this is bbc news. welcome if you're watching here in the uk, on pbs in america or around the globe. i'm mike embley. our top stories: in his big independence day speech, india's prime minister hails his government's much—criticised decision to revoke special status for kashmir as a major achievement. a special report on plastic pollution in the arctic. even the snow is contaminated, raising concerns for wildlife and local people. asian markets drop, reacting to 3% falls for the main american indices. analysts suggest the us may be heading for recession. canada's prime ministerjustin trudeau broke government rules in a corruption case — a scathing report from the country's ethics commissioner.

hello. in a major speech, india's prime minister has described his government's much—criticised decision to revoke the special status of indian—administered kashmir, after seven decades, as a major achievement. narendra modi is giving a nationwide broadcast to mark india's independence day, his first since he won a massive election mandate. the disputed region has been in lockdown for more than a week, with internet and phones cut off, hundreds of people detained. here's hundreds of people detained. a little of what he ha say here's a little of what he had to say about kashmir. translation: here's a little of what he had to say about kashmir. translatiosz is our duty to fulfil the wishes and aspirations of the people ofjammu and kashmirand aspirations of the people ofjammu and kashmir and ladak. aspirations of the people ofjammu and kashmirand ladak. it's our responsibility that their dreams are

fulfilled and the 1.3 billion people of india after work towards that. in order to achieve that goal, whatever obstacles came in the way we have tried to remove. the prime minister is still speaking. rahul tandon is in delhi for us. you know there's area exceptionally well. people might wonder why this is so significant, pakistan and india are two nuclear power countries, they have fought two wars over kashmir and they almost fought another one. this matters. it does. what people are accepting, whatever your political viewpoint, we are entering a new era in kashmir and the prime minister has been speaking for more than an hour. he's a powerful orator in hindi, he is wearing a white pyjama with a colourful turban and he's enjoying the occasion. he's dedicated at least ten minutes to what's happened recently in indian administered kashmir, and that decision to remove article 370 which removes the autonomy that it has. he's taken

great pride in that decision. he's basically said nobody else has been able to do it in 70 years and that we've done it. he's also continuously stressing this idea of one india. that before an indian administered kashmir, the laws of india didn't work there and many people were oppressed and there was nepotism and corruption and now with this decision, once again there's a new future for indian administered kashmir. so i think it's a reinforcement of mr modi's leaf that this is a step that will improve the area, help to integrate it more into india and in the course of his speech he is once again playing to something that's very popular in this country, his of a strongman. a man who is able to do things no other prime minister in this country has been able to do. rahul, it could have other impacts with pakistan's prime minister calling the decision a strategic blunder and calling the decision a strategic blunderand imran khan calling the decision a strategic blunder and imran khan saying global powers would be responsible if

another war breaks out. as i understand, pakistan might trouble with diplomatic help with a quite week diplomatic claim, and that could lead to more terrorism, could it? i think one of the most interesting aspects of this speech is what mr modi hasn't said stop he's not even referred to pakistan at all or the pakistani prime minister, imran khan. he's been speaking for open an hour and that might change in the next 15 or 20 minutes as it continues. there's a fear, and there's fear among the indian authorities about what might happen over the course of the next few weeks and that's why, mike, we have this lockdown in place and once again even heavier security in indian administered kashmir as the governor raises the indian flag shortly and huge security across the country. there's a fear once the restrictions are lifted, and they'll to be at one some stage, we will see huge protests and india is worried

what it says will be organised from across—the—board what it says will be organised from across—the—boa rd and we what it says will be organised from across—the—board and we could see an increase in militancy. pakistan are marking a black day for kashmir in that country and this is a self—determination movement and nothing to do with them. rahul, thank you very much. scientists have discovered particles of plastic falling in snow in the arctic, highlighting the scale of plastic pollution. a region so many of us think of as pristine is contaminated with microscopic particles, carried on the wind from thousands of miles away. 0ur environment analyst roger harrabin travelled to the arctic circle as the research teams were working. here's his special report. the arctic — a place of pristine beauty. smothered with snow, clean and pure. 0r that's how it appears. but it's an illusion. arctic snow is tainted with microplastics and rubber particles and clothing fibres. given the amount of pollution

