this is bbc news. welcome. our top stories. the fbi says russia under ron have both tried to interfere in the 2020 us 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 campaign speech supporting joe biden. and the rest of us have had to live with the consequences of him proving himself incapable of taking the job seriously. i'm based in nigeria over the

shooting dead of at least 12 protesters. the un calls for an end to the brutality. —— unrest in nigeria. welcome to the programme. the us director of national intelligence is iran and russia have both attempted to interfere in the forthcoming presidential election. speaking in washington he accused the two countries of using illicitly attained voter registration details. we would like to alert the public that we have identified that two foreign actors, iran and russia, had taken specific actions to influence public opinion relating to our 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 fulsome information to registered voters that they hope will cause confusion, sow chaos and undermine your confidence in american democracy. we can talk to our american correspondence. what russia under ron accused of doing here? intelligence officials here are saying that both russia and i ran have gained access to voter registration information. they're not saying we what russia has done but they are saying that iran has been causing mischief by sending e—mails purporting to come from a radical right—wing group called the proud boys to registered democratic voters warning them that if they don't switch their allegiance, vote

republican and vote for donald trump, then voters make members of this armed group will come after them. there is no evidence that these e—mails have come from the group itself. they have actually denied sending them and the concern of officials here is that this could effectively undermine confidence in the electoral process because those who have received these e—mails which have been sent to democratic voters in key swing states such as florida, arizona and pennsylvania, could then feel that this system are somehow compromised and that will lead to a lowering of confidence in the whole democratic process here. officials are at pains to point out, i might add, that the democratic system, the voting system coming up to the election less than two weeks' time remains safe and resilient. this is not the

first time that we have had to report on alleged attempted interference in elections. it is not. in the last time there was evidence of attempts by russia to meddle in the outcome of the election in favour of donald trump. in this particular case it is interesting that officials were saying today that this attempt, even though the group supports donald trump, this was an attempt, they said, to undermine the president's candidature by basically aligning and drawing attention to the fact that he is aligned oi’ to the fact that he is aligned or supported by a controversial right—wing group. this time around officials, as i say, with four years of experience in these things, following 2016, that this will be the safest a nd 2016, that this will be the safest and most secure election in american history. i might point out as well as a side

note that already a0 million americans have cast their vote in the selection and that is the highest amount this time around, this time in the process , around, this time in the process, that we have ever seen. thank you for that. let's get more on this now. this is not necessarily something new in the sense that there are have already been problems in the past but the fa ct problems in the past but the fact that the fbi has come out so fact that the fbi has come out so clearly and indicated and attributed to the attack is truly a concerning piece of news. how much of an impact, if any at all, do you think this can actually have on the election? well, i mean, the

important thing to remember here is now that they have this data, this data could be used for multiple purposes. it could be used to e—mail voters directly, 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 01’ things in terms of the attacks or manipulating peoples minds in peoples desires and intentions to vote. give us some concrete ways this can happen, if you can. they talked about spoof e—mails. what would that mean? we already saw some sample e—mails that came out today which are targeting voters and indicating that there may be personal attacks against them, this may affect their work, there is indication that that there may be blackmailed. we need to see how this develops over the 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 nts to interfere ? well, this is not a new development. we have already seen interference in national elections across the globe but considering the heated environment here in the united states right now, clearly nation state state tax and interference is going to be the name of the game moving forward in any election. you said that it is not new in the sense that we have seen this pattern of attempted interference. is there any data of research that reveals how influential any of these kind of interferences, cyber or otherwise in other countries elections has actually been? not to the best of my knowledge. one of the big challenges we face in these

types of situations is attribution. it is very difficult to pinpoint the origin of the tag or pinpoint where it was launched from and therefore the authorities and a lot of the research community is very cautious around sedating clearly that the attack came from country a, b, c. so the fact that the fbi has made a very definitive and concrete statement today is a big and significant piece of news. barack obama ba rack obama has barack obama has sharply criticised his successor donald trump in his first campaign speech in support of the democratic party's presidential candidate and his former vice presidentjoe biden. mr obama said that mrtrump presidentjoe biden. mr obama said that mr trump is not showing an interest in anyone but himself and he also criticised the president's handling of the economy and the pandemic. 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. our proud reputation around the world it is in tatters. we know that he continues to do business with china because he has got a secret chinese bank account. that possible? the presidency does not change who you are, it reveals who you are. and joe has shown himself to be a friend of working people. for eight years joe was friend of working people. for eight yearsjoe was the last one in the room when i faced a big decision. he made me a better president. i get that this president wants full credit for the economy he inherited and zero blame for the pandemic but he ignored. tweeting at the television does not fix things. making stuff up does not make peoples' lives

