live from washington. this is bbc news. israel launches one of its biggest military operations in years. gun battles rage and tensions flare in the west bank city ofjenin. one of the eight pro—democracy activists targeted by the hong kong police speaks to bbc news. and tensions appear to be easing in france as mayors hold rallies calling for an end to the violence. a live look at this hour of thejenin refugee camp in the occupied west bank where palestinian officials say about 3000 people have fled their homes as israeli forces have launched a massive military operation.

and as you can see — there is a lot of smoke right now. reuters is reporting this is coming from a residential building but we are working to verify this. but israeli forces and palestinian militants have exchanged intense fire in the refugee camp. the smoke is rising but we have not yet identified where it is coming from. and officials say the fighting has killed at least eight palestinians and injured more than 80. israel said it had �*dealt a heavy blow to terrorist organizations.�* but palestinians have accused israel of war crimes. prime minister benjamin netanyahu said the operation will continue for as long as needed to restore calm and security. 0ur middle east correspondent

yolande knell reports from jenin. the day ended as it had begun injenin — with battles raging. the israeli military had used a surprise drone strike in the early hours to target what it said was the headquarters of local militants. armed palestinians began fighting back from inside the city's crowded, decades—old refugee camp. hundreds of israeli soldiers are on the ground. the israeli military says they're seizing weapons and explosives. the israeli prime minister said action was overdue. translation: the israeli defence force began - an extensive operation last night against terrorism in jenin. in recent months, jenin has become a haven for terrorism. we are putting an end to it. palestinian medics have been struggling to reach the dozens of injured. israel says it's acting on precise intelligence and doesn't seek to harm civilians, but many have been

caught in the crossfire. translation: what's going on in the refugee camp - is real war. there were strikes from the sky targeting it. every time we drive in with our ambulances, we come back full with injured people. gunfire you get those cracks of gunshots coming from thejenin refugee camp, which isjust up there on the hill. sometimes we get loud explosions as well. even though the israeli military has said that this is a closed zone, we're not allowed, as journalists, to get any closer, gunfire intensifies you can get a real sense from here ofjust how intense the fighting is. israeli security forces released these pictures, showing them rounding up suspected militants. in recent months, many palestinians who have carried out deadly attacks on israelis have come from this area. others have hid here. and even before today, jenin�*s seen repeated deadly israeli army raids. palestinian officials

say enough is enough. translation: we are again. calling the international world to provide urgent international protection to our people and impose penalties against the occupation regime. and tonight, while this military operation isn't over yet, there was a reprieve for some palestinian families — the israeli military allowing them to leave the camp, some raising their hands or waving makeshift white flags in a gesture of surrender. yolande knell, bbc news, jenin. in hong kong, police have taken the unusual step of publicly offering rewards for the arrest of eight exiled activists. they're accused of breaking china's national security laws, which came into force three years ago. and if convicted, the pro—democracy campaigners could face life in prison. tonight, this move is being condemned by many nations. the us state department released a statement reading in part:

hong kong chief executivejohn lee stood by these actions in a press briefing about the bounties on these activists�* heads. where ever they are, we will go after them as long as they are alive. persons can assist the police in resting these people, all information will be kept confidential. based on the noticed and eventual outcome anybody providing information will be eligible for the reward including relatives and friends of these people. the bbc�*s martin yip sent this report earlierfrom hong kong. police are offering these rewards to any member

of the public who can provide information on those wanted people and their related crimes, they say. some of these activists have previously been sought for other allegations such as electoral fraud but this is the first time that we hear from hong kong�*s national security police that they are wanted and the police are offering financial incentives for their capture. their alleged crimes according to police include collusion with foreign forces, advocating for sanctions against hong kong government, incitement to secession and subversion. some people have fled overseas and continue to engage in activities and endangers national security. i would like to point out one point, the national security law of hong kong has extraterritory effect. police have offered bounties for other types of crime but this is one of the highest being offered in recent times. they admit they may not be able to catch these people unless they return

to hong kong. since the introduction of the hong kong national security law three years ago by beijing, some 260 people have been arrested, including some high profile pro—democracy politicians, activists, media bosses and journalists. and others have left hong kong like these eight people. human rights watch have called today�*s arrest warrants an indictment of the once well—regarded hong kong law enforcement and judiciary and calls on foreign governments to offer protection to those who, in their words, are being threatened by beijing. one of the exiled activists targeted by hong kong�*s arrest warrants is anna kwok. she�*s the executive director at the hong kong democracy council here in dc and i spoke to her earlier. thank you very much forjoining us here in the studio. what was your reaction

when you heard the news? honestly, i was shocked and blank for a moment because ijust got up at 6am and i saw my phone which blew up with messages asking me what my thoughts were on the arrest warrant. and i thought to myself, arrest warrant, why? apparently i have a bounty on my head, $1,000,000 hong kong dollar bounty and for a second, i was shocked but in the second second, i didn�*t really care much because i thought that is exactly the kind of thing that the hong kong government and the chinese communist party would do, which is intimidate people into not doing anything and silencing them. and that is why immediately i thought ok, i should make this a big thing definitely talk about the transnational repression going on here and the scare tactics as well as how the hong kong government is just trying to see by which point their hands will be smacked and told to back off.

