Daniels got her payment less than 2 weeks before the election Cohen told the judge he acted quote at the direction of a candidate for federal office a reference to trump Cohen said he did it quote for the principle purpose of influencing an election a bit of legally is the tags the payments as illegally large an undisclosed campaign contributions Peter Overby n.p.r. News Washington meanwhile President from former campaign chairman Paul man of Ford has been convicted on 8 of 18 federal fraud counts the jury meeting in Virginia deadlocked on the remaining 10 counts prosecutors have a week to decide whether to retry man of Fort on those charges he faces a separate trial in Washington d.c. Next month Facebook is accusing Iran of waging a coordinated influence campaign that affects American users N.P.R.'s Tim Mak has more Facebook says it has taken down a coordinated network the pages originating in Iran and targeting users worldwide the campaign involved some $652.00 accounts with close to a 1000000 Facebook followers and thousands of dollars of advertising buys some parts of the Iran based network pretended to be an independent Iranian media organization while linking back to Iranian state media while other parts of the network falsely posed as news and civil society organizations to spread political discipline mission and P.R.'s to mak reporting this afternoon President Trump will posthumously award the nation's highest decoration for valor the Medal of Honor to Air Force Technical Sergeant John Chapman Chapman was killed in 2002 in eastern Afghanistan as he repeatedly risked his life to protect his comrades N.P.R.'s Tom Bowman reports Chapman was an Air Force combat controller an expert calling in airstrikes he was part of an American commando team looking for al Qaeda fighters their helicopter was hit a commando fell into the snow and the helicopter limb to safety then Chapman and the others were. Back to find their comrade Chapman was wounded by hostile fire his fellow commandos thought he was dead and retreated It was later found that Chapman was only unconscious after coming to he provided cover fire so the rescue helicopter could take off his medal will be an upgrade from the Air Force Cross Tom Bowman n.p.r. News Washington you're listening to n.p.r. News. The Central Pacific Hurricane Center says Hurricane Lane is moving toward the Hawaiian islands it's at the top of the scale a Category 5 storm with top sustained winds of 160 miles per hour people in a while who Maui and smaller islands are stocking up on emergency supplies the federal government plans to redirect $23000000.00 from the longstanding programs that monitor the environmental health of the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon from member station in Flagstaff Arizona Melissy 70 reports hydropower revenues have funded scientific research on Dam operations and endangered species for more than 2 decades but this money will go to the u.s. Treasury instead starting October 1st David Nim can is a regional director for the National Parks Conservation Association if you have 7 states as diverse as Wyoming and California and Utah and Colorado all coming together hopefully the message would get through to the administration that this was not a very popular move federal and state officials are discussing the issue at a meeting in Arizona this week for n.p.r. News I'm Melissa 70 in Flagstaff and Alaska's primary election Tuesday there's a 3 person contest now for governor incumbent Bill Walker is an independent he'll face Democrat Mark baggage and Republican Mike Dunn Levy in Wyoming is primary Republican voters tapped Secretary of State Mark Gordon for their gubernatorial candidate over President Trump's choice multimillionaire Foster Friess Gordon will face Democrat and former Wyoming State Representative Mary thrown I'm Corba Coleman n.p.r. News. Support for n.p.r. Comes from Progressive Insurance committed to protecting cars and drivers whether on the open road or having a driveway moment while listening to n.p.r. Learn more at progressive dot com or 1800 progressive and Americans for the arts and Americans for the Arts dot org. Hello I'm Jackie learned and you're listening to the news room from the b.b.c. World Service president Donald Trump's presidency has been rocked by development in 2 criminal investigations involving his former lawyer Michael Cohen and his former campaign manager Paul manifold Mr Cohen has pleaded guilty to fraud and campaign finance violations including paying hush money to the president's alleged former mistresses and he implicated Mr Trump in some of his actions the plea deal could see his prison sentence reduced from a possible 65 years to 5 years and 3 months Mr Trump has so far made no comment about the Cohen plea his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani has accused Michael Carey and of having a history of lying that Mr Trump did remark on Paul none of Fort he was found guilty of tax and bank fraud regarding offenses that occurred whilst working for pro Russian politicians in Ukraine before he took up his post in Mr Trump's election. Of course it would take a. Lot of different people here in. The sense. That it may but they still feel the same thing. So do these scandals touch the president no say his supporters Michael Johns leads the National Tea Party movement and is a former White House speechwriter for George w. Bush he says the more investigation appears to be in a circle to nowhere most people's perspectives including even trump pardons is a commune for Michael Cohen would not have faced these investigations or these prosecutions How did they not been personally I saw you did with President Trump and that means you know I think that the case for a pardon becomes pretty compelling others however think the events of the last 24 hours put President Trump in a difficult position on. America editor John Sopel gave Justin Webb This isn't well I think this is the darkest day of the Trump presidency because what happened in court yesterday in New York was that Donald Trump's personal lawyer pleaded guilty and in the course of doing so said that the president had directed him to commit a federal crime in other words Donald Trump is a coconspirator in what has taken place and Lanny Davis Michael Cohen's lawyer went out yesterday and said If my client has committed this crime so too has the president and we all thought the greatest danger that came to Donald Trump would be through the mother investigation into whether there was collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia Well it turns out that potentially the greatest threat to