a very warm welcome to bbc news — broadcasting to our viewers in north america and around the globe. my name's mike embley. our top stories: fallout from the anonymous white house resistance letter. senior officals are denying they wrote the editorial for the new york times. confrontation at the un. russian and british diplomats trade accusations of criminality and deceit over the nerve agent poisoning of a former spy. they tried to murder the skripals. they played dice with the lives of the people of salisbury. they work in a parallel universe, where the normal rules of international affairs are inverted. and british airways is investigating the theft of bank card details from its website and its mobile app. hundreds of thousands of customers have been affected. and tributes to an icon. after an acting career that spanned six decades, the movie star burt reynolds has died, aged 82. hello to you.

one by one, many of president trump's closest aides have been publicly denying authorship of the anonymous editorial in the new york times, which has painted such a damning picture of the trump white house. the writer — described by the times as a senior official — describes an "erratic, impulsive, amoral" president, whose "misguided impulses", it claims, need to be controlled or blocked by his senior staff for the good of the country. let's go live now to washington dc and our correspondent, chris buckler. what is the latest on this? yeah, as you can imagine, there is a feverish guessing game taking place in washington. this is a city of political scandals and intrigue, but there is a real sense particularly of this new york times opinion piece, that people want to get to the bottom of who exactly is

responsible. there is no doubt that they are trying to find who is responsible for it. —— while the white house will not confirm that they are on the hunt. we have had senior white house officials, one after the other, all coming out to deny that they are responsible. and all the time you have conspiracy theories, people trying to look for clues, trying to see if there are words and phrases that much, and ultimately that has let a lot of people to speculation on social media and the like. the truth is we simply do not know. one of the first to come out and deny that he was responsible was mike pence, he uses the phrase lodestar a lot, which basically means guiding light, and it was contained in the article. as a result, he was one of the first come out and say it was not him. the anonymous editorial published in the new york times represents a new low in americanjournalism, new york times represents a new low in american journalism, and new york times represents a new low in americanjournalism, and i think the new york times should be ashamed andl the new york times should be ashamed

and i think whoever wrote this anonymous editorial should also be ashamed as well. anyone who would write an anonymous editorial, it is nearing this president, who has provided extraordinary leadership in this country, should not be working for this administration. they ought to do the honourable thing and they ought to resign. i come from a place where if you are not in a position to execute the commander's intent, you have a singular option, and it's the lead. i find the media's efforts in this regard to undermine this administration incredible disturbing. also answer the question because i know some will say gosh, you didn't answer the question. it is not mine. the administration serves at the pleasure of the president. it is a person who obviously is living in dishonesty. it did not help the president, so if you are not interested in helping the president, you should not work for the president, as far as i'm concerned. i guess it is completely understandable that people should be

going crazy trying to work out who it is, and apparently senior figure who wrote something so damning, but is also quite convenient for the administration that the focus should be on that, rather than was said. yeah, but you can imagine the atmosphere inside the white house as well. it is certainly worrying the donald trump, this suggestion that there is somebody inside the white house that is leaking information like this, and also the book coming out from bob woodward, journalist who was involved the watergate scandal. now, it is in montana at the moment. he is taking part in a rally where he is surrounded by supporters. —— he is. the key question though is do those inside the white house really have faith in the white house really have faith in the president? and that is going to be the question that dogs him time and time again. he has actually been speaking just ahead of this rally the fox news. they are planning to broadcast that tomorrow, and in it

he has talked about the fact that he believes the white house is a well oiled machine, that this is one person among thousands who work for him, and ultimately, you can't discredit them when you don't know who they are. and attack yet again the new york times publishing it. it make no mistake, donald trump also wa nts to make no mistake, donald trump also wants to know who is responsible for this and that in itself has given it a real sense of credibility. even tweeted, uninvestigated journalist of the new york times going to investigate themselves? who is the anonymous letter writer? in doubt, there is no denial that it is somebody inside the administration. thank you very much for that. world leaders have backed the british government's assessment that the novichok attack in southern england on a former russian spy and his daughter was carried out by officers from russian military intelligence. the us, france, germany and canada have all agreed that the poisoning of sergei and yulia skripal in salisbury in march was "almost certainly" approved at a high level in moscow. this from our diplomatic correspondent, james landale. these are the pictures the government believes show russia's responsibility

