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narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... woman: architect. bee keeper. mentor. a raymond james financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life. life well planned. narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blumovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. announcer: and now, "bbc news". ♪ rajini: hello, i'm rajini vaidyanathan. you're watching "the context" on bbc news. >> the proud boys have been a

hate group for as long as i can remember. you have not heard demonstrations or heard their name come up much until former president trump took office. >> they are themselves victims of this information, they are also perpetrators, constantly spreading the big lie that donald trump won the last election. >> where is donald trump in all this? he stood on the ellipse and basically told people, 74 million of his followers, the election is stolen, go to the capitol, fight like hell or you won't have a country anymore. some people listen to him. rajini: coming up in the next hour, as some members of the far right proud boys group are sentenced in the u.s. for their part in the january 6 capitol riots in the u.s., we take a closer look at the organization and its origins. also in america, a judge says

donald trump's trial in georgia will be live-streamed and televised. could it be the moswatched event of 22 any for, -- 2024, a presidential election year? and another milestone for artificial intelligence, a digital singer and her first record deal. all of that coming up. another member of the far-right groups, pro-trump proud boys group, has been sentenced to a lengthy prison term for his role in the capitol hill insurrection to and a half years ago. -- two and a half years ago. dominic pezzola, who received 10 years, was described by prosecutors is when the most violent members of the conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election. two senior members of the were handed heavy prison sentences for their role in the attack, and we are expecting a fourth, ethan nordean, also due to be sentenced shortly. north america editor sarah smith sent this report from washington. >> probably 300 proud boys --

>> first the people marched on the capitol, the violence led to hundreds of convictions, with the longest sentence is going to people who organized" and they did the riot. --organized and coordinated the right. the proud boys saw themselves as donald trump's army, who wanted to stop congress from certifying joe biden's victory by any means necessary. ethan nordean in the baseball cap and joseph biggs to charge that day, using a radio to coordinate and move their men. they have been convicted of seditious conspiracy. nordean directed 200 people toward the capitol and encouraged them to overrun the police. he will be sentenced later toy. >> we love trump! >> donald trump invited his supporters to come to washington and march towards congress, using language many believe

encouraged the lands that followed. mr. trump: we fightwe fight like hell, and if you don't fight like hell, you are not going to have a country anymore. >> joseph sobbed in court and begged for lean -- joseph biggs sobbed in court and begged for leniency. his lawyer blamed the former president. >> where is donald trump in this? he stood on the ellipse and told his people, 74 million followers, go to the capitol and fight like hell. some people listen to him. >> dominic pezzola has been sentenced to 10 years in prison. in a debate with joe biden before the 2020 election, donald trump refused to condemn a violence and name checked the proud boys. mr. trump: proud boys, stand back and standby. >> proud boys leader enrique tarrio will be sentenced next week. donald trump himself is facing two criminal prosecutions related to his attempts to overturn the 2020 election

results. he is due in court next year over the actions to stop joe biden being confirmed as the president. if convicted, he could be facing a lengthy prison sentence. sarah smith, bbc news, washington. rajini: now let's go live to the executive director of the one people's project, which has tracked the proud boys since their creation. good to talk to you. what is your reaction to the sentences, not just today's, but others this week, too? >> well, it is a learning experience -- i'm happy to be here this evening, by the way -- but i think it is a learning experience for the united states, for this country, because we have never seen really a comeuppance of this magnitude. in the case of the proud boys, and might be something that we would expect, considering they was on this downward spiral well before january 6. to see their ex-president find

his comeuppance and all of this is astonishing to us. but have had dealings with some of the proud boys that are being sentenced this week and next week, and it was more or less it was time. they had been trying to wreak havoc over two years, two to four years of their existence, and now that debt is being paid. it remains to be seen how much of that debt they will indeed pay even with their sentence. their sentence is well below the sentencing guidelines so far, and that is frustrating to a lot of people. we are happy that it is happening, but it still remains to be seen just w much blowback they are going to get. we still have one that is a fugitive from the law office he is being sought--a fugitive from the law. he is being sought, even though he is someone ty have to convicted -- i believe convicted and sentenced eventually.

