wildfires continue on the greek island of rhodes. the country's prime minister says it shows the climate crisis is already here. and tributes are paid to george alagiah — one of the bbc�*s most respected journalists, who's died at the age of 67. welcome to the programme. we begin in israel, where the parliament has approved restrictions on the powers of the supreme court, which have led to some of the largest protests in israel's history. the move preventsjudges from blocking government decisions they consider unreasonable.

critics say it will destroy israel's democracy, but the government says it will curb judicial overreach. the white house has described the vote in the israeli parliament as "unfortunate", pointing out that the measure was passed with the slimmest possible majority. our middle east correspondent, tom bateman, sent this report from jerusalem. the streets of israel were soaked in anger. moments after one of the most contested laws in the country's history was passed. anti—government protesters were being blasted with water cannon, and the rage towards mr netanyahu or "bibi" was boiling over. this is my country and bibi kidnapped our citizens and it's not supposed to be. we need to be here. i serve in the army. i have three little boys and i want to continue to stay in my country.

and outside the israeli parliament, a showdown. today's vote, they said, was a red line. well, these protesters had said they would stay put and block the route so they can... that's it. . .. and now they're trying to prove it. the security force is using a van. these are unprecedented scenes. the israeli leader has just had surgery to fit a pacemaker. he appeared amid the increasingly fraught atmosphere. the opposition shouted "hame" as the critical vote neared. and they walked out, claiming historic changes were being rammed through, opening a door to dictatorship. translation: there is no prime minister in israel. i netanyahu has become a puppet on the strings of messianic extremists. but tonight, mr netanyahu dismissed his critics.

translation: today, we carried out a required democratic move. | the move was aimed at restoring a degree of balance between the branches of government, which we had for 50 years. but with the protests set to intensify, the mood is one of deepening crisis. there is escalating violence in the region, the absence of any political horizon in the wider conflict, and israel's occupation of the palestinian territories. now, anti—government dissent is spreading into the security establishment and israel's internal divisions have rarely felt this severe. tom bateman, bbc news, jerusalem. earlier, i spoke to dr yael berda, a sociologist at hebrew university injerusalem and an activist for social and political change who has been taking part in the protests. she told me who the people taking part in the protests are — and why.

what you have is a large protest movement, possibly the largest in israel's history. and it's a very wide coalition of citizens who are adamant that this law is only part of a series of steps to change the regime into an authoritarian one, an authoritarian regime that is also going to be a theocracy. and this government has also annexed dejure the territories, the occupied territories, which is something that is less discussed. so what we have is this very wide coalition of civilians who have realised that this government is attempting to basically do away with any kind of checks and balances on its power.

what it wants is unlimited power, and it wants to remain in place, including... mr netanyahu's argument is that lawmakers are all democratically elected while the court has become too powerful. so this law is to balance it. so, one of the amazing things about the hungarian playbook, the polish playbook, there's an authoritarian playbook that is in place. but one has to remember that israel's executive branch has very extensive power and the judiciary and the parliament have much less power than the executive. and another important thing to realise is that israeli government does not only rule over us, the citizens of israel. it also rules over millions of palestinians who have no right to vote. so we have to understand the reach of executive

power in israel already, even before curbing any of the power of the supreme court. now, literally, the supreme court was basically the only stop to the government claiming unlimited power. and so this is what people are protesting. they are protesting against an onset of a dictatorship. that's what's happening right now. this is not a political issue of how much you thinkjudges should have overreached, yes or no? this is literally about the possibility of maintaining and also seeing an end to israel's permanent war. so what you have out there is protesters from very different echelons and that have also different political

ideas, but that have come to realise that this this the coalition that has jewish supremacy in mind, that wants to instigate permanent inequality with palestinians and women as their first targets. can ijust... i'm sorry tojump in, but the opposition, they were boycotting the vote. there seems to have been no willingness from mr netanyahu to try and reach a compromise. was a referendum on option given how large these protests have been? well, the thing is, i don't think that there's any real interest in the content of these laws. that's the thing. this reasonableness is only a small part of a larger regime change that this government is attempting.

