hello, i'm rajini vaidyanathan, welcome to bbc news now, three hours of fast—moving news, interviews and reaction. the uk prime minister rishi sunak says it's "utterly wrong" to blame him for failing to tackle the issue of unsafe concrete in school buldings. as thousands of children return to classrooms today after the summer break — it's emerged that more than 100 schools in england and scotland will be closed or partially shut. it's over safety concerns about what is known as raac — a type of concrete known to be at risk of crumbling. ellie price reports. school's back. sort of... but not for those affected by the wrong kind of concrete. for many, it has meant a partial closure of school buildings

and a mad scramble right at the start of a new school year, to find alternatives. we have three companies coming out today that are trying to help us procure temporary classrooms. we don't know yet whether we have managed to get any, and how long they will take to be delivered. but we are obviously flat out working on it. 104 schools have so far found themselves having to close entirely or partially because of unsafe raac concrete. this morning, the education secretary said there could be hundreds more affected, as the government was still waiting to hear from 1,500 schools about whether they have this concrete in their buildings. there will be some surveys still to do. the vast majority of surveys we do come back without raac. but where we find it, we will treat everyone as critical, and we will either prop them up or put temporary accommodation into place.

and then we will refurbish or rebuild them if needed. labour accused the government putting children's lives at risk, as a former civil servant said in 2021 the then chancellor, rishi sunak, halved the budget for school repairs in england. we know what is needed, 300 to 400. there is only so much capacity in the construction industry. there is disruption if you close schools and rebuild them. the actual ask in the spending review in 2021 was to double the 100, to 200. that is what we thought would be practical in the first instance. i thought we would get it, but the actual decision the chancellor took in �*21 was to halve the size of the programme. i think that is completely and utterly wrong. actually, one of the first things i did as chancellor in my first spending review in 2020 was to announce a new ten year school rebuilding programme for 500 schools. that equates to about 50 schools per year that would be refurbished or rebuilt. if you look at what we have been doing over the previous decade, that is completely in line

with what we have always done. the gates of this south east london school were always going to be closed today, it is an inset day. but the head teacher wrote to parents on friday, that despite previous advice that the raac concrete in the school hall was safe, that advice changed. it means when these children return on wednesday, they will not be able to go the gym, canteen or toilets, they will have to go in a portaloo instead. the calls for lessons to be learned will go well beyond the school gates. ellie price, bbc news. we will have more from our team in westminster for the latest on that concrete story late in the programme. kenya is hosting the inaugural africa climate summit, to discuss how the continent can take climate action. at least 23 african heads of state and government willjoin thousands of delegates to discuss a problem that is affecting the whole continent. the event's host — kenya's president, william ruto — said africa should be part of the solution to global warming, rather than a victim. 0ur reporter yasmin khatun dewan

is in the newsroom with more. the aim of this summit is to come up with a plan to present the cop28 united nations climate summit later this year. delegates in nairobi will consider a new funding model to help governments reduce carbon emissions and promote climate resilience. crucially, from an african perspective, nations who we know are among the smallest contributors to climate change, but among those to suffer from its worst consequences. you can see here some images from somalia, a drought—hit region. floods in mozambique and also wildfires in algeria from earlier this year. so extreme weather in a number of these african nations. also, some further footage from drought—hit region in somalia where after five failed rainy seasons, according to the united nations, as many as 43,000 people may have been killed in the last year, half of them under the age of five. in a report released

ahead of this summit, the united nations said it was children on the african continent who are the most vulnerable to the impact of climate change. ethiopia, kenya and somalia have endured some of the worst droughts in decades. it's notjust droughts. you can see images here from mozambique. following cyclone freddy, one of the deadliest storms to hit the african continent for the last two decades, ripping through malawi, mozambique and madagascar and killing over 1,000 people. the impact of climate change also poses huge challenges for farmers like this farmer pictured here in this cotton farm where two hectares of cotton was lost due to flooding. 50% of the african continent work in agriculture. so these stories, this story resonates across the continent, impacting farmers and those working in the agricultural industry across the continent.