for the first use of chemical weapons on european soil in decades. two russian military intelligence officers, alias alexander petrov and ruslan boshirov, flying to britain in march, taking the train to salisbury, allegedly laying a trail of deadly nerve agent on orders, ministers say, from the very top. all of which british diplomats in new york said was reckless and malign behaviour by one of the five permanent members of the united nations security council. one p5 member has undertaken a pattern of behaviour which showed that they tried to murder the skripals, they played dice with the lives of the people of salisbury. they work in a parallel universe, where the normal rules of international fair are inverted. —— affairs. russia insisted that its military intelligence service, known as the gru, had nothing

to do with the attack, nor had president putin, seen here on a visit to its headquarters. russia's ambassador claimed the british allegations were unfounded and mendacious. translation: the russian federation categorically rejects all unfounded accusations regarding its involvement in poisoning with toxic chemicals. london needs this story forjust one purpose — to unleash a disgusting anti—russian hysteria. today, the leaders of britain's closest allies, the us, france, germany and canada, issued a joint statement, expressing theirfull confidence that the operation was almost certainly approved at a senior level in russia. they also agreed to disrupt together the hostile activities of foreign intelligence networks on their territories. but we will respond robustly when our security is threatened. the ambassador called

for greater use of sanctions, for the chemical weapons convention to be strengthened, and more powers for international authorities to name and shame countries that use nerve agents. and around the table, there was some support. today, our british friends and colleagues are providing us with a masterclass on how to stop the spread of chemical weapons. they are creating accountability for those who use chemical agents, and providing vital support for the international norm against the use of these deadly illegal weapons. the question for the foreign office here is can all this diplomatic support be translated into real action against russia, such as sanctions? now, that's unlikely to come from the united nations, where russia has a veto, so the uk is going to have to rely on the eu, and the problem is that some european allies are reluctant to antagonise russia. so this will be a real test of british diplomacy and european unity. james landale, bbc news, at the foreign office. let's round up some

more of the main news. twitter has permanently banned the conspiracy theorist —— the far—right candidate who's leading the polls in brazil's presidential race has been stabbed at a campaign rally, a month before the election. jair bolsano's son has tweeted that he's recovering in hospital from a "superficial" injury. doctors say he's out of intensive care and his condition is grave but stable. the remains of 166 mexicans have been found in a mass grave in the gulf state of veracruz. state prosecutor, jorge winckler, said the bodies were found after a tipoff. he said they had been buried at least two years ago. mr winckler called on relatives of missing people to supply dna samples to help them identify the bodies. twitter has permanently banned the conspiracy theorist alexjones and his infowars website for violating its policy on abusive behaviour. youtube and facebook deleted his content last month, citing hate speech. he was seen this week berating senators and journalists in congress, and is being sued for claiming the sandy hook school shooting was staged and the bereaved families were actors. rescue crews injapan are still

searching for survivors of the powerful earthquake that cause landslides on the northern island of hokkaido. at least 11 people are dead, dozens more missing — feared buried beneath rubble. the quake, magnitude 6.6, has left almost 3 million people without power. aftershocks are expected for another week. british airways is investigating the theft of customer data from its website and mobile app. it says personal and financial details were compromised between august 21st and wednesday ninth. the airline says the stolen data did not include travel or passport details, and that its website is now working normally. lebo diseko has the story. a sophisticated attack, is hywel goodish airways described the theft of customer data from its website and mobile app. around 380,000

credit cards were compromised in the two weeks between the 21st of august and the fifth of september. the personal and financial details were stolen as people made bookings online and to the alp. when asked why it took so long to detect, the airline said it took action as soon as it realised there was a problem. —— to the app. as it realised there was a problem. -- to the app. we found out the extent of the damage and that is why we immediately began to communicate with our customers. it is most imperative that we tell our customers to please contact their credit card issuers and their bank, to make sure that they can proceed and follow the recommendations with regards to their credit card details. this is the latest in a series of customer relations issues the airline's had recently. in may last year, 75,000 passengers around the world were left stranded for days after an it failure. the airline was criticised for its handling of the problem, with some

