live from washington, this is bbc news. the us supreme court blocks new restrictions set by lower courts on a widely used abortion pill. as earth day approaches, a new climate report paints a dire picture of our planet. and secrets beneath the sea. a previously unknown coral reef is discovered after thousands of years. hello. i'm sumi somaskanda. we start here in washington. the us supreme court has ruled in favour of maintaining access to an abortion pill, while a legal appeal against its use is still considered. the decision temporarily blocks a lower court's ruling in texas that restricted the use of drug. the drug, mifepristone, is used in more than half of all abortions in the us.

this decision is a victory supporters of abortion rights, as it defends broad access to this pill and for the biden administration. president biden has responded: with me is our correspondent, jess parker. this ruling essentially keeps access to mifepristone as it was, open access to mifepristone. what happens now? it is a status quo ruling for now. as you say, access to mifepristone as it was remains, that means women can use it to ten weeks of pregnancy. a lower

court ruling had looked at reducing that to seven and women will continue to be able to use medicines, three consultations get the drug order by mail. it is a drug thatis order by mail. it is a drug that is used by many women in the us and over half of abortions. it is seen as a very significant decision by the supreme court stopped but it is a temporary decision by the supreme court. picking it back to a lower court will now hear it over the coming months and it over the coming months and it could end up back with the supreme courtjustices in some months to come. 50 supreme courtjustices in some months to come.— months to come. so this is certainly — months to come. so this is certainly not _ months to come. so this is certainly not over. - months to come. so this is certainly not over. if- months to come. so this is certainly not over. if you . certainly not over. if you could end up back at the supreme court, what did today's ruling tell us about where these justices stand on the use of this bill?— of this bill? some people may think this is — of this bill? some people may think this is the _ of this bill? some people may think this is the court - of this bill? some people may think this is the court that - think this is the court that overturned roe v. wade, opening up overturned roe v. wade, opening up the doorfor a overturned roe v. wade, opening up the door for a state to curtail or ban abortion, a conservative court by majority. interestingly, in this ruling today only two justices have publicly dissented. one is very

vague about why they dissented, they just say they deny the application for the block. another goes into some more detail. but legal experts i've spoken to, they think this is a big win for the food and drug administration that wanted to maintain the approval of mifepristone, but this was a very different type of decision to roe v. wade, roe v. wade gade gave powers to stay is to do as they wished on this issue, this would have been a ruling that affected the entire united states and it would have been a very overnight change as well. so a lot of people are spoken to, or we don't exactly know what's going on in the minds of the justices, this was a different type of decision to roe v. ~ ., g , a different type of decision to roev. roe v. wade. just quickly, remind us _ roe v. wade. just quickly, remind us why _ roe v. wade. just quickly, remind us why access - roe v. wade. just quickly, remind us why access to i remind us why access to mifepristone is important. fits i mifepristone is important. as i sa , it is mifepristone is important. as i say. it is used _ mifepristone is important. as i say, it is used in _ mifepristone is important. as i say, it is used in the _ mifepristone is important. " i say, it is used in the majority of abortions, as opposed to surgical procedures, it is but a me too drug regimen, the other drug used in that regimen could be used on its own but it is to have more severe

side—effects women using it, it is the most commonly formed type of abortion in the us perform. there is a broader issue about some people questioning whether it was right federaljudge in texas, right federal judge in texas, whether saul right federaljudge in texas, whether saul began, could potentially overturn a drug that has been used for over 20 years. that has been used for over 20 ears. . ., , ,., that has been used for over 20 ears. g ,, years. our correspondent jess parker, thank _ years. our correspondent jess parker, thank you _ years. our correspondent jess parker, thank you very - years. our correspondent jess parker, thank you very much i years. our correspondent jess l parker, thank you very much for sitting across the story for us. a new climate report from the world meteorological organization shows 2022 was a year of extremes. here are just some of the findings from its annual state of the planet report. global sea levels hit a record high last year, due in part to melting glaciers and warming oceans. and sea levels are rising twice as fast compared tojust three decades ago. the planet continues to heat up. in fact, the last eight years were the warmest since reliable records began. and extreme climate events — from droughts to floods — have led to some 95 million people being displaced around the world. earlier, my colleague carl nasman spoke with jay inslee, the governor of the us state of washington, about that climate report and what needs to be done to fast track climate