so people will be looking forward to any agreements that may emerge following this summit ahead of the cop28 later this year. earlier i spoke to climate and energy campaigner from greenpeace thandile chinyahvanhoo, about the importance of the summit. is a very important summit as it's an opportunity for our leaders to capitalize on the opportunity to have a cohesive vision of climate action and taking decisive action towards it. it's an opportunity for multilateral engagement to be able to define solutions together for, ultimately, how we will tackle this climate crisis and ensure that communities are able to adapt and are resilient in the face of the climate crisis. how challenging is this, though? africa is a growing continent. there are countries such as south africa which still rely heavily on coal. how easy is it going to be to get nations like that to give

it up so quickly? it's definitely going to be a difficult challenge. we have a myriad of socioeconomic challenges within our different regions and of course varying levels of development. and this ever present idea that we need to continue to exploit resources in order to develop, and that's a mindset that we definitely need to overcome. so it's going to be quite challenging for us to recognise that we can chart a way forward without the extraction of coal, without the extraction of gas and recognise the potential of renewable energy in our development needs. this all comes before the cop summit in dubai later this year. often at cop summits, you have nations, particularly developing nations, asking for more money for climate resilience funds. what do you think is likely to come out of this summit in africa and be taken forward to cop later this year?

yes, so we're expecting to see a lot more communication and calls for partnerships similar to the partnerships we've seen fostered with south africa and senegal towards achieving a just economic transition. and that's definitely what we'll be calling for, support for more of these multilateral partnerships that can enable countries to be able to transition and incorporate more green solutions into their climate action plans. and tell us about some of the problems that african nations are facing when it comes to climate change. so, yeah, the african continent is experiencing a myriad of climate events, climate shocks that have contributed towards droughts in some regions of the continent, flooding. there have been cyclones that have

made landfall in areas like mauritius, madagascar, malawi, zambia. and they've they've had quite devastating impacts. and just demonstrating how climate change has no boundaries, it is something that's going to affect every single country. and so that's definitely been something that's evident. we're seeing a lot of people suffering in terms of food security because of the prolonged droughts that are occurring and the flooding that has contributed to massive public health concerns across the continent. now to ukraine — where president zelensky has announced he's replacing the country's defence minister, saying it's time for a new approach. 0leksii reznikov had been in post since before the start of the full—scale russian invasion in february last year. his removal is thought to be part of mr zelensky�*s determination to tackle corruption in all government departments. president zelensky has nominated rustem umerov, who's currently in charge of

ukraine's privatisation programme — as the new defence minister. here's mr zelensky giving that update... translation: this week, _ the parliament will be asked to make a staff related decision. i would like to outline it now. i have decided to replace the ministry of defence of ukraine. 0leksii reznikov has been through more than 550 days of full—scale war. i believe the ministry needs new approaches and other formats of interaction with the military and society as a whole. meanwhile, russia has continued to attack ukraine's port facilities along the danube river. kyiv has released these images of burning warehouses — it hasn't said exactly where they are. but — ukraine says that two russian kamikaze drones fell on the romanian side of the river — although there has been no confirmation of this from the romanian government.

earlier i spoke to our diplomatic correspondent paul adams and i asked him if the replacement of the defence minister was indeed a surprise. so this was not unexpected. the defense ministry has been the object of a lot of criticism for allegations of corruption in matters of procurement. and even though those allegations don't really attach personally to mr reznikov, as the man in charge, it was becoming inevitable that he was going to stand down. so in some ways that came as very little surprise when president zelensky announced it last night. there's a parliamentary procedure which has to be followed, but i don't think there's any doubt that he will be replaced. and it's worth remembering that while mr reznikov was absolutely central in lobbying for equipment and supplies from ukraine's western allies, he was not the man in charge of the war.

