this is bbc news. i'm james reynolds with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. washington warns authorities in hong kong to stop targeting the media — after officers raid the newsroom of a pro—democracy paper. the biggest political party in northern ireland is in crisis — as its new leader resigns just weeks after taking up the job. tigray�*s worsening crisis — the un warns of an imminent famine, unless drastic measures are taken fast. and is auckland in new zealand the most "liveable" place in the world to live? a new global survey seems to suggest it is — we'll find out why.

the united states has described a raid by hong kong police on the pro—democracy newspaper, apple daily, as �*politically motivated'. five senior figures from the paper were arrested and are being held under security laws imposed by beijing. they include the editor in chief, ryan law. the newspaper has consistently opposed china's tightening grip on hong kong. the bbc�*s danny vincent is in hong kong. the police came in the early hours of the morning. 500 officers deployed to arrest five media executives, suspected of violating hong kong's new national security law. they surrounded the building. journalists inside continued live streaming the raid on their own paper. mark simon is an adviser tojimmy lai and former executive with apple daily�*s parent company, next media. essentially, it's not up to us any more, it's up to the chinese communist party. they seem to be able to put

a man in space but they can't tolerate somebody talking on the streets of hong kong about freedom and democracy. apple daily is the only opposition newspaper left in hong kong. this is the second raid on the paper, but the first time journalists have been arrested over national security law charges. the company's assets have now been frozen. but the journalists say they will continue on for as long as they can. the police came into apple daily�*s newsroom and confiscated editorial material. they had warrants to take away hard drives and computers. it left many here fearing thatjournalism itself is now under attack. the security minister spoke of the seriousness of the alleged crime. we are talking about a conspiracy in which the suspects tried to make use of journalistic work to collude with a foreign country or external elements, to impose sanction or take

hostile activities against hong kong and prc. before his detention last year, apple daily�*s owner jimmy lai spoke to the bbc. he's been charged with violating the national security law and could now face life in prison. he believes the law has spread fear across the city. fear is the most inexpensive and convenient way of ruling j people and controlling people. you know, if they can . induce fear in you, that's the easiest way to control you. pro—democracy activists say they face political persecution since the introduction of the new law. it was said to only target a small number of hong kong residents. today, journalists inside this paper feel they are also under attack. ambassador kurt tong is former consul general of the us to hong kong and macau. he's now a partner with the

asia group in washington dc. he says existing freedoms in hong kong are being worn down. i think it is fading rapidly. certainly this was an unprecedented step by the authorities to arrest people, essentially, because of their generalist to content and i think it's consistent with other efforts that we have seen intended to essentially stifle all political opposition in the city. that's the objective. it appears to be working. the people are intimidated and concerned. it's important to point out, however, that this is inconsistent with china's loan obligations under the basic law and british declaration. there's every reason for the international community and people of hong to be upset about this and protest these actions.

i'm not optimistic in the short run about the ability of the international community to change the chinese direction on this matter. but i think it's important to make clear where people stand and the fact that china has essentially broken promises and is really going to unnecessary lengths to quiet opposition which was not really, did not have that much influence on affairs in hong kong to start with. so it's a state of overkill. and it is important for the united states and others to consider the audience in other countries outside of china as well and make clear that we believe these open systems that open media are good for societies and good for economies. you would make that point when you were called to general in 2016 to 2019 did beijing take you seriously? i think they heard what i was saying. they did not like that message. i think they are taking risks.

the message that i gave at the time and continue to give is that by approaching a point where people won't feel like they can access reliable information about the outside world or even about hong kong, or they start to lose confidence in the integrity of the judiciary of the city, that could have a profound impact on how the city works and its business model which would hurt china as well. china is playing with fire here and needs to be careful what it's doing. let s get some of the day s other news the japanese prime minister, yoshihide suga, has confirmed that the state of emergency imposed in the capital, tokyo, and several other regions will be lifted in three days' time. the move comes just over a month before japan is due to host the olympics. some extra restrictions will remain in place until at least earlyjuly, limiting opening hours for bars and restaurants.

