hello, everyone, and welcome. this is newsday on the bbc. i'm rico hizon in singapore. the headlines: donald trump lashes out at robert mueller 3 day after the former special counsel refused to clear the president of obstructing justice. the whole thing is a scam, it's a giant presidential harassment. no, russia did not help me get elected. you know who got me elected? i got me elected. russia didn't help me at all. another front in the trade war as china prepares to impose tariffs on $60 billion worth of american goods. i'm lewis vaughanjones in london. also in the programme:

as the syrian army closes in on the last rebel strongholds in the north, the un warns the lives of tens of thousands of children are at risk. keeping fit while fasting — we meet the athletes in singapore who are training hard while observing ramadan. good morning. glad you could join us. it's 8am in singapore, 1am in london and 8pm in washington dc where president trump has lashed out at robert mueller, the special counsel who investigated russian interference in the 2016 election. in a 10—minute outburst to reporters

on the white house lawn before he boarded the presidential helicopter, mr trump called the inquiry the "greatest presidential harassment in history" and claimed robert mueller was "totally conflicted." here's some of what he had to say. look, robert mueller should have never been chosen because he wanted the fbi job and he didn't get it and the next day he was picked as special counsel. so you tell somebody, "i'm sorry, you can't have the job," and then after you say that, he is going to make a ruling on you. it doesn't work that way. plus we had a business dispute, plus his relationship with comey was extraordinary. no, russia did not help me get elected. you know who got me elected? i got me elected. russia did not help me at all. the whole thing is a scam, it's a giant presidential harassment. and honestly, i hope it goes down as one of my greatest achievements. i got more details from our

washington correspondent, chris buckler, as president trump hit back at robert mueller. it was a furious tirade even by president trump standards. sometimes he gets angry and this was one of the occasions. and clearly echoing in his mind, and those words yesterday from robert mueller in which the special counsel broke his silence after two years of that investigation and specifically came out and said, "if we had been confident that the president did not commit a crime, we would have said so." the underlying reason being that as far as he is concerned there are questions as far as president trump's conduct is concerned, particularly around that whole issue of whether or not he tried to obstructjustice. and the fact that the special counsel came forward to actually say this was pretty unusual, and it does suggest that he wanted to correct the record. after all these claims from president trump that he had been exonerated in his own words and, indeed, some frustration with how the us attorney—general william barr had looked

at his report and summarised it. frustration there from robert mueller. but mr barr has been hitting back today as well. the us attorney—general has told cbs news that as far as he is concerned robert mueller could have come to a conclusion about the question of crime despite his suggestion that that was not possible. i personally felt he could have reached a decision. in your view, he could have reached a conclusion? right, he could have reached a conclusion. the opinion says you cannot indict a president while he is in office, but he could have reached a decision as to whether it was criminal activity. but he had his reasons for not doing it, which he explained, and i am not going to argue about those reasons. but when he didn't make a decision, the deputy attorney—general rod rosenstein and i felt it was necessary for us as the heads of the department to reach that decision. what is really frustrating the white house is that the ball has now been firmly passed to congress. this suggestion by robert mueller

that really there are still questions there means now congressional committees can start to dig into those, as they've already started to do. but it's that other word — what president trump described today as the dirty word of impeachment that continues to be talked about around washington. now, democrats, some of them are suggesting that impeachment proceedings should begin. there are others in the democratic leadership who are very nervous about that, but it does give you this sense that at the moment president trump feels under fire and he is certainly prepared to head back. chris buckler there. let's take a look at some of the day's other news. hungarian police have arrested the captain of a river cruise ship which is believed to have collided with a tourist boat on the danube in budapest. at least seven south koreans died when the boat sank. 21 people are still missing. our correspondent nick thorpe is in budapest. as darkness falls here in budapest, very little chance,

almost zero chance in fact of finding any more survivors, though the rescue boats are still out on the river. the hungarian navigation authority has said that at this time of day, when the accident happened, normally about 70 boats are on the river. small, like the mermaid, just 26 metres long, and much larger craft, like the viking, the river passenger ship which collided in it in still uncertain circumstances. that was a 135—metre long ship, 1,000 tons compared to the a0 tons of the smaller ship involved in this collision. video footage has emerged of what appears to be the moment of the collision and the moments leading up to it, and you can see clearly on those pictures the smaller boatjust at the moment that the larger ship tries to overtake it as they are passing together underneath the arch of margaret bridge, the smaller boat appears to swerve right under

the bow of the larger ship. and according to eyewitnesses and the rescue services, the smaller ship sank within seconds. we understand that the south korean foreign minister and relatives of the victims are now on their way to hungary. nick thorpe, bbc news, budapest. also making news today, the indian prime minister narendra modi has taken an oath in front of thousands of cheering supporters in the capital delhi as he begins his second term. 57 members of his cabinet were sworn in along with him in a grand ceremony at the presidential palace. the singer r kelly has been charged with 11 more sexual offences. court records reportedly show they relate to sexual assault of a minor between the age of 13 and i6. earlier this year, the r&b artist was charged with 10 counts of criminal sexual abuse. he pleaded not guilty and has been released on bail.