action in the country. thank you so much forjoining us and taking the time. i want to start with the new report coming from the world meteorological organisation. it is essentially a report cut and it seems the world are failing as populations around the world are gravely impacted by extreme weather, among other things. what is the most urgent change of the us should make right now that it is not doing? well, on a great beautiful earth day i will focus on some of the things going on and then i will answer your question. i think america is in the game now. i am delighted we have a vigorous federal response. we have $360 billion of clean energy investment. our states are moving forward. i lead a group of 26 states who are even going faster than the federal government so if there is a lot going on but we have to put pedal to the metal. the meteorological report is very clear.

the world has to dramatically accelerate this transition to a non—fossil fuel based economy and that is a massive transition. the whole world needs to go faster and there are many places we need to go faster. starting with the electrification of our transport system. thankfully many of our states are going faster, mine included, which have made a commitment to rid ourselves of fossil fuel based automobile and buses and we are moving in that direction very fast. but we have to move faster in residential heating, industrial heating, transportation infrastructure — all of those things need to go faster because there is no other option. it is a beautiful earth day and i want to keep it that way. some of the things that can be done on a state level but first on the national level. presidentjoe biden announcing a $1 billion pledge, requesting another $500 million to protect the amazon

ra i nfo rest. however, he is also approved a couple of big fossil fuel projects as well. it is the president living up to his campaign promises? again, iam again, i am going to focus on the positives. our nation is finally in the game under this presidency. i've been working on this for over a quarter of a century and for the first on the united states really is leading the world in my view it the carbonisation and a point to the act which has $360 million of investment which will translate to millions ofjobs in new industries from electric cars, solarfarms, batteries. my state has two of the leading battery manufacturing companies in the world. we have just played the first battery powered air plane

in world history in my state. what we're doing this built federally is accelerating dramatically that transition all across our platforms... sorry to interrupt. you mentioned the inflation reduction act but is that enough to get the us to these very lofty goals about having emissions and cutting them by 50% by the end of the decade? no, we need to be faster but the good news is we have 23 states that are moving faster. i started with governorjerry brown some time ago, 23 states moving faster than the federal government requires. we represent 60% of the us economy. the beautiful thing of our

democracy that we can have states that are the laboratories of democracy and each one is moving faster. our state, for instance, has a much more rapid decarbonisation in our transportation package, we have a clean bill, we are generating billions of dollars of money through our investment system which is going to help people, create jobs and help people get electric cars, electric charging stations. over 60% of the us economy is going faster. you get a lot of news out of washington, dc but there is better news coming out of washington state. so yes, we need to go faster but we have states leading the way and i am proud to say my state is in the van in this regard. you mentioned some of these massive changes in order to move the us in that direction in terms of cutting emissions. critics would say as we push electric vehicles, those vehicles are more expensive. some of these changes

are bringing big changes in our economy and people losing theirjobs if they are working in coal mining, for example. what would you say to those critics who say part of the country could be left behind by these changes? i think the whole nation has economic opportunities in this regard. look at what is happening in the south we have huge new investment in manufacturing plants for electric vehicles, wind power across the united states in a lot of rural areas. in most that i cannot turn over a rock weather in urban or rural areas, without finding a newjob developed in clean energy. i was in a rural area east of seattle previously great one of the worlds best apples and we are putting people to work with a new solar farm.

in moses lake, washington, another small community, we have the leading silicone battery companies going in. two huge companies. it's a base that never existed before so i think these opportunities across the state of washington and the united states... of course, governor, so to interject. you are a democratic governor in a very democratic state in washington. what about the south and politically as well. the inflation reduction act did not get a single republican vote. how can and should democrats be working across the aisle to get bipartisan support because, as we saw, president trump came in and i did all kind of climate protection president obama had put in place. how do you get the republicans and democrats working together?

