this is bbc news. i'm jane o'brien in washington where the long—awaited mueller report into russia and possible collusion with the trump campaign has been published. tonight at six — the long awaited full report into president trump, the russians and the 2016 election campaign. we are scouring 400 pages and new the president has been cleared details are emerging. donald trump thought this investigation was the of colluding with the russians — but questions still remain over whether he obstructed end of his presidency. but the the following investigation. but that's not how he sees it. attorney general william barr said before the report's really is the they're having a good day, investigation found no evidence of i'm having a good day too. it's called no pollution, collusion. there was no evidence of no obstruction. applause the trump campaign collusion with the trump campaign collusion with the russian government's hacking. democrats now want robert mueller to they may be celebrating here at the testify before congress. president white house but democrats are saying the report shows clear evidence of

trump is victorious, tweeting no presidential wrongdoing and demanding that robert mueller himself give evidence to congress. collusion, no obstruction, game over. they are having a good day, also on tonight's programme. i'm having a good day also. it was they are among the most vulnerable patients — because no collusion, no obstruction. we will have all the very latest reaction from washington. all 400 pages of the long—awaited mueller report have been published. congress is reading the report as we speak so our reporters all over the country and new details are emerging. we are getting a picture ofa emerging. we are getting a picture of a president under stress as the fbi ‘s circles, investigating russian meddling in the 2016

election which was confirmed. the report has said that nobody from the trump campaign, the president himself, or any american assisted in that effort to interfere. the trump campaign, the trump presidency is claiming victory, mr trump's lawyer said this is victory, the democrats say there are still more questions that need to be answered. but this is what the attorney general, william barr, said as the report was being really. after nearly two years of investigation, thousands of subpoenas, hundreds of warrants and witness interviews, the special counsel confirmed that the russian government's sponsored efforts to illegally interfere with the 2016 presidential election but did not find that the trump campaign or other americans colluded in those efforts. less clear is whether

president trump attempted to obstruct the investigation. this is what william barr had to say about that. the special counsel 's report goes on to consider whether certain actions of the president could amount to obstruction of the special counsel's investigation. as i addressed in my march 24 letter the special counsel did not make a traditional prosecutorialjudgment in this allegation. the report accou nts in this allegation. the report accounts ten episodes involving the president and discusses potential legal theories connecting those elements to an obstruction offence. after carefully reviewing the facts and legal theories outlined in the report, and in consultation with the office of legal counsel, and other department lawyers, the deputy attorney general and i concluded that the evidence developed by the special counsel is not sufficient to establish that the president committed an obstruction ofjustice

offence. william barr speaking earlier. i want to bring in our correspondence in our washington bureau. gary, you have been reading the report. what more is emerging? some really interesting material here are emerging. trump tower meeting ofjune 2016, the controversial meeting where donald junior thought they were going to get dirt on hillary clinton from russian sources. the special counsel interviewed everyone present at that meeting and that includes jared kushner, the president's ‘s son—in—law, we never knew specifically that he had spoken to the special counsel, now we do. he said they interviewed everyone bar to people. that included the russian who organised the meeting and then wa nted who organised the meeting and then wanted to talk about adoption rights and was connected to some

individuals close to vladimir putin. the other person they didn't get to interview about the trump meeting was donald trump junior interview about the trump meeting was donald trumpjunior himself and the report says he declined to be interviewed. clearly the special counsel would therefore did not get his account of what had happened, what the motivation for it was, what he thought he was doing but also didn't feel that he could insist on interviewing him through a subpoena, a really interesting and crucial fa ct a really interesting and crucial fact about that key part of the collusion story. let me give you something else in terms of this, the colourful narrative. we now know that donald trump did try to fire robert miller in june that donald trump did try to fire robert miller injune of 2017. a month after he was appointed. he made two phone calls to his white house counsel while he was at camp david. the first call and then the

second call, let me read this to you, or second call, let me read this to you, 01’ core second call, let me read this to you, or core rod, said the president. that is the deputy in charge of mueller at the time. tell rod that mueller has conflicts and cannot be the special counsel, recalled the president. telling him that will has to go. to call me back when it's done. don mcgann instructed by the president twice in these course to get rod rosenstein to fire robert mueller. it seems from the narrative that done talk to the chief of staff and to steve bannon and said and i quote and i am paraphrasing, the president is asking me to do some crazy stuff, although he did not use the word stuff. i'm sure he didn't. it's interesting because that is confirmation of a lot of issues we we re confirmation of a lot of issues we were reporting on at the time but we

