this is bbc news. i'm nkem ifejika. our top stories: hundreds of thousands protest across the united states against president trump's hardline immigration policies. in india, the rape and torture of a seven—year—old girl sparks angry scenes on the streets. syrian forces shell opposition—held deraa as rebels refuse to surrender. game overfor messi and ronaldo — argentina out, portugal sent packing — the first day of the world cup knockout matches. hello and welcome to bbc world news. from coast—to—coast, in major cities and small towns, hundreds of thousands of americans have come out to protest against president trump's immigration policies.

protestors have been calling for migrant families, split up at the us border, to be reunited. the rallies were organised before mr trump ordered an end to the widely criticised "zero tolerance" policy of separating children from their parents. but most of those 2,300 children are yet to be reunited with theirfamilies. chris buckler has been speaking to protestors in washington. chanting: no trump, no kkk, no fascist usa! a nation that was built on the back of immigration seems more than ever divided by the issue. chanting: vote them out! vote them out! no hate, no fear! across america, tens of thousands gathered, to protest at how people are treated when they arrive at this country's borders. from new york to san francisco, families marched together in support of otherfamilies. no kids should be put injail. in washington, on a stage that could be seen from the white house, children were among those sending

a message to president trump. you could imagine if someone took away our kids, you know, under the guise of giving them a bath. it's horrible, we want the families together, we want them to be together as soon as possible. and you know, we're here to make our voices heard. cheering. it was public anger that forced donald trump to change his policy of separating families however there is concern here that many parents have still not been reunited with their children. there's also a worry about what will come next — this suggestion that families could simply be held together. but president trump knows among his supporters there are many who want this border with mexico to remain secure. and he believes america couldn't cope with the huge numbers that want to make the country its home. i can't imagine being these people. i can't imagine not speaking the language. i can't imagine not having lawyers. i can't imagine not knowing what's going to happen to you. this day of action was planned

before the outcry over family separations but the white house knows the president's polarising policies will remain under close scrutiny. chris buckler, bbc news, washington. for more on this story we can speak to go live now to marissa lang, staff writer for the washington post, who has been covering a rally in the capital. thank you forjoining us. just curious about who was in attendance. i've suspect, as usual with these things, it is a broad coalition. would i be correct? yes, there were quite a few organisations that came together to form the families belong together coalition will it were they and where were they from? there were people who came from around the washington area. there were just as many who came from various dates

across the country. we found a young man that had travelled from alabama alone to be hit today —— various states. a lot of parents came out with their children, grandparents, people who wanted to come and show support for the immigrant families at the border. there were some folks who said they had never been to a protest before. i spoke to a gentleman who said he is a lifelong republican, had never been to a demonstration, this was his first. that was the question i was going to ask you, if there we knew people would not necessarily be against the republican agenda who were in attendance. they were, yes. what does this say about the president's support? is it one of the ones where even his supporters are against him in large parts? and think it is a tricky question, the president has a base of people who are very much with him on this, her support, who think this is exactly the reaction

that the country should be having —— who support him. there are quite a few folks who are registered publicans, members of the president's party, who do not agree. the majority of americans in that these detentions are wrong in the country should move away from that. were there people who said, well, we should still situ our borders, or was this really on the other side of the argument? they want the immediate report —— return of the children separated from their pa rents. children separated from their parents. the second is they wanted to stop family detentions, which the president's administration has said they will continue to do. they also wa nted they will continue to do. they also wanted the president to move away from his zero tolerance immigration policy. there were others there who had a bit more of an aggressive personal agenda. people calling for the abolition of us immigration and customs enforcement. those who say i believe we should have a secure

