live from london, this is bbc news... the coffin bearing the former us president, jimmy carter, will arrive in washington dc in the coming hours, ahead of his funeral on thursday. this is the scene — outside the carter centre in georgia — where ceremonial troops will be arriving shortly. meta — the owner of facebook and instagram — announces an end to fact—checking on its platforms, saying it wants to prioritise free speech over censorship. the far—right french politician, jean—marie le pen, has died at the age of 96. a powerful earthquake hits china's tibet region, near mount everest — at least 126 people are dead and hundreds more injured.

mcdonald's staff say they're still facing sexual abuse and harrassment — despite the company promising to clean up behaviour at its uk operations. let's start in the us — because a significant few hours ahead — with the coffin bearing the former us president, jimmy carter, moving from georgia to washington dc to lie in state in the capitol rotunda. since sunday, president carter has been lying in repose at the carter center, in atlanta, for the public to pay their respects. he died last month, at the age of 100. today his family will accompany the coffin as it travels to dobbins air base, in georgia, for his final journey to washington dc. the nearly six days of public ceremonies will conclude on thursday, with a funeral service at the washington national cathedral.

let's speak to arthur milnes — a friend of president carter's — and an author of 98 reasons to thankjimmy carter. welcome to the programme. a sad few days for you. tell our audience, first of all, how you became friends with jimmy carter. , . . , ., carter. he became my hero when he was in — carter. he became my hero when he was in the _ carter. he became my hero when he was in the white _ carter. he became my hero when he was in the white house, - carter. he became my hero when he was in the white house, i - he was in the white house, i was probably 12, and my mother didn't talk about politics very much, but she always said that jimmy carter is a good and decent man. she always added that it was the only time during the cold war that she felt safe, when jimmy carter was in the white house. i carried out with me. i started to read every book about him i could. i wrote to him when i was in high school and i got a hand note back. when i was a reporter, i always try to get

interviews with him, and they always said no at the carter centre. i read in the new york times that he would teach sunday school every sunday, and 45 minutes i had a return ticket to atlanta, and i went with a friend and got to meet my hero outside of church. after that, my hero outside of church. afterthat, i my hero outside of church. after that, i would interview him very much about canadian concerns. eventually, he and mrs carter, we would have lunch, i would mrs carter, we would have lunch, iwould bring my mrs carter, we would have lunch, i would bring my wife, and we sort of became friends. in 2012, they honoured us by staying in our home. this in 2012, they honoured us by staying in our home.- in 2012, they honoured us by staying in our home. as you are talkin: , staying in our home. as you are talking. we _ staying in our home. as you are talking, we are _ staying in our home. as you are talking, we are showing - talking, we are showing pictures of that. how did that come about? he pictures of that. how did that come about?— pictures of that. how did that come about? he had personally lunch my book— come about? he had personally lunch my book on _ come about? he had personally lunch my book on him. - come about? he had personally lunch my book on him. i - come about? he had personally lunch my book on him. i was i lunch my book on him. i was working at the university she had at that time. a year after

the book came out, the university mit d carter is to accept a joint honorary degree here. when at the carters said yes, ifound the president and said why don't you and mrs carterjust said why don't you and mrs carter just stay with us? i told him there were rules. he laughed and asked what they are. i said, laughed and asked what they are. isaid, that laughed and asked what they are. i said, that is a dress code. we are going to be wearing jeans, you could wear a tie. i assured wearing jeans, you could wear a tie. iassured him wearing jeans, you could wear a tie. i assured him there would be no grand officials from the university coming over, so it would just be the four of us and he could just be himself. so, he like that, and definitely wore jeans. definitely wore 'eans. you told our definitely wore 'eans. you told ouproducer_ definitely wore 'eans. you told our producer in]— definitely wore jeans. you told our producer in wonderful - our producer in wonderful anecdote about that visit, how your wife told you not to do a

barbecue for him. you had wine sent from a saturday night live actor. tell me more about that story. actor. tell me more about that sto . ., , story. dan ackroyd, who played jimmy carter — story. dan ackroyd, who played jimmy carter back _ story. dan ackroyd, who played jimmy carter back when - story. dan ackroyd, who played jimmy carter back when carterl jimmy carter back when carter was in the white house, he lives here in kingston. i contacted mr ackroyd and said, former president carter is staying at my house, and if you want us to serve a bottle of your famous red wine to the president and his wife, i happily build. the day after, in my not on the door and said, come out of the car. dan ackroyd sent some stuff for you. the carters were baptists. he lifted the trunk open, and sure enough there was 12 bottles of his red wine and a

case of the vodka that he needs here in canada. at dinner, i serve the wine, and said mr president, i want you to know that dan ackroyd sent this wine in honour of you. he looked at me and said, dan ackroyd? he said, from saturday night live? i said, yes. said, from saturday night live? isaid, yes. i said, from saturday night live? i said, yes. i will never forget as long as i live, the president raised his glass high and said, arthur, i earned this one! i shouldn't say this, but later on, privately, president carter spoke to me and said he thought mr ackroyd had done a pretty good impersonation. you wrote a book — pretty good impersonation. you wrote a book in _ pretty good impersonation. you wrote a book in terms of the many reasons to thinkjimmy carter. in terms of legacy, the

