us secretary of state antony blinken travels to the middle east, amid hopes a gaza ceasefire deal can be reached. ukraine says it's destroyed another key bridge in russia's kursk region, while the russian military claim that they've taken a village on the front line. the british government announces plans to confront hatred and extreme prejudice against women in its counter terrorism programme. the french actor alain delon — once described as the most beautiful man in cinema — dies at the age of 88. hello, i'm martine croxall. 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 after president biden also said a ceasefire deal was closer than ever. but a senior hamas official told the bbc no progess had been made. during a cabinet meeting today, prime minister netanyahu accused hamas of being "obstinate." he called for more pressure to be put on the group, ahead of a new round of talks this week. meanwhile, there have been more israeli air strikes in gaza — these are some pictures of a destroyed residential building in the central gaza town of deir al—balah and israel said it had struck targets inside neighbouring lebanon which belong to hezbollah, the group that supports hamas in gaza. leigh milner reports. he's on his way, hoping to seal a peace deal after months of negotiations. the us secretary of state, antony blinken, hopes the talks will lead to a ceasefire and the release of hostages in exchange for palestinian prisoners being held in israeli jails.

us presidentjoe biden said he was feeling optimistic. however, hamas officials have already dismissed american optimism as an illusion. in tel aviv, thousands took to the streets last night, including anti—government protesters and some of the relatives of hostages still in gaza, who are calling for the current negotiations as the last chance to get some of them out alive. we don't believe in this government at all. we want our hostages to be back and we want to find some sort of solution to what is happening here. but there are still huge obstacles to peace, despite two days of us—backed talks in qatar. on friday night, an israeli air strike 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. this morning, theirfunerals began to take place. translation: an entire civilian i family, a mother and six children - the oldest of whom was 15 years old and the youngest a year and a half. what was their crime? what was their crime in front of the world? and, in the south of gaza, the fighting continues, with israeli forces pushing through khan younis and hamas launching a series of rocket attacks. with more than 40,000 people killed in gaza since the war began, there is an urgency for the next round of talks to succeed with fears of a wider regional escalation. leigh milner, bbc news. 0ur middle east correspondent, jenny hill, has more on the ceasefire talks that have been taking place in qatar. 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 this deal across the line, to get hamas and israeli

leaders to agree that deal. we have heard a lot of very positive messaging coming out of the states. it is acknowledged that there is still more work to do. but in the words ofjoe biden, we are closer to a deal than ever we have been. now, mr blinken, once he arrives, is due to hold talks with the israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu. israel is also sounding a positive note and last night mr netanyahu's office issued a statement in which it expressed cautious optimism about progress but then listen to what hamas has had to say — they say that any positivity or optimism is simply an illusion. a senior official told the bbc that no progress has been made and while all of this urgent diplomacy goes on, so, too, of course, does the war in gaza at a terrible human cost and it is feared that that conflict is on the verge of escalating to an all—out regional war.

so, as antony blinken arrives in his plane he knows the stakes could not be higher. yonahjeremy bob is an author and senior military correspondent forjerusalem post. he explained the potential sticking points in the ceasefire talks. if you talk to some of the negotiators — who are people who really want there to be a deal, they have been trying for ten months to get these hostages back to their families — they're very optimistic. if you talk to some of netanyahu's people, they're very pessimistic. now, there's a reason here, even though they're, you know, it's part of the same country and system, but netanyahu is worried about losing his government. he has two very right—wing ministers who could bring his government down, and they have said that they will bring his government down if he ends the war without having destroyed hamas. he hasn't destroyed hamas yet.

0n the other hand, there's this huge contingent in israel that want the hostages back, even if the war has to be paused. what does pause mean? does it mean two months? six months? that's not the point. people want the hostages back. the negotiators want the hostages back. and so you see sometimes this zig—zag that almost seems to make no sense within israel of different messages coming out. how critical is what happens to the philadelphi corridor, this eight—mile strip of land between egypt and the gaza strip? the philadelphi corridor is super critical. if israel controls the philadelphi corridor, hamas cannot re—arm. the philadelphi corridor is the cross border between gaza and egypt. that is the only way that hamas can interact with the outside world. israel can prevent arms coming in from, you know, the air from coming in from the sea. israel has not been able to prevent arms coming in from there. we heard recently there's something like 180 tunnels that hamas has had to be able to smuggle weapons. so if israel controls that, hamas cannot re—arm. that is huge for hamas�*s future. 0n the other hand, hamas has made it clear that they won't give up

