i yes this is bbc news, the headlines. a top us diplomat has told the trump impeachment inquiry that he was following presidential orders when the us put pressure on ukraine to open investigations against a political rival. democrats have described the testimony as troubling. queen elizabeth's son, prince andrew, says he's stepping back from public duties over his links with a convicted us sex offender. a recent attempt to clear the air in a bbc interview was widely deemed to be a public relations disaster. he said he unequivocally regretted knowing jeffrey epstein, who killed himself injail. protesters in malta have demanded the resignation of the prime minister after police arrested a prominent businessman in connection with the murder of a journalist, daphne caruana galitzia. demonstrators accusejoseph muscat of protecting those responsible for her death in 2017.

now on bbc news, it's time for electioncast with adam fleming. electioncast from the bbc. we are in the selection because of exit. we wa nt the selection because of exit. we want to be buying our christmas presents. if anybody comes up and says they know what is going to happen, cochrane eyebrow, smile politely and turn your back. hello, and welcome to the latest episode of oui’ and welcome to the latest episode of our daily election pod cast, electioncast. busy on the campaign trail, loads to get the end i'll be going through it all with our political editor laura kuenssberg and chris mason. much of the data then was spent in a nightclub in north london because that is where the liberal democrats leaderjo

swinson unveiled her party's 90— page manifesto. but first, boris johnson seeming to blurt out a centrepiece tory policy that had not been announced yet. it was all about national insurance. and they come out of your pay packet. the reason he blurted it out was thanks to somebody called claire cartledge who was its doors for washing the teens in teesside. he did a q&a for the workforce and in came claire with a killer question. you said low tax. you mean low tax for people like you or people like us? i mean low tax for people of the working people and if you look at what we are doing, and what i said in the last few days, we are going to be cutting

national insurance up to 12,000, making sure that we cut business rates for small businesses, we are cutting tax for working people. just to be clear, national insurance contributions, you currently play 1296 contributions, you currently play 12% of your earnings above 8600 and something pounds. that threshold at which you start playing 12%, going up which you start playing 12%, going up to £12,500. it will start going up, the threshold, to £9,500, saving your average worker about £100 a year initially. it affects millions

and millions of people but it's a small tax cut to start with. it's a really big policy. what we don't know really is whether or not they meant to drop it out or not. it had a hint of kind of falling out of his mouth rather than this is the day we are going to say. we kind of knew this was the direction of travel we wanted to go in for what boris johnson said in the past. but it's not a giant surprise we would want to do that. we are still a few days away from the tory party manifesto and could it be a sly tactic to get everybody talking about the tory ma nifesto a everybody talking about the tory manifesto a few days in advance on the eve of the labour manifesto which is tomorrow? maybe, but we are not often to conspirators about

this. in reality, this is a big policy which will be really expensive and it would affect loads of people and it's a strong signal for the tory party about cutting taxes for everybody from low owners up taxes for everybody from low owners up and therefore, they will use that for sure is a big part of attack on, to blunt the attack belabour, give loads of free cash back to billionaires. borisjohnson, loads of free cash back to billionaires. boris johnson, when he's been talking about this today, he's been talking about this today, he said it will save everyone £500 a year and that is only the final saving once the threshold goes up to £12,000 which could be several years away and the other thing i wanted to point out is, you canjust away and the other thing i wanted to point out is, you can just see the tory party loving the symmetry of the message at the start of the week, borisjohnson saying, do you know what, i'm not going to go ahead with cutting corporation tax like we wa nt to with cutting corporation tax like we want to do, you know what i'm going to do instead? cut national insurance contributions for everyone who goes out to work today. it needs

political framing. it takes on that stereotype that critics not to turn around. they can point as you say into both of these examples from earlier in the week and prove the opposite. and remember what's going on in the selection that we talked about a few times. they have to win seats they've never one. they got to win bishop auckland which has never been a tory seat. they are hoping of winning darlington. the have to look to scoop up some of those midlands marginals because. they didn't start with a majority and second of all, they are expecting to lose some of they are expecting to lose some of the places, the more remaining constituencies without going into this election with good retail offers, we shouldn't say that, should we, some really awfuljargon and using it anyway. with a good retail offer, to use another bit of jargon, hard—working families. you

