this is bbc news. the headlines at 3pm. more misery for southern rail commuters as members of the drivers union aslef vote against their leaders and reject a deal that would have solved much of the dispute. it has caused me to change jobs and move to my local town, unfortunately. i am move to my local town, unfortunately. lam not move to my local town, unfortunately. i am not too happy with that, i pay a lot of money for the train fares and it is a waste of my time. the new us secretary of state rex tillerson has met his counterparts from britain and russia at his first 620 summit — and vows to put american people first. the united states would consider working with russia when we can find areas of practical cooperation that will benefit the american people. more arrests in malaysia in connection with the airport poisoning of the half brother of the north korean leader. also, can taking vitamin d stop you from getting colds and flu? new research suggests three million cases could be prevented and food should be fortified with the vitamin. thousands of homes have been evacuated in christchurch

new zealand due to wildfires burning out of control. good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. the prospect of more industrial action is looming on southern network after its members rejected the deal. the dispute began last april when members of the rmt first quarter. the disruption intensified in december when train drivers union aslef began its own action. the

proposed deal had been condemned by the rnc. aslef says it will respect the rnc. aslef says it will respect the ballot. the parent company has reacted to the vote. paul clifton is in southampton. there was a glimmer of hope. this was a rare ray of sunshine for passengers, the prospect of earning a key vaz —— ending a key part of this dispute and this afternoon that ray of sunshine has gone. it is very unusualfor a ray of sunshine has gone. it is very unusual for a union membership ray of sunshine has gone. it is very unusualfor a union membership to reject the deal that has been recommended to them and negotiated

on their behalf by their own union. let's have a look at the figures. it was very close. 54% said no. 45% said yes. that was on a turnout of 7296. said yes. that was on a turnout of 72%. fewer than half of the drivers on southern railway actually voted for this decision. but the drivers have rejected a key principle. in specific circumstances they were being asked to operate a train with the doors being done from the cab without a second member staff on the train. for example if the conductor becomes ill or as late arriving. in practice that is the way one in three trains already work in this country. in particular i understand drivers were unhappy about the quality of the cctv systems they use. they were worried they were not clear enough to operate the doors

safely. that was a key sticking point and they have overturned the view of their own union.|j point and they have overturned the view of their own union. i thought the safety issue had been dealt with when the industry safety organisation looked at this and said there was no reason for concern. there have been a number of reports. all of them have come to the same conclusion. they have said that driver only operation is safe. they have said it is safe on the routes that are being discussed here in southern egypt. and the union agreed they were safe in their big 14 page agreement that they came up with in 11 days of talks with southern railway. they accepted that the system was currently save but could be safer. and as part of the deal they thrashed out southern railway agreed it would upgrade the cctv cameras on some of its older trains so that they will match the standards of the latest one. there would be a trial train running with

this system within 12 weeks and the whole thing would be finished in a couple of years. i think before more strikes are called, that is effectively where we are back to, back to industrial action, before more strikes are called i think as there will be very keen to go back to southern and say we must have a slightly better deal on the table. there must be something they can come up with that persuades at least another 5% of drivers to change their minds so the majority are in favour of accepting it. southern are obviously disappointed but aslef‘s senior executives have egg on their face. expected this to be accepted. they said so confidently before the ballot. now the drivers have overturned the views of their own union. how much money are we talking about? that is the only thing they can offer. the union has always said this was not about money. amir claim

there is no financial incentive to cut the safety standards in order to earn a bit more money. they think that would play very badly. it is a difficult position. the union will struggle for public support. it is widely estimated the cost of this strike with both unions is now a roundabout £300 million. southern already by far the poorest performing operator in the country. there are other problems. there are infrastructure issues, and i think both sides, the driver and the company, will be keen to talk before they walk. to find some means of adjusting the deal. we have just got some reaction from the government, saying it is disappointment aslef have rejected the offer. the union

