a very warm welcome to bbc news. my name's mike embley. our top stories: all eyes are on the us state of utah, as mike pence and kamala harris take centre stage at the vice presidential debate. president trump releases a video hoping all americans get free access to the treatments that helped his recovery and claims that contracting coronavirus was a positve. i feel great. i felt like perfect. so i think this was a blessing from god, that i caught it. this was a blessing in disguise. a us court charges two british members of the islamic state group, nicknamed the beatles, with murder, for killing american hostages in syria. life in a warzone — we report on the families trapped by fighting between azerbaijan and armenia.

people here tell us, this is the way it has been for the last few days. it has become the normal routine to have indiscriminate shelling. hello, debate time again. it's the turn of us vice president mike pence and democratic vice presidential nominee, kamala harris, to take the stage tonight. the pair will face—off for their one debate at the university of utah in salt lake city. sophie long is there for us. often the one presidential debate is a bit of a sideshow but not this time? no, you can really feel the excitement

building. the debatejust really feel the excitement building. the debate just an hour away. 60 students will get to watch live inside the debate whole. protesters outside becoming more and more vocal. why so much interest this time around? it is notjust the age of the presidential candidates, both in the 70s, notjust that donald trump is still recovering from coronavirus so we do not yet know if the remaining two residential debate will take place, because of the pandemic, they have not been able to campaign in that normal weight so this is an opportunity for them to reach the american public and among them the undecided voters. they have one shot with the election less tha n have one shot with the election less than a month away. iam i am concerned whether you would treat every american equally. she is known for her incisive questioning.” equally. she is known for her incisive questioning. i know full we ll

incisive questioning. i know full well the importance of presidential leadership. he has been the president right—hand man for the past four years. today the debate will be watched by tens of millions of voters. vp debate are not normally the headline of a presidential campaign but this one is anything but normal. given the age of their bosses, and that president trump has coronavirus, we do not know if the next two presidential debate will take place. tonight, this will be the most important of its kind in history. they take over if there is the death of the president of the united states. everyone is talking about it. there is no way you cannot talk about it. there is at least some track that one of these two could become president of the united states. we speak for

ourselves... in these deeply religious state, president trump's first time has led republicans to look for something different. republicans to look for something differentlj republicans to look for something different. i wish no ill towards him but i think it isa time ill towards him but i think it is a time for us to think about doing better. this should have never been a political issue. coronavirus should have been something where we come together and work together for the good of everyone and that is why character matters in a president. but at this pro trump potato bar — yes, there is such a thing — think he has shown strength. when you are a soldier you are at risk, you go in there and a rally your trips, you have to build the morality of your trips, you have to be victorious and not afraid. unfortunately, some

soldiers, when they go to war, they get wounded. mike pence will go to battle for the current commander—in—chief. against the prosecutor fighting for his competitor, joe biden. the stakes are high. just picking up from your report. let's talk logistics. everything about this debate very choreographed but particularly, plexiglass is making an appearance, the distance between when they seat has been increased. a bit of free debate debate over the plexiglass. kamala harris wa nted plexiglass. kamala harris wanted increased precautions following all the white house related coronavirus positive tests a nd related coronavirus positive tests and that will now happen. mike pence had resisted that. possibly because this is not just about safety and the

pandemic that also about the politics and the visuals of the night. they will be sitting more than 12 feet apart with plexiglass screens separating them. the 90 minute debate will be watched by tens of millions of people across america and debate, the visual reminding as it is taking place in a global pandemic, more that has killed more than 200,000 americans and, of course, one of the people, mike pence has been leading the task was leading the response by america. that will take upa the response by america. that will take up a lot of the content will take up a lot of the co nte nt of will take up a lot of the content of the debate as well this evening. people will not have forgotten last week's debate, the battle of the old white man and a very ugly business it was. they have certain things in common but these two are from absolutely different universes? you could not get to more polar opposite

on the same stage. kamala harris, californian senator, a former prosecutor, descendant of jamaican former prosecutor, descendant ofjamaican and indian parents and on the other side, you have my hands, without evangelical catholic stop someone said earlier, you cannot get anyone much more white than mike pence. they come from com pletely pence. they come from completely different backgrounds and have completely different experiences in a com pletely different experiences in a completely different job to different experiences in a completely differentjob to do. joe biden leading in the polls at the moment. kamala harris's double bed to maintain that and double bed to maintain that and do no harm. p on the other hand will be seeking to turn that around. —— mike pence. with the election less than a month away, there will not be much more opportunity to do that. the stakes are high and if these two candidates have just one shot and we do not yet know whether the two remaining presidential debates will take

