i'm caitriona perry. you're very welcome. a gruelling six—week election campaign is now under way in the uk, with the two main political parties making their opening pitches to voters, after british prime minister rishi sunak called a snap vote forjuly fourth. mr sunak attended events in england, wales and scotland on thursday, and visiting northern ireland on friday. the conservative leader said only his party offers security and economic stability. the leader of the opposition labour party, sir keir starmer, says voters have the choice between — what he called — continuing decline and chaos under the governing conservatives, or rebuilding the country under his party. a senior labour source has told the bbc that mr starmer plans to take part in two head to head tv election debates with mr sunak. after 1a years in power, the conservative party is polling more than 20 points behind labour. our political editor chris mason reports. cheering placards and cheers,

and babies getting attention from politicians. keir starmer is quite the fan of visiting lower—league football grounds in places he hopes labour can win. he was in gillingham, in kent this morning — his deputy with him, too. thank you. whatever service people try and access these days, they find it's like wading through treacle. red cards aren't usually welcome for folk on a football pitch, but expect to see plenty of these in the next month or so, spelling out labour's core message. we've had 1a years of going round and round in circles, getting absolutely nowhere. chaos and division feeding chaos and division. if you want change, you have to vote for it. and if you vote labour, it's a vote to stop the chaos. it's a vote to turn the page, and it's a vote to rebuild our country together. thank you very much, thank you!

a general election is about winning seats and staying in them. rishi sunakjust about managed that in ilkeston, in derbyshire, as he made the case the economy is on the up. inflation down from 11% when i got thisjob, down back to normal, just over 2%. energy bills now falling by hundreds of pounds. wages have been rising by faster than prices for almost ten months now. the conservatives and labour have a very different approach to dealing with people crossing the channel in small boats. labour would scrap the tory plan to send some migrants to rwanda, which rishi sunak claims could make a big difference. how do we stop the boats? well, i'm very clear, it requires bold solutions. that's why we need rwanda. got to make it crystal clear to everybody — if you come to our country illegally, you won't get to stay. but the prime minister told us

today he didn't expect anyone to be sent to rwanda before the election. within hours, mr sunak was at a brewery in barry, in south wales, having a go with the kit. there was then an awkward moment when he said this... are you looking forward to all the football? not so much my bag. wales have not qualified for the euros, the football tournament starting next month. england and scotland have. and talking of scotland, rishi sunak completed his three nation dash today by flying to the highlands. and having a catch up with the scottish conservative leader at the port of nigg, north of inverness. meanwhile, in edinburgh today, the new look scottish national party had their general election launch. on july fourth, independence day,

make sure your voice is heard. i expect over the next six weeks, we'll see the tories and labour really going at it. they'll be going hammer and tongs to discredit each other. i'll also be going hammer and tongs, but not against anyone. i'll be going hammer and tongs to put scotland first. ready? right, cheering — let's go! cheering and in cheltenham, in gloucestershire, the liberal democrats were sorting out their choreography — some in party colours from head to toe. leader ed davey has a phrase we'll hear a fair bit of. a fair deal where everyone can have a decent home that is secure and clean, and affordable, comfortable retirement when the time comes. a fair deal where every child has a decent school, where they can have the opportunity to realise their potential. the next six weeks will involve a fair bit of ticker tape and assorted electioneering paraphernalia.

luckily, there are those keen to pick it up. chris mason, bbc news. to the israel—gaza war now. speaker of the house mike johnson says israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu will address congress. he was speaking at an israeli embassy event in washington dc. and tonight i'm happy to announce something else to you, that we will soon be hosting prime minister netanyahu at the capital for a joint session of congress. yes. applause this will be a timely and i think a very strong show of support to the israeli government at the time of greatest need. democratic senate majority leader chuck schumer would have to sign that invitation too. he has not commented on speaker johnson's announcement yet. the news comes just days after the biden administration suggested it'd join congress in sanctioning the international criminal court for seeking the arrest of prime minster netanyahu and his defence minister after alleging they've