that's very much the president and his generals. and so i don't think we should necessarily expect to see any change in the conduct of this war. and we were talking just then as well about how russia's continuing to attack ukraine's port facilities along the danube river. what more can you tell us about that? yeah. this has been going on for some weeks now. the thing to remember is that as a result of the black sea grain initiative, which was reached about a year ago, ukraine was able to export some of its grain from its own black sea ports. now, in the middle ofjuly, the russians, for a variety of reasons, decided to pull out of that agreement, which has forced ukraine to go back to exploring other ways of getting its grain out. and one of those ways, probably the most effective way, is on barges down the danube river from a number of its ports right

on the romanian border. those barges can go out to the black sea coast and then tuck down the coast to romanian ports, thus avoiding being intercepted by the russian military out at sea. so that has become a vital lifeline, an alternative lifeline for ukraine to export its grain. and that's why the russians have been targeting it. since early august, there have been a number of drone and missile attacks on those port facilities on the ukrainian side. but, of course, the risk always is that these munitions, whether they're missiles or drones, could land on the other side of the river — inside romania. and that, ukrainian officials are saying, is what happened overnight. it's worth also pointing out that the ukrainian defence ministry has said that there were no threats to romania as a result of what happened overnight, even though they also condemned russia's action. and, paul, we've only got about a minute or so left

on programme, but i did want to ask you about this news that'sjust come in, which is that the president of turkey, president erdogan, says he'll try to resurrect the grain deal. he's currently meeting with vladimir putin near the city of sochi. i mean, that's quite significant, isn't it? well, mr erdogan is heavily invested in this deal. he helped to broker it. he wants to be seen as a kind of effective broker and mediator between russia and ukraine. and so he wants this deal to be reinstated. ukraine certainly wants this deal to be reinstated. the russians argue that the deal does not favour them, makes life difficult for them in their own agricultural exports — something that a lot of international experts question. but so, yes, there is some hope, if not expectation, that perhaps mr erdogan can revive the deal that's been moribund since the middle ofjuly. paul adams in kyiv talking about whether the grain deal can be

revived. these are pictures which show vladimir putin and erdogan meeting to discuss the crane deal and the turkish president has expressed optimism that a new agreement can be reached with russia —— grain deal. they are currently meeting and mr erdogan has promised what he called an important announcement but vladimir putin has said he is only open to discussing the subject. a spokesperson said the first part of the talks were constructive and with the black sea route considered risky, ukraine has been using the dinuba river to export goods but we have seen

reported russian drone strikes on danube port facilities. those are the live pictures from sochi where we bought hope to get some sort of announcement after the conclusion of those talks between vladimir putin and erdogan. turkey is hopeful that the grain dealfor ukraine can be resurrected. however, russia is thought to be less enthusiastic, considering any deal on grain to be helping ukraine, but without doing anything to facilitate its own exports. but the first half of the talks appears to have been constructive according to a russian spokesperson. we will bring you more on that as and when it comes into us from sochl around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news. let's look at some other stories making news. a bullying complaint against former cabinet minister gavin williamson has been upheld by an expert panel in parliament. mr williamson — who quit the government after the allegations emerged — has been told to apologise to the commons.

the complaint was made by former government chief whip wendy morton and was related to the allocation of seating at the queen's funeral. the parents of a teenager who died after failures in treating her sepsis are calling for patients to be given the right to an urgent second opinion, if they feel their concerns are not being taken seriously. martha mills, who would have been 16 today, died two years ago. an inquest said she could have survived had her care been better. tesco's chief executive says staff will be offered body cameras because of a rise in violent attacks. physical assaults have increased by a third since last year, and earlier this year british retail consortium found abuse against retail staff had almost doubled compared to pre—covid levels. similar action has already been taken by sainsbury�*s, waitrose and co—op. you're live with bbc news. now back to a story we were talking

about earlier. education secretary gillian keegan has been caught on camera voicing herfrustrations about coverage of the crumbling concrete row. in footage released by itv news, filmed as the camera repositioned for extra shots, ms keegan — still wearing her microphone — criticised others and claimed the government had gone "over and above" in addressing concerns relating to reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete. let's listen to the moment. does anyone does anyone ever does anyone ever say, you have done a good job because everyone else has sat on their behind and do nothing? no signs of that, no? live now to westminster and our political correspondent helen catt. what is the reaction to this moment?