they have been trying to push that line lower and lower to see how far they can go to continue their human rights abuses internationally. in the end, i actually became more motivated because i think, you know, the arrest warrant means that i am doing something right and i also realised in the press conference they highlighted my previous calls for sanctioning national securityjudges and prosecutors in hong kong and that is exactly the work that i have to continue doing. you mention the international community. the us and the uk have condemned this arrest warrant and the british foreign secretary said in response that the uk will not tolerate any attempt by china to intimidate and silence individuals in the uk and overseas. are you at all worried about your safety here in the us and will you continue to speak out, as you say? i definitely have a certain level of concern about my physical safety

but at the end of the day i would definitely continue to speak out because what i am going through right now is so little and minor compared to the 1500 political prisoners in hong kong and i also have gotten in touch with the us government and congress as well as other officials, who should be informed so there is definitely good that they have it on their radar. have you asked for specific protections from the us government? we�*re still figuring out what is the best step forward myself personally, of course, i would have to be more vigilant and more careful where i travel to, who i talked to and that sort of thing, but at the end of the day it is something experienced by every single activist in hong kong, really. it is not limited to just us eight. why are they doing this now? good question. because last month i started a campaign to ask for the us

government to not allow sanctioned hong kong chief executivejohn lee to enter the us for the afac meeting that will happen this november. and the month before i asked for a sanctioning and judges, prosecutors asked for congress to realise the sort of play blatant lies the hong kong government has been spreading everywhere. i think that�*s where it hurts for the government. they�*ve been trying to put forward this narrative, parallel narrative that hong kong is back in business, it�*s the global financial centre but to me who is exiled from hong kong knows it is not true, it will never go back to the way it is. you mentioned john lee and i bring this up because you talk about the asia—pacific economic cooperation summit scheduled for the us in november. the chief executivejohn lee, there is a possibility he could be invited and there has been a bipartisan outcry in the us of lawmakers who said

he can�*t be allowed to come to the summit at the same time john lee himself has said apec is an international organisation, hong kong is a member of this, the us has a responsibility to invite members to attend so what do you think the us should do? i think the us should give a quick and clear response which is no tojohn lee�*s entry because first were sanctioned in 2020 for abusing human rights in hong kong and second if the us government decides to stop the sanction tojohn lee it renders all sanctions useless because if human rights abuses or dictators get sanctioned, they would think it can be waived so easily. by that action the us government is actually choosing to trade human rights with economic benefits and we don�*t know if china is such a credible business trading partner as well but hong kong as well.

that�*s why it�*s definitely not a worthy trade—off it�*s only a very bad and wrong message to the rest of the world. is there room for democracy activists in hong kong? that�*s a tough question. there is not a lot of space for demonstration as people have done before but still on july the first, during the 12, during the fourth you see hong kong who were brave enough to take their flowers, take their slogans and start chatting on the street even though they were immediately arrested by police minutes after, but still i think the space is here if you try to expand and widen it. of course do you start speaking you are arrested but still people try to find that space and have been creative about it and that something we should see as the space that people have been trying to fight for. thanks for sharing your story. thank you. the us state department has issued warning to americans that they should reconsider travel to china due to risk of wrongful detention. previously, an advisory was in place only for the risk of arbitrary enforcement of local laws. the updated advisory, however,

included the warning of risking wrongful detention. while visiting beijing last month, secretary of state antony blinken said he raised the issue of three americans wrongfully detained in china. blinken says that negotiations are in progress to bring them home. the travel advisory comes during a period of strained ties between the us and china, and as us treasury secretary janet yellen gets ready to visit beijing. our asia business reporter monica miller has a preview. the two sides have a lot to discuss including us concerns about a new chinese counter—espionage law that went into effect onjuly i. the us has american and other foreign companies in the country, could those penalties apply for regular business activities? ms yellen is also expected to meet with china�*s new economic team and expected to press upon them that washington is still committed to defending human rights and its own national security interest but she has to straddle an interesting balance here because she is also expected to try and find common ground with beijing on things like climate change and that the stress facing

many emerging economies. a ban on the sale of us—based micron technology memory chips would probably be one of the issues at the top of her list and this trip comes at a time when two weeks after the secretary of state antony blinken and went to beijing and met with the president and things like they started to sort of ease, that tension, but shortly after that meeting president biden was overheard at a fundraiser calling president xi a dictator tarnished the goodwill that had been done. but many people are looking at the economic side of their relationship to get it back on the right track between these two countries. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. voiceover: bbc news bringing you different stories from across the uk. the whirlwind, the plane a0