in the atmosphere, it's perhaps hardly surprising that we're finding microplastics in snow. but we have such a strong belief in the essential purity of this stuff that some people will find this news rather shocking. dr melanie bergmann led the research. first stage involves a bit of low technology — a dessert spoon and a flask. i think we're not treating our planet very thoughtfully. basically, we produce all this packaging materials, we cover everything in polymer—based varnish, we use a lot of rubber, which we also find in our aerial samples, snow samples, and don't even think about it what is happening to this in the environment. but few people live here. where on earth do the pollutants come from 7

we know that most of what we are analysing up there and measuring are long—range transported pollution coming from the continent, coming from asia, coming from all over the world. and some of these chemicals have properties that are a threat to the ecosystem for living animals. scientists have found that air and sea currents drive pollutants north. last year, we broke the news that arctic sea ice had more microplastics than anywhere in the ocean because floating particles get bonded into the ice as it freezes. we found plastic pollution on the arctic beaches. some of this debris had drifted for thousands of miles. tourists still trek here to experience what appears to be wilderness, creating their own

pollution on the way. how do locals feel about plastic in snow? i'm here to show pure and clean snow, and dogs and the arctic nature and that's what i hope to do for the rest of my life. and if it continues this way, i will not be able to. it wake me up, it wake my company up that we have to do something. so it's not good news, but we must not give up. up here, you look around you every day and you see or hear something that you think is the 'pristine arctic', as it's called, and it's not any more, and we see it every day and it's really, really sad. here's the truth — there is nowhere on the planet to escape pollution from us, however hard you run. roger harrabin, bbc news, in the norwegian arctic.

let's keep you up to date with a quick round—up of some of the other main news. a plane shot down in the northern syrian province of idlib on wednesday did belong to the military, according to syrian state television. the syrian 0bservatory for human rights, a monitoring group based in the uk, says the pilot of the russian—made plane has been captured by the extremist group hayat tahrir al—sham. six police officers have been shot in a drug raid in the north of philadelphia. their injuries are not life threatening. two other officers had to be rescued by a swat team. a male suspect had been exchanging fire with police and it is still what officials are calling an active situation. british politicians are in theory on their summer break, but that hasn't stopped tensions simmering over brexit. britain is due to leave the european union on october the 31st. the former chancellor, orfinance minister, philip hammond has accused the prime minister's advisers of trying to wreck the chances of a new deal with the eu. but the prime minister says opponents of brexit are, as he put it, in a terrible collaboration with the eu.

ben wright reports. from power to protest and a fierce attack on number 10. three weeks ago, philip hammond was chancellor — theresa may's money man, number two in the government. now he's turned his fire on the new prime minister's willingness to leave the eu with no deal at all. leaving the eu without a deal would bejust as much a betrayal of the referendum result as not leaving at all. the british people were offered a proposition that we could leave the european union while having a close relationship. they were told it would be the easiest deal ever done. all: hear, hear... philip hammond was in a government that secured a brexit deal with the eu but failed to get it through parliament. the fallback plan to prevent a hard border in ireland is the most contentious part of that deal. borisjohnson believes the so—called backstop ties the uk's hands and has told the eu it must be scrapped. pivoting to say the backstop has

to go in its entirety, a huge chunk of the withdrawal agreement just scrapped, is effectively a wrecking tactic. the people behind this know that that means there will be no deal. people like this man, dominic cummings... are you making demands the eu can't accept? ..the former director of vote leave and now borisjohnson‘s top aide in number 10. downing street has ramped up plans to leave with no deal at the end of october if the eu doesn't back down. answering questions from people on facebook earlier, borisjohnson accused mps who think they can block brexit, of a terrible collaboration with the eu and mrjohnson‘s allies say the government's no—deal threat is essential. we're speaking to people all the time, we want to get a deal, that's always been our position. but as a responsible government, we have to prepare for the eventuality of no deal, of course we have to do that. with several tory mps like philip hammond ready to work with opposition parties to try and block a no—deal brexit, a ferocious fight in parliament is coming. but, with the brexit

