live from washington, this is bbc news. welcome to viewers on pbs in america. a delegation of african leaders visit ukraine on a peace mission ahead of a visit to russia. the gunmen accused of killing 11 worshippers at a us synagogue is found guilty. the trial now moves to the sentencing phase. and a damning report on policing in minneapolis. the us department ofjustice are systemic problems within the city's police made what happened to george floyd possible. i'm helena humphrey, glad you could join me. we begin in

ukraine where leaders from seven countries led by south african president cyril ramaphosa met with president zelensky in key, due to hold talks with vladimir putin in moscow on saturday. they were taken on a tour of kyiv and shown a range of ukrainian military equipment, hours after attack on the capital. ramaphosa said the trip was intended to give an african perspective on peace and they would listen to vladimir putin. ukraine's president volodymyr zelensky said diplomatic efforts were not what was needed right now and while he could not stop them from visiting moscow, he recommended they stay away. according to reuters, the delegation�*s proposals include a russian trip pullback, lifting of sanctions against russia and the international criminal court to withdraw its arrest warrant against president clinton —— troop pullback. mayeni jones send this report from kyiv. during the press conference that followed his meeting from african leaders today in kyiv,

mr zelensky found them for the initiative but he added a negotiated solution was not on the cards at the moment. you cannot with — the cards at the moment. you cannot with good _ the cards at the moment. 7m, cannot with good words or kind steps towards the russian president stop his aggression. i think there should be diplomatic isolation. to show that the whole world understands he is an aggressor and a terrorist and the people around him are war criminals like him. ithink around him are war criminals like him. i think this would be seriously freed which can influence his people. president c ril influence his people. president cyril ramaphosa, _ influence his people. president cyril ramaphosa, who - influence his people. president cyril ramaphosa, who led - influence his people. president cyril ramaphosa, who led the l cyril ramaphosa, who led the delegation, said he would not be drawn into choosing science. he says his country's position is neutral that he would be taking mr zelensky�*s comments to vladimir putin when he visits him in st petersburg on saturday. it visits him in st petersburg on saturda . ,

visits him in st petersburg on saturda. ,, ., , visits him in st petersburg on saturda. ,, my , saturday. it is precisely this -e of saturday. it is precisely this type of event _ saturday. it is precisely this type of event that _ saturday. it is precisely this type of event that we - saturday. it is precisely this type of event that we saw i type of event that we saw today, a witness or even experienced, that makes us call for de—escalation and there are offensives on both sides and we are saying those must be deescalated as both countries proceed on the road to peace. the leaders of the seven african country said the reason they've come to ukraine here todayis they've come to ukraine here today is because their economies have been disproportionately affected by the war in ukraine. a number of african countries import grain from ukraine and fertiliser from ukraine and fertiliser from russia. the war has made a supply of both of these commodities rarer and is driven prices of food upright across the continent. us secretary of state antony blinken will visit beijing on sunday, making this the highest profile visit to china by us official president biden took office. it has been five years since the secretary of state met with chinese counterparts.

us officials say expectations for the meeting are low. tensions have been steadily growing between the countries, mr blinken says he hopes points of cooperation can be found. earlier carl nasman spoke with the ranking member of the house select committee us competition with china. congressman, thank you so much for taking the time to speak to us. lincoln's visit to china, the first by a us secretary of state since 2018, first major re— engagement between these two countries since the chinese bible insider in february —— blinken's. —— chinese spy scandal. what are you expecting to see out of this trip? i'm really glad it's happening, i commend the biden administration for being persistent in making sure this trip occurs. but as you know, this is going to be not an end but a means to an end, and i'm hopeful that it leads to more dialogue, more engagement and kind of stabilising the relationship. taiwan likely to be on the agenda.

