this is bbc news. welcome if you're watching here in the uk, on pbs in america, or around the globe. i'm lewis vaughan jones. our top stories: donald trump tells american television he's in great shape and wants to get back on the campaign trail. in michigan, the fbi arrests six men in an alleged plot to kidnap the state's governor,gretchen whitmer. more fighting and more deaths in the disputed region of nagorno—karabakh, but peace talks are imminent. and one of america's leading poets louise gluck wins the nobel prize for literature.

hello, welcome to the programme. i will start in the us. us president donald trump has just given an interview with fox news, saying he's in great shape and is looking forward to a return to public campaigning, but had to be repeatedly pressed on whether he's had a coronavirus test since his diagnosis. i think ithink i'm i think i'm going to try doing a rally on saturday night. if we have enough time to put it together but we want to do a rally in florida probably on saturday night. might come back and do one in pennsylvania in the following night and it's incredible what's going on, i feel so good. have you had a test since your diagnosis a week ago? well, what we're doing is probably the test will be tomorrow and the actual test because there is no reason to test all the time but they found very little infection or

virus, if any, i found very little infection or virus, ifany, i don't found very little infection or virus, if any, i don't know that they found any, i did not go into it greatly with the doctors. for more, i'm joined by our north america correspondent david willis in los angeles. very interesting, the president bullish about the state of his health, saying that he feels well and he wants to get back on the campaign trail as early as saturday. he is hoping to put together a rally in the swing state of florida and won the following night in another swing state, pennsylvania. that following the word from his personal physician sean conley that the president has now completed his treatment and can return to normal duties. what was interesting about this interview was the president was asked by somebody who has long been a supporter of his, fox news's sean hannity, whether he had been tested recently for the coronavirus, since his diagnosisjust over a

the coronavirus, since his diagnosis just over a week ago. and did you test negative and on both occasions, the president dodged and declined to give a straightforward answer. now, there has been a lot of speculation of course about when the president first became infected with the coronavirus, potentially affecting the people with whom he associated, so even more confusion if you like about the background to president trump ausmat coronavirus diagnosis. interestingly, he lost his voice a couple of times during the interview, didn't he. —— trump's. he did, there was one moment when he coughed and disappeared off the line for a couple of seconds and returned to say excuse me. that, i am sure as well, will raise further speculation amongst those who believe the president perhaps is not as, he puts it, a person “— perhaps is not as, he puts it, a person —— a perfect physical specimen at this point in time. it has become a very controversial matter in the

united states though lewis because the president's personal physician mr conley has dodged direct questions, not least about the sort of treatment that the president has been receiving at the walter reed medical hospital in marilyn. david willis. 13 men have been charged with an alleged plot to kidnap the governor of the us state of michigan, gretchen whitmer. the fbi says the plot involved six of the men abducting the governor and taking her to a remote location to put her on trial for treason. governor whitmer has accused president trump of encouraging far right groups by, as she put it, fraternizing with domestic terrorists. just last week, the president of the united states stood before the american people and refused to condemn white supremacists and hate groups like these two michigan militia groups. "stand back and stand by," he told them. "stand back and stand by." hate groups heard the president's words not

as a rebuke, but as a rallying cry, as a call to action. when our leaders speak, their words matter. they carry weight. when our leaders meet with, encourage or fraternise with domestic terrorists, they legitimise their actions and they are complicit. earlier, i spoke to irish times' journalist stephen starr, who met members of the wolverine michigan militia corps last year. i asked what his thoughts were after meeting the group. just to be 100% clear, this group that has been accused is called the wolverine watchmen and the organisation i met was the michigan militia corps watchmen. wolverines, pardon me. the link between them is not clear, although we can surmise

that it is unlikely there are two separate michigan militia groups both with the name wolverine in the title. i met them at an annual open event they were holding at a restaurant in a village called howell, which is 30 minutes from where two of the people were arrested last night in relation to the plot, were found. a disparate group of people, i would say, about 20 people in total, a number of them there for the first time. there were new people who would join the meeting, and who were unhappy with the state of the country. some of the people were very cagey, not interested in speaking to the press. if i could split them into groups, there were a section of people, the organisers, who spoke about tactics in terms of camping or in terms of outdoor activities and things like that.

