live from washington, this is bbc news. scientists warn that global temperatures could breach a key limit within the next four years. prince harry's spokesperson says he and meghan were involved in a "near catastrophic car chase", while police say there were no reported collisions or injuries. presidentjoe biden says he is confident about reaching a deal with republican leaders to avert a us debt default. i'm sumi somaskanda. we start with some breaking news tonight — the wall streetjournal is reporting that deutsche bank will pay $75 million to settle a class—action lawsuit brought

against the company for faciliating financierjefrey epstein�*s sex—trafficking ring. a woman listed anonoymously as jane doe in court papers filed the suit last year — on behalf of herself and other accusers. she alleged deutsche bank did business with epstein for five years — while knowing he was using money in his bank accounts to further his sex—trafficking activity. the lawsuit alleged the bank ignored red flags including payments to numerous young women. epstein took his own life in a federaljail in new york in 2019 — while awaiting trail on sex—trafficking charges. the journal reports the settlement is expected to compensate dozens of epstein�*s accusers. in a statement to the newspaper, a spokesman for the bank said: "in recent years deutsche bank has made considerable progress inremedying a number of past issues." according to thejournal�*s sources, the bank did not admit any wrongdoing as part of this settlement.

this information has not been verified by the bbc but we will bring you more information when we do so. we start with a stark warning from scientists on climate change — the world will almost certainly experience its hottest year on record within the coming years. they also say that a key temperature threshold, a rise in global temperature by 1.5 degrees celsius above pre—industrial levels, is likely to be breached for the first time. our climate editor justin rowlatt has more details. rising temperatures thanks to global warming are one reason but we are also seeing a rise —— change in a crucial weather system in the pacific ocean called el nino. for the last few years, winds blowing along the equator have been stronger than normal, pushing warmer water towards the coast of asia and helping deep, cold water well up on the coast of the americas. this phase is known as la nina,

and is associated with below average global temperatures. we are now moving into the el nino phase, where winds are weaker which means warm water spreads across the pacific. now, that tends to increase global temperatures by about 0.2 celsius on average. that does not sound much, but it makes it almost certain, a 98% chance according to the un's weather experts, that one year in the next five will be the hottest ever recorded, and it gives us a two in three chance, 66%, that global temperatures will exceed the 1.5 celsius global warming threshold between now and 2027. sign to say this would only be temporary but is significant because going over 1.5 celsius for an extended period would lead to significantly greater climate impacts. a hotter planet will lead to stronger and more frequent catastrophic weather events — such as wildfires, like what we're seeing in western canada — with the skies turning orange.

some 90 wildfires are active in alberta. at least eight people have been killed and several are missing after heavy rains caused flooding in italy's northern emilia—romagna region. and southern europe is bracing for a summer of ferocious drought. earlier, my colleague carl nasman spoke to samantha gross — the director of energy security and climate at the brookings institution and a former us department of energy official. thank you so much forjoining us today. i want to ask you about the major takeaways in this united nations report. and first of all, researchers now saying that there is a 66% chance that we will pass the 1.5 degrees celsius global warming threshold between now and the year 2027. what would that level of warming look like for humanity? well, the one and a half degree threshold, it's not a hard and fast thing where the world falls off a cliff, but it's definitely an area where things that

are concerning to humanity become that much more likely. things like more extreme sea rise, more extreme storms, more extreme droughts and flooding, those sorts of things. and so we're not falling off a cliff, but it's definitely an area where we see these things accelerate. and that's concerning. but certainly not a cliff that we would prefer to go over, right? no, not at all. of course not. how surprised are you that we might be approaching and even passing this threshold as soon as the year 2027? that's only a few years from now. you know, i wish i could say i was surprised, but certainly not a cliff that we would prefer you know, i wish i could say i was surprised, but i'm not at all. if you look at the current level of warming that we're experiencing, we're atjust shy of 1.2 degrees celsius already. so the one and a half degree threshold is not very far away. and you also don't really see emissions going down globally. you see them going down in europe and the united states and other important markets. but more and more of

the world's emissions are coming from the developing world, especially china, and those aren't slowing down yet. so i wish i was surprised, but i'm not. this, i think, is a question that a lot of people would like to know. how difficult will it be, or could it be, if we were to cross that threshold of 1.5 degrees celsius warming, how difficult would it be to then come back, which we hope we would be able to do? well, it's something that we can do over time. if you think about the climate system as a glass that we're filling up over time, what we need to do is stop filling the glass and then at some point maybe we can remove some of that water from the glass or emissions from the atmosphere. there are ways to do that. you can pull carbon out of the atmosphere. in the oceans, you can do it through direct removal and sequestration of c02. and there are other ways to do that. but first, we have to really focus on stopping filling the glass, bringing emissions down, and then getting to the point where we can think

