this is bbc news. i'm david eades. our top stories: the us capitol riot hearings, election workers speak of the pressure they faced from donald trump, leaving them to cope with abuse and intimidation. various groups come by, arguing and threatening with neighbours and with myself. so it was disturbing. it was disturbing. the hearing into last month's mass school shooting in texas, is told the police could have stopped the gunman after three minutes, but that officers put their own lives before the children's. the entertainer, bill cosby, is found to have sexually assaulted a 16—year—old girl in 1975. a civil court awards her half a million dollars in damages.

tensions rise between russia and lithuania, over a ban on goods going into the russian territory of kaliningrad on the baltic coast. after the floods, the struggle to reach millions of people affected by the rising waters in bangladesh and north—east india. welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and around the globe. threats, intimidation and unbearable pressure. this was the story of the latest congressional hearings investigating alleged attempts by donald trump and his allies to overturn the election result of 2020. and those claims came from republican officials, some of whom spoke of mr trump's direct involvement. one of them was the speaker

of the arizona house of representatives, rusty bowers. we have various groups come by, and they have had video panel trucks with videos of me, proclaiming me to be a paedophile and a pervert, and a corrupt politician. and blaring loudspeakers in my neighbourhood, and leaving literature both on my property and arguing and threatening with neighbours, and with myself. one gentleman that had the three bars on his chest, and he had a pistol and was threatening my neighbour — not with the pistol, but just vocally — when i saw the gun, i knew i had to get close. we had a daughter who was gravely ill, who was upset by

what was happening outside. and my wife's a valiant person, very strong, quiet, a very strong woman. that was rusty bowers. the hearing also heard from election workers, who said they had been falsely accused of carrying out a fake ballot scheme to skew the vote, which had led to them facing intimidation and death threats. shaye moss and her mother ruby freeman worked in georgia state and ruby freeman spoke of how mr trump's involvement had affected her. do you know how it feels to have the president of the united states target you? the president of the united states is supposed

to represent every american, not target one, but he targeted me, lady ruby, a small business owner, a mother, a proud american citizen who stood up to help fulton county run an election in the middle of a pandemic. the secretary of state for georgia, brad raffensperger, also detailed a series of false claims made by the trump campaign. our north america editor, sarah smith has this report. onjanuary 6, donald trump was still repeating what he knew to be lies about the election. the mysterious vote dump of up to 100,000 votes forjoe biden. almost none for trump — oh, that sounds fair! committee members today heard from an official that trump had called days before, alleging fraud in georgia.

we found two dead people, when i wrote my letter to congress, that's dated january 6th, and subsequent to that, we found two more, that's four people, not 4,000 — just a total of four. all the fraud allegations had been investigated and dismissed. but still, donald trump asked him to find the exact number of votes he needed to beatjoe biden. what i knew is that we didn't have any votes to find. we had to continually look, we investigated — i could've shared the numbers with you. there were no votes to find. the result of donald trump's attempts to illegally overturn the election result have now been branded as an attempted coup.

what donald trump and his allies did after the last presidential election was shocking but even more worrying is just how many politicians who continue to repeat these election lies are now manoeuvring to be in a position to oversee and certify the next presidential election. amy gardner is national political reporter at the washington post. she had this to say about the hearing today. i have to say that what stood out for me the most was both the testimony of rusty bowers, the arizona house speaker who you quoted extensivelyjust a moment ago, and how heartrending it was to hear him describe the pressure and the arguments that he was facing in his own yard as his gravely ill daughter was inside and who passed away a few weeks after those confrontations and the second thing was the testimony of the mother—daughter pair of election workers who were from atlanta who both testified today.

one was recorded previously in closed door testimony. ruby freeman, the mother and shaye moss, the daughter both worked in an election counting facility in atlanta, georgia and rudy giuliani trump's top campaign lawyer, and trump himself attacked them publicly by name repeatedly and they wound up having to go into hiding. they were afraid to place orders for food delivery, for fear that someone would recognise their name because it had been bounced around all over social media. shaye�*s grandmother had people knocking on her door demanding to be let into her home. it was just an incredible, vivid portrait of the willingness of trump and his allies to upend the lives of people who hadn't asked for it, to perpetrate their lies about the election result.

