you're watching bbc news broadcasting to viewers in the uk and around the world. we begin with israel's strike in beirut on the hezbollah commander it says was responsible for an attack that killed twelve young people in the israeli—occupied golan heights on saturday. at least one person was killed and a number of others wounded in the blast that hit the southern suburbs of the lebanese capital, where hezbollah has its main stronghold. israeli sources said the strike was in response to the attack this past weekend, on the town of majdal shams. the fate of the targeted commander, who's been named as fuad shukr, is not yet clear, although israel claims he's been killed. he's been a top hezbollah

military leader for many years. this report from the bbc�*s quentin sommerville. israel's response came just before sunset — a drone attack, three strikes on a building in beirut�*s southern suburb of dahiyeh. explosions could be heard across the city, an attack that lebanon has been bracing itself against the days. the target, a hezbollah commander israel blames for the attack on majdal shams, in the occupied golan heights. emergency services here are still working to rescue the injured — at least one woman died and dozens have been left wounded. it's not known if the commander was killed. this is the building that was struck by an israeli drone. we believe, three rockets hit the building. as you can see, this is a heavily built—up civilian area, but israel says it had

a hezbollah commander it holds responsible for the majdal shams attack on its sites. there are mixed reports about whether he actually made it out alive, but we know there's been at least one woman killed and a number of people injured here tonight. this area of southern beirut was the same area in which a hamas official was targeted and killed by israel back in january this year — the big question now though is, what comes next? because israel has said its response will be severe, and it would take a number of days. so this strike may not be the end of it. a new footage has emerged tonight of saturday's attack in the golan — children playing quietly, then an air raid siren. there was no time to take cover. it left 12 dead, all children and young adults, watching a nearby football match. hezbollah, which has fired thousands of rockets and missiles into israel in the last ten months, denies it was behind the attack. the iranian—backed group stands

shoulder—to—shoulder with hamas, but it's far better armed and its fighters more formidable. the conflict here was mainly contained to border areas and military targets — the unwritten rules of this almost—war. but saturday's attack on the golan on civilians has pushed lebanon and israel to the brink. the united states and others have been working to contain things. how hezbollah responds to tonight's assassination attempt, and what israel does next, will determine whether war here is inevitable. quentin sommerville, bbc news, beirut. daniel hagari, a spokesman for the israeli defence forces, said the strike was in direct retaliation to saturday's attack in the golan heights. the idf carried out a targeted strike in beirut on fuad shukr — also known as said mohsen —

hezbollah�*s most senior military commander, and the head of its strategic unit. while we prefer to resolve hostilities without a wider war, the idf is fully prepared for any scenario. behnam ben taleblu is in washington dc and i asked him whether he thought this was the start of something more concerning well, it's a pleasure to be with you. there is a great potential — there's a great chance, one should say — that this may not be the end of israel's response to the gruesome attack that you mentioned, that killed 12, that killed 12 children in majdal shams in the north. but make no mistake, if you're looking at the trend lines in 2024 alone, every time a commander is killed by the israelis, lebanese hezbollah, like much of the rest of the iran—backed axis of resistance, doubles down. so you're likely going to see more escalation,

rather than absorption by this iran—backed terror group in the next few days. we've heard from the lebanese foreign minister, abdullah abou habib, who said that he hopes any response from hezbollah would not trigger an escalation. but how real really is the fear that this could turn into a full—scale, wider war? the fear is indeed real, and that fear is certainly began once that artillery rocket was launched, killing those 12 children. but make no mistake, authorities in beirut have been unable or unwilling — depending on the word that you wish to use — to contain hezbollah�*s increasing military escalation against israel. i mean, if you look at what hezbollah has been doing since october 8th, they've been moving along three different vectors — one, new targets, two, new geographies, and three, and perhaps most importantly, new weapons. what they fired was an iranian piece of artillery that can go about ten kilometres with a 50—pound warhead. the hezbollah forces have used more advanced versions of this, including improvised rocket

assisted munitions with much heavier warheads starting in the winter of last year. so there are already cycles of escalation built in that the authorities in beirut have been unable or, again, unwilling to stop. you're in washington, and we heard from the white house just a short while back. president biden believes that an all—out war between israel and hezbollah can be avoided. how much pressure would the us, israel's top ally, put now, to try and de—escalate? there's actually been significant diplomatic pressure and even diplomatic engagement, perhaps more importantly, by the biden administration here in washington, as well as by french sources to try to mediate, moderate between israel and hezbollah — much to no avail thus far. within the us, as you may know, amos hochstein, the special envoy, has taken several trips to the region, i think almostjust a little bit less than a dozen now, in the past ten months, trying to basically stave off what many analysts fear could be a third lebanon war.

