this is newsday on the bbc. i'm rico hizon in singapore. the headlines: donald trump sides with vladimir putin over claims russia meddled in american elections, implying his own intelligence services got it wrong. president putin, hejust president putin, he just said president putin, hejust said it's not russia. i will say this, i don't see any reason why it would be. mr trump says the summit marks a change in the relationship, but there's been a scathing reaction in washington. we'll have the latest, live. i'm babita sharma in london. also in the programme: one of the team who saved the thailand cave boys says he might sue the billionaire, elon musk, after a row about the rescue gets personal. and it's party time in paris, as hundreds of thousands of people turn out to welcome france's world cup winners home. live from our studios in singapore and london, this is bbc world news.

it's newsday. it's 7am in singapore, midnight in london and 2am in helsinki, where the us president donald trump has held an unprecedented and controversial meeting with the russian president vladimir putin. mrtrump appeared to side with russia against his own security services, saying he had no reason to disbelieve mr putin's denial that moscow interfered in the 2016 presidential election. that's prompted alarm in washington, even among republicans. our north america editor jon sopel begins our coverage of the meeting from helsinki. as befitting two self—proclaimed strongmen, there was a power—play from the off. vladimir putin arriving almost rudely late into finland... it was a bit late... ..leaving donald trump kicking his

heels for nearly an hour. but then, against the constant whirr of camera shutters, they sat down at the presidential palace in helsinki to start their discussion. i think we have great opportunities together, as two countries that, frankly, we have not been getting along very well for the last number of years. i've been here not too long. and i really think the world wants to see us get along, we are the two great nuclear powers, we have 90% of the nuclear — and that's not a good thing, it's a bad thing. and i think we hopefully can do something about that. translation: the time has come to talk in a substantive way about our bilateral relations, and the many problem areas of the world. with rather fewer cameras present, the two men met for the formal handshake. they then sat alone, just them and their translators,

for two hours, before the working lunch. i think it's a good start. which turned into a media scrum, until the secret service had had enough. excuse me, excuse me! and there was a small fracas before the news conference began — a man sitting next to me was evicted, who'd planned to hold up placards. but then the two leaders appeared, and while not going as far as to claim it was a new dawn, the president was happy to say today had been a turning point. our relationship has never been worse than it is now. however, that changed, as of about four hours ago. i really believe that. of all the people donald trump has picked fights with, vladimir putin is not one of them. was that because of collusion during the election? nonsense, says vladimir putin.

translation: can you name a single fact that would definitely prove the collusion? this is utter nonsense. nonsense, said donald trump. just to say it one time again, and i say it all the time, there was no collusion, i didn't know the president, there was nobody to collude with. and also this question. does the russian government have any compromising material on president trump or his family? translation: yes, i did hear the rumours that we did collect compromising material on president trump. when president trump was in moscow back then, i didn't even know he was in moscow. i treat president trump with utmost respect. but forget collusion, what about simple russian interference? something, after all, that 12 russian intelligence agents were indicted for last week? would you now, with the world watching, tell president putin that you denounce what happened in 2016 and that you want him to never do it again? all i can do is ask the question. my people came to me,

dan coates came to me, and some others, they said, they think it's russia. i have president putin, he just said it's not russia. i will say this, i don't see any reason why it would be. he ducked and deflected all questions on russian meddling, blaming the fbi, the democrats, refusing to blame the russians. the president has left helsinki and is on his way back to washington. if he hoped the summit would allow him to move on from questions of russian interference, he is in for a nasty surprise when he lands back in dc. well, the two leaders pictured together is dominating the headlines in the world's morning's papers. more on that coming up, but what has the reaction been in washington? our correspodent david willis is in washington with more. condemnation from both sides of the political aisle,

