hello, i'm carl nasman. a palestinian bid tojoin the united nations as a full member has failed after the united states used its veto during the vote. the us is a permanent member of the security council. it argued that an independent palestinian state should be established through direct negotiations between israel and the palestinian authority and not through un action. have a listen. we also have long been clear that premature actions here in new york, even with the best intentions, will not achieve statehood for the palestinian people. as members of the security council, we have a special responsibility to ensure that our actions further the cause of international peace and security and are consistent with the requirements for the un charter. as reflected in the report of the admission committee, there was not unanimity among committee members as to whether the applicant met

the criteria for membership. of the 15 council members, 12 voted yes while britain and switzerland abstained. we agree that the people of the west bank and gaza must be given the political perspective of a credible route to a palestinian state and a new future, and it needs to be irreversible. this is not entirely in our gift but our recognition of a palestinian state should be part of it. we believe that such recognition of palestinian statehood should not come at the start of a new process but it doesn't have to be at the very end of the process. the palestinian president mahmoud abbas condemned the us veto as quote "unfair, unethical and unjustified," saying in a statement that it challenged "the will "of the international community, which strongly supports palestine�*s full "membership." the push to recognise its statehood comes after more

than six months of war in gaza while israel continues expanding settlements in the occupied west bank. that's a move widely considered a violation of international law. our north america correspondent john sudworth has more on the vote. yeah, there's been a long day of speeches here at the united nations, passionately held positions on both sides. the palestinian representative saying that granting palestine full membership status would give hope to the palestinian people. a response from the israeli ambassador here saying that six months on from the hamas attacks, it would simply be a reward for terror. now, the us position, as you say, has long been known. it argues that granting palestine full status would be premature, that it should not come ahead of a negotiated settlement — a bilateral agreement between palestine

and israel — but, nonetheless, although that was the us position, it was clear that it did not want — if it could possibly avoid it, to have to do what it did today. there are reports of pretty intense lobbying behind the scenes. the us would have liked to have got this vote delayed or even better had other members come on board to help defeat it. but in the end, what's remarkable is 12 of the 15 members of the security council voted in favour, including some pretty key us allies — japan, south korea and france. and that forced the us ambassador, robert wood, to raise that hand, issuing the veto and killing the proposal. the proposal — but not only that, some critics would say once again exposing how isolated the us is becoming on the international stage over this issue. hussein ibish, senior resident scholar at the arab gulf states institute, gave us his analysis of the un vote on the palestinian bid.

thank you forjoining us. the us said, after this vote, that it supports a palestinian state but it still vetoed the resolution that would have fully recognised palestine — at the united nations, at least. what you make of the us�*s actions today? well, it is consistent with us positions going back a couple of decades of supporting palestinian statehood and supporting un security council resolutions that call for the eventual creation of a palestinian state that was done under george w bush but, at the same time, not supporting a request forfull membership in the general assembly. palestine is a non—member observer state in the general assembly and i think the biggest difference this time is that it has come with a heavy heart, rather than in anger. in the past, it has always been a veto applied in anger

of the palestinians — how could you ask this — and this time it is not. it is sort of with a heavy heart and explanation that no, this is not the way and there is no threat of us sanctions or reprisals against the palestinians at this point. in the past, us aid has been cut, israel has withheld money and there's been an effort to punish the palestinian authority on the ground in the west bank for the actions of the plo at the un, and that's not on the cards this time, so i do think there is the sense that the us position is moving towards, you know, greater sympathy for the eventual creation of a palestinian state, itjust hasn't reached the point where it wants to get ahead of itself and enter palestine in the un when there is no palestinian state on the ground. i just want to touch on what israel had to about this — of course, israel not a member of the security council — but representatives calling the proposal "shameful" and essentially saying that

a recognition of statehood for palestine six months after the attacks by hamas on israel would've been a reward for terrorism — kind of paraphrasing there. do you agree with that? of course not. that's preposterous. it is the reverse of the truth. it would have been a great victory for the fatah, for the palestinians who want to talk to israel and do a deal with israel, rather than the palestinians who want to shoot at israelis. but, you know, this israeli government is an extremist government. it is committed to annexation. it is opposed to a two—state solution. it has a lot of people in it who, if they were palestinians, would find hamas to be too wishy—washy for them, and they are very radical. and so, of course, they make up some absurd sort of up is down, down is up logic like this, where a move that might have strengthened the plo and the palestinian authority, the palestinians who are committed to a peace agreement with israel at the expense