we've seen several close calls in the taiwan straits — recently, a chinese warship crossed in front of a us destroyer. what should blinken be doing to reduce tensions between the us and china? i think for some reason, the ccp believes that may be not having military aid to military dialogue and having these dangerous manoeuvres and in international waters will somehow lead to us not exercising our freedom of navigation or, for that matter, all the different nations in that neighbourhood. but i think that what they do is they basically create an image of bullying — and as you know, nobody responds well to bullying — and instead of being de—escalation of the situation, perhaps pressure to escalate. and so, i think secretary blinken, i hope, will convey to them that this type of aggressive manoeuvring, this type of aggression really

is counterproductive for everyone in the neighbourhood. so, i would hope that he explains — and i trust that he will — that they understand that we will continue with our transit, that the taiwan strait and the south china sea and other national waters will continue to be areas where different nations exercise their freedom of navigation. and finally, we should have military—to—military dialogue. that is very crucial. now, blinken said on friday that he'd be raising the issue of illicit drugs on china. i know that you've been outspoken about fe nta nyl. a group of republicans is proposed there could be chinese sanctions to stem the flow of fenta nyl from the country. is that something that you would support? i'm not sure, i'd have to look at them more closely. but what we know is that the people's republic of china is the source of the vast

majority of the precursor chemicals that go into the fentanyl that is pressed and made into pills in mexico. and i think a lot of people on capitol hill are scratching their head, wondering how the ccp would not be aware of the production and the supply chain that leads to fentanyl in america. we've also heard reports in us media that china denies that the country is setting up a spying in cuba. it took days for the us to shoot down the suspected chinese spy balloon. do you think the white house is being tough enough on china's surveillance programme? well, i think, as the white house, i believe — said the other day — and its public information — there's long been such operations from cuba. not something that we want to celebrate, but we have to take countermeasures with regard to and to protect ourselves. i think here's the bottom line,

which is we know that the ccp operates satellites, operates other means of reconnaissance and other nations do the same. that does not necessarily mean that our relationship needs to become worse than it is right now. crosstalk. just to hop in — just to emphasise, this suspected spying operation in cuba, that would be about 100 miles from the shores of the united states. sure, but i think with the white house said the other day is this has long been present in cuba — not that we should be celebrating it but we need to take countermeasures with regard to it. i think at this point, we have to stabilise the relationships, set up floor for the relationship and have dialogue. expectations seem to have been set fairly low for this trip by blinken. in your mind, what would be a success? honestly, i think that this would be successful if there's not a spy balloon! if there's not a spy

balloon that goes... laughs. unintelligible. that seems to be a fairly low bar to clear. in addition to that, hopefully we'll have more dialogue. honestly, carl, at this point, we need to have more engagement and we need to have the opportunity to disabuse, for instance, notions in china that we are out to suppress them, repress them, prevent them from rising, attaining their potential. that is not what folks like myself or my committee members or anyone else wants. we want a relationship where we can engage but with guardrails, where we can preserve our values and interests and those of our partners and friends as well. i do want to be sure to ask you — now, blinken has called china's systemic detention of uyghurs in the country a genocide and crimes against humanity. what can the us do for the people of western china? well, first of all, he's correct about that, and your viewers may know this,

but upwards of two million uyghur people are in concentration camps right now, as we speak in xinjiang province. what we have to do in america is better enforce the uyghur falls prevention act which basically tries to remove goods that are produced by uyghur slave labour from our that are produced by uyghur slave labourfrom our supply slave labour from our supply chains. and we're going to urge the uk, as well as ourfriends and allies around the world to enact similar measures because we have to end this genocide. congressman, you're the ranking member on the us select committee on us competition with china. it's one of the rarer committees in dc where you see bipartisan cooperation. what can we expect from your committee going forward? i think two things. the legislation creating the committee said we have to assess the economic, technological and security challenges posed by the ccp. and on top of that, we have

to propose ways to deal with it. so we're kind of simultaneously doing both. we had multiple public hearings. we need to be humble and yet serious and act in a bipartisan way in order to deal with a very, very challenging situation. thank you very much for taking the time to speak with us. thank you, carl. a two—year investigation by the usjustice department prompted by the murder of george floyd by a police officer in 2020 found that the minneapolis police department had a pattern of using excessive force on, and discriminating against, black and native american people. george floyd's death sparked mass protests and president biden released a statement on friday saying the findings aredisturbing and underscore the urgent need for congress to pass common sense reforms that increase public trust, combat racial discrimination and strengthen public safety. bbc�*s north america editor sarah smith has more. the demonstrations sparked by the death of george floyd. the police in minneapolis attacked protesters

