cheering. i know like millions of americans know, when you get knocked down, you get back up. cheering. our north america correspondent nomia iqbal was at the rally and described whether it will make a difference for voters come november. well, bear in mind we've got another debate potentially in september. i think for a lot of people here, just listening to what the supporters were saying, they view it as a bad night what happened last night. they don't try and sugar—coat it. they say it wasn't great. one woman said to me, "i was very upset by the reviews and wanted to come "here to support him." they believe that we're injune, the election is in november, we've got still some time to go. people will forget. but i don't think, or we will have to see, it will quell the fears that we are seeing in the democratic party because president biden will be doing more appearances. as i mentioned, there will be another debate in september, which he has said he will do, donald trump has said he will do. but i think that certainly mr biden and supporters here in key swing states will be hoping that his performance today will have, you know, quelled some fears that he is not up for the job. as i said, president biden made it very clear tonight that he is still the man to take on donald trump. former president donald trump has also been speaking at a rally in virginia, claiming victory in thursday's debate with president biden. he called for the release of those arrested for their involvement in the january 6th capitol riots. mr trump also criticised biden�*s record and said he was incapable of winning, arguing the problem wasn't his age but what he called his "gross incompetence". but he didn't believe mr biden would quit the race. we had a big victory against a man that really is looking to destroy our country. he is the worst. he is the most corrupt, the most incompetent president in the history of our country. he got the debate rules that he wanted. he got the date that he wanted. he got the network that he wanted, with the moderates he wanted. no amount of rest or rigging could help him defend his atrocious record. mick mulvaney is donald trump's former chief of staff. he explains how he thinks trump will treat the next few months of the campaign. the same as he would've otherwise. i think he will move forward with a great deal more confidence. of course, donald trump has plenty of confidence to begin with. but how could you not feel good about your performance vis—a—visjoe biden last night. you might hear trump start having more open debate about whether or not not only isjoe biden capable of running in 2024, is he capable of doing the job now. if donald trump had had that type of performance in 2019, your publication, most publications, would have been clamouring for the 25th amendment. that was an embarrassment last night and clearly someone with limited mental capacity, at least temporarily perhaps, but i expect to continue to see donald trump pound on that issue because it is a winning issue. listen, added to this, it used to be about immigration, inflation and israel — it used to be the three is — now this election is about the four is — immigration, inflation, israel and incapacity — and you would expect donald trump to continue to press on all four of those. former senior adviser tojohn kerry and democratic strategist mary anne marsh shared her analysis on biden�*s performance. it was a bad debate night and i do not think we know yet the damage that was done by last night. i mean, donald trump is not mitt romney. joe biden is not barak obama. there is no real historical comparison here. but here is what happened last night. the debate last night has forced america to confront its flaws. you have donald trump the republican nominee, convicted felon on 3a counts, who literally lied for 90 minutes unchecked by anybody. you had joe biden who was unable to check him because he did not perform last night. and you had the media moderators who did not do any fact checking and it makes me question the point of having journalists and outlets like that that do these debates. but these three elements — the republican party's unwillingness to unload donald trump, joe biden�*s failure to perform last night, the media not being able to figure out how to handle donald trump since 2015 — has led us to this day. so, yes, right after the debate, joe biden was thejoe biden we have seen many times, just like thejoe biden that performed today, just like thejoe biden that performed today. he has to do that every day if he is to continue, but i think until there is real data and looking at real polls and real numbers in terms of how voters feel about this, it is uncharted territory and i do not think we know where we are and that really hampers where we need to go. foreign policy has become one of the focal issues in the race between biden and trump, with the pair sparring over their contrasting visions for america's role on the world stage. the outcome of november's presidential election may major implications for how the us engages with its allies abroad, and for the ongoing conflicts in ukraine and gaza. 0ur correspondents in moscow, kyiv and jerusalem were watching for reactions around the world. it was four o'clock in the morning here in moscow when the us presidential debate got under way. was vladimir putin watching? well, later his spokesman told