live from washington, this is bbc news. an israeli team says it is cautiously optimistic about gaza ceasefire talks while hamas describes suggestions of progress as an illusion. opposition supporters rally across venezuela and the world against the president's claim he won last month's election. and kyiv claims to have taken more over 80 russian settlements now in its incursion over the past two weeks. hello. i'm carl nasman. welcome to the programme. israel says it has killed two senior hamas militants in an air strike in the occupied west bank on saturday. israeli officials claim the militants were involved in the recent killing of an israeli man in thejordan valley.

meanwhile, tensions continue to rise between hezbollah and israel. hezbollah fired more than 50 rockets into northern israel on saturday after an israeli air strike on a residential building in southern lebanon killed ten people. israel said it was targeting a hezbollah weapons depot. the lebanese health ministry said those killed were syrian refugees. israeli forces also struck central gaza on saturday. officials say an air strike killed at least 18 people, including women and children, in buildings where displaced people were sheltering. the israeli military said it hit targets where militants had fired rockets and that it's reviewing the incident. meanwhile, israeli officials say its negotiators are cautiously optimistic about a possible ceasefire and hostage deal but a senior hamas official told the bbc there had been no progress in the indirect talks. our middle east correspondent wyre davies sent this report from jerusalem. images and reports from across the region show there are still huge obstacles

to peace, despite the positive messages coming from talks in qatar. in gaza, an overnight israeli air strike reportedly killed 15 people in the central area of the palestinian territory. although israel said it had eliminated a number of armed fighters, several women and children were also reportedly killed. translation: what happened is that around one o'clock- in the morning, three rockets hit directly the house of this man and his family. there were many children and women inside — mainly women — around 20 in total. to the north, deep inside lebanon, the israeli air force said it had also struck hezbollah targets, including a weapons storage facility, but reports from the scene said that at least ten people were killed, many of them syrian refugees, including a woman and her two children. translation: this is - an industrial area, a brick factory, slaughterhouse, metal factory, aluminium factory and cow farm. it's an industrial

and civilian area. there's an urgency for the next round of talks to succeed amid fears that the conflicts in gaza and either side of israel's northern border could escalate into a much wider regional war, but hamas officials have already dismissed american optimism as an illusion. president biden has welcomed the reported progress in the qatar talks. i'm optimistic. not far from over — just a couple more issues. i think we've got a shot. are you more optimistic now than you have been in months past? yes. why? if i told you that, i'd give away what's going on. his secretary of state, antony blinken, is heading to the region to promote what is being called a final bridging proposal, hopefully leading to a ceasefire in gaza and the release of hostages in exchange for palestinian prisoners being held in israeli jails. wyre davies, bbc news, jerusalem.

venezuela's opposition leader maria corina machado on saturday led both national and international protests against president nicolas maduro's disputed election victory last month. addressing supporters from the back of a truck in caracas, she vowed not to abandon the effort against mr maduro. she has spent most of the time since the election in hiding. the opposition candidate edmundo gonzalez called for an orderly transition and condemned the lack of transparency around the election results. the country's national electoral council is under scrutiny after it declared mr maduro the winner of the election held on 28 july. the organization of american states is urging the electoral council to publish detailed voting results. ms machado had this message for her supporters. translation: when this regime saw it was defeated and their scheme discovered, they chose the most cruel of all politics. we won't leave the streets!

cheering and applause. we will use intelligence, prudence, resilience, boldness and peacefully, because violence benefits them. i've been speaking to maximo zaldivar, the regional director for latin america in the caribbean at the international foundation for electoral systems. this is unbelievable. more than 150 cities worldwide, as you said, and — but listen, this is the natural action that the opposition had to do to show their public force to the world. when you have government and the election authorities just looking the other way and don't taking into consideration all the requests, domestic and international, to show the proofs and the voting vote tallies that he has won,

