last month, the international court ofjustice ruled that violence has been increasing in the west bank since the hamas attacks on october 7 with the un saying more than 650 palestinians have been killed, and that there's been violence against israelis. this latest massive operation involved israeli forces simultaneously entering the cities ofjenin, tulkarm, nablus and tubas, in what the israel defence forces called a counter—terrorism strike. last month, the international court ofjustice ruled that israel's continued occupation of palestinian territories is a breach of international law.

from jenin, lucy williamson sent this report. it was a message of force, delivered quietly at first. israeli soldiers seeking their targets, street by palestinian street. by morning, hundreds of troops backed by armoured bulldozers had arrived in the refugee camps of tulkarem, nablus, tubas, jenin. home to armed palestinian groups and unarmed civilians. at least ten palestinians have been killed. hamas says six of them were its fighters. masoud najjar said he was injured when he opened the door of his house to young men asking for water. translation: we felt - like something came down on us from the sky and there was an explosion. i was unaware of what was going on. when i put my hand on my chest,

it was all shrapnel and blood. injenin, army vehicles surrounded the city's two main hospitals. ambulances stopped and checked by militaryjeeps. israel's foreign minister has urged his government to use gaza as a model for dealing with armed groups, here saying that iran was backing them and that this was a war for everything that israel must win. the idf and our security forces are operating in tulkarem, jenin and other places from which murderous attacks have been launched. we will fight to eliminate terrorism wherever it emerges. almost 600 palestinians have been killed in the west bank by israeli forces since the hamas attacks. but fighters here are still presenting israel with new tactics and new threats. israel's army has been targeting the same areas in the same cities, week after week for the past ten

months, determined to dismantle the armed palestinian groups based here. now it's launched a wider, more coordinated operation across the west bank on a scale not seen for 20 years. in al—far�*a camp, near tubas, mobile phone footage showed red crescent staff lined up against the wall of their compound in front of israeli troops. arriving injenin today, the west bank head of the red crescent. you've had ten months of these sorts of incursions. how worried are you by what's happening today? i'm very much worried because it seems there's a new stage. there's a new, er... they are escalating, scaling up their operation. when they talk about evacuating civilians and using the air force to bombing the camps, this reminds us of gaza. explosion. as night fell, explosions and gunfire from jenin�*s refugee camp.

dusk can be a signal to test the army's control. the war in gaza is changing this conflict. an old front creating new fears in the face of a regional war. lucy williamson, bbc news, jenin. these strikes come against a backdrop of rising violence by extremistjewish settler groups against palestinians in the occupied west bank. today, the united states launched another round of sanctions targeting one of those groups. hashomer yosh is an israeli non—governmental organisation that provides support to a settlement outpost. the us accuses the organisation of forcing palestinians to leave the village of khirbet zanuta, and then fencing it off to block their return. a civilian security coordinator in the west bank was also sanctioned for attacking and expelling palestinians from a separate settlement. in response, israel prime minister benjamin netanyahu

said "israel takes very seriously the imposition of sanctions on israeli citizens." "the issue is under intense discussion with the united states. " here the us, the fbi says it hasn't been able to find a motive for the attempted assassination of donald trump last month. it said the gunman thomas crooks had searched extensively online for events that involved both the former president and joe biden, before settling on the trump rally in pennsylvania. officers said crooks�* online activity showed a mixture of ideologies and there was no evidence of any co—conspirators. john sudworth reports. the fbi has come in for intense criticism. first and foremost for its failure to protect the former president on the day of the shooting but more recently over its handling of the investigation and evidence.

this briefing was in part an attempt by the fbi to push back on some of the more recent criticisms, saying the protocols of evidence have been followed and it is doing all it can to get to the bottom of the motives of the attack. what is interesting is despite hundreds of hours of video footage they have trawled through, despite hundreds of interviews carried out, despite the intense scrutiny on the social media use and internet footprint of thomas crookes, they are no clear to establishing a motive. he remains something of an enigma. they say his social media use shows a mixture of views, no real clues as to motive. although there was intensive planning, leading up to the event, the evidence shows thomas crookes

was searching both republican and democrat events. on the campaign trail, the democratic presidential nominee vice president kamala harris, and her running mate, minnesota governor tim walz, are again on the campaign trail. they're on a two—day bus tour in the battleground state of georgia. the duo is venturing into rural parts of the state to win support in what are traditionally republican strongholds. in 2020, presidentjoe biden won georgia over republican rival former president donald trump by a little over 12,000 votes, that's only a 0.3% margin. and in 2024, analysts say the election race will again be tight. the harris—walz tour of georgia is an effort to convince voters in the rural regions as well as the state's biggest city atlanta.

