hello, i'm carl nasman. after months of stalling, the us house of representatives will finally move ahead with a vote on an aid package for ukraine — along with several other bills, including funding for israel and the indo—pacific. house speaker mikejohnson had delayed bringing legislation to the house floor, amid republican opposition to funding for kyiv. his new proposed foreign aid package splits funding for israel, taiwan, and ukraine into three separate bills, with $61 billion in aid for ukraine and regional partners, $26 billion in support for israel, and $8 billion for taiwan and other us allies in the indo—pacific region. the bills are something house republican french hill would support, saying they're in america's national security. isa is a fundamental tenet to

improve national security. i would rather have a training dollars for 71 —year—olds ukrainians, going to be trained in germany to fight russians than the 25—year—old son. be sent to europe to fight the russians. it is in our national security interest, our business and economic interest round the world to support our allies in the middle east, the indian pacific and in europe. saturday's vote will come with plenty of palace intrigue asjohnson is facing opposition from the right flank of his own party, while some are threatening to oust him over the vote. but democrats like congressman tom souzzi expectjohnson to survive this weekend's vote. iam i am confident that ifjohnson does the right thing, which it appears he will do, and put these on the floor, more democrats will come to his aid. to stop marjorie taylor greene and matt gates and the others, tom massey, from kicking him out. meanwhile, early wednesday, a russian missile attack killed at least 17 people in the northern ukrainian city of chernihiv, while more

than 70 others were injured. ukraine's president, volodymyr zelensky, said the russian strike would not have happened "if ukraine had "received sufficient air defence equipment". with american aid now hanging in the balance and its troops struggling on the battlefield, ukraine is facing a critical moment. my colleague sumi somaskanda sat down for an exclusive interview with the ukrainian prime minister denys shymal. we saw today the news the speaker of the house mikejohnson released the details of a bill for support of funding for ukraine. around $61 billion of support. what do you think of this bill? first of all, thank you for having me here today. ukraine is continuing ourfight forfreedom and democratic values. we continue to protect european borders. the united states is one of the biggest supporters and investor in ukrainian economy and in ukrainian defence capacities. we are waiting so much for this

draft law in one or other conditions which now are discussed in congress so we will be very grateful if it will be approved on saturday. we are waiting this for so much and especially our guys and girls on the front line. i can imagine you're watching closely, the vote on saturday as well. did you receive any assurances from your conversations on capitol hill from lawmakers who say this will pass? did they tell you that? we have some conversations today. some conversations we will have tomorrow. all of the partners, all the congressmen, have very careful optimism for saturday so we share this optimism and we need this money yesterday, not tomorrow, not today, but yesterday. we need this support, military support, yesterday, because the situation on the frontline is difficult enough. we need the support from our biggest

partner, from united states. at the same time, there are some republicans here in washington who are sceptical. they don't want this bill even to be brought to a vote, what is your message? if ukraine will fall, all the global system will fall and all the world will need to find and look into new system of security, or, there will be many conflicts, many such kinds of wars and at the end of the day it could lead to third world war. so our mutual task is to protect democratic values, to protect existing, after the second world war, global systems, global security systems, and break long—term and sustainable peace on european continent stops russia must lose this war and the aggressor should be punished.

the vladimir putin regime should be destroyed. only these factors will lead us to the sustainable and long—term peace. i just want to follow up on that, we saw republican congressman mccoll say last week that he thinks that russia propaganda — he thinks it has infected some members of his party, that they are repeating that propaganda. what do you think of that? we shouldn't forget that russia is leading war on ukraine on the ground but russia is leading war with the civilised world, with western countries, in the multidimensional spaces, cyberspace, propaganda, the information space, so in ukraine we have war in the water, the ground, in the sky.

all of this now brings us to these obstacles when we should understand that this information and propaganda is influencing here in the united states and many people, such as in ukraine. we should count on this and we should make our work, we should fight against this absolutely unprovoked illegal action by russia. i want to move to the situation on the ground. we saw a russian strike in chernihiv that killed at least 17 people, and your president recently described the situation in dramatic terms. he said ukraine, "will lose the war if the world "doesn't act." he said that your forces ran out of missiles. that does sound dramatic. how do you describe the situation on the front lines? unfortunately, russia continues its terroristic missiles and drones attack day by day, night by night. today in the morning,

they attacked civilian infrastructure — hotels and houses, civilian houses, and 16 people were killed by russians. 65 people were seriously injured, four children among them. this is, once again, another russian military crime in ukraine. we understand the situation on the frontline is difficult, but the most important message, "we are not exhausted, we are tired." it's natural because this is, we are waiting for ammunition to continue ourfight. we did see senior ukrainian officials who spoke anonymously to political and they indicated they think the front lines in ukraine could collapse this summer when russia is expected to launch an offensive. it is a difficult question, but how close do you think ukraine is to actually possibly losing this war?

