he has said discussions are ongoing about a "humanitarian pause" in the fighting, to get aid to civilians into gaza. but fighting in gaza is intensifying and communications are down for a third time. our correspondent rushdi abualouf in gaza has told us that tonight's bombardment seems to be the most intense since the beginning of the war, targeting the northwest of the gaza strip in particular. i also want to bring you an update from the israel defence forces on twitter saying the israeli military says air raid sirens sounding across central israel due to rockets being fired from gaza. i've said many israelis are running to bomb shelters. these are from the israel defence forces. once we verify those and can bring in more on that update, we will. in terms of the visit of antony blinken... at the end of his visit to iraq antony blinken spoke to the media about the possibility of humanitarian pause to hostilities, that he said would advance several priorities, including getting more aid in and getting hamas�* hostages out. following my conversations with the prime minister and with the israeli government, this is a process. israel's raised important questions about how humanitarian pauses would work. we've got to answer those questions. we're working on exactly that. in fact, we agreed that our teams would get together and they're doing just that, including today, to work through the specifics of the practicalities of of these pauses. second, it's important that the pause advance a number of things. one of them is hostages. we are intensely focused — the united states, israel, every other country that has one of its citizens being held hostage by hamas — to bring them home. now, it's important that as we're engaged in pursuing humanitarian pause, this can be something that advances the prospect of getting the hostages back. it can also advance other things that we're committed to doing, as is the government of israel and other partners in the region, especially getting more humanitarian assistance to people who need it in gaza. i'll remind you, when we had conversations three weeks ago about starting humanitarian assistance, it was a process to actually get that moving. but we had a commitment to do that. it took some days to get the process in place. since then, we've had trucks moving. we have about 100 trucks a day going in. that's good, but it's grossly insufficient. so now we're working on raising that significantly so that more aid and in a sustained way gets into palestinians who need it. there, again, a humanitarian pause can also help advance that and create an environment in which we can do as much as possible for people who so desperately need the assistance. the us secretary of state is now landing in turkey for a visit to ankara. these are live pictures of his plane. continuing his visit to the region as he speaks to several leaders about how to push for humanitarian causes in the conflict, in the war in gaza. of course arab leaders are publicly pushing for a ceasefire, an immediate ceasefire, thatis ceasefire, an immediate ceasefire, that is what the palestinian president mahmoud abbas told antony blinken during the visit but israel are maintaining your right to self—defence and in state is arguing several humanitarian causes as the humanitarian situation in gaza deteriorates. more from his visit as soon as we have any updates for you. while antony blinken was speaking in baghdad, israel's military spokesman daniel hagari, updated the media on their operation in gaza. today, they engulfed gaza, reached the beach and encircled gazza and today we have gaza north and gaza south. they reach the shore line and they are hoping its shoreline, we are still allowing for a coroner to enable the residents of the north of the gaza strip and the residents of the gaza strip and the residents of the south. it is a one—way corridor going south. we continue to strike forcefully. when the greater city of gaza. �* ., . ~ forcefully. when the greater city of gaza. 1, . ~ ., .,, forcefully. when the greater city of gaza. ., ,., ., forcefully. when the greater city of gaza. ., , ., ., ,, gaza. back to those photos of the us secretary of — gaza. back to those photos of the us secretary of state _ gaza. back to those photos of the us secretary of state antony _ gaza. back to those photos of the us secretary of state antony blinken - secretary of state antony blinken arriving in turkey for talks with the president of turkey recep tayyip erdogan. we have lost those images so we will bring you more of that when we have. daniel hagari, the israeli spokesman, also referred to the cross—border violence with hezbollah in lebanon. lebanese state media say three children and their grandmother were killed in an israeli strike on a car in southern lebanon. the report said their car was hit on a road in the bintjbeil district, and that the children were aged ten, 12, and 14. this is what mr hagari had to say in the north of israel there are several incidents today. the idf attacked terror facilities of hezbollah and there was an anti—tank missile that killed an israeli citizen and there are some israeli strikes by the idf on terrorists and infrastructure, vehicles driving terrorists and there were also aerial means that are intercepted. by a remotely piloted aircraft that hezbollah tried to drive into israel was intercepted in lebanese territory. they reached the beach at the southern part of the city more on that strike at the maghazi refugee camp now. the site of the attack is in the center of the strip — south of the wadi gaza — in a part of the territory were civilians were told to move to to avoid the fighting in the north. but still they are not out of the firing line. our reporter rushdi abualouf has been able to travel to the camp and sent this report. they are still looking under the rubble of about three or four buildings that were destroyed overnight. this is al—maghazi refugee camp. it's in the safe area where israel advised 1.2 million people in gaza city and the north to flee south. they said it's safer. but this destruction is in the safe area where about 50 bodies have already been recovered from this air strike, and many, many others are missing. this is the biggest air strike in this very crowded refugee camp in the middle of the gaza strip. the people are fleeing south because the fighting has intensified around gaza