e jean carroll. hello, i'm azadeh moshiri. welcome to the programme. officials in alabama have confirmed the execution of convicted murderer kenneth smith by nitrogen gas on thursday. it's the nation's first execution using this method. the news comes hours after the us supreme court ruled that the state of alabama could proceed with the execution by nitrogen gas. three of the nine justices dissented. justice sotomayor slammed alabama's decision, stating that it "has selected him as its guinea pig to test "a method of execution never attempted before." it's the state's second attempt to execute mr smith, who was convicted in 1989 of murdering a preacher�*s wife in a hired killing. here's the announcement

by prison officials earlier. by by order of the alabama supreme court at 7:53 central time alabama executed mr kennison smith at the correctional facility. it was exhibited for the i988 facility. it was exhibited for the 1988 capital murder of elizabeth dorling sennett in culver county. after the execution, a number of witnesses addressed the media and described what happened. once the execution began within a couple of minutes, kenny began to violently push against the straps. his head began to move back and forth violently. this was the fifth execution i witnessed in alabama and i've never seen such a violent reaction to execution. in a statement following the execution, governor kay ivey says:

mr smith's legal team also came out with a statement: alabama is one of 27 us states where the death our correspondent, tom bateman, was in alabama and visited the facility where the execution took place. hejoins us live. tom, what more do we know about the execution and how it happened?— the execution and how it ha ened? ~ . happened? well, we heard there from one of— happened? well, we heard there from one of the _ happened? well, we heard there from one of the media _ from one of the media witnesses, and these are a

formal part of the execution process in alabama's execution protocol that there are five witnesses and they usually are taken from local media. they are a formal part of the press conference afterwards and the media can ask them questions. you heard one of the answers. another of the media witnesses say something similar that they witnessed smith's struggle began briefing and crushing between two and four minutes. and followed by around five minutes of heavy breathing. this matters because what alabama has been trying to do here is to redeem its reputation for being able to carry outjudicial killings after it botched three lethal injections over the course of six years with prisoners who survived but were left in some cases according to their lawyers with the gruesome injuries. there has been a review by the state of alabama

into it execution procedures and this, they see as a way forward. it's interesting that we've seen from the attorney of alabama steven marshall directly after the execution of kenneth smith tonight saying in his word that alabama has achieved something historic and he has been very critical of anti— death penalty activists, of the media, he accuses them of the media, he accuses them of trying to derail alabama doing this because they are trying to present this or portray it as humane. and therefore, he says, should provide a blueprint other states. in the context of the death penalty or execution rates will be falling quite a lot in recent years, so they think this is a way through to get the death penalty back. with more rates. but obviously anti— death penalty campaigners are saying there is no way they can know this was humane and what witnesses are describing

does not sound like it, so i think what actually happened to kenneth smith and the witnesses will become an important part of how this is seen.— will become an important part of how this is seen. tom, thank ou so of how this is seen. tom, thank you so much — of how this is seen. tom, thank you so much for— of how this is seen. tom, thank you so much for that. _ just before the news of the execution came through, i spoke withjustin mazzola, who is the deputy director of research at amnesty international usa, an organisation focused on human rights. justin, can i first get your reaction to the supreme court decision to not halt this process? yes, thank you. it is not surprising considering what was just mentioned around the conservative nature of the court and how they have been handling death penalty cases. they denied the emergency stay yesterday and the appeal from the 11th circuit today was denied. what are your specific concerns here about the method being used? amnesty international is opposed to the death penalty in all circumstances, and all forms and method of execution.

it is the ultimate cruel and inhuman and degrading punishment. there are a number of issues specifically with kenneth smith and this method of execution particularly troubling. for one, like the dissenting justice said, using him as a guinea pig, it is untested. there is no humane method for a state to kill somebody. i cannot state that enough. the alabama state government should work towards abolishing the death penalty rather than coming up with fixes. justin, just to interrupt there, his lawyers though, in their appeals, even said that they would rather have methods like a firing squad. could you explain that? yeah, because obviously there are a number of concerns from the fact that kenneth smith underwent a lethal injection execution 1a months ago was basically tortured on the gurney. we know that method is not going to work because their inability to find veins. this is basically putting him through something that he has been described

as having ptsd now from that experience and placing a mask over his face and trying to force him to inhale nitrogen gas, there are real concerns that he could end up vomiting, issues with him vomiting for the past few days. their decision to address that was basically to not feed him since ten o'clock this morning. so, obviously there may be other ways to kill him that would be better for him specifically to be executed. but obviously in terms of how amnesty international views this issue is there is no humane way to do this, whether by firing squad or nitrogen gas. can i push back a little bit in that, could you not argue that this has been going through several courts now, notjust the us supreme court obviously, and that this decision has been made and the legal process has been fulfilled? exactly, but we are also trusting alabama. this is a department of corrections and a state

