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greece as a wildfire of ages on the outskirts of athens. -- a wildfire rages on the outskirts of athens. a very warm welcome to "world news america." ukraine's commander-in-chief says his troops control about 1000 square kilometers following their surprise attack a week ago. it has been described as the biggest incursion into russia since world war ii. local authorities are evacuating some 11,000 residents from a second region situated next to where the ukrainian offensive began last tuesday. the acting governor of the region said ukraine was in control of 28 villages. the russian president vowed to kick the enemy out. >> apparently, the enemy with the help of its western masters is fulfilling their will, and

the west is fighting with us with the hands of ukrainians. so apparently, the enemy is striving to improve its negotiating positions in the future, but about what kind of negotiations can we even talk about? if these are people who indiscriminately strike at civilians, civilian infrastructure, or try to create threats to nuclear facilities, what is there to talk about with them? >> meanwhile, ukrainian president zelenskyy welcomed ed delegation of senators in kyiv on monday. they discussed strengthening ukraine's air defense and long-range weaponry. the senators also congratulated zelenskyy on his country's kursk incursion. following the meeting, mr. zelenskyy explained what he wanted to achieve during the nightly address. >> it is entirely justified to just -- to destroy russian terrorists were ever they are,

wherever they launch attacks from. we see the benefits this can bring in bringing peace closer. russia needs to be forced into peace, especially if putin is so set on fighting. >> our russia editor has been monitoring moscow's response and has the latest. >> a music video from the russian military allegedly showing it targeting ukrainian troops who crossed the border. it is presented like a block roster. in reality, this is a huge problem for russia. the governor of russia's kursk region put it in figures. he told vladimir putin that ukrainian soldiers had seized 28 settlements in his region. the kremlin leader cut him off. "leave the numbers to the military," he said. >> the main task is with our

ministry of defense, and that is to force the enemy from our territory. our adversary will, of course, receive a fittingesponse, and without doubt, all our objectives will be met. >> as ukrainian troops have moved in, residents have moved out. officials say that more than 120,000 people have been evacuated in kursk region, and thousands more in the neighboring region of belgrade. there are fears of a ukrainian incursion there, too. what is happening is huge. for the first time in more than 80 years, foreign troops are fighting on russian soil. yet, the country's leadership scribes this as a provocation, a terrorist attack. the kremlin still avoids using the word war, as if to tell the people there is no need to panic. >> on the streets of moscow, no shock, just resignation about

ukraine's offense of. "i'm not surprised," august says. "it's a border area and this war has been going on for some time." >> what we all want is peace and the quickest resolution to this conflict. >> in the meantime, these volunteers are trying to do something. in moscow, they have organized a collection of food and clothes for the evacuees. >> there are people who lost their homes. they need shelter, food, supplies. >> it was their country that invaded ukraine. russians are now having to deal with unforeseen consequences. >> for more on moscow's reaction to the incursion, i spoke to a

veteran of international affairs at the new school. ukrainian forces who cross the border found a russian unit sitting there drinking coffee. how could russia have been so surprised? >> that is a big question because they have been fighting the whole war, so the border has been sort of protected by watchmen, but not necessarily by actual troops, which is embarrassing. the reason it is embarrassing is because in march, there have been incursions during the presidential elections -- i don't want to call it elections. when putin was becoming president for the fifth term, there had been incursions. that was embarrassing enough at that time. the order supposedly was to protect th border. it has not been protected because russians were concentrating on the donbas

region of ukraine. it was quite a daring operation, but one thing to remembe about russia today is anybody who speaks against anything is immediately imprisoned as an enemy. they are really calling it the border problem, not the invasion of russia, but the border problem. >> that is an important point. vladimir putin isowing a severe response, also directing that message to the u.s. what could that look like? >> i would imagine they would probably bomb more of ukrainian infrastructure. also, what seems to be happening is that this -- these very well-trained units are being used for this operation rather than being killed in other regions, so it is possible

russians would now concentrate even more on targeting those elite units rather than just going after the infrastructure, so i imagine they would be something like that. once again, it is quite embarrassing that there is not enough intelligence. another question is because i do not expect ukraine to stay there for a very long time, it will be difficult, but how long will it stay? i think the longer they ay, the longer that they show they can go into incursion into other border regions, the more it is a problem for putin because the more people would ask questions, so the more people ask questions, the more severe response. >> if i could just jump in and pick up on the point you just made, how long ukraine will stay, do you see a risk in this incursion by ukraine, especially

