live from london, this is bbc news. drama in new york — donald trump is due in court — to face criminal charges — we're there live. this is the scene in manhattan — tight security outside the courthouse — where the former president will appear in the next few hours. finland joins nato — becoming its 31st member — spurred on, by russia's invasion of ukraine. president putin wanted to slam nato's door shut. today we show the world that he failed. tiktok is fined more than £12 million for failing to protect the privacy of children in the uk.

welcome to bbc news. straight back to new york — where donald trump will be in court in the next few hours, to face criminal charges. that has never happened before and as you'd expect, huge focus on the former president. these are live pictures from manhattan, outside the courthouse. there's a heavy security presence, as you'd imagine. the charges relate to hush money paid to a porn star just before the 2016 election to keep quiet about an affair. donald trump is currently holed up at trump tower with his legal team in the hours before going to manhattan and the courthouse. we will learn the charges themselves

when the indictment is unsealed. in terms of what we're likely to see thejudge has ruled, that the media will be allowed to take still pictures in the courtroom — just before the hearing gets under way — but tv cameras will only be allowed in the corridors outside. let's get the latest from our correspondent gary o'donoghue who is live from outside the court in manhattan where donald trump is due to appear later today. as the clock ticks down, take us through what happens when donald trump arrives where you are, in terms of the process. we trump arrives where you are, in terms of the process.— trump arrives where you are, in terms of the process. we are here at the courthouse _ terms of the process. we are here at the courthouse in _ terms of the process. we are here at the courthouse in lower— terms of the process. we are here at the courthouse in lower manhattan. | the courthouse in lower manhattan. he will be taken into the building. at that point he gets arrested. let's be clear about that. he is arrested. they will then do some processing, booking him in the american parlance, they will take his fingerprints, we don't know

whether they will take his dna and mugshot, there is some doubt about that but once those administrative details are taken care of you will be down the hallway and into the courtroom on the 15th floor. do know that there will be television cameras, reporters, allowed in those always, and some suggestion from mr trump �*s lawyers that he may decide to speak to reporters on that little journey to the courtroom. we are also seeing this morning one development that the former president is calling on the authorities to move any trial out of manhattan and onto staten island and the significance of that is that staten island really is probably the only area of new york city, in the five boroughs, that has any republican support. he believes he would not get a fair trial in manhattan and in a sense manhattan

is a very democratic place. that is one development. more than that it is an indication of things to come that he and his defence team will be making all sorts of motions in the coming months, perhaps even to have the case dismissed, charges reduced, etc etc, as a way ofjamming things up etc etc, as a way ofjamming things up to some degree. once he gets into the courtroom the charges will be read to him. that is the first time we will see the detail of those charges. you will enter a pleas on those charges and at that point he will be released and head back to florida. —— he will enter a plea. fist florida. —— he will entera plea. at that point we get to see the indictment unsealed and learn the real detail of what is in there, in terms of charges. it is real detail of what is in there, in terms of charges.— real detail of what is in there, in terms of charges. it is going to be interesting- _ terms of charges. it is going to be interesting. we _ terms of charges. it is going to be interesting. we are _ terms of charges. it is going to be interesting. we are hearing - terms of charges. it is going to be interesting. we are hearing all. interesting. we are hearing all sorts of rumours and all sorts of rumours have been wrong in the last couple of weeks, i have to tell you, but rumours of up to three dozen

charges. if you think about it, what we are dealing with here is allegations about a bunch of payments reimbursing meikle: his formerfixerfor payments reimbursing meikle: his former fixer for this lump sum, this $130,000 paid to stormy daniels, the pornographic movie star, and each of those relates to payments, so you could see how you might get those multiples of charges. the real question is which of these would be what we call in the us misdemeanours, in other words crimes, but of a lesser severity, carrying lesser penalties are possibly only up to a maximum of one yearin possibly only up to a maximum of one year in prison and which of them will be felonies, which are more serious crimes carrying longerjail terms possibly in this case after four years. the balance of misdemeanour and felony will be as crucial in this and if there are

