democratic presidential contender elizabeth warren has called for impeachment proceedings to begin against the us president donald trump, in the wake of the mueller report release. meanwhile the usjustice department has dismissed a democrat subpoena to see a full, unredacted version of the document — which details election interference by russia in 2016. a couple from california have been sentenced to life in prison after subjecting their children to years of torture and starvation. david and louise turpin pleaded guilty to abusing all but one of their 13 sons and daughters over a nien year period. protest leaders in sudan say they will unveil a civilian government this weekend. thousands of demonstrators are continuing to demand a transition to a civilian government after the military seized power from long—standing leader omar al—bashir last week. schools and community centres

in parts of the country are increasing support over the easter holidays for poorerfamilies. figures show almost 3 million children with working parents were living on the poverty line last year in the uk — a record number. the government says it's investing £9 million for more access to holiday clubs. frankie mccamley has been to a youth centre in manchester that's opening its doors at easter for the first time. school's out and it is time for some good old—fashioned fun. after a morning of pretty impressive activities, everyone at this youth centre in east manchester is working up an appetite. mash, beans and sausage. is it good? yes. now it feels amazing. how does being here compared to being at home? it's better here because you get fresh air.

the scheme is in an area where almost half of families live below the poverty line. food is free today and throughout school holidays but during term time, even though meals only cost £1, some parents cannot afford to pay. what is it like when you see those young children and you see that they cannot afford to buy their food? it's heartbreaking. you walk up and down and watch all the children and what they have. you think we are only watching what we are serving but we are watching everywhere, looking for hungry children. no—one will go hungry. with the support of a government grant and money from the private sector, it's the first time they have opened for easter and it is a lifeline for some working parents. in school holidays they can have breakfast and dinner. it helped me out of a bind.

manchester has one of the highest levels of child poverty in the uk. every week around 1000 children and teenagers come to this youth centre and it's notjust here. smaller schemes are being set up across the country over easter in schools, churches and community centres. around half of the food served here is delivered by volunteers from a local food tank. a few miles away at the busy depot, despite quadrupling the number of meals they provided in the last three years, staff say there are still not enough schemes open at this time of year to feed those who need it. our partners and charity members, theyjust do not have the resources to provide school holiday food in the summer for six weeks as well as easter so they are making hard choices. we would like more funding at easter so we can work with more charities who want to work easter holidays. and it is during the holidays

when money can be tight. although children's clubs do relieve a bit of tension, council budgets are stretched, so it will be a struggle to provide resources like this everywhere. now on bbc news, our world reports from australia. with a general election just weeks away, revelations of government bungling, corporate greed and corruption have thrust water to the forefront of political debate. in australia's iconic outback, an environmental disaster is unfolding. when you threaten my family, and threaten my future, and you threaten the world's future of feeding our nation and other nations around the world, then you can't get more personal than that. the darling river, a main artery of australia's murray—darling basin, is drying up. some blame climate change.

others, the growth of industrial—scale cotton farming. whatever the cause, the result is sparking outrage on social media. look at these iconic fish of australia being treated like this. youse have to be bloody disgusted with yourself, you politicians and cotton grower manipulators. these lakes should never be drained. with national elections is due in may, a recent royal commission report containing revelations of government bungling, corporate greed and corruption has thrust the issue to the forefront of australian political debate. with politicians ducking for cover, the worst environmental catastrophe in australia's history looms large. the empty rivers are threatening not only the nation's food security but more than 40,000 years of subsistence living

by its native people. it's a man—made drought we're living in now. we just won't suffer it. and it's notjust black people, it's everyone. white people, and all. and it's got to stop. 10 years ago, after the worst drought in living memory, i travelled to australia's outback to investigate a water crisis that was described then as exceptional. a decade later, i returned to find communities on the edge of disaster, facing the possibility that the water crisis is permanent. this landscape is at the heart of the battle over australia's scarce water supply. a nation which likes to call itself "the lucky country" is endowed with a fabulous wealth

of natural resources. but when it comes to one of the essentials of life, the country is in deep trouble. water has never been plentiful here but growing demand, mainly from farming, and higher temperatures linked to climate change, have collided to create the country's worst ever water crisis. the murray—darling basin drains more than a million square kilometres of south—eastern australia. a network of tributaries flow into the darling river which crosses the region to join the murray river, australia's longest at more than 2,500km. the darling river also feeds the menindee lakes. australia's most important agricultural region relies on these rivers and lakes but after the hottest summer on record,

