a very warm welcome to bbc news. broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name's mike embley. our top stories: held in contempt — us democrats vote to officially condemn the attorney general for refusing to release the full mueller report. the first detailed study of the world's longest rivers show that most of them have been choked by human development. another footballing fightback for an english team, tottenham beat ajax — tojoin liverpool in the champions league final. and, after the world's first glimpse, now a name for britain's new royal baby. archie harrison mountbatten—windsor.

the fight over access to robert mueller‘s report into russian interference in the last us presidential campaign has escalated. president trump has used special powers to stop democrats getting access to the full unredacted document. the move comes after the us housejudiciary committee voted to hold attorney general william barr in contempt of congress for refusing to testify before them or to submit an unredacted version of the report. and in a separate development, the senate intelligence committee has subpoenaed donald trumpjunior over its russia investigation. more on this now from our north america correspondent peter bowes. peter, how much of this would you say is significant, how much of it is political? i think it's only significant because it tells us all the various developments to date show that this investigation, this writer investigation is said to continue for a long time. the

democrats are determined about that. they want to see the form mueller report, unredacted and all of the additional documents —— full report, because they want to further their own investigation into whether the president obstructed justice. we know there are ten examples given in the mueller report where there were times where the president may have impeded the investigation and the democrats want to be able to see to further investigated. as you were just saying, the president has exacted privileged to try to stop it and the committee has certainly moved to censor the attorney general. the full house of representatives will vote on that, thatis representatives will vote on that, that is also controlled by the democrats are likely to go in the same way. they're setting the stage for a showdown in the courts to decide essentially which branch of american government is right on this. the first time in all of this a member of the trump family has

been subpoenaed. this is donald trump junior, this is been subpoenaed. this is donald trumpjunior, this is a republican—controlled committee that wa nt to republican—controlled committee that want to speak to donald trump republican—controlled committee that want to speak to donald trumer further about previous testimony that he gave about the russia investigation, we don't know the details, but they are calling for him — forcing him to appear. it's significant because as far as we understand, the first time that any of the trump children have in subpoenaed in this way to answer questions about the investigation into russian meddling in the 2016 election, but perhaps more significantly the president was mark role during the investigation —— president's role. this let's get some of the day's other news. official results for the election held in thailand in march have finally been announced,

and they give no one party a majority of the 500 seats in parliament. so, now there will be negotiations to try to form a governing coalition, for the first elected government in five years. the us secretary of state has been in london, as iran announced it's partially suspending some of its commitments to the international deal which limits its nuclear programme. mike pompeo described the iranian move as "intentionally ambiguous." the trump administration has already pulled the us out of the nuclear deal and today ramped up its threatening posture on iran by increasing trade sanctions. the us defence department has suspended work to recover the remains of thousands of troops still missing in north korea, 66 years after fighting ended in the korean war. a pentagon spokesman said work was stopped because north korea has stopped communicating since the inconclusive second summit with president trump in february.

almost three quarters of the world's great rivers are no longer free—flowing — that's according to the first ever in depth report carried out by scientists. —— in—depth. the assessment examined 12 million kilometres of rivers and found that 70 of 91 rivers more than 1,000km long flowed without interruption. the study says that these rivers have been severed by dams, reservoirs or other manmade constructions as ramzan karmali reports. the world's largest hydro power project, the three gorges dam. it spans the entire young the river in china. it may be a feat of engineering excellent, but according to one of the first—ever in—depth studies into long rivers, it has come at a cost —— yangze river. studies into long rivers, it has come at a cost -- yangze river. it's not free—flowing, that means it had some kind of construction that interru pts some kind of construction that interrupts the flow. experts are worried about the impact this may have on earth's diversity. currently

there are 2 billion people who rely on rivers as a source of drinking water. and 12 million tons of fish are caught from them each year. a worry for some scientists, though is that abound 500 million people live near rivers which they say are sinking as dams starve them of sediments. the problem is being acutely felt in europe, just two of 14 acutely felt in europe, just two of 1a great rivers in europe that once flowed freely into the sea still do so. flowed freely into the sea still do so. that is new biz one of the most fragmented rivers, something that is common in populated areas. 0ther rivers include denial, the euphrates, missouri, and the darling of australia —— darling. areas have been impacted in remote regions of the arctic, amazon and congo. hydroelectric power may be significantly cleaner in terms of emissions than oil, gas or coal, but we should be aware of the

