of elite forces putting pressure on president putin. and — as greece struggles to contain wildfires — we'll report from one of the worst affected areas near athens. if you are here with me you would be able to smell the ash, the charge ground. presidentjoe biden has said a ceasefire deal in gaza could dissuade iran from launching attacks on israel. talks are due to take place on thursday — although it appears the us secretary of state antony blinken has decided not to travel to the region for now. western leaders have been trying to cool tensions after the assassination of the hamas leader ismail haniyeh in tehran. iran blamed israel for the death, but israel has neither confirmed nor denied any involvement. there's little sign

of the conflict easing however, the israeli military says it has killed around a hundred hamas fighters in and around rafah in the past few days. and hamas have fired two rockets at tel aviv — for the first time since may — although there were no reports of any casualties. if things weren't already tense enough, there has been widespread condemnation of a visit by israel's national security minister to the compound around the al—aqsa mosque injerusalem. he was accompanied by several hundred supporters — to the perimeter of the site, which is also known as the temple mount. non—muslims are allowed to visit, but there is a ban on carrying out religious activities. the us, perhaps israel's closest ally, said it was �*unacceptable�*. here's what president biden had to say when asked by a reporter about the likelihood iran would — or would not — carry out an attack on israel. we'll see what iran does and we'll see what happens if there's any attack. but i'm not giving up. are two things tied together? do you have the understanding

that iran could cease or stop doing an action if a cease fire deal was possible? that's my expectation. but we'll see. thank you. our north america correspondent david willis told us more about the us efforts to stop iran in retaliating against israel. this would have been antony blinken the ninth visit to the region since the 7th of october last year. it's worth pointing out that there were no official announcement of his intention to make thisjourney, although it had leaked through media sources here that the secretary of state was planning, at least some trip that would have seen him depart from washington here in the next few hours. that trip has now been postponed. apparently over the growing uncertainty in the region, not least of course the possibility of some sort of retaliatory strike by iran following the

assassination of a leading member of hamas in tehran recently. and, of course, the uncertainty surrounding the ceasefire talks, which hamas has now withdrawn from, citing the israelis shifting position on as far as those talks are concerned. we heard there from president biden, and he made the point as well today that were there to be a ceasefire agreement reached in regards to the situation in gaza, then that could prevent some sort of retaliatory strike by iran and indeed prevent the conflict in the region from spreading. so president biden is someone who has a lot resting on all this. he's also made plain as well, steve, that he regards a ceasefire in gaza as central to his political legacy, if you like, withjust, what,

less than six months of his term as president remaining? yeah, he certainly is running out of time, if that is his intention. we do know that not just in terms of encouraging peace talks. the us has also been mobilizing military resources to the region. well, that's right. you may be referring to the us state department announcing today that it had approved a $20 billion worth of weapons and aircraft to israel. but those deliveries are not due to start for a couple of years, and they're said to include, um, aircraft, as i mentioned, and other sort of weapons to maintain and build israel's overall long term defence capability. that's what the state department is saying. but they're also making the point that there's nothing particularly unusual about this in terms of the context and the general uncertainty in the region.

but a lot, of course, as i mentioned, at stake for president biden, he'd been hoping that those talks involving different parties would take place on thursday to engineer a ceasefire in gaza. but now, of course, we have to wait and see when those materialise, if they do. in india thousands of doctors have taken to the streets in a strike over workplace safety, prompted by the alleged rape and killing of a young female doctor in a hospital in west bengal. thousands of medical appointments have been put on hold and the unrest could spread nationwide. from dehli, umang poddar reports. chanting: we want... justice! _ out on the streets after launching an indefinite strike — doctors protesting in response to the alleged rape and murder of one of their colleagues, a 31—year—old trainee doctor at a hospital in the city of kolkata in west bengal. they are angry and want action.

translation: our first demand is that there should _ be a judicial inquiry. the culprits should be arrested. there has been one arrest, but we don't have any further updates. and whether there were any others involved along with him. the demonstrations are spreading. they demand justice and better workplace security. many say they don't feel safe doing theirjobs. translation: whether it is this | hospital or any other hospital, | you will see the same scenario, that of an unsafe environment. we do our duties despite the unsafe environment. so far, police have arrested one person. i visited three big government hospitals in delhi and spoke to a dozen female doctors and nurses during the night shift. all of them said that hospitals were an unsafe space to work, especially at night. they complained that anybody could walk into the hospital without any security checks, and patients and their families sometimes turn violent. opposition leaders have demanded an independent investigation into the incident.