about going back. is the us or are any countries around the world working to take that glass and bring it down, working to not only prevent future emissions but start to even lower the amount of emissions that a country emits? 0h, we're absolutely working on lowering our emissions globally. the united states, europe and all countries, i mean, all countries in the world basically have signed on to the paris agreement at this point with different levels of goals. and so we're all working on filling the glass a lot more slowly. the problem is, is that it takes a lot of time. the energy system is a multi trillion dollar system that underlies the entire global economy. the easier parts, decarbonising the electricity sector, for instance, we're really moving along. wind and solar are some of the cheapest forms of energy there are right now. i also want to ask you about another takeaway from this report, saying that there is a 98% likelihood that at least one of the next five years, and the five year period as a whole, will be

the warmest on record. given the heat waves we've been seeing, how prepared are we and countries around the globe for those kinds of temperatures? you know, we're doing our best and we need to become more prepared, because this is our new normal. the last eight years have been the eight warmest years on record. even though we've had a la nina event for the last three years, which generally causes global cooling. and so these hot temperatures are the new norm and we need to get used to it. the challenge is, is that getting used to it for many people involves more energy use in terms of air conditioning and that sort of thing. so we need to think about designing our cities to be greener. trees in cities, for instance, help keep the surrounding area cool. everything we can, particularly those that don't involve energy use to make these high temperatures easier to tolerate. all right. samantha gross, thank you so much for your time. my pleasure. prince harry and meghan were involved in what their

spokesperson has called "a near catastrophic car chase" on tuesday night, after they had left an awards ceremony in new york. a statement on behalf of the duke and duchess of sussex — seen here leaving the event — said that the couple was quote "relentlessly pursued" by paparazzi photographers for over two hours. it also said that the incident resulted in multiple near collisions — involving other drivers, pedestrians and two police officers. meghan�*s mother was travelling with them at the time. the city's police department confirmed an incident did take place, but said there were no injuries or arrests. at a news conference, the mayor of new york city, eric adams, had this to say. i don't think there's many of us who don't recall how his mom died. and it would be horrific to lose an innocent bystander during a chase like this. and something to have happened to them as well. so i think we have to be extremely responsible. i thought that was a bit reckless and irresponsible. i would find it hard

to believe that there was a two—hour, high—speed chase. that would be... i'd find it hard to believe. but we will find out the exact duration of it. but if it's a ten minute chase, that is extremely dangerous in new york city. as prince harry and meghan tried to evade photographers, they were briefly picked up by taxi driver sukhcham singh — who spoke to reporters earlier. next thing you know, prince harry and his wife a hobby into my car. we got blocked by a garbage truck and paparazzi came and started taking pictures. there were just about to give me the location where they were going to go but then they were going to go but then they said, go back. so they were going to go but then they said, go back. 50 i they said, go back. so i drapped _ they said, go back. so i dropped them - they said, go back. so i dropped them off. - they said, go back. so i dropped them off. how| they said, go back. sol dropped them off. how were they looking? dropped them off. how were they lookin: ? , ., ., ~' dropped them off. how were they lookin: ? , ., ., ~ ., , looking? they looked nervous. i think they _ looking? they looked nervous. i think they were _ looking? they looked nervous. i think they were being _ looking? they looked nervous. i think they were being chased i think they were being chased the whole day or something, they were pretty nervous. but they were pretty nervous. but

the security guard was on it. they described it as a near catastrophic event. | they described it as a near catastrophic event.- catastrophic event. i don't thinkthat's_ catastrophic event. i don't think that's true. - live now to our north america correspondent, nomia iqbal, in new york. what is the latest you can tell us about what happened? well, 'ust us about what happened? well, just outside _ us about what happened? well, just outside the _ us about what happened? well, just outside the ballroom - us about what happened? -ii just outside the ballroom where the event took place last night, where the duchess of sussex was honoured by this event for what they described as her work empowering women and girls, just before 10pm when she and prince harry along with her mother left the ballroom to make their way home, and their description of thisjourney as near home, and their description of this journey as near fatal has made headlines across the world, but there are other people speaking, as we heard there from the new york city mayor and from the taxi driver

