this is bbc news, i'm shaun ley. the headlines at 20:00... a damning investigation into care at shrewsbury and telford hospital trust shows babies and mothers died — in what is thought to be the nhs's worst ever maternity scandal. jeremy corbyn and borisjohnson are going head—to—head in their first live tv debate of the election campaign. reliable studios in salford in greater manchester bringing the latest as happens. tottenham have sacked their manager. swedish prosecutors drop their investigation of rape allegations against the wikileaks co—founder, julian assange

coming up we will have a big discussion about the manifesto of the green party. a leaked report on failings at the shrewsbury and telford nhs trust has said a toxic culture, linked to the deaths of at least 42 babies over four decades, has still not been properly addressed. an investigation that initially began looking at 23 cases in 2017 is now looking at more than 270, from 1979 to present day. its interim findings include unexplained deaths, sub—standard care that left babies brain damaged and disabled, and parents who were left in the dark.

the trust has apologised. 0ur health editor hugh pym reports. i held her and said goodbye. and went home empty—handed. and then he said that there was no heartbeat. that midwife come in crying, saying, oh, i'm so sorry, i'm so sorry! too late. distressing stories from parents told to bbc news during coverage of an unfolding scandal, which could yet turn into the worst ever in the history of nhs maternity care. now a leaked report from an official inquiry sets out, for the first time, the number of known deaths. 42 — including deaths during pregnancy, babies after birth and three mothers. and there could yet be more discovered by the inquiry. the report describes a toxic culture at the shrewsbury and telford hospital trust stretching back a0 years,

and deaths which were avoidable because of substandard care. it says at the time of writing, earlier this year, lessons were still not being learned and staff were uncommunicative with families. in april 2017, bbc news reported a cluster of baby deaths at the trust. injuly that year, the government ordered an investigation. donna 0ckenden, heading that inquiry, submitted an update report in february this year, which was leaked to the independent. now it's understood her ongoing investigation is reviewing 620 cases. richard and rhiannon‘s daughter, kate, died in 2009, when she was justjust six days old. they've been campaigning forjustice ever since. a death at the hands of a trust who have got a culture... a toxic culture of lying and cover—up, a toxic culture of a wilful neglect to learn. they are failing, they're already in special measures, and me and rhiannon had to battle

them every step of the way for the past ten years to get to where we are today. a spokesperson said the trust apologised unreservedly to families who'd been affected, but it would like to reassure all families using maternity services that work on improving them was continuing, without a wait for the official final report. hugh pym, bbc news. the independent‘s health correspodent shaun lintern — who has seen the leaked report — told us about some of the distressing detail included in its findings. what we've been given is a report that sets out a series of failures stretching back as far as 1979 to the present day, and the author of that report, donna 0ckenden, who is leading an independent investigation into the shrewsbury and telford hospital trust, has made clear that what's been going on is a repeated failure by that trust to learn from mistakes as far back as the 1970s. and what that meant was that families who kept coming

to the hospital over that a0 year period have suffered, unfortunately, again and again. i mean, i've been a health journalist now for more than ten years and i've written about lots of scandals. i have to say, reading this report today and going through the detail, it was, to be honest, quite upsetting. there are examples of babies' bodies decomposing and mothers not being able to see them before they were being buried. it really is a stark, stark report. and it underlines, for me, i think, the poor culture in this trust and, also, the wider safety questions that the nhs has got to answer. we can't keep dismissing these scandals as one—offs. and the independent is launching a campaign today to improve safety, not just in maternity, but across the nhs. the first head—to—head tv debate of the general election is underway, with borisjohnson and jeremy corbyn answering

questions this evening in salford. the hour—long encounter will not feature the liberal democrats or the snp after they lost a last—minute legal bid to be included. we'll bring you the latest throughout the evening. first, this report from our political editor laura kuenssberg. boom, boom! like that? yeah. insert your own pun here. before the first big bout tonight, a new promise from the blue corner. with knife crime in england and wales historically high, a controversial vow from borisjohnson to expand stop and search. kids who've been previously convicted of carrying a bladed weapon have, as it were, a kind of section 60 order over their heads that means the police can stop and search them without suspicion. and the idea is that that will deter them from getting back into the life of crime. can you admit that a lot of the things that you are promising for future years, first of all,

