special coverage of this growing crisis between iran and israel, the un security council meeting called last night, a special meeting in the wake of the rainy and unprecedented attack across israel, the un secretary general sounded a warning. he says the region is on the brink. like many world leaders in the region and across the world he is calling for restraint, calling on israel not to retaliate. the top table, the security council, is one of the few places in iran and israel set in the same room and they use this opportunity, the israeli ambassador said iran had crossed every red redline. the top diplomats in iran said this was a legitimate act of self defence after the israeli attack on its consulate in damascus on the 1st of april which killed several of its senior revolutionary guards. in two hours time in israel the israeli war cabinet will meet and there are a range of options on the table. last night we heard from benny gantz, a member of the war cabinet saying israel would reply in a time and manner of its own choosing. is wait, there are restrictions that were imposed on saturday and sunday have been lifted. aside from the continuing restrictions for its release in the north, close to lebanon and in the south close to garzo which were put in place after the eruption of the israeli garzo war six months ago. our middle east correspondent yolande knell has the latest. israel's air defences call to action. in the early hours on sunday, fighterjets battled waves of iranian drones and missiles fired at israeli targets. it marked the first time iran has attacked israel directly from its own soil. explosions could be heard widely, including injerusalem and tel aviv. israel says that 99% of more than 300 drones and missiles launched by iran were intercepted. some of those that got through hit here in the sensitive nevatim air force base in southern israel. nearby, seven—year—old amina hassouna was seriously injured when a missile fragment struck her house. translation: the children were frightened and wanted to run away from home. and that's when the missile hit our house. the israeli war cabinet met yesterday to plan its next move. one of its members, benny gantz, said israel would exact a price from iran when the time is right. and last night, the un security council met in an emergency meeting following the attacks. israel called for sanctions on iran and reiterated its right to a response. this attack crossed every red line and israel reserves the legal right to retaliate. we are not a frog in boiling water, we are a nation of lions. following such a massive and direct attack on israel, the entire world, let alone israel, cannot settle for inaction. we will defend our future. iran's ambassador to the un told the meeting that its actions, which were in retaliation for a deadly air strike on its consulate in syria, werejustified. these countries, especially the united states, have shielded israel from any responsibility for the gaza massacre, while they have denied iran inherent right to self—defence against the israeli armed attack on our diplomatic premises. amid rising tensions, the attacks have received widespread international condemnation. the scale and nature of iran's heinous assault, the first direct attack from iran on israeli soil, poses grave risks to the security and stability of citizens across the middle east. now world leaders are pressing for de—escalation in a bid for calm in the region. we have a shared responsibility to work for peace. regional and indeed global peace and security are being undermined. all eyes are on israel and how it responds. yolande knell, bbc news. all eyes are on the war cabinet meeting which will take place in two hours time, they met last night for three hours, no decision was arrived at so it is critical they are meeting today and there is pressure from the allies of israel, most of all the us, not to retaliate. to take it as a win, in the eyes of israel and its allies that the iranian attack did not succeed. joining me now is former ambassador alon pinkas, who was the consul general of israel in new york. welcome to the programme. you often write about the thinking and actions of the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu but what do you think will be on his mind today? how might he be swayed by what his ally the united states is saying? i might he be swayed by what his ally the united states is saying?- the united states is saying? i think he willt the united states is saying? i think he will try to _ the united states is saying? i think he will try to balance _ the united states is saying? i think he will try to balance in _ the united states is saying? i think he will try to balance in his - the united states is saying? i think he will try to balance in his mind i he will try to balance in his mind several things. he will try to balance in his mind severalthings. one he will try to balance in his mind several things. one is increasing american pressure but also british pressure and french pressure for that matter but particularly american pressure to exercise restraint and not to react, not to retaliate, to take the win as president biden reportedly said to him and go back to the days of the covert war that existed between israel and iran until the last couple of weeks. the second thing is i think his own motivation to escalate. i have been thinking since november that mr netanyahu is trying to turn gaza into a regional conflict and it is consistent with his narrative that the 7th of october was part of a larger plan and the third thing that he must balance is the coalition of pressures although i think he can handle those so between the three and despite the bravado and the gung ho statements coming from the cabinet, i think he will have no choice but to exercise restraint. it is quite a moment for him, as you know he has made the threat from iran the campaign of his entire political life and now he must believe that he has been confirmed in that view? ida. believe that he has been confirmed in that view?