from here, earth sure looks like a perfect world. a football competition has captured the attention of an entire nation. and taylor swift sweeps up at the video music awards, becoming the most decorated solo artist in the ceremony�*s history. hello and thanks for joining us on bbc news. president putin says the us and european countries will be directly participating in moscow's conflict with ukraine if they lift restrictions on kyiv using long—range missiles

to strike russian territory. he said this would change the nature of the conflict, and mean the us and other nato countries were fighting with russia. the british prime minister, sir keir starmer, who is currently heading to washington, is expected to discuss the use of such missiles with president biden on friday. damian grammaticas reports. two and a half years after vladimir putin launched his invasion of ukraine, and almost nightly russian bombs and missiles continue to batter the country. strikes launched from deep inside russia. to counter these, ukraine has for months been urging the west to allow it to use the long—range weapons they already supply to hit back, against airfields, logistics and military targets that sustain these assaults, and to blunt the advances russia is making on the ground. for ukraine, the timing, with winter coming, is critical, so on the agenda for sir keir starmer heading to washington with the foreign secretary,

whether to green—light attacks on russian territory. the russian president warned against that. translation: if this decision is made, it will mean nothingl other than direct participation of nato countries, the united states, european countries, in the war in ukraine. in the war in ukraine. it is their direct it is their direct participation and this participation and this of course significantly changes of course significantly changes the very essence the very essence of the conflict. of the conflict. this will mean that nato this will mean that nato countries, the united states, countries, the united states, european countries, european countries, are fighting with russia. are fighting with russia. but momentum is building of how other authoritarian but momentum is building for western nations to agree for western nations to agree to ukraine's request. to ukraine's request. earlier this week, david lammy earlier this week, david lammy and the us secretary and the us secretary of state travelled to kyiv. of state travelled to kyiv. russia has already russia has already been using missiles been using missiles supplied by north korea. supplied by north korea. now it's believed to be now it's believed to be receiving them from iran, too. receiving them from iran, too. this week, we've been reminded this week, we've been reminded of how other authoritarian regimes are aiding putin,

with iran going even further

what we didn't hear from vladimir putin was what russia's going to do if this actually happens. he talked about taking appropriate decisions but without any detail. now, what might those decisions be? well, in the past, president putin has proposed providing advanced long—range weapons to western adversaries, to strike western targets abroad. he's also suggested in the past deploying conventional missiles within striking distance of america and its european allies. now, russian officials many times have accused the west of fighting russia, waging war against russia, on the territory of ukraine. putin made it clear today that if this goes ahead, if western missiles are used to target russian territory, this will take things to a whole new level. so, in a sense, western leaders will have to decide which is greater — the risk of escalation or the need to help ukraine

and allow ukraine to strike russian territory with these missiles. russian shelling has killed three ukrainians working for the international committee of the red cross and injured two others in a frontline village in the donetsk region. the icrc team was preparing to distribute wood and coal to vulnerable households in a village north of donetsk city when their vehicles were hit. president zelensky called the attack a war crime. he earlier acknowledged that russian forces have launched a counter—offensive in the border region of kursk, where ukraine has occupied more than 1200 square kilometres of russian territory. a row has broken out between israel and the un over the identities and affiliations of the victims of an israeli airstrike on a school in central gaza. the israeli military says about half of those killed were members of hamas's military wing. it claims that three were employed by unrwa. philippe lazzarini, the commissioner—general

of unrwa, told stephen sackur on the bbc�*s hardtalk programme he believes un facilities and staff are being targeted by israel. what is it like when you hear that, as yesterday, wednesday, six members of your staff have been killed in an israeli bomb attack? this is always absolutely devastating. yesterday, i was boarding the plane coming from cairo to london when i heard the news. and this happened in a school which was also sheltering, at that time, 12,000 people. and they are in the school because they still believe that the united nations flag can protect them. yesterday, six staff working in the shelter, providing assistance, organising, in fact, the lives of these families, have been killed. now, 220 staff since the beginning of the war. the worst, stephen,

is to know that maybe tomorrow we will even have more staff being killed. and the question is, when will this end? not only staff is being targeted, but we have also the united nations premises. two thirds of our installation have now been damaged and more than 500 people have been killed in this installation. you just used a phrase "staff are being targeted". unwra staff. the israelis would absolutely and categorically reject that. they say that, in this particular case, the strike on the school, they had clear, irrefutable information that hamas was using it as a command and control centre, and they took all the measures they could to mitigate the loss of life for those that were not hamas, but were civilians inside the school. i'm not aware of all the measures which have been taken. this shelter, which is a school in nuseirat, few days ago, was used for our polio

vaccination campaign. it is sheltering 12,000 people. we have united nations staff living there. we had absolutely no information before the strike. you had no information, but are you categorically rejecting the israeli statement that hamas was using it as a command and control centre? i have absolutely no information. this is an allegation coming from the israelis. i have absolutely no means to verify this information. history was made when two american astronauts on a privately—funded mission carried out the first ever spacewalk by civilians. the american tech billionaire jared isaacman and sarah gillis, an engineer, carried out mobility tests of their next—generation space suits during the 15—minute walk. previously, only astronauts from space agencies,

that are funded by governments, have carried out spacewalks. nasa hailed the mission as a "giant leap forward" for the space industry. 0ur science correspondent pallab ghosh has more. back at home, we all have a lot of work to do, but from here earth sure looks like a perfect world. historic words for an historic moment. 0ut comes the first private—sector astronaut to walk in space. silhouetted in earth's orbit, billionaire jared isaacman paid millions of dollars for this experience. he remains partly in the capsule, so more baby steps than a walk in space, but a chance to move around in the newly developed spacesuit to test its mobility. we don't need very long out there, and frankly other than the test matrix, we're not building structures on the international space station or repairing anything, so as soon as we get the data that we have, we'll cycle another crew member in and out. that other crewmember is mission specialist sarah gillis. it's her first time in space, and she's already making

history, standing outside the dragon capsule. most crewed spacecraft have an airlock, which is a sealed door between the vacuum of space and the rest of the spacecraft. normally, it's depressurised when astronauts go in and out. but dragon doesn't have an airlock, so the entire craft has to be depressurised. the non—spacewalking astronauts have to be fully suited up and strapped into their chairs, and extra nitrogen and oxygen have to be added to repressurise the capsule when the spacewalk is over. the astronauts blasted off on tuesday, going further into space since the apollo moon missions of the 1960s and �*70s. their spacecraft reached a maximum altitude of 870 miles above the earth. that's nearly three—and—a—half times the distance to the international space station, which is 250 miles.

up until now, every single spacewalk that's happened has been professional astronauts through a government agency, either the soviets or the americans, the russians these days, and so to have the first one that's done commercially is a big step forward for the commercial space sector, and it's going to push the boundaries of what they can do, and it will extend their capabilities, and we're likely to see many more of these in the future. the historic spacewalk now over, and so many firsts already achieved, the crew's attention returns to carrying out experiments before beginning theirjourney home in two days' time. pallab ghosh, bbc news. a court in north dakota has overturned the us state's ban on most abortions, clearing the way for the procedure to return. the judge found that the state's constitution protects a woman's right to an abortion before the foetus is viable.

disgraced hollywood movie mogul harvey weinstein has been indicted on additional sex crime charges in new york. a court heard that multiple accusers are prepared to testify against the 72—year—old. the united states has imposed sanctions on 16 venezuelan officials. most are members of the national electoral council or the supreme court. the us treasury said those targeted were involved in what it called mr maduro's fraudulent and illegitimate claims of victory and the brutal crackdown that followed. the french football league has ordered paris saint—germain to pay more $60 million in unpaid wages to its former star, kylian mbappe. the club are refusing, saying mbappe will have to take them to court. he moved to real madrid on a free transfer over the summer. donald trump says he will not participate in another debate

against kamala harris, his rivalfor the white house. the republican candidate went head to head against president biden injune, and debated kamala harris earlier this week. but mr trump posted on his social media site, truth social, that he's ruling out a third. 0ur north america correspondent, he said he had won and he had no reason to go up against kamala harris. two poles were done, small numbers of people, 600 and 2000 i think, and they did show that harris was seen as the person who came out better after the debate. but i think some would say donald trump's actions after the debate weren't really those

that were of someone who felt they had won. we saw him go into the spin room, a highly unusual move. he was mobbed by hundreds ofjournalists there. some people may argue, if he had won, why not do another debate and seal the victory? we have had some reaction to this. one progressive activist has 0ne progressive activist has said that, actually, donald trump's probably doing kamala harris a double favour. a second debate could potentially help harris but could also shake up the existing glow that surrounds her. we have had some response from kamala harris, she did respond during a rally in north carolina earlier today. she holds also tweeted that two nights ago, donald trump and i had ourfirst debate and she said, we owe it to the voters to have another debate. the harris team very

keen to give it another go. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news.

researchers say they've solved the mystery of the origins of the seismic signal that shook the earth for nine days last september. they have pinned it down to a massive landslide which caused a tsunami in a remote fjord in greenland. the risk of these arctic landslides is increasing because of climate change, according to scientists, as victoria gill reports. a land continuously carved and moulded by vast glaciers. but in one fjord in the east of greenland, a seismic event has transformed the landscape here forever. we're seeing here a simulation of how this seismic signal travelled around the world. when we run this, we'll start to see this wave. this animation shows the signal that baffled scientists for nine days in september of last year.

the dots are seismic monitors around the world picking up vibrations from something happening in greenland. at the same time that scientists were puzzling over that, a team working in greenland received a report of a large tsunami in the east of the country. these photographs show what caused it — a huge landslide into this fjord. look at the mountaintop in this image taken before the event. and look at it afterwards — the top of the mountain is gone, collapsed into the fjord, taking part of the glacier with it. the scientists analysed the depth and shape of this narrow 200km—long fjord, and that revealed why the tsunami the landslide caused reverberated around the world for so long. the wave was essentially trapped. the energy of that wave just can't escape, so that wave has tojust keep bouncing back and forth, sloshing back and forth in the fjord, itjust can't go anywhere. never before has such a long duration sort of large—scale movement of water, over nine days, in this case, been observed.

remote as it is, this is a location that cruise ships do visit. fortunately, no vessels were in the area when the landslide happened, but scientists say the risk of these events is increasing with climate change. this glacier was holding up the mountain. 0ver decades, it melted and thinned, and eventually millions of cubic metres of rock simply collapsed. it's a destructive side—effect of climate change that was felt around the world. victoria gill, bbc news. three major wildfires continue to rage around los angeles, torching dozens of homes and forcing thousands of people to evacuate. northeast of the city, the line fire has burned around 35,000 acres, prompting the evacuation of several mountain communities in an area popular with tourists. a man suspected of starting that fire has been arrested and charged with arson. while southeast of los angeles, in orange county, eight firefighters were injured tackling the airport fire, which burned several homes.

at least 10,000 people were quickly evacuated. the fire moved so fast it surprised fire officials as well as residents. take a listen. it was pretty scary, a lot more than you realise. when you are outside looking at the flames, you don't realise how scary and chaotic it is. it was like a movie yesterday, going to the gas station... it was scary, a lot more real than you realise. eight bells have been returned to notre dame cathedral in paris following the devastating fire five years ago. they were restored by a foundry in northern france where they were first cast. the head of the restoration project said the bells were the voice of the cathedral and their return was a sign of rebirth. they'll be installed alongside the olympic bell, rung by winning athletes this summer, and their peal will again be heard

when notre dame is reopened to the public in december. is it possible for a sport like football to lift a poor region? well, that's what seems to be happening in the remote mountains of south—western china, where a competition between villages has captured the attention of the entire nation. it's even boosted tourist revenue by nearly 75%. 0ur correspondent stephen mcdonell went there to meet the players and their fans. these are the farmers, shopkeepers, and students who've become the stars of the guizhou village super league. a weekly grassroots spectacle which has drawn national attention largely through social media. it's free to attend, but a bit of a hike to get here. the mountains of guizhou have been isolated for centuries. and, until recently, all they had was farming.

now, poor communities are getting a boost from the millions of big city tourists who've come through in just over a year to watch the football. translation: it has improved our economic prospects, - like for vendors where families have small businesses, it has increased their income. shen yang is a hospital maintenance worker after maintenance worker — after pulling an all night shift, he's still in high spirits, preparing to run on for dongmen village in this year's final. his friend on the other team is the son of itinerant labourers. wu jinfu just finished high school, but he's been kicking a ball since he was 11. translation: when i started playing footy, i didn't - expect us to have such an amazing football atmosphere. that fans dress up in traditional ethnic costumes

has added to the allure of the matches, played over many months. translation: when we watch the game, it's so exciting. - we are really nervous, you feel your heart pumping and when we win we are so happy. we sing and dance. and their teams certainly give it all. the secret of the success here is the combination of football and local culture, all presented in a pretty raucous fashion. no wonder it's so popular, and it's all done in a pretty good spirit. in the most important game of the year, lu jinfu scores twice and his younger, faster dongsheng village win the final. my team—mates and i have played together since primary school. we are like brothers.