we are fighting for our lives, for our homes, for our land, ourfamilies. so i can't even imagine that we will lose this war. the truth is on our side. the support of all the civilised world is on our side. we have absolutely encouraged to go in to liberate our lands and we have everything we need. we need more ammunition, more weaponry and we will roll in and liberate metre by metre our land and our sea, and in the end i believe we will win this war together with our allies, our partners, together with united states and european union. your president is also calling for more air defences, saying this is absolutely critical and he pointed to the way that israel was able to ward off the attack by air by iran. what do you think needs to happen

most urgently to turn the tide? priorities. you are absolutely right. we have a good example how air defence should work to protect human lives. first of all we need air defence. it is crucial now. we need more air defence missiles and more air defence systems to protect ukrainian cities, to protect civilian infrastructure. don't let russians destroy our economy and push our people towards the next wave of migration of the refugees so this is number one, critical priority. we need this yesterday. the second very important priority is ammunition for artillery. this is something we are waiting on the frontline, what our guys and girls are asking us for and they say if we have enough, if it is balanced with russia, we will prevail. and the third very important thing is f—16. we should protect our

sky because now russia is prevailing in the sky. they use only 300 air jets but anyway we have no—one. we need f—16 and these three priorities are very important. defence experts who spoke to the bbc said that they believe russia's objective right now in this conflict is to create a sense of hopelessness in ukraine to convince the west that this war is no longer worth it to support. do you think that is what russia is trying to do? thank you for this question. i think that russians are doing this since the first day of this full—scale war. they use all possible ways — propaganda, disinformation, internal and inside influences inside of ukraine, but i think that nothing can break ukrainian will to win this war, to liberate our land, to protect ourfamilies, so i think that it is impossible to win

the war when you are aggressor and impossible to lose the war when you protect your families, your land. it is enough ukrainian power and the ukrainian moral power to go — we need weaponry, ammunition and we will do our job. prime minister, thank you so much for the conversation. thank you so much. a bbc investigation revealed the death toll is rising on both sides of the fighting in the ukraine. more than 50,000 russian soldiers have been killed so far in the war in ukraine. that figure has come from a bbc investigation with independent russian website mediazona, which has managed to verify the identities of those killed and found that the figure is much higher than the russian authorities in moscow have admitted to. the kremlin has responded to the bbc�*s report. it neither confirmed nor denied the 50,000 figure — saying it has laws on state secrets. bbc russian�*s olga

ivshina reports. in russia, the number of war graves is growing fast. 5th of november. 9th of november. listing the dates of death, volunteers have sent us this video from the city of vladivostok. and here is the same cemetery from above. in the last two years, it has grown twice in size — a pattern seen in graveyards all over russia. since the start of the invasion, the bbc and its partners have been verifying photos of graves, social media posts and news articles to track down the number of russians killed fighting in ukraine. so far, we have verified 50,000 names. our data shows that russia has lost 23% more troops in the second year of invasion compared to the first. this increase reflects a shift in tactics. at first, russia relied on its professional

soldiers deployed to carry out complex operations. but since january 2023, russia began sending thousands of inexperienced troops forward in waves, to weaken ukrainian positions and expose their location to russian artillery. soldiers themselves call it the "meat grinder". the russians are now able to bring a lot more firepower to bear against ukrainian positions when they go into the offensive. as long as the ukrainians are unable to shift that balance of firepower, the meat grinder tactics will very likely continue to be quite successful in taking limited areas of ground across the front. prisoners, recruited and sent to war, have been crucial to these tactics. in return for six months on the frontline, they were promised freedom — if they survived. we have tracked down more than 1,000 russian inmates from the day they signed up

till the day they died. of that number, more than half the prisoners were killed within just 12 weeks of arriving at the front line. whilst our account only includes deaths recorded publicly, data from cemeteries across russia suggests the true figure is likely to be twice as high. and as russian forces continue to push on, pictures of new graves keep coming every day. olga ivshina, bbc news. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. let's look at some other stories making news in the uk. members of the house of lords inflicted a second defeat on the government's plans to send some asylum seekers to rwanda. peers backed an amendment that would exempt afghan soldiers who served alongside british forces from being sent to the east african nation. the bill will now be sent back to the house of commons for further consideration. the scottish government is set to ditch its flagship target of reducing greenhouse gas