and make no mistake, the administration has conflicting goals in this part of the world. it seeks, on the one hand, to restore deterrence and to basically enable its allies, like israel, to bolster their deterrence. but at the same time, it's also seeking de—escalation. and when you succeed in one of these goals, you basically underwrite failure in the other. keeping a close eye on developments on that front and we are also looking at venezuela. there's widespread concern about the increasing tension and violence in venezuela. demonstrations erupted after nicolas maduro was declared the winner of sunday's presidential election. the military and police have remained loyal to maduro and have fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters. ngos say several people have died and dozens have been injured. local officials say around 750 people have been arrested. our south america correspondent, ione wells, is in caracas and sent us this update. more protests broke out today around the city of caracas.

thousands and thousands of people turned out to demonstrate against president maduro and his claim to victory in sunday's presidential elections. some of those that we spoke to said they believe the election was a fraud, they believe that people needed to keep fighting, and they hoped that pressure from the streets would help to change the situation. some, though, argued that it would only be if the military or police decided to join the opposition that anything would change. now the opposition leader, maria corina machado, has asked for her side to remain peaceful. she said that people shouldn't give in to provocations set by the government — in her words — and said that they had proof that their side had won this election, after gathering more physical receipts from some of the country's electronic voting machines. the government, on the other hand, has accused the opposition of instigating, in their words, a coup, with both president maduro and his defence minister saying that this is a coup

that is trying to destabilise the country of venezuela — and they argue this is backed by, in their words, "us imperialism". they have also accused foreign governments around the world of interfering with the election and this is a reference to the fact that many, many countries and governments around the world have said that they want proof from the president of his electoral win if they are to recognise the election results, arguing that there is significant evidence that these results are not credible. nicolas maduro, in response, has cut diplomatic ties with some countries, including some in latin america, also cutting off international flights from wednesday to panama. the man who has taken charge of the us secret service, the acting director ronald rowe has told a congressional hearing that the attempted assassination of donald trump was an embarrassment

and a "failure on multiple levels." mr rowe said the agency willfully support a bipartisan taskforce that will investigate the shooting. but he said the agency had already identified gaps in their security and was working to fix them. he said key among those failures was communications. that the secret service agents whenever told a person with a weapon was at the rally. it is troubling _ weapon was at the rally. it is troubling to _ weapon was at the rally. it is troubling to me _ weapon was at the rally. it is troubling to me we - weapon was at the rally. it 3 troubling to me we did not weapon was at the rally. it 1 troubling to me we did not get that information as quickly as we should have. we did not know there was this incident going on and the only thing we had was that locals were working at the three o'clock, the former president's right—hand side, which is where the shot came from. nothing about man on the roof, nothing about a man with a gun, nothing of that information came over to our men. our north america correspondent, nomia iqbal, was watching this session in congress. she looks at whether we're any closer to understanding what motivated thomas matthew crooks to go to the rally on that particular day. we're still nowhere the fbi

deputy director did give more information in terms of social media posts that they have uncovered, about 700 of them. they think they are associated with thomas cook's. they say these posts are with thomas cook�*s. they say these posts are anti— with thomas cook's. they say these posts are anti— immigrant and generally very extreme. —— crooks. but we're nowhere to understanding what specifically motivated crooks to try and kill donald trump. another thing to add, for american people, it has been really interesting, the poles have consistently shown that more than half of americans would trust the secret service alongside the postal service but polls taken after the assassination attempt showed that trust has dropped. for the secret service, they have to use a phrase one job which is

to prevent an assassination. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news.

