hello. this is bbc world news today. i'm ben bland. our top stories. the film producer harvey weinstein is taken to court in new york in handcuffs, to be charged with rape. the defendant used his position, money and power to lure young women into situations where he was able to violate them sexually. bail is set at a $1 million, and he'll have to wear a gps tracker. harvey weinstein‘s lawyer says his client will plead not guilty to all charges. mr weinstein did not invent the casting couch in hollywood, and to the extent that there is bad behaviour in that industry, that is not what this is about. bad behaviour is not on trial in this case. we'll have the very latest on the start of a court case which is set to grip the world. also in the programme: the on—off us—north korea nuclear summit. in his second change of heart in a day, president trump says it could take place after all. we're talking to them now. they very much want to do it, we'd like to do it.

we're going to see what happens. also in the programme: how the internet is being used by gangs from the ivory coast, for a particularly nasty form of blackmail. hello, it is good to have you with us. the disgraced hollywood film producer, harvey weinstein, has been charged with rape and sexual abuse, after appearing in court in new york. once one of the most powerful men in america, he paid $1 million, in cash, as bail and agreed to wear an electronic tag. the charges relate to two women, but dozens have made allegations against him since hollywood was shaken by claims of sexual misconduct last year. mr weinstein‘s lawyer said he denies the criminal charges and will mount a vigorous defence. nick bryant reports.

new york city can often feel like a giant movie set but this was the criminaljustice system being put into action for real and as harvey weinstein arrived to be charged, i managed to confront him. this must be very humiliating. this must be very humiliating for you. he walked into the police station with three large books under his arm, one about broadway musicals but what mattered today were the charges read to him, accusing him of two counts of rape and one count of a criminal sexual act for incidents involving two separate women. inside the police station he was arrested, fingerprinted and formally booked, and about an hour later he was brought out by two detectives wearing handcuffs and what looked like a wry smile. hardly weinstein is now being taken to a criminal court and this is a day his accusers longed to see. his demeanour had noticeably changed by the time he was led into court. the movie mogul who once loved

parading on the red carpet is forced to take a "perp walk". then in a short arraignment hearing, prosecutors outlined their case. this defendant used his position, money and power to lure young women into situations where he was able to violate them sexually. outside the courthouse, his lawyer claimed his client was innocent. mrweinstein willenter a plea of not guilty. we intend to move very quickly to dismiss these charges. we believe they are constitutionally flawed, we believe they are not factually supported by the evidence and we believe that at the end of the process, mr weinstein will be exonerated. dozens of women have accused mr weinstein of inappropriate behaviour, notjust in america. lisa rose worked with him in her early 20s in the uk, but she was afraid to go up against him. there was that fear inside me that

someone would come back at me for speaking out and the fact i spoke out initially. there was a fear that the world would change and he would be powerful again and you would be in trouble. the fact that if he gets put away, and i hope he does, he will not be able to get back at people who spoke out against him is a good thing. as news of his arrest and charges came out, the reaction on social media was swift and damning, from some of those who accused him of wrongdoing and those who worked hard to see him in court today. harvey weinstein not only used to dominate an industry, he commanded almost every room but to watch him today was to see his power drain away. nic bryant, bbc news, new york. —— nick bryant.

many of the women who spoke out as accusers of mr weinstein have been responding to his court appearance this morning on social media. among them actress rose mcgowan who tweeted ‘we got you, harvey weinstein, we got you...‘ and actress asia argento, who tweeted in part... ‘we, the women, finally have real hope forjustice.‘ stuart pierson is a barrister and former federal prosecutor. hejoins me now from washington. it's good to have you with us. just outline for us what happens next in this process and how long it could take? in the court case in manhattan and new york state court there will be motion practise and the primary motion will be a motion to dismiss ona motion will be a motion to dismiss on a variety of bases, harvey weinstein‘s counsel has said that the allegations are constitutionally flawed. that is an unusual allegation or assertion. the other arguments will be that the indictment, presumably it's an indictment, presumably it's an indictment, is not adequately supported by facts which the defence will assert at the beginning. this case is all about consent. and in

