welcome to bbc news, i'm mike embley. our top stories: a six—point plan to save the planet. thousands of scientists demand deep and lasting changes to curb catastrophic climate change. pressure builds on president trump, as a key witness in the impeachment inquiry says ukraine was told to investigate a democratic rival to get us military aid. nine us citizens including six children are killed in mexico during an ambush by a suspected drug cartel. fury as a british cabinet minister appears to suggest victims of the grenfell tower fire in london lacked the common sense to flee. and on board america's election express. we report from a divided new hampshire, a year ahead of the presidential poll.

thousands of scientists from around the world have endorsed a study based on a0 years of research that says the planet is facing a global climate emergency. the group of around 11,000 scientists says governments are failing to address the crisis, and without deep and lasting changes, there will be untold human suffering. gareth barlow has the story. wildfires in the united states, floods in somalia, droughts in the andes, typhoons in asia. symptoms and signs of a changing climate, a climate emergency, according to 11,000 scientists. they have backed a report based

on a0 years of data which says humans are facing untold suffering, amid a climate emergency caused by issues such as booming populations, a rise in air travel, and tree numbers falling as forests are felled. 0ur planet is in crisis. you know it, we know it. climate change is a key social and political issue, and the report's authors say governments, businesses and the public must do more to tackle the causes of climate change. chanting: extinction! rebellion! but they note the global protest movement does offer hope. but as scientists warn of a changing climate, on monday donald trump began the formal process of withdrawing from the paris climate accord, the landmark agreement meant to curb a rise in temperatures. i announced the withdrawal of the united states from the horrible, costly, one—sided paris climate accord.

the issues aren'tjust political. the report's signatories say diets must change, population growth must reduce, and the reliance on fossil fuels must end — big solutions to fix an even bigger issue. earlier i asked ecology professor william ripple, one of the lead authors of the study, why he felt compelled to put this report together. well, for me, what's happening is that i decided to work on this climate emergency paper because climate change seems to be accelerating faster than scientists predicted, and it's more severe than predicted, and threatening natural ecosystems, and potentially causing great harm to humanity. and, in a world where we see the most powerful man in the world

withdrawing the us from the paris climate accord, what are the chances, do you think, of the major transformation that you recommend 7 well, first of all, i want to say that administrations, political administrations, come and go with time. and what we're talking about is — are both short—term and very long—term tra nsformative change for society. so, with that, ijust don't want to say too much more, other than we have something that transcends any political administration. you give a list of urgently needed actions, and others in the more medium and long—term. give us an idea of those, please, and what do you think actually, realistically, are the chances of them being carried out?

so what we've identified are six steps that can be taken. the first one has to do with energy, and carbon dioxide pollution, and the second is about air pollution. and it so happens that air pollution is also adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, while causing great human harm. and then thirdly, we're talking about nature, and natural climate solutions, and the importance of natural ecosystems in absorbing carbon dioxide. and then fourth, we talk about food and diet, in terms of eating lower on the food chain. and fifth, we mention economics, and continued economic growth, in a world that has finite resources. and finally, we mention population, and the importance of family planning. so, in terms of what i think about its chances, i think that humanity is now at a conversation where we are able to think about a social tipping point.

so the conversation is ramping up for governments, it's ramping up for businesses, it's ramping up for citizens. so i think what we're going to be seeing is a lot more action on this in the future. at least nine us citizens including six children have been killed in a violent attack by suspected drug cartel gunmen in mexico. the family are linked to a mormon community that settled in mexico. donald trump has posted a twitter message saying it is time for mexico to wipe the drug cartels off the face of the earth. 0ur correspondent will grant sent this report, and a warning — some viewers may find it upsetting. the aftermath of an ambush. this is for the record. nita and four of my grandchildren are burnt, and shot up. this grisly video taken by a distraught family member shows the extent of the violent attack on the lebaron mormon family,