city and the north where israel has started its ground operation — five different battles are going on there. overnight, israel issued another warning for the people, asking them to leave gaza city and the north and to come here. we also heard earlier how he believes this is the most intense night of the conflict so far. well, it's been four weeks now since hamas fighters crossed into israel killing more than 14 hundred people and taking more than 240 others hostage. in many cases multiple members of the same family were taken. among those taken from kibbutz nir oz in southern israel were david and saron cunio and their 3—year—old twins emma and yuli. daniele alony mevneh — sharon's sister — was also abducted with her 5—year—old daughter amelia. after hiding in the shelter for hours, hamas burned down their house — and once smoke started to seep through the shelter door, they texted their family what they believed were their last words. according to videos and testimonials released by hamas, they were confirmed to be taken hostage in gaza. i spoke to moran alony who is the brother of sharon and daniele and uncle to the three young girls. first of all, i think that... seeing her gave me something that i didn't knew a couple of days before that she's alive and we don't know anything about anyone from there. as you mentioned in the previous discussion that you had there. so it gave me gave hope. it wasn't easy seeing her. i can see the cuff mark on her hand. you can see a red mark on her shoulder. you can see that she's very thin and you can see that she's in distress. but she's alive. and i think the words that came out from her mouth was was obviously something that hamas told her to say. but i think that the anger was real. yeah. well, to your point, the bbc, just to say, isn't showing that video because it could have been filmed under duress. and just to be clear, you haven't had contact with any of your relatives since that video? no, nothing. not before. not after. that's true. and what is it you want the world to understand right now about the hostage situation and the experience for the relatives right now? i think that the world has a tendency to to apart itself a tendency to apart itself from what's going on in these scenarios. and ijust want people to understand that there are kids and family members where usually we used to talk every day with one another and then it's already one month after. and it's not one month that we are that we can talk to them every day or even know what their status and if they're alive. so i know my sister daniele is alive. i have five more family members there. and so i think that the world needs to understand that this is, first of all, understand how they would feel in this and this kind of scenario and also try to understand that these are not freedom fighters. these are terrorists. they took kids and babies and women, civilians, all civilians. and they were not fighting an army. they were fighting unarmed civilians. joining me now is yael friedson, legal and jerusalem affairs correspondent at the israeli newspaper haaretz. we heard several members of his family have been taken and he said there should be no negotiations, there should be no negotiations, there should be no negotiations, there should not be a ceasefire —— there should not be a ceasefire —— there should not be a ceasefire —— there should be no negotiations, there should be no negotiations, there should be a ceasefire. what are your thinking of what other family say? in are your thinking of what other family say?— are your thinking of what other famil sa ? , ., ., ., ., , family say? in terms of negotiations with hamas — family say? in terms of negotiations with hamas via _ family say? in terms of negotiations with hamas via qatar _ family say? in terms of negotiations with hamas via qatar and _ family say? in terms of negotiations with hamas via qatar and egypt, - with hamas via qatar and egypt, the restore help their internals without seeing daylight for nearly 30 days and therefore it seems like the only option is to use the army and unfortunately also bomb gaza, several targets were how mass —— where hamas is hiding. i5 several targets were how mass -- where hamas is hiding.— where hamas is hiding. is the concern with _ where hamas is hiding. is the concern with hostage - where hamas is hiding. is the concern with hostage families where hamas is hiding. is the - concern with hostage families about the safety of their loved ones amidst this offensive? there have been hostage families who have been pushing for prime minister benjamin netanyahu to prioritise the safety of their relatives.— of their relatives. right, many families are _ of their relatives. right, many families are concerned. - of their relatives. right, many families are concerned. whatl of their relatives. right, manyl families are concerned. what is of their relatives. right, many - families are concerned. what is in the top priority of the government and the army? is it that first of all israel was humiliated and the army known for being so strong, it was a terrible day for us, so they are concerned that there is also other motives that for the military to show they are strong again and they can be strong against hamas and what some of the family say is that they want first of all to set free they want first of all to set free the hostages and later any revenge or in order to show hamas they cannot act this way again or any other terror organisation could wait for later. quickly before we let you go, wartime leaders normally get a lot of support and there was humiliation for the military. as prime minister benjamin netanyahu enjoying that same level support? he benjamin netanyahu en'oying that same level support?_ same level support? he was not en'o in: same level support? he was not enjoying a _ same level support? he was not enjoying a lot — same level support? he was not enjoying a lot of— same level support? he was not enjoying a lot of support - same level support? he was not enjoying a lot of support also i enjoying a lot of support also before everything had begun but i think it is clear for most israelis that first of all there is one mission and that is returning back the hostages to their homes. that is the top mission above all and therefore they would support benjamin netanyahu.