welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is gavin grey. our top stories: ve nezu ela swears in a controversial new assembly despite widespread opposition at home and abroad. cracking down. the us attorney general charges four people over lea ks of classified government information. we will investigate and seek to bring criminals tojustice. we will not allow criminals with security clearance to sell out our country. a british computer expert appears in a us court on charges of creating software to steal bank details. heatwave health warnings. parts of europe experience the most extreme temperatures in more than a decade. welcome to the programme.

a controversial new assembly that has the power to re—write venezuela's constitution has held its first session despite fierce criticism from many quarters. a close ally of president nicolas maduro was sworn in as head of the new body, a move denounced by the opposition. katy watson reports from caracas. outside the parliament building, you'd never guess this was a country in crisis. hugo chavez's face and influence is neverfar away, but today it was about his successor. president maduro, who has remained defiant despite the criticism heaped upon him about what many have called a fraudulent election. "criticism has always been here", this woman told me.

"but the people have been on the street 18 years, first supporting hugo chavez and now president maduro, who was legitimately elected by us." this new assembly will have the powers to rewrite the constitution. there's little detail as to what that means in practice. but the new president gave a hint of what was to come. "we've not come to destroy the constitution," she said, adding they wanted to remove obstacles from the government's path. the assembly has been justified as the only way to bring peace to the country after months of often violent protest, but earlier on friday the pope warned it would only encourage a climate of tension, not reconciliation. on the other side of town, it was another world. no government supporters here.

instead, several opposition rallies bringing people together to protest what they say is an undemocratic government. i don't want to live in a dictatorship and we are in a dictatorship. my work is travelling all over the country and i can see how this country has been destroyed by this government. protesters called for a new venezuela, for unity. while there's a feeling of deflated opposition, they say they aren't giving up. translation: defeated? that isn't in my vocabulary. i was a political prisoner for a year without having committed a crime. i've seen with my own eyes how people are killed in venezuela. human beings who all they dreamed of was a different country. the feeling here today is different to what we saw last week

with roadblocks, confrontations between police and protesters, but what people here are saying today is they will continue to protest peacefully and what is needed most is patience. katy watson, bbc news, in caracas. and you'll find more background information and analysis of venezuela's new constituent assembly, on our website. just head to bbc.com/news. the united states has officially confirmed that it will pull out of the paris climate agreement by informing the united nations, but the state department said the us would continue to participate in climate change meetings until the withdrawal process was completed. us vice president mike pence made the announcement. let's take a look at some of the other stories

making the news. the un security council will vote on a new draft resolution on saturday proposing tougher sanctions on north korea. it follows pyongyang's two intercontinental ballistic missile tests in july. the resolution, drafted by the united states, aims to impact the country's exports. to pass it needs support from all nine members of the security council, including russia and china. the electoral commission in rwanda has announced that president paul kagame has won a third term in office with a landslide. the commission said partial results of friday's election gave mr kagame ninety—eight % of the votes. supporters say he's brought stability after the horrors of the 1994 genocide, but his critics say he has ruled through fear. rescuers at one of russia's largest diamond mines have been searching

for nine miners still unaccounted for after water leaked into an underground shaft. it happened at the mir mine in the sakha region. two miners were injured in the accident. powerfailure has hindered the rescue effort. an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.8 has struck the philippines. the epicentre was 3a kilometres east of the city of general santos,on south midano island, which has a population of almost 600 thousand people. there are conflicting reports over the depth of the quake. the us attorney general, jeff sessions, has announced a major drive against what he called an explosive increase in leaks of classified government information under president trump. four people have already been charged and mr sessions said he would not hesitate to order more prosecutions. here's our north america editor, jon sopel. donald j trump!

donald trump is never happier than when he's out of washington. this is where he belongs. an adoring crowd in west virginia, the problems of russia, collusion, special counsels and grand juries a long way from these country roads. have you seen any russians in west virginia or ohio or pennsylvania? are there any russians here tonight? any russians? the russia story is a totalfabrication. it's just an excuse for the greatest loss in the history of american politics, that's all it is. he didn't mention the special counsel by name but had him in this sights when he said this. i just hope the final determination is a truly honest one. a grand jury is made up of members of the public meeting behind closed