got to wonder, what will they be doing? there is a question now, what year of they got left in the ma nifesto ? year of they got left in the manifesto? that thought that if they are pricing in, if there are seats they could lose, remain seats in england or some of those other ones, you got to win as well to go one forward and they've got to go quite a few forward if they are going to have a liberal majority. even though the poles are where they are, they are not thinking, the people involved in the campaign privately about where they think they are at an sure, the national polls put them ahead and it's like they're sort of thing, ican ahead and it's like they're sort of thing, i can tell you genuinely, they do not rank it's in the bag at all. they really don't. i am now going to invite in anotherfriend of the pod. it is chris morris from bbc reality check. good evening, all. not ina reality check. good evening, all. not in a trendy nightclub in north london but in achingly trendy newsroom in broadcasting house.

we're going to talk about the liberal democrat manifesto unveiled ina very liberal democrat manifesto unveiled in a very nightclub. 0bviously liberal democrat manifesto unveiled in a very nightclub. obviously have big messages the liberal democrat brexit. we have laced wasted the last 3.5 years talking about brexit. pursuing a path that we know will make all of these problems worse. there is no form of brexit that will be good for the future of our country. it would put ourjobs at risk, hurt the nhs, reduce environmental protections, threatened workers' rights and make us threatened workers' rights and make us less safe. whether brexit is done by borisjohnson us less safe. whether brexit is done by boris johnson or sorted us less safe. whether brexit is done by borisjohnson or sorted byjeremy corbyn, they are both gambling with your future. boris corbyn, they are both gambling with yourfuture. borisjohnson corbyn, they are both gambling with your future. boris johnson is collecting quite the set of celebrity endorsements. britain's biggest race as tommy robinson has come out in his support. just days

after borisjohnson struck come out in his support. just days after boris johnson struck a come out in his support. just days after borisjohnson struck a deal with nigel farage but at least president, will be happy, his two friends coming together like you wa nted friends coming together like you wanted and clearly president from's which is boris johnson's wanted and clearly president from's which is borisjohnson's command. what did you make of what she was saying? number one, it's a really ambitious general programme beyond brexit. two, really interestingly, they are the only party that can try to pay the debt down. why do i sell it's interesting? there wasn't a virility contest. they also say they would raise taxes and wouldn't do it by cutting. maybe i would say this, but what's fascinating to me, we've seen but what's fascinating to me, we've seen the start of the pivot from the lib dems. we know they are being squeezed. she is different language

in our interview. really boldly a couple of weeks ago. i'm standing here to be prime minister. i am standing here to deny borisjohnson majority. more fascinatingly, i kept asking her, what would you do in the parliament and she wouldn't say that she would block either borisjohnson orjeremy corbyn. why would that be? 0ne orjeremy corbyn. why would that be? one little nugget as well, i've got a copy which i will bring back, our manifesto bag as we call it, one point that our esteemed colleague john pienaar was saying, that debt asa john pienaar was saying, that debt as a share of national income falls, he was making the intriguing point that if there is an intriguing situation where labour were the biggest party in the lib dems could hold the balance of power, we know what he said, it involves leaving a few steps ahead here but imagine

that situation, you have a different labour leader, with all the plans about nationalisation and national debt, where does that leave us? it's just interesting. and what's also fascinating, i've talked lots of people the lib dems and understand with conversations about abstaining on the queen's speech, whether it's johnson or corbin, what would that mean? what would that mean, if you're new to all of this, a new government has to do one thing. they have to get the queen's speech through, to prove they are a government. if they don't have the bums on seats themselves, they need other parties, either to back their queen's speech or sit on their hands and it's been suggested to me, one of the things the lib dems might contemplate is abstaining, whether it's jeremy corbyn contemplate is abstaining, whether it'sjeremy corbyn or borisjohnson, if they got another referendum out of it. it's unlikelyjohnson would.

