Donald trumps former lawyer has taken the stand today at the former president s criminal trial in new york. Michael cohen is testifying about his role in what prosecutors say was a cover up of payments to hide an affair with the Adult Film ActressStormy Daniels. Mr trump denies falsifying Business Records to reimburse his then lawyer and fixer for the payment on the eve of the 2016 president ial election prosecutors say his motive was to avoid political damage. Lets speak to our correspondent, nada tawfik, who is live for us in new york. He is the star witness in this trial. What has he said in the first hour or so . Trial. What has he said in the first hour orso . Prosecutors trial. What has he said in the first hour or so . Prosecutors have already covered a lot of ground, starting first with how Michael Cohen came to work for donald trump, and they are trying to establish that Michael Cohen, yes, wanted to please donald trump, that he was on Top Of The World when he took care of matters for donald trump as his attack dog, threatening the press to get rid of negative stories, even trying to get better rates for vendors that donald trump owed, and he said he reported directly to donald trump, he lied on his behalf, and when he moved into donald trump running for the presidency he said that donald trump approached him and told him to be prepared because women would be coming forward with negative stories about him. Prosecutors asked him about him. Prosecutors asked him about the alleged catch and kill scheme with the tabloid the National Enquirer, Michael Cohen it saying it was the idea of donald trump to have him work with the editor of the National Enquirer directly to kill negative stories. He said they did that with numerous instances that have been outlined in this trial already. So the crux of what the prosecution has been trying to do this morning so far is to point to the fact that nothing that Michael Cohen did was on his own, it was all in the direction of donald trump. Outside the courthouse, for now, Thanks Forjoining us. Lets speak to jessica roth, former federal prosecutor and professor at Cardozo Law School in new york. Thanks forjoining us. Michael cohen is the crucial witness in this criminal trial, and if you were conducting the prosecution, given we know hes a convicted felon, how would you approach this . I know hes a convicted felon, how would you approach this . I would make sure would you approach this . I would make sure to would you approach this . I would make sure to draw would you approach this . I would make sure to draw the would you approach this . I would make sure to draw the sting would you approach this . I would make sure to draw the sting from would you approach this . I would make sure to draw the sting from my witness on direct examination, rather than allow things that are unsavoury that has passed to come out for the first time under Cross Examination, you do not want to look like you are Hiding Anything from thejury so i like you are Hiding Anything from the jury so i would elicit from like you are Hiding Anything from thejury so i would elicit from him his past convictions and lies and inconsistent statements about these matters that he is testifying about and his bias against donald trump, all of those things are things that go to his credibility as a witness and so i would front them and make sure that i was able to bring them out so that i have some control over the examination but it appears right now the prosecution is bringing out the story that is at the heart of their case and then they will turn to bringing out those other matters. They undoubtedly will build through the course of today and into tomorrow. One of the hurdles they have to establish is that donald trump knew he was doing these things, notjust Michael Cohen fixing various problems that he thought needed to be fixed, that is a crucial hurdle . It is because the charges are falsification of Business Records of charges are falsification of Business Records charges are falsification of business record. ,. , Business Records of the Donald Trump OrganisationBusiness Records of the Donald Trump Organisation so Business Records of the Donald Trump Organisation so it Business Records of the Donald Trump Organisation so it matters Business Records of the Donald Trump Organisation so it matters that Business Records of the Donald Trump Organisation so it matters that He Organisation so it matters that he was intending to further his campaign by suppressing the stories about him but that is only important in service of the charge which is that the payments were concealed in the records of the Trump Organisation, recorded as Legal Expenses for Michael Cohen but in fact they were reimbursements to Michael Cohen for making the payments to Stormy Daniels and to keep her silent in the run up to the president ial election. It is critical to establish through Michael Cohen that trump was part of the scheme to falsify the records. It is so important to build a picture for thejury for the picture for the jury for the prosecution so does it make sense they are coming to Michael Cohen now after spending weeks just describing how this system worked in their view in terms of the catch and kill scheme and how payments were made, before you get to Michael Cohen, in a sense bolstering his evidence . Absolutely. Their Trial Strategy makes a lot of sense and the jury is now familiar with the catch and kill story and they have heard about it from david pecker, and from others, who have less of an axe to grind with donald trump than does Michael Cohen, and the scheme was related to the campaign, they have heard, not only from david pecker but also from hope hicks who worked on the campaign with donald trump and so in a sense the contours of the story already there through other witnesses who have far less credibility issues than Michael Cohen, so now we get to the final part of the story which is donald trump as involvement in the falsification of the records and Michael Cohen is the only witness who appears to be set to testify about that from direct experience but in a sense the jury is ready to hear his story and they have heard things from other witnesses that corroborate that donald trump was involved personally in signing off on all the invoices that were presented to him for payment, so in a sense that would corroborate what Michael Cohen is saying specifically about these invoices. It is going to be hard for donald trump to distance himself from these particular invoices and payments on the jury has heard from people at the Trump Organisation that he took a level of personal involvement in payments generally. Personal involvement in payments uenerall. , , generally. Really briefly, when we aet generally. Really briefly, when we net to generally. Really briefly, when we get to cross generally. Really briefly, when we get to Cross Examination generally. Really briefly, when we get to Cross Examination i generally. Really briefly, when we get to Cross Examination i suspect it will be rather brutal, and would you be using the phrase a convicted felon as you could because you have on the jury two corporate lawyers sitting there . Would you be aiming them to just have a question of doubt in their mind about the veracity of everything