welcome to newsday, reporting live from singapore. i'm karishma vaswani. the headlines: donald trump refuses to answer questions at an appearance before new york's attorney general, who's investigating the business practices of the trump organization. he's called it a witch hunt. china reaffirms that it could take taiwan by force. us house speaker nancy pelosi, whose visit sparked china's drills around the island, defends her trip. we will not allow china to isolate taiwan. they have kept taiwan from participating in the world health organization, other things, where taiwan can make a very

valued contribution. torrential rain in south korea has flooded the capital seoul. at least eight people are dead and several are missing. # we're walking in the air... and the author and illustrator raymond briggs — best known for the children's book the snowman — has died at the age of 88. live from our studio in singapore, this is bbc news. it's newsday. hello and welcome to the programme. donald trump has declined to answer questions under oath as part of an investigation into his family's business practices. mr trump described the inquiry by the new york attorney general, letitia james, as a witch hunt.

ms james is looking into whether the trump organization tried to acquire loans and avoid taxes by misleading the authorities. the former president's deposition comes just days after the fbi carried out an unprecedented search at his florida home as part of a separate investigation. shortly after his visit to the new york attorney general�*s office, he released a statement... saying... he added... our north america correspondent peter bowes told us how significant is trump's decision to plead the fifth amendment. well, in one sense, it isn't a surprise. in another sense, you could say it is a surprise, and that is based on donald trump's

statements over the years, criticising others who have pleaded the fifth — mr trump suggesting that anyone who does that has something to hide, although now he is saying that he understands why people do that when they feel, and their families feel, that they are under attack in a particular way. so he has... and this is his constitutional right not to answer any questions, not to say anything that would be incriminating or self—incriminating. one theory here is that he is not saying anything because, in fact, there is another investigation with the manhattan district attorney on the same subject and that could potentially lead to criminal charges. and it is possible that, had mr trump said anything today, had he answered those questions, that whatever he said could've been used against him in that criminal case. peter, he has been pushing this narrative, hasn't he, that he's been persecuted by authorities?

how much is that narrative playing to his base? it seems to be playing quite strongly. there was a surge of support, it was almost visceral. we had people turning up outside his florida home, in the streets, waving flags, cheering on donald trump. that's certainly a very visual show of support for the former president, but perhaps even more significant than that, we've had some senior republicans over the last 2a, 36 hours coming out, again, in support of mr trump, or at least going as far to say that they believe the authorities, the fbi, the justice department, ought to justify why they searched his home. and it seems to have really boosted his base to the point that some other republicans suggesting that donald trump that he should declare now, or should declare very soon, that he is standing again as a candidate for the presidency.

peter bowes, speaking to us a little earlier. turning to taiwan now, and china has vowed zero tolerance for "separatist activities" and reaffirmed that it would take the self—ruled island by force if necessary. china's taiwan affairs office issued a white paper laying out how it intends to claim the island through a range of economic measures and military pressure. meanwhile, the chinese military says it's successfully completed operations around taiwan after days of unprecedented excercises. military officials say the exercises focused on sea assaults, land strikes, air operations and anti—submarine operations. they say the drills also involved new military equipment such as stealth fighters and new rocket launchers. the multi—day operations around taiwan were in response to us house speaker nancy pelosi's stopover there last tuesday. nancy pelosi has defended her visit to taiwan.

she said the purpose of the trip was to underline america's respect for taiwan's democracy and assert the rights of us government officials to go there. we will not allow china to isolate taiwan. they have kept taiwan from participating in the world health organization, other things, where taiwan can make a very valued contribution. and they may keep them from going there, but they're not keeping us from going to taiwan. we will not allow them to. so we think their reaction... that was our purpose, to salute this thriving democracy — don't take it from me, freedom house said one of the freest democracies in the world — show our respect for that, for the success of their economy, for the enthusiasm of their young people to embrace a democracy, and others as well, but the young knowing nothing else except a free taiwan.

nancy pelosi speaking there. earlier, i spoke to brian hart, fellow with the china power project at the centre for strategic and international studies, and he said china's reaction is no surprise. it's important to note that it is important for the united states to continue to support taiwan, to support its democracy and continue to support it being active in the international world, but i think this has clearly been received as a slight by beijing, which is not surprising. taiwan is one of the most sensitive issues for the chinese communist party and for the chinese government, and so it's not surprising that they've reacted so strongly. they have taken some unprecedented steps here, with their military exercises and other steps, to really show resolve and to punish taiwan and to show resolve to taiwan and the united states and to other us allies and partners in the region. so beijing has certainly responded pretty sternly to this, and i think i would just emphasise that

while these exercises may be wrapping up right now, i think the long—term impacts are still likely to be doled out in the coming days, weeks, months. and what do you see the long—term impacts of that looking like? as you point out, we've seen those military drills. are they the dress rehearsal for the real thing? are they closer to taiwan than what we've seen before? yes, these drills were very much closer than they were, for example, in the 1995/1996 taiwan strait crisis. the exercise zones around taiwan were closer to the island, they were further from the chinese mainland, which is a sign that the pla can project its military power further and that the pla is more confident in its ability to do so, and there were a string of moves that beijing took that i think really were aimed at showing that they're willing to escalate somewhat. they fired missiles over the island of taiwan, which was unprecedented. they fired those missiles into japan's exclusive economic zone.

