welcome to bbc news. our top stories. the fbi announces that russia and iran have both taken actions to try to interfere with the 2020 presidential election. some voter registration information has been obtained by iran and separately by russia. sharp criticism for donald trump from his predecessor barack obama in the former president's first speech supporting joe biden. the rest of us have had to live with the consequences of him proving himself incapable of taking the job seriously. u nrest taking the job seriously. unrest in nigeria over the shooting dead of at least 12 protesters. the un calls for an end to the brutality.

welcome to the programme. we will start with breaking news. the fbi has announced that iran and russia have obtained voter registration information and tried to interfere in the us presidential election. here is the us director of national intelligence. we would like to alert the public that we have identified that two foreign actors, iran and russia, have taken specific actions to influence public opinion relating to hourly elections. first we have confirmed that some voter registration information has been obtained by iran and separately by russia. this data can be used by foreign actors to attempt to

communicate. information to registered voters that they hope will cause confusing, so chaos and undermine your confidence in american democracy. let's get more from oui’ democracy. let's get more from our washington correspondent. what more was the fbi saying there? it is interesting. they were really keen to push the message that you can trust the electoral process. these attacks are designed to undermine confidence in the electoral process. don't let it do that. but they said that they had identified two foreign actors that had infiltrated or accessed voter information and we re accessed voter information and were acting in a nefarious, i guess, way. in iran they said that iran had sent out spoof e—mails to a number of voters designed to intimidate voters, undermine confidence in the election and also to damage donald trump. they also mention

this video which they said iran had made which falsely claimed that people would be able to cast that people would be able to ca st fa ke that people would be able to cast fake ballots from abroad. on russia, they said that they did not have or had not seen actions in the same way that they had with the rann but that they had with the rann but that they did have evidence that russia had accessed voter information on the same way as they had in 2016. and interestingly, shortly before that press conference to top members of the senate select committee on intelligence, the republican and also mark warner who is a democrat, put out a joint statement basically warning people not to share this information and be wary of disinformation and interestingly also included the media in that plea also. interesting details from the fbi there. but as you are alluding to the this is not new. there was interference in the 2016 election, too.

well, i think that is why there is so much concern about it and why it is, you know, got so much attention in the us and obviously where you are as well. i've been monitoring reaction here and i think a lot of people are still trying to work out what to make of this statement and what it all means. but yes, as we know, there were these allegations and there was evidence of this in 2016 so that is why there is this concern. we'll come back to you in a second with the other major story coming out of the us and that is that the former us president barack obama has sharply criticised his successor donald trump in his successor donald trump in his first campaign speech in support of the democratic pa rty‘s support of the democratic party's and his former vice presidentjoe biden. mr obama said that mrtrump presidentjoe biden. mr obama said that mr trump is not shown an interest in anyone but himself and criticise the president's handling of the

economy and the pandemic. and the rest of us have had to live with the consequences of him proving himself incapable of taking the job seriously. at least 220,000 americans have died. millions ofjobs are gone. a proud reputation around the world... and we can chat again about that speech. some speech it was. he certainly was not holding back. no, he certainly wasn't. really going for donald trump. and basically saying, look, he has messed up in the coronavirus. i did not expect him to continue with my policies but i expected him to ta ke policies but i expected him to take the presidency seriously. we have heard them say this before but to have him say this so before but to have him say this so close to the election was quite something. this rally was the second stop that he had made today. he was at a kind of

roundtable event with voters encouraging them to get out to vote and really telling them that, i understand why you may be frustrated but it is worth you voting and encouraging your community to vote as well. at this event it was interesting to see the former president saying, look, don't take pole seriously. the polls might say we are ahead in pennsylvania, polls might put joe we are ahead in pennsylvania, polls might putjoe biden at around 5% lead. barack obama is saying don't trust that. we need you to get out and vote. they are saying democrats got lazy la st they are saying democrats got lazy last time and say they cannot make that mistake again. there is in widespread international condemnation of shootings in nigeria on tuesday which amnesty international and witnesses said security forces killed at least wales protesters in the city of lagos. —— at least 12 protesters. the algerian army

has denied involvement. unrest has denied involvement. unrest has continued in lagos despite an indefinite 24—hour curfew. a city in chaos. across lagos buildings have been torched and clashes have erupted. this is what sparked the outcry. soldiers shooting unarmed protesters in the country's largest city. they are shooting at ours! they are shooting. what happened here on tuesday night has deeply unsettled the nigerians. this is not the first time the army has been accused of shooting innocent protesters but the fact that it happened here in what was one of the most peaceful protest size has ignited an already volatile situation. what started off as a protest against police brutality is

