this is bbc news, i'm martin stanford. our top stories: venezuela releases 22 prisoners, including a high—profile judge, after the un accused the government of abuses against the oppostion. eight people are jailed in the uk for their part in what is being described as the worst case of modern—day slavery ever seen in britain. translation: i couldn't even leave the house to go for a walk. they were following me, spying on me. they were controlling me. president trump threatens to use executive powers to count the number of us citizens in the population census. and coco gauff does it again. another stunning victory for the 15—year—old at wimbledon, in herfirst ever grand slam.

hello and welcome to bbc world news. venezuela's supreme court has released 22 prisoners, including a high—profile judge. maria afiuni is one of many people the opposition says are political prisoners. she was first arrested ten years ago, and had been sentenced again in march for corruption. the move has been welcomed by the un, which published a highly critical report on thursday accusing president maduro‘s government of widespread abuses against the opposition and minority groups. maria afiuni's brother says his sister still has restrictions on her freedom. translation: she can't speak to the media. she can't use social media. she can't leave the country.

she has to present herself every 30 days. the logical thing would be to get rid of all the cautionary measures and respect what the un says, which is complete freedom. but that has not happened. we continue to wait. the un says one thing, the maduro government does another. they're never serious about what international organisations say, so we're in the same situation. we continue to wait. the bbc‘s guillermo olmo is following events from caracas. well, it's very hard to say what's the real reason behind what nicolas maduro‘s government does. what we know is that they were celebrating today their independence, and also that the opposition were holding a rally for asking again for the end of nicolas maduro‘s rule. and we also know that these decisions made by the venezuelan supreme court comes after the release of a report from the united nations human rights

agency that has been a real political blow for the government, because it included a long list of human rights violations for which the authorities would be the ones to blame. if it is that human rights abuse accusations have really hurt the government, do you think there will be more prisoners released as a consequence? that's also hard to say, but one very clear key is that this report and also the release of these 22 people come in the context of a political negotiation which is now underway between the government and the opposition. this is a dialogue that is being brokered by the norwegian government. norway has a long tradition of mediation in conflicts. they also helped to settle the colombian civil war, and now they are trying to do the same thing in venezuela. they are trying to bring the government and the opposition together for a peaceful

solution of the conflict. someone might think that this release of people could have been a kind of step in the context of these talks. but again, as usual in venezuela, the government decisions are rather opaque. it's very difficult to say what's the real reason behind it. and we don't really know what's happening to judge afiuni, do we, with the confusion spread by her brother. is she really free to do what she likes? well, i don't think she's really free to do what she likes, according to what her relatives have been saying. it is also the same case of brauliojatar. he's a journalist who was jailed back in 2016 after reporting on a protest against nicolas maduro, and despite the united nations human rights commissioner announcement, he tweeted that he had been granted only partial freedom.

he's not allowed to leave his home state, and he's not either allowed to — he also has to go to authorities, to show up every fortnight. eight people have been convicted for running what is being described as the largest modern slavery ring in britain. the gang leaders, all of them polish, lured alcoholics, homeless people and freed prisoners from poland with promises of well—paid jobs. once in the country, they were forced into heavy manual labour, threatened, humiliated and beaten up. sima kotecha reports. their victims, some as young as 17, were made to live in rooms like these — filthy, often rat—infested, with no heating or light, toilets blocked and the stench unbearable. the gang was made up of five men and three women, all from poland. 52—year—old ignacy brzezinski, 41—year—old wojciech nowa kowski and 26—year—old jan sadowski

were sentenced today to more than a total of 20 years for modern slavery offences. for the first time, the bbc can report that in february, five others were convicted of their roles in the conspiracy, and were also jailed. together, they preyed on the vulnerable in poland and lured them to the west midlands, promising them a wealthy life. they targeted former prisoners, the homeless, alcoholics. translation: to be honest, i came here to start a new life, but i didn't know that this new life would start with such really big problems. i couldn't even leave the house to go for a walk. they were following me, spying on me. they were controlling me. more than 90 victims gave evidence during the trial here, but the police believe the true number of victims is in the hundreds. they were forced to carry out manual labour on farms and in factories,

and were paid as little as 50p a day, while their masters kept most of their earnings. the anti—slavery commissioner said this case sends a strong message that trafficking will not be tolerated. west midlands police began looking into what was happening four years ago. they would convince the victims, for example, that they were unlawfully in the country, that if they left the house that the traffickers provided for them, that they would be arrested by the police. sometimes they were given a debt, so, you know, they were told that they owed the traffickers £5,000 and had to work off that debt. so there's a lot of these methods the traffickers would use to make them feel trapped. 0ne slave was given a chicken as payment for redecorating a house. another man had to wash in a canal because he had no other water. the gang was discovered after charities identified victims. this man works undercover, and wants to remain anonymous. very withdrawn, physically shaken, disorientated. we had victims presenting

with black eyes. 0ne victim presented with a broken arm, so his broken arm had reset itself, out of alignment. ripped clothing, emaciated. while the victims suffered, the gang bosses lived an opulent lifestyle, driving lavish cars and buying designer clothes. over five years, they made at least £2 million. after sentencing, thejudge, mary stacey, told the court the harm in this case was at the very highest level, and she warned that all too often such offences were being carried out in plain sight. sima kotecha, bbc news, birmingham crown court. ben cooley leads the charity hope forjustice. his organisation was instrumental in stopping the slavery ring. one of our team that were community

support officers embedded themselves into the community, which was a largely polish community. and our polish support worker was able to breed confidence enough to report these cases, and then we worked with west midlands police and then identified a further 49 victims from this particular case. we work with people, the homeless communities and the vulnerable, to help them out of exploitation. and further to that, not only did we identify the victims, but we supported them through the last four years. we supported them through with advocacy, legal support, housing, welfare, to make sure that these individuals are supported. let's get some of the day's other news: the united nations has welcomed the power sharing agreement reached in sudan in the early hours of friday. the secretary—general, antonio guterres, called on both the military and the civilian opposition to implement the deal fully. both parties will take turns leading a sovereign council until elections

are held in three years‘ time. one of italy's best—known circus trainers has been mauled to death by tigers. ettore weber was inside the animals' cage when one of the tigers turned on him. three others then joined the attack. the tigers are said to have played with his body until paramedics and circus staff steppped in. the incident happened during a rehearsalfor the 0rfei circus, near bari, in the south of the country. president trump has blamed the rain and a malfunctioning telepromter for a mistake in his 4july speech. the president was widely mocked for saying the us military took over airports during the american revolution, which was long before air travel existed. he has told reporters the telempromter went kaput, and that it was hard to read because of heavy rain. president trump is refusing to back

down over his plan to put a controversial citizenship question in the 2020 us census. he has threatened to issue an executive order to get it on the form. the supreme court has ruled against including the question, and civil rights groups say its inclusion is politically motivated. 0ur north america correspondent david willis is in washington. the united states constitution mandates that a census take place here in the us every ten years. the next one is due next year, in 2020, and these censuses help determine the allocation of billions of dollars in federal funds. they also help determine the allocation of seats in the house of representatives. now, president trump, as you mentioned there, has insisted or is insisting that a question on citizenship, is the person filling out the form a citizen of the united states, be inserted into next year's census. democrats are crying foul.

they say that this will cause a lot of illegal immigrants to boycott the survey, and that will lead to a diminution of funds to democratic areas, where there are a lot of illegal immigrants, and also impact their representation on state and county levels. so there's a lot at stake here. last week, the united states supreme court blocked this move by the trump administration to have this citizenship question inserted in the census, and president trump is now saying that he might seek to override that with the use of a so—called executive order. the question being, martin, does he have the authority to do that, for the simple reason that the us constitution vests the power in overseeing the us census with congress, and not with the president himself? right, so it's going to go to the courts again, do we think, david?

this one's going to — it's going to run and run, this argument, presumably? it is going to run and run. it will now go to the courts. us government lawyers say they are looking at legal grounds for some sort of appeal, if you like, or to re—present their case to the us supreme court. so this will move forward, president trump digging his heels in on this. he believes that it is vital to determine the number of foreign nationals in the united states. he's also argued, of course, martin, in the past that millions of illegal immigrants voted in the 2016 presidential election, the election that brought him to power, although there's no independent confirmation of that. fortheir part, immigrants‘ rights groups are saying that this smacks of xenophobia, anti—immigrant policies on the part of the trump administration, and they believe that this citizenship question will actually violate the us constitution, because it will skew the results of the census and not provide

an accurate reading. as you say, it will run and run, this, ithink. stay with us on bbc world news. still to come: the holocaust survivor eva kor, a survivor of the worst horrors at auschwitz, has died at the age of 85. central london has been rocked by a series of terrorist attacks. police say there have been many casualties, and there is growing speculation that al-qaeda was responsible. germany will be the hosts of the 2006 football world cup, and they pipped the favourites, south africa, by a single vote. in south africa, the possibility of losing hadn't even been contemplated, and celebration parties were cancelled. a man entered the palace through a downstairs window and made his way to the queen's private bedroom. then he asked her for a cigarette, and on the pretext of arranging

for some to be brought, she summoned a footman on duty, who took the men away. one child, one teacher, one book, and one pen can change the world. education is the only solution. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: venezuela has released 22 prisoners, including a high—profile judge, after the un accused the government of abuses against the oppostion. eight people have beenjailed in the uk for their part in what is being described as the country's worst ever case of modern—day slavery. the government in gibraltar says an iranian oil tanker currently detained on its coast can be held for another 14 days. the tanker was seized in an operation by british commandos on monday, after intelligence reports suggested it was carrying oil to syria in violation

of european union sanctions. gissou nia, an iran specialiast at the atlantic council, told me this is a very problematic situation. the thing that is important to remember here is that now the eu has banned oil shipments to syria since 2011, they have never seized a tanker at sea. so i think the iranians are very much viewing this as an escalation and as an aggressive move on the part of the eu. and they are responding with aggression in turn. there's already some suggestions that perhaps america, who has its own argument with iran of course, in a number of matters, not least the nuclear question, i suppose, might have been behind this, that the british were perhaps acting as american proxies? there is a bit of a dispute over this, spain, there was an unnamed spanish politician

or spanish official who had indicated that the uk had acted at the behest of the us government. the uk is denying this, but iranian media picked up that claim and that's what they have been saying, and indeed some long—time observers and analysts of maritime shipping and those issues, are saying that it is unlikely that this action would have been undertaken without some degree of co—ordination with the us. so that remains to be seen, no official confirmations yet from the uk. i mentioned that nuclear understanding between iran and the rest of the world, the deadline is fast approaching for that deal to be put back together. this kind of escalation regarding the oil tankers can only help destroy any agreements, surely? yeah, it is not a helpful thing to happen two days before iran had said it would exceed the restrictions that were placed

on the uranium levels by the gcpoa in 2015, the iran nuclear deal, so that deadline is 7july and the europeans have been walking a fine line here ever since the us pulled out of the agreement last may 2018, there were hopes i think, by the uk, france and germany, the p3, that they could still remain in the deal and that iran would abide by the terms of the deal, but this effort to set up instacks in eu—iran trading has been slow going, and tehran has been frustrated in what it says are the europeans lacking abilities to push trade forward. and also the impact of us secondary sanctions. i don't think the iranians feel optimistic, they feel

that the europeans don't feel optimistic at this point, and with the us "maximum pressure" campaign continuing, it does seem that this deal is quickly unravelling. tributes have been paid to the holocaust survivor, eva kor, who's died aged 85. she was born in romania and deported to auschwitz in 19114. she and her twin sister were subjected to experiments at the hands of the infamous camp doctor, josef mengele, known as the ‘angel of death‘. in later life she gave tours of auschwitz and urged forgiveness. in 2015 she attended the trial of the former nazi guard 0skar groening. she explained to the bbc why it was necessary for her to relinquish the anger she once felt. i no longer carry any anger or hatred toward anybody. and that is not because they deserve it, but i deserve to live free of it. but once i don‘t have animosity and anger toward them, you are opening yourself up to a lot

of other human emotions. leah simpson from the candles holocaust museum and education centre in indiana, which was founded by eva kor, knew her. she told us just what kind of woman eva was. eva was a force to be reckoned with. she told it the way she thought it, but at the same time her message was so powerful and education was so important to her. forgiveness was absolutely central to her creed, wasn‘t it. how did she find the strength to forgive, do you think? i think there was a lot of reasons that went in to forgiveness, but one of the simple ones was that she had tried everything else, there was nothing left and she was tired of being angry. this was something to try, and it worked. it made her, it made her different because many people who have survived in similar ways found it impossible to do that, reach out and that forgiveness way.

yes, and she was criticised for her forgiveness, but it was the most empowering thing that she had done. it changed the way she saw life and it changed the way she physically looked. the team who run the museum, led by yourself, makes this annual surgeons in australia have successfully rewired the nerves of paralysed patients to give them movement in their arms and hands. 16 patients who had no use of any of their limbs were operated. 13 of them can now bend their elbows and use their hands to grip things. the surgery has been described as life changing. here‘s our health correspondent james gallagher. this might seem simple, but it‘s remarkable. once—paralysed patients have been given the use of their arms and hands again. and close. they can feed themselves, put on make—up, or hold hands with a partner. paul robinson was injured in a dirt bike accident four years ago. i‘ll pick something up with my left that i wouldn‘t be able to do

with my right... but he can now live independently and play wheelchair rugby, after having his nerves rewired. the reason you can move your hands and fingers is because messages come from your brain, travel down your spinal cord, and then through nerves in your arms to control the muscles in your arms and hands. now, after a spinal cord injury, those messages from the brain get blocked. they get stopped. you lose control and become paralysed. now, in this study, all the patients had a small amount of control over muscles in the upper arm and shoulder. so what the doctors did was they took the nerves that controlled these muscles and rewired them. they connected them to the nerves further down the arm, allowing patients to bend at the elbow, and to open and close their hands. this is jack, learning to use his arms and hands again after an accident in a swimming pool left him paralysed. surgery cannot completely reverse