consent cases it gets very complicated about who said what and what reliable evidence there is of what reliable evidence there is of what happened. in terms of the bail conditions, surrendering passport, a $1 million paid in cash and a gps tracker, is that fairly standard in this type of case? or is that unusual? well, this is a type of a case all by itself. harvey weinstein isa case all by itself. harvey weinstein is a world traveller. and many of the facts that have been reported in various magazines and newspapers talk about what he has done in foreign countries. it is for that reason not unusual that he would be confined as he is. he is actually not allowed to travel outside of new york and connecticut. keeping him also away from los angeles. as the

news reports have said there are ongoing investigations in los angeles, canada and the uk. mr weinstein‘s accusers as we have heard a flavour of the reaction of those media, will no doubt be pleased and relieved at this step that has been taken to charge him. but of course for them, potentially, a harrowing ordeal ahead of it goes to full trial. yes. the cross—examination of a rape allegation and a rape complaint and is particularly difficult for the witness. and benjamin is a very excellent trial lawyer. it will be something to see. stuart pearce and join us from washington. thank you very much. —— stuart pierson. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. turnout is reported to have been strong in ireland's referendum on whether to liberalise the country's strict abortion laws. as voting nears an end,

irish media say the turnout could exceed that reached in a landmark referendum three years ago on same sex marriage. the eighth amendment of the irish constitution outlaws abortion in all cases other than if the mother's life is at risk. president putin has dismissed claims that russia was responsible for bringing down malaysia airlines flight mh17, over eastern ukraine. the dutch government said it had been ‘indisputably proven‘ that there was a ‘direct link‘ between the russian army and the missile that hit the plane in 2014. president trump has said his summit with the north korean leader kimjong—un could take place next month as originally planned, just a day after he cancelled it. north korea had reacted by saying it would do everything it could to salvage the meeting. now mr trump says both sides are in discussions and want the summit to go ahead. we‘re going to see what happens, we‘re talking to them now. it was a very nice statement they put out, we‘ll see what happens. inaudible. no, we‘ll see what happens,

it could even be the 12th. we‘re talking to them now, they very much want to do it, we‘d like to do it, we‘re going to see what happens. mr trump was not the only seniorfigure in america to hint that the summit could still take place. here‘s the us defence secretary james mattis. we've got some possibly good news on the korea summit where our diplomats may be able to pull it off, may even have it back on. the president just sent out a note about that a few moments ago. ijust wanted to let you all know. that's the usual give and take, you know, trying to put together a big summit and stuff. so the diplomats are still at work and from our point of view, here at the defense department, that is a fine thing. the softening of the american position came after north korea issued a rather reconcliatory statement about the cancellation of the talks. this is it: pyongyang said ‘the unilateral announcement to cancel the summit is unexpected. we cannot but feel regret for it.

we have the intent to sit with the us side to solve problems regardless at any time.‘ that statement came just hours after north korea claimed to have destroyed its nuclear test site at punggye—ri, it had invited a number of foreign journalists to witness events, and among them was the cbs reporter ben tracy, who sent this update. it was pretty surreal. so, north korea invited in a small group of journalists, they took us on a train about 12 hours up to their nuclear test site, which is in a remote mountainous region of north korea. and then they blew the thing up, they basically blew up three test tunnels, the remaining test tunnels at the site. they were laced with explosives, they walked us right up to the doors of these tunnels to show us. then they blew it up. then they brought us back to those doors and said, "double—check and see with your own eyes that we have done this. we want to be transparent." the only problem is that the only people here were journalists, we are not experts as to what it takes to shut down a nuclear test site. so what we saw with our own eyes is,

yes, they did blow up the entrances to the tunnels but we do not know what else occurred or if that site is really unusable. the north koreans continue to say that they are committed to demilitarisation and they have said that so far the cancellation of the summit with president trump, or its postponement, is not changing their minds. —— committed to denuclearisation. joining me now is soojin park, a public policy fellow at the woodrow wilson centre. she is also former deputy spokesperson for south korea‘s ministry of unification. very good to have you with us. what do you make of this latest development. wasn‘t always going to be like this, do you think, in the lead up to an attempt at a summit? or were you surprised by the to and fro? well, it was expected that there would be a long and bumpy road toward denuclearisation and also the summit. but it came as more of a surprise that the two sides, when they were pretty confident and rather optimistic about the upcoming summit, cancelled the summit of the

