welcome to newsday. i'm kasia madera in london. the headlines: politics and parchment — donald trump's impeachment trial moves a step closer, as house speaker nancy pelosi signs the key documents and sends them to the senate. let me be very clear that this president will be held accountable — nobody is above the law. the us and china sign an initial deal aimed at easing the 18—month trade war between the world's two biggest economies. i'm mariko oi in singapore. also in the programme: wildfires, flooding and drought — the last decade is confirmed as the world's hottest on record.

and why trouble is brewing in sri lanka's world famous tea industry as prices fall and costs rise. it's 1am here in london, 9am in the morning in singapore and 8pm in the evening in washington, where the stage is now set for the senate trial of donald trump, only the third us president ever to face impeachment. house speaker nancy pelosi has signed the resolution finalising the articles of impeachment. democrats are accusing mr trump of abusing his power and obstructing congress. earlier, mrs pelosi named seven democratic lawmakers who will be the impeachment managers. she said the significance of today's

events could not be overestimated. so sad, so tragic for our country — the actions taken by the president to undermine our national security, to violate his oath of office and to jeopardise the security of our elections, the integrity of our elections, so today we will make history. adam schiff, who is the house intelligence committee chairman and kevin mccarthy, the republican house minority leader, gave their reaction during the house debate about the impeachment articles. we have always felt the urgency about this impeachment given that the president was trying to get foreign help in cheating in the next election but as soon as we did get help, it was made clear that they didn't want to trial in the senate,

he didn't want to hear from senate, he didn't want witnesses or documents, this time is given us the ability to show the american people the necessity of a fair trial, to expose the degree to which mcconnell is working hand—in—hand with the subject of the impeachment with the president to turn what should be a trial into a sham. the reason for this impeachment is the same reason that has taken democrats 30 days to send the article to the senate — just spite. they want to stay in the record without giving him a fair chance to clear his name. the bbc‘s laura trevelyan in washington was watching as those articles of impeachment were handed overfrom the house of representatives to the senate. now we get down to the trial of president donald trump himself, only the third american president in history to be impeached stop it this was a formal process tonight, those articles of impeachment carried over from the people's house to the more

deliberative chamber of the senate. the house impeachment managers you can see there are carrying their charges against president donald trump, they are charging the president abused his power and obstructed congress by the way he lent on ukraine to deliver an investigation to his political rivals, the bidens, and while that was happening he was withholding military aid and dangling the offer ofa military aid and dangling the offer of a white house visit in front of residents are lenski. now this impeachment —— president zelensky. now those managers have sent the articles to the senate, the trial of of the president on those charges can begin and the difference here is the senate is controlled by republicans. the expectation is the senate will acquit the president but nonetheless there is a trial that will begin an earnest on tuesday, we expect it will last a couple of weeks, and one thing complicating the picture is last night and

tonight house investigators are releasing much more evidence tying the president's associates much more closely to this pressure campaign against ukraine. weather that works against ukraine. weather that works against democrats in that this and this is a rushed impeachment and you couldn't even complete your case before you send the articles over or whether the republicans, just a handful on the fence and want to hear more about the case against the president, makes them want to call witnesses, we will see as this all unfolds. so when does it actually start briefly, laura? trial is due to start in earnest on tuesday, january the 21st after the long weekend but what we will see tomorrow is we will see the articles and formally received on the floor and we will see the chiefjustice john received on the floor and we will see the chiefjusticejohn being asked to preside over the trial and we will see the swearing in of the united states senators, who are the jury united states senators, who are the jury in this trial of president trump. the us and china have signed a much—anticipated so—called phase one trade deal aimed at reducing tensions between the two. their tit—for—tat trade war has shaken markets and weighed on the global economy

