welcome to bbc news. i'm mike embley. our top stories: the democrats move forward with their impeachment inquiry against the us president, saying he's abused his power. today i am asking our chairman to proceed with articles of impeachment. the major international investigation involving two russian nationals, it's one of the largest cases of cyber theft. a sharp rise in cases of measles worldwide — nearly 10 million infected last year alone. the world health organization says it's an outrage. much of france brought to a standstill by one of the biggest public sector strikes for years. two more tropical storms are heading towards east africa,

already hundreds have been killed in landslides have had to leave their homes. president trump has hit back at democrats in the house of representatives, who have announced articles of impeachment against him. mr trump said they were "crazy" and that he would win a trial in the senate, which is republican—controlled. he urged his opponents to move quickly so the country could, as he put it, get back to business. the leading democrat, nancy pelosi, said her party had been left with no choice but to act after weeks of hearings in washington. nick bryant has the latest. on capitol hill today, the battle lines started being marked out for an epic political fight. a process likely now to lead to the trial of donald trump, a constitutional spectacle seen only twice before

in america's turbulent history. the democratic house speaker, nancy pelosi, is now ready to move forward with drafting the articles of impeachment, a charge sheet, in effect, accusing the president of high crimes and misdemeanours. sadly, but with confidence and humility, with allegiance to our founders and a heart full of love for america, today, i am asking our chairman to proceed with articles of impeachment. the democrats have accused donald trump of undermining american democracy by trying to get political dirt from the president of ukraine, volodymyr zelensky, on his rival, the former vice president, joe biden, using us military aid as an inducement. but donald trump arrived home from this week's nato summit saying the democrats are crazy and if they're going to impeach him they should do it fast so the country can get back to business. reporter: are you worried about what impeach —

impeachment might have on your legacy? no not at all, no. no, it's a hoax, it's a big, fat hoax. don't you accuse me... it's become an impassioned and polarising fight, and america's most powerful woman was asked if she hated america's most powerful man. i don't hate anyone. i was raised in a way that is a heart full of love, and always prayed for the president. and i still pray for the president, i pray for the president all the time. so don't mess with me when it comes to words like that. it's beginning to look a lot like donald trump will be impeached by christmas and start the new year with a trial in the senate, where his republican allies have the votes to deliver a not—guilty verdict. nick bryant, bbc news, washington. professor sahar aziz, director of the centre for security, race and rights at rutgers university law school told me a little earlier that even though

the senate is dominated by republicans, the impeachment decision is still important. it is significant because of the timing, because you have the elections are coming up next year and during the congressional elections, the republicans lost the house and so the democrats are hoping that they will also lose the white house. what the republicans are trying to do is make it seem like it's really all about politics, but what the democrats are trying to show to the american public is this is really about the constitution, thisa is about the law, and that's why they invited the constitutional law experts to testify for the housejudiciary committee yesterday. but the question is whether the democrats are going to be able to convince the public that this president is notjust violated the constitution once but twice, three times, four times when it comes to ukraine, when it comes to russia, and when it comes to other domestic affairs. is it significant for the voters or constitutionally,

that the republicans defending the president no longer seem to be saying, "he didn't do anything wrong", they are saying what he did was questionable but not impeachable. i think that's actually the most dangerous part of this entire process, the erosion of the rule of law and the normalisation of the type of behaviour that president trump... even for the republicans is offensive or unusual and unprecedented, which is that he attacks judges, he attacks the media, he attacks congress. everything is about a witch—hunt and that he's a political victim as opposed to holding himself to the standards that other presidents have held themselves to, which is to abide by the rule of law and perhaps challenge the merits but not challenge the very process, so will he succeed in causing up to 50% of americans or higher to no longer respect the impeachment process and no longer respect the law or the constitution unless it is used against their political opposition?

