hello, i'm sumi somaskanda. we start tonight in ukraine. the mayor of the ukrainian capital, kyiv, says people are being evacuated from a high rise block of flats after another wave of aerial attacks. vitali klitschko said debris from a russian rocket started a fire — and that one person was injured. sirens sounded and explosions were reported from around the city in the early hours of tuesday. officials said air defence systems were responding. strikes have been reported for several days. on monday, russia mounted a series of daytime strikes on kyiv. the city's military administration says all were shot down and no targets were hit. residents were seen rushing to the nearest shelters, as explosions were heard overhead. and this here is sunday evening. ukrainian officials say that 66 out of roughly 75 cruise missiles and drones were intercepted by their defences in what was the 15th air attack on the capital this month. our diplomatic correspondent,

james landale is in kyiv. today's strikes were unusual for two reasons — one, because they came in the daylight, and secondly, because they appeared to be targeted here at the centre of the city. until now, most of the air strikes came at night and they were targeted at the outskirts, at national infrastructure and some of the air defences itself. so the authorities said they managed to shoot down 11 ballistic and cruise missiles. of course, that meant that there was a lot of debris that came from the skies, landing on the ground, damaging some buildings. but miraculously, there were reports ofjust a few injuries. so what we're seeing is an uptick in tempo of this conflict. russia is putting more pressure on the capital here in kyiv, but it's also striking military targets elsewhere. ukraine admitted — rarely — that one of their military facilities in the west of the country had been targeted, an oil depot set on fire, some aircraft damage. at the same time, ukraine is stepping up its attacks

on russian targets in russian—held parts of ukraine and is also accused by the russian authorities of shelling russia proper. so what we're seeing is military activity increasing on both sides ahead of what could be ukraine's long expected counteroffensive. earlier, my colleague azadeh moshiri spoke to yuri sak, who is in kyiv, and is an advisor to ukraine's minister of defence. yuri, thank you so much for joining us on this programme. now, big explosions over the weekend in kyiv. today as well hasn't been easy. and especially this weekend, reports that these came daylight time. that's unusual. can ukraine keep kyiv safe? good evening, thank you for having me. today was indeed

another missile strike. actually, this was number 16 since the beginning of may. this was a strike which was carried out by ballistic and cruise missiles. and this was actually the second strike within the same 2a hours. so the pattern is kind of changing and it's intensifying. now, for me personally, this was a very difficult day because during one of the air raid sirens, as i was heading towards the bomb shelter, i was caught in the middle of this crowd of little kids. and as we were running towards the bomb shelter, these kids were screaming and yelling and crying. and i have little children and they're not in kyiv. i cannot imagine what their parents must have been going through, knowing that their kids are at school and there are missiles flying over central kyiv. and we all saw them. we heard them explode. we saw the air defence missiles being fired at them. you're describing something about these attacks

intensifying, children having fear in them, seeing all of this. but can ukraine's army keep fending these attacks off? there's, of course, this long awaited counteroffensive — when is that actually going to happen? it's going to happen hopefully soon. but if you looked in the eyes of the little children in the ukrainian bomb shelters today, and if you realise that every second kid in a bomb shelter has a father or mother who are in the trenches in the east of ukraine, getting ready for the offensive... now, these attacks, you know, russia, the terrorist state, is hoping that by these missile strikes they will break our will. they will make us more agreeable, more ready to negotiate. in essence, what they're making and what they're achieving is they're making all of us more angry and more thirsty for victory. so the only reason why the counteroffensive, or offensive, has not started yet is because we've said it many times, we are fighting a smart war. that means we will not risk our troops if there is a slight, you know, the smallest risk. which means our military

