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pursuing solutions for america's neected needs. announcer: and now, "bbc news" ♪ >> hello, live from london, this is "the world today" with me, ben brown. a dramatic moment at the united nations -- for the first time the security council voids for a cease-fire in gaza. the british government accuses china of malicious cyber attacks on the u.k. and accuses two individuals and a company linked to the chinese state. donald trump will stand trial next month over hush money he is accused of paying to an adult film star. the first former u.s. president to face a criminal charge. to mentor found guilty of murdering a 23-year-old footballer two days after he brushed past one of them in a nightclub. and why these farmers have taken

their tractors into the heart of london to protest against cheap imports and expensive environmental regulations. ben: hello. welcome to "the world today," an hour of international news from the bbc. we start with a momentous diplomatic breakthrough on the conflict in gaza after more than five months of war. for the first time the united nations security council has called for an immediate cease-fire between israel and hamas and also demanded the release of all the hostages. several previous attempts at a cease-fire resolution have failed. the united states can israel's closest and most important ally, had vetoed three earlier resolutions. this time the united states shifted its position and simply abstained. that was enough to allow the

resolution to go through. with 14 votes in favor. in a moment we will be talking to our middle east correspondent who is in jerusalem, and also to john sudworth, who is in new york. 's take a look at that historic moment at the u.n. >> the result of the voting is as follows -- 14 votes in favor, zero votes against, one abstention. [applause] the draft resolution has been adopted. ben: so that was that historic vote at the united nations. south africa's government has said that it welcomes the decision at the security council. you wl remember that south africa took israel to the international court of justice and asked them to consider whether israel is committing genocide against palestinis in gaza. the government in pretoria said is now the responsibility of

the united nations security council to ensure there is compliance with the resolution. the israeli prime minister, meanwhile, benjamin netanyahu has reacted angrily to the u.s. abstention at the united nations, which allowed the vote to go through. in retaliation he has canceled a planned israeli delegation which had been going to washington. mr. netanyahu said the u.s. failure to block the cease-fire resolution was a clear retreat from its previous position and would hurt the war efforts against hamas. let's go to our middle east correspondent who is in jerusalem. first of all, let's talk about the angry reaction from the israeli prime minister, predictable perhaps, but he is clearly furious with what the u.s. had done. >> exactly. it's not really surprising that there has been this angry reaction from the israeli prime minister. he had threatened to cancel this meeting between israeli

officials and american officials in washington before the vote, and then right after the vote happened he issued a statement saying that the abstention by the americans were a clear departure from their position. the israelis are very angry that this resolution doesn't condition the cease-fire with the release of hostages who remained in captivity in gaza. this israeli delegation was going to washington to try to explain to american officials the israeli plan to go ahead with this military incursion into rafah. i think what happened today shows the deep frustration from the biden administration with the way the israelis have been conducting this offensive in gaza. we've seen the humanitarian situation there, the humanitarian crisis, with warnings of a famine in parts of gaza and obviously concerns over the conditions in rafa, where more than one million

palestinians are now sheltering after having to leave their homes because of the war. and the israelis are saying it is vital to go ahead with thi offensive, it is the only way to defeat hamas. the americans and virtually everybody outside israel is opposed to the idea of going ahead with this offensive, and i think about today shows the frustration -- i think the vote today shows depreciation from officials and -- frustration from officials inside the biden administration with way israelis are carrying out this campaign. ben: thank you very much indeed, hugo bachega. let's get more from john sudworth, who is in new york for us. obligate shifted do you think this was an american government policy -- how big a shifted do you think this was in american government policy to abstain from this crucial vote? john: there is no doubt that it is a highly symbolic moment. we have had three previous

attempts to get similar wording through the -- that have all been vetoed by the u.s., and one attempt last week that was vetoed by russia and china. this has been a process where the permanent members of the security council have through geopolitical wrangling, through squabbling over semantics, have failed to deliver this resolution. it took the 10 elected members, nonpermanent members to bring forward this resolution, and this one has cast. there is no doub -- this one has passed. there's no doubt about it, you could hear it in the security council with the outbreak of applause when the vote went through. and of course at the heart, the really important thing is at question over the shifting u.s. position. there is no doubt about it, as we heard from israel, israel -- as we heard from hugo, israel sees this as a marked shift in position.