significant felonies involved people will wonder what this was all about —— if they are are not significant felonies involved. we -- if they are are not significant felonies involved.— -- if they are are not significant felonies involved. we will keep an e e on felonies involved. we will keep an eye on those _ felonies involved. we will keep an eye on those pictures _ felonies involved. we will keep an eye on those pictures from - felonies involved. we will keep an eye on those pictures from trump j eye on those pictures from trump tower as well, any movement and we will return immediately to those pictures. i've been speaking to david aronberg, state attorney for palm beach county, florida, where donald trump is now based and tom del beccaro, a former chairman of the california republican party and author of �*the divided era: how we got here and the keys to america's reconciliation�*. this was their take. it is momentous but i don't think it is going to be momentous for long. it will be an easy, quick hearing today and there was word he may not even take a mug shot. there will not be cameras broadcasting so i think it will be relatively uneventful and although it is an unprecedented day where you have the first former

american president indicted, it will not be the last time we get through this. i predict that georgia will indict trump next followed by the federal government. we'll talk about other cases and i'll return to that in a moment what you predicted that donald trump would be indicted with all of this. tell me why. yes, i felt the easy thing was the indictment. it is harder to know what comes next. the reason it was an easy prediction is that there have been investigation swirling around the former president for some time and this investigation has been going on for five years. i knew it was coming when they invited donald trump to appear before the grand jury. something prosecutors do when the investigation is about to end. when you're about to indict the target, you invite them, you don't need them to show up if you're not going to go ahead with an indictment. i thought this day would come. it was a question of when.

it's surprised of former president because he lives in a bubble and he was believing his own lines about the grand jury was going to free and reject it but the evidence is there and we will see what the accounts are. ——counts. donald trump facing four potential cases, you referenced to the georgia case. this was possibly the weakest of the four, you had said, but not a weak case. explain what you meant by that. the best case against donald trump is over the mar—a—lago documents. a direct tie between trump and the documents, the criminality there, the strongest case against him, find those 11,780 votes, that is pretty damaging. third in involving january 6th, the riots that day. his role in that there

still to be determined. it is not as clear there is a direct connection between him and the violence so that is a little weaker and then forth would be this one and the reason i think this one is for is because it is based on reports resting on an uncertain legal theory, the theory is that a state prosecutor can charge, under federal campaign laws, campaign finance laws. he ran for president 2016. that is a federal office, can a state prosecutor charged based on violations of a federal campaign law? not so sure. in terms of the politics, do you think this helps donald trump politically? definitely helps him within the republican primary. the republican base is trump's base. the hard core voters will be outraged by this. he has already raised millions from this. ron desantis his top challenger has fallen by the wayside but this

makes him less likely to ever become president again in a general election. being indicted is not a good thing. being indicted multiple times is a terrible thing. this almost ensures that he will become the republican nominee for president and ensures that he will not become president again. i'll come to tom in a moment. david, let me ask you, we will get the detail of the charges when the indictment is unsealed. you are saying that you potentially thought that it could go beyond simply hush money payments. why do you think that? i thought because the long term cfo jennifer weisenburg, testified before the grand jury and she would not know much about stormy daniels but about the internal finances of the trump organisation so i thought there would be some more financial crimes in here. from what i hear it might be just about the hush money payments.

if that is the case then the case is not as strong as i thought it could be but we will have to see, we just don't know yet. it will all become clear in the next few hours. some of the detail that everyone is focused on. let's bring in tom de baccaro. i asked david his headline thoughts, what are yours on a day like today? well, this is a dramatic increase in the criminalisation of politics in america. we need to remember that alvin bragg campaigned on charging trump, equivalent to what the bill of attainder system was in england under king george which is one of the reasons why we have the third and fourth amendment in the united states which was, politically motivated actions, and that is where we are today. remember, democrats in texas indicted rick perry when he was trying to run for president. that was eventually thrown out, but it had an effect.