north korea has conducted fresh missile tests after an american nuclear powered submarine arrived at a naval base in the south. the defence ministry in seoul said two ballistic missiles are flown about 250 miles before falling into the sea. the us has condemned the launches but said they posed no immediate threat to its military staff. we certainly condemn the vultures, these are in violation of multiple united nations security council resolutions and they pose a threat — resolutions and they pose a threat to _ resolutions and they pose a threat to the dpr neighbours in the international community. we remain_ the international community. we remain committed to a diplomatic approach to the dprk on the _ diplomatic approach to the dprk on the two engaging double full to our— on the two engaging double full to our commitment to the defence _ to our commitment to the defence of korea and japan remains _ defence of korea and japan remains ironclad. as _ remains ironclad. as i _ remains ironclad. as i spoke to the associate fellow at the international institute for strategic studies and he told me what the latest north korea missile test

involved in what it showed about north korea's capability. north korea has been testing many missiles of the last couple of years. at first these missile tests looked to be to prove that the missiles worked, to develop them further and make a more accurate. but now they are launching two missiles at a time. it is more for operational purposes, they want to show that they actually can use these missiles in a battlefield scenario, in wartime. they want to be able to threaten the united states and south korea by saying they could put nuclear weapons of these missiles. whether they can or cannot is not yet determined but that's hope they don't test that as well. the missile tests alone are scary enough. missile tests alone are scary enou:h. �* , , missile tests alone are scary enou:h.�* , ,., ., enough. and this comes about a week after— enough. and this comes about a week after a _ enough. and this comes about a week after a us _ enough. and this comes about a week after a us soldier, - enough. and this comes about a week after a us soldier, travis l week after a us soldier, travis king, sprinted into north korea

while on a tour at the dmz. pyongyang has been silent for a week but there are reports that the un is trying to facilitate talks. do you think the un can achieve something here? i’m talks. do you think the un can achieve something here? i'm not sure that the _ achieve something here? i'm not sure that the united _ achieve something here? i'm not sure that the united nations - achieve something here? i'm not sure that the united nations is i sure that the united nations is the right go—between to facilitate talks. normally, the talks are facilitated in two ways. one is indirectly through sweden, which is the so—called protecting powerfor the us on the night —— like the united kingdom and we all use their diplomatic offices to engage north korea. more direct way is through the north korean mission to the united nations in new york. that's the usual channel that the united states uses to talk directly to north korean diplomats. theyjust korean diplomats. they just have korean diplomats. theyjust have to travel to new york. but there have been no talks on anything for several years now,

and the united states has been wanting to talk to north korea about its missile tests, but its nuclear developments, now about the american citizens who is in north korea.— is in north korea. there have been past — is in north korea. there have been past defections - is in north korea. there have been past defections or- been past defections or abductions of american citizens, can you talk us through some examples and will happen to them?— through some examples and will happen to them? yes, during the korean war. _ happen to them? yes, during the korean war, right _ happen to them? yes, during the korean war, right after— happen to them? yes, during the korean war, right after the - korean war, right after the korean war, right after the korean war, right after the korean war there were some american servicemembers who defected in the years after, there were some who crossed the border into north korea. the situation with these defectors is normally they stay there for a while foot of some died under some uncertain circumstances. most of them did not actually come by. in addition to american defectors, there are those american citizens who were abducted. several sad cases of abductions, most of them eventually did come back.

