british prime minister sir keir starmer is under pressure on the issue of slavery reparations at a commonwealth summit in samoa. the slave trade, sleep practice was abhorrent and it is important that we start from that place and it matters usually do many of the countries that are represented here. a new diplomatic push to re—start negotiations on a gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal. the menendez brothers — convicted in 1996 for murdering their parents in beverly hills — could they be welcome to newsday, i'm steve lai. uk prime minister sir keir starmer is at the commonwealth summit where he's facing

renewed pressure from caribbean countries about the issue of reparations for the tra ns—atla ntic slave trade. a draft communique says they'll prioritise further research into reparatoryjustice. britain was pivotal to the once lucrative trade in enslaved africans. it was the world's biggest slave trading nation before abolition in the 1800s. mr starmer has been speaking to our political editor chris mason, who travelled with him to the summit in samoa. it turns out the tropical south pacific isn't always sun—kissed, but peer beyond the windscreen wipers and this small island nation oozes pride at being host to more than 50 countries. some commonwealth countries want the uk to pay up for the impact of slavery. "no" says the prime minister. i think we should be clear from the outset that the slave trade, slave practice, was abhorrent and it's very important that we start from that place

and of course that matters hugely to many of the countries that are represented here. my posture, focus, is on the forward—look, not the backward—look. i want to understand the nature of your objection. is it a financial one, or is it a moral and philosophical one? can our generation be held responsible for the actions of our forebears? i think our generation can say the slave trade and practice was abhorrent and we should, you know, we talk about our history, we can't change our history, but we should certainly talk about our history... you say that, but not apologise, not pay any money? i think that we recognise that and of course apologies have already been made in relation to the slave trade and that's not surprising, it's what you would expect, but if you then go on to the question, we have 55 countries here represented an say in the conversations i've already had, the things that have come up most,

their resilience, there are real concerns particularly for some smaller countries about the impact of climate on them and how we can help with international institutions, financial institutions, to unlock money that might help them. the king has addressed the opening ceremony of the commonwealth heads of government meeting in samoa. speaking at the gathering of leaders from the 56 commonwealth countries, representing over 2.5 billion billion people — the monarch praised what he called the shared vision of the organisation and said leaders should learn from the lessons of the past. ladies and gentlemen, few of our forebears could have imagined the commonwealth of today. our free association of proudly independent nations alive with opportunity, stands in proud defiance of the discrimination of the past. we have not reached this point by accident. shared vision, collective courage have been our lode star. as we set a course of

the century ahead, we can renew our courage with our faith in one another. for more on this i've been speaking with arley gill — chair of grenada's national reparations commission. he gave me his reaction to sir keir starmer�*s comments on opening a discussion around reparations at this year's commonwealth leaders summit. if it is that the prime minister speaks of the opponents of slavery and the slave trade and indeed andy king, king charles iii, will have spoken about the past, we believe that they should apologise because, in recognising that what has gone before, was a reckless car, not just on the caribbean and africa but left a scar is well on the united kingdom, and it has affected and the shape our future, our present, our

present, and it is only fitting that the head of the commonwealth and the united kingdom at the very least ought to apologise. it is the moral and proper thing to do at the issue of the apparent injustice should be discussed at the commonwealth heads, and we expect several caribbean heads to raise that issue in their presentations, but we believe, as we go forward and look to the future, it is extremely important that we consider our past and what is necessary to ensure that the wounds on behalf of the past are healed. just to play devils advocate, there may be some that are thinking given the passage of time that issuing reparations now will punish generations that were not responsible for the damage and reward generations that didn't suffer from it. ., ., , , ., from it. reparations is not about punishing _ from it. reparations is not

about punishing anyone. l from it. reparations is not i about punishing anyone. and from it. reparations is not - about punishing anyone. and the generations now that benefit from the wealth that was generated in the past, directly from the atlantic slave trade and slavery, they have benefited, the privilege that they now enjoy in the united kingdom in large part were derived from slavery and the slave trade so it is not about punishment, it is all about the here, so that generations now, what they will do is to make right the wrongs that would done by generations in the past, that is all that is, and when we speak about our future, we believe that the common future of the commonwealth should concentrate on closing the gap between the rich nations of the commonwealth and the poor nations of the commonwealth, and to close that gap between nations, we believe that preparative justice would go a long way to closing that gap- go a long way to closing that gap. we are not asking for... i

