it's seven in the morning here in singapore, and seven in the evening in atlanta, georgia where joe biden and donald trump are preparing to go head to head in a televised presidential debate. it comes just two weeks before mr trump is sentenced for his conviction of 3a counts of falsifying business records. our chief presenter caitriona perry is in the cnn spin room in atlanta. tonight, this is the cnn spin room. ordinarily commits a basketball arena here at georgia tech university known locally as the thriller done. will it be a thriller tonight? we will have to wait and see. we will have to wait and see. we do know it is a idea first. the first time ever in the era of television debates that there is a sitting president taking on a former president. that means it's going to be a dramatic day. they both have a body of work that can be defended and criticised. voters

knowjust defended and criticised. voters know just what to expect. also the first time the campaigns have gone outside of the commission for presidential debates and done a deal themselves with only one media organisation, cnn, that is why there is so much cnn branding everywhere else because they very much been in control of this. it's the first debate as well where the candidates microphones will be muted when they go over time. so we will have to wait and see just what impact that has on the debate. let's have a look at what is in store in just a let's have a look at what is in store injust a couple let's have a look at what is in store in just a couple of hours�* time. we have this report from our north america editor. two old men whom the voters already know very well — well enough to say they really don�*t like the choice they�*re being given. and each man now is hoping to make his opponent look even worse. the campaigns try to weaponise what they see as their opponent�*s greatest weakness.

social media�*s flooded with images ofjoe biden looking old and infirm, along with claims he�*s also mentally incompetent. images unfairly taken out of context, complain the biden campaign. i think he should take a cognitive test like i did. i took a cognitive test and i aced it. doc ronny...doc ronny johnson... it was doc ronny jackson who gave him that cognitive test. democrats love to disseminate trump�*s verbal slips and more bizarre statements. if there was a shark or you get electrocuted, i�*ll take electrocution every single time. # start me up. # if you start me up, i�*ll never stop.#. the rolling stones don�*t stop. currently touring america, they�*re also in their 80s — just about as old as the candidates. their age has not withered fans�* enthusiasm outside the gig in philadelphia, but many are worried president biden is too old for another term. i think we just do need some new candidates, some young candidates. nobody talks about his policies or what he's doing. theyjust talk about the fact that he's walking around

confused half the time. that's why they call him sleepyjoe. he's too old. but donald trump is only four years younger. if you look at the two, i there's no comparison. so donald trump may be as old, but he's not...he doesn't- act as old, he doesn't act as feeble. - he's...it'sjust i different, i think. his agility is not a 27—year—old kid. no, it's not. he�*s a senior citizen. but he is smart. he knows what he�*s doing. he�*s experienced. i�*ve got confidence in him so far. in the courtroom, we see donald trump for who he is. he's been convicted of 34 felonies. democrats hoped a series of guilty verdicts against donald trump would repel voters. so far, it has not had a huge impact on the polls. for some of the independents, it might make a little - bit of a difference, _ maybe just around the margins that matters, but it's a close race, so that margin might l actually come to play come november. - what happens here tonight will be the most pivotal moment yet in this campaign, and could define the race from now on.

well, here in the spin room after the debate is finished, supporters of both candidates will come and spin, say that their guy one and why they did so. but that�*s already starting. we have been speaking in the last few moments to representatives of both candidates. we spoke first to kevin munoz, the national campaign spokesperson for the biden campaign and he explained why those who may be have doubts about voting for democrats how he would address that. we know our agenda is a winning agenda and when you put it on the ballot box, it wins. when donald trump and his extremist agenda of a national abortion ban of cutting taxes for billionaires, of taking away the affordable care act from the american people the ballots, it loses.

