bishops from around the world in rome. range of issues including blessings for lgbt catholics to be discussed. welcome to the programme. we start in the uk, and the conservative party conference, where the prime minister has announced he's scrapping a major part of one of europe's biggest infrastructure projects. rishi sunak confirmed that a key leg of the h52 high speed rail project — which would have linked the london—birmingham stretch of the line to the northern city of manchester — has been axed, due to its soaring costs. another leg to leeds had already been dropped. he pledged to reinvest every penny in other rail,

road and bus projects in the north, the midlands and across the country. the speech was widely seen as an opportunity for the prime minister to revitalise his party ahead of a general election expected next year. political editor chris mason reports. manchester this lunchtime, and the prime minister's warm—up act — his wife. rishi and i are each other's best friends, and i could not imagine being anywhere else to show my support to him. rishi sunak began by thanking her, his daughters, his parents as he drew a link between himself and margaret thatcher. this conservative party, the party of the grocer�*s daughter and the pharmacist�*s son, will always be the party of enterprise, the party of small business. he said he's taken a look at how government works since he became prime minister,

and not liked what he's seen. it isn't anger, it's an exhaustion with politics. we've had 30 years of a political system which incentivises the easy decision, not the right one. as for taxes, they will come down, he claimed, but didn't say when. and then, it was to the crux of this speech — the proposed high—speed rail line between manchester and birmingham, scrapped. i am ending this long—running saga. i am cancelling the rest of the h52 project. and in its place, we will reinvest every single penny, £36 billion, in hundreds of new transport projects in the north and the midlands, across the country. this means £36 billion of investment in the projects that will make a real difference across our nation.

applause. this would include, he promised, an extension to the west midlands metro, building a tram system in leeds, electrifying the main rail line in north wales and upgrading... the a1, the a2, the as, the m6! but there is more. and there was, but not necessarily popular, even in his own party. some conservatives hate the idea of banning things. rishi sunak wants to ban smoking for the next generation. i propose that in future, we raise the smoking age by one year every year. the debate over trans rights prompts strong feelings. the prime minister's view got one of his biggest cheers here. we shouldn't get bullied into believing that people can be any sex they want to be. they can't. a man is a man and a woman is a woman — that's just common sense. the final big policy idea in this speech was about post—16 education in england.

we will introduce the new rigorous, knowledge—rich, advanced british standard, which will bring together a—levels and t—levels into a new single qualification for our school leavers. as the speech drew towards a conclusion, there was a return to personal reflection. rishi sunak said the uk was not racist. now, i am proud to be the first british asian prime minister, but you know what? i'm even prouder that it's just not a big deal. applause. this was a speech in which the fifth prime minister in a so far 13—year run in office for the conservatives made an audacious bid to be seen as the face of change. we will be bold. we will be radical. we will face resistance, and we will meet it. be in no doubt, it is time for a change, and we are it. thank you.

applause. this was an attempt by the prime minister to revitalise, to reenergise his premiership, the grab politics by the scruff of the neck. the big question now for him is, will it improve his political prospects? last roll of the dice? well, look, we know that there's going to be a general election coming up in the fairly near future. this is a statement of intent. are we seeing rishi sunak unleashed? yes. he came in at quite a difficult time and he's been showing i the country how serious and how focused he is _ watching from his hotel room next door, this man, the conservative mayor of the west midlands, who had pleaded to save hsz. obviously i'm very disappointed that he announced that today. as you know, ifought for it to be maintained. and you've lost. i have lost. where does that leave you politically? will you carry on as mayor? i will carry on as mayor, yeah,

because i do think it is right that you should stand up, particularly when something is really important to your region. this wasn't a speech of instant crowd pleasers, but instead, ideas that will divide and provoke. it is, then, a gamble. chris mason, bbc news, in manchester. so where is the £36 billion for �*network north' actually going? our reporter, meghan owen, explains. the prime ministers said by scrapping that second part of hs two, the government will be able to save £86 billion. that will be used _ able to save £86 billion. that will be used for _ able to save £86 billion. that will be used for what - able to save £86 billion. that will be used for what he - able to save £86 billion. twat will be used for what he called network north. this is a series of transport projects across the uk. what we've been promised is railway bus and rode links across england. but

what about the money behind it? well we know that £19.8 billion will be allocated to the north, and this will be used on projects such as the new station in bradford and a new cat connection to manchester. but it won't all be used in the north. in fact the midlands will be given £9.8 billion, and this will be used on things like improving connections between 50 local stations, and that will cost £1.75 billion. and then the wider uk, there will be £6.5 billion allocated. spent on projects such as better rail routes between exeter to plymouth, we are also promised better access to dover on the a2 and the government want to keep the £2 bus fare in england. we also found out interestingly, £8.3 billion will be spent on pothole repaired. this is about 25% of