austria has appointed the country's first woman chancellor following the vote of no confidence in the government of sebastian kurz. the head of the constitutional court, brigitte bierlein, will serve as interim chancellor until fresh elections are held in september. she promised to rebuild trust following last week's government crisis over a video sting. a baby born weighing just 2a0g thought to be the smallest on record to survive a premature birth has been discharged from hospital in the us. saybie weighed the same as a large apple when she was born at 23 weeks and three days in december last year. despite the slim chances of survival, she has now left hospital and is healthy. the trade war between the us and china shows no sign of easing up. from saturday, china is expected

to impose increased tariffs on about $60 billion worth of us imports, including meat, cooking oil and vegetables. with me is our business reporter monica miller. tell us what sparked this latest round of tariffs. this is beijing's retaliation against washington, which slap don tariffs on $200 billion worth of chinese goods. the trump administration decided to do this after talks broke down. over the past few days we have seen rhetoric between the two sides, particularly the chinese. yes, in the state run newspaper, they send a message, don't say we didn't warn you, and are following they up on this today. reports out of bloomberg says china is now halting sales of us soybeans which is a tactical move on their behalf because this is at the heart of resident trump's voters. these other people that came out and put him into power, the

farmers. at this point they have just been socked by this tit—for—tat trade war that has been going on with the chinese. president trump had $16 billion aid package sent their away but they are saying they wa nt their away but they are saying they want trade, not aid, and they are saying they are not seeing this money coming fast enough. they are dealing with things out of their control of mother nature, tornadoes and floods which is making this a lot more difficult. no sign of ending. everyone is hoping we will see a resolution sooner rather than later. thank you so much for that update, my colleague monica miller. the united nations is warning that tens of thousands of children are at immediate risk of being killed or forced to flee for their lives because of intense fighting in northern syria. president assad's army is closing in on the last stronghold of opposition forces. syrian government troops, backed by russian air power, are attacking idlib province where rebel islamist fighters are making a last stand. 0ur middle east editor

jeremy bowen reports. this is life and death in idlib, the last province in syria controlled by rebels. civil defence workers, the white helmets, are digging civilians out of buildings, destroyed, it seems certain, by attacks from the regime side. this boy called hakam survived. his three siblings did not. unicef, the un children's agency, says tens of thousands of children are in danger as, once again, syria's war escalates. this should be no surprise to the world. syria's slow death follows a pattern. in january 2017, i walked through the ruins of al-quds hospital in east aleppo, the rebel enclave that had just fallen to the regime and its russian and iranian allies.

thousands of casualties were treated here during the siege. the medics had left in a hurry after shells hit the building. this whole area is damaged. hospitals, civilian buildings a re protected under international humanitarian law, so there are major questions to be answered about whether war crimes were committed. wars are less chaotic than they appear. pain and death are inflicted on someone's orders. and wars have laws. some are supposed to protect civilians. in syria, they've mostly been ignored. hamza al khataeb, one of the doctors, says he witnessed war crimes every day that killed and maimed civilians. two years on, in london, he'd like to see the perpetrators in court. the syrian regime and the russians — no—one else has the aeroplanes

to make the sky rain cluster bombs, explosive barrels and chlorine gas. no—one else can do that. what would you like to have happen to them? justice, just justice. syria's war has destroyed a country, killed perhaps 500,000 people and let overwhelming evidence of war crimes by all sides according to un investigators. all the countries involved in syria's multi—layered war have questions to answer. this is raqqa, once the beating heart of the jihadist islamic state. the americans, helped by the british, levelled it. amnesty, the human rights group, condemned them for not acknowledging how many civilians they'd killed.

rebels, now mainly jihadist extremists, continue to fight out of idlib, but the president's side has almost won the war. was this recent regime airstrikea warcrime? was this regime airstrikea warcrime? possibly. it buried this child and killed another. but turning evidence into prosecutions is difficult. syria's wounds would have a better chance to heal if war criminals faced the law. but victors' justice tends to apply when the fighting stops, so it looks as if the regime and its allies, for now at least, will be safe. jeremy bowen, bbc news. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme: a sri lankan politician shot and badly injured a month ago, one of the first victims of the extremist network behind the easter bombings. also on the programme, how do muslim athletes keep up their training regime while fasting from dawn

to dusk during ramadan? in the biggest international sporting spectacle ever seen, up to 30 million people have taken part in sponsored athletics 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 7am. 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 11,500 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. ah, i don't believe it! she's the one with the bounce, the go, the girl power. not geri. why? this is newsday on the bbc. i'm rico hizon in singapore. i'm lewis vaughanjones in london. our top stories: donald trump lashes out at robert mueller, a day after the former special counsel refused to clear the president of obstructing justice. another front in the trade war. china will impose tariffs on $60 bilion worth of american goods in just a few hours. let's take a look at some front pages from around the world. 0n the front page of the new york times international edition is an interview with a former chinese army

lieutenant who witnessed the tiananmen crackdown in 1989. for 30 years, jiang lin kept quiet about the carnage that she saw, but now she has decided to tell her story, and calls for a public reckoning of the event. two days after the knife attack on a group of school children in kawasaki, the japan times reveals that the suspect had been living as a recluse. relatives of the suspect, ryuichi iwasaki, expressed their concerns to the authorities long before the mass stabbing took place, but they did not contact him. and the philippine daily inquirer broke the news that president rodrigo duterte has approved the public auction of a jewellery collection seized from the former first lady imelda marcos. the collection‘s value is estimated at $13.5 million. mr duterte has asked that all the money be used to benefit the philippine public.

it is just over a month since supporters of so—called islamic state launched a wave of suicide bombings in sri lanka. more than 250 people died in a series of attacks on churches and hotels used by foreigners. since then, more details have been emerging of the terrorist cell behind the attacks and the missed opportunitues to stop them. 0ur correspondent secunder kermani has been looking into the case of a local muslim politician who has paid dearly for helping to investigate the extremists. paralysed on his left side and unable to speak, mohamed razik tasleem was one of the first victims of an extremist network that would go on to strike terror in sri lanka. the muslim former local politician narrowly survived an assassination attempt in march. it all began when radical islamists struck his hometown of mawanella

back in december, vandalising a series of now—repaired buddhist statues. tasleem's wife says he volunteered to help police investigate in an effort to keep peace between muslim and buddhist communities. translation: i'm very proud of him. he stepped up when no—one else did, because he always opposes any kind of injustice. he said our religion does not permit such acts. we need to catch those responsible. newsreader: the police also found three barrels stocked with... while searching for the suspects, police and tasleem were tipped off about a huge stash of explosives hidden in this remote coconut grove. it is now believed the explosives were linked to this radical preacher, zahran hashim, who would go on to become the ringleader of the easter bombings. investigators believe he sent a gunman to tasleem's home

to punish him for cooperating with police. it was the early hours of the morning when the attackers entered the house through this back door, and it seems they had done their preparation, because somehow they knew exactly where to head. they came to tasleem's bedroom. they found him here, lying next to his wife and his youngest child, and they shot him once in the head. translation: at first i thought the phone charger had exploded. but i looked, and it was fine. then i tried to wake him up, and i could smell gunpowder. i reached out to him and i realised he wasn't conscious. a month later, sri lanka was rocked by a string of suicide bombings. the authorities believe they were carried out by part of the same network tasleem had been trying to help dismantle. even before the incidents, when the inquiries were carried out, we were getting closer

to the information on confirming that it is the same extremist group. particularly in light of the discovery of these explosives on this farmland, shouldn't that have been more of a warning sign for the authorities than it was? i believe that what you say is exactly correct, but we had some information and intelligence—sharing situations. there was a gap that everybody could see today. tasleem's youngest son calls out for his father whenever he sees photographs of him. the family are worried that, despite his efforts to tackle the extremists, he is not getting all the help he needs. a forgotten victim of sri lanka's deadly attacks. secunder kermani, bbc news, mawanella. finding the time and energy for regular exercise is hard enough, but imagine doing it when you're fasting from dawn to dusk. that is the reality faced by muslim sports lovers around the world who are currently observing ramadan. lucy martin reports from singapore on the challenge of combining faith with fitness.

