welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is gavin grey. our top stories: a show of force. america completes its first successful test of a system to shoot down intercontinental missiles. it comes just days after north korea'a latest missile test. ariane grande will return to manchester this weekend for a benefit concert in aid of victims of last week's bombing. this is no safe place, get out of america if you don't like it. in court and defiant. the man accused of murdering two men on a train in the us state of oregon last week appears in court. the victims were reportedly trying to protect two young women from anti—muslim abuse. and setting course for the sun,

nasa announces its first mission to fly directly into our sun's atmosphere. the us military says it's successfully carried out a test to simulate the interception of an intercontinental ballistic missile aimed at america. it was the first such test of its kind, in response to the growing threat from north korea. the bbc‘s peter bowes has been following the story from los angeles. he described the significance of the missile test. this ground—based interceptor was launched from van der burgh for space on the central californian coast and this isn't the first time a test of this nature, as least as it applied to previous short range missiles, has been carried out. this is designed to intercept a

long—range missile and in fact it successfully d id long—range missile and in fact it successfully did that with a mock missile, a mock long—range missile launched from an island in the pacific, more than 4000 miles away. so its significance is that and according to that responding to this, they say this shows it is, to use their words, an incredible accomplishment, a critical milestone that shows america is capable and it has a credible deterrent against a very real threat. those words are significant at the moment because of the test, the short—range missile test that north korea has been carrying out in recent months. indeed, but they did not suggest it was north free speech or die, portland. you've

got no safe place. this is america, get out if you don't like free speech. jeremy joseph criticisms appeared in court in a city on white edge —— christian. he didn't alleviate any fears. you call it terrorism, i call it patriotism. you hear me? mr christian is accused of murdering 23—year—old and 53—year—old ricky best. the only survivor, mike fletcher, was in court for the hearing, he said he to thought he was going to die and he had this tribute for his fellow passengers. they did what they thought the right thing to do was which was in my opinion the factual thing to do was and they paid the ultimate price. witnesses said the men were targeted when they stepped into target anti— abuse on a train. herfriend was not

into target anti— abuse on a train. her friend was not muslim and she is still in shock. i want to say thank you to the people who put their life on the line for me because they didn't even know me. they're all still alive. i want to say thank you to them and their family. still alive. i want to say thank you to them and theirfamily. a still alive. i want to say thank you to them and their family. a twig from the official account of president trump described the : during the brief rowdy session in court, jeremy christian did not enter the plea to charges that include aggravated murder. he's due to appearagain on include aggravated murder. he's due to appear again on the seventh. a war or words between germany and the united states has escalated with a leading german politician calling donald trump the destroyer of all western values while the us president took to twitter. in an early morning tweet, he said: it follows a warning

from chancellor angela merkel that europe could no longer depend on leadership from the us. translation: transatlantic ties are of paramount importance to us. the only thing i did was to say that the current situation gives more reasons for us in europe to take our destiny in our own hands. but when pressed on the matter, white house press secretary sean spicer described the relationship between chancellor merkel and trump in glowing terms. i think the relationship that the president has had with merkel, he would describe as fairly unbelievable. they get along very well, he has a lot of respect for her, they continue to grow the bond that they had during their talks at the g7. and he views, notjust germany but the rest of europe, as an important american ally.

joining me now to discuss this is journalist and author rick perlstein, who has written extensively on the american conservative movement. sean spicer playing all that down but are we seeing a difference in the alliance between these two countries, a very marked authoring? it's night and day. an emblem of it was when we saw during the g7 summit the six worldwide leaders walking down the streets and conferring and trump trailing behind in his golf ca rt. trump trailing behind in his golf cart. it really seemed like a summit of five and america trailing behind. i think what that portends to the future is the rest of the world united in an adversarial relationship with the united states and ina relationship with the united states and in a collective security arrangement thatjust and in a collective security arrangement that just cannot work. will it play into some of his

supporters' hands to think that he's playing the role of an outsider? perhaps but this is a much bigger game than this of course. nato, to ta ke game than this of course. nato, to take one example, was formed out of the ruins of europe after a world war that was responsible for the deaths of 50 million. there hasn't been anything like it since and the reason for that is because nations have been able to gather together in collective security and america are withdrawing symbolically or literally from something like that is much more important than what a few voters in west virginia or montana thing about donald trump. but his point about certain countries not paying their dues to nato as it work is a valid one, or do you think other factors should be taken into do you think other factors should be ta ken into account do you think other factors should be taken into account with their contributions? at best it is ignorant, at worst it is a lie. 0f course nato countries agreed to contribute 2% of their gdp to their own militaries by 2024. on my

