this is bbc news. i'm nkem ifejika. our top stories: chanting: no trump, no kkk, no fascist usa! hundreds of thousands protest across the united states against president trump's hardline immigration policies. syrian forces shell opposition—held deraa as rebels refuse to surrender. events begin marking 21 years since britain handed hong kong back to china. 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.

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, which is near the border withjordan. 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. our 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. you're watching bbc world news. 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. let's get some of the day's other news. at least one person has been killed and around a dozen injured during a march in the nicaraguan capital, managua in memory of the young protestors who died over more than two months of anti—government protests. rights groups reported armed men shooting at marchers during the demonstration. 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. hong kong is marking the 21st

anniversary of the handover of hong kong from britain to china with a flag raising ceremony. thousands of hong kong residents are expected to take to the streets today for an annual protest march, as tensions continue to simmer over the financial hub‘s democratic future. 0ur correspondent martin yip is in hong kong. this marks the first anniversary of mars carrie lam's office as hong kong's chief executive. just before she entered this venue for the flag raising ceremony she was greeted by pro—beijing spectators waving both hong kong and china flags. according to some pro—democracy legislators, the past year has been more harmonic between them and the government. while they do see those recent sentences against activists involved in the umbrella movement and the clashes as political persecution. while according to government this is only the exercise of the rule of law. for mrs carrie lam, there next year

twill still see challenges, including the execution of the joint checkpoint plan, where a piece of legislation just got passed by the local legislature not so long ago. that will see chinese police officers, immigrations officers, and customs officers, exercising their power on hong kong soil. also the government will introduce a piece of legislation to protect the chinese nationalflag, which has proven controversial as well. that was martin yip. 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. 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, our top story: from dc to la — hundreds of thousands of americans protest across the states against president trump's immigration policies. let's get more on that now — i'm joined now from washington by daniella burgi—palomino, who is senior associate for mexico, migrant rights and border issues at the latin america worker group. thank you forjoining us. you are

used to dealing with migrants coming across the border into the united states, am i correct? yes, that's correct. what is different about this time to the times you have dealt with migrants in the past? what we are seeing now is that overwhelmingly, the number of migrants are families and children, mainly from the three main countries of central america, guatemala, honduras and el salvador, and increasingly they are coming with claims of asylum, fleeing persecution, and unfortunately we have seen over the last month, in terms of the treatment up on their arrival by the administration, it has been tactics that we all know, institutionalising family separation and long—term detention, to send a message to these migrants that they should not be coming and that if they do come they will be treated in this way, separated, and also their claims for asylum will be rejected. without judging the

claims for asylum will be rejected. withoutjudging the actual policy of separating families and putting children aside from the families that you have spoken to, are they thinking twice about weather they would make thatjourney again, or sending messages to people back home to say, if you come to america, this is how you will be treated, so don't do it? well, i have heard from our partners along the border, and also from families i have spoken to directly. what i have heard is that this message has not made an impact on their decision on whether to leave or not, because when you are faced with a life or death situation, you are not really thinking... you are thinking about safety, and the protection of your child and yourself. so you are not really thinking about what is going to be happening to you at the border. so i would not say it has made an impact in their decision—making. made an impact in their decision-making. so quite simply, separating families doesn't really actors a deterrent, from your experience? no, it doesn't. -- act

asa experience? no, it doesn't. -- act as a deterrent. the statistics also show that. looking at border apprehensions at the border in the last three months, there has been no change in terms of the numbers we have seen, in fact there has only been an increase. i think this is reflect evolve the conditions that individuals, families and children, are fleeing from in central america. —— reflective of the conditions. are fleeing from in central america. -- reflective of the conditions. but the policies in place have always beenin the policies in place have always been in place, they were in place under the last few presidents. it is different now, the enforcement? the enforcement of the policies, and the direct institutionalisation of family separation as part of the criminal prosecution that an individualfamily faces criminal prosecution that an individual family faces when they cross the border illegally. so, previously we have heard of cases of family separation, as you say. but it was not an actual formal part of the policy of criminal prosecution, once you cross the border. thank you

so much forjoining us. that was daniella burgi—palomino from the latin america worker group. now, 30 years ago a us warship, the uss vincennes, shot down an iranian airliner over the persian gulf. all 290 on board were killed, among them 66 children. in a rare interview, the bbc‘s witness programme has spoken to someone who was on board the us warship. rudy pahoyo was then a us navy combat cameraman, who just happened to be filming on the vincennes on that fateful day. he's been speaking to our history programme, witness. it was a tragedy. we did shoot down an airliner. one of those things, you just... i'm still in disbelief that it could have happened. the mood in the gulf was very tense.

