a very welcome to bbc news — broadcasting to our viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley. our top stories: instagram says it's removing all graphic images of self—harm — after an outcry over the suicide of a british teenager. 50 days to go. theresa may meets the leaders of the european union in brussels, but there's no breakthrough on brexit. jeff bezos, owner of amazon and the washington post, says the parent company of the national enquirer tried to blackmail him with "intimate photos". the body recovered from the wreckage of the plane that went down in the sea between france and britain is identified as footballer emiliano sala. and set to search for life on the red planet. a naming ceremony for the new british—built mars rover. instagram has told the bbc it will act swiftly to remove

all graphic images of self—harm. it's a response to the suicide of 14—year—old molly russell — she had been viewing such images on the site before she took her own life. her father has suggested instagram "helped kill" her. adam mosseri, head of the company, has acknowledged it is ‘not where it needs to be on the issues of self—harm and suicide‘. our correspondent angus crawford, who first highlighted molly's case, has the story. i've seen videos. i've seen pictures. nothing's blocked. no. nothing's blurred. i haven't seen anything blurred. meet grace, lucy, shani and julia. if you search for self—harm, you are then suddenly guided to how to commit suicide, how to hang yourself, how to tie a noose. horrified by molly's story and spurred into action, though their own families haven't been affected, this week, each set up a brand—new account. and they have a message for the head of instagram. you can still go and read how to kill yourself successfully. and you need to take a stand

and you need to do something now, you have a moral responsibility. so that's what a proportion of british society now feels about your platform. i mean, it's powerful. it's heavy stuff. i think we have an immense amount of responsibility. i think that it's clear that we are not yet where we need to be on the issues of self—harm and suicide. because the concern from, i think, some of those mothers and others is that, in effect, instagram, in the words of molly russell's father, has been monetising misery. we're not looking to monetise misery. we look to connect people with their friends and the interests that they love and care about. we think that we create a lot of good in the world. and we were not as focused as we should have been on the risks that came along with connecting so many people. but moving forward, actually, we're going to change our policy to not allow any graphic

images of self—harm, whether or not it's admission or promotion. so you're going to take all self—harm images off of instagram? graphic self—harm images, yes. so i might have an image of a scar where i say, "i'm 30 days clean", and that's an important way for me to share my story. that kind of content can still live on the site, but we're actually, the next change is that it won't show up in any recommendation services, so it'll be harder to find. it won't be in search. it won't be in hashtags. it won't be in recommendations. but graphic imagery, we're going to take off instagram entirely. that's going to take some time, but we're committed to doing it. she said, "if i get over 2000 likes, i will cut myself on live feed". any success won't be measured in the boardroom or even parliament, but in homes and by families across the uk. angus crawford, bbc news. a day of meetings with the british prime minister has produced no breakthrough on the brexit impasse, according to the president of the european council, donald tusk. theresa may is trying to get legally binding changes to her withdrawal agreement to help it get through the parliament in london.

this from our political editor laura kuenssberg. the prime minister is well used to unexpected obstacles being thrown in her path. an anti—brexit protester bundled away from her motorcade in brussels. after mps kicked out the deal she reached with the eu, her only choice is to try to keep going. here to plead with the eu for changes, knowing already they'd say no. we must secure legally binding changes to the withdrawal agreement to deal with the concerns that parliament has over the backstop. and taking changes to the backstop, together with the other work that we're doing on workers‘s rights and other issues will deliver a stable majority in parliament. the european union very firmly keeps saying no. donald tusk said some of your colleagues should be "sent to hell" in the end yesterday. aren't you stuck in some sort of purgatory? i've raised with president tusk the language that he used yesterday,

which was not helpful, and caused widespread dismay in the united kingdom. the point i made to him is that we should both be working to ensure that we can deliver a close relationship between the united kingdom and the european union in the future, and that's what he should be focusing on. behind closed doors, of course, both sides hope there can be a deal. they want this to work. but look at how her expression changes, once in front of the public. as a cabinet minister said, this situation is grim. theresa may wants to change the deal they shook hands on before christmas because it can't get past mps. that's down to the so—called backstop, that guarantee against a hard border in ireland. brussels‘s top brass say no breakthrough. the eu 27 will not reopen the withdrawal agreement. the discussion was robust, but constructive. despite the challenges, the two leaders agreed that their teams should hold talks. so, negotiations are back on.

