hello, i'm carl nasman. welcome to the programme. the middle east remains on edge after sunday saw one of the biggest exchanges between israel and the lebanese militant group hezbollah since the hamas—led october 7th attacks. israel said it bombed hezbollah rocket launchers across more than a0 sites in southern lebanon, in what it called a "pre—emptive strike". hezbollah fired hundreds of missiles into israel in retaliation for last month's killing of a senior commander. sirens were later heard in tel aviv after hamas fired a rocket at the city. us national security adviser jake sullivan on sunday urged all parties in the region to de—escalate after talks in cairo to reach a ceasefire between israel and hamas ended without a breakthrough.

we are feverishly working in cairo, as we speak, with our team and the teams of the other mediators, as well as with the israelis, to get to a ceasefire and hostage deal along the framework that president biden laid out to get calm between israel and along that border between israel and lebanon and, ultimately, to get to a broader circumstance of regional stability. our senior international correspondent lucy williamson sent this report from northern israel. explosions. by the time the sirens came, northern israel was awake. israeli fighterjets bombing hezbollah launch sites, the army said, before hundreds of drones and rockets met israel's air defences overhead. the fight clearly visible from yuval�*s house, six miles from the border. we felt really large explosions. we felt like an earthquake.

the whole ground was moving — like, my windows were all shaking, the keys in the door — like, everything was shaking. so, i went outside to look at it and i just saw the whole sky is bright, bright orange. there was an explosion, like, every three seconds. shrapnel from an interceptor missile was caught on camera hitting a patrol boat off the coast of nahariya, killing one officer, the army said, and injuring two others. very few rockets slipped through, but israel says hezbollah had planned a much wider attack and that only a predawn bombing raid by israel's air force prevented it, destroying thousands of rockets at their launch sites. translation: we are determined to do everything to protect our- country, return the residents of the north safely to their homes and continue to uphold a simple rule — whoever hurts us, we hurt them. the limited damage from this assault obscures how dangerous this moment is.

for months, the conflict across this border has been widening. now, israel has sent 100 fighterjets to bomb hezbollah positions and hezbollah rockets are flying further south, testing the tripwires for all—out war. orgad's hotel looks out on the hills that mark the lebanese border. he thought this morning's assault was the start of a full—blown war. it's not normal times, so if a war should come and finish it, there are no tourists, no businessmen, no nothing, so we have to start living again. it sounds like you want a war? if it will finish the situation as it is now, yes. this border, bristling with weapons, could pull regional and global powers into a war — a war fuelled by the conflict in gaza that even israel and hezbollah say they don't want. lucy williamson, bbc news, nahariya.

hezbollah said that its initial phase of the attack is over and did not intend its missile attacks on israel to lead to a full—scale war. the group said it had delayed its action, hoping indirect peace talks between israel and hamas would lead to a ceasefire in gaza. orla guerin reports from southern lebanon. well, the situation we're in now is both sides — israel and hezbollah — have sent a message but have stopped short of triggering all—out war. we had israel putting fighterjets in the air, saying it was targeting hezbollah firing positions. hezbollah said nonetheless, it they managed to send 300 rockets into israel. the target list, it said, was military bases and barracks. now, that is significant. hezbollah did not target civilian infrastructure or a major city. no civilians were killed inside israel.

and israel, for its part, targeted military firing positions here. expected, that people had been concerned about for a month, was in some ways less than had been feared. that does not mean an all—out conflict could not erupt here. the two sides have been engaged in attack and counter—attack for the past ten months. but for now, the immediate escalation, the immediate danger seems to have failed but we have to remember the conflict in gaza, which is fuelling instability around the region, is continuing. for more on what's happening in the middle east, i spoke to norman roule. he's the senior adviser with the warfare, irregular threats, and terrorism program at the center for strategic and international studies. we're still getting more details but at this point, how do you think hezbollah�*s planned attack was shaping up to be? was it going to be that serious attack the region had been bracing for?

good evening. it is correct that the lebanese hezbollah organisation planned a major attack upon israel and what we have seen has been on the extraordinary display of israeli military capability but an extraordinary display of israeli intelligence collection. and this enabled israel to strike literally thousands of missiles along the ground which have a significant impact on hezbollah�*s capability, as well as striking a number of missile launches on the ground that will also have an impact. nonetheless, we should expect further violence and further attacks from hezbollah which could produce a serious spike in regional tensions. it may not be easy to give me an exact answer but as you mentioned, this might have dealt a pretty serious blow to hezbollah, not only destroying missiles but the ability to launch them. where does it leave hezbollah now?

