this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour, straight after this programme. india. more than 75 years after independence, this emerging world power of more than a billion people is still changing. i'm on a journey to two extremes of this vast subcontinent. it's just crystal, it's hard crystals. white salt — probably taste it. i began in gujarat,

in the far west... this is genuinely incredible. i'm in heaven. looks pretty crowded! ..and this week, i've travelled 2,000 miles over to the north—east. i'm on the banks of the mighty river brahmaputra and about to go to a very spiritual place. it's one of india's lesser—known regions... we're really high up. and just to my right is the border with bangladesh. 0ne... ..a part of the country that prides itself on its traditions... he makes it look so easy, and it's incredibly difficult. ..but it's also looking forward and embracing progress. so now, i'm on my way to go and see assam's very own eco—warrior. it's going to be an incredible adventure.

india's north—east, a collection of eight states almost cut off from the rest of this vast country, but for a tiny strip of land. at partition, a large swathe of this region was sectioned off to become east pakistan, which later became bangladesh, leaving the indian area landlocked. it's geographically and culturally out on a limb. this is frontier country, little known to tourists and other indians alike. they call it the "land of clouds", but that's because of the severe monsoon season. hilly, remote, and the air is so crisp and fresh, and the views, well, simply spectacular.

it's this cool climate that made the state of meghalaya and its capital, shillong, a popular retreat for the british during the colonial era. they dubbed it the "scotland of the east". looks pretty crowded! but what about the city today? there's only one way to find out. hope we can get on. i take a bus into the city centre. so, it's a modern industrial town these days, shillong. brakes grind whoa, feel it...! i think those brakes might need a bit of work.

so, tell me, what do you think about shillong? this is your home city, yeah? yes. what do you think about this place? like, you see the people, like, you know... more than half of meghalaya's population belong to the khasi tribe. and here at shillong's british—built polo ground, a traditional local sport is thriving — but it sure ain't polo. every afternoon, hundreds of people gather from all around to take part in a really interesting daily ritual.

this is called teer, derived from the hindi word for "arrow". a target's mounted, and 50 archers have just a few minutes to hit it as many times as possible. the significance of the sport dates back to the early 1800s, when khasi warriors defended their homelands not with guns or swords, but with bows and arrows. i'm aiming for the target, obviously, which is... ..which one of them? the small one. the small one there? 0k. so, why�*s it going to the ground like that? show me. get out the way, everyone.

here we go. he stammers wow! now, that... now we're getting there! now we're... now we're getting there. spectators get involved by taking bets on the number of arrows that hit the target. and, crucially, it's only the last two numbers of the total score that matter. they're all added up. all added up. and the last two digits, that will be the result. 695 arrows. so, 95 is the result. meghalaya became one of the few states to legalise gambling in 1982. people here are very superstitious. they'll dream about their dead family, a dog, a cat, and they'll try to make it into numbers. so, i have 200 rupees of my hard—earned money here. i want to go and gamble. can you show me how to do it? yeah. come on, then. so, let's go to one

of these counters. speaks in khasi namaste, hello. hello, sir. i want to gamble on, erm...a lucky number, yeah? yeah. two digits, lucky number. i'm going to go for... ..39. 39? yeah. and i'm going to put... 100. ..100 rupees on 39. on 39. oh, and then my other bet, i'm going to bet on 77. can you fix it so i win? they laugh yeah. it depends on your fortune, though. oh, it depends on my fortune? i had a dream last night! i had a dream that... you can dream anything. ..that a strange dog walked past me, and that dog had the number 39 on it. is that the kind of dreams we all have? 0h, who knows? they laugh wish me luck. it's a tense moment as the numbers are counted... 310, 320...

..four... ..and my dream turns out to be a shaggy dog story. . .seven. 77 was my number — 97 was the result. still two of my lucky numbers! nine and seven. next, i head out of the city to explore the region's famed khasi hills and villages. incredible to think that, despite landscapes like this, the north—east is one of the least—visited areas of india. but things are slowly changing. we've been travelling out of shillong into the countryside, towards the bangladesh border, for about two hours now. and it's been pretty bumpy and rough roads — until, suddenly, we have reached this bit, and it's a beautifully smooth road that wouldn't look out of place in a major town.

and we're heading towards a village that's got a really interesting reputation. the khasi hills are the only place in the world where you find bridges grown from the roots of the india rubber tree, or ficus elastica. we learned that it was constructed during the year 1840. this place was meant for the villagers to cross over the river when they tended to their daily life, mainly agriculture. during that time, there was no partition, no bangladesh, no pakistan. so, we had that link. during monsoon, the khasi hills are hit by record—breaking downpours — more than 20 feet of rain in a month. these are some of the wettest places on the planet. but people here have found

an ingenious way to harness nature in order to prevent the village being cut off by floods. just tell me what they're doing right now. now they are tying the bamboos to cross on both sides of the river, so that the roots of this tree would be woven along this bamboo. bamboo acts as a scaffolding, which helps connect roots from trees growing on opposite river banks. this is skilled and occasionally dangerous work. thanks to continuous repairs, bridges like this have stood firm for generations. and it will probably remain for many more to come. so, we leave meghalaya and head to assam...

