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pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. announcer: and now, "bbc news" ♪ >> it's 7:00 p.m. in london. this is the world today with maryam sherry. the post office spent 100 million pounds of public money in court despite knowing the defense was untrue. the u.n.'s highest court orders israel to take urgent humanitarian assistance in the gaza as famine sets in. failed for 25 years, a former billionaire crypto boss sam bankman-fried is cvicted of one of the biggest financial frauds in u.s. history. also coming up on "the world today," tackling homelessness through football. we look at a new netflix movie helping to make a change. ♪

hello and welcome to the world today from bbc news where we start with breaking news coming in to us now from south africa, where at least 45 people have died in a bus crash. the department of transport says the vehicle, traveling from botswana to limpopo province, plunged off a high bridge into a ravine after colliding with the crash barrier. it then burst into flames when it hit the ground. local media is reporting that an eight-year-old girl was the only survivor. the precise cause of the crash is currently being investigated. just to reiterate what we just told you, there has been a serious bus crash in south africa. transportation authorities have been informing us that we believe that 45 people at least have been killed in this crash.

this vehicle plunged off a high bridge into a ravine, colliding with a crash barrier. you will have more on that story as we get it here on the world today. a special bbc report. it has been described as the u.k.'s most widespread miscarriage of justice, the post office scandal, where hundreds of sub-postmasters and post-mistresses were prosecuted for stealing money because of incorrect information provided by a computer system called horizon. the scandal has made headlines across the world. now, a draft report uncovered by the bbc shows the post office spent 100 million pounds of public money fighting sub-postmasters in court, despite knowing its defense was untrue. in the draft report from 2017, it found horizon software used in branches could be accessed remotely. but the post office pressed on with its legal battle, arguing that only theft or mistakes by

staff were actually to blame. the case was portrayed in the recent itv drama "mr. bates versus the post office." delete barrister said the bbc findings were shocking. the report shows the case need not have happened at all. the post office has said it would be inappropriate to comment. zoe conway has this exclusive report. zoe: in how we come amid whales, there is something missing. -- in howie, mid-wales, there is something missing. this house was the village post office, but not anymore. >> there was a counter that went from that wall all the way across. this was all shop. and then the post office was at the end. i used to sit down there. zoe: joan and her husband had to give up the jobs they loved after being accused of stealing thousands of pounds. in the beginning, joan blamed

herself for the shortfall. tell me about the scale of the losses. joan: in total, it was roughly 40,000 pounds. i was thinking it must be me doing something wrong. zoe: you blamed yourself? joan: of course i did. zoe: she came to realize the horizon system was at fault. how else to explain that t numbers on her computer screen dramatically changed overnight? joan: we were in bed. nobody else would get in the house. and just did not make sense. zoe: when they were suspended from running the post office, some villagers assumed they had stolen the money. joan: we were just pariahs. they thought i was a thief. and somebody you can't trust. we always worked hard. it just seemed wrong that we should be treated this way.

zoe: what joan could not have known and what this secret 2017 report makes clear is that her account could be accessed remotely without her knowledge. commission by the post office, it said fujitsu employees had the ability to amend or delete transactions entered by branch staff. the system would not flag up to a postmaster a change had been made. and those changes could cause a shortfall in branch accounts. it also said a malicious actor could potentially change data. ron warmington was hired by the post office to investigate concerns about the horizon system. when he started uncovering problems, he was sacked. why does this report matter? ron: it is unbelievable. every person has been hoodwinked into believing that nobody else was meddling with that person's numbers, and this report shows

that yes, it was happening on an industrial scale. >> going to the law will force the post office to open their files, so finally we will get to know everything the post office knows. the truth. zoe: the sub-postmasters tk the post to court in 2019. by then, management, lawyers, and investigators knew about findings within the report. but instead of coming clean, they kept it secret, despite knowing their defense was false. they continued to discredit the postmasters. ron: i'm shocked. i really am shocked. zoe: the barrister who acted for the sub-postmasters has never seen the report before. >> this is exactly the sort of thing we would have wanted to have and put in front of the judge. it is them admitting that they

could do, in 2017, something they were still denying they could do in 2019. zoe: the case dragged on for two years. it cost the taxpayer more than 100 million pounds. >> case should never have happened. it should have been settled. it is a great shame some of the people have died since then without having their names cleared. it is tragic and very, very sad. >> it is an absolutely astonishing victory. zoe: patrick green, as portrayed in the itv drama. one victory came, it was bittersweet. the vast majority of the postmasters' compensation was swallowed up in legal fees. in a statement, the post office said it was deeply sorry for the impact the scandal has had on people, and told the bbc the public inquiry's next phase

would look at the issues raised. fujitsu said that it regards this mter with the utmost seriousness, and offered its deepest apologies to the sub-postmasters and their families. joan: it's disgusting. zoe: joan, along with many of the other postmasters, is still fighting for compensation. but justice is about so much more than money. joan: reputation is something you can't buy with any amount of money. i've got my dignity back now and i'm not going to be called a liar anymore. zoe: bbc news, howie. maryam: the united nations' highest court has urged israel to assure humanitarian assistance in gaza without delay, saying famine has set in. since its written order issued in january, the international court of justice noted that the catastrophic living conditions of the palestinians in the gaza