in football, there's been a minute's applause during denmark's euro 2020 match against belgium — as a show of support for the danish midfielder, christian eriksen. he's recovering in hospital after suffering a cardiac arrest last weekend. zambia has declared three weeks of mourning to honour the independence leader, kenneth kaunda, who's died at the age of 97. tributes have been paid from across the region. in south africa, the nelson mandela foundation said his contribution to the struggle against colonialism and apartheid would not be forgotten. democrats have welcomed the us supreme court's decision to reject the latest challenge to the law known as obamacare. republican—led states tried to overturn the affordable care act — which provides health insurance for more than 30 million people — butjudges ruled the attempt had no legal standing. president biden described the decision as a big win for the american people. the biggest political party in northern ireland has been hit by a fresh crisis, after its leader edwin poots resigned — just weeks

after taking up thejob. mr poots was the leader of the dup, a mainly protestant party which defends northern ireland's position within the united kingdom, against the wishes of mainly—catholic nationalists to create a united ireland. the bbc�*s ireland correspondent chris pages explains why the resignation is such a shock. in this part of the uk, relations in the power—sharing regional government are rarely straightforward. but the events that we have seen unfold over recent hours are really quite unprecedented. the leader of northern ireland public biggest party, the democratic unionist party, which favours northern ireland public place in the united kingdom has resigned. poots stood down just over a month after he was involved in ousting his predecessor, arlene foster. today, mr poots installed another one of his party members, paul given, as the first minister in the devolved government. but it was that decision which turned a majority of his senior elected representatives against them. crucial to the way this building, the relationships

within it work are the conditions under which unionists, who favour british rule here share power with irish nationalists, who want northern ireland to become part of the irish republic. a deal was cut essentially between the british government and london, and the biggest irish nationalist party sinn fein on the legal status for the irish language, long a demand of nationalist parties here. but unionists thought that was an unacceptable side deal which threatens the very nature of the devolved government itself. so they thought mr poots should not be nominating a leader for the devolved government, mr poots defied them and went ahead and appointed a first minister anyway. there has been a meeting now of elected representatives within the democratic unionist party, and it's understood that in that meeting mr poots came under considerable pressure leading him to announce his resignation. that means not only that his

party is in a fresh crisis, but also the politics here in northern ireland are deeply unstable. it's close to eight months since war broke out in ethiopia's, tigray region and there continue to be reports of abuses, and the un warns of an imminent famine, unless drastic measures are taken fast. despite repeated international calls for hostilities to end to allow humanitarian access — there s still fighting and aid agencies are not reaching all those in need. kalkidan yibeltal sent this report. gitesh has had heart problems since he was a child. he needed constant medical attention. but as tigray�*s war raged, it became difficult to find care and food. translation: we had medical appointments, but roads - were closed due to the war. so we had to walk for three days without food. this affected my son a lot.

before the war, we had hospitals and health centres. since it started, we literally had nothing to eat. a0 minutes north of mekelle. this was a clinic, then a military camp and now a distribution centre. many people fled to the mountains when the fighting began. lots are still far from the reach of aid agencies and cameras. the un says famine is imminent in tigray. they warn that hundreds of thousands could starve. travelling through tigray and meeting people whose lives have been shattered by this bloody conflict, which is now into its eighth month, one just gets the sense of the immensity of its tragic impact. we came here in march, and returning months later we could easily understand that there are so many untold stories, particularly in rural areas that are not easily accessible, and tragedy

is still unfolding. there are at least 14 bodies buried here, mostly young men. one of them is lemlima's son. she last saw him being led away by eritrean soldiers, allies of the government. translation: we had fleed from this area i fearing for our lives, since there was fighting. but we came back, thinking it was better. right after, they took my son, saying they needed him. after two weeks, i realised he was killed. my son didn't participate in any political activities. he was just a day labourer. it's been nearly seven months since the government declared victory over tigray�*s rulers, turned rebels, the tplf. but the road from mekelle indicates otherwise. and it seems that for any healing to begin, first the conflict must end.

bbc news, kalkidan yibeltal, tigray. stay with us on bbc news, still to come. why auckland in new zealand has been crowned the most "liveable" place in the world — we'll find out why in a moment. there was a bomb in the city centre. a code word known to be one used by the ira was given. army bomb experts were examining a suspect van when there was a huge explosion. the south african parliament has destroyed the foundation of apartheid by abolishing the population registration act, which for 40 years forcibly classified each citizen according to race. just a day old and the royal baby is, tonight, sleeping i in his cot at home. early this evening, - the new prince was taken by his mother and father to theirapartment- in kensington palace. germany's parliament, the bundestag has voted by a narrow majority to move the seat of government

from bonn to berlin. berliners celebrated into the night, but the decision was greeted with shock in bonn. the real focus of attention today was valentina tereshkova. the world's first woman cosmonaut. what do you think of - the russian woman in space? i think it's a wonderful achievement, and i think we might be able to persuade the wife. it would be a good idea, if i could, to get her to go up there for a little while. this is bbc news, the latest headlines. washington warns authorities in hong kong — to stop targeting the media — after officers raid the newsroom of a pro—democracy paper. edwin poots — the leader of the biggest party in northern ireland — resigns afterjust 21 days in thejob. concerns about the health of the ganges river in india have existed for some time. now a new environmental crisis is looming, for the country s most important water source, this time it's due to covid. during the second wave of the pandemic, hundreds