three women and their children murdered as they travelled between their community settlements in northern mexico. a family portrait has emerged as one of the victims, rhonita miller lebaron and her children, several of whom were killed, including the babies in arms. the staged photograph now a chilling reminder of the disregard the cartel gunmen had for their victims‘ lives. at this stage, the only apparent explanation for the ambush is mistaken identity. even so, the brutality of the drug cartels has reached a new low. with the victims us citizens, president trump was quick to tweet his response, calling on mexico to request us help in cleaning out these monsters. from the increasingly beleaguered mexican president, it was a polite thanks,

but no thanks. president lopez 0brador insists he won't be drawn back into a protracted war against the country's drug gangs, one which has little chance of ever reaching a clear resolution. however, on recent evidence, mexico is still embroiled in one, whether he likes it or not. will grant, bbc news. this week we have reported on the pollution crisis in northern india, where levels of dangerous particles in the air are at well over ten times safe limits. the elderly and the very young are suffering most, with one doctor saying growing up in the capital, delhi, is like being a lifelong smoker. 0ur south asia correspondent rajini vaidya nathan reports. one of the biggest threats to these young lives is all around them, as they play, as they eat, because they breathe. here, the air is toxic, and it is the youngest and poorest most at risk, in one of the world's

most polluted cities. within minutes of visiting this slum in north delhi, we meet shabarna, with her three—month—old twins. she tells me both have pneumonia, and blames the pollution. three times a day, she uses a nebuliser rented from a local shop to get medicine to their lungs. they've been sick since they were born. they have fever, they're coughing, and they struggle to breathe, sha barna tells me. the medicines aren't working, and we're desperate. we've just done a pollution reading, and even inside, the levels here are incredibly high, way above what is considered safe by the world health organization. a study by the who said that every year, some 600,000 children under the age of 15 die across the world because of exposure to toxic air.

so this image of a teenager with black deposits on the lung is not a rarity today. doctor arvin kumar is a chest surgeon. he says he is seeing a growing number of teenagers with damaged lungs. would you say that this air is killing young children? yes, it's killing our children. it's making their iq development lower. it's causing cancers. breathing kills. this blanket of smog covers india's capital annually, vehicle emissions, unchecked industrial fumes, and farmers in nearby states burning crop stubble all to blame. little seems to change. it is hard to see what the future is for the youngest and most vulnerable. rajini vaidyanathan, bbc news, delhi. in a move that could prove

damaging to president trump, a senior american diplomat has changed his evidence to the impeachment inquiry that has the potential to remove the president from office. gordon sondland, us ambassador to the european union, has now acknowledged telling a top ukrainian official that american military aid to ukraine, a us ally under threat from russia, likely hinged on the government in kiev helping mr trump with next year's us presidential election. amy mackinnon is a journalist for us magazine foreign policy. she joins us from washington. welcome, thanks very much for your time. what do you make of this? depending on who you talk to, it is either very damaging for the president, or according to the white house, and i quote, it shows as there is even less evidence for what it calls this illegitimate impeachment sham. absolutely, i mean, it depends who you talk to in washington about a lot of things these days. but certainly hundreds of pages of testimony that have been released over the past two days, it

was those four pages of addendum from gordon sondland that have electrified washington this evening. and this, you know, this being some of the closest evidence yet that there really was a quid pro quo encouraging ukraine to complete these investigations, which could prove an official to president trump, and in return that they would get this military aid released. forgive me, so it suggests that there is some support, then, from these claims from the democrats that mrtrump was these claims from the democrats that mr trump was withholding a depressive ukraine into investigating one of his rivals for the presidency, joe biden, and of course, just in case people don't know, joe biden‘s son hunter was on the board of ukrainian energy company. yes, well there is, however, one keyword and gordon sondland's addendum which i think is going to be latched onto by the president and his allies. it was that he said that he presumed that there was a quid pro quo. he presumed that the military aid would be released if the ukrainian president released this statement saying he was going to open these