across india, queues are growing, with some now calling for a total nationwide shutdown until their concerns are addressed. umang poddar, bbc news, delhi. doctor satheesh kathula — is an oncologist — and president of the american association of physicians of indian origin. he told me attacks on doctors in india aren't a a recent development. my heartfelt condolences to the victim's family. it's very unfortunate that this happened, and female doctors in india are at risk of physical risk of harassment from patients, families and the public because of the nature of their job. they also work in work in the night and such incidents and from this statistical outcomes, legal outcomes, services, negligence, doctors also harassment from it's

the reasons the reason these things and uh, you know very unfortunate thing which, uh, can actually impact the mental health of women doctors, women as professional... we apologise for audio quality on what you have just seen. president biden says ukraine's surprise cross border incursion into russia, provides a real dilemma for vladimir putin. they're his first remarks, since ukraine's lightning strike a week ago, and the white house says it had no advance notice, of the military operation. kyiv now claims to control more than 70 communities in the kursk region of western russia, an area of around a thousand square kilometres. this map shows just how rapid the advance has been in the last seven days, with ukraine claiming to have taken more territory in a week, than russia has all year.

james waterhouse, is in the front line province of sumy, bordering kursk — he sent this report. ukrainian soldiers in western made vehicles, driving into russia, a potentially seminal sight which few saw coming. the russian guards were quickly overwhelmed. it has been a while since this border crossing was used in peacetime, and the ukrainians have not stopped here. the central square of sudzha. a ukrainian armoured vehicle drives through a russian town. it's a military inversion which has restored momentum and morale to kyiv�*s war effort. and instead of directing events in ukraine, moscow's reacting to surprises at home. more of its kursk region is falling in the most dramatic of battlefield changes. "we've just been to this russian supermarket, "and the selection isn't very good," remarks this soldier. slava ukraini! russia is struggling to contain this weighty

offensive, but it is trying. across the border in ukraine's sumy region, evidence ukraine is deploying some of its best troops for a goal that is still unclear. military equipment is branded with a triangle, the symbol of this operation. ukraine is committing to this gamble, but success might not come here with the capturing of territory across the border. it may well come elsewhere, where russian forces might be forced to redeploy. if this gamble doesn't come off, the consequences for ukraine's war effort could be catastrophic. for the border villages habitually hit by russian glide bombs, there is no fear of what moscow's response might be. translation: i want them to take it and do this. - translation: russia attacked first, not us. j now our guys responded, showed what we're capable of.

if we had permission to do this earlier, we would have captured russia a long time ago. in the city of sumy, evacuees give their details to be rehoused. as with across the border, tens of thousands have been moved after an increase in air strikes. ukraine has benefited from secrecy, but its civilians less so. in a choreographed briefing you would usually see in moscow, the head of the armed forces, oleksandr syrskyi, tells president zelensky they are still advancing. translation: first, - i thank our guys and girls. also, i ask you not to forget to develop our important next steps. what ukraine does next will be crucial, especially with the moment of surprise now behind it. james waterhouse, bbc news, sumy region.

for many experts, one of the biggest surprises at the paris olympics was the unprecedented success of the team from botswana. the nation had only ever won two medals in total at previous games. this time, they doubled that with a gold and a silver in the sprints. so it won't be a surprise to learn that the team came home to a welcome fit for heroes — with more than 30,000 people turning out to greet them at the national stadium. the centre of attraction on the open—top bus was letsile tebogo, who won the country's first ever olympic gold medal in the 200 metres — and was part of the botswana team that won silver in the men's four by four — hundred metres relay. still to come on newsday — we'll look at what effect the social media chat between elon musk and donald trump might have had on the race for the white house. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news.

a bbc investigation has found that a priest in blackburn, who was assessed as a potential risk to children and young people, was given a six—figure pay—off by the church of england. canon andrew hindley, was subject to five police investigations, including — into allegations of sexual assault, but was never charged. he's always strongly denied any wrongdoing. aleem maqbool, has this exclusive report. and welcome to blackburn cathedral... for more than 30 years, canon andrew hindley worked for the church in and around blackburn. over that time, he faced allegations of abuse. it led to five police investigations, including two involving sexual assault, though he was never charged and has always strongly denied any wrongdoing. but several risk assessments concluded he did pose a potential risk to children and young people. for years, the church failed to act effectively on the warnings. the first reaction seemed to be one of fear to take it on.

