welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley. our top stories: president trump comes to texas to rally support for his border wall, a potential deal may have been agreed. heading home — the bahraini footballer freed from a thai jail arrives back in australia where he has refugee status. one of brazil's best known political journalists ricardo boechat dies in a helicopter crash. small creatures — big problem — why the threat of insect extinction could have catastrophic results for us all. republicans and democrats in the united states say they've reached an agreement in principle on border security that they hope

will avoid a further shutdown of the us government. the current funding agreement runs out on friday. no details have been released and it's unclear whether president trump will approve what's been agreed. speaking at a rally in el paso, texas, he's insisted that any deal must include funding for a wall on the border with mexico. just before we go, the president is giving an account of reality that many would pose. —— oppose. giving an account of reality that many would pose. —— opposei giving an account of reality that many would pose. -- oppose. i chose you. cheering. chanting: usa!. 50 we

probably have some good news. but we are setting the stage. we are setting the table. we are doing whatever we have to do. the wall is being built, it will continue, it is going at a rapid pace. go check it out. we proudly welcomed those who come lawfully and support our values in the united states and that want to strengthen our society and help us to strengthen our society and help us with all of the companies moving into the night of the eight is, moving back, they left us. now they are moving back, many of them, in some cases maybe all of them but they all want to come back because they all want to come back because the united states is where the

action is, very simple. cheering. chanting: usa! it's where the action is. and it is, we are most proud of the fact... you look at the car companies, they're moving back. they are going into michigan, they are going to pennsylvania, they are going to pennsylvania, they are going back to ohio, so many companies are coming back and by the way... that's why i want people to come into our country but they have to come in legally and they have to come in through the merits, through merit! so they can help us build our country! cheering. make america great again, pretty soon we will be seeing keep america great. keep

america great! cheering. pretty soon, congressmen, keep america great, we will have to switchover. tell me, tell me, all of these people you have never heard of and they are all running for office. who was that? well, that person was the mayor of the city who was defeated. he suffered a great defeat. watch what the news does tomorrow though. they won't mention the disparity! they won't mention the disparity! they won't mention the disparity! they won't mention the disparity tomorrow. they'll say, beto o'rourke, he had a great rally of

maybe 15 people... we have done something that has never been done before. we have suffered a totally dishonest media and we have wine and it's driving them crazy. cheering. the president at a rally very much of his supporters in a border town of his supporters in a border town of el paso. speaking words that as i mentioned many people would dispute. there is a disagreement between the republicans and democrats at the moment about the number of beds available to immigrants. the possible deal, we understand, does not meet the democrats on that element so it is unclear what legs is possible deal has but there are reports that a deal to avoid another

government shutdown has been reached. in the meantime, the president has in training again to this declare a state of emergency to get the money for the wall. 5 billion, he wants. from other federal budgets. that, we understand, he hasn't moved any closer to. let's get some of the day's other news. a malaysian court has postponed the first trial of former prime minister najib razak, who faces multiple charges of corruption. his lawyers appealed on tuesdayjust as the high court in kuala lumpur was due to start hearings on 7 counts of criminal breach of trust, corruption and money laundering. the case concerns 10.5 million dollars from a state development fund allegedly transferred into his personal account. horse racing in britain will restart on wednesday after a six—day shutdown because of an outbreak of equine flu. the british horseracing authority has been advised by vets that race meetings can go ahead, with strict bio—security controls. the virus is generally not life—threatening, but limits a horse's competitive capability. britain's prime minister, theresa may, is expected to update members of parliament on tuesday

with the latest on the uk leaving the european union. the eu's chief negotiator, michel barnier, held what he called ‘constructive' talks with the uk's brexit secretary in brussels on monday evening. one of brazil's best known political journalists, ricardo boechat, has died in a helicopter crash. the helicopter came down onto a motorway in sao paulo around midday on monday, crashing into a lorry. it had taken off from the nearby city of campinas earlier in the day. caroline rigby has more. lines strewn across the road, the wreckage of the helicopter which had been carrying one of brazil's best—known political journalists. ricardo boechat died along with the pilot when at around midday on monday eyewitnesses say the aircraft crashed into this lorry on a sao paolo ring road after appearing to be out of control. translation: when it crashed, it exploded. the pieces are all over the place.