the biden administration under pressure from the democrat base, also under diplomatic pressure. france today in the security council saying that the body had been silent on gaza. all of this pressure mounting. i think the big question is what difference will this make in the end, apart from the symbolism. is there anything of substance? it removes the diplomatic cover for israel, but not only have we seen an angry response from israel, essentially saying this resolution is immoral, we also know that the government is intending to push ahead with its war, and in particular the planned ground offensive in rafah. and there is a debate on the sidelines of what happened today about whether or not this resolution has a binding force. a suggestion from the u.s. ambassador that it may not. but even leaving that debate aside, in the end even for

binding resolutions there is a question over how enforceable they are, what sort of options the international community has to force a government to comply. in the end there are very little. although this is high on symbolism, in the end it may turn out to be low on substance. ben: john, thank you very much indeed. let's put that point now to the former u.s. envoy for middle east peace. what difference do you think this resolution is going to make on the ground? in the end, it is very important, it is a breakthrough at the united nations, it is a moment of history if you like,, but what will it amount to on the ground in gaza? >> yeah, that's a really good question. i don't think there is any enforceability to the resolution as far as the united states is concerned. i don't think we are going down that path, at least not right now. but i think it sends very strong message to the israelis that we are done with asking them nicely and privately in politely to

change their posture with regard to civilians in gaza we are prepared to take actions to back up our words, and what will follow this more likely is conditions on weapons sales. the israeli defense minister is in washington right now asking for a whole bunch more weapons, and the message to him is going to be unless you start listening to our advice on this, you are going to see further action at the security council and potentially conditioning of weapons sales. ben: at the moment in the united states, israel's closest ally, its most important ally, is still supplying weapons. there have been quite a lot of words from the biden administration about what is going on in gaza, but there hasn't been much action. frank: yeah, and i think we reached a tipping point with the israelis on friday with the secretary blinken's visit. the israelis went out of their way to defy us, and secretary blake and not only with netanyahu's comments about the rafah invasion but also announcing a brand-new

settlement was a slap in the reached a breaking point and decided we would start backing up words with actions. we will see if we will continue to do that. it depends on whether the israelis listen to us or not. ben: i suppose the next point of conflict between israel and the united states is what might happen in rafah if the israelis go ahead with the ground assault in rafah where there are more than a million displaced people sheltering. frank: the thing about the rafah invasion is it is going to take the israelis several weeks together of the requisite forces to do that sort of incursion. i think we have a little bit of time on that, that is why we are focused so much on the cease-fire. during that period you cannot only get humanitarian assistance and come up at work along the israelis to get out of rafah in a way that minimizes civilian casualties. with a six-week cease-fire you could get a significant amount of people out. without that it would be a bloodbath and that we want to avoid. ben: frank lowenstein, former

u.s.nvoy for middle east peace. also in the united states there have been two very big court decisions today on former president donald trump. an appeals court has drastically reduced the size of the bond that he has to pay in his the civil fraud case. it's been cut from $464 million to $175 million, a lot less. the former u.s. president had been facing a deadline of today to post for the fine, which he was given for inflating his net worth. he has got 10 days to come up with the money. he might be rather less happy with the other court decision today, which was in a separate case over alleged hush-money payments to the adult film star stormy daniels. there the judge has said that mr. trump's criminal trial will begin on the 15th of april. that means he could either be convicted or cleared before the presidential election, which is in november. within the last hour or two donald trump has been speaking

at a press conference. mr. trump: this is all about election interference, this is all biden-run things, meaning biden and his thugs, because everyone knows he's alive. it is a shame what is happening to our country. this is election interference. they are doing things that have never been done in this country before. we've never had anything like it, certainlnot at this level. but we really had nothing like it that i have been able to find. it does happen a lot in the third world countries, banana republics. if you look at what we just left, you had a case which they are dying to get this thing started. the judge cannot go faster -- he wants to get it started so badly. and there is tremendous corruption. ben: there we are, that was donald trump's reaction. let's talk to a journalism fellow at just security, a forum on law, rights, and u.s. national security fo.

