hello, i'm helena humphrey. kenya says it's ready to lead a multinationalforce in haiti where clashes between the police and criminal gangs have displaced tens of thousands of people. the country's foreign minister says nairobi would deploy 1,000 police officers in the caribbean nation. the mission is subject to a mandate from the un security council and formal authorisation from the kenyan authorities. earlier this month, the un secretary—general antonio guterres called for the creation of a multinational force for haiti. speaking before kenya's announcement, the us secretary of state anthony blinken voiced concerns about the situation. we have very deep concern to the situation there, particularly with regard to violence and the activities of the goings. we are, as i think you know, the largest humanitarian donor to haiti,

but we are also very focused on working together with partners to try to help the haitians restore security, restore stability. that really is the necessary foundation. the developments happen as a christian aid group says an american nurse and her child have been kidnapped in the country. it happened on thursday near the capital, port—au—prince, after the us advised all its citizens to leave the country because of the worsening security situation. gangs control large parts of haiti's capital port—au—prince and kidnappings for ransom are common. earlier, i spoke about the situation in haiti with harold isaac, a journalist based near port—au—prince. kenya says that it is prepared to send a multinational force to haiti — what more do we know about that and how it might work? very little at this stage. i mean, for many people here, it came as a bit of a surprise, especially after over nine months of waiting for a word or an actual commitment with regards to foreign police or military personnel

here in haiti. it's really interesting you say that it came as something of a surprise because as we've been speaking about, the un secretary—general antonio guterres was in the country and he said it's not time to forget haiti. is that the sense that people there are feeling, that the country has been forgotten? it has been a prevailing feeling in the country for a little while, although in the last week or so, there seems to have been a lot of movement including the order of evacuation from us authorities and also now is information about troops, eventually, police officers eventually coming to haiti so everyone is taking this for the most part with a bit of a grain of salt, a bit of cautious cautiousness with regards to what it will entail in the short—term.

i want to ask you about how you think a multinational force will be accepted in haiti because as you know, a great deal of mistrust grew with un peacekeepers after the cholera outbreak in 2010. how do you anticipate these forces being met in haiti? well, effectively, the question of foreign military or police intervention in haiti has been a polarising one over the years, especially after the minister, which is the un peacekeeping mission from 2004 to 2017, which didn't leave haiti with necessarily good memories, especially the cholera epidemic and sex abuse scandals, so it is early to know how the population will react to this news and also

what will be the terms of this intervention. is this coming at a time when we've been hearing about an american nurse and child who has been kidnapped in the country. just talk to us about how dangerous it is there right 110w. well, this is where it is a bit nuanced and complicated because people here, people on the street here in haiti, not much has changed in the last year or so. the main highlight has been in april when a civilian vigilante movement started which shifted, pushed the fear to change camp and led gangs to be a little bit more before but it remains a very volatile situation, many parts of the capital remained dangerous and it's unclear where we go from here.

and along with the united states ordering the departure of nonemergency personnel, we are hearing that some haitian residents have been gathering at the embassy ground, seemingly looking for respite from gang violence. is that what you have been hearing as well? as we've seen on the ground this week, dozens of folk had gathered in front of the us embassy seeking shelter seemingly from gang violence which has been prevailing in the vicinity of the us representation. that being said, these people eventually got evacuated by police as they were growing in number and concerns over security situation with representation but ivp is, as they are called, internally displaced people, from gang violence, are numerous around town. many neighbourhoods have to be vacated by civilians running away from gang violence.

harold isaacs, a journalist in haiti. harold, great to have your insight. thank you for being on. the eu has suspended all security cooperation with niger after the country's army took power in a coup, and has refused to recognise the new leaders. it comes shortly after the us declared its "unflagging support" for ousted president mohamed bazoum, seen as a key western ally in the fight against islamist militants. on friday, the head of the presidential guards unit, generalabdourahmane tchiani declared himself niger's new leader. he said insecurity, economic woes and corruption led him to seize power. but there are now concerns in the west about which countries

