a very warm welcome to bbc news. my name's mike embley. our top stories: president trump walks away from negotiations over a multi—trillion dollar covid relief deal, to support the us economy. white house adviser, stephen miller, becomes the latest of over a dozen members of donald trump's inner circle, to test positive for coronvirus. with coronavirus keeping the president off the campaign trail, joe biden tells voters that the us is in a dangerous place. police in bangladesh arrest four men accused of sexually assaulting a young woman, a month after footage of the attack was posted on social media.

eddie van halen, one of rock music's greatest guitarists dies of cancer — long—time friend and fellow rock legend, gene simmonds, pays his own tribute you grab the nearest generation x, or millennium, grab them by the ear and take them away from the ear and take them away from the staff that is being laid and let them hear van hangeland to hear the great staff that he was playing. —— halen. president trump says he's putting on hold negotiations over a stimulus package to help the us economy recover from the pandemic. earlier, he said he's prepared to go ahead next week

with the second televised debate against his democratic rivaljoe biden, despite his treatment for covid and ongoing questions about his health. and in the past few hours it's been confirmed that another senior member of the white house — stephen miller — has tested positiive for coronavirus. in a statement, president trump's advisor said he's been self—isolating and working from home over the last five days and had tested negative every day until tuesday. our correspondent lebo diseko in washington has the latest details on how covid—19 is spreading among those close to president trump. yesterday i counted more than a dozen. even more today. as you said, stephen miller announcing that he has tested positive, also today several senior members of the pentagon have had to work at home because there has been someone tested positive there. so itjust seems like every day we have more cases at the top levels of government, the top levels of the republican party, and i am just not sure when it

is going to stop really. i'm sure donald trump was hoping it would have done by now. some shock, i think, that the president has cancelled these talks over the stimulus package. he has always pushed the economy as his strongest suit. well, the stock market really reacted to it, as we saw, and the interesting thing is that it came just hours afterjerome powell, the chair of the federal reserve, said that actually what we need is more stimulus. now, donald trump has accused nancy pelosi's side, the democrats, of playing games, and saying that they were never in it to help ordinary workers. nancy pelosi has accused donald trump's side, the republicans, of not wanting to help poor children. it really shows you how divided they are and, yeah, just how far apart they seem. now, donald trump also said that he plans to push through his own stimulus deal when he has won the election. president trump, of course, seems to be at pains to present

himself as ready for absolutely anything, including the next presidential debate, which there has been some doubt over. i know we have heard joe biden just in the past few hours talking about that. today, we are engaged once again in a battle for the soul of the nation. the forces of darkness, the forces of division, the forces of yesterday are pulling us apart, holding us down and holding us back. we must free ourselves of all of them. mr biden there, of course, talking about the state of the country as he sees it, but there has been a lot of uncertainty about the next debate and i know he has suggested perhaps it should not go ahead if the president is still ill. what's been the reponse to that? it is a difficult one for a politician because it is easy to present that sort of call as looking weak. yeah, i mean, that was breaking just as i came in the studio to speak to you. i saw that pop up on the associated press wires.

it suppose it does putjoe biden in a difficult position. first of all, you have to say, how are they going to assess whether he still has coronavirus? if i count the days — i'm not a doctor — but if i count the days, the date that the debate is due to be is not within that 14 day window but, ifjoe biden says he's not going to do the debate, it does allows trump to say, well, he has pulled out. it is a really tricky one. in terms of the speech that joe biden made earlier, it was really significant where he chose to make the speech — it was in gettysburg, pennsylvania, the site of a really key battle in the civil war, and also the site of one of lincoln's most famous addresses. and really, he said there was no better place to make this speech. he talked about america being divided, he talked about it being a dangerous place at the moment and really said that he was the candidate to bring

the country together. we've heard him say this before, we've also heard him say this is a battle for the soul of the nation, but i think all of that, along with the location, and the themes that he brought in, even drawing on some of lincoln's words, really had a positive reaction from many people that watched it in washington today. the considerable number of people affected, including the joint chief of staff also in quarantine after attending meetings with admiral ray, the head of the coastguard... sorry, vice commander. we understand he is experiencing mild symptoms but senior ministers meeting with him are now quarantining. none so far

have tested positive or experiencing symptoms and add ray, showing mild systems. well for his take on the president's health i spoke with dr peter chin hong an infectious disease expert and professor of medicine at the univeristy of california san francisco. i asked him for his analysis on just how long the president may have been infectious and how his recovery seems to be going. what was really remarkable was that president trump went from a positive test having mild to moderate symptoms and that does not happen overnight. in fact, the average time of infection to development of symptoms is around four or five days so it does suggest he was infected at least several days before he had symptoms. the white house has been very careful or simply has been very careful or simply has not been saying when he last had a negative test. may have gone to a fundraiser with lots and of people while he was