better. joe biden has concrete plans and policies that will turn our vision of a better, fairer, stronger country, into a reality. whenjoe is in charge he is not going to surround himself with hacks and lobbyists. america is a good and decent place but we have just seen so much noise and nonsense that sometimes it is ha rd nonsense that sometimes it is hard for us to remember. i am asking you to believe injoe's ability, in kamala harris‘s ability, in kamala harris‘s ability to lead this country out of these dark times because we cannot abandon those who are hurting right now. we can't abandon the children who are not getting the education they need right now. we cannot abandon those protesters who inspired us. we have got to challenge their activism into action. barack obama there. let's see what else is hitting headlines around the world. the

british government has confirmed that the stored brea ks confirmed that the stored breaks that trade negotiations will resume on thursday. the uk's negotiator said intensive talks would happen every day. the decision was taken after he spoke to his eu counterparts to this morning told the european parliament that a deal was within reach. short form video streaming service is closing down just over streaming service is closing downjust over six months streaming service is closing down just over six months after launching foot of the service had promised to revolutionise how viewers consumed entertainment on smart and struggled since the global pandemic meant fewer people commuting to work and made on the go shows less viable. coronaviruses five times deadlier than the flu and is also more likely to lead to potentially life threatening complications. the centers for disease control and prevention has published a study that compared patients hospitalised due to influenza and covert 19.

the research ban certain racial and minority ethnic groups are disproportionately affected. a little earlier i spoke to doctor faust, an emergency doctor at a hospital in boston and an instructor at harvard medical school. i asked and an instructor at harvard medical school. iasked him what he made of the cdc's bindings. absolutely no surprise to me and many of us here in the united states. the cdc has had a little trouble with its influenza statistics over the years and have done a lot of estimating instead of a lot of estimating instead of a lot of estimating instead of a lot of counting. when you actually compare hospitalisations it is a little bit better because then you really can say, ok, of the people who were sick enough to require hospitalisation, how do they fare. the study shows that in that rupert is five times worse for cove rt in that rupert is five times worse for covert than flu but what i want to say is that that actually may be makes it looks too rosy for flu. covert is worse than that and the reason is that we actually know that the rate of hospitalisation is

far higherso the rate of hospitalisation is far higher so once you reach hospitalisation it is five times worse but you are, in all cases, a higher likelihood to be hospitalised. this says five times andl be hospitalised. this says five times and i think it is probably worse than that. it could be a lot, lot worse. what do you think this makes of those leading politicians in your country and 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 good idea if you are trying to downplay it. there is no downplaying them. there is no downplaying them. the fact of the matter is if you look at who dies of covid, all of these pre—existing medical conditions makes it more likely that you have a bad outcome but in reality what we are seeing and what the study shows is that people who come down with coronavirus and get very sick, it is coronavirus that drives that illness and it

is really that sort of criminal, if you will whereas influe nza criminal, if you will whereas influenza is more an accomplice toa crime. influenza is more an accomplice to a crime. this data shows that. for example people were much more likely to be hospitalised with influenza at their having an asthma flare up, not the case and covid. we know that what is driving these critical illnesses as covid, whereas the flu is tipping you towards the edge whereas covid is really the driver of serious illness. that is really fascinating. there is one area slightly separate from this. we are learning about long covid. the after—effects of covid. by definition they are difficult to study because we have not had long to study them. yes, this is interesting because what i think they're looking at is one of the first time is a modern history where we have a pandemic with what we call viral sepsis. this is the whole body turning not against the pathogen, the virus, but actually against our own

organs. it is an overreaction and that is not necessarily just the virus. the virus might hit our nerves and we know it hits our lungs and it might show up in a lot of places, but the immune system is everywhere and we have an hyperactive immune response or an inappropriate immune response then 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 and we have heard about things in the remote past when that happened. how much is the virus itself and how much our immune system is a question and hopefully an area where therapeutics might help because we can modulate our own response and maybe decrease that burden. our thanks. stay with us on bbc news. still to come, how us politicians are turning to popular online games on the attempt to platform to get votes.

