this is bbc news — welcome if you're watching here in the uk or around the globe. i'm lewis vaughan jones. our top stories. politicians in iran are reacting to the flouting of headscarf laws by women by insisting the rules must be enforced rigorously byjudges. "a slap in the face to the international community" — that's the assessment of ukraine's foreign minister to russia assuming the presidency of the un security council. a critical incident has been declared in dover as passengers are delayed for hours at the start of the easter getaway. devastating tornadoes tear through america's midwest, leaving at least seven dead.

welcome to bbc news. the authorities in iran are vowing to enforce the wearing of a headscarf by women more rigorously , despite months of protests. a growing number of women have been seen unveiled in public, and hardline politicians are giving judges ultimatums to punish those who ignore the rules. earlier i spoke to bbc�*s parham ghobadi and asked what prompted this latest move. in big cities like in tehran and in other major cities, they just walk around on the streets without headscarf and without her and without hijab, it's not only headscarf, it's also a kind of trench coat that for four decades, iranian women had to wear in order to walk on the streets. so now we see, especially younger women, walking on the streets without any sort of hijab and iranian politicians and it has frustrated iranian hardliners. and so iranian regime is in a really

difficult position because they have this tiny margin of supporters that are hard liners, and these are the people who are willing to pick up arms and defend the regime. now, they are extremely angry, seeing women on the streets of iran without wearing headscarf. and how are some women being treated who are out not wearing headscarf? so there is this constant battle without iranian hardliners and iranian women. for example, a video surfaced social media yesterday, and it was it went viral. there are two young women just standing in a grocery shop and waiting, queuing up. you can see the video right now. an iranian hardliner walks in and gets into a kind of argument with them and picks up a bucket of yoghurt and hits them in the head. this has frustrated many iranians, and scenes like that are extremely dangerous for iranian regime as well, because iranjust you know, the protests started seven months ago and it went

on for about six months. so does the iranian regime really want to start another wave of protests? well, that's the that's right where we are right now. just remind us how we did get here. so seven months ago, a young iranian kurdish woman, 22—year—old masha amini, died in the police custody because there were some police vans patrolling the streets of iran and especially in tehran, and arresting women who did not abide by the rule. that was seven months ago. now, what we see in iran is that everywhere women are walking on the streets without hijab. so the iranian regime in the battle with young iranian women has technically lost. and there is no sign that iranian women are backing off to wear the headscarf again. russia has taken the presidency of the un security council despite ukraine urging members to block the move. each of the council's 15 members takes up the presidency for a month, on a rotating pattern.

the last time russia had the presidency, february 2022, it launched a full—scale invasion of ukraine. it means the security council is being led by a country whose president, vladimir putin, is subject to an international arrest warrant for alleged war crimes. earlier i spoke to our ukraine correspondent hugo bachega. i started by asking him to talk us through this development at the united nations. russia has taken over the rotating presidency of the security council, which is the main security body of the united nations. and obviously there's been angry reaction here from the ukrainians. the foreign minister today said this was a slap in the face of the international community. we heard from the president's chief of staff saying that this was another symbolic blow to the rules based system of international relations. so the ukrainians, since the beginning of the war, have criticised the fact that russia continues to be a member of the security council, a permanent member of the council. so in other words, it

has the veto power. it can veto resolutions. and it has used this power to veto resolutions related to the conflict here. now, ukraine has tried to get russia expelled from the council, even though there's no legal pathway for that to happen. and in the last few days, ukraine has been trying to block russia's right to to take over the presidency of the security council. but again, it was something that the members of the security council could not do. we heard from american officials saying that this is something that is not possible. so, again, angry reaction here from the ukrainians following this move by russia. 0k, hugo, thanks so much for that. and as i mentioned at the top there, a second important update coming out of ukraine today. this to do with a senior figure in the church there just to explain what's happened.

yeah. so this is a senior cleric of the ukrainian orthodox church. he's been arrested today. the ukrainian security services have accused him ofjustifying the invasion of ukraine and also of inciting religious hatred. these are allegations that he denies. and i think what is happening here is that this is the church that had ties with the russian church in moscow. the church here in ukraine broke up those ties after the invasion of ukraine. the leaders of the church in moscow have been supporting the war here, but the ukrainians say that they believe that senior clerics and high level officials of the church have continued to support moscow, have continued to support the invasion of ukraine. last year, a number of buildings used by the church were raided. dozens of of senior members of the church are now

being investigated. some of them are facing charges, including the charges of of including charges related to these suspicions that they have been collaborating with russian officials. now, the church denies those allegations and they say they are being targeted by the government. and i think these developments show this split that has happened here in ukraine among the orthodox community. a separate church has been created, an independent church. and this branch of the church, the ukrainian orthodox church. the ukrainians say that this church has continued to have ties with moscow, even though they deny those allegations. lets ta ke lets take you live to israel. these

