this is bbc news broadcasting in the uk and around the globe i'm frankie mccamley. our top stories... in eastern ukraine, further fighting for control of lysycha nsk. the ukrainian army rejects russia's claims that the city is encircled thousands of residents of australia's biggest city, sydney, have been ordered to evacuate their homes because of torrential rain and the threat of flooding. why the us supreme court's abortion decision is having an impact thousands of miles away here in the uk. passengers around the world face more travel disruption — as staff shortages continue to cause major problems.

hello and welcome to bbc news. ukraine says it's enduring heavy russian shelling in the city of lysychansk, as the battle for the east of the country intensifies. lysychansk is the last ukrainian—held city in luhansk, part of the industrial donbas region that russia is focussing its military power on. these pictures from russia's state—owned domestic news agency, ria, show drone images of battles near the city. but kyiv denies russian claims that the city has been encircled. meanwhile, two more britons captured by russian forces in ukraine have been charged with being mercenaries, according to russian state media. it comes after two other british men were sentenced to death last month. joe inwood reports. andrew hill travelled to ukraine to help fight the russian invasion. dylan healy went there to help evacuate civilians. both men now face being tried as mercenaries

in an unrecognised separatist court. they would not be the first to appear there. last month, aiden aslin, shaun pinner and a moroccan man, brahim saaudun, were all sentenced to death by the so—called donetsk people's republic. according to dominic byrne, who is working on their cases, it is no coincidence most of them are british. this really shows that the russians are putting more and more pressure on the british government than other governments and using the british prisoners as more of a political tool and negotiation tool more than others and we believe that's the case because the british government have really seemed to rattled the russians within ukraine. rattled or not, on the battlefields of the east, russia is very much on the advance. they're said to be taking ground in lysychansk, the last part of the luhansk region held by the ukrainians. russia is moving to encircle the city. if they do, they will cut off some of ukraine's most experienced soldiers.

but it's notjust the eastern donbas region that has felt the effects of russia's invasion. the last fortnight have seen attacks right across ukraine. here in the capital, kyiv, at a shopping centre in the town of kremenchuk, and most recently in the resort of serhiyivka. 21 people are now known to have died when three russian missiles struck the popular holiday destination. roman tried to help. translation: everyone who was inside at that i moment, they all died. my neighbour was a very good person. it's a great pity. she simply died in my arms. it's really scary. i don't know how to put it into words. the attack on serhiyivka came just a few hours after russia was driven from the strategically important snake island under massive ukrainian bombardment. russia claimed it left as a gesture of goodwill, but last night returned to bomb the equipment it had been forced to leave behind. joe inwood, bbc news, kyiv.

earlier, i spoke with mark galeotti, professor at the school of slavonic and east european studies at university college london. i asked him about russia's leverage as foreigners are prosecuted for their roles in ukraine. evidence is that the most recent two brits who have been detained were actually involved in humanitarian relief efforts rather than anything else. look, what russia wants to do, particularly by characterising people who actually had joined the ukrainian military and are due all the protections of a combatant, a legal combatant under the geneva convention, by calling them mercenaries and by threatening them with a firing squad, though probably that won't actually happen, they're trying to do two things. one is to create a bargaining chip and hoping that they can get britain to negotiate with these undeclared, unrecognised pseudo states. but also, they're trying to deter other people from coming and helping. the idea is to basically make people think twice before coming and bringing humanitarian relief to the ukrainians or indeed joining

the ukrainian international region. and we've seen with previous people that have been involved what theirfate has been. what do you think is likely will happen to these two men? well, look, i don't think there's any question that the kangaroo court in the donetsk so—called people's republic is going to convict them and find them guilty of being mercenaries and will probably condemn them to death by firing squad. but i really think it's important to stress that it's very unlikely that they will actually be killed. they still have the chance. they would still have a chance to appeal. probably we would either see the donetsk authorities as an act of leniency, commuting it to a sentence in prison or else. there is talk that these regions may well be annexed by russia and the russian government has actually suspended the death penalty.

