hello, everyone. i hello, everyone. lam rico hizon hello, everyone. i am rico hizon in singapore. the headlines. one hour to go. donald trump will announce his pick for the supreme court. a judge that will shape america's laws for yea rs judge that will shape america's laws for years to come. the white house continues to defend donald trump's immigration policy with officials rallying to explain the travel ban. this is not, i repeat, not, a ban on muslims. the homeland security mission is to defend the american people. shark nets on australian beaches. they protect swimmers, but we look at the harmful side to marine life. and we had to antarctica to try to unlock the secrets of the universe. —— head. live from our studios in singapore and london. this is bbc world news. it's newsday. glad you could join

us. it's newsday. glad you could join us. it is sam it's newsday. glad you could join us. it is 8am in singapore, midnight in london, and 7pm in washington, dc, where donald trump is preparing to make one of the most meaningful appointments of his presidency. in the next hour, the president will announce his pick tojoinjudges on the us supreme court. whoever he chooses will be able to influence american legislation, possibly, for decades to come. this latest appointment comes as senior figures in his administration have been rallying around to defend his second order ban on travel from some countries to the us. jon sopel reports. four days since president tramp signed the extreme vetting policy and the administration is trying to clarify whether it was a ban or a pause, who was consulted, who will be affected and what the executive order is and is not. it was left to the secretary

of homeland security to offer reassurance. this is not a ban on muslims. the homeland security mission is to safeguard the american people, our homeland and values. religious liberty is one of our most fundamental and treasured values. donald trump was today meeting leaders from the pharmaceutical industry after last night delivering a lethal injection to the country's most senior law officer, the acting attorney general. it's already being dubbed the "monday night massacre." the offence of sally yates was to issue this memo to her staff at the department ofjustice. she said she wasn't convinced that the executive order was lawful, and went on, consequently, "for as long as i'm the acting attorney general, the department ofjustice will not present arguments in defence of the executive order." this is what america looks like! this drama was unfolding as once again protesters had taken to the streets to oppose the ban on refugees coming to the us. that she was fired for defying the president was hardly surprising, but the language used by the white house was. "the acting attorney general, sally yates, has betrayed

the department ofjustice by refusing to enforce a legal order designed to protect the citizens of the united states." the word "betrayal" is more usually reserved for spies, for people who have committed acts of treachery. sally yates would say she was doing what she thought was right and upholding the law, but what this episode shows us is how the trump administration sees dissent, and how it's going to deal with it. in essence, you're either with us or against us. the whole truth and nothing but the truth... but look at this from her confirmation hearing back in 2015. the man asking the question is none other than donald trump's choice as attorney general. if the views the president wants to execute are unlawful, should the attorney general or deputy attorney general say "no?" i believe the attorney general or deputy attorney general has an obligation to follow the law and the constitution and to give their independent legal advice to the president.

but in a few hours' time, for all attention will switch here. this is the supreme court, the highest court in the land, the body that decides all the most contentious social issues, gun laws, abortion rights, gay marriage. and there is a vacancy that donald trump must fill, possibly the biggest decision you make as president. because whoever he chooses is there for life and notjust a fixed term. you can watch that announcement of the supreme court appointment live on newsday. that isjust the supreme court appointment live on newsday. that is just under one hours' time. we will say why it is important. also making news,

the centre—right candidate for the french presidential election, francois fillon, is facing fresh allegations suggesting that his wife received almost twice as much public money as earlier suggested in payment for work she may not have carried out. a french newspaper says mrs fillon was paid close to a million dollars. the couple deny wrongdoing. campaigners injapan are warning the government will breach international olympic committee rules, unless it makes tokyo smoke—free by the 2020 summer games. japanese law only requires restaurants and public places to separate smokers from non—smokers. the health ministry says it plans to submit a bill to curb passive smoking. india is concerned that a new us bill designed to limit the number of highly skilled workers entering the us will heavily impact the country's it industry. the bill introduced to the house of representatives proposes doubling the minimum salary of h—ib visa holders. the proposed new legislation mainly targets companies based in the us that bring in foreign employees on the visa quota. and how about this for a unique

skill? a chinese artist has turned egg shells into works of art for the year of the rooster. sun kaifu has spent the past six months carving images of cockerels onto the surface of 100 eggshells in the southern city of guangzhou. but sun, who was born in the year of the rooster himself, doesn't have all his eggs in one basket. he carves other designs too. campaigners in australia are calling for an end to the use of shark nets at beaches because they're killing too many dolphins and turtles. more have been installed after a recent spate of shark attacks on the east coast, but some nets have been cut deliberately by those who oppose them. more from our sydney correspondent, hywel griffith. ina in a country where catching a wave isa

