welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. our top stories: police in australia allege that two men accused of planning a terror plot targeted an etihad airways flight. we will be alleging in court that a fully functioning ied was to be placed on that plane on the 15th of july. more pressure on president trump as a grand jury is set up to investigate allegations of russian interference in last in last year's elections. a british computer expert who helped stop a worldwide cyber attack has been arrested by the fbi for alleged links to other malicious software. the torch tower in dubai — is engulfed in flames —— for the second time in two years. and you're never too old to rock and roll. singapore's grandma mary as she prepares for the gig of her life. i'm mary. i'm 81 years old this year

andi i'm mary. i'm 81 years old this year and i put the rock in singapore's national day parade. australian police are saying two men they've charged with terror offences were plotting to bring down a passenger jet. investigators say an improvised device, using military—grade explosives, was due to be smuggled onto an etihad airways flight last month, but the attempt was abandoned before the men reached security. a short time ago i spoke to our correspondent hywel griffith for the latest from sydney. so, the australian federal police in the last one or two hours have given us the full details

of what they allege was one of the most sophisticated plots ever on australian soil. now, they claim this was all directed by the islamic state in syria and that these two men in sydney were sent high—grade military explosives via cargo that allow them to put together an ied that they planned to board with together. that was the first part of the plot. they then accused them of going on to create some kind of chemical attack. earlier we heard from the deputy commissioner of the afp, michael phelan, and he spelt out what the police claim. we will be alleging in court that a fully functioning ied was to be placed on that plane on the 15th ofjuly. there is a little bit of conjecture as to why it didn't go ahead on the 15th. we will certainly be alleging that he didn't get past the putting on the bags onto the plane. so it didn't even get past the check—in. now, there has been some conjecture that relates to the weight. that is one of the components. we are still working through that. one thing that is important to state, though, is it did not get through security.

the deputy commissioner, michael phelan. police also alleging that the men were being directed by a senior is commander? yes, they have not spelt out the exact chain of command, although i think they are alleging that one of the two sydney men is related to a senior is fighter who was then in contact with a controller, as they call it, presumably someone with some form of expertise. now, the police go on to allege that after that first aborted attempt onjuly 15, components of the ied were taken away to try to fashion some kind of poisonous bomb, something that would release hydrogen sulphide, that would be potentially deadly if it were to be released. they say they acted before the suspects got anywhere near completing a device. they say that wasn't at an advanced stage. so those two men who have been judged due to appear in court here in sydney in the list couple of hours.

there is a third man still being detained during the raids. a fourth person was also arrested. he has been released without charge. thank you very much for that. a united nations report says militants from the extremist group, the so—called islamic state, are still committing genocide against the yazidi religious minority. that is the official word used. it's three years since is began its assault on the comunity in northern iraq. the un says about 3,000 yazidi women and girls are still being held, and subjected to beatings and rape. the venezuelan prosecutor's office has asked a court in the capital, caracas, to suspend the inauguration of a new constituent assembly on friday. this is a response to allegations from the head of the company that supplied the voting system used in sunday's election, that results were tampered with. the brazilian football star, neymar, has smashed the world record for a transfer fee. he is now the most expensive player in history.

neymar has signed a five—year contract with the french champions, paris st germain, for $263 million. in the us, the investigation into russian attempts to interfere in last year's presidential election seems to be going deeper, and gathering pace. it's emerged that special counsel robert mueller has convened a grand jury in washington, the first step towards possible criminal charges. grand juries allow prosecutors to subpoena documents, put witnesses under oath and seek indictments. a little earlier president trump addressed a rally of supporters in west virginia, and once more ridiculed any suggestion his campaign team colluded with the kremlin to beat hillary clinton. have you seen any any russians in west virginia, or ohio, or pennsylvania? are there any russians here tonight? any russians? they can't beat us at the voting booths so they're trying to cheat you out of the future, and the future that you want.

they're trying to cheat you out of the leadership you want with a fake story that is demeaning to all of us and, most importantly, demeaning to our country, and demeaning to our constitution. mr trump, in west virginia. his lawyer has said again there is no reason to think the president himself is under investigation. i spoke just now tojonathan turley, professor of public interest law at george washington university. he told me this development does move the whole investigation onto a higher level of risk for the president himself. there's every reason to believe that the president is a target of the investigation. the investigation is clearly on multiple fronts. one of them is indeed an obstruction investigation,

whether there was an attempt to obstruct the russian investigation — that was one headed by former fbi directorjames comey, the man that trump fired. but there's also a more recent front that was opened up with regard to financial transactions. it appears that's more looking into business deals and associations between the trump family and the russians. that's a very bad development for the trumps because they have a massive transnational portfolio, and that could take the law in a lot of different directions. we were recently told that mr mueller hired an expert on fraud and foreign bribery cases. mr trump has said that mueller would cross a red line if he looked into his own financial affairs. does it make it more likely that mr mueller might be sacked, or does it make it harder for the president to get rid of mueller? the great concern in washington, particularly among republicans, is that the president will indeed try to fire robert mueller.