iran and iraq were at war at the time and the us navy was protecting the oil tankers that came out of kuwait to make sure that the flow of oil kept coming to the united states. the iranians were harassing those ships. these speedboats that the iranians were using, they would round—robin the ships while they were shooting, try to catch it on fire, so ourjob was just kind of like a police force, if you will. the team i was with was combat camera group. i'm videotaping the whole time. and i caught a ride with the uss vincennes, an aegis cruiser. $1 billion boat, state—of—the—art at the time. as we were sailing back to bahrain, we got into a battle with iranian speedboats. tannoy: general quarters, general quarters. all hands, man battle stations! during a gunboat battle we were thinking that they were going to come at us with whatever

they have now, and that would have been their airforce. the year before, 1987, the uss stark got hit by an exocet missile launched by iraq. we were always reminded, "remember the stark, remember the stark." about five minutes went by and they said there was a target that had left an iranian airfield, an airport at bandar abbas. in iran, a military airfield and a civilian airfield are the same place, i thought. so when it took off the aircraft was identified as a hostile. they thought it was the iranian air force f—1li tomcat. but the plane in reality was iran air flight 655. it was an airline, an airbus. five times a week there is a scheduled air service from bandar abbas across the strait to dubai. but here the crew's waiting for another target to come out,

and the aircraft takes off. and i believe one of the lieutenants, i went up and asked him, what are we doing? he said, you're going to see some missile action. and i went to the operations specialist who was watching the scope and he was watching the missile, because you can track them off the radar, and he sees it hit a target. but they found out like 15 or 20 minutes later that it was an airliner. radio: an iranian airbus is presumed crashed. please look for survivors or aircraft wreckage. so that's when it was like, what?

airliner missing? we didn't shoot an airliner. we shot a tomcat, i thought. there was a lot of soul—searching. disbelief. that's not supposed to happen, that's not what we were here to do. 290 civilians passed away on flight 655, and of those 290, 66 were children. felt so bad for the families that lost their loved ones. and sometimes you're part of history and you love it and sometimes you're part of history and you hate it. this was just one of those things where you just wish it didn't happen. but i was there. a privately developed rocket has exploded and crashed to the ground just seconds after lift—off in japan. hundreds of people were watching in shock as the rocket fell from the sky in flames at a test site on the island of hokkaido. it was unmanned and there were no injuries reported. the rocket was developed by a start—up company — interstellar technologies — which is hoping to provide

affordable commercial space flights. 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 lionel messi who departed first. argentina losing in a fantastic match against france. a penalty gave the french an early lead but a few minutes before

half—time, argentina scored a screamer to make it 1—1. after the break, mercado deflected a shot and put argentina ahead. and that was as good as it got for the south americans. they were equalised just before the hour mark. and then france were sent through with another goal and lionel messi was sent home. to the argentina fans it was a disappointment, but some still have hope. translation: this team has completed a cycle. it now needs to be renewed. ten players plus lionel messi. he has to continue. he has to get to the world cup. it is fundamental. i want him to leave the game with that golden trophy. translation: a team that never

worked, never got going. that it was a great match that either side could have won. so, superstar number one had gone. how about superstar number two? the second match, uruguay versus portugal took place in sochi and uruguay took the lead with a fantastic cross, met by a fantastic header. ten minutes into the second half and it was 1—1. pepe doing the honours. uruguay were not to be denied. another great player heading home and the 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 forty 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 tonnes, grow to lengths of 20 foot and reach speeds of aokm per hour. so be careful while you are swimming. all don't swim at all. —— 01’. you can reach me on twitter. i'm @nkem|fejika. 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. people took to the streets in cities as far and wide as washington, san francisco, and atlanta, calling for migrant families split up at the us border to be reunited.

at least one person has been killed and around a dozen injured in the nicaraguan capital managua. armed men are reported to have shot at crowds of people who were marching in memory of young protestors who died during more than two months of anti—government protests. and in the world cup, its game over for argentina and portugal after losses on the first day of the knockout stage in russia — lionel messi and cristiano ronaldo are among the goalscoring greats who'll be heading home. their sides lost to france and uruguay respectively. now on bbc news — click.