potentially a criminal trial for mr. trump starting next month. what is the significance of that legally and politically? >> well, the utmost significance is that the judge did not brook any attempt by trump to further delay this trial. it is worth remembering trump was supposed to stand up trial today. there was supposed to be jury selection. what gave rise to today's hearing was the fact that earlier this month there was a dump of documents th trump received, more than 100,000 pages, and it was in response to trump's subpoena to the u.s. attorney's office for the southern district of new york, the federal district that had investigated trump's former attorney and then fixer michael cohen in a campaign-finance case that gave -- that was very similar to the case here. and what happened is that trump had accused the prosecutors,

manhattan district attorney alvin bragg, of discovery violations. he went so far as to say there was prosecutorial misconduct. and the judge utterly rejected that today. the court said essentially, why are we here. because he said that the allegations were no semblance to what had actually happened. in fact, trump's lead attorney in this case had spent several years, had spent 13 years in the same federal prosecutor's office . the judge pointed out, knew the rules and procedures. the prosecutor, alvin bragg, had slammed this as delay tactics, and it was very clear that the judge agreed. the significance of this writ large is that we are -- seem to be headed very headlong into the historic first criminal trial of a former u.s. president. ben: and we just saw the former president donald trump. he didn't look too bothered.

he is facing lots of legal challenges, as we know. and the other one, in the other decision today, it was decided he has got to pay a lot less in terms of that bond. it was going to be half $1 billion or so, almost of that. it has been substantially reduced to $175 million. will that be helpful to donald trump? will he be able to find that money, do you think? adam: individual demonstration of trump's -- in the visual demonstration of trump's demeanor, when he came into court he looked very dour,, downca walked slowly into the room before the judge issued his ruling, keeping the case on par 4 trial -- par for a trial next month, the appellate court decision reducing his bond had come down and he looked chipper. he walked to court, he gave someone a heads-up in the gallery. he was clearly buoyed by this

decision. it was absolutely a significant victory for him. but he is going to stand criminal trial, despite what he may say, that he does not like having a criminal trial here. it is very visible from his face , when he enters into this courtroom, every time he enters into this courtroom, and i've seen him a number of times in this case in particular. and in a statement he called it election interference. that is exactly what d.a. bragg alleges here, that trump engaged in in 2016, that this is the case of a falsifying business records goal of the hush-money payments to stormy daniels was to come in his words, corrupt the presidential election by hiding from voters the scandal that had broken right on the people of the election and that

could have threatened his campaign. and that is the crux of the prosecution's case that they are going to present to a jury next month. ben: adam, thank you so much. adam with his analysis of what has been happening today. still to come on "the world today," the bbc follows ukrainian troops on the front line in a new behind the scenes documentary. this is "the world today" on bbc news.

ben: now, countries around the world have long wrestled with the question, how to deal with china as an economic partner or as a potential threat, even an enemy. today the u.k. government said hackers affiliated to the chinese state were behind what it called two malicious cyber campaigns on the british electoral commission and on the

u.k. parliamentarians. the british government said there was a pattern of behavior from china that showed hostile intent, and in retaliation it has imposed sanctions on two individuals and a company. this was the u.k. deputy prime minister in the house of commons earlier. >> i can confirm today that chinese state affiliated actors were responsible for two malicious cyber campaigns targeting both the aquatic institutions and parliamentarian -- both democratic institutions and parliamentarians. first, the compromise of the united kingdom electoral commission between 2021 and 202 2, which was announced last summer. and second, attempted reconnaissance activity against u.k. parliamentary accounts in a separate campaign in2 2021. ben: the chinese embassy in london has angrily rejected those claims from the british