not the first time but it is one of those moments which tends to have a bit of an impact. downing street has moved pretty quickly to distance itself from these comments and a source said these comments were wrong and we have not heard anything further from the gillian keegan and she is due in the commons later to give a statement that the situation with concrete in schools so whether we will hear anything from her before that, before she stands up, before that, before she stands up, before she is asked about it, as i'm sure she will be by opposition mps, we will have to wait and see. this comes as she _ we will have to wait and see. this comes as she is _ we will have to wait and see. this comes as she is expected to address parliament over what is a more substantive row which is over at the issue of unsafe concrete in more than a hundred schools. it issue of unsafe concrete in more than a hundred schools.- issue of unsafe concrete in more than a hundred schools. it is, there are a coume _ than a hundred schools. it is, there are a coume of— than a hundred schools. it is, there are a couple of things _ than a hundred schools. it is, there are a couple of things which - than a hundred schools. it is, there are a couple of things which are - are a couple of things which are problematic for the government and the first is they are under pressure to publish the list of the schools which are affected, they are still doing surveys at many others, 0pen

said the list needs to be published as soon as possible and gillian keegan says it is coming —— labour said the list needs to be published. we still have not quite got the final scale of this issue at the moment, of how many schools might be affected, although rishi sunak said he believed about 95% of schools would be unaffected by this, so there is the issue of what the scale of the issue is but the government has been under pressure about whether it has taken enough action before this year in the past to tackle the issue and specifically criticism of rishi sunak, and a former senior civil servantjonathan slater former senior civil servant jonathan slater accused former senior civil servantjonathan slater accused rishi sunak of having half the budget for repairing schools in 2021 and he said the department for education had funding to repair our hundred schools per year and they were expecting that to be increased but it was far short of what was needed. 3—400 schools per

year needed repairing but they thought rishi sunak was going to increase the number but when it came to the spending review in the autumn, rishi sunak reaffirmed the commitment he had made the year before to refurbish or rebuild 500 schools over ten years so about 50 per year and he has been, this has been put to him, and he said it was completely and utterly wrong and that refurbishing and rebuilding 50 schools per year was completely in line with what had been done historically in this country. so pressure on what the government had donein pressure on what the government had done in the years running up to that, notjust in recent weeks, and also the immediate scale of the problem going forward. this also the immediate scale of the problem going forward. this row land directl on problem going forward. this row land directly on the _ problem going forward. this row land directly on the doorstep _ problem going forward. this row land directly on the doorstep of _ problem going forward. this row land directly on the doorstep of the - directly on the doorstep of the prime minister, then, so how will this get fixed because the other issueis this get fixed because the other issue is that there are many parents across the uk who are deeply concerned. £31 across the uk who are deeply concerned-— across the uk who are deeply concerned. _, , ., ,

concerned. of course. that is the million-dollar _ concerned. of course. that is the million-dollar question, - concerned. of course. that is the million-dollar question, and - concerned. of course. that is the million-dollar question, and they million—dollar question, and they fix this and we have got to wait to hear more from gillian keegan what the plans are to do this and what will happen with those classrooms and those areas of schools that have some of this, some of this concrete, how quickly can they get it fixed and how quickly can they get children back into those classrooms and areas of school.— and areas of school. thanks for joining us- _ and areas of school. thanks for joining us- we _ and areas of school. thanks for joining us. we have _ and areas of school. thanks for joining us. we have more - and areas of school. thanks for joining us. we have more on i and areas of school. thanks for l joining us. we have more on that developing story from the education secretary on the bbc website. we will have more from our team in westminster for the latest on that concrete story later in the programme. the israeli military has carried out another raid into the city ofjenin, in the occupied west bank. (ff in the occupied west bank. the operation is one of the first of its kind since israel carried out a military assault on the refugee camp in the town early injuly.