well, even if israel destroyed 7000 of hezbollah�*s missiles, as has been reported, they have 150000 in itsd stable. the question becomes not how many muscles were destroyed but how many were the important position guided missiles hezbollah used to target specific targets including israel leadership and military command and control and i think and control and i think israel's intelligence capacity has demonstrated an ability to focusing on key areas. i would not be surprised if hezbollah had certificate blow to its capability today. —— significant blow. when you look at the target here, and on the by hezbollah but also israel in terms of what was struck and what might have been targeted. no civilian targets and a lot was limited to military sites. did you see there a calibration may be on both sides to try to avoid a larger conflict breaking out? avoid a larger conflict breakin: out? . , , ., breaking out? certainly. israel and lebanese _ breaking out? certainly. israel and lebanese hezbollah, - breaking out? certainly. israel. and lebanese hezbollah, through their nature of their attacks,

have demonstrated interest in keeping the broader war from occurring. remember, most of the attacks today occurred in southern lebanon, away from the non—public major cities. however, the likelihood of further aggression by lebanese hezbollah is very high. it means we could have another spike at any time. but a side note, the united states maintains a massive and unprecedented amount of military hardware in the region and the presence of that hardware, whereas it concerns around, did not determine lebanese hezbollah from planning this attack. it didn't deter them _ planning this attack. it didn't deter them from _ planning this attack. it didn't deter them from planning i planning this attack. it didn't| deter them from planning the attack but do you think, and we heard from lloyd austin today, us secretary of defense saying a couple of very large ships will remain in the region, is it deterring may be a broader or more serious attack, either by hezbollah or even by iran? certainly, there is no question the presence of the two aircraft carrier task groups which contain sophisticated aircraft of a nature that has never been deployed to the middle east in the past, f—35c

planes, but again, this is shooting down arrows, it is not touching the archers and because of this, the archers in iran are capable of firing lower—level attacks at some point that they may believe would not ignite a war. the same of course goes that lebanese hezbollah, which we would have a high likelihood of such attacks resuming very quickly, i believe.- such attacks resuming very quickly, i believe. you were raisin quickly, i believe. you were praising the _ quickly, i believe. you were praising the israeli - praising the israeli intelligence effort here. what sort of message do you think iran may have taken from watching the way that this planned attack played out and the way that israel was able to sniff it out and really put it down pretty quickly? well, iran will have seen _ down pretty quickly? well, iran will have seen two _ down pretty quickly? well, iran will have seen two things. - will have seen two things. first, israel have an exceptional information on the location of hezbollah weapons cases and launches. second, as i was able to put 100 aircraft in the air and conducted hundreds of strikes with those aircraft in a very compressed time period, which shows a significant level of

operational efficiency, that if you are in iran you have to worry about not only what the israelis know how crisply and quickly israel could execute operations to decapitate elements of the regime or its nuclear programme or its missile programme. about 30 seconds left — missile programme. about 30 seconds left but _ missile programme. about 30 seconds left but i _ missile programme. about 30 seconds left but i think - seconds left but i think looking ahead, a lot of people want to know what kind of effect this flare—up of violence may have on those all—important ceasefire talks all—importa nt ceasefire talks that all—important ceasefire talks that have wrapped up at least for the day now in cairo? it’s for the day now in cairo? it's unlikely these _ for the day now in cairo? it�*s unlikely these attacks will have any impact on those talks. at the same time, there is little evidence to suggest these talks will be successful stop hamas is not participating, although we does have a delegation in cairo to hear any proposal that may come forward. wejust hear any proposal that may come forward. we just don't have an indication that either yahya sinwar or benjamin netanyahu make exercise of the talks a priority. —— make a success of the talks.

