ata at a warm welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to our viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley. —— a very warm welcome. our top stories: president trump attacks his former fixer michael cohen and insists he's done nothing wrong. but cohen's lawyer hits back. he committed a crime. he should be indicted. if he were not president, he clearly would be indicted and jailed for that crime. stepping up the trade war with china. the trump administration prepares to slap massive tariffs on more chinese imports. and a tumultous week in australian politics as the prime minister faces growing pressure to resign. we ta ke we take you live straight to canberra for the developments in the straight in politics. the prime

minister, malcolm turnbull, at the podium, now. i don't want to enter into a debate about recent events. —— in australian politics. but set out what is going to happen next. now, the house has been adjourned at the request of peter dutton, and so i now await a letter with the signatures of a majority of the party room. it i receive it at a3. ifi party room. it i receive it at a3. if i receive that, i will convene a new party room meeting. the party room at a course on tuesday and confirmed my leadership by majority. —— the party room met of course. i need to see a majority of the members and they need to put their names to it, too. these momentous times and is important that people are accountable. assuming i get that letter, which i read in the press is already in place, but, perhaps, it

is not. as soon as i get that, my intention is to hold a party meeting at midday tomorrow. it is important that before the party meeting is held, we have access to the advice of the solicitor general on the eligibility of peter dutton to sit in the parliament. we expect that advice to be available first thing in the morning. that is what the attorney general has a bias me. —— has advised me. this is significant moment. as we all know, section aa has been a companion of this ao bit has been a companion of this a0 bit parliament. but i cannot underline too much how important it is that anyone who seeks to be prime minister of australia is an —— is eligible to sit in parliament. ——

a5t h eligible to sit in parliament. —— a5th parliament. somebody who cannot sit in the house cannot validly be a minister or all exercise the powers ofa minister or all exercise the powers of a minister. so you can understand how important this issue is. this solicitor general was briefed on it yesterday and i am sure is working to co m plete yesterday and i am sure is working to complete his advice. it is important point we breed and hope he will say. —— it is an important point indeed and we do not know what he will say. that might impact on his decision to run or not. in terms of my own intentions, when the party room meeting is called, i will invite a spill motion to be moved. if the motion is carried, i will ta ke if the motion is carried, i will take that as a vote of no—confidence, and will not stand as a candidate in the ballot. so those are the events that will unfold in

the next few days. there is time enough to talk about the indications of these events. i would just say this to you all. as you know, the government that i have lead has been a very effective one. we have achieved an enormous amount in economic reform and social reform in this parliament, despite the fact that we have had a once it majority in the house, and a minority in the senate. the cabinet has worked very cohesively and confidentially. it has been a very good cabinet. i want to thank all the cabinet ministers. the reality is that a minority in the party room, supported by others outside the parliament, have sought to believe, intimidate others into

making this change of leadership that they are seeking. it is a... it has been described by many people, including those who feel they cannot resist it as a form of madness, and it is remarkable when we were at this pointjust a month ago, just a little bit by -- this pointjust a month ago, just a little bit by —— a little bit behind labour in the polls. but very competitive. like they're from canberra in australia. it looks as though australia will be heading for its six prime minister in a decade. the current prime minister, malcolm turnbull, confirming that he will not contest a vote for a new leader of the liberal party. his confirming his intention to hold a party

meeting midday tomorrow, which is friday. it is just after one the doubt on thursday. he has put a question mark over the eligibility of peter dutton to be a member of parliament. —— it isjust of peter dutton to be a member of parliament. —— it is just after of peter dutton to be a member of parliament. —— it isjust after one in the afternoon on thursday they are. malcolm turnbull ‘s history faring scott morrison as his successor. “— faring scott morrison as his successor. —— malcolm turnbull seems to be favouring. we hope to hear very shortly from our correspondent, hywel griffith. and another big political story. president trump has now acknowledged that hush money was provided before his 2016 election for two women claiming they'd had affairs with him. but contradicting tuesday's sworn testimony from his former personal lawyer, michael cohen, he's now claimed the pay—out was made with his own money — that election campaign finance was not, illegally, used. he's previously insisted he knew nothing about the payments.