so we've seen a number of steps here. and the worry by people like me who watch the chinese military is that this will become part of the new normal, that beijing aircraft across the median line that divides the taiwan strait. china's really ramped up crossings of the median line over the last week. and they've already made statements, official statements, that this is largely going to continue, so i think the concern in the long—term is that beijing is using this as an opportunity to push the status quo further in theirfavour, on a military domain but also in other areas as well, so i think long—term, that's what worries me. that was brian hart there with the china power project, with the china power project, with the centre for strategic and international studies, speaking to us a little earlier. let's take a look at some other

stories in the headlines. up to 50 people are still missing after their boat sank off the greek island of karpathos. a large—scale rescue operation saved 29 people initially, but has since failed to find any other survivors or bodies. those who've been saved are said to be migrants from afghanistan, iraq and iran. a beluga whale that got stuck in the river seine in france has died after a dramatic attempt to rescue it. experts used a net and a crane to hoist the mammal out of the water and into a truck, but it had to be euthanised after developing breathing difficulties. a thousand firefighters have been mobilized in france to tackle a resurgence of wildfires in the southwest region of gironde. the blaze has spread faster than those that devastated the region injuly. france, like the rest of europe, has been struggling this summer with successive heatwaves and its worst drought on record.

at least 16 people are dead or missing in south korea after record rainfall caused severe flooding in the north of the country. most are in the capital, seoul. weather forecasters say it was the most torrential the president yoon suk—yeol has issued an apology following criticism that seoul's flood defences were ineffective. joining me now is dr hyung min kim, senior lecturer in urban planning at the university of melbourne. it is great to get you on the programme, and ijust want to start by asking you about the fact that we have seen these really apocalyptic pictures, i think it is fair to say, out of seoul, but it's not the first time there's been flooding in south korea, so why do you thing the damage has been so much worse this time?- thing the damage has been so much worse this time? there are two major _ much worse this time? there are

two major factors. _ much worse this time? there are two major factors. this _ much worse this time? there are two major factors. this is - much worse this time? there are two major factors. this is an - two majorfactors. this is an outcome of climate change, according to the seoul government, it was a one in 150 year event. the average annual rainfall in singapore is 200 mm, the rainfall over two days was 500 mm in seoul which means more than 200% of the rainfall poured out in just over two days. this shows the intensity of this rainfall. secondly, the most severely flooded area was on low—lying land, the land was developed in the 1970s. however, it was not fully considered when it was planned... considered when it was planned. . ._ considered when it was planned. . . considered when it was lanned. .. ., ., ., planned... rate. iwanted to ask you. _ planned... rate. iwanted to ask you. a — planned... rate. iwanted to ask you. a lot _ planned... rate. iwanted to ask you, a lot of _ planned. .. rate. i wanted to ask you, a lot of our- planned... rate. i wanted to ask you, a lot of our fears i planned... rate. i wanted to l ask you, a lot of our fears may well be looking at the events in seoul and thinking, that is

ultra modern, cosmopolitan city, surely it is equipped to be able to do with the effects of heavy rain like this, so is it a situation where extreme weather events mean even some of the best prepared cities cannot manage what is happening?— cannot manage what is ha enin: ? . ., happening? yeah, the government reared happening? yeah, the government prepared the _ happening? yeah, the government prepared the operation _ happening? yeah, the government prepared the operation for- prepared the operation for intensive rainfall, it was very limited this time. the government investigated flood vulnerable areas. however, the information was not shared with residents and those significant preventative measures was not in plummeted before the flooding. the government was too naive in the perception of climate change. the government is looking for solutions. however, there was a flooding in seoul ii however, there was a flooding

in seoul 11 years ago. long—term government actions not been taken yet. dr long-term government actions not been taken yet.— not been taken yet. dr hyung min kim from _ not been taken yet. dr hyung min kim from the _ not been taken yet. dr hyung min kim from the university i not been taken yet. dr hyung | min kim from the university of melbourne, thank you so much. north korea's state media says that the country's leader kim jong—un has declared victory in the battle against coronavirus and ordered the lifting of restrictions imposed in may. he described government figures of 7a deaths as an "unprecedented miracle" compared to other countries. north korea has not rolled out any vaccination programme, relying instead on lockdowns, home—grown treatments, and what kimjong—un called the "advantageous korean—style socialist system." you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme: we have the wonderful story of a woman who was forced to leave uganda in the 1970s and went on to found one of the uk's most popular gujarati restaurants — but not

untill after she turned 80. the big crowds became bigger as the time of the funeral approached. as the lines of fans became longer, the police prepared for a huge job of crowd control. idi amin, uganda's brutal former 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. 2 billion people around the world have seen the last total eclipse of the sun to take place in this millennia.

