as more aid is delivered in gaza — washington monitors israel's actions — to ensure it's not pursuing what it calls �*a policy of starvation�*. hello. thank you forjoining us. police in argentina are investigating the death of the former member of the boy band one direction, liam payne, who fell from a balcony late on wednesday. police were called to his hotel in buenos aires, after receiving reports of an aggressive man who may have been under the influence of drugs and alcohol. liam payne rose to global stardom with band members harry styles, niall horan, zayne malik and louis tomlinson as part of the teenage band sensation — one direction. fans gathered outside the hotel as soon as news broke of his death. our culture correspondent,

charlotte gallagher reports. liam payne, a music superstar who found fame whilejust a teenager. he lived his entire adult life in the spotlight. sometimes struggling with the pressures of celebrity. this is the hotel in buenos aires where police say the singer fell to his death from a third—floor balcony. officers were already on the scene, following reports of an aggressive man, who may have been under the effect of drugs and alcohol. outside the hotel, fans were in disbelief. i needed to be here. ifound out the news, in my home, after i came from the home work. i needed to be here, present, and to know this is real, to know this is real. when i read about this, like, my heart stopped for a second.

i couldn't believe it. like, i felt really saddened by the news. so, as quickly as i could, i took the bus and i came here. it's such a loss. i'm 20 years old, and one - direction has been a part of me since i was eight years old. they meant... they mean and they meant a lot to me, every one of them. - hello, everybody. he had posted on social media that it was a lovely day in argentina. this was liam payne at 14, auditioning on x factor in 2008 for the first time. # fly me to the moon...# two years later, he was back again. # cry me a river...# and soon to become one fifth of a pop—music phenomenon.

# you don't know you're beautiful!# one direction. liam, zayn malik, harry styles, louis tomlinson and niall horan released hit after hit, toured the world and had millions of devoted fans. in 2016, they went on an indefinite hiatus. liam, like his bandmates, launched a solo career. and had a child with the girls aloud singer cheryl. to the outside world, he was living the pop—star dream, but liam also struggled with his mental health and addiction to alcohol. the problem we had in the band, and i don't blame anyone for this, i don't want to seem like i'm whining, "oh, my god, look at my life," whatever, but it feels to me like when we were in the band the best way to secure us because of how big it got was just lock us in our rooms and, of course, what is in our rooms?

mini bar. so, at a certain point, i thought, i will have a party for one. and that just seemed to carry out throughout many years of my life. and then you look back how long have you been drinking, and you are like, jesus christ, that's a long time, even for someone as young as i was. he remained close to his bandmates. just a few weeks ago, he was pictured dancing at a niall horan concert. one direction fans longed for a reunion. today those fans are mourning the death of their music icon. charlotte gallagher, bbc news. tributes to the store have been pouring in. liam payne's old school st peter's collegiate academy has issued a statement. it said...

a little earlier i spoke to connie huck the former extra factor presenter who gave her reflections on liam as a person and an artist. he reflections on liam as a person and an artist.— and an artist. he was sort of destined _ and an artist. he was sort of destined for— and an artist. he was sort of destined for the _ and an artist. he was sort of destined for the success - and an artist. he was sort of| destined for the success that he later received. he actually first auditioned in 2008 to be a solo artist and simon cowell turned him away and said come backin turned him away and said come back in two years' time, which he did, which is when one direction were formed. of all the boys, he felt very mature and very measured. i remember once on extra factor we had justin bieber and i commented because liam had very similar hair at the because liam had very similar hairat the time, because liam had very similar hair at the time, they looked very similar. i made him come on the show and he was very shy. justin bieber was massive at that time. and then afterwards i said to him, you

are going to be as big as him one day. and he was actually really sort of bashful and embarrassed. obviously that did happen. but basically, if you think that he was 14 when he is journey started —— hisjourney started and he was 31, that's over half of his lifetime. that such a pressured situation to grow up with that level of fame. as human beings, our brains don't mature until we are 25. the global media and just the globalisation of everything, it is very hard to live a normal lifestyle. joining me now live from sydney is richard walken is the entertainment editor in australia. he interviewed liam a number of times over his career. thank you forjoining us on bbc news. first of all, your reaction to liam's death.