date written into law, mps may struggle to thwart a government intent on leaving the eu without an agreement. the rules of parliament will be tested and the speaker's role will be crucial. john bercow says he'll fight with every bone in his body to stop the government bypassing parliament. march on our way. the tory party's civil war over brexit has erupted again, with former cabinet allies deeply divided on how to leave the eu. ben wright, bbc news, westminster. but there's been another important intervention on brexit. the speaker of the us house of representatives, nancy pelosi, has insisted that, whatever mr trump's national security advisor suggests, there is no chance that a trade agreement with britain will be passed by congress if brexit undermines the good friday agreement, which brought an end to years of bloodshed in northern ireland.

asian markets have opened sharply lower, following big falls in the united states where the country's three main indexes closed down 3%. it was the worst trading day of the year for us stocks. the dow jones industrial average fell by more than 800 points amid a key signalfrom the us bond market, that the world's biggest economy could be headed for a recession. the question here is a yield curve. so what is this yield curve and what does it mean for the economy? let's head to rhinebeck, new york and speak with global macroeconomic analyst carl weinburg. carl, thank you very much your time. i know have detailed expert knowledge on this subject under here there's stuff going on here that even you can't entirely explain, which would probably be a worry for the rest of us. please give us a briefing. yeah, well, the yield curve is a headline right now and yield curve is complicated for people not engaged in financial

markets to understand but it's the relationship between the interest rates bonds pay people for short—term bonds compared to long—term bonds, and normally in the simplest terms you get more money for long—term bonds and less interest on short—term bonds and that's reversed right now and it's unusual and typically when it happens it signals ahead of time a downturn in the economy. that's what happened today in the united states, bya happened today in the united states, by a little bit, i'm just looking at my live screen right now, it has balanced back to zero now, we're on the cusp of the yield curve inversion which, as i said in the past, is often but not always related to a recession and that's the fear right now and markets think they could biarritz coming in the us. i must say the yield curve in britain is almost inverted and the yield curve in germany, where gdp contracted, it is not‘ it's a normal shape but not by very much and it is also on the cusp of inversion. a lot

of trouble in a lot of places at the same time. how much trouble could we be in? on the face of it, there's lots of reasons why we should be nervous. and unpredictable us president with erratic trade policy, him attacking the us central bank, a trade war between the us and china, weak germany and china trade data and possibly brexit. will people be factoring this in? they will be, and these are the intangible things we point to when we analyse things like investor sentiment, consumer sentiment, business sentiment and of course if firms are feeling good about the world they —— aren't feeling good about the world they don't invest and if consumers aren't feeling good they don't spend. we're looking at a shift in sentiment and that's affecting the financial markets. in terms of the economy, we are seeing simon tonio 's industrial sector slowdowns or contractions in

almost every major economy in the world, developed or not —— simultaneous. that scary because we don't have a good understanding of why that's happening. this is my fear —— that's scary. if i don't understand i can't promise you it won't continue and i can't promise it's going to stop. ijust don't know why this is happening. inventories are high, i don't have an explanation for that either. whale watching to learn about the world for the world to inform us about its intentions —— whale watching. but it looks like 2019 has been slow for growth, that's been baked into the numbers —— we are watching. it will be interesting to see if we get a recession or a gentle slowdown and then back to growth. i'm watching as curious as you are. too, thank you for your insights and for making them intelligible even to me ‘— for making them intelligible even to me —— carl weinburg. for making them intelligible even to me -- carl weinburg. cheers. stay with us on bbc news,

still to come: an italian court says a migrant rescue ship can dock in the country's ports, but the right—wing interior minister says he'll still block it. the big crowds became bigger as the time of the funeral approached. as the lines of fans became longer, the police prepared for a hugejob of crowd control. idi amin, uganda's brutalformer dictator, has died at the age of 80. he's been buried in saudi arabia, where he lived in exile since being overthrown in 1979. two billion people around the world have seen the last total eclipse of the sun to take place in this millennium.