and how do you think this is playing with the voters? do you have a sense of that? impeachment helped bill clinton in the court of public opinion. this is a very risky endeavour for both parties, it's a gamble for the democrats and certainly the republicans. if you look at the public polls, it shows the numbers supporting impeachment are going up slowly. it's around 40% now and there's 44% that don't support it, but those numbers used to be 54% support in an 44% not supporting a month ago, so the media cycle is making an impact and that's why trump's primary strategy coming out of the white house and he's hired some high—level communications experts is to frame this as a hoax and a fraud as opposed to allowing the public to understand the law

behind it in terms of what is it that constitutes bribery, what is it that constitutes abuse of authority and office. we will see what happens in 2020. it could backfire on the democrats and it could mobilise the republican base to go out and defend trump, or it could expose trump as the president who has effectively violated every protocol and arguably article 2 of the constitution. professor, we shall see. one of the world's biggest cases of cybertheft has been unearthed by british and american police. two russian nationals are accused of using malicious software to steal millions of dollars in more than a0 countries. daniel sandford has the story. on one of the main boulevards in central moscow, an audi r8 blocking traffic while it does a series of doughnuts. police say these high—performance and highly expensive cars belong to members of a cybercrime

group known as evil corp. a group responsible for two of the worst computer hacking and bank fraud schemes of the last 10 years. this is 32—year—old maksim yakubets with his lamborghini huracan and his personalised number plate, which in russian reads "thief". today, the fbi charged him with being the leader of evil corp, which is suspected of stealing more than £75 million from customers all over the world. yakubets is a true 21st century criminal, who, with a stroke of a key and a click of a mouse committed cybercrimes across the globe. he's earned his place on the fbi‘s list of the world's most wanted cybercriminals. the group seems to be able to operate without punishment in russia. the us says maksim yakubets helps the russian intelligence agency, the fsb, with its malicious cyber programme, so that might be why. yakobets spent £250,000 on his wedding. the national crime agency says

evil corp poses the most significant cybercrime threat to the uk, and some members were identified through their social media boasting. the fundamental weakness that organised crime has is that they are driven by money and they are driven by greed. and we have been able to gain evidence in the uk of a real—world footprint of people seeking to draw down the funds from these offences, and also people who are exhibiting a very extravagant lifestyle online. evil corp even had its own lion cub. its two leaders have now been charged in america, but as long as they don't leave russia, there's no chance of them standing trial. daniel sandford, bbc news. let's get some of the day's other news: three european powers have claimed that iran is developing nuclear—ca pable missiles, in violation of a un security council resolution. the uk, france and germany say iran has tested a variant of the shahab—3

missile, which could deliver a nuclear weapon. iran has denied this, foreign ministerjavad zarif calling the charge a "desperate falsehood." thousands of firefighters are battling about 100 bushfires in the australian state of new south wales, the most severe on the outskirts of sydney. australia's largest city has been blanketed by thick smoke all week. officials say hospital admissions due to smoke inhalation have risen at least 10%. the state—owned oil giant saudi aramco will be worth $1.7 trillion when it makes its stock market debut next week. it's less than the $2 trillion the saudi government wanted to raise, but the share sale will make it the world's most valuable company. the flotation looks to be part of a plan to modernise the saudi economy. there's a sharp rise in the number of cases of measles worldwide. nearly 10 million people were infected last year by a disease that can be easily prevented by vaccination. the world health organization describes the figures as an outrage most of those who died were children.

professor peter hotez is a vaccine scientist and the dean of national school of tropical medicine at baylor university. thank you very much indeed for your time. our exact can we be, first of all, about the causes of this. they vary, don't they, around the world? they do, but it seems to be a combination of different social determinants. so for instance, in the democratic republic of congo, it is the conflict in eastern congo that have blocked access to the vaccine, that has been one of the problems in controlling a bowler, but more people have died now from measles than a bowler. there have been 5000 measles that. and then in venezuela we have had the collapse of the health system due to the colla pse of the health system due to the collapse of the economy there, which has interrupted vaccination programmes. so in the cases of congo and venezuela, it is more political colla pse and venezuela, it is more political collapse but in europe we have had 90,000 cases of measles in the first half of 2019, and in the us measles