place. donald trump wants them to go ahead. in terms of the joe biden campaign, they are not sure yet. he is infected with the coronavirus and perhaps it should not happen. the debate due to occur in just over 50 minute's time. let's get some of the day's other news: the main officer charged in the killing of george floyd has been released on $1 million bail. derek chauvin is scheduled to face trial in march along with three former colleagues. footage of mr chauvin pressing his knee on george floyd's neck caused a huge outpouring of protests around the world. president trump has lost his latest bid to shield his tax returns in a federal appeals court. the manhattan district attorney says his office can enforce a subpoena for his tax returns for a criminal investigation into the president and his businesses. a lawyer for mr trump says he will take the case to the supreme court. hurricane delta has torn across mexico's eastern coastline, toppling trees and ripping down power lines,

with winds of up to 175 kilometres per hour. the powerful storm now has the northern gulf coast of the united states in its sights, with hurricane warnings issued for parts of texas and louisiana. in the last hour the white house has released a new video of president trump, in which he says he wants to make regeneron, the experimental antibody treatment he received, free for all americans affected by covid—i9. standing outside the oval office, and not wearing a mask, trump says his infection was "a blessing from god". i want everybody to be given the same treatment as your president because i feel great. i feel like perfect. so president because i feel great. ifeel like perfect. so i think this was a blessing from god that i got it. this was a blessing in disguise. i caught it, i heard about this drug, i said, let me take it. it was my

suggestion. i said let me take it and it was incredible the way it worked. i think if i did not catch it would looking at that just like any not catch it would looking at thatjust like any other drug but it really did do a fantasticjob. i but it really did do a fantastic job. i want but it really did do a fantasticjob. i want to get for you but i got and i am going to make it free, it was not your fault this happened it was a china's fault and china will pay a big price for what happened to this country, china will pay a big price for what they have done to the world. this was china's fault. let's speak to the bbc‘s nomia iqbal in washington. a certain manic quality about that, it has to be said and it gets us talking about the president which i guess is one thing he wants but it raises any more questions than it a nswers ? any more questions than it answers? it certainly does. this is donald trump dignified, which he has been ever since leaving walter reed hospital and even before then. he wants to show he's a man of strength, that he is in control and as we had, he is claiming that

regeneron is effectively is a cure regeneron is effectively is a cu re stop regeneron is effectively is a cure stop it is worth remembering that regeneron is an experimental drug, only a handful of people have been at it. he was given it for compassionate reasons. it has not been approved by federal regulators. he is on but if you other x—ray mental drugs, including heavy steroids so we are not quite sure why he thinks it is regeneron that has made him feel better. there are still questions about how healthy donald trump is because there has been a huge confusion about the state of his health but it allows him to show not only that he is on top of the pandemic that he survived it. he wants to show that he knows what he's doing. the figures speakfor what he's doing. the figures speak for themselves though stop more than 211,000 people have died here in the us, 7.5 million people infected with coronavirus and at the numbers

are going. going by appearances, he is raring to go but we do not know if it is the drug awaken, if he was not as ill but also this question, how long has he had the virus? the white house will not answer the question, when was his last negative test which raises the worry that he was positive longer than we think and infecting many people. he had not been seen in public for two days before that video. we had from him, he tweeted more than 100 times in the last 2a hours. but this is about donald trump reframing the narrative. there is not going to be a vaccination before the election but he is saying, actually, now we have a cure even though none of his team, none of his

doctors have said so. also blaming china for it. this is not long before the vice presidential debate. mike pence is the head of the coronavirus task force and this will bring something for him to bring to the debate tonight. thank you very much. two british members of the islamic state group have arrived in the united states to face charges related to the murder of hostages from america, the uk and japan. alexanda kotey and elshafee elsheikh, were flown from iraq, where they'd been in american military detention following their capture by kurdish forces two years ago. the two men admit belonging to is, but have denied killing hostages. here's our state department correspondent, barbara plett usher. what they have said is that their main role was facilitating ransom negotiations, that they had nothing to do with those gruesome killings which were recorded on video and posted online. but the indictment has said that they took part in physical and psychological violence, prolonged physical and psychological violence, and that they were part

of a hostage—taking that resulted in death. and american prosecutors feel they have quite a strong case, especially since they just got some additional information from the uk and they've been looking for that for many years, orfor a number of years. but the hold—up was that there is capital punishment in the usa and there isn't capital punishment in the uk. and finally injuly, the attorney general here promised that prosecutors would not seek the death penalty, and so that was the big breakthrough for the trial to go ahead. and of course, there are british victims, as you mentioned in your intro, and judicial officials have acknowledged that. but this trial is going to be about the four american victims, and it's very important to the families, in particular, who see it as the best way to ensure that the islamic state group doesn't get the last word. journalist james foley was murdered by the group. his mother, diane foley, gave the bbc her reaction to the news. i am tremendously grateful to all of you good people

