this is bbc news. welcome if you're watching here in the uk, on pbs in america or around the globe. i'm mike embley. our top stories: president trump faces a formal impeachment inquiry over allegations he asked a foreign power to help damage a political rival. senior democrat nancy pelosi says he's violated the constitution. the actions of the trump presidency revealed the dishonourable fact of president trump's betrayal of his oath of office, betrayal of our national security and betrayal of the integrity of our elections. the uk's supreme court rules borisjohnson‘s suspension of parliament is unlawful. he claims the verdict is wrong, but says he will respect it. and on their tour of south africa,

the duke and duchess of sussex visit the country's oldest mosque. in washington, members of the democratic party in congress have launched a formal impeachment inquiry against president trump, accusing him of seeking the help of a foreign government to smear a political rival. he has acknowledged withholding military aid to an american ally, ukraine, and pushing the country to investigate joe biden, frontrunner for the democrats for next year's presidential election. but mr trump says withholding the funds was not done to put pressure on ukraine. this from our north america editorjon sopel. new york in september, when the leadership of the world converges on the un to speak, but one conversation is causing donald trump extreme difficulty

and the heat is intensifying. injuly, he phoned the newly elected ukrainian president volodymyr zelensky and it's alleged donald trump demanded an investigation into his democratic presidential rivaljoe biden and his son's business dealings in the country as the price for receiving us military aid. no dirt, no aid is the suggestion. the president denies wrongdoing but his account of the call has changed continually as the questions have piled up. i think it's ridiculous, it's a witch—hunt. i'm leading in the polls, they have no idea how to stop me, the only way they can try is through impeachment. this has never happen to a president before, there has never been a thing like this before, it's nonsense and when you see the call, when you see the readout of the call which i assume you will see at some point, you will understand. that call was perfect. joe biden is the democratic party frontrunner. he is leading donald trump in the polls and says the president this time has gone too far. the president does not

comply with such a request from the congress, he continues to obstruct congress and flout the law. donald trump will leave congress, in my view, no choice but to initiate impeachment. that would be a tragedy, but a tragedy of his own making. with the pressure is on donald trump, he's said he will declassify the phone call and release the full transcript but too little, too late. it won't be enough to stop the democrats pressing the nuclear button and pushing for impeachment. the actions of the trump presidency revealed the dishonourable fact of the president's betrayal of his oath of office, betrayal of our national security and betrayal of the integrity of our elections. therefore, today, i am announcing the house of representatives moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry. it's hard to overstate the significance of this move by the democrats and one that the leadership have been very wary about. a ball has been set rolling, with uncertain consequences.

democrats will hope this brings about the end of the trump presidency. what they fear is that it will galvanise support for him and lead to his victory in 2020. jon sopel, bbc news, new york. the bbc‘s david willis in washington outlined what may happen next, if the impeachment process goes ahead. nancy pelosi has described president trump's actions in regard to that telephone conversation with the president of the ukraine as a betrayal of the presidential oath of office, a breach of constitutional responsibility. and in regard to the trump administration's moved to prevent a whistleblower‘s complaint from being considered by congress, nancy pelosi said that was a violation of the law, in her view. well, i can tell you that whistleblower‘s complaint is now

going to be heard by members of congress, members of the intelligence committee, probably on thursday after they've heard from the acting director of national intelligence, a man called sir joseph maguire. —— joseph intelligence, a man called sir joseph maguire. ——joseph maguire. it's possible the whistleblower himself might give evidence in secret to members of that committee, also on thursday. president trump has said he will release a transcript of his goal with mr zelenskiy, the president of the ukraine, he has described the goal is very friendly and completely appropriate. allies of mr trumbo saying the democrats‘ move could backfire if the release of those two — the complaint and the transcript, failed to show any evidence of serious wrongdoing on the part of the president. it is a political risk, isn‘t it? nancy pelosi has

