this is bbc news, i'm frankie mccamley. the headlines at 1pm: six new claims of inappropriate behaviour by former deputy chief whip chris pincher have emerged — days after he was suspended as a tory mp after allegations he groped two men. russia says it now controls the whole of the luhansk region in eastern ukraine — but ukrainian officials say they can't confirm the reports. thousands of residents in australia's largest city — sydney — have been ordered to evacuate their homes after torrential rain and flash flooding. the influential british theatre director, peter brook, who's career ranged from radical interpretations of shakespeare to broadway musicals, has died at the age of 97. ——whose. and coming up at 1.30, the travel show reports from mexico's wetlands on attempts to return one of the area's unique

and distinctive creatures. good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. new allegations have emerged against chris pincher, who resigned from the government on thursday, after he was accused of groping two men in a private members' club the night before. mr pincher, who admits that he'd had too much to drink, says he's now seeking professional help. he denies the latest claims which are made in a number of sunday newspapers. borisjohnson is facing questions about how much he knew when he appointed mr pincher as the deputy chief whip in february. here's our political correspondent helen catt.

it was what it claimed happened an evening of drinking here, that called for the resignation of chris pincher, to suspension as a conservative mp. in the papers today, there are more claims denied by mr pincher, at other locations, stretching back a number of years, and among them, that he made unwanted physical advances towards three male mps, including once in a palm tree bark and once in his office. one of those mps, it is reported, told downing street in february about his experience, when the prime minister was considering appointing him to the wit�*s offers. the government mentions that boris johnson was not aware of specific allegations. johnson was not aware of specific allegations-_ johnson was not aware of specific alleuations. ., , . . johnson was not aware of specific alleuations. ., , ., ., ., allegations. how can you be aware of these allegations, _ allegations. how can you be aware of these allegations, that _ allegations. how can you be aware of these allegations, that he _ allegations. how can you be aware of these allegations, that he did - allegations. how can you be aware of these allegations, that he did not. these allegations, that he did not know about them? he these allegations, that he did not know about them?— these allegations, that he did not know about them? he did not know about the specific _ know about them? he did not know about the specific allegations, - know about them? he did not know about the specific allegations, hasl about the specific allegations, has has been — about the specific allegations, has has been well reported, he was spoken— has been well reported, he was spoken to — has been well reported, he was spoken to by many people on friday, the whip _ spoken to by many people on friday, the whip was removed from chris pincher, — the whip was removed from chris pincher, who by the way is now under

a formal_ pincher, who by the way is now under a formal investigation process and it is important that process is allowed — it is important that process is allowed to happen. the it is important that process is allowed to happen. the number ten ace, allowed to happen. the number ten age. formally. _ allowed to happen. the number ten age, formally, said _ allowed to happen. the number ten age, formally, said that _ allowed to happen. the number ten age, formally, said that the - allowed to happen. the number ten age, formally, said that the prime i age, formally, said that the prime minister had long before, laughingly, referred to pincher by nature, pension by nature. jokingly. it has not been denied that he has said this. i it has not been denied that he has said this. ., ., ~' , . said this. i do not think they have taken these _ said this. i do not think they have taken these things _ said this. i do not think they have taken these things seriously, - said this. i do not think they have taken these things seriously, i i taken these things seriously, i think they have made decisions they should not have made. i cannot believe some of the things that are in the paper, after the things that the prime minister may have been aware of, after he mentioned things like this. everyone suffers, it affects the reputation of all of us, and that is what i find so frustrating. in and that is what i find so frustrating.— and that is what i find so frustrating. and that is what i find so frustratina. . , . frustrating. in a statement released esterda , frustrating. in a statement released yesterday. chris _ frustrating. in a statement released yesterday, chris pincher— frustrating. in a statement released yesterday, chris pincher said... - frustrating. in a statement releasedi yesterday, chris pincher said... and that he was in the process of seeking that now. he said he hoped to return to his constituency duties soon. he has agreed to stay away from parliament while he is investigated by its independent

