back on tv for the first time since a life—changing high—speed crash. welcome to the programme. i am at lewis vaughanjones. as ukraine's incursion into russia enters its second week, the governor of the russian border region of belgorod has declared a state of emergency, saying ukrainian shelling had made the situation there extremely difficult. president biden says ukraine's surprise offensive has created a real dilemma for president putin. ukraine's president zelensky says his country controls more than 70 communities in the kursk region of western russia, an area of about 1,000 square kilometres. this map shows just how rapid the advance has been in the past seven days, with ukraine claiming to have taken more territory in a week than russia has all year. russia says it has destroyed more than 100 ukrainian drones and four

missiles fired at its border regions during the night. here's the governor of russia's border region of belgorod declaring that state of emergency. translation: the situation in our belgorod region - continues to remain extremely difficult and tense. daily shelling from the armed forces of ukraine destroyed houses, wounded and dead civilians. therefore, we are making a decision from today throughout the belgorod region to protect the population and provide additional measures of support to victims by declaring an emergency at the regional level, followed by an appeal to the government commission to declare an emergency at the federal level. 0ur correspondent will vernon. the ukrainians say that they have now seized 1000 square kilometres, as you say, over 70 towns and villages. russia is saying that they have stopped the ukrainian advance and that the ukrainians will be kicked out of the area.

actually, russia's own military bloggers seem to disagree with what the russian ministry of defence is saying, they said that two more villages have been taken by the ukrainians in the last 2a hours, that is quite small. but it shows that the ukrainians are still advancing, and by all appearances it seems they are making some progress. we also know that russian troops are building fortifications and trenches further up in kursk region, perhaps suggesting that they are expecting the ukrainians to further advance and aren't stopping them in their tracks. but then again, there were supposed to be trenches and fortifications on the border in kursk region, apparently that cost $170 million to build, and the ukrainians seem to sweep those out of their way relatively easily. so i think, you know, russia is worried about this, ukraine is advancing, perhaps not with the same speed that we saw in the first few days in that lightning attack that no one expected, not even apparently

the americans, when ukraine managed to seize more territory than russia has done in ukraine since the beginning of the year. and you've spent years in moscow, just how will this be being processed in moscow, what will vladimir putin, as far as you can tell from your experience, what kind of calculations will he be making? many people will be watching in russia and even perhaps outside thinking, "the size of russia, how come it can'tjust expel this attack?" i think most russians will be shocked by this. you know, this is the first successful invasion, really. it is an invasion, isn't it, of russian territory since the second world war. why has russia not managed to boot the ukrainians out? well, it is a huge front line, it is a huge country. and it was, you know, a shock surprise, lightning offensive by the ukrainians.

i also think that after 2.5 years of war, russia has clearly been depleted both in equipment and men. we saw, didn't we, last year how sometimes russia can be caught on the back foot and can't perhaps activate all its military and security resources as quickly as it liked. when we saw the march in moscow, right, by yevgeny prigozhin and his mutinous troops last year, then again the kremlin, the russian defence ministry seemed almost powerless to stop the advance of that band of mercenaries. so, you know, we have seen before how russia sometimes fails to react to these kind of situations. thanks for that. thailand's constitutional court has dismissed the prime minister, srettha thavisin. he's been in office for less than a year. he court in bangkok ruled that he'd

violated the constitution by appointing a minister who'd served time injail for contempt of court. the ruling threatens to destablise thailand's governing coalition and create further political uncertainty. last week, the same court dissolved the main opposition move forward party and banned its former leaderfrom politics for ten years. 0ur south east asia correspondent in bangkok, jonathan head. nobody was too surprised when the court ruled against the reformist party move forward and dissolved it last week. this has long been expected. move forward was seen as a threat to the establishment the court nearly always represents in its verdicts, but srettha thavisin is a prime minister of a conservative coalition government that formed after move forward was blocked from forming a government. remember, it won the most seats in the election. cobbled together this coalition, including a lot of the hardline conservatives who have been associated with the previous military governments, and everybody assumed this was a grand bargain that aside

