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>> this is "bbc worls america." former u.s. president donald trump adds another indictment to a growing list of will -- woes. a u.s. jury the -- is in favor of the death penalty for the greatest anti-semitic attack in the u.s. and the credit rating agency get it -- giving a downgrade that could affect america and the world. ♪ welcome to "world news america." we begin in washington as planning is underway for former u.s. president donald trump's expected court appearance thursday. that's just two days after he was indicted over his alleged

attempts to overturn the 2020 election. he is facing four federal criminal charges. this indictment, including conspiracy to defraud the united states, conspiracy to obstruct official proceedings, obstruction of and -- attempting to obstruct official proceedings, and conspiracy against the rights of citizens. the indictment alleges six co-conspirators. the document does not name them and they have not been formally charged. but details track closely to individuals who are already in the public domain. analysts believe they are former trump lawyers rudy giuliani, john eastman, and sidney powell, along with jeffrey clark and kenneth chess brooke. a sixth co-conspirator described in the document as a political consultant has not yet been identified. joining us now is our north america correspondent at the d.c. courthouse, where the arraignment will be taking place

thursday. you have covered several of these arraignments. donald trump is expected to appear in court tomorrow. what can we expect from that? >> at the moment we are not sure if donald trump will appear inside the courthouse behind me. we understand he has the option to either appear virtually or in person. these were not options given to him with the previous arrangement. we understand that the judge in the end may decide which option to go for. given that he appeared in person for the last two arraignments and we know that he uses these appearances as a part of his campaigning, he is likely to turn up. it's the federal courthouse, meaning no cameras allowed inside. he will be fingerprinted and had charges officially laid out to him. we know that donald trump has no special words for the council. questioning whether smith is

even his real name. he will be in the courthouse as well. >> the last arraignment took place in florida, miami. this one in washington, d.c. how significant could this venue be? >> of course, the reason it is taking place in d.c. is it is the is seen of the alleged -- it is the scene of the alleged crime. but there are some of his allies and supporters saying that d.c. is where the department of justice is based. the jury pool will be picked from florida. donald trump was the winner of that state twice. as far as allies and supporters, they believe no trial is fair to the president, the former

president. >> briefly, we are hearing more about the judge that will be presiding over the case. >> yes, appointed by former president barack obama, she will oversee the case and is known for being tough when it comes to handing down sentences for those involved in the january 6 riots. remember, the investigation is ongoing. 38 tough sentences. this judge already ruled against donald trump when this was a separate case from november of 2020 one. she refused the request to block the release of documents to the u.s. congressional committee and uttered a famous line, which was presidents are not kings.

>> we are bringing in next a former trump administration lawyer, ty cobb. you have called the evidence in the classified documents case overwhelming. what is your assessment of the evidence here in this case. >> equally overwhelming. prosecutors are little bit like artists in the sense that they have style. the jack smith style is to put together a detailed narrative that a layperson can understand that condenses complex matters into much more simple terms that can be easily understood. that is what you see in the

mar-a-lago case and in this case. he details the facts that support the four criminal charges with great clarity. makes frequent use of references to the vice president, the chief of staff, the attorney general. all, all people who will end up being forceful and significant witnesses at a trial. >> it's interesting as well, you are a former white house lawyer for donald trump. given the insights, how do you think is current legal team will be able to mount a defense in the indictment. what's the strategy here? >> one of trump's difficulties is following the instructions of his lawyers. the mar-a-lago case is an excellent example in the sense that i'm sure that evan corcoran

advised the former president not to, not to destroy, hide, or otherwise impair the documents associated with the request by the fbi and the related subpoenas. he went behind the backs of his lawyers and coordinated with mar-a-lago personnel to have them move boxes. it's on tape. then return fewer boxes. so that's, that's a clear indication of a president who has a difficulty following the advice of his lawyers. particularly when he thinks his self-interest -- >> as one of his former lawyers, how do you deal with something like that?

>> i was not one of his lawyers. -- my allegiance was to the white house. he did have personal lawyers that worked on the matter i worked on but there's a distinction between being white house counsel and his personal lawyer. but i did advise him with regard to the demands and interests of the special counsel office and strategies for responding honorably to get through that process, which we ultimately did successfully by demonstrating that there was no there, there. it's very difficult when a client will not follow advice. you have seen countless lawyers resign or be fired by this president, this former president. you have seen the great difficulty he has had building a legal team. he has now got multiple lawyers for multiple cases.

