this is bbc world news today. i'm alpa patel. our top stories: donald trump insists he has the authority to issue pardons for wrongdoing — amid reports he is considering pardoning members of his inner circle. london's great ormond street hospital says their staff have received death threats and online abuse in relation to the charlie gard case. the east—west split within the european union grows over poland's controversial newjudicial reforms. tonight there are more protests in warsaw. we report on how the italian government is trying to disperse migrants among towns and villages across the country; but some locals are not happy. and chris froome looks all but certain to win this year's tour de france. hello and welcome to world news today.

president trump has insisted he has complete power to pardon people. it comes amid reports that he's been looking at ways of pardoning himself, and his family, should investigators conclude there was collusion with russia during the election campaign. next week, his eldest son and his son—in—law are due to testify before congress. but there was no mention of the controversy — when the president spoke at a naval ceremony in virginia. from washington, laura bicker reports. donald trump is gearing up for what could be one of his biggest battles. he's clearing the decks to try to fight off claims the kremlin helped him win the white house. his core message has become engulfed by the many investigations — as he launched a new aircraft

carrier in virginia, he gave the kind of sales pitch he'd prefer americans to hear. american steel and american hands have constructed a 100,000 tonne message to the world. american might is second to none. donald trump is reshaping and upgrading his team just as the scope of the investigation into russian meddling in the us election widens to include his finances. and that has infuriated the president. the focus of the enquiry is also no longer outside the white house gates, it's focusing on his inner circle, his own family, who will give evidence to congress later this week. mr trump's son—in—law, jared kushner, is one of his closest advisers. seen so often at his side, but rarely heard. he has done some talking, though, to russians during the campaign. he'll be asked about that in congress on monday. donald trumer is also in discussions about testifying

after it was revealed he met with a russian lawyer, who'd offered incriminating information about hillary clinton during the campaign. white house spokesman sean spicer often struggled to convey the president's message, amidst a barrage of questions about russia. if the president puts russian salad dressing on his salad tonight, somehow that's a russian connection. he's now saying farewell, making way for a new face, the slick wall street financier anthony scaramucci. ijust think it was in the best interest of our communications department, or of our press organisation, to not have too many cooks in the kitchen. donald trump relishes a good fight. he's described the enquiries into his campaign's links with russia as a witchhunt, a hoax. he's getting combat ready, just in case investigators do not agree with him. laura bicker, bbc news, washington. and we'll be speaking to laura live from washington a little

later in this programme. the london hospital treating the terminally ill baby — charlie gard says its staff are being subjected to intimidation and even death threats. all this as a court case continues over whether to withdraw life support for the baby. the hospital's chairman — mary macleod said that charlie's case is a heartbreaking one. and she understands emotions are running high. but she said that there is no excuse for such behaviour. in a statement she said "in recent weeks — the great 0rmand street hospital community has been subjected to a shocking and disgraceful tide of hostility and disturbance." "staff have received abuse both in the street and online. thousands of abusive messages have been sent to doctors." she went on to say "many of these messages are menacing, including death threats. we in close contact with the metropolitan police".

laura trant has been following the case. we know that charlie gard is 11 months old, he is terminally ill, he has a rare genetic condition and has brain damage. he is currently subject of an intense legal battle between his parents and the medics over how exactly he should be treated. the hospital does say of course, they know this is heartbreaking. but they recognise the sympathy that people do feel for him and for his parents. in recent weeks, the level of abuse directed at the doctors and nurses at the hospital is just not something they can tolerate any more. they referred to it being disgraceful, and the fact it has had an impact on other parents are seriously unwell children who are being treated they say they recognise emotions are running high that there can be no excuse for patients and families to have their privacy and their and their peace disturbed in this way.

they also referred to the fact that they are in contact with the metropolitan police and will hold anybody to account who behaves in what they term a deplorable way. this does echo interestingly the words of mrjustice francis, who yesterday at the high court at the procedural hearing urged any campaigners and protesters who were outside the hospital to respect the needs and wishes of those children who are being treated and their parents. the parents of charlie gard, connie yates and chris gard, have responded in a statement made via a spokesman. they say "we don't condone abusive or threatening behaviour to gosh staff or anybody in connection with our son" "we too get abuse and have to endure nasty and hurtful remarks on a daily basis". "people have different opinions and we accept that but there is a line that shouldn't be crossed." let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news... israel has indicated that it is willing to consider

