welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america on pbs and around the globe. i'm nkem ifejika. our top stories: brazil's former president lula is negotiating his surrender, his lawyers are asking the supreme court to suspend his prison order, hours after a police deadline. doctors say sergei skripal — the former russian spy poisoned with a nerve agent is making a rapid recovery. us stocks fall sharply after president trump threatens the us imposes sanctions on russian companies and individuals. facebook says it will verify the identity of people running popular pages as part of its efforts to stem fake news. police in new york charge martial arts fighter conor mcgregor with assault and criminal mischief hello.

the former president of brazil, luis inacio lula da silva, has defied the deadline set by a court for him to surrender to police. his lawyers are in negotiations with the authorities and have filed a motion to the supreme court to suspend a prison order. lula was sentenced to 12 years for corruption — although he says the charges against him are politically motivated. lebo diseko has the latest. his supporters demanding no to jailfor lula, and it seems brazil's former president is in no hurry to go. luis inacio lula da silva holed up in a union building in his hometown of sao bernardo do campo hours after he was meant to surrender to police to start a 12—year prison term for corruption. his supporters say the conviction

is political, designed to stop a man of the people from running for president in october — a poll that he was favourite to win. translation: if lula is arrested, it will be as if the underprivileged class was arrested as well. translation: people will go in the street, people will come tomorrow and won't let anyone enter to get him out. but the anti—lula voices arejust as loud. outside the police headquarters, his detractors called lula a crook and a thief who belongs in prison. this isn't a carnival truck. translation: i came herejust so i could see up close when this crooked man, lula, goes to prison. federal police had said

they prepared a special cell for lula in view of his importance. but with his legal team finding last—minute paperwork to keep him out of prison, if and when he sees the inside of it remains to be seen. joining me now from our washington bureau is mark weisbrot. he is the co—director of the centre for economic and policy research. lets pick up from the end of that package, which is the question of will lula go to jail? i'm not sure, a lot can happen, there is thousands of people surrounding the place right now, and he has a lot of support. i think his support —— supporters really see this as the second part of a coup, the first pa rt second part of a coup, the first part being gilman of being impeached for something that was not even a crime. and then him being committed —— dilma him being committed without

any material evidence that he accepted a bribe or did anything that he was accused of. in the last pa rt that he was accused of. in the last part is him being imprisoned and/or prevented from running in the election where he would probably win. does any of this matter when the fact is that a court has convicted him of these crimes, and so convicted him of these crimes, and so surely he should go to jail, it doesn't matter whether he is popular... there is a constitution, and the constitution is very clear. it is that a person cannot be considered guilty until there are clear —— appeals have been exhausted. so they really have to stretch the supreme court in order to justify allowing the trialjudge, who had devastated enormous prejudice against lula, to put him in prison. in the tape that we saw, there was some very strong, vehement opposition to lula, people watching

this may be slightly confused, because he left office very popular, so because he left office very popular, so what happened 7 because he left office very popular, so what happened? a lot has happened since he left office. firstly you have the at you had the media, the media in brazil is very, very much against, it is a political act, major media outlets are political actors, and they have been very much against lula and the workers party, and he had a deep recession in 2014. but he is still leading in the polls, he is still the most popular possible candidate for president. and he could even potentially run from prison, he is not out yet, but he has a lot of support. thank you very much. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. south africa's former presidentjacob zuma has appeared in court facing corruption charges linked to a 1990s arms deal. mr zuma appeared in court

forjust 15 minutes, smiling as he walked in. he's facing 16 charges of corruption, racketeering, fraud and money laundering. syrian activists say that heavy airstrikes on the last rebel—held town in eastern ghouta have killed at least 32 civilians. the syrian observatory for human rights said dozens of airstrikes had hit the town of douma. members of the us national guard from texas and arizona are being deployed to the border with mexico. texas is sending 250 personnel; arizona is planning to deploy 150. president trump has said he wants up to 4,000 troops stationed on the border until the wall is built. one of america's most influentialjazz pianists, cecil taylor, has died at the age of 89. born in new york and classically—trained, cecil taylor developed his own style to become a leading exponent of avant garde free jazz.

cecil taylor says his ambition was to leave his audience breathless. doctors treating the former russian spy who was attacked with a nerve agent in the uk say he's no longer in a critical condition. it's nearly five weeks since sergei skripal and his daughter, yulia, were found slumped on a park bench in salisbury. britain says russia is behind the poisonings — but moscow continues to deny any involvement. laila nathoo reports. they were targeted with a chemical weapon. sergei skripal and his daughter yulia, seen here in newly released family photos taken in russia. they were hospitalised more than a month ago, after being exposed to a nerve agent, a toxic chemical designed to shut down the human body. but they have been fighting its effects, and today the hospital gave this update. as yulia herself says, her strength is growing daily, and she can look forward to the day when she is well enough to leave hospital. i also want to update you on the condition of her father, sergei skripal.