been known to resisted for quite some time despite pressure from others below her in the party. it is quite possible a president cleared bya quite possible a president cleared by a republican—controlled congress would look stronger going into an election next year. absolutely. and nancy pelosi had held for precisely that reason. she felt it could backfire, look at what happened to bill clinton, of course. he is one of only two us presidents who have been on the receiving end of impeachment proceedings and after his impeachment was overturned by the senate his popularity skyrocketed and there is a fear on the democrats was part that trump cosmic supporters could use this to make him even more popular, going into the next year. —— trump‘s supporters. basically, putting their name behind impeachment proceedings, saying there was some sort of turn

in opinion amongst the democrats on this one, that this was beyond the pale. and also something that they could explain, the democratic leadership, to the american people, unlike the recent russia probe stop david willis for us there. let‘s get some of the day‘s other news. officials in pakistani—administered kashmir say at least 22 people have been killed and hundreds injured in an earthquake. security forces have reached the areas worst affected, in and around mirpur, to help with rescue and relief efforts. people in cities as far away as islamabad and delhi felt tremors. the european union‘s top court has ruled that google does not have to delete all sensitive personal information about criminal convictions and sexual conduct that shows up in searches worldwide. but it must remove links from searches in europe, when it receives an appropriate request. google had appealed against fines in france over what‘s known as ‘the right to forget‘. the spanish tenor placido domingo has withdrawn from all future performances at the metropolitan opera in new york.

he‘s been accused by several women of sexual harassment, which he denies. in a statement, the singer, who‘s 78, said he was concerned his presence on stage would have distracted from his colleagues‘ work. the british prime minister is cutting short a visit to the un in new york, returning early to face furious members of parliament and the consequences of tuesday‘s crushing verdict from the uk‘s supreme court. judges ruled unanimously that boris johnson‘s government advised the queen to act unlawfully, in suspending parliament for five weeks. the effect, they said, "upon the fundamentals of our democracy," was "extreme". our political editor laura kuenssberg, now, on a momentous day. ready to passjudgement on the prime minister — borisjohnson broke the law. the decision to advise her majesty to prorogue parliament was unlawful because it had the effect of frustrating or preventing

the ability of parliament to carry out its constitutional functions without reasonable justification. jubilation outside in the rain. cheering yes! those outraged the prime minister had advised the queen to suspend or prorogue parliament for five weeks, suspicious he‘d done it to close down debate on brexit, which he denied. no justification for taking action with such an extreme effect has been put before the court. the conclusion — it was illegal, so it never happened at all. the prime minister‘s advice to her majesty was unlawful, void, and of no effect. parliament has not been prorogued. the government‘s lawyers a few weeks ago did not expect this. the courts traditionally allergic to politics and stay well away, but the other side‘s legal dream came true.

the ruling today speaks volumes. this prime minister must open the doors of parliament tomorrow. mps must get back and be brave and bold in holding this unscrupulous government to account. thank you. so what next? immediate calls to new york, 3,000 miles away, for the prime minister‘s audacious move condemned by the court... prime minister, are you going to resign? ..to be a reason to resign. there‘s been a court case in our country this morning, which i think some of you may have picked up on the media. another chance to suggest the establishment is trying to stop him. i have the highest respect, of course, for ourjudiciary and for the independence of our courts, but i must say i strongly disagree with thisjudgment. and we in the uk will not be deterred from getting on and delivering on the will of the people to come out of the eu on october 31st.

the labour leader‘s conference in brighton disrupted and delighted by the news. it shows that the prime minister has acted wrongly in shutting down parliament. i invite boris johnson, in the historic words, to consider his position. johnson out, johnson out! i have instructed the house authorities to prepare not for the recall — the prorogation was unlawful and is void — to prepare for the resumption of the business of the house of commons. the house of commons sits tomorrow, and that it does so at 11:30am. but once mps have raced back here tomorrow, what will they actually do? the alliance of former tories, still rebels, might try to take

