of temperatures at 110 degrees fahrenheit or higher — that's 43 degrees celcius. 80 million people in the western and southern us states are under advisories for a "widespread "and oppressive" heatwave. in europe, tourists and locals are trying to escape the heat, flocking to the beach. the record—breaking temperatures are driven by a combination of climate change and the return of a weather pattern, called el nino. the un warned that these hot temperatures can lead to health problems. our sofia bettiza is in sicily with more. it has been extremely hot here in sicily for the last few days. this is where, two years ago, the highest temperature in europe was recorded. it was 48.8 celsius, and it could be exceeded in the next few days. now, italians are used to hot summers, but not this hot, especially if you take into account the fact that these consecutive heatwaves have come very suddenly.

and they are having an impact on people's hell. several hospitals here in palermo are seeing a rise in the number of patients that are being admitted because of health problems caused by the heat. 20 cities in italy are under a red alert warning, and that number is going to go up to 23 cities on wednesday. now, this heatwave could continue for the next ten days in some parts of the country, and that's why the authorities here are urging people to be extremely careful. just south, in mainland greece, the extreme climate has exacerbated wildfires. firefighting planes are battling flames as many towns across the country are being evacuated. the eu is sending more planes from france and italy to help. strong winds have been reported in the region, making it difficult for firefighters to extinguish the blaze. in one area, police arrested a man suspected of starting a fire. azadeh moshiri has more

from the city of kouvaras. several fires have made their way through mainland greece. here, where i am, we are in kouvaras, which is south—east of athens, and you can see that wildfires have torn through these hills. now, you can see the burnt trees around me. you can see the ash on the ground. but if you were here with me, you'd be able to smell it, as well. now, this fire that's torn through these hills is suspected to have been done by a man who lit a fire. he's now been arrested. but the consequences are the same as the other wildfires we see in other parts of mainland greece. it is decimation across these hills. we spoke to firefighters who worked here, and helped evacuate people in the hills, who were living in different parts of kouvaras, and they have been told they can now return to their homes, but as temperatures around here continue to grow, because the peak is set to hit in the next few days, thursday to sunday, they've said that these scenes, these wildfires could not be the last we've seen

in mainland greece. dangerous temperatures are also choking parts of asia. injapan, the heat has been relentless. authorities there issued heatstroke alerts in 32 of japan's 47 prefectures. us climate envoyjohn kerry is in china, holding talks with the chinese premier on global warming. he said he hopes china will curb its expansion of coal plants and reduce the use of methane to help combat climate change. for more, i spoke to professor kim cobb, a climate scientist at brown university, and a member on president biden�*s inteilligence advisory board. thank you so much forjoining us. we heard john envoy pushing for china to reduce its use of coal. what you think you can actually achieve a peace talks? it certainly helps that the backdrop of this relentless spate of ongoing climate change

is ongoing across parts of the northern hemisphere now, obviously climate change a clear and present danger to public health and safety, to the economy both in china, here in the united states and abroad, and to national security both here in the united states and in china. high hopes over there for their talks and hopefully we can see the emission curve spike down. what about the us side of this? we know the us president biden has said these ambitious climate goals, a 65% reduction in emissions, by the end of this decade — are we still on track to achieve that? we are not quite on track, but obviously made a huge start, an historic one in fact, with the inflation reduction act, which is really an amazing investment in our clean energy future here in the united states. so it puts us within grasp.

what we need to do now is go all in on climate and make sure that we are really closing that emissions gap to hit our targets, and demonstrate on the global stage that the us is in a leadership position on this issue. a question some people might be asking themselves, looking at these images we just showed, how much does it really matter at this point? we're already seeing the disastrous effects of climate change. it couldn't matter more, is the simple truth here. we are already on track to cross that 1.5 celsius threshold, likely within the next ten years or so, but what's really important is that we may be crossing much higher levels of warming by mid—century, two degrees, three celsius, and we really are in the driving seat of our climate and emissions future right now in these precious few years, when we will decide how much climate damage we want to let in. when we stabilise emissions, we will be stabilising warming going forward to the century, so again, minimising risk and damage, we can reap those benefits very soon in a matter of decades.

