live from washington, this is bbc news. welcome to viewers on pbs in america. lawmakers in the us state of montana approve a statewide ban on the chinese social media app tiktok. the bill now heads to the governor's desk. 21—year—old jack teixiera appears in court in boston over a huge leak of secret government documents. and us secretary of state antony blinken meets with vietnam's prime minister, hoping to counter china's growing diplomatic power. we'll have more on those stories shorty, but first we want to bring you some breaking news now. the japanese prime minister fumio kishida

was evacuated and is safe after a blast at a speech in wakayama according to reports byjapanese media. nhk is reporting that loud explosions have been heard at the western port where the prime minister was visiting. local media are also reporting that a person has been apprehended. report at the scene, at around 1115 on the 15th, he was visiting a fishing port, he was there according to this report to support the by—election of the house of representatives for the wakayama district wine, and this reporter said an explosion sounded just before he began his speech, and it sounded like something was thrown in and exploded. that is

the reporting from nhk, the broadcaster, it's a moving situation and we will bring you all the latest details on that story as they come into us, but at the moment, that is the information we have that breaking story from japan. montana has become the first us state to pass legislation imposing a total ban on the popular app, tiktok. the bill is the first of its kind, and if signed into law by the montana governor, will almost certainly face legal challenges. under the proposed law, apple and google would have to remove tiktok from their app stores orface the possibility of a $10,000 a day fine for violation. tiktok has denied accusations that it's a tool of the chinese communist party. the company has described the proposed ban as "egregious government overreach". although the ban wouldn't take effect untiljanuary 2024, it would impact thousands of montana tiktok users including tiktok influencers, many of whom depend on the platform to make a living. tell us your reaction to this

move by montana lawmakers. i am just shocked. this is how i make my income, and i am able to help provide for my family, and honestly it really saddens me because i feel like there is not really a reason, there is a lot more behind it, and there are other social media apps that children are using, that they are not safe on, they are not safe on that app, there is a snapchat, instagram, so many other apps these children are using, it is not just tiktok and i feel like that is not a good enough reason for this man to take place, and it's notjust an app for dancing, there are mums just like me who want to be able to stay at home with the children and be able to help provide for their families and this is my only way of income and ijust don't know what i am going to do afterwards. i will come back to the question about safety and what the concerns are about tiktok but can you tell us exactly how exactly you and your family have made

a living off tiktok? basically, when i started, i started with my blogs, and then i had brands reach out to me, and i would give them a rates, and they will pay me after i completed video, through paypal or they will write me a check and that's basically how i get paid. ok, so there were some rumblings of the possibility of montana banning this app. you actually wrote an e—mail to the governor, you try to reach out to the governor. what did you say and what response did you get? i don't think it was the governor himself, i think it was just an automated message pretty much but ijust said what the app meant to me and i am a mother trying to provide for my family and this is my only source of income. basically i went along those lines.

so tiktok does mean a lot to you. we mentioned you have around 95,000 followers, the possibility now with a ban is we could see a fine of $10,000 each day for violating it. do you think people will look for ways to use the platform to get around this band somehow? so there are already some talk about an app called laminate which people lay switching to, and the thing about tiktok that everybody loves is you can reach a wide range of audiences, and you just are put out there more, which is really nice, but everybody has been trying u—tube, instagram, and it is not as good as tiktok i feel. i'm going to ask you about the security aspect because we have been talking to lawmakers who say there is a serious security risk in using tiktok namely that they think the chinese government can have access to your data and use tiktok to disseminate propaganda. are you not worried about these concerns?

i believe that every app we use, they are taking a data, our information, never private, never private, never safe and ijust believe there is way more to this man then they are saying. i don't know... i don't really think... i don't think they are spying, there are a lot of other apps, apple is the same, it is not protected, it's safe, and any app that you use, your information is being used, so that's what i did not understand so... very interesting perspective, one of the influences who uses tiktok regularly, thank you for coming on the programme and sharing your view on this possible ban. we know it is headed to the governor's desk so thanks for being with us on our show.

now we have two guests, our technology reporter at the news outlet, she is joining us from los angeles, and joining me in the studio isjenna maclachlan, what did you make of what we just heard from carly about tiktok and the possible ban? she had some good points. what we're seeing is a reflection of a bipartisan consensus, that china is a national security threat, but also a competitor, so you have to do think of it both ways, it's about economics as much as it is about security, and i think carly was right in suggesting that there are a lot of social media applications that gather a lot of data about you, and being aware of that is really important, whether or not there is a chinese company in charge of it or not, and in addition to that china has already hacked a number of private companies and government entities to include 0pm, so it's not like this is the only source of data.