of hamas, becomes a reward for hamas. it is all wrong — of course, it's wrong — but you see the israeli government being totally opposed to statehood, wants to conflate all palestinians with hamas and punish all palestinians for the actions of hamas. whereas, the israelis themselves kept hamas in power in gaza. to the italian island of capri, where aid to ukraine dominated discussions on day two of talks between g7 foreign ministers. ukraine's foreign minister dmytro kuleba also joined those discussions. he said there needs to be a change in strategy if kyiv is going to fight off russia's continued aggression. in attendance were foreign ministers from italy, canada, france, germany, japan, britain and the united states. kuleba also told them ukraine needs more air defence systems. nato secretary general jens stoltenberg — also in capri for the talks — acknowledged the need for those defence systems and said nato is actively working to supply them. jessica parker

reports from capri. a majorfocus here is ukraine's calls for more air defence systems. the nato secretary generaljens stoltenberg is here in capri. he said earlier there is an urgent critical need, that russia is pushing on the whole front line whilst carrying out waves of air strikes. but, look, this is a g7 foreign ministers meeting. ukraine's foreign minister is here but it's not a formal weapons—pledging session. that being said, they can discuss, they can coordinate. but speaking to officials today, the mood on this issue overall is somewhat downbeat. causing a bit more optimism, though, is the prospect of a vote in congress on the long—stalled us aid package to ukraine of $60 billion. that's certainly being talked up here. they are looking, though, at other ways to raise money for ukraine, and one idea that's been kicking

about for quite some time now — seen as potentially legally quite tricky — is using frozen russian assets. specifically, according to people i've been speaking to, whether they could use the interest from those assets to effectively channel money to ukraine. but we don't expect any final decisions on that here, it's something that's been indicated that you could see maybe being proposed at the g7 leaders�* meeting later this year. and asjess mentioned there, the us congress is days away from voting on a major aid package to ukraine. some members in the house are expected to vote against it. representative ami bera, a democrat from california, told the bbc what he would say to his colleagues opposed to further spending on ukraine. my my message to those colleagues is if we don't stop printing today, he will actually be a threat to continue on to the baltic nations, other parts of europe —— putin today. we have to stop this now and again,

look at the lessons of history, look at the lessons of history, look at the lessons of history, look at world war ii., you know, we should have stopped adolf hitler in his tracks early on and when we didn't, it got worse. so this is also more thanjust about got worse. so this is also more than just about defeating putin in ukraine. our adversaries in asia are also watching this package as necessary aid and security on asian allies, taiwan, and then it also is trying to contain a conflict in the middle east and looking for a way to bring that to an end and then also that includes absolutely necessary humanitarian aid. the united states and britain have imposed new sanctions on iran and its weapons manufacturers to punish tehran for its missile and drone attack on israel last weekend. white house officials said the sanctions were aimed at disrupting iran's ability to produce the drones that its military used to attack israel. our diplomatic correspondent james landale has more. israel is coming under

substantial pressure to reduce and minimise any response it makes to iran in response to iran's attack at the weekend, and it's coming under pressure from different angles. from the united nations, you have got antonio guterres, the un secretary general, saying, look, because we are now in a place of maximum danger, we need to be in a position of maximum restraint, warning that if there is an escalatory act by the israelis, then potentially, we could have a full—scale regional war. that's the pressure from the un. then, from the other side you have pressure from the iranians themselves, doing everything they can to try to deter any israeli counter—attack. so, you have got a revolutionary guard general saying, look, if israel attacks hard, we might have to revise our nuclear strategy. you've got the iranian foreign minister at the united nations, saying, look, if israel

retaliates, we will have to retaliate, too. so, that's the pressure that israel is under at the moment and then, it's getting some diplomatic nudging from its allies — the americans and the british and some of the europeans are now agreeing new sanctions on iran. they're not that substantive because there are a lot of sanctions already in place on iran. but, essentially, this is the americans and uk saying that international pressure should be reimposed on iran, that israel is not alone — that there is a broader coalition against what iran has been doing and they are currently supporting israel — and that coalition has been encouraged and increased because of that attack at the weekend. so, you've got a little bit of carrot and stick approach that's been levelled against israel and they still have yet to decide what to do. the israeli leadership made it very clear they are going to respond to iran, but they've yet to say when or how.

around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. let's look at another story making news. the former chief executive of the scottish national party, peter murrell, has been charged in connection with the embezzlement of funds from the snp. mr murrell, who is married to the former scottish first minister nicola sturgeon, was taken into custody for questioning on thursday more than a year after he was first arrested. a police investigation is ongoing. our scotland editor james cook has more. at the heart of this enquiry is nearly £667,000 raised by the snp between 2017 and 2020 to campaign for independence. questions first arose at the end of 2019 when it emerged the party had just under £97,000 in the bank. and tonight, one more development in an enquiry that has sent shockwaves through scottish politics — peter murrell has resigned his membership of the snp.

