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, "i respectfully call "on president biden to step aside as the democratic nominee "and allow for a new generation of leaders to step forward." 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 "i know nothing about project 2025, "i have no idea who is behind it. "i disagree with some of the things they're saying, "and some of the things they're saying are absolutely "ridiculous and abysmal. "anything they do, i wish them luck, "but i have nothing to do with them." 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 is being 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 president has come out 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. no announcements. we have to take our time and figure out what is happening. are you up to the challenge? 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 viewed so far here, and that's good, but there are plenty of places i am yet to discover. but no, we are not unpacked quite yet, but we will be soon and we will be moving in very 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've been speaking withjohn mcternan, a former political secretary to labour prime minister, tony blair. good to have you with us. thank you for being with us on bbc news. a cabinet meeting on a saturday. keir starmer outlining pledging to tackle key issues such as the nhs, prisons, he is also said that the rwanda scheme is, "dead and buried." what do you make of his initial priorities? the important thing is the change in tone. when we had a relaxed prime minister with a very big win in the election but a term different from his predecesors there before him and he was being inclusive and not divisive and he was not seeking to wind people up, he's actually

saying, ourjob, a difficult challenge ahead but let's start work immediately. that's why we are having a cabinet meeting on a saturday. there is normally one a week and he appointed yesterday and had a meeting yesterday, today, with the press at lunchtime and i think that is the way we are going to go which is moving quickly on the priorities the country cares about, but also, having a tone that is easing with the country. it is a challenge but we will work on it together. talking about some challenges, what do you think they may be and how potentially difficult to you think it will be to make some progress, relatively quickly. it's a really great question. you can make immediate progress because there are powers the government has, you don't need to make spending, pass laws, he can do them. in the uk the minimum wage has a low rate for 18, i9 and 20—year—olds that could be changed immediately and that is a pay rise

for young people. that could be an immediate change and it could be people in your households, nieces and nephews, people you know. so that kind of visible change could happen. a pay rise for those people immediately. could start to move on some capital spending, he could be renovating schools or hospitals within months and he could actually change planning legislation which is holding back some construction. so i think labour will do some quick things in the early period, and things for the medium term and some for the long—term. but the sense of hitting the ground running is going to be a very priority and the momentum on top of that. keir starmer said there were going to be some challenging moments ahead, that he would always be transparent about those tough choices. where do you think those tricky areas could be for him? he was on about it this morning, he was asked, he appoints a new minister for prisons, he has a lot of experience

in rehabilitation and probation services, this minister said, i think a third of people who go to prison should not be there. and he was asked about it by newspapers and saying, do you agree with that, do you think a third should not be present and he said, a number of things real interesting, he said public prosecutions, around the department of public prosecutions. i went to a lot of courts and saw a lot of sentencing and i thought, like a lot of people, there are people who are going to prison who should not be there and they shouldn't have been diverted earlier on from going to prison. and he said, i want to work on knife crime to stop people actually starting with picking up the name. that idea of prevention and being honest that some people should not be in prison and saying,

we should be working to be preventing people from being in prison different from the lock them up tory laws. i want to touch on his international agenda, keir starmer will be heading to washington next week for the nato summit, david lammy coming in as foreign secretary already gone to germany to meet with his counterpart, what kind of foreign policy and defence policies do you expect to see from this new government? there will be continuity in the support for ukraine. i think keir starmer has been cleared and so was david lammy and the incoming defence secretary as well, the ukrainian front light is notjust the european front line but the british front line is also a strong support for ukraine, i think there must be policy in support of the nato and we continue to find a seed to turn for nato. increasing when our physical on defence to 2.5% of gdp and take a strong emphasis, david lammy clear on it, a strong emphasis