but this will be a close election. this is about which campaign will put in the work on the ground in support of those battleground voters. look at this week alone from joe biden. more than 1600 events across the battleground states. a $50 million ad buy for the month ofjune alone. these are the types of things that win elections and donald trump isn't doing any of that. i�*ve also been speaking to congressman byron donald�*s. his name is on a so—called long list of potential vice presidential candidates and he explained to us just what donald trump is doing in these last few hours before the debate begins. he knows the issues. he spent on the campaign trail really for months, except for that episode in lower manhattan. he spent on the campaign trail talking to the american people. he's been talking with advisers. donald trump's prep has been engagement, engagement with everybody across our country and hearing from people what is going on in america. obviously he has observed it first—hand watching the news, knowing what is going on in the business world. he is going to come in tonight talking about the issues that are really plugging our country.

what does hurting every men and women in america, especially the working class men and women of our country. this is a major moment in the campaign, but it�*s also a major event of itself, made for television but with a huge entourage that goes behind that. i can go to my colleague, our north american correspondent who is somewhere behind me on the floor of the spin room. what is going on where you are? as you say, this is a basketball court normally, today, does the venue for a sport of a different kind. you can see it is filling up now, the various camera crews and reporters for the networks recording their pieces to camera. a few interviews going on. we had the governor of the state of georgia here a short while ago, a republican who has had his differences with donald trump. you know, making his case for what he would

like to see tonight. a focus on the issues, he was suggesting. over there, you�*ve got the cnn studio, which is where they are going to be doing their postdebate analysis, getting those representatives from both sides, just the way we have heard from the commons sides, just the way we have heard from comments to the bbc earlier, making their case for each of the two candidates. and although katrina, there can often be a certain kind of hyperbole about these debates, their importance can be overstated particularly in a race where minds are already made up. i think this one, have we have been hearing, really does matter. the polls are deadlocked, the candidates themselves know this is an opportunity to speak over the heads of those pundits and pollsters directly to the american people and what happens here tonightjust might shift the decisions being made, particularly in those marginal

states where this election will be won or lost. john, we have been focusing a lot on style and character, but as you say it�*s about the substance of the debate as well. what cognitive issues will be discussed tonight? cnn hasn�*t released a list of the questions the candidates are going to be asked, but you can make a pretty good guess as to what the main topics are going to be. the economy, of course. president biden is likely to find himself under attack from former president trump over his record, particularly their periodic bouts of inflation that we�*ve seen on mr biden�*s watch. migration is well will be an attack point for mr trump. you know, on the other hand, this is not the same world we were living in back in 2020

when these two men mask debated. one of the most notable things that has shifted, of course has been the constitutional right to abortion with the sweeping away of roe v wade and i think a lot of analysts are expecting mr biden to take that issue to mr trump and to try to pin it on him and to suggest that he owns that decision. mr trump himself is sometimes suggested indeed he does. so they are the kind of things we are likely to see discussed. of course that question of the tight control over the microphones over how long each candidate will have to speak, the hope from the hosts here is that by constraining them in that way, we can get a discussion that is focused on the issues rather than what we saw in 2020, which was a bit of a shouting match. well, we don�*t have too much longer to wait to find out. we will chat to you later on, but for now on the floor of the spin room, thank you for that.

wherever you are in the uk or right around the world, you will be able to watch the cnn presidential debate on bbc. you will be able to see joe biden take on donald trump. we will have live coverage. our special programming begins at one o�*clock to five o�*clock british time on the bbc news channel and also on bbc .com. in the uk, you can watch it on bbc one. on the bbc iplayer or the bbc news app. and you can also listen in on bbc five live and on bbc sounds. for now, it is back over to you in the studio. just two hours until that coverage begins. the bbc has tracked down and confronted a people smuggler — responsible for organising a small—boat crossing to the uk in april, in which a 7 year old girl died. our paris correspondent andrew harding was on the beach in france during that initial incident, and, in a lengthy investigation, tracked the smuggler through europe to luxembourg —

