this is bbc news. i'm rich preston. welcome if you're watching here in the uk or around the globe. our top stories: with the us midterm elections just days away, president biden and former presidents obama and trump have all hit the campaign trail in the push for victory in a critical contest. it's a choice — a choice between two vastly different visions of america. this tuesday, you must vote republican in a giant red wave. iran admits supplying a limited number of drones to russia. ukraine says tehran has yet to come clean on the full extent of its involvement in the conflict.

british police say extreme right—wing terrorist ideology was behind the firebombing of a migrant processing centre in the south east of england. the un urges elon musk to ensure twitter respects human rights as concerns grow about the platform spreading more hate speech since his takeover. and singer and rapper aaron carter is found dead at his home in california. the crucial us midterm elections, of days away and president biden and former president obama have taken to the stage together at a campaign rally in pennsylvania. mr biden urged the cheering

crowd in his home state to back the democrats�* john fetterman for the senate. he said the elections would shape the country for decades to come. this isn't a referendum this year, it's a choice — a choice between two vastly different visions of america. vastly different. maybe it's in our blood, butjohn and i believe that all — it's all about fighting for working and middle—class people. the way i've said from the beginning of my — my objective when i ran for president was to build an economy from the bottom up and the bottom up and the middle out. it's a fundamental shift compared with the oz and the mega maga republican trickle—down economics. booing. oh, really? a fair economy that gives working people a fair shot — that's on the ballot. fundamental rights are on the ballot.

truth and facts and logic and reason and basic decency are on the ballot! democracy is itself is on the ballot! the stakes are high! cheering our north america correspondent, david willis, told us more about the crucial campaigns. joe biden said the outcome of this election would shape the future of this country for decades to come. he also said that it was a choice between two parties with very different visions of the future of the united states. now, the republicans need just one seat in the upper house, the senate, in order to gain control there. and they have their eyes on the traditionally swing state of pennsylvania, hence three presidents visited there over the course of the last few hours. one current, two former. barack obama and joe biden took to the stage together and we again heard president biden saying that democracy itself

was on the ballot on tuesday. but, he said, was because many of the republican candidates up for election on tuesday shared donald trump's belief that the 2020 election was stolen and that the electoral system here is flawed. but despite the fact that there is no concrete evidence in that regard. now, the candidates in that senate race in pennsylvania are democraticjohn fetterman, who has seen an early lead in the polls dwindle in recent weeks, and dr mehmet oz who was a television doctor who gained the endorsement of donald trump. now, mr trump intends to hold future rallies between now and tuesday in florida and ohio, two more swing states, and he has intimated fairly strongly that he intends to announce another run for president once the mid—term elections are out of the way. withjoe biden also seeking his party's nomination for 2024,

that presidential race could come down to a repeat of its predecessor, trump versus biden. let's get some of the day's other news. vigils and protests have taken place across south korea to commemorate the victims of a crush that killed more than 150 people. the disaster in seoul a week ago has caused public anger. china has admitted that it needs to improve its covid vaccination rate for people aged over 80. analysts say a lower take—up among elderly people could be one reason why beijing is reluctant to end its zero—covid policy. the country has more than 30 million people in this age bracket but officials have declined to say exactly how many of them have been fully vaccinated. rail passengers in the uk have faced major disruption, despite a decision

by the rmt union to call off three strikes scheduled for saturday, monday and wednesday. only about a fifth of services have operated because the announcement came too late to prevent cancellations. negotiations will resume early next week in an attempt to resolve a long—running dispute over pay, conditions and job security. an extra uk bank holiday has been anounced to mark the coronation of king charles iii on monday, may 8th, two days after the ceremony at westminster abbey. the prime minister, rishi sunak, said it would give people the chance to come together and celebrate. ukraine's president, volodymyr zelensk, ——ukraine�*s president, volodymyr zelensky, has accused iran of lying and terrorist cooperation by supporting russia's war in ukraine. it comes after tehran admitted it had supplied drones to moscow but insisted there was no evidence they'd been deployed in the conflict. the west believes russia has used the drones to hit key infrastructure targets. sylvia lennan—spence has more.

wave after wave of drone attacks raining down on ukrainian cities far away from the front lines. russia's campaign to devastate ukraine's power grid has left millions without electricity. it's also raised questions about the origin of the weapons being used. and, after weeks of denials, iran has finally made an admission. translation: the drone part is correct - we provided - a limited number of drones to russia many months prior to the ukraine war. iran still claims it is neutral in the conflict but ukraine's president zelensky has accused iran of lying about the true extent of its involvement. translation: we shoot down at least ten iranian _ drones every day. we are certain that iranian instructors have been teaching russian terrorists how to use these drones, yet tehran remains completely silent about it.