so one way or the other they'll probably end up in prison. but the main thing is exactly it's not really about the sentence from the russians and their proxies point of view. it's about a show trial that will be splashy and a deterrent. and mark, we're seeing this heavy bombardment. what is the russian strategy there, do you think? i mean, it looks like they've near enough taken the city and in fact, the ukrainians are conducting a fighting withdrawal. this is part of the current offensive which is pushing slowly but nonetheless very forcefully through into taking the luhansk region. and as as in your package, you heard essentially once they've taken here, they pretty much will have accomplished most of that goal. clearly having failed to take ukraine as a whole, having failed to take kyiv, the capital. now, what putin is requiring or demanding his generals do is to conquer all of the donbass region. if he can take the donbas region and also the land corridor to crimea, that's something

that he will be able to spin as a victory. and probably that's the point at which he would feel sort of comfortable with how the war has gone. so this is part of a continued slow grinding offensive. what we don't know and the key uncertainty is in a way how much metaphorical fuel in the tank the russians have got. how much further will they be able to push their offensive? it probably will soon be exhausted. and just finally, quite briefly, we're hearing at least three people have been killed in the russian city of belgorod just near to the ukrainian border. what does that tell you about russian�*s firepower at the moment? well, i mean, look, you can never stop these kind of attacks. so it doesn't really tell as much about russian firepower. but it does tell us that the ukrainians are trying to send a message to russia saying that actually there will be costs to you as well off the battlefield. and we could do this. we could continue to do this if you continue to strike civilian targets in ukraine.

travellers are facing more disruption to their plans, as the industry struggles with staff shortages ahead of a busy holiday period. in the us, a thousand flights have been cancelled across independence day weekend. while here in the uk, holidaymakers are being told to expect more flight cancellations over the next few days. the bbc�*s azadeh moshiri reports. it's scenes like this that airlines and the government want to avoid. but after months of travel chaos, which included the easter and jubilee holidays, passengers now face more disruptions in the days ahead. what you are going to see in the next few days are thousands of flight cancellations by british airways and others because they have a window in which they can effectively hand back the slots that they use for taking off and landing at airports like heathrow. and with this window, there is no penalty for them.

they also want to give consumers more than 14 days notice of any cancellation, because if they give more than two weeks notice, they won't have to pay compensation to those of us who find flights are cancelled. so the next few days are going to be very tricky indeed. staff shortages have been causing long queues at airports and severe problems with baggage handling. after thousands of aviation jobs were lost during the covid pandemic, businesses have struggled to hire new staff in time for the holidays. that's why ministers have said security checks are being turned around in record time for new recruits. the department for transport has even said counterterrorist checks are being processed on average in under ten days. that is half the time it took in march. in a statement, transport secretary grant shapps said...

but labour argue the government have been missing in action and are now simply playing catch—up. in the united states it is a holiday weekend with the county celebrating independence day on 4th ofjuly. but airlines have cancelled more than 1000 flights. meanwhile, the uk, with a rise due to fix their schedules by friday, it means a nervous few days for passengers. thousands of residents of australia's biggest city, sydney, have been ordered to evacuate their homes because of torrential rain and the threat of flooding. the weather bureau says it expects heavy rainfall along the east coast region, which will intensify

over the next two days. the rain has hit at the beginning of school holidays, and people have been asked not to travel in the region. the emergency services say it's a life—threatening situation and warn of flash flooding, and coastal erosion. the level of the dams, there is no room for the water to remain in the dams. they are starting to spill. the rivers are flowing very fast and very dangerous, and then we have the risk of flash flooding depending on where the rains are. there is a lot of risk out there that our community needs to be aware of. i ask you to heed the warnings. let's get some of the day's other news. argentina's economy minister, martin guzman, has resigned as splits emerge in the governing coalition over the handling of the country's economic crisis. mr guzman�*s policies have been criticised by the powerful vice—president, cristina fernandez de kirchner. authorities in israel say they've shot down three unarmed hezbollah drones heading towards a rig in the karish gas field. ownership of the field is disputed

