welcome to bbc news — broadcasting to viewers in north america on pbs and around the globe. my name is mike embley. our top stories: as facebook fights to fix its reputation — the company reveals new foreign attempts to influence the us mid term elections. donald trump's former campaign manager paul manafort goes on trial — the president insists the case has nothing to do with him. a passenger plane crashes just after takeoff in northern mexico — injuring 85 people. and knocking out taboos — the young women and girls breaking down barriers against women in sports in pakistan. interference by russia in the 2016 us election has been a controversial issue in the states, not least with the president himself. now facebook says it has evidence of a new, more sophisticated, coordinated attempt to influence the mid term

elections, this coming november, which crucially could change who controls at least one house of the us congress. facebook has removed nearly three dozen accounts and pages. it's not publicly identified russia as behind this campaign. in a moment we'll hear from our technology correspondent dave lee but first here's what the director of homeland security said about russia's role in the 2016 presidential election. democracy in itself is in the crosshairs. let me take a moment to touch on this because i think it is very important to do so. two years ago, as we all know, a foreign power launched a brazen, multifaceted influence campaign to undermine public faith in our democratic process and to distort our presidential election. that campaign was multifaceted, it involved cyber espionage, leaks of stolen data, cyber intrusions into voting systems, online propaganda and more.

let me be clear, our intelligence community has it right. it was the russians, we know that, they know that, it was directed at the highest levels and we cannot and will not allow that to happen again. although no actual votes were changed in 2016, let me be clear in this, any attempt to interfere in our elections is a direct attack on our democracy. it is unacceptable and it will not be tolerated. mark my words, america will not tolerate this meddling. whether it is north korea or the russians, we are identifying countries that have compromised our systems or who have unleashed destructive malwa re. we are imposing costs, whole of government cost — diplomatically, financially, legally and through other means. the united states has a wider range of options, for facebook this is about showing it is trying to get on top of its huge problem. they say they removed 32 different pages and accounts which, given the huge user base, does not seem like much, but between them they posted around 10,000 items and purchased 150 pieces of advertising at a cost of around $10,000. it's hard to quantify, but facebook say they were able to reach as many as a 250,000 people who were following the activities of these pages and accounts. facebook is trying to show that it is investing in this area and that it is working. since may 2017, facebook said these groups tried to organise 30 different events, most

of which had taken place, although it's not clear how successful they were. there was, however, one event planned for ten august in which 600 people said they planned to attend, and 2,600 people said they were interested in following that event. 0bviously now that has been cancelled. for facebook, this is all about showing that its huge investment in misinformation appears to be working. they have enlisted outside help in order to trace the problem. but, of course, knowing the full scale of the issue is something that nobody knows, not even facebook, and so this may only be solving part of the problem. the criminal trial of president trump's former campaign manager paul manafort has begun, and prosecutors have claimed he lied and placed himself "above the law." they claim he tried to hide millions of dollars in income from lobbying in 30 foreign bank accounts, to evade tax and fund a lavish lifestyle. he faces 18 counts, including bank fraud, and could face up to 30 years injail. he denies any wrongdoing.

rajini vaidya nathan reports. paul manafort held a coveted place in donald trump's inner circle, as his campaign manager. but, just weeks after being seen here at the republican national convention in 2016, his political career began to unravel. forced to quit after questions were raised over his alleged ties to foreign governments. today he is injail, facing charges relating to his work before he joined the trump campaign. arriving at court in virginia, manafort is accused of laundering millions of dollars in cash while he worked as a political consultant in ukraine. his clients include the country's pro—russian former president viktor yanukovych. prosecutors say he funnelled the money to offshore accounts in exotic locations, and with lavish purchases, buying multimillion—dollar properties in new york and virginia, and spending more than $1 million in men's clothing. mr manafort denies the charges. his former right—hand man, who also worked for donald trump is charged on a number of counts, but had most of those dropped

in exchange for his cooperation during the investigation. he is expected to testify against mr manafort. you know, paul manafort worked for me for a very short period of time. the president isn't directly implicated in this trial, but these are the first charges brought by special counsel robert mueller, who is investigating if the trump campaign colluded with the russians. in a tweet, president trump claimed collusion isn't a crime, and denied there was any in the first place. a small group of anti—trump protesters who gathered outside the court believe the trump campaign did have ties to russia. paul manafort is one person who might have the answers, and as his trial gets under way, it is believed he could co—operate with the wider investigation. it's only a matter of months now until the us midterm elections — and president trump has been back

