this is bbc news. i'm shaun ley. the headlines at three. the most powerful non—nuclear bomb ever used by the united states targets so—called islamic state in afghanistan — 36 militants are thought to have been killed. a british tourist, thought to be aged in her 20s, has been stabbed to death on a tram injerusalem. schools in england are facing their worst funding cuts in 20 years — a warning from teaching unions. the mission to re—take mosulfrom so—called is, we report from the frontline. also in the next hour — bank holiday travel chaos on the m4 after a tanker catches fire. this force is part of the motorway to close, traffic stretches back for many miles. security's to be improved at the online booking site air bnb — after a bbc investigation finds scammers burgling homes. good afternoon and

welcome to bbc news. the afghan government says 36 so—called islamic state militants were killed when the united states dropped one of its biggest non—nuclear bombs in the eastern province of nangarhar on thursday. the commander of us forces in afghanistan, generaljohn nicholson, said the attack had been coordinated with the government in kabul — and that no civilians were harmed. our south asia editor jill mcgivering reports. this is american hard power in action. the moment the us dropped, for the first time, the biggest non—nuclear weapon it has. it was a moab, nicknamed the "mother of all bombs", and it was targeting underground bases in eastern afghanistan, a stronghold of the so—called islamic state group. the us military insists afghan leaders gave full approval. this was the right weapon

against the right target. we will continue to work shoulder to shoulder with our afghan comrades to eliminate this threat to the afghan people, especially the people of nangarhar, to the people of the entire region, and indeed, the people around the world. local people confirm this remote, harsh terrain was used by the islamic state. translation: the bomb was dropped last night on is position and caves. it was really powerful and has been used to destroy all their tunnels and caves. translation: there were daesh bases over there. last night's bomb was really huge. when it dropped, everywhere was shaking. afghan leaders say the attack was justified and there are no civilian casualties. but former afghan president hamid karzai took to social media to condemn it. back in the united states, president trump applauded the action and tried to score political points

at his predecessor's expense. if you look at what's happened over the last eight weeks and compare that, really, to what's happened over the last eight years, you will see there's a tremendous difference. tremendous difference. we have incredible leaders in the military and we have incredible military. we are very proud of them and this was another very, very successful mission. newsreader: us drops the mother of all bombs. today, the news still dominates us headlines, as the world digests this latest insight into this new president. jill mcgivering, bbc news. a little earlier we were joined by our security correspondent frank gardner. he said the bombing was intended as a warning to the enemies of the united states. this was a very deep system of tunnels and caves were so—called islamic state were improvising devices, booby—traps, ammunition and fighters, and

it would have cost a lot of people's likes to go in and destroyed that on the ground, so in that sense they can justify it. but there is a certain amount of substance which will be controversial. general hr mcmaster, the national security adviser to the trump administration said sometimes military action is not aboutjust suppressing the enemy, it is about communicating with them. and what they are doing in syria, north korea and afghanistan is sending a message that trump means business. whether you can follow that is debatable because in these three problem areas that president obama chose to deal with incrementally and with the minimum amount of force you could get away with, president trump says, i will go in guns blazing but following it up will be difficult. all three areas, north korea, syria and afghanistan require a lot of focus and commitment. these are long wars, all of them.

frank gardner, security correspondent. a young british woman has been stabbed to death on a train injerusalem. the woman, in her early 20s, was rushed to a hospital but died soon after. police say two other people were also injured during the attack. a 57—year—old palestinian man has been arrested. let's get more on this now with our middle east correspondent, tom bateman, who is injerusalem. tom, since we last spoke we have learned more about the attack, his identity and background. that's right. the police and the security agency says this was a 57—year—old man who lived in a palestinian neighbourhoods of jerusalem. man who lived in a palestinian neighbourhoods ofjerusalem. they said he had been recently released from a psychiatric hospital and had previous convictions which may shed light into what went wrong. in terms of the attack we know that this woman was attacked and the tram network, the light rail, running just outsidejerusalem's old city

when this woman was repeatedly stabbed this morning. there was an attempt to resuscitate her which was not successful. two other people we re not successful. two other people were less seriously hurt, a woman in her 30s was pregnant and a man, in a hurry to get away, when the train stopped suddenly. bodies of the emerging yet it comes at a time when there is heightened security at this time of year injerusalem, with authorities aware of the fact that many more thousands of people here. it is thejewish passover week. which means that many people in the old city and christian pilgrims heading for easter festivities as well. now there have a series of attacks in which people have a p pa re ntly attacks in which people have apparently been stabbed at random, and jewish people by palestinians. some shocking incidents, notjust

stabbings either. presumably it is not clear if this is a similar incident or entirely unconnected. since the latter part of 2015 the authorities say that dozens of people have been killed in gun, knife and car ramming attacks. and around 250 palestinians who the israelis say have in many cases been attackers, have also lost their lives in that period. now the question is whether or not this case this morning can be attributed to that wave of attacks. the israeli president has said today that he passes on his respects, that he is extremely sad about what happened and has described it as a terrorist attack. shin bet security agency says this man has recently been released from psychiatric care and

they say it is another case of a palestinian with mental problems who has carried out what they call a terror attack as a result of that. so it could be some time and we get the full details as to exactly how we can categorise what happened. tom bateman, thank you very much. a lorry carrying compressed gas has caught fire on the m4 causing long delays during the easter bank holiday. the road was closed both ways for an hour between junction 17 and 18 near chippenham but the westbound carriageway has now opened, according to highways england. wiltshire police said it is likely the road will be evacuated and has warned drivers to use alternative routes if possible. let's speak to jade jones who is stuck on the ma, was there for over two hours and is now on the move. i hope you are not striving as you speak or i would tell you to get off the phone! what did you see? basically we entered the m4just as

the tanker much have caught fire. there were no emergency services, no fire engines, or worse we could see it as fire engines, or worse we could see itasa fire engines, or worse we could see it as a huge fire with masses of smoke coming from what we thought was just a smoke coming from what we thought wasjust a vehicle smoke coming from what we thought was just a vehicle at the time. everyone is getting out of their ca rs everyone is getting out of their cars and no one knew what to do. i wandered to down and realises realised it was a fuel tanker. i went straight back to my car. and about 25 minutes later finally a fire engine arrived. as well as seeing it you must have smiled it. yes, you could. i don't think the actual tanker itself was on fire, it looked as if it was just the main head of the lorry when we passed it half an hour ago. it was pretty terrible. we are looking at the pictures that you said us. you can already see that the queues were building up. presumably nothing was moving for quite a long time. people

we re moving for quite a long time. people were hobbling on the sidelines, they will probably going to the toilet! we were literally stationery for two and a half hours, not one inch of movement at all. presumably frustrating when you suck traffic moving on the other side. after half an hourof being moving on the other side. after half an hour of being stationery they started moving on the west side and then they started moving just as we started moving. what time did you begin moving off? about quarter to three. only in the last half an hour after being stuck for more than two hours. where are you heading? bournemouth. i hope you get there and get their wireless and is still out! and help the weekend is worth the long delay. thank you for speaking to us and for sending those

pictures. we are grateful to jade for allowing us to use those pictures she sent. it looks as of the fire is out and the traffic is now moving slowly but surely. the left—hand side seems to be moving much more smoothly. police are advising people, if they can find an alternative route, although the traffic is moving inevitably there will be delays, so if you are making anyjourney, will be delays, so if you are making any journey, remember you can will be delays, so if you are making anyjourney, remember you can keep in touch with all the travel news on bbc local radio. buses have began evacuating hundreds of villagers and

fighters from four rebel held villages in syria, two of them close to damascus. it follows a deal struck between president assad's government and rebel forces. but the opposition says it amounts to deliberate displacement of the president's opponents further from the capital. earlier i spoke to our correspondent benjames, in earlier i spoke to our correspondent ben james, in neighbouring earlier i spoke to our correspondent benjames, in neighbouring beirut, he has been following the story from there. i asked why both sides had come to an agreement. the government of president assad has talked about these sort of deals as being key to promoting some kind of peace to defusing some of these opposition enclaves that exist in predominantly government—held areas, the last one before this was in homs, once known as the capital of the revelation but only one opposition held area remained there. this is the largest of the deals so far. it involves a swap, if you like, although the people are not going to each other‘s

towns, the two towns on one side being evacuated in return for two towns on the other side. the sentiment you heard from the man whose clip we just played is partly because they feel their hand has been forced, that starvation and siege has been used to force a deal like this that means they have to leave their homes, despite such dire circumstances that they are leaving behind, humanitarian situation described by the united nations as catastrophic, in that particular town you may remember the images that the activists showed last year when people were eating grass and leaves from trees to survive, there are also severe shortages of medicine in those places. we expect up medicine in those places. we expect up to 30,000 people to take part in the movement from these towns, both civilians and some fighters involved from groups including somejihadists groups that are in control of these

opposition areas. three out of the four towns that we have seen buses moving from so far, we expect the fourth to happen either tonight or tomorrow. we heard some opposition politicians expressing scepticism about why the government is doing this and suggesting that there is a motive in pushing potential opponents as farfrom motive in pushing potential opponents as far from damascus as possible, any credibility to that claim? there is certainly an argument that this leads to a demographic change, the two government—controlled towns are predominantly shia in a sunni area, the opposition held towns the other way around, predominantly sunni in a shia area. so what those critics say is that the map is being withdrawn in syria to the benefit of the government and their backers. president assad referred to this in the interview he gave to the afp news agency in the week. he insists

that such movement will only be temporary although it's extremely difficult to work out how the people involved in these movements might go back any time soon. that was ben james, we talked earlier. the headlines at 15 minutes past thee. the united states says there is no evidence any civilians were harmed when it shopped its largest non—nuclear bomb on an isis militants based in afghanistan. a tourist in her 20s has been stabbed to death on a train injerusalem, we have heard news that a 57—year—old man just released from a psychiatric hospital is thought to be the settlement. unions representing half a million teachers say england schools are facing the worst cuts in budget for 20 years. and katie archibald leaves it late to win gold for women at the women only world track cycling championships in hong kong. jenson button will be back in formula 1 sooner button will be back in formula 1 sooner than expected, replacing fernando alonso at the monaco grand prix next month, the spaniard racing in the indy 500 instead. and wigan

warriors have won the good friday derby against 12 man st helens. we'll be back with more on those stories just after half past three. unions representing half a million teachers say schools in england are facing the worst funding cuts, in real terms, for twenty years. gathering for their annual conferences, they're also highlighting a growing shortage of teachers for subjects such as maths and science. the government says £40 billion is being spent on schools this year — in cash terms the highest figure ever. 0ur education correspondent gillian hargreaves reports. st martin's school in essex is a good school. but even here, it has become increasingly difficult to recruit staff, particularly in specialist subjects. at one stage, they had a science teacher vacancy for more than a year. but there are also shortages in maths and modern languages. i look at the pool of people that are teaching in those areas and the number of people that

are due to retire over the next ten years, and also the number of people that are coming in that aren't actually a specialist in the subject area that they're teaching, and i think that this is really the thin end of the wedge. teachers are gathering for their conferences at a time of unprecedented anger over cuts. there have been widespread protests from parents and schools who say, without more money, class sizes will go up and teaching posts will be cut. the government points out £40 billion is being spent on schools this year, the highest cash figure ever. but teachers say that hasn't taken into account rising costs, like pay, pensions, and the running costs of schools. the funding pressure is also beginning to hit parents, something of a concern to the unions. half of parents are saying they're making at least one financial contribution to the school's funds, in order to "enhance resources", whatever that means, at school level. and many parents are finding that even the cost of school uniform is something which they can no longer afford. there is also much disquiet

about government plans to introduce a new wave of grammar schools. teachers argue money set aside for them would be better spent on existing schools. however, the government says this new wave of grammars would benefit less—well—off families. gillian hargreaves, bbc news. labour has accused the government of "rewarding failure" in response to new figures which suggest the government will have to pay millions of pounds more than planned to atos and capita, two private companies which assess people claiming disability benefits. let's talk to our political correspondent emma va rdy. is this a mistake, is it an error or is this a miscalculation of how much all of this was going to cost? well these personal independence payments are made to people of working age to help with costs. costs that may occur because of illness and disability. what seems to have

happened is that the department for work and pensions vastly underestimated the number of people that would make these claims. so the costs are much higher than originally forecast. it is also partly to do with the fact that some people have their claims turned down, they may appeal and that gets overturned which contributes as well. the press association has been crunching the numbers, the cost of these assessments was meant to be 500 million pounds by the end of the year, now it could be 7 million, significantly more. stephen crabb, former work and pensions secretary said today of his old department that they are not good at making these forecasts. forecasting is difficult, we talked earlier about the weather forecast! yet in terms of numbers and predicting figures, quite often the treasury is way out on its forecasting but this presumably has consequences. 0ur weekly but because of the overspending the department for work and pensions might have to find

money from elsewhere? good question, how to plug the gap. the department hasn't been a able to give a good explanation yet. labour has criticised the government today saying the costs are spiralling out of control. they have said these are extortionate payments to private companies. the department for work and pensions argue that people need to be assessed properly, they have to be assessed properly, they have to pay private companies more because there's more work to do. the way these assessments are done has been subject to a lot of criticism. some say they are done very insensitively, they get too many decisions wrong. the difficult position that the dwp is in is that it needs to strike that balance between protecting the vulnerable and getting a good dealfor the taxpayer. emma fadi, thank you very much. but emma fadi. the iraqi government has told people living in mosul to stay inside as security forces prepare for an assault aimed at dislodging so—called islamic state militants.

thousands of civilians are still trapped in the city, which has been held by i.s since 2014. 0ur defence correspondentjonathan beale is embedded with troops. the prize is in their sight. the old city of mosul and its most famous landmark, the leaning minaret of the al—nuri mosque. this is where abu bakr al—baghdadi first appeared as caliph of the so—called islamic state. they still control it and most of what you can see. but for how much longer? translation: the mosque is now very near and soon we will advance. we know the enemy is weak and on its last legs. a visit to the front line, though, tells a different story. for the past few weeks, the iraqi advance has slowed to a crawl. resistance is still fierce. these federal police

are surrounded on two sides by is and they are firing on their positions from here. snipers, is snipers, just about 100 metres from this position. and you can see the rounds, the is rounds, coming in here, fairly regularly. tens of thousands of civilians are still trapped, caught in the crossfire. much of mosul has already been turned to rubble. even in these deserted streets, recently secured, there is nowjust the debris of war. here, discarded is military uniforms and nearby, one of their many improvised bombs. but the enemy is not just hiding in the city. wejoined an iraqi intelligence unit hunting down is infiltrators and collaborators who have already escaped. now seeking shelter and avoiding

capture in camps, living alongside the innocents of this war, who fled the fighting. how often do you do this? do you do this often? always, every day, every night. you are finding isis fighters in these camps? in the camp or some in his house, in mosul. everywhere. the extremists may be losing their grip on mosul but even if they are defeated, is won't have gone away. jonathan beale, bbc news, mosul. a future labour government says it would bring in a law preventing banks from closing their high street branches. more than a thousand local branches closed in the uk between 2016 and 2017.

labour says lending to small businesses decreases in areas where banks close. the government says its support for small businesses, including start—up loans, has helped 40,000 firms. the world famous las vegas strip had to be closed last night after a fire broke out at one of the city's biggest casinos. huge flames were spotted near the roof of the bellagio hotel which is at the centre of las vegas boulevard. emergency teams say they were able to bring it under control, but the location made the operation difficult. no injuries were reported. the online accommodation booking company airbnb says it will improve its security, after a bbc investigation found that people's homes have been burgled by scammers using stolen accounts. they hijacked profiles with verified badges and changed some personal details to pull off the thefts. the company says it will now warn members if their profile information is changed. chris foxx reports. like millions of people, christian had let out his home on airbnb while he was out of town, as a convenient way to make some extra money. he had done so for years without a problem.

but on his birthday, his home was burgled. i got that horrible text message saying someone is in the account, and it is not me, because my account had been compromised. christian thought he had let out his home to a verified profile, somebody who had showed airbnb a government identification, and had positive reviews from previous bookings. but the account had been stolen. the attacker had changed the name, photograph and contact details on the profile, but kept airbnb's "verified" badge. and christian is not alone. the bbc has spoken to two other people who were robbed this way, and three others who had their accounts stolen. and airbnb's facebook page has dozens of comments from people who have had their accounts compromised. there are many ways attackers could have been hijacking airbnb accounts. they might simply have tricked people into handing over their passwords. but there are ways airbnb could have defended against this. we put our security

concerns to airbnb. the company said this. those changes include two—step verification when somebody logs in from a new device, and text message alerts if somebody changes your profile information. but, for christian, the changes come too late. he says the whole experience has left him with a bad feeling, chris fox bbc news. let's ta ke let's take a look at the weather. a fairly cool theme this weekend, this is the scene in herefordshire, cloud and a fisher spots of rain, many other parts of wales, some showers in the midlands and the north of england, across scotland and northern ireland sunnier spells yet with some showers, some wintry over the mountains of scotland but

towards the south—east where we have brighter spells as easy at the afternoon, this evening and overnight cloud and the rain pushed south eastwards, further north it's quite likely on saturday, windy for parts of scotland which i was the mountains. in the vitamin dry is that it showers although still cool, around 9—14 , that continues through the easter weekend, things staying on the cool side, some spells of sunshine and some of us will see a little rain. sung, hello. sung, this is bbc news. the head lines: the united states says there's no evidence of civilian casualties after it dropped a huge bomb on the strong hold of the group that calls itself islamic state in afghanistan. a british tourist, thought to be aged in her 20s,

has been stabbed to death on a tram in jerusalem's old town. schools in england are facing their worst funding cuts in 20 years. long delays after a gas tanker caught fire on the m 4 in wiltshire. the road is closed between 17 and 18, but it has now re—opened ( let's see what's happening on the sporting front. former world champion, jenson button, will replace fernando alonso for mclaren at the monaco grand prix at the end of may. alonso, here on the right, will miss the race to take part in the indianapolis 500, with full support from the team and its engine partner honda. he's replaced by his former teammate, who is contracted as maclaren's reserve driver. sebastian vettel topped the timesheets in first practice for this weekend's bahrain grand prix. the german was almost two seconds quicker than his championship rival, britain's lewis hamilton, who was tenth. it's a busy programme of football in the championship today.

both brighton and newcastle could take a big step towards premier league football next season. seven games in the championship kicked off at 3pm. a defeat for third placed huddersfield at home to preston could mean that brighton could all but seal a return to the top flight for the first time in 33 years, with victory at wolves. newcastle also take on leeds later tonight. manchester united will be without juan mata for the rest of the season through injury. the spanish international had a operation on a groin problem last month and had hoped to play again this term. but manager, jose mourinho, has confirmed his absence, adding to the

long—term injury concerns for defenders philjones and chris smalling. katie archibald has won great britain's first gold at the world track cycling championships in hong kong, in the women's omnium. it's decided by the number of points you score over four different events. she was second going into the final event, the points race, and did enough to beat amy cure of australia to the gold medal. it's archibald's second world title, and her first individual gold. she was part of the victorious team pursuit squad three years ago in colombia. i feel ifeel in pain primarily. yeah, i feel really privileged to pull it off in the end. that was an unbelievably grippy race. really thought i'd lost it at the middle point, chasing, chasing, being attacked. chasing, being attacked. got back on in the end and pulled it out of the bag. wigan warriors won the traditional good friday derby against rivals st helens in rugby league's super league. it's saints first match since the dismissal of keiron cunningham as head coach. things started extremely badly

for them, as prop forward kyle amor was red carded for a high tackle in the 13th minute. liam marshall and his wing partner joe burgess both scored twice, as wigan took advantage in the closing stages to run out 29—18 winners. there are four games in all in super league today: the iaaf president, lord coe, is disappointed by the lack of progress made by russia in its anti—doping reforms. the country is currently banned from competing in international athletics, after a report claimed over a thousand athletes benefited from a state—sponsored doping programme. coe believes there is still a lack of cooperation and transparency. i'm frustrated on behalf of the

athletes. more progress should have been made. it's always been our ambition to get athletes back into international competition, but separated from a tainted system. i'm frustrated for them that more progress has not been made. that's all sport for now. follow the latest cycling and football on the bbc sports website. more sport at around 4. 15pm. football on the bbc sports website. more sport at around 4.15pm. ( back ( now to our main story. the commander of american forces in afghanistan has said dropping the most powerful non—nuclear bomb in his country's arsenal on an islamic state group cave complex was the right thing to do. afghan officials said 36 militants — including a senior commander — were killed and that there were no civilian casualties. the american commander in afghanistan, generaljohn nicholson, said the bomb was aimed at halting the brutality of the islamic state group. this was the right weapon against

the right target. we had persistent surveillance over the area before, during and after the operation and now we have afghan and us forces on the site and see no evidence of civilian casualties, nor have there been any reports of civilian casualties. let me take a moment to emphasise the brutality of the our enemy, daesh. since they arrived in southern afghanistan, they have dragged people out of their homes and beheaded them in front of their families. they forced elders to kneel on explosives and blew them up in front of their people. daesh has sent suicide bombers to attack peaceful demonstrations and have killed and wounded hundreds of innocent civilians. they have sent suicide bombers into mosques and murdered people during their prayer. just last month, they shot and stabbed hospital patients lying in their beds. they are animals. the

afg ha n their beds. they are animals. the afghan army and specifically their commandos are leading this fight against these barbaric terrorists. they are doing it on behalf of the people of afghanistan and indeed, they're doing it on behalf of all of us. they're doing it on behalf of all of us. the united states is committed to afghanistan in this fight. we are united with the afghan government to prevent terrorists from establishing safe havens in afghanistan. we coordinated with afghanistan to conduct yesterday's operation, just as we have since we started these operations in early march. let me be clear — we will not relent in our mission to fight alongside our afg ha n mission to fight alongside our afghan comrades to destroy isis k in 2017. we will continue to work shoulder to shoulder with our afghan comrades to eliminate this threat to the afghan people, to the people of the afghan people, to the people of the entire region and indeed the people around the world. speculation has been growing that

north korea may be ready to carry out its sixth nuclear test as soon as this weekend. if so, it would coincide with the anniversary of the birth of the nation's founder, kim il—sung. the bbc'sjohn sudworth is in the north korean capital pyongyang. he's among a group ofjournalists who have been invited into the secretive country to witness the anniversary celebrations. he's been speaking to passengers on the pyongyang metro system. a trip to the pyongyang subway station is a classic stop on any foreign media trip to this city, with the giant soviet—style halls and the murals of the ruling family. but as this country prepares to celebrate its biggest national holiday and as those celebrations are taking place amid one of the periodic peaks in the crisis and

tension that often defines north korea's relationship with the outside world, it is, if nothing else, a chance to ask some of the local people what they think. translation: we should have the nuclear weapons. if we do not have the nuclear weapons the nuclear weapon of another country will fall on our soil. you think it keeps the country on our soil. you think it keeps the cou ntry safe ? translation: yes. yes, that's right, exactly. translation: it doesn't matter whether the americans they make the situation on the korean peninsula tense. it doesn't matter, we feel safe because we have the great leader. of course, all these answers are given under the watchful eye of our government minders. for them, there is a purpose to all of this. the foreign media are invited to

north korea to allow it to give its version of ordinary life here, to humanise this country. but there's another purpose too, that is to give this message of unyielding defiant and resilience in the face of international pressure. hull is taking centre stage this year, as it hosts a series of arts events as the uk city of culture. just four months into 2017, and people have already been flooding in to see what the city has to offer — as colin paterson reports. the place would have smelt of carpet, overalls and the makeshift fire. hull, city of culture, were even taxis are being turned into theatres. and he'd raise us up by pumping a handle up and down. for the next three months, wayne jackson is performing his show, now then, about people's memories of hull to an audience of six in the back of his father's cab. it's quite close.

and the show is only 20 minutes, so i'm doing it, kind of, eight times a day. so, it's demanding and challenging. and his dad is loving it. it's absolutely brilliant. it's combining my son's work and mine. we've always been so proud of him. had you ever done anything arty before? nothing at all, whatsoever. and venues have been popping up all over the city. this week's big opening, flood, a state—of—the—nation parable, is performed on a floating stage right in the middle of a residential area. these people in their flats have been looking down upon us for six weeks. we've been chatting to them, we've been to local primary schools, to say hello, to teach them a song that in the play. we have a little boy called jim, who comes by every day on his way back from school and says, "what are you doing?" and at that very moment, who should arrive butjim for his daily inspection? proudly sharing the title the crew have bestowed upon him. executive producer.

excellent, that's a great title. it's a small example of how people of all ages have been getting involved since hull's year in the spotlight began onjanuary 1st with a musical firework display. other highlights so far have included the visit of enormous sculpture, the blade and the humber bridge being given a musical accompaniment by 0pera north. it's just been a magical start to the year. we've seen hundreds of thousands of residents getting involved, but also, people coming from all over to experience hull for the first time. and those who have lived in hull all their lives have noticed a difference. it'sjust framed everything up, everything up, it's lovely. it's a pleasure, actually, to walk around town. and there's still eight and a half months to go. and you can see more about all the events going on in hull, tonight: for 200 years, a team at the armagh 0bservatory have taken

manual weather readings on the temperature, wind, and rainfall, every day, by hand. but that may all be about to change. the 0bservatory, who are thought to have the longest record of manual weather readings, now say they're looking at moving to an automated system. 0ur weather presenter nick miller has been to armagh to see how it works. it's a weather ritual. from checking the thermometer for the temperature, to seeing how many minutes or hours of sunshine there have been, and more. someone has been taking all these measurements here every day for over 200 years. it's my responsibility now, i'm the one doing it now, i have been doing it for 18 years. these are just as accurate as digital thermometers and there is no significant difference in them, really. so the old way is as good as the new way, really, you know. an automatic weather station will provide more data, more often, and ensure the record goes on if someone can't be found

to follow in shane's footsteps. and what a record it is. with those first readings still stored at the observatory. well, you've got some history there, haven't you, michael? i certainly have, yes. these are the first readings of weather here at armagh 0bservatory. this is the first sheet of measurements, it goes back, let's see, 27th of december 1794. and it's very simple measurements, just three things. it's the inside temperature, the outside temperature, and the barometer. this is the start of measurements which have been going on ever since, every day, here at armagh 0bservatory. shane, you've been doing this every day for 18 years. how will you feel when you say goodbye to this? well, yes, it'll be a nice saturday morning when you don't have to get up and come up and stand on top of the hill and get rained on and the wind blows you round the place! and that is seeing the bright side possible end an era. but for now, the last page has yet to be written on this exceptional piece of weather history.

nick miller, bbc news, armagh. i'm trying to work out who these belong to. you know what they say about dogs starting to look like their owners. these are dogs from collea g u es their owners. these are dogs from colleagues of mine here at the bbc. they have to do what lots of people have to do, leave it at home, when you're going to work. one of the ha rd est you're going to work. one of the hardest things to do not least for the dog, of course. what about the prospect of actually taking your dog into work? some people think that's something that should be allowed in offices and work places. 0ne something that should be allowed in offices and work places. one in ten offices and work places. one in ten of businesses have a dog friendly policy. this firm's pets at work scheme

sceau royal popular that around 100 dogs will have gained their own staff pass. some people wondered how many dogs we would have coming into the office, whether we would have large numbers roaming the office. 0n any given day, we probably have between a total of 20 to 25 dogs in an office of a thousand people. it's rare to hear a dog bark in the office. but they're there if you wa nt to office. but they're there if you want to find one to pet. the dogs don'tjust want to find one to pet. the dogs don't just relieve want to find one to pet. the dogs don'tjust relieve stress, but also they seem to help build office camaraderie. it's made me make friends. people come and talk to me. i don't think they know my name. but they know my dog. it opens those doors. what about that time when she needs to go to the loo? she starts to pace a bit and looks up at me. we've had the odd accident in the past. doggie daycare is £30 to £40 a day. so, i've got three of them, for me, it's a big saving. have there ever been any fall out with other

dogs? not that i've ever seen. they love chasing each other round the park. you hear the odd bark, but that's about it. just how easy is it taking your pet into the work place? come on, this way. i've borrowed marna come on, this way. i've borrowed mama to find out. this is the bbc, come on. this is the business unit. we're going for an editorial meeting. the dow jones we're going for an editorial meeting. the dowjones from last night on the slide. off we go. there we are. if you hear any bizarre noises in the background it's because we have a dog in this morning's meeting. ok, different. right. we're going to the studio now, down to make up. i'm going to give you a little bit too. imight too. i might need to brush off a few dog hairs. marna remained calmly inquiz tiff until she saw the cleaning trolley. we have a guest in today. marna's following me round. she's scared. next stop the bbc world studio. where we met debbie a dog

behaviouralist. are you gorgeous indeed. every office is different of course. some are quiet, some have the public in and out. you need to be sure that your dog is of the right temperament and recognise if you're dog is struggling and make sure other people aren't afraid or allergic in the office. take a bag of goodies for your dog to be entertained. it's lunch time and marna can spend it with me. after her performance in the editorial meeting i think she deserves a treat. don't you, marna! come on. don't we all. the headlines on bbc news: 36 militants from so—called islamic state are thought to have been killed, after a us military strike with a weapon known as the "mother of all bombs". a british woman on holiday has been stabbed to death on a tram injerusalem. schools in england are facing their worst funding cuts in 20 years, a warning from teaching unions. now its time for meet the author.

0klahoma oklahoma in the 19s to, the true story of a murder conspiracy that absorbed and shocked america, and epitomised the darker side of the wild west and its lingering lawlessness. native americans being herded into reservations and dismissed as inferior red indians. then the oil gushers, spouting out of the prayeries and changing everything. eventually a conspiracy fuelled by greed and jealousy that became one of the obsessions of the youngj became one of the obsessions of the young j edgar became one of the obsessions of the youngj edgar hoover became one of the obsessions of the young j edgar hoover and became one of the obsessions of the youngj edgar hoover and the fbi. killers of the flower moon is a trip into the story of a people, a journey into a part of america's past that's closer than we sometimes think. welcome. david, this is a fabulous melodrama,

but it's also human story that's full of tragedy. when you lifted the lid on this series of murders in 0klahoma lid on this series of murders in oklahoma in the early 20s, apart from knowing you'd stumbled across a wonderful story, how did it affect you? i've written so many stories. this was the one that was probably the most emotionally draining. i worked on it for nearly half a decade and i began to collect pictures, photographs of the victims. i would pictures, photographs of the victims. iwould keep pictures, photographs of the victims. i would keep those photographs by my desk as i worked on the project. the real tragedy was asi on the project. the real tragedy was as i began the project i thought there were, you know, so many victims, a dozen. then it grew to

two dozen. by the end of the project, i was looking at scores of victims who were caught up in this incredibly sinister conspiracy. they we re incredibly sinister conspiracy. they were native americans. yes. red indians, as we grew up to call them in an earlier age. they faced the most terrible problems in their lives, the land was removed. the discrimination was at a level that we can barely imagine. then they discovered the black oil was coming up discovered the black oil was coming up through their land and they became rich. the way the story begins, it's extraordinary. it takes you to another planet. yes, it's amazing. so they suffered the same fate of so many native american communities and tribes and nations in the united states, which is they we re in the united states, which is they were driven off their land. they once controlled most of the midwest. thomas jefferson called once controlled most of the midwest. thomasjefferson called them a great nation, then in a few years they ceded millions of acres. they were driven to a corner of north—east

0klahoma. they went there because they thought the land was rocky and infertile. lo and behold they are sitting upon some of the largest deposits of oil in the world. 0vernight they became millionaires. they became the richest people per capita, not only in the united states, but in the world. they lived in mansions. it was said at the time each american might own one car, each american might own one car, each of them owned 11 cars. the car had come, we're in the twentieth century in this story, but it is the wild west. it is the last remnants of the wild west. it's lawless. lawless, outlaws. pistol shooters. because of the oil, this area drew, it was like a magnet for every kind of outlaw. getty arrived on the train. all the great oilman made their fortunes there. all the great names that we associate, oil barons they made their money. in the midst

of it, you tell the story of a real set of murders, a conspiracy, what we would now call a cover—up and a target for the nascient fbi, hoover in washington, sending his men in under cover to try to sort this out. imean, under cover to try to sort this out. i mean, it's a story that's better than fiction. yeah, it is crazier than fiction. yeah, it is crazier than fiction. yeah, it is crazier than fiction. it was hard to believe. what's amazing about this story is it has been almost skied from history —— excised from history, partially from racial prejudice. yet it was huge. big in its day. it became the fbi's first major homicidejob. hoover was insecure about his job, after they badly bungled the case, to give an example of that, they recruited an

outlaw, appropriately named blackey, to go in under cover to use an informant, instead he slips away, robs a bank and kills a police officer. j robs a bank and kills a police officer.j edgar hoover robs a bank and kills a police officer. j edgar hoover is robs a bank and kills a police officer.j edgar hoover is in washington petrified he might lose hisjob. he turns washington petrified he might lose his job. he turns the case over to an old frontier lawman, tom white and it's like out of ocean 11. texas rangers. yeah, one guy poses as an insurance salesman. he used to sell insurance. he opens an insurance store in town, selling real policies. the most amazing thing is too, the undercover team included an american—indian agent. this is remarkable venlt there was so much prejudice at the time. he was probable lit only american —— probably the only american—indian in the bureau at the time. you uncover for us a conspiracy, the fayure of which we won't reveal because it would spoil it for readers.

subsequently a sensational trial that goes deep into the american story in the sense that you can see through this prism, with all its melodrama and blood stained detail, the emergence of a real system of laws and order. yes. in the 1920s, it took that long. yes, this is really the emergence of what i would call professionalism, an effort to professionalise law enforcement. 0ne of the things that shocked me was how lawless the country was, how untrained sheriff officers were and how widespread corruption was. this was an attempt to professionalise the art of detection. the amazing thing about tom white is he began riding ona thing about tom white is he began riding on a horse when justice was meted out by the end of a gun. by the 1920s, he's wearing a suit and fedora, he's trying to work out

fingerprints and handwriter analysis and he has to file paperwork, which he can't stand. this is a magical story. as you said when we began, it's a very painful story. yeah. what did you learn about your country in the 1920s that you hadn't really thought of? you know, i was shocked, even though you grow up hearing about racial prejudice, the degree of racial prejudice that allowed these crimes to go on. these we re allowed these crimes to go on. these were crimes of greed and avarice, but they were carried out with almost, without consciousness because the targets and the victims we re because the targets and the victims were native americans. in their minds, many of the killers, these we re minds, many of the killers, these were seen as minds, many of the killers, these were seen as subhumans. because of that, these crimes are covered up. i guess the thing that shocked me most is we tend to think about murder stories with a singular evil force, right, one really bad man and the whole concept of a mystery, in both

fiction and non—fiction, you capture the bad man and you feel better about society. what happens when you have a crime story where the whole of white society, the whole town is possibly complicit in it? finally, how have the people that you've been in touch with, in that area, reacted to the telling of this story and the fa ct to the telling of this story and the fact that it will be read by millions of people? i didn't know when i began the project how people would receive me and the desire to tell the story. i was struck that the 0ssage were remarkably generous because they carried this story inside them for so many years and so, ithink inside them for so many years and so, i think for them, the chance to share the story that it might receive its place in history and a wider audience, at least so far, my experience has been extremely positive. david grann, author of killers of the flower moon, thank you very much. thank you so much.

pretty cool out there today. no change over the next few days, as far as the easter weekend's concerned. there'll be sunny spells around, but also a little bit of rain. actually next week even some frosts on the way. nothing too harsh, but cold enough. here it is, the cold air that's originated from the cold air that's originated from the arctic. by the time it reaches us the arctic. by the time it reaches us it's not so cold. but still pretty nippy out there. i'm sure you'll agree, especially if you were caught in the breeze. this chilly air is with us for a few days. also air is with us for a few days. also a lot of cloud. not exactly ideal weather conditions. but it could be worse. we could have gales and lashings of rain. instead a bit of cloud and spots of rain. nothing more than that. this is the weather map through this evening. a couple of fronts crossing the country. that means a lot of cloud out there and also a little bit of light rain on and off. that's pretty much it. across scotland, the air‘s cold

enough for wintry showers. but mostly across the hills, so perhaps a little cold for some of the easter walkers up in the hills across scotland. tomorrow should be a bright day. chilly first thing. around lunch time, a good time to start really, on saturday, and quite a bit of sunshine around. also a fair bit of cloud. let's call it a mixed day. temperatures 10 to 14 degrees across the south. it gets colder the further north we go. here, 7 or8 colder the further north we go. here, 7 or 8 degrees. 8 degrees in shetland is op mistic. it might be colder than that over there. a mixed day. you can see the showers coming through about on the screen here. blobs of blue. not a wall of water. just showers coming in and going. then on easter day itself, so this is sunday, we have a weather front moving across central parts of the uk. it could be further north or south. so a bit of uncertainty about

where this lump of rain will go. it could do this, further north, but the point is, there will be some rain crossing the country during the course of easter day. the best chance of keeping drier weather, i think, the further south—west you are, cornwall and devon. think, the further south—west you are, cornwalland devon. easter monday, starts off on a nippy note, 15, maybe, depending on how much sunshine we're going to get. quite a few showers on those eastern coasts. so, a mixed easter weekend. as i said, it could be worse. not ideal. but certainly could be worse this time of the year. enjoy. this is bbc news. i'm shaun ley. the headlines at four. the most powerful non—nuclear bomb ever used by the united states targets so—called islamic state in afghanistan — 36 militants are thought to have been killed. this was the right weapon against the right target, we will not relent our mission to fight

alongside our afghan comrades to destroy isis k in 2017. a british tourist, thought to be aged in her 20s, has been stabbed to death on a tram injerusalem. schools in england are facing their worst funding cuts in 20 years — a warning from teaching unions. the mission to re—take mosulfrom so—called is, we report from the frontline. also in the next hour, paying the price for unwelcome guests.