the hostages if israel holds on to the corridor. so there have been creative solutions that israel could maintain technology on the corridor that it gets to man, and maybe some other international representatives, because israel doesn't trust either hamas or the palestinian authority. would that give israel enough security? would netanyahu be able to keep the very right—wing ministers in his government from knocking the government down as he has that? that's anybody�*s guess. a senior hamas official has told the bbc that there is no progress being made. of course, negotiators directly or indirectly are going to have to now deal with a new head of hamas, yahya sinwar, rather than ismail haniyeh. what difference is that changing leadership going to make? so i want to step back for a second and realise that at this stage, the hostages, it's sad to say, but they're not the main issue. the main issues are the potential

iran—hezbollah regional war with israel and whether there's going to be a future of hamas in gaza. israel has beaten most of hamas military in gaza, but not completely. so if israel stops the war and lets hamas make a comeback, then from the israeli perspective, maybe this is a failure, from the hamas perspective, with all of their losses, maybe this is a victory. and that's what the negotiation is really about. willa regional war be prevented? and who between israel and hamas can declare victory, or can both sides declare some kind of victory? if they can find a magic formula to do that, then both yahya sinwar of hamas and benjamin netanyahu could sign on. but if either one of them think that the other one is declaring victory too much, then sinwar will feel like he's lost too much, it's not worth him to make a deal, and netanyahu, worried about losing his government, also wouldn't want to make a deal. ukraine's air force say they've

destroyed another bridge in russia's kursk region. air force commander mykola 0leshchuck released this footage, saying russia was "minus one more bridge" and that strikes were depriving them of logistical capabilities. these are the latest pictures from the rostov region in south—west russia. the governor there says firefighters were called to put out a fire at an industrial facility struck by debris from a ukrainian drone. both sides say air defences destroyed multiple drones and missiles fired by the other side overnight. meanwhile, belarusian president alexander lukashenko said his country had deployed nearly a third of its armed forces along the border with ukraine. in a television interview, mr lukashenko said minsk�*s move was aimed at defending the country against any threat posed by ukrainian troops. patrick bury is a senior lecturer in security from the department of politics, languages and international studies at the university of bath. he explained more about the tactics of the ukrainian incursion.

well, i think in terms of dropping the bridges over the same river, that's the second of three major bridges they've dropped now, and it serves two functions. essentially, on the one hand, what they're trying to do is stop reinforcements coming in over that river to help the russians and slow their logistics, or indeed stop it. and secondly, in a sort of more longer—term view, if you look at the way that the forces are positioned in that area, it's the northwest part of the pocket that they've managed to create, and the river will actually form a quite formidable defensive obstacle if the ukrainian forces can get up there and force the russians out or capture them, given the fact that they don't have that many avenues of retreat left, and then use that to anchor their left flank, as it were, which would be an easier defensible line. so i think that's what really is going on there. here in the uk — the home office says it will include extreme misogyny — the hatred of women —

among types of extremism which the government should take steps to tackle. it's started a rapid review to address gaps in the current system and 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. earlier, i spoke to political correspondent charlotte rose and she explains what home secretary wants to achieve through this review. she's asked civil servants to look at what are the particular activities that both promote violence and also undermine democracy? she says that they'll be looking at both the rise in far right ideology, also islamist extremism, and now, of course, extreme misogyny. but, she says also, extremism that fits into broader categories like fixation on violence. and i guess there might be questions about whether this is a specific response by the government to the riots and disorder that we've seen in towns and cities across the uk. but actually, this was something

that was in labour's manifesto during the election. so it's obviously something the party has been thinking about for some time. we know that since coming into government injuly, the labour party has launched a whole series of reviews on different things. we've had strategic defence reviews, spending reviews, curriculum reviews and i guess critics might say, "well, it's quite to put in place a review, that's a proxy for actual action." but yvette cooper is saying, "look, there hasn't been a new counter—extremism strategy since 2015. that's nine years ago now. so we need to look at what the new and emerging threats are." how clear is it at the moment what they mean by extreme misogyny? i think that's not clear at the moment. and certainly the government hasn't set it out specifically. but i think if we look at the kinds of things we might be talking about.