the damage, but doctors say they are transforming lives. it‘s going to make an enormous difference. it‘s going to mean back to work, more involved in family life, and more independence. experts warn the procedure will not work for everyone, but say the study shows the brain‘s incredible ability to adapt. your brain can relearn that the muscle that used to turn your hand or move your shoulder can now do something different, so you have this amazing adaptability. huge advances are being made in paralysis. electronic implants or cells taken from the nose are helping people move their legs again. it‘s early days, but all these approaches show paralysis may not have to be permanent. coco gauff‘s wimbledon journey goes on — the 15—year—old has made it to the fourth round. she defeated polona hercog in three sets, saving two match points before fighting back to win the next two sets. it comes after her win earlier this week against five—time champion

venus williams. she now plays former world number one, simona halep of romania, for a place in the last eight. john watson has more. there can be no doubt that she has been one of the stories of the tournament so far, and that story continues as coco gauff books her place in the fourth round at wimbledon, the furthest she has ever been at a grand slam. it was a performance beyond her years, we know her achievements already, knocking out venus williams in the opening round, magdalena rybarikova, a former wimbledon semifinalist, no less, in the second round, and she has overcome polona hercog here today in quite dramatic circumstances, when you consider she dropped the first set, she had to save two points in this match before managing to claw her way back into the match, salvaging the second set before closing it out over three sets. a huge amount of support on centre court where she was playing for the first time, and you can only imagine

that that support is going to grow, because she really has been one of the standout performers so far, a grand slam champion in the making and you wonder perhaps, a future world number one as well. could her first grand slam title come here at wimbledon at the tender age of 15? you wonder. we were waiting to see serena williams and andy murray in action today, they were due to begin their doubles partnership in the mixed doubles, that has been pushed back until saturday, but no doubt what the talk of the town is here at wimbledon on day five at this championships — coco gauff, the 15—year—old, into the fourth round. a statue of the american first lady, melania trump, has been unveiled outside her slovenian hometown. here it is. commissioned by american artist brad downey and carved from a tree trunk by a local sculptor, the statue has prompted very mixed reviews, with critics suggesting that the figure looks like a scarecrow. downey said he wanted to highlight melania trump‘s immigrant status whilst being married to a president

sworn to reduce immigration. you can reach me on twitter — i‘m @martinstanford. thank you for watching bbc world news. we saw the peak in the heat yesterday, and the top temperature, 28 celsius, 82 fahrenheit, compared with the cooler, cloudier 16, 61 fahrenheit further north. that cooler, cloudier air is heading southwards, on a weather front that has been meandering very slowly south throught the night, bringing rain to northern ireland, northern england, heading towards north wales and the wash by the time we get there. the warm air uncomfortable for sleeping but it will feel much fresher by morning further north. that fresher air is on a cold weatherfront and is heading southwards, so i think it will introduce more cloud across england and wales during the course of saturday,

in particular today, so it will feel cooler as a result. that cold weather front is also being followed by a north—westerly breeze which is never a warm direction. but if you are sheltered from the breeze in the sunshine that follows across scotland, northern england and northern ireland, it will feel quite pleasant. this weather front will take much of the day to meander across wales, the midlands and east anglia down into the south—east. introducing cloudy skies and even the odd splash of rain, so if you‘re heading to wimbledon, it does look cooler, more cloudy, still think there could be some sunshine getting through that cloud, but i would not like to rule out a shower later in the afternoon, early evening — because that weather front could give a few sharp splashes of rain here and there — not for all but what it does do is dampen the heat. so the 28 we saw on friday not repeated, still warm across the south coast but for most of us, it is cooler temperatures, back down to what they should be, with some lovely sunshine coming down beyond that weather front, it does not mean

the temperatures are lower, but it is just as strong. a few showers across the north and north—east of scotland, they will continue through the evening and overnight, blowing further southwards, blowing that fresher air into the far south of england, so it looks like a fresher night on the whole, cooler night, even further south just a little bit of warmth maintained in the towns and cities. but it could be that on sunday we still have that weather front dragging its heels across southern parts of england, still giving the odd shower and slow to clear. a little more cloud in eastern parts of england and scotland with the odd shower around but again some dry, bright weather for the majority, the best of the sunshine in south—west scotland in north—west england, further south as well, feeling fresher, temperatures down to where they should be, and that is maintained into next week though it looks more unsettled further north.

this is bbc news.

the headlines: venezuela‘s supreme court has released 22 people from prison, including a high—profile judge, after the un said the country uses a campaign of fear to suppress opposition. eight people have beenjailed in the uk for their part in what is being described as the country‘s worst ever case of modern—day slavery. police believe there were up to 400 victims. president trump is threatening to use executive powers to count the number of us citizens, in the population census. the supreme court has ruled against the practice, and the census forms are already being printed without the question. cori gauff is through to the second week of wimbledon. the 15—year—old american beat slovenia‘s polona hercog in a thrilling contest, saving two match points along the way.