that has a series of botched executions and they are basically saying, trust us, we know it when doing. they have told us that they have better debt but how and on whom? the potential for bust execution is very hike especially considering the untested method. you are against the death penalty as a whole, if i understand it correctly, what you say to people that would argue that he murdered someone? he was hired to kill someone? and shouldn't the penalty fit the crime? yes, obviously people who support the death penalty will feel that way but under the fact that there is no way, humane way to kill somebody and the fact that should not even be on death row to begin with due to a change of law in 2017, which he was convicted and sentenced by a jury to life without parole, but the judge then overrode that decision. this practice was outlawed in 2017 but never applied retroactively. the alabama legislature has just introduced a bill to do exactly that.

but even if it does pass this session, it will be too late for kenneth smith to take advantage of that. there are a number of issues with this specific case. even if you oppose the death penalty in all cases, there are a number of issues with this case and the method of execution which make us come out and say this should not go forward and governor ivey should do all she can stop this execution and move forward on this bill with the legislation, hb27, to take not only kenneth smith but also roughly 30 other individuals off death row, who had theirjury sentences overridden by thejudge in those circumstances. justin, i appreciate your time. thank you for coming on. thank you. let's move on to the middle east. us presidentjoe biden has appointed william burns, the head of the cia, to broker a deal that would secure the release of israeli hostages in gaza. burns will meet with qatar's prime minister and a top israeli intelligence official this weekend, for talks on another hostage deal. meanwhile on the ground in gaza, israel has ordered

tens of thousands of palestinians sheltering in a un compound in the embattled city of khan younis to leave within 2a hours. our middle east correspondent, mark lowen, is following the latest. the un palestinian agency has confirmed to us that an israeli evacuation order has been issued for those sheltering in a training centre in khan younis in southern gaza. there are thought to be around 30,000 people sheltering in the facility who are now being told to evacuate by friday at 5pm to move south towards rafah right on the southern tip of gaza on the border with egypt, a city now thought to be sheltering some 1.5 million people. that's after, out of gaza's population of 2.2—2.3 million. that facility was hit in fire on wednesday, which killed at least a dozen people and injured more than 70. israel says it was not behind that attack. it has investigated

and said it could have been a hamas rocket. meanwhile there has been renewed fighting around hospitals in khan younis. one of three remaining partly functioning hospitals has now closed and said that women who had given birth by c—section in the middle of the night were forced to evacuate. and that hospital has now closed. the world health organization said two thirds of hospitals across gaza are no longer functioning at all. now, there is a diminishing number of health facilities in the south. israel insists hamas launches attacks from medical facilities, something hamas and medical authorities deny. mark lowen there. the humanitarian situation remains a pressing issue and there are continued fears about the limited amount of aid getting into the territory. there's also concern about how it's distributed, once it does arrive. on the border between israel and gaza — at kerem shalom near rafah in the south — families of israeli hostages

held in gaza have prevented aid from reaching the city. our middle east correspondent, lucy williamson, reports from there. and a warning — some viewers may find content in her piece distressing. in gaza city, hunger sometimes offers the best chance of survival. crowds drawn to a delivery of humanitarian aid yesterday, driven away by gunfire. bullets arrive faster than starvation. sirens blare today at the same aid delivery point 20 people were killed by shelling, according to the hamas—run health ministry. more than 100 injured. translation: we were heading to get flour and they shelled - us four times, and some people were martyred and injured, and i was injured in my hand and leg. rockets are not the only threat to life in gaza.

food stripped from trucks by hungry people as soon as they arrive. the un is warning of famine. doctors say diseases are spreading. ruba's chronically ill father died a week after moving to this refugee camp, she says. she shows our cameraman the makeshift drain beside her tent. "this is where the sewage accumulates," she says. "when it rains all our bedsheets, blankets and clothes "are soaked with sewage water". protesters arrived at israel's main crossing point today, calling for the release of family and friends held hostage by hamas — barring the path of aid trucks. if they need that aid, they will give us our people. they will get all of the aid. we are not monsters.

