hello, i'm sumi somaskanda. thank you forjoining us. the united nations security council will meet on tuesday to discuss a russian air strike that left kyiv�*s main children's hospital in ruins monday. diplomats say the request was brought by britain, france, ecuador, slovenia and the us. the strike is part of a barrage of missile attacks on cities across ukraine, killing at least 36 people and injuring more than m0. in kyiv, rescuers worked to search for victims under a partially collapsed wing of the facility. medical staff and emergency services have been trying to clear the rubble by hand to find survivors. ukrainian president volodymyr zelensky called the strike "deliberate" and has vowed to retaliate. russian officials denied targeting the hospital, claiming it was hit by fragments of a ukrainain air defense missile. our correspondent james waterhouse has more on devleopments from kyiv. frantic desperation

on a kyiv summer morning. people helping with bare hands at ukraine's largest children's hospital. even for a war—hardened city, this was a missile strike which broke the gruelling rhythm of russia's invasion. some of the young patients were being treated for cancer, already fighting for their lives. they illustrate how these attacks do not discriminate. translation: we were in the middle of surgery - when the windows got shattered, the surgeon quickly covered the baby to save him. i want the world to stop this, these children are innocent. tatiana had a near miss. translation: we got here five minutes before it all started. i then the search for survivors stops for another missile alert. an underpass acts as a shelter this time.

residential buildings were also hit in kyiv, here bodies were recovered. other cities were also attacked. on a visit to neighbouring poland, president zelensky promised retaliation. translation: beyond any doubt, we are going to rebuild _ everything that these terrorists have destroyed, and beyond any doubt, we are going to respond to these savages from russia. everybody who was injured will get the necessary help, and we pledge to work to bring russia tojustice. ukrainians often describe a daily weight on their shoulders, sirens sounding in cities like kyiv all the time, and occasionally explosions will follow, and occasionally it is a big one. now, you can see people singing as they are giving out water. attacks like this don't really influence the battlefield, but what they are designed to do is terrorise and suppress the ukrainian people.

for a second time, rescue teams have to find cover due to another air alert. only on this occasion, they sing the ukrainian national anthem. a dark day for a city still defiant. james waterhouse, bbc news, kyiv. the attack comes as the leaders of nato begin arriving in washington for the alliance's 75th summit. president zelensky is leading a large delegation, including ruslan stefanchuk, speaker of ukraine's parliament. speaking to the bbc, mr stefanchuk described the attack as a war crime. translation: you know, i believed that this attack| ushers in a new stage in this horrible war and what we saw was a premeditated attack on the central children's hospital in the centre of kyiv, ukraine's capital.

and this, once again, emphasises the inhuman treatment that the russians have to everything that is ukrainian. and i also believe that by committing this atrocity, vladimir putin is sending a clear signal here and his message is that he has no red lights and we want to make sure that nato sends a powerful signal back and this powerful signal would be bringing ukraine closer to nato membership because otherwise, ukraine wouldn't be able to survive and stand in this war. it's expected that nato leaders will indeed ratify a deal bringing ukraine one step closer to membership — in defiance of russian president vladimir putin's demands for kyiv to give up onjoining the alliance. politics on both sides of the atlantic will also loom heavily over the gathering, with the rise of the far—right in europe and the possible return of donald trump to the white house here in the us.

our defence correspondent jonathan beale has more. ukraine war is already top of the agenda for this 75th anniversary summit of the nato military meetings. no doubt about it, the slater�*s attacks by russia and give the new sense of urgency particularly with the expected arrival of president zelensky who has been appealing to nato allies to give his country more air defences, has been given some of those us made patriot batteries, he says six country needs but not in the quantities he believes they require. that is one of the issues that will be addressed here at the summit, the head of nato has managed to persuade allies to commit another a0 billion us dollars to military support for ukraine but he hasn't been able to turn that into a five year commitment, something that he wanted to do, people have been calling trump proofing the nato military assistance to ukraine.

