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announcer: and now, "bbc news" . i am christian fraser is the . context. >> the international community must work together to prevent any actions that could push the entire middle east over the edge, with a devastating impact on civilians. >> in case of any use of force by the israeli regime and violating our sovereignty, the islamic republic of iran will not hesitate to assert its inherent rights. >> there is always the risk of miscalculation, of escalation being piled upon escalation. i think people are incredibly aware of that now as a result of de-escalatory act made by -- of the sql a tory act made by iran

last weekend. christian: the g-7 industrialized nations are turning to every diplomatic and military tool in reach to try and head off an imminent israeli reprisal on iran. more sanctions today and the place to help out ukraine defend itself ainst the renewed russian onslaught. we will get the reaction tonight from italy and jerusalem. and the view from all sides as congress prepares to vote on the long-delayed package of ukrainian aid. also tonight, another day of jury selection in donald trump's hush money trial in manhattan. there are now only five jurors exceeded after two were dismissed this morning for different reasons. and artificial intelligence, we speak to the scientist and best-selling author on ai, gary marcus. a very good evening. the u.s. and britain have imposed new sanctions on iran

and it's weapons manufacturers to follow -- tehran -- to punish tehran for its attacks last weekend. lord cameron said he hoped the international response would persuade israeli officials not to retaliate too strongly and see off a wider war. white house officials said sanctions were aimed at disrupting iran's ability to produce the unmanned aerial vehicles its military used to attacksrael by cutting off global financial transactions with the companies involved in building them. iran's foreign minister had this to say. >> in case of any use of force by the israeli regime and violating our sovereignty, the islamic republic of iran will not hesitate to assert its inherent rights to get a decisive and proper response to it, to make the regime regret its actions. christian: but in new york the u.n. secretary general antonio

guterres was decidedly downbeat about the situation in the middle east, warning that the region is on a precipice. he urged all countries to exercise maximum restraint, saying one miscalculation could lead to full-scale regional conflict. >> it is high time to end the bloody cycle of retaliation. it is high time to stop. the international community must work together to prevent any actions that could push the entire middle east over the edge with a devastating impact on civilians. let me be clear. the risks are spiraling on many fronts. christian: in italy, ukraine was also on the agenda. here is the u.k. foreign secretary lower david cameron. >> ukraine could not be clearer. they need ammunition. they need more air defenses.

that gap needs to be filled. no country has done more than britain in terms of helping the ukrainian armed forces, the ukrainian people, and the ukrainian government. and we look forward to hearing with the foreign minister esther say today about the further steps we need to take. christian: let's get reaction in italy. jessica parker and james landau. does the israeli war cabinet share the view of the secretary-general that things are as precarious as he believes they are? james: oh, i think they are aware of the consequences of any further miscalculation. if israel's response to iran's attack over the weekend does trigger an escalatory process, they are incredibly aware of that. but at the same time they are determined to respond. what they want to do is respond and leave it at that.

you hear that from spokespeople saying we need to act. they are aware of the consequences. whether they are as aware as concerned as some of their allies has been signaling in recent days i think remains to be seen. we simply don't know yet what the israelis are going to do. they say they are going to act. we don't know how yet, we d't know when. there is some speculation, it is no more than that, that that is possible the might delay any action until after the passover holiday. but again, that could just be people here in jerusalem wishing for the best. a little bit of what is called optimism bias. christian: the sanctions announced today were heavily trailed ahead of the meeting. will they mollify the israelis? there any faith in a sanctions regime like this? they are obviously not the first sanctions imposed on iran. jessica: no. i think the u.k. figures are 13

entities and individuals being sanctioned, as you said, linked to iran's missile and drone program, to add to the already existing 400 sanctions in place. but look, certainly the hope is from the likes of lord cameron, british foreign secretary, that this will be something they can sell again tthe israelis, this idea of a win, an act of solidarity, sending a message to iran. but it's interesting, lord cameron alongside the german foreign minister on alina burbach arrived here pretty early. they had both come from israel, as they were obviously calling on israel to show restraint in response to the iranian attack. that message has continued here although discussions have now moved on to the war in ukraine. but it was interesting to note