and political commanders are assessing the situation on a daily basis. and what we have to remember is that some parts, some shaping operations which are already part of the offensive, have been already taking place for some time, a couple of weeks now. yes. but, yuri, you're talking about fighting a smart war. but isn't there a risk that as you keep delaying the counteroffensive, that russia will manage to deplete ukraine's defence systems? well, our allies are supporting us strongly, and there are supplies and deliveries on a daily basis. and the production of, for example, ammunition across europe and in other countries who are supporting ukraine has been ramped up recently. so, of course, this is the tactics that russians are employing. these terrorists are trying to exhaust our air defences. they're using cheap iranian drones. just two nights ago, they have launched 59 on the same night. i mean, we have shot down 58 of them. but, well, you have to

understand that we are shooting them down, not with expensive missiles, not with patriot missiles. so we are we are building the three—layered air defence system that means that we are able to shoot down certain aerial objects with smaller anti—aircraft missiles and guns. so it's very smart in that respect as well. yes. and yuri, you're talking about the need for western support. big event over the weekend, president erdogan has gained another term in office in turkey. how will that impact ukraine? turkey has been a very important player from the actually beginning of this large—scale invasion, in particular when it came to brokering the grain deal, which, as you know, is something that the world depends on, because if the grain deal is not working, if ukraine is not able to export grains and corn and sunflower seeds to countries in middle east

and africa, this could result in a globalfood crisis. so turkey has been a very important player. and, you know, mr erdogan has been active in terms of trying to facilitate certain important solutions. so we hope it stays that way. you know, turkey is a member of nato. turkey is a member of the civilised coalition of free nations, as we call it. but we hope that the outcome of the elections in turkey will meanjust continued support for ukraine. yuri, advisor to the ukrainian defense ministry, thank you so much for joining and stay safe. thank you so much, azadeh, thank you. here in washington, the white house says it's focused on passing the debt ceiling deal through congress with time ticking. the treasury department says the us government won't be able to pay all its bills afterjune 5th. negotiators spent the weekend hammering out the details of the agreement. it still needs to be passed by both chambers of congress. here's the president

speaking earlier. you know i never say i am confident but i feel good about it, i have spoken to a number of the members, i have spoken to mcconnell, i have spoken to a whole bunch of people. there is no reason it shouldn't be done by the 5th. i am confident we will get a vote in both houses. we will see. if passed, the agreement would include suspending the debt ceiling until 2025. that means the government could borrow more money to pay its bills for the next two years. there would also be a 10—year freeze on spending except for defence. its budget will increase to $886 billion. unspent covid funds would be returned. the congressional budget office estimates this will amount to the government recovering about $30 billion. and welfare benefits will be slightly tweaked, but there will be no major overhaul there. earlier i spoke to sabrina siddiqui, white house reporter for the wall streetjournal, about what's next for

the debt ceiling agreement. the president was asked if he could get the progressive wing to vote. he said, i don't know, how concerned is the white house? i how concerned is the white house? ~ ~ how concerned is the white house? ~' ~ ., , house? i think the white house, based on my _ house? i think the white house, based on my conversation - house? i think the white house, based on my conversation with l based on my conversation with biden officials knows they are going to lose some votes on the house floor and they expect it will be progressive members of congress, who are likely to oppose this bill. because this is a compromise, they are ultimately going to and has angered both the democratic party is left flank and the far right of the republican party. what the white house feels confident about is that they can deliver enough democratic votes in order to pass this bill through both chambers of commerce

because were with a very narrow majority that house republicans have, house speaker kevin mccarthy will need to rely on a substantial number of democrats in orderfor this bill to reach the senate and ultimately president biden�*s desk, and the white house feels optimistic about those lost prospects. now the speaker of the house has his work cut out for him, i want to show something that congressmen chip roy who is on the committee that will send this vote to the house tweeted today and set a reminder that during speaker the negotiations, it was explicit that nothing would... how do you think the speaker will handle this? house speaker kevin mccarthy has really been working the phones throughout the weekend, trying to pitch this package to all members of the house and notjust moderates but also some of these conservative hardliners. he has tried to emphasise that he did secure some spending cuts, certainly what you heard republican leadership emphasise there, some of those changes