where the recounting of events is different, there are some conflicting reports about exactly what happened. all we really have so far is that prince harry's spokesman�*s statement which was released earlier today. statement which was released earliertoday. it's statement which was released earlier today. it's worth pointing out that we don't know where the sussexes are, by the way, we think they might be still in new york where they could have headed home to california but it's worth pointing out that every is —— and ever since they stepped down from royal duties they have been very keen to take charge of their own narrative. we have seen that with the netflix documentaries. they may release another statement in response to all the different headlines that we are seeing at the moment where there are some who are challenging their narrative.— who are challenging their narrative. , ., narrative. tell us about their security system _ narrative. tell us about their security system because - narrative. tell us about their| security system because that has also been a contentious issue. ~ , ., ., issue. we understand that the security they _ issue. we understand that the security they have _ issue. we understand that the security they have here - issue. we understand that the security they have here in - issue. we understand that the security they have here in the | security they have here in the us is privately paid. when they

stepped down from royal duties, they lost police protection and that was a huge contentious issue for prince harry, saying it created an unacceptable risk for him and his family and he is currently suing britain's home office, he did offer to pay for protection from the london met police backed lawyers from the home office said that wealthy people cannot buy police protection so that is an ongoing issue for he and his wife are suing several british newspapers for lots of different allegations including phone hacking as well as various different intrusions of privacy. this is almost a lifelong mission for prince harry, he's been very open about that, he wants to push back on the media harassment and the paparazzi he says he has faced his whole life and also which he blames for the death of his mother in 1997. thank you.

around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. on a busy a1 in north yorkshire in march this year, police cameras recorded jason ryder driving in poor conditions at speeds of 140 miles an hour. the police pursuit — which began in harrogate — lasted 17 minutes, and ended near gatenby off the a1 when police deployed a stinger device to stop the speeding car. vehicle stung, vehicle stung. york crown court heard how jason ryder had committed the offence on the very same day he'd been disqualified from driving. he'd appeared before harrogate magistrates in connection with a previous driving offence — but instead of surrendering his licence, he left court and got straight into his car. in court, ryder was sentenced to ten months in prison — and again disqualified from driving for 22 months.

the judge described his driving as appalling, and said it was extraordinary that nobody was killed. you're live with bbc news. us presidentjoe biden is on his way to japan as he embarks on a trip to the g7 summit. he originally planned to visit papua new guinea and australia as well, but will instead return early for high—stakes negotiations over the us debt ceiling. the gathering in hiroshima takes place amid rising tensions between the west and china, particularly over taiwan. during the summit, japan's prime minister, fumio kishida, and his british counterpart, rishi sunak, will sign a new defence pact to deploy a uk carrier strike group to the indo—pacific in 2025. (pres)0n those debts talks — the white house and congressional republicans have appointed a new set of negotiators, injecting fresh hope into talks to raise the debt limit. kevin mccarthy — the speaker said a deal with was �*possible'

by the end of the week. without a deal, the us could default on its $31.4tr debt as soon as the 1st ofjune. earlier i spoke with ed 0'keefe, senior white house and political correspondent at cbs news. so let's talk first about the g7, about the g7, because president biden�*s cutting his trip short. he was supposed to go to papua new guinea and australia, and he's coming back to handle the debt crisis, as wejust mentioned. and this part of the trip was seen as a way for the us to reaffirm its commitment to the region. is the white house worried that key allies might not respond well to the fact that he did cut this trip short? well, we know they haven't responded well already. the australians — while they're putting on a good public face about it — expressed a lot of concern that the president was upending what was supposed to be a very big dealfor australia to host this meeting of what's called the quad, which is the united states, australia, india and japan, who've been working together on intelligence and national—security issues. instead, the g7 will dominate the weekend, but now there's plans for the president to make sure he takes time to meet with the australian leader, with india's modi and with others, and they may try to have an informal gathering of the quad injapan as opposed to in australia.