strip had deteriorated further. in particular, a review of the widespread deprivation of food and other basic necessities. the latest development follows comments made by the u.n.'s most nior human rights official, who told the bbc there is a plausible case that israel is using starvation as a weapon of war. he was speaking to our international editor, jeremy bowen. >> israel is an occupying power and has an obligation to provide humanitarian assistance. if that humanitarian assistance does not come in in the scale, speed, and predictability that is required, yes, very serious questions are raised. the collective punishment that was declared with the siege indeed amounts to a war crime. it needs to be dealt with. maryam: israel's economy minister, a senior in benjamin netanyahu's likud party, dismissed mr. turk's warnings.

>> total nonsense. tol irresponsible thing to say. israel is accepting all the aid that the u.s. and the world is giving to gazan innocent people. which, a lot of it goes to extend the war. jeremy: how many innocent people are in gaza in your opinion? >> i do not have any number. over 70% of gazans support october 7 massacre. jeremy: so they are not innocent? >> people who are supporting hamas, they have a different thought. they are an enemy. maryam: a reminder -- the u.n. says famine is imminent in northern gaza, and could occur anytime between march and may this year. it follows months of conflict between israel and gaza after the october 7 hamas attacks. currently half the population, around 1.9 million people, are starving, according to the ipc classification. the entire population of gaza will be in famine by july 2024.

u.n. said gaza had the highest share of people facing high levels of acute food insecurity that the ipc initiative has ever classified for any given area or country. next, let's hear from jeremy bowen, who has been looking at cases of starvation inside gaza. jeremy: gaza is no place to be ill. someone had lung and liver problems before the war. after months of starvation and without the right medical care, she is deteriorating fast. my daughter can't move, says her mother. she is anemic, almost -- always sleeping, and there is nothing nutritious to eat. the evidence of gaza's humanitarian catastrophe is overwhelming and is deepening international pressure on israel. dermatitis is a classic symptom of acute malnutrition. these children reach hospital.

most of just over one million gazans considered to be in acute need will not have that option. jeremy bowen, bbc news, jerusalem. maryam: there is aid ready to be delivered in these lorries that are backed up on the egyptian side of the border, what they are stuck, unable to get through. countries have resorted to a drop. there have been reports of palestinians killed after the parachutes holding the eight packages failed to open. on monday, 12 people drowned trying to t aid dropped by a plane off a beach. james elder from the u.n. children's agency, unicef, spoke to us a short time ago from inside gaza. james: in march, one quarter of requests for aid convoys were denied. we have to take aid from the south on a very busy coastal road. tens of thousands of people there. we need an access point in the north. hand to mouth, that universal

symbol for hunger. people in the north are saying to me food, food, food. say that.y revealing why they they assume the world does not know. if the world knew, how would they be in that position? of course, the world does know. when i see mothers hunched over paperthin babies, given the nutritional crisis, there is an access crossing 15 minutes away. unicef has a convoy from our warehouse to reach these people. we have to load and unload four trucks four times. it is monumentally difficult. it is unnecessarily so. it is unrealistic that this man made imminent famine can be turned around if theres a willingness to make the right decisions for civilians here. maryam: still to come on "the world today," bad behavior. there has been a rise in levels of violence and abuse from students in england since the pandemic. in rare access to the war in ukraine.

soldiers film dangerous missions, releasing drones, hiding from enemy fire. around the world and across the u.k., this is "the world today" from bbc news. ♪

maryam: let's bring you more on that breaking news story. 45 people are believed to have died after a bus crashed in the south african province of limpopo. a bus traveling from botswana plunged off a high bridge before exploding on the floor of a ravine. let's speak to a journalist at the south african news organization enca. heidi, good to talk to. what more do we know about what happened? heidi: we understand that 45 people have been killed in a bus crash. we know there were 46 people on board. an eight-year-old survived the crash, an eight-year-old girl.

we also understand that somebody was airlifted to a nearby hospital, but unfortunately did not survive the accident. we are not sure what caused this accident. what we do know is that the bus was traveling from botswana to an area in the period where there is a church gathering that happens every year for easter, where thousands gather. the bus had a trailer. it was struggling to turn with the band of the road and it hit the barrier and subsequently drove over the barrier and off the bridge. we know the bus then caught fire. people inside the bus are thought to have perished. maryam: we are seeing a picture of the crash site. you can see a firefighter with a water hose, which presumably was

used to douse the flames you just talked about. crashes, road safety in south africa for as long as i can remember has been a big issue, has it not? heidi: especially in the easter period when people decide to go to these church gatherings or decide to go for a short break for the easter period. it is a very big problem. it is uncertain why the caravan decided to use this route. it is not a national highway that is normally used to travel. as you can see, the video that is being used at the moment just shows you how high this bridge actually is. what is more alarming and horrific is the fact that they have to wait for all the fire to be doused. they are stopped from retrieving the bodies.

