in a televised debate against donald trump fuelled concern about his candidacy. the president spent saturday attending back—to—back fundraising events in two democratic stronghold states, in new york and newjersey. it all comes as his campaign says it has raised more than $27 million between debate day and friday evening. on saturday a chicago tribune editorial urged mr biden to step down, one day after the new york times editorial board said he should leave the race for the presidency. but campaign officials and the president himself say that he is not going anywhere. to hear more about those calls for mr biden to drop out of the race, i spoke to hugo lowell, a senior political correspondent for the guardian. let's first of all start with these newspaper editorials. the new york times editorial board — i mean, that is incredibly influential, calling for president biden to drop out of the race. what kind of effect do you think this will have? that kind of newspaper will certainly end up on the desk of the oval office at some point. it will, and i just don't think it's going to have the effect that the times wants it to. you know, i think biden very famously — inside his inner circle and democratic congressional campaign aides — doesn't like listening to the new york times and the major media. he thinks they're always naysayers and have always been questioning his ability. i think, if anything, the times running an editorial like this, based on conversations over the weekend, will probably encourage him to stay in more. the people who have influence with biden and his thinking are his family and his closest advisers. and the moment any of them, like anita dunn, president obama, come in and say, "joe, you need to step down," that is the sort of thing that's going to have an influence, but not the new york times. what do you think comes next? i mean, we're still kind of sorting through the fallout of this debate, the president attending a couple of fundraisers today. what does he need to do to start to move ahead and really prove to his own party that he is the man to take on and to defeat donald trump? look, president biden needs a reset. that is abundantly clear. i cannot tell you the number of millionaires, billionaires — the people who are big—dollar donors to biden�*s campaign — who had a collective freak—out after the debate. and the one thing that president biden had to do is to convince people that his age is not going to be an issue, and he struggled and frankly just failed at that at the debate. and the other point he has to make — and this is one that he's doing well, and so i think he should get credit for this — is democracy is on the ballot in this election. his campaign and kind of biden surrogates have always been making the case that it's a contest between an authoritarian—like figure in donald trump, who wants to reset the way the us government works to his own benefit, and biden is the guy that is going to keep democracy as it is. that is the point that he has to stress to donors to keep them onside. let's actually talk about donald trump for a second. his performance was filled with a number of falsehoods. do you think that, on the other hand, donald trump might be let off the hook a little bit here for a performance that maybe wasn't as strong as some people think it was? i think that's fair. trump had so many falsehoods and lies in every response he gave during that debate, and yet it got overshadowed by biden�*s performance, and that's just not the place that biden needs to be or wants to be. and the fact of the matter is trump is going to lie all the way through this, and it ended up being incumbent on biden to fact—check him, because the moderators weren't going to do that. this wasn't a debate where the moderators were going to fact—check him, and biden struggled on that front as well. we're seeing some reports, some calls in the media among republicans, calling on the president's cabinet to invoke the 25th amendment of the constitution. this would basically declare joe biden unfit to serve. it would remove him from office now, not even talking about the election. is this just a political ploy, do you think, on the behalf of the republicans? oh, yeah. i mean, look, this is pressure from the republicans to try and cause chaos in the democratic ranks and inside the west wing. it is abundantly clear that we're nowhere near that point where the president has to be removed. you know, at worst, he had a bad debate night where he struggled to finish some answers, he struggled to recollect some things late at night. he is old. they're actually both similarly close in age, and the fact of the matter is biden has been actually pretty good at legislating and governing. he's got a pretty good team around him. he's been in this game a long time. he's been doing the nuts and bolts of government for a long time. so i don't think there is a competency question, but i think there is an age question, and whether he were to return to the white house next year for a second term — whether that would be continuable through four years. hypothetically — and you can tell me what the odds you think are of this — ifjoe biden were to step down, who might be able to step into that void and actually run on the democratic ticket? yeah, it's a tricky question, and i think the likelihood of that happening is zero, from a logistical standpoint but also from a president biden perspective. for biden to step down, that is a decision that he's going to make himself. and at the moment, as of right now, he is nowhere close to that. we spoke to multiple people close to the president today, and he is not in that frame of mind. he thinks it was just one bad night and he can ride it through to november. and also, with respect to the convention, look, what are democrats going to do? president biden won those primary states. he's got those delegates. you can'tjust take them away from him. you can'tjust put up a new candidate. the only way biden is not the nominee on the democratic ticket is if biden himself steps down, and that's just nowhere close to happening. we are less than five days until the uk general election. prime minister rishi sunak and opposition leader keir starmer have been out campaigning on defence and support for vetera ns. at an event in london earlier, the labour leader warned that nothing had been decided, even though opinion polls do suggest that labour is on course to win. visiting a temple on saturday night, the prime minister said his hindu faith guides him in his public service and said he is proud that the united