and a warning this report does contain flashing images. excuse me, sir. andrew harding from bbc news. we�*ve come to luxembourg to confront a man we�*ve been chasing across europe. we know who you are, you�*re a smuggler. no. he�*s responsible for putting hundreds of people in small boats heading from france to england. and responsible for one boat in particular. this one. we came across it back in april on a beach in northern france. police battling with a group of smugglers. chaos as people clambered onto the boat. we saw a girl here in a pink coat. she was one of five to die at the scene. her name was sara, seven years old, born in belgium, raised in sweden. a few days later, we found her father, ahmed, an iraqi

man consumed by grief — and also by guilt. but what of the smugglers? multiple sources tell us the man paid to arrange sara�*s journey is still active and working from a distant city. so we�*ve come now to antwerp, a city in northern belgium, to try and track down the smuggler, the man who organised the boat and who, to some extent, was responsible for sara�*s death. and so we set a trap. one of our team poses here as a migrant looking to cross the channel. wearing a hidden camera, he goes to meet a middleman in antwerp. someone who can put us in touch with the smuggler. and the plan works. we are now waiting for the smuggler to call us. he�*s just sent us a text message, so it could be any moment now. finally, he does call.

believing he�*s talking to a potential client, he offers us seats on his next boat. so, the smuggler is still in business. but he�*s not in belgium any more. we now hear he may be on the run, that he�*s heading to luxembourg — and we�*re in pursuit. we�*ve received a photo and video suggesting he�*s hiding in some sort of camp. an online search directs us to this migrant reception centre in the city of luxembourg. our new plan is a stakeout. we�*ve been watching for three whole days now. still no sign of him. but by now we have more evidence. this photo of the smuggler and his passport. he�*s called rebwar, from iraq.

and then we catch this glimpse of him inside the camp. and a few hours later, we�*re racing to catch him outside. that�*s my colleague ahead of me, in black. we know who you are, you�*re a smuggler. no. he insists we have the wrong man. "i swear it," he says. do you want to call him? just check that he�*s got the same number that we�*ve been calling. but then we call him on his mobile. the same number he used when he offered to smuggle us to england. who are you? so he�*s answering the phone. we know that this is you, sir. we know 100% that you are a smuggler. that you are responsible for the death of this seven—year—old, that you put her on a boat, that you took money from her parents, that she and four other people died. that�*s you. we know this is our man. he�*s getting on a tram now. we�*re going to let him go. there�*s not much more we can do. so, he leaves. and while we don�*t follow him, we do inform the french

authorities, who�*ve declined to comment. as for the family sara left behind, they�*re being housed temporarily in this tiny french village. ahmed has claimed that hiring a smuggler was his only option. true or not, he now says he�*s learned a hard lesson. "the smugglers only care about money," he says. "i hope they�*ll be arrested and my daughter�*s death will not be in vain." but his other children have no access to school here and no idea what comes next. what do you miss most? to have, like, a normal life, like everybody. that�*s what you miss? do you think you will have one soon? where do you think? in england.

i�*m sorry. but there�*s little chance of that right now. her sister�*s body has been buried here in france. but this grieving family has no permission to settle anywhere in europe. instead, they wait in limbo while the smuggling industry thrives. andrew harding reporting there. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news.

in northern ireland, the leaders of the five main political parties standing in the uk election have taken part in a televised debate tonight. one of the main focuses was on health and the nhs and our ireland correspondent chris page was watching. under the lights and behind the lecterns, for the last big tv events of their campaign.

