as he becomes the first former us president to face criminal charges. the unprecedented indictment of a former president of the united states for a campaign finance issue is an outrage. a huge tornado has hit the us city of little rock in arkansas — a state of emergency has been declared, social media personality, andrew tate, has been released from prison to house arrest — before further court hearings. former paralympic sprinter oscar pistorius — who was convicted of murdering his girlfriend — is denied an early release from prison. and italy becomes the first western country to block the ai chatbot chatgpt, over privacy concerns.

hello and welcome to audiences in the uk and around the world. donald trump will be the first former us president to face criminal charges, after a grand jury indicted him over money paid to the former pawn star stormy daniels. mr trump is expected to appear in court in new york next tuesday — to face the charges and enter a plea. he denies any wrongdoing and the affair — saying the indictment is �*political persecution�*. our north america correspondent gary o'donoghue reports from new york. this manhattan courthouse doesn't normally look like this. but then it's not everyday a former president gets charged with a crime. in fact, it's happened before. and this is the man who's brought the charges against donald trump, district attorney alvin bragg — a democrat and a prosecutor in america's highly politicised legal system. but if mr bragg was saying nothing, the former president

wasn't so reticent. he's called it "political persecution", "election interference" and his opponents "thugs" and "radical—left monsters". no—one is above the law, not even a former president of the united states. the case all centres on the financial accounting for $130,000 paid to this woman to buy her silence before the 2016 general election. hi, everyone! stephanie clifford — aka stormy daniels — an adult film star, says she had sex with donald trump in 2006, something he denies. today, it's donald trump. tomorrow it's going to be a democrat. the day after that it could be your brother, your son, your daughter. and we have to be concerned about the rule of law falling. because what's happened here is this is a case that would not have been brought against another individual in this country, if his name wasn't donald trump. in the next few days, donald trump will come here to the courthouse.

he'll have his fingerprints and his photograph taken. he'll then appear before a judge to enter a plea. until recently the most powerful man in the world will be processed like any other defendant. it's finally good to see somejustice happen. it's a political sham, and it's politically motivated. but this case in new york is not the only legal problem facing donald trump. stop the steal! two other criminal investigations are looking into his role in the storming of the capitol on january the 6th two years ago, after he lost the election, and attempts to overturn the results. # cos there ain't no doubt i love this land...#. those inquiries could prove much more serious for the former president, as he readies himself for another run at the white house. gary 0'donoghue, bbc news, new york. i'm joined now byjill abramson in boston — former executive editor

of the new york times. a paper, it has to be said, that donald trump took personal issue with. tell us in your view what this indictment means for the political future of former presidents donald trump. they are furious today, and listening to one prominent republican after another, including, surprisingly, mike pence, you know, very vocal in their defence of the president and they're kind of the indictment. it looked like, you know, it is, you know, helping him for sure, know, it is, you know, helping him forsure, and in my know, it is, you know, helping him for sure, and in my mind, making it more probable that he will be the republican nominee.

has layers, his family sees this as an attempt to disrupt his presidential campaign. how political is this? is there any in this? ~ , ., political is this? is there any in this? ~ ,, ~ ., , in this? well, you know, it is a new york _ in this? well, you know, it is a new york prosecutor, - in this? well, you know, it is a new york prosecutor, he . in this? well, you know, it is a new york prosecutor, he is in this? well, you know, it is i a new york prosecutor, he is a democrat, but those are the facts. you know, a grand jury heard evidence about this payoff to stephanie clifford, stormy daniels, so for months and months, so, you know, they had to weigh a lot of evidence, so if it was pure political motivation and, no grand jury would have brought an indictment.— would have brought an indictment. ~ ~ ., ., indictment. we know that america _ indictment. we know that america is _ indictment. we know that america is pretty - indictment. we know that america is pretty divided | america is pretty divided between those on the left and those on the right, there aren't that many undecided voters when it comes to the next presidential campaign. but for those who are undecided, what impact could this have on