environmental impact they have. let's get more on this now. gunther grill is lead author of the rivers study which he did with 3a scientists working with the global hydrology lab. he's from mcgill university and he's in montreal. i read there was a previous big study that found that 50% of rivers we re study that found that 50% of rivers were blocked, it's gotten worse. yes, indeed. we analyse millions of rivers and looked at how these rivers and looked at how these rivers are impact did by humans and how they impact the flow —— impacted by. we analysed how in particular they are effect did —— affected. we found that fragmentation, the barrier affect from dams, and the change in river flow barrier affect from dams, and the change in riverflow is barrier affect from dams, and the change in river flow is the leading fa ct change in river flow is the leading fact the of how these rivers are effect did. catchment of sediments is another concerning issue ——

affected stop why is this a problem? these rivers provide a lot for nature and human well being. we need to protect these rivers going into the future, looking at more than 4000 dams planned or under consideration worldwide. looking at large—scale development in the future, tell us more about how that should be shed to allow for this. also, is there anything to be done about the rivers already affected? the rivers already affected, restoration is always an option. looking into the future we think that we need to look at the planning of future infrastructure in a more broader way instead of looking at individual dams and how they should be built and doing small—scale

studies. we should also, in addition is about, look at large—scale studies where we analyse a sample of dams and then running computer models to see how we can maximise the benefits from those rivers — from those dams — at the same time minimising the environmental impact of those. how optimistic are you? you say that is what we should be doing, but given how reckless we have been as a species about biodiversity, how confident are you that we will do what needs to be done? i see some optimistic signs. in myanmar, for example, we are two free flowing rivers and recently there was a larger study done they did exactly what ijust described, looking at the entire river basin of those two rivers, looking at all the different dam options that are

available and figuring out which dams should be built and the recommendation from the study which was done by an international finance corporation was that the two rivers should be kept free—flowing into the future. while we are still on this topic, you should know this. former environment ministers in brazil have accused the president air bolsonaro's government of denying climate change and dismantling the country's existing environmental protections. his government denies climate change. the eight former ministers said the bolsonaro administration was creating a climate of impunity and risked out of control illegal deforestation in the amazon. they say it's because authority over forestry and water services had been moved from the environment ministry to other departments. there is a conflict of interest because of that. a un official has warned a lack of health funding in gaza could lead

to hundreds of palestinians shot by israel having to undergo amputations in the next two years. weekly palestinian protests at the border between gaza and israel have resulted in hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries — pushing the health system to the limit. now the un has warned that inability to provide complex surgery and rehabilitation could lead to almost 2,000 amputations. 120 had already been carried out, 20 of them on children in the past year. 1700 people who are in need of serious complicated surgeries for them to be able to walk again, these are people who have been shot during the demonstrations and who are in need of rehabilitation and a have very serious complex bone reconstruction surgery before they can rehabilitate themselves. the issueis can rehabilitate themselves. the issue is that we don't have the capacity, or the resources, and u nfortu nately capacity, or the resources, and unfortunately many of those people might end up being amputees. it's a

tragic situation, many of these people are of working age. much more to come for you on bbc news. still to come — introducing archie, the latest member of the british royal family makes his public debut. i, nelson rolihlahla mandela, do hereby swear to be faithful to the republic of south africa. after six years of construction and numerous delays, the channel tunnel has been formally opened by the queen and president mitterand. but the tunnel is still not yet ready for passengers and freight services to begin. for centuries, christianity and islam struggled for supremacy. now, the pope's visit symbolises their willingness to coexist. roger bannister became the first man in the world to run a mile in under four minutes. memories of victory as the ve celebrations reach their climax.