although this is an election to the uk parliament, in northern ireland there is still a focus on what the parties are doing in the devolved assembly. how do the parties justify voting to cut the health service budget? westminster decides the overall budget for the government in belfort, but its local politicians who decide how the money should be divided up and spent. the most important thing to have been achieved is a recognition in the british government that stormont has been underfunded and, with a new labour government coming into play, there is an risk of getting a better deal so we can invest in our health service and continue with transformation. hospital waiting times here are the longest in the uk

but the party controlling the health ministry said of the parties are starving it of funds. the finance minister gave a project which doesn�*t take account of this year�*s pay rise, so we are faced with pressure with the pay rises for nurses, doctors and all of the staff may not be met, and those are precious those people are facing in a cost of living crisis, with all the other pressures. we need real leadership, real resources and to take tough decisions. two leaders competing directly in the westminster election accused each other of not being significantly committed to the devolved government. we can tackle the financial challenge we have talked about with respect to health but also our public services and also that trust deficit that the institutions will be there in future. we don't have a deputy first minister as a candidate, we don't have our education minister as a candidate and we didn't have any ministers abandoning their pitch three months. five parties vying for votes across 18 constituencies in seven days�* time.

nasa has selected elon musk�*s spacex company to return the international space station to earth, at the end of its useful life. the california—based company will build a vehicle capable of pushing the iso—tonne orbiting platform into the pacific ocean early in the next decade. without assistance, it would eventually fall back to earth on its own, however this poses a significant risk to populations on the ground. pakistan�*s former prime minister, imran khan, has lost an appeal against the only remaining conviction keeping him behind bars. a judge dismissed an attempt by mr khan and his wife, bushra bibi, to overturn their seven—year sentence for breaching islamic marriage laws. they were found guilty in february of not waiting long enough between their wedding and ms bibi�*s divorce from her previous husband. many people took to the streets to protest against the decision. here�*s some of what they had to say. all pakistani can�*t tolerate these stupid decisions. it�*s very stupid, so we are not

in favour of these decisions. this is ourfinal thing, that�*s why we are standing over here. translation: we are ready to take to the streets - for our captain imran khan, who is injuring a small room in 47 degrees heat fighting for our future and that of our children. our correspondent caroline davies is also there — she described what�*s been happening. i�*m standing outside the district court in islamabad, where imran khan�*s latest appeal has been dismissed. this is his last most recent attempt to try to be released from prison. you can see behind me that there are several hundred of his supporters that have come out. they have been chanting about freedom. they�*ve been holding up signs saying shame on you. release imran khan, release bushra bibi, that�*s his wife. and some of them have also been chanting, saying, yourfriend, my friend, prisoner 804, which is imran khan�*s prisoner number. now, the reason this particular appeal was considered to be significant today

was that if imran khan had been found to to have had that appeal upheld, then this is the last sentence that is currently holding him in prison. so many of his supporters had hoped that this could lead to his release. that has not happened. imran khan�*s appeal has been dismissed and at the moment both he and his wife bushra bibi remain behind bars. let�*s take a look at some other stories in the headlines... the government of taiwan has warned its citizens not to travel to china after beijing threatened to prosecute those who support the island�*s independence. it said people shouldn�*t go unless it was absolutely necessary. china has long considered taiwan part of its own territory — and regularly criticises politicians on the island who disagree. the high court in kenya has upheld a decision to deploy the military to assist the police in dealing with mass protests that have shaken the country for several days. doctors say at least twenty—three protestors

were killed earlier this week during demonstrations that saw parts of the parliament set on fire. at least 14 people have been killed in nepal by landslides and flooding caused by torrential monsoon storms. four of the victims died when several homes were swept away in a landslide in lamjung district, west of kathmandu. six others have died in floods since the monsoon began this month. the world�*s smallest elephant is in danger of dying out — but there�*s hope it can be saved. it�*s thought there are now fewer than one thousand bornean elephants left in the wild. that�*s why the international union for conservation of nature have added the diminutive elephant to their "red list" of threatened species. the pint sized pachyderm stands at three feet smaller than its bigger asian cousins — and is known for its gentle, playful nature. but they�*ve lost much of its habitat in borneo to deforestation.