complaints and grievances scheme. the russian defence ministry says its troops have gained control of the eastern ukrainian region of luhansk. moscow's forces had been encircling lysychansk, the last city in the area which was being defended by ukraine. earlier, we spoke with yuriy sak, spokesman for the ukrainian ministry of defence who countered russia's claim. we've been hearing these claims, actually, from yesterday, and these claims have not been confirmed yet by the ukraine's general staff, the armed forces of ukraine, neither by the local administration and authorities. what we can say with certainty, of course, is the situation in lysychansk has been very intense for quite a while now. after the battle for severodonetsk, lysychansk was the key focus of the russian offensive,

their ground forces have been attacking lysychansk nonstop, the city was under intense artillery fire, missile fire, bombardments, aerial bombardments. and like we've always been saying, and our minister of defence confirmed it a few days ago, for ukrainians, the value of human life is top priority, so sometimes we may retreat from certain areas, just so that we will retake them in the future. and there are other claims that russia is encircling ukrainian troops, or encircling the town itself. what's your take on that? trying to encircle ukrainian troops in the east of ukraine, in the area of luhansk and donetsk regions, has been russian tactics from the beginning of this aggressive war. they've very often claimed that they've almost completed an encirclement, but very often,

these claims haven not been and like we've always been saying, and our minister of defence confirmed it a few days ago, for ukrainians, the value of human life is top priority, so sometimes we may retreat from certain areas, just so that we will retake them in the future. trying to encircle ukrainian troops in the east of ukraine, in the area of luhansk and donetsk regions, has been russian tactics from the beginning of this aggressive war. they've very often claimed that they've almost completed an encirclement, but very often, these claims haven not been corroborated, so at the moment we can say that the city is still not under the full control of the russian armed forces, and as for the encirclement, of course, they are trying to achieve that, but ukrainian armed forces are resisting very heroically and are very determined not to allow this to happen. this will by far not be the game overfor the donbas area because, as you know, there are other large cities in the donbas area, particularly in the donetsk region, including slovyansk and kramatorsk. these are cities which are now controlled fully by the ukrainian armed forces. and these are cities which are,

and have been for the last couple ukraine is hopeful and continues to receive military slovyansk is under artillery shelling every day, but the battle for the donbas is not over yet. ukraine is hopeful and continues to receive military support from our western allies, and sooner or later, we will accumulate a sufficient number of heavy artillery and other types of weaponry that will allow us to go on the counter—offensive and liberate our lands, and notjust the donetsk and the luhansk regions, but also other parts of ukraine which are temporally occupied by these war criminals and aggressors. in another development, russia says ukraine has targeted missile strikes at the city of belgorod — close to its border with ukraine into its territory. it says at least four people have been killed. ukraine has made no comment about the allegation. thousands of people have been told to leave their homes in australia's biggest city, sydney, because of the risk of flooding. the australian weather bureau has warned that heavy rainfall could lead to flash flooding across the state of new south wales as some areas are already inundated by floodwater. our correspondent shaimaa khalil is in sydney and sent this report. another extreme weather event, only a few months since the last one. in the south—western sydney suburb of camden, home to more than 100,000 people, local shops and a petrol station were inundated.

not much else has been spared here. many communities have seen a month's worth of rain in the last two days alone. thousands of residents were ordered to evacuate south—western sydney. with torrential rain and damaging winds thrashing the east coast, there have been dozens of emergency rescues. heavy rains have also caused sydney's main anti overspill ——main dam to overspill. we are now facing dangers on multiple fronts. flash flooding, river rain and flooding and coastal erosion. this is a life—threatening emergency situation. the and rain have been relentless here in sydney and the surrounding areas, with more wet weather expected in the next couple of days, across new south wales. this is the start of the school holidays here and many families were getting ready to travel. the message from the emergency services is that unless you are ordered to evacuate, people should stay home. experts say the flooding emergency has been worsened by climate change, and a weather phenomenon. insurance companies in australia are warning that communities prone to flooding may be forced to relocate. as new figures suggest that floods earlier this year were one of the country's costliest ever natural disasters, some of the areas

currently at risk have just been hit by devastating floods back in march. scientists have said that unless something is done to reduce carbon emissions and stop global warming, these extreme weather events will become the norm. for now, australia is once again experiencing first—hand the reality of climate change. shaimaa khalil, bbc news, sydney. the government's spending watchdog is to review borisjohnson�*s pledge to build a0 new hospitals by 2030, to see if it still represents good value for money given spiralling inflation. details of the national audit office review first emerged in a letter to the shadow health secretary, wes streeting. but the department of health and social care insists the plan is on track to deliver a0 new hospitals by 2030. earlier, i spoke to nigel edwards, chief executive of the nuffield trust, a think tank focused on health policy. i asked him if he welcomed the