this night is dedicated to everyone who believes in the future of peace and freedom. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: the us housejudiciary committee votes to hold attorney general william barr in contempt after he refuses to turn over the full mueller report. the first detailed study of the world's longest river shows most of them choked by human development. asia bibi, the christian woman, who was cleared last year of blasphemy charges in pakistan, has finally left the country after spending eight years on death row. her lawyer has told the bbc that she is now in canada where two

of her daughters already live. 0ur north america correspondent aleem maqbool is there. for most of the last decade she had a death sentence hanging over her because of her religion. a christian in pakistan, she had got into an argument with muslim women she had what in the fields of punjab who accused her of insulting the prophet mohammed. a court convicted her of blasphemy and gave her the maximum penalty. when pakistan's highest court overturned that ruling last year, many hundreds of extremists took to the streets in anger. that led the pakistani government to give into one of theirjust at led the pakistani government to give into one of their just at two force asia bibi to stay in the country. well, given the threats against her, releasing asia bibi from prison but not letting her out of pakistan was akin to handing her another death sentence. instead though it appears that the pakistani government has

finally relented. in the face of massive international pressure, including pleas from the vatican to let her leave, and now it appears start a new life here in canada. 0mar latif was one of those who lobbied the canadian government to grant asylum to asia bibi, writing letters to his prime minister. how does he feel about today's news? on the one hand, very sad. 0n the other, quite happy. very sad because the woman couldn't live in her homeland free of discrimination and tragedies and the threat of deathly violence to her and herfamily. and i'm happy that she now won't have two worry about that physical danger, at least. the case though did account for the lives of two senior politicians who stood by her,

including the punjab governor. the fa ct including the punjab governor. the fact that his assassin became revered by many pakistani ‘s, with huge numbers turning out to honour him since he was executed, sends a chilling message to pakistan's minorities that many of their countrymen and women are against them. hundreds of uber drivers have switched off their apps — refusing to work — in protest against their employer. drivers, pictured here in new york, joined others in california, boston, and in london to demand better pay. they're especially outraged ahead of friday's blockbuster stock market debut for the company and the pay disparity between their take—home incomes and what investors are set to make. the expected value of uber technologies is $90 billion. this season european champions league final is going to be an all—english affair after a second dramatic semifinal saw tottenham beat the dutch side ajax in another pulsating match. 3—0 down on aggregate with just 35 minutes left the brazlian lucas moura scored a hat—trick — the last goal deep into injury time to draw the two sides level, but crucially sending

spurs through on away—goals. spurs will now play liverpool in madrid onjune first. here's natalie pirks. lucas moura couldn't believer, the fa ns lucas moura couldn't believer, the fans couldn't believe it, and pochettino couldn't believe it. and pochettino, the final whistle, when ajax had thrown everything at them and spurs had tried again and again ajax really were going for it, of course, they had to come and it was 3-3 course, they had to come and it was 3—3 and that away goal was crucial for spurs, and at the end, that emotion from pochettino, we see him in press conferences, sarcastic, sometimes quite tongue—in—cheek, sometimes quite tongue—in—cheek, sometimes showing he doesn't want to talk to us. my, did he let all his emotions go at the end. ajax, on the other hand, down on the floor. football can be so cruel. and they have been amazing this season, beautiful to watch. the brand of total football has blown us all

away. and they deserved, really, to get something from this game. but spurs are in the final. it is an all premier league affair. and madrid better get ready because the english are coming. natalie pirks there. we ta ke we take you back to that writer investigation. the us house judiciary committee has voted to hold william barr in contempt for refusing to release the full unredacted report on the senate intelligence committee, which is controlled by republicans has subpoenaed donald trump junior over that investigation. let us speak to wendy 0lsen, a former us district attorney for idaho —— wendy 0lson. i know you worked in washington with william barr at the department of justice. we spoke to you when the report first came out in its redacted form. i think you were fairly 0k redacted form. i think you were fairly ok with it then. you have since read the report. have you changed your mind? when we first

