live from washington, this is bbc news. the us senate passes a long—awaited multi—billion dollar aid package for ukraine. tonight we make vladimir putin regret the day he questioned american resolve. tennessee lawmakers — american resolve. tennessee lawmakers passed _ american resolve. tennessee lawmakers passed a - american resolve. tennessee lawmakers passed a bill - lawmakers passed a bill allowing the state's teachers to carry concealed handguns to schools. and the usjustice department agrees a multi—million dollar settlement with survivors of larry nassar, the former usa gymnastics doctorjailed for six abuse. we will hearfrom doctorjailed for six abuse. we will hear from the first woman to publicly come forward. ——

length —— sex abuse. i am caitriona perry. you are very welcome. the us senate has passed a $95 billion aid package for a million deaf american allies. it is centred on... its passage follows a months long stalemate where some republicans held the belt up, arguing domestic issues should be dealt with before foreign ones. president biden says he will sign a bill on wednesday. after it passed the senate, he released a statement, saying congress has passed my legislation to strengthen our national security and send a message to the world about the power of american leadership.

the ukrainian president said... the bill also includes a possible ban on the social media app tiktok, saying tiktok�*s parent company by dance, a china owned company, must sell its stake in the app will be banned in the us. here is mitch mcconnell speaking after the senators had voted. they are all watching, waiting to see what we will do. our enemies have tested whether the arsenal of democracy is indeed built to endure. well, tonight

the senate will send a clear message. the senate will send a clear message-— the senate will send a clear messaue. . , , message. earlier i spoke with bill taylor. — message. earlier i spoke with bill taylor, former _ message. earlier i spoke with bill taylor, former us - bill taylor, former us ambassador to ukraine. quite the dramatic evening. we heard from mitch mcconnell, chuck schumer, the democratic leader in the senate echoing various words, saying this bill was one of the most consequential measures congress has passed in years to protect america's security in the future, he says the very future of western democracy. do you agree with those sentiments? i agree. some of the senators said this is the most important vote they will have cast their careers. this is very big. in order to send the message, as chuck schumer said, to president putin, but also send a message to the ukrainians that we are there, we are going to support them with a big chunk of funds that will fund a lot of the weapons they need to defend themselves against the russians. if it is so important and so consequential, why has it taken so many months to get why has it taken so many months

to get to get to this point? the ukrainians would like to know the answer to that, too. during that six month time there was a lot of soldiers who lost their lives, and a lot of territory lost, some territory lost, to the russians, because the ukrainians didn't have the ammunition and the air defence that they need. why did it take so long? internal politics stopped this, there were all kinds of questions internal to the political parties, but now that it has passed, the ukrainians are very pleased, we should be very pleased as well. and if it says all these great things we have heard from the senators about america's place in the world, has america's place in the world been damaged in the last three months before this was agreed? i think so, i think it had been damaged, people, europeans, ukrainians, were beginning to worry that the united states would not be there to support in this crucial theatre. the russians and the ukrainians have been fighting for over two years because the russians invaded

and the ukrainians tried to stopped them and we were supporting them, very strongly, and then we stopped, we paused, because we couldn't find a way to get this bill passed. they finally found it, and now they recognise ukrainians are europeans, the russians understand we are back. president biden says he will sign this into law tomorrow. how soon after that will the money start flowing? obviously there is ukraine, but there is israel and the indo pacific region as well. the weapons, which this bill funds, can start within days. i would say by the end of this week it is possible or early next week. our pentagon has been ready to go, is ready to go. i'm sure the trucks and the trains are loaded and ready to move as soon as the president signs that, and he has to authorise then one big presidential drawdown. people say it is going to be $1 billion worth of these ammunition, of these weapons, and that can be on the front lines again within days. i would imagine that there are some ukrainian military

people who have been holding back on firing the little ammunition they had left, and now they can probably fire that ammunition, knowing that there is this new ammunition that's coming. on that, we saw president zelenskyy very quick to welcome the passage of the bill. just how badly needed are these munitions to the fight that ukraine is mounting? very badly. bill burns said, in answer to that question, if the ukrainians don't get this package, these weapons, they will lose by the end of this year. so it was that critical, and now they have a chance. now they have a chance to stop the movement of the russians forward, the russians were taking advantage of that time where the ukrainians did not have the weapons, didn't have the air defence, and now the ukrainians can stop them. do you expect to see perhaps a tactical change in how ukraine has been approaching things? i think they will be able to be more aggressive, they will undoubtedly