that after those conversations that they had in israel, benjamin netanyahu was very clear that israel would be making its own choices. christian: the other discussion was ukraine. they are returning to this idea of using the frozen russian assets, or the interest accrued from those assets to fund the war effort. how far have they gotten with that? it is part of one of the bills they will discuss in the u.s. house of representatives this weekend. jessica: it seems to be a pretty complicated idea, and one that has been kicking around for a really long time. and there has been hesitancy before because of legal complexities. i was talking to officials here tonight and heell me the u.s. is pushing this idea of using frozen russian assets, the bulk of which are held in europe. to use the interest to then get a loan in order to channel money

to ukraine. in terms of whether this is going to happen obviously we don't know. the indications i have had is it will certainly not get out of the line at this g-7 foreign ministers meeting. if anything, if they can get there it will be something they try to finalize at the leaders g-7 summit later in the summer. christian: one of the more alarming pieces of rhetoric we heard today from the iranian side is they are reviewing their nuclear strategy. they seem to be implying, rather overtly, that they my try to seek a nuclear weapon if israel were to attack them. when you look at how that might play out, if you stretch forward and look at the implications of that, we could seem to be in a new arms race. james: yeah. the iranians are in full deterrence mode at the moment, doing everything they possibly can to minimize whatever israeli response is coming.

we jusheard it from that clip from the iranian foreign minister speaking at the u.n. you also had the revolutionary guard general talking about this nuclear thing. now, at the moment, iran says its nuclear program is purely civilian. there are many countries in the west that do not believe them. they have been trying to restrict that program for many years because they fear that iran is trying to develop weapons grade nuclear fuel that could be used to make a nuclear weapon. for iran to become overt about its nuclear ambition would be a substantial step change. it is part of the attempt to try and persuade the israelis to minimize their escalation. it could have the opposite effect. it could encourage the israelis to target those nuclear facilities, which they have done before and could well do again. again, the irans -- israel

still wants to respond. pressure from the iranians, pressure from their allies. they are in quite a bind and have not made up their mind. christian: a quick word on the qataris, who say they are going to consider whether continue in their role as mediators. why are they concerned about what has been going on? james: there are some american politicians who have been critical of the qataris saying they are not putting enough pressure on hamas to agree to a deal. they are hosting the hamas in qatar alongside a big american base. the qataris are pushing back saying, enough of that. if you push us any further we could just leave. nobody wants that. this is an act of the qataris pushing back againsthe american critics. christian: thank you both for your contributions tonight. we will focus on the war in ukraine in the second half of our program tonight. do stay with us for that. let's turn to events in

scotland. the husband of the former first minister has been charged in connection with embezzlement of funds from the scottish national party. peter murrell was taken into custody thursday and questioned by detectives. he was previously arrested as a speck that -- as a suspect last year before being released without charge. our correspondent in scotland is with us. nice to see you. remind us of the history to this case and what police are saying. reporter: people less -- the investigation known as operation branch form began in the summer of 2021. so, almost three years ago. it has been a major investigation. it started when complaints were made about what had happened to around 600,000 pounds of donations that were made to the scottish national party that were raised for a new independence campaign. peter murrell resigned as the

party's chief executive a few weeks before he was first arrested a year ago. police carried out of the -- carried out a search of the home he shares with the party's headquarters at that time. we know he was taken in for further questioning this morning at 9:13. he was taken to a police station in central scotland, just a few miles outside glasgow. there he was questioned by detectives forround nine hours. those detectives investigating the finances of the party. according to police in a statement they released a short while ago, he was charged at 6:35 this evening with the embezzlement of funds from the smp. his arrest last year was one of three arrests made last year. the foreign -- the former