rajini: tell us more about this group. many people watching won't know much about who the proud boys are. reading an information sheet, it says they were founded in 2016. of course that was the presidential election year, the year that donald trump won, and it says they consider themselves western chauvinists. what exactly is their ideology? of course they support mr. trump . daryle: they consider themselves something their founder came up with, western chauvinism, which in many respects means they started off as a group that would place themselves above women and whatever goals women would have. but that morphed as time went along to being a shop troop for the then-current administration, going after people who opposed donald trump at the time, and in particular anti-fascists, antif a. that really blew up the streets of portland, oregon, where you

saw a lot of clashes over a number of years, culminating into what we saw in 2020. now, however, since the leadership is pretty much looking at years in jail, their president is on the ropes, we are looking at a cowboys element that --proud boys element that is kind of gone rogue. now they are becoming more and more nazi-like an anti-semitic. they are attacking the gay community now, where once upon a time they would bst that they had members of the lgbtq+ community. it is pretty much kind of like they he nothing to lose and they are just going to go all out now. so this is where we really have to start getting concerned. rajini: daryle, do you think there still is a section in american society that sympathizes with their far right views? daryle: oh, but of course,

definitely, and the worst thing is we see a lot of them coming from the areas of law enforcement. we have had several police officers and several first responders, even, that have associated themselves with the proud boys, lost their jobs because of it. some are even facing charges because of it, because they warn ed proud boys of upcoming pending arrests. and that is still a problem now. so, when you have that situation going on, when you see a right wing that wants to push them forward, we still have a concern. but it is one we can meet. we are showing ourselves now that it is one we can meet. rajini: daryle lamont jenkins, thanks very much for sharing your insights from the one people's project. as we said earlier, w are exciting another sentencing to come out of washington, d.c., and the next few hours for another member of the proud boys,nd we will bring that to

you as soon as that comes in. meanwhile, donald trump's trial in georgia overcharges of election will be live-streamed and televised, the judge has ruled. all the hearings will be available live on the fulton county court youtube channel, said the judge. a date for the trial has not been set, but it could be next june when mr. trump is running for reelection. donald trump and 18 people are charged with the conspiracy to overturn the state's 2020 presidential elections. the former republican resident, who faces the other criminal trials, has pleaded not guilty to the charges he faces in georgia. let's go to lauren right, a lecturer in politics and public affairs at princeton university. good to talk to you, lauren. live-streaming a trial involving donald trumpi mean, the ratings are going to go through the roof.

>> right, and i was thinking as you were giving that very good summary that they better have a backup website, tech teams in place, because a lot of people will be streaming that and trying to access it. yes, you are right, this will take up a ton of oxygen in the 2024 race, which is what i am paying attention to. viewers are at a premium. there are quite a few gop candidates running, and what has happened so far is the coverage has centered on trump, the volume has been huge because of these indictments, and that will continue and be exacerbated, if you will, by this livestream news. rajini: do you think this will go for or against mr. trump? i lived in america in 2016 and every time you look at a tv screen, you saw his face. every rally, every network was taking it. and it was free publicity for him.

but this is not necessarily the best publicity. he is facing trial. lauren: that is a great observation. in 2016, the attention, the outsized amount of coverage trump received was an asset on the campaign trail. and as i wrote in my book about celebrity politicians, trump is an entertainer and he understands that in american politics, it looks a lot like show business, for better, for worse, probably for worse. this is a continuation of that. but it's actually a much more complicated question whether it hurts or helps. probably hurts in a general election is a good guess, because our elections are close d moderate voters are the most important. put in a primary, we really can't tell, and there has been oversimplistic analyses -- do these analyses and polls of fundraising before-and-after, the poles went up so the indictments must help-- polls

