this is bbc news. the headlines: lawyers representing president donald trump set out their defence of the us leader in his impeachment trial. they are asking you to do something that no senate has ever done. they are asking you to do it with no evidence. and that is wrong, and i ask you to keep that in mind. the death toll from the coronavirus rises to 41, with authorities in china struggling to contain the outbreak, as millions travel for the lunar new year. there are now known cases of the virus in france and australia, and a state of emergency has been declared in hong kong. a charity offering mental health support to military veterans, says it can't take on new cases because of a funding crisis.

a royal marine recruit has died following a training exercise on a beach in cornwall earlier this week. at least 22 people have been killed, and more than 1,000 injured, in a powerful earthquake in eastern turkey. england take early south african wickets after posting 400 run in their first innings in johannesburg. good afternoon. lawyers for president trump have begun their defence in his impeachment trial in the us senate in washington. democrats, acting as prosecutors, have accused mr trump of abusing his power

and of obstructing congress. in his opening remarks, the president's lead defence attorney, pat cipollone, said there was no evidence for the charges. he said the democrats were trying to overturn the result of the last election,and prevent mrtrumpfrom standing again later this year. we intend to show you some of the evidence that they produced in the house that they decided over the three days and 2a hours that they did not have enough time, or made a decision not to show you. and every time you see one of these pieces of evidence ask yourself, why didn't i see that in the first three days? they had it, it came out of their process , they had it, it came out of their process, why didn't they show that to the senate? and i think that is

an important question. because as house managers, really, their goal should be to give you all of the fa cts should be to give you all of the facts because they are asking you to do something very, very consequential, and i would submit to you, to use a word that has been used a lot, very, very dangerous. and that is the second point that i would ask you to keep in mind today. they are asking you, not only to overturn the results of the last election, but, as i have said before, they are asking you to remove president trump from the ballot of an election that is occurring in approximately nine months. they are asking you to tear up months. they are asking you to tear up all of the ballots across this country on your own initiative, take

that decision away from the american people, and i don't think they spent one minute of their 2a hours talking to you about the consequences of that for our country. let's talk now to the washington bureau chief of the chicago sun times, lynn sweet who is at capitol hill. thank you very much forjoining us here on bbc news. what do you make of the republican ‘s line of defence for president trump? well, as we speak, the chamber is just a few feet away from me. we are on a floor above the senate chamber right now. the attorney of president trump is speaking now. it is about what we

would have expected, and we have had briefings from the donald trump briefings from the donald trump briefing team and they are going to focus on joe biden, briefing team and they are going to focus onjoe biden, who is one of the front runners for the 2020 presidency, a direct threat to donald trump, and also his son will play a role in this trial. as democratic prosecutors pointed out last night, they anticipate that the donald trump lawyers will try and "smear" the bidens in this trial, trying to accomplish getting a prosecution. so far, we are just in the first hour of what will be a short day today of the arguments, they have already previewed that they have already previewed that they are trying to show that the witnesses that had something to say,

that could conceivably buttress a presidential claim that what he was doing was proper, were not highlighted by the defence. that is routine in the american trial system. you don't mention witnesses that don't buttress your case. this is what we are watching for, that is not the same thing as putting witnesses that say what happened did not happen. right now, whatjust happened before is that the trump defence lawyers pointed out that we never heard the ukraine government, oi’ never heard the ukraine government, or the president of ukraine complained that he felt he was shaken down, and what were the democrats, mind readers? this is a point that may be potent with the public, as well as the senators because of the silence of the ukraine government. now, the

democrats have a very strong argument to make because they anticipated this, that the ukraine government needs us military assistance, and it would not serve their purposes. how closely is this impeachment trial proceedings being followed by everyday americans? impeachment trial proceedings being followed by everyday american57m depends on who your friends are, if you have political junkie depends on who your friends are, if you have politicaljunkie friends, you have politicaljunkie friends, you think this is all that is going on. but as you go about everyday life, even though this has, if you choose, the availability to be watched almost everywhere, people have lives. people go to work, they have lives. people go to work, they have kids, it is saturday morning in the united states, you might have a soccer game for your kid, this is a day you might set aside for your dentist or your hair cut, fixing stuff around the house. you may not

tune in. also, the democrats put on a session from 1pm lasting until into the evening, i don't know if this is what she will watch rather than putting your kids to bed. the a nswer than putting your kids to bed. the answer is, where you are in politics is probably the level of where you are, and if you are very engaged, this is a must watch viewing in the us. and finally, as you said the republicans will be hoping to call joe biden, and should they get him, how does he perform under such scrutiny? he said he wouldn't come, andi scrutiny? he said he wouldn't come, and i think it is a slight chance because they would have to be votes on this, and the democrats don't wa nt to on this, and the democrats don't want to do trading, like a hostage trade. i think it is highly unlikely. the thing to remember is,

