against iran last night with minutes to spare after deciding that too many human lives would be lost. the attack had been planned in response to the shooting down of an unmanned us drone by iran earlier this week. our north america editor jon sopel reports. in iran they are celebrating taking out of the sky a $130 million us drone — the latest escalation in tensions between washington and tehran. today, on iranian tv, the results of their handiwork were being shown off. america has no shortage of military assets in the region but the anticipated retaliation never came. it turns out military strikes had been ordered. but at the last moment donald trump had a change of mind. he confirmed this on twitter this morning: but now a rather different account from the president. the planes weren't even in the air, so weapons couldn't have been locked and loaded. were planes in the air? we were about ready to go. no, but they would have been pretty soon, and things would have happened to a point where you wouldn't turn back or couldn't turn back. that wasn't quite the impression he gave yesterday at the white house, when watched by his hawkish national security adviser and secretary of state he seemed to suggest that action was imminent. one of iran's deputy foreign ministers told the bbc they were only acting in self—defence. when you violate iranian territorial space, then we defend. this is defence. and to back up their argument, iran's foreign minister produced a sketch to claim the drone was flying over iranian territorial waters. the us put out a more formal looking map to claim it was in international airspace. regardless, the federal aviation authority has issued orders preventing american airlines from flying over the persian gulf and the gulf of oman as a result of this incident. british airways is doing the same. at friday prayers today in tehran there were renewed chants of "death to america." last night donald trump pulled back, but this is still a tense and dangerous situation in a highly volatile region. you can read more about this story on our website, including analysis from our diplomatic correspondent jonathan marcus about what a us—iran conflict could look like. just go to bbc.com/news or download the bbc news app. the parents of a british muslim convert dubbed "jihadijack" have been found guilty of funding terrorism by a british court. jack letts was 18 when he left for syria in 2014. our middle east correspondent quentin sommerville met him last year. one of the islamic state group's most notorious recruits was former oxford schoolboy jack letts. he agreed to speak to us in october last year. only now that his parents‘ trial is over can the interview be broadcast. he said he wasn't speaking under duress and he wanted to come clean about his membership of is. i asked him if he had betrayed his country. what were you? were you a traitor or were you are a collaborator? that's the question i'm asking you. a traitor to britain? you mean a traitor to britain? it's the first time i've heard that term in a long time. i was definitely an enemy of britain. i have no doubt about this. i haven't tried to make myself innocent. i did what i did, i made a big mistake and that's what happened. i regretted what i did and thought, supposedly the british idea is that even if you do make big mistakes, you can sort of go back. not go back to britain, i mean go back from your mistakes. you can set things right. did they ever ask you to put on a suicide vest? they don't ask you, but they encourage you. in a sort of indirect way. i used to want to at one point, believe it or not. i now think it's actually haram. that's the first time i say this. i might as well tell the truth. i did at one point want to. not a vest, i wanted to do it in a car. so i said, if there's a chance, i'll do it. i didn't request to do it, but at the same time it was obvious that, i made it obvious to him that if there was a battle i'm ready. spain's supreme court has ruled that an attack on a woman that shocked spain was gang rape, rather than an earlier verdict of sexual abuse. the five men, known as the wolf pack, were originally given nine years in jail when they were cleared of rape. but prosecutors appealed to the supreme court to upgrade the conviction and judges increased their sentences to 15 years. guy hedgcoe has the latest from madrid. in the summer of 2016, during the running of the bulls festival in pamplona, five young men led an 18—year—old woman to the lobby of an apartment building in the early hours of the morning, where they had sex with her. she accused them of raping her, but when the case went to trial last year, the court ruled that the five defendants were instead guilty of the lesser crime of sexual abuse. thejudges said that because there had been no violence or intimidation, the rape charge did not apply. the accused, who were known as the "wolf pack" because of the name of a whatsapp group they shared, were given nine—year jail sentences. that verdict drew widespread outrage. but many spaniards believed it had been a clear—cut case of rape, and took to the streets to protest. the backlash against this particular court decision fed into a broader campaign for women's rights in spain. both the defendants and the victim appealed the verdict. on friday the supreme court heard from lawyers on both sides. translation: all the acts took place in an atmosphere of terror, of absolute subjugation in which the only thing the victim declared to the court was, i closed my eyes and waited for all that to end as soon as possible. this time the court decided there had been intimidation, and that therefore this was a case of rape. the defendants had their original sentences increased from nine years to 15. one of them, antonio manuel guerrero, received an extra two years because he stole the phone of the victim during the attack. all five men, who had been freed on bail, were arrested in seville shortly after the supreme court announced its ruling. the un high commissioner for human rights, michelle bachelet, has been holding talks with the venezuelan president, nicolas maduro, as she wraps up a visit designed to break the country's political deadlock. police were reportedly called by a neighbour to