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anchor: this is bbc world news america. the white house criticizes the international criminal court's decision to seek arrest warrants for israel's prime minister, its defense minister, and hamas leaders. condolences and mixed reactions from around the world as iran mourns the death of its president in a helicopter crash. a tense day at donald trump's hush money trial as former fixer michael cohen wraps up his testimony and the judge rebukes a defense witness. ♪ welcome to world news america. president biden and his administration are rallying to the defense of israel after the chief prosecutor of the international criminal court sought arrest warrants for israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu, the israeli defense minister, and three members of hamas. among the allegations, the icc

says israel has systematically deprived palestinians of the means to life such as clean water in violation of international law. president biden released a quote saying the iccs application for arrest warrants over the years is outrageous, and let me be clear, whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence between israel and hamas. we will always stand with israel against threats to its security. antony blinken also accused the icc prosecutor of equivocating israel with hamas, calling it shameful. the state prosecutor argued the icc was disrupting investigations into its own conduct and that it was overstepping its mandate. >> the icc is said to be a court of last resort if the country is not holding itself and its personnel accountable, that is when the icc comes in, not in the middle of the process as they have done here. first of all, israel has its own investigation. second, we have accountability mechanisms here,

processes that are ongoing. there are places to look at these questions. in our view, it is fundamentally not a roll of the icc. anchor: the chief prosecutor of the icc said monday that his office has reasonable grounds to believe that both israel and gaza have committed crimes against humanity. the icc laid out seven devastating allegations against prime minister netanyahu and his defense minister drawled a lot -- and his defense minister. >> the crimes include starvation as a means of warfare, willfully causing great suffering, serious injury to body or health or cruel treatment. willful killing or murder. and intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population. as well as crimes against humanity of extermination and or murder. persecution. and allegations of crimes of

committing other inhuman acts. anchor: the israeli prime minister responded with this video statement. >> the outrageous decision by the icc prosecutor to seek arrest warrants against the democratically elected leaders of israel is a moral outrage of historic proportions. it will cast an everlasting mark of shame on international courts. sumi: the icc simultaneously sought warrants for the leader of hamas regarded as the mastermind of the october 7 attack the the icc says he and two other hamas leaders are responsible for a number of other crimes against humanity and war crimes, including extermination, murder, taking hostages as a war crime, as well as rape, sexual violence, and torture during captivity. hamas reminded -- responded in a statement saying it strongly denounces the attempts to eat way the victim with the executioner by issuing arrest warrants against a number of palestinian resistance leaders.

if the arrest warrants are issued, it would mean prime minister netanyahu and the israeli defense minister but be unable to visit many western allies without risking arrest. our correspondent explains the next steps. >> we have to be very clear here. no arrest warrants have yet been issued. the process is such that the icc prosecutor gathers the evidence until he believes a certain threshold has been met that justifies the issuing of arrest warrants, but that request from the prosecutor must now go through a panel of judges. they will probably hold a hearing, probably not in public, in order to the side whether they believed there is sufficient evidence to charge these three members of hamas plus israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu and the defense ministry off gallant with war crimes and crimes against humanity, as documented

here by the prosecutor. sumi: you can speak now to the former u.s. ambassador at large en war crimes issues. glad to have you on our program today. we have seen a number of voices in the u.s., including the president and the state department that are accusing the icc of creating a false equivalence between israel and hamas. what do you make of this criticism? >> i would suggest that it be ratcheted down. none of this is surprising. we all know that the prosecutor has been investigating the situation in israel and gaza since october. obviously at some point, there were going to be arrest warrants that result from that investigation. it is not that surprising what has happened.