people blaming the outsourcing of its it staff. and injuly this year, it issues meant dozens of flights in and out of heathrow airport had to be cancelled. british airways has apologised for the latest problems, saying it takes the protection of customers's does very seriously, but it might take more than an apology to restore customer confidence. lebo diseko and, bbc news. —— lebo diseko, bbc news. britain and other european nations have voiced their deep concern at the prospect ofjoint russian and syrian military action in the syrian region of idlib. the last rebel held province — which is also home to violentjihadists — has a population of nearly 3 million people. with the border to turkey closed, it's feared civilians could be trapped. later on friday, there will be key between russia, turkey and iran. our middle east correspondent quentin somerville reports. the world for abu ibrahim's family just keeps getting smaller. nine of them have two rooms, in a building shared with 60 families. for those opposed to bashar al—assad, idlib is the last refuge.

and now it, and abu ibrahim's family, are under threat. translation: turkey has closed its border and people trying to cross are getting hit by snipers. translation: i'm worried about my children, and there is no place to go. it's very difficult to move and run with children when the bombing is happening. turkey and other routes are closed. we are trapped here. explosion the battle proper for idlib hasn't begun yet, but in al—tamanah to the south, they're getting a taste of what's to come. tens of thousands of regime forces are standing by, along with dozens of russian and regime aircraft. the un has warned that in this cruellest of wars, idlib will be the perfect storm. the population of the province has doubled, as the opposition and islamists took refuge from a regime on a victory roll. on the streets of idlib city, they're expecting the worst. translation: people are afraid of chemical weapons,

like chlorine or sarin, but in god's will, we are prepared for them. rebel groups are digging in. this is the turkish—aligned faylaq al—sham. translation: we've been preparing and digging trenches, giving our soldiers extra training on all kinds of weapons. we're prepared to defend our territory against the regime and the russian invaders. as faylaq's fighters man the defences, russia says it's got its eyes on other rebels — hts nusra, the al-qaeda linked jihadists that control much of the province. moscow is promising to liquidate them. but syria's conflict isn't just a war of armies, it's a war on people. there are more than 2.5 million trapped here. atma camp for the displaced stretches from the turkish border to the horizon. there's no room for more people and there's no escape. the fate of the last fight in syria's civil war appears

set before it begins. rebel idlib may be the battle already lost. quentin somerville, bbc news, beirut. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: as montana's farmers lose trade with asia, we ask how president trump's supporters are fairing as the tarriff war with china escalates. freedom itself was attacked this morning, and freedom will be defended. the united states will hunt down and punish those responsible. bishop tutu now becomes the spiritual leader of 100,000 anglicans here, of the blacks in soweto township as well as the whites in their rich suburbs. we say to you today, in a loud and a clear voice, enough of blood and tears. enough! translation: the difficult decision

we reached together was one that required great and exceptional courage. it's an exodus of up to 60,000 people, caused by the uneven pace of political change in eastern europe. iam free! this is bbc news. the latest headlines: live in montana and rallying his base, president trump speaks to his supporters after critics inside and outside the white house claim his leadership is out of control. britain is backed by the us and france, as it tells the un that the salisbury nerve agent attack was almost certainly

approved by moscow. russia says it's a lie. as we've been reporting, president trump is back on the campaign trail, this time stumping for republican candidates in montana. he's up for rose and tile... .. so, deborah, how are we doing now compared to election day almost two yea rs compared to election day almost two years ago? can you believe it? how are we doing? better even? that's what we're doing. in most states, and the states that we won we're doing better. thank you, thanks. great job, doing better. thank you, thanks. greatjob, greatjob there. i'm also be thrilled —— i'm also thrilled to be thrilled —— i'm also thrilled to bejoined by be thrilled —— i'm also thrilled to be joined by montana's terrific

member of congress, a true champion for montana and i tell you what, this man has fought in more wars than one. applause greg gianforte, he isa than one. applause greg gianforte, he is a fighter and a winner. he's a winner! donald trump there live from billings, montana. he won the state by more than 20 20 points in 2016, but some of his most ardent supporters are feeling the effects of the escalating trade war with china —— more than 20. james cook sent this report from broadview, in montana. on the great plains, the harvest is coming toa on the great plains, the harvest is coming to a close. farming is entwined in the american identity. spacious skies and amber waves of grain. a land of plenty. so much in

