iran demands an urgent meeting of the un security council new ceasefire talks are taking place today in qatar. iran demands an urgent meeting of the un security council following israel's air strikes on saturday. it comes as new gaza ceasefire talks are taking place today in qatar. we speak to a prolific vietnamese people smuggler as more than 2,000 people from the southeast asian country cross the english channel this year. hello. welcome to this hour. we start with the us presidential election — which is just over a week away. the kamala harris campaign has condemned the use of vulgar and racist language at donald trump's latest election rally. both candidates are making a final big push for votes. donald trump has held a rally in front of thousands at madison square garden in new york — one of the highest—profile

events in his campaign. there was a long list of guests which included speaker of the house mikejohnson, billionaire elon musk, and mr trump's running—mate jd vance. there, he made one of his final pitches to voters. 0ur senior north america correspondent, gary 0'donoghue was watching and sent this report. an iconic venue in donald trump's home town. he's wanted to hold a rally here for years. good evening, new york city! and a rare appearance from the former first lady. she's largely steered clear of this campaign. for the candidate himself, the focus was on his opponent. kamala, you're fired. get out! _ and on the main themes. i will end inflation. i will stop the invasion - of criminals coming into our country, and i will bring back the american dream. -

donald trump had lined up his favourite famous supporters for this rally. from an old wrestler to the eldest son to the world's richest man, all of whom echoed his central message on immigration. i will rescue every city. and town that has been invaded and conquered, and we will put these i vicious and bloodthirsty criminals injail. - going to kick them the hell out of our country - as fast as possible. cheering. as we enter the final week of campaigning, the polls are telling us that there is only one or two percentage points dividing donald trump and kamala harris in those key swing states. no one knows at this stage how this is going to go. gary 0'donoghue, bbc news, at madison square garden in new york. with eight days to go until polling day in the us presidential election, donald trump has held one of the largest rallies of his campaign. he told supporters at

madison square garden in new york that he would "end inflation" and deport millions of migrants if he won. a comedian at a donald trump rally has come underfire — from republicans and democrats alike — for describing puerto rico as a "floating island of garbage". cbs correspondent jarred hill in new york has more on the backlash to the performance. this comedian, who was essentially opening at the donald trump rally here in madison square garden, said that puerto rico was a floating pile of garbage. this is something that we have heard from both democrats as well as republicans saying that this is not acceptable language. the donald trump campaign is trying to play defence on this, saying that the comments, those jokes from the comedian, were not approved or viewed by the trump campaign ahead of time, also saying that that does not reflect former president donald trump's views. it is important that both of these campaigns have been really working to get

the latino vote. latino voters in particular, when it comes to puerto ricans, which is again, an island that is owned by the united states, so these are americans here who have a pretty significant voting power, especially in some of the swing states. 0ne power, especially in some of the swing states. one of the big ones it's pennsylvania. 0ne big ones it's pennsylvania. one of the questions is going to be how this plays, especially as we have seen a number of puerto rican celebrities and artists coming out to support vice president harris in light of those comments last night. president harris in light of those comments last night. meanwhile, vice president kamala harris was in pennsylvania — one of the battleground states that could decide how this election plays out. the democratic nominee has been making the rounds through the city of philadelphia — where she attended a church service, stopped by a book store, a youth basketball facility, and a puerto rican restaurant. ms harris later held a rally to cap off the day, where she brought up

the conflict in the middle east — a key issue to voters who are unhappy with the biden administation�*s response to the israel—gaza war. i want to talk about gaza for a minute. 0k? we can and we must seize this opportunity to end this war and bring the hostages home. and i will do everything in my power to meet that end. 0ur chief presenter sumi somaskanda is in washington with the details on the latest polls. we've seen the latest polling coming in from our partners here in the us, cbs news, and they have shown that on the national level, kamala harris has a one point percentage lead over donald trump. and in those critical seven battleground states, they are tied. it is a dead heat. and remember, it is those battleground states that matter the most. and that is why we're

seeing both candidates, both kamala harris and donald trump, out on the campaign trail trying to drum up as much support as possible, particularly among some of those persuadable voters, some of those people who might not have cast a ballot at all in the last election, hoping to somehow gather enough votes together to be able to win. it is important to say that both of these candidates gave us a bit of an idea of what their closing message might be. so donald trump, you heard in that report from our colleague gary there speaking about economy, immigration, about crime. these are themes that we continue to hear from donald trump on the campaign trail. and he painted a fundamentally dark picture of where the country is right now. he talked about sinister and corrupt forces under way in the us, and he used this phrase, the enemy within. he's used this to talk about what he calls the radical marxists, left marxists in this country, but he's talked about his own democratic political opponents as enemies, a more dangerous, as he has said, than iran or russia or china, foreign adversaries.