are now getting more detail. what are now getting more detail. what are democrats likely to do with this? i think their strategy has been pretty clear that they want not just a full report and redacted and interestingly we mention trump tower, big sections of that meeting are redacted whereas elsewhere it is likely redacted. they have already asked for the underlying evidence, william barr has promised to share with some of the committee chairs and people on the hill more detail thanis and people on the hill more detail than is being publicly available, but they will want more and the chair of the house judiciary but they will want more and the chair of the housejudiciary has this subpoena ready to go, if he wa nts to, this subpoena ready to go, if he wants to, and they will also get ready for those big appearances by the attorney general himself at the beginning of may, two days running, and we know now that robert mueller has been told he will have to appear before a committee before may 23.

there will be lots of that. there will be lots of discussions whether the attorney general was right to conclude there was no obstruction when robert mueller did not conclude that and there will be some lingering questions around the question of coordination, particularly this trump tower meeting. 0ne particularly this trump tower meeting. one interesting thing that did come out from our reading is a special counsel, it seems to come to the conclusion that in terms of covering or explaining rather the reason for that trump tower meeting and that whole business or air force 0ne about how to manage it when the news of that meeting came out after the election, he doesn't come to the conclusion that the president tried to suppress the e—mails that donald trump to suppress the e—mails that donald trumere—mailed to suppress the e—mails that donald trump jr e—mailed saying, to suppress the e—mails that donald trumer e—mailed saying, i love it. as you say the report may be outcome

of the investigation may be over but we will be talking about this for some time to come. donald trump has had his chance to react to it already. he was speaking during a ceremony with wounded warriors earlier at the white house here behind me and he seems to think that the report exonerates him and in his words, game over. no collusion, no obstruction. applause there never was by the way and there never will be. and we do have to get to the bottom of these things, i will say. this should never happen andi will say. this should never happen and i say this in front of my friends, wounded warriors, and i just call them warriors because we'd just call them warriors because we'd just shook hands and they look great, they look so good and so beautiful, but i say it in front of my friends, this should never happen

to another president again. this hoax, they should never happen to another president again. donald trump calling it a hoax, saying repeatedly no collusion. trump calling it a hoax, saying repeatedly no collusionlj trump calling it a hoax, saying repeatedly no collusion. i want to bring ina repeatedly no collusion. i want to bring in a republican strategist who joins me now from austin, texas. donald trump saying no collusion, that's his headline but how does he move on from this given that the democrats are still going to be asking questions and we have testimony from the attorney general and robert mueller himself to come. i don't know that the president really ca n i don't know that the president really can control whether the story goes away. 0bviously he is now through the biggest threat that existed. the threat was he could be indicted or his son or son—in—law could be indicted. he had a political threat in terms of the

conspiracy narrative which has been erased at this point. the lingering questions will surround the issue of obstruction and that is the area you will see democrats pursue. 0bviously the special counsel had some concern relating to obstruction, in fact some evidence on both sides but ultimately decided not to come to a conclusion and to leave that to the attorney general and the attorney general and his deputy ultimately concluded that charges will not be brought on obstruction. that doesn't mean congress pursue obstruction. they have a much different burden of proof than the special counsel, the justice department has. this is 400 pages, no one has consumed this thing in its entirety but i can say from reading it so far, there is some smoke it in some areas but i don't think there is a bombshell revolution here that will put the

white house on defence. but in terms of the smoke, what do you see as potentially the most damaging that has been revealed by this report so far? three things come to mind. one is the special counsel detailing he has i think made 14 criminal referrals to other prosecuting jurisdictions, 12 of which were redacted. we don't know what those are, who they affect, what the issues are. there is speculation that could be related to the president in the southern district of new york. number two is the obstruction piece. this does lay out some action the president made in real time and the democrats will pick up on those things and look at them more carefully. and third, you do have details of the contacts between trump associates in russia.

you didn't add up to conspiracy, to collusion, but it does detail some of those contacts more formally and that may put the trump campaign on the defence. this is really about obstruction now, that is the big question. 0ne obstruction now, that is the big question. one the president is through the woods, he may not be in terms of being through the woods for congress. thank you forjoining me. i want to bring in niall stanage. this report many hoped would settle with these issues. how much jeopardy many hoped would settle with these issues. how muchjeopardy is the president still in on this whole issue of obstruction? a significant amount because the details of this report sit incongruously with the more positive gloss that had been

