this is bbc news, i'm carrie gracie. the headlines at 11:00: borisjohnson is to appear in court to face accusations of misconduct in public office. it relates to claims he made during the 2016 referendum. he says the case is politically motivated, but his accusers say it's in the public interest. mr paul considers that politicians have made or said things that are untrue, and he wants to ensure that there is a better standard in politics. new analysis shows much less is being spent on social care per head in england than in wales and scotland. i'm desperate, and i'm not the only

one. you know, lifelines being cut, they just don't listen to one. you know, lifelines being cut, theyjust don't listen to us, how is theyjust don't listen to us, how is the future going to evolve? us special counsel robert mueller, in his first comments on the russia inquiry, says that charging president trump was not an option. if we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime we would have said so. in venezuela, the latest evidence of hardship and food shortages as the economy plunges into even more chaos. in azerbaijan, chelsea put in a dominant performance to thump london rivals arsenal in the final of the europa league. and at 11:30 we'll be taking an in—depth look at the papers with our reviewers, writer and broadcaster mihir bose, and former pensions minister

ros altmann stay with us for that. good evening and welcome to bbc news. the former foreign secretary, borisjohnson, who's a prominent contender for the conservative leadership, is to appear in court in relation to allegations that he made misleading claims during the brexit referendum three years ago. along with other campaigners, he asserted that the uk sent 350 million pounds a week to the eu. in a private prosecution mrjohnson is accused of misconduct in public office, but his lawyers dismissed the claims as a politically—motivated stunt. 0ur deputy political editor, john pienaar, has the latest. he has always loved attention, just not this kind. borisjohnson, the official leave campaign's far from a secret weapon,

is being hauled into court to face accusations that he lied to the public, inflated the cost of britain's eu membership. no one campaigns like him but it is the claim he distorted how much the uk pays in, taking no account of britain's rebate, which he echoed as an mp. that triggered a rare private prosecution and the rarer outcome of a top politician being summoned to a criminal court. his accusers, in court papers, say he repeatedly lied and misled the british public as to the cost of eu membership, expressly stating, endorsing or inferring that the cost of eu membership was £350 million a week. businessman marcus ball, on the right, crowd funded the prosecution, arguing it's about standards in public office. mr ball, who's stood with me today, considers that politicians have made, orsaid, things that are untrue, and he wants to ensure that there is a better standard in politics than currently is the case.

but boris johnson, flag—carrier for brexit, is now favourite in the race to be the next prime minister. he may even be pm when and if his case is finally tried. a source close to borisjohnson said, but some say it is a matter of principle. generally speaking, i prefer it that the courts keep out of political affairs. i find that the general public are incredibly discerning. tough day at the office? tonight, boris johnson was keeping his counsel. do you accept that you deliberately misled the public? he denies wrongdoing and today's ruling was no finding of guilt, but the case will be a spectacle

and the outcome could have an impact on politics and campaigning in britain. john pienaar, bbc news. well, earlier i asked our home affairs correspondent, tom symonds, why it was just mrjohnson who was facing these allegations. the campaigners as you can see cloud funded this appeal for money to launch this private prosecution, looked at other campaigners for brexit who had made similar claims and they felt that boris johnson had been so highly covered by the media and so many different times he had made these points, there was enough evidence to press ahead and take him to court. they said that wasn't the case in other potential targets, if you like. it is a serious allegation. misconduct in public office has a maximum life sentence, and it can cover anything up to high level corruption. what has happened todayis level corruption. what has happened today is a districtjudge has decided there is a case to answer,

although as john said, decided there is a case to answer, although asjohn said, she hasn't decided if the allegations are true 01’ decided if the allegations are true or not. and to prove that he is guilty the prosecution will have to show that he was a public official who seriously neglected his public position, abused his public position, abused his public position, and that there was no really good reason for that. the key issueis really good reason for that. the key issue is going to be public position. so, was he in a public position. so, was he in a public position when he made these statements? he was the mayor of london, and he was a man who believed in brexit, he had almost and official policy, and he had signed letters saying he did. his argument is that he was campaigning, politically campaigning, nothing to do with the dailyjob of being mayor of london. he says this is a vexatious allegation against him and it should be thrown out. how is this likely to proceed now in terms of timing? well, these prosecutions are becoming more common but they are very rare. you don't have to tell

the police or crown prosecution service to prosecute in courts, but the cps has the right to move in and say they don't think it should continue, and legally that would stop the case. i have spoken to some experienced defence lawyers on this and they say they don't think that would happen because the lower court, the magistrates‘ court, has decided there is a case to answer. i think it is more likely we will see a prolonged battle in the courts, possibly the court of appeal or the high court, and inside the crown court, trying to prevent this trial going ahead on the part of boris johnson and his legal team. they will almost certainly try to say that the court is abusing its position in continuing with this prosecution, and his name will be to make sure he never goes in front of a jury. use make sure he never goes in front of ajury. use a prolonged battle, any sense of timing? 0bviously other things are going on. sense of timing? 0bviously other things are going onlj sense of timing? 0bviously other things are going on. i can tell you that nothing happens quickly in a criminal case, we are probably talking months. as you say, boris johnson is running for office, running for the leadership of the

conservative party, potentially prime minister, and he could be prime minister, and he could be prime minister, and he could be prime minister with all of this continuing. new research has revealed how funding for social care per person in england is a third less than it is in wales, and more than a third less than it is in scotland. there‘s a growing consensus among politicians that longer life expectancy and more complex needs mean a new social care strategy is needed. but the government‘s plans for social care have been delayed repeatedly. 0ur social affairs correspondent alison holt looks at the struggle to provide social care in somerset. martine evans is 37, and has juvenile idiopathic arthritis. ah! her husband david has to do nearly everything for her. thank you. they also have triplets. we first met the family last summer, as they asked for help from somerset county council.

i fell through the system. unfortunately, it happens, because it‘s so busy. you know, there‘s so many people that need help, which is why i was worried. i didn‘t want to take care away from other people. but we needed it for david. he was just so tired, i just couldn‘t watch that any more. sweetheart. yeah? i need some help, please. getting enough care from the cash—strapped council is difficult, but david is caring for martine and the boys day and night. thank you. drinks, painkillers, toilet, turning to make comfortable. but i could do that four or five times in an hour one night. constantly tired, really. just keep going for the things that you love, really, i suppose, isn't it? but the last year has been one of the toughest their county council has faced, as it came close to going bust. it blames cuts to government grants, and growing demand. she‘s got a package of care at the moment, 2.5 hours a day,

so that‘s 15 hours a week. it means difficult decisions for the social work teams. the support they put in for martine at home costs more than £600 a week. that‘s above the cost of a residential home place and doesn‘t include night care. he needs support, otherwise if he crashes... yeah, absolutely. right, can you explain to me the thinking on martine‘s case? it‘s never our decision to say somebody has to go into a residential placement. what we say is, "this is the personal budget we can give you," and it is, of course, for them as a family to make a decision how they spend that money. but we'd have to say, "this is the amount of money we can help you with," and that's it. in the last year, the director of adult care services in somerset has had to cut £9 million from his budget of nearly £140 million. we‘re into territory i had not planned for, not considered, so we‘re in a really difficult position.

that sounds really tough. it‘s on the verge of impossible. where are you ? i‘m only here. we‘re going to go this way now, all right? why? i want to be here. one of the cuts is to the dementia day centre where rachel blackford‘s mother, barbara, spends two days a week. the council says it‘s outdated, but, for rachel, it‘s a vital break. will you take me, please? i‘m helping you, come on. no, you're strangling me! i‘m desperate. and i‘m not the only one. you know, lifelines are being cut. you just think, if they don‘t listen to our pleas, how is the future going to evolve? they are offered sessions at local residential homes, but rachel is upset that they‘re losing something that works. "help, cried the witch flying down to the ground. "she looked all around,

but no help could be found." it‘s a system where the need for help keeps rising. the cost of martine‘s care eventually increases to nearly £1,000 a week. the government‘s promised to reform the funding of care at the earliest opportunity, but for many, the pressures are here now. alison holt, bbc news. the us special counsel, robert mueller, has said that charging president trump with a crime was not an option, in his first comments on the inquiry into russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. but he reiterated that his report did not exonerate the president, and that legal guidelines prevent the indictment of a sitting president. president trump responded by saying the case was closed, as our north america editorjon sopel reports. morning. washington is a city where people race to be in front of a microphone. but for two years, the special counsel robert mueller has chosen silence while he

completed his report on russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. that changed dramatically today, when he almost flatly contradicted donald trump‘s assertion that he‘d been completely exonerated by the special counsel investigation. listen to what he has to say on whether the president obstructed justice. if we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commita crime, we would have said so. we did not, however, make a determination as to whether the president did commit a crime. under long—standing department policy, a present president cannot be charged with a federal crime while he is in office. until now, donald trump has repeatedly referred to the mueller investigation as a hoax and a witch hunt but on twitter today, a significant reframing. he said: this afternoon, it was the turn

of the president‘s press secretary to push the line of no collusion and no obstruction. in his tweet today, the president said there was insufficient evidence, therefore he is innocent. is that the bar at which you set things? we set the bar at the fact that mueller spent two years doing an exhaustive investigation and came back to say that there was no wrongdoing by the trump campaign or any american. from robert mueller and donald trump, two totally different interpretations. mueller effectively saying, look, we don‘t think he‘s innocent but we can‘t prosecute him. and from donald trump, there‘s insufficient evidence and therefore it‘s case closed. the white house would clearly love this to be the end of the episode. there‘s no chance of that. and sure enough, mueller‘s statement has fuelled democrat demands for impeachment proceedings to begin. with respect to impeachment questions at this point, all options are on the table and nothing should be ruled out.

today, robert mueller told the american people he‘s taken it as far as he can. now, it‘s up to congress. does it dare try to impeach the president? jon sopel, bbc news, washington. chelsea lifted the europa league trophy tonight after they comfortably beat arsenal 4—1 in baku. second—half goals from 0livier giroud and pedro put maurizio sarri‘s side in control. two goals from eden hazard sealed the victory. it could be the midfielder‘s final appearance for the club before moving to real madrid in the summer. 0llie foster sent this report from outside the stadium in baku a little earlier. well, full—time whistle has just gone, and it is going to feel like a lot longer journey gone, and it is going to feel like a lot longerjourney for gone, and it is going to feel like a lot longer journey for those gone, and it is going to feel like a lot longerjourney for those arsenal fan heading back to london. they we re fan heading back to london. they were simply outplayed. it was goalless at halftime, and it was an awful first half, compounded goalless at halftime, and it was an awfulfirst half, compounded by a terrible atmosphere. lots and lots of empty seats at this 0lympic stadium. they said it was going to bea stadium. they said it was going to be a sell—out, despite neither of those london clubs taking up their

allocation. three quickfire goals after the break, stripping header from 0livier giroud, and then we had one from pedro set up by eden hazard, and the eden hazard in probably his last for chelsea scored a penalty. it looked to be all over with about 25 minutes left to play, but alex, the substitute for arsenal, a wonderful half—volley from outside the box. a glimmer of hope for the gunners? none of that whatsoever. eden hazard scored his second of the game, so chelsea are europa league champions for a second time in six years. remember, we‘ve 110w time in six years. remember, we‘ve now got to look forward to this all english final again in the champions league in three days‘ time. for arsenal, possibly some big repercussions, because they could have got into the champions league with a victory here, but they haven‘t, so there will be a lot of soul—searching for them over the summer, but chelsea are europa league champions. the headlines on bbc news: borisjohnson is ordered to appear in court over claims he lied during the eu referendum campaign.

he stands accused of lying about the uk giving the eu £350 milllion a week. new analysis shows much less is being spent on social care per head in england than in wales and scotland. the man who investigated donald trump over alleged collusion with russia again refuses to exonerate him over obstructing justice. in the past hour, the israeli parliament has voted to instigate a new general election. the prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, has failed to establish a governing coalition after last month‘s election. 0ur correspondent tom bateman is injerusalem with the latest. israeli mps have voted by a significant majority to dissolve the parliament, effectively stacking themselves, after being elected into office only, what, six weeks ago. now, this represents a serious political failure for the prime

minister, benjamin netanyahu. he had attempted to build a right wing coalition, he needed more than 60 mps in parliament. but the issue at the heart of this was an old dispute between a secular party in his right wing and the altar religious groups, both of whom he needed to form a majority. they have had a long—running dispute over an issue of drafting ultraorthodox young men into the army. mr netanyahu has been unable to hammer out an agreement, and so, in what represents a serious crisis for his ten years in office, there will now be fresh elections in israel in september. the economy in venezuela shrank by nearly 20% last year, according to the central bank. it is a rare official acknowledgement that the country‘s economy is in a state of collapse. last year, inflation in the oil—rich nation hit nearly a million percent, and this year, it is expected to reach 10 million percent. president maduro blames the country‘s problems on us government sanctions, but the opposition says those in power are to blame.

0ur correspondent guillermo 0lmo reports from caracas. this boy is nine—years—old. he dreams of being a fireman when he grows up. but he is suffering from the effects of severe malnutrition, and has a rare disease affecting his kidneys. doctors say that, without a special diet and medication, his organs may fail. but his mother cannot afford them, and she had to give up work to look after her only son. staff at this hospital say around 80 children died of malnutrition here last year alone.

lack of food is not the only problem the children here face. as i talk to the hospital director, this happens. lights go out, and staff rush off to check that vital support systems are still working. the government says the blackouts affecting much of the country are the result of sabotage by the us, but the country‘s ageing power grid has been unreliable for years, and many say neglect is causing the blackout. this woman lives with her young family in puerto la cruz‘s downtown. electricity here has become a luxury.

another woman here, augustina hernandez, grew up in a time when venezuela was one of the richest countries in latin america. she struggles to come to terms with the country‘s economic collapse. these are uncertain times for a country that can no longer take electricity, food or medicine for granted. guillermo 0lmo, bbc news, puerto la cruz. the scottish government has published legislation that could pave the way for a new vote on scottish independence if the westminster government allows it. the bill contains no details

on when a referendum could be held or what the question would be, but first minister nicola sturgeon says the legislation would give people in scotland the opportunity to choose a better future, as our scotland editor sarah smith reports. most of these young people couldn‘t vote in the last scottish referendum five years ago. nicola sturgeon wants to give them and the rest of scotland a say on independence again next year. her problem is she needs the authorisation of the uk government in westminster. what is the point of trying to legislate for a referendum that you know it‘s extremely unlikely any westminster prime minister is ever going to allow you to hold? well, that is a democratic outrage to suggest that that is the case. it‘s perfectly legitimate for a westminster government to oppose independence. it is not democratically legitimate

for them to stand in the way of the people of scotland having the right to choose. what do you all think about having another independence referendum? i think it‘s important. i think it‘s — it‘s only fair, that things have changed between then and now, and we should get another opportunity to have a say. how would you vote if there was another independence referendum? i would make sure that i was looking into any further details into whether to go independent or not. contenders for the tory leadership have taken to twitter today to say they will refuse to allow another referendum. any candidate who wants the support of scottish conservative members will have to rule it out. i‘ll stand full square against this. the people of scotland don‘t want it. i‘ll encourage any prime minister to say no to it. and also, nicola‘s let the cat out of the bag here. she says that, even if brexit was reversed, she‘d still be pushing through with this. scottish voters are divided on whether they want to be independent, and they don‘t agree on when or whether there should be another referendum, either. ruth davidson says there‘s no appetite. there‘s an appetite for it.

what about another vote next year? for independence? no. why not? we had one — she lost. if nicola sturgeon knows it is highly unlikely that she‘ll be able to have an independence referendum next year, why is she preparing for one? well, what she hopes is that, by arguing scotland is being denied a democratic choice, that may help build support for independence itself. the snp will keep insisting that scotland is being ignored by westminster, and hope that ups the pressure for another vote on scotland‘s future. sarah smith, bbc news, edinburgh. footage of the london bridge attackers preparing in the days and hours before they killed eight people has been played at the inquests into those who died. the court was shown images of rachid redouane buying pink ceramic kitchen knives from a shop in east london, which were used in the attacks two years ago. daniel sandford reports.

three weeks before the london bridge attack, and he is buying knives, the first of the preparations. they were the same pink ceramic knives used to sta b the same pink ceramic knives used to stab people during the attack. less than a week before the attack, all three were seen in a gym. 0ne suspect was seen three were seen in a gym. 0ne suspect was seen dumping his phone, presumably as a counter surveillance measure to make sure they weren‘t being bugged. at the end of the meeting, they shook hands and hugged. the next day, rachid redouane was back in lidl, this time buying wine to use the bottles were making petrol—bombs. 0n the saturday of the attack itself, their leader spent the morning with his wife and children, domestic seems that the coroner‘s barrister said could not

be more different from the events of the night that would follow. by late afternoon, the three attackers were together in a red car, along with rachid redouane‘s little daughter. the leader was making calls to hire a van after the laurie than they had planned fell through. the cctv footage gives the impression that the three killers were improvising their attackers they went along. just six hours before they arrived here at london bridge, they still hadn‘t found a van, and on the sat nav on one of the men‘s phones, the destination was set as 0xford street, not london bridge, suggesting that may have been the target until quite late in the day. the men drove to b&q with redouane‘s daughter still in the back. there, they picked up a higher than loaded with 29 bags of gravel to make it heavier. after finally dropping with 29 bags of gravel to make it heavier. afterfinally dropping off the little girl, they loaded some chairs into the man at the leader‘s flat, to make it look like they were moving house, and set off for central london with their knives, petrol—bombs and fake suicide belts.

