this is bbc news. our top stories: bloody and brutal trench warfare. we join ukraine's forces, just 700 metres from the frontline. get in, get down. breathes heavily. those two two russian shells that have just come in. i think it's tank fire. tiktok ceo grilled by us lawmakers, as he tries to convince them the chinese—owned app is not a threat to us national security. do kwon, the founder of collapsed cryptocurrencies terra luna is arrested in montenegro after months on the run and, transgender athletes are to be banned from female categories in world athletics international competitions.

welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and around the globe. in ukraine, soldiers are engaged in brutal trench warfare reminiscent of battles in another war, more than a century ago. the fighting around the key city of bakhmut is some of the bloodiest, with neither side gaining a significant advantage. our correspondent quentin sommerville, and camera operator darren conway, have been to the frontline where some of the fiercest fighting of the war has taken place. into a crater of no man's land, where even tank armour can be breached. up close and in range, serhii's tank crew releases everything it's got against russian targets. explosions

the enemy is just 500m away across this field. watch serhii's round hit, top right. gunfire the orders are get in, get out, and take cover. we are right behind them. quickly! go to position. go, quickly. go, quickly! 0pen ground is their enemy's friend. explosion translation: our tank worked successfully on the target, - so the enemy artillery is now targeting us. 0ur drone spotters gave the tank crew the commands to urgently roll back out of range, so our guys won't be hit by the enemy's artillery. explosions that was a 120mm shell landing, maybe around 20—30m away from us.

a brief lull and it's time to move again. this is what a year of attacks has done to the town of velyka novosilka. 0nce thriving, it's all but abandoned. and still, russian bombs fall here. explosion a mortar lands to the right. the town has already been reduced to rubble. and yet another mortar lands... explosion ..even closer. they're zeroing in. any movement here captures russia's attention. in the town and on its outskirts, travelling in the open can be a matter of life or death. this road is within range of russian guns and it has to be taken at speed to a stricken wasteland,

where russian eyes are always watching. rapid gunfire infantryman dima — he's only 22 years old — is escorting us forward. distant rumbles the trenches we're heading to are about a kilometre ahead and dima'sjust told me the village over here is half held by the ukrainians and half held by the russians. rapid gunfire explosion closer rapid gunfire heavy breathing

explosion whoa! rocks falling mortars, tank fire, grenades — they get hit by everything here. leave — fast, fast, fast! explosion separated by incoming fire, camera journalist darren connelly. .. in here! ..pulls us into the trench. q, there's a bunker here! q! this way! come on, run! run, run, run! straight to me. down, down, down, down. panting down, down, down, down. down. get in, get down. breathes heavily those two russian shells that have just come in, i think it's tank fire. i think they're very close to these positions. gives you an idea of how exposed it is here. there's absolutely no tree cover. the safest place for these

men is in the trenches. they've already taken a couple of casualties here in the last week. the bombardments never stop. explosion translation: we are standing at zero position and right now, | we're under mortar fire. when the next one might be a direct hit... explosion ..it�*s hard not to flinch. does dima think russia could win here? translation: it's a good question. l this question needs to be addressed to the senior military. near explosion oh, that was close! what do you think — can russia win? i don't know. they have an unlimited amount of shells. they have entire warehouses full of them.

they can shoot all day and they'll never run out of shells. and what about us? we will run out of shells this year. but we are forming various assault brigades and we have been given tanks like abrams, so i think with their help, we will win. and we are cossacks. we are brave guys. we can handle it. translation: ok, you and dima go together and i will go - with the other group. dima checks if the ground is clear. nearby explosion "we won't go for now," he says.

dima welcomes the cover of darkness. a single shift here feels like a lifetime. beyond these trees lurks a great danger. their daily duty is holding it back. their country's freedom depends on it. russia could attack again at any moment. dima and his comrades will be waiting. quentin sommerville, bbc news, velyka novosilka. remarkable reporting there. you can find more information from them on the website. the chief executive of tiktok has been defending the chinese—owned video—sharing app in the face of hostile questioning at a us congressional committee hearing. show zee chew denied tiktok is a national security risk and played down the company's connection to china but many in congress are not convinced, as nomia iqbal reports.

150 million americans... even before he arrived, shou zi chew was on tiktok, arguing for its existence. and even before he started speaking, lawmakers made it clear how they felt. tiktok has repeatedly chosen the path for more control, more surveillance and more manipulation. your platform should be banned. shou zi chew hit back. bytedance is not owned or controlled by the chinese government. but politicians and many parent activists here don't believe that. former president donald trump was suspicious... we're looking at tiktok. we may be banning tiktok. ..and now, in a rare moment of bipartisanship, presidentjoe biden and congress are, too. they claim the apps beijing—based parent company bytedance has strong links with the chinese government and fear data belonging to more than 100 million american users could end up in the hands of the chinese communist party. we don't sell data to data brokers.