the tour will end with a rally in savannah on thursday, before harris and walz sit down with cnn. it will be harris�*s first formal media interview since president biden stepped down as the democratic candidate for president. republican presidential nominee donald trump and his runningmatejd vance are continuing to focus on battleground states as well. vance courted voters in pennsylvania today. meanwhile two of mr trump's campaign staff are accused of having a "verbal and physical altercation" with an arlington national cemetery official during a wreath—laying ceremony that the former president attended earlier this week. that's according to the media outlet npr. the trump campaign denies the allegations — saying they had received permission to film there. and on tuesday, the us justice department filed new charges against donald trump over his alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

special counseljack smith filed the revised indictment after the supreme court made a landmark decision injuly that grants presidents immunity for �*official acts�*. in an exclusive interview with our us partner cbs news, supreme courtjustice ketanji brown jackson said she was �*concerned�* about the top court granting trump broad immunity. take a listen. i was concerned about a system that appeared to provide immunity for one individual under one set of circumstances. when we had a criminaljustice system that had ordinarily treated everyone the same. another busy week in american politics so let�*s talk about some of the issues with our panel.

amy, harris and walz are on a bus tour through georgia not focusing on the democratic strongholds, sticking to the more rural parts. does that make you think that the campaign thinks georgia is winnable? yes, if you follow the money and where the candidates are, it is clear indication of where they think they can win and where they think they need to spend their time. we are seeing a heavy ground game from the trump campaign, a focus on battleground states. the latest polling saying arizona, georgia and north carolina are now too close to call. does that fit with what you are seeing and hearing? absolutely. everyone knows this will be a close race, it will come down

to a couple hundred thousand voters at about seven states. donald trump, the trump campaign is taking for granted, they have a ground game going on all states. i think have a better early voting effort than they had in the past. i think the next big event besides the interview tomorrow night will be the debate on september 10. you mentioned the debate on september 10. you are a debate coach and helped candidates in the past, what would you be saying to donald trump? exactly what he did withjoe biden. don't let kamala harris get underyour skin, stay on our fence on the issues. keep it about issues. kamala harris right now

is in the middle of a tour trying to mislead the american people about her record and she is running as if she is not the sitting vice president tojoe biden. and has no record. as long as he litigates that case that he is running against the status quo and does not get into a choice election, i think it will help and i think the best thing for him is focus on the issues, don't let kamala harris get under your skin which appears she wants to do given the rules they are trying to change in this debate. amy, do you want to respond? i could not disagree more. i think you see clearly kamala harris talked about the accomplishments on the biden and harris administration. she talked about some of the other programmes they put in place in the first 3.5 years of the administration. at the same time talking about her vision and what she wants to do.

she laid out and put out a plan to help improve the housing situation in the united states. she talked about her record in the biden and harris administration but showing a clear vision which she started out strongly in her convention speech, doing so. we heard directly from the vice president during the interview with cnn tomorrow night, what will you be looking out for? what this is, we are now in the general election phase of this campaign, i think clearly with this interview, will see her setting out her vision and reinforcing issues she thinks matters most. campaigns are about contrast so she will talk about the contrast with trump and vance and what she plans to do. and see what type of leader she will be. what vision she has. not only what she is against with a possibility of a trump and vance administration

but also what she is for and what she sees the vision for that she is laying up the next four years. there has been much criticism that she has not sat down to do a interview until this point. we have seen the opposite from donald trump we have seen him appear in all kind of pod casts and radio shows and whatever. is there a sense that does bring in new voters? absolutely. presidential politics are about free media and doing interviews, taking tough questions, being in the barrel, kamala harris has not done an interview since she became the nominee over 40 days ago since it became apparent she would be the democrat nominee. this interview will be very interesting. it is interesting to me she could not even do the first interview so low. she chose to do it with her vice presidential pick. she is doing so after being off the campaign trail completely for five days

after her convention. trying to convince people as you will build a border wall when she called the border wall offensive. trying to convince people she won't take away private healthcare when she supported that, trying to convince people she won't raise taxes, trying to convince folks of things she is said when she ran for president in 2019 and those ideas were ever soundly rejected. i think once folks get to know kamala harris, they will like her less and less. just a brief reply to that especially the issue of doing the interview with tim walz. this is a candidate that was literally put in the spotlight a month and a half ago. they have done an incredible amount of work, raised an unbelievable amount of money. there is a $55 million