review. it's probably necessary, quite a lot has changed since the programme was announced. and back in november last year, a body that i think i had never heard of, but maybe anyone else would have done, but something but something called an infrastructure project authority, part of government, had issued warnings about this programme being delayed and there's also been a huge inflation in the costs of building construction, partly due to the pandemic and brexit, potentially, but also worldwide, the costs have been going up. a number of the schemes that were originally thought to be affordable might actually be in trouble. and there seems to be confusion over the number of new hospitals being built? do you know how many are being built? this is a very good question, it turns out the word "new" is surprisingly slippery. if you think new means a completely new building on a new site, there is probably only two of those.

the rest are largely rebuilding or refurbishment or new wings on existing buildings and all are very welcome now, because the uk is a massive outlier on high income countries, in how much we have been spending on health infrastructure, diagnostic equipment and buildings. this is all very welcome, but one of the problems with the programme is that the idea behind it was to try to approach this with a standardised approach to building, reducing costs, but because these are all refurbishment and buildings on existing sites, having to fit into existing building structures, it is very hard to standardise, the schemes become more complex, and the approach they want to take is going to prove very difficult, i think. and do you think we need a0 new hospitals? well, a number of these hospitals are literally falling down, some built with a type of aerated concrete planks have been

propped up, i think, james paget has 1500 props propping up its roof, watford has been waiting for a redevelopment for 30 years, hillingdon, similarly, whipps cross made a good workhouse infirmary but has again been supposedly been thought of for a rebuild since the 1990s. the one new hospital that has opened was actually started a very long time ago, it was delayed due to the collapse of carillion. there is a massive backlog of billions of pounds of maintenance across the whole of the nhs�*s buildings, and as i say, it has been a black hole, with very little investment put into it, and visitors for hospitals will be familiar with the problems of buckets collecting water, plant breaking down, operations being cancelled because things are not working. it is a real problem and a number of these places,

i have just named a few, i coud carry on listing you places that have been waiting longer than a decade, in some cases, two decades, for replacement of their aged estate. we are really out of line with our european neighbours on this. that was nigel edwards, chief executive of the nuffield trust. the chief executive of the uk health security agency, dame drjenny harries, has said the number of people going to hospital with covid is expected to rise further. the latest official figures show covid—19 infections in the uk had jumped by more than half a million in a week. dr harries was speaking earlier to the bbc�*s sunday morning programme. whilst we have an armament now of vaccines and anti—viral treatment, we do have, as you havejust highlighted, a rise in hospital admissions and occupancy, and that means it's notjust covid we are concerned about but our ability to treat other illnesses as well.

one of post—war britain's leading theatre directors, peter brook, has died in paris at the age of 97. peter brook's early stage career ranged from radical interpretations of shakespeare, to broadway musicals. his best—known film was lord of the flies, released in 1963. sarah campbell looks back on his life. i know a bank where the wild thyme blows, where oxlips and the nodding violet grows... a midsummer night's dream on trapezes, surely not? yet those who saw the royal shakespeare company's 1970 production thought it brilliant. what better way to capture the strangeness of shakespeare's playful comedy of dreams, fairies and love? peter brook had been directing for 20 years — always original, always challenging. he had flourished in the �*60s and �*70s, one of thousands

of artists who rebelled against the old conventions. how are you today? then, controversially, he turned his back on english theatre. at the bouffes du nord, a former music hall in paris, he created an international company of actors. they toured the globe, performing in africa and australia, and with them, brook produced work that fused many different theatrical traditions, like a nine—hour version of the hindu epic, the mahabharata. the theatricality of theatre is that one group is telling a story to the other and there is this intimate relationship which must never be broken, and a complete shared understanding that, of course, it's not for real. to many, he was the greatest theatre director of the 20th century, a man whose talent crossed continents and cultures, to create memorable and magical work. the headlines on bbc news...