you alive with bbc news. news from the uk now. violence has broken out in southport close to where a mass stabbing took place in which three girls were killed. a police van has been set on fire and officers attacked as hundreds of people gathered, in what merseyside police called "sickening violence". the uk prime minister sir keir starmer said anyone involved in the disorder in southport will "feel the full force of the law", adding: "those who have hijacked the vigil "for the victims with violence and thuggery have insulted "the community as it grieves." monday's attack on a taylor swift—inspired dance class left three children dead, and five more, along with two adults, in a critical condition in hospital. earlier thousands attended a vigil in the centre of the town to pay their respects. judith moritz with this report on the victims of the attack.

alice aguiar, only nine years old, whose parents said today she will always be their princess and told her, "keep smiling and dancing like you love to do." elsie dot stancombe, age seven, smiling proudly for her school photograph. her head remembers how she used to love to be carried to lessons on her father's shoulders. and bebe king, just six years old, with her milk teeth missing, whose school says it has lost one of its shining stars, and whose family says they have no words to describe the devastation that has hit them. how can you find the words? three children who were just dancing, now they're gone. tonight, thousands turned up to a vigil in the town to gain collective strength as a community, each person struggling to take all of this in. the firefighters of green watch, who went to help the children yesterday, are numb.

the ambulance crews who raced to save them and treat their wounds feel the same. all anyone can do now is show their sorrow and offer their support. my daughter goes to a drama club, so it hits very close to home. obviously, if she went to a holiday club, you think your child is going to be safe, and something like this happens, it's absolutely awful. it's a place we would all go as mummies and mummies—to—be, to feel safe, and to be with our children there. it is the most gorgeous place. you would never, ever think anything like that would happen. emotions have been near the surface all day. the prime minister brought flowers and came to pay his respects, but found that, for some, feelings were riding high. the person i've held as a child, and you can't do bleep! come here, sweetheart. he can't do bleep — the prime minister! i came here to pay my respects

to the victims and families - who are going through raw pain and grief that most i of us can't imagine. i can't imagine it as a dad myself. j to get a briefing from the chief constable i and emergency services about the ongoing investigation, - but also, importantly, - to have the opportunity to say to those that were i responding yesterday from the emergency services, to say a personal. thank you to them and to shake their hand, and to say that, - as prime minister, on behalf of the country, we are - grateful for what they did. more information has been emerging about the heroes of this tragedy. this is leanne lucas, who's understood to have been running the children's dance class, and who is thought to have been stabbed whilst trying to protect them. her condition is not currently known. and this isjoel verity, a window cleaner, who went to confront the knifeman before waiting for police to arrive,

and then carried a child away from the scene. his friends have been speaking about his bravery. in that situation, you know, no one knows how they are going to react, no one knows if theirfight orflight is going to kick in, and which one will kick in, and in that second, being a father himself, i thinkjoel... he heard kids and thought he had to help out. he went straightaway. he was truly fearless, and i am personally so proud of him. the children had been at a taylor swift—themed dance workshop. today, the star posted her thoughts on instagram, saying the horror of the attack is washing over her, and she's completely in shock. fans of the singer have raised a quarter of a million pounds to support the families involved. some were at the vigil in the town centre, determined to keep positive against these odds. especially, southport is our holiday resort, and unfortunately, we find ourselves in a situation where we are now on the map for all the wrong reasons,

and it's so, so sad to be in that situation. there are many still waiting anxiously for news and praying for those who remain critically hurt. and tonight, three families are devastated — unable to believe that their little girls aren't here any more. judith moritz, bbc news, southport. to india now, where rescue teams have been struggling in heavy rain to find survivors of massive landslides in the southern state of kerala, which have killed more than 120 people. a further 128 people are being treated in hospital. the chief minister of kerala has declared a period of mourning. the landslides struck hilly areas in wayanad district in the early hours of tuesday. rescue operations are under way, but are being hindered by those heavy rains as well as the collapse of a crucial bridge. hospitals across the state are filling up with people injured in the landslide. government ministers have visited some of those being treated, while soldiers

and other emergency service agencies are being pressed into the rescue efforts. it's feared many people are still trapped in areas that rescue workers are yet to reach. 0ur south asia correspondent samira hussain is in delhi and has been monitoring developments. hundreds of officials are on the ground in kerala trying to rescue some of those who have been stranded as a result of these mudslides. what is making these mudslides. what is making these rescue if it's really difficult of course is the continued rain. this is a region that has seen a lot of rain in the last few weeks and it is that torrential rain that has triggered these mudslides or landslides, rather. the other thing making rescue efforts difficult is a critical bridge that connects one of the regions that saw a landslide, well, that has been destroyed so members of the indian army are on the scene and they are creating this road bridge to try to get to some of those people that are trapped. now, the expectation is that the

death toll will likely increase as the rescuers get to some of them or cut off and remote regions. this is an area that has seen this kind of torrential rain before and flooding, back in 2018 some of the deadliest flooding had occurred in that area where more than 400 people died. in later years, more than 400 people died. in lateryears, it more than 400 people died. in later years, it has not been as deadly but this is certainly one that officials are saying is quite worrisome. mostly because you see these rivers have been turned into swollen bodies full of mud and that is making it very difficult and many officials believe that perhaps people may have been swept away in some of those rivers. these rescue efforts are going to continue for the next several days. let's turn to the paris 0lympics now and to an olympic legend. the us women's gymnastics team led by simone biles, has won gold in the team event in paris. italy secured silver, while brazil won the bronze. after a stellar turn at the 2016 olympics, biles pulled out of several

events at the tokyo games in 2020, citing a mental block. the 27—year—old went into the event as the world's most decorated gymnast. meanwhile team gb�*s andy murray and dan evans are into the quarter—finals in the men's doubles at the paris 0lympics with a nailbiting win over belgian pair sander gille and joran vliegen. 37—year—old murray is set to retire after the games. also on day four of the games medals were won for rugby sevens and swimming races. the bbc�*s hugh ferris has all the details. the defending champion beat the world record holder in the final of the 100m backstroke for women. australia's kaylee mckeown retained the title that she won in tokyo, despite not being in the top three at the turn. but mckeown registered a new 0lympic record after powering past america's regan smith, who took the silver ahead of her team—mate, katherine birkhoff. the men's 800m freestyle brought a first gold of the games for ireland — daniel wiffen winning in olympic record time

after the world champion hauled in italy's gregorio paltrinieri, who eventually finished third, with defending champion bobby finke of the usa getting the silver. wiffen is the first athlete from northern ireland to win an olympic gold since 1988. new zealand have retained their women's rugby sevens 0lympic title but they were made to work for against canada in the gold medal match. at half—time, it was the underdogs who led, but two second—half tries saw the reigning champions fight back to take the gold again, with a 19—12 win. the usa secured bronze, their first 0lympic rugby sevens medal, after they beat australia. 0lympic organisers say the men's and women's triathlons only have a 60% chance of going ahead on wednesday, after the men's event was postponed on tuesday. tests of the river seine in the early hours of the morning revealed the water was not clean enough for the swimming part of the race to take place. heavy rain in the french capital over the weekend had caused the water quality to diminish, and two training sessions had already been cancelled. the decision was taken to postpone after a meeting early on tuesday morning, with the men's event now

scheduled to take place following the conclusion of the women's. a woman has beenjailed in the uk for 10 years after stealing from more than 1,000 shops across the country. narinder kaur made tens of thousands of pounds by shoplifting items and then going back to the high street stores she had stolen from and asking for refunds. dan johnson reports. narinder kaur loved shopping but she didn't love paying. so watch how she concealed her shoplifting. and over six years, she stole goods, went to different stores to get credit notes, and purchased other items to claim refunds on. she did it more than 1000 times and made over £500,000. she's a very manipulative woman. justice was slow to catch up with her. this was a full—time job for her. six days a week, eight, nine hours a day, she would travel around the country from the north to the south, from wales to the east coast,