in a country where catching a wave is a national obsession, the allure of the ocean is endless. as is the debate over how best to share these waters with some of the locals. shark nets have been the answers in the 1930s. they extend hundreds of metres out at sea is to be they do not create an enclosure, but they offer reassuring is. they are great idea. we have to protect humans. that is what it is all about for me. lam against that is what it is all about for me. i am against them. i don't want sea creatures getting stuck out there. you take the risk in the asian. that is where sharks belong. that is what the nets are trying to keep out, great whites are targeted by the programme in new south wales. they have been put in place from september to april when the beaches are out there busiest. they trapped 130 last year. they also trapped another 600 marine animals, including dolphins, rays, and

turtles. this video shows what happens when they get stuck. these people got this turtle free, but 19 eye of others died in the nets last year. they have whale and dolphin alarms they check every three days. some are set free, but others die. some are set free, but others die. some people have taken matters into their own hands. this is where they live and we cannot exclude them from where they live. they are not coming into the car parks so we should not do there. this man admits he has cut shark nets in the past. he says they do not protect humans, only harm the life. it is not based on science or facts. they are killing everything. the risk to people is negligible. we do advisers nobody entered the

water. —— advise. do advisers nobody entered the water. -- advise. there has not been a fatal shark attack on these beachesin a fatal shark attack on these beaches in six years. the government says this is a sign nets do work, and cutting them is dangerous. people who have deliberately cut them and tampered with them, obviously, it is dangerous, not only for the individuals involved, but they are creating a real hazard for people at the beaches. finding the right balance between protecting humans and preserving sea life is a challenge. it seems that it is elusive as ever. hywel griffith, bbc news, sydney. all eyes will be on donald trump's supreme court appointment. that announcement will be made in less than an hour's drive it. just after 8pm in washington, donald trump will announce his choice which has far reaching consequences no matter who

he selects. the death of conservative judge antony scalia created a vacancy on the bench last year, but president obama's choice was blocked by senate republicans. the supreme court is the highest court ofjustice in the united states. the full bench consists of ninejudges. they are appointed for life, although they can resign or retire. the president chooses the replacements when vacancies arise. and the appointment requires the approval of congress. for more on this let's cross live to the supreme court in washington and our correspondent, rajini. we just have one hour until it happens. talk us through it. donald trump will announce who he is picking to fill the vacancy on the us supreme court in a prime time address. he will be addressing the nation at eight o'clock local time from the east room of the white house. does kinds of and —— does

kinds of announcements are big. that is how donald trump sees it. in a tweet earlier this week he said he already made up his mind. two names are circulating as the possible choice. like the apprentice, there are talks that both of them are now in washington, dc and only one will get thejob. i in washington, dc and only one will get the job. i will in washington, dc and only one will get thejob. i will go in washington, dc and only one will get the job. i will go through both of them. the first possible candidate to feel the vacancy is justice thomas hardaman, who serves in the courts in pennsylvania. he is 51 yea rs old in the courts in pennsylvania. he is 51 years old and was appointed by george w. bush to his post. an interesting fact about him. he serves alongside donald trump's sister, marrianne trump. reports say she has given him a big boost. the

other is a 49er rolled from colorado. he sits on the denver court of appeal is. decisions he has made in his career have been conservative. he has ruled on things to protect religious freedoms and make sure police have the right to use force. he is someone else who served under george w bush and served under george w bush and served in thejustice department. right now he is the favourite. but you never know with donald trump until he actually said it. as we we re until he actually said it. as we were saying earlier, this is such a huge and significant appointment, not only for donald trump, but because this is a lifetime membership isn't it? yes. just to explain the significance of the court, in washington, powermat is. the white house has a lot of it and so the white house has a lot of it and so does congress. —— power matters. so does the supreme court. the us

supreme court has made decisions that have really impact of american society. things like legalising abortion, legalising gay marriage, and ending racial segregation in schools during the civil rights era. the kind of decisions impact society. but it can be divisive when it comes to the american people. just take something like abortion. during the election campaign, donald trump said he would make sure he would pick a staunchly conservative justice, someone who was pro life and broke gun rights. we can expect that we will get someone who will follow through on his promise of. —— pro gun rights. if that is the case, the us supreme court will have similar democrats and republicans as before. it is a swing vote. it will not change things from where they we re not change things from where they were necessarily, but of course, if

