hello, i'm caitriona perry. there has been an outpouring of grief around the world for alexei navalny, russia's most prominent opposition leader, after russian officials announced that the 47—year—old died in prison. known as president vladmir putin's most outspoken critic, mr navalny was recognised internationally for risking his own life to stand up to mr putin's regime. it is still unclear how mr navalny died. on friday people came together at vigils around the world, laying flowers and lighting candles next to photos of navalny. this included gatherings in the former soviet bloc, like this one in georgia, as well as armenia and lithuania. hundreds gathered here in washington outside the russian embassy to pay respects to navalny and speak out against vladimir putin. many world leaders on friday condemned mr putin for navalny�*s death. the british government said it has summoned representatives of the russian embassy to make clear it held russian authorities fully responsible. he faced what many international observers say

were unfounded, politically motivated charges meant to suppress opposition. mr navalny always defended his innocence. he was only 47 years old. the kremlin denies it played any part in navalny�*s death. he spent his final days in a russian penal colony, where prison officials say he died after going on a walk. as the bbc�*s russia editor steve rosenberg reports, navalny was seen in good spirits just a day ago. smiling, crackingjokes, smiling, cracking jokes, this was alexei navalny yesterday as he gave testimony by video link from prison. even court officials managed a smile. but today, russia's prison service

said that mr navalny was dead. it claimed that inside this penal colony he had fallen unconscious and that medical teams couldn't save him. russian tv rarely mentions navalny. it read out the prison service statement about his death and moved on to other news. he was vladimir putin's most vocal critic, a protest leader, and anti—corruption campaigner, who had long clashed with the kremlin. i remember this seven years ago. navalny is russia's most prominent opposition figure and president putin's most vocal critic. he has been barred from running in the presidential election. he has now been arrested by police. in 2020, in siberia, he had been poisoned with a nerve agent and airlifted to germany for life—saving treatment. he accused the kremlin of trying to assassinate him. but as a

politician, he felt he couldn't stay away from russia. when he returned the following year, he was arrested on arrival. he'd beenin was arrested on arrival. he'd been in prison ever since. his friends and family fearing for his safety. just hours after alexei navalny was reported dead, his wife, yulia, metred dramatic appearance at the munich security conference. she couldn't confirm his death, but... �* ,, �* h but... translation: if it's true, i but. . . translation: if it's true, i want _ but. . . translation: if it's true, i want putin - but. . . translation: if it's true, i want putin and - but. . . translation: if it's true, i want putin and his l true, i want putin and his whole entourage, his friends and his government, to know that they will be held responsible for everything they've done to our country, to my family and to my husband. and this day will come very soon. �* ., . and this day will come very soon. ~ ., . , soon. and once finished speaking. _ soon. and once finished speaking, from - soon. and once finished speaking, from the - soon. and once finished | speaking, from the hall, soon. and once finished i speaking, from the hall, a standing ovation. back in russia, president putin was

meeting industrial workers. he made no mention of alexei navalny. he knew that by taking on the authorities he was taking a risk. my on the authorities he was taking a risk. on the authorities he was takin: a risk. g , ., taking a risk. my message for the situation _ taking a risk. my message for the situation that _ taking a risk. my message for the situation that i _ taking a risk. my message for the situation that i am - taking a risk. my message for the situation that i am killed l the situation that i am killed is very simple: don't give up. not all russians supported alexei navalny, but in moscow and in other russian towns, people out to remember him. in a country where dissent has been silenced, for many, just doing this was an act of courage. so at this makeshift shrine, people have been putting down portraits of alexei navalny. they've been laying roses and carnations and lighting candles, as you can see, and at the end there is a sign which says we won't forget and we won't forgive. there's a sense of disbelief. i