- therefore they would support benjamin netanyahu. thank you for our time. now i want to bring you some breaking news. a council leader and nine other councils here in the united kingdom have resigned from the labour party of the leadership's position on gaza which has been a point of contention. he had previously called for sir keough starmer to resign over his position but has instead quit the party tonight along with a number of colleagues. —— for sir kier starmer. the word said that the stance on palestine does not align with the values they hold dear and that he has resigned with immediate effect feeling his position was untenable given the current position. more on that as we have it but time for a look at the sport. hello from the bbc sport centre. luis diaz dedicated his liverpool equaliser today to his father who has been kidknapped in his native colombia. they drew i—all at luton with diaz's goal coming in injury time. liverpool went behind in the 80th minute and diaz came off the bench and scored in the 95th he then revealed a message under his shirt which read "freedom for dad". he later realeased a statement saying, "i beg that they free him immediately, respecting his integrity and ending this painful wait. in the name of love and compassion we ask they reconsider their actions and allow us to have him back." a wonderful highlight if you want in a game with not a lot of highlights for oars. that lucho came on and scored as one of those stories that is really great. besides that, we should have done better. credit to luton, they defended well but we had our moments. meanwhile nottingham forest stopped aston villa from going third by beating them 2—nil at the city ground. ola aina and orel mangala with the goals. forest have a good record at home but that was their first win in seven premier league games and they move up to 12th we are not an established team yet. that is the exciting bit about where we're at as a club, it is only our second season in the premier league and you want to get in a certain way where you belong here, and we're still trying to build that. we are trying to get there and there is a lot of hard work, but to do that starts with attitude and commitment and believing in each other, and we have that. we need to make sure the plan is a good one and if it is over the course of time you will get better. can anyone beat india at the cricket world cup, there was another statement win from the hosts today, they thrashed south africa, the team closest to them in the table as virat kohli, on his 35th birthday, equalled the record for most one day international centuries. kohli hit his 49th odi ton, matching the great sachin tendulkar. finishing unbeaten on 101 in their score of 326 for 5 off 50 overs. his individual score would have been enough by itself to win the match. south africa's chase started poorly. the tournament's top scorer quinton de kock departing forjust five, and wickets continued to tumble in kolkata after that. ravindra jadeja took five of them just days after bowling sri lanka out for 55. they knocked south africa over for 83. both teams have qualified for the semi finals, but india maintain their 100 percent record. 8 out of 8, and they are guaranteed to finish top of the table. novak djokovic has won the paris masters for a seventh time, beating grigor dimitrov in in straight sets. the world number one has now won 18 matches in a row since losing the wimbledon final injuly. it was his sixth title of the season, that draws him level with carlos alcaraz, adding to his masters victory in cincinnati. the serbian has been struggling with a stomach virus that's left him feeling under the weather in paris all week. he was taken to three sets in each of his three earlier rounds but didn't face a single break point against dimitrov. max verstappen has won his 17th race of the season, that was the most predictable part of an incident filled sao paulo grand prix. the first of sixth retirements came before the start, as ferrari's charles leclerc crashed on the formation lap. at lights out, william's alex albon and haas�* kevin magnussen collided and the race was red flagged. it was half an hour before they could restart but verstappen pulled away from mclaren's lando norris and the two of them remained untroubled for the rest of the race. behind them fernando alonso overtook verstappen's red bull team mate sergio perez on the final lap to claim third for aston martin and that's all the sport for now. a lot more on the bbc sport website. here in the uk, deputy prime minister, oliver dowden, has denied the conservative party covered up rape allegations against an mp. a report in the mail on sunday says a former party chairman, sirjake berry, raised concerns with the police, because he felt the claims hadn't been properly dealt with. mr dowden told the "sunday with laura kuenssberg programme" that all allegations were taken exceptionally seriously. our political correspondent nick eardley explained what could happen next. sirjake berry was chairman of conservative party for a few weeks when liz truss was prime minister and it was at the end of her tenure when he left office that he wrote this letter to the police basically saying he did not think his party had done enough to deal with these allegations. now there are some really serious claims in this letter that has been reproduced by the mail on sunday saying that there may have been five victims of this person, some of the allegations include multiple rapes and there is the claim you just referenced that the matter has been going on for more than two years and the failure of others to act that allowed this person to keep offending. sirjake berry does not name anyone or name the mp involved, does not name the people he is saying did not deal with this properly or perhaps i should say the mail on sunday does not contain any names because we've not seen the original letter but oliver dowden, now deputy prime minister, used to be chairman of the conservative party and he was for some of the time in question and when he was asked about this this morning, he said we take all of these claims extremely seriously and he denied any suggestion that there had been a cover—up on his watch as tory party chairman but not for the first time, i think what this will do is raise even more questions about the processes about westminster and that big question of whether the culture at westminster deals with