welcome to bbc news, i'm mike embley. our top stories: a special bbc investigation reveals muslim children in china, some as young as two, are being systematically separated from theirfamilies. we uncover evidence of boarding schools surrounded by barbed wire, housing children from the minority uighur community. families of victims of the boeing plane crash in ethiopia speak exclusively to the bbc about their search for justice. his opponents say he has politicised independence day to boost his re—election campaign. president trump doesn't let the rain spoil his 4july parade. with this very special salute

to america, we celebrate our history, our people, and the heroes who proudly defend ourflag — the brave men and women of the united states military. cheering plus: capturing mid—century america. how six women photographers for life magazine broke down barriers, and left an enduring legacy. the bbc has uncovered disturbing evidence that muslim children official documents reveal large numbers of boarding schools have been built, housing children as young as two. critics of china's government say it is a deliberate policy targeting children from the minority uighur population, to cut them off

from their own communities. our china correspondentjohn sudworth has this exclusive report. in account after account, gathered in a meeting hall in istanbul, muslims from xinjiang speak again and again of the immeasurable grief of separation from their children. who is looking after the children? back home, china has been sweeping xinjiang's uighurs, kazakhs and other minorities, who have their own languages and culture, into giant camps, where they are taught chinese and to love the communist party.

abdurahman tohti moved to turkey in 2013. three years ago, his wife and children went back to xinjiang for a short trip, and vanished. but then he found this — a video posted online of his son in a boarding school, speaking not in uighur, his mother tongue, but in chinese. alongside the camps, china has been building something else — giant new schools, many with huge dormitories. this kindergarten sleeps hundreds. we film at one camp.

while the adults are kept here, their children are in this nearby school. and this kindergarten has barbed wire, cameras, and signs that say only chinese should be spoken. chinese officials deny the camps have left large numbers of children without anyone to look after them. but such cases are not hard to find. amine wayit, who now runs a clothes shop in turkey, recently found this picture of her stepdaughter on social media. it is a sign her close relatives are in the camps, her stepdaughter in a boarding school, and wearing traditional chinese costume.

if you could send a message to her today, what would you tell her? research of online documents commissioned by the bbc shows only an 8% increase in kindergarten places for china as a whole. but in xinjiang, as the camps have been built, there has been an 82% jump, and in some uighur—majority areas, numbers have shot up even further. the xinjiang government is attempting to gain full control over the young generation, to literally raise a new generation that has been cut off from original roots, from religious beliefs, from cultural knowledge, even from their own language. i believe the evidence really points what we must call cultural genocide. khalida akytkankyzy has

moved to kazakhstan, but when she heard that the chinese camps had left her 14 grandchildren without parents, she phoned the village official. we try to look for khalida's missing relatives. the family home is locked and deserted. we call the village official. but he hangs up on us too. we find only the signs of a giant vanishing, and the shattering of countless families. john sudworth, bbc news, xinjiang. and you can find more on this story

on our website, bbc.com/news. with all boeing 737 max aircraft grounded because of two disastrous crashes, distraught families are pressing for answers. they most want to know why the planes were not grounded after the first crash in indonesia last november. investigations suggest the same flight control system was at fault four months later, when an ethiopian airlines jet went down. speaking exclusively to the bbc, some families claim the aircraft manufacturer put commercial priorities ahead of safety. if wrongdoing is revealed, they want criminal charges. simon browning reports. everywhere we look, there's a blank where she should be. struggling with their loss. nadia and michael's daughter samya rose was on a boeing plane that crashed in ethiopian. samya's right here. she was one of 157 people on board.

how did those first couple of hours evolve for you both? i learned standing right over there in the laundry room. i — it was 3:00am in the morning, and ijust started physically shaking, like, icouldn't stop my body from shaking. and then ijust thought, "i can't tell the other people in the house." it was the second identical boeing jet crash in five months. initial reports say they happened for the same reason — a faulty flight control system. the 737 max has been grounded ever since. critics say the development and launch of the jets was rushed, and that boeing cut corners at the expense of safety. definitely my daughter died for the profit of boeing, and i don't want anyone else to die for that reason. i want these planes to be safe, and invest in the company

and the hardware and the infrastructure, to make our aviation systems safe. nadia and michael want to know why their daughter died, and their fight has taken them to the top of the american government. they are now representing families from across north america. when et302 crashed, there were passengers from more than 30 countries on board. the highest proportion of those were from kenya, because the flight was bound for nairobi. but the second—highest amount were from here in canada, and families in toronto are starting to want answers as to why their loved ones were killed. well, i lost my wife, carol, my three children, ryan, kelly and ruby, and i also lost my mum—in—law. i feel so lonely. i look at people, i see them with their children, playing outside, and i know i cannot have my children. paul njoroge lost his entire family.