there was one gentleman was a military veteran who quite outspoken as well about the state of political leadership. well, that's interesting, just on that point, that grievance in the state political leadership and things like that. given that, how surprised or shocked were you when you heard about this alleged plot to actually kidnap the governor? it's interesting that you mention that because something that you said — and it wasn't a question i asked — they were unhappy with the state political leadership. and one of them made a comment in relation to taxes or infrastructure around michigan, so to what extent we can make a link, if it's one and the same group, we are not sure, but what we can be certain of is the fact that these expect the state political leadership was on their minds. that was 1.5 years ago when i

met them. how seriously did you take them and their grievances at the time? it's difficult to say from meeting a group of people, guarded people, meeting them for a couple of hours. the purpose of that meeting was to recruit new members and they would ask the media to come along and kind of sit in on the conversation. i was sent an email thereafter, after i was sent the link to the story, and they said they were very unhappy and they made the point of saying that they would never speak to the media again. some of the people at this meeting wouldn't give their name. in the letter, they said, after they read the article, they wouldn't say who they were, making these comments, so it gives a sense at least that there is something to hide. at the very least. that's interesting. we know from these allegations, these reports that their communications on social media of what they assumed were closed groups, that actually,

we think, managed to be tracked. the idea of secrecy is being picked up as a theme. absolutely. one of the cohort, if we can say, a group of young men, within that group, spoke very little. one of them spoke quite disparagingly about the federal government, saying things like the federal government has weapons, what is the reason the federal government has all these weapons and i can't have them? one gentleman was quite outspoken in that regard. the majority of the young men wouldn't speak to me, wouldn't say who they were, why they had come there at all. our thanks to stephen starr. there's much more on this story on our website, including this breakdown on what the accused men were planning and a detailed look at us militia groups. just log on to bbc.com/news.

there has been fresh fighting between azerbaijan and ethnic armenians over the disputed region of nagorno—karabakh ahead of talks involving the us, france and russia, aimed at securing a ceasefire and averting a wider war. more than 300 people have died and thousands have been displaced since the latest fighting broke out last month. our international correspondent orla guerin reports from the city of goranboy. the newest victim of a conflict decades old — an azeri woman killed in indiscriminate shelling by armenian forces. but both sides are guilty of that. a mourner cries out, "god, kill the armenians!"

the community here steeped in its own pain, just like its enemies across the front line. tourian guliyeva, on the left, was 63 and a widow. her neighbours deep in shock, just hours after the attack. translation: she was a single woman and she wouldn't leave her house. we were asking her, "come to us. stay with us or go to your relatives." she said, "they won't be able to hit us". but they did, at 6:30am. her sister—in—law is anguished, but committed to the fight for nagorno—karabakh. "kara bakh is ours", she tells me. "it was ours and it will be ours.

our sons and brothers are fighting now, and i know they will be fighting to the end." it has already been a long battle for many here. they were driven from nagorno—karabakh during the war in the early ‘90s. they say it's occupied territory and part of their motherland. there is a real sense here of shock, of grief and of anger. this was a woman killed in her own home, in her own bed. every fresh attack, every new death, adds to the bitterness here, which already stretches back for decades. as turyan was buried, russia, france and the us were pushing for a ceasefire. for now, there is no sign of that, no respite for those who mourn, here or

inside nagorno—karabakh. orla guerin, bbc news, goranboy, azerbaijan. four hostages have flown into bamako airport in mali after being released by their islamist captors. they received a jubilant welcome from family and supporters. french aid worker sophie petronin was welcomed by her son. she had been held almost four years. malian opposition politician soumalia cisse and two others, both italians, were also freed. it's not known how they gained their freedom, but it follows the release of more than 100 islamic militants at the weekend. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: the show must go on — why failed harvests, extreme weather and coronavirus won't stop north korea throwing a big party.

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. i'm lewis vaughan jones. the latest headlines: donald trump tells american television he's in great shape and wants to get back on the campaign trail. thirteen men have been charged with an alleged plot to kidnap the governor of the us state of michigan, gretchen whitmer. there are many question marks over the likelihood of a second presidential debate between president trump and his democratic challenger, joe biden. the plan was to hold a virtual debate because of mr trump's treatment for covid but the president said that would be a waste of time. allan lichtman is professor of history at the american university in washington. he's known for calling correctly eight out of the last nine us elections and he would argue, due to a technicality, it is actually nine out of nine. i asked him what he made of all

