a crucial day in donald trump's hush money trial in new york. his former lawyer michael cohen admits he lied to getjobs done for his former boss and intimidated reporters on the former president's behalf. there's fierce fighting in the north east of ukraine where russian forces are continuing to press towards the city of kharkiv. we'll also bring you the latest on the war in gaza and the difficulties facing people trying to leave rafah as the fighting closes in. we'll reveal how a bbc investigation led to police arresting one of europe's most wanted people smugglers — known by the nickname the scorpion. and controlled explosions in baltimore, as engineers try to re—float the container ship which crashed into the frances scott key bridge.

it's six in the morning in singapore, and six in the evening in new york where donald trump's hush money trial has been hearing from the key prosecution witness, michael cohen. he was once the former president's lawyer and fixer but he spent the day on the stand outlining how he made a payment to the adult film actress, stormy daniels, to stop her talking about a relationship she claimed she had with mr trump. the defence is expected to stress mr cohen's criminal record and openly stated dislike of his ex boss. our north america editor sarah smith reports. the star witness for the prosecution is also their biggest problem. he's been to prison for telling lies to congress so why should thejury believe him now? do you plan on telling the truth? rude and loud mouthed, he's already been called a bully and a jerk in this trial.

and he frequently attacks donald trump online. even thejudge has asked him to stop it. trumpism is fascism, and we must eradicate it from our body politic. donald trump can't answer back. he has been threatened with a jail sentence if he says anything about michael cohen or any of the trial witnesses. so instead he's highlighting a new york times opinion poll that shows this trial is not damaging his political support. and there it is, it's trump, leading by a lot. in every state. every swing state leading by a lot. this trial is rigged. today, donald trump listened to his formerfixer saying he'd do whatever was required for the man he called boss, including telling lies. mr cohen described working to kill salacious stories that could have hurt mr trump's first presidential campaign, including stormy daniels' claim about a sexual encounter. for a felony conviction, prosecutors need to prove donald trump intended to influence

the election outcome. he says he paid the hush money to stop his wife finding out. but michael cohen told the court, "he wasn't "thinking about melania, this was all "about the campaign." mr cohen said he paid ms daniels' lawyer and kept donald trump's name away from the deal but told him every detail because everything required mr trump's signoff. political allies of donald trump are allowed to call mr cohen a liar. does any reasonable person believe anything michael cohen says? i don't think that they should, and i actually think that his testimony will not affect any reasonable juror, and hopefully we have a few of those. michael cohen hates donald trump, he makes no secret of that. but will that stop the jury from believing his crucial testimony against his former boss? ifjust one juror is unsure of donald trump's guilt, that will be enough to save him from conviction. sarah smith, bbc news, new york. former federal prosecutor, sarah krissoff, has been watching the trial closely. she says the prosecution

is trying to walk mr cohen carefully through the evidence that corroborate his story. they know that the jury needs to believe michael cohen in order to convict here. and they also know that michael cohen has a lot of baggage and he's going to be cross—examined at length, probably for days. and they need to sort of buttress his credibility as much as they can on this direct examination. tell us a bit more about how problematic a witness he is. we heard a bit from sara earlier as well. what will the defense be looking to do when they get a chance to cross—examine? i mean, they're going to have a lot of fun here. they have a lot to work with with mr cohen. he has a hard time keeping quiet like the former president. so he's been tweeting things on social media even during the course of this trial that express his hatred of the former president. so they will use all of that to cross—examine him.

