this is bbc world news today. our top stories. donald trump defends talking tough with north korea — saying confronting the regime made pyongyang willing to negotiate. "this is going to be nuclear war." "we're going to have..." no. you know what gets you nuclear war? weakness gets you nuclear war. cheering. meanwhile, donald trump says his legal adviser wasn't in command of all the facts when he briefed the media about paying off a porn actress who says she slept with the president. palestinian leader mahmoud abbas apologises for remarks he made aboutjewish people and the holocaust, describing it as "the most heinous crime in history". describing it as "the most heinous crime in history". and a volcanic eruption in hawaii forces hundreds of people to leave their homes. after another tumultuous week for the us president in which he's

faced growing scrutiny about the stormy daniels adult film star controversy, donald trump has this evening gone back to his core supporters. the gun rights group, the national rifle association in dallas, texas. the meeting was a throwback to the president's campaign rallies — with many of his supporters cheering him on as he spoke about some key issues — like gun control, north korea and illegal immigration. he was specific in his assessment on the threat of war and how his administration has dealt north korea. —— with north korea. we actually delivered more than we promised. and let me just tell you this. we're really doing well with north korea. we're really doing well. cheering for years, they have had this problem. and everyone has said "oh... "don't talk". "no, please don't". the last administration had a policy of silence. "don't talk!"

"you may make them and him angry!" "don't talk". "if a horrible statement is made about the united states, don't say anything, we have no comment". remember how strong it was and they were saying, "this is going to be nuclear war". "we're going to have..." no. you know what gets you nuclear war? weakness gets you nuclear war. being weak gets you nuclear war. cheering on guns in school he said he believed that highly trained teachers should carry concealed weapons and didn't seem to be in in support of so—called gun free zones. he spoke about americans and their second amendment rights. you give your time, energy and vote

to stand strong for those sacred rights given to us by god. including the right to self—defense. can and now thanks to your activism and dedication. you have an administration fighting to protect your second amendment and we will protect your second amendment. cheering let's cross to washington where our reporter anthony zurcher has been following the speech. anthony he was in brilliant form, wasn't he? he was particularly talking about guns it sounded like campaign donald trump talking about the second amendment at how democrats will take away people's guns. a sharp contrast from march where he said other politicians were afraid of the nra. that he was not

going to be controlled by them and talked about some new gun control measures including raising the age to purchase firearms and expanded background checks. that hasn't seemed too gone by the wayside. instead he talked about night of violence in the uk and gun control in paris where people not having guns lead to more crime. it was a blast from the past as far as trump goes. interesting because he is tangled up with the stormy daniels problems. but he threw it aside and put on a performance. he was talking about his poll ratings. he was talking about the economy. north korea. how ka nye talking about the economy. north korea. how kanye west is supporting him now and how he is becoming more popular with black voters. there we re popular with black voters. there were calls for its banded wall and grated borders secure —— graded —— greater border security. this was donald trump in classic form. keep in mind that this speech was a rally

the base type of thing the reason he sounds a candidate because he knows in november, americans are going to the polls and for the moment it looks like they may vote for democrats dealing a big blow to his party. he needs to rally the base and get them to vote in november so that they can control congress and maintain control. without control of congress, all of his agenda goes by the wayside. is it not a reminder that no matter potential tadpoles, regarding stormy daniels which could get him into trouble, that really he has a strong base of supporters. whether he's consistent or not. it resonates with people in america. whether he's consistent or not. it resonates with people in americam certainly resonates with the people who supported him. if you look at his support within the republican party, it continues to be quite high, 85% support. that's his base and he needs them to stick by him. and revelations about stormy daniels. you have fragile age ——

revelations that he may have lied about a payment to her. that probably will not have an impact on them. if you remember in the 1990s, bill clinton famously lied about his relations with an intern. i did not bent his standing among his democrats. in the united states these days, partisan divides are very entrenched. as long your guy in office is passing her policies and talking up your site, your party will stick with them. that said, since the mass shooting we saw in south florida at the high school, that was in february. this speech comes relatively close to that and there have been demonstrations. but he has brushed that all aside. he expressed an openness to gun control policies as i mentioned in that march round with democrats and republicans. he said that sometimes republicans. he said that sometimes republicans needed to go against the nra and make them angry. he