there werbelieved to be more mothers and children that were on the bus. maryam: we are seeing pictures i believe filmed by you of the bridge, of the ravine. it looks really, really high. we are hearing not only from you that an eight-year-old child survived. do we know how? heidi: preliminary reports suggest that she did not fall when the bus hit the barrier and crashed into this very bushy, rocky area. its believed she actually was outside of the bus on the actual bridge, and that is how she survived. how she got out, when she got out, was the bus hanging over the barrier before it dropped and caught fire? we are not sure. paramedics at the scene found her on the bridge, and she was engaging with somebody else was

on the bridge. we do believe that individual unfortunately passed away. we understand she was very calm and all she wanted -- she kept asking for her on, who is believed to have been on the bus. maryam: thank you very much indeed for joining me there. just to reiterate, 45 people believed to have died after a bus crashed in south africa. those are pictures filmed by heidi, which were provided to us. we are giving you as much information as we can on bbc news. a court in new york has jailed the so-called crypto king, sam bankman-fried. 25 years for what has been called one of the biggest financial crimes in u.s. history. these are sketches from the sentencing. the 32-year-old founded the cryptocurrency exchange ftx, which made him a billionaire before it collapsed in spectacular fashion. he was found guilty of fraud and

money laundering last year. look at these pictures. that is the scene outside the manhattan courthouse. you can see his parents arriving at court. our new york business correspondent is outside the courthouse. erin: one of the big moments during the sentencing today is when judge lewis kaplan said he rejected entirely the defendant's as rotation that no one was harmed from the fall of ftx. that was the cryptocurrency exchange. he pointed to $8 billion in customer losses. he totaled the losses at more than $11 billion. judge kaplan said that informed how he made its -- his sentencing decision. sam bankman-fried was scheduled to 25 years in jail, far shy of the 40 to 50 years the prosecution asked the judge to consider, but greater than the five to six years the defense had requested. in fact, sentencing guidelines provided to the judge for the

crimes sam bankman-fried was found guilty of totaled more than 100 years, it is easily tantamount to a life sentence for thing and frayed. -- for sam bateman frayed. maryam: i'm -- for sam bankman-fried. maryam: let's talk about him as a person. explain to viewers who he was and what happened. >> it was incredible. he positioned himself as an effective ultra wrist. she wanted to make as much money as possible and then give it away. he was subject to flattering profiles. was he the next warren buffett? in an interview he admitted it was all a p.r. stunt, effectively. he lost 94% of his net worth in a single day when ftx collapsed. maryam: 25 years for what? who was harmed in this process? >> customers. he ran ftx. what was happening behind the scenes is that a sister company

was arlington customer money without anybody's knowledge. $8 billion in total. when these risky bets did not pay off, effectively customers lost everything. maryam: tell me about the damage you think he has done to the crypto industry as a whole. >> it is significant. there are millions of people who invested in ftx who have had their fingers burnt and will not want to touch again. the media coverage around many of the cases in crypto, especially the volatility of cryptocurrencies, makes them more unappealing to investors. maryam: we have seen sam bankman-fried convicted. do you think there is more trust out there are not? >> i think we are seeing cryptocurrency bad actors being held to account. with bitcoin surging over the past year, greed starts to set in. maryam: so good to talk to you.

thank you. if you are in the u.k., you can watch the full program, nine crypto craze moments, right now on bbc. but don't go and watch it right now, because you want to watch me, don't you? king charles has spoken with great sadness about missing the traditional monday thursday service. he is having treatment for cancer but recorded a message played at the service today. >> more than a thousand people braved the cold today. many had been waiting hours to grab the best spots. >> it has been the custom for the king to give arms on monday thursday. x it is an ancient tradition. historically, it took place in or near london. >> here are some of the recipients. >> queen elizabeth change that, and it was held around the country. this was the last time it happened in worchester.

the crowds are slightly smaller, likely down to the absence of the king. news of the cancer treatments both the king and princess catherine are receiving is very much on the minds of the people who turned up to see the queen today. >> it is incredibly difficult and more important than ever that we support the royal family time. this is a great way to show it. >> especially in these difficult times. critics they are stoic and they are true to their people. we need to be true to them. reporter: although the king said his absence caused him great sadness, he sent a recorded message. king charles: in this country, we are blessed by all the different services that exist for our welfare. over and above these organizations and their selfless staff, we need and benefit greatly from those who extend the hand of friendship to us, especially in a time of need.

reporter: john has devoted his life to the church and service to his parish in western. he was among the people who were giving money today. >> just and enormous sense of regret. i never expected anything like that to happen to me. i'm going to keep it and treasure it, keep it and show it off. reporter: there was a small but noisy anti-monarchist protest outside, but it was drowned out by well-wishers. and the queen rewarded them for their patients as she left the cathedral. maryam: you are watching "the world today." 20 more to come after this short rate.

announcer: funding for presentation of this program is provided by... financial services firm, raymond james. bdo. accountants and advisors. cunard is a proud supporter of public television. announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ announcer: funding for presentation of this program is provided by... woman: two retiring executives turn their focus to greyhounds, giving these formerace dogs a real chance to win.