control again after the government‘s approach went so wrong. that advice was clearly very poor, and i think some of his advisers are going to have to leave. if boris johnson won't do the decent and honourable thing, then i think parliament has a duty to come together to force him out of office through a vote of confidence. there‘s no sign of labor doing that quite yet. and look who‘s in boris johnson‘s corner. i know him well, he‘s not going anywhere. a place in power he might have dreamt of for years, but after only two months it‘s proving harder than perhaps he thought it looked. laura kuenssberg with that report. so what does this mean for the relationship between courts and government and what impact could it have in the future? the bbc‘s mark easton reports. what you‘re watching never happened. it may look as though, in the small hours of september the 10th, the royal commissioners attended the house of lords to suspend or prorogue parliament, but today the most senior judges in the land said the ceremony

was void and had no effect. ..to prorogue this present parliament. when the royal commissioners walked into the house of lords, it was as if they'd walked in with a blank sheet of paper. parliament has not been prorogued. this is the unanimous judgment of all 11 justices. this was a constitutional thwack on the nose of government, delivered by the judiciary on behalf of the uk parliament. thejustices made it clear this judgment was a one—off, but its implications will echo down british history. around parliament square in westminster, there are hidden power lines, a triangle of authority joining the houses of parliament, the government — focused on 10 downing street, and thejudiciary and the supreme court. today the justices explained that a fundamental principle of british democracy is that the prime minister is accountable to parliament. they also stated that the courts had supervised the lawfulness

of government for centuries. established in 2009 to replace the law lords as the uk‘s most seniorjudicial body, today saw the supreme court beginning to flex its constitutional muscles. this is probably the biggest day in the history of the supreme court so far. with this unanimous judgment, the judges have really set down a marker about their role as a constitutional court, as a check on government and as a defender of parliamentary sovereignty. and although this will have some repercussions for brexit, it‘s really much bigger than that. this is about how our parliamentary democracy works. booing traitor! the supreme court is crossing the line, meddling in politics, downing street has suggested. but the justices were adamant they had a responsibility to question the motives of the prime minister, pointing out he‘d failed to submit a witness statement to explain under oath his reasons for suspending parliament. the only evidence the supreme court

says it‘s had was this memo sent by nikki da costa, borisjohnson‘s adviser, recommending suspension. borisjohnson ticked yes. this was not a normal prorogation in the run—up to the queen‘s speech. this is a completely proper constitutional procedure. whenjacob rees—mogg, as leader of the house of commons, went to balmoral to advise the queen to suspend parliament — advice she was obliged to accept — the process was unlawful, the justices said. and in a direct criticism of boris johnson, the judgment suggested he ignored constitutional responsibilities in favour of party political interest. it is not clear to us that any step is needed from the prime minister, but if it is, the court is pleased that his counsel have told the court that he will take all necessary steps to comply with the terms of any declaration

made by this court. tomorrow morning, parliament will sit once more, its sovereign place in our democracy restored and enhanced. but it won‘t be a fresh dawn. today‘s judgment means it opens its doors as though the prime minster had never closed them. mark easton, bbc news, parliament square. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: thousands more british holidaymakers are brought home following the collapse of thomas cook. bonds ben johnson, the fastest man on earth, is flying home bonds , is flying home to canada in disgrace. all the athletes should be clean going into the games. i'm just happy that justice is served. it is a simple fact that this morning, these people were in their homes. tonight, those homes have been burnt down by serbian soldiers and police.

all the taliban positions along here have been strengthened, presumably in case the americans invade. it‘s no use having a secret service which cannot preserve its own secrets against the world, and so the british government has no option but to continue this action even after any adverse judgement in australia. concorde have crossed the atlantic faster than any plane ever before, breaking the record by six minutes. this is bbc world news. the latest headlines: us democrats have launched a formal impeachment inquiry against donald trump over claims he pressured the president and of ukraine to investigate his political rival, joe biden.

