defence that is currently taking place.rs for the president have begun presenting their defence in his impeachment trial. hoping of course to show he is innocent of the two articles of impeachment that have been put before him. let us get the latest from our correspondent chris buckler in washington for us. so, chris, just, give us the main take aways from what we have heard so far from the senate floor? yes, a reminder we have had three days of prosecution, in which the democrats have set their case out against donald trump, that he abused his power and that he tried to obstruct the work of congress as they investigated that. now what we have had now, is the defence, stand up to the plate, and donald trump's own legal team set out for a start why they believe he did absolutely nothing wrong. now, it is just the beginning, did absolutely nothing wrong. now, it isjust the beginning, and did absolutely nothing wrong. now, it is just the beginning, and they have up to 2a hours to make their case, although they have indicated t

there has been 2a hours of defence for president trump. this closely on bbc news and do stay tuned for all the latest updates. at least 41 people are now known to have died from the coronavirus in china. the number of confirmed cases has risen to almost 1,400. the virus has spread to europe for the first time, with three cases confirmed in france. there‘ve also been three more people identified as having the virus in australia, bringing the total to four. in the uk, 31 people have now been tested for coronavirus, all of which were confirmed as negative. 0ur correspondent, stephen mcdonnell, has gone to the chinese province of hubei, where the outbreak began. the authorities are starting to lock down this entire province of nearly 60 million people, where the coronavirus emergency began. hospitals in wuhan have been overwhelmed with the sick. state media has reported that one doctor treating people with the virus has died. military medics have been flown in to help with the crisis, as have specialist doctors from shanghai. but the challenge

president trump's lawyers have begun the case for the defence at his impeachment trial.rld in which governments switched off the internet, so you could no longer access any websites or social media. well, that's exactly what's happened to the people of indian—administered kashmir. the region has expereinced an internet blackout for more than 150 days after the indian authorities ordered a complete shutdown. they said it was for security reasons, after a controversial constiutional change to the status of the territory. an indian supreme court ruling has led to a partial restoration this weekend, ending the longest outage in any democracy. but the slower zg connection only allows access to about 300 government—approved sites and there's still no social media. translation: when i switched my phone on i was excited to access internet services after so long. but i could only access the website of the jammu i could only access the website of thejammu and i could only access the website of the jammu and kashmir university and a bit of cricket news. that's it. it was quite slow

when i was defence secretary in 2010, the american defence secretary then was complaining that europener or carrying enough of the load, and sooner or later, the us taxpayers would start to lose patience, because america is carrying something like 69% of all nato defence spending. so we need to have a rethink about nato, we need to think about the roles, the defence secretary is correct. we need to have some change in our configuration, not least because much of the conflict and threat that is coming to us is not in the traditional defence base, but what you might call the wear of the invisible enemy in cyberspace, so we do have to have a lot of rethinking, and perhaps resetting of our assets. secretary cohen, specifically though, what mr wallace is talking about is the british american relationship and the prospect of america pulling back. when you have a british defence of the very same we have got to diversify our assets, because we cannot depend on the americans any more, how much concerned with that because in the building at the pentagon where you use to run? well, i think it ru

the defence is not engaging with the facts here.t we have heard today we have heard over and over and over. look, donald trump did release that aid for ukraine, so how could there have been a quid pro quo? there were questions about the whistle—blower who brought that phone call on july 25 to light. was the whistle—blower biased? the inspector general of the cia found there may be some biase, but the concerns were legitimate. but we have heard these arguments before. what we haven't heard yet is donald trump did not do this. what we have heard is what donald trump did was perfectly fine. daniel, the message as well seems to be this isn't about the details as much as the fact that we are denying the american public their right to have a say in all of this come november. yes, and that also we would be reversing the november 2016 election, but if you were watching those two hours this morning, you can't help yourself but think that they were ignoring the facts of their own. one thing that the trump lawyer said is that the ukraine leade

i am a terminal defence —— criminal defence attorney and would feel in this case i could be allowed tonce on the defence theory. but president trump is arguing is he was fighting corruption in ukraine. important enough that contract between hunter biden and the ukrainian energy company burisma was still ongoing in 2019 stuff it had technically ended just before this call. i think that is... i'm sorry tojump in call. i think that is... i'm sorry to jump in there. call. i think that is... i'm sorry tojump in there. i want to go quickly to the senate because lindsay graham, the republican senator, is giving a very quick press co nfe re nce . senator, is giving a very quick press conference. we weren't expecting this for select had a quick listen. treated so poorly by the republican house was mac i remember clinton very well. we got challenged, rightly so, about what we're doing and why are doing it. i would not co—operate at all with these people fibre the president. you said executive privilege was a very powerful argument for you. would you entertain at all, still on the table, joe bide

president trump's lawyers have begun the case for the defence at his impeachment trial.ine if you weren't allowed access to the internet — so you weren't able to access any websites or social media. well, that's exactly what's happened to the people of indian administered kashmir. the region did not have access to the internet for more than 150 days after the indian government ordered a shut down following a controversial constiutional changes to the status of the territory. but an indian supreme court ruling has led to a partial restoration this weekend, ending the longest outage in any democracy. but the slower zg connection only allows access to around 300 government approved sites and there's still no social media. when i switch my phone on, i was excited to access internet services for so long. but i was only able to access university and cricket news. it was a bit slow. i am a student i need to apply to universities for scholarships. because of no internet i have not been able to do much. scholarships. because of no internet i have not been able to do muchm takes a

if you listen to what donald trump's legal defence tea m to what donald trump's legal defence team saiday. 0n to what donald trump's legal defence team said yesterday. on one hand they said the democrats haven't spent enough time to gather evidence during the house impeachment proceedings and the other hand was that they're moving too fast to try to call witnesses during the senate trial and that there was no case that the evidence presented was perfectly acceptable in the phone call with president zielinski was a perfect phone call and on the other hand, that there was not enough evidence even if you took all that evidence even if you took all that evidence and assumed the worst, it would not constitute a crime because no crime has been committed in their opinion if you have not committed a crime that is not an impeachable offence. their legal defence strategy is through a lot of things up strategy is through a lot of things up against the wall and see what sticks it as long as enough senators byatt, they're going to be just fine. home interest understand the format. these democrats in

team, a massive defence team, you know, they will begin to present their case. there is a certain amount of mystery. the democrats did it, they were led out by the chair of the intelligence committee. he spoke for 2.5 hours. it is not entirely clear that either man will do that today. they may say they are presenting this as an outline and we look forward to coming back on monday to present details. it is also possible because they thrive on surprise, remember they thrive on surprise, remember the trump team emulates that whole thing of being a reality tv host, and they might just thing of being a reality tv host, and they mightjust decide to surprise everyone and go full bore, but as of now, reports coming out of washington is that it will be a short session today with the heavyweight stuff coming on monday. how does this reality tv thing work at this level of government?m keeps people interested. it keeps people talking about it, and the ball is now in their court. they are going to be setting out a case. we we re going to be setting out a case. we were just t

danjohnson outside the ministry of defence.menai said america must leave the region, and had this to say about the attack itself. translation: revenge, that's something else. what happened last night was just a slap in the face. that's something else. our north america correspondent nick bryant is in washington — he told us how the white house may respond to the attack. donald trump is facing the biggest foreign policy test of his presidency so far and the question before him is whether to continue the cycle of escalation with iran or whether to show more circumspection. now, he's been warning on twitter, of course, that he would retaliate very strongly if iran attacked us targets, but after they actually did so, he's been surprisingly low—key on social media. "all is well", he wrote on twitter, after the iranian attacks. "so far, so good," he said about the damage and fatality assessment. tehran sees this as its proportional response to the killing of general soleimani, that it doesn't want war with america, that it doesn't wa

tea m run—of—the—mill as having a defence team orany run—of—the—mill as having a defence team or anyort that you might require in the case. 0k, that you might require in the case. ok, so people understand the harvey weinstein case, and you were employed to work for him. he was the client. can you explain to us what it was that you did for him? so originally black cube had been contacted originally black cube had been co nta cted by originally black cube had been contacted by harvey weinstein through his lawyers, and he claimed that there was a plot to oust him from his company. he thought his brother was behind it, he thought that various other high executive level people were scheming to get rid of him. and that's quite a standard job in the corporate intelligence space. you have a dispute between powerful businesspeople, and our job dispute between powerful businesspeople, and ourjob to find out actually is there a problem going on. so the original list of names that he came to black cube that were fed to me was around six oi’ that were fed to me was around six or seven people, mos

he wants to make this a show for the defence. is all about the detail but i know you are making an interesting point that what the senators are locked in these long sessions each day, there are some key people who might wish there were not. absolutely. there is an election going on. we had the iowa caucuses on the 3rd of february, this is right around the corner. some of the front runners are locked on capitol hill, elizabeth warren was a front runner for so long, bernie sanders is leading the polls in iowa and new hampshire. that has opened the gap a little bit, open some campaigning space forjoe little bit, open some campaigning space for joe biden. little bit, open some campaigning space forjoe biden. it is very interesting that the senators are locked on capitol hill, they are not able to campaign. strange irony there. thank you both very much indeed. more than a hundred people from all over britain are in birmingham today for the first citizen's assembly on climate change. amongst those taking part were the naturalist and br

the us legal right to pursue the strike and self defence.nd the cia saying there was intelligence showing that soleimani was planning imminent attacks on americans, so the uk is backing washington on legal right to do it, but we have held back so far from going any further. there is a massive weariness in westminster around the idea of britain being dragged into a kinetic conflict is all the emphasis so far has been stressing the need for de—escalation by all sides and urging iran to pursue a diplomatic route forward and not seek revenge. lucy fisher, defence editor for the times newspaper, thank you very much. these are the live pictures to us coming from mashhad in iran as mourners have been gathering for general soleimani he was killed in the us air strike. we understand the iranian cabinet has declared monday a public holiday within the tehran province as tehran prepares to hold a state organised funeral ceremony for qasem soleimani. the government invites all people to take part in the funeral, is how part of the statement reads. thousa

the headlines at 6: donald trump's lawyers have begun their defence of the president in his impeachment trial in the senate — they say he's done nothing wrong. they're asking you to do something that no senate has ever done and they're asking you to do it with no evidence — and that's wrong, and i ask you to keep that in mind. the death toll from the coronavirus rises to 41 — with authorities in china struggling to contain the outbreak, as millions travel for the lunar new year. there are now known cases of the virus in france and australia, and a state of emergency has been declared in hong kong. the search for survivors continues after a powerful earthquake hit turkey — at least 22 people have been killed and more than 1200 injured. a charity offering mental health support to military veterans says it can't take on any new cases, due to a funding crisis. in sport, south africa end the second day of the 4th test on 88—6, after england posted a commanding total of 400. good evening and welcome to bbc news. lawyers representing us president donald trump have begun outlining their defence

how dare hejoin harvey weinstein‘s defence team ? in the end he gets forced to resign from his post at harvard law school for having joined weinstein‘s defence team. had hejoined el chapo‘s defence team you wouldn't even have heard of him and this is a guy responsible for the deaths of millions of people. it's — the double standards about due process and whether people have the right to defence teams and whether they have the right to investigators. people have the right to them. there's no law saying that those investigators can't go and break the law, once you break the law it's open season. but you have the right to hire them. but the reason i'm pushing you on personality is that you have an extraordinary life story, really. mm—hmm. i mean, you've written in the past, when you were writing, you wrote "i would propose those who pay for sex should be castigated, demonised, and shunned in exactly the same as society does a rapist". your personal view is very tough on people who pay for prostitutes. with and then when there'e somethin

the defence will include the prosecutor from bill clinton's impeachment, ken starr, as well as celebrity lawyer alan dershowitz, who's previous high profile clients include oj simpson and jeffrey epstein. our north america correspondent aleem maqbool looks at the key hirings ahead of next week's trial. it is what we have come to expect from donald trump. newly revealed members of his legal team are made—for—television heavyweights. in ken starr, he also has a man considered a hero to the right. as independent counsel in the 19905 it was his investigation and the finding that bill clinton lied under oath about a relationship with an intern that led to the then president's impeachment. happy new year to you. away we go now... recently he has been a contributor to mr trump's news network of choice, speaking out against the current impeachment. in alan dershowitz he has one of the most high—profile lawyers in the country, one who represented mike tyson, oj simpson and jeffrey epstein. he has also been vocally opposed to the impeachment of president trump. both are likely to bring showmanship

defence argues that the encounters we re defence argues that the encounters were consensual and thatdor of cameras, harvey wein5tein stumbled his way into court. gone, the bravado and swagger of his red—carpet day5. and in their opening argument, the prosecution reminded thejury of how powerful he used to be, both physically and psychologically. but he was notjust a titan in hollywood, they claimed. he was a rapist. the court heard that wein5tein was a seasoned predator who had lured women to his hotel rooms and private apartments with the promise of opening doors for them in hollywood. then, he would sexually assault and rape them. the jury was told of how the movie mogul then used his power and prestige to 5ilence his accu5ers. "this is how the industry works," he allegedly told one of them. for yea r5 afterwards, they internalised their trauma. harvey, how are you feeling this morning, harvey? are you feeling better? yeah. his defence team said harvey wein5tein was neither a predator nor a master manipulator, and claimed that one of his accusers had sent him hundreds of e—mails de

do the lawyers and the foreign office and ministry of defence regarded as and ministry of defence regardedd yet the government still seems unable to condemn such threats. 0n sunday, the foreign secretary said that the onus was entirely on iran to de—escalate. i wonder, if iran had assassinated an american general, whether the british government would be telling washington that the onus was entirely on the us to de—escalate. mr speaker, we talk about this as a conflict between the us and iran but the worst consequences are likely to be felt by iraq, a country on the brink of further terrible violence and instability. president trump has threatened iran with sanctions like they have never seen before after elected voted to ask united states and other foreign forces to leave their country. he has said he will not withdraw entirely unless the us is compensated for the extraordinary expensive air base that was actually built by saddam hussein in the 80s. the prime minister, when he finally resurfaced from his trip, said he was committed to the sovereignty of iraq so will the secretary of state

it was the defence secretary.tayed clear about talking about the legality of what the americans did. there was no outright condemnation of age, and in fact, there was no outright condemnation of age, and infact, ben there was no outright condemnation of age, and in fact, ben wallace was saying there was a case of self—defense, he talked about the fa ct self—defense, he talked about the fact that there had been several attacks on targets in iraq over the months, and say that actually america had shown restraint up until now. but the really clear message from the uk government is that they really wa nt from the uk government is that they really want to try and calm the situation down, and of course, remember the british were not told in advance by the americans that this was going to happen, even though there are british troops in iraq. this government is engaged in a full diplomatic effort at all levels to seek to de—escalate the tensions that have grown in the region. indeed, not only at the united nations, but in

she approached us into doing a self-defence class.ls have been really proactive and really sweet. they step out of of the comfort zone, but they have been willing to step out and that hasn't been any pushback. it is really great. >> it is respect. you have to learn it. when we first came in, they knew us as those girls. they didn't know who we were. finally, we came enough for them to realize, okay, they are in the business now. it took a while for us to gain that respect from our peers, our male peers. >> since receiving the grant, it has ignited us even more, and put a fire underneath our butts even more. >> we were doing our summer camp and we are in a movie theatre, and we just finished watching a film and she stepped out to receive a phone call. she came in and she screamed, hey, we got the grant. and i said what? >> martial arts is a passion for us. it is passion driven. there are days where we are dead tired and the kids come and they have the biggest smiles on their faces and it is contagious. >> we have been operating this pr

the uk is still urging de—escalation but the ministry of defence has moved non essential personnel outf baghdad. in washington the trump administration is urging iran not to retaliate — but warning that if it does, america will hit back. we are not looking to start a war with iran. but we are prepared to finish one. in iran more than 50 people are killed in a stampede as mourners turn out for the burial of the military commander. iran's foreign minister says america will pay for the assasination. the action by the united states has consequences. the action by the united states has consequences. that will happen, and i believe it has already started. also on the programme..... chaotic scenes in venezuela. the opposition leaderjuan guaido and his supporters have forced their way into the national parliament, where he was re—elected as speaker. and the teenager convicted of lying about a gang rape in cyprus last summer is given a suspended sentence — her family say she was forced under police pressure — to change her statement. hello and welcome — i'm katty kay in washington and christian

forces themselves as i just support provided by the defence forces themselves as ijust noted.val assets which we moved earlier this week and there are other assets that have been identified and are awaiting tasking. all these assets i should stress, whether it's the blackhawks or any of the other things that are being made available, that is being done to get in readiness to deploy and secondly it is then activated at the request of the state agencies. what you cannot have these situations as governments stepping over the top of each other in responding to a natural disaster like this. it must follow a clear chain of command, it must follow their daughter's model which is in place and which commonwealth authorities are embedded in, both in new south wales and victoria. in both new south wales and victoria, there are joint taskforces which have been stood up by defence, which are co—ordinating the defence engagement in each of those responses they are plug—in to the headquarters in both new south wales and victoria. with the roads 110w wales and victoria. with the roads now ope

it is clearly a hook that the president's defence team is looking to grab republicans with.smiss the abuse of power charge without even having to get to the underlying facts by basically saying this is a defective charge because there is no crime alleged. i think if you want to take an objective, fair, realistic look at 200 years of constitutional interpretation, caselaw, president and the text of the framers of our constitution, a fair reading is that you do not need a crime to impeach a president. there are plenty of examples, even seen there are plenty of examples, even seenin there are plenty of examples, even seen in the case of richard nixon, which obviously did not go to impeachment because he resigned first. but he was charged in part with the kinds of abuse of office that only a president can commit and while there might not be the text of specific federal crime, everyone would agree that certain abuses of that office cannot be tolerated and are the basis for legitimate impeachment. in the middle still of a tussle over witnesses and whether there should be witnesses

his legal team will open defence arguments later today. chris buckler reports from washington.s concluded their long and detailed argument that donald trump abused the power of his position with a plea. they told the senators, who act as jurors in this deeply political trial, that it wasn't about allegiances or their personal view of the president, it was about his actions in office. i implore you, give america a fair trial, give america a fair trial. she is worth it. thank you. every minute of this trial has been covered on america's news networks, although president trump is said to be concerned that his defence is beginning on a saturday, what he calls a death valley for tv ratings. his lawyers will also have three days to rebut the democrats' claims that mr trump tried to force the ukrainian president to launch investigations into his political opponents, and they will begin their arguments amid claims of new recordings that could be damaging to their client. we are going to put on, i believe, without question, a compelling case. as i said, we have two goals. we are going t

i think thatis was also no robust defence? fair summary of where we were in terms of what an wallace was saying in the chamber this afternoon and pretty much what the government has been seen publicly since the event of last week. in practical terms we learned some things from him. he was talking about urgent measures to protect petition interest in the golf, uk forces are on standby if needed, non—essential staff have been taken out of baghdad and as part of prudent planning, small team has sent to the region to provide additional situation awareness and contingency planning system. on the political rhetoric, there has clearly been a desire from the government here too, frankly, be very careful about what it is they cannot go particularly far as far as endorsing or criticising how the jump endorsing or criticising how the jump administration has reacted. here in the house of commons, what was interesting, jeremy corbyn, the labour leader, responded on behalf of the opposition and the central thrust of the cotric is where is b

they have a top defence in the nfl and they are good at ingesting in game. a lot of personnel who can stop the chiefs and stop him. he has done things who are magical. he is one of the quarterbacks that if he is on the field, it is any game. it is shaping up to be quite a battle. they are not going to roll over, are they? they have been in such good form. how do you see this final going? i think it is incredibly exciting, one of the best match ups the nfl has had in years in the super bowl. as i mentioned, you have the defence, you have patrick mahon, probably the most exciting parser out there. it is actually close on paper and they match up well in offence and defence across the field. if i had to pay, i'm going to go with san francisco because i just i'm going to go with san francisco because ijust think i'm going to go with san francisco because i just think they are more statistics top to bottom. they have not had to use their passing game yet. their running game is so strong. i do not feel that confident in that pic. if the chief do lift the superfull,

a nalyst interesting from an unnamed defence analyst saying this is not profiting from misery, it'sider conflict. only because i think what a sight more interesting is the stuff they have the was into the piece which is looking at the research conducted by an injured —— institute in stockholm that has found the increase in the defence companies globally since 2002. the amount of money that has brought in, i think it should be a pause for thought, defence can cover all sorts of different things but it includes the manufacturing of arms. without being sold to and how they're feeling confident around the world. we often think conflict is been contained within the country but actually given the nature of global economy, countries all around the world implicated in a lot of the complex, i think it should give us pause for thought my britain in particular is a huge seller of arms and thinking about what that means for conflict in different places including places like yemen, there is humanitarian disaster. it should be put under the microscope more often. a final point, we want to go back

donald trump's lawyers have begun their defence of the president in his impeachment trial in the senate they say he's done nothing wrong. they're asking you to do something that no senate has ever done and they're asking you to do it with no evidence — and that's wrong, and i ask you to keep that in mind. the search for survivors continues after a powerful earthquake hit turkey — at least 22 people have been killed and more than 1200 injured. a charity offering mental health support to military veterans says it can't take on any new cases, due to a funding crisis. south africa end the second day of the 4th test on 88—6, after england posted a commanding total of 400. good evening. china's president has warned that the spread of a potentially deadly new virus is accelerating, with his country facing a "grave situation". coronavirus has killed at least 41 people and infected more than 1300 since the outbreak began in the city of wuhan. severe travel restrictions have been imposed in many areas. here, the department of health says 31 people tested for the virus have been given the all clea

the defence secretary ben wallace. it was announced that the budget will take place on the 11th of march. the chancellor of the exchequer, sajid javid, told the bbc that there would be an "infrastructure revolution" and billions of pounds would be invested across the country. coincidentally, mrjavid was also up before mps answering questions. labour focused on productivity and reports over the christmas break that borisjohnson‘s controversial aide, dominic cummings, had called for a different sort of person to apply forjobs in whitehall. the prime minister's special adviser now wants a civil service perhaps modelled on the cabinet, comprised of weirdos and misfits with odd skills. so as a member... as a member of that cabinet, what weird explanation does the chancellor have as to why according to the office of national statistics, productivity is following at its fastest annual pace for five years? we have just had an unprecedented decade of growth. it is the first decade of uninterrupted growth... only the third time

don't depend on the special relationship, says the uk defence secretary.defence plan to meet future challenges. i'm trying not to be worried, because i'm being told he can

but this city defence will always give you a chance. and marcus rashford, captain for the first time, seized his. another goal could change everything, but city held out. they may be getting left behind in the title race, but in the semifinal, they've surged ahead — and it's only half—time. katie gornall, bbc news, manchester. next to cricket, where south africa went into the final day of the second test against england needing to bat out the day to rescue a draw. england needed eight wickets. it went down to the last hour of the final session and guess who england turned to? ben stokes, with three wickets, to help england win in cape town for the first time since 1957 and level the four test series at 1—1. south africa looked to be frustrating england for much of the day with pieter malan batting for almost six hours in the second innings before he fell for 8h. quiton de kock resisted for 3h overs too before he clipped joe denly‘s part time leg spin to mid—wicket. zac crawley‘s juggling act gave ben stokes his second wicket in two ball

months ago we lost a defence secretary because of this very issue.ly, lucy, that may be boris johnson needs to show he is not trumps poodle. on the other hand with brexit looming he has pressure to say i can get a trade deal with the americans because they are my best friends. can he afford to irritate trump? that is a downside. another tight rope he is walking. to be able to say they are still my friends but i will ignore their advice. it will be a big week i think coming up. a total change here, back to the sunday telegraph, tucked down the right—hand side here, no epidural in an nhs cult of natural birth. cross your legs. apparently there have been a couple of, maybe even a decade or so of nhs clinicians encouraging women to have a natural birth and issuing epidurals, even if they are in agony. telling them it is not called labour for nothing. people are beginning to say that it is a woman's right to choose. it is your body and you can decide how much relief you get. what is being said here is that there are actual guidelines as to watch nhs hospi

just two hours four president trump's defence tea m hours four president trump's defence team to essentiallycase this morning. they will continue on monday and tuesday. they have been allocated up to 24—hour is to basically defend their client and the same amount of time that was given to the prosecution, the prosecution, the democrats. but actually, they have already said they don't think they are going to need it. you got a sense from that clip of what their argument is going to be. they will say that this isn't about the president's conducting office. the democrats are really concerned with the votes that put him there in the first place at the election that is to come in november, when president trump stands for re—election. and, to some extent, you actually did get this methodical attack on all of the arguments that had been made by the democrats up to this point. it was pretty forensic in detail. we had documents, clips of interviews, it was a forensic legal argument being played out. but at the same time, you also get the impression that they are going to attack the democrats and rais

defence witness.old the bbc, "if he is called to give evidence, he will come." meghan‘s relationship with herfather reached crisis point at the time of her wedding. mr markle, who lives in mexico, developed heart trouble and was unable to attend. now the mail on sunday's lawyers have revealed text messages between the two of them. in one, mr markle says... so, what should meghan do? media lawyers say the answer is obvious. you really don't want to go down this particular road. whoever is advising them is frankly not doing them any service whatsoever. and it's, i think, important to note that the queen's solicitor started off dealing with this case and he's no longer dealing with this case. the royal show goes on. william and catherine were in bradford today, taking part in a discussion about keeping communities together. sometimes, trying to get people to understand that it's ok to have these challenges and we just need to deal with them. 0n the snowbound west coast of canada, meghan was photographed

you know i have been for five years defence minister in germany. seen how are they defend our values in this very confiscated world and therefore i really recommend it to ourselves to be clear minded and far—sighted where threats are concerned and common interests are concerned to build a security partnership that is unprecedented and that really meets the purpose we are all aiming at. where china is concerned, festival, i think it is important that where do we stand together? for me it is clear and do we stand together? for me it is clearand in do we stand together? for me it is clear and in the potential trade what you are mentioning between the us and china, we will never ever forget where we come from and what side of the table if i may put it that way we are sitting on. so, i am a strong believer in the transatlantic partnership and friendship although we do have issues with the white house. laughter but, you know we are looking back on seven decades, 70 years or more on a friendship that is built of millions of co nta ct friendship that is bu

the us secretary of defence refused to give the iraqi prime minister information.inister information. the iraqi pro—ministertold him not prime minister information. the iraqi pro—minister told him not to carry out the attack. he said, i'm not here to consult with you, i'm here to speak to you that we're going to carry out an attack. then the americans killed 30 iraqi soldiers who were on the front lines against isis. 500 kilometres away from where the single american was killed. then the americans, of course, want to empower isis on the border between syria and iraq because they want to strangle the syrian government because that is the long—term policy objective but then the americans have the audacity to subsequently go and murder a high—ranking iranian official. if a foreign country was to assassinate a high—ranking british military official, what with the response in britain be? so what the americans have done is unheard of in contemporary history and this is the arrogance of power and i think there is no way that anyone in the world can justify this sort of ac

frankly, that would be very damaging to mr trump's defence, which is probably why we've had the presidentg out several tweets attacking john bolton, suggesting that wasn't appropriate behaviour and indeed that mr bolton was lying. whether or not he will be tested inside this and it and we get some questions from some of those impeachment teams to him remains to be seen. chris, many thanks indeed for that. police in mexico have begun a huge manhunt for a leading member of the country's biggest drug gang, who's escaped a top security prison, with two others. extra police have been deployed in mexico city, along with helicopters, to search for victor felix beltran. he has family links to the former leader of the sinaloa cartel, joaquin guzman, known as ‘el chapo‘. the brexit process has cleared its final legislative hurdle — the european parliament has voted overwhelmingly to ratify the withdrawal agreement. the vote, after farewell statements from members, clears the way for the uk to leave the eu at 11pm on friday. our europe editor, katya adler, reports. # for auld lang syne, my dear # fo

defence forces, to provide a support which this country has never seen before. going on holiday as parts of his nation burned, have smashed public confidence, especially in those who've had to escape the fires. reallyjust makes you angry when i see on the television our prime minister speaking. ijust would prefer that he didn't. nearby, we came across this trailer belonging to ron murdoch, who's 7a. he packed what mattered to him as he escaped the flames. they were handmade in chile... one of many tens of thousands in australia's biggest peacetime mass evacuation. it is, it is my life now, and that's what i was trying to salvage — my life. in a country proud of its biodiversity, forests are stripped bare. and half a billion animals have perished, many littering roads. it is really, really disturbing. that is just such a waste. when will this nightmare end? heavy rain isn't forecast for eight long weeks. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: taiwan chooses a new president and parliament on saturday. which is more important to voters — economics or identity? th

with me are rob merrick, who's deputy political editor at the independent, and the defence correspondentor the times, lucy fisher. many of tomorrow's front pages are in and lead on the same story: "heaven help us" is the headline on the metro ahead of the queen's summit with prince harry about the future of the royal family. the daily mail describes it as a "historic crisis summit" and warns there are "formidable obstacles" for harry and megan obstacles" for harry and meghan before they can stand down as senior royals. also featuring the same photo of the queen is the independent, but it leads on an investigation that found the public backs a net zero carbon emissions target by 2030. the i describes the royal meeting as "sandringham showdown" but fronts a story about the success of the sugar tax, stating that soft drinks makers cut sugar in their products by 28%. the ft leads on the tensions in iran, with the head of qatar calling for calm in the country after a passenger plane was shot down by iran's defence system. the guardian describes the escalation as public protests build across t

it follows the emergence of a leaked letter that the us defence secretary has called ‘misleading'. prompted by the us killing of an iranian general in iraq. the funeral of qasem soleimani in tehran has attracted huge crowds, thought to be in the millions. our middle east editor, jeremy bowen reports from baghdad. crowd chants "death t0 america" in persian tehran‘s broad avenues were jammed with mourners, estimated in millions. not all iranians are this distressed about the death of the leadership‘s hardest man. general qasem soleimani was a dominant force in a regime that shot dead hundreds of protesters on iran's streets at the end of 2019. his supporters were happy that he spent vast amounts of the islamic republic's money building up alliances and militias in lebanon, yemen, iran and syria. other iranians thought it a high price to pay, as us sanctions bit into their lives. but iran's hardline elite is badly rattled by the assassination. ayatollah khamenei, iran's supreme leader, wept as he prayed for his right—hand man. soleimani was the keystone of his regime's security. the d

is it a bid for more money for defence in the budget on the 11th of march? it could be that.dy knows what president donald trump spa strategy is in the middle east or anywhere else. at the same time when trump is increasing the number of troops in the middle east, there is 14,000 more than there were in may last year. with an incoherent strategy, ben wallace '5 concluding we can't rely on them because trump is soma curial, give me more money for decent defences. is quite a list of what he wants, he says we are very dependent on american cover, intelligence, surveillance, assets, we need to diversify. a big pitch for more money. a story that would have led the paper in any other week but this. let's end on the front page of the independent. my question to finish off, willjess phillips have the support of momentum, because that matters at this stage. jess phillips is an mp in the birmingham area, very funny, outspoken and popular but also not hugely experienced yet, so does she become labour leader?” hugely experienced yet, so does she become labour leader? i have this feeling

in parliament, it was the defence secretary rather than the prime minister who called for calm on alltes is not seeking a war with the united states is not seeking a warwith iran, it the united states is not seeking a war with iran, it is seeking to end one. it requires the rating to come to the table with a goal of avoiding further bloodshed. today came a timely indication of the fast—shifting power dynamics in the middle east and russia's growing influence, as vladimir putin made a surprise visit to meet the syrian president bashar al—assad, a brutal dictator the iranians have helped to keep in power. it sometimes feels as if donald trump is pursuing a modern day version of what richard nixon called the madman theory. creating a sense among america's adversaries that he would be prepared to take the most extreme military options, casting aside the notion of proportionality. but he's also repeatedly stated he doesn't want to embroil his country in another middle east war, an objective made much harder by his decision to assassinate general soleimani. america are sending more b—52 bom

that is according to the defence secretary, and also america's top military commander.s from iraq, and whatever this letter was, it was released by mistake. i think it was released by mistake. i think it would be to give some kind of context. festival, iraqi's resolution at the weekend to ask american troops to withdraw is non—binding, so at the moment, there is no official request ratified by parliament to do that, and secondly, america hasjust put parliament to do that, and secondly, america has just put in troops, they have deployed several thousand more troops to the region, and the only thing that we have been able to confirm is that the pentagon has said it has paused its operations against islamic state in order to better protect its bases and its soldiers in iraq. so clearly there isa soldiers in iraq. so clearly there is a lot of uncertainty right now, and there are presumably a lot of talks about what happens next, but what we do know, the only thing we can confirm right now is what the defence secretary has said is that at the moment there are no plans to wit

we know from the ministry of defence that it is right i'iow ministry of defence that it is right nowout an initial battle damage assessment. what they want to know is the extent of any damage and indeed whether there have been any casualties. we have no confirmation at all in terms of any of that detail yet, and that detail will be hugely significant, and the response of the united states to this attack, these attacks that have been carried out by iran. attacks that were expected on a schedule that really wasn't known, it may have been sooner or wasn't known, it may have been sooner or later but whether or not this is the major response to the american killing of that senior iranian general last week, we really don't know at this stage. all those details and the information that has been gathered by the department of defence, and as you say, the president is being kept across all of those details. he is currently in the white house, he is working at his desk, we are told, and consulting with his senior advisers. we know some senior members of the cabinet, mike pompeo, the secretary o

and yesterday, the united states defence secretary hinted america may ta ke defence secretary hintedher action against iran.” think is important at this point in time to not make this a united states versus iran issue. it is really iran against the world. it is a rainy and bad behaviour has been going on for nearly a0 years. a rainy and bad behaviour has been going on for nearly 40 years. last night, more than 650 united states troops arrived in neighbouring kuwait to provide reinforcements. all eyes will be on iran's response ina region all eyes will be on iran's response in a region already riven it with conflict, some will fear this could mean another war in the middle east. we've had more reaction from iran. the country's foreign minister mohammad javad zarif said the killing of the quds force chief qasem soleimani was ‘an extremely he wrote on twitter: let's speak now to our chief international correspondent, lyse doucet. what do you believe to be iran likely response this? you just quoted the foreign minister zarif who want of a dangerous and foolish escalation. he's called it

papers with our reviewers rob merrick, who's deputy political editor at the independent, and the defencerespondent for the times, lucy fisher — stay with us for that. good evening. the queen and senior royals will meet prince harry at sandringham tomorrow for crucial face—to—face talks over the future roles of the duke and duchess of sussex. it follows harry and meghan‘s decision to step back as senior members of the royal family. it's understood to be the first time prince charles, prince william and prince harry will have met since the couple made the announcement on wednesday. meghan is expected to join the discussion from canada on the phone. this report from our royal correspondent sarah campbell. the queen is a familiar face here on sundays and, this morning, she attended church as normal. but these feel like very unfamiliar times, with senior members of the royal family all making their way here for a summit unprecedented in its nature. her majesty will have her first face—to—face meeting with prince harry, her grandson, since he and his wife announced they intended to step back a

he is going to make a robust defence.culpatory things, some evidence he didn't do it and we will get that in the next few minutes. more to come clearly over the course of the day. it is a movie in the making! thank you, simon jack, our business editor. the only nhs trust which runs a gender identity development service is being challenged in the courts, over its use of puberty blockers in children. a case is being brought by two women, including a nurse who used to work at the tavistock & portman nhs trust. our social affairs correspondent alison holt is at the high court. explain more about this case, alison. well, jane, at the heart of the case is the issue of consent. at what age can a child truly weigh the distress they may feel at the moment about the gender they are born into and their desire to change it against the long term, potentially life changing decisions, about treatment? the case is being brought bya treatment? the case is being brought by a nurse who used to work at the gender identity service and the mot

defence forces to provide a support which this country has never seen before.the focus is on some of the big fires so we are seeing in the neighbouring state of victoria. there is the worry that some fires will merge into one massive inferno and some people have been evacuated from the town of muller kuta. they use naval ferries to get to safety and images of that evacuation have beenin and images of that evacuation have been in the papers. there are three emergency warnings across the state of victoria now. can you imagine being a resident in one of those small towns, getting a phone call to say, you need to leave right now, before it is too late. most people listening to those warnings and leaving their homes. a lot of people telling me they have been ready to go for days. the constant state of fear, ready to pack up and leave. when you see the devastation around us, it feels like the entire south—east of the country is alight with fires. i will hand back to you in london, but i hope you can stay here with us because we have a special report from the nation's