a british man working for the reuters news agency has been killed in ukraine after a russian missile struck a hotel. ryan evans was a british veteran and had been working as a safety adviser. the attack happened late saturday night in the city of kramatorsk. a reuters crew filmed emergency workers searching for their colleague. six of their team members were inside the hotel when it was hit, two were hospitalised. the russian defence ministry did not respond to reuters' request for comment. russia, meanwhile, continued to bomb infrastructure across ukraine on sunday. multiple civilian casualties were reported. and inside its own territory, russia says it is sending more artillery to the kursk region, where thousands of ukrainian troops are occupying territory. ukraine's president said sunday that the army advanced another 3km into the region. i've been speaking to charles kupchan, seniorfellow at the council on foreign relations.

first, let's talk about this incursion into the kursk region. in russia. have you been surprised by how successful this has been on the part of the ukraine military? yeah, i mean, mostanalysts have been surprised by how easily the ukrainian military was able to take a sizeable chunk, some 400 square miles, of russia and i think russia got caught sleeping. the ukrainians did a good job of hiding their preparations. they made the russians think they were only engaging in manoeuvres and exercises and then, they slept in in a relatively short period of time, quickly conquered some small villages, pushed various russians out and now, they have their grip on this land, we don't know how long it will last, we don't know when the russians are going to try to mass the necessary forces to push them out, but this is really a bit of a real boost for zelensky and the

ukrainians. it put — it will put pressure on the defensive and it's an embarrassment for the kremlin have a chunk of territory currently occupied by a foreign power. we have not seen this since world war ii. i guess the other question would be how effective has this incursion been in slowing russia's fight as it makes its way into ukrainian territory? you know, that's a different kind of issue here in the sense that yes, the ukrainians have succeeded in penetrating russian territory. no, the ukrainians have not succeeded in changing the broader picture here. and that is one in which the russians still enjoy numerical superiority, the russians still enjoy numericalsuperiority, even numerical superiority, even though the numericalsuperiority, even though the focus has been on kursk for the last couple of weeks, russians have been chipping away at the frontline in donbas, gaining territory a few days. one town here, one

town there, pushing toward the boundaries of both donetsk and luhansk oh blasts, that's apparently what britain wants. —— putin. ithink apparently what britain wants. —— putin. i think i would hope the ukrainians would divert some of their best troops in donbas to the theatre in southern russia whether fighting is occurring and in kursk but they have not done so. they are moving troops from other parts of russia to kursk and are taking some troops that are in ukraine but from the southern parts of cristante or operator oh blasts, not taking troops from the key frontline in donbas. it troops from the key frontline in donbas-— troops from the key frontline in donbas. ., , , ., , in donbas. it also seems to be something _ in donbas. it also seems to be something brewing _ in donbas. it also seems to be something brewing in - in donbas. it also seems to bej something brewing in belarus. ukraine warning belarus to withdraw its forces away from its border. keith believes it is building up a large presence there and it is seen the presence of wagner mercenary troops there as well —— kyiv. what do you make of all of this and what could it mean to you think if belarus does decide to

get involved in some way in this conflict?— get involved in some way in this conflict? well, we've seen the russians _ this conflict? well, we've seen the russians use _ this conflict? well, we've seen the russians use belarusian i the russians use belarusian territory before early on in the invasion to prepare the way in for russian troops that attempted but failed to siege kyiv. now, ithink attempted but failed to siege kyiv. now, i think we're seeing is a bit of a cat mouse game, where the ballot russians have responded to the ukrainian invasion of kursk and they are saying listen, we better prepare for whatever the ukrainians may do along the border with us, with belarus. but i also think this may have been ordered by russia. russia telling the ballot russians to build up on the ukrainian border as a way of getting the ukrainians to divert their troops from kursk or from donbas —— russia telling the ballot russians. the same way the ukrainians have pulled when it comes to russian forces in dunn brush, not a game changer here, really, different players

attempting to get forces to adjust on the battlefield but the big picture remains unchanged, the russians continuing to chip away the territory in ukraine, ukrainians now i think have additional leverage that they didn't have before which means they may want to pivot to the negotiating table sooner or later, perhaps trading some of the territory it has in russia for territory that russia holds in ukraine. for territory that russia holds in ukraine-— for territory that russia holds in ukraine. ., ., ~' in ukraine. yeah, do you think, 'ust in ukraine. yeah, do you think, just briefly. _ in ukraine. yeah, do you think, just briefly, how— in ukraine. yeah, do you think, just briefly, how valuable - in ukraine. yeah, do you think, just briefly, how valuable of. in ukraine. yeah, do you think, just briefly, how valuable of a l just briefly, how valuable of a bargaining chip would that be do you think the ukraine? i think it is a bargaining chip, as long as they can hold it. these are big a bargaining chip if they said to pretend we can hurt you, and will. we can bring the water russians, we can make average russians feel in ways that they have not before —— said to putin. it may make it more attractive for putin to go to the negotiating table. we don't know yet, it