..issue is whether the company, tiktok, would commit to not selling it to anyone and just using it for its own purposes internally. i can get back to you on the details. mr chew denies the claims, and says all us data is being stored inside america after the app created a billion—dollarfirewall to alleviate concerns. we do not collect body, face or voice data... legally, it's unclear how a ban would work but politically, it may be damaging. if you're a politician trying to win over young voters, banning their favourite app may cost you. the president has — has made an effort to demonstrate in the past that he values and cares about young people and their opinions and i think that the fact that that is not been — to something that — that he has publicly discussed when talking about tiktok, i think that can be - that can a do you feel let down, then? i wouldn't say i'm let down. i would say i — i hope to see clear —

a clear demonstration of how young people are being included in this conversation by the president. after more than four hours of grilling, it's hard to say if mr chew is convinced politicians here. president biden has already given the backing by lawmakers to ban tiktok. he has told the company to find a new owner, or else. nomia iqbal, bbc news, washington. well, amidst all this scrutiny of tiktok, the governor of utah has signed a sweeping bill to limit children's access to social media. the utah social media regulation act puts some of the strictest limits on apps such as tiktok and instagram. our reporter azadeh moshiri joins us now with more on this. so what does this new bill entail? there has been a lot of focus on tiktok in the last few weeks but the factors lawmakers and parents have been is concerned about social media impacts on mental health for some time. parents have been concerned that children may develop body

issues after using social media apps like instagram, facebook and snapchat, that perhaps they may be exposed to harmful content, and the issues they feel quite powerless, and so what this bill, what these laws are designed to do is to give power more control, and there are three big ways it does that. forthe are three big ways it does that. for the first time parents would have two give their explicit consent for children under 18 to create a social media account. it would develop a social media curfew, so children and miners wouldn't be able to access social media apps between 1030 pmoi per night and 6:30 am. parents can adjust that if they want to, but this is the part that is was controversial. it would also give parents and legal guardians access to their posts, messages, accounts on a whole. there has been criticism from some tech groups and also civil

liberty groups? yes, they are considered good infringe upon children's right to free speech, and i actually spoke to some civil liberties experts who worry this could disproportionately affect children in the lgbt community, that these are kids and miners who can often feel really alone, like they have no—one to speak to. they can sometimes be in abusive situations. and so social media and that contact with the outside world can be a really important resource for them. i also spoke to a spokesperson for meta and they said they are continuously working with lawmakers, they have developed about 30 tools to try and help children navigate the apps, to enforce age verification, and that they do get a handle on harmful content. often times before it is reported. but either way this law is going to come into effect next year, much worse. thank you very much for the update. prosecutors in the united states have charged

the south korean businessman, do kwon, with fraud in connection with a failed cryptocurrency scheme. south korean police have confirmed that a man arrested with false passports in montenegro on thursday is mr kwon. he's been on the run since his terraform labs collapsed last year owing billions of dollars to investors. nick marsh, our asia business reporter, has more. the montenegrin authorities actually found him and another suspect trying to board a flight to dubai with forged documents and now he has been detained. he has been on the run for many, many months now, like you said. the authorities in south korea but also the us, singapore here as well, have accused him of this multibillion—dollar crypto fraud. the south korean authorities put out a red alert to interpol saying, police forces across the world, if you find this man, apprehend him, and they even travelled to serbia, next door to montenegro, because it was thought mr kwon was there.

there is no extradition treaty between south korea and serbia, so there were negotiations between diplomats in belgrade. the interior minister of montenegro has been tweeting about it, so you'd have to assume he is going to be extradited in some way, shape orform. where two, we aren't sure yet, could be the us, could be south korea, could be singapore. there are many authorities after him. stay with us on bbc world news, still to come: anger in israel, after the country's parliament passes a new law preventing the removal of the prime minister. applause i'm so proud of both of you. - let there be no more wars or bloodshed between arabs and israelis.

with great regret, the committee has decided that south africa will be excluded from the 1970 competition. chanting streaking across the sky, the white—hot wreckage from mir drew gasps from onlookers on fiji. wow. this is bbc world news, the latest headlines: there's been fierce fighting around bakhmut, as ukranian soldiers engage with russians in brutal trench warfare. the head of tiktok is grilled by us lawmakers

as he tries to convince them the chinese—owned app is not a threat to us national security. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu says he's determined to proceed with what he calls �*responsible' judicial reforms. police in israel have arrested dozens of demonstrators following the latest mass protests against the government's plans to overhaul thejudicial system. the confonrtations came only hours after the israeli parliamanet ratified a law making it more difficult to remove a prime minister deemed unfit for office. critics say the law is meant to shield benjamin natanyahu from corruption trials. from jerusalem, tom bateman sent this report. israelis are stopping the traffic over their politicians�* plan to overhaul their court. weeks of protest are boiling over into is a bitter division. this is a fight for the flag.

