to drive your policy when something dreadful happens. the longer term answer is it's, of course, very difficult to do in current circumstances, but the attempt should be made is to find ways of re—engaging. notjust us, but finding ways for the wider international community to re—engage with iran and in doing so, to distinguish between what the regime gets up to and the iranian people. obviously, a big obstacle to diplomatic negotiations is the fact that the americans don't even have an embassy in iran. no, i mean... and that really is an absurdity, if you think about it. i mean, for 45 years, there's been no formal relationship between the world's one remaining superpower and what, like it or not, is a regional power to be reckoned with and very influential, for good orfor ill, in the region and more widely. we are now in a situation where iran

is much closer than it ever has been to acquiring a nuclear weapon. and clearly that's a very big threat to regional stability. but the lessons are still that engagement with iran is better than trying to sanction it to change its behaviour because that clearly has not worked. so let's take a look at some of the front pages... the guardian newspaper, tory divisions exposed. and down on the left, top iranian aid wards west of a total war, in his first interview since the missile attack against israel he also warned that if israel made another mistake by launching an attack on iran there would be a responsible stronger, more severe and administered without warning. and moving on to the daily mail, victory for the bravest head teacher

in britain. and a picture of angela rayner, police probe multiple allegations. the times newspaper again, police looking at multiple allegations over angela rayner and again the head teacher defeats a high court challenge on the ban on prayer. and the mirror newspaper, no one born in or after 2009 will be able to buy cigarettes, they will be the cigarette free generation. that's all from us tonight. victoria is back tomorrow. hope you'lljoin her and the team then. goodbye. breaking news from around

the world 2a hours a day. this is bbc news. fight to get the judge to remove people that they believe are partial for cause. . ~ people that they believe are partial for cause. ., ~ ,, people that they believe are partial for cause. . ~' ,, people that they believe are partial for cause. ., ~ i. . ., for cause. thank you so much for our for cause. thank you so much for your time — for cause. thank you so much for your time and — for cause. thank you so much for your time and expertise - for cause. thank you so much for your time and expertise this - your time and expertise this morning. we do appreciate talking to you. the leading expert on the usjury system. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news.

the uk government's plan to introduce some of the world's toughest anti—smoking laws has taken a massive step forward. mps voted overwelmingly to ban anyone born after 2009, from buying cigarettes. 57 conservative mps voted against the bill, including the business secretary, kemi badenoch, arguing it was

an attack on personal freedoms. here's our political editor, chris mason. smoke hanging everywhere. in bars, beer and smelly clothes. by the time they reach the sixth form, regulations have been relaxed, to the extent that they wear what they want. and never mind what these �*70s sixth formers are wearing, they're smoking at school! and remember, lighting up on a plane was fine, too. but smoking has been slowly wafting from the mainstream to the marginal. take the ban on cigarettes on london's underground in 1984. are you going to be tempted to light up when you shouldn't? _ i know i shouldn't do that but, yes, lam. and the ban on smoking in enclosed public places in 2007 led to strong views being exhaled outside the bingo in stoke. not herd us out here like bloody prostitutes standing on this corner, which is what you feel like when you're standing here with a cigarette in your hand!

and so, to today, and these i9—year—olds. smoking is still banned for people under age, but they still do it. yeah. so i don't know, like. and they're more likely to maybe get into the idea of doing it _ because it's got such a, _ like, there's such an image of being cool if you're an underage smoker. anything that deters a child starting to smoke has to be a good thing. you used to be able to have your own opinions and your own thoughts on it. if you're a smoker, you're a smoker. if you're not, you're not — you just have your individual views. order! from outside parliament to inside, and the verdict of mps. the ayes to the right 383. the noes to the left 67. a substantial majority in favour of this change. a substantial minority, mostly conservative mps, opposed. earlier, the debate... there is no liberty in addiction.

