live from washington, this is bbc news. israel orders more evacuations in rafah as it intensifies military operations. the most powerful solar storm in more than two decades hits the earth, triggering spectacular light shows, expected to continue throughout the weekend. switzerland have won! plus: the eurovision song contest crowns switzerland as its winner. we get reaction from malmo in sweden. hello, i'm helena humphrey. glad you could join me. israel has ordered thousands more people to leave the city of rafah in southern gaza as it presses on with its military campaign there against hamas. the israel defense forces

have declared a narrow strip at al—mawasi to be a safe humanitarian zone, but the un says it has no running water or proper sanitation. israel says that since monday, about 300 thousand palestinians have already fled rafah. the us is still urging israel not to mount a full—scale assault on the city. and in the north, there are evacuations in the city of jabalia as the idf says that it has been carrying out air strikes. it says hamas fighters are regrouping there. from jerusalem, here's our middle east correspondent, another desperate exodus. palestinians fleeing in their thousands, as israel signals it is now set to push further into gaza's southernmost city, issuing new evacuation orders. "what should we do?" hanan asks. "do we wait until we all die on top of each other? we've decided it is better to leave." israel has said it's taking action against hamas in one of its last strongholds and trying to bring home hostages.

but today hamas has said british—israeli nadav popplewell, captured from his home in a kibbutz last october, had died of wounds from an israeli air strike. meanwhile, with israel's capture of one main border crossing and another blocked off by fighting, no aid is getting into southern gaza. there are now severe shortages of food, deepening the humanitarian crisis. so far, israel's military is describing its offensive in rafah as limited but the world is watching, to see if this turns into the full scale invasion that the country's allies have been warning against. and as israeli tanks and troops await orders near the gaza border, there has been another strong statement from washington. it says that with some of the strikes in gaza, israel may have used american supplied weapons in breach of international law. israel has consistently denied any violations and yet, the new report may have an impact on plans

back here in rafah, where there is already a growing sense of emergency. yolande knell, bbc news, jerusalem. for more, i spoke to aaron david miller, a senior fellow at the carnegie endowment for international peace and a former us state department official. i want to start with what we are seeing on the ground in gaza. there appears to be moves ahead of a broader offensive on the ground in rafah. as we know, it is something washington has said would be a red line if it goes ahead in that full—scale capacity. if it does happen, what does that mean that we could see from washington, do you think? when it comes to the us—israeli relationship, red lines sometimes turn pink.

the question is what they'll do in rafah. they are clearly expanding their area of operations down from the east end to the southern part of rafah. and they are engaging hamas fighters. whether or not what the israelis plan to do as they expand will remain under what the biden administration believes to be is their bottom line, the redline, which would involve a major israeli ground campaign into densely populated areas where hamas is coordinating its military assets, the remaining four battalions of its organised structure in rafah, that is the question. we don't know the answer to that. in the next several days we will probably find out. the other point is hamas is researching in gaza ——resurging in the north. israeli have cleared jabalia and they had to play it again and that's the real problem with the entire israeli operation. they can be clear, they can't hold and they don't want to build.

that really raises questions about where this will go in the end. just coming back to that operation there in rafah, it appears to be the biden administration may be trying to offer the war cabinet some way back, saying for example, we could give you instead pinpoint intelligence about the whereabouts of hamas leaders, for example. do you think that the war cabinet, that netanyahu may decide to go with that as opposed to a broader offensive there in rafah? i'd be stunned to the point of head explosion if the administration all along, since october seven, hadn't been helping the israelis identify where these people are, the key three leaders in the october 7 hamas terror surge. i suspect they have been feeding israelis information.

