i think it is important to remember that once upon a time this would have been the soundtrack to our spring around every fire, around every homestead. we would have just gone out and listened to the nightingales. so, that little, damp thicket, an oasis of song. david sillito, bbc news, ashford, in kent. time for a look at the weather. not very warm but very dry? no significant prolonged rainfall in the weather forecast for this week. looking at rainfall totals for april, we have not quite got all the fa cts april, we have not quite got all the facts and figures yet for the month, but it is looking like it has been an extremely dry month with many places seeing rainfall totals well below the average. so much so, in edinburgh, it has been the driest

april on record. only four millimetres of rain for the whole month. amazing weather pictures though. in the highlands, not a cloud in the sky. western scotland, you will see the best of the weather this week. yesterday, the warmest in the country. we could see 19 today. little dip in the middle of the week but by the weekend, backed up to 19, 20. a good slice of dry weather here. temperatures around 17 celsius. certainly, west is best in terms of the sunshine. a few isolated showers through the afternoon but nothing particularly significant. nowhere near enough to water the garden is that the show

was will drift their way steadily through the south and west preventing temperatures from falling too globe. in sheltered glens in scotla nd too globe. in sheltered glens in scotland temperatures could be down as far as scotland temperatures could be down as faras minus scotland temperatures could be down as far as minus two. the little weather front down into the south—east with more breeze coming in off the north sea. they are obviously pretty cold at this time of year. obviously pretty cold at this time of yea r. less obviously pretty cold at this time of year. less of a breed in scotland with some more shelter and warmth in the west. the best of the weather, i7 celsius not out of the question. into wednesday and thursday, high pressure still influencing. the week weather fronts down to the south will enhance a little more cloud. not much in the way of rain. so, sheltered west is best for the

sunshine and warmth and driver and dry for us mostly throughout the week. labour offers its key election policy on policing on the streets but this embarrassment as the shadow home secretary gets the figures wrong. —— that there is embarrassment. time for the sport on bbc news. british athletes who may lose their world records have received an apology from the man responsible for the controversial anti—doping proposal. he says they are collateral damage. paula radcliffe will be one of those who has her record wiped out as the sport tries to overcome doping scandals. she says her reputation will be damage. under proposed new rules anyone who breaks a major record should have been tested several times

in the months beforehand — and their doping sample should be available for re—testing for another 10 years but the iaaf has only stored blood and urine samples since 2005. radcliffe has called the proposal is cowardly. they are trying to wipe out suspect records and they are saying they would do it with our dignity intact but it doesn't feel like that and they are putting us in a situation where they can't fully guarantee this. to put this in place now feels like it will confuse a lot of people trying to follow the record. laura muir will attempt to break zola budd's 32—year—old british mile record at the london anniversary games on 9 july. the scot holds five outdoor and indoor british records... and ran a personal best over the distance last year. budd's mark, set in switzerland in 1985, is 4 minutes 17.57 seconds. muir says it would be ‘brilliant‘ to break the record one month before the start of the world

championships. that is in london. paralympic champion susie rogers has announced her retirement from swimming. she won gold in rio in the butterfly for yea rs before won gold in rio in the butterfly for years before taking three bronze medals in the london paralympic. she was awarded an mbe in the new year's honours list. she says she wants to leave at the top as she talks about a journey of learning, challenges and immense happy knack. ebrahimi pitch has had successful knee surgery pitch has had successful knee surgery in the united states. luke shaw will see a specialist to determine how bad his that injury is. he left the field afterjust nine minutes the draw between —— at swa nsea. nine minutes the draw between —— at swansea. cristiano ronaldo and

team—mates will be without gareth bale who has a calf problem. mark selby admits it would be difficult to match stephen hendry‘s records. he won his third last night. he had an impressive comeback to become the the fourth player in the world to defend his title successfully. he admits he's never performed this well before. i enjoy it as much as ever now and it is showing on the table. i'm properly at the peak of my career i can honestly say. so, who knows? to dominate the game is difficult. you could probably argue that i'd done it this season but to continue to do it over a period of time is very difficult. that's all your sport for now. you can see more

on our website. we will have more fear in the next hour. thank you very much indeed. good afternoon. the time is 20 to two. the shadow home secretary, diane abbott, has come under pressure today after she stumbled several times during an interview and was unable to say how much labour's plan for 10,000 new police officers in england would cost. here is her response as she listened to the radio interview that caused all the trouble in the first place. how much will it cost? well, if we recruit the 10,000 police men and women over a four—year period, we believe it will be about £300,000. £300,000? sorry... 10,000 police officers?