on human rights in foreign and defence policies of that is the kind of it. that's the wanilla mess of it. keir starmer will be pleased to be at the nato summit, criticalsummit for nato because partly, he can be one of the most successful politicians there. with the french president under pressure and the american president under pressure. so the united kingdom, newly elected prime minister with a big mandate, he will have a large was on security notjust the uk or europe but globally. 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 to meet with his counterpart there, annalena baerbock. in a statement, the german foreign office said "we are working with the new uk government to see how the uk "can move closer to the eu." the pm spent sunday touring the uk, and will also shift his focus abroad. sir keir has already held his first official phone call with us presidentjoe biden. number 10 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. later on tuesday, it is first big international trip and to try and cement what is britain's most important international ablation ship to find a way to working withjoe biden�*s white house but to try and think about what happens in four months time if donald trump wins 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. our correspondent sebastian usher has more from jerusalem. scenes of the dead and wounded being rushed to hospital once again in gaza. this time, people are being taken from a school in the centre of gaza, in a refugee camp, nuseirat refugee camp, which was hit. around 7,000 displaced people were taking refuge there. these scenes are still being repeated across the whole of gaza. up in gaza city, in the north, a battle has been raging in one district there, where israeli forces have been battling against hamas and other palestinian armed factions, while right down in the south in rafah, the israeli military operation is still continuing there, and just a few days ago, to the east of khan younis, hundreds of thousands of palestinians were told that they had to evacuate. all of this shows that fighting is still continuing in gaza. it underlines the urgency, as momentum is building once again towards a resumption

of ceasefire talks, and talks to finally secure the release of all remaining hostages in gaza, dead or alive. hamas gave its response to the latest proposal, which was presented by president biden several weeks ago. it appears to be a positive response. it may even have finally overcome what's been the main stumbling block, the demand by hamas that there must be a permanent ceasefire before any movement forward. we will still have to see if israel, the israeli government, can accept that and make perhaps some concession itself about its demand that it must be able to continue fighting, if necessary, after any ceasefire. ukraine's government says work is continuing to restore power to 100,000 people in the northeastern sumy region, after a russian attack damaged an energy facility. the attack early on saturday knocked out the electricity needed to power the system. power cuts in much of ukraine

have become longer and more frequent as a result of russia's bombardment of civilian infrastructure — with poland diverting surplus electricity to help it cope with the russian strikes. thousands of people have returned to their homes in northern california, after wildfires swept through the area, burning more than 800 acres of land and destroying more than 70 structures. an unusually long heat wave is baking the western us, with temperatures as high as 110 degrees fahrenheit — or 43 degrees celcius. the science says climate change is making heatwaves — and wildfire seasons — longer and more intense. meanwhile, residents in the us state of texas are bracing for the arrival of tropical strom beryl, which is expected to soon regain hurricane strength. this is the scene saturday in several coastal cities — people boarding up windows and filling sandbags. local officials are urging residents in beryl�*s expected path to prepare for storm surge flooding, heavy rain and high winds.

some texas cities called for voluntary evacuations in low—lying areas. beryl is currently in the gulf of mexico. forecasters say it is likely to make landfall in texas on monday as a hurricane. the storm has already caused at least 11 deaths as it passed through the caribbean. saudi arabia is among several nations congratulating moderate candidate masoud pezeshkian after he 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 cast in the run—off election. mrjalili won 4a.3% of votes. 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. voting has begun in the second round of the french parliamentary elections — as people in some overseas territories cast their ballots ahead of sunday's vote in mainland france. there are concerns about violence over the weekend with 30,000 police being deployed. more than 50 candidates and campaign activists have been physically assaulted during the campaign. the far right national rally made big gains in the first round of the election, winning 33.4% of the vote.

some opinion polls gave them a chance of winning an outright majority in the national assembly. 217 candidates from the left—wing new popular front and the macron—ensemble alliance have withdrawn from sunday's vote to block the national rally from winning. on friday, about 200 people protested against the extreme right in bordeaux. let's turn to some other important news around the world. four people are dead and another three injured after a shooting at a pool party in the us state of kentucky. the suspect was known to partygoers but arrived at the private residence uninvited. a police chase ensued after the the attacker fled the scene, and ended when the suspect�*s car drove into a ditch. the suspect was taken to the hospital, where they died of a self—inflicted gunshot wound. the military rulers of mali, burkina faso and niger held a summit in niger's capital, niamey, on saturday. the summit was the first time the men gathered since coming to power through coups between 2020 and 2023.

the three leaders said they have no plans to rejoin the economic community of west african states — and instead plan to strengthen their own union, the alliance of sahel states. well, it was a nail—biting few hours for english football fans saturday, but england are through to the semi—finals of the euros in germany, after defeating switzerland. switzerland took them all the way to penalties after a 1—1 draw after extra time. but five of the best penalties you are likely to ever see from england secured them a place in the last four, where the netherlands await. you are watching bbc news, thank you from all of us here in dc. i will see you soon. 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.

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