welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. our top stories: barack obama calls for honesty and decency to be restored in the us government. now president trump hits back. he said, "what do you think of president obama's speech?" and i said, "i'm sorry, i watched it but i fell asleep." after a week of fighting, a fragile ceasefire — the bbc makes it into libya's capital, tripoli, where we have a special report. british airways apologises for a data breach affecting thousands of customers, and promises 100% to compensate anyone affected. and tributes are paid to the young us rapper mac miller, who's been found dead at his home in la, after an apparent drug overdose. hello, and welcome to bbc news.

barack obama has given a speech attacking president trump, and accusing the republican party of abusing power, dividing america and threatening democracy. in his first major address of the us mid—term election season, the former president said americans were living in "dangerous times." he urged voters to come out in force to support democratic candidates in november, as nick bryant reports. cheering this was barack obama returning to political centre stage. using what has always been the strongest weapon in his armoury — the power of speech. and deploying it against donald trump. hello, illinois. and he addressed this week's explosive revelations that trump appointees are working secretly

to subvert the president. you are not doing us a service by actively promoting 90% of the crazy stuff coming out of this white house and then saying, "don't worry — we're preventing the other io%." that's not how things are supposed to work. this is not normal. these are extraordinary times. and they're dangerous times. these were his strongest criticisms yet of the man who succeeded him and he was scathing about donald trump's response to events last year in charlottesville, the clashes involving white supremacists and neo—nazis. we're supposed to stand up to discrimination. and we're sure as heck supposed to stand up clearly and unequivocally to nazi sympathisers. how hard can that be? saying that nazis are bad? laughter # where at least i know i'm free... donald trump is a counter puncher

and just over an hour later, buoyed by strong newjobs figures, he described his reaction to being asked about his predecessor's criticisms. he said, "what do you think of president obama's speech?" and i said, "i'm sorry, i watched it but i fell asleep." laughter i found he's very good, very good for sleeping. laughter these first seven days in september, which started with a memorial service forjohn mccain, feel like a milestone moment, when the forces of resistance to the trump presidency have asserted themselves more strongly. much of that service was a rebuke to the president, and then came the blockbuster new book from bob woodward and the highly critical column in the new york times, penned anonymously by an administration official. it's unprecedented in modern times to see this kind of public clash between a sitting president and his predecessor. and it speaks to how this divided country increasingly looks like two

americas — one that rallies round donald trump, and one that seeks to resist him. nick bryant, bbc news, washington. meanwhile a former trump advisor, who was part of the 2016 election team has been jailed for 14 days. george papadopoulos admitted lying to federal agents investigating whether campaign aides colluded with russia. he'll also have to do two—hundred hours of community service, and pay a fine of $9,500. thousands of people have been forced to leave their homes after more than a week of fighting between rivalfactions in libya. but now a ceasefire, brokered by the un, seems to be holding. seven years ago, rebel groups backed by a military coalition toppled the dictator, muammar gaddafi. since then, there has been political and military chaos.

the bbc has the only international news team there. clive myrie sent this report. we're entering a nervous city. only now after a week of fighting and three ceasefires do we think it's safe to enter tripoli. along this same road seven days ago, fighters from armed groups based outside the capital breached the city walls. but rival factions inside tripoli were ready for the fight. the battles left scores dead, including civilians, and forced thousands to flee their homes. darkness provided no respite. the battles are over for now, but the scars linger. at his family compound, ali el—amari doted on two grandchildren who are now dead. translation: the rocket or missile landed right where the children were playing. there was blood everywhere. 0n the ground, all over the trees.

when you see the body of your grandchild in pieces... my daughter had to see it too. i am very, very sad. i am very sad. ten years. why are we still all fighting? why? 0ne boy was 14 and the other 15. they were buried one week ago today. libya's problems, the deaths, the destruction, are the result of the messy end of

colonel gaddafi's rule. the armed groups that helped topple him carved up the country, leaving no—one in overall control. and the militias and groups that stayed within the capital are being accused of being greedy, of siphoning off funds, of ruining the economy. those groups outside the capital now say they had to intervene. there is a un—backed government in tripoli, but it's accused of allowing the armed factions in the capital to act with impunity. with so many militias and fighting groups seemingly running the country, libya is a failed state. and seizing on that failure have been the people smugglers. the fighting of recent days has ensnared many of the thousands of migrants who are trying to use libya as a gateway to europe across the mediterranean. these people had to break out of a detention centre

when the fighting got too close. this man says there was gunfire at night and five people were hit, that's why we escaped, but even as we tried to run, another man was shot. the fighting forced thousands of libyans to free their homes, children to leave their schools. this woman is a mother of four. she said she wanted to talk to us, and she poured out her heart. "we are tired, we've had enough," she told me. "we had to leave our homes. "i would like to send a message to the world, "we are peaceful people. "we want to live like everybody else, our children "to grow up in peace. "why is this happening, why?" libyans are tired of the men with guns having all the influence. and hopes for nationwide elections by the end of the year are now in ruins. and you can get more on that story on our website. british airways could be fined as much as $640 million for a huge data breach. hackers managed to access details of hundreds of thousands of bookings made with the airline over two weeks. personal and financial

details were compromised and many passengers have been forced to cancel their credit and debit cards. it's all about the customers. business travellers and holiday—makers, transporting them around the world. but thousands have had their personal information stolen after british airways was hacked. jorge herrera is one of them. he booked tickets with a credit card at the end of august, but has other cards on his ba account, too. he's struggled to speak to the airline all day. i don't think i have to cancel all my credit cards, but i don't know. and so i'm in the process of doing that. and it's going to take a long time. so, what do we know about this data breach? well, it affected customers who made a booking or changed one through the british airways website or ba app from 11pm on august 21 up until 9:45 on wednesday evening. 380,000 cards were affected. ba says hackers stole names, addresses, e—mailaddresses

and payment information. that included the card number, expiry date and, critically, the three digit security code on the back. i'm not letting you see my three digit number, because it's a bit like giving you the keys to my safe. now, with an online transaction, this number shouldn't be stored. ba says they weren't. so how did hackers get hold of them? emily here is a cyber—security expert. what could have happened? well, one theory is that a supplier to ba actually got compromised in the first place. so when you are booking a flight on the website, you may not realise, but there is lots of third—party software that is used within those web pages to do things like process card information. so it could be that they were targeted because they were a little weaker on security, and then used to extract the data. ba says it's sorry, promising compensation for any customers who may end up out of pocket.

this was a very sophisticated criminal attack on ba.com, and over more than 20 years that ba.com has been operating, we've never had a breach of that type. this attack doesn't surprise me. we see attacks like this targeting payment and card details all the time. but this is a big industry, and criminals do do this on a daily basis. but it is unusual for hackers to land so much sensitive payment card details at once. it's the first major incident since new data protection rules came into effect, which means ba could face a sky—high fine of around half a billion pounds for the breach. china's richest man, jack ma, is reported to be stepping down as head of the e—commerce empire alibaba on monday. 19 years after he co—founded it,

alibaba is now the world's fifth biggest internet company with a market value of more than $400 billion. its interests range from sellings things online, to hollywood film production and cloud computing. mr ma, who's a former english teacher, has a personal net wealth of over $40 billion. it's thought he'll now create a personal foundation, following in the footsteps of the principal founder of microsoft, bill gates. shaun rine is managing director of china market research group. hejoins me now from shanghai. it has been reported he is retiring to focus on philanthropy, but why now? well, it is great to be here. i think right now is a good time for mrma to think right now is a good time for mr ma to step down. alibaba is in a strong position. we expect it to grow about 35% year on year for the

next five years. they are also about to go public, one of their divisions. china is becoming a cashless society. very few people carry cash. alipay, their subsidiarity, is doing very well. it is also time for mr ma to step down to focus on p and also perhaps become a bit low profile. right now he is very high profile which is dangerous and chinese business circles. we did a project couple of yea rs circles. we did a project couple of years ago, and analyse that over 60% of the people who may be forbes 100 rich china list had been arrested or investigated for corruption or other illegal activities. so it is time forjack ma to become more low—profile and focus on philanthropy. so do you think this is something he is doing for himself 01’ is something he is doing for himself or is it more about the company?” think it is more about himself. i think it is more about himself. i think there are two parts. very importantly, aliba ba, unlike think there are two parts. very importantly, alibaba, unlike some other internet companies in china like baidu orjd.com, they have a

very strong bench of top executives. there is about 50 people who could step up and leeds alibaba over the next ten or 20 years. i think it is smart to give the reigns to them and let them help alibaba involved in an even faster internet type of market, especially as alibaba becomes a global player, moving into europe in south east asia and africa. the second thing, it was announced a couple of weeks ago, china is going to start taxing global income for people who spend more than 183 days a year in china. now, most ofjack ma's welcomes offshore because his companies have gone public in hong kong or the united states. i would not be surprised if he is doing this so he can spend more time in hong kong and other countries outside mainland china in order to reduce his tax burden. when i talked to a lot of the wealthy people in the last week, lots of them talked about moving to hong kong and spending 182 days or less on mainland china in order to reduce their personal

