israel sees massive protests, ahead of a key vote onjudicial reform. and barbie can add another thing to her list of achievements, as the movie makes box—office history. we begin in greece, where authorities have declared a state of emergency in southern rhodes, one of at least two greek islands where firefighters are battling wildfires. greek police say 19,000 people have now been evacuated from homes and hotels in rhodes, while new evacutation orders are in place tonight on the island of corfu. three hotels there have reportedly burnt down, and many others are in the danger zone. this is the damage at one hotel in the town of kiotari. and some fires are still burning — these pictures have come into us from the turkish ministry of agriculture,

taken from one of their planes, which is helping to fight the blazes. well, many people spent the night in temporary accommodation like this after being evacuated from hotels. others have been forced to gather in public buildings like halls and schools. 0ur correspondent jenny hill is in rhodes. 0ver over 250 firefighters have spent the day desperately trying to bring the fire under control, but tonight they have reported what they describe as large flare—ups on all three fronts of that fire. you can probably see how windy it is right now. that wind is expected to strengthen significantly. that's going to make their task much more difficult, and indeed much more dangerous. you mentioned too that, at the same time, fire has also broken out on the island of poku —— of corfu in the north, forcing the evacuation of several

settlements there, and as if that won't end up, this region, southern europe, is expected to be had by yet another heat wave in the coming days. so, very difficult days ahead here. let's bring you these pictures now, from journalist katy dartford, who is in corfu, which as we've heard is now under fresh evacuation orders. i spoke with her a short time ago. katy, thank you so much for being with us. now, i did see a photo that you did actually post on twitter, close to where you are. the wildfire on the horizon. i mean, it must have been quite terrifying. what is the situation where you are currently? well, i am in corfu town, which i would say is nearly ten to 15 kilometres away from where the wildfire is actually happening, but i can see it directly from my window. it's going on right behind me now at the moment but it's a bit too dark to see. i would say i first started seeing little glimmers

in the background about nine o'clock, but it had obviously been going on a bit earlier than that, and then just as the night went on, rapidly see it spreading down the side of the mountain towards the east of the mountain. so as the night has gone on, it seems to have flamed up even more to the western side, but i think it is the wind coming up from the west and flaming it all night. and, katy, are you having to evacuate? no, not here, not at all. not here, but it is the people who are here in the central municipalities of the island, up in the mountains, that area there, it is quite mountainous, it looks like that they are being told to go down to the resorts, which are the seaside areas, so leaving their homes, which are higher up in that mountainside, to go down to the coast. i'm too far away at the moment, but i have heard that there were smaller wildfires yesterday that they didn't put were smaller wildfires yesterday that they did put out in the south and further up north, so we just wait and see

what happens, as to where else it spreads in the island. and, i mean, what was that moment like when you did just happen to glimpse out of the window, and you saw a wildfire on the horizon? how did you feel? i was like, "oh, my goodness". because i was looking at it, it was like a little bonfire, from here, it looked like a small bonfire in the distance, but i know what's been going on, and i was like, "no". because all week we have had problems with red alerts, heat waves, museums and things have been shutting in the afternoon, so we have all been aware of what could be happening, so ijust kept watching it and watching it, like, and just seeing it grow bigger as the minutes went by, in fact. and are you being given any kind of instructions from authorities about what you might have to do? i mean, what has the response been like? yeah, so they sent out 112 alerts, evacuation alerts, but obviously they are going to people in the central part

of the island. but we have all been aware that there's warnings and fines out there if you are leaving litter that could cause any spark or catch fire at all. and we all know, yeah, we've been told, warned not to go out in the afternoon too much, that kind of thing. as we mentioned, many are trying to get to safer areas in greece, including foreign tourists. here's courtney bembridge with the details. rhodes is a popular destination at this time of year and the greek tourism minister keen to keep it that way, underlining that the island is almost operating as normal, and expecting that those disruptions will be limited in a few days, but we are hearing from a lot of passengers and people who are stuck there, and are experiencing disruption. we have spoken to some of the major tour operators here in the uk about what's happening with their plans, and let's

go through them now. so, first of all, with easyjet. they have cancelled their package holidays to rods until at leastjuly 25th. they are still running flights and there will be flights, extra flights put on, to help bring people back to the uk from rhodes. that's happening tomorrow and the next day. we've also heard from tui, they have cancelled their holidays until at least the 25th, two days�* time, and jet2 have cancelled untiljuly 30th. ryanair, though, says flights are still running as normal and we have heard other airlines saying the same, that their schedule has not been affected. 0ne flight that was due to take off this afternoon spent several hours on the tarmac. you can see passengers there fanning themselves with the safety instructions, and we were told that a few hours after this flight took off, it actually had to land in italy, not its intended arrival point in london, because the crew had timed out, it had spent so long on the tarmac awaiting