you pointed out through the social safety net programmes, some new work requirements, nothing major but to food assistance programmes as well as clawing back some of the unspent covid money and even clawing back some money designed to boost up irs enforcement, is that going to be enough to win over the far right? probably not but it really depends on whether you can get to 218 votes on the house floor and it is probably going to be a coalition of moderate republicans and moderate democrats who see this past the finish line but there are a lot of procedural delay is likely to come to pass that it really depends if i can make it to thejune 5th deadline. not a completely clear path forward. i want to ask about the work requirements, that was a major sticking point in these negotiations. there are some exceptions. is this what the white house and president biden wanted? the white house was pretty

adamant they would not entertain any additional or new work requirements from anyone benefiting from government programmes. what they have tried to point out is that these are fairly minimal changes, that effectively raise the age for people who have to prove that they are working in some capacity in order to continue and receive assistance, but there are these carve outs for the homeless, for veterans, and for those who have recently left foster care. but progressive members and democrats more broadly think there should be no work requirements in order to receive assistance from the government, especially because they point out these are some people who need the government's help the most. but the white house is saying, look, the democrats don't control the house majority, the president doesn't control both chambers of congress, there is going to have to be compromises.

there were no changes to medicade, no changes to other important programmes so they think this is the best the president could do and this is how they are pitching it to democrats. who has the president been speaking to on the democrat side of the aisle? he has constantly been in touch with lawmakers on capitol hill, both democrats and republicans, he spoke to mitch mcconnell, he said that he had not yet spoken to congresswoman who is the chair woman of the progressive caucus in the house but he does anticipate that he will be talking to progressive members of congress as well. i think a lot of the staff are doing that outreach. the white house has called more than 60 members of congress since saturday night alone when this deal was struck and they are working the phones, trying to make sure this gets over the finish line because this is coming after weeks of dramatic talks, people didn't think

they have this deal in, it is really about pitching it to both parties on capitol hill and just getting it passed byjune five to avert what would be the first default in this nation's history. and finally, does the white house think this will impact the president's chances in 202a? i don't think so, this goes back to what the premise of a biden presidency was, that he had experience in the senate, that it would be more of a deal—maker, that he could work with republicans. since republicans took control of the house injanuary, this is the first major compromise that has been struck between the white house and the house republican leadership so how many people, of course, are paying very close attention to the debt ceiling? and this particular spending bill. because a little bit more, in terms of keeping the operations running, that is an open—ended question, does do what they

believe was my the initial pitches that he made in his original campaign. thank you. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. this year, the poppy appeal goes plastic—free — the royal british legion launching its first redesign after 28 years. and the new all—paper poppy was designed in bath — mostly byjohn and jonathan. they toiled away with paper and moulds for months, keen to help the royal british legion rid itself of single—use plastics — used, of course, for the green plastic stem and the black plastic button. although these are two very small pieces of plastic that they had been buying for many years, when it's been produced in tens of millions it does have a significant impact, and those those parts are being produced every year. so we've been able to reduce,

you know, really a really not—insignificant amount of single—use plastic. the last of the plastic poppies will also be on sale this october and november, but the future of the poppy appeal is paper, and plastic—free. you're live with bbc news. a young, progressive party in thailand has upended the country's politics, after nine years of conservative, military—backed rule. the move forward party — lead by former entrepreneur pita limjaroenrat — won more seats than any other party. he is now leading a progressive coalition that wants to introduce a raft of far—reaching reforms like limiting the power of thailand's army and, most controversially, the monarchy. for more on this, i spoke earlier to bbc�*s south east asia correspondent, jonathan head. what did he tell you about his party's promises? he's got a very ambitious programme, and this is the most radical programme we've seen a party go into an election

with in thailand. 300 policies, a lot of it talking about completely modernising thailand, changing the structures. this is stuff that will take a very long time. one of his big priorities is to change the constitution. the current constitution in thailand — it's had many of them — was written after a military coup and it actually limits democracy, it makes it hard for governments that have won a lot in an election to come to office. but there are many other policies. he wants to limit monopolies, they want equal marriage for lgbtq, a whole range to transform education. it's going to be a very, very busy legislative programme for this party if they get past the threshold to get into power — they're still discussing with coalition partners about how they can form an administration. right. one of the aims of this coalition is to limit the powers of the monarchy, and that would be a huge shift in thai politics. what did he tell you about his victory? look, this is a very, very sensitive issue in thailand. the monarchy is almost sacred here. it's been untouchable,

