live from washington, this is bbc news. the battle for bakhmut — a mercenary group claims control of the ukrainian city, but president zelensky tells g7 leaders that's not the case. translation: bakhmut | is not occupied by russian federation as of today. there are no two or three interpretations of those words. learning lesssons from covid — at its annual meeting, the world health organization looks for ways to better prepare forfuture pandemics. and history made — the first female astronaut from saudi arabia en route to the international space station.

hello, i'm carl nasman, thanks forjoining us. we start injapan, where a weekend of diplomacy and solidarity among some of the world's most powerful political leaders has come to a close. ukraine's president volodymyr zelensky departed the g7 summit injapan with a pledge of "unwavering support" — as well as more military equipment — from his allies. on sunday, president zelensky and japanese prime minister fumio kishida each laid a wreath at the hiroshima peace memorial park. it was a moment of deep symbolism — two leaders of countries that both know the very real and very painful scars of war. russia's invasion of ukraine dominated talks at the g7 summit. us presidentjoe biden confirmed that the us and its allies will help train ukrainian pilots to fly western fighterjets like the f—16, which president zelensky had long called for. biden also promised to support ukraine with more ammunition and armoured vehicles, partly as a demonstration of western resolve. we will not waver.

putin will not break our resolve as he thought he could two years ago, almost three years ago. we're going to continue to provide economic, humanitarian and security assistance to ukraine so it can stand strong as long as it needs it. meanwhile, president zelensky thanked world leaders for their enduring support at the end of the summit and said that russia's defeat would result in lasting world peace. he also insisted that russia does not occupy the embattled city of bakhmut, after conflicting claims over who is now in control. our diplomatic correspondent james landale has more. for more than eight months, in what's now the longest battle of this war, ukrainian forces have defended bakhmut. the eastern city is now largely in ruins and largely in russian

hands — in particular in the hands of fighters like these from the wagner mercenary group, whose leader evgeny prigozhin claimed to have full control here. "from house to house," he said, "we took the whole city". something that ukrainian commanders and leaders denied. translation: bakhmut is not occupied by the russian - federation as of today. there are not two or three ways of interpreting those words. what's clear is that tens of thousands of russians have died here. many more have been diverted from other areas. and ultimately, that may be more important than who holds the ruins. for more on this, i spoke to michael bociurkiw, a non—resident seniorfellow at the atlantic council's eurasia center. well, we're hearing this conflicting news, conflicting reports coming out of the city of bakhmut regarding which side controls that city.

what's your sense? do we know who actually controls it? it's difficult to tell. it's almost like a pr war as well on who controls it. but you know what, at the end of the day, this is a city completely destroyed by the russians. many are making the comparison of bakhmut to aleppo. scorched earth russian tactics have levelled what used to be arguably one of the most beautiful cities in that part of ukraine. so it's like in the past more than a year, the russians have been bombing museums, libraries, churches. they've now bombed the heck out of bakhmut. does that represent a battlefield victory, all of that? i don't think so. why was russia willing to lose so much in terms of supplies, in terms of human lives in this battle? is it that strategic or is this about messaging? well, there are a couple of reasons there. one is russia from the start has been deploying basically

a meat grinder approach to this war, sending wave upon wave of human beings to fight, many of them unprepared, many of them unequipped. and then secondly, mr putin and his circle of elites needed some kind of win to show to the russian public. they've been, in the past weeks, harshly criticised by military bloggers, so they really needed something to show. on the other hand, the ukrainians, when they see things are not going their way, they do have compassion, they pull their forces away, unlike the russian meat grinder approach to fighting. is there a strategic value still to this city? i mean, they've been fighting for so long, but we're also anticipating that ukraine might launch a counteroffensive and that may be nowhere near bakhmut. yeah, i don't think it's that important. i mean, it isn't, for example, a port city, where the russians could leave the city as it is and perhaps use the port and do things like illegally ship out grain. but i think the ukrainians are getting ready for a counter—offensive.

