officials explain why the odysseus moon mission did not go as planned. hello. i'm caitriona perry. you're very welcome. here in washington, we have two major developments for you on capitol hill. congressional leaders have reached a deal to avoid a partial government shutdown. the agreement includes six annual spending bills and a temporary spending measure to postpone two new shutdown deadlines into march. leaders are aiming to release text of the agreement this weekend and pass the spending bills later next week. and the other major news today is that senate minority leader mitch mcconnell announced he will step down from his post in november. mr mcconnell, who turned 82 last week, made the surprising announcement on the senate floor.

one of life's most underappreciated talents is to know when it's time to move on to life's next chapter. so i stand before you today, mr president and my colleagues, to say this will be my last term as republican leader of the senate. for more on both mcconnell�*s stepping down and the spending deal, here's our north america correspondent gary o'donoghue. after repeated attempts to get a spending agreement, it does look like leadership in congress from both sides have at least reached a partial agreement on some of the spending bills that they have been arguing about. it looks now in the next couple of days that resolutions were put through both the senate and the house of representatives to extend one of the deadlines until next friday, by which time they will pass spending bills on six separate departments. now, they haven't reached an agreement on the other six departments, but they are going

to push the deadline for that back until march 22. so in some ways, this is progress being made, in some ways, this is still a long way to go, particularly because some of those spending bills are controversial ones involving homeland security and defence. that will all have to be organised by the leadership in both places, and we've learned today that mitch mcconnell, the republican leader in the senate, the minority leader there has decided to step down from leadership at the election in november. the longest serving party leader in the senate, his been in that post since 2007, since george w bush was president. he entered the senate in 1985 while ronald reagan was president, so almost a0 years. his been a force of nature, he's pursued the conservative aims in the senate relentlessly and in many ways he's got a lot done. but he did fall out with donald trump particular overjanuary 6 where he accused the former president

of being morally and practically responsible, he has had some health issues in the last year or so, which may have been a factor in his decision to stand down from the leadership in november. he once described himself as the �*grim reaper'. well, he's evaded that, but the political grim reaper has come calling. presidentjoe biden has also weighed in on mitch mcconnell�*s announcement. reflecting on his time as the republican senate leader, he said: meanwhile, a judge in the us state of illinois has barred donald trump from appearing on the ballot there because of his role in the january 6 riots. but she delayed her ruling from taking effect, pending appeal. a statement from the former president's campaign called

the ruling "unconstitutional" and says it would "quickly appeal" the decision. mr trump's time in office is at the centre of two major developments at the us supreme court on wednesday. the first is that the court has decided it will decide whether donald trump can claim presidential immunity from being prosecuted on charges of trying to overturn the 2020 election. it will mark the first time the nation's highest court will weigh in on such a matter. the supreme court says it will hear arguments in the case in the week of april 22. in the meantime, former president trump's washington, dc case will be on hold while justices consider the matter. the other case involves a trump—era gun ban on bump stocks. the supreme courtjustices appeared divided on whether the ban on the gun attachments — which allow a semiautomatic rifle to fire more rapidly — should be upheld. the trump administration banned bump stocks after 60 people were

killed in a mass shooting at a las vegas musical festival in 2017. the gunman had dozens of ar—15—style rifles outfitted with the device. the incident is the deadliest mass shooting in us history. the supreme court justices wrestled with whether the administration acted lawfully. to discuss all this, i spoke earlier with scotusblog reporter amy howe. amy, quite the busy day at the supreme court, and we will get onto bump stocks injust a moment, but if we start with this case that came down quite late in the day, the supreme court says it's going to hear, it is going to hear the case whether donald trump has immunity or not, how do we expect them to handle that? they will hear arguments some time at the end of april and what the real $64,000 question right now is how quickly will they rule? because the judge has already put the proceedings

in washington, dc on hold. and she's indicated that even if the court were to rule that trump is not immune, that there would be some more time, as much as three months before the trial could actually go forward. and so what a lot of people are paying attention to is if the court were to rule latejune or earlyjuly, which is when one would normally expect a high—profile case like this, particular one that's argued in late april, that might mean that the trial would not be ready to go forward until september or even early october, which would put it certainly right in the middle of the presidential election in early november. the special counsel jack smith has made the case previously that this an emergency and should be treated as such. has been an indication from the supreme court within the justice has considered it an emergency case? the singles are mixed to perhaps that they don't

