this is the briefing — i'm sally bundock. our top story: this is the scene live in hong kong, where the authorities have announced the closure of some government offices. it's quiet, currently, after the storm of the past few days. there were violent clashes on wednesday against a controversial extradition law. donald trump declares he would accept damaging information from a foreign government about political rivals in the next election campaign. here in the uk it's the first round of voting in the conservative leadership race. at least one of the ten candidates will be forced out today. and in business briefing: trouble in the pipeline.

president trump warns germany over dependence on russian gas — and threatens sanctions over the nordstream 2 project to bring more of it to europe. a warm welcome to the programme — briefing you on all you need to know in global news, business and sport. also in the programme: the us house intelligence committee today holds a hearing on the rise of so—called "deep—fakes" online, fake videos of people saying or doing something that never happened. how concerned are you about this? how can it be policed, if at all? send us your comments, #bbcthebriefing.

authorities in hong kong are shutting most government offices in the financial district for the rest of the week, after days of protests against an extradition bill that would allow people to be sent to mainland china for trial. the bill has triggered the biggest street rallies since hong kong was handed back to china by the british in 1997. police fired tear gas and rubber bullets in running battles with the demonstrators. joining me now is the bbc‘s stephen mcdonell in hong kong — he's at the entrance the the legislative council building. we can see all the security behind you. does describe what is happening now. well, behind me there is quite

a police presence. we have barricades, we have riot police, and they are here to make sure that protesters don't gain access to the legislative council building, which is behind them, in the same way they did yesterday. the entire clash yesterday was triggered by this second reading of a controversial bill allowing extradition to chinese mainland. that won't go ahead today, we are told, and for that reason, there aren't as many protesters here today, but just in there aren't as many protesters here today, butjust in case, as you can see, the authorities have turned out in force to keep people well away from hong kong's government buildings. and what a difference a day makes. i will give you a look at the street now. this is the scene where yesterday tens of thousands of protesters gathered. they filled that street in an occupation in an attempt to try to get the government

of carrie lam to change her mind on this controversial bill. in the end, the riot police came in hard and cleared that street, and as you can see, it is quite peaceful around here today. however, we do have some protesters gathering, and so i suppose they are just waiting for the next trigger, the next excuse for people to come out and protest again. this is a sort of aim authors group, there is no leader can talk to, though at the moment we are seeing both sides taking stock and trying to work out what the next move will be. that is exactly what i was going to ask you. you say it is ina more was going to ask you. you say it is in a more first group, but it is a lot of people. yesterday, tens of thousands, the day before almost a million people in the street. carrie lam, the chief executive of hong kong, she has been adamant she will

not change her mind on this extradition bill. that's right. she came out yesterday and basically accused protesters of being sort of responsible for and organised riot. she is not taking one step back, and yet protesters believe unless they keep piling on the pressure there is no hope of stopping this bill from going ahead. one of the reasons why there are not tens of thousands of people on the streets today partly is because there has been heavy rain this morning, but also, you can imagine people are exhausted, they have turned out for a massive protest on the weekend, and yesterday, running battles with police all day, and i think probably both sides are also just resting a little bit and waiting for this next flashpoint, i suppose rekindling some energy. certainly this does have a long way to go, and over the next couple of weeks we are going to see more protests, i'm pretty sure, and it could get ugly again. thank

you so much, stephen mcdonald. and as he was talking we could see some of the footage of what was happening on sunday when teargas was used, et cetera. president trump says he would accept damaging information about political opponents during next year's election campaign, even if it came from a foreign government. in an interview with abc news the president denied it would count as interference, describing it as opposition research. this is what mr trump had to say to the abc news presenter george stephanopoulos. this time around if foreigners russia, china or someone else offers you information should you accept it or call the fbi? i think you do both. i think you may want to listen, there is nothing wrong with listening. if somebody called from a country, with information on your opponent, i think i would want to hear it.

you want that interference? it is not interference. they have information and i think i would take it. president trump there. russian interference in the 2016 campaign, and allegations of collusion were of course significant lines of inquiry in the mueller report. the bbc‘s chris buckler in washington says we didn't have to wait long for a reaction to mr trump's comments. you can imagine that the democrats are lining up to condemn president trump for these comments, particularly after the report, which may have dismissed the idea that there was collusion involving the trump campaign in russia, but it has certainly said that the russian government had tried to interfere in the 2016 election. and of course, intelligence agencies in the us have been warning time and time again that they are concerned foreign governments try to interfere in upcoming elections, including the presidential election in 2020. that was the basis

for the question asked of the president by abc news, in which they clearly said to him, if you were being told that there was damaging information about an opponent and a foreign government was willing to give it to you, would you accept it? in simple terms, the president said yes, i would want to hear it. he used the example of if the norwegian government had information, yes, he would want to hear it. but he did not say he would not accept it from other governments and clearly there will be a push from other governments saying well, whatever russia tried to get involved again? i give you the example from elizabeth warren, one of the democratic presidential candidates who is running to run against donald trump, she said, "a foreign government attacked our 2016 elections to support trump, trump welcomed that help and obstructed the investigation. now he says he would do it all over again, it is time to impeach president trump".

another of the democrats, adam schiff, said it is stunning on the one hand, and not at all on the other. let's brief you on some of the other stories making the news. the mexican president, andres manuel lopez obrador, says he will use the proceedings from the sale of the presidential plane to cover the additional costs of a new migration deal with the us. mexico agreed last week to deploy thousands of national guard members in the south of the country to prevent central american migrants from reaching the us border. the world health organisation has called an emergency meeting in response to the news that ebola has spread to uganda from eastern congo. the head of a major medical charity has called the latest outbreak "truly frightening". nearly 1,400 people have died in the democratic republic of congo. ecuador‘s highest court has for the first time approved same sex marriage.

by five votes to four, the constitutional court ruled in favour of two gay couples who'd argued that their human rights were being infringed. ecuador has become the fifth south american country to legalise same sex marriages, after argentina, brazil, colombia and uruguay. here in the uk the first round of voting in the conservative leadership contest takes place on thursday morning, when at least one of the 10 candidates will be knocked out of the race. tory mps will hold a private ballot, with contenders needing a minimum of 17 votes to carry on. a new british prime minister is expected to be in place by the end ofjuly. cornelia meyer is the ceo of mrl corporation, a business consultancy. she's with me now. lovely to see you. it is all still to play for for the top candidates. give us your take on what might happen today. i think what you see

is that boris has so far i think 82 votes, borisjohnson, who is the front runner by leaps and bounds. then we have other people who seem to be safe, like dominic raab, sajid javid with 18, and matt hancock with 16. according to what? according to the daily telegraph. let'sjust make that clear! highly pro boris, he writes a column that. he does. and in terms of the thoughts around the number of votes they might get... yes, people may say one thing and they vote the other way and nobody can they vote the other way and nobody ca n prove they vote the other way and nobody can prove anything. but it does seem to be fairly... you have the brexiteer camp, boris johnson, esther mcvey, dominic raab, they are uber brexiteers. what do you make of

the front runners? most of the media todayis the front runners? most of the media today is discussing borisjohnson, the former foreign secretary and mayor of london, because he did his big launch. he launched his campaign yesterday, said his stall out, as it were. he is a very controversial figure, and some people say he is like marmite, you either love him or hate him. i think he is vastly popular with the tories that will be voting. at first it is the parliamentary vote, then the tory membership, 160,000, who will get the vote once they have whittled it down. he seems very popular, and the one thing that i find astounding is that they all run against one man, all essentially running against nigel farage, who is not in the conservative party, he is not a contender, but he has set the agenda with brexit. it might be argued that they are running against him, but

also that they are running with the thought of a general election, and jeremy corbyn as well. absolutely. a lot of people think that boris with his charm will be able to get there ina his charm will be able to get there in a general election, and boris himself said if they are kicking the can further down the road on brexit, that'll be the end of the conservative party. as a future prime minister, he should not think of the party, so much, he should think of the country. we will continue this conversation in the news briefing, because that story is one that is dominating in the uk, for good reason. police in russia say they've detained more than 200 people in moscow for holding a protest in support of the journalist, ivan golunov. the prominent opposition politician alexei navalny was among those held. mr golunov was detained on drugs charges before unexpectedly being freed on tuesday. gareth barlow reports.

one by one they were arrested. members of the public, the press, and key opposition figures. bundled into vans and taken away. a twisted irony, perhaps, that those arrested were themselves protesting against a previous arrest. on thursday last week, police detained the high—profile investigative journalist, ivan golunov, on what many claimed were falsified drugs charges. on tuesday, the man who has exposed corruption throughout moscow's elite was released, the charges dropped, following an admission by the interior minister that his guilt had not been proven. translation: thank you very much for all the support. i still hardly understand what is happening. i am happy thatjustice has been served and the criminal case was dropped.

despite the authorities‘ rare u—turn, the people in moscow wanted more. for the police who detained ivan golunov to be punished themselves. translation: they violate our rights. freedom of expression, the freedom to demonstrate, the freedom to express our opinions. translation: there is no real change, they have been forced to liberate ivan golunov. they did it because people came out in the streets. without that it would not have happened. while an investigation into ivan golunov‘s arrest is under way and the police officers involved suspended, amid the screams and scuffles a sense that despite the outcry on the streets, little will change among the police. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: we'll have the latest from the women's world cup as the hosts france make it two wins out of two.

the day the british liberated the falklands. and by tonight, british troops had begun the task of disarming the enemy. in the heart of the west german capital, this was gorby—mania at its height. the crowd packed to see the man who for them, has raised great hopes for an end to the division of europe. michaeljackson was not guilty on all charges. the screams of the crowd, a testament to his popularity and their faith in his innocence. as long as they'll pay to go see me, i'll get out there and kick 'em down the hill. what does it feel like to be the first man to go across the channel

by your own power? it feels pretty neat. feels marvellous, really. you're watching the briefing. our headlines: donald trump declares he would accept damaging information from a foreign government about political rivals in the next election campaign. and hong kong shuts down some government offices in the financial district for the rest of the week after a day of clashes over a controversial extradition bill. let's discuss that now in more detail. andrew leung is a prominent international china specialist with a career in many senior government positions in hong kong, he joins us now from there. andrew, thank you for being on the briefing. give us your reaction to what some are describing is the worst violence this city has seen

for decades? well the protest were preceded by the largest peaceful march the day before and saw the very end, the late evening, and then spread forward to the massive rioters‘ kind of resistance yesterday. i think the scale of the emotions, the anger, was a little bit unexpected by a number of reporters, but on the other hand, amongst the largely sort of youngsters, students, sometimes even housewives and businessmen, there area number of housewives and businessmen, there are a number of unruly elements who appeared to be very well—trained and very well—equipped, using dangerous kinds of implements, sharpened steel pipes and throwing bricks and even

starting fire. so, so ace —— to a certain extent, some of the arcs can be described as a right —— acts —— asa be described as a right —— acts —— as a riot, but it shouldn't be entirely described as a raised, there was distrust on the other side of the border and the extradition bill enables the hong kong administration to extradite fugitives to the mainland on trial and hence there was this ground swell of concern and anxiety that was expressed that day. do you think this extradition bill should go through or should it be stopped? well, you can look at the reasons for the bill. there are justifications for them. fortu nately, justifications for them. fortunately, i'm on the rising tide of the motions, there was very

little appetite for reason —— u nfortu nately, little appetite for reason —— unfortunately, the reason hong kong is running the risk of being turned into a haven for criminal fugitives. this is quite real. there is an example actually occurred in spain, only about less than two weeks ago when the spanish government together with the chinese government after several years with the chinese government after several yea rs of with the chinese government after several years of investigation managed to crack down on certain international scammers, a telephone scam involving millions of dollars. that involved the handing over of 95 fugitives to beijing. the spanish government, the spanish authorities obviously had to safeguard human rights and all the risk of handing over the fugitives to the communist

regime. so there is some justification, but on the other hand there are a number of safeguards, first of all the crime codified for this process has been elevated to very, very high thresholds. the crime must be for at least seven yea rs crime must be for at least seven years and at the end of the day the hong kong judiciary system is under pine —— underpinned by hong kong's authority and court of appeal which is of high standing internationally. sorry, if i can interject for a moment because we're running of time, the worry, the real concern is, and the concern is so great that nearly 1 is, and the concern is so great that nearly1 million is, and the concern is so great that nearly 1 million people is, and the concern is so great that nearly1 million people to streets on the weekend in tens of thousands yesterday —— and tens of thousands

yesterday, despite the fact that the judiciary in hong kong is independent, want to play extradited to china, it will be a system that will be unfairand to china, it will be a system that will be unfair and possibly unjust. there is no doubt about that. and hence this ground swell of anger because once you hand over someone over there, then you have to adjust the system on the other side of the border and very few people trust the system and that is why it's important for hong kong's one country, two systems, underpinned by its independentjudiciary, to hold the fort. this is the reason to really scrap the bill which answers this increasing risk of overlooking those fugitives. andrew, we will have to leave it there but we appreciate your time on the reefing. we will discuss this later in the