what is a little more surprising is that typically the prosecutor , as far as i have recalled, does not publicize the application of the arrest warrant to the judges in advance, because you want to let the judges arrive at that without any external pressures being presented to the judges. sumi: why do you think it was different this time around? amb. scheffer: it would probably take a number of weeks, if not months. well, i think this time around, it might be that the prosecutor would try to use this instrument of an announcement to prevent further alleged crimes by either set of targeted individuals, whether it be on the hamas side or on the israeli side. that might be one of the reasons for doing so. sumi: if i could jump in, you mentioned the fact that it perhaps does not come as a surprise. we saw that the icc prosecutor wrote that he had repeatedly called for israel to take urgent

action and that those that do not comply with the law should not later when my office does so. but the state department points to something called complementarity, that the court did not give the israeli legal system the time to actually process this. is that a fair point? amb. scheffer: well, one does not know without knowing the inside information about, but were these consultations between the court and the israeli government to satisfy the court that israel in fact is undertaking investigations in its domestic court system? that does not just meet investigations of foot soldiers who might be shooting at individuals who are prisoners of war and walking out or are tank commanders in gaza. it means investigations of the leadership of israel. is that actually taking place within the israeli court system? if so, i think the state department has a point. i would argue that between now and the time when the judges

make their decision, which could be weeks or months, that israel take that step of fully informing the court what is happening domestically in the israeli courts and in the israeli attorney general's office to ensure that anyone who might be suspected of violating international humanitarian law, including in the leadership, is being properly investigated. sumi: can i ask you as well, because what the criticisms we have -- one of the criticisms we have heard in the u.s. is that the icc does not have any legitimacy. it was interesting, the icc said today that the court can exercise its criminal jurisdiction in the situation of the state of palestine, and that give extends from gaza to the west bank. does the icc actually have jurisdiction here? amb. scheffer: yes, that ruling was made by the judges in 2021.

the whole situation in the west bank and gaza has been before the court now for a couple of years since 2021 and even before that in the application to the court. there is no mystery as to why this is before the court. the court has ruled it has that jurisdiction. the kind of jurisdiction it has with respect to the israel-hamas war is as follows area one , if any palestinian -- is as follows. one, the court has jurisdiction. that raises october 7. if any atrocity crimes occur on the territory of the state of palestine, not on the territory of israel, but on the territory of the state of palestine that are not committed by palestinians, but rather by some other party, such as the israeli defense forces, within the court has jurisdiction. under criminal law, territory means everything. if you commit a crime on the

territory of palestine, you are committing a crime on the territory of the state of palestine, and since that is a state party to the international criminal court, the court ceases jurisdiction. sumi: we have to leave the conversation there, but really interesting discussion. thank you so much. for more on the icc decision, i spoke to ambassador john bolton, the former u.s. national security advisor in the donald trump administration. ambassador, president biden today called the iccs decision outrageous and added, ", whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence between israel and hamas." what is your reaction? >> i think the icc as a whole is fundamentally illegitimate. sits unfettered in the international either with no accountability, no democratic control, no executive or legislative checks. i think it is a danger to the united states or any democratic

rule of law state. it is a mistake for biden to say they are prosecuting good guys and they should only prosecute bad guys. sumi: some of the u.s.'s strongest allies are party to the icc. the u.s. has in the past supported some of the iccs work and looking after -- looking at, rather, some alleged war crimes. we have seen this in both republican and democrat administrations. the icc issued an arrest warrant for the russian leader of the war in ukraine. what makes it illegitimate? amb. bolton: it is true that some administrations, mostly democratic, have provided support. i think that is a mistake. what is illegitimate is that this court has no separation between its prosecution and its judicial powers. that violates the fundamental tenets of the american constitution. it has no provision for jury trials. it is a pretend court.