stay on defence for the next several months, even with these new weapons. they need to rebuild, refresh and rearm, retrain. that needs to happen, so they will try to defend what they've got, so that once they do build back up, and these new weapons are there... by the way, they are some long range weapons that we haven't provided before, that we have now begun to provide, that's going to give the ukrainians more capabilities to go deep into russian held territory. so they will be able to hold and eventually go back on the offensive. the developments here in washington coincide with a similar announcement from uk prime minister rishi sunak. he said britain would spend an additional £75 billion, or $93 billion, over the next six years on defence. speaking alongside nato secretary generaljens stoltenberg in poland, the prime minister emphasised the need for deeper weaponry stockpiles, citing the war in ukraine.

lebanon's iran—backed hezbollah group says it has launched a drone attack, targeting israeli military bases north of the city of acre, its deepest attack into israeli territory since the gaza war began. lebanese state media says it comes after an israeli air strike in southern lebanon killed a mother and girl from the same family. tuesday marked the 200th day of the conflict in gaza, with israel carrying out air strikes in the northern, central and southern portions of the territory. the united nations has said it's working to corroborate reports from palestinian authorities that at least 310 people have been found buried outside the nasser hospital grounds in khan younis. palestinian officials say some of those who were killed were elderly and women, and others were found with their hands tied. israel's military has rejected accusations that its forces buried the bodies. the un is calling for an independent investigation. we feel the need to raise the alarm, because clearly there have been multiple bodies discovered. we do not know how many.

there are reports some of them had their hands tied, which, of course, indicates serious violations of international human rights law and humanitarian law, and these need to be subjected to further investigation. the second day of testimony in donald trump's first criminal trial got off to a contentious start. mr trump denies charges that he falsified his business records to conceal money he paid to cover up an alleged affair with an adult film star. nada tawfik was following proceedings in manhattan. the day got off to a rough start. prosecutors wanted to fine donald trump up to $10,000 they say posts that violated his gag order that prevents him from attacking witnesses, jurors and court staff and family. they say that he wilfully violated that order. donald trump's team says he wasn't targeting people because of the case, that he was just

responding to political attacks. but when todd blanche, donald trump's lawyer, was pressed on that further, he could not provide supporting evidence and the judge clearly frustrated told him he was losing credibility with the court. things did not get much better as the day progressed, with the first witness back on the stand, david pecker, the publisher of the tabloid newspaper, the national enquirer. inquirer. his testimony contradicted donald trump's claimed that a hush money payment to stormy daniels ahead of the 2016 election was not about keeping that information from voters, but was to protect his family, his reputation and his brand. but david pecker said during a meeting of august 2015 donald trump and his former lawyer michael cohen asked him what he could do to help donald trump's campaign. he said that's when they came up with a plan, an agreement among friends, as he put it. that would mean david pecker would publish unflattering stories about donald trump's opponents, and catch and kill any negative stories about him.

to tennessee — the state legislature has passed a bill that will allow teachers and school staffers to carry guns in schools — one year after a shooter killed six people at nashville's covenant school, including three 9—year—old students. there was an argument that this bill would create a deterrent forfuture tragedies. i spoke to justin jones, democratic tennessee state representative. what does this new law permit? yes. good to be here with y'all. unfortunately a horrible day in our state. today a law was passed to allow teachers to carry firearms in classrooms without ever notifying the parents there were guns student classrooms, the gallery was full of protesters, teachers, parents, protesting

against this, hundreds of people came out to oppose the bill. they were not heard. republican colleagues pass the smell that the majority of people in my state are against because they know or make our schools more unsafe and more at risk of children being shot in classrooms. the bill requires lots of permits, approvals and training before a licenced teacher can have a handgun in the classroom. is there a specific point to that that gives you cause for concern? no amount of training can make up for the fact that what will one handgun do against an assault weapon. that is the concern, they say they want teachers now to not only be teachers and counsellors and every other job we've given them, but now they want them to be school security. if someone comes to a school with an assault weapon, and does a school shooting,