yes and the impression that think a lot of people would have drawn from them as characters is so far removed from the impression given previously, not least by rudy giuliani, about what they were like, what they were doing. also we have republican officials involved here. does that in any way change the dynamic or donald trump? well, i do think it is clearly a concerted strategy on the part of the committee to use republican officials, this is not the first hearing in which we have seen this. the last hearing last week featured lawyers for trump, lawyers for mike pence the vice president, and even the committee lawyer who was questioning some of the witnesses last week was a republican. and i think that is a concerted strategy so that this doesn't

look like a partisan impeachment as the two impeachments of president trump did look and whether that changes hearts and minds though, is a separate question. there are so many people, nearly half our country, who still support trump, would vote for him again, who say they believe his claims that fraud tainted the 2020 election and i hate to say it but i don't think that many of those individuals are watching these hearings or reading about them. so it's not really changing the dynamic particularly. what about the future work of the committee and what more can we perhaps expect from it? well that's the big question. the committee members have made great promises that we're going to see a through line from trump to the violence that we all saw with horror on january six of 2021 and we don't know what that through line is. there has been some speculation that a documentary filmmaker who was with trump that day, who has been subpoenaed, whose video has been subpoenaed, there has been great speculation about what his video shows,

whether it actually shows former president trump admitting that he lost the election. that would be a very big deal because that would sort of seal the deal in terms of his knowledge that he was perpetrating a fraud on the country with the attempt to overturn the election results, but we don't know. we know that the committee says that they believe that he committed crimes and they are going to prove that or show it but we haven't seen what that sort of smoking gun is yet. a texas senate hearing into last month's uvalde school shooting has heard the police officers who responded put their own lives before the children's. the response team is said to have waited more than an hour outside the classroom door, before they confronted the gunman. here's mark lobel. a month ago, young children at robb elementary school in texas were frantically calling 911 to report multiple victims as their classmates

were being shot. now, photos have emerged that appear to show armed police with rifles and at least one ballistic shield waiting in a school corridor, arriving earlier and with more powerful weaponry than previously reported. pictured inside the school 19 minutes after the gunman entered the school, but why was there a long delay in using them? there's another accusation. police waited for a master key to arrive so the classroom doors could be opened, but now there are serious doubts aired that the door was even locked. there is compelling evidence that the law enforcement response to the attack at robb elementary was an abject failure. the damning timeline of events showing in galling detail that it was over an hour into the shooting when officers confronted and killed the gunman. three minutes after the subject entered the west building, there were a sufficient number of armed officers wearing body

armour to isolate, distract and neutralise the subject. the officers had weapons, the children had none. the officers had body armour, the children had none. texas�* public safety chief also accuses the on—scene commander of placing their lives above the children's. testimony from one survivor illustrates how desperate things were at the time. he shot my friend that was next to me, and i thought he was going to come back to the room. so i grabbed a little blood and put it all over me. we had numerous law enforcement officers and agencies that assisted with the safety and release of the students. there are calls for this man, uvalde�*s school police chief pete arredondo, to resign. but he denies he was the incident commander, and says he did not order police to hold back. the initial narrative of police

presented by the governor was that police were courageous, acted decisively, quickly ran towards the sound of gunfire and confronted the shooter. that has turned out to be not even close to the truth. it has been very, very hard for texans to hear this narrative fall apart. the death of 19 students and two teachers, now harder to bear following the police decision not to confront the active shooter quickly. mark lobel, bbc news. let's get some of the day's other news. democrat and republican senators in the us have released a compromise bill on firearms safety legislation. the measures will be voted on in the senate. commentators say it's a significant step towards overhauling the nation's gun laws. president biden and colombia's president—elect, gustavo petro, have promised to work together to address climate change, drug trafficking and bilateral security.

in their first phone call since mr petro was elected on sunday, mr biden also said he would help colombia in the full implementation of a peace deal with the farc rebel group, which was signed six years ago. mr petro, a former marxist rebel himself, has become colombia's first left—wing leader. police in ecuador have used tear gas to disperse thousands of students, workers and indigenous people who took to the streets of the capital quito for the ninth day in a row. they're demanding changes to the conservative government's economic policies. several people have been injured in clashes between demonstrators and riot police. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: it may not have the razzmatazz of a cocktail kid but if you really want that drink, could this be the way to go?

members of the neo—nazi resistance movement stormed the world trade centre, armed with pistols and shotguns. we believe that, according to international law, that we have a right to claim certain parts of this country as ourland. i take pride in the words "ich bin ein berliner". cheering as the uk woke up to the news that it is to exit the european union, leave campaigners began celebrating. in total, 17.4 million people voted for the uk to leave the eu. the medical research council has now advised the government that the great increase in lung cancer is due mainly to smoking tobacco. it was closing time for checkpoint charlie which, for 29 years, has stood on the border as a mark of allied determination to defend the city.