leadership must now return to talks and work with their members on a deal they can back, there for the pressure is now on the union. they are ina pressure is now on the union. they are in a difficult position because they have to do a deal. when the drivers strike the trains don't run. when the conductors in the rmt union strike more or less southern railway can cope. the rmt union representing the conductors has not done a deal. has been striking for almost a year now. and is extending the dispute to other areas. they are extending this from being a regional side to being a national dispute. for aslef this has was been a specific issue about the trains on southern on the way they are operated. massive shock today. why didn't you believe them? i didn't believe the

rumours? i thought the deal was as good as done, to be honest. when a union's leadership puts it to its members and say, we suggest that you vote for this, you'd think 99 times out of a hundred that would be agreed. the fact the union members have gone against their leadership is worrying. where do we go from here? how do you sit round the table now, which is what the next step has got to be, and actually try and bring this whole pitiful event to a close ? bring this whole pitiful event to a close? as a passenger do you see the pressure as being on the union or does southern rail have to come back with another compromise? does southern rail have to come back with another compromise ?|j does southern rail have to come back with another compromise? i think the pressure is on both. what i'm actually pleading for is that the union actually sits down and has meaningful talks. revolting two strikes isn't the answer. the any people who lose is the travelling public. it's not southern or the

union, it's the public who pay the price. let's sit down in an orderly fashion and actually talk this through, and try and get some new compromise. try and get some common agreement that the leadership can agreement that the leadership can agree to, and the members agree to, too. just wondering weather you think there's something passengers could do to affect this. at the moment, for a year or so, what has this meant to you? it's been com plete this meant to you? it's been complete and utter chaos. my life has been turned on head. i don't see my family as much, i'm very fortu nate, my family as much, i'm very fortunate, i've got a very forgiving wife. and bless herfor that. i'm late for meetings at school, i work longer hours, it is the whole unknown quantity. going back to your point, why don't they actually see a passenger to come in on the talks? actually be able to sit there, and i'm quite willing to do that myself.

sit down with southern, sit down with the union, and be constructive. and perhaps give a different voice to the whole talks. is someone in the union says all right, peter, you're here at the talks, but you know as well as i do, as a driver it's not safe. this safety argument is that the heart of this and would appear to still be the issue.|j agree. as a train passenger and commuter, safety is uppermost in my mind. ithink commuter, safety is uppermost in my mind. i think what is that the real heart of this is simply this. southern have allegedly said they will run two members of train crew on as many trains as they possibly can. however, in the event they cannot get a second member of train crew on that train, imagine a packed train in the evening, leaving london bridge with 300 — 400 people, today that train would technically have to be cancelled. what southern have said is let that train go. 400

people get off a train to put 800 people get off a train to put 800 people on the next train, that is a safety concern of mine and that is what could happen. yes, invite a passenger to the talks, and let us give you some viewpoints as well. but please, i implore the unions not to revert to strikes. let's sit down and talk again, and try and get some compromise to this. let's be honest, there's nothing you can do. passengers need the train. we do need the train. we don't give up hope. i speak for the 300,000 people that use southern everyday. please, i understand the safety issue, let's be grown—up about this. don't resort to strikes, and let's try and see if we can get a compromise. i am willing to be on those talks as well, i don't work for southern, i'm just an ordinary commuter that representing hopefully the many. i

speakfor representing hopefully the many. i speak for thousands when i turn around and say, it's only 330 drivers causing misery to so many. let's talk, please. thank you. french prosecutors say they will continue their investigations into the centre—right presidential candidate francois fillon, who's been accused of cheating the parliamentary payments system. he's denied paying his wife and children inflated parliamentary salaries for minimal, or fictitious, work. a little earlier our paris correspondent hugh schofield gave us the latest and explained what this decision means to fillon. he's not got what he wanted. he wa nted he's not got what he wanted. he wanted the prosecutor at this point to say there's not enough here to proceed. that's not what has happened. the prosecutor has said, we are going to continue with our investigations because there is enough evidence to allow us to do that. so he hasn't got what he wa nted that. so he hasn't got what he wanted but at the same time, it's