are live pictures from tel aviv. protesters out on the street again. you may well have been getting you to these pictures, tens of thousands of people out on the streets protesting against israeli prime minister and specifically, his proposed judicial reforms. he says they would stop the courts overrating their powers and these reforms were voted for by the public that the last election. that's the government side. legal scholars and is protesters fearing that they will affect effectively destroy. critics of the prime minister described the lot these reforms have been contended for a while, the protests have been out for a while and plenty

of people out on the street yet again in israel. here in the uk. the port of dover has declared a critical incident and apologised after people leaving for france suffered long delays. the port says it's "deeply frustrated" that bad weather and french border checks have resulted in lengthy queues, particularly for coaches. a number of school and university groups have been affected. simonjones reports. it's not such a great start to the great easter getaway. forced to spend hours on a couch with no idea when you are going to be able to get across the channel. this driver from nottingham is trying to keep the spirits of his passengers up as they face missing a day on the slopes on the french alps. we have been here for four hours waiting. we have had a lot of coaches in front of us. i have no idea how long we will be, 12 hours, 16 hours, i don't know. the police are doing what they can

to stop dover snarling up at lorries and cars are getting caught in the chaos too. we were meant to be going to italy, ultimately, but we are booked into a hotel in france this evening, but i don't know if we are going to make it now. it is going to be a long one, i think, we are going to be. here for awhile, but it's ok. it is a holiday. so what is causing this? it has been blamed on a perfect storm of lots of people want to travel, bad weather yesterday causing delays to the ferries, and according to the port, new checks after brexit meaning all passengers have to get out of the coaches to have their passports checked and stamped by the french authorities. lorries were forced to queue on the outskirts of dover overnight. the port says it is deeply frustrated, insisting it had planned ahead, but the additional ferry bookings taken by the firms for easter have added to the challenge. well, can ijust say how sorry i am that everyone who wanted to get away

this easter break has been so disrupted, and in particular for the schoolkids, being a father myself i know how anxious i'd feel, so what we have been doing is working really hard with a ferry operators and airport operators to try to make sure that all of the traffic that has been backlogged can get through as quickly as possible. another 5,000 cars and 400 coaches are expected today. for many, it will be a waiting game. the latest series of tornadoes to have ripped through parts of the united states has left at least seven people dead. they were killed in the states of arkansas and illinois. dozens have been injured and tens of thousands have lost power. some pictures coming through to us in the last half hour show the extent of the damage to homes in this residential area in the state of illinois. the picture is no better in arkansas where you can see homes have been completely flattened and businesses forced to close after devastating damage. the governor there, sarah huckabee sanders, has declared a state of emergency. president biden has

pledged financial support for the affected states. it will surprise the federal government to cover 100% of the cost for removing debris and emergency measures that are involved in keeping up here. like keeping shelters up and running and paying the overtime for everyone. 100% of the cost, not for the state but for us. for 30 days. then after that, were not leaving either. earlier i spoke to our weather presenter ben rich who explained a little more about how these extreme weather systems work. tornadoes are a part of life for people living in that part of the usa is a risk they live with at this time of year. and what we've had i can show you the weather system responsible is an area of low pressure. now, this has basically pushed its way all the way from the pacific and it's pushing its way towards the atlantic. it's moved all the way across the usa, providing a focus for severe weather,

particularly along that cold front. that black line with the blue triangles, that's a cold front. that is a focus for those severe thunderstorms which spun up into all of those tornadoes. reports of potentially, well, 65 tornado reports, which all have to be verified and that takes time. now, that severe weather now moving towards the east coast for saturday, probably not with the same intensity, not such a great tornado threat, but parts of georgia, south carolina and also into the northeast, upstate new york, for example, there's the risk of severe thunderstorms, very squally, gusty winds already quite early in the day in the states, we've had some reports of squally winds causing some damage on saturday, large hail and other threat as well. so this situation is ongoing, but probably not with the ferocity that we've seen in those spots. a little bit further west. so a bit of good news for the people who are about to receive it. put it in, i suppose, a bit of wider historical context for us. what's going on? so tornadoes, they are a part

of life in the springtime, particularly what you need for a tornado is various ingredients. it's a bit like baking a cake. if you don't get the right ingredients in the right quantities, you're not going to get a tornado. and what happened on this occasion is all the ingredients came together in just the right amount. so very, very warm air from the gulf of mexico, much colder air from the north clashing and then winds varying with height at different levels in the atmosphere. that sets the atmosphere spinning, which is why we saw those tornadoes and the ingredients came together so, so well, if you like that we had this on such a grand scale, and this certainly is unusual. the warnings were very, very widespread. the damage, as we've seen, has been particularly bad. it's going to be a quieter couple of days, but the threat does return to similar areas around the mississippi valley later on this week. donald trump will appear in a new york court early next week. the former president is to face criminal charges over the hush money