the president's been speaking to fox news. did they come out of the campaign? they didn't come out of the campaign, they came from me. i tweeted about it. i don't know if you know but i tweeted about the payments. but they didn't come out of campaign. in fact, my first question when i heard about it was, "did they come out of the campaign?" because that could be a little dicey. well michael cohen's own lawyer has been in tv studios declaring his client is "more than happy" to "tell everything about donald trump that he knows" to robert mueller — the special prosecutor investigating russian interference in the presidential election, and allegations of collusion with the trump campaign. mr trump has argued that michael cohen is making up stories to get a lighter prison sentence.

in a moment we'll hear from his lawyer — first the bbc‘s paul wood, on what there might be to tell. donald trump's twitter feed was oddly silent as news came that his former campaign manager and his former lawyer were going to jail. this was virtually a catatonic state from a president who tweets reflexively about everything. instead, he slipped into a warm bath of affirmation at a rally in west virginia. this was perhaps therapy for a troubled president. fake news and the russian witch—hunt, we got a whole big combination. where is the collusion? fake news, the deep state conspiracy, the old slogans may continue to play well with loyal supporters, but the president is facing a relentless legal process. five of trump's associates have now admitted to crimes or have been convicted. paul manafort, his campaign manager. rick gates, manafort‘s deputy. michael cohen, his personal lawyer. michael flynn, his national security

advisor, and george papadopoulos, a campaign aide. manafort is the only one of the five who hasn't rolled over. he rejected a plea deal. paul manafort is a good man and this has nothing to do with russian collusion. 0n the face of it, president trump is right, paul manafort‘s tax fraud predates the campaign, but, if the russians knew about it, would they have had a hold over trump's campaign manager? the president will be far more worried about michael cohen, for years the keeper of his most important secrets. cohen was trump's fixer and bagman. he paid off models and porn stars, and told troublesome journalists where to get off. no—one in america will be shocked if donald trump slept with a porn star or two, but the hush money was paid just before the election. cohen's indictment says this was an illegal campaign contribution

done at the request of a candidate. what cohen might know about russia will be of far more interest to the special prosecutor. the former mi6 officer, christopher steele, wrote in his dossier that during the election campaign, michael cohen went to prague to meet russian officials. cohen's always vehemently denied that, tweeting a picture of his passport for emphasis. some american media reports say robert mueller has evidence to the contrary. and one source in the intelligence community told me there was an electronic trail that put cohen in prague. there's no corroboration of that claim, but, if true, this is the collusion president trump's enemies have long imagined. cohen also knows about an interesting meeting in trump tower during the campaign. donald trump jr sat down

with a lawyer from the kremlin who'd promised dirt on hillary clinton. 0ne former trump campaign aide told me, "we couldn't even co—ordinate with the rnc in pennsylvania, let alone with russian intelligence," but if there was not exactly a highly organised conspiracy, that does leave open the possibility of collusion. that's what cohen's lawyer hints at when he says trump might have known ahead of time of russian hacking. trump has never been in such a serious trouble. his presidency may now hang on what michael cohen has to say. within the hour the trump administration is due to slap a 25% tariff on $16 billion of chinese imports with beijing likely to retaliate in kind. it's the second wave of penalties in an ongoing trade conflict that has seen the two countries hit tens of billions of dollars worth of tariffs on each other. i'm joined now by our asia business

correspondent karishma vaswani, who is at singapore's port, and robin brant in shanghai. first of all, what is your thinking on this, karishma? well, you know, a lot of people i have been speaking to this part of the world are obviously should be concerned about what they see as a ratcheting up of trade tensions. as you said, this is the second round. $16 billion doesn't sound like much, but when you add all the figures that have come together so far, you are looking at $100 billion worth of trade. 50 billion on either side. it is the figures that are coming up that are really worrying. businesses here in asia, as well as government officials. the trump administration is considering more tariffs on something like $200 billion of chinese goods. that is under consideration. this is all against