Donald Trump's presidency comes from the hush money paid to a former porn star and a former Playboy model by Michael Cohen in the weeks running up to the election which he says was under the direction of Donald Trump I mean the collision of events yesterday in Washington it was quite something you had Michael Cohen the Trump lawyer now a convicted criminal Paul manifold the campaign manager now a convicted criminal you had a sentencing delayed in Michael Flynn the former national security adviser as a collision of events it was pretty extraordinary even mention the miller investigation into the allegations of collusion with Russia during and before the election now is that what is the link potentially now between Cohen and the minor investigation Lanny Davis the lawyer to Michael Kay went on t.v. Last night and said there's a lot more he knows there's a lot more he knows about the hacking of e-mails there's a lot more he knows about the meeting that took place in Trump Tower the legendary meeting with the raw. Lawyer who had close links to the Kremlin that makes life pretty tricky for the president every time he thinks he's Excel orating away from the whole morass of Russia and what happened in the run up to the election with this porn star and the Playboy model it keeps on getting closer to his revealed mirror once again John we heard from Alan Dershowitz yesterday the celebrity lawyer I suppose you call him someone who's been supportive of Trump at least on the subject of impeachment and he made the point that impeachment is political and that is still the case and the House of Representatives will vote on whether to impeach or not they can then pass that and that's what happened with Bill Clinton all those years ago when he was seen to have perjured himself. And then it ultimately it would go to a trial of the Senate and it would the Senate would have to vote with a 2 thirds majority to find the President guilty and remove him from office Bill Clinton was impeached by the Republican Party largely in in the house by a vote in the house and he left office with record approval ratings if he could have run again he'd have probably one if you want a way to galvanize the Republican base to say that your man is in jeopardy your man is in danger this is this is the Democrats playing politics the only way to stop this is to come out and vote I think it could have a very profound effect and so you could find the paradoxical situation where the Democrats win the House in November that allows them to start impeachment proceedings and that guarantees that Donald Trump wins in 2020 that was John Sopel to South Korea next where the commander of u.s. Forces has thrown his weight behind a plan to scale back joint military exercises insisting it's worth the risk to build trust with the North General Vincent Brooks said it wouldn't affect his troops preparedness to go to war if necessary as a military commander. Expected to deal with change and uncertainty in stride and find ways to create new solutions to the same problems perhaps even told for now to put our sore back into it. But we have not been told to forget how to use it meanwhile $96.00 elderly South Koreans are saying their final goodbyes to relatives in the north the group which was separated when the country was partitioned at the end of the war has spent the last few days meeting with family members correspondent in Seoul Laura because he has been following all the latest developments 1st those comments from General Brooks he talked about as you Herrick there the so-called war games and he said we pressed him really all on was he told a bait the cancellation of these trails before they happened and he said well it's not for me and I just take orders and by the time they become an order it's not a matter of debate it's a matter of implementation and he talks about the training exercises and how effective the training is as a group but he said that they would find more creative ways to train if he could not hold these joint drills he also said that these latest measures didn't come without risk in the well the measures he's talking about with regards to risk Is it comes from in 1000 yesterday where the South Korean defense ministry said it plans to reduce guard posts and equipment along the demilitarized zone that's that heavily militarized border between North and South it is patrolled it there's barbed wire there are lots of mines between the 2 in their guard posts all the way along and the proposal is to move 10 guard posts and they come in pairs between North and South Korea so he was asked and what he thought about that he did say that removing these guard push moving equipment had a certain degree of risk but he also talked about trust he believes that the key term relationship with no. Korea is to build trust and he said so when it comes to this kind of measure this is a great example of a trust building measure Now the other big story of course that's been going on over the last couple of days on the Korean Peninsula is these family reunions and it's the end of those today they're saying their final goodbyes is going to be a really hard day for those family members as in the. The footage is just starting to come in at night and one of these things as a reporter when you watch it it is just difficult to not be moved. In particular there's 192 year old mother who was split from her son in the chaos after the war it's important to understand that so much was going on some made it on to ships some didn't somewhere across the border somewhere and so they were trapped of tensely when that demilitarized zone was was put in place and it was put in place really quickly and this is a 92 year old mother who left her 4 year old son and they were split she thought he was on his way south with her husband and they didn't see one another again until Monday and there's a beautiful moment where we were at 92 year old almost broke into a run and flung herself I don't for you know it son and we've seen them a couple of times since having dinner just holding hands we're told from the pool reporters there we're not allowed in but the reporters there told us that she didn't let go of his hand the whole time Laura because in Seoul. Meteorologists are warning of one of those cooled scary from the one taking place in the UK take as the very oldest and thickest sea ice begins to break up it's a good choice opening waters north of Greenland but normally frozen or year round is director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Colorado normally the ice is very thick here and that's because of the circulation of the Arctic Ocean