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and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. announcer: and now, "bbc news" ♪ >> hello. you're watching the context on bbc news. >> an attack on a political opponent. that is all is. i am very honored to be here. >> we are waiting for high-stakes jury selection to take place but really, the majority of the morning was dedicated to what the judge said was tying up loose ends. >> it is going to be difficult to winnow down from hundreds of potential jurors to 12 individuals who do not appear to have preconceived notions. ♪

>> he has become the first former u.s. president to stand trial in a criminal case. donald trump denies falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment to an adult film star, stormy daniels. we will bring you the latest on day one from the court in new york. iran rejects western criticism of its attack on israel, led by a barrage of drones and missiles. rishi sunak has called on all sides to show restraint. the u.k. government's plans to send some asylum-seekers to rwanda is back in the house of commons tonight. we will bring you the outcome of that vote when we have it. and we will have more on the scottish gallery where you can bring your own are to hang on the walls. we will speak to the woman behind the idea. he is never afraid to grab the limelight and make headlines. today donald tru at history by becoming the first u.s.

president to stand trial in a criminal case. the former president is accused of falsifying his business records to disguise a hush money payment made to the former adult film star stormy daniels. 2 their accusations that date back to before the016 election. a defiant mr. trump pleaded not guilty and claimed the attack was an assault on america and repeated unsubstantiated claim that the trial is a witchhunt against him. we begin our coverage with this report from our north america editor sarah smith. sarah: it has become a well rehearsed ritual. donald trump's performance on his way to court. but this time it is very different. the first criminal trial of a former president. and it comes with a possible prison sentence. just look at his face. he seems drained of all his usual bombast, while insisting he is the victim of a conspiracy to derail his presidential campaign. >> this is political

persecution. this is a persecution like nobody has ever seen. again, it is a case that should have never been brought. it is an assault on america. that is why i'm very proud to be here. sarah: lil trump supporters and many ordinary voters do believe he is being unfairly targeted. >> they are weaponizing the criminal justice system against their political enemies and it is not right. >> i will fight for this man until the day i die and if they put him in jail there will be millions o americans like me that are going to grad our guns and have a civil war. sarah: trump opponents were also demonstrating inside the court. >> he has been a lifelong grifter and should have never gone to the point where he could even be president of the u.s. because he should have been arrested and in jail long ago for all the people he has ripped off over the years. sarah: inside the court, donald trump looked thunderous but stayed silent as his lawyers failed to get the judge to sand

-- stand aside and argued over what evidence could be used at trial. when the poor and star stormy daniels argued they had an affair he paid her $130,000 hush money just before the 2016 election. he is now accused of illegally falsifying business records to hide the payment. his presidential campaign now has to fit around his court dates. attacking the judge at a rally intensive and yet just two days before. >> this has never happened before. you do know that? fully gagged before a highly conflicted and corrupt judge who suffers from tds. does anyone know what tds is? correct. trump derangement syndrome. sarah: this case could take months, with the donald trump having to be here almost every day. rajini: of course this is a developing story. this is the live scene outside that court in new york.

our team inside the courtroom says mr. trump has two aides at the back of the courtroom. kayla epstein says mr. trump is fidgeting a lot in his seat. and he rocked back and forth in his chair, then bent his head and loed down. at some point it looked like his eyes were closed. you can go to the bbc website if you want to follow all the updates from inside the courtroom. this trial could last around six to eight weeksith hearings scheduled every week day except wednesday, meaning that an outcome is likely before u.s. election day in november. amid several trials mr. trump is facing, he continues to campaign for another term in office as part of that presidential race. of course he is hoping to beat president biden and get back into the white house.

