donald trump's presidential campaign accuses the uk's labour party of foreign interference in the us election. a new alzheimer's drug is rejected for widespread use in england because of how much it costs. the world health organisation postpones a planned mass polio vaccination campaign across most of northern gaza due to escalating violence. and, after their trip to australia, king charles and queen camilla arrive in samoa for a commonwealth summit. hello, i'm catherine byaruhanga. we start in the us, where donald trump's presidential campaign has made a legal complaint against the labour party here, for what it claims is illegal foreign contributions and interference in the us election.

a statement from the trump—vance campaign says "the far—left labour party has inspired kamala s dangerously liberal policies and rhetoric. labour officials say activists who've been campaigning for kamala harris are doing so in a personal capacity and are not organised orfunded by the party. for context, a foreign national can participate in campaign activities as long as they are not being paid for it. our north america correspondent peter bowes reports. donald j trump! us election interference by the labour party — the claim being made by donald trump's campaign that britain's ruling party and kamala harris�* campaign have broken the law.

in a six—page letter to the us election watchdog — the federal election commission — a lawyer for the trump campaign cites media reports about contact between labour and the harris campaign, and requests an immediate investigation into blatant foreign interference with apparent illegal foreign national contributions made by the labour party. the row revolves around efforts by labour to send volunteers to the states to help kamala harris. the letter cites this now deleted post on the networking site linkedin, apparently from a senior labour official saying ten spots were available to travel to the us and the party would "sort" housing for volunteers. the trump campaign says that suggests labour is financially supporting volunteers. it is not illegal for foreign nationals to campaign in us elections, but they cannot be paid for it. in a statement, the trump campaign said kamala harris and her running mate tim walz were seeking foreign influence to boost what it called

their radical message. donald trump's former ambassador to germany, richard grenell, who is tipped to be part of the former president's new administration, if he wins the election, told newsnight it was a slippery slope for labour. i think it is a really dangerous precedent to have the ruling party of an ally somehow playing politics, getting involved in the actual campaigning with such a short notice. i mean, it is the last month of our campaign. sir keir starmer has played down the significance of the trump campaign's allegations, pointing out labour had volunteers who had gone to america pretty much every election, doing it in their spare time and staying with other volunteers. the prime minister added that he and donald trump had established a good relationship when they met in

new york last month. peter bowes, bbc news. our political editor chris mason is travelling with the prime minister to samoa for the commonwealth heads of government meeting, where the trump row threatens to overshadow the trip. hello from winnipeg in the canadian province of manitoba. we're on our way to the south pacific, to samoa for a gathering of commonwealth heads of government. to put it gently, it's a long way. we've still got a long, long way to go. quite the row, though, bubbling whilst we've been on the first leg of this flight — between donald trump and the uk labour party. you know, it's only a couple of weeks ago that keir starmer was having dinner with donald trump in new york, meeting him for the first time. now there's this row that centres on a post on linkedin, the cv and jobs website, from a labour party staffer ahead of operations, suggesting that people might want to go out to campaign for kamala harris, the big rival of donald trump.

kamala harris of the democrats, the current vice president, with a suggestion that their housing would be sorted. now, that has caused real anger from the trump campaign because they reckon that it amounts to illegal electoral interference, particularly the idea that somehow money might have changed hands. labour say that is absolutely not the case. these are volunteers. this happens at every election and it's been blown out of all proportion. perhaps some injudicious language in a now deleted social media post at the heart of it. but quite the thing when we are just a couple of weeks away from the us presidential election. earlier my colleague at bbc breakfastjon kay asked the environment secretary steve reed what the parties response was to these claims. it is up to private citizens how they use their time and money, and it is not unusual for supporters of a party in one country to go and campaign for a sister party in another. it happens both ways round and across many, many countries. but none of this was

organised and funded by the labour party itself. this is individual people making their own choices as they are free to do. i think his complaint, though, goes to the fact that there was a post on linkedin on social media from a labour party manager, which has now been deleted, but which was offering some kind of help for labour party members who went to america to help kamala harris�*s campaign. and that is what donald trump says is described as "reasonable inference" that the labour party was making, what he says, amount to illegalforeign national contributions to the american election. what do you say to that? well, none of this was organised directly by the labour party. as i say, what people choose to do in their free time and whether she's a part of a group linked to the democrats is entirely up to her and it's up to individuals if they want to use their holiday to go and campaign for a sister party in another country.