wouldn't happen immediately, and second of all, are just making up for what's been a really serious squeeze on public spending since the conservatives have been in charge? i mean, you can't pretend this has somehow got nothing to do with the tories. we are making big investments now because we've been able to manage the economy prudently. how are you preparing for this debate? so, what i want to be able to say to people is, look, we've got a great deal, it's ready to go. if you go with us and we get a working majority, we'll get a parliament that's working for you. we'll get brexit over the line in the next few weeks. and then we can get on and deliver all the priorities that matter to us, and i think matter to the whole of the country. jeremy corbyn was having a trim, rather than a punch—up, but will a newly smart look give him any smart lines tonight? i thank you all from the bottom of my heart for everything you're doing to bring about a labour victory on december the 12th! cheering. 0n more cash for public services, on nationalisation, or safer staff over the firms they work for. i'm very confident in our policies and our abilities to try

and transform this country, to reduce the levels of inequality and give real hope to people who've been so up against it for the past ten years because of austerity. and what preparation have you been doing? well, i've eaten a caesar salad, had a couple of cups of tea, and read a bit and talked a bit to my team. it's been very pleasant. despite taking itv to court, the lib dem leader won't be on stage here tonight talking about her plan for a penny on income tax for the nhs, or anything else. they will turn round and they will look at borisjohnson and jeremy corbyn and they will say, this is not good enough. there's going to be a lot of people watching tonight who see that debate and feel depressed. also on the trail — but not on the stage — the first minister nicola sturgeon, who leads the third biggest current party, but is only standing in one part of the uk. well, borisjohnson is clearly terrified to debate me.

0bviously, we'd have to speculate as to why that is the case! but i'll debate him anytime, anyplace. i go in that park there every day. yeah. it's full of dog poo. it's terrible. the prime minister was reminded today — it can be the little things that matter. there will be big events and maybe big surprises but, in the end, all politics is local, what matters to you and me. and whilejeremy corbyn and boris johnson debate up north in salford, the leader of the brexit party, nigel farage has been in peterborough saying net migration should be capped at 50,000 a year. the brexit party leader said that annual net migration — the difference between the number of people who arrive in the uk and those who leave — should return to what he called a "sensible post—war number". for 60 years after world war ii, we had annual net migration running at 30,000 to 50,000 a year. we had actually of all the european countries the most successful integration. things worked here well. for the last 10 years it's been running at between a quarter of a million and a third of a million every year. we need to bring settlement down

to that kind of sensible post war number, yes. mr farage was taking part in a question time leaders special with fiona bruce, the first in a series of programmes with party leaders. the full thirty minute question time special will be shown on bbc1 at 1045pm in the uk and at half—past—midnight on the bbc news channel. the green party of england and wales has launched its election manifesto with a pledge to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2030 — that means getting to a point where we cancel out as many harmful emissions as we make. the current government target is to do this by 2050. the green party says it would invest £100 billion a year over the next decade as part of a "green new deal". jessica parker reports. they are officially classed as vulnerable. not begging for scraps, at the wildlife centre today, the green party announced big plans that

mean big spending. they say on climate change, the country can't afford not to act. this is the last election where we can take the first step down the right path, and that is what we must do. vote green, if not now, when? £100 billion a year on climate action, far more than other parties. most of it through borrowing. they say it will create millions ofjobs, too. for a net zero carbon economy by 2030, the kind of target the committee on climate change has suggested it was incredible. and we are entirely honest, it is the most ambitious green new deal anywhere in the world. accept no limitations. the setting is green and so is the message. but other bigger parties are straining to be seen as serious on environmental issues as well. the greens say they will go further and

faster, but they will face questions as to whether their plans are realistic. as part of their agenda, they also want to phase and a universal basic income, starting at £89 per week for every adult. scrap tuition fees and hold a further brexit referendum. improve the insulation of over a million homes and we are and... you want to pay additional taxes on meat, dairy, flying... how do you think i will go down with the public? it is a carbon tax and we will use the money from the carbon tax to give back to people to form a basic income. so actually they are getting the support they need to navigate through the zero carbon... the greens had just one mp in the last parliament, but they are looking for more. two people who had direct knowledge of thejuly phone call between president trump and the ukrainan president have been heard publicly for the first time today. the house intelligence committee has been hearing evidence from lt col. alexander vindman, an army officer on the national security council