and, of course, he has his own criminal convictions in his past. so there is a lot of material here for the defense team to work with. and how much of this case will hinge on cohen's testimony? i think it's essential at the end of the day that the jury believes michael cohen. so the prosecution has tried to set this up that they can, you know, by, as i said, buttressing his testimony, corroborating it, supporting it in any way they can. but michael cohen really ties it all together and really ties the president to these actions. so i think they need to believe michael cohen in order to convict here. and beyond michael cohen and his testimony, what else would be looking out for? what should we be looking out for in this trial? i'm curious where the prosecution ends here. i'm surprised they i think they said they may have one witness after michael cohen, perhaps the second. ithink, you know, where

the end is important that remains in thejurors mind. they're going to remember that moment. so i hope that they have for their sake, for the prosecution sake, they want to end with a witness or two that that is not facing as much cross—examination as michael cohen is just a sort of less controversial witness to end the day here. still to come a bit later in the programme... we'll look at why melinda french gates is leaving the charitable foundation she set up with her former husband bill gates. and we'll have the story of how the bbc helped track down one of europe's most—wanted people traffickers. but first. . .. russia appears to be making more gains in a new frontline in ukraine, seizing territory in the north east, near to kharkiv. kharkiv is the second biggest city in ukraine. russian forces are starting to surround the border town of vovchans'k with reports of heavy damage there due to fighting. with the latest from kyiv, here's our correspondent james waterhouse.

it was an attack that was sudden but ukraine is still claiming it wasn't a surprise, this is a city and region which russian forces through the kitchen sink at earlier on, and yet the swathes of territory they were subsequently liberated by ukrainian forces. in the time since, over the last six months, you have seen russian troops growing confidence, their ambitions have got greater, too, and despite warnings about tens of thousands of troops gathering across the border, we have seen two major incursions into the kharkiv region and certainly for kyiv, they haven't stopped there. shouting. these communities are used to russia being close, but not this close. forfour days, bombs have rained down here, and the window to leave is shrinking. thousands have been forced to escape, and counting.

"keep talking to us," says this police officer to 71—year—old olga. she was injured in an explosion and their car is now an ambulance. they meet paramedics. we're told she's in a serious condition. translation: vovchans'k | being mercilessly destroyed, blown up by rocket propelled grenades, artillery, mortars, and small arms battles are going on on the northern outskirts of the city. the newly homeless end up here in ukraine's second city, kharkiv. people are terrified. they are stressed. they take... they keep their animals with them. so everyone is in a huge stress because of the constant shelling and of the shock of the russian offensive. volodymyr said he went to feed his animals

when he encountered machine gunfire in all directions. for now, kharkiv city is a place of relative safety. but for how long? while few think the russians are capable of taking it, they could soon be in artillery range. translation: our task is crystal clear. - to stop russia's attempt to expand the war. the fulfilment of this task depends on everyone who is on the ground. missiles routinely hit kharkiv. if this offensive isn't contained, the destruction will be even greater. ukraine is struggling to hold what is a new front line. james waterhouse, bbc news, kyiv. to the former soviet republic of georgia now, where protests are ongoing at plans to introduce foreign influence laws. demonstrators say that would mean georgia might face the same clampdown on media as in russia — where

similar legislation is already in place. in a televised address, the prime minister irakli kobakhidze insisted a vote to rubber stamp the law would be held on tuesday. thousands of protestors have gathered outside the parliament in tbilisi to oppose that happening. they say that by passing the law, georgia would be moved closer to moscow and have less chance ofjoining the european union. let's bring you up to date with the latest developments in the war in gaza. of rafah — an area where many people had taken refuge from fighting elsewhere in gaza. thousands of people have fled the camp. israel has advised them to go to the al mawasi area near the coast and to khan younis. aid agencies say there is almost no infrastructure there to support them. there's been heavy fighting injabalia in the north of gaza. israel says it has returned to the area to counter any attempts by hamas to re—establish its military

capabilities in the area. israel has marked memorial day — an event which honours fallen soldiers and civilian victims of hostilities. sirens sounded across the country for two minutes. israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu said the war in gaza revolved around us — meaning israel, or them — hamas. staying with that story — and the attempts by many thousands of people to leave rafah, as fighting rages around them. our team at bbc verify have been examining the journey people have to make to reach the israeli—designated safe zones. here's richard irvine—brown. this is rafah in southern gaza, which has been home to over a million displaced people in recent weeks. and this is deir al—balah further north where people displaced were told to go for their safety by israel as its forces began a campaign in rafa last week. the red area here is the area they've been instructed to leave. here is al mawasi,

