this is the briefing. i'm sally bundock. our top story: in his independence day speech, india's prime minister defends his much—criticised decision to revoke kashmir‘s special status. 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. britain's opposition leader calls for a temporary government of national unity and a general election to stop a no—deal brexit. battle of the retailers — chinese ecommerce giant alibaba is set to unveil its latest results just hours before walmart. all this in the shadow of the trade war between washington and beijing.

i'll be talking to our asia business hub to find out how markets are reacting to the big losses on wall street. a warm welcome to the programme, briefing you on all you need to know in global news, business and sport. also we would love to hear from you. today we're talking about finland. from 2020, workers in finland will be able to decide when and where they work for at least half of their hours. finland is being praised for being at the forefront

of flexible working. tell us what you think, just use #bbcthebriefing. we begin in india today. 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 has been 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, and hundreds of people detained. this is some of what he had to say on the subject. translation: it is our duty to fulfil the wishes and aspirations of the people of jammu and kashmir and ladakh. it's our responsibility that their dreams are fulfilled

and the 1.3 billion people of india after work towards that. —— have to. in order to achieve that goal, whatever obstacles came in the way we have tried to remove. the bbc‘s rahul tandon joins me now from delhi. rahul, he's done this huge speech to mark independence day to a massive audience. how will this go down? it's a difficult narendra modi speech to the people of india. its long and it sets him up, as he a lwa ys long and it sets him up, as he always likes to do, as the strongman of the country and a man who can ta ke of the country and a man who can take decisions others feared to take and that's when he came onto the subject of indian administered kashmir. he said for 70 years nobody could do this and he's had the guts to stand up an something right for this country and write for the people of indian administered kashmir. he said the previous policies that gave them autonomy had

only led to nepotism and corruption and now the laws of india could be put in place. he was speaking to the majority who back his moves by saying on the strongman, trust me, i'm going to get this right. but within indian—administered, millions of people in the kashmir valley remain without internet and their movements are restricted. 0nce remain without internet and their movements are restricted. once again a message that will go down very well in india, but how will it be received in indian—administered kashmir? as you say, kashmir has been in lockdown for some time now. it's ha rd to lockdown for some time now. it's hard to know how the people there are thinking orfeeling or how hard to know how the people there are thinking or feeling or how they might react. but when they do try to return life to normality there, what do you think might happen? the government's view is the majority of people in that area support the moves that they've taken, that there isa moves that they've taken, that there is a silent majority, but from what we've been hearing on the ground there's great anger against the decisions and the question that

people have to ask is if there is support, live the lockdown, let the people go onto the streets and let's hear their voice. even within indian government circles there are fears there could large—scale protests. —— left. and another interesting thing about the speech, when imran khan spoke yesterday he mentioned india and mrmodi —— spoke yesterday he mentioned india and mr modi —— left. mr modi didn't refer to pakistan or the pakistani prime minister but he did ones talk about his neighbours causing terrorism in the region. his policy is clear at the moment, he will focus on indian—administered kashmir, the economy and how it will benefit the people and he will ignore imran khan and pakistan. benefit the people and he will ignore imran khan and pakistani was ignore imran khan and pakistanlj was about to ask about the reaction in pakistan to his speech today. they're still calling for international support in opposition of this move on the part of narendra modi? very much so. they want the united nations security to have an emergency meeting on this. they're

asking the world to stand up to what's taking place in indian—administered kashmir, but the honest truth is at the moment that the world isn't paying much attention. india doesn't feel under much diplomatic pressure at the moment and india keeps saying pakistan is trying to spoil the relationship with us. they don't wa nt to relationship with us. they don't want to stop bilateral trade and the bus and train ties. in delhi we've had that message again. kashmir is an integral part of india and they will decide policies and pakistan, mind your own business. rahul, thanks very much and good to hear your take on what's happening there again. italy's interior minister matteo salvini is to challenge a legal ruling that allows a migrant rescue ship to enter italian waters. the spanish charity open arms has a vessel heading for the island of lampedusa. there are around 150 people on board. the bbc‘s tim allman has the story.