from the reformist move forward, all the other parties had agreed to come together and finally have a proper civilian government that could bring some stability to thailand. the court has nowjust thrown all of that up into the air. it is not quite clear why it chose to rule this way. the technicality that yes, the prime minister did appoint a lawyer to his office who has had a past criminal conviction, technically speaking you could say that is a reason where a prime minister could be considered to have violated his ethical code, but thailand's politics are not famous for ethics. we've had a minister in previous governments who had served time for smuggling heroin in australia. so this is definitely a political decision and it leaves all sorts of uncertainties over thailand. it will certainly affect economic confidence because the government had plans to try to revive the economy, it was struggling to do that. now they've got to go back to parliament and cobble together another government, another prime minister. it alljust looks like perpetual political uncertainty and instability in thailand. and injapan, prime minister fumio

kishida says he will not stand in his party's leadership contest next month, clearing the way for a new premier. mr kishida, who came to power in 2021, said it was important to show the public that his liberal democratic party was changing. they have governed japan for most of the period since the second world war. diplomats are urgently working towards a peace deal in the middle east, and hoping to avoid a wider regional conflict. a senior adviser to us presidentjoe biden, is visiting beirut to meet lebanese caretaker prime minister najib mikati, as well as other key figures. speaking to the media, he emphasised the importance we also talked about the framework agreement that is on the table for a gaza ceasefire and he and i agreed there is no more time to waste. and there is no more valid excuses from any party for any further delay. us presidentjoe biden hopes that

a ceasefire between israel and hamas in gaza could deter iran from launching attacks on israel. the iranian government has dismissed calls from the uk and other western countries to refrain from retaliation against israel for the killing of hamas leader ismail haniyeh in tehran last month. israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement in his death. during a meeting of the united nations security council — which was punctuated by accusations — the us ambassador said the temperature in the middle east must be turned down. while in washington, a $20 billion worth of arms sales to israel was approved. meanwhile, the fighting in gaza continues, with israel claiming to have killed about a hundred hamas fighters in rafah, in southern gaza in recent days. palestinian medics say 19 people were killed in israeli air strikes on tuesday. among them were four—day—old twins — killed while their father was at a local government office registering their births. their mother and grandmother were also killed. 0ur middle east correspondent

lucy williamson reports. for four days, mohammed abu al-qumsan was a father. this day will haunt him for ever. the day he left his newborn twins, ayssel and asser, at home with their mother, while he went to collect their birth certificates, and returned to find them killed in a strike on their building in deir al balah. today, he prepared to bury them. a new parent, comforted like a child. "i didn't even have time to celebrate them", he said. gaza's health ministry says 115 infants, including ayssel and asser, have been born and killed during this war. we asked the israeli army why the twins�* family home was bombed and are waiting for a response. fighting has continued across the gaza strip,

with both israel and hamas under fresh pressure to agree a ceasefire deal to calm spiralling regional threats. today, hamas released this video which it said showed rockets being launched from gaza towards tel aviv. israel's army said one had crossed into israeli territory and fallen into the sea. in the southern city of khan younis, displaced residents, not long returned, fled artillery and air strikes again. "who will breast—feed this baby?" one resident cried over the ruins of a building. "all her family were killed, even her mother." reem abu hayyah, three months old, was pulled from the rubble, bruised and battered, the only survivor of an air strike that her grandmother says killed her parents and eight siblings, along with ten other people. translation: they are the terrorists, the ones| that kill children.

they are supported by america. out of 20 people, this one is the only one left. the focus on gaza now is shrinking as the threat of regional conflict grows. but each child left without a family, each father left without his children, is adding to the long shadow of this war. lucy williamson, bbc news, jerusalem. here in the uk, the latest figures on price increases have just been released, showing an uptick. however, the silver lining is that the increase is slightly smaller than expected. the consumer price inflation rate forjuly has come in at 2.2%, up from the 2% bank of england target and that is below the forecasted 2.3%. here's our business correspondent, marc ashdown. first off, this is not a big surprise. this was predicted. if you cast your mind back to those days where we saw inflation

