This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.

I'm Janet Jalil and in the early hours of Tuesday, the 16th of April,

these are our main stories.

Donald Trump has made legal history

by becoming the first former US president to stand trial in a criminal case.

Delegates at an aid conference in Paris called to mark one year since Sudan's civil war began have pledged more than $2 billion in

donations. A movie weapon supervisor on the film Rushed has been sentenced to

18 months in prison for the fatal shooting of a cinematographer.

Also in this podcast, record ocean temperatures have caused the mass bleaching of coral across the world seas.

We hear why the loss of the sound of the coral makes is a disaster for marine life.

Donald Trump's long-awaited hush money trial has begun in New York. It's the first time that a US

president, former or current has faced a criminal trial. Mr. Trump is accused of

falsifying his business records to try to conceal a payment of $130,000 to an adult film

style Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election which he won.

He denies the charges and made this statement to reporters after leaving the

courtroom in New York.

It's a scam trial. If you read all of the legal pundits all of the legal scholars today, There's not one that I see that said this is a case that should be brought or tried.

It's a scam. It's a political witch hunt. It continues and it continues forever and we're not going to be given a fair trial. It's a very

very sad thing. The initial phase of jury selection saw dozens of potential jurors excused after saying they could not be impartial.

Our correspondent Neder Tofik was at the court and gave us this update.

This is of course the first former president to face criminal charges, but we have to remember this is happening as he's also seeking a return to the White House.

And so for both of those reasons, we are really seeing Donald Trump test both the political and legal norms of this country in a way no one ever has before.

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