first off, do it the easiest way by replacing republicans with democrats. that happened in the last election. what was supposed to be the big red tide, we replace republicans with democrats. i predict that will happen again in the next election cycle. in part because other areas of the state are now seeing the jobcreating opportunities. republicans are struggling to catch up. i look forward to the day when the republican party will get on the bandwagon but until that happens democrats are going to get elected on this issue. i got elected, one of the first governors running on climate change and i think that is happening across the united states. but i also predict over time, eventually, the republican party, when they have thousands ofjobs coming in welding electric cars, someday they will figure this out. until then, we need to be replacing it with democrats who understand the economic opportunity of this.

here in the us, president biden has recently created a new office of environmental justice and signing an executive order placing more focus on the effects of pollution and climate change on disadvantaged communities. and on thursday he pledged $1 billion to the fight against climate change. the announcement came at a virtual meeting of the world's biggest economies and biggest polluters. the money will go to developing nations adapting to the effects of global warming. he also pledged $500 million towards protecting the amazon rainforest, pending approval by congress. all of you know as well as i do, the impacts of climate change will be felt the most by those who have contributed the least to the problem, including developing nations. as large economies and large emitters, we must step up and support these economies. i spoke earlier about the united state's role in combatting climate change with two climate and energy experts, samantha gross from the brookings institution, and dr kim cobb from

brown university. you seem to agree, i saw you nodding. you do not see this as a setback but rather a trade—off? i don't and an important thing to think about is you hear people talk about this project and they talk about the overall emissions but those emissions are not necessarily additive. oil is plentiful in the world. plenty of oil and gas in the world and as long as there is oil demand, someone is going to produce that oil. when i see the emissions associated with that project, i do not see them as emissions that would not have happened at all if the project was not built, i see it as emissions that would have happened somewhere else. i am not sure it makes much of a difference from climate perspective. what we need to do is work on oil demand. and this does that. he is it important for the us is one of the worlds biggest

polluters to set an example for the rest of the world do not move forward with these big fossil fuel projects? it is a really tough question. i see your point on setting an example. i also know that we are likely to have greener, cleanerfossil fuel production than some of the other places that oil would come from. i think we need to phase out fossil fuels over i think we need to phase out fossilfuels over time. do we focus on the supply or demand side? i think it is more effective to focus on demand because that really eliminates emissions rather than transferring them somewhere else. speaking of demand, we pointed to the fact that the ukraine—russia conflict has changed the energy supply, the energy market. how much has it shifted climate goals as well? i think it is a little early to say at this point.

we are still adjusting the full geopolitical landscape of our new reality under the sustained fossil fuel and also of course food—related war that we have ongoing, and its implications for especially the eu, but also for our own energy landscape here in the united states, many communities reeling from higher energy prices, they have contributed to historic inflation, so these are really important issues that are rippling through the global economy as we speak and i think it's far too early to say what kind of impact it will have going forward in terms of national contributions to emissions reductions and of course the appetite within these countries for actually translating those commitments into laws in the books. i think it is quite notable that here in the united states we met the threat of rising energy prices and rising inflation with the inflation reduction act which makes clear that in the long—term transition away from costly energy sources related to fossil fuels that are tied to this geopolitical tension

is in our best interests from the national security perspective as well as from a longer term economic perspective, so that's what was embedded in part in the messaging around the bill, and i think the fact that it passed is a real vote of confidence around the world that we can actually move away from these interdependencies, these risky national... if i could justjump in, the question is if we really have time for that term because scientists are predicting that the world could reach a new average temperature record this or next year. what would that look like for us in our day—to—day lives? it's really important to remember it doesn't take a new global temperature record to find ourselves reeling on our heels from the modern—day impacts of fossil fuel emissions and global warming. we just have to remember what has gone on in the uk over the last year, 2022, not a record global temperature year, was actually the warmest year on record for the uk and you all know the sufferings