it's a doomsday scenario for the president. it would deepen the crisis and prolong it, and could very well trigger calls for impeachment, but the president has been treating this issue of looking into his finances, as you know, as a red line issue. the red line is clearly being crossed. there are already subpoenas that had been issued on transactional issues with relation to his close aide, general flynn, and he has assembled a team with an obvious there shortly in looking at foreign bribery a team with an obvious specialty in looking at foreign bribery and financial fraud. professor, for those of us not well versed in how the american justice system works, what is the point of empanelling a grand jury? what does a grand jury do? a grand jury is a very powerful tool for prosecutors. it does two things.

firstly, it is an investigatory body, it issues subpoenas to enquire into documents, to find material to be handed over to the government. it also has witnesses who testify under oath in a trial setting. its second function is to issue indictments when they believe there is indeed probable cause of a crime. it's a very powerful tool because you start pulling in these witnesses and putting them under oath. if they say misleading or false things, the prosecutors have a tremendous amount of leverage, suddenly, over that witness to force cooperation. and a leaked report suggests that donald trump applied pressure on the president of mexico to stop saying publicly that his country would never pay for a wall to be built along the us—mexican border. the washington post has published what they say are transcripts of their telephone conversation last january. there was much speculation about

that telephone call last january, which mr trump decried as fake news. donald trump apprently urged president pena nieto to stop publicly saying that he wouldn't pay for a border wall. and he would not want to meet with him. plenty more on all those events in washington, including the russian investigation, on our website: a british computer expert credited with helping to shut down a world—wide cyber attack earlier this year has been arrested by the fbi. marcus hutchins is said to have stopped the wannacry virus from spreading further. it affected thousands of computers in 150 countries. the arrest is not linked to that attack, as james cook reports. marcus hutchins was hailed as a hero for stopping an attack which crippled the nhs and spread to tens of thousands of computers in 150 countries. his arrest is not related to his role in neutralising the so—called wannacry ransomware, which he discussed in this recent bbc interview. i checked the message board — there were maybe 16,

17 reports of different nhs organisations being hit, and that was the point where i decided "my holiday‘s over, i've got to look into this". in the past week, mr hutchins had been in las vegas for the defcon cybersecurity conference. he was apparently arrested at the airport minutes before he was due to fly home. better known as malware tech, his most recent tweets were prescient... we've now obtained a copy of the indictment against marcus hutchins and another unnamed defendant. it reveals they are facing charges in the us state of wisconsin. they're accused of creating and selling a programme to harvest online banking data and credit card details. prosecutors say the arrest here in las vegas came at the end of a two year long investigation. cybersecurity remains a top priority for the fbi, says the special agent in charge.

marcus hutchins may now face his biggest challenge yet in an american courtroom. james cook, bbc news. in the last few hours, firefighters in dubai have brought a blaze under control that engulfed a number of floors of one of the world's largest residential buildings. authorities say they successfully evacuated residents with no reported injuries so far. it's the latest in a series of tower infernos in the country, and second time the same building has been hit by fire. harvey biggs reports. fire engulfs one of the world's tallest residential buildings. floor by floor, flames spread up the side of the torch tower in dubai's upscale marina district as residents flee to the streets. all they can do is watch as firefighters work to bring the blaze under control. witnesses, many of whom filmed the blaze and uploaded images on social media, describe seeing burning debris falling from the building. originally the top of the building

was out of control, and they had that dealt with, and then the centre of the building absolutely caught fire, and you can still see the remnants of that now. dubai authorities say crews successfully managed to evacuate the building with no injuries reported. it's the second time the six—year—old 79—storey skyscraper has been hit by fire. in 2015, 100 apartments were severely damaged when a massive blaze swept through the tower, and it's the latest in a series of high—rise fires in dubai in recent years, including inferno at the address downtown hotel that broke out on new year's eve in 2015. at the time, onlookers said the blaze tore up the side of the building in a matter of seconds. luckily no one was killed. many of dubai's tower fires have

been blamed on the aluminium composite cladding on the outside of the building, a material that was only outlawed in the country in 2013. what started this latest blaze is yet to be determined, but once again it will bring the spotlight back on the safety the actor robert hardy, who became a household name in the television series all creatures great and small, has died at the age of 91. he had a career on stage and screen that spanned 70 years, and gained new fans as the minister of magic, cornelius fudge, in the harry potter films. a big hit with audiences around the world. among his proudest achievements, being cast as winston churchill many times. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: why some scottish whisky makers think brexit might be a shot in the arm for exports. the question was whether we wanted to save our people, and the japanese as well, and win the war, or whether we wanted to take a chance on being able to win the war by killing