and we won't forgive. there's a sense of disbelief.— sense of disbelief. i saw the news on _ sense of disbelief. i saw the news on my _ sense of disbelief. i saw the news on my phone - sense of disbelief. i saw the news on my phone and - sense of disbelief. i saw the news on my phone and at i sense of disbelief. i saw the l news on my phone and at first my reaction was, like, it's just a joke. it's not real. but then the news was coming more and more and more, and i was crying for one hour.— crying for one hour. what was our crying for one hour. what was your reaction _ crying for one hour. what was your reaction when _ crying for one hour. what was your reaction when you - crying for one hour. what was your reaction when you heard | your reaction when you heard the news about his death? i was with my friends. _ the news about his death? i was with my friends. i— the news about his death? i was with my friends. i was _ the news about his death? i was with my friends. i was broken. l with my friends. i was broken. i really— with my friends. i was broken. i really thought that it couldn't happen, like, never. that's— couldn't happen, like, never. that's the_ couldn't happen, like, never. that's the phrase i've heard so often from russians in recent times — we never thought it could happen. steve rosenberg, bbc news, moscow. our correspondent will vernon spent many years reporting on russia and alexei navalny, and he told us about what kind of man he was. alexei navalny was

a very engaging man. he was an excellent public speaker. he was very funny. we saw he didn't lose his sense of humour right despite all that was thrown at him. he was a very courageous man, and the decision to return to russia in 2021 was an incredibly courageous thing to do. he knew that he almost certainly would be arrested, but he also was very good at persuading people. i remember a few years ago we were on the campaign trail with mr navalny, believe it or not, back in 2016. we were at one of his campaign hq in the ural mountains region and all of a sudden, there was this banging at the door and a kind of gaggle of pro—kremlin grannies had turned up, banging on the door, calling alexei navalny all kinds of names. and he actually asked for the door to be open

so they could be let in and he could talk to them. and he managed to calm them down and even convince them of his point of view. he was very good with people, very good at persuading. maria snegovaya is a senior fellow with the europe, russia, and eurasia programme at the center for strategic and international studies, and she joined me a short time ago. maria, thanks for being with us on bbc news. president biden, as we heard, clearly blames president putin for alexei navalny�*s death. the un says the state is responsible for the death of an inmate in custody. what's your reaction to the death of alexei navalny, as we've heard reported by russian authorities? well, like most people worldwide, you know, who certainly supported the fight for freedom in the case against tyranny and autocracy, i am extremely heartbroken to hear this news. it's not completely unexpected for most of us who closely watch russian politics because, unfortunately, since his return back to russia injanuary, in early 2021, navalny

essentially has become a prisoner of putin, a hostage. and there are even rumours that an exchange to exchange navalny for other perhaps certain people or certain russians that the western policymakers were attempting were rejected on the side of the kremlin, because probably the kremlin wanted to hold navalny under its control and eventually destroy navalny. now, he was the leading opposition figure. with his death, and so many other leaders either in exile or in prison, where does that leave the opposition movement in russia, given elections are just a month away? well, honestly, nobody expected that these elections will be anything remotely resembling real elections. the only candidate who was running on an openly anti—war platform, boris nadezhdin, was just recently banned from running. it's clear that putin feels very completely unpunished

and not facing any resistance, any serious resistance. so he is clearing the — getting rid of the opposition, including this horrible murder of navalny. that is because he's feeling in control of the situation. unfortunately, russian opposition is in disarray. there's a lot of arguments and, most importantly, there is a lack of hope — lack of this audacity of hope that navalny was offering to many people in russia and outside of russia. in a lot of ways, navalny was extremely creative, highly talented — a politician that russia has never had. so, in a lot of ways, he was completely unique, and certainly, courageous and heroic, as demonstrated by his return in russia and, most importantly, his behaviour injail. when he was in prison in russia, he provided really inspirational, uplifting letters that he sent back to his supporters, which really served as this source of hope. right now, certainly, it is an extremely gloomy moment where it seems like both russians inside of the country and the world more broadly isjust failing

to contain the russian regime, the horrible regime that unfortunately is spreading its deleterious influence outside of russia, and currently in ukraine. and just on that point, maria, you know, there's been much international outcry today, but what options are there for international leaders to do more than just share those words? yeah, absolutely. one of the most important things right now is to support ukraine, because as we see right now, the world clearly is divided into black and white, right? there is tyranny and there's fight for freedom against tyranny. but we need the world to help ukraine to do this fight to pick up where russians domestically, the pro—liberal—minded russians have left and where they've failed. unfortunately, i think we will probably — it's sad to say that. and ukrainians right now heroically tried to stop putin, his deleterious influence, and that is why all of the world that supports freedom needs to support ukraine. it's really heartbreaking