doors to consider the evidence that has been gathered. they can force people to testify or to hand over evidence. they'll decide whether the material is strong enough to proceed to a criminal trial. but crucially, they don't decide if a potential defendant is innocent or guilty. that's done by a conventionaljury. of course, it may be that the grand jury meeting at this courthouse will come to the conclusion that the evidence doesn't add up to much and there's no need forfurther action. but the fact that a grand jury has been called is a sign that this investigation is intensifying and will last a good deal longer yet. and the other worry for the trump entourage is that the scope of the inquiry will spread as well. that's a source of fury. another is the endless damaging and revealing leaks from within the administration. and today the attorney general announced a new crackdown. this nation must end this culture of lea ks. we will investigate and seek

to bring criminals tojustice. we will not allow rogue anonymous sources with security clearances to sell out our country. he's been under tremendous pressure. the president last week humiliated his attorney general, calling him very weak. this was much more muscular, with an attack on the media too. we respect the important role that the press plays and we'll give them respect, but it is not unlimited. they cannot place lives at risk with impunity. the president today visited fema, the federal emergency centre, to look at plans for dealing with hurricanes. it's hurricane season. and then he was off on his holidays, two weeks at one of his golf resorts in newjersey and hoping that a storm whipped up by the grand jury does not barrel down on him. jon sopel, bbc news, washington. a professor at northwestern university in illinois and an employee of britain's oxford university have been arrested

in the united states following a nationwide manhunt. 42—year—old wymondham lathem and 56—year—old andrew warren were detained in california. police want to question the two men in connection with a fatal stabbing at mr lathem's apartment in chicago. a british computer expert has appeared before a judge in las vegas, charged with creating software to steal bank details. prosecutors said 23—year—old marcus hutchins had admitted writing and selling the malware code, but his lawyer said his client denied all the charges against him. our correspondent james cook was in court in las vegas. this was supposed to be a relatively brief procedural hearing, but actually it went on for a reasonable amount of time as both sides, the government side and the defence lawyer, debated and discussed with the judge whether or not marcus hutchins should be released on bail, albeit on some pretty

stringent conditions. they said he could propose a risk to the public and a flight risk. that was dismissed by the judge. she agreed that he could be released on bail, pending a number of conditions. one of those conditions was that he surrender his british passport and subject himself to gps monitoring. there was also a bail of 30,000 us dollars bond to have him released. unfortunately for him, there was a big scramble at the end of the day on friday, and he just dudn‘t manage to get the money posted in time. so he will have to spend the weekend in custody, the earliest he can be released is monday. the main reason there is global interest is he was regarded

and perhaps still is regarded by some people as something of a hero. he likes to surf, they call him the surfer who saved the world, because he had cracked, perhaps inadvertently, to stop or investigate a bug that was causing problems in the british national health service, and that also spread to about 150 other countries in the world. he basically managed to stop the spread of the virus for people to putting countermeasures. the damage was not nearly as serious as it could have been. it is possible he actually saved lives. for many people, he is something of a folk hero, especially in the cyber security industry. he was attending a cyber security conference in las vegas and a lot of his colleagues there said they are not realistic chargers, they are not convinced that the fbi understands the nature of what he was doing online. they have said this willjeopardise co—operation between hackers and the government, and they say that is necessary to try and secure the internet. as for the states‘ position,

the united states‘ position, that he has broken the law and that he should be tried in wisconsin for doing so. stay with us on bbc world news, still to come: the world's most expensive footballer signs for paris saint—germain but a hitch with the paperwork means neymar can't make his debut on saturday. 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 2am 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. our main headline. venezuela has sworn in a new constituent assembly — despite widespread opposition at home and abroad. well let's stay with that story — for more i've been speaking to journalist cody weddle, who's in the capital caracas. i asked him if he expected the protests to continue. the day after the election for this

assembly, there was also a protest. crowds were certainly subdued. today, there were thousands of people in the streets. another problem for the opposition will be that they currently had some divisions within their opposition coalition. there are some parts of the coalition that want to continue ahead with elections, there are other parts of the opposition that want to boycott any election. they say the recent elections were fraudulent. those internal divisions could also a turnout at these protests. president nicolas maduro says this is to bring peace and stability, that is why he wants this new assembly. from your interviews, are people buying that? i don't think so. ironically, it may bring about peace because of divisions within the opposition, but also, nicolas