between israel and lebanon. the militant group says it launched the drones as part of what it called a reconnaissance mission. palestinian authorities have handed over to us experts the bullet that killed the palestinian—american journalist shereen abu aqleh earlier this year, whilst she was working for the aljazeera news network. palestinian authorities say she was killed by israeli soldiers when she was covering clashes in the west bank. israel says she wasn't shot intentionally. six new claims of inappropriate behaviour by the former british conservative deputy chief whip, chris pincher, have emerged just days after he was suspended from the party for allegedly groping two men. the accusations, reported in several of today's newspapers, stretch back more than a decade. mr pincher has not responded to the bbc over the latest allegations but denied them to the newspapers. an official investigation

into his conduct has been launched. earlier our political correspondent helen catt gave me this update on the latest allgations. these are claims that appeared in three sunday newspapers, the mail on sunday, the sunday times and the independent. as you said, they span a number of years, the oldest dating back a decade. now, three of these claims relate to chris pincher making unwanted advances towards male mps. on one occasion in a parliamentary bar, in another occasion in his parliamentary office, there's also an allegation that a party staffer had alleged that she had tried to stop him making an advance on a young man at a conservative conference. now, no official complaints were made. and as you said, chris pincher has denied the allegations to the papers, although he hasn't responded to the bbc�*s request for comment. he did put out a statement last night responding to the allegations from last week. in the wake of those, he said that he was truly sorry for the upset that had caused

and that he was seeking professional medical support. and have we heard anything from downing street? well,downing street hasn't commented on these fresh claims. and of course, what these stories in the papers have done is to raise once again questions around what borisjohnson knew and when. so last week, downing street was saying that he had not been aware of any specific allegations about chris pincher when he appointed him as deputy chief whip in february. the bbc have been told that a number of mps had contacted downing street at the time to raise concerns. there's a report in one of the papers today that says that one of the mps involved in one of these alleged incidents, had told downing street about what he said had happened to him. what downing street was saying earlier in the week was that in the absence of any formal complaint, it hadn't been appropriate to stop an appointment on the basis of unsubstantiated allegations. and that is a line that the cabinet minister, therese coffey, has been repeating this morning.

the headlines on bbc news... in eastern ukraine — further fighting for control of lysycha nsk. the ukrainian army rejects russia's claims that they've encircled the city. thousands of residents of australia's biggest city, sydney, have been ordered to evacuate their homes because of torrential rain and the threat of flooding. it's little more than a week since the us supreme court overturned the automatic right to have an abortion but the effects of that landmark ruling are already being felt outside of the us. here in the uk, staff at some women's clinics are reporting larger numbers of anti—abortion protestors gathering outside — which they say is causing distress to patients. 0ur religion editor aleem maqbool has been finding out more. the lord's prayer opposite an abortion clinic in london in footage taken by a member of staff there. 0ne provider told us there's been a noticeable increase in protest

activity in the uk since news emerged that abortion rights would be overhauled in the us. regularly, anti—abortion protesters stand directly outside our clinic entrances, approaching women as they go in. they will call them �*mummy�* for example, hand them literature saying �*abortion causes breast cancer�*. and you have heard reports to that effect in recent days? yes, absolutely. just yesterday we had an incident in which we had to call the police because protesters were shouting so loudly outside one of our clinics that the women in the treatment rooms could hear them while they were undergoing their procedures. in this country on the whole, it remains a very low number of anti—abortionists who go to stand outside of clinics, and a handful of local authorities have introduced measures to keep them away from women accessing treatment. that's not to say that anti—abortion groups haven't been buoyed by recent

news from the us. just as culture here impacts what happens in the united states, so what happens in the united states impacts what happens here. but there just isn't the momentum behind the kind of campaign here. momentum can build. there are plenty of, uh, there are plenty of groups with a heart and a passion to see abortion overturned in this country, to make abortion history. christian concern might want that but it's not a realistic prospect. there was a recent court case brought by heidi crowter to move towards ending the possibility of late—term abortions on the grounds of disability like down syndrome. i am really upset not to win. the case was lost but will be heard at the court of appeal later this month. at the moment abortion is still technically a criminal offence in england, scotland and wales, except when there's substantial risk the child would have mental or physical abnormalities, the life of the pregnant woman's at risk, or there's risk of harm

to the pregnant woman's physical or mental health. the vast majority of abortions here are signed off by doctors under the last provision. butjust as events in the us appeared to be encouraging anti—abortion voices here, pro—choice activists hope it'll galvanise support to decriminalise abortion. aleem maqbool, bbc news. protesters in libya say they'll continue demonstrating until the ruling elite steps down. marches have taken place in cities across the country as living conditions deteriorate and a political deadlock continues. the united nations has called for calm after crowds stormed parliament and torched part of the building on friday. kate peevor reports. libya's parliament in flames. protesters were marching in several cities, but it was here in the eastern city of tobruk that their anger was on full display.