departure in rhodes that then the crew timed out. so that's the experience of some tourists. others are spending days on end here at the airport, waiting for flights out, and of course we have people stationed there, speaking to them. and also there is the british foreign 0ffice. now, they've got a team there that's been sent to tell people that might not have their documents, they might have left hotels in a hurry or made their way to the airport from other destinations and not been able to go back to their hotels and resorts to get their documents and baggage, so they are on hand to help with that. and just talking about the level of impact of this fire, after the tourism minister's comments about only 10% being affected, you can see

the area here, marked in fires, but it has burnt all the way up to the seaside here, where a lot of hotels and seaside resorts are. so certainly having an impact, and we know that 19,000 people had to be evacuated from hotels and homes, 3,000 of them via sea. so certainly there are large numbers of people being disrupted by this. another thing to show you, we've been talking about the aegean sea, but if we go over to the ionian islands here, just off the coast of albania, and we've got italyjust over here, we've got the island of corfu, which is also experiencing fires, and these are some of the latest pictures that we've had here from there. now, this is, as you can see, is a resort, there are people eating their dinner, eating their meal, while in the background, fires burn. now, these fires, some people have been evacuated as a precaution because of these fires, but they are at this stage not burning as out of control as those in rhodes. but certainly the pictures we are seeing are quite dramatic of the fires burning on the skyline there, so this is something that firefighters will be watching closely overnight. spain's government is in limbo,

after sunday's snap election delivered no clear winner. the centre—right people's party, led by alberto nunez feijoo, gained dozens of seats and will be the largest party in spain's parliament. but the incumbent prime minister, pedro sanchez, and his centre—left socialists performed better than expected. parties on the far—left and far—right lost ground, leaving basque and catalan nationalists holding the balance of power. 0ur reporter sergi forcada has the latest from madrid. this is a bittersweet victory for those who have been celebrating here at the headquarters of the popular party, the conservative party in spain. despite being the largest party and having won the election, they've fallen short of a majority. evenif even if they got the votes of the far right party, vox, the numbers just the far right party, vox, the numbersjust don't the far right party, vox, the numbers just don't really add up. the conservative leader

alberto nunez feijoo has claimed victory and has said that, as the largest party, he should be the new pm but it is actually unlikely that he will be able to form a government. 0n the other hand, prime minister pedro sanchez has also claimed victory for the whole of the left, not necessarily for his socialist party, that came second in these elections. mathematically, mr sanchez could still be elected as pm, if he got all the votes from the left, and also from the catalan and basque nationalists. now, negotiations will start in the coming weeks, but if no candidates have enough support in parliament to secure a majority, the country may end up going to new elections again. so, spain, which is the fourth—largest economy in the european union, has now a new parliament, but the country is still looking for their new prime minister. there has been no trace of american solider, private travis king, since he ran across the most heavily—fortified border in the world — and into north korea, almost a week ago. the us government says pyongyang isn't responding

to their inquiries. so what now? and can previous cases tell us anything about what private king could be facing? john everard is one of the rare diplomats with direct experience in pyongyang, having served as the uk's ambassador to north korea. i spoke with him a little earlier. welcome to the programme. thank you forjoining us here on bbc news. now, in the case of travis king, north korea doesn't appear at the moment to be responding to any entreaties from washington right now. do you think there is anything that washington could do to compel north korea to respond? no, there isn't. north korea will respond, if at all, and you shouldn't assume that north korea is going to respond on this, but if at all, in its own good time. they are in no rush. why should they be? they will want, firstly, to make absolutely sure that travis king was not some kind

of american attempt to probe the north korean defences. remember that hejumped across actually at the joint security area, where the north koreans have been pulling back troops for some time, largely because of quarantine, to do with the covid pandemic. they will also want to get senior leader guidance on how they are going to handle this. now, this is a private second class. he is unlikely to be a huge intelligence value for the north koreans, they will be assessing whether they can use him for propaganda value. all of this will take time, a lot of consultations, a lot of discussions, probably at quite senior level in north korea, during which they were simply not respond to any us approach. and how do you think they will go about making those assessments about private travis king? you are one of the few rare people, an outsider, who has lived in pyongyang. from your experience, how do you think you will be regarded? the north koreans are very thorough in these matters.