most of the darling river has run dry and the lakes are virtually empty. for millennia, the menindee lakes system has been a flourishing ecosystem on the driest continent on earth and a vital lifeline for the outback. but that has all changed. just a few years ago, these lakes were almost 90% full but after a decision by the new south wales state government to decommission the lakes for water storage, they were drained dry, and this is the result. as australia's drought has worsened, and with nothing in reserve, the darling river is now reduced to a few stretches of stagnating water. in december and january, at the peak of summer, a series of massive so—called fish kills, when more than a million fish

died, left the country reeling. this is nothing to do with drought. this is a man—made disaster brought to you by the new south wales government and the federal government, and the murray—darling basin authority. this is the result of draining the menindee lakes twice in four years, and killing the system. look behind us. these are just two of the many. this is the most disgusting thing i've ever seen in my life. in nearby menindee, population 550, residents are being forced to rely on bottled water and watch the local wildlife disappear. with each new fish kill, local fishermen graeme mccrabb has witnessed the devastation. there was just fish all the way down here in clumps and it was pretty well connected for 30

kilometres of river, just dead fish. you saw the pictures of the little boneys all in pools but they were just scattered everywhere like confetti here through this section of the river. as, a couple of days close to 50, and we dropped to about 20 degrees overnight that night. and it's hard to say, really. it's still emotional now for a lot of people, i suggest, probably two or three weeks on. with entire species of native fish under threat, government fisheries staff mounted a desperate last—minute rescue bid. but there was little left to salvage. with the water level continuing to drop, graeme travels the few remaining stretches looking for fish in distress in water made toxic by algae. i'm angry that we haven't got any bargaining in place, that irrigation has got to come first and then they will look to see if they will embargo the water coming down the river.

surely there should be an embargo on the water to get a connection of the barwon river all the way through the darling to the murray. that should be first and then visit it if there is enough waterfor irrigation. i can't believe anyone can sit there and say an embargo isn't in place at this stage. devastating now, when you realise it's the nursery of the golden perch and silver perch for the whole murray—darling basin. 80% of the golden perch come from here. this is a nursery, they are recruited here and it's just been smashed by these fish kills, and no help and no real political desire to take the environment into account with any decisions and any policies going forward. in 2009, i first travelled along the darling and murray rivers. already in crisis, the murray river no longer made it to the sea. the mouth of the river in south australia had run dry, setting off alarm bells across the country. a $7 billion project,

the murray—darling basin plan was drawn up with the hope it would help manage the scarce water resources for everyone. 10 years on, the plan appears to have failed. both the state and federal governments have been eager to label this crisis as a natural ecological event that's been exacerbated by the big drought. there is growing evidence that systematic mismanagement and the uncontrollable theft of water resources has played a huge role in this outback river disaster. in 2018, the south australian state government ordered a royal commission report into the effectiveness of the murray—darling basin plan. the federal government refused to give evidence, and prevented its agricultural officials from appearing before the enquiry.

the report was published in february, just weeks after the death of an estimated million fish. it found that gross maladministration and negligence at both state and federal levels along with unlawful activity have undermined the integrity of australia's greatest river system. 100km upstream from menindee, in the town of wilcannia, the darling river has long ago run dry. more than a century ago, this town was one of australia's busiest inland ports, with hundreds of paddle steamers plying the river laden with produce from the land. more than 60% of the town's residents are aboriginal,

most of them from the barkindji tribe, known as the people of the river. a long time ago, before i was born, my mum was a young girl, my grandmother cut a canoe out of there, see? out of this. out of this here, she took the bark away, and that's how big the canoe was. with his family history etched along the banks of the darling, badger bates, a barkindji elder, shares his people's intimate connection with the river. see, even animals are dying. and one of our concerns is the mussel shells, see, the old mussels. they're just dying. it proves that the water sharing plan is not worth the piece of paper it's written on and they're just

a bunch of liars that wrote the plan because look what they've given us. they made the mess, they clean it, and they fix it. you can drink it. it is a little bit brackish but it is good water. although the barkindji people have native title to their lands, their rights do not extend to the river water, which his people call the "baka". in 2015 they gave us native title, recognition that we are barkindji people and we say what is the good in giving us native title and taking our water? the river is our mother, it owns us, we do not own the river. according to aboriginal legend, the river was created by a dreamtime serpent, which scoured the land, joining up the waterholes.

