this is bbc news. the headlines at 9: the conservatives will pledge not to raise income tax, national insurance contributions or vat when they publish their election manifesto this afternoon. labour pledges to compensate nearly four million women who lost out when their state pension age rose from 60 to 66. voters in hong kong turn out in record numbers — to cast their ballots in district council elections. a number of police officers have been assaulted while trying to break up a large brawl at a cinema in birmingham. and our sunday morning edition of the papers is at 9.35 — this mornings reviewers are property and personal finance commentator, anne ashworth — and editorial director of first draft, john crowley.

hello, welcome to bbc news. the conservatives will pledge not to raise the rate of income tax, national insurance or vat when they publish their election manifesto this afternoon. borisjohnson has also said he wants to bring his brexit deal back to the commons before christmas, if the conservatives are returned to power. our political correspondent, nick eardley reports. what would he do with power? this afternoon, borisjohnson will unveil the conservative manifesto. his basic message — deliver brexit and move onto domestic priorities. he will pledge that the bill that will deliver brexit will be brought back to parliament before christmas if he wins the election. that, he says, would allow the country to move on. so what will the conservatives do on the home front? they will pledge today not to raise

rates of income tax, national insurance, or vat. that'll make it harder for the government to raise money, but the tories are still pledging to spend. mrjohnson has already promised money for the health service, for more police, for education. today there will be costly pensioner friendly projects, too, like keeping the pension triple lock and winter fuel payments. as well as more money for childcare, to fix potholes, and for a skills fund. the manifesto will also pledge to end car parking charges at hospitals for protected groups — nhs staff on night shifts, disabled patients, the terminally ill and their families. the conservative say their plans are fully costed and affordable and they will spend the next three weeks trying to persuade you that they've got the best plan on offer. nick earley, bbc news. our political correspondent tom barton is with me. it is only three weeks and then we

finally get the last of the big party manifestos. the snp still to come all of the uk manifestos have now been published. i think the tories be hoping the most i come —— the most eye—catching promise as far as voters are concerned is the triple lock, not to raise income tax, vat and national insurance. there are coupling that with the promise of boris johnson there are coupling that with the promise of borisjohnson a couple of days ago to increase the threshold ona days ago to increase the threshold on a national insurance and the are hoping voters will look at this and think it will cost a bit less ban if they voted for another party. the difficulty with all of these offers from the various parties is you have to make certain assumptions. the lib dems talk about even in bonus, that depends on how the economy grows if we stay. the other parties are making big spending promises, some

which will have to be financed by borrowing. a lot of this comes down to credibility, it came up in the debate on friday night, especially with borisjohnson. debate on friday night, especially with boris johnson. the big question, that is a tax cut, not a tax increase which means they are not raising extra money but they are promising to spend lots and lots. as you saw the reportjust now, more money for childcare, more money for the nhs, for education, for police, this is billions and billions of pounds. there is no clue yet about how they are going to pay for it. we should get that when the manifesto is launched this afternoon in the west midlands but the tories say thatis west midlands but the tories say that is fully costed. we don't know the costs quite yet. some of the detail, and this is interesting, the tax cut which they talk about the national insurance, they have got a globalfigure which also national insurance, they have got a global figure which also includes pensioners who shouldn't actually be

paying national insurance at all. the tories say this increase in the national insurance thresholds will benefit 31 million people, actually there is about five and half million pensioners who should not be paying national insurance. they are not going to benefit. another deal that would benefit is a labour government, is the woman who missed out as a result of the pension change by a coalition government. this is a group, a campaign group of women against state pension inequality. they were affected by change made in 2010 which accelerated the rate at which the state pension age increased which meant many of them had been expecting to retire at 60 and had to work many years longer. the campaign groups say that means many women born in the 50s didn't have enough

notice of the change to make the adjustments they needed, couldn't save for it and prepare for it and asa save for it and prepare for it and as a result suffered financial hardship while they were waiting for the pension to kick in. labour are promising to pay compensation to those women. £50,000 on average, rising for the worst affected women to as much as £31,000 —— £15,000 on average. this is an expensive price. they say it is a one off cost, £58 billion. not giving detail on how they are paying for it. what they are saying is we are treating this asa are saying is we are treating this as a historical injustice, this is a debt that we owe these women, a historical redress and as such, should be treated by the government in the same way as if they had lost to the court case which recently occurred. the government won but the judges said they were very upset by some of the case studies. labour are essentially saying that money should