not the worst news either. the prosecutor could have said, there's enough already before us to recommend that he be placed under formal investigation, at which point mr fillon would have to step down. what we've got is more of the same. we've got more of this agony for mr fillon, which means he can't properly campaign. from the constituencies are coming reports, his agents in the field, saying it is terrible out here, no one wants to hear about your proposals, they just want to hear whether you are an honest man or not. mr fillon has slumped in the polls, he's now in third place in the polls, which is all significant. in the french system it is number one and number two in the first round to go through to the second round. right now, those two people are going to be marine le pen and the newcomer emmanuel macron. mr fillon needs to fight back hard if he's going to get

that second place. the new us secretary of state, rex tillerson, has said america will work with russia, so long as moscow keeps its promise to try to defuse the conflict in ukraine. mr tillerson, who's president trump's most senior diplomat on the international stage, was speaking after a g20 meeting in germany with the russian foreign minister, sergei lavrov. well with me now isjeremy shapiro, director of research, european council on foreign relations. in terms of that brief comment we heard from rex tillerson, that specific comment about ukraine is presumably what other members in the t20 really needed to hear. they need some reassurance. t20 really needed to hear. they need some reassurance . yes, t20 really needed to hear. they need some reassurance. yes, this is part of the reassuring store. i think rex tillerson probably doesn't really know what the policy towards russia is, since nobody seems to know it. he's been repeating what the policy has been trying to tell the allies

what they want to hear. he's hoping that early tomorrow morning the president doesn't wake up and contradict him in a tweet. with that brutal? he is being incredibly cautious in public, saying as little as possible and making sure everything is off script. i guess you're not surprised by that approach? that's my impression. one can pity rex tillerson, he doesn't have a deputy because the president rejected the deputy he chose. he doesn't have lots of senior management positions in the state department. the national security adviser was fired a couple of days ago. he hasn't really seen very much of the president and he doesn't really know, probably, what most of the foreign policy positions of the administration are. and he's not capable on his own formulating them. as his aides briefed to the press, he can only say mildly reassuring things to the allies. does he go on that listening tour, well aware what

some of these people sitting round the table with him are very mindful of the fact that he has no experience in these matters, not in a political sense. does that matter to them? i don't think it matters to them that he doesn't have experience. i think he has a lot of experience. i think he has a lot of experience generally speaking. he seems to be a very capable and competent person. when they see the chaos back in washington and when they see a man who clearly isn't capable, not for any fault of his own of representing the president, then they probably have to wonder what they are doing sitting in that room. we've been reflecting in the last half an hour on that news out of washington that nancy policy and others have asked for an immediate briefing on any contacts between general flynn and any russian contacts. your thoughts about that turn of events? this is a confusing

but important scandal. what is at issueis but important scandal. what is at issue is whether the russian government improperly affected the election and whether it has improper influence over the president of the united states and his national security adviser. i think it makes absolute sense that both the democratic minority in the progress, but frankly the entire congress, would want to understand precisely what is going on. it's in some sense potentially the most serious political scandal in washington since watergate. and a very long way from being over. i should think so. thank you. in a moment a summary of the business news this hour, but first, the headlines on bbc news. the deal which promised to resolve the long—running rail strike on southern rail has collapsed, raising the prospect of further industrial action. the new us secretary of state rex tillerson has met his cou nterpa rts state rex tillerson has met his counterparts from britain and russia at his first g20 summit, and vows to