the backdrop of talks taking place between officials in beijing and washington. china set a low—level delegation to these talks, as i understand it, from those i've spoken to. i think robin can tell you a little bit more about that at the moment. but the one of the reasons that is they are not expecting very much. they want to save face to be a little walk away from the negotiating table. if they don't come back with anything concrete in hand. while all of this is happening, economic forecasts going forward a pretty grim for this pa rt going forward a pretty grim for this part of the world that has depended so part of the world that has depended so much on chinese economic growth. going into 2019, in this trade war does not get results and though the outlook could get even worse. thank you very much, karishma. robin in shanghai, as karishma says, it talks are under way right now. how does it look from there? well, there were

low level officials that were sent. there was not the economic adviser to president xi jinping. he doesn't feature in the contingent in washington, dc for a second day of talks. they have been received by low—level officials as well. the expectations are not particularly high. but further down the horizon, there is an eye on november when donald trump and president xi jinping art due to meet at bilateral summits and maybe, just maybe, they can reach some kind of resolution and announce an end to the trade war. “— and announce an end to the trade war. “ are and announce an end to the trade war. —— are due. as matt ryan said, ca rys are war. —— are due. as matt ryan said, carys are now in place. washington is leading to look at $200 billion worth of trade further with more tariffs. china is an expanding in its retaliation. here is a list of what will be affected today: ed brown to about 30 items. the first

is fish meal for feed, manganese slack, produced by melting steel, almost a whole page on us vehicles will be hit with a 25% tariff, including golf carts and similar vehicles. e— perhaps more personal swipe against the president, they are. the expectations are particularly optimistic. this looks like it could be a protracted dispute. —— there. some criticism in chinese domestic media around the leadership of president xi jinping. some believe that they have it wrong in theirfervent some believe that they have it wrong in their fervent nationalistic tone. but some reporting in the past 24 hours, the propaganda surrounding the chinese starts has been a politically correct. —— absolutely. and that has been read as praise for china's effort in pursuing the trade

war, and the nationalistic tone around. so knows i going from some of the chinese domestic reporting that they are wobbling at the very top. robin in shanghai, karishma in singapore, we will be coming back to this. not now. i need to go. thank you. stay with us on bbc world news. still to come: "pray the gay away" — we take a look at the new film tackling the controversial issue of gay conversion therapy. washington, the world's most political city, is today assessing the political health of the world's most powerful man. indeed i did have a relationship with miss lewinsky that was not appropriate. in fact, it was wrong. in south africa, 97 people have been killed today in one of the worst days of violence between rival black groups. over the last ten days, 500 have died. chanting: czechoslovakia must be free! russia is observing a national day of mourning for the 118 submariners who died on board the kursk. we all with them now

within our hearts. the pope has celebrated mass before a congregation of more than 2.5 million people in his hometown of krakow. "stay with us, stay with us," chanted this ocean of humanity. "well, well," joked the pope, "so you want me to desert rome?" this is bbc world news. the latest headlines: president trump has attacked his former lawyer michael cohen — and claimed campaign finance rules have not been broken. the us is set to slap massive new tariffs on more chinese imports within the next hour. but talks to resolve the dispute continue. well, let's stay with our top story,

and as the pressure intensifies —— let us take you to another story that has been breaking in the last few minutes. we go live to our correspondence hywel griffith in canberra. what exactly is happening? quite a lot? absolutely. let me bring you up to date. malcolm turnbull, the australian prime minister, who only just managed to stave off on leadership challenge, he says tomorrow he expects there to be another one, if a majority of mps within his party signed a letter demanding for that to happen. he says if it happens... he certainly had a go at his opponent, peter dutton... had a go at his opponent, peter dutton. .. as you gather, we have problems with communication. i'll bring you up to date very quickly.