that is what we are here today about. this is one of their tools now, sadly, in politicking, which is using the states, notjust the do] and the fbi but the states, to charge candidates, and if you look at this from 30,000ft and don't take a partisan view, if the republican simply say that donald trump shouldn't run because he has been indicted, then the democrats will have succeeded and they will have an incentive to do this again and again and that is what is so troubling. you talk about politicisation but a central plank is that no one is above the law, including the president. you accept that as the central foundation of american justice, don't you? yes, but that is not what we have today if you consider the fact that there is a two—tiered justice system.

a cnn poll out yesterday found 70% of the americans in a poll said they think this is politically motivated and that is a cnn poll. the notion that everyone is equal under the law is no longer in effect when we consider how motivated, i wrote about this, last year at fox, that the fbi and do] have their thumb on the scales ofjustice in a political way and they want to determine who can be present and you cannot. ——be president. remember that an investigation into hillary clinton, that was reopened against her in 2016, she thought that harmed her chances, we can debate that, in terms of this being a fair trial, this was evidence heard by the grand jury, that is ordinary americans who think there is substance here. well, keep in mind that during this process, the prosecutor only has to show favourable, one—sided evidence.

it is also taking place in new york, which is a very democrat state. if that same evidence was presented in a very republican state, you would have a difference in outcome. surely you cannot say that a republican cannot get a fair trial in the state of new york. that would be extraordinary. you're not saying that, are you? it is extraordinary, the fact that this man campaigned on charging a president. it is extraordinary. it has never happened in american history. if it is only about this issue of the payment i have yet to see a scholar who would say the statue of limitations applies or that there is case law precedent that you can go back to a federal crime at a state office, so it is extraordinary. i have been an attorney 35 years, this is not the normal course.

so it is extraordinary what is going on and do i think the legal system can be abused? that is the history of mankind where massive governments have corruption within theirjudicial systems. i was listening tojohn bolton yesterday who of course fell out out with donald trump but worked his administration. he said this boils down to character. he made the observation it was interesting that none of the people who support donald trump say listen, in terms of what is being accused, it doesn't sound like the sort of thing that donald would do. he said that it is patently absent in what we are seeing. that may well be, but when john edwards used up to $1 million in campaign funds, and he decided that wasn't a crime, you don't even have campaign funds being used here. so, this is not a crime which they can bootstrap, but this is a political motivated

action, lest we would not have these things going on dating back to rick perry and even before. a final question, i wonder if you would agree with the former attorney general william barr, you are saying yesterday that if he was in the legal team he would not put donald trump in the dock, in the stand, he was simply unreliable. do you agree with that thought, if you were there involved in his criminal defence? i do not know all of the ins and outs of the factual matters in this regard. this entire case rests on michael cohen who disgraced the legal system because he is an attorney exposing and has been for months, the private statements of his own client. in 35 years i have never considered doing something like this. i want to be very clear to the audience. i don't care where you are when way or another in donald trump in this

discussion, that is an individual, four years from now he will not be part of this one way or the other but, what does this do the the american system going forward? that is what matters and this is a terrible precedent in that regard. those are pictures from the park opposite the courthouse with some of the supporters of donald trump gathered behind those barriers, and the mayor of new york eric adams was warning donald trump supporters last night to keep the peace. he said that there might be some rabble—rousers coming to our city tomorrow but our message is clear and simple, control yourselves. those are some of those supporters that are gathered there, away from the process, and the opposite of what is on the screen now but in the hours to come we will see donald

trump move from the trump tower to the courthouse to begin criminal proceedings. all of this you can follow on the bbc�*s live page. you had there and as you scroll through, all of the latest details, you will get the live pictures from trump tower, outside the courthouse, and those warnings directed to republican representatives, as it scrolls through, she was named directly by the mayor, and responded. all of that playing out over the next few hours. huge legal importance in terms of former us president going on trial, for the first time, in the face of criminal charges. that is the latest. plenty of detail there on the bbc�*s live page. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. wendy and ian have been