to see the situation with the ukraine package in congress that's been stuck in the house these days which, unfortunately, has led to ukraine losing in avdiivka. it's very important to counter the kremlin otherwise putin is left with complete impunity and when he feels completely uncontained, horrible — he does horrible things, as we have seen with navalny�*s murder. and just very, very briefly, maria — we only have a few moments left. you mentioned avdiivka there. how big a blow is it to the ukrainian offensive to have withdrawn from there? avdiivka was strategically important for ukraine, but it's more important what is symbolises worldwide. if putin is committed to keep fighting, then he has a very strong cause. the west is divided and failing to pass aid to this country that is struggling to contain aggressive and imperialistic russia and the kremlin. that is why it's extremely concerning that two years into this horrible war, when everybody�*s clear what the putin regime represents today, we are finding ourselves in the west in this complete disarray. it's very frustrating,

and i hope that we'll be able to overcome this. maria snegovaya, senior fellow with the europe, russia and eurasia programme at the center for strategic and international studies, thanks very much forjoining us. thank you. the ukrainian army says it has withdrawn from a key eastern town to avoid encirclement by russian forces. the town of avdiivka is a gateway to the russian—occupied city of donetsk. the retreat comes after months of fierce fighting. it is the biggest change to the conflict's front lines since may of last year. in a post on facebook, ukraine's commander—in—chief, 0leksandr syrskyi, said: a ukrainian soldier had recently told the bbc that the situation in avdiivka had at times been worse than in bakhmut, a town that fell to the russians last may amid heavy fighting. here in the us, ajudge has ordered that donald trump and his trump organization pay $354 million in penalties in a landmark new york

civilfraud case. the judge's order also puts a three—year ban on mr trump serving as an officer or director of any new york corporation. the former us president and his two adult sons were found to have massively inflated the value of their properties to get better loans. for more, our north america editor sarah smith sent this report. this is a political witch—hunt... ..witch—hunt... it's a witch—hunt. .. ..witch—hunt... i've been going through a witch—hunt for years. donald trump's fame and fortune are based in new york real estate. that's why he chose his beloved trump tower from which to launch his political career. now, his lies about the value of his properties have led to a massive fine and seen him banned from running a business in new york for three years. his lack of remorse throughout the case was described by the judge as "pathological". his lawyer has responded, saying:

mr trump says his mar—a—lago estate in florida is worth over $1 billion. more like $18 million, said the court. when valuing his own penthouse apartment in trump tower, he claimed it was three times its actual size. this fraud scored trump better rates on loans and insurance deals. during the trial, he said there was no victim and no crime. these loans were all paid off, just so you understand that. they were all paid off. these aren't loans that are due or defaulted on at all. we never even got a notice of any difficulty. the bank, deutsche bank, was extremely happy. they testified they were extremely happy. they paid their full money, and some of the loans were paid off early. this is just a witch—hunt. inside as well as outside the courtroom, donald trump raged against the charges. judge engoron has ruled his

irrelevant speeches and refusal to answer questions directly severely compromised his credibility. the attorney general, letitia james, did run for office promising to get trump, whom she called a "con man", and he says she only brought this case because she hates him. the only thing that matters are the facts and the numbers and numbers, my friends, don't lie. both of donald trump's sons, eric and donjunior, were also on trial. they've each been fined $4 million and banned from running a new york business for two years. it is just three weeks since another court awarded the writer ejean carroll $83 million in damages from donald trump for defamation. now, he has another enormous fine to pay. the costs are mounting up, and he still faces four criminal trials later this year. sarah smith reporting there. well, jeremy saland is a former manhattan assistant district attorney, and he told me more about trump's plans to appeal the ruling.

