welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. i'm mike embley. our top stories: the russia investigation gets closer to the white house as the us attorney general becomes the first member of president trump's cabinet to be questioned. thousands rally in southern brazil for their former president, lula da silva, urging an appeals court to overturn his conviction for corruption. fears of a major eruption in the philippines after fresh activity from mount mayon. and the south african jazz musician and campaigner against apartheid hugh masekela has died at the age of 78. hello.

the us attorney—general, the country's top prosecutor, has become the first member of president trump's cabinet to be questioned by the special counsel investigating allegations of russian interference in the presidential election. it's understood jeff sessions was also questioned about whether the trump team colluded with russia, and then tried to impede the russia inquiry. and the washington post is reporting that special counsel robert mueller is seeking to interview the president, as well. the bbc‘s david willis is following events in washington. you are absolutely right to the justice department confirming today thatjeff sessions, the attorney general, was interviewed by robert mueller‘s team, investigating alleged collusion between the trump campaign and russia. —— trump. they are taking place last week. the interview with the special counsel, robert mueller‘s t, was conducted its reported in the presence ofjeff

sessions‘ war you. it makesjeff sessions, the attorney general, the first member of the trump cabinet to be interviewed by robert mueller‘s tea m be interviewed by robert mueller‘s team and that team as well as investigating allegations of collusion between the trump campaign and russia is also of course looking into whether the president obstructed justice basically by firing the former fbi directorjames comey. one of the things thatjeff sessions was involved in was a meeting in the oval office to discuss the firing of james comey, apparently, so that‘s certainly an area of interest to robert mueller and his team. meanwhile, the suggestion here very much that this investigation is moving closer and closer to the white house. unconfirmed reports, as you mentioned, that the special

counsel‘s team may be looking to interview the president at some stage and possibly quite imminently as part of this investigation. amid all of those rumours that have been going on for quite sometime at the white house, it might try to shut down the russian investigation. the president‘s spokesperson saying they would be fully cooperative. that's right. and the president himself has said that in the past, although he seemed to backtrack and little in —— a little recently when he was asked point—blank whether he would sit down for an interview with robert mueller‘s team. he said there was no collusion as far as he was concerned and such an interview would probably be unnecessary. he has described the enquiry as a witch—hunt and a hoax. clearly there will be a call for ground rules to be laid out very carefully in advance, if the president is to sit down with

members of robert mueller‘s team. more on that, little later in the bulletin. on wednesday, judges in brazil will decide whether or not to uphold a corruption conviction against former president lula da silva. he‘s been found guilty of accepting a penthouse apartment as a bribe. but he has millions of supporters, who say the charges against him are politically motivated. our south america correspondent katy watson reports from brazil. jose points out his old house. for more than 20 years, he lived in this favela. he‘s grateful, but pragmatic. translation: his government was good when it comes to housing because lots of people had no means to live world and now they live in their own house. —— live well. but in general, politicians are pretty dirty. i‘m not going tojudge if he is innocent, but if he has

really not done anything wrong, he‘ll prove it. on the other side of sao paulo, this man is angry. he owns a construction company. he‘s ashamed of the corruption scandals that have engulfed the politicians and businesspeople of brazil in recent years and feels lula is the symbol of what has gone wrong. translation: brazilians are fed up with the political class in brazil. we can‘t put up with them anymore. they are all rich millionaires and billionaires. lula started as a trade unionist, fighting corruption. but he has managed to institutionalise corruption. nobody has robbed s much in the history of brazil as the period of the worker‘s party. but here, members and supporters of the worker‘s party are out in force. lula‘s face and his presence are everywhere. people have come from all over brazil to be here for lula. they are notjust here to support his court battle, but also here to voice support his running for president

later this year, a race he is currently leading. "elections without lula are fraudulent" reads this banner. his supporters say there is no evidence against him and it is just a way to stop him becoming president again. lula is representing nowadays maybe the only political option that the working class have in brazil. translation: i am pretty sure he will not be sent to prison, but if lula is found guilty, he will become a martyr. no one knows which way the judges will vote on wednesday, but, whatever their decision, authorities are preparing for strong reactions on both sides. let‘s take a look at some of the other stories making the news. at least 22 people have been killed and many others wounded by two car bombs that exploded in quick succession in the libyan city of benghazi.

