michael flynn's contacts with russia were lawful — but he had to sack him because he had lied to the fbi. some legal experts say mr trump may have then obstructed justice when he urged the former fbi director to drop the inquiry into mr flynn. in yemen — fighting has continued between iranian—backed rebels and theirformer allies who support the ex—president, ali abdullah saleh. the two groups had been fighting a saudi—led alliance that backs the ousted yemeni government. saudi arabia has welcomed mr saleh‘s suggestion to start talks. voters in honduras are still waiting for the result of the presidential election nearly a week after going to the polls. the main opposition candidate, salvador nasralla, has accused his rival, presidentjuan orlando hernandez, of manipulating the vote count. now on bbc news, our world. is it easier to talk to your mom or at school?

or it's the same? you see this fear overcome her. she's not talking to anybody in school. it's affected her whole life. it's been very, very difficult. the only way to get over selective mutism is to confront it, and to confront the situation with me, i was anxious. part of you is telling yourself to go and do it but then you say you can't.

i feel like this week is make or break it. we need this right now and we need it to be successful. i want their lives to change from it, so there's always a part of me that's worried that their lives aren't going to change enough. welcome to we speak! cheering all of you guys are here because in one way or another, anxiety is impacting your life. selective mutism is an anxiety disorder where kids have difficulty talking in certain situations, so they look like normal kids

at home and when they are in a state of anxiety, then theyjust kind of shut down and freeze and are unable to respond. a lot of them actually can't ask to go to the bathroom. i've seen, actually, older kids who've had accidents in school. so, for a shy kid, they're slow to warm up, but this is not the case with kids with sm. in fact, it's actually the opposite. so for kids with sm, the longer they go without talking, then the harder it is to start talking. we've got to work for our prizes... annalisa is very funny. i wish people could see that, you know? she is, at home, a typical teenager, but then, when she leaves the house, everything changes.

is your name annalisa, lexi or shelley? there's a physical transformation that comes about. it's so difficult to watch, you know, because you see this fear overcome her, they want to be invisible. is it easier to talk to your mom or at school? she has had selective mutism basically her whole life. diagnosed at the age of five. i went home and googled it and then cried because... sorry. ..because i realised she was different and it wasn'tjust shyness, and it's affected her whole life. it's been very difficult. i'm hoping that she'll be able to lead a normal life.

get married, have children, have a job, go to college. but a lot of that hangs in the balance over will she be able to talk? do we conquer anxiety by doing the thing that makes us anxious? the cause of selective mutism is kind of a combination of environment and genetics. there's often one or both parents who also have a history of anxiety. and parents, they'll kind ofjump in and either answer for the child or they might say, "it's ok, honey, you don't need to answer." so through that process, the child is actually learning to avoid the situations that make them anxious until it really becomes an ingrained pattern. what is your name? 0k, can we try saying it a little bit louder? rhianna.

rhianna? 0k. and where do you live? vancouver. in vancouver? we have each of the kids make a video in advance and send it to us. for many of them, you wouldn't even know that they have selective mutism from the video. hi, i'm bran from pemberton, bc, and i live on a farm. who do you find it easiest to talk to? your parents? at home, with us, she is quite outgoing and very chatty. i guess from the age of three, it was a pivotal moment. we just thought it was a typical case of her being shy. do you like homework? well, it depends. sometimes i do, sometimes i don't. she actually stepped off into this pond,

and most kids would have splashed, kicked, gone crazy. she sank. it was only two feet deep. it was only knee—deep but she just froze and lay there at the bottom. so we started to think, 0k, she can't keep herself safe. what do you want to be when you grow up? be a vet, a veterinarian? yeah? you have lots of animals... each day you are going to playjenga forjust 15 minutes in the beginning in another small step. so, on video games, you can tell your parents, "excuse me, i'm just trying to learn problem—solving skills here. " james talks to me and his dad and his brother and my parents and that's really it.

no—one at school? nobody at school. let's jump out! it's very hard. at points you feel angry because you don't know how to help him and when there is no help out there and no one knows what to do and the teachers think he is just defiant and just doesn't want to speak and you know it's not true. i feel like this week is make or break it. i don't want to say our last chance because i would hate to say that, but i really do think we need this right now and we need it to be successful. chelsea is going to ask you the question as yes or no. make sense to you? hand down. yes? beautiful. every kid's presentation is completely different. we also have kids in there who are very comfortable talking to adults and then with peers,

you see a different child. 30 seconds, go, go, go! not yet, no toppings yet, just flavours! is it harder to talk to family or at school? at school. is it harder to talk to the kids at school or teachers? the kids. emily's talking at school and doing what she needs to do to get through the day, but she's not herself at school. there's a lot of personality that isn't really shining through. it's raining! it's pouring! she's only doing the bare minimum, so she answers questions if people ask her, she doesn't initiate conversations. it's like a lump in your throat and part of you is telling yourself to go and do it but part