for almost two years. under the pact, china will buy an extra $200 billion in american goods and strengthen intellectual property laws. michelle fleury reports. as part of the deal, china is expected to buy more goods and services from the united states, which should reduce america's trade deficit with china. something that has been a long thorn in the side of the donald trump. it also allowed him to wave the economic flag and hold a big signing ceremony at a time when he is campaigning for re—election and the impeachment process is moving forward. this is an unbelievable deal for the united states and ultimately it's a great deal for both countries, and it's going to lead to an even more stable peace throughout the world. china is helping us

with north korea, china is helping us with lot of things that they can be helping us with. so what next? us trade representative bob lighthouses said he will meet with china's vice president in 30 days and he says he will know by the spring whether the phase i deal is working. contentious issue between the countries remain, areas including technology and innovation that could determine the economic and military power of these two superpowers. that has been left for phase ii negotiations and until then trump's tariffs remain on two—thirds of all us imports from china. that was michelle fleury in washington. so which tariffs will be eased and by how much? asia business correspondent karishma vaswani has more details. we know that the vast majority of tariffs actually still stay in place even after phase one.

on the us side, goods coming into china, still two thirds of the goods will continue to have tariffs on them and about the same on the chinese side. in terms of an average amount of tariffs, they have gone up some 20% from the start of the trade war until now and that's still is remaining in place. just because a trade deal has been signed, there is a suspension and escalation of tariffs. they're not going up again in the future as far as we can tell, that is a positive businesses around the world who have been affected by the trade war. but they still remain in place. it's notjust the us and the chinese economies but also asian economies have been affected indirectly as well. many asian countries and companies that manufacture in china and see

the uncertainty and the consistent hostility between the us and china means they couldn't plan, then everybody knew what to do and how to find a is unsettling because that means how do you start thinking about expanding into a new factory or creating newjobs when you don't know whether you are going to have to absorb the cost of tariffs go up in the future? for now this phase one deal has put a sort of hold on the uncertainty from everything that the trump administration has said the chinese have said, this is a deal that has come out of mutual respect and compromise, that is a language beijing is using, and the short term this seems like a victory for president trump because he can say he's got a win in an election but in the long—term, the chinese didn't have to give up that much so it does seem like a big win for them. let's take a look at some of the day's other news. russia's government has resigned en masse, just hours after the the president

vladimir putin proposed sweeping constitutional changes in a national address. later, his prime minister made a surprise announcement on state tv that the entire government was resigning to help facilitate the changes. here's steve rosenberg in moscow. in most countries when the government resides, that is a sign of a political crisis. isn't it? but russia, it's not like other countries. the system of power they have constructed he is often referred to as managed democracy, where the kremlin does all the managing. all the power is concentrated in the kremlin. but in the cabinet, not in the government. in a sense it doesn't matter who the ministers are, who the prime minister is. having said that, the resignation of dimitry medvedev, who has been pm for eight years, it should mean something, shouldn't it? so it certainly feels

i could as part of some kind of plan. some kind of plan which has been started by the kremlin. the aim of which ultimately is to leave putin in power after 202a. also making news today: supporters of the government in venezuela have attacked a convoy of opposition politicians outside parliament, preventing them from holding a session there. opposition leaderjuan guaido moved the meeting elsewhere and accused president nicolas maduro of acting like a dictator. ajapanese cabinet minister has made headlines for his rare decision to take paternity leave. the environment minister, shinjir koizumi, says he intends to take two weeks off in the first three month of his child's life. japan has one of the world's most generous schemes for fathers — they can have up to a year off work — but only a fraction take advantage because of the pressure to continue working. the american rapper, jay z, has sued us prison officials on behalf of 29 inmates whose lives he says are at risk. the lawsuit claims the men's lives are in peril danger because of understaffing and neglect inside missisippi's prisons.

