welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley. our top stories: president trump lashes out at former special counsel the headlines: robert mueller over president trump has launched a fierce personal attack without giving any evidence on robert mueller. the former special counsel made headlines this week with a rare the russia inquiry. public statement, reiterating that his russia inquiry did not clear the president of obstructing justice. mr trump described him as "totally co nflicted" the whole thing is is a scam. the and his team as "some of the worst humans on earth." whole thing is a giant presidential united nations officials are warning that tens of thousands of children fiasco. russia did not help me get elected. are at immediate risk you know who got me elected? of being killed or forced to flee for their lives because of intense i got me elected. fighting around idlib in northern russia did not help me at all. syria, one of the last police arrest the captain of the cruise ship involved strongholds of islamist rebels. in wedesday‘s deadly crash on the river danube. police in hungary have detained syria's humanitarian crisis: the captain of a cruise ship that the un warns that tens of thousands collided with a smaller of children are still at risk. boat on the river danube in budapest on wednesday. scientists develop a genetically enhanced fungus that can kill mosquitoes at least seven

south korean tourists died and more than 20 others are missing. rescuers have said there's little hope of finding them alive. that spread malaria. the chief medical officer for england has told bbc news that president trump has launched a particularly fierce and personal attack, without giving any evidence, on former special counsel robert mueller. mr mueller made headlines this week with a rare public statement, reiterating that his long inquiry did not clear the president of obstructing justice. mr trump spoke today about russian election interference and moves by the democrats to impeach him, before laying into robert mueller. our washington correspondent chris buckler has more. the president has been unable to hide his fury at the man who examined his every action during the 2016 election campaign. and concluded that russia had made significant efforts to interfere

with the effort, something that president trump seem to briefly acknowledge with this tweet in which he specifically stated that he had nothing to do with russia helping him to get elected. know, russia did not help me get elected. you know who got me elected? you know who got me elected? who got me elected? you know who got me elected ? i who got me elected? you know who got me elected? i got me elect. russia didn't help me at all. but the special counsel robert mueller has rate —— raised questions again, provoking the president.” rate —— raised questions again, provoking the president. i think he isa provoking the president. i think he is a conflicted person. i think mueller is a true never—trumper. he is someone who dislikes donald trump. there is no collusion, there is nothing to stop there it is nothing but a witch—hunt by the democrat and it keeps going. i thought it was finished when the report was released but it goes on. what sparked that presidential tire rate was robert mueller‘s surprise

news c0 nfe re nce rate was robert mueller‘s surprise news conference and specifically this statement... if we had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so. we did not however make a determination as to whether the president did commit a crime. in his more than 400 page report, mr mueller listed ten occasions where donald trump may have tried to obstructjustice but he said he had come to no conclusion, partly because us department ofjustice guidelines so you cannot indict a sitting president. however, the us attorney general has now claimed that shouldn't have stopped him. he could have reached a conclusion. the opinion says you cannot indict a sitting president while he is in office but he could have reached a decision as to whether it was criminal activity. thank you. congress has been left to on mr mueller‘s findings. some democrat are pushing for impeachment proceedings to begin but the party's leadership is wary, fearing that such a and could backfire politically. either way, such a and could backfire

politically. eitherway, president trump knows this battle isn't over and he has shown he is not want to walk away from a fight. chris buckler, bbc news, washington. more analysis on that to come a little later in the programme. let's get some of the day's other news. president trump is saying he will impose tariffs on all goods from mexico in an attempt to force the country to crack down on illegal migration to the us. he says the five per cent tariff will come into effect next month and will gradually increase. the saudi monarch has claimed iran is a threat to global security. king salman told an emergency arab summit that gulf states and other world powers should contain what he described as iran's criminal activities and interference. the government in tehran denies saudi and american accusations that it recently attacked oil tankers and a saudi pipeline. the german chancellor has used an address to american scholars to warn of the dangers of nationalism. angela merkel urged graduating students at harvard to reject isolation, and not to confuse truth with lies. india's prime minister,

narendra modi, has begun his second term, taking an oath in front of thousands of supporters in delhi. 57 members of his cabinet were sworn in too. the bjp won the election with an even bigger majority than in 2014. the captain of a cruise ship which was involved in a crash on the river danube, in budapest, has been arrested by hungarian police. seven people are known to have died — 21 are missing. police are questioning the captain — who's ukrainian. gareth barlow has the latest. in a split second, the disaster unfolded. in just seven seconds, the mermaid sank. the 40 ton boat, forced into the water, no match for the thousand ton viking. the front of the viking hit the back of the little boat and itjust turned broadside in front of the boat and itjust rolled over and then the hull popped up on the opposite side of the ship,

you know, just a few seconds later, and then it was down, it sunk. more than 24 hours on, the search continues for those still missing, but hopes are fading of finding anyone alive. the danube is flowing in full force, its waters just 10 celsius, offering little chance of survival. the focus now for the authorities — to find out what went so terribly wrong. the vikings ukrainian captain has been arrested, suspected of reckless misconduct leading to mass casualties. translation: what we can see on the cctv footage is the small boat, the mermaid, is sailing north. as is the bigger vessel, the viking. when they reached the pillars of the margaret bridge, the mermaid turns in front of the viking for some reason, and there was a collision. the mermaid got turned on its side and within about seven seconds, it sank. in south korea, relatives of the victims joined military search teams on a

flight to budapest. in hungary, as rescue workers prepare to raise the sunken vessel candles mark the place where a happy holiday became a tragedy. gareth barlow, bbc news. scientists in burkina faso and the united states are saying they've developed a genetically enhanced fungus that can rapidly kill the mosquitoes that spread malaria. the team took a fungus that naturally infects mosquitos and modified it, to produce a deadly toxin which is also found in spider venom. brian lovett is an insect pathologist and bioengineer at the university of maryland and he's a co—author of the report. hejoins me now. we have shots of burkina faso. what did the scientists actually do? in the study, we we working with a

natural pathogen in mosquitoes. it will recognise it is on a mosquito. the one we are working with only kills mosquitoes and then it will grow through the mosquito until it makes it into the blood. once it —— onceit makes it into the blood. once it —— once it reaches the blood, we have engineered it to get only an insect blood and then set specific toxin from a spider in australia. we are using this natural pathogen from mosquitoes from a spider fang. we are using the fungus to deliver the toxins. is the aim to make mosquitoes extinct? no, absolutely not, ouraim is mosquitoes extinct? no, absolutely not, our aim is to control the mosquitoes who bite humans and not event and mission of diseases as such as malaria. there have been experiments like this in the past — why has this one been successful? this one was successful, largely due

to the incredible effort by scientist in burkina faso. i remain collaborator spearheaded — make our remain collaborator spearheaded this in burkina faso. —— our main collaborator. having him on was important for the success of the project. the other thing that was important was the construction of this facility that we tested the fungi in. we can'tjust walk out into the field and try them so we built a very large building, facility, which we call a mosquito sphere which is like a large greenhouse but instead of having glass it has a double—walled net which allows us to test our experiments under environmental conditions but keep the fungus and mosquitoes contained within this facility. briefly, it might be at the back of some people ‘s' mind. there is something that do good

things but then do unexpected bad thing. are you concerned about that? absolutely, we are concerned. the risks and weighing the risk against the benefits is a really important part. of any new technology. the fungus we have used is well characterised and has been used for centuries and is common in the environment and safer for people and is applied widely, unmodified, in agriculture to control agricultural pests, too. the genetics of it is very well defined in this case. thank you so much for your time. united nations officials are 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. presidents assad's army is closing in on the last strongold of opposition forces. the un says civilians are facing indiscriminate bombing and shelling

— acts which may amount to war crimes. it's estimated as many as half a million people have lost their lives since syria collapsed into civil war 8 years ago. syrian government troops, backed by russian air power, are attacking idlib province where rebel islamist fighters are making a last stand. our 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 the victims out of buildings, destroyed, it seems certain, by attacks from the regime side. this boy 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. injanuary 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, are 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 mainlyjihadist

extremists, continue their fight out of idlib, but the president's side has almost won the war. was this recent 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. and you can keep up to date all with the latest developments in syria on the bbc website.

you'll aso find a feature on the most powerful groups left facing president assad — that's all at bbc.com/news — or download the bbc news app. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: how do you spell success? students are vying for the top prize but even parents have problems with some of those words. even me! 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 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. ah, i don't believe it! she's the one with the bounce, the go, the girl power. not geri. why? this is bbc news. our main headline: donald trump lashes out at robert mueller a day after the former special counsel refused to clear the president of obstructing justice. let's stay with that story now. live now to washington dc and to jacqueline thomsen,

courts reporter for the american political website the hill. thank you for speaking to us. thank you very much for your time. you are, in so many ways does make you have said, mr drum has redefined what is acceptable, appropriate, what's dignified —— trump, but he does now sound genuinely rattled. what you make of the situation? he's frustrated. he did get a heads up that mueller would be making remarks, but i don't think you knew the extent of what special counsel would be saying, once again that he would be saying, once again that he would refuse to exonerate the president from having committed any crimes. the president has taken it asa crimes. the president has taken it as a personal insult saying that he w011 as a personal insult saying that he won the election himself. it is the president telling the truth about this conflict of interest? he

doesn't seem to be. you know, even within mueller‘s report, steve bannon, one of trump's most trusted advisers that one point said his attacks are conflicted and wouldn't hold up, they were essentially nonsense. so, there isn't really a conflict of interest here. the president is claiming because mueller was under consideration of becoming the director of the fbi after the firing of james becoming the director of the fbi after the firing ofjames comey, it would mean mueller conflicted because he was passed over for the job and was instead appointed special counsel. it was also noted in this situation with mueller‘s emily where mueller ended his membership at a trump club in dc because of a potential conflict of interest —— mother's family. —— mueller‘s family. interest —— mother's family. —— mueller's family. in effect, he is now past the board to congress, hasn't he? isn't the sole noise and

fury or is it likely to have real—world consequences, do you think? i think we're seeing a lot more democrats starting to raise their voices up for starting impeachment inquiries into the president. at this point it's only really rank—and—file democrat saying yes, really rank—and—file democrat saying yes , we re really rank—and—file democrat saying yes, were not seeing too much from the higher level lawmakers and committee chairman coming forward to start impeachment inquiries. speaker nancy pelosi has been very reluctant to start is proceeding so far and she has kind of was back against that. she says the democratic party needs to focus on passing legislation that americans care about like tax cuts and healthcare. so she doesn't want to focus on something like impeachment at this time. jacqueline thomsen of, the hill, thank you for your time. thank you. r kelly has been charged with 11 more counts of sexual assault and abuse by prosecutors in chicago

— he's due back in court next week. earlier this year, the singer was accused of ten offences involving four women — three of them underage at the time the events are alleged to have happened a decade ago. peter bowes reports from la. mounting charges for the disgraced singer — r kelly is now accused of 21 counts of sexual abuse and assault. in february, he was accused of ten counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse. he pleaded not guilty and was released on bail. he was accused of abusing four women, three of whom were underage at the time of the alleged offences. the new charges are believed to be linked to one of those women. they include counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault and abuse of a victim aged between 13 and 16. the singer's lawyer said the charges "change nothing" since they apply to an existing case. in march, r kelly went on us tv to strongly deny the charges he was then facing. in a tearful, and sometimes combative interview, he said the allegations

against him were all lies. how stupid would it be for me to — with my — crazy past and what i've been through, ‘oh, right now i think i'm going to be a monster and hold girls against their will, chain them up in my basement!?' r kelly is due in court next thursday to answer the charges. peter bowes, bbc news. the former head of the army has denied that the military attempted to cover up the truth about a series of fatal shootings in belfast in 1971. general sir mike jackson was giving evidence at an inquest into the killings of ten people in the ballymurphy area, of belfast during a three—day period in august that year. he was a captain with first battalion, the parachute regiment, at the time. 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's promised to rebuild trust following last week's government crisis over a video sting. a baby born weighing just 240g — 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 she is now healthy. i have some words for you! horripilation, kentledge and pa rochialism — just three of the words facing children competing in this year's national spelling bee in maryland. can their parents do any better? cani? we asked those brave enough to try — and also got some tips from the 2018 champion. so the first word is horripilation, horripilation, ok? horripilation? yes.

i am the 2018 scripps national spelling bee champion. parochialism. what? parochialism. laughs. i don't know. buzzer sounds wrong. you have to work really hard,

you have to work efficiently. when i was studying, i studied for about 30—36 hours a week. i studied by typing. i typed the words in a spreadsheet so just using that muscle memory, itjust helped me, like, recollect. the wild world of the spelling bee.

just before we go, we'd like to leave you with these pictures. two baby ring—tailed lemurs have become the latest attraction at rome zoo. they are in there somewhere. they were born in april, but they're only out in public now. their mothers carry them around when their young. ring—tailed lemurs are native to madagascar, and listed as an endangered species. the population there has shrunk by a quarter in the last 25 years. just briefly back to different things, president trump has launched a particularly fierce and personal attack without giving any evidence on former special counsel robert mueller. mr mother made headlines this week with a rare public statement saying his russia enquiry did not clear the president of instructing justice —— mueller, of obstructing justice. he also

referred to him as and his team as some of the worst human beings on earth. and you can get in touch with me and most of the team on twitter — i'm @bbcmikeembley. 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. but rain, too. 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 14 early in london on friday, but a lot fresher there in the far north, in lerwick, only five degrees. so here is the forecast for friday, moist south—westerly winds dragging in a lot of cloud, mist and murk around the coast. rain in northern ireland, in parts of western scotland. by the time this weather front is through, we will have seen about 40—50 millimetres of rain. that's a lot, a couple of 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. so on saturday, 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. even a few spits and spots of rain. 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 drop 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 just 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.