there'll be many more handshakes and hellos. but if brexiteers at home believe there'll be a farewell to the backstop, well... mrs may today, in the meeting, assured us that there will be a backstop. but is the way out of the hole back at home? labour's infuriated many of its own side by showing willing, publishing five demands for the deal. legal promises on security, the single market free trade area, customs and workers‘s rights. jeremy corbyn‘s not about to sign up for the deal, but he too wants to talk. a lot of our manufacturing industries are very frightened and very worried at the moment that on the 29th of march, there'll be a cliff edge. there cannot be a cliff edge. we will do everything we can in parliament to prevent this cliff edge exit. so now labour says it wants to compromise,

the eu wants to keep talking. but the truth is, theresa may at the moment won't budge to meet the opposition. the eu shows little sign of moving to meet her. so, as the clock goes down, the pressure on the prime minister goes up and up. and although just keeping going doesn't sound a cunning strategy, right now, perhaps, it's the only one she's got. all along, this has been a process of small, tricky, forward moves. a grand finale could be a long wait yet. laura kuenssberg, bbc news, brussels. let's get some of the day's other news. president cyril ramaphosa of south africa has announced that elections will take place in may — the first since he took over from jacob zuma a year ago. he said a probe into corruption during his predecessor's term in office had revealed wrongdoing that challenged the foundations of the state. the us democratic congressman

john dingell has died at the age of 92. he was the longest—serving member of congress in history, representing the state of michigan for 59 years. mr dingell played a key role in landmark legislation like the civil rights act of 1957 and the endangered species act. he retired in 2014 and his seat has since been occupied by his wife, deborah. amazon founderjeff bezos has accused american media incorporated, owner of the national enquirer, of extortion and blackmail. the world's richest man has posted online what he says are emailed threats from ami‘s legal team to publish intimate photographs of him, and a woman he was having an affair with. more on this from our north america tech reporter, dave lee. not something he would expect from

any ceo. it appeared on the website medium. a blogging platform online. ina medium. a blogging platform online. in a post he went into great detail about what he says is an attempt from the publisher of the national enquirer to blackmail him into stopping an investigation he was conducting. that investigation related to a story the enquirer published in january that went into detail about the affair he had been having with a former tv host. in that story there were several m essa 9 es that story there were several messages sent between the couple that were, of course, private messages. the investigationjeff bezos paid for privately was looking into how those messages ended up in the possession, ended up with the national enquirer. so, the national enquirer, mr bayes also alleges, was going to release more intimate details and photographs about the pair unless he stopped that investigation —— mr bizos. it has

been a couple of hours. it has gone incredibly viral. there is also a political needle. he is very much allied with mr trump. when it comes to the national enquirer, it co—ordinated with the trump campaign for a catch and kill, buying up rights to a salacious story, in this case about mr trump before he was elected. and rather than run that story, keep it secret and remove the ability of the person involved to keep that quiet, jeff bezos, since he has become the owner of you washington post newspaper, he says he has become a political target. because of that he may be under

increased scrutiny and potential attacks like the one we have seen. i should point out that we have not heard any response from the national enquirer, so we haven't yet heard their side of this remarkable story. butjeff bezos their side of this remarkable story. but jeff bezos certainly their side of this remarkable story. butjeff bezos certainly believing that his personal life is becoming entwined with the reputation of the newspaper he owns, the washington post. dave lee for us there. the thai king's eldest sister, princess ubolrata na, is running for prime minister in next month's election — a move unprecedented in the country's history. the princess will be one of the candidates competing against prayuth chan—0cha, the army chief who made himself prime minister after overthrowing the last elected government in 2014. 0ur correspondentjonathan head is in bangkok. as you have been saying on your twitter feed, this completely uplands politics in thailand. twitter feed, this completely uplands politics in thailandm does. —— bends. no—one wood is sure how tyler's position back to