the shahed—136 drones in question are known as kamikaze drones, named after the japanese suicide pilots in world war ii because of the way they are completely destroyed on impact. and their impact has been devastating. in just the last month, a third of ukraine's power stations have reportedly been destroyed. as a consequence, rolling blackouts and restrictions on electricity have been imposed, just as winter arrives. the us, eu and uk have all imposed sanctions on iran but some analysts believe iran's leaders are willing to accept this punishment as part of a broader geopolitical strategy. it wants to show to the western alliances that it has the capability and it can impact beyond the region in the middle east. they are looking for leverage over europe and the us from this drone export. iran has claimed that it won't remain indifferent if there is irrefutable

proof of its drones being used in ukraine. but this latest confession may only bolster the impression of iran as a destabilising force in global security. sylvia lennan—spence, bbc news. here in the uk, police say the firebombing of an immigration centre in dover in the south east of england was terrorism. it's believed the suspect, andrew leak, killed himself after throwing petrol bombs at the site last sunday. the government has condemned a separate disturbance at an immigration centre in west london, saying there was unacceptable violence. no—one was hurt and no arrests were made. jon donnison reports. an act of terror. this is the moment andrew leak threw one of up to three makeshift firebombs in a drive—by attack on a migrant processing centre in dover last sunday. today, police said leak was motivated by terrorist ideology. in a statement, tim jacques,

the senior national co—ordinator for counter terrorism policing, said: the suspect, andrew leak, is thought to have taken his own life shortly after the attack, which police say was likely motivated by extreme—right beliefs. it led to around 700 migrants being transferred from the dover processing centre to this one at manston, which was already overcrowded. the home secretary flew into manston on thursday, but suella braverman is facing a possible legal challenge over detention conditions there. the day after last weekend's firebomb attack in dover, she told mps britain was facing an invasion of illegal migrants. and yesterday, a home office minister said detainees had a cheek to complain about conditions at manston.

we have to be really, really careful about the words that we use and the rhetoric when we talk about anything to do with migration. and especially people in power should know the weight that their words hold. comments like that, i think, just show the complete disregard for basic human dignity. but the government says the real problem is the number of migrants continuing to cross the channel, and that fixing an asylum system which it describes as "broken" is a first—order priority. jon donnison, bbc news. the united nations human rights chief has urged elon musk to "ensure that human rights are central to the management of twitter", following the billionaire's purchase of the company. volker turk said the sacking of twitter�*s entire human rights team by mr musk was not

an encouraging start. meanwhile, twitter co—founder, jack dorsey, has apologised for growing the company too quickly and tweeted that he felt responsible for the predicament staff are now facing. i asked the washington post's tech reporter joseph menn for his take on the past 2a hours. it's just been chaos upon chaos. in the last 2a hours, twitter has laid off about half of its workforce. they have deliberately kept workers in the dark about which ones. the people who have been laid off are still on company slacks so that e—mails don't bounce and it is because officially they are not laid off — they are employees for labour law reasons for another 60 days or so — but people don't know who is gone and who is staying. they do know from tweets and from screenshots that the human rights team is gone, a lot of the privacy team is gone, a great amount of the security team is gone but they are all desperately trying to figure out what is going on. there has been very little direct communication from management. talk more about the human rights team — as you say

the entire team has been sacked and the un high commissioner for human rights expressing concern about that. what do you think this move from elon musk means about the future of the platform? a lot of musk�*s attention has been about us users who are, like, the core for the advertising base, but three—quarters of users of twitter are in other countries and human rights violations are very common in certain bits of the world. and this is not helpful because the people that worked on these were especially proud of things they had done in ethiopia, ukraine, afghanistan and other places where there is a lot of conflict. they had gone out of their way to protect users who could be targeted, journalists, human rights advocates and others. sometimes, their use of twitter would give away their locations, other identifying details, so their physical protection that was necessary.

and then there is derogatory language, dehumanising language that can be part of a genocide, so that's been true in many parts of the world, u nfortu nately. twitter has been used by authoritarians to whip up ethnic violence, to suppress democratic protests and it is this small crew's job to protect those users. another big cut, the content moderation team, and it comes just before elections across the united states. will this have an impact on the vote? we don't know. there's certainly a better chance for disinformation to spread. to be honest, it is already very common on twitter to have bad information spreading. it was all sort of fingers in the dyke from the very small content moderation teams. with them gone, it's quite alarming to many, many human rights and democracy advocates in the united states.