the ancient martial art known as silat requires patience, agility and mental strength. singapore's national team is in the middle of a gruelling session, and they're doing it on a empty stomach. it's definitely tough, but i guess it's all about endurance. so whenever i train, i do feel very thirsty, because water is very important for me. it's ramadan, the holy month, when millions of muslims around the world abstain from eating and drinking from sunrise to sunset. it is a time for spiritual reflection and prayer, but it also presents a challenge for these athletes who are ramping

up their training ahead of this year's south—east asian games. let's say i get thirsty during training, i'lljust be like, "come on, it'sjust going to be half an hour, and then you can drink, you can eat all you want. it's not going to kill you or anything". practising muslims can be formally excused from fasting if they are sick or have to travel. there is an ongoing debate about whether professional athletes should also be excused, but for now, it's a personal choice. once the sun goes down, the team breaks fast together. then, it's back to work. it's notjust professional athletes who juggle fasting with fitness. i'm angry, at the beginning. but now it's more of just controlling

the emotions, as well. riana runs marathons in her spare time. i actually feel weird if i stop exercising, so the trick is to find the time when it's best to do it. she does like training, before breaking fast with water... that was so worth it. ..and chocolate. it's not the nicest, but it will do the trick. experts say there is no why everyone can't combine faith and fitness. in a nutshell, probably think about modifying their training sessions, keep a balanced diet, and stay well—hydrated, as well. for those counting down the days, next week marks the end of ramadan. and that is followed by a holiday called eid, which is all about catching up with friends and family. and, of course, feasting. lucy martin, bbc news, singapore.

these beaches attract hundreds of thousands of tourists a year but recently they have been covered with large craters dug by so—called sand thieves. volcanic sand is used to make cement and the women can earn more than $33 a week selling it. environmentalists warn the ecological consequences can be disastrous. you have been watching newsday. i'm lewis vaughanjones in london. and i'm rico hizon in singapore. stay with us. billion—dollar loss. the ride—hailing giant uber delivers its first earnings report as a public company. we will have the latest on those figures coming up on asia business report. and before we go, we would like to leave you with these pictures. two baby ring—tailed lemurs have become the latest attraction at rome zoo. they were born in april, but they are only out in public now. their mothers carry them around

when they are young. ring—tailed lemurs are native to madagascar, and listed as an endangered species. stay with bbc world news. well, you may have heard by now that it's turning a lot warmer, but the forecast isn't quite so straightforward. in fact, it's not going to be turning hot everywhere, and in fact, some areas are still in for some rain. but i think the main message is that yes, broadly speaking, we are all in for at least some warmth. but a lot of cloud out there right now. it's very muggy — a very muggy night, with temperatures in the mid—teens across some southern areas of the uk. this is what it looks like the early hours of friday, so some bits and pieces of rain around western scotland, some in northern ireland, a scattering of rain across parts of the lake district,

and the temperatures 1a in london on friday, but a lot fresher there in the far north, in lerwick, only five degrees. here is the forecast for friday, moist south—westerly winds will drag in a lot of cloud, mist and murk around the coast. rain in northern ireland. by the time this weather front is through, we will have seen about 40—50 millimetres of rain. that's a lot, 11 inches of rain. the warmest and brightest of the weather will be across central and southern areas. temperatures reaching 22, but not clear, blue skies. there will be a fair amount of cloud around during the course of friday. the orange is the warm air spreading across much of europe. in fact, the near continent, temperatures will be approaching 30 degrees. we will get some of that warmth, it will be reaching towards southern and central areas. so this portion of the uk

will probably see temperatures in the mid 20s, maybe the high 20s in one or two spots. but further north, it's a case of more cloud. only 17 in belfast, squeezing 19 there in newcastle. and then it's all change, because on sunday, a low pressure comes in off the atlantic, brings some showers almost anywhere, really. there will be some sunshine too, but it does sort of spoil the second half of the weekend a little bit, and it will turn fresher. in fact, temperatures will start to back away into the low 20s across the southern and eastern areas. so that 27—28 degrees on saturday is just a one—day wonder. in fact, the low pressure is with us during the course of monday and tuesday. you can see there it's anchored to the north of scotland. so that does mean that, after that brief spell of very warm weather on saturday, from sunday onwards and into next week, it will be turning cooler and more unsettled.

this is bbc news. our top story: president trump has launched a fierce personal attack on robert mueller. it comes a day after the former special counsel refused to exonerate the president of obstruction ofjustice. mr trump described mr mueller as "totally conflicted." the trade war between the us and china shows no sign of easing. in just a few hours, china is expected to impose tariffs on about $60 billion worth of us imports, including cooking oil and vegetables. and this story is doing well on bbc.com. a baby born weighing just 2a0g thought to be the tiniest on record to survive a premature birth has been discharged from hospital in the us. saybie weighed the same as a large apple when she was born at 23 weeks and three days. that's all. stay with bbc world news. the top story in the uk: