the rugby world cup. crowds of singing and dancing supporters have welcomed the team — the springboks — in soweto in their nation—wide ‘victory tour‘. they set off from the capital pretoria and are heading all the way to cape town, visiting major cities along the way. that's all for now — stay with bbc world news. hello. thursday brought us a day of heavy and persistent rain across some parts of the country, particularly for parts of northern england. there was 75mm of rain by the end of the day in sheffield and many areas have seen flooding problems and quite a lot of travel disruption too. we still have numerous flood warnings and severe flood warnings in force as well. although the worst of the rain will be easing away, river levels will be lagging behind the main rainfall, so still a lot of flooding problems through friday morning. now, the overnight rain has slowly been shifting a little bit further south, but an amber warning was issued from the met office for up to 100mm of...

across large parts of northern england, with flooded roads and cancelled train services. the don river has breached its flood defences in parts of sheffield, leaving hundreds of people stranded at a shopping centre. there are also reports of people stranded at another shopping centre in rotherham. hundreds gathered for the funeral of a mother and her two sons who were killed in a brutal attack earlier this week in northern mexico. relatives carried out the home—made caskets as friends and family turned to one another for comfort. but this isn't the last funeral, as the suspected drug cartel gunmen killed six other members of the american mormon family. germany's chancellor angela merkel has rejected sweeping criticisms of nato made by the french president. in an interview, emmanuel macron said a lack of strategic decision—making between the united states and its nato allies was leading to what he termed "brain death" in the bloc. now, take a look at this — a lucky escape for the crews...

that the us can't afford to lose. i'm nuala mcgovern in london. also in the programme: a corridor allowing sikhs to cross from india into pakistan to visit one of the religion‘s holiest sites is due to open on saturday. and in the ring with the female amateur sumo champion who's fighting to change the rules of one of the world's oldest sports. good morning. it's 9am in singapore, 1am in london, and 8pm in washington dc, where the impeachment inquiry continued to unfold on thursday and president trump went on the attack. he's furious about reports that he asked attorney general william barr to hold a press conference clearing him of any wrongdoing in that phone call with ukraine's leader, in which mr trump asked

derbyshire, and greater manchester too. as we head through friday morning, we've still got that rain band with us, it becomes fairly light and patchy and as we head through the day, it will be confined to eastern parts of england. it's cold, quite a frosty start for many of us to friday, we've also got a few wintry flurries across the highest parts of highland scotland. by the afternoon, lots of sunshine developing, away from eastern parts of england where you keep the cloud and a little bit of patchy rain. temperatures between about 6 and aberdeen to around about 11 in cardiff. still in the chilly side. into friday evening then, that area of cloud and rain slowly clears off towards the east, have a look at the blue colours, that indicates quite a cold start to your weekend, in fact, subzero temperatures for many of us, particularly in the north first thing saturday, but really wherever you are, you could well wake up to quite a sharp frost. after that chilly start to saturday, more...

hello, everyone. glad you are joining us. i'm rico hizon in singapore. the headlines: claiming it's a "conjob": president trump denies that he asked his attorney general to say he'd done nothing wrong in his call with ukraine's president. from friends to rivals: why the relationship between america and china has become a battle that the us can't afford to lose. i'm nuala mcgovern in london. also in the programme: a corridor allowing sikhs to cross from india into pakistan to visit one of the religion‘s holiest sites is due to open on saturday. and in the ring with the female amateur sumo champion who's fighting to change the rules of one of the world's oldest sports.

was conducting foreign policy with the ukraine and, in particular, bolton is said to have said he did not want to be any part of the drug deal that was being cooked up over ukraine. also making news today: a new yorkjudge has ordered president trump to pay $2 million in damages for improperly using money from his charitable foundation for political purposes. last year, the new york attorney general‘s office launched a lawsuit against the president, saying he used funds from the donald] trump foundation for his own personal, business and political interests. an agreement between the united states and china to roll back tariffs is said to be facing fierce opposition at the white house and from outside advisers. chinese officials said earlier that tariff reductions had been agreed, and a us official confirmed it. but media reports from the us say there is a divide within the administration over whether rolling back tariffs will give away american leverage in the negotiations. there have...