live from washington, this is bbc news. lawmakers in the us state of montana approve a state—wide ban on the chinese social media app tiktok. 21—year—old jack teixeira appears in court in boston, over a huge leak of secret government documents. and the us supreme court temporarily prevents new limits coming into force on the abortion pill mifepristone. hello, i'm carl nasman. thanks forjoining us. we start with some breaking news. lawmakers in the us state of montana have approved a first—of—its—kind bill to ban

tiktok state—wide, setting the stage for future court battles that could determine the fate in the us of the popular social media app, which is owned by china. joining me now is the bbc�*s helena humphrey to help break this down for us. we have seen some bands on government devices in the us or in other countries, but this bill would ban tiktok use for every day citizens, not sounds like it is unprecedented. this is a pivotal — like it is unprecedented. this is a pivotal moment, - like it is unprecedented. “m 3 is a pivotal moment, because this is the first bill of its kind in the states, in the country, it marks the for this step a state government has taken to restrict tiktok use over perceived security concerns. remember, this is eddie time when some federal lawmakers are calling for a nationwide ban, but you will remember that very tense hearing we had on capitol hill last month in march, when we had the ceo of tiktok answer questions about whether chinese tech company could be taking

uses data and handing it directly to the government in beijing and reciprocally then that being used to push propaganda from beijing and today we have now seen montana lawmakers acting, voting to ban it 54-43 lawmakers acting, voting to ban it 54—15 and he goes to the governor's desk to sign off. this bill has been approved, we are waiting for the governor there, but if this ban would go into effect, how would that work? it into effect, how would that work? , ., ., work? it is important to say we have not heard _ work? it is important to say we have not heard from _ work? it is important to say we have not heard from the - have not heard from the governor's people, but if the governor's people, but if the governor signed off, we could expect to come into force from generate 202a. essentially it would be fines of 10,000 us dollars per day per violation. it is important to stress this is for the app store hosting tiktok as opposed to individual users themselves, but we did see the governor ban tiktok for government devices and urging the university system in montana to do the same. it did

follow suit, but it is difficult to know i would be enforced, because opponents point out that residents may use a vpn to continue accessing. use a vpn to continue accessinu. , ., , ., accessing. interesting, and you mentioned _ accessing. interesting, and you mentioned the _ accessing. interesting, and you mentioned the ceo _ accessing. interesting, and you mentioned the ceo of- accessing. interesting, and you mentioned the ceo of tiktok. accessing. interesting, and you i mentioned the ceo of tiktok had beenin mentioned the ceo of tiktok had been in capitol hill testifying before lawmakers, the company has been on something other charm offensive. we've seen advertising campaigns. what have we heard recently from tiktok this particular legislation?- tiktok this particular leaislation? ~ legislation? tiktok reacted immediately. _ legislation? tiktok reacted immediately. a _ legislation? tiktok reacted i immediately. a spokesperson said we will continue to fight for tiktok users and creators in montana whose livelihoods and first amended rights are threatened by this government overreach, pointing to freedom of speech, but also as you heard there, livelihoods. we could expect others to mount legal challenges. just bear in mind thousands of people have revenue streams, influencers, from using tiktok.— revenue streams, influencers, from using tiktok. iver popular a . . l from using tiktok. iver popular a- -, not from using tiktok. iver popular app. notjust — from using tiktok. iver popular app. notjust in _ from using tiktok. iver popular app, notjust in the _ from using tiktok. iver popular app, notjust in the united - app, notjust in the united states but across the road —— a very popular app. helena

humphrey, joining us to break that down. thank you. we'll have more on this story next hour — we'll speak to a tiktok influencer based in montana. staying in the us, where 21—year—old jack teixeira has appeared in a boston court accused of leaking highly—sensitive military intelligence. mr teixeira is a us national guardsman and was arrested by heavily armed agents at his home in massachusetts on thursday. he's reported to be the leader of an online chat group where the classified documents were shared, including sensitive details on the war in ukraine. barbara plett usher has more. jack teixeira's parents left the courthouse without commenting. they'd watched their son face charges that could lead to many years in prison. he is a national guardsman, a video gamer, and now the chief suspect in a major intelligence leak. he gave up without a fight when the fbi knocked on his door. to his neighbours, he was just a regular guy. i've seen him walking around, hanging out with a kind

