welcome to bbc news. i'm reged ahmad. our top stories: democrats hit back as president trump calls on beijing to launch an inquiry into his political rival joe biden and his son. china should start an investigation into the bidens because what happened to china is just about as bad as what happened with, uh, with ukraine. in the uk, prime minister boris johnson's brexit plan faces opposition in both parliament and the eu. over a thousand lung injury cases related to vaping are reported in north america as officials confirm the death toll stands at 18. and a special report from iraq on the sexual exploitation of children and young women by some shia muslim clerics.

hello and welcome. in washington, the row over the democrats‘ impeachment inquiry for donald trump has reached a new level. the president appears to be doubling down, calling openly notjust for ukraine to investigate the democratic presidential candidate joe biden, but for china to do so as well. the democrats are describing it as repugnant and a fundamental breach of the oath of office. but mr trump sees it differently. china should start an investigation into the bidens because what happened to china is just about as bad as what happened with, uh, with ukraine so i would say that president zelensky, if it were me, i would recommend that they start an investigation into the bidens because nobody has any doubt they weren't crooked, that was a crooked deal 100%.

let's speak to our washington correspondent chris buckler. chris, donald trump has made this china plea in public, does it change oui’ china plea in public, does it change our people will see those private ukraine phone calls was yellow it feels like donald trump is trying to make normal what the democrats say is simply extraordinary. a us president, essentially asking a foreign government, or as it is now, two foreign governments for help in digging dirt on a political opponent. and that is how democrats see it. president trump is trying with the strategy to say hi am doing nothing wrong. the question should all be aboutjoe biden and his son, hunter. but what is is throwing a lot of dirt at the bidens and the

reality is none of it is substantiated. he has not provided any evidence. he is simply putting out a lot of allegations and encouraging other governments to look into their actions. and as a result you have got president trump, in some ways, looking at times angry and unsettled. but it is a great change of strategy if you consider that only a matter of four hours ago he was awkwardly trying to avoid questions about what he said to the ukrainian president. now he's getting out there and saying, yeah, they asked the question, yeah, i asked them to investigate, so what? ultimately, though, it will feed into those calls for impeachment from the democrats by well, that new strategy, as you say, is only a few hours old. it is only happened today. but can we get a sense of whether it's changing people's view on the impeachment proceedings was yellow here, there have been some suggestions from polling that has been done that there has been some

support growing for impeachment. but, of course, we are at a very, very early stage and all of this. and president trump, using those words we have seen, very much trying to appeal to his base, his supporters. given that in 12 months from now we will be in the last leg of what will be a bitter election campaign, the 2020 presidential elections is coming up and it's going to matter than what is said between here and then, because president trump is going to do his best to paint himself as a victim here. and democrats know there is a danger in all of that and they realise that what really matters is what those floating voters thing. those people in the midwest of america, those in the rust belt, who we re america, those in the rust belt, who were persuaded to vote donald trump in 2016, will they by his claims that he has done nothing wrong when it comes to 2020? and certainly what i think you will see over the next while is a huge focus on these impeachment proceedings, these

impeachment proceedings, these impeachment inquiries, towards what democrats are talking about, potential proceedings. even today we had interviews with the former us special envoy to ukraine and, when you take a look at washington at the moment, it is consumed with talk of potential impeachment. there are stories from the new york times, cnn, washington post, abc, many others tonight, looking at the present‘s actions and he is going to be under his scrutiny in the months to come. definitely not the last we have heard of it. rhys buckley 0ssington, thank you very much. —— chris buckler in washington. the new brexit proposals, unveiled by the british prime minister borisjohnson, have already provoked a wave of scepticism — both at westminster and across the eu. the irish government says it has deep concerns and the european council president says he's unconvinced. the main proposals relate to northern ireland. it would stay in the eu single market for all goods and that would mean accepting eu rules and standards. but, crucially, northern ireland would leave the customs union and that would mean new customs checks on the island of ireland.