devolved into a cause for change. we are doing a protest. nobody was even out. why would they hamas? let them step aside. we need betterment of this nation. this is a protest that was born on social media. more than half of the countries under. last night's events has galvanised support. i would say to government, you guys support. i would say to government, you guys are support. i would say to government, you guys are a government, you guys are a shame for killing your own citizens and sending military to the streets. to kill unarmed protesters because they are protesting for their rights is

ungrateful. nigeria has been a dictatorship almost half of its levels of many citizens recall the dark days of military rule and they are determined to make sure that does not happen. let's get some of the day's other news now. the government has confirmed that the post brexit rate negotiation with the eu will resume on thursday. the eu's negotiator said attempted talks would happen every day. the decision was taken every day. the decision was ta ke n after every day. the decision was taken after he spoke to his eu cou nterpa rts taken after he spoke to his eu counterparts who this morning told the european parliament that a deal was within reach. short form video streaming service is closing down six months after launching. the service had promised to revolutionise how viewers consume entertainment on smartphones. it struggled

during the pandemic. the canadian government has survived a parliamentary vote of no confidence that was triggered by questions over state spending during the coronavirus crisis. politicians voted against the conservative motion. if his liberal government had lost the vote it would have triggered a snap election. the centre for disease control has published a study that compared patients hospitalised during the flu and covert 19. the report concluded coronavirus is five times that they are than influenza and is also more likely to lead to potentially life threatening complications. the study also found certain racial and minority ethnic groups are disproportionately affected by covert 19. let's speak to doctor faust who is an emergency physician at a hospital in boston and instructor at harvard medical school. thank you for coming on

the programme. sure. what do you make of this study? this study comes as absolutely no surprise to me and many others here in the united states. the cc has had trouble with influenza statistics over the years and has done a lot of estimating instead of counting and when you actually compare hospitalisations it is a little bit better because you can say, 0k, bit better because you can say, ok, of the people who were sick enough to require hospitalisation, how did they fare? this study showing that it is five times worst for covert tha n it is five times worst for covert than flu. covert is actually worse than that. and the reason for that is that we actually know that the rate of hospitalisation for covid is far higher and so we reach hospitalisations are still five times worse but you are in many cases much, much higher, in august, i should say. higher likelihood to be hospitalised with covid so it is ten, 20, 50

times worse than flu. this is five times and i think it is worse than that. interesting. what do you think this makes of leading politicians in your country and in others around the world who have tried to say in the past that this is just like the flu? comparing this to flu is not a goodidea comparing this to flu is not a good idea if you're trying to downplay it. there is no comparing them. the fact of the matter is that if you look at who dies of covid, yes, all of these pre—existing conditions makes it more likely that you have a bad outcome but in reality what we are seeing in with the study very clearly shows is that people who come down with coronavirus and they get very sick, it is coronavirus that is driving that illness. it is about the main criminal, if you will. influenza is more of an accomplice to a crime. you see that frequently and that data shows that. people are much more likely to be hospitalised with influenza if they were

having a as a flare—up, not the case and covert. what is driving these critical illnesses is covert but when it is full of this kind of like flu tipping you towards the edge whereas covert is really the drive of serious illness. that is really fascinating. there is one area separate of this about research. we are learning about long covert. the after—effects of covert. they are difficult to study because we have not had long to study them. this is interesting because what i think we are looking at one of the first time isa looking at one of the first time is a modern history where we had a pandemic with viral sepsis. this is the whole body turning not just sepsis. this is the whole body turning notjust against sepsis. this is the whole body turning not just against the pathogen, the virus but actually against our own organs. it is our reaction. and thatis organs. it is our reaction. and that is not necessarily a virus. it might show up in a lot of places but the immune system is everywhere and so if

we have a hyperactive immune response or an inappropriate immune response than really this explains why so many organs can be affected and why the damage can outlast the virus itself so this actually has happened in previous outbreaks, in the remote past, that happened, how much of the la ke to that happened, how much of the lake to the virus itself and how much it is our immune system is a question and hopefully an area we can help whereas if we can modulate our own responds we can maybe decrease that burden. great to have you on. thank you so much for coming on. stay with us on bbc news. still to come. how us politicians are turning to popular online games on the twitch platform, to get the vote out.

