welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley. our top stories: french police kill the man wanted in connection with the attack at a christmas market in strasbourg. ready to help but unwilling to renegotiate, that's the message from eu leaders as theresa may tries to salvage her brexit deal. president trump denies telling his former lawyer to do anything wrong, a day after michael cohen is sentenced to jail. president trump denies telling his former lawyer to do anything wrong, a day after michael cohen is sentenced to jail. the latest test flight bt sir richard branson‘s virgin galactic makes its most successful mission to space so far. police in france have shot dead

the man wanted for the gun attack near a christmas market in strasbourg. the suspect, cherif chekatt, was tracked down to the neudorf area of the city, where he lived. three people were killed and several more seriously wounded in tuesday's attack. from strasbourg, gavin lee reports. sirens. this is the suburb in strasbourg, where police ended the 48 manhunt and killed cherif chekatt. this quiet district of neudorf is the same place the suspected guman was last seen on tuesday night, after escaping following the attack close to the christmas markets, which killed three people and injured twelve others. eyewitnesses here say they heard gunfire as the police moved in. translation: we left the mcdonald's, i wanted to go home because it was late,

but when we arrived at the train we were stopped by the police station and we heard a few gunshots — tat tat tat. we have been stuck here since. i don't know how to get home. it was here at the christmas markets in strasbourg, the oldest and most famous in france, where the attack was carried out. police say cherif chekatt was carrying a pistol and a knife, shooting and stabbing people in the streets as others run for their lives. chekatt is said to have been confronted by soldiers patrolling the markets, who shot him in the arm, although he escaped by taxi, ordering the driver to take him to the neudorf area, 15 minutes south of the city. there was a second exchange of gunfire with police, though he escaped and hadn't been seen since. 29—year—old cherif chekatt was born in strasbourg from an algerian family. he had a long criminal past, 27 convictions for crimes, but not related to terrorism. authorities say he became radicalised in prison and put on a terrorism watchlist,

amongst those being monitored for extremist rhetoric. the french interior minister said the investigation came about after a chance tip off from a member of the public. translation: a team from the specialised field brigrade composed of the national police spotted an individual that matched the description of the person wanted. as the police intervened to arrest him, he turned around, faced the officers and started shooting. they then immediately retaliated and neutralised the attacker. the police units here are starting to lift the cordon and move away from the scene, but the forensic teams are still about 200 yards from here, verifying whether the body of the suspect is that of cherif chekatt. and here, the people who are waiting to go back inside after the operation, the residents speak of fear, but also speak of sheer relief that the incident and this 48 hour

manhunt is finally over. gavin lee, bbc news, strasbourg. the leaders of the remaining 27 eu countries say they don't want to keep the uk tied to their rules indefinitely, after brexit, through the so—called backstop, designed to prevent a hard border on the island of ireland. after a meeting in brussels they said they'd work to conclude a future trade deal with the uk as soon as possible, but ruled out any renegotiation of the withdrawal agreement. kevin connolly reports from brussels. the prime minister turned up to brussels in the mood to manage expectations of what might be possible at this summit. on her way into the meeting where she was to appeal directly to herfellow eu leaders to help her sell the deal at westminster, the message was that there is plenty of work still to be done. my focus now is on ensuring that i can get those assurances that we need to get this deal over the line because i generally believe it is in the best interest of both sides, the uk and the eu. the text of mrs may's appeal released after talks ended, hinted a rather passionate

and personal address. "let's get this right", she was reported to have told her fellow leaders, "let's hold nothing in reserve." she stressed the no—deal brexit would be in nobody‘s interest and said she hoped she proved that they could trust are in what was right, not what was easy. she told the leaders that they had to change the perception that the irish border backstop was a trap from which the uk couldn't escape. the eu leaders formal response was to emphasise the backstop‘s temporary nature. but the president of the european commission, jean—claude juncker, warned that westminster was not the only parliament whose approval was required. i would like to tell our british friends that of course we need the yes of the house of commons, but we need also the yes of the european parliament. both parliaments are important — one is continental, the other is insular. but the two have the same importance. so far at least, there is nothing

