts of southern wales, as well. the area of rain is associated with this next area of low pressure, which pushes its way northwards across the country, very slowly, through tuesday and wednesday. so, tuesday looks like probably being the wettest day of the week ahead. extensive and heavy outbreaks of rain in england and wales, some wet weather for northern ireland. eventually, the rain reaches northwards into scotland, and again, as the rain eases off, it willjust be followed by heavy showers and thunderstorms. top temperatures — high teens to low 20s, much as the temperatures have been over recent days. that is below average for this time of the year,

and beyond that, it does stay pretty unsettled, we might see something a little bit less soggy, as we head towards the following weekend. bye for now.

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, i�*m ros atkins. and i�*m katie razzall.

and this week on the media show, we�*ve been talking about an issue that is dominating headlines notjust in america but across the world — that is the story of president biden�*s health after the debate. we�*ve also discussed glastonbury festival — katie�*s been reporting there, believe it or not, i�*ve been djing there — and in today�*s programme we�*re going to look at glastonbury�*s media strategy. every single solitary person eligible for what i've been able to do with the — with the covid — excuse me, with, um, dealing with everything we have to do with, uh... look... if... ..we finally beat medicare. well, the fallout from joe biden�*s faltering performance in his tv debate with donald trump was instant, both in political terms and in terms of the media coverage,