put on it by the attorney general. your previous guest has outlined some of these specific cases where mueller had grave concerns about obstruction. some of these are politically explosive. clearly the attempts, for example, to get the white house counsel to try to remove robert mueller while the investigation was ongoing. there is a politically incendiary nature to those kind of details but will that translate into legal jeopardy, that's what we don't know because we don't know how congress will react. how again does the president translate what he clearly sees as a victory for him, exoneration in his words come into being able to move on and focus on other parts of his administration? i think we are already seeing signs of his tactic here with that tweet of the game

over me related to game of thrones. he is going to put a lot of stress on the no collusion piece, that is clearly the strongest finding from his point of view. he will say, look, this investigation was all about the central charge of if he or his campaign collude with russia. the answer to that appears to be no, he will reiterate that again and again and cast any democratic effo rts again and cast any democratic efforts to keep the story running as purely political as pa rtizan efforts to keep the story running as purely political as partizan games. what do you make of the way that this report was rolled out? the attorney general himself has come under a lot of criticism for pre—empting it with his own conclusions. what do you think of the republican's strategy here?|j the republican's strategy here?” think it had initially been quite an

effective strategy because the president, the president's side was able to get the most favourable view of the report out there. the question is whether that is the attorney general‘s rule. the criticism we are hearing is about the attorney general tainting his office by appearing to advocate for the president, to advocate the president's point of view, to put the most positive glass on trump's perspective. that sits uneasily with the attorney general‘s role, the attorney general is supposed to serve the people. that is where the criticism is rooted. i don't think honestly william barr's conduct will bejudged or that honestly william barr's conduct will be judged or that favourably in the long term but it was politically effective in its initial stages. thank you very much. a lot of

questions still swelling. congress will be demanding to hear more. they will be demanding to hear more. they will be demanding to hear more. they will be hearing more. we have further testimony to come in the next few weeks. but for now, back to you. you are watching bbc news at five p:m.. let's you are watching bbc news at five p: m.. let's stay you are watching bbc news at five p:m.. let's stay with that you are watching bbc news at five p: m.. let's stay with that subject, the key story of the hour and let's pick out some of the extracts of the report. it is being read with great interest. 400 pages to plough through. here are some of the extracts, highlights. when jeff sessions who was attorney general at the time informed president trump that a special counsel had been appointed to investigate allegations of collusion with russia, the president slumped back into his chairand said, oh president slumped back into his chair and said, oh my god, this is terrible, this is the end of my

presidency. he became angry and bested the decision asking him, how could you let this happen? the president said the appointment of the attorney general had been the most important but it had let him down. president trump returned to the consequences of the appointment of the special prosecutor and said eve ryo ne of the special prosecutor and said everyone tells me if you get one of these independent counsels, it ruins your presidency. it takes years and yea rs your presidency. it takes years and years and i won't be able to do anything. this is the worst thing to have happened to me. let's have some more analysis of the report. what we know so far. margaret taylor served asa know so far. margaret taylor served as a fellow of government studies. thank you forjoining us. when you

heard from the attorney general in that news conference before the report was published, what did you make of his remarks?” report was published, what did you make of his remarks? i thought his remarks were 0k as a process matter however it was a little bit strange, just to explain a bit more about the report, just strange having that conference prior to the report being released because the most important thing here for members of congress and for many americans is what is in bob mueller‘s report. and the attorney general‘s comments will be interpreted by many as attempting to really put quite a positive spin on this report for the president and thatis this report for the president and that is problematic because in our system of government, our department ofjustice system of government, our department of justice and the system of government, our department ofjustice and the work of someone

like bob mueller, it is supposed to be quite independent so that the american people can hear what happened during the 2016 election without it being filtered through many voices that are seeming to support president trump. there are clearly elements in the detail of this report that will not be particularly welcome in the white house. there were some suggestions that the giuliani may counter the report. from what you have had so far, what are the areas that congress could still look at productively in pursuing its critique of the president?” productively in pursuing its critique of the president? i think that this report will help congress in putting together a full picture of what happened in 2016. special counsel mueller‘s report and his duty here was rather narrow, it was

to pursue what can be pursued in the criminal space on these matters. congress's role is much broader and members of congress will be looking to understand this report in particular but then also connected with broader questions about what america should be doing to protect the integrity of its elections and what congress and the american people think is appropriate regarding what members of the campaign, a presidential campaign, what kinds of contacts they should be having with foreign nationals, foreign governments. that is the broader question that congress can and should really take up in the next months and even years to really ta ke next months and even years to really take a closer look at this. com congressman who heads the chair committee has said he wants to find a way to get the redacted bits made