it tends to push the ice up against the shore in that area in a religious it deforms it all breaks up into forms and gets very very thick oil it appears to be a combination of a strong warming trend in that region and shifts in the wind such that the ice has gotten very thin and broken up so it's now it's shoved it away from the coast in a way that we've never really seen before now the idea is this as we lose the ice cover of course we are this would be the part of the Arctic with the ice would hang on the longest it will be kind of a refuge for polar bears and things like that day out that's what we've always thought but something like we're seeing now is saying wait a minute maybe that assumption is not so correct since just another indicator that the Arctic is really changing we've known for all of decades that when climate change takes hold it's the Arctic we're really going to see it become most pronounced and this is exactly we've been seeing with the overall decline in Arctic sea ice with the strong warming in the Arctic but now we're seeing these sorts of crazy things open water in the Arctic where they're just shouldn't be we've been seeing these tremendous winter heat waves up in the Arctic and I've been looking at the Arctic my gosh for 35 years and it's just got my eyes open at this point Mark centers of the National Snow and Ice Data Center You're listening to the b.b.c. World Service Still to come in the newsroom the instrument is spectacular and requires very very. This is something that has never flown before a revolutionary satellite being launched today hoping to map wind behavior across our planet 1st of a house that lands Donald Trump's lawyer has defended the president after 2 of his former aides were convicted in separate court cases the top u.s. Commander in South Korea has backed plans to dismantle a number of command posts on the North Korean border and Zimbabwe's Constitutional Court is hearing an opposition challenge against President Anniston that God was election victory last month Yes Mr Grant won the presidential election in Zimbabwe 5 just enough votes to avoid a runoff against Nelson Chamisa of the m.d.c. . Reports now from outside the courthouse in Harare this court case is taking place a long drawn out and taints electoral process. In Zimbabwe Facebook says it's disrupted a series of misinformation campaigns originating from Iran and Russia ahead of the Us midterm elections in November the company said it had removed more than $600.00 pages and numerous accounts which also targeted Britain and countries in the Middle East Twitter says it suspended nearly $300.00 accounts most of them appear to be Iranian Well Baron Taj Dane from the b.b.c. Persian Service is here in the newsroom studio So 1st of all what might be Terrazas motivation what's Iran got to gain from dissin from ation campaign so Iran has seen itself for many years or even decades in a public opinion of war with the West with Israel and with other adverse there is and therefore you see that Iran is spending money on for example t.v. Channels in English press t.v. And you know other languages including Arabic and Spanish and this campaign if it is as described by these companies is probably an extension of that strategy trying to use new ways for example the social media to do the same thing trying to change public opinion in other countries in the West or in Arab countries and the most important thing is here you have a platform that you can do this without the label of this is Iran state sponsored kind of media outlets now we've heard from Facebook and Twitter that this is the case all the Iranian authorities saying anything. Not really no because what we have seen in the past 10 years is we have these shady groups. Hacking groups that targets everyone. They target me and my colleagues in the supervision they target. American or European politicians government agencies private companies they target everyone they even target Iranian own. Officials including the foreign minister and diplomats so we don't know exactly who pays for this but this is probably not part of the Rouhani administration but what the hardliners want to do. During attach Dain from the b.b.c. Persian Service thank you. The countdown is on to the launch of from French Guiana in a few hours time of a new satellite which aims to make earth 1st global wind maps meteorologists are hopeful that the airless spacecraft carrying one of my sophisticated instruments ever to be put into orbit will significantly improve the quality of medium range weather forecasts his mission manager ruin a flow began talking about the revolutionary technology the instrument is spectacular and requires a very very special peculiar system of of laser diode laser light that we beam into the atmosphere and then through the back scatter of the light photons if you will back into the mirror or the satellite we can actually detect the motion of particles in the clear sky and also clouds and erode sources as dust particles in the atmosphere this is something that has never flown before and that's why it's taken time and engineering in order to make sure that these measurements will actually work according to our plan and to the quality that we need during the course of the mission we will launch into a very low orbit and then we will of course 1st of all make sure that the satellite is functioning the way it should and then we will slowly start switching on these high power laser system up to the energy levels that are required to sort of penetrate into the lower layers of the or 5 much freer we will. Make sure that the banks get that signal is understood once that is done we will turn those measurements into information about the wind that we will feed into the weather prediction systems in Europe basically the point of measuring the wind is actually rather difficult because you need to collect measurements all around the globe in order to understand the weather we all know that the weather is a chaotic system and and in order to to actually predict whether you should have good measurements all over the place which is kind of impossible and lack of good measurements or the wind has been identified by the world mythological organization and by mit scientists all around the globe as being the number one priority in order to actually improve their weather forecast quality was Mission Manager for the airless satellites but on a flip a garden now that he has some of the other stories from our news to ask the authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo have approved the use of 4 experimental vaccines by health work is tacklin