the united states sent very high level to get them back, and north korea altered the lives of those abductees for some show of respect by sending former presidents bill clinton to free prisoners. but one american abductee came back in a coma, this was seven years ago, a college student who took ago, a college student who took a poster off a wall and he was sentenced to over ten years of hard labour. he may have been beaten. something happened to him that put him in a coma. north korea sent him home because they didn't want him dying on their soil but he died soon after. it was a very sad case. and it's got to the inhumanity of the north korean system. inhumanity of the north korean s stem. . system. marc fitzpatrick speaking _ system. marc fitzpatrick speaking to _ system. marc fitzpatrick speaking to me - system. marc fitzpatrick speaking to me earlier. | system. marc fitzpatrick - speaking to me earlier. rather world and across the uk, this is bbc news. —— matt round the world. the bbc has apologised to the former ukip leader

nigel farage over a report about the reason why his account at the private bank coutts was closed. our media editor katie razzall can tell us more. the head of natwest, which owns coutts bank, has already apologised to mr farage. now the ceo of bbc news has written to him to say sorry and the journalist behind the story has tweeted an apology, because earlier this month, the bbc reported that a private bank had closed the former ukip leader's bacnk account for commercial reasons. he had always said it was a political decision, and after the bbc report, mr farage was provided with highly critical internal coutts documents which showedd the bank considered he held xenophobic and racist views. the bbc�*s business editor simon jack tweeted today that the information he based the story had been from a trusted and senior source, but he added it turned out to be incomplete and inaccurate. tonight, mr farage, speaking to the bbc, said he accepted the apologies with good grace, but that natwest was at fault and he still wants answers from the bank.

you're live with bbc news. wildfires in greece continue to burn out of control as the greek authorities launch their biggest ever emergency response. the country's prime minister tells parliament the climate crisis is already here — and will be expressed through ever greater natural disasters everywhere in the mediterranean. fires have broken out on the islands of corfu and evia but the biggest evacuation order has been on rhodes where 19,000 people have been forced to flee homes and holiday resorts. tour operators continue to send extra planes to the island to bring stranded tourists home, with travel agency company tui cancelling all flights there until friday. those who live on the island are trying to recover from the devastation — as our correspondent jenny hill reports. and for more, we are joined by benjamin horton. he's the director of the earth observatory of singapore and also actively

contributed to the cop—26 conference, including leading a report on managing disaster risks from natural hazards in southeast asia. thank you forjoining us. greece is currently in the headlines, we have had a number of extreme weather incidents around the world recently. you are currently in indonesia, trying to make an agreement with the government to be more transparent. ourasian transparent. our asian governments in transparent. ourasian governments in your view starting to tackle this issue in practical and achievable ways? the first thing that i would like to say is that throughout the globe, we have seen these unprecedented wildfires. part of the pandemic we saw in australia after a prolonged drought the bushfires burning,

which caused much destruction particularly of wildlife. we have then seen the ongoing burning that we see in california, again after drought which has caused immense property destruction. more recently last summer in the united kingdom, after record—breaking temperatures, we saw fires shockingly around london, this year in canada we saw extensive forest fires. it transported smoke to the cities of new york, washington, dc, chicago and detroit, but these cities had the worst air pollution on our planet and now we see these forest fires in greece, and they follow on from the record—breaking temperatures in the mediterranean. so all of these different events, all of these different events, all of these different events, all of these different events have a common thread and that is climate change, because climate change causes the evaporation of

forest soils, meaning that when a fire starts, it can spread more easily. climate change causes the drying out of the vegetation so that you have the perfect tinderbox to start a forest fire, and raising temperatures and drought conditions stress our trees in our forests so they die and provide the fuel. so climate change makes our forest fires more frequent, more intense and they cover a greater area. this is happening throughout the world. it also therefore has the possibility of happening here in southeast asia, not only to our forests but also to our patrons. only to our forests but also to our patrona— our patrons. scientists have been warning _ our patrons. scientists have been warning of— our patrons. scientists have been warning of this - our patrons. scientists have been warning of this for - our patrons. scientists have l been warning of this for many years in the spirit of these recent incidents, some still seem to have the attitude of let's just switch on the aircon or let's consider moving the summer holiday bellator when it