they want the teachers to get in the fight in a classroom where teachers are not trained law enforcement. even law enforcement are afraid to engage people with assault weapons but now they say they want to force teachers into these predicaments. teachers are saying they do not want this, they want to be armed with books and resources and school supplies, none of the teachers want to be able to carry a gun. but this law says that teachers can carry guns and is something that even the teachers of our state have opposed. there was a law passed in 2006, i believe, in two counties that did allow for guns on campus but the schools in these counties have decided not to take up that right? yes, because everyone here knows this is morally insane. it is moreally insane, a year after a mass shooting took the lives of three 9—year—olds and three adults that the only gun law that was passed is to put more guns in our schools. the majority of people want common sense gun laws, a ban on assault weapons, background checks, and isntead of those they say no, we will put guns in our schools as a solution

to school shootings. the people of our state know this is insane, they said so today, they chanted as the speaker cleared the gallery, he ordered them to clear the gallery for chanting, "you will have blood "on your hands, because of this law a child will be shot." it is only a matter of time, because it is about the storage of firearms, so far we have seen examples of students finding a gun in a purse that was not secured, and if a student finds a gun a teacher may have not secured, what will that do? it will lead to harm, and that is what we fight against. that's what we're challenging. instead of allowing us to bring these concerns — i want to add we were not able to properly debate in the house for today. in the house floor today. this bill now goes to the governor to sign into law. has he indicated he will do that, he would do that immediately? what has he said? the governor has not indicated but his silence has been very apparently — it seems

like he will let it take effect without his signature. it looks like it will go forward. anywhere around the world people think we are insane we allow teachers to have guns, this is an american problem that gunshot wounds of the number one cause of death of children in our country, being shot, the leading cause for children in america, and that is shameful and we must do everything we can to stop that and not put more guns in schools. we need to get guns of our streets and pass laws to protect kids from guns. thank you. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. a look at another story making news. the inquiry into it failings at the post office that led to hundreds of prosecutions has heard from the company's former top in—house lawyer, susan crichton. she has been asked about the handling of horizon it problems — in particular, the language used to describe them. meeting notes from meetings showed the post office's board

appear to debate language referring to "bugs" within the horizon system — let's take a listen. it's absolutely 0rwellian, isn't it, the use of the word "exception" now, instead of "bug"? changing the language within the company, crafting a briefing that now refers to exceptions? did you not take responsibility for that briefing, given that you were one of the people drafting it? if i had solely drafted it, if it had been my work, then i would have taken responsibility, or would take responsibility for it. i don't have... i can't remember that. susan crichton was general counsel until 2013, you're live with bbc news. a court in moscow has rejected the latest appeal by the american journalist

evan gershkovich to be released from prison ahead of his trial on spying charges. the wall streetjournal reporter has been held in prison for a year. the court has extended his detention till the end of year. mr gershkovich, his employer and the us government or deny the allegations of espionage. the usjustice department says it will pay out almost $140 million to survivors of disgraced team usa gymnastics doctor, larry nassar. he was jailed, after being convicted of sexually assaulting hundreds of athletes. the fbi was found to have botched its investigation into nassar, leaving him free to continue his assaults for months. nassar abused more than 300 women and girls in total, over 18 years — the olympic champion simone biles was among them. earlier, i spoke to rachael denhollander, a lawyer, and former gymnast, who was the first woman to publicly accuse larry nassar of sexual assault. thank you forjoining us. by speaking out, you started what has been called a tidal

wave of allegations against larry nassar. what does the settlement today mean to you? it means everything. it represents justice and more than anything it represents a tacit acknowledgement by the fbi that they did not do what they should have and there were devastating consequences for not following through on these reports. i think the question we have to ask now, given all of this, is what do we do differently the next time that this does not happen again? does the settlement today bring some level of closure to the victims that he molested, after the fbi failed to adequately respond to those allegations? that is a really multifaceted question. there is absolutely an element where there is closure, because it does communicate that a severe mistake was made. but, in addition, what we do see happening in a situation but, in addition, what we do see happening is a situation where the fbi, while they have settled, has not said much of anything at all. there has not been a broad

