this is bbc news. our top stories: police in former soviet republic georgia crack down on protesters, as thousands demonstrate against controversial new laws. this place outside georgia's parliament in the capital tbilisi has been the scene of so many anti—government and anti—russia protests over the years, but this time the government may have gone too far. an investigation into the killing of breonna taylor concludes that a us police force routinely discriminated against black people. the uk prime minister defends his asylum reform plans— including banning anyone arriving in a small boat

from claiming asylum or seeking citizenship. and the dutch government says it will restrict the export of some equipment used to make microchips, citing national and international security concerns. welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and around the globe. we begin in the former soviet republic of georgia, where large crowds have been protesting against new laws which critics say will limit freedoms. the biggest demonstrations are in the capital, tbilisi where police have been using water cannon and tear gas to try to disperse the crowds. our correspondent rayhan demytrie is in tbilisi and she sent us this update. every big moment in history has its iconic image. this may be georgia's.

on tuesday, thousands of protesters stood for europe, and stood their ground against water cannons, tear—gas and pepper spray. and they even fought back. 55 police officers were injured. protesters have been outraged by what's been happening in parliament — pro—government mps spoiling for a fight with the opposition, and then backing a controversial foreign agents bill. the law would require ngos and media that get more than 20% of their funding from abroad to label themselves as agents of foreign influence. it's in the same spirit as russia's foreign agent law, which over the years has been used to stigmatise and silence critical voices. the georgian government says that it wants more transparency, and that the bill

has been copied from an american law, but in a statement, the united states embassy in tbilisi described it as �*kremlin—inspired legislation�*, and said it was a dark day for georgian democracy. this place outside georgia's parliament in the capital of tbilisi has been the scene of so many anti—government and anti—russia protests over the years, but this time the government may have gone too far. the country's opposition is powerless to change things inside parliament because the government holds the majority of seats, but it doesn't mean that the people of georgia are ready to give up the fight for their country to have a future in europe. we belong to europe. we are europe. i am here, along with all these people, to guarantee that there will never be a russian rule here, ever. on the international stage, georgia's authorities said they want to join the eu, but their actions back at home

speak louder than their words abroad. this could be georgia's midan moment — the first stirrings of mass unrest against the government that appears increasingly out of sync with its own population. well, earlier, ispoke to rachel denber who's the deputy director, europe and central asia division at human rights watch. i asked for her assessment of the significance of this proposed foreign agents bill. it's very significant. it is a retrograde law, a bill, that would impose scrutiny, investigations, fines, even imprisonment on organisations that don't comply with an onerous requirement to register if you get just as much as 20% of your funds from foreign sources. but the real aim of this law has nothing to do with fiscal transparency of media

on non—governmental agencies as the government is claiming. what this law is really about is making it possible for the government to stigmatise, marginalise and eventually silence organisations and media that are critical of the government. this is a very significant step. georgian dream chairman irakli kobakhidze said the law would help rooting out those enemies of the country and the powerful orthodox georgian church. they also argued it was an exact analogue of the us foreign agents registration act. what is your assessment on that? well, it's great that these officials are just taking all their masks off and making clear that this isn't about fiscal transparency at all, that it is really about a witchhunt against people and organisations that

are critical of the government and that it would rather would stay silent. and it's completely disingenuous to compare this law to the us foreign agents registration act, because even though the language might be quite similar, there are some significant differences, and also that us law, first of all, it is not perfect, and second of all, it is not used to go after non—governmental organisations that provide services to the public, or it is not used to go against media, domestic media, that are critical. so in fact it is used for a very small number of lobbyists, and the government, the georgian government here, is being rather dishonest about the uses of the law. now, georgia has also applied tojoin the eu and also nato bloc.

do you think the new bill will impact that at all? i think the eu has made quite clear it is going to impact that process, because these types of laws have been ruled as incompatible with european human rights standards. by the european court of human rights. so the eu has already made it clear that this law is a serious problem, and that's a problem, it should be a problem for the georgian government, because between 70 and 80% of the georgian public support close integration with the eu. a usjustice department investigation has concluded that the police department in louisville in kentucky routinely discriminated against black people, used excessive force and conducted illegal searches. it follows the death of breonna taylor, a black woman who was shot dead by police during a raid on her home in 2020.