we cannot give them without we get something back. it's very simple. do you feel any kind of conflict in your heart when you stop those trucks? nope. i feel that i need my people home. israel's prime minister is under international pressure to get more aid into gaza and under domestic pressure to get the hostages out. he's sticking to his promise that military pressure is the way to free the hostages, but not everyone in the country or the cabinet agrees. lior peri's father, chaim, is being held in gaza. he thinks israel's prime minister has made a choice to continue the war — at the expense of a deal to free the hostages. he keeps saying the same thing. that he still thinks there are two objectives to the war, after it's been proven over and over that they cannot work

together, those two. either you bring down hamas and you give up the hostages or you stop the war and you bring back the hostages. chanting in gaza, too, some families called for a ceasefire today and the release of prisoners. the price of peace measured in israeli lives as well as palestinian ones. lucy williamson, bbc news, jerusalem. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. let's look at a major tech story making news. starting in march, apple users in the european union will be able to download apps from rivals to the tech giant. until now they've only been able to access apple's own store. it's a major u—turn for the company. our technology editor zoe kleinman has more. the eu hopes that opening up apple's ecosystem will make it easier for both customers and businesses to find more

choices, but apple's warning that it will also come with increased security risks. there is no chance of this happening here in the uk at the moment, although we do have proposals for similar legislation to the eu going through parliament right now. apple had been accused of creating a monopoly, giving customers and developers no choice but to go through its own channels. it also charged developers commissions of up to 30%. that's meant developers who either fail to meet apple's standards for being on its app store, or do not want to pay its fees, are excluded from millions of consumers. you're live with bbc news. four minutes — that's how long former us president donald trump took the stand for his testimony in a new york court on thursday. trump was testifying in the defamation trial brought by writer e jean carroll. she is seeking more than $10 million in damages for comments trump made in 2019 after she accused him

of raping her in the �*90s. trump denies ever meeting carroll, but that's despite a previous ruling that he did in fact sexually assault her. in 2019, trump accused carroll of making up the sexual assault to boost sales of her memoir. a jury has already ruled those claims were defamatory, our correspondent nada tawfik has more. in court, outlining the ground rules for donald trump's testimony took longer than the testimony itself. thejudge, in conversation with his lawyers, left no room for mr trump to go beyond the agreed terms so he couldn't launch into a monologue or campaign from the witness stands. he answered just a few questions in four minutes, saying that he stood by his deposition, that ejean carroll's claims that he raped her were a hoax, that he didn't instruct anyone to hurt ms carroll and that he had himself wanted to defend himself, his family and the presidency. the latter part the judge

ordered stricken from the record. but that didn't stop the former president from uttering, "this is not america" and "i never met her", from the defence table where he wasn't under oath. now, donald trump is testing the limits of the courts in his legal cases, but it is keeping his supporters invested and tuned in. and, more importantly, he's receiving considerable press coverage as he campaigns for the republican presidential nomination. now, closing statements will be next. and then this case will go to the jury to decide how much in damages donald trump should pay for defaming e jean carroll. nada tawfik reporting there. meanwhile, donald trump's former senior advisor — peter navarro — has been sentenced to four months in prison for two counts of contempt of congress. navarro was also handed a fine of $9,500. the 74—year—old was convicted in september after he ignored a subpoena from a house committee, investigating alleged efforts to overturn

the 2020 election. federal prosecutors said navarro chose allegiance to former president trump over the rule of law. the former trump aide has appealed the conviction. annemarie mcavoy is a former federal prosecutor from new york, and she joined me a short time ago. i want to start by talking about the stakes here, could you remind us of them? a court has found that he did actually sexually assault e jean carroll. there was a civil court finding, so a civil trial and he was found guilty in the civil trial, so this case is only about damages. that is why the judge barred him from even saying that he denies the allegations, because the allegations are not an issue in this particular case, only the amount of damages is what will be determined. you said thejudge barred him, and my colleague alluded

to this, but the judge also set strict parameters. could you lay those out and whether they worked? thejudge did his best to try to keep donald trump to yes or no answers, part of why the testimony was so short, and he did not want the former president to be using this to have an opportunity to spout off anything he wanted. he kept him on a very short leash, so to speak, with any of his answers. he did say — he had some outbursts, like "i never met her" and "this is not america". will those outbursts have any impact on this case? the jury is there, so anything he says is still heard by the jury, even if the judge admonishes him for it. potentially if thejudge admonishes him, thejury will look at donald trump differently but that is unlikely.

donald trump is using these cases as an opportunity to get his message out way beyond this particular courtroom. as you can see, this is covered worldwide, every word he uttered is covered by the press in every outlet you can think of. that is really what he is looking to use this for, in a way, a bit of a pulpit for him to get his message out. that this is not fair, he is being persecuted essentially by the legal system, and "this is not america," that is his message. he used it effectively today and in a less than three minutes of testimony he got his message out there, despite that. some people say he has turned his court appearances into a campaign trail. i want to return to peter navarro now because he has been sentenced for contempt. could you explain that to us?