and robust discussion about what will change going forward. there has not been any verbal or written apology that acknowledges the depth of what happened to the survivors, when it could and should have been prevented. no criminal charges were levied for fbi agents who acted in an unethical manner. they did things that if any civilian had done, would have resulted in criminal charges. i am pleased with what i have seen today but there is so much more that needs to be done. the fbi director delivered an apology, but is this on some level not accountability for you ? it is the beginning of accountability. but what we also have to grapple with is what we have seen happen in this case is just a blown—up a picture of what is happening all over the country. the question of why survivors do not report, we see exactly why. out of every 300 rapes reported to the police, on average the most that are prosecuted is 25 in a given year.

25 out of 300, at our best. what we see happening here with the fbi is what victims deal with every single day, most survivors never see the justice that the victims of larry nassar have seen today. what i hope this does is spur us on to a much greater conversation about what needs to change for law enforcement to have a level of accountability and have a culture and society where we prioritise investigating sexual assault allegations, like it matters. sexual assault allegations like it matters. it takes incredible bravery and courage for any victim to speak out. do you think in this case because you spoke out and some of your other colleagues as well from team usa that on what had happened here? we have seen a significant amount of coverage and publicity and conversation generated in ways that we often do not see around sexual assault cases. the reality is that it took over 500 survivors and multiple 0lympians to generate this conversation,

so what is happening to the survivor who does not have the kind of support? what happens to the survivor who does not have a famous name attached to it? again, what we have seen happen with the fbi, the unethical conduct, the lack of prioritising an investigation, valuing something more than doing what was right. what we saw happening with the fbi is what is happening all over the country more often than not with your enforcement and so we need to start having a much bigger decider conversation about what has to change in the way that we investigate and prosecute sex crimes and what has to change in order to bring greater government accountability, because most survivors do not have the level of publicity that we had and do not see this kind of justice. the department ofjustice has agreed to pay nearly $139 million in relation to the 139 claims. is that enough? i don't think you _ claims. is that enough? i don't think you can _ claims. is that enough? i don't think you can never _ claims. is that enough? i don't think you can never put - claims. is that enough? i don't think you can never put a - claims. is that enough? i don't think you can never put a price j think you can never put a price tag on sexual assault. it changes every facet of your entire being, your outlook on the world, changes the course of your life forever, and while there is incredible hope for

healing, the reality is there are over 100 survivors that were wounded in ways that were entirely preventable and were entirely preventable and were entirely life changing. i don't think you can put a dollar amount on that. it think you can put a dollar amount on that.- think you can put a dollar amount on that. if there are ounu amount on that. if there are young girls _ amount on that. if there are young girls or— amount on that. if there are young girls or boys - amount on that. if there are young girls or boys or - amount on that. if there are young girls or boys or men i amount on that. if there are i young girls or boys or men and women of any age churning and watching you know and they find themselves in a situation where something is happening to them that shouldn't be, what you say to them? , to them? the first thing we have to say _ to them? the first thing we have to say is _ to them? the first thing we have to say is it's _ to them? the first thing we have to say is it's not - to them? the first thing we have to say is it's not your. have to say is it's not your fault. it's not yourfault. you have done something wrong. this is not your blame, this is not your shame, this is not your guilt, it does not belong to you. then find someone who is safe and who will come alongside you and fight for truth with you and fight for healing with you, but this is not your fault. we will leave it there. thank you for speaking to us on a bbc news. thank you for having me. floods, droughts, cyclones.