so that is a message that donald trump doubled down on today, a few months ago, or a month or two ago, we heard this joyful warrior message from kamala harris talking about what she would do on abortion and on the economy. in the last week or so, we have seen that shift fairly significantly, where she's talking about donald trump as a threat to democracy, as a fascist, as she called him, and as someone who would rule as a dictator, as she said on day one, referring to a message we'd heard from donald trump. so really getting a sense with eight days left of what the closing messages are going to be. let's ta ke let's take a look at the polls in a bit more detail. the latest polls are still very tight. kamala harris�*s in the average of national polls is now down to around a single point. but the national vote share won't determine the winner. let's turn to the seven battleground states that could be decisive in this election.

mr trump's poll leads in north carolina, arizona, and georgia, you can see them at the bottom of the screen, are between one and two points. other states like nevada, wisconsin, and pennsylvania are even tighter. but none of the leads we're seeing are bigger than the margins of error that come with all polls. let's speak to scott lucas — professor of us and international politics at university college, dublin. welcome to the programme. we know it is incredibly tight, i want to get your reaction first of all to that rally in madison square garden. quite a big event. a big show of support from some of mr trump's key supporters, including elon musk. but of course, controversy now over comments

made by a comedian, which many are branding is downright racist. ~ ~ racist. well, i think we need to net racist. well, i think we need to get beyond _ racist. well, i think we need to get beyond the _ racist. well, i think we need to get beyond the poles. - racist. well, i think we need| to get beyond the poles. the fact that this is a toss—up election. that meant quite clearly, this is not normal. your opening reports, trying to be fair to mr your opening reports, trying to be fairto mrtrump, your opening reports, trying to be fair to mr trump, did kind of make be fairto mrtrump, did kind of make it sound be fair to mr trump, did kind of make it sound normal, but be fairto mrtrump, did kind of make it sound normal, but in fact, what happened far beyond days, with possible consequences for the country, was notjust calling puerto rico an island of garbage. there were vials sexual slurs at that rally about hispanic voters, even as donald trump is supposedly supporting hispanic voters. there were insults to black voters, even as donald trump is subversively courting black voters. kamala harris was called by one of the speakers a prostitute, by another speaker she was called satan. and the antichrist. immigrants were

portrayed as terrorists and criminals with the threat to to deport millions of them. and it donald trump participated in this, repeating some of those insults and then repeating that he will consider using the military against enemies within. so, as an analyst would also —— but also as a native american, at i am very concerned by that language of hatred and division. earlier, kamala harris in philadelphia said america needs to unify and move forward as a country. in move forward as a country. in the last couple of days we have heard her come out and call donald trump a fascist, for what she says are comments made throughout the campaign. the question is, will this move voters on either side? i've spoken to people on both sides of the divide recently, when i was in the us, and in the views are very entrenched, are they? first of all, let's be very clear with the facts here. it was people who worked with donald trump who called him a fascist. it was first of all

the former head of the us military, general mark millet, who said trump was fascist to the core. then it was his white house chief of staff who said he fits the general definition of a fascist. kamala harris merely repeated what they had said. will this affect voters? there are many voters who are beddedin there are many voters who are bedded in with trump. there are many boats embedded in with kamala harris. but there are so many variables here, there are variables in terms of where young people will vote, but the young people will vote, but the young men who donald trump is courting and young women, their reproductive rights may be a keyissue reproductive rights may be a key issue to the selection. there's the question of where black and hispanic voters go. and most of all, where do voters go when you are talking not just about individual issues? but about the future of the us system. so, what i have to say is, i cannot predict multiple variables in the selection. i can tell you it is going to be very tight, but i can tell you the significance of this is, it is the most important us election in

peacetime since 1865. thank you very much _ peacetime since 1865. thank you very much for— peacetime since 1865. thank you very much for sharing _ peacetime since 1865. thank you very much for sharing your- very much for sharing your thoughts on a very consequential election, we appreciate your comments. here in the uk, sir keir starmer will prepare the ground for the budget with a speech in the coming hours in which he'll say that britain must "embrace the harsh light of fiscal reality". the chancellor's statement on wednesday is expected to be one of the most significant in recent history, with tax rises, and spending cuts, worth tens of billions of pounds. 0ur chief political correspondent henry zeffman is in westminster, and gave this update on what we can expect to hear from the prime minister sir keir starmer later today... what's really interesting about what the prime minister is doing today is he's framing the budget before we actually know what exactly is in it. he's going to talk about embracing the harsh light of fiscal reality that is not language of a prime minister who is about to give everyone a tax cut. quite the contrary. it's pretty clear that taxes are going to rise, that spending is going to come down. and the prime minister, i think, wants to give people a flavour of the why