that's not ideal. it would be better to have a hard core set of lawyers managing everything so that there are no slip-ups. but you know, it is, it is perilous if york client ignores your lawyer advice and he does the routine. >> much of what was in the indictment was already publicly known. we now know that the vice president, mike pence, took contemporaneous notes of his conversations with the president at the time, donald trump. what role does the vice president play in terms of this case? >> i'm glad you asked that question. i think that the vice president 's conduct throughout this investigation has been, has been misrepresented. it's been suggested that he was forced to testify. he was never forced to testify.

he had two constitutional issues he had to raise as a matter of democracy so that the courts could resolve them. he never hesitated to testify once. the court decided that the questions involving his dual capacity as a legislator when he was certified in the election and his vice presidency was not a significant enough distinction to prevent a grand jury from receiving his testimony. he went in, immediately testified fully. it's clear from the indictment when they reference his testimony, which they do frequently, it's also clear that his testimony was quite damming for the former president. >> ty cobb, former trump administration lawyer, thank you for your insights. >> my pleasure, thank you. >> this is not the only legal problem the former president has on the horizon.

in georgia the fulton county district attorney has signaled she will bring indictments against trump for september over his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election and that state and in other pending cases his next legal proceeding takes place in october during the civil traut -- civil fraud trial. later, january 15, his second defamation trial bought by e. jean carroll is set to open and later that month, trump, his company, and three of his children will face a trial. accused of luring people into opportunities that were false. and the hush-money payments to stomach -- stormy damming a trial would begin. and a month later his classified documents trial is set to begin some 160 nine days before election day in the united states. pennsylvania, the gunman who murdered 11 people in a

synagogue in pittsburgh in 2018 has been sentenced to death. seven other people including five police officers were injured there five years ago. the ruling by the jury was unanimous. robert bowers was previously found guilty of all 63 charges stemming from the incident. consider the worst anti-semitic attack in american history. >> for the final verdict i feel relief. the jury sat through months of horror and deliver justice to my mother and everyone that was killed and injured and everyone beyond. >> i don't even know what to say about the verdict. it's not a happy day. even in the end i don't think there was a big cast or anything. it was just, it was in your heart. you have to take it in. >> fitch has downgraded its rating for the u.s. government, going from aaa to aa plus,

citing what they called steady deterioration and governance in the last 20 years, citing repeated down to the wire debt ceiling negotiations that threatened their ability to pay their bills. one of three major independent agencies that assesses credit worthiness. the others are s&p and moody's. our business correspondent michelle is following that story from new york. >> like many americans who have credit reports to determine if they can borrow money and how much debt they can take on, the u.s. government has its own and it got downgraded for the first time since 2011. they lowered their rating from aaa to aa plus. fitch, one of the three major ratings agencies put the u.s. government on notice, blaming the standoff over the debt ceiling. it was ultimately lifted in a last-minute deal, averting their first-ever default.

but the feud was cited as one of the reasons for the downgrade. make no mistake, this is a major blackeye for america. u.s. treasuries, essentially government ious, seen as the bedrock of the global financial system and fitch is essentially pointing out that there is an aroma vision and trust in american leadership but given the depth and perceived safety of u.s. treasuries the downgrade isn't likely to change its role in the financial system. it could, however, make it potentially harder and more expensive for the government to borrow in the future because right now the u.s. government owes $30 trillion in debt. what fitch is highlighting is the u.s. government has too much debt and doesn't have a way to bring it down and that washington at this point in time doesn't seem to be able to reach any kind of agreement on how to deal with the issue. >> speaking earlier, janet yellen pushed back against the

downgrade. >> the decision is puzzling in light of the economic strength we see in the united states and i strongly disagree with their decision and i believe it is entirely unwarranted. the flawed assessment is based on outdated data and fails to reflect improvements across a range of indicators, including those related to governance that we have seen over the past 2.5 years. >> joining me now for more on this is mohamed l arian. we just heard the u.s. treasury secretary yellen disagree with this downgrade. in your mind him curious, was the downgrade warranted by fitch? >> it was not. i agree with secretary yellen. as do the vast majority of economists and market analysts. as does the market itself, which has brushed off the decision. both the content and the timing

of the announcement were pick your words. strange, surprising, perplexing. whatever word you want to use. it just doesn't seem right, to tell you the truth. >> what's behind it, then? what makes you think they decided to make this downgrade now? >> no one knows. one argument is that it is an accumulation of factors. maybe they should have moved earlier and didn't but then felt compelled to move but they moved at the wrong time. moved at a time when economic growth has been improving and when governance has been improving. so, it's not clear as to whether that's the argument. there is another argument i'm not qualified to speak on, which is that it was a political decision. that is what some people feel. the vast majority of people are perplexed. they don't understand why fitch would do this now. >> you mentioned the markets