allegations quickly enough, whether the political parties, including the conservatives, have robust enough policies to deal with allegations. something different for you now... a stranded sheep — rescued from a remote shore in the scottish highlands yesterday — is expected to soon be heading to its new home — a petting farm. the ewe has been trapped at the foot of some cliffs for years — until 5 farmers came to her rescue. our scotland correspondent alexandra mackenzie has the yarn. the dramatic coastline of the cromarty firth, where the so—called loneliest sheep, renamed fiona, was stranded for at least two years. a kayaker raised the alarm in 2021. the scottish spca said it was unable to find a safe way to rescue the sheep and attempts were made by others but failed due to the challenging terrain. but finally, a rescue mission was organised in a personal capacity by cammy wilson, a sheep shearer from ayrshire and a presenter on the bbc�*s landward programme. i'm very glad my mum is going to watch this after she knows i'm home safe. i should be terrified. —— she'll be terrified. he admitted it was risky, but the team of five farmers got the very heavy sheep successfully back up the steep slope. those who rescued her have described the sheep as very tame and incredibly relaxed. three—year—old fiona has now been shorn for the very first time. let's bring you some live pictures now of southern israel towards gaza. you may see some flashes here and again a reminder it is extremely dark there, communications and the internet have been cut which is what we've heard from the telecommunications company the in gaza. we've also heard from our correspondent on the ground that this is the most intense air strikes since the beginning of the war, that is what he is experiencing the underground and also hearing from the israel defence forces saying millions of israelis are running to bomb shelters saying air raid sirens sounding across central israel due to rockets being fired from gaza. once we verify that and get more from the ground in israel, we will bring you more on that. a reminder there's plenty more on the website including our life age but have now stay with us on bbc news. hello there. it has been a bit drier today, with a mixture of sunshine and showers. still a number of flood warnings, though, focused more across southern england, from hampshire to here in kent, where we have got floodwaters from the river rother earlier. over the week ahead, it is not looking as wet and windy, and for much of the week it is going to be a mixture again of sunshine and showers. we have got some showers around at the moment, and again they will continue mainly for the western side of the uk, but we could see just for a while some heavier showers creeping into the far south—east of england, coming in from the english channel. some breaks in the cloud, particularly in the north—east of scotland, so we could have a touch of frost here. but with those clearer skies, you may be able to get a view of the northern lights in northern scotland. this was a picture taken by a weather watcher last night in aberdeenshire. should be quite a sunny start for many eastern parts of scotland and eastern england this time, before the cloud builds up a bit. the showers are mainly going to be out to the west once again. a day very similar to what we had today. those showers will get blown further east of england, crossing on to the pennines and the midlands. temperatures not changing too much at the moment. typically 11 to 13. low pressure close by, this has got the remnants of storm ciaran in it. it is much weaker now, continuing to fade away. still bringing a few showers as we head through tuesday. moving down from scotland into england and wales, but we should see more sunshine in the afternoon, as those showers start to fade away. temperatures of 11 or 12, near normal for this time of the year. but it will get pretty chilly as soon as the sun goes down before we see this weather front here coming in from the atlantic. that is going to bring a band of rain, probably our only proper band of rain over the week ahead. it will be accompanied by some strong winds, particularly windy through the irish sea, and the heaviest rain — about an inch or so — will be over the high ground in western scotland and north—west england. it is moving through fairly quickly, that's the good news, and there shouldn't be too much rain in the south—eastt. and there shouldn't be too much rain in the south—east. it will be followed by some sunshine, but some showers coming in over the irish sea and affecting northern ireland, perhaps western parts of scotland, where it will be a little bit chillier. otherwise temperatures aren't changing too much over the week ahead. we've got that rain on wednesday, but either side of that, sunshine and showers, heavy showers later in the week. this is bbc news. the headlines... us secretary of state antony blinken has visited the west bank, and iraq, for talks with leaders in the region. he has said discussions are ongoing about a "humanitarian pause" in fighting, to get aid to civilians into gaza. he's now arrived in ankara for talks with his turkish counterpart. big explosions have been reported in northern gaza, where the israeli army is engaged in an intense battle with hamas. our correspondent in gaza says tonight's air strikes have been the most intense since the beginning of the war. israel's military says its forces have "surrounded" gaza city. idf spokesman daniel hagari says troops have reached the coastline, effectively dividing the strip into "gaza north and gaza south". now on bbc news — future earth: episode one. no matter where you live, you probably noticed that 2023 was hot. in fact, the summer was the hottest on record. and as we continue to burn fossil fuels, the science says our planet will continue to get hotter. so how do we keep the cities we live in cool? well, there are some real life solutions here and now. i'm carl nasman and this is future earth. welcome to the new series shining a light on the simple real world solutions we already have to help us solve the biggest challenge of our lifetimes. each week, we'll be taking you on a journey from our forests to the oceans, examining where we live, how we travel and what we eat. we'll show you some paths for tackling the climate crisis, meeting the innovators, action takers