very likely that corbin would offer them that. there are tories on line was seizing what she said to us saying, look, she might work with corbin. and you remember, right at the start, the first ever episode of electioncast, liberal democrat votes won't putjeremy corbyn into number 10. 0h, won't putjeremy corbyn into number 10. oh, there is an example. we were so 10. oh, there is an example. we were so wise to spot that on the day. exactly. votes for. i asked to that. would it mean you would rule out abstaining? marvellous interview available on line. i will be watching it. chris morris, you are watching it. chris morris, you are watching patiently. i've got my table of all the lib dems costings and spending is in various scribbles which i can't work out. what other big things in the big numbers that you want to pull out for us?

childcare is an interesting one. we don't often look at different party policies, are they going to spend a bit more than that. it's putting a bit more than that. it's putting a bit of blue water in there. the lid dams as we heard from jo swinson, you get free childcare from the age of nine months and free childcare from the age of two until they go to school. that would be an extra £13 billion a year it spread to childcare and it's notjust a bit more, it's nearly 11.5 times more than current government plans so it's a pretty bold spending pledge and something which clearly might attract people who got young kids although the evidence is mixed because the purpose would be to say if we give you the free childcare, new mums who at the end of parental leave wa nt new mums who at the end of parental leave want to get back into work quickly are going to find it easier to do so. the evidence is mixed as

to do so. the evidence is mixed as to whether the provision of childcare actually enables those people to get back into the work force more successfully. let's see howjo swinson tried to sell it. that's why we, the liberal democrats, will help parents going back to work with free high—quality childcare so when the child is nine months old until the first day of school, 30 53 hours a week, 48 weeks a year. the other big number on my piece of paper of the lib dems numbers is the so—called remaining bonus which they say by the year 2024, 2025 will be raking in £14 billion a year. talk us through what the bonus is arisen. we know they wa nt to the bonus is arisen. we know they want to stop brexit, that's been fairly clear and their argument is that by staying in the european union, we will save money because there will be more money available to spend on public services because the economy will be bigger. i said a

vast majority of independent economists agree with that basic premise that the economy will be bigger if we stay in, certainly for the first few years but then you get all the health warnings about forecasts. it is a forecast. it's not definite. they are putting in their spending, a figure of 14,000,000,005 years' time. who knows what is going to happen to the world economy so there will be some criticism, you're been careful in your calculations but there is a huge amount of uncertainty about forecasting how much money you will haveif forecasting how much money you will have if you stayed in the european union as opposed to leaving. that's one of the big things they are relying on along with a range of tax increases to be fair. they need to pay for it nhs, rising to corporation tax and some slightly weird tax rises like they want to double what they get from aviation passenger duty even though they want to cut it if you only take a couple of flights a year. it looks like a

stinging tax on all those frequent flyers. didn't you always take the train? yes! exactly. and to chill out after a hard days reality checking, if you wa nted a hard days reality checking, if you wanted to smoke some legalised cannabis, i don't know if that is what you are into or not. but that would rake in1.5 what you are into or not. but that would rake in 1.5 billion a year in cannabis duty from legalised cannabis duty from legalised cannabis from the liberal democrats. the other one that appears in almost everyone's manifesto is another roughly 5 billion quid from cracking down on tax avoidance. how will they down on tax avoidance. how will they do that? which taxes? who. avoiding them? that do that? which taxes? who. avoiding them ? that money do that? which taxes? who. avoiding them? that money will be on most ma nifestoes them? that money will be on most manifestoes but you need to take that with a bit of pinch of salt.|j

don't think a politician has ever said it is a little harder than it looks because what happens is that people have amazing accountants to find new and amazing reasons and then we go over, that was a very big surprise full. that is what they do. chris mason. you have had all day with the manifesto and have been waving it around since 11 this morning, even though it was not published until later. what else has jumped out at you? pretty much every page you turn to talks about the desire to get rid of what they call national humiliation. the national humiliation of brexit. and it talks about that it is a theme that runs throughout. they talk about