despite it being an oil rich country, that wealth hasn't trickled down to the people. libya has been suffering continued power cuts and rising prices. and since its ruler, colonel muammar gaddafi, was ousted more than ten years ago, the country has been locked in chaos. but in the light of day, not all people in libya approved of their parliament being torched. translation: yes, these protesters are under the poverty line. _ they don't have money and can't have a decent life, not even food. we support them and support their rights, but not the way they did it. what happened after sunset, like the destruction of libyan buildings and public properties, is considered a shame for the city of tobruk. with the country struggling through political deadlock. the protesters have specific demands. they want all ruling bodies to give up their powers and want elections

that were originally scheduled for last december to be finally held. the un has said the protests should be a clarion call for the political class to put their differences aside. until that happens, protesters have vowed to step up the pressure. kate peevor, bbc news. here in the uk more than a million people took to the streets of london for the capital's biggest—ever gay pride event. the record—breaking event went ahead after a two year pause, caused by the pandemic, and came as it celebrated its 50th anniversary. 0ur lgbt and identity correspondent lauren moss was there. it's loud, it's proud, and it's back where it all began. the pride march took to the streets of london once again, led by the gay liberation front, who started it in 1972. generations came together under the rainbow flag, including

17—year—old erin and her mum vicky, who travelled from leicestershire. i came out this year to my mum as bi and i've always wanted to come to one of these festivals. and finally, when i discovered that we'd be down here anyway, because had a guns n' roses concert yesterday, i asked if we could go and my mum was so for it. i'm so proud of erin i really am. and to see everybody today, it's the most amazing experience. for others, it was a homecoming. jamison went to his first pride 46 years ago. it's wonderful now to see the progression of what it was and what we have become. it's thought around 30,000 people took part in the parade today, passing some of the route the original march took in 1972. it is one of the most colorful celebrations in the country, but pride is still a protest at its heart. not being complacent. we saw this time last week in oslo, hours before their pride, a terrorist attack leading to two people being killed

and more than 20 been injured. so we can't pretend that there isn't discrimination, bias and violence against people from this community. pride is reaching far and wide across the uk with events from shetland. to salisbury and will continue for the next several weeks. laura moss, bbc news. around 11 million tonnes of plastic waste flow into the ocean each year, according to the un. a significant amount of that waste comes from plastic bags. today is international plastic bag free day, a global initiative set up to try to reduce how much plastic we use because, campaigners say, other solutions just aren't working. the bbc�*s population correspondent stephanie hegarty has looked at plastic recycling to ask how effective it really is. despite all the noise being made about plastic waste, we're producing more new plastic than ever. can we really recycle our way out of this mess? only 9% of the plastic waste the world has ever produced

has been recycled. so why is it so little? we have huge issues with collection. a lot of countries don't have efficient collection infrastructure, so a lot of these plastics do not get recycled. but let's take germany, which is really good at collecting plastic waste. they pick up about 99% of it after sourcing. less than half of what's collected will get recycled. the rest is either too dirty or it's just too hard to separate. and most of this is incinerated. of the chunk selected for recycling, a third is actually sent abroad. the rich countries, they have the resources to collect. so you don't see litter on the streets like you would see in asia. but they have the resources to hide it or export it to other countries, and it's difficult to track what's happening to it once it's gone. turkey, thailand, vietnam, pakistan, india, hong kong and mexico all receive plastic waste from places like europe,

the us and japan. so why is it so hard to recycle? there's seven different kinds of plastic. number one is drink bottles or pet. one of the easiest types of plastic to recycle. in europe, 60% of pet bottles are collected, but less than a third of them will end up as new bottles. some of the plastic can lose quality during the recycling process, and 31% are made into trays like this. a quarter of them are made into fabric or polyester. trays and fabrics aren't recycled as often. the economics are to blame here because right now it's cheaper to make new plastic than to recycle. even if manufacturers want to make products from recycled plastic right now, there just isn't enough of it. oil companies are banking on the fact that will keep