may be worth testing the waters. german prosecutors have named the man suspected of friday's mass stabbing at a festival in the town of solingen that killed three people and injured eight. they said syrian national issa al h is suspected of being a member of the islamic state group. as is normal in the german legal system, they haven't specified his surname. the suspect turned himself in late on saturday and admitted to the crime. he appeared in front of german prosecutors earlier on sunday. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. in a speech this week, prime minister keir starmer will say there are no quick fixes to the problems left by the conservatives but the tories have accused labour of "fabricating" claims of a black hole in the national finances. here's our political correspondent iain watson. cheering and applause the last time labour won a big majority, in 1997, we were told things could only get better. there seemed to be a hint of that optimism, too, when keir starmer swept to power this summer.

good morning, prime minister. his message now is that things could get worse before they get better, and he's blaming the previous conservative government. the prime minister says he's releasing some offenders early because of a fundamental failure of the last government to provide enough prison places. and even this is blamed on his predecessors. he says that rioters exploited cracks in society created by 14 years of conservative rule. labour say they will make difficult choices but these will generate early political headwinds. iain watson, bbc news. you're live with bbc news. the messaging app telegram says its founder and chief executive has "nothing to hide" after he was arrested in france. pavel durov was detained when his privatejet landed in paris on saturday. he's accused of failing to moderate content or to co—operate with investigations into the use of the platform by criminals. telegram says the claims are "absurd." will vernon has more details.

by the way, it's my first public appearance... he's known as russia's zuckerberg. pavel durov, the billionaire ceo of telegram, likes to show off his extravagant lifestyle, as well as his muscles, on social media. but now mr durov, who lives in dubai, has been arrested — shortly after landing his private jet at this airport in paris. french media say he's accused of failing to take action against criminals using telegram. telegram is one of the world's most downloaded apps, with almost one billion users. it's most popular in russia and ukraine, used by both pro—kremlin media and by ukrainian officials, such as president zelensky. pro—democracy groups in places like iran and hong kong also use telegram but it's controversial because there's very little moderation of material posted. governments have often struggled to persuade the company to remove content.

western law enforcement agencies are increasingly concerned about telegram's use by drug traffickers, terrorist groups and paedophiles. 0ne german security chief called it "a medium for radicalisation". have you come under pressure from other governments...? in a recent interview, pavel durov said he was right to refuse some requests to remove content. where we thought it would be crossing the line, it wouldn't be in line with our values of freedom of speech and protecting people's private correspondence, we would ignore. today, russian officials on state tv accused the west of double standards over the arrest — a lesson in democracy from the kremlin. will vernon, bbc news. tens of thousands of rohingya refugees have rallied in camps in bangladesh, calling for an end to violence and a safe return to myanmar.

all chant. it comes on the seventh anniversary of the brutal military crackdown in myanmar�*s rakhine state which forced hundreds of thousands of rohingya muslims to flee their homes. more than a million of them are still living in squalid camps in southern bangladesh with little prospect of returning home. in recent weeks, fighting has escalated in rakhine state with thousands more rohingya believed to have fled. translation: life as a refugee feels like a life of slavery and we don't want to continue living this way. live in freedom, and enjoy equal rights and justice, just like everyone else in the world. let's turn to some other important news around the world. police in iceland say two people are trapped after ice collapsed during a tour of a cave in a glacier. first responders received a call on sunday afternoon about the ice collapse at the glacier in the country's south. a group of 25 people were on a tour with a guide at the time. a further two were rescued from

the ice with serious injuries. syrian president bashar al—assad says efforts on sunday to mend relations with turkey have so far been unsuccessful. russia, iran and iraq have led efforts to restore ties between the two countries. turkey cut links with syria in 2011 as ankara supported rebels seeking to oust al—assad in syria's civil war. ukraine's team at the paralympics, which begin this week, will be hoping to continue its remarkable success story. they've finished near the top of the medal table at recent paralympics, winning nearly 100 medals at the last games in tokyo. but their preparations have been badly affected by the war with russia with many athletes having to train abroad. our sports correspondent andy swiss reports. he's one of ukraine's biggest paralympic hopes — da nylo chufarov. but how do you prepare for a games after this? in 2022, he was here — the then besieged city of mariupol.