like everyone else around the world, i was shocked when the news hit here early this morning it was stuff you didn't want to hear and itjust came out of the blue and it was shocking and we were all gutted. i couldn't believe that liam... he had been posting stuff online recently. he was there to see his family and go to the nile's show and it looks that he was living the dream, staying in a nice hotel in argentina and going to a show and hanging out with his girlfriend and then the story unfolded in and it appears that there was stuff going on. liam was such a beautiful gentle quy' was such a beautiful gentle guy, we knew that he battled with his demons but the thought that it could all end this way was shocking and i was devastated when i heard the news. ., , ., news. you met him several times. what _ news. you met him several times. what are _ news. you met him several times. what are some - news. you met him several times. what are some of i news. you met him several. times. what are some of the news. you met him several - times. what are some of the key memories you have of him. i

remember interviewing the boys when they were in paris and they had just released their first single, what makes cut —— you beautiful. they were so young and had no idea what was around the corner. it was a little piece of magic and a touch of brilliance from simon cowell to put those five guys together. the song was great, the image was great and they were great guys and they found themselves in the centre of a storm and members of the world's most exclusive group. the things i rememberfrom interviewing them in all sorts of fireplaces from los angeles to san diego and here in sydney many times. they were in this cocoon, they couldn't go to the pub or restaurant. forget about the media it was their fans thatjust the media it was their fans that just wouldn't leave them alone. this was the explosion

of the selfie and all of that. they were stuck in their hotel rooms and they only had themselves, you know, and the mini bar, dare i say as refuge. so i can't imagine what the others are feeling right now they must be absolutely gutted as of course is liam's family. and the fans that held out hope for maybe a reunion one day. but they will be equally shattered. these boys with the biggest band in the world and touched millions and millions of people with beautiful songs. they were such nice down—to—earth boys that is one of the reasons that we liked like them so much. perhaps that was part of the marketing genius but we could all relate to one of them, one of the lads in one direction and liam, in many ways i thought was the most normal down—to—earth one of them. and i am certainly

great greatly saddened today. down to earth but a global superstar. richard wilkins, thank you forjoining us on bbc news. ijust want thank you forjoining us on bbc news. i just want to bring thank you forjoining us on bbc news. ijust want to bring you some breaking news. the leader of the commons lucy powell has offered her condolences to the friends and family for the former one direction start liam payne as we have been talking about. his death in one aires. she went on to say, i can only send condolences to the friends and family. one direction was loved by millions across the world and this is a tragic end for someone so young. tributes to the star continued to come in from around the world. you can find more on that on the bbc news website and the bbc news app. you have all the developments there from one else i —— argentina as the

investigation is conducted into the circumstances of liam payne's death. we will have all that for you on bbc news. president zelensky is addressing a summit in brussels. he lays out ukraine's plans and will also ask for extra military support and fast tracked nato membership. here are some of what he had to say. please don't ease the pressure of sanctions on russia, it truly helps. and we appreciate the joint work with you on production, thank you for investment, manufacturing it's really needed. ukraine is grateful for all forms of your support for our resilience. this concludes support for our energy sector and for our people, especially the financial assistance that helps

us meet the basic needs of ukrainians. and your political decision on 5 billion euros for ukraine as part of the g7�*s resolution on $50 billion from russia is extremely important and is needed as soon as possible. russia must pay and be held accountable for the destruction it has caused. let's get more on this with our correspondent who is in brussels for us. keen to gain more support quickly ahead of those crucial us elections. that is right. this is his victory plan, that is what mr zelensky calls it. what it is not as a request from so many weapons from europe and america that ukraine can simply blast russia of the battlefield, that all the troops will leave and that this will be on our right

military victory for ukraine. instead, what he is saying today, what he was telling those european leaders is that he has got a strategy to force russia to a diplomatic solution. he said that he can force mr putin, president putin to what he described as a just peace. he gave a few examples of how we can think that can happen. listening to mr zelensky, he and his team over the two and a half years have become really adept at tailing their message to the audience, their message to the audience, the specific audience. he was saying things like, the ukrainians are fighting for a shared way of life, shared values, which we hear a lot from the establishment here in brussels and all the different european leaders. he said that ukraine is strengthening europe and atlantic partners and actually, through what it is doing, it is stopping the likes of poland, the baltics, the nordics, all these other countries and regions on the cusp of russia, coming into

russia's sites. and so it needs more help. for this, russia's sites. and so it needs more help. forthis, he russia's sites. and so it needs more help. for this, he said specifically, an invitation to join nato would be the thing that reallyjoins helps ukraine but as we know nato have been reluctant to do so because then they would be in a direct conflict with russia. what reaction _ conflict with russia. what reaction likely _ conflict with russia. what reaction likely to - conflict with russia. what reaction likely to see? - reaction likely to see? certainly if you listen to the new nato secretary general, he is in charge of the alliance of the transatlantic defence organisation. he said this morning that he will continue, along with his partners and allies to continue to give ukraine all that it needed for as long as it wanted. that is not what is mr zelensky is asking for. he said he doesn't want full membership now but he wants an invitation to nato because this would give, ultimately, that collective security to the ukrainians and mr zelensky would argue, to the