income tax. sean ryan, great to have your thoughts on this. thank you. stay with us on bbc news. still to come, cleaning up our oceans. the first attempt to remove decades of plastic pollution starts in the pacific. 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 world news. the latest headlines: former president barack obama has called for the restoration of honesty and decency in the us government — in an outspoken attack on donald trump. after a week of fighting in the libyan capital — a fragile ceasefire appears to be holding. as more unrest shakes the city of basra in iraq, the most revered shia cleric in the country has blamed the crisis on the government. iraq's parliament will convene an emergency session later on saturday. laura westbrook has more the day began in mourning —

a funeral for a protester killed during demonstrations. but it soon descended into another day of violence. people here in basra are angry at the government for not providing basic services. they have long lived with a lack of electricity and high unemployment, but the final straw is thousands in hospitalfor drink in polluted water. translation: the issue is water. it is a live issue. blood for water. women, too, joined the protests. they say they have been ignored by those in power in baghdad forfar too long. it has led to the most revered shia cleric in iraq to step in. all of the governmentjobs are

restricted to the parties. it has led to the most revered shia cleric in iraq to step in. he, too, placed the blame on those in charge, and called for a new government. translation: it is necessary to pressure the new government to be different from its predecessors. despite his appeal for calm, as night falls, the city burns once more. this time the target is the iranian consulate. luckily, it was empty when it was set alight. people are angry at iranian influence in iraq. burned and blackened shells of buildings across the city are all that is left. on the wall of this government building, it says "burn the headquarters of satan". back in may, people hoped the election would bring

a fresh start. instead, the country has once again slipped back into violence. shares in electric car maker tesla plummeted more than 9% on friday, after pictures emerged of the co—founder elon musk on a live podcast smoking cannabis. since then his chief counting officer has resigned after just a his chief counting officer has resigned afterjust a month in the job. there are reports the head of human resources also has plans to leave. the us rapper mac miller has been found dead at his home in los angeles after an apparent drug overdose. the 26—year—old, whose real name is malcolm mccormick, previously dated pop singer, ariana grande. he shared the stage with her at the one love for manchester concert last year. fans and fellow musicians have been paying tribute to the rapper on social media. he had just released a new album and was due to start touring later this month. earlier, i spoke to bbc radio 1xtra

dj semtex who was one of the first djs to interview mac miller in the uk. i was looked for the new artist. i came across him on some blogs from the us. when he came to the uk for his first ever show, i made sure i got one of the first interviews with him. he was a really cool guy, an amazing artist. he had a lot of fans out there. he was a really cool individual, one of the best people. whenever he was in the uk, he reached out to me and invited me to his shows, we did interviews whenever he was over. not many artists like that.

he was a very thoughtful person and an amazing artist and an amazing mc. i saw one fan talking about how he bought a whole bunch of them chicken after a show in brixton. yeah, he did the show in brixton and afterwards we went to nando's and they were closing, so i said, look, we've got a great artist here, so they stayed open, and basically bought food for everybody. like, 20 tables. that was mac miller. he was this crazy, wonderful guy. everybody around him, where did you knew him or not, you felt part of that crowd. every year millions of tons of plastic waste flow into the sea around the world. now, for the first time, an attempt will be made to get into the middle of the pacific ocean — to try to clean it up. here's our science editor david shukman. in san francisco, final construction of a massive project with an incredibly bold ambition.

to try to clear the oceans of plastic waste. this animation shows how the huge structure is meant to collect millions of pieces of plastic to make them easier to get rid of. sights like this have shocked people around the world. images of the damage to wildlife have inspired this effort to clean up. if we don't do it now all this plastic will start breaking down into smaller and smaller pieces, and the smaller the pieces are the more harmful and harder to extract from the marine environment. so we feel there is a sense of urgency. there is plastic waste in every ocean around the world but this is the first attempt to clean it up. it will take place in the eastern pacific in a rotating current that traps plastic, what's called the great garbage patch. it's bigger than britain and france combined. how is the project meant to work? a giant tube 600 metres long will float on the surface and bend into a shape like a horseshoe, drifting naturally with the current and the winds.