but all of this would depend on a future vote by the northern ireland assembly, a body which is currently suspended. so what's the reaction been to all of this in europe? 0ur europe editor katya adler reports from brussels. well, you could say that the prime minister is stuck between a rock and a hard place. he seems cautiously optimistic that the majority of mps would support his new brexit proposals, but the eu doesn't. and if he moves closer to the eu's position, they over customs, then he risks losing support from hardline brexiteers at home. so now what? the eu mood can probably best be summed up in a tweet today from the president of the european council, donald tusk. he said he spoke to the irish prime minister and to borisjohnson today. his message to dublin was that the eu fully stands behind ireland, meaning that it will not abandon irish interest just to get a deal. to borisjohnson he said that the eu remains open

to his proposals but unconvinced. the prime minister's main eu envoy is in brussels tonight and tomorrow, trying to do some heavy convincing. and the eu chief brexit negotiator has a string of questions for him. you see, the eu worries that the prime minister's proposals are not legally watertight, that they expose the single market to smuggling, and that they put the northern ireland peace process at risk. michel barnier says he wants to suss out the eu's room for manoeuvre. depending on the answers he gets, mr muniesa says he will tell germany and france and the rest of the eu whether he thinks it is in their interest to keep negotiating. katya adler there. the us health authorities say at least 18 people across the country are now known to have died from lung problems linked to vaping e—cigarettes. the centers for disease control and prevention said 1,080 cases of probable lung injury had been reported in the united states so far. it's a jump from around 800 known

cases reported last week. alex clark is the ceo of the consumer advocates for smoke—free alternatives association and hejoins me now from plattsburgh, new york. alex, thank you so much for your time. the cdc says it doesn't know what's causing these injuries, but it's talking about people not taking up it's talking about people not taking up vaping if they are not already doing it. it's saying young people should be using vaping products. are we seeing the new cigarette here, where there's going to be continuing ba nsley products? where there's going to be continuing bansley products? as far as continuing bands are concerned, yes, we are seeing states react very extremely to this. new york, where i am, banned the flavoured product is. we are seeing massachusetts banned the sale of the products entirely, michigan as well. some good news for people who use these products in new

york, today there was a temporary restraining order issued against the governor's order to ban the flavoured products. so there is a bit of a reprieve there. you are in support of vaping. isn't this, though, a good action by the cdc, given they are saying theyjust don't know why people are getting ill? well, there is some commonsense advice that the cdc has put out there, but i think the advice from there, but i think the advice from the fda is more specific in telling people to avoid the thc cartridges, which have been linked to, an overwhelming majority of the concerned cases of lung injury. earlier today the state of utah release numbers linking 94% of the cases that you thc cartridges. release numbers linking 94% of the cases that you thc cartridgesm release numbers linking 94% of the cases that you thc cartridges. it is true the cdc is talking about tac, but they make it clear that they just don't know why people are getting sick yet. would you support a great investigation into vaping and was might be causing illnesses?

certainly everybody would like to see more studies about particular ingredients, the flavourings, and the long—term effect, but i think as it relates to this particular outbreak, we are talking about a new chemical that has been introduced. this is not something that legitimate vapour product manufactures, nicotine vapour ma nufa ctu res manufactures, nicotine vapour manufactures can do in the usa can do without triggering the market application process from the fda. do without triggering the market application process from the fdaw is interestingly cdc is talking about people not using the product, because they say that those people have been disproportionately affected by these illnesses. i mean, should the vaping industry stop advertising to young people than? well, the vapour industry does not advertise young people. the contention is that by virtue of having flavours these folks are marketed young people. that's simply not true. consumers, people like me,

the ones who demanded the flavours and put the flavours in these products to begin with. so the assertions that manufacturers or retailers are marketing to kids is really unfounded and based on a loss of old rhetoric from the tobacco laws. —— a lot of. of old rhetoric from the tobacco laws. -- a lot of. the consumer advocates for smoke—free alternatives association the ceo from. thank you very much for that. peruvian authorities have intercepted a huge shipment of dried seahorses fished illegally from the pacific and due to be sold in asia. the seizure, weighing more than a ton, highlights the growth in wildlife smuggling around the world. andy beatt reports. dried, boxed, and ready for export. 12 million pacific seahorses packed onto a ship in brew‘s biggest and busiest port. evidence of an environmental crime. translation: we have seized 55 boxes of dried seahorses weigh more than