and climate heroes who are truly making a difference. coming up this week, we meet the volunteers working to keep the city of atlanta cool and keep these trees from disappearing. the simple solutions that are already making a difference, one coat at a time — how we can protect our bodies from the effects of extreme heat. plus, the people truly in the hot seat — chief heat officers preparing cities for a hotter future. we start with those record—breaking temperatures of 2023. several cities in the us were sweltering, but probably no—one had it quite as bad as people living in phoenix, arizona. now, the state capital saw at least 55 days at or above 110 degrees fahrenheit. as we know, global warming is making heatwaves more frequent and more intense. and of course, extreme heat is also a matter of survival. in the us, it's a bigger killer than hurricanes, tornadoes and floods combined, potentially contributing to as many as 12,000 premature deaths per year in the us. so how can we keep our communities cool? well, it can feel like a huge challenge, but this is just one of the simple but powerful solutions — trees. it's an old idea finding a new urgency, as i found out recently in the city of atlanta. news report: record-breaking heatwave in the east... - many of our cities simply aren't built for the extreme temperatures being fuelled by climate change. but when it comes to urban heat, some solutions really do grow on trees. it might not look like it, but we are just a few minutes outside of the city of atlanta. this is the connolly nature park. these volunteers with the nonprofit trees atlanta are pruning and pulling to help maintain this patch of urban forest full of old school—climate technology. i can't help but think weather—wise and weather disaster—wise, we are better off for all of the trees we have. trees are cheap, easy and effective, lowering temperatures by around ten degrees fahrenheit compared to city streets without them. we keep hearing about it, about the temperatures going up and up. it's like, "we have to do something." so this is what we can do. so if we can increase our canopy cover, that makes everybody a little bit cooler in the long run, really. as climate change makes many cities around the world even hotter, trees are going to play a crucial role, notjust in soaking up excess carbon emissions, but also in providing shade, keeping temperatures down and giving people a place where they can be outside and still stay cool. when people are hot, the places you would see people outside are underneath trees. they cool the environment, but they actually cool you. but these 27 acres of old growth white oak trees nearly disappeared when they were threatened by development. trees atlanta got involved with it about 25, 26 years ago, when it was going to be developed. and the community really wanted to save it. and with a lot of help from community members and some foundations, we ended up saving the forest. and the development went right down the street. atlanta is known as the city in the forest, and in many areas, you can see its trees at work. this is the atlanta beltline. it used to be a railway. now it's several miles of trails, green spaces and trees looping through the city. it's the largest infrastructure project in america right now. so you're doing this connected 22—mile loop that now is a green loop that gives the city a cooling doughnut. but in places where trees are scarce, like downtown, this is the result. atlanta has lost nearly 80,000 trees to development since 2014. and in some areas of the city, you can really feel the difference. dense buildings and a lack of shade trap and reflect heat, making the effect of heatwaves even worse. it's called the urban heat island effect — when materials like concrete absorb the sun's energy and then hold it, cranking up the thermometer way higher than in greener areas. on average, up to 20 degrees fahrenheit hotter. and it often affects poorer, underserved communities. the downtown district of atlanta has the lowest tree canopy cover of any area, just 3%, compared to nearly 50% for the rest of the city. trees atlanta hopes to change that with a plan to plant 8,000 trees in urban and disadvantaged areas. atlanta isn't the only city on a tree planting spree. the inflation reduction act, the biggest green investment in us history, provides $1.5 billion for tree planting over the next decade, and projects are under way in all 50 states, including new york, minnesota, arizona and california. and experts say the best time to start planting is now. the whole heat issue is one that i think is going to sneak up on people, and all of a sudden, they're going to want those trees and need those trees and it's going to get later and later if we don't start doing something now. just plant some trees, take care of them and you will make a big difference. so, many of the world's cities will need to adapt to rising temperatures. and sometimes that challenge is so vast, you can see it from space. now, these are urban heat maps. and the red areas are the parts of cities giving off more heat, the blues show where it's cooler, and it really does show the dramatic impact as well of green spaces, white road surfaces and water on cities, helping to cool things down in a natural way, making them more resistant to deadly heatwaves. now, this is las vegas, nevada, and you can see the impacts of tarmac, concrete surfaces and parking lots. see that red there? that's where that heat is building up throughout the day, and then slowly being released at night. all that retained energy will make hot nights even more uncomfortable for residents living there. now, with climate change fuelling longer, more intense heatwaves, several cities in the us — phoenix, los angeles and miami — have appointed chief heat officers to help organise a response. i spoke with jane gilbert about how she handles the hot seat as the chief heat officer in miami—dade county. i think that some people might be asking themselves, "look, miami—dade county, home of south beach, "you're accustomed to heat. "why does miami—dade county even need "a chief heat officer?" we had seniors ending up in our emergency rooms because they were waiting at a bus stop too long. so extreme heat , nationwide, the number one weather—related killer, climate—related killer. and it is also the same in miami—dade county. and looking