in new york, he has 30 days to file an appeal or notice for an appeal, excuse me. that's easy, he'll do that. but you could take months or potentially years. does it mean certain states cannot prevent certain things are moving forward that thejudge is putting his decision? his penalty and punishment? that could happen but it will take a lot of time and he is likely going to have to put up some sort of bond, let's use 10% for example. 10% of $30.5 million is a lot. what happens if you cannot pay the fine ultimately? you know, i don't think you've what happens if you can't, i think he will, i don't think it is in his wheelhouse whatever you think his wealth is it certainly

is at least that much and he is not going to hide that, and i don't see donald trump is the person who's going to cower melt away in the face of something like this or say he can't make those payments, so i don't see that happening. i see ultimately he will put it to the end, and he has every right to like any other american, any other person. but ultimately, he'll pay that. let's turn to some other news from around the world: the presidents of france and ukraine have signed a security pact in paris that guarantees kyiv an aid package worth more than $3 billion this year. the agreement was announced during a visit by volodymyr zelensky to paris. it follows a similar pact announced by germany and a promise by g7 countries last year to set up such arrangements with ukraine to help boost its its long—term security. senegal�*s president, macky sall, has said he will hold a presidential vote as soon as possible. the announcement comes after a week of violent protests against a bill that would have delayed february's elections until december. on thursday senegal�*s constitutional court ruled against the delay. at least three people have died in recent demonstrations.

in the us state of a virginia, emergency responders were attending the scene of a house explosion late on friday night. debris could be seen scattered around the home after firefighters battled the blaze. police have not yet given a reason or cause for the explosion. according to local media, one firefighter died at the scene. technology giants have agreed to tackle what they are calling deceptive artifical intelligence in elections. the tech accord was announced at the munich security conference and included companies that are building generative ai models used to create content, including 0penai, google and microsoft, as well as social media platforms including meta, tiktok and x. more than 60 countries will go to the polls this year, and concerns are growing about how to protect the public from deepfakes that could sway their vote. it's something that president of microsoft brad smith hopes to tackle.

all of us then have products — like at microsoft, microsoft designer — you can use to create images or, say, images or video using ai. it embeds the data, so anybody can see when they display something like a picture how was it created, what product was used, when was it created. and so it tells somebody this was created by ai. now, we're going to have to do more than that, because we'll need to embed invisible watermarks as well, so that if people strip out that data, we still have the ability to identify it for what it is. earlier i spoke tojeffrey mcgregor, ai tech accord signatory and ceo of truepic, a group working to establish digital transparency. jeffrey, thanks for joining us on bbc news. your company has joined with 19 others of the leading tech

firms in the world to agree to work to clamp down on deceptive generative ai — a grand ambition. how big a threat to use see it present to all of the elections taking place around the world this year? thank for having me. we see it as a very big threat is the short of it. this is about mitigating the most obvious downside risk to the most exciting and transformative technology of our generation. and the tech accord comes at an extremely important time, as billions of people head to the polls this year, and at a time when the security threat of deceptive media has simply never been higher. given how believable some of this material looks and sounds, how are you actually going to achieve that? so we really believe in a fundamental approach of transparency in where digital content originates from and the history of that digital content over time. and truepic has been an active

member and participant in building an open standard called the c2pa, which is a technical mechanism for being able to establish that origin in transparency in all digital content, and it's something that all of the companies that are involved in the tech accord can opt into implementing to create a more transparent ecosystem. but who decides whether something is maybe designed as a piece of comedy, it's a piece of satire, it's putting some well—known figures saying something funny for the purposes ofjokes? that's been around since the internet was invented. who decides what is ok like that and what is potentially damaging? that's a great question, and it's really for the consumer to decide. the consumer ultimately makes that decision. what we believe is that the consumer should have access to information on simply where content originated from. did it come from an ai system? was it created by a computer or was it created by a human?

and the mechanisms that we have in place and that open specifications like the c2pa enable is just information about where content is originating from. so the consumer is ultimately left to make their own decisions on what content to trust, and whether it's for the purpose of satire or otherwise, that's not for tech companies to decide. and how much do you need national governments to assist you with this? the eu's ai act is almost law, but there is nothing remotely comparable in the us, for example. i think the legislation is going to be impactful here, but what i think we're seeing right now is that legislation cannot keep up with the pace of ai, which is why this tech accord is so important. you have the largest companies in the world opting in to take this action and to be responsible with their use of ai, without the need for legislation to ultimately come in and enforce that. so i think this is really

a critical step for the ecosystem that can have impact in 2024, which i simplyjust don't think legislation will have. the tech accord is focusing on elections specifically, but what about deceptive ai in other strands? misrepresentation of businesses, reputational attacks on public figures, or even image misuse on those who aren't politicians but who are well—known? look, i think that's the right question to ask. in relation to the tech accord, i think it's very good that the tech accord is focused. i think that gives us the best chance to really understand the scope of the problem and be able to create momentum in 2024 but the challenge of deceptive media extends far beyond just political challenges and deception that we are working on in 202a. it extends to every facet of digital content.