of group that always want to go in the military. they were also big into video games. so i'm not surprised it would have been over minecraft and stuff. but ijust find it's crazy. i think it's nuts. nothing like this has happened around here. this is a very small community, everybody knows each other. these are some of the documents he revealed — sensitive secrets about american allies, assessments about the weaknesses in ukraine's fight with russia. jack douglas teixeira worked in the intelligence wing of the massachusetts air national guard. he was an it specialist in a relativelyjunior position. he has been identified as the leader of an online chat group where the leaked documents first emerged. they were posted on discord, a social media platform popular with video gamers. the group teixeira led reportedly had some two dozen members, including foreigners, who talked about war games and shared racist jokes. but us officials were not aware of the leak until material was posted outside the chat group on other platforms, like message board 4chan, messaging app telegram,

and eventually twitter. but teixeira's friends said he wasn't trying to undermine the government. any claims that he is a russian operative or pro—russian is categorically false. he is not interested in helping any foreign agencies with their attack on the us or other countries. he was a young charismatic man who loved nature, god, who loved shooting guns and racing cars. washington is facing a major diplomatic embarrassment and the pentagon is investigating how such a low ranking officer could cause such a high—profile intelligence leak. what makes this particular leak of classified information so unique and so damaging, in many other instances we've had in the past where there has been a leak of classified information, it is dated, it is old information, or it's about sort of broader programmes. that doesn't mean it's not

sensitive or damaging, but the point is, it is not incident specific. what you have here is classified information that is about real—time national security foreign policy issues, military conflicts. it is the third big leak in 13 years. the us needs to convince allies it can keep its secrets. barbara plett usher, bbc news, boston. jack teixeira is being charged under the espionage act. he faces one count of "unauthorised retention and transmission of national defence information" as well as one count of "unauthorised removal and retention of classified documents or material". if found guilty of those charges, mr teixeira faces up to 15 years in prison. for more on this, i spoke earlier to congressman jim himes, who serves as the top democrat on the house intelligence committee. congressman, thank you so much forjoining us. i think the first question

on many peoples' mind right now is, how did a 21—year—old national guardsman, relativelyjunior position, how did he have access to such highly classified material? yeah, thank you for having me. and it is really not a function of the individual�*s age. we charge 21—year—olds with leading combat troops, we put a lot of faith in our young people. it is more a question of, did an obscure networkjourneyman, i guess was his title, in massachusetts, did that individual need to have actual access to these documents to do the network maintenance or administration that was required? why in the world was he permitted to print these documents? so there are very serious questions about why this system is set up to permit what happened to happen, but they're not so much his age, it is the permissions inside these systems. presumably, he would not be the only one of his rank

or of his age who have access to this kind of information. and just to remind everybody, this had to do with military preparedness, america's allies and enemies, as well as very specific information about russia and ukraine and the war there. so why was someone like him in his position able to access, print out and then share these documents? this is the question. and as a member of congress and a senior member of the intelligence committee charged with oversight of these things, i can tell you that is the question that we will be asking. and by the way it is not a new question. edward snowden, who in excess of ten years ago, had a similar story, as far as he was a network administrator. and edward snowden, he had been fired or moved on from differentjobs for underperformance,

so there you had behavioural issues, but similar issue more than ten years ago. how is it possible that more was not done to plug a leak that we had already catastrophically witnessed? in your opinion, how damaging is this leak? well, it's hard to say, because first of all, it appears the documents may have been manipulated, and i do caution people not to assume what they are seeing online is accurate. i also caution people that i have spent a decade plus around intelligence reports. just because the cia or the pentagon assesses something does not mean it is true, meaning they often will make assessments with lower levels of confidence. but i am particularly animated at this issue because the potential damage is in no way abstract. much of this issue would pertain to the fight happening right now in ukraine where, showing unbelievable fortitude, the ukrainians fighting off a brutal russian invasion, and if this does result in russians getting wind of how some of the intelligence is gathered, this could mean more fatalities and more tragedy on the battlefield,