because it will move faster than all the bits of plastic in the water it should slowly gather them together into a small area. underwater a kind of barrier will hang three metres down to trap plastic below the surface and the design should mean that any fish will pass under it. once the plastic has been drawn into a dense mass it will then be collected by ship, taken away to be recycled. no—one can be sure if the huge system will work. some experts worry it could harm marine life. the major problem is those creatures that passively float in the ocean and cannot actually move out of the way. once they are in, they are going to be trapped there unable to move. for example plankton is the bottom of the food chain, so we really do not want to be taking that out of our oceans. that is clearly from the teeth of a fish. yes.

there is no other explanation. one of the scientists on the clean—up project says because the plastic is being eaten by fish it is entering the food chain so should be removed. it's been there for years. we find plastic from the 70s, from the 80s, from the 90s. and then we also find languages on those bits of plastic so we will find in the north pacific chinese, japanese, english, so we will try to define where the things may have come from. the plan is to start with one collection device and eventually deploy 60 of them. but all the time plastic is pouring down rivers into the oceans. so on its own the clean—up operation will never be enough. in tennis, the defending champion, rafael nadal, has retired from his us open semi—final with a knee injury. the world number one was two sets down to the argentinejuan martin del potro at the time.

del potro now faces novak djokovic in sunday's final. the duke of cambridge has been visiting the north east of england and the cities newcastle and gateshead. he toured the great exhibition of the north — a three—month celebration of the region's art, culture, design, and innovative spirit. but football took centre stage for a moment when the prince was given a customised newcastle united shirt for his five—year—old, prince george. a reminder of our top story: barack obama has launched an outspoken attack on donald trump and accused the republican party of abusing power, dividing america and threatening democracy. he also urged democrats to vote in the november's mid—term elections. president trump hit back — saying the speech sent him to sleep. that is it from me.

there good morning. the weekend is upon us. many of us will see a little bit of rain at some stage in the weekend. that is by no means the whole story. there will be a lot of dry weather around as well and some spells of sunshine. quite a complex pressure pattern. high pressure to the south. one area of low pressure to the north—east. then this wriggling weather front pushing in from the atlantic. this is essentially going to send a pipeline of moisture in across central parts of the uk. for wales, the midlands, northern england, we will see outbreaks of rain through the day, the odd heavy burst. some of that rain dribbling down into east anglia. the further south you are more in the way of dry weather, some brightness and brighter skies to be had further north through saturday afternoon. extra cloud through the far north—east of scotland. get yourself into some sunshine. aberdeen 16, 17 in glasgow. a cool fresh feel, similar story for northern ireland.

northern england into wales and the midlands, outbreaks of rain at times, the odd heavy burst over the hills, particularly. it will be quite breezy. breezy further south as well. towards the channel islands you may see breaks in the cloud and a little bit of sunshine. remember that pipeline of moisture, it piles its way in as we go through saturday night into sunday. at this stage the rain will drift further north as well, perhaps getting into southern scotland. cool in north—east scotland, further south with a fair amount of cloud it will be mild. outbreaks of rain across western and some northern parts of the uk. there could be patchy rain and drizzle around through the morning, close to newcastle, as the great north run gets under way. as we go on through the day i am hopeful the cloud will start to break up. we'll see spells of sunshine developing into the afternoon. temperatures around 16 or 17. it will be fairly breezy. across the rest of the country, a similar story. rain will drift across many northern parts of england, northern ireland, and scotland.

the rain continues across northern scotland through the day. some thundery showers later on. increasingly windy. further south, more sunshine towards the south east and some slightly higher temperatures as well. moving out of sunday and into monday, high pressure still influencing the weather in the south. more frontal systems in towards the north—west. it will be northern and western parts of the uk that will see outbreaks of rain, often breezy conditions. further south, more in the way of dry weather. some sunshine. and it will start to warm up as well. this is bbc news, the headlines: barack obama has launched an outspoken attack on donald trump and accused the republican party of abusing power, dividing america and threatening democracy. he also urged democrats to vote in the november's mid—term elections. president trump hit back — saying the speech sent him to sleep. a fragile ceasefire seems to be holding in libya's capital, tripoli, after a week of fighting between rival militia factions.

the un says at least 47 people have been killed and nearly 2,000 families internally displaced. british airways could be fined as much as $650 million for a huge data breach. hackers managed to access details of 380,000 bookings made with the airline over a two week period. the compa ny‘s apologised and said it's "100% committed" to compensating customers. the government