welcome to bbc news — broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley. our top stories: at least seven people are killed, on a cruise boat that's capsized on the river danube in the hungarian capital. teams are still searching for survivors. us special counsel robert mueller breaks his silence on the russia investigation — and repeats that his report did not clear president trump of obstructing 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.

israel votes to hold its second election this year — after prime minister benjamin netanyahu fails to form a coalition. it's been sitting in the country for years — now the philippines is set to ship tonnes of canadian waste back to canada. hello. a cruise boat with more than 30 people on board has capsized, in the hungarian capital. state media are saying at least seven people have died — the south korean foreign ministry has confirmed they were south korean tourists. it happened on the river danube in budapest. divers have joined the search for 19 other people still missing. 7 people have been rescued but strong currents and high water levels, caused by heavy rain, are hampering emergency teams. the vessel collided with another boat near the parliament building, and overturned. gareth barlow has the latest.

the incident happened late on wednesday evening on a popular part of the river close to the hungarian parliament. local news reports say the boat, the mermaid, was carrying a group of south korean tourists when it collided with another vessel. a huge rescue effort is under way, with both spotlights and radar scanning the river for several kilometres downstream. police and paramedics lined the riverbank as divers searched the water. a section of the danube, europe's second longest river, has been closed. the rescue workers are facing difficult conditions. the river is flooding, and strong winds and heavy rain are hampering the search. in the centre of budapest tonight, the search for those lost in the river continues and in the cold light of morning, the search for the answers to what caused the disaster will get under way. gareth barlow, bbc news. earlier we spoke with local budapest radio reporter balintjuhasz.

he lived not far from the area of the river where the two boats collided. they are seeing a boat next to the bridge when it crashed through the big cruiser boat. all of the river is closed and more than 400 people working for the rescues. the latest news from the official announcement from the government and rescue, people in the hospitals, some people died in this accident. a lot of missing. the latest news is not official but there was a cruise boat, the boat hit a little boat and it sinks. now

the government and the policemen close the roads next to the river. and they tried to investigating what's happened in the last night. there is a rescue count. there is a live tv station to and a lot of people working here behind me now to search bodies and it is not official information. more than 30 kilometres down that we found parts of the ship and found bodies but it's not official yet. the us special counsel robert mueller has said that charging president trump with a crime was not an option, but that his long inquiry into russian election interference did not exonerate the president. in his first public comments on the inquiry, mr mueller said legal guidelines prevent the indictment of a sitting president. president trump has responded by saying the case is closed. 0ur north america editor jon sopel reports.

morning. washington is a city where people race to be in front of a microphone. but for two years, 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: "there was insufficient evidence and therefore in our country, a person is innocent." 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. what special counsel robert mueller said loud and clear today for the american people is that president trump is lying when he says no collusion, no obstruction and that he was exonerated. thank you, thank you for being here today. 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. we'll have more on that story later in this bulletin. let's get some of the day's other news the tornadoes battering the american midwest have now killed 38 people — the highest number in 5 years. twenty have been reported in kansas alone in the past 24 hours. pennsylvania was also hit. across the us there have been more than 300 tornadoes reported, in just the past 12 days. a crash on a main road in eastern mexico involving a bus

and a truck has killed at least 20 people. both vehicles burst into flames. children are reported to be among the dead. thirty other people were hurt. most of the victims were bus passengers travelling back to their home state, veracruz, from a pilgrimage to a roman catholic shrine in neighbouring chiapas. borisjohnson, the prominent contender for the conservative party leadership in the uk, is to appear in court, in relation to allegations that he made misleading claims during the brexit referendum 3 years ago. mrjohnson‘s lawyers have dismissed the accusations as a politically—motivated stunt. the olympic champion athlete caster semenya has lodged a legal appeal in switzerland, over the rules on the testosterone levels allowed for female athletes. women with higher than normal male hormone levels are now required to suppress them artificially, if they want to compete in some events. this month the court of arbitration for sport rejected the south african‘s earlier challenge to the rules. and for more on that story we're

joined by katrina karkazis, who is a senior fellow with the global healthjustice partnership at yale university. i know you work at the intersection of tech studies, gender, race and studies of biomedicine and ethics. you know this is an issue many feel strongly about. people of all genders and none. first of all on testosterone itself, why is it felt to be so important here because you can't rank who will do better based solely on testosterone levels? no, and in fact, interestingly enough, even the science coming from the raf themselves in support of these regulations shows that in the majority of events, it's actually the women with lower testosterone who do better and it's only in a small handful of events that there

isa small handful of events that there is a correlation between the higher levels and better performance so the relationship between testosterone and athleticism is actually quite complicated. such that we can't make straightforward statements, like the more you have, the better you do. straightforward statements, like the more you have, the better you dom is complicated as you say. is it possible to define why there is such an issue surrounding caster semenya? pa rt an issue surrounding caster semenya? part of it is that she is an extraordinary athlete and she said scrutiny now for close to ten years in the public eye because people, i think, are trying to understand or make sense of her performance, not understanding that. some people critique the fact that she might be lesbian, some people critique her gender presentation but the truth is, she is never taken drugs. she is competing with the body she was born

with and she finds it a violation of the human rights and ethics to have to undergo medically unnecessary interventions in order to continue competing in the category in which she belongs. there is a human rights issue about an hour late requiring to ta ke issue about an hour late requiring to take drugs. she is challenging the rules. when you expect this to end up? that's a great question. she's challenged it to the swiss federal court and it's not clear why now were that will end up at that challenge rests primarily on ethical concerns and human rights violations inherited to the regulations and i think that's important because cas itself was not able to deal with these concerns but us bodies have expressed concerns on these regulations that women are undergoing unnecessary medical interventions so i hope it comes out in herfavour interventions so i hope it comes out

in her favour between have a couple of months before we know that. thank you for talking to us. israeli mps have voted to dissolve parliament — paving the way for snap elections after prime minister benjamin netanyahu failed to meet a deadline forforming a coalition. mr netanyahu appeared set for a fifth term after his party won more than a quarter of seats in parliament last month's election. the new vote is expected in september. what's interesting is that in we are in unprecedented territory for israel. that being these new elections come weeks before he is facing that hearing, he will not be able to cobble together any sort of immunity legislation and that is part of the coalition discussions up to this point and possibly part of the

reason why these coalition discussions failed, because he was asking for some of the politicians in his coalition or prospective coalition to grant him immunity if you gave them positions in the government and it appears that gamble did not pay off for him. we have got much more on this story on our website at bbc.com/news. you can also download the bbc news app for the latest news and developments. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: what it took for workers in a welsh steel town, to move a work of art worth a six—figure sum from a garage wall to an art gallery. in the biggest international sporting spectacle ever seen, up to 30 million people have taken part in sponsored athletic events to aid famine relief in africa. the first of what the makers of star wars hope will be thousands of queues started forming at 7:00am. taunting which led to scuffles, scuffles to fighting,

fighting to full—scale riot, as the liverpool fans broke out of their area and into the juve ntus enclosure. the belgian police had lost control. the whole world will mourn the tragic death of mr nehru today. he was the father of the indian people from the day of independence. the oprah winfrey show comes to an end after 25 years and more than 4,500 episodes. the chat show has made her one of the richest people on the planet. geri halliwell, otherwise known as ginger spice, has announced she has left the spice girls. i don't believe it! she's the one with the bounce, the go, the girl power. not geri. why? this is bbc news. the latest headlines: at least seven people are killed on a cruise boat that's capsized on the river danube in the hungarian capital. teams are still searching for survivors.

us special counsel robert mueller breaks his silence on the russia investigation and repeats that his report did not clear president trump of obstructing justice. let's stay with that story now. rebecca legrand is a defence attorney whose firm works specifically on federal investigations. she's in our washington bureau. good to talk to you and thank you for your time. do you think what mr mueller has said changes the situation at all? not a great deal. it makes it more clear than ever that congress is the only federal body that can act here so it removes any doubt that they could have possibly been before that congress must act, or this conduct will go unpunished. so it is clear —— clear thanit unpunished. so it is clear —— clear than it was earlier but anyone who read the report should have already known that and that is why hundreds

of us attorneys throughout the country, you know, signed a saying when we read the mother report which is detailed and dry, i think, intentionally, but detailed, it leaves out the facts in the law that supports charging the president with obstruction of justice —— supports charging the president with obstruction ofjustice —— mueller. no—one wants to be the one to make that decision and i can understand why, it is a monumental decision to make, but it is clear that someone has to and congress is the body that mueller envisioned being the one to do it. we come to the issue of impeachment in a moment but on the point of indictment, it is a ruling, isn't it, from the justice department that hasn't been tested in courtand department that hasn't been tested in court and we don't know whether a sitting president could be indicted ona sitting president could be indicted on a felony. exactly right. robert mueller decided to follow the existing department ofjustice guidance that says we don't think you can criminally indict a sitting president but the courts have not weighed in on this so, for example, the state of new york put indict him and then that question would be tested. the state of new york does

not have to follow federal department ofjustice guidance, so there are ways that at a state level that this could still be tested. it seems like it ought to be tested. this is too monumental a question to be left to the equivalent of an i nte roffi ce be left to the equivalent of an interoffice memo laying out this is what i think based on my review of the law. courts should get to weigh in on something significant, in my humble opinion. in your opinion! whether we are talking about indictment or impeachment, there seems to be there isn't enough case —— evidence for mr mueller, isn't there than enough evidence for a court or anyone else? mr mueller did not say there was not enough evidence, the only thing he said for sure on obstruction was there was enough evidence to say he is not innocent. i agree that is awkwardly worded statement that that is essentially what said. there wasn't enough evidence there to say he was innocent. what he did, when illegal reader sees, when they read the

report, he laid out the facts in the law necessary to bring an indictment oi’ law necessary to bring an indictment or articles of impeachment, based on obstruction. he did not say that the evidence was insufficient. william barr said that but he also made it clear he did not read the whole report at times, is where we are. mueller, thank you so much for talking to us. thank you, sir. the philippines is due to ship 69 containers full of rubbish back to canada today. the disagreement started back in 2014, after the philippines found out canada had delivered household waste, rather than recyclable plastics. president duterte accused canada of turning his country into a dump site, and the philippines recalled its ambassador in the escalating row. earlier, our correspondent howard johnson explained how the dispute is developing. well, it looks like today, this container full of rubbish, 69 containers, will be shipped out around midday onwards. what we are expecting to see is a container ship come

up from manila. they will start to load the containers on and around midnight is expected to be the deadline for getting this stuff out. it is expected to then go on to china, which is a transshipment destination, and then on to canada, where they said they will deal with the issue by the end ofjuly. this is a big message from the philippines to the rest of the world, saying they will no longer take western countries' or developed countries' waste and that they are saying from this day onwards, that that is over. and it's similar to other countries like china, we've seen in 2018, they brought about a ban which has displaced plastic in this region. 7 million tons a year now has to find a new destination to be recycled. malaysia this week also said tat it was sending back 7,000 tons —— malaysia this week also said that it was sending back 7,000 tons to countries like uk and canada and other developed countries. this is clearly not an issue that will end with these 69 rubbish containers. what is the feeling on the filipino street, would you say? well, president duterte is incredibly popular here and his threat to have war

with canada over this issue went down very well ahead of these midterm elections, where he had a landslide victory. so we went on the street of subic bay to speak to people, to see what their opinion was on this issue. for six years, i have been — it's been too long and now it is their time to get their trash back. i'm happy about it, you know, because there's — here in the philippines, there's a lot of trash in here already, so we don't need someone's trash. i think president duterte did well on that decision, for taking back the garbage on canada, because it is the only president who did that. so mainly favourable reaction here in the philippines but there are some who think that president duterte has been rather undiplomatic with the threats. canada, of course, has hundreds of thousands of filipinos so we are also seeing whether the relationship between canada and philippines will be good after this row that has been going on for months now.

chelsea have beaten arsenal by four goals to one in the europa league final in baku, azerbaijan. the build—up to the match has been marred by ticketing and travel difficulties for fans having to travel nearly 4000km kilometres from london to baku. sarah rainsford is there. it is the arsenal fans that have been coming out of here, streaming out of the stadium first, not the result that came all the way to baku hoping for. you can see their faces are dejected, disappointed, some of them angry, when we asked them about them angry, when we asked them about the result. it was an extremely long journey for a london derby, arsenal and chelsea facing up here in the 0lympic and chelsea facing up here in the olympic stadium in baku. almost 3000 miles. for chelsea, it was worth it, this was the rear. but what about the arsenal fans? —— this was victory. you have a second? do you

have a second? i am gutted. it was expensive enough getting here and to see a template that shambolic lead was ridiculous. was it worth coming all this way for? no. for azerbaijan, hosting big events like this one is a big deal, this is a country who wants to showcase itself to the world. but it brings a sometimes uncomfortable spotlight on things like human rights here and the big armenian question at the conflict that meant that arsenal's armenian midfielder said he did not feel safe coming. for these fans the big questions have been about logistics. on a train that nearly killed me, 12 hours, to bluesy to baku. ——du plessis. killed me, 12 hours, to bluesy to baku. --du plessis. and after, pretty complicated, long and expensive journey to get here, the

fa ns expensive journey to get here, the fans now have an equally long journey home. sarah rainsford there. a mural by the artist banksy which was painted on the walls of a garage in wales has been moved very carefully. it's new home is a museum which will feature the artwork known as seasons greetings. tomos morgan reports. as christmas descended on port talbot last year, so did banksy. a painting on one side of a young boy playing in what looks like snow but, on the other side, the piece shows the child is breathing fumes. but can it be moved intact? after sleepless nights and months of planning, the moment of truth has finally arrived and the banksy is on the move. it's been quite the headache for engineers. protective resins, wooden casings, and steel barriers have all been needed. it's been a slow process, as a crane slowly moved the garage corner onto a flatbed before being transported through the centre of town, but seasons greetings has

remained in perfect condition. and there we are! i am so relieved, you've no idea. i said this morning i didn't see anything going wrong. total faith in these guys doing the job because they looked so professional to me but accidents happen, things do happen, and now here it is, it's in port talbot, anybody can come and look at it easily. the aim is for the piece to be on full display to the public by the end of the week with a view to making seasons greetings' new home into a museum of street art in the future. tomos morgan, bbc news, port talbot. from one picture to some more pictures we would like to show you before we leave you. two rare white tiger cubs having a meal in their new home

at the nicaragua national zoo. just five months old, siblings 0sman and halime are the only animals of their kind in central america. white tigers are not a separate species — they owe their colour to a recessive gene. it's thought there are only a few hundred left worldwide, almost all living in captivity. the pair were adopted from a mexican zoo, where their parents are part of a breeding program aimed at saving white tigers from extinction. before we go, back to the hungarian capital budapest and the incident on the danube river, just near the parliament building, where a cruise boat appears to have collided with another boat and capsized. seven people, we understand, have died, the south korean foreign ministry has confirmed they were south korean tourists. 33 of the group, all in all, are tourists from south korea. it happened at nine o'clock local time. divers havejoined the it happened at nine o'clock local time. divers have joined the search for many still missing. seven people

have been rescued but strong current and high water levels caused by heavy rain have been hampering the emergency teams. that is all for now. thank you for watching. much more anytime on the bbc website. hello. one thing we're certainly not short of at the moment is cloud across the uk, and through today, it will tend to stick around in many areas and bring some rain into the north. by the weekend, though, i'm hopeful we'll see more in the way of sunshine, and we're going to see things significantly warming up for some. more on that in just a moment. a lot of warm air coming in from the atlantic in the next few days, but it's coming up to the south of this frontal system. that will mean a lot of cloud around, some more persistent rain across the northern half of the uk in the short term, as well. but by the weekend, high pressure will start to push in from the south, thin the cloud, and allow more sunshine. today, though, most of us

are going to be stuck with fairly grey skies, and across the northern half of the uk, some more persistent rain as the day goes on. heavy at times, possibly, for northern ireland, the south—west of scotland, parts of the north—west of england, maybe the far north—west of wales, too. to the far north of scotland, some sunshine for the northern isles. to the south, some brighter skies to the lee of high ground. breezy day across the board, particularly gusty around western coasts and across the hills, quite murky in the west as well. just 11 degrees there in aberdeen, but up to 23 if we get some brightness across the south—east of england. 0vernight thursday into friday, looking at more wet weather across the northern half of the uk, but hopefully the cloud to the south perhaps thinning and breaking a little as the hours go by. high pressure trying to squeeze its influence further north. certainly a mild enough start to friday, but once again, you can see rain waiting to push into northern ireland and western scotland. and through the day, that frontal system continues to buckle to the north of the uk, so there will be more heavy downpours.

to the south, the high is nearby, and that should allow the cloud to thin and break a little more, see a bit more in the way of sunshine, and temperatures creeping up across england and wales on friday, into the mid 20s. milder for aberdeen, but still a lot of cloud around and some rain, but the heaviest of the rain for northern ireland and western scotland. but by saturday, that high throws its influence further north. we should see more in the way of widespread sunshine and a pretty warm day, even across the northern half of the uk, but to the south, we could get up to 27 degrees celsius in the south—east of england. a very short spike of a heatwave, though. by sunday, the weather picture starts to become quite showery across the uk, and that will see our temperatures beginning to slide away. still a pretty pleasant day to come, though, on sunday. in the sunny spells, there will be some warmth around, turning much chillier, though, next week.

this is bbc news, the headlines: at least seven people have died on a cruise boat that's capsized on the river danube in the hungarian capital, budapest. there were at least 30 on board when it collided with another vessel and overturned. it's been confirmed the seven tourists who lost their lives were south korean nationals. prominent democrats in the us congress are again calling for impeachment proceedings against president trump, now special counsel robert mueller has broken his silence on the russia investigation. he repeated that his report did not clear the president of obstructing justice. mr trump tweeted: "case closed." israeli politicians have voted to dissolve parliament and hold a snap election, because the newly re—elected prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, has failed to form a governing coalition. the vote, in september, will be the second this year. his attempts to put together an administration collapsed amid differences between secular

and religious parties.