i'm rico hizon, in singapore. the headlines: a challenge to president trump's travel ban: the acting us attorney general tells justice department lawyers not to defend the measures in court. police in quebec charge a french—canadian student over the shooting dead of six muslim worshippers at a mosque. i'm babita sharma in london. a special bbc investigation reports on the traffickers selling baby chimpanzees from west africa. and singaporean film maker kirsten tan talks to us about her win at this year's sundance film festival. from our studios in singapore and london, this is bbc world news — it's newsday. it's 9am in singapore, 1am in london,

and 8 in the evening in washington where president trump's controversial executive order imposing a travel ban on people coming from seven muslim—majority countries has received a dramatic set back. the acting us attorney general, sally yates, has told justice department lawyers not to defend it in court. in a letter she said she was not convinced it was lawful. ms yates was appointed as deputy attorney—general under president obama but was asked by donald trump to temporarily take over while a long—term replacement was found. just days after leaving the white house, barack obama has also intervened in the row — warning that american values are at stake. in a statement his spokesman says... and in the past couple of hours

senior democrat politicians have gathered at a rally outside the supreme court. house minority leader nancy pelosi and senate leader chuck schumer called the order un—american. all of us take an oath of office to protect and defend the constitution of the united states. what the president has done is not in the interests of security. it is reckless. it is reckless and rash. america for its history has been a shining beacon and it has said we welcome you if you are pressed because of your religion, because of

your political beliefs, because of who you are. the lady in the harbour in the city in which our leave holds a wonderful torch, that torch has stood for the greatness of america, to all americans and to the citizens of the world. we will not let this evil order extinguish this great torch. hundreds of diplomatic staff circulated a letter expressing concerns about the direction of the immigration policy of president rouhani. he urged them in his words to get on board or leave. let's get the latest from washington from our correspondent david willis. it continues allah by hour. the acting us attorney general has made comments. sally yates is barack

obama appointment and she's saying that as the most senior law enforcement official in the country, that it enforcement official in the country, thatitis enforcement official in the country, that it is not worth defending this executive order because she does not believe it is necessarily lawful. that is likely to remain the case for a while, for a few days. it is a setback but a fairly small one as far as the trump administration is concerned because of the preferred candidate for the position, senator sessions is due to be confirmed by the senate in a few days and he will obviously support the trump administration, he is expected to at least. what it does is suggest there isa least. what it does is suggest there is a certain amount of chaos as far as this new untried administration

is concerned and donald trump had not served political office before getting the presidency and had they waited just a couple of days until such time asjeff sessions was confirmed, there would not have this embarrassing situation that they have now with sally yates saying she does not believe this executive order is lawful. given that we have had american plan at complaining about the executive order. —— diplomats. and whispers from state department had the same they did not know beforehand, it rather plays into the hands of those who say this is an bundled operation. nevertheless a defiant administration. a robust response to journalists to journalist who asked

about memo circulating amongst diplomats. a large number expressing disquiet over this executive order. mr spicer saying if they did not like it they could leave theirjobs. this is kind of the theme of this administration. it seems rather cognitive and if you do not like it you can leave. ——, aggressive. also making news this hour: bangladesh's government says it plans to continue with a controversial plan to relocate tens of thousands of rohingya muslim refugees. the plan is to to take the refugees to a remote island before repatriating them to myanmar. human rights groups have criticised the plan saying it amounts to forced relocation. thousands of people have attended the funeral of a leading lawyer shot the leader of a group allegedly linked to the 2008 attack in mumbai

has been placed under house arrest in pakistan. hafiz saeed is wanted by the us and india — who accuse him of being implicated in the raid, in which more than 160 people died. he has denied any involvement. wildfires are still raging in chile as the search continues to find those responsible behind the blazes that have killed 11 people, burnt more than a thousand homes and wiped out an entire town. ten people have been arrested on suspicion of arson. a huge air and ground operation is underway to contain 61 forest fires. and here's an illustration ofjust how exciting football can be even without a match being played. these are the fans of the english non—league team sutton united. they've just learned that they'll be playing at home in the fa cup and this is how they reacted when they found out they'd be playing arsenal. the match will take place next month. sutton fans need to bag their tickets quick — their footie ground can only in fit 5,000 spectators. arsenal's stars are more used to playing in front of crowds of 60,000.