if they keep moving forward? especially if russian tros surround them before they can leave and step up their attacks as well on ukrainian territory? >> that is probably what they will be doing. i don't see how ukraine is going to really win that kind of occupation of russia, but when it is expelled this time in another couple of months, it would be a region somewhere else. basically, the way i see it is that all these conversations about the temple -- potential negotiations, peace is further away even than when volodymyr zelenskyy was saying we will try to resolve this word by the end of the year. i do not see that happening because he says this incursion

was to expedite the peace agreement and make it more favorable to ukraine. putin said he is not seeing how he can negotiate, so that would be an escalation. the war is further from ending, i think, as we speak now. >> u.s. president joe biden joined 4 european leaders in urging iran to de-escalate tensions and avoid an israeli strike. the leaders issued a joint statement saying, we call on the run to stand down ongoing threats of attack against israel and discuss the serious consequences for regional security should such an attack take place. the british prime minister spoke to the iranian president on the phone and called directly for iran to refrain from attacking

israel. israel's military says it is on. the u.s. has beefed up regional forces over the past few days, sending a guided missile to the middle east sunday -- sending a guided missile submarine to the middle east sunday to support israel. >> the prime ministeof israel immediately welcomed this initiative and confirmed that an israeli team will be the and prepared to finalize the details . we are also inoordination with our partners in egypt that the onus is on them to agree to a cease-fire. we agree there has been headway made, but we need to finalize

this agreement, continue to close and bridge some gaps, but we believe that agreement is possible, and that is something we will continue to work between the parties. >> our middle east correspondent send this update from jerusalem. >> we see the mediators -- that is qatar and egypt -- along with the united states have renewed a very intense push to try to get those cease-fire talks back on track. this is because of regional tensions over the potential attack by iran following the assassination of the hamas leader on its soil. the u.s. administration believes a cease-fire deal in gaza is crucial to try to get the tensions down in gaza, so they are really creating a push to have those talks later in the week. they said that the framework is on the table. this is, of course, the framework president biden presented at the end of may, but there were differences about how to implement it, a they were prepared to issue a bridging

proposal if necessary. israel had said earlier that it was ready to send negotiators. hamas had not said anything until recently. now they have responded and said cease-fire talks to resume from where they left off, but israel has since proposed new conditions. but it seems that hamas is willing to participate in the talks despite the killing of its political leader. it just does not really believe that israel is serious, having launched these new conditions and continuing operations in gaza. i think the hamas position is they are waiting to get a clear answer about what is exactly on the table at this point. >> for more on the story, we speak to the u.s. state department's former assistant secretary of defense. good to have you back. the u.s. is sending a guided submarine missile and an aircraft carrier toward the region. it will get there more quickly.

what does this tell us about when iran might carry out this retaliation? >> it still remains very unclear when iran plans to carry out its response. first of all, the united states, we have seen this play before, but after october 7 when hamas attacked israel and the u.s. sent additional air defense capabilities and put a lot of forces on prepared to respond orders. and then president biden issued his statement to iran and any other adversary looking to escalate this confli. we saw it again on april 13 when iran launched a direct attack on israel, and now we are seeing again the united states put resources and its own forces behind warnings that this is not the time to escalate this conflict. >> do we have any indication what shape this retaliation might take? >> first of all, the message that tehran senior leaders have

heard from europe, from the region in multilateral coordinated statements, in direct messaging, through media areas is just don't. stand down. do not respond. however, we are in a moment where iran has shown it is willing to launch direct attacks from its territory on israel in response to provocations, and it clearly perceives that the killing of hamas political leader ismail haniyeh in tehran is enough of a reason to do something. the question is -- does iran seek full regional war and will calibrate that response? or is it ready to go to full scale war. >> meanwhile, the war continues in gaza and i have to ask you

about the strike over the weekend that killed more than 70 people in a building that was sheltering displaced people. the strike has been criticized by western countries, and we heard vice president harris say again israel has a responsibility to avoid civilian casualties. we have heard that from the white house now multiple times. is this at all a change in tone or strategy in washington? >> i think washington has been very clear that israel needs to prioritize civilian life and work to minimize collateral damage. the challenge with this event over the weekend is that there's two competing narratives. one came from hamas-controlled ministries and media operations, claiming that over 90 civilians were killed. then there is the version from the israel defense forces, which is that there were 19 hamas operatives working inside a mosque using this civilian