went up so the indictments must help. it might be a causal question. it might be trump will continue to do well. it might be that his opponents are tanking in the polls. and it might just be an example of conflating, exciting yeyour existing voters rather than growing your base, and growing your base is what you need to do to win elections. rajini: is this a sign of changing times? cameras are rarely allowed in federal court rooms, although i read that fulton county does stream some of its proceedings, but it is not every day that you would seasoning like this. how much is a shift in the way that people are trying to be more transparent? lauren: well, it is more a about federalism and our system, the way our government is set up. states have wide discretion over these things come and judges have wide discretion. it just so happens that in georgia this is the case, and the judge has made this decision. we will see plenty of politics

surrounding it, and of course a lot of coverage. and how it will impact the election is something we really have to wait and see. but people will be tuned in. rajini: lauren wright, thank you very much for joining us. i was reading earlier that 150 million viewers watched the o.j. simpson trial in 1995. that was like 57% of the u.s. population. be interesting to see how many people tune in to watch that trial of donald trump. now, here in the u.k., the government is facing calls to come clean about the scale of the problems facing school buildings in england after some were forced to close because they were made with concrete prone to collapse. more than 100 schools are scrambling to put emergency measures in place before children returned from their summer holidays. the closures came after ministers said they had seen a new evidence on the type of concrete and the dangers

it poses. a full list of the schools affected has not been made public. meanwhile, the concrete has been found in 35 schools in scotland, although none have closed. no schools in wales have been identified. let's take a moment to find out a bit more about the concrete at the center of all this. raac is reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete, a lightweight form of concrete used in groups, floors, and walls between the 1950's and the 1990's. it is a cheaper alternative to standard concrete because it is aerated. but it is less durable, and it has a limited lifespan of about 30 years. and it's structural behavior differs significantly from traditional reinforced concrete. the health and safety authority says that this raac is now beyond its lifespan, and this is the serious bit, it may collapse

with little or no notice. joining me now is a technical director at the surveying firm watts group, limited, and the author of "deleterious and hazardous building materials and defects in industrial and commercial buildings," published by the royal institute of chartered surveyors. a bit of a tongue twister there, but important work of course. what do you make of this news about the schools in england and a smaller number in scotland that have this raac concrete? >> well, it's an interesting problem. we have known about the performance of raac concrete for quite some time. early as 2009, there were concerns expressed about durability. but at that time it was thought that the mode of failure would be more general, and you would

not have a collapse. that changed in about 2018. it was 2018 with the collapse of a school roof, which occurred over a weekend. fortunately, there were no injuries. obviously a very serious event. and that led to an investigation as to why it had failed, and the mode of failure. rajini: and -- i was going to ask you, can anything be done to strengthen it or to expand its lifespan? trevor: yes, it can. the mere existence of the panels does not necessarily mean it will fail. there are things that can be done. it requires careful investigation and understanding the properties of the particular plates. they vary according to the way they were made, whether they were cut planks. but the essential problem currently is thought to relate to the bearing ends of the

planks, the bits that sit on the walls or the supporting structure. they need special reinforcement. that reinforcement can sometimes be displaced or entirely in the wrong place, but also the concrete is quite weak. so it crushes easily, and if the reinforcement is in the wrong place, there is a risk that that bearing could fail. and that was believed to be the 2018 problem. there is further research going on into the issue in the mode of deterioration and failure -- rajini: ok. ok. oh, yeah, thank you sorry for that pause, trevor. thank you for your insight and expertise on a very important story which may affect hundreds and hundreds of schoolchildren in england and scotland. around the world and across the u.k., this is bbc news.