five inmates have been killed in violence in prisons in the state in the past two weeks. and these pictures from thailand show a sea turtle swimming again thanks to her new prosthetic flipper. the turtle, named goody, had been immobile since losing her flipper several years ago in a fishing net, but now she's swimming at ease again after receiving thailand's first prosthetic flipper last week. in the past year, researchers have been developing prostheses for injured sea turtles to improve their life in captivity. now to climate change, because the past decade has officially been confirmed as the warmest on record. new figures paint a stark picture of rising global temperatures and the impact that human activity

is having on the planet. the data, compiled by british and american scientists, also reveal that 2019 was the second warmest year and temperatures are set to rise further unless action is taken. our science correspondent, rebecca morelle, has more details. from the heatwaves across europe that saw the uk hit an all—time high of 38.7 degrees, to greenland, which broke the record for the most ice lost in a single day, and our oceans, which are now the warmest they've been in human history, 2019 was a year of extremes. and this map shows how global temperatures have changed over time. each decade from the 1980s has been warmer than the decade before. the last ten years have now been confirmed as the hottest since records began.

scientists say humans are to blame. carbon dioxide levels are at the highest that we've ever recorded in our atmosphere, and there's a definite connection between the amount of carbon dioxide and the temperature. we are seeing the highest global temperatures in the last decade, and we'll see more of that. as that carbon dioxide continues to grow, we will see global temperatures increasing. measurements taken at observatories like this one show that our planet is heating up fast. already, the world's temperature has risen by 1.1 degrees above preindustrial levels. scientists though say we need to stop temperatures from rising above 1.5 degrees to stop the worst effects of global warming but, with our current climate policies, we are heading for more than three degrees, and that would bring unprecedented changes. higher temperatures will mean more heatwaves and droughts, sea levels would rise and rain would intensify, bringing more floods like the ones that hit yorkshire last year. what we have to remember is that the climate crisis

is going to affect our economy across so many different dimensions, so it's going to impact on health and already it's impacting on health, it's going to impact on food supply and food security, it's going to impact on infrastructure, so we talk about critical infrastructure, the impact on electricity, the impact on schools and hospitals. climate awareness is now higher than ever before, but scientists say it's action that's needed, by cutting greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. this, though, will require huge changes, from swapping fossil fuels to renewables to drastically reducing how much we fly and rethinking the food we eat. but the extreme conditions show no signs of letting up, especially with australia's fires, which continue to burn. the met office is already forecasting that 2020 could be another record—breaking year. rebecca morelle, bbc news. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme: we look at what happens next as the way is cleared for only the third impeachment trial

of an american president in history. also on the programme: sri lanka's tea growers struggle to produce theirfamous brew as prices fall while costs go up. day one of operation desert storm to force the iraqis out of kuwait has seen the most intense air attack since the second world war. tobacco is america's oldest industry and it's one of its biggest, but the industry is nervous of this report. this may tend to make people want to stop smoking cigarettes. there is not a street that is unaffected. huge parts of kobe were simply demolished as buildings crashed into one another. this woman said she had been given no help and no advice by the authorities. she stood outside the ruins of her business. tens of thousands of black children

in south africa have taken advantage of laws passed by the country's new multiracial government and enrolled at formerly white schools. tonight sees the 9,610th performance of her long—running play, the mousetrap. when they heard of her death today, the management considered whether to cancel tonight's performance, but agatha christie would have been the last person to want such a thing. welcome back. this is newsday on the bbc. i'm mariko oi in singapore. i'm kasia madera in london. our top stories: key impeachment documents have been signed and sent to the us senate which will put president trump on trial for abuse of power and obstruction of congress. china and the united states sign a partial deal aimed at easing their trade war which has dampened global economic growth.

let's take a look at some front pages from around the world. the philippine star leads on the story we have been following all week — the taal volcano eruption. it shows residents living in tagaytay city, overlooking the volcano, lining up to receive relief goods. the new york times looks at an australian shore town still cut off by the destructive bushfires. it shows a local pub which has become a hotspot for people in the town where resources have become scarce. and, finally, the financial times leads on an interview with the german chancellor, angela merkel. she describes brexit as a "wake up call" and looks at europe's changing place in the world. many thanks for that paper review.