the total allocated budget. but crucially, in addition to this budget, the government will also spend £12 billion improving links between liverpool and manchester and that's not part of the network north plan. marcusjohns, a senior research fellow at the ippr north progressive policy think tank — has not supported this decision. he told me why. i'm incredibly disappointed by the decision that the prime minister took today to axe the northern part of hs2, connecting the north of england to the uk's high speed network. and after many years, six administrations, cross—party support and the backing of local and regional leaders. and this decision seems to have arrived very rapidly and taken many people by surprise to the point where it dominated the entire conference. and for a government that has said that it is committed to rebalancing the uk economy in favour of regions like the north to pull

away its flagship infrastructure piece that is due to deliver that is questionable and perhaps signals a waning of that commitment. and i think that the scattergun of local and regional transport projects that the prime minister has announced today, many of which are rehashed reheated, of which are rehashed, reheated, just don't cut the bill in terms of fixing the uk economy and rebalancing its regionally. right. and marcus, the money for the hs2 will now be used on other transport projects, including network north. what do you make of this and is this the solution to improving links across the north of england? there are parts of network north that has been announced today that at first glance do look like they are welcome solutions. but ultimately the north and the regions of the uk, like the midlands as well, shouldn't be forced to choose between having good local public transport and regional links and being connected to the rest of the country. i think when we look

internationally and i'm sure international observers are looking at the uk in bewilderment at the inability to build a high speed rail line when many other countries are getting on with it and developing local transport networks to the north should not be in this position of having to choose between the two. and we know that both of those things, national and local links, are fundamental to strong, resilient local economies that deliver prosperity. and that is what the government have said they want to do for all regions. and i don't think the announcements today are set to deliver that, not least because so many of them are things we've already heard. in the us, republicans in the lower chamber of congress — the house of representatives — are already vying to become the next speaker of the house, just a day after a group of hardline rebels ousted the previous incumbent kevin mccarthy in a historic vote. it's left the republican party in disarray, and a vacuum right at the top of us government, as our

washington correspondent gary o'donoghue explains. the office of speaker of the house of the united states house of representatives is hereby declared vacant. and with that, kevin mccarthy's nine—month term as speaker was over. the final straw — his decision to do a deal with democrats to keep the government open. he didn't hesitate to point the finger of blame at the eight republicans who ousted him, led by matt gaetz, his nemesis. look, you all know matt gaetz. you know, it was personal. it had nothing to do about spending. the unprecedented removal of the speaker has left congress in chaos. so much so, they've decided to take a week off while they work out what to do next. one rebel, though, was unrepentant. this was the right call. the american people deserve a leader and a speaker- who will tell the truth, and so too does the i international community. they need to know that the next speaker is going to be _ honest and won't go back on theirword. _ with republicans focusing firmly on themselves, the question of funding

for ukraine, which congress controls, remains undecided. it does worry me. and... but i know there are a majority of members of the house and senate in both parties who have said that they support funding ukraine, house speaker. the president was also asked if he had any advice for the next speaker. he could barely keep a straight face. that's above my pay grade. while some candidates have begun the frantic process of gathering support, others have suggested an extraordinary alternative option, given the speaker doesn't have to be a member of the house. a lot of people have been calling me that, speaker. all i can say is we'll do whatever is best for the country. congress has only agreed to fund the government for another six weeks with republicans at one another�*s throats.

extending that has now become much harder. gary o'donoghue, bbc news. staying in the us, a judge overseeing donald trump's civil fraud trial has pounded his fists in frustration with the former president's lawyers, for what he called the ridiculous cross—examination of a witness. mr trump was back in court in new york for the third day of his trial, which threatens to dismantle his business empire. he, his two adult sons, and the wider trump organisation, are accused of gaining financial advantage by giving misleading valuations of their properties. at least ten people have been killed and more than 80 missing after a glacial lake overflowed triggering catastrophic flooding in the state of sikkim. more than 20 indian soldiers were among those missing in the flooding. a hydro power dam has also been breached. our south asia regional editor anbarasan ethirajan has the latest. videos on social media show how catastrophic the flooding was. it was washing away everything on its way. a number of key bridges connecting this mountainous state have been washed away.