this is a narrow case. - question this is a narrow case. the question is, a few bite —sized chunks here. what did president trump do in his relations in 2019 with ukraine to withhold aid? so, even if there is something you think you want to know about, hunter biden ‘s —— like the vice president's son, the question of overall corruption in the ukraine, you could also at the moment so you need to set that aside and just focus on the relevancy of the charges. in the united states, when you are charged with a criminal indictment, it is hard sometimes to bring in other matters. if you are charged with robbing a bank, it's ha rd to charged with robbing a bank, it's hard to say well, this person probably has robbed a lot of banks

in his or her time. you are charged with one offence, and that is the main focus and it would take a lot of legal wrangling to bring in that prior offences are relevant. thank you very much for your time. thank you. with me now is michael goldfarb who is an american author, journalist and broadcaster. just picking up from what we heard there. there is a question whether this is a political trial, a legal trial, but as you have hinted, from the republican point of view, he was going to wind this case. is this power at all costs? the republicans, very much like the conservative party, with whom they have very friendly relations indeed, it is

about power. they are about power, more than anything. we live in a post—ideological age. the worry when the man who wrote the constitution we re the man who wrote the constitution were writing about the chief executive, said how can we stop this person becoming a king? this was of critical importance to them. they had a huge debate about whether to include the idea of impeachment. if you include the idea of impeachment, what could he be impeached for? high crimes and misdemeanours. treason, bribery, and other high crimes and misdemeanours. and then they have one line, a trial will be held in the senate presided over by the chiefjustice of the supreme court. that's it, no rules, no nothing. so you go through this process, which is quasi legal. you are going to have witnesses, the house

impeachment managers, the defence team, but instead of a jury of 12, it isajury team, but instead of a jury of 12, it is a jury of the entire senate, 100 senators. and they will vote along party lines. in the clinton impeachment, some democrats did vote to impeach him, and in the richard nixon case, when the articles were reported, there were republicans who voted to impeach. that won't happen this time, this is a purely political exercise. it is political theatre. what is the point from the democrats point of view? well, excuse me. democrats point of view? well, excuse me. the point is twofold. 0ne is, if you genuinely believe the case that he was withholding aid from ukraine for his own political purposes, that impeachable. even if

you lose, you have to bring the indictment. impeachment is just an indictment. impeachment is just an indictment. so that is .1. .2 is because it has become so political when he is acquitted, i can make one certain prediction that he will be acquitted, and when that happens with an election coming up in ten months‘ time, the democrats will hang flat on the republicans at every level of the election, not just at the presidency level, but elections are for the senate, for the house of representatives, local elections, because they are trans party. as more evidence comes out, and the thing is, they have been trying to prevent evidence coming out, and it keeps coming out. 0ver the next few months, there will be even more coming out. each one is a political attack, and i think that is the real reason the democrats pursue this. thank you very much indeed. so, events coming to us live

from the us senate and they are into their first hour of from the us senate and they are into theirfirst hour of a from the us senate and they are into their first hour of a three hour session. there has been 2a hours of defence for president trump. we are watching this closely on bbc news and do stay tuned for all the latest updates. at least 41 people are now known to have died from the coronavirus in china. the number of confirmed cases has risen to almost 1,400. the virus has spread to europe for the first time, with three cases confirmed in france. there‘ve also been three more people identified as having the virus in australia, bringing the total to four. in the uk, 31 people have now been tested for coronavirus, all of which were confirmed as negative. 0ur correspondent, stephen mcdonnell, has gone to the chinese province of hubei, where the outbreak began. the authorities are starting to lock down this entire province of nearly 60 million people,

where the coronavirus emergency began. hospitals in wuhan have been overwhelmed with the sick. state media has reported that one doctor treating people with the virus has died. military medics have been flown in to help with the crisis, as have specialist doctors from shanghai. but the challenge remains considerable, with the infection rate ever on the increase. this is hubei province, where this virus emergency started. as you can see, it is pretty quiet, on the first day of the year of the rat. all these shops are closed. there‘s pretty much nobody on the street here. those who are out on the streets are wearing masks. and you can understand why. people are very worried, and people just don‘t know for how long it‘s going to be like this, for how long they have to stay indoors or risk being infected

with this potentially deadly coronavirus, which causes pneumonia. the leader of hong kong, carrie lam has declared the virus an emergency there. she held a news conference earlier this morning. the level has been raised too serious. i would like to announce that we are going to escalate it to the topmost level, emergency. when oui’ the topmost level, emergency. when our response level is pitched at emergency level, the interdepartmental coordinating committee to be chaired by myself, the chief executive, and we have a command centre so the chief executive, and we have a command centre so that we can get the views from the experts, and they can come up the views from the experts, and they can come up with the strategies, as well as the initiatives. when we deal with this public health event, i think you will understand that sometimes we need to be very quick

