as you can see here, the pound was sinking fast against the us dollar last autumn. but now it's strengthening. but nevertheless those mortgage rates will be just as painful as they were last autumn for those affected. as we've highlighted on newsnight, the economic pain is being, and will be, increasingly visited on 7 million mortgaged households. but what's interesting is that some economists are suggesting an alternative approach. if the goal of raising interest rates is to bring down inflation by reducing consumer spending and to, thereby, slow the economy — why not do some of that job by raising taxes? or perhaps by cutting public spending? in other words, if fiscal policy — as well as monetary policy — were put into action against inflation, interest rates might not need to rise so high. plus the government could make the impact of the necessary adjustment more socially equitable. now, this isn't something that really figures at all in the current party political debate, but it is worth exploring.

the people who are affected most by high interest rates would tend to be younger households. older people, older house holders, are more likely to have paid off their mortgages — they are mortgage free — so they don't feel the impact of the increase in mortgage rates. you could spread the pain more broadly, so those households that, perhaps, aren't facing higher mortgage rates currently — households that don't hold mortgages — would potentially contribute towards the squeeze in demand by paying higher taxation. you could argue for a property tax, for example. yet there are also practical problems with using tax and spending policy to control inflation. history suggests it's hard to get the timing right, and when it comes to tax and spending political considerations often interfere unhelpfully. this is why the practice in recent decades has been to leave inflation control to the independent

bank of england. however there is certainly more open thinking going on among respectable economists about these questions. and as mortgage rates go higher, putting a very large burden on a relatively small section of society, expect this debate about whether there are alternatives to intensify. that's all from us tonight. i'll be here again tomorrow. goodbye. breaking news from around the world 24 breaking news from around the world 2a hours a day. this is bbc news. on what it takes to join the nato

alliance. what ukraine is really frustrated about from today's munication from nato is this phrasing that ukraine will be able tojoin at some phrasing that ukraine will be able to join at some point in the future when allies agree and conditions are met. but those conditions are is unclear. it ukraine has showed that it is willing to make reforms and make changes to meet whatever conditions it needs to to join the nato alliance. for ukraine, it is a matter of survival i think as a compromise offered by nato is the ukraine council. talk us through what it is. , , ., ukraine council. talk us through what it is-_ ukraine council. talk us through what it ia— what it is. this is going to be a new forum _ what it is. this is going to be a new forum that _ what it is. this is going to be a new forum that will _ what it is. this is going to be a new forum that will allow - what it is. this is going to be a i new forum that will allow ukraine and nato to engage in closer cooperation and closer integration. it will be something that is probably a net positive and gives ukraine more avenues to pursue euro atlantic integration. for ukraine more avenues to pursue euro atlantic integration.— atlantic integration. for a lot of observers _ atlantic integration. for a lot of observers come _ atlantic integration. for a lot of observers come it's _ atlantic integration. for a lot of observers come it's going - atlantic integration. for a lot of observers come it's going to . atlantic integration. for a lot of observers come it's going to be i observers come it's going to be something that looks pretty similar, i think him into the nato russia council, something that started in the 90s and never proved to be all

that effective or impactful of a forum. i that effective or impactful of a forum. . ,., that effective or impactful of a forum. . ., ., ., ., forum. i also want to ask you about cluster bombs _ forum. i also want to ask you about cluster bombs because _ forum. i also want to ask you about cluster bombs because they - forum. i also want to ask you about cluster bombs because they are - forum. i also want to ask you abouti cluster bombs because they are the hot topic going into this nato summit. what do you make of difference in opinions?- summit. what do you make of difference in opinions? sure, so i think that first _ difference in opinions? sure, so i think that first it _ difference in opinions? sure, so i think that first it is _ difference in opinions? sure, so i think that first it is good - think that first it is good to remember that this is a hard decision for the white house to make. it's something that the white house did not initially want to do but ukraine made a convincing argument for why it needed these munitions. i think that something that everybody should remember is that everybody should remember is that nobody knows the risk to civilians better than ukraine. ukrainians have been fighting this war and already suffering the effects of cluster munitions for more than 500 days as russians have been using them. ukraine weighed the costs of, you know, unexploded bombs from cluster munitions of how that could pose a risk to civilians in the future and they weighed that up against the very real and immediate danger of russians continuing to rampage through ukraine and occupy

territory and terrorise and kill ukrainians. he made the hard choice of saying we need whatever tools we can get to get russia out of our country as soon as possible and then begin the process of healing. briefly commit before we let you go, there are some leaders of western allies here in asia who are attending the summit as well, but there have been some objections from some nato members about closer ties with asian countries as well, isn't there? i with asian countries as well, isn't there? ~ ., with asian countries as well, isn't there? ~ . , ., there? i think that while it is not there? i think that while it is not the main topic— there? i think that while it is not the main topic at _ there? i think that while it is not the main topic at this _ there? i think that while it is not the main topic at this nato - there? i think that while it is not. the main topic at this nato summit, there are plenty of nato allies who are looking at ways where nato and the indo—pacific countries and exchange knowledge, can learn from each other and how they can cooperate in the future to ensure security both in europe and in asia. thank you so much forjoining us on the programme this morning. thank ou. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news. let's look at some of the other stories making headlines in the uk. a 15—year—old boy has been charged with attempted

wounding with intent — and possession of a bladed article — after a teacher was stabbed at tewkesbury academy. the teacher, who has been named as jamie san—som, said he was "recovering well" following the incident. a man has beenjailed for more than 12 years at the old bailey for the manslaughter of 39 people who were found dead in a lorry trailer in essex. mario draghici is believed to have been the ring—leader in the people—smuggling gang which was responsible for the deaths in october 2019. he was extradited from romania to face charges. a jury has ruled that a man killed a 9—year—old girl by stabbing her in the heart as she played in the street in boston. the girl died injuly last year — as she played yards from her mother. dividas skebas, who was charged with her murder, was found unfit to enter a plea or stand trial due to his mental health earlier this year.

you're live with bbc news. there have been more protests in israel, against new legislation aimed at restricting the power ofjudges. the demonstrations came hours after a new bill narrowly passed its first reading in the knesset — the israeli parliament. the contentious bill from the right—wing government of prime minister benjamin netanyahu has already sparked 27 weeks of action by protesters concerned that the move erodes democratic norms. our middle east correspondent tom bateman has been with the crowds — in tel aviv. well, the israeli security forces are still here at ben—gurion airport, but the last of the protesters have now left. and what we've seen here today are really extraordinary scenes. thousands and thousands of protesters here, right up against the terminal of an international airport. they were chanting,

they were shouting for democracy. they've been allowed to get this close. but then we saw some pretty violent scuffles and scenes as the border police here were preventing them getting any closer. some people dragged off the street at one point as the buses were trying to get past and people were remaining there. and also when passengers were arriving, trying to get in and out of the terminals, we saw some pretty heavy scuffles and scenes, angry scenes, when the police were trying to make the crowd get out of the way. so that was the airport. also in tel aviv, we saw more violence. there were mounted police that in one instance trampled a protester. so more pretty heavy handed stuff there as well. it feels like the atmosphere around these protests has become much more charged, and that is because these proposed judicial reforms are suddenly back on the table. they're going through the israeli parliament again after mr netanyahu,

amid the last crisis over this a few months ago, had put them on hold. but the far right and ultra religious elements of his coalition are pushing for all of this to happen. they see this as the time to act, their best chance to get all this through. mr netanyahu is politically weaker than he's ever been in his premiership. he's on trial for corruption. there is the concurrent security crisis in the occupied palestinian territories. and so we see this deepening aggravation in israel that deeply dividesjewish israeli society. and the protests now are back on. and i think they're going to last for days, weeks, even months more. and in a sign of the international pressure on mr netanyahu to try and sort this thing out, we've had the white house tonight saying that they expect the israeli government to respect peaceful protest. dozens of people have died

as monsoon rains sweep across northern india — causing majorflooding. delhi is on high alert for a possible evacuation while the indian army and disaster response teams scramble to rescue those trapped in flooded homes. arunoday mukharji reports. northern india in the grip of nature's fury. the himalayan state of himachal pradesh the worst hit. cities which are ordinarily bustling with tourists look unrecognisable, an overflowing beas river threatening to swallow parts of the scenic towns of kullu and mandi. south of himachal pradesh, india's capital city of delhi hasn't seen this kind of rain for decades. thousands have been shifted from the river banks to safer areas and many others told to be ready for evacuation as delhi continues to be on alert. in the north—western indian state of rajasthan, it was a similar sight in the state capitaljaipur, with some key services struggling to stay afloat. translation: despite being such a big hospital, so much water has|

entered within just the last three to four hours of rain. so you can imagine the conditions in other hospitals. patients are facing problems and they've not been moved yet. no facilities have been provided. the heavy spell of rain bringing with it waves of uncertainty for millions across india's northern regions, as weather officials warn of more rain until friday. nearly a decade after taking power in a military coup — thailand's prime minister says he's retiring from politics. prayut cha—no—cha will remain as prime minister until a new government is formed. two months ago his military—backed party won less than a tenth of the seats in thailand's parliament. the army chief seized power in a 2014 coup before cementing his control in the 2019 elections. his decision to retire comes two days before a key vote in thailand's parliament that could see the next prime minister elected.

