Newshour

15 people were killed in a Russian strike on Kyiv today, and the Ukrainian government has made an urgent request for more interceptor missiles. We hear from the BBC’s correspondent on the ground in the capital.
Also on the programme: a new batch of 70,000 vaccines is being sent to the Democratic Republic of Congo to try to contain the fastest-spreading outbreak of Ebola on record.
And the 26-year-old car salesman who has been recognised as Belgian royalty after a DNA test proved he was the son of Prince Laurent.
(Image: Smoke rises in Kyiv during a Russian drone strike, August 20, 2026 Credit: REUTERS/Oleksandr Ratushniak)

The mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, has told the BBC that Ukraine needs more help from its partners to protect civilians, after another intense Russian bombardment overnight.
Also in the programme: a court in China has sentenced the founder of the collapsed property firm Evergrande to life in jail; and we ask why Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are coming back to live in the UK.
(Photo: Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko visits the site of a building damaged by a Russian missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, March 25, 2024. Credit: Reuters /Gleb Garanic.)

In a rare move the Israeli military has opened a criminal investigation into how its soldiers opened fire on a car carrying a five-year-old Palestinian girl, Hind Rajab, and a separate incident in which fifteen aid and emergency workers were killed in Rafah in 2025. 
Also on the programme: a second man is arrested on suspicion of bombing the Nord Stream pipeline, and why thousands of jellyfish are washing up on Europe's coastlines.
(Photo: Hind Rajab, who was killed along with six relatives in Gaza in 2024 poses for a photograph in this undated handout picture. Credit: 
FAMILY/Reuters)

Ukraine's former defence minister, Mykhailo Fedorov has called for elections - which are barred in wartime under Ukrainian law. A representative of the Presidential Office has told the BBC that it would be bizarre to plan elections amidst missiles and drones. Earlier, around two hundred protestors gathered outside Ukraine's parliament, in protest against the swearing in of the new defence minister, who replaces Mr Fedorov.

Also in the programme: Prime Minister Andy Burnham sets out homelessness plan; and what is the future for humanoid robots?

(Photo: Ukraine's ousted Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, August 18, 2026. CREDIT: Mykhailo Fedorov/Handout via REUTERS)

A landmark trial has begun in California with the tech giant Meta accused of deliberately making Facebook and Instagram addictive to children. We'll hear the case for the prosecution and the defence.
Also on the programme: a court in Damascus sentences to death a cousin of the deposed dictator Bashar al-Assad; and how short-sighted tree-shrews could be a big help to humans.
(Photo: A woman holds a smartphone with a Facebook logo in front of a displayed logo for Meta in this illustration picture taken on October 28, 2021. Credit: Reuters)