married for 36 years, and they've got two children and three grandchildren but everything changed in 2014, when ian was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia atjust 50 years old. in 2013 he was behaving in a bit of a strange way. we didn't think he was ill, wejust thought there was something wrong. i actually thought my marriage was breaking down, because he seemed to ruin everything that we were trying to do. frontotemporal dementia mainly affects people between the ages of 45 and 65, and symptoms can include personality and behaviour changes and problems with language and mental focus. wendy is pleased that there has been more awareness surrounding frontotemporal dementia, since the actor bruce willis has been diagnosed with it. if there is celebrities out there that can promote this, that's fantastic. there is still no cure or even a way of slowing the disease down, but wendy hopes that more awareness will help those living with it and their families.

you are live with bbc news. our other main story... finland has become the 31st member of nato — what the head of the alliance has described as a historic day. these are the latest pictures of the flag hoist at the accession ceremony a short while ago. the move to join the military alliance was prompted by russia's invasion of ukraine. moscow has responded by saying the finland—nato alliance increases the risk of conflict and that it will strengthen its military presence in the region. earlier, the head of the military alliance, jens stoltenberg, spoke about the accession. president putin wanted to slam nato's door shut. today, we show the world that he failed. that aggression and intimidation do not work. instead of less nato, he has

achieved the opposite, more nato. rasmus hindren is head of international relations — from the european centre of excellence for countering hybrid threats — called the accession a win—win for both nato and finland. it's basically a win—win proposition. for finland a lot changes but a lot stays the same as well. finland has always invested a lot in defence. it has a good military capability, but also a general sense among the population about the need to defend the country, if it comes to that. so for nato, it's also a big thing. because nato gets a new ally that has good capabilities, but it also has a good democratic credentials and it's a stable country. so that's how it's a win—win.

in scotland, a community sentence — no jail time — handed down to a man who raped a 13—year—old schoolgirl when he was 17, has been described as "extraordinary" by a leading kc. sean hogg, now 21, attacked the girl in midlothian, on various occasions in 2018. tommy ross kc said the 270—hour community sentence was "very unusual" and punishment has also been condemned by rape crisis scotland, who said it was "inexplicable". live now to our scotland correspondent james shaw. it correspondent james shaw. seems absolutely extr understand it seems absolutely extraordinary,. understand this case, you have to understand the sentencing guidelines forjudges in scotland were changed last year. in 2022, for people under 25, judges were advised they should emphasise the rehabilitation aspect

of sentencing more than they should the punishment aspect. so if the judge thought there was a chance of an offender being rehabilitated, then they should, the sentence should bear that in mind and that seems to be what this judge, lord lake, has done. it seems that the thought of looking at the reports and evidence that he saw, that there was a chance of rehabilitation for sean hogg. sean hogg was 17 when these offenders that offences were carried out. now he's 21 but he was not an adult at the time and these guidelines do apply, particularly to people who were under the age of 18 as well as under the age of 25 so that it as well as under the age of 25 so thatitis as well as under the age of 25 so that it is the justification from the judge's that it is the justification from thejudge's point that it is the justification from the judge's point of view but there has been a lot of reaction to this case in scotland today. i has been a lot of reaction to this case in scotland today.— has been a lot of reaction to this case in scotland today. i read out the uuote case in scotland today. i read out the quote from _ case in scotland today. i read out the quote from rape _ case in scotland today. i read out the quote from rape crisis - case in scotland today. i read out. the quote from rape crisis scotland, has the family put their statement