people are free to do that. it's not against the law here, it's not against the law in the united states. but it certainly wasn't organised by the labour party itself. our chief political correspondent henry zeffman told me the row could cause friction between the uk and us governments, should donald trump win the us presidential election. it is clearly not good. i don't think there is precedent, certainly not that i'm aware of, for a presidential campaign to be making a legal complaint about a political party that is in government in one of their closest allies. this is a very big deal. it is very unusual. perhaps it is yet another symptom of what an unusual politician and what an unusual campaigner donald trump is but then again the labour party and labour government may find themselves within just a couple of weeks having to deal with a very unusualformer president—elect who might be returning to the white house. i think the big question here is

there is no denying this is seriously awkward and embarrassing for the labour party. the question is whether it is merely awkward and embarrassing but will pass within a couple of days, or whether actually this does show a level of anger from the tramp campaign that would carry over if he wins the presidential election, into his relationship with keir starmer as the uk prime minister. if that is the case, then that elevates this from an awkward and surprising row to something much more serious indeed. cbs correspondent jared hill told us how this story is being received in the us. this is a story that has not really gotten a tonne of traction in the states, at least not yet. again, what we know is the tramp campaign filed this lawsuitjust earlier this week on monday, and so this is starting to trickle out here. the allegation, as you are mentioning, is that the labour party, they say, were sending members and staffers to the

united states to campaign on behalf of vice president kamala harris. what we're hearing from the labour party is these are people who are doing this on their free time and they are in their individual capacity, in their spare time. that's what they say they have done in previous elections on both sides of the political spectrum. here the question is going to be if this has any sort of political repercussions in the states for former president trump or vice president harris. it will be interesting to see how this develops over the next couple of hours or days. so let's get more on the latest presidential campaign polling. new polls are arriving every day, each one with its slightly different take on the figures. 7 if you look at the overall trends, rather than the individual points, you see harris retains a small lead over trump in the national polling averages. ?and if we turn to the battleground states. as you can see right now, the polls are very tight

in the seven states considered battlegrounds in this election, with neither candidate having a decisive lead in any of them, according to the polling averages. a new alzheimer's drug has been rejected for widespread use in the health service in england, after the health spending watchdog said that it "doesn't currently demonstrate value for the nhs". it comes as the uk's medicines regulator said that donanemab could be licensed for use in the uk. it is the second disease modifying alzheimer's drug to be rejected by the national institute of health and care excellence in a matter of months. our health correspondentjim reed has been explaining to me why there was a lot of optimism around the drug. for the first time, these new drugs that are coming on stream are notjust altering, changing the symptoms of dementia and alzheimer's, but actually trying to do something about the underlying disease. and that's what this does. so we now think that alzheimer's is caused

by the build—up of these plaques in your brain called amyloid proteins. and this drug essentially latches on to those proteins and stops them forming, breaks them down. if you give it early enoughin the progression of the disease, early enough after diagnosis. so what we have to decide is, is it worth giving these on a population—wide basis across the nhs? and that's what the health spending watchdog will be looking into today. and it decided that this drug, this one in particular, donanemab, can slow the progression of alzheimer's by between four to seven months — might not sound very much in the great scheme of someone�*s life, but actually, if you're someone who wants to go outside and play with their children and go on holiday, the fact that you can reduce or slow the progression of alzheimer's by four to seven months is seen as very exciting. the question is, is it worth the money? now, at the moment they've looked at this and decided actually by quite a long way, by big measure it's not.

they say the cost effectiveness of this drug is 5 to 6 times above what nice — this organisation — would normally consider an acceptable use of nhs resources. so at the moment it will not be approved for widespread use in england. and just there are so many families that are affected by this illness. how does nice reach this decision? just help us go behind the scenes there. it's a really difficult decision to make because you're trying to weigh up the cost effectiveness of a drug against the cost effectiveness of essentially doing nothing, which is really the current way that alzheimer's disease is treated. and so they've got to look at, for example, social care costs. if you give this drug, it might mean that someone can live a relatively normal life for longer months. if you don't, then you've got someone that may be having to go into into a care home, may be having to be cared for at home, and that obviously has a cost attached to it. so they're trying to weigh both these things up at the same time, which is not easy. and that's what they've said here. there's also the issue of of side effects from these drugs. and we do know that they

can cause some quite serious side effects, things like microbleeds in the brain and swelling of the brain. so they're trying to weigh these things up at the same time. i think in the longer term, though, these are the first two drugs of its type that have come to market and be developed. we know that there are another 20 or so drugs using very similar technologies that are on the way. so what organisations like the alzheimer's research and the alzheimer's society are saying is, although this is disheartening, the longer term prognosis for people with dementia is much more, much more positive than it has been in many years. jim, very briefly, has there been any reaction to this decision? well, we've already had reaction, like i say, from the alzheimer's society, who say that although they are disheartened by this decision today, they expect more drugs like this to come on stream. and they talk about a new horizon of hope in the fight against dementia in the longer term. you can fine much more on that story on the bbc web—site. including a comment from nice.

