after president donald trump defended russia over claims of interference in the 2016 elections. at a summit with russian president vladimir putin in finland, mr trump contradicted us intelligence agencies, saying russia had no reason to meddle. britain's prime minister, theresa may, has caved in to pressure from conservative brexiteers over her plan for leaving the eu — and narrowly neutralised a potential rebellion by those mps who were looking to reject her brexit proposals. meanwhile, calls by a former cabinet ministerfor a second referendum has been ruled out. the tv and movie streaming company netflix has released its latest financial results. shares fell sharply in after hours trading, after the company revealed it had added just over 5 million new subscribers between april and june — about a million less than markets were expecting. a peninsula in northern scotland has been chosen as the site of the uk's first spaceport. rockets carrying satellites could be

blasting off from sutherland in a few years time, paving the way for space flights. the government is also setting aside money to develop sites in cornwall and gwynedd in wales. our correspondentjon kay has more. it is not exactly cape canaveral but this quiet boggy land on the north coast of scotland is set to become britain's first space port. smaller rockets like this could be blasting off from the a'mhoine peninsula in sutherland in the next five years, after the uk space agency chose this site for development. for the local community it will be quite a change. until now, this scottish company has had to send its satellites to india, china or kazakhstan to get them into to space. they say being able to lift off from a uk spaceport will rocket—boost the domestic industry. nearly 800 miles south, this is newquay airport in cornwall, and they've also announced ambitious plans today. this flight was only going to a few

miles to the isles of scilly, but soon satellites could be launched from here too. not the kind of vertical rocket lift—offs that are planned for scotland, but horizontal launches by planes. this afternoon cornwall council signed a deal with richard branson‘s virgin orbit company. for this engineering firm in nearby bodmin, it's all a sign that britain's space industry is on the up. this is a really carefully—machined part. the precision parts they make here will soon be used in a nasa mission, to carry out the biggest ever survey of fresh water supplies on earth. they say today's announcements in northern scotland and here will mean the uk can play a confident, long—term part in a growing global business. britain's space industry has waited a long time for today's announcements, and while the news has been

welcomed, experts say it is only a start, and the uk will have to act quickly if it's going to stay ahead. jon kay, bbc news. now on bbc news it's time for the travel show. coming up on this week's show... i'm in amsterdam tojump on board a boat which once ferried migrants across the mediterranean but now carries tourists. so whenever you have a chance to help somebody, do it. it will come back to you. rajan heads to colorado to meet the people trying to save the iconic north american bison. the policy is very much let them roam, let them be free, don't interfere. lucy is here with the lowdown on how to pick the best smart suitcase. the main difference is you can afford to be a bit more careless in this, safe in the knowledge that your wheels will not buckle under the pressure. and taking the long way round to the world cup finals. i came here to russia by bicycle to support my national team. it was like a dream for all of us, all egyptians. amsterdam is famous

for its picturesque canals built in the 17th century to help the city trade in goods from all over the world. these days they're often clogged with boats catering to tourists, ferrying groups from one famous sight to another. but there are one or two boats that stand apart from the rest. this is a hedeer, a former people smuggling vessel that was used to transport refugees across the mediterranean. up to 76 people would be crammed in there. now it is being used to give tourists a very different perspective on amsterdam.

i will be your guide for the day. we have sami, he is our captain. this is part of an initiative called lampedusa cruises, named after the italian island where many asylum seekers from africa come ashore. and the staff are all refugees. i remember, my mother told me, what do you want to study? i said, i want to study cinema. she said, come on, what do you want to study? tommy was an artist and a rebel politician in egypt who to prominence during the arab spring and soon after was forced to leave his home. in 2013 we had a coup in egypt. the president went to prison and i became a fugitive. i was arrested later, i was tortured, i had to leave the country and i became a refugee, and i got all the help i needed. so whenever you have a chance

to help somebody, do it. it'll come back to you. the tour winds its way through familiar sights, but the emphasis is on showing amsterdam's long history as a migrant city, built and made prosperous with the efforts of people from all over the world. in the 17th century, between the year 1600 and 1650, a lot of migrants came to holland. you can imagine, in 50 years, the population of amsterdam grew from 50,000 people to 200,000 people. 75% of the people who lived here were not dutch. and now we have more than 180 nationalities living in amsterdam. tommy is just one of many refugees who have come to amsterdam in the last few years. most came in 2015, when 115,000

