welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is gavin grey. our top stories: violent clashes as polls close in venezuela's divisive election. the us calls it a step towards a dictatorship. president putin confirms 755 us diplomatic personnel must stop workng in russia — many will be expelled by september the first. us bombers fly over the korean peninsula in response to pyongyang's latest missile test. and british royals lead commemorations to mark 100 years since the start of the battle of passchendaele. first to venezuela where polls have closed in a controversial election

to choose a new parliament which will have the power to rewrite the country's constitution. the day saw several killings and violent clashes. opposition groups boycotted the vote, saying it's another power—grab by president maduro, whom they blame for venezuela's deep economic crisis. the us has called the vote a ‘sham' and the us has called the vote a ‘sham' and are considering imposing sanctions. katie watson reports from caracas. the sense of celebration here made it easy to forget for a moment the dark times venezuela is going through. but for the people waiting to vote, the problems are real. lisbeth told me she's voting for peace for our children and future of the country. antonio said he's here to ensure there is more food and medicine for people. late president hugo chavez looms large in this part of caracas, on the walls it's his face, not president maduro‘s you can see. but mr maduro wants

to continue his legacy. he says a new assembly that could rewrite the constitution is the only way to bring peace to the country. the opposition boycotted the vote today. instead, many came out onto the streets to keep up the pressure against the government. and part of what's known as the resistance, playing his part in the protest movement by blocking roads, because he says he wants a better venezuela. everything that we can find here, we use to protect us, because this is, as i say, it a critical situation. they are shooting us, they are killing people. there are more than 100 people that are dead. as police gathered on the other side of the street barricades, the protesters got ready for another confrontation. people here can't quite understand how such a rich country has got to this point. the political and economic crisis has never been so bad. but the feeling is here it willjust get worse. that much was clear —

just a few metres from here, a police convoy was hit by improvised explosives. the government says the opposition are terrorists. the protesters say they are fighting against a government that is becoming increasingly repressive. from this part of town, the vote was almost irrelevant. people here are worried about politics, about food shortages and spiralling inflation. much of that is stoking the anger. protesters keep building the blockades. the police keep trying to destroy them. divisions here are so deep in venezuela, neither side is backing down. katie watson, bbc news, in caracas. 0tto reich is a former us ambassador to venezuela. he's in washington. president maduro says he needs this

because it is the only way to restore order. the opposition says it isa restore order. the opposition says it is a power grab. it is a power grab. it is an attempt to completely ta ke grab. it is an attempt to completely take over the rest of the national power that is not already in the hands of the central government. the only reason he is doing this is because they lost the election two yea rs because they lost the election two years ago for the assembly and the opposition gained control of the assembly for the first time in many yea rs. assembly for the first time in many years. the government has control the judiciary, years. the government has control thejudiciary, the years. the government has control the judiciary, the legislative branch at they lost it and so president maduro is trying to take over the entire government had control it with absolutely... giving them no freedom. what should the us and other major powers be doing to put pressure on the president?”

hope more than a little bit of pressure. what is happening in venezuela is a self coup. it is taking over the entire government, eliminating the possibility of democracy in that country and, actually, many countries are ready, iam happy actually, many countries are ready, i am happy to hear, the european union, parun, colombia, chile and others have said they will not recognise this sham election. it is com pletely recognise this sham election. it is completely fraudulent and what i have the us will do is cut off the flow of funds to the autocracy that has been running venezuela to the ground for the last 18 years. do you think donald trump will do that in 2017? i would hope so. he said he would on the 17th ofjuly this

month, president trump said that if president majuro went through with this effort to completely turned venezuela into a dictatorship through these fraudulent constituent assembly that the us would impose a swift and heavy economic sanctions. and i would hope that he would. there were fewer protests on the street than some had expected but with the opposition party asking for a boycott and the fear of violence, thatis a boycott and the fear of violence, that is probably not a surprise. not only that, you are right, the fact is president maduro president maduro's armed forces and hired guns, who are just thugs, maduro's armed forces and hired guns, who arejust thugs, ordinary street thugs they have organised into government support battalions, have been killing people. 16 people we re have been killing people. 16 people were killed today. you are right, there were fewer people on the

streets because it is natural self protection. people have really been protesting for 110 days and they have lost about 130 people. they are afraid of this government and for good reason. thank you. you are welcome. president vladimir putin has confirmed that 755 staff from us diplomatic missions are to be expelled from russia by september the first. he added that further sanctions were being considered. the move is retaliatory — coming after us sanctions on russia were overwhelmingly approved by both houses of congress on tuesday. 0ur washington correspondent laura bicker assesses the impact putin's move will have on the us. it will cut the number by half. to put it into context, when president