an area along the coastal al—rasheed road, also within the israeli designated safety zone. the un estimates that over the past week nearly 360,000 people have fled rafah, heading north. come over here. we can see them on the move. we can tell from these satellite images that these people are moving from a displacement camp in rafah. here they are on the 5th of may. three days later, they're gone. this is a satellite image of where they might be heading to. we've identified it injust the west of deir all—balah, a recently we've identified it in just the west of deir al—balah, a recently constructed emergency field hospital. you can see it right there. it's been built by the israelis who say it has 150 medical workers on site. it's vital as hospitals in rafah and khan younis are overwhelmed with many no longer accepting new patients. and this is the journey that people will have to make to get there. you can see from the centre of rafah up to deir al—balah that emergency hospital through al—mawasi along

the coast road, it's about 19 kilometres or 12 miles. so it's no easyjourney as this might show. this video shows on friday afternoon the first efforts of people moving north through a sandstorm. this was filmed at the southwest tip of deir al—balah. we're looking south at this point as people head toward the field hospital in the town. and here's what those fleeing north are leaving behind. this is from a video filmed last week in rafah by the head judge. this is from a video filmed last week in rafah by a palestinian journalist we know was there until the weekend. we're not going to show it. it contains multiple injuries and possible deaths, mainly of children. but we've geolocated this street to yards from one of the last functioning hospitals in rafah. he made the journey from rafah to the israeli designated safety zone. another graphic video he filmed on sunday night, seen here, showed similar desperate scenes at the entrance to al—aqsa martyrs hospital in deir al—balah, less than two

kilometers from the field hospital. so for the residents, doctors and journalists of gaza trying to find the place they can call safe changes every day. let's go to baltimore in the us state of maryland where engineers have carried out a controlled explosion to remove the part of the collapsed francis scott key bridge, which has trapped a container ship, the dali, since the vessel struck it, causing it to collapse, in march. the blasts were intended to break up the bridge into smaller sections, which would allow salvage crews to haul it away using cranes and barges. the operation involving those explosives is being led by the us army. here's the general in charge of events, speaking just after the first detonation had taken place. i will tell you that it went off as planned. we did not expect the vessel to come rising quickly out of the water, given the amount of ballast that is in front of the ship. i will tell you that today's operation went as planned.

let's just take a look at what was left after that controlled explosion. as you can see, while most of the metalfrom the bridge has been removed from the dali, there's still quite a lot of it laying across the vessel. once the ship is cleared, it will be re—floated, and removed from the main channel, which would allow the port of baltimore to be fully re—opened. it's going to cost as much as $2 billion to re—build the bridge. the fbi is carrying out a criminal probe into the incident, looking into what caused the ship to collide with the structure. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news.

melinda french gates says she is leaving the charity foundation which she established with her ex—husband, the microsoft co—founder bill gates. she didn't give a reason — but did confirm that

in leaving, she will have an additional $12.5 billion to commit to her work on behalf of women and families. the foundation has already spent nearly 5a billion dollars working to tackle child poverty and preventable diseases since it was set up more than two decades ago. teddy schleifer is reporter for pucknews who specialises in silicon valley billionaires and their impact on the world. he gave me his analysis of the move. well, for the last three years, the gates foundation has been hounded by questions about whether or not this was going to happen. we know that as part of their divorce, a factor driving melinda away from the foundation and away from her husband was his husband's ties to jeffrey epstein. there's been much reporting since the since epstein left this earth that bill gates himself carried on quite extensive relationship with jeffrey epstein. with jeffrey epstein well after epstein was first