and then, there's also the issue of racist attacks that are going up and right in the middle of this, musk is trying to roll out a new version of the verification service which would let anyone pay dollars to get that blue checkmark and seem legit. and if they decide to pose as an election official and put out bad information, that's really troubling. this is bbc news, the latest headlines. with the us midterm elections just days away, president biden and former presidents obama and trump have all hit the campaign trail in the push for victory in a critical contest. iran admits supplying "a limited number" of drones to russia — ukraine says tehran has yet to come clean on the full extent of its involvement in the conflict. pakistan's government has revoked a ban on the broadcast of speeches by imran khan almost immediately after it was announced.

the media regulator had earlier said mr khan made comments that threatened national security. the opposition leader was shot in the leg at a protest march earlier this week and has accused the government and military of plotting to kill him. a little earlier i asked ayesha siddiqa, who's a fellow at the department of war studies at kings college london what she makes of the broadcast ban reversal. the media regulatory authority imposed the ban on the context of mr khan and his party members were accusing the military, the isi, the primary intelligence agency, the military of being involved in this attack and they were labelling the military and therefore in order to stop it there is already a law and there is another law is being talked about is being negotiated to stop people from accusing the military of anything and then pointing the finger at it. mr khan has had his long

protest march to the capital, he was shot in the leg, as we have seen, and he accuses the government and the military of being behind a plot to assassinate him. what is mr khan trying to achieve here? well, for one, it is bringing him a lot of popularity. he is trying to, you know, thrive on the general sentiment. people are, you know, people have grown wary of military�*s involvement in politics and definitely he has captured the sentiment. and also he wants to force the government, the sitting government, you know, to back off and actually announce fresh elections, general elections. right now it's expected that it could be any time next year, but he wants to be the one

to become the next prime minister and also be the one to appoint the next army chief. the current army chief is about to retire on 29 november, but he wants, and they should be an arrangement where there should be a permanent, you know, a long—term army chief is appointed by a fresh government after elections and he expects that he would form the next government. the military have historically played an active role in politics in pakistan. is there any sense that the military might take power again now? you know, it's a very tricky moment. one had expected, and since 2008, when general musharraf's rule ended, one had thought that the military had immigrated or had elevated itself to a new position, which is they were interested in control of governance, rather than control of government and there would be no martial law is, but we are at a very tricky moment in pakistan that it seems that they might actually impose a martial law. what is behind this sense, this deception is that,

you know, a new army chief's name should have been discussed or debated, but the news coming from islamabad is that a summary to the prime minister's office from the army ghq has not been sent as yet with names of potential generals, one of whom could become the army chief. so the suspicion is is the current army chief trying to either extend his rule or maybe he imposes martial law and, really, it depends on — this is really a fight now between, on the one hand, it initially started as a fight between mr khan and the political government but it's now a fight between the army and mr khan. ayesha siddiqa there. france's far—right national rally party has chosen a 27—year—old member of the european parliament as its new president.

jordan bardella takes overfrom marine le pen, marking the first time in its 50—year—history that the party — or its predecessor the national front — has not been led by a member of the le pen family. translation: france is the sum of people who have loved her- and those who love her now, and no—one else will defend her in our place. always believe in yourself, always believe in france. if we believe in france, we will be capable of building 100 power stations and 1000 cathedrals, capable of building innovations that will change the world, capable of bringing messages of peace and freedom to the planet that will reverberate through all the hearts in the world. translation: i know that there is still a lot of work to do, - i am aware of that. and please know, i am not leaving the party's presidency to go on holiday. i remain more than ever mobilised. there will be no rest for me

and each of us until we have put the country back on track for the future, for the movement. as for france, it goes without saying that i will be wherever the country and the national cause need me. the us singer and rapper aaron carter has died aged 34. a representative said he was found dead at his home in california, and the cause of death is yet to be determined. he was the brother of backstreet boys member, nick carter, and rose to fame in the 1990s. celebrity blogger perez hilton gave us his reaction to the news. my reaction is deep sadness. it was troubling to see this young man struggle publicly for such a long time. he would share his life every day, streaming on instagram, on tiktok and so many people could see that he was unwell and even though many are saying i knew this would happen it does not make it any

less horrible. he was so young and he leaves behind a son less than i—year—old. not to mention his brother, who you brought up, nick carter, and siblings have also lost another sibling at a young age. their sister died of addiction a few years ago. so my heart goes out to the entire carter family. as you mentioned he was public about his struggles and without wishing to speculate too much was it a case of not getting the help he needed? i think it is a case of he did not get the help because he did not want to get the help. he said one month ago that he was going to seek help, go into treatment so that he could get custody of his son again. but he never went.