infectious? that is exactly my concern. the fact that last tuesday, with the presidential debate, the president was accepted on an honour system and not tested on that day, did not give people a lot of confidence and subsequently related he was positive. do you think of the vice presidential debate in 2a hours and the next presidential debate should go ahead? i think it can go ahead but only people have the skin and teeth and the result to enforce the guidelines. —— the resolve. they wanted to use glass to add another layer and if no—one wants to wear masks in the audience, they should really be injected, notjust say it but do it. some positions have described some of the treatment he is

undergoing as groundbreaking and possibly tricky and not so much is known about it and this sense of a sugar rush, you may not realise our ill you. a lot of the presidential treatment so of the presidential treatment so farfor covid—i9 of the presidential treatment so far for covid—i9 would not apply to you or myself if we we re apply to you or myself if we were hospitalised right now. he has got an agent regeneron which is only in the context of a trial stop do have evidence of it but it probably is not harmful. we have good evidence for remdesivir and use of steroid dexamethasone was given earlier than we normally do. dexamethasone could make you feel very euphoric and give you a sense of invincibility. i took some myself a short time andi took some myself a short time and i can tell you you get a buzz with that.

let's get some of the day's other news: hurricane delta has strengthened to a category four storm as it approaches the eastern coast of mexico. residents along the gulf coast are bracing themselves and the emergency authorities are making last—minute preparations before delta makes landfall in the coming hours. hotels in the popular cancun resort have been told to evacuate guests. us secretary of state mike pompeo has lashed out at china at a meeting of us regional allies in tokyo. speaking at the start of talks with his japanese, australian and indian counterparts, he called on them to unite against what he called china's "exploitation, corruption and coercion". and he accused the chinese communist party of a cover—up over the origins of the coronavirus pandemic. a report by the us house of representatives has accused the four giant american tech companies of anti—competitive practices and abuse of power. the report says amazon, apple, facebook and google have dominated online activities and businesses by buying up potential rivals and forcing competitors

to use their technology. in an interview with the bbc, armenia's prime minister has said that ethnic armenians living in the disputed region of nagorno—karabakh are facing genocide. the two countries are clashing over the enclave, which is officially part of azerbaijan but is run by ethnic armenians. the fighting between the two former soviet republics is the worst seen in decades and both countries blame each other for the violence. our correspondentjonah fisher filed this report from yerevan. sirens and explosions ten days in, there is no sign of either armenia or azerbaijan easing up. in and around the disputed region of nagorno—karabakh, shells are falling on cities and on civilians. with people fleeing and having lost territory, armenia's prime minister is on the defensive. under international law, armenia has been illegally occupying nagorno—kara bakh

and the adjacent areas for more than 25 years. you can see why some people have very little sympathy for your plight... translation: that is not true. it is true. look at international law, look at the un general assembly resolutions. translation: there is no such international law that you are citing. everyone is citing the un general assembly resolutions but very few people, unfortunately, have read them. there isn't anything in it to say that armenia has occupied anything. that is not the case. explosion there is very little armenia can do to stop nagorno—karabakh being targeted from the air. this weekend we experienced first hand the terror of shells landing randomly nearby. translation: you have come back from stepa na kert, and it's because you have seen today

that the armenians in nagorno—karabakh are facing an existential threat. it is an existential threat, so the whole problem is, if the armed forces of azerbaijan succeed, it will mean a genocide of the armenians in nagorno—karabakh. azerbaijan is carrying out this offensive with turkey's full backing and today the turkish foreign minister met the azeri president. no social distancing here. both men stated their determination to reclaim nagorno—karabakh. armenia's best bet for support is russia, but for now moscow seems content to watch, as the fighting continues. jonah fisher, bbc news. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: one of the world's most revered guitarists, eddie van

halen, has died at 65l. the rock and roll hall of famer was known for his distinctive guitar parts in hits including jump and panama. this was a celebration by people who were relishing their freedom. they believe everything's going to be different from now on. they think their country will be respected in the world once more, as it used to be, before slobodan milosevic took power. the dalai lama, the exiled spiritual leader of tibet, has won this year's nobel peace prize. as the parade was reaching its climax, two grenades exploded and a group of soldiersjumped from a military truck taking part in the parade, and ran towards the president, firing from kalashnikov automatic rifles. after 437 years, the skeletal ribs of henry viii's tragic warship emerged.