the london home of the conservative leadership candidate boris johnson and his partner carrie symonds early yesterday morning after a neighbour reportedly heard screaming and shouting. our political correspondent, chris mason, explained what happened after the police were called. the neighbour heard a loud argument. the newspaper says it has spoken to a neighbour and this neighbour tape recorded some of the row, and the guardian says it has heard this recording — the bbc has not heard the recording. they say the neighbour said that mrjohnson‘s girlfriend could be heard telling him to "get off me", and "get out of my flat", she was allegedly heard saying that mrjohnson had ruined a sofa with red wine and told him "you just don't care for anything because you are spoiled, you have money or anything". because you are spoiled, you have no care for money or anything". in a statement the metropolitan police has said yes, it did take a call after midnight from a local resident concerned for the welfare of a female neighbour, police say they attended and spoke to all the occupants at the address who were all safe and well, there were no offences or concerns apparent to the officers and there was no cause for police action. as for his reaction, a spokesperson for mrjohnson tonight has said no comment, but he did not deny the story. in a contest where character as well as policy is going to be under scrutiny, these are headlines borisjohnson could do without. meanwhile, the first official hustings with the two candidates seeking to become conservative party leader and prime minister will be held in birmingham on saturday afternoon. boris johnson and jeremy hunt will apear before an audience of party members. the event is open to the media butjournalists will not be allowed to ask questions. ahead of the first husting, foreign secretaryjeremy hunt challenged borisjohnson to take part in a tv debate, as close as possible to the day the ballot papers are posted out. the point i'm making is it makes an absolute mockery of this leadership contest for the conservative party if people will actually have started voting before they have a chance to see the two protagonists on tv. and boris challenged me to do the itv debate, i was very happy to accept until i realised that that debate is so far ahead that people will have already started voting before it happens. i think we should be doing debates early, we should be doing them often, if the party wants him to go out to battle against nigel farage, jeremy corbyn, 27 eu countries, then surely it is not such a big deal to go out against a friendly foreign secretary. hustings are an important part of the process but the kind of rigourous scrutiny that you get from the today programme, from andrew marr, sophie ridge, these are something quite different, and this is the biggestjob in the country, the most important position in the land. if you want the top job you have got to turn up for the interviews. the foreign office minister mark field has been suspended from the government after grabbing a climate—change protestor and marching her out of a dinner in the city of london. mr field said he acted instinctively when the woman approached the stage during a speech by the chancellor philip hammond. the minister has apologised, the woman he confronted has said he needs anger management classes. here's our home affairs correspondent, daniel sandford. in red dresses, suffragette—style sashes and dinnerjackets, the climate emergency protesters had little difficulty getting past security and into a room full of senior politicians and bankers. there, they staged a noisy protest as the chancellor, phillip hammond, tried to make his speech. some diners intervened and there was pushing and shoving. among the protesters, janet barker, a long—term greenpeace activist. she starts to make her way to the top table and the chancellor and the governor of the bank of england, at which point foreign office minister mark field intervenes and angrily manhandles her out of the room, holding her by the back of the neck. can you get this person out? two months ago, he had called on police to take a firmer grip on climate protesters. today, janet barker told the bbc she didn't want to go to the police, but she had concerns about the minister. i would quite like him to go on anger management perhaps, and i hope he doesn't do it again, because there was some serious anger there. but for me, the concern is the environment. it is what i've lived for. i've done it for 22 years and i will continue to do it. mark field has apologised, saying it was an instinctive reaction, but the prime minister was very concerned and suspended him as a minister. he recognises that what happened was an overreaction, but what we need now, in his interests but also in the interests of the lady involved, is a proper independent inquiry by the cabinet office. greenpeace said mark field's actions were an assault, but what exactly is the law? the first question is did he honestly believe that it was necessary for him to use force? and then the second question would be, was the force that he used reasonable in the circumstances as he believed them to be? emergency! this is an emergency! you've made your point. the city of london, which organised the dinner, said it was reviewing security, but it was the minister's actions that caused the greatest shock. daniel sandford, bbc news. this is bbc news, the latest headlines: president trump says he called off an overnight attack on iran with just minutes to spare because too many people would have been killed. let's return now to our top story. our correspondent chris buckler is in washington. good to see you. what is the overwhelming reaction to these revelations about how donald trump reacted to this situation? it is mixed. there are some democrats who believed he made the right decision, that he could have provoked a conflict that could be very serious with iran. but some hardline republicans sensed a bit of a mixed message towards iran when what was needed was a clear warning. stepping back from the edge of conflict, he did go against some in his administration. it is believed the secretary of state, mike pompeo, and national security advisorjohn bolton, wanted