ahead, as climate change is likely to rise temperatures even further, to see more heatwaves longer lasting, what would be one piece of advice you might give to a city that isn't yet on the front lines of climate change? how should they be preparing? education and outreach, emergency protocols, housing retrofits and then urban heat island mitigation. facing some of the extreme heat that we've been seeing, it can be easy, maybe, to get lost in doom and gloom. but as a chief heat officer, what gives you hope looking towards the future? what gives me hope is that a lot of the solutions are things that will make our cities more liveable, improve our quality of life, provide localjobs, generate local business opportunities. it's creating that future—ready city that we want to have. we'll have, as a result, more trees, more healthy homes that are more affordable to live in. and we'll bring down our greenhouse gases. all of these and the investments that it will take to get there will provide localjobs and business opportunities. we want to accelerate transit riding, bring down single use cars. that will also improve our quality of life, make pedestrian experience and biking more enjoyable. that's a healthy way to move around. it's a more enjoyable way to move around. so what gives me hope is that by doubling down and accelerating this work within cities, we can create a future city that we want to live in. and it's notjust cities with chief heat officers. there's now the world's first global chief heat officer. you've said before that the way cities are built are deathtraps for people. just help us understand that. what do you mean by that? it's a little dramatic, but basically what i was trying to express is that our cities are really not made for the kind of climate conditions that we are and we will be facing in the future, especially in relation to extreme heat. how can we start redesigning our cities? we have to really detach ourselves from the use of fossil fuels, and we have to do that fast because we're heating up faster than we thought we're heating up as a planet. and of course, some places are heating up faster than other places. like, for example, europe is heating up twice as fast as the average global temperatures. yes, we can redesign our cities so that they can be cooler, much cooler. we have to think about, "how do we use the public space to actually cool cities "instead of heat cities up?" we also have to make sure that we have specific measures to protect the most vulnerable populations in our cities, like the old people and the little kids and the people with pre—existing conditions and the people that have jobs that expose them to extreme heat. what kinds of solutions have you seen that are already working, that are already being rolled out, to try to accomplish some of what you just said in terms ofjust getting those temperatures down? so, awareness raising. one of the measures that we have taken that i think can change awareness is categorisation of heatwaves. so we can... our brain kind of deals with categories better than... it kind of links categories to risk and to danger. so, you know, you can add colours to that, yellows and oranges and reds, and you can also name heatwaves. another thing that i know that is important is labour laws, like people actually making sure that people that are working in particularly risky conditions do not work under specific hours during the day, take breaks, drink water, and they don't have to choose between feeding their families and risking their lives when they're picking garbage or when they are at salt mines or when they're selling things under extraordinary sun and heat. and also, of course, as i said, there's great examples of cities that are transforming themselves from bringing nature— based solutions. so cities are unearthing rivers and are kind of creating urban forests. and this is really, really making our cities more beautiful and more liveable. well, heat isn'tjust about discomfort. it's also a matter of health and preventing deaths. so, we know that extreme heat can kill. but what actually happens to our bodies? 0h! our medical editor, fergus walsh, visited the heat chamber at st mary's university in london. it's been used by sporting greats like andy murray and max verstappen. but even an amateur like me can show how heat affects our physiology. as my core body temperature starts to creep up, blood vessels near the surface of the skin open up, pushing heat to the surface, trying always to keep that core body temperature on an even keel. that can mean a drop in blood pressure as the heart works harder. now, another key way in which my body regulates its core temperature is through sweat. that's why dehydration can quickly become a problem. working out in this heat is not recommended, but staying fit all year round is. people who regularly exercise are regularly experiencing higher body temperatures internally, because you produce a lot of heat when you exercise. so then that leads to better preparation for these heatwaves. the elderly and those with heart and lung conditions are most at risk from extreme heat, but even the young and fit can feel the effects. it's not just about what the thermometer says. there's another element that we have to think about here, and that's, "how does it actually feel to your body?" that's something that's called the heat index, which my colleague nomia iqbal explains. it's a combination of air temperature and relative humidity and considers both meteorology and biology because it measures the weather's effect on the body. why is that important? because while the temperature can read 90 degrees fahrenheit on a thermostat, humidity can make it feel an extra 10 to 15 degrees hotter. so 90 fahrenheit or 32 celsius is actually 105 fahrenheit or a0 celsius. an extreme heat index makes it harderfor us to combat high temperatures. our body's natural cooling mechanism is sweating, but sweating is not as effective when the heat index is high. and it can be deadly, taking the weather from manageable to dangerous, causing heat strokes, cramps and heat exhaustion. according to a recent study, our exposure to dangerous heat index levels is expected to increase by about ten times as much due to the climate crisis. so what can you do to fight it? limit the amount of time you spend outdoors, drink plenty of water, wear light, loose