on the campaign trail. his latest stop was a rally in tampa, florida. the president gave his familiar stump speech, talking up the economy and saying america was now respected again around the world. 0ur correspondent chris buckler was at the rally in florida — he spoke to me about the new argument emerging from the trump campaign, not just that there was no collusion with russia, but that anyway, collusion is not a crime. specifically saying, in a tweet, saying collusion is not a crime. quite a statement, and one i have been putting to a lot of his supporters. i asked if they believe russia interviewed in the election in 2016, and are they concerned going forward, particularly with the news that has come out today, about the concerns about facebook, that they will try and interfere or someone will try and interfere in the elections going forward in 2018. because november has these crucial congressional elections, which donald trump is already on the campaign trail trying to get people out, trying to get people to vote. and, when you listen

to his supporters, they are saying very clearly that they are not concerned about that. some even denied the idea that there was interference, and they say it didn't change the vote, and they believe that what matters is what the american people hear, and that is donald trump. donald trump is trying to take a lead in this. of course, there are concerns among some republicans that he is such a divisive figure that it might get democrats out to vote. but he believes that he can really make a difference, and it is really interesting. if you take a look at this state, one of the candidates who is running for governor in this state, wants to be the republican candidate for governor, he has actually release specifically a campaign ad in which he references donald trump. he builds a wall. of course, build a wall, that is a familiar statement shouted at these rallies. he builds a wall with his daughter's

blocks, he talks about making america great, and he dresses his child in a trump onesie. it gives you the sense that there are some people who regard this upcoming election as not a battle between republicans and democrats, but rather a battle between trump supporters and those who are against him. he might not be on the ballot, but he does believe he can make a real difference. when we see images of the aircraft in plumes of smoke, it seems very fortunate indeed that there were not more serious injuries reported thick plumes of smoke in the distance, from a passenger jet which crashed shortly after takeoff. it is not clear yet how many people have been injured, but officials say no—one was killed. the photos, though, show the plane was severely damaged. the plane was on its way to mexico city when it crashed. it had tried to take off from durango state on the two—hour flight south from guadalupe victoria international airport, with 97 people on board. this footage has also emerged — a hailstorm in durango around the time of the crash. it is not clear if the weather was a factor in what happened. the state governor has said that there are have been injury, although it is not clear

how serious they are. 0ne local tv network said people were seen walking off the plane. the airport has been closed while emergency services deal with the crash and family suite on the news on the condition of the passengers and crew on—board. andrew plant, bbc news. she said it was a miracle. she is happy to be alive. panicked scenes. very difficult to get out. tried to jump into tried tojump into one of tried to jump into one of the places and she is so happy to be a live. quite a number of people managed to walk to a nearby road to call for help? yes, the emergency services took 20 minutes to arrive, according took 20 minutes to arrive, according to the witnesses. but in the meantime, theyjust to the witnesses. but in the meantime, they just walked

to the witnesses. but in the meantime, theyjust walked out by themselves. i understand, reading a round, this is quite a new plane and it has a good safety record. is the clear at all what happened 7 it has a good safety record. is the clear at all what happened ?m it has a good safety record. is the clear at all what happened? it isn't clear at all what happened? it isn't clear yet. there are two hypothesis. the weather, it was strong storm, hail happening at that moment. the passengers said when they started awarding the plan —— the plane the weather was quite good but then the hail started quite badly. when the planned started to take off it got worse and worse, so one of the reasons is because of that and the other is a human mistake. experts said it is possible that that the pilot tried to abort taking off when it was taking place, it was some technical auric human mistake at that point. thank you very much indeed. stay with us.

inspired by the american game, nigerians are turning to basketball — but the sport has some tough competition on the african continent. the us space agency, nasa, has ordered an investigation after confirmation today that astronauts were cleared to fly while drunk. the last foot patrol in south armagh. once an everyday part of the soldier's lot — drudgery and danger — now no more after almost four decades. if one is on one's own in a private house, not doing any harm to anyone, i don't really see why all these people should wander in and say, "you're doing something wrong." six rare white lion cubs are on the prowl

at worcestershire park, and already they've been met with a roar of approval from visitors. they're lovely, yeah, really sweet. yeah, they were cute. this is bbc world news, the latest headlines. facebook has announced that it shut more than thirty accounts apparently aimed at influencing this yea r‘s mid—term elections in the united states — some of which may have had links to russia. earlier i spoke to paul barrett. he is deputy director of new york university's stern center for business and human rights. he's authored a report that looks at russian disinformation tactics and how to counter them. i asked him what he thought of the latest news from facebook. i think it is good news and bad news. the good news is that facebook is being forthcoming and tried to get on top of the problem,

