going to stand for it. the former president also attacked new york attorney general letitia james. ahead of the trial, james responded, saying, "no one is above the law" and that she was confident that "justice will prevail." testimony in the manhattan courtroom started with opening statements, and the state's first witness, donald bender, a long—time accountant for trump's businesses. bender tesified about financial documents, including discrepancies in the price of ivanka trump's penthouse. cbs chief election and campaign correspondent robert costa was in the courtroom during the hearing. he described the scene for us. there was a tense scene inside the courthouse behind me when trump entered the room. the former president did not even look at the attorney general, letitia james, who was sitting in the first row. then he took his seat up near thejudge, sitting alongside his lawyers, and as the government made its case, issued its opening statement, calling the trump organization a fraudulent organisation, you could see the former president cross his arms and shake his head in disgust, because, for him, this was deeply personal, according to the sources who have spoken with me today, long—time confidants of trump. they say this is not just a company to him, this is something intertwined with his life, his political career, his brand, and that's why he decided to show up today. he did not need to show up. he did this voluntarily. a short time ago, i spoke about all of this with sarah krissoff, formerfederal prosecutor in the southern district of new york, and josh gerstein, senior legal affairs report for politico. great to see you both. sarah, i want to start with you and get your thoughts on what we saw in the hearing today. i think it was interesting that trump decided to show up. that may have been part of a strategy decision to postpone his deposition and his litigation with michael cohen, but he decided to be there today to make a statement and to sort of tell thejudge, "i'm here, "this is an important case to me", and we will see how it plays out over the next few weeks and frankly whether trump continues to show up, because that's unlikely but possible, i suspect. josh, what did you think of mr trump's demeanour and his comments? well, it struck me that this is now, for better or worse, for the former president, a part of his presidential campaign. he came out this morning before the trial even started and spent 7.5 minute speaking to cameras, talking about how he was the victim here, the crime was the case that was being brought against him, not anything that he did, and it'sjust going to be the case for the next year or so that we are going to watch this most extraordinary presidential campaign, we are going to have what looks to be a major party presidential candidate, probably a major party candidate nominee for the white house, spending half his time, perhaps, at civil— or criminal trials, trying to use those to his political advantage. sarah, coming back to you, if we look at this specific trial, thejudge has already decided essentially the core of this case, so do we know how it's going to end? so i think we have a pretty good idea. thejudge made a decision, and gave the government partial summaryjudgment on fraud claims, related to these valuations of assets, but the judge, it was a very scathing opinion by thejudge, it is very clear what he thinks of the government's evidence so far, and that i suspect it is likely to go the way of the government at the end of the day here, as well. josh, you talked about the number of indictments the former president is facing. how does this all affect him? well, so far, it has helped him really clear the field in the republican presidential primary, but the big $25,000 question here is what happens if former president trump gets into a general election campaign? will middle—of—the—road, moderate, often independent voters, who are sometimes not affiliated with either presidential, of the political parties here, be willing to take — on the chance of a candidate who is embroiled in this degree of problems, legal problems, both criminal and civil. it is evident we now have one candidate, former president trump, who actually thinks, at least at this stage in the campaign, that this is to his political benefit to harness these allegations and to paint them, as he has called it repeatedly, a legal witchhunt, aimed at putting him injail and confiscating his business empire. we have seen the former president attacked the judge quite a bit. what did you make of that? frankly, the former president's statements against the judge, the attorney general, i think there are few who could get away with that, other than the former president. these are scathing comments against these parties, really unprecedented. it is not something you usually see in this type of litigation. but he's getting away with it. i know there have been other efforts to keep him quiet a bit, but those have been largely unsuccessful to date. he repeats over and over again, asjosh said, his mantras, his tag lines, and he sticks with them. sarah, just a follow—up on that, i know you are a former federal prosecutor, but if you were to step into the shoes of trump's legal team here with