anti—corruption saying he was going to open these anti—corru ption investigations. saying he was going to open these anti—corruption investigations. now, that word can leave a little bit of wiggle room for the president and his allies to say, well, that's just gordon sondland reaching his own conclusions. that doesn't necessarily implicate the president. but of course, what the pages of testimony that have been released today from sondland and from kurt volker, who is the special envoy to ukraine, reveal is that there was this diplomatic back channel led by rudy giuliani, and it isjust becoming increasingly difficult to believe that all of this went on and it was spearheaded by the president's personal lawyer, but that the presidentjust had no knowledge of it. how much is it going to matter, do you think?” think this is going to matter a great deal as lawmakers proceed with the impeachment investigation. whether or not it will be a smoking gun, that remains to be seen. i mean, it's... gun, that remains to be seen. i mean, it's. .. they gun, that remains to be seen. i mean, it's... they have a lot of evidence now from former officials from the state department, former officials from the nsc. and what has been remarkable is they have all been remarkable is they have all been telling the same story. in fa ct, been telling the same story. in

fact, gordon one's first testimony was actually kind of the outlier in this. but all of the officials, these are officials who works under both democratic and republican administrations, have all painted this picture that there was a formal channel of diplomatic and policy—making on ukraine, which were state department officials, which it a lwa ys state department officials, which it always has been, and then there was this back channel which was read by ruth —— led by rudy giuliani. and it is that back channel that is going to determine whether or not the impeachment goes ahead. thank you very much. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: the outgoing head of the european commission, jean—claude juncker, says he thinks the uk will leave the eu by the end ofjanuary. the israeli prime minister, yitzhak rabin, the architect of the middle east peace process, has been assassinated. a 27—year—old jewish man has been arrested, and an extremistjewish organisation has claimed responsibility

for the killing. at polling booths throughout the country, they voted on a historic day for australia. as the results came in, it was clear. the monarchy would survive. of the american hostages, there was no sign. they are being held somewhere inside the compound, and student leaders have threatened that should the americans attempt rescue, they will all die. this mission has surpassed all expectations. voyageri is now the most distant man—made object anywhere in the universe, and itjust seems to keep on going. tonight, we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms, or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: thousands of scientists have urged

people, policy makers and industry to make deep and lasting changes to curb catastrophic climate change. a key witness in donald trump's impeachment inquiry has said ukraine was told to investigate his democratic rivaljoe biden to get us military aid, directly contradicting claims by the president. here in the uk the leader of the house of commons has issued a "profound apology" for remarks about the grenfell tower block fire in london, which have drawn a furious reaction from survivors. cabinet ministerjacob rees—mogg appeared to suggest that people who died in the fire lacked common sense — and that he would have left the block instead of following the advice of fire crews to stay put. the fire service was following national guidelines. the blaze, injune 2017, killed 72 people. this report from lucy manning. if there's one tragedy it's easy to show sympathy with and be sensitive about, it's grenfell. the inquiry finding just last week, residents shouldn't have been told

to stay put in their flats for so long, yet one government minister has managed to upset the survivors. the more one's read over the weekend about the report and about the chances of people surviving, if you just ignore what you're told and leave, you are so much safer. and i think if either of us was in a fire, whatever the fire brigade said, we would leave the burning building. itjust seems the common sense thing to do. marcio gomes, his pregnant wife, and two daughters were trapped on the 21st floor. they filmed the smoke and the darkness that made it almost impossible to escape. their son, logan, was stillborn after the fire. operator: there is no way you can get out? floor 21? there's no way! there's no way. we have tried three times already. the fire's here! you know, i lost my son and, yeah, it was hurtful. it's not very nice for the survivors, the families, or even the community,

as well, what he said. he certainly needs to start thinking a bit more about what he's saying. and if he wants to talk about common sense, then i can quite... you know, turn around and say it's common sense not to build houses or flats with flammable material. as he left cabinet, mr rees—mogg was asked if he thought grenfell residents lacked common sense. that's not what i said. not what i said. reporter: do you regret your comments? that's not what i said. he later said: do you accept his apology for those comments? no, not really. i think it was just very insensitive. it shows how out of touch he is with everyone. at any time, jacob rees—mogg's comments would be seen