they will be studying all thee available overt information on private king, of which there is a great deal. the media, of course, have reported extensively on his problems in south korea, and on his attempts to escape. they will probably also be interviewing private king himself. they will likely put him in quarantine for a while. they remain deeply concerned about the spread of covid, but they will want to find out what they can discover from talking to him directly. now, of course, we don't know why travis king went over to north korea, but from your experience, when people from outside the country try and do this, is there ever a kind of common motivation here, and also do they often end up being surprised by what they find in north korea? yes, and yes. common motivation, travis king is not the first soldier to have become disenchanted

with the us army, for whatever reason. charlesjenkins, many years ago, got drunk one day and did much the same. he was trying to avoid a deployment to vietnam. but there the similarities end. north korea now is a very different kind of place from the north korea to which charlesjenkins defected. different atmosphere, different leader, and of course there is a lot of tension around between north korea and the united states right now. now, charlesjenkins, sergeantjenkins as then was, spent many, many years in north korea, and ended up marrying a japanese abductee. he was only released a few years ago. it is not at all clear that the same is going to happen to private king. the north koreans may decide to hold him for a long time, or they may decide that he is simply not worth the trouble and find a way of putting him

back across the border. talk to us a little bit more about those communications relations between north korea, then, and the rest of the world, through the process of time. i mean, how much do you think that they have deteriorated of late? have they? they have deteriorated to almost nothing. i mean, not so long ago, there were open channels between the united states and the north koreans directly. the united states had a protecting power, sweden, with a functioning embassy in pyongyang, so that if anything went wrong, they could ask the swedes as the protecting power to go and talk behind closed doors to the north koreans to try to sort it out. right now, the swedish embassy still exists in pyongyang, but its staff have been withdrawn, because of the covid pandemic, and there is almost no direct contact between the united states and north korea. there is the famous pink telephone, which the americans have been using to pass messages to north korea about this case, and about other matters,

too, come to that. they have told the north koreans that private king crossed that border without authorisation, without orders, and the north koreans have simply acknowledged that message and not responded to it. the north koreans could, if they wished, simply ring back along the same channel. they haven't done so. fascinating insights there from john everard, former british ambassador to north korea. really great to have you with us. thank you so much. thank you. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. all the plastic that has ever been created exists in some form because it takes so long to break down, leading to pollution like this. but a new invention might be able to help. this may look like a normal plastic bag but there is something quite different about it. it dissolves in water. in

boiling water this process takes about a minute. i caught up takes about a minute. i caught up with the australian company's co—founder to find compa ny�*s co—founder to find out company's co—founder to find out more. these bags look like plastic, but they are not. what is the magic ingredient? fiur is the magic ingredient? our rent magic— is the magic ingredient? oi" rent magic ingredient is utilising starches.- rent magic ingredient is utilising starches. what is the advantage _ utilising starches. what is the advantage of— utilising starches. what is the advantage of these _ utilising starches. what is the advantage of these plastic - utilising starches. what is the i advantage of these plastic bags in terms of sustainability? there are no micro plastics when it breaks down no toxins at 12. you can dissolve in hot water in under 60 seconds and it will become compost in 6— eight months. you're live with bbc news. the israeli president isaac herzog has held emergency talks with benjamin netanyahu as part of efforts to reach a compromise over controversial judicial reforms. the meeting took place

at the hospital where the prime minister is recovering from an operation to fit a pacemaker. it comes as ten of thousands of people have taken part in last—ditch protests against the bill, which is expected to be put to parliamentary vote on monday. former us ambassador to israel, martin indyk spoke with me a short while ago about the signficance of the bill. welcome to the programme, thank you for taking the time to be with us here on the bbc. we are just hours away from the start of voting in israel on some controversial judicial reforms. you are the former us ambassador to israel and also joined in protests in tel aviv. what prompted you to do so? well, i have long cared about the future of the jewish and democratic state of israel. and itsjewish and democratic nature have always been in tension. but never has there been this kind of effort to, as it were, hijack the country

via the effort to rob the supreme court of its independence. the judiciary, of its independence. and i think that undermines the democratic nature of the state of israel and that is why ijoined the hundreds of thousands of israelis protesting against this extremist government. you recently called on the biden administration to cut its military assistance to israel. you said israel can afford and it would be healthier for the relationship if israel stood on its own two feet. why did you come to that conclusion? i did not call for a cut to aid to israel, i called for a beginning of the conversation about how israel could wean itself off military assistance. maintain its security relationship with the united states, which is of

great value to both countries. but as you quoted me saying, to be able to stand on its own two feet, israel at 75 years of age, has a robust economy with a gnp of something like $400 billion. the military assistance it gets from the united states is about 1% of that, $3.8 billion. i think it would be a much healthier relationship for israel and for the united states if israel were to rid itself of this unnecessary dependency. the us is one of the strongest allies of israel, if not the strongest, how popular do you think that opinion is in the united states? i don't think it is popular, politically, i think there is strong bipartisan support for military assistance for israel for all the right reasons. i think the united states has

done a great service to israel's ability to defend itself by itself through this prolonged military assistance over many decades. at a certain point, i think it is worthwhile for both countries to reassess and say, "do we really need to go on with this relationship?" can israel, with its robust economy, stand on its own two feet and thereby be less dependent on the united states? israel today pursuing policies the united states find very hard to support. that is notjust in the area of democracy but also in its policy towards the palestinians, particularly in the west bank.