calendar is 2017 so they have seven yea rs calendar is 2017 so they have seven years to go. by saying they haven't done what they said they were going to do seven years before the deadline he is stirring things up, he is making it seem like the nato countries paid jews to the united states like we're the boss of the world and this is only related to their own military contributions. —— dues. it is really quite irresponsible of him and like i said in that collective security arrangement, you need mutual trust between members and he can't be doing things like this if he wants the collective interest, the collective security of the world to be in safe hands. so what do you make of sean spicer‘s denial that things aren't so good? richard nixon has had a press secretary called ron ziggler and after richard nixon resigned in 74, ron ziegler was so

discredited that the onlyjob he could get was as a spokesman for the truckstop association of the united states. spicer seems to be going down that same road, he has no credibility, he lies to the face of the journalists of america and it is quite astonishing. everything with this administration is unprecedented. thanks for your analysis. thank you. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. police in germany have arrested a 17—year—old suspected islamist who's thought to have been planning a suicide bombing in berlin. he was picked up in brandenburg, north—east of the capital. the state's interior minister said the suspect was a syrian. he arrived in germany in 2015 and had been living in a refuge for unaccompanied children. the united nations security council has heard that after more than two years of civil war, yemen is spiralling towards total social, economic and institutional collapse. the un humanitarian chief said the country's people were subjected to deprivation, disease and death while the world watched. police say tiger woods was asleep

at the wheel of a stationary car and didn't know where he was when officers woke him up near his home in florida on monday. the golfer apologised after being charged with driving under the influence, he says he reacted to prescription drugs and alcohol wasn't involved. less than two weeks after the suicide bomb at manchester arena that left 22 people dead, the american singer ariane grande has announced she'll perform in the city on sunday at a benefit concert for the victims and their families. she'll be joined by other musicians including justin bieber, katy perry and coldplay. but some of those affected say they think it is too soon. from manchester, danny savage reports. # got to have it. # i want you, you...#. she's the global superstar who the victims of the manchester bombing had gone to see. after the attack, ariana grande

quickly returned to her home in the states, saying her heart was broken. but tonight she announced this — the one love manchester benefit concert this sunday. free tickets will be offered to those who were at the arena last week. she won't be performing alone, justin bieber is alsojoining her. # when i look in your eyes #. other famous names include take that, who donated the proceeds from their liverpool concert to the victims. # turn it up, it's your favourite song #. and katy perry, who broke down in tears last week as she talked to fans about the atrocity. this is where the concert will take place, the cricket ground at old trafford. it has a capacity of about 50,000 people who, for speed of entry, are being asked not to bring bags, but that's down to security, too which will be upper most in people's minds. the concert occurs on the same day

as a testimonal match at neighbouring manchester united. the police chief here says he's confident his force will be able to cover both events. you will see a significant police presence around both of those events, both with unarmed and armed officers. you know, we'll continue to review intelligence as it comes in to make sure, as much as we can, that everybody‘s absolutely safe and can go and enjoy both of those events. police have been speaking to families who were at the original arena concert, most say they are happy, but some are not. i personally don't think it's showing a great deal of respect to them. it's not giving them a chance to show their respects to their loved ones orfor the individuals in hospital to get over their injuries. but, in the quiet dignity of st ann's square, in manchester city centre, there's broad support for ariana grande's return. i think it's amazing that she's coming back. i think it's something that should be commended, really. it's something that, yeah,

it's definitely needed. i think it'lljust be a message to them, you know, not hide who you are. you shouldn't be ashamed of who you are. you shouldn't have been targeted. the concert will undoubtedly sell out quickly. ariana grande says she hopes it will help heal the city. danny savage, bbc news, manchester. british airways says its it systems are now operating normally again after a massive computer failure grounded flights over the weekend. 75,000 passengers were caught up in the chaos. the airline says it is now running a full schedule of flights, but it will take time for passengers and their luggage to be reunited. the disgraced television star rolf harris will not face a further retrial on indecent assault allegations after a jury failed to reach a verdict. the 87—year—old left a british court on tuesday without comment but said through his solicitor he felt no sense of victory, just relief.

he'd been accused of groping three teenage girls in the 1970s and ‘80s. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: the spectacular display in the skies over tasmania and new zealand as the southern lights sweep across the upper atmosphere. in the biggest international sporting spectacle ever seen, up to 30 million people have taken part in sponsored athletic events to aid famine relief in africa. the first of what the makers of star wars hope will be thousands of queues started forming at 7am. taunting which led to scuffles, scuffles to fighting, fighting to full—scale riot as the liverpool fans broke out of their area and into the juve ntus enclosure. the belgian police had lost control. the whole world will mourn the tragic death of mr nehru today. he was the father of the indian people from the day of independence. the oprah winfrey show comes to an end after 25 years and more

than 4,500 episodes. the chat show has made her one of the richest people on the planet. geri halliwell, otherwise known as ginger spice, has announced she's left the spice girls. i don't believe it, she's the one with the bounce, the go, the girl power. not geri, why? this is bbc news. the latest headlines: the us military says it's successfully test fired a system designed to shoot down an intercontinental ballistic missile. it comes just days after north korea's latest missile test. us singer ariana grande announces she will return to manchester to hold a benefit concert for the victims of last week's bombing. nasa is set to make a major announcement about its first mission to the sun.