so, yeah, this is a particularly ugly one. is there a deeper problem? and what would that problem be? this is notjust us defence material or leaks coming from intelligence agencies, this appears to be a broader problem across multiple different areas of us government. yeah, it is, it is. look, this is not a problem you will everfix in its entirety, edward snowden, now this individual teixeira, reality winter. they printed out documents and carried them out of the facility. this is an underlying tension, that intelligence is most unstable when it is widely shared, and one of the lessons of 9/11 was that our intelligence community was not sharing enough information. in that case, cia and fbi were not talking to each other. that can lead to tragic outcomes, but the more you share information, the more the possibility that one individual can blow that information. there are these two things... we need to see with the facts

of the case are, but there are two things we have to do. number one, look at the culture. i want to understand why the culture was so lackadaisical at this base in massachusetts. i want to know what the culture was in the presidential transition. box bowls of the very classified documents finding their way to mar—a—lago. it is a technological issue and a leadership issue. computers are very sophisticated today, they can keep records and stuff, and i do not think we are doing very well in that regard either. is the us... because we know this was not a traditional leak, this was not the way that edward snowden did things, sneaking things out on a thumb drive, this involved a platform called discord, is the us prepared for what could be a new era of digital leaking that may not involve whistle—blowers, it may not involve spies, even, this could, as we think we know now, just may be a 21—year—old individual who may not have had

an agenda and wanted to share some documents online with some buddies? yeah, we will never run out of motives for why an individual will make a bad decision and betray his country, ultimately. the traditional motives have been ideological, they have been money, sex. this time, it is apparently impressing other people, and what is ironic about this is it was the lowest of low—tech leaks. printing things out and then carrying about in your pocket — there is nothing 21st—century high—tech about that. and it reminds us, again, we spend a lot of time and energy defending against very sophisticated cyber attacks and network exploitation by our enemies, but we need to remember and not lose sight of the fact you can stick this stuff in your pocket and walk out the door. jim himes, ranking member of the house intelligence committee, thank you for your time. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news.

ukrainian youngsters and their english friends just being children. i'm so glad that i'm here and i'm safe here and it's so nice. the easter camp has been organised by the change foundation. it's about seeing them just hang out with their friends and having conversations. rewind a year, we was all on our phones using google translate. now it's like we're actually getting more interaction, they're teaching us things. it's just amazing seeing how it develops and grows. the two—day event is a world away from the fighting in ukraine. the war, which broke out a year ago, is preparing for a spring surge following a winter of stalemate and stagnation. back in burgess hill, parents are just thankful their children are safe. it brings her to life again. she is not afraid of big of loud noises from outside, —— she is not afraid of loud noises from outside,

and i think it will help her to be friends with more and more people. you're live with bbc news. a new development concerning abortion medication in the us. the us supreme court justice samuel alito has temporarily extended access to the highly—contested abortion drug mifepristone while the court considers the case. this comes after two courts, one in washington state and one in texas, issued conflicting rulings on access to the abortion pill last week — leading to the supreme court weighing in. the white house has said they plan "to fight to restore the protections of roe v wade". the stay expires midnight on wednesday. our correspondent jessica parker has more. this was an 11th—hour ruling by the supreme courtjustice alito, basically preventing changes that were on the verge of coming into force from doing so, at least for now.

now, what had been about to happen across the us, in states where abortion remains legal, is that women were not going to be able to take mifepristone, which is typically used as part of a two—drug regimen beyond seven weeks of pregnancy — it's a very widely used method of abortion, actually used in the majority of cases — nor were they going to be able to order the drug by mail, have it delivered by mail. those changes, though, those restrictions are not coming into force for now. that's despite a week of headlines and uncertainty. and to some extent, the uncertainty does continue because this is just a temporary halt to changes or restrictions on mifepristone — in fact, actually only in place, as things stand, for the next five days. there have been at least 149 mass shootings in the us since the start of the year. and now experts are concerned over so—called "ghost guns". these are untraceable firearms that can be built with parts acquired online. despite federal rules regulating them and a dozen states banning them, anyone, without a background check, can still build a ghost gun.