i know nick carter very well and i know that nick and his siblings tried and tried and tried and tried to get help for aaron but as the saying goes you cannot force somebody to want to get better. i do feel like society let him down. i know that the police were a regular presence at his house in lancaster california and i wish more could have been done. i wish they would have taken him to hospital for observation. i am not sure what could have happened or how things might have gone differently but i still view this as a terribly tragic outcome. focusing on positive memories he was well—known because of his family and his brother in particular but he was a shining star in his own light. tell us about some of his career highs. he sold many albums, singles and was an actor as well. memorably appeared

on an episode of lizzie mcguire with his ex—girlfriend, hilary duff and she said something that really struck my heart and resonated. she took to instagram a little while ago and said, publicly that for aaron i am deeply sorry that life was so hard for you and that you had to struggle in front of the whole world. he had charm that was absolutely effervescent, and boy did my teenage self love you deeply. sending love to your family at this time, rest easy. actually, just minutes ago the twin, angel, aaron's sister, took to her instagram to release a statement, opening up for the first time about his untimely passing. lottery fever is gripping the united states as people wait to hear who has gripped the biggest powerballjackpot hear who has gripped the biggest powerball jackpot the world has ever seen, a record—breaking $1.6 billion,

the draw was made just under an hour and a half ago, these are the numbers. the powerball was 20, and after more than three months, this enormous cash prize type the previous record of $1.59 billion split between three powerball players in 2016, and those odds of matching all six numbers, according to powerball, they are one in 292 million, and no winner has been announced yet, and it could take days for want to come forward. before we go, have a look at this, and chilean tv presenter was laid on air when a parrot landed on his shoulder and stole his phone. he was talking about the rise in robberies in the local area when it happened. the crew chased the parrot, and the parrot eventually dropped the

earphone eventually. never work with children or animals, as they say! you can reach me on twitter — i'm @richpreston. more from all of us here in london, thanks for watching, goodbye. hello. a bit more sunshine around for many as we go through sunday, but it won't be completely dry day by any means. we'll see plenty of showers around and for one or two, a particularly wet morning. we've got low pressure that is creeping in ever closer off the atlantic and here it is on the shorts. around that, we are going to see strengthening winds pushing to the west. but before it properly arrives, the weather front that was with us yesterday today has developed a little bubble on it. and into the start of sunday, could produce some very heavy rain. very mild conditions towards the southeast corner. cooler elsewhere some clear skies and one or two showers. let's focus on the first part of the morning.

channel islands through to set these england and parts of east anglia with the heavy rain, some of or seen a months worth of rain is the last five days. it could be some further flooding around. that rain eventually easing. away from that though, showers mainly in the west to begin with will develop a bit more widely and push their way northwards and eastwards. there will be some spots of northeast england that stay dry and brightening up to scotland into the afternoon with more in the way of drier weather. winds will be picking up throughout the day, particularly towards the southwest where you could see winds gusting in excess of a0 miles an hour through the afternoon and temperatures the degree or so up on saturday's values, ten to 15 degrees. now as you go through sunday evening and overnight, we all see the showers continue with an area of low pressure pushing its way towards the northwest of scotland, strongest winds across the west and perhaps some longer spells of rain to take us into monday morning. it shouldn't be too chilly at night though as we go through the night into monday morning, thanks to the strength of that breeze which is coming in from a mild south—westerly direction but it will bring plenty of cloud around on monday. a scattering of showers again just about for anyone, but not a huge amount of sunshine between them and even though we haven't got

the sunshine, temperatures continue to climb under those southwest winds around 13 to 16 degrees. later in the day though, the winds really will be starting to pick up. 40, 50, 60 mile an hour gusts possible out towards the west. those winds strengthen even further as we go through monday night as this weather front pushes its way eastwards. one low pushes out and another one approaches from the west as we go through the coming week. but this next one is going to be dragging our air all the way from the mid—atlantic. so, the second half of the week, will continue to see those temperatures climb. so, after a rather chilly weekend, there will be temperatures around normal for this week ahead, temperatures will climb but as high pressure builds into the south and east, there will be more in the way of dry weather. see you soon.

this is bbc news. the headlines: with just a couple of days to go until the us midterm elections, president biden and barack obama have hit the campaign trail in philadelphia in a final effort to win votes in the critical contest, while donald trump has held his own republican rally in pennsylvania. iran has admitted supplying what it calls "a limited number" of drones to russia, but iranian state media has said there's "no evidence" they've been used in ukraine. president zelensky has called on tehran to come clean about the extent of its involvement in the conflict. british police say an attack on an immigration processing centre in dover last sunday was a terrorist incident. authorities believe andrew leak, who is thought to have killed himself

after the attack last sunday, was motivated by an extreme right—wing ideology.