the van itself was also a weapon. after getting lost in the city, they found their way onto london bridge for one last reconnaissance run. within the next 20 minutes, they killed eight people and were themselves shot dead by armed police. stay with us for the papers in a few minutes. now, with the weather, here is chris. some quite big weather changes taking place over the next few days. those changes really started on wednesday as cloudy weather worked its way across the uk. we had a little bit of damp weather across parts of wales, for example, and really this is a change to the weather starting to come in off the atlantic. the atlantic sta rts off the atlantic. the atlantic starts to flex its muscles, and with that flow of westerly winds, bringing a lot of cloud. 0utbreaks of rain across the north and west, but it will start to feel a bit warmer, a little bit more humid as well, with the air coming in from the subtropics for some of us over the subtropics for some of us over the next few days. for thursday we start off in a mild but cloudy note.

a bit of dampness around across western coasts and hills, perhaps a little bit of mist as well. it will bea little bit of mist as well. it will be a breezy kind of day and through the afternoon we will start to see some wet weather coming across northern ireland, and western scotland. as far as the rest of the sunshine goes, although the cloud could break to bring someone weather across england, it is probably across england, it is probably across the northern isles, shetland, which will have the sunniest weather, hires are just which will have the sunniest weather, hires arejust 10 degrees. through thursday night and into friday, again we will see a lot of cloud around. 0utbrea ks friday, again we will see a lot of cloud around. outbreaks of rain pushing back into the north—west of the uk. another weather front pushing back into the north—west of the uk. another weatherfront on its way. but it is another mild night, temperatures 13 or 1a celsius. therefore friday, we have more wet weather on the way. this weather front is going to be targeting particularly western scotland, with some particular heavy rain forecast here for the hills. could see some localised surface water flooding building up because the rain is going to be notjust heavy, but persisted for much of the day. similar rain gets into northern ireland in north—west england, but further southwards, after a rather

cloudy start to the day, again the cloudy start to the day, again the cloud will tend to in and break up at times to give some brighter weather into the afternoon. while the sunshine does come out, temperatures not doing too badly, highs of 23 degrees. quite a contrast further north, with cloud and rain, highs in glasgow arejust 15 stop for the weekend, high pressure is just 15 stop for the weekend, high pressure isjust going 15 stop for the weekend, high pressure is just going to 15 stop for the weekend, high pressure isjust going to be nudging into the south—east of the uk. these weather fronts will tend to weaken as they move into that area of high pressure. so for the north and west, again, we could see quite a bit of cloud, maybe a few patches of rain left over across western scotland. but across the south and east, with the influence of that high pressure being felt more firmly, we will see more in the way of sunshine, and it is going to get much warmer. temperatures across eastern england could reach 27 celsius, so we‘re into early 80s in terms of fahrenheit. for the second half of the weekend it becomes a little bit of uncertainty. this cold front will be pushing it across the atlantic. the uncertainty really is how quickly that will move its way across the country. if it becomes quite slow—moving, it could be sunnier and warmer across eastern parts of england. but for the time

being we think there is going to be a change to cloudier weather, a bit of rain at times and the pressure where pushing into western areas. —— fresh air. temperjust 17 degrees in glasgow and belfast, potentially, though, as i say, it could be quite warm still across eastern england. the uncertainty grows further into next week. what we are quite sure about, though, is the is going to be taking this diving southward pattern. this is the kind of pattern which will develop an area of low pressure which will probably be somewhere to the south of the uk or perhaps over the uk. the details of where that low ends up being determines exactly how much rain we get, but on the whole next week, it looks like it is going to be quite u nsettled. looks like it is going to be quite unsettled. temperatures will be easing back down to the high teens and low 20s, and it will become a little bit windier as well. so next week is looking much more unsettled. that‘s your latest weather.