a lot of talk of throwing the intelligence agencies under the bus, if you like. we would expect to have condemnation perhaps from democrats and indeed the senate minority leader chuck schumer said this was a shameful performance on the part of president trump in his words. but more significantly perhaps republicans coming out against it. newt gingrich, one—time adviser to donald trump, a republican of course, you know, someone of great stature here in washington saying in a tweet a short while ago, president trump must clarify his statements in helsinki on our intelligence system and putin is the most serious mistake of his presidency and must be corrected immediately. now the former director of the cia john brennan said this was not nothing short of treason. and we have seen

fellow republicans like paul ryan and mitch mcconnell also seeking to distance themselves from the sentiments expressed by donald trump today. one statement really stands out to me, that is from the director of national intelligence, dan coates, who says we have been clear in our coates, who says we have been clear in oui’ assessments coates, who says we have been clear in our assessments of russia. so he is not backing down in his belief, and it is the belief of many, more less all people in the intelligence services here that russia was to blame for meddling in those elections in 2016. given that level of criticism from both sides, then, david, what might that mean for donald trump when he returns home? well i think it will be confronted with a lot of obviously unfavourable headlines and some fend mencing to be done among members of his own party. that said, they have their plate. there are domestic issues such as the confirmation of the

supreme courtjudge, such as the confirmation of the supreme court judge, they such as the confirmation of the supreme courtjudge, they have the mid—term elections coming up. so they won't want to betray much in they won't want to betray much in the way of disunity. but once all thatis the way of disunity. but once all that is a way, the dust settles on this, it is possible then that these gaps may begin to widen and we will see serious dissent to president trump. david willis. the british government has narrowly avoided defeat. theresa may accepted amendments on future trade with the eu to make it more difficult to integrate trade with the single market after brexit. pro— europe conservative have mps accused theresa may of bending to pressure. four protesters who interruped the world cup final on sunday have been sentended to 15 days' jail. the protesters, who are from the activist group, pussy riot, ran onto the pitch wearing fake police uniforms. they said it was a protest against human rights abuses in russia. the japanese prime minister is expected to sign a free—trade deal with the eu at a summit

in tokyo, which will remove almost all tariffs and, for the first time, adopt international car standards. the eu council president, donald tusk, and commission head jean—claude juncker are in japan to sign the deal on tuesday. a reuters journalist charged with breaching myanmar‘s official secrets act is due to testify in court in yangon later. on monday, his colleague, accused of the same charges, testified that a policeman phoned him the day he was arrested and insisted on a meeting where he was given documents, unsolicited. both men have pleaded not guilty. at the time of their arrest last december, they were investigating alleged army massacres of ethnic rohingya in rakhine state. now to some extraordinary pictures from thorncomb beacon, in dorset, in the south of england. a paraglider pilot has been rescued after crashing into a cliff. the pilot, who is in his late 20s, was found on a narrow ledge around 80 metres up the cliff on sunday afternoon. a coastguard team abseiled down the cliff and hauled the man up

to the top. thankfully, no one was injured. a mob of angry villagers has slaughtered almost 300 crocodiles from a breeding sanctuary in indonesia. they said it was in retaliation for the death of a local man last friday, believed to have been attacked by a crocodile. a warning, andrew plant's report contains some distressing scenes. dozens of people from an indonesian village pulling together the pope, hauling a crocodile over the walls ofa hauling a crocodile over the walls of a century based here, then dragging it across a field. this is what happened next to every animal inside the farm. almost 300 crocodiles in all. youngsters and

adults killed with hammers and knives. even the arrival of local police failed to stop the slaughter. translation: these were spontaneous actions from residents around the area who entered the farm and killed the crocodiles. we tried to stop them but it had already been done. the massacre, 292 crocodiles in total, happened here, indonesia's far east and province of west papua, near sorong. local people broke in after a man was killed by a crocodile here last week. translation: i think what we did was right. it is better that this kind of animal is kept in places far away, in the nearby forest, for instance, so that it is safer for people and those who have livestock and farms. the crocodiles were protected species. killing them is a crime, though no arrests have been made. you might know this already, but

