live from london, this is bbc news. war of words: donald trump and elon musk engage in an increasingly bitter feud on social media. in scotland, a narrow win for labour in the hamilton by-election, beating the snp and reform uk. tokyo, we have a problem: contact is lost with an unmanned japanese spacecraft trying to land on the moon. and look, no hands! the bbc is given a ride in one of china's new driverless lorries. so here we are, we are racing down the freeway and i've got to say it's pretty weird because you look over, there's the driver, his hands are off the steering wheel.

hello and welcome to bbc news. i'm lukwesa burak. the bromance between president trump and elon musk is well and truly over. just a week after the world's richest man stepped back from his role as advisor to the world's most powerful politician, the pair are involved in an increasingly bitter feud on social media. it began when elon musk called a key piece of mr trump's legislation - his tax and spending bill - "an abomination" and appealed to lawmakers to kill it. on thursday, president trump said he was "very disappointed" by the comments. in response, mr musk launched a series of extraordinary attacks on x. here's our north america editor sarah smith. to elon, a presentation from our country. thank you, elon.

a golden key to the white house was elon musk's leaving present. now, less than a week later, donald trump might want to think about changing the locks. elon and i had a great relationship. i've got no unintelligible any more. i was surprised. today, the german chancellor friedrich merz was the white office guest star but elon musk and his criticism of mr trump's spending bill dominated the conversation - to the president's obvious irritation. but i'm very disappointed because elon knew the inner workings of this bill better than almost anybody sitting here - better than you people. he knew everything about it. he had no problem with it. all of a sudden, he had a problem. just minutes later, elon musk replied on x, saying: where is he? come on up here, elon! mr musk obviously adored being in the spotlight as he campaigned alongside donald trump. today, he's claiming that

without him and the more than $250 million he donated, the president would've lost the election. they were once seen together everywhere. now, their row is being conducted in plain sight, on social media. mr trump, on truth social, upped the ante with: musk called that an obvious lie and then really escalated the abuse, suggesting donald trump has withheld files relating to jeffrey epstein - who was arrested on charges of sex trafficking and died by suicide in jail - because he's named in them. mr musk tweeted: mr musk and his chainsaw were brought into government to aggressively cut

government spending - a pointless exercise, he thinks, if president trump will blow all the savings on tax cuts in his spending bill. you know, i was, like, disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly. which increases the budget deficit, not decrease it and undermines the work that the doge team is doing. which is that one? donald trump is now suggesting the easiest way to save money would be to terminate elon musk's billions of dollars in government contracts and subsidies. it was probably inevitable this bromance would turn sour, but no-one expected it to go this bad this fast. sarah smith, bbc news, washington. let's speak to our north america correspondent jake kwon, who's in washington for us. jake, first off, people watching this who have been following this saga over the last few hours are just sitting there gasping. what has the reaction been like in america? i mean, in washington, i think we all had our collective draw

just drop to the floor and watching these two most powerful men in the world exchanging these very personal insults at each other for hours, you know, each took themselves to social media, you know, donald trump to truth social and elon musk to x, you know, and posting every minute a new insult and as if the situation wasn't spectacular enough, we heard elon musk calling for impeachment of president trump and that he'd be replaced by his vice president jd vance and if you can imagine just six days ago, president trump was handing elon musk a golden key to the white house and elon musk leaving the government and then turn around and accusing his former boss of a grave crime and calling for him to be fired. i mean, you can imagine just the reaction, the

stupefying - how gobsmacked we all were. a lot of these insults have been personal and professional integrity also questioned. ultimately, what is at stake for the american people, jake? i think there was a moment earlier - although elon musk had kind of walked it back a little bit - he threatened to decommission the dragon spacecraft which is really the only american spacecraft that can ferry astronauts over to the orbit, into the international space station and bring them back. now, he said this in response to president trump saying he will cancel the federal contracts that they have with companies like spacex and imagine if elon musk had gone through without. you would be essentially leaving these people stranded in a space station and i think this kind of symbolises you know all this collateral damage that could have been done to american