here's our north america correspondent peter bowes. the botched armed raid on breonna taylor's home led to this. chanting: breonna taylor! say her name! breonna taylor! months of protests demanding the police officers involved to be held to account. the medical technician had been asleep with her boyfriend when officers burst into her apartment. she was hit with six bullets and died. the outcry that followed helped fuel the black lives matter protests. now a department of justice investigation into the louisville police has found that it engaged in a pattern of civil rights violations, including:

this conduct is unacceptable. it is heartbreaking. it erodes the community trust necessary for effective policing and it is an affront to the vast majority of officers who put their lives on the line every day to serve louisville with honour. and it is an affront to the people of louisville who deserve better. he said louisville police agreed to the appointment of an independent monitor to oversee reforms within the force. breonna taylor's mother gave her response to the investigation�*s findings. reporter: does this give you the vindication you've| been waiting for? no. it is heartbreaking to know that everything you've been saying from day one has to be said again through this manner. that it took this to even have somebody look into this department. it is... i don't know.

three years after the killing of breonna taylor, the use of excessive force continues to call into question police tactics around the country. five black officers from the memphis police department are facing murder charges over the killing of tyre nichols, the 29—year—old black man whose violent arrest was caught on video injanuary. more of the footage is due to be made public, but a judge has blocked its release to allow lawyers for the officers to review the tapes. they've all pleaded not guilty. peter bowes, bbc news. i asked jody armour, professor of law at the university of southern california, for his response to the report. we have been here before many times — doj reports. we had one here in los angeles after the rampart scandal. if you understand rampart,

take, oh, la confidential, serpico, wrap them together, along with, oh, any other cop corruption movie you can think of — that does not come close to what rampart was, and yet after the department ofjustice consent decree, we did not have a lot of change in la, and so after ferguson there was a do] investigation, a lot of recommendations. not a lot of change still, so i am worried that these investigations may make good windowdressing, but don't result in real substantive change. now, mr garland said the police's behaviour had a detrimental impact on the public trust. do you think that the trust was high to begin with? well, yeah, that is the problem. the trust has been eroded and undermined for 30 or a0 years, or longer, since especially we have been waging this war on drugs, which has

wound up being a war on the black community. breonna taylor, her no—knock raid that she was the victim of, was part of a war—on—drug raid. the reason the police were there was because they were trying to find bad contraband, drugs in particular, and anything we should have learned over the last 30 years is the war on drugs is a futile effort, and we should not be wasting, squandering any more lives in that pursuit, and, so, actually, you know, it's going to be hard for the department ofjustice to say something like that, though — for example, we need to end the war on drugs — since the government right now, president biden was himself a drug warrior, and a strong proponent of tough—on—crime law and order, and he said "fund the police. "fund more of this kind of stuff we are seeing in

louisville. fund more of this kind of stuff we are seeing in memphis, tennessee with tyre nichols." so, it will be interesting to see if this is more than just windowdressing. professorjody armour, thank you very much for your time. stay with us on bbc world news, still to come: scientists make mice with two fathers — could the breakthrough also help humans? the numbers of dead and wounded defied belief. this the worst terrorist atrocity on european soil in modern times. in less than 24 hours then, the soviet union lost an elderly sick leader and replaced him with a dynamic figure 20 years his junior. we heard these gunshots in the gym _ then he came outj through a fire exit and started firing at our huts. god, we were all petrified. james earl ray, aged 41, sentenced to 99 years and due for parole when he's 90, travelled from memphis jail

to nashville state prison in an eight—car convoy. paul, what's it feel like to be married at last? it feels fine, thank you. what are you going to do now? is it going to change your life much, do you think? i don't know, really — _ i've never been married before. this is bbc world news. the latest headlines: police in georgia crack down on protestors, as thousands demonstrate against controversial new laws. a two—year review by the us department ofjustice after the killing of breonna taylor finds louisville police consistently violated people's constitutional and civil rights. the dutch government says it

will restrict the export of certain types of equipment used to make microchips, or semiconductors, on the grounds of national and international security. it comes after pressure from the us to get the netherlands to restrict china's access to high—end chip technology. china expert dexter roberts told me earlier that the move is a real breakthrough for the us. it is very significant. we had heard injanuary that the three countries that can produce advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment, the us, japan and netherlands, had reached an agreement but we had not heard much detail, nor public statements from the dutch orjapanese. now we have heard that from the dutch that indeed they are going to restrict sales of what are called deep ultraviolet lithography machines which are crucial for the production of advanced semiconductor chips. this is a real step forward,

a real victory for the us, frankly, and also very bad news for china. what impact do you think this will have on asml? it is going to have a significant impact indeed. i believe about 18% of asml�*s sales of this equipment goes to china, so it is one of their most important customers. i am sure that they had some very strong, mixed feelings about now being told by the dutch government to stop these sales. they'd already restricted something called extreme ultraviolet lithography machines which are one step even more advanced, but now even more of their market to china will be restricted. what does it mean for us—china relations?