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 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. let's brief you on some of the other stories making the news. 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.

canadian prime minister justin trudeau broke ethics rules by trying to influence a corporate legal case. that's the ruling from canada's parliamentary ethics watchdog. the commissioner said mr trudeau had tried to influence his former attorney general to settle a criminal case against the engineering giant, snc—lavalin. the prime minister denied accusations that he exerted undue influence. 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. the british opposition labour party leader, jeremy corbyn, has outlined plans to stop britain leaving the european union without a deal at the end of october. mr corbyn wants to head what he calls a time—limited

caretaker government by winning a vote of no confidence in the conservative government led by boris johnson. he would then aim to delay brexit and call a general election. alpesh patel is the ceo of praefinium partners. good morning outpatient. good morning —— good morning, alpesh. good morning outpatient. good morning -- good morning, alpesh. who has he put this letter to? members of the opposition parties and conservative government mps against a no—deal exit. conservative government mps against a no-deal exit. a bit like philip hammond, for example? exactly, and he's saying to join forces because they would have a majority in parliament, form a national unity government and go to the eu and say,

"can we delay? " and that would give them time for a general election. he believes, and there are more people... and we know this because of the indicative votes parliament undertook earlier in the year that there are more people that don't wa nt there are more people that don't want no—deal, but the problem is, when you divide up those groupings, there is not the majority for any other alternative either. there is not an overall majority so you don't get through anything sadly. so, as you say, leaders of all the parties and various members of parliament will have received this letter. how will it have been received? we know how parliament has been through these indicative votes, you're just not getting significant groupings so you won't get an overall majority of mps saying, "yes, we'll come behind you". there's a bigger problem, it is jeremy corbyn, so there's a bunch of people outside the labour party saying we don't want to line up behind him even though we don't want

a no—deal brexit. it's not going to work out, a dead duck! what do you think might happen?” work out, a dead duck! what do you think might happen? i wish i could a nswer think might happen? i wish i could answer that one! given what's been going on in the last few days, this time yesterday we talked about philip hammond, the former chancellor of the exchequer, accusing the current government, led by borisjohnson, accusing the current government, led by boris johnson, of accusing the current government, led by borisjohnson, of trying to prevent a deal with the european union to force almost like a no—deal exit et cetera. downing street responding, there's been a lot going on. the problem is, the commentators on. the problem is, the commentators on this, the so—called experts, they keep on saying what they want to happen, what they desire to happen, as opposed to what's likely from an objective, detached perspective likely to happen. the only thing i can tell you about what's likely to happen, the only foreseeable thing at the moment is there's no majority is in parliament for any one of the outcomes. we know this. i might not like that as a business person, i

wa nt like that as a business person, i want certainty. stay in, get out, just make any decision! sadly there is no outcome at the moment an a nswer to is no outcome at the moment an answer to this as things stand. anyone telling you they've got the a nswer anyone telling you they've got the answer is lying to you, sally! you might have the answer about the financial markets but we'll hold that thought because alpesh is back later for the news briefing that thought because alpesh is back laterfor the news briefing and there's been a lot of market mayhem in the last 2a hours as well as the political mayhem in britain. we'll talk about that later, which will be brilliant. i'm glad he's here for that. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: hunting dinosaurs in the badlands. british paleontologists get their trowels out in wyoming. 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. you're watching the briefing. 0ur headlines: in his independence day speech, the indian prime minister,

narendra modi, has described his government's decision to revoke kashmir‘s special status as a major achievement. italy's interior minister, matteo salvini, has said he'll challenge a legal ruling that allows a ship with rescued migrants on board to enter italian waters. ‘missionjurassic‘ is the biggest british dinosaur hunt in decades. scientists from manchester university and the natural history museum are excavating a square—mile of desert in the badlands of wyoming. science correspondent rebecca morelle has the story. emerging from the rocks, the backbone of a huge dinosaur. in wyoming, scientists are unearthing the bones of some of the biggest creatures ever to walk the earth. we have at least a dozen animals that are showing elements of their

skeleton poking out of the ground in multiple parts of the site, so it makes it a very large site to deal with, and for the first time in my career we are almost looking at an industrial scale excavation. i have never been involved in such a vast dinosaurdig in my never been involved in such a vast dinosaur dig in my whole career. excavating each bone is a painstaking process. they are from thejurassic period, painstaking process. they are from the jurassic period, a painstaking process. they are from thejurassic period, a golden age when dinosaurs exploded in shape and size. these might look like lumps of rock that they are actually dinosaur footprints. here we have the front foot, an imprint of a gnarly claw. here is the back foot, with two clearly defined toes. these were made 150 million years ago when a giant, longnecked saw a pod sunk down into the mud. it is like going backin down into the mud. it is like going back in time. a meat—eating allosau rus back in time. a meat—eating allosaurus has been found, and herds of the plot occurs also grazed on this landscape. before that, there