nicotine robs people of their freedom to choose. the vast majority of smokers start when they are young. and three quarters say that if they could turn back the clock, they would not have started. from labour, agreement... this is a lethal addiction. a scourge on society. an enormous burden on our nhs. a drag on our economy. and it is time to consign it to the dustbins of history. and the scottish national party, too... smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in both| scotland and the uk. we know this. and so, we are surely duty—bound to act and prevent harms. - the liberal democrats are conflicted... i do think that there are some good legal arguments to be made both for and against the proposal. i myself will be supporting the measures in the bill, but some of my colleagues do have remaining liberal and practical concerns.

nearly 60 conservatives including some familiar faces, really do not like the idea, and voted against it... the instinct of this establishment, which is reflected by a cross—party consensus today, in today's chamber, is to believe that they, that the government, are better at making decisions for people than people themselves. habits, the role of government, social change. this one, quite profound. chris mason, bbc news, at westminster. in the uk — a muslim student has lost a high court challenge to a ban on praying at school. a secondary school in wembley in north london introduced a ban last year, after some pupils began praying in the playground during breaks. today's case had argued that the move discriminated against muslim pupils — who make up about half of the pupil population — but that was rejected by the court.

india is gearing up for a general election, set to be the largest the world has ever seen. just under one billion people are eligible to vote, that's roughly one in eight of the entire global population, and more than 13 million indian citizens who live abroad can also cast ballots, but they'd need to return to india in person to do so. the voting takes place over six weeks, beginning this friday, with the result expected, at the beginning ofjune. the polls suggest the prime minister, narendra modi, will win a third successive term. but he is a controversial figure as yogita limaye reports. "thank you, modi," a woman shouts, waiting for the prime minister to arrive. modi, modi! narendra modi is the reigning superstar of indian politics. rallies like these are an integral

part of an indian election, but only a few leaders have evoked such a response in the country's history. what we are seeing here is the confidence of a party that very much believes it's going to win another resounding victory, and what we've also seen amid the crowds is confidence about being indian on the global stage, one of the things that prime minister modi's tenure will be remembered for. mr modi is a divisive figure, but here, among his mostly hindu following, he can do no wrong. translation: he is like god for me. | he's made women like us feel safe. | translation: he's a good speaker, land he has built dreams and roadsl and villages and cities. no—one had done that till now. building infrastructure has been one of the strengths of mr modi's government.

a few miles from the rally in uttar pradesh, we saw a road that was made just over a year ago, and met farmer ashok singh transporting his produce. translation: we can move freely now and security's better too, _ but unemployment and price rises are big issues for us. the realities on the ground might be mixed, but the picture that reaches voters overwhelmingly one that the ruling party wants people to see. this is a local cell of mr modi's bjp. across the country, they're a key driving force for the party's success. every member from the bottom to the top of the party is given a one—page list like this one of 60 voters... ..who they are tasked to meet

several times ahead of the election. that's coupled with an unparalleled and exhaustive social media campaign. translation: every day, - i send messages on 400 groups. each of them has hundreds of members. our target is to reach at least 150,000 new people each day. sometimes, the message is far from the truth. this bjp ad states that mr modi got russia's war on ukraine paused for a few hours in 2022 to evacuate indian students, a claim spread by the ruling party, even though india's foreign ministry itself had called it absolutely inaccurate. much of mainstream news media and bjp leaders have amplified the claim. we asked a group of first—time voters outside a university what they believe.