payments to adult film star stormy daniels in the days before the 2016 presidential election. court officials have confirmed that the former president is expected to appear for his arraignment on tuesday. mr trump became the first former president in us history to face criminal charges after the manhattan grand jury investigating his role in the payments voted to indict him. 0ur north america reporter nada tawfik in new york has the latest. we now are getting a better understanding of how this will all play out. mr trump is expected to arrive here in new york from his club in mar a lago, florida, monday night. he'll fly into laguardia airport and he'll go straight to trump tower, where he has a residence. and throughout he'll be escorted by the secret service. and then he will come here where the world's media will capture every moment that they can. it will be interesting to see if president trump wants to appear in front of the cameras or if he will be tried to be more discreet as he is formally booked

and then arraigned in court. but he has been very busy on social media. the latest campaign email, for example, says he will never surrender the country to the raging left wing mob. so he continues to use social media, his campaign emails, to portray all of this as a witch hunt and to get his base to rally behind him. and what we've heard from the trump campaign is in the 2a hours after news of the indictment, they were able to raise $4 million from supporters. now, compare that to after the fbi raided mar a lago looking for classified documents when the campaign raised $1 million. and you see how this is in the short term, at least helping his campaign. but nevertheless, these are serious criminal charges. the district attorney has hit back at charges against him that this is politically motivated in any way. he says the grand jury did their civic duty and that congress and mr. trump cannot interfere in a lawful investigation.

he says this case, they have evidence that will show and prove their case. we'lljust have to see how all this plays out in the coming weeks, both legally, but also, of course, politically, as mr. trump remains the frontrunner for republicans. yeah, there will be plenty of time to talk about the politics of all this next week. just remind us on the legal side of it what exactly is alleged to have gone on here? yeah. well, in the lead up to the 2016 presidential election, the pawn star stormy daniels was trying to sell her story to a magazine, a tabloid called the national enquirer here in the united states. and mr trump allegedly directed his formerfixer, michael cohen, to pay her $130,000 to silence her and to prevent that story of the alleged affair, which mr trump denies from coming out

into the press ahead of the election. now, michael cohen has served time in prison and has pleaded guilty to that payment over violations of campaign finance violations. but mr trump says and his lawyers say that he was he would have always paid stormy daniels to protect his family. it had nothing to do with the election. and he's using that defense because the hush money payments in themselves aren't illegal. what we believe prosecutors are alleging here and i say believe because the indictment remains under seal. so we haven't been able to see the exact charges yet. but what we believe is that they are going to allege more than 30 counts of the trump organization and mr trump falsifying business records to conceal those payments because he was trying to conceal a crime of electoral finance violations. so that is what we believe prosecutors are concerned about here. many legal experts, though, say this is a new legal theory. so it will be one with high stakes for the prosecutor

here to have to defend. the pope has said he will take part in the mass celebrating palm sunday in the vatican. the 86—year—old was discharged from a hospital in rome in the last few hours where he was receiving treatment for bronchitis. smiling and leaning on a cane as he left rome's gemelli hospital, the pontiff greeted well—wishers and joked he was still alive. the vatican said he'd resumed some work duties while in hospital, baptising a new born baby as well as sharing a dinner with some of the doctors and nurses. 0ur correspondentjenny hill sent us the latest from rome. yeah. i think the message from pope francis and the vatican is very much business as usual. you talked about how he spoke to people waiting outside the hospital. he appeared to be in extremely good spirit, smiling and joking, as you say, with the reporters who'd been camped outside that clinic for several days, but also doing what he appears to really enjoy doing best, speaking to ordinary people, signing the plaster cast of a young boy, but also comforting a couple

whose daughter had died in the hospital overnight. he's also, though, as you say, promised to be here tomorrow in st peter's square for the all important palm sunday mass. now, it is significant because that is the beginning of holy week, the week—long easter tide, culminating, of course, on easter sunday next weekend. and the vatican have said that he will participate in all easter services as originally planned. now, we don't quite know what his role will be tomorrow. he will be here. he will be presiding. but a cardinal will actually celebrate the mass at the altar. presumably, the pope will be seated at the stage behind me there so people can see him. but he will be in the square, notjust up at the balcony. the new school year started last week in afghanistan. but for the second year running, a taliban ban is keeping teenage girls out of school. so what are the options for young afghans who want to keep

up their studies but are unable to return to class? shazia haya reports on one new solution being offered by the bbc world service. across afghanistan, girls�* classrooms sit empty. they have told the bbc how it feels. translation: | find it - so painful that they are not allowing us to our schools. this decision is against islam. for the past two years, every morning i go to the rooftop of our home to watch the primary schoolgirls going to school. i stay there until midday when they finish and i cry. i miss learning new things. the bbc made lessons for the children to access remotely translation: | find it - so painful that they are not during the coronavirus lockdown in the uk. we thought they might be useful in somewhere else. this is where the journalists and producers of bbc�*s afghan service are coming together