and now it is spilling blood onto the streets of tel aviv. they sprayed us with mace and when i tried to stop him he hit me with a can on the face. how does this make you feel about what's happening in your country? we have a dictator in israel that is trying to make these people hurt us. you tell your government, you tell your people. the demonstrators had reached the british embassy last week, wanting foreign governments to add pressure, as mr netanyahu heads abroad, visiting london today. they warned of dystopia and dictatorship, and a muzzling of legal protections by the new coalition of the ultra—religious and the far right. this government is the first post—zionist messianic government. my father and his brothers didn't fight in wars

for a theocracy for orthodox jews. the israeli leader is caught between deepening dissent and a coalition he needs to survive. and he is vowing to push on. translation: | will do - everything, everything to calm the situation and to end division among the people, because we are brothers. and with the help of god, together we will manage and together we will succeed. but his far—right and religious coalition is under growing international pressure over both its rhetoric and its policies, amid its spiralling violence. in the west bank, the protests feel a world away. for palestinians, the faces of israel's forces may change, but the occupation remains. and things are getting much worse. for people here it feels like a crisis arriving from all sides. israel's most extreme

government in its history, a palestinian leadership losing its limited security grip on key cities around here. and that is why the fears are growing that the west bank could slip out of control. for over a year, i've seen militants rearm in nearbyjenin and nablus as violence grips this region. israel's political turmoil comes amid calls for calm that may be impossible to heed. tom bateman, bbc news, jerusalem. the french prime minister, elisabeth borne, has condemned the violence that's accompanied the latest day of mass demonstrations against the reform of the pension system. there were clashes in numerous french cities as more than a million people took to the streets to demand president emmanuel macron withdraw the increase of the age of retirement to 64. in paris, police clashed with hundreds of demonstrators, but some of the worst scenes were in the western city

of bordeaux, where the entrance to the town hall was set ablaze. police have made almost 200 arrests. the world athletics council has announced that no female transgender athlete who has gone through male puberty will be permitted to compete in female world ranking competitions from the 31st of march. officials argue that such athletes would have an unfair advantage in strength and muscle mass. earlier i was joined by sports illustrated copy chief julie kliegman who told me she doesn't think the ban is fair. i don't. leaders like sebastian set up this false dichotomy between fairness and inclusion, but the reality is, being inclusive is being fair and there is just not science to suggest that the assertion that transgender women athletes have these concrete advantages over their cis gender peers.

there are those who argue that trans athletes who have gone through male puberty might potentially have this unfair advantage due to the biology make—up. what's your assessment of that? i think athletes of all different body types can have certain advantages and that's what makes sports fun and interesting. the swimmer michael phelps has notoriously a big wingspan, things like that. he does not have an unfair advantage, he just has one advantage in one area and he has weaknesses in other areas. this happens across sports all the time. this is not the first sporting ban for transgender women — world rugby in 2020 and world swimming — are you seeing a trend that seems to be emerging? yes. i think this is a trend where, once one governing body came out and made this ruling, the others felt safer to do so, especially in light of the international olympic committee

leaving it up to world governing bodies to make these choices for themselves. what impact do you think this will have on athletes who have dsd, differences in sex developments? it seems the world athletics council also voted to reduce the amount of blood testosterone permitted in athletes with dsd. this excludes a lot of athletes with intersex variations from competing in women's sports, because it's a very tough threshold for testosterone to meet, even among women without intersex variations. julie kliegman, sports illustrated copy chief. president biden is meeting justin showed jo trudeau in ottawa. the leaders are expected to update an agreement potentially allowing both countries to turn asylum seekers away at their borders. in exchange canada has agreed to provide a new legal refugee

programme for 15,000 migrants from latin america. the war in ukraine, trade and the creation of an international force to stabilise haiti are also expected to be on the agenda for the visit. the hollywood actress gwyneth paltrow is due to take the stand on friday, in a court case involving a skiing incident. she's being sued by a retired optometrist who claims she caused a collision in 2016. ms paltrow denies the claim, and now the lawyers are also gaining some unwanted attention of their own. take a look at this. true orfalse, some people get hurt anyway, i think ijust said that one. hurt anyway, i think! 'ust said that onei hurt anyway, i think! 'ust said that one. sorry, i got that mixed _ said that one. sorry, i got that mixed up. _ said that one. sorry, i got that mixed up. they - said that one. sorry, i got that mixed up. they went| said that one. sorry, i got - that mixed up. they went down to the bottom of the hill and who was waiting for her? her daughter apple, who was waiting for her? her daughterapple, now 18, then daughter apple, now 18, then eight, daughterapple, now 18, then eight, i think no, no, daughterapple, now 18, then eight, ithink no, no, 11, sorry i got that mixed up. true