border, but this is not how we should be treating people coming is seeking asylum. it was a pretty wide a way of opinions, they agreed on these central point. what are the republicans are saying about this, at least president trump sang about this, is it the kind of thing that will affect the forthcoming elections, the mid—term elections? —— saying. is the present thinking i don't want this happening right now but i think it will be an issue. come election, it is interesting, the president tweeted while many of the president tweeted while many of the rallies were happening across the rallies were happening across the country, there were 750 in the united states today, he tweeted in the midst of that a message purporting his immigration policy and saying that we need to have a strong approach at the border. there needs to be aggressive methods in terms of addressing folks across illegally. i don't think it is changing its mind. 0rganisers think if they keep the pressure on it might force his hand a bit to the

place they wanted to be. thank you very much forjoining us. that is marissa lang, staff writerfor the washington post. talks aimed at stopping the fighting between government forces and rebels in southern syria have ended in failure. the opposition forces were attempting to negotiate a ceasefire with the government's russian allies in order to stop a major offensive by syrian military forces in deraa province, near the border with jordan. but the rebels have reportedly rejected what they called a humiliating demand to surrender. bill hayton reports. daraa was one of the first cities to rise up against president assad seven years ago. since then it has been a battleground, and now it is being pounded into submission. from the air and the ground, russian jets and government soldiers are close to destroying the last major rebel stronghold in southern syria. around half the city is reported to be in government hands and another eight nearby towns fell to the regime on saturday, according to local reports.

translation: we have successfully fulfilled our mission in the region. 0ur soldiers' health, ourfaith in victory and our commitment to the president enabled us to win this victory and defeat the terrorist groups in this rugged region. the current offensive has been going on for almost two weeks. the rebels are caught between government forces and the border with jordan, but are refusing to surrender. a bitter battle is taking place around a military airbase. casualty figures are not known but one human rights group estimates that 100 civilians have been killed in daraa in the past week. the un estimates 160,000 people have been forced to flee. some are headed to a sliver of territory held by a rival rebel group, linked to islamic state. with the russian government forces and syrian government forces making steady progress, it seems like the end of rebel—controlled southern syria is not far away. a seven—year—old girl who was raped

and tortured in the indian state of madhya pradesh recently is now believed to be recovering from severe injuries. meanwhile, thousands have been out on the streets protesting against the incident. the bbc‘s nitin srivastava visits the town of mandsaur. prayers for someone they have never seen or met. these schoolgirls have been out on the streets demanding justice for a seven—year—old who was brutally raped and stabbed. translation: this happened in our town today and can happen somewhere else tomorrow. such incidents have been on the rise. we want these monsters to be hanged. a sleepy town in central india struggles with shock. thousands have come out in support of the victim, who was taken from outside her school and tortured for hours. translation: her school cctv cameras

were not working so we had to take footage from shopkeepers and social media platforms. we are now pushing for a speedy trial. such is the anger on the streets that even the legal community are taking the unusual step of refusing to defend the suspects. translation: this is a crime against humanity and we have decided that no one from our fraternity will defend the accused in the courts. the accused are from the minority muslim community and there are worries regarding the communal backlash. but the muslim community has taken a stand too. if the men are found guilty, their families will suffer, too. translation: our community has declared that if the accused are convicted and get capital punishment, we would not even allow them to be buried in this town.

even theirfamilies would be made to leave. there have been huge protests against the suspects and demands for capital punishment is growing. but the fact remains that such horrific incidents continue to haunt india again and again. nitin srivastava reporting from mandsaur in the indian state of madhya pradesh. let's get some of the day's other news. the militant islamist group al—shabab has banned single—use plastic bags in areas under its control in somalia. according to media outlets affiliated with the group, the militants consider plastic bags a serious threat to the well—being of both humans and animals. al—shabab did not say how it would implement the ban but because of widespread fear of the group's use of violence, orders are usually followed. the sri lankan navy is to move to a port leased to a state—run chinese firm. after the end of the civil war

sri lanka borrowed billions of dollars from china to implement major infrastructure projects, including the hambantota port. but last year in lieu of the debt, sri lanka agreed to give china a majority stake in the port. now to uganda, where hundreds of protesters have marched through the capital kampala, demanding police action over a spate of rapes, murders and kidnappings, targeting women. janey mitchell reports. chanting: stop the rapists! anger over the murder of more than a0 women in kampala since last year has boiled over into the streets with demands for justice for the victims, many of them young and mothers and whose cases remain unsolved. what sort of society are we living in where 42 women are dead and we are asking what they were wearing, how many boyfriends they had? that is such a rape culture and victim—blaming mentality. among the marchers, ambassadors from the us and france, demanding improved security for staff who are afraid to go out. translation: this violence is intolerable.

i am here, side by side with ugandan women, for better protection, because women are the backbone of society. critics say the police response has been inadequate, accusing the ugandan force of devoting too many of its resources against opponents of the country's long serving president, yoweri museveni. but for some marchers, the blame lies with ugandan society as a whole. in africa, it is the responsibility of the men to protect the women. and we men have failed to protect our wives. we have failed to protect our mothers and we have failed to protect our daughters. the message to uganda's government is that women's lives matter, and they have had enough of living in fear. a spokesman for hungary's government has denied reports that it is one 01:14 eu states to have entered a migrant repatriation agreement with berlin.

the deal would see the nations take back migrants who initially registered in their countries before travelling on to germany. german chancellor angela merkel has been facing a political crisis at home over her approach towards migrants. speaking at a ceremony marking the handover of the eu's rotating presidency from bulgaria, austria's chancellor sebastian kurz said its motto would be "a europe that protects". mr kurz has put security and the fight against what he calls illegal migration among his top priorities. bethany bell has more from vienna. sebastian kurz has promised to make the fight against illegal migration a major priority for austria's eu presidency. he's welcomed the deal that was reached earlier this week in brussels, but he says now it's a question of trying to implement that quickly. but there is still quite a bit of confusion about the details of this. eu leaders have agreed to set up asylum processing centres. it's not clear in which countries those will be or how quickly they can be brought into being.

what sebastian kurz has said is that he wants to shift the focus from repatriating asylum seekers within eu countries to strengthening europe's outer borders, but there are still a great number of differences as to the best way of dealing with that, and germany in particular has tried to strike up agreements with 14 eu countries to repatriate some of those asylum seekers. this is a complex political problem for the eu, and there are a great many disagreements about it still. but it has to be said that while the problem is political, the number of migrants who are reaching europe at the moment has dropped significantly since the migrant crisis of 2015—16. stay with us on bbc world news. still to come:

it's game over for argentina and portugal after losses on the first day of the world cup knockouts — messi and ronaldo among the heavyweights heading home. china marked its first day of rule in hong kong with a series of spectacular celebrations. a huge firework display was held in the former colony. the chinese president, jiang zemin, said unification was the start of a new era for hong kong. the world's first clone has been produced of an adult mammal. scientists in scotland have produced a sheep called dolly, that was cloned in a laboratory using a cell from another sheep. for the first time in 20 years, russian and american spacecraft have docked in orbit, at the start of a new era of cooperation in space. challenger powered past the bishop rock lighthouse at almost 50 knots, shattering a record that

had stood for 34 years. and there was no hiding the sheer elation of richard branson and his crew. this is bbc world news, the latest headlines: from dc to la, hundreds of thousands of americans protest across the states against president trump's immigration policies. two major steel producers, tuussenkrupp of germany and india's tata steel, have agreed to merge in the biggest such deal in europe for more than a decade. the new company will be the second—largest steel manufacturer in the region, employing almost 50,000 people. the two firms have been in negotiations for more than a year. they had previously warned that about 4,000 jobs could go as a result of the merger. tomos morgan reports. jobs have been cut,

pension terms reduced. but now it seems the steelworkers have some security. port talbot is home to almost half of tata's british workforce, and today's news is most welcome to scott barmsey, who, along with several family members, has worked in this steelworks all his adult life. morale has been really low over the last few years. i think today has given us some sort of clear future and a bit of a weight off our shoulders. thyssenkrupp tata steel bv will be the second—biggest steel maker in europe. together, they will have a workforce of around a8,000. the 50—50 joint venture anticipates making cost savings of between £350 million up to £440 million a year. and due to the increased size of this new company, the annual sales will be about £13 billion. within the merger is a commitment to invest in extending the life of the blast furnace, a key part of steel production here in south wales. without this commitment,

