pink live from london, this is bbc news: the us secretary of state jets off to the middle east with plans to meet israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu as pressure mounts for a gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal. russian and ukrainian officials say air defences destroyed multiple drones and missiles fired by the other side overnight. and extreme prejudice against women in its counter—terrorism programme. and thailand's new prime minister received the king's endorsement at a ceremony in bangkok. hello, i'm samantha simmonds. the us secretary of state is travelling to israel as cautious optimism grows amongst israeli

negotiators about the possibility of reaching a deal on gaza. antony blinken is heading to the region this weekend, after president biden also said that a ceasefire deal was closer than ever. but senior hamas figures have dismissed such optimism as an illusion. there have been more israeli airstrikes in gaza and israel also said it had struck targets inside neighbouring lebanon which belong to hezbollah, the group which supports hamas in gaza. greg mckenzie has this report. images from across the region over the weekend show there are still huge obstacles to peace despite two days of us—backed talks in qatar. on friday night, an israeli airstrike reportedly killed 15 people in the central area of gaza. although israel said it had eliminated a number of armed

fighters, several women and children were also reportedly killed. us secretary of state antony blinken will arrive in the region to promote what is being called a final bridging proposal aimed at overcoming the differences between hamas and israel, which would hopefully lead to a ceasefire and the release of hostages in exchange for palestinian prisoners being held in israeli jails. in tel aviv, thousands took to the streets, including anti—government protesters and some of the relatives of hostages still in gaza who are calling the current negotiations as the last chance to get some of them out alive. and the other 140 hostages are paying a political price because they could have come already with a deal such a long time ago. so many people could have come alive but instead they are going to come home bodies.

they're dead, there's an urgency for the next round of talks to succeed, with fears the conflicts in gaza and either side of israel's northern border could escalate into a wider regional war. but hamas officials have already dismissed american optimism as an illusion. greg mckenzie, bbc news. our middle east correspondent, jenny hill, has more from tel aviv which is where antony blinken is due to land in the coming hours. i think this is all about keeping up the momentum. the us has been pushing really hard along with mediators qatar and egypt to get us and israeli leaders and hamas to agree a deal. in the words ofjoe biden that we are closer to a deal

than ever we have been. mr blinken plans to hold talks with the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu benjamin netanyahu and last night his office issued a statement in which it expressed cautious optimism about progress but hamas say any positivity or optimism is simply an illusion and a senior official told the bbc no progress has been made and is all this goes on so too does the war in gaza at a terrible human cost and it is feared that conflict

all—out war so as antony blinken arrives in his plane he knows the stakes could not be higher. the united states were calling this are bridging proposal, the idea they were building on points of agreement as they described in recent weeks but also aiming to close remaining gaps to a number of sticking points we understand remain. israel would for example like to have some control over the return of displaced palestinians to northern gaza and also controversy over who controls a strip of land and gaza bordering a strip of land in gaza bordering egypt. also very keen to retain a veto over the palestinian prisoners released in exchange for israeli hostages currently held captive in

the political leader of hamas was killed in a strike in iran a couple weeks ago and the man believed to be the mastermind behind october 7th now leads hamas overall, does that change anything? that is the big unknowable. one of the reasons this region is in such a state of high alert is the political leader of hamas was

killed in tehran a couple weeks ago. israel has never confirmed or denied but it is widely acknowledged the assassination was their work. his replacement is still believed to be in hiding in gaza and believed to be much more hardline person than his predecessor who is described by negotiators as pragmatic and someone with whom they could do business so it is not really clear yet what the leadership and attitude towards the negotiations will be but certainly the concern as he is a more extreme figure with potentially a rather more extreme attitude towards whatever is on the table. the us is continuing to push hard to get israel and hamas to agree to a deal. and to that end, mr blinken will sit down for talks ukraine's air force say they've destroyed another bridge

in russia's kursk region. air force commander mykola oleshchuck released this footage, saying "minus one more bridge", and adding that strikes were depriving russia of logisitical capabilities. it comes after this video, which the ukrainaian military says shows the destruction of a key bridge inside the kursk region of russia. this video shows large explosions on the structure, about 11 kilometres from the border. meanwhile, russia's defence ministry says its air defence units destroyed five drones that ukraine launched overnight targeting the border kursk, belgorod and rostov regions, according to russia's defence ministry. russia says it is pushing back ukrainian troops in the kursk region — but ukraine's president zelensky says his forces are strengthening their position. volodymyr omelya is a major in the ukrainian armed forces. before news of that new strike, he spoke to my colleague, lewis vaughan—jones, and outlined what ukraine's long—term plan for the incursion is. ukrainian armed forces flip the table. putin's dream was to trade ukrainian territory and to cut it piece by piece, having numerous peace settlements or peace negotiations. it failed. and right now we should talk about russian territory controlled by ukrainian forces as well.