way. especially coming after done back two days after president moon visited trump. it is also very interesting how this is laying out, with the two sides although engaging in gamesmanship, are being very calibrated in their words. also that north korea, issuing this statement of very carefully refraining from making any provocative comments and almost conciliatory that it is willing to sit down with talks and actually acknowledging the fact that it was very surprised. and also saying that inwardly it highly appreciated residential‘s old decision and efforts for the crucial summit, unlike any previous us president. so this is a mood that is rather unusual. and quite different from its, the previous ways of

tactics. what struck me about the whole latest exchange is how the two sides veerfrom a whole latest exchange is how the two sides veer from a very aggressive tone. you had north korea referring tone. you had north korea referring to mike pence as "stupid" and you had president trump saying "you‘ve cancelled summit because of open hostility" and suddenly you get a very conciliatory tone from the korea and it is met with a conciliar retreat —— a similar tone from washington. how do we make sense of that? what you think the strategy is behind this vastly different tone from the two sides? well, i cannot be sure of what the strategy is, but what is apparent is that the two sides despite it‘s kind of bombastic and vacillating rhetoric, they are certainly very interested in engaging in talks, and they are very clear in showing that they are very eager, although they want to avoid

being too desperate, for many reasons. so i think this is actually a sign that both parties are very eager to, and hoping that this would go on. and i think that the two sides will work more closely and try to see if they can be on the same page for the talks to take place, if not on june 12 and page for the talks to take place, if not onjune 12 and in the near future. soojin park, thank you very much for speaking to us. thank you. and thank you for being with us on bbc world news. stay with us on bbc world news, still to come. brazil calls in the army to unblock the roads, afterfive days of strikes by truckers. in the biggest international sporting spectacle ever seen, up to 30 million people have taken part in boston athletic events to aid famine relief in africa. ask sponsored

athletic events. at first of what the makers of star wars hope would be thousands of cues started forming at 7am. taunting which led to scuffles, to fighting, fighting to full—scale riot as liverpool fans broke out of their area and into thejuventus and closer. the belgian police had lost control. the whole world will mourn the tragic death of mr nehru today. he was the father of the indian people on the day of independence. the oprah winfrey show comes to an end after 25 years and more than 11,500 episodes. the chat show has made her one of the richest people on the planet. geri halliwell, otherwise known as ginger spice, has announced she‘s left the spice girls. 0h! i don‘t believe it. she is the one with the bounce, the 90, she is the one with the bounce, the go, girl power. not geri, why? this is bbc world news today. i‘m ben bland.

these are the latest headlines. the film producer, harvey weinstein, has appeared in court in new york charged with rape and and other sexual offences. his lawyer says he will plead not guilty. president trump has said planned talks with north korea on the 12th ofjune could be back on, despite his previous announcement that the us would not take part. a bbc investigation has found that gangs in ivory coast in west africa are targeting british men in cases of so—called sextortion. the criminals trick their victims into filming sexual activity online and then blackmail them. the number of cases reported to police in the uk has more than tripled in the last three years. angus crawford reports. how scared were you at the time? oh...frozen. meet adrian — once a victim of sextortion, now warning others about the risk. it‘s very, very suspicious. we set up a fake facebook profile. out of the blue, we get a friend request. i‘m asking, "where are you from?" she is very pretty, flirty —

in her own words, naughty. the scam develops in minutes, live in front of our eyes. so you are probably moments away from being scammed. yeah, literally minutes away. the trap set, she‘s keen to move from facebook to skype. now suggesting video calling, and she‘s said, "i‘m going to show you naked and you also." but she‘s not real — just a pornographic video operated by a scammer, waiting to film and record us, their next victim. of course, we can‘t show you what would happen next. it might start with a girl, like, slowly undressing and that, you know, anything to just basically show yourself — your face and your private parts. is it threatening? the next message was definitely threatening, saying, "you know what this is, i‘ll show it to friends and family." what did you have to do to stop them? give them money. money that more and more ends up here in the ivory coast in west africa. cash transfers are easy, there‘s high unemployment,

and even the poorest areas have access to the internet. the crime of sextortion began and was perfected in nigeria and the philippines before it went global. now ivory coast, and particularly here in abidjan, has become a hotspot of sextortion. many of the victims come from the uk. and here are the police files — a growing number being investigated by abidjan‘s cybercrime unit. on the screens, some of the videos used by the scammers. they told us they know of at least 120 recent british victims. we want to track down one of the scammers, but they‘re hidden in the slums, controlled by gangs, and hunted by the police. we do eventually find one who will talk. translation: you have to do it without remorse. if you think about what you‘re doing, you‘d never do it. but you do real harm to the victims. harm?