we will return to our top story. the speaker of the us house of representatives, nancy pelosi, has signed the articles of impeachment, which have now be sent to the senate. president donald trump will be go on trial there next week. for more on this, i spoke with alayna treene, a reporter covering the white house and national politics for the news website axios. so there was that big push from the democrats who had really been wanting to force the senate majority leader, mitch mcconnell, to include witnesses and more documents in the senate trial, which is beginning immediately now that they have transmitted the articles over to the senate chamber. but she had held onto that for roughly four weeks in order to pressure him to include these at the outset of the trial. she did not get that commitment, but she was forced to move forward a nyway she was forced to move forward anyway given this senate was looking to potentially move forward to dismiss the trial outright. and givenjust dismiss the trial outright. and given just how contentious this has

been, how does the senate ensure that it does have a fair trial of the president? well, that's a huge debate that is continuing now among senate republicans. a lot of democrats, again, have been pushing for more witnesses, new document production to be included in the senate trial. a lot of senate republicans are hesitant to do so and they argue that the house, which has been investigating the president and his actions towards ukraine for several months now, that they should have called more witnesses and more document production if they needed to do so and they believe that it was theirjob to do that and it's longer this. but a lot of democrats argued that this new information that's been coming to light every day. as recently as yesterday there was a document dump from a key associate of rudy giuliani, the present‘s personal attorney. so in all of this that's the big challenge right now and the big back—and—forth

is between whether to bring new witnesses into the trial and whether to allow more documents not made a huge challenge, but it will be forensic, given the type of people that nancy pelosi has chosen as those impeachment managers. exactly. so how speak a nancy pelosi announced seven people today, seven congressmen to lead the opening arguments and really defend the house's decision to impeach president trump. they will of course be pushing for more witnesses and hoping that they get that as well. we're going to see this play out now the next few weeks whether this happens. as of now the senate trial looks like it will model that of former president bill clinton, his impeachment trial in the 1990s, which essentially means they will start with opening arguments from both the president's defence team as well as the seven house managers, and then they will go into a q&a period with senators who ask their questions and get answers from the tea m questions and get answers from the team and then after that they will vote on this crucial decision of whether to include more witnesses

and more documents and anything else that they believe is necessary to ensure that this is a fair trial. trouble is brewing in sri lanka's world famous ceylon tea industry. the country is one of the world's biggest exporters of tea, bringing in nearly $1.5 billion in revenue last year. but farmers say smaller factories are closing down because the price of tea is falling, while production costs are rising. the industry is also facing a shortage of labour. anbarasan ethirajan reports from central sri lanka. a lush green landscape in central sri lanka. the world—famous ceylon tea has been grown on these hills for more than a century and a half. women workers carefully pick the best two leaves under bud. they need to gather at least 20kg of tea leaves to earn their full wages, less than $5 a day. the workers here are gathering all the tea leaves they've plucked since the morning.

they've been working for hours, wading through these tea plantations for miles to gather these tea leaves. they're being weighed now and then these tea leaves will be taken to the factory. the tender leaves are dried and processed in factories like these. from bush to cup in 2a hours. but the industry has been struggling in recent months due to the global economic crisis and the instability in the middle east. there is less demand for tea and the payments are also delayed. as a result, prices are falling at auctions in colombo. right now because of the very low prices, mainly the smallholder sector and private sector vendors are shutting down. that is directly related to the price of the tea we see at auctions. surviving tea estates are facing another problem, they are losing their tea pickers. despite working in these estates

for many generations, many say life hasn't improved. translation: if i fall sick, then i have to stay at home. there are no ambulances here. last month, i got bitten by a snake but i survived. i'm living with my husband and three children in a small room in the estate quarters. many workers are leaving the plantations to find jobs in urban areas for better pay and conditions. in the last three decades, the workforce has dropped by two—thirds. hundreds and thousands of people depend on the industry. for those involved in the making of ceylon tea, these are challenging times. anbarasan ethirajan, bbc news. let's cross to live pictures of taal, a volcano in the philippines which continues belching clouds of ash. nearly a4,000 people have fled the ten kilometre area where volcanologists have warned

