this is the briefing. i'm maryam moshiri. our top story: final days for theresa may as british prime minister, made worse by the resignation of a cabinet minister who says she can't support her latest brexit plan. i'm karin giannone, live outside the indian parliament. votes are being counted in the country's huge election. is prime minister narendra modi on course for a second term? president trump marches out of a meeting with top democrats, saying he can't work with them anymore after they accuse him of a cover up. grounded! but for how long? aviation authorities from all over the world meet in texas to discuss the flight ban for the boeing 737 max.

a warm welcome to the programme, briefing you on all you need to know in global news, business and sport. as experts recommend providing two female toilets for every male one and more disabled facilities in the uk, we want to know, what's it like where you live? can you easily find a public loo? tell us what you think — just use the #bbcthebriefing. britain's prime minister theresa may is facing mounting calls from within her party to step down immediately. last night she suffered a further blow when a key cabinet minister, andrea leadsom, announced her resignation, saying she could not support mrs may's revised brexit plan. caroline rigby‘s report does contain

flashing photography. prime minister... her vision has been a hard sell, yet at prime minister's questions, theresa may remained determined to see through thejob she set remained determined to see through the job she set out to do as pm. the british people voted to leave. i have been trying to leave the european union. i am looking forward to voting a fourth time to leave the european union in the withdrawal agreement bill. many of mrs may pass eurosceptic collea g u es many of mrs may pass eurosceptic colleagues were absent, though, and the leader of the, andrea leadsom, walked in late. she had been set to announce when the prime minister's new brexit plan would be introduced parliament, but not now. instead, she chose to resign. in a letter to numberio, she chose to resign. in a letter to number 10, she wrote code

a second referendum, now held out as a second referendum, now held out as a possibility by the government, would be dangerously divisive. and criticising colleagues who'd been on the other side of the debate, she said there had been: i have been determined to deliver brexit and i am worried this bill, with its new elements in it, would not do that. it's been a really tough day. should the prime minister go now? white in response, theresa may thank ms laird sum for her work but said she disagreed with her reasons for quitting. no further resignations appear imminent. on friday the prime minister will meet graham brady, chair of senior conservative backbenchers, amid growing calls for her to stand down. she's already set a timetable for her departure after mps vote on brexit legislation next month. for now, though, she remains in number 10. but with her own party and

westminster as a whole deeply divided, to what extent is theresa may truly empower? caroline wrigley, bbc news. —— caroline rigby. indians will finally find out today who has won the general election after a long and bitter campaign. if it feels as if it's been going on for weeks, it has — six. voting was staggered in seven stages beginning in early april, giving every one of india's 900 million eligible voters access to polling stations. voting ended on sunday and counting has now begun in earnest. the final result will be declared later. let's go live to delhi and my colleague karin giannone. she's been following events from india. hello and welcome to delhi and another searingly hot day in the indian capital. we're just outside the lok sabha, or lower house of parliament. counting has been going on forjust over 90 minutes now, after an election that's been going on since early april, a campaign that has been heated and acrimonious.

voters have dozens of parties to choose from, regional and national, but two have dominated the airwaves and the political landscape. here's a little more about the bjp and congress. five years ago, no rendering modi and his bjp party swept to power in and his bjp party swept to power in a landslide victory —— narendra modi. the bjp is a hindu nationalist party of an almost popular appeal. many accuse it of deliberately stoking religious tension and even deliberately undermining india's secular and democratic traditions. narendra modi, 68, styles himself as the nation pass security guard with airstrikes on pakistan earlier this year after an attack on indian soldiers in kashmir. tensions... this year the bjp is the incumbent with a record to defend. will they

be able to repeat the resounding success be able to repeat the resounding success they had in 2014? congress, india's grand old party, which steered the country to independence more than 70 years ago from british rule. it's the party intrinsically linked to the gandhi party. congress is a secular party which has dominated indian politics since independence. its lead the government here for 49 of those yea rs, government here for 49 of those years, but its performance in 2014 was its worst ever. trounced by no rendering modi's bjp. now 48—year—old rahul, son of rajeev, grandson of india and great & of india's first minister nauru is once again congress pass candidate for pm. but for a country of young voters who are less...