maduro has not been clear about how this would actually bring peace. his supporters haven't been able to either. it is a broad declaration that this will somehow bring about peace. because the opposition isn't participating, this is not any dialogue process or anything like that. i think most people are doubtful that this could somehow bring the two sides together. we have got the new assembly, it begins work at the start of the coming week. what are you expecting to see in the next few days? there are plenty of rumours among them that the attorney general, who has been dissenting from the government, that she could be removed from office. some people in that assembly have already warned that that will happen. also, we are watching to see if perhaps this new assembly will dissolve the national

assembly which is under opposition control. it would basically get rid of opposition voices within the government. we will also be watching to see if there are any more arrests of opposition leaders. health warnings have been issued across europe as the dangerous heatwave continues. in parts of italy, spain and the balkans — temperatures have soared into the high forties. some regions are still contending with drought and forest fires. sarah corker reports. large swathes of southern europe are sweltering in this heat wave, known as lucifer. the extreme heat has triggered health warnings in at least a dozen countries. in albania, massive forest fires have raged for weeks. the government is now asking for help from the eu. in northern spain, flames are turning the sky red and shutting down highways. on the french island of corsica, planes continue to douse flames below. we have more than

seven kilometres of forest ages, many spots remain inaccessible which are likely to start again. italy and the balkans have been most severely affected. one man died in romania and 80 people are in hospital due to the extreme weather. heat and flames are pushing temperatures above a0 celsius, stretching from albania and as far as portugal. it is the most extreme and widespread heatwave for 1h years. it is notjust people suffering, imported pest zoo they have found some innovative ways of keeping the animals cool. even at altitudes of 3000 metres, glaciers in the austrian alps are melting. holidaymakers have been sharing their heatwave experiences. as temperatures hit 44 degrees, the safety advice is, wear a hat, drink plenty of water and find some shade. it is not expected to cool off until next week. sarah corker, bbc news.

let's round—up some other stories now. latest figures show the us economy has seen strong jobs growth injuly — mainly in the hospitality sector. 209,000 jobs were created — more than expected. president trump welcomed the news. airlines are warning passengers of delays at eu border controls. tighter security has been introduced within the passport—free schengen zone, following terror attacks

in belgium and france. travellers are being urged to arrive at airports at least three hours before their flight. us vice—president mike pence describes himself as a christian, a conservative and a republican — in that order. but what else do you need to know about the man who would replace donald trump if he had to leave the white house? rajini vaidyanathan explains. few politicians get a kiss like that from donald trump. but then again, mike pence wields a huge amount of influence and he is a heartbeat away from the presidency.” influence and he is a heartbeat away from the presidency. i accept your nomination to run and serve as vice president! is vice president of the us, he is next in line to take the topjob if, for us, he is next in line to take the top job if, for any us, he is next in line to take the topjob if, for any reason, donald trump doesn't complete the full term. and in so many ways, he

couldn't be more different from his wife. jetta he and his wife are not pretentious. i went to dinner with people who had been with them re ce ntly people who had been with them recently and they said he was cooking burgers and hotdogs on the grill. that's the kind of guy he is. freedom always wins. dining habits aside, what kind of politician is he and more crucially, what does he believe in? i am a christian, a conservative and a republican, in that order. he was a cartoonist in law school and a born—again christian in college. he was even a talk—show host. christian in college. he was even a talk-show host. mike pence! ever since, he has been at the forefront. eiffel once believe the seventh commandment contained in the ten commandments is still a big deal. _-|' commandments is still a big deal. ——i, for one. commandments is still a big deal. --i, for one. religion also guided his political ideas. educators around america must teach evolution

not as fact but as theory. back then,in not as fact but as theory. back then, in an interview, he says he never eats our then, in an interview, he says he never eats oui’ loan then, in an interview, he says he never eats our loan with a woman other than his wife, nor does he go toa other than his wife, nor does he go to a event that serve alcohol without her. he is kind of a unflappable. you never see him getting ready in the face, talking fast or getting excitable. he is very measured. fast forward and mike pence is the governor of indiana and during his time in office, he introduced one of the strictest abortion laws in the country and also signed a religious freedom law which critics say allowed people to openly discriminate against lgbtq people. but he isjust openly discriminate against lgbtq people. but he is just a openly discriminate against lgbtq people. but he isjust a popular as controversial. especially amongst the republican voter base. with the rush in investigation looming over the trump administration, more people are looking to the vice president. i do know that mike pence believes god has a plan for him. he has spoken about his ambitions in

