this is bbc news. our top stories: the philippinejournalist and nobel peace prize winner maria ressa has been acquitted of tax evasion charges. today facts win, truth wins, justice wins. as the us and uk renew their commitment to helping ukraine, troops on the frontline tell the bbc they desperately need western tanks to make progress. belgian police say a key suspect in a corruption scandal at the european parliament has cut a deal with investigators. tesla founder elon musk goes on trial in california over accusations of share

price manipulation. welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and around the globe. we start in the philippines, where the nobel prize winning journalist maria ressa has been acquitted of tax evasion charges by a manila court. her news site, rappler, was also cleared of tax evasion. ms ressa, who was awarded the nobel prize alongside a russian journalist in 2021, is head of rappler, which earned a reputation for its in—depth reporting and tough scrutiny of the former president rodrigo duterte. she was convicted in 2020 for libel, and does face several other charges, which she says are politically motivated. she spoke a short time ago. today, facts win,

truth wins, justice wins. a brazen abuse of power... voice waivers and meant to stop journalists from doing theirjobs, but...give me a second, these cases are where capital markets, where rule of law, where press freedom meet, right? so, this acquittal inaudible is notjust for us, _ for rappler, it is for every filipino who has ever been unjustly accused.

brad adams, who was the asia director of human rights watch from 2002 to 2022 and has been following maria ressa's career closely, gave me his reaction to the news. maria is one of the toughestjournalists that you will ever meet. you can see the toll this case has taken on her. as it has taken on all the staff and writers at rappler, and the filipino journalist community. what i think it signifies is that rodrigo duterte who engaged in mass killings as president is no longer in power marcos, who was not known as a supporter of the free press is in power, and it is hard to imagine this case would have been dropped, there would have been an acquittal if duterte was in power so i guess there is a bit of hope that marcos has decided that either he doesn't want to preside over trumped up cases against journalist like maria ressa, or he isjust going to let the judiciary do the work, and since there was not a shred

of evidence of tax evasion here — basically rappler received a donation as a non—profit from an american donor, which was not taxable. that may be the filipino courts may be allowed to go back to theirjobs of looking at the facts, as maria said, and delivering justice, she said. you touched on the politics there, maria ressa has set out that the charges against her were politically motivated. just remind us of that relationship she had with rodrigo duterte and what started this whole process? it seemed duterte hated maria for a long time because she interviewed him. he had a bad temperament. in an interview with her many years ago he admitted killing three people while he was the mayor of a city in mindinao island. and she then was leading the newspaper and documenting his war on drugs, which led to thousands and probably tens of thousands of extras shall

killings by the police forces. he always denied any - involvement but he did call he always denied any involvement but he did call for the killing of drug traffickers and drug users, and there was substantial evidence of police involvement in many, many, many of those crimes including by human rights watch, so had a vendetta against am basically and other journalists. either way, one of the biggest deviations in the country lost the license under matthew because he didn't like reporting. so this is the product of a political crusade against a journalist who is simply doing herjob. the uk and the us have reaffirmed their support for ukraine in its struggle against the russian invasion. the uk foreign secretaryjames cleverly has been holding talks with us secretary of state antony blinken during a visit to washington. it comes as troops on the frontline tell the bbc they welcome news from the uk that it's sending several

challenger tanks. ukraine hopes these will help turn the tide in the war. soledar and bakhmut. the bbc�*s andrew harding has been with a tank unit near the eastern city of bakhmut and sent this report. lurking in a snowbound forest just behind the front lines, a cluster of ukrainian tanks. but these are ancient forces, half a century—old. no match for russia's army. "they are just not suitable for this era," the commander admits. they work, but the technology has moved on, which is why there is great excitement here about the prospect of new western machines. if you could have any tank,

any of these foreign tanks, would it make a difference? i think abrams is very good for us. any tank? any tank. it is required for victory. suddenly, there is incoming fire close by. a hurried exit for us, a reminder of the unpredictable nature of artillery warfare. we head closer to the front towards two furiously contested towns, soledar and bakhmut. ukranian footage of a recent tank battle here, firing on the move. on a frozen hillside in bakhmut, we watch more ukrainian tanks in action. artillery fire they call this section of the front line �*the meat grinder,�* a savage artillery war that has raged for months with precious little progress on either side, but ukrainians here insist

that's about to change. if, that is, they get western tanks here soon. if you are going to counterattack and seize more territory, then you need tanks, need mobile artillery. sure, it very useful for counterattacking because infantry covered by tanks. for sure. . .win. without them, these front lines are going to be stuck like they are? yeah. for now, it grinds on, a cold and lethal winter stalemate. andrew harding, bbc news, in ukraine's donbas. let's get some of the day's other news. a $10,000—reward is being offered for help in catching the people who killed three generations of one family at their home in california on monday. a teenage mother, her baby and a grandmother were among six people killed at a residence in the small town of goshen. the address had recently been