in that public response from the eu that answers theresa may's call for help, but this negotiation is a course not finished yet. kevin connolly, bbc news, brussells. let's get some of the day's other news. a global conference on tackling climate change is due to close in poland on friday, with delegates from almost 200 countries saying they are yet to reach a deal. negotiators are trying to agree how pledges to cut global warming — made in paris three years ago — should be implemented. the irish prime minister, leo varadkar, has hailed as a historic moment for women the passing of a bill to legalise abortion in ireland. it's been approved by both houses of parliament and will come into effect injanuary. there's been a second night of protests against new hungarian laws on working conditions and thejudiciary. there were some clashes between demonstrators and police outside parliament, which had approved the measures on wednesday. the electoral commission

in the democratic republic of congo has confirmed that 8,000 electronic voting machines have been destroyed in a blaze at one of its buildings in kinshasa — two thirds of the number needed for the capital. it comes ten days before presidential elections. the us senate has backed a resolution to end military support for the saudi—led war in yemen. the vote is likely to prove largely symbolic but defies president trump and underlines the anger in congress over the murder of the saudi journalist jamal khashoggi. senators also supported a joint statement holding the saudi crown prince responsible for the killing. here's our state department correspondent, barbara plett usher. the fact that the senate has voted doesn't mean that military support for the yemen war will end, because it's just the senate, it would have to go through further hurdles to actually become law, and then the president could ultimately veto it. but the point of the resolution is that it's the first time that the congress has invoked what's

called the war powers act, which means it's the first time they've voted to withdraw us forces from a foreign conflict on the ground that it's congress who should approve the move — the president doesn't really have the authority to do so. that's an historic moment, actually, any shows how angry senators are about the human cost of this war. and it also shows that they are quite angry with the saudis, who are the ones who are leading the campaign. ahead of that senate vote, the warring parties in yemen agreed a ceasefire for the port city of hudaydah. it will take effect on friday, and could prove a lifeline for nearly two—thirds of the population. yemen is in the grip of the world's most serious humanitarian crisis. and the pause in fighting has raised hopes that the deal, sponsored by the un, could lead to a wider peace agreement. this report from our special correspondent nawal al—maghafi. these are the faces of the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

in this makeshift camp in northern yemen, civilians have escaped the violence, but not its consequences. without any money, this is what ths woman will feed her family today. a handful of leaves. "we have nothing else to eat", she says. "no aid agencies have come here." her husband told us they've lost everything in the fighting. their children are hungry, they have no money, and he can't see how things will get better. nearby, a mother holds her son up. critically ill, she can't get the medicine he needs. this is what the people here fled from. for months, fighting around the city of hodeida has intensified. bombs dropping almost every day, hundreds have died. it's severely damaged the port that's been controlled by houthi rebels since 2014, and is a lifeline for food supplies for the whole of yemen. the coalition say the rebels have

been using it to off load arms, but the blockade and fighting around this port has crippled the entire country, with millions facing famine. but today, in sweden, a glimmer of hope. the warring parties shake hands, after agreeing to a un proposal that could bring the battle for the port to an end. you have reached an agreement on hodeida port and city, which will see a mutual redeployment of forces from the port and the city and the establishment of a governorate—wide ceasefire. the un will play a leading role in the port and this will facilitate the humanitarian access and flow of goods to the civilian population. back in yemen, news of the deal was greeted with celebration

by the houthi rebels. but after months of intense fighting in hodeida and many broken ceasefires, the question is whether this time the warring parties really will put down their weapons. but with international pressure from the uk and its allies, along with the united nations playing a leading role, there is more optimism. 0ptimism and hope that the people of yemen are desperate for. nawal al—maghafi, bbc news. perhaps for the first time in his presidency, there was a surprising degree of caution in donald trump's tweets, as he rowed back from the earlier vitriol he had flung at his former attorney michael cohen, now sentenced to three years injail. he said that cohen did nothing wrong with respect to campaign finance laws, even if they did apply. perhaps he could feel the dementors of robert mueller‘s investigations swirling around. john sweeney assesses where michael cohen's conviction leaves trump. for 12 years, michael cohen was not just a lawyer for donald trump,