so what impact could this trial have as mr. trump sets his sights on another term in office? to discuss this in more detail i am joined by public opinion expert and a former political strategist and partner at the brunswick gup, a management consultant firm. also by laura fink, a democratic strategist. woke him to both of you. robert, you are a former strategist but you also work in comms and pr./ is this going to hurt or help mr. trump's road to the white house? robert: i think that is a great question. my view is that it sort of has a tertiary impact at best. i think you heard it from the interviews from citizens today. his supporters believe he is the victim of political persecution. his non-supporters, biden voters, view him as already guilty. there is a very small middle

range. those folks are really going to be focused on the economy, on inflation, on a lot of kitchen table issues. so i am not sure that this court case, as interesting as it is, is going to have much of an impact on the general election. rajini: laura, do you agree or disagree witwhat robert has just said? as someone who has been a democratic strategist, do you think this case is a gift to joe biden? laura: i don't know that it is a gift, but will have impact. of course there are a lot of things that could have impact on the election. the reason this could have impact is because a third of independents say a guilty verdict coming down in this case would sway their vote, is likely to sway their vote. that is a good chunk of voters in what will be a very close election. there are of course and a number of countervailing forces. but that number on independents should give the trump team pause and the biden team something that they can look to.

of course in any campaign you have three things. the player, the game plan, and the weather. this is an example of the weather, the outside events impacting what happens on the campaign trail. rajini: staying with you, laura, i remember covering the 26 teen election when i was based in the u.s., and the amount of airtime mr. trump got in that campaign surpassed a lot of the other candidates. certainly when you saw him at riley's -- at rallies. in a way, these court cases have rallies from 2016 in terms of galvanizing his base. laura: galvanizing his base and perhaps having a deleterious effect on the voters he is attempting to sway. this takes him off of the campaign trail. he is known to make hay out of any press opportunity, but this is not necessarily one that is going to win voters over to his side i would say losing that control

over where he is and what he does while on the campaign trail a disadvantage for trump. rajini: what do you make of that? what do you think some of the seniors in the republican are strategizing around this? robert: sure. i agree with the other guest that the negative, in my opinion, is largely that it keeps him off the campaign trail a number of days. and i do see that as a negative. i think that is a very good point. i disagree that this is going to have much of an impact because i think voters already know that trump is not a paragon of virtue. they have known that for a very long time. i'm not sure this is going to change opinions on that. i do go back to the economy. traditionally in american politics, where the economy is going has been decisive for reelection of presidents. right noin america you have 26%, according to a brookings institution poll, saying the

economy is excellent or good, and 73% saying it is either fair or poor. that's where people are going to be focused. they are focused on what can you do for me now and in the future as opposed to some of this stuff. there are a lot of concerns right w about inflation. really quick, the issue that the president has is on one hand, we have really good data, economic data from the government. on the other hand, we have very bad perception data among americans. and so there is a huge disconnect. the biden campaign will be spending a lot of time on trying to speak to the american people, encourage them and try to communicate to them that the economy is improving. and there have been small shifts in perceptions of the economy. the question is, can they get enough shift, like say, clinton in 1996, to get reelected. but i think that will be the big

issue and not the trials. rajini: these trials, if i am summarizing correctly, are a bit of a sideshow, and actually it is the economy, stupid. laura: it is the economy in the last couple of election cycles has proven to not necessarily cover what happens. it is an outworn phrase. we see issues essential to americans lives, like the issue of reproductive choice and the issues around the criminal trials that we have not seen before. so while the economy will certainly be central, these issues outside of it are compelling. and in narrow eleions, those issues matter. this particular case with the criminal cases sitting forward also color the air and have a corrosive effect on memories of what it was like when we were under the trump administration. so the question becomes, do voters remember that fondly, or do they remember the chaos? that really depends on how these cases proceed, and how trump

behaves. he is the player in all of this. if he resorts to how he has usually behaved, that, once again, is a net negative for him as the campaign wears on. rajini: robert and laura, thank you very much for sharing your thoughts on that trial, which continues. in fact, we are getting more updates from our reporters who are in the court at the moment. let's show you the live shot of the courtroom. justice merchant asked if anye feels they cannot judge the case and partially because of course it is jury selection at the moment. that is the question he has asked some of the potential jurors. our colleagues say they cannot see the jurors on the feed, but it seems at least some people -- they can hear justice merchant calling out numbers of jurors who have volunteered that they cannot be impartial, which of

