hello. welcome to bbc world news. i'm in singapore. the headlines: president trump's son—in—law jared kushner says he has "nothing to hide" despite meeting russian officials during the us election campaign. idid not i did not collude with russia, nor doi i did not collude with russia, nor do i know of anyone in the campaign who did so. in britain, the parents of terminally—ill baby, charlie gard, give up their legal fight to go to the us for experimental treatment. i'm babita sharma in london. also in the programme: one of the pope's most senior advisors, cardinal george pell, is set to appear in court to face sexual assault charges. and greenland's melting ice fuels fears of catastrophic climate change. we have a special report. only a very small portion of this ice sheet has to melt to raise sea

levels and put people in danger. live from our studios in singapore and london, this is bbc world news. it's newsday. good morning. it's 8am in singapore, iam in london, and 7pm in washington. one of donald trump's most senior advisers, jared kushner, has denied colluding with russia to help his father—in—law win the us presidential election. he made a rare statement before the cameras, after appearing before a senate intelligence committee. his message? there was no collusion between russia and the trump campaign. our north america editor, jon sopel, has the story. jared kushner, the husband of ivanka, the son—in—law of the president, and the closest confidante of donald trump to find himself in the cross hairs of the sprawling russia investigation. mr kushner!

a man who's normally found studiously avoiding the limelight today found himself uncomfortably the centre of attention. after giving evidence to the senate intelligence committee behind closed doors, he returned to the white house to insist he'd done nothing wrong. i did not collude with russia, nor do i know of anyone else in the campaign who did so. i had no improper contacts. i have not relied on russian funds for my businesses. and i have been fully transparent in providing all requested information. so what were the contacts? in april 20 16th krishna meet russian ambassador sergey kislyak, apparently no more than a handshake and passing small talk. krishna denies two for phone calls took place after this.

onjune ninth, 2016, krishna joins donald trump junior and campaign manager to hear from a russian attorney who has alleged links to the intel services in moscow. subject matter: getting dirt on hillary clinton. after the election he meets the russian ambassador again on december the ist and two weeks later he meets a russian banker, sergei gorkov, said to have direct links to vladimir putin. but of one thing he was insistent. these meetings made zero difference to the outcome of the election. donald trump had a better message and ran a smarter campaign. and that is why he won. suggesting otherwise ridicules those who voted for him. but today, as donald trump was framed by over 100 white house interns, he was doing some ridiculing of his own, as reporters sought to ask disobliging questions. is it true jeff sessions resigned? first by saying nothing... ..and then by letting rip.

she's breaking the code. he found it similarly difficult to keep his opinions to himself over russia. jon sopel, bbc news, washington. our other top story: at least four activists in southern china have been detained by police after publicly commemorating the death of the dissident and nobel laureate, liu xiaobo. the seaside memorial, which took place on i9july, was part of a widely shared international campaign on social media mourning the dissident‘s death. the four were all members of an informal organisation called freedom action group, an ngo that developed to update the world on what happened to update the world on what happened to the then nobel prize winner who died two weeks ago in a northern city, seven days after his death the

group organised a global social media campaign to remember him. they encouraged people around the world to post to facebook twitter, instagram, with a hashtag. they gathered in the province on wednesday night by the beach because mr liu was cremated and his ashes scattered into the sea. they had an evening vigil, throwing flowers and other items into the sea. photos of this was widely shared on line and a hong kong tv station actually did a facebook live. it was a high—profile vigil. and a few days later on saturday morning, four of the activists were detained by police, and a fifth activist is believed to

be missing, believed to be detained as well. and a few others are currently on the run from the authorities as well. also making news today: the us special representative for ukraine says washington is actively considering whether to arm the government in its struggle against russian—backed rebels in the east of the country. kurt volker said arming ukrainian government forces could change moscow's political calculation about how much the rebels could achieve through military means. china's anti—corru ption authorities have announced that the former communist party secretary of a major metropolis, chongqing, is under investigation for serious violations of discipline. sun zhengcai was abruptly removed from his post last week. a suicide bomb attack in the afghan capital kabul has killed 35 people and left 50 more injured. the taliban has claimed responsibility for the blast, which destroyed a bus carrying government officials. kabul has seen a number of deadly attacks this year blamed on the taliban or so—called islamic state. israel says its to remove metal

detectors from the disputed holy site injerusalem. the un's middle east envoy has warned of catastrophic costs if the recent tensions didn't ease in time for friday's muslim prayers. the detectors were installed after two policemen were killed, sparking days of deadly clashes. not a good day for beliebers. the pop star, justin bieber, has cancelled the rest of his current world tour due to what his publicist called "unforeseen circumstances. " the 23—year—old canadian superstar was due to resume his "purpose" tour on thursday with 15 shows across north america and asia. japan's prime minister, shinzo abe, is facing an uphill struggle amid plummeting ratings and a growing lack of confidence