the issues over the debates. i can't understand why donald trump wants to avoid debates. leave aside my prediction as we will, just looking at conventional analysis, he is way behind. he needs to change the game. avoiding debates won't do it. and by the way, there is precedent for, in essence, a virtual debate — 60 years ago, one of the kennedy—nixon debates was held virtually. nixon and kennedy and the moderator were all at remote locations, and theyjust had a screen of the two of them together. certainly, understandably, there is less opportunity to interrupt and bully, if that is what trump wants to do, but they did not serve him well in the first debate. but that did not serve him well in the first debate. interesting. how much difference do you think these debates can have? i think none at all. there is no predictive value in debates. hillary clinton won all three debates, according to scientific polls,

quite handily, she still lost. barack obama was trounced in the first debate in 2012 by mitt romney — he won. john kerry, bested george w bush generally in the 2004 debates — he lost. i am not against debates, they are important moments, but in terms of predicting elections, forget it. that is fascinating. now, let's go to your predictions then. you predicted donald trump when not many people did, and you got a little memento for your prediction. indeed. would you like to see it? yes, go on, show it to us. yes, indeed. this is a note that donald trump wrote to me after his election, on the washington post, where i predicted his win. as you can see, it says, "professor, congrats. good call." and in big sharpie letters,

signed donald j trump. wonderful. thank you, thank you very much for showing us that. the thing is, he is right, it was a good call. did you feel quite lonely making that prediction four years ago? were you worried, were you nervous about it? i'm 73, i have been doing this for a0 years, i get butterflies in my stomach every four years, because, unlike compilers of polls, like nate silver, i don't give you probabilities, i tell you who is going to win. so nate silver says, there is a 71% chance hillary clinton will win, and then when trump wins he says, see, i told you there was a 29% chance — so he can't be wrong. and i'll tell you, predicting trump last time did not make me very popular in 90% democratic washington, dc. but i have a different prediction this time. shall we go through it? yeah, what is your prediction this time? my prediction is this time donald trump will become the first sitting president

since george hw bush in 1992 to lose a re—election bid. it is based on my 13 keys to the white house, which gauge the strength and performance of the party in power. and if six or more of the keys go against trump, he is a predicted loser. well, at the end of 2019, he had only four keys against him, but then we had his ineffective response to the pandemic and to the cries for social and racialjustice, which cost him three more keys. the short—term term economic key — measured by an election year recession, the long—term economic key — the cost of the negative growth, and the social unrest key because of what is raging across the land. so he is down now seven keys, one more than is needed to protect his defeat. one more than is needed to predict his defeat. and let me conclude by saying, never before in the history of the united states

has the party holding the white house ever suffered such a dramatic and sudden reversal of fortu ne injust a matter of a few months. never happened before. our thanks to allan lichtman there. he does promise to come back on the programme to see whether his prediction was correct. north korea is preparing for what is expected to be one of the largest military parades in its history, as it marks the 75th anniversary of the foundation of the workers‘ party. the parades are a chance to show off new missiles despite strict economic sanctions. but it's been a difficult yearfor north korea after kim jong—un's failure to reach a deal with donald trump in 2019. on top of that, the covid—19 pandemic and extreme weather have cut off supplies and wreaked havoc on harvests, as laura bicker reports. hour after hour, north korean reporters broadcast live from successive typhoons. the destruction wrought on this

fragile country was seen in real time, a first for this usually secretive state. kim jong—un went to see the damage for himself and raised concerns about vital harvests. this impoverished country has also been battered by the effects of the covid—19 pandemic. although north korea denies having a case, it has been locked down for months. translation: all the routes - land, sea, and air — it's a complete shutdown of both people and material. the north korean economy has come to a halt. smugglers and small traders at the border have questioned why the regime is risking the fate of the economy if there's no covid—19 in the country. south of the border, our team is allowed into the demilitarised zone. we drive past the man—made barriers which have divided the two koreas for 70 years.