emissions by 75% by 2030. the final goal of reaching net—zero by 2045 will remain, but the bbc understands the government's annual climate targets could also go. ministers have have been told that reaching the target by the end of the decade is unachievable. hugh grant has settled a privacy case against a british newspaper publisher. the actor claimed journalists from the sun used private investigators to tap his phone and burgle his house. news group newspapers had denied wrongdoing. grant said he'd been offered an "enormous sum" to stop the case going to trial but insisted he'd been forced to accept the money. you're live with bbc news. returning now to a busy day on capitol hill, and the democratic—controlled senate has dismissed the impeachment case against homeland security secretary alejandro mayorkas. in a party—line vote delayed by several procedural objections, the senate swept aside the two articles

of impeachment that alleged mayorkas mismanaged the us southern border, wilfully refusing to comply with the law and breached public trust. in february, mayorkas became the first cabinet secretary to be impeached in nearly 150 years. democrats have condemned house republicans, saying the procedure was used to solve policy disagreements. republican senate minority leader mitch mcconnell warned of the potential ramifications from dismissing the charges so quickly. we've set a very unfortunate precedent here. this means that the senate can ignore, in effect, the house's impeachment. it doesn't make any difference whether our friends on the other side thought he should have been impeached or not. he was. live now to luke broadwater, a congressional correspondent for the new york times. this was a trial that was

almost over before it started. are you surprised about how quickly this took place at how quickly this took place at how quickly these two articles of impeachment were dismissed by the senate?— the senate? no, it was perhaps the senate? no, it was perhaps the worst kept _ the senate? no, it was perhaps the worst kept secret _ the senate? no, it was perhaps the worst kept secret in - the worst kept secret in washington that the senate democrats planned to dismiss this case pretty quickly. they did not see this as a valid impeachment attempts. in the past, impeachment has been used for corruption, the us constitution states it is to be used for high crimes and misdemeanours and specifically mentions treason and bribery. there is nothing close to that i was alleged against the homeland security secretary mayorkas. the republican case against him came down to that they believed he was feeling at his job to secure the border, which is very different than being involved in corruption or bribery or something like that.

we heard the figure that this was the first cabinet secretary in almost 150 years to be impeached. reminded us how unprecedented this moment was? it is highly unusual. the last cabinet secretary to be impeached was in the 1870s and that was a corruption scandal, and the secretary of the navy and the secretary of the navy and he resigned before the impeachment. there was nothing like that alleged even close to that here. in many ways this piece to any reality on a capitol hill, which is that impeachment has become extremely little sized and is now used as a part of that weapon, perhaps by both parties. the republicans wanted to do and impeachment to get back the democrats for impeaching former president donald trump. they do not have the vote to impeach president biden so they went after the homeland security secretary, he

was an easier target. now there is worry that if the chambers of live, there will be payback on the other side as well. i want to ask you, what does this do for impeachment itself? does this become less of a scarlet letter if a politician were to be impeached? is it lessen the stain on somebody? it is pretty clear new _ stain on somebody? it is pretty clear now that _ stain on somebody? it is pretty clear now that impeachment i stain on somebody? it is prettyl clear now that impeachment has been devalued in america. it used to be people are impeached when there was a big uprising against them across the country, they did something really bad and both parties could agree they deserved impeachment. now, as we see, it is breaking down along party lines, something republicans want to do because the democratic administration and the democrats what it quickly. i assume if the parties change hands and we have donald trump backin hands and we have donald trump back in the white house in the house controlled democrats,

they will then impeach him rather quickly as well, you will will see a similar scenario play out were now this has become a part as a tool in america are not what used to be another the calls for it to be. what you see happening next? how will this dismissal, the saga in general, affect mayorkas and his ability to do hisjob and whether or mayorkas and his ability to do his job and whether or not we will see any meaningful action in congress over the situation at the border?— at the border? what is interesting _ at the border? what is interesting is - at the border? what is| interesting is mayorkas at the border? what is - interesting is mayorkas has essentially ignore this whole proceeding. he has gone about his dayjob, rarely commented on it. he negotiated a border bill with republicans, with senate republicans while the investigation into him was going on. he has always pretended it is not happening, and i asked him what he planned to do, was he going to celebrate now that he had been

essentially acquitted of the charges, and he said he would essentially continue to ignore it and keep going about his job. i don't think it will have that much impact on him but they are trying to get some sort of a border deal to fix the problems at the border, and that does not seem like it will happen any time soon, given the deep divisions between the two parties in america. ashin deep divisions between the two parties in america.— parties in america. our new york times _ parties in america. our new york times correspondent i parties in america. our new- york times correspondent across all the news taking place today on capitol hill, thank you very much forjoining us. israel's allies continue to take action after last weekend's attacks by iran. leaders from the european union have agreed to impose new sanctions on iran's drone and missile producers over tehran�*s unprecedented weekend attack on israel. it comes one day after the us announced its own sanctions on iran. but allies are also urging israel to exercise restraint in its response as the british foreign secretary david cameron stressed during a meeting with israel's prime minister on wednesday.