spoke william barr had released his letter to congress summarising what he saw in the report, that was some weeks before the full report was released. and, yes, ithink weeks before the full report was released. and, yes, i think attorney general barr didn't characterise the report completely accurately, with respect to obstruction ofjustice. i think it is important here for a fuller version of the report to be released, certainly to congress, who has a oversight rule with respect to the executive branch of the notice as government. we know too that is certainly what robert mueller wrote ina certainly what robert mueller wrote in a letter to mr barr. that is exactly right. both william barr and robert mueller have long—term connections to the united states government and the department of justice. it is an interesting juxtaposition where you have robert mueller and his investigation telling the criminal attorney general and the attorney ijoined the department in 1992 that he needs to be more straightforward, both

with congress and the american people. and there have been a whole bunch of form attorney—general‘s who have made it plain in public they are very unhappy with the way mr barbour has acted. democrats suggest he is acting more like mr trump's attorney than the united states attorney. what you make of that?” think that is exactly right. of justice has a long tradition, the attorney general, of being the attorneys for the united states and not the president. when i became united states attorney along with my collea g u es united states attorney along with my colleagues we were told by president 0bama "you are the people's attorney, you are not my attorney". that is expressly more so for the attorney general. the attorney general really has to answer to congress. ultimately, he will have to do that almost fully. what you make of the fact that a member of the trump family, the first time, is being subpoenaed and by a republican—controlled committee? well, he was subpoenaed previously by the same committee. i think it is significant that this is, now that

the house has been controlled by the democrats and the republicans still have the senate, i think it is significant that the republican—controlled senate committee is asking donald trump republican—controlled senate committee is asking donald trumer to come forward again. i think that suggests that at least with respect to that particular committee this is not going to simply be a partisan divide, but there are significant national security issues that the senate is going to demand attention to, responses to. what you expect to come out of that? well, expect that eventually donald trump come out of that? well, expect that eventually donald trumer will have to testify. i think that there has been a little bit of reluctance from the white house to completely shield donald trump jr from having the white house to completely shield donald trumer from having to do that. they anticipate, given that it isa that. they anticipate, given that it is a republican—controlled senate committee, the donald trump is a republican—controlled senate committee, the donald trumer will come forward and have to testify, whether that is in public or in private that is to be seen, my guess would be in private. all right, thank you very much, wendy 0lson. thank you. the duke and duchess of sussex,

have been showing their newborn baby boy to the world, for the first time. and they've announced their choice of name. the seventh in line to the throne is called archie harrison mountbatten—windsor. he's the queen's eighth great—grandchild. harry and meghan say he's very calm, with the ‘sweetest temperament‘. 0ur royal correspondent sarah campbell has the story. the first of many royal photocalls. and having had two days to get to know baby archie in private, this was the time for his proud parents to show him off. it's magic. it's pretty amazing. and, you know, i have the two best guys in the world, so i'm really happy. yeah, it's great. i mean, parenting is amazing. it's only been, what, two and a half, three days. yeah. but we are just so thrilled to have our own little bundle of joy. nestled in his father's arms, getting a close—up view of the baby's face was tricky, so who does the seventh in line to the throne take after? we are still trying

to figure that out. well, everyone says that babies change so much over two weeks, and we are basically monitoring how the changing process happens over the next month, really. and what do the public make of his name? archie harrison. what do you think? archie harrison? 0k. was not expecting that, i'm not going to lie. i was thinking of something a little bit more traditional. i think it is a good choice. i think they've gone with something a little bit left field, a little bit different. and i think good for them for going for something that's clearly their choice and not a traditional royal name. no title, archie harrison. that's kind of it. that surprises me, actually. yeah, it does, but... yes. it's kind of of the time. unaware of his royal status and unique place as an anglo—american, mixed—race child at the heart of monarchy, he slept through this entire photocall. he has the sweetest temperament, he is really calm. i don't know where he gets that from?! he hasjust been a dream,

it has been a special couple of days. thank you all so much. thank you. thank you, everybody, for all the well wishes and kindness, it's meant so much. and then it was off to meet the family. meghan‘s mother doria was present for the first meeting of baby archie and his great—grandparents, the queen and duke of edinburgh, both said to be delighted to welcome an eighth great—grandchild. sarah campbell, bbc news, windsor. just very briefly before we leave you, let us bring you this news coming in from barbara plett usher in venezuela. a dispatch reads that it is well and intelligence agents have detained the deputy leader of the national assembly. he is the first senior opposition official taken into first senior opposition official ta ken into custody first senior opposition official taken into custody since that failed military uprising last week was not the intention, of course, of that was to oust president, nicholas