1000 kilos. the capture and trade of this dear —— species are strictly prohibited anywhere along the peruvian coast to stop by the contraband peruvian coast to stop by the contra band cargo was peruvian coast to stop by the contraband cargo was destined to be sold abroad, in traditional chinese medicine seahorses are believed to help with almonds as diverse as infertility, boldness, and asthma. this usual expected to be worth millions of dollars on the black market. conservationists say the illicit trade, fuelled by organised crime, is one of the gravest threats to wildlife across south america and beyond. four crewmembers, three peruvians and a venezuelan, have been detained by police. if found guilty they face 3— five years in jail. andy beatt ‘s, bbc news. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: british and us police agree new plans to force social media companies to share users' encrypted messages, but is this agreement a threat to civil liberties?

in all russia's turmoil, it has never quite come to this. president yeltsin said the day would decide the nation's destiny. the nightmare that so many people have feared for so long is playing out its final act here. russians are killing russians in front of a grandstand audience. it was his humility which produced affection from catholics throughout the world. but his departure is a tragedy for the catholic church. this man, israel's right—winger ariel sharon, visited the religious compound and that started the trouble. he wants israel alone to have sovereignty over the holy sites, an idea that's unthinkable to palestinians. after 45 years of division, germany is one. in berlin, a million germans celebrate the rebirth of europe's biggest and richest nation.

this is bbc news. the latest headlines: president trump has urged another foreign country, china, to launch an investigation into his democrat rivaljoe biden and his son. the british prime minister, boris johnson, puts forward further proposals to break the brexit deadlock, but european leaders say they are not convinced. the united kingdom and the united states have signed what both countries are calling an historic agreement on sharing data. it is intended to dramatically speed up investigations into criminals' online activity. the reciprocal arrangement means law enforcement bodies could demand terrorists' and child abusers' electronic data directly from technology companies based in either country. the uk home secretary, priti patel, announced the agreement, along with the us attorney—general, william barr, after a meeting in

washington. this will effectively leave callous criminals who exploit the internet with nowhere to hide. our law enforcement agencies will be finally able to get demand to the data they need from internet giants, to bring people who abuse children and terrorists to justice. i would like to give my particular thanks to the attorney general, and to all of those, many of whom are here today, who have made this momentous occasion possible. ira winkler is the author of advanced persistent security. he has designed cyber security and anti—espionage sytems for the national security agency and in the private sector. he joins us now from washington. thank you so much for your time. is the uk government right? is this a game changer? i - everybody likes to say every change is a game changer.

i like to say that this is making things a little bit easier follow enforcement, and that is a good thing in investigating crimes that might otherwise be too hard to investigate. so, for people watching, what they would assume this means is that if somebody tweets a threat or rights of threat on facebook that their details can perhaps be shared. is that correct? could social media companies be compelled to give people's details now? well, frankly they always could be compelled to give details. what this allows for is, let's say, for example somebody is tweeting a threat to a uk school somewhere, somewhere like that, just as an example. and it turns out that they have to go through the us to get information. if it is a minor threat and it is not a major investigation, you are going to have a single law enforcement agent trying to fight an uphill battle to find out where it came from. this allows uk law enforcement to approach twitter, for