fa ct grain. a land of plenty. so much in fact that half of the nation's major crops are sold abroad. a figure that's even higher here in montana. 7596 that's even higher here in montana. 75% of our week is exported. most of our top companies, customers are in the pacific rim. so we are very heavily export dependent on... and rely on those international customers to keep moving our product. country life ain't so simple when it's tied to international trade. when the us slapped tariffs on china, beijing stopped buying us wheat, and farmers here are also losing access to their biggest customer, japan. montana's democratic senator is campaigning for re—election in the shadow of yellowstone park, deep in trump territory. as a farmer, he just wa nts a territory. as a farmer, he just wantsafair territory. as a farmer, he just wants a fair crack at the web. access to market is the key issue, if we have access to the japanese

and south korean market, if we have access to the eu and all these markets, we can outcompete anyone in the world in agriculture but if we don't have access to those markets, we're done. the trump trade strategy does involve absorbing pain with the aim of winning better deals for the us. across the border in wyoming at the cody rodeo, they may not be following every twist and tweet, but they think they're in safe hands. president trump will probably stand up president trump will probably stand upfor us and president trump will probably stand up for us and maybe make a better dealfor us than up for us and maybe make a better deal for us than what we've had in the past. american farmers need help and whatever he can do to help us is fine. and what would you need, you know, what would you ask him for to help you? oh, he'll do the right thing. we like him. you trust him? we trust him. there's a great divide here in the north—western united states between protectionism and free trade, but it doesn't seem to

be eroding loyalty to mr trump. support for donald trump here runs deep and wide. of course voters have concerns, not least about trade, but in the wilds of the american west, we've heard the same sentiment time and again, people trust the president, they say, to do the right thing. but as autumn beckons, concern remains. michelle is harvesting this year's final field of wheat. she says tariffs have pushed down profits, putting the future of her family farm pushed down profits, putting the future of herfamily farm in pushed down profits, putting the future of her family farm in doubt. we're ok for future of her family farm in doubt. we're okfora future of her family farm in doubt. we're ok for a couple of years, yeah... but you want to get back to free trade? yeah, we definitely want to get back to free trade. a lot of my concern's based on how long it's taken us to build these markets. it's easy to tear them down and tearing them down has a pretty big impact on them and you know, the future of my kids' ability to farm. as the last grain is hauled away,

the direction for america's farmers is farfrom certain. the direction for america's farmers is far from certain. james cook, the direction for america's farmers is farfrom certain. james cook, bbc news, at broadview in montana. for decades it seemed impossible to mention his name without adding the two words moustachioed megastar. burt reynolds was both of those things. one of the biggest film stars of the 1970s, has died at the age of 82. he shot to fame in deliverance and starred in films like smokey and the bandit, boogie nights and cannonball run. he died in hospital in florida after suffering a heart attack. ric flair is a professional wrestler who was 16 times world champion, and was a friend of burt reynolds for 45 years. he's on the line from atlanta, georgia. how will you remember him?|j how will you remember him? i was just trying to figure it out. i met him in ‘79, so i guess 39 years. i was thinking back. i remember him

being a great guy. just, you know, very easy to get along with. he didn't... he wasn't out to impress you, he was just a regular guy. didn't... he wasn't out to impress you, he wasjust a regular guy. you know, there were times when... sorry to interrupt you, he gave some great performances, no question, but he never seemed to take his career or himself too seriously? exactly, he enjoyed life. he made the most of it. the first time i met him i'm thinking to myself, what do i say to burt reynolds. he reached out and he said," your ric flair, how are you doing? " that's the kind of guy he was, he knew who i was. at that time i was was, he knew who i was. at that time iwas in was, he knew who i was. at that time i was in the infancy of my career. at that time i was just starting to be on national tv. it was just easy from the day i met him and,

ironically, when i met him, my beyonce and i had a mutual agent, darren prince, wejust facetimed with bert a couple of months ago. everytime i saw him he was the nicest guy in the world. he was famous among much else for turning down roles. he was reported to have turned down james bond, hans solo and the richard gere character in pretty woman. didn't he talk about his career as like a heart attack, but there was one thing he couldn't have them taken away, nobody had more fun than i did. i'd have to agree with that. he was amazing. i was impressed with him in my lifetime. i loved joe namath. looking back on it, you have to

really admire and respect the gift and the magic that burt reynolds brought into everybody‘s life. and the magic that burt reynolds brought into everybody's life. macro coot, thank you very much indeed for talking to us. we're out of time but thank you for talking to us. —— ric. a coroner has concluded the lead singer of the cranberries, dolores o'riordan, died from a tragic accident after drinking alcohol. the inquest heard she drowned in a hotel bathroom in central london in january. she was staying there while recording. she was 46. she had a cult following with the cranberries, selling a0 million records worldwide, so quite a lot more than a cult following! that's it for now. plenty on the bbc website. thanks for watching. hello, good morning. the details for this weekend still look a little uncertain. things are more straightforward, though, for friday. a lot of the rain and earlier thunderstorms have been fading away.

skies have been clearing, which is why it's been turning quite chilly out there, and it'll feel a little cooler for many places with a north—westerly breeze, but for the most part it'll be dry. there's going to be some areas of rain still around, very close to this area of low pressure that's in the north sea. this is where we'll see most of the rain, so perhaps northern parts of scotland, eastern scotland for a while, and the north—east of england. maybe a little bit of rain heading towards the wash, but for the most part, this rain will move its way out into the north sea. one or two showers coming in on that north—westerly breeze, patchy cloud bubbling up, still some sunny spells, and most places will have a dry day. it may feel a little warmer across the northern half of the uk with some sunshine, but a little cooler in the south, temperatures not really making 20 degrees. into the evening, a lot of that cloud melts away. temperatures fall away,

and then we've got increasing cloud coming in from the atlantic. and this is the start of the uncertainty — how far north or south that rain's going to get. but it should be a milder night on friday night into saturday morning. but across england and wales, it looks like we're going to see cloud and a spell of rain. that rain could affect southern parts of northern ireland and southern scotland for a while. it's more likely that southern counties of england should see very little, ifany, rain. and across the northern half of scotland, this is where we'll see the best of the sunshine. those temperatures not changing very much, 17—19 degrees. uncertainties arise because we've got a chain or a string of weather fronts sort of buckling their way across the uk. and if there's a bit more amplification to that buckling, so the rain goes a little bit further north, which it looks like doing for sunday. but a lot of that rain will peter out through the day. we'll see a bit more sunshine developing, with some showers continuing across the northern half of scotland. most places in the afternoon may well be dry, and there's a warming trend for england and wales, with temperatures 21 or 22 celsius. as we head into next week, there's a strengthening jet that's propagating across the atlantic. that's going to pick up areas of low pressure, these weather fronts too, and steer them towards the uk. it looks like it's going to be more

north—western parts of the uk which will see the wet weather into the early part of next week. that rain beginning to gather during the second half of the day. one or two showers ahead of it, but some sunny spells as well. it should be a bit warmer too, temperatures 22 or 23 degrees. and that warming trend continues across the south—east into tuesday and wednesday, temperatures peaking at 2a or 25 degrees. again, towards the north—west, there'll be more cloud, stronger winds and rain at times. this is bbc news. the headlines: president trump has told his supporters that the white house is running smoothly despite claims of chaos and resistance in his administration. a number of his closest aides have publicly denied being the author of an anonymous article, apparently written by an insider, which describes how staff are ignoring his orders. the writer was described by the newspaper as a senior official and says that staff are blocking the misguided impulses of the president for the good of the country. world leaders have backed the uk over its assessment

that the salisbury novichok attack was carried out by russian military intelligence. the us, france and germany agreed that moscow ‘almost certainly‘ approved the poisoning of the former spy sergei skripal, and his daughter. russia has denied the claims. british airways says it's investigating the theft of customer data from its website and mobile app. it says details of 380,000 bank cards have been stolen but the data did not include travel or passport details. now it's time for a look back at the day in parliament.