this is bbc news. the

headlines. the fbi has announced that russia and iran have both taken action to try to interfere with the 2020 presidential election. barack obama has sharply criticised his successor donald trump in that the former president's first campaign speech supporting joe biden. let's ta ke supporting joe biden. let's take a little bit more of a look at our breaking news story this hour. the fbi has announced that iran and russia have obtained though to registration details. a cyber security expert was asked what the fbi has said. well, this is truly a developing story. it is big news. the fbi has stated that there has now clearly been meddling in the us election with information stolen with regards to us voters. this is not necessarily something new and the sense that there has already been problems in the

past but the fact that the fbi has come out so clearly and indicated and attributed the attack is truly a concerning piece of news. how much of an impact, if any at all, can this actually happen the election? well, i mean, the important thing to remember is now that they have this data, this data could be used for multiple purposes. it could be used to potentially e—mail voters directly, to refine and enhance social media campaigns, so it is truly a worrisome development because having that data allows them to do multiple things in terms of the attacks or manipulating peoples minds in peoples desires and peoples intentions to vote. give us some concrete ways that this can happen. you talked about spoof e—mails. can happen. you talked about spoof e-mails. what would that mean? we already saw sample spoof e—mails that had come out today targeting voters and indicating that there may be

personal attacks against them. this may affect their work, there are indications that they may be blackmailed. we need to see how this develops over the next couple of hours but the fa ct next couple of hours but the fact that the attackers have personal e—mail addresses from voters is truly, truly a problem. why would these foreign countries like iran wa nt to foreign countries like iran want to interfere? well, this isa want to interfere? well, this is a new development in the sense that we have already seen interference in national elections across the globe but considering the heated environment and the tense situation that we are when in the united states right now, clearly nation state attacks and nation interference is going to be the name of the game moving forward in any election wherever we may be. you said there are witnesses and it is not new in that we have seen this pattern of attempted interference. as the

data of research that reveals how influential any of these kinds of interferences, cyber or otherwise in other countries elections has actually been? not the best of my knowledge. one of the big challenges we face in these types of situations is normally very difficult to pinpoint the origin of the attack or pinpoint from where it was launched from and therefore generally speaking the authorities in the art of the research community is very cautious around stating clearly that the attack came from country a, b, c. so the fact that the country is made —— fbi has made a concrete statement todayis has made a concrete statement today is a big and significant piece of news. let's get a bit more on this. great to have you on. thank you forjoining us. what you make what arana is up to here?

this is a concerning a new milestone for iran. iran has to some extent politically interfered in the united states before but this is by far the most blatant and aggressive attempt to directly influence the course of us elections and there is likely to layers of intent. a sense in which iran may be trying to undermine faith in the us democratic process and then they may also be seeking to sway the outcome of the elections, possibly seeking to embarrass donald trump by associating him further with this far—right group that iran was disguising itself as. there is confusion here because there are always different ways you can look at it. sending spoof e—mails to try to intimidate people to vote for donald trump is iran trying to get people to vote for donald trump? which clearly iran does not really like donald trump so it is not doing it for that reason. it is doing it for that reason. it is doing it just to what?

it for that reason. it is doing itjust to what? so general confusion? it is somewhat perplexing but i think what we can rely on here is that the us intelligence community has previously announced its a settle m e nt previously announced its a settlement that iran does favour a change of power in the united states due to donald trump's maximum pressure campaign on iran. sol trump's maximum pressure campaign on iran. so i would say the better interpretation here is most likely an effort to embarrass trump while undermining us faith in its democratic process. which is quite ambitious for arana not something they really sought to do in the past. i asked the same question before knowing that there is not masses of research about what kind of impact this kind of stuff has, what is your gut instinct about how influential this is when it is all said and done? i agree that assessing impact is notoriously difficult and a

small e—mail campaign like this, i don't think we'll swing the selection. probably more influential will be the way that americans talk about this type of activity. do they feel threatened by foreign influence and does that further reduce the fate that mary and the american tavern democratic discourse today? great to have you won. thank you for that. when you think of election campaigning, the fbi announcement aside, you normally think about traditional doorknocking, canvassing, political rallies. that has its place of course but there is also a new way. a democratic congressman logged on to play an online popular game. she was doing it to urge voters to get out and vote and she wrapped up more than 400,000 viewers during this game session. more than 5