me, "you would not expect that russian president "to set his alarm clock and get up early to watch a us debate." which was not technically a no. i'm sure someone in the kremlin was glued to this because moscow understands that the us election could have a direct impact on russia's war on ukraine. certainly if vladimir putin was watching, he would have enjoyed the spectacle, because ofjoe biden�*s shaky performance. there is no love lost between the two leaders. the kremlin would have noted and appreciated donald trump's criticism of the scale of us military assistance to kyiv as well as the fact that at times it sounded as if mr trump was blaming mr biden more than mr putin for the war in ukraine. the sense is that there was more heat than light when it came to the comments about ukraine in the debate. each of the candidates tried to blame the other for the invasion of ukraine. president trump, former president trump, saying that it was because of joe biden�*s week policy on afghanistan, and president biden saying it was because of donald trump's relationship with vladimir putin, if you like, giving him the green light. i think there was one significant moment where the moderators tried to press donald trump on the idea of a deal, which he has proposed he could get somehow with russia, to end the war, and whether ukraine would have to accept russia's terms, which effectively means giving up large chunks of its territory. he said no but did not really give any more details behind that. he did though say that ukraine was getting a lot of money from the united states. he talked about $200 billion and about president zelensky being a very effective salesman when he went to washington, so the implication, i think, of that would be that perhaps he will use that as a leverage on ukraine to try and force it to the negotiating table. i don't think the expectations were very high ahead of this debate that either president biden or donald trump would really have any kind of a new roadmap to try and help the region extricate itself from this desperately difficult situation that it's in — the war between hamas and israel in gaza, and the widening regional tensions. we certainly did not have that. i do not think that the dial was really moved in terms of policy. both men there, standing to be president of the usa, that essentially means that traditionally they show very strong support for israel. and they both did that. there was one moment when president biden was defending his record on gaza against criticism from donald trump when he said that he saved israel. now i do not think that is going to necessarily help the fractious relationship that's been building between him and the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu who might look at scant on that. netanyahu who might look askants on that. as far as palestinians are concerned, arabs, pro—palestinian voices, i think they would feel that one of the big things that was missing was essentially any recognition of what the palestinians have been going through in gaza and beyond. a us supreme court decision limiting the power of federal agencies is expected to affect the lives of millions of americans. conservative justices flipped what's known as the �*chevron deference�* — a case involving the oil giant in a 6 to 3 vote on friday. the 1984 ruling in chevron usa versus the natural resources defense council granted federal agency officials leeway to decide how to implement ambiguous laws in various sectors of life. until now, the us government used the framework in disputes to regulate financial markets, workplaces, consumers and the environment. friday's ruling means regulatory powers now pass tojudges, although it does not apply to past agency regulations. earlier i spoke to sam sankar. he's the senior vice president for programs at earthjustice, the nation's largest public interest environmental law essentially what this does is end a0 years of regulating big business. what is your reaction? i am really disappointed. over the last eight years, really during donald trump's presidency, we have gone in the us from having a centre—right supreme court to a radically right supreme court. the six justices today who struck down the old chevron decision were appointed precisely because they favour restricting the power of the federal government and that is what they did today because a lot of what the federal government does is regulate of the public and that could be about food and drug safety, car safety, banking regulations, you name it. when federal agencies write the regulations about those things they have to base them on laws that congress writes but the laws that congress rights are not always perfect. there are gaps and ambiguities and agencies have always had the latitude to interpret those things and courts have generally deferred to it. that is what the chevron deference was about. today the court said no, judges are going to make those decisions and in doing so they made it easier forjudges to overturn regulations and especially with this conservative supreme court that radically reduces the power of the federal government to regulate corporations and big private interests. help us understand this at the level of the american general public. which areas do you think would be most impacted, whether we're talking food, water, air pollution and so on? air and water pollution and