hello. this is the briefing. i'm samantha simmonds. our top story: president ramaphosa of south africa leads tributes to the anti—apartheid campaigner winnie mandela, following her death at the age of 81. france prepares for months of disruption, as unions strike over president macron‘s labour reforms. under siege in yemen — the un says 22 million people are now in need, as a donor conference opens in geneva. now, listen to this. music streaming service spotify will make its debut on the new york stock exchange later today, but it's not your usual share sale. we'll explain how the company does things differently. and, in the business briefing, i'll be speaking to a professor of international economics about those strikes in france and their impact on the french ecenomy. a warm welcome to the programme, briefing you on all you need

to know in global news, business and sport. south africa's president cyril ramaphosa has led tributes to the prominent anti—apartheid campaigner, winnie mandela, who has died. speaking to a large crowd outside her home in soweto, mr ramphosa said winnie mandela inspired millions of south africans. winnie mandela became an international symbol of resistance to white minority rule when her husband, nelson, was sentenced to life imprisonment. bill hayton reports. in morning, they sang and danced, filling the street outside winnie mandela's home, the old protest anthem is now chanted in praise of a fellow fighter against apartheid —— mourning. and inspiration, even after her passing, to all of the

women in south africa. and a former comrades in that struggle came to praise a role. she has been won of the strongest women in our struggle, who suffered immensely under the apartheid regime, who was imprisoned, who was banished, who was treated very badly, separated not only from her husband, but from her children as well, and her people. this house in soweto was a symbol. she moved to the township in 1985 in defiance of a government banning order, and she stayed there long after the end of apartheid, while other leaders moved away. she stood up for her people and faced threats and police brutality in return. don't push me! but it was in soweto that the struggle turned bad with her bodyguards involved in the murders of informants and grotesque

killings known as necklacing. later she would admit things went wrong. she refused to say sorry. she remained an uncompromising voice and that left her at the fringes of politics. whenever she felt that someone politics. whenever she felt that someone has crossed a moral path, is walking on the wrong side of the way things must be done, she was fearless. she called them to order. she could do that with anc leaders. she could do that with anc leaders. she did that with the apartheid regime. and we have lost a truly committed and fearless freedom fighter. freedom fighter, member of parliament, but also murder suspect and convicted fraudster. nonetheless, she will receive an officialfuneral, while nonetheless, she will receive an official funeral, while the debates over her legacy continue. bill hayden, bbc news. let's get the latest now from our correspondent

pumza fihlani in johannesburg. a controversialfigure, but a controversial figure, but tributes have been pouring in from around the world to winnie mandela, haven't they? correct, throughout the night we saw tributes coming in through social media from various parts of the world, the continent and in deed in south africa, and the turn of the tributes is —— the tone of the tributes is —— the tone of the tributes is —— the tone of the tributes is a reference. you mentioned the controversies, which at the moment seem to be on the backburner. people here are celebrating the great role that she celebrated at a difficult time in south african history, the role of being the face against the fight against white minority rule here in south africa, especially at a time when there was no indication that nelson mandela would return home out of prison. for now, thank you. france is facing a day of action from transport workers, students and public services, marking the start of a spring season of strikes. president macron‘s proposed reforms to french railways are seen as the biggest test of his strength to date

against the country's unions. the bbc‘s tim allman has more. things looked fairly sedate at paris's gare du nord in the final hours before the strike got under way. but appearances can be deceptive, passengers keen to travel while they still can. translation: i won't know paris. i have to travel up north, and i wonder whether i can come back. that's that. translation: it's annoying. at first, i really didn't dwell on it. i kept telling myself there would be alternatives, but now it's starting to get annoying. i was looking, but the trains have been cancelled. it's being called black tuesday, the beginning of months of rolling industrial action. the high—speed tgv rail will only be running one in eight of its normal services, and four fifths of regional trains have been cancelled.