so the pride of australia perhaps is a little shaken by this and, yes, it means he's not physically going to a part of the world where the united states is very concerned. china's influence is growing too much. the hope was to have him go there and say, look, the united states is a close partner economically, politically, militarily. now, he can't do that. the one thing australia does get out of this, however, is a state visit here in washington. 0k. so they'll get all the pomp and circumstance at some point here in dc. and president biden�*s — the white house has certainly said there's a reason he's coming back — to deal with the debt crisis, of course. right. and now the president has appointed three trusted advisors to work on a deal with republican garret graves. they're all trusted parties on capitol hill. what should we expect for them in order to avoid a default byjune1st? so these are essentially the wingmen for the two guys that have to cut the deal. steve ricchetti, who you see there on the left, is perhaps the most critical here when it comes to the president, because he's worked with him for about 20 years off and on, and has known him longer than that, knows the president's pressure points, knows

where he'd say yes and no, and has also been a key interlocutor with congressional republicans and with moderate democrats in his own party that he's going to need for this deal. shalanda young, the budget director, is another good example of somebody who's critical here and has the trust of everybody, because she used to help write these massive trillion—dollar spending bills on behalf of democrats in the lower house, and so she knows the politics of that chamber while also serving for the president. but garret graves is a good example of the kind of republican now who works alongside the republican speaker and says, no, this is what we really need, this is where we're willing to compromise. and as somebody, frankly, who is a lot more unfamiliar to this white house — they're not used to working with this more conservative and younger generation of republicans. so the next few days are critical. so let's talk now about the nuts and bolts of what this deal could look like. we know democrats and republicans are split over this issue of work requirements... yeah. ..which require low—income americans to work in order to receive government benefits. the president did show some

room for compromise today. let's play a clip of what he said. well, i'm not... i'm not going to accept any work requirement that's going to impact on medical health needs of people. i'm not going to accept any work requirements that go much beyond what is already — what i... i voted years ago for the work requirements that exist. so it seems like the democrats and republicans are still far apart on this issue. where is there room for a deal? well, and if he's for work requirements, there are certain liberal members of his party who are not. yeah. so even if he does say some yes to something, it will be critical to see, what specific programme does it affect, and who specifically might have to work more — or at least prove that they're doing so — and how big a percentage do they make up of the beneficiaries? there are democrats who say there shouldn't be any requirements on this at all, but this is a president who understands we're in divided government. he has no problem making deals with the other side as long as everybody can come out a winner in one way or another. but it's an example of how

far they still have to go on the details. i want to ask you about one workaround that some democrats on the left side of the party are urging president biden to take — which is invoking the 14th amendment of the constitution. it reads in part — so our viewers know — "the validity of the public debt of the us authorized by law shall not be questioned". could this actually work? it warms my heart to know that the bbc is even discussing elements of the us constitution. but in this way, in fact, it's a really relevant thing because the president has argued he could very well try to invoke this. and essentially what it says there in law is, if the us has debt, it has to be paid off. and so the argument that some have made is, he should invoke it and spark a court case that essentially gets the courts to say yeah! that's always been the case since the 14th amendment was passed, and all these political debates have been just that — silly political exercises that weren't necessary because it's already written into the constitution that if you've got debt, you just have to pay it off. very quick last question — in 30 seconds if you can. this is all coming, of course, as the 2024

campaign is heating up. yeah. how does this play into the campaign? well, it allows the president, if things go well in the next few days, to demonstrate that he can work on both domestic and foreign matters at the same time. those are two bedrock principles of his original campaign, and ones he hopes to make again. republicans are doing everything they can to make him look weak, to force him to compromise with them. they may succeed in this round, but he's still got more than a year to go until the election. we'll see how long memories are. ed 0'keefe, senior white house and political correspondent at cbs news, it's always great to have you on the show. thank you. good to be here. european leaders met a nice and to discuss a number of issues around the war in ukraine. james landale reports. clearly, momentum has been building in support of the idea of western countries giving ukraine more planes. something that ukraine has been asking for since the beginning of the war last year. up until this point, there has been a huge reluctance by western powers to do this for

a variety of reasons. one is that overwhelmingly they said that giving ukraine aircraft would be seen as an aggressive move by moscow and moscow would escalate accordingly. and consider that the west was a direct participant in the war. but at the moment, there are signals that western countries are thinking this is the right option now. you have yesterday, the british and the dutch saying we will support what the prime minister has called a international coalition to support the idea of f—16 aircraft are being given to ukraine. these are the aircraft that have been around a long time, they are fighter jets that can be used in the sky and attacking things in the ground. crucially, lots of them, but nobody is going to move until they get the provision of the americans.

