into a pot plant. and sleepwalking into a pot plant. and only on tuesday, sleepwalking into a pot plant. and only on tuesday, johnson himself spoke about the unpredictability of his sport. ulf is a funny game, you know, it doesn't matter how good the player. you can still not win. i have a lot of confidence in my game right now but... ifjohnson have a lot of confidence in my game right now but... if johnson does tee off, he will have to dethrone the champion, danny willett. returning to the scene of his triumph. since then he's not won a single tournament, but he's determined to cling onto his title. it would be a shame potentially if you have to give it back on sunday. but to have the 12 months i've had has been amazing. it will be incredible to do it again sometime. so golf's most famous garment is once again up for grabs. but for some, just getting to the start will be a victory in itself. andy swiss, bbc news. time for a look at the weather. here's tomasz schafernaker.

the sun is shining. it's a beautiful day. a beautiful sunrise. it was nippy in some places, temperatures just two or three above freezing but the sun was beautiful. what have we in store for the next few days, for the rest of the week, into the weekend? some sunshine is on the cards but also warming up and potentially warming up quite significantly across some southern and central areas of the uk. the sunshine isn't absolutely everywhere, certainly north—western parts of the country, a bit of cloud here which is stuck in the area of high pressure. one thing that is ha rd to high pressure. one thing that is hard to forecast is the amount of cloud. in some areas it breaks up, in others, it doesn't. one thing we are sure today is the pollen levels in some southern and central areas are in some southern and central areas a re pretty in some southern and central areas are pretty high. some others are feeling sneezy. this is the forecast for about lipm. there are areas of the country that are stuck under the

cloud. western scotland, northern ireland and north—western parts of england and wales, here, the sunny spells come and go but overall a fair bit of cloud. but the south, central areas and in the east, that's where we have the best weather. some areas in southern parts of wales could nudge up to 15-17 c this parts of wales could nudge up to 15—17 c this afternoon. very little changes to the cause of this evening and overnight. this high pressure thatis and overnight. this high pressure that is stuck over rose isn't in a hurry to go. when you have high pressure sitting on top of us there's very little wind to stir the weather about so what you get one day is more or less what you get the next day. as long as the high pressure doesn't move, the weather doesn't change a lot. that's what's going to happen tomorrow, again, more or less the same temperatures and whether. it of cloud, a bit of sunshine. the high—pressure will finally shift a bit as we go into the weekend, with winds blowing round. the high—pressure is going to draw up some warmth, significant

warmth, as far as this weekend is concerned. we are going to feel those temperatures rising. we could get up to 20 celsius possibly in southern areas. high teams through the midlands and northern parts of england. great weather for the grand national, like winds, some sunshine, and then the real warmth reaches us on sunday. the northwest has to be said not quite so warm, even some spots of rain here. look at these temperatures. this is typicalfor june! we're not doing bad on sunday. that's all from the bbc news at one. on bbc one we nowjoin the bbc‘s news teams where you are. good afternoon, now a look at the day's sports news, with me jessica creighton. the sist masters is underway at augusta with ceremonial starters and former champions jack nicklaus and gary player hitting the first ball before the first groups came out onto the course. world number one golfer dustinjohnson faces a race to be

fit for the masters which has just got underway. he fell down the stairs in his rented home last night, and injured his back. johnson has been in great form, winning his past three tournaments, and is favourite to win the greenjacket on sunday. but he's currently taking anti—inflammatories to ensure he makes his tee time just after 7 o'clock this evening. the body which represents referees have apologised after keith stroud's error last night where he failed to instruct newcastle to retake a penalty against burton after players from both sides encroached into the area. matt ritchie's spot kick went in but stroud wrongly awarded burton a free—kick instead of a retake to the bemusement of players, manager rafa benitez and 19,000 newcastle fans. ritchie had the final word on the night however as his second half goal gave newcastle a 1—0 win which keeps them top of the championship. you have seen the incident, and you

had a lot of newspapers and analyses they're looking at what was going on. i was talking to the referee, some ugly things, but i won't keep talking about that because you have plenty of time. for me, it was an important game that we had to win and get three points, and it was a fantastic goal from matt ritchie. fantastic performance from the players, commitment, possession, passing, a lot of positives but i'd prefer not to talk too much because it is clear for everyone. costa will not face any retrospective action after appearing to kick out at manchester city captain vincent kompany in last night's match at stamford bridge. there had been suggestions that the spaniard could face a ban, but referee mike dean did actually see the incident so the case can't be dealt with any further. neither chelsea manager antonio conte or his city counterpart pep guardiola saw what happened. the republic of ireland women's team

have reached an agreement with their governing body, after allegations from players that they weren't being treated properly. the team had threatened not to train if demands for compensation whilst on international duty and improved support weren't met. after mediation talks, fai confirmed this morning that all issues have now been resolved, and the players will resume training ahead of monday's game against slovakia. kyle edmund will play the first match of britain's davis cup quarter—final tomorrow against france's luca pwee. edmund helped britain to the last eight by winning his second singles in the tie against canada in february and takes on puy who reached the quarter—finals of wimbledon last year. dan evans, british number one for the tie in the absence of andy murray, facejeremy chardy in the reverse singles. there's coverage of the tie across the bbc. the three—day grand national

festival starts in a few minutes at aintree with the centrepiece, the grand national itself at 5:15pm on saturday. armed police are in attendance at the course in the wake of the westminster terror attack, and it marks the 20th anniversary of the national being delayed by an ira bomb scare. merseyside police said racegoers can expect to see high visibility policing across the three days of the event. that's all the sport for now. you can find more on all those stories on the bbc sport website. that's bbc.co.uk/sport, and i'll have more in the next hour. just to bring you some breaking news from the reuters news agency, we are hearing of a loud explosion that has been heard in a residential building in saint petersburg, close to the site where explosives were found earlier. these devices were made safe in a flat in saint petersburg by russian police, three days after a suspected bomb on the city metro killed 13 people. we will be

speaking to our correspondent in saint petersburg shortly. let's get more now on labour's proposals to introduce free school meals for all primary pupils — speaking in lancashire in the past half an hour, jeremy corbyn explained why he thought the policy was important. at the moment those that are accessing free school meals is because people have their parents on benefits, but if there are people who are low—wage but in work, they do not get free school meals and we want all children to get it. all of the evidence from the councils that provide free school meals is there is high levels of attainment, better levels of concentration and better health for the children, so we want all children to benefit. there is also the added benefit of children eating together rather than going to separate places to either go out for lunch, if they are allowed to, which is unusual, or to have a sandwich lunch, which means they are not necessarily altogether over the lunch period. with me is professor lorraine dearden from the institute for fiscal studies. she's co—author of a 2012 report which labour cites as research evidence for its school meal

proposals. thank you for coming in. i use a prize that labour are suggesting a national roll—out would work on the basis of the research you did —— are you surprised? we did a pilot study between 2009 and 2011 and we found that having universal free school meals in primary schools in two relatively deprived areas did improve attainment by between four and eight weeks in term of progress. we did not find any evidence of how that happened. there was no impact on attendance. there was no impact on attendance. there was no impact on body mass index, but we did find a small but significant impact on attainment. how would you quantify attainment? are you surprised that others look at the result and say that this is worth spending quite a lot of money on? to roll it out

nationally is very, very expensive and the labour party is quoting around £900 million. we are pretty confident, in deprived areas, that it will improve attainment. we found particularly for poor children had the biggest impact. whether it is the biggest impact. whether it is the best use of £900 million and whether it will have impact when you roll it out nationally to much more advantaged areas, our research does not say. basing this policy on our research, i think, not say. basing this policy on our research, ithink, is not say. basing this policy on our research, i think, is slightly ambitious. what was your reaction when you saw the proposal for the first time? based on our evidence, free school meals have been rolled out nationally to children in reception and year two. that happened in 2014. that was also based on our research and we said that our research is not conclusive that our research is not conclusive that this will have a definite impact on attainment across england.

now it is being rolled out nationally. our research did show in those areas the impact was slightly largerfor those areas the impact was slightly larger for older children, those aged 11 or seven. as i said, it was aged 11 or seven. as i said, it was a very specialised studies in disadvantaged areas. because you don't know the mechanism that does this. we don't know the mechanism. the only thing we found is that children ate more vegetables slightly, and we found no impact on attendance. we couldn't find the mechanism. and, actually, in a lot of health measures we found no impact. i don't want to push it too far, but i'm guessing there was some surprise perhaps that this was being quoted in the way it was. yes. we a lwa ys quoted in the way it was. yes. we always made it very, very clear that this was a very specialised study in a disadvantaged area and if you had £900 million spare to spend on

educationalfunding, there £900 million spare to spend on educational funding, there might £900 million spare to spend on educationalfunding, there might be more targeted and effective ways. clearly there will be an advantage a lot of people this who don't need help. thank you for your time. the president of the european council donald tusk has arrived at downing street for talks with the prime minster. it's the first time the leaders have met face to face since theresa may formally started the brexit process last week. the pair are expected to discuss the timetable for the uk's departure. the eu has made it clear it wants to conclude discussions on the terms of britain's exit before negotiations can start on a future trade deal. the ukip welsh assembly member and former mp mark reckless has left the party and will now vote with the conservative group in cardiff bay. the resignation of the former mp mark reckless from ukip follows in the footsteps of the departure of douglas carswell as its only mp last month. let's get more reaction to this with our wales political editor, nick servini. he's in cardiff bay for us. what exactly has he announced as

there is some confusion? we had a statement at 1pm from the welsh conservatives with a glowing tribute to mark reckless, saying he'd been an impressive assembly member since taking on the job, an impressive assembly member since taking on thejob, and a statement from mark reckless saying he was keen tojoin a from mark reckless saying he was keen to join a united group at the assembly, and i think there was a pointed criticism and eight closeted criticism of the infighting we have seen criticism of the infighting we have seenin criticism of the infighting we have seen in ukip since the group were elected at the assembly last year. there is a paradox at the heart of this, because we are told he is not going to rejoin the conservative party. we are told the conservative party. we are told the conservative party would not have him because of the bad blood that still exists as a result of that very high—profile defection, two and a half years ago, when he originally left the conservative party to join when he originally left the conservative party tojoin ukip. but he willjoin the conservative group here at the assembly and he will

ta ke here at the assembly and he will take the whip, which means he will be forced to vote along the conservative lines and we are even told that his official designation will be as a welsh conservative assembly member, which has come from the welsh conservatives. i think it will be fascinating to see how some of this plays out with the party more broadly and centrally on a uk basis, but from the public perspective, to all intents and purposes, mark reckless becomes a tory politician again, certainly in terms of how this place works. the significance of that is that it makes the conservatives the second largest group in the senedd. that's right. this is a numbers game for the welsh conservatives, and it means with him on board that they overta ke means with him on board that they overtake plaid cymru to get that designation status as the main opposition, something that the leader andrew davies was clean on, andindeed

leader andrew davies was clean on, and indeed the motivation for holding the talks with mark reckless. we should also say that if this goes well there is the possibility, we have to say of more following suit. mark reckless is not the only former conservative party member within the ukip group that the assembly, although it should be said we have the beginnings of some horrific bad blood between existing ukip members and mark reckless. neil hamilton, the leader of the assembly group for hamilton, the leader of the assembly groupfor ukip, hamilton, the leader of the assembly group for ukip, and other than mark reckless, arguably the most high profile ukip member in wales said that mark reckless had betrayed the voters that got him in the first place. the ukip group is calling on him to resign his position because of this. and you have to say, the timing is dreadfulfrom ukip‘s perspective. you mentioned earlier about douglas ca rswell, perspective. you mentioned earlier about douglas carswell, a man who mark reckless used to work for. the fa ct mark reckless used to work for. the fact that mark reckless is so pro———

high profile from a welsh perspective, and even this week we found out that ukip are only going to have 80 candidates in the council elections next month and i think there was a pretty broad expectation that they would have a far greater presence in the council elections, and we have the news today, so the timing is pretty dreadfulfor them. melissa cochrane and her husband kurt were both hit by khalid masood's car on westminster bridge. kurt was killed, melissa suffered a broken leg , broken ribs and a gash to the head. that day had been part of the trip of a lifetime, they'd travelled from their home in utah through europe to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary. this morning kurt's son dallas told victoria derbyshire how the news from london reached him in salt lake city. i was home alone and i got a text from my older brother saying that my dad and melissa were involved in the london attacks. i got a few photos

that was the way i found out. of course, it was unbelievable and i did not believe it at first. after seeing the pictures, it was a heavy experience. it is still hard to take in. we confirmed that it was them. how do you rationalise that?” in. we confirmed that it was them. how do you rationalise that? i try to focus on the positive and celebrate the time that i did have with my dad. my dad was the most loving, giving, humble guy that you can come across. always good to hang out with him. kids loved him. he was just always someone with a smile on his face, it was contagious. he had back contagious laugh. he is going to be missed —— that contagious laugh. i want to play you something your stepmother melissa said in an interview with the bbc last night.

he was probably the most loving man i have ever met. no hate. he just loved everyone. there was such love in his heart. and you can manage to do that yourself question might not feel ill will towards the man who put you in a wheelchair? the man who ended your future with your husband? i don't think i could heal my injuries as a person if i let that in my heart and kurt would not want that either. there is no hate. just focus on the positive. there's no reason to hate anybody for this. that's not going to fix anything or make anybody feel better. just celebrate the times you did have. have you thought about the man who did this? not really at all. i mean, i've seen little pictures here and there, but i've chosen to avoid looking into whatever his story was. it's not going to help me any

knowing who he was or why he did it. ijust want knowing who he was or why he did it. i just want to be there for my stepmum in her recovery and help her out the best i can, and just remember my dad for what he was. and just focus on that. you're stepmum attended the service of hope yesterday at westminster. do you know when she will be able to come home to you in salt lake city? we're not sure exactly. we have been told hopefully within the week. but that is still on the fence. we are not positive when exactly, but we are optimistic and hoping we can have her home safe soon. in a moment, a summary of the business news this hour but first — the headlines on bbc news. a father

who refused to pay a fine after taking his daughter for an unauthorised holiday during term—time, has lost his case at the supreme court. the syrian foreign minister insists his regime has not — and never would — use chemical weapons, as president trump condemns the attack in northern syria, calling it an ‘affront to humanity.‘ labour says it'll provide every primary school pupil in england with free school meals, by charging vat on private school fees, if it wins the next election. in the business news: not guilty! that's the verdict on two former ba rclays bankers accused of rigging libor. the uk's serious fraud office tried them for a second time after a jury failed to reach a verdict on their case last year. stelios contogoulas and ryan reich have now cleared their names after a seven—year ordeal. the boss of bp, bob dudley, had his pay packet dropped 40%. it was

slashed down to £9.3 million. the firm says it is due to a drop in performance related pay. this year the shareholder vote on salary policy is binding, unlike last year when bp protested the pay package. the co—op group has reported its first annual loss since 2013 after declaring that its stake in the co—operative bank is worth nothing. it reduced the value of its 20% stake in the bank from £185 million to zero, reflecting its continuing problems. the co—op group made a loss before tax of £132 million for 2016. today is the first ‘snapshot‘ date that large employers must use to report their gender pay gap. private and public organisations with 250 or more staff are to publish their gender pay gap and bonus pay gap on a government portal website. they have 12 months in which to publish the information according to a prescribed format,

including the difference in mean pay between men and women. justine greening, the ministerfor women and equalities explains how it will work. all these companies will have to start reporting them mean and median salary gaps, the different percentages of men and women at quartiles indifferent salary ranges, and also on bonuses as well. we are all going to have it on one website where all of us can go and see what different companies are doing, what their action plans are, and i think their action plans are, and i think the transparency will see companies step up to the plate and reduce the gender pay gap even further. we are one of the first countries in the world to do this, and we have never had a lower gender pay gap of 18% but we want to see it go further and faster over the coming years and i think this new reporting will really make a difference. today is one of the most important days for accountants up

and down the country, it's the start of a new tax year — with a series of savings ad tax changes coming into affect. so let's take a look at some of them. the new lifetime individual savings account for those aged between 18 and 39 launches today. you can save up to £4,000 a year, and the government will add a 25% bonus if the money is used to buy a home or as a pension from the age of 60. the amount that can be saved in a tax—free isa , that's also rising from £15,240 a year to £20,000. and inheritance tax — each individual can now claim an additional allowance of £100,000 to offset the sale of a family home on death, and that's on top of their existing £325,000 inheritance tax exemption, allowing each individual to pass on £425,000 with no tax payable. let's talk to guy anker, managing