then what other choice do they have than to go out to the streets and to do this? and let me point out maria corina machado's leadership. it has been valiant, it has been consistent and she has definitely made the difference in this election. there has been important opposition leadership in the past, some opposition governors, some opposition mayors and the last, more public face one guaido. but what maria corina machado had done and is doing is remarkable and i think this is going to change definitely what we're seeing in venezuela. do you think there's a sense of concern among the opposition that time could be running short, that international eyes might begin to look elsewhere, that they have to keep the pressure up now if they do want to force maduro out? exactly, carl. this is the moment. i mean, there has been some important signs. there was a resolution by the oas inter—american human rights committee — resolution 51 — this week which points us to respect of human rights in venezuela,

based on the repression we're seeing by the regime, so that is important. that definitely was a big, big step. and, yes, and there are other countries who are actually calling upon for the elections to be repeated, and that would be a big mistake, carl. i don't think repeating the elections will do anybody good. why is that? that's something the opposition has said they will not support. why do you think that is? that's something the opposition has said they will not support. why do you think that is? because i think it falls into the plan of the government, right, of the current regime, which is just to debilitate the opposition, for them to lose the momentum for them to disintegrate, and it falls into their plan. and what can you do? if you look at the reports of the entities that were allowed to be in venezuela during the elections, like the carter center and an expert panel of the un, they have clearly pointed out all the irregularities that were conducted during the election and the complete lack of international standards on electoral integrity. so with that, why would you do a repeat for the same outcome and same situation when you

have the same people managing the elections? it should be said there were also hundreds of maduro supporters out on the streets of caracas today. how much support do you think the current president still has in venezuela? that's a great question. listen, venezuela was always divided, right? even during hugo chavez's time. he had a huge support, but — and the opposition had its support — but there was always this sector that was undecided and i think that undecided group is now completely falling in favour of supporting the opposition. but listen — the government should look into the mirror, carl. they should remember when hugo chavez raced to power, he raced because there was a system that was not any longer sustainable. that the citizens were tired of that political system back then, and that was part of his success to rise to power, and they should look and acknowledge that this is the same situation that is happening now. the system is unsustainable, people are not happy and they're looking for a change — an urgent change.

ms machado has been warning of another mass exodus, another wave of migration if this situation is not resolved. do you think that she is right? yes, absolutely. venezuelans are desperate. if you go to the region and you see colombia, ecuador, panama, even in central america, in costa rica, in other places, in mexico, of course, we are seeing huge amounts of migrants from venezuela and how are you going to stop that if the situation is just going to get worse for them? so, this is definitely a turning point politically, but also for human rights and the future for all venezuelans. ukraine's president volodymyr zelensky says his troops are strengthening positions and expanding further into captured russian territory. he also thanked his soldiers two weeks into their incursion in russia's kursk region. kyiv claims to have taken control of more than 80 settlements in the last two weeks. the kremlin has vowed a worthy response.

russia's foreign ministry claims ukraine used us—made himars rockets destroyed a strategically important bridge in kursk which has been partly taken over by ukrainian forces. russian authorities say more than 3,000 people have been moved away from the fighting to safer areas in the past day alone. our ukraine correspondent james waterhouse has more. well, it seems that what ukraine is looking to do, alongside drawing in russian troops, is also control its logistics or frustrate supply lines. so, we saw — as you saw there, in quite spectacular fashion — a major bridge crossing in the north of the kursk region. it goes over a river that flows into belarus, and that had been used by russia's military to previously feed its invasion of ukraine. but ukrainian forces also control a number of major highways from north to south, connecting to the belgorod region of russia further south, which had been used by russian forces as well. and notjust that — the town of sudzha, which ukraine has captured,

is on a hill, so it is allowing ukrainian forces to control the battlefield in that respect and force russian forces to react, and that is costing them men and machinery. ukraine will be suffering losses as well but, at the moment, it's ukraine doing the dictating. and while its advances are slowing, what kyiv will point out is, look, we might be making a kilometre a day — that is still more than what the russian forces are making in a day in eastern ukraine. but, crucially, those russian forces are still moving forward. it's not going to be easy and i think we just need to look at recent history as to why. the un's nuclear watchdog says the safety situation at zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in russian—occupied ukraine is deteriorating following a drone strike near its perimeter last saturday. it said the impact was close to essential cooling water sprinkler ponds and about 100m from the only remaining high—voltage line supplying the plant with power. the international atomic energy agency did not say who carried out the strike, but its mission to zaporizhzhia said the damage seemed to have been caused