kingdom is the world's most successful multi—ethnic, multifaith community, adding we should all be uplifted by that. meanwhile, reform uk has withdrawn support from three of its candidates because of offensive comments they reportedly made. our political correspondent ben wright reports. the finishing line is in sight. we've had the manifestos, the pitches and promises. now the campaigns are all about persuading supporters to get out and vote. change is possible. most of all, they need to be convinced to vote for it, because change doesn't happen unless you vote for it. labour's leader, sir keir starmer, has been rallying his party at an event in london this evening. there is a buzz within labour, confident but terrified of complacency too, far ahead in the opinion polls but knowing it still needs to mobilise the party's voters. rishi sunak has been on the stump tonight, too, at a temple in west london. the conservatives have spent the last few weeks defending the seats they currently hold and warning voters not to risk a change of government. education, hard work, family. those are my values, those are your values, those are conservative values. still having more fun than any other leader on the campaign trail, the liberal democrats�* ed davey began his final tour of the country in scotland. we are here to win as many seats as we can, because if we have lots of liberal democrat mps in the next parliament, we will be able to get changes in our nhs and care system. we will be able to tackle the sewage scandal. meanwhile, the snp leader said only his party would stand up to spending cuts at westminster. people will only get that if they vote for| the scottish national party and elect a strong group . of snp mps. one thing that has united all party leaders today is fierce criticism of reform uk. this was a comedy act, but it was designed to hurt us. and sadly, sadly, some people believed it. i've always been a tory voter, but what annoys me... nigel farage has insisted a reform uk canvasser racially insulting rishi sunak in an undercover report for channel 4 was a setup. channel 4 has again strongly rejected that claim, saying it was rigorous, impartialjournalism. but last night mr farage was also challenged about racist or offensive comments made by three of his candidates. the party now says they've been dropped. you know, we've been running, as it were, to catch up with the electoral timetable. and it seems that we have made some mistakes, but we've, you know, corrected those mistakes to the extent possible at this stage by dropping those candidates. but, as we speed towards polling day, this is not the sort of scrutiny reform uk wants. iran will hold a run—off presidential election after results released on saturday showed the lowest turnout in decades. voters will now choose between conservative candidate saeed jalili and reformist masoud pezeshkian on 5july. both failed to secure a majority in the first round, which saw only about 40% of iranians vote. that is a record low since the 1979 islamic revolution. the election will decide who replaces ebrahim raisi, who was killed in a helicopter crash last month. i talked about the run—off election with negar mortazavi, an iranian—americanjournalist and senior fellow at the centre for international policy. what more can you tell us about these two candidates now in this runoff election and the pretty big differences between them? great to be back, carl. as you said, one of them, saeed jalili, a former nuclear negotiator and ultra hardliner and conservative belonging to really the core of that hardline faction of the regime, and by many believed to be the favourite or one of the top favourite candidates for the supreme leader in the hardline side of the regime. massoud pezeshkian, a former health minister in the reformist administration of the reformist president massoud pezeshkian, a former health minister in the reformist administration of the reformist president mohammad khatami, is a reformist five—time member of parliament. and it was a surprise even that he was allowed to run or the that he was qualified for the election as the sole reformist candidate. the expectation was that nobody would be able to run, and he essentially brought this upset result, surprise result, and is leading. he's not the winner, not the president yet. they have to go to a runoff, but he came out with the highest number of votes in an election, as you said, with the lowest turnout in the islamic republic. you said you were surprised that massoud pezeshkian did as well as he did. he seen as a reformist. what does that actually mean in iran? i've heard he is someone who's actually spoken out against the against the way the regime has treated some of those protests we've seen in recent years. yes, so if we look at what is allowed within the system, the regime of the islamic republic, what's considered legal opposition, these reformist factions within the regime or the relative moderates have different economic, political, social and cultural policies and views when it comes to the comparison with the hardliners, and obviously the conservatives. they're seen as the more liberal faction within the islamic republic. and massoud pezeshkian is one of those. the economic policies he's been promoting, the foreign policy as far as relations with the world, talking to the world, not fighting everyone, not sort of having conflict with everyone, with our neighbours, as he says. and as he says, critical of the social and cultural policies including the morality police. as he says, the way women and girls are being treated on the street, which is also a reference to the death in custody of mahsa amini nearly two years ago. the turnout for this preliminary round was not very high, the lowest since 1979. there seems to be a big movement to boycott this election. do you think people might come off the sidelines if they have a chance to vote for somebody who they see as a reformist? well, the islamic republic is dealing with very high voter apathy for obvious reasons, with a lot of grievances that the state is not responding. they've also closed the space for what were relatively competitive elections in the past by eliminating and disqualifying reformist and moderate candidates, and reallyjust giving very few options to the constituents to choose. and also, protest after protest has been met with violent crackdowns and really brutality by the state. so this high level of apathy is seen in the low turnout of this presidential election and the one before. but the run—off usually has a specific feel to