what are you paying them?! no, i mean... how much would they cost? they will cost... it will cost... about £80 million. about £80 million? yes. youjust don't million? yes. you just don't know your figures million? yes. you just don't know yourfigures and million? yes. you just don't know your figures and you are not on top of your brief! if i don't know them, why was i able to do six other interviews and give the figures correctly and you need to ask why the conservative party is so anxious to move the debate away from the 20,000 police officers lost since 2010. back to that interview. never mind the other interviews. this is 110w mind the other interviews. this is now an election campaign. frontbencher ‘s and government

ministers are expected to do reams of interviews. this was a major policy announcement for you in your own words. you want to make it a cornerstone of your manifesto. you didn't know the figures. cornerstone of your manifesto. you didn't know the figureslj cornerstone of your manifesto. you didn't know the figures. i did know my figures and if you would listen... why did you say to? i misspoke them as you heard. if i didn't know them then i wouldn't have been able to give them in other interviews. i listen to some of those interviews and you didn't give the figures. i gave six other interviews... but you didn't give the figures. they are basic. £300,000 would have meant £30 per police officer. that is embarrassing and then you are struggling to correct that figure. did you not know them at all or were you just guessing when you were asked about them on air? i knew the figures. i

haven't heard you repeat them!|j them on air? i knew the figures. i haven't heard you repeat them! i can repeat them now. i'm concerned you don't want to talk about policing which is something that the public are concerned about and you just wa nt to are concerned about and you just want to go over and over... that thatis want to go over and over... that that is your fault! you wanted to talk about the issue and we were prepared to do that and the claims that you are making that the police forces and underfunded and you want to recruit more officers, but going on air in an interview where you com pletely on air in an interview where you completely fluffed, forgot, orjust didn't want to see them, doesn't do you any good. the public will understand that you are not interested in the real issues. the real issue is that we have lost 20,000 police officers in 2010 and there's been a rise in violent

crime. we can find the figures in a press release and i do dispute the fa ct press release and i do dispute the fact that you knew those figures, and if you didn't know them, how can you claim that you want to be home secretary, in charge of the police forces in england and wales. do you think you've instilled confidence? people who listen to any of interviews i gave this morning, with the exception of that particular interview will see that i knew the figures. that was diane abbott speaking on the daily politics show on bbc two. while president trump continues to send warning signals to south korea, he says he would be honoured to

speak face—to—face to the north korean leader. it's unpopular with south korea's neighbours and within the country itself, but there is another layer of defence in a time of rising tension. the system is at its first stage of operation. that, coupled with american b—1 bombers flying in drills over the peninsular, it's obvious a messages being sent to the north. will respond to the threat of your nuclear missile programme. korea's response was quick and clear, this minister describing the moves as confrontation. there are worries the north may commit its sixth nuclear test and donald trump is worried about a conflict. president trump

has said he would meet the north korean leader under the right circumstances. he won't though go into the details of his strategy. you do what you have to do in you don't talk about it. well, exactly when would you go in, and what time? imean, when would you go in, and what time? i mean, it's ridiculous. i don't wa nt to i mean, it's ridiculous. i don't want to talk about it. i'll say he's very threatening. he's a big threat the world. rex tillerson said previously that north korea must ta ke ste ps previously that north korea must take steps to reduce its threat of nuclear weapons before talks can ta ke nuclear weapons before talks can take place. the white house clarified president trump's comments saying conditions were right at the moment. donald trump also described the leader as a pretty smart cookie. there is concern as to how these m essa 9 es

there is concern as to how these messages will be interpreted in long yang. —pyong yang there is to be a press briefing between angela merkel and vladimir putin in russia. you can see the media gathering for the event. the german flag looks as though it's sandwiched between the european union flag and then there, to the right, the russian flag. the meeting is allegedly about efforts to fight terrorism and also the conflict in the ukraine. strained relations considerably between moscow and berlin, so we will be very interested in what the two leaders have to say because it appears that there is more that divides them bang

unites them. we will be back shortly with coverage of that here on the bbc news channel. first the headlines on bbc news. the shadow home secretary said she misspoke when she got confused by the figures for labour's pledged to provide new police officers for england and wales. there is allegedly goodwill despite tension between theresa may and jean—claude juncker. a surfer who survived more than 30 hours stranded at sea on his board has been described as "extremely lucky". in the business news... back in the black. oil giant bp is making profits again after two years of heavy losses thanks to higher oil prices and production. profit for the first quarter of the year came in at 1.4 billion dollars, a healthy improvement on the a85 million dollar loss it