it could actually be into summer, and i think it isn't something that's going to be shocking awe. you know, listening to mr reznikov, the defence minister, speak, i think it's going to be in bits and pieces. but having said all that, there is some sort of political pressure on the zelensky administration to prove that all of this expensive military kit, this billions of dollars in aid is going to good use. i have no doubt whatsoever in terms of the resolve of the ukrainian government to finish this off, to push the russians back to pre—crimea, pre—2014 donetsk lines. speaking of those new weapons commitments, we heard yet more commitments coming out of the g7 summit this weekend. does ukraine now have what it needs to begin this counteroffensive? it has the promises, the pledges, but it doesn't have all of the equipment it needs. there are two critical things there. one is a more robust air defence system. just in the past hours, missiles and drones have

been targeting odesa, kharkiv and kherson, so the ukrainians have been spending a lot of weaponry to shoot those things down and there's a limit to how much can go in the air on that effort. and then the other thing here is that with the f—i6s, of course, ukraine will have a more robust capability to shoot down russian aircraft, perhaps even to strike legitimate military targets within russia, although that's something that causes a bit of nervousness in washington. but it's basically those two things. but again, i have to really point out that it will take time for these f—i6s to be delivered. we don't even know which countries are going to give them. and then the training. different countries have different platforms on the f—i6s, different software, so the best scenario would be if, for example, the netherlands delivered 12 in one batch and then it would only require one set of training. president zelensky was there at the g7. he was meeting with g7 leaders.

he also met with the leaders of countries like india and brazil that have remained more neutral. if this conflict drags on, will those countries eventually have to pick a side? well, i think they should have picked the right side by now and dropped their neutrality. it was an interesting guest list at the g7 — india, vietnam, indonesia. also, we would have expected south africa there. these are countries that have been sitting on the fence. but i think it's very, very important that they make the right choice. look, at the end of the day, what russia is also doing is weaponising food in this war. none of these countries are immune from that. in fact, when ijust left odesa the other day, i saw no ships whatsoever in the port, none on the horizon. russia is restricting the flow of ukrainian grain and that's going to reverberate across the world, including in these countries that are sitting on the fence. so they should drop their neutrality, go help ukraine to win this war, and then there won't be this food crisis that was being

manufactured by russia. i want to ask you, because you mentioned you've been back and forth to odesa and this beefed up air defence system that's in place not only there, but in kyiv. how much of a game changer has that been for daily life in cities across ukraine? well, it's been huge. you know, a few days ago, i was there in the middle of the night in odesa when rockets were raining down and the air defence system were very robust and shot all of the missiles down. but i think what is happening to from the russian side is they're playing psychological warfare. these strikes typically happen in the middle of the night. people are at their most vulnerable. a lot of us are not getting proper sleep, especially those who are in kyiv. the anxiety is very high. it boggles the mind the capability of russia to still have that many missiles, that many drones. and one other thing, if i may, on that point, i just spoke to ukraine's ambassador to the un and asked him about israel,

for example, playing a more robust role targeting targets in iran where these drones are being manufactured. i think israel can do more, should do more in that regard. interesting. michael bociurkiw, a non—resident seniorfellow at the atlantic council's eurasia center, thank you so much for your insights. my pleasure. a look now at some other stories making headlines. us presidentjoe biden will hold talks with the us house speaker kevin mccarthy on monday after a phone conversation signalled progress on debt limit negotiations. mr mccarthy said the call had been productive but that the two sides were still apart. the president said the talks "went well". republicans want spending cuts to pass legislation on lifting the debt ceiling in congress. the us treasury has warned of a catastrophic default if no deal is agreed by the end of this month. in the uk, the bbc understands that suella braverman�*s handling

of a speeding offence will be discussed by prime minister rishi sunak on monday. the pm will meet with his ethics advisor to discuss whether his home secretary broke the ministerial code when she asked civil servants to arrange a private speed awareness course. the course is usually conducted with members of the public. a source close to ms braverman denied she broke the rules. greek prime minister kyriakos mitsotakis has described his party's victory in the greek elections as "a political ea rthquake". with almost all the votes counted, the new democracy party is on almost 41%, leaving them five seats short of a majority. the result has confounded analysts�* expectations. under a complicated greek electoral system, mr mitsotakis will need to face the people again injuly if he hopes to achieve an absolute majority. the brazilian president, luiz inacio lula da silva, has urged the sports authorities in spain and other european countries to act decisively to prevent