providing a lot of the information of the sort that they didn't provide in 2016 and only begrudgingly provided in 2017. the bad news is that we cannot know the full extent of what is going on and it is daunting, to say the least, to see that the russians in all likelihood are back trying to disrupt democratic institutions such as the elections coming up this fall. we have to note that this kind of campaign is propaganda by facebook itself to prove it is on top of this problem. yeah, i think that is natural. i think the company is making efforts to police itself. but it is, i think, a very difficult task. it is difficult to identify some of these accounts and pages as being phoney and i think if the russians are determined, we will see more of this to come in the next few months. obviously the tools are more modern,

but how is all this different from the kind of propoganda that states have engaged in for centuries. the us has had it's fair share of interference in elections in central america. the uk also interefered in iranian elections a while back. that is a fair point. there is nothing new about propaganda and there is nothing new about the us facing off what was once the ussr and is now the russian federation. what is difference is how pervasive the means of communications are and the fact that this directly affects people in a way that old—fashioned propaganda broadcast over television or via radio, simply didn't seep into peoples lives at the way social media does. what more do you think that governments and social media

companies could do? i think one thing they could do is co—operate to greater degree, governments and the companies. each of them have that is relevant to these kinds of activities and i think they need to figure out ways how to collaborate more systematically. i think companies like facebook would be well advised to set up a dedicated internal teams with expertise, in this case, with russian language, russian culture, russian habits on the internet and publicise the existence of those teams and make it clear that this is a high priority. 0n the governments side, unfortunately with a president who all but denies the existence of this kind of interference, we are not going to get the kind presidential speech or education from the white house that might help people be more critical in how to look at the internet and think more carefully about what they are seeing. that is a big impediment with the current occupant of the white house. there's growing tension in zimbabwe,

with just a handful of results released after this weekend's election. the opposition, the movement for democratic change, has claimed victory — a senior figure accusing the ruling zanu pf — in powerfor nearly forty years — of "interference with the people's will‘. the electoral commission are accused of delaying the results — they insist there's been no cheating — and say the results are still being counted. 0ur africa editor fergal keane reports. this was a day in which conflicting hopes would finally collide. a day that began with the first results being posted outside polling stations. and a day of checking and listening. with this assurance to those who remembered rigged elections of the past. we are absolutely confident there was no cheating,

we are absolutely confident there was no rigging and we would like to assure the zimbabwean people that we will not steal their choice of leader. we will not subvert their will. the opposition has alleged vote rigging but still claims victory. supporters acting as if victory was in the bag. it did feel premature. the results show beyond reasonable doubt, that we have won this election. sources on both sides say they are confident of who to believe. the people spoke. he is unelectable. the

government also escalated its rhetoric, warning the opposition leader he could face jail for declaring the tree early. —— declaring the tree early. —— declaring victory. i am sure nobody wa nts to declaring victory. i am sure nobody wants to provoke the raft of the law and riskjail. wants to provoke the raft of the law and risk jail. the wants to provoke the raft of the law and riskjail. the government of zimbabwe is equally perturbed to violence being penetrated by a certain individuals —— perpetrated. and some political leaders who have declared themselves winners even before the announcement of the results. this afternoon, we filmed police water cannon as they deployed near headquarters. up until now, this election has proceeded with calm and tolerance. it will take cool heads to keep it that way. in pakistan, a group of young women and girls in karachi's once troubled neighbourhood of liyari are breaking barriers and taboos around women in sport by developing their boxing skills.

they hope that boxing can help give them more confidence and a better future. the bbc‘s shumaila jaffery reports. every day after school, these girls gather here at this boxing club to pursue their dream. boxing is a new love for dozens of liyari girls. 13—year—old aliya is one of the most passionate boxers. a fighter who remains unbeaten. her inspiration is mohammed ali and she has high hopes for the future. translation: i watched mohammed ali fighting, it was amazing. especially the way he was using his right hand. i want to be like him. he won three championships. i want to win five. liyari is one of the most densely populated neighbourhoods of pakistan's commercial capital, karachi. it's home to diverse ethnic groups, who have just one thing in common, poverty. until recently, liyari was completely inaccessible for outsiders, even for the police.