let‘s get more on that top story. live now to our studio in washington, dc and to niall stanage, white house columnist for the us political website the hill. good to talk to you again. it‘s well—known that nancy pelosi has previously resisted calls from her own party for these kind of seedings. what has changed? she was worried president might emerge stronger. she was, but really the tide for impeachment among nancy pelosi‘s own members has become irresistible. there are a couple of reasons for that. one is that democrats see the president‘s behaviour is so egregious on this conversation with the ukrainian president and the other is that it comes in the way of the report and other allegations made against him so other allegations made against him so democrats feel it would be

letting the presidents make a mockery of the constitution if they didn‘t move towards impeachment. mockery of the constitution if they didn't move towards impeachmentm depends if people get to see the unredacted transcript of the telephone call but also the full report from the whistleblower was so concerned. how do you think this will play with the american voter? clearly, the president‘s approval ratings are not fantastic but he‘s had a rather loyal base that has stuck with him through thick and thin. i don‘t think there is going to be some absolutely pivotal change we re to be some absolutely pivotal change were opinion all of a sudden changes from one side to another but there is potential for damaging revelations to come out from these enquiries and i think it goes to the issue of national security, which is an issue where democrats could peel some voters away from soft support for donald trump. it's unlikely impeachment will get through a republican—controlled senate. he could emerge much stronger. bill

clinton emerged much stronger when he was cleared by the senate. that's right. it‘s highly unlikely the republican senate would vote to convict, certainly not by the supermajority required to oust him from office. he‘s already begun his counter—attack, he has been fundraising of this already, complaining this is residential harassment, in his words. he is going to punch back hard, arguing that democrats are getting distracted or caught up in a partisan pursuit and we will have to see how the plays. how problem for the democrats are the allegations of donald trump againstjoe biden and his son stop not terribly problematic because they don‘t stand up problematic because they don‘t stand up terribly well. this is an attempt by donald trump and his allies to sort of pump smoke around in this atmosphere. it is true that hunter

biden may not have acted prudently in getting involved with this gas company in ukraine but there is no evidence that can be found more can be seen to support the allegation thatjoe biden sought to thwart investigations by the ukrainian —— ukrainian prosecutors. ukrainian city to say that was not give stop thank you so much. a major operation is still under way to bring more than 150,000 people back to the uk, all victims of the collapse of the tour operator thomas cook. according to the civil aviation authority, around 16,000 were repatriated on tuesday. the flights will continue until october six. 0ur transport correspondent tom burridge reports. logistics to get you to manchester... repatriating 150,000 people is complicated, but resilience at this

turkish airport. the manchester flight is full, right? yeah. still in her thomas cook uniform, unsure if she will be paid. but in kefalonia tonight, a long and miserable wait after a government—run rescue flight was delayed and then cancelled. and people still on thomas cook holidays are having trouble too. hotels like this one are owed money by a company which has collapsed. last night, staff demanded that guests, who‘d already paid for their entire holiday, cover the unpaid bills. caught up in it all, graeme and claire. it wasn‘t a pleasant scene. so there was a bit of aggression from one of the reception staff demanding the money. 0bviously, they‘re quite worried about not being paid themselves. government advice is not to pay because of cover from the atol travel scheme, but in another part of spain, guests were locked out of their rooms until they did. we went out for dinner last night and came back to the hotel and we couldn‘t get into our room. the hardest day so we had to go downstairs to the lobby and the lady said, and the lady said,

basically, "give us 340 euro and you can get back into your room." so that‘s what we had to do. it‘s money she can claim back. but other customers gave money to staff out of work crewing one of the last thomas cook flights after a collection organised by a passenger. it‘s now likely that thomas cook‘s german airline will be rescued by a loan from the german government.

but in britain, an entire operation is grounded. there will be a probe into the company‘s demise. tom burridge, bbc news. day two of the tour of the african continent by the duke and duchess of sussex and they‘ve been visiting south africa‘s oldest mosque and eating traditional south african food. they went to the 225—year—old mosque on south africa‘s heritage day, a public holiday celebrating national culture. from there, the bbc‘s pumza fihlani. cheering and applause south africans from all walks of life are celebrating national heritage day here in south africa and what better place to mark a day like this than here, where the duke and duchess have been welcomed by the community of the western cape, a community of people of mixed diversity, descendants of slaves and descendants immigrants that have settled here for a century, and today marks a day when they get to celebrate the proud culture, the brightly coloured are a testimony to their celebration of freedom.