he hasn't been able to achieve that because of the political uncertainties, he does have strong support from britain's new prime minister who will be tested on the world stage for the first time, keir starmer, has already made clear that britain's position is that nato is the cornerstone of its own security and he wants to see military aid speeding up in his delivery to ukraine but the question gnawing at many of the leaders has — which we won't hear discussed in public is will the show of unity that they will undoubtably try to impart over the next few days survive next year if there is going to be a donald trump second term presidency, a man who's been critical of alliance in the past, critical of military support for ukraine, that is the elephant in the room even if it is not going to be discussed in public. ahead of the summit —

i spoke to republican congressmen michael mccaul and mike turner. mr mccaul serves as chair of the house foreign affairs committee, and mr turner serves as chair of the house intelligence committee. chairman, i'll start with you. this nato summit, ukraine is going to be a central topic, and just today, we saw a russian strike hit the children's hospital in kyiv, killing dozens of people, more than three years into this war, vladimir putin appears undeterred, not only by ukraine's assistant but by western support so, what needs to be achieved at the summit? i will take the restrictions of the easter attack that i personally put in there, that the long—range artillery, these rocket fires are coming right across the border from russia, primarily kharkiv, but the national security adviser will not allow ukraine to use everything it has two win this fight. right now, they have one hand tied behind their backs

and i asked repeatedly to lift the restriction, i met with president zelensky in paris and in singapore and he made this cry for help, if you will, to change the rules here. they change the policy allowing them to fire across the border but then they limit the weapons they can use that can effectively achieve that goal. do you think this needs to be an important point of discussion with nato allies this week? i had this conversation with secretary sollenberger at the meeting and just a month and a half ago and he expressed full support for ukraine getting the ability to use any weapons that they receive from any nato allies to be able to defend themselves and to be able to hit valid military targets in russia. they have to be able to take the fight to russia as russia is attacking them from russia and i think it's an important step and the secretary general supports it. are you confident that would be

the step will take to allow ukraine win this war? they are fighting with restriction so if you remove the restrictions, you will increase their ability to be successful and that's incredibly important. so this comes at the same time we will see one nato ally travel to russia to meet with vladimir putin and travel to china to meet with xi jinping, what do you think of a nato ally travelling with the country and having these meetings? i think it's a bit disturbing, i'm all for heads of state having meetings but these are top two people. xi and putin met at the beijing olympics, formed an unholy alliance and that led to the invasion of ukraine and it is with this whole alliance as well as kim jong—un so i'm not sure what they talked about whether it was productive or not butjust the appearance from a nato allies is not comforting. do you think it undermines a pro—ukraine coalition and nato?

i do think that leaders of their country have to make the best decisions for them as to who they meet with another discussions but with that at the same time, there has been this slow response from hungary on the expansion of nato and by the way, is a successful meeting of nato, by the fact that sweden and finland will be fully seated at this, what outcome that thwarts putin's efforts to try and contain that nato has a very long border with russia's result is its own work but i do think that the alliance is working, nato is working and that's what's important. i can say that one outcome of this meeting in china is that china is calling on world powers, including nato allies meeting here in washington to help russia and ukraine sit down at the table and negotiate and they supported saying he's the only world leader doing precisely that, trying to bring these players around the world. what's your response to that?

you may well end up in the ceasefire and negotiate but now is not the time. why is that? because right now, ukraine doesn't have leverage at the negotiating table because these restrictions, i've been talking about. to prevent the use of attack, the goal would be to push the russians as far out as possible and then call for a ceasefire and have a negotiation. you know former president trump is talked about how he would negotiate this but i think ukraine has to have that leveraged a date needs some victories if they want support from the american people. what plan do you think that allies need to have to ensure that there is a path towards a resolution to this conflict? well, certainly the alliance has been unified both in support and its condemnation of russia. and certainly, and the privitions of weapons and i say it's having recently approved, the new supplement that provides us support for ukraine

and i think at this point, it's the issue of how are these weapons going to be used, how can ukraine defend itself and what intelligence they need so that they can be more successful. they have the will to fight, they are doing an incredible job in defending the country under amazing parts, in an amazing difficulty, that shouldn't be doing it under amazing and difficult restrictions. you mention the former presidents and we saw that nato allies around the world are preparing for a possible change in the white house and election in november and trump has called into question us support for ukraine saying it never ends. what do you think support for ukraine would look like if he were to win in november?— like if he were to win in november? , , , november? trump is the first president _ november? trump is the first president to _ november? trump is the first president to submit _ november? trump is the first president to submit to - november? trump is the first president to submit to the - president to submit to the congress request for legal aid to ukraine, 300 illien dollars that i signed off on. i think he doesn't want to lose this fight, that would not be in our

