scottish national party. china hopes selling solar panels and electric cars to europe will solve its economic challenges. we have a report from the country's manufacturing hub. china dominates the world solar panel market. 80% of the world's solar panels are made here. music. and taylor swift fans are in a frenzy after her new album appears to leak online early. hello and welcome to the programme. we start with the middle east and the united nations secretary general has again warned that the war in gaza has put the region on the precipice of a full—scale regional conflict. alluding to iran's attack

on israel, he said recent days had seen a perilous escalation. antonio guterres called for restraint on all sides. he also criticised israel's military offensive in gaza saying it had created a "humanitarian hellscape". in recent days i've seen a perilous escalation in words and deeds. one miscalculation, one miscommunication, one mistake could lead to the unthinkable — a full—scale regional conflict that will be devastating for all involved and for the rest of the world. the moment of maximum peril must be a time for maximum restraint. the united states and britain have announced new sanctions on iran, targeting the country's drone aircraft production, after its attack on israel last weekend. the us treasury department said the sanctions were against 16 individuals and two firms that produce the engines of iran's shahed drones —

which were used in the attack, along with missiles. tensions in the region remain high — with israel's prime minister insisting, his country will make its own decisions, about how to respond to iran's drone and missile attack. israel's western allies fear, striking back against iran, could trigger a broader war. meanwhile, the united states has vetoed a bid in the un security council to grant the palestinians full un—member status. the palestinian authority has had observer status but cannot vote in proceedings. 12 security council members voted in favour of the resolution and two abstained. our correspondent, john sudworth, is at the united nations where the vote took place. yeah, there's been a long day of speeches here at the united nations. passionately held positions on both sides. the palestinian representative saying that granting palestine full membership status would give hope to the palestinian people.

a response from the israeli ambassador here saying that six months on from the hamas attacks, it would simply be a reward for terror. now, the us position, as you say, has long been known. it argues that granting palestine full status would be premature, that it should not come ahead of a negotiated settlement, a bilateral agreement between palestine and israel. but nonetheless, although that was the us position, it was clear that it did not want, if it could possibly avoid it, to have to do what it did today. there are reports of pretty intense lobbying behind the scenes. the us would have liked to have got this vote delayed or even better had other members come on board to help defeat it. but in the end, what's remarkable is 12 of the 15 members of the security council voted in favor, including some

pretty key us allies — japan, south korea and france. and that forced the us ambassador robert wood, to raise that hand, issuing the veto and killing the proposal. but not only that, some critics would say once again exposing how isolated the us is becoming on the international stage over this issue. all 12jurors have now been selected to assess the guilt or innocence of donald trump in his criminal trial over the coming weeks. the former us president faces charges of falsifying accounts to hide hush money paid to an adult film star — he has pleaded not guilty. our correspondent nada tawfik sent this update from outside the court in new york. now we do have the 12 jurors who will be citing donald trump's fate in his first criminal trial. they are seven men and five women. and it really comes after a day of twists and turns, just hours after two other jurors were abruptly excused. one, a young woman who said she felt intimidated

after her identity was figured out by family and friends. and she said she didn't think she could be impartial and fair, that outside opinions could affect her decision making in the courtroom. another was a gentleman that prosecutors were concerned hadn't been forthright about his criminal history. he was excused by the judge, but outside of court, he said he wanted to serve, so he wasn't happy with that decision. but the 12 jurors, those that we do have seated now, they are a diverse group, different ethnicities, differentjobs. everyone works from lawyers, physical therapists, in finance, a security engineer in sales, a recent college graduate. one noted that they even read the bbc. and donald trump looked on as they were sworn in and they said they could be

fairand impartial. but here's what he said outside of court. the whole world is watching this hoax. you've got a da that's out of control. you have a judge is highly conflicted. the whole thing is a mess. and you have the leading candidate and leading throuthoe biden quite a lot. he's the one that should be on trial. he's a crook. we've got a crooked president. the process started to move along after both sides ran out of what are called strikes. they're able to get rid of a jurorfor any reason. and one woman had even said that she didn't quite like donald trump's persona. and while donald trump's lawyers objected to her being on thejury for cause, the judge says it wasn't about how she felt about him as a person, but whether she could be impartial. now, another issue that will be taken care of at a hearing next week is whether donald trump broke a limited gag order when he posted jurors were liberals trying to get on to influence his case. the former chief executive of the snp, peter murrell has been charged in connection with the

