from ever buying cigarettes. india prepares for its general election, where voting begins on friday. and — we look at the devastation caused by a fire at copenhagen�*s historic stock exchange live from our studio in singapore — this is bbc news. it's newsday. welcome to the program as we continue to watch and wait to see how israel will respond to the attack it faced from iran at the weekend. the israeli war cabinet has met five times so far to discuss what it should do next. israel and iran have traded threats after tehran�*s first—ever direct attack on israel heightened regional tensions as the gaza war ground on with no truce in sight. in the last few minutes — the us has announced it's

going to impose new sanctions on iran, and says it expects its allies to follow suit. israel insists iran would not get off "scot—free", while iran continues to warn israel that "the slightest action against iran's interests will definitely be met with a severe, extensive and painful response". lucy williamson, reports now from jerusalem. israel's prime minister is weighing up the risks of another war before he's finished the existing one. today, he told new army recruits that operations in gaza were just one part of a wider conflict. translation: it's part of a bigger system. - you can see it. iran stands behind hamas, behind hezbollah, behind others. but we are determined to win there and defend ourselves in all arenas. new footage released by the army shows the moment

the military focus here changed. the first interceptions of iranian missiles ordered from this control room. israel's ongoing conflicts with iranian—backed groups have been pushed into the shadows by a direct attack from tehran. how israel responds could take the world down a much more dangerous path, and international allies — the uk among them — have been lining up, urging benjamin netanyahu to show restraint. today, the prime minister, rishi sunak, told his counterpart it was a moment for calm heads to prevail. but israel's former national security advisor says the iranian strike leaves israel with an opportunity to take on the groups it should have confronted before. we didn't wage a war against hezbollah two years ago — huge mistake. when you see them even growing, becoming stronger, you have to do something. should we wait? i think it would be a huge mistake to wait with hezbollah, with hamas

and with the iranians. we have to alleviate this threat to israel, but it's notjust israel. the west is next. israel is already treading a tightrope in its conflict with hezbollah. this, an air strike on a senior hezbollah today, the army said. the war in gaza is where the crisis began, over six months ago. the road north to gaza city today packed with people hoping to return to their homes, turned back again and again by the army. the war here has already inflamed israel's other conflicts. isreal�*s next decision could push them into all—out war. lucy williamson, bbc news, jerusalem. the united nations has voiced concerns, about escalating violence in the occupied west bank. it comes after a wave of attacks, sparked by the killing of an israeli teenager. the un has accused israeli's security forces, of active

participation, in attacks on palestinians byjewish settlers. the vast majority of the international community considers the settlements illegal under international law, although israel disputes this. here's hugo bachega. caught on cctv — a man setting fire to a car as israeli settlers storm a palestinian village in the occupied west bank. israeli soldiers watch outside and appear to do nothing. across the west bank on the weekend, israeli settlers went on a rampage. this was the village of mughayir near ramallah on saturday. settlers set houses and cars on fire, killing one man. jihad abu alia was 25 and planning to get married in june. translation: jihad was trying to prevent the settlers - from breaking the house door, where dozens of the town residents arrived in the home to prevent them from burning the house. it wasn't the first time

settlers attacked us, but we weren't expecting a huge number of them. the violence was sparked by the disappearance of this israeli boy, 14—year—old binyamin ahimeir. he went missing on friday, and a day later was found dead. the israeli army says he was murdered. the attacks show how tensions in the west bank are escalating. since the hamas attacks on the 7th of october, more than 460 palestinians and 13 israelis have been killed. if nothing changes, there will be even more violence. for this campaigner monitoring settlement activity, the situation is unprecedented. i think that the level of the settler violence is the highest that i remember. there is also a lot of support from the government, and probably from the public — at least their public — that the violence is kind of necessary against the "evil", which are the palestinians. it's not only settler