it is seven months now. israelis are on the ground in gaza. they are communicating with each other. i don't think that will be enough of an incentive. i think the americans have been doing that already. again, the question is how restrained will be israelis be under these circumstances? frankly, i don't think there is a really good answer, i don't have one to that question. i want to ask you, who do you think has more sway over mr netanyahu? we know that far right ministers in his war cabinet want an all—out ground offensive there in rafah. we know what washington has said as well and the possibility to halt military supplies. ultimately, who do think netanyahu will listen to more? all politics is local and it seems to me that most important constituency benjamin netanyahu

has is not in washington, it is not at the united nations, not the international communities, probably not even the hostage families. it is the reality that without this government staying in a coherent form or if they went to elections, neta nyahu would probably lose. so the reality is the constituency that counts for him is his own political constituency. do you think that could potentially hurt the us—israeli relationship going forward? i think there are all kinds of potential friction points as we move forward but i think the biden administration, for any number of reasons, does not want a sustained, open breach, rupture fracture with this government because the president has concluded that if he wants

to de—escalate israeli military activity, surge humanitarian assistance into gaza, free the hostages, including six americans, and open the door potentially for a broader regional initiative, which involves the israeli—saudi normalisation, however fanciful that may appear to be at the moment, in a galaxy far, far away, he will add to figure out a way to get the israelis and hamas into a negotiated agreement. that is the only mechanism that will extricate the president and, frankly, everyone else who is affected by this terrible ongoing conflict, out of it, to broaden some space to move into something hopefully, may be in a biden second term, may be with new leadership in israel, to a better the pathway, i know it's hard to envision

ukraine's president volodymyr zelensky says his forces are now fighting to defend seven villages in its kharkiv region. his comments come a day after russia launched a surprise incursion across the border. mr zelensky claimed none of the villages have been lost. but the institute for the study of war, an independent think tank, says it's likely russia now controls at least five. the local government says least 1,800 people have been evacuated. kyiv has been expecting a russian summer offensive for some time, including a possible attempt to capture kharkiv, ukraine's second city. our correspondent in kyiv, james waterhouse, has more. it creates for ukraine an unwanted, new north—eastern access to the front line and this is a front line at the moment which is more than 1000km long and it is a front line which ukrainian forces are struggling to contain, with the delays of the arrival of american ammunition and weaponry and with russia continuing to make its size count

and taking ukrainian territory further south. crucially for kyiv, it is having to redeploy already stretched personnel to the kharkiv region to contain this incursion which we are told is being contained for now. there has been heavy fighting really for the past 2a hours and i think while few think they are able, even with the gathering of tens of thousands of russian troops across the border, few think they are able to take cities like kharkiv because they failed the first time around. but it appears for now to be russia trying to form a buffer zone, try to extend the distance between russian territory and the fighting it is waging in ukraine, because ukrainian forces have been increasingly shelling targets inside russia. so the question really, as president zelenskyy admits, is what is going to happen next, we are containing it for now but is this russia building for something more? in georgia, protesters have taken to the streets to take part in pro—european

demonstrations against the government's plan to adopt a controversial so—called foreign influence law which critics say would push it farther from joining the eu and silence dissent. the law would target civil society organisations and independent media that receive foreign funding. earlier, our south caucasus and central asia correspondent rayhan demytri in tblisi sent this update. people are marching from different directions, just take a look, on that side of the river there are thousands of people with the eu and georgian flags all marching towards tbilisi's europe square. and on this side, it's the same... it's the same story. look at this sea of people. these protesters oppose this controversial bill, which the georgian government says it will adopt no matter what, on the transparency of foreign funding, dubbed by the protesters as the russian law because of the similarities that exist with the legislation

that exists in russia. and they are saying that with its adoption, it would damage georgia's democracy, it would silence critical voices, but most importantly, people are worried that if this law gets adopted, georgia will lose its once—in—a—lifetime opportunity tojoin the european union. let's turn to some important news around the world. five days after a deadly building collapse in south african a survivor has been pulled from the rubble. the premier of western cape province, described the rescue as nothing short of a miracle. the man is said to be recovering well having remarkably sustained only minor injuries. at least 14 people are confirmed to have died. police in england say an officer who was shot with a crossbow has been discharged from hospital and is in good spirits. he was wounded after responding to a stabbing in high wycombe, north of london. the suspected attacker was shot by armed police and remains under arrest in hospital.