let's get a sense of how counting is going. varanasi is prime minister naredndra modi's constituency, one of the 80 lok sabha constituencies in the northern state of uttar pradesh. our correspondent yogita limaye joins us live from varanasi now. how is counting going? literally when we came to the counting centre there were about four security cordons we passed, each guarded by dozens cordons we passed, each guarded by d oze ns of cordons we passed, each guarded by dozens of policemen and now we've come here. behind me what you're seeing is usually a market for agricultural produce but over the last four days it has served as a place to store electronic voting machines instead of foodgrains. varanasi was one of the last places to vote, it's been four days since the vote on sunday. what we have seen since 8am the vote on sunday. what we have seen since sam is an electronic voting machines, which look like little suitcases, have been carried out from strong rooms, the rooms they are kept in, the rooms are

guarded by armed policemen and have been so since voting. they are taken out of their. in front of me right now there are people walking with these electronic voting machines. they will walk to the counting centre, beyond that shared, which you can see there. it doesn't take too much time. when i saw the first batch of voting machines, about ten 01’ batch of voting machines, about ten or 12 point out and those people we re or 12 point out and those people were back after about ten or 12 minutes —— ten or 12 went out. the concern is the prime minister is leading by a pretty big margin. and just outline for us, yogi, how important uttar pradesh is for every candidate —— yogita. important uttar pradesh is for every candidate -- yogita. in indian politics people often say the road to delhi passes through to

predation, and that's because it sends the most number of mps to parliament and that's why they are an acid was chosen as the seat for the prime minister as well. it is one of india's religious capitals, the bgp pursues a nationalist agenda, but also you wa nt nationalist agenda, but also you want your biggest phase ii contest from the state that sends the most number of mps to parliament —— bjp. about 150 kilometres away is where rahul gandhi, the biggest face of the congress party, contests from athemi, and it seems a pretty tough battle for him from their. i've been speaking to many people, many supporters of prime minister modi. they say the reason they voted for him is they see him as a strong leader and i asked him if they thought the better days promised in 2014 have arrived. many people told me that in a big country like india they didn't expect overnight change but they thought he was taking the right steps. many thought they were

worried about deepening social and religious divides in this country, one woman also said that no party has done anything for the poor of this country. yogita, for now, thank you very much. yogita limaye in varanasi, narendra modi's constituency in uttar pradesh. thanks for being with us. we had exit polls on sunday, the poll of polls, which gave the bjp a co mforta ble polls, which gave the bjp a comfortable win against. how seriously can we take those? the span was huge, almost 100 seats, but we could see a return of narendra modi. what does that say to you about what the bjp has done over the past five years to potentially co mforta bly past five years to potentially comfortably win once again?m

past five years to potentially comfortably win once again? it is the five years of narendra modi is as much about what he stood for as also the failure of the opposition to mount a real challenge. there's been hiccups in his economic delivery on the ground and a lot of questions, but the end of it, he ran, andi questions, but the end of it, he ran, and i use the word brilliant in the most cynical sense, a brilliant campaign, which left the opposition with few answers and it was a campaign run on nationalism, internal security and a lot of dog whistling about the minority in india. a dog whistling campaign but it worked very well. you said this has done no work very well for narendra modi, it focused on him as a person and not the problems india has. talk about travel gandhi and what he has lacked in your eyes? modi ran a certain type of campaign —— rahul gandhl certain type of campaign —— rahul gandhi. rahul gandhi pass response