— in that view? no, he has not, in fact his iran _ in that view? no, he has not, in fact his iran policy _ in that view? no, he has not, in fact his iran policy record - in that view? no, he has not, in fact his iran policy record is - in that view? no, he has not, in fact his iran policy record is one| fact his iran policy record is one of serial failures and ineptitude. he offered nothing as a substitute for the so—called iran nuclear deal and he then encouraged president trump to unilaterally withdraw the us from that agreement and under his watch, iran has become a nuclear state and its vast network of proxy terror organisations has mushroomed and spread throughout the middle east so yes, you are right and you know mr netanyahu a lot better than i do. iran is his recent death, so to speak. but his policies, his lack of strategy on iran, is astounding and he has always been reactive, never proactive. —— raison d'etre. he never developed alternatives and what you said was correct in that it sort of vindicates him and iran is a problem but iran has always been a problem but iran has always been a problem and if i may add one more short observation, until 2015, the year that the iran nuclear deal was signed, israel succeeded in a so—called internationalisation of the iranian nation but since 2015 under the tutelage of mr netanyahu, theissue under the tutelage of mr netanyahu, the issue has become that of israel, not an international problem but a problem of that of israel and what happened between april 13 and 1ath, the saturday and sunday, was a sort of a vision for mr netanyahu that indeed this could again become international if he plays along with the us particularly but he has not so i don't think it will work for him this time, trying to escalate this. ~ ., ., ., , , this. we are out of time but i must s: ueeze this. we are out of time but i must squeeze in — this. we are out of time but i must squeeze in a _ this. we are out of time but i must squeeze in a question _ this. we are out of time but i must squeeze in a question that - this. we are out of time but i must squeeze in a question that could i this. we are out of time but i must| squeeze in a question that could be yes or no, do you think at some point israel will retaliate? hat yes or no, do you think at some point israel will retaliate? not in the foreseeable _ point israel will retaliate? not in the foreseeable future. - point israel will retaliate? not in the foreseeable future. later- point israel will retaliate? not ml the foreseeable future. later that night, very probably.— the foreseeable future. later that night, very probably. so... always aood to night, very probably. so... always good to hear— night, very probably. so... always good to hear your _ night, very probably. so... always good to hear your reflections - night, very probably. so... always good to hear your reflections and l good to hear your reflections and thank you so much for taking us through the history but also looking ahead as well. former israeli ambassador. foreign ministers around the world including lord cameron has been doing interviews in london and he described it as a double victory for israel, repelling the attacks on doing it with the support of its allies. let's hear some of what he had to say. it's important to be respectful on these occasions. a country has had a massive attack from a dangerous or malign actor in the region. they will be considering, they are considering, the israeli cabinet has been meeting already to consider that. our advice is don't retaliate. you know, take the win, recognise that iran has suffered a double defeat. defeat as almost all their weapons were shot down and defeat because the world can now see their true nature. the right thing to do is to pivot now and stock at hamas and say they must release the hostages. so we would not be supporting retaliatory action but we're respectful of other countries. here's our chief political correspondent henry zeffman — with more analysis on what the uk foreign secretary lord cameron had to say. he described it as an assistance that the uk took part in following a us request. but he was also arguing, in his words, that it was very much in "the national interest" and the argument that he was making was that if the iranian attack had been successful, if it had been able to achieve civilian casualties in israel, then that would have made much more severe israeli response inevitable and provoked a real bout of regional instability. and that is what the uk government, both rishi sunak and lord cameron have been stressing they want to avoid. that's why that fear of regional instability, they say that's why they supported israel's defence. but it's also why they are urging israel not to retaliate against iran too extensively. and that decision was taken without consulting parliament. do you think this is going to be an issue or do you think there will be broad support across the political spectrum for britain's decision to take part in a limited way, as lord cameron underlined, in intercepting the drones and missiles? there's very much broad support as it stands across the political parties. rishi sunak is going to be making a statement to the house of commons this afternoon, explaining why the uk took the action it did and talking about how he sees the situation going forwards. but i don't expect that he will give parliament some sort of retrospective vote on the actions it took. the liberal democrats, the sort of third party across the uk are calling for such a vote, but also they are saying if there were a vote they would vote in support of what the government did. the labour party, the main opposition who many people expect to be in government by the end of the year, they are also very supportive of the measures the government took and are calling forfurther sanctions on iran to be brought forward as soon as possible and also calling for the proscription here in the uk of the iranian