for the barkindji people the imminent death of a river they consider their mother is a catastrophe that is difficult to comprehend. we're just all suffering. and it is notjust black people, it's everyone. white people and all. it's gotta stop. under the government's murray—darling plan, public money is spent buying back water from farmers but the last release of so—called bought—back water was almost a year ago. with billions of dollars allocated to fund the water buyback scheme, questions are now being asked about how the money is being spent. this march, a peer—reviewed study produced by australia's national university found the federal government had grossly exaggerated the amount of water that had been bought back and returned

to the environment. in fact, it found that less than 10% of the water the government claimed was being returned ever reached the river. it's said that modern australia was built on the sheep's back. 150 kilometres downstream from badger bate‘s home, sheep farming is on the verge of collapse. at tolarno station, farmer rob mcbride is seeing his family's future evaporating before him as the water crisis worsens. it seems big corporates and big industries are killing the murray darling basin and we are just one of the many who have been absolutely devastated by what they are doing. we are borrowing the country from our kids, we are, and it's being destroyed. for rob's son, james, the stakes are high.

i am going to find as much as i can so that i do have a future on here. because i was born and brought up on this place. i love it. i know every inch of it. and i love every part of it. i love the country, i love being able to ride down along the river and see beautiful big gum trees, and healthy sheep, kangaroos and wildlife everywhere. but we can't have that if things keep going the way they are going. for more than a decade, state governments have developed a complex system of water trading, with most water going to the highest bidders, leaving less for the environment. it's a system which many believe has encouraged corruption. we need the federal government to step in here because you need a broader scope of the whole thing. each state is only looking at itself, when you need to look at the big picture, so that you can spread the water across all the states equally, rather than one state pulling in all of the water and being like,

"oh, we're good, we don't need to worry about the other states." because they don't worry about the other states, they worry about themselves. g'day everyone, kate mcbride from tolarno station... james‘s sister, kate, has taken the battle on line. communities and people along the river need to be put before opportunistic crops like cotton. we need people to get on to their politicians right now and encourage them to place embargoes in new south wales. she has been travelling the length of the dying darling river, to document the devastation. we need to remember that 2019 is of the year where our vote will count. unfortunately, climate change in australia right now seems to get largely avoided by a number of the parties. i think it is set to become a larger issue. right now, it is not highly enough put on the radar, but it is inevitable that our climate is changing. right now in australia, we've got flooding in queensland, we've got massive drought over almost 100% of new south wales and tasmania is on fire. with the rivers running dry, the focus has turned to the upper reaches to the north,

where massive irrigated farms are mostly growing cotton, a famously thirsty crop. it is heartbreaking to see that this water should be going down the darling. it is the controversial practice of floodplain harvesting, where rain water is diverted from streams and rivers and stored, which has come under the spot light. in particular in the state of queensland, where it is almost completely unregulated. 0n the new south wales-queensland border, the town of goondiwindi is thriving. this is cotton country and the wealth the industry creates is clear to see, but scratch the surface and it is clear that water, and lots of it, underpins that success. i have travelled to the giant floodplains of southern queensland

to meet a cotton farmer turned whistleblower, who decided to speak out after he says his livelihood and that of his neighbours was nearly destroyed by industrial—scale cotton farming. oh, yeah, i really put myself out there. i've fronted lobby groups, i've fronted neighbours, i've fronted friends. you know, that's where i went to first. i believe that my problem, letting the river run, could have just been dealt internally but that... i received no help. no—one bothered to lift a finger. this is the macintyre river. it's new south wales on one side, queensland here. so we're in queensland. we're in queensland here. those trees there are new south wales. and the point is the river is very small. the river has to flood out over this country, and i want it to be protected. this water is being intercepted.