this is bbc world news. the fbi has announced that russia and iran have taken actions to try to interfere in the 2020 us presidential elections. let's stick with that story. iran and russia have obtained voter registration details. the middle east fellow at the alliance for securing democracy at the german marshall front, she is an iranian disinformation specialist and in washington. thank you for coming on the programme. thank you for having me. let's start at the beginning. what is iran accused of doing here? it is accused of spoofing and trying to impersonate the proud boys which is this group that

is very controversial and a radical right wing group. to try to intimidate voters, to try to intimidate voters, to try to intimidate voters, to try to threaten them. this is democratic voters. to go and vote for the trump re—election campaign. so the fbi is now accusing iran of being involved in interfering in the elections that are just a couple of weeks away at this point. how significant do think this is? very significant. we know that irvine has been involved in this election cycle pretty actively. there have been reports of trying to hack the trump campaign's and a couple of times over the past few months. and it has been engaged ina lot months. and it has been engaged in a lot of disinformation effo rts in a lot of disinformation efforts but this is a pretty big deal in that the fbi is accusing iran along with the russia of trying to perhaps, in

this context, trying to get voters to have a negative perception of the trump campaign by again perusing as people who are aligned with the trump campaign and threatening voters who go and vote for the president. how widespread do you think this is? how much influence do you think it has? that is not very clear right now from what the fbi has said. what we do know about irani and effo rts what we do know about irani and efforts in general is that they are not very effective. they are not very effective. they are lagging behind a country like russia in terms of their capabilities and in general they have not been the most efficient at this type of campaign but again it is not because they have not been active, it is because the capabilities are lagging behind and they are not as sophisticated as a country like russia in terms of the efforts in interfering with elections. thank you so much for coming on and explaining to us. thank

you. thank you for having me. there has been widespread international condemnation of shootings in nigeria on tuesday. amnesty international and witnesses say 12 protesters we re and witnesses say 12 protesters were killed. the un secretary—general called for an end to the brutality. the nigerian army has denied involvement. unrest has continued despite an indefinite 2a—hour curfew. a city in chaos. across lagos, buildings have been torched and sporadic clashes have erupted. gunfire this is what sparked the outcry. soldiers shooting unarmed protesters in the country's largest city. they are shooting at us. they are shooting. what happened here on tuesday night has deeply unsettled nigerians. this is not the first time the army has been accused of shooting innocent protesters, but the fact it

happened here in what was one of the most peaceful protest sites in end sars has ignited an already volatile situation. what started off as a protest against police brutality has widened to calls for a change in the status quo and inequality. we, the poor, we are suffering. we're congregating in the square. we are doing our protests. nobody was even out. we obeyed the law. why would try send soldiers to harm us? if they can't put this nation in order, let them step aside. let's take over and put this in order. we need the betterment of this nation. they should fix our economy. they should be accountable to us. we do not want police brutalising the innocent citizens of nigeria any more. this is a protest that was born on social media. more than half of the country is under 2a.

last night's events were broadcast online, and the #endsars hashtag has galvanised support. i will say nigerian government, you guys are a shame to the world. for killing your own citizens, sending the military on the street to kill unharmful protesters because they are protesting for their rights. it's uncalled for. nigeria's been a dictatorship for almost half of its life as an independent nation. many of its citizens worry tuesday's events echo the dark days of military rule, and they're determined to make sure that doesn't happen. mayenijones, bbc news, lagos. pope francis has made a stronger statement yet in favour of civil partnerships for same—sex couples. the pope was speaking in a new documentary entitled francesco. in the film which has just been released and when he said same—sex couples have a right to legal protections when forming civil partnerships and also said they had a right to a