he was his pitbull. but now, he has done a deal with the fbi and tonight, the president is seething. i never directed him to do anything wrong. whatever he did, he did on his own. he is a lawyer. this week, cohen were sentenced to three years in jail. he told the court his weakness was a blind loyalty to donald trump and that he felt "it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds." trump must now fear his old watchdog. he is vulnerable on three fronts. the first, his contacts with the russian mob. trump was cosy with this man, russian—born, former gangster felix sater, in early 2016. sater tempted the donald with the possibility of russian finance for a trump tower in moscow. cohen told congress that the moscow project died in early 2016. that was a big fat lie. cohen has now admitted

that the moscow project ran until the summer of 2016 and that he lied to congress. on this, cohen could potentially destroy his old master. it's really significant because trump is a front runner in the summer of 2016 for the republican nomination. yet at the same time, he and his entourage are conducting negotiations to secure a prime piece of property in downtown moscow, and such properties cannot be secured without high—level approval from the kremlin. the second front, what cohen knows about trump and an agent for gru, russia's military intelligence. this is konstantin kilimnik. the fbi say he is a gru spy. he has been charged in absentia with obstructing justice. in 2016, he worked with paul manafort.

paul manafort was running trump's campaign. here again, cohen could cause his old boss no end of pain. kilimnik is reputedly a former member of the russian military security service. but in russia, nobody is ever former member of the security service, they are always attached to the service, and he had close relationships with manafort while manafort was serving as a campaign adviser to trump. therefore, these relationships between manafort and the intelligence service of russia look highly suspicious. the third danger is what cohen knows about trump's women. the president denies having affairs with both pornstar stormy daniels and former playboy model karen macdougal. prosecutors say that cohen ponied up $130,000 for stormy and fixed a $150,000 payoff to karen to gag their mouths with gold. they say cohen did so on the half

of individual one — trump. cohen says trump ordered the hush money and he'd taped the calls. colluding with all the kremlin‘s men, that may not bring down trump, but gagging the porn star and a model — watch this space. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: it could be a film set, but these women are being put to a very different use to capture the history of england's most famous river. after eight months on the run, saddam hussein has been tracked down and captured by american forces. saddam hussein is finished, because he killed our people, our women, our children. the signatures took only a few minutes, but they brought a formal

end to three and a half years of conflict, conflict that has claimed more than 200,000 lives. before an audience of world leaders, the presidents of bosnia, serbia and croatia put their names to the peace agreement. the romanian border was sealed and silent today. romania has cut itself off from the outside world in order to prevent the details of the presumed massacre in timisoara from leaking out. from sex at the white house to a trial for his political life, the lewinsky affair tonight guaranteed bill clinton his place in history as only the second president ever to be impeached. very good to have you with us on bbc news. the latest headlines for you:

french police say they've killed the gunman who shot dead three people near a christmas market in strasbourg. the eu says it won't renegotiate the brexit deal as theresa may seeks assurances in brussels over the controversial backstop plan. there are reports that federal prosecutors are investigating whether president trump's his inaugural committe mis—spent some of the tens of millions of dollars it raised from donors. they‘ re examining whether some of the committee's donors gave money in exchange for policy concessions, influencing administration positions or access to the incoming administration. earlier, i spoke to our washington correspondent dan johnson about the allegations. it sounds like the white house, donald trump's presidency, could face another investigation, this time into the celebrations, the events, that were built up around his inauguration back at the start of 2017. so this was the committee that was put together to organise the parties, the dinners, the concerts, everything that was around the official inauguration celebration. and they raised more than $100 million.

now that's more than twice what barack 0bama raised for his initial inauguration parties, so there has been questions about who was giving that money, what they were giving out money for and what they may have expected in return. was just an invite to the dinner, or did they expect favours back from the president once he was in office, or extra access to him either at the inauguration, or during his time in the oval office? now, this has all come out in a wall streetjournal report that's been published this evening, but there are conflicting reports back from the people involved in that organisation committee. the committee's issued a statement that says it was in full compliance with all applicable laws and that it's not aware of any pending investigations and hasn't been contacted by persecutors. the organisers on that committee say they're simply not aware of any evidence of an investigation. and sarah sanders, the white house spokesman, was asked about this about this as well.