the agency wants to send a spacecraft closer to the sun than ever before, where it will face extreme temperatures and radiation levels. full details will be released on wednesday. jonathan lunine is a director at cornell university's centre for astrophysics and planetary science. he joins us live from new york. thank you indeed forjoining us. what is nasa hoping to achieve by doing this? now so is hoping to find out how the solar wind is actually generated. —— nasa. we live on the planet earth, in vx a wind of charge particles coming from the sun. solar probe plus will actually travel to the region where those particles are accelerated by the powerful magnetic field of the sun. we hope to find out how battle happens. extreme

temperatures, higher levels of radiation. how close bullet actually get to the sun? —— how close will it? the closest solar probe plus will get is approximately 7 million kilometres. that is about nine times the radius of the sun. that is incredibly close. it is a place where the spacecraft will get 450 times as much sunlight as we get on earth. and the temperature at the front of the shield protecting the spacecraft will be at about 1400dc. so these are really extreme conditions for a spacecraft. are there any other factors that the designers need to take into account? they do. in fact, the spacecraft will be moving at extreme speed. it is going to be moving at about 200 kilometres per second. so as to collect and analyses particles and

measures the fields it is going to be moving through in this close region very, very quickly, the whole mission is one of extremes. but it should be extremely exciting to actually be in the atmosphere of the sun, where all this energy is present and this wind is generated. the sun of course gives us life here on planet earth, and is absolutely vital. what will it be looking at other things, other stars or anything else around the sun? —— at mac will it. it will pass by venus seven times. that is necessary to get enough speed to go as close as it can to the sun. it is paradoxical to think about, but you cannot actually just fall into to think about, but you cannot actuallyjust fall into the sun. you have to lose all of the earth's orbital speed to do that, and that is what the fly buys a venus will accomplish. the real star of the show is the sun. by making these

measurements very close to the sun, not only will we understand how this wind is generated, and flares and coronal ejections occur, but we will understand better the environment of planets around other stars, planets that live very close to their own sons. briefly, if you could, it seems to be a very tight turnaround they are setting to get this thing off the ground ? they are setting to get this thing off the ground? this mission has been under development now for more than five years. it was conceived of 60 years ago in a national academy ‘s report in 1958. so the mission is well underdevelopment now and we look forward to a launch in one year. thank you. my pleasure. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. heavy fighting has continued in the southern philippine city of marawi, despite claims by the army that it was in the final stages of the battle to dislodge islamist insurgents. the military is now calling on the remaining maute rebels

to surrender orface being killed. the army has been firing rockets at the rebels from military helicopters. people who live along the coast in bangladesh are beginning to return home after the authorities in the country downgraded tropical cyclone mora. but the storm has left widespread destruction. six people are dead, and more than 50,000 homes have been destroyed. the singer and actress olivia newton—john has revealed she has breast cancer for a second time, 25 years after recovering from her original diagnosis. ms newton—john, who was born in britain and raised in australia, shot to fame in the 1978 movie adaptation of the musical grease. she has postponed upcoming tour dates in the us and canada while she undergoes treatment. have you ever wondered what it would be like to step inside a painting?

well, now you can. a new digital painting app enables artists to create works in virtual reality. jane 0'brien experience has been to experience the fourth dimension and take a tour inside some of the creations. pushing the boundaries of drawing is something this person does daily. perhaps entering another dimension altogether was not that much of a stretch. i am just sort of following the line within the space. this is one of google's artist in residency working with the company's virtual reality painting app. it is really about inviting someone into a room that used to only exist in your head. the spectator really is a part of the piece in a way that visual art has been trying to do, but not as entirely as she can in this inhabited reality. for bradley theodore,

virtual reality is a bridge between him and the public. he usually produces his colourful skeleton portraits in more traditional acrylic paint but he says virtual reality helps share the creative process itself. when you are painting, you're in a different dimension and a lot of people wonder what that feels like. what you are thinking. this gives a person the ability to kind of step inside what you are creating and how you felt at that particular moment. what is it like to step inside one of bradley's skeletons? now i am in the skull. and i am seeing through his eyes, what can i see? putting on the mask is isolating and slightly claustrophobic, but it also creates an intimacy with the artwork you do not get in a gallery. this is extraordinary, i am glad he painted a pretty skeleton, i do not know what i would feel like if it was menacing. some experts say entering virtual reality is like forming a memory,