a number of trials he could be facing next year already, what do you think the defence strategy is? they all have a little bit of a different tactic here. i think the team that's handling this case really has an uphill battle, as you alluded to at the beginning of the programme. the judge has already found partial summary judgment, he has basically found there is a pattern of fraudulent documents that have been provided in order to secure loans and other benefits related to these properties, so the other charges related to those cases, courses of action, rather, related to those things, or, you know, is likely to be resolved against trump as well. but i think he is handling each one of these cases a bit differently, as he shed, the stakes are different and the manner is different. what are your thoughts on how the trump team is handling all of this, josh? my understanding, from speaking to sources on the legal side of the trump operation, is that they frankly expect to lose this trial, because of the judge that they have, and because of the attitude that he has displayed towards trump during the course of this litigation, because of the ruling you were bothjust discussing, a few days ago, that the side of a case much in the favour of the attorney general's office. i think they think that their chance of prevailing here in front of this judge is next to nothing. we should make clear to viewers this is not a jury trial, this is a judge—only trial, onlyjustice angeron, who is there overseeing the proceeding, he is the one who is going to make the decision. the question then will be what happens on appeal. we have already seen one appeal here in the last few days by trump's legal team, and i expect, if it goes as many people think it will, and they lose here in front of this judge, they are going to an appeals court, and at least forestall any action against trump as mac any action against trump's business empire until at least after next fall's presidential election. just a follow—up on what we heard from josh, sarah, what you think the impact on the former president to losing this trial would be? well, i think he is very concerned about losing it, just because of an image perspective, frankly, and i think it would hit pretty hard on his wallet. so he does seem interested in this case, focused on this case, even though it is only a civil case, and the stakes are lesser than the criminal cases ahead for him. but he certainly, i think, is taking it seriously, as he should. and josh, one more question for you. you wrote that the former president is the 800 lb gorilla in the wings for the supreme court session that has started. what did you mean by that? well, what i meant was the supreme court is setting up its docket for the coming term, and at the moment, there is nothing on it that directly pertains to the former president, but with the four criminal cases that he is facing and the sweeping claims of immunity he is planning to bring, in many of those cases, saying that, as the former president, he shouldn't be subject to this sort of litigation, i think it is almost certain that sometime over the course of the next year, we are going to see his lawyers go to the supreme court to try to shutdown either some action against him in the civil case we have been discussing here, or in those four criminal cases against him. there is really no way the supreme court is going to be able to dodge getting into that fight, as well as another fight out there, which is the issue of trying to take — trump off the ballot in many states across the country. josh, sarah, great have your insights tonight. thank you so much. on capitol hill, here in washington, republican house speaker kevin mccarthy is facing a rebuke from his within own party, as republican representative matt gaetz of florida has filed a motion to vacate him from his leadership role. here's the moment that it happened. the gentleman will state the form of his resolution. declaring the office of speaker of the house of representatives to be vacant, resolved that the office of the speaker of the house of representatives is hereby declared to be vacant. speaker mccarthy then posted on x, formerly known as twitter, saying simply, "bring it on." the move tees up a showdown in the house, as representatives will now need to decide whether to oust mccarthy over the next two days. but it's currently not clear if gaetz has the crucial 218 votes needed to remove mccarthy. he may even need to lean on democrats to do it. democrats are set to meet, tuesday morning, to discuss that very dilemma. it's an escalation of a dispute, after mccarthy relied on democratic votes to pass government spending legislation, saturday. it keeps the government funded and open in the short term, but does not provide funding for ukraine. some republicans have defended mccarthy, but a vocal minority of the party are not convinced. republican representative victoria spartz voted against the stop—gap funding bill that averted a shutdown. i spoke with her about mccarthy's future as speaker. congresswoman, thank you so much forjoining us on bbc news tonight. will you support matt gaetz�*s motion to the speaker's chair? i'm very open—minded. i haven't decided yet. what considerations