from here, those curious from the south love to peer at the north. this is as close as they can get. 2020 has been difficult for many countries, but for north korea, it has the potential to be devastating. and since the border was shut in january, the 25 million north korean people have been more closed off to the world than ever before. pyongyang dramatically cut off all communication and blew up the inter—korean liaison office earlier this year. but still some have hope of ending this war, even after donald trump and kim jong—un could not reach a deal on denuclearisation. translation: there were efforts to reach a big deal, but that resulted in a no—deal. it is time for us to go back and develop smaller deals in sports and culture. the governor would like north and south to share this landscape and designate it

as a peace zone, an unlikely dream for now. instead, south koreans enjoy the autumn sunshine perching on the spine on their side of the peninsula. with few covid—19 restrictions and a certain harvest, there are few worries here. the same cannot be said of their neighbours. laura bicker, bbc news. one of america's leading poets, louise gluck, has been awarded this year's nobel prize for literature. the swedish academy praised her unmistakable poetic voice and its austere beauty, but added that her work was also full of biting wit. she's only the sixteenth woman to win the prize. the bbc‘s tim allman reports. it came to me one night as i was falling asleep that i had finished with those amorous adventures to which i had long been a slave. "finished with love? "

my heart murmured. the words of louise gluck, read by the poet herself. a writer exploring familiar themes like love, ageing, death and humanity. her work had already won plenty of awards, but now it would win the biggest of them of all. the nobel prize in literature for 2020 is awarded to the american poet louise gluck, for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal. louise gluck has published more than a dozen works of poetry and essays, her voice described as unmistakable, uncompromising and candid, always striving for clarity. this is a great resource when treats great topics with radical change, when a leap forward is made out of deep loss. gluck herself, presented with a national humanities medal

by barack obama in 2016, has said she was surprised by the award. she has already been the us poet laureate. now she gets to be a nobel laureate too. if you did not like the movie jaws, you might not like this. this is in australia and it is close call of a shark attack. take a look at this, this is the former pro surfer matt wilkinson, 100 kilometres south of the gold coast. that dark shadow getting closer is a shark. fortunately, the shark was not keen on matt. the drone footage was filmed by surf lifesavers and warned the so

far. you can get me on twitter. this is a bbc news. bye—bye. hello there. when the sun came out yesterday, we saw 19 celsius, temperatures above where they should be. and they have been for much of the week. but we will swing now to feeling colder for the next few days, probably with temperatures dipping a little bit below where they should be. we will still see some sunshine like we saw on thursday between the showers, this was the rain that moved away, the showers came in, but this next little area of low pressure comes in, giving some quite heavy rain actually through the night as it crosses scotland, northern ireland into the northern half of england and wales. you can see the wraparound here, the area of low pressure, a brisk north—westerly bringing heavy showers, frequent showers following that rain. so, as we go through the day, there will be early brightness in the south and east,

but the rain will eventually reach here by lunchtime. still some heavy rain upon that weather front and we still have that wraparound left around the area of low pressure and rain in the north—east of scotland, northern isles and elsewhere, sunny spells and showers. quite a brisk breeze, gusty near those showers, and temperatures will be down, it is colder air, so we will do well to reach about 13—14 in the south, more like eight to 10 degrees in the north. some of these showers could be heavy with hail and thunder. they will continue through the night into saturday morning as well with further bands of showers going southwards, but the air is colder, so where we see the clear spells, it will turn quite chilly as temperatures fall fairly close to freezing in the glens of scotland. so, it's because we have this cold air mass coming down on that north—westerly breeze. but again, we have high pressure to the west and that will tend to start to see the showers easing away through the second half of the weekend, but we're going to keep a close eye on this area of low pressure, as always it's going to include the risk of showers or even into next week some longer spells of rain, but for saturday, bands of showers will make their way southwards on that north—north—westerly

airstream, probably more showers in northern and western areas, but they could at times fall further east and again, temperatures as on friday, well down, except in shelter. 13 or 1a if you shelter from that northerly breeze. and that wind is still with us on sunday, but probably lighter, the high pressure starting to build in from the west, probably fewershowers, but again, always going to be more of a chance near the low pressure in the north sea, so closer to the eastern parts of england and wales. so, into next week, some uncertainty on where that area of low pressure is going to go. as ever, we will keep you updated.

this is bbc news. the headlines:

the white house doctor has said president trump should be able to resume public engagements from saturday — the tenth day since his coronavirus diagnosis. in a television interview, mr trump said he might try to attend a campaign rally somewhere in the state of florida on saturday night. the democratic governor of the us state of michigan has accused president trump of encouraging right—wing militia groups after 13 men were charged with an alleged plot to kidnap her. gretchen whitmer said that when leaders fraternize with domestic terrorists they legitimize their actions. there's been fresh fighting between azerbaijan and ethnic armenians over the disputed region of nagorno—karabakh ahead of talks involving the us, france and russia aimed at securing a ceasefire and averting a wider war. more than 300 people have died since the fighting broke out last month.