joan, not her real name, says her relative made a complaint of sexual misconduct against canon hindley. she won't talk about the allegations themselves but says her family was deeply let down. that fear seemed to revolve around the likelihood that the church could be brought down by this. a former bishop of blackburn even suggested she and herfamily move on. well, canon hindley was suspended at least twice, but restrictions on him weren't monitored. internal church disciplinary proceedings stalled, and there were more allegations. what we now know from leaked documents was the church appeared fearful he would take legal action if he was removed. we've now discovered, when he left in 2022, it was with a payoff believed to be around a quarter of a million pounds. the church says it was made to settle legal action by the priest. reverend julian henderson was bishop

of blackburn at the time. he explains the payment by saying in a statement... "our priority was to ensure that canon hindley could never return to ministry. this was primarily to protect children and vulnerable young people from the risk he posed. this was the only option left open to us." i took a decision on conscience that i couldn't work for an organisation which put its own reputation and the protection of alleged abusers above the protection and care and listening to victims and survivors. rowena pailing was a senior blackburn cathedral priest who resigned in protest at the payoff. the message that that sends to victims and survivors is absolutely horrific, so when there were senior clergy, bishops saying, oh, this is wonderful, it's all resolved, a settlement has been reached, expecting me to be happy, i was devastated. the church has acknowledged

huge failings in its safeguarding system, but critics insist, when risk assessments show a priest poses a threat of harm, more could and should be done, whatever the legal consequences. the huge wildfires in greece that have been threatening the capital athens, have been brought under control. at least one person has died, while dozens have been injured, and thousands of have had to leave their homes. but the authorities remain on high alert for potential flare ups, amid soaring temperatures. our correspondent azadeh moshiri is in greece — and she sent us this update from one of the worst affected suburbs of athens — pendeli. if you were here with me, you'd be able to smell the ash around me, the smell of charred ground. and there's still this dry heat here in athens. which is why you can see some of the smoke right there behind me. and just to give you a sense of how close we are to homes there, right there behind me.

now, this is a northern suburb of athens. that's how close the fires have come this year. and we've passed through the area, seen homes that have been devastated by the flames, cars that have been completely consumed. now, as you can see, the winds have dissipated. the fire service have told us that the next 2a hours are crucial in determining what will happen in the next few days. so far, we know that these flames have already taken a life. one 63—year—old woman — her body was found another northern suburb of athens. people have been injured, mostly through smoke inhalation. animals have been burnt. and on top of all of that, more than 100,000 acres of land have been consumed by the flames, and yet the fire service is poured a lot of resources into this. more than 700 firefighters have been fighting the flames this week. 199 fire engines, 35 aircrafts.

and yet they've still asked for more help from european nations who are once again answering that call with planes, helicopters and firefighters. it's also been a huge effort from the greek community as well. we've seen these human chains of people mixing with firefighters, volunteer firefighters, as well as residents who are simply trying to save their homes because that's another challenge that these firefighters have and will continue to have. should these fires have these resurgences throughout the week, it's that people are refusing to leave their homes. they're refusing to leave their livelihoods, refusing to see all these things go up in flames. but of course, for many of the people, some who are here, it's already too late. let's update you on us politics now — and the reaction to donald trump's conversation on the social media platform, x, with its owner elon musk.

it began shortly after newsday�*s last edition yesterday — with a delayed start due to what mr musk says was a cyber attack. when the discussion did get under way, it was audio—only — but it nonetheless triggered some colourful exchanges. with the details — here's our north america editor sarah smith. this technical fail for over a0 minutes was a poor start for a candidate badly in need of a hard reset. for the last three weeks donald trump has struggled to adapt his campaign to his new opponent, kamala harris. he clearly wishes he was still running againstjoe biden, whom he repeatedly accused of being senile, and now he is complaining about him being removed as the democrat�* candidate's. say what you want, this was a coup of the president of the united states, he didn't want to leave and they said we can do this the nice way or the hard way. mr trump said he believed america needs a tough and intimidating leader, suggesting that would stop resident putin

from invading ukraine. i said to vladimir putin, you can't do it, vladimir, you do it, it's going to be a bad day, you cannot do it. and i told him things that, what i do, and he said, no way, and i said, we. donald trump did describe kamala harris as a radical left ——no way, and i said, way. donald trump did describe kamala harris as a radical left lunatic, who he says is soft on crime and immigration, but he has not yet settled on a consistent line of attack. i call her laughing, kamala, have you ever watched her laugh? she's crazy. lyin�* kamala is a total radical. he is questioning her racial identity instead of her policies. she was always of indian heritage and always only promoting indian heritage, i didn't know she was black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn black. she has in fact always called herself black, and this was reminiscent of the lies mr trump directed at barack obama when he was running for president. kamala harris is currently enjoying a significant surge in opinion polls, overtaking donald trump

nationally and in key swing states. this remarkable and fairly surprising political honeymoon may not last all the way until the election but it has certainly wrong—footed donald trump for now. and when we fight, we win! god bless you, and god bless america. vice president harris is so far playing it safe on the campaign trail, no radical policy ideas, all uplifting slogans and optimistic promises, but it does seem to be working for voters who wanted a fresh choice and see her as a candidate for change. sarah smith, bbc news, washington. now if you've been watching over the past few days, you'll have seen us report about the street artist bansky, and his latest works appearing on the streets of london. well there's been another creation in the last 2a hours, this time at london zoo. so what does it all mean — and is it — as they say — really art at all? here's harry low. another day, another banksy. after over a week of animalartworks, he's arrived — where else?

at london zoo. this is banksy�*s ninth artwork in as many days, but many are wondering whether this mightjust be the last in this latest collection. the word on the street artist's newest piece is almost entirely positive. i think it's graffiti, and if you think about it, graffiti is the beginning of the degradation of any environment. i think it's phenomenal. it'sjust takes us all away from... it's a mystery, and mystery is something that we never get now. it's pretty appropriate for the zoo, isn't it? we were hoping to see it before it gets stolen or taken away. . after last week's theft in peckham, london zoo's taking no chances with extra security in place. we appreciate the value the broader sense value of this work. and so we're going to look after it. we will probably put a bit of perspex on top just to protect it from the weather.

it's a busy sort of street here as well. medium to longer—term, will certainly take measures to make sure that not only is it protected, but also critically that it's something that can be shared. banksy still makes headlines around the world. his identity irresistible in a social media age. banksy's international appeal is because he works with metaphors and symbols that are universal. he's inclusive. it's not overly intellectual. i once heard someone say, banksy's the only artist that someone at a gas station in mexico city will know about, and that's just wonderful. that's the job of the artist. not to exclude, but to include. we've seen the goat. we've seen the pelicans. we saw the rhino. i mean, it'sjust a celebration, a great send—off. although the man behind the art remains unknown, the mystery of where the animals escaped from is solved. harry low, bbc news london.

more on this story online including that we have been told that this is the latest work in his final series of bank c. hello there. tuesday wasn't as hot or as humid, but still with some sunshine across norfolk and suffolk before we got a few light showers, temperatures reached a very warm 29 degrees. other parts of the uk have cooled down a bit already, and it's still quite mixed through the rest of the week. there'll be some sunshine at times, but we're also going to find some spells of rain, and our weather essentially is going to be coming in from the atlantic. at the moment things have slowed down a bit and this weather front still bringing some rain early in the morning, particularly across the midlands. but a sunny start and a chilly start in scotland. some sunshine for northern ireland.

it will cloud over here in the afternoon and later in the day into western scotland. but more sunshine develops across northern england, wales and the southwest. and even though we've got more cloud, the midlands towards the southeast, that should tend to thin and break up a little bit. we will trigger a few showers in the southeast in the afternoon. it's not going to be as warm here as it was on tuesday, of course, 23 or 2a degrees and elsewhere, those temperatures very similar to what we had on tuesday. so our weather is coming in from the atlantic, and this is the next weather system to bring some wind and rain in from the north west. and it could be quite wet through much of thursday across scotland and northern ireland. this band of rain is only moving slowly into northern england and wales. it's going to be late in the day before we see some sunshine, but through the midlands, towards the southeast it may well be a dry day with more broken cloud we've got a chance for things to warm up again. temperatures could reach as high as 27 degrees, but for scotland and northern ireland, it's likely to be a cooler day on thursday. that rain is slowly moving its way southwards, and that weather front will eventually take

some rain into more southern parts of england. it could hang around for a bit on friday, we're likely to find the rain tending to move away from the southwest, but the southeast it could be a bit more of a struggle. that rain could still be around into the afternoon at least more cloud. we've got sunshine elsewhere once again until you reach the far northwest, with a bit of rain coming in here again as the breeze tends to pick up. so temperatures scotland and northern ireland 19 degrees at best. otherwise our top temperature further south 23 or 2a celsius. i think it's those sort of temperatures that we'll see over the weekend. so not a hot weekend, but it looks like a fairly decent weekend. most places will be dry with some sunshine. just a few showers, perhaps towards the northwest.

inflation cools in the us of an interest rate from a rural reserve. indonesia gears up for independence day celebrations at its new capital city, despite several setbacks. hello and welcome to business today. i'm steve lai. let's begin in the us where the first of two key inflation reports were released overnight. wholesale prices eased by 0.1%, implying that inflation has come off its highs, and that the us federal reserve could be closer

to lowering the cost of borrowing. for more, let's bring in economist peterjolly who has extensively covered the fed. it covered the fed. really does help the case for it really does help the case for the fed to cut rates in september. powell kinda set this up after the last meeting. he said inflation keeps evolving and hopefully get better. and now we're in a position to cut rates he didn't commit to it but september was a good read. as you said, we read a bunch of reads before september is meeting but this is one, number one tonight and a few more later on tonight. the price data forjuly for us tomorrow. what are your expectations on that front? yukin pick, with all the running round somewhere between two and half, 3%. most people expect this one to ease a bit

further. the headline rate has been