was a vast inland sea, ichthyosaurs we re was a vast inland sea, ichthyosaurs were abundant in the sea. they are working methodically, and have already found bones from a dozen different dinosaurs. but there could be more than 100 buried here. it will take at least 20 years to get them out of the ground. with me is emma bernard, curator at the department of earth sciences at the natural history museum you were out there as well. tell us about your experience. good morning, i had about your experience. good morning, ihada about your experience. good morning, i had a fantastic experience out there in northern wyoming helping to search for some of these dinosaurs, excavating things like diplo

diplodocus and others. what were the key findings for you? for me, it was amazing just to be part of the dig, because i have grown up always loving dinosaurs and going out and finding the dinosaurs myself, and because you are the first person ever to lay eyes on these fossils, it isa ever to lay eyes on these fossils, it is a very personal achievement. we were out there looking at the entire environment, because we wa nted entire environment, because we wanted to build up a bigger picture of what this jurassic world actually looked like. what were these dinosaurs eating, what was living, early mammals, fish, insects and all the different plants that were around. what does this dig tell us, what bits of the jigsaw does it give us? this area in northern wyoming hasn't really been explored as much as some of the other areas in this

gi’oup as some of the other areas in this group of rocks, which is a famous area down in utah and colorado. it might be possible to find new species of dinosaurs and other animals that were around at the time. we're also looking at some of the animals and mammals. that is something that hasn't really been explored in this area before, so really hoping we find something new and exciting. going forward, as you say, this particular area hasn't been looked at before now. will this lead to more and more similar expeditions as we try to find out what has been going on back then? we hope so, we have collected lots of data. back at the museum we are looking at all of this data trying to work out exactly what's going on, and one of the key things about palaeontological fieldwork is that we are trying to find out what past environments were like, which can help us protect the future. 0nly

environments were like, which can help us protect the future. only by looking at the past and we truly help predict the future. so you will be going again, will you?” help predict the future. so you will be going again, will you? i hope so, because there are lots of new things there to be discovered. thank you so much, it is fascinating. we look forward to hearing more and finding out more about what you discover. let's turn our attention to the world of sport. hello there, i'm tulsen tollett and this is your thursday sport briefing, where we start with the news that liverpool won the uefa super cup, beating chelsea 5—4 on penalties in istanbul. after finishing 1—1 at the end of 90 minutes a second goal for sadio mane was cancelled out byjorginho's spot kick in extra time and then after mohammad salah had scored liverpool's fifth goal in the shootout, tammy abraham saw his shot saved by adrian as liverpool lifted the trophy for the fourth time, but the first since 2005. world number two and top seed ashleigh barty eased through to the last 16 of the cincinatti 0pen with a straight sets win over 2011

champion maria sharapova. the australian was a 6—4, 6—1 winner and will now play estonia's annett kontaveit in the last 16. in the men's event fourth seed kei nishikori was defeated in straight sets 7—6, 6—4 by compatriot and practice partner yoshihito nishioka in the second round. it was the first ever match between the two japanese players and the first top 10 win of nishioka's career and he'll now face the world number 77 alex de minaur of australia for a place in the quarter—finals. virat kohli made it successive one—day international centuries as his side won a rain affected third and final match of their series in port of spain. the indian captain hit an unbeaten 114 as his side claimed a six—wicket win on the duckworth lewis stern method as he picked up both the man of the match and series awards with his side taking a 2—0 win with one match abandoned.

after wednesday's washout both england and australia will be hoping for improved weather in the coming hours for the second ashes test match at lord's. the entire first day in london was lost to the rain, with more predicted over the coming days. australia, the holders, are 1—0 up in the best of five series having won the first match at edgbaston. defending champion novak djokovic is back in action at the cincinatti masters a little later as he plays spain's pablo carreno busta in the last 16. the world number one beat sam querry in the second round as he continues his bid to win a 34th masters series title ahead of the year's final grand slam, the us open in new york, where he'll also be defending champion. rory mcilroy will return to the scene of europe's 2012 ryder cup triumph nicknamed the "miracle of medinah" when he tees off in illinois later on thursday in the bmw championship. while tiger woods says he's ready to play golf again. the former world number one withdrew from last week's northern trust, the first of the fedex cup playoffs events because of back pain

and the 43—year—old is hopeful it's calmed now. i've tried to make tweaks all year, and trying to ease the stress off my back while still playing. and u nfortu nately i back while still playing. and unfortunately i haven't really done a very good job of that, and when i have, i have hit the ball quite well. i was really excited when i was doing it at liberty and i made some nice changes and obviously didn't feel very well on thursday. and finally, we finish back in turkey, where liverpool beat chelsea in the uefa super cup final. ahead of the match, they trained with some special guests including the man who scored the fifth penalty, liverpool's egyptian star mohamad salah. both clubs took time out from their preparations to play football and have photos with a number of amputee children, who are part of the uefa foundation. you can get all the latest sports

news at our website — that's bbc.com/sport.but from me tt and the team that is your thursday sport briefing 0ur talking point today is all about flexible working. an article that has just flexible working. an article that hasjust come flexible working. an article that has just come out on new legislation in finland coming into effect next year, which will allow those who work a hour week on average to work more flexibly. from 2020, workers in finland will be able to decide when and where they work for at least half of their hours. finland is being praised for being at the forefront of flexible working. you can fit it around your exercise, may be a side hustle. many people will be able to bank time off and use it to take extended holiday. finland is seen as a pioneer and has been praised widely for this. does

this work, could you see this happening where you are? some jobs require location —based, many of you have said this is a dream scenario, you think it is a dream that can never be a reality. quite a lot of you have said that. casual employment works great for those people who have the flexibility to pick up shifts that are not filled by permanent, full—time employees. i wish i had the flexibility to pick my co—workers. what are you saying? ! inks for your views. my co—workers. what are you saying? ! inks foryourviews. if my co—workers. what are you saying? ! inks for your views. if you are watching me in europe this morning it is very early, and maybe that is because you work shifts or you work a long day and have a big commute ahead of you. do get in touch. let us know your thoughts. use the hashtag #bbcthebriefing. stay with us here on bbc news —

so much more to come. we will have the latest on financial markets in asia, which you will be glad to know are coming down a little. good morning. well, after that widespread wet day of wednesday across many parts of the country, the washout of the ashes, i can offer you much better conditions through today. a lot more in the way of drier and brighter weather around. even though there will be showers in the forecast, more of you will spend the bulk if not all of the day dry. this area of low pressure which brought wednesday's washout rain, showers through the night into thursday morning, persistent rain around shetland, this is the next weather system waiting in the wings. and we fall in between it through today. so that means few showers to begin with through scotland, northern england and parts of wales and they could just drift away to the south before clearing. the morning rain in shetland clears away and more of you spend the day under sunny skies through the afternoon. again, a lot more sunshine around, the winds fall lighter into this afternoon and it is going to feel that little bit warmer.

temperatures just a notch below where we should be for the time of year. we finished the day with sunshine, hazy in northern ireland, maybe a few splashes of rain in the evening but overnight, the breeze increases across the west. outbreaks of rain become quite extensive once again. towards the south and east, temperatures drop back into single figures. for many, mild but blustery start to friday morning as the area of low pressure starts to creep its way in. the centre of that way out into the atlantic. they be preceded by these weather fronts but will bring rain across most parts. almost a repeat performance of what we saw there wednesday. outbreaks of rain, some of which will be heavy side, particularly across england and wales, more especially towards the south—west later on. that means parts of scotland, northern ireland, northern england will brighten up as well is that, we will see some strong winds across the board, touching gale force around hills and coasts and it all adds up. even though those winds are coming

from the south—westerly direction, their origin is not from a particularly warm one. temperatures in teens for just about all of us. so a cool end to the week and a cool start the weekend, that air wrapping in around the area of low pressure that's with us. the weather front being the more persistent rain across england and wales never quite clears the south—east corner for the start of saturday so early risers may be a bit cloudy and wet. but then it does. sunshine comes out before turning hazy later on. further north, sunshine and showers, showers most frequent across scotland, northern irleand, maybe northern england weather could be heavy in bunbury and we stick with that cool theme as well, even though temperatures up a little bit compared friday. cool again on sunday, may be some rain lingering across southern counties of england but otherwise, sunshine and showers yet again.

this is the business briefing. i'm sally bundock. retail wars — alibaba gets ready to unveil its results in the shadow of the trade showdown between us and washington. market turmoil — recession fears spark a big sell—off on wall street but asia pares back earlier losses. and on the markets: you can see the big fall on the dow jones industrial average in the us, but as you can see in asia now, hong kong only slightly down and the nikkei that was down also 3% earlier today has recovered quite a bit.