has come back after being eliminated for 20 years, that is due to a concerted ante vaccine movement, a massive disinformation campaign. so the causes vary but the consequences are there after two decades of unprecedented gains in public health, now very sadly measles seems to be eating its way back again. perhaps you should remind us how serious measles can be. yeah, that is one of the things the anti— vaccine lobby likes to claim, saying it is just vaccine lobby likes to claim, saying it isjust a benign rash. it couldn't be further from the truth. a couple of decades ago measles was the single biggest killer of children under the age of five, measles, measles and ammonia, encephalitis, it's a bad actor. and it can cause permanent injuries such as deafness or permanent neurological injury. so even today more than 100,000 children die, we are seeing this play out in samoa

because of several forces, including an anti— vaccine movement. we have had over 60 deaths, mostly children underfive had over 60 deaths, mostly children under five years old. measles is your speciality area of study, how concerned are you? i am concerned because we don't have an easy way to respond to this. we know we have an excellent vaccine, two doses of the vaccine protect 97% of the time, so close to 100%. it's one of the best vaccines we have but we have the social determinants that are blocking our ability, political colla pse blocking our ability, political collapse in war, but i'm particularly concerned about this very dangerous anti— vaccine movement which has brought measles back to europe stop it hasn't brought measles back to the united states —— and it has. and now we are exporting at anti— vaccine movement to other nations, possibly samoa. so u nless we to other nations, possibly samoa. so unless we figure out how to cancel

the media disinformation can —— campaign and predatory behaviour of the anti— vaccine movement, they are 110w the anti— vaccine movement, they are now targeting specific groups to combat vaccine coverage. it is difficult and for all practical purposes the anti—vaxxer in lobby is running unopposed in the united states, elsewhere in north america and europe, and now we are starting to sit in samoa. thank you very much for talking to us. thank you very much. police and demonstrators have clashed on the streets of paris and other cities in one of the biggest strikes in france for decades. officers fired tear gas in the capital, arresting at least 80 people. trains and flights were affected and more than half the country's teachers walked out. trades unions called the action in protest against plans to reform state pensions. lucy williamson reports from paris. all tear gas today masked the real danger facing president macron. not the risk of a vehicle

on fire in central paris, but the risk of a silent majority, set alight by opposition to his pension reforms. most marched peacefully against the offer of longer working lives and smaller pensions, their quiet anger directed more at politicians than police. translation: they sit in the national assembly and sleep most of the time, and they earn 5,000 euros a month. we're in the street, breaking our backs, working overtime. ask them how much a baguette costs, they don't know. the big question is whether anger over pension reforms will ignite into wider discontent, both with the economic situation and with president macron himself. the biggest threat to mr macron is the country uniting against him. this battle is likely to be his toughest yet. tonight in paris, minor scuffles between radical groups and police,

but the government says it can no longerjustify paying billions of euros to subsidise special pension rights for public—sector workers. the new system will be more equal, it says. but protesters say it's the workers who will pay, and that in mr macron‘s france, some parts of society are more equal than others. lucy williamson, bbc news, paris. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: teenage activist greta thunberg heads to madrid to join the climate protest at a major un summit. it's quite clear that the worst victims of this disaster are the poor people living in the slums which have sprung up around the factory. i am feeling so helpless, that the childrens are dying in front of me and i can't do anything.

charles manson is the mystical leader of the hippie cult suspected of killing sharon tate and at least six other people in los angeles. at 11am this morning, just half a metre of rock separated britain from continental europe. it took the drills just a few moments to cut through the final obstacle. then philippe cozette, a minerfrom calais, was shaking hands and exchanging flags with robert fagg, his opposite number from dover. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: donald trump has hit back at democrats in the house of representatives,