example, directly to get the information, as opposed to having to go through us — possibly the us embassy, us law enforcement or anyone else. it allows them to essentially ask for the information directly. since the christchurch tax ona directly. since the christchurch tax on a mask their, we have had a big focus on far—right terrorism —— mosque. is this legislation of this agreement going to help fight that? the answer is it is going to make some sort of improvement. again, i hate to say... you know, everybody likes to think in the grandest terms, we have got this agreement. it took a lot of work, not just the two people who signed the agreement, to get everything in place, make sure it is legal in both countries to allow for this exchange. but again, it is going to make investigations hopefully to prevent attacks easier, such as if somebody in the uk says there is a perceived

threat to uk assets, and now we can go ahead and ask us companies for the information directly. but to say thatis the information directly. but to say that is a complete game changer i think is a bit pollyanna, for lack ofa think is a bit pollyanna, for lack of a better term. on the other side, what about people's right to privacy? is it going to make it harderfor people to privacy? is it going to make it harder for people to stay anonymous online, which some people argue as people's right? the short answer is no. what this is essentially doing is saying if, for example, a uk law enforcement agent wanted to go ahead and get the information of a us person, they could theoretically go to the us government, go through the embassies, go through the appropriate legal attaches, to get the information compelled in a us court. this just allows the uk agencies to go directly to companies to get the information. just essentially bypasses a lot of bureaucracy. it doesn't make anything that wasn't possible now

possible. it just makes anything that wasn't possible now possible. itjust makes the possible easier, for lack of a better term. thank you very much for taking us through all of that. a man wielding a knife has killed four staff at the police headquarters in paris. the attacker, who was also an employee, was later shot dead by officers. police sources suggest he had converted to islam. officials say they have yet to establish a motive. the incident came a day after police went on strike across france to draw attention to increasing violence against officers. our correspondent lucy williamson reports from paris. the attacker seems to have been a long—term member of the police admin staff, who went into the headquarters at lunchtime today and carried a knife into his office and began attacking his colleagues. he then moved to other areas of the building, before being shot dead by an officer who, one eyewitnesses said, then sank to his knees weeping, after shooting him. it's another blow for the police force, after yea rs of terrorist attacks, violent protests

and public assault that have left them struggling to cope. an undercover investigation by the bbc in iraq has exposed evidence of sexual exploitation of children and young women by some shia muslim clerics. it centres around a practice known as pleasure marriage, which allows men to take wives for a short period of time, sometimes as little as an hour. and in some cases, money is changing hands for girls, who are controlled by clerics. you may find some parts of this report by nawal al—maghafi distressing. karbala — the holiest shrine in shia islam, visited by millions of pilgrims every year. in the streets around the shrine are marriage offices where couples come to get wed. but they hold one of iraq's darkest secrets. we had heard some clerics were abusing their power,

using temporary marriages to facilitate prostitution with young girls. it is a marriage contract with an expiry date, which can be as short as an hour. some say they can be a positive move for couples who are aware of what they are doing. but they are also ripe for exploitation. in a year—long investigation, we went undercover around some of iraq's holiest shrines. these temporary marriages are illegal in iraq. however, we found clerics willing to do them. not only facilitating them with young girls, but also offering justification through their interpretation of islamic law to have sex with them.

we showed our footage to an expert in islamic law, a former high—ranking cleric himself. translation: what this man is saying is a crime. that must be punished by law. he says it is one reason he decided

to speak out against the clerics. translation: i realised that these rules were ugly and cruel, and could not come from god, or from anyone human. throughout our investigation, we gathered evidence of clerics willing to facilitate sex with young girls in return for cash. in one instance, we were told children cost as little as £700. rasul is 16 years old, but already, she has been sold to more men than she can remember. with no parents, and a younger sister to support, she was groomed by a cleric atjust 13 years old.