climate change are at the top of the supreme court hit list. these are regulations that cost industry money and have diffuse benefits on the public. it is always going to be an industry or with the individual saying, this is costing me money for the benefit of the public, and this supreme court is profoundly hostile to that kind of regulation and that is why i think environmental regulations have been a specific focus of its interest. but it also done things to restrict for example vaccination requirements, student loan programmes. it has been quite the wrecking ball for the federal government. if you look at the tech industry, some people may make the argument on the other side that this could actually speed up innovation, particularly innovation needed when battling climate change. what do you make of that? there is nothing in the federal regulatory programmes that are limiting innovation in energy development and so on. what is happening is that oil and companies and the fossil fuel industry have been going for years to emit a lot of pollution that is causing us problems now and one of the most sensible way to move forward on climate change is to reduce the emissions of those kinds of carbon dioxide and other pollutants causing us problems and that is traditionally done by agencies like the us environmental protection agency pursuing to the clean air act but if the is anything that supreme court is hostile to, the environmental regulations is it. what potentially might we see in the long term? is it down to congress essentially to write more explicit instruction in law? congress has been having a difficult time passing legislation. theoretically congress could do that but the reality is that, especially in the rapidly changing world we are in, the things that we need on the ground are changing constantly and it used to be that congress would write in general terms. actually, it has traditionally written in general terms and relied on the experts in federal agencies, scientists, economies, people who can talk to the regulated industries to figure out what can make sense. those agencies can change regulations over time. congress is not a body that has a lot of expertise internally, especially the current congress, and it does not really have the capacity to have that kind of expertise and issue up to the minute statutes that can reflect on the changing needs. it is just not the way our government has worked ever since the new deal, the post world war ii era. if you take a look at the supreme court overturning for example roe versus wade, affirmitive action and now chevron as well, what does it say? i think this is a radical supreme court. the previous court was thoughtful, and deliberate institution that tried very hard not to take the place of the political branches. what we have now is a supreme court that is relentless and ambitious and wants to put its stamp on the united states of america and it is doing that despite the fact that most of the justices or none of the justices were elected and many were appointed by presidents who did not win the popular election. people in iran are headed to polls to elect a new president after the death of ebrahim raisi in a helicopter crash last month. iran's supreme leader, ayatollah ali khamenei — seen here casting his ballot — has called for people to come out and vote. but after record low turnout in recent elections, it's likely many iranians will boycott the election. there are four candidates, including one considered a moderate — the reformist, massoud pezeshkian. in the uk, british iranians are protestng against the ruling regime, calling the election a sham. par—ham ghobadi, from bbc persian, sent us this update from the iranian embassy in london. you can hear them probably right now, chanting slogans and shouting. a minute ago, a fight broke out here between the protesters and a person who cast his ballot at the iranian consulate here in kensington in london. so they've gathered here from early morning. they are shouting and chanting slogans against those iranians who are going inside the building to cast their vote. there's huge... you can see there again, chanting slogans right now, and it shows that one person is going inside the building. however, there's huge police presence here. they're trying to accompany those who leave the building for — to leave the premises here. and the situation has been extremely tense. 0ne some arrest has been made. we saw a person who was arrested earlier. he threw some paint, uh, at the embassies at the council. its, uh, buildings. they've hired a van that is going around here saying that people should not vote. every vote is one ballot, but generally, this shows how divided the iranian society is, both inside and outside the country. this is the first presidential election after the death of mahsa amini, the kurdish girl who died in morality police custody that sparked nationwide protests in iran for over a year. it happened two years ago, according to rights group, over 500 people were killed. these this is what the these protesters are referring to. so anybody who is going to vote, they're saying that you should be ashamed of yourself because so many protesters were killed. but i heard the people who were voting, talking, some of them to, uh, some of the protesters politely. in some instances. what they were saying is that we want to bring a change, even though it might be extremely tiny and really small. but our parents live in that country. we've got family members living in that country. so we want to change the government from a hardline government into a different moderate government. in south africa, there is a deepening disagreement between the two biggest parties at the heart of what is supposed to be a new coalition government. the democratic alliance, which had been south africa's largest opposition party, is reportedly preparing to threaten to withdraw from a deal to enter a coalition with the african national congress in a row over the distribution of government ministries. it comes at an unprecedented time for the anc, who must now share power. 