france have won the world cup and they have returned home to paris to a heroes' welcome and we have just found out they are to receive the highest accolade given in france, the legion of honour. lucy williamson is paris with tens of thousands lining the champs—elysees. this is the road that turns world champions in two national heroes. france's victory pele to longer champs—elysees, a moment for the winners to bask in the adulation. this team has sent back an image france can be proud of. notjust an emblem of glory, but also what it means to be french. i feelvery proud to be french and ifeel incredible. i am so excited to be

hit with everyone else. it is a unique moment. i am proud of this team of france and it is very important for us to see them. the faces of france's young heroes were projected last night onto the war memorial, a rare showcase of multicultural france. in moscow last night, the team coach didier deschamp, was honoured with a song and a bath of champagne. back home they did things differently, and metro station that once began champs—elysees temporarily changed to honour his name. and president macron has invited them all to the presidential palace. leaving russia this morning, one of the team admitted it was all still sinking in. translation: when we reach the semifinals we started to think maybe we would bring the cup home. it

turned out well. we could feel the excitement and we made it. hard to process in croatia, too. the crowds here less jubilant, but still supportive. a country of 4 million honouring their team placed second in the world. the last time france enjoy this moment, some of its new stars weren't even born. now a new generation is out to celebrate a fraternity that represents all fronts. —— all of france. vive les bleus. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme: to sink or not to sink, we will hear from one marine expert on his views about thinking old oil rigs rather than bringing them to ground. also on the programme: india's supreme court will decide on whether or not to decriminalise homosexuality. we will take a look at what that will mean for the

country's lg bt community. the flamboyant italian fashion designer, gianni versace, has been shot dead in florida. the multimillionaire was gunned down outside his home in the exclusive south beach district of miami. emergency services across central europe are stepping up their efforts to contain the worst floods this century. nearly 100 people have been killed. broadway is traditionally called the great white way by americans, but tonight it's completely blacked out. it's a timely reminder to all americans of the problems the energy crisis has brought to them. 200 years ago today, a huge parisian crowd stormed the bastille prison, the first act of the revolution which was to topple the french monarchy. today, hundreds of thousands thronged the champs—elysee for the traditional military parade. finally, fairy penguins have been staggering ashore and collapsing after gorging themselves on huge shoal of their favourite food, pilchards. some had eaten so much they could barely stand. this is newsday on the bbc.

i'm rico hizon in singapore. i'm babita sharma in london. our top stories: donald trump says he believes vladimir putin's claim that russia never meddled in us elections — putting him at odds with his own intelligence services. mr trump also said relations between moscow and washington had never been worse — but that the helsinki summit had started to change that. and the hollywood star george clooney earned more money than any other actor in a calendar year — that's according to forbes magazine. he brought in an extimated 239 million dollars over the last twelve months. and you can find more on that story on bbc.com.

let's take a look at some front pages from around the world. and you won't be surprised to find out that the summit between presidents putin and trump is dominating the headlines. the south china morning post quotes mr trump as saying that the relationship, which has been strained by allegations of election meddling, and the conflict in syria, is back on track. singapore's straits times also focuses on events in helsinki. it shows mr putin handing over a ball from the russian world cup as a gift, and says mr trump hailed a change in the relationship. china daily also carries a picture of the two leaders shaking hands after successful talks. but it gives pride of place to the chinese president,

xijinping, and how he used a meeting with eu leaders to call for more to be done to protect free trade. those are the papers. a british cave diver who helped rescue 12 thai boys earlier this month says he may sue the tech entrepreneur elon musk. vern unsworth‘s knowledge of the caves is said to have played a crucial part in the rescue operation. he says he's considering legal action after mr musk tweeted a baseless slur against him. here's david campanale. the divers who helped rescue 12 thai balls in a football coach from deep within the cave of almost universally been acclaimed as heroes but not by everyone. entrepreneur elon musk played down their achievement, saying they could have simply swum to the cave to get the boys without even using any diving gear. the tech billionaire appeared irritated that the rescue mission rejected an offer of a mini