alternatives to the highly controversial metal detectors that it has installed at the holy site injerusalem. it follows several days of protests in which three israelis and four palestinians have died. the metal detectors were put in place after two israeli policemen were killed on the site, known to muslims as haram al—sharif and to dues as the temple mount. and tojews as the temple mount. congress in the philippines has voted to extend martial law on the southern island of mindanao, where the military is battling extremist fighters. politicians overwhelmingly backed the president's request to extend army rule until the end of this year. the armed forces have been battling islamist fighters in the southern city of marawi for the past seven weeks. a german prosecutor has confirmed a 16—year—old german girl, suspected ofjoining islamic state in iraq, was arrested last week. the teenager, simply known as linda w, was arrested in mosul. the german magazine der spiegel is reporting that she was captured

along with three other suspected isis brides in a tunnel, where weapons and explosive belts were discovered. let's move to poland — where the conservative government has dismissed criticism that a law reforming the supreme court would undermine the independence of the judiciary. protests are taking place now in the capital, warsaw. the new law, gives the polish government the right to replace supreme courtjudges, now needs presidential approval. well, hungary's prime minister viktor 0rban has also weighed in. he says he will use all legal options — to support poland — if the european union attempted to penalise them. here's what he had to say. translation: concerning the polish judicial reform, here we face case

of double standards. the polish did not do anything. they did not change anything on theirjustice system that does not fit the mutually accepted and shared the spoils and ideas of the european union. this is unfair. and just on principle. this is what the principles are doing today. that's why an honourable person not only because real hungarians, but because we are honourable people, cannot accept something like this. in these kinds of cases, one should always stand by the side of the attacked. so i send my word to mr scholz, we stand with poland in solidarity. let's get more we can speak to kataryna volczuk — she is the deputy director for russia and east european studies at birmingham university. thank you for being with us. how significant is it that victor aubin is siding with the polish government on this? it is not surprising at

all, but hungary has been rather smug about not going against the eu very openly, despite the problem with the rule of law and the problem with the rule of law and the problem with democracy in hungary. now because of poland, he is adopting an anti—rhetoric position. because of poland, he is adopting an anti-rhetoric position. how significant is it that this law has passed the senate, is poland now on a collision course with the eu? it's difficult to see how the eu would not respond. if it was just one bill, one law, that would be understandable. perhaps things were not considered properly. but what we see rushing through parliament and the houses is a packet of bills which basically subordinates the court system from the very top of the supreme court, to the ruling party, at parliament and the minister ofjustice. from party, at parliament and the minister of justice. from that party, at parliament and the minister ofjustice. from that point of view, poland has been playing with a various aspects of democracy,

in end the eu has been trying to intervene. but what has happened in the last week and especially in the last couple of days, concerns have been raised about the way poland is going, to the extent it is actually difficult for the eu not to act one way or another. european commission ‘s vice president has threatened to withdraw poland ‘s voting rights, is that possible without hungary's support? it would be very difficult. that support was actually requiring anonymity in the european council and hungary has, within hours of the vote, already this morning pledged support to poland. having said that, this is article seven of the treaty of the european union, with that article the eu is in charge of democracy. it has not been used actually, is the procedures are to be developed. the eu is the

community of space united by law. but there are created ways in which the eu could actually develop their way to discipline poland one way or another. thank you. stay with us, still to come we will have all the sport and chris froome is all but certain to win the tour de france. this is bbc world news today. the latest headlines: president trump has asserted his absolute power of pardon, amid reports that he has been looking at ways of pardoning himself and his family, should the findings of a special investigation go against him. london's great ormond street hospital says their staff have

received death threats and online abuse in relation to the charlie gard case. this year, more than 80 thousand migrants have landed in italy — a i6% rise over the same period last year. over the last four years, the country has received 600,000 migrants, a figure which is causing rising anger. the government is aiming to disperse migrants across the country — but some smaller communities are resisting. 0ur correspondent james reynolds reports from sicily. the town council has cold an emergency public meeting. the states has ordered this town to take in around 20 migrants. i want guarantees, says this retired teacher, they need medical and criminal checks. they were already

checked when they landed, argues another. i don't think they will damage our country. the next morning, the regions mayers get together to oppose the plans to take in so many migrants. they have come to the regional capital of the cena to the regional capital of the cena to persuade the government to reconsider. wearing a tie may help. the italian government is struggling to find a solution that works. it wa nts to to find a solution that works. it wants to scatter migrants as soon as they land here in big ports, but that just shuffles the they land here in big ports, but thatjust shuffles the problem from built—up areas to the depths of the countryside. the semiderelict kangaroo hotel in the small town here is now home to 50 migrants. six times the number the government recommends for a town this size. translation: it's not good, it's not good because these here have not been checked by a doctor. we do not know who they are, it's no good. the

town ‘s mayor of returns with news ofa town ‘s mayor of returns with news of a victory. the state has agreed that half the new arrivals will go back to messina. translation: that half the new arrivals will go back to messina. translationzlj certainly don't want to become their hero. they need someone else to defend them. our town is too small. at nights, amid cheers from volunteers, migrants are escorted out. they barely know where they are going. i was told i'm going to messina. do you know where that is? no sir. italy's relocation plan, improvised and haphazard, has to start again. james reynolds, bbc news, sicily. returning to our main story, that president trump has asserted his complete power to pardon people. laura bickerjoins me from washington. what has been the reaction to this

statement that donald trump has made that he can pardon people? many legal experts have come forward this afternoon, saying no, it's not constitutionally legal for him to pardon himself. it would not work. however, when it comes to donald trump, ithink however, when it comes to donald trump, i think this is one tweet that we have to take into a little bit of context. early in the week, there was a story in the washington post and the new york times which suggested he had been asking about whether or not he does have the power to pardon. when it came to that question, he was asking around, that question, he was asking around, that was just according to white house aides talking to the new york times and washington post. this morning he tweets on the back of all about, saying when it comes to the power of pardoning, everyone agrees ido power of pardoning, everyone agrees i do have it. this is a bit of the showman coming out, playing to his best. and it was part of a massive twitter storm. with subjects ranging

from 0bama cared to his former rival hillary clinton. it needs to be taken into some context. i'm not quite sure whether or not the president was entirely being serious when he said, he would pardon himself. laura, this is all in the run—up to another extraordinary week in washington where we are expecting donald trump's sun and son—in—law to be questioned by congress. give us an idea of what is going to happen. when it comes to the enquiry into whether or not russia modelled in the us presidential election, this week could be crucial. jared kushner, the president's son—in—law has an very active with the president, very active behind the scenes, he has been seen a lot, but not really heard. we will not get to hear his testimony in public, but he will be talking to members of congress about his contacts with russia, which came to light. when it comes to his son, donald trump

junior, the questions will be about his meeting with a russian lawyer, to get dirt on hillary clinton. those revelations. there may be a lot to come this week. thank you. a small digital company in london, is developing a system which uses cameras to accurately recognise human faces. the idea is that it'll help keep tabs on terror suspects. the technology is already being trialled. asad ahmed reports. the leader of the london bridge rampage last month, on the radar as a known extremist, but not someone considered to be a priority. mi5 say there are 23,000 people on britain's terror watch list, but now a company, digital barriers in suffolk has developed a system which uses artificial intelligence techniques to identify suspects using fixed

surveillance cameras. we here is to say that record what we see here is someone on our say that record what we see here is someone on our list, picked up by our surveillance cameras. what we see now is the identity of a person coming through a doorway, and that alert will go to the right place. this could be one of many thousands of such cameras in use every day of the week looking for people against that database. the conditions down there are extremely difficult, but they are proceeding as quickly as they are proceeding as quickly as they can... antony trotter was the deputy of the police transport police at the time of the london bombings in 2005. he has no doubt that using the latest technology and intelligence gathering is essential. the dreadful events of the last few weeks should stick in our minds forever. they should not fade away. we have to be vigilant all the time, and must not let our guard down. we must use the latest technology to ta ke must use the latest technology to take that fight to the terrorists. but the balance between intruding in

our lives and security is one which is being seriously questioned. we need to interrogate whether we are willing for something that can be very invasive, that can have a real impact on innocent people's freedoms every day, whether we are willing to have that installed in our society. even the developers except that advanced facial recognition will never replace conventional intelligence gathering. but its use, if the public accepts it, opens up a whole new area in surveillance. time for the sport. let's start with the open championship and the americanjordan spieth will go into sunday's final day with a three shot lead. spieth carded a second bogey free round of 65 at royal birkdale, he's 11 under par for the tournament. that's three shots ahead of his fellow american matt kuchar. but the round of the day came from south africa's branden grace — he carded a 62, the lowest ever