refugees, predominantly from syria, sought asylum in the netherlands. smuggling, it is somehow the new slavery system... it prompted a number of local initiatives to help the new arrivals settle more easily into their communities. lampedusa cruises is the brainchild of amsterdam artist teun castelein. heartbroken by the sight of refugees struggling to reach europe, he sought to build a social enterprise that would help amsterdam's refugees. he bought two vessels which had been abandoned on the shores of lampedusa to become tour boats in his city, with the aim of raising awareness about refugee issues for both tourists and local residents. most people in amsterdam, they tend to forget that amsterdam was built on thousands of years of immigration. even, i think, our most famous philosophers, erasmus and spinoza, are most famous poet,

and our most famous writer, anne frank. they all came here because of a threat from their nation. his initiative has trained both captains and guides, and now employs six refugees running two tours, the one i took on the canals and another sunset cruise to the river ij. for him, these tours are a good fit for amsterdam. it's a city that's based on inclusion. it's a city based on an open and a liberal approach to newcomers. so that is part of our dna and i think we should celebrate that. boat tours are not the only way for tourists to learn about refugee experience in the city. another of teun‘s collaborations takes place on dry land across town. this is bijlmerbajes, a prison complex that was built

in the 19705 and then closed again just a couple of years ago in 2016. from the outside it is unsurprisingly quite foreboding, but on the inside it is an entirely different story. are you ready? i am ready. welcome! what do you think? it is really nice on you. i'm not dressed in a towel just for fun. this is a bona fide hamam, created in the former isolation cells of the prison, with showers, massage suites... this is our steam room. you can't even see the room! ..a steam room, and even a pool. first of all, we felt it was impossible to make it a pool, but after the small wall and some small arrangement, it worked fine. it works perfectly. it is amazing. all of the therapists and staff here are refugees. mostly from syria, where hamams are a big part of the culture. many features of the originaljail

cells remain, including graffiti left by former prisoners on the ceilings and walls. it is an odd juxtaposition between this and the relaxing hamam experience. still, it would have been rude not to try it out. the concept of hamam, actually, is a taste of syrian culture, in a western theme. so people can know about us, know who we are. so instead of watching the media and thinking that they know who we are, we use our culture to welcome the dutch society that we are part of now. initiatives such as the hamam and refugee boat cruises offer tourists a completely new perspective on the city of amsterdam.

the hope is they will also impact the way visitors perceive refugees across the world. once there was a kid who was all the time looking at me like this, and when i finished, i asked him, did you have any problem, you didn't understand me or something? and he said, no, i really get inspired. so these things are very important. because these kids or people who want to see amsterdam can change a lot of things. next up, with the football world cup in russia coming to a close this weekend, we hear about the incredible journey that one dedicated fan took to the tournament. my name is mohamed, an egyptian traveller. i am 2a years old.

i came here to russia by bicycle to support my national team. it was like a dream for all of us, all egyptians, to watch our team in the world cup. the journey was around 3000 kilometres. i started from tahrir square in cairo on april 7. from egypt to jordan, from amman injordan i took a plane to cross syria, to sofia in bulgaria, then romania, and from romania across belarus. then i entered the russian border, and moscow was my final destination. —— the journey was completely new experience for me. it was the first time to be in europe. i met new people, new cultures.

it was my chance to know more about myself and discover many places in the world we don't know about in our world and the middle east. so it is like a bigger chance for me to show these areas to my country. of course, the world cup is the biggest event in the world. it is not just about football, it is about people from all over the world. i was so excited, the arrival, so many special moments for me, i think i will not forget this great moment, to be in moscow after 65 days, i can't believe that up until now. stills to come on the travel show, lucy is looking for luggage that will survive a proper pounding.

you can afford to be a bit more careless in this, safe in the knowledge that your wheels won't crumble under the pressure. and rajan heads to colorado to join the battle to save the bison. they are magnificent creatures. these are mostly female and they are calving at the moment and the baby bison are so cute. smart luggage is perhaps the most innovative thing to come to carry—on since the telescopic handle, but when you buy one, you have to be really, really careful. that's because this year select airlines are banning ones without removable batteries, citing fire concerns as the main reason. so if there's no removable battery it's not going on board. so here is our round—up of some

of the ones you can take on your holidays. let's start with something nice and simple. this is the away carry—on, with a 37—watt lithium ion battery located under the handle. that's enough to charge your phone up to five times, using either one of the two full—size usb ports or the micro—usb port under this rubber lead. i quite like this nifty design feature that sees the portable battery pop—up so you simply need to remove it or recharge it. you can keep your laptop in there. you can keep other devices in this zipped compartments down here. 0nly small devices, mind you. a decent amount of storage space and best of all the battery doesn't change how much space you have to work with. if you are after a stylish, convenient, all—in—one package, the away bag is a nice idea — but you could always just buy a portable charger, put it in your bag and have a cheaper a bit of luggage. so far, so straightforward. what if your travels take you off—road ? the main feature of this classic is its wheels.