it caught fire, after 15 minutes, firefighters arrived. the lorry driver was rescued by paramedics and escaped with only minor injuries. an investigation is now under way to determine the cause the crash. ricardo boechat was an award—winning news anchor for band tv, one of brazil's biggest media groups. he hosted a morning radio programme and presented the evening television news. having entered journalism in the 1970s, the 66—year—old gained prominence through his critical analysis of politicians accompanied by a healthy dose of good humour. a rare stance in an environment so often characterised by formalities and a deference to the authorities. the news anchor was twice voted brazil's most admired journalist by his peers. following news of his death, tributes from colleagues described

him as a journalist's journalist and praised his impactful reporting and legacy. ricardo boechat dedicated his working life to journalism. a life he lost shortly after recording his latest show. caroline rigby, bbc news. bahraini footballer hakeem al araibi is due to be arriving now at melbourne airport, as a free man. mr al araibi boarded a flight early on tuesday after bahrain dropped its bid to have him extradited from thailand, bringing to an end a case that has drawn international criticism. hakeem al araibi, 25, who fled bahrain in 2014 and received refugee status in australia, was arrested in thailand last year while on his honeymoon. a short time ago our correspondent hywel griffiths told us what he was likely to do when he landed. he has now landed and he is on his

way home to see his wife. he was given a welcome here and incredible when he left here back in november, no—one really knew much about him. however, his case has made headlines around the world. he had been detained ina around the world. he had been detained in a thai jail more than ten weeks after an extradition request from bahrain. when his boat was briefly, he was clearly overwhelmed by the response and think australia and all australians for bringing his case to international attention. in fact ——he thanked the australian government for advocating on his behalf. he said he felt australians, but australian, he is hoping him to be an australian citizen ——he is hoping soon. he believes this is where he belongs and he is grateful to be back. it is not in quietly clear why by rain and thailand gave ground on this —— entirely clear why bahrain. and people are saying it

doesn't end here? absolutely. have been speaking to the former socceroos captain and he had been trying to get vito involved. —— fifa. he feels that particularly the heads of fifa has let down our player. he is certainly not famous for his footballing skills but nevertheless, he is someone that should have deserved the protection of the football fraternity and believes the football authorities, they have human rights policy they didn't stick to. it is only within the last week that the far have become involved. —— cheering. —— fifa. that campaign will continue. human activity could drive the earth's entire insect population to extinction within a century, according to a major

new scientific study. insects are vital pollinators, so any decline threatens food production and the latest warnings suggest 40% of species could be gone within a few decades. pesticides, agriculture and climate change are being blamed. more details from our environment correspondent victoria gill. they're the planet's smallest, most essential workers, producing ourfood, cleaning up our waste. but changes we are making to the environment threaten the very existence of earth's insect population. that's according to scientists, who analysed dozen of insect surveys that were carried out all over the world over the last 13 years. it revealed that many species are now sliding towards extinction at a dramatic rate. overall, 41% of the world's insect species are in decline, and that includes some very familiar creatures. 49% of beetles are declining, 37% of mayflies, and 53% of butterflies and moths. so that is one of the groups that is troubled ?

absolutely, moths and bees and beetles are all massively in trouble right now... those losses, scientists say, could jeopardise our way of life. so much of our atmospheric carbon, which is linked to climate change, that's stored in the soil, and that's cycled through the soil by insects. our food is grown in the soil, that's made by insects. and then our food is then pollinated by insects. every single step along that has an insect associated with it, that's doing an importantjob. and without that, we would lose the ability to produce food, wouldn't we? but, as much as we rely on insects, it is primarily our activities and our food production practices that have been driving these declines. there are three key things that this study highlights as threats to our planet's insect diversity — climate change, invasive species, and critically, how we use our land, the increasing intensification of agriculture.

around the world, suitable habitat is being consumed by farming and urbanisation, and the study says widespread use of synthetic pesticides is a major driver of insect loss. bug lovers can help by making gardens more pollinator—friendly. but researchers say food production will have to change to stop our most important pollinators becoming collateral damage in the battle against pests. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: not so much grand prix, but grass prix. how lawnmower racing has gone international. 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. this is bbc news.