using new plastic in the coming decade. plastic production is not going to go down. it is just going to increase. the us is actually on the top of the list. they are planning a huge expansion in their petrochemical production over the next decade. so is china. there are two much more simple ways to avoid plastic waste that's to reduce and reuse. and it's possible. coca—cola is the world's top plastic polluter, according to an audit by break free from plastic. it says it wants to be a leader in finding solutions. and in brazil, it's been piloting a refillable plastic bottle scheme since 2018 and says it saves 200 million bottles a year. but 460 million tons of new plastic is being produced every year at this rate. it'll be a long time before recycling can catch up to it.

thank you for watching bbc news. hello. there's a lot of dry weather around today with some places staying completely dry. still keep on guard for darker clouds on the horizon. a few showers scattered across the country as we've seen so far today and will continue into the afternoon. main rain bearing weatherfront we had through yesterday. that's pushing its way off into the continent, bringing a drop in temperature after record breaking heat. a few weather fronts weakly tangled across the uk. one, a focus for a few showers. yorkshire down through towards east wales and the midlands as we go through lunch, and into the afternoon, eastern areas most prone to some of the heaviest showers. in the west, though, after starting with showers, many places becoming dry longer spells of sunshine and a brighter afternoon in the north of scotland compared with this morning. temperatures here a little on the low side, but quite a brisk breeze because of that. we've got winds gusting 30,

35 miles an hour, and that wind will freshen a bit further through tonight, bringing further batches of showery rain across scotland. maybe the odd one into northern ireland, northern england. much of england, wales, though the daytime showers fade away and it will be a dry night for most. and so as we start monday morning commute, temperatures similar to recent mornings, around 10 to 13 degrees. a dry bright start for the vast majority could be a bit more cloud. isolated showers drift its way southwards across england and wales during the morning. more showers at times in scotland, northern ireland, but actually, very few in number. vast majority will have a dry day on monday, and temperatures 16 to 18 degrees across the north but feeling a bit fresher in the cloudier spots and the breeze, low 20s in the south. as we go through into tuesday, high pressure is trying to swing and take milderair, waiting to come round it, but it will come with a lot of cloud. so after a bright start, we'll see cloud thicken up western scotland, northern ireland, patchy rain orjust a later in the day. 0dd isolated shower across some other western areas, many places having a dry day, best of the sunshine to the south and the east. and that area of high pressure

will slowly and only slowly nudge its way in as we go through the week. still some weather fronts and breezy conditions toppling around the north, but eventually, temperatures rising. at the moment, we've got the warmth across europe where we've seen record breaking heat. notice those warmer colours depart, turns cooler, the blue colours relative to normal, whereas we start to warm up relative to normalfor this stage injuly. showing up on our city forecast for cardiff and london temperatures mid 20s later in the week with the best of the sunshine. always cloudy in scotland, northern ireland, but not desperately chilly. temperatures above where we should be.

this is bbc news. the headlines... in eastern ukraine — further fighting for control of lysycha nsk. the ukrainian army rejects russia's claims that the city is encircled thousands of residents of australia's biggest city, sydney, have been ordered to evacuate their homes because of torrential rain and the threat of flooding. why the us supreme court's abortion decision is having an impact thousands of miles away — here in the uk. and passengers around the world face more travel disruption — as staff shortages continue to cause major problems. now on bbc news, political thinking with nick robinson.

hello and welcome to political thinking. how do we live with a resurgent russia? do we need to confront or cooperate with china? can the uk repair its relations with the eu post—brexit? foreign policy matters again. my guest on political thinking this week hopes to be our next foreign secretary, the first labour foreign secretary for many, many years. it's a dramatic change for david lammy, who for years used his powerful voice in the back benches to argue forjustice for the people in his constituency in his home of tottenham in north london. david lammy, welcome to political thinking. thank you, nice to be back. when you were last on this programme, you talked to me

about how pleased you were to be on the backbenches.