committed war crimes. meanwhile, along the gazan coast us central command says three american troops have suffered what it's calling "noncombat injuries" during the operation of a temporary pier to increase humanitarian aid to palestinians. a us defence official says one of the three injured on a ship at sea, was medically evacuated to a hospital in israel, in critical condition. the un says deliveries on the pier have resumed after a two—day suspension because crowds of palestinian people had over—run the trucks carrying humanitarian aid. in the mediterranean, a two—storey building collapsed on the spanish island of majorca, killing at least four people. emergency services say 21 others were injured in the incident, which happened in a restaurant on a beach in palma de majorca. the area is usually busy with tourists at this time of year.

at least nine people, including a child, were killed after a stage collapsed at a campaign rally in mexico on wednesday. dozens more were injured in the incident, which occurred as presidential candidate jorge alvarez maynez was delivering a speech in the city of san pedro garza garcia, near monterrey. this is footage of the moment here — where you see the lighting structure come down with people still on the stage. mr maynez, was not injured in the collapse which he said was caused by a sudden gust of wind. it comes weeks before mexico's general election on june second. it's been a deadly campaign cycle, with one mexican political firm reporting that 200 politicians and candidates have been murdered or threatened ahead of votes being cast. 0ur correspondent will grant is in mexico city with the latest. the first thing is how these images of this terrible accident impacted mexicans across the country and, of course, particularly in the status quo took place. the huge metal structure that was

propping up the awning that was holding the massive screen in place came crashing down amid these high winds. the candidate, jorge alvarez maynez, fled the scene as quickly as you possibly could with his entourage trying to get to safety and all of the debris went into the audience, went into the crowd where the majority of the deaths and the injuries took place. more than 120 people were hurt, were injured and taken to hospitals around the state. now, though, because in the aftermath questions being asked about how much was known about the meteorological conditions that caused that terrible incident. the national meterological service organisation say they had put out a warning about electrical storms and potential hailstorms in the state and the state run water commission also put out a warning several hours before the campaign event was

held. mr maynez and the state governor, samuel garcia, said it was an unexpected and abnormal events, the president, manual lopez 0brador has extended his sympathies to the victims and their families but also made it very clear that an investigation into the circumstances behind the accident will be opened. in solidarity to those who were hurt, the front runner in the election, claudia sheinbaum has cancelled an event in the state and mr maynez has cancelled the rest of his campaign events right the way through to the end of this election on 2june. the usjustice department is suing entertainment giant live nation, accusing it of operating as a monopoly and inflating prices. the suit claims the concert promoter and its ticketmaster service has illegal hiked concert ticket prices, and is hurting artists, venues and concertgoers. fans have complained for years about extra fees, and have been calling for a re—examination of live nation's purchase of ticketmaster in 2010. here's us attorney general,

merrick garland speaking thursday. in recent years live nation ticketmaster's exorbitant fees and technical failures have been criticised by fans and artists alike. but we're not here today because live nation ticketmaster's conduct is inconvenient or frustrating, we're here because, as we allege, that conduct is anti—competitive and illegal. live nation's chief financial officer, joe berchtold, has said the company fundamentally disagrees with the lawsuit. it has since posted this statement, saying in part that the justice department "ignores everything that is responsible for higher ticket prices, from rising production costs, to artist popularity, to 24/7 online ticket scalping that reveals the. .." public�*s willingness to pay far more than primary ticket prices.

i spoke earlier with one of the co—plaintiffs in this lawsuit, willam tong, the attorney general of the state of connecticut. the merger of these two companies was approved 14 years ago also what has changed in the intervening period that has now resulted in you and others taking this lawsuit? what we feared would happen has happened. and live nation ticketmaster has become a dominant behemoth that controls 80% of primary ticketing for major concert venues. they manage 400 artists, they control 265—plus major venues in this country, theyjust grew and grew and grew and they gobbled up their competitors and now everybody knows they are a monopoly, which is why connecticut and 28 other states and the district of columbia, including democrats and republicans havejoined the department ofjustice today. live nation says that its artists are responsible for setting the ticket prices and it can't force artist to charge lower

prices or ban them from dynamic pricing, especially as for many now concert tickets are a major revenue source for artists. you're shaking your head. these offences hold no water. look, live nation are ticketmaster control the entire stack, the entire transaction life—cycle from the fan all the way down to the venue. so if they are going to blame artists, for example, well, they promote the artist, they control that part of the market, they represent the artist, if they are going to blame venues, they own and control the venues. they own 60 out of 100 major empathy it is in this country. if they're going to blame ticketing, well, they control the ticketing infrastructure and they are the ones who load on the cost of fees like ticketing fees, processing fees.