and journalists, violating their constitutional right to free speech. that's just one of the devastating conclusions from a report that also finds the police force was racist and wantonly violent. the report found that the minneapolis police department: we found that the minneapolis police department routinely uses excessive force, often when no force is necessary, including unjust deathly force and unreasonable use of tasers. the death of george floyd, killed by a police officer's knee on his neck, caused international outrage. today's report makes clear this was no isolated incident in minneapolis, but the inevitable result of the culture and behaviour of an out—of—control police force. derek chauvin, the police officer convicted of george floyd's murder, had used excessive force before, and no other officers had tried to stop him. we acknowledge the pain,

anger, frustration, fear, and sense of vulnerability that many people in our community have endured. i am here today on behalf of the mpd to confirm our commitment to moving forward together. special training on how to police protests while protecting demonstrators' freedom of speech is one recommendation for improvements, along with policies that will require officers to de—escalate situations, use force less often, and report colleagues' misconduct. the description of the racist and violent behaviour of the police in minneapolis is shocking, but sadly unsurprising, and it's not a problem confined to that city. right across america, far too many people — often african americans — are killed by police brutality and all the reports and inquiries that follow have not stopped the violence. sarah smith, bbc news, washington. carl nasman spoke with activist

and author inaudible. first carl nasman spoke with activist and author inaudible.- all, i and author inaudible. first of all. i want _ and author inaudible. first of all. i want to — and author inaudible. first of all, i want to ask _ and author inaudible. first of all, i want to ask you - and author inaudible. first of all, i want to ask you about. all, i want to ask you about your reaction to the findings of this federal probe. unfortunately, it was not surprising, is what we thought was going to be the case and every time the department of justice goes into police departments, we get similar findings and if you remember in baltimore we got something very similar wherejust baltimore we got something very similar where just like baltimore we got something very similar wherejust like in minneapolis the police were actually engaging in illegal things with the department of justice staff in the car. so you know, i'm happy that this is exposed, i'm interested to see what the city of minneapolis will do for corrective action immediately. what would you like to see the city of minneapolis do? the ma or city of minneapolis do? the mayor of — city of minneapolis do? tue: mayor of minneapolis city of minneapolis do? tte: mayor of minneapolis has made commitments to making sure the public safety is not a matter of policing so he has the most restrictive inaudible in the united states and that's a good thing but i think the police operate in the shadow so much and if you look at this report,

its like they are doing things it's like they are doing things like stealing a kids wallet. then, they are telling and joking about killing kids, killing people and their overseas in the military, it's the range of corruption in the department is pretty big, they just swapped out the police commissioner there and the commissioner there and the commissioner who is there when this was happening is gone and hopefully that is a good thing but i think what we see is with me to stop sending people in with guns to solve conflict in communities are scaling down the police department is a part of it and then putting robust accountability, that's what this report also calls out, is that there is no accountability, did not happen, and even when there was accountability, it was someone clear that it was not certain that people got the message. all you're mentioning some of the findings in the report. there some disturbing details about the use of force, one findings as officers frequently use neck restraints without warning. how do you think some of these details will resonate?

you think about the death of george floyd —— the unique thing about the death of george floyd is one of the things where people said the police don't do this, this never happens, yet we saw it happen in real—time. what this report highlights is this department has been doing this for a long time and you can imagine, if you gota time and you can imagine, if you got a job where it was impossible to get in trouble. remember in the united states, only 1% of officers who kill ever get convicted of anything. 1%. the highest number of convictions ever in american history for the officers who kill people is 11 in a given year. that is convicted of anything, notjust murder. anything, not just murder. police anything, notjust murder. police know going into this they have a 99% chance of not getting held accountable if they kill people. what we also find is only about 10% of complaints are sustained against offices across the country. this report highlights those consistent findings, they dismiss complaint even when the police did wrong things. there is no accountability and really no check on them. i am