and definitely russia and kremlin specifically are in deep shock because they cannot still believe that it's a true operation and ukrainian armed forces are there and controlling more than ioookm2. but for ukraine, there's no doubting the success so far of that mission. but for ukraine to be able to use it in any way for negotiations or whatever reason, it has to be able to hold it without too great a loss of ukrainian life and resources. are you confident ukraine can do that? lewis, you are absolutely right. it's war and any unpredictable thing can happen any second. but still, as of today, more than two weeks passed and we control this territory. we hold it and we progress. so it's the best answer to your question. definitely we cannot march to moscow as prigozhin tried to do.

but in present situation, it turned out that putin is not that strong as he dreams of. he is not scary any more. and kremlin doesn't have enough resources to withstand ukrainian attack in russian territory. so what response are you expecting from vladimir putin? we believe that he will try to push hard once again. but according to our data, russian economy is going down. and he's out of manpower regardless that he sends hundreds of russians to die every day. and right now, forfor him, choice is very simple. whether he announced new great mobilisation to call for army every single russian. and then he will end this russian tsar during world war one, or he will try to negotiate and to make a pause to prepare russia better for new war.

so do you think this incursion by ukraine, given what you've just said and the potential responses, do you think it will change the course of this war? it's not a miracle and it's not a miracle weapon. but yes, it increases morale of ukrainians and armed forces of ukraine a lot. we are happy to see that reaction of our allies is positive. and once again, using this opportunity, i would like to thank all the people of united kingdom for supporting ukraine. it's crucial for us to withstand this battle. but if to talk in numbers, russia controls more than iookm2 in ukraine. we control as of today more than 1,000. so proportion is not

in our good case. but we still believe that president is on the table, that we talk not only about ukrainian territory, but we talk about russian territory. and putin should make a choice. the un's atomic energy agency says that the nuclear safety situation at ukraine's zaporizhzhia power plant is continuing to deteroriate. the nuclear station has been occupied by russian forces since shortly after the invasion. it has occasionally been damaged by fighting and a un team says there has been intense military activity in the area over the last week. that includes a drone explosion just outside of the plant, near to the essential cooling water sprinkler ponds. thailand's new prime minister has said she will take steps to stimulate the country's flagging economy, combat drug problems and improve universal healthcare. paetongtarn shinawatra was speaking shortly after receiving the king's endorsement in a televised ceremony in the capital, bangkok. it paves the way for the 37—year—old to form a cabinet. her investiture comes on the same day her father, the former prime minister thaksin shinawatra, ends his parole

following convictions relating to abuse of authority during his time in office. he was included in a royal pardon for prisoners last month. following her endorsement from the king, paetongtarn shinawatra addressed the public. i'd like to thank the people of thailand, whether you voted for me or not. i promise to serve everyone equally and wholeheartedly. every age, every gender, every diversity. together, let's turn any change, any challenges into opportunities, making thailand a place where everyone can dream, create and shape their future. thank you. here in the uk, the home office

says it will include extreme misogyny among types of extremism which the government should take steps to tackle. it's started a review of potential gaps in the current system and the government says it will develop plans to map and monitor extremist trends both on and offline. the home secretary yvette cooper said that for too long governments had failed to address the issue. here's our political correspondent charlotte rose with more on how the government plans. yvette cooper is saying there will be a step change in how the government tackles extremism whether offline are online and applied this rapid review by civil servants into how it is dealt with. she says she has asked them to look at the rise in both islamist and far right extremism as well as the rise in misogyny and other broad categories of extremism which she says includes a fixation on violence and says she wants evidence on what

works to try to disrupt people spreading what she calls hateful and divisive beliefs that promote violence and undermine democracy and she wants ways to crack down on that kind of behaviour. people will have questions about whether today's announcement is linked to some of the riots we have seen in towns and cities across the uk in recent weeks but actually this was something in the labour election manifesto so clearly it is something the party has been thinking about for some time. when they talk about extreme misogyny what kind of things at the talking about? is it radicalisation of men online? it is not something completely new, it has been looked at within the broader remit of extremism since the early 2020s when a concern began to write about something called incel culture, communities of young men online

