there are reports that us prosecutors have seized a recording of a conversation between donald trump and his former lawyer michael cohen, in which they discuss a payment to a former playboy model. the conversation is believed to have ta ken place just before the 2016 presidential election. 17 people including nine members of one family are now known to have died when their tourist boat capsized and sank during a sudden storm on a lake in the us state of missouri. another two members of the family were among the 1a people aboard the amphibious vessel who survived. the eu's chief brexit negotiator says the british govenrment‘s proposals have opened the way to a constructive discussion, but it must be workable. michel barnier questioned whether the plans for a common rulebook for goods were practical. earlier, theresa may urged the eu to evolve its position on brexit. now on bbc news, hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk, i'm stephen sackur.

there have been three costly spasms of violent conflict between israel and hamas in gaza over the last 11 years, and in the past week, a fourth seemed dangerously close. even if the ceasefire holds, the preconditions for more bloodshed are all too evident. the trump administration claim a new us peace plan is in the offing, but no—one is holding their breath. my guest is palestine‘s ambassador at the un riyad mansour. is there any prospect of change in this grim status quo? ambassador riyad mansour, at un headquarter in new york,

welcome to hardtalk. thank you for having me. let me begin with a very grim figure. it now seems 140 palestinians, at least, have been killed by israeli forces during protests that began in march along the gaza—israel border. is it not time now for senior palestinians such as yourself to make a clear call to all palestinians in gaza to stop those protests, in the interests of saving life? well, i think you have a situation where it is in the interests of saving lives that israel should stop killing palestinian civilians, and injuring more than 15,000 since 30 march. and the international community is on the side of this kind of articulation, because when we

went to the security council seeking protection for the civilian population from the israeli attacks and aggression against our civilian population, the great majority of members of the security council endorsed the draft resolution, which was denied by casting one single veto. and then we went to the general assembly, and we have a resolution that was adopted by 120 countries versus eight, calling for providing international protection for the civilian population in the occupied palestinian territory. and the secretary general was asked to submit a report with recommendations and suggestions to provide protection for the civilian population, the palestinian civilian population, including international protection mechanisms, and he has until the 13th of next month to submit that report. we are engaging his teams

with ideas and suggestions, to fulfil such demand for providing protection for the civilian population under the israeli occupation. i understand that, ambassador. there are clearly diplomatic processes underway, and there is no doubt that human rights groups and governments as well have issued condemnations of the way israel's forces have handled things on the border. it is myjob to examine israeli strategy and policy. but it's also myjob to ask you quite clearly, as i have done once already, is it not time for palestinian officials to tell all of those who gather at the border, including those who go with molotov cocktails, and those who go with the kites and the balloons which carry those

firebombs over the fence and onto the israeli farmland, is it not time for you to call a halt to all of that? i think that when you have people living in that huge prison in the gaza strip, 2 million of them, for a long period of time, there is a tremendous amount of poverty, a dire situation, and frustration. so when the civilian population decided, from 30 march, to peacefully protest against that miserable, disgusting situation, why is it that, you know, that somebody to suggest for the palestinian civilian population to stop, you know, their civilian activities, peaceful activities, against this occupation? to lift the blockade, and to allow the palestinian civilians to enjoy, in the gaza strip, to enjoy the access and movement. but in a way my question, ambassador, isn't so much political, or about process.

it's just about humanity. whatever the situation in terms of israel's open—fire policy on that border, you know and hamas leaders in gaza know that, if people go down to that border, particularly if they go with an intent to throw molotov cocktails or fly their kites, they are going to be targeted. and, in the interests of saving life, is it not time for this to end? i think that it is in the interest of saving lives to do the following. one, for the israeli armed forces not to be trigger—happy, to aim at civilians and to shoot them. secondly, if international presence could get closer to the borders, a un international presence or red cross teams, i think that that would lead to savings civilian lives. it is the right of not only the civilian palestinian population, but all civilian populations, in any corner of the globe, have the right to peacefully protest against certain issues that are influencing them in a very negative way.