by a drone with an explosive payload. it reported that military activity in the area, which is close to the front line, had been intense for the last week. russian forces took control of the nuclear plant shortly after it launched its invasion of ukraine in february 2022. a paramilitary group in sudan has agreed —— agreed to co—operate on deliveries of humanitarian aid during talks in switzerland. the rapid support forces will allow aid to reach people in the darfur and kordofan regions. it comes after the sudanese government said it will open a border crossing between neighbouring chad and north darfur. aid agencies warn that over six million people displaced by fighting are at risk of dying from hunger. the un declared earlier this month there is a famine in one displacement camp in northern de silva. ,, ., de silva. the us and saudi arabia hosting _ de silva. the us and saudi arabia hosting talks - de silva. the us and saudi

arabia hosting talks in - arabia hosting talks in switzerland aimed at ceasefire talks. violence in sudan's civil war is continuing with sudanese officials saying saturday rsf colour militaries killed at least 85 people in a village in central sudan on thursday. country's foreign ministry says rso fighters indiscriminately opened fire on the villages unarmed residents. a local healthcare worker told the associated press they looted and burned houses and hours long assault. children and women are among those reportedly killed with more than 150 others injured. donald trump has held a rally in the battleground state of pennsylvania. in a speech that lasted longer than 90 minutes, mr trump responded to vice president kamala harris�*s economic plans, which she unveiled friday. harris is proposing giving $25,000 to first—time home buyers to help with down payments, increasing tax breaks forfamilies with kids, wiping out medical debt for millions of people, and driving down costs by banning what she called corporate "price—gouging".

at saturday's rally, donald trump criticised harris�*s housing plan. the new york times writes: they also critiqued harris�*s housing proposal, saying the assistance for first—time buyers risks putting up a pressure on prices and that the rally, donald trump decides the plan and mentioned the new york times's opinion. who is not going to vote to get some money for housing? it's never going to happen. it's trillions of dollars. never gonna happen. but who's gonna vote? i mean, people will maybe vote for this. i said before it may be good politics but it's going to destroy — it's going to destroy our country. the washington post, one of the most evil print journalism — it's —

i mean, they lost a lot a lot of people over the last couple of years, it's nasty — they came out with an editorial excoriating her. yonah freemark is a principal research associate at the urban institute and an expert on affordable housing. he gave me his reaction to harris�*s housing plans, and how effective they could be if implemented. yeah, you know, ithink one thing that's been really fascinating about this campaign is that for the first time in living memory, we're taking housing seriously as a national problem and that reflects the reality that americans are facing really high costs of housing — both renters and homeowners. so, the first thing i'd like to say is simply that even having this discussion about housing policy is really a big deal in this presidential campaign. and for the most part, we're getting it from the harris campaign. trump has primarily been reacting to that. i think the proposals that harris has put together reflect the reality out there that we're not building enough new homes in the united states.

unfortunately, we've seen a decline in new housing starts over the past two years or so and harris is actually proposing a large increase in new housing supply which would actually go up to levels that we've not seen since the 1970s if they were to be applied. she's calling for, what, the construction of three million new homes. why, as you say, are not enough homes being built? is there a simple answer for that? well, there's a number of reasons why inadequate new housing is being built across the country. the first is that we don't have the financing available to actually get those new homes built because mortgage interest rates are quite high and other parts of the economy have been sort ofjuiced up by inflation. but another problem that we're seeing across the country is that a number of state and local policies have made it quite difficult for developers to go in and build new apartment buildings in different parts of the community. so, it's going to be interesting to see if harris actually is able to push through ideas that would change those rules at the state