it began itsjourney off the coast of canada, ending three hours later when the sun set over the bay of bengal. this is bbc world news, the latest headlines: in his independence day speech, indian prime minister narendra modi has described the decision to revoke kashmir‘s autonomy as a major achievement of his government. a scientific study has revealed high levels of tiny particles of plastic contaminating the arctic, previously seen as one of the last pristine environments in the world. canada's prime minister, justin trudeau, broke ethics rules by trying to influence a corporate legal case, according to the parliamentary ethics commissioner. a scathing report has found he "circumvented, undermined, and discredited" the director of public prosecutions in a case againt the engineering giant, snc—lavalin. the prime minister says he fully

accepts the report but disagrees with some of the findings. marco mendicino is a liberal member of parliament and also canadian parliamentary secretary to the minister of infrastructure and communities. he's in toronto. thank you very much for your time. i know we have been talking a lot about this. but your prime minister says mistakes were made. it is his responsibility to make sure they never happen again. what were those mistakes? they have not been identified. he began by thanking the ethics commission, which is an office he respects. he does accept the report and we will now move quickly to implement a series of recommendations that have been put forward by the former attorney general, which will start to carve out a protocol and a process whereby

we are ensuring that the government has the opportunity to present all releva nt has the opportunity to present all relevant facts, including legitimate public policy considerations such as potential impact on the economy, on jobs, to the attorney general, when she is deciding whether or not to intervene with prosecution. what we re intervene with prosecution. what were the mistakes? part of the report does refer to some of the interactions between the prime minister's staff and the attorney general, and he has accepted that some of those actions should not have occurred. but now we're going to pivot ensuring that we have a protocol which currently doesn't exist. all we have is the doctrine that originated in the uk, which is paragraphs ofjurisprudence, that originated in the uk, which is paragraphs of jurisprudence, talking about the attorney general acquainting him or herself with all the relevant facts. this was to ensure that the government was putting on the table of the attorney general at the time the potential impacts on the economy and jobs to ensure the best decision was taken

about whether or not to intervene. the commissioner makes it clear that he wasn't given all the relevant fa cts . he wasn't given all the relevant facts. he complained about not been given the required documents by the cabinet. he does. and there is an established constitutional principle to ensure that there is the space to have a debate to arrive at legitimate policy decisions. we can't just easily dispatch legitimate policy decisions. we can'tjust easily dispatch those principles. so, the desired objective of having a transparent process is important, so when there are refinements to be made, they can be made. that will obviously be woven into an mcclellin report as well. that will talk about the dual role of the ministry ofjustice and the attorney general, which is an institution that has serve the country very well. i'm sure the

liberals are hoping to bounce back from this. you now have an election ten months away. mrjustin trudeau is very charming and handsome, which are very useful things for a politician, but he doesn't seem to be able to follow the rules of. thank you for saying it, there have been over a millionjobs thank you for saying it, there have been over a million jobs created thank you for saying it, there have been over a millionjobs created in the last years, economic, unemployment rates are at the lowest ever. trade relations including with your continent, with our friends south of the border. we have a trade relationship with every other g7 country and will be running on the substance of that information. italy's interior minister, matteo salvini, says he'll challenge a legal ruling that allows a migrant rescue ship to enter italian waters. the spanish charity open arms said its vessel was heading for the island of lampedusa. there are nearly 150 people on board. the bbc‘s tim allman has more.

for nearly two weeks they have been at sea. dozens upon dozens of desperate people — men, women, and children. this ship unable to enter port until now. translation: we have overturned the decree which banned us from entering italian waters under the threat of confiscating our boat. we can now enter italian waters without fear of being fined or having our boat confiscated. what was stopping them was an order signed by this man, interior minister matteo salvini, he's taken a hard line over illegal immigration, insisting tough measures were necessary to protect public order. in a tweet, he said he would file a legal challenge against this latest ruling and he was prepared to sign a new provision to stop other ships entering italian waters.