violence that's on the rise. raids by the israeli army have intensified, killing many palestinians. the israeli army says it's investigating the arson incident caught on cctv. but across the west bank, many palestinians are living in fear. they don't know when the next attack will come. hugo bachega, bbc news, jerusalem. new zealand's prime minister — christopher luxon — has wrapped up his first official visit to singapore and will be spending the rest of his asia tour in thailand, and the philippines. high on the agendas — trade and security. i caught up with mr luxon while he was here in singapore, and started by asking for his reaction to the escalation of the war in the middle east and the impact that may it have on this region. thoughts really go out to the people and the livelihoods and the lives that are being impacted through this conflict. and so what we keep calling for is restraint. we want to make sure that there's a de—escalation of

tensions within the region, as does the international community. you know, it's very important to us ultimately that israel is able to get around the negotiating table with the palestinians and obviously negotiate a settlement. this is not going to be resolved through military action. it's going to be through kick—starting the peace process again and ultimately driving into a two state solution. so, you know, it is incredibly worrying and concerning seeing the escalation of tensions in the region. it's the last thing this region needs, given everything that it's been going through. but it requires hamas to release hostages. it requires israel to make sure that civilians are protected and actions. but most importantly, we want all sides to get round the table and to to be able to negotiate. for that to happen, it needs sort of honest brokers on both sides. yes. what we're seeing with with iran recently, do you have any thoughts on on how that can sort of de—escalate. well, we condemn that action from iran. i mean, that is an unprecedented response from iranian soil directly

onto israeli soil. is there a prospect that new zealand would be looking to join the sort of the security alliance with the and the us and australia? well, what we've said in the previous administration held the same position is that we are open to exploring what's called pillar two under orcus, which is the non—nuclear component of the orcus alliance. what you've seen just in the last couple of weeks is a pathway has opened up for engagement with orcus around what the possibilities of that could mean. obviously for new zealand we are open to exploring that and working through what that means for us in the coming months and year. again, you will know that we have a long standing non—nuclear position, which will remain unchanged under my government. it's a position that new zealanders hold quite rightly, ithink, and it's very dear to us and that's not negotiable. your next stop, you're off to thailand, off to the philippines. you know, you've not been in the role for too long, if you don't mind me saying so. this is almost like, "look, i'm here, i'm out "to sell new zealand." is that that's the pitch?

our strategic interests really lie in south east asia, and that's why i want to reprioritise and reset our foreign policy, so that actually the message is very clear that we are going to focus on south east asia and build deeper relationships across across the region. obviously, those relationships are around people to people connections, but they're also around defence and security as well as obviously economic. so it's exciting. you know, coming here to singapore was very deliberate as my second decision to come to this country, after australia, because this is a relationship that is multi levelled and is a gateway for south east asia, and i'll be the first new zealand prime minister to visit, i think, the philippines and thailand since 2013. long overdue. yeah, and fantastic new leaders who i've had the chance to meet that of those respective countries and huge opportunities for both countries to benefit with respect to trade but also security ties between our nations. now to the united states — and day two of donald trump's criminal trial is underway in new york. the focus for the moment is selecting a jury to sit through the weeks of proceedings — but so far dozens of potentialjurors have been excused, after saying they couldn't be impartial.

this case marks the first time a us president — former or current — has faced a criminal trial. it's over allegations he tried to cover up hush money payments to the adult film star stormy daniels in 2016. mr trump denies the allegations — he's once again been speaking to gathered press in the last few minutes, donald trump once again claimed that the judge was conflicted. the whole world is watching. this — the whole world is watching. thisjudge _ the whole world is watching. thisjudge is _ the whole world is watching. thisjudge is so _ the whole world is watching. thisjudge is so conflicted. . thisjudge is so conflicted. you — thisjudge is so conflicted. you understand _ thisjudge is so conflicted. you understand that. - thisjudge is so conflicted. you understand that. youi thisjudge is so conflicted. i you understand that. you will take — you understand that. you will take a — you understand that. you will take a look— you understand that. you will take a look at _ you understand that. you will take a look at that. _ you understand that. you will take a look at that. there's . take a look at that. there's never— take a look at that. there's never been _ take a look at that. there's never been a _ take a look at that. there's never been a judge - take a look at that. there's never been a judge so - never been a judge so conflicted. _ never been a judge so conflicted. this - never been a judge so conflicted. this is - never been a judge so - conflicted. this is ridiculous. and — conflicted. this is ridiculous. and also_ conflicted. this is ridiculous. and also there _ conflicted. this is ridiculous. and also there is _ conflicted. this is ridiculous. and also there is no - conflicted. this is ridiculous. and also there is no crime. i earlier i spoke to valerie hans. she's a law professor at cornell university and a leading expert on the us jury system. i began by asking her if she was surprised by how quickly things are moving — with seven jurors having been chosen so far? i was, especially after yesterday when the first group of 96 people came into the courtroom and well over half of them declared themselves not able to be fair and impartial in a trial