made the same quarter last year. greece and its foreign creditors have reached a deal for bailout funding. further rescue funds can be delivered. it includes labour, cuts to pensions, rises in taxes and energy reforms. a deal has been struck to stop hollywood film and television writers from striking. they were asking for better pay and benefits. the deal follows marathon negotiations between the union and the alliance of motion picture and television producers, which represents hollywood studios. a previous strike ten years ago is estimated to have cost the californian economy more than two billion dollars. activity in the uk's manufacturing sector grew fastest in the last three years. it's called the market

cips. any figure over 50 indicates growth or expansion in the sector and in april the figure jumped to 57.3, well above the forecast given at 54 57.3, well above the forecast given at 5a and higher than the 5a point two figure that we saw in march. we now have our guest. thanks for joining us this afternoon. could you explain these pmi figures to us. managers have sent surveys to companies asking for order numbers. how does it work? the index is something that shows new orders coming in from the newmarket, customers, the prices that are being charged and that is pulled together to give one indicator of activity. it is expanding at quite a rapid

pace in the uk. it has been growing for the last nine consecutive months. we've had a good run of indicators for manufacturing in the uk recently. why is that? people speculating if because of currency? i would say it is encouraging but it's more than that. it's notjust a uk index. we had european numbers out today and they are running at a pretty strong rate. this is because there's a general, synchronised upswing the economy. manufacturing has had a stumble in the last few yea rs, has had a stumble in the last few years, weak commodity prices and emerging market growth but many of those factors have now weaned. clearly, the strange rate is providing extra wind in the sales of

uk exporters. a brighter outlook for the global economy, but we do have inflation which is pushing up input costs a nd inflation which is pushing up input costs and crushing wage growth. can the manufacturing sector maintain its growth? it's a very important point. if you look at the survey to date, companies are trying to take advantage of the global pick—up. the consumer in the uk is a potential wea k consumer in the uk is a potential weak point for the next couple of yea rs. we weak point for the next couple of years. we saw that with the softer gdp rating last week which showed in the first quarter that services has soft and quite a bit in the first quarter. hopefully that will be offset high summer that consumer wea kness offset high summer that consumer weakness at home. in other businesses news, liberty house is

create jobs in yorkshire. businesses news, liberty house is createjobs in yorkshire. this comes on top of the 1700 it said it would create in february. it comes as it com pletes create in february. it comes as it completes its purchase of another steel division for £100 million. online delivery firm just eat says sales rose 46 percent to almost £120 million in the three months to march 31, with uk orders rising 17% to £24m. the company said the figure would have been higher had it not been for an early easter and one day less of trading because of the leap year. housebuilder bovis homes says it's made "clear progress" in addressing customer complaints over the poor quality of its properties. the kent—based firm has been dogged by complaints over homes that were sold unfinished and had electrical and plumbing faults. it's also been subject to two failed takeover bids earlier this year from redrow and galliford try. italy's struggling airline alitalia says it may go into bankruptcy

proceedings. let's take a look at the markets now. we mentioned bp. their share price was up almost 3%, it's still up by 2% this is partly to do with the rising oil prices. i mentioned ocado, that's off the back of them potentially going into business with marks & spencer ‘s. they are up by 6%. that is it from me and! they are up by 6%. that is it from me and i will be back with more business news this afternoon. thank you, rachel ‘s. just after those tornadoes tore

through, tom mitchell discovering this truck overturned in russian water and a family of four trapped inside. with the storm still swirling overhead, good samaritans, racing against time. mitchell puts down his phone and starts giving the infa nt down his phone and starts giving the infant cpr. tonight, this family are recovering. mum, emily, with a message for the rescuers. yellow mac thank you so much everything you did. helping someone you didn't know. just miles away, a high school from taking a direct hit. this new, well built venue nearly flattened by

the tornado. those who were inside survived with no injuries. we are not new to tornadoes, but one with a 50 mile middle is improbable. rain reaching three feet in the last three days. a host of american celebrities have turned out for what's is described as ‘the party of the year‘ —— the met gala. the annual charity ball is held at new york's metropolitan museum of art to raise money for the museum's fashion department. tickets cost tens of thousands of dollars. nada tawfik‘s report contains flash photography. it is the hottest invite on new york's social calendar, and the biggest night in fashion, that draws out only the stars. stepping onto the met gala red carpet is to enter a runway, but one with a very specific theme.