that Michael Cohen is saying . I veracity of everything that Michael Cohen is saying . Cohen is saying . I would be trying to focus them cohen is saying . I would be trying to focus them on cohen is saying . I would be trying to focus them on his cohen is saying . I would be trying to focus them on his credibility,. To focus them on his credibility, yes, but i dont know i would focus exclusively on the fact he has been previously convicted of crimes but i would hammer the fact he has lied and said things different from what he is saying on these specific matters, he has denied donald trump was involved, and i would focus on his bias in the sense that not only has he spurned donald trump and been spent by him and had had his life turned upside down but he is making his living now essentially the books and podcasts and being a Media Personality all of which hinges on this brand that he is the person who is going to bring down donald trump. I would really focus on his bias more than anything else. Jessica, ureat more than anything else. Jessica, treat to more than anything else. Jessica, great to talk more than anything else. Jessica, great to talk to more than anything else. Jessica, great to talk to you, more than anything else. Jessica, great to talk to you, thanks more than anything else. Jessica, great to talk to you, thanks for i great to talk to you, thanks for joining us. And for all the latest on Michael Cohens testimony, you can visit the bbc news app or go to our website, where you can read and watch developments as they happen, with live reporting from our correspondents in new york. Breaking news on the uk governments plan to detain and remove Asylum Seekers to rwanda. Ajudge sitting in the high court in belfast has ruled it should not apply to Northern Ireland. Mrjustice humphreys ruled in favour of a challenge to the act saying that the law undermines Human Rights Protections guaranteed under the good friday Peace Agreement of 1998. Lets speak to our Home Affairs Editor mark easton. We will get to the response of the government in a moment but to take us through what has happened in the court . As us through what has happened in the court . �. , us through what has happened in the court . ~. ,. , court . A court ruling involving brexit, Northern Court . A court ruling involving brexit, Northern Ireland, court . A court ruling involvingl brexit, Northern Ireland, small boats, rwanda, this is the kind of thing that will be really difficult for number ten to navigate and that is why we have seen the Prime Minister come out so quickly after the court ruling but essentially, there is a court case brought primarily by a young boy, 16 years of age, when he arrived in a small boat unaccompanied, and he now lives in Northern Ireland, and his argument to the court is that he cant be deported to iran where he came from because it would be unsafe for him to be sent back and that actually the legal Migration Act which the uk passed to prevent people from claiming asylum and claiming these kind of things, does not apply in Northern Ireland, and the reason his lawyers and those of the reason his lawyers and those of the Northern IrelandHuman Rights Commission believe it doesnt is the windsor framework, the deal rishi sunak signed to deal with the post brexit problem that in Northern Ireland the good friday agreement contains within the Text Eu Human Rights legislation so they basically said, Northern Ireland can opt out of some of that, and here we are, judge said, if it doesnt apply in general terms, judge said, if it doesnt apply in generalterms, it judge said, if it doesnt apply in general terms, it should not apply in this specific case, and therefore great chunks of the illegal Migration Act should be in his words to supplied in Northern Ireland. What he is saying is that eu law, and he is very clear about this, eu law trumps uk law in Northern Ireland. You can imagine this is going to be catnip to all kinds of people, not least because it has the potential to seriously undermine the rwanda policy, because any migrant who is at risk of being sent to rwanda on one of the plains, if they can make it to Northern Ireland, and lived there, then if the ruling is to stand, that is why they would not be able to be sent to rwanda, so it is a bit of a hole, and there are also questions about whether you can have an Asylum Legislation that applies differently in different parts of the united kingdom. A lot of questions and the Prime Minister has responded to it and he says that the ruling will not distract him from his plans to start flights stop the boats and he says he has been consistently clear that the commitments in the good friday agreement should be interpreted as they were always intended and not expanded to cover issues like illegal migration and he insists he will take all steps to defend that position including appeal, so i think we will probably will see an appealfairly quickly, think we will probably will see an appeal fairly quickly, and the matter will then go to the appeal court in Northern Ireland and if it does it could go straight to the Supreme Court but if it goes through that, my expectation would be that whoever wins or loses there would then take it onto the Supreme Court and that process is going to take some considerable time. So we note the rwanda policy, there are lawyers ready to fight all kinds of ways to obstruct the policy, and this is the first time that we have seen the kind of action that could as one lawyer said in belfast earlier today, throw a real spanner in the works of the governments asylum plan. Works of the governments asylum lan. A ~ works of the governments asylum ian. ~. Works of the governments asylum plan. Mark, thanks for oining us. Our plan. Mark, thanks for oining us. Our home plan. Mark, thanks for oining us. Our home editorh plan. Mark, Thanks Forjoining us. Our home editor there. Still to come on the programme. Ukrainian government adviser Yuriy Sakjoins us live, at a time when the Russian Military continues to advance near the city of kharkiv. And as Antony Blinken warns that an all out israeli assault on rafah would trigger anarchy well have the latest developments in gaza. Around the world and across the uk. This is bbc news. The governor of the Kharkiv Region in northeastern ukraine has said Russian Forces are continuing to advance in several directions, after they launched a cross border attack on friday. Residents have been fleeing the town of vovchansk, which Russian Forces are battling to capture. Kharkiv is the second biggest city in ukraine. The government has been sending reinforcements to try to prevent russias forces getting within Artillery Range of kharkiv thought to be around 30 kilometres. I spoke to security analyst Maria Avdeeva whos been to see refugees arriving from luhansk in kharkiv. Im on one of the locations to where people from vovchansk are running and trying to evacuate are being brought. People are terrified. They are stressed. They keep their animals with them. So everyone is in a huge stress because of the constant shelling and of the shock of the russian offensive. So they say they knew that something is preparing, but theyve never prepared that this will happen for the second time because vovchansk and kharkiv, the second city where russia is