the refugee camp has been established for several decades, and is considered by israel to be a stronghold for militant groups. palestinian organisations have accused israel of using armed forces to kill civilians there. 0ur middle east correspondent tom bateman gave us this update from jerusalem. what we know is that israeli undercover special forces entered close to the camp in the city of jenin early this morning and they went in palestinian vehicles with palestinian license plates and the israeli military said they were targeting a building that was a hold—up for the brigades which are the armed wing of the palestinian militant group hamas and then there were gun battles reminiscent of many that we have seen injenin over the last 18 months, but what is less clear is what led to the injury of some of the militants because they are unconfirmed israeli reports that it was a so—called zero side drone,

a small explosive drone used by the israelis close to a car —— so—called suicide drone. the militants claim they shut down the drone and it's only a part of the drone has been photographed in a jenin close to the camp. a couple of the militants were wounded and one was seen being stretchered away by the israeli military into a helicopter and other minor injuries according to palestinian health officials on the ground during this gun battle at the time as well. so a fairly short operation, it seems, by the israelis, reminiscent of many of the detention and arrest raids that we have seen over recent months but this one is the first to use undercover forces since the big assault by the israelis on the camp injuly. assault by the israelis on the camp in jul . ., a, ., assault by the israelis on the camp in jul . ., z, ., ~ assault by the israelis on the camp injul . ., ., . ., in july. tom bateman there. we have more on the — in july. tom bateman there. we have more on the stories _ in july. tom bateman there. we have more on the stories of— in july. tom bateman there. we have more on the stories of the _ in july. tom bateman there. we have more on the stories of the day - more on the stories of the day including the latest on the raac

concrete scandal in the uk. we have a live page. actually, this is a picture of the concrete in question. we do have more information on which schools are affected and any more information on that on the bbc website. it is set to turn even warmer this week, increasing humidity as well so starting to feel more uncomfortable particularly at night. much of the country will hold onto dry and sunny weather. however, we will have some mist and fog during the mornings and increasingly towards the end of the week because we pick up more humidity we will see coastal mist and murk too. high pressure over the near continent, see the air coming up. later in the week will start to draw in humid air as well in temperatures

reaching the low 30s across central and southern areas. the rest of the day is fine, dry, sunny and warm with that front in the far north of scotland. more cloud here, 16 in lerwick, but across the uk we are looking at the mid to high 20s. through tonight, a dry and largely clear one. mist and fog patches returning once again but a mild night to come for most areas. single digits in some rural spots. on tuesday, some early mist and fog in places. a small chance of a shower towards the far south—west of the country otherwise most places dry, sunny and very warm. even quite hot as we head into the afternoon. mid 20s across central scotland. close to 30 across parts of england and wales. wednesday, a bit more cloud is in the mix in northern areas. that will burn back to the coast.

a bit of coastal mist and murk, turning more humid at this point but again another hot and sunny day, up to 30 in the south. it's the mid 20s further north. a few weather fronts thrown our way, that could increase the shower activity. some of these showers could be thundery in nature. a bit of mist and fog to start the day again on thursday. 0therwise another hot and sunny day. temperatures reaching 30 here. still quite warm further north but at this point we've got higher humidity. into next weekend, temperatures start to come down. increasing start to come down. showers in the north. it's not until the following week that things cool down further.

vladimir putin says he's open to renewing the black sea grain deal, as concerns grow over a potential globalfood crisis. detroit's big three face a potential strike... we'll have the latest on the row between workers and some of america's biggest auto companies. welcome to world business report, i'm samantha simmonds. let's start in sochi, where some high level

discussions are taking place between vladimir putin and turkey's recep tayyip erdogan, with the russian leader saying he's open to renewing the black sea grain deal. the previous agreement was crucial for providing a safe passage for ukrainian grain exports and helped ease a potential global food crisis. russia quit the deal injuly, complaining that its own food and fertiliser exports faced internatoional sanctions and other obstacles. we're nowjoined by victoria craig, who's a journalist based in ankara. good to see you. how influential is the turkish president in trying to get vladimir putin to agree to something? he get vladimir putin to agree to something?— get vladimir putin to agree to somethin: ? , , ., , , , something? he seems to be, he seems to think and _ something? he seems to be, he seems to think and western _ something? he seems to be, he seems to think and western diplomats - something? he seems to be, he seems to think and western diplomats seem i to think and western diplomats seem to think and western diplomats seem to think, he is one of the only people that can really walk the fine line between russia and the west and we have seen that on display this year with nato. he's been in the

room