this is bbc world news, the main story this hour: the congressional hearing into the us capitol riot has heard how some electoral workers were pressurised and later faced death threats from the public. a jury in los angeles has found the american comedian, bill cosby, forced a 16—year old girl to perform a sex act on him at the playboy mansion in 1975. the court also ordered that cosby must payjudy huth, who is now 64, half a million dollars in damages. she spoke of her relief after the victory in court. it, it, it hasjust been torture, it really has, to be ripped apart, thrown under the

bus and backed over. this is just such a big victory, it really is, to all victims! her lawyer, gloria allread, said spoke of the importance of this case. today, our client, judy huth, won real change because she fought bill cosby, one step at a time, four sevenths .5 years. and she proved with the verdict of the jury that bill cosby did sexually assault her when she was a minor and that he should be held, and it was held, accountable, for what he did to her. neama rahmani, who's president of west coast trial lawyers in los angeles says this verdict is huge. todayis today is a big verdict in los angeles county because it is one of the first of maybe 60

victims that have had their case moved forward to a jury. he served three years that many victims believe he has not received justice because the pennsylvania supreme court overturned the conviction but it doesn't mean that states like california that opened up the statute of limitations that the statute of limitations that the case cannot move forward with civil lawsuits and this is the first of many white was saying there are 50 or 60 women who are minors at the time because that was the understanding of what the statute of limitations was lifted, wasn't it? not all of them were minors or filed lawsuits but to the extent that they are, here in california, they are, here in california, the legislature has opened up the legislature has opened up the stature into instances, if they were minors, they can file within five years of discovering injuries and back in january 2020, the legislature opened up the window for three years so any minor victims can get civil

justice. i minor victims can get civil “ustice. , , ,.,, minor victims can get civil 'ustice. , , , ., justice. i suppose we should recognise — justice. i suppose we should recognise there _ justice. i suppose we should recognise there will - justice. i suppose we should recognise there will almost l recognise there will almost certainly be another step, we do not know this for sure yet, but it would be a surprise if bill cosby did not challenge that ruling and appeal? there is no question _ that ruling and appeal? there is no question that _ that ruling and appeal? there is no question that his - is no question that his attorneys will file an appeal, first, at the appellate court and the second appellate division here at los angeles and the california supreme court may be. these have been challenged previously, the first one in the state of california opened up the attitude of limitations relating to child sexual abuse because of the allegations that were levelled against the catholic church. that was litigated and i will not be surprised if bill cosby�*s lawyers follow the same path. i'm interested in what is it about the possibility of more cases to emerge because there must be a number of women he said, look, we've had a case here, a point has been proven and i don't know if i can challenge these or take on the court system, the lawyers, the

cost and maybe this is enough indication for me?— indication for me? there are a lot of women _ indication for me? there are a lot of women who _ indication for me? there are a lot of women who want - indication for me? there are a lot of women who want to - indication for me? there are a i lot of women who want to come forward and testified in bill cosby�*s criminal trial and two alleged victims testified in this case but all of these cases have been stayed or put on hold because of bill cosby�*s criminal proceedings. now that those are over and he still has a fifth amendment right to stay silent and he did appear or testify in this case but now the door is open for any of these minor victims to move forward with their civil lawsuits. i floods in bangladesh and northeastern india have claimed the lives of at least 100 people and forced millions to leave their homes. the floods are affecting the north eastern indian state of assam and parts of northern bangladesh. 0ur south asia correspondent, yogita limaye, reports. when the rain relents, rescuers work with the means they have to get people out. in small groups and clusters,

hundreds of thousands are still to get to safety. in these rural and remote areas of the indian state of assam, it isn't a fast—moving operation, but without it some would simply not make it. across the border in bangladesh, the situation is even worse. this is the gate of a school in sylhet that was turned into a shelter. if it rains any more, it will no longer serve as a refuge. inside, people who've managed to save themselves but lost everything they had. "our home was swept away in the floods. all our belongings have gone too," this woman says. anger against the administration is growing. "our home was flooded and we've come here for shelter, but we haven't received any relief material yet. we're here without

food," she says. unrelenting rainfall for more than a week caused the flooding and while this is a common occurrence in these low—lying areas during the monsoon season, bangladeshi officials say it's the worst they've seen in more than a century. today, prime minister sheikh hasina surveyed the scale of the disaster that hit her country. she insists her government is doing all it can. supplies have reached some areas. food packets, water and medicines. this is moulvibazar, to the south of sylhet. but the threat of more rain remains. and in both countries, most people who've been affected had very little even before the floods hit. they'll need all the help they can get to rebuild their lives. yogita limaye, bbc news, india.