regard it as quite an emergency as he does. he asked them, first of all, to let the case, to say that they were not going to weigh in, to let the decision by the federal appeals court in washington, dc stand for itself and allow the trial to go forward without the supreme court ruling, and today, they indicated that they were not going to do that. the other option he said was for the case to go forward in the supreme court, but he asked them to really fast track it, to hear oral argument in march and issue a decision quickly. and they didn't do that and one signal that they didn't regarded as an emergency as he did was it took them almost two weeks to indicate today what they were going to do, the case has been fully briefed and sitting before them for almost two weeks before they finally acted, which is certainly not something that you would regard as a true emergency. the timeline you outlined there with possibly a decision in earlyjuly and what that

would mean for a trial may be not happening until the time of the election, and if donald trump is re—elected, that trial would fall than entirely, wouldn't it? one can only assume, he would be in charge of the department ofjustice, and one would expect that he would direct the department ofjustice to drop the charges. the supreme court were also awaiting a decision related to colorado, deciding that donald trump should not be on the ballot there again, that was described as something for urgency of consideration, the colorado primaryjust around the corner. do we know when we might get a decision there? we don't have any idea when that will happen, the supreme court, you don't know what decisions you are going to get unless it's the very last day of the supreme court's term, untilyou're sitting at the supreme court and they say — they have the opinion in trump versus anderson. so they don't have any days are scheduled, they indicate usually ahead of time when they will issue opinions, they didn't have any days scheduled this week, so we don't know when that will be. super tuesday,

when they have all of these different primaries all over the countries is scheduled for march 5, and so, one of the things that colorado was for them to act quickly, but we haven't seen in opinion yet. we hear illinois saying that donald trump will be excluded from the ballot there as well. the other big news from the supreme court today was this hearing around bump stocks and whether the trump administration had been correct in banning them, these little attachments that turn a rifle into something akin to a machine—gun. what arguments were heard today? there are different strands of argument. one part of the case was highly technical, the argument that the challengers are making is that the definition of machine—gun that congress enacted back in 193a doing prohibition, doesn'tapply to bump stocks and they have a variety of different arguments that relate to exactly how the bump stocks work and how that's different from the definition of machine—gun

and the government has counterarguments about why it does fall within that definition of machine—guns. some of the court's conservative justices were worried because for a long time, until 2018, the bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms had indicated that bump stocks weren't machine—guns. and so some of the justices were concerned about the people who bought bump stocks before 2018 and could be now subject for criminal liability for something that was not a crime when they purchased it, the government's response was "in and this is a well—publicised issue." but several of the conservative justices were concerned about that. amy howe of scotusblog speaking to me earlier. meanwhile, ukraine has blamed congressional inaction in the us for its recent losses on the battlefield as its troops face a shortage of ammunition and key weapons. on wednesday, president zelensky proposed that ukraine start partnering with other southeastern european countries to manufacture that critical ammunition. let's take a closer look now

at the state of play on the front lines where russia has pushed back some key ukrainian defensive advances since late summer. in august, ukraine retook the city of robotyne, hoping it could cut off a key supply route to russian—controlled crimea. but this week, russian forces appear to have advanced to the western and southern outskirts of the village. russia also appears to be advancing around the village of krynky, ukraine's bridgehead across the dnipro river. and this month, ukraine withdrew its troops from avdiivka, a key eastern town that russia had besieged for months. ukraine had hoped the town would be a gateway to reach the russian—controlled city of donetsk. earlier, my colleague, sumi somaskanda, spoke with former cia director david petraeus about the situation in ukraine, and how political developments here in washington could affect the war effort. i want to start with senator