advantage of what is on the air in the democratic spending in the presidential race. i could not disagree more. she agreed she would do this interview, doing the debate, travelling with her vice presidential nominee who should be apparent again, she made it clear but the issue she cares about. i don�*t even think you have seen anything near the kind of detail or specificity coming out of this trump vance ticket, just rambling on speeches and nothing of substance to come from this. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news. let�*s look at some other stories making news. the uk�*s largest water company, thames water, says it will not survive unless it is allowed to increase water bills by almost 60% over a five year period. ofwat, the water regulation

authority, proposed a 23% rise. they said the proposals are unfair and customers. the british medical association is calling for swift action from the government to ban flavoured and disposable vapes. doctors say that children are being targeted with colours, branding and flavours. the uk vaping industry association agrees that stronger measures are needed, however, they warn that bans could supercharge the black market. 28—year—old, josh greally, the man seen on camera throwing objects towards reform leader, nigel farage, during his general election campaign, was given a six week prison sentence suspended for 12 months. he was filmed throwing items at farage as he travelled on an open top bus injune. mr farage reacted to the sentencing saying that greally had been allowed to "walk free". you�*re live with bbc news.

us national security adviser jake sullivan remains in china for another day of talks with senior chinese diplomats. as the two sides look to settle differences. mr sullivan has been working with chinese foreign minister wang yi to set up a call between presidentsjoe biden and xijinping. on wednesday the white house said both sides "welcomed ongoing efforts to maintain open lines of communication, including planning for a leader—level call in the coming weeks." and on china�*s influence in the indo—pacific region, the white house said "mr sullivan underscored the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the taiwan strait." that�*s also been a key topic at the pacific island forum in let�*s go to beijing live now to our correspondent. what is on the agenda for today?- the agenda for today? good mornin: the agenda for today? good morning from _ the agenda for today? good morning from beijing - the agenda for today? good morning from beijing where talks are entering their third day. i think we will be looking for more detail on what was announced yesterday. furthermore, one will be called between president biden and

president xijinping b, it between president biden and president xi jinping b, it will be discussed and does it lead to a groundwork for a final meeting before president biden leaves office? that is the key question for many of us. as there is unfinished business for the white house? i think the second thing we will be looking for is the military to military communication. that was announced yesterday. not just president biden and president xijinping just president biden and president xi jinping talking just president biden and president xijinping talking on the phone. also been announced that military commanders between china and the us will have telephone discussions in the coming weeks. that is very important. that is because in the taiwan strait in the south china sea both militaries come very close to one another. there is always a fear of miscalculation next especially given tensions in the south china sea are incredibly high. easy skirmishes between chinese postcard boats and the us ally and treaty aloe philippines and

there is a period united states could end up getting involved in those disputes at the south china sea. china is certainly one of the united states to stay away from its territory. also other tricky issues that will come up. the us is certainly urging once again chinese companies to stop supplying components to rush it could use and it�*s more in ukraine and trade policies. china is very angry with the united states for imposing tariffs on goods such as solar panels and electric cars. stepping back for a moment, what will both sides be hoping to achieve overall from this visit? how will be a success? when it comes to these meetings, or with the expectations are really low. i think there was always this kind of criticism that are you talking for talking say? when it comes to chinese officials,

they don�*t think american officials understand china and thatis officials understand china and that is why these talks are so crucial. they believe america is trying to contain china and there does seem to be an element of rapport betweenjake sullivan and one year. they seem able to talk about these issues. they see jake sullivan as someone they can do business web. someone who is not trying to go into conflict with china, not trying to contain china but trying to look at the differences between the two sides and manage them. i think certainly the two sides described them as candid, substantive and constructive but the whole point of these talks is avoid this competition between the two superpowers veering into conflict.— veering into conflict. thank ou. opposition supporters have once again revived protests against the re—election of president nicolas maduro.