in his leadership. the latest public opinion polls suggest support has dropped to less than 30%. this week he is facing a tough grilling in both houses of parliament over claims he exploited his political power to help a long—time friend. his reputation is being tarnished by a couple of different scandals, wind early in the year about a school being constructed outside of osaka. —— one. a piece of land was sold for about $1 million us, it should have been $8 million us. there were allegations that the prime minister's offers was directly involved. —— office. more recently, a second alleged scandal has come to light also connected to the office of the prime minister, alleging that an old school friend of him got permission to add a vet school to his private university after the office of the prime minister directly intervened to get the approval process moved. it was the

first vet school to be approved in japan in 50 years. these together have eroded public confidence in the prime minister massively. we are seeing a collapse in public opinion of him and ratings. a mainichi shinbun poll most recently said just 26% of japanese people approve of prime minister shinzo abe. it's a heartbreaking case which has made headlines around the world, but now, the parents of the terminally—ill british baby, charlie gard, have ended their legal battle to take him to the us for experimental treatment. in an emotional statement, charlie's father said they're going to spend their last precious moments with their son. here's our medical correspondent, fergus walsh. the fight over charlie gard's future is over. this desperately sick little boy will now be allowed to die. justice for charlie! after a hugely emotional hearing,

where his parents said they had agreed to let their son go, they emerged to face the world's media. our son is an absolute warrior and we could not be prouder of him and we will miss him terribly. his body, heart, and soul may soon be gone, but his spirit will live on for eternity and he will make a difference to people's lives for years to come. we will make sure of that. we are now going to spend our last precious moments with our son, charlie, who unfortunately will not make his first birthday in just under two weeks‘ time. charlie has been in great ormond street hospital since october. he has a serious inherited condition, mitochondrial depletion syndrome. he cannot move, feed or breathe unaided. the central question in this case was whether this powder, nucleoside therapy,

which is added to food, could boost his muscle function. his parents raised £1.3 million for the treatment in the united states. that money will now go to a foundation in charlie's name. but great ormond street, backed by many independent experts, said the treatment was futile because charlie had suffered catastrophic and irreversible brain damage. because charlie's parents and doctors could not agree, the matter went to the high court. in april, thejudge ruled that charlie's suffering should end. his life support be withdrawn. every legal appeal brought by charlie's parents failed. then came interventions from the pope and donald trump, the latter tweeting an offer of help. and this has been an extraordinary case, a battle over the fate of a baby boy that was fought out notjust here, in court, but internationally.

the judge said it was one of the pitfalls of social media that the watching world felt it right to have opinions without knowing the facts of the case. he said the court's paramount consideration had been charlie's best interest at all times. the case came back to court when american neurologist, dr michio hirano, claimed new evidence showed his nucleoside therapy could help charlie and last week he flew over to examine him. new mri body scans were ordered. on friday, charlie's parents accepted that these showed his muscle wasting was now so severe he was beyond help. it's an incredibly brave decision by charlie's parents, they have thought for themselves what the new evidence shows and they have reached a conclusion, probably the judge would have reached the same. it is very brave of them to do it without waiting to hear what he had to say. in court, connie yates said

they would be haunted for the rest of their lives by what—ifs. what if their son had received the treatment months earlier? she said he had the potential to be a normal boy but it was now too late. for charlie, we say "mummy and daddy, we love you so much." "we always have and we always will and we are so sorry that we could not save you." the parents are now with charlie in his final hours. great ormond street said the agony, desolation and bravery of their decision humbled all who worked there. fergus walsh with that report. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme: greenland's ice sheet could be melting faster than predicted. we travel to one of the world's most remote regions to see the impact. also coming up: a bollywood romance with a serious message about sanitation. we meet the cast of toilet. mission control: you can see them coming down the ladder now.

it's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. a catastrophic engine fire is being blamed tonight for the first crash in the 30 year history of concorde, the world's only supersonic airliner. it was one of the most vivid symbols of the violence and hatred that tore apart the state of yugoslavia. but now, a decade later, it's been painstakingly rebuilt and opens again today. there's been a 50% decrease in sperm quantity and an increase in malfunction of sperm unable to swim properly. thousands of households across the country are suspiciously quiet this lunchtime as children bury their noses in the final instalment of harry potter. welcome back to news

—— newsday on the bbc. i'm sharanjit leyl in singapore. i'm babita sharma in london. our top stories: president trump's son—in—law jared kushner insists he didn't collude with russia during the us election campaign. the parents of terminally—ill baby charlie gard have given up their legal fight to go to the us for experimental treatment. let's take a look at some front pages from around the world. let's start with the business times. the paper points out that the world economy is improving at its strongest rate in a decade. the update comes from the international monetary fund which says the economy is gaining momentum. moving onto the south china morning post, it's reporting on the heatwave that has hit much of mainland china.

it shows tourists with flotation rings coolng off in a lake known as the "dead sea of china" in sichuan as temperatures reached as high as 39 degrees celsius. and, finally, the japan times leads on the japanese prime minister, who is currently being questioned over claims he exploited his political power to help a long—time friend. we were reporting on that earlier. the paper discusses how shinzo abe is facing a losing battle with voters. and that brings you up to date with all the papers. one of the pope's most senior advisors is due to appear in a court in australia, to face charges of sexual assault. cardinal george pell has returned from rome saying that he is innocent, and will clear his name. as our sydney correspondent hywel griffith explains, the case is the latest controversy to hit the catholic church in australia.

in george pell's hometown, people have become used to confronting the past, and dealing with the spectre of abuse. ribbons mark the places in ballarat where members of the christian brothers order sexually assaulted children in the 1970s. dozens ended their lives prematurely. phil nagle was abused as an 8—year—old, and it took more than 20 years for his abuser to be brought tojustice. he still feels the catholic church has not defended the suffering of the victims. they are backing the criminal man. they make it as hard as they possibly can. they don't back the victims at all. cardinal pell was brought up in ballarat and became famous as an archbishop. it was his responsibility to deal with the allegations of abuse against his bretheren.

now, he is the one accused of sexual assault, allegations he has strongly refuted. as they wait for the legal process to unfold, there is a feeling here in ballarat that people need answers. the charges against cardinal pell won't be made public until his first court hearing. a moment which is likely to put the spotlight back on this town. those who work with abuse survivors say every headline has an impact. coverage over the last few years has already caused more people to seek help. it was really difficult, because it was exhausting. it became relentless. you couldn't get away from it. it would be in the local papers, it would be on the local news and the wider news. across australia, nearly 2000 figures from the catholic church have been accused of abuse. a four—year royal commission

enquiry has helped to break the silence. it has also made the head of ballarat‘s catholic college speak out, giving a formal apology to the victims and striking the names of convicted abusers from its walls. there's no question that as a church we have an enormous amount of work to do within the wider community and the catholic community. the only way to do that is to come to the table and say that we acknowledge this openly, we are so very sorry. that can only happen when people here feel they have found the truth. they hope that is what the courts can deliver. hywel griffith, bbc news, ballarat. the greenland ice sheet may be melting faster than expected, raising ocean levels more than predicted. and what happens in greenland could affect millions of people in low—lying areas across the world. our science editor david shukman has this exclusive report. a vivid blue snakes across the greenland ice sheets. a beautiful sight, but when the ice

here melts the oceans rise around the world. on the horizon, the ice sheet looms ahead of us. we've joined a team of british scientists. they're trying to understand how the ice is changing. we touch down in one of the remotest corners of the planet. the first task is to set up camp — a home in an utterly barren wilderness. from the air, all you can really see is what looks like a vast expanse of endless white, but that isn't the whole story. because what's hard to grasp as i stand here is that this isjust the surface of a vast mass of ice that's unbelievably thick. so, let's imagine cutting it away right in front of me. the ice sheet stretches for as much as two miles, three kilometres, from the surface here,

right down to the rock below. in fact, it's so thick you could take the world's tallest building, the burj khalifa in dubai, and fit four of them, end to end, inside. and as we walk around, there's a real surprise: white ice is turning dark — and the darker a surface, the more it absorbs the sun's rays. and, like wearing a black t—shirt on a hot day, the more it warms up. you've got this dark ice here. yeah, so we've got a dark surface... martin tranter, the chief scientist here, says one reason for the dark ice is algae, tiny plants. the algae are microscopically small, but they may be having a big impact. what we want to know is how far the algae can spread over the greenland ice sheet as the climate warms. and it might well be that they will cause more melting, and an acceleration of sea—level rise. in the evening light,

the shimmer of gentle streams, thousands of them. until recently, the amount of ice melting in summer was balanced by snowfall in winter. but in the last 20 years the flows of water have multiplied, each one eventually adding to the level of the oceans. no—one‘s saying that this whole thing is going to melt in the next decade, or even in the next hundred, or even the next thousand years, but it doesn't all have to melt for more people to be in danger. only a small amount, a very small portion of this ice sheet has to melt to raise the sea levels, and then threaten millions of people in coastal communities around the world. what's striking is that this massive block of ice may be vulnerable if more algae darken the surface and lead to faster melting. down at the edge of the ice sheet, the streams become a torrent. we already know that meltwater is raising the level of the sea bit by bit, but the researchers here

want to find out whether that rise will accelerate. and for people in low—lying areas of florida, bangladesh, parts of britain, getting an accurate forecast really matters. david shukman, bbc news, in greenland. a new bollywood movie, billed as a love story, is set against the backdrop of prime minister modi's initiative to provide more toilets in india. it's a big issue: half a billion people don't have access to a functioning toilet and women are put at risk of attack because of poor sanitation. shabnam mahmood reports. music playing. song, dance and plenty of laughs but this indian movie also uncovers the taboo subject of open defecation. it is very relevant and people will understand what in this film we are trying to say, in a very commercial manner. i personally feel it is probably the toughest scene i've ever done. ijust could not get myself to pick my sari and squat. i felt violated, i felt humiliated. it was very, very, very disturbing. around 546 million people in india don't have access to a functioning toilet. many women tend to venture out at night, to avoid being seen, which puts them at risk of attack, even rape. the inspiration for the film comes

from the prime minister modi's clean india campaign, of 2014, in which he promised sanitation for millions of households. he has given his backing to the movie. when he became the prime minister, the first thing he started talking to people about, search about it, and that is clean india, so for him this subject is very close. he knew about it and he was very happy about it. but it is notjust about providing the infrastructure, the challenge is to change the mindsets of people. meanwhile, toilet: ek prem katha hopes to get its message across, bollywood style. and before we go, a huge thunderstorm has struck china in the chinese city

of liancheng, in the south east of the country. as you can see, the rain fell very heavily, but only in one very small area. this cctv footage shows the clouds rolling together. even though the storm is raging just a few hundred metres away, the cameras themselves appear to have remained dry. hello there. many of us have had more than ourfair share of wet and cloudy weather of late, but that certainly hasn't been the whole story. monday brought some sunshine for many places. that was the scene across the scottish islands. the sunshine was not shared out equally though. suffolk seeing a lot of cloud. many eastern areas had rather cloudy conditions. out west, in the atlantic, there's another lump of cloud hurtling its way in, that'll bring some rain on the wednesday but for tuesday we are between weather systems and that means actually a fair amount of fine and dry weather in the day ahead.

where it has been so cloudy across eastern england and eastern scotland, that cloud will break up a little bit. there will be more in the way of sunshine. could just see the odd shower breaking up across the south—west and south wales later in the day. in the sunshine, this is problable where we'll have the highest temperatures — 2a, maybe 25 degrees. certainly a little bit less cool than it was on monday, across the south—east and east anglia, because there will be more sunshine. through north wales, northern england, it should be fine, some sunny spells. clouding over a little bit in northern ireland later in the day and maybe a shower for scotland. most places dry, if a little on the chilly side, close to the east coast, 1a degrees in aberdeen. most places will have a fine evening but things then begin to change. into the early hours of wednesday, we'll see quite a band of rain working in across northern ireland, south—west scotland, wales and the south—west, courtesy of an area of low pressure. quite a deep low, actually — this is not a usual weather chart for this point in july. closely squeezed isobars, that means some fairly strong winds and weatherfronts, bringing a band of rain eastwards, across the country.

especially across the northern half of the british isles, this rain will be quite heavy. it will go on for quite a few hours, as well. not as much rain getting across into the south—east. and then for the south—west, wales and northern ireland, later in the day, things will brighten up with some spells of sunshine. those blustery winds making it feel cool. 18—21 degrees. and although the weather front responsible for the main body of the rain will clear away to the east, this area of low pressure is still close by on thursday and that means very strong winds, especially up to the north—west. there'll be some heavy showers here, as well. drier, brighter weather towards the south—east. just 15 degrees in glasgow. maybe 22 in london. we stick with that blustery theme as we head to the end of the week. some spells of sunshine on friday. some showers as well. highs of 17—22 degrees. as we head towards the end of the week, a cooler, fresherfeel. yes, there'll be some spells of sunshine but some heavy blustery showers as well. i'm with bbc news. our top story: president trump's

son—in—law, jared kushner, has denied any collusion with russia in last year's american election. in his first live televised comments in answer to the allegations, mr kushner insisted there had been nothing improper about his contacts with russian representatives. the parents of terminally ill baby charlie gard have ended their legal challenge to take him to the us for experimental treatment. doctors treating him had argued it would only prolong his suffering. and pop starjust bieber is trending on bbc.com. he's cancelled the rest of his purpose world tour because of what his publicist is calling "unforeseen circumstances". the move will affect 1a dates in asia and north america over the next three months. that's all from me for now. stay with bbc news. and the top story here in the uk: the government has announced plans to invest a quarter of a billion pounds in pioneering battery technology.