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announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. announcer: and now, "bbc news" s america, this is "world news s america. a jury hears opening statements in the first criminal trial against donald trump here and israeli general steps down over failures to prevent october 7 as reports of mass graves from israel's retaliatory war in gaza. and mexico's economy is getting a boost. we look at the impact of near shoring. ♪ host: welcome to "world news

america." the first criminal trial of a former u.s. president is underway as the jury heard opening statements on monday in new york. donald trump is accused of trying to cover up a hush-money payments to stormy daniels leading up to his 2016 election win. he pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of also buying his nose records and denies having an affair with ms. daniels. prosecution alleges that it was election fraud. adding there is nothing illegal about trying to influence an election. mr. trump spoke outside the courtroom and repeated his view that the trial is election interference. mr. trump: this is a biden witch hunt to keep me off the campaign trail. so far it is not working because my polling is as high as it has ever been because of public understands it is a witch hunt. host: the jury heard from the

first witness of the trial. let's go outside the courthouse in new york for more on today's developments. tell us more about that first witness. reporter: his name is david pecker and he is the publisher of the national enquirer, the tabloid newspaper at the center of this so-called catch and kill scheme that prosecutors were introducing to jurors. in many ways he is there for -- perfect first witness. prosecutors say he was part of a meeting in august 2015 with donald trump and michael cohen where they discussed the national enquirer helping donald trump's campaign showing the connection between the tabloid newspaper and a presidential campaign. they said they would be on the lookout for any negative stories that would impact him with voters. and that they said was the

precursor to the way these hush-money payments were made. first with stormy daniels and later with karen mcdougal who herself was paid by the national enquirer. they are using david pecker to set the stage. we have scratched the surface with his beginning testimony that will continue tomorrow. host: tell us about what we heard from the defense in the opening arguments. reporter: the defense's role today in their opening statement was to sow doubt through the prosecution's case because the burden of proof is on the prosecution. and todd blanche, donald trump's lawyer was mocking several elements of their case saying there is nothing illegal about influencing an election, it is called democracy, he said. he also said the catch and skill

-- catch and kill scheme, nothing wrong with that either. he put distance between trump and falsifying records. saying he was so far up in the organization that he did not have his hand in the details. another key piece we will see is in trying to say that the prosecution's case is built on unreliable witnesses. for michael cohen, they painted him as someone that has a vendetta against donald trump wanting to see him in an orange jumpsuit. they say stormy daniels is biased and has made a career of going after donald trump here host: reporting from new york. it will be a busy next few months for mr. trump as he heads towards an election rematch with president biden in november. on top of new york he is facing three other criminal trials. in georgia, donald trump and 18 others were charged with trying to overturn his loss in that

state and there are also two federal criminal trials. donald trump is conspired with trying to overturn the results in the lead up to the january 6 attack on the capitol and mr. smith is separately charging mr. trump with illegally retaining classified documents taking them from the white house to mar-a-lago and obstructing the efforts to return the documents to the national archives. we will speak with and mccoy -- emory mcavoy. great to see you. go back to what we saw in new york. what did you think of the arguments made by the prosecution in particular. >> it was pretty much what we expected. it is still a little murky as to the underlying charges. from a legal standpoint it is an unusual, first of its kind case, and today did not change any

views on that. they came out strong. they are going after him. they have the ability to talk about other issues he has had such as bringing in the publisher from the national enquirer to talk about the playboy model and other allegations against him. they are going to try their best to make him look bad. with the new york jury, that does not start off liking him to begin with. that could be enough to get him convicted. host: what about the defense and their strategies? will that be effective? >> it depends. again, it is a new york jury, which makes it difficult because in general, in new york, he is not well-liked. we don't know how the people on the jury feel about him. we know some of them are not fans, to put it mildly.

so that is going to affect what happens. and you have michael cohen and he has a history of committing perjury on the stand. that will be problematic. and the defense will make a lot of hey out of that. host: how important are these opening arguments in shaping the jurors' view of the trial? >> in this case, probably not very. i think most people already have an opinion of donald trump. undoubtedly, these jurors have an opinion of him. and a lot of this was already out in the press including apparently today the access hollywood statements that he had made which were very colorful, to say the least, and not very pleasing to most women and those were read to the jury in part of

the opening. they already know who he is. what is really going to be the issue here is what did the witnesses say, what did the facts show. and in the end, how does the jury feel about him. whether they believe the prosecution and michael cohen and maybe even if they do not believe him, they may still prosecute him and be willing to convict him. host: thank you so much. on to some other news. israel's military intelligence chief announced his resignation saying he takes responsibility for the failure of before the october seventh attack. the first senior official to step down over the mass killing, the deadliest in israel's history. we report from jerusalem. reporter: there has been little political reaction in israel to the resignation of the general.