be found in the same way it would if the government lost any court case, as they occasionally do. thank you very much. the snp say they will push the next uk government to lift financial restrictions on the scottish government's spending powers. the party claim it will unlock almost three billion pounds over the course of the next parliament, which they plan to use to boost the economy and tackle climate change. in hong kong voters are taking to the polls in local elections today. the authorities have threatened to suspend voting if there's any serious trouble from protesters, but pro—democracy campaigners have told their supporters not to cause any disruption. this vote is the first to take place since protests and clashes with police started back injune. so it will be a test of support for pro—democracy and pro—bejing candidates. 0ur correspondentjonathan head sent this report. the queues formed early and ran long. right around the block here. just a local ballot, true, for relatively powerless district councils.

but the significance of this first full test of public opinion since hong kong's crisis began more than five months ago was not lost on these voters. there is so much people here. we know that many people actually are waiting for this opportunity to say something. it is like approving or disapproving the legitimacy of the protest. it is an action, one way or the other. so itjust shows that people in hong kong believe in elections. and that's very important. it's not long since the police were doing nightly battle with black clad protestors. today they were deployed to secure the polling stations. but there was no sign of trouble here. the opposition wants this election to go smoothly, in the hope that a decisive swing in its favour might force chief executive carrie lam, here casting her vote, to make the concessions she steadfastly refused to make in the face of protest that had

brought hong kong to its knees. the impressive turnout we've seen here shows that although these are just local elections, hong kongers do want to use them to express their views about the government and the protests. but there's something else about this act of civic duty that gets to the very heart of hong kong's crisis. here there is a free vote with a real choice of candidate, something you don't see in the rest of china. the university campus which saw such dramatic confrontations only a week ago is quiet now. ringed by police, the last few determined activists are hiding on its upper floors, refusing to surrender. this stage of the protests is all but over. but once the election is done the anti—government campaign will surely resume somewhere else. jonathan head, bbc news, hong kong. and we'rejoined live now byjonathan head from hong kong.

looks like turnout has been significantly higher than the last time these elections take place four yea rs time these elections take place four years ago. yes, as we understand it even less than halfway through the day the numbers of voters was already significantly higher than what had already exceeded the total for the whole day for the similar election four years ago. it is quiet 110w election four years ago. it is quiet now but there had been long lines and early in the morning people were anxious to vote. it tells you how the new these elections, notjust as local elections were district councillors but as a chance to express councillors but as a chance to ex press a councillors but as a chance to express a view about support or opposition to the government. the alliance of opposition parties had made an effort to contest every single seat. in the past in these district elections they have not, they are not as well resourced as they are not as well resourced as the pro—government parties, many seats were uncontested. all 452 seats were uncontested. all 452 seats were uncontested. all 452 seats were contested because the government understands this is an

opportunity to tap into public satisfaction with the government and shows that an election. everyone understands this is about more than keeping the streets clean and keeping the streets clean and keeping the streets clean and keeping the buildings up, it is about letting the government know how they feel. it is not clear how things will go. the opposition is confident the government will lose a great deal of support, these many seats and may even lose control of a lot of councils. 0n the government's side, i think they are banking on the escalation of violence and disruption to people's lives, persuading a lot of people from hong kong whatever their sympathies as they have to stick with what they know. there is anotherfive hours they have to stick with what they know. there is another five hours of voting to go. and the counting starts. in terms of the signal that would be sent by the election if there is a strong showing from the pro—democracy parties, those that wa nt pro—democracy parties, those that want universal suffrage, how are the authorities in hong kong expected to respond? previous strong showings by the pro—democracy parties have not necessarily lead to any change of direction in the way that hong kong