rest of europe. i think it is unlikely that he will get concrete from this today, but as you say, mr zelensky feels that he is in a hurry here because on the battlefield we know it is extremely tough out to the east of ukraine where russia is making advances. they may be slow but nonetheless they are encroaching and taking more territory. of course the political thing is that in one month's time it is the us election, of course. ukrainians are really worried that if mr trump, donald trump gets back into the white house he will force a very bad peace deal on ukraine as the ukrainians would see it, which really would amount to them having to give up amount to them having to give up a lot of territory that currently is in the hands of the russians.— currently is in the hands of the russians. nick, thank you for our the russians. nick, thank you for your analysis _ the russians. nick, thank you for your analysis there. - for your analysis there. speaking to us in brussels there. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news.

let's turn to the us now — and kamala harris has sat down with fox news in herfirst—ever inteview with the network. she was pushed on immigration as well as — her vow to be a candidate of change. a key moment came when she was pressed on comments she made last week — when she said she could not think of anything she would have done differently from president biden during his four years in office. take a listen. my presidency will not be a continuation of joe biden�*s presidency. and like every new president that comes in to office, i will bring my life experiences, my professional experiences, and fresh and new ideas. i represent a new generation of leadership. i, for example, am someone who has not spent the majority of my career in washington dc. meanwhile, on wednesday, fox news also aired an all—woman town hall with donald trump that was taped the previous day. he was asked about the strict abortion laws being imposed in several states — and the former president praised the us supreme court for ending a woman's right to an abortion in the us — when they overturned roe v wade in 2022.

like ronald reagan, i believe in the exceptions for rape, incest, life of the mother. strongly believe. you know, you have to follow your heart. some people don't. it's a very small percentage. but you have to follow your heart. but you have the exceptions. what we were able to do is through, really, the courage of six supreme court justices. we were able to do this, after years and years of turmoil. now, it is back in the states. the states are voting for it. our correspondent rowan bridge in washington followed the two events, and gave his analysis starting with kamala harris. i think the most notable comment was the one that you played there, where kamala harris was trying to place more distance, really, than we've seen before between herself and joe biden, where she said that a harris presidency wouldn't be a continuation of a biden presidency. that's further than she's really gone in the language that she's used previously, because it's always difficult if you're the vice president to, on the one hand,

draw a distinction between yourself and be your own candidate, while at the same time you're still part of that administration. i mean, she was pressed quite hard by bret on a number of issues that are of interest to fox viewers and i think are seen as the weaknesses for kamala harris, particularly on immigration, where she refused to say mistakes have been made. but the strategy that she gave in most of her answers really was to deflect from kamala harris herself onto donald trump and what she perceives as donald trump's weaknesses, something that fox viewers, i think, wouldn't be used to hearing half an hour of people talking about. seen kamala harris appearing at rallies recently with some high—profile republicans. liz cheney, the daughter of dick cheney, the former vice president, and a former congresswoman herself, appeared at a rally with kamala harris a couple of weeks ago. we've had her appearing in pennsylvania today with some republicans. we've seen both candidates really appearing in places that wouldn't be their natural homes, or to areas where

the audience is not their natural home, should i say? so, we've had kamala harris on fox, and then donald trump is appearing on the spanish language tv network univision. now, if you look at spanish—speaking voters in the united states, latino voters, they in the 2020 election, from the analysis you look at, voted disproportionately for democrats. and so again, i think here, what you're getting is a strategy where donald trump is trying to boost his support amongst latino voters, which, again, could be crucial in some of the battleground states in deciding who wins and who ultimately makes it to the white house. now onto the middle east, where the us envoy to

the united nations has said washington is watching to ensure israel is not — enacting what she called "a policy of starvation" in northern gaza. israel has denied previous accusations that its military is surrounding parts of the north and preventing these pictures show a being dropped above the city of khan yunis. i have been speaking to her correspondence in the region. in a moment we'll here from hugo bachega in beirut — but first the latest from yolande knell injerusalem. we have not had a formal israeli government response, but we have heard that the israeli prime minister met with senior officials to discuss this, even though it is a time we are not seen a lot of government business taking place, it is a jewish holiday. the latest figures we have had suggest there have been improvements in recent days in the amount of lorries going into gaza taking aid in. still this falls short according to the latest figures of the more than 350 lorry—loads of aid the

americans have said they want to see going into gaza every single day. the last figure wasfor tuesday when something like 145 lorries went in according to the israelis. it was really important to see 50 lorry—loads of aid going into the northern part of the gaza strip yesterday. we have had aid delivered there for three consecutive days after a two—week stretch when the un says there was no aid going into the top third of the gaza strip at all, where about 400,000 are estimated to be living still, and there has been an israeli ground offensive going on there for nearly two weeks. at the moment the main focus is onjabalia, urban refugee camp where tens of thousands of people remain stuck. they have been talking about the desperate conditions there and food is still not able to get to them according to the humanitarian officials.