chufarov, who's visually impaired, survived three weeks of shelling before his house was destroyed. translation: i was ready to die. i hoped i would survive, but the probability of dying was so high that you just put up with it. over the last 20 years, ukraine's paralympians have become heroes at home — one of the most successful teams in the world — but they say around 500 of their sports facilities have been destroyed. chufarov now trains here, near dnipro, where he's often interrupted by air raid sirens. many athletes have had to move abroad. fencer andrii demchuk has been training in poland with their team, but he's gone back to ukraine, where he speaks to injured soldiers about adapting to life with a prosthetic. he's even delivered jeeps to help the war effort, driving them with a little help

from his fencing sword. i have only one normal leg and three pedals and for me, i can help with broken epee or foil and push the clutch and after, i can push my left leg to another two pedals, and this is a little problem. laughs every day, all what i do, i do for my country. at the paris olympics, 15 russian athletes took part as neutrals, their only medal in tennis, but at the paralympics, 90 are set to compete. for ukrainian swimmer anna hontar, who had to move to finland after the invasion, facing them will not be easy. i will be try to close my emotions but i don't know how it will be going. will it give you an extra motivation to win in the paralympics? yes. yeah? yes.

i want to win, i want to fight for ukrainians, for my family, for our paralympic team, and i want to fight. that challenge has never been greater, but ukraine will be hoping their paralympic success story can continue against all the odds. andy swiss, bbc news. that's all from us here in washington as we hand over to our colleagues in london. i'm carl nasman. thanks for watching. stay with us here on bbc news. hello there. when it comes to rainfall totals so far this month, there's quite a marked contrast between the northwest and the southeast — hardly any rainfall in comparison to what we should be seeing for this month. but further north and west, we've had double the amount of rainfall — over 200% in the far northwest of scotland and across

the lake district as well. and, in fact, that's where we're likely to see further rain to add to these totals to close out the month of august. potentially another 18mm in the extreme northwest, whereas hardly any traceable, usable rain once again across eastern england and southeast england. so, for monday, we are going to see a relatively dry, quiet day. this weak weather front, a band of cloud, a few nuisance showers close to the scottish borders, northern england and north wales. to the north and south of that, sunny spells, breezy but the winds not as strong as over the weekend, and it will feel a little warmer, which is good news for many as it's the bank holiday weekend away from scotland, so highs likely of 23 degrees. as we move into tuesday, central and southern areas under this influence of high pressure into the near continent but a toppling around that high is another low moving in, bringing wet and windy weather. but at the same time, the wind direction swings around to a southwesterly

and just taps into some pretty warm air coming from the near continent. so, the rain still heavy as it moves out of the scottish borders and into north wales but ahead of it with that sunshine and that increasing warmth, we should see temperatures at 25 degrees — that's 77 fahrenheit. we're looking at mid to high teens across scotland. now, that weather front is not moving very far at all on wednesday as it continues to bump into this area of high pressure, so we could see this conveyor belt of rain just sitting across south west england, wales and northern england for a time, and that means we'll see some increasing warmth. still a level of uncertainty where that front is going to be sitting, but potentially from hull down to the isle of wight. anywhere south and east of that could see temperatures peaking at 27 or 28 degrees — that's 82 fahrenheit. we keep some sunshine and warmth — although not quite as warm — through thursday and friday across england and wales.

voice-over: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. welcome to hardtalk from rome. i'm stephen sackur. across europe, political parties once regarded as too far right to get

a sniff of political power are now winning elections, or getting mighty close. but what happens when they do achieve national office? well, the best—case study in western europe right now is here in italy, where prime minister giorgia meloni's far—right coalition has been in power for almost two years. my guest today is nicola procaccini, a meloni confidant who is a member of the european parliament. how is far—right rule changing italy? nicola procaccini, welcome to hardtalk. thank you for your invitation. it's great to have you on the programme. now, your party, brothers of italy, led by giorgia meloni,

has been in power here in italy for almost two years now.