treasurer was also being -- in june last year nicola sturgeon, mr. murrell's husband and scotland's longest-serving former first minister, she was arrested and questioned as a suspect for more than seven hours as part of the investigation. and she was released without charge. this evening, the news that mr. murrell has been charged in connection with this large police investigation. what happens now in terms of the legal procedures, that's the prosecuting authorities here in scotland, that will be sent in due course. he's no longer in police custody. christian: any response from the smp tonight? reporter: no response. of course this is now active for

the purposes of the contempt of court act here in scotland. the rules about what you can and cannot say once someone has been charged from a police investigation are quite strict. so i wouldn't expect any comment from politicians or indeed the snp at this point, now that someone has been charged in relation to this investigation. christian: thank you very much. around the world and across the u.k., you are watching bbc ns. viewers were still with us, let's look at some other stories making headlines. a criminal cases review commission has offered an unreserved apology to an innocent man who spent 17 years in prison. andrew was wrongfully convicted of rape in 2003 but was exonerated in july 2023 by dna testing. a jury has delivered a verdict of unlawful killing.

a fire oke out in the early hours of valentine's day 1981. a further 200 people were injured. it has been the longest running inquest in the history of the irish state. scotland's only gender identity clinic for children has paused prescribing puberty blockers. the clinic in glasgow says new patients will no longer receive the hormone treatment until they are 18. nhs england confirmed it stopped prescribing puberty blockers back in march. you're watching bbc news. laborers calling for police involvement after a conservative mp was suspended by the parliamentary party after claims he misused campaign funds to pay off what he reportedly called bad people who had locked him in a flat. the times newspaper says the mp quest of thousands of pounds and a further 14,000 pounds were

spent on private medical bills. he strongly disputes the claims. the conservative party was made aware of the allegations of three monthsgo and says it is investigation. our political correspondent reports. reporter: this was mark menzies last week and a local campaign video. when this was filmed, he was still a conservative mp. last night he was suspended from the party. it came after allegations in a newspaper he used funds from donors to pay thousands to so-called bad people, who had apparently locked him in a flat. the bbc has checked details of some of the allegations printed in the times this morning. that he called a 78-year-old local activist in the middle of the night asking for money. he claimed he was being detained against his will, that he needed money as a matter of life or death. the 6500 pounds was provided by a local activist and the money was then reimbursed through a

local party. in his filed constituency this afternoon, no sign of him, and the address given, there was no response. but he told the times, i strongly dispute the allegations. i fully complied with all the rules for the care relation. but there is anger among some tory activists that more was not done to address the case after the allegations were first raised in january. >> i understand cici hq have been aware of it for a while. we have been investigating. some new information has come to light subsequently. >> there are obviously a lot of unanswered questions in relation to these allegations. not least of which why the conservative party took so long reported this to the police. who would seems to me should be involved. reporter: it is not the first time he has faced controversy. 10 years ago he quit as a ministerial aid after allegations he paid in escort.

he was also reportedly -- he said he had been cleared by police. after the latest allegations, some local voters were less than impressed. >> if you are in a public position like that, then honesty and high standards of ethics should be something that you take seriously. reporter: this is a messy story of allegations about the local mp here. but it has wider implications about the reputation of politicians, too. christian: messy indeed. i have been speaking to the former mp and edwina currie. >> i have my head in my hands somewhat. i am no stranger to scandal in the house of commons but it is getting more and more bizarre. it is really vy troubling. christian: does the nature of politics in the threat of

scandals bring to fortunes at the ballot box mean they are slow to get ahead of corruption or sexual scandal before it appears in the newspapers? >> yes. i think that is probably a fair comment on it. plus of course if somebody makes a complaint to party headquarters, whether it is labour or tory, and they don't seem to be getting an instan response, then sometimes they will go to the press. and that is understandable, though, shall we say, regrettable. it happens on the labour side as well. been suspended.our mp's have it takes longer for the police to investigate if there has been a crime. of course it does. justice can be slow, but it is often necessary. when it is just a scandal and you think, no, you should not be doing this, you should have had more sense than to, whatever it was, send other colleagues telephone numbers to someone trying to blackmail you, some