mitch mcconnell stepping down as senate minority leader. he has been one of the smallest proponents among republicans from more military aid to the ukraine. what impact will this have on support for the ukraine going forward? he have on support for the ukraine going forward?— going forward? he won't step down until— going forward? he won't step down until november- going forward? he won't step down until november so - going forward? he won't step down until november so he i going forward? he won't step l down until november so he will continue to push this, and he has indeed been one of the foremost champions of support foremost champions of support for ukraine and i think one of the really powerful intellectual voices on this, pointing out repeatedly very, very clearly and articulately, and i think convincingly that this is about our national security, this is not charity, this is about ensuring again the survival of the country that embraces our values and principles, having been brutally and unprovoked invaded by a country that has a grievance field revisionist view of history that denies its neighbouring right to exist. as

henry kissinger observed not long before he died, security now begins at the ukrainian russian border, notjust the border between russia and nato countries. so, again, his relinquishment of the minority leader's position will be very significant depending of course on who it is that takes over from him. his views on all of this, how powerful and eloquent he can be in persuading his colleagues, noting that of course there is strong bipartisan support for ukraine in the senate. i expect that to continue and it is really all about the house and the dynamics of the house, particulate very slim majority that the republican party has and a handful of their members who are creating the challenges for the speaker in this regard. i want to follow up on that with the question of some of the words we heard from mitch mcconnell on the floor today. he talked about the us�*s irreplaceable role as a leader of the free world. he said it

is essential and that is a sentiment that is in conflict with a growing number of republicans. do you anticipate with a change in leadership a possible second trump residency that we could also see a change in the us�*s placed on the global stage? in the us�*s placed on the globalstage? it in the us's placed on the global stage? it depends. aaain. global stage? it depends. again- it _ global stage? it depends. again. it depends - global stage? it depends. again. it depends who - global stage? it depends. - again. it depends who replaces senator mcconnell, it depends on the composition of the senate in the house after the election in november and obviously depends on who the president is and how he might depart from what is generally has been a consensus when it comes to us leadership in the world to support for our nato allies involvement in other theatres and so on. general, ou theatres and so on. general, you mentioned _ theatres and so on. general, you mentioned ukrainian - theatres and so on. general, you mentioned ukrainian i'd| you mentioned ukrainian i'd being stalled in congress at the moment. i want to talk about how things look in ukraine right now. if there isn't any further aid, what does that mean for ukraine? does it mean they can militarily maintain the current position, which is a

standstill, or ukraine even lose? �* . , , standstill, or ukraine even lose? �* . , standstill, or ukraine even lose? . , ., lose? again, depends on a number— lose? again, depends on a number of— lose? again, depends on a number of other _ lose? again, depends on a number of other factors, i lose? again, depends on a l number of other factors, one lose? again, depends on a - number of other factors, one of which is europe's continued support. i should which is europe's continued support. ishould highlight which is europe's continued support. i should highlight the eu as a bodyjust committed 50 billion additional euros having already given two for every dollar in all aid together than the us has. so that support, and then the individual european countries have definitely been stepping up. i wasjust at the definitely been stepping up. i was just at the munich security conference. europeans have never been more serious, we have never seen as many committing 2% of gdp on defence, you have another nato memberjoining, so the eu and europe and nato are really coming together. the worry is about whether the us assistance will be forthcoming, and without that, the road is obviously much more difficult. it is actually possible that they would have to ration our defence interceptors and they will have two ration further artillery munitions, keeping in

mind that this in many respects and some of these fights is an artillery duel. you have seen the russians. they have the initiative right now. they have a force the ukrainians to withdraw from avdiivka. not a huge strategically significant game, but not trivial, and you are seeing incremental advances almost across the front at this moment as well. so we've got to get the pipeline field, the most senior nato civilian and military leaders in munich, and again, there is real concern about pipeline is starting to run out. annually us can provide the industrial strength numbers of some of these munitions. that is why it is critical that this take place. i think it will, there is a bipartisan majority in the house to continue support for ukraine and also the other elements in that package which includes assistance for israel and for the indo pacific. the challenge is how to get that vote, there are several different ways a vote can be