clothing, and always look for shade outdoors. well, there's already some exciting solutions being rolled out in the us and around the globe. and they don't have to be expensive either, like painting roofs with ultra white uv paint. now, this might sound simple, but the results are impressive. scientists in the us have developed a paint that's significantly whiter than the whitest paint currently available. tests carried out by researchers at purdue university in 2021 on their ultra white paint showed that it reflected more than 98% of sunlight. our science correspondent victoria gill found out more about it. cool, heat—reflecting white roofs are already an urban climate solution that's been embraced in cities around the world. in new york, more than 10 million square feet of roofs have been coated with white heat reflecting paint. but these scientists say their ultra white paint could make those roofs even cooler. while the whitest currently available paints reflect between 80 and 90% of sunlight, these researchers say theirs reflects more than 98%. covering a 1,000 square foot roof with this paint, they estimate, would provide more cooling power than a typical central air conditioner. every 1% of reflectance you get will translate to ten watts per metre square less heating from the sun. so, basically, it provides cooling of 18 kilowatts. that's really a big deal. that's more than a typical air conditioner does for a house with that same kind of space. the secret to its formulation also makes it relatively cheap to produce. the scientists use high concentrations of a compound called barium sulphate that's already used to make paper. in recent years, we've seen white paint splashed across the roofs of cities around the world. now, this is new york city, where over 10 million square feet of rooftops have been painted white under a plan called nyc cool roofs, which says that if every roof surface in the city were covered in the reflective paint, it could cool the city by about 3 degrees fahrenheit. and in india, a nonprofit has been helping women paint their homes and build heat resistance. translation: before, - we'd burn if you walked barefoot. you couldn't stand here without slippers. the charity has helped paint the roofs of 5,000 homes. shakila's neighbours say they're interested, too. her grandson, mohammed, is one happy customer. translation: it used to be so hot that we could not stay indoors - for a stretch of five minutes. but now it's not the case. it's much cooler inside. today, this little boy has drifted off. the mahila housing trust has been working in informal settlements in india for 28 years and has installed 30,000 cool roofs in nine different states. i caught up with their programme manager, bhavna maheriya. first of all, can you just describe the heat that people in your communities, during the warmest part of the year, are dealing with? i mean, what does that feel like? during the summer, in our grassroot communities, they are suffering a lot. actually, their productivity goes very down and that electricity consumption getting very high, and of course it's affecting their income also. who is affected by this heat the most in these communities? of course, women and children, the pregnant women also, the...aged people also. and we also have seen that their houses are very small. in small, like, in ten by ten room, if five or seven members are staying together, then also heat affect a lot because there is no ventilation and maximum people are, like, staying, living together in small room. so that also affect. i also understand that one of the solutions that you are implementing has to do with painting the roofs of some people's homes white. can you tell me about that? so in ahmedabad, recently, we have, like, applied this reflective white paint. there is one slum... in that slum, more than 100 roofs, we have painted. and now from other communities, they are also, like, raising the demand for solar reflective white paint, because the paint is... of course, the result is around four to five degree celsius. the reduction is also there. their electricity consumption is also reduced. and the third thing is this reflective white paint life is three years. so after three years, again, they need to apply. after implementing these solutions, what kind of reaction have you gotten from people in the community? what are they telling you? when we went there and we asked about what kind of benefit you are getting from applying this solar reflective white paint... women, because in gujarat, women are home base workers, so they are doing some either food processing or some textile, like, mala making kind of work or maybe paper making work. stick makers are there, so their work is really... their home is their workplace. so during the daytime, just because of excessive heat, they were not able to work during the daytime and it was affecting their income. so now women are saying that after applying this paint now, between 2.00 to 5.00pm, they can easily work. they can work during the daytime. and of course they are getting more income also, because their electricity consumption has been reduced because they have applied reflective white paint. researchers at the university of chicago have been looking into the impact of cool roofs, not only on temperatures but also on precious resources like water, which is often used in india for cooling. so we've studied these roofs in the context of urban slums in delhi. and, you know, one of the interesting things we found was sort of an engineering kind of one—on—one description of these roofs would be, "you make the roof reflective, "so temperatures come down." what we found also was that people are using a lot of water to cool down their homes and that water is scarce. you don't have sort of piped water in the house, so it comes with tankers. and so what happens is you're competing with kind of drinking water, bathing and so on. and cooling your home is one of those things you can do. and so what we found, some evidence suggesting was when you put on this reflective paint, indoor temperatures only dropped by a very small amount because people start using less water for cooling. so in other words, the adjustment is behavioural. it's that, "i would rather have more water "than have a cooler home, so i'm going to reduce my inputs "and let the roof take on some of that burden." of