miles an hour faster than the spitfire but found it harder to get off the ground because of its high maintenance costs. unlike the spitfire, no whirlwind fighters exist. well, until now. pete smith from lancashire has spent eight hours a day, six days a week for the past two years making this one. every single part we have had to re—engineer, reverse engineer from what information we have had. we can never say 100% that it is exactly accurate, but it�*s the best we can do with the information that we�*ve got. designed by teddy petter, only 116 whirlwind fighters were made. the cockpit sits next to the only two whirlwind engines in the world. the aim is to recreate the aircraft for display in the museum. voiceover: for more stories from across the uk, head to the bbc news website. you�*re live with bbc news.

after five days of violent protests in france, riots triggered by the police shooting of a teenager appear to be calming. still, french president emmanuel macron has asked to maintain a, quote, �*massive�* police presence on the streets. local officials have called for rallies to protest the violence and looting. our correspondent tom symonds sent in this report from nanterre. it�*s late and we have been for a drive around nanterre, the district behind me with lots of social housing blocks where the rioting first broke out following the death of that 17—year—old nearly a week ago now, after a police shooting. we�*ve driven around the streets, very little happening, very quiet, very few people on the street and has to be said over the last few days of rioting has started much later in the evening, three or four o�*clock in the morning, but so far not looking too bad. having said that the damage that�*s been done is still very evident on the streets with lots of burnt out cars,

places where the road has been damaged by a burnt vehicle. across france 16,000 police officers are on duty tonight, no letting off of the policing. that�*s very much a position the french government is currently taking. emmanuel macron has said this is not a situation where whole neighbourhoods like this are rising up in some sort of rebellion, this is a situation where individuals, often quite young people, has decided to stand up and take these actions on their own, these violent often, actions often late at night and emmanuel macron has called them delinquents and has appealed in one case for the parents of those children to make sure that their children are at home. now today we�*re to see emmanuel macron meeting elected representatives and mayors from all over france as he begins the process of getting down to some answers.

former us president donald trump is facing indictments in florida, new york and possibly georgia. but he currently remains at the top of the polls for the 2024 republican president nomination. in the critical state of iowa, where the election process will kick off next year, voters are expressing strong support for trump because of these indictments. i spoke to journalist marc caputo, of the messenger, who interviewed to dozens of republicans in the state to understnad their thinkging, and the potential their botes may impact history once again. great to have you on the show. so you have written an article about how the indictments against the former president could help him win iowa and the gop nomination. why do you think these cases against him could give him a boost? for a long time, the republican party has been animated by the idea that the media is out to get them. the democrats are out to get them. the department ofjustice is out to get donald trump. and and behold, he got indicted by the department ofjustice. in the old days, we came up withjust the general

idea that if you got indicted, let alone indicted twice — once in a state court and once in the feds — it probably endsville the four—year campaign. it�*s quite the opposite in the republican primary. i�*d written a story last week about how a number of pollsters had conducted focus groups. they were looking at polling. they were saying his support increased. so we decided to look really closely at iowa. iowa was just the springboard and all—important first race. and in our interviews with people, this is what the grassroots were saying as well. are republican voters in iowa and beyond at all concerned about the possibility of the former president running for the gop and the presidency while actually having to be on trial? i mean, if you mentioned it — one person said he�*ll probably run and actually win the iowa caucus from jail. another person i didn�*t quote said that if he winds up with an ankle monitor, he should wear that with pride. i did write a previous story that most experts, most people who are familiar with criminal

court cases, federal court cases, especially ones that are involving classified information, which triggered an entire array of additional processes of review and discussion and court hearings, they believe that the former president, if he�*s tried or when he�*s tried, is likely to go to trial after the november 2024 elections, so that�*s the speculation. but it�*s pretty well founded. so what does this groundswell of support mean for the other candidates? so the florida governor ron desantis or tim scott. is there enough time for them to possibly gain enough ground to win iowa? yeah, there�*s enough time. the question is — is there enough support for them? and does more time equal more support? what we�*ve seen is the theory of the case for president trump or former president trump losing, has repeatedly come up, or has repeatedly been disproven, at least as we�*re looking at all of the public polling or nearly all of the public polling. there�*s just this constant drum

beat over the years "oh, he�*s lost control of the republican party." "republicans won�*t support him any more." ron desantis the florida governor, i live in florida, has been widely seen as that alternative. but so far, we have seen lower levels of support, or better said, ron desantis losing support, after the announcement, rather than gaining against donald trump, and donald trump�*s support levels picking up, at least in the public polling we�*ve seen, after the indictments. and it�*s starting to look like there�*s notjust a correlation between the indictment and the support for donald trump and the and the support for donald trump and the primary. there�*s a causal link that is one of the reasons his support is increasing is because of the indictments. have republicans shown any openness to go with someone else? they have shown it. you hear it in focus groups. we�*ve seen it actually earlier when you would talk to republicans. but one of the things that was brought home to me in talking to these republicans across iowa — i spoke to nearly two dozen.