he believes they would still be alive if boeing had grounded the planes earlier. the crash of ethiopian airlines flight 302 was preventable. but these individuals knew that they would not be held criminally liable, they would not face years in prison. but, if they knew that they would face years in prison, then they would have grounded those planes in november. we asked boeing for an interview, and they declined. in a statement, they said: but, for the families, life is changed forever. their resolve now — finding the truth. simon browning, bbc news, in toronto. let's get some of the day's other news: southern california has been struck

by its strongest earthquake in two decades, causing fires and some damage. the quake, magnitude 6.4, struck on the edge of death valley, and was felt from the mojave desert to the pacific coast. there are reports of significant damage in the city of ridgecrest. firefighters have been dealing with flames and providing medical assistance. russia's president has met the pope on a one—day visit to italy. their meeting may be paving the way for a papal visit to russia. vladimir putin also met the italian president and prime ministerfor a news conference, where they discussed russia and italy's troubled relationships with the european union. british marines have seized an iranian oil tanker as it entered the mediterranean. the uk claims it has evidence oil was being transported to syria, in breach of european union sanctions. commandos used helicopters and boats to take control of the ship as it entered waters around british—controlled gibraltar. no shots were fired. iran has accused the uk of piracy and summoned the british ambassador in tehran.

researchers in switzerland are arguing that a massive global programme of planting trees is the most effective weapon to counter climate change that is currently available. their study published in the journal science suggests that in total, around the planet, an area the size of the united states is available to plant trees. the extra canopy cover would be enough, they say, to remove 25% of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere right now. live now to zurich, and to jean—francois bastin, lead author of that report. thank you for your time, good to talk to you. i know you have been looking at a dataset which i think covers 78,000 looking at a dataset which i think covers 78, 000 forests. looking at a dataset which i think covers 78,000 forests. i suppose one merit of this is that you don't need much technology, really, to plant a tree. a lot of people could do this, but it would require a lot of people, wouldn't it? yes, that is true, but the thing is that it remains like a beautiful challenge. like, it is a very important one

that we have faced because it is maybe the most important one of the century. but the thing is that anyone can participate, like, anyone around the world, anyone that can walk, that has the capacity to plant seeds, as long as they have good information, they can do it. when your study says this is the most effective weapon available right now, surely if we don't stop using fossil fuels, its effectiveness will be very limited indeed, won't it? yes, exactly. the thing is that what we can do with the restoration of natural ecosystem is just to buy a bit of time. so we can maybe freeze crime climate change for as much as 20 years if we were able to do it right now, that of course is not possible, but we can gain that time. but of course, this needs to be executed with a change in the way we are living on the planet, to reach a carbon neutral way of living on the planet, otherwise it is all for nothing. you will know, i am sure, that there are other scientists suggestions that... may question your estimates of how effective treeplanting could your estimates of how effective treepla nting could be, your estimates of how effective treeplanting could be, and say that they are not supported by previous

studies or climate models. what do you say to that? it's true, in the sense that it is the first fully, hence of study that is realised on the subject. so of course there is no previous study that can it up. and there are also estimations which are promoting numbers that are higher than the number we are promoting. i think i am not surprised, but it is like we share everything in this field. we are the most open we can, always accessible, and we invite other scientists to pick up our code and to try and do it we did, and to go in the same direction. but you know the worry, of course, that often when things sound too good to be true, they may indeed be too good to be true. does this take account of the massive deforestation that's going on currently pretty much all the time,

particularly in brazil, for instance? exactly, so they are two different things. of course it sounds too good to be true, but this is exactly the point. climate change is exactly the point. climate change isa is exactly the point. climate change is a big problem, and we need to be ambitious if we want to face it. and then, of course, we need to limit... we need to avoid deforestation, so we need to conserve tropical forests, we need to stop deforestation. 0nly that way we can c0 nse rve deforestation. 0nly that way we can conserve carbon which is stuck in those forests. we may well be back to this. thank you very much for talking to us. you are welcome. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: we will find out why maurice the rowdy rooster is in the dock. china marked its first day of rule in hong kong with a series of spectacular celebrations. a huge firework display was held in the former colony. the chinese president, jiang zemin, said unification was the start of a new era for hong kong. the world's first clone has been produced of an adult mammal. scientists in scotland have produced a sheep called dolly that was cloned in a laboratory using

a cell of another sheep. for the first time in 20 years, russian and american spacecraft have docked in orbit at the start of a new era of cooperation in space. challenger powered past the bishop rock lighthouse at almost 50 knots, shattering a record that had stood for 34 years. and there was no hiding the sheer elation of richard branson and his crew. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: a special bbc investigation reveals how china is systematically separating muslim uighur children from theirfamilies. and, speaking exclusively to the bbc, families of victims of the boeing plane crash in ethiopia tell us those responsible must be held to account.