its makers say that it deals with any kind of terrain with ease. steps, bumps, even snow. it also comes with a phone charger of similar power to the carry—on with that earlier. now, if i'm being completely honest, dragging this bag around doesn't feel drastically different to doing so without regular piece of luggage. i guess the main difference here is that with a lifetime guarantee on the wheels you can afford to be a bit more careless with this, safe in the knowledge that your wheels won't crumble under the pressure. elsewhere you also get luggage tracking, with a little bit of help from tyre track. this connects your phone via bluetooth and uses your phone's gps to locate your luggage. so if you arrive and your bag doesn't, open the app and you can locate your luggage anywhere in the world. so for the most part, smart cases have mainly been designed to charge and track your phone. useful but boring. this is the nomadic speakese. fitted into the front is a bluetooth speaker. its acoustics are designed to amplify your tunes and make them sound even better.

all you need to do is simply unclip it, pop the speaker out, and you've got audio. you can also remove the speaker altogether if you want to. a bit loud. it's an interesting idea but i feel one that only really appeals to people who love to travel and feel that they need high—end audio with them wherever they go. the rest of us, a portable speaker will probably do. so you've got your luggage, but dragging it around a new city when all you want to do is explore is farfrom ideal. that's where stasher comes in. search your immediate location and stasher will show you the shops that have agreed to look after your bag — for small fee, of course. it's like airbnb for your luggage. ah, there it is! just going to show you my code. that's good. thank you. yeah? it's all right. awesome. so i havejust paid £5 to store my bag here for the next 2a hours. which, in the grand scheme of things, isn't that much to pay given you'll be bag free

on your travels the one thing i will say about this service — it is fantastic, but if you're outside the western europe area be mindful because there's not as many options. well, to finish this week we're off to america, where the western state of colorado is classic farming and ranching country. it was also once home to millions of bison, but not any more. rajan‘s been to meet the people fighting to save this iconic north american animal. the enormous expanse that is the state of colorado. take a drive three hours from the capital denver towards the new mexico border and you're greeted by timeless and spectacular landscapes. this is the san luis valley in the south of colorado.

classic western terrain with its high plains and the sangre de cristo mountains in the background, gloriously ice capped, and most of them over 111,000 feet high. with the cattle ranching and the incredible wildlife, this is what outdoorjunkies from all over the world come to america to witness. but for a long time there was a classic all—american iconic creature that was missing from this landscape — the bison. 0nce 20—30 million bison, the largest terrestrial animals in north america, roamed across the land, but they nearly became extinct thanks to mass slaughter and habitat loss. by the time old ranches like these were opened in the late 19th century, the number of bison had collapsed to less than 1000 across the whole of the usa. and, look, down here we've got

some old bison hide. whoa. that's thick. but the truth is ranching and cattle rearing have not covered themselves with glory, earning a bad rap for destroying biodiversity and overgrazing. but now this same ranch, converted back from a shortlived spell as a luxury golf course and a high in spa resort, is at the vanguard of a nationwide mission to reverse these disastrous trends. there is one family of ranchers, the phillips, who've been managing this place since 2004, but who have been in the ranching game for four generations. i am going to talk to a fourth—generation. duke. how're you doing? how are you? very good. they call you little duke. no, not any more, it's been a while. now, you're going to show me the bison, aren't you? yeah.

that's good. let's do it. let's go have a look. duke phillips and his family devote 50,000 acres of land to running the bison conservation project here. unbelievably, not that long ago, this was a view that would be nigh on impossible to enjoy anywhere across the whole of the usa. so here we have a group of about 100 bison, out of a total herd of about 1500—2000 on this ranch. they are magnificent creatures. they are mostly female and they're calving at the moment. the baby bisons are so cute. they are passive normally, but you would not want to get them riled. because they weigh 1500 lbs and they can run faster than a horse. i think i willjust stay out here. what led to the near extinction of bison in the late 19th century? generally speaking, it was western expansion, whether it was wealthy people from the east coming and shooting

them from the train, people shooting them to sell the hides, or trying to shoot the food source for the indian to promote western expansion. these are some of the largest and purest herd of bison in the whole of america and the policy is very much a let them roam, let them be free, don't interfere. perhaps after a history of exterminating close to 30 million of them nearly 100 years ago, that's only right and fair. from tens of millions of bison to just a few hundred at one point at the end of the 19th century, the numbers are slowly recovering. and ranchlands want to create more herds. but that requires management and keeping the genetic quality of the herd high. once a year the ranchers round up these bison. every autumn in a series of pens, alleys, and catwalks, culminating in a hydraulic squeeze shoot, the bison are examined, marked, and treated.

