live from london. this is bbc news. ukraine says it's destroyed another key bridge in russia's kursk region, while the russian military claims to have taken a village on the frontline. us secretary of state antony blinken travels to the middle east for the ninth time since war broke out in gaza. health ministers from southern africa agree to hold an urgent meeting to tackle the region's mpox outbreak. and — a second world war bomb dug up at a building site triggers the evacuation of a community in northern ireland. hello, i'm samantha simmonds. ukraine's air force say they've destroyed another bridge in russia's kursk region. air force commander mykola oleshchuck air force commander mykola oleshchuck released the footage, saying russia was "minus one more bridge" and that strikes were depriving russia

of logisitical capabilities. these are the latest pictures from the rostov region in south—west russia. the governor there says that firefighters were called to put out a fire at an industrial facility struck by debris from a ukrainian drone. both sides say air defences destroyed multiple drones and missiles fired by the other side overnight. meanwhile, the belarusian president alexander lukashenko has claimed that minsk has deployed nearly a third of it's armed forces along the entire border with ukraine — in what he says is a response to ukraine stationing 120,000 troops at the border between the two countries. reuters attributing that report to the belta state news agency. patrick bury is a senior lecturer in security from the department of politics, languages and international studies at the university of bath. he told me what he thought of the latest pushback from ukrainian forces. well, i think in terms of dropping the bridges over the seym river, that is the second of three major bridges they have

dropped now and that serves two functions. essentially, on the one hand, they are trying to stop reinforcements coming over that river to help the russians and slow their logistics, or even indeed, stop it. secondly, in the longer term view, if you look at the way in which the forces are positioned in that area, it is the north—west pocket they have managed to create, the same river will actually form quite a formidable defensive obstacle if the ukrainian forces can get up there and force russians out or capture them, given the fact that they don't have many avenues of retreat left. they will then use that to anchor their left flank, as it were, which would be an easier defensible line. that's what's really going on there. and what about these reports in the past hour or so, the belarusian president saying that ukraine has stationed more than 120,000 troops at its border with belarus and that minsk is now sending military formations along its entire border in response. are those claims credible at all?

i could not speak to that, i am afraid. ijust have not been tracking the actual build—up, if there is a build—up of ukrainian troops on the border, it seems to me that given the pressure that ukraine has been under, that seems quite a stretch, to have that amount of forces ready to sit in a border. the broader picture here is that since the war started to stabilise in 2022, military planners would have looked to belarus and thought if we have to swing... it's an opportunistic area to actually conduct an military operation, for example, you've got the city of gomeljust north of the border and to swing around through there and in a left hook into russia would make military sense and obviously it would be difficult militarily and politically. there would be some benefits for doing that and putin and lukashenko realised that when they stationed tactical nuclear weapons in belarus last year. the idea being that if anyone tries that, we will block it using

these weapons. so, i think what we are seeing here is that given the ukrainian has done this incursion into kursk and they are showing that they are willing to enter into another country's territory, i think belarus is a little rattled and is responding as such. but i have not seen any evidence or talk so far of a ukrainian build—up in that border area. and what about russia itself, with all eyes on what they could do next, what are your thoughts on that? i think really that the ukrainian offensive was trying to do two things and i think it may not have actually been as risky in the short—term as we may have perceived initially. it was basically trying to force russia into choices. for example, if we are going to take kursk, you will have to move your forces around from somewhere at the front. and ideally for ukrainians that would have been from donetsk where they are under intense pressure and the russians are still advancing there. it looks like putin has kept that axis is strengthened

but cut forces from all around the rest of the front to move around to kursk. i would expect them once they have arrived to first of all stabilise the lines where this pocket has been created and then reduce the ukrainians. the ukrainians have a difficult decision, do they stand and fight on those defensive lines where they are? and risk getting some of their best units with the best kit destroyed or do they pull back a bit to more defensible lines and something they can hold for a longer period? we will have to wait and see because i don't know what they will actually do. the un's atomic energy agency says that the nuclear safety situation at ukraine's zaporizhzhia power plant is continuing to deteroriate. the nuclear station has been occupied by russian forces since shortly after the invasion. it has occasionally been damaged by fighting — and a un team says there has been intense military activity in the area over the last week. that includes a drone explosion just outside of the plant, near to the essential cooling