then, do you think?— then, do you think? well, i think it might _ then, do you think? well, i think it might make - then, do you think? well, i think it might make them l then, do you think? well, i- think it might make them uneasy about the prospect of donald trump coming back into power. and he faces two more possible indictments that are more serious than this one is, the matter is involved, you know, the storming of the capital and his twisting of farms in georgia to try to have 7000 votes produced that to where it actually his votes, and i don't know, i think the drip, drip, drip of legal problems could hurt him. people mayjust be tired of this, you know, donald trump morning noon and night, you know, it is, even i get

tired of it, i'm exhausted today from reading all of the stories, and i haven't even been watching television. it is uuite been watching television. it is quite intense, _ been watching television. it is quite intense, plenty more to come on this as he appears in court on tuesday. interesting to get your thoughts. thank you. the arkansas state governor has declared an emergency after a "large and destructive tornado" has hit the city of little rock in arkansas. these are some pictures that have come into us from a cbs news affiliate. there have so far been no confirmed injuries but 70 thousand people are repoted to have lost power in arkansas. 0ne hospital in the area has said its expecting casualties, but there are no details yet. we can speak to our north america correspondent david willis, who's in los angeles. david, good to see you, bring us up—to—date on the situation in arkansas. 0f us up—to—date on the situation in arkansas. of a short time ago, samantha, the state

governor, sarah huckabee sanders tweeted that she has activated the national guard there to help with the clean—up operation. she said that this followed a large tornado which she said had caused significant damage, meanwhile, hospital officials in little rock and the surrounding area are said to be bracing themselves for the possibility of considerable number of casualties, possibly into the hundreds, and we have pretty sketchy details as to the number of people hurt in this incident, but it is possible that hundreds of people have possible that hundreds of peeple have— possible that hundreds of people have possible that hundreds of --eole have , . ' . ., people have been affected, and of course. _ people have been affected, and of course, that _ people have been affected, and of course, that aerial _ people have been affected, and of course, that aerial footage . of course, that aerial footage shown by the weather channel here shows trees uprooted, riffs ripped off buildings and cars tossed around like toys. the us national weather service have warned of a high risk of tornadoes in several states, haven't they.— tornadoes in several states, haven't the . , . haven't they. they have indeed. the are haven't they. they have indeed. they are calling _ haven't they. they have indeed. they are calling it _ haven't they. they have indeed. they are calling it a _ haven't they. they have indeed.

they are calling it a hazardous l they are calling it a hazardous weather warning, and it is affecting millions of people in the united states, notjust the state of arkansas, and this is apparently all because of an immense blast of extreme spring air. in courting the national weather service here now which has swept across the united states from an area all the way from texas in the south right up from texas in the south right up to the great lakes. this coming, of course, precisely a week after the town of rolling fork in mississippi was leaned to waste by a tornado which ripped through at night on friday evening. fix, ripped through at night on friday evening.— friday evening. a state of emergency _ friday evening. a state of emergency has _ friday evening. a state of emergency has been - friday evening. a state of - emergency has been declared in arkansas and missouri. what does that mean in effect? well, it means that _ does that mean in effect? well, it means that certain _ does that mean in effect? well, | it means that certain emergency services have been put on alert, also there are warning systems that will be activated to tell people to take shelter, and those warning systems where

her failings some of the people, it appears, and rolling fork last week. many of them only got a few minutes warning of that impending tornado, they said. there were amazing stories of survival as well as the tragic death of about 25 people. we heard of nine people, for example, at a diner who huddled down in a need to clear which at one point was lifted off the ground by the impact of that tornado, but they survived.— impact of that tornado, but they survived. 0k, thank you for bringing _ they survived. 0k, thank you for bringing us _ they survived. 0k, thank you for bringing us up-to-date. l the social media influencer andrew tate and his brother tristan have been released from preventative custody, after a romanianjudge ruled in favour of their appeals. andrew tate, and his brother, tristan, can be moved from jail to house arrest, while they're investigated for alleged human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women. the brothers and two romanian female associates have been under police detention since december. all four have been ordered to stay in the buildings where

they live, unless they have judicial permission to leave. turning now to ukraine, and president zelensky has been leading ceremonies in bucha on the first anniversary of its liberation from russian forces. bucha, a suburb to the northwest of kyiv was the focus of fierce fighting and has come to symbolise alleged war crimes carried out by russian forces. from bucha, here's our correspondent hugo bachega. president zelensky came here to mark this day, one year since ukrainian forces recaptured this town that was occupied by russian forces. bucha has become the symbol of atrocities committed by russian forces here in this country. we came to the street where dozens of bodies were found, and i think images of those bodies lying on the ground here shocked all of us. they become a symbol of the brutality of the occupation here, not on the b execution