of bodies have been buried in shallow graves, along parts of the river. with the monsoon season about to hit, it is feared that many of these bodies will end up in the ganges, polluting it even further. rupa ja reports from northern india. this is the holiest river in india, the ganges. many come here to cremate or bury their dead. it is also one of the most polluted rivers in the world. and india's recent second covid wave has the potential to make things much worse. this year, hundreds of shallow graves have appeared as far as the eye can see — right up to the river's edge. the scene over here is just heartbreaking. it is of helplessness, of neglect, of apathy. now the question that is

being asked is what will be the health hazard, what would be the pollution problem of this area once the monsoon hits. and obviously, if it goes up to that level, all of these bodies will then flow into the river and pollute the river water. this satellite image was taken from the same area during last year's monsoon. you can see how the sandbank where the bodies have been buried gets completely submerged by the river. environmentalists say it is a disaster waiting to happen.

more than 400 million people directly depend on the ganges for their livelihood. translation: if the ganges doesn't survive, trust me, i the country will be destroyed, whether it is me, the boat man, the flower seller, the milkman or the farmer, survival of many people and even the factories depends on the ganges. it's incredible how many times political parties have made election promises to clean up the ganga, but how little has actually been achieved? people feel the holiest river could have been saved from this latest threat, but the authorities say these are unusual times. translation: there was a shortage of facilities, i people did not have enough wood to cremate, so they dug a shallow grave and covered it with sand. now the corpses are so old and in such bad shape that they cannot be handled or moved. we are trying to usejcb machines to dig deeper graves

to bury them further down and move them away from the banks. it's ironic that it's taken the pandemic to focus the attention back onto the sorry state the ganges finds itself in after decades of abuse. it will need far more than faith and prayers to bring ganga back to her glory. rupa ja, bbc news. the israeli military has launched airstrikes on the gaza strip for the second time in three nights. the israeli defense forces said they'd struck military compounds and a rocket launch site belonging to the militant group hamas, which runs gaza. they said the strikes were in retaliation for the launching of incendiary balloons towards towns in the south of israel. the japanese tennis star, naomi osaka, has pulled out the wimbledon championships later this month. in may, she withdrew from the french open

after refusing to take part in post— match news conferences saying she wanted to protect her mental well—being. osaka says she will take part in the olympics injuly. our tennis correspondent russell fuller says osaka's decision won't come as a surprise to people who have been following her recent career. this news does not come as anything of a surprise at all. it's a very short time since she withdrew from the french open after her first round match. it was only two and a half weeks ago. and clearly she needs time, she is spending that with family and friends at the moment to work through how she is going to conduct her tennis careerfrom here. she has talked about suffering severe bouts of depression since she won her first grand slam title in new york in 2018. and i think what is really encouraging is that she feels that she's going be able to represent her country on home soil in the tokyo olympics in just six weeks' time.

auckland in new zealand has been named as the world s most liveable city. out of 140 cities, it is right there at the top. that's according to an annual list produced by the economist intelligence unit. the new zealand city has stolen the top spot from vienna ? which has dropped down the list, largely due to repeated covid—i9 lockdowns. cities are ranked on a number of factors including stability, education and access to healthcare. the pandemic has heavily affected this years rankings, with european cities coming below places in the asia pacific region.? to find out more about auckland and how it has fared throughout the pandemic — i spoke to mayor phil goff. ? we have always been in the top 20 for most liveable cities but i think really the crowning factor in this was the way in which we have dealt with covid—i9. we have had 110 days without any community transmission of covid—i9. we had previous long periods,

sometimes interrupted by short intrusions which we have managed to handle pretty reasonably. the prime minister talks about a team of 5 million, nearly 2 million of those living auckland and we have worked together well to stop the spread of the virus. we have had good leadership and now in the process of going through vaccination. but at no point has our hospital system been overwhelmed, only a handful of deaths in the city, all tragic, but not on the scale of other places. we are going about our life normally and if you follow the america's cup, which i will remind you we won, you ought to see the scene from auckland. just an amazing harbour, sparkling waters. and it is a good place to live. it's not to say we are without problems, we have the same problems as other places, but generally really good to live in. do you not have trafficjams, the kind of things that drive