water sprinkler ponds. the us secretary of state is travelling to israel as cautious optimism grows amongst israeli negotiators about the possibility of reaching a deal on gaza. anthony blinken is heading to the region this weekend, after president biden also said that a ceasefire deal was closer than ever. but — senior hamas figures have dismissed such optimism as an illusion. there have been more israeli airstrikes in gaza — and israel also said it had struck targets inside neighbouring lebanon which belong to hezbollah, the group which supports hamas in gaza. greg mackenzie has this report. —— jenny hill has more from tel aviv. this is where antony blinken is due to land in the next few hours. i think this is all about keeping up the momentum. the us has been pushing really hard along with mediators qatar and egypt

to get this deal across the line, to get hamas and israeli leaders to agree that deal. we have had a lot of very positive messaging coming out of the states. it is acknowledged that there is still more work to do. but in the words ofjoe biden, we are closer to a deal than ever we have been. now, mr blinken, once he arrives, is due to hold talks with the israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu. israel is also sounding a positive note and last night mr netanyahu's office issued a statement in which it expressed cautious optimism about progress but then listen to what hamas has had to say — they say that any positivity or optimism is simply an illusion. a senior official told the bbc that no progress has been made and while all of this urgent diplomacy goes on, so, too, of course, does the war in gaza at a terrible human cost and it is feared that that conflict is on the verge of escalating to an all—out regional war. so, as antony blinken arrives in his plane he knows the stakes

could not be higher. and jenny, what more details do we have about this latest proposal for a hostage release, ceasefire deal and what the possible sticking points are for both sides? the united states were calling this are bridging proposal, the idea being that they were building on points of agreement in recent weeks but also aiming to close remaining gaps. a number of sticking points we understand remain. israel would, for example, like to have some control over the return of displaced palestinians to northern gaza, there is also controversy over who controls at something called the philadelphi corridor, that's a strip of land in a gaza bordering egypt. israel has also reportedly very keen to maintain a veto over the palestinian prisoners who would be released in exchange for israeli hostages currently held

captive by hamas in gaza. these are just a few of the points which have caused massive contention for negotiators in recent days and weeks. here in the uk — the home office says it will include extreme misogyny —the hatred of women — among types of extremism which the government should take steps to tackle. it's started a review of potential gaps in the current system and the government says it will develop plans to "map and monitor" extremist trends — both on and offline. the home secretary yvette cooper said that "for too long" governments had "failed to address" the issue. here's our political correspondent charlotte rose with more on how the government plans to tackle extremism — in particular extreme misogyny. well, yvette cooper is saying there's going to be a step change in how the government tackles extremism, full stop, and how that affects communities, whether on or offline. they've pledged this rapid review by civil servants into how it's dealt with. she says that she's asked them to look at both the rise

in islamist and far—right extremism, as well as extreme misogyny and other broader categories of extremism, which she says includes a fixation on violence. she says she wants evidence on what works to try and disrupt people who are spreading what she calls hateful and divisive beliefs, things that promote violence and undermine democracy. she says she wants ways to crack down on that kind of behaviour. and, you know, people will have questions about whether today's announcement is linked to some of the riots that we've seen in towns and cities across the uk in recent weeks. but actually this was something that was in labour's election manifesto. so clearly it is something that the party has been thinking about for some time. and when they talk about extreme misogyny, what kind of things are they talking about? it's radicalisation of men online really, isn't it? yeah. and this is interesting because actually it's not something that's completely new. it's something that has been looked at within the kind of broader remit of extremism, sort of since the early 2020s,

when a concern began to arise about something called incel culture, which is communities of young men online who declare that they are involuntarily celibate. and that kind of ideology was linked to the plymouth shootings back in 2021, when five people were killed by a young man called jake davison. so it seems that this is looking at that kind of culture online. but of course, people will have to look at the rise of influencers like andrew tate and the kind of content that they're putting online, the kind of following that they get from, in particular young men, and how that might be influencing young, young men's behaviour and see that this is something that the government is really now concerned about. and the home secretary saying that she's concerned that the previous government didn't have any kind of extremism policy dating back to 2015. that's right. that's when the last counter—extremism policy was published. and she's basically saying that this area has been hollowed out in terms of the government's response. now, this is not the first