democracy would go. we know that the military who held the coup five yea rs military who held the coup five years ago military who held the coup five yea rs ago really military who held the coup five years ago really help the whip hand, they have rules that effectively give them a stronghold of a future governments. everybody knew that the real purpose of that was to make sure that the forces they overthrew in the coup, those allocated to taxing ulloa would be kept out of government in the future. although that party, which has been accused in the past as being anti— royal now has an inner member of the royal family as its prime ministerial candidate. it is hard to criticise them for being anti— royal. the military are ultra royalists. they are now finding themselves up against their sworn enemy, which has against their sworn enemy, which has a royal leading them. it is extraordinary. it is also to some degree, a gamble by the royalfamily and one has to do is assumed that

king vajiralongkorn has not oppose this. the official view has always been that the monarchy must stay above politics. now we have a former princess, and in a member of the royalfamily, princess, and in a member of the royal family, probably the frontrunner to be prime minister. this is unprecedented. it is hard to predict how it might play out. how do you think it might go? my guess is now the pro— thaksin shinawatra forces that they have tried to keep out of government to have won elections for the last 20 years will be in government again. in what form we don't know. with a former princess as a leading candidate for one of those parties and the polls predicting they will get the larger share of the seats, they will almost certainly have to be in a future government under a royal. potentially, this may be what the this could bring about a reconciliation between the

pro—thaksin an anti— forces that have been around for us for years. 0ne have been around for us for years. one will dare refuse a princess. they will feel they will have to come together or not ferociously oppose the pro—thaksin side which has a royal prime minister. in the long—term, with a law —— member of the loyal family —— royal family deeply involved in politics, you have to think about what it symbolises on the role of the mark in the future. this will be one to watch. thank you very much. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: woody allen launches legal action against amazon studios, accusing it of breaching their contract by refusing to distribute his latest film. there's mr mandela. mr nelson mandela, a free man, taking his first steps into a new south africa. iran's spiritual leader ayatollah khomeini has said he's

passed a death sentence on salman rushdie, the british author of a book which many muslims say is blasphemous. the people of haiti have flocked to church to give thanks for the ousting of their former president, 'baby doc' duvalier. because of his considerable value as a stallion, shergar was kept in a special secure box in the stud farm's central block. shergar was driven away in a horse box the thieves had brought with them. there stepped down from the plane a figure in mourning. elizabeth ii, queen of this realm and of all her other realms and territories. head of the commonwealth, defender of the faith. the latest headlines for you now from bbc news: instagram says it's removing all graphic images of self—harm after an outcry over the suicide of a british teenager.

50 days to go. theresa may meets the leaders of the european union in brussels, but there's no breakthrough on brexit. federal politicians in australia may have had their computer systems and data compromised after security agencies detected a breach of the parliamentary computing network in canberra. in a joint statement, the speaker of the house and the president of the senate confirmed the hack, but insist there's no evidence that data has been stolen. officials say a number of measures have taken place to secure the network, including resetting the password of every user. fergus hanson is a cyber security expert from the australia strategic policy institute, and hejoins us from canberra for more on this developing story. tell us more. what do you make of this? well, it is a very interesting attack, particularly because we are in the lead up here in australia to a federal election, which will

almost certainly take place here in may. we are being told it is a sophisticated attack which i think is code for a state —based actor, and here in australia the number one country perpetrating cyber attacks is china, so there is lots of ears creek about the nature of this attack here. and do you believe people when they see no data has been stolen? -- pricked. welll do believe, you know, itake been stolen? -- pricked. welll do believe, you know, i take the government at its word that a thing at this stage no data has been stolen. they have also indicated that it stolen. they have also indicated thatitis stolen. they have also indicated that it is at a pretty early stage of investigation, so i think until we have a little bit more time to have those experts look through the systems, it is probably a little bit early to say definitively exactly what went on and how extensive any breaches were. we have had other circumstances here where the australian national university was targeted by china and for a long time the university downplayed any involvement and the extent of that breach and it only trickled out