you know, they lard on many different fees along the way that change to price of a ticket from, say, $90 or $100 to $125 or $150. ticketmaster is responsible all these costs because they are a monopoly. what they not responsible for a single scalping or people who are prepared to go on these reselling websites and pay whatever money they have. whatever they are prepared to pay to go to these concert�*s. how does the lawsuit address that or is a need for legislative changes alongside it? that is just misdirection. that is ticketmaster and live nation trying to point the finger somewhere else at somebody else, we're not talking about the secondary market. we're talking about the primary market and we're about ticketmaster and live nation's absolute dominance in this space. by the way, it would interest you and your audience to know that ticketmaster and live nation are now moving into the secondary market, so they're not content controlling the primary market, now they are offering their own secondary market or ticket scalping product to pick up on tickets that have been sold after they were released by

ticketmaster. as a lver, at a bare minimum, you were looking for ticketmaster to be split out from live nation and minimum, you are looking for them to be split up ultimately. what would that achieve for people looking for better value tickets? competition. it would reintroduce competition. we live in this fishbowl that is completely dominated by live nation and ticketmaster and they control the entire ecosystem in this fishbowl. and so if we decouple ownership and management event use and the management and promoting of artists from the ticketing then they can't use all of the various levers to hold people in this fishbowl. so, for example, if you are an artist and you want to play big venues then you have

to play by ticketmaster's rules because they control the venues and if you want to play the venues and you are managed by ticketmaster or live nation you have to use ticketmaster's ticketing technology. so basically they hold us all in this fishbowl. we are captive in what is known in anti—trust terms as a competitive mode. they build this moat around us and we can't get out, we have no choice. well, this lawsuit will be closely watched across the us and indeed around the world. i'm sure we will be talking to you again. william tong, attorney general for the state of connecticut. they should talking to us on bbc news. thank you so much. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. let's look at some other stories making news. a ten—year—old girl who died in a mudslide in north yorkshire has been named as leah harrison from darlington. herfamily have paid tribute to her as a "happy and bubbly" little girl. her school called it a heartbreaking tragedy. the mudslide happened at

carlton—in—cleveland wednesday afternoon during a school trip. cabinet secretary simon case told the covid inquiry that downing street was "definitely dysfunctional" during the pandemic. he also said messages criticising borisjohnson and colleagues were "raw, in the moment" expressions and not the reality of the government's pandemic response. mr case sent whatsapps saying mrjohnson "cannot lead" and calling officials "pygmies" at the height of the pandemic. he told the inquiry he "deeply regretted" the messages. rishi sunak�*s flagship bill to ban smoking for anyone born after 2009 looks likely to be shelved. parliament will be suspended friday for the campaign and all legislation that isn't already passed automatically gets dropped — regardless of who wins. sunak faced backlash over the bill from his own conservative party. labour previously pledged to bring in the ban if they win the general election. you're live with bbc news. lawmakers in the us state of louisiana passed legislation to designate two abortion pills as dangerous controlled substances, the first

in the nation to do so. the law would categorise mifepristone and misoprostol as schedule four drugs putting in them same category as ambien and xanax, which are considered to have potential for abuse or dependency. possession of the abortion drugs could result in thousands of dollars in fines orjail time. the bill now heads to governorjeff landry to be signed into law. i spoke about the bill with emergency medicine doctor jennifer avegno, the head of the new orleans health department. you wrote a letter, you another louisiana physicians, wrote a letter expressing your concern. possible, can you to us what is a controlled substance, in general, what is the classification mean? sure, thank you. a controlled dangerous substance is a list of drugs that are considered to have a high risk of abuse or dependence or addict