that is also including the palestinian civilian population in the occupied territory, including in the gaza strip. roughly — ambassador, things have escalated in the last week or so, as you know. last weekend we saw roughly 200 rockets and mortars fired toward israeli territory from positions inside gaza. sderot, one israeli town, was hit. in return, the israelis used their warplanes to bomb targets across gaza. what is your message to those inside gaza who resume the rocket and mortar fire? well, first of all, i'm not so sure that, you know, this cycle of violence was initiated

by the palestinian side. i think it was initiated by the israeli aircraft and the bombardment by their artillery, in which a number of children were killed, at least four, and more than 65 have been injured, through this violence from the israeli side. i don't believe that there was, you know, but maybe one or two from the israeli side there were injured in this cycle of violence. from our position, that we declare very repeatedly, we are against the killing of innocent civilians, from any side, and under any conditions. that's why we believe that, if there is an international presence in that area, under the banner of united nations, that will provide protection for our people, and would put an end to any justification from the israeli side to unleash its massive military and armed fire against the civilian

population, an objective of all sides. as i say, you know as well as i do that on this programme we challenge and test vigorously israeli officials for what they do. i understand. but i do want to focus with you on what is happening inside the palestinian community. one more question about hamas. obviously you represent the palestinian authority as the ambassador at the united nations. hamas, not the palestinian authority, is in control in gaza, and the leader of hamas in gaza, i think he is styled the prime minister now, yahya sinwar, he said of the continued protest, we will ultimately take down the border, and we'll tear out their hearts from their bodies. of course, he's talking about israelis, israeli citizens. what is your view of language like that? first of all, you know, i am the representative of the state of palestine at the united nations. and i represent not only the palestinian national authority, i represent all palestinians,

in the occupied territory and outside the occupied territory at the united nations. so you represent yahya sinwar. tell me what your message to yahya sinwar is. i represent all of the palestinian people, including those in the gaza strip, here at united nations. with regard to the statement that you referred to, i did not read it. i am a man of peace. i work under international law. i promote and uphold international law at the united nations, in defending the interests of the palestinian people. i do not advocate war. i stand against aggression against all people, including the palestinian people who live under the israeli occupation, including in the gaza strip. it is not so much a question of what you advocate. it's what you're prepared to unilaterally, categorically and clearly condemn. will you condemn those words

that i quoted to you? i condemn all words that harm civilian populations, whomever they are emanating from and whomever against — they are directed against. you earlier referred to gaza as a prison. you talked about the desperate conditions, humanitarian conditions, that people live in — pretty much 2 million people inside the gaza strip. in that circumstance, why is it that, over recent months, the palestinian authority has been imposing its own financial punishments and sanctions on the people of gaza? i would not use, you know, these words that you are using. we just had a session of the palestine national council, and i'm a member of that council, and i was a member of the drafting committee. we drafted the resolutions which were adopted unanimously in addressing the issues regarding our people in the gaza strip, including sending the salaries of the employees

of the palestinian national authority, and all the steps that were received by approval. well, forgive me, ambassador, maybe it slipped your mind, but you know in recent months, after the failure, it seems, of the last reconciliation deal between hamas and fatah, what we've seen is mahmoud abbas, the president of the palestinian authority, impose different punishments on gaza, including halting shipments of medicine, cutting payments for gaza's electricity — all sorts of different ways in which the people of gaza are suffering not at the hands of israel, or even egypt, which closes its border crossing with gaza, but at the hands of fellow palestinians. i don't think that this is accurate, but if you are saying that there is much more that can be done to help our people in gaza, that is true.

and the palestinian government, including president mahmoud abbas, is trying with many parties, including the egyptians and the united nations, and other parties, to alleviate the situation, the difficult situation, of our people in the gaza strip. i mean, you say you represent all palestinians. have you seen the various protests and demonstrations by palestinians against the policy of the palestinian authority inside gaza? have you also heard another senior palestinian, i'm sure a man you know well, mohammad dahlan, who has called the pa government corrupt and fascist for punishing the palestinians of gaza. he says, i can understand the hardships facing the palestinians. i cannot understand that the palestinian leadership is imposing additional burdens on the people of gaza. well, i wouldn't use quotations from the individual that you refer to. he used to be representing the palestinian national authority in the gaza strip. if he is referring to his conduct at that time, then i would take note of that, but he cannot speak with authority or respect about the behaviour of the palestinian national authority

and the leadership of the palestinian people, whether in the gaza strip or other parts of the occupied palestinian territory. just one more point on gaza, and then i want to move to a bigger picture. but, you know, we saw at the end of last year lots of effort and noise and words aimed at reconciliation. i think there have been six different reconciliation efforts to bring palestinian unity, to end the division between gaza and the west bank, between hamas and fatah and the pa. none of it has worked, and right now inside gaza, it's still hamas that holds the weaponry, the guns, and the rockets. how long can that continue, and do you have any solution to this division, this crippling division, inside the palestinian community? it is a top priority for us palestinians to have reconciliation and to re—unify our ranks and our political system and the geography of the land