convicted of a crime and that bothered melinda gates, who was not well aware of all the details there. so, look, any divorce is difficult. i don't pretend to know everything that happened in their marriage, but it is difficult to co—run a foundation as the two co—trustees of this massively important philanthropic body when there's clearly been a breakdown in trust between the two of them. and do we know what she intends to do next? you know, i reported here at puck that melinda french gates is increasingly interested in partisan politics. her kids, rory gates and phoebe gates, two of her kids, have taken an interest in democratic politics. and melinda, in her note today even, acknowledges that she wants to get more involved in protecting women's rights here in the united states. so i think that's one interesting direction that she could go in with this new $13 billion war chest. and it's one that bill has long resisted and the couple has long resisted when they were a couple. so now that she has her own money to spend, i think that's a direction that i'm very interested in to see

if she takes up. and what about the charitable work that she does? and also what will happen to the gates foundation? that's a great question. one thing, it will now be called the gates foundation. the bill and melinda gates foundation is a vestige of the past. the gates foundation is obviously extraordinarily powerful around the globe, especially in global health and in agriculture, in pandemic prevention and poverty alleviation. and, you know, they have a lot of people who work there. it's kind of a bureaucracy on its own. i don't think it's going to fold overnight. one thing i am very curious about is there has been a recent push by the foundation into women's health, which was really a priority of melinda's. does that stay a priority there? saying it will. but, you know, fair to be skeptical or fair to be curious if that's actually true. let's take a look at some of the stories in the headlines in the uk. ajudge sitting in belfast�*s

high court has ruled that the government's plan to detain and remove asylum seekers to rwanda should not apply in northern ireland. mrjustice humphreys said it would breach the post—brexit deal agreed between the uk and the eu. rishi sunak said the decision would not change the government's plan. three men have been charged following an investigation, carried out by the counter—terrorism policing north west group. 0perations were carried out at addresses in wigan and bolton. walid saadaoui and amar hussain, are charged with preparation of terrorist acts, and bilel saadaoui is charged with failing to disclose information about an act of terrorism. all three will appear at westminster magistrates' court on tuesday. downing street has watered down planned police powers, to deal with so called "nuisance" rough sleepers, after opposition from tory mps. campaigners were concerned that the criminaljustice bill had been drafted so widely, it could lead to rough sleepers

being arrested orfined due to the way they smelled. one of europe's most wanted people smugglers, has been arrested in northern iraq. it comes just days after the bbc tracked down, and confronted barzan majeed known as the scorpion, who's been on the run for more than a year. sue mitchell was behind that bbc investigation and has this report. by his own admission, barzan majeed has smuggled as many as 10,000 people across the english channel. the boat crossings are incredibly dangerous. our investigation began when one of his boats failed at sea. many adults and children have had to be rescued in the channel, including six—year—old maili. how many children were on the boat, maili? there was you and your brother... four. four children? yeah, four children. 26 members of the scorpion gang arranging these channel crossings have already been arrested and prosecuted after an investigation

by police across europe. but majeed escaped and went on the run. together with former soldier rob laurie, we traced barzan majeed through his network across europe, finally confronting him in iraq where he spoke to us off—camera, telling us he was providing a service that people wanted. nobody forced them. they wanted to, they were begging. they were begging the smugglers, "please do this, do this for us. you know that smuggling through europe is illegal and highly dangerous. you know that. of course. and yet you did it. i'm telling you, i've done them kind of things. i done it. majeed was arrested earlier today as a result of our bbc investigation. he is now being held and questioned by police in iraq. sue mitchell, bbc news. king charles has officially handed over the senior military role

of colonel—in—chief of the army air corps to prince william. it is however a title some thought might have gone to charle's other son — harry — had he remained a working royal. here's duncan kennedy. from king to prince, from father to son. this was day of symbolic and personal handovers. after three decades as colonel—in—chief, king charles passed the regimental belt and blue beret to prince william, marking the moment the role changed hands. well, this is an incredibly symbolic and personal important moment for both the king and for the prince of wales. this is something that hasn't been done, the handing over of the colonel—in—chief role, in 32 years. the setting for today's ceremony was by an apache helicopter, the kind that prince harry once flew in afghanistan. some commentators have suggested he might have been considered for the role of colonel—in—chief, had he not stood back from royal duties.