ukraine and russia paused the war for some times for the students to come out. translation: | think _ prime minister modi paused the war, as it was important to get our students out. only a few questioned the claim. it is a crucial power, to influence what people believe to be true. ultimately, it will affect how they vote. yogita limaye, bbc news. heavy rain has battered gulf states causing flash flooding — with some places recording a year's worth of rain in a single day. dubai airport was forced to divert incoming flights for around two hours — but operations have since restarted. these pictures in dubai show cars washed away in the streets, as a fierce storm causes destruction across the gulf region. authorities in neighbouring oman said 18 people had been killed

by the extreme weather. more than a0 people have died in pakistan after a week of heavy rains and flooding. the deluge caused houses to collapse and destroyed roads. flash floods also cut power supplies and the transport network. pakistan's national disaster authority has warned of landslides and floods with more rain expected in the coming days. flooding has been reported in neighbouring afghanistan, where dozens of people were killed and hundreds of homes damaged. one of the oldest buildings in copenhagen — the former stock exchange, dating back to 1625 — has been engulfed by a fire. the building was undergoing renovation and had been surrounded by scaffolding. staff from the nearby national museum and local residents rushed to rescue a number of historic paintings. this is the moment the spire collapsed. everyone inside the building was able to leave. the culture minister has said 400 years of danish cultural heritage "had gone up in flames".

now — a building plan that has got people talking... it is the proposed design of the train station in the chinese city of nanjing which supposedly takes inspiration from plum blossoms, which the city is known for. but others have been pointing out its resemblance to something quite different. "it is a giant sanitary pad", said one commentator on weibo. "why can we see it and the architects can't?" said another. that's all for now — stay with bbc news. hello there. tuesday was another fairly cool day, winds a little bit lighter. but we had further showers, some heavy with hail and thunder once again. next few days, it's pretty similar, it stays on the chilly side. there will be further showers or longer spells of rain. a bit of sunshine, nights will be cool. we're still in this chilly air mass, as you can see here, for wednesday. so it means things starting

off rather chilly. further showers across eastern areas, and this tangle of weather fronts will bring thicker cloud and some rain to western parts of the uk through the day. so we'll start with some showers across eastern scotland, some snow on the hills, showers, windy weather affecting the northeast of england, could be quite cold and windy for north sea coasts of yorkshire. this area of cloud and rain pushes across the hebrides, northern ireland down into parts of wales, south west england through the course of the day. in between, there will be some sunshine around, but it's going to be a cooler day, we think, temperatures 9—11 celsois for most of us, single digits along north sea coasts. the showers linger on for a while through wednesday night before it turns drier and clearer with lighter winds across england and wales. so, here it will turn quite chilly. temperatures recovering, though, in the north west as wetter and windier weather starts to move in thanks to this little area of low pressure, which will bring wet and windy weather to the northern half of the country through the day on thursday. this area of high pressure will tend

to keep things drier in the south. so england and wales starting off chilly but bright, plenty of sunshine, wetter, cloudier windier weather will move across scotland, northern ireland and down into parts of north wales, northern england, the north midlands. southern england, south wales will do pretty well with staying dry, i think, with some sunshine, lighter winds here. so temperatures around 1a celsius but windier, wetter, cooler further north. that area of low pressure clears away gradually during the course of friday, high pressure starts to topple in, but we could start off with a few showers through central, southern and eastern areas on friday, a brisk northerly breeze affecting much of the country, particularly towards the east. lighter winds further south and west, variable clouds, some sunshine, temperatures could be up to 111—15 celsius degrees in the south. still quite cool in the north. now into the weekend, we're expecting this area of high pressure to move in. so i think it'll be turning a lot drier, but we could see quite a bit of cloud around. that depends on what we'll see with temperatures. if we see some sunshine, then we could see the high teens across some central and southern areas. if it's cloudier, it could be a bit cooler than this.

this is bbc news. we will have the headlines at the top of the hour as newsday continues straight after hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur. in both israel and iran, political leaders and military chiefs have a choice to make.

do they escalate their conflict further and risk all—out war or step back? following the logic of recent action and reaction, the next key decision will be made in israel. having successfully countered a barrage of iranian missiles, will the netanyahu government seek new levels of retribution and deterrence? well, my guest is danny danon, former israeli un ambassador and ally of prime minister netanyahu. israel's allies are urgently advising against further escalation, but is israel listening?