rising and rising and rising, topping off at 11% back in october 2022. we're not back into that territory now. analysts, the consensus was for the price of rises to be going up at 2.3% injuly. it actually has been rising at 2.2%, so a little bit lower than we thought. there's a couple of big factors at play here. it's things like those huge energy bills. remember, the cost of gas and electricity. also the cost of food in the supermarkets, as well. as those figures start to work their way through and the prices start to come down, inflation starts to ease. now, the bank of england wants inflation to be at 2%, so this is the first time in a couple of months it's been above its target, and it is predicting it to sort of go up on a gentle little trend until the end of the year. but as i say, there's certain factors at play here. they talk about upwards and downwards pressures, things like those energy bills. they continue to cause an upward pressure. also the national minimum wage going up, that's us all going to the bosses and asking for pay rises. of course that tends to be inflationary. but on the flip side, things like food have started to ease off now.

i mean, food inflation was running at 19% a while back. it's now below the bank's target at 1.5%. so good news for the weekly shop. the big question of course though what impact will this have on interest rates? that's the big lever the bank has to try and tame inflation. i think it'll be calm really, because core inflation, once you strip out all of those volatile factors, that is starting to come down now and holding steady. the bank's monetary policy committee meets most months to decide what to do. last month, of course, they cut rates for the first time in a long time. the hope is they will do that again in september. i think it's a bit of a coin toss though, really. they'll be looking for more data to decide what they do, and i think the market is expecting the next rate cut hopefully more likely to be in november. thanks for that. plenty more reaction in business today in around 15 minutes' time. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news.

this is bbc news. an 0hio police officer was charged with murder on tuesday over the shooting of a 21—year—old pregnant black mother in a grocery store parking lot last august. she was suspected of stealing bottles of alcohol. she was ordered to step out of her car by police, and instead rolled the car forwards — and was fatally shot. my cbs news colleague tom hanson has the story. 0ut out of the car! they said you stole stuff, do not leave.— stuff, do not leave. body camera video shows _ stuff, do not leave. body camera video shows fatah _ stuff, do not leave. body camera video shows fatah approached i stuff, do not leave. body camera - video shows fatah approached ta'kiya young outside a grocery store last year. another officer orders her to get out. —— shows connor grubb approached ta'kiya young. bullet was fired into her chest. today a jury announced connor grubb is charged

with multiple counts of murder, in voluntary manslaughter. we with multiple counts of murder, in voluntary manslaughter.— with multiple counts of murder, in voluntary manslaughter. we are not -aassin voluntary manslaughter. we are not passing any — voluntary manslaughter. we are not passing any judgment _ voluntary manslaughter. we are not passing anyjudgment of _ voluntary manslaughter. we are not passing any judgment of whether i passing anyjudgment of whether officer connor grubb acted properly, we have not seen the evidence. young that was at least _ we have not seen the evidence. young that was at least 25 _ we have not seen the evidence. young that was at least 25 weeks _ we have not seen the evidence. young that was at least 25 weeks pregnant i that was at least 25 weeks pregnant at the time of the shooting, the daughter she expected also died. it was not called for. today her grandfather called grubb a bully with a bad. i grandfather called grubb a bully with a bad. ., grandfather called grubb a bully with a bad-— grandfather called grubb a bully with a bad. ., ., , with a bad. i want to see him pay for what he _ with a bad. i want to see him pay for what he did _ with a bad. i want to see him pay for what he did because - with a bad. i want to see him pay for what he did because it - with a bad. i want to see him pay for what he did because it was i for what he did because it was wrong — for what he did because it was wronu. �* ,, , for what he did because it was wronu. m, , for what he did because it was wronu. �* ,, , ., ., wrong. cbs news reached out to officer grubb's _ wrong. cbs news reached out to officer grubb's attorneys - wrong. cbs news reached out to officer grubb's attorneys and - wrong. cbs news reached out to j officer grubb's attorneys and say wrong. cbs news reached out to i officer grubb's attorneys and say he is waiting in countyjail until his arraignment tomorrow where he is expected to plead not guilty.