is cooler. is there anything that we as individuals can do about this?— about this? obviously that's one of the _ about this? obviously that's one of the greatest - one of the greatest frustrations for climate scientists, that a0 years or so ago, when we had the first intergovernmental panel on climate change, it predicted that if we didn't do anything about greenhouse gases, you would see an increase in temperature and the associated droughts and wildfires. you would see an increase in precipitation and the resulting flooding and landslides. the message from the climate change community hasn't been appropriately delivered to the policy makers in government, but we still have time to act. we know as a scientific community that we desperately need to keep our temperatures below the 1.5 degrees threshold above preindustrial. we are at about 1.1 above preindustrial. we are at about1.1 right above preindustrial. we are at about 1.1 right now. if we go beyond that threshold, then the

approach tipping point in how the earth works ann mcquire simply means that we will not be able to provide the food... benjamin, i'm so sorry tojump in but we have run out of time. thank you forjoining us to talk about this crucial issue. george alagiah, one of the bbc�*s most highly—respected and much—loved presenters, has died. he was 67 and he'd been living with bowel cancer since 201a. george died at home with his family today — nine years after being diagnosed. george won many awards in a hugely successful career which took him from southern africa to many other parts of the world. the bbc�*s director general, tim davie, described him as "one of the best and bravest journalists of his generation". but above all he was a very fine human being — as his friend and colleague allan little now reports. three, two, one... go tape. at six o'clock — the ground war on iraq has begun. millions knew him as the face

of the six o'clock news... good evening and welcome to the six o'clock news. ..and for his calm, unflappable authority. good evening and welcome to the bbc�*s news at six. he was born in sri lanka in 1955 to christian tamil parents. as a child the family moved to ghana. this is the road... and he was swept up in the early optimism of a young nation newly independent of british colonial rule. we knew that africa was going to be united and that ghana, this country, was going to be at the centre of it, and i think that was a kind of dream. at 11 he was a migrant again, this time to england, where his parents enrolled him in a portsmouth boarding school. here, though there was some racism, he learned to adapt to a new culture and to thrive. at durham university, he met his wife frances. i think when we got married, we were aware of a sort of meeting of cultures. you can see that in the wedding photos. we've got two sons,

adam and matthew. in a turbulent and often dangerous working life, she and their two boys were the still and unwavering centre of his existence — his solid ground. and welcome to the rainbow nation. forjust over a year now, south africa has been my base as the bbc�*s africa correspondent. i knew george as a foreign correspondent. we worked together in africa, the continent whose fate ran through his life like a thread through cloth. so, this is where... your house? hey? oh, it's nice, it's nice. i thought of him as a kind of mentor, i was inspired by his example. he was brave, calm and kind. ok, you get the water from here and do that. i admired his gift for reaching into the hearts of those caught up in war or natural disaster. winning their trust, even at the worst moments of their lives. in a refugee camp in eastern zaire, hundreds were dying every day

of preventable illness. i asked her what she wanted from life. "ajob," she said, "so i can look after little petty." in somalia he met a woman whose ten—year—old daughter had just died. his own children were about the same age. it seemed wrong to be there at what should have been a moment of private grief. she said it was all right if it might help to save her other daughter. i haven't the heart to count and it doesn't really matter... there were moments when he crossed the line between merely witnessing and actively intervening in the pain of others. we took those we could manage to the french military hospital, at times like this it's impossible not to cross the line that divides us, the observers, and those we observe. the rwandese translator we worked with then, seth ngarambe, told us his tutsi wife had been murdered by hutu extremists. but he was later accused of complicity in her murder and jailed. george wanted to know the truth, however painful, and went to find him in prison.