the latest headlines: president trump has been in texas to rally support for his border wall. a potential deal may have been agreed. the bahraini footballer freed from a thai jail has arrived back in australia, where he has refugee status. the united nations is urging the warring parties in yemen to give officials access to a vast store of grain, that is desperately needed in a country on the brink of famine. the red sea mills, on the frontlines in the port of hodeidah, hold enough grain to feed 3.7 million people for a month, but un officials say it is now "at risk of rotting". i spoke with fatima alasrar, a senior analyst for the arabia foundation. i began by asking how this situation can be fixed? i think all parties need to take responsibility but the houthis definitely have to grant access to critical roads where you can get the food in and out. otherwise, as the un has warned,

this truly is in risk of spillage and it being spoilt and it could affect basically, the food supplies for millions of people for months to come. so we definitely don't want to see this aid being spoilt and it has to go to the right people. so hopefully, more sustained international pressure to get access to these mills. you know, of course, yemen has suffered so much from the civil war that has become a proxy war, from hunger, from disease. i think many people would have thought this kind of thing was sorted out by the stockholm agreement, but no. yeah, the stockholm agreement was overly optimistic. it was really dubbed as the first step to peace. but we've come to realise hence that it was just overly ambitious

in what it was trying to achieve and the timeline that it tried to achieve it. we now have a significant delay, it's almost an indefinite delay since the un envoy has announced that, and this is a major disappointment because it has really severe consequences on the lives of civilians on the ground who are impacted by this conflict. the agreement was not, of course, supposed to solve all of yemen's problems or bring us on track to peace, but it was essentially engineered as a confidence—building measure between both warring parties in order to move on and to have the first step to peace talks. and what we have seen since then is really, you know, no progress on this agreement as both parties are bickering over small details. the ceasefire in hodeidah has had several violations. we see the brutal oppression of people in taiz, who this agreement was supposed

to look after, in terms of understanding in taiz, that would lift the houthi blockade. and furthermore, we saw that the houthis would not open a humanitarian corridor between sana'a and hodeidah, which are the two areas they control. and they also refuse to de—mine that road in fear of the coalition forces coming over and taking these areas easily if these landmines weren't there. so we're not really seeing, you know, any — this implementation taking place with teeth. so far there has beenjust, it's perhaps more on paper than on the ground. the campaign is growing for african art seized in the colonial era and displayed in european museums to be returned to the continent. a report commissioned by president macron of france

suggests 90% of africa's cultural heritage is still held outside africa. here's the bbc‘s africa editor, fergal keane. the past is alive, but to whom does it belong? to the descendants of the empire builders, or the people from whose lands it was taken? in the old imperial capitals, art that was stolen by colonial conquerors is now the focus of a growing campaign for restitution. these are the benin bronzes, at the british museum, looted by british forces in nigeria at the close of the 19th century. those pieces, that art, represents the essence of us. i need to be able to explain certain things about my being, certain things as to why i'm who i am, and do things the way i do, and think the way i do. and that's why art is important. on one level, this is a debate about priceless pieces of art, and where they really belong.

but it's part of a much larger movement in africa and the african diaspora to reclaim a stolen cultural heritage. it's about the right of africans to possess their own history. perhaps nowhere is the debate so haunted by past cruelties as here, at the grand museum erected outside brussels by king leopold ii of belgium. it was built on the profits of forced labour in rubber plantations. those who failed to collect their quota had hands chopped off. african art was carted back here in vast quantities. but the museum has undergone a major revamp, to reflect the reality of colonial history. if you look there, you know, there's a hologram of leopold ii about six times here, and in total about 45 times throughout the building. he wasn't a man for understatement, was he? no, he was really... but, as for restitution, there are reservations about capacity and the dangers of corruption.

do you trust the authorities in congo... no. ..to treat anything that is brought back with the care it deserves? at this moment, no, absolutely not. i wouldn't trust any of the people that are currently in charge. not that they are of bad will, but just they don't have the facilities. there is no security system. a lot of these objects are worth a lot of money. people are paid very badly. what would you do if you were paid, you know, not even $100 a month? but african voices are insistent change must come. in the democratic republic of congo, we visited a fledgling museum in kinshasa that combines old colonial sculpture with this storehouse of congolese art. professor bwatshia acknowledges the worries about corruption in congo, but a new national museum has been built, with south korean help — a place that could provide a congolese home for looted treasures.

translation: during colonisation, belgium, england, and america unfortunately took a lot of the art. this is only a small portion of what can be found in europe, so we should claim them back. it's better that it is here, for the good of the congolese people. there is, in africa and the west, a growing view that collaboration is the way forward. exhibitions rotating between continents. like the benin bronzes of the british museum. it's a debate defined by reasonableness. not least on the part of africans, still willing to share what was stolen from them. fergal keane, bbc news. on a very different tack, lawnmower racing is a rather niche sport, that we've told you about before here on bbc news. the premise is simple — convert your gardening equipment into a small vehicle, then drive as fast as you can.