us and china relations are already in a pretty bad place. this clearly will make things even worse. on monday we had president and general secretary xijinping of china for one of the first times single out the us directly, as he said, "containing and suppressing china's advancement". i think this is a signal that china is even more certain that the relationship is spiralling downwards and the relationship frankly is going to get much worse going forward. here in the uk, the prime minister rishi sunak has been defending his plan to reform the asylum system, saying it shows his government is on the side of the british people. the proposed legislation would ban people who arrive in the country in small boats from claiming asylum or seeking british citizenship. the labour leader sir keir starmer accused the government of delivering "utter failure" and called the latest plan a gimmick. here's our political editor

chris mason. no sign of any migrant crossings in dover this morning, in the horrible weather, as the home secretary explained why she claims a new approach on the issue is crucial at westminster, and why she thinks it will be lawful, but can't be certain. we are testing novel interpretations of the law but we do not consider that we have crossed the boundary and we do not consider that we are in unlawful territory. labour don't want to appear soft, as some might see it, but reckon the government's approach continues to be hopeless. after 13 years, small boat crossings higher than ever, claims unprocessed, the taxpayer paying for hotel rooms, criminal gangs running all the way laughing to the bank, and an asylum system utterly broken on his watch. the prime minister said labour had opposed many of his plans, including sending asylum seekers to rwanda. stopping the boats is notjust my priority, it is the people's priority.

he wanted to, in his words, "scrap the rwanda deal". he voted against measures to deport foreign criminals, mr speaker, and he even argued against deportation flights. he is just another lefty lawyer standing in our way. and this is the government's latest response to what it calls a crisis — a former raf base in essex that will be used to house migrants. chris mason, bbc news. our correspondent lucy williamson has been asking people on the north coast of france whether the british government's plans will stop them trying to cross the channel. here's her report. in the sudanese migrant camp in calais, they understand determination. you don't end up here without it. the prime minister's own resolve to stop the boats shrugged off around the camp fire. "we'll never stop, we'll never give up," they said. salah has been trying to reach

the uk since last summer. we showed him the home secretary's speech to parliament yesterday, and explained what the new policy means. yes, i go uk, that's my ambition, my dream. he told us he would rather be in prison in the uk than stay free here in france. they can took me in prison, no problem, i can stay in england. even in prison? yes, no problem. i will come england. but he said he would take extreme action, perhaps even take his own life, if he was faced with deportation. i will not return in rwanda. if that happens, i can kill myself. but i'm not returning rwanda. police now routinely clear tents from sites like this and patrols stopped 40% of small boat crossings last year. the vast migrant camps you used to see here in northern france have now largely gone.

they have been replaced with these smaller, scattered groups. uk immigration policy may have got tougher in recent years, but conditions here in the camps have also got much harder — an added incentive to leave. aid workers say that suicides in the camps here have risen. for the refugees, it is the french police who is very bad, and it is the calais who is a very bad place to be. but if we tell them, but it is the uk government who gives the money to make those fences and to pay those police, mostly they don't believe it, they will say, "no, no, uk will never do that". many cling harder to the lure of life across the channel. the uk wants to make the price not worth the passage, but caution is a luxury many here say they can't afford. lucy williamson,

bbc news, calais. the ceremony of prince harry and meghan markle has been confirmed. she has publicly been addressed with the title of princess for the first time. japanese scientists have created mice with two biological fathers, a development that could lead to radical new fertility treatments. the research is still in its early stages but it saw mice being born from eggs derived from only male cells. earlier i spoke to michele bratcher goodwin who is chancellor's professor at the university of california, irvine, and visiting professor of law at harvard law school. i asked her how significant this development is. it is quite a significant discovery which should still be confirmed, and i think there are a number of questions that people will have. questions that relate to law,