earlier, i spoke with our north america correspondent nada tawfik, who has been investigating. there are still so many americans who are unaware of what a ghost gun is, and it is such a divisive issue for those who are passionate about it. for law enforcement and gun—control advocates, they say that this is the fastest growing gun safety problem that the united states faces right now and that it will soon become an international problem. if you look here in new york, it was just a few years ago, back in 2018, when they recovered only about 17 ghost guns. fast—forward to 2021, and they had more than 250 ghost guns recovered from crime scenes. if you go speak to gun rights groups, they say that this whole issue is being exaggerated, so i wanted to speak to all sides for myself. take a look. targeting gun violence just got harder for law enforcement. at this centre, run by the bureau of alcohol, tobacco,

firearms and explosives, ballistic evidence is evaluated and matched to crime scenes — a central part of cracking down on the illegal use of and trafficking of firearms. well, they don't have serial numbers on them. but a growing phenomenon, so—called ghost guns that are unregistered and untraceable, has added a new layer of complexity. in my hand is a ghost gun and it looks, feels, shoots like a regular traceable weapon. the problem is these are now flooding the streets and on crime scenes, it is increasingly ghost guns that are recovered. the number of ghost guns recovered has risen more than 1,000% since 2017. but because they do not have serial numbers, there is no way to knowjust how many are in circulation, making them the fastest growing gun safety problem according to experts. they are kind of hard to trace. because the firearms are ultimately identified by the frame itself. online, anyone can buy parts without a background check. tutorials explain how

to assemble the pieces into a fully functioning firearm in less than one hour. it was a 17—year—old who had this gun. yeah. manuel yambo had never heard of a ghost gun until his daughter was killed by one according to prosecutors. angellyh was one block from her school in the bronx in new york when she and two other teens got caught in the crossfire of a gunfight. angellyh wasn't the target, it was somebody else. he didn't even hit none of them. you would think that things like that, you know, you can'tjust, you know, order it online, like if it was a toy. who do you think holds the blame? where is the problem here? i'm going to say the manufacturers. loren kelly is a ghost gun manufacturer. he feels for angellyh�*s family, but despite data showing firearms are the leading cause of death for american children, he is against government regulation. people need to separate

in their minds violence and guns, they have to separate them. they are often times in certain situations related because it's an implement used, but violence is a thing unto itself. it's a distinction this family does not make. angellyh died just a few months after her 16th birthday. they are now hoping to turn their personal tragedy into something positive, with a foundation in her name to prevent the loss of another child. nada tawfik, bbc news, new york. nada, we heard there in the piece about some of the dangers of ghost guns. how are us states addressing that? here in new york, where i am, they actually issued a ban against ghost guns, along with about a dozen other states, and what they've done is worked with task forces

to try to really target some of these rings. so if you lookjust back in the last few months, from december to march, they already dismantled two different drug trafficking and ghost gun and regular gun rings. in march, they recovered 12 ghost guns. in december, they removed 51 ghost guns, so new york says that they are making sure to go after this as best they can, because, remember, they're unsure exactly how many ghost guns are out there, and anyone who cannot get a gun legally, this is a very attractive option for them. so law enforcement has to stay on top of this, they say, to make sure that communities remain safe. new york also want to stop ghost gun manufacturers, ten of them, from selling unfinished frames and receivers. here in new york, they have a lawsuit against those manufacturers, but what experts are saying despite bans in states, despite the biden administration putting several regulations in place,

you see often times that a lot of these traffickers are just going to other states, and then bringing the guns into new york. that is what we saw happen in those instances i mentioned. meanwhile, we know that the nra conference is taking place, today and into the weekend. former president donald trump spoke earlier. let's hear what he had to say earlier at the conference. the politically incorrect truth that no—one on the left wants to admit is that violent crime is really committed by legal gun owners, it is committed by a brutal class of hardened repeat criminals. that's who's doing it. nada, we heard there from the president talking about illegal versus legal guns. what do the statistics say on the issue? when you look at gun violence as a whole, in this country, it is a very intricate picture. we have more than half of deaths by suicide,