the nature of their reunion, the power of it, says something profound about the george we knew and his extraordinary talent. you're looking well, you're looking better than i thought. yes. hey? seth, can we go and talk somewhere? it's wonderful. he even charmed men at the heart of sierra leone's normally secretive diamond trading business. this is the biggest you've seen all day and... the world of the so—called blood diamond. this is something to write home about? no, this is about $2,000, $2,500. so you're in the clear? in ghana, he went back to his old school. somewhere in here is me. go on, yes... well done! he would later say that he was destined to spend his adult life in africa dispelling the dream he had nurtured so carefully as a child. he was injohannesburg in the mandela years,

a time of bright promise, mandela in his 70s was about to remarry. and now, sir, the future, you're a man in love? it is a wonderful moment for me, as anybody else, to be in love. when he returned to the uk he brought to the studio a wealth of wisdom and experience gathered over years on the road. though in the seconds before his first six o'clock news, there was some trepidation. at six o'clock, these are tonight's top stories... he was diagnosed with cancer in 201a. after a gruelling round of treatment and multiple operations, he couldn't wait to be back in the tumult of the newsroom. he was deeply moved by messages of support and affection sent in by countless viewers he would never meet. and on his first day back made this a small concession. and ijust want to say it's...good to be back with you. off—screen, george was funny, clever, a generous and confiding friend and full of energetic hope. there was something infectious

about his optimism. you always walked away from time with george feeling better about the human race and the world in general. and that's the bbc�*s news at six. the migrant boy whose family left sri lanka with nothing found his home in a changing britain and he took this country to his heart. it's goodbye, the news continues, though, here on bbc one... i watched george for years up close and thought this of him — that people wanted to tell him that story because, in hisjournalism, they saw the outstretched hand of a shared humanity and of solidarity. george alagiah, who has died at the age of 67. that is it for this edition of newsday, thank you for watching. hello. some parts of the uk, particularly parts of northern england and northern ireland, have already seen the wettestjuly on record. and you probably won't be too

surprised to hear that we have got more rain in the forecast at times through the remainder of this week. now, tuesday brings a mix of sunny spells and scattered showers. we won't all be seeing the rain during the day on tuesday, but let's look at the rest of the week. this is the jet stream. these winds you can see here continuing to drive areas of low pressure in towards our shores with showers or longer spells of rain moving their way through from the atlantic and pushing gradually eastwards. now, tuesday morning, a few spells of showery rain across parts of central scotland. also the odd shower for wales, south west england, east anglia too. heading through the day, this area of cloud and rain nudges further south and then we start to see showers bubbling up for eastern scotland and eastern england, which could be really quite heavy, potentially thundery, with some hail mixed in too. a bit more cloud and a few showers later on for northern ireland, but some sunny spells elsewhere. northern scotland, wales, south west of england, with just 15—21 degrees at best, a little below par for this time of year. heading through the overnight period, not into wednesday, then, most of the showers tending to ease away,

one or two continuing perhaps parts of wales, north west england to start the day on wednesday. but another fairly fresh night with temperatures getting down into single figures, in the countryside at least. heading through wednesday, here's the next area of low pressure, only gradually moving its way in from the west. so ahead of that, a fair amount of dry weather, particularly through the morning for much of scotland. few showers parts of northern and eastern england, but some sunshine for east anglia in the southeast. there's the cloud and the rain spilling into northern ireland, parts of wales, in the south west of england. later in the afternoon, the wind picking up too. temperatures, perhaps a degree or so up, but still below average, onlyjust1a—21, perhaps 22 in the south. moving through into thursday now and low pressure sits out towards the north west of the uk. so we've still got a few lingering weather fronts. could be a bit more rain for parts of northern scotland, perhaps around the south coast of england where it'll be quite breezy. elsewhere, we're looking at a day of sunny spells again and a few showers cropping up. still, temperatures only about 15—21, perhaps 22 degrees on thursday. and then that unsettled showery spell continues right through the end of the week

and the weekend into next week, too. perhaps something eventually a little bit drier and warmer as we head through towards the second week of august. bye for now.

elon musk rebrands twitter and his focus has now shifted to building it into an everything app. packed stadiums and high viewership for the fifa women's world cup tournament. but can this translate into lasting returns? welcome to asia business report. it's official. elon musk has killed off twitter�*s recognisable bird logo with an x. it's a bit to rebrand the platform and advertising revenue continues to flounder, and under its new identity, a post will also be called an x rather than a tweet. the rebranding could be part of a push to make twitter into a super app.

twitter is reborn as x, it is the latest big