the spread of fascism and racism in football grounds. he was speaking after the brazil international viniciusjunior was subjected to racist chants during real madrid's match at valencia. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. cj has autism and, after three heart attacks, has disabilities, which means he often has to use a wheelchair. he discovered photography as a teenager and hasn't looked back. i enjoy the photography because i feel i hide behind my camera a bit because it's kind of like a comfort blanket like a child would have, sort of my safety net. in his teens, he teamed up with professional photographer clive figes, who mentored him. they clicked and clive realised cj had a gift. i learned to treat cj as a human being, a human being with gifts that i haven't got. to treat him like a decent

person, to show interest in him, because in every direction we take, there's an awful lot of apathy. i spot things that people often overlook, you know, you wouldn't normally see. this relationship, spanning 13 years, has now seen cj recognised for his work by the royal photographic society. you're live with bbc news. "we cannot simply carry on as we did before". those are the words of the head of world health organization, dr tedros, at the start of the world health assembly in geneva. global health leaders are gathering in switzerland for the annual meeting. it comes just weeks after the who declared that covid is no longer a global health emergency. the un's health agency has launched a new worldwide network aimed at quickly detecting the spread of infectious diseases in an effort to be better prepared for future pandemics.

earlier i spoke to dr tom frieden, the former head of the us public health authority, the cdc. i began by asking him how that network will work, and how it might help us prepare for another pandemic in the future carl, we're seeing some encouraging developments, really a commitment to collaborate globally, to share information, to share resources, and even more importantly, to build capacity in countries around the world, because even the strongest network in the world will only be as strong as its weakest link. that's why it's so crucial that we build capacity in country. this particular network is looking at things such as genomic surveillance, tracking the genomes of different microbes, seeing — as we've all learned — the different variants of covid, looking at surveillance for pathogens that could cause

death and devastation and that can be prevented if we find them earlier and act earlier. in terms of working together in this kind of global cooperation, china was criticised by many for perceived delay in warning the world about covid—i9 when it was first detected. how concerned are you that this new surveillance network could face similar challenges? there are certainly some complex issues, including the sharing of genomic information of different microbes and who benefits from any discoveries that are made in vaccines or medicines that are used, but timeliness is absolutely the single most important thing that we need to focus on, and that's why there is a suggested target called 7—1—7. every single outbreak would be identified within seven days of emergence, reported to public health authorities within one day, and all essential control measures in place within seven days. now, i know that the who is also working towards a new pandemic accord.

i want to read you something that the head of the who, dr tedros, said today. he said, "we cannot simply carry on as we did before". what more do we need to be doing to better prepare for a potential pandemic in the future? there are lots of things that the world needs to do better. the fact is that there were successes in covid. we prevented millions of deaths around the world, but millions of people died who didn't have to die if the public health response had been better, if timeliness of finding outbreaks had been faster, if vaccine equity had been better. so there's a whole range of things from finding outbreaks faster to having the ability to respond more effectively and more quickly to preventing them wherever possible, including through the use of vaccination. the covid vaccines have been remarkably effective and have saved literally millions of lives around the world, but we may not be so lucky next time. and this time we didn't do well with fairness. we allocated vaccine based

on who could pay for them rather than whose lives were most at risk. dr tom frieden there, the former head of the us cdc. to india now. a heatwave warning has been issued for the capital dehli and surrounding areas. meteorological officials said several parts of delhi recorded maximum temperatures above 45 degrees celsius. it said the extreme conditions are likely to persist in isolated pockets over the next two days. the heatwave is the latest in a series of extreme weather events recorded in recent months. and there are warnings too from the world meteorological organi?ation that the situation could worsen. ——organization. according to its annual report released last week, global temperatures are likely to breach the key level of 1.5 degrees celsius of warming within the next five years. the report links temperature increases to recent extreme weather events — from flooding in pakistan, to heatwaves across europe and asia. nisha krishnan, the director for climate resilience, africa at the world resources

institute, has been following that report closely. i think we're just getting more and more evidence to what we're already seeing in terms of impacts in terms of daily lives. i think the ipcc report earlier this year as well sort of showed that we were on not a great track, and ifeel like the latest wmo report is reallyjust sending that message home to us that we do need to do a lot more to be ready for the impacts that are possibly coming our way. that same report also said that likely one of the next five years will be the hottest year on record in terms of recent temperatures. how prepared are we, especially in the areas of the world that you study, for those kinds of temperatures? you know, ithink, unfortunately, we're probably woefully unprepared for the kind of impacts and the sort of heat we might be seeing, the type of floods we might be experiencing, in the nearfuture. i think there is a lot to be done in terms particularly in africa where i work