and local level to get more housing built. yeah, that's really the next question, isn't it? i mean, how much control does any president actually have over these sorts of issues — the price of housing or the construction of new homes? well, you know, ithink we should be honest — the biggest moves that we're talking about here would be changes that have to be implemented by the us congress. when you're talking about giving people $25,000 in down payment assistance, when you're talking about creating a new $40 billion programme for housing affordability — which harris has proposed — you would need congress to actually pass laws that make those things happen. that said, there are some powers that executive agencies have, and the harris campaign has said it supports the use of fair housing laws to ensure that there's adequate new housing being built, even in the most exclusive parts of the country — and that's something the trump campaign has vehemently been opposed to. well, we heard there some

criticism, obviously, from donald trump today, bringing up that washington post article which calls some of her economic ideas gimmicks. are these gimmicks? i mean, they certainly sound good if you're a voter and you say, "hey, $25,000 for a first—time home buyer?" is thatjust designed to appeal to voters or is this something that really could make an impact? well what i think is very clear is that a large share of americans simply cannot afford to buy homes at the moment. there's a number of reasons for that bot one of the big explanations is that mortgage interest rates are too high and house prices have gone up dramatically. now, i think that probably the best way to address the average american�*s housing concerns which harris has proposed. but for low income people i think we need support through vouchers although income housing, which harris has alluded to but not proposed

directly. now, with respect to the assistance for down payment, i think that can come to help a lot of middle income people who need help actually paying for housing but, it is also true if it were widely applied it may increase the average cost of housing, certainly. india's health ministry is urging doctors to return to work after a 24—hour strike shut down non—emergency hospital services nationwide. it has promised to look into creating a committee. the industrial action was part of ongoing protests following the rape and murder of a colleague in kolkata a week ago. more than a million people were expected tojoin the more than a million people were expected to join the strikes. let's turn to some other important news around the world. the social media platform x has closed its office in brazil following a row with the country's supreme court. the site accused the court's president of censorship after he ordered that several accounts accused of spreading disinformation remain blocked while they were investigated. brazilian users will still

be able to access x. more than 26,000 people on bermuda are without power after hurricane ernesto made landfall on saturday. the national hurricane centre is warning of life—threatening flash flooding in the wake of the category1 hurricane. officials say that the island appears to have escaped major injuries or property damage. the storm is now expected to head towards newfoundland in canada on monday. pakistan's health ministry has confirmed at least one case of mpox a day after sweden reported its first case of a more dangerous strain of the virus. the democratic republic of congo has been hit hardest by the new strain of mpox, known as clade1b, and more then a dozen african countries have reported cases. the african union has confirmed over 18,000 mpox cases this year while the world health organization says at least 500 people have died since january. outbreaks can be controlled with vaccines but are not yet widely available in outbreak regions. for more, i spoke to lawrence gostin, faculty director of the o'neill institute for national and global health law at georgetown university.

i'm deeply concerned. i think if cases seed in europe, which they most likely will do, given the fact that we've seen cases — probably unreported cases or undetected cases — then, with all the travel hubs via europe it'll spread, you know, quite widely, i think, across regions of the world similar to the way mpox did in 2022. but we've got a novel strain of it this time and i'm quite worried. how worried should people be? maybe they are living in the us, the uk, may be anywhere else around the world. about mpox and its danger to them, if it were to be discovered in their country? is this something as deadly and dangerous as other diseases? no, i don't think people

in europe, on an individual or personal level, people in europe or in the united states or other high income countries. there's a low risk that they're going to suffer really serious disease. but if it's a person with, say, an immune system problem, undetected or unresolved hiv, for example — and children are also at risk, given the epidemiology in africa, so, it's — we really can't be complacent. this does have potential for spreading quite widely around the world and being very disruptive and it's also a global health crisis in africa that i think will spread, spill over. let's talk about that crisis within africa itself. some really striking numbers — 18,000 mpox cases across 13 countries just this year. can you describe the way the virus is affecting people there?