these are people who are not affiliated with campaigns. they�*re county gop chairs, they�*re consultant, they�*re veteran grassroots activists, was that this indictment, not only brought people home who were sort of trump maybes or maybe trumpers. but those who were in the trump fold were just further energised and angered. there is an open question about whether this level of anger and emotionalism can sustain through january when the caucuses are going to be. we�*ll have it wait and see. but it�*s a possibility that there could be two other indictments coming down the pike, and if past is prologue, it doesn�*t look like donald trump is going to lose support in the republican primary. perhaps the opposite, he could increase it. do you think iowa represents the other primary states? i wouldn�*t say it represents them. we have to understand that with the republican primary, with a presidential primary, it�*s notjust one race. but a series of pitched battles that are sequential at first. there�*s iowa. then new hampshire.

there�*s nevada and usually iowa and new hampshire weed out the other candidates who can�*t make it. right now, if the polling is accurate, and that�*s a big if, because it�*s early, as we said. if the polling is right, donald trump will tell you he�*s going to win all four. no non—incumbent republican, heck, no non—incumbent democrat, has wound up losing all four races or all four states and then become the nominee. and a better way to say that is in the republican side, the nominee always wins either iowa or new hampshire. no—one has ever won both as a non—incumbent. technically, donald trump is a non—incumbent. if he wins all four, i don�*t want to say lights out, but let�*s face it, it�*s lights out for everybody. what are the other campaigns saying to you about the strength ofsupport that donald trump has? for a while, it was like, this isjust a sugar high.

the problem with that theory is that the sugar never ended, or maybe there�*s just a constant supply of sugar. so they all believe that maybe there�*s some sort of moment that they could have. maybe the trajectory could change. maybe republicans will realise, winnability or electability is a factor and donald trump has too much baggage, because the reality is, while these indictments do appear to help him in the primary, they don�*t appear to help him in a general. that is independents don�*t like it. so that is an argument that they�*re trying to make implicitly and explicitly. but its efficacy is yet to be determined. thank you forjoining us and talking about your reporting tonight. thank you. stay with us here on bbc news. that�*s all from us here in washington. we leave you with these live pictures of london as we hand off to our colleagues there. this, them�* be taking overfor the show at the top of the next hour. thank you for watching bbc news.

hello there. weather conditions are remaining on the unsettled side for the time of year, all thanks to low pressure. we could see some pretty wet weather across the south and the south—east of the country through tuesday. probably the best of the sunshine a bit further northwards. but even here, for much of the rest of the country away from the south, there�*ll be plenty of showers around, too. now we�*ve got two weather fronts around. this one�*s a weakening one in the north. this one is a developing one. and this is going to bring some wet weather to southern britain through this morning. and the rain will pep up, become heavier, in fact, as we head through the morning across the south and the south—east, maybe some thundery bursts in there. this weather front across scotland and northern ireland will be weakening as it moves southwards, and on either side, it�*ll be sunshine and showers. these sorts of temperatures are below par for the time of year, but depending on how much sunshine we get in the south does depend

on the temperatures. at the moment, it looks like it could be quite wet. temperatures around the mid—teens for the southeast. so we could see some significant disruptions to play at wimbledon with this rain, which will tend to last through the afternoon, perhaps into the evening, turning heavier as it develops into an area of low pressure. it does look like the low countries will bear the brunt of that. elsewhere, it�*s clear spells and a few showers to start wednesday. so there�*s that area of low pressure heading towards denmark, deepening as it does so. for us, we�*re in between weather systems on wednesday, so not a bad day, i think. there will be plenty of sunshine from the word go, but then showers could develop anywhere. most of them will be across scotland and northern ireland, closer to this area of low pressure, and some of them could be heavy, maybe thundery for western scotland. temperature—wise, maybe a degree or so up because the winds will be lighter and maybe some more sunshine around, so up to 21 degrees. and then for thursday, this area of low pressure starts to push towards the west of the country. higher pressure begins to build towards the near continent. so i think thursday, not a bad—looking day. we start to switch our winds up from the south. that will be drawing

up some warm airfrom france and iberia. so, with more sunshine around, winds coming up from the south, we could see higher temperatures, 22 or 23 degrees there. this is the pressure set—up for the end of the week, friday and the weekend. a deep low out to the west. this weather front will bring some thundery rain to the west of the country. but for england and wales, we�*ll be drawing up a southerly wind. so it could be quite warm on friday, with some sunshine in the south, but with low pressure nearby, there will always been an increasing threat of showers and thunderstorms.