submarine built by elon musk to assist in the effort. the row escalated when he then sent to tweet, apparently making baseless slur against vern unsworth, a british cave diver based in thailand had ridiculed the submarine idea, calling it a pr stunt. mr unsworth condemned the tweet. calling it a pr stunt. mr unsworth condemned the tweetlj calling it a pr stunt. mr unsworth condemned the tweet. i don't really understand it. obviously it's a bruised ego. at the end of the day, we we re bruised ego. at the end of the day, we were here to rescue 12 young boys. unsworth had travelled into the caves in the first days after the caves in the first days after the boys went missing and helped bring in top international cave rescue experts for the mission. the british diver says he might now sue the billionaire. hopefully get a copy of the tweet later, and not finished. i'll take advice will get back to london. legal advice? yes. the tweet sent out to elon musk‘s 22 million followers has now been deleted but he still says is

planning to send his submarine to the now empty cave just to prove it could be done. mr unsworth has previously said the billionaire can stick his submarine where it hurts. the boys, continuing the recovery in hospital, their priority is returning home. they are expected to be discharged to their families on thursday. "against the order of nature" is how section 377 of india's penal code describes gay sex. the law, which is a relic of british rule, outlaws homosexuality and puts it on a par with bestiality. now the country's supreme court is poised to repeal it, after india's conservative government signalled it wouldn't stand in the way. joe miller reports from delhi. out, proud and eager to flaunt it. lawyers and chefs by day, by night, delhi's drag queen is a challenging

one of india's strongest social taboos. our idea is to be fearless, to a cce pt taboos. our idea is to be fearless, to accept yourself and the more people who come out with an orientation and people who are co mforta ble orientation and people who are comfortable in their own skin, the better it is for the whole community. on the city streets, being openly gay is still a risk. returning from a wedding late one night, this man, who asked not to be named, says he became a target. police officer stopped me, took my phone and noted down all my family contacts. he later asked for a bribe of 10,000 rupees or else he would tell my family i am gay. the law has become a tool for them to extort money. the bbc has spoken to three more gay men who claim they too were harassed, exported or sexually abused by police officers who exploited india's ban on homosexuality and it is many harrowing stories like those that

activists hope will finally convince india's highest court to once and for all consigned this colonial law to history. delhi police did not respond to requests for comment yet a member of india's governing party says blackmail does occur but lays the blame squarely on gay men. police officers come to know these things, if somebody has celebrated it made a proposition but if it was kept absolutely private, a police officer would not know. campaigners say such attitudes are hampered in their shampooing the fight against hiv and fearof their shampooing the fight against hiv and fear of arrest leads to an underreporting of crimes witnessed by gay men. for them a decision from india's topjudges by gay men. for them a decision from india's top judges can't come soon enough. joe miller, bbc news, new delhi. what happens to oil rigs when they outlive their usefulness? up to now, it's generally been agreed that the seabed should be returned to its previous state, before the rigs were there. but now researchers from the university of technology

in sydney say decommissioned oil rigs can benefit the marine environment and could be left in place to establish artificial habitats for sea life. what is this —— this particular study was involved with, summary by over 200 experts looking at what happens if they are there in the first place, what is the next thing to do if they need to be decommissioned? is the best thing to remove it? that would be commonsense, but there are significant environmental costs sue its a case—by—case thing and we feel either option like keeping it in place in certain circumstances should be considered. which particular species can survive with these oil rigs being left in the oceans? well, in fact, they are often put in places where there is not much hard substrate, not much brief so if you put one out, it soon