but as the bbc‘s tim allman reports, lawnmower racing has gone international. this has been described, not always with a straight face, as the lawnmower le mans. teams with names like pa and pain in the grass drive around this track in southern finland. you will note that there was not a single blade of grass in sight. i think about it, was not a single blade of grass in sight. ithink about it, itried was not a single blade of grass in sight. i think about it, i tried to race with lawnmowers. that is the thing when it started, from here in finland. this is a test of both speed and endurance. racers were supposed to be out on the track for

up supposed to be out on the track for up to 12 hours, but conditions were not conducive to high velocity mowing and the race was abandoned. live on are not, this can be a dangerous sport. 2017, i came off in the sprint race and luckily, i smashed eight ribs, broken collarbone and broke my neck in two places. i'm out here again racing again, based at last it, so i had six months off stump. —— unluckily. —— i based at last year, as i had six months of. everyone wants to get their fingers, six months of. everyone wants to get theirfingers, green or six months of. everyone wants to get their fingers, green or otherwise, on the trophy. tim allman, bbc news. there is more nor the news any time on the bbc news website. and you can get in touch with me and most of the team on twitter. i'm @bbcmikeembley. thank you very much for watching. —— on all.

hello there. we may well be heading towards the final few weeks of winter now, but actually, the weather is feeling almost springlike, some slightly milder conditions certainly on the cards over the next few days. this was the scene taken near eastbourne by one of our weather watchers on monday. some blue sky, a bit of sunshine around too. now, as we head through the course of the next few days, still quite a lot of dry weather. there'll be a little rain across northern and western parts of the uk. things turning mild by day, but we've still got a few chilly nights to come, could be the odd spot of frost, and perhaps a bit of mistiness around too. but you can see the yellow colours moving in from the south—west gradually over the next couple of days, introducing that milder air. the blue colours, the colder air, kept at bay for now. so, through tuesday morning, then, it will be quite a chilly start across much of england and wales, particularly in the south and the east. we've got more cloud from the word go further north and west. a few spots of rain for parts of northern england, but also for scotland and for northern ireland as well, as a frontal system just moves its way gradually south—eastwards through the day.

it should brighten up for scotland and for northern ireland during the afternoon, as those south—westerly winds help to break up the cloud. a bit of rain lingering for north—west england, but central and southern and eastern england should stay dry through the day. now, temperatures up to between around 10—13 degrees, so a little above—average, really, for this time of year. now, as we move through tuesday night and on into wednesday, high pressure sits towards the south. we've still got this frontal system which is just pushing its way gradually further north—eastwards moving on into wednesday morning. so, through the day on wednesday, still quite cloudy across northern and western parts of the uk. a few spots of rain, particularly for parts of scotland, england and wales certainly staying dry through the day, and there'll be a bit more sunshine on wednesday, i think, compared to tuesday. so temperatures will be doing reasonably well once again, around 10—13 degrees or so, could see 1a celsius in the warmest spot. so, we've got that mild air with us into the start of the week, with high pressure sitting across the continent. we're drawing in these south—westerly winds.

they stay with us through into thursday, as well, as weather fronts clear off towards the north. so i think thursday not a bad day, should be quite a deal of sunshine, especially across england, wales, northern ireland too. perhaps a little bit of cloud for scotland, with one or two showers in the far north. but a largely dry day, and with those southerly winds, again temperatures will be up in double figures after a bit of a chilly start, 12 or 13 the warmest spots on thursday afternoon. looking towards the end of the week then, and we keep that mild theme to the weather. but it will turn a little bit more unsettled towards the end of the week, as those winds strengthen, with some rain particularly in the north and the west at times. bye for now. president donald trump has arrived in texas, where he's addressing a political rally in el paso. as he touched down, it was announced that democratic and republican negotiators had reached an agreement in principle on border securirty that they hope will avoid a second us government shutdown. bahrainy footballer hakeem al—araibi has arrived in melbourne,

australia as a free man. mr al—araibi boarded a flight early on tuesday after bahrain dropped its bid to have him extradited from thailand. he was arrested in the country while on his honeymoon. one of brazil's best—known political journalists, ricardo boechat, has died in a helicopter crash. the aircraft crashed on top of a lorry in sao paulo's busy ring road. the pilot has also died. the driver of the lorry was rescued by paramedics and suffered minor injuries. you are up—to—date on the headlines. it is