after protests and controversy, switzerland has been crowned the winner of the 68th eurovision song contest in sweden. they sing the artist nemo took the title with their song the code and become the first non—binary artist to win the competition. switzerland came top of the leaderboard in a nail—biting finish with croatia in second place followed by ukraine in third. the event hosted in the city of malmo has seen divisions over israel's involvement, sparking pro—palestinian demonstrations. our chief presenter maryam moshiri and culture correspondent charlotte gallagher have been following all of the excitement and sent this report from malmo. so, an absolutely brilliant night here in malmo, in sweden, and switzerland win the 68th annual eurovision song contest. i will not lie, it has been a difficult week. there has been tension, protests in malmo over the inclusion of israel. there has been a lot of consternation, particularly amongst the dutch

because of the disqualification of the netherlands. but tonight the music was front and centre and switzerland narrowly beat croatia to be crowned eurovision champion 202a. i'm joined by charlotte gallagher, who is here with me. you have been here with me all week. it has been amazing. ifeel we have a relationship. it has been amazing. a long weekend. what are you talking about? it flew by! so much fun. tell me about the winner and the whole atmosphere tonight. nemo from switzerland have won the contest with the code. incredibly popular. operatic and athletic performance, balancing on the head of a pin throughout the song. no idea how they do not fall off but they are incredible. i think it meant so much to them that they wanted it. croatia in second. very popular, baby lasagne.

i felt sorry for croatia in the end, so hard to pick between them because they are so amazing. i think croatia really, really wanted that win. they wanted to host eurovision and have a croatian winner. but it was not to be tonight. switzerland won so much of the jury vote it would have been tough to overcome that. it would have been really hard for anyone to overtake switzerland. ukraine did not do that well in the jury vote but got a colossal amount of the public vote. some things could change but really it would have taken a lot to beat switzerland tonight. they really did shine in the competition and have been a really popular contestant. others have had a lot of controversy this week but i think the switzerland act has just got on with it and they have been amazing. i am really looking forward to going to switzerland next year. i hope i'm going to switzerland next year. sorry, the bbc is a sending charlotte not me? we can go together. we have to talk about this! let's not argue on air. i will be cheaper though!

you said it, not me. there you have it, the 68th eurovision song contest — won by switzerland. i'm sure ebu, the organisers, of the contest will be heaving a sigh of relief that it is all over. i for one will miss malmo. the atmosphere has been amazing. i have loved every moment of it. from malmo, i spoke to william lee adams, author of wild dances: my queer and curiousjourney to eurovision. it was tight at the top but switzerland prevailed — what pushed them to victory? good evening. great to be here. i think switzerland brought a really unique product. the song spans different genres from drum and bass to r&b to rap. it had beautiful staging to match. it tells the story of a young person's journey to discovering they are non—binary. they set they are neither male nor female and that balancing act, figuring that out is brought to life on stage with the singer balancing

on a guess you could call it a satellite dish, some kind of space plate. there is a lot of balancing going on, to experience strong thigh muscles but you can sense a struggle and people connected with that, the sense of struggle certainly to professionaljury did. they put this first, the public put it down in fourth but a good showing in both parts of thejudging. it was certainly quite tense leading up to this finale. i just wonder if that atmosphere carried through on the big night? how did it feel? absolutely. the fact is eurovision is meant to be a joyous celebration of music, people putting down their arguments and coming together through song and we have not really felt that this year. most notably this evening when the israeli singer took the stage, there was a mixture of cheering and booing, and the booing side was trying

to outdo the cheering side and it was escalating and you had is at the end of the song. viewers would not have noticed because producers wanted to keep the air of stability and happiness and they piped in fake applause over it. in the arena it felt incredibly tense and indeed artists afterwards after they performed gave messages like let there be peace and let us come together because they felt they had to do something to calm the crowd and let the world know they were aware of the tensions on the ground. after this, do you think that the ebu of course, which organises this will have to go back home, incidentally to switzerland, and have a conversation about where it goes from here? it's a really interesting question. in terms of israeli participation, the ebu has always been clear that this is a competition between broadcasters and not a competition between governments and because of that they say we should invite everyone so they can begin dialogue with each other.