gets encrusted with marine life and that attracts little fish and then big fish and seals and after 30 or 40 big fish and seals and after 30 or a0 yea rs, big fish and seals and after 30 or a0 years, these structures are really almost entities in themselves and often provide a home to many rare species so gripping them out at that point can be problematic, not to mention a huge carbon cost so all we are saying is, look at the different options and in the north sea, the default is remove or else. looking at the different options, yes, but you also have a lot of critics who are saying it's also just an opportunity oil companies to save money and not natural for sea life to live in hard structures like these. sea life does prosper in these. sea life does prosper in these sorts of things and when they are 30 ora0 these sorts of things and when they are 30 or a0 years old, all you see is being crusting reef and most of the structure may have disappeared so the structure may have disappeared soi the structure may have disappeared so i agree with the critics that you need to be very careful in doing this but there is quite a loss in removing structures that are already there. that was professor david booth

joining us earlierfrom sydney. you have been watching newsday. when asked how much more netflix can grow. —— we asked. and before we go, the party continues in france tonight. this was paris earlier where hundreds of thousands of people crammed themselves onto the champs elysees, to get a glimpse of the world cup champions parading the trophy they won in moscow. but not to be outdone, luka modric and his croatia team—mates were given a rapturous welcome home after their world cup mission had come upjust short. the squad flew back to zagreb to a red carpet welcome before boarding an open—top bus where thousands of fans had gathered to welcome them home. that's all for now — stay with bbc world news. hello there. monday was a day of

contrast here in the uk. we had had the searing heat in the east and temperatures pushed 32 celsius at gravesend in kent. but further north and west, in many areas, it was a fresher day. we had a weather front across us. fresher day. we had a weather front across us. this is how it looked in north yorkshire through the afternoon. that weather front is cold, pushing its thundery rain eastwards and northwards through the night and because it's called the cold weather front, you night and because it's called the cold weatherfront, you guessed it, it is introducing cooler air so we will notice a fresh appeal to the weather into tuesday except for the far south and east, but still some fund we rain around north—eastern areas first thing and certainly true shape. a much more comfortable night will have passed many of us in the coming few nights should be more co mforta ble coming few nights should be more comfortable because not only are we calling the air down, the timidity. plenty of sunshine which will clear any missed quite quickly. the cloud

will bubble up, they were the cloud of produce a few showers through the afternoon, particularly across northern england. scotland, slow—moving mums with a light winds and very few showers elsewhere. but in contrast to monday, temperatures will be notably down across england and wales and it would feel quite so intense. still lovely and warm in the sunshine. more about will follow, the high building again so another comfortable night tuesday into wednesday are plenty of sunshine first thing, any missed clues quickly and we will see a scattering of showers, mostly in the west, possibly in scotland, 12 heavy ones but by and large, the exception rather than the rule. temperatures will start recover a little bit as we see more heat coming in. the temperatures are creeping up a degree. on thursday, high pressure with us. very few showers but later this into friday, watching the approach of this low pressure, giving us a headache all week but it

looks like it will bring showery rain, mostly to scotland and northern ireland, possibly parts of england and wales but the bulk, again, quite hot and dry, cabbage is exceeding those of thursday by another degree and a little bit of brightness between the showery rain further north as well. with high—pressure re—establishing itself, it will push the unsettled weather away. but you can see the risk of quite a bit of cloud into saturday in the north and west, particularly scotland but at the moment, the week and is looking promising, particularly for central and southern areas. i'm babita sharma with bbc world news. our top story —

president trump has met with president vladimir putin in helsinki and said he believes putin's claim that moscow has never meddled in american elections. there's been a scathing reaction in the united states from many republicans and democrats alike who expressed dismay that president trump cast doubt on the reliability of us intelligence agencies. hundreds of thousands of people have crammed ono the champs elysees in paris, to welcome france's world cup winning team home. and this story is trending on bbc.com. george clooney has set a new record for the highest earnings by an actor in a calendar year according to forbes magazine. he made an estimated $239 million, though much of that was due to the sale of his tequlia business. —— tequila. that's all. stay with bbc world news. now on bbc news, it's time for hardtalk.