0ur news correspondent shingai nyoka has the latest. south africa's president cyril ramaphosa has been meeting with his main coalition partner, the da's john steenhuisen, to try to break the deadlock over cabinet positions. now he is pragmatic, he's a seasoned negotiator and on the face of it, both leaders seem determined to overcome the deep rifts that have been exposed in the leaked correspondence and on the news that the talks appear to be back on track. and on the news that the talks appear to be back on track, the local rand has started to strengthen again. the reality is that a huge chunk of the business community here in south africa believe that this coalition, in its current form, is really the only way to take the country forward in terms of addressing some of the major economic challenges. but i've been talking to a wide cross—section of south africans, and there really is no consensus. there's a group that believes that the anc has no business partnering with the democratic alliance, that it's like trying to mix oil and water, and that what will happen is that the anc�*s agenda of transformation, overcoming the historic racial inequalities, will be put on the back burner. but there are also a number of people that i spoke to that had high hopes about what a unity government can achieve. they say that it's time that other parties entered the government to try to succeed where the anc has failed. and just a reminder that there are eight other coalition parties within this government of national unity. but the overriding sense from people who actually care about what is happening is that there has been so much uncertainty over the last couple of weeks. president cyril ramaphosa was sworn in as president over a week ago. elections were held over a month ago. and yet this government of national unity is failing to find each other. and there's a sense that they're nowjostling for positions instead of focusing on the major priority, which is urgently addressing south africa's problems. let's take a look at other stories making headlines today around the world: the us military shut down a temporary pier used to deliver aid to gaza friday. the pier was removed due to concerns that bad weather could damage it. humanitarian organizations have warned the amount of aid reaching gaza is only a fraction of what the population needs. officials in northeast ukraine say at least one person was killed in a russian missile strike on friday. the attack on a nine—storey residential building in dnipro, caused the top four floors to collapse. a new mexicojudge has denied a last—ditch effort by actor, alec baldwin, to dismiss an involuntary manslaughter charge for the fatal shooting on the set of his 2021 film, rust. the move comes just two weeks before the actor is set to stand trial for the shooting of the film's cinematographer halyna hutchins. france is preparing to hold the first round of its snap elections this weekend, with the hard right predicted to take first place. 0ur correspondent andrew harding has been to brittany to gauge the public mood. the beaches are filling up. the olympics are just round the corner, but the summer mood here in brittany is not as relaxed as it might appear. the hard right is on the march as it is across france. 19—year—old matisse is campaigning for the hard right national rally. it's not to many people's taste here. "it's fascism," says alain montiel. "you have to call a spade a spade, and they're fascists." but matisse insists the national rally has changed, and that its core message, restricting immigration, is timely and popular. "our country is having an identity crisis," matisse says. "people come here and don't learn our language. "they don't assimilate." that message, amplified by the media, is cutting through, even in moderate, white, rural brittany. "we have a history, a culture," says armand, a retired fireman. "and you fear you're losing it?" i ask. "i'm worried," he says. along the coast in the big city of lorient, basketball practice in a poor and diverse neighbourhood. the coach here, jeremy robert, says new immigrants are highly motivated to integrate and to succeed. but his charity is so worried about the upcoming elections, that it's taken an extraordinary step. "we never tell people who to vote for," says maxime. "but this time we're saying, "don't vote for the national rally because it's dangerous." watching the world go by at a nearby cafe, said, a pensioner originally from algeria. "national rally is dangerous," he agrees. "my wife wears the veil "but they want to ban it, so she's afraid. "if they get into power it will be catastrophic." in lorient, a port famous for its old world war ii submarine base, the left and centre may yet unite to see off the hard right in these elections. but there is no guarantee of that. these are anxious times in france. president macron has even warned of civil war. that feels overblown. and yet the consensus here that has always kept the populist far right well away from serious power is suddenly looking very shaky. and so france braces for a nerve—racking summer. andrew harding, bbc news, brittany. before we go, two giant pandas arrive safely before we go, two giant pandas arrive safely to their new home at the san diego zoo friday. 