we are seeing more devastating natural events as the climate change worsens. now the climate migration council has published a report on actions to prevent displacement caused by these natural disasters. i spoke to georgetown university's dr elizabeth ferrers, who helped draft the report. i asked her about what happens when governments cannot or don't want to implement the measures they are proposing. first of all, this is an issue that affects everyone in the global north and the global south. it's one of the reasons i like working on this issue because it isn't just poor countries that are affected, as we have seen in the us, europe and other places, and actually some of the smallest countries with less government capacity have done amazingly well, like bangladesh. you know, a cyclone back in 1970 killed about 300,000 people, and last year, the number of deaths was less

than 100, although the cyclones are actually getting stronger. they've got good evacuation techniques and have done amazing things to really build up their structures, to protect people. a small country like vanuatu has a great policy on climate mobility that is really the envy of countries in very different parts of the world. and despite any of those preventative measures that might take place, nevertheless a disaster can hit and people do have to relocate. what needs to be done to better protect people who are forced to move? there are the immediate measures, when people are evacuated or are displaced, and that is constructing safe shelters, knowing where they are, training personnel to move people out quickly, but also, in the longer term, to get them back home as soon as possible, to have their resources, to reconstruct or rebuild safe houses, and those safe houses may not be in the same place, it may be necessary to move some communities away from harm's way. so we need to be thinking, both in the short—term emergency response, but also the longer—term issues of allowing people to live in safety and dignity and not have to leave their home.

no one wants to leave their homes. indeed they don't. lots of important work required right around the globe. dr elizabeth ferrers, director of the institute for the study of international migration at georgetown university, thanks forjoining us on bbc news. thanks a lot. now some other important news. justice is at the us supreme court signalled support for starbucks in its challenge to an order to rehire memphis employees, who were fired while they sought to unionise. if starbucks wins the case it could become more difficult for workers to be reinstated if they are fired during a labour dispute. foursmears they are fired during a labour dispute. four smears taken from british explorerjames cook british explorer james cook from british explorerjames cook from australia in 1770 have been returned by members of cambridge university to indigenous members�*s survivors

who it indigenous members�*s survivors it comes amid increasing pressure on institutions to return historic artefacts to their origin countries. stay with sa run bbc news. take care. hello, there. it's not a particularly inspiring weather story at the moment, is it? but we've still got that west—east divide across the country. on tuesday, we had the highest temperatures across south wales, with 16 degrees, and there was some glorious sunshine, at times, with a little bit of shelter from the breeze. but out to the east, it was disappointingly cool. a brisk northerly wind, temperatures struggled — only around seven degrees across that east yorkshire coast. we're going to keep quite a lot of cloud, as well, over the next few hours. that will prevent temperatures from falling too far. lowest temperatures to start the day on wednesday morning will be in the far north and west of scotland. we could have some thicker cloud and a little bit of drizzle, first thing wednesday morning, easing away

from south wales and south—west england. but, again, west will be best, in terms of sunshine. a brisk northerly wind feeding in cloud from time to time, few scattered showers, and keeping those temperatures pegged back to single figures. so, a top temperature of nine degrees along the east coast, further west, we'll see 12 or 13 degrees. now, clear skies will continue through wednesday evening and overnight, and that's going to allow those temperatures to fall away to low single figures. so, thursday morning, perhaps a chilly start, quite widely, across the country, and temperatures low enough in rural areas, further north and west, for a touch of frost, so gardeners and growers take note. but into thursday, this little weather front here could introduce a slight change. it will certainly bring more in the way of cloud, as we go through the latter stages of the morning, into the afternoon, and maybe some dribs and drabs of showery rain, pushing its way steadily south. so there'll be more cloud a little bit further west, and the temperatures really

disappointing for the end of april, 9—13 degrees once again. moving out of thursday, into friday, sees low pressure starting to push in from the south. that will introduce some wetter weather across central and southern england, but, potentially, a little less cold. so, as we close out the month of april, perhaps temperatures in the south back to where they should be for the time of year. but don't expect anything dry, settled and sunny. it's going to stay pretty unsettled. but we could see temperatures back up into the mid—teens, for some.

voice-over: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour, straight after this programme. welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur. the debate about sex, gender and identity has become perhaps the most hotly contested front in the culture wars. at its heart are deep disagreements about what makes us who we are, the limits of self—determination, and the relationship between the individual and wider society. my guest is the philosopher and gender theorist judith butler, whose ideas on genderfluidity and transgender rights have put them at odds with conservative politicians, authoritarian rulers, religious leaders and some feminists too.

is this a debate in which both sides are driven by fear?