and jennifer williams, a veteran foreign service officer in the vice president's office. mr vindman revealed he twice, raised concerns about how senior officials had been handling ukraine. he told the committee he was so alarmed by the phone call on the 25th that he reported it "without hesitation". here he is speaking today. it was inappropriate, it was improperfor the president it was inappropriate, it was improper for the president to request, to demand an investigation into a political opponent, especially with a foreign power, where there is at best dubious belief that this would be a com pletely belief that this would be a completely impartial investigation. and that this would have significant implications if it became public knowledge, and it would be perceived asa knowledge, and it would be perceived as a power play, it would undermine oui’ as a power play, it would undermine our ukraine policy, and it would

undermine our national security. —— partisan play. aleem maqbool joins us now from washington. this has been an interesting day and we are only halfway through and it will be an interesting week with all the public testimony. witness state m e nts the public testimony. witness statements behind closed doors prior. did we learn anything new today? we learnt a little bit new. i think it was about the optics today, what is being portrayed here by the president and the republicans is that this is a very biased hearing and that those coming out to testify against the president are sort of never trump errors. what we had this morning wasjennifer never trump errors. what we had this morning was jennifer williams, someone who worked for vice president mike pence, and alexander, who both still work for the white house. they still say that there are

not never trump, they are not biased in any way, and are both taking huge risks to come out and testify. they had an national security aide there who, as i say, is still working for the white house, taking huge risks in coming forward and, clearly was wedding nervous in doing so. when he gave his opening statement his hands we re gave his opening statement his hands were shaking, he himself had been an immigrantand he were shaking, he himself had been an immigrant and he talks about his father fleeing ukraine to come here and feeling that the nervousness of coming out and talking out against the most powerful man in the world. but he said he had to do it because it was the right thing to do for his country. so, in some senses, it wasn't anything new we learn, but the fact we had two people here who we re the fact we had two people here who were not, from their track record, those who you would say were against donald trump before this process.

the headlines on bbc news. a damning investigation into care at shrewsbury and telford hospital trust shows babies and mothers died — in what is thought to be the nhs‘s worst ever maternity scandal. in the past few minutes, jeremy corbyn and borisjohnson began their first live tv debate of the election campaign. tottenham sack their head coach of five years, mauricio pochettino after what the club says is "an extremely disappointing" start to the season. some breaking news in the last a0 minutes. tottenham hotspur have sacked manager mauricio pochettino. he guided them to the champions league final as recently as may, but they domestic form in 2019 has slipped with them currently lying in 1ath in the premier league after 12 games and without a league win since september. 0ur reporter patrick geareyjoins me now. patrick — tell us what you know?

really dramatic news out of totte n ha m. really dramatic news out of tottenham. they released a statement, their chairman saying we we re statement, their chairman saying we were extremely reluctant to make this change, it is not a decision the board has taken lightly... he goes on to thank them for the yea rs he goes on to thank them for the years when they didn't have the own power supply, and said they need to reenergise a positive new season for the supporters, but who is going to lead the season and who's going to try and turn it around because marketers want to be a big question print answer. deep down, why do you think this has happened and why no? in short, its form. tottenham's form

has been really care and they only slipped into the champions league places last season because other cops fell away. the season, adding a few more players, they have only won three matches and are down at 1ath place in the premier league. the performances haven't been up to their normal standard, but it was only in they were in the champions league final against liverpool. they out in kayaks in the semifinal in the final seconds. because of all that and his previous achievements, making spurs a top four and even title challenger on occasion, the manager has been considered a legendary figure and by far their most successful. he is regarded as one of the best coaches in the world and he will be very much in demand. this decision will not be by any stretch universally popular with spurs fans. says it will be quite difficult to take over from him.

about 30 minutes gone in the pivotal euro 2020 qualifer between wales and hungary in cardiff. whoever wins that match will gain automatic qualification to next year's tournament. gareth bale and aaron ramsey both started for wales for the first time in a year and the two combined to put wales into the lead 15 minutes in. elsewhere, scotland goaless against kaza kstan. scotland can't qualify automatically. neither can northern ireland. they‘ re in frankfurt playing germany. it's 1-1. michael smith opened the scoring for northern ireland with a fine 25 yard strike afterjust 3 minutes. serge gnabry scored an equally good equaliser. luis enrique has been reappointed spain's national manager — just five months after stepping down to look after his sick daughter. she passed away in august after battling bone cancer. enrique replaces his former assistant roberto moreno — who said he'd step aside should enrique ever want the job back.

he'll be charged with leading spain into euro 2020 with his contract running until the 2022 world cup in qatar. saracens have been fined an undisclosed sum for failing to attend the launch of this season's european champions cup. they are the current holders but failed to turn up for the event in cardiff, which was held the day after the club were fined £5.36 million and docked 35 points by premiership rugby for breaching the competition's salary cap regulations. that's all the sport for now. i'll have more for you in sportsday at half past ten. emergency services and the into fine found two respected stowaways were discovered on board. let's talk now to our correspondence who is in the hague this evening. what we know about the circumstances in which

they were found ? about the circumstances in which they were found? we should say, they are all alive and safe, yet? exactly. the emergency services here in the netherlands taking no chances. in the last error we have seen ambulances, fire trucks rushing. 25 people were taken off this vessel which was headed to a port in the uk. they were found inside a cooling container, a refrigerated container. the police say that they were checked when they we re say that they were checked when they were taken off the vessel. two of them have been taken to hospital and them have been taken to hospital and the other 23 have been transported toa the other 23 have been transported to a police station and police are now searching the fairy with sniffer dogs to make sure nobody else is hiding inside. —— the fairy. it looks as though these 25 must always have had a very lucky escape.

prosecutors in sweden have dropped an investigation into a rape allegation made against wikileaks co—founderjulian assange in 2010. mr assange, who denies the accusation, avoided extradition to sweden for seven years after seeking refuge at the ecuadorean embassy in london in 2012. he was evicted in april and sentenced to 50 weeks in jail for breaching his bail conditions. earlier we heard from our correspondent, maddy savage in stockholm... essentially, what prosecutors have said is that they reopened the files once julian assange was taken out of the ecuadorian embassy... the ecuadorian embassy. they looked at the evidence they had then. then they then reinterviewed five witnesses and they spoke to two others. but what they've concluded is that there wasn't enough evidence for them to take this case further, to travel to london to interviewjulian assange. they say that they do feel that the evidence given by the woman who has accused him of rape is credible and reliable. but ask the others at the passage

of time, they say, as well as the global media coverage may have affected people's memories of events. and that's a key reason why they consider this this evidence to not be satisfactory. and that is a huge blow to the woman at the centre of this case. her lawyer has issued a statement in the past couple of hours, which was texted to us here at the bbc, saying that her client was very sad and very disappointed about the decision. she feels thatjulian assange has never had to explain himself properly to authorities, whereas she's been questioned about this many, many times. and and she feels that he has avoided justice. also, questions being asked of the swedish prosecution authority. they reopened this case, as i said, in may whenjulian assange left the ecuadorian embassy. but it's ten years since these allegations first came to light. so debates about the length of this case, the delays, those are now resurfacing. and authorities haven't ruled out an internal investigation into what exactly happened

to cause these delays. two prison officers — responsible for guarding the convicted sex offender jeffery epstein on the night he died in his jail cell — have been criminally charged. the defendants allegedly created records falsely attesting to required checks of inmates. 0ur correspondent nada tawfik is in new york. there had been a lot of speculation about the circumstances in which jeffrey epstein apparently killed himself in prison. what do we know about the charges that have been levelled against these two guys? as you say, right afterjeffrey epstein was found dead in his prison cell, the us attorney general admitted there were severe irregularities at there were severe irregularities at the metropolitan correction centre where he was held. this lawsuit gives us a little bit more insight into what those irregularities are.