let us turn to our correspondent hugo bachega in beirut for us. people taking stock of the aftermath of israel's big strikes in lebanon on wednesday. yeah, one of the attacks hit the government building killing 16 people including the mayor and it was the first time a government building was hit and destroyed by an israeli air strike in the conflict. this morning a lot of anger here, an angry statement yesterday by the prime minister, najib mikati, who essentially accused israel of deliberately targeting this building where a meeting was taking place with local authorities to try to discuss the response, the local response, to the israeli air strikes. let me show you some of the front pages this morning. devastation and massacre. israel's scorched earth tactics, says this one. the french language newspaper says, israel blows up the south of the country.

so, this gives you a sense of the reaction here this morning, angry reaction after what happened yesterday. the prime minister again criticising the international community for not putting pressure on israel to stop these attacks. he says there has not been any kind of meaningful discussion to try to reach a ceasefire in this conflict between hezbollah and as well. the israeli military said yesterday it had hit hezbollah and israel. the israeli military said yesterday it had hit infrastructure being used by hezbollah and it said it had destroyed command centres, also weapons storage facilities being used by hezbollah. but it has not reacted to this attack on that this government building and it has not really try to explain why a functioning government building was considered to be a target, a legitimate target. we have seen there have been a number of attacks that have resulted in a high number of civilian casualties across the country without any explanation by the israeli military on why those places were considered to be legitimate military targets.

we will continue to monitor events in argentina. this was the hotel where the one direction star liam payne died. we will have more reaction from the city coming up. hello again. it's been a wet start to the day for some of us. continuing to push away across the east where it will fizzle across shetland. we do have a lot of dry weather and sunshine albeit hazy at times. and some scattered showers across the north and the west. it will be fairly hit and miss. temperatures today 13 to 18. not quite as high as the 22.5 celsius we had in london yesterday. still mild for the time of year. through this evening losing a lot of the

showers and we will see mist and fog patches forming across eastern england and the midlands. towards the west, the wind strength and touching gale force. it will be a mild night tonight but not as mild as last night. we start tomorrow with our weather front coming. this is the first one. then another one comes in a bit later bringing heavy rain. but out towards the west, the winds are going to strengthen, touching gale force across the outer hebrides. it's going to be a mild night tonight, just not as mild as last night. so, we start tomorrow with our weather front coming in from the west. this is the first one. then another one comes in a bit later bringing heavy rain. but in between, there's a real squeeze in the isobars. so, some windy conditions coming our way. the mist and fog lifting. again, a lot of dry weather. some sunny spells around. our first weather front comes through bringing in the rain. the second one follows on hot

on its heels with heavier rain. and in between, we're looking at some very windy conditions through the irish sea and also north—west scotland. temperatures 12 to about 17 degrees. but it's as we head through friday night, that rain will continue to move from the west towards the east. some clearer skies follow on behind. some of this rain could prove to be quite heavy. and on saturday, eventually, it does move away into the north sea, leaving behind it some sunshine, some bright spells and also some showers. the heaviest showers likely to be across the north—west of the country. temperatures on saturday, well, we've got a wide range from about 12 in the north to 16 in the south. but it's as we head into sunday, looks very much like we're pulling in a deep area of low pressure. now the track of this could still change, but it looks like it's going to bring some wet and windy weather moving from the west towards the east. you can see the curl of rain coming back around this area of low pressure. strong gusty winds in northern ireland, northern england and also much of scotland, but the strongest winds will be across the north—west where we could well see 70 to 80mph gusts.

is considering a $20 billion takeover of expedia as it tries to expand his business. sizzling chips — taiwan's tsmc records a 54% jump in profits on a wave of ai spending. and — cheaper borrowing for europe. the european central bank is poised to cut interest rates —

as inflation falls sharply. welcome to business today, i'm taidgh enwright. shares in expedia have jumped by more than 7% in after hours trading after the financial times reported that uber has been considering a takeover bid. neither ercompany has commented on the reports. the ft reports that uber approched advisors after a third party suggested a tie—up with the world's second biggest online travel company. uber�*s chief executive, dara khosrowshahi, previously ran expedia, so he knows the company intimately. like most consumer app businesses, it's trying to find ways to sell more things to us. last week, he spoke to our business editor simonjack and had this answer to a question about moving into amazon's territory. think of how we started, we started _ think of how we started, we started with transportation, we

moved — started with transportation, we moved to— started with transportation, we moved to moving through the round, — moved to moving through the round, nowhere expanding