for example, but when you look at homicides in this country by guns, in proportion to other countries, the united states still ranks very high. so what you have, conservatives, republicans saying, and what you heard the former president donald trump saying there is that america does not have a gun problem. if you look at mass shootings, for example, they say that this is more of a mental health issue, there are societal and cultural issues here, it is not about guns. on the other side of the aisle, those who want tighter restrictions to access guns say that america is not necessarily a more violent society than any others, it always points back to the number of guns that are in this country. there are more guns than people in america, and we now know that guns are the leading cause of american teens and children. so what they're saying is that, yes, while there are other issues, in inner cities, when you talk about poverty, for example, those are all issues as well, but what they want to do

is make sure that guns are out of the hands of those who should not have them, whether it be those who could be harmful to themselves with mental health issues, whether it be the criminal element. but again we just see that guns remain such a divisive issue in this country that reaching a middle point to solve a lot of the crime we have really gets bogged down in more of these ideological debates about the right of gun owners and the fear that those who want to place more restrictions just want to take away their rights. an emotional time as well, coming a couple of days after two separate mass shootings. going back to that nra convention, donald trump not the only big—name there — a full roster of 2024 presidential hopefuls. what have they been saying? it was quite striking to see the full line—up. we had the former vice president mike pence. he was there on stage. interestingly, he got a few boos from the crowd. it was clearly a pro—trump

crowd there at the nra. they gave the former president a standing ovation. but we also heard from the florida governor ron desantis, who has not announced he is running but many expect that he will, along with the former un ambassador nikki haley, the senatorfrom south carolina, tim scott. all of them really reaffirmed that they are staunch gun rights advocates and promised to the crowd that if they made it to the white house, they would fight against what they call the liberal agenda to take away people's lawful gun rights. so, really interesting to see the campaign speech tone in all of those addresses to the nra, but itjust really underscores how much these republicans covet the endorsement of this influential base of the party. the bbc�*s nada tawfik, thank you very much for your reporting. and you can find more of nada's reporting on

guns on our website. i'm carl nasman. stay with bbc news. hello. this weekend will bring a change in the weather. we're not talking about a heat wave, we're not talking about wall—to—wall sunshine, but something a little warmer the reason is high pressure, which will be building its way in. this frontal system across eastern counties of england and south—east scotland will provide some cloud and some splashes of rain to start the morning. this cloud will tend to break up through the day, although there is still the chance of one or two showers across eastern england and into eastern scotland. further west, a slice of sunshine. but then we will see cloud rolling into northern ireland and maybe some rain into western counties later on in the day. temperatures, well, a little higher than they have been

of late, 10 degrees in lerwick, 15 perhaps as the high in glasgow. and then as we head through saturday night, we will see this zone of cloud with some areas of rainfall moving across northern ireland. and then turning cloudy for many other western parts as well, where we keep some clear skies towards the south—east corner, well, there could be a touch of frost in one or two locations and also some fog patches to start sunday morning. milder out towards the west, where we will have more cloud thanks to this frontal system. but broadly speaking, high pressure is still just about in charge. there's not going to be a huge amount of rain. and while some eastern coasts will struggle temperature—wise, further west, a feed of southerly winds will bring something a little bit warmer. but we will have a fair amount of cloud to contend with, i think, on sunday. best of the sunshine, quite likely to be across northeast scotland, some brighter skies for northern ireland and maybe some brightness clinging on across the south—east corner as well, which could lift temperatures to 16, maybe 17 degrees across the coast of northeast scotland. as we head into monday, perhaps some early fog patches and some cloud lingering for parts of scotland and northern ireland, at least for a time.

and with a feed of easterly winds, temperatures on some of the north sea coasts will struggle a little. 1a degrees for aberdeen and for hull, but further west, highs of 17 or 18 degrees. high pressure stays with us as we head through the coming week. but the alignment, the orientation of this high will tend to bring us an easterly wind, which means these eastern coasts will always be on the chilly side. the highest temperatures further west. but for the most part, it is looking largely dry with some spells of sunshine. bye for now.

this week on the show, we're looking back at some of our favourite travel adventures so far this year, from taking the sting out of a dive with jellyfish in the philippines... gosh, these stingless jellyfish, they look like little mushrooms. we got it! ..to an uphill odyssey on france's mont saint—michel... these are the last steps, ade. are you sure? yes. ..and jumping aboard a balloon with a view in switzerland.

there's something quite magical about being up here.