do you agree? i totally agree, i think that what is really important about what is going on in montana as it is going to set up a precedent for what could happen if the blade and administration were to try and pass a national ban, what you are seeing in montana is the american civil liberties union and other digital rights groups are already saying they are going to question the legality of this, that there are serious legal concerns here about whether or not this law or this bill would violate the first amendment, and i think that's a good indication of why the biden administration has not tried something like this yet, so i think it will be really important to see if the governor of montana signed this law and whether this law is able to hold or it will be unconstitutional in the courts. how difficult will it be to ban tiktok? it would be incredibly difficult for the federal government to say americans cannot use this platform anymore. we don't have a tradition

of that sort of censorship in this country, and i think it would be really difficult from a legislative perspective which is why i think you are seeing a number of other bills both in the congress and in the senate including this act called the restrict act, which is one of the most promising bills right now. basically i think what you are seeing is lawmakers have an understanding that they would need to be new legislation in order to do something like this because the way the first amendment is written makes censoring an online platform and the speech of over 100 million americans really difficult on its face. if we take a look at what the ceo himself has said, he testified as we know to the commerce committee here in washington in march, let's take a look now and what exactly he said, he said we do not believe a band that hurts american small businesses, damages the country's economy, silences the voices of over 150 million americans and reduces competition in an increasingly concentrated market is the solution to a solvable problem. what you make of that?

i think it's fair. if you are thinking clearly about the economics about it, there are plenty of people that advertise and make their money off tiktok. there is a certain group in washington that is thinking of is purely as a national security concern but not everybody can afford to think of it that way. do you think this is also something that other states will follow in terms of following montana's lead on this? i think louise is right in suggesting it will depend on what happens in montana, whether or not this is successful if it's at that kind of president because if somebody sees it is successful, maybe they take that as a lead. let's talk about what we heard from antenna's attorney general, montana is on its way to be the first state in the nation to ban tiktok, glad to report our bill is heading to the governor's desk, it's an incredible step to making sure that we protect montana's privacy. how important are these security concerns, because that is at the centre

of the entire discussion. sure when we talk about privacy and security, those are two things that can be completed but also can be different. young people today have a very different definition of privacy than perhaps a previous generation. there is a sense as we heard from the first interview, that you are aware that your information is out there and what you point out in the public is not really all that private, so maybe people don't really consider that a security concern at all. louise, do you share that thought as well? another thing worth noting is what we are seeing with a lot of the tiktok bills and rhetoric in washington is a view things getting conflated, definitely national security concerns, competition concerns about china, but when i watch the tiktok ceo testified before congress it really dawned on me that this is also about child safety and you are seeing a lot of lawmakers hearing from constituents saying my kid

is depressed and i think it is connected to their activity on social media. that's notjust a conversation about tiktok by any means but i think you are seeing that get conflated, the issue of social media addiction or contributing to mental health problems among younger people, you are seeing they get mixed in with the concerns about china and that's what i'm seeing in montana as well. so there needs to be a more nuanced discussion, both of you are saying. we wa nt we want to remind you again about developing story we're getting details the japanese prime minister evacuated, he is apparently safe after a blast at a speech in wakayama, according to reports by japanese media stuff in the public broadcaster nhk is reporting loud explosions were heard at the western port when the prime minister was visiting and local media and the afp newsagency have also been reporting that a person has been apprehended. we havejust gotten a line and from our

correspondent who is based in tokyo, she wrote what appears to be a smoke bomb was thrown at the prime minister on saturday during his visit to western japan. he was therefore a speech, part of a campaign event, she wrote also the loud explosions could be heard at the port, he was making a campaign speech as we said and the nhk is reporting that one young man has been caught and there were reportedly no injuries on the scene and the prime minister also was able to leave the scene unhurt after the incident. we have also been receiving a video from the public broadcaster nhk, and the bbc has not been able to verify this video yet so we cannot show itjust this video yet so we cannot show it just yet, this video yet so we cannot show itjust yet, we are working on getting it verified but it appears to show several officials who are likely part officials who are likely part of a security detail for the prime minister, who were apprehending the person who apparently is involved in this incident, and they are kind of crowding in on him and they

tackled him to the ground and then remove him from the scene. there was a lot of chaos if you will as people are scurrying around so that is the video that we are seeing on our monitors from nhk, we will try to get that verified and we're still getting a more information coming in also from witnesses, but the video, i will let you know, we are seeing man, part of the security detail, man covered in white uniforms, these very likely could be there on the screens, and we will try to bring this video in, i am understanding right now we will bring it up for you right now if we can so you can see what i am describing to you at the moment. there it is. you can see the gentleman apprehending this person who was at the centre of that scrum, and they are carrying him off the scene, this is the video from nhk, japan �*s public broadcaster, so this is what has happened in