around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news.

breaking news now from the middle east, where the un says it has postponed a polio vaccination campaign in northern gaza due to israeli bombardments, mass displacement and lack of access. the final phase of the two—stage rollout to vaccinate close to 120,000 children, prompted by gaza s first case of polio in 25 years, was due to begin today. meanwhile in lebanon there have been more strikes overnight. this is the skyline in beirut this morning after strikes were reported in baada which is a southern suburb of beirut. in the past few hours, it's been announced america's top diplomat antony blinken will hold talks with arab foreign ministers on lebanon and gaza in london on friday. he was in israel on tuesday, he'll now be visiting saudi arabia,

qatar and the uae. yolande knell, our middle east correspondent, explained how the fighting in northern gaza has led to a dire humanitarian situation and has hampered the urgently needed un polio vaccination programme. it is a message coming out from the different un agencies that are involved in this mass vaccination campaign, really made necessary after the first traces of polio were found, first of all in sewage water in central gaza in the middle of this year and then they had the first case of a baby, an unvaccinated baby with polio in close to two decades. it was really sort of underlined by the different un agencies involved in this mass vaccination that it was really important to have this two—state programme rolled out across all areas of the gaza strip. the first stage was completed successfully a month or so ago and now they have carried out the second stage in the centre

of the gaza strip and in the south. but it seems they are unable to get the humanitarian pauses in fighting that are necessary in order for this to work in the north of the gaza strip, where israel has been conducting a new military offensive against what it says are regrouping hamas elements there. but we have had these forced displacement orders in the past couple of weeks. we have had people, especially in jabalia, which has been a big focus of the israeli ground campaign, saying that they are unsafe, they can't get out, hospitals are being evacuated, people complaining that the people complaining about the complete lack of food, so it has really led to a dire humanitarian situation. we have had mr blinken who just left talking about the importance of getting aid into gaza and the north of gaza in particular, saying that the us was tracking

this every single day. but maybe the state department is also aware that this is was a likely announcement to follow as he was leaving the country. let's ta ke let's take you to london where the uk will sign a new defence agreement with germany, as the uk government seeks to strengthen its post—brexit ties with europe. this ist strengthen its post—brexit ties with europe. this is t scene in central london. the uk and germany agreeing new measures, including the construction of a new factory in the uk by a german company. of course we are keeping an eye on developments there. it is seen as a key defensive agreement. for uk viewers we will have live coverage of the developments in central london.

a bbc investigation has found that russia has expanded its recruitment of prisoners to fight the war in ukraine to include those merely accused of a crime. work undertaken alongside the independent russian website mediazona to compare thousands of dog tags from russian prison recruits with leaked records found a shift from the most serious offenders to those convicted of, or still awaiting trialfor, much lower—level crimes. 0lga ivshina reports. this is andrey perlov�*s olympic medal. his daughter alina is showing it to us because he is in a pre—trial detention facility — facing ten years in prison. he stands accused of embezzling around three million roubles, almost £24,000, from the football club where he was managing director. but the 62—year—old has been offered a way out. he can avoid a trial altogether if he signs a contract to join

the army and fight in ukraine. translation: my father refused to sign the contract. for him, it would be tantamount to admitting his guilt. he's not going to do that. a new law means that investigators and even defence lawyers are now obliged to offer an opportunity to go to the front line to almost anyone accused of a crime in russia. but it hasn't always been that way. these are the faces of some of the violent criminals who fought and died for russia in ukraine. like this man, who burned two people alive, and this man, who brutally stabbed his own mother and left her to die. however, now it's no longer just dangerous offenders being recruited into the army. we have analysed almost 20,000 dog tags from convicts who went to the front line against detailed data that was leaked to us. in the beginning, prisoner recruitment was handled by wagner and its late

leader yevgeny prigozhin, who specifically targeted high security institutions. translation: multiple convictions for murder or robbery, great. if you screwed up with prison officials or have bitten the cops, it's even better. we need your criminal talents. they want the sort of hardest criminals or the worst of the worst, because they're going to be using them in assault units. but our research shows that as russian losses increased, recruitment has spread to any kind of prison, including pre—trial detention centres. and some people do sign up. yaroslav lipavsky chose to go to the front line as soon as he turned 18. he was accused of intentionally causing harm to another person, alongside others. he was dead within a month. but the effort to get people into the army is increasing. the bbc has received a leaked recording of an investigator explaining how the pressure the men to sign up under this new law.