president trump has staged his own very individual, very militarised independence day parade in washington, dc. there were tanks on the streets and military flypasts. he's called it "salute to america", focusing, he insists, on patriotism rather than politics. his opponents see it as a made—for—tv campaign event. thousands gathered to watch his speech on big screens, with protesters nearby. right from the outset, mr trump lauded america's armed forces. with this very special salute to america, we celebrate our history, our people, and the heroes who proudly defend ourflag — the brave men and women of the united states military. 0ur correspondent chris buckler was at the lincoln memorial. to some extent the celebrations continue. but the militaristic element of this whole event, the element that donald trump

was at the centre of, has now come to a close, and people can now reflect on the speech that he made. the white house had promised that his focus would be on patriotism, not politics, and actually, if you listened to the speech, that was true. it was a much more measured speech than the addresses that we're used to from president trump at rallies. for example, he referenced the civil rights movement in the us. he referenced martin luther king, who also spoke here at the lincoln memorial, with his i have a dream speech. and president trump did do his best to reflect all elements of america, as well as putting the real focus on each of the different branches of the us military. there were flyovers, there were tanks which sat alongside his podium here at lincoln memorial. but beyond that, there was a genuine attempt, i suppose, to reach out and try to say that, as one country, people should be able to celebrate on ajuly. at the same time, when you talk to some of the crowd who have

gathered here, it's clear that most of them were donald trump supporters, and perhaps others were on the other end of the national mall, where that capitol concert is taking place, just in the shadow of the capitol building. a 3,000—year—old bust of tutankhamun has been sold forjust under $6 million. egypt's foreign ministry had called on auction house christie's to cancel the sale of the 3,000—year—old relic, and says it was probably stolen from a temple in the 1970s. but christie's says egypt had not expressed concern about the bust before, despite it being on public exhibition. ramzan karmali has the details. the head of the egyptian boy king tutankhamen. he died age 19. the famous pharaoh's finely chiselled face with his almond shape eyes depicted in this courtside bust. it's over 3,000 years old and has just been auctioned off for almost $6 million by the auction house christie's.

but angry egyptian officials wanted the sale halted and the treasure returned to its country of origin. egypt believes the piece was stolen from the temple complex north of luxor. until 1970 we had proof that it was there. it disappeared after 1970, we're going to offer all of evidence to the court if we take christie's to court. egypt introduced laws in 1983 banning the removal of artefacts from the country. christie's said that the country had not expressed concerns in the past, saying it was publicly exhibited. it's thanks to all of the research that we carried out in advance of the sale that we published transparently in our catalogue.

egypt's foreign ministry has asked the foreign office and unesco to step in, but interventions like this are rare and the sale went ahead, beating expectations, too. ramzan karmali, bbc news. in mid—century america, life magazine was hugely influential. its photo essays were a window onto the world for the living rooms of the nation. and in a male dominated industry, a small group of female photojournalists created some of the magazine's most enduring images — including the very first cover in 1936. their work is now on display at new york's historical society. there were only six women photographers on staff for life magazine and the 101 staffed magazine. some of them didn't thinking about it, —— didn't think about it. they were focused on the

photographs they want to take and they thought, we went in and did it, begot jostled around a they thought, we went in and did it, begotjostled around a little bit and some of the men were jealous of the fact that we were women but it was a different time then. these not living in the early 21st century, we are very aware of what women are doing and how they break into fields. they went thinking that when the 30s and 40s and 50s, which is the 30s and 40s and 50s, which is the parameters of the years that in this exhibition. they wanted to take photographs and their love photography and they went out and took those photographs were never given the assignment to do so. this is one of my favourites in the exhibition, and it graced the cover of the first issue of life magazine which makes it a very important photograph of you will see in the very bottom, these two tiny figures, they are in this so you can see the enormity of the dam itself. it gives ita enormity of the dam itself. it gives it a sense of scale and then one realises, what an amazing feat of technology building this dam was. i

wa nt technology building this dam was. i want people to come away with an idea of what certain parts of america were like and how americans we re america were like and how americans were thinking during this time period. this is a photograph taken by mother homes, it appeared in a 1950 issue of life magazine. she was very proud of this, and the audience questioned whether they liked it or not, because it features a white woman embracing a black manager was finally decided that the photograph would run. they felt that it was an important photograph that would show that we weren't confronting racism —— were confronting racism in america. the problem was that the editors received so much criticism that it had an adverse effect. some of these stories resonate today because you look at the american woman “— because you look at the american woman —— woman's dilemma, a lot of women today still think, am i going