and i mostly focus most of my time on. but i think we're seeing, for example, increasing urbanisation and communities within urban informal settlements totally unprepared for this sort of impacts in the coming years. i think we're already seeing that even in recent times, for example, in rwanda, where we've had landslides lately. but i think given that temperature is just one aspect of how we're going to feel the impacts of climate change, i think we still have quite a long way to go before we're ready for those sort of impacts. yeah, and you mentioned it — i mean, this will mean more extreme droughts, more extreme floods, more extreme storms hitting regions all over the world. what specifically would you like to see done to prepare countries, especially on the continent of africa, for those types of extreme weather events? in some ways, it's all hands on deck and all types of investment necessary. one is you really want countries — and they are trying to do this, national governments — trying to integrate how they might

prepare for climate change into their national budgets, into their infrastructure investments. but you also want to see a fundamental shift in how we plan — you know, how we might plan our cities, how we might even think about food production and having extra food production just to make sure that we're not caught out in terms of floods or droughts. i think we're looking at a need to really provide resources to communities themselves who really are on the front lines of these sort of issues, right? and they know what sort of adaptation investments they'd like to make to really make their own lives better, and i think empowering them with the resources, whether that is extra technical assistance, capacity, or actually reallyjust money to be able to invest in their own futures, i think is one of the things that we really need to scale up in the next sort of five years. nisha krishnan there.

now — in this week's episode of the bbc podcast americast — the team discuss the growing concern over crime in many american cities. none more so than new orleans. our north america editor sarah smithjoined me — to explain more. sarah, thanks for stopping by, it's great to see you. the latest episode of americast is out now. i know you spoke with the mayor of new orleans for this particular episode. what did she tell you? we had a specific focus on crime. that was why we invited her on. and new orleans has a specific problem with crime, which, as you know, is an issue across the united states. but the murder rate is particularly high in new orleans as well, which means that citizens are particularly concerned about it. and so we had her on to talk about where that problem comes from and what she is trying to do about it. now, she's found herself in some slightly controversial circumstances there. there was actually an attempt to recall her as mayor because people were so unhappy about the crime rate there. and so this is quite sensitive for her. and she laid out a case that

it's to do with poverty, it's to do with inequality, that hurt people hurt people, as she said, and that you need to get to the root causes of crime before you can tackle it. it'd be very interesting to listen to her. she talks much more about that than she does about actually coming down hard on criminals. i believe we have a little bit of that conversation. let's take a listen. looking at how we can address root causes — homelessness, addiction, mental health issues. hurt people hurt people. wanting to focus on youth engagement, employment opportunities. nothing stops a bullet like a job. so millions of dollars that have been pumped in to meeting our people where they are, jobs for young people that have crossed the line but have not been forgotten about, helping them pivot into a better quality of life. the mayor of new orleans there speaking on the latest episode of americast. now, of course, you mentioned this — crime is a bigger issue in the united states. it's acute in new orleans. but there are cities that are struggling with this, including murder rates, all across the country.

there are and there's a perception amongst people that crime is rising, particularly violent crime. now, that is not true everywhere, but it's what people think. and that's what's made it a really political issue. and of course, you get these standout moments where you saw banco brown, a homeless man in san francisco shot dead by walgreens security guard just a few days ago in the middle of a shoplifting epidemic that's going on around san francisco. and, of course, jordan nealy killed on the new york subway, held in a chokehold when he was disrupting the subway train — something that people complain is happening far too often as well. and then it gets tremendously politicised, as we've seen around both of these incidents, as well, so it has become something of an important national conversation and something that democrats like mayor cantrell have often found themselves in quite a difficult position over. what about on the national level? because we hear discussions about crime taking place on capitol hill, in the white house. how has has crime become politicised on a broader scale?

