hello. this is bbc news. our top stories: donald trump refuses to answer questions under oath as part of an investigation into his business activities in new york. he calls it a witch—hunt. dozens of people are missing after a boat laden with migrants sinks off the greek coast. a search—and—rescue operation is under way. new images appear to show the extensive damage to a russian airbase in the crimea following explosions there earlier this week. china reaffirms that it could take taiwan by force. nancy pelosi, whose visit sparked china's drills around the island, has defended 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. british farmers fear their harvests will fail as a heatwave and drought conditions have a devastating impact on the agriculture industry. # 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. welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and around the globe. the former us president, donald trump, has declined to answer questions under oath as part of an investigation into his family's business practices, at a hearing in new york.

mr trump described the inquiry by the state's attorney general, letitia james, as a witch—hunt. she's investigating whether the trump organization tried to acquire loans and avoid taxes by misleading the authorities. mr trump's deposition comes just days after the fbi carried out an unprecedented search at his florida home as part of a separate investigation. our north america correspondent, peter bowes, explained why mr trump's decision to plead the fifth amendment is so significant. 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 could be incriminating or self—incriminating. one theory here is that he is not saying anything because, in fact, there is another investigation. that 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. 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 that 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 are suggesting to donald trump that he should declare now,

or should declare very soon, that he is standing again as a candidate for the presidency. earlier i spoke to lawrence douglas, a professor of law at amherst college in massachusetts, and author of will he go?: trump and the looming election meltdown in 2020. i asked him if he was surprised at mr trump's refusal to answer questions. actually, it does not particularly surprise me. i mean, it is true that in the past he has said that only members of the mob invoke the fifth amendment but we also know that trump can be both quite sly, that is, i think there are good tactical reasons for why he would take the fifth in this case, that is, to avoid any possible criminal exposure in a possible parallel investigation that the manhattan da is looking into his business practices. and of course, we also know that he has this tried and true tactic when he is on the defensive, just to go on the offence so he immediately calls

the prosecutor — this again is a civil case but it was a new york state attorney general — he calls her a renegade prosecutor and, of course, used his tried and true method to describing the entire affair as a witch—hunt. mr trump would highlight that this investigation has been going on for a couple of years. it is one of many investigations, often carried out using public money and, as you mentioned, calling it witch—hunt. what is your response to that? well, again, he is — obviously it comes as no surprise to describe him an incredibly divisive force. i mean, the way he responds to the fbi search, is to say that the fbi — is to create a suggestion — i mean, today he sent out a tweet suggesting that the fbi had planted evidence. so he has already pretty successfully eroded our faith in our electoral process, he is trying to erode our faith in the fbi, in law enforcement, and now he is trying to erode

faith in the judicial system, all basically an attempt to protect himself, and again, what is so disappointing is the way in which these tactics of division, the way they can be really quite, at least in the short term, politically successful. mr trump is using his rights under the fifth amendment to protect himself against self—incrimination. in a criminal case, a jury can't infer anything from that, but this is a civil case, how does that change things? yes, well, so, ithink the reason that he is using, invoking the fifth in a civil case is because, if he did make a misstatement here, if he lied for example, under oath, then this could turn into a criminal case, that is a perjury case. also whatever statements made here could be used by this separate investigation into the family's business dealings, that i mentioned, that the manhattan da is looking into. but the point that you make is an important one,

which is, in the context of a civil trial, if this goes to a civil trial, it is the case that a jury can draw negative inferences from invocation of the fifth amendment. and that is not actually permissible in a jury trial in a criminal matter. invoking the fifth cannot be used against a defendant in a criminal matter, but it can be used by a jury to draw negative inferences if this should go to a civil trial. professor lawrence douglas. satellite images appear to show extensive damage and several destroyed russian warplanes at a crimea airbase following explosions earlier this week. the saky base in the west of russian—ruled crimea was rocked by a string of blasts on tuesday, killing one person. ukraine has not claimed responsibility but this new evidence suggests the possibility of a targeted attack. the first image shows what the airbase looked like before the explosions — the second shows that, though the base�*s main runways seem to be intact, at least eight aircraft appear to be damaged and destroyed,

with several craters clearly visible. most of them are in a specific area of the base where a large number of planes were parked out in the open, away from the cover of hangars. in his latest nightly address, president zelensky again said that ukraine will recapture all of the territory lost to russian forces, including the crimean peninsula. translation: we expelled the russian army — translation: we expelled the russian army from _ translation: we expelled the russian army from the - translation: we expelled the russian army from the north. i translation: we expelled the | russian army from the north. we expeued russian army from the north. we expelled the invaders from snake island. they already feel that the time has come to flee from kherson in the south. the time will come when they flee from the car kyiv region, from the donbas and from crimea. and everyone who can help in this should do so. a search—and—rescue operation is taking place off the coast