million have watched it since, making it one of the most watched videos on twitch. it is a murder mystery game in which players attempt to fix a broken spaceship. let's try to work out what was going on there. what is going on here? what is this all about? hi, thank you so much for having me. you know, young people are not engaging with campaigns and media the same way that we have seen in previous generations here. almost 32% of young voters gets news from tv, 18% from radio. when not getting information

about the election from traditional sources so it is great to see her reach out to young people where they are on track to meet them where they are and have these conversations about elections and voting. we should say that twitch is this new platform and it is a gaming platform where you can watch people play computer games and other people watch other people playing computer games but it is much bigger than that now and it has extended out into a social network in and of itself. how effective do you think this is, they were? well, you know, almost 700,000 people watched twitch either through her live stream where they had 400,000 people watching all through the other players who are playing with her. a lot of people were tuned in on the cheap mobilisation officer of the dnc said that this live stream is the number one driver of traffic to the

website for at least part of the game so hopefully these people who were watching went to the website to either register themselves or learn how to vote. there is no way of really knowing the impact but it is really important that aoc was reaching out this way. if we think back to 2018 when taylor swift posted a link to vote . org taylor swift posted a link to vote .org on her instagram page and injust 24 are vote .org on her instagram page and in just 24 are ways we saw and in just 24 are ways we saw a 65,000 new registrations, voter registrations, from 18—29 —year—olds. so new and innovative ways of reaching young voters where they are is really smart, especially going into the last two weeks of the campaign here. not long to go until the election itself. november three. we appreciate your time. that isjust november three. we appreciate your time. that is just about it from me. you can get me online, too. iam it from me. you can get me online, too. i am on twitter.

this is bbc news. goodbye. it has been a soggy first half of the week but thursday for many will be a dry day and for some even a brighter day with a few sunny spells coming through but there is more rain and wind on the way for the weekend and into next week, too. but for now low pressure is moving away. a brief ridge of high pressure is arriving before the next weather systems come in from the atlantic so there's a gap in the weather is not going to last too long and as we start thursday some heavy rain in parts of the north and north—east of scotland gradually easing after a windy night in northern ireland. it will be a breezy day across the uk. still in scotland and northern england a lot of cloud around in the morning and patchy outbreaks of rain. southern counties of northern england should improve into the afternoon. sunny spells

brightening up into northern ireland and for wales, the midlands, eastern and southern england, many of us having a dry afternoon with sunny spells that at the chance of patchy rain in the morning and amateurs up to 17 in parts of the southeast and east of england but where you have got the cloud in scotland and northern england it will be a cool day and the chance to end the day later with some quite heavy showers moving through. here comes the next weather system. it is not hanging around, is it? pushing into parts of england and wales another spell of rain is heading our way of though as we go on through friday the system continues to push south—eastwards. it is going to wea ken south—eastwards. it is going to weaken so any rain on it will become increasingly light and patchy. notice how quickly it melts away in the morning. in northern ireland on friday from west of scotland, too, so sunny spells and a few showers follow on here and notice how that area of rain really is disappearing into the afternoon. cloud and a few spots is all that's left into the east and south—east of

england. here it will be a bit cooler on friday. that takes us into the weekend and the main thing about saturday is how windy it is going to be. this area of low pressure to the north—west but close enough to see the wind is picking up across all parts but clearly there is more rain moving in as well. in some of that rain is going to be quite heavy as it pushes in. windy and some gusts of 40-50 pushes in. windy and some gusts of 40—50 miles but stronger gusts than that are possible in the western parts of eastern england staying dry until the evening and on sunday sunny spells in blustery showers. goodbye.

this is bbc news. the headlines... the fbi has announced iran or russia have tried to interfere with the presidential election. the director of national intelligence have said the two countries have attained us voter information and taken actions to influence public opinion ahead of the election. barack obama opinion ahead of the election. ba rack obama has opinion ahead of the election. barack obama has sharply criticised donald trump in his first campaign speech supporting joe biden. speaking in philadelphia, mr obama said mrtrump in philadelphia, mr obama said mr trump heather shown interest in anyone else but himself and criticised his handling of the economy in the pandemic. more u nrest economy in the pandemic. more unrest in nigeria over the shooting debt of at least 12 protesters across the city of legos. buildings have been torched and they have been sporadic outbreaks. —— shooting deaths. the un is calling for an end to the brutality. now on bbc news, it is

wednesday in