western japan, wakayama, the japanese prime minister was speaking there at a campaign speech for a candidate, and witnesses say they saw a person throwing something in, they saw smoke but it settled in a minute or two, smoke but it settled in a minute ortwo, a smoke but it settled in a minute or two, a few witnesses said it sounded like a paper was thrown in the direction of the prime minister, another witness saying she had a big bang and police are saying that one young man has now been held one young man has now been held on suspicion and that would apparently be the young man who authorities there are carrying off the scene. so a very fast developing situation, a serious situation from what we can tell, we have our correspondent following that for us in tokyo and we will try to bring you more updates and video, more witness reports as they come into us, but for now that is the latest that we know on that story from japan, again we will keep you updated on the latest. at a court in boston today, 21—year—old jack teixeira was officially charged, accused of leaking confidential intelligence and defence documents.

the us airman wore shackles and a prison uniform. he faces the prospect of years in prison. the leaks embarrassed washington and raised fresh questions over the security of classified information. 0ur correspondent barbara plett usher was at the court in boston. the suspect, jack teixeira, appeared in the courthouse behind me and we heard more details about how the investigators tracked him down — that was through the discord messaging platform on which the documents were posted. so, they checked out his billing records and they interviewed some of his social media friends and it was clarified that he does have top—secret clearance because of his role as an it specialist in the intelligence unit of the air national guard, but there are these continuing questions, of course, about how he was able to leak classified documents over time without being detected. there is an investigation into that. president biden has also said that he has ordered the military and intelligence communities to take more steps to secure sensitive information, although he also praised law enforcement for its rapid action.

his parents were in the courtroom. they did not speak to the media but there was a brief exchange with their son, his stepfather said, "i love you, jack," and he responded, "i love you too, dad". he did not make a plea and now he will be detained until the next court hearing which is on wednesday. earlier, my colleague carl nasman spoke to congressmanjim himes, who serves as the top democrat on the house intelligence committee. thank you forjoining us and i think the first question on many minds now is how do the 21—year—old national guardsmen relatively junior 21—year—old national guardsmen relativelyjunior position, how relatively junior position, how did relativelyjunior position, how did he have access to such highly classified material? yeah, thank you for having me, and it's really not a function of the individuals age, we charge 21 —year—olds leading combat troops, we put a lot of faith in our young people, it's more a question of dead and obscure networkjourneyman, i obscure network journeyman, i guess, obscure networkjourneyman, i guess, was his title, in

massachusetts, working for the air national guard, 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 the system is set up to permit to happen what happened but not so much about his age as opposed to what the permissions are inside these systems. presumably, he would not then be the only one of his rank or of his age who would have access to this kind of information and just to remind everybody, this had to do with military preparedness and 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 share these documents?— print out and share these documents? ., , , ., documents? that is the question and as a member _ documents? that is the question and as a member of _ documents? that is the question and as a member of congress, . documents? that is the question and as a member of congress, a | and as a member of congress, 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's not a an automatic question, right? edward snowden, ten years ago, who licked highly classified stuff apparently a similar story inasmuch as he was a network administrator and by the way this is the interesting thing in edward snowden�*s case, he had been fired from or moved on from all sorts of different jobs for underperformance so that you had behavioural issues but again, similar issue, more than ten years ago, i agree for how is it possible more was not done to plug a leak that we had already, you know, catastrophically witnessed? in your opinion, how damaging is this leak? it’s your opinion, how damaging is this leak?— this leak? it's really hard to say because _ this leak? it's really hard to say because first _ this leak? it's really hard to say because first of - this leak? it's really hard to say because first of all, - this leak? it's really hard to say because first of all, it . say because first of all, it appears that the documents may have been manipulated or altered and i think caution people is not assume that they are seeing online is accurate. i also caution people that i spent a decade plus around intelligence reports is because the cia assesses something or the cia assesses something or the pentagon assesses something does not mean that it is true, meaning they often will make

assessments with lower levels of confidence, but i'm particularly animated in this issue because the potential damage is in no way inaudible, much of this material would appear to be to the fight happening right now in ukraine where they are showing unbelievable courage and fortitude and the ukrainians are fighting off a brutal russian invasion and if this doesin russian invasion and if this does in fact result in russians getting wind of how some of the intelligence is gathered, this could mean more fatalities and tragedy on the battlefield so yeah, this is a particularly ugly one. just to remind you of a developing story which we're just getting details on. the japanese prime minister fumio kishida was evacuated and is safe after a blast at a speech in wakayama — that's according to reports by japanese media. nhk is reporting that loud explosions have been heard at the western port where the prime minister was visiting. local media and the afp news agency are also reporting that a person has been apprehended.