brought to the fore was not the question is which one will the supporters attempt to pursue? there is another issue here thatis there is another issue here that is very important when it comes to the factors that will determine the way forward in ukraine. first and foremost, again, getting the us assistance authorised and appropriated and the pipeline fuelled backup to be sure. but then, there is an issue that ukraine has a result of the selves that has to do with the generation of forces and units. as you probably know, the average age of a fighter, a soldier on the front lines is over a0 in the ukrainian army in contrast to the 18 to 23 average age of those that i was privileged to lead in iraq and afghanistan. this has to do with their conscription system, the policies, the laws, but clearly, they are going to have to reduce the age of conscription from 27 to 25, they have to take other steps so that there can be a unit

rotation policy as well, not just individual replacement. these are very, very thorny issues. president zelensky is working with the members of their parliament, but they're very difficult, it's the one issue that he generally does not want to address in public commentary, but it's one that they have to come to grips to resolve this particular issue. general petraeus, thank you so much. ~ ., ., , —— great. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. let's look at some top stories in the uk: the duke of sussex has lost a high court challenge over his security when visiting the uk. prince harry was contesting the government's decision to downgrade his security status when he stopped being a working royal. the prince argued he had been treated unfairly in the changes to his police protection, when he still faced significant security threats. he plans to appeal the ruling. in northern ireland, a judge has ruled that the government should scrap plans to grant conditional amnesties

for killings committed during the troubles. the high court in belfast found that the proposals were in breach of human rights law. the case was brought by relatives of victims who were angry at changes to the way investigations were being carried out. thousands of farmers descended on cardiff to protest against the welsh government's new farm subsidy plans. the proposals would require farmers to commit 10% of agricultural land to be used for trees and 10% for wildlife. farm unions have called it "unworkable". the welsh government said it's listening to the farmers' concerns. you're live with bbc news. ghana's parliament has passed a tough new bill that imposes a prison sentence of up to three years for anyone convicted of identifying as lgbtq+. it also imposes a maximum five—year jail term for forming or funding gay or transgender groups. lawmakers blocked attempts to replace prison sentences with community service

and counselling. neela ghoshal served as associate lgbt rights director at human rights watch, and is now senior director at outright international. she told me about the impact this bill would have if it becomes law. it will make it impossible for people to go about their daily lives, to be employed, have a safe place to live, to access healthcare. the bill includes a duty to report, which means that anyone who knows that there is a queer person in their surroundings will be required by law to report them or to report allies to queer people to the police. and so it is nothing less than an attempt to eradicate queer people and queerness from public existence and visibility. we can also anticipate that the bill will lead to an increase in violence. in fact, starting in 2021,

when the bill was first introduced in parliament, activists on the ground in ghana, but we were speaking with medially told us that people started to be attacked in their communities by mobs, by their neighbours, saying he said the government wants to outlaw you, we don't want you here. so we know that if this bill is enacted into law, that violence will only increase further. this bill is actually a watered down version of an earlier draft — jail terms have been shortened and a controversial clause around conversion therapy has been removed — but why are ghanaians moving against members of the lgbtq+ community at this time? well, let's keep in mind that it is an election year in ghana, and so lgbtq people are an easy target politically. politicians are building their careers on the backs of vulnerable and marginalised communities who can be portrayed as a threat to the nation. so it is kind of classic enemy construction creation of a threat within the country and it allows politicians the opportunity to say,

"we are here to save you "and support you and protect you from this threat." and, unfortunately, a lot of people buy in to this logic. we will wait to see what happens in ghana there. thank you forjoining us on bbc news. thank you. france is one step closer to being the first nation to enshrine the right to an abortion in its constitution. on wednesday, the country's senate voted overwhelmingly in favour of a bill to do so. a final vote by a joint session of parliament is planned for monday. the procedure has been legal in france since 197a. but president emmanuel macron pledged to make it a guaranteed freedom amid concerns over a clampdown on abortion rights in countries like the us. the company behind the first us moon landing in five decades has been explaining why the touchdown on the lunar surface didn't go as planned. due to some technical glitches mid—flight, the odysseus lander came down faster than it was supposed to. that led to a rocky landing and a shortened mission. pallab ghosh has more.