as insensitive, but at the start of an election campaign, they suggest a government minister lacking empathy at the very time politicians are trying to connect with people. grenfell survivors again feeling let down by those in charge. lucy manning, bbc news. the next us presidential election may be a year away, but candidates have already been campaigning in the key states. this includes new hampshire — which will hold the first primary in february. jane 0'brien reports from north conway. shifting winds over the presidential range, home to some of the most unpredictable weather in the world. and an equally unpredictable political environment for today's presidential hopefuls. # roll on up and ring the bell... north conway lies in the shadow of the white mountains, a bluish town in a reddish county, in a divided state where hillary clinton beat donald

trump by less than half a percent in 2016. zeb's general store, a local landmark, is a popular camping spot. i'm here to meet republicans who think the president will have better luck this time. he changed my whole outlook because he is not a politician. he's a businessman running a business, and this country needs him. and that changed my whole lifestyle, it gave me energy. but republicans here are a dwindling force. we are attracting people from the surrounding states are overwhelmingly liberals. so they say, "hey, you know, look over the border to new hampshire. it's pretty good over there." so they move here. but they bring their ideas with them. and they vote accordingly. of course, a lot depends on who democrats pick to challenge him. the democratic field is a bit like zeb's candy bar at the moment, you are kind of spoilt for choice.

do you go for the jawbreaker, the gumball, the rock candy, or my personal favourite, the caramel cow tail? the point is they're all candy, but they all appeal to different tastes. bernie sanders won the last primary in new hampshire and he is doing well on the polls right now. but many democrats have doubts about his ability to beat trump in a general election. there's momentum building for some of the candidates who are a little bit more moderate, at least in a state like this. because i think we have an understanding that if we swing too far to the left, with our deep divide as it is, that it'll make people unelectable. mobilisation is the key to 2020. given the tribal nature of american politics, few people are likely to change their minds or their party. and polls suggest that independent voters are few and far between. the bigger question then, is whether enough republicans will stay on board to give president trump another four

yea rs. the outgoing head of the european commission, jean—claude juncker, has told the bbc he believes the uk will leave the eu by the end of january — the end of the current extension period. mrjuncker said he regretted not speaking out at the time of the european referendum — so our europe editor katya adler put to him some of the promises made by the parties contesting next month's genral election. if we start with boris johnson, because he's still our prime minister... i like him, by the way. 0k. so, he says if he wins the election and the withdrawal bill is passed, then he thinks it's possible to get a new trade deal negotiated by the end of 2020. so, you know, in less than 12 months. is that possible? i don't want to be a prisoner of this tight framework. but is it even possible, it took seven years to negotiate a deal with canada, for example? it takes time to negotiate a free—trade agreement.

sometimes, i have the impression that in britain, people... ..parliamentary representatives, governmental representatives do think that this is an easy thing to be done. it's not easy, because we are negotiating for years with canada. it will take time. can i have a look now at some other claims being made? so, the labour party, for example, says if it wins the general election, it will renegotiate once again. so, a third brexit deal. i will no longer be in office when this happens. so, it will be up to the next commission to decide if yes or no there is room for manoeuvre of a new deal, a new treaty. honestly spoken, i don't think that this is a realistic approach. would you like there to be another referendum and the uk to give brexit another thought? the question if yes or no there should be a second referendum... ..is a british issue.

i don't think that there will be a second referendum. the brexit party says the new brexit withdrawal agreement is not brexit, they say, it's just brexit in name only. is that a fair thing to say about boris johnson's deal with your commission? no, it's brexit. i'm not a supporter of mr farage. you made a bet at the time of the referendum... yes! ..with the uk commission, and you pointed out that you thought that remain would lose the referendum, you bet him £1. yeah, yeah. so, just going back to the 31st january, this latest brexit extension, would you bet the £1 that the uk will be out by the 31st january, no more brexit extensions, you think? i do think that it will happen but this is a too long story. it has to be brought to an end. you know, you've been in this job for a long time. would you be tempted to stay in your office until brexit is done, or at least this phase of brexit?