today before they find out the what on wednesday from rachel reeves, the chancellor. now, keir starmer isn't the only member of the cabinet who's been talking about the budget today. we heard earlier today from pat mcfadden, a senior cabinet minister. let's have a listen to what he was saying about what we can expect in the budget. i think people should look for three things in the budget. will it stabilise the country's public finances and do so in a way that keeps our promises? it will. and will it also start to turn around the public services and the nhs in particular? we will start on that road with a combination of both investment and reform. and critically, will it change the country's story for the future by investing in the things that we need the better schools, hospitals, the houses we need, the transport infrastructure, the energy infrastructure? this is what britain has to do if it's going to get better economic growth in the future. that focus on investment, they're very striking.

—— that focus on investment there, very striking. i think what the government is trying to do is move on, perhaps from their early weeks in government, where they made clear that things would be painful, that they would have to make what they call tough choices, but didn't necessarily tell that much of a story about what the end goal was of those tough choices, the reason for making what pat mcfadden was doing there, what keir starmer, i think will do later, and what rachel reeves, the chancellor, will try to do on wednesday is explain that these are tough choices for, as they see it, a purpose investing in having better public services before long. that is henry's happen there. we will have full coverage on wednesday of the uk budget here on the bbc news channel. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news.

now to the middle east, and new talks about a ceasefire in gaza and the release of hostages still being held by hamas are taking place in qatar today. the negotiations are the first since israel's killing earlier this month of the hamas

leader, yahya sinwar. there are hopes this could create a new opportunity for progress on a deal which has so far eluded mediators. it comes as iran is demanding an urgent meeting of the un security council following israel's air strikes on the country. on saturday, israeli forces launched a series of attacks, in which they targeted air defence and missile systems. elsewhere fighting between israel and hezbollah continues. on sunday, the lebanese health ministry said at least 21 people were killed by israeli strikes in the south of the country. 0ur middle east correspondent yolande knell — told me the killing of hamas leader yahya sinwar has removed well, really, the killing of the leader of hamas has changed things a lot. americans have described him as being the chief obstacle in reaching a cease fire and hostage release deal in the past. what we

understand now is that the israeli intelligence director, who has been handling these negotiations, it remains in qatar to meet with the prime minister, to meet with the us intelligence chief there as well. and although hamas has not directly involved in these talks at the moment, of course we know that many hamas leaders are based in delhi, so it has been suggested that it would be possible —— based in delhi. we have had the egyptian president putting forward an idea of a two day ceasefire as a sort of testing the water measure, saying that this could help push things forward. that would see, they have proposed, for it israeli hostages being released by hamas, some palestinian prisoners being released from israeli jails, a search in humanitarian aid going into gaza, desperately needed, of course. and the possibility of

ten days of talks, on a permanent cease fire. and some in the israeli media have been suggesting that that could appeal to israel, because certainly with the hamas leader having been killed, it is not clear now what the hamas decision—making processes. this could allow them to ascertain that. �* ., ., _, , that. and meanwhile, of course, what is the _ that. and meanwhile, of course, what is the latest _ that. and meanwhile, of course, what is the latest on _ that. and meanwhile, of course, what is the latest on the - what is the latest on the fallout after israel pots attack on iran? we have been hearing, of course, from iransupreme leader. we hearing, of course, from iransupreme leader. we have got still international _ iransupreme leader. we have got still international diplomatic - still international diplomatic efforts going on to try to prevent any further escalation. we heard of david lemi, the british foreign secretary, making the calls to both his israel and iranian counterparts. we have the un security council expected to meet at iran's request. iran has been saying that it has the right under international law to respond to what israel has done, these hours of attacks

that took place involving dozens of israeli warplanes, it seems, in the early hours of saturday morning. the israeli ambassador to the un has dismissed iran's complaint as being ridiculous, of course israel was responding to their firing of some 180 ballistic missiles by iran at the start of this month. iran had been saying then that it was retaliating for these high profile assassinations that had taken place, and of course, that was also the time when israel was beginning its ground offensive in southern lebanon against has blower red, and iranian proxy. but i think at the same time, you look at what the same time, you look at what the israeli prime minister has said, he talked about how from his point of view iran had been hit hard in those elitist attacks, the ayatollah, the supreme hosseini khamenei, saying that the damage that israel had done

should not be exaggerated. there has been an assessment that both sides are looking to prevent this turning into a dangerous wider regional were at this point. japan's prime minister, shigeru ishiba, insists he will not resign after his scandal— hit part