well, afterwards you can sit down and say i‘m bad, but you can‘t put things right. if he‘s thousands of miles away, how are you going to say sorry? it‘s no—one‘s fault — it‘s love. this is a growing crime with terrible consequences. some people actually take their own lives because of this. did that ever cross your mind? um... the truth of the matter was at one point it kind of did. so if you find yourself talking to a girl like this online, beware. angus crawford, bbc news. brazil‘s president michel temer says that he plans to send in the army to clear roads that have been blocked for five days by lorry drivers protesting against high fuel prices. many shops are running low on basic goods and airports are said to be close to running out of fuel.

the country‘s largest city sao paulo has declared a state of emergency. our correspondent daniel gallas is in sao paolo. up until now it seemed like we were in sort of a panic mode from the population, up until yesterday. but things escalated quite quickly, and this seems like it is sort of a second stage. for now there was a lot of threats that you could run out of fuel, that airports would have to cancel flights and that kind of stuff. it was more of a threat. today we are beginning to see more of that. some flights are actually being cancelled. it‘s hard to find fuel in sao paulo. last night if you drove about sao paulo you will find many gas stations with huge queues of cars. today you find pretty much all the gas stations empty. so we are entering this second stage, also last night there was a bit of hope that this strike would end soon. and there was this announcement of a deal that actually failed to materialise. so now we don‘t know when this will all end. well, for many years brazil‘s government and brazil‘s

state—controlled company petrobras helped bring fuel prices down with subsidies. so when global markets saw spikes in fuel, and petrobras would come in and help the publisher with the price of fuel. that changed about a year ago. when pretty much petrobras said look, now the global, whenever global prices move up or down prices there will move up or down, too. so global prices have been up since they made that change. and that‘s taken a toll, especially on lorry drivers which are the ones we use a lot of fuel. and you have to see that also in brazil 60% of all goods are transported in roads, and therefore the whole economy pretty much all the supply chains, everything depends on these lorry drivers. daniel gallas there. lizzie has all the sport. less tha n less than 2a hours between the champions league final between

liverpool and real madrid and the capital of ukraine. liverpool are five—time winners but they are the definite underdogs against the record—breaking real madrid side, going for their third successive european cup, but liverpool‘s managerjurgen klopp admits no one expected them to get this far. you see real madrid playing in different games against our players, teams, and you think wow, they are really strong. but they never play us. that is another part of the trip. and we are liverpool, and not only a really good football team, we evolved as well and this club expect that they can really go for the big things. nobody expected us to be here, but we are here. because we are liverpool. despite a few logistical issues and there are plenty of liverpool fans already in the city and 20 of build—up including a legends game and the fans on. we caught up with a player for both clubs who core and

one of the madrid‘s champions league final victories. i think offensively they have to be strong. we know they can score goals. but we know that they have conceded some. certainly in the semifinals. so of course they have to outscore real madrid and real madrid will want to attack and be defensively frail as well because they like to power forwards. be defensively frail as well because they like to powerforwards. it be defensively frail as well because they like to power forwards. it is up they like to power forwards. it is up to be team who makes the least mistakes. using jurgen klopp will change his style? i think need team will change their style. nothing jurgen klopp otago play. i think we all know both teams. probably gareth bale or benzema playing, it will probably not change their style. let‘s hope it is a shoot out and really entertaining. that is what we wanted. chris froome is the new overall leader after long—time leader simon yates blew it on today‘s 19 states. simon yates had been 28 seconds ahead at the start of today, but with over 80 km lefty combo allowing his british rival to ta ke combo allowing his british rival to take control. chris froome made