embezzlement of funds from the scottish national party. mr murrell, who is the husband of former scottish first minister nicola sturgeon was arrested this morning, but is no longer in custody. a police investigation is ongoing. our scotland editor james cook has more. peter murrell arriving home tonight after more than nine hours in custody at falkirk police station. mr murrell, any reaction? he was arrested shortly after nine o'clock this morning and charged at 6:35pm. any comment, mr murrell? in a statement, police scotland said a 59—year—old man had been charged in connection with the embezzlement of funds from the scottish national party. it added, a report will be sent to the crown office and procurator fiscal service in due course. it's the second time mr murrell has been arrested in connection with operation branchform. he was first questioned last april, weeks after resigning as chief executive of the snp, when officers searched the home he shares with nicola sturgeon on the outskirts of glasgow. as part of their inquiry, police also searched the snp's headquarters in edinburgh and seized this luxury motorhome from outside the house of mr murrell�*s

mother, in fife. is your party imploding? two weeks later, officers arrested the scottish national party treasurer, colin beattie, and then, last summer, ms sturgeon herself. after questioning, both were released without charge. at the heart of this inquiry is nearly £667,000 raised by the snp between 2017 and 2020, to campaign for independence. questions first arose at the end of 2019, when it emerged that the party had just under £97,000 in the bank. and tonight, one more development in an inquiry that has sent shock waves through scottish politics — peter murrell has resigned his membership of the snp. let's take a look at some other stories in the headlines. kenya's president, william ruto, has confirmeds william ruto, has confirmed that the defence chief, general francis ogolla,

has been killed in a helicopter crash. nine other people died in the crash, in the rift valley in the west of the country. yemen has become the latest gulf country to be hit by a torrential rain storm that's swept across the region. one person was killed when roads, farms and businesses were flooded in an area around the port city of mukalla. the same storm has killed at least 19 people in the gulf. a polish man has been arrested and charged with planning to co—operate with russian intelligence services to aid a possible assassination of volodymyr zelensky, authorities said. polish prosecutors said the man, named as pawel k, was allegedly tasked with collecting information about an airport in poland used by ukraine's president. the arrest was made on the basis of ukrainian intelligence. germany has warned russia it won't tolerate moscow's attempts to recruit agents and carry out attacks on german soil. two men were arrested in bavaria on suspicion of spying for russia and planning sabotage attacks on military sites which assist ukraine. russia says there's no evidence

for the allegations. meanwhile, ukraine's prime minister has told the bbc there will be a "third world war" if ukraine loses its conflict with russia — as he urged the us congress to pass a long—stalled foreign aid bill. the house of representatives is set to vote on the package this saturday. he was speaking to my colleague, sumi somas—kanda. the global system of security will be destroyed at all, and all the world will need to find and will need to look in for a new system of security. or there will be many conflicts, many such kinds of wars. and at the end of the day, it could lead to the third world war. so our mutual task is to protect democratic values, to protect existing after the second world war, global system, secure global security system. and bring long term and sustainable peace on european continent.

so russia must lose this war and aggressors should be punished, and putin's regime should be destroyed at all. and only this factors will lead us to the sustainable and long—term peace. aid to ukraine dominated discussion at a g7 meeting of foreign ministers on the italian island of capri. our correspondent, jessica parker, is there. the major focus here is ukraine's calls for more air defence systems. the nato secretary—general, jens stoltenberg is here in capri. he said earlier there is an urgent critical need, that russia is pushing on the whole front line whilst carrying out raids of air strikes. this is a g7 foreign ministers meeting. ukraine's foreign minister is here, but it's not a formal weapons pledging session. that being said, they can discuss, they can coordinate but speaking to officials today the mood on this issue overall

is somewhat downbeat. causing a bit more optimism, though, is the prospect of a vote in congress on the long stalled us aid package to ukraine of $60 billion. that's certainly being talked up here. they are looking at other ways to raise money for ukraine and one idea that has been kicking about for quite some time now, seen as potentially legally quite tricky is using frozen russian assets. specifically, according to people i have been speaking to, whether they can use the interest from those assets to effectively channel money to ukraine. but we don't expect any final decisions on that here, it's something that's been indicated that you could see may be being proposed at the g7 leader's meeting later this year. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news.