it looks as though australia may be heading for its six prime minister ina heading for its six prime minister in a decade. malcolm turnbull has just been on life from canvassing he will not contest vote for a new leader of the labour party. this will be the second leadership challenge in a week. several leaders have resigned and amanda they knew ballot. this originates with the former home affairs minister, peter dutton, who lost that earlier this week. he is now confident he has the numbers. mr turnbull is questioning mr dutton's right even to be a member of parliament and seems to be manoeuvring to favour the treasurer, scott morrison, as his anointed successor. mr turnbull has that categorically if the vote goes against him he will accept that as a vote of no—confidence will not stand again for the leadership. we take you back to the very top story. as the pressure intensifies on donald trump and the white house, what does all this mean, if anything, to his core supporters? nick bryant has been asking that question in the republican

stronghold of staten island in new york. across the waters from lower manhattan, the trump stronghold of staten island. the only borough of new york to vote for the hometown presidential candidate. from here you can almost see the court complex where michael cohen made the explosive claim that donald trump directed him to commit a crime. but do people here care? you know, he is what this country needed at this time. local businessmen steve believes donald trump is making america great again, and yesterday's bombshell allegations don't trouble him. so yesterday, donald trump's personal lawyer stood up in court and implicated the president and said, "he told me to break the law." that doesn't worry you? no. the people that hate him are going to use it and that's all you're going to hear for the next six months and through the elections. that's all you're going to hear. the people that like what he's doing, whether or not they like him as a human being, going to care less. 0n the beaches of staten island, what is widely viewed by donald trump's critics as the darkest day of his presidency casts few shadows.

i think he's great. he's doing wonderful for the country. and for the world. and i can't find anything wrong with him. yesterday his lawyer has said he told him to break the law, does that worry you? no, not really. they all break the law, you know? millions of people break the law here. but he's the president of the united states. well, he's human too. but in these affluent suburbs, we also found lifelong republicans that field donald trump is bringing shame on their party and shame on their country. donald trump is a con artist. he is running the country for himself. he doesn't understand that he is there to serve the people, to serve the american people. you are republican? yes. but do you reject him? of course i reject him. donald trump once claimed he could shoot somebody on 5th ave and his supporters would still vote for him. an extravagant boast maybe, but one that speaks of his unshakeable belief in the unwavering devotion of his loyalists. nick bryant, bbc news, staten island. hawaii is facing a powerful

hurricane, a major threat to the pacific island chain. 0fficials hurricane, a major threat to the pacific island chain. officials have warned of flash flooding and landslides. the west it is ready coping with the eruption of the killer whale volcano on the big island that has been going on for three months. european space agency has launched a satellite to measure wind speeds across the earth. the spacecraft blasted off from french guiana on wednesday. it will fire a powerful laser into the earth's atmosphere, it is to trace the movement of air particles. it is to improve weather forecasts. it is being reported that saudi arabia has called off plans to list its vast state oil company on domestic and international stock markets. the

leadership had been talking up selling at 5% stake in the company to find ambitious economic plans to reduce the kingdom's reliance on oil. some analysts have described this as unrealistic. the hugely controversial issue of so—called gay conversion therapy is the subject of a new film receiving critical acclaim. the miseducation of cameron post stars chloe grace moretz. she plays a gay teenager sent away to a christian camp, that uses prayer to try to change her sexuality. it's a subject that hit home for the actress herself. her two brothers went through a similar experience. she's been speaking to our correspondent chi chi izundu. rick is such an inspiration. you know, he used to struggle with same—sex attractions? really? yeah. legal in a1 states, conversion therapy is the practice of trying to change someone's sexual orientation from homosexual or bisexual to heterosexual, using psychological and often spiritual interventions.