0bama found out russia had meddled in the presidential election he expeued in the presidential election he expelled 35 diplomats. at the time, vladimir putin did not respond, did not retaliate. he said he wanted to work with the new administration. this has backed a donald trump into a corner. he has a bill ordering new sanctions on russia. russia says it will retaliate even further if that deal is signed. it does not look like fresh start with moscow —— it does look like fresh start is in tatters. laura bicker there. for more we're joined by steve fish — politics professor with the university of california at berkeley. relations between russia and the us lie in tatters. they have been getting worse. this does seem to represent a new law. it is hard to imagine how much lower they can go

although president putin says this will not be the last thing he does. talking about taking other measures which he has not says what so far. 755! that is an awful lot. these things tend to be kind of symbolic but something on this magnitude will have some effect. at the same time, there is something really symbolic about this as well. it is not like the diplomatic staff undermined the us internationally but it will undermined russia. this is ashley gate to have negative indications for russians. the bigger deal is he's trying to express great displeasure with what is happening with the united states. donald trump uses

with the united states. donald trump uses the world largely like he does. —— views. vladimir putin still likes trump that now he sees that donald trump that now he sees that donald trump is no longer in charge of policy towards russia, us congress has taken charge. so he's back to he was before donald trump came along and we will see a kind of renewal of anti—american rhetoric in the russian media during what it was during the 0bama administration. president putin might want a weak president of america but by being so wea k president of america but by being so weak that may not be able to achieve what they want to achieve? exactly right. vladimir putin wants someone who delivers the usa. but the president is so profoundly weak, donald trump, that he is essentially a lame—duck president and he probably will not be around for the

entire term. many people think he will not be around for another year. at the same time, donald trump is doing a good job of doing things vladimir putin wanted him to do. weakening the western alliance, making the us the laughing stock of the world. vladimir putin is giving up the world. vladimir putin is giving up on trumped being able to look control certain areas. well russia isn't the only problem bedevilling president trump. he says he's "very disappointed" with china, for not doing more to stop north korea's weapons programme. his comments came after pyongyang tested its second intercontinental ballistic missile in a month. the north koreans boasted the "entire us mainland" is now within striking distance. from tokyo, here's rupert wingfield—hayes. the unmistakable shape

of an american b—1 bomber, sweeping low over south korea this afternoon. this is president trump's pointed response to north korea's latest missile test. it was accompanied by an equally pointed rant on twitter. "i am very disappointed in china", the president tweeted. "they do nothing for us with north korea, just talk. "we will no longer allow this to continue." china today has been showing off its own military might, in a huge parade overseen by president xijinping. he has condemned north korea's launch, but china is not prepared to bring pyongyang to its knees, even though it probably could. north korea, meanwhile, is making the most of its success. pictures of friday's missile launch are being played over and over. and, once again, kimjong—un is the star of the show.

this latest missile test represents a profound challenge to president donald trump. he put a lot of hope in getting china to rein in pyongyang. he now appears to have accepted that is not going to happen. but the us president has explicitly stated he will not allow north korea to acquire the ability to strike the united states with nuclear weapons. well, that is now very close. the rising tension is making people here increasingly nervous. air raid siren in a village in northern japan, a siren shatters the morning calm. "a missile is heading in this direction", the announcer says. "ta ke cover. " practice drills like this are now happening all along this coast. translation: it's very scary, i don't know where to run to if there is a missile strike. i need practice like today's drill to learn what to do. off the same coast last month,

the most powerful us armada to be seen here in decades. a military strike on north korea may seem unthinkable, but pyongyang and washington are locked in an increasingly dangerous game and there are no good choices for how to end it. rupert wingfield—hayes, bbc news, in tokyo. ceremonies have taken place in belgium to mark the centenary of the battle of passchendaele — one of the bloodiest of the first world war. half a million allied and german soldiers were killed, wounded or went missing injust 3 months of fighting. the duke and duchess of cambridge joined the prime minister, theresa may, as two days of commemorations to mark the start of the battle got underway — as robert hall reports. this is a city that has dedicated itself to remembrance.