the operator of the fukushima nuclear plant injapan says they may have located part of a reactor core that was destroyed six years ago. the nuclear meltdown was triggered by an earthquake and tsunami. the disaster in 2011 was the worst nuclear incident since chernobyl some 25 years earlier. it has been six years since the disaster, and during all that time, tokyo electric power has not been able to say where the reactor cores from the three reactors, that melted down in that disaster, where exactly they are. essentially they were inside the centre of reactor, in a lozenge—shaped unit. but when the meltdown happened, the whole of that unit,

the pressure vessel, it's called, melted right through the bottom of it. the reactor cores, all the uranium and other metal inside there, turned into a sort of lava, and dropped to the bottom of the reactor containment vessel. until now, they had not known what happened to this very radioactive material. they got a camera down into reactor number two, inside the containment vessel, pointed it down at the bottom, and they saw what looked like large chunks of black debris, and they think this might be all or part of that reactor core. that is good news, if you like, because it means it is inside the containment vessel, which is where they want it to be. and it means they may have some chance in the future of retrieving it, and getting it out of there and storing it safely somewhere else, although that is a very, very difficult problem for them to solve, still, and will take many decades. so what next?

over the last six years, it has been a very costly attempt. it is, and it is going to continue to be extremely costly. the cost of this clean—up has escalated. i mean, recently they gave a figure of triple their original... originally they said it would cost $50 billion to clean up the fu kushima disaster. then it went to $100 billion. now, it has gone to $200 billion. so it is escalating all the time, and the timeframe, it has gone from a0 to 50 years. they are talking about doing stuff that they don't have the technology yet, has not been invented, to retrieve these very highly radioactive debris from inside these melted—down reactors. so this is all still in the realm of speculation, and many, many years or decades away. but they are at least starting to be able to get equipment inside there, to find out what is the state of these reactors that have been destroyed. canadian police have charged a french—canadian student over

the shooting dead of six muslim worshippers at a mosque in quebec. a number of other people were wounded in the attack and five remain in a critical condition. alexandre bissonnette made a brief appearance in court in handcuffs. vigils are being held across canada for the victims. from quebec city, aleem maqbool reports. it is a quiet, suburban corner of quebec city that was the site of this bloodshed. a gunman burst into the islamic cultural centre during evening prayers, spraying the worshippers with bullets. police say the victims were all men aged between 35 and 60, including, according to locals, a university professor, and the owner of this butcher's shop, close to where the attack took place. translation: quebec is the most secure city. for me, it's beautiful. so, to have an attack like this here... police said one man was detained close to the scene, but he is now

thought to have been just a witness. the suspected gunman fled in his car across a bridge in the centre of this city, but pulled over and called police to turn himself in. he waited, and appears to have been detained without a struggle. he has now been named as alexandre bissonnette, in his late 20s. well, the police haven't talked about a motive as yet. but, even though this is known to be a peaceful place, with very little crime, that same mosque here in quebec city has been targeted with islamophobia before. injune, during during the muslim holy month of ramadan, a pig's head was left on the doorstep, but mosque leaders say there were no threats of late. prime ministerjustin trudeau called the killing a terrorist attack on muslims. to the more than one million canadians who profess the muslim faith, i want to say directly, we are with you. 36 million hearts are breaking with yours. and know that we value you.

in recent days, the prime minister stood up against some of the anti—islamic rhetoric coming from the us, saying canada would continue to welcome those fleeing persecution, no matter their faith. aleem maqbool, bbc news, quebec city. there was a sense of shock among many mourners in myanmar as they attended the funeral of the country's most prominent muslim lawyer. ko ni, who also advised aung san suu kyi's political party on legal affairs was assassinated in yangon on sunday. from there our correspondent jonah fisher reports. what is his name? aged three years old, his survival is nothing short of miraculous. just 2a hours previously, he was in the arms of

his grandfather, ko ni, at the airport. unknown to them, a pistol was being put to the back of the head of ko ni and seconds later he was dead. somehow his grandson survived. he is in good condition. but his grandfathers are assassination has left myanmar in deep shock. thousands attended his funeral. his death, a new and more deadly twist in these countries political history. he worked as a legal adviser to aung san suu kyi's political party. specialising in constitutional affairs. this is the man who police say pulled the trigger. aged 53, kyi linn he was

given a pardon from a political sentence. there has not been a political association like this for many decades will not the killing of ko ni will send a shiver through aung san suu kyi's political party, through civil society and for all people standing up to these countries many minorities. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme. a bbc investigation exposes a global network of traffickers selling baby chimpanzees. also on the programme, we speak to the singaporean film maker about her debut win at this years sundance film festival. the shuttle challenger exploded soon after liftoff. there were seven astronauts on board, one of them a woman school teacher. all of them are believed to have been killed. by the evening tahrir square, the heart of official cairo,

was in the hands of the demonstrators. they were using the word "revolution". the earthquake singled out buildings, and brought them down in seconds. tonight, the search for any survivors has an increasing desperation about it as the hours pass. the new government is firmly in control of the entire republic of uganda. moscow got its first taste of western fast food, as mcdonald's opened its biggest restaurant, in pushkin square. but the hundreds of muscovites who queued up today won't find it cheap, with a big mac costing half a day's wages for the average russian. this is newsday on the bbc. i'm rico hizon in singapore. and i'm babita sharma in london.

our top stories: in a challenge to president trump's travel ban, the acting us attorney general has told justice department lawyers not to defend the measures in court. canada's prime minister calls the shooting at a quebec city mosque a terrorist attack as the authorities continue their investigation. let's take a look at some front pages from around the world. singapore's straits times leads on the story which has been dominating the headlines for the last two days. it says that donald trump is standing firm on his policy banning travel to the us for citizens of certain countries, despite a huge international backlash. the south china morning post reports on the hong kong based airline, cathay pacific, and its plans to cut emissions from its fleet of aircraft. it says it hopes a switch to bio—fuels will reduce the amount

of greenhouse gases it generates by up to 80% on some of its longer flights. and the philippines inquirer leads on the miss universe beauty pageant. the title was taken by france's iris mittenaire, but the reason for her spot on page one is perhaps because the woman handing her the crown is last year's champion, pia wurtzback, from the philippines. that is the latest from the major headlines. and, babita, what's trending right now is that an actor is leaving a famous tv timelord character behind. yeah, that's right, rico. generating a lot of attention on twitter is news that current owner of the tardis has decided to move on. actor peter capaldi, who has played doctor who since 2013, has announced he is quitting. one of the biggest hits for the bbc. but don't shed too many tears, science fictions fans! capaldi will reprise the role

for the 2017 doctor who christmas special. a global network of wildlife traffickers selling baby chimpanzees has been exposed by a bbc news investigation. the tiny animals seized from the wild in west africa are sold as pets as far away as the gulf states and china. the bbc worked undercover in ivory coast to produce this special report with our science editor david shukman. a baby chimpanzee. captured from a jungle in west africa. 0rphaned after poachers killed its family and now looking for reassurance. during a year—long investigation, we were sent these videos by dealers offering to sell the tiny animals. our research led us to ivory coast and a secret animal—trafficking network. a dealer called ibrahima traore sent us a video of a crate specially made

for wildlife smuggling. animals that you can trade hiding a chimpanzee down below. he then met a colleague of ours who was pretending to be a buyer and using a hidden camera. ibrahima spelled out his prices in dollars. 0ur undercover colleague went to see the animal for himself. 0ur colleague took pictures. his cover story was that he needed proof for a client in indonesia. at this point, the police moved in. ibrahima traore was arrested.

he's facing charges related to wildlife trafficking along with his uncle, mohammed. the police then ordered everyone onto the ground. and they found the chimpanzee, a young male. so the police have just made all of these arrests. it's pretty edgy here, the atmosphere, and it's all about this, a baby chimpanzee taken from the jungle. out of the jungle, all of the adults in its family have to be killed. —— the real tragedy of this trade is that to get one infant chimpanzee out of the jungle, all of the adults in its family have to be killed. that's as many as ten adults slaughtered just to get one chimp here ready for trade. we'd been advised not to touch the chimpanzee until a vet had checked him. so, for a few agonising moments, he was all alone. before being handed over to wildlife officials. the detective in charge said

trafficking threatened the survival of chimpanzees. the baby chimp is now in safe hands. he's been given a name, nemli junior. and the traffickers trying to sell him are awaiting trial. david shukman, bbc news, in ivory coast. now for a moment of history in the movie world. filmmaker kirsten tan‘s debut feature, pop aye, has just won the world cinema dramatic specialjury award for screenwriting at the sundance film festival in the states. it's the first time a singapore film and a singaporean film maker have received such an honour.