who have announced articles of impeachment against him. he says he will win a trial in the senate. the us says it's charged leaders of an alleged cybercriminal group based in russia, with links to moscow's intelligence services. the organisation, known as evil corp, is alleged to have stolen tens of millions of dollars worldwide. the rainy season in east africa has been unusually heavy this year — two months of relentless downpours. the increase in rainfall may be linked to rising sea temperatures in the indian ocean. hundreds of people have been killed in landslides and many thousands displaced — their homes just swept away. kenya has seen the highest number of deaths. our deputy africa editor, anne soy, reports from the town of voi. a breathtaking countryside that has turned deadly. 85—year—old vanessa is mourning the loss of a grandson, crushed to death by a landslide. she's just explaining to me that there was a house here, and two of her grandchildren had

come in to catch a nap and then they suddenly heard a loud bang, and when they came out the house had been flattened. translation: a brick hit his head and he was bleeding. i held him and started sucking blood from his mouth and spitting it out. but he didn't make it. i have never seen anything like this. even when we had the el nino, there were no landslides. i don't understand what is happening. unusually heavy rainfall has caused floods and landslides across eastern africa, killing many. it's brought by a phenomenon called the indian ocean dipole. it will intensify over the next 2a hours, and subside after the storm makes landfall. but its impact on families will last a long time. christine lost her home. we cannot stay here because it is very risky. as you can see, there is a big crack on the road. that means once it rains tonight, it will collapse again, so it will cover the house.

there is no hope in this home. like christine, many will need to make a fresh start. here, in voi affected families have taken refuge at a local primary school. hundreds of thousands are displaced across the region. anne soy, bbc news, voi. 200 countries, 12 days of talks — and a planet—sized problem. the un's climate summit in spain — cop25 — hopes to tackle the climate crisis. many though have their doubts whether diplomacy can deliver the change that's needed. protestors are planning a day of action — with greta thunberg taking centre stage. andy beatt reports.

mass march through the spanish capital. greta thunberg taking the train on the last leg of an epic low—carbon journey which saw her cross the atlantic in a catamaran. after three weeks at sea, she had promised to speak for a generation frustrated by denial and delay. people are underestimating the force of angry kids. if they want us to stop being angry, then maybe they should stop making us angry. in madrid, alongside the frustration, real fear that young people's concerns still aren't being taken seriously. translation: i am afraid that once again, our message will not be heard and we'll lose another year. we feel sueper powerless in this place

but i think our power and strength is to raise awareness. and time is running out, cop25just the latest instalment in a quarter—century of diplomacy that so far failed to confirm climate change. global temperatures, which have already risen by more than 1 degree celsius, on track to rise another 2 or 3 degrees, even if nations keep the earlier climate pledges. predictions of more extreme weather, wildfires, floods and droughts pushing the argument that whatever happens in madrid must go beyond the celebrated paris agreement of 2015. un secretary—general antonio guterres warning that the world is now rapidly reaching the point of no return. tens of thousands are expected to march in madrid with other protests in sweden, chile and the us as the greta generation continues to ramp up pressure on politicians. when most of us put recycleable plastic waste in bins do we generally assume it will get recycled? well, plastic waste generated by the west is often sent to other countries for recycling. but it isn't always recycled.

in fact the bbc has learned that the burning of plastic waste in indonesia, much of it sent there by the west, is poisoning the food chain. parts of indonesia are awash with plastic waste. last year, indonesia imported almost 300,000 tons of plastic. some of it is recycled but much of the lower—quality household plastic waste is dumped. huge piles building up outside villages' houses. some of it is recycled but much of the lower—quality household plastic waste is dumped. huge piles building up outside villages' houses. leftover plastic needs to be gotten rid of, so it's burned or sold to tofu factories as fuel.