six new claims of inappropriate behaviour by former deputy chief whip chris pincher have emerged,days after he was suspended as a tory mp after allegations he groped two men. russia says it now controls the whole of the luhansk region in eastern ukraine, but ukrainian officials say they can't confirm the reports. and thousands of residents in australia's largest city — sydney, have been ordered to evacuate their homes after torrential rain and flash flooding. sport and for a full round—up, from the bbc sport centre, here's ben croucher. all eyes on wimbledon, this afternoon, ben? ~ , ., afternoon, ben? absolutely, we have afternoon, ben? absolutely, we have a full schedule _ afternoon, ben? absolutely, we have a full schedule on _ afternoon, ben? absolutely, we have a full schedule on the _ afternoon, ben? absolutely, we have a full schedule on the middle - afternoon, ben? absolutely, we have a full schedule on the middle sunday| a full schedule on the middle sunday of wimbledon. heather watson, cameron norrie and novak djokovic all hoping to make it into the quarter finals. chethan pathak is ready in his sunday best. chethan, we'll get on to today's action in a moment but we have to reflect on a dramatic night

on court one. no love lost between nick kyrgios and stefanos tsitsipas in one of the most extraordinary matches i've seen for a while. tell us what happened and the fallout. all sorts of drama, two of the biggest characters in the men's tour, with tsitsipas eventually losing this in four sets, and curiosity through to the fourth... in that loss, that everyone is talking about, stiffness tsitsipas hoofing the ball into the crowd, nearly missing the spectators, it wasn't the apologising for in the press conference but chethan has been chuntering away, to that anyway, but he wasn't happy with tsitsipas only being given a warning for that, he felt he should have been thrown out of the championship. —— kyrgios. kyrgios... he managed to calm himself down, to get the match one,

tsitsipas was knocked happy throughout. a couple of rallies we had in that match, he was trying to hit kyrgios with the ball. and it all came to a boiling point afterwards, this is what both players had to say. it's constant bullying. that's what he does. he bullies his opponents. he was probably a bully at school himself. you don't know what's behind. i don't like bullies. i don't like people that put people, other people down. he has some good traits in his character, as well. but when he... he also has a very evil side to him, which if his if it's exposed, it can really do a lot of harm and bad to the people around him. i'm not really too sure what i did wrong out there today. - i was having some words - with the umpire, nothing more than what i usually do. as for hitting someone in the crowd with a ball, that was him, _ smacking a ball into the crowd, again that was him. _ rifling balls at me, that was him. not giving a good handshake, -

look me in the eyes — that was him. as for me, ijust competed. pretty extraordinary, that one might rumble on for a little longer. maybe a bit quieter today, but what have we got to look forward to? lats a bit quieter today, but what have we got to look forward to? lots of come on centre _ we got to look forward to? lots of come on centre court, _ we got to look forward to? lots ofj come on centre court, celebrating the centenary year, we saw roger federer walking around, plenty of former champions are in town because they will be presented in front of centre court before play gets under way, heatherwatson centre court before play gets under way, heather watson is up first, the british 30 euros, she never got this far at the black —— grand slam, 12 years into her career, it has finally happened for her, at 30. she will be playing a german player, who was top 100 now, it is how best player, and islam, but of the most experienced slammer players in the women's draw, she has to be considered a contender to at least get further into proceedings. here, she said that officials have been trying to kill her early in the week

because both her first and second round matches carried across two days because of the rain. she is looking really good, the emotional when in the last round earlier, and we have the british men's number one, same story for cam norrie, fourth round of a grand slam, he will be playing america's tommy paul. his hero is tim henman. he's been watching loads of videos on youtube of tim henman. norrie blown away paul... ninth seed here and feeling really confident, saying he is loving playing on wimbledon�*s grass, this year more than ever before. a great day of centre court tennis to come.— before. a great day of centre court tennis to come. england have gone on the counterattack, on the third day of their rescheduled final test against india. starting the day in trouble on 8a—5, jonny bairstow and ben stokes took the fight to india — bairstow quickly reached his half—century. but a brilliant catch from india's captain jasprit bumrah got the key wicket of ben stokes for 25 —