available but he has a dilemma because he would have to show to a court that there was justification, that this was more than political point scoring. to be clear that there are actually four different categories of information that the attorney general has redacted in this report. three of those types of redacted information actually we understand from attorney general‘s press co nfe re nce understand from attorney general‘s press conference this morning will be made available to select members of congress and that will include chairman adler. there is a fourth category of information that has been redacted that relates to information that was conveyed to the grand jury, so special counsel mueller‘s grand jury that looked at this information and looked at recommendations for indictments. there will be some question about whether congress will see it because

there is a legal bar to that being made public and there is a question as to whether that information can be made available to the congress and that question will had to be decided by the court that is overseeing, that has overseen the grandjury and overseeing, that has overseen the grand jury and that will take time. thank you. also in washington is a political columnist with the hill. how are journalists going to be reporting this report? is it going to be as the president says no collusion, no obstruction of justice, game over, orwill they still be seen questions that are unanswered ? still be seen questions that are unanswered? trump framing how he wa nts unanswered? trump framing how he wants the coverage to go, saying this is the end of it, hyping the drama of the moment with the game of thrones image and journalists are scrambling to pass through 400 plus

pages of this report, trying to do their due diligence notjust hustle through this and their reporting, but at the same time pull out some of the pertinent information and get it out to the public who of course can read the report for themselves as well. but the big takeaway here is despite two years of washington waiting for this report is it is unlikely to change many people's minds. ifeel unlikely to change many people's minds. i feel perfectly safe in saying that democrats are likely to pounce on every negative tidbit from this report, every damaging detail against president trump and argue for their fully unredacted report and access to it. while republicans are still likely to defend the president and say this report shows there was no collusion as he says.

no collusion certainly. this question of obstruction ofjustice seems to be a mute point for some of the president's critics, even in the republican party. why is that? the reason is because fortunately for the president of the report does say that there was no collusion, no obstruction of justice that there was no collusion, no obstruction ofjustice but u nfortu nately for obstruction ofjustice but unfortunately for the president, robert mueller left open the door for ongoing congressional investigations into the obstruction question, so this could continue to be an issue that plagues the president. it doesn't end with this report as he may have hoped and has said that he wants to be the case. so the obstruction question is certainly hanging out there and we are going to see it as the focus of are going to see it as the focus of a lot of parts and battles as we head into 2020. thank you very much.

let's talk to the director of the centre of politics, a regular contributor to us here at bbc news. welcome to bbc news, good to speak to you again. thank you. what do you make of what william barr had to say today? you are still ploughing your way through this report. it is important to note that i read a total of 22 pages out of the 400 plus and that is not including the attachments. it is hard to generalise but i did watch every word of his press conference. i was very disappointed. i have known william barr all the way back to the early 1990s and this was not the william barr were used to know. it was a man who was in essence a

public relations adviser to the president or as some have said acting as defence counsel for the president. at times i thought i was listening to a rudy giuliani without a new york accent. what about this question about president trump said this in his remarks on camera in response to the report being published in which he obviously said game over, but he said no president should have too enjoyed this again. do you think there will be some relu cta nce do you think there will be some reluctance in future to appoint special prosecutions because of the way this has developed. it has had a huge distracting effect on the trump presidency. it has about you go back to nixon or to clinton, they had independent councils who were even more distracting and went right to the heart of their presidencies and

of course nixon had to resign and clinton was impeached by the house but not convicted by the senate, so to say that this is unique is wrong. the difference is that both parties got disillusioned with independent councils so created a system that put them under the attorney general and the justice put them under the attorney general and thejustice department. now as of today really you have democrats calling for the restoration of the old order with independent councils and republicans calling for the abolition of the whole system so i can guarantee you one thing, nothing is going to happen. you being the famous voice of politics on the hill these days. lots of people will be turning their thoughts now to election season, doubtless you will be preparing for your crystal ball letters on congressional politics. do you think this has any impact on the elections ahead and for the

president, does it strengthen his determination to run again and be confident about his campaign? there one, the one thing i would bet on with full confidence is that donald trump will be running for re—election. he's been running since the night he was elected and that's perfectly 0k the night he was elected and that's perfectly ok because a lot of presidents do that. i would put it this way, this has intensified the feelings on both sides. it probably hasn't changed a single vote. nothing does. people made up their minds about donald trump years ago. and wejust minds about donald trump years ago. and we just haven't had anybody moving back and forth. i've compared it to the dmz. nobody ever crawls across the dmz. this will not change that. professor, a great pleasure to