the new leader will align with. niger's neighbours, burkina faso and mali, have both pivoted towards russia since their own coups. chris ewokor in nigeria is following the story for us. there have been a lot of pressure being piled on the leaders of the coup in niger. this evening we are hearing that france has also suspended financial and other aid to niger with immediate effect. this is as a result of the coup and development, political development in that country and it is also similar to the eu's position, the eu has suspended aid, both financial and military aid. the united states secretary of state, antony blinken, had earlier threatened the countries�*s risk, also having millions of dollars in aid be suspended because the coup and the strongest reaction yet we have gotten is from the african union, which had given the military in niger 15 days maximum to get back to the barracks and have called

the immediate release of president bazoum who, at the moment, we know is still being held by the military. earlier, i spoke to cameron hudson, an analyst on african security with the centre for strategic and international studies. and i began by asking about the response to the coup from the international community. i think for a lot of western countries, the united states, european union and others, there is an almost automatic response when there is military coups, there is a suspension of military assistance, certainly they maintain humanitarian assistance in a place like niger, which has such a large population, i would expect that to be the same. but we're also looking at many of these countries, trying to let the africans lead on this issue. there has been widespread condemnation from the regional organisation ecowas,

the african union has given the coup—makers two weeks to restore civilian rule in the country and so i think as much as western nations have a playbook that they tend to follow when there is a coup, i think they are also trying to give space to let the region come together in defence of democracy before theyjump in and lead with sanctions or other tactics. in the interim, thejunta says it has dissolved all state institutions. some aid is being pulled out. what could this mean for the people of niger? i think the people of niger, they will suffer the most and immediately stop the western contribution to niger's budget is more

than half so whether it is maintaining the doors of ministries open, schools open, clinics open, all that depends on western donor assistance coming in to the government. in addition, if they are not able to export their principal exports which mostly go to europe, so uranium, which goes almost entirely to france, then again, they are going to see a cut—off of their export earnings in a massive and very quick way, so the government is going to see their earnings dry up very quickly and if we can't continue to support citizens in the country, they are going to feel the effects of this very, very soon and let's not forget, they are still trying to recover from the covid downturn, the effects of climate change and the ukraine war costs which continue to pound that economy. president bazoum has been a key ally for the west in its fight against islamist extremists. do you envisagejihadist

organisations in the region looking to move in on niger and do you see increased risks outside the region as well? thosejihadist already are targeting niger, they have been encroaching on the capital for upwards of two years and we have seen an uptick in terrorist attacks inside of niger so if you see western military aid and support, assistance, training suspended to niger, you're going to see a further encroachment and certainly those jihadists will see this as a new opportunity to expand their territory. so i think it's very likely, in fact, that we see rather quickly a degradation of the security environment

in the country but again, i think this is the irony of this coup, and the coups in mali and burkina faso, what you find is military leaders who simply don't want to believe that civilian rulers can handle security threats in the country and so this is the same playbook they are playing from right now, but what has resulted in mali and burkina faso since those coups is a degradation of security, not an improvement, so i would expect to see the same in niger. i'm glad you brought up those two countries of well, burkina faso and mali, because what we have seen is them pivot towards russia since their own coups. do you see a possibility of this happening with niger? i think it's a concern that we have to have. we haven't seen the same level of anti—western, anti—french sentiment within the public. it's certainly there, there is no denying that. but i think that the nigerien public had understood that because bazoum was doing the right thing and his predecessor was doing the right thing in terms of transparency and anti—corruption and democratic principles,

there was a great deal of benefit to the country from western donors so i think that we will see that there is pressure on this new regime. we've seen protests both for and against the coup in niger, so i think it's really, how does russia try to take advantage of this and are they able to take advantage of it i'm using the tactics we know they've used in mali and burkina faso, disinformation, propaganda, corruption, those kind of things. it will be something we have to watch very closely, for sure. so, cameron, what comes next? because we have calls today from the african union for the coup leaders to return to their base. as you say, they've given that deadline of within 15 days. ecowas, also due to meet. do you see this coup has a done deal? i'd like to not see the coup as a done deal and using

the words of anthony blinken, there is still time for diplomacy and that seems to be the message we're certainly getting from washington. i think there is a lot of behind—the—scenes diplomacy at work right now with countries in the region. the nigerian president has come out forcefully as the head of ecowas, trying to walk this back so i think there is no small amount of effort under way right now trying to walk this back. will it be successful? i don't know, but i certainly don't think that 48 hours after the coup, we can abandon the billions of dollars and the tens of millions of people that we have been engaging with and supporting in niger, just because some very small group of disgruntled army officers decides that they don't want to lose theirjobs and they're going to take this entire country hostage. i think that would set a very bad example for the rest of the region. cameron hudson, an analyst on african security at the centre for strategic and international studies, as always, great to get your insights, cameron, thank you. thanks.