interested to see my hope the city council presses the mayor, i hope to make uses this as a tool in his toolkit to really implement deep changes in that police department. last implement deep changes in that police department.— police department. last year president — police department. last year president biden _ police department. last year president biden signed - police department. last year president biden signed an i president biden signed an executive order on police reform among other things, it created a national database of police misconduct. his administration of course is the one that conducted this probe. do you think the white house is doing enough to prevent future police abuse?— police abuse? here is the hard thin , police abuse? here is the hard thin, is police abuse? here is the hard thing. is that _ police abuse? here is the hard thing, is that the _ police abuse? here is the hard thing, is that the president - thing, is that the president actually doesn't have the power to legislate what happened in local police department. there are over 16,000 police departments, the majority are pretty small but we have a handful, five or 6000 that are pretty big, and he can't legislate, even the george floyd legislation will not do that. most of these things will be state and local. it is local police contracts that state laws which reject the police, we have over 20 states that have state officer bill of

rights, public —— protect the police at a state level. the george floyd act sends a message to incentivise change at a local level, and we can do and he has done is change the federal offices. the dea, the immigration police, he can do some stuff to raynaud's people in that was in a message, border patrol is 20,000 officers. but in terms of local police it will be cities, towns and states full up looking more broadly, how would you assess the impact of george floyd, his life and his death.— life and his death. really on the us, life and his death. really on the us, and _ life and his death. really on the us, and the _ life and his death. really on the us, and the world - life and his death. really on the us, and the world at. life and his death. really on i the us, and the world at large. in the united states the police kill on average three people a day, that has not changed. from 2014 when the protests started to 2020, we were trying to convince people this was a problem notjust in ferguson or baltimore, notjust this city or that city but across the country. it was not until the killing of george floyd where people were like, i get it. people were not fighting us any

more about whether there is a problem, now the question becomes what to do about it. that is where there is deep disagreement, but in terms of is there a problem, we spent six years trying to convince people on the left and right that there was actually a problem and the killing of george floyd cemented for almost everybody that there was almost everybody that there was a problem. shill almost everybody that there was a problem-— a problem. all right, deray mckesson. _ a problem. all right, deray mckesson, activist - a problem. all right, deray mckesson, activist and - a problem. all right, deray - mckesson, activist and author, thank you for your insights. in the us, maternal morality has become an critical issue after the recent death of 0lypmic star tori bowie from childbirth complications. earlier, i spoke with tammy murphy, the first lady of newjersey, who has been working to dismantle those disparaties within her state. thank you forjoining us to talk about a topic which you are very focused on and the recent tragic news of the death of the sprinter tori bowie while eight months pregnant has brought attention to the alarming

state of maternal mortality in the united states right now, particularly for black women, american now the most dangerous place to be pregnant or to give birth in high income countries. why aren't doctors more focused on this? well, firstly thank you for your interest in this and i think that with tori, it is enough is enough, we have seen this and she is one of four who were competing and won the gold in the 2016 olympics in the 4 x 100 metres, and three of those four have had life—threatening maternal problems, if not death now. so we have to focus on this. why are doctors not focused on it? this is a systemic problem across the country, and it comes down, i hate to say it, but systemic racism. there are instances where women are either too nervous, too scared to complain

or to raise their voices on the one hand, because they don't want to come across as being difficult — on the other hand, they are not taken seriously, and they are sometimes dismissed. and when you have people like serena williams or beyonce who have also nearly died delivering babies, who have incredible platforms, we have to accept the fact that something is really wrong and it needs to be addressed. as you just mentioned we have a situation in this country when back women are 2.6 times more likely to die in childbirth, during pregnancy or thereafter, than white women — the disparity is incredibly stark. what needs to be done to tackle this, to address this? so there has to be transformational change. and when i say that, it is everything from workforce development to access to care, to transportation,

to education — it is literally going to touch on every aspect of life. and i would say that in this instance there are many things we can do. some cost a lot of money and some are absolutely common sense. we in newjersey started something called nurture nj are back in 2019 and this was to raise awareness and also correct the scourge that we currently have in new jersey. you talked about the 2.6 differential — in newjersey, according to data from 2016 to 2018, black women were nearly seven times more likely than white women to die and black babies were three times more likely than white babies to die before their first birthday. when my husband came into office we were 45th in the country for maternal mortality rates, we then slipped to 47th. as of yesterday it

has been said that we are now 29th. so we are definitely moving the needle. there are policy changes that one can make. we have a nurture nj plan that we unveiled in 2021 that has 70 different action steps of which we have already tackled over half of them, and it is obviously showing we are moving the needle here. and i would say, i could highlight three that are really important and we know they have really made an impact. one is we are the third state to provide medicaid reimbursement for doula care, but we are the only state to both reimburse and grow our community doula work force and this provides culturally competent care and it it has been proven to move the needle in this space. we expanded medicaid coverage to 365 days postpartum but also we increased our medicaid rates for reimbursing our entire perinatal workforce to 100% of medicare rates.