quite a bit afterwards that there was a much more extensive intrusion that happen. from your experience, do you suspect that it is china, and what would chinese hackers have been after? there are has been a long string of unofficial attributions to china for various attacks here in australia. our bureau of meteorology has been targeted, our australian national university, designed for an intelligent building, at the department itself, recently, so there has been a string of attacks recently from china. given this is a sophisticated attack, given the target, china would have to be up there in the top few countries that might be looking and have interest in looking at that. in terms of what they are after, i think it would be a lot ofjuicy information there, whether it is trying to compromise staffers or officials, all of the back and forth e—mails between different parties and factions are about who has done what and what

might be happening behind the scenes, so there would be lots of opportunities to compromise politicians ought to run information operations as we saw in the 2016 us presidential election. it also might be just to better understand which politicians are supporting particular positions so that they can know who their adversaries are and who are the people backing them. fergus hanson, very interesting. thank you very much. thank you for having me. a body pulled from the wreckage of a plane carrying emiliano sala has been formally identified as that of the missing cardiff striker. the body of the pilot, david ibbotson has not been found. jon donnison reports. emiliano sala's family and friends will have no this moment was coming. it has now been officially confirmed he is dead. after being recovered from the wreckage of the small plane on wednesday, police say his body has been formally identified by the dorset coroner. the 28—year—old

argentinian‘s family who visited the channel islands to assist in the search had been informed and are being supported by specially trained police officers. the body of the pilot, 59—year—old david ibbotson from lincolnshire, hasn't been recovered, but the air accident investigation branch says it has taken the difficult decision to end its search operation. cardiff city fa ns its search operation. cardiff city fans have continued to pay tribute to emiliano sala, who had onlyjust been signed from the french club nantes. in a statement posted on social media, cardiff city football clu b social media, cardiff city football club said... as fans, family and friends have to come to terms with emiliano sala's death, investigators will now be focusing on what caused his plane to crash. the un investigating the death of

jamal khashoggi has said it was a brutal and premeditated killing by saudi arabian officials. a fact—finding mission to turkey has been completed now. gruesome ordeal was obtained by intelligence. stop we should stress that this initial statement from the un special investigator on extrajudicial killings is a preliminary finding. nevertheless, they are damning. agnes palomar says based on a week—long visit to turkey and the evidence she saw and heard, she was given an audio recording to listen to which apparently recorded the moments of jamal khashoggi's to which apparently recorded the moments ofjamal khashoggi's death, that this evidence points to a brutal and premeditated killing,

planned and prepared, carried out by saudi arabian officials. the actor and film director woody allen has launched legal action against amazon studios, accusing it of breaching their contract by refusing to distribute his latest film. kim gittleson has the story. every year for the past four decades the director woody allen has released a movie. but that run is set to end after amazon's studios declined to distribute his most recent film a rainy day in new york which was shot in 2017 and scheduled to come out later this year. now instead mr allen is suing the company for more than $68 million in damages. in his suit mr allen says amazon abandoned the agreement after accusation resurfaced he molested his daughter dylan farrow in 1992. the suit says amazon has tried to excuseis the suit says amazon has tried to excuse is action by referencing a 25—year—old baseless allegation

against mr allen but that allegation was already known to amazon and the public before engaging in four separate deals. mr allen has long denied the claims which has regained prominence due to the me too movement, which convert the stars of the film to distance themselves from the film to distance themselves from the project, like this post on instagram... amazon the project, like this post on instagram. .. amazon has the project, like this post on instagram... amazon has not yet commented on the suit, which was seemingly anticipated by mr allen in 2016 after he issued a statement when the deal was inked, saying, like all beginning relationships there is much hope, mutual affection and goodwill. the lawsuits will come later. she was a pioneer scientist who didn't get the recognition she deserved in her lifetime, but now the rover that goes to mars next year will bear the name of rosalind franklin. 0ur science correspondent rebecca morelle was there. i am here at a mock—up mars

where the prototype rover has been put through its paces. it's designed to roam across the rocky martian terrain. this mission is nearly complete. everything is almost ready but one vital element has been missing and that is the name, and today it's been unveiled as the rosalind franklin rover. to explain why, i'm joined by a british astronaut tim peake. tim, why is this rosalind the rover, why the name? rosalind franklin, a great british scientist who did so much to unlock the secrets of human life, to dna and the double helix, and so it's only fitting that the exo—mars rover is named after her because it will be searching for signs of past life on mars. and you got the public involved with this naming process. absolutely. yeah. the competition was opened up to the public, 36,000 entries, so a huge response and it shows that there is so much appetite and public appetite for these exploration missions. this really is a big mission for the european space agency. why is it so vital to get out there to mars? it's a really exciting mission.