was to attack him on economics but the mood was about nationalism, hindu frontal —ism and he never stood up and challenged modi on these grounds —— rahul gandhi's. this is a large, diverse country. —— hindu fundamentalism. he didn't maintaina good hindu fundamentalism. he didn't maintain a good challenge. thanks for your perspective. let's give you partial results at this stage. these are made up of partial and declared counts for the 543 seats up for grabs in the indian parliament. as of a few minutes ago, the bjp party and its coalition allies have 144 seats. the inc or congress party and their allies have 49 seats.and the rest of the parties that we've grouped together as others have 42 seats. those are the partial results we have so far. in past elections, we might

expect to have a result by the afternoon, but there is increased verification of the electronic vote using paper audit slips so that is likely to take longer. the sun may have set before we find out who will lead india for the next five years. thank you very much indeed. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: more on our main story — her brexit plan is condemned in parliament and a senior minister resigns. how quickly is theresa may's time as prime minister running out? this morning, an indian air force plane carrying mr gandhi's body landed in delhi. the president of india walked to the plane to solemnly witness mr gandhi's final return from the political battlefield. ireland has voted overwhelmingly in favour of gay marriage. in doing so, it's become the first country in the world to approve the change in a national referendum. it was a remarkable climax

to what was surely the most extraordinary funeral ever given to a pop singer. it's been a peaceful funeral demonstration so far, but suddenly the police are tear—gassing the crowd. we don't yet know why. the pre—launch ritual is well established here. helen was said to be in good spirits, butjust a little apprehensive. in the last hour, east timor has become the world's newest nation. it was a bloody birth for a poor country, and the challenges ahead are daunting. but for now, at least, it is time to celebrate. you're watching the briefing. our headlines: votes are being counted in india. about 600 million ballots were cast, prime minister narendra modi is seeking a second term. pressure intensifies on the british prime minister theresa may to step down after a key cabinet minister

resigns over brexit. let's stay with that now. with me isjonathan charles, director of communications at the european bank for reconstruction and development let's talk about theresa may. where do we go from here? it does not look healthy for her. we are definitely at the end of days. the newspapers today shows you that. in the uk the daily mail was suggesting she was crying in the back seat as she returned from parliament yesterday. other newspapers are saying that perhaps friday is the day when she announces her departure. this will bea announces her departure. this will be a bitter blow for her, notjust because she has to step down but she was determined to stay in office as prime minister longer than gordon brown and she needs another five days for that. she does not want to be the shortest serving prime minister of this century. she will

stay, even if she steps down for a while, but because it will probably ta ke while, but because it will probably take four or six weeks to have a leadership election. bottom line is we are talking about another prime minister who has been broken on the issue of europe. and the issue still remains. deadline still looms in october. it is still october 31. so yesterday the french president saying he was worried about what he calls the infection of traditional brexit affecting the eu. he does not wa nt brexit affecting the eu. he does not want this to continue and continue. he wants a resolution, as do other european leaders, but remember them moments that was be spent on the leadership election is precious time not spent sorting out this issue. and use a 4— six weeks for a new leader to be voted in. the front runners? obviously boris? boris johnson is undoubtedly. you said in the constituency associations. they

have the final vote and if he is in the final two to be considered i think you will be the leader. you also see him reaching out to the centre ground of the conservative party so he knows that somehow he has to anchor the entire party together and he wants there, somebody may be his deputy who comes not from the brexit wing of the party. he will be clever if he gets in as prime minister. thank you very much indeed. more tension between president trump and his democratic opponents in congress. as they accused the president of a cover—up over the russia investigation, he responded by walking out of a meeting with them — saying he's unwilling to work with them unless they stop investigating him and lift the threat of impeachment. he demanded an end to what he called "phony investigations". nick bryant sent this report. this wild day in washington began with a meeting of democrats on capitol hill amidst increasing calls for an impeachment inquiry into donald trump.