unfortunately it is going to be a very rough ride over the next 20 years, as warming continues. i want to ask you about adaptation as well. we are seeing cities, regions on the coast as well all trying to adapt to this massive heatwave we sang at the moment. how can we prepare to face this perhaps every year? yes, well, unfortunately we are ill—adapted, and there are going to be some pretty serious limitations to adaptation. we already suffer thousands of heat—related deaths in the united states, every single year, more than all the weather—related deaths put together, and so that's happening across the world. 62,000 deaths last year linked to europe's heatwave last summer, the toll is of course still ongoing best summer, but we can expect it to be in the many thousands of deaths globally, and so for many it is too late for us to adapt, but there is still a chance for us to harness all of the available science, and what we know about the relationship between warming, heat,

extreme rainfall, droughts and wildfires, and put that to use to keep the public safe and our economy is thriving through the continued warming. it is not too late to get to work on adaptation, it is never too late, and it is certainly exactly the right moment to begin to consider if we're going to go all in on emissions reductions and limit the loss in damages going forward. and what you think can be done to coordinate on a global level, specifically, rather, looking at these adaptation measures, as we are seeing this heatwave in china, in the us and europe? well, certainly there is a lot to be said for the united nations playing a very serious role here. nato, for example, just released a report on the global security risks that they are going to try and coordinate around at that level, and of course that's the level, the international level, where scientists are working together, to try to lift up the importance of adaptation measures that can be taken around the world, to lift up the opportunities that we have for emissions

reductions. this was put forward in working group two and three of the intergovernmental panel on climate change, which has compiled this information for policymakers. so it is really at policymakers�* fingertips. what we need to do is put it to work and it could not be more urgently illustrated than the losses an ongoing devastation from this summer. last question, do you think this summer is a wake—up call? well, i would have hoped the wake—up call would have come a lot sooner than this! this is not the first summer that we are privy to these horrific headlines around the globe, whether it is hurricanes, or wildfires, extreme heat and extreme rainfall, rising seas. this has been a long time coming in creeping into our collective consciousness and it really should have been a wake—up call 20 years ago, but again, never too late to realise what's

truly at stake here. the threats to public health and safety, to our economy, to national and global security could not be more clear now. so we have work to do but the good news is we have all the science that we need to support these emissions targets and the adaptation measures. great to get your thoughts on the show. thanks forjoining us. thanks for having me. turning now to ukraine, 0desa is under russian air attack, for the second night in a row. you can see here the damage from rocket fire last night in 0desa. the city is one of ukraine's main ports for exporting grain. 0fficials there say they will not be intimidated by the attacks. it comes after russia pulled out of the black sea grain deal on monday. but air attacks are not the only thing ukraine has to worry about. one of the most senior military commanders in the country has admitted ukraine's offensive against russia is not going as fast as hoped. since the counteroffensive launched in earlyjune, it's taken back more than 81 square miles of land. but russia still holds vast amounts of territory. 0ur defence correspondent jonathan beale reports near the the front line in bakhmut. the bloody battle for bakhmut isn't over. the city is now held by the russians, but we travelled

with ukrainian forces who are trying to take it back. their advance is still slow, and meeting resistance. again. explosion. they try to fire back with their finnish—supplied mortar, but even western weapons can occasionally malfunction. explosion. that was a russian shell landing. their positions are just about three kilometres away from here. last time i was near here, two months ago, it was the ukrainians losing ground and in danger of being surrounded. now, it's the other way round. this is the bunker from where ukraine's coordinating the offensive on bakhmut, with a constant live feed from dozens of drones.

the commander admits they're suffering losses, but not on the same scale as the russians. translation: we've taken the initiative. l the enemy is bringing in troops and wants to escape the trap. but they're in trouble. bakhmut could be encircled. ukraine is using all it can to break the russian defences... ..from the ground... ..and from the air. but it's still outgunned, and having to spread its limited resources on several fronts. but it will soon have a new weapon — us—supplied cluster bombs, fired from these same american howitzers. this gun, will you use cluster munitions in this gun? yes, yes. you will? yes. and will you have any concerns? in the field, no.

0n the town, i have forbidden for this, because it's not humane. 0leksandr syrskyi is the general in charge of all military operations in the east. you this is a command vehicle, yes? yeah. a the mastermind behind the defence of kyiv and the successful offensive in kharkiv. unlike many russian commanders, he's lionized by his troops, and now his eyes are firmly set on retaking bakhmut. and you will take it back, bakhmut? yes, of course — i try to do it. the offensive has been going on for more than a month now. even president zelensky has said it is slower than ukraine had hoped for. is that true? translation: we would i like to get very fast results,

but in reality, it's practically impossible. this entire area is well prepared with defences, so all advances are not going as fast as we would like. very so far, the advances have only been modest. light most of the front remains relatively static. these ukrainian trench lines in the east haven't budged since 2014. ukraine has still to commit all its forces, but it's yet to break through russia's heavily mined main lines of defence. jonathan beale, bbc news, eastern ukraine. in other news, the attorney general of the us state of michigan has charged 16 people, in a case related to attempts to overturn the 2020 election. the defendents are accused of convening a false slate of electoral college electors, in an attempt to hand the state to mrtrump. each has been charged with eight felony counts, including forgery and

conspiracy to commit forgery. president biden won the state in the 2020 election. police in nevada have searched a home this week, in connection with the unsolved killing of rapper tupac shakur. detectives carried out the search at a home in henderson, a suburb of las vegas where shakur was gunned down in 1996. shakur was 25 when he was killed. no arrests have been made and no suspects are currently in custody. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. bringing you different stories from across the uk. this takes many shapes and forms. there is an emphasis on using broadway items including everyday household goods which can then be sold off to new owners. everything here has been thrown away and is now ready to be reused. wells has been a world leader in recycling and centres like this

have helped but improvements in the future could prove challenging.— the future could prove challenauin. ~ , .,, the future could prove challenauin. ~ , ., challenging. we need people to chance challenging. we need people to change their — challenging. we need people to change their behaviours, - challenging. we need people to change their behaviours, we - change their behaviours, we need that education coming through more widely than just focusing on children. through more widely than 'ust focusing on children. education re clina focusing on children. education recycling preject _ focusing on children. education recycling project is _ focusing on children. education recycling project is hoping - recycling project is hoping that a new scheme being launched locally will help with the big challenge of dealing with plastics. there is a big drive to make wales the world �*s best recycler. for more stories from across the uk, _ head to the bbc news website. you're live with bbc news. new details are coming in about the us soldier detained in north korea, after crossing the border without authorization. us officials say the american soldier crossed the demilitarized zone between north and south korea while on a tour. commonly known as the dmz, the area is one of the most heavily fortified in the world. the army has identified

the soldier as travis king. he was reportedly being escorted back to the us for disciplinary reasons, before he turned around at the airport, and joined a tour of the north and south korea border. a witness, who was also a part of that tour, said he saw the soldier laughing, while running across the north korean border. us secretary of defense lloyd austin confirmed earlier that the soldier did indeed cross the border willfully. we believe he is in dprk custody, so we are continuously monitoring and working to notify the soldier's next of kin and engaging to address this incident. in terms of my concerns, i am absolutely foremost concerned about the welfare of our troop, so we will remain focused about this and, again, this will develop in the next several days now. 0ur correspondent sean dilley was at that briefing at the pentagon — here's his reaction. i would say we're no

closer to understanding what might have motivated the individual to cross into north korea. the pentagon very much saying as much and as little as you would expect them to. when we heard from mr austin, secretary of state for defence, he said theirforemost concern is for his welfare, which has been echoed by the state department in their several statements. at this moment the two departments are working in collaboration, but defence and the pentagon are those directly in touch or co—ordinating efforts with the north koreans because they believe, they said, that he is in their custody at the moment. looking at the situation from above, you know, what might have motivated him to cross there is still rather unresolved and whether he still wishes to be there. you can bet us authorities and pentagon officials will be working on doing everything they can to secure his release, hoping that it's a short

time, not a long one. i spoke to massachusetts congressman and veteran seth moulton and he said the first priority is to secure the soldier's release. we should get him back. this is a soldier who had disciplinary problems to begin with. apparently that is how this all started, but this is a very, very bad thing to do. it puts at risk not only his life but the lives of other americans. leaders in artificial intelligence came before congress today to talk about the critical role ai can play on the battlefield. a house armed services subcommittee heard testimony on the risks and barriers the us department of defense faces in adopting and deploying the technology. they discussed how china is developing ai for its own military use. earlier, i spoke to congressman ro khanna, who was at the hearing today. thank you forjoining us again on bbc news. we saw technology and ai leaders raise the alarm, saying that the us military needs to move faster

and try to integrate ai because that is what the chinese government is doing. what did you make of that? i thought they were optimistic of what we had done better, we had better datasets in our military, we have combined, when you look at the private sector and the department of defence, more spending, but they are saying that china is doubling down of the strategy and obviously has a lot of public data and we have to be intentional about making sure that we take the lead and keep the lead in the military applications of hacker0ne. precisely on the question of data, alexander wang, the ceo of scale ai, responding to a question that you asked him, he says the military needs to be able to develop ai quickly and reliably. this is what he said. as we look to applying artificial intelligence to the military, we need to have military ready datasets ready for this kind of deployment. do you agree with that approach? i do. we are already doing it.

i asked him is their damage to having these quality datasets as opposed to having the general data that china may have and he said there is an advantage in having quality data and the us has more of it. i think the department of defence needs to figure out how we have the type of data that is going to get us the best outcomes. what will this data do? help us understand how it will be used. sure. ai could help identify troops or a tank or a target to be hit. if you have data from the military, most of which is classified, secret, or top secret of about a particular location, about the type of formations that an enemy or opponent might have. and you can for that and help

ai become better at identifying where a target is, where troops are moving, and that is the kind of data that alexandr was talking about. there are a lot of concerns about the types of ai that are used in the different applications of it. companies dominate one company working with the military is deploying a large language chat model like chatgpt called donovan. are you convinced that they will take into account some of the concerns about the use of this technology? that is why we need smart and thoughtful regulations and the united states needs to lead on that. why should the united states lead? it is because we invented most of the ai here. so we are in a position to lead. that means having human control and judgement at any decision. it means separation between something that is a machine and a human, it means having safety checks before the given use of ai. we can go into other principles but it is important that we have those principles in place. the department of defence in the us does have guidelines for the ethical use of artificial intelligence.

how can you make sure, how can regulators make sure that those are actually implemented on the battlefield? one of the things we heard in the hearing is that we need to train personnel in those principles and we need to actually see how those principles are operationalised. do we have a structure where there has to be human sign off before any decision is made using artificial intelligence? do people understand how ai works on the battlefield, and who do they have to talk to as a check? my concern isn'tjust with the military, but more broadly how do we have the checks on al, and that is why i have called for an fda—like regulatory body to regulate and set standards for al. that would be here in the us. there was discussion about us working with allies across the world and today the un secretary general embraced calls a new un agency for al

after security council held its first meeting on al risks. would you welcome that corporate level body? sure. we need to work internationally in terms of the solutions here. if ai is unleashed it can do harm, no matter where it is. the reality in china is they are getting a lot of the ai currently on models that are on the cloud. while the us has restricted some gpus going to china, they have not restricted those in the cloud. it is hard to contain the technology and we need to do that as well as we can but we need international agreements on this and the united nations can play a role in facilitating back type of dialogue. i also want to ask what the pentagon confirming today that a us soldier on tour in south korea crossed into north korea and has been detained there. we spoke earlier to somebody who served as an analyst for the cia. she said north korea can use this as a propaganda tool,

saying that an american soldier defected to their side. are you worried how this could be used? we need all the facts. we need to understand why the soldier ended up in north korea. we need to prioritise our service member's life and safety and do what we can to secure his release. but i supported president trump when trying to engage with north korea, and president carter, who had a whole framework of what we can do to try to move beyond the 1953 armistice. we still don't have an end to the korean war. this heightens the need for the world to engage in a place that is still full of conflict and concern. great to speak with you, congressman. 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 colleageus there. hello. for many of us, tuesday was decidedly cool for a july day thanks to a lot of clouds and some outbreaks of rain. that was the scene for a weather watcher in belfast. there were plenty of places that didn't get above 111—15 degrees. was a little bit warmer in the southeast of england, but a world away from the heat that continues to affect southern parts of europe, that extreme heat set to go on. this is the dividing line, the jet stream, the winds high up in the atmosphere, keeping that heat away from our shores, keeping us in some relatively cool air with areas of low pressure and frontal systems moving through. that frontal system there, that was tuesday's rain—maker.

it is moving away eastwards. high pressure trying to build from the west, but there'll still be some showers on wednesday. early cloud and patchy rain in eastern england, that tending to clear, then some spells of sunshine but a scattering of showers. wales and the south west of england, not seeing too many showers. northern scotland likely to stay quite cloudy and breezy throughout the day. and temperatures for lerwick only up to 12 degrees, further south, 2a the high in london. through wednesday night, the showers will tend to fade, we'll see clear skies overhead, one or two mist or fog patches. and with those clear skies, it is going to be actually quite a cool night for the time of year, widely in the towns and cities, 8—12 degrees. but there will be places in the countryside that gets a little chillier than that. so a cool start to thursday morning, but a bright start with spells of sunshine. again, some showers will develop. the odd heavy one is possible. still some quite large areas of cloud across northern parts of scotland and temperatures north to south between 15—23 degrees. that covers it for most of us. now for friday, a lot of dry weather around to start off, but we will tend to see more clouds spilling

in from the west. and some outbreaks of rain are likely to move into parts of northern ireland and northwest scotland, drierfurther south and east, albeit with the chance for the odd shower and temperatures of 14—21 degrees. but as we head into the weekend, we see another frontal system attached to this area of low pressure. that will be working in from the west, bringing outbreaks of rain for many of us. and on the southern flank of that system, some quite strong winds. so, into the weekend some rain at times, albeit with some drier interludes. turning windy down towards the south and remaining fairly cool.

forjustice". this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour, straight after this programme. welcome to hardtalk with me, zeinab badawi. the aborted mutiny against president putin onjune 24th by the wagner mercenary group was the biggest challenge to him since he came to power in 1999. wagner's leader, yevgeny prigozhin, had set off for moscow with thousands of his fighters, on what he described as "a march