he'd already been dropped twice. bairstow�*s now nine runs short of his hundred. at lunch, england were 200 for 6, 216 runs behind, needing another 17 to avoid the follow—on. carlos sainz will be on pole position for the first time in his career for today's british grand prix at silverstone. the ferrari driver edged out championship leader max verstappen, with lewis hamilton in fifth. there could be some rain around for the race too — that starts at 3. earlier this morning, at silverstone, roy nissany was extremely fortunate to escape unhurt from a crash during the formula 2 race. the israeli driver tangled with dennis hauger which sent the norwegian on to the grass with almost disasterous consquences when it was launched into the air after hitting a "sausage kerb" and landed on top of nissany�*s car. remarkably both drivers were able to walk away from the wreckage. the halo device saving nissany�*s life.

you're up to date. more as always on the website and we'll be back later in the afternoon. thank you, ben. travellers are facing more disruption to their plans, as the industry struggles with staff shortages ahead of a busy holiday period. holiday—makers are being told to expect more flight cancellations over the next few days. and in the us, a thousand flights have been cancelled across independence day weekend. 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, it means there is no penalty for them. they also want to give consumers more than 1a 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 ' —u . simply play|ng catch p the same issues have been plaguing other countries. in the united states, it is a holiday weekend with the country celebrating independence day on ath ofjuly. but a shortage of pilots and crew has meant airlines have cancelled more than 1,000 flights. meanwhile, in the uk, with a rise due to fix their schedules by friday, it means a nervous few days for passengers. there are calls for the treasury to cut the cost of fuel in the most rural parts of the country — after the average price of a litre of unleaded petrol reached

a new high of over one—pound 91 ——£1.91 on uk forecourts this week. rural fuel duty relief cuts 5p per litre off the cost of petrol and diesel where prices are higher, but is only available in a handful of remote areas in england and scotland, not northern ireland or wales, as howell griffith reports. this is linda's office. her car roams the roads of rural west wales, clocking up 1,000 miles a month so she can care for people in their own homes. it's a lifeline for her community... you ok, ian? ..in one of the most remote areas of britain, but it comes at a rising cost. even with a mileage allowance from her employer, linda says she now spends half of her wages on fuel. i will have to leave this job, and i would hate to, i would really hate to. we don't have enough staff,

i don't think any care company has enough staff, and they are going to leave. there is a government scheme to bring down the cost of petrol and diesel in remote places. rural fuel duty relief is only available in a handful of post codes in england and scotland, and nowhere at all in wales or northern ireland. it's meant to compensate for the cost of getting fuel to remote forecourts, not the extra miles people drive in the countryside. the treasury says every driver in the uk has already benefited from the fuel duty cut in march. there's another garage, he's below £2. but nick says he has not felt the benefit. the cost of fuelling his cabs has risen 50% in the last six months, and after holding out, this month he has put up his prices. don't like it. i feel i'm letting people down. i don't like doing it, but i've got to, because otherwise, next week i won't be here.

oh, you have grown it more now. robin has already put up her prices and doesn't feel she can do it again, so this mobile hairdresser now stays at home. most of her customers now drive to her. for the time being, with the costs of the fuel, and everything else going up, working more from home i am not putting that price up for the clients. what did you do there? the cost of fuel has driven inflation across the uk, but in some of its most rural communities it risks changing lives and livelihoods for good. hywel griffith, bbc news, ceredigion. 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 are producing more plastic than ever. can we really recycle our way out of this mess? only 9% of the plastic 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 a sufficient 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 sorting, less than half of

what is 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 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 is happening to it once it's gone. turkey, thailand, vietnam, pakistan, india, hong kong and mexico, they all receive plastic waste from places like europe, the us and japan. so why is it so hard to recycle? there are 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 one third of them will end up as new bottles. some of the plastic can lose quality during the recycling process. 31% are made into trays like this. one quarter of them are made into fabric or polyester. trays and fabrics are not recycled as often. the economics are to blame here because right now, it's cheaper to make new plastic than to recycle it. 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 we'll keep using new plastic. in the coming decade, plastic production is not going to go down. it's just going to increase. the us is actually at the top of the list, they are planning huge expansion in the petrochemical production over the next decade, and so is china. there are two much more simple ways to avoid plastic waste. that is to reduce and reuse. and it's possible.

coca—cola is the world's top plastic polluter according to an audit