every other city crazy? yes, i have lived in london, i have lived in oxford, so i know about trafficjams. they are not unique to us. we are moving from a city that modelled itself on los angeles, sprawling suburbs and big motorways, to a 21st century city. we are really strengthening our public transport system and focusing more on walking and cycling. in that transition we do have real congestion and that is a problem for us. so what i said before, we are not without problems. traffic congestion and housing affordability, two really big challenges that we face, but there's so many other good things about our city that make it a fantastic place to live in. phill goff, you be must speak with mayors around the world and when they go out for a walk they must be accosted at all

times from the citizens saying, "when are you going to pick up the garbage or sort out this road?" when people see you on the street what they complain to you about? yeah, that's the nature of local government. i spent most of my life in provincial government and it's much easier being a minister than a mayor. nothing more local than local government so i've been at a set of traffic lights and the car next to me once on the window and talks to me about something that they would like to see happen. but i like to say the first two big challenges that would be around traffic congestion and in dealing with traffic congestion we got so much construction going on. i think in 2019 we have more cranes per capita in new zealand than any other city in the world. so we are dealing with the problem, but dealing with the problem you have a short—term problem of disruption. with been known as the city of sails but people have said we are the city of orange cones because of the cones

from the construction sites. but we are dealing with that and hopefully with the low interest rates and the house prices going up. we are building more... before we go off air, it's obviously good news for everyone that you don't have any active cases, the bad news for the rest of the world can we can't come and visit you because of restrictions! when is that going to change? it has changed already for a small number of countries, australia and the cook islands. we've got a travel bubble. we would love to have the brits back to see us... are you sure? absolutely. we have rolled out our vaccination programme, and you have got on top of your problem as well and are sympathy for the further weeks extension before you get back to normality. it has been fantastic to speak to you, mayor of auckland, the world's most liveable city.

in an ideal world, i would now be off to auckland, but in the real world should be staying here in london. before we go, flying cars have long been a sting of science fiction or futuristic films, but as it turns out that future might not be that far away. take a look at this footage of an actual flying car being tested in australia. it looks like it has been taken right out of a star wars film. the airspeed or a multi—copter aircraft used on a formula 1 card from the idea is to hold a series of races which are this year. i'm not sure if i will ever see one part of my driveway, if i had a driveway but i have to say it does look rather exciting. can it fly all the way to new zealand? do let me know we are favourite cities are. my colleague luis will be

in this chair in about 35 minutes' time. it will take you through the next two hours. do stay with him. friday is to be another day of split weather fortunes. with largely dry and often sunny weather across northern and western areas. further south and east, the chance once again for some thunderstorms or at least some torrential downpours of rain. feeding up from the near continent you can see these weather systems fringing into southeastern areas. whereas this ridge of high pressure is going to be keeping things mainly dry and settled across a good part of scotland, northern ireland and northwest england and wales in the far southwest after cool fresh start. spells of such an interest the odd shower but down towards the southeast more intuitive cloud and bricks of

rain. don't take this too literally, often hard to pin down the ditch on the sundry scenarios. as far as the west country and midlands. greater chance of thunder and lightning is east anglia in the far southeast. also a strong breeze. it will feel humid here, temperatures will be a few degrees down where they have been commenced just 16 there. 20 in the sunshine implement. that's the higher but we're looking at temperatures in the mid to high teens. as we head through friday night we will see this wet weather clearing off into the north sea, still cloud affecting easter areas clears spells for the rest and further north and what a cool fresh starts the weekend for most, little bit fresher than it has been even across the southeast corner. on saturday we find ourselves between weather systems, so that means a decent amount of dry weather and quite amount of dry weather and quite a cloudy start for some. a

chance of one or two showers here and there and more creeping up from the south for the latter part of the afternoon. temperatures not doing too badly in the strong june sunshine can they be 23 degrees there. always cooler further north you look but for sunday the weather picture is a lot more complex. low—pressure swinging it from the west, this frontal system driving northwards. what it means is that month places will be seeing outbreaks of rain from time to time through the day, could be heavy and sundry downpours creeping in towards the south and those temperatures ranging from 21 in london tojust 12 degrees temperatures ranging from 21 in london to just 12 degrees in aberdeen.

this is bbc news, the headlines the united states has called on hong kong authorities to stop targeting the free media — after police raided the pro—democracy outlet apple daily. five senior figures from the paper were arrested. the us state department said the raid undermined the the city's credibility. the leader of northern ireland's democratic unionist party, edwin poots, has resigned afterjust three weeks in the job. it follows a revolt in his own party when he agreed a deal to make paul givan northern ireland's first minister. mr poots will remain in the post until a successor is elected. the united nations is warning of an imminent famine in ethiopia's tigray region, unless drastic measures are taken fast. it's close to eight months since war broke out there and there continue to be reports of abuses. there have been repeated international calls for hostilities to end to allow humanitarian access.