would go into that decision for you? well, i'm going to see, in reality, you know, i think, speaker mccarthy had several chances to deliver. he failed and i need to decide do i trust to give him one more chance, what i believe we can try someone else and i will have to think very hard. what would speaker mccarthy have to say to you to make sure you could stand behind him? well, listen, i generally judge people by actions, not by words, and unfortunately, you know, kevin would not be able to fight the fight to win. it is one thing to fight for the picture on the wall and get the leadership position, and another to fight to actually deliver for the people, and it's very difficult. you need to have backbone, you need to have vision and you need to be able to challenge the status quo and not be afraid of the big machine in washington, dc. but there is no lobby for the people here. we are the only lobby and we have to start delivering for the american people, and i have a responsibility if my republicans do not deliver. i want to ask where your colleagues stand. we heard matt gaetz say that kevin mccarthy doesn't have the support of a requisite number republicans. what is your sense among your colleagues? there is a lot of frustration, i'll be honest. a lot of issues of kevin wasn't created just by him, they have really been accumulated by years by many congresses, but we are in charge right now so we cannot blame other congresses. we have to deal with some major issues, whether it is border security, crushing debt. we have to start moving the needle, and there is a lot of frustration, but in the end, people will have to make a decision, what they believe or what they want to do, and that is up to them. but there are a number of republicans who are frustrated right now. do you think there are enough republicans frustrated so that matt gaetz would have the number of votes he needs to make this successful? it is a possibility, it depends what democrats do. i don't think a lot of democrats don't dislike kevin. he gave a blank cheque during our debt ceiling deal until the end of �*24 for president biden to spend as much as he wants, he gave actually more money this time than nancy pelosi, 16 billion more, and it already wasn't inflated spending. so i think some democrats might actually decide, you know, to support him, unless they want to, you know, give a hard time and just play politics, with having republicans go through another speaker election. so it is hard to say, but i wouldn't be surprised if some democrats will support kevin. so what would happen if the democrats did make a deal with kevin mccarthy for him to stay in hisjob? i don't think it is about making a deal, they might be afraid, you know, kevin has been not as big of a fighter to win on some of the issues as some other speaker might be, so i think they might decide that he is actually not as bad forthem, because, ultimately, there are some challenging issues, that we have not been able to push senate. our power of the purse is in two chambers. actually, we can blame the president as much as we want, but congress has ultimate responsibility to have the power of the purse and exercise it and deliver for the people, and we haven't been able to push on the senate, on both parties. i mean, it is controlled by democrats, but also, there are plenty of republicans that are voices in the senate, and we didn't really dig in enough. one of the big questions about the power of the purse right now and specifically among republicans is more aid for ukraine. you are the first ukrainian—born member of congress, you have been a strong supporter of aid for ukraine. do you know if there is any agreement at this point to put more aid for ukraine forth? i think we have to have a serious discussion. i actually raised these concern over a year ago about accountability and strategy and making sure it is delivered faster so they understand the power of weapons. not the talk. and president biden did not communicate that fact to the american people and congress why it is in our national interest to help ukraine win this war and to deter russian aggression. so a lot of things were done that i was very, very disappointed, so now we will have to have a discussion on how congress, and i hope on a bipartisan basis with the senate, can push on president biden to do better in ukraine, but also, on domestic issues like border security. we've seen reporting that the pentagon has been warning congressional leaders that it is running low on money for ukraine, that the $5.2 billion on assistance could last only for another few months. what do you think of that? well, maybe they should do better accounting. last time they found 6 billion, maybe they should look in their accounting and the department of defense actually needs a serious question in why they haven't been able to be auditable now for years. it is very alarming. so i think the pentagon has a better time to worry about what is happening in the department of defense and how the money is spent before they asked congress, and actually give us the numbers, because, strangely enough, we asked for that for a long time. can you reconcile all of the money we are providing? much of this money we are giving to associated