i don't think the ebu's stance on that issue will change. however they may want to work on their communications. throughout the past two weeks for your vision for a night recall it has been incidents and the ebu has not always responded quickly, for instance with the disqualification of the dutch contestant. there is a great deal of ambiguity about what happened and i spoke to lots of dutch reporters and journalists and members of the team and they want answers and they want them fast. let's cast ahead to next year, it will be held in switzerland. geneva is the home to the ebu, lagarno, if i'm not mistaken it might have and where the first eurovision song contest i think was held. we have any indication which city or region play host? fans in the pressroom had been joking that they will call the show feel the �*bern�* but we don't know. most countries take an internal

bid process because a lot of tourism dollars at stake so you can expect over the summer switzerland's government put out an open call to cities and they will have to file a brief on to why they should be the city and go from there. i had to ask you on a personal note now that we know that the voting has concluded and of course we know who the winner is. did you have a favourite entry this year? i sided with the people, the tele—vote winner of croatia was my personal winner. babay lasagne was the singer, these are good carbs! and the song was not cheesy at all. rim tim tagi dim, he was rocking out, he had neon cats and i'm actually wearing a t—shirt and the song while it sounds silly it carries an important message. it tells a story of someone leaving croatia in pursuit of better opportunities and the pain that comes with that. at one point the singer looks to his cat and says "please meow back" but the cat is not meowing and it breaks the singer's heart. the northern lights had an encore on saturday dazzling millions across the globe.

in russia, the northern lights illuminated a purple hue into the night sky in the novosibirsk region, in russia. and seen over the skies of china and mongolia, people marveled at this sparkly, spectatular sight. lights were exposed after one of the strongest geomagnetic storms in decades hit the earth. for more on this, i spoke to shawn dahh, a space weather forecaster at the national oceanic and atmospheric administration. how rare is something like this? , ., ., how rare is something like this? , ., , this? great to be here. it is very rare. _ this? great to be here. it is very rare, and _ this? great to be here. it is very rare, and as— this? great to be here. it is i very rare, and as mentioned, the last time we had this activity was 2003 and when were expecting this and we put our i watched, that was the first time we've done that since 2005. it was a measure of the confidence we had in arriving material from the sun, and a

strong magnetic field without. coming towards earth. that is what arrived with some fell off early yesterday and worked on through the night where everyone almost globally saw the aurora and much for the lower, at equatorial latitudes than usual. it lower, at equatorial latitudes than usual.— than usual. it has been extraordinary. - than usual. it has been l extraordinary. gorgeous than usual. it has been - extraordinary. gorgeous scenes, as you say. with this, there is the potential for communications to be disrupted, satellites and so on. it is something the biden administration has said it is monitoring. have we seen anything disrupted through the solar storm? we anything disrupted through the solar storm?— solar storm? we sure have. reorts solar storm? we sure have. reports have _ solar storm? we sure have. reports have been - solar storm? we sure have. reports have been coming l solar storm? we sure have. | reports have been coming in solar storm? we sure have. - reports have been coming in for exactly that, communications issues, whether it is signal loss, disruptions, degraded communications on certain frequencies. we would expect this with high—frequency communications and that is no surprise because of the protected atmosphere out there, is very messed up right now from all the storm levels and making for signals to be wobbly

as they go through the atmosphere. that is creating problems. we have also had reports from the power grid trying to make sure the electricity still flows in north america and they have been doing so because we talk to them directly to make sure they were able to do that. gps signals, we have reports from farmers in the plane states operating tractors with precision gps and they were off so badly yesterday on timing, signal loss and accuracy by 12 feet and they could not use the systems yesterday. fortunately, they can do that today because there is a lull between the storms. ., ., ., , , , storms. you mentioned wobbly si . nals storms. you mentioned wobbly signals and _ storms. you mentioned wobbly signals and the _ storms. you mentioned wobbly signals and the effect - storms. you mentioned wobbly signals and the effect they - storms. you mentioned wobbly signals and the effect they can | signals and the effect they can have. how long could we potentially see impact because of this? ~ ., potentially see impact because of this? ~ . , . of this? we are expecting it throu~h of this? we are expecting it through the _ of this? we are expecting it through the week _ of this? we are expecting it through the week and - of this? we are expecting it i through the week and varying levels of intensity. yesterday we kept through the night and kept hitting g4 and g5 levels routinely said things were connecting favourably to the sun and to do that the magnetic