seeing about 160% increase in mpox compared to this time time last year. it's been epidemic in the democratic republic of congo but it's now spread to the region. it could spread further. it's now in around 12 countries and now, we see it in europe and pakistan, and probably other places around the world. and the problem is all of the vaccines exist in high income countries and very few of the vaccines that are urgently needed in the drc and its neighbours are available. so, we mightjust get an absolute repeat of what we saw with covid—19, with enormous inequities.

and i can't even emphasise enough how much african people and leaders feel bitter about that lack of equality and their lack of access to available life—saving vaccines and other technologies. i just want to ask you about vaccines — how effective is the vaccine? and why is it they're not making it to the countries that need it the most? the answer to the latter question is, of course, because we don't have the political will. there's a lot of nationalism and populism that — you know, my country first. and it's quite expensive and unaffordable. there's only one vaccine at the moment that's really got regulatory approval from the us fda, just one vaccine we know is safe. it's quite effective. and it could be deployed in the region, particularly

targeted towards risk groups, households where there's exposure with children, sex workers, men who have sex with men but it's also spreading heterosexually, and that's why, i think, it poses a risk worldwide. before we get you know, what should the world be doing right now to prepare for a potential outbreak? it's really clear. there needs to be a surge of funding and investment. there needs to be co—ordinated action and there needs to be many more medical resources — diagnostics, surveillance, laboratories — and, first and foremost a fair share and a fair shot at life—saving vaccines. a quick reminder before we go that there is always plenty more on the day's top stories including on mpox on our website. that's bbc.com flash

news. i'm carl nasman. stay with us on bbc news. hello there. there was a lot of cloud around on saturday for northern and western areas. the best of the sunshine was further east and part two of the weekend looks pretty similar. we start dry with lots of sunshine and then, the cloud amounts will tend to build up into the afternoon, producing just one or two showers. now, the azores highs continuing to nudge northwards across much of england, wales, northern ireland, so light winds here, but fresher across scotland. it will remain breezy throughout the day here. we start off with plenty of sunshine after that fresh start and then, clouds will tend to build up into the afternoon. it could turn quite grey in a few places. the odd shower likely for western scotland, maybe western hills of england and wales. otherwise, it's mostly dry. up to 25 celsius in the southeast, the high teens further north. sunday night,

we do it all again. the clouds tend to melt away for many, and with the clear skies, it'll turn quite fresh again with temperatures of 8—12 degrees. now, some changes taking place to start the new week. the first of a series of low pressure systems will work its way into the country during the day, so we start off with plenty of sunshine but the clouds will tend to build in the west and it'll turn wet and windy through the day. some pretty heavy and persistent rain for northern ireland and it will turn windy with gales perhaps around some irish sea coasts, but lighter winds again in towards the southeast, where it will stay dry and sunny all day. so, temperatures responding — up to 25 degrees or so. that's the high teens further north and west, picking up a little bit more humidity as well from the south. and then monday night, that area of low pressure and its weather fronts crosses the country. it stays quite breezy into tuesday with the low sitting to the north of scotland, and that'll bring a day of sunshine and showers. some of them will be heavy and thundery, particularly in the north and west. some of them merging together to produce longer spells of rain for western scotland. temperatures down a touch. i think 22—23 degrees will be the high. mid—to—high teens further north. and then we look out to the atlantic.

this next area of low pressure contains the remnants of what was hurricane ernesto and that potentially could bring quite a lot of rainfall to the northwest of the uk around the middle part of the week — certainly so for western scotland. but further south and east, it will tend to stay dry, i think, with some sunny spells and it will turn increasingly humid as we pick up these southwesterly winds. stays pretty unsettled for the end of the week across more northern and western areas. a better chance of staying drier towards the southeast.

voice-over: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. we're going to talk about the polls. they're interesting. they are suggesting a real, proper change in the way this race looks. a change from trump being really ahead in not only nationally, but also, in the swing states — the ones where the election will be decided — to harris being not exactly ahead, but on level—pegging, and that is a very big change. it's a change that the democrats are celebrating. it's a change that trump and his people are worried

about, and they're saying they've got their own polls