review that labour has announced since coming to power injuly. we've seen the announcements of lots of reviews, everything from the strategic defence review to a review of the national curriculum. and i guess some critics of the government would say, well, it's quite easy to announce reviews. it's harder to actually take decisive action. i guess what the government would say is, well, we need to know what the picture is first before we can decide what action we need to take. now it's time for a look at today's sport with hugh ferris. manchester city begin the defence of their premier league title later.... they play chelsea, a team they couldn't beat in the league last season on their way to becoming the first team in history to win the top flight title four times in a row. they also haven't lost in the premier league since december. but pep guardiola says it's going to take a lot of work to make it five. 140 points to play, we start from zero everyone, and we will see. if we are going to conquer, we have to conquer again. because they are not going to give us now the premier league for 211—25 season,

so we have to do it. so i understand because normally when people say, we are favourites, i will not accept it. when you have won four in a row, six and seven, it's normal to accept we are favourites. we have to live with that but i know what we have to do. this is point by point, it must be, must we win, and of course every season is more and more difficult. i said many times, after eight or nine years together, you can do so many different things. so pep is not a manager that is always doing the same. he is always changing and with us it will be exactly the same, so _ it will be a tough game, but as you said, exciting, start the premier start again the champions and we will see. well, manchester city would have no doubt noticed comfortable wins for title rivals liverpool and arsenal on saturday. mikel arteta says his arsenal players are �*willing' to try for a third time to dethrone city, afterfinishing runners up in the last two seasons... when we were in la, they asked me iwhat do you need to win a premierl

league for sure? i said 140 points wins it. it does not mean that. talking about that on the first day, it does not make sense. this is a new story, i this is a beautiful one, hopefully, one that we have to write from the beginning, today was the l first chapter of that. we have some beautiful ones and let's be prepared - for the ones that i are not so beautiful and respond to it in the _ best way. holger rune ended jack draper's run to the quarterfinals of the cincinnati 0pen. the danejoining frances tiafoe, alex zverev and world number one jannik sinner in the last four of the final tournament before the us open. the british number one had come from a set down to win his previous two matches, but was unable to repeat the feat against rune who won in straight sets. each had three break points... draper took none, rune all three of his. australia plan to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the first—ever test match by playing england in march 2027 at the melbourne cricket ground, the same venue as the original game. the two teams will return to the mcg

just like they did 100 years on from that first test. the match in 1977 remarkably ended in exactly the same way as in 1877, a 45—run win for australia. a second consecutive round of 64 has pulled hideki matsuyama away from the field, as the final round of the stjude championship in memphis gets underway. he's trying to become the first japanese player to win a fedex playoff event and is five shots clear on 17 under par. this is the first event of the fedex cup playoffs on the pga tour — and will determine the top 50 players who will advance to the next tournament. dricus du plessis retained his middleweight title at ufc 305, submitting opponent israel adesanya in the fourth round in perth. the south african rocked nigeria—born new zealander adesanya with a right hook before dragging him down and forcing him to tap out. following the contest du plessis paid tribute to adesanya as the pair settled their differences after a heated build—up to what was the first defence of his title.

and that's all the sport for now. gavin, thank you very much, we will see a _ gavin, thank you very much, we will see a little _ gavin, thank you very much, we will see a little later. _ hundreds of residents in newtonards in northern ireland have had to leave their homes following the discovery of a suspected world war two bomb. police in county down say it was found at a building site at the rivenwood housing development on friday. health ministers in southern africa have agreed to hold an urgent meeting to assess the impact of mpox in the region. it comes as the africa centres for diseases control and prevention declared its first ever public health emergency, with 18,000 cases and 500 deaths reported since january. 0ur africa regional editor, richard kagoe, has been giving me the very latest on the mpox situation in africa. mpox has been spreading rapidly across different regions in the continent. so far we've witnessed a significant rise in terms of cases and fatalities.

the africa centre for diseases control indicates that since january this year, about 17,000 cases have been recorded in the continent. so this, you know, combines those which have been confirmed and those which are suspected. so right now, we've seen a regional response plan being developed by a regional bloc. that's the southern africa development community. so they've convened, you know, a health ministers conference where they're going to talk about how they're going to craft a response plan in terms of, uh, strengthening their surveillance and also diagnosis, testing and increasing awareness, especially at the community level. so there's a sense of, you know, alert that's being witnessed across the continent. and we also are witnessing in different countries, you know, setting up incident management teams, emergency operation centres and the surveillance, especially at the points of entry. and what is the advice to people