a devastating eruption could rain rocks and magma and set off a tsunami from the lake where the volcano sits. although taal is one of the world's smallest active volcanoes at only 311 metres high, it can be deadly — an eruption killed more than 1,300 people in 1911. we are continuing to monitor that for you. and we will continue to do that as well. you have been watching newsday. i'm kasia madera in london. and i'm mariko oi in singapore. stay with us. we'll have more on the us—china trade deal. we'll hearfrom us businesses for their reaction. we willjoin you for that. mariko, we may be leading the way with an all female presenter team here on newsday, but it looks like the james bond franchise isn't following our example. after a lot of speculation over who the next 007 will be, and whether the character should be

a woman, we can finally we can put those rumours to rest. the films' producers have confirmed the next mi6 agent will stay male. you heard it here on newsday. hello there. we saw a brief window of fine weather for wednesday many of us stay dry with some sunshine. but it is all change. the next area of low pressure moving in for thursday bringing another spell of wet and windy weather to our shores. you can of wet and windy weather to our shores. you can see of wet and windy weather to our shores. you can see here on the brexitise moving up from the south—west, the isobars those are together across the board, but particularly across western areas. it will be a wet start from the word go across northern ireland, scotland, is no—one else, and then the rain will pile into southern and western areas through the day, largely working their way eastward so we should stay dry in until after dark. gale force winds for many, 40-30 dark. gale force winds for many, 40—30 mile—per—hour gusts, in excess of 60 mph across the south—west,

barely blustery. fairly mild in the south, still fingal —— single figure values across the north. the low pressure m oves values across the north. the low pressure moves north was taking the wet and windy weather weather during thursday night. into friday we have a few isobars on the charts, and a couple of weather fronts which will tend to enhance showers activity. we will see a few showers clustered together across parts of scotland, northern ireland, winteriness over the hills, a couple of showers as well into england and wales which will tend to move from west to east. some good spells of sunshine in between. you will notice the temperatures they with all the air mass changing, single figure values, just about 10 degrees across the south—east. so into the weekend it will be colder but with high pressure establishing itself in richard bit dry with good spells of sunshine, but at night it will be cold, we return to some overnight frost. you can see this area of high pressure clearly establishing itself across the uk during saturday and is with us as well into sunday and into the start of next week as well. mind you, we still have low pressure close to the north of the uk, so it

still windy across scotland. further heavy showers across here, maybe hail, is no—one else, maybe one or two showers, moving through the cheshire gap, but they should ease in the afternoon increasing the amount of sunshine for many. but it will be a cool today with temperatures in the single figure values for most of us. and it will bea values for most of us. and it will be a cold night, saturday night, the blue hue developing right across the board, a widespread frost with a risk of some fog or even freezing fog patches, perhaps a little bit of ice where we have had showers through the day. so sunday star top cold and frosty, but it looks like we should tend to lose those strong winds from the north of the country. for many of us here winds will be late. with vocals on it will be cold, but for many of us we should see the sunshine, a very pleasant day itself. something a little bit milder getting into the north—west corner of the country, but for most of us we are in around the mid single digits.

i'm kasia madera with bbc world news. our top story: nancy pelosi signs articles of impeachment and sends them to the us senate, where president trump will go on trial. the house speaker said it was an important moment in her country's history. donald trump has dismissed the process as a con job. it's only the third impeachment trial of a us president. the us and china have signed an initial deal aimed at easing the trade war between the world's two biggest economies. some tariffs will be reduced and china has agreed to buy more american goods. and this story is doing well on our website: meet goody the turtle, who thanks to a new prosthetic is happily swimming again. she's been immobile after losing her flipper a few years ago, in a fishing net. that's all. stay with bbc world news. and the top story in the uk: