The uks new Polar Research ship receives its official title. Senior white house officials tried to lock down all details of a phone call between President Trump and the ukrainian leader, according to a whistleblowers complaint against the president. In the call, mr trump pushed for the Ukrainian Government to help smearjoe biden, his leading rival in next years us president ial election. Mr trump denies exerting improper pressure, but the phone call has triggered an impeachment inquiry against him and evidence to congress, on thursday, from americas acting director of National Intelligence. This from our north america editor, jon sopel. Joseph maguire is a man whos spent his career living in the shadows. Not any more. The evidence that the acting director of National Intelligence is giving today could have a critical bearing on the future of Donald Trumps presidency following that contested call with ukrainian leader. I have a feeling that your country is going to do fantastically well. Donald trump, who met Volodymyr Zelensky at the un yesterday, insists that the call was perfect, even though he blatantly asks the ukrainian leader to investigate his main Democratic Political rival, joe biden. But today, a whistle blowers letter was made public, and its allegations are damning. He says, after an initial exchange of pleasa ntries, the president used the remainder of the call to advance his personal interests. Namely, he sought to pressure the ukrainian leader to take actions to help the president s 2020 re election bid. And he goes on, white house officials told me they were directed by white house lawyers to remove the electronic transcript from the Computer System in which such transcripts are typically stored for co ordination, finalisation and distribution to cabinet level officials. And, citing white house officials, one other thing the whistle blower says is, this isnt the first time the administration has treated a transcript like this, not because its a matter of national security, but because its politically sensitive. And so to the evidence. Would you agree that the whistle blower complaint alleges serious wrongdoing by the president of the United States . The first question seemed to cause mr maguire discomfort. Uh, the whistle blower complaint involved the allegation of that, but it is not for me and the Intelligence Community to decide how the president conducts his foreign policy. The white house has sought to undermine the credibility of the whistle blower. The intelligence chief, though, was noticeably not going there. I think the whistle blower did the right thing. I think he followed the law every step of the way. The complaint states that the white house tried to lock down all records of the call. And democrats are seizing on the whistle blowers letter. This is a cover up. This is a cover up. Donald trumps anger over attempts by democrats to impeach him is palpable. What these guys are doing, democrats are doing to this country, is a disgrace, and it shouldnt be allowed. There should be a way of stopping it. The president returned to the white house this afternoon after whats been a bruising few days in new york. Events are moving at speed, and not in the direction donald trump would want. Lets go live now to our correspondent. So much has washed around this president. How does this look . It is interesting. Is nine page whistleblower complaint is very detailed, very precise. It maintains the President Trump sort cooperation of the president of the ukraine in digging the dirt on his political rivaljoe biden but we knew that a nyway rivaljoe biden but we knew that anyway because of the relief release of the transcripts of that conversation by the white house on wednesday. What we did not know was that conversation between the two president s sent the white house lawyers into a tailspin. So much so that they sought to bury the transcript of that conversation by transferring it from the normal computer on which such things are kept to a computer that normally handles highly classified information. That is a far cry from President Trump s claimed that it was a perfect and perfectly normal conversation. The whistleblower writes that this underscored to me that white house officials understood the gravity of what had transpired in that call. All the signs are that the impeachment proceedings could now be, that there is momentum now and it could be set ona is momentum now and it could be set on a speedy trajectory. President trump, for his part, is bemoaning this as a hoax and fake news and he has even criticised the people who spoke to the whistleblower, people in the white house, saying that they are spies and suggesting that they should maybe be tried for treason. He has also predict did that were he to be impeached, the us stock market would plunge. The Hong Kong Government has tried a new approach to diffuse tensions in the city. Its held the first in a series of Public Consultation sessions. The televised event saw the citys leader, carrie lam, face a storm of difficult questions from 150 randomly chosen participants. Our china correspondent, stephen mcdonell, was there. Outside the event, there are activists chanting and singing songs, calling for democratic reforms in hong kong. Inside, a very different atmosphere. The situation much more polite but that doesnt mean the questions for carrie lam have been soft. Hong kongs leader has been asked time and again why her administration would not consider having a genuinely independent enquiry into these allegations of police brutality. Her response was that the existing Police Complaints procedure is there and that that is enough. She, however, welcomed the questions and said no matter how tough they are, at least this is dialogue. She says that talking is the way forward. Another example, carrie lam was asked about this particular Detention Centre that some activists have been taken and allegations of brutality there. In response, she announced that no more protesters will be taken to that particular Detention Centre. This, i guess, is her way of saying, see, the government is listening. And thats the purpose of these Community Consultation sessions. Some have criticised this as a kind of televised theatre. Some sort of political theatre that the government is using. However, others have said that at least its a form of dialogue, even if it is flawed, that talking is better than fighting in the streets. This, we are told, is to be the first of many such meetings, a series of sessions where the community can put questions to these government leaders. Welljust have to see how these meetings go and whether or not they can have the desired effect of taking some of the heat out of this crisis in hong kong which is now in its fourth month. Un officials are warning that a surge in fighting in libya could escalate into full blown civil war. The latest conflict began in april when a rebel commander launched a major offensive, aimed at seizing the capital, tripoli. Thousands of people have been killed, including many civilians. From tripoli, our International Correspondent orla guerin. The southern edge of tripoli, a suburban battlefield. A journey to the heart of libyas latest conflict, one which involves foreign players and is increasingly another proxy war in the middle east. After there, the five lines. The Commander Shows us the front line, which many have died to protect. He and his men are the defenders of tripoli, fighting for the un recognised government. It has the support of turkey and qatar. Explosions. They take aim at enemy forces, backed by egypt, the uae, france, and russia. Well, the fighting has been grinding on here since april, much of it unseen. But there is active firing taking place today, and what happens on this front line has implications far beyond tripoli. The fear is that if this conflict continues, it could push libya into all out civil war. The government complains that it is outgunned and cant fight on all fronts. Minister, very nice to see you again. Libyas interior minister says, while the battle for tripoli is raging, theres a moment of opportunity for including the Islamic State or daesh. This is a very good chance for alqaeda, for boko haram, for daesh, for organised crime now in libya. It is a very good environment. And they will use this chance. They will use it, you know. They can grow, now, in the desert, and they can move. And right now you cant try to fight them, because youre defending tripoli . Yes. We continue our activity to capture some of them. We are watching. But inside our area, not outside our area, and we are continuing our collaboration with the usa security and british security, we continue. But out of our front line, what will we do . The government here cant even protect the airport in the capital. It was targeted by an air strike today, the latest in a series. Here, a glimpse of the terrified passengers caught inside earlier this month. For now, the airport is closed, a potent symbol of a capital city under attack. Orla guerin, bbc news, tripoli. The british Prime Minister has suggested tempers need to come down in parliament, a day after a furious session in the house of commons. But borisjohnson has refused to apologise for dismissing concerns that his own talk of surrender and betrayal is inflammatory, at a time when mps are receiving Death Threats. There is some Strong Language in this report from our Political Editor laura kuenssberg. We will not betray the people who sent us here subject to Death Threats and abuse every single day ive never heard such humbug in all my life this is the language. Youre a publicity whore publicity whore, madam politics has never been forfaint hearts. This man is an idiot. We wont tolerate this, sorry. But there was poison in the air last night. Use language that is respectable, whatever your views are. Was your language in the commons yesterday appropriate . Frustrated by a lack of brexit progress, the Prime Minister is happy to provoke. I totally deplore any threat to anybody, particularly female mps. And a lot of work is being done to stop that, and to give people the security they need. But i do think its important that, in the house of commons, i should be able to talk about the surrender bill, the surrender act, in the way that i did. But theres fury from labour mps at that kind of talk. An encounter between a labour mp and the Prime Ministers advisor, this dominic cummings, in parliament, was filmed by a member of the mps team. The mp, karl turner, said he had had Death Threats last night. Mr cummingss answer, get brexit done. In the commons itself, a sense of disbelief for a moment, the morning after the night before. Yesterday, the house did itself no credit. To dismiss concerns from members about the Death Threats they receive, and to dismiss concerns that the language used by the Prime Minister is being repeated in those Death Threats, is reprehensible. As he prepared to gather his cabinet, the Prime Minister said tempers need to come down. But the chances of him are listening to this reprimand from a predecessor in number 10 are slim to none. Words such as saboteur, traitor, enemy, surrender, betrayal. Which should have no place in our party, no place in our political discourse, nor in our politics, and nor, for that matter, in our wider society. But whatever the difficulty, whatever the distress, there is no intention in downing street, none at all, of pulling back from their overall tough approach. A belief, even, this is a pent up conflict that must play out to clear the way for brexit. Patting each other on the back, when there is so much frustration in every corner of the country, and this political village . The government playing tough appeals to some, but could cause other voters to take fright. Stay with us on bbc news, still to come president , Prime Minister and mayor of paris. France mourns political titan Jacques Chirac, who has died aged 86. Ben johnson, the fastest man on earth, is flying home to canada in disgrace. All the athletes should be clean going into the games. Im just happy that justice is served. It is a simple fact that this morning, these people were in their homes. Tonight, those homes have been burnt down by serbian soldiers and police. All the taliban positions along here have been strengthened, presumably in case the americans invade. Its no use having a secret service which cannot preserve its own secrets against the world, and so the British Government has no option but to continue this action even after any adverse judgement in australia. Concorde have crossed the atlantic faster than any plane ever before, breaking the record by six minutes. This is bbc news. Our main headline white house officials have been accused of trying to cover up evidence that President Trump used his power to solicit foreign interference in next years election. Lets stay with that top story now. We can speak to republican strategistjen kerns, who joins me from new york. She is a former spokesperson for the Republican Party in california. Have described strategist. I have described you as a republican strategist. As a republican strategist, you must be hoping this goes badly for the democrats. Certainly bill clinton emerged from impeachment proceedings when control of congress with the other way around much more popular. Thats true. Historically it does not bode well for the impeaching party. We have seen that from history. But i actually think its already going poorly for the democrats. You look at this this appears to be all over again. Russian collusion 2. 0 going on here. But the good news, i think, for the American People and for President Trump here is that this was able to be resolved in about three days time rather than three years time which we saw in the russian collusion investigation. A couple of things one, i was very happy to see the white house come out very expeditiously sharing the transcript of the actual phone call between he and the ukrainian president , and i was even more happy to see that there was actually nothing said during that call that raised a question to me. In fact, i appreciated the fact that President Trump actually brought up collusion investigation with the ukrainian president , talking about how can we get to the bottom of what happened here. Because i can tell you that the American Voters are not concerned about a phone call that the president of the United States had with the ukrainian president where joe had with the ukrainian president wherejoe biden had with the ukrainian president where joe biden may had with the ukrainian president wherejoe biden may have been brought up. They are actually concerned with how the russians meddled in the last election and they want to make sure that it does not happen again in 2020. Jen, if barack obama had unilaterally stopped military aid, aid that had already been approved by congress, aid toa already been approved by congress, aid to a vulnerable la threatened by russia and then said to that ally do us russia and then said to that ally do usa russia and then said to that ally do us a favour, help my personal lawyer find dirt on my main rival in next yea rs find dirt on my main rival in next years election, he would have been impeached by a Russian CongressRepublican Congress in a heartbeat, wouldnt he . Well, i dont know that the president actually telegraphed it in that manner. And look, lets face it in that manner. And look, lets fa ce fa cts. It in that manner. And look, lets face facts. Forgive me. You called ita face facts. Forgive me. You called it a transcript, it is not. It is an officials parcel note of the call. Even from that, it clear that mr trump is asking a Foreign Government to interfere in a president ial election. Then, it seems, officials tried to hide that fact and a p pa re ntly tried to hide that fact and apparently not for the first time stop know, they actually went through those documents today. Many people in the cia, the Central Intelligence agency, said that there does not appear to have been any cover up, any altering of the documents for the transcript by the staff that was on the situation room at the time of that call. But what the president did bring up and i think was well within his right to bring up, that regarding the 2020 election, was actual russian collusion which apparently went through some computer server in ukraine. And thats what the president was referring to when he said that the new ukrainian president might be surrounding himself with this information. Now, let me point out that the polling in america does not support an impeachment. There was a Politico Morning Consult report that said that support for impeachment from donald trump was only 36 , and that was nationwide. In the flyover states, what we call the heart of america, the support for impeachment is actually even lower. It is in the low 20s. So this is not a popular issue for democrats. And ifear, and i have to say i do respect Speaker Nancy Pelosi very much so, having operated in california, where she is from. I have a great deal of political respect for her. I think she is a tenacious political operator. But i think she made a mistake here. I think she caved into the left wing of the democratic party. And i think she will end up regretting the decision in the end. Well, jen, as you know, impeachment will in fact be up to a republican controlled senate, so we will see how that plays out. Thank you very much indeed for talking to us. You very much indeed for talking to us. I suspect we shall talk again about this. Yes, indeed. Lets get some of the days other news. An earthquake measuring 5. 7 magnitude has struck off the coast of istanbul. Some people in turkeys largest city have been forced to evacuate. At least eight people have been injured. Istanbul lies near a major earthquake faultline. Officials say none of the Three Bridges in the city connecting europe and asia were damaged. New south wales has become the last australian state, to decriminalise abortion. The bill overturns a ii9 year old law which had been called archaic by opponents. Previously, abortions were only allowed there if a doctor deemed the pregnancy was a serious risk to a womans health. Tributes have been paid to the former french president Jacques Chirac, who has died at the age of 86. One of his countrys most popular politicians, but his later years were marred by scandal. From paris, Lucy Williamson looks back at his life. The bulldozer, the weathervane, the super liar political nicknames and political satire that could never dampen frances affection forJacques Chirac. His long road to the presidency included two stints as Prime Minister and almost two decades as paris mayor. His down to earth charm and talent for connection unleashed on everyone, from children to chancellors. Bringing the country together proved harder. He wanted to heal frances social divisions, but his plans for reform were shelved after 2 Million People came out in protest. He created new international divisions, too, refusing tojoin the us and britain in the 2003 invasion of iraq, a position that won him strong support at home. Translation my position is that france will vote against, in any circumstances, because tonight there is no case to wage war to disarm iraq. He also won widespread support for being the first french leader to publicly recognise frances role in the wartime deportation ofjews. In 2002, chirac won a second term landslide against far right leader Jean Marie Le pen, after left wing voters were urged to hold their noses and vote for the crook rather than the fascist. His later years were dogged by ill health and a conviction for embezzlement during his time as paris mayor. Through it all, Jacques Chirac has remained perhaps frances favourite leader, a president with a very human nature, a very human touch. Former french president Jacques Chirac. The uks new Polar Research ship has been officially named. It is intended to put britain at the forefront of climate and ocean research, so the name boaty mcboatface, the overwhelming choice in an Online Public poll, wasjudged inappropriate. It has been named instead in honour of the british broadcaster and naturalist sir david attenborough. Here is rebecca morelle. It is heading for the most remote parts of our planet, the uks new polar ship. On board, the duke and duchess of cambridge, and sir david attenborough, who has lent the ship his name. It is my immense privilege and relief to welcome sir david attenborough, rather than boaty mcboatface. Catherine did the honours. It gives me great pleasure to name this ship sir david attenborough, and may god bless her and all those who sail in her. For sir david, studying the poles is critical. Ten or 20 years ago, i could stand at the end of a glacier and say its melting at such and such a rate. I wasnt talking about the half of it. The speed with which we now realise things are happening is terrifying. And so we know were only going to deal with it if we know what the facts are, and thats what this ship will do. This is one of the most advanced ships ever built. It containsi million pieces of steel, its covered in 60,000 litres of paint, and it has 450,000 metres of cabling. It is set to transform our understanding of the rapidly changing poles. Well be able to look at things like the atmosphere, whats going on in the ice, the surface ocean, the deep ocean, the mud at the bottom of the ocean, all in one go, and in that way well be able to tackle some of the really big global questions on environmental science. There to celebrate, a childrens penguin parade. But soon the ship will be seeing the real thing. After sea trials, it will be leaving for the antarctic next year. Rebecca morelle, bbc news. More news for you anytime on the bbc website. Thank you for watching. Good morning. Well, last weeks High Pressure and settled autumn sunshine a distant memory. This week its been very different, hasnt it . On monday, we saw some heavy rain, some areas seeing a months worth of rain injust a 24 hour period. Through the middle part of the week, its quietened down a little. Sunny spells and scattered showers. But theres more wet and windy weather to come through this weekend. Here it is sitting out in the atlantic, and its going to continue to push its way across the seas towards us for the second half of the weekend. Ahead of it, circulating around an area of low pressure, a scattering of showers. Some of those quite heavy, possibly thundery, and some of them, as we go through the day today, merging together for the longer spells of rain. Blustery winds, particularly through the south west, driving those showers inland. Therell be some heavy ones through wales, north west england, and Northern Ireland as well. The best of the drier, sunniest lot perhaps reserved for scotland. Temperatures a little subdued in comparison to of late. Were seeing highs 01 14 to 18 degrees the high. Now, as we move out of friday into the start of the weekend, that low pressure will ease away. And well see a relatively quiet spell for a time. So the start of the weekend is not looking too bad. Yes, we will have sunny spells and scattered showers, but there will be some drier interludes in between. Quite a blustery feel still, and by end of the afternoon well see some wetter weather pushing into the south west. Now, the timings for this rain still subject to change, so if you do have outdoor plans this weekend, youll certainly need to keep abreast of the forecast. But that is likely to bring a spell of very wet weather and some windy weather with it as well. So we could see 2 3 inches of rain, and at times, through the early hours of sunday morning, were going to see strong, gusty winds, in excess of 40 50 mph in places. And, as that low moves through, maybe for a time 60 mph across eastern england, close to the coast. But that low will move through, and then we start to see some drier weather coming through on sunday. However, the wind direction into the north is going to make it feel a little on the cool side as well. So top temperatures in scotland 13 15 degrees. Further south and east, were looking at highs of 17 or 18. So, just in case you havent already got the message, it does look at the moment as though saturday will be the better of the two days in the weekend. Sunny spells and a few showers. Sunday will start off wet and windy, but that rain will slowly ease away. And then, monday into tuesday, things are a little bit quieter, but the temperatures could be better for this time of year. Take care. This is bbc news, the headlines leading democrat nancy pelosi has accused donald trump of trying to cover up the details of a controversial phone call to the ukrainian president. In the call, which has triggered an impeachment inquiry, the president pushed for the Ukrainian Government to help smear his main rivaljoe biden. Hes dismissed the impeachment proceedings as another witch hunt. The Hong Kong Government has tried a new approach to diffuse tensions in the city. As protests continued, chief executiver carrie lam held the first in a series of Public Consultation sessions. Its hoped the meetings might help bring an end to the four month crisis. Borisjohnson says tempers need to come down after furious scenes in the Uk Parliament on wednesday. But despite strong criticism, the Prime Minister has refused to apologise for his own controversial language. Its about