protests have taken place in israel for the 30th week in a row against the government's planned judicial overhaul. it's the first saturday of mass demonstrations since the first bill in the overhaul was passed by the israeli parliament earlier this week. the new law limits the supreme court's ability to nullify legislation it deems unreasonable. an explosion at a fireworks warehouse in southern thailand killed at least nine people and injured more than a hundred others. with the latest, here's our reporter callum tulley. we know that at least three of those killed in this incident were children, and over 120 people were seriously injured. this is where it happened, in the south of thailand close to the malaysia border in the town of sungai kolok and if we look at some pictures of the aftermath of this incident, we can see the level of destruction caused. the impact wasn't confined to the fireworks warehouse. we know that neighbouring buildings were shaken,

windows were shattered, roofs collapsed. as these pictures show and we actually heard from one eyewitness who lives 100m from the site and he said that he was at home when he heard a loud thunderous bang and his whole house shook. "i saw my roof was wide open," he said. "i looked outside and i saw a house collapsing and people "lying on the ground everywhere. "it was chaos." we understand the fire has now been contained and the local governor said it was caused by a technical error in steel welding during construction of the building but thailand doesn't have a brilliant record when it comes to incidents involving fireworks, and just five days ago, one woman as killed and ten others were seriously injured in a similar accident in the north of the country. so, although this is a particularly tragic case, it's not an isolated one — and that is why we are seeing

some public pressure on the authorities with regards to safety in the workplace over the last couple of years. wnba player and two—time olympic gold medallist brittney griner has announced she will not bejoining her team the phoenix mercury, for a two—game trip to chicago and indiana. her team said that griner will miss the games to focus on her mental health, adding: griner returned to professional basketball playing for the phoenix mercury this season after being detained by russia on drug charges for ten months. she was released in a prisoner exchange in december. a federaljudge has thrown out former president donald trump's defamation lawsuit brought against us cable network cnn. mr trump sued cnn for $475 million for describing his un—substantiated claim that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen from him as the "big lie", arguing the phrase had created a "false and incendiary association" between him and hitler.

trump alleged the "big lie" referred to a nazi propaganda campaign used to justify the persecution of the jews. districtjudge raag singhal, who was appointed by trump, ruled that cnn's comments were not defamatory, writing in his verdict "no reasonable viewer could, "orshould, plausibly make that reference." and adding while the statements were "repugnant, were not, "as a matter of law, defamatory." neither cnn or mr trump have commented on the ruling. ukraine says a russian missile attack on the city of sumy in northeast ukraine has killed at least one civilian and wounded five. national police and the interior ministry say the missile struck an educational centre. russian state media is also reporting ukrainian drones have damaged two buildings in moscow. it's happened as president zelensky visits ukrainian special forces near the city of bakhmut and as kyiv continues its counter—offensive. the city has been the scene of some of the fiercest fighting of the war.

0ur ukraine correspondent james waterhouse has more on the significance of the visit. now he has visited advanced positions on the outskirts where he's thanked his troops. he hasn't gone into detail about what their plans are. he even posed with them in a petrol station having a coffee, which is a ukrainian pastime. you often see soldiers in petrol stations making long journeys back and forth from the front. and there is a backdrop here where ukraine is attempting its offensive. there are small, hard—fought gains taking place. so this is the political effort alongside that, where he wants to be seen near the front to preserve that morale. the city of liverpool in the uk has been hosting ukraine's biggest pride march, kyiv pride. 0rganisers hope it'll further cement the city's links with the country. here's josh parry. in this rainbow, the yellow