we've also heard from our correspondent shaimaa khalil who is based in tokyo and she sent us a note, saying that loud explosions could be heard at this port in lachie, and the prime minister was there on a campaign speech for a candidate who was running their and nhk is reporting one young man has been caught and we have a video we want to show you and we emphasise this video has not been verified by the bbc ——in wakayama. been verified by the bbc --in wakayama-— been verified by the bbc --in wakayama. this is a video that has been put — wakayama. this is a video that has been put online _ wakayama. this is a video that has been put online by - wakayama. this is a video that has been put online by nhk, . wakayama. this is a video that i has been put online by nhk, the public broadcaster, so we have not been able to verify this yet but as you can see it appears that authorities there at this port in wakayama are apprehending someone. witnesses said that they heard a bang and saw smoke, it settled quickly. another witness said that sounded like someone through something like a pipe at the prime minister. you can see here officials and authorities appear to be apprehending what witnesses say was a young man

who was at the centre of this group of security officials there. it appears to be the entire scene, you can see the people are leaving the scene. as we heard from shaimaa khalil, our correspondent who sent us this note, she says the prime minister was taken away unhurt and then these scenes unfolded. nhk is the main japanese broadcaster, of course, and these images are coming from nhk and again, we have not been able to ourselves verify them, but nhk has been sending a lot of information from their reporting. they said that essentially, fumio kishida was here for a campaign speech when this blast happens, this explosion happened, he was taken off the scene unhurt and again those images we saw there, it appears that the person at the centre of this was but there are details flowing into us at the moment, we are trying to stay on top of them, and we will ring you the very latest on that story as it comes into us. us secretary of state antony

blinken is in vietnam, where he hopes to bolster relations with a key trade partner that shares us concerns over china's growing influence. blinken is visiting hanoi, where he is meeting with prime minister pham minh chinh. blinken and chinh each expressed interest in improving bilateral ties between vietnam and the us during the meeting. live now to southeast asia correspondentjonathan head. hi, jonathan. what do you make of the messages we've heard so far from of the messages we've heard so farfrom both men? of the messages we've heard so far from both men?— far from both men? very predictable. _ far from both men? very predictable. this - far from both men? very predictable. this is - far from both men? very predictable. this is a - far from both men? very| predictable. this is a long build up in this relationship. it's been an important one for the united states for more than a decade. vietnam is pursuing a very complicated dance, trying to position itself between china, its giant neighbour with whom it has significant differences, but also incredibly important trade tires. five times as much trade with china than vietnam than the united states but at the same time it wants to be —— bring the usm as a

counterweight but it is not in a hurry to upgrade its relations. the us for its part is trying to up relations with every single country it can around china in this region. you've had recent exercises with the us forces in the philippines, philippines is offering more bases, us bombers joint exercises with india. this is all part of a big into pacific shift to contain chinese power. many south—east asian countries like vietnam kind of feel caught in the middle. i think that's where vietnam is, it's a very delicately calibrated relationship but both countries do want it to improve. it's possible vietnam might even look to the us for military supplies. it would be a very big step, they've always had supplies from russia in the past may be something on the cards with their discussion with secretary of state blinken's visit. interesting seepolitics _ blinken's visit. interesting geopolitics at _ blinken's visit. interesting geopolitics at play. - blinken's visit. interesting l geopolitics at play. jonathan head. just getting an update on the story which has broken in last

30 minutes, japanese prime minister fumio kishida was evacuated and is safe after a blast at its peak in wakayama according to reports by japanese media. the nhk is japan's main broadcaster and it reported loud explosions were heard at the westernport where the prime minister was visiting local media, the afp newsagency, reported a person has been apprehended and we will quickly bring in that video for you one more time that was often the nhk, and verify video, this appears to be the moment were authorities, officials, apprehended the man, it's something we heard from the nhk, this broadcaster that a young man was apprehended. the prime minister, according to our correspondent shaimaa khalil, who is in tokyo, was taken away from the scene unhurt and so, we will have to see what authorities say about what happened but witnesses say that they heard an explosion and saw smoke that settled. it appears the situation is under control now so will continue to bring you updates on that story. that is our show at this

hour and we will be back at the top of the next hour with another update on this moving story. thank you for watching 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 and brighter than we've been used to over the last few days. 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 north—east 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 north—east 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 — ia 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 is bbc news. we will have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour straight after this programme. 0n the battlefields of ukraine, you won't just find local soldiers... slava ukraini. ..but volunteers from all over the world. guatemala, portugal, america. ukrainian officials say 20,000 international volunteers have travelled to help fight back against the russian invasion. many of them came from britain. they needed help so that is why i got up and went.