it began itsjourney off the coast of canada, ending three hours later, when the sun set over the bay of bengal. this is newsday on the bbc. i'm karishma vaswani in singapore. our headlines: the former us president, donald trump, has refused to answer questions under oath as part of an investigation into his business activities in new york. he's called it a witch hunt. the heat across most of the uk continues to intensify, a four—day extreme heat warning coming into force on thursday, lasting until sunday. the continued dry weather is causing significant problems for farmers and the agriculture industry. our climate editor justin rowlatt reports from gloucestershire in south—west england.

farmers' fields are their bank account. a healthy harvest means a healthy income and money to invest for next year's crop. but look, the fields have been desiccated by months of low rainfall. it is a disaster for many farmers. it can't sustain itself. david is trying to grow turnips to feed his cattle. not looking very happy. very dry. there's just not enough moisture, so most likely this crop will fail now and we're running out of time to re drill it. david is already feeding his cattle fodder he set aside for winter. without the turnips and with grain prices at record highs, it'll cost him a fortune to feed them through to next year. and don't think his problems won't affect you, because what happens on farms like this helps determine the price we all pay for food. extreme weather almost always means bad harvests, bad harvests, less food. that's right, means higher

prices for all of us. and it isn'tjust the uk. crops in much of europe have been affected too, and that is just the start. india, china, brazil and the us have all seen yields hit by unusually hot and dry weather this year. now add in the impact of the russian invasion of ukraine... we're producing less of our crops. we have less production effective when harvest happens. and this means that supply is limited and therefore, when people try to buy this supply, the prices then move upwards and it impacts the consumer, impacts the farmer, impacts a wide range of market players that have to deal with these weather issues. we all know what will break us out of this cycle... i'm just looking for rain. that's all i need is the temperature to go down and rain and just have some proper, decent rain and then everything will feel so much better and it will start to grow. by next week, we'll lose that intense heat... - but the forecast from the met office is offering no guarantees of that. there's a regime change

happening next week. . we expect to see some heavy showers and thunderstorms l potential there. not everywhere is going to get that rainfall. - a lot of places are going to miss it, but at least. there's a chance next week. so a chance of rain for some, which means there's only one thing farmers like david can do... they've got to hope for the best, that's all they've got left. justin rowlatt, bbc news, gloucestershire. i want to turn now to a special report for you. the 1970s exodus of ugandan asians is well documented. they were fleeing from dictator idi amin, who ordered them to leave the country within 90 days and accused them of "milking" uganda's money. thousands were displaced and many forced to emigrate to the uk, including manju patel and her husband, who arrived in london with just their two young boys. now 85, manju has seen her dream come true, and today, she and her sons run one of uk's most popular

and award—winning indian vegetarian restaurants. gaggan saberwal has their story. meet 85—year—old manju patel. manju owns and runs one of the uk's most popular gujarati restaurants. her restaurant, manju's, is located 48 miles south of london, in the city of brighton in england. born in gujarat in 1936, manyu later moved to uganda with her parents. in 1964, manju got married and had two sons and was leading a very happy life until tragedy struck in august 1972, when uganda's asians were asked to leave the country within 90 days by dictator idi amin. and around 25,000 of these displaced people, including manju and herfamily, emigrated to the uk. my brother is here and i'm coming in london. my son is a seven years boy. one is one year, one and a half years.

after three days, i look for myjob. because without money, i'm coming to england. manju had a passion for cooking and had always wanted to run her own restaurant, but because of her financial situation, she was forced to put her dreams on hold and took up a job at a local factory, where she worked as a machine operator till her retirement. i knew mum always wanted to do a restaurant at some point in her life. so my brother and i said, "why not? "let's do one." and so we were actively looking and this place come up. and so we bought the place, it came through, and in a coincidence, itjust fell on her 80th birthday. i'm not thinking my sons buying for me a restaurant! they give me surprise. so happy! i say my dream is now finished. and since 2017, the restaurant has been serving traditional home—cooked vegetarian gujarati dishes.