she put distance between the committee and the president and said it had nothing to do with the president. at that time, his focus was all on the transition and had nothing to do with the arrangements of the celebrations. it's reported, isn't it, that this enquiry arises out of material seized from michael cohen's office? it's quite a list now. 0ne journalist pointed out today, under investigation is the trump campaign, the transition, the administration itself, the trump organisation, the trump foundation and now the inauguration as well. this was not what the businessmen signed up for when he decided to run for president. no, it doesn't exactly feel like draining the swamp, does it, when there are so many investigations into so many different issues. now, president trump again and again repeats on twitter, especially in relation to robert mueller‘s investigation into allegations of russia collusion — "witch—hunt" — that is the president's repeated message. and he has deflected time and again all these investigations, all these questions, but they keep coming. there are more and more issues to be examined and there are more and more people that have turned

against the president, like his former lawyer, michael cohen, and are now cooperating with prosecutors. how much more evidence are they able to give? we know that this latest investigation, if indeed it goes ahead, has come out documents, recordings that michael cohen had kept, secret recordings, we expect, the president wouldn't have known about. how much evidence is that, where else does it lead, how many more investigations could that spark and where are these investigations going to lead eventually? we still don't have a conclusion to robert mueller‘s investigation, and there are so many questions to be answered. a woman accused by the us of being a russian agent has pleaded guilty to conspiracy as part of a plea deal at a court in washington. maria butina was accused by prosecutors of trying to infiltrate the national rifle association in order to influence american policy towards russia. the lobby group is closely aligned to republican politicians including president trump. it spends millions in campaign

donations. sir richard branson has described shedding a tear when his virgin galactic company made its most successful rocket launch 82km above the earth. the project, based in california, has suffered a number of delays and a co—pilot died in a crash four years ago. eliza philippidis reports. it looks like something from a sci—fi movie. it looks like something from a sci-fi movie. roll into the right. this is vss unity, virgin galactic stay ship that could soon be ferrying passengers out to space. —— spey ship. it took off out of the californian desert, attached to an aeroplane. 0nce californian desert, attached to an aeroplane. once it reached around 13,000 metres, the pilots fired the rocket motors, taking the craft to an altitude of 82 kilometres. the company's an altitude of 82 kilometres. the compa ny‘s boss couldn't an altitude of 82 kilometres. the company's boss couldn't have been proud of. well, we've been to space, and that something that we've been looking forward to for 1h years

since we started virgin galactic. it is an historic day. i think it is the first commercial space ship company to actually put people into space. and, yeah, we're on top of the moon at the moment. virgin say they have more than 600 paid—up clients wanting a trip into space. those tickets currently sold for $250,000 for a 90 minute trip. while the flight marked a milestone for virgin galactic, the firm's rivals including tesla's elon musk and amazon's jeff bezos including tesla's elon musk and amazon'sjeff bezos have already ventured further, though without people on board. meanwhile virgin galactic say in time as they build more and more spaceships, thousands more and more spaceships, thousands more people will have the opportunity of a trip into space. well, very much down to earth now. for centuries, artists and photographers have used

the river thames in london as a subject of their work. 0ne artist is now recreating specific moments in the history of the thames, in striking images. wendy hurrell explains all. it could be a whimsical oil painting, but look again. this is actually a photograph. the artist is recreating historical stories from the river thames. my work is very cinematic, it's very lit. i use a lot of special effects, like haze and smoke machines, to create the smog that used to exist in london. and they're not manipulated and doctored in postproduction. this is how she does it. huge scenes are set up on the shore, complete with period costumes, props and professional hairand make—up. you can'tjust turn up on the foreshore and just create a shoot. i need permission from the port of london authority, there's a lot of health and safety issues, ‘cause you can get lymes disease if you touch the water, there are syringes in the water, the tide is a huge problem. the thames is awash with intriguing

stories, like the beluga whale that sparked huge public interest recently. or the northern bottlenose that created almost a hysteria 12 years ago, but sadly died in our attempts to set it free — a little like one of julia's subjects. newsreel: the way of the world in wartime is very strange, and it might be said that the ways of women are strange, too. she's also interested in untold stories. it was only recently that waterloo bridge has been thought of as the "ladies bridge." the project started one weekend when she and her family went mudlarking on the thames shore. my first scene that i actually created was of mudlarker children, because, in the victorian era, the poorest of the poor would actually go mudlarking at low tide to find coal, metal, anything they could sell to just survive. there are more photographs being planned.