out? is there any chance the authorities will try to overturn this? ~ ., ., ., ., this? we have not heard from the family back _ this? we have not heard from the family back from _ this? we have not heard from the family back from a _ this? we have not heard from the family back from a raft _ this? we have not heard from the family back from a raft of- this? we have not heard from the family back from a raft of people, from the harry potter writerjk rowling, who comments quite a lot on feminist issues and issues affecting women. she tweeted today that this might be seen by young men in scotland as a message going out that the first time is free, that people might think they can get away from these —— get away with these kind of crimes after seeing a sentence like this. the conservative party in scotland warned that there was a danger in these guidelines, that they might lead to difficult cases like this. you will be sent must be reconsidered? the prosecution reconsidered ? the prosecution service reconsidered? the prosecution service in scotland, the crown office, have said they are looking at this sentence. they may seek to appeal it on the basis that it is too lenient but, in order to do

that, they have to decide that the judge has gone beyond what he was supposed to do within the guidelines, so we don't yet know what decision they are going to take. , . , what decision they are going to take. �* . , ,, . what decision they are going to take. , . , ,, ., ., ~ what decision they are going to take. �* . , ,, . . ~ i., ., take. james shaw, thank you for the latest on that _ take. james shaw, thank you for the latest on that extraordinary - take. james shaw, thank you for the latest on that extraordinary story. i british boxer amir khan has been banned for two years after an anti—doping test revealed the presence of ostirine. the drug has similar effects to testosterone and was found in his system following his fight against kell brook in february 2022. while khan retired from boxing in may, he accepted he broke anti—doping rules but said it was not intentional. an independent tribunal accepted that argument, ruling out "deliberate or reckless conduct" by the 36—year—old. footage has been shared by chester zoo, capturing the moment its sumatran tiger cubs take a first adventure out of their den. look at that, fantastic pictures. twins enjoying some rough—and—tumble

under the watchful eye of their mum, kasarna. i'll be back with the latest headlines on a moment. don't go away. hello. well, let's see how the weather is looking for the rest of the day. for most of us, actually, not bad at all. bright, if not sunny weather, particularly across england and wales. not necessarily the case in scotland and northern ireland. we're closer to a weather front here and, in fact, rain is expected in some areas if it hasn't reached you already. but england and wales is under the influence of high pressure. you can see it here close to denmark and this sort of nose shape stretching towards the southwest. talking about noses, also high pollen levels across parts of england and wales through the course of today. and these levels will vary as we go through the rest of the week. now here are the temperatures,

end of the afternoon typically 11 to 1a degrees. here's that thicker cloud and the outbreaks of rain reaching northern ireland, western and northern scotland, perhaps a few spits and spots of rain through the early hours reaching wales too. but the bulk of england should be dry and clear into the evening and overnight. and once again a touch of frost on the way, particularly across east anglia and the south east. elsewhere it is going to be mild because we are close to weather fronts. in fact, the weather fronts are right over us. when you're in between weather fronts like this, that means there's a fair amount of mild air stuck. so tomorrow, wednesday, we're calling ita mild, damp, cloudy day for many areas across northern and western parts of the country. you can see that weather front makes more progress northwards, not so much eastwards. so it does look as though in norwich and in london it should be dry for the bulk of the day on wednesday. let's have a look at thursday. the weather front will have swept through the country. behind it, more of a northwesterly breeze. so things are going to feel a little bit cooler on thursday, a bit more sunny spells around

and notice a few showers dotted around in the wake of that weather front, which will be sweeping through wednesday night into thursday. and then friday, the weekend and into next week, it does look as though we pick up these south—westerlies — that is going to draw in much milder air from the south. the weather will settle down as well. so if we look at the outlook, it does look as though things are going to turn quite a bit milder —14,15,16 degrees. possibly the high teens across the south of the country. a little bit more changeable further north. bye— bye.

live from london. this is bbc news drama in new york — donald trump is due in court to face criminal charges — we're there live. this is the scene in manhattan — tight security outside the courthouse where the former president will appear in the next few hours. finland joins nato, becoming its 31st member — spurred on, by russia's invasion of ukraine. president putin wanted to slam nato's door shut. today we show the world that he failed. tiktok is fined more than £12 million for failing to protect the privacy of children in the uk.