that relate to ethics, and there will be some that celebrate this news. and i think it is also important that this becomes also a lesson in science. for example, there may be people that say, "well, this is inappropriate research, "that males are not meant to give birth." well, there are species, such as seahorses, pipefish, sea dragons where the males actually do give birth, so this is going to open the door to a broader conversation. so, you've mentioned some of the concerns there, but the professor has said that it is still in its early stages. but what do you think about the need for maybe potentially human testing in the future, for women who may not be able to grow their own eggs — how much of a difference that could potentially mean for them? these are significant questions, as my research has shown over the years, and so many others. the field of assisted reproductive technology has taken off within the last 30 years, with demands from around the globe

because there is greater recognition and greater honesty now about the conditions of infertility that women experience and that also men experience, and underlying this research seems to be the interesting ambition of the scientist involved to advance treatment for infertility, and that is a major issue that is in the united states but also around the world, in europe, in the uk, and parts of asia and africa, south america, australia — all around the world thare are people contending with this question. barbie is celebrating international women's day by releasing a doll in the likeness of the black female space scientist dr maggie aderin—pocock. a former president of the british science association, dr aderin—pocock is known in the uk as presenter of a television show called the sky at night, as well as for her work with the james webb telescope.

the barbie doll has a somewhat controversial record when to comes to stereotyping women, but dr aderin—pocock was very happy with the results. let's hear what she has to say. when i was going up, the barbies did not look like anything like i did so to have one that looked like me was very exciting. my daughter and i were dancing around the living room just at the thought of it. one of my mission in life is to stamps, science, technology and maps. these subjects are just too important to be left to the guys. a reminder of our top story, police in georgia are clashing with tens of thousands of protesters gathered in the capital tbilisi over a lot of the government says will root out people working against the interests of georgia but critics they could crackdown on

any sort of opposition. that is all for now, you can reach me on twitter. i'm @lmmisztak. hello, there. we have some disruptive weather on the way. certainly, the next 2a to 48 hours look very snowy indeed across a central swathe of the uk. the met office have issued an amber warning for heavy snow across northern england, particularly over the pennines, where we're likely to see up to a0 centimetres of snow by the time we move through thursday, thursday night and into friday morning. reason for it, this deep area of low pressure, with all its rains pushing into the cold air. so although we'll have rain south of the m4 corridor, some of this rain could be quite heavy across southern england, south wales, it will be turning readily to snow across the northern half of wales through thursday, into the midlands, certainly the north midlands, and across northern england where we'll see significant accumulations starting to pile up over the pennines and also for north wales.

a milder day to come, i think, across southern areas, ten to 13 degrees here. this is where we'll have the heavy rain. a chilly but sunny day across scotland, with a few snow showers around. now, as we head through thursday evening, thursday night, the snowfall continues across north wales, northern england, certainly over the pennines and developing into northern ireland, southern scotland, as well. again, to the north of here, it's likely to stay very cold with clear skies. but we have a widespread yellow snow warning for northern ireland, much of southern scotland, northern england, the midlands into north wales — two to ten centimetres at lower levels, up to 15 centimetres on the hills. but it's this amber warning we're most concerned about over the pennines — 25 to a0 centimetres likely, by the time we reach friday morning. so the snowfall continues in those similar areas through the early hours of friday, starting to pull

away, though, from northern ireland and southern scotland. here, it's going to be another very cold night. snow showers for northern scotland. that wintry mix of rain, sleet and snow will be affecting large parts of england and wales, as we start friday morning. that area of low pressure starts to pull away in towards the near continent, taking the snow with it. but also, we'll see a spell of strong northerly winds for a while on its back edge as it pulls away. so a cold, windy, snowy morning across central and eastern parts of england, in particular for friday, could see some drifting of snow as well. but it clears out quite quickly, and then we'll see plenty of sunshine moving in its place for friday afternoon, but it's going to be a cold day wherever you are. take care.

this is bbc news. the headlines: police in georgia are clashing with tens of thousands of protestors gathered in the capital tbilisi for a second day, over a law the government says will root out people working against the interests of georgia. but critics say it could crack down on any sort of opposition. the us justice department has found the louisville metro police department used routine discrimination, illegal searches and excessive force. they've released a report prompted by the killing of breonna taylor who was shot by police during a raid on her home in 2020. the uk prime minister is defending asylum reform plans, including banning anyone arriving in a small boat, from being able to claim asylum or seek citizenship. rishi sunak said his government is "on the side