put american people first. more arrests in malaysia in connection with the port poisoning of the north korean leader's half brother. a total of three people are now being questioned. microsoft bumps up prices of its own—brand laptops due to the weakness of the pound against the dollar. the multi—national technology company has added between £150 and £400 to the cost of surface books sold via its website. nearly one million people borrow to make ends meet and nearly 6 million households have no savings at all. that's according to experian. their research also show that over 400,000 britons have an unauthorised overdraft or a pay day loan. and budget airline wizz air is to open its first ever british base at london luton with three new routes flying eventually increasing to 42 routes. new destinations will be tel aviv in israel, as well as kosovo and georgia. iceland has been ranked the top

supermarket for online shopping — in a new survey by which magazine. waitrose has come top for instore experience — asda has fallen to last place behind tesco and sainsbury‘s. earlier, richard headland, the editor of which? magazine, shared his thoughts on the findings. it's interesting because iceland is still a relative newcomer to the online shopping game. this is the second year running they've come top in the online charts. they are doing much better as an online supermarket than as a bricks and mortar store, where waitrose, and mms are coming top again this year. iceland does fa ntastically top again this year. iceland does fantastically on value for money. it's also really good on substitutions, and convenient delivery slots. making sure you get what you ordered when you expected. it's interesting to see that waitrose are top in the bricks and mortar table, but it's at the bottom of the online survey. so there is

still scope for improvement with some of the big names, when it comes to their online offering. in the bricks and mortar survey you've also got companies like aldi and lidl challenging waitrose and marks and spencers at the top. the competition and markets authority are looking into heineken's bid to buy the pub operator punch taverns. the cma are concerned that the merger might reduce competition and choice for pub goers. punch own 3,350 pubs — if the deal goes through it'll make heineken the third largest pub group in the country. if you like your kit kats then you might be interested to know that the company that owns kit kat — nestle, reported a fall in profits. the rate at which its selling its products isn't as high as it was a year ago. so they're going to start looking at cutting costs. the company that makes arctic coats — canada goose, has applied for stock market listings in new york and toronto. now these coats cost as much as £900. not cheap. the company wants to pay off some debt — and so is hoping to raise $300 million by listing. and isn't this a good idea?

well i think it is, jane doesn't. pavement lights have been installed at a pedestrian crossing in a town in the netherlands to help smartphone users cross the road safely. the light strips are designed to catch the eye of people looking down at their device, and change colour to match traffic signals. some groups think it rewards bad behaviour. a quick look at the markets before we go. the ftse 100 still in we go. the ftse100 still in negative territory. astrazeneca fell this morning. i'll be back in an hour. the cast of love actually is reuniting to raise money for comic relief. they will join reuniting to raise money for comic relief. they willjoin hugh grant in a ten minute special film which looks at what happens to the

characters, since the first one. it's all part of the red nose day appeal. earlier on victoria derbyshire, joanna gosling caught up with emma freud, the writer and director of red nose actually, on location in london. liam neeson, literally the most attractive man in the world. slightly weirdly, younger looking now than he was when we first did the film 13 years ago. just gorgeous. and the little boy whom played liam neeson's stepson, now he is a big boy, he's 26. and one other person, i'm not going to tell you who. in our first day's filming will do the whole thing in five days. this is day one. we've just done the first take. about to do the second take. grab richard a

moment if i can. it's all very exciting. please grab him any time you like. we'd love to talk to richard as well. call him over... who else is going to be in it? who have you said is in it? i'd said liam and tom. keira and andrew and colin and hugh... a lot of people. emma thompson? oddly, we're not quite sure. it's all been done in a great rush. i think not. but i'm now thinking again. we'll wait and see. bill is in it. marcus britt doc is in it. we'll all of our burning questions be answered? no. maybe you need to make a full sequel, would you do that? no. why not? no. the

only reason this is happening is for red nose day in britain and also for red nose day in britain and also for red nose day in britain and also for red nose day in america. this is actually red nose actually... and, action! he's gone back, he's got a job today. did anyone say no? when you approached everyone, what was their reaction? alan rickman went very quiet. 0ther their reaction? alan rickman went very quiet. other than that, no. amazingly, nobody said no. in fact liam flew over yesterday from america and is back to america tomorrow. that's quite dedicated. there is a lot of affection for the film. i know some people think it's the worst thing that's ever been put on celluloid but i think there is a very warm on celluloid but i think there is a very warm feeling about it, and i think the cast have enjoyed that