any of the existing justices decide to retire, and there are three around the 80—year—old mark, donald trump could pick their replacements as well. in the long—term, that could make a huge impact on the overall make—up of the court. incredible drama is about to unfold. thank you for talking us through that. she will be there for us in 45 minutes' time. you can watch that live on bbc world news. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme: on the hunt for missing meteorites — searching for clues to the origins of the universe. also on the programme: our second report on the trafficking of baby chimps from west africa. we have the latest on the efforts to stop the trade. 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 their 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 the day's wages for the average russian. this is newsday on the bbc. i'm rico hizon, in singapore. i'm babita sharma, in london. our top stories: within the hour, president trump

will be revealing his pick for the vacancy on the supreme court. the decision has ramifications that could long outlast his time time in office. the new us head of homeland security defended the executive order temporarily banning travellers from seven majority—muslim countries. let's take a look at some front pages from around asia. donald trump dominates the front the japan times. and the focus is on protests outside the us embassy in tokyo. this is part of the global reaction to the president's executive order restricting immigration from seven muslim—majority countries. moving onto the china daily. it leads on the story of a tourist ship that foundered for 30 hours at sea off the coast of malaysia. 31 people were on board and malaysian authorities are still searching for five missing

chinese tourists one crew member. finally, hong kong's south china morning post looks at what researchers believe is the earliest known ancestor of humans. fossilised traces of a microscopic sea creature were found in central china. they're thought to be 540 million years old and is thought to have lived between grains of sand on the sea bed. the race is on to make the world's strongest material more commercially viable. graphene is thin in composition and high conductivity means it is used in applications ranging from miniaturised electronics to biomedical devices. i spoke with one of the lead scientists involved in the project, michael seo, and asked him how his process works. how we make our how we make our own how we make our own graphene is actually... oil derived from soya beans. a sickly our basic ingredients isjust beans. a sickly our basic ingredients is just soya beans. a sickly our basic ingredients isjust soya bean oil. —— basically. we are free from any

compressed gases and usually graphene takes half a day to grow them, but we just need half an hour. this is our breakthrough innovation. how did you discover soya bean oil to make graphene? actually, i had a long vision to utilise the conversion of this material into high—value material and i wasn't aiming to make graphene, i was actually trying to make some other unique material. but it was an accident that we found the growth of graphene using this unique approach, so, yes. it is indeed a very unique approach using renewable sources to make graphene. you have a sample with you now. ab you could show us a

product of graphene using renewable sources like soya bean oil? that's wonderful. —— maybe you could. what is graphene used for? graphene holds so is graphene used for? graphene holds so many promises in diverse application, ranging from flexible tronics, batteries, solar cells, water purification. —— electronics. hopefully our discovery and breakthrough will help foster improving the graphene commercialisation in those applications. thousands of meteorites fall to earth every year, but there's something puzzling about the ones which have been found in antarctica. experiments show they contain very little iron, making them different to ones collected elsewhere. now a team of scientists is setting out to find out why. rebecca morelle went to meet them. antarctica is prime space rock

hunting ground, at one kind of meteorite made of iron is surprisingly scarce. now a new hunt is soon to begin. scientists at the university of manchester are developing high—tech metal detectors, based on landmine technology, to track down the meteorites. antarctica's missing eye on meteorites have been a mystery for years, but now scientists think they've cracked it. the idea is there is a lot there but they are buried in the eyes of the ice sheet floats so does the meteorite, but when they hit this mountain range they are forced. meteorites made of rock, the most common kind, come all the way to the surface. but the meteorite made of iron, like this, conducts heat from the sun, so it melts the ice below. scientists think these missing meteorites are sitting only 30 centimetres, one foot, below the surface, waiting to be dug up. this beautiful, large

iron meteorite... iron meteorites are particularly valuable to science. they provide us with a snapshot of the earliest part when the plans were first for me, so they tell us how they were formed. that's really exciting because it can provide us with an indication of what our early solar system looked like. scientists will start testing the technology by the end of the year. the mission to antarctica will bea gamble, year. the mission to antarctica will be a gamble, but the team hopes it is one that will pay off. the secrets of our solar system could liejust secrets of our solar system could lie just beneath the ice. yesterday on newsday, our correspondent david shukman reported on how the bbc exposed a chimpanzee trafficking gang in ivory coast. well, some of you have been asking what happened to the rescued chimps. david and his team can bring you right up to date in the second part of these special reports.

a baby chimpanzee, hungry, but safe. he's just been liberated from wildlife traffickers. poachers had killed his family, now he's at a zoo in ivory coast and the keepers have named him nemleyjunior. bb chips are on sale in the black market as they wanted as pets, until we become to strong and are killed or dumped. —— baby chimps. how investigations led us to a dealer, who was filmed spelling out his prices in dollars. —— our investigations. undercover reporter went to his house and saw him holding the baby chimp. we were in a street nearby. we briefed intercom and the ivory coast police and they moved in. the dealer was arrested.

and the baby chimp was freed. but he has been through a series of traumatic experiences and may take time to recover. he may have seen his family wiped out in front of his eyes and we know that the statistics suggest that for everyone that makes it up to ten don't and the family is killed. i don't know. physically he doesn't look too bad, from what i've seen, but mentally these things can be very profound. after the police operation the baby chimp was taken first to the interpol office. he clambered towards the only people he knew. the men who had been holding him captive. the man faces charges relating to wildlife trafficking, so does his uncle muhamed. their mobile

phones are goldmine of information about links between the poachers in thejungles, about links between the poachers in the jungles, corrupt officials and buyers in the asia —— in asia and the gulf, all avoid international treaty protecting wildlife through cites, and act recognised in the ivory coast. translation: the traffickers are becoming more and more brazen and sophisticated. so we, acting in the name of cites, have to be ahead of the game to be able to stop them. his voice? perfect. you've got him. but when it comes to wildlife crime, the international police effort is focused on saving elephants and rhinos, not chimpanzees. without the funding we can't do anything, but what we are trying to become is more intelligence led, we look at what

the threats are and what law enforcement needs to address in order to maintain a level of security. so unfortunately primates... how information holdings are as strong as they could be. back in west africa, the chimp clings to keep. baby chimps need contact. he is given a first look at other chimpanzees. maybe he will leave —— live with them or we found a home in a sanctuary. he is doing well after everything he has been through. many others on so lucky. —— aren't so lucky. we arejust we are just taking you to the scene by that the supreme court, wearing just over half an hour donald trump will make the key announcement of who he will appoint as judge to take the seat in the supreme court. we will take you through it live. stay with us. it is really salty outside right

now, especially in eastern areas of the uk. many of us have the worst of the uk. many of us have the worst of the rain hours ago, but through the early hours of wednesday it is just going to stay damp wherever you are across the uk. talking a little bit about the future, we have more storms forming across the atlantic, coming out of the us and moving across the atlantic and heading in our direction. lots of cloud, lots happening and i think towards the end of the week that's when we will bea end of the week that's when we will be a little bit concerned that there is severe weather heading our way. in the short term we have the rain across eastern areas, so in the short term we have the rain across eastern areas, so this is a 7-8 across eastern areas, so this is a 7—8 a.m. . notice how northern and western areas — up a 7—8 a.m. . notice how northern and western areas — up a little bit later in the afternoon and then it will probably go downhill again across the south—west and wales. —— brighten up. southampton, oxfordshire, around here to the north—west, a little bit of sunshine. the far east cloudy again, with rain. it and pieces of rain in northern ireland and then brighter,

drier and brighter, across scotland. a messy picture in the uk on wednesday. be prepared for sunshine and be prepared for the rain, but expect a little bit of sunshine. how is the rest of europe doing compared to ask? well, it will turn very u nsettled to ask? well, it will turn very unsettled in france and the uk. this weather systems will be piling into western parts of europe, quiet across the mediterranean and quieter across the mediterranean and quieter across central part of the east. here is a closer look at the nasty weather. this will bring windy weather. this will bring windy weather to ireland and western parts of the uk. close the gales in many areas. some outbreaks of rain. a blustery day. this is the first big blow. mild, it won't feel like it in the wind. once the big load starts pulling away, another smaller but more intense weather system is going to develop. this one could do a

couple of things. it could either be quite nasty steel and move into france. this will be less severe for us. france. this will be less severe for us. and the other scenario is that this could affect south—western areas towards the north. this is the more likely on, because of the distinguish between the two track. right now this is what it looks like. rain and severe gales in the south—western areas, but stagey and the weather updates. —— stay tuned. the top story. donald trump will announce his nominee for the supreme court. there are ninejudges but one post which has been empty for almost a year. the announcement will be made in the white house in a prime time ceremony injust made in the white house in a prime time ceremony in just one hour. made in the white house in a prime time ceremony injust one hour. the ban on seven muslim countries has been defended by the white house.

and the story is trending. a record gathering of people floating while connected in argentina. 1941 people took part. that has nearly tripled the previous best set three years ago in taiwan. stay with us. this is bbc world news. we will have live coverage of the supreme court appointment in half an hour's time. stay with us. it is time for hardtalk. see you soon.