we wanted to demonstrate our solidarity with israel because it was an appalling attack by iran, but to be clear, we have repeated our view that any response should be smart and that should be designed in a way that is going to limit and try to de—escalate this conflict. nobody wants to see this conflict grow and spread. meanwhile, qatar's prime minister says his country is re—assessing its role as a mediator between israel and hamas, saying his country had been exploited and abused. he said qatar's efforts were being undermined by politicians seeking to score points — the gulf country has close ties to hamas and its diplomats have been playing a pivotal role — alongside us and egyptian colleagues — in trying to secure a ceasefire and the release of israeli hostages. let's turn to some important news around the world. the us is renewing sanctions on venezuela's

lucrative oil industry, saying nicolas maduro's government has "fallen short" on its commitments to hold free and fair elections later this year. us officials say president maduro's government is continuing its repression of opponents. the last election in the country was widely dismissed as neither free nor fair. a court in pakistan directed the government to restore the social media site x, formerly known as twitter, within a week. the platform has faced disruption for more than two months since the jailed former prime minister imran khan's supporters called for protests after allegations of vote rigging in february's election. well, this is what happened when a year and half's worth of rain fell in the united arab emirates tuesday — the heaviest rainfall for at least 75 years. it caused major disruptions at dubai's airport — the second busiest in the world — and problems are still mounting. on wednesday, about 300 flights were cancelled and hundreds more were delayed. graham satchell reports.

the storm that hit dubai was ferocious. more than a year's worth of rainfall fell in less than 2a hours. these time—lapse pictures show the gathering clouds as darkness falls and the rain begins. the floods left the city completely underwater, with cars submerged and stranded, including some expensive ones like this rolls—royce. some drivers attempted to make their way through, but others were left to improvise as best they could. at the airport, extraordinary images, as planes taxied through what looks like a lake. thousands of passengers — many of them british — have been left stranded, with flights cancelled and delayed. the united arab emirates is one of the driest regions in the world. experts say climate change means we'll continue to see extreme weather like this. dubai is a city of concrete and glass, with little infrastructure like storm drains that could help it deal

with a sudden influx of water. emergency services have been busy. this cat — using up one of its nine lives — had a lucky escape. graham satchell, bbc news. that is all we have time for. plenty more to come up on bbc news. check out our website. lots more on our top stories and the russian casualty investigation. hello. slowly but surely, the weather is going to turn a little bit drier, but not an awful lot warmer as we head towards the end of the week. high pressure is tantalizingly close — sitting to the west of the uk, but still far enough away that weather systems can move in around the top of that area of high pressure — bringing cloud, bringing outbreaks of rain. that's exactly what we're going to see through the day on thursday ahead of that cold, frosty start, but we will see some spells of sunshine.

that will hold on across southern counties of england, but further north, it's a story of increasing clouds, some outbreaks of rain. rain for a good part of the day across scotland, some patchy rain for northern ireland. temperatures just a little bit up on where they have been recently, eight to 15 degrees. now through thursday night, we'll see clouds and increasingly light and patchy rain pushing southwards. behind that, a northerly wind kicks in — a mix of clear spells and showers to take us into the first part of friday. so this weather system easing its way through, clearing southwards with northerly winds behind. you can see quite a few isobars squeezing together on the chart, particularly across the northeast of scotland. so here it is going to be windy through the day on friday, particularly around some coasts. it's a day of sunny spells and showers. some of the showers could be on the heavy side, perhaps the showers most frequent across the eastern half of the uk, not as many showers further west. temperatures, six to eight degrees in northern scotland, elsewhere, 11—15 degrees.

now into the weekend, this area of high pressure finally makes its move building across the uk. but brisk winds still affecting eastern coastal counties with potentially quite a lot of cloud, maybe even some showery rain. best chance of any sunshine out towards the west. that's where we'll have the highest of the temperatures, up to around 13, 1a degrees. but it will actually be quite chilly for some eastern parts, particularly for north sea coasts. now, as we get into sunday, again, we'll see clouds, some showery rain perhaps spinning a little bit further west this time. the lowest temperatures always closest to these north sea coast, maybe some places stuck in single digits, 11 for newcastle and for hull. but further west, with some sunshine, northern ireland could see the highest temperatures, 16, maybe 17 degrees. nothing particularly warm in the outlook for next week. often dry, there will be some showers.

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