round in a men's major. grace took advantage of the ideal conditions on day three to move from four over par to four under. but his achievement took him by surprise.. i had no idea. both of them said congratulations, i knew it was a great round but i didn't know it was the history books. then they said, you're in the history books now, i said what you talking about? they said what you talking about? they said lowest round ever. that was great, makes it even more special. makes it even better doing it at the british open, at the open. this is my eighth one, it's definitely one i am liking far. so let's take a quick look at the leaderboard now and as we mentioned, jordan spieth leads the way. also in with a shout is the young canadian, austin connelly, he's on five under, six shots behind spieth. defending champion henrik stenson is eight shots off the pace while rory mcilroy is nine shots behind on two under par. britain's chris froome is all but certain of securing his third straight tour de france title — and fourth in all — when the race concludes

in paris on sunday. remarkably, he'll take the yellow jersey without having won a stage. he had to settle for third place in saturday's time trial in marseille — a stage which was won by poland's maciej bodnar. but crucially froome extended his race lead to sa seconds over rigoberto uran, with romain bardet now third. sunday's final stage is, by tradition a procession, with froome being crowned champion on the champs—elysees. coming into the stadium with romain just ahead of me, knowing if i had navigated the last two corners correctly, that would be it for this year's tour de france battle. there have been ups and downs over the past three weeks but i think it has been very much a grand tour, in the sense it has been really about the three weeks, and doing this three weeks, in the most conservative but efficient manner. it wasn't about one single stage.

that's what grand tour racing is. on to football, where france are taking on austria at the women's european championship in the netherlands. we're into the second round of group games. an impressive low drive from lisa makas gave austria the lead. but france equalised through armandine henry after the break. so 1—1 the latest score, with 15 minutes left to play. earlier, switzerland beat iceland 2—i. monaco say they've agreed a fee with manchester city for benjamin mendy — which would take their spending on two full—backs this summer to more than 120 million dollars. the left—back will cost city around half that amount. and he'd be their second signing from monaco, following bernardo silva from the club that knocked them out of the champions league last season. well the new english premier league season starts in less than a month's time.

and champions chelsea have put down a marker. michy batshuyai scored twice in their 3—0 win over london rivals, arsenal, in a preseason friendly at the bird's nest stadium in beijing. that's all sport for now... thank you very much. don't forget there is plenty more on our website, and you can get in touch with me on twitter. that's it from me and the team. goodbye for now. after a day of hefty downpours, most of them will gradually fade

overnight, but there will still be either a few shout was awesome outbreaks of rain affecting parts of eastern scotland and then went well into the night. elsewhere it will be dry, clear, cool too. temperatures around ten to 13. when it was clear after the showers, there could be a few fog patches developing, lasting too long into the morning but a fairly promising start tomorrow with some sunshine around. the showers get going, scattered about, some will avoid them. catch one in the afternoon, could be heavy or thundery, especially across the north and east. also an area of rain across south—west scotland, one or two showers into northern ireland, quite cool when the showers moved through. sunday evening looks like this. an area brain into scotland, north—east england, showers fading elsewhere. still some rain. quite like though. elsewhere, some warm sunny spells. this year marks the 20th anniversary of the handover of hong kong to china. since 1997, the pace of development here has been rapid, as beijing pushes ahead with its transitional "one country,

two systems" formula. a plan that will eventually see hong kong merge economically and politically with the communist mainland in 2047. but environmentalists fear that one of hong kong's most iconic creatures may not survive that long. the pink hong kong dolphin was actually a symbol of the handover of hong kong from british back to chinese rule 20 years ago. but now, their future is under threat. the dolphins' vivid pink colour isn't caused by pigmentation. it happens as blood vessels expand and contract as a result of thermo—regulation. it's a system the dolphins use to control their body temperature. the dolphins are meaning good luck in chinese culture and also they go beyond hong kong border to chinese waters, so it's sort of a unity between hong kong and china back in the handover days. so it's sort of a symbol of unification between hong kong and china. they're also a good luck and energetic symbol. unfortunately, you know, their numbers are in decline.

so it's not such good luck now. figures from hong kong's fisheries and conservation department show that the number of pink dolphins here have crashed from 188 in 2003 to only 65 in 2015. and although nobody is exactly sure how accurate that figure is, there's no doubt that numbers are falling. well, i've been coming to hong kong for around 20 years now and i'm ashamed to say i had no idea there were dolphins