of these people, we know ——here, not only execution of these people, we know many of the civilians are trying to visit relatives, trying to flee the city when they where killed. there were allegations of torture, the allegations of rape. but now here in bucha, there is a massive effort to collect evidence of those potential war crimes, international investigators and active as volunteers are here collecting evidence. there's also a massive effort to rebuild what is being destroyed, so houses have been rebuilt and the roads, shops, that perhaps cannot be rebuilt, that is the psychological impact of the atrocities that were committed here, the trauma of the violence that was committed by the occupying forces. stay with us on bbc world news, still to come: we'll be finding out why italy is the first western country to ban the ai chatbot chat gpt.

the accident that happened here was of the sort that can, at worst, produce a meltdown. in this case, the precautions worked, but not quite well enough to prevent some old fears about the safety features of these stations from resurfacing. the republic of ireland has become the first country in the world to ban smoking in the workplace. from today, anyone lighting up in offices, businesses, pubs and restaurants will face a heavy fine. the president was on his way out of the washington hilton hotel, where he had been addressing a trade union conference. the small crowd outside included his assailant. it has become - a symbol of paris. 100 years ago, many parisians| wished it had never been built. the eiffel tower's birthday is- being marked by a re—enactment of the first ascent by gustave eiffei —

this is bbc news... lawyers for donald trump say he will surrender to a court in new york on tuesday after becoming the first former us president to face criminal charges. his legal team say he's "angry but not worried'" about the case which concerns alleged hush payments to the adult film star, stormy daniels. she claims to have had an affairwith mrtrump, which he denies. the us national weather service there has confirmed a "large and destructive tornado" has hit the midwestern city of little rock in arkansas. 70 thousand people are reported to have lost power in the state. the former paralympic athlete 0scar pistorius's bid for parole collapsed in chaos today. the 36—year—old had been seeking early release after serving half of his 13—year sentence. he was convicted of the murder of his girlfriend,

reeva steenkamp in 2013. ahead of the hearing, a lawyer for steenkamp's parents spoke to reporters outside the court. he is the killer of her daughter. for them, it is a life sentence. he is eligible to be considered for placement on parole. they don't feel that he should be released. they feel that he has shown no remorse, he is not rehabilitated, because if he had been, he would have come clean and tell the true story of what happened that night. the supreme court of appeal found that he hasn't diverged everything that happened that night, and that is the position that they also hold. 0ur africa correspondent andrew harding has more from pretoria. i'm afraid it's a pretty farcical situation, the south african justice system looking like it's made a big mess of this. in fact, today's parole board hearing, we're now learning, should never have gone ahead in the first place. that's because the prison authorities here actually received a letter three days ago on tuesday this week,

explaining to them that 0scar pistorius has not actually served, according to their calculations, half his time in prison, half his sentence. in fact, that time will come next august in 202a. now, i spoke just a short while ago to oscar pistorius's uncle arnold, who was mystified, who said it was clear to him that he had served half his sentence and he said he would be getting legal advice on how this confusion could have arisen. what seems to have happened, though, is that because pistorius was initially sentenced once, that was appealed, he was sentenced again. he spent some time in prison, some time under house arrest, that he spent another longer period — which he's currently still doing — in prison. there's confusion about exactly when his sentence should be considered to have started, and it seems like the supreme court of appeal here and the chiefjustice decided it only began on the last time he began his prison sentence. so, they're taking the strictest interpretation of the law, if you like.

at least 11 people were killed in a crowd crush in pakistan's in pakistan's southern city of karachi friday as a ramadan charity donation at a factory sparked a stampede. a local official said 600 to 700 people were trapped in a small industrial compound. three factory employees have been arrested after failing to inform police of the donation event in order to organise crowd control. just last week, one person was killed and eight others injured in a stampede for flour in northwestern pakistan. a delawarejudge has ruled that a lawsuit that dominion voting systems brought against fox news will go to a jury trial. fox had hoped to avoid a trial. dominion is seeking one—point—six billion dollars in damages, claiming that fox defamed the company following donald trump's loss in the 2020 election. dominion became a popular punching back by trump supporters, who alleged

that their machines helped joe biden's victory. some tech news now, as italy has become the first western country to block the advanced chatbot chatgpt. the italian data—protection authority said there were privacy concerns relating to the model, which was created by us start—up 0penai and is backed by microsoft. the regulator said it would ban and investigate 0penai @with immediate effect@. millions of people have used chatgpt since it launched in november 2022 — as it can answer questions using natural human—like language. earlier i spoke to reid blackman, adviser on al ethical risks. i asked him why italian authorities are so concerned about the technology. well, that's two different questions, what are they from two kinds of angles, one is that certain kinds of data was leaked when people are using the app, so what happened is you could see some users could see other users chats and also payment

information, so you can think of that as a kind of cybersecurity concerned around people having access to data that they ought not to have access to. the second side of the privacy issue which speaks to gp are is that in order to create that chat box, in order to train that al, open ai, the company that created it used a tremendous amount of data drawn from the internet. we don't exactly know what they drew from or where they drew from, but there is a major concern that some of the information that they drew some included, number one, personal information from a personal data, the kind of thing that's protected by gp are, and another concern around ip, so instance, artists work online, without their consent used to train up the chat spot, if it is a writer used to train it. two kinds of privacy concerns, cybersecurity concerns and gdpr concerns, as for why banning it,

i don't really know. i'm not privy to conversations between italian regulators and open ai. i don't know whether the regulators requested certain kinds of information from open ai and they declined to provide that information, i don't know if they tried to work together in any way. a ban seems rather extreme, particularly because when you look at the impending eu and i asked him the only kinds ——look at the impending eu ai act, the only kinds of things that are banned are meeting the level of unacceptable risk, which doesn't look like this has meant. so even if you take into account impending regulation around this, it's not clear why a band was put into effect. the vatican has said that pope francis can leave hospital on saturday as expected, given his continued recovery from a bronchitis infection. earlier pope francis baptised a newborn in the paediatric ward of the gemelli hospital in rome where he is receiving treatment — appearing in good physical condition. he also visited young patients on an oncology ward, bringing them chocolate eggs and copies of a book about the life ofjesus. pope francis is scheduled to take part in a palm sunday

service on sunday. here in the uk, a further highly critical report into yorkshire cricket club following allegations of racism by former player azeem rafiq has upheld complaints of racism against five former team—mates — but has cleared michael vaughan, the ex england captain and bbc pundit, of using racist language. the report, by the cricket discipline commission, is the latest into the claims into historical racism by rafiq which he first made in 2020. here's our sports editor, dan roan. as a former ashes winning england captain turned commentator, michael vaughan is one of cricket's highest profile figures, but for almost 18 months, accusations he used racist language hung over him. he denied the claim, and after a hearing earlier this month, today was cleared. a disciplinary commission ruled... vaughan stepped back from his bbc broadcasting work

last year after former yorkshire team—mate azeem rafiq alleged that moments after this huddle before a match in 2009, his former captain said, "there's too many of you lot" to him and three other asian players. today in a statement, vaughan said... vaughan urged reconciliation but condemned what he called an inappropriate approach by the ecb, saying there had been no winners. now out of contract, the bbc will have to decide whether to restore him to the team. i think michael himself will be able to have greater detail about exactly the toll it takes on him, notjust him, but his family, close friends as it were, but there have been some difficult, challenging times and dark times. but this was still another damaging day for yorkshire, which admitted four charges, including a failure to address

systemic use of racist language over a prolonged period. the panel said that its findings did not undermine rafiq's wider assertions and upheld some of the disrepute charges against five other former players and coaches here. all five, which included former england stars matthew hoggard and tim bresnan, had withdrawn from the disciplinary process. today, rafiq gave me this reaction. you know, the hearing was very much closure for me, and again today i feel very vindicated. seven out of the eight charges, for me, it is very important that we don't get hung up on individuals, because that is not the way we are ever going to solve this issue. yorkshire, facing a financial crisis after having to pay compensation to staff sacked in the wake of the scandal, could now be hit with a points deduction, and with what is expected to be a chastening game—wide report on diversity in english cricket still to come, the scrutiny is set to remain. dan roan, bbc news.

a us court has dismissed a defamation case brought against the duchess of sussex by her half—sister, samantha markle. the duchess was accused of spreading "demonstrably false and malicious lies" to a "worldwide audience" in the royal couple's televised interview with oprah winfrey in 2021. a florida judge has dismissed the lawsuit, saying she was expressing "an opinion about her childhood the us vice president — kamala harris — is now in zambia, wrapping up the last leg of a 3—nation tour in africa. the vp who has personal ties to the country — was met with a warm welcome. the v—p is calling on bilateral creditors to "provide meaningful debt reduction" to help boost zambia's economy. china is the country's largest bilateral creditor. harris is the latest u—s official visiting africa to counter china's influence in the continent. ms harris took a brief detour from her diplomatic duties to visit the site of her late grandfather's old home. and before we leave you, an update on the breaking news

out of the united states. at least a dozen people have been injured after a �*large and destructive tornado' has hit the city of little rock. the governor of arkansas has declared a state of emergency. these are some pictures that have come into us from a cbs news affiliate. 70,000 people are repoted to have lost power in arkansas. 0ne hospital in the area has said its expecting casualties, but there are no details yet. nearly 90 million people in 15 us states are under threat from an "explosive" storm system. a state of emergency has also been declared in missouri and two tornados were reported in iowa. that's all from me, but you can reach me on twitter — to stay with us here on bbc news for all of that and all of the day's rest of the day's stories. thanks for watching. hello.

for many parts of the uk, march turned out to be a wet month, not least across england, where, according to provisional met office statistics, it was the wettest march since 1981. but it wasn't that wet everywhere, in fact, there were parts of northern scotland where we had less rain than normal. these figures, 56% of the average, cover the period up to the morning of friday, the 31st. compare that with cambridge, which had seen more than three times the normal march rainfall. but for the start of april through the weekend, it looks like things are going to become drier and brighter. quite a slow process, though, because the weekend starts with low pressure in charge. a couple of different weather fronts providing a focus for some outbreaks of rain. this front here providing some particularly persistent rain through the morning across parts of northern ireland, parts of wales, the south west of england, central southern england as well. a lot of that rain will tend to peter out. i think northern ireland is likely to stay cloudy and damp through the day. elsewhere, quite a lot of cloud, some spots of rain,

some mist and murk. and with this easterly breeze, it'll feel rather cool for some of these north sea coasts. further west, temperatures between 10—13 celsius, and there could just be a few glimmers of sunshine. most places will be pretty cloudy. now, we will keep fairly large amounts of cloud as we head through saturday night, but i think we'll see a few more clear spells around, some clearer skies, certainly filtering into eastern parts of england later in the night. temperatures generally between 2—7 celsius. very locally, there could be a touch of frost. but for sunday, we see high pressure tending to build, and that means some drier and somewhat brighter weather. now, there will still be some areas of cloud around, perhaps most especially across western scotland, northern ireland, wales, the south west of england. but equally there should be some spells of sunshine, the best of that a little bit further east. temperatures, well, no great shakes on the face of it, but at this time of year, there is some strength in the sun. so get yourself into some sunshine, it will not feel too bad. 0ur area of high pressure tries to hold on into

the start of the new week. we will see frontal systems making some inroads from the atlantic. so, that means we will see, perhaps, some rain at times through the middle of the week, particularly towards the north and the west of the uk. at this early stage, and it is still a long way away, the signs for the easter weekend are quite promising.

this is bbc news. the headlines for... lawyers for donald trump say he will surrender to a court in new york on tuesday after becoming the first former us president to face criminal charges. his legal team say he's "angry but not worried" about the case, which concerns alleged hush payments to the adult film star, stormy daniels, who claimed she had an affair with mrtrump — which he denies. the governor of the us state of arkansas has declared an emergency after a tornado hit the state capital, little rock, causing significant damage. medical officials believe hundreds of people have been injured and thousands are without power. a court in romania has agreed to allow the controversial social media influencer, andrew tate, to leave prison and move into house arrest.