in the uk, as well as to our fbi, department ofjustice, ag barr, and so many people outside of government also, pro bono attorneys on both sides of the atlantic. i'm just hugely grateful to everyone that has helped us get to this first huge step in some accountability for these horrific crimes. i really hope that they will give us information about not only our children, but of some of the other crimes done by isis, as well as implicating others. these two were not the only ones, and i fear that there's others still in refugee camps, hiding in our midst. so, i think it's really a national security issue for all of us that this step towards accountability be undertaken. i feel that it's essential that

these crimes are made public. i think people need to know the depth of the hatred of this group and others who seek to destroy our way of life. i think that transparency is really essential. i think too much of the world is just naive and unaware of the threats of international hostage taking, for one. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: the perils of long covid — we report on the long—term effects of the illness suffered by hundreds of thousands of people. 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:

all eyes are on the us state of utah — as mike pence and kamala harris take centre stage at the vice presidential debate. president trump releases a video claiming coronavirus was a "blessing from god" — and that he wants all americans to have free access to the treatments he was given. the fighting between two former soviet republics could enter its third week if azerbaijan and armenia can't find a way to settle their territorial dispute over the nagorno—karabakh region. our international correspondent orla guerin reports now from the city of tartar, on the frontline. azeri forces continuing their advance, in footage released by the authorities here. they only show the victories, not the losses, and they don't allow independent access to the frontline. but we were allowed to enter the ghost town of tartar, which borders nagorno—karabakh.

it's normally home to 100,000 people. most have been driven out by armenian shelling. but not osman, who we found picking up shrapnel. "the armenians caused a lot of destruction," he told us, "but it doesn't matter as long as they are driven out." some here in tartar are sheltering underground. he doesn't respond? aybeniz tells me her grandson faras is used to it, and she's not going anywhere. translation: we've been waiting for this for 28 years. that's why we don't want to take one step away. we're very excited about what's happening. my son and daughter are fighting on the front line. well, we've just been hearing more incoming fire. we heard what sounded like a jet a few minutes ago and there were some explosions

in the last half an hour or so. now, people here tell us this is the way it's been for the last few days. it's become the normal routine to have indiscriminate shelling. and they say that nine civilians have been killed in this area. no cradle for faras, just a lullaby. but scenes like this are being repeated on the other side of the front line, as ethnic armenians are shelled by azerbaijan. in the azeri capital baku, they come to honour soldiers who fell in combat, stretching back to the soviet era. there's a lot of nationalism on display here and a lot of gratitude for strong backing from turkey. "we've come to visit the martyrs," says 20—year—old gulnar, "and to celebrate some of our victories. we believe there are a lot more to come." while they look to turkey, armenia is looking to russia. so far, it's largely staying out of the picture.

for people here, the conflict over nagorno—karabakh was never frozen. and now, the old hatreds are threatening to inflame the region. orla guerin, bbc news, baku. the head of the nhs in england says hundreds of thousands of people could be suffering the effects of what's know as long covid. for most people, covid—19 is a relatively mild illness which passes quickly. but many others are left struggling with symptoms for months afterwards, as our medical editor fergus walsh explains. initially, i couldn't even climb a flight of stairs. this is what long

covid can look like. ok, arms across your chest... suji yathindra is a doctor in a&e. he got only a mild illness with covid, yet it's left him so exhausted he's been off work for three months. get out of breath quite easily, lots of muscle aches, joint pains. that's it, really. if i do exercise, the next day i'm out of it. ok, i'm going to time a minute, this post—covid clinic at london's university college hospital is diagnosing a vast array of physical, mental and cognitive problems, all stemming from coronavirus infection. so we are seeing people with really severe fatigue and really significant breathlessness, people who were running marathons at the beginning of the year, previously fit and well, didn't need any hospital admission for their covid but, six months on, are too fatigued to even get to the

shops to buy food. long covid is a huge, emerging health problem. doctors say there is an urgent need for research into what drives the condition and produces such a wide variety of serious, debilitating symptoms. many people are struggling to get help with the after—effects of coronavirus. the boss of nhs england says £10 million will be spent on setting up more long—covid clinics across england. it's clear that there are tens of thousands, probably hundreds of thousands of coronavirus patients with these long—covid symptoms, so we need to specialist clinics like this, but also rehabilitation services across the community to both support those patients and to learn more about the best treatments for them. between 60 and 70, like so many with long covid, robert moore had only a minor coronavirus infection, yet the 30—year—old