that occurred during the summer heatwaves and of course the winter heatwaves also, smashing records in the last several months and while we might laugh at the images of frolicking swimmers in the uk seas, we also know that these have devastating economic impacts, for example, the alpine industry and winter tourism industries, so this is a pressing reality and not just a global temperature peak that is going to be of deep concern, it's also those off years, but also with an el nino event on the horizon this winter projected to be even a weak one were likely to the planet into a record global temperature year, superseding 2016. that a dire picture but there is some good news. one last question for you, samantha. what is still needed to have emissions by the end of the decade? it's a difficult task but i think some of the new things you are seeing are helping. analysis showed the inflation reduction act might get us to about a 40% reduction

off 2005 levels for emissions, our promise to the paris agreement is a 50%—52%, you have seen since the ira passed, you have seen the biden administration proposed new vehicle efficiency rules designed to push efficiency into electrify the us vehicle fleet, transportation is our largest sector of emissions that will help us get to 50% so we will keep adding and adding and chipping away at that 50%, but we're getting closer all the time. that's at least a positive message to close our conversation on. thank you very much both forjoining us on our programme tonight. it's being called the worst april heatwave in asian history. countries like india, china, laos, and thailand are sweltering, with many experiencing record—breaking temperatures. these are pictures from thailand where temperatures in the capital city bangkok reached 45 degrees celsius, or 113 degrees fahrenheit, for the first time in history last weekend.

local officials have issued an extreme heat warning for friday, with temperatures expected to climb as high as sit degrees celsius — or 129 degrees fahrenheit. this is happening across south east asia. laos recorded 42.7 degrees celsius — nearly 109 degrees fahrenheit — believed to be the highest ever. six cities in north and east india saw temps above tilt degrees celsius, that's 111 degrees fahrenheit. and the bangladeshi capital dhaka soared above lio degrees celsius — 104 degrees fahrenheit, the hottest day there in 58 years. the bbc�*sjoao da silva has more. in recent days we have been seeing scorching heat in parts of china as well as many parts of south and southeast asia. april and may are usually the hottest months of the year in this region, before monsoon rains begin and really bring some relief, but the fact is it's unusually hot right

now, as you mentioned. we are seeing temperature records being broken in many parts and it's causing serious problems, it has already caused a number of deaths in india, a lot of people being hospitalised due to heat—related problems, there are reports of people being hospitalised due to respiratory problems in thailand where besides record temperatures, we are seeing pollution levels that are pretty high because of forest fires and crop burning, but these reports are not limited to these countries. like you mentioned, some people are describing this as the worst april heatwave in asia's history, and it's very limited as to what governments can do in terms of mitigating the impact of such a widespread phenomenon as the weather. of course in india we have heard schools have been shut in parts of the country, we also heard the authorities are advising local governments to ensure that workers, especially workers exposed to the elements like miners, farmers, construction workers, to ensure the conditions

are in place to make sure they are safe, but again, it's very limited, what governments can do to tackle this kind of problem. joelle da silva reporting there. heat waves, droughts, and changing weather can all have drastic impacts on farming. and as the climate crisis worsens, experts fear millions more people could face food insecurity and even famine. in response to this, scientists in the philippines are developing varieties of climate—resistant rice. one variety would carry genes enabling rice to survive for weeks with minimal water. other types designed could survive floods — lasting up to two weeks longer when submerged in water. some of the crops are already being planted by farmers in india, nepal and the philippines. here's one scientist's assessment. what we hope is that these ideas would lead to improved stability, reduced risk in rice cultivation, so the farmers can earn better, have less cost of

production, and will eventually lead to their income and other aspects improving in their lives. let's turn to some other climate news making headlines around the world. western balkan nations are seeing a boom in solar energy investment. new solar plants in north macedonia and bosnia could help ease a looming power crisis brought on by a shift away from coal. but some officials warn the region's electric grids are not prepared to handle the new surge in daytime—only power. europe's newest and largest nuclear power station has started generating electricity in finland. the plant will produce 30% of finland's electricity. it's massively over budget but is expected to provide electricity for the next 60 years. it's expected to provide around 14% of the country's electricity — reducing the need for imports from sweden and norway. the last three nuclear power plants in germany have shut down after 60 years. there had been a 2022 deadline, but kept running longer than planned because of the energy crisis caused by russia's invasion of ukraine.