vivek menon is chair of the asian elephants specialist group at the international union for conservation of nature. he explained the imapct that losing the bornean elephants would have. the bornean elephant is currently in assessment has been listed as endangered, which means it�*s in risk of extinction unless we do something about it. uh, and remember that this elephant is only found largely in sabah in malaysia, on the island of borneo, and would would be a different place without a large mega herbivore, like an elephant, something that eats the amount of vegetation it does, something that shapes the forest around it the way it does. you will find that that forest will transform into a different kind of landscape without elephants. well there�*s been times during the euro�*s, when some players just wanted the ground to swallow them up.

but perhaps not like this. cctv caught the moment when a massive sink—hole appeared on a football pitch in the us town of alton. it�*s 100 feet wide and could be just as deep. it�*s thought it was caused by a disused mine collapsing. nobody was hurt, but a whole floodlight disappeared. hello. it was a slightly cooler day across the board on thursday, but still warm enough with 25 degrees across the southeast. friday will be a little bit cooler still, but quite a lot of sunshine around generally. most of the showers and strongest of the winds will be across the northern half of the uk, courtesy of this area of low pressure, which will continue to pull northwards and take the strong winds and showers with it as we go through the day. but it�*s a blustery start to many areas, certainly across the northern half of the country for friday. the showers, the strongest of the winds, pushing northwards across scotland, some of these heavy and thundery across north eastern parts of scotland. but england and wales, certainly for wales, the midlands southwards should stay mostly dry, with a top temperature of 22—23 degrees,

mid—teens further north. now, as we head through friday night, the showers begin to fade away, the winds turn lighter and skies will clear. so it will turn quite chilly under those clear skies by the end of the night, with temperatures out of town dipping into single digits for some of us. but in town around 9—12 degrees. so it�*s a cool start to the weekend, but however, the weekend isn�*t looking too bad. there will be quite a bit of dry and sunny weather around. just a bit of rain at times through central areas of the uk, particularly on saturday. and that�*s courtesy of these weather fronts, which will wriggle in from the west at times. now, as we look to the north of the uk, that area of low pressure will be pulling away, taking the strong winds and the showers away from the northern isles as we go through saturday. a lot of sunshine for scotland, northern ireland, patchy cloud and rain for northern england, the midlands and wales. but southern and south—east england will be warm and increasingly humid through the day. plenty of sunshine, top

temperatures 25 degrees here, again, mid—teens further north. now as we move into part two of the weekend, this ridge of high pressure will topple in. that will kill off any showers. lighter winds as well with fewer isobars. so it should be a fine day on sunday. cool start, but plenty of sunshine around. bit of cloud building into the afternoon. thickest of the cloud, northwest scotland, where it will be breeziest, but lighter winds elsewhere. top temperatures on the cooler side, we�*re looking at 16—21 degrees. then as we head into next week, i think low pressure will be close by, certainly to the north and the west of the country. this is where we�*re likely to see most of the showers. better chance of staying dry and warmer towards the south and the east. take care.

the stage is set for the first debate of this year�*s us election. we�*ll look at whether the economy gives the president an upper hand. plus. slowing sales have hit sportswear giant nike. but will the euros give it a lift? hello and welcome to business today. i�*m steve lai. in a few hours�* time, joe biden and donald trump will face off in their first televised debate for this year�*s us election. the president and ex—president are expected to go head to head over a slew of issues, including the economy. inflation at the top of mind for most americans, as higher interest rates have

stretched household budgets. this could work against mr biden. that�*s according to ryan sweet from oxford economics. the number one thing against president biden right now in this election cycle is inflation, and inflation is very unpopular with americans consumer, it eats away at purchasing power and there are a few ways of looking at it inflation. economists pay attention to the inflation rate, and most consumers look at the price level, prices and gasoline at the pump, they are higher, but prices are higher, milk prices, things they see on a regular basis are higher than there were a few years ago, and i think that will work against president biden, but does not downplay the rest of the economy. thejob market is downplay the rest of the economy. the job market is very strong, and the high interest rates we are seeing now are rates we are seeing now are more a rates we are seeing now are more a symptom of high inflation that we experience in the past and that the reserve is transit rain in inflation.

we might learn more during the