who are travelling to the regions impacted and also people who live there? generally it'sjust a point of caution. so what we're seeing is that countries have been, you know, sensitising their citizens in terms of how they can ensure they implement, you know, the disease prevention and control measures, say, like, you know, upholding hygiene, you know, washing of your hands and also reporting, you know, suspected cases because one of the challenges that, you know, the continent has been facing, especially within the drc, where the disease is endemic, is the issue about, uh, stigma. so a lot of people haven't been coming out and are seeking for, you know, medical assistance. and so that's why a lot of countries right now are advising their citizens to be on the alert and also exercising some of these measures. let's go back to a story with a

covering a couple of moments ago. let's go live to the scene. bring us up let's go live to the scene. bring us up to date, what is happening there? this is quite a modern recently built development and actually houses are still being builtjust down the road from where we're standing now. it was behind those houses on the building site where builders discovered this device. they found it on friday, it has been described to us as a world war ii bomb and it is pretty large, by the signs of it. the latest we are hearing is 500 kilos. at present, there are army officers down there and we see that they using diggers to pile sand on top of the device and we believe they are planning to carry out a controlled explosion. just in the last few minutes, i have been told that we are —— they are

having to bring sand in from england because they need so much to pile on top of this bomb. lots of houses around here, we have been told, some 450 households were advised to evacuate this morning. we have been talking to some residents as they have been leaving, some are leaving to go stay with family and friends and others no doubt will be going to and others no doubt will be going to a local leisure centres where a emergency support centre has been set up for them. now, not everyone has that option. we did hear from a woman whose husband is really unwell and they do not want to go to the leisure centre, they have nowhere else to go so they are trying to find an alternative house. we are hearing that this could last up to five days. quite a bit of disruption here. , . , five days. quite a bit of disruption here. , .,, ,, five days. quite a bit of disruption here. , , ., here. yes, as you say, up to five da s here. yes, as you say, up to five days because — here. yes, as you say, up to five days because it _ here. yes, as you say, up to five days because it seems _ here. yes, as you say, up to five days because it seems like - here. yes, as you say, up to five days because it seems like quitej here. yes, as you say, up to five i days because it seems like quite a big operation if they are having to bring sand in?—

bring sand in? absolutely. on the face of it, bring sand in? absolutely. on the face of it. big _ bring sand in? absolutely. on the face of it, big operation _ bring sand in? absolutely. on the face of it, big operation but - face of it, big operation but incredibly quite sleepy here today. we were closer to the scene about one hour ago and they sort of pushed the cord and further up the road and you would not believe it, there was only a couple of police cars are down there. there was one digger that we could see picking up the sand and moving it over to the site. so, things may ramp up in the next day or two. so, things may ramp up in the next day or twe— so, things may ramp up in the next da ortwo. , , ., , day or two. lindsey, thank you bring us u- to day or two. lindsey, thank you bring us up to date- _ french film star alain delon has died, at the age of 88. the actor was part of the golden era of french cinema, known for his tough—guy persona on screen in hits including the samurai and borsalino. his family say he died peacefully at home, surrounded by his children and family. 0nce described as the most beautiful man in the movies, delon starred in hits from the 1960s onwards. he appeared in more than 90 films during his career, but in recent years had health issues and became a virtual recluse. earlier i spoke to the entertainment reporter and radio times

columnist caroline frost and asked her what his most defining performances had been. i guess off the top of my head, one of the most defining things was the two, the bookends of his relationship with romy schneider, whom he later described as the love of his life, a german actress he met in the late 1950s and co—starred with in a film called christine. she was a bigger star than him at the time, but then in later years, he recruited her back for the film that turned out to be a poignant reunion the swimming pool, and he was desperate to reconcile. it would be, you know, we have film stars these days where we're more concerned and aware of their romances, but these two really were something quite, uh, just typical of central european glamour at the middle of the century. nobody was more glamorous than these two, and that they were more than the sum of the parts. and you've mentioned thrillers, gangster, thrillers, i would have to mention borsalino as well, because he showed he could do something else very different alongside jean—paul belmondo in 1970. and i also have to mention the samurai because, um, alain delon's depiction

of a lonely a solitude—fixated man operating very much on the other side of the law that has been cited in so many directors' and actors' list of top influences. so we have somebody like keanu reeves talking about his character ofjohn wick, saying he based it solely on the grace of alain delon. similarly, back in the early 80s, richard gere was sent to do his homework for american gigolo by going and watching alain delon in purple noon. so even though some of his his biggerfilms, he tried twice or more to break into the international, the big hollywood market, he never quite cracked it. always more of a star back in his native france. nevertheless, his legacy, his influence, his creative influence is very much permanent and concrete in more than just france. you touched on his sort of earlier years, his personal life there, and in more recent years it did become quite public, his complicated personal life, didn't it? 0h, forsure.