to work on a very different task from what we normally do. working on an educational programme for young afghans, this lesson in dari and pashto, the two most widely spoken languages in afghanistan. the show will help people learn english. maths and science, as well as have a bit of fun. where's afghanistan? 0k. for the presenters who are all journalists from afghanistan, it is a very personal project. my father was a teacher and he was killed in a suicide bomb attack 16 years ago. at that time, i felt that i want to be a teacher because my father was a teacher. but i became a journalist. but now, by presenting this programme, i think that i have become a teacher and fulfilled my dream and also my father's dream in afghanistan.

for those unable to go to school, classes will now come to them at home. the rapid melting of ice in antarctic is slowing down the flow of deep ocean water and could have devastating consequences on the global climate. that's according to scientists writing in the journal �*nature'. they say ice melts are driving a "substantial slowdown" of water circulation. this could trap nutrients in the deep ocean, reducing the their ability to support marine life near the ocean surface, policing has rarely been more of an issue in britain with attention especially on london's metropolitan police. in the capital — one officer has been using his skills to engage young people through a sport which more than a million children play every week in england. pc kip is harnessing the power of basketball. as sports correspondent joe wilson explains.

introducing constable kypros kyriacou. and if you've never seen a police officer like this. well, that's the whole idea. a lot of the time when you're with young people, they see us asjust a uniform, a robot, if you will. so basketball, when i was younger, it wasn't as popular as it is now. so it's starting to get a lot more popular. and the kids love it. they really love it. most people usually associate police officers with like crime and everything. police aren't always bad. they are good people. when you see someone like kyp jump that high, it makes basketball look more entertaining. kyp, as everyone calls him, is a south london schools officer. this is the southbank university academy. we know that policing in london right now is under real scrutiny. we hear a lot about the urgent need to rebuild, build trust. building trust, essentially, that's what's happening on this court right here. when i would come into schools, kids would say, you know, you're not a police officer. or they would say to me, oh, you don't seem like a police officer. so i used to say, "well, how is this

police officer meant to be?" and just having that rapport and building that trust with them that they were then able to come and talk to me, ask me questions, educate them about the law. one, two, three, hard work! kyp used to train with professionals, could have been one. he was recently a guest at the london lions of the british basketball league. nothing commands respect quite like a slam dunk. has he inspired you, all of you, to actually dunk? yes. yeah. have you tried it? yeah. because if kyp can dunk... we can dunk. he's one officer in one gym. but if pc kyp makes a difference, well, then he's made his point. joe wilson, bbc news, south london. you can reach me on twitter — i'm @lvaughanjones.

we ended the month and that damp windy wet month. the next few days for the first week of april, it's looking quieter as high pressure sites to build in to build up some sunshine as well. the legacy left behind by that area of low pressure means it will hold onto quite a lot of cloud, further spots of rain this evening across western scotland and northern ireland. through the night it will turn drier to many. where sky is clear, it will turn quite chilly under the cloud with more reveries in the south—east as well.

you can see there is a area of high pressure starting to build across the uk, we lose the low pressure system which will pull away from the south—east, taking the fresh obviously brings with it through the day on sunday. we will see the clouds melting away across many areas. may be the odd shower in scotland, that most places will be dry, feeling a bit warmer away from the north sea coast which will still feel quite chilly. the winds become even lighter across all areas for sunday night, and with clear skies it's going to be a recipe for quite a cold night. by the end of a note, it will turn quite chilly enough for a touch of frost, sub zero values out of towns and cities. as we head into monday, the start of the first working week of april with high overhead, it's going to be fine and dry. a cold start was in frost and missed but you tender lift and

clear. then most bases will be dry with plenty of sunshine. winds coming in from the south—east, so again school around southern and eastern coasts but further west weather sunshine around. a bit of a blip in the weather around middle parts of the week, these weather fronts bring cloud and rain for a time but then high pressure wants to build back in through the end of the week and indeed for the run—up to the easter weekend. for many, particularly eastern areas it should stay fine, dry and settled.

this is bbc news. the headlines... politicians in iran are reacting to the flouting of headscarf laws by women by insisting the rules must be enforced rigorously byjudges. russia has assumed the rotating presidency of the un security council for the month of april — a role described by ukraine's foreign minister as a slap in the face to the international community. in the uk, the port of dover has declared a critical incident with up to 70 coaches delayed overnight as they tried to cross to france. port authorities cited french border controls and bad weather for the hold—ups. at least eleven people have died after severe weather hit parts of the united states. there have been powerful tornadoes in the southern state of arkansas,