the film has been descibed as a bromance between a man and his long—lost elephant. here's a taster of the movie. pop aye there. i asked writer and director of the movie kirsten tan how it felt to win an award at the sundance fillm festival. i think it will take some time for me to process the entire significance of this award. but i'm just, like, when i first heard the news it was just pure elation, pure emotion, purejoy. ijust did a little dance in my room. maybe you could show us the dance a bit of it later on! how did you come up with the plot of this movie? how did i come up with the plot of the film? that's right. i think the plot of the film came to me rather easily actually. it's a very simple story about a guy who bumped into this long—lost elephant and the story is of them on this road trip in search of their old childhood where they grew up together. in terms of the story, it's a pretty simple story but it did take some time to fill

the moments with stuff and with scenes i think our unique and interesting. how much of a struggle was this journey for you, kerstin, in receiving the sundance film festival award? the entire journey of the film was very tough. it was a very tough film to make because, i mean, when you think of elephants, we were shooting with children, we were shooting in one of the hottest summers of thailand, this film was really hard to put together. i'm just really glad that the film seemed to come together, the audience seems to appreciate it and so far it seems to be doing really rather well. you have been watching newsday. stay with us. the bosses of america's tech giants join the outcry

against president trump's travel ban warning that it could affect their companies. that's all for now. stay with bbc world news. hello. in a week when our weather's turning wetter and windier, let's celebrate a bit of sunshine and the best of that again on monday was in scotland. contrast scenes like this with the view on the south coast of england and for tuesday we're going to narrow these differences. it's this sort of weather that's going to win out as this weather system works very slowly from west to east across the uk. not a huge amount of sunshine on offer but plenty of cloud and most of us will see rain at some stage. quite a wet start to the day in northern ireland although here something a bit drier and brighter for the afternoon. down the eastern side of england where you start dry eventually we'll get to see some outbreaks

of rain moving in here. a lot of the rain will be light but some heavy bursts in scotland, especially in the southern iplands and grampians. maybe some highest routes could be a little bit slippy as we see some sleet and snow and rain falling onto frozen ground but conditions will gradually improve. a lot of the cloud is low cloud so there's hill fog around too. eastern england starting dry, many of us here, but cloudy and feeling quite cool in that breeze. where we've got milder air already into south—west england, starting to move through more of wales as well, eventually into northern ireland. but it is a messy picture for tuesday as we take outbreaks of rain gradually further east. again the heavy bursts into scotland and drier and brighter weather for northern ireland into the afternoon. again all the while taking something a little bit milder into the uk from the south—west. 11 in belfast. but it is going to feel qute cool in eastern scotland and eastern england with the cloud, outbreaks of rain and breeze. more rain to come in parts of england and wales especially on tuesday night and into wednesday morning. clearer spells into scotland and northern ireland. so some spots getting cold enough

for a touch of frost and a few fog patches. england and wales, though, with all this cloud around, temperatures holding up. on wednesday the weather system still dragging its heels, especially into england and eventually the rain pulling away from the east quite late in the day. a bit of a brighter interlude between the two weather systems before another one comes into northern ireland to parts of wales and the south—west of england later on wednesday. and again, some of us getting into double figure temperatures. on thursday, it looks like a windy affair, some bright and sunny spells around but bands of showers, some may be heavy with the risk of hail and thunder spreading north—east across the country. and the winds looked like picking up further towards the end of the week and into the weekend. still a lot of uncertainty about the detail but look at this, there's the growing sense some of us will be facing some quite stormy weather by the end of the week and into the weekend. we will, of course, keep you updated. i'm babita sharma with bbc world news. our top story: president trump has defended his immigration policy amid a growing backlash. mass protests continue

across america, while the acting us attorney general has told justice department lawyers not to defend the travel restrictions in court. police in quebec have charged a 27—year—old french—ca nadian student over the shooting dead of six muslim worshippers at a mosque. and this video is trending on bbc.com the british actor peter capaldi is to step down from his role as doctor who. he took over as the 12th doctor in 2013. he will remain as the doctor until the end of the current series. that's all from me now. stay with bbc world news. and the top story here in the uk: leaders of the devolved governments in scotland, wales and northern ireland have demanded a greater role in brexit negotiations.