but the cheap plastic is releasing highly toxic chemicals, which is making it into the food chain. researchers from an environmental group tested the eggs from free—range chickens that live here. results revealed levels of toxic chemicals that are 70 times over the european safe levels for food. the results of our research is one of the most shocking results that we have ever, ever heard. especially in indonesia, we never have these kind of results before. you wouldn't get ill eating the odd egg but long—term exposure to these chemicals, known as dioxins, can cause reproductive and developmental issues, damage the immune system and also cause cancer. that's according to the world health organization. the government is now stopping some containers of contaminated waste entering the country,

but campaigners say more needs to be done to prevent burning from taking place. louis lee ray, bbc news. more than 50 polar bears have descended on a village in the far north of russia. all public activities in the village have been cancelled, and schools are being guarded to protect residents. conservationists say climate change could be to blame, weak coastal ice forcing the bears to search for food on land rather than at sea. and before we go, we'd like to bring you a bit of holiday cheer from the grounds of the white house. president trump and the first lady have been hosting the annual lighting of the national christmas tree. the tradition dates back to 1923, when president calvin coolidge walked from the oval office to push the button to light his tree. this year's event featured music and carols , and was a welcome distraction from the, shall we say, less—than—festive atmosphere of washington politics.

hello there. the next few days are looking more unsettled now and even indeed as we head into next week, it looks like the weather will be taking some sort of trollercoaster ride. one day, unsettled, wet and windy, the next day generally fine thanks to a ridge of high pressure. now, friday looks like being one of those more unsettled days, lots of isobars on the chart, weather fronts too indicating outbreaks of rain but one thing you will notice, it's going to be very mild, especially england and wales as we are drawing up our air off the atlantic from the south—west. so a blustery start today, very mild too across the south. wet, but that rain band will move away and it starts to brighten up a little bit with some sunshine into the afternoon but plenty of showers, particularly into the north and west, a few of these spreading eastwards as well

and a blustery day pretty much everywhere, and there's the temperatures, 10—13 degrees, england and wales, something a bit fresher pushing into scotland and as we switch our wind direction to a more north—westerly. so through friday night, it stays fairly blustery, variable cloud, further showers, mainly in the north and west, a few drier interludes especially further east but because we've got more cloud and that breeze, temperatures shouldn't fall much below 5 or 6 degrees for many of us. to enter the start of the weekend, earlier on saturday it looks like we will have this bump of high pressure which should keep things generally dry across central and eastern areas. it will start off rather cloudy, one or two showers around but i think there will be increasing sunshine into the afternoon and we look at the next weather system arriving across the north and west, that will bring increasing winds and also thicker cloud with outbreaks of rain here. temperatures generally around 9—11 degrees. and then through saturday night, that frontal system sweeps its way eastwards across the country, bringing a spell of wet and windy weather. into sunday, it does look like that

main rain band should clear through early on in the morning to allow for a bright day with sunshine but also plenty of blustery showers, especially in the north and west where some of them could be quite heavy and even a wintry flavour over the higher ground of scotland. because here, temperatures will again be on the cool side, single—figure values, but 10—12 degrees in the south. it turns very windy sunday night, especially in the south—west, could see a spell of severe gales for a time as that system moves through and then another ridge of high pressure moves in for monday so it looks like it will be largely dry with some sunny spells before the next spell of wet and windy weather moves in for tuesday.

this is bbc news. the headlines: president trump has hit back at democrats in the house of representatives, who have announced articles of impeachment against him. mr trump said they were crazy and he would win a trial in the senate, which is republican—controlled. the leading democrat, nancy pelosi, said her party had been left with no choice. one of the world's biggest cases of cyber—theft has been unearthed by british and american police. two russian nationals are accused of using malicious software to steal millions of dollars in more than a0 countries. us authorities called it "the worst computer hacking and bank fraud scheme of the past decade". police and demonstrators have clashed during one of the biggest strikes in france for decades. officers fired tear—gas in the capital, arresting at least 80 people.

the protest centres on plans to reform state pensions and continues on friday. the general election is only six days away. one economic issue that sharply divides the parties is labour's pledge to nationalise privately owned utilities, including the railways, water, the royal mail, the big six power companies, and bt openreach. labour says the profits that now go to private shareholders would instead benefit the wider public. our business editor simon jack considers the arguments. a wind of change for the better, or a chill wind driving away investment? labour's plans to nationalise big parts of the uk economy offer the starkest divide between the two main parties. unsurprisingly, perhaps, the boss of one of the companies in labour's sights isn't keen. not least, he says, because there are more pressing concerns.