linked to drug—related activity, and police have said the attack was a cartel—like execution. the american rapper cardi b has been given an extension to complete community service she was ordered to do after being convicted of taking part in a brawl at a strip club in new york in 2018. she was sentenced to 15 days of service, but failed to carry them out within the allotted timeframe. she's been given until the first of march to complete her punishment. italian police have released cctv footage, showing the alleged mafia boss matteo denaro arriving at a private hospital, just minutes before he was arrested. this is him, wearing a hood, mask and dark glasses, at the la maddalena clinic on monday morning. he had been receiving treatment for cancer, having spent three decades on the run, and has been convicted in his absence of involvement in scores of mafia murders.

let's go to europe now — and belgian prosecutors say they've struck a deal with one of the main suspects in a european union corruption scandal. pier antonio panzeri will receive a reduced prison sentence in exchange for information. qatar has contested claims they offered bribes to try to influence the european parliament. earlier i spoke to our reporter sofia bettiza, who's been following the story. pier antonio panzeri is a former mep, and member of the european parliament, in brussels. he has become a central figure in this corruption scandal, so—called "qatargate". he was arrested in brussels a few days ago with other eu now what's new is that he's now admitted to participating in a criminal organisations and actively corrupting people.

an active corru pter. he has agreed to a plea bargain which is significant because he will give information as to how this criminal network was operating. mr panzeri has a lawyer who has given an interview. this is what he said. translation: it is clear that mr panzeri's involved. - he did not deny it. this is a man who is destroyed. he will have to tell everything he knows, both about the beneficiaries of the corruption phenomenon, the organisation that was implemented, and the financial circuits that existed. in other words, he'll have to say everything he knows. this is part of the commitment he's made. tells more about the back story to these allegations. in decemberfour to these allegations. in december four people were arrested by belgian police and they were accused of accepting huge amounts of cash from cattai which of course hosted the world cup recently. that was in order to influence

political statements especially when it comes to workers' rights. large employers also really some pictures, they said they found huge amounts of cash, but one and half million euros stashed in suitcases, hotels and an apartment. this goes right to the heart of the european union because some of those arrested were senior officials? 0ne officials? one of them is a greek mep, vice president of the european parliament. she denies any wrongdoing but this doesn't look good for the eu institutions. it is also worth remembering that qatar strenuously denies trying to buy influence on the european parliament through cash and gifts, but, you know, as we just heard from his lawyer, mr panzeri is preparing to reveal key information including the names of the people that he bribed. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: madonna will tour the us and europe this summer

to celebrate more than a0 years of hit songs. donald trump is now the 45th president of the united states. he was sworn in before several hundred thousand people on the steps of capitol hill in washington. it's going to be only america first — america first. demonstrators waiting for mike gatting and his rebel cricket team were attacked with tear gas and set upon by police dogs. anti—apartheid campaigners say they will carry on the protests throughout the tour. they called him 'the butcher of lyon'. klaus altmann is being held on a fraud charge in bolivia. the west germans want to extradite him for crimes committed in wartime france. there, he was the gestapo chief klaus barbie. they called him

'the butcher of lyon'. millions came to bathe as close as possible to this spot — - a tide of humanity- that's believed by officials to have broken all records. this is bbc world news. the latest headlines: the philippinejournalist and nobel peace prize winner, maria ressa has been acquitted of tax evasion charges. as the us and uk renew their commitment to helping ukraine, troops on the frontline tell the bbc they desperately need western tanks to make progress. in southern africa, thousands of children have gone back to school in malawi after classrooms were forced shut following an outbreak of cholera. more than 750 people have died from the disease in malawi in the last year, and schools in the capital lilongwe and elsewhere have been closed for two weeks as a precaution. daniel dadzie reports.

life returns to normal in malawi's schools. for two weeks, these children have been forced to stay at home, as an outbreak of cholera ravaged the country. malawi's cholera epidemic began after tropical storm ida anna and cyclone gumby caused extensive flooding last year and overwhelmed the country's water and sanitation systems. between december and january, more than 300 more deaths were recorded, with 19 lives lost on new year's eve alone. the ministry of health therefore postponed the reopening of schools in the capital and the second largest city in order to check the spread. on tuesday, the students were allowed to go back to their classrooms, though the death toll continues to rise.