a perfect launch. a faultless separation. mission control: lunar lander separation confirmed. _ and a smoothjourney to the moon. but landing is always the hardest part and so it proved. on the lunarsurface, you can see one of the legs on the left broken. and this image shows the spacecraft leaning over. this evening, the head of the private company that built the lander explained why the landing was so hard. innovation came from being absolutely overconstrained, where you didn't have enough time, you didn't have enough money, and you were trying to tackle a problem that seemed almost intractable. so, what actually went wrong? an hour before landing, engineers announced that the lasers that measured the distance to the ground weren't working. as a result, flight engineers had to rapidly develop a back—up system. unfortunately,

the computer couldn't keep up, and it thought the spacecraft was 100 metres higher than it really was so it hit the ground harder than planned. one of its six legs broke and the spacecraft tilted with its main solar panel facing the ground. so, does this count as a success or a failure? fantastic success, you know, superb. first time a commercial company's ever managed to do this. and, you know, they've done it right first time. the landing was a little bit wonky. it doesn't really matter in the bigger scheme of things. they've got all the data, so next time they'll get it 100% right. and i think they're ready to go again already. intuitive machines are scheduled to have a more ambitious moon mission in just a few months time. the company says it's learned from the experience and plans a faultless landing next time around. pallab ghosh, bbc news.

and before we go, comedian and tv actor richard lewis has died, aged 76. his publicist said lewis died peacefully in his home in los angeles on tuesday night after suffering a heart attack. lewis was known for his self—depreciating humour and for playing a semi—fictionalised version of himself on the long—running tv show curb your enthusiasm. last april, lewis announced that he had been diagnosed with parkinson's disease and would retire from stand—up comedy. that's all from the team here in washington. i'm caitriona perry. thanks for watching. do stay with us on bbc news. take care. hello there. sunshine was a scarce commodity across the uk on wednesday, but we had most of it in eastern scotland withjust overfour hours of sunshine in edinburgh. however, the rest of us, rather cloudy, grey and at times wet, but it was mild with it. however, as the rain continues to push south and east, the wind direction is changing.

we're going to see a return to some colder air across oui’ shores. so, thursday will start off mild, but wet across southeast england and east anglia. quite a lot of cloud generally across england and wales, with the best of any brighter skies into northern ireland, scotland. northwest scotland seeing a real rash of showers, accompanied by gale—force gusts of winds through the day. it will start to turn colder generally across scotland, 6—9 degrees, maybe double digits for a time before that front clears through in the southeast. but as we move out of thursday into friday, we see this next frontal system moving in, and as temperatures fall away through the night, bumping into that colder air which is sitting in place across the country, yes, we could see a return to some wintriness. it's going to be across higher ground. generally temperatures will be sitting around freezing first thing on friday morning, perhaps below in eastern scotland. but there's going to be a risk of some snow above 200 metres in northern ireland, scottish borders, across the pennines, and into north wales. we could see a few centimetres accumulating,

so that might cause some minor disruption, but it will be rain elsewhere. so you can see, circulating around that low pressure is that frontal system, and it will bring some sunny spells and scattered showers, a mixture of rain, sleet and snow at times across wales and southwest england, perhaps drier into the far north of scotland. but temperatures a little bit down — 6—9 degrees. don't forget, friday is the first day of march, so these values just below par for this time of year. then, as we move into the start of the weekend, we maintain the sunny spells and scattered showers and the wind direction still coming from the north, so it will feel quite cold, and we could still have a wintry flavour with any elevation. so again, 6—9 degrees the expected high. but as we move out of saturday into sunday, we see another frontal system bringing a spell of more organised rain and for a time, again, on the leading edge, there could be some wintry showers, but it will be rain eventually as that front moves through. so the weekend will stay pretty unsettled for most of us. take care.

voice—over: this is bbc news. we will have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, straight after this programme.

russia's neighbour georgia is closely watching what happens in ukraine. it shares a 900km border with russia, who invaded in 2008. russian troops are still stationed in two separatist regions. georgia has just been granted eu candidate status and talks ofjoining nato, yet its government is seen as sympathetic to russia. it's a diplomatic tightrope, and one my guest needs to walk. salome zourabichvili is the country's president. where does georgia's destiny lie — with russia or the west?

salome zourabichvili, welcome to hardtalk.