sort of thing. as we have had recently with the mp from up the road from where i live. you really have to say maybe we should be supporting and helping all our mp's, and perhaps our candidates, rather better than we do. let's not forget, please, that mp's are human beings. any of us put in those really highlighted circumstances could make mistakes. christian: you say you are no stranger to scandal, you have been around the block. but of course we think back to the 1990's, the sleaze that was around the then-major government. is there a moment in the life of every ruling party where this problem because's endemic -- problem becomes endemic, and does it relate to the prime minister, whoever that is? >> no. that is exaggerating. there's 18 independent members of congress at the moment and a

large number of them have been sacked for reasons that have nothing to do with scandal. no, i don't think so. the vast majority, over 600 mp's, are good and decent people. they work extremely hard, whatever their political party. they work in very, very stressful conditions. sometimes people make mistakes. sometimes people do something stupid. i think parliament should look after people better. watch how much they are drinking, perhaps. warn them if they are mixing with people who are a bit dodgy. and perhaps we should all be a little bit more tolerant, occasionally. christian: jury selection has resumed on day three of donald trump's hush money trial in new york. the first criminal trial of a former president. two jurors selected earlier this week have now been excused,

taking the number of confirmed jurors down to five prude one of the jurors said she was concerned -- we've been watching and or outside the court. the day started with seven confirmed jurors and now it is five. they are going the wrong way. >> that is exactly right. down two. it seemed they were makingeal headway with jury selection with the thought that perhaps opening statements could happen monday. but this just goes to show what we kind of knew all along. just how intense and complicated this process is when the defendant is donald trump. you had the one young woman who came in. the judge had allowed the media to report on some of these details about the jurors in an open and transparent way.

but the young woman said she went home and found that family members and friends were getting in touch with her and pushing notifications to her that they thought she was a likely juror based on the information about her employer that had been out, where she lived and how long she had worked there. she just felt that she would not be able to separate some of the opinions fm the outside with her decision in the courtroom so she asked to be excused. in the judge did that. the judge said she would have been a great juror but that is just the way it ended up. what was also interesting was the man, juror number four was dismissed. prosecutors felt he was not as forthcoming as he should have been on his questionnaire about his criminal history. he was ultimately excused, we were not given a reason why. but he spoke of the press saying he did not feel he should have been dismissed. he wanted to serve on the jury. he was originally from puerto rico. he described donald trump as

someone he found fascinating. but there you go, he is no longer on the jury. questioning begins now with that second panel, back-and-forth questioning by both sides to fill the jury. christian: look, there will be enormous focus on the jurors because of the person in the dock. but he is also focused on who these jurors are, and on truth social he posted a quote last night, quoting the fox news host jesse water saying they are catching undercover liberal activists lying to the judge in order to get on the trump jury. one commentator said the former is trimming the waters, encouraging people to focus on who the waters are in case they go against him. what did the judge have to say about that? nada: yeah, well prosecution is not happy about that at all. in fact, they are essentially saying that this is just another example of him violating the limited gag order that is in place to stop him from trying to

intimidate witnesses or court staff o jurorsr. they say altogether this is the 10th time, when you put that together with some social media posts about michael cohen being a serial perjurer. the judge will be having a hearing on this issue to look at it. we already know the judge very much frowns upon any kind of jury intimidation. you might recall when donald trump was seen gesturing or audibly muttering in front of one, the judge reprimanded him. today in court donald trump has been far more subdued, leaning back and taking a look at the jurors as they answer questions. but certainly that is something that is front of mind and will be a question answered in that hearing next week. christian: jury selection continues for the next few hours. we will continue talking on that. we will take a short break. on the other side of the break, an extra 15 minutes on ai.

a longer version, we 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. a raymond james financial advisor gets to know you,