the fireman of ypres have sounded the last post in summer and winter as the decades rolled by. around them, carved into the great darch of the menin gate, over 511,000 names, men from every corner of the uk, who travelled across the globe to join the fight, men who disappeared in the cauldron around passchendaele. with the sounding of this bugle call, the 250,000 british and commonwealth soldiers who were killed during the first world war in ypres are remembered. the defence of the city, at such great cost, meant that it became hallowed ground. on this evening in the summer

of 1917, the third battle of ypres had already begun. but early success was swallowed by the rain, weeks of it, which slowed the advance. passchendaele, the final target of the attack, came to symbolise death and misery, in a muddy wasteland where many still lie. pictures filmed soon after the war, from a french airship, captured the destruction left by battles that consumed this landscape. gosh, i didn't think it would be that moving. dorothy and her cousin peter were

here to remember their grandfather. you'll need to take a photo of me. they are among 200 invited guests with personal connections to the battle. that word on there is as close to a body as we are ever going to get for our grandfather. the ethos behind building this was for people to say he is here. and in a way, he's here. but, in a way, he's not here. in flanders fields, the poppies blow between the crosses. in ypres main square, dame helen mirren spoke the words of the war poet john mccrae to try to express the horror he witnessed. the larks scarce heard amid the guns below. i was in the front—line trench at passchendaele. winston churchill wanted the ruins of ypres left as a memorial. tonight, meticulously rebuilt, they told the story of men now gone, their generation may have left us, but this city still marks their passing, still keeps a promise it made all those years ago.

and a century on, a parade marches of the street to the hall were so many now lie. robert hall, bbc news, ypres. stay with us on bbc news. still to come. a pioneering programme in china to bring love and hope to some of the millions of children needing special end of life care. cheering the air space agency nasa has ordered an investigation after confirmation today that astronauts were cleared to fly while drunk.

the last foot patrol in south armargh, once an everyday part in the soldiers' lot, drudgery in danger now no longer after almost four decades. if someone is in a private house, not doing any harm to anyone, i cannot see why people should wander in and say you are doing something wrong. six rare white lion cubs are on the prowl. they have been met with a roar of approval from visitors. they are lovely and sweet. yeah, cute. this is bbc news. the latest headlines. several people have been killed in venezuela in violence surrounding the divisive election for a new assembly to rewrite the constitution. president putin confirms 755 us diplomatic personnel must stop workng in russia.

many will be expelled by september 1st. children in china suffering from terminal illnesses will often receive little or no palliative care. some may even be abandoned by their parents, desperate, but unable to help them. 0ne woman's helping some of those children, in the city of changsha. that's nice. the main difficulties were trying to get people to understand that we were not killing children, that we were not not fighting for them. my name's lyn gould, i'm the co—founder and ceo of butterfly children's hospices. we provide and pioneer palliative care for children. when we first moved to china, to care for adults with blossoming, care for children was virtually non—existent. so we had to start from a very basic level, where there was completely no understanding about what we were trying to do.

culturally, of course, it is considered really bad if you do not fight for your child's life right up until the moment they die. families will feel criticised. so if you talk about palliative care, people immediately think about you giving up whereas, actually, you are not giving up, you are just adding quality, you are adding life to the days that the child might have left. we kept seeing parents who had abandoned their children at the gates of an orphanage, and you realize that families have tried everything within their means to get a cure for that child, or to get help for the child, and it is only after a lot of heartache that they decide they cannot do any more. it is just at the point where a child is the most needy. to see the child and families separated was heartbreaking. what is relatively easy to deal

with is their physical symptoms, what's for difficulties to deal with is the effects of their abandonment, and there's that huge sense of loss, that confusion, that hurt that mummy and daddy aren't there any more. what have i done to deserve that? and so we have to work very hard to teach the staff the importance of touch, the importance of speaking gently, the importance of cuddles, so that we can start to give the child the will to live, the will to eat and even if they can't live a long time, they will know that they are loved, they will know that they've been touched, that they were worthy of somebody loving them. the first time a child

smiles, it's like... you know, we have achieved something really terrific here. when the child has gone, the nannies will wash the body. put them in some beautiful clothes. maybe give them one of their favourite toys, and then just wrap them in a piece of material covered in butterflies. and then...we carry on. lyn gould telling us about the work of the butterfly children's hospices in china. when you think of street art, you probably think of banksy, the mysterious british painter renowned for his politically—charged work. now, a group of polish artists have been inspired to do something similar.