these two prison guards were tasked with watching jeffrey epstein and other inmates, and they were supposed to check in on him every 30 minutes. in fact, supposed to check in on him every 30 minutes. infact, because supposed to check in on him every 30 minutes. in fact, because he had tried to commit suicide once before, they had actually placed him in a cell close to the correctional officer's desk just 15 feet away. instead, prosecutors say these officers went all night without checking on him, eight hours long. instead they stayed by their desks browsing the internet, walking around the common area and at the point sleeping, instead of doing theirjobs. and then they allegedly changed official present documents to show that they had in fact been checking on inmates. so prosecutors had reportedly offered these two guards a plea deal that they rejected. they're going to be appearing in court shortly in new york to have those charges against them. just on the question that has dominated the media in the last couple of days, the interview prince

andrew gave here in the uk, it was big news over the weekend in the states. as the cabbage and interest continue to? absolutely. i mean, the interview done by bbc newsnight made headlines here in the united states and it really has coincided with these new charges that we see in federal court here in new york and, also, a senate judiciary federal court here in new york and, also, a senatejudiciary committee hearing questioning the bureau of prisons about the different investigations into what happened to jeffrey epstein. it is kind of interesting the timing of this coming back again. and we heard washington lawmakers are furious at that hearing, questioning the chief of the bureau of prisons whether the fbi was sure that this was just a matter of gross negligence on the pa rt matter of gross negligence on the part of the present or whether there was any kind of criminal interference. she said there is no evidence that this was anything

other than jeffrey epstein evidence that this was anything other thanjeffrey epstein taking his own life, but said the fbi is looking into all angles. it hits home the fact that this is still an ongoing question to say howjeffrey epstein was able to lose his life in federal custody and, of course, as you know, there have been so many different conspiracy theories swirling about this that the government is keen to get some kind of official investigation through to the public. now it's time for a look at the weather with matt taylor. good evening. with a lot more cloud around tonight compared with last night, a little bit more breeze, too, the frost will become a bit more limited, certainly nowhere near as cold as the minus ten we saw last night. and in the west, the cloud will be thick enough for further outbreaks of rain, even a greater chance of some showers. scotland could turn icy here. winter touch and gale force around some western, coast and hills so temperatures staying above freezing to northern ireland, wales and south west was still very close, if not below, in some parts of scotland and northern eastern england. so, here, there could be a bit of frost around first thing. bright enough start here. sunshine, a bit hazy,

isolated showers down these north sea coasts tomorrow. but for all a breezy day. showers potentially in western scotland, main chance of that in the morning. but it's northern ireland, pembrokeshire, cornwall, again, most likely to see some rain at times, but even here, lots of dry weather, too. most of you will spend, if not all day, the bulk of the day dry and temperatures higher than we've seen over the last day or two, to between 6—11 degrees. now, temperatures will climb up a little bit each day over the next few days, but a greater chance of some rain, particularly across southern and western news. see you soon. hello, this is bbc news. the headlines. hospital trust shows babies and mothers dying in with his thought to be the nhs worst maternity scandal. the first live television debate of the election campaign. 0fficials officials in the novel and save this

25 people have been found in a refrigerated container on board a ferry bound for the uk. second the head coach after an extremely disappointing start to the season “— extremely disappointing start to the season —— sacking. the public hearings in the impeachment inquiry into president donald trump. borisjohnsonjeremy boris johnson jeremy corbyn going head—to—head in the first general election debate taking place in the liberal democrats not be taking part in the show after losing the legal challenge to be included. boris johnson on his brakes a transition timeline. we will come out on january the 30 to make january thatis

that is bipartisan the eu but for the 635 conservative candidates. 0ur whole country comes out entire and perfect, england, scotland and wales, together and there is a sharp distinction between what we are proposing, getting brexit done and unleashing the potential of this country and not delaying with another referendum. withjeremy corbyn, he cannot tell us which side he would campaign on. jeremy corbyn gave his response saying that he will get brexit done. when you say you will get it done, really, you are going to embark on probably seven years of negotiations with the united states on a trade deal, you've already indicated that you will allow our national health service to be put at risk with a trade deal with the united states.

you have already indicated that you will do