—— the permission. the moment the americans are saying no. when the european leaders are talking of an international coalition, they are talking about getting as much european support and saying to the americans that we might have to move on this. at the moment the americans are still saying no. this is the titanic as she has never been seen before, thanks to new mapping technology. 0ur science editor rebecca morelle has been given an exclusive look. nearly 4,000 metres down, in the murky depths of the atlantic — the titanic. but cameras can only ever show us tantalising snapshots, never the whole ship. now, a new scan has revealed the wreck as it's never been seen before. an exact full—sized replica. to appreciate its scale, we've superimposed it in the london stadium, where the olympics was held. the titanic was simply colossal, and this 3d scan reveals the wreck in its entirety. for the first time, we have an exact digital copy of the real thing.

and what you see here is what's lying on the floor of the north atlantic ocean. not only can we get an idea of the ship's enormous size, this scan also gives us a close—up view of its smallest details. this is the boat deck. a gaping hole provides a glimpse inside, where the grand staircase once stood. and here's what's left of the captain's bridge, covered in fragile stalactites of rust. remarkable details are emerging too, like this serial number on a propeller. the resolution is phenomenal. this will allow scientists, historians to reunderstand how the titanic came to be where it is. and it's also a snapshot in time. the titanic was scanned using submersibles. they took 700,000 images from every angle to build up an exact 3d reconstruction. the wreck is in two parts. the bow is still instantly

recognisable, more than 100 years after it sank. 800 metres away, the stern, though, is a chaotic mess of metal. it collapsed as it corkscrewed into the sea floor. the titanic�*s been extensively explored, but there are still fundamental questions. we really don't understand the character of the collision with the iceberg. we don't even know if she hit it along the starboard side, as shown in all the movies. she might have grounded on the iceberg. and this photogrammetry model is one of the first major steps to driving the titanic story toward evidence—based research and not speculation. the sea is eating away at the wreck and time is running out to find out what happened on that night in 1912 when more than 1,000 lives were lost. but the scan now freezes the wreck in time. the hope is titanic may yet give up its secrets. rebecca morelle, bbc news.

stay with us here on bbc news. hello there. there's going to be some more warm sunshine at times on thursday. could be one of two showers breaking out, mind you. and later in the day, we're going to find this cloud coming in from the atlantic to bring a little rain into the northwest. right now, though, we've got this stream of cloud moving down from the north. a lot of it, though. this quite thin, high, cloud, but with more cloud around, temperatures will start at nearer nine or ten degrees early on thursday. and from that cloud, there could still be a little light rain or drizzle in scotland. now, eastern parts of scotland should become drier and brighter. and in northern ireland there'll be some sunshine in the morning before that band of cloud brings that line of rain. for england and wales, there'll be some sunny spells developing, but as it warms up a bit we could trigger a few showers through the midlands, some eastern parts of england. further west it's likely to stay dry, and we may well find the highest temperature around worcestershire

and herefordshire, but it's still only 20 degrees. nothing to get too excited. we normally see temperatures a bit higher than that at this time of the year. and generally those numbers are going to be 17 or 18 celsius, once again, like wednesday. there is that weather front though, bringing that line of rain into scotland and northern ireland that's going to then push its way down into england and wales on friday. and that cloud may start to thicken up and bring with it a few more showers. and those could be a little heavy as they push into the midlands towards the south east of england. following on from that, we've got more sunshine to come for scotland and northern ireland, though the cloud will build up a bit and spread out. but temperatures are likely to reach 18 degrees in glasgow, the same as the temperature there in plymouth, and it'll be warm in the sunshine. for scotland and northern ireland as we head into the weekend though, there's likely to be more cloud coming in from the atlantic, a little bit more breezy in northern scotland. high pressure will keep it dry, though, for england and wales and there'll be a lot of sunshine around as well. but more cloud for scotland and northern ireland,

just about thick enough to give a little light rain or drizzle here and there. no great amounts by any means. and we've still got temperatures of 18 degrees in the central belt. in the sunshine for england and wales, temperatures could hit 20 or 21 celsius. and there's more sunshine to come for england and wales on sunday. more of a breeze in the southeast. should actually brighten up with some sunshine in south east scotland. other parts of scotland and northern ireland again seeing more cloud, not much rain coming from that cloud. and where you have the sunshine, it'll be warm again.

oh, yes, hello. oh, my goodness, hello! the shy schoolboy who became a global celebrity. sir richard branson is a very british bundle of contradictions. the dyslexic who set up a student magazine. the record label founder who didn't listen to music. the �*60s hippie who became a multibillionaire. today he's got his own island, and his brand has dozens of companies to its name, from virgin atlantic to galactic.