that is a cause of great friction between between the two countries. there is an expectation the united states would use this aid as leverage which i think is a bad idea overall and it would be much better for israel and the united states if we had a maturing of our relationship. and a reduction in dependency on aid which israel doesn't need anymore. the relationship with the united states has long been based on the appreciation of shared democratic values. if we are in a situation where this bill might pass, do you think this might cause the united states to reassess its relationship with israel? i do think there will inevitably be a reassessment. whether it is formal reassessment by the administration.

if israel is going to go the way of turkey or hungary and become an illegal democracy, that will have a profound effect on support israel enjoys, particularly amongst liberal americans, particularly amongst jewish americans who are also liberals. i think there will be a parting of the ways. how long that lasts for depends on how long this extremist government manages to hold onto power. if netanyahu does concede to the opposition and this overhaul is off the table, do you think that would stop these demonstrations ultimately? if netanyahu does concede to the opposition and this overhaul is off the table, do you think that would stop these demonstrations ultimately? yes, i do think so. obviously i think if there is to be a compromise, it will require putting the legislation on pause and then engaging in an effort to try and achieve a consensus. either side has to give up their ultimate objectives but they can back off and try to come up with a more consensual solution.

this i hope that is path they will take. it is very hard to tell getting down to the wire here whether compromise will emerge in the next 2a hours. martin indyk, former us ambassador to israel, thank you so much for being with us. thanks for having me. twitter owner elon musk says he'll get rid of the twitter bird logo, and replace it with an �*x'. mr musk, who has changed the name of the business to x corp says the replacement should have been done a long time ago. new zealand's justice minister has resigned after being arrested following a car crash on sunday. kiri allan has been charged with careless driving and resisting arrest. she was issued a notice for failing an alcohol breath test. barbie once again proves that

she really can do anything. greta gerwig's barbie has broken the opening weekend record for a female director, bringing in a combined $235 million from the us and canadian ticket sales. globally, it raked in an estimated $337 million while christopher nolan's 0ppenheimer made over $80 million at the box office domestically and over $93 million internationally. the turnout to see the antithetical stories about the imaginary pink—wearing fashion icon and the man known as the �*father of the atomic bomb�*. have shattered early box office predictions, fuelling one of the biggest movie weekends in history since the pandemic. stay with us here on bbc news. thanks for you company. i'll see you soon, bye for now.

the full uk forecast in a moment — but first of all, the extreme heat continues to affect parts of the mediterranean. and later on monday, we might actually see one of europe's highest ever temperatures — 48 celsius possible to the southwest of catania. now, the significance of that is the all—time european record currently stands at 118.8, so we'll be very, very close to that. on sunday, though, here in the uk, it was a very wet day across central portions of the uk. 3.5 inches — that's about a month's worth. these figures only go up to saturday, but even at that stage, there were a number of places that were getting close to double thejuly average rainfall. 0ur weather pattern, then, is a bit stuck at the moment, and it was this weather from the kind of rained off the cricket in greater manchester. the front itself is starting to push its way southwards, so the rain is going to eventually swing across wales, into the midlands and parts of east anglia, with the skies clearing behind. now for scotland, northern england, northern ireland, with those clearer skies, temperatures get down into single figures, so it'll be quite chilly air.

but underneath the front into the south, it's a relatively mild start to the day for monday. cloudy, though, with further rain — east anglia, south midlands selling hounds of england. the rain then pulls away to leave us with a day of sunny spells and showers. and, ok, the showers shouldn't last too long, there'll be large portions of the day that stay entirely dry. 0ur temperatures a little bit below average for the time of year, but still feeling 0k in thejuly sunshine. now, i think there should be a bit more of that sunshine to look forward to across england and wales, with not many showers here for tuesday. further north, though, for scotland and for northern ireland, there will be quite a few downpours developing through tuesday afternoon, so another fairly unsettled day. now, heading into wednesday and thursday, another area of low pressure will form in the atlantic and move towards our shores, so we have more rain on the cards. now wednesday, it might well be to the northeast of the uk that it stays largely dry with some sunshine. but certainly further west, the cloud will gather, outbreaks of rain will swing into northern ireland, and probably reach western parts of england, wales, and scotland.

certainly through wednesday night, it turns wet for most of us, with the rain still hanging around for thursday. might start to clear for western areas with, again, the weather brightening up. but on the whole, temperatures staying below average. the weather staying unsettled.

voice-over: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour, straight after this programme. after russia's invasion of ukraine, countries around the world were forced to take sides. but for one country, the choice has not been straightforward. unlike most european countries, serbia has resisted imposing sanctions on russia. a french hardline ultranationalist group

is pushing for closer links with an old ally.