people, done to american businesses as well. if the contracts were cancelled, what would happen to these companies? i mean, it would definitely hurt elon's bottom line but it would hurt the workers and the people who are working in his companies as well. and then we are also talking about the granted subsidies to the electric vehicles and you know the attempt to transition arican economy to a new kind of green climate future -- american economy. so a lot of things are at stake, other than these two men who are battling it out. jake qons, thank you indeed and we will see what happens over the next few hours -- kwon. for more on the fallout, let's speak to political advisor and strategist rina shah. hello to you, rena. -- rina. nothing like two huge egos scorned, is that? what went wrong? well, put it this way, this is a big fight with even bigger stakes. when trump and

musk start throwing punches, it is not just a billionaires brawl, it is trouble for trump's team and with musk having dropped $300 million to help trump win the election in 2024, and also leave the department of government efficiency crew which cut red tape, also they said they would, i think we are seeing now play out is something that is a total mess but it isn't just a drama, it shows that trump's coalition is shaky and if these two cannot get along, how is president trump going to push his trade or tech plans? i mean, that's a big question there. globally, this makes the united states look like, it looks like we are stumbling when we need really steady leadership at the helm. so do you think rina that this will give an opening to those republicans who privately don't agree with president trump and have held reservations as to what to do with his beautiful ill and also thinking ahead to

the future and more presently the midterms -- big beautiful bill. i think we should zoom out and remember because, of course, our mid-term elections are coming and the real influence of money in our elections is always talked about but this is where it becomes a bit dicey because republicans in congress need elon musk's money so they don't really want to pee him off in order that he cannot help their potentially difficult challenges for election but like i said, there is a takeaway here and the takeaway is that whoever is running the show can backfire and musk went from being trump quote unquote first buddy to being his loudest critic in a matter of weeks and that's just a really wild ride. we saw elon musk

slash something like 121,000 federal worker jobs with the department of government efficiency, known as dariush, which was a big deal. -- doge. then he trashed trump's tax bill and then he threw out some wild claims today on social media because they so again letting billionaires like elon musk steer the ship can be a gamble and they bring big ideas but when they clash, it is chaos, and other countries are watching here, wondering whether their leaders will mean on rich friends and crosstalk. rina, i wonder if i can jump in quickly. do you know the saying give somebody enough rope? the democrats have been quiet here. what is this telling us about their strategy? immigrants have been wondering of course whether they should sort of court elon musk and try to bring him over to their side in the moment of illegal opportunism, of course, but i think everybody here in washington tonight has been

very rattled by this because this fight is already shaping over markets and i cannot overstate the importance of that. this trump and musk start is not just talk, it hits well it's really hard. tesla's stock tank something like 15% almost today which wiped out $150 billion, and that's again because trump is threatening to cut musk's subsidies over this feud i think investors worldwide are spooked, especially with trump pushing huge tariffs in the china trade talks and if it looks like the united states is run by grudges and not by plans, but that does it that makes level markets will be due to reason this is a real wake-up call here. personal beefs at the top can mess with everyone's money. rina schar, thank you indeed. -- shah. while the public feud between president trump and elon musk reached boiling point, german chancellor friedrich merz was forced

to sit in awkward silence as he was in the oval office next to donald trump on his inaugural visit to washington. the two leaders did find time to discuss the war in ukraine with chancellor merz telling the president germany was on ukraine's side. mr trump, for his part, compared the conflict to two children fighting in the park. let's bring in jeff rathke, president of the american-german institute at johns hopkins university. jeff, lovely to have you with us. all in all, what's the reading of how this meeting went? well, you described awkward silence but i think for friedrich merz it was a whole lot better than being in the crosshairs. the first visit for him which came just about one month into his term as chancellor was pretty successful in establishing a positive working relationship with the american president and i think that positive