so when it comes out over this floodplain — it has to — it is just being intercepted, called floodwater and ta ken. but the longer you hold it, the more you can take. so that's what's happened to my family, it's just been held on us, our crops are all destroyed and the water does not continue into the river so for us to survive as farmers we just want the river to run. my neighbour can't get stock and domestic water. we're on a big river here that's running full steam within three kays, he can't get water. and they have been there for four generations. for years, as chris toiled with so—called dry—land cotton crops that rely purely on rainfall, he says a huge industrial—scale cotton farm was diverting water from the macintyre river into a network of channels and dams. you just can't turn communities off. you have to look after people, you've got to look after

the environment and extraction should always come last. over the last ten years, as hundreds of kilometres of giant levies and channels were built, chris took his concerns to the authorities and other cotton growers, but he was ignored and ostracised. my moral compass won't let me stop. i have been called a crusader, i am on a crusade trying to fix the problem with a neighbour, but it is so much bigger than that. cotton is a franchise. it is like owning a mcdonald's. every crop is a prescription. add water and you can roll out huge acres, that's the difference. welcome, kate. applause. with public awareness of the crisis gaining traction, the mcbride family have decided to take their fight to save the darling river

to australia's largest city, sydney. i get texts from people sometimes saying i speak with too much emotion but when you see your homeland dying, it is absolutely heartbreaking. these people, they need to come out and see a million dead fish in front of their doorstep and speak to the people that living off these bottled waters that have seen the river decline their entire life. because i have and i'm only 20. i have a great connection to the land just as many barkindji people have an even greater one, and that includes the river that sustains it. and so for me i do speak with emotion because it's my home. with state and national governments failing to provide answers, events like these are raising awareness in the cities of the crisis in the bush. we don't have to have the guts to stand up to politicians, to say that we've had enough! why you're not listening to first nation people?

i'm emotional, just like my sister over here. she belongs to the land. she has connection to the land and she cries when she speaks and i cry when i speak. 0ur connection goes through our blood, through our hearts. it's where we stamp our feet. 0ur feet are part of the earth. g'day, everyone, lam dave, from cotton australia... with big irrigators now firmly under the spotlight, industry body, cotton australia, is keen to deflect blame. i do welcome the comments that people actually understand it is not about the crop that grows, it is about the water. i think that's good. unfortunately, sometimes some of the rhetoric is very much aimed at our growers and that's very disappointed because these are hard—working farmers just like all our rural producers and they have been demonised. i spent a day in the box

of the south australian royal commission. we're not afraid to get out there and tell the story. i acknowledge it is a natural disaster out there on the darling, but we do need to work towards solutions and that is what we're really looking at. the one thing i would say is, coming up to the questions, is that we are fully supportive of the recovery of the water. as australia's water wars rage, there are calls to establish a federal royal commission. right now, demands for an immediate suspension of water trading and an embargo on further irrigation across the eastern states of australia grow louder. this one means a lot to us, as barkindji people. 0ur river, our culture, our life. without a river, there is no life. if they could help us get our water back, cause the water means a lot

to us black people and i do not think we are going to have the same life like our dad did, drinking out of the river, because it is all dirty now, not clear. hello there. the start of the easter weekend certainly brought us warmth. good friday eclipsed the thursday before it to become the warmest day of the year so far. i suspect saturday might be warmer still. early bloggers clearing away and we are looking at mostly sunshine. some wispy cloud turning that sunshine hazy, maybe the odd patch was an eastern coast. the western side of northern ireland in western side of northern ireland in west scotland, there is a weather front trying to introduce cloud, it

will be a bit cooler here, away from those areas into the 20s perhaps 25 01’ those areas into the 20s perhaps 25 or 26 those areas into the 20s perhaps 25 or26 in the those areas into the 20s perhaps 25 or 26 in the south—east. a quick look on the weather for easter sunday, lots of dry weather and some spells of sunshine across many parts of the uk. still, though, those frontal systems across the far north—west fattening some cloud and some spices of rain. those damages again are wellup some spices of rain. those damages again are well up into the 20s. as we get into easter mundy that cold in the north—west will retreat back into the atlantic —— one day. it will be breezy but still warm. —— easter monday.

this is bbc world news i'm reged ahmad. our top stories: calls for impeachment proceedings against the us president to begin from the democratic presidential candidate elizabeth warren, in the wake of the mueller report release. an american couple who spent a decade torturing and starving their children are sentenced to life in prison. police in london move in on climate change protesters following a fifth day of chaos. and time to go all tingly. we listen in to the online sensory sensation, asmr.