this cleric denied carrying out temporary marriages. and we received no response from this cleric. both say they're followers of grand ayatollah al—sistani, one of the most senior figures in shia islam. we put our findings to his office, which released the following statement... countless years of war have left millions of women and girls vulnerable and destitute. as long as the religious clerics operate with impunity, they will continue to be victims of iraq's secret sex trade. nawalal—maghafi, bbc news, iraq. a painting by the mysterious british street artist banksy has sold for a record amount

for one of his works. gareth barlow has more. the uk parliament, but not as you know it. cheering politicians replaced by a troop of chimpanzees, howling instead of hear, hear. painted a decade ago, the artwork could be considered particularly pertinent in an increasingly polarised political world. pertinent in an increasingly polarised politicalworld. this pertinent in an increasingly polarised political world. this is one of our oldest democracies, and within it we see the regression towards tribal, animalistic behaviour, that regardless of which side you stand on the brexit debate, there is no question that over the last few weeks we've seen incredible behaviour here in the house of commons in the uk. at four metres wide, the painting is banksy‘s largest piece, and now commands the highest price. his reaction to the record figure — shame i didn't still own it. you can reach me on twitter.

i'm @regedahmadbbc. hello. at one stage hurricane lorenzo, way out in the atlantic, had winds gusting up to 190 mph. it is no longer a hurricane, and it weakens quite quickly as it moves from ireland across the united kingdom during friday. that said, it is still quite windy, though nothing too unusual for the time of year. as we start friday, winds easing in northern ireland, but they are going to be picking up towards south wales and south—west england. and it'll be fairly blustery wherever you are, with cloud and outbreaks of rain. a much milder start compared with thursday morning. and the winds pick up a bit further, south wales, south—west england, during friday morning, maybe gusting along some coasts up to around 60, maybe 65 mph, before easing later. a lot of cloud, outbreaks of rain to start the day,

but edging southwards across south wales and southern england on through the afternoon, replacing any early brightness, whereas elsewhere it turns a bit drier and a little brighter. the best of the sunshine in northern scotland and throughout the day in the northern isles, and temperatures a little bit higher compared with thursday. so the winds ease further as we go on through friday night. still some cloud and patchy rain for parts of southern england, south wales, into northern ireland. the clearest skies to the north and east of that. there'll be a few mist and fog patches developing, and where you are clear, temperatures are dipping down into single figures as we start the weekend. so on saturday morning, then, some mist and fog patches around. some sunny spells the further east you are, but there's another weather system coming in from the atlantic, and that's going to spread cloud further east. with it, initially some light and patchy rain. that rain, though, turning heavier into northern ireland and western scotland, with a strengthening south—easterly wind during the day. and, as for those temperatures, of course it'll feel best where you get to see some sunshine. but then again, as the breeze picks up, well, we'rejust talking

about the mid to low teens. now, let's take a look at the big picture going into sunday. this frontal system is coming across us, and quite slowly, with some heavy and persistent rain. there could be some quite large rain totals in places on into sunday, so that's something worth watching. and whilst there's a bit of uncertainty about how quickly this is going to clear eastwards, some of us will emerge into the sunshine on sunday. but the further east you are, some of us, as you can see, will not. we'll keep you updated on how that looks over the next few days. and again, as for temperatures, well, we're talking mainly towards the mid—teens. in any cloud and rain, though, it is going to feel colder on sunday compared with saturday. and just a look into next week, a selection of places here. it's looking very autumnal. it will be quite windy throughout the week. it will be wet at times, not all the time. there'll be some sunshine occasionally, too.

this is bbc news. the headlines: in washington, the row over the democrats' impeachment inquiry for donald trump has reached a new level. the president has called notjust for ukraine to investigate the democratic presidential candidate joe biden, but for china to do so as well. the democrat say it's a fundamental breach of the oath of office. the new brexit proposals, unveiled by the british prime minister borisjohnson, have already provoked a wave of scepticism, both at westminster and across the eu. the irish government says it has deep concerns and the european council president says he's unconvinced. the us health authorities say at least eighteen people across the country are now known to have died from lung problems linked to vaping e—cigarettes. it's estimated 1,080 cases of probable lung injury had been reported in the united states so far.