mudchute —— nicolas maduro. he live tweeted his detention, his vehicle being surrounded by intelligence chiefs. he refused to get out of his car which they towed to one of their headquarters which is used to hold political and other prisoners. this you may remember after the supreme court in bellus whaler accused six members of the national assembly controlled by the opposition of treason for supporting the failed military uprising. they were stripped of their parliamentary immunity. they have since added three more names to the list. just briefly, the fight of access to robert miller's report has escalated. president trump has used his special powers to stop the democrats getting access to the full unredacted document. —— robert mueller. the attorney general of the united states may be held in co nte m pt united states may be held in contempt for refusing to testify before them. and the senate intelligence committee, which is controlled by the republicans, they

have subpoenaed donald trump controlled by the republicans, they have subpoenaed donald trumer over that investigation. much more on all the stories anytime on the bbc website. thank you for watching. hello there. wednesday was a thoroughly wet, cold, windy day for many areas. further south we did see the sunshine appear through the afternoon, but that gave way to showers and some thunderstorms with hail. all tied in with this area of low pressure, which is slowly moving out into the north sea, although its weather fronts will continue to affect parts of the country as we head through today. now, early on today it's going to stay quite damp across parts of scotland, northern england, with persistent rain, still quite a breeze blowing in off the north sea there. but northern scotland will start dry with clear skies. so here another cold one with a frost out of town. but further south, because of more cloud and rain around, then it should be a less cold start. so for thursday, it will be a damp start for many. a lot of cloud around. the best of the sunshine across the northern half of scotland. winds will be generally lighter

across the uk as that area of low pressure continues to pull out. but into the afternoon, i think it will be a mixture of sunshine and showers for northern ireland, for much of england and wales. though the far south—west to stay dry. we'll see top temperatures of 14—15 degrees in the south. as we head on into friday, the low pressure continues to pull away. although this weather front will continue to bring showers mainly to central parts of the uk. but winds will be lighter still on friday, so we'll start off on a fairly cool note. there will be some sunshine around. but as those temperatures rise then showers will also develop, some of them could turn out to be heavy ones. again, southern scotland, northern ireland, into the midlands, northern england as well. i think the south—west should stay largely dry. highs of 15 or 16 degrees. and a little less cold across scotland. now into the weekend, it looks like high pressure is going to start building in, although there will be northerly winds on its eastern flank for a while, so it will stay quite chilly into the weekend. but then as that high pressure moves a little bit further eastwards we'll start to draw up some warmer southerly winds. so it's a slow process but this weekend looks like it will be turning drier and it should turn a little bit warmer as well, particularly beyond sunday. now for saturday, it's a chilly

start in those northerly winds, quite bright with some sunshine around. but we think showers will develop — mainly across eastern areas. and some of these could be quite heavy. the best of the sunshine further west. and in the sunniest sports across the south—west we could see 16—17 celsius. but a little bit warmer further north too. 0n into sunday then, i think we will start off chilly again with some sunshine. a bit of cloud will develop here and there. probably the best of the sunshine again further west, probably closer to that area of high pressure. but it should be a little bit warmer across the board, with highs of 17—18 celsius. and then beyond sunday into next week with that high pressure building in, southerly winds, it will be turning warmer with some places seeing the low 20s celsius.

this is bbc news.

the headlines: the judiciary committee of the us house of representatives has voted to hold the attorney—general of the united states, william barr, in contempt of congress, for refusing to hand over the full, uncensored report on russian election interference. and the senate intelligence committee has subpoenaed donald trump junior to testify, in its own russian investigation. the first detailed study of the world's longest rivers show that most of them have been choked by human development. the researchers found that only 21 of the 91 rivers with a length of more than 1,000 kilometres still have free—flowing access from their source to the sea. football — and in the second extraordinary comeback by an english team in the space of two days, tottenham hotspur have beaten ajax by three goals to two in amsterdam. it books them a place in next month's european champions league final against liverpool, in madrid.