hello and welcome to bbc news. 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 had demanded no to jailfor lula, and it seems they have that for now. police say they will not exercise the arrest warrant while negotiations continue for his surrender. luis inacio lula da silva had been 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. translation: i came herejust so i could see up close when this crooked man, lula, goes to prison. federal police say they hope they can bring an end to the stand—off on

saturday, but with his legal team doing all they can to keep him out of prison, whether that will actually happen remains to be seen. 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. our north america editor, jon sopel, has the details. i think it's important to say what these sanctions are not about. they are not about what has happened in salisbury and the response to that. we've already had 60 russian diplomats expelled as a result of that. this is much wider than that. this is about russian interferance in the presidential election, it's about the annexation of crimea, the russian behaviour in syria. and also, make no mistake, these are aggressive moves, the most aggressive that we have seen from the trump administration, and they're going to hit hardest those who are wealthiest and those who are closest to vladimir putin.

i suppose the question that's legitimate to ask is why now given that the events we are talking about is quite some time ago. it is as though donald trump didn't really want to go down this path. he has made clear he wants to rebuild russia's relationship with the united states and so has congratulated vladamir putin on his election victory, he has invited him to come here for talks at the white house. at the same time, you have the administration kind of introducing these very tough measures. it's as though we have got an administration that is trying to look both ways at once. 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 for just 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 — including five children.

douma is surrounded by government forces — and the syrian army says the rebels still holding out there should leave, orface destruction in a full—scale military offensive. 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. us shares dropped more than 2% on friday, after a week in which president trump threatened new tariffs on chinese goods and beijing insisted it would not back down from a potential trade war. all 30 companies in the dowjones industrial average were in the red at the end of trading. this is bbc news. 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. leila 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's well enough to leave hospital. i also want to update you on the condition of her father, sergei skripal. he's responding well to treatment, 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 unable to communicate. but last week, yulia regained consciousness. now herfather, too, appears to be making progress. it's fantastic news. somewhat unexpected, i think. we were concerned they were in a very serious state, but we heard earlier this week that yulia is getting better. but to hear that sergei skripal is also recovering well is also 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 via 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 actually got into him. we hear that it's through the skin, which is a lot more of a protective barrier than, for example, 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 metropolitan police commissioner insists the force hasn't lost control of london's streets. cressida dick was speaking after a string of murders in the capital, and said this wasn't a time for blame,

but for working together. she did however say her officers were "stretched." our home editor mark easton has more. more than 50 killings in the capital since the beginning of the year. a catalogue of tragedy that's shone a spotlight on the work of the metropolitan police and its commissioner, cressida dick. almost exactly one year after taking the helm at scotland yard, she has found herself having to respond to a wave of public anxiety and anger. commissioner, have you lost control of the streets of london? we have not lost control of the streets. i can understand why some people are very worried at the moment... people are frightened. ..particularly in some areas of london, we've had some ghastly homicides, as you know, particularly in the last few days, including those of really young people. that is bound to be very frightening. people are scared stiff out there. what can you say to reassure them? what i can say is that the metropolitan police

are out there. just this weekend, we have an extra 300 officers each day in the areas which are the most significant hotspots where there's been high levels of knife crime. but they are above and beyond all the other officers — those who are working in covert roles, those who are on patrol, those who are in the neighbourhoods, the people who are saving lives every day, arresting people, taking weapons off the streets, targeting the most violent, and doing everything they can to bear down on street violence. have you, though, got enough resources? have you got enough police officers? every police chief would always want more officers and more resources, of course. it's myjob to make the case for more, and also to make the best use of what we've got. do you think that the awful, tragic spike in homicides that we've seen this year is down to cuts in police budgets? no, i don't. i think that ourjob is stretched, but the causes of knife crime, the causes of violent crime, are very complex and long—running. this is something i talked

about from the day i arrived as one of my highest priorities. i'm really sorry these people have lost their lives. i don't say they've lost their lives because we've suffered cuts, but of course i need to make the best use of my officers, i need to get as many people that i can out on the streets. that's what we're doing this weekend, that's what we'll be doing in the weeks to come. you talk about priorities. what about the priority of infiltrating the gangs, of getting that intelligence so that you're one step ahead? these are challenging offences to investigate. but of course you will probably have noticed that we nearly always arrest people, we nearly always charge people. we have a fantastic homicide investigation capability. of the five tragic cases this week, we have arrested already in all but one. among the arrests confirmed by the commissioner today is that of a 30—year—old man in connection with the murder of tanesha melbourne, who was shot in tottenham on monday. whether the spate of killings in the last weeks and months marks a dark turn in the life of the capital is not yet clear,

but the focus on the level of violence endured by people every day in cities up and down the land may perhaps encourage debate on how that misery can best be reduced. 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 burn huge piles of tyres as a smokescreen, as they hurl stones at israeli soldiers, who fire 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, with 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. i've just come 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 were crowds gathering, who have made it clear their intent is to wipe israel off the map. the plan is to continue the border

demonstrations 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. the update you on the main stories this hour. brazil's former president lula negotiates his surrender, hours after letting a deadline for his arrest pass. president putin's inner circle implicated in new sanctions from the us. let's stay with that story. brian o'toole is non—resident senior fellow at the atlantic council. he was a former senior us treasury sanctions official and hejoins me now from raleigh, north carolina. thank you forjoining us. will these