the king made no mention of that as he met families of the aircrew, before speaking about his confidence in william's future role. i do hope you go from strength to strength in the future, with the prince of wales as your new colonel—in—chief. the great thing is he's a very good pilot indeed, so that's encouraging. 0ne change of clothes later, prince william, himself a trained helicopter pilot, stepped into his new role by meeting aircrews, some of whom have seen combat service everywhere from afghanistan to iraq. we were extremely fortunate to have the king, then prince of wales, as our colonel—in—chief. and to see that handed over formally today has been fantastic. later, in a pair of twin take—offs, the king left in a royal helicopter, while prince william took the front seat of an apache. a day of transition completed at the home of the army's air regiment.

duncan kennedy, bbc news in hampshire. if you've never heard of the hairstyle known as the mullet — well, it's defined by being long at the back, short at the sides, and often a bit spikey on top — three haircuts in one, as it were. it was very big in the 1980s, especially with people living in the southern us and for some reason, with australian cricketers. it's hardly been heard of since that heyday but it's back. if you want proof, just take a look at the people who turned up for the european mullet festival held in belgium. they were proud to show off the style, known by many nicknames, including the mississippi mud flap, the cameo cut, and the kentucky waterfall. those and the kentucky waterfall. are some impressive images, those are some impressive images, aren't they? goodbye. hello. the weather looks decidedly

mixed over the next few days, just as it was on monday. for some of us, there was a little bit of sunshine and some warmth — 2a celsius, or at least very close to it, in parts of northern scotland. compare that with 1a celsius in southwest england, with cloud, with outbreaks of rain — all in association with this area of low pressure and this slow—moving frontal system. now, this weather front is now slowly on the move, northwards and eastwards. you can follow that weather front here for tuesday morning — that's where we'll see outbreaks of rain across parts of eastern england for a time across the midlands, certainly some rain across northern england, southern and central scotland. rain tending to pull away from northern ireland, and for wales in the southwest, it's a mix of sunny spells and heavy showers. northern scotland should see some dry and bright weather. we could well see the highest of the temperatures here, around 21 celsius more generally, 16—20. and then, through tuesday night, here's our weather front continuing its very slow journey northwards and eastwards. much of the rain, though, i think fizzling out. it'll be a bit misty and murky

in places as we start wednesday morning, temperatures generally between 9—12 celsius. 0ur weather front still in play, still a band of clouds, some splashes of rain — we may see some heavier rain pushing back in across some eastern and northern parts of england. elsewhere, some spells of sunshine, a scattering of showers — we could possibly see the odd heavy thundery shower breaking out in the north—west of scotland. temperatures in northern scotland likely to touch 22—23 celsius, but in sunny spots elsewhere, we will be in the high teens or the low—20s. for thursday, still the remnants of that weather front providing cloud and a focus for some showers. but we will see some showers breaking out quite widely on thursday, some heavy, thundery ones in places. but again, in the sunshine, temperatures getting into the low 20s celsius — not bad at all for the time of year. now, as we head into the end of the week and the weekend, this area of low pressure tending to weaken, the centre of the low tending to be to the south of the uk. so spots further north actually

may escape most of the showers and see a decent amount of dry weather. temperatures could still get into the 20s celsius for some. more showers further south, some of those heavy and thundery, but still with some spells of warm sunshine in between.

the artificial intelligence race is heating up. 0penai boss sam altman says upgrades to chatgpt will transform the platform into "ai from the movies". and, as india's election enters its fourth phase, we have a special report from the politically sensitive city of ayodhya. hello, and welcome to business today — i'm steve lai. let's begin in the united states — because a week of developer conferences are being held in the tech world, with three giants set to release their latest features and products in generative artificial intelligence. its new flagship model gpt—iio. from new york, the bbc�*s erin delmore has all the details. 20 years ago, the biggest battle in tech was over who would win the war for search engine dominance. google took

the prize and it isn't nowjust a multitrillion dollar