gap. we are not asking for... i just want to get your thoughts, we have 45 seconds left so in practical terms what are you asking for in terms of reparations?- asking for in terms of reparations? asking for in terms of re arations? ~ , ., reparations? we believe an a olo: reparations? we believe an apology is _ reparations? we believe an apology is the _ reparations? we believe an apology is the first - reparations? we believe an apology is the first step - reparations? we believe an| apology is the first step and we are forever in debt to systems as regard to health care, education, the return for instance of artefacts and other precious material from african countries and caribbean countries and caribbean countries so we have to look at an economic package, developmental package, that will assist us here in the caribbean to move from a state of underdevelopment to a developed status so reparation is not about hard cash, it is extremely important to note that, we are looking at the development of status like health, education, debt relief, transport, technology, those are the sort of pragmatic, practical programmes that we

want to engage the uk and other countries that have benefited from the atlantic slave trade and slavery. that is what we are talking about. it's let's turn to the middle east — where efforts to re—start negotiations on a ceasefire and hostage release deal in gaza continued on thursday. us secretary of state antony blinken is in doha for meetings with qatari leaders. he said that israeli and american negotiators will travel to doha in the coming days for fresh ceasefire talks. a hamas official — speaking after talks with egyptian mediators in cairo on thursday — told the french news agency afp that the group is ready to stop fighting if israel commits to a ceasefire deal. speaking alongside qatar's prime minister a little earlier, secretary blinken said he hopes to find a diplomatic resolution to the war in the wake of israel's killing

of hamas leader yahya sinwar whom he described as a central obstacle in previous negotiations. the biggest obstacle to concluding that agreement was sinwar and the fact that is no longer with us creates an opening for actually moving forward and concluding an agreement. our state department correspondent tom bateman is following the story from doha. he sent this update. the question now is what is going on with the hamas leadership, is there anyone to talk to, sinwar had walked away from the deal, he wasn't engaging for many weeks. and so, i think they are going to be established, the qataris, is there and negotiating partner for these mediated talks. we know that hamas have said there is now a five—man leadership council, and that they might keep the identity of the next leader secret for security reasons so that does not bode well for progress, in trying to hammer out this deal. before this moment, antony blinken had

just flown from saudi arabia, talking to mohamed bin salman, the crown prince there. that is about the day after plan, post—war plan for gaza. the saudis want the americans to be pushing this wider so—called normalisation deal between the saudis and israel which would be dangled as a prize to the israelis to engage with the diplomatic process in the long term, but really the diplomatic track in all this is in a mess, because of what is going on with hamas, because of the israeli military assault in the north of gaza and mr netanyahu appearing to show that is a lack of interest, frankly, in diplomacy much more than the military part, and that is what antony blinken are trying to do, to pull the israelis back towards trying to get a deal but at the moment, all of that and the chance of any kind of breakthrough and even getting any discussions back up and running seems very slim.

the us election is at a fever pitch with just 12 days to go. it's a tight race — so there's again big focus on those all important �*swing' states. kamala harris has been holding a star—studded rally in clarkston, georgia, featuring bruce springsteen, filmmaker tyler perry, as well as former us president barack obama. donald trump has been campaigning in nevada. he spoke on the issue of immigration in that speech. we are a dumping ground, we are like a garbage can for the world. that is what has happened, that is what has happened. we are like a garbage can. it's the first time i've ever said that. every time i come up and talk about what they've done to our country, i get angrierand angrier. first time i've ever said garbage can but you know what? it's a very accurate description.