saying they are involuntarily celibate and this was linked to the plymouth shootings in 2021 when five people were killed by a young man called jake davison. and this is also looking at people like influencers like andrew tait and the content they have read by young men in particular. and the home secretary saying she is concerned the previous government didn't have any kind of extremism policy dating back to 2015. that is when the last counter—extremism policy was published and she saying this area has been hollowed out in terms of government response. this is not the first review labour has announced he's coming to power injuly, we have seen announcements of lots of reviews from the strategic defence

review to a review of the national curriculum and i guess some critics of the government would say it is quite easy to announce reviews and harder to actually take decisive action. i guess what the government would say is they need to know what the picture is before they can decide what action they need to take. vietnam's leader, to lam, is on a three—day visit to china. his first overseas trip since taking up the role. chinese state media reports he arrived in guangzhou, an industrial and export hub near hong kong. he's due to meet with chinese leader xijinping and other senior officials during the trip. he's also expected to visit sites where the former vietnamese communist leader ho chi minh spent time. professor christoph bluth specialises in international relations at the university of bradford. i spoke to him earlier. china and vietnam are neighbours and have a close and important economic relationship. it's very important for china and vietnam because of potential tensions over the efforts by china to create a hegemony role in the

region and the territorial disputes in the south china sea. vietnam is seeking to preserve its sovereignty while at the same time relying very heavily economically on china. how do you think that will go? vietnam has claims in the south china sea, it's a difficult balancing act for them when the realise the rely heavily on trade for china. vietnam has domestic discontent and demonstrations against china which the vietnamese government has clamped down on. at the same the office we want to maintain this trade balance and the vietnamese economy relies quite a lot on the heavy import of chinese goods for its own manufacturing industries so it is a balancing act vietnam has to perform. vietnam has this bamboo diplomacy. an approach to staying in good relations with its neighbour

china and also the united states is extremely important to them. and it also relies heavily on russia for its military modernisation so there is a plethora of relationships to be reconciled. in that they are not necessarily in conflict, relations between the united states and vietnam don't really with china but china is very close and developing its core interests in the south china sea which conflict with those of other states so vietnam has to be very careful. what does china want out of this visit? it's important for them to enhance relations with china and vietnam to prevent the kind of emerging conflict between the two countries and vietnam at the same time seeks to consolidate its own

internal position of the communist party and therefore we have seen since the last year especially a greater move towards smoothing over relations with china and xi jinping visited vietnam last year so relations are a bit closer now than they have been for a while. the london fire brigade is investigating the cause of a fire which damaged part of the roof at the historic arts venue, somerset house. more than 120 firefighters tackled the blaze on the bank of the thames in central london which started at lunchtime yesterday. in the last 15 minutes or so, the courtauld gallery at the site reopened to the public but large parts of the building are still closed. our culture reporter, noor nanji, reports. clouds of grey smoke filling the central london skyline on a busy saturday afternoon. they came from a fire that broke out in somerset house just before midday. staff and visitors were evacuated and 20 fire engines were sent to the scene. this is where efforts to tackle the fire are being focused,

on the side of the river that faces the river thames. you can see some of the scale of the operation behind me. they're spraying water onto the building's roof, where the flames are thought to be located. the cause is currently under investigation. the response was complex and technical due to the age and design of the building, and firefighters will remain at the scene today. a number of staff and visitors left somerset house before the brigade arrived and there are no reports of any injuries. somerset house is an historic site dating back centuries. it's now used as an arts venue and is home to the courtauld gallery, which houses priceless artworks, including by van gogh, claude monet and paul cezanne. those artworks are believed to be safe. it's too early to comment on the building's condition, but thanks to the efforts of the emergency services i am confident that the damage is to one

small part of the building. the venue will remain closed until further notice, but the courtauld gallery will reopen to the public today. french film star alain delon has died at the age of 88. the actor was part of the golden era of french cinema, known for his tough—guy persona on screen in hits including the samurai and borsalino. his family say he died peacefully at home, surrounded by his children and family. once described as the most beautiful man in the movies, delon starred in hits from the 19605 onwards. earlier i spoke to the entertainment reporter and radio times columnist caroline frost and asked her what his most defining performances had been. i guess off the top of my head, one of the most defining things was the bookends of his relationship with romy schneider, whom he later described as the love of his life, a german actress he met in the late 19505 and co—starred

in with in a film called christine. she was a bigger star than him at the time but then in later years he recruited her back for a film that turned out to be a poignant reunion, the swimming pool. he was desperate to reconcile, we have film stars these days where we are more concerned and aware of their romances but these two were something quite, just typical of central european glamour at the middle of the century. nobody was more glamorous than these two, and they were more than the sum of the parts. you mentioned thrillers, gangster thrillers, i would have to mention borsalino as well, he showed he could do something else very different alongside jean—paul belmondo in 1970, and i have to mention the samurai, because alain delon�*s depiction of a lonely, the solitude, a fixated man