but even as divers worked to buoy her up, the mary rose went through another heart—stopping drama. i want to be the people's governor. i want to represent everybody. i believe in the people of california. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: president trump walks away from negotiations over a multitrillion—dollar covid relief deal, intended to support the us economy. white house adviser stephen miller becomes the latest of over a dozen members of donald trump's inner circle to test positive for coronvirus. facebook has cracked down on qanon conspiracy groups

who lend their support generally to president trump. facebook has classified content linked to qanon as "dangerous" and says it will remove posts from instagram as well. followers of qanon believe president trump is secretly leading a fight against a worldwide conspiracy of paedophiles. facebook says it is clamping down more on misinformation campaigns ahead of the us election. let's speak now to the technologist chris messina a technologist and inventor of the hashtag used across social media platforms. welcome. why is facebook doing this now, specifically?” welcome. why is facebook doing this now, specifically? ithink the big answer is qanon has moved on from this evasion in general to planning acts of violence in the real world —— from misinformation. social media platforms do not want to ta ke media platforms do not want to take responsibility for that type of behaviour, so they're taking action to those groups offer. can you give us an idea what facebook is up against here? honestly, they are up

againstan here? honestly, they are up against an idea. it is going to be difficult for social media for quite a while. these conspiracy theories are a new type of methodology that is spread through digital media and the internet, because people are looking for things to believe in, they are looking for group affiliation, they are looking for an explanation for all of the crazy things going on in 2020 and beyond —— a new type of methodology. —— logy. type of methodology. —— mythology. people are looking to stay connected through these means and ideas and it will be an ongoing information warfare going forward. and people will be looking for some sort of sense that they are in control, that they know is that other people don't get. one big problem of course is getting any idea of how many people are affected or involved in this?” mean, it seems as though this information has been spreading, and furthermore, it has been exacerbated by the ways in which recommendation algorithms are designed. once you start

going down a rabbit hole of conspiracy information that darts out seemingly benign, there is this thing going on and do you want to learn more? once you go down that rabbit hole, over a period of weeks or months, you become radicalised in ways you didn't even believe you are susceptible. that is the challenge we have to confront with social media in general. it is why it has become this silent force, it is happening and it is reaching the way people think and understand the world they see and how they explain the way things are happening. more difficult by the fact president trump has a weekly suppressed his export or at least gratitude for their support. there is a problem, too, in identifying across all social platforms, because people use code. yes. there are a lot of different ways in which people are learning to get around both the ship as well as mechanisms that are put in place to prevent some of these beings ——

get around censorship. instagram and twitter more recently have started to actually put up little speed bumps when people try to share information, for example, through a retweet, that they haven't actually read. a little warning will come up, regardless of the content and says, hey, you didn't actually read this, do you want to share it? that slows down some of the propagation of this information, even as people find new ways of coding there m essa 9 es find new ways of coding there m essa g es to find new ways of coding there messages to get around the censors, that is al, and machine learning, to inhibit the spread of some of that information. and chris, without going down a wormhole ourselves, give us a little idea of what qanon is. essentially, it is a modern revival of historical discredited this information. it's hard for me. i haven't spent any time in that world. i don't know a lot about it. but i have listened to a podcast on research about it. it seems to look at high—powered

individuals, largely democrats and people in hollywood, and suggest they are a bunch of paedophiles that your children and of course, there was pizzagate, where an armed individual came to a pizza parlour in dc, claiming to free the children trapped in the basement of that pizza parlour. there were none. and that is the way we are seeing people get what seem like simple ideas, say, they have the children from paedophiles, taking up actions and alms on their own, when there are groups dedicated to those things already. they're getting on the way because they have a distorted view of what is happening. let's withdraw from that wormhole now. chris messina, thank you forjoining us. thank you. police in bangladesh have arrested four men who are accused of being part of a gang who tortured and sexually assaulted a young woman. it happened more than a month ago but only came to light this week after the men posted footage

of their attack on social media, it was widely shared and condemned. the case has sparked outrage. aru na iyengar reports. hundreds of bangladeshis took to the streets for a second day of protests. there's anger over the latest incidence of sexual violence towards women. video emerged this week of several men stripping and attacking a woman from a disadvantaged community in the southern district of noakhali. before the clip was taken down, it was shared tens of thousands of times on facebook. demonstrators marched on the office of prime minister sheikh hasina, several people were injured. protesters chanted "shame, hasina , " and called on her to resign. anger had already been brewing over the treatment of women. last week, members of the ruling party's student wing were arrested and charged with gang raping a woman in northern sylhet. amnesty international in bangladesh says the disturbing footage demonstrates the shocking violence that bangladeshi women are routinely being subjected to, and called for a thorough and impartial investigation. the protests come after a week of growing outrage

in neighbouring india. there, federal investigators will take over the probe into the alleged gang rape and murder of a low—caste dalit teenager by four higher—caste fellow villagers. aruna iyengar, bbc news. eddie van halen, considered one of the greatest ever rock guitarists, has died aged 65. the co—founder and lead guitarist of van halen had been suffering from throat cancer. the band was a huge commercial success in the 70s and 80s — selling more than 80 million records worldwide. just a little earlier i spoke to another rock legend, gene simmons of kiss.