and you may have seen 0penai released something recently, and when you look at these videos, you can start to extrapolate how in 1—2 years where the quality may add and the ability may be to truly alter through society's perception of reality, it's going to be pervasive across the entire content ecosystem. so there may be a need for more tech accords, more far—reaching agreements into the future. we it there for the future. jeffrey gregor, ceo of truepic, thanks forjoining us on bbc news. yes, thanks for having me. i appreciate it. before we go, let's recap what we know about the reported death of alexei navalny. vigils have been held in his honour in moscow and other cities, including here in washington, dc. international leaders have condmened the death, which was first reported by russian prison officials. navalny had been in russian jail since 2021 on charges widely viewed as politically motivated. putin's spokesman said russia's penitentiary service is looking into what happened, but provided no further information.

and remember, our coverage continues online. you can find a live page on our website with the latest news and analysis from our correspondents in the region and around the globe. that's at bbc.com/news that's all from the team here in washington. i'm caitriona perry. hello there. once again, it's been another week that's been dominated by some wet weather at times. but when we have had the sunshine, it's felt pleasant enough. and some of us on friday had a beautiful scene, just like carmarthenshire. hope you made the most of it, though, because particularly out to the west, the start of the weekend looks decidedly unsettled, with more wet and windy weather arriving. ahead of it, we'll see quite a lot of cloud and the cloud thick enough for a spot or two of light drizzle that'll be easing away from north—east england and eastern scotland. misty, murky conditions behind

and then, some heavy rain by the middle part of the afternoon, so a west—east divide as we go through the day. some of the rain will be quite heavy. still quite mild with it — 1a degrees. you can see across south—east england and east of the pennines, we may well continue to see some brief glimpses of sunshine. but the rain through wales, stretching up through north—west england, northern ireland and western scotland will turn increasingly heavy, accompanied by gusts of winds, potentially around a0 mph. a little bit fresher as well into the north—east of scotland, but generally that mild theme set to continue. now, as we go through saturday evening and into the early hours of sunday morning, our weather front will continue to sink its way steadily south and east. the heaviest of the rain is likely to be now through the midlands and down towards south—east england, and that's going to take its time to clear, so during the early hours of sunday morning, expect a spell of wet weather. that'll probably still be there across east anglia and south—east england for earlybirds on sunday but it will start to ease away through the middle part

of the morning. a few scattered showers tucking in behind and then, sunday generally will be a case of sunny spells, a few isolated showers and still relatively mild for this stage in february — 10—14 degrees the high. now, as we move out of sunday into the new working week, once again, we will see spells of wet weather at times. brief drier interludes to follow. but by the middle part of the week, we'll see a spell of particularly wet and windy weather right across the country, and that will have an impact on the feel of the weather. we'll lose that mild south—westerly flow. a north—westerly returns. cooler story for all from midweek onwards. so, planning ahead — might be a mild, relatively sunny start, but it'll be wet and windy through the middle part of the week, and then colder air to follow behind.

voice-over: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines - for you at the top of the hour, straight after this programme. look at this — simply stunning. and this isjust the beginning. i'm in sri lanka, an island that charms you with its warmth. yeah. ready? yes! a tiny nation of dramatic extremes... keep it going. hold on. yee—hoo! ..and unique wildlife.

we know each and every one of them. it's just like family. but it's been through decades of struggle, from a brutal civil war... this became one of the most heavily mined areas in the world. loud explosion ooh. ..to one of the greatest natural disasters of our time. and now it's recovering from its worst—ever economic crisis. i first came here in the year 2000, and i was struck by the laidback island mentality. but sri lanka's been through a lot since then, and i want to find out how it's changed. in this first leg of myjourney... the coral is gone. we destroyed the sea and the sea destroyed us. ..i take to the seas,

joining a mission to repair the coastline.