course, painting the world's roofs white won't solve the climate crisis on its own, but it shows how small and simple solutions could be one of the many tools in our arsenal to help reduce emissions and tackle rising heat without relying on air conditioning. with our cities now facing so many climate challenges, urban experts are finding new, innovative ways of transforming our public spaces. in new york city, the high line transformed these elevated train tracks into a public park in the sky. and the little island project built an urban oasis on the hudson river. here in washington, dc, this is canal park. it used to be a parking lot. now, it's an urban park, bringing nature into the middle of the city. in the last ten years, we've had a much larger expansion of the installation of these projects. and we are seeing the benefits. we're seeing larger amount of tree canopy, shading streets, reducing your heat island effect there. it is a worthy investment, even if it looks like it's expensive or challenging in the front end. green roofs are another option. people put vegetated roofing systems on their homes or commercial buildings, and essentially they cool the building itself off. and it's engineered to absorb storm water, rainwater that comes from the sky. the more intense, the cooler it tends to be because you've got more vegetation. but the different studies have shown a reduction in adjacent like temperatures, up to about three degrees celsius. and there's plenty of solutions that are a bit more hidden, like reclaiming rainwaterfor use in irrigation and fountains, electric vehicle charging and native heat—resistant plants. it's all about planning for the climate of the future. as we go into the future, and cities are facing all these different challenges — from one in 100 storms to long heatwaves — how do projects and parks like this fit into that future? yeah, so it's. .. these kinds of parks, it's really important to design parks that are built for long term planning. so a lot of these trees that are selected for the edges are designed to be there for 200 years. the more buy—in you get from your community and the more support... the green domino effect? exactly, yeah. so that's really important. making sure people are comfortable with what you're doing, i think, helps create more resilient projects that are most likely to thrive long term. our concrete jungles still have a long way to go. but with innovations and people like our chief heat officers, there's certainly cause for hope. now, we've seen a small handful of the real life simple solutions that are already here, and we know cities are working to make these changes and give us that hope for the future. i'm carl nasman, and this has been future earth. it has been a bit drier today, with a mixture of sunshine and showers. still a number of flood warnings, though, focused more across southern england, from hampshire to here in kent, where we have got floodwaters from the river rother earlier. the aurora is very strong commensurate taking a look outside. he is a camera or a mobile phone to see the best views, because those are bits of equipment are more sensitive than our eyes to low levels of light. but you have a chance over the next few hours. weather—wise, a few showers coming and going, you can see some fairly lengthy clear spells. once it is dark, you have a chance of spotting the aurora. in two monday's forecast, a day of sunshine and showers. starting off, most of us will have a fine morning with plenty of sunshine around. most of the shower really get going into the afternoon. they could be slightly longer spells of rain coming into west scotland and maybe northern counties of northern ireland. our temperatures continue to be a little bit more average than the time of year. more showers to come on tuesday, again, a lot of sunshine. the showers have been most frequent into the northwest of both england and wales. and we get this ridge of high pressure building and during tuesday afternoon. it will kill the showers off in northern ireland, central and southern wales and southwest england having a fine and to the day as well. that ridge of high pressure is going to be short—lived. pushed out of the way ijy short—lived. pushed out of the way by this next weather system coming in off the atlantic for wednesday. it's going to be a wet day with around 20—30 ammendment of rain expected. could bring one or two issues. have to be careful in northern ireland where it has been so went over recent times. showers and winds picking up later in the day in the west. temperatures will start to come down a little bit across northern areas. 11—13 for england and wales. towards the end of the become of this area of low pressure is going to swing through the uk, and as it does so, we will start to get a chillier flow of air coming in from the northwest. now, temperatures might not change very much on the face of it, but those northwesterly winds will start to make the weather feel a little cooler. there will be showers around to end the week with more general outbreaks of rain heading, it looks, for some of us come into next weekend. live from london. this is bbc news... the israeli bombardment of gaza continues. our correspondent in gaza says tonight's air strikes have been the most intense since the beginning of the war. us secretary of state antony blinken visits the west bank, and iraq, for talks with leaders in the region. he says discussions are ongoing about a "humanitarian pause" in fighting. there's no doubt from my conversations with all of our colleagues who were in oman yesterday that everyone would welcome the humanitarian pause, because, again, it can advance things that we're all trying to accomplish, including getting hostages back, including getting a lot more assistance into gaza, including getting people out of gaza. israel says its forces have cut gaza in two after its ground offensive against hamas reached the coast of the palestinian territory. they reached the beach at the southern part of the city of gaza and they've encircled gaza and today we have gaza north and gaza south. hello, i'm azadeh moshiri. fighting in gaza is intensifying and communications are down for a third time. our correspondent in gaza rushdi abualouf has told us that tonight's bombardment seems to be the most intense since the beginning of the war, targeting the northwest of the gaza