and more importantly, a key hydropower dam was breached. now, what the authorities are saying is that because this is a glacial lake at the height of about 5,000 metres sea level, and it overflowed. and because of the impact, all the water suddenly emptied from this lake and the entire water, the power of this water carrying all the boulders and whatever one was on the way, it hit the hydropower dam. it breached and it happened at the middle of the night. so that did not give time for many people living along this river, on the banks of this river to escape. now we are hearing that dozens of people are still missing, including 20 indian soldiers and one of them was rescued late in the evening. and the impact, the economic impact has been severe because many houses were damaged. and the capital of this province of sikkim state, gangtok, has been cut off by road because the main national highway has also been breached. so the authorities are still

carrying out search operations for those missing. right. sikkim also is fairly popular with tourists now, and we've seen a spate of natural disasters in india of late. what are officials saying in terms of climate change triggered incidents? so this particular one, they're talking about the cloudburst, which means on the one hand, you have excessive amount of rain falling at the same time in one single place. and in the himalayan region. what we have been seeing is that the glacial lakes are filling up fast because the glaciers are melting. so the water level, the water content has been expanding and unable to hold this amount of water. then this kind of breach happens. what we witnessed in uttarakhand state further west a couple of years ago that saw torrential rainfall as well as this water gushing, taking away small towns and villages and this kind of phenomenon they are witnessing for the past few years. and also the environmentalists

are now questioning what is the purpose of having these huge hydropower dams in an ecologically sensitive himalayan region. and they are now studying and they are advising government just because for the sake of development, you cannot go and build these things in these areas like in the himalayas. staying in india — campaigners say tuesday's police raids on the homes of prominentjournalists are an attempt by the government to "muzzle" free speech. the founder of news website newsclick has been arrested under an anti—terror law as part of an investigation into its funding. human rights campaigners have called it a "ruthless crackdown" against independent journalists. ministers have insisted police are simply doing theirjob. the co—ordinated raids at 30 locations were some of the largest on india's media in recent years. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news. let's look at some other stories making news.

police are investigating possible corporate manslaughter at the hospital where child serial killer lucy letby worked. the 33—year old former nurse, was found guilty in august of murdering seven babies and attempting to kill six others at the countess of chester hospital. cheshire police said the latest investigation was in its early stages. laurence fox has been sacked by gb news after an outcry about comments he made on air about a female journalist. the former actor and political activist sparked controversy last week when he asked what "self—respecting man" would "climb into bed" with ava evans. fox made the comments while appearing as a contributor on dan wootton's show. a murder investigation has been launched after a man was attacked and killed in sunderland by what police believe to be an american xl bully dog. the man who died has been named as 54—year—old ian langley. police say the dog was killed to protect the public and a 44—year—old man

has been arrested. you're live with bbc news. catholic church leaders from around the world have gathered in rome for the month—long synod, which will consider questions rangingf rom the role of women, ranging from the role of women, priestly celibacy and blessings for lgbt catholics. for the first time, women will be able to vote at the meeting, along with others — normally this is a privilege reserved only for bishops. the vatican has been preparing for the synod for two years by seeking catholics' views on the future of the church. the organisation catholic women speak commissioned a report canvassing the views of over 17 thousand catholic women around the world. on international women's day this year that report was presented to pope francis by one of its authors, tracy mcewan. shejoined me earlier today to tell more about their research. we conducted the survey for the

catholic roman speak network, and it is the largest survey of catholic women ever surveyed. and i guess the large number of responses came as a bit of a surprise, but also not because pope francis had encouraged people all around the world to contribute to dialogue for the synod process. and i think the large number of responses was largely catholic women, you know, wanting their voice heard in this synod process. and how important would you say is it that this synod in rome will allow women to vote for the first time? i think it's really highly significant. the women who completed the survey, you know, had a really strong sense of catholic identity. you know, nine out of ten of them said that their catholic identity was really important to them, but they also had, like really quite diverse lived experiences of catholicism. and even though they that that lived experience reflected the cultural context which they were placed around the world, we saw that there was a sense of harm and they a lot of women felt

that they'd been silenced in the church. so i think it's really important that some really important things that are happening at this synod, you know, that there's 70 lay members which include lay voting members, which includes, i think there's about 56 or 36 women or something like that who are able to vote for the first time. but there are also some notable absence. we're not seeing any lgbt people, openly lgbt people voting at the at this at the synod itself. right. and think we also found that... sorry. your survey also found younger women in the church were found to be more conservative on issues. how did you see that as well? and yeah, that was really interesting. that was younger women in western english speaking countries. so countries like australia, the us and the uk. there was this trend that young

women were more conservative, that when we removed those western english speaking countries from the sample, that same trend wasn't present. so it was something that was influenced by the high number of respondents from western english speaking countries. and it was really prominent and somewhat surprising to us. but then i think when you look at some of the cultural changes that are happening in the church with, you know, less people, less young people in those countries in attending church, it might not be so surprising. let's take a look at some other stories in the headlines... european union leaders have welcomed an agreement between member states on asylum and irregular migration. the pact on migration and asylum seeks to relieve the pressure on gateway countries such as italy and greece, by relocating some migrants to other eu states. countries not wanting to accept their share will be required to pay other nations