of greece to find 50 migrants who've been missing since their boat sank in the aegean sea near the island of karpathos. wendy urqhuart reports. navy and commercial boats were deployed to the scene as soon as the alarm was raised by the greek coastguard. a greek air force helicopter hovered above, training spotlights on the ocean in a bid to help find survivors, but in the pitch black it was not easy, and very strong winds made winching up those who were found a bit precarious. the boat was en route from antalia in southern turkey to italy, when it capsized near the greek island of karpathos, 38 nautical miles south—west of rhodes in the middle of the night. there are conflicting reports about the number of people on board, with some saying there were 60, and others insisting there were 80. these are the lucky ones — just 29 people who are reportedly from afghanistan,

iraq and iran, who were saved by the emergency services, who said no—one on board the boat was wearing a life jacket. thousands of people risk their lives every year sailing to greece in rickety boats to start a new life in europe. hundreds have been rescued, but 64 have perished already this year. the search and rescue operation in greece is continuing, but it's likely that many of those who were on board the boat that sank tuesday night won't make it. wendy urquhart, bbc news. let's take a look at some other stories in the headlines. state—run media in north korea say the country's leader, kimjong—un, has declared victory in the battle against coronavirus, and ordered the lifting of restrictions imposed in may. he described government figures of only 7a deaths as an "unprecedented miracle" but many believe official numbers are unlikely to reveal the whole picture. 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's the worst rain in over a century. 1,000 firefighters have been mobilised in france to tackle a resurgence of wildfires in the south—west region of gironde. the blaze has spread faster than those that devastated the region in july. france, like the rest of europe, has been struggling this summer with successive heatwaves and its worst drought on record. 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. let's go to asia now. china has vowed zero tolerance for what it called "separatist activities" and reaffirmed that it would take the self—ruled island of taiwan 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 exercises. 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 visit there last week. she has since 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 that 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. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: the 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 until 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 hugejob 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. two billion people around the world have seen the last total eclipse of the sun to take place in this millennium. it began its journey off the coast of canada, ending three hours later, when the sun set over the bay of bengal.

this is bbc news. the latest headlines: the former us president, donald trump, has refused to answer questions at an appearance before new york's attorney general — who's investigating the business practices of the trump organization. he called it a "witch hunt". dozens of people are missing after a boat laden with migrants sank off the greek coast. a search and rescue operation is underway. here in the uk, the heat across much of the country continues to intensify. a four—day extreme heat warning comes into force on thursday, lasting until sunday. combined with the heat, the continued dry weather is causing significant problems forfarmers and the agriculture industry. our climate editor, justin rowlatt, sent this report 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 that's all i need is the temperature to go down and rain andjust 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 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. the news, gloucestershire. japanese text john the news, gloucestershire. japanese textjohn softban sees the japanese textjohn softbank seesit the japanese textjohn softbank sees it hopes to make $34 million by reducing its stake in the chinese company alli babar. it marks a step back from the huge investment made in thousands by the chief executive. ali barber is one of china's biggest countries but has lost a third of its profit hit by the beijing crackdown on the tech sector. the 1970s exodus of ugandan asians is well documented. they were fleeing persecution at the hands of the then

ugandan dictator, idi amin. he 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. among them was manju patel and her husband who arrived in london with 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 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, manju 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, 1.5 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 localfactory, 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 to 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 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. you can look at stories of asians online by searching bbc, witness history. 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 10 won't want this," or... you don't think like that at all. you don't think 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 drankjust 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 own joys and sadnesses. raymond was someone who felt things, really, really deeply felt things. he's 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 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. the premier of the australian state of victoria, dan andrews, has announced that olivia newtonjohn, the grease actress who died on monday, will be given a state funeral. he said it would "be more of a concert" than a service. no date has been set for the event — which is likely to be held in the city of melbourne, where the singer lived, and where a cancer research centre which she founded and helped fundraise for is based. mr andrews said ms newton—john's niece, tottie goldsmith, had accepted the offer of a state funeral on behalf of the family. the grease star died on monday in california, aged 73.

that's it for the time being. you can reach me on twitter — i'm @richpreston. we'll see you next time. goodbye. 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 or 37 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.

this is bbc news, the headlines: the former us president, donald trump, has refused to answer questions from the new york attorney general, who is investigating the trump organisation's business practices. mr trump invoked his right against self—incrimination under the fifth amendment. afterwards he called the process a witch—hunt. dozens of people are missing after a boat, laden with migrants, sank off the greek coast. the vessel is believed to have gone down near the island of karpathos, after setting sail from southern turkey and heading for italy. a search and rescue operation is underway. newly released images appear to show several destroyed russian warplanes at a crimean airbase — following explosions there earlier this week. the saky base in the west of russian—ruled crimea was struck on tuesday.

ukraine has not claimed responsibility for what appear