all our young men. invasion began at 2:00am this morning. mr bush, like most other people, was clearly caught by surprise. and we call for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all the iraqi forces. 100 years old, and still full of vigor, vitality and enjoyment of life. no other king or queen in british history has lived so long, and the queen mother is said to be quietly very pleased indeed that she has achieved this landmark anniversary. this is a pivotal moment for the church as an international movement. the question now is whether the american vote will lead to a split in the anglican community. this is bbc news.

the headlines: police in australia allege that two men accused of planning a terror plot targeted an etihad airways flight. more pressure on president trump as a grand jury is set up to investigate allegations of russian interference in last year's elections. millions of eggs are being recalled and destroyed in germany and the netherlands and being blocked from sale in belgium after some were found to contain a toxic insecticide. since wednesday, 180 dutch farms have been temporarily shut down and a criminal investigation has been launched. sarah corker reports. dutch authorities have published a list of serial numbers of eggs that are deemed contaminated and unsafe. this is a widening food scandal now affecting three countries — the netherlands, germany and belgium. the warning had been triggered when a toxic insecticide was found in egg samples, which prompted a shutdown of around 20% of dutch poultry farms.

warnings of a serious risk to public health followed. translation: we have investigated around 180 companies. the result is that 20 of them are clean. they've been given the green light. we found fipronil at 147 companies. at one of them, the levels were so high that we have spread a warning, don't eat these eggs. fipronil is used in veterinary products to get rid of fleas, lice and ticks. it's banned from being used to treat animals destined for human consumption. in large quantities, it can have dangerous effects on people's kidneys and liver and thyroid glands. the netherlands produces billions of eggs every year. many of them are exported to germany. supermarkets there have pulled the affected products from their shelves. german officials believe 3 million contaminated eggs have been sold. translation: i expect all competent authorities to give a quick

and complete clarification of the circumstances. the public authorities of belgium and the netherlands play a key role. sample tests are continuing and one theory is that the chemical may have entered the food chain through cleaning barns with a detergent against insects. the financial losses for dutch farms are potentially huge. this batch of eggs have been blocked as a precaution, the trader says. "the damage is enormous. "we are fighting a crisis at the moment." millions of eggs are now being destroyed and a criminal investigation is under way. sarah corker, bbc news. it's emerged that the father of the captain of a team of afghan schoolgirls who took part in a recent robotics competition in the us was among those

killed in a bomb attack in the city of herat. officials say he was wounded in the attack on a mosque on tuesday and died later. the afghan team made headlines participating in the international robot 0lympics in washington last month. an air france plane carrying more than 330 passengers may have come as close as 100 kilometres to an intercontinental ballistic missile — launched by north korea last week. air france is extending its no—fly zone around north korea as a precaution. fire has engulfed shops just outside the world's largest fish market in tokyo. dozens of fire fighters worked to extinguish the blaze at tsukiji's outer market, which is crowded with small shops and restaurants. there were no reports of injuries. during the eu referendum, many of scotland's whisky producers supported the remain campaign, worried that brexit might affect exports. but now it seems some are having a change of heart, buoyed by the prospect of one—off trade deals with countries such as india, where they currently

face tariffs of 150%. 0ur scotland editor sarah smith has the story. the barley, the water and the weather make islay malt unique, and on this small island, whisky is very big business. almost 90% of scotland's amber liquor is exported overseas, so brexit will certainly be felt here. small distilleries, like kilchoman, don't want to lose the protected status for scotch whisky offered by eu law, and they worry about the bureaucracy that leaving the single market might entail. whereas it was very easy to export into europe, it's now going to be a little more difficult. certainly for smaller companies, i think, that will have an impact, because of the amount of people we have to comply with all the new regulations. many of the island's distilleries are owned by big firms that supported remaining inside the eu, but they're now eyeing up the opportunities brexit could bring. the whisky industry is hoping to expand sales in countries outside the eu, countries like india,

for instance, which currently slaps a whopping great 150% tariff on scotch. if a new bilateral trade deal could eliminate or slash those tariffs, sales would increase enormously. the uk government can't guarantee tariff free trade, but say there is now the opportunity to try. as part of this new arrangement in a post—eu world, where we are negotiating the terms, we're not bound in by eu terms, we're able to negotiate our own terms, getting the right deal for the whisky industry is one of our priorities. scotch whisky is a valuable product. contributing about £5 billion a year to the uk economy, supporting 30,000 jobs and making many drinkers happy. it's an industry that first feared brexit, and now hopes to make it work for them.