strikes to go ahead, and of course they were called off last minute. it leaves president trump with this real problem of what exactly to do next. he needs to find a new strategy to deal with iran, and he has been speaking with nbc news here. he said, i am not looking for war, and if there is war it will be obliteration like have never seen before, but i am not looking to do that. those are pretty mixed signals to be sending to tehran at this stage. is there now going to be perhaps a push by congress or a desire to get more involved should there be any military action in the future against iran? i don't think there is any doubt about that whatsoever. congress have been saying time and time again that they need to be consulted, particularly if this is going to develop into conflict. there is some frustration from some of those inside congress that they weren't consulted about this military strike ahead of a potentially ——it potentially happening a matter of 2a hours ago. there is the issue of keeping congress on board, particularly republicans, because they have been frustrated in the way he has been dealing with some issues, for example, when it comes to saudi arms deals they have pushed back. and his attempt to keep them out of the loop attempt to keep them out of the loop ata time attempt to keep them out of the loop at a time when they need to keep the saudis on board, but at the same time president trump is trying to play down a lot of this talk. even raising the possibility of talks with tehran itself. i have to say, iran has not been responsive to that. in fact, they responded by suggesting that that is not going to happen, it won't even be considered, as long as un sanctions remain on iran. and though sanctions are going to remain, particularly this very important trading route, the strait of hormuz, where billions of barrels of hormuz, where billions of barrels of oil are transported every day, it maintains it is a flashpoint as long as these two nations continue to talk about each other in such strong terms. thousands of people have again taken to the streets in the georgian capital tbilisi, a day after more than 200 people were injured in protests at the parliament buildings. on thursday, police used teargas and rubber bullets to disperse protesters angry over a russian politican making a speech inside parliament. russia has suspended passenger flights from russia to georgia and advised russian tourists not to travel to georgia. rayhan demytri is in tbilisi. thousands came out to protest in central tbilisi for the second consecutive day. people are frustrated with their government and with russia. that's because on thursday, at the georgian parliament, a russian lawmaker addressed an assembly of orthodox and he's while sitting in the chair of the georgian parliament speaker. —— orthodox mps. it was controversial because many georgians consider russia as an enemy state. 11 years ago, the two countries fought a war over south australia, a georgian breakaway territory which is now under moscow's military control. —— south tbilisi. following the incident with the russian mp thousands turned out to protest on friday, but it's turned violent, after demonstrators attempted to storm the parliament building. the lease used tear gas and rubber bullets in response. —— police. 240 people, including 80 policemen and over 30 journalists, were injured. on friday, georgia's governing party announced the resignation of parliament's announced the resignation of pa rliament‘s speaker. but announced the resignation of parliament's speaker. but that didn't stop protesters from gathering again. " no to russia". this phrase has been repeated over and over again by protesters speaking into megaphones outside the georgian parliament. the visit by a russian mp which sparks this protest, it seems, was a catalyst for much deeper frustrations that georgians have with their current administration. the very administration. the very administration which will now have to deal with russia's reaction to these protests. translation: to deal with russia's reaction to these protests. translationzl to deal with russia's reaction to these protests. translation: a large number of russian citizens spend their holidays in georgia. if anti— russian hysteria is fomented there, oui’ russian hysteria is fomented there, our people will simply not go there. we will give such recommendations, and then the real problems will appear in georgia's economy. but georgians say they are not afraid of these threats. they have been through it in the past. now they simply want to be free from russian interference in the future. sir eltonjohn has been awarded france's highest civilian honour, the legion d'honneur, for services to music and the fight against aids. the award was presented by president macron in a private ceremony at the elysee palace. the 72—year—old musician is in paris on the latest stop of his marathon farewell tour, as freya cole reports. hand—in—hand from french president emmanuel macron and the legendary sir eltonjohn. bonjour! sir elton has been in paris for his farewell yellow brick road world tour, but before he departs the country, he picked up france's highest civilian award, the legion of honour. i have a huge love affair with france. i have a house here, i have always loved coming here. i love the french culture, the way of life and the french people. and as a musician, to receive this award on the day of the festival de musique makes it even more special. the ceremony was held at the elysee palace, the president describing him as a melodic genius, but also paying homage to his lifelong work championing gay rights and raising billions of dollars to ending the plight of hiv/aids. translation: we have to continue to finance the research, to finance treatments and to continue to allow access to treatments for everyone, and so this commitment to music and the fight against aids has been your entire life, dear elton. the top accolade comes less than a month after the release of rocketman, a deeply personal bio pic revealing his life behind the scenes. people don't pay to see reg dwight, they pay to see eltonjohn! the 72—year—old says this final world tour will be his last, but those who have studied