in making decisions, therefore having it coming under the chief executive, we can then make the decisions for the society of hong kong. the headlines on bbc news: lawyers representing president donald trump, are setting out their defence of the us leader, in his impeachment trial. the death toll from the coronavirus rises to a1, with authorities in china struggling to contain the outbreak, as millions travel for the lunar new year. a royal marine recruit has died following a training exercise on a beach in cornwall earlier this week. england ‘s ben stokes has been fined 50% of his match fee for swearing during the performance yesterday. two catches from him helped england ta ke two catches from him helped england take five wickets. in the fourth round of the fa cup, leicester have been beaten 1—0. it

was branford leicester have been beaten 1—0. it was bra nford ‘s leicester have been beaten 1—0. it was branford ‘s last cup game before they move to a new ground next season. and after beating karen, nick kyrgios will play top—seeded rafael nadal in the australian open. it will be an interesting match as the two famously don‘t see eye to eye. i'll two famously don‘t see eye to eye. i‘ll be back with more on all of those tories after az30pm. —— stories. the uk‘s leading mental health charity for military veterans, combat stress, has said it is unable to deal with new cases, because of cuts in funding. from monday, former service personnel in england and wales will be re—directed to the nhs for treatment. the nhs said in a statement its "number one priority is providing the best ca re for vetera ns". but veterans‘ minister johnny mercer said he will hold an "urgent meeting" over the charity‘s problems. 0ur correspondent, chi chi izundu reports.

they‘re known as tough and resilient, but being in the military can be an incredibly stressful job. report after report have shown the impact it can have on the mental health of personnel, but now one of the leading charities for veterans‘ mental health is warning, from monday, thanks to funding cuts, it will now have to stop taking on new referrals. combat stress says it receives around 2,000 referrals for treatment every year, but its income has fallen from £16 million to £10 million in this current financial year. very, very reluctantly — i think this is the only time the organisation has ever considered doing this — we have decided that we need to make sure we can meet the needs of everyone who is currently in our system and we are not going to take referrals in england and wales where we have the greatest risks of safety, if you like, for the near future. the charity says it still receives

more than £1 million from nhs scotland, so can still take referrals from there, but 90% of its income comes from public donations, and with nhs england and nhs wales cutting their funding, they‘ve had to make tough decisions. all new referrals will now be redirected to the nhs, but a number of groups and charities have warned of a spike in the number of veterans taking their own lives. earlier i spoke to paul smith, a former royal navy engineer who served in the falklands war. he then became a police officer. he didn‘t get help for ptsd for 30 years after the initial trauma, which had devastating consequences on him and his family. he told me how he finally got help. when i retired i had more time to think about what was going on. and i didn‘t know i was that ill. i didn‘t realise i was that ill,

although my wife says she felt that i needed help. but it wasn‘t until i‘d actually retired that it came to a crescendo, and my wife said, "you‘ve got to get help", and she actually took me to my own gp. my wife spoke for me most of the time, because i was in the corner, crying my eyes out. i was a mess. i was then referred by my gp to a local mental health authority, who then referred me to a specialist for ptsd, post—traumatic stress disorder, and he, over a ten week period, diagnosed me with severe post—traumatic stress disorder from serving in the falklands in 1982, as a 17—year—old boy. i wanted to go to the falklands, i think every boy does. every boy wants to stand up and say "i fought for my country", but it‘s a whole different ball game when you actually get there,

and the fear sets in, and the sights you see. i was then put forward to go to combat stress, and combat stress saved my life. i would be drinking now, i would be lying in a ditch, or i may have committed suicide. now, i‘m happy, i‘ve got lots of friends, i help other veterans. my family, i get a chance to show my family that that wasn‘t the real me, that i actually do care for them, and it wasn‘t me that was there. i can‘t turn the clock back. i can say sorry, but i can‘t turn the clock back, but now i can affect the future, and combat stress have basically given me my life back. they‘ve been there, they‘ve understood me. the clinicians there are specialists, to dealing with military veterans. the veterans‘ language

at times isn‘t perfect, but the clinicians at combat stress are aware of that. they are also aware of the way that the military act and react. the clinicians there are dealing with people who have been taught to fight, taught to kill, and they, they understand the way a military veteran likes to be spoken to, the way that they like to be treated. but the whole ethos around combat stress is helping, but also having other veterans with you, to go on thatjourney. many people, many members of public are shocked that the military, ie the government, are not giving that post— service care for their veterans, and it is now a charity that is having to pick up the pieces, quite literally, for lives like yourself. what is your message? well, i have two feelings. i‘m angry and i‘m disappointed. the military, both men and women,