field coming from the sun has to be opposite from the earth and that was the case for almost 2a hours. right now it has turned a bit and they are repelling so it is in the lull and not active but still reaching g3 conditions. tomorrow, we expect the arrival of another fast moving double the speed of any of these things we have experience, slamming into the protective barrier of earth and well up once again,. i barrier of earth and well up once again"— barrier of earth and well up once again,. i imagine once this is over. _ once again,. i imagine once this is over, you _ once again,. i imagine once this is over, you and - once again,. i imagine once this is over, you and your . once again,. i imagine once . this is over, you and your team may be breathing a sigh of relief but you are there in colorado and i have to ask if you managed to get outside and catch a glimpse yourself? i sure did! i was working from home last night doing many interviews well into the night and i stepped outside during the break and i could see the northern lights myself, they were very faint but when i use my camera i could capture the red glow and when my colleagues had a break, they went up to the roof in boulder and got

some amazing pictures of the aurora to the north. sham; some amazing pictures of the aurora to the north.— aurora to the north. any tips for the best _ aurora to the north. any tips for the best way _ aurora to the north. any tips for the best way to - aurora to the north. any tips for the best way to go - aurora to the north. any tips. for the best way to go outside and catch a sight of them? the best time _ and catch a sight of them? the best time would _ and catch a sight of them? iie: best time would be and catch a sight of them? tie: best time would be ten o'clock at night until two o'clock in the morning, local, usually a prime time to see them if they have spun up and reacting. the other thing is to get under a dark sky. we still have a very young man, and it should not be enough to contaminate the view with much light. in the last thing, use your cellphone or your digital camera because the technology is good enough to pick up the signals that our eyes are not detecting. great ti -s eyes are not detecting. great tips there! — stay with us here on bbc news. send your pictures to me if you

get them, into bbc news. goodbye for now. hello there. it's the warmest day of the year so far across all four nations on saturday, with temperatures peaking at 26 degrees celsius in the highlands and also in east sussex, too. but change is on its way on sunday in the form of heavy, thundery showers for much of the western half of the uk, whereas further east, it should stay largely dry. all this change is brought about, of course, because the high pressure that's been keeping us dry, settled and warm over the last few days is gradually drifting further eastwards towards scandinavia, allowing for these weather fronts to approach from the west. but it's a mostly dry start to the day on sunday with some sunny spells, any early mist and fog will lift and clear really quite readily. but it won't be too long

through the late morning before we see the showers pop up across western scotland, down through northern ireland, wales and the south west of england. and if we just take a little tour at around four o'clock across northern and western scotland gradually drifting further east with some of the showers really quite heavy. it's still quite warm, 22 degrees celsius in glasgow, but certainly cooler than on saturday. more showers across northern ireland, some of the showers particularly heavy across wales. there could be some localised flooding perhaps as well. more isolated showers for central southern england, maybe 26 or 27 degrees celsius in south east england. cooler and breezier towards those north sea—facing coasts. and overnight, those showers will continue to drift further eastwards. but this is the main driver of monday's weather, this deep area of low pressure that's going to roll this weather in from the south west. so, again, a largely dry start to the day for the vast majority, but cloud thickening from the south west, rain pushing into wales from south west england and eventually northern ireland through the afternoon, as well, as scattering showers across scotland and northern england. but again across many eastern areas of england.

it could stay largely dry, but it will be cooler across the board. but still temperatures peaking in the low twenties out towards the east. but the area of low pressure just continues to roll its way further northwards and eastwards as we head through tuesday and into wednesday. so there will be further showers around at times for many. in general, here's the outlook for our capital cities as we head through next week and see those temperatures really start to drop off. there will still be some sunshine around. lots of dry weather at times, but also some showers, too. bye— bye.

this is bbc news. we will have the headlines for you on the hour, which is straight after this programme. for 30 years, a brutal crime group has brought horror to these streets... he was my last—born. and i deservejustice for him, so does he! he never hurt anybody! ..carrying out the most extreme violence... a family member was called to a meeting, and dickie coggins

said that he organised the hit.