is governed. yeah, that gets to the whole nub of the crisis in hong kong. people here are voting enthusiastically, they want their voices to be heard, they are very passionate about voting today but in reality it doesn't matter how badly the government does, chief executive carrie lam cannot budge unless her backin carrie lam cannot budge unless her back in beijing say she can. up until now despite the incredible show of anger towards the government we have seen in street protests that have sometimes pulled significant proportions of the population, she has barely made any concessions. there has been no yielding because presumably that is the way china wa nts presumably that is the way china wants it. you can understand that from beijing's view, this level of dissent in hong kong has been difficult for beijing to swallow. making any concessions to courage the protesters to believe they are gaining ground would be a difficult thing for beijing to accept. their strategy up until now appears to be to set this out. nobody thought

these protests would last this long. they are clearly damaging the economy of hong kong, people are very distressed but as far as beige and concerned there is nothing else they are willing to do. if beijing will not budge, the government of hong kong will not budge either. it is anyone's guess as to what happens after this election, even if the government does spectacularly badly, we can't see quite how the hong kong government was not making concessions. if they don't, what we will inevitably see is the pure test restarting in some form as they have been able to do in the past five and half months —— the protests restarting. let's take a look at the scene in hong kong right now. it is calm, quiet. it was much busier earlier in the day. the most important thing is there has been no trouble despite the fact those protesters are still holed up in the university of hong kong.

let's talk to claudi mo — she's an independent legislator in the hong kong legislative council and campaigns to ensure hong kong's independence and joins me now from the campaign trail. thank you for speaking to us on bbc news, we here at the turnout has been significantly higher than it was four years ago, is that something you are able to attest to from what you have seen? yes, it is absolutely amazing. although we have to make it clear that i didn't see anyone going for an election for independence, or to that effect. they are pro—democracy candidates. it is utterly, utterly amazing that they turn out —— the turnout has been quite so high. by midday we got more than a third of the voters

having voted. this is completely unprecedented. we are looking forward to a clear—cut victory, hopefully, to neil carrie lam to the wall to tell her she has become unacceptable wall to tell her she has become u na cce pta ble to wall to tell her she has become unacceptable to hong kong's people and show government is a mistake and one in the last half a year. and beijing should be removed as soon as possible because she has become so unpopular, almost an evil icon in hong kong. in the end as jonathan head was saying to me, the paradox of the situation you find yourself in is even if you do extremely well in these elections, they won't affect carrie lam's position at all u nless affect carrie lam's position at all unless the government debating wants them to. exactly, that is probably

them to. exactly, that is probably the most tragic part of what is happening in hong kong. the issue is so huge in chinese politics that you can't afford, according to beijing, to be seen bowing to public demand, succumbing to the people. you can't do that, you are the lord, the emperor, king of the hill and you do what you want. they had to really think how to appease hong kong, just assuming we are going to win this election very handsomely. i do wonder how beijing is going to look at this. maybe they will say, oh well, in which case you have to voice your preference, and let

things go back to business. and they will try their best to pretend nothing much has happened in hong kong. i don't know. but to start with, iam kong. i don't know. but to start with, i am pleasantly exasperated, if there is such a time, by what is happening today. this is a period of calm in hong kong as these elections ta ke calm in hong kong as these elections take place, but as we saw again just a couple of days ago, the protests have been difficult and at times violent. are you worried about how they are going and that they may again see another return to violence after these elections are out of the way? it is going to be very likely, i'm afraid, because that is very paradoxical. if we don't win nicely,

the young will go back to the street. if we win handsomely and beijing chooses to ignore it and carrie lam pretends nothing much has happened yet again, things will go back to what they were in the last nearly six months. the thing is the so—called violence on the parts of the protesters has been largely, i would say in the past two weeks, prompted, almost incited by this carrie lam government complete with her invasion of our university campuses. thank you very much for breaking off to speak to us and you have still got another four or five hours to go of getting people to the polling stations. thank you very much. thank you. the headlines on bbc news...

the conservatives will pledge not to raise income tax, national insurance contributions or vat when they publish their election manifesto this afternoon. labour has pledged to compensate nearly four million women who lost out when their state pension age rose from 60 to 66. voters in hong kong have turned out in large numbers to vote in local elections — seen as a test of support for the territory's chief executive, carrie lam. a number of police officers have been assaulted while trying to break up a large brawl at a cinema in birmingham. fights broke out on saturday afternoon as police attempted to clear around 100 people from the star city leisure complex. some people were reportedly armed with machetes. 0ne witness described it as one of the "scariest momemts" of their life. a former head of the uk border force has told the bbc that unless ports and ferry companies start to work with the authorities, he fears more migrants could be killed trying to get to the uk. tony smith's warning comes a month after 39 people were found dead in a container in essex.

jane—frances kelly reports. it's a month on since the discovery of 39 bodies in a sealed refrigerated container in essex. all those that died were vietnamese. they had sailed from the belgian port of zeebrugge on a cargo ferry hoping for a better life in britain. the former head of the uk border force says there needs to be more cooperation between the authorities and private firms such as hauliers and the ferry companies, to stop further deaths. a co—ordinated attempt between ourselves, the uk border force, and of course our colleagues in french, belgium and dutch customs. that's what's required, a collaborative, co—ordinated effort along all of those routes, which will require a good deal of investment, but i fear if we don't do it then, i'm afraid, we will see more tragedies. his warning comes after three separate incidents in less than a week when migrants were found in containers. on thursday afternoon, irish police found 16 people in a sealed container on a ferry

from france to ireland. ten were found on the m25 in essex. five days ago a group of 25 migrants were found in a refrigerator container on a ferry travelling from the netherlands to england. the challenges remain constant. on a daily basis migrants attempt to get in the back of lorries, drivers have to remain vigilant. people smugglers seem to be the only ones benefiting from the misery. jane—frances kelly, bbc news. doctors say people need to take extra precautions, in order to stop the spread of the winter vomiting bug, norovirus. public health england says there's been a big increase in the number of reported cases, compared to the last five winter seasons. this week, pupils in around 60 schools across the north east of england were sent home with symptoms. two people are missing in southern france, where heavy rain has caused serious flooding. several roads and railway lines have been cut off and flights from nice airport have been disrupted. president trump's lawyer —

rudy giuliani — has said he's not concerned about being indicted for crimes now being investigated by the impeachment inquiry. this is after the us state department released records relating to the trump administration's dealings with ukraine which show repeated contacts between secretary of state mike pompeo and mrgiuliani. are you afraid, mr mayer, that you could be indicted? oh, wow. how long have you know me? i've known you several years. you think i'm afraid? i don't know. you think i get afraid? well... i did the right thing, i represented my client in a very, very effective way. i was so effective that i've discovered a pattern of corruption that the washington press has been covering up for three or four years. there were a dizzying number of testimonies in the impeachment inquiry over the past few days. anthony zurcher helps us digest this week's hearings.

that says to me this president believes he is above the law. welcome to the fifth day of this circus. the president of the united states has five pinocchios on a daily basis. so, let's not go there. he quote loves your ass, unquote. after two weeks of public impeachment hearings, what stood out? we've heard from 12 witnesses over 50 hours. the biggest bombshell came from this man gordon sondland, the us ambassador to the eu. he confirmed that there was a quid pro quo between the united states and ukraine, promising this in exchange for that. mr giuliani's requests were a quid pro quo. he says his team were told to work closely with rudy giuliani, the president's personal lawyer, by order of donald trump himself. giuliani wanted to pressure ukraine to investigate trump's democratic rival joe biden and his son. and he said everybody

in the white house knew about it. everyone was in the loop. for democrats, this is a trump doter saying he knew the white house visit was being used as leverage and he presumed the same went for suspended us military a. but trump and his republican defenders picked up on a different part of sondland's testimony, about a conversation he had with the president. i want nothing. that's what i want from ukraine, that's what i said. so, trump's off the hook? well, those instructions were given in september, just days before the ukraine dealings went public. was donald trump just covering his tracks? i'll call you back. phone calls were a recurring theme this week. on tuesday we heard from jennifer williams, a state department official, and lieutenant colonel alexander vindman of the national security council who both listened in on the now infamousjuly 25th phone call between donald trump and ukrainian president volodymyr zelensky. both thought the call

was inappropriate. it involved a discussion of what appeared to be a domestic political matter. there were also revelations about a new phone call the very next day between donald trump and the eu ambassador where they talked about investigations. that conversation was overheard by david holmes, another witness and confirmed by sondland himself. the initial part of the call, ambassador sondland, when the president came on the call, he sort of winced and held the phone away from his ear. yeah, sounds like something i would say. the call indicates how deeply involved donald trump was in all of this. so what does this mean for trump? a lot of foreign policy professionals and government were concerned about what was going on in the white house and one of the men at the centre of the controversy, gordon sondland has now testified that they were right. american viewers have been tuning in by the millions, but it is still too early to tell whether enough minds have been changed to put

donald trump at serious risk. a review of the week at the impeachment enquiry. more, i hope, next weekend. more, i hope, next weekend. a large cache of mummified animals found in an ancient egyptian burial site have been displayed for the first time near the capital, cairo. cats, cobras, birds, and crocodiles were discovered along with hundreds of artefacts. gail maclellan reports. saqqara. for3,000 years, a burial ground, once the necropolis of the ancient city of memphis. egyptologists are excited by this first display of the artefacts found last year. translation: what makes the discovery special is the diversity of the antiquities found, like mummies of animals and sacred birds and sacred cats. the cache includes 75 wooden and bronze statues of cats, mummified birds, masks,

crocodiles and an enormous beetle many times the normal size. the most lovely discovery out of those hundreds? that scarab. it is the biggest and the hugest scarab all over the world. but what makes the find unique is that archaeologists suspect some of the large cats are actually lion cubs. they were found near the remains of an adult lion discovered in 2004. almost 4,400 years old, this ancient civilisation continues to intrigue. gail maclellan, bbc news. and we'll be taking an in—depth look at the papers with our reviewers journalist and commentator anne ashworth — and john crowley who is the editorial director of first draft — an organisation that investigates the spread of misleading and false news — that's coming up after the latest headlines and a full sport update.

now it's time for a look at the weather with louise lear. good morning, it has been a rather grey and gloomy start to our sunday morning but it is predominantly dry and it will be a quieter theme of weather for many. so and it will be a quieter theme of weatherfor many. so if and it will be a quieter theme of weather for many. so if we take a look at why, we have got this frontal system that is moving its way to scotland for much of the night. that still has to clear away but we have this brief ridge of high pressure dominating the story today before the next low rating in the wings to arrive a little later on. the arena sitting across the far north and east of scotland and will gradually drift northwards and ease away. elsewhere, we keep cloudy skies for much of the day, early morning hill fog slowly lifting but the cloud thick enough for the odd spot were two of drizzle. the wind direction is from a south easterly so it is a mild sauce, noticeably different feel to the weather in comparison to late, highest values

ofa comparison to late, highest values of a 9—12d. through this evening we keep that cloud across england and scotland, and down into the south—west we will have a fair amount of rain pushing into south—west england, wales and eventually northern ireland. it will stay miles through the night, 5—9d, maybe double digits, and the south—west but that frontal system will push its way steadily north and east through monday. first thing monday morning we have rain around, not especially heavy but a nuisance for many, heading off across northern ireland, north—west england, down through the midlands to as the london area. showers following on behind. the best of any drier, sunnier weather is likely to be to the far north of scotland. still miles, 9—13d. not bad really for a time of year. there is another area of low pressure waiting in the wings and arrives on tuesday. this has the remnants of what was a storm and sebastien, a little bit more energy, could bring some heavier rainfora time.

energy, could bring some heavier rain for a time. that is going to sweep in from the south—west and push north. showers, some of them heavy and thundery, could be a windy day at times, especially down towards the coast and then in terms of the feel of things, it will stay on the mild side, 8—14d. if you are fed up with this rain and want something quieter, drier, fingers crossed that is on its way for the weekend but it will again get colder. hello, this is bbc news with shaun ley. the headlines... the conservatives will pledge not to raise income tax, national insurance contributions or vat when they publish their election manifesto this afternoon. labour has pledged to compensate nearly four million women who lost out when their state pension age rose from 60 to 66. voters in hong kong have turned out in large numbers to vote in local elections — seen as a test of support