but the second team also gets a prize. we won two pigs. that's not bad. and you wouldn't know from the party of the losers that they're not champions. to their neighbours, the players from dongmen village are still their heroes. and there's always next year. stephen mcdonell, bbc news, guizhou province. it was a big night on wednesday for the music industry in new york, with a host of stars turning out for the mtv video music awards — or vmas for short. let's take a look at the main moments of the night. megan thee stallion was a real "hot girl" as she hosted the show in a range of iconic outfits — including paying tribute to britney spears by recreating her vma look from 2001 that featured her holding a python. the biggest winner on the night was taylor swift, who left with seven prizes.

that means she now has 30 trophies, surpassing beyonce's record set as a solo artist. in her acceptance speech, she urged herfans to register to vote. among the favourite performances on the night was katy perry. she gave a ten—minute rendition of her greatest hits before winning the lifetime achievement prize. and finally sabrina carpenter, in a nod perhaps to the moonwalk we mentioned earlier, had a space theme set. it was complete with aliens and astronauts, who did seem to be rather friendly. speaking of big nights, it's that time of year, the ignoble awards. we can show you some footage of the awards in massachusetts. they are awarded to unusual areas of academic research that make people laugh and then think. the winner has gone to a second world war project involved training pigeon to pilot bombs, it was

called project pigeon and it was awarded posthumously. professor frederick skinner taught pigeons to guide missiles with some success. it never got off the ground because of scepticism by us military officials but he stood by his research until the end. stay with us, business today is next. hello, a cold friday morning. it is going to feel fresh when you step out of the front door. in fact, a touch of frost possible almost anywhere in the uk, certainly a ground frost and even an air frost in some areas. from the motion of the cloud, you get a sense of where the air has come from, all the way from the arctic, and spread across many parts of western and even central europe. but high pressure is now

building across the uk, which means light winds and lots of sunshine from the word go, and of course clear skies through the early hours, just one or two showers maybe clipping eastern and western coasts. these are the city centre temperatures, three degrees in birmingham, you go out of town it will be three degrees lower than that, so air frost in some areas and as low as —1 or —2 in northern england and scotland away from city centres. lots of sunshine from the word go, cloud bubbling up a bit into the afternoon, scattered fairweather cumulus cloud, highs of 15 degrees typically. later in the day, it looks as though it will turn hazy in northern ireland and scotland, and that takes us into saturday. a weather front brushing the north—west of the uk, the possibility of some rain later on, but the further east and south you are, the brighter it will be. and really sunny on the channel coast, east anglia and into lincolnshire.

most of the north sea coast as well. the winds will change direction, by saturday they will come in from the south—west. through sunday, the milder air will have established itself across the uk, so temperatures once again start to nudge up to about 20 or so. some of us will pay for it, in the south—westerlies we often get weather fronts so there will be a few showers on sunday, but not everywhere, and certainly some sunny spells. 18 in belfast once again, 17 in aberdeen. to the east of the pennines, not far off 20 celsius. high pressure expected to build across the uk on monday, which means light winds, prolonged spells of sunshine, which are expected to last for the days ahead. monday, tuesday, wednesday across the bulk of the uk, bright and fairly warm. goodbye.

testing times for boeing — as workers vote on a new contract, some call for a crippling strike. 23,000 members, that's a lot of people, a lot of people and that can affect the economy. especially after a couple months. and we hearfrom one of the world's biggest cryptocurrency exchanges, about why it's such a hot topic ahead of the us election.

hello and welcome to business today. i'm katie silver. we begin in the us, where there have been tense scenes at a key factory belonging to boeing. the company's us west coast workers have been queuing up to vote on a new contract. the proposed deal includes a wage increase of 25 percent and a promise to build boeing's next commercialjet in the seattle area. if the deal isn't approved, boeing faces a crippling strike that is likely to cost billions of dollars. we won't stay out that long. i mean, it's a lot of us. 33,000 members. that's a lot of people. that's a lot of people that can affect the economy after a couple of months. "that's always say, 'hey, if you don't vote for this contract and you, we're taking the airplane out of washington state.�* there's always some kind

of pressure to get us, to motivate us to