course is interesting given that jury selection is so important. mr. trump is omnipresent in america, everyone knows who he is. and that is the challenge when it comes to selecting an impartial jury. we will have more on that coming up. around the world and across the u.k., this is bbc news. ♪

rajini: you are watching the context here on bbc news. now, what comes next after iran's major attack on israel? this footage shows the barrage of more than 300 missiles and drones which lit up the skies at the weekend. it israel the war cabinet has been meeting as it considers its response to the attack. the country's military chief of staff says there will be a response. meanwhile, a spokesman for the iranians government insisted that tehran has shown restraint and that the strikes were a limited act of self-defense

pretty u.s. secretary of state antony blinken has reiterated america's support for israel. mr. blinken said the u.s. is coordinating a diplomatic response. britain's rishi sunak has called on all sides to show restraint. for the latest i am joined now by our diplomatic correspondent james landau in jerusalem, and gary o'donoghue who joins me from washington. let's start with you, james. we have been hearing from israel's military chief of staff this evening. what more have we heard about any possible response? james: that's right. the head of israel's army, the chief general staff, went to visit one of the airbases that was actually struck during the weekend drone and missile attack by iran. some of those ballistic missiles did get through and caused with

the israeli military described as lht damage. when he was at that airbase talking to some airmen and servicemen and women there, he said that in the face of all of these missiles and drones against the state of israel, quote, they will be met with a response. now, that is the first official on the record confirmation that there will be some kind of response. we do not know what yet, but the point is the israelis are not going to let this lie and go without some kind of response. the question of course is what they are going to do. the war cabinet met this afternoon to discuss options. there have been lots of unofficial signals and media quotes from that, which could neatly be summarized by something must be done. but we have to make sure that we calibrate it in a way that does not provoke a wider full-scale

gional conflict. also we must do it in a way that is coordinated with allies. precisely what that means in absolute terms we do not know yet. rajini: and what is the mood in israel following the weekend's attack? james: well, we went out and about today to talk to people and to catch some kind of sense of what they are thinking. some people we spoke to said look, this is the moment, you have to go for it. this is an opportunity to take the fight to iran. that was their view. one man we spoke to said even if israel was to attack one of iran's nuclear sites, he said he would go along with that. others were more cautious. others were aware that there were wider consequences for any military action and they said we do not necessarily opposed military action, but we want to

be cautious. we want to get it right. one person we spoke to said revenge is a -- -- is a dish best served cold. so, a variety of views from people who i think are still absorbing that. just of the scale of the attack launched against this country 48 hours ago. rajini: james landale, thank you very much for that update. let's go straight to my colleague gary o'donoghue joining me from washington. there has been a lot of reaction coming in this evening from the white house, even the pentagon and the last few moments. bring us up-to-date on what we have been hearing in washington today. gary: there has been a lot of discussion particularly about this question of the extent to which iran may or may not have warned the u.s. and israel about what it was planning. we know there was a great deal of expectation around some kind

of attack coming. but the white house has been pushing back very hard on this, saying they were not told when this was going to happen. no timescale, no targets. they may have had indications from their own intelligence. i think what they are trying to say is look, if you think iran was just sending a message by putting, as john kirby the spokesman said, this amount of metal in the air, then you are wrong. they set out too a lot of damage and they set out to kill as many people as possible. that is a kind of way of trying to point out that iran's capabilities, its military capabilities are perhaps not what iran thought they were, and certainly israel and its allies capabilities in terms of defense turned out to be pretty successful. 99% of all of those munitions prevented from reaching their targets. so that is one strand of what is going on here. the other strand is what happens