speak to you. thank you for being with us. let's take a look at the weather prospects for the lovely weekend ahead. not only have we had the sunshine today but we have had the sunshine today but we have had the warmth. some spots in south—east england saw highs of 23 celsius, making it the warmest day of the year so far. this evening, lots of evening sunshine and many places will hang on to clear skies for much of the night. we may start to see the return of low cloud, mist and fog in eastern england but most places should remain frost free. some spots in south—east england will hang on to double digit temperatures. into the long bank holiday weekend and we have high pressure over scandinavia so a settled story, drawing up that walk from central europe. for good friday, after a misty start, that will burn back, lengthy spells of sunshine. for many places, blue

skies will rule. temperatures once again doing well, highs of 22, possibly 23 celsius. you are watching bbc news at 5pm. the sport. good afternoon. alex mcleish‘s second spell as scotland head coach lasted just 14 months. he's been sacked after a poor start to the euro 2020 qualifiers. let's got to hampden park and speak to our sports news chris that record had put him under correspondent chris mclaughlin. chris, that record had put him under increasing pressure. it is not a surprise. they have been reports that the axe was about to fall. they met here and ratified

that sacking. it was a disastrous start to the 2020 qualifying campaign. that 3—1 defeat to kazakhstan. the statement after the sacking mentioned that game in particular, saying it essentially didn't show scotland when making the kind progress under alex mcleish that they were expecting so they decided to pull the rug from under his feet now and try and get someone else in to make sure they do indeed qualify for euro 20 20. he did get scotla nd qualify for euro 20 20. he did get scotland to the top of the league group said there is still a chance of euro qualification. who might be replacing him? as you can imagine, lots of names being bandied around. the likes of paul lambert, david moyes, he did say recently that was a job he would like but perhapsjust

not now. one name that continually comes up not now. one name that continually comes up and one that most scotland fa ns comes up and one that most scotland fans would like to see here as the next scotland manager is that of steve clarke, he has worked wonders with the ayrshire side. whether or not steve clarke would want the job, similarly to david moyes at this stage, remains to be seen. he certainly would be the favourite amongst the fans. thank you very much. footballers across england and wales will go on a 24—hour social media strike from nine o'clock tomorrow morning, in protest at how recent incidents of racism have been dealt with. the professional footballers‘ association is using the boycot to launch it's anti—racism campaign, entitled #enough. among those taking part is tottenham defender danny rose, who was subject to abuse during england's euro 2020 qualifier in montenegro in march.

he said, "football has a problem with racism. collectively, we are simply not willing to stand by while too little is done by football authorities and social media companies to protect players from this disgusting abuse. " jarrell miller says he has "done nothing wrong" and will appeal against the decision to deny him a licence to face anthonyjoshua at madison square garden on the first ofjune. the new york state athletic commission refused him a licence to box at madison square garden, after he returned an "adverse finding" in a drug test. he said, "my team and i stand for integrity, decency and honesty and we will fight this with everything we have." they've asked for his b sample to be tested but as things stand, joshua has no opponent for what would've been his first fight in the united states. that's all the sport for now, but there's much more on the bbc sport website, including build—up to tonight's europa league matches, with arsenal and chelsea both in action. and both in pretty good positions. much more on the website. that's bbc.co.uk/sport. i'll be back at 6:30pm with sportsday.

thank you. let's bring you an update on this week's climate protests. including in london. we have had a statement from the metropolitan police conference, we are hoping to hear more about that in the course of the hour. extension rebellion are planning a demonstration at heathrow airport tomorrow to coincide with the good friday getaway. they are aware of information that protesters will carry out a demonstration in the vicinity of the airport. it says they have strong plans which will enable them to send significant numbers of officers to heathrow. we have requested mutual aid from other police forces. we will not allow

protesters to cause fear —— further disruption. that is a statement from the met police. there has been some criticism of the... they have been a significant number of arrests. the first people to be charged in connection with the climate change brokers have appeared in court today. protest disrupted parts of central london are continuing. activists want the government to drastically speed up targets reducing carbon emissions. hello, lisa on waterloo bridge. hello. so far, as you say, waterloo bridge. it started off this morning smaller and quieter. as you can see, there is a

garden party going on behind me. they are having fun. there is garden, trees, meditation sessions and music. it is peaceful and very gentle. most people seem quite happy with it. we have had a few people walking past, commuters are coming along some getting a little angry. there seems to be a let lead idea here. this afternoon, things did change somewhat. we had quite a few arrests. the police came in in three vans at a time, about 50 officers. they very gently walked up to the protesters, they go up to them, show that a piece of paper, ask them if they would like to stand up ask them if they would like to stand up and come what they like to be carried. most of them say, no, you will have to take me, and then they play dead and make it very hard for the police to take them. we found a lot of them, we think 20 arrests here, taken into the vans. nobody