editor of money saving expert. i know you want to focus on the lisa, being billed as the flagship savings programme. talk me through who it is aimed at? it's aimed at first—time buyers or people who want to save for retirement. for first—time buyers there is a lot of potential there for it. because it is, as you say, 25% bonus which you could use and there are some risks in that. it's not for everyone. the most people it's potentially a good option, but it's more, gated saving for retirement. there are situations where it won't be worth while. example, if you get money from your employer to save into workplace pension and you are wondering whether the body in the workplace pension or get a lisa, but you could be mission out on free cash by missing —— picking the lisa, but i

say on this and it has been a tepid start. there's not many products available. if you wanted one, the choice is minimal. there is not a cache lifetime icer way you are not risking your money on the stock market. a bit of this tepid start even though the product has potential. hardly any of the banks or building societies are offering it. why is that, considering this is being billed as a flagship government savings programme? right now and none of them are. skipton building society says it will launch one in june. building society says it will launch one injune. some are saying that they are, gated products. itried one injune. some are saying that they are, gated products. i tried to explain the pension scenario and it's not something you can do on the afternoon news —— complicated products. i guess the banks are worried that the products are too complex. i heard whispers about mis—selling claims down the line. but those are some of the whispers we are hearing. so potentially the

fear of another mis—selling scandal. sadly we have to leave it there. guy talking about that new lisa. a quick word on what is happening in the stock market, particularly the ftse 100. the blue—chip major market in the uk here. shares dropping on thursday after minutes of the federal reserve's last meeting indicating the bank in the states would shrink its balance sheets later this year. the ftse 100 later this year. the ftse100 currently down around 0.42%. anglo—american, that is the top rider —— arise on the board, and the top loser is pearson education, which is shedding the most, 8.3% —— 7.83%. that is all the business for this hour. more on the website, and you can get in touch with me on twitter. thank you, alice. just to

let you know we will be talking a little later about the case of the father who lost his legal challenge against a fine for taking his daughter on an order for the rot against a fine for taking his daughter on an orderfor the rot —— on an unauthorised term time holiday. before that, let's get the weather with thomas. the weather is looking very promising over the next few days. high pressure over as meaning settled weather, some sunshine. quite nippy in the morning but we have had some beautiful sunrise pictures coming in today. here is the satellite image, and you can see the satellite image, and you can see the sunshine across central and eastern areas, the south as well. there is a bit of clouds stuck in the area of high pressure being streamed in the direction of northwest britain and cloud is something that is hard to forecast in areas of high pressure. some of the cloud breaks up and some of it doesn't and one thing we are sure of is the pollen level, and it's pretty high across central and southern

areas, few of us are sneezing out there. this is what the weather looks like at 4pm and these north western areas, black cloud is streaming and at times it will be cloudy and the best of the sunshine goes across the east and southern areas. if you are lucky, even blue skies. temperatures around the coast on the fresh side but in england where the crowd —— cloud breaks up we could see highs of 17 degrees. not much changes to night and there is not much cloud. the clouds will break, and where they do break they will give lengthy clear spells and temperatures will dip down to five celsius, but in city centres it will be seven or eight. copycat conditions for some tomorrow. if we are lucky some drizzle might come in through the thick cloud but essentially it is a calm day —— if we are unlucky. high—pressure drifting towards the east over the

weekend and with the wind blowing around it will help draw out some warm airfrom the around it will help draw out some warm air from the south. things will be warming up through the weekend, particularly across southern areas of the uk, and on saturday we could see highs approaching 20 degrees, and even across yorkshire the high teens. great news that the grand national at aintree. in liverpool, 16 degrees with light winds and sunshine. and on sunday, when the really warm air comes in from the south, lots of bright weather and we could see temperatures up to 23 in london and even across yorkshire around 20 celsius. goodbye. this is bbc news, i'm simon mccoy.

the headlines at 2pm. a father who refused to pay a fine after taking his daughter out of school for an unauthorised holiday has lost his case at the supreme court. to attend regularly no longer means to attend frequently. it now means to attend on all the days and at all the times that the school requires it. the syrian government has spoken for the first time since the gas attack that killed 70 people, and denied ever using chemical weapons amid international condemnation. jeremy corbyn says a labour government would add vat to private school fees and use the money to pay for free school meals for primary pupils in england. welsh assembly member mark reckless quits ukip and rejoins the conservatives. i'm