and being brought up in a strict baptist town with two gay brothers, the making of the miseducation of cameron post was very personal for chloe grace moretz. they dealt with a lot of self hate when they came out and they tried to — which is very common within the community that we grew up in — pray the gay away. and in the town that you grew up in you actually knew of people that went through gay conversion therapy? yeah. so there's. .. well, there's people in our town that had come out and gone to the church and found... you know, they've consulted with the church. and that's the thing with conversion therapy — it takes on many different iterations and a lot of different labels and it can be as simple as therapy. it's as simple as consulting with your church. i know we're throwing a lot at you. how are you feeling? chloe has been acting in hollywood since she was five. she starred in big blockbusters like kick ass, but took some time out recently to reassess

her priorities. try and reconfigure and kind of realise who i am as a young woman and what i want to do with my platform. and the content i'm putting out isn'tjust entertainment but is also some form of activism and social justice. so this film was really the one that ticked all the boxes. but for now, chloe's hoping her award—winning film does more than just tick the box for those going through conversion therapy. chi chi izundu, bbc news. a very personal stake in that movie. much more on all the news any time of the bbc website. and you can get in touch with me and most of the team on twitter, i'm @bbcmikeembley. good morning. the bank holiday weekend fast approaching and there is a change to come with the feel of our weather over the next few days. but just look at what

we had yesterday. beautiful blue sky and sunshine in lincolnshire. highs of 27 degrees, 81 fahrenheit. we are not going to see temperatures like that certainly over the bank holiday weekend. a cooler and fresher feel. the reason being is these weather fronts pushing in from the atlantic. they are cold fronts, behind it introducing slightly fresher air with it. that said, first thing this morning in the south—east it will still be quite a humid start to the day, with overnight lows still sitting at around 16 or 17 degrees, and there will be some rain. but further north and west, it is already a cooler start to your thursday. let's try and put the detail on it, then. behind the second front is when the really cool air starts to push down from the north and west, and that is going to move its way across the country as we push into the bank holiday weekend. so, for thursday, we start off with some rain that was slowly clear away from the midlands, the south coast, east anglia, the south—east corner. some brightness behind, a scattering of showers into wales and north—west england and rain pushing into the north—west. so, in terms of the temperature

profile, it is going to feel cooler here, with the greens, the yellows, the warm russets in the south—east, 23 degrees the high, and in the showers we are looking at 1a to 16 degrees for much of scotland and northern ireland. now, those showers will continue into the north—west overnight, but elsewhere we will see some clearer skies, and the cooler air starts to push further south, so it is going to be a much more comfortable night for sleeping in, that is certainly the good news. we will see single figures into the north at perhaps around nine to 12 degrees in the south—east corner. now, on friday, it looks as though we are going to see a rash of showers developing into northern ireland, down through north—west england — anywhere south of the midlands and wales will see dry and bright weather. look at the feel, 1a to 19 degrees the overall high. we start off the weekend on a dry and sometimes sunny note, but the temperatures will still be set to struggle, 13 to 20 degrees, way down on what we've been used to just recently. a little ridge of high pressure that builds overnight saturday

into sunday, that's going to allow temperatures to fall away overnight. a chilly start on sunday morning. a touch of frost in sheltered glens of scotland before the next whether front pushes in from the atlantic. so it looks likely sunday into bank holiday monday will see some rain around, drying up, but not particularly warm with it. take care. this is bbc news. the headlines: donald trump has strongly denied using election campaign finance to make payments to two women who say he had affairs with them. on tuesday, his former lawyer, michael cohen, told a court the president had directed him to hand over the money with the principal purpose of influencing the 2016 presidential election. the us is set to slap massive new tariffs on more chinese imports within the next hour. $16 billion of chinese goods will be hit with a 25% levy — and is likely to see beijing retaliate in kind. meanwhile, us and chinese

governement officials are meeting in washington to try to sort out the dispute. the australian prime minister malcolm turnbull has said he is willing to stand down if a second leadership contest is called. it looks like there will be a vote on friday. peter dutton, the home affairs minister, wants to take over. the prime minister prefers scott morrison.