now let's turn to afghanistan where a new un report highlight the adversity, but also the key role played by women entrepreneurs, almost three years after the us withdrawal from the country. this new research reveals that almost half of the 3,000 women entrepreneurs surveyed have been pushed into debt, while only 5% are still able to receive loans from banks to grow their business. almost three quarters of respondents also reported severe movement restrictions, such as not being able to travel even to local markets without a male chaperone. let's get more with kanni wignaraja, un assistant secretary general and undp regional director. thank you for your time today. we are now almost three years into the taliban regime, tell us about the pressures and conditions women are under as well as their resiliency? you know, well as their resiliency? you know. we — well as their resiliency? you know, we thought _ well as their resiliency? you know, we thought that - well as their resiliency? 7m. know, we thought that when well as their resiliency? 7m, know, we thought that when i was there just a couple of months ago and meeting with all

these women, that we would get stories that said we can't do anything. ifound, iwas stories that said we can't do anything. ifound, i was very surprised to hear that those who were in the public sector had very quickly moved to the private sector and even into informal businesses. because this was a space that they had. so even trained lawyers, doctors who now couldn't work in the public domain, really setting up their own businesses and trying to make the best of this space. we were giving them very small start—up money and it hasjust taken very small start—up money and it has just taken off. so it is 75,000 women leading their own businesses that we support today. it businesses that we support toda . , , today. it sounds very encouraging - today. it sounds very encouraging and - today. it sounds very| encouraging and what today. it sounds very - encouraging and what you are telling us. given the women are facing such restrictive decrees on the political, social,

economic participation and so few have access to these loans, can they get any help? the hope is, i had a _ can they get any help? the hope is, i had a number— can they get any help? the hope is, i had a number of— is, i had a number of discussions with the bank now operating in afghanistan and the micro—finance institutions, if there were three big challenges, one is the cost of credit. all of them said this is far too expensive, even just registering a local business is out of reach. and so are plush now is to get more affordable credit to these women. you know, we are supporting micro—enterprises, these can grow, they can triple and quadruple. if we can go from nowjust giving $100 grants to be getting some serious money to grow their business, that is one. the second he pointed out is mobility. to really get to markets. so where they have

physical restrictions, what we and others are doing is opening up and others are doing is opening up digital market spaces, not just for within afghanistan, but outside. so many women are moving into this digital space, particularly the younger generation for whom we are providing the kind of tech savvy skills to do this work. but the third and to me, probably the most disturbing was the sense of being confined to a home location, having a significant bearing on mental health. so, yes, we are providing as much space as possible to grow these businesses, but when you are told you have to stop education a grade six, you can't continue the work you are doing before even with all these amazing signs and resilience and courage these women are

showing, afghanistan is soon going to hit a huge wall. which is that girls will not be moving past grade six, how can you have doctors, nurses and even business women without that basic qualification? thank ou so that basic qualification? thank you so much — that basic qualification? thank you so much for— that basic qualification? thank you so much for giving - that basic qualification? thank you so much for giving us - that basic qualification? thank you so much for giving us the l you so much for giving us the context to what women are going to under taliban rule in afghanistan. nearly a billion people are eligible to vote in the indian election this year. polling will run across the country in seven phases over six weeks — begining on friday. meghan owen takes a look at the scale of it. around 1 billion people are eligible to vote in this yea r�*s indian election. it is equivalent to one in eight people around the world. it is a mammoth election which requires a huge effort. this year we will see 15 million polling officials and security staff, 400,000 vehicles and 5.5 million electronic voting machines.