of the state of palestine. and we are grateful that many who are helping us in this endeavour, especially our brothers in egypt, and it is in the interest of all palestinians to have reconciliation happening today before tomorrow, and i sincerely hope that we can succeed in this fight because it is in the interest of all palestinians to have unity and to accomplish reconciliation. yeah, well, ambassador, frankly, you could have said that at any time over the last, what, decade. it seems there are no new ideas, there's no real dynamic of change inside the palestinian community but let's park that for... my understanding. . . my understanding, according to some statements from palestinian officials and the visits of a high—level delegation from hamas to egypt, that there a new proposals suggested by our egyptian brothers and i understand that some perhaps new developments will be revealed

and announced perhaps in the next few days or the next few weeks. well, we'll look out for that. in the meantime, as you talk of new developments, there is another development which may or may not come to fruition in the next few weeks, and that is "the grand plan", "the ultimate deal of the century" that donald trump and his team say they are going to put on the table to solve the israel—palestine conflict. jared kushner, his son—in—law, is in charge of it. he said recently, after a trip to the middle, where he saw the israelis, he saw the saudis, he saw the gulf leaders — he did not see any palestinians because you appeared to be absolutely unwilling to talk to the trump team — kushner said this, "the palestinian leadership is scared that we will release our peace plan and the palestinian people will actually like it." are you scared? no, we're not. he said this from one

side of his mouth and, on the other side of his mouth, especially in closed meetings, he would say to arab leaders and others, please, deliver the palestinians to us, let them engage us in with whatever they have, let them look at it, they don't have to accept everything. so he is in one hand talking tough and the other hand he is begging for us to engage with him. for us, ifjerusalem is off the table, the refugees are off the table, and those who say that they are concerned about our people in the gaza strip, they cut off $300 million from the budget of 0rwah, so how could you be helping the people in the gaza strip by depriving them of this large sum of money that helps 1.2 million

palestine refugees in the gaza strip? and also they say settlement now is not objectionable and they do not refer much to the occupied palestinian territory, so what is left on the table to talk about? well, here's the interesting question, given that the list you've just given me of reasons why it's absolutely impossible to talk to the americans given the positions they've staked out, my question to you is, why aren't the saudis, the gulf state leadership, the egyptians and thejordanians all very happy to talk to the americans and appear to be involved in trying to figure out how a peace plan might work out? it seems you are dangerously isolated. we are not isolated. they are engaging them for their own reasons, including things related to the role of iran in the region. but let me just tell you that we have made an initiative in the security council in february which was...the essence of it endorsed by our palestine national council, in which we are saying we want a collective process to open a meaningful door for the political process by convening an international conference to include all relevant parties, including the americans, including the europeans, the russians, the chinese, the japanese and others.

we are interested in opening doors for peace and we believe, since the americans do not qualify any more — they disqualified themselves from being honest brokers — we want a collective process and we are working actively in order to convince as many countries as possible to proceed with this idea of convening an international conference to open doors for peace in the middle east. well, you are a veteran diplomat, you've spent more than a decade representing palestine at the un but, with the greatest of respect to diplomacy and to the europeans, the japanese and others, frankly, there isn't going to be a diplomatic process that is meaningful and can deliver anything without the americans and, given that donald trump has made it pretty plain that he...donald trump intends to run for a second term, we may be facing another six years or whatever it is of donald trump. are you palestinians seriously saying that, as long as donald trump is in the white house,

you will not in any way whatsoever engage with the americans? i was saying that we will engage with them in a collective process through an international conference. we realise that they are an important force but we do not want them to be the only party that is supervising the negotiations between us and the israelis. we want a collective process, as it happened, you know, in annapolis, through an international conference. and the security council legislated a decision to call for an international conference to be convened in moscow and we sincerely hope that the russians or the french, for that matter, to call for an international conference

to involve everyone, including the americans, so that we can open doors for peace. let me just also refer who is really... whether we are isolated or not. if you look at the behaviour vis—a—vis jerusalem in the security council and the general assembly, and also with regard to protection, in the security council and the general assembly, who was isolated? was it the palestinian people and their representatives or the americans and the israelis? i think that the voting is very telling about who is isolated and who is not. well, again, you know, that may be a diplomatic point that the palestinian people on the ground, in the west bank, gaza and eastjerusalem will consider but, in the meantime, they have to live their daily lives and it is interesting to look at opinion polls and see that dissatisfaction with the palestinian leadership, with mahmoud abbas, president of the palestinian authority, is rife. more than 60% of palestinians, according to reputable polls conducted by palestinian opinion survey groups, think that mahmoud abbas should resign with immediate effect. he is, of course, gravely ill as well but the problem is there is no obvious successor. when are palestinians going to get serious about developing a new generation of leadership? let me just say two things.