the 6january committee in the house has requested documents and testimony from him and he refused, saying that it was against executive privilege, so under executive privilege he is not allowed, assuming it applies, he is not allowed to talk about conversations with the president, for instance. the judge found that the executive privilege did not apply and it was never actually invoked so he was found guilty of two misdemeanours and today thejudge has now sentenced him to four months in prison. there will be an appeal. he may or may not be sent to prison while the appeal is pending, it is likely he will not, steve bannon in this case is also on appeal, almost exact circumstances, also sentenced to four months. he has not served his time here while the appeal is pending. i want to ask because the judge

did say something in the case, they said they had a great deal of respect for peter navarro. what else do they say? the judge felt that he had diminished the authority of the 6 january house committee, that he had not acted appropriately, that he had been defiant, essentially, in his attitude and that really is why he was doing this, to sentence him to the four months in prison. he could have given him probation, two misdemeanours, peter navarro certainly has no prior convictions of any kind. thejudge did decide to make an example of him, as steve bannon has been made an example of, and sentenced him to jail time. if either of them goes to jail, they will be the first in over 50 years to go to jail

for contempt of congress. thank you so much for your time. and finally, we have two space stories for you. one a celebration of a job well done, and the other a tale of... well, it was worth a shot. first up, nasa's ingenuinty mars helicopter has made its final flight after three years of service. it sustained damage during a recent landing and is no longer capable of flight. the mini—aircraft made history by achieving the first powered, controlled flight on another planet in 2021. the last of its 72 flights took place last week. this is the final picture it sent back to earth, showing damage to its rotor blade tip. well, as one mission ends, another one has had a disastrous start. last week, japan launched a mission to land a research vehicle on the moon. but despite achieving the difficult task of landing, the spacecraft was struggling to generate the power needed to start operations,

which confused the team back on earth. well, we now have the answer. on the left is how the spacecraft is supposed to look. and on the right — well, that's how it looks instead. it landed upside down, on its nose. meaning the solar panels that power the $120 million space craft were unable to deploy. a tough day at the office. that's all from the team here in washington. i'm azadeh moshiri. thank you for watching. hello. thursday was a pretty cloudy but very mild day. temperatures reached 14.1; celsius in a couple of spots. friday won't be quite as mild. a little bit cooler, a little bit fresher, but more in the way of sunshine. and just for some of us, a few showers around, particularly across parts of scotland. but an overnight weatherfront has brought a lot of

us some rain. that's just pushing its way eastwards. now through the early hours of friday it'lljust be lingering across parts of east anglia, the south—east of england as well. so early rain for some in the south and east that clears away. and then we're left with clear spells for all blustery showers coming in across the north—west for scotland over the higher ground. they could be falling as snow for a time. perhaps one or two showers for northern ireland and northern england, but they'll be few and far between. further south, you should stay dry all day. temperatures in the afternoon about 5—9 degrees. so for some of us, i think they're actually going to come down a little bit through the day. these are the wind gusts that we're expecting. it's going to be particularly windy up towards the northwest of scotland. western isles could see gales at times. into friday evening, more blustery showers in the north and the west, clearer and lighter winds to the south and east. and we could see some mist and fog patches forming through perhaps the midlands, east anglia, the southeast as well. temperatures getting down to two or three here in the towns and cities, so a slight frost. further north, they've got more of a breeze, more cloud and patchy rain to keep those temperatures from falling too low.

and then into the weekend, then it is back to the mild air, particularly by sunday. the winds coming in from the south where the front approaching from the west later on sunday. but for saturday, early morning mist and frost clearing away quite quickly. a bit of rain for parts of northern scotland where it will still be breezy and perhaps some patchy rain into northern ireland later in the day. but for central and southern scotland, much of england and wales are dry day. top temperatures around about nine or ten degrees. into the second half of the weekend, sunday probably going to be that a little bit warmer than saturday. again, quite a bit of sunshine around, a little bit of cloud drifting around here and there and more rain into northern ireland and western scotland later on in the day. but before it arrives, look at those temperatures, 12 or 13 degrees. so above average, certainly for this time of year. into next week, low pressure starts to try and move its way in from the atlantic. we've got higher pressure across the continent, but things could turn a little bit more unsettled, particularly in the north for the middle part of the week onwards. but it's remaining mostly dry in the south. and certainly for all of us, it's looking mild.

bye— bye.

voice-over: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour, straight after this programme. welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur.

for almost two years, the us and its european allies have been pledging to do whatever it takes to ensure vladimir putin's defeat in ukraine. increasingly, that looks like a serious case of overpromising and under—delivering. further american military assistance has been blocked by partisan warfare on capitol hill, and in europe, too, cracks are evident in the ukraine support network. my guest is radek sikorski, foreign minister in poland's new government. has support for ukraine become a burden that kyiv�*s allies are no longer ready to bear?