conventional wisdom is that perhaps that one term presidency was a failure. in terms of what you would zero in on, take me through some of the reasons why you think people there in the united states should thank him. i there in the united states should thank him. i would take issue with _ should thank him. i would take issue with saying _ should thank him. i would take issue with saying that - should thank him. i would take issue with saying that his - issue with saying that his presidency was failed, a lot of people have said that over the years. i think if you look at what's going on today, sadly, with israel and gaza, here is a man who in one term, he very much risked his entire presidency to get a peace treaty between israel and egypt. they had thought three orfour egypt. they had thought three or four wars against each other. thanks to orfour wars against each other. thanks tojimmy carter willing to bring those two sides together at camp david in 1978, there has been 47 years

of peace. i can't even imagine how many thousands of people have had their lives saved. he also made at the panama canal treaty, which brought peace and removed a cancer in us— central american relations. i would always point to... when he and mrs carter focus always point to... when he and mrs carterfocus their always point to... when he and mrs carter focus their efforts in helping to fight that horrific parasitic disease in the developing world, there were 4 million cases a year. jimmy carter has always said he wanted to live to see the day that guinea worm was forever banished from the earth, and i believe it was only four cases last year, so in many ways president carter won his war against guinea worm. you

touched — against guinea worm. you touched on _ against guinea worm. you touched on that _ against guinea worm. you touched on that lifelong . touched on that lifelong partnership with rosa lynn, 77 years. i was watching an old interview, with the interviewer said to him that the proudest moment of your life must be becoming president. straightaway, without missing a heartbeat he said, no, the proudest day was the day i manage my wife. it was an astonishing partnership, wasn't it? ~ , ., astonishing partnership, wasn't it? . , ., ., astonishing partnership, wasn't it? ., ., ~ ., it? when you got to know the carter is in — it? when you got to know the carter is in private, _ it? when you got to know the carter is in private, it - it? when you got to know the carter is in private, it was - carter is in private, it was very difficult to know where jimmy carter ended and rosalynn began. herwork jimmy carter ended and rosalynn began. her work with him, her efforts lifting the stigma against mental health, those who face mental health challenges, with his support, has just made changes in millions across the world. her focusing at her institute on

the study of caregivers, she was decades ahead of her time, studying the impact of alzheimer's not on the patients, but on those who were caring for them. the only thing that they ever said they would never do again because they are good too much, they said they would never write a book together again. would never write a book togetheragain. —— would never write a book together again. —— because they are they touched millions and millions of lives for the good around the world. the term, citizen of the world, is an overused term, but with jenny and rosalynn carter, it definitely is a and at description. ijust consider it such a privilege that my lice was one of those lies they touched. was one of those lies they touched-— was one of those lies they touched. ~ ., ., , touched. we are due to see the start of some —

touched. we are due to see the start of some of _ touched. we are due to see the start of some of those - start of some of those ceremonies in the next few hours, as the journey is made from georgia to washington. thank you so much for telling are some of those stories for now, and we will return to you a little later. as i say, we will return and watch events in georgia in the coming minutes. we think in about a0 minutes or so, we should see the first of the arrivals there as the ceremonies prepare to get under way. we saw the lines of the public there in georgia, that came to a close at 6am local time. thatjourney to time. that journey to washington time. thatjourney to washington will start in the next little while. we will show you pictures i talk to many others over the course of the next couple of hours. the us tech giant, meta, has announced it will be removing fact—checking from its services, and replacing them with a community notes system,

similar to that of elon musk�*s x. the changes will begin in the us — and will affect facebook, instagram and threads. in a facebook video, meta ceo mark zuckerberg said, it was time to restore free expression and that fact checkers were "too politically biased". the problem with complex systems is that they make mistakes. even if they accidentally censor of just 1% of posts, that is millions of people. and we have reached a point where there are just too many mistakes and too much censorship. the recent election also feel like a cultural tipping point to once again prioritising speech. so we are going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies, and restoring expression on our platforms. let's speak to our senior technology reporter, chris vallance. he has called as a tipping point. it is a really

significant point on how the tide of misinformation is tackled on meta platforms, platforms with billions of users. mark zuckerberg will argue that the government, legacy media has led to pressure on organisations to over censor speech. pressure on organisations to over censorspeech. he pressure on organisations to over censor speech. he is proposing to get rid of third—party fact checkers and replace them with a model of what is happening on the x at the moment, elon musk�*s platform, who is now of course a confidant of donald trump, who will be inaugurated in a few days' time. he is saying that it will be replaced by a system that is kind of volunteer led, where it is up to users to flag problems. he is also suggesting that certain topics will be less prone to

filtering, topics such as immigration, gender issues. this is very much a kind of narrative that the right in america have had, that their speech is over censored on these platforms.— speech is over censored on these platforms. this is going to be hugely _ these platforms. this is going to be hugely controversial. i these platforms. this is going l to be hugely controversial. you may the point that they are looking at, we have seen what has happened to x since elon musk has taken over. facebook has long been criticised for not doing enough around fact checking and misinformation. so, now we have that ejected in a whole new direction. this so, now we have that e'ected in a whole new direction._ a whole new direction. this has been met _ a whole new direction. this has been met with _ a whole new direction. this has been met with dismay - a whole new direction. this has been met with dismay by - a whole new direction. this has been met with dismay by somej been met with dismay by some organisations who are engaged in the fight against misinformation. some 1529 00:14:5