family. the film's debit has had his film shows the pope to bea had his film shows the pope to be a very humble man who is capable of admitting his mistakes. when you think of election campaigning it is door knocking, canvassing and those big political rallies. now there is a new way. alexandria ocasio—cortez logged on to play the popular online computer game called among others on the twitch platform to urge gamers to get out and vote. she racked up to get out and vote. she racked up more than a00,000 viewers during this gaming session and more than 5 million have watched it since making it one of the most watched videos on twitch. among others is a popular online murder mystery game where players try to fix a broken spaceship. i spoke to the senior reporter with mit technology review and asked her what she made of this new move by politicians. well, i think that she is introducing a new

way of campaigning. we have been thinking about social media for the past, i would say, more than a decade, about facebook, twitter, buti say, more than a decade, about facebook, twitter, but i think alexandria ocasio—cortez is really showing that there are different platforms that can be used in twitch is one of them. twitch being a video game streaming service and being able to connect with voters and connect with young people specifically is a really key pa rt specifically is a really key part of the selection and election is coming forward. so we are seeing, as election is coming forward. so we are seeing, as we are hearing you, a bit of the game there. she is sitting with headphones on playing the game and on the screen around her as the game itself and twitch as a platform that lets people watch other people play computer games, essentially, which may sound a bit strange but it is hugely, hugely popular. one of the things that sprung to my mind is that itjust does not ta ke mind is that itjust does not take long and shows how fast things move in four years ago we remember barack obama and before that this huge grand campaign on facebook and things

like that, there's platform is already seemingly giving way to new ones like twitch. yes. definitely. but i think that when you mention barack obama and the new mention the previous election 2016 we are talking about the breaking news about iran and russia potentially having interfered in the election in the us you see that there is a lot of distrust about traditional social media and when i say traditional i mean facebook and twitter. twitch offers potentially a new for the time being to reach these voters without any interference and for those who are disaffected and isolated to are young and who might not turn out and who might have given up on the selection. our thanks to tania for talking us through that brand—new way of electioneering there. election vote gathering, in the us. that is about it from me. iam not on in the us. that is about it from me. i am not on twitch but iam from me. i am not on twitch but i am online. i am on twitter. come and get me there. this is

bbc news. goodbye. it's a soggy first half of the week but will be a drier day and for some, even a brighter day with some express coming through. more rain and wind on the way for the weekend and into next week too. for now, low pressure is moving away — a brief ridge high pressure is arriving before the next weather system travelling from the atlantic. so, this gap is not going to last too long. as we start thursday, some heavy rain and the parts of scotland gradually easing with a windy night in northern ireland which we will see slowly ease and be a breezy day across the uk and still in scotland in northern england, a lot of cloud during the morning and some patchy bricks of rain, southern counties of northern england should improve in the afternoon, some sunny

spells brightening up in northern ireland in the mid—areas of southern england having a dry afternoon with sunny spells after a chance to see some patchy rain in the morning. and temperatures up to 17 in the southeast of england, the northern parts of northern england will be a cool day and the chance to in this other parts of southeast england and some quite heavy showers moving through, and the next weather system over night into friday morning through northern ireland pushing onto scotland and another spell of rain is heading our way. moving on, the system continues to push southeast and it is going to weaken. patchy rain for the morning on friday for western scotland too. sunny spells and a few showers following behind here and notice of that area of rain really is just disappearing into the afternoon with some cloud in a few spots with all that is left is the east and southeast of england.

here, it will be a bit cooler on friday. that takes us into the weekend but the main thing about saturday is how windy it's going to be, this area of low pressure passing us to the northwest, but close enough to pick up but there's more rain moving in as well. some of the rain is going to be quite heavy as it pushes in, windy and quite widely with some gusts of a0 to 50 miles an hour, stronger best possible at times in the west, parts of eastern england staying dry into the evening and on sunday, sunny spells and blustery showers.

this is bbc news.

the headlines... the fbi has announced iran and russia have tried to interfere with the 2020 presidential election. the director of national intelligence said the two countries had obtained us voter information and taken actions to influence public opinion ahead of the 2020 election. barack obama has sharply criticised donald trump in his first campaign speech supporting joe biden. speaking in philadelphia, mr obama said mr trump hasn't shown interest in anyone else but himself and criticised his handling of the economy in the pandemic. and the pandemic. more unrest in nigeria over the shooting deaths of at least 12 protesters across the city of legos. buildings have been torched and they have been sporadic outbreaks. the un is calling for an end to the brutality.