Whatsapp goes to court, the messaging app is suing an israeli cyber Surveillance Company over claims it helped governments hack into peoples phones. A warm welcome to the programme, briefing you on all you need to know in global news, business and sport. Also in the programme Gatwick Airport is trying different boarding methods such as window seats first, starting at the back, to cut down boarding time. So wed like to know what bugs you most about air travel . What frustrations do you have, and how would you resolve them . Get in touch, just use the hashtag bbcthebriefing. Lets get started. Mps at westminster are gearing up for britains first pre christmas Election Campaign in nearly a century after voting to go to the country on the 12th of december. Theyre hoping to to seek a way out of the brexit impasse. Borisjohnson said the public must be given a choice over the future of brexit and the country. Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, pledged that his party take on what he called the vested interests Holding People back. Heres our political correspondent, nick eardley. Ready for even more political debate. The ayes to the right, 438, the noes to the left, 20. So the ayes habit, the ayes have unlock that vote was and is backing a general election on december 12. Parliament has split when it comes to brexit, and no mps think an election is the way to break the deadlock. There is only one way to restore the esteem in which our democracy is held. And to recover the respect in which parliament should be held by the people of this country, and that is finally, to offer ourselves to the judgement of the people of this country. Not eve ryo ne the people of this country. Not everyone in labour was convinced about an election. Dozens of mps refused to back one last night, the Jeremy Corbyn said he was ready. We are going out there to fight an Election Campaign, and i cant wait to get out there, on the streets, in every town and village in this country, labour will be there giving a message of real hope when this government offers nothing. The Campaign Messages are already being rolled out. Brexit will be key, but there will be a lot more to decide on, too. As the united kingdom, a family of nations are strong together working within the eu, we can reshape our together working within the eu, we can reshape oui economy together working within the eu, we can reshape our economy and harness the technological revolution and build a better and brighterfuture. And that is the message the liberal democrats will be taking to this country in the general election. Democrats will be taking to this country in the general electionlj welcome the opportunity of an election. Because, make no mistake, the election that was my coming, is going to be the right of scotland to determine its own future. 0h, six weeks of intense campaigning starts 110w weeks of intense campaigning starts now to decide who will be back here in mid december. The truth is, general elections dont always go according to plan. Nothing is certain. Anything could happen. There are Big Questions to be answered, but for the next few weeks, politicians will try to persuade you that they have the a nswe rs. Persuade you that they have the answers. Nick eardley, bbc news, westminster. So in the uk we are set for a pre christmas general election, there is so much detail and analysis on our website. Do take a look, including a look at how your mps voted late yesterday. But also theirs. Let me highlight this particular aspect. Uk general election, a really simple guide. I personally love these. Its a fantastic outline of how this process will work, et cetera, and all sorts of detail. That picture will hopefully that picture will load injust a moment. But you get the gist, a simple guide. I will twea k the gist, a simple guide. I will tweak this as well so you get the link. It is all there for you on bbc online. Tweet the link. Lets brief you on some of the other stories making the news the london fire brigade is preparing to respond to criticism of its role in the Grenfell Tower fire following the First Official report on the disaster more than two years ago. The findings of the Public Inquiry are being published today, but key sections of the report were leaked on tuesday. The united states, britain and 21 other countries have demanded that china immediately allow the un human rights chief into xinjiang. They want beijing to stop the arbitrary detention of uighurs and other muslim minorities in complexes in the region. Beijing describes them as Vocational Training centres aimed at diverting people from extremism. Anti government protesters in lebanon have been celebrating after the prime minister, saad hariri, submitted his resignation. The president , michel aoun, has yet to announce whether hes accepted it. Theres been nearly two weeks of nationwide protests against corruption and the state of the economy. Another 1. 5 Million People in california look set to lose power as wildfires threaten cables across the state. Strong winds have been fanning the flames, and thousands of people in los angeles have been told to evacuate homes and businesses. And whatsapp is suing an israeli surveillance firm, accusing it of helping government spies break into the phones of about 1,400 people. The messaging service which is owned by Facebook Says nso group helped in the targeting of diplomats, dissidents, journalists and officials on four continents. Nso strongly denies the allegations. We will have more detail on that in the business briefing. The archbishop of york has said that a slow environmental genocide is taking place in southern nigerias Bayelsa State. Speaking in an exclusive interview with the bbc as part of a Commission Investigating oil spills in the niger delta, drjohn sentamu said that Oil Companies needed to end a culture of double standards in nigeria. The bbcs mayeni jones travelled with the commission earlier this year and sent this report. This was once a thriving ecosystem. And oil spills have devastated these shores. Translation it is the oil. If the oil. Even if you manage to catch a fish, it is not fit to eat. There area fish, it is not fit to eat. There are a few that are ok, and that is what we eat. But on others, their heads are the only things that are left. They are so slim they have no flash. Flash, so its hard for us to feed ourselves. Bayelsa was where oil was first discovered in nigeria in the 1950s. Its completely change the lives of people in these communities. The water and the waterways in Bayelsa State are essential to the way people live here. They bathe in it, its a source of their livelihood, its where a lot of where their food comes from. Oil spills can mean devastation not just financially, but also in terms of their health. According to the bayelsa oil and Environmental Commission chaired by the archbishop of york, Oil Companies are ultimately responsible for the environmental damage here. They want to set up guidelines for oil instruction that will protect local communities. You know, people talk about environmental degradation, i think that is too wea k degradation, i think that is too weak a phrase. For me, really, looking at the environment, and as i looked at peoples lives, ive come to the conclusion that this is a very slow environmental genocide, really. But Oil Companies say many spills are caused by vandals, tampering with installations. Local activists believe they have their reasons. We are angry. We have grown used to sorts of life, we have skilled young boys and girls, people are hungry. People are suffering. We see them come into our land and then we are locked away from our fisheries for oil wells. How do we expect these people to survive . Oil spills have been happening in the niger delta for decades. With the attention of the International Community very much elsewhere, it is unclear who will enforce the commission was make new guidelines. But if nothing changes, the prospects for future generations here are unlikely to improve. Mayeni jones, bbc news, bayelsa. Donald trumps attempts to fight off moves to impeach him have suffered a serious setback. Firsthand evidence from a senior white house official that he was so troubled by the president s phone call with the ukrainian leader that he reported his concerns to a superior. Lieutenant colonel Alexander Vindman is the first serving white house official to speak to the congressional inquiry. 0ur north america editorjon sopel is at the white house. Donald trump has sought to characterise them as do nothing democrats trying to tear him down over what was a perfect call. Hes called it a lynching and says it is people giving evidence are never trumpers and that is what he accused Lieutenant Colonel vindman of being today. Except that Lieutenant Colonel vindman is a decorated war hero, injured in iraq and turned up at the hearing in his military uniform. And its hard to characterise him as some kind of party hack who wants to destroy the president. He served both republican and Democratic Party administrations so that makes it more difficult. And what he said in his testimony was devastating. He said, i did not think it was proper to demand that a Foreign Government investigate a us citizen. The us citizen he is referring to is of course Donald Trumps democratic rivaljoe biden and his son hunter, over his business dealings. And he said there was no National Security justification for it, turning ukraine into a partisan issue, which it shouldnt be, and he said the president s interest in ukraine and joe biden predated this particular phone call. In other words, he has flatly contradicted what the president has said. Not only that, the white house has tried to put a ban on officials giving evidence to this impeachment investigation. They have given evidence and it hasnt been favourable to the president. That isjohn that is john sobel, that isjohn sobel, of course. There has been other testimony about the ukraine phone call why is this so problematic for the president . Rebecca legrand, is an attorney who specialises in government investigations. Because one after the other there are public servants, or Lieutenant Colonel vindman, a military veteran has come before committees in the house saying that they were disturbed in real time about what donald trump was doing. And a parallel Foreign Policy seems to be running that was focused, instead of on protecting us security or the security of our allies, focused on digging up dirt on his opponents. And focused on trying to reiterate the findings of every Intelligence Agency that has looked at it that russia interfered with the 2016 elections. That has been incredibly disturbing and witness after witness has gone before congress and said thats what they observed. But i think this is the process you would expect. Starting off with private meetings and interviews and will become very soon it appears, or public proceedings in the house was i think will be of great interest of the American People who will actually get to hear this testimony or parts of it first hand. Rebecca legrand, thank you very much. Lets return to our main story after weeks of debate and a last minute brexit delay, mps at westminster have voted by an overwhelming margin to hold a general election in december. With me is kulveer ranger, who is Senior Vice President for strategy and communications for atos. You are also a member of the conservative party, used to be with borisjohnson when he was mayor of london. And you are excited about the prospect . I am. I know a lot of people in this country will be sort of wearily saying, oh, my god, another election. And it is something that we have. We have had a few. This will be the third election in four years and there was a fixed term parliaments act to make sure that elections were meant to be every five years. So im not sure how that has worked out, really. But this election really does feel like it needs to happen. Brexit has been casting a huge shadow over parliament, its proceedings, the country, the country hasnt been able to debate anything else and politicians havent been able to make decisions but anything else or anything really, moving forward. So there has been deadlocked, stagnation, people have described it asa stagnation, people have described it as a zombie parliament, a living dad parliament. This election will aim to clear the air, to get some real direction for the main Political Parties who all have their positions now. Well, some have on brexit. Some clearer than others. Some clearer than others. The conservatives say they will be pushing into the deal borisjohnson has they will be pushing into the deal Boris Johnson has got. They will be pushing into the deal borisjohnson has got. The lib dems are very clear they want to remain an campaignfor are very clear they want to remain an campaign for remain. As for the labour party, it is unclear as to where they stand, i would say. The first election for many, many years in the month of december. The papers are playing on the whole theme of christmas, as it were. So if we look at some of the run pages, some of them are hilarious, i must say. The daily mirror, its time to stop the turkey. With borisjohnson there. Then the telegraph, jingle polls. With the turnout, i imagine the turnout will be large this time, and across the board, notjust older voters, but the young as well . |j voters, but the young as well . think there are so many variables, but the issue is there probably should be quite a motivated electorate. The british people have been hearing about brexit, the world has been hearing about brexit for 3. 5 years. If this election is a defining moment in the, probably a milestone in where brexit goes for britain, then i think people will be motivated to come out. But they will also be other issues. National issues, policies that will be debated and general elections are important. Its interesting, actually, because when i was looking at the simple guide to the uk general election, it says one of the most important issues this time . Brexit is clearly number one, followed by the National Health service, then the economy, then crime, the kind of thing. But when you say the people want to get involved at this time, that is the hope. Weve seen them in their thousands in the streets testing both for and against four weeks and weeks, havent we . No matter what people say, and theres lots of brexit fatigue, people are still keen to express their opinion, and we have seen that with as you rightly say the protest and the debate. The media isnt covering this because they want to, theres an appetite to understand whats going on, and to influence, and whats the biggest moment to influence a decision like this . A general election. Yes, theres a sense of weariness about the political debate but at this moment in time, a very important general. All general elections are important, even more so in terms of brexit, but the other policies as well. For us political geeks, it will be exciting. You will be back later for our our news briefing, kulveer ranger, thank you. Stay with us on bbc news. Still to come a full round up of todays sport, including a bad day on court for the womens world number one tennis player. Indira gandhi, ruler of the Worlds Largest democracy, died today. 0nly yesterday shed spoken of dying in the service of her country and said, i would be proud of it. Every drop of my blood would contribute to the growth of this nation. After 46 years of unhappiness, these two countries have concluded a chapter of history. No more suspicion, no more fear, no more uncertainty of what each day might bring. Mission control booster ignition and lift off of discovery, with a crew of six astronaut heroes and one american legend. Well, enjoying the show is right. This is beautiful. A milestone in human history. Born today, this girl in india is the 7 billionth person on the planet. Youre watching the briefing. 0ur headlines Britains Parliament votes for a general election on the 12th december to try and break months of deadlock over brexit. A senior white house official tells the impeachment inquiry into donald trump he witnessed first hand the president pressuring ukraines government to investigate joe biden. The us house of representatives has voted to recognise as genocide the mass killing of about 1. 5 million armenians in the Ottoman Empire a century ago. The move is widely seen as a rebuke to turkey over its recent incursions into northern syria. The house, which is controlled by the democrats, voted 405 11 in favour. The killings happened between 1915 and 1923. David willis explains the significance. It is historic, but largely symbolic because there is unlikely to be a similar vote in the senate. I think what it does is it highlights the growing frustration on the part of lawmakers from both parties here democrat and republican over the actions of the turkish government in recent years, not least the purchase of a Russian Missile defence system in contravention of us sanctions and, of course, that assault on northern syria, where Kurdish Forces have been allies of the united states. So what weve seen here is something that turkey has long lobbied against on capitol hill, this resolution which i think will cheer a lot of armenian americans. There are said to be up to 1. 5 million of them here in the us. David williamson based in