ukraine has confirmed that russian forces have captured a key frontline village in the eastern region of luhansk. the loss of toshkivka gives russia a further foothold in the grinding battle for the nearby cities of severodonetsk and lysyhansk. the region's governor says continuous artillery fire have caused catastrophic destruction to both cities. russia has warned lithuania of serious consequences after it banned the transport of some goods to the russian territory of kaliningrad. the region — where an estimated one million people live — is sandwiched between lithuania and poland. it relies heavily on imports of raw materials and spare parts from russia and the european union. 0ur russia editor, steve rosenberg, has this update from kaliningrad. when one of the most powerful men in russia, nikolai patrushev, the hawkish chief of the russian security

council, flies into kaliningrad as he did earlier today and issues a very public and stern warning about the consequences of russia's response to all of this will be very bad, very serious for the lithuanian people — that makes you wonder what russia is planning here. now some russian politicians and commentators are calling for a military response to lithuania — a show of force by russia. now that's quite incredible, really, because that would mean basically, russia against nato. and i don't think that's very likely, but the fact that some people are talking about this and pushing this shows just how bad relations have become between russia and the west. finding bar staff these days is proving a challenge across europe.

well, one bar, the sausalito in munich, has found another way to serve up the mojitos. the manager has brought in this two—armed robot to pick up the slack. but he was quick to point out that it's meant to provide extra help to current staff. translation: nobody needs to worry about theirjob! this branch is suffering from staff shortages which means we would actually very much like to employ more staff if we could find more people willing to work in hospitality. we will keep the same amount of bar staff we had before, so we are not planning to replace anybody with the robot, rather it aims to be a help. elvis impersonators in las vegas can now breathe a sigh of relief after a deal was struck to allow elvis—themed weddings to continue in sin city. the elvis estate had issued cease

and desist letters ordering them to stop the weddings. but now they can carry on with their acts after agreeing to continue paying an annualfee. vegas claims it's the wedding capital of the world, with more than 150 marriages a day, many with an elvis theme. the impersonators say the deal means they won't be stepping on the blue suede shoes of the elvis estate. hello there. the heat is continuing to build for a few days before it turns cooler this weekend. today it was the turn of england and wales to see temperatures into the mid—20s in the strong sunshine and blue skies. there has been much more cloud across scotland and northern ireland so temperatures today not quite as high as they were yesterday. that cloud is continuing to thin, so this evening and into the night, we have some patchy cloud to scotland and northern ireland, generally across england and wales, and any cloud we have the moment will melt away and we will have clear skies. temperatures typically overnight 11 or 12 degrees. could be a little bit milder than that, if it stays cloudy here. i suspect it will break

through the cloud and get some sunshine through the day on wednesday and more sunshine to come across scotland, particularly in the east. the sunnier skies continue to be across england and wales, no wind at all, the temperatures rising rapidly once again, adding a couple degrees onto today's values so, for many, 26 or 27 degrees. a warmer day than today in northern ireland warmer in eastern scotland in the sunshine. when you do have the sunshine, we have got high or even very high grass pollen levels once again tomorrow. the heat is building underneath the clearer skies and light winds under that area of high pressure but it's getting eroded a little bit on thursday, particularly from that weather front from the south and that will bring with it some showers. it looks like those are moving a little further north more quickly through the english channel into southern parts of england, eventually into south wales, the south midlands, maybe even east anglia before the end of the day. some sunshine headed that

still and some cloud western scotland and northern ireland, so not high here. another very warm day because those showers are moving northwards more quickly, the highest temperatures are going to be pushed north through the midlands and northern england. and things continue to break down a bit by the end of the week, pressure falling, some heavy showers around, this band of rain approaching the southwest with cool air coming in behind that for the weekend. we do have some heavy and potentially thundery showers from overnight, moving northwards across northern and western parts of the uk, ahead of the band of rain in the south—west later on. more cloud around two end the week so temperatures are going to be a bit lower with more sunshine and dry weather for eastern england, it's still going to be very warm.

this is bbc news, the headlines: the us capitol riot hearings in washington have been told about the pressure that election workers faced from donald trump, to overturn the 2020 result. state officials testified that the former president's influence lead to them, and their families having to cope with abuse and intimidation. the hearing into last month's mass shooting at a school in texas, has been told that police officers put their own lives before the children's. images have emerged showing a classroom door at the uvalde school was not locked, while police waited outside for a key. a jury in los angeles has found the entertainer bill cosby