infrastructure for command and control to continue attacking israel, and the israeli defense forces have also said that the very specific munitions that use could not have caused this level of casualties. in this fog of war and misinformation, i think we united states has rightly asked for more information from israel and israel is investigating what happened, and what really happened remains to be seen. >> cease-fire talks are expected to continue, but hamas says they must be based on where talks were a month and a half ago rather than new rounds of negotiations. the u.s., egyptian negotiators are all pushing for new talks on thursday. will that pressure work? >> i think it remains to be seen. this is a make or break week for diplomacy. washington, egypt, qatar, everyone is focused on getting to the cease-fire, but to save palestinian lives, increase

humanitarian assistance. it looks like hamas is behaving like the organization it is by putting new requirements on the table. the question is -- does hamas have sufficient pressure that now is the time to save lives in gaza and get to that cease-fire back in and can egypt and qatar put enough pressure on hamas to participate? >> interesting comments from the defense minister. he said this is essentially not a strategy for a war and especially for a postwar plan for gaza for israel to occupy it. what did you make of that? >> i think he is absolutely right. the idf has done what they can

militarily, but without a political plan for the day after in gaza, there is no alternative. we know the arab region, arab governments, and even the palestinian authority are prepared to articulate a non-hamas civilian administration for gaza, and there are real problems with the government in israel reaching consensus on what that will look like and how they could participate. israel on the one hand has said they will not occupy gaza but on the other hand is resistanto articulating exactly what that political future could look like. this is a real problem. >> always great to have your analysis. thank you for joining us. >> thanks for having me. >> thousands of residents are being evacuated in greece as wildfires raging north of athens are approaching the city itself. strong winds speeding up the spread of the flames, and authorities say half the country will be in a red zone of dangerous weather conditions in

the coming days. greece appeal to the eu, and numerous countriesesponded including spain, italy, turkey, france, and the czech republic. in total, more than 700 firefighters have been sent to battle the fires. some of the flames were as high as 25 meters. that combined with temperatures nearly 104° fahrenheit or 40 degrees celsius is making it hard to breathe. >> through the dense smoke, they battle a blaze that have reached -- that has reached the outskirts of athens. homes, businesses, even hospitals have been evacuated. >> it hurts. we have grown up in the forest. we feel great sadness and anger.

quickly fight against the expanding blaze comes from the sky and from residents on the ground, people who have had to flee tell their terror. >> the flames surrounded me. i could not see. i hit a pine tree and this happened. >> agrees is no stranger to wildfires -- greece is no stranger to wildfires, but scientists argue things are getting worse because of climate change. this is a nation the just experienced its hottest july on record. >> we also have these very dry fuels which contribute to the spread of wildfire and increase the chance of it quickly expanding. the situation right now is extremely difficult. >> people are continuing to be evacuated from their homes.

these students were filmed north of the capital as officers tried to bring residents to safety. medics are urging people to be cautious, especially the elderly, pregnant women, children, and those with respiratory and heart problems. high winds have fueled these flames and there's no forecast a break from the searing heat over the coming days. clouds have been hovering over the ancient acropolis, a city under siege. >> let's get a quick look of some other stories now. the leader of a cult is on trial for the deaths of more than 400 of his followers, and he is pleading not guilty. mr. mckenzie faces charges that include murder and child torture. a former junior at cornell

university has been sentenced to 15 months in prison for posting antisemitic death threats. his threats caused some jewish students to relocate due to fears they were not safe on campus. since the were in gaza erupted last year, the u.s. has experienced a spike in anti-semitism. police were attacked after spearheading a legal crackdown through the weeks of protests. 42 officers were among the more than 400 people killed. officers had vowed not to resume work until their safety was guaranteed, but they agreed to return after talks with the new interim government. the paris olympics came to a glittering end with the u.s. topping the final medals table, securing 126 overall.

five-time olympic medalist tom daly has earned as much fame for his knitting in the stands as a diving. he has confirmed that this was his very last olympics. the 30-year-old explained his decision to retire from the sport in an emotional interview with bbc news today. >> i just think it's always hard when you say goodbye to any sport. i just -- yeah, lots of things the process, but i think it is the right time. this year came with such a bonus, and i got to compete in front of my family, my kids. i got to be flag bearer. bucket list ticked off on every occasion. >> before we go, a meteor shower past about the u.k. last night, creating a spectacle for those who stayed up. some of these pictures taken in northern ireland at around 3:00

a.m.. thank you so much for watching "world news america." remember, you can find more on all the news on our website, bbc.com/news. you can download our bbc app for the latest analysis from our correspondence around the world -- from our announcer: funding for presentation of this program is provided by... financial services firm, raymond james. announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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