undiscussable for decades now. his party has been quite careful — they're not saying we want to limit the monarchy at this stage. what he said is we want to start a conversation between — about the monarchy and its relationship with the thai people. even that is incendiary, and he's particularly zeroed in on this draconian law known as lese—majeste, where you can be jailed for 15 years for saying anything about the monarchy. and indeed, many of pita limjaroenrat members of parliament, his politicians are actually facing charges under that law. now, you have to remember in thailand that in the past we've had two military coups in the past two decades by an army that says it's determined to defend the monarchy. so all governments live with this risk that if they touch this subject too much, that the army might intervene, you might have another coup or some other intervention. but pita limjaroenrat told me that he's confident with this enormous wave of support he got, that thailand can follow other countries out of this cycle of coups and interventions. a lot of various countries

around the world that had to go through the same kind of experience here in thailand — unaccountable, invisible hands of power throwing out, away elected officials. so if i look at the international experiences of how they came out, of how they broke the cycle — you know, came out of military coup — south korea, you know, indonesia and some of our friends in latin america. so i look at them and i see that, yeah, the politics of possibility. it's possible for you to break out of the cycle. so pita limjaroenrat — it's a very confident young man. he's a successful businessman. he's convinced he can get through this. that invisible hand he's talking about — the powers that have resisted sort of radical elected governments in the past — is still there. in particular, there's a 250 member entirely appointed senate — appointed by military government — that could still block him from taking office, so he has a lot of obstacles still to overcome. us presidentjoe biden

congratulated turkey president recep tayyip erdogan on his re—election in a phone call monday. according to a statement from the white house, the two presidents committed to continue working together and discussed their relationship as nato allies. erdogan won another five—year term on sunday, but election observers from the organisation for security and co—operation say there wasn't a level playing field in the race, reporting that some of his opponents faced intimidation, though they did not dispute the results. they did not meet the legal obligation to provide impartial coverage of the campaign. neither did they give people opportunities to the two presidential candidates with a public broadcaster significantly favouring the incumbent and a similar bias noted during the media outlets. after defeating opposition leader kemal kilicdaroglu, president erdogan said he wants to reunite the country — but he'll face a number of challenges.

in addition to dealing with a deeply divided country, he also has an economic crisis on his hands, with inflation running at over a0%. and following news of erdogan�*s victory, turkey's lira hit record lows against the dollar. but despite this — half of turkey's citizens still back the president. our correspondent anna foster has more on erdogan�*s victory. for president erdogan today was a relatively quiet day, he said everything he wanted to say last night both on the street in istanbul and at the president palace in ankara when he addressed the rapturous adoring cheering supporters who turned out to celebrate his five more years in power. he has been very clear about the direction he wants to take turkey in and he has been very clear that we can expect more of what we had seen during his 20 year rule in this country. i think today has been a little bit more difficult, though, for the opposition because they now need to decide what to do next.

kemal kilicdaroglu, the candidate all of these opposition parties coalesced around, there has been an occasion before when different parties have come together and have supported one single candidate. i think a lot of people feel like that was an opportunity squandered. everybody will be looking ahead now because even though we have had the parliamentary elections and the presidential run—off, there are municipality elections next year, president erdogan has his eye on cities like istanbul and ankara that he was to take control of so the opposition really decide how to hold on to the cities and where they go next. let's turn to south america. the venezuelan president, nicolas maduro, has described his first visit to brazil in eight years as the start of a new era in relations. he met with brazilian counterpart, luis inacio lula da silva, in brasilia ahead of a regional summit on tuesday. the previous brazilian president, jair bolsonaro, had banned president maduro