this year, the met costume institute is honouring japanese designer rei kawakubo, who famously blurs the line between fashion and artwork. rei isn't so much out of the box. for rei, there is no box, and she did that so early on. when rei started, you would never believe fashion could be as influential and as powerful as music. well, it is. you know, a lot of people say, like, how do you wear that? you don't wear those clothes, those clothes wear you. sleeves need not apply, and cotton candy hair and face coverings are just a few of kawakubo's signatures. and the bravest dress the part. katie perry and pharrell williams along with his wife, wore the designer's pieces and rhianna stood out from the crowd with this floral look. of course, if you're madonna, you arrive in camouflage with your own fashion statement. what statement are you making tonight? that we have got to get our act together and start thinking

about peace on earth. the irony and the stupidity of war. this red—carpet has become one of the mostjudged. social media was quick to play fashion critic. the met ball is not the place to play it safe. and that unspoken rule, combined with this unconventional designer's contribution, has led to a night of unique looks. nada tawfik, bbc news, the met gala. well something extremely different is going on in russia. the german chancellor, angela merkel, we were hoping to show you a picture of preparations for a news conference involving the german chancellor and the russian leader, vandermeer putin. there is the picture. they arejude to putin. there is the picture. they are jude to speak putin. there is the picture. they arejude to speak to the media after having discussions on various areas

such as ukraine, and terrorism. —— bayard due to speak. —— they are due to speak. it's the first time that the german chancellor has been in that part of the world for at least a couple of yea rs, the world for at least a couple of years, so the world for at least a couple of yea rs, so we the world for at least a couple of years, so we are keeping a careful eye on events there and we hope that scene is the leaders come we will come back and bring you the pictures straight. let's just see. come back and bring you the pictures straight. let'sjust see. you can't retell people like bladder may putin, it will be at his pleasure but we will bring you back those pictures as soon as we start receiving them. in the meantime. what is going on here? dry weather in places. those with gardens may not be happy with that but let's get

our in places. those with gardens may not be happy with that but let's get our latest in places. those with gardens may not be happy with that but let's get our latest forecast. in places. those with gardens may not be happy with that but let's get our latest forecast. if in places. those with gardens may not be happy with that but let's get our latest forecast. if you in places. those with gardens may not be happy with that but let's get our latest forecast. if you are in places. those with gardens may not be happy with that but let's get our latest forecast. if you are a gardener or grower, you'll know about april. it's been decidedly dry. we don't have all the and figures in but you can see from this chart, darker brown is showing that rainfall has been below average. so much so that in edinburgh, there's only been around for millimetres of rainfor only been around for millimetres of rain for the entire month. it's been the driest month on record. a dry story, but we have seen some beautiful, dry, sunny, weather watchers‘ photos. this one from the highlands of scotland, seeing the best of the weather they‘re. best of the weather there. in the east, the breeze coming of

the sea just not quite as warm, producing a little more by way of cloud and showers which will become more widespread through the afternoon. not as warm down to the south west, parts of wales 14—15dc. as we go through the evening and three the overnight, some of the show was driven along by a north—easterly breeze, pushing to the south west. there amount of clouds and temperatures will fall away in sheltered, rural parts and we concede temperatures as low as minus two. —— could see. this week weather front enhancing the potential for more showers. some of those could be a nuisance across parts of suffolk, essex and kent through the course of the day. the

fresh breeze will take the edge of the feel of things. the best of the weather is 16 celsius. as we go into wednesday, you will be surprised to hear that there is no change. the isobars remain fairly widespread which means less of a breeze here and always the risk of more clout, more breeze into the north—east and the potential for an odd spot of rain. nothing significant in the rainfall totals, 11 celsius and on that east coast,. 16 celsius in the west. this is bbc news — the headlines at 2pm.

confusion over the figures — labour launches a key policing policy, but the shadow home secretary trips up over the detail — of how much thousands of new officers would cost. if we recruit the 10,000 police men and women over a four—year period, we believe it will be about £300,000. £300,000 for 10,000 police officers? how much are you paying them? no, i mean, sorry. how much will they cost? we‘ve corrected the figure and it will be absolutely clear now, today and in the manifesto. i‘m not embarrassed in the slightest. downing street say they‘re approaching brexit talks "with huge amounts of goodwill" after reports of tension ahead of negotiations with the eu. lucky to be alive.