welcome to bbc news — broadcasting to viewers in the uk and around the world. we begin in the united states where the president's son, hunter biden, has been found guilty of lying about his drug use, to illegally buy a gun. the jury in the trial in delaware, convicted him on all three counts. he could face a maximum of 25 years in jail. sarah smith has been following the trial and sent us this report from wilmington. hand—in—hand with his step—mother, the first lady, as well as his wife, hunter biden left court a convicted felon. this trial peppered with lurid details from his private life and previous addiction to crack cocaine has clearly put great stress on the whole family. joe biden appeared after the verdict, ironically at a gun safety event, not mentioning his son. in a statement, he said he loved hunter and he's proud of the man he is today. he then set off to travel to delaware to be with his son this evening. during the trial, prosecutors argued that hunter biden had committed a crime by lying on a form about his drug use when buying a revolver in october 2018. that gun, along with remnants of crack and drug paraphernalia, were discovered in his car by his then partner hallie biden who was also his sister—in—law, the widow of his brother beau who had died of cancer three years earlier. prosecutors showed video of her trying to dispose of the weapon in a dumpster and she told the court, "i realise it was a stupid idea now, but i was panicking." "why did you panic?" asked the prosecutor. "because i didn't want him to hurt himself, and i didn't want my kids to find it and hurt themselves." hunter biden had already described his drug addiction in a book. excerpts of the audio version read by the author himself were played in court. smoking crack cocaine every three days and soon became smoking every two days, then every other day, then every hour of every day. his defence argued that hunter biden wasn't using drugs around the time he bought the gun but the jury rejected that. donald trump insists he was only convicted because president biden is using the legal system to persecute his political opponent. claims that are undermined by the guilty verdict against the president's own son. thank you very much. the justice department said they care only about the law, not politics. no—one in this country is above the law. everyone must be accountable for their actions, even this defender. however, hunter biden should be no more accountable than any other citizen convicted of this same conduct. hunter biden's wilful refusal to comply... i hunter biden has also been investigated by republicans in congress who accused him of peddling influence while his father was vice president. no charges have resulted from that and attempts to impeachjoe biden in connection with his son's business dealings have come to nothing. sara smith, bbc news, wilmington, delaware. to developments in the middle east and hamas has responded to the american—led proposals for a ceasefire and hostage—release deal in gaza, saying they view the plan favourably. in a statement, they said they were ready to move towards a deal — but they insisted that any ceasefire must be permanent. israel has been reluctant to end the war, while hamas retains its ability to carry out further attacks. the us says it's considering their response. our correspondent hugo bachega is injerusalem and gave us his assessment of events. hamas has expressed readiness to reach a deal, but it is sticking to its initial demands and they include a guarantee that there will be a permanent ceasefire in gaza and also the complete withdrawal of israeli forces from the territory. now, qatar and egypt, which have been mediating the talks, say they have received this response from hamas and that they will co—ordinate the next steps in these negotiations with the united states. now, the deal being discussed is a three stage plan that was announced by president biden. he described it as an israeli proposal. the first stage of this plan would see the release of hostages being held in gaza and then pave the way for a permanent cease fire. now, hamas wants a guarantee of a permanent ceasefire because they fear that once the hostages are out, the israeli military may return to gaza to continue with its military operation against the group. now, the israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, had previously said that israel would not commit to an end of the war without achieving its goals of destroying hamas's military and governing capabilities in gaza. so, where to next — now that hamas has responded to the proposal again emphasising their requirement for a permanent ceasefire? i asked benjamin radd — political scientist at the ucla burkle center for international relations. the oness is on hamas leadership, specifically yahya sinwar, who is the one apparently holding up the deal. the issue about stage one of the proposal, as the united nations security council agreed 14 to nothing in favour of would have a short term cease fire in exchange for the release of a certain category of hostages and then also release of palestinian prisoners held by israel. but it seems that sinwar, who is the one that opposes the short term aspect of that initial stage, is the one holding up this end of the deal. in terms of the position of the israeli government, will that still been ambiguous, while it has officially accepted the peace plan, prime minister netanyahu has sought to distance himself from it. do you see on the israeli side, will he be able to follow through? i believe so. i think now, especially with the departure of the moderates from his war cabinet, the pressure is on netanyahu, both from now the left and the right from domestic opposition in the country and also from outside the country as well. and biden, excuse me, secretary blinken has received assurances that netanyahu privately would support and go forward with the terms of the proposal as it exists currently, the one that the security council itself had supported as well. so i think that that would not be an obstacle if if hamas be an obstacle if hamas agreed to the terms and left to that