glowed, because they all said yes, which is great. an extra dose of love actually, coming up on red nose day. some breaking news from the alps. six mountain climbers have been killed. this in separate incidents but related. four climbers we re incidents but related. four climbers were killed in italy, they were scaling a waterfall near the border with switzerland when part of the ice wall gave way. a fifth climber survived, apparently managed to just get above the rich where the frozen waterfall cracked off. in the french alps, two men have been killed after an ice sheet broke off and crashed down on them. this because the parities are saying the sun has come out and a sudden spike in temperatures has meant that ice is melting enough for large slab to

detach like this. we'll have more for you coming up from 4pm but we'll just pause and catch up with the weather prospects. there's a bit of sunshine to be found. most of that is across southern parts of england. this is a weather watcher picture from ethics. plenty of blue on view. looking at the rain and satellite picture combined, you can see the wet weather showing up across parts of ireland, north—west england, wales, into the midlands as well. scattered showers into scotland as well. what we're showers into scotland as well. what we' re left showers into scotland as well. what we're left with overnight is this area of wet weather from northern ireland, through parts of wales, and down towards southern spots in south—east england. the intensity of some of the rain will ease a bit. by the side of that will be mainly dry with a view fog patches. especially some of that fog into scotland could be quite thick in places. clearer

parts of scotland was the touch of frost. a weather front giving drizzly rain the further west you are. especially into southern scotland, that fog may slow you down for a time scotland, that fog may slow you down fora time in scotland, that fog may slow you down for a time in the morning. still damp and drizzly, patchy rain and maybe a fuse box into the midlands and down south—east england. either side of that, north—east england, parts of wales and south—east england, a bit brighter to start the day but they could be the odd fog patch as well. it looks like much of north and east scotland into northern england will stay fine with sunny spells. if you brighter breaks for wales, the west midlands in two parts of southern and south—west england. a lot of dry weather to be found, drizzly in scotland. some outbreaks of rain coming in later in the day. temperatures a degree down to head to today but the wind will be lighter and it may not feel too different. into the weekend, this weather front in the west, it's not a significant rainmaker but the

further west and north—west you are, saturday begins there will be some outbreaks of rain. some of that fringing into parts of northern ireland and north—west england. to the south of that it looks mainly dry. and it is mild. 0n the south of that it looks mainly dry. and it is mild. on sunday the south of that it looks mainly dry. and it is mild. 0n sundaya the south of that it looks mainly dry. and it is mild. on sunday a lot of dry weather. cloudy a lot of the time, if you sunny intervals coming through. double figures temperatures with the wind picking up. some wet weather comes back to north—west scotla nd weather comes back to north—west scotland on sunday. headlines for the weekend, mild, may get to see a bit of sunshine at times, not all the time. could see some rain especially in northern england, northern ireland and northern scotland. more about the weekend weather is on its way and you can look further ahead at our website. this is bbc news. the headlines at 4pm: the deal which promised to resolve the long—running rail strike on southern rail has collapsed — raising the prospect of further industrial action. but this is about a safety critical member of staff, on very busy trains.

they should be there. the new us secretary of state, rex tillerson, has met his counterparts from britain and russia at his first g20 summit, and vows to put american people first. the united states will consider working with russia when we can find areas of practical cooperation that will benefit the american people. more arrests in malaysia in connection with the airport poisoning of the north korean leader's brother — a total of three people are now being questioned. iamjane i amjane hill. also in this hour — could vitamin d be the secret ingredient to stop you from getting colds and flu ? new research suggests three million cases could be prevented and food should be fortified with the vitamin.