to go to work full—time? if i go to work full—time in my going to see my children grow up? there are issues that do resonate today. and i think that's important for us to realise. this is not the first time women have had these issues to think about. it is the court case that has rocked france — well almost. on one side — a retired couple who own a holiday home in the picturesque island of 0leron. 0n the other — a rooster called maurice. the couple say he makes too much noise — and now they want the judicial system to sort it out. tim allman has more. meet the accused. maurice is a rooster, a symbol of the french republic, no less. when he goes for his early—morning call, the next neighbours say, please don't. the dispute has made it all the way to court, but maurice has not. other

bristol ‘s —— roosters were there to offer moral support to him and his owner. i'm fighting for a cause, many people support me and we tried to explain that the rooster is normal in the countryside and you have to adapt. if you don't adapt, you don't have to stay in the countryside. this woman says she has tried looking him up overnight, and even used at gardens to soundproof his coop. none of which seems to have worked. my clients do not lay in the rooster for singing, have worked. my clients do not lay in the roosterfor singing, my clients want it to be quiet in the morning between 630 at 830. they would like to be able to sleep. morning between 630 at 830. they would like to be able to sleepm has at least, for some, highlighted the divide between urban and rural life. the got is expected to announce a verdict in september. if wins, he will have plenty to crow about.

thank you for watching. hello there. if you were looking for the warmest, sunniest weather on thursday, you had to turn your eyes southwards. the further south you went, the bluer the skies remained. a bit of wispy, high cloud overhead in london, but temperatures in the london area got very close to 27 degrees. compare and contrast that with the scene for this weather watcher in ullapool, in north—west scotland. grey, murky, damp, temperatures at 13 degrees. and similar rules apply through the day ahead. the best of the sunshine to be found across central and southern parts of the uk. further north, more cloud, some patchy rain, some mist and murk, especially for hills and coasts in the west. and then some heavy rain returning to northern and western scotland later in the day, where it will also be quite breezy.

so let's take a closer look. lots of sunshine for the channel islands, southern england, wales, the midlands, east anglia, temperatures 23 in plymouth, 2a degrees for cardiff, 27 once again across the london area. but some extra cloud will push in across north wales in north—west england, north—east england, to the east of the pennines should hold onto at least a little bit of brightness through the day. northern ireland turning pretty grey, rain pepping up again across western scotland through the afternoon. but, with some shelter for the mountains in eastern scotland, aberdeen down to edinburgh, we should hold onto a little bit of brightness and temperatures around 18 degrees. now that cloud and rain which has been plaguing northern areas will start to move its way southwards during friday night. behind it, the skies will start to clear across scotland and ahead of that band of cloud and patchy rain we'll keep some clear skies in the south as well. temperatures as we start saturday between 10—15 degrees. that band of cloud and patchy rain will start off the weekend across northern england and northern ireland, associated with this, a cold front. you can tell it's a cold front

by the blue triangles here. and behind that cold front, well, the air turns cooler and fresher. but the front is likely to drag its heels, though, there will be a zone of cloudy here and potentially damp weather. i'm not expecting huge amounts of rain, that will sink across parts of east anglia, the midlands, wales. to the south—east coast of england, we are likely to hold onto some sunshine and warm all day long. temperatures could get to around 2a degrees. but to the north of the band of cloud and patchy rain, it will be cold and fresher although, it will be largely dry with some sunny spells. and all of us get into that fresher regime on sunday. the front will have cleared away by this stage, there will be some fairly large areas of cloud floating around, some spells of sunshine, just a small chance of one or two showers. and those temperatures ranging from 13 degrees in aberdeen to a high of 22 in cardiff.

this is bbc news. the headlines: a special bbc investigation has revealed how muslim children in china are being systematically separated from their families. official documents show the chinese government has built many boarding schools, housing children as young as two. human rights experts say it is part of a deliberate policy targeting the uighur population. families of the victims in the boeing crash in ethiopia in march have told the bbc those found responsible should have criminal charges brought against them. all boeing 737 max aircraft have been grounded because of two deadly crashes. some families claim the manufacturer put commercial priorities ahead of safety. donald trump has presided over an elaborate ceremony to mark us independence day, in an event dubbed "salute to america." but the militaristic tone and cost have been criticised by his democratic opponents, with suggestions he has politicised the 4july tradition.