the democratic house speaker, nancy pelosi, opposes that, thinking it would backfire politically, but she did level this explosive charge against the president. no—one is above the law, including the president of the united states. and we believe that the president of the united states is engaged in a cover—up. in a cover—up. the next scene played out at the white house, where a planned meeting about infrastructure projects between nancy pelosi and the president lasted less than five minutes. donald trump was apparently seething, and soon after stepped into the rose garden — not to mend fences but to mount a barbed attack. things are going well, and i said, "let's have the meeting on infrastructure, we'll get that done easily, that's one of the easy ones." and instead of walking in happily into a meeting, i walk in to look at people that had just said that i was doing a cover—up. i don't do cover—ups. you people know that probably better than anybody. in this "he said, she said", the action switched back to capitol hill. nancy pelosi trying to be

the grown—up in the room and appealing to a power even higher than the president. i pray for the president of the united states and i pray for the united states of america. the mueller report didn't establish any conspiracy between the trump campaign and the kremlin. but nor did it exonerate the president on the question of obstruction ofjustice. so this bitter row goes on, and will do all the way to next year's presidential election. one thing there's broad agreement on is the urgent need to repair america's decrepit infrastructure. but in the nation's capital, the ongoing fallout from the mueller investigation is causing governmental paralysis. nick bryant, bbc news, washington. let's brief you on some of the other stories making the news: polls are about to open for the european parliament elections in the uk and the netherlands. there are 751 seats — every country is allocated a certain number depending on the size, population and economic weight in the eu.

results will be announced on sunday once voting has finished in all eu countries. riot police in the indonesian capital, jakarta, are using tear gas and flares to subdue protesters disputing the outcome of the presidential election. demonstrators threw stones and fireworks at lines of police. presidentjoko widodo threatened firm action after similar protests on tuesday — in which six people are reported to have been killed. scientists believe they have pinpointed the main sources of a mysterious increase in a chemical that destroys ozone in the atmosphere. cfc—11 was supposed to have been phased out by 2010. the increase has been traced to insulation foam being made in eastern china. ‘s the lawyer michael avenatti has been charged with defrauding stormy daniels, the porn star he represented in a lawsuit against president trump. prosecutors say mr avenatti took the money she was supposed to get

from a book deal. he denies the allegations. now it's time to get all the latest from the bbc sports centre. hello i'm tulsen tollett and this is your thursday sport briefing, where we start with the news that plans to expand the 2022 world cup to 48 teams have been abandoned by fifa after a "thorough and comprehensive consultation process". fifa president gianni infantino said last year the expansion from 32 teams could be brought forward from 2026 to the 2022 tournament but the change would have required qatar to share hosting duties with other countries in the region. holders kashima antlers are through to the last 16 of the asian champions league after coming from a goal down to beat chinese side shandong luneng 2—1. substitute sho ito was the hero with both goals in a little over a minute in the second half and they'll now play fellow japanese club sa nfrecce hiroshima in the knockout stages.

ahead of the cricket world cup australia beat west indies by 7 wickets with more than 11 overs to spare as steve smith hit a third consecutive half century in an unofficial warm up match. while also on wednesday, two—time winners india arrived into london. virat kohli's side play two friendlies before their first world cup match against south africa on the 5th ofjune in southampton. the formula 1 calendar moves to monaco this weekend with the death of former three time world champion niki lauda still fresh in the minds of the drivers. he won at this track in 1975 and 1976 prior to his horriffic crash in germany, and the former mercedes non executive director was a regular in the pit lane on race weekends, something valterri bottas will miss. he was a massive motivation for everyone, for myself as well, for sure, as a driver — everything he's achieved, and with the difficult career he had, and all the comebacks and everything.