sanctions work? thank you for having me. i think, sanctions work? thank you for having me. ithink, gauging sanctions work? thank you for having me. i think, gauging whether sanctions work or not, that is a tricky thing. you have to look at the overall policy. i think they will have a significant effect, especially on those targeted, and i think this is the first time, really, since the early parts of 2011: that really, since the early parts of 2014 that we have seen significant action. i think they will sit up and ta ke action. i think they will sit up and take notice of this. but if you take something like travel, for example, many of these guys have diplomatic passports, many of them are out of reach of the stations regimes because they use shell companies to invest in the western world. so perhaps this is just more barking than biting? i think that is a common misperception. anybody who plays in the global financial sector is going to fall afoul of these

sanctions because of the prevalence of the us dollar and especially your services. we heard similar scoffing in 2014 when, as part of the obama administration, we imposed sanctions on several of president putin's moneyman. some of them laughed off the stations but found out a few weeks later they couldn't fly their planes because they require —— they rely on us navigation systems and us about parts. they may have shell companies but they will have to access those assets at some point, and they will be touching them, and thatis and they will be touching them, and that is when the financial sector can push back. there is also the big impact of us goods and services. if you are using workday or some other us company to run a technological backbone, you will have to stop doing that. those companies wander

01’ doing that. those companies wander or longer be able to deal with rusoil or many other companies. —— will lower longer. in an ideal world the sanctions would bolster the alleged behaviour of resident to ten. —— altar the alleged behaviour of president putin. —— altar. does he really ca re of president putin. —— altar. does he really care if these guys cannot fly his private jet? i think at some point there will be a breaking point. he is kept in power because there is an elite class in russia which benefits from his largesse. if he is now longer able to provide that protection, it merely being associated with the kremlin and its foreign ventures, which do not help these businessmen at all, right, it is not like hacking the us election is not like hacking the us election is helpful for these companies, is not like hacking the us election is helpfulfor these companies, if those things become toxic to these businessmen, i do not think you would necessarily be a very fast turnaround for them, but i do think you would start to see some of them potentially splintering. thank you. 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 and 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. 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. he must reappear injune with his bail set at $50,000. 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. one of america's most influentialjazz pianists, cecil taylor, has died at the age of 89. born in new york and classically trained, taylor was known for the physicality of his playing, at times using his fists or palms. with his distinctive percussive style he challenged jazz tradition and launched the free jazz movement.

let's hear a bit of that. exuberant jazz plays. philip freeman is a freelance journalist for the wire magazine, and founder of burning ambulance, an arts and culture website and podcast. in 2016 he interviewed cecil taylor, and hejoins us now. we described him as using fists and using his hands or whatever, but he was controlled. he knew what he was doing? yes. he started playing the piano aged six. he was classically trained, a complete the keyboard —— master of the keyboard. that is one

of the most common misconceptions about taylor, that he was some sort of iconoclast or rebel againstjazz tradition, when in fact he loved more traditional players like duke ellington. he was very much on his own path. he was creating his own music. but fitting it within a much broader artistic tradition. for those who never witnessed him play, ijust want those who never witnessed him play, i just want to give this example those who never witnessed him play, ijust want to give this example of a video that i saw, watching him play, i held my breath. i grabbed onto the chair that i was sitting on and just held on to it while he played. yes, i remember, i saw him five times between 1997 and 2016, and there was one time in particular i remember seeing him, and there was one time in particular i rememberseeing him, at and there was one time in particular i remember seeing him, at avery fisher all, part of lincoln centre

in new york, and he was playing solo. —— fisher hall. he played this tidal wave of notes. you are sure that it was completely improvised, that it was completely improvised, that it was total freedom in action. then he paused for one beat and played the exact same thing again. my played the exact same thing again. my jaw fell. played the exact same thing again. myjaw fell. you know? to realise he had planned the entire thing was astonishing. tell us a bit about his work ethic. because, you know, he was not one of those young musicians who said, i haven't practised since i was 19. he was a hard—working man. he was. what is interesting is that he would sometimes go years without making a record, but he would be writing new music, assembling a new group, taking it on tour in europe, and then disbanding it again. the project was complete when the audience heard the music. that was enough for him, in a lot of ways.

the other thing that is really interesting is that he kind of considered all aspects of his life to be part of his art. he had a strong visual style in the way that he dressed, and he enjoyed the good things in life in terms of eating and drinking well and travelling and experiencing major stuff, but at the same time, there was this side of him... he was not a same time, there was this side of him... he was nota hermit same time, there was this side of him... he was not a hermit in any way. he knew his neighbours in brooklyn, you know? he was friendly. he would go out to clubs and he would go out to sea musicians play. he was very much a part of the world and allowing everything in, to fuel his creativity. and how can you not love a man like that? thank you very much, philip freeman. don't forget you can get in touch with me and some of the team on twitter, i'm @nkem|fejika. 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 drifts 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—yearjail sentence for corruption. 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. russia has threatened a tough response to new us sanctions imposed on russian officials and companies, who are accused of profiting

from president putin's efforts to undermine the west. the blacklist includes mr putin's bodyguard, his son—in—law, oligarchs close to the president and a dozen companies they control. coming up a bit later in this half hour, newswatch. but first, it's time for click.