committing retail crime and making a lot of money out of it. she refused to attend her sentencing today where the judge said her persistent offending was near 0lympian in scale and showed careful calculation. this case has dragged on for years, delayed first by the pandemic, then by narinder kaur�*s own health issues. incredibly, it's the longest trial this court has ever heard. when she was caught speeding, she gave a false name and lied to court staff so she was also convicted of perverting the course ofjustice because it was clear who was driving. guilty, too, of fraud, money—laundering and possessing the proceeds of crime. narinder kaur, or nina tiara as she sometimes called herself, spent the last four years trying to avoid today's hearing. that means she is already well into this hefty prison sentence for what was labelled an extraordinary campaign of retail crime. danjohnson, bbc news, at gloucester crown court.

you can find more on that story and all other updates on the bbc website. that's all for now — stay with bbc news. hello. tuesday brought us the warmest day of the year so far. several parts of london saw temperatures up to 32 celsius, including heathrow, kew gardens, saintjames�* park, as well. and it's notjust been the warmest day of the year, we've also officially seen a heat wave already in some regions, especially kent, east malling, and bramham, in west yorkshire. these areas have seen temperatures exceed their heatwave threshold for sunday, monday, and tuesday. so already, three consecutive days and we may well see another day or so of heatwave conditions in some areas. so, it's still warm and humid again, but a thunderstorm risk as we head through wednesday in the southeast of england. to start the day, then, we've got the heat and humidity in the south from the word go.

it's fresher further north. long spells of sunshine, lots of dry weather, light winds, really pleasant late—july day but it is humid towards the south and, as we head through the afternoon, you can see those showers and thunderstorms starting to crop up, particularly so across parts of kent into sussex, as well. they'll be hit—and—miss, so you might not see one, but if you do catch one, could be some localised flooding. top temperatures still 28—29 for central and southern areas. low—20s or high teens though further north. now, heading on into wednesday evening and overnight into thursday, some of those heavy showers and thunderstorms become a little bit more extensive, especially across parts of england and wales. could be a bit of rain across the west of scotland heading on into thursday, as well. it's going to be another really muggy, sticky night in the south — mid—to—high—teens here — a little bit warmer further north than it has been overnight too. now through thursday, we've got this first mass of heavy showers and thunderstorms that clears away, and then, through the day cloud and showers bubble up. so again, some thunderstorms potentially breaking out, especially for england and wales, i think during the afternoon. drier for scotland and northern ireland. temperatures 22—28 —

so still above average for most of us. we've still got that warm air with us as we head through friday. but later on friday and into saturday, a frontal system pushes its way eastwards and that's going to allow fresher air to start to move in from the west. so, a change in weather—type as we head through friday into saturday. still quite warm and sunny in the south and east, i think, through friday, but the winds pick up in the north and the west with the arrival of some showers, as low pressure starts to move in. so, temperatures around about 16—21 for northern ireland and scotland, still about 28 in the far southeast — but then, eventually, things do turn a little bit fresher and more unsettled as we head into the weekend. bye for now.

microsoft appoints a sinking shares. at its azure cloud service, sending shares sinking in after—hours trade. homelessness in australia is on the rise, as the country finds itself on the brink of a housing crisis. hello and welcome to business today. i'm arunoday mukharji. we're in the thick of us earnings season, with some of the largest tech companies reporting this week. investors are looking for signs that the tech giants are starting to monetize investments in artificial intelligence, and that anxiety was on full display

when microsoft reported after tuesday's closing bell. my colleague erin delmore filed this report from new york. investors's confidence in the tech sector has sent the major us stock indexes to record high after record high this year. some of the tech giants, especially those working on artificial intelligence technology and products have been duking it out for the title of most valuable company. some, including nvidia, microsoft and apple have hit the tree million dollar mark. now investors want to see those huge investments in al pay r. microsoft reporting quarterly earnings after tuesday's closing bell and there was good news in there. stronger earnings and revenue than had been predicted by analysts. but another headline overshadowed it. microsoft's is your cloud service, the engine behind many of microsoft's services, posted a slowdown in growth, and that was enough to initially sent shares down some 7% in after—hours trading. the ai disappointment factor wasn't content to just one company.

the session saw a wider tech