..passing through some of the 25,000 tea plantations that have made this region world—famous. we're on our way tojorhat, just a few hundred kilometres from india's border with china and thejumping—off point for our next adventure. i'm on the banks of the mighty river brahmaputra and about to go to a very spiritual place, the island of majuli, which is one of the biggest river islands in the world. now, there's 150,000 people on that island and only six ferries a day, so it's really crammed each one. just looking at the list of prices for all the different categories. passengers, 15 rupees. it's ok, it's reasonable. then you go down, past the vehicles, and animals have to pay. buffalo has to pay a5! bull, cow, 30. and then, the poor elephant has

to fork out 907 rupees. perhaps fortunately, none of these creatures were travelling with us today. and incredibly, after a few last—minute panics... ..we're set to go. i climb onto the corrugated aluminium roof tojoin men who do this trip day in, day out. starting in tibet, the brahmaputra river is nearly 2,000 miles long. it's second only to the amazon in the volume of water that rushes through it. so, an interesting game of cards going on here. i think they're playing whist. ifeel like i should join in, but it may be a private game with high stakes.

we arrive at majuli, and it's turmoil again trying to get off the boat. he laughs to avoid the queue, there is a sneaky way out, which basically involves climbing onto another boat and going down the steps that way. do you know what? i think i'm going to take that one. well, here we are on land. it doesn't look quite as spiritual as i imagined. and if you look way into the distance, it's just one big, flat land of desert. but let's see. majuli island is home to 22

monasteries — or sattras — initially established in the 16th century by the assamese guru sankardev. boys are instructed from a very young age in the religion he preached, vaishnavism, an offshoot of hinduism. the monks are celibate and, according to their beliefs, they worship only one god, follow a vegetarian diet and reject the caste system. here at uttar kamalabari, the doctrine includes this special art form.

this form of classical dance is now recognised by the authorities as a genre in its own right, and many of these monks have performed around the world. that was amazing. thank you very much indeed. and i know you spend a lifetime learning the skills of this, but can i have a go? can i try? like this? yeah, yeah. 0h, er, arm is through here. yeah? yeah. 0k. first type is... yeah... they hit drums hey. no. hit...? sorry, wrong one. very good. thank you so much. one, two, three, four, one... there are 64 positions in this classical dance — and i'm having trouble

with the first two. it's very difficult. one, two, three... let them play. without the grace as well. no grace whatsoever. er, no, no... he makes it look so easy, and it's incredibly difficult. and i don't think... i'm just going to leave it to the experts, you know? i just... you know, sometimes you just have to give up and let them carry on. an exquisite performance. but there's one problem, one very big problem — and that is that this island may simply not exist in just a few decades�* time.

hard to believe at the moment, but there is a genuine worry that majuli will be submerged and destroyed within 20 years. in the last 70 years, it's shrunk in size by two thirds... ..and a majority of the original 65 monasteries have gone. every monsoon, the brahmaputra river swells, eroding the terrain around it. bit by bit, the land is disappearing. but there is hope. so now, i'm on my way in a tractor to go and see a man whose life's mission has been to try and tackle the flooding that's afflicted majuli. he is basically assam's very own eco—warrior.

sadly, these are areas that get completely deluged when the monsoon hits. there's some water there that we have to cross. for more than a0 years, jadev payeng's taken on an extraordinary challenge — to save this land from vanishing. and so his lifelong calling began.

jadev is known today as "the forest man of india". he began planting trees so the roots would bind the soil, soak up excess water and prevent the land from being eroded by flooding. from a barren landscape, he's created a forest the size of new york's central park. and he feels this will be more effective in saving nearby majuli than following government flood prevention schemes.

so, we are now going to do the ritual that every guest that comes here is asked to do, which is to plant a tree. what kind of tree is this? so, i'm going to put this in here... yeah? it's good? jadev has spoken at environmental summits all around the world, and his roll call of guests is equally international. wow! and i do know that everyone who plants a tree, when it grows, they put a plaque down with their name on it. so, i'm going to have that privilege? wow. fantastic. yes. thank you.

and so to my final day in assam, and a different kind of ritualistic celebration of nature. if there's one recurring theme throughout my trip in the north—east, it's the sense of community kind of everywhere, really. and there's nothing better to illustrate that than this — a local village going down to the river to celebrate harvest. this community was started in 1939 by a young woman who came from the mountains in search of food. gradually, she found that, ok, this place is quite better for her because it's close to the water and civilisation can grow up. so, finally, she brings her family here, followed by her brother, and this particular village is the entire family, her own clan. really? all come from that one woman? yeah, that's right.