but for their canvas, they have chosen the tiny village of staro zhelezare in bulgaria. the bbc‘s tim allman has more. in this particular part of central bull terrier, and meets politics needs agriculture. —— bulgaria. these polish painters waved banners saying long—lived peasant art. it may be a strange place to do this, but they are thinking big. they have painted the walls of the village with a combination of celebrities, world leaders, and some of the locals. president trump appears to be having a conversation with a cow. queen elizabeth is sharing a bench with a local woman. and even a former president wants to spend a moment or two shooting the breeze. translation: let's imagine barack

0bama translation: let's imagine barack obama or donald trump sitting on a bench with an old lady from this village and talking about something important, about life, about politics. there is a point to all of this. the village has a population of less tha n this. the village has a population of less than 500, a fraction of what it was before the collapse of the soviet union. they hope they can boost the rhythm and help revitalise the area. actually, it is my first time in bulgaria. it is really great. i cannot compare this place to any other around the world that i have been to. some of the locals seem have been to. some of the locals seem impressed, or maybe bemused. either way, the writing, and the arts, is on the wall. tim allman, bbc news. plenty more on the website. thank you for watching. this is bbc world

news. hello there, good morning. with all the energy and the instability in the atmosphere over the past 2a hours, we have seen a lot of heavy and thundery downpours. northern ireland for one has been battered by some storms earlier on, so too across parts of scotland, some fierce looking clouds, here. we've had about a months worth of rain at okehampton, in devon, due to some peninsular showers. now, there will be some more showers over the coming few days. we still have got this ever—present area of low pressure to the north—west of the uk. the closer you are to that, the more showers there will be but gradually, over the next two days, whilst there will be some showers and some sunshine, the showers should become fewer. let's head into the morning, though, and we still have some showers left over from overnight in scotland. quite a cloudy start here. maybe the north—west of england. sunshine and showers into northern ireland. the other side of the pennines, across the midlands, it may well be a bright and sunny start but already a few showers running in to western fringes of wales. perhaps the far south—west of england, towards the coast, this time.

whereas you move towards the south—east and east anglia, those earlier showers will big gone and it will be a bright sunny start. this picture was actually taken yesterday at the oval. good day for martin, there. and if you're going to watch the cricket, it should be exciting and it should be dry, actually, just a very small chance of a shower, not quite as breezy as today. there'll be some sunshine and it will be warm into that sunshine too. for many southern parts of the uk, there will be very few showers around at all. wales, up across the midlands, northern england, catching a few showers running through, not as widespread as we saw yesterday. but there will be some slow—moving heavy thundery downpours across northern ireland and into scotland. maybe some hail as well. 17—18 degrees here, at best 23 towards the south—east of england. tuesday sees some further showers across the uk. but even further north, those showers not as wide spread. one or two heavy ones around but very much hit and miss, again towards the south—east likely

to stay dry with some sunshine. the jetstream is all—importa nt, of course, and normally it is sitting at this time of the year between scotland and iceland but right now it's much, much further south and hence this very unsettled weather. as we head towards the middle part of the week, the jet stream will pick up another area of low pressure, rush it across the atlantic, heading towards the uk. things turning wetter from the south—west, slowly but surely, on wednesday. many areas ahead of that seeing some sunshine, a few showers perhaps in scotland. rain arriving across northern and eastern areas during the evening and on wednesday night. goodbye. this is bbc news, the headlines: in venezuela there have been reports of three fatalities during protests against a controversial election to choose a new parliament. opposition groups boycotted the vote which will give the assembly the power to rewrite the constitution. the us called the reform a ‘sham'. president putin has confirmed that some us diplomatic staff will be expelled and that 755 diplomatic personnel have been asked to stop working in moscow.

he added that further sanctions were being considered. the new measures are in retaliation for proposed new us sanctions on moscow. the united states has stepped up its response to north korea's latest missile launch. two us air force bombers have flown directly over the region. and america's missile defence system in south korea has also been tested. president trump said china is doing nothing for the us on north korea. the scottish government has called for scotch to be defined in uk law in order to protect whisky exports after brexit.