give properties or are a public health hazard. they are categorised into various schedules depending on the degree of risk. these are drugs that are opioids, as you mentioned, schedule four drugs, which mifepristone and misoprostol would now be placed in, things like valium, xanax and tramadol, things we know have a very high risk for abuse and dependence. mifepristone and misoprostol do not. whatever you saw them? they have uses beyond abortion. certainly. in a state like louisiana where they have been on sale they are used every day in routine medical care

for miscarriage management, for safe labour and childbirth, uterine haemorrhage following childbirth, they also have several non—obstetric users, things like gi ulcers and endocrine users as well. these are drugs that are routinely prescribed, they are very, very safe, and they are critical for high—quality maternal healthcare. so what did you think then is going to be the impact of characterising them as a controlled substance as is going to be the case if and when the governor signs this into law? first of all, it's a really dangerous precedent. these are not dangerous substances. there is no evidence they have any risk of abuse or dependence. as you can imagine, our addiction medicine physicians were quite concerned about this because it really goes against everything they try to do when they treat addiction. calling them dangerous when they are not dangerous really is a slippery slope that any medication that a legislator might not like could suddenly be called dangerous if we are divorcing this from any medical basis to do so. practically what it's

going to create is additional barriers for patients being able to access these medications in a safe, timely manner. meaning there are additional hurdles in order to get prescriptions, to get them filled on both the provider and the pharmacy level and i think the most damning thing is that any time we mislabel something as dangerous that creates fear and confusion among patients. if a patient has been given one of these drugs to facilitate a safe, healthy childbirth but they have been told that's dangerous that sets of a real fear and misunderstanding between them and their provider and that means the doctor can't practice medicine the way they were trained. now, this bill, be law if the governor signs it, would say anyone possessing these drugs without a valid prescription could those fines, possiblyjail time, but there will be an exemption for pregnant women. as you said, how would individuals come to have these drugs without prescriptions?

well, i'lljust say, there are an awful lot of medications that individuals get without a prescription. we see that all the time in the emergency department and elsewhere, whether it is something like viagra, whether it's something like a particular pain pill or people taking their friends�*s antibiotics. that in and of itself is perhaps not the best medical care, but that does not mean that those drugs are dangerous, nor does it mean that they have the potential for abuse. this will not — and i have almost 300 physicians were willing to put their voice to this you will say this will not stop individuals who choose to water these pills for abortions online, but what it will do is what really concerns physicians and that his interfere with a legitimate practice of legal and safe healthcare. so for us this is not about abortion, this is about being able

to take care of our patients in the best way we can. and just briefly, doctor, if this comes to pass and individuals are afraid to take these drugs or, indeed, physicians are afraid to prescribe them to their patients, what practical impacts could that have for certain pregnant women or, indeed, those were miscarrying? certainly any delay or barriers to care leads to worse outcomes. so that woman who is miscarrying who can't get the medication is afraid to take it, her risk of having a further complication, haemorrhage, sepsis, infertility with that miscarriage automatically goes up. it's certainly not a way to improve our notoriously poor maternal health outcomes. it also contributes to the chilling effect on physicians that started when louisiana enacted legislation to criminalise physicians who performed abortions and what we're seeing is that leading to physicians not choosing to stay and practice in the state. when we have no more 0bs,

we are in a much worse position than we are right now. 0k, we will leave it right now. drjenniferavegno, head of the new 0rleans health department, thank you for joining us on bbc news. thank you. to taiwan now, we can have a look at the latest images from a military base on the island where forces are closely watching china as it conducts two days of military exercises around taiwan. china said the drills are a "strong punishment" for the self—ruled island's "separatist acts". china's military released these images of the drills. the taiwanese military said that, for the first time, the drills have simulated a full—scale attack as opposed to previous drills simulating an economic blockade. also for the first time — chinese exercises targeted the east of taiwan. china sees taiwan as part of its territory — and insists it should be unified with china's mainland. taiwan, however, sees itself as distinct. taiwan's newly inaugurated president william lai called on china to stop its threats and accept the existence of its democracy. taiwan's defence ministry has dispatched naval,