entertained the notion of further gun control measures. he talked about a ban on bump stocks. he has taken about a ban on bump stocks. he has ta ke n ste ps about a ban on bump stocks. he has ta ken steps to about a ban on bump stocks. he has taken steps to address that but there has not been a band yet. everything else, even limited background checks to allow sharing of information of government databases between the states and the federal government, even legislation people thought would get passed very easily. there has been no action whatsoever. it seems that donald trump is returning back to his campaign base to the kind of rhetoric he used during the campaign. he knows that plays well with a certain segment of the republican electorate and they are the ones that are the loudest and vote on guns and people who are gun—control destroyer cleaved and control advocates are interested in it. when there is a high profile shooting, their interest eyes out over time. —— gun—control activists. whether activists turnout in the polls and vote for gun—control candidates. but in general history

has not proven that to be the case. he talked about campaigns and elections. the stormy it daniels affair potentially to that. rudy giuliani now on his legal team suggested something concerning the funding of that and that is that president trump had paid back the lawyer who paid off stormy daniels. he said giuliani did not have his story straight. i guess giuliani is not used to hearing himself describe without. rudy giuliani has been around in american politics in decades. he was a high—profile mayor in your city. he ran for mayor and senate. —— in new york city. he is an addict —— active advocate for donald trump. it seems that they got their wires crossed and he had broken news a couple of nights ago when he said donald trump did reimburse this —— his lawyer. then you hear donald trump in several off

the cuff remarks heading to dallas a saying that's rudy due and he is new to the team and he is up and caught up to the team and he is up and caught up on all the facts. —— rudy giuliani. that is not the real story. the real story is very simple and we would ask —— you is pointless and we would ask —— you is pointless and that there is no missed understanding. we are still —— misunderstanding. we are waiting for what the real story is from the white house. we have multiple accou nts white house. we have multiple accounts and what donald trump has said before was directly contradicted by rudy giuliano —— giuliani. thank you. palestinian leader mahmoud abbas has apologised for comments he made earlier this week that were widely criticised as being anti—semitic. at a meeting in the west bank on monday, mr abbas suggested the historical persecution of europeanjews had been a reaction to their financial activities, not by their religion. —— not to their religion. in a statement today, he condemned anti—semitism and called the holocaust the "most heinous crime in history". earlier i spoke with rami khouri a professor at the american university of beirut. as durable as they are an completely

unacceptable as they are to any standards, he has said similar things once or twice in the past. —— as terrible as they are. they are a function of this difficult situation he has put himself in over the last ten — 15 years in which he has shown no resolve all. he has almost all control over the palestinian leadership. he is nor with the americans. —— no longer dealing with the americans. this is all context which explains partly why he did it which explains partly why he did it which does not justify which explains partly why he did it which does notjustify it. but this is why he blurted out at these turbo things. —— terrible things. he thought maybe this was something that might get him some support. and it should not because it is

com pletely it should not because it is completely unacceptable. other people around the world say this is a sign of poor ethicaljudgement and also poor political leadership. his apology was a sign that he probably realised after the fact and it was not a strong apology. it was not convincing. this is something that happens now and then that has to forcefully pushed back and seem as unacceptable as political rhetoric by anyone at anytime. does it undermine standing in the international community? not particularly because his standing in the international community is pretty well already unfortunately. it's not totally his fault that he is such a failure. he has been living under israeli control and occupation in seizures and all kinds of other things. he did not on his

own paint itself to this point where he is totally helpless and losing credibility and legitimacy among many palestinians. the israeli occupation and expansion settlements and the horrible things that the israelis have been doing have been a critical element in his failure. he did not respond to his situation effectively. he did not rally palestinians or mobilise the massive international support there is for the palestinian issue. he did not rally around —— rally his allies from around the project —— region. he cannot go much closer —— lower than he is now. he is pretty much ignored by most be so full that people. the palestine issue is important internationally and the airworld. important internationally and the air world. they understand that it needs to be resolved equitably for the israelis and palestinians. ——

important to the arab world. i don't think this is a major change in the personality and negotiating situation. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. argentina's central bank has raised interest rates to 40% to try to tackle inflation, and stop the country's currency from falling. in the past month the peso has lost one tenth of its value against the us dollar, pushing up the cost of imported goods, and adding to inflation which is running at 25%. the boss of air—france klm has announced that he is to resign. jean—marc janaillac made the decision after staff rejected a pay deal. just over 55% of workers voted against accepting a pay rise of 7% over four years. weeks of strikes has plunged the airline into turmoil and cost the company some 300 million euros north korea has reset its clocks by 30 minutes to match the time