i asked him to share some of his memories of eddie van halen. i saw them in a club a long, long time ago. and i was so awed. by the class and grandeur. it difficult to talk in rock terms about a band that did not use tapes or backing tracks. nothing like that. all that music came out of eddie's hands. i hadn't heard a player like that since hendrix. for me, it's heartbreaking today because i remember young, innocent eddie van halen. he must have been 20 years old. i took the band into the studio and we recorded 15 songs that i had produced. but it ain't about me, i want to take a moment to tell you that it is very seldom you meet somebody who is a pure soul, who is a beautiful person.

i never once heard eddie say anything bad about anybody, and especially other bands. and as you can well imagine, this business is full of big egos, yours truly included. eddie was an aw—shucks kind of matter—of—fact guy. sorry, i am getting choked up. i'll tell you a sad story. i hadn't seen eddie years and i ran into him on sunset boulevard, and he had a cigarette in his hand and i didn't know what to say. "how you doing?" he said, "yeah, man, i got cancer. what are you gonna do?" i wasjust... i was struck by it. and then he did the strangest thing. he opened up his mouth and showed me what his upper palate looked like. you know, it's

the ravages of cancer. i wanted to reach out — i didn't know what to do. and he sort of brushed it off. it was kind of like, ‘eh‘. and you — you get speechless when you meet somebody who really enjoyed life. i never saw him hang out at the usual clubs where rock stars go for the money and the chicks and all of that stuff, never once. it was all about the music. and if you ever saw van halen live — and if you haven't, shame on you — if you ever saw that band live, when eddie played guitar, he would be smiling from ear to ear. iwasjust looking back, gene, and that gig that you saw at a small angeles club must have been ‘76 or so. you helped them make theirfirst demo. you've known him for a long time. he did always look like he was having such a great time, but he really did have a great time, he pushed it. just — he really lived life the way you should, just enjoy it. you only get one time around.

and my prayers and condolences to his family and his friends and certainly to the fans, greatness has passed. and there will never be another like him. gene simmons on his friend eddie van halen. thank you for watching. hello there. many of us saw some rain at some point during the day on tuesday. and there were some big puddles out and about on the roads. for example, in the highlands of scotland with the wet weather here, and it wasn't just in scotland, the rain was pretty extensive and at its heaviest across north—west england, where in rochdale, and in the greater manchester area, we picked up 42mm of rain. that was the wettest place in the country. it did bring one or two localised issues. now, we've still got a few

showers at the moment, then a clearer slice of weather, but further out in the atlantic, the next lump of cloud is developing, and this will bring rain late in the day on wednesday across many areas. right now, we've got some rain across the north—west of scotland. that rain will be with us well until wednesday to be honest. southwards, a few showers coming down through the irish sea, one or two of those might be picked up in north—west england, particularly around cumbria and north lancashire for a time. otherwise, a slice of sunny weather for northern ireland, wales, and western england. those sunny skies pushing eastwards as we go through the day. some reasonable weather and much more in the way of sunshine compared with tuesday. later in the day, we will see rain returning to northern ireland, wales and south—west england, and along with the rain, it will turn increasingly windy from the south—west late in the day, gusts of about 40—45 miles an hourorso around the coast and hills. that rain extends northwards, probably reaching southernmost areas of scotland for a time. certainly we're looking at a wet night wednesday night, and then the rain slowly

clears away from eastern areas of england. a mixture of sunshine and showers follow from the north and west. it will begin to turn cooler across north—western areas. temperature about nine degrees in stornoway, ii in glasgow. but perhaps around 17 degrees or so for a time in london. that rain band should clear well to the south, but there is a small chance it could ripple its way back. either way, on friday, it looks like we will see a mixture of showers or some lengthier outbreaks of rain, so it is staying on the unsettled side, the air getting cooler for most of us, with temperatures dropping. highs, 10—15 celsius. into the weekend, we will be greeted with a northerly blast coming down, and that will make you feel quite chilly if you're out and about. it will also bring showers down to some of our eastern coasts and into the north of scotland as well. not entirely dry. it will feel quite cool in those strong winds in the east.

this is bbc news, the headlines: president trump has ended negotiations with congress over a multi—trillion dollar stimulus package to help the us economy recover from the pandemic. he says he will only resume talks after the election. a leading democrat says mr trump is putting himself first at the expense of the country. the senior white house adviser, stephen miller, has become the latest of over a dozen members of donald trump's inner circle to test positive for coronvirus since the president announced he had covid—i9. miller's wife, katie, who's a spokeswoman for vice president pence, tested positive for the virus in may. several senior military officials are also quarantining. out on the campaign trail, democratic candidate joe biden has offered a stark assessment of americas place in the world telling voters that the nation

is in a "dangerous place" — and issuing a warning that "the forces of darkness"