it does not have the support of an executive that makes political decisions, as occur in democratic societies. it does not have a legislative branch that, in the case of the united states, approves nominees to the federal judiciary. this is a court just out there with no power to enforce its decisions. it is an exercise in virtue signaling. sumi: what avenue do you see for pursuing international war crimes? the president and the u.s. has indicated that if it is found that israel has committed violations of humanitarian law, that should be tried in israel itself? -- itself. are you confident that should happen? amb. bolton: that is what a democracy is. if you don't understand that, i don't know how to answer. we have democratically elected, constitutionally-based governments. if those governments make mistakes, it is the responsibility of the people of the country, through their legal process to call those officials

to account. sumi: i am just raising the point that the prosecutor -- amb. bolton: and i am telling you that a group of judges picked by an assembly of state parties purely on a political basis, who have no democratic accountability at all -- this court is fundamentally contrary to democratic theory. it has no external checks on it whatsoever. let me give you a concrete example from the court's action by calling for these warrants. the war is ongoing. this prosecutor has no accountability for the effect that he has had on the war itself. do you think this makes this conflict easier to resolve or harder? do you think more people might not die now because this war is extended? i think the answer is almost certainly asked. -- certainly yes. sumi: we are going to hear from ambassador bolton in a moment as we turn to our next story. iran has set a day for

presidential elections in june as the country raises five days of mourning for the president killed in a helicopter crash on sunday area iran's foreign minister and six others also died. the crash happened close to iran's border with azerbaijan. all the calls for maine's unclear, officials say the chopper was experiencing -- while the cause remains unclear, officials say the chopper was experiencing difficulties before the crash. correspondent: in the fog at first light, on this forbidding terrain, the crash site was finally reached. the bodies pulled from this wreckage, including the president and his foreign minister. journalist from iran's state tv reporting from this scene, the blue and behind him. no one survived when this elephant -- when this helicopter came down, killing eight people on board.

they had flown in a convoy of three choppers close to the border with iser by john -- with azerbaijan. the president inaugurating a new dam. the president says he bit him a friendly farewell. in tehran today, a sad goodbye. the grief of his faithful flock. and on social media, scenes of sorrow but also celebration. the bbc's persian service, which cannot report inside iran, has been monitoring the messages. >> they call him the president of the poor people, but the reality is if you look at the massive majority of iranians, we know what we are hearing inside iran. those people who dared to come on social media and express their opinions, we see there are huge numbers of people expressing their excitement that he is dead. correspondent: on president

raisi's watch, iran cracked down on protests over strict islamic rules restricting their freedoms. his sudden demise will not change iran's direction. >> it is a big mistake. most of our governments rely very much on people hostile towards iran for their analysis and their information. that is what makes them pursue mistaken policies that only backfire. correspondent: in the islamic republic, the 85-year-old supreme leader is the ultimate authority. raisi was seen as is possible successor. the hardliners control all the levers of power as they start the process to select a new president. continuity is their top priority. sumi: a deputy to mr. raisi has

been appointed as interim acting president and replacing the foreign minister will be a veteran nuclear negotiator who had been serving as deputy foreign minister. authorities say the funeral procession for president raisi will be held in tehran on wednesday. reaction and condolences have been pouring in from around the world, from turkey to the united nations security council which held a moment of silence. in the u.s., state department specs person matthew miller says the united states expresses its official condolences. as i ran select a new president, we were -- we reaffirm our support for their rights and freedoms. john kirby also commented, saying there is no question this was a man who had a lot of lot on his hands -- a lot of blood on his hands. ambassador john bolton also gave a reaction to the death. he wrote on x that raisi's death

does not mean an end to the war with israel. he wrote why it might make it more aggressive. amb. bolton: the death of right ec is a potentially catastrophic blow to the rule of the ayatollahs, not because of the power of the president, but because right ec -- raisi was being groomed as a successor to the supreme leader khamenei. there have only been two supreme leader's since 1979. there was no constitutional process there. the loss of raisi frozen monkeywrench into their plan and could be the beginning of fracturing at the top of the regime, which could lead to the overthrow of the molas entirely. the reaction is to point attention elsewhere, and the iranian regime could do that by stepping up attacks on israel and other allies through those