the attack hit worshippers leaving a mosque. both military personnel and civilians are among the victims. it‘s not yet clear who was behind the attack. two children have been killed and i7 injured in a shooting at a school in the us state of kentucky. a suspect, aged 15, has been led away by police. scores of children were seen running out of a building at marshal county high school in the town of benton. if the second school shooting in the us this week. there have been 50 already this year. the chief minister of punjab province is a suspect had confessed and his dna matches the crime scene. this has triggered protests across the country and two people have died in clashes with police. the venezuelan government has ordered fresh elections before the end of april. president nicolas maduro told thousands of his supporters at a rally that he‘s ready to seek another six—year term. mr maduro‘s potential challengers

are in self—imposed exile or in jail, allegedly for inciting violence during anti—government protests. tens of thousands of people in the philippines have been forced to flee their homes as the country‘s most active volcano continues to fire huge plumes of ash and lava into the air. the army has been drafted in to help clear the danger area around the mayon volcano, with experts warning that a hazardous eruption could happen at any time. andrew plant has the latest. timelapse footage of the philippines‘ most active volcano. its latest eruption shooting molten rock high into the air. its ash cloud billowing across the landscape, just a taste, scientists believe, of what is to come. an eruption is now rather imminent in the next few hours or days and it also means the danger zone around the volcano has been increased from 6km to 8km. over the past few days, more than 50,000 people have

evacuated, with soldiers drafted in and trucks ferrying villagers to 46 camps outside the danger zone. but some have risked returning, despite the increasing activity. translation: my house is about 2km inside the danger zone. i know i‘m not allowed back because it‘s dangerous, but i need my livelihood, i have no choice. of the philippines, about 300km south—east of manila. there are no reports of injuries, but schools have been closed and flights cancelled. mayon is a near—perfect cone, popular with tourists, almost 2.5 kilometres tall and highly volatile, with 51 recorded eruptions. officials are closely monitoring this latest activity, warning people to wear face masks and goggles as they wait to see what this volcano has in store. andrew plant, bbc news. and the bbc‘s howard johnson gave me

this update from manila. mount mayon hasn‘t been letting off overnight and has been eating more smoke and lover. —— the meeting. there have been huge lava fountains spraying into the sky. residents describe the sound of the rumbles coming from the volcano as that of a jet plane coming into land. scientists have been watching this carefully, as you say, over the past week. it has gone up from where it first started erupting more than a week ago to this day, it‘s gone up on the scale from three to four, on a scale where five is the highest threat level. the fear now is that it could explode in the coming days. a hazardous eruption, scientists are warning. if that happens then we could see the current exclusion zone, which is now nine kilometres, could be extended further.

we‘ve had thousands of people evacuated, but also other people coming back. some in this largely agricultural area because they need their livelihoods, as a man was saying in the report, and also some tourist coming just to see it. that‘s correct. yes, this exclusion zone of nine kilometres was extended yesterday from eight kilometres to build in another one kilometre‘s buffer zone, where they try to stop people from going back to their villages. a p pa re ntly going back to their villages. apparently there‘s a big clock fight going on at the moment and people are going on at the moment and people a re interested going on at the moment and people are interested in going back to see that. —— cockfight. there‘s also the need to go back and tend the land. previously tourist and amateur photographers have had to be warned away. they flock to decide to take pictures. on social media there are lots of images being captured this volcano, a very popular volcano indeed for filmmakers and

photographers. more than 100 young women have now spoken up in a court in michigan to tell their personal stories of sexual abuse. several of them were members of the us olympic gymnastics team. the molester was the team‘s doctor. larry nassar sat in court day after day listening as one victim after another took the stand. he is already on jail —— he is already onjail —— injail on child pornography charges. he has admitted ten criminal counts and could face life in prison. the bbc‘s rajini vaidyanathan has been following the proceedings. i think there has been a sense of collective empowerment over the last seven days as women have been sharing testimony. what started as something like 98 women who signed up to either submit a written statement or appear before thejudge here, now turned into 158 women who wanted to come forward and tell their stories. the judge has described these women as survivors as every day the women —— as it‘s not every day women feel they can share their stories,

let alone relive their ordeal while their attacker is there in court in front of them. united nations peacekeeping troops operating in some of the world‘s most dangerous conflict zones should be willing and able to use force to defend themselves, according to a new report submitted to the organisation‘s secretary—general. here‘s our africa security correspondent, tomi oladipo. peacekeeping involves planning and impartial role, providing security to help countries moved from conflict to peace. the un has more than 100,000 peacekeepers deployed around the world. more than half of their missions are in africa, but these are becoming increasingly dangerous. an internal review by the world body has revealed that the nature of the day‘s threats mean the un flag no longer provides natural protection to peacekeepers. missions in africa are the most vulnerable, with the un in mali having lost 91 people in attack since 2013. 29 died

in the central african republic and 26 in saddam‘s war—torn region of darfur war. just last month 26 in saddam‘s war—torn region of da rfur war. just last month rebels in the democratic republic of congo targeted peacekeepers in the east of the country. 1a troops were killed and more than 50 injured in the worst attack on the un‘s recent history. the new report says peacekeepers should be prepared to ta ke peacekeepers should be prepared to take the initiative to prevent or fend off attacks using force, if necessary. it adds that equipment and training could prevent serious casualties in areas where there is a heightened threat. the document has been prepared for the un secretary general antonio guterres to decide ona general antonio guterres to decide on a way forward. stay with us on bbc news. coming up, the six—year—old boy from tanzania hoping to inspire other children to dream big. the people of saigon have just heard that,

at last, there is to be a ceasefire. the reaction of american servicemen was predictable. i‘m going home. demonstrators waiting for mike gatting and his rebel cricket team were attacked with tear gas and set upon by police dogs. anti—apartheid campaigners say they will carry on the protests throughout the tour. they called him the butcher of lyon. klaus altmann is being held on a fraud charge in bolivia. but the west germans want to extradite him for crimes committed in wartime france. there, he was the gestapo chief klaus barbie. millions came to bathe as close as possible to this spot, a tide of humanity that is believed by officials to have broken all records. this is bbc news.

the latest headlines: the us attorney generaljeff sessions has become the first member of president trump‘s cabinet to be questioned by the special counsel investigating alleged russian interference. let‘s stay with that story. we can cross now to louisville, kentucky and speak to ilya shapiro, a constitutional affairs expert at the kato institute think tank in washington. good to talk to you again. where do you think this is heading, how significant do you think these developments are? it is still speculation upon speculation, we‘re getting asymmetric weeks if you will. the fact he‘s talking to sessions doesn‘t mean that much because sessions is actually recused from the russia probe, so unless he wa nts to from the russia probe, so unless he

wants to know what sessions talked about with ambassador kislyak of russia in a large group meeting way back when, i don‘t know how that‘s going to help, but really we don‘t know. it‘s probably the obstruction 01’ know. it‘s probably the obstruction or the cover—up is really what is more being investigated than anything that originally happened during the election. it would be remiss when 17 intelligence agencies have confirmed russia did interfere not to talk to attorney general sessions given he was a campaign adviser, was an very forthcoming about those meetings with russian ambassador kislyak and he must have been privy to conversation is about firing james comey. people will want to talk to him about possible obstruction of justice. to talk to him about possible obstruction ofjustice. sure, they‘re going to probe all of these issues, after all the special counsel office is spending millions of dollars to justify their own existence but at the end of the day it‘s hard to know whether... sure, the russians tried to influence...

chaos in america is more than them favouring one side or another, it‘s not like they prevented hillary clinton from campaigning in wisconsin or anything like that, at the end of he is all avoidable, it‘s about the firing of james comey the end of he is all avoidable, it‘s about the firing ofjames comey or the processing of the national security clearance for the short lived national security adviser general michael flynn and things like that ultimately will be the focus of the report. but we don‘t know, we‘re getting this through lea ks. know, we‘re getting this through leaks. he testified but we don‘t know exactly what‘s going in the report. it‘s been almost year since bob mueller was appointed so time will tell. understood. famously steve bannon, former chief strategist, suggested that meeting between donald trump jr, strategist, suggested that meeting between donald trumer, mr trump‘s son—in—law between donald trumer, mr trump‘s son—in—lanared kushner between donald trumer, mr trump‘s son—in—law jared kushner and paul ma nafort son—in—law jared kushner and paul manafort with the russians at trump tower was treasonous and unpatriotic. went on to suggest that the focus of bob mueller‘s

investigation would be laundering, what strength do you give to that chris? manafort has been indicted after his representation of the ukraine and things like that. whatever bannon is saying, that doesn‘t matter, even less than it did six months ago, he is persona non grata even among the elites in us society but among trump world, he has been banished from breitbart and has been banished from breitbart and has no influence over the white house. at the time he was at the centre of things. we will be coming back on this but thank you very much indeed. my pleasure. a 6—year—old boy from tanzania has become the country‘s youngest app developer. ethan yona has created a learning game for children his own age. the character ethan man is based on himself. zawadi machibya has his story. six—year—old ethan is tanzania‘s

youngest app developer. he became a living app game for kids his age.|j am even, i‘m just a normal six—year—old boy, i love school and playing games but after school i am ethan man, a superhero child! i created the game because i wanted kids to dream big dreams, i wanted to inspire kids to read and to love school. i believe kids should be responsible to dream big dreams and to love school, love reading and the message is you can be anything you wa nt to message is you can be anything you want to be. a un report predicts there will be a shift away from classical teaching to informal learning through mobile. for many children mobile is and will

be their first interaction with digital and information literacy. since its launch a few months ago, it already has high reviews on google play and 500 downloads. even ca ptu red google play and 500 downloads. even captured this vision of what he wa nted captured this vision of what he wanted to do, the superhero character comes from himself. we discussed how it was going to look, what it was going to do and we brought him together with the right people, a team of developers and creators, to bring the superhero characters alive and also create a platform where children can access the superhero character and that‘s how we came up with the ethan man at. zawadi machibya there with that report. one of south africa‘s best—loved musicians, the jazz trumpeter hugh masekela, has died at the age of 78. he fled the country in 1960 and became a prominent campaigner against apartheid, the system of white—minority rule. his song bring him back home,

calling for the release of nelson mandela, became an international anthem for the anti—apartheid movement. today, president zuma said hugh masekela had kept the torch of freedom alive, as pumza fihlani reports. the trumpet has fallen silent. the passing of hugh masekela has shocked many across the country and around the world. bra hugh, as he was affectionately known, has been described as the epitome of a life lived in full. he was a family man, a world—renowned artist, a philanthropist and a political activist. the 78—year—old was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2008 and had put up a fierce fight until then. but last october he was forced to cancel all of his concerts and focus on his health. fellow musician and friend yvonne chaka chaka says africa has lost its greatest treasure.

i think uncle hugh was a living legend. he may be gone but his music will always be there. the world has lost a great icon. the world has lost a leader. the world has lost a comedian, because he was hilarious. where there was uncle hugh there was laughter. i don‘t know what to say. i am heartbroken, i am upset. i try to remember all the good things he did. whether you are a king, a diplomat, young, leader or a street person, we are all equal to him. i lived in guinea, i lived in liberia, i lived senegal... at the height of white oppression in south africa, for many black musicians, jazz became the soundtrack of the resistance. masekela was forced into exile as political

and racial tensions intensified. but once he had returned, he was determined to make a difference. i had sourced so much from africa, and i need to pay it back, and the only way to pay it back i think is by making the people see how wonderful they are and how excellent they are. hugh masekela described himself as a troublesome child and spoke openly about the many times music saved this life, even later on at the height of a drug addiction. this picture marks one of the moments it all began when a missionary who was stationed here in south africa, father trevor huddleston, gave him his first trumpet. with that, the music legend was born. he was an unlikely ally at the height of racial oppression here in south africa. masekela continued to use his voice over the years to speak truth to power. pumza fihlani, bbc news, johannesberg. the musician and campaigner hugh masekela, who‘s died at the age of 78.

and, sad to report, another cultural star is gone. the american fantasy and science fiction author ursula k le guin has died aged 88. she‘s probably best known for her earthsea fantasy series for young adults and for her novel the left hand of darkness, set in a world where gender doesn‘t exist. on twitter, the actress juliet stephenson calling the earthsea quartet a work of genius. stephen king called her one of the greats. much more on all the news, national and international, any time on the bbc website. and you can get in touch with me and most of the team on twitter, i‘m @bbcmikeembley. that‘s it for now, thanks for watching, come again. we begin wednesday on a fairly

disturbed night weather—wise courtesy of what the irish weather service have named storm georgina, deep area of low pressure which threatens across the uk to bring gales and heavy rain on wednesday, your bbc local radio station a good source of travel information. here‘s the storm drifting to the north—west of scotland, a lot of isobars on the chart, very strong and gusty winds and heavy showers drifting into scotla nd and heavy showers drifting into scotland in the first part of the morning and these black winged arrows give you just an idea of the strength of the gusts, 50, 60, 70 mph in exposed spots, gusty winds and showers into northern ireland and showers into northern ireland and across england and wales we will have this band of very heavy rain at 8am, working its way used, accompanied by very squally gusty winds. so a windy start to wednesday wherever you are. we bring this band of rain, this active weather fronts

outwards and eastwards through the day, remember, some particularly gusty winds accompanying the heavy bursts of rain but as the wet weather clears away the skies it should brighten, some spells of sunshine, showers packing in across western areas, wintry over high ground in the north and as the day goes on temperatures will drop, colder air working in. through the afternoon we‘re looking at temperatures of six to nine. word the last of that wet weather from the last of that wet weather from the south—east late on wednesday afternoon and as we head into the night we see clear spells, still showers into western areas, not as windy but still fairly blustery and significantly cooler as well with temperatures around two to seven. so into thursday, actually not a bad looking day, a fair amount of sunshine. still a real cluster of showers drifting east through the day. fairly blustery but not as windy as wednesday and those temperatures slightly lower, although actually five to nine degrees is not too bad for this time of year. now, as we head on into friday, this little ridge of high pressure temperatures to build its

way in from the west so that promises a fair amount of dry weather on friday, could actually be a touch of frost first thing under like winds but then we see some spells of sunshine, perhaps some rain into the north—west later and we keep those slightly lower temperatures, four to nine, but as we head into the weekend and signs are it‘s going to turn milder again. generally a lot of cloud, some brightness, some rain too, particularly in the this is bbc news. the headlines: the us attorney—generaljeff sessions has become the first member of president trump‘s cabinet to be questioned by the special counsel investigating allegations of russian interference in the presidential election. us media is reporting that the special counsel robert mueller is also seeking to interview the president. judges in brazil will decide later whether or not to uphold a corruption conviction against the former president lula da silva. he‘s been found guilty of accepting a penthouse apartment as a bribe. thousands of his supporters have held rallies, saying the charges against him are

politically motivated. tens of thousands of people in the philippines have been forced to flee their homes, as the country‘s most active volcano continues to fire huge plumes of ash and lava into the air. the army has been drafted into help clear the danger area around the mayon volcano. now on bbc news, panorama. segregation in blackburn is increasing. we're here to stay, there's no point in running. they live in their areas and we live in our areas. isolation, segregation, division. never the twain shall meet. we've been here for generations, this is our country. all we want is our country back. fear of the unknown is probably

our biggest element. 0k, why are you here? we need to move away from this stone age mentality. we have a divided country. 20, 30 years, something's going to happen.