kind of shaking off the news. could there be any kind of impact on everyday people in the u.s.? >> i don't think that there will be economic or fiscal impact. by that i mean that this announcement will not reduce investment, will not reduce the attractiveness of the u.s. economy. that's the economy side. on the fiscal side, this would not increase borrowing costs for the u.s. and if you look at core credit default swaps, which measure credit worthiness, they hardly moved today. you would expect them to move if democracy was worried about that. it will not impact the fiscal or economic side. what it will do is it will already fuel a polarized political narrative domestically and internationally. >> i wanted to ask you about the international impact as well. many countries are still

struggling with inflation in the after effects of the pandemic. could there be a global domino effect? >> fitch has a tough question to answer. if you are going to take governance into account the way they did for the u.s., what about other countries? they are going to figure out whether they are creating for themselves a precedent that would see them downgrade many other countries purely on governance. not on whether governance is impacting economic growth or fiscal but how is governance operating? in terms of the global situation, we are dealing with a slowing global economy. that is not as much an issue for the u.s. as it is for china, europe, and a number of developing countries. >> now there seems to be a bit of a background message here. political message, you have been mentioning the current messaging

from the united states. is there anyway for the u.s. to try to get the rating back up? what should the country do? >> the three elements, economic growth, deficits and debt, then governance. act on all through -- three. you might get your aaa back. history isn't kind on this. most of the kind when you lose aaa it's difficult to get back. s&p downgraded the u.s. in 2011 and has never reversed that decision. >> looking ahead, we could see another standoff on capitol hill when it comes to the government budget. could we see more turmoil in the markets? >> i think whether we see more turmoil will be a function of two things. one, does inflation continue to come down in this orderly

fashion? two, does the federal reserve avoid another policy mistake? these are the two main factors to look at. in the short term on inflation i would expect the next two meetings to be comforting but then there is a big? . will inflation turned back up? on the fed i'm less comfortable. there's a real risk the fed may overdo it, over tighten. it's reacting to short-term data. it's excessively data dependent and the trouble with being so data dependent is that those tools operate with a lag. a bit like driving a car, looking in the rearview mirror, not just keeping your eyes on the next 200 or 300 feet. that is what they face. >> mohamed l arian, chief economic advisor at ollie hans, thank you for your insight.

a russian drone of -- drone attack impacting green headed for africa, china, and israel. the grain silo damaged at the danube port of ishmael. russia reintroduced a defective blockade of black seaports last month. ukraine battling a second no less aggressive front line in the form of russian propaganda. this information has been used as a tactic since the war started in 2013 and it has become increasingly targeted, honing in on ukrainian front-line female soldiers. olga investigates. >> small steps on the road to recovery. >> i am a soldier service woman. >> a female soldier and a special unit marks woman.

she is one of the best-known known members of ukrainian armed forces. her unit drove over a landmine last december. russian media reported she had been killed, describing her death in graphic detail and calling her a ukrainian nazi. but we tracked her down in ukraine in a hospital. we cannot disclose its location for her safety. she is alive and not surprised about the russian view. >> they have published that i am without legs and hands. and that i am, that i was killed. they are professionals in propaganda. i am alive and i will protect my country. >> she joined the volunteer battalion back in 2014. she spent a year with the

battalion there that like many of the others was subsequently subsumed into the official army. though not militarily trained, she showed strong combat skills. >> when you are on the front line and you see a target, how do you feel about it? is it a target or a person? >> depends on the situation. sometimes it is a person because they are people. but if it is not for me a target, i would be the target for them. >> a scenario shared by many in this hospital. here there are worries about the costs of rehabilitation. it can costs thousands of dollars a month for each soldier. but for her the biggest concern is the impact on her family. she hasn't held her son for seven months. >> two days ago i was looking at

him and he said to me mom, remember when we were a family and when we love each other. after two years of absence of me , he tried to remember a time when we were a family and we loved each other. i tried to explain to him that we are now a family and we love each other. but the time is such. >> normal family life is some way off. she is now preparing to return to the front line. the price paid is already too high. bbc news. >> that is all from us here in washington. thank you for watching "bbc narrator: funding for this presentation of this program

is provided by... narrator: financial services firm, raymond james. narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪

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one giant leap for mankind. ♪ geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna nawaz is away. on the newshour tonight, the case against former president donald trump over efforts to overturn the 2020 election that culminated on january 6th. we speak with mr. trump's attorney. then, the loss of thousands of newspapers leaves many american communities without a reliable source of local information. >> one of the things local news does is reminds people that, oh, that person, they may be of the other party, but they're facing the same challenge that i'm facing. geoff: and we delve into the late irish singer sinead o'connor's global impact on music, politics and activism. ♪