courses and i would like to know which companies and countries received the money, and for americans to see. didn't really benefit, americans, american companies and actually... congresswoman, if i could justjump in there. beyond the question of accountability, do you think this argument over whether to give more funding to ukraine or not emboldens vladimir putin? well, listen, what emboldens him is when we do not spend money wisely, and we are not spending in the right causes, that benefits only here because we deal with governments with bad track records and putin knows how to take advantage to buy, to destabilise. he is very good destabilising. do not underestimate him. i think good strategy, good action and good accountability will serve for the benefit of the ukrainian people. but when we do not have it, actually it only benefits him. great to have you on bbc tonight. thank you very much. thank you for having me. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. now to some other stories. the un security council has voted to send an international protection force, to fight gang—related violence in haiti. it will be led by a large detachment of kenyan police officers. gangs have taken control of large parts of the country, waging terror on residents and killing hundreds. authorities in port—au—prince asked for international help nearly a year ago, following the assassination of presidentjovenel moise. a lightning strike has caused a huge gas explosion at a food waste recycling plant just outside the english city of oxford. witnesses reported seeing a huge fireball lighting up the night sky. officials said the strike caused a biogas tank at the facility to ignite. there have been no reports of casualties and staff are working to secure the site. the james webb space telescope has spotted jupiter—sized planets free—floating in space. that is they're unconnected to any star. and they appear to be moving in pairs. the telescope observed about a0 pairs in a detailed new survey of the famous orion nebula. they've been nicknamed jupiter mass binary objects, or �*jumbos�* for short. you are watching bbc news. the former chief executive of global fashion brand abercrombie & fitch and his british partner are facing allegations of exploitation from men recruited for sex events they hosted around the world. a bbc investigation found a highly organised operation running the events with a middleman finding young adult men for mikejeffries and his partner matthew smith. eight men told the bbc they attended these events, some of whom alleged they were exploited or abused. mrjeffries and mr smith did not respond to requests for comment. rianna croxford has the story. in the early 2000s, abercrombie & fitch became one of the hottest labels in the us and around the world. sexualised imagery and provocative billboards turned the teen retailer, which also owns hollister brand into a multibillion dollar sensation. the man behind the vision was then ceo mikejeffries. mike was tireless. he was very energetic and boisterous. he was an incredibly big personality. he would explode into a room. bbc panorama has uncovered a highly organised international operation recruiting young adult men for sex with mikejeffries over several years when he was ceo of the brand. the experience i think broke me and it mentally messed me up. two men agreed to tell me their accounts on camera. they attended separate events hosted by mikejeffries in 2010 and 2011. both men say they were recruited and auditioned by a middleman. james jacobson, known to the men as �*jim'. david says mrjacobson led him to believe he was pursuing a modelling opportunity. i was made to believe, look, this is where everybody gets their start, this is where you want to get your start. it was like he was selling fame. and the price was compliance. david says compliance meant engaging in a sexual act with mrjacobson. seven more men i've spoken to say they also met with jim. the men say mrjacobson was part of a well—oiled machine which included recruiters, drivers and other staff. mrjacobson told the bbc any encounters were fully consensual, not coercive. he said he had no recollection of making promises of modelling opportunities and that everyone who he came into contact with who attended these events went in with their eyes wide open. this is the route that the men would have taken on their way to the hamptons when they were going to go meet with mikejeffries. once through the audition, the men would go to an event hosted by mrjeffries and his british partner, matthew smith. some were held at their home here in the exclusive new york coastal community, the hamptons. barrett said he was introduced to mrjacobson by an older model who he felt indebted to, and knew there would be some kind of sexual activity. david said he was not extending sex to take place at the hamptons. i was taken, chaperoned over to the main house, to the doors that entered into the bedroom where everything was happening. and then told to disrobe. barrett says he engaged in an intimate act with another man. david says mrjeffries had sex with him. i didn't feel safe to, like, say no or "i don't feel comfortable with this," i don't really know what would've happened. i didn't feel