scientists have announced the start of a process to declare that we are in a new time period — called the anthropocene — apologies for at the pronunciation, it is a difficult word to pronounce. because of the effects humans are having which can be seen on the whole planet. a core from the sediment of crawford lake in ontario in canada has been selected as the best example of human activity being permanently etched in the geological record. a new epoch isn't something that happens very often, the last time was 11,000 years ago as rebecca morelle explains. heading to a site that records a turning point in the earth's history — crawford lake in canada. and scientists are looking for signs of a new geological time period, the anthropocene epoch. so what we have here is the lake bed. when we just took the core, you see light, dark, light, dark layers. these layers are like tree rings representing every year of our past.

i am quite sure 1950 is right around here. that would be the base of the proposed anthropocene epoch. this new epoch defines the moment humans started having a bigger impact on our planet than anything else. so we refer to the anthropocene as the interval of time since the mid—20th century when the great acceleration of human industry, it changed the way the earth behaves. it basically is a tipping point that was reached that altered earth's history forever. some of that core has been sent to southampton university. what's inside these little files doesn't look like much, just a scrape of canadian mud. but each one of these contains material from a particular year. and crucially, one will help to pinpoint the exact moment when the anthropocene began. these sediments can be analyzed.

they hold the fingerprints of human activity from the byproducts of fossilfuels, microplastics, and the fallout from nuclear weapons testing. and it's the plutonium from these nuclear tests that's being isolated here to determine which year the anthropocene started. we're looking at the plutonium radioactivity in the early 1950s. that was the point when this almost entirely artificial product was globally dispersed. and we pick it up from the early 1950s in sediments all over the globe. the last epoch change happened more than 11,000 years ago. a record is buried in a bog on the isle of wight. this is a really beautiful transition. you see the difference in the colour of sediments. the darker mud belongs to the ice age. the lighter mud is where the warmer holocene epoch began. but there's a major difference compared with what's happening now. these are natural changes here. this is a natural system that drives these changes. what we are doing right

now, we are increasing the speed of these changes. we see that environments are pretty much getting destroyed. but this is part of the human activity. in huge archives, vital geological records are stored. it's the first time a new epoch has been proposed while we're living through it. geologists now need to put this to a vote before the anthropocene epoch is set in stone. rebecca morrelle, bbc news. that's all for now — stay with bbc news. hello. well, southern parts of europe in the grip of a heat wave at the moment. ee continue to be in the grip of some big shower clouds, more of them around through the rest of this week, even some longer spells of rain and stronger winds by the time we hit friday. why? well, low pressure is dominant, we've just got various areas revolving around the same part of north west europe, which continues to bring showers

to the north and west into the start of wednesday morning. a slightly fresher start for many of you compared with tuesday morning, but a sunnier one for the south and eastern england as well as the midlands. won't take long, though, for the clouds are build up, showers are in the west, will start to work their way eastwards. a stronger wind across the uk on wednesday, and that means those showers will rattle through quite quickly for some of you. for one or two it be one after another, after another, with a bit of sunshine in between. it does mean that some of you avoid them altogether. nice enough in the sunshine, but overall, temperatures a little bit down on where you want this stage in the year. so there could be the odd passing shower in that breeze at wimbledon. the breeze will probably be pretty noticeable and a bit troublesome, i think, on the outside courts. but a lot of the time, it will be dry. showers continue into the evening, most will fade away then through wednesday night into thursday morning. and with the winds falling a little bit lighter, it's going to be a little bit cooler still. away from the towns and city centres, there will be temperatures

widely into single figures. but the chart for thursday shows we're almost in between this area of low pressure clearing away, this one pushing in, brief ridge of high pressure, that does mean whilst we will still have some showers around, perhaps not as many as we started the week, and the ones we do see will be a little bit lighter. still prone to them, though, scotland and parts of north northeast england, but elsewhere, some longer spells of sunshine. and with winds lighter than wednesday, it mayjust start to feel a touch warmer. first signs of something, thougn, a bit more potent coming in to ireland as we see the day out. and through thursday night into friday, an area of low pressure looks set to wind its way up. details may change a little bit, but as well as heavy rain pushing its way northwards and eastwards, we're going to see strong—to—gale force winds, particularly to the south in the west. bear that in mind if you're travelling around on friday or if you've got plans to spend a few nights under canvas. some in the southeast may stay reasonably dry, driest of all, brightest in the far north of scotland, but it'll feel cool in the strong winds that are around. it stays windy into saturday, sunshine and showers, some of those heavy and thundery, maybe fewer showers across the south on sunday.

capital of kosovo, which declared this is bbc news. we will have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour as newsday continues straight after hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur.

today, i'm in pristina,