once we leave the eu, we would be the uk negotiating free—trade deals, rather than a block, and so that simplifies the negotiations to a degree. so yes, we hope that it will be easierfor the uk to negotiate a free trade deal with, for example, india. the economy of islay runs on whisky, much of scotland's economy relies on this water of life, and they‘ re now looking beyond the shores of europe, to try and make the best of brexit. sarah smith, bbc news, islay. it's said that you're never to old to rock'n'roll, and a lady in singapore who's affectionately known as grandma mary proves that point. the 81—year—old loves playing the electric guitar, and she's about to take stage for the gig of her life. she's been telling us all about it. i'm mary ho, i'm 81 this year and i'm going to rock at the singapore national day parade. when i play guitar, i'm just my own.

ifeel so relaxed and beautiful and so happy because i'm learning what i want to. i want to play, it's my passion. i was 16 when i started the guitar. i bought an acoustic guitar and learnt by myself. then i started to learn the electric guitar when i was about 65. it was very difficult for me because, as i said, i can't read notes and i have no experience in holding guitars and all that. i practise and practice and make it good and perfect, until my hand bled. so for several days i can't play because i got all the bandage.

finally, when it healed, i started playing again. this tune is completely new to me and i did put in quite a lot of work on it, but i tell myself that i'm well prepared and i'm going to put on a good show. now before we go, we want to bring you some remarkable pictures of a rather young looking dinosaur

that is actually 110 million years old and has finally been given a name. the creature — with fossilised skin and scales — was found in a mine pit in canada in 2011. it's been named borealopelta mark mitchelli after the museum technician mark mitchell who spent 7,000 painstaking hours removing rock from around the specimen. 0ne scientist has also called it the mona lisa of dinosaurs because it's so well preserved. a reminder of our top story: police in australia say two men charged with terrorism offences on thursday were taking directions from a senior commander from so—called islamic state. much more on the website. and you can get in touch with me and most of the team on twitter — hello, once again.

this sphere is beginning to get a bit overworked. it's been one of those weeks. the reason? that area of low pressure has been thereabouts across the british isles for much of the past week. there are signs of a change, but it's going to be oh so slow. feeling that way across northern scotland from the word go. showers, if not longer spells of rain. that's not the only area. coming away to the opposite end of the country, showers running in up the bristol channel, getting into the northern half of devon and cornwall, up to bristol. another feed coming in from the channel itself, away towards the kent and sussex coasts. further north, some dry weather across the east midlands, east anglia, and the rest of the south—east, but generally speaking, the further north you go, the cloud fills in and some of those showers become ever more persistent.

that will be the way of it for a good part of the morning across the north—east of scotland. here, that cloud will begin to break into lunchtime and early afternoon. the wind not as much of a feature across the british isles through friday, as was the case for some on thursday. with that combination, less of a breeze, more in the way of sunshine and fewer showers, 22—23. we won't get to those lofty heights and i don't think anyone will shoot another 64 at kingsbarn, in fife. the rain won't be persistent, but it could be heavy at times, as it could be over the eastern borders and the north—east of england. some of those showers in the afternoon quite punchy. through the evening and overnight, keeping the showers going across northern and western parts. you're at your driest perhaps through central and eastern areas. here we are into the weekend. that low pressure now dominant over scandinavia. a little ridge of high pressure trying to settle things down, and it will do across the southern counties of england and wales.

but further north, east anglia, lincolnshire, there will be showers again. again, not too much in the way of a breeze, but it will be noticeable. that little ridge of high pressure that will have killed off some but not all of the showers and will make for a chilly start to sunday underneath clear skies. which, sadly, will fill in rapidly across western scotland and northern ireland too, with rain moving in for the afternoon. generally speaking, the further south and east you are, the drier your day will be. eventually, monday, what is left of that front will stagger its way to the south—eastern quarter of the british isles. this is bbc news. the headlines: australian police are saying two men they've charged with terror offences were plotting to bring down a passenger jet. investigators say an improvised device, using military—grade explosives, was due to be smuggled onto an etihad airways flight last month, but the attempt was abandoned before the men reached security. more pressure on president trump:

it's emerged that a grand jury has been set up in washington, by special counsel robert mueller, to investigate russian interference in last year's elections. it may be the first step towards possible criminal charges. a british man credited with stopping the huge cyber attack which affected computers in more than 150 countries back in may has been arrested in the us. marcus hutchins was detained as he left a conference for hackers in las vegas, on unrelated charges involving banking malwa re. it's just gone it'sjust gone for 30 it's just gone for 30 a.m., amazingly.