there has for a long time been a concern about something that was known as incel culture. now, this was an online movement that tended to involve young men, those who described themselves as involuntarily celibate. and that was linked to the plymouth shootings in 2021, when a 22—year—old, jake davison, killed five people, including his mother, before fatally shooting himself. that was linked to that online movement. and, of course, seeing the popularity of social media influencers like andrew tate and the huge following that he has in particular amongst young men right across the world, i think that is something that has perhaps prompted the government to say, "we need to look at this formally." i imagine as well, there will be a number of women's groups who will want to have some input, because we've seen some terrible stuff happen online to women. that's absolutely correct. we've seen terrible things happening both in the real world and online. and obviously, jess phillips, who's now a government minister for tackling violence against women and girls, has long talked about the fact that very little inroad has been made on tackling abuse, both online, but also the number of homicides and violent crimes committed against women. so, i think this is something

that those groups will certainly be very pleased to hear. but of course, we'll want to know the details. hundreds of protesters gathered in the seaside town in southwest england on sunday. around 200 anti—immigration protesters and around 500 people from groups including stand up to racism congregated in the town centre, in two separate protests. dorset police say the groups began to disperse at lunchtime. additional temporary powers that allow police officers to stop and search people for weapons remain in place until 11pm tonight. now it's time for a look at today's sport. hello from the bbc sport centre. the build up to the big game in the premier league today, manchester city against chelsea in a moment. but first, brentford are off the mark — after getting the better of crystal palace in the earlier kick off. it could have been palace

with the early advantage, eberechi eze's free kick was ruled out, and bryan mbeumo took full advantage, to then go on, and score, to give brentford the lead before half time. palace got their equaliser in the second half, ethan pinnock heading into his own net. yoan wissa's tap in later proved to be the difference. 2—1 to brentford, a solid win for them. manchester city begin the defence of their premier league title in around 15 minutes against chelsea. no raheem sterling for chelsea, who start romeo lavia, with several big names rested for city — who haven't lost in the premier league since december. city became the first team in history to win the top flight title four times in a row. but pep guardiola says it's going to take a lot of work to make it five. 114 points to play, we start from zero everyone, and we will see. if we are going to conquer, we have to conquer again. because they are not going to give us now the premier league for 211—25 season, so we have to do it. so i understand because normally when people say, we are favourites, i will not accept it. when you have won four in a row, six and seven, it's normal to accept we are favourites.

we have to live with that but i know what we have to do. this is point by point, it must be, must we win, and of course every season is more and more difficult. i've said many times after eight, nine years together you can do so many different things, so pep is not a manager that is always doing the same. he is always changing and with us, we will be exactly the same so it will be a tough game but as you said, exciting. the start the premiership, start against the champions and we'll see. tottenham have accepted a bid from leicester for midfielder 0liver skipp. the fee for the 23—year—old, who came through the academy at spurs, is in excess of £20 million. he is expected to have a medical on monday, before the two clubs meet in their opening premier league match. the last three places in the scottish league cup quarterfinals are up for grabs on sunday, with celtic looking to wrest the title back from rivals rangers this campaign. into the second half there, with celtic 3—1 up against hibernian. dundee united progress, after beating st mirren 1—0. motherwell have taken the lead against kilmarnock in extra time,

after their game was goalless after 90 minutes. holger rune has ended jack draper's run to the quarter finals of the cincinnati 0pen — the danejoining frances tiafoe, alex zverev and world number one jannik sinner in the last four of the final tournament before the us open. the british number one had come from a set down to win his previous two matches, but was unable to repeat the feat against rune, who won in straight sets. each had three break points, draper took none, rune all three of his. a second consecutive round of 64 has pulled hideki matsuyama away from the field, with the final round of the stjude championship now under way in memphis. he's trying to become the first japanese player to win a fedex playoff event, and is five shots clear on 17 under par. this is the first event of the fedex cup playoffs on the pga tour — and will determine the top 50 players, who will go through to