the past that the question is now, how long will he have to wait? neymar has become the most expensive footballer in the history of the game. the brazilian striker has finally completed his record $263—million transfer deal with paris saint—germain. the 25—year—old hoped to make his debut with the club on saturday — although that won't be possible because a mix—up over paperwork. he told the bbc‘s richard conway, his move from barcelona was for a new, bigger challenge — not for the money. neymar, finally in paris with a ball and the world at his feet. at £200 million, his transfer from barcelona is a world record deal. and when his wages are included, the final bill will be close to £500 million. the brazilian star told me, though, he's followed his heart, not his wallet. lots of people are saying that perhaps you are doing

this for the money, that that is your motivation. what do you say to that? translation: i didn't come over here for the money. i came here for the motivation of the challenge and the challenges. on the champs—elysees, fans were happy to part with their cash. hundreds queued for hours to buy the new neymar shirt. the club is backed by the country of qatar's vast wealth. but its president thinks he has bagged a bargain. i would love to see, you know, in one year, and then, unannounced visitors much or not. today, until now, just in five hours, we sold already merchandise, like half a million euros, and this is just for a couple of hours. nice little bit of skill from neymar! neymar has been a star for both club and country from a young age, but critics of this megadeal point to the vast sums involved and there are questions, too, over whether he is merely a pawn in qatar's efforts to spread

its influence across the globe. the man at the centre of it all, though, insists he's simply here to win. what will be success to you at this club? a champions league? a ballon d'or, the fifa best award? how would you say, "i have made it here, i have delivered"? translation: i want everything. the titles. that's. . .i came over here to make history. psg want neymar to spark a new sporting revolution for them. and, leaving the stadium, he was greeted by fans as their new king. a quick reminder of our top story. venezuela has signed in a new constituent assembly, despite widespread opposition at home and abroad. this is bbc news. hello, once again.

whatever you have in mind this particular weekend, be it some rest or some play or, for some, just more work, you are going to have to keep a close eye on the weather front, because there is quite a mix on offer. it's not a write—off, many will see some sunshine at some point, but in that mix come heavy showers and longer spells of rain and it will feel disappointingly cooler. though the weekend is not starting on a cold note, temperatures in double figures in many areas. but from the word go we will have some heavy showers and thunderstorms initially in wales, and then by around the middle of the day off towards the midlands, and then they push towards east anglia and the south—east. just about missing the south—west i would have thought, further north you have your own lot of heavy showers across the south—eastern quarter of scotland and into the borders, and the eastern side of northern ireland too. elsewhere, variable amounts of cloud.

having had that rather tempestuous start to the day, things will settle down, with one or two showers as you see through the midlands and into wales, all the while i think the southern counties, particularly in the south—west, get away with fewer showers, but they'll be there to be had, especially as that pulse of heavy showers moves on through the south—east, they could well affect the world championships. the evening events more likely to be dry. this ridge of high pressure comes through during the course of the night and into the first part of sunday, underneath that the showers quit the scene for the most part and the sky is clear and ends up being really rather chilly, especially in the countryside for the time of year. but for many that equates to a really dry, bright start, certainly in central and eastern areas. but more of this towards the west, another area of cloud, wind and rain. gradually working its way through northern ireland and pushing across the north channel into central and western parts of scotland and there will be the odd bit into the western side of wales, maybe a showery burst towards the west midlands.

all of which is quite a long way away from the community shield, arsenal taking on chelsea, that should be fine and dry. increasingly cloudy and fine and dry for the most part. what news of the start of next week? low pressure yet again as was the case this week, into tuesday, we see these weather fronts just working their way down across the country, and the isobars running from the south, no heat wave, and if you are looking for settled weather for the holidays, look away now. this is bbc news, the headlines: the government of venezuela has inaugurated a controversial constituent assembly despite fierce criticism at home and abroad. in several cities, crowds gathered to protest against what that say is a creeping dictatorship, that's stifling the voice of opposition parties. the us attorney general, jeff sessions, has announced a major drive against what he called

an explosive increase in leaks of classified government information under president trump. four people have already been charged and mr sessions said he would not hesitate to order more prosecutions. a british computer expert has appeared in court in the united states, charged with creating software to steal bank details. lawyers representing mark hutchins say he denies all the charges against him. prosecutors insist he has admitted writing and selling malware code. let's have a look at this morning's front pages. the daily mail leads with accusations that the national trust