zone in south korea. pyongyang said it was the first practical step taken after last week's historic summit to speed up reunification. in 2015, north korea began operating in a time zone that was 30 minutes ahead of south korea and japan. the move was seen as a protest against the time zone that was first introduced by tokyo a century ago. dust storms whipped up by violent winds have destroyed homes and lives across a wide area of northern india. at least 125 people have been killed though some reports suggest the figure is higher as buildings collapsed in the intense storm. villages in agra near the taj mahal were the worst affected, and more bad weather is on the way. the bbc‘s salman ravi reports from agra. it is now calm in the village. a miracle that more lives were not lost. this is the place where i'm standing here. you can see the house is in the rubble now. the family used to live here.

and none of them are alive. and the local villagers had to perform the last rites. the women are in mourning and know it will be hard to rebuild. translation: suddenly, all the people were caught up in it. people say the speed was 150 kilometres per hour. it was a disaster. we helped one another. three people died in our village. translation: we were inside our house when it collapsed from the high winds. my father was killed. my niece and i were injured. translation: nobody has ever seen such a hurricane. we pray to god that we don't experience this again. all the farmers' crops have been ruined. translation: i was hiding behind the furniture in the room. the wind blew our wall down and i was stuck in the ruins with my whole family.

the villagers say they should have had more notice. but government officials say the storm came out of nowhere. it was the worst in 20 years. and more bad weather is forecast. salman ravi, bbc news, agra. stay with us on bbc world news, still to come. we'll consider the impact of the decision by the nobel organisation — after a scandal over alleged sexual harrassment — not to award a prize for literature for 2018. donald trump has addressed the nra and texas saying he trusted people to keep and bearfirearms. he said washington was making good progress with north korea in helping to resolve the crisis. the palestinian authority mahmoud abbas has apologised for remarks aboutjewish people and the holocaust that cause anger in israel. for the first time

since the second world war — this year there will be no nobel prize for literature. the swedish academy, which chooses who wins this most prestigious award — is caught up in a crisis over allegations of sexual assault by the husband of one of the academy's judges — and how those allegations were handled six of the academy‘s 18 members resigned last month — including sara danius — the head of the committee that awards the prize. today, the academy decided the damage to its credibility was so serious it had no choice but to cancel the awards. earlier i spoke to author and critic erica wagner, who has judged the man booker prize in previous years, about some of the reaction in the literary world. this is huge. the nobel prize for literature is top of the pie when it comes to literary prizes. this is an earthquake. —— top of the pile. comes to literary prizes. this is an earthquake. —— top of the pilem has been an opec institution. -- an

opec institution. the moment of the awarding of the prize is great. there is always a moment of wonderful surprise when we learn who has been chosen. how that happens is not in the public eye. the shock here is the fact that these allegations are being made but also the way they were handled. the weight of her handled and the fact that they seemed to go back so far in time, so many years. —— the way they were handled. although this does not seem to be quite out in the openin does not seem to be quite out in the open in the way it says now say with harvey weinstein. unlike the film world where people come and go, this is an academy where people stay for long periods of times. it is doubly shocking in a sense to authors and to those who watch this. they don't just stay for a long time, they stay

for life. up until very recently, just as this was happening and because this was happening, i gather there has no mechanism for removing people or replacing people or declaring them in active members of the academy. it will cite this is changing. there is a system —— it looks like this is changing now. you have alluded to harvey weinstein. could there be more to come?” have alluded to harvey weinstein. could there be more to come? i don't think it is a sense of anticipation. i think it shows that the me to movement, this kind of behaviour, the reaction to this behaviour, reaches everywhere. —— d me too movement. —— me too. that was author and critic erica wagner speaking to me earlier. hugh ferris has all the sport. thank you. steven gerrard has been named the

new boss of glasgow rangers. part of scotland's old firm in the place of unrelenting expectations. some flash photography coming up in these pictures. he agreed to a four—year deal to take over. he insists he is not concerned about his lack of extras. though his rivals celtic has dominated the scottish football in recent yea rs. dominated the scottish football in recent years. he understands the size of this task. when the call came, it was a no—brainer. i got a different feeling in my stomach. from the previous opportunities i had had in terms of being a number one manager. there is a lot of things to think about. from that phone call i got a special feeling and a new rangers was for me. i miss