tornado's best interest. fire tornado's best interest. are ou tornado's best interest. are you sure — tornado's best interest. are you sure of _ tornado's best interest. are you sure of that? _ tornado's best interest. are you sure of that? we - tornado's best interest. are| you sure of that? we cannot abandon _ you sure of that? we cannot abandon our— you sure of that? we cannot abandon our allies _ you sure of that? we cannot abandon our allies in - you sure of that? we cannot abandon our allies in this . abandon our allies in this crucial time and we need to send a strong message to china that they can't do the same thing to taiwan. his plan and we have had back channels that he wants to give them the aids to help them push the russians out as far as possible and then at that time negotiate a treaty. a peace deal, a security agreement as well between the united states, nato and ukraine. the between the united states, nato and ukraine-— and ukraine. the reason i ask if that plan — and ukraine. the reason i ask if that plan is _ and ukraine. the reason i ask if that plan is certain - and ukraine. the reason i ask if that plan is certain is - if that plan is certain is because allies were shaken by the words that the former president expressed at a rally when he said russia could do whatever they want with nato allies that don't meet defence spending targets. i worried about the message that may send to russia even thinking about a possible negotiation down the road? flat possible negotiation down the road? �* , ., possible negotiation down the road? �* , . ., , road? at his heart donald trump is a negotiator. _ road? at his heart donald trump is a negotiator. all _ road? at his heart donald trump is a negotiator. all the _ is a negotiator. all the statements and words help formulate policies that are actually quite when you do.

he's— actually quite when you do. he's been very supportive of nato — he's been very supportive of nato but _ he's been very supportive of nato but he supportive of nato reaching — nato but he supportive of nato reaching their commitments. it is smaller— reaching their commitments. it is smaller asked to make and it's something certainly you are seeing more and more countries _ are seeing more and more countries be motivated for and donald — countries be motivated for and donald trump's words will motivate a little more also to do what — motivate a little more also to do what is required. the other aspects — do what is required. the other aspects with respect to ukraine is as— aspects with respect to ukraine is as a — aspects with respect to ukraine is as a negotiator is hard, donald _ is as a negotiator is hard, donald trump nose to negotiate from _ donald trump nose to negotiate from a _ donald trump nose to negotiate from a place of strength and that— from a place of strength and that means give ukraine what they— that means give ukraine what they need to be able to get the post possible situation before you have negotiations. the 296 gdp that trump _ you have negotiations. the 296 gdp that trump was _ you have negotiations. the 296 gdp that trump was able - you have negotiations. the 296 gdp that trump was able to i you have negotiations. the 296. gdp that trump was able to get the majority of nato countries to achieve has made them stronger. they had never been more strongly than they are today securely with finland and sweden, only eight countries have not met the 2% gdp writenow and they are approaching it quickly. he wants a strong nato that can make its own backyard and not be line on allies.—

be line on allies. your expectations - be line on allies. your expectations for - be line on allies. your expectations for this i be line on allies. your- expectations for this summit? this is going to show that the allies— this is going to show that the allies are _ this is going to show that the allies are strong and supportive of one another and ukraine — supportive of one another and ukraine. there will be a unified _ ukraine. there will be a unified voice that comes out of this and — unified voice that comes out of this and there will be a great celebration at sweden and finland _ celebration at sweden and finland have joined the alliance is a great symbolism of really _ alliance is a great symbolism of really putin using and what his goals _ of really putin using and what his goals and objectives were to divide _ his goals and objectives were to divide the alliance.- to divide the alliance. putin's coal was to divide the alliance. putin's goal was to _ to divide the alliance. putin's goal was to divide _ to divide the alliance. putin's goal was to divide and - to divide the alliance. putin's i goal was to divide and conquer nato, he unified and make it stronger than ever. lb the message of this summit and the american people will like that. the american people at the end of the day like a winner. nato is winning, i think ukraine can win this fight if we allow them to do so. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news. let's look at some other stories making news. prime minister sir keir starmer has finished a whistlestop tour of all four nations of the uk. after visiting scotland on sunday, he spent monday in belfast meeting political leaders before travelling