talks are due to begin on wednesday to end the civil war in sudan which has claimed thousands of lives. talks in switzerland follow brutal months of conflict. the sudanese government will not be represented. a fast spreading new variant of m pox has been declared a public health emergency in africa. since the start of the year there have been nearly 111,000 cases and a50 deaths been nearly 1a,000 cases and a50 deaths recorded in the democratic republic of congo. it has also been recorded in other african countries. next to greece and you have probably seen the images of those huge wildfires that had been threatening the capital athens. the good news is authorities now say they have been brought under control. there is plenty of damage as you can

see in these pictures. 100 buildings have been damaged around the capital. officials have also said that less than 10% of the burnt areas were forests. today is all about assessing the damage and obviously you can see some of that around me. this is a suburb of athens because this year the wildfires have come to the capital. if you look behind me you will notice that there is a collapsed basketball hoop. this was a basketball court before the fires came here. over here are stands where rows of children would come to watch their friends play. a staff member told me about 500 children used to come here every day and if you look at the pictures, the photos of what this used to look like beforehand, you can see the scale of the damage. i can see the sky above me, i shouldn't be able to do that, but the rooftop was the very first thing that caught fire.

i've also seen helicopters fly over dousing the land with water because there is this concern that there could be flare—ups. but what the government is particularly focused on is how to help communities like this and these people who have lost businesses like this rebuild, so a.7 million euros has been allocated to that effort. we know nearly 650 people were offered temporary housing since sunday. people who were at risk and who were affected by these fires. and no matter how much help they receive, it will be a long time before businesses like this can get up and running again. talk us through the background because this is a part of the world that is used to very hot conditions at certain times of the year. what has been the trend? what has been happening over the years? wildfires are not uncommon to greece. i was here last year when they hit the islands

as well and when rhodes in particular, hundreds of tourists fleeing from their hotel rooms as the fires approached. and of course six years ago there was a devastating summer where more than 100 people were killed in the seaside town of mati where the fires consumed homes, cars, people were even killed as they were trying to swim away to safety. so none of this is uncommon to greece. but the temperatures have been rising. it's been the hottest june and july on record and what scientists say is that these sorts of conditions, the dry heat, the wind, these are what are contributing to these wildfires. and global warming and climate change could be contributing to the severity and the frequency of these fires. and if you speak to people

in greece, residents themselves say these temperatures and the way they have to live their summers, they say it's not normal. freddie flintoff has opened up about his life since he had a high—speed car crash while filming an episode of top gear two years ago. the england cricketer was left with severe facial injuries and broken ribs after the car he was in flipped off a test track. for his new series, freddie flintoff�*s field of dreams on tour, he's returned to his hometown of preston to take his cricket team to india, a trip he'd planned before his accident. 0ur sports correspondent patrick geary reports. i promised you a trip to india. um, i'm wondering if you still want to go. freddie flintoff has been on many a cricket tour before, but none quite like this. representing england, but we're representing something far bigger than that — representing preston. a team of lancastrian youngsters who, until a couple of years ago, mostly didn't know the rules

of cricket, heading to india, where the sport is woven into everyday life. catch! this is the second series of freddie flintoffs field of dreams. are you all right? miss me? where the great ex—cricketer turns ambassador, coach and mentor. using the sport he loves as a force to try and improve the lives of young people from his home town of preston. i want to be involved. i think it brings the best out in you. yeah. production began not long after the first series aired in 2022, but soon everything would have to stop. in the last few minutes, _ it's been announced that the former england cricketer freddie flintoff has been taken to hospital - after being injured in an accident. exactly what happened in that accident while filming for top gear at dunsfold park in surrey has never been publicly spoken about. but the programme showed us for the first time the effect it had on flintoff. genuinely should not be here after what happened. it's going to be a long road back. i've only just started. got to look on the positive — i'm still here, i've got another chance. i've got to go at it.

i'm seeing that as how it is — a second go. he would reach a settlement with the bbc, which hasn't broadcast top gear since. for months, we saw and heard nothing from freddie flintoff until he appeared in cardiff last september among the england cricket coaching staff. but travelling abroad to film field of dreams on tour would be a huge step. last night's programme showed us how big a challenge it was. i think about it all the time and i think about going and how good it will be. i rewind and thinking, well, i don't want to leave the house, either. get on a plane and got to be away for two and a half weeks. yeah. some of these lads have had a tough life. you've got to try and put it into perspective. yeah. and i feel guilty i can't do that. i don't want to sit here and feel sorry for myself. and i don't want sympathy. but it's going from being here for seven months, really, and then going to india. which is like the extreme. everywhere i go, at the minute, i've got a full facemask and glasses on.

i can't do that. i struggle with anxiety. you know, i have nightmares, i have flashbacks. it's been so hard to cope with. but i'm thinking if i don't do something, i'm never going to go. i've got to get on with it. in some ways, like, the lads might help you out. i'm a bit nervous about that, as well. you know, seeing them for the first time, being in front of them. flintoff, as he has so often, rose to the challenge and, injanuary, he reunited with his team... oh, my god, it's you. ..to make good on his offer of the tour of a lifetime. whatever�*s happened this last year for me, one thing i've been very aware of and desperately wanting to do is take you. i've heard they love you over in india. not just india, sean! are you feeling 100% now? not really. i don't know if i will again, to be honest. i'm better than i was. i don't know what completely better is. you know what i mean? i am what i am now. i'm different to what i was. that's something i'll

probably have to deal with for the rest of my life. so, better? no, different. that was freddie flintoff there. stay with us here on bbc news. it's been quite a cloudy start to the day and a dank one as well across southern areas. a lot of low cloud, some rain and drizzle, and as we go through the next few days, you will notice it will be cooler than it has been. there will be rain at times but equally sunshine, but it is looking dry with sunny spells for most as we head into this weekend. what we have at the moment is still quite a bit of cloud around, still some patchy rain, breaking up in places and temperatures rise that could spark a few showers. for south—west england, wales, northern england and scotland, a lot of dry weather and a fair bit of sunshine. 0ut towards the west, the cloud will continue to build

and the wind will strengthen. temperatures 15—2a, possibly a bit higher in the south if the cloud remains broken for longer. into this evening, still some residual cloud, some clear skies, but we have persistent rain coming in across scotland and also northern ireland. that will get into north—west england by the end of the night. it will be a milder night in the north compared to last night and slightly cooler in the south compared to last night. we start tomorrow with that weather front bringing the persistent rain through scotland, northern ireland, northern england and eventually into wales. you can see from the isobars it will also be quite a blustery day, and the rain will continue to advanced very slowly southwards and cloud building ahead of it. hanging on to the sunshine for the longest in the south—eastern corner. behind the rain, we see blustery showers but bright and sunny spells across parts of scotland and northern ireland too. temperatures down in the north,

15—18, but as we push further south, 20—26 will be the order of the day. eventually, that rain makes it into southern england, it can take its time to clear the channel and the far south—east, but to the north of that, there will be a lot of dry weather again, some sunshine around, at worst bright spells, and out towards the north and west, again blustery showers. temperatures 1a—25 north to south. as we head into the weekend, a lot of dry weather around, a fair bit of sunshine, temperatures about where we would expect them at this stage, but we could get some showery rain in the north—west on sunday.

uk inflation ticks up to 2.2% injuly — as higher energy prices bite. we'll assess what this means for interest rates. and cashing in on the ai boom — profits rise at foxconn, the world's largest maker of iphones. welcome to business today. we start in the uk where inflation data forjuly shows that the pace of price rises is accelerating — something which had been

forecast and factored in, but the number is still lower than expected. consumer price inflation rate forjuly has come in at 2.2%. that's higher than the 2% level it was at during may and june. that number is precisely the bank of england's target for a healthy economy. but the figure forjuly is still lower than many observers had forecast. where does that leave the state of the economy and the likely path of interest rate cuts? joining me now is jackie bowie — head of europe at chatham financial. thank you forjoining us. it is a rise in inflation but not by as much as some had expected. is it cause for alarm? as some had expected. is it cause foralarm? it as some had expected. is it cause for alarm?— for alarm? it doesn't seem to be. this low price _ for alarm? it doesn't seem to be. this low price you _ for alarm? it doesn't seem to be. this low price you have _ for alarm? it doesn't seem to be. this low price you have seen - for alarm? it doesn't seem to be. this low price you have seen was|

this low price you have seen was predicted and much of that has come from what we