the next tournament. lauren couglin has won the women's scottish open — finishing four shots ahead of the rest of the field. esther henseleit was second on 11 under par. britain's charley hull finished in 5th, 8 under for the tournament. we will have coverage from the manchester city and chelsea came across the afternoon. that's all the sport for now. studio: i would expect nothing less! donald trump has been hurling personal insults at kamala harris — and accused her of unleashing devastating inflation on the united states — whilst on a rally in pennsylvania. meanwhile, chicago has been gearing up to officiate kamala harris as democratic nominee — replacing joe biden in a historic turnaround months before the us election. shannon felton spence is a us political and communications strategist. i asked her whether kamala harris having a relatively short time to prepare is a help, or a hindrance. at the moment, it's a huge

advantage because she is running on vibes only. the momentum is truly in herfavour at the moment. it's very evident based off of how much excitement is around her and her running mate, tim walz, thatjoe biden stepping away from the ticket was absolutely the right move for the democratic party. there was such high voter apathy, that's the so—called double—haters, people that didn't want to vote forjoe biden, didn't want to vote for donald trump, so they were just going to sit it out. and now a lot of those people are off the couch. they're on their social media. they're advocating for harris. they're, you know, they're engaging in the process. and that is alljust based off of switching out the top of the ticket. and so right now this is an advantage. she's running into the convention to secure the nomination, just with a lot of energy. and all she needs to do really is keep that going

for less than 100 days, and she's going to be in really good shape. we've had celebrities endorsing her. there's been a rather sort of heavy, heady fandom around her with her viral brat girl summer memes aplenty online. to what extent, though, she's still got people within the party to convince? the party is convinced. so democrats for sure are locked up for harris and walz. we saw that whenjoe biden stepped aside and he endorsed kamala harris, there was no fight for who should be the next candidate. it was kamala harris. so the democrats, those are hardcore democrat voters are locked up. now, there is a whole crop, millions of new americans, who have just turned voting age. so young americans are sort of up for grabs. and that might make a huge difference in this election. and then also there's people that have sat out the last couple of elections.

so those are independents. those are never—trumpers. they feel outside of the maga movement, and they're looking for somebody to convince them one way or another. and that's actually the play where she picked tim walz was to bring those sort of never—trumpers, maybe more moderate republicans, over to her, to her side. how prominent is her running mate, tim walz going to be at the convention? we haven't heard a huge amount from him since he was chosen. i actually disagree. i think one of the biggest risks for her at the moment is trump, excuse me, walz—mania. he has almost zero name recognition. nobody had really heard of him. he was governor of minnesota and then a congressman before that. and he has really caught fire. that sort of unknown factor. has really worked for the ticket�*s advantage. but i'm a little afraid that he might end up upstaging her because he is so

good on the stump. but, you know, he has to introduce himself as much as she does to the voters at the moment. and so the convention is going to have a lot of this is who kamala harris is. this is who her this is what her story is. this is what she stands for. and this is who tim walz is. this is what he stands for. this is what he wants to do for the country. so, you know, they're the number one thing that you need to win a presidential election is name recognition. and neither of these individuals had that at a very high percentage before they were on the ticket. and so that is a little bit of a hill to climb. how much are we going to hear this week in policy terms? we should hear a lot. so, like i said, this campaign at the moment has been running purely on vibes, which is good. it was needed. we needed that energy. we needed a shift in messaging for voters to get excited. but we need also a discussion on policy, and we need to understand why a vote for kamala harris and tim walz is different than a vote for trump andjd vance. and so just recently they rolled out their economic policies. and that is really telling the story of what average americans can expect in their pocketbooks