and blue takes centre stage. thousands of people, including hundreds of ukrainians, marched through liverpool's streets as the city played host to kyiv pride. we understand that people are kind of tired about... of the war, but you cannot be tired because people are dying on the front line. 0urfriends and loved ones. queer people are dying on the front line to protect freedom. liverpool and ukraine already have a special relationship after the city stepped in to host eurovision back in may. # stefaniya, mamo, mamo, stefaniya... # 0rganisers see this march as a chance to continue that legacy. those marching carried messages of support for those on the front line back home, like combat medics boris and elena. are you looking forward to the day that you could both march together? yeah, because when pride will happen in kyiv, it means, like, the war is over and we...we can, like, back to... some kind of normality

to our life. why was it important that liverpool played host to kyiv pride this year? i think when we stepped in to do eurovision, we found that the reception we got from the country about hosting it on behalf of ukraine was really positive. so planning for pride was just going on as normal anyway. and it was suggested to us that, at that point, that we'd do a joint pride. the logistics were tricky, but we've managed to do it today. while eurovision may have united liverpool and ukraine in music, today, pride has united them in protest. josh parry, bbc news, liverpool. since russia's invasion of ukraine, the bbc�*s russia editor steve rosenberg has been charting the dramatic events — notjust in words and pictures, but also in music. he's been writing a piece for the piano that expresses what he's experiencing in a country transformed by the war it started.

in a world that feels as if it's been turned upside down, writing music has become my way of charting what's happening around me. i wrote isolation a few days after russia's full—scale invasion of ukraine — after russia embraced war and faced international isolation. months pass. the war drags on. the second movement —

parallel reality. from morning till night, the state media in russia declares, "we didn't invade ukraine. "russia never starts wars. "it's the west waging war on russia!" the picture presented here is back to front, inside out, a parallel reality. after 16 months of war, you could feel the instability in russia — armed mercenaries have mutinied and marched on moscow.

and so, the third movement. time of troubles — or, in russian, smorta. that russian word, "smorta", refers to a murky time of turmoil and chaos and coups. it is a recurring feature of russian history. where will my peace go from here?

how many more movements? how will they sound ? it's impossible to predict — just like russia's future. and we leave you with these pictures from california — a grizzly bear caught on camera, cooling off in a private home's pool. you might say the barefaced cheek. stay with us here on bbc news. hello. for the third weekend in a row, low pressure is in charge of our weather. it has already brought us some rain during saturday. much of that rain came in the form of some sharp showers. some sunny spells in between. for sunday, we will see more general rain spreading from the south—west as we go through the day. 0n the earlier satellite picture, you can see the swirl of cloud. that's the area of low pressure that brought the showers on saturday. then behind me, this shield of cloud rolling in from the atlantic —

already bringing some rain into the south—west of england through the first part of sunday morning. further north and east, sunny spells, scattered heavy showers. through the day, our band of rain pushes northwards and eastwards, getting into parts of northern ireland, wales, the midlands, down into the south—east of england by sunday afternoon. and with that, quite a strong wind at times as well. it will also turn really quite misty and murky for some coasts and hills in the west. temperature—wise, i think the highest values will be in eastern england, up to around 23 degrees. so, for the cricket at the 0val, i think there is the increasing chance of rain as we go through the day. some disruption to the day, certainly through the latter part of the afternoon, is quite likely. as we head through sunday evening, our band of rain continues to make further progress northwards and eastwards, certainly getting up into southern and some central parts of scotland. a lot of cloud further south and west. a bit misty and murky in places. and very, very warm and quite muggy in the south — 16 or 17 degrees. we head on into monday — our first band of rain pushes a little bit further northwards across scotland. could well see some further very wet weather moving across the channel islands and fringing into some southern counties of england.

elsewhere, quite a lot of cloud. some showers at times. temperatures between 17 and 22 degrees. as we head deeper into the week, this area of low pressure is going to push away eastwards. it may be that another one pushes in from the west around the middle part of the week. the general pattern, though, through the week ahead is bringing ourair in from the north. that is going to make it feel really rather cool at times. temperatures as we move into the start of august generally below the average for the time of year. there will continue to be some heavy showers around at times — some dryer interludes.

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.