he is responding well to treatment and improving rapidly, and is no longer in a critical condition. it was on 4 march that the two were found incapacitated in the centre of salisbury. they were critically ill. a police officer, who was one of the first to respond to the incident, was also admitted to hospital. he was discharged a fortnight later. the skripals had been heavily sedated, and were unable to communicate. but last week, yulia regained consciousness. now herfather, too, appears to be making progress. it's fantastic news. somewhat unexpected. we were concerned they were in a very serious state but we heard earlier this week that yulia is getting better. to hear that sergei skripal is also recovering, that's excellent news and i hope to hear more encouraging news in the weeks ahead. in a statement, a foreign office spokesperson said: yulia skripal is communicating.

yesterday she put out a statement through the police, saying she was getting stronger daily. but it's not yet clear whether sergei skripal is recovering to the same extent. but how is it that either of them have been able to withstand the impact of such a deadly substance? there are so many variables that a poisoning from novichok might take. so you have the environmental conditions in which the poison might have been left and how they picked it up. the quantities that got into him. we hear it's through the skin, which is a lot more of a protective barrier than if it was inhaled. so overall it's a pleasant surprise, good news for him and good news for the investigation. yulia, and perhaps herfather too, will now become crucial witnesses in the investigation, described by counterterror police as one of the largest and most complex they have ever carried out. the united states has imposed

sanctions on russian officials and companies accused of profiting from president putin's efforts to undermine the west. the list includes oligarchs close to the president and a dozen companies they control. russia has vowed a ‘tough response'. live now to our correspondent, chris buckler, in washington. another day and another salvo in this tit—for—tat diplomatic row with russia? if you take a look at exactly what the white house is saying here, it isn't about what happened in salisbury, not the poisoning of the former spy that has prompted all of this, but instead russian meddling, and russia using its power and influence in countries like ukraine and syria. of course some of that meddling is happening inside america as far as the can —— officials are concerned, which

includes allegations that it interfered in the 2016 election and also a number of cyber attacks. but it is very strong action from the white house, and the fact that it follows expulsions of russian diplomats, what the white house continued to call spies, will not go unnoticed by the kremlin and it will set out us — russia relationships even further full top when you look at the list of people that are affected by this economic sanctions, as you mentioned, 12 companies, 17 senior government officials, and seven oligarchs. these are individuals who are extremely wealthy, some of russia's super rich. they are in that position not cause of their businesses, but because of their political influence andindeed because of their political influence and indeed their political closeness to vladimir putin. that is a fundamental part of this message, the white house is specifically saying to vladimir putin, we are

going to target your inner circle u nless going to target your inner circle unless russia changes its behaviour. at the same time, many observers are saying that while on the one hand you have this very tough action, these tough state rents and indeed as we have seen, sanctions coming from the white house, president trump himself is much more careful with his words. for example he has not spoken particularly harshly about that you put in, he had a phone call with him and congratulated him on being elected president. —— vladimir putin. those indicate that president trump wants to continue a relationship with vladimir putin, but that is going to be difficult when you look at the action america is taking that is specifically sending a message to mock —— roscoe. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: police in new york charge martial arts fighter conor mcgregor with assault and criminal mischief. 55 years of hatred and rage have

come toppling down with the statues. this funeral became a massive demonstration of black power, power to influence. today is about the promise of a bright future, the day when we heard the line can be drawn under the bloody past. i think that picasso's works are beautiful, they were intelligent, and it's a sad loss to everybody who loves art. this is bbc news.

the latest headlines: the legal team of brazil's former president lula asks the supreme court to suspend his 12 year—jail sentence, hours after he was due to hand himself into police. the us has imposed sanctions on russian officials on companies accused of profiting from the effo rts accused of profiting from the efforts of vladimir putin to undermine the west did it lets get on that story. yuval weber is working at daniel morgan graduate school at the wilson centre. he lived in moscow for four years and worked as associate economics professor at the national research university. he joins us from washington bureau. how effective are these sanctions? they are probably not going to be effective at all because even though these are famous people and rich

people, ultimately these people have their money and they have positions because they are close to vladimir putin. they have no independent political power. even though they would probably not like to be sanctioned because it would be quite irritating, they will not abandon him. their options at this point you to keep supporting vladimir or defect to the west. if they did that they would lose the money that has been sanctioned right now. isn't the keyissue been sanctioned right now. isn't the key issue that they cannot spend their money in the west and because these guys tend to have their tentacles spread all over the place. with these sanctions it is difficult for them to move money about. that is true but, also, for instance looking at one of the sanctioned persons has a diplomatic passport. right here in washington, dc he has one of the most expensive houses in dc which he did that recently. he can travel more freely under a bit

—— for essentially the money of these individuals, they leveraged sheu these individuals, they leveraged shell corporations and the tools of international finance to hide the source of the money so they can continue to enjoy assets abroad. i don't think any of them anticipate that these sanctions will be for ever so one day they will probably enjoy the megane. if you do not think this will work, what do you think this will work, what do you think will work? what we can understand is that president putin isa understand is that president putin is a master politician who has built a wide political coalition of not just these individuals are people who rely on the state budget such a state in four years, the very poor and security services. one aspect of his political coalition of those people who have made whatever money they have made in russia and now essentially live abroad in the uk, canada, the us. if the west were to get serious about trying to force difficult political choices on to vladimir putin, they would go after the money in the property of people

much less famous then the ones who have been sanctioned. that would force vladimir putin to, effectively, if these people support him but enjoy their money abroad and, essentially, they have financial sanctions, don't let it didn't have to do something because they held up their end of the social bargain. if vladimir does something then that would be an escort will remove. if he does nothing than that identifies limits of his power and that would be a difficult political choice for the russian president. so you are saying to go after the mid—level soldiers rather than those of the top because those of the top have the means to escape sanctions was to mark the people at the very top, they are in russia and they are with vladimir putin till the end of. but all those who can't, who was sent to cannot rely on personal protection of vladimir putin, in aggregate that would be much more difficult for vladimir putin to defend and the thought of that that would indicate that the west is here is about challenging russia and its

foreign policy. palestinian officials say ten people have died and hundreds more wounded during fresh protests along gaza's border with israel. the israeli army said it opened fire on people who tried to breach its frontier defences. the palestinians began holding demonstrations along the border a week ago — demanding refugees and their descendants be allowed to return to land which is now in israel. from gaza, yolande knell reports. billowing black smoke. young palestinians burning huge piles of tyres as a smokescreen, as they hurl stones at israeli soldiers. they fired back with tear gas and bullets. this was another bloody friday on the gaza border. but ahmed, his son and grandsons came to peacefully protest and pray. as a toddler 70 years ago, ahmed lost nearly all his family and his village when the state of israel was created. i was one day expelled and deported

from my original country of palestine, i want to return back again. i am here to tell them, i am, in a peaceful way, want to return back to my homeland. israel rejects the claims of palestinian refugees. its military says it has been acting here to stop mass infiltrations into israeli territory. it blames gaza's hamas leaders for stirring up violence. from the gaza border and to my right are israeli homes, israeli communities, mothers and fathers trying to protect their children. and just a few football fields away are crowds gathering, who have made it clear their intent is to wipe israel off the map. the plan is to continue the border demonstration into the middle of next month. despite the obvious dangers, palestinians here say they will keep up their protests.

they will keep pressing their demands and confronting israel. on the other side of the border, israel sees all of this as a huge provocation, and is threatening a harsh response. facebook has announced that anyone placing political adverts on its network will have to state who is paying for them. under the new rules, those posting such ads will also have to verify their identity and location. the company's chief executive, mark zuckerberg, said he wanted to make it harderfor fake news to be shared. our correspondent, dave lee, reports from san francisco. one of these measures is to monitor the funding of advertising, to see where adverts that have been paid for by a campaign to be on facebook, to make sure that is completely clear. they want to make sure that anyone who is placing an advertisement on facebook around political interests is being verified, and they will do that by making sure they are using a us government issued id, they will send an access

code to a physical address in the us to prove that a person is based here, and only once they input that access code into facebook will they allowed to do any advertising. when it comes to large pages, they have many millions of followers, facebook will make some efforts to verify who is looking after those pages, to make sure they are who they say they are, because that was one thing russian interests did during the election campaign, they pretended to be americans running pages about american politics, when in reality they were russian trolls, as has become known, operating out of st petersburg. two things facebook is hoping to do in order to make sure that these tactics used by russia perhaps cannot be used again. more than seven million companies, people use facebook advertising every single month, and so the idea that the company can go through each of those individually will be incredibly difficult. all of this comes ahead of some

hearings next week in washington, mark zuckerberg himself is going to be in congress to answer questions on two separate days. i think many of these changes announced on friday here in california are going to be designed to make sure that mr zuckerberg can be in front of those senators and representatives saying that they are doing things, here are the measures they have put in place. whether those changes will be enough to keep politicians happy will remain to be seen, there is a lot of ground that facebook has to make up before it can say they has the situation under control. but it does seem like things are going in the right direction. the mixed martial arts fighter conor mcgregor, has been charged with assault and criminal mischief, by police in new york.

the former ufc champion, is accused of vandalising a bus containing rivalfighters. he's been released on bail — as our sports correspondent richard conway reports. even in a sport where the hype comes as standard, conor mcgregor may have overplayed his hand. as the ultimate fighting championship, or ufc as it's known, held a media day in new york, mcgregor and his entourage stormed the backstage area, attacking a coach containing rivalfighters. video appears to show mcgregor throwing a metal trolley, while others rain objects towards the vehicle. with his privatejet grounded, the irishman turned himself into police. and, after a night in the cells, was led to court today. mr macgregor, your case, i'm setting bail. a star of ufc, mcgregor‘s future in the sport now appears to be in jeopardy. it's disgusting. and i don't think anybody is going to be, you know, a huge conor mcgregor fan after this. ufc is hugely popular

around the world. the company which organises and promotes the sport was sold two years ago for more than £3 billion. competitors use a combination of fists, knees, elbows and feet, in a mix of martial arts. chanting: we want conor! conor, the bbc, how are you? and within that world, there is no bigger attraction than mcgregor. supported by ufc, he turned to boxing last summer, taking on, but eventually losing to, floyd mayweatherjunior, in one of the most lucrative pay—per—view bouts in history. as a master showman, he revels in creating a circus, courting controversy, and being outspoken. all publicity is said to be good publicity, especially for a man who has forged a career as a flamboyant outsider. but any criminal conviction could yet see conor mcgregor lose his right to work in america.

richard conway, bbc news. the capital of the bosnia, sarajevo, has had its landmark cable car resume service. it is seen as a landmark moment in the construction of the city. people travelled to the top station on the mountain that served as a vantage point for troops. half of the cost of the restoration was met by a wealthy dutch born businessman of crime act philanthropist. lawyers for the former president of rizal are said to be in talks with authorities over the demand for him to surrender to police. he defied a court order to hand himself over to start a prison sentence for corruption. hello.

thoughts on the weekend in just a second but first of all i think we should mark the fact that on friday here in the heart of london the temperatures reached in excess of 17 degrees celsius, the warmest day of the year so far. not far behind in the sunshine stakes, this was south wales. somebody had to have all the cloud and rain and initially it was there in northern ireland and then moved on to scotland and it was captured beautifully by graham in the heart of sterling. the weekend, cloudy, damp and mild. there will be dry weather. this is how friday shaped up. the reason why we had the brightness down towards the south—east and the warmth was because the frontal system never actually made it down into the south—east and into the first part of saturday, the rain still drifting its way slowly towards the northern half of scotland and then it arcs back from the north sea down to a new area of cloud and rain towards the south—west.

cloud means that the weekend will not start on a particularly cold note. that frontal system that i have drawn there as a straight line will wave all over, particularly in the central and eastern parts of the british isles for a good part of the weekend. to the east there is some relatively mild air to be had. as i say, we already had the temperature up to 17 and we will not be far off that mark — if we get a little bit of brightness, perhaps, across east anglia and the south—east. further west, close to weather front, perhaps, the rain can be quite heavy for a time and as you see it drift very slowly further north. it could eventually end up in northern ireland could reach the scottish borders and eventually clear from the south. a bit of brightness here and that is where it could hit 16 or 17 so some nice dry weather across the north of scotland. and from saturday and into sunday, same weather front.

a little wave on it there. a zone of cloud rather than a thin band of cloud. and, again, at its thickest it could produce rain. at this distance my money is on the fact that there could be cloud and rain across east anglia and the south—east. elsewhere, this one is for the optimists, lots of dry weather around and there may be sunshine that could even as far north as edinburgh, be boosting the temperatures to around 13 degrees. just a sneak peek at the start of next week when you thought it was this atlantic front coming in to dominate the weather, in fact it is a low pressure over france which eventually churns cloud and rain in from the east and south—east across a good part of england and wales. the best of the dry weather further north. this is bbc news — the headlines: the legal team of brazil's former president lula has asked the supreme court to suspend his 12 year—jail sentence for bribery. it comes just hours after he was due to hand himself into police. he has been holed up in the headquarters of a steelworkers union. doctors treating the former russian spy who was attacked with a nerve

agent in the uk say he's no longer in a critical condition. sergei skripal and his daughter yulia were found unconscious on a park bench in salisbury, nearly five weeks ago. britain says russia is behind the poisonings — but moscow continues to deny any involvement. the united states imposes sanctions on russian officials and companies accused of profiting from president putin's efforts to undermine the west. the list implicates putin's inner cirlce imposing sanctions on seven of the country's most influential oligarchs. the list includes mr putin's wadi guard and son—in—law. —— bodyguard. now on bbc news, the travel show.