it is just the start of the is really holy week of passover. a lot of commentators have expressed surprise at the timing of his departure. israel is facing conflict on many fronts. there is conflict against palestinian militants in the west bank where hundreds have been killed since october 7 and on the northern border where there are more frequent cross border hirings. and cash cross-border firings. the timing of this departure is a surprise. but the general had taken personal responsibility many times especially in the early days for what he admitted where the failings of the intelligence directorate in preventing or knowing about the events of october the seventh when thousands of armed hamas militants streamed across the border killing 1200 people,

mainly israelis and southern israel. people we have spoken to say he will not be the last of the senior figure to go. there is a lot of pressure on other generals. there are rumors that a second general from the central command has now tended his resignation as well. but it is the political responsibility that will concern many as raley's. what will the israeli prime minister do in response to this. many as raley's believe that he all -- many israelis believe that he shares the blame

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george: actually, you don't need vision to do most things in life. it's exciting to be part of a team driving the technology forward. i think that's the most rewarding thing. people who know, know bdo. narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. announcer: and now, "bbc news". lea: my name is lea. i may look like a normal 20-something. but my life is often consumed by illness.

lea: approximately 1,000 people are born every day in africa with sickle cell. i have sickle cell disease. up to 90% of us die before the age of five. our governments do little to help us. lea: and i'm advocating to those in power to change that. lea: even in our own communities, people with sickle cell are often treated like outcasts because of the misconception and stigma surrounding the disease.

lea: i'm putting my life on the line to fight this deadly disease. and to dispel the myths that surround it. ♪ ♪ lea (over phone): hi, beautiful people, this is lea, you can see my jaundice it is on, damn. the abnormal, sickle-shaped red blood cells in my body affect my oxygen levels. one of the biggest problems with sickle cell is oxygen.

like if you don't have sufficient oxygen, so you can only push your body fat for a good number of days before you need to really rest. now he's telling people, "this girl has sickle cell," and they don't even know i have sickle cell. i've been raising awareness about the devastating impact of sickle cell on patients and families for years. some of us have accepted sickle cell. and subscribe. and we'll have this conversation again. thank you. i try to help my fellow survivors. fresh green, leafy vegetables for people living with sickle cell, like myself. and advocate to the authorities to act. it's also a way for the government, the ministry, to see that these people are forgotten demographic in this country and they need to set up help and support infrastructure to be able to manage the disease.

♪ paul: when i was younger, i never knew what sickle cell was. i just knew, like, sometimes my sisters would just wake up in pain at night. lea: throughout my battle with sickle cell, my brother paul has always been my rock. now he's at my side again and i take on my biggest challenge yet. lea: with my brother's help, i plan to fight through my illness and run the nairobi half marathon.

paul: when it comes to sickle cell, they're encouraged against getting tired. ah, nice. i also knew that when she bites into something, she doesn't let go. (speaking in native language). lea: the marathon idea came, came into my mind when i was like, "i need to do something." i need to do something to, to physically show that i can, i can do it like someone with sickle cell can do it. my doctor has cautioned against running the marathon. it could trigger a crisis and bring on severe complications.

but i am determined to do it, not just for me. ♪ 80 million of us suffer with this disease across africa. we have to believe. the other day was telling one of my sickle cell advocates in nigeria that i am doing the marathon. but she was like she was like she was very, very upset. she was like, "no, no, sickle cell patients have this thing of saying they can do this. you cannot do a marathon, lea, please, you cannot." so of course i can, of course i can, and i will. so yeah, i want to do that, not to show her because yes, i have a chip on my shoulder but, i want to live a normal life. i want to do these things that i want to do. i want to see where my body can, can, can stretch to, yeah,

without snapping, of course. ♪ for my training, i'm going back to my hometown, taveta. it's also the place where i think i can make the biggest difference for thousands of people living with the disease. ♪ in taveta, almost a quarter of the population have the sickle cell gene, but those living with the disease receive very little support. (speaking in native language).

i join a local group as they prepare to march on a nearby hospital and demand better services for sickle cell patients. we go to the local hospital to protest. lea: albert is the leader of this group. like so many other parents of children with sickle cell, he has suffered from the stigma and poverty that surrounds the disease. but he is determined to find a solution.

♪ (singing in native language) ♪ ♪ (singing in native language) ♪ albert was one of the first people i met, and he was one of the few who really spoke to me. like the passion, like this was one of the parents that i saw who did not feel the shame or the stigma of sickle cell. ♪ (singing in native language) ♪

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♪ >> good evening. opening statements in donald