interpretation is what has dominated since the meeting yesterday. and was he putting much at threat in terms of trying to secure this positive relationship and obviously, also, economically? mr merz had some work to do while he was there. i'm mentioning that pressure had to be put on russia. --by mentioning. well, you know, there's any kind of risk in high-stakes meeting like this but for germany, as for the rest of europe, the fate of the war in ukraine is not an abstract matter. it is one that is driving threat perceptions and, indeed, defence spending across europe, so i think the concerted effort to remind president trump that russia is the aggressor, that the united states is uniquely positioned to force russia to

the table was quite well thought out and, it seems, co-ordinated also quite well with his european partners. yeah, let's just talk about european partners because obviously, trade tariffs are a key issue for germany but mr merz does not have the authority to negotiate those tariffs - like that's down to the eu - but how badly does germany need to sort things out? well, certainly, the threatens does make the existing tariffs and also the threatened drives in tariffs which is now a july nine deadline is extremely important -- threatened rise. it's extremely important for germany. it's one of the most export dependent and open economies in the world and, indeed, the largest economy in europe so we are talking about billions in revenues for german companies and for american

taxpayers, if they have to start paying higher tariffs on imports. there wasn't a lot said about that in the open part of the meeting but from what merz said after the white house visit to the german press, this is something that they focused on in their discussion in some detail and without conveying any breakthrough, merz did say that germany was going to be taking a more prominent role on trade issues within europe as they looked to find a way to resolve the current situation. thank you very much indeed stop sure. -- thank you very much indeed. sure. a major russian air assault on ukraine has left four people dead and 20 injured overnight in strikes on the capital of kyiv. the city's mayor vitali klitschko says 16 people had been hospitalised.

within the past couple of hours, labour has won the by-election for the scottish parliament, beating both the snp and reform uk to win the hamilton, larkhall and stonehouse seat. many analysts had predicted a two-horse race between the parties, but the labour candidate davy russell won by just over 600 votes from the snp. this was the declaration of the vote. davy russell, scottish labour party, 8000 inaudible. cheering and applause independent 109. 46 ballots rejected and i declare that davy russell is elected to serve in the scottish parliament is a member of the inaudible. and during his victory speech, labour's newest msp sent a message to nigel farage and reform uk.

hamilton has voted today to take a new direction for scottish labour. like the people here in hamilton, and right across scotland, we all feel we've been let down by the snp, the pocono nhs, wasted our money and after nearly two decades, they don't deserve another chance. this community has also sent a message to an allah and his mob today. the voice of reform isn't us, it isn't

the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu has defended his policy of providing support for an armed group in gaza which he says is opposed to hamas.

he said it had saved the lives of israeli soldiers. media reports say the administration has supplied weapons to a palestinian group based in rafah, in the southern gaza strip. the abu shabab clan claims to provide security for aid convoys, but has been accused of looting them. two aid distribution sites operated by the controversial gaza humanitarian foundation resumed following deadly shootings near its facilities. our middle east editor sebastian usher has more on the aid situation in the territory. the aid situation in gaza remains dire, but there's been a glimmer of better news, perhaps, in that the gaza humanitarian foundation, which is this new mechanism that's been backed by israel and the us - the aim, from their perspective, to try to avoid

hamas taking the aid so that it can get directly to the palestinians - this had run into huge problems. three days in which palestinians are queuing up in the early hours of the morning had been killed and had been wounded in large numbers, eyewitnesses, multiple eyewitnesses saying that this was from gunfire from israeli troops. denials mostly from the israeli army. on most of those counts, though it did concede on tuesday morning, troops did open fire on what they said were suspects diverging from the main route and posing a threat. for a day, the gaza humanitarian foundation closed its operations - no sites were open to deliver aid to palestinians. the aim was to try and ensure that the security would be better, that the delivery of aid would be more efficient. this afternoon, two of those sites reopened. the gaza humanitarian foundation says that around 1.5