of you is saying you can't. it's hard to. sometimes i actually can't do it. i think my biggest fear in all of these is just that they're not going to get out of it what i am hoping for them. it's a lot that parents are investing in. i want their lives to change. what is it? red hot chilli peppers! pretty good team name! we are about to go do a scavenger hunt at a local market and the kids

are going to be asking employees where different ingredients are. i remember when i used to go grocery shopping... yes, do you like to go grocery shopping? you say, "yes, i like to go grocery shopping." it can be really hard for these kids to just do a normal thing like going into a grocery store because it's an unexpected place. a normal compliment could be really anxiety—inducing because they're like, "0k, now i'm expected to respond." here, i am an employee that works here, i'm just loading some cookies onto a shelf. and then you ask... where are the jalapenos? awesomejob! so, for annalisa, currently at one word responses, i can feed her a line of, like, you could ask me this, and then she will ask me that back. but no spontaneous

utterances thus far. i had sm when i was a kid. i really relate to these kids on so many levels so it's hard for me sometimes to push them too far because i know exactly how they're feeling. you can ask the question here. in the produce aisle, awesome. greatjob asking, that was so awesome and clear. thank you very much. was it harder or easier to ask the question to the clerk or to practice with me? did it feel a little scary or really scary? you don't know. hmmm.... was it... answer if it was easy or hard. it's a challenge to accept madison

because she thinks somebody isn't doing what they should be doing. meeting parents that are also dealing with selective mutism has been almost like life—changing for me. it's just great to hear other people say that these are the same struggles. their child can't get up to go to the bathroom, their child does this or that, that changed us. it just makes you feel better to hear that you're not crazy. you may not know how to ask about the facts and side—effects. well, that's really what treatment is about, it's about practising things that make us anxious. really, the kids at this stage, they don't really know why they're scared of talking to other people. i couldn't tell you what i was afraid of when i was five and i think most of these kids don't really know the only way to get over selective mutism is to confront

it and confront the situations that make us anxious. what i said was either sit down... sometimes i ask parents to read letters to the kids. because they don't have to deal with the interpersonal stuff, they can read it and reread it... people say, what's the research evidence for this? we're not quite there to be able to say, you can take to the bank, this is going to work. but we are confident about tweaking the programme to make it work. for us, it's getting the parents to do what we do. that's our challenge. so i don't think of this week as a therapy, i think of it as teaching the therapist how to do the therapy. and it's very daunting because there is this turning point when they realise, oh, so i'm literally going to have to do this every day or every week? and the answer is, yes, relentlessly. this afternoon, our group

is going to battery park, so all of the kids will be communicating with each other and with someone else out in the community. so this should be exciting! if you eventually ask, then he will probably say no. so just say, let's ask. as a mum, to seejames struggling, it's hard. it's very stressful and produces great anxiety in me because we're watching this child who i know can talk and i know he wants to talk and he just can't get it out. i've asked before, where are your words? why can't you get your words out? and he will say they're stuck in my head. when his words get stuck in his head, itjust — my anxiety level really does increase and ifeel

like i want to grab him and hug him and make it all better. one, two, three. great job! do you ever worry that it's too much? the treatment for anxious kids is putting them in situations that make them anxious and actually facing theirfears. we need them to actually experience the anxiety in these situations and get through it for them to see that they can. what is that? statue of liberty, yeah! hi. we've got a question, we are looking for south street seaport. you see a kid like breanna who wants to be around other kids and you can just see them wanting to talk and wanting to build that relationship. great, one more time? have you been here before? no. go ahead and ask. ask a little bit louder. what's your favourite colour?

obviously, we would love to get her out of her whisper but the whisper is really secondary. the first step is just getting them talking and expanding their talking to other situations and other people. we would love forjames to have just a friend to talk to. he can't go through life alone. so hopefully, he can find one person to play with and one person to speak to. i mean, i can't imagine going through life and not having a friend. you want to try to do... i make a statement and you guys ask something back to me and then back to you... a lot of these kids just really can't have a simple conversation with another peer. and so, the last couple of days is going to be a lot of work around that.

if we're hanging out, and i say, "ugh, i can't wait for my vacation in a couple of weeks." talk about what you guys would say or ask back to me. i want to learn how to go up to people because sometimes i want more friends than i have. i prefer to be inside because it's more peaceful. why do you prefer to be in sight? i like to watch tv and stay inside.

when was the last time you had a conversation like that, with two people that you don't really know? it's been a while! how long is a while? a couple of years. do you want to stay in touch with emily after we speak? yeah. what did you do that was really cool? hung out with other kids. you hung out with other kids outside of we speak. and this was for the partner project. annalisa blows me away. you know how anxious she is, you know what it's like for her and she was just up there in front of an entire class. did you guys go to the museum with your parents or without your parents? without. without your parents. did you guys talk in the museum or were you silent? we talked about the flavours on the high line. we then talked about

the flavours we love. everyone could hear her and she answered everyone‘s questions. applause that was so great! you become very attached to them. you become very invested in them. and once you start to see them make progress, you want to keep going with them. every one of them, just work and try new things and face their fears. annalisa. applause i'm so lucky to get to hang out with her. we made a million bracelets together! annalisa, i don't believe talks to anybody in school. so if she is able to start the new school year able

to raise her hand and say "here", then the kids in the class know that she can talk. like, that would be the first time the kids in the class ever hear her voice. like, that is massive progress. —— like, that is massive progress. i have to say, when i saw her little presentation, it almost brought tears to my eyes. i was very happy. i know that she's going to work really hard and i'm very confident that, going forward, this is a new chapter in her life. emily. applause i am proudest of her today for helping to facilitate conversation. how would you feel if i told you that emily today, she kind of lead a conversation between two of the other girls? i am surprised and thrilled. hopefully it means she realises that she can do it and that she can go back to school and have conversations. don't act like you didn't do it! take credit for it!

how does that feel, having done that today? it feels good. and exciting. this is not a cure for these kids. this is the start of theirjourney to overcome and challenge their sm. what would it be like if everyone could hear you talking out loud? i don't know. i think she'll probably start by texting, which is great. she's never done that, either. it seems minor but it's a big deal! shake hands! amazing! we were being fully engaged they were playing monopoly. james' mom actually emailed me last night and she said thatjames and breanna were emailing each other back and forth last night. several exchanges about their shared interests. so this is it, this

is what it's all about. i never thought that james would be able to stand up at the end. just even standing in front of 20 parents and getting a certificate, not speaking, i mean, that was impressive. i was concerned that he might not speak. it does look like they are tiny steps, but in reality forjames, they are huge, enormous, great leaps. hello. it's been a bitter week for some parts of the uk but it is at least a little less cold this weekend. further afield, if you're keeping an eye on the second test in adelaide, it's warmer but we did have some interruptions because of showers on saturday. fewer showers sunday. still a brisk breeze, though. and actually here, temperatures are a little below par. they should recover as we head towards midweek. despite an increasing cloud on saturday, we did have a little late evening sunshine in kent. i'm hopeful that we will see a little bit more sunshine through the day ahead and slightly less cold conditions, particularly in the south. but at the moment, we've still got quite a bit of cloud. it's trickling its way southwards.

they're weak weather fronts, really, but they're bringing some patchy rain and drizzle with misty low cloud and hill fog. to the north, yes, the cloud does break and clear and it could turn a tad chilly to start the morning up in the north—east of scotland. perhaps a touch of frost, a little bit of fog here. but for many, it shouldn't be frosty first thing. but it will be rather grey and murky. hill fog around, patchy drizzle as well, and this weather front may well drag its heels across southern parts of england, across the west and into the west of wales. it'll be with us across northern ireland and we may see a little bit of early brightness across antrem and down. it should be a decent start to the day across scotland. more sunshine here. still a few showers and a brisk wind in the north—east. still the potential for some morning fog and frost in the glens but that should lift and we should see some good spells of sunshine. and gradually, that cloud will thin and break across the rest of southern britain but it may hang around in cornwall, in western parts of wales and it drifts eastwards across northern ireland to western scotland, so the west of northern ireland may see some brighter spells later in the day.

in contrast to yesterday, probably a little bit cooler in the north—east but actually feeling a bit milder further south as temperatures won't be quite so low to start the day. then, through the night ahead, we'll see the cloud gradually easing back eastwards, but where there are breaks in the cloud, yes, it will turn chilly, but also we could have some fog for the monday morning rush across east anglia, the south—east, the east midlands in particular. but otherwise it's here where, once the fog clears, we should see some brightness and some sunshine again to start our week. relatively mild compared with last week, nines and tens, but there will quite a bit of cloud, showery rain coming in, although it will be light and patchy because it is under the influence of high pressure for the next two or three days. this high pressure isjust keeping those weather fronts at bay but this does have our name on it. this is going to come in for wednesday. it looks particularly nasty, actually, some wet and windy weather to keep our eye on. but, between now and then, fairly quiet or benign conditions. as ever, there's plenty more more on the website. bye— bye. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america

and around the globe. i'm reged ahmad. our top stories: president trump has suggested he knew that his former national security advisor, michael flynn, had lied to the fbi about his contacts with russia. in a tweet, the us president said general flynn had acted lawfully, but had to be sacked for dishonesty — a charge mr flynn admitted on friday. the controversy comes after mr trump secured what's being seen as the first big legislative achievement of his presidency, a wide—ranging tax reform bill. our washington correspondent laura bicker reports. donald trump's started the day on a bullish note.