programme on our news weaving. let's bring you up—to—date on all our sports stories. hello, i'm tulsen tollett and this is your thursday sport briefing where we start with the footballing news that france made it two wins out of two at the women's world cup beating norway 2—1 in nice. eugenie le sommer scored the winning goal from the penalty spot in the 72nd minute which takes the hosts three points clear of their opponents — and nigeria — who won their group a encounter with south korea 2—0. while in group b — germany made it consecutive wins to move three points clear of spain who they beat 1—0 in valenciennes. at the cricket world cup david warner made his first century for australia since returning from a one—year ban for his part in a ball tampering scandal. the opener had been quite subdued in the tournament so far but against pakistan he cut loose. his 107 took australia to 307 all out as pakistan fell short in their chase — all out for 266 and a man of the match award for warner. four—time tour de france winner

chris froome is in intensive care after he suffered multiple fractures in a high—speed crash while on a training ride ahead of stage four of the criterium du dauphine. froome's british compatriot adam yates took the overall lead after finishing sixth in the 21.6km time trial in roanne — while belgian wout van aert won in a time of 33 minutes and 38 seconds. the third major of the men's golf calendar gets under way at pebble beach in california later on thursday. world number one brooks koepka won last month's pga championship and is bidding to become the first man since willie anderson in 1905 to win this event three times in a row. it's a major championship, i'm having a go, there's a lot on the line. going for three in a row, it's very exciting. and, you know, i want to play well. i loved his background

as well. it would be the coolest thing ever to win three in a row and wina third thing ever to win three in a row and win a third one that able. —— at pebble. two more football games at the women's world cup later. in group c, australia will be desperate for a win against brazil in montpellier. the matildas lost their opener against italy in somewhat of a shock, while the other game on thursday sees south africa and china in group b looking for theirfirst points of the tournament when they meet in paris. india meet new zealand in the cricket world cup later with both sides undefeated so far. virat kohli's team have won both of their matches, while new zealand, beaten finalists in 2015, have claimed their opening three games. we faced india a lot in recent times and had some suggest against them, we we re and had some suggest against them, we were close to their spinners on the day and we think we have had success at different stages. but we will have to see what we can produce tomorrow. you can get all the latest sports news at our website, that's bbc.com/sport.

but from me — tulsen tollett — and the rest of the team, that is your thursday sport briefing. and that is tolls and, of course your business briefing is next with me ‘— your business briefing is next with me —— tulsen tollett. it has been a very wet week so far. our very unsettled spell of weather is set to continue as low pressure is still dominating our weather out there at the moment. now this picture was taken on wednesday by one of our weather watchers in herstmonceux, east sussex. grey skies there, we've had some heavy showers around. much of the country has already seen heavy rain and we have still got flood warnings in force with more persistent rain to come over the next 24—48 hours. now the area we are most concerned about during the day on thursday is this region, the south—east of scotland where there could be 80—100 millimetres of rain falling falling over the highest ground. now if we run the rainfall through the day on thursday, it is going to be pretty relentless. just piling in from the north—east, particularly over the higher ground with up to 80—100 millimetres

of rain falling here. across the rest of the uk, in general there's a lot of blue on the map, another pretty soggy day. some heavy rain across central parts of england, wales, northern england, southern and eastern scotland, too. for the western side of scotland and for northern ireland it will be a bit drier withjust the odd shower here. some heavy showers developing across some parts of england later in the day and temperatures only 11—16 degrees. so it's going to feel pretty chilly out there, still a bit sort of a north—easterly breeze blowing in the north and we could well see furtherflooding problems. now moving through thursday evening and overnight into friday, the rain in the north does tend to ease a little bit so it will dry out compared to the heavy rain of thursday across many south—eastern part of scotland. but we could still have a lot of lying surface water across many parts of the uk. further showers through central parts of england, wales, too. the low pressure doesn't go anywhere in a hurry, on friday it is going to be easing away a little bit towards the north—west. fewer isobars on the map, not as breezy as the weather we've

seen over the last couple of days. but friday is certainly not going to be a dry one, still some heavy showers around parts of england and wales. and also further showers rolling through scotland and northern ireland as well. a little bit of sunshine though, developing by the time we get to friday, especially in the afternoon and temperatures starting to rise a little bit. so 13—19 typically during the day on friday, but it's still a fairly unsettled story. now as we look ahead into next week, still some showers, particularly in the north and the west, should turn a bit drier and warmer towards the south—east. bye— bye.

this is the business briefing. i'm sally bundock. trouble in the pipeline — president trump warns germany over dependence on russian gas, and threatens sanctions over the nordstream 2 project to bring more of it to europe. plus, uncandid camera — how deepfake videos can make anyone appear to say anything, and what the tech giants are doing about it. and on the markets: asian shares dragged lower by those protests in hong kong, the hang seng down 1.5% after a 1.7% fall on wednesday.