million individual meals were given to palestinians who came to the site. around 27 truckloads delivered that aid. the big question now is will this new foundation be able to develop more sites across gaza to meet the need - the huge needs that there are - across the whole of the strip that just four sites is clear it cannot meet. will other ways of delivering aid come in? it is being brought in around 100 trucks come in for a different mechanism of each day, they come to warehouses, but there have been big problems with those as well with looting, with violence, the labour union of truck drivers in gaza essentially said that they could not work under those conditions. so, there are very, very big problem still about aid in gaza, where the people, after 11 weeks of an israeli blockade, are in desperate need of any supplies that they can get. un aid agencies, un officials

are saying that even this amount of aid, if it is up and running, if it isn't marred by the violence we've seen, isn't anywhere near what is necessary. the japanese company ispace has lost contact with its unmanned resilience spacecraft as it was attempting to land on the moon. the robotic lander would have been the first from a non-us company to achieve a controlled moon landing two years after its first attempt failed. but mission controllers have not been able to re-establish contact. an ispace executive said they will learn from the experience. let's speak to leroy chiao, a former nasa astronaut and commander of the international space station. thank you to the programme -- welcome to the programme. first off, what do we know about what went wrong this time? unfortunately, it sounds a couple when happen the first time, they were approaching the surface of the moon and then you know the mission control team reported that they observed the landowner falling at a very high rate towards the surface just before they lost contact so that pretty strongly

suggests that it crashed on the surface of the moon, very much like the first time, in the case of the first time some of its centrifuges got to the surface that it was, there was an issue with perhaps some low fuel but at any rate, they will have to analyse all the data to see what went wrong this time, presumably of course they've learned my first experience and it's really a shame if that happened because this was an exciting mission with a pretty ambitious schedule and unfortunately, it looks like it's not going to work out. so you mentioned there the fact that the hard landing we think was caused by the fact that resilience was travelling too fast. how difficult is it or what other challenges in controlling spacecraft from space? from earth, rather? sure, sure, anything you do in space is going to be challenging for sure. so far, there have been many attempts to land on the moon and a lot of them have ended in failure.

the two us companies have successfully landed on the moon and two of the machines to the degree succeeded but in both cases, their land is toppled over shortly after landing. -- their lenders. one company firefly aerospace a few months ago successfully landed their first land on the surface of the moon, their mission was a complete success and that was great news, and it would have been wonderful to see ispace complete their mission. like i said, they had an ambitious schedule, they were carrying moreover with them which was going to traverse a part of the surface and use a script to actually take a sample of the regolith all the dirt, if you will, on the surface but unfortunately all that appears to have been lost. yeah, it was the european space agency rover, i believe. i mean, there are a lot of agents or agencies involved in missions like this. can they continue to afford them because this must cost millions and millions of pounds or euros? well sure, it is

expensive, these companies, they do have nasa contracts in general most of them do, to help develop this commercial capability of landing payloads on the moon, the idea is to put spacecraft down and rovers to characterise the surface and prepare it for when we send humans there with the goal of course of eventually building a lunar base and so, you know, this will continue because the inner roar eclipse programme as it is called involves several different commercial companies and crosstalk. leroy, can i jump in quickly? why the moon? i presume there is money to be made out of these as well? well, the moon is of course we've gone to the moon before, we have probes that go to the moon but there is, you know, important resources there that we might be able to utilise and, of course, there is interest in exploring the moon with humans in preparation for sending a human mission to mars, right, and, of course, we've been exploring mars for a number of years with the rovers

and all of those government programmes and so this is not ugly right. leroy, sorry to interrupt!

i give it to elon as a presentation from our country. less than a week after this, relations turn sour. tesla's value falls sharply as the tensions between elon musk and donald trump boil over into outright conflict. driverless lorries. china road-tests the technology that could put many drivers out of business. obstacles to the energy transtion. equinor's boss tells the bbc about what stands in the way of a faster march towards renewables. increasing