or false? _ sorry i got that mixed up. true or false? if— sorry i got that mixed up. true or false? if you _ sorry i got that mixed up. true or false? if you can't _ sorry i got that mixed up. true or false? if you can't answer i or false? if you can't answer it with a _ or false? if you can't answer it with a yes _ or false? if you can't answer it with a yes or _ or false? if you can't answer it with a yes or no, - or false? if you can't answer it with a yes or no, just - it with a yes or no, just indicate _ it with a yes or no, just indicate that, say i really can't _ indicate that, say i really can't answer that with a yes or no. can't answer that with a yes or m did — can't answer that with a yes or m did you _ can't answer that with a yes or no. did you hear everything i just— no. did you hear everything i just said? _ no. did you hear everything i just said?— no. did you hear everything i 'ust said? , ., , , just said? defendant gwyneth paltrow, just said? defendant gwyneth paltrow. you _ just said? defendant gwyneth paltrow, you were _ just said? defendant gwyneth paltrow, you were looking - just said? defendant gwyneth paltrow, you were looking up| paltrow, you were looking up the mountain and to the side while skiing down the mountain, that was dangerous. by looking up that was dangerous. by looking up into the side she knew what she was doing was dangerous, she was doing was dangerous, she knew it was reckless and somebody would get hurt anyway, i think ijust said that the.

that's all for now. thanks for your company. you can reach me on twitter — i'm @lmmisztak. hello. quite an ominous—looking sky behind me with heavy showers forecast for friday, perhaps with hail and thunder. and indeed, the outlook is looking very unsettled. sunday onwards, it'll also turn quite a bit colder, particularly across the northern half of the uk. now, here's the satellite picture — look at this broad area of cloud to the south. that brought the rain on thursday evening. but the centre of the low pressure here now, a very large area of low pressure, is approaching ireland — and within this centre of low pressure, we have frequent showers circling. so from early morning onwards, the winds will start to strengthen across many western parts of the uk. it's already cloudy with showers across scotland

and northern ireland, but in england and wales it'll actually start off pretty clear — and in fact, lots of sunshine expected early in the morning. but as this area of low pressure approaches, the winds reach gale force around the south—western coasts of the uk, gusting 50mph or more, and really blustery inland, too. so the showers will be fast—moving across england and wales. again, some of them will be downpours with hail and thunder. in northern ireland and scotland, the showers will be slow—moving — the winds are much lighter here — so any showers will last for longer, and that's in the centre of this area of low pressure, and this blustery weather will continue into the evening hours on friday. this is saturday's weather map and one area of low pressure clears away — another one is approaching, but we're sort of in—between these areas of low pressure. i think the most frequent showers on saturday will be across more northern and eastern parts of england. elsewhere, yes, some showers in the forecast, not as heavy, not as frequent. temperatures will get up to around 12—13 degrees, i think, for most of us.

and then on sunday, we start to see a change. cold northerly winds spread from the northern climes, pushing that milder air to the south. and in the north of the country, yes, it will be cold enough for some hill snow. watch the wintry showers spreading across the highlands of scotland. in the south, however, closer to a weather front, there will be some rain early in the day, but eventually that rain will clear away. temperatures may be making double figures across the south of england and wales, but further north, it will be around six degrees in aberdeen, and a wind chill. and before i go, just a reminder that the clocks change this weekend. bye— bye.

this is bbc news. the headlines: ukrainian soldiers are engaged in a brutal trench warfare against russian troops with the fight for bakhmut said to be the bloodiest yet. the ukrainians are allegedly losing ground in the north, but standing firm in the south donetsk province. neither side is said to be at an advantage. the head of tiktok is grilled by us lawmakers, as he tries to convince them the chinese—owned app is not a threat to us national security. chief executive shou zi chew faced questions on tiktok�*s relationship with state—owned parent company bytedance and the spread of misinformation. world athletics has issued new guidance on transgender athletes, saying that any person who's been through male puberty can't compete in the female category

at international events from the 31st of march. officials argue that such athletes have an unfair advantage due to a difference in strength and muscle mass. now on bbc news — panorama. people are struggling. costs are going through the roof. and i'm not sure there is any of stopping it. there are lots of people currently working just to pay the bills, not having any sort of life. we struggle just| so we can have a roof over our head. millions of britons have effectively had a pay cut. wages aren't keeping up with costs, public services are struggling too. it's tough right now, and i can't be the only one who's asking what's going on?

the government offers this explanation.