at this point a number of the bison are selected to be culled and sent to market. in as low stress a manner as possible, the ranch insists. there is one other crucial link in this conservation chain. tourists. who the ranchers say they don't just observe, but actually improve the bison management. kate matheson was a photo editor and glamour and fashion magazines in the uk until she came out to the usa on a holiday ten years ago. for the last six years she's worked here on ranchlands. she's one of only two people who live all year round on a range that's seven times bigger than manhattan. the joy of being part of a much bigger picture, a much bigger mission of conservation, and preservation of these landscapes, but the livestock, too, and share it with the bigger audience is really critical to its preservation. and being part of the bison

conservation project, unusually, is giving a woman from the south of england a role in reviving the all—american animal. it's what you imagine when you think of the west is bison. what a tragedy if that didn't exist at all. there's one aspect of this ranked that definitely marks it out as very 21st—century — the wranglers themselves. for the last couple of years they've all ended up being women. they're all lifelong riders, you cannot apply without being a lifelong rider. # 0h ring of fire...# but they're not too romantic about bison here, because come the evening meal for the tourists, there's one favourite ingredient almost always on the menu. hey, everybody, we're got three cheese bison enchiladas...

the phillips family don't believe that bison numbers will ever return to the tens of millions, but thanks to these kinds of conservation efforts, this iconic all—american animal is now very much a part of this country's landscape again. that's all we have time for on this week's show. coming up next week: rajan is in amman injordan, seeing what some people are calling a cultural revolution. arabic food in general is arabic food. there is no such thing as syrian, lebanese. so do join us then. in the meantime, from me and all of the travel show here in amsterdam, it's goodbye. hello there.

monday was a day of contrast for the weather here in the uk. we had the searing heat in the east and temperatures pushed 32 degrees celsius at gravesend in kent. but for further north and west, for many areas, it was a fresher day. we had a weather front across us. and this is how it looked in north yorkshire through the afternoon. now, that weather front is a cold weather front, and it's been pushing its thundery rain eastwards and northwards through the night. and because it's called a cold weather front, yes, you guessed it, it is introducing cooler air. so we will notice a fresher feel to the weather into tuesday, except for the far south and east. there will still be some thundery rain around north—eastern areas first thing and certainly through shetland. but a much more comfortable night i think will have passed for many of us, and the coming few nights should be a bit more comfortable as well,

because not only are we cooling the air down, we are losing the humidity. a lovely start to the day, plenty of sunshine, which will clear any mist quite quickly. the cloud will tend to bubble up, fair weather cloud, and it will produce a few showers through the afternoon, particularly across northern england. scotland, there could be some heavy ones, slow—moving ones across the north and east with the light winds, but there will be very few showers elsewhere. but in contrast to monday, temperatures will be notably down across england and wales and it won't feel quite so intense, the heat. still lovely and warm, though, in the sunshine. and more of that will follow as we move into wednesday, that high pressure starts to build in again, so another comfortable night tuesday into wednesday, and plenty of sunshine first thing, any mist, as we will see this morning, clears quickly. and then we will see a scattering of showers, mostly in the west, possibly in scotland, one or two heavy ones as well but, by and large, the exception rather than the rule. temperatures will start recover a little bit as we see more heat

coming in from the sun than we lose. the temperatures are creeping up a degree on wednesday. they'll creep up another degree on thursday, with high pressure with us. very few showers, but later, thursday into friday, we'll watch the approach of this low pressure, it's been giving us a bit of headache all week, but at the moment it looks like it will bring showery rain, mostly to scotland, to northern ireland, possibly northern parts of england and wales as well, but for the bulk of england and wales, again, it will be quite hot and dry, temperatures exceeding those of thursday by another degree. and there will be a little bit of brightness between the showery rain further north as well. and with high pressure re—establishing itself sa we go towards the weekend, it will push the unsettled weather away. and, actually, there will be a lot of dry and fine weather. but you can see for yourselves there's still that risk of quite a bit of cloud even into saturday in the north and west, particularly scotland, but at the moment, the weekend is looking very promising, particularly in central and southern areas. a very warm welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to our viewers in north america and around the globe. my name's mike embley. our top stories:

underfire — donald trump faces criticism at home for his defence of president putin over claims russia meddled in america's election, implying his own us intelligence agencies got it wrong. president putin, hejust said it's not russia. i will say this, i don't see any reason why it would be. britain's prime minister avoids a rebellion from her own mps looking to reject her brexit proposals. not such great viewing for netflix. the tv and movie streaming company reveals a sharp drop in the number of new subscribers. and it's party time in paris — hundreds of thousands of people turn out to welcome france's world cup winners home.