next. the white house is very clear here that this is a decision for israel. we know that they are urging restraint on benjamin netanyahu, but they say they are not part of that planni process. they clearly expect something to happen and they would like that to be a restraint response, something that does not escalate further. the bottom line of course is the thing joe biden has been trying to avoid all along, escalation, has already happened. that road has already been crossed in terms of israel firing munitions and israel's -- and missiles at israel for the first time since 1979. they just do not want it to escalate any farther. it has caused a huge amount of problems for the biden administration, not least of all the deal they thought they were closing in on in terms of a cease-fire for gaza and the

release of hostages and increasing amounts of aid. that is now on the back burner and hamas are not coming to the table on that at the moment. rajini: about a week or so ago, president biden was quite critical of benjamin netanyahu's approach to the ongoing conflict in gaza. given the events of the weekend, how do you think that dynamic has now changed? gary: i think there is no doubt that this has warmed things up. if you remember, before saturday night when they spoke during these attacks, they had not spoken for 10 days. that is quite a long time given the nature of the hot war that is going on in gaza. the last time they spoke was when joe biden effectively threatened to stop arms sales to israel because of their approach to humanitarian question inside gaza. so, things were not good. this level of cooperation involvement over the weekend i think has changed the dynamics somewhat.

israel's biggest ally, the u.s., came to its aid in its moment of need, as that some other allies, britain, france, etc. that, certainlin washington, will make them hope that they have a bit more influence on how israel behaves now compared to what they had perhaps this time last week. rajini: gary o'donoghue live for us in washington. and before that james landale in jerusalem, thank you very much. we are still running a live page on the bbc news website which has updates on all the developments, so do check that out. the weapons supervisor for the film "rust" has been jailed for 18 months following the fatal shooting of the film's cinematographer while onset. 26-year-old hunter gutierrez was sentenced today after being found guilty of involuntary manslaughter. she was in charge of weapons

during production of the film in 2021 when a reviver -- revolver filed -- we can go straight to our correspondent and correspondence for the latest. bring us up-to-date on what we have heard today. emma: it was a very emotional hearing in which hannah gutierrez was sentenced to 18 months in prison, the maximum sentence she could receive for that involuntary manslaughter charge she had been found guilty of. the court heard various impact statements from helena hutchin'' friends, family, and from the director of the movie. in this case hana gutierrez-reed herself got a chance to speak and she said a stake happened and that makes her human but not

a monster. the judge said if it was not for her actions a little boy would still have his mother. and he said you turned a safe weapon into a lethal weapon. so she was sentenced to 18 months behind bars for that involuntary manslaughter charge. rajini: what next for alec baldwin, who was in the film when this all happened? emma: he is facing the same charge at trial has been somewhat delayed because he was initially charged and then the charges were dropped and he was recharged when the gun he was using was subject to more forensic examination. what it could potentially mean for him, some lawyers think this might work in his favor print the prosecution will argue that alec baldwin also acted recklessly in the way he was using the gun. but his defense will argue it was not his job to load it with bullets, it was not his job to

make sure it was safe. that was the job of the armorer, hannah gutierrez-reed, and she has now been held responsible for that. so his defense will be able to argue she was to blame for this terrible accident. but if this was to progress to trial and if alec baldwin was to be found guilty, he too could be facing a prison sentence in jail. rajini: emma vardy with the very latest on that from los angeles. thank you very much. before we go, let's take you back to e scene live in new york, and the jury selection continues in that criminal case involving donald trump our reporter inside the courtroom says more than 50 perspective jurors out of the 96 brought into the courtroom initially raised their hand to indicate they could not be partial in the trial. we will have more on that coming up here on the context, so do stay with us. we are also running a live page on the bbc news website on that

story as well. this is the context. i will be back after a short break, so stay with us. ♪ us. announcer: funding for presentation of this program is provided by... financial services firm, raymond james. bdo. accountants and advisors. cunard is a proud supporter of public television. announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ announcer: funding for presentation of this program is provided by... woman: two retiring executives turn their focus to greyhounds, giving these former race dogs a real chance to win.