5—year old yun chuan and 4—year old xin bao made thejourney from china to the us marking a renewal of �*panda diplomacy�* between the two countries. the duo will spend several weeks in quarantine acclimating to their new home before they meet their adoring fans. china is expected to send pandas to san francisco and the national zoo in washington, dc later this year. you watching bbc news. our colleagues in london take over from washington. see you soon. hello. the first half of this week brought us heat and humidity quite widely, but over the past few days, we�*ve seen things turning cooler and fresher as well. now through the course of the weekend, fairly settled. a lot of dry weather on the cards, some spells of sunshine on offer, and another warm day in the southeast on saturday before cooler conditions work across the uk again for sunday. so what we�*ve got is this frontal system starting to work its way in from the west, so that�*s going to bring a bit more cloud to parts of wales, northern england, perhaps the south west of england, southern counties of northern ireland initially too. a few spots of rain if you�*re underneath this weak weather front here through the central swathe of the uk, either side of that, a little bit more sunshine. northern scotland seeing a bit more cloud, bringing a few showers. not as many as recent days. it won�*t be as windy here, but still fairly breezy. now in the hazy sunshine down towards the south east, temperatures again up to about 25 degrees or so, but a fresher feel away from the south east of england, typically about 12—19 celsius. 0vernight saturday moving into sunday and we�*ve still got this weak weather front. it�*s really quite slow moving over the next 2a hours or so. eventuallyjust pushing across parts of southeastern england and east anglia as we start sunday morning. could be the odd spot of light rain, and here around about 13—15 celsius. but, again, a fairly fresh feel to the weather to start sunday where we�*ve got those clearer skies further north. so, sunday then, initially quite cloudy, perhaps the odd spot of showery rain in the southeast, that should clear away. and then this cloud in the north just sinks a bit further south. it will be a broken cloud, so there�*ll be some glimpses of sunshine. also the chance of a few showers, particularly through the spine of england, for instance. temperatures between only about 12—21 celsius, so a few degrees below average really for this time of year. what about the week ahead? well, it looks like we�*ve got a westerly influence to our weather. so although high pressure sits in the atlantic, weather fronts are toppling around the northern side of that high pressure and bringing fronts our way at times. so monday, some rain initially for northern ireland, western scotland, just pushing eastwards through the day, some uncertainty about how far south we will see any rainfall, that front tending to gradually fizzle out further south, i think. so southern england, south east england, east anglia in particular, could stay dry, 21 degrees or so for the warmest spots, but we�*re typically looking at the mid to high teens for most of us on monday. and that theme continues, really, for much of the week ahead. after a warm day in the southeast on saturday, slightly cooler conditions with a mixture of some sunny spells and a bit of rain at times, too. voice—0ver: this is bbc news. we�*ll have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. hello and welcome. on this week�*s media show, as the wikileaks founder julian assange walked free, we ask what lessons journalism can learn from his case and his career. and i was also joined by a tv icon — the scriptwriter and executive producer of global hits including sherlock and doctor who, as he launches a new tv series about cancel culture. that�*s all coming up. let�*s start with the julian assange story, because the founder of wikileaks has walked free from a us court after pleading guilty in a deal that ends a iii—year legal battle. he�*s now back in australia. cheering and applause. he was pursued by us prosecutors for leaking vast amounts of classified government and military documents, including those related to the afghanistan and iraq wars. in a press conference after his release, his lawyer called the prosecution "the criminalisation of journalism". so, did he pioneer a new form ofjournalism by setting up wikileaks, and has his case, by pleading guilty, set a dangerous precedent for reporters? i started by talking to carrie decell, who is a senior staff attorney at the knight first amendment institute at columbia university. i think this plea deal is significant in two respects. i mean, in the first instance, it must be an enormous relief, of course, forjulian assange and his family and his