some of the other stories making news. house prices have seen the biggest annual decline since 2009, according to the latest figures from the nationwide building society means the average property value is just under 206 2000 pounds. the mortgage lenders had prices in august were 5.3% below their peak last year. the u.k. economy made a stronger recovery during covid at the end of 2021 than previously estimated, or gardening to revised fate -- according to revised figures. the office for national statistics said the revised figures were mainly because it had better data from its annual service. and direct line insurances to pay 30 million pounds in compensation to customers for

overcharging them when they renewed their home or car insurance. it admitted error, implementing the financial watchdog's rules. you are live with bbc news. barely a week goes by without a story about how artificial intelligence is changing our world. the latest of element, --latest development, a digital bump stock --digital popstar whose voice has been crated by ai. it is an online avatar who has hundreds of thousands of followers. she is on the books of warner music and has released her first song, called "dominoes," today. what does it mean for the consumer? reporter: she's a virtual character and instagram influencer and has worked with the big fashion brands.

her appearance has been created using 2d graphics and motion capture, and now this avatar has a record deal backed by a major label. >> my god, this is amazing. it was accelerating my pulse when i got the email from warner. they were asking me, "are you interested in music?" what a question. >> ♪ just enough to start a chain reaction ♪ reporter: her voice has been created with the help of artificial intelligence. >> they pitched at higher, they made it more female, but they did it more to create a human voice. we wanted to have it a bit like technology. so the bass and the original voice of her is my voice. reporter: to make the sound, they got a singer involved, too.

>> here comes the moment where we use ai technology. the voice from the singer, we needed to know when he was singing hi, when he was singing low, when he was singing slower, when he got more speed, when he got more pressure. reporter: warner is releasing the single. >> when it comes to appearances in metaverses, and gaming, when you want to experiment with motion capture technology and so on, it's a perfect fit. it will appear in different places at the same time, you can change her style and minute. we can make her fly if we want because it feels natural to her because she has additional character -- she is a digital character. there are more opportunities than with a human artist. reporter: ai was only the first step in the accretion of the sun. producers and songwriters all over the globe contributed. like every technology, ai brings

immense opportunity, but it raises profound chaenges for the creative community. >> it is about transparency, about knowing what content and data ai has been trained on, it is about knowing adequate labor so we know whether a piece of music is ai-generated. but there is also questions personalitywise. you can essentially generate an ai version of a popstar, singer, and they wouldn't have any rights about how that is used. looking at how we can assure the regulatory and legal framework around ai is used in a way that can enable a human creative team is absolutely critical from our position in the music industry. reporter: clearly the use of ai is becoming more mainstream, but now that it is officially entering the charts, will it ever get to number one? >> ♪ like domi dominoes ♪ reporter: bbc news, berlin.

rajini: i'm not sure what to make of that song. let's go to musician and member of the union of musicians and allied workers. good to have you with us. what did you think of the song? >> uh, song is great. rajini: [laughter] yes, i know you mean that. more seriously, should artificial intelligence peak getting in the way of music and creativity? >> honestly, i'm really not that concerned or interested in ai being used at the highest level, the movie star and popstar level. one, because people go to a taylor swift show because they want to be friends with taylor swift, they want to date taylor swift, they want to be taylor's trip. there is an intimate human connection that happens between consumer and star, and that tracks with george clooney as well. i don't know if we would go see george clooney if there wasn't a

real human who looked and acted like george clooney. the question i am concerned about and think about on a daily basis is what happens far downstream from major-label ai signing. i'm thinking by the people who are writing music for ads on tv, the people writing scores for films or making music that we hear on playlists. not the sort of personality and the cult of personality that can develop at the highest level. rajini: so, you don't think that this should be -- you don't think warner should have signed her, then? zack: no, i have no issues with warner signing someone who is ai. at my working-class musician level, what happens at the popstar level doesn't quite affect me. i don't really know if them signing an ai artist affects adele or somhing. rajini: how does it change the

music industry, very briefly? zack: long-term how this will play out is based on what we know about how the music industry functions, which is major corporations will find any and all excuses to cut out working artists. and we have seen this happen with streaming. so a new technology comes about, undercuts the value of our craft, and 10 years down the line, a lot of musicians are pushed out of making music directly from subbing lecturing. in the same thing will happen with ai. it will replace people making music for advertising -- rajini: ok, got to stop you there, really sorry. thanks very much f 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;

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