has told me officially but i get the idea that they are now not giving up, they are taking people off to the cells. we are told that they are all being taken to cells in london. they are not being taken away from london. we had three vans to start with, they went away then they came back and they took my people. as i say, 20 here. they have a new tactic here, the people are being given a little story about why they are here as they had been arrested and taken away. they give their name and they explain what they are doing and then they are carried. it is good pr, really, for the police because they are doing it very gently and there has been no violence and it is very peaceful, but things have ramped up this afternoon. sir david attenborough has described the threat of climate change as ‘a man—made disaster on a global scale.‘

in a documentary, to be broadcast on bbc one tonight, the broadcaster has called for drastic and urgent action in his starkest warning yet. 0ur science correspondent rebecca morelle reports. a rapidly changing landscape. in ourwarming world, trillions of tonnes of ice have vanished from the poles. these images are from sir david attenborough‘s new documentary, who warns that climate change is the biggest threat we face. it may sound frightening, but the scientific evidence is that if we have not taken dramatic action within the next decade, we could face irreversible damage to the natural world, and the collapse of our societies. oh, my god... heading into an inferno in montana. the dry conditions that made last yea r‘s forest fire so deadly are increasing, as the planet heats up. the people in this car narrowly escaped with their lives. scientists say the impacts of climate change are becoming clear.

the last four years have been the warmest on record, and the un says major changes are needed to stop dangerous temperature rise. this is gaining more attention. in a week of bringing cities to a standstill, extinction rebellion are calling for carbon emissions to be cut to zero in the next six years. this target would be incredibly difficult. instead, the government is considering doing this by 2050. here in the uk, we have been doing the right things. we just need to do them a bit faster, and with a bit more emphasis, and we are within sniffing distance, actually, of achieving the thing we need to do, which is to cut emissions to the point where we are not warming the planet any more, or at least, the uk is not contributing to that. in his documentary, david attenborough calls for urgent action. along the louisiana coastline, in the us, land is vanishing at one of the fastest rates in the world. an area the size of a football pitch is disappearing on average every 45 minutes. with entire communities having to relocate, scientists say the time

to act is running out fast. rebecca morelle, bbc news. and you can see more of sir david attenborough‘s assessment in climate change: the facts at 9pm tonight here on on bbc one. crossway will —— cross rails might not be finished by the spring of 2021, two years behind schedule. none of the stations have yet been completed. there are concerns about signalling issues as well. the project is already £3 billion over budget. this is why a new rail line is needed. even during easter holidays, the rush hour is a squeeze. holidays, the rush hour is a squeeze. now another warning for commuters that crossrail might still be some way off. it doesn't surprise me because most things are delayed.

it will happen eventually, whenever that is. it sounds like a bit of a joke, doesn't it? it was supposed to open december last year. when it finally gets here, it will be a massive help to everyone who lives on either side of london. it is an impressive engineering project. a new high—tech, high capacity rail line underneath central london. but a senior source associated with crossrail has told bbc news that this railway might not be complete until the spring of 2021. with none of the new station is finished, a best case scenario i am told is the spring of next year. the budget was £14.8 billion. after initial delays we re £14.8 billion. after initial delays were announced, that rose to 17.6 billion. with another delay likely, that figure could rise again. there is so much uncertainty because softwa re is so much uncertainty because software and the new trains, most of which sit idle, is still not fully compatible with signalling in the tunnel. we are told marrying them up is proving much harder than was

originally envisaged. the key problems are physically building the stations, installing the miles of cabling, cameras, things like platform dolls which we don't often use on railways in this country. that has been a bigger problem than we thought. add into that mix, the delays in testing the trains. this is the first train that will run on the eastern ove rg round is the first train that will run on the eastern overground branch of the new route. featured in a bbc documentary, the line will carry vast numbers of passengers from east to west. initial delay was only made public last summer, just weeks before the line was supposed to open. crossrail says testing of the trains and signalling is progressing well. it is finalising a new plan to deliver the opening of the alleged opportunity and will make an announcement later this month. but even to the untrained eye, paddington station is far from finished. with other rail sources telling me a two year delay is on the cards, much was delay on how