anti—nuclear campaigners have welcomed the move, describing it as a �*triumph'. but surveys show most germans see nuclear power as cleaner than fossil fuels. before we end tonight, a bit of good news. a team of scientists has discovered a previously unknown coral reef off the coast of ecuador�*s galapagos islands. the reef is around two kilometres long and teeming with marine life. experts say the coral is thousands of years old. bbc�*s tim allman reports on the new discovery. the waters off the galapagos islands have always been full of wonder and mystery. it seems there are always more secrets to be revealed. this is a coral reef that no—one knew even existed. 400 metres below the surface, almost pristine, sitting on top of an undersea mountain.

translation: it's a pleasure to share that we have - discovered an old and vast coral reef. we have never found such extensive and develops coral reefs at this depth, and they are at their original state. which is more than can be said for other coral reefs. climate change and pollution is having a terrible impact on sea life. this mission in the pacific ocean, funded by a foundation named after charles darwin, is about exploration and protection. translation: it's important because we are talking - about pristine ecosystems that have never been studied before. our commitment is to preserve the ecosystems and the biodiversity we found here. last year ecuador expanded the marine reserve, a special protected area around the galapagos islands by 60,000 square kilometres. the authorities have discovered a new coral reef —

they are determined to keep it. tim allman, bbc news. thank you for watching bbc news. hello. a beautiful day on friday across scotland and northern ireland — quite warm, too. the coming days, however, are going to be pretty chilly in the north. a cold wind will set in even some wintry showers to come across the scottish hills, maybe even the pennines. here's the forecast for the short term — outbreaks of rain across parts of northern england and eventually reaching northern ireland by the early hours of saturday morning. some clear spells overnight, too, in scotland and the south of the country. that does mean a touch of frost, especially outside of town. but for most of us, around 5—6 degrees tonight. let's pick up on that rain in the north — you can see showers in northern england. that weather front reaching the southern uplands by lunchtime or so and certainly looking quite wet there in northern ireland, but also showers clustered in the south—west of the country.

so these areas will be pretty chilly, 10—12 degrees, the south—west, northern ireland, the south of scotland, but where the sun does pop out briefly, i think on saturday, maybe 13—15 degrees. now, talking about colder weather, there's that chilly atmosphere spreading in from the north on a east, north—easterly, so that change really starts to happen on sunday. in the north, frequent showers, really strong winds up to gale force, increasingly falling as wintry across the hills, and then elsewhere it's a real mixed bag, even a crack of thunder here and there. the temperatures on sunday will struggle again in the north — 7—8 degrees, 12 degrees expected in liverpool in the south, maybe a couple of degrees high. but the winds will be strong everywhere, so we really will start to feel that chill. and then, sunday into monday, we'll see even stronger winds and colder air spreading into parts of scotland. notice the wintry showers there across the hills spreading further southwards and really chilly along that north sea coast.

and then elsewhere, i think a mixture of sunny spells and showers. so the temperatures really disappointing on monday — six in aberdeen, eight in birmingham, maybejust about double figures there for cardiff and for london where showers are expected. and that chilly atmosphere spreads right across the uk and into the continent, into scandinavia as well on tuesday. warmer weather will reach us, but not until later next week. so, here's the outlook for this weekend. chilly mixed bag on the way, that chilly air relatively for the time of the year is with us until wednesday, then from thursday, should warm up. bye— bye.

this is bbc news. we will have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour straight after this programme. 10 seconds... people were genuinely excited about the movies and about movie stars. on oscar night, it was a big deal. it was huge. everybody went to the movies and everyone cared. that is no longer true.