renewable energy, generated from renewable energy, generated from renewable sources by 20 30. as chris mentioned, that 1p on income tax to pay for nhs. that is an old favourite of the liberal democrats. a big focus on mental health provision as well. returning to this, we are hearing it so often, and big idea around investment. everywhere you look in this ma nifesto everywhere you look in this manifesto the central thing on the front cover about stopping brexit, is the big thing, not least because of the argument that chris thrashed out that that creates a great economic growth. they say remaining would lead to a greater economic growth. and they want to electrify all green the entire now that make network in 25 years time. we have

seen network in 25 years time. we have seen how difficult it is electrifying bits of the railway network that have been cancelled over the last few years, that does seem over the last few years, that does seem ambitious. it is a huge document and there is a lot of stuff in there, whether it is extending preschool meals, whether it is getting rid of the police and crime commissioners, whether it is restoring grants for university stu d e nts restoring grants for university students from low income backgrounds and doing a potential review of tuition fees. stuff about universal credit and all sorts of stuff in there. 90 pages and that makes you wonder why do they go to all the effort of coming up with a policy for 90 pages worth of stuff when they are even backing away from the idea of them ever being the government which was quite extraordinary. you have to do if you wa nt to extraordinary. you have to do if you want to be taken seriously. you need something for everything. and parties are trying to appeal to the public but they've also got activists and different stakeholders, to use a terrible piece ofjargon. so you cannotjust be silent well... you can bet you

cannot be silent on all policy. the liberal democrats a political party that takes policy very seriously. they have sovereignty of their conference. maybe sometimes to their detriment. they are very focused on policy. woe betide the group for liberal democrat canine welfare. if they did not have a policy in the ma nifesto. they did not have a policy in the manifesto. i am of big fan by the way, of canine welfare. adam, can i ask a question. normally manifestoes come out mid—morning and yet we had the launch at five in the afternoon. what was that about? the timing was unconventional. the liberal democrats have done it before. they do like to be unconventional. they

have fewer members and it is harder for them. they have more members now than they have had for ages but fewer members who at the drop of a hat can come along. they prefer to hold it after work. it felt like a night out clubbing laura and chris. we had the first of the special question time programmes with the main party leaders. they spoke for half—an—hour and took loads of questions from the audience including what does the brexit party stand for other than the b word, brexit. it turns out it is rather quite a lot of constitutional reform. the question is what you stand for beyond brexit? abolition of the house of lords. proportional voting whereby we do not have a binary choice between two minority parties. what a farce that is. a politics where you say if you don't think we are very good, the other bloke is worse. a politics where

what we stand up for what we believe in. i would scrap the current postal voting register and go back to postal votes being for those elderly, infirm or working abroad. i wa nt elderly, infirm or working abroad. i want us to have the right of citizens if enough of us are not happy with where westminster is going, we can call a referendum. and we are also going to have to face up to something. tony blair set up a supreme court. it is a political court. it is now acting on own, making up its own president as it goes. we will have to have a written constitution so we all know where we stand. so radical political reform is the first thing that we stand for. the second thing and i can highlight many things, but the second thing is nobody but nobody, it is all well and good going to the cbi today and talking to giant multinational companies. what about the 5.5 million men and women in this country running their own business, acting as a sole trader,

being taxed, regulated and not free to go out and make profit. i want to stand up for the little people and it is about time somebody did. some of the things he was talking about reforming in the electoral system you could imagine jo reforming in the electoral system you could imaginejo swinson saying which was a bit weird. and because it is nigel farage and because it is the brexit party there was a bit of a dingdong. here it is with the audience last night. it really bothers me that you label yourself as unique and different from other politicians because, actually, you are a man of wealth and privilege, you are a privately educated ex— banker. i have never worked for a banker. i have never worked for a bank in my life! a commodity trader falls and you boasted that you had received £2 million in taxpayers money to support you in your role as mep and then in 2014 you wrongly did not declare over £200,000 with of gifts that you had received in your