to do so. a kenyan hospital worker caught by the bbc trying to sell a baby has been sentenced to 25 years injail. fred leparan, who worked at nairobi's mama lucy kibaki hospital, was filmed accepting $2,500 dollars, or 2000 pounds to sell a baby boy under the hospital's care. he was arrested in 2020 and found guilty of child more than 200 items belonging to the late sir roger moore are being auctioned today at bonhams in london. the items include one of the costumes worn by the actor when he first played james bond in live

and let die — with the sale taking place exactly 50 years since the film was released in 1973. celestina olulode went along for a preview. daring, dangerous, and yet irresistibly suave. the late sir roger moore as james bond in the 1985 hit a view to a kill. it's a role he would play more than any other actor. a total of seven times. and this is one costume his son geoffrey remembers well. well, i was there with him when he wore it on set and i worked on the film too. not many people know that. but in his, in his contract, he wasn't allowed to ski in case of injury. and here he is in the film, jumping off mountains with a parachute and skiing. so once he was able to, it was, you know, a kid in a candy

store, you just couldn't get him off the skis. it's a collection that includes a hollywood hall of fame plaque, lamborghini skis, and the first item of clothing roger wore as bond. bond girl susie vana remembers his humour. what's happened? where are you going? it was just the most fun ever. he's so funny, so charming. but, james, i need you. so does england. i'm actually a little bit distressed to find there are no red underpants, because that's what he wore when we did our love scene together! and for collectors, there's a number of limited edition items. so this watch was created for the 50th anniversary of the bond franchise. i'm curious, how much is it expected to go for? well, we've got an estimate of £20,000 to £30,000 and we'll

see how it goes on the day. we the auction will take place at bonhams, central celestina olulode, bbc news. that's all for now — stay with bbc news. you can find much more on our bbc news website as well, thank you so much for watching. hello. some of you may be forgiven for thinking that summer has returned this weekend. yes, for some of you, the weather is set to get a lot warmer. but before you get there, at the moment, cloud is thickening to our west and we have rain on the way as well for quite a few. now we're starting to see rain edge into northern ireland. that's going to be turning steadier and heavier over the next few hours, but some patches of rain also for the south—west of scotland, the north—west of both england and wales. with extensive cloud around, it's a mild start to thursday

morning, with temperatures into double figures widely. but across the northern half of scotland with some clearer skies here — we're starting on a chilly note. now, through thursday, this low pressure is the system that's bringing the rain. so it's going to be quite windy. you can see some fairly tightly packed isobars there. the rain at its heaviest in the morning across northern ireland. that wetter weather then swings across scotland, northern england, wales and some damp weather too, for the midlands for a time, east anglia and southern parts of england probably staying dry until after dark with some bright spells coming through the cloud. and for many areas of the uk, temperatures are running above average. now eventually you might see a little bit of rain thursday evening trickling down across parts of southern england and east anglia, but it won't really amount to very much. on into friday's forecast, we've got another zone of rain pushing into western scotland. the rain now clearing further southwards as this ridge of high pressure starts to build in and that should mean that the weather becomes increasingly dry. there'll be a bit more sunshine to go around and those

temperatures are creeping up — 22 in london, while the average for this time of the year in the capital is 16 degrees. now, the process of that high pressure really starting to flex its muscles continues into the weekend. pushing the band of rain ever further northwards across scotland where it could be quite wet across northern areas of scotland on saturday. otherwise, lots of sunshine around and those temperatures climbing, well, we could see highs of 26, maybe a 27 this weekend in the very warmest areas. certainly those temperatures are a long, long way above average. and if we look at temperatures in october — now, we often see temperatures, the highest temperatures in a month getting to the low 20s. but it's quite rare to see temperatures up to 26 or 27. that would make it one of the hotter days that we've seen in october in this country.

the first witnesses take the stand in the trial of the founder of the 31—year—old is accused of stealing billions in what amounts to be one of the largest financial crimes in us history. indians are bowled over with cricket madness as they play host to the world cup this month.

. let's begin in new york with the trial of crypto giant is under way. the trial of crypto giant is underway. prosecutors the trial of crypto giant is under way. prosecutors made their opening statements to jurors and was expected to be a six week long trial and error and reports. the prosecution and reports. the prosecution and defence offer the newly selected jury duel narratives that will have a mistrial, asking them whether or not they are a hapless but well—intentioned ceo over their head conniving crypto king trying to defraud customers for their own game. the trial as a flashpoint in the ongoing battle as to how crypto should be regulated in the united states and with him, once the poster boy for ethical and responsible management of digital markets on trial for fraud and money laundering. at the heart of the case, whether

he unlawfully used customer