authorities have given assurances that the school's sanitation has improved. we have in buckets where we will be put water to wash their hands, and soap. we also have disinfectants, a chlorine for cleaning the toilets and the classrooms. the supplies unicef has brought in will help 89 schools in both cities and it will help around 200,000 learners to have — access to better hygiene. malawi is among 31 countries hardest hit by cholera. the disease affects between 1.3 million and 4 million people each year, causing up to 143,000 deaths. the world health organization has warned that the planet is witnessing a worrying upsurge in outbreaks, with climate change adding to traditional triggers, such as poverty and conflict.

these students can only hope that the who sponsored vaccination programme currently under way in the country will provide a permanent solution. in the us, jury selection has begun in california for a civil case against the tesla owner, elon musk. the case centres on two tweets, which mr musk put out in 2018, which caused huge fluctuations in the tesla share price. the case is considering whether those tweets constituted fraud. it's being brought by investors who say the tweets were materially false and cost them billions of dollars. mr musk has already been fined $20 million by the american stock market regulator — he denies having been deceitful. 0ur north america correspondent david willis has been following and gave this update. well, as you say, this dates back more than four years

to two tweets that elon musk put out, saying that he had reason to believe that he could acquire tesla, float it, basically, acquire it privately, and that funding had been secured for that. $70 billion in funding that was necessary. those two tweets caused the share price of the company to soar, only for it to plummet ten days later, when it became clear that funding had, indeed, not been secured. now, that group of shareholders are suing elon musk and other former and current directors of tesla for undisclosed damaged, claiming that basically they committed fraud in share price manipulation. so what we have here is elon musk being sued by his investors for remarks that he made on a social media platform that he himself later

acquired, to the chagrin of many of those same investors. now, to many people, you don't have to be a tesla investor to find that all a little bit bizarre but in the often whacky world of elon musk, it's just wednesday. and, david, what is mr musk�*s defence here? well, he and his fellow defendants deny any wrongdoing in this case, and they said they had every reason to believe that funding had been secured in order to take the company into private hands, based on several meetings that had taken place with a saudi billionaire. now, they have an uphill task, his lawyers, in persuading the jury to believe that, based on the fact that the judge last year decided that the tweets in question were reckless and untrue, as he put it, and the fact that the judge has denied a request by mr musk

to move the trial out of san francisco to texas, on the grounds that he doesn't think he will get a fair trial in san francisco, following the bad publicity surrounding his acquisition of twitter. so it will take place, jury selection has taken place today. the trial itself will begin with opening statements tomorrow, and elon musk himself is expected to give evidence at some point during the three—week trial. more now on the war in ukraine, the economic effects of which are being felt far beyond the country's borders. the issues are being discussed at the world economic forum in davos in switzerland, the annual gathering of global leaders and people able to influence international events. ukraine's delegation is using the event to try to gain support — both diplomatic and in terms of supply of weapons — as our our economics editor faisal islam reports. there is big talk here from big business trying to capture the imagination at the world economic forum in switzerland. but what everyone actually wants to know is whether three years of pandemic and war will end this year and provide relief to all those back home

in the cost—of—living crisis. and the reality is that the route to a healthier economy runs through the conflict in ukraine. here, its first lady, lauded by delegates, and its deputy prime minister thanking britain and claiming it could all be over this year. yes, so, ukraine is here and we're actually very grateful for british people for their support. so, yes, we hope, but of course we need your assistant in this war to gain this victory this year. but elsewhere, one of the world's leading fertiliser firms warned that the west was repeating its mistake of dependence on russia, and this threatened food prices. putin has weaponised energy, and they are weaponising food as well. with food and fertiliser, half of the world's food production is dependent on fertiliser and if you see significant disruptions on that, that's a very powerful weapon. and you think russia

is using it for leverage? of course. the path forward on the world economy is still in the shadow of political and diplomatic decisions, and notjust between russia and ukraine. also china. the big hope is that the reopening of china's economy from three years of covid lockdown changes everything, but it is a big risk, too. please welcome vice premier liu he. with a message from president xi, its vice premier said the chinese economy was returning to normal now restrictions had been lifted, inviting delegates to visit and tried to dial down economic tensions with the us and europe. translation: hence, we have to abandon the cold war- mentality, endeavour to build a community with a shared future for mankind and join hands to respond to global challenges. you often hear that the cost—of—living crisis

in britain, for example, is down to globalfactors. well, this is the sort of place where the big decisions about those global factors are made, and here you do hear that some of the multiple chills effecting the world economy might begin to lift this year, but there is no faisal islam, bbc news, at the world economic forum in davos. now, madonna has announced a new tour this summer to mark more than a0 years of hit singles. the best—selling female music artist in history used her instagram to share a video teeing up the tour — which will take her to 35 cities, starting in vancouver in canada. i asked the canadian screen award winning entertainment journalist will reid what he was hoping for.

kicking off the tour in canada, as we mentioned, what are you expecting? very excited to start in canada, three shows, very excited about that. looking at it, a lot of it really connects, including the scale of it. a return to form for her in the sense that pre—covid she had not done stadiums, arenas rather since i think 2016, so it is a return to the massive scale we know from madonna, so the stage, because it has been four years since she's toured. a lot to look forward to up front but also a0 years of hits to cover, that's a lot, and awful few artists last that long, so a lot to fit into the show and we know that madonna has set the precedent for a lot of the popsters we know today, in terms of the scale of the show, the content, the boundary pushing. we can expect her to be competing with a lot of younger artists, but she has influenced and they say have been influenced by her. you mention toronto,

some people may be surprised because she had a run—in with the police there on the previous tour, didn't she? yes, that was in 1990, she was on her blonde ambition tour. she was accused by the police here of having a lewd and indecent portion of her show and they threatened to arrest, if she were to go on with it. her tour people supposedly told police they could cancel the show, and then they would have to explain, the police, the cancellation to 30,000 people. so the show went on unchanged. she performed three sold—out shows actually and has been back to toronto several times since, so i don't think there is any reason worry. also concerned that this was in 1990. also concerned that this was in 1990. we have seen her push boundaries further since then, we have seen other artists push boundaries so i think we can expect to see a full show from her. a french nun who was officially recognised as the world's oldest living person has died — at the age of 118. lucile randon was born ten years before the start of the first world war. she took holy orders in 19aa — at the age of a0 — and became known as sister andre. she lived through 21 us presidents and 30 british prime ministers — and she survived a covid infection last year. a spokesman said she died

in her sleep at a nursing home in toulon in the south of france. hello, there. the cold weather is here to stay for a bit longerjust yet, but the amount of snow we've seen has varied a lot from place to place. many of us haven't seen a single flake over recent days. there's been a smattering over the tops of the hills of the beautiful cumbrian lake district. but a bit more than that in highland, where we have seen some places reporting over 30cm of lying snow. that's where the majority of the disruption�*s been, but i suspect the disruptive potential is growing — these shower clouds, many of them with snow mixed in, are starting to become more widespread, and are moving their way across more areas of the western side of the uk, and with that comes the threat of disruption. so a band of snow crosses scotland southwards, crosses northern ireland southwards, with showers becoming much more widespread for wales and areas of western england. now, we are going to see

accumulations of snow building up — 5—15cm for these areas over modest hills, but at times, the snow will come all the way down to sea level. like recent nights, we still have seepage coming in from the fields, and with a sharp frost around, it's notjust the snow that has the potential to cause some transport disruption on into wednesday morning. but there'll be widespread ice, again, bringing very, very dangerous conditions out on the roads. 0n the face of it, temperatures not quite as low as recent days. however, we've got stronger winds, and if anything, i think that's going to make it feel even colder. certainly a bitter—feeling day on wednesday. the winds ease off a little bit as we head into thursday, but we're not finished with the stream of showers — they will, this time, mostly be concentrated across scotland, perhaps a bit more of a mixture here. some rain, some sleet and a bit of snow over the hills. there'll also be a few showers affecting the northwest of both england and wales. that aside, there'll be plenty of sunshine around, and our temperatures, well, not really changing a great deal, 5—6 celsius, maybe a seven towards parts of southwest england.

however, we will see some bigger changes in our temperatures as we head into the weekend, particularly across the western side of the uk, as we start to draw up these southwesterly winds. but cold air slower to move away from the east. so, there will be a big jump up in temperatures across northern and western areas — in many cases, back into double figures — as we go through the weekend. but with that will come thicker cloud and outbreaks of rain. the colder air still hanging on across eastern areas, but even here, temperatures should slowly rise closer to normal.

this is bbc news. the headlines: the philippinejournalist and nobel peace prize winner maria ressa has been acquitted of tax evasion charges. her news site, rappler, was also cleared. after the verdict, ms ressa described the charges as a brazen abuse of power intended to stop journalists from doing theirjob. the us secretary of state says his country and the united kingdom are in lockstep over their commitment to supporting ukraine in its fight against russia's invasion. ukrainian troops on the frontline have told the bbc that they desperately need western tanks to make progress against the russians. the former mep, pier antonio panzeri, who's one of the key suspects in a european parliament corruption scandal, has agreed to help prosecutors

in brussels in return for a reduced prison sentence.