revolutionary guard. after this unprecedented military action there has been a flurry of diplomatic activity. the iranian foreign minister has been on the phone to western foreign ministers but also foreign ministers in this region and all of them expressing concern about the danger in this moment and while the immediate risk of an moment and while the immediate risk ofan immediate moment and while the immediate risk of an immediate israeli retaliation seems to have passed, everyone knows that the risk is still there. we will keep an eye on all of the developments but back to my colleague lauren taylor in london. thank you. donald trump will become the first former us president to face a criminal trial today. he's been charged with 3a counts of fraud, relating to hush money allegedly paid to a former porn star, stormy daniels, before the 2016 election. he's pleaded not guilty. our new york correspondent nada tawfik reports. when donald trump headed to court last year to become the first former president to be criminally charged, it set the united states on an unprecedented course. now, right in the thick of the presidential election campaign, the republican presumptive nominee is beginning his trial in the most salacious of the four cases against him. though it is perhaps the least perilous, legally, given jail time is seen as unlikely. donald trump has repeatedly painted the case as an attempt to interfere in the election. this is a witch hunt, it's a hoax, thank you. the 3a felony counts against him stemmed from hush money paid to the former porn star stormy daniels by trump's former fixer, michael cohen. donald trump has denied the extramarital affair and any wrongdoing. however, he has acknowledged reimbursing cohen after initially denying any knowledge of the payments while president. did you know about $130,000 payments to stormy daniels? | but manhattan's district attorney alleges trump directed those payments as part of a scheme to help his 2016 campaign for the presidency and then falsified business records when he disguised the payments as legal fees. less than two weeks before the presidential election, michael cohen wired $130,000 to stormy daniels�* lawyer. that payment was to hide damaging information from the voting public. the participant scheme was illegal. political and legal experts disagree over the significance of the case. i think this case isjust so unique compared to the others. the others are really focused on actions that he truly undertook to undermine our democracy, right. and so this case is about, it's about paying off a mistress. it's a serious case. this is notjust about a porn star, which some people are trying to portray it as. this is about an effort to defraud the american voters in 2016 to keep them from learning material information that would have affected their vote. the trial begins with jury selection and is expected to last more than six weeks, making it all but certain that voters will know whether or not donald trump will be a convicted felon before they go to the polls in november. nada tawfik, bbc news, in new york. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news. monday marks one—year since the eruption of the civil war in sudan. fighting between the sudanese armed forces and the rapid support forces has claimed thousands of lives, displaced more than 8 million, and triggered the world s largest hunger crisis, according to the un. and a year in, there's seeemingly no end in sight. barbara plett usher is in nairobi — she explained how things have changed since the conflict began. things have worsened exponentially over the past few years, collapse of state services including health care and water and sanitation especially in conflict zones, the economy taking a hard hit, the fighting affected production and supply lines and farming which means sudan cannot produce its own food anymore and all those people displaced, around 2 million outside the country and 6 million inside the country and they cannot get aid, they are dependent on humanitarian aid which is not able to get through because the access is difficult. the army has blocked access across conflict lines and it does not want to allow the paramilitary group the rsf to get weapons but it has also affected humanitarian assistance and there is not that much assistance to begin with with the un asking for $3 billion in donorfunds and it has 6% of that. there is a conference today in paris to try and move sudan towards the top of the agenda especially in humanitarian terms to get more money. aside from the efforts to get more money for aid, what is happening on the diplomatic front to try and end the conflict? the us has recently renewed efforts to try and organise ceasefire talks, previous talks have failed. the new us envoy for sudan had hoped to get some sort of negotiations going this week but that has not happened so it's extremely difficult to get there, the rapid support forces had previously said they were open to negotiations and the army had said says it sees the rsf as the aggressor and wants to pull out of the areas it occupied before the talks begin but you also have a real problem in terms of the nature of the conflict, especially international actors and regional actors who are supporting different sites. egypt traditionally supporting the army, reports that iran has recently started arming the army with drones and on the other side the uae is a supporter of the rapid support forces and with these kinds and others as well, the dynamics are quite complicated. us officials hoping that conditions had changed enough to get more interest especially originally for an end to the war not least because of the looming famine but because there is a threat the state will collapse and that the islamist hardliners extremist groups can take advantage of the power vacuum so that's what they have been talking about but they haven't been successful at this point in organising new talks. here in the uk, parliament will resume voting today on