air and ground forces. while the us has no official ties to taiwan — it does have a law requiring it provide the island with the means to defend itself. 0ne us lawmaker, representative raja krishnamoorthi, a democrat on the house china committee, talked to the bbc earlier about the risk of escalation. the us expressed support of taiwan on friday at a meeting of the world health organisation. joined by allies including britain, australia and japan — the us invited taiwan to take part in the key meeting, despite it previously being blocked from participating by china. before we go, a surprise guest at the state dinner hosted for william ruto at the white house. former president barack 0bama made an appearance. mr 0bama made an appearance. mr 0bama has a connection to the country as his father was kenyan and he was not the only former president in attendance. bill clinton attended alongside his wife, former secretary of state hillary clinton. there alongside a long list of celebrities and guests.

president ruto is in the us on a three—day official state visit in which mr biden announced he would work with them to make kenya a major non— nato allies. do stay with us on bbc news. take care. hello there. conditions look a lot better for the next couple of days. we should see more sunshine around, lighterwinds, so it should feel a bit warmer as well. friday, it's an improving picture — we should see sunshine breaking through across many areas. and for most areas, it should be dry, just a few showers across northern areas. now, this area of low pressure is continuing to weaken, and the rain is fizzling out, so there'll be barely anything on this weather fronts across scotland, northern england, as we move through friday morning. should see plenty of sunshine developing across southern areas, and some holes appearing in that cloud further north. just the odd shower dotted around, but many places will stay dry. temperatures responding, as well — lighter winds, more sunshine, i9 celsius, maybe 20 celsius, in the south, high teens further north. as we head through friday night, it looks like skies will clear pretty widely, so it will turn chillier.

just the odd shower across scotland, a bit more cloud here — so i think double figure—values in much of scotland and northern ireland, single figures for large parts of england and wales. so, into the bank holiday weekend, it's starting off fine and settled on saturday for most areas, and then, we'll start to see sunshine and showers through sunday and bank holiday monday. we've got this weather front encroaching in slowly during the weekend — but ahead of it, plenty of sunshine around. will be a chilly start, little bit of mist and fog around. this feature moving in from the continent could bring some cloud and rains east anglia, eastern england, and then, later in the day, this weather front moves its way into southwest england. but plenty of sunshine across the country, just the chance of an odd shower. a much warmer 20 celsius for many areas, up to 22 in the southeast. now, as we head into sunday, this weather front starts to cross the country, destabilising the atmosphere. it'll be one of sunshine and showers, i think — and through the afternoon, some of these showers could turn out to be heavy and thundery, some local torrential downpours in places. temperature—wise, because a bit

more cloud around and some showers, i think we're looking at highs of 18—19 celsius. and then, through bank holiday monday, again, sunshine and showers — probably the heaviest of the showers on monday will be across the northern half of the country, a bit more of a breeze as well coming in from the west. so, temperatures 16—17 celsius i think for many places. and then, for the upcoming week, i think it stays fairly unsettled — low pressure always close by, showers or longer spells of rain. however, there will still be some decent spells of sunshine at times. take care.

voice-over: this is bbc news. we will have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. welcome to hardtalk, i'm stephen sackur. barely a month goes by without new data illustrating the scale of the climate emergency confronting us. records are being consistently broken, be it in the warming seas, the melting ice caps or average global temperatures. at the same time, worldwide greenhouse gas emissions are still rising.

my guest isjim skea, chair of the un's intergovernmental panel on climate change. a recent poll of international climate scientists pointed to growing despair. are we humans bungling our chance to avert disaster? jim skea, welcome to hardtalk. thanks for the invite. it is great to have you in this studio. let's start with a blunt first question. is it time for the international community to junk this idea that there's any possibility of limiting worldwide temperature rise

to below the 1.5 degrees