if they vote for the democrats. economics really drives voters to the polls. but what i'm looking to hear is foreign policy, because we've got two wars, two very prominent wars raging in gaza and in the ukraine. and we have not heard almost anything on foreign policy from vice president harris or her running mate. and so there will need to be a focus on that at the convention. but remember, you know, the conventions are about locking up the nomination and so a lot of it is going to be excitement and razzle—dazzle, with a side of policy. the remaining 31 ted baker stores in the uk are to close this week, putting more than 500 jobs at risk. all of the fashion brand's stores are expected to have shut by the end of tuesday. the firm behind ted baker's uk shops, no ordindary designer label, fell into administration in march this year. ted baker began as a menswear brand in glasgow in 1988 and grew to have shops across the uk and in the united states, with licensing agreements in place for stores in cities in asia and the middle east. the 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. in the last few hours, president macron has paid his tribute — posting on x, "alain delon played "legendary roles and made the world dream. "lending his unforgettable face to shake up our lives. "melancholic, popular, secret, he was more than a star: "a french monument. " film and culture critic ashanti omkar says it was his bright blue eyes and winning charisma — that drew audiences to him. he was just so charismatic in all his roles. it felt like though this man did not come from a background of acting, he imbibed those roles like they belonged to him. he was charismatic, he was good looking. women were gaga over him. and he had those deep blue eyes that really drew people into the screen. what was the appeal for the top names later on in his career to work with him? people like martin scorsese, quentin tarantino,

who sought him out. well, whilst they didn't directly work with him, they cited him as an inspiration in a lot of their work, you know, including people likejohn woo, especially with the samurai that you mentioned, because this is a film that people looked at the role and the way he essayed it and said, this guy, he has brought a magnetic character to the screen. how do we also do something like this? and french cinema was very different from hollywood. and you know, when you when you look at alain's life, he has worked in france, in europe, that's where he has made the most mark. and he was also very well loved in japan. but when it came to hollywood, hollywood directors were looking at him and saying, how do we make this happen in our own cinema? and so they've cited him as somebody that they have looked at and have been very inspired by, because he indubitably has been an icon of cinema.

stay with us here on bbc news. good afternoon. it's been a fairly quiet weekend of weather. it's all change again next week. even today, we're not without a few showers. they've been peppering scotland, one or two elsewhere across northern ireland, western fringes of england and wales, but hopefully the cloud will melt away. more sunshine will come out to end the day and it's feeling pleasantly warm, although there's quite a brisk wind in the north and west in particular, but the wind does tend to ease a little overnight, allowing some mist and fog to form across england and wales. but look for the west winds strengthening. the next band of rain is approaching, so temperatures won't fall quite so low here, and it is all about the areas of low pressure as we move into the new week. the first one sweeps in through the second part of monday, clearing tuesday, then a brief ridge of high pressure. this next one coming in wednesday. thursday contains the remnants of hurricane ernesto, so that's sure to give us some wet weather. and as you can see from the tightly packed isobars, some windy weather as well.

more rain hot on its heels for friday. it still looks as if many southern and eastern areas won't see that much rain this week. these are the rainfall totals for the next five days, but we could see in excess of 100mm up across the north west of scotland, so that's certainly one to watch. the early fog will clear, might be around for the first hour or so of the rush hour, and then some fine and dry weather, but the rain really takes hold mid—morning across northern ireland, the south and west of scotland, and the met office have a warning out for as much as 50mm of rain throughout monday, monday night and into tuesday morning. still quite warm, particularly where we see the sunshine in southern and eastern areas. but the wind and the rain does arrive here, although not as heavy, and we do have more rain through the night pushing back into the north. i think the main thing is it will be much warmer, more humid overnight monday into tuesday. more uncomfortable for sleeping, but most of the rain should clear, with it the humidity. but then we have a band of heavy thundery showers following as well. the rain could be thundery as well in the north and west close

to that low pressure. there's more of that to come in northwest scotland, but i think on the whole a fresher day. now, later tuesday into wednesday, brief bump of high pressure, but then the next weather system rushes in off the atlantic giving us some really quite wet weather. there are warnings out for this as well. across western scotland we could see another two, three, four inches of rain in places and some unseasonably windy weather as well. certainly one to watch.

this is bbc news, the headlines. the us secretary of state antony blinken travels to the middle east, amid hopes a ceasefire deal to end the conflict in gaza can be made. the hamas—run health ministry says at least 21 people including six children have been killed in the latest israeli strikes. ukraine says it has destroyed a second key bridge inside the kursk region of russia. the attack will further isolate russian troops, as ukraine presses on with its kursk counteroffensive. meanwhile russia says it has captured another village in the donetsk region. the french actor alain delon, once described as the most beautiful man in cinema, has died at the age of 88. president macron has called him a french monument, who embodied legendary roles and made the world dream.