light of the arduous alpine route, winning the stage with over three minutes in hand. the tourfinishes on sunday and if chris froome wednesday will not only be the first britain, but also the first to win all three grantors. britain, but also the first to win all three gra ntors. pakistan remained in complete control of the first test against england after the second day at lords. the end of the day on 350—8, a lead of 166. four of their batsmen making half centuries. england were bowled out forjust 184 on the opening day tried to rally late on and took three wickets. pakistan are still big favourites to win the first test of the summer. to basketball, the golden state warriors head coach is still confident his team can make the nba finals despite losing 98—94 to the houston rockets and the trailing 3—2 in the best—of—7 series. houston rockets and the trailing 3—2 in the best—of—7 serieslj houston rockets and the trailing 3—2 in the best-of-7 series. i so great about where we are right now. and that may sound crazy, but i feel it. i know exactly what i‘m seeing out there. and we defended them

beautifully tonight. we got everything we needed. just too many turnovers, too many breaches and if we settle down a little bit we will be in really good shape. worry mcelroy is three shots clear going into the third round of the pga golf championship at wentworth. his playing partner caught his round of 65 the best he had ever seen. worry mcelroy is 12 under. —— worry mcelroy. and that is it for the sport for now. thank you. before you go, a quick reminder of our top story. the disgraced hollywood mogul harvey weinstein has appeared in court in new york, charged with rape and other sex crimes seven months after the explosive allegations against him were made public. don‘t forget you can get in touch with me and some of the team on twitter. i‘m @benmbland. thanks for watching. hello there, it

is going to be warned this week and including the bank holiday monday as well. best of sunshine will always be across northern parts of the uk where is further south we will see a mixture of sunny spells but also some really heavy and thundery downpours. for the rest of this evening and overnight it is going to be quite cloudy, missed the anarchy across eight at slate of england and wales, particularly across wales central and northern england. the rain is fizzling out here. gyre. to the north it should be clear and a touch cooler. further south it is going to be warm and muggy. you‘ll see some of that low cloud and mist returning to the eastern coast of air, particularly northeast scotland. we start saturday off on a rather misty, murky note across england and wales. any overnight clearing away. then we will see plenty of sunshine developing, a glorious day in fact but there is a threat of heavy showers and thunderstorms developing particularly across southwest england and wales, maybe

into northern ireland. top temperatures, 25 or 26 degrees. that threat of thunderstorms continue on into sunday, particularly across southern and western areas. bbc wealth investigates undercover, it ended up... secret world of badger baiting. the programme contains disturbing scenes. it‘s early evening in west wales. these men are packing up after a ten hour hunting trip. but this is no ordinary hunting trip. they‘ve spent the day digging holes into the ground to find badgers with their dogs and kill him.

off, off, with your head! digging badgers out of their sets and using dogs to fight them is called badger baiting. it is illegal. not because badgers are in danger, but because of the sheer brutality of the gangs involved. like this one filmed by campaigners and wales in the 90s. since this was filmed, injuring the badger or even disturbing the sets in which they live have illegal across the uk. but the law is and did tearing illegal hunters, it is still as —— deterrring. especially in industrial areas like here. in the south wales valleys. one person who was successfully

prosecuted was christian from the valleys. he was convicted of badger baiting in 2011. he was banned indefinitely from keeping dogs. after months of research, our undercover journalist has been accepted into a secret online group dedicated to terrier work. on there, a familiar name. he‘s posting pictures of hunting trips. posing with dogs he says are his. he even posing with dogs he says are his. he eve n says posing with dogs he says are his. he even says that he is breeding a litter of puppies. there is someone who wants to get into digging. our undercover journalist who wants to get into digging. our undercoverjournalist messages who wants to get into digging. our undercover journalist messages him. he puts us in touch with a member of his network. thomas young, a 25—year—old man living in the valleys. he has a bulldog and two

terriers. he also owns a large lurcher, and asks him on the phone to bring about on a hunt. he‘s talking about killing badgers. let my dog, talking about killing badgers. let , 90 talking about killing badgers. let 'n. talking about killing badgers. let my dog, go in. and then you could slip your dog into it. basically, the two dogs will get it. our journalists won‘t be taking it all on any hunting trip, but that does not seem to put thomas off and he calls us back. thomas made is this man, ryan harrison.