protest have been on and off since the disputed presidential election one month ago, in which mr maduro was declared the winner despite evidence that opposition candidate vote has been condemned for lacking transparency. the opposition leader who went into hiding following the election we managed to attend the rally on wednesday but said the opposition movement would be strategic about: for additional demonstrations and acknowledged the challenge of forcing madero from power. this comes days after her lawyer was detained by authorities. chair of the formulation committees condemned the rest of the attorney is what he called an abduction. the founder and chief executive of the messaging app, telegram, pavel durov, has been charged in france as part of an investigation into organised crime. the russian—born billionaire was released on bail set at $5.5 million, and is not allowed to leave french territory. he faces multiple charges including failing to curb extremist and illegal content

on the app, and complicity in the dissemination of child pornography. his lawyer has described the allegations as "absurd" and said telegram complied fully with european digital regulations. here�*s our technology editor, zoe kleinman. pavel durov is sometimes described as the mark zuckerberg of russia. he was born in the country, but he left in 2014 and these days he�*s a citizen of both france and dubai. the messaging app that he founded is called telegram. and what sets it apart from something like whatsapp is that these enormous groups of up to 200,000 people can share content and information on it. now, the accusations that mr durov is facing are extremely serious, and they include running a platform to enable illicit transactions by an organised gang, failing to communicate with the authorities, refusing, in fact, to communicate with the authorities, and complicity in the organised criminal distribution of sexual

images of children. now he�*s under formal investigation. this doesn�*t mean that he�*s guilty, or even that there will necessarily be a trial, but it�*s absolutely unprecedented for the founder, the owner of a social network, to be arrested like this because of the content that�*s being shared on his platform. and it sparked a really fierce debate online about freedom of speech and accountability. elon musk, who�*s the owner of x, which used to be known as twitter, has leapt to his defence. he thinks that he should be completely freed, and he says that censorship isjust moderation under another name. but the president of france, emmanuel macron, said earlier this week that france remained committed to freedom of expression. the 2024 paralympics officially kicked off on wednesday, thousands gathered to watch the opening ceremony

at the heart of the french capital. the first opening ceremony held outside the stadium, a so—called people�*s parade passed some of the cities most iconic landmarks. it will see a record number of delegations and female athletes. stay with us. hello again. wednesday brought us some big contrasts in the weather across the uk. now, for the north and west of the country, we did have a lot of cloud, and that brought some outbreaks of rain at times. you can see that on the combined satellite and radar picture. some of the heaviest rain went into western scotland, where we also had some of the lowest temperatures. for example, in harris, we only had temperatures of 14 degrees. in sharp contrast to that, skipping across these various weather fronts, we actually had plenty of sunshine and quite hot weather across east anglia and south east england, with temperatures peaking at 30 degrees in cambridge.

confirmation, then, that the weather did indeed look a lot cheerier for some. now, looking at the weather picture over the next few hours, we�*ve got a cold front whizzing its way eastwards across the country. what that�*s essentially doing is it�*s bringing cooler and fresher air in across the uk, so it won�*t be so hot across eastern areas of england as we look at the forecast in detail for thursday. and for many of us, it�*s going to be quite a fresh start to the day. temperatures even in single figures across parts of eastern scotland. now for scotland and northern ireland, this weather front will bring a zone of thicker cloud, outbreaks of rain for a time, followed by some showers into the afternoon. there could be a few showers at times across the northwest of england, maybe across parts of wales, but these few and far between, i think across the midlands,

east anglia, southern england, it�*s a largely dry day. still warm in the sunshine, 23 degrees. not bad, but it�*s not going to be as hot as it was. we�*re not going to see temperatures of 30, for example. then for friday and the weekend, this area of high pressure is set to move across the uk. the other thing we�*ve got to watch out for is the risk of a few showers coming up from france, but for the time being, it looks like they�*ll stay away. so friday, plenty of sunshine, just a few showers for orkney and shetland, where it will continue to be quite breezy. otherwise, temperatures generally in the high teens to low 20s for scotland and northern ireland, and about 20 to 23 widely across england and wales. it then starts to get a bit warmer for scotland and northern ireland as we start to get a southerly drift, so temperatures more widely will reach the 20s as we go through the weekend. there�*ll still be a lot of dry and sunny weather for england and wales. just an outside chance of a shower working some showers around next week.

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. i�*m stephen sackur. ukraine dramatic push into russian territory in the kursk region is a severe embarrassment for vladimir putin but will it change the dynamic in the wider war? that

depends on the russian response, will moscow divert resources away from its granting offensive in eastern ukraine? it also depends on how the key over western allies react, will be decisively back for what is�*s gamble or put caution first? my guess is the latvian defence minister andris spruds. with this faith rather, what can ukraine expect from its friends? andris spruds, welcome to hardtalk. thank you for having me. my

pleasure- —