0ne, one cannot blame the palestinian people for their frustration. we tried the peaceful negotiation process for more than 20 years, after the oslo agreement, and instead of putting an end to this occupation and enjoying independence, the reality on the ground moved from bad to worst, especially in the field of settlements, so one cannot but understand this frustration and the negative feeling among the palestinian people... sure but, hang on, this is notjust about blaming external circumstances. nasser al-qudwa, a former senior palestinian official — i know you know him — he said, "simply put, we have failed, failed to achieve peace and failed to achieve an independent economy for the palestinian people. " so there is a real sense now that a generation of leaders, and i have to say you are of that generation, have failed.

well, he is a part of that generation, including myself. it is true that in all complicated situations it is not only a one—way street, it is not only an external factor and also we assume our share of responsibility in that configuration and because of that, we decided in our palestine national council to disassociate ourselves from the occupation and also not to continue on the path that did not lead us to the end of occupation, meaning that the old style of negotiation, acknowledging that we did not succeed in following that path in putting an end to occupation. we are not running away from our responsibility, we are not blaming everything on the outside conditions, we are also...we know our part of our responsibility in leading to that situation. we are almost out of time, a very simple question for you —

sorry, we're almost out of time — mahmoud abbas has been really quite ill in recent months. he's 82 years old, it is really not clear how much longer either the palestinian people want him to go on or he can go on. why is it that there is no obvious successor? well you see, the palestinian people, you know, are very resilient and we have so many creative individuals and leaders. in the past, when chairman arafat, who was so huge in our struggle, when he passed away, it was not complicated for the palestinian people to agree and to elect president mahmoud abbas to replace him. if after long—life of our president mahmoud abbas that we face the situation to select another leader, i am confident that the palestinian people will be able to select, to elect the appropriate leader to lead us for the ongoing stage. we have to end there. ambassador riyadh mansour, i thank you very much

forjoining me on hardtalk. thank you for receiving me. hello. some areas were lucky enough to have some useful rain on friday. 0thers, though, just had the cloud and hardly anything fell from it and it is looking mainly dry for the weekend as the nose of high pressure builds in behind that rain bearing weather system clearing away south—eastwards. for early risers saturday morning, a lot of cloud around, rather misty and murky in places, for england and wales anywhere at any stage in the day there's the chance of a hit—and—miss shower. most will avoid them and stay dry with warm sunny spells developing. warm anywhere where you get to see

sunshine, not a lot of cloud around for northern scotland and north—east scotland and thickening in the day. versus apm, south to north across the uk, at this stage parts of southern england and south wales most favoured for an isolated shower. most stay dry. warm sunny spells in england and wales, southern and eastern scotland. more cloud for northern ireland, western scotland, especially into the north—west where the breeze is picking up. a bit of patchy light rain is starting to move in. for the golf at carnoustie as the open continues, a lot of cloud around particularly early in the day, sunny spells developing. looks like it will be a sunnier and warmer day on sunday but at that stage it looks like the breeze will be perhaps more significant.

as we go on through saturday evening and overnight, what showers have popped up in england and wales will die away. a few patches of mist and fog around but most will be with clear spells. more cloud starting to filter into western scotland and again there will be a bit of patchy rain the further north you are, and a warmer night to come for scotland and northern ireland compared with friday night. and some spots into the high teens overnight, particularly in south—east england. into sunday then and a weather system moving in will give some patchy rain towards parts of northern and western scotland perhaps later in the day into northern ireland as the cloud feeds in from the north—west, breezy across northern scotland compared with elsewhere but for much of south—east scotland and across england and wales there will be more warm sunny spells to come and it's becoming very warm to hot once again as those temperatures get close to 30 across eastern and south—eastern england. early into next week,

this weather system will bring patchy rain into scotland and northern ireland. ahead of that, though, we draw up even hotter air to england and wales and the heatwave is absolutely back on. this is bbc news. our top stories: questions surface after reports that michael cohen, donald trump's former lawyer, secretly taped him discussing payments to silence a former playboy model two months before the us election. police confirm nine members of same family were among those killed when a tourist duck boat sank during a storm in missouri. with just months left to finalise a brexit deal, the eu's chief negotiator says there is progress, but there is still work to be done. former cricketer imran khan remains the frontrunner in pakistan's elections next week. but is the campaign being overshadowed by his links to the military? and we meet meghan, the nine—year—old helping to keep 250,000 london commuters safe

on the underground network.