it's become a real political problem for the democrats, i think. now, that's partly because they they leapt into one of the most foolhardy political phrases i've ever heard, which was "defund the police" a few years ago, which wasn't even what they meant by that. what they meant by that, but it sounded as though they were not on the side of law abiding citizens who were frightened of crime, that they weren't on the side of law and justice. just to go back, that came from the death of george floyd, right? right. and there were arguments about police violence and the democrats were saying that they wanted something to be done about that. but as the perception of rising crime and it rising up voters' priority lists, democrats have found themselves in a position where it seems as though they are not supportive enough of law enforcement or they don't want to crack down hard enough on criminals. so that's something the white house are really worried about ahead of next year elections, and they're trying to take action on it. but it's interesting, when you go city by city and you see the new mayor that's just been sworn in chicago, very progressive as well, not necessarily in sync with what the

democrats in the white house think on crime. it's a political issue that i think is going to grow and grow in the next 18 months or so. as we look forward to that 2024 presidential election, plenty there to discuss. and all of that will be in the latest episode of americast called america's murder capital out now wherever you find your podcasts. sara smith, cohost of the bbc�*s americast, thank you so much. thank you. and if you want to hear the rest of that story, be sure to catch the latest episode of americast — just head to the podcasts tab on the bbc sounds app. stay with us on bbc news — i want to leave you with some pictures from the kennedy space cenrter in florida. five, four, three, two, one. engines— five, four, three, two, one. engines will_ five, four, three, two, one. engines will power. - five, four, three, two, one. engines will power. and - five, four, three, two, one.| engines will power. and that five, four, three, two, one. i engines will power. and that is the moment_ engines will power. and that is the moment when _

engines will power. and that is the moment when they - engines will power. and that is the moment when they first. the moment when they first saudi — the moment when they first saudi women _ the moment when they first saudi women blasted - the moment when they first saudi women blasted off. the moment when they first. saudi women blasted off into space, — saudi women blasted off into space, rhianna _ saudi women blasted off into space, rhianna bad - hello. it's been a weekend of mixed fortunes, weather—wise. where we did see the sunshine come through, it's been pleasantly warm. in fact, sunday was the warmest day of the year so far in the uk at 23.3 degrees in the sunshine at porthmadog. but under the cloud across aberdeenshire, we only got to about 12 celsius. so where you see the sunshine coming through, where you see the cloud makes all the difference really this time of year. and through the week ahead, things are looking mostly dry. yes, some warm sunshine around, but variable amounts of clouds, so where you do get the cloudier spells of weather, it won't feel particularly warm through this week, but generally dry is the theme. high pressure building from the atlantic through this week, a couple of weather fronts just moving around the top of that high pressure at times so there'll be a bit more cloud coming and going, particularly towards the north. now through monday, most places

looking dry from the word go. we've got a bit more cloud drifting across parts of eastern england, northern england, too, but a brighter day to come for scotland and for northern ireland. northern ireland. most of us dry, just the chance perhaps of a shower towards the pennines. top temperatures between about 16 to 22 for most of us, but a little bit colder than that across the north of scotland where we've got the breeze coming in from the west here. now, heading through monday evening, overnight into tuesday, a bit of cloud again across parts of eastern england. should be frost free as we start the day on tuesday, but could just be temperatures down to about three or four degrees where we do see some of those clearer spells. so into tuesday, a slightly cooler, fresher day, probably the coolest day of the week, in fact, because just a bit of a change in those winds, just bringing the winds in from a bit more of a northerly direction so cool across some eastern areas where you've got a bit of cloud and that breeze from the north sea. but actually most of us, again, having a dry, quiet day, generally light winds, a little bit cloudier in the far north—west. so temperatures varying between about 11 there in lerwick to around about 19 degrees or so further south across england and wales, probably the only day

that we won't reach 20 degrees this week. into wednesday, a cold front just pushing into the north so introducing some colder air again across the far north of scotland, and a bit more cloud. could be the odd light shower here. much of the uk again having a dry, fine day. there'll be fairweather cloud bubbling up and you can see that cloud generating across parts of southern and eastern england through the day. top temperatures probably up to about 20, 2i degrees for most of us. we could just squeeze 22 there for the likes of north—east england. towards the end of the week, staying dry and settled. variable amounts of sunshine. stays dry into next weekend too. bye— bye.

welcome to hardtalk with me, zeinab badawi. my guest today has blended his creative talent with music to produce some of the most innovative poetry recordings. jamaican—born british poet linton kwesi johnson writes about the difficulties his generation experienced with racism, and he's inspired a generation of activists. but how relevant is his work today on the issues that are faced in a changing britain?