the rest of the uk operation suffers — something the unions have been battling for all along this process. what we need now is a period of stability. not worry about their jobs or security. just get on and make steel, which is what they are best at. the larger european giant better equipped to deal with the world market comes at a crucial time as the imminent threat of the recent us steel tariffs and its knock—on effect looms over the industry. the governments say they will continue to work closely with new management teams and trade unions as this new company develops its business plan. there will be some voluntary redundancies as part of this merger, mostly in administrative roles. but there will be no compulsory redundancies for the steelworkers at port talbot and tata's other uk factories. some certainty, some security for now at least after what has been such a turbulence few years. tomas morgan, bbc news, port talbot. soldiers in thailand have been

carrying out evacuation rehearsals as they continue to search for 12 missing boys inside a flooded cave. the fate of the boys, aged between 11 and 16, and their football coach, has gripped the nation since they went missing seven days ago in chiang rai province. the bbc‘s howard johnson has been spending some time behind the police cordon where the children's families and rescue workers are waiting anxiously. are the relatives of the missing 13 have been waiting inside this tented area area now for a week. they have heard very little from search and rescue teams since their boys went

missing inside the caves, which were flooded following heavy rain. in times like this, thai families come together to pray, eat together and comfort one another. 0ne mother we spoke to said it would be depressing to stay at home waiting for them. "staying together helps to give moral support," she said. but they are part of a wider thai community here, and central to the support effort is food. it is what really bonds the thai people. these meals here have been provided by the thai king. there are also hundreds of civilian volunteers helping out here. this morning i saw three cavers going off into the hills behind us to find routes into the caverns. this woman has come along to help with her translation skills. why did you decide to come along and help? because i watched the news from the first day and i have my own children, two children at home, and i thought if they are in the cave, so i could not sleep or eat, so i come, maybe i can support and help here. what we have seen in the last few minutes is one of thailand's most prestigious monks arrive to give a ceremony for the relatives of the missing 13. you can see it going onjust behind me over here, and it demonstrates what happens when a vip arrives at the site —

lots of media flock around to see what's going on, police blowing whistles. sometimes it can get a bit chaotic here. there are hundreds of search and rescue workers here waiting to be called into action the moment that the boys are found. but the conditions here are tough. there is mud everywhere. it is hot and humid, and when it rains, it is torrential. for now, all they can do is be patient and wait for news on the teams inside the cave. the bbc‘s howard johnson, reporting from northern thailand there. a privately developed rocket has exploded and crashed to the ground football, and saturday saw two of the greatest players in the history of the game crash out of the world cup within a few hours of each other. argentina's lionel messi and portugal's cristiano ronaldo both lost in the first knock—out stage, as france and uruguay moved on to the quarter—finals. the bbc‘s tim allman watched the action. they have been, without doubt, the players of their generation.

arguably two of the best players of all time. but neither lionel messi nor cristiano ronaldo have ever won a world cup, and now, barring something fairly extraordinary, it seems unlikely they ever will. it was messi who departed first, argentina losing in a fantastic match against france in kazan. a penalty from antoine griezmann gave the french an early lead. but a few minutes before half—time, and how the maria scored an absolute screamer the maria scored an absolute screamer to make it 1—1. just after the break, gabrielle mercado deflected messi's shot, putting argentina ahead. but that was as good as it got for the south americans, benjamin equalising just before the hour mark. then two goals from killian and update was enough to send france through, and lionel messi home. —— mbappe. forthe