we decided do a gujarati. restaurant, simply because we're gujarati, you know? it's the food we know, . it's the food mum's been cooking since she was 12. it's different. when we first opened, people j didn't understand what it was. they'd sit down expecting. to eat chicken tikka massala. initially, a lot of people - would get up and walk out. as the restaurant became more and more well—known, - then it got easy. manju's is a completely family—run restaurant, with manju's sons greeting and taking orders from customers to manju and her daughter—in—laws, dipali and kirti, running the kitchen and preparing the food. translation: i never thought in a million years that - i would be living in england and would be cooking for british people. i feel very happy about this. translation: whenever customers visit us, - they leave our restaurant satisfied and happy. and this makes me very happy. due to covid and the recent rise in gas, electricity and food prices, manju's restaurant too has had to face some challenging days, but neither covid nor the rainy

days have deterred or slowed manju down. i like work. i like cooking. never stop my cooking. i like to cook. so you will never retire as a chef? no, never retire, no. gaggan saberwal, bbc news, brighton. the author and illustrator raymond briggs, best known for the snowman, has died. he was 88. in a statement, his family said he'd lived a rich and full life and had treasured drawings sent to him by fans, in particular children who'd been inspired by his work. our arts correspondent david sillito looks back at his life. it's become part of christmas — the story of a snowman who comes to life. magical, heart—warming, and at the end, the snowman melts. # we're walking in the air... # a very raymond briggs twist.

he was a children's author who was never writing for children. i don't think about what children want. you get an idea and you just do it. you don't think, "oh, children of ten won't want this," or... you don't think like that at all. about the audience. couldn't possibly. it was his father christmas that was raymond briggs' breakthrough, but this was no jovial gift—bearer. this father christmas moaned, swore and drank just a bit too much. the bogeymen are stirring in their beds... and then fungus — a gloriously disgusting story of a bogeyman having a midlife crisis. nice cold, filthy water! good head of scum on it this morning. raymond briggs had for a while worked in advertising and hated it. he illustrated children's books but loathed the saccharine stories. he had his own vision, and one friend who worked with him on the animations

saw how much of it was an expression of his ownjoys and sadnesses. raymond was someone who felt things, really, really deeply felt things. he was not afraid to study pain, to study grief, to study loss, and even as felt by a small boy, for instance, in the snowman. good morning, madame! just you keep off my i clean step, young man. his childhood, his mum and dad, it was rooted in realfeelings. and over the years, he'd also helped change attitudes to his art form with the beauty of his drawings and their slightly subversive stories. raymond briggs, who's died at the age of 88. that brings us to the end of

newsday. thanks so much for joining me on the programme. do stay with bbc news. hello. there will only be a few exceptions to the hot and sunny story over the next few days. so far this week, we've got above 30 degrees three times, 32 celsius on wednesday afternoon. the heatwave intensifies further through the rest of the week and into the weekend. we could have four consecutive days above 35 degrees, more than we saw back in 1976. the highest of the temperatures are in the area covered by the met office extreme heat warning, an amberwarning, health and transport impacts expected — leeds, liverpool, down the way to the south coast. and it's this area, under high pressure, where we'll also see heat build elsewhere. but notice weather fronts very close to the north of scotland. this is your exception. here, through the night

and into the morning, we'll have had some rain, temperatures not dropping away much. maybe a little bit fresher through scotland, northern ireland, parts of northern england, but a warmer night and start to thursday morning in the south. a few mist and fog patches clearing, dry and sunny for many, but across the western isles, orkney, shetland, the northwest highlands, rain will come and go through the day. 14—18 celsius here, but 27, 28 eastern scotland, 27 in parts of northern ireland, 35 degrees, potentially, to the south midlands, that heat continuing to build. now, as we go into thursday evening and overnight, more cloud, occasional rain or drizzle in the north of scotland. chance of a few mist and fog patches close to eastern coasts of england and scotland too, but night by night, temperatures starting to creep up a little bit as well. friday, we do it all again. some early morning mist and fog in the east, one or two patches close to eastern coasts, a greyer outlook across the north of scotland but not as wet as it'll have been for some on thursday. under sunny skies and light winds elsewhere, we'll see temperatures climb, potentially 36, maybe 37 celsius, through the south midlands. a little bit fresher down some eastern coasts.

coolest of all, though, in the far north of scotland. by the start of the weekend, probably a better chance of some sunshine in the far north of scotland, but a better chance of some low cloud continuing, eastern coast of scotland, northeast england, limiting the temperatures in aberdeen a little bit. 26 inland, 27 to northern ireland, again, 36 or37 in some parts of southern england. that warmth and heat continues into sunday, but a slot of something changing. a bit more cloud, the chance of a few storms around later on sunday into monday, bringing a drop in temperature. but even though those storms may occur into next week, they'll be fairly sporadic, many places probably staying largely dry. and, of course, we need a good deal more rain.

welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur. have the population is facing serious food insecurity. more than a million children are at risk from acute malnutrition.

and the taliban, they are