like i had any choice. both men say they felt leaving did not seem to be an option because mrjeffries�* private staff were supervising the event. including in the bedroom. they also said they were asked to sign nondisclosure agreements and not given any copies to take away. i feel like they were trying to scare us, that is what it felt like. it felt like intimidation. both men were paid around $2,500 after the events they attended. still hoping it may lead to modelling work, david went to further events with mrjeffries and mr smith, both in the us and around the world. two us lawyers, who reviewed evidence uncovered by the bbc, said prosecutors should investigate whether the allegations could amount to sex trafficking. the bbc has made repeated attempts to contact mrjeffries and mr smith. they have not responded. abercrombie & fitch told us: its new executive leadership team has transformed the company's brand and culture, adding the company has zero tolerance forabuse, harassment or discrimination of any kind. rianna croxford, bbc news. and before we go, we have two health—related stories for you. the world health organization says a new malaria vaccine was found to be 75% effective in phase three trials. the trials took place in four african countries, involving nearly 5,000 children. it is the most effective jab developed against the disease so far. and the nobel prize in physiology or medicine has been awarded to two scientists who developed the technology that led to the mrna covid vaccines. professors katalin kariko and drew weissman will share the prize. the technology was experimental before the pandemic, but has now been given to millions of people around the world. the same technology is now being researched for other diseases. that's all from the team here in washington. i'm sumi somaskanda. let's leave you with these live pictures of london as we hand off to our colleagues there. stay with bbc news. hello. it's been a warm first few days of october following on from the record—breaking september. well, joint record, as you can see. for maximum temperatures, that was tied with the record set in 1895. now, all that heat and humidity has triggered some thunderstorms during the latter part of monday. they have continued through the night. lots of excess rain and standing water slow to clear away. as well as that, this weather front here as well, just lingering in southeastern parts first thing. so a bit misty and a bit grey, showers following towards the north. this is the weather system i talked about, the rain starting to ease, but leaving lots of damp, misty, murky weather, and then potentially some thunderstorms following in the wake of that weather front. certainly a fresh night and a cool night to end in the north, but it will still be quite muggy in the south with that lingering misty, low cloud and damp weather, perhaps a few thundery showers across southern areas first thing. in terms of dry weather improving, bright, more blue sky around, but scattered showers most frequent in the north and the west for the day. and a brisk wind whisking the showers through. 14—19 our highs. it will be notably cooler feeling or fresher feeling across england and wales because of the breeze and also we've lost the humidity. now, by wednesday, we have got high pressure starting to build towards the south. further weather fronts invading northern parts, particularly scotland and then northern ireland, and then that weather front might well become slow—moving across parts of southern scotland, northern england. so there are warnings out appropriately for the end of the week. to the south, mainly dry and fine, but quite a bit of cloud around, showers follow to the north. look at those temperatures. still around about 14—19, just a little bit still above average actually for the time of year. we keep our weather front with us through wednesday night into thursday, probably pushing northwards once again, another pulse of rain on that weather system. so there are, as i say, warnings out for the rainfall in northern and western part of the uk for the latter part of the week. but for many parts further south, it's dry, it's fine, and it will get warmer. in fact, we are hinting — the computer models are hinting at temperatures getting into the low to mid 20s across many parts as we go into the weekend. the warnings are on the website. voiceover: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour, straight after this programme. welcome to hardtalk with me, zeinab badawi. my guest is pakistan's caretaker prime minister, anwaar—ul—haq kakar, who's on a visit here in london. in august, he was put in charge of the pakistani government until elections are held in the new year. this comes at a time of extreme political turmoil, huge economic challenges and growing insecurity. does he have what it takes to steer the country through its current difficulties? and can he stand up to the power of the military? anwaar—ul—haq kakar, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. thank you for having me. so, do you have what it takes to steer pakistan through these really tough times? well, definitely. we are committed to steer pakistan out of these challenging and difficult times and for that, the laws