after senators rejected new spending plans. president trump has blamed the democrats. democrat leaders say they want the deal to include measures to prevent the deportation of young undocumented immigrants brought to the us by their parents. russia has denied withdrawing its forces from the syrian region of afrin ahead of an expected turkish attack. turkish media earlier said moscow had started pulling its personnel out of the enclave, which is controlled by kurdish fighters. but the russian foreign minister said these reports had been refuted. pope francis has made his first visit to the amazon on the final leg of his trip to chile and peru. speaking to thousands of indigenous people on the edge of the rainforest in peru, he said amazon tribes had "never been so threatened" and that they "bore deep wounds". now on bbc news, our world. lele tao is a chinese internet

superstar. she sings, chats, floats and plays games with her fans online. in china's multibillion—dollar live streaming industry, she is all i've got as far hundreds of thousands of online men and they showered her with gifts of thousands of dollars every day. but there is always someone younger and prettier waiting to take her place. and the government is tightening the rules on what is allowed on screen. and now, she has fallen out with her manager. it is sunday morning in chengdu, the

ancient city in the south of china. now, one of the country's new high—tech hubs. 24—year—old lele tao is here for the weekend. she is visiting her family. who is here for the weekend. she is visiting herfamily. who have recently moved to in your apartment in an upmarket neighbourhood. her dad will spend the whole day cooking her favourite food. she is only home for a few days but before she can relax, she has work to do. lele is a live stream who makes her work by entertaining people online. she sings, plays

games and chats with her fans and they can watch her for as long as they can watch her for as long as they want. lele is one of the most popular streamers in the country. without a script she entertained her fans until well past midnight. herfans can interact with her, right her messages, and request songs. her family are also her fans. lele started live streaming one day at her dad's office using just about top. it all seems like just a bit of

fun until she got paid. back then, that was nine times the average monthly salary in china. for just two weeks work! some of her income is from playing computer games with her fans. some of her income is from playing computer games with herfans. lele now has over i computer games with herfans. lele now has overi million followers all over china, the majority of them are men in their early 20s, many with money to spend. one of her most loyal fans is 2a you rolled. just talking about her makes

them nervous. and lele remembers when he started following her. to get lele to play the song, he

kept buying her more and more expensive virtual gifts. this is how streamers like lele make so much money. fans buy them virtual gifts exchanged entertainment, a conversation, or sometimes simply for their attention. live streamers can then redeem these virtual gifts for cash. just to be her online friend, he has spent what the average chinese person living in the city earns in

two years. in china, the internet is tightly controlled and live streaming is a much more significant phenomenon here than in the rest of the world. it is an industry worth $3 billion a year. one of the major hubs if shanghai were lele lives, and where she is managed by one of the country's biggest live streaming agencies. the pressure to look good on screen is immense. lou rey lourey a rented apartment five minutes from the management agency mj entertainment. she is one that more than 3000 streamers on her books. the ceo max and his wife spotted lele shortly after she started streaming. mj entertainment takes a 20% cut from their live streamers, although most of them don't earn anywhere near as much as lele. and more fans means more money.

looking attractive is crucial for live streamers. but when it first took off, some women took the king sexy so far that it was deemed pornography. the government quickly tightened the rules on what is allowed on screen. and now, lele and other streamers know how far they can go. if they cross the line, they could be sent to prison, and the streaming channels closed up. but this is just a warmup. after the

training, lourey will be live streaming for up to ten hours non—stop until midnight. —— lele. after a ll after all is of live streaming, lele finally gets to eat her first meal, at nine p.m.. she calls her mind to tell her about the highlight of the day so far. —— her mum. it isn't just lele

it isn'tjust lele who feels good, fa ns it isn'tjust lele who feels good, fans who spend a lot buying her gifts also enjoy the admiration and respect they get from other fans for the amounts they are spending. even for those fans who don't spend much, live streaming can provide a sense of community, friendship, and family. and the industry knows this. here's an only child. like 200 million other people born when china one child policy. decades of sex selective abortions have led to a

dramatic gender imbalance, a severe shortage of girls. he spent his childhood in a small village, just outside shanghai. the internet filled the gap. that is when he met the woman that

he describes as his online goddess, and started showering her with virtual gift. —— gifts. overthe yea rs, virtual gift. —— gifts. overthe years, he has spent a lot of money on lele. but still, for him, it is a real relationship, and for lele as well. it is lele. lele has called him to