this rover is going to drill 2 metres under the surface of mars which is where we stand the best chance of understanding organic molecules that could have resided on mars, so it's going to a very special, ancient landing site where there was once a liquid ocean, and we know that 3.7 billion years ago, earth and mars were very similar, so life could have evolved on mars as well. thank you very much, tim peake. this is obviously a robotic mission heading to mars, and the real thing is being assembled together at the moment, scientists are working round the clock. and it really will be a fitting honour for the woman who truly was an unsung hero of science, to have this legacy that will now live on mars. rebecca, tim and most importantly that name franklin. that's it. thank you for watching.

hello there. the weather has taken a bit of a turn to something a lot more unsettled to end the week. something we haven't seen in quite a while, pretty deep areas of low pressure bringing gales and spells of heavy rain. and friday is looking very unsettled with a deep area of low pressure to bring widespread gales and quite heavy rain. now, this is actually a deep low that's been named storm erik by met eireann because it will likely bring disruptive winds to the northern half of the country including parts of scotland and northern england as we head from friday night into saturday. but early this morning, the winds will be picking up from the south—west as this storm gets closer. it'll be pushing in some pretty heavy rains in northern and western areas, maybe some snow over the scottish hills. it's going to be a very mild start to friday, particularly across the south—west. temperatures there in plymouth around 10 degrees. so it's going to be a very blustery morning. outbreaks of showery rain ahead of the main band of rain which will spread its way eastwards, bringing some pretty torrential in fact across some central and eastern areas into the afternoon.

the rain remains heavy across much of scotland and northern ireland, those winds a real feature, as—ssmph across many areas. 60—70 across some northern and western coasts, particularly over hills as well. 0n the plus side, it'll be pretty mild because of those south—westerlies but 10—12 degrees might not feel so mild because of the wind and rain. now, storm erik is very slow—moving towards the north of the uk through friday and saturday, and on its southern flank we could see a swathe with strong winds across parts of northern ireland into central and southern scotland and northern england. so a very blustery start to the day, perhaps even disruptive to start on saturday morning. a very windy day for all but further south, we should see some sunshine around, although much of the northern scotland will remain very wet with further snow on the hills. rainfall totals really mounting here with a chance of localised flooding in places. again, another mild day in the south. there will be some more rain arriving in the south—west later on. so through friday and into saturday, we are likely to see some disruption from these very strong winds, so keep tuned to your weather forecast and to your bbc local radio.

now, this feature may bring a spell of wet, maybe windy weather across the very far south of england, saturday night into sunday, but it should slowly clear away into the near continent as sunday wears on, so an improving picture here, with winds turning to a north—westerly direction. so that will be a cooler direction, but at least brightening up. and we will see a band of showery rain moving south across northern areas with some cool air there, so some snow on the hills. so it will be turning cooler from sunday onwards. shinawatra this is bbc news. the headlines: instagram has told the bbc that it will act swiftly to remove all graphic images of self—harm.

the decision follows the prominent case of 14—year—old molly russell who took her own life in 2017. her father said images she viewed on the platform were partly responsible for her death. the president of the european council, donald tusk, has said there has been no breakthrough on the impasse over brexit following meetings with theresa may. the prime minister spent thursday in brussels attempting to get legally binding changes to her withdrawal agreement in an attempt to get it through parliament. amazon founderjeff bezos has accused american media incorporated, owner of controversial celebrity magazine the national enquirer, of extortion and blackmail. the billionaire posted a message online showing what he said were e—mailed threats from the publisher's legal team to publish intimate photographs of him. it is just after half past four in