role. with a background like that... this is ludicrous. how on earth can you understand what it is like for the 14 million people in this country who are currently living in poverty? and that poverty... i'm really sorry. i'm really sorry. this isa really sorry. i'm really sorry. this is a ludicrous argument. it is about austerity and people are angry because the government has made a conscious decision to cut the funding to public services. that is made them angry and then what you have done quite well as you have sweet then and exploited the anger. and there will be many more leaders talking to fiona in question time on friday because we will see boris johnson, jeremy corbyn and jo swinson and nicola sturgeon getting a similar kind of grilling from members of the public as well. remember, those question time public forums have ended up being quite influential sometimes and give us good election moments so tune in and

we will bring you the best bits on election cast podcast. the other controversy la st election cast podcast. the other controversy last night was the conservatives. that pod casts, by the way, is available on bbc sounds. the other controversy last night was the conservatives renaming their twitter feed fact check uk. they have not apologised for it, even though it was controversial. they say they are entitled to fact check what labour was saying and if you look carefully you could tell that it was a conservative party thing that was going on there. the foreign secretary was on the adverse news this morning wondering gave a stuff about social media and social media for back. tonight one of the hashtags is curse dominic where people wish bad things to happen to him due to his cavalli attitudes on social media.

of course, we will cover everything including the tory party manifesto release on the weekend here on election cast. earlier this week we saw the coldest weather of the autumn so far but since then things have been turning a little bit milder. most places yesterday had a dry day with a little bit of sunshine coming through. we will see the temperatures continuing to rise a little bit day and night but it is turning milder because the warmer weather is more unsettled with more rain in the forecast. most of the rain today will be near the area of low pressure that has been with us for a while, sitting to the south—west. that is we will see most of the rain. few showers coming in off the north sea threatening towards the north—east of scotland and we have a few showers to come across northern ireland.

they should fade away, getting blown away by brisk south—easterly winds. a grey day for the midlands, towards the south—east of england, feeling chilly in the breeze, sunshine further north but the rain will be in the south—west and south wales and this is where we will find the highest temperatures, perhaps double figures. the rain can be heavy and will push its way overnight towards the south—west of england, further north across wales into the midlands and a few showers in the northern areas as well. a lot of cloud around, ray never far away so not too cold as temperatures 3—6 degrees. showers to come on friday. a massive sort of day. things could develop wetter towards the south—west with those showers heavy for a while merging into longer spells of rain through the south—west of england. the west midlands, into the west country and wales through the day. that is an area to watch as things get wet up with temperatures typically nine, 10 degrees. heading into the weekend and the weekend is dominated by low pressure. we have one slow—moving area of low pressure

over the uk which is why we see that rain develop. how far north it gets, uncertain. could see most of the rain across england and wales perhaps heading towards northern ireland as far north as the central belt, allowing something a bit drier and brighter to arrive across southern parts of england and wales with temperatures again typically 9—11 degrees. some rain around on saturday. and while that rain will peter out, as the low pressure tends to fill, we have another one coming in from the atlantic and this one looks a little deeper and it means the wind will be stronger. again, the position could change but at the moment it looks as if why we have residual rain to clear away from as if while we have residual rain to clear away from scotland, the wet and windy weather should be towards the south—west of england, spoiling the afternoon in wales and into the midlands but temperatures again better than they have been, typically 9—11.

welcome to bbc news — i'mjames reynolds — our top stories: so we followed the president's orders. a key witness in the impeachment inquiry says donald trump wanted him to press ukraine to investigate a political rival. queen elizabeth's son, prince andrew, steps back from public duties after controversy over his links to a convicted sex offender. anger in malta as protesters demand the prime minister's resignation, accusing him of protecting the killers of an outspoken journalist. and female artists dominate the grammy nominations.