argentina fans it was a disappointment, but some still have hope. translation: this team has completed a cycle. it now has to be renewed. ten players, plus messi. he has to continue, he has to get to the world cup. it is fundamental. i wa nt the world cup. it is fundamental. i want him to leave the game with that golden trophy. a team that never worked, never got going. but it was a great match which either side could have won. so, superstar number one had gone. about superstar number two. the second match, uruguay versus portugal, took place in sochl versus portugal, took place in sochi. it was uruguay who took the lead, at fantastic cross met by a fantastic header from everson killarney. ten minutes into the second half and it was 1—1, pepe doing the honours. but uruguay were

not to be denied, combine a getting his second. another great player heading home and a sense that an era is drawing to a close. for more on the world cup, head to the bbc sport website. you'll find team news, fixtures, match reports, all building up to the final onjuly the 15th. a great white shark has been spotted near the spanish mediterranean island of majorca. this footage was captured by a wildlife conservation group. it's the first time such a shark has been seen in this area for over a0 years. the last confirmed sighting of such a fish in the balearic islands was by a fisherman in 1976. great whites can weigh up to two tons, grow to lengths of 20 foot and reach speeds of aokm per hour. i thinkjaws came out in 1976, or around them. let's hope they don't need aid vigor boat. —— need a

bigger boat. hello there. june has been exceptionally dry for large parts of the uk. the heat has been far and wide. so too the sunshine. and for the first day ofjuly, many of us will see more of the same. but not quite everywhere, because we've got the chance of a few thundery downpours towards the far south—west. that's because here, we're going to be very close to this growing area of cloud that has sort of sprung into life over the past few hours. that high—based cloud is drifting towards the south—west of the uk. ahead of it, we're drawing in a slightly different wind direction, more south—easterly, but that's picking up more heat and more humidity blowing into the south. that humidity and that cloud triggering a few thundery downpours towards the far south—west and the channel islands for a while. at the same time, a very weak weather front brings cloud towards northern ireland. maybe a few spots of rain in the far

north—west of scotland. but elsewhere, it will be dry and sunny. temperatures in the mid—20s, scotland and northern ireland, high 20s, perhaps 30 degrees or so across england and wales. well, let's focus on those showers, and we've got thunderstorm warnings issued by the met office for the very first time for the south—west of england and south wales, but a few storms could arrive all the way towards sussex into surrey, maybe later on into the south midlands. don't take the position of those areas of rain as gospel because it is a developing situation, all developing around this very flabby area of low pressure that's bringing that cloud and the potential for some storms. but at the same time, we've got high pressure building in across the north. so on monday, most places are going to have a dry and sunny day once again. there will still be a few storms not far away from the far south—west through the english channel and towards the channel islands. but away from here, no sign of any rain. those temperatures still on the high side for this time of year, particularly high towards the south—east into the midlands. 30 degrees quite likely here. and for the first week ofjuly, not a great deal of change. more dry, sunny and quite hot weather for most.

the highest temperatures will be in the south where there is still the chance of one or two thundery downpours, although that threat, that risk, that chance is diminishing as the week goes on. because that high pressure is going to be building in across more of the uk, settling things down once again, and again on tuesday, it's sunny skies for most areas. but with the high pressure building in across the north, here, it's somewhat cooler and fresher, there's a bit more cloud for northern scotland for a while, but fewer showers through the english channel. as you can see, in the outlook for our capital forecast, it looks like it should stay dry, temperatures widely into the mid—to—high 20s. that's it from me. goodbye. this is bbc world news, the headlines:

hundreds of thousands of people have taken part in protests across the united states against president trump's immigration policies. the demonstrators called for migrant families split up at the us border to be reunited. syrian forces have bombed opposition—held areas of darra after ceasefire negotiations collapsed. rebels in the region rejected demands that they surrender, calling them humiliating. eu leaders are struggling to reach agreement on sharing responsibility for migrants. hungary has denied reports that it's among 1a member states to have indicated it would be prepared to take back asylum seekers. it's game over for argentina and portugal after losses on the first day of the world cup knockouts — it means heavyweights lionel messi and cristiano ronaldo are heading home. the nhs in england is proposing

to restrict the numbers of patients being offered treatments such as the removal of tonsils