no, no, no. i had brexit enough in my life. presidentjuncker, thank you very much for your time. thank you, it was a pleasure. thank you, thank you. president xijinping has been greeting the french president at the great hall of the people in beijing. he is ona great hall of the people in beijing. he is on a three—day state visit to china stop the french president is hoping to make progress on the long—awaited european union, china trade agreement, also sign a statement fostering the joint support for the paris climate record. you may have seen this footage and it's worth seeing again to stop this a rail worker in 0akland, to stop this a rail worker in oakland, california, rescuing a man who was a split second from being hit by a train. this dramatic footage shows the man, who was drunk, walking dangerously close to the edge of a platform, before falling onto the tracks. just as the train was coming in, it

was particularly crowded after an nfl game. luckily he was pulled back bya train nfl game. luckily he was pulled back by a train company employee just—in—time. he said he has eve ryo ne just—in—time. he said he has everyone would have done the same thing. hello there. the rest of this week is going to remain on the chilly side, certainly temperatures a few degrees down on where they should be for the time of year. we've been seeing this colder air move southwards in the last 2a hours across the country, and it's going to stick around for the rest of the week, and there will be some pretty wet weather around, especially on thursday. the early part of wednesday looks mainly dry. a few showers peppering northern and eastern coasts, and some showers around irish sea coasts. but further inland, under clear skies, it's going to be a chilly one. temperatures close to freezing in the south and below freezing in the north, so there will be some frost. a little bit of mist and fog around to greet us for wednesday morning. that said, there should be plenty of sunshine across central, northern and eastern areas. but this area of showers around the irish sea will push slowly

eastwards, merge together to produce longer spells of rain. could be a little bit of wintriness over the higher ground in the north. a dry slot in between this next band of rain, pushing into northern ireland, wales and the south—west of england later in the day, and a chilly day to come wherever you are — 6—10 degrees. through wednesday night, that first band of rain pushes northwards. there'll be further wintriness over the higher ground, and this next band of rain continues to move in, and almost merges with it, so it could be quite wet in places by the end of the night. a few blustery showers following on behind, but maybe not quite as cold to start thursday as what we've seen the last few nights. for thursday, though, it's not looking very pleasant. we do have this area of low pressure pretty much parked on top of the uk, a stationary low with its associated weather front. and this weather front could bring quite a lot of rainfall in places, perhaps even the risk of some localised flooding. at the moment, it looks like it's going to be affecting more eastern, central parts of the uk, across into northern ireland. there could be some travel disruption from flooding caused by this. it could be a little bit further northwards,

it could be a little bit further southwards. to the north of it, a few showers, wintry on the hills, and further south, some blustery showers, some of them heavy, a little bit of sunshine around, and again it's going to be another chilly day. improvement as we head through thursday night. into friday, that weatherfront eventually slips away, takes the rain and the breeze with it, from the south—east. but much of the country will start chilly, perhaps seeing a little bit of frost, and then it looks like it will be a bright day, with pretty widespread sunshine. it could be the best day of the week, but a chilly one — 6—10 degrees. it's a short—lived fine spell, because into the weekend, here comes the next area of low pressure, to bring some wet weather with some wintriness on the hills for saturday. a slow improvement on sunday. but like i mentioned, it could be pretty wet in places on saturday, with some wet snow or sleet over the high ground on the north. a gradual improvement as we head into sunday.

this is bbc news. the headlines: a global group of around 11,000 scientists have endorsed research that says the world is facing a climate emergency. the study, based on a0 years of data, says governments are failing to address the crisis. without lasting changes, it says the world faces "untold human suffering". a key witness in donald trump's impeachment inquiry has said ukraine was told to investigate his democratic rivaljoe biden to get us military aid. the testimony — from gordon sondland, the us ambassador to the european union — directly contradicts claims by the president. he isa he is a trump supporter and a million—dollar donor to the party. nine us citizens, three women and six children, have been killed in an attack by suspected drug cartel gunmen in northern mexico. officials said the group could have been targeted accidentally as a result of mistaken identity.