to cardiff to meet wales' first minister. he's also been meeting his party's new mps who are arriving in westminster — 411 labour mps were elected last week. the new chancellor, rachel reeves, has used her first speech to confirm that mandatory targets will be introduced to achieve labour's goal of building 1.5 million homes in england within five years. ms reeves says planning rules would be loosened to allow new housing developments — but that local authorities would still decide where homes would be built. the prime minister is expected to authorise emergency measures this week which could see criminals freed after serving less than half their sentence. prison governors have warned jails could run out of space within days. currently just over 87,000 people are serving time behind bars in england and wales. total capacity is at just under 89,000 — meaning prisons are around 98.5% full. you're live with bbc news. us presidentjoe biden

is urging democrats to come together to support his candidacy for re—election, as questions linger about his mental fitness for thejob. mr biden sent a letter to democratic lawmakers monday where he promised he is "running this race to the end". he also questioned if ending his campaign would be disrespectful to primary voters. president biden spent the weekend making a series of campaign appearances in the battleground state of pennsylvania — joined by his ally senatorjohn fetterman, one of the most high—profile democrats to reject calls for mr biden to end his 2024 campaign. the bbc spoke with mr fetterman about whether he had any doubt about biden being the party's nominee. well, i mean, i'm absolutely committed to that and i hope — i hope that people just realise that this is the president, this is our guy, this is our nominee and he is entitled to take this to november because he's been a great president and he's the only person that's ever beaten trump and he will do that again and for the last time, i really want people

to understand, it is going to be close and some polls will be up, some will be down but the real poll is going to be election day when people are going to be confronted with this idea — do we want that kind of mess and depravity and programme 2025 with trump or do you want a great president and great economy and nation that we can be proud of? but not all democrats are standing behind mr biden's candidacy. earlier i spoke to democrat congressman adam smith. you said that president biden should and his candidacy for a second term because the american people made it clear that they no longer see him as a credible candidate for four more years, can you tell us what you are hearing exactly from your constituents? first of all, i do agree with one aspect of senator fetterman's message, i think donald trump is a complete disaster, i think our country has a clear

anti—maga majority and we have a great opportunity and a great message to run on and winning this election. we have a strong economic record, the president has had foreign policy successes, uniting the world against ukraine, it is a terrific message, the problem is and what was proven in a debate and in a day sens then, at this point, joe biden is incapable of delivering that message. any democrat watching that debate was fairly well begging the president to hit back, trump was lying, he was leaving this huge big open arguments, president was completely incapable of doing something that any relatively novice debaters should have been able to do and it hasn't gotten better since that. we need a stronger messenger and secondarily, there are concerns about his health, concerns that they have brushed off and not address that are distracting us from being

able to deliver exactly the message that senator fetterman outline. so, that's my concern and that's my problem, i think selection is enormously important and i think we need to be in the strongest possible position to make that case, president biden at the moment is not, i have enormous respect for the job that is done as president, i do, but we got a windows campaign. ——we have to win the campaign. let me ask you, the president and his team say they believe that the calls for him to drop the race are coming from a group of elites in washington that are out of touch with voters and you've been critical of that criticism but until now, they have not changed significantly, joe biden is still trailing donald trump in those polls, is there any truth of the fact that young voters, black voters, union voters do not agree with politicians, perhaps, here in washington? that is so ludicrous, 0k?

the concerns that i've been getting have been coming from my constituents, young voters, black voters, democrats, although it is, i don't come up with this on my own, ever since the debate, i have been deluged with requests and hard—core democrats who don't want to see trump re—elected saying my goodness, you have to do this, candidates is not strong enough to hold off, the notion that this is — look, it's a card the president has to play to stay on for what i'm hoping is that the president recognises a key aspect of his legacy is he was the candidate who defeated trump in 2020. if he can't do that in 2024, because of the limitations that he now has become obvious, he lets him back in. he was the right candidate in 2020 but what we've seen from the debate elsewhere, is not the right candidate now. and ijust wish he and his

advisers would take a hard, serious look at this, the idea that is a few people, its people all across the board. who are concerned. can i ask you, how many of your colleagues are concerned, we've only seen a handful speaking publicly as you have, do you get a sense of house democrats feel the way you do? let's describe it this way. if the president to announce tomorrow that he was stepping aside about 90% of my colleagues would breathe an enormous sigh of relief. and i respect the fact that some of them have made the calculation that he is going to be a nominee, what can we do about it? we may as well make the best of it and i hear that argument, i thought about that, 11 days after the debate before i said anything, precisely because of that argument but what i've seen since the debate and certainly reliving the debate is that that's the least risky option,