well, what happens now? the police say in due course, they will send what is known as a "standard prosecution report" to the public prosecutor in scotland. you're live with bbc news. a fulljury has been sworn in for former us president donald trump's historic criminal trial in new york. the 12jurors will decide whether mr trump is guilty or innocent in a case stemming from a hush money payment he made to an adult film star. dozens of potential jurors had been dismissed throughout the week. 0ur north america correspondent nada tawfik explains how the selection process played out. donald trump himself looked on as they raised their right hands and swore that they would be fair and impartial in hearing this case. and it comes after a day of twists and turns after two jurors were abruptly excused — one, a young woman who said she felt intimidated after details of her identity were made public. she said friends and family had reached out, guessing she was a likelyjuror, and she felt that outside opinions might impact her decision—making.

she said she couldn't be sure that she could be impartial and fair and she was excused. another was a gentleman, originally from puerto rico. he said he found donald trump fascinating and was an it consultant. but prosecutors questioned whether he was forthright about his criminal history and, ultimately, he was excused. later, outside of court, he told reporters that he had wanted to serve. but for the 12 jurors that have been selected, also one alternate — the remaining alternates will be chosen tomorrow when court resumes — but out of the 12, there are seven men, five women. a range of diverse ethnicities, diverse professions — from a recent college graduate to two lawyers and an investment banker, someone who works in sales. and the process of selecting the jury really started to speed up later in the day after the defence

and prosecution ran out of their strikes, which are essentially their ability to get rid of a juror based on any reason. in fact, one woman who said she did not care for donald trump's persona, well, his defence lawyers tried to get her removed for cause but they were unable to do that, the judge saying it wasn't about how she felt about him, it was whether she could serve impartially. donald trump was subdued throughout the day but upon leaving court, he said that he should be out campaigning and he said that this was an unfair trial. china's economy is facing its biggest economic challenge in two decades. the so—called factory of the world is struggling to recover from years of covid lockdowns and a global economic downturn. president xijinping's plan is to make and sell more electric cars, solar panels and wind turbines to sell to the uk and europe. but that has many western firms worried that low—cost chinese—made goods will force them out of business. 0ur china correspondent laura bicker has been to the country's manufacturing

hub — the city of dongguan. ren wenbing is a lifelong factory worker who's helped forge china's rise. this is your home? everything he owns is behind this door. but as china's economy falters, the last firm he worked for closed without warning, leaving him without his redundancy pay, which will take years to earn back. translation: it's hard to find newjobs. - we are old and we don't have many skills. most companies only hire younger people. he spent 16 years of his life in what is now a concrete shell. even in the wreckage, he can remember the furniture assembly line.

this factory was his family's future — a pay cheque sent to his village home for children he couldn't afford to travel to see. i feel reluctant to part with this place. i feel heartbroken. i've spent so many years here and now, this place has become like this. all the workers feel astonished and are disappointed and we grieve. prolonged covid lockdowns and bitter trade wars have chipped away at the pillars of china's economy, so the country has changed course. new technology and a new robotic workforce is taking over and the made in china brand is at the heart of the world's drive towards renewables. you're about to get a clear view of china's capacity to build. china dominates the world's solar panel market. 80% of the world's solar

panels are made here. in fact, they've installed more in one year than the us have in a decade, but that has both brussels and washington worried. many in the west say china is making too much of the world's green tech. they accuse beijing of giving firms state hand—outs. that means china's goods are so cheap, it's driving western brands out of business. and what do you think of, like, the capacity in china to produce this kind of green energy? right now, i think 80—90% of the energy storage equipment are designed and manufactured in china, so we are leading the market in the whole world. china is helping the world capture the sun, but at a cost. this feat cannot save its workforce and the west wants its dependence on china to end so now, once again, trade tensions threaten to cast a shadow over east—west relations.

laura bicker, bbc news, dongguan. nearly a billion people are eligible to vote in the indian election this year. polling will run across the country in seven phases over six weeks, beginning on friday. meghan 0wen takes a look at the scale of it. around 1 billion people are eligible to vote in this year's indian election — that's the equivalent to one in eight people around the world. now, it's a mammoth election which requires a huge effort. this year, we'll see 15 million polling officials and security staff, 400,000 vehicles and 5.5 million electronic voting machines. let's take a closer look at the voters themselves. they make up the equivalent of the populations of the us, russia, the uk, belgium, france, japan and brazil. let's take a closer look at the make—up of those voters.