let's take a closer look at the voters. they make up the equivalent of the populations of the us, russia, the uk, belgium, france, japan and brazil. let's take a closer look at the make—up of those voters. in red we can see a small percentage of first—time voters, the majority in green are aged 30 to sa. a small percentage are elderly. and they, for the first time will be able to vote at home via postal vote. india is keen that everybody gets a chance to have their say this year. in fact, according to the chief election commissioner, he said their teams will walk the extra mile to reach every voter, whether they are in jungels or snowy mountains. we will go on horseback, elephants, mules or helicopters. we will reach everywhere.

he's not wrong. let's look at this photo here. this is a group of porters taking some voting stations up to a remote area in west bengal. because of the sheer volume of people, they are having to stagger the voting this year. there will be seven polling dates and the counting of the votes will happen on the 11th ofjune. china's economy is facing its biggest economic challenge in two decades. the so—called factory of the world is struggling to recover from years of covid lockdowns and a global economic downturn. many western firms are worried that low—cost chinese—made goods will force them out of business. laura bicker, has been to the country's manufacturing hub. this man is a lifelong factory worker who's helped forge china's rise. this is your home?. everything he owns is behind this door. but as china's economy falters, the last firm he worked for closed without warning, leaving him without his

redundancy pay, which will take years to earn back. translation: it's hard to find newjobs. - we are old and we don't have many skills. most companies only hire younger people. he spent 16 years of his life in what is now a concrete shell. even in the wreckage, he can remember the furniture assembly line. this factory was his family's future, a paycheque sent to his village home for children he couldn't afford to travel to see. i feel reluctant to part with this place. i feel heartbroken. i've spent so many years here and now this place has become like this. all the workers feel astonished and are disappointed and we grieve. prolonged covid lockdowns

and bitter trade wars have chipped away at the pillars of china's economy. so the country has changed course. new technology and a new robotic workforce is taking over. and the made in china brand is at the heart of the world's drive towards renewables. you're about to get a clear view of china's capacity to build. china dominates the world solar panel market. 80% of the world's solar panels are made here. in fact, they've installed more in one year than the us have in a decade. but that has both brussels and washington worried. many in the west say china is making too much of the world's green tech. they accuse beijing of giving firms state hand—outs. that means china's goods are so cheap, it's driving western brands out of business. and what do you think of the capacity in china

to produce this kind of green energy? right now, i think 80% to 90% of the energy storage equipment are designed and manufactured in china, so we are leading the market in the whole world. china is helping the world capture the sun, but at a cost. this feat cannot save its workforce and the west wants its dependence on china to end. so now, once again, trade tensions threaten to cast a shadow over east/west relations. laura bicker, bbc news, dongguan. taylor swift releases her latest album on friday — and it's hotly anticipated by her legions of fans. so much so that it seems to have already leaked online. mark savage reports. taylor swift is the biggest

selling musician in the world,

boom time for netflix as the streaming platform sees a bumper— streaming platform sees a bumper crop of subscribers, and we look— bumper crop of subscribers, and we look at — bumper crop of subscribers, and we look at why the united states _ we look at why the united states is looking at a bill that— states is looking at a bill that could ban tech talks. i'm i' m steve

i'm steve lines. let's begin in the united states where the earnings season for the technology giant has kicked off and netflix is reporting revenue for the january to march quarter. it beat expectations, partly due to the subscribers it added over the period. technology and media analyst ben barringer broke down the numbers for us. the numbers _ down the numbers for us. the numbers were _ down the numbers for us. tue: numbers were strong, down the numbers for us. tte: numbers were strong, generally across the was up 15%, very strong margin performance, the guide for q2 strong margin performance, the guide for 02 is also pretty strong, 16%. so this was an excellent quarter, they are also guiding the full year for 13 to 15%. the only issue is the stock is off about 4% after hours and i think the real negative there is that expectations were very high, and, you know, about 9.3 may not be enough the other thing thatis not be enough the other thing that is a slight fly in the ointment is they are no longer

going to provide a subscriber guide is an