this means that not only do mothers, all mothers have equity in terms of their healthcare, it means more providers will take medicaid coverage and that means less waiting times for the patients. one thing is i want to ask about as well alongside those measures is the fact that the us is a country where there is no enshrined in law mandatory paid maternity leave. and ijust wonder whether you think that is also damaging to women's health. yes, the short answer is yes. and the reason i would say that is that most of the deaths happen after delivery. most people think this happens at delivery, it's not — it's after delivery. so women go home, you don't know what they are going home to, and you don't know if they are going to go right back to work, if they will follow up on their appointments. babies are seen multiple times in the first six weeks of birth, and mothers are not seen until six weeks after birth.

and we are addressing that in newjersey as well with the most robust universal nurse home visitation programme. so yes is the answer. and so first lady, you have outlined some of the steps newjersey has been taking to tackle this. what more does the administration need to do? just so you know, i have been working on this for six years in newjersey. we have made tremendous strides over the past six years and we are having all sorts of benchmarks. i already talked about america's health rankings where we are now 29. march of dimes also recently came out with a report that showed the improvement across the country in terms of reducing preterm births. they looked at 53 states and territories and of those 53, 47 declined, one remained the same and four improved and newjersey is one of those four. so we definitely have a secret sauce and we will continue working on this. the first lady of newjersey, tammy snyder murphy there, also an advocate for women's health, thank you forjoining us on bbc news. thank you, helena. stay with us here on bbc news.

thanks for watching. hello there. it's looking pretty different weather—wise this weekend — we're not going to have wall—to—wall sunshine like we've had the previous weekend. we have low pressure working its way and that's going to bring showers and some thundery downpours for many places. and there will be some sunshine around, but you'll notice it's going to feel increasingly humid. 0ur air source still coming in from the south, so it's going to be fairly warm. but here it is, this area of low pressure continuing to edge in towards western areas. that's where we'll see most of the showers, even longer spells of rain across northern ireland for saturday morning. best of the sunshine towards eastern areas — could see a little bit of cloud here and there, and there could be the odd shower popping up into central areas into the afternoon. some low cloud, mist and murk affecting northeast scotland and the northern isles, so temperatures here only around 13 or 14 degrees, but for most,

it's the low to mid 20s. so, not quite as warm as of late, but still well above the seasonal norm. now, as we head through saturday night, we continue with showers through central and western areas, again, some of them will be heavy and thundery, tending to stay dry the further east that you are. and it's going to be slightly milder, i think, saturday night — a warmer, muggierfeel to things out west. now, into sunday, this is the day where i think we could see most of the showers and thunderstorms. they will become widespread across england and wales during the day and there could be some torrential downpours in places. now, there will be more cloud around, too, so it's not going to be quite as warm than of late, which then we're looking at the high teens, low 20s for many of us, and still some low cloud, mist and murk for northeast scotland, the northern isles. through sunday night, it looks like we could see an area of thundery rain spreading northwards across england and wales, pushing across scotland into monday, so a very wet start for monday morning across scotland. that heavy rain becomes confined to the north highlands into the northern isles, but elsewhere, it brightens up, sunshine and showers —

again, some of the showers could be heavy and thundery in places. but with more sunshine around, it'll be a little bit warmer, i think, with temperatures again reaching the mid 20s in the warmest spot. and then, as we move beyond monday, low pressure always nearby to the north and the west of the uk. however, towards the end of the new week, it could be the high pressure wants to build back in again, so that should kill off the showers across southern areas, and we could see temperatures rising again across southern britain with the increasing amounts of sunshine. but most of the showers will tend to be across the north and the west of the country. see you later.

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