much progress is made in the coming months. let's return now to our top story this hour and that is the news conference given a little early this afternoon by the attorney william barr in which he insisted the muller report that has just been published into the 2016 presidential election found no evidence of collusion. after a two year wait, the long—awaited report has been released. mr barr confirmed that russia tried to interfere in the election but this was done without any interference from the trump campaign. after nearly two years of investigation, thousands of subpoenas, hundreds of warrants and witness interviews, the special counsel confirmed that the russian government's sponsored efforts to illegally interfere in the 2016 presidential election but did not find that the trump campaign or other

americans colluded in those efforts. the other key question that the investigation was obstruction of justice. he was less definitive on this. he revealed that robert mueller did investigate ten episodes of possible obstruction by trump, though the special counsel did not make a judgement on this. the special counsel's report goes on to consider whether certain actions of the president could amount to obstruction of the special counsel's investigation. as i had dressed in my march 24 letter, the special counsel did not make a traditional prosecutorialjudgment regarding this allegation. instead, the report recou nts this allegation. instead, the report recounts ten episodes involving the president and discusses potential legal theories for connecting those activities to the elements of an obstruction offence. after carefully

reviewing the facts and legal theories outlined in the report and in consultation with the office of legal counsel and other departmental lawyers, the deputy attorney general andi lawyers, the deputy attorney general and i concluded that the evidence developed by the special counsel is not sufficient to establish that the president committed an obstruction of justice offence. president committed an obstruction ofjustice offence. that is that us attorney general william barr. we have had the first public response to the report from the president himself. he has today been hosting cyclists taking part in the wounded warrior project cut soldier cut right. he spoke briefly about the report. no collusion, no obstruction. i'm happy. cheering and applause there never was and there never will be, by the way. we do have to get to the bottom of these things, i will

say. they should never happen, i say this in front of my friends, i call them warriors because we just shook hands and they look great, they look so good, so beautiful, but i say it in front of my friends, they should never happen to another president again. this hoax, it should never happen to another president again. donald trump speaking at the white housein donald trump speaking at the white house in the last hour or so. it has to be said that some of the details in the report suggest that at one point, mrtrump is in the report suggest that at one point, mr trump is far less confident about the effects this investigation would have. it reveals that when jeff sessions who was investigation would have. it reveals that whenjeff sessions who was then attorney general informed it president trump that a special counsel had been appointed, he slumped in his chair and said... he became angry and lambasted attorney general sessions for his decision to recuse himself from any involvement

in the investigation asking how could you let this happen, jeff? he said the position was the most important he had made. jeff sessions had let him down, he said. mr session said he reported thatjohn said you were supposed to protect me, or words to that respect. trump also said... let's talk now to our correspondent in washington and has been doing his best in between broadcasting to try to get across the detail of the report. in truth, a lot of the detail is going to come out over the next few hours. in broad terms, you are clutching at their... 400 pages.

is the attorney general right in saying that this really does represent the end to the allegation that there was collusion between anyone in the trump team and russia? well, there is a couple of important things to say about that. that is the conclusion the attorney general has come to and we know robert muller could not come... mueller came to that conclusion as well. there are still some questions. we do know that donald junior, who organise that famous trump tower meeting which was one of the central publicly known ideas that sparked off the whole idea of coordination, where he thought he was getting dirt on hillary clinton from russian contacts, potentially connected to the russian government. we know that the russian government. we know that the president, according to robert mueller, wasn't really aware of that

meeting, despite what his personal lawyer said. we do also know that donald trump jr lawyer said. we do also know that donald trumer refused to answer questions about that meeting. he was asked by the special counsel to talk about that and declined to do that. they chose not to issue subpoenas to make him do it but that is an interesting point. picking up what you said about the kind of atmosphere after the creation of the special counsel in may 2017, it is worth bearing in mind that within a month, the special counsel's investigation had been broadened to obstruction. we learn from this report that the president tried twice to get the white house counsel to fire the special counsel robert mueller. he rang him twice from camp david which is his country retreat in maryland. he rang the council, he said you have got to fire him, get him done. he rang him back and said,

have you done it yet? we know that doctor dutton it was said he was going to resign at night because he didn't want to do it," the president is trying to get me to do some crazy stuff. quite what he didn't use that word stuff. a few weeks after that, the president also tried to get someone the president also tried to get someone else to fire jeff the president also tried to get someone else to firejeff sessions who had recused himself from the russian inquiry. that didn't come off. there is a bizarre incident where his former campaign manager, who doesn't even have a job in the administration at that stage are now, is in the oval office and donald trump is trying to get him to ta ke donald trump is trying to get him to take a message to the attorney general to get him, despite the fact