that is what the community want them to experience, a celebration of their freedom. this will be marked also. they first earlier met, they were in a mosque which is the oldest mosque in south africa, greeted by interfaith groups. after that, they will have an intimate moment inside one of these homes where a resident has lived for many years and will get to share a cup of tea in true south african hospitality. lot of sadness around at the news that robert hunter, the man behind many of the lyrics for the grateful dead, has died. he was 78.he was inducted into the songwriters hall of fame in 2015. with guitaristjerry garcia, he co—wrote some of the dead‘s best—loved songs — including brokedown palace, ripple, and jack straw. he also wrote lyrics for bob dylan. cause of death has not been disclosed. he died at his home in california.

much more in the bbc news website. thank you for watching. hello there. well, september had been on course to be a dry—looking month across the south of the uk until our most recent spell of very unsettled weather. now, yesterday we had this area of low pressure bringing heavy rain, some thunderstorms mixed in with that. some really heavy downpours, actually. it caused some localised surface—water flooding. that was just one of the storms, quite near the bbc around the oxford circus area in london. now, in boscombe down in wiltshire, we recorded 59mm of rain over the space of around about the last 2a hours. that‘s exactly a month‘s worth of rain, and with more rain in the forecast, of course, now september, for a number of us it‘s going to be much wetter than normal. well, here we are. the rain continues to moving across the south of england, southern parts of wales. gusty winds around english channel coast as well, gusting at around 30—40mph.

the winds a little bit lighter for the northern england and scotland but we still have rain around here as well. through wednesday, our area of low pressure will eventually start to pull away and the weather will get a little bit less soggy for a time, although there‘ll still be showers before the next weather system works in from the west through the afternoon. so, rain at times probably best sums up wednesday‘s weather. the rain with strong winds across southern coastal counties of england initially. the winds eventually calming down through the afternoon. the skies trying to brighten up, but again, there will be some heavy showers around. then we‘ve got the next area of rain that‘s going to work its way into northern ireland as we go through wednesday afternoon. temperatures, well, 18, 19 degrees, not feeling particularly cold, but on into thursday‘s forecast now, and the next area of low pressure follows in quickly. sets of weather fronts moving across the uk followed by south—westerly winds.

those winds still bring a lot of cloud and still a lot of showers, so even as the rain clears its way through, the skies brighten up for a time, but further showers come in, and those showers again could be heavy with some thunder mixed in, so some heavy downpours to come at times during thursday. temperatures falling a few degrees across scotland and northern ireland, the airturning a little bit cooler here. england and wales, little overall change, 18 or 19 degrees the top for thursday. friday‘s, another unsettled day, more rain pushing its way northwards and eastwards across the country again followed by showers through the afternoon, some of those heavy and thundery. temperatures friday afternoon, again, the coolest weather across scotland and northern ireland, 1a or 15 degrees here. feeling a little bit cool in the wind. further south, england and wales, temperatures coming down a little across western areas with highs of 16 in cardiff. into the weekend, it stays unsettled, quite windy with showers or lengthier spells of rain at times. that‘s your latest weather.

this is bbc news. the headlines:

democrats in the us congress have announced a formal impeachment inquiry into president trump. the speaker of the house of representatives, nancy pelosi, accused him of violating the constitution and betraying his oath of office. he‘s called the move a "witch hunt" and "harassment". the uk‘s highest court has ruled that borisjohnson‘s decision to suspend parliament was unlawful. the prime minister says the verdict is wrong, but will respect it. a major operation is continuing to bring more than 150,000 people back to the uk after the collapse of thomas cook. around 16,000 passengers were repatriated on tuesday. emergency flights are set to continue for another ten days.