some people have already been evacuated from the open arms vessel. a family were taken off on tuesday when their baby had respiratory problems. concerns over the health of those remaining was one of the reasons cited in its ruling by the regional court. another vessel, 0cean viking, is also at sea, still picking up migrants, still trying to cross the mediterranean. and there is a sense of urgency, the un's refugee agency wanting european governments to intervene, warning that storms are coming. tim allman, bbc news. a reminder of our top story: in a major speech, india's prime minister has described his government's much—criticised decision to revoke the special status of indian—administered kashmir, after seven decades, as a major achievement. narendra modi is giving a nationwide broadcast to mark india's

independence day, his first since he won a massive election mandate. the disputed region has been in lockdown for more than a week, with internet and phones cut off, hundreds of people detained. if you are new to this story, pakistan and india, both nuclear armed nations, have fought two wars over kashmir. the issue here is how to deal with a part of the country where some people simply don't want to be part of india. mr modi's decision has been described as a strategic blunder. and you can get in touch with me

and most of the team on twitter — i'm @bbc mike embley. hello. for many of you, wednesday was a bit of a washout, to say the least. thursday, however, looking much, much better. the bulk of you will spend if not all but certainly most of the day dry and a lot brighter and feeling a little bit warmer as well. we are sort of between weather systems on thursday, this weather system which brought the rain on wednesday, some heavy showers through the night and into thursday morning, more persistent rain around shetland, this is the next weather system for friday so in between those two, we've got a fair bit of cloud to begin with. nowhere near as chilly for the thursday morning commute as it was on the wednesday morning commute but a few showers here and there, scotland, parts of northern ireland northern england and north wales, more persistent rain in shetland with showers pushing the way eastwards and largely fade in intensity and number as they go, leaving most places under mostly sunny skies during thursday afternoon and with a lot more sunshine around, slightly lighter winds, of course it will feel warmer

than it did on wednesday and that sunshine of course, a bit stronger as well this time of year. we finish the day with sunshine hazy across northern ireland, could be a bit of evening rain here but through the night, cloud and rain and wind start to push in from the north and west. parts of the midlands, eastern england will stay dry with some clearer skies and the coolest conditions down into single figures once again, but the temperatures here but mostly in the teens as we start friday morning but as you can see, it's going to be a day for the umbrella but also to really have a tight grip on it because this area of low pressure also brings with it strong winds. it's out at the atlantic at the moment but it pushes this weather front on its forward edge, bringing rain to most parts of the day on friday, scotland, northern ireland, northern england and wales, the wettest part will be likely be during the morning as rain spreads its way southwards and eastwards and after a bright start in the south—east corner, it will turn here wetter into the afternoon, and more persistent rain across southern counties of south wales through the afternoon with scotland and northern ireland seeing more sunshine but across the board it will be a blustery day with winds topping out around gale—force around many coasts and hills. that same area of low pressure

will be with us into the start of the weekend, keeping things like friday a little on the cool side. we have winds coming down from the north atlantic around it and they will continue to feed their way in, feeding showers. the more persistent rain linked to this weather front will be just about clearing for saturday morning. early risers across the south—east may be still on the wet side but sunshine will come out for a time before that weather front inches northwards once again, turning the sunshine hazy across the south and turning things wetter in the channel islands. vast majority, though, saturday, the story of sunshine and showers. showers more frequent around scotland, northern ireland, northern england and some of those happy with hail and thunder. stays cool as it will do on sunday with the chance of some more persistent rain, close to the south coast. most will stick with that sunshine and showers theme and quite a windy one this weekend too.

this is bbc news, the headlines:

india's prime minister, narendra modi, has described his government's decision to revoke kashmir‘s autonomy as a major achievement. in a speech to mark india's independence day, he said the kashmir decision had been pending for 70 years. the disputed territory has been in lockdown since delhi's decision was announced. scientists have found high levels of plastic contamination in the arctic, previously seen as one of the world's last pristine environments. a study showed a litre of melted snow could contain tens of thousands of plastic particles, probably carried on the wind from thousands of miles away. global stock markets have fallen amid growing fears about recession. markets in asia opened sharply lower, hours after the main us stock markets closed 3% down on the day. the falls follow data from the us, germany and china suggesting economic growth is slowing down.