he isa general to get him, despite the fact he is a recused of the inquiry, to change mueller‘s remit so that it does not cover the past, it only covers future elections. it is an extraordinary tale. a couple of other things if we have time. there isa other things if we have time. there is a lot of discussion about pardons and whether the president promised people pardons for not cooperating with the special counsel. paul ma nafort with the special counsel. paul manafort campaign chairman says here... in january 2018, manafort campaign chairman says here... injanuary 2018, he told richard gates, paul manafort‘s deputy told gates he had talked to the president's personal counsel and they were going to take care of us. manifold told gates it was stupid to plead, that is to plead guilty and cooperate, he had been in touch with the personal lawyer of the president

repeating that they should sit tight and will be taken care of. that is paul manafort telling the special counsel that it was his impression from donald trump's personal lawyer that they were going to be taken ca re that they were going to be taken care of. that is in the document about pardons. it is worth saying that not long after that section where it discusses pardons, there is three pages of redacted material, who knows what is behind that. who indeed. fascinating stuff. thank you very much. let me bring you some breaking news. that is from west midlands police who as a result of a shooting incident earlier today, a 28—year—old man has died. it happened off church road in erdington. the police have now launched a murder inquiry. the bbc children's television star mya—leesha naylor has died suddenly at the age of 16.

mya—leesha appeared in the shows "millie inbetween" and "almost never". making the first public announcementr of her death, the bbc described her as a "much loved" member of the cbbc family. mya—leesha died eleven days ago. 0ur arts correspondent david sillito reports. are you threatening to kick me out of the band? in almost never, the story of the fictional group, girls here first, she played mya. here's the deal. we get to be in girls here first and still have lives, with boyfriends... mya—lecia naylor was only 16, but already a tv veteran. there we go, lie down... her first appearance on prime time was as a baby in absolutely fabulous. what are you doing to its legs, darling? i'm just going to sort of stretch them, it's going to be a model... that was your mistake. but it was as fran in millie inbetween that turned her into a star of cbbc. it's not yet known how she died, but it's understood to be natural causes. the head of the bbc‘s children

services alice webb said she was distraught at the sad news. mya—lecia was, she says, hugely popular with our audiences, a very talented actress, dancer and singer, and a real role model for her young fans. the actress emily atack, who appeared with her on almost never, said she was shocked and saddened by the news, and matt lees, the writer for millie inbetween, said the cast was hurting but also remembering all the brilliant things mya—lecia did. i'm tati, welcome to tati's hotel. from her days as the young star of tati's hotel to almost never, a generation have watched her grow up on screen. thousands of her fans were today talking of their shock and sadness, and only a few days before her death, mya—lecia had been interviewed, enthusiastically talking about her forthcoming gcses and her plans for the future. david sillito, bbc news.

time now for a look at the weather. 0ur weather has undergone a bit of a transformation in recent days. we have seen plenty of sunshine but we have seen plenty of sunshine but we have also had the warmth. some spots in south—east england have seen temperatures reach highs of 23 celsius, making it the warmest day of the year so far. we head into this evening with plenty of sunshine. many places will hang on to clear skies for much of the night. we may start to see the return of low cloud, mist and fog through eastern england and eastern scotla nd through eastern england and eastern scotland but it should be a frost free night. many places seen temperatures holed up in double digits. it will not be a cold start to friday morning. more once on the way. it is a similar set today's setup. high pressure over scandinavia and we are drawing up that one from central europe, helping to give our temperatures a boost. any early morning mist and fog will lift quite quickly and then lengthy spells of sunshine on offer for many places blue skies as will

rule. the wind will be lighter as well. noticeable down the north sea and channel post. temperatures once again doing well with highs of around 21 or 22 celsius for good friday. as we head into saturday, the heat really does start to build. we could see highs of 25 celsius in south—east england. let's see how that compares with some of our favourite european resorts. in the high teens for parts of iberia. it remains cool and unsettled for large parts of the eastern mediterranean, there's temperatures pegged back. back home, a lot of sunshine on offer through saturday. we have this type of crowd working its way into northern ireland and the western fringes of scotland. it may produce one or two light showers. elsewhere, the heat continues to build. temperatures around 21 to 25

celsius. 0n easter sunday, that weather front and area of cloud may creep into parts of northern england before it retreats and works its way back up to the north—west. still affecting parts of northern ireland and western fringes of scotland, but for many of us a fine, dry day with lengthy spells of sunshine and still with that one. as of 23, 20 five celsius. easter monday, there could be rain but high pressure will be in charge and the rain it might not 00:58:35,089 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 make make progress.