in red, we can see a small percentage of first—time voters. the majority, in green, are aged 30 to sa. and a small percentage are elderly. and they, for the first time this year will be able to vote at home via postal vote. now, india is keen that everybody gets a chance to have their say this year — in fact, according to the chief election commissioner, he said: and he's not wrong. let's take a look at this photo here. this is a group of porters taking some voting stations up to a remote area in west bengal. now, because of the sheer volume of people, they are having to stagger the voting this year. so,there will be seven polling dates and the counting of the votes will happen

on the fourth ofjune. kenya's military chief, general francis 0golla, has been killed in a helicopter crash. nine others were killed when the military helicopter crashed shortly after take—off on thursday. two soldiers survived the crash, which happened about 400km — or 250 miles — northwest of the capital nairobi. 0golla's death was confirmed by kenyan president william ruto, who announced three days of national mourning. i am deeply saddened to announce the passing of general francis 0mondi 0golla, the chief of the kenya defence forces. together with him in the crash were 11 other gallant military personnel. nine who also passed

on with him and two survivors. well if you're a taylor swift lover, it's not going to be a cruel summerfor you because the american singer—songwriter�*s hotly anticipated new album is about to drop. however, some swifties might have bad blood after tracks for the tortured poets department appear to have leaked online early friday. some fans are urging other swifties to shake it off ahead of the album's midnight release. mark savage has more. taylor swift is the biggest—selling musician in the world and she's in the middle of a record—breaking tour that's made her into a billionaire. so, fans were surprised when she used the grammy awards this february to announce an album of new material, called the tortured poets department. for the last couple of weeks, she's been dropping hints about the lyrics online. then, this happened. why am i seeing people posting lea ks to taylor swift's new album on tiktok,

just publicly?! what?! the leak, which hasn't been officially confirmed, sent fans into a frenzy with many pledging to wait for the official release. and that's not cool. just wait 36 more hours. like, we've waited this long. i think most people will want to wait because part of the fun of being a fan of something is everyone at the same time listening to it and reacting to it at the same time and sort of getting those first—hand reactions. but i'm sure people will secretly be listening and not telling anyone! # it's me, hi. # i'm the problem, it's me... the leak is undoubtedly an inconvenience for taylor swift, but she won't be losing too much sleep — the same thing happened with her last album midnight, and it went on to sell more than six million copies in just eight weeks. mark savage, bbc news. my my producers werejoking

my producers were joking with me, wondering how many of the puns i would be able to find and i count three, crawl summer, bad blood and i got shakeit summer, bad blood and i got shake it off, i hope that is right. taylor swift's new album is coming up soon, that's the main message. i'm carl nasman in washington, more coming up at the top of the hour. stay with us here on bbc news. hello, there. some beautiful rainbows spotted again on thursday, particularly across parts of scotland, such as here in aberdeenshire. and there will be more rainbows on friday with sunshine and showers still very much the theme of the day but lots more dry weather to come in the forecast as we head through the weekend and into the start of next week now with high pressure starting to edge in from the west, killing off some of those showers by the time we get to the end of the afternoon. it's a cloudy, mild start to the day across england and wales. it's a little brighter further

north across scotland and northern ireland. the focus of the showers gradually shifting further southwards as we head through the afternoon across the midlands, down through central southern england. now, there will be quite a brisk and a chilly northerly to northwesterly wind blowing, lightening again by the time we get to the end of the day. and quite a range of temperatures, too — just eight celsius in aberdeenshire with that northerly wind but 15 celsius across the south—west of england. now, as we head through friday night, the skies will clear and away from north sea—facing coasts, which stay rather cloudy and breezy, then we could again see a touch of frost with temperatures dropping back to low single figures, so another chilly start to the weekend. now, the weekend — a lot of dry weather. in fact, it is looking mostly dry. we'll see some rain across scotland and there will be quite a bit of cloud around at times, especially towards the east, and a bit of east—west split in terms of temperature. with that high pressure over us, we're drawing in quite a chilly north—easterly wind, so those north sea—facing

coasts. so here, it is always going to feel cooler and there will be quite a lot of cloud around as well — the north sea really quite cold at this time of year. so, west is best in terms of sunshine amounts and temperature, certainly. now, as we head through saturday, there's a warm front gradually easing its way across the far north of scotland. this will bring some cloud, some outbreaks of rain. further south, it is largely dry but cloudy, drizzly perhaps towards these north sea—facing coasts. best of the sunshine out towards the west — it will get to 1a or 15 celsius perhaps here. some of the cloud could break up a little further eastwards, too, and that's also true on sunday, but temperatures towards these eastern coastal areas will really struggle to get much past eight or nine degrees. compare that to further west where, in parts of northern ireland, we could get to 17 degrees perhaps. feeling warmer here.

voice-over: this is bbc news. we will have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. i wanted to expose the criminality that runs through the heart of this corporation. they very nearly ruined my life. i have certainly seen

how they have ruined the lives of others. it's really difficult for me to sit here and talk about this because the whole point of fighting these newspapers is because i was so keen to have my privacy. i feel a sense of duty to expose them, as they've exposed us. prince harry and sir eltonjohn have launched legal action against the publishers of the daily mail. action is being taken- against the sun newspaper. legal action against the mirror group over allegations of phone hacking. who did you hack? it would be quicker to say- who i didn't hack, wouldn't it? it'd be easier. celebrities, politicians... i was living in this sort of super highway of illicit information. it was exciting. you felt like a spy.