to give us a different option, if not risk—free, nothing is risk—free. but it would give us the better chance in the better option so, yes, the alarming majority of people are deeply concerned about the ability of the president to prosecute this campaign. is there anything that the president and his team could do at this point to assuage some of those concerns that you, as you said, many of your colleagues share? absolutely, one of the things you can do and let me just say, donald trump shouldn't be running either, his multiple time convicted felon, he has healthcare issues of his own, he wasn't exactly coherent in the debate last week either, he gave the second worst of a performance in the history of presidential debates and fortunately, president biden gave the worst right next to him so it's not just to him but president biden could do is it is legit. you should know what my health is, let's bring in independent official, offices and,

to healthcare assessment, do a neurological cognitive test, be transparent, be open and then hold a press conference and say, you've told us, watch me, you can been up to this, take questions for an hour, showed that the debate was just an anomaly, health is and i can do this. that's something they shouldn't done immediately after the debate and if they didn't now, that would help. —— something they should have done. president biden says he is staying in this race if he does so, do you think he is going to lose november? i'm not going to say that, i said this in my statement, i will support and, if he stays in and his nominee, i will support, he is a vastly better choice than donald trump or anybody else at this race, there is no question about that and i will support and i do know for sure, i think the risk is normatively high, i think he was far more damage by that debate and the

remitting, i think it's a huge risk but no, i won't say he couldn't win, you gotta go to work, i'm just saying that i think a better candidate who can deliver the message more clearly gives us a much better chance to stop donald trump from getting back into the white house. congressmen, thank you forjoining us tonight and being here. thank you for the chance. but as our programme at this hour, thank you for watching bbc news and make sure to stay with us. hello. a fairly unsettled spell ofjuly weather is set to continue. more rain on the cards over the next few days. let's take a look at the expected accumulations. and you can see blue colours really across the map. so we're all going to see a little bit of rain between tuesday and thursday. this is probably the wettest spot. parts of eastern scotland, north—east england. we could see more than 60mm on top of the highest ground. so on tuesday band of rain

moves its way north. things are turning a little bit more humid towards the south. here's the low pressure that's drifting northwards through the overnight period into tuesday as well. and we've got this warm front pushing north. so that's going to introduce a bit more of a southeasterly flow of air and bring it temperatures certainly a little bit warmer, a bit more of a muggy feel in the south compared to recent days. let's take a look at tuesday morning. then by about 9:00 that rain will mostly have been easing from southern england, but still some showers. big puddles for the south west of england. south wales two. that bulk of the rain is sitting across parts of northern england into northern ireland, southern scotland, central and northern parts of scotland. seeing some sunshine to start your tuesday morning. but this area of rain, it's a frontal system, continues its progress north. these easterly winds quite blustery, blowing in across north—east england and eastern scotland as well. so pretty wet if you're under that band of rain 15 or 16 degrees. but in the sunnier spells midlands perhaps getting up to around 21. few showers around across parts of southern and eastern england, so could be a little bit of light rain on tuesday at wimbledon, potentially on wednesday as well, but it won't be a washout.

i think. any rainfairly showery in nature now moving through into wednesday, then we've still got this band of rain overnight sitting across scotland, parts of northern ireland, still seeing some wet weather potentially as well. look at those overnight temperatures, most of us between about 12 to 15 degrees. so we've got that humid air more widely across the uk as we head into wednesday. but low pressure still driving things so still bringing outbreaks of rain for northern and eastern scotland, some of that quite slow moving. so rainfall totals really mounting up here, some showers to also into northern ireland, perhaps one or two into the northwest of england. further south you're more likely to have a bit of a drier day with some more sunshine, but not completely dry anywhere, i think. top temperatures in the sunshine in the south up to about 22, but still only ia or 15 in the north towards the end of the week, then we've still got another area of low pressure. looks like it will affect parts of southern, perhaps south—eastern england, so it's a bit up and down over the next few days really, but temperatures perhaps a little bit warmer, at least for a time than they have been.

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. welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur. these are tough times for ukraine. russian forces are relentlessly attacking kyiv�*s defensive

front lines and bombarding the country with missiles. ukraine remains dependent on military and economic assistance from its allies, and the future of that support is by no means guaranteed. so is momentum swinging decisively the kremlin's way? well, my guest, ilya ponomarev, is a former russian mp now fighting on ukraine's side and committed to the overthrow of vladimir putin. how significant is this russian resistance movement?