government. it said the so-called cyber attacks by china against the u.k. are completely fabricated and malicious slanders. "we strongly oppose such accusations," said the chinese embassy. "china does not encourage and support or condone cyber attacks." that is what the chinese embassy in london said earlier, and there has also been some reaction from the chinese foreign ministry in beijing. our correspondent laura bicker reports from there. laura: beijing's foreign ministry spokesperson avoided mentioning the united kingdom by name in his statement. instead he said that countries should avoid making a baseless accusations without sufficient and objective evidence. he said that china was the victim of cyberattacks in the world, and he said that such incidents need to be investigated with sensitivity and those investigations are complex and should not be

politicized. these words echo former statements made by beijing to london when accused of cyber espionage. in fact, it's one of the issues that threatened to fray the ties between e united kingdom and china. ben: that is laura bicker, our beijing correspondent. advisor for cybersecurity and china with the international institute for strategic studies f what do you make of what we heard today in the house of commons from the deputy prime minister, these allegations against china? how significant do you think is the threat from china? >> i think it is pretty well-established now that china is engaged in a very wide-ranging global set of cyber activities -- data collection. and it is hardly surprising that in this.ed kingdom is caught up

a particular facet of this is that for china, the most important priority is maintaining the political and ideological security of the chinese communist party, which means that any critics, anyone who challenges the chinese narrative has to be neutralized by whatever means overt or covert. it's hardly surprising in this context to that british mp's who are known to be very critical of china should have been targeted. when it comes to the u.k. electoral register, i think this is part of a wider phenomenon where china is a collecting population-level data sents for -- datga sets for a variety of purposes, ranging from espionage to capabilities to develop

effective cognitive worker messaging, -- warfare messaging, for research in biomedical areas, and even potentially for the pla's bio weapons program. this is something that is happening all the time. the chinese denials are getting rather shopworn. ben: and just briefly, you think countries like the united kingdom are waking up to the threat from china? nigel: yes, most certainly. it is becoming something that can no longer be ignored. for some years now china's leader xi jinping has been quite explicit that the china dream is essentially a vision for china as being at the center of the civilized world, and the community of common destiny for mankind proposal for reordering

global governance is something that is designed very much to be to china's benefit. it sounds very benign and harmless, but is actually very self-centered, hierarchical, illiberal, and coercive. ben: thank you so much for your analysis. farmers in europe had been protesting in recent weeks about the way they are treated, especially against cheap imports environmental regulations. today he has been the turn of british farmers to demonstrate. they have been taking part in attractor go slow in the heart of london outside westminster. there are live pictures of those tractors right in the middle of london. our reporter megan no one is there. tell us why they are so angry come what they are protesting about. >> yes, been, for the last -- yes, ben, for the last two hours these tractors have been circling around westminster tooting their horns and hoping

peop in the buildings will be hearing those calls. they have just come to the finish of the protest and are no stationary, but we have seen expert mary scenes at rush -- extraordinary scenes at rush hour in london, going right through the houses of parliament. why are they so angry? mostly because of cheaper food imports and tightening environmental regulations, inadequate food security, and food labeling. it comes off the back of a number of protests we have seen in europe and across the world as well. but this time it is british farmers turning to protest. hundreds turned out from all generations. we saw younger farmers saying they are worried about their future. we saw older farmers who worried about their livelihoods as well. it's been a pretty lively protest today in westminster. ben: meghan, thank you very much indeed. meghan owen for us in central londonith those angry farmers protesting in the heart of the capital.

do stay with us here on bbc news. announcer: funding for presentation of this program is provided by... financial services firm, raymond james. bdo. accountants and advisors. cunard is a proud supporter of public television. announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ announcer: funding for presentation of this program is provided by... woman: two retiring executives turn their focus to greyhounds, giving these former race dogs a real chance to win.