option, i think israel would absolutely go through with it. i just want to stay on that point that you mentioned. benny gantz is out of the war cabinet over gaza. there are fears that benjamin netanyahu will have to now pander to the hard right to stay in power for political survival on the domestic front. but what does that mean for a potential peace plan? that's going to pose difficulties for stage three. stage two and stage three, really, of the three part plan, namely, what type of ruling or governing coalition or entity would come into gaza once israel completes its withdrawal under stage two. and from the perspective of the hard liners in netanyahu's cabinet, they want no remnants or vestiges, notjust of hamas, but also of the palestinian authority based out of the west bank. that is where gantz had a position that differed from the rest of the hardline members of the cabinet. many in israel believe that there is and should be a place for moderate palestinians from the palestinian authority and other similar like minded groups to have a place of leadership in the post reconstruction period within gaza. and that's where you find the differences. in the current circumstances very briefly, what does a war scenario look like for gaza? well, it's going to involve a coalition of international and regional groups, including arab countries, european leaders, the united nations, the united states, and also local palestinian officials, representatives who have legitimacy among the palestinian people. and, of course, israel facilitating and allowing the reconstruction to take place. so it will be a combined sort of coalition effort to not only help rebuild physically the infrastructure, but also set up systems for governance and to prevent the type of anarchy and lawlessness that hamas had ruled over and allowed to exist for years. washington's top diplomat, antony blinken, who's visiting the region, said earlier on tuesday that the success of any peace plan depends on hamas accepting it. he also announced a further aid package to help those in gaza. today i'm announcing an additional $404 million in new aid to palestinians in addition to the more than $1.8 billion in development, economic and humanitarian aid that the united states has provided since 2021. as we convey directly to the israeli government, it is crucial to speed up the inspection of trucks and reduce backlogs. to provide greater clarity on — and shorten the list of — prohibited goods. to increase visas for aid workers and to process them more quickly. in the uk, the conservatives have put tax cuts at the heart of their manifesto, as they launched their programme for government if they return to power after the election. among the policies announced was cut in national insurance, scrapping the main rate of national insurance for the self—employed; and they pledged a new �*help to buy�* scheme for potential homeowners. our political editor chris mason was at the manifesto launch and sent us this report. halfway through this election race — it's the moment for the cardboard boxes. within them, bundles of promises, not always kept, that set out a party's blueprint for the next five years. so, the manifesto is here, so is the cabinet, then the prime minister... music, applause, an ovation from party supporters, yes, but also this — a candid acknowledgement from rishi sunak about how you may feel about him and the conservatives. i'm not blind to the fact that people are frustrated with our party and frustrated with me. things are not always been easy and we have not got everything right. but we are the only party in this election with the big ideas to make our country a better place to live. a central theme of this manifesto is tax cuts, including a promise of another 2p cut in employee national insurance. by 2027, we will have halved national insurance to 6% — that is a tax cut, my friends, worth £1,300 to the average worker. rishi sunak praised the enterprise and risk—taking of the self—employed and said this... in the next parliament, we will scrap entirely the main rate of self—employed national insurance. and having acknowledged on bbc panorama last night that it has become harder to buy a home in recent years, the prime minister said he wanted to make it easier... for the first—time buyers purchasing a home up to £425,000, we will abolish stamp duty entirely. stamp duty is a tax on buying a home in england and northern ireland. next, what about the plan to send some migrants to rwanda? some conservatives say it's time the uk left the european convention on human rights, or echr, to make this easier, but mr sunak stopped short of saying that. if we are forced to choose between our security and thejurisdiction of a foreign court, including the echr, we will always choose our nation's security. for much of the last 18 months, you have tried everything to try and revive conservative fortunes and not much appears to have worked. could we rename this document today your last chance saloon? well, chris, i've been very clear when i got this job that we'd been through a very difficult time as a country. if you want a secure future, if you want lower taxes, if you want your pensions protected, if you want a more sensible approach to net zero and you want your borders secure, vote conservative at this election. and there ended, perhaps, this man's last big set piece moment to change his fortunes. time, then, to scuttle through the crowds and talk to some cabinet ministers. what do you make of that? i think this is a really exciting manifesto for the future and what i love about it is that it addresses every stage of our lives. mr gove, if this is a game changer, why are you standing down? me? well, i'm an old war horse who has been put out to grass because we need a new generation to support the prime minister in the future. it's a "fudge—arama" on the european convention of human rights? if there is a contradiction between an adjudication in a foreign court and our ability to protect our borders, we protect our borders. are you going to win? this is absolutely in our grasp. i know we're behind in the polls... i notice you're not saying yes. well, it's an election and i can't predict the outcome of an election, that's not myjob. the outcome of the election is yourjob at home. the cases the different parties are making are becoming clearer. chris mason, bbc news, at silverstone. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news. india says two of its nationals have been killed, fighting illegally for russian forces in ukraine. the indian foreign ministry said it had urged the russian authorities to repatriate the bodies of the two deceased. it further added that it had strongly called for moscow to release and repatriate all indian nationals currently with the russian army. indian media say dozens of nationals have been duped by agents into fighting for russian forces with the lure of money and the promise of obtaining russian passports. 0ur south asia regional editor, anbarasan ethirajan. explained the indian government has been concerned about the posibility of fatalities for some time. the indian authorities are worried about the reports of nearly 200 indians fighting in the ukraine war, most of them on the russian side. and what the authorities are saying is that there are agents sitting in the middle east somewhere in dubai or in some other places they recruit, these very unsuspecting indian nationals, young men looking forjobs with the promise of more than $1,000 worth ofjobs, and also within a few months, a russian passport. so they were being duped to come and do some support roles for the russian army. and later on, they were given combat roles and that is how they were being duped. that is what the indian authorities say. now, this the death of two more indian nationals would have come as a big shock to the new indian government. the prime minister narendra modi was sworn in on sunday. so it will be a big challenge now for the foreign ministry to talk to the russians, to send back the remaining indians who they believe are fighting for the russian forces without the permission, because india doesn't allow its nationals to go and join another army. in fact, on that point, the indian government has not taken a strong position against russia's war in ukraine, given its traditional proximity to russia. if we see more indians recruited and killed, do you feel that may change perceptions about the war on the indian side? well, india and russia, they share very close strategic and defence ties for decades. and this issue has come as an irritant because india also is aware of the domestic — how this will play out domestically because of more indians getting killed in russia means that will be a warning sign. that is why privately the indian authorities have been putting pressure on russia and moscow to send back. in fact, about 20 of them have come back. 20 indians were fighting for the russian forces have come back. but in the long run, if this continues, then that will put pressure on mr modi's government. it is notjust india. we are also talking about countries like nepal and sri lanka in the region where they have urged the nationals not to go and fight in russia. around 20 people, 20 nepalese were killed and also 16 sri lankan former soldiers who went to fight as mercenaries. so it's notjust about india, it's also about the south asian region, how the conflict in ukraine is having a global impact. very briefly, what can be done to crack down on these recruiting agents on the government side? the indian government says they have already arrested some suspects who allegedly recruited indians to go to russia. and also, they are now preventing, asking a lot of questions at the immigration, why they were going, where they were going. but then these agents can find always another route, like going to first to the middle east and then to russia. and that is a challenge for the indian government. hundreds of caged animals for sale as pets have died during a fire at a famous market in the thai capital, bangkok. birds, dogs, cats and snakes were among those killed. the fire at jatuujack market started in the early hours of the morning, and is thought to have been caused by an electrical fault. here's michael bristow — asia pacific editor for the bbc�*s world service — with more about the market. well, this fire began in a section of the market which sells pets, essentially. and you mentioned some of those there also snakes, birds, fish, all kinds of things. it's a massive market, the biggest in thailand, one of the biggest in southeast asia. and it sells all kinds of things from food to clothes to furniture and antiques. this particular section sold pets. it's open monday to sunday. so all week the market itself is popular on the weekend. but this particular section for pets is open throughout the week. and that's where the fire began, began in the early hours of the morning. so it started and wasn't detected for some time and apparently has destroyed about 100 shops in this kind of tightly knit area with lots of little alleyways. and about a thousand animals have so far died campaigners and about a thousand animals have so far died. campaigners and they've got two main points about this market. first of all, they say that the conditions which a lot of the animals are kept in aren't simply good enough, and they think that the market shouldn't open again. the second argument against this is that they argue that lots of illegal or lots of protected and endangered animals are trafficked through this market. they're brought into thailand illegally and sold at the market. so that's for two reasons why they want it closed down. they've called on the authorities in bangkok not to reopen this particular part of the market, even though it's very popular. firefighters are battling wildfires in brazil's pantanal the world's largest tropical wetland. close to 32,000 hectares have already been destroyed by the fires in the state of mato grosso do sul according to local media report. the pantanal is home to jaguars, giant anteaters and giant river otters. the number of fires from the start of the year till now has been 935% higher than the same period last year according to brazil's national institute for space