suffers repeated muscle and joint pain, brought on by any physical activity. as soon as i do anything, whether that's going for a walk or preparing something to eat or doing any form of cognitively difficult tasks, i'lljust find a huge amount of fatigue the next day, whether that's muscular orjust a sort of general fatigue. so far, the focus has been on saving lives in the pandemic, but covid is leaving a bitter legacy for many that may stay with them for months 01’ even years. fergus walsh, bbc news. the nobel prize for chemistry has been jointly awarded to two scientists. emmanuelle charpentier, who's from france, and america's jennifer doudna, have been honoured for their development of a technique for editing genomes. it's been used to contribute to new cancer therapies. emmanuelle charpentier said she hoped the prize would send a strong message to girls that they could have a successful career in science.

before we go, here's a question for you: what would you do with $32 million? a new house? a new car? well, one anonymous bidder at an auction had a different answer: meet stan, this 67 million—year—old tyrannosaurus rex skeleton that was picked up at an auction at christie's. it was a 20—minute virtual bidding war that quadrupeled his estimated value of $8 million. stan is one of only about 50 t—rex fossils ever discovered. the 40—foot dinosaur is in pristine condition with 188 bones and over 11—inch long teeth. we have full coverage of the vice—presidential debate from salt lake city. you can follow it here on bbc news live in a special programme — that's coming up next. there are fewer than four weeks until the election, as we don't know whether the second presidential debate will go ahead stop it can be a bit of a

sideshow, these events, not this one. given the health of presidential candidates and their age, this one really matters. . hello. the weather picture first thing not looking so great across england and wales, a lot of cloud out there and some outbreaks of rain. but hang in there because the afternoon offers a much brighter picture. here we are with this area of low pressure currently feeding in all of the cloud and the rain, but notice to the north of it how much clearer the skies are. we'lljust pick out this little white streak of cloud here, though, because that is a line of showers that will push into scotland and northern ireland. and they're set to be pretty punchy. but once this band of rain starts its journey southwards through the morning, skies will begin to brighten. so, by 9am, hopefully something a little bit brighter already into wales. scotland and northern ireland should see some decent sunshine from the get—go, but a lot of those showers already in the west turning quite heavy, perhaps clumping together into longer spells of rain. just a few, i think,

further south and for northern ireland. the front finally off into the continent after lunch, and that's when we'll see things brighten for southernmost counties. for much of england and wales, though, not a bad second half of the day at all. perhaps just some cloud hanging back across east anglia, but up to 17 degrees in the brightness, 11—12 further north for scotland and northern ireland. through thursday evening and overnight into friday, plenty of showers crossing scotland, a more organised band of rain trails back into northern ireland and sinks into northern england. either side of that cloud and rain, quite a chilly start to friday, patchy frost perhaps in some rural spots across england and wales and northern scotland. and then a lot of cloud around for northern england, northern ireland and wales first thing on friday, then this whole system sinks its way southeastwards through the day. so, we'll see cloud and rain moving in for southern and eastern england, i think, later on on friday. still plenty of showers further north, but hopefully interspersed with some sunny spells. and then from friday into the weekend, here's our next significant transition. we move into a northerly airstream. we move into polar air, that's the blue shading on the map behind me, and we do so because we finally

pull away the low pressure that we've been talking about all week towards the continent and allow a high to establish from the atlantic. the squeeze between the two, though, gives us that northerly airstream, so quite a chilly northerly breeze but a lot of dry weather and sunshine for the majority of the uk for the weekend ahead. but some on northern coasts could be prone to some thicker cloud, perhaps the odd shower and we may see some drifting in off the north sea into eastern england as well.

a very warm welcome to bbc news. my name's mike embley, in london. and i'm katty kay in washington. mike pence and kamala harris take centre stage at the vice presidential debate — we'll bring you all the latest, live from utah.

they're often run of the mill affairs but, with president trump suffering from covid—19, and joe biden family old, this debate becomes the most important of its kind in history. will their performance swing any votes? we'll have analysis of the debate with amanda renteria, former national political director for hillary clinton in 2016. doesn't that seem a long time ago! and republican strategist ron christie. hello and welcome to our special coverage — for 90 minutes the american political world will focus on a stage in salt lake city, utah for a vice presidential debate like no other in history. for a start, this one actually matters. usually no one pays much attention to the number two candidates but, with donald trump in isolation with a virus that has killed

210,000 americans,