which raises the question, is this art at all or is itjust a clever bit of trickery? yes! now we are talking! you have a set of tools like a painter or sculptor or dancer and you can manipulate those tools. the creative idea is fully realised in vr as it is in the real world. and for those who crave the shared experience like a gallery for instance, google hasjust launched a social platform where users can upload their creations and others can even alter them. it really is another world. stargazers have been treated to a spectacular show as the southern lights swept across australia and new zealand. 0nlookers were treated to a stellar display on sunday when the phenomena appeared above tasmania and new zealand's south island. sarah corker has the story. pulsing beams of light danced across

the skies over the tiger eyre peninsula in southern new zealand. —— 0tago peninsula. known as the aurora australis or the southern lights, this spectacular display transformed the horizon for hours on the weekend. 0ne astronomer captured this time lapse over the city of dunedin. lots of material from the sun which basically interacted with the earth's sun which basically interacted with the ea rth‘s magnetic sun which basically interacted with the earth's magnetic field was making atmosphere glow. the global is very bright, so the material must have been quite dense. probably three, four, five hours on sunday night here in new zealand, we got the most astounding view of the southern lights, it was so bright you could see the cities. seeing the beams of light moving across the sky, it was absolutely mesmerising. the displays are most visible near

the poles. they are created when solar wind and magnetic fields are thrown into space by the sun, colliding with the earth's magnetic fields. though aurora australis may be lesser known than its northern sibling, aurora borealis, interest is growing. you can actually see these lights from new zealand pretty often. some of the displays we get down here rival those in the northern hemisphere. we are quite pleased that we are in this little corner of the earth where we get these amazing displays and nobody knows about it. this was the view from tasmania at sunset. clear skies meant the displays were much brighter than usual. delighting sta rgazers brighter than usual. delighting sta rgaze rs a cross brighter than usual. delighting stargazers across australia and new zealand. truly spectacular, and are very lucky that of course they didn't have any clout that smart. stay with us for the headlines. this is bbc news. good morning.

we start with a quick look back at what happened yesterday. this weather front made its way southwards and eastwards across the uk. it brought in some heavy rain to the north and west of the uk. as it went southwards, the rain fizzled out and allowed fresh air to follow in its wake. fresh air continues to creep southwards overnight. not quite getting to the southernmost counties, but we see cloud which is low round the coast. along with clear skies, major towns and cities clear, rural spots chilly and not as warm as it has been further south. it begins with cloud breaking up into the afternoon, some showers and the further north you are, it should be a nice day with light winds and plenty of sunshine. it will feel pleasant and into the afternoon, in south—west england along the coast, 15 or 16 degrees. further inland, it is in the low 20s.

15 or 16 degrees, up to 23 in london. the chance of the odd shower, but most places will avoid them and have a decent day. good spells of sunshine across much of northern england. northern ireland may see more cloud, but in scotland we have a pleasant day with sunshine, 18 degrees in glasgow and inverness. through the evening, any showers we see will fade away. low cloud may become extensive in southern and western coastal counties. this weather front is creeping into the north—west and by dawn on thursday, nowhere near as chilly as the northern half of the uk, 14 degrees to start the day on thursday in glasgow. this weather front heads our way. a fair number of isobars associated. tied in with this area of low pressure for iceland. southerly winds bringing in warmerair. in eastern areas in particular. thursday sees temperatures on the rise again. temperatures in the south—east at 25 degrees, 20 degrees widely, decent for most that there's rain in western scotland and northern ireland. into friday, this rain gets into northern england. it affects parts of wales but ahead

of that, it will be another warm day, warm enough to spark thunderstorms but again, fresh air behind this weather front, and into the weekend. a weekend of sunny spells and scattered showers. westerly winds bringing a fresh feel to all parts. this is bbc news, the headlines: the united states has completed its first successful test of a system to shoot down intercontinental missiles. earlier this week, north korea carried out its ninth ballistic missile test this year. the us military say the operation is a critical milestone. us singer ariana grande has announced she'll return to manchester to hold a benefit concert for the victims of last week's bombing. she'll be joined by other pop acts such as coldplay, katy perry and pharrell williams.

proceeds will go to the we love manchester emergency fund. the man accused of murdering two men and wounding a third on a train in the us state of oregon last week, has appeared in court shouting death to the enemies of america. the victims were reportedly trying to protect two young women from anti—muslim abuse. he is due to appear in court again next month. now on bbc news, hardtalk.