proxies. sumi: i ran has -- iran has indicated they will hold elections next month. what can you expect from the next president? amb. bolton: i don't think the guardian council will allow any candidates who do not adhere to the ayatollahs hard-line. the real question is whether the elections take place and whether they have any significance. i don't think you can cover up this hole in the middle of body politic in iran. that is why the danger of the risk to the regime is so serious. sumi: in his final day of testimony and donald trump's hush money trial, michael cohen admitted to stealing from the trump organization. mr. cohen testified he pocketed $30,000 after he was instructed to pay a tech company that would create an algorithm that would ensure mr. trump would rise significantly in a presidential poll. after the prosecution rested its case, there were more tense moments in court involving a

defense witness. we can go to new york, where our correspondent is outside of the courthouse following all the latest for us. former president has been commenting on all of this. what does he have to say? correspondent: donald trump was very pleased in court today. he came out saying this was a tyrant judge and that what just happened, what just took place in court was an incredible display. let me walk you through what that incredible display was. we had, when the defense presented their case, a wildcard witness on the stand, robert castello, an attorney that had been on conservative outlets saying he could testify in this case to rebut michael cohen's testimony. the defense ended up calling him, but the judge put clear parameters about what he could testify to. when robert castillo got on the

stand, he claimed michael cohen's word to him that he had nothing on donald trump and he refuted the prosecution's claims that robert costello had tried to represent michael cohen to keep him in donald trump's fold as part of a pressure campaign. michael cohen went with a different lawyer, but still low said he always -- costello always said -- said he always had michael cohen's interest at hand, not trump's. but when the prosecution objected numerous times and the judge sustained those objections, robert costello remarked "geez" in exasperation, and the judge was extremely angry, reminding him he need to follow proper decorum. at that point, the judge got even angrier, saying robert costello was staring him down. we could see, watching from the overflow room, all of this happening. the judge, who is very mild-mannered normally, known for that type of demeanor,

ordered everybody out of the courtroom so he could dress down that witness. certainly one of the most dramatic moments we have had of this trial yet, but it will not have a significant impact on this case and the facts of it. sumi: i just have about 30 seconds left, but the prosecution has rested its case. what happens now? nada: prosecutors are still questioning robert costello before the defense can rest their case, but the judge has scheduled closing statements for next tuesday, may 28, after the long memorial day holiday. after those closing statements, after jurors get instructions, this will go to them to decide donald trump's fate. sumi: great as always to speak with you. britain's prime minister has apologize for the victims of a blood scandal, recognized to be the biggest health care disaster he in the history of the national health service.

more than 50,000 people were infected with hiv or hepatitis c after being given contaminated blood between the 1970's and 1990's. 3000 people have already died, while others are still living with ongoing effects. a seven-year inquiry into the scandal published today identified a catalog of failures by the nhs and successive governments. you can continue to follow our special coverage on the bbc website, bbc.com/news. the u.k. high court ruled monday that wikileaks founder julian assange can appeal his extradition order to stand trial in the u.s. on espionage charges. assange is accused of releasing highly classified information about alleged u.s. war crimes, and potentially faces life in prison if convicted on all charges. the decision allows astonished to challenge the u.s.'s promises on the prospective trial, including guarantees he would not face the death penalty and

that his freedom of speech would be protected. assad faces up to 175 years in prison. the u.s. argues that the leaks endangered lives. assange's lawyers argued the case is politically motivated. the wikileaks founder spent more than a decade resisting deportation and facing espionage charges. before we go, the cargo ship that collided with a bridge in baltimore in march was removed on monday morning. the complex operation is expected to take around 21 hours. it is a major milestone in the effort to reopen access to one of america's busiest ports. authorities are investigating how the ship lost power and caused the key bridge to collapse. thank you so much for watching world news america. stay with us. announcer: funding for presentation of this program is provided by... financial services firm, raymond james.

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: get the free pbs app now and stream the best of pbs.

♪ geoff: good evening. amna: on the newshour tonight, the international criminal court issues arrest warrants for israeli and hamas leaders. geoff: offensive's president and foreign minister are killed in a helicopter crash raising questions about the