even eurostar will be affected, only managing three quarters of its usual schedule. and this is only the beginning. look at this timetable for the next three months. every day marked in red is a strike day. the union is planning to walk out two days out of every five until the end ofjune. they're not alone — pilots at air france also striking in a dispute over pay, and they will be joined by rescue workers, students, and part of the public sector. emmanuel macron campaigned on an agenda of economic reform, shaking up economic laws in an attempt to revitalise and modernise the frenchjob market. but he is facing fierce opposition from the country's trade unions, who say the president is trying to break them. either way, it seems french commuters can expect more strikes and more upheaval in the weeks to come. this is only the beginning. let's brief you on some

of the other stories making the news. the israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, has suspended a deal to give residency to thousands of african migrants in return for the resettlement of others, hours after he announced the agreement. the deal between israel and the un refugee agency had angered right—wingers in mr netanyahu's governing coalition, who said it would encourage further illegal immigration. at least seven people are reported killed in india in demonstrations by tens of thousands from the dalit community. they were protesting at a ruling from the supreme court that people accused of discriminating against india's lowest caste should not face immediate arrest. the indian government has asked the court to reconsider. a lorry carrying five circus elephants has crashed in spain, killing one of the animals and injuring two others. emergency services used a crane to lift the injured elephants off the road. others wandered loose before being rounded up. there's been a sea of red on international stock markets this

morning after us technology stocks staged massive drops and volatility increased in the wake of a possible trade war between the usa and china. with me now is henry bonsu, a broadcaster and international conference host. very good morning to you. thank you for coming in. tell us about the stock market falls over the last couple of hours, across—the—board? yes, in asia, in europe, the us, japan and china. and it is causing a lot of people, financial markets, and there, watching this, i have my financial review last week, that there is a number of things happening. intel had its worst day in two years. apple will make computers with their own chips from 2020. we have problems for amazon. president trump seems to want to not destroy amazon, it owns the washington post, but he has a bee in his bonnet. he has it in for them.

absolutely, and the end of quantitative easing, so money supply will be tight and this is causing a great deal of concern. people are looking ahead, and they say this is the worst position for the global economy in ten years since the great recession. yes, also we have the announcement from china that they are going to impose sanctions on 132 products from the usa. including pork. people in china love pork, and american farmers export a lot of pig to the far east. people will look at that and some of the other tariffs that and some of the other tariffs that the us is applying on chinese products. remember, there is a huge chinese trade surplus with the us and donald trump, the president, thinks it is deeply unfair and he has complained about theft of intellectual property. the question is whether or not this will lead to some kind of settlement face to face. and what of dignity and pride is at play in all of this. wants to discuss. we will see you later when

we are going to do the review of the main stories covered by the global media. we will see you then. russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov has accused the west of resorting to, "open lies and disinformation," following the poisoning of a former russian spy in britain. tensions have been increasing in recent weeks, following the expulsion of numerous diplomats from both sides. caroline rigby has more. it's the poisoning in a mediaeval english city that has led to a modern—day geopolitical storm. as britain blames russia for the attack on a former spy and his daughter, moscow offers explanations as to why it isn't responsible. now drawing on a phrase best associated with a fictional characterjames bond. translation: experts say this may be rather advantageous for britain's special services, who are known for the ability to act with a licence to kill. this could also be beneficial for the british government, which found itself in an inconvenient situation after failing to fulfil its promises

to voters over brexit. britain has dismissed such conspiracy theories. in solidarity with the uk, almost 30 nations have now expelled close to 150 russian officials. moscow has responded in kind. so, are relations between russia and the west headed for a new low? translation: there's a lot of talk about how the situation is worse than during the old cold war, because then there were rules and an accepted behaviour was followed, but now i think western partners, chiefly great britain and the usa, have disregarded all of that accepted behaviour and resorted to lies and disinformation. days of tit—for—tat expulsions have been met with tit—for—tat rhetoric. meanwhile, the former spy and his daughter remain seriously ill in hospital. sergei skripal in a critical condition, his daughter yulia now

conscious and talking. in salisbury, the process of decontaminating areas affected by the poisoning is expected to begin this week. as with the police investigation, that's likely to take months. and, with russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov accusing the west of playing children's games in response to the attack, it appears the political and diplomatic consequences might last longer still. stay with us on the briefing. still to come on the programme: trying to prevent another school shooting in america, but is putting weapons in the hands of specially trained teachers the answer? the accident that happened here was of the sort that can, at worse, produce a meltdown. in this case, the precautions worked, but they didn't work quite well enough to prevent some old fears about the safety features of these stations from resurfacing. the republic of ireland has become

the first country in the world to ban smoking in the workplace. from today, anyone lighting up in offices, businesses, pubs or restaurants will face a heavy fine. the president was on his way out of the washington hilton hotel where he had been addressing a trade union conference. the small crowd outside included his assailant. it has become a symbol of paris. a hundred years ago, many parisians wished it had never been built. the eiffel tower's birthday is being marked by a re—enactment of the first ascent by gustave eiffel. you are watching the briefing. our headlines: president ramaphosa of south africa leads tributes to winnie mandela, the anti—apartheid campaigner and former wife of nelson mandela, who has died aged 81.

france prepares to grind to a halt, as unions strike over president macron's labour reforms. several thousand palestinians remained in tented encampments along gaza's border with israel on monday. they have been continuing their protests after at least 16 demonstrators were killed by israeli troops last week. the family of one of those who died has said their son was running away when he was shot. israel says militants were trying to breach the borderfence. our middle east correspondent tom bateman reports from gaza. the days of mourning have continued in gaza, this family is remembering abdul fattah abdul nabi, the 18—year—old died on friday close to the perimeter fence. his mother says he was shot as he ran away from israeli troops. translation: they killed him. they shot him in the head. he was just trying to rescue somebody, to help somebody. he'd spent half an hour at home, and then he told me i'm

going to the protest, like the other people. videos purporting to show the incident have been circulated widely on palestinian and israeli media. they appear to show him taking a tyre from another man. a shot can be heard, before he falls to the ground. israel said he was active in the military wing of hamas, the militant group which controls gaza. his family deny this, saying he was not involved in political factions. palestinians accuse israel of using indiscriminate force last friday. at one point in the afternoon, men ducked as they appeared to try to help injured people. but israel's military said hamas planned to storm the fence and march tojerusalem. asked about the case of abdul nabi, it suggested he may have earlier

thrown firebombs, and has also said hamas is known to have fabricated videos. gaza's hospitals continue treat the injured. the health ministry said on monday another palestinian died from his wounds. israel has repeatedly defended its actions of last week, saying today it behaved as any other sovereign country would have done. but that is unlikely to quell the calls for an inquiry, without more detail of accounts of exactly what happened on the border. tom bateman, bbc news, gaza. a pledging conference for yemen is getting underway at the united nations in geneva later. the un says yemen is the world's worst humanitarian crisis. 22 million of yemen's 27 million people are now in need. that is 3.4 million more than last year. imogen foulkes reports from geneva. this man has kidney failure. he slumps in the street outside one of

the few hospitals in yemen that still offers dialysis. without it, he will die. war has made travel impossibly expensive and highly dangerous. he dare not make the journey home. translation: i can't even go home to see my children. i don't have an income, or any other source of income to help me eat. i sit next to the hospital and i sleep on the street. this is where i live. yemen's conflict is laying waste to everything its people need to survive. hospitals, schools, food and water supplies. money from donor countries may help rebuild them, but some of those same countries are selling weapons to yemen's warring parties, and this is a war with no rules. stop targeting hospitals, stop targeting civilian

neighbourhoods, stop indiscriminate shelling, stop attacking health personnel. all this oklahoma. thunder and 3—game losing strea k to oklahoma. thunder and 3—game losing streak to win on sunday, leaving them in fifth in the western conference. they eye in contention to make the play—offs. if you are a fan of the nda you are in for a treat later with 13 games in store with the top three in the east and west in action. golden state travelled to oklahoma. thunder and 3—game losing streak to win on sunday, leaving them in fifth in the western conference. they eye in contention to make the play—offs. four calls were contested on sunday evening, in the play—off, before bad light stopped play. so on monday the pair picked up where they left off, this time on the eighth extra hole in their play—off, to secure the win

over park, who has won seven majors in her glittering career. towards the end of yesterday ijust felt this was mine, i can do this. ijust know to do, and ijust kept fighting away, and i couldn't believe when this last putt went in. the first thing i said when i scored the last putt was that she would as well. , but she didn't. and freestyle football has welcomed in the japanese spring as only he knows how, with a video showing off his sublime skills. he posted this on his instagram page. he became world champion in 2012. the 25—year—old says his technique is inspired by hip—hop and break dancing. there is more on the website. from me and the

rest of the team, that is your tuesday sport briefing. america's latest mass shooting at a school in florida in february has sparked a lot of discussion about how to prevent further tragedies. last week, hundreds of thousands of people joined marches in support of tighter gun control. but president trump favours another strategy, putting weapons in the hands of specially trained members of staff, including teachers. bbc radio 5 live's anna foster has been to visit one school where that is already a reality. it almost looks like a classic scene from the old west. but without a local sheriff to keep the peace, this school is taking the law into its own hands. the nearest police station is 18 miles away, so here they have signed up to what is called the guardian programme, where some specially trained teachers carry concealed weapons in the classroom. our goal is for this programme to never be used. we want

to throw our money away on this programme, and hope this programme never is used. but, should the case arise, these are individuals that can look themselves in the mirror and know that they are doing what is right. around 170 school districts in texas have adopted this idea, with backing from president trump, who has floated a plan to arm more teachers. it is concealed. so this crazy man who walked in and wouldn't even know who it is that hazard. that is good. that's not bad, that is good. and the teacher would have shut the hell out of him before he knew happened. there are 38 people working at this school. everything from teachers to dinner staff to the ca reta ker. from teachers to dinner staff to the caretaker. what is really important in all of this is that nobody knows how many of them are carrying a weapon, and crucially, nobody knows the identity of the people who are armed. 0n condition of anonymity, we put some questions to one of the guardians, whose replies here are

spoken by an actor. if the need arose, i feel confident that i would use whatever means are necessary to protect our students and staff. just over a week ago, hundreds of thousands of people rallied in washington dc, calling for tighter gun control laws. among them were many parents and teachers. but the superintendent here insist he has the full support of the local community. they are caring individuals that care about our stu d e nts individuals that care about our students and want to make sure we have an extra layer of protection for each and every one of our students. without the guardian programme we are sitting ducks, you know. if there is a crazy person out there, then we have to have a way to defend ourselves. guns arejust there, then we have to have a way to defend ourselves. guns are just part of our everyday lives. you know, my husband is a rancher. in his ranch truck there is a gun. it is not scary, there is nothing scary about guns to us. it is just part of, you know, normal existence in a rural area. america is at a crossroads.

even in this gun loving state, support for the programme isn't universal. the texas teaching union says arming teachers is fraught with peril. right now, though, it seems the number of guns in american schools is rising rather than falling, and the days of the wild west never really went away. stay with me on bbc news. i will be back with the business briefing in just a few moments. we will be having a look at the stock market turmoil with asian share prices down following the significant falls in american stocks on monday. stay with us here on bbc news. so much more to come. hello there. across some northern parts of the country it has been a white easter. here is the scene captured by one of our weather watchers in

northumberland on easter monday afternoon. a lot of that snow will be melting over the next few days as the weather turns much milder, especially towards the south. it will stay cold wintry for the north, especially for northern scotland, but all in all fairly unsettled outlook to the weather over the next few days. we have, they are working in from the south—west but we are holding on to the colder conditions across parts of scotland. so for tuesday morning rush—hour return to work, it will still be snowing across the north of scotland, mainly over the higher ground. the snow easing in intensity, turning back to rainfor easing in intensity, turning back to rain for the southern up lines, for instance. northern ireland and wales seeing that makes a dry weather but also some rain showers moving in. one or two on the heavy side. plenty of sunshine working in and wales during the afternoon lifting temperatures as high as 1a or 15 degrees. four or five celsius with the snowfall across the north of scotland. the snow for a time will reinvigorate overnight into wednesday, so several centimetres more falling in the higher ground in

the north of scotland. further south it is much milder with quite a bit of cloud and some outbreaks of rain and showers at times. as we head through the day on wednesday, we still have some of that snow lingering across the far north of scotland. turning back to rain further south. sunshine and daily heavy showers across and then and wales, some of the showers ringing thunderstorms through the day. could be some hail there as well. temperatures around 13 in the south but quite a bit colder further north. eventually we lose this area of low pressure through wednesday night on into thursday. he drifts away towards the east. a ridge of high pressure on thursday morning. could be some frost around, but thursday looking like the best day of the week ahead in terms of lots of the week ahead in terms of lots of dry weather. plenty of sunshine, the cloud just increasing from the west leisure in the day. still fairly cool around scotland and northern ireland, and reasonably mild in the south at around 13 degrees or so. temperatures on the up degrees or so. temperatures on the up towards the end of the week once again. southerly winds developing into friday, bringing anotherfairly mild spell of weather. could be some

rain especially in the west during brighter but saturday some of us particularly towards the south could be up to 17 or 18 degrees. goodbye. this is business briefing. i'm samantha simmonds. now, listen to this. music streaming service spotify will make it's debut on the new york stock exchange later today, but it's not your usual share sale. we'll explain how the company does it differently. and france is bracing for travel chaos, as train drivers and air france pilots go on strike in protest over president macron's labour reforms. and, on the markets, there were falls across asia and the us, with china's retaliatory tarffs rattling investors. and, in asia specifically, the sell—off of once—much—favoured us technology shares deepened, as us president donald trump attacked amazon over the pricing of its deliveries through the united states postal service and promised unspecified changes.