research. so, to put into context the scale of what we're seeing i spoke to regina rodrigues from florianapolis in brazil — a climate professor at the federal university of santa catarina. the second biggest fire extinction since 2015 and so 2010 and is huge. but this is due to the drought, the drought last year it was very severe during the rainy season. so now we are heading to the dry season already in dry conditions due to the failure of the rainy season last year. and the high season i was reading for wildfires is not due to start untiljuly. so would you say there is a worry that the worst is yet to come? yes. the peak is, as i said, they started injuly and the peak is august, september. and we are already seeing these fires now. so it's very worrying. could you give us a sense of the areas which are being affected and the flora and fauna just to help understand what we're looking at? well, as you said, this hectare is huge area and the pantanal is a wetland, which is we've seen this more and more frequent now, which is really worrying. but this area of the midwest of brazil is is getting really hot and dry almost every year. we have heat waves even during the winter, which is now during the dry season. and so, yeah, it is really shocking because now is very is home to extraordinary biodiversity with more than 636 bird, 300 fish species, 200 mammal species and 3500 plant species, unique for the place, including, as you said, jaguar and all the other very unique animals. and this is this is really upsetting. and in terms of solutions, well, the federal government has said that they will be working with the state governments to combat this. do you see a strategy in place to deal with the fires? well, yeah, but the place now that is lost for years but is is difficult because even though the droughts are bigger player, obviously the fires generally started by humans. they are human induced. right. and the expansion of the soy plantations are getting to this area of the pantanal and they are the forest in the area. and putting sometimes fire and with the dry conditions is the perfect combination to to get out of control. to get out of control. so the federal government now is is actually helping the local government to try to come back to try to combat the fires. and finally this half hour, officials in kosovo's capital preesh—tina are offering fifty dollars a month to people who adopt a stray dog. at least 4000 dogs are believed to live on the city's streets, often creating problems for residents, including dog attacks. the mayor of pristina is spending more than $300,000 on efforts to catch, sterilise and immunise the street dogs ahead of their adoption. that's all for now. stay with bbc news. hello there. it's felt quite pleasant in any strong june sunshine. but generally temperatures have been below par for this time of year and wednesday looks pretty similar to the last few days. some spells of sunshine, variable cloud and further showers mostly across eastern areas. i think there'll be fewer showers around on wednesday because this is a ridge of high pressure, will tend to kill the showers off. the winds will be lighter, but we're still got that blue hue, that cold arctic air hanging around for at least one more day before something milder starts to push in off the atlantic, but with wind and rain. so it's a chilly start to wednesday. temperatures could be in low single digits in some rural spots. these are towns and city values. a little bit of mist and fog where skies have cleared overnight, but it's here where you'll have the best of the sunshine, northern and western areas. a bit of cloud across eastern scotland, eastern england, one 01’ two showers. through the day, it'll be one of sunshine and showers, but the clouds will tend to build most of the showers eastern areas, tending to stay drier towards the west with the best of the sunshine. so it could be up to 17 or 18 degrees in the sunniest spots, but generally cool, ten to 15 or 16 celsius. and then as we move through wednesday night, any showers fade away, lengthy, clear skies. the temperatures will tumble against mist and fog developing. temperatures in rural spots dipping close to freezing in a few places. generally, though, in the towns and cities, we're looking at 4 to eight degrees. now we'll start to see some changes into thursday. we change the wind direction, we lose that cooler air, something a bit milder. but this frontal system tied into low pressure will start to bring wet and windy weather initially into northern ireland, spreading across the irish sea, into western britain and pushing its way eastward. so we start dry with some early sunshine across eastern areas and it should stay dry, i think in eastern england, eastern scotland until after dark. we change the wind direction despite more cloud around, 17 or 18 degrees. and it means thursday night will be milder. so a milder start to friday, but low pressure across the country bring stronger winds, sunshine and showers or longer spells of rain. some of these showers will be heavy and thundery, particularly across southern and western areas. but despite that, in the sunshine, it'll feel a little bit warmer, maybe 19 or 20 degrees. not much change into the weekend, low pressure dominates the scene. it'll be breezy at times. there will be showers or longer spells of rain again, some of them heavy and thundery. but in the sunnier, brighter moments, it'llfeela bit warmer, 19 or 20 degrees. and another thing you'll notice, it will feel milder at night. take care. the fight to be the world's most valuable company heats up, after apple announces new ai tools on its devices. and how long can you survive without your smartphone? we put a group of british teenagers to the test. hello and welcome to business today. i'm arunoday mukharji. apple shares have surged to a record high, after it unveiled new ai tools. apple is now a $3.18 trillion dollar company, just behind microsoft which remains the world's most valuable company. from new york, erin delmore has the details. investors have been waiting for months to see how apple would embrace ai and propelled many other