i mean, back in the 1960s, there's this wonderful photograph of marianne faithfull and mickjagger talking, well, mickjagger trying to keep the attention of his then girlfriend, and she is looking very much at the beautiful man on the other side of her, which was alain delon. and i mean, to me, that picture just sums up the 1960s. but certainly, yes, he had his roll call of beautiful, tempestuous, often, you know, defining on the front of all the celebrity pages in earlier years. and sadly for him, in later years, it was more marked by a breakdown in family relations, lawsuits. 0bviously he had a huge amount of money. he had a big family estate, he had children from earlier relationships, huge sort of dirty washing squabbles that were played out across the french tabloids. but, i mean, the nice announcement that he was surrounded by his family when he passed away is, is a small consolation. hong kong has said it will maintain a partial ban onjapanese seafood put in place after the discharge of wastewater from the damaged fu kushima nuclear plant.

that's despite a plea by the japanese fisheries minister who had called for the restrictions to be dropped — saying they had no scientific basis. research by a uk think tank suggests that, contrary to popular perception, older people are the least lonely age group in the country. four in ten elderly people say they sometimes feel lonely. but the figure jumps to seven out of ten when under twenty—fives are questioned. the researchers say the elderly are much more likely to socialise and volunteer. the courtauld gallery at somerset house, which houses paintings by vincent van gogh, claude monet and paul cezanne, has reopened after a fire in the building yesterday. no one was hurt in the blaze, and the paintings are safe. stay with us here on bbc news.

good afternoon. it has been a fairly quiet weekend of weather, it is all change again next week. even today, we are not without a few showers, they have been peppering scotland and one or two elsewhere across northern ireland and western fringes of england and wales but mostly the cloud or melt away and more sunshine will come out to end the day. it is feeling pleasantly warm although there is quite a brisk wind in the north and west in particular. the wind doesn't tend to ease a little overnight allowing the mist and fog to form across england and wales but look further west with wind strengthening. temperatures will not fall quite so low here and it is all about the areas of low pressure as we move into the new week. the first one sweeps into the second part of monday, clearing tuesday, then a brief ridge of high pressure, this next one coming on wednesday, thursday, containing the remnants of

hurricane nso. as you can see from the tightly packed isobars, some windy weather and some more rain hot on its heels from friday. in the southern and eastern areas won't seem that much rain this week and these are the rainfall totals of the next four or five days but we could see in excess of 100 millimetres across the north—west of scotland. that is certainly one to watch. the early focal clear, it might be around for the first hour or so of rush hour but some fine and dry weather to come but the rain really takes hold for northern ireland and southern scotland and the met office have a warning out of her as much as 50 millimetres of rain throughout monday, monday night and tuesday morning. still quite warm, particularly sunshine in eastern areas, the wind and the rain it does arrive here but not as heavy. we do have more rain through the night pushing back to the north. the main thing is it will be much more warm and more humid overnight to tuesday and more humid overnight to tuesday and more humid overnight to tuesday and more uncomfortable sleeping. most of the rain should clear with it the humidity. without the band of heavy thundery showers following.

the rain could be firmly in the north—west. close to that blood pressure there is more to come in western scotland. on the whole, afresh a day. later tuesday into wednesday, a brief bump of high pressure but then the next where the system rushes in off the atlantic and gives us really quite wet weather and there are warnings out for this, as well, for western scotland, we could see another two, three, four inches of rain in places and some unseasonably windy weather as well. certainly, one to watch.

this is bbc news, the headlines: ukraine says it has destroyed a second key bridge inside the kursk region of russia. the attack will further isolate russian troops, as ukraine presses on with its kursk counteroffensive. meanwhile russia says it has captured another village in the donetsk region. the us secretary of state, antony blinken is making his ninth trip to israel since the war in gaza began, with hopes he can encourage a ceasefire deal. in gaza itself, the hamas—run health ministry says at least nineteen people — including six children — have been killed in the latest israeli strikes. the french actor alain delon — once described as the most beautiful man in cinema — has died at the age of 88. president macron has called him a french monument, who embodied legendary roles and made the world dream.