the government's plan to send some asylum seekers to rwanda. it's expected the bill could be given final approval by the end of the week, following intense debate and attempts by the house of lords to make amendments. ministers hope the first asylum seekers can be sent to the african country within weeks. police in australia have said it's "obvious" that a man who fatally stabbed six people at a shopping centre in sydney, was targeting women. five of the six victims were female. another 12 people, including a baby, were injured. our sydney correspondent katy watson reports. across australia, flags are flying at half mast, honouring the victims of saturday's attack. the names of all of those who died have now been released. this was pikria darchia — originally from georgia, she spoke several languages. dawn singleton was a 25—year—old planning her imminent wedding. jade young was a 47—year—old architect, motherand member of a surf life—saving club. osteopath ashlee good died protecting her nine—month—old baby. police say the little girl has improved significantly, and could be on a regular hospital ward within days. yixuan cheng, a chinese student — her picture is yet to be released. and this was security guard faraz tahir — the only man killed as he tried to intervene in the attack. he had moved here from pakistan. assailantjoel cauchi, who was shot dead by a police officer, had a history of mental illness — but authorities continue to search for motives, including whether he was targeting women. well, the videos speak for themselves, don't they? and that's certainly a line of inquiry for us. it's obvious to me, it's obvious to detectives, that that seems to be an area of interest that the offender had focused on women and avoided the men. as you know — that has been reported — five of the deceased are women, and the majority of victims in hospital are also women. stories behind the bravery of the shoppers during the attack are also emerging. damien geurot from france confronted the killer with a bollard. i saw the guy. somebody on the floor with a lot of blood. and i saw one girl actually from the balcony get stabbed. and... and then it's like, when i saw him running, it's like, you're not... i saw him running, so i have to follow him, of course. police have now finished their immediate investigations here at the westfield shopping centre, but it remains closed today. amid the stories of bravery and developments in the investigation, the focus for many is on remembering the victims of an attack that's shaken the country. some happier news now. there's some great news for bird lovers — loch arkaig in the scottish highlands has welcomed its first osprey egg of the season. the woodland trust in scotland says one of its visiting ospreys, called dorcha, began chirping on sunday morning, and treated livestream viewers to a glimpse of the egg just before 11:15. the trust is hoping to see a full clutch of three eggs by next weekend. you can catch up with the latest news on the website at any time. stay with us here on bbc news. good morning. the rain showers replaced by rainbows. showers across most of the uk, the strong winds continuing into the afternoon and causing some issues and the reason for that is low pressure situated to the north of the uk, the white lines on the isobar is fairly close together indicating a blustery north—westerly wind. the ring clearing from the south—east, we are left with a mixture of sunny spells and showers, the showers really heavyin and showers, the showers really heavy in parts with some hail and sleet and snow for a time over the higher ground of scotland and gusty winds especially in the showers even the odd rumble of thunder cannot be ruled out but gusts of winds up to 60 miles an hour likely to continue. maximum temperature is 10—12 , feeling notably chilly as well with a strong north—westerly wind. through tonight, we continue with areas of rain and showers moving south and east but it is likely to stay cloudy around the east of england and eastern scotland, rain continuing here, strong winds around the north sea coast and overnight temperatures reaching for — 7 degrees but throughout tuesday, the cloud and rain lingering parts of east yorkshire, lincolnshire towards norfolk and suffolk and it will feel notably colder again through tuesday, further west away from that it's looking largely dry, some showers dotted around in temperatures typically 9—13 , a rather brisk northerly wind. throughout the rest of the week we lose the area of rain, high pressure building in across the atlantic and we will see whether france initially but heading into the weekend it looks like it will become established across the uk, that could bring us longer spells of dry weather and temperatures will creep up weather and temperatures will creep up again, 14—17. goodbye. this is bbc news. the headlines... as israel considers its response to iran's attacks, the un secretary—general antonio guterres says it's time to �*step back from the brink�*, to avert a devastating full—scale conflict across the region. the uk�*s foreign secretary, lord cameron, is urging israel not to escalate the situation further. he says iran suffered a �*double defeat�* after its attack failed. and the first ever criminal trial of a former us president will begin in new york on monday when jurors are selected for donald trump�*s hush—money case. more on our top story now... there�*s a warning from the un secretary—general antonio guterres that it�*s time to "step back from the brink", after iran�*s attack on israel late on saturday. he was speaking at an emergency meeting of the un, where representatives from the uk and us condemned the attacks by iran, but made it clear they didn�*t want to see any further escalation. britain�*s foreign secretary, lord cameron, said israel should recognise iran�*s attack has been a failure and not respond. let�*s take a closer look at the strikes on saturday night. iran may have appeared to try and overwhelm israel�*s air