Taiwan's president Lai Ching-Te has been holding emergency meetings with security chiefs, as China has conducted what are thought to be its biggest war games yet around the self-governing island. The Chinese government has always insisted that Taiwan is part of its own territory. But last Thursday, in a speech in Taipei marking Taiwan's National Day, President Lai insisted that Beijing had "no right to represent" the island. Taiwan's key ally, the United States, said China's actions were unwarranted and risked escalation. Also in the programme: a Hezbollah drone attack killed four Israeli soldiers at an Israeli army base south of Haifa. Meanwhile, in Gaza, Hamas-run authorities say an Israeli attack on a school used as a shelter killed 22 people on Sunday, including 15 children; and a NASA spacecraft on the hunt for the extra-terrestrial is due to blast off today.
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Hello, and welcome to NewsHour.
It's coming to you live from the BBC World Service studios in central London.
I'm Tim Franks.
Coming up on the program, we'll be talking about a couple of wars already in train the conflict in the Middle east, with dozens more reported dead in Gaza, a deadly Hezbollah attack on an israeli military base and a potentially very significant deployment of us troops and a new anti missile system to Israel.
And we'll hear from our correspondent on the front line in eastern Ukraine as the war there with Russia continues to cause immense damage.
But we're going to begin in another part of the world altogether with fears of war.
We're heading to East Asia, where Taiwan's president, Li Jingde, has been holding emergency meetings with security chiefs as China has conducted what are thought to be its biggest war games yet around the self governing island.
The spokeswoman for Taiwan's presidential office, Karen Guo, urged Beijing to end the drills.
At present, the international community's consensus is to maintain peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and the Indo Pacific region.
China should face the fact and the existence of the Republic of China.
Taiwan respect the choice of the taiwanese people for a democratic and free lifestyle and refrain from military provocations that would jeopardize the peace and stability of the region and threaten Taiwan's democracy and freedom.
The chinese government has always insisted that Taiwan is part of its own territory.