i'm joined now by saeed khan, associate professor in near eastern studies at wayne state university. thank you forjoining us to talk about the us election and the different facets to it. i want to get your thoughts on how the middle east may factor into it but first you reaction to what we heard from former president donald trump talking about immigration. immigration is a central _ about immigration. immigration is a central theme _ about immigration. immigration is a central theme in _ about immigration. immigration is a central theme in not - about immigration. immigration is a central theme in not only i is a central theme in not only his campaign but that of the republican party as a whole which over the past several years has assumed a xenophobic and quite frankly racist tone. it is interesting that former president trump is campaigning on immigration in such terms now, when he clearly had four years in office where he could have rectified and even reduced the tensions on the southern border but he didn't do that,

and that all that he was planning on erecting wasn't actually completed during his term in office, and he quite famously even admonished republicans in congress to block a bipartisan effort to help provide funding for immigration reform, and to try to stem the illegal immigration from the southern border because he did not want to give the biden administration of victory, again, because of his own political and electoral ambitions this year. immigration certainly a very emotive issue in this election and another emotive issue is events in the middle east which we have been reporting on, so in some of the vital swing states in the lead up to the election, in detroit and michigan in particular there is a sizeable muslim population that i've seen what is going on in gaza and the plight of the palestinians, and have been

making their voices heard about how they feel about that in regard to this election. and regard to this election. and now the conflict _ regard to this election. and now the conflict has - regard to this election. fific now the conflict has spread to lebanon and have a sizeable american lebanese population here is all of these factors have exacerbated the kind of frustration that we see among the arab and muslim bloc, and particularly what is seen as a further betrayal by the democratic party and vice president kamala harris, when it comes to evening out or balancing even the rhetoric regarding how the conflict is framed. the fact that vice president harris does not really take on a more public posture that recognises what is happening in gaza and lebanon, when it comes to what, by all accounts including your reporting, seems to be a very disproportionate amount of impact on the palestinians and the lebanese, relative to the

israeli population. that is not going unheard or unseen by the arab and muslim american communities, which right now, seem quite hell bent on punishing, in their own words, the harris campaign, and also the harris campaign, and also the biden administration by voting third party, jill stein giving them the option as a protest vote, which given the possibility of them winning the election overall, may take votes away from the democratic candidate and then inadvertently benefiting the trump campaign instead. thank ou ve trump campaign instead. thank you very much _ trump campaign instead. thank you very much for _ trump campaign instead. thank you very much for your- trump campaign instead. thank you very much for your insight l you very much for your insight and perspective, saeed khan, professor in near eastern studies. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news. let's look at some other

stories making news. the uk chancellor, rachel reeves, has said the government will change its self—imposed rules on measuring debt, so more money can be freed up for more investment in this month's budget. the shadow chancellor, jeremy hunt, says increasing borrowing will mean interest rates stay higher for longer, punishing people with mortgages. lice are reopening an investigation into a crash at a school in south london last year, which killed two eight—year—old girls. —— police. theirfamilies had previously been told that the driver of the car — which ploughed into their playground — would not be charged, because she had suffered an epileptic seizure. the victim's parents were critical of the first investigation. the uk's drug safety regulator is asking doctors to look out for signs that people who are not obese may be misusing weight—loss jabs. the medicines regulator says the drugs do have side—effects and should only be used for treating obesity and diabetes. it follows reports of some people who are not obese becoming sick after using the jabs.

you're live with bbc news. the district attorney of los angeles has announced that the brothers, erik and lyle menendez — convicted of murdering their parents in 1989 — should be resentenced. it follows a renewed focus on the case in which the brothers argued they'd been sexually and physically assaulted by their parents. that claim was dismissed during the initial trial, but new evidence could confirm the allegations. this latest development means the brothers, now in their fifties — could soon walk free. our los angeles correspondent emma vardy reports. this 911 call in 1989 sparked a murder case which gripped the world. brothers erik and lyle menendez, aged 18 and 21, claimed they had found the bodies of their parents,

shot dead in their beverly hills mansion. but they later admitted carrying out the killings themselves. the defendants are in court with their attorneys and the people are represented. during their trial, which was televised, the brothers said they'd been physically and sexually abused by their father, and argued it was manslaughter. at the time, they were not believed, and were eventually convicted of murder and sentenced to life without parole. but last year, new evidence was revealed which backed up the brothers�* claims o