his life aren't entirely convinced. he could never not perform, because i think it is too much in his blood and he loves it too much. and he wouldn't want to be away too much from the fans, i don't think. sir elton is now on his way to the south of france, continuing his epic career, one which gets a big thumbs up. freya cole, bbc news. a little earlier i spoke to kenny metcalf, who is considered one of the world's top eltonjohn impersonators and an expert on the man himself. he joined impersonators and an expert on the man himself. hejoined us from his studio in los angeles. i asked why he decided to devote his career to eltonjohn. well, eltonjohn was the inspiration that made me want to be a piano player. i was a drummer for ten years, and in freshman year in high school, benny and thejets came out and that was it, for me. i went home and taught myself to play the piano and i have loved elton‘s music and everything that is elton ever since. one of the reasons eltonjohn has been given this particular award, which is quite something, from france, is for his musical genius, essentially. and i have heard so much about it, apparently he comes up with these songs, these hits, in minutes. how much can you tell us about eltonjohn as the musician? he is amazing. his music is in—depth, in such a way, i mean, when he wrote this stuff, for him and his band, to write such classics in15 minutes' time, and then in 15 minutes' time the band learns it and records it, and they are standing to this day as amazing songs, they are epic. playing elton‘s music has made me a better piano player than i ever was. i loved his music, i love the way he phrases chord structures, melody lines. he'sjust amazing, and i get to do this and put smiles on people's faces, it is the greatest thing. but there is more to the man than music. he has been rewarded for his work on aids. how much of a trailblazer was he in that area? he is the guy. he is the one who impacted that and help save so many people. he has raised the most amount of money, there is nobody like elton, when it comes to that. you've got to love him. he spreads himself so thin. i thought it was interesting, the french president said of eltonjohn, he is an icon who knew how to set an example. what do you think you meant by that? do you think that despite this award and honour from france but eltonjohn has been recognised properly in his entirety, both for music and for his work on other issues? oh, yes, yes. he is very recognised. when he comes to los angeles and hosts events to raise money for his foundation he is always sold out, and the people come. but, i mean, around the world he is definitely recognised for this. all right, well, kenny metcalf, one of the world's top elton john impersonators and also an aficionado on the man's life, playing us out here on bbc news. # she packed my bags last night pre—flight # zero hour, nine am # and i'm gonna be high as a kite by then # and i think it's gonna be a long long time # ‘till touchdown brings me round again to find # i'm not the man they think i am at home # oh no, no, no # i'm a rocket man # rocket man burning out his fuse up here alone # and i think it's gonna be a long long time hello there. things are warming up this weekend right across the board. it'll certainly be noticeable across southern areas, where the humidity will also gradually increase, and into next week, certainly late on sunday, the threat of thundery showers increases as well. for the weekend, fine for most of us. lots of dry weather around. we start this morning on a cool note outside town. the single digits in one or two places. the pressure chart reveals high pressure. this will be the driving force for the fine weather, certainly for the first half of the weekend, but this low pressure system will come into play later across the south—west. lots of sunshine up and down the country this morning, into the afternoon, cloud will tend to build up in places. could see an isolated shower pretty much anywhere, but northern scotland will see a scattering of showers, i think, through the morning and into the afternoon. temperatures higher than we have seen over the last few days. high 20s for england and wales. 19 or 20 in the central belt of scotland. into saturday evening and saturday night, most places will stay dry. maybe still a few showers across the far north of scotland. we could see clouds just building up across the very far west of the country. notice the temperatures, they are starting to import warmer and more humid air. double—figure values for all. a warmer start to the day on sunday. plenty of sunshine around and still a few showers across the northern isles. then this weather front starts to push in across wales and the south—west of england later in the day, to bring outbreaks of rain. to the north and east it should stay dry, feeling even warmer, 24—25 across the south—east, high teens further north. this is the pressure chart as we head through sunday night. high pressure still holding on across the north of the country, with this low pressure and its warmer front continuing to move north and east. the rain will pop up across southern and western areas late on sunday. during sunday night and into the early hours of monday, there is the potential of some really heavy and thundery rain moving north. hit and miss, torrential downpours, some areas could see the risk of some surface water flooding. it will turn warm and muggy by the end of the night across southern areas. monday, heavy and thundery rain spilling its way slowly northwards, attracting much of scotland. the very far north of england as well. further south the sunshine could come out, but that could spark off further thundery showers, we're really importing warmer humid air during monday afternoon and we could see the high 20 celsius in the south. still fairly warm in the north, despite all the rain. as we head through much of next week it stays warm, even hot, in southern areas. with the high humidity, thundery showers are likely to continue to be a risk. there are warnings in force for this, so head to the website 00:29:03,289 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 to check those out.

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