—— depiction of a lonely, a solitude—fixated man operating on the other side of the law, that has been cited in so many directors and actors list of top influences. somebody like keanu reeves is talking about his character ofjohn wick, saying he based it solely on the grace of alain delon. similarly back in the early 805, richard gere was said to do his homework for american gigolo by going and watching alain delon on in purple noon. so even though some of his bigger films, he tried twice or more to break into the international market and never quite cracked it, always more of a star in his native france but nevertheless his legacy, his influence, his creative influence is very much permanent and concrete in more thanju5t france. you touched on his earlier years and his personal life, in more recent years, it did become quite public, his complicated personal life, didn't it? for sure, in the 19605 there was this wonderful photograph mickjagger trying to keep the attention of his then—girlfriend and she is looking at the beautiful man on the other side of her, alain delon.

that picture sums up the 19605 for me. he had his roll call of beautifull tempestuou5, often, defining on the front of all of the celebrity pages in earlier years, and sadly for him, in later years, it was more marked by a breakdown in family relations, law 5uit5. he had a huge amount of money and a big family estate, he had children from early relationships, huge dirty washing squabbles that were played out across the french tabloids. the nice announcement that he was surrounded by his family when he passed away is a small consolation. stay with us here on bbc news.

i'm samantha simmonds. hello there. your sunday morning has started off on a rather pleasant note across many areas of the uk. we've got some dry weather with some sunny spells. a beautiful scene here in the shetland isles first thing this morning with some fairweather cumulus cloud in the sky, but there are a few showers moving their way through scotland at the moment. they'll continue to ease off into the afternoon, becoming few and far between. still a little bit breezy here. elsewhere we've just got some sunny spells this afternoon and maximum temperatures getting up to about 2k, maybe 25 degrees towards the south east of england. further north about 17 or 18 celsius there in aberdeen. 1a degrees in the northern isles.

now, through this evening and tonight, there'll be some clear skies across england and wales, but the cloud will thicken in northern ireland and scotland, maybe some spots of rain arriving here late in the night. overnight temperatures down to about nine to 12 degrees. but in the countryside we could see temperatures down into a fairly low single figures. so it could be a bit of a fresh start to your monday morning. but as we go through monday, well, there'll be some changes because we've got this area of low pressure moving in these weather fronts, that's set to bring in some wet and also windy weather throughout the day on monday, but across eastern areas, starting off with some sunshine and you'll keep that sunshine for pretty much all day elsewhere, the cloud increasing, rain moving in and that will turn quite heavy, especially for northern ireland, northwest scotland into the southwest of wales. windy conditions for all of us, but particularly so around this irish sea coast. some significant gusts through the day and top temperatures about 16 to 17 degrees. we've got that cloud and the rain further south and east. still temperatures in the low 205.

that rain moves east overnight, so it'll be with you on tuesday morning across eastern areas. it will clear, then we're going to see some showers coming in across western areas of scotland where again it's going to feel quite cool. 13/14 celsius here. there'll be some sunny spells in between the showers and again temperatures getting up into the low to the mid 205 across eastern and southeastern areas. as we go through wednesday and thursday. this area of low pressure that's going to move in. it will make it a particularly windy day both on wednesday and thursday. unseasonably strong winds. perhaps with that, there'll be some outbreaks of rain coming in, especially across northern areas further south. a little bit drier with some sunny spells there in london. that's it from me. bye— bye.

this is bbc news, the headlines. the us secretary of state, antony blinken, is on his way to israel in his latest effort to push for a ceasefire and hostage release deal in gaza. the us and israel have said that there's been positive progress since talks resumed in qatar last week. but hamas has dismissed the optimism as an illusion. the ukrainian military has released a video, which it says shows the destruction of another key bridge inside the kursk region of russia. air force commander mykola oleshchuck released the footage, saying russia was "minus one more bridge" and that strikes were depriving russia of logisitical capabilities. the french actor alain delon, once described as the most beautiful man in cinema, has died at the age of 88. delon was one of the biggest stars in french film in the 19605 and 705.