from the country. our correspondent will grant has more. this was the first visit to brazil by venezuela's president maduro since 2016. president lula's predecessor, jair bolsonaro, wouldn't have entertained the idea of having the venezuelan leader in brazil and mr bolsonaro wouldn't have extended the hand of friendship. nevertheless, i think this tells us that there is a real affinity between mr lula and his venezuelan counterpart. what it says is that the relationship will remain strong, although he did call for venezuela to do more to rebuild the narrative about authoritarianism in the country. now that's being seen as controversial because it suggests that lula sees the narrative as somehow constructed, as somehow false, that authoritarianism isn't an issue in venezuela. and certainly critics of the maduro administration would say the reason it is criticised as being authoritarian is because there is no free or fair elections and that there is human rights violations

taking place in venezuela. president lula also said he found it inexplicable that there would be 900 us economic sanctions on venezuela, simply, as he put it, because the us didn't like venezuela. well, again, critics would say that isn't the reason behind the sanctions, but because of those lack of free and fair elections. for his part, president maduro said that he would be trying to organise the countries of south america into a bloc to criticise and call for an end to those sanctions — looking, obviously, at the left—wing nations, like brazil, like argentina, bolivia and colombia. but it's hard to say that those countries together would have sufficient clout to bring an end to those sanctions imposed by washington. before we go — a sweet story from the uk. mars bars have been given a new look with recyclable paper wrappers instead of plastic.

it is part of a pilot to provide more environmentally friendly materials for mars food's chocolate bars. when the chocolate bars first went on sale close to 100 years ago, they were wrapped in paper — plastic packaging was not introduced until 1977. the paper packaging will be rolled out at 500 tesco stores in the uk starting monday. stay with us here on bbc news. hello. it was a near—perfect weekend for some of you, and for those on half term this week, there can't be too many complaints for many. skies a little like we saw here on the banks of loch lomond as we went through today. but it could be a busy week for the gardeners and growers — the state of the ground here is very dry in pembrokeshire, for instance, and there is little to no rain in the forecast through the rest of this week. our forecast rainfall chart shows the rainfall amounts will be totting up across southern europe in the mediterranean — not great for those on half

term here — but for us, other than a few spots of drizzle in the far north of scotland, maybe eastern england, it stays dry. why? well, we've got this persistent area of high pressure which noses its way a little bit further westwards, and it still allows a bit of a cool flow of air, particularly into the south and southeast with plenty of cloud — that's showing up on the cambridge forecast for the rest of this week. but elsewhere — especially further west you are — blue skies will dominate, and it will turn that bit warmer. the nights will still be rather chilly, and that's the case as we go into tuesday morning — widely, temperatures down into single figures, some rural spots only around one or two degrees as we start the day. but plenty of blue skies for many, cloudiest across the far north of scotland, quite a bit of cloud through central, eastern england to begin with, and that will hover around many eastern coastal counties of england throughout the day — particularly along the coastal strip. but come away from that, blue skies will dominate, breezy again across some southern and southeastern areas, and that will limit the temperature rise towards that southeast corner — only around 13 or 1a along the coastal strip. but with winds light further north and west, even warmer than we saw

on monday — to the north of glasgow, maybe up to around 2a degrees. now for wednesday, if anything, there'll be more low cloud around — a bit more across eastern scotland, more extensively scotland, more extensively through england, through england, even into east wales. but the western edges of that will continue to melt away as we go through the day, lingering a bit more, i think, through some parts of the south midlands into eastern england — again limit in temperature rise here. but to the north of scotland, we could even peak at around 26 degrees by this stage. our area of high pressure, then, through wednesday night into thursday continues to nudge a little bit further westwards, and that still allows that keen breeze towards the south and southeast, and it allows a bit more cloud pushing down these eastern coastal counties, some of which will not clear all day long. could bring a spot or two of drizzle, but come to the south and the west, we'll see some of the sunniest conditions. again, it will be a warm day — 23, 2a degrees will be the high. take care.

national congress.

welcome to hardtalk from johannesburg. i'm stephen sackur. for 29 years, south africa's national politics has been dominated by the african