really? fascinating, wow! this is a much—loved annual celebration, and people of all ages gather to muck in, using fishing methods that have been passed down through generations. dig it in. yeah? dig it in. a little stumping, like this? yeah. yeah, stumping. yeah? then you pull it towards you, and you've got to... 0h, we got to pull the stick, yeah, at the top... and look! they laugh you can't see this. have you got something? it's just full of fish. 0k. it's just full of fish, but don't look. this is today's catch? wow! that is pretty good. and this, you will cook now? he translates yeah? excellent, wow. beautiful. good—looking fish! so, my trek across india from border to border is almost over.

and it's been a real journey of discovery for me off the beaten track. this isn't india on tap, kind of instant gratification, which some people are accustomed to. but the rewards, if you make the effort, are immense. asnake?! ooh! hey! wow! can they bite? yeah, it does. it bites? is it poisonous? no, not much. not much?! can i get out now? hello there. friday brought us a line of slow—moving thunderstorms across eastern england, and they brought some very heavy rain. this was suffolk. further south, in essex, they saw 9mm of rainfall in just the space of one hour. so the rain was really quite intense. talking about rain, we've got more of that to come on saturday, thanks to this area of low

pressure which has been named by the met office as storm antoni. now, antoni will have a number of hazards. the first — heavy, persistent rain for northern ireland. 20—a0mm here, maybe more than that over the high ground in the mournes. there could be enough to bring some flooding issues here, but as the rain extends into england and wales, the winds really pick up. for wales and southwest england, we're talking about gusts reaching 50—65mph in places. could be strong enough to bring down 1—2 trees, so there is the risk of seeing some transport disruption. the wet and windy weather will continue to extend its way eastwards. it will be brighter for scotland, a mixture of sunshine and a few showers here, and brighter through the afternoon for northern ireland as well, with the winds slowly calming down. for some, it will be really quite a cold day for august, with temperatures potentially just around 111—15 celsius for some. now, as we go through saturday night, the winds will continue to calm down, the rain tending to become confined to eastern areas of england, the weather drier across western portions of the uk. temperatures overnight,

saturday night, well, ranging from around 7—12 celsius in our larger towns and cities. sunday is the better of the two days of the weekend. it's a day of sunshine and showers, the greatest chance of seeing showers across scotland and eastern areas of england, where some of them will turn heavy and thundery. probably largely dry across wales and southwest england, but wherever you are, our temperatures continue to be a little bit below average for the time of year. now, monday looks like being a cheerier day for many of us. not completely rain—free, mind you. after a sunny start in northern ireland, we could see some rain arriving late in the day, and there will be some showers working into northwest scotland. england and wales largely dry with some sunny spells. 0ur temperatures still roundabout the high teens to low 20s. so not a bad kind of day overall, but then, tuesday not a good day. we've got a weak area of low pressure crossing the country, and that means, yes, more rain, although things will probably brighten up in the west as we go through the day. so northern ireland cheering up through the afternoon with sunshine and may be an odd shower. temperatures still high teens to low 20s, so still not

particularly warm for august. but we will see changes in the weather pattern beyond that because later in the week we'll see our first area of high pressure across the uk for some seven weeks, and that's going to be dragging in some warmer air. now, with that, we should see temperatures climb at least into the mid—20s, maybe the high 20s in the warmest spots in the best of the day's sunshine on thursday. now, the reason we get a big change in the weather pattern is down to the jet stream. this was quite typical injuly — very large waves, so we had a big ridge in the mid—atlantic, big troughs near the uk that kept developing low pressures that fired across the uk. that big—scale pattern tends not to move. the jet stream blocked, it was very unsettled. whereas looking at the weather later in the week, the jet stream taking these smaller meanders, and this kind of pattern does tend to move through. so there will still be ridges where we get high pressure, there will still be some troughs around, where we get low pressure, but nothing's blocked. the jet stream is going to continue to move those weather systems through and so, overall, a better spell of weather with some longer, drier, warmer spells,

especially towards the south and east of the uk. still some rain around, especially across the northwest of the uk. that's your latest weather.

live from washington, this is bbc news. donald trump arraigned in his third indictment. how will the former us president's growing legal cases impact his 2024 campaign to return to the white house? i'm helena humphrey. good to have you with us. this week, the united states has found itself once again in unprecedented territory. never before has a sitting orformer president been indicted on federal criminal charges and yet, donald trump has now been arraigned three times in four months and on thursday, right here in washington, dc, mr trump faced arguably the most serious charges levelled against him

yet, centred on his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. all of this comes as the former president runs in the hope of becoming the next president, courting the republican party nomination while facing mounting legal concerns. so, let's take a look at the latest charges filed against him yesterday. this time, he was accused of four counts, including conspiracy to defraud the united states, tampering with a witness and conspiracy against the rights of citizens. during a brief arraignment in the nation's capital yesterday, mr trump's lawyer entered a plea of not guilty on his behalf. he later slammed the usjustice department while speaking to the press. when you look at what has happened, this is a persecution of a political opponent. happened, this is a persecution of a political opponent. this was never supposed to happen in america. this is the persecution of the person that is leading by very, very substantial numbers in the

republican primary and leading