serve this country, and they put their — they are willing to die for this country, and they come back and it‘s as if the government, all the governments are ignoring them. that was paul smith, a military vetera n, that was paul smith, a military veteran, speaking to me earlier. a royal marine who was injured in a training incident, earlier this week, has died. the marine was part of a group that had been practising an assault from a landing craft on tregantle beach in cornwall. the recruit had been wearing full kit — and had "gone under water" during the exercise on tuesday evening. the royal navy said its "thoughts and sympathies" were with the recruit‘s family and friends. iraqi security forces have fired tear gas to disperse protesters in the centre of baghdad. police moved against the main anti—government protest site, near the capital‘s tahrir square, removing concrete barriers. several people are reported to have been injured. the violence comes just a day after huge crowds took to the streets of baghdad,

to demand the expulsion of us troops from iraq. rescue workers in eastern turkey are continuing to search for survivors, after an earthquake killed at least 22 people and left more than1,000 injured. the 6.8 magnitude quake, which centred on the town of sivrice in elazig province, caused buildings to collapse and was felt in neighbouring countries. gareth barlow reports. rescuei’s carry sui’vivoi’s out from the rubble. the 6.8 magnitude quake sent buildings crashing to the ground and residents rushing into the streets. the exact moment the earthquake struck, captured live on turkish tv. amid the inky darkness, among ruined buildings, screams rang out as more than 400 rescue teams rushed to help survivors.

dozens of aftershocks followed the main tremor, which was also felt in neighbouring syria, lebanon and iran. the region, 550 kilometres east of the capital ankara, is remote and sparsely populated so the true extent of the damage and fatalities could be slow to emerge. turkey lies on major fault lines and is prone to frequent earthquakes — around 17,000 people died in a massive quake in 1999. gareth barlow, bbc news. two people have died in a house fire in hull, including a young girl. humberside fire and rescue were called to wensley avenue this morning. a man was pronounced dead at the scene, while the child died in hospital. the cause of the fire is unknown. harry dunn‘s mother has urged the united states to show "humanity" and extradite the woman accused of causing his death. the teenager died after his motorbike collided with a car outside raf croughton

in northamptonshire in august. the us government has rejected the uk‘s extradition request for anne sacoolas, who left the country under diplomatic immunity. the business secretary andrea leadsom is the family‘s local mp — she met the us ambassador yesterday. the prime minister is very much on the side of the family in their desire to see justice done for harry, and all of us in government are working towards that end. football is too dependent on money from gambling sponsorships, according to the sports minister, nigel adams. his warning comes amid mounting scrutiny of the industry after a deal was struck for some fa cup games to be shown exclusively on betting websites. here‘s our sports editor, dan roan. the last round of the fa cup was overshadowed by an outcry over

a deal that meant some matches were only shown live on bookmakers‘ websites. there‘s since been a climb—down, but the controversy has reignited concern at how much betting companies use football to advertise. and having committed to reviewing gambling laws, the government says it now wants to see change. there is way too much dependency within football on gambling, for the sponsorship. that‘s plain to see. we have to look at this very, very carefully because problem gambling, you know, addictive gambling leads to serious social problems. and i am sure the football authorities are aware of that but they do need to look at different sources of income. meanwhile, the government has announced the paralympics have been added to the crown jewels list of protected sports events that must be shown on free to air television coverage. it‘s absolutely essential that the paralympics have parity with the olympics. and if you look at the viewing figures over the years at successive games and how interested people are in the paralympic games,

it‘s absolutely worth ensuring we level up. sports like para table tennis have enjoyed free to air coverage of the paralympics on channel 4 since london 2012, but terrestrial tv coverage is now guaranteed. my family are so supportive, family and friends are very supportive and a lot of them are coming out to tokyo. but in the future if they can't, if someone can't afford it or something, it's really nice knowing that they'll actually still be able to watch me back at home. this is the first change to the listed events in 20 years and there may be more to come. the government also now considering adding women‘s events like the world cup and the fa cup final in a sign of their growing popularity. dan roan, bbc news. now it‘s time for a look at the weather. hello. the first half of the weekend has brought more of the grey, gloomy weather we have become used to over

recent days. here comes the first sign ofa recent days. here comes the first sign of a change. rain splashing through northern ireland, western scotland, eventually into west wales and the far south—west by the end of the night. a breezy night, so not especially cold. 3—7dc. into tomorrow, we bring our band of rain from the west towards the east, it‘ll be moving quite slowly, east anglia and the south—east staying dry through the morning and into the first part of the afternoon, but behind the rain band the sky of brighton, showers developing which will be wintry over modest tills in scotland. an increasingly chilly day tomorrow with temperatures dropping as the day wears on. they could be some ice across northern england, parts of northern ireland and scotla nd parts of northern ireland and scotland to start monday morning. wintry showers through the day, windy and rather cold. hello, this is bbc news. the headlines.