at blackpool pleasure beach, the european coaster club are doing what they love best, convinced thrill—seeking is most effective when it's a physicalfeeling. 200 years of twisting, turning, spinning and spiralling. the appeal of the roller—coaster shows no sign of falling away. tim muffett, bbc news, blackpool. time for a look at the weather. things have been telling a bit cooler in the last few days, but we've still got some glorious spring sunshine. we've had some great pictures sent in. this is garforth in leeds, with some patchy bellwether cloud around. a similar picture across much of the country. down towards the cornish coast, a bit more cloud pushing in. the best of the sunshine towards the east. things are still looking dry, if fairly overcast for holiday—makers in cornwall. for the rest of today,

for many of us, things are looking dry. some sunshine in southern and eastern parts. further north—west, slightly cloudy conditions through the afternoon, but it should remain largely dry for the bulk of south—west england and wales. perhaps just the odd light shower in the midlands, but looking dry towards the south—east. temperatures in england and wales, about 9—13. a bit fresher further north, especially if you are exposed to that westerly wind. some cloud in northern ireland and scotland. we will continue to see showers towards the north—west, filtering east. through this evening and overnight, we will see the cloud increasing, bringing with it further patchy rain. for northern ireland, southern scotla nd rain. for northern ireland, southern scotland and wales, that is. to the south, largely dry. a bit milder thanit south, largely dry. a bit milder than it has been in recent nights. for the easter weekend, things are staying on the cool side, but there will be some sunshine. a bit of rain around, but not all of us will see

it. quite a bit of dry weather, especially towards the south. good friday, some patchy rain affecting parts of wales, northern england, northern ireland. that will pop up in the afternoon, especially in parts of wales and northern england. mostly drive further south. we could see 16 degrees also in the sunnier spells towards london. moving through the weekend, as we see those cold fronts slipping south, during the day on saturday, not a bad picture. most of us are dry again and there will be some sunshine for southern and eastern parts in particular. one or two showers towards the north—west and temperatures around 9—15. not a bad day. easter day on sunday, bit of rain. some uncertainty on the detail, but probably through northern ireland and northern england. either side of that, some drier and brighter weather on the cards. temperatures around 1a. a bit ofa mix cards. temperatures around 1a. a bit of a mix in the next few days, but many of us should see some dry

weather and a bit of sunshine. a reminder of our main story this lunchtime. president trump says relations between the us and russia may be at an all—time low. that's all from the bbc news at one, so it's goodbye from me. on bbc one, we nowjoin the bbc‘s news teams where you are. have a good afternoon. hello, you're watching bbc news. i'm olly foster at the bbc sport centre. the second day of the track cycling world championships is under way in hong kong and it hasn't been going too well for great britain. olympic bronze medallist katy marchant failed to qualify for the sprint finals, and joe truman missed out a spot in the men's keirin final. gb haven't been successful in the team events either. the women's team pursuit didn't make the medals races. in the last half an hour, the men's team were in the bronze medal race, but despite leading

in the early stages, they were reeled in by italy. australia beat new zealand to take gold in the final. this is live action from bbc right now. we have had to be women's individual sprints, and the men's scratch race is underway. british interest in chris latham, after elinor barker has won the only british medal so far in the women's scratch race yesterday. early stages of that, coverage on bbc two right now. the liverpool manager jurgen klopp has been giving his reaction to the bomb attack on the borussia dortmund team bus on tuesday night, that saw the defender marc bartra needing an operation for a broken wrist. their champions league tie was postponed for 2h hours. they lost to monaco. klopp was head coach at dortmund for seven years before leaving in 2015. somebody of the people who made the

decision afterwards would have been with, in the bus, they wouldn't have played the game, so, but when you are not on the bus, i'm sure you cannot really imagine how it was exactly. the game is over, that's all, it's done. it was a football game. now they have a few days to... what can i say? to try to learn to live with it. you can club, there. talking about the criticism that u efa talking about the criticism that uefa has come underfor only postponing the match for less than 20 for hours. —— liverpool manager jurgen klopp. more from him in the next hour. the six—man short list for the pfa player of the year awards has been revealed. riyad mahrez won it last yearfor his part in leicester's premier league triumph. and another of their title—winning heroes has made the list again, this time for helping push chelsea to the top of the table.

he's only scored twice this season, but the last was the winner against manchester united in the fa cup quarterfinals to keep them on for a possible double. they face tottenham in the semifinals in less than a fortnight. also on the list are fellow blue eden hazard, and manchester united's zlatan ibrahimovic. tottenham's harry kane and everton‘s romelu lukaku are both up for the main award and also the young player of the year, and arsenal's alexis sanchez makes up the six. you can find the full young players list and also the contenders for the women's awards on the bbc sport website. west ham's michail antonio is out for the rest of the season with a hamstring injury that he picked up in their win over swansea last weekend. antonio's scored nine goals this season and he's also been called up by england. he might miss out on the next squad for the world cup qualifier against scotland in june. it isa

it is a big blow, of course, we know what us in every game. he is one of oui’ what us in every game. he is one of our best players and of course it is a big blow that we are going to be without him until the end of the season. the draw has been made for the first round of the world snooker championship that starts this saturday in sheffield. the defending champion mark selby will face fergal o'brien. they will be one of the first games on the tables. and the five—time champion ronnie o'sullivan will play gary wilson. coverage from the crucible is across the bbc. that's all the sport for now. the men's scratch race continues on bbc two with a0 odd laps to go. coverage also on the bbc sport website. i will be back with possibly a result on that in the next hour. would rather people said watching this to be honest, but thank you! you're watching bbc news with simon

mccoy. the education secretary justine greening says she wants a new model of grammar schools in england which are open for everyone. she says she particularly wants to make sure there are stronger educational outcomes for what she refers to as ordinary working families and not just the privileged few. but new analysis from the government shows a majority of selective school places go to more affluent families. justine greening says she wants to create schools that are "truly open to all". i believe selection in new, 21st—century state grammar schools will add to the options available to young people, to truly help make the most of their talents. i don't accept the arguments from those who critique grammars and selection, while simultaneously ignoring the views of parents. on the one hand, they call for no new grammar schools but on the other hand, they've got nothing to say about the grammars we do have. and they certainly aren't listening to the choices of parents, when we know how oversubscribed grammars are. well, we are listening. and many parents from ordinary

backgrounds believe in the chance to send their children to a grammar school. and it is the kind of school they think suits their child, so they get a great start. and you don't make this country better by taking away opportunities for children that deserve them. you do the opposite. you level up. you extend opportunities to those who haven't got them and that's why this government believes it must be parents and communities who have the final say on whether to have a grammar school in theirarea. the european court of human rights has ruled that the russian government should have done more to prevent the siege of a school in beslan in 200a. more than 330 people died when security forces stormed a school where chechen separatists had taken more than 1,000 people hostage. earlier on, my colleague chloe tilley spoke to a survivor who believes more needs to be done before justice is fully served. still, guilty people are not

punished and we don't have, we can't say that you are guilty and you are punished already. so for me, extra measures should be taken to investigate it because still, nobody is responsible for that. and this is very... it makes us feel nervous about the situation. i think that the court is quite right, quite right about russia. it should be ruled so that russia would take some measures. tell us what you remember about that day. well, i think i was too young to remember something from that, but still, i remember some moments when. . . i remember when we were there, there was a total lack of water, so we wanted to drink so much.

and i remember that when somebody saved me from that, i was drinking water so, so much that others tried to stop me because it was unhealthy to do that and so on. i remember somebody was killed by terrorists there, and that was a great... it impressed me so much. i think at that time, i understood that i was in a bad situation. but i was too young. so maybe, i didn't even understand, firstly, that i am in a bad situation. there is not one family in beslan who hasn't had been impacted by the terrorism act. we, as a community, as a beslan community, became more close to each other, because we had come... come under serious problem.

that is why we became very close to each other. of course, it is a huge impact on to our school. heavy rain and strong winds are hitting new zealand's north island, as the tail end of cyclone cook makes landfall. a state of emergency is in place across much of the bay of plenty region, where the storm is coming ashore. meterologists say it is the worst storm to hit the country in nearly 50 years. its approach coincides with high tide, raising concerns of a wave surge. television new zealand's will hine reports. former civil defence controller chuck edwards knows the ropes. we've been tying things down. the very first thing to do was what i started last night, to go right round the property and make sure there's nothing

loose that could fly. today is spent preparing, then watching and waiting. probably i'd be enjoying a nice cup of tea and looking out the window at the waves coming in. i believe they're going to be four or five metres. and we can watch them from here safely. they are spectacular. persistent rain lingered over the peninsula all day. a small hint of what is expected to come. watchers have kept their eyes on the waves. this morning when i came down, it was coming right up over the rocks. it's getting pretty large. surfers also on the lookout for a big swell. isn't it a bit windy to be out surfing? oh, hell, no. no, no way, it's beautiful out here. yeah, it's going to get better as well. but authorities are urging people not to be complacent. it's about to hit, we can feel it coming. and all the indicators are that it will be at least 100 kph wins. will be at least 100 kph winds. intensive rain, and probably between now and nine o'clock, maybe 100 millilitres,

maybe more going through to midnight. ruralfire brigades from across the region have been mobilised to help with the voluntary evacuation. residents of low—lying areas told to get to higher ground. i have a high degree of confidence that we have got to as many people as we possibly could to leave the peninsula or go to safe ground or to go to family and friends. and there is evidence of their success. powercos say they had a noticeable decrease in power use since the evacuation message went out. the ferry cancelled afternoon sailings. no reason not to come down here for easter. the weather is going to be fine. hopes high the weather will pass quickly, allowing something to be salvaged of the easter break. to bring you some breaking news coming from winchester crown court, we are hearing that michael casey, a soldier, has beenjailed for six yea rs soldier, has beenjailed for six

years for causing the death by dangerous driving of teenage athletes, described as promising teenage athletes, stacey barrows and lucy piggott. we will bring you more on that from winchester later. in a moment, a summary of the business news this hour. but first, the headlines on bbc news. president trump says us relations with russia may be at an all—time low, as moscow vetoes the latest resolution on syria at the un security council. the education secretary says she will create a new wave of grammar schools in england, which are open to ordinary working families and not the privileged few. the european court of human rights rules that russia should have done more to prevent the beslan school siege in 200a. the russian government says it will appeal against the ruling. in the business news... starbucks has blamed a collapse in uk profits on the impact of the brexit vote and a fall in the number of customers. pre—tax profits at the us coffee chain slumped to £13.a million in the year to october 2016 —

down 60% on the £3a.2 million it made in 2015. it said, "starbucks in the uk has experienced significant economic and geopolitical headwinds this year which affected sales". uk firms want to recruit more workers, but cannot find or afford the right staff, according to a survey published by the british chambers of commerce. the percentage seeking to hire is up 9% in the last three months, but despite this, around three quarters of manufacturing firms and more than half of services firms are struggling to fill the gaps. postal unions are threatening to ballot for industrial action after royal mail said it would close its defined benefit pension scheme in 2018. the postal service said that the pension plan was currently in surplus, but it was not sustainable. royal mail contributes about £a00 million a year, but it said this would have to increase to more than £1 billion by 2018. more information

on the post—referendum economy and the signs are still looking good. this time, it's from the british chambers of commerce. we were telling you earlier what it says about wages and recruiting people. this year, it recorded the fastest export growth in more than two years for manufacturing. and the numbers on the services sector are looking good too. let's look at the numbers in a bit more detail. i'm joined by mike spicer, director of economics at the british chambers of commerce. the export side, first, looking pretty good. i presume this is all to do with the debut at —— devaluation of the pound, making goods cheaper? we seen about a 2096 appreciation in stirling in the last six months which is one of the biggest appreciations we have had in recent times. those companies —— depreciation‘s we have had. those exporting companies are experiencing a good time at the moment but they have to have the contractual flexibility to be able to do that which is why we expect there to be

more flexibility for companies to change their prices and make good on that movement in the exchange rate and for others, they are locked into contracts where they are buying things in those currencies. they have seen their cost base is increased because of that exchange rate. do you have any idea with the exports are going? still mostly to europe or people beginning to diversify? do you have an impression? we seen a trend over a number of years where the percentage of exports to overseas markets has been creeping up in non—european markets, as a proportion, slightly coming down in european markets. but overall, we've got a fairly strong global economy at the moment, notwithstanding some of the more domestic political pressures. businesses are getting on and doing it. they are growing their sales, growing their order books and as you said in the introduction, recruitment intentions are still high in an economy that has a very tight labour market. let's look at the recruitment issue. you are

saying it is becoming increasingly difficult to find staff, basically? we have an unemployment rate below 596 we have an unemployment rate below 5% so that is historically quite a low unemployment rate for rich world economy to have and certainly in terms of britain's own history. the pool of available workers to recruit from is quite small, historically. so the simple answer is put up wages? there's a lot of cost pressures on businesses at the moment, as we say in the survey. there is the cost pressure that comes through from the exchange rate but also policy costs as well, everything from business rates, the apprenticeship levy, the insurance premium tax going up and of course the national living wage, which is going up from £7 20 —— seven 20p, to £7.50, for the over 25s. businesses have cost pressures on many different fronts and one of the differences is, the extent to which that gets passed through enterprises and how it affects the consumer ultimately. —— passed through to

prices. family businesses, they say, seldom last more than three generations. then they either fold or get taken over by biggerfish. that was what happened to timpsons, the shoe repair and key cutting business. however, the story took an unexpected turn. one of the original family, john timpson, returned and bought the company back. this happened in the ‘80s. since then, he's turned it into a business with almost 1,900 stores in the uk and ireland and one shop in beijing. earlier, he gave the bbc his unusual approach to annual meetings. there's a little trick i do every three years as a way of simulating out or... we don't really have sort of forward planning meetings or anything like that. but what i do, i write a chairman's report for 15 years' time. what it does, it takes you away from today. so instead of writing a forward plan, most people's forward plan, it's just an extrapolation of where they are today. they produce it, say it's going to be fine, because the sales go up faster than the costs so they make more money, so we can put that to bed and that's what it's going to be.

my forward plan, my annual report for 2032, which is what i've just written, is a way away from... it's trying to guess what's going to happen. and actually, you know what the most interesting thing about it is? it's the things that absolutely don't change. and the thing that matters most to me is the fact that in 2032, what are the bits of our culture we've got to keep, and we will still be making sure that we pick great people and we let them get on with it — what i call upside down management, will still be the way we run our business. in more business stories we're following, a group of shareholders has written to electric car—maker tesla questioning the independence of its board, warning it's too close to boss and co—founder elon musk. they urged it to re—elect members annually and to add two new independent directors to the board. in a tweet, mr musk said the investors "should buy ford stock" instead.

the french supermarket group carrefour has reported a strong rise in sales in the first three months of this year. the world's second biggest retailer saw a 6.2% jump in the amount of stuff it sold, meaning it hit almost $22.7 billion. its brazilian business was one of the main reasons why, with 38% growth in turnover mitigating the impact of its poorly performing french business. burger king has released a tv ad designed to activate google devices. the 15—second ad starts with a burger king employee holding up the sandwich saying, "you're watching a 15—second burger king ad, which is unfortunately not enough time to explain all the fresh ingredients in the whopper sandwich. but i've got an idea. ok, google, what is the whopper burger?" critics say these marketing tactics are now too invasive. i'm afraid i've probably gone and activated a whole lot of google devices! anyway, the markets. the ftse is

down, all a bit subdued in europe although we are coming up to easter. fairly slow trading. that's all the business news. back to you simon, i know you're going to come up with a comment. i was going to say, what guidelines? and we will miss you! a missing link in the evolution of dinosaurs has been discovered at the natural history museum in london. it came about after scientists there found a lost fossil which had been forgotten for decades. our science correspondent, pallab ghosh has more. this is how we imagine dinosaurs. tyrannosaurus rex was one of the very last of them. the first evolved 230 million years ago from crocodile—like creatures which walked on four legs. this is a skull of the mighty tyrannosaurus rex, one of the most fearsome creatures to walk the planet. the very first dinosaurs

were much smaller — about the size of a chicken. one of the biggest questions is how these creatures first emerged. what we are looking at now is the skeleton of one individual animal. the answer lies in the fossil of this animal, called "teleocrater". analysis of its bones suggests it had many dinosaur traits, such as a small head and a long, slender neck and long legs. but also some crocodile—like features, such as the structure of its ankles. this is what it looked like. although it is not a direct ancestor, it gives the best indication yet of how the first dinosaurs evolved. in many ways, this animal is a missing link between dinosaurs and crocodiles, and shows how some of the features that were previously just appeared in dinosaurs actually first evolved. so, for example, dinosaurs start off as two—legged animals, whereas most of their ancestors seem to be four—legged. this animal helps show how some of that transition

between a four—legged, crocodile—like animal and a two—legged dinosaur actually happened. the discovery, published in thejournal nature, fills a critical gap in the fossil record and shows that some dinosaur features evolved much earlier than previously thought. pallab ghosh, bbc news. the latest statue in new york's financial district is causing a bit of a stir. this is the newly—installed fearless girl statue, facing down the famous charging bull of wall street. it was only meant to be a temporary instalment but proved so popular, she's been kept. but the sculptor of the bull, arturo di modica, has complained to the city that the placing of the girl has changed the meaning of his original work and breached his copyright. police officers were given the run—around in london yesterday by a very unusual suspect. a pig caused chaos when it escaped and trotted through lunch—time traffic on the streets of redbridge. a jogger had to dodge the animal,

who seemed to take a liking to his fluorescent clothing. a police spokesman said the pig was eventually recaptured and returned to its owner. it's quite a quiet news day! time for a look at the weather. let's get the forecast. as we head to the easter weekend, the weather is looking relatively quiet with a lot of dry weather out there. some sunshine around as well. it won't stay dry everywhere over the next couple of days but this is how things are looking today. this is surrey, captured by one of our weather watchers with some patchy cloud around. fairly similar picture across much of the country. further north in west yorkshire, a bit more in the way of fairweather cloud. best of the brightness to the south and east. that was west yorkshire

earlier in the day. later this afternoon, keeping brightness down the east coast of scotland and england and southern england and wales, where richard stay dry. on the coast, temperatures about 12 or 13 degrees. a little bit of sunshine breaking through the cloud but also the breeze coming in from the north—west. temperatures generally around 10—13. perhaps one or two rogue showers for the midlands and north west england, and also for fermanagh and londonderry, a bit of patchy rain. a few showers across scotla nd patchy rain. a few showers across scotland drifting from west to east. aberdeenshire should keep hold of a bit of sunshine through the day. this evening and overnight, the cloud gradually increases from the west. this is a weak front moving in. we will see patchy rain across parts of northern ireland, southern scotland, north—west england and wales. to the south, relatively mild, seven or eight, clearer further north. through easter weekend, we will keep the fairly cool feel to the weather and there will be a mix of some sunshine, a bit of rain, not all of us seeing

it, during good friday, the areas likely to see some rain, northern ireland, southern scotland, northern england and wales. in the afternoon for wales and the north—west of england, the rain peps up a bit but towards the south and south—east, should stay predominantly dry, 16 degrees also, scotland and northern ireland seeing a return to sunshine and scattered showers. moving through the overnight period on to saturday, weather fronts clearing away towards the south. that leaves us away towards the south. that leaves us with a fairly cool air flow, quite windy in the north. for parts of the north of scotland, blustery conditions with a few showers. further south across the uk, most bases looking dry once again with the best of the sunshine in the south and east and temperatures around about 15 degrees. certainly cooler than it was last weekend. easter sunday, some uncertainty about the detail but some rain through the uk with drier, brighter weather to the south and towards the north. things looking a bit mixed as we head through the course of the easter weekend. a lot of drier weather and many of us will see some

spells of sunshine. it will feel much cooler than it did last weekend. this is bbc news. an first television —— president assad hasjust been giving his first television interview since the us attack on the syrian air strike. we can bring now. no one investigated what happened that day at that moment. as an the control of the armour front, a branch of al-qaeda.