the next is a re—creation of the frost fairs, when the tens used to be covered in ice. for that one, though, she'll be sticking to her studio. wendy hurrell, bbc london news. a very important issue now. the long—running copyright case over the hit song blurred lines has finally ended, with robin thicke and pharrell williams told to pay $5 million. the ruling concludes a legal battle that began when marvin gaye's family claimed blurred lines copied his 1977 hit got to give it up. marvin gaye's family won the case, but thicke and williams had appealed. they have now lost. a reminder of our top story: the gunman wanted for the attack on a christmas market in the french city of strasbourg has been shot dead in an exchange of fire with the police. much more on all of the news any time on the bbc news website. thank you for watching. hello.

thursday brought us a cold and a frosty day across many parts of the country, but there was some blue sky and some sunshine. this picture was taken by one of our weather watchers in wiltshire and i think friday morning will dawn on a very similar note. again, it will be a cold and a frosty start to the day with subzero temperatures first thing. plenty of spells of sunshine for many of us through the course of the day to compensate for that fairly chilly start. but temperatures fairly widely will be below freezing. it won't be quite as cold in the west, particularly for northern ireland, where we have more cloud first thing friday morning, keeping temperatures around 11—5 degrees. after that cold, frosty start for many of us it will be a decent, dry looking day. but temperatures fairly widely will be below freezing. it won't be quite as cold in the west, particularly for northern ireland, where we have more cloud first thing friday morning, keeping temperatures around 11—5 degrees. after that cold, frosty start, for many of us it will be a decent, dry looking day. always a bit more cloud for northern ireland with a chance of a few showers at times too. and just one or two showers around this exposed eastern coasts, particularly for eastern scotland, north—east england, could even be a wintry flurry towards east anglia and the south—east.

but for the vast majority of people, you'll miss those showers. and temperatures for most of us around 4—7 degrees. then, into friday evening, we see the cloud bringing more outbreaks of rain parts of northern ireland and the west of scotland, too. eastern areas keeping in that cold air. so you can see blue colours later on through friday and then on into saturday. but some milder airjust waiting in the wings here out towards the south—west, that will be drawn in on this weather front. so a bit of a change in conditions as we head through into the weekend, as a frontal system works in from the west, it will bring not only the milder air but also some outbreaks of rain, which will for some of us turn to snow. so, for saturday, things are turning pretty wet and windy. some fairly heavy snow and also some ice across scotland and northern england combined with some strong winds, too. so there could be some travel disruption through the day on saturday as this weather front bumps into that cold air. you can see snow across parts of northern england and scotland, too. could be about 10—20 centimetres across central parts of scotland, even more over the higher ground, 2—5 centimetres across parts of northern england. now, it will turn back to rain further south across the country, where we've got some slightly

mild airworking in, but you'll really notice the strength of those winds. it will feel around “11 degrees there in hull. for northern ireland, you've got the slightly mild air moving in, so any early snow turning back to rain. but some heavy snow across scotland could be quite problematic through the day on saturday. that rain—snow mix slowly easing away towards the east as we head through into the second half of the weekend, but we keep that pretty chilly wind coming in from the west. so, although things will turn milder through the day on sunday, most of those heavy and wintry showers should ease away, too. bye— bye. this is bbc news. the headlines: french police have shot dead the gunman who killed three people at a christmas market in strasbourg. cherif chekatt was spotted on a street not far from where he lived and opened fire on armed officers when they intercepted him. he was killed when they returned fire. he'd been on the run since tuesday evening. britain's prime minister has urged european union members to help salvage her brexit deal but they say they won't renegotiate. ms may has been seeking assurances over the controversial irish border backstop after surviving

a no—confidence vote earlier this week. president trump has denied directing his former personal lawyer to break the law, and says he had no ties to his crimes. michael cohen was sentenced to three years in prison earlier this week for crimes he claims the president told him to commit.