also as a person, it's been great, and i'll never forget many, many good moments. valerio conti still holds the race leaders pinkjersey as the riders stare into a hilly 158km stage 12 in the gioro d'italia later. australia's caleb ewan claimed his second stage win of the year's first grand tour though when he sprinted to victory on wednesday and rather enjoyed the celebrations the golden state warriors are still waiting to find out who they'll face in the nba finals — game 5 of the eastern conference finals is later on thursday. the toronto raptors had been two down against the milwaukee bucks but after back to back wins it's now all—square. kawhi leonard scored 19 of their points in game 4 but the bucks will have home court advantage later. they did what they were supposed to do on their home floor and we do what we are supposed to do on our home floor. we need to continue to go out there and do what we do and

put it into game five. we know they are ready to go but there are some things we can get better at, transitioning to defence for example. this weekend will mark 21 years since mika hakkinen won the monaco grand prix, and he couldn't resist reposting a video of himself taking a trip down memory lane. these days he drives at a slower pace and has swapped an f1 car for his trusty scooter. 1998 was the year he finished on top of the podium in monaco — he went on to win the drivers‘ championship which he also achieved the following year. you can get all the latest sports news at our website — that's bbc.com/sport. but from me, tulsen tollett, and the rest of the team that is your thursday sport briefing. before we began the programme we

asked you to tweet us your opinion on this story, about toilets, to be frank. this latest news shows that experts say there should be two female toilets for every male one. this is according to a study. what they say is that there are not enough female toilets nor enough facilities for disabled people in the uk and more needs to be done to help. we asked you to tell us what things are like where you live and we have had a few responses. thomas snowden says that yes with the starbuck on almost every corner finding an accessible washroom is not difficult. of course you are obligated to purchase a coffee afterwards. another viewers says that most public toilets are locked down or closed. may be we need to

pay more tax to fund more projects like this. keep your tweets coming m, like this. keep your tweets coming in, we still have plenty to come here on the reefing. —— briefing. hello there. the next couple of days are looking fairly dry for most of us, with some warm spells of sunshine, but things are turning more unsettled and gradually cooler as we move through the bank holiday weekend. today, though, was a largely dry one, with some warm spells of sunshine around, particularly across england and wales, there across england and wales, is still low pressure to 1 north—east there is still low pressure to the north—east of the uk and this feature will also enhance the cloud developments across parts of northern ireland in the morning and then in two western parts of wales west of england into the afternoon and we could see the odd spot of light rain. is very lovely day with sunshine, still quite breezy and wet for the north—east of scotland. temperatures 11— 15 degrees. 23

degrees around london and the home counties. as we had through into friday this area of low pressure slowly moves away from the north—east of scotland and this feature may bring a few showers for ireland on friday morning, pushing across the irish sea into parts of england and wales for the afternoon bringing more cloud and the odd shower here. for the north—east of scotla nd shower here. for the north—east of scotland not quite as bad as it has been recently, a little rain and breezed it not quite as wet again, the high teens and low 20s for england and wales. we are in between weather systems to start the weekend so weather systems to start the weekend so not a bad day but this feature is what will bring wet weather as we had through saturday night into sunday. the picture for saturdays we start off largely dry with plenty of sunshine, will build up into the afternoon but it will thicken up across western scotland and northern ireland ahead of this and we could see light rain later in the day. temperatures in the mid—teens per 20, 21 likely across the south. into

sunday and this low pressure pushes into the is a very different feeling day, so much of the country ‘s breezy and windy across exposure in the north—west of the country. outbreaks of heavy and persistent rain, showers of rain further south but the south and in particular the south—east could remain dry all day with spells of sunshine. quite warm again with 21 degrees in london. further north, mid teens celsius that best. it is a mixed tank holiday weekend and we start with sunshine then it turns wet breezy and cool on sunday and remains cooler as we had into the bank holiday monday.

this is the business briefing. i'm maryam moshiri. grounded... but for how long? aviation authorities from all over the world meet in texas to discuss the flight ban for the boeing 737 max. getting real with the rupee. as india closes in on election results, we'll assess the economic challenges for the world's fastest growing economy. and on the markets, asian stocks are down as worries about those continued trade tensions between the us and china impact investors appetite for risk.