it. maybe part of the constituency of the voters of the reformists will realise that their vote is really critical right now — that massoud pezeshkian was indeed able to pass through that filtering, that he was able to deliver this leading vote within that framework, and that if they don't come to the ballots, they would have to live with someone like saeed jalili, an ultra—conservative, very hardline candidate, for the next four to eight years of their lives. so there is potential that massoud pezeshkian can pull this off and even come out as the winner in the runoff next week. negar, we have about a minute left, but if you could just remind us — it has been a really interesting time for iran, just embroiled in all kinds of turmoil. just remind us about the background that iran is going through in these elections. well, as i said, coming out of about a year of protest, the woman, life, freedom protests after the incarceration and death in custody of the young woman by the morality police two years ago. iran is indirectly involved in the middle east war and what's going on between israel and notjust hamas but the so—called axis of resistance who are allies and supported by iran. also economic sanctions — very strict economic sanctions have been impacting the country's economy, combined with internal corruption and mismanagement. these all have been themes that have been discussed in debates, but nevertheless, they were not able to bring a big majority of voters to the polls. palestinian health officials say israeli strikes have killed at least a0 people in 2a hours. two soldiers were killed in fighting in the shejaiya neighbourhood of gaza city on friday. both hamas and the palestinian armed group islamichhad say they are fighting israeli forces. the united nations humanitarian agency estimates that 60,000 to 80,000 palestinians were displaced from the shejaiya area this week and people are living in, quote, "unbearable conditions". one senior official based in neighbouring lebanon said on saturday that negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage release deal with israel have not made any progress. a report by the us media outlet axios says us officials have drafted new language in the ceasefire proposals to bridge that gap between israel and hamas. in ukraine, president zelensky has called on allies to make faster decisions about aid, especially air defence systems. his comments come after a series of russian strikes in southern and eastern ukraine on saturday. officials said russian armed forces fired missiles at a town outside a ukrainian city, killing seven people including two children and injuring 31 others. the regional governor said the attack happened in the middle of the day and that missiles hit civilian infrastructure. overall, 11 people were killed in strikes across the country on saturday. president zelensky said more long—range weapons are needed to stop what he says are daily attacks on his country. at least 18 people were killed and 30 others injured after a series of attacks in nigeria's north—eastern borno state on saturday by suspected female suicide bombers. that is according to the head of the local state emergency management agency. they have been plagued by a 15 year insurgency. meanwhile, saturday marks ten years since the so—called islamic state group declared its caliphate in iraq and syria. also known as is, isis or daesh, it no longer controls significant amounts of territory, but its ideology remains. is has expanded across several continents, carrying out most of its attacks in sub—saharan africa, but the group has also claimed responsibility for deadly attacks in other parts of the world, including in russia and iran. ten years on from the formation of isis, or daesh, in the middle east, they are down but not out. they have transferred a lot of their activities away from the middle east to africa, not necessarily in terms of recruiting. we're not seeing the level of people flocking to their core activities level in areas in the way that it happened in around 2015, when we saw a lot of european volunteers going into fight for isis. that isn't happening in the same way. but they are very strong in parts of africa, particularly in sub—saharan africa, mozambique, the democratic republic of congo, in areas of the sahel — the mali, burkina faso, lake chad area. between two—thirds and 85% of the attacks on the last 12 months have taken place there. why is this? they are still active in syria, but less so in iraq, so they have lost their physical caliphate that they had. they were defeated physically in 2019 at a place called al—baghouz in syria. that's when the last remaining stronghold of isis was wiped out, but the ideology has not gone away. it is still attractive to some people in countries with poor governments, with porous borders, where young people see absolutely no hope. so it still is a force to be reckoned with in afghanistan, for example, where they are fighting, believe it or not, the taliban. they hate the taliban. they are active in those african countries i mentioned, and the threat to europe hasn't gone away. in terms of counterterrorism, don't forget we've got the olympics coming up in france this summer. the threat to european cities and european communities is definitely still there. the radicalising effect of nine months plus of war in gaza has certainly helped isis to recruit in some areas, so it is one to watch. just because we haven't heard from them in europe doesn't mean the threat is gone. let's get more from aaron zelin, a seniorfellow at the washington institute for near east policy, where he also directs the islamic state mapping project. it is an interesting date, this decade since the islamic state group proclaimed its caliphate. what kind of threat do you think the group poses now, after those ten years? thanks for having me. it's a different kind of threat that it was ten years ago, since they don't control territory the size of the uk between iraq and syria. however, they do have territory to control now, and small pockets in four different african countries. and while the external operations capacity is definitely down compared to what we saw with a wave of attacks, especially in europe, from 2014 to 2017, we have seen an increase in attacks coming from is�*s branch in afghanistan in the last few years. that increasingly is coming closer to the west now. what does the group actually look like? you mentioned its centre of power is no longer in iraq and syria. it is now really mostly in africa. what does this group look like? does it have a leader