it has been revoiced to protect the source. translation: listen, your husband has already got three years for theft. he can get six more for this other crime. do you need this? i offered him a chance to sign a contract. if his request is approved, he will go to war and close the case. that's it. do russians care about convicts or those who are in prison? - i suspect that they don't. and i suspect that's another reason why the russian - government turned to them. but andrey perlov maintains his innocence, so he continues to refuse the contracts he is being offered. we asked the russian authorities about perlov�*s case and whether they are unfairly pressuring detainees tojoin the army. they did not respond. translation: he tries to keep himself cheerful, but if this goes on, they will break him. it cannot go on indefinitely. after a career chasing medals, andrey perlov continues his fight for a fair trial and not a dog tag around his neck.

0lga ivshina, bbc news. some breaking news from kazan where the brics summit is under way. you're watching bbc news and we have details from london of the uk signing a new defence agreement with germany. todayis today is a significant day in the history of our two countries.

and ina and in a more dangerous world, allies are our strategic strength and we must do more together.

yes, there is a0 years of great cooperation on fast jets yes, there is a0 years of great cooperation on fastjets between uk and germany, yes both countries have deployed and operated together in kosovo,in deployed and operated together in kosovo, in afghanistan, and to counter iso. but the collaboration has been ad hoc. it has not been systematic. there is no fully fledged defence cooperation agreement. i thank you in this room for your contributions. as i started work sometime last year, there were only 28 german military personnel training in the uk. there were only six brits are doing the same in germany. we only had one bilateral germany. we only had one bilateral german uk defence industrial programme. so there was huge

potential, which we both wanted to seize. potentialand potential, which we both wanted to seize. potential and imperative to respond to increasing threats, to strengthen our collective security through nato, the cornerstone for the defence of both our nations. so today we have signed this landmark trinity house agreement. it secures defence cooperation across all domains, land, sea, air, cyber, space. it will be put on a legal footing in the wider treaty between the uk and germany. the agreement confirms new lighthouse defence project between our military is and where better to announce these than trinity house, which is home of england �*s official lighthouse authority, and has been so since i79a. in authority, and has been so since 179a. in fact actually, it goes back longer than that to henry viii, when he took the first steps to maritime

regulation from this building in 151a will stop admiral, thank you for your hospitality and thank you for your hospitality and thank you for hosting us, and thank you to your teams for helping us to organise this event. in this new agreement, our new cooperation is focused on the now with our armies training, innovating more together on nato �*s eastern flank and on german planes operating out of lossiemouth to protect the north atlantic. and on new support for ukraine through the capability coalitions, and also enabling german seeking helicopters to be equipped with modern missile systems. so, cooperation focused on the now, and also focused on the weapons of the future. developing a new deep strike system together. pursuing new trains that can operate alongside our tanks, our planes and our warships,

kick—starting work together to protect vital undersea cables in the north sea. advancing innovation between our armies to shape the future of nato warfare, driven by ai and emerging technologies. and, as well as this, this agreement paves the way for closer industrial cooperation. so today, mattel have announced plans to build a new gun barrel factory in britain supporting a00 jobs, barrel factory in britain supporting a00jobs, bringing half £1 barrel factory in britain supporting a00 jobs, bringing half £1 billion of benefit to the uk economy. and re—establish a critical defence industry for the first time in ten years. gun barrels built in britain with british steel for our british armed forces, and for our allies. and from artillery to ai, from the weapons of now to the weapons of the future. it has also been confirmed today a new investment of £350

million into the uk for the development of ai systems. so, this shows the agreement today gives renewed confidence to investors in the uk defence industrial base. finally, just to give this a bigger context. 0ur finally, just to give this a bigger context. our new government was elected in july to deliver change. before the election, we promised a new defence agreement with germany in six months. we have signed this landmark agreement in less than four months. this is what resetting relations with europe looks like. this is what growing our economy looks like. and this is what a nato first defence strategy looks like. and the agreement today also sends a

signal to our adversaries.