tell him about a problem she is having with her manager, max, who wa nts having with her manager, max, who wants her to sign a new eight—year contract. to try to get her to sign the new contract, he promises to make a big investment in her, to help her record albums or get into films. but to get out of the contract early would cost lele over $1 million. but lele isn't happy, and the situation soon escalates. behind closed doors, a huge fight brea ks behind closed doors, a huge fight breaks out between lele and macs. he

storms out and orders her channel to be shut down. a few minutes later, she rushes home in tears. he blames her mood. —— max. but later, max admits lele is upset because of the contract. nothing is resolved, but neither side wants to push things too far for the moment. still, the superfan is worried about lele. so the next day, he orders a taxi to

ta ke so the next day, he orders a taxi to take him to shanghai to meet her in person. but he is adamant his intentions are not romantic. halfway through the journey, he pulls over to a service station, and checks in with her. he discovers that, despite the unsigned contract, lele is back on air. as usual, he requests a song, and then sings along with her. it took him four hours to get to this iconic and romantic waterfront

area in central shanghai, where they have arranged to meet. but by the time he arrives it is past midnight, and all the lights have been switched off. lele is still at work live streaming, and he doesn't want to wait here. they head off to a cafe near lele's apartment, at the conversation is really awkward. it is rare for streamers and fans to meet in person, and they are both anxious. they celebrate their one—hour

together with a selfie. though they had arranged to meet up the next day, they don't. he takes a taxi back home. and lele goes back to her on—screen life. hi there. snow again caused problems on friday in scotland. scenes like this were fairly commonplace. the snowiest place at the moment — tulloch bridge, in the highlands, where we've nearly got a0 centimetres of snow on the ground. now, the forecast this weekend, a couple of areas of low pressure, one swinging in today, another one that's going to be bringing in some heavy rain, and a change to milder conditions on the way for the second half of the weekend. this is how we start off your saturday, then. a band of rain will be working

into southern and western parts of the country. a cold and frosty start in the north—east, with snow showers again affecting parts of scotland, with an ongoing threat of ice, as well. the main uncertainty with the forecast through the weekend is how far north this pulse of rain will be during saturday morning. it could be, and there's decent evidence for it, that it goes right the way across northern ireland. if that happens, there is quite a risk that it turns to snow. three or four centimetres quite possible here, similar snow totals possible across the high ground of north wales, and perhaps also across the north—west midlands for a time. whereas, further south, for the most part it's cold rain will fall, although there will be some flakes of sleet mixed in, particularly over the high ground, for example the chilterns, and maybe the mendips as well. now, through the rest of the day, those bright skies in scotland filter southwards into far north england and northern ireland. a slow change to the rest, a dull, dank day, with the rain easing off slowly, but we're left with chilly conditions. temperatures for most in the range of 3—5 degrees. milder, though, in the south—west.

looking ahead to saturday night, the second of those areas of low pressure that i showed you on the satellite picture a few moments ago starts to swing in. that will be bringing a band of rain across northern ireland. ahead of that, it is cold, one of the colder nights of this year so far in scotland. temperatures could be dipping down well, well below freezing, perhaps —8, —10 degrees, something like that. and then into sunday, what happens is this band of rain will be working into this colder air, and for a time, it could turn to snow. and that snow could be very heavy across the high ground of scotland, and across the peaks and the pennines, as well, perhaps as much as 10—15 centimetres of snow. whereas if we get snow at lower levels, it won't last long, because it will transition back to rain as mild air works in from the west. there will be quite a range in temperatures, then, for the second half of the weekend. quite chilly underneath this band of rain, and still with a bit of snow mixed in across the north—east. milder air pushing in across parts of england, wales and northern ireland,

boosting, for some, the temperatures to double figures. and that's really the story of the weather next week. mild air will swing right the way across the country, so the weather will feel much different early next week. that's your latest weather. this is bbc news. i'm duncan golestani. we are going straight now to the united states and washington, dc, and you are looking at live pictures coming from the floor of the senate, the upper chamber there, where senators have failed to move forward ona senators have failed to move forward on a short—term spending bill that would keep the federal government funded. they are facing a shutdown at midnight local time and it is midnight right now. senator is still on the floor there, they have been talking in huddles, but they have failed to get to the magic number, 60 votes required to get a spending bill in place that would keep the federal government funded. let's go

live to washington. a corresponded david willis. it has gone past