fighting for three points in the weekend. being the manager, i know that will come and there will be a lot of scrutiny and pressure. that's what i love about being involved in football. manchester united will be all but guaranteed a second—place finish in the premier league if they win their match at brighton who if they went would definitely stay up in theirfirst they went would definitely stay up in their first season in the premier league. the way it is going it is that the latter, the former will be happening. —— not the former. brighton scored. it is the first goal that scored against manchester united in 25 years. brighton meeting 1-0. 25 united in 25 years. brighton meeting 1—0. 25 minutes to go at the stadium. he admits there are still huge differences between the premier league and analyse having moved from one to the other back in march. the former manchester united striker has had a significant effect on his new site, la galaxy. he says his gait

mortgages using —— use to playing styles. it's not slower. it's how you handle the speed. everybody can pass a ball. the question is how fast can you pass the ball? how fast do you react? how fast you read the game? what is the difference between the top level and the lower levels. then you look at the climate here. it's hot. is that what you can run for 90 minutes. different factors. you try to make a better. from one box office player to another, neymar scene without crutches which may save his world cup. he broke a bone in his foot in march and will not play for psg again this year. he is once again in the lead after the early stage of the first grantor of

the cycling race. they went around the cycling race. they went around the streets ofjerusalem. and the swiss was following the action. automatic first day in jerusalem. swiss was following the action. automatic first day injerusalem. —— a dramatic first aid. a fantastic one for him as he showed why he is the reigning champion. a blistering performance in the time trial as he edged out ron dennis to take the opening stage. but perhaps the biggest drama belonging to chris froome, the reigning tour de france champion. he was going for his third grantor title. but champion. he was going for his third gra ntor title. but he champion. he was going for his third grantor title. but he crashed during his practise ride a few hours before the start. he suffered some cuts and bruises and was patched up. the crash seems to take his toe, not the normal zip we associate with chris froome. he came in 20 first place. some 37 seconds adrift. —— 20 first

place. two more stages in israel before it has to italy. just a reminder you can follow the semi finals of the world snooker chippy chip via the bbc sport website. john higgins. world super chevy job. chip via the bbc sport website. john higgins. world super chevyjob. that is all for now. you can get touch with me. bye—bye. thanks forjoining me. an update on a number of stories from across the world. what a week of whether it has been. the tornado drought part of the usa has come to an end. kansas, oklahoma did not see a tornado in

the whole of april. now they have seen plenty. that is the scale. it is not just seen plenty. that is the scale. it is notjust in the odd one either. a number of the state has seen two, three, four, five tornadoes as a very active system is working its way towards the central states ever further towards the north and east. even during saturday, it marks the boundary between a real heat had of it and something over the court coming in from the north and west. things have been no less pleasant out towards montana. there is a state of emergency across the state in the northwest of the usa. within mount of snowmelt and randy has seen in recent days. speaking of such things, these pictures coming out of kenya. saw the extent of the flooding. it extends across the border out towards somalia. down towards rwanda as well. in kenya

over 100 fatalities have been reported. hundreds and thousands displaced. and the disruption has been widespread. it has been no quieter as we we do across to another continent in south asia. you may have heard about the reports of dust storms and thunderstorms affecting a good portion of northwestern india. over 140 conecuh —— fatalities. a number of lightning strikes. and a number of fatalities isa strikes. and a number of fatalities is a consequence it we are not quite done with this turbulent atmosphere just yet. sadly because these great amounts of cloud coming across the indian ocean will spark more thunderstorms. also into bangladesh with the heat still there and violent storm activity across the northwestern india and into pakistan. as we come closer to home, things don't get much quieter into the heart of the mediterranean. real

problems in sardinia and across the adriatic and italy. coming for the north, you see something quieter. some real spring, early summer warmth that we had across much of northern and eastern europe. temperatures well into the 20s in a number of locations. that extends to the british isles where can you believe it, for a bank holiday, it will be warmerfor believe it, for a bank holiday, it will be warmer for many. sunshine and it will be dry for the most part. this is bbc world news. here are the headlines. donald trump has been addressing the national rifle association and dallas, texas. he said he trusted people to keep there. on the subject of north korea is in washington was making good progress in helping to resolve the crisis. india's department has warned that further powerful storms

are likely in the coming days and over a wider area of the 125 people are now thought to have died in the storms. a state of emergency in a white big island after the eruption of one of the world active volcanoes. the national guard has been mobilised. —— in a hawaii big island. the nobel prize for literature would not be awarded this year. literature would not be awarded this yea r. after literature would not be awarded this year. after the swedish academy found itself