of donald trump. so today was a pleasant surprise. and valerie, what's the main challenge for justice? he's already reprimanded donald trump for muttering at a potentialjuror and has also warned his lawyers over their line of questioning. and what do you think he's worried about? well, he wants to keep a tight lid as tight as he possibly can on the parties in the case. and he's already done a number of things, i think, that have sped the jury selection along, for example, allowing people to self declare that they are not going to be fair and impartial without further questioning. further questioning would be typical in an ordinary case, and then in addition, the limiting of the both parties to a certain number of minutes for follow up questions. i also like the fact that he gave jurors a set of 42 questions in a juror questionnaire and thus directed their attention to the kinds of things that might bear most on their

potential impartiality in this particular case. so he's doing a lot to speed things along as much as he can and to keep control of the courtroom. and lots of focus is being put on this jury selection. both sides have been making peremptory challenges to removejurors. how many of those do they have? well, they have a maximum of ten on each side, which is high compared to a number of other states in the us. but but in this case, they may need all of them to pick a fair and impartialjury. of course, the judge also has the opportunity, if he is convinced that somebody cannot be fair and impartial, of removing unlimited numbers ofjurors for cause. and as the number of peremptory challenges dwindle, we may see more vigorous fights to get the judge to remove jurors that they believe are impartial, are partial for for cause.

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 i 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 19—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. ——the michaela community school in north london introduced the ban last year, after some pupils began praying in the school playground during breaks. the challenge had argued that the ban discriminated against muslim pupils — a claim 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. 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, and he has - built dreams and roads 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. 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 disrupted 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. 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. 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 inflames". our correspondent adrienne murray has been at the scene. it's not clear yet what the cause of the fire was. we do know there is renovations taking place on the building. so it was covered with scaffolding and also plastic sheeting. and it's also a very windy day. and all of that is said to have made it quite a difficult task for the firefighters to actually put that blaze out. there were people in the building, we understand they all managed to safely escape. they were evacuated and police said there were no reports of injuries.

of course, this is a very historic building. it's aoo—years—old and some of them were trying to salvage and rescue some of the historic artworks and bring those out with them. so there will still be an evaluation of what has been stayed and sadly, what has been destroyed by the blaze. find more about that story and others on our website. 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.

higherfor longer — the us fed says inflation isn't quite where the central bank would like it to be. and new zealand's prime minister speaks to the bbc — about the economy and the reversal of that controversial smoking ban.

hello and welcome to asia business report. i'm steve lai. the head of the us central bank has dashed hopes that interest rates will come down any time soon. jerome powell said data showed inflation isn't quite where he'd like to see it in order to start easing monetary policy. michelle fleury has more from new york. higherfor longer. that is the message from america's top banker, jerome powell on us interest rates. the chair of the federal reserve said policymakers hadn't seen enough progress on inflation since its rapid decline last year. and with inflation likely to take longer to return to the fed's desired target of 2%, a cut in rates, he said, didn't seem justified. we've said at the fomc that we'll need greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2% before it would be appropriate to ease policy. you know, we took that cautious approach and, sought that greater confidence so as not to overreact

to the string of low inflation readings that we had