translation: i think i have become very powerful. if i am standing with three or four men, i can face them. boxing has given me that power and support. taking part in sports is still frowned upon in conservative parts of pakistan. when the girls in liyari started boxing, they faced criticism. but that slowly changed. despite all the success, there is still uncertainty about the future of the club. the boxers come from the families who don't have much money and the club is running out of funds. translation: we need 20,000- 25,000 rupees to arrange one small tournament. it is very stressful. we don't have a changing room for girls. if anyone can provide these

facilities, we can arrange a lot more tournaments and can train more girls. but despite all the disadvantages, the girls are determined to break the barriers and to make their mark at the international level. shumaila jaffery, bbc news, karachi. basketball is a huge draw of course at college and professional level in the united states. in africa the sport is still catching on, but it helps that in the us, two thirds of players in the nba are african americans. as the bbc‘s janine anthony reports, there is stiff competition though on the african continent. basketball. fast paced, energetic and intense and mesmerising. it is becoming more popular across africa with young people hoping to re—enact the moves they see the pros make. here in nigeria there is something of a renaissance. in 2012 the men's team qualified

for the olympic games in three years after in 2015, they won the afro basket title and that seen the sport going from strength to strength but they are not the only ones enjoying strength. the women are also representing africa in spain. across the continent, the sport feels close to the culture of young urban africa. there is also a growth in the number of those following the united states of america's nba, a league which is three quarters black and includes some of the best talent from africa. it's held clinics for young kids and it's about to hold the third nba game in south africa involving nba stars of african origin. it is also established an academy in senegal. what can we learn from the americans? now we provide the opportunity to start with the younger generation so we don't have to worry about in five to ten years missing the chance to play the game

of basketball, so we are pouring it back into our community and into the continent of africa. so can we possibly dream of the day when basketball overtakes football in the hearts of sports fans? as an ambassador of basketball and the game, i will say yes, we can take over because our game doesn't ask so much space. there is only a small place in the garage or the backyard for basketball. i'm not sure if it's ever going to overtake soccer, just because soccer has been around forever and we love soccer, we love the super eagles, i love the super eagles but i think we can get to where we are neck and neck. it seems as if the stars could be aligning for basketball in africa but a lot of work still needs to be done. adequate funding, more infrastructure and player development. if all this can be harnessed, who knows, this might be the slam dunk that puts football

into second place? much more on all of the news on the bbc website. and you can get in touch with me and most of the team on twitter — i'm @bbc mike embley. hello there. just when you thought we were done with the heatwave, the temperatures are beginning to climb again over the next few days. particularly across southern parts of the uk.

further north and west of there will be a little bit of rain at times, but certainly not all the time. on the satellite picture from a little earlier on, you can see clumps of cloud circulating around an area of low pressure and as we go through the next couple of days, we will continue to seek areas of cloud feeding in from the south—west. we start tomorrow with temperatures across the country, 11—14 degrees, the best of the morning sunshine will be found across england and wales and for the far north—east of scotland. as we go on through the day across parts of the midlands, wales, northern england will develop more cloud. best of the sunshine towards the south—east and for northern ireland and western scotland, the cloud thickens up all the while and we will see outbreaks of mostly light and patchy rain. quite breezy across these western areas, north—east scotland holding onto a little bit of brightness. some of this rain pushing out of northern ireland

towards the north—west of england and north—west of wales, but further south and east we are into good spells of sunshine and temperatures in london getting up to around 26 degrees. as we go through wednesday evening, there will be some sunshine to end the day in the south, but as we go through the night we are to be piling a lot of cloud in from the south—west. it will turn misty and murky for coastal areas, a few splashes of rain and those temperatures begin to come up, and increasingly humid feel into thursday morning because we will have brought this warm front across the country. not much rain on it, but that is the reason for extra cloud and with high pressure to the south, southern areas particularly are going to start to tap into increasingly warm air from the near continent. further north and west, a somewhat fresher feel of air from the atlantic. temperatures not as high. during thursday, a lot of cloud in through western and parts of the uk, particularly the odd spot of rain and showers. further south is the best chance of seeing sunshine,

those temperatures creeping upwards, 29 in london on thursday. we keep that split in temperature fortunes as we head to the end of the week and western areas have seen more in the way of cloud, mostly dry temperatures, generally in the low 20s. further south, it will be the low 30s, 32, maybe 33 degrees, with plenty of sunshine to take us into the weekend. this is bbc news, the headlines: the homeland security secretary in the us has welcomed facebook‘s closure of what the company says are at least 30 fake accounts apparently aimed at influencing the mid—term elections in november. facebook executives say some of the fake posts had links to accounts used by the russian government. a passengerjet has crashed shortly after takeoff in a heavy hailstorm in northern mexico. 85 people have been injured, but many passengers managed to walk from the wreckage to a nearby road, seeking help. officials in durango say the pilot tried to abort the flight when the plane got

into difficulties. the criminal trial of president trump's former campaign manager paul manafort has begun, and prosecutors have claimed he lied and placed himself above the law, hiding millions of dollars in income from lobbying in 30 foreign bank accounts, to evade tax and fund a lavish lifestyle. he denies 18 counts, including bank fraud, and could face up to 30 years injail.