hello, this is bbc news. the headlines: president trump celebrates the signing of $350 billion worth of contracts between the us and saudi arabia on day one of his visit to the region. back in washington, there are fresh claims about his reasons for sacking james comey, the director of the fbi. jeremy corbyn insists his party is committed to trident, after members of the shadow cabinet publicly disagree over the issue. the tories defend their aim to cut net migration to "tens of thousands", after it comes under fire from former chancellor george osborne. iran's newly re—elected president, hassan rouhani, says he will use his second term to reach out to the world and work towards a freer society. he secured 57% of the vote, compared with 38% for his main rival, the hardlinejudge ebrahim raisi. the wedding has taken place of pippa middleton, the sister of the duchess of cambridge. prince george was one of the page boys, while his sister charlotte was a bridesmaid.

president trump and king salman of saudi arabia have signed a defence deal worth $350 billion. the white house called it the biggest single arms deal in us history. in a news conference earlier, the us secretary of state, rex tillerson, said the deal would make the partnership stronger between the two nations, and sends a strong message to their common enemies. this growing partnership is really grounded in trust. trust between our two nations that we are pursuing the same objectives. co—operation and a shared interest. the elements of this declaration that was signed today, the joint strategic vision, there are many elements. there is a lot of work now to implement those elements and put them into motion. that is going to require significant

ongoing engagement and dialogue between our two nations, so i think you will find we will be meeting with a great deal of regularity to review how these things are progressing, and that is only going to serve to further strengthen our cooperation. and also i think sends a strong message to our common enemies, strengthens the bonds between us, and charts this new path forward. at the core of our expanding relationship really are our shared security interests. america's security at home is strengthened when saudi arabia's security is strong as well. the united states of america and the kingdom of saudi arabia are embarking on a number of initiatives to counter violent extremist messaging, as we just heard the foreign minister describe. we will also be pursuing

new approaches to disrupting financing terrorism. and advancing defence cooperation. today, the us and saudi arabia are conducting vital new expansions of a security relationship that really spans over seven decades. but i think one of the real hallmarks of today is economic co—operation. if you have strong economic engagement between two countries, that is a foundation to a strong security relationship as well. as you heard the foreign minister mention, today we announced 23 foreign investment export licences, leading upward to more than $350 billion of historic direct investment. 109 billion of that is in arms sales to bolster the security of our saudi partners. there are two very significant events taking place in the region this weekend — with president trump's visit to saudi arabia, and and iran's hassan rouhani winning a second four—year term as president of iran. lyse doucet is in riyadh,

and has been discussing the events. in terms of the language we will hear from saudi arabia and jerusalem, very strong condemnation of iran and what these countries see as its aggressive actions across the region, destabilising actions. co—incidentally, iran has re—elected its reformist president, hassan rouhani. in the middle east this weekend, two very important event which will shape the future of iran in this region. let us look at these relationships. we are joined from washington by the executive director of the arabia foundation, welcome. thank you. and an iranian expert, welcome to you. thank you. you are sitting in washington, why do you think saudi arabia

has claimed this prize of being the first stop on president trump's first foreign visit? what was it about this relationship? it shows the centrality of the relationship, the enormous importance that saudi arabia has for american interests in the middle east. the need to work closely with saudi arabia to fight terrorism, and to deter iran. i think the gentleman around the president, his advisers, his secretary of defence, his national security adviser, his secretary of state, all strong believers in that. that is what has pushed the tremendous symbolism of this trip, a symbolic trip for a president who had a lot of rhetorically on the campaign that caused people concerned. the fact he is making this tremendous gesture coming to riyadh now, addressing the muslim world,

it is an achievement for saudi arabia and shows this relationship is very strong and enduring. what do you think, is this causing worry in teheran? the us—saudi relationship, it provides a more natural equilibria in the triangle and for decades we have seen co—operation with saudi and containment of confrontation with iran. the 0bama demonstration pursued a different approach to engage with iran, which was ultimately not successful. the trump administration is going back to a traditional us policy to the persian gulf. what is likely to be the reaction of iran and the revolutionary guards who seem to be the force leading iranian policy

across the region, if there are more sanctions against iran, how would iran respond? iranian foreign policy in the middle east has been remarkably consistent for the last four decades, there have been three pillars, hostility towards the united states, rejection of israel's existence, and rivalry with saudi arabia, which has intensified. i don't think that will change president trump's policies. but if there is more confrontation between america and iran in the middle east, whether that is in syria or yemen, it could indirectly help to unravel the nuclear deal, which would be a real national—security concern for the united states and the us partners in signing the nuclear deal — europe, russia and china.

talking to senior saudi officials, they are obsessed with iran and its engagement in the region. it's not clear that even the neighbouring states in the persian gulf would put pressure on iran that saudi arabia wants to do. what is your assessment? saudi arabia sees it as an existential battle. this is not a normal rivalry. saudi arabia is a status quo power, iran isa arabia is a status quo power, iran is a revolutionary power. saudi arabia sees iran is wanting to bring down the ruling forces in the gulf. despite all the moderate noise as they make in english to the global media, the supreme leader and revolutionary guard who really run iran, irrespective of the elections they put together, seem, the regime is a revolutionary regime talking about taking down the saudi monarchy for the past a0 years. a lot of the gulf nations share that.

they are closer to iran and feel more vulnerable, so they have to be careful. there was a consensus among the gulf states that it is an existential battle with this iranian regime. the fact this administration sees it the way saudi arabia sees it is reassuring. a very brief answer from both of you. what is the risk of confrontation? there will be strong language. is there a risk of more than that? when america is strong, and shows its deterrence, the risk of confrontation comes down. it pushes their regime back into its box. unfortunately, under the 0bama days, the risk went up, they took their eye off the ball. as far as we were concerned. the risk of confrontation has gone down a bit. i think that on one hand suddenly the iranian population does not want conflict, and the american

population does not want conflict. but there are so many theatres of potential conflict in the middle east that this is something we have to watch very closely, because even if a conflict is pursued, we could be heading there. the first ever hayfever map of the uk has been published, which claims to help sufferers cope by warning them of pollen hotspots. the new highly—detailed diagrams show the locations of key plants and trees known to produce pollen that triggers allergies and asthma. it's hoped they will reduce exposure, and could even influence where people buy homes. a survey by which? magazine has found that one in four flights to british airports arrived at least 15 minutes late last year. which?

analysed 850,000 flights at 25 british airports and found most uk airlines perform worse than average — with one in three easyjet flights delayed. simon calder looked further into the results of the research. they have looked that every single airline. i have been looking particularly at the british ones. easyjet, by far britain's biggest budget airline, is very much the worst performer. just one in three flights arrived, sorry, one in three flights arrived, sorry, one in three flights arrived, sorry, one in three flights was officially late. talking to the airline about it, they say that across the entire system they are looking at only one infor system they are looking at only one in for being great, but of course they fly lots of places which don't go anywhere near britain —— one in four flights being late. two more astronauts have been inducted into nasa's hall of fame at a ceremony at the kennedy space centre in florida. they are michael foale — who has british and american citizenship — and ellen 0choa from the us. both took part in numerous shuttle

launches and spent time on the international space station. tim allman reports. music # there's a star man # there's a star man # waiting in the sky # waiting in the sky # he'd like to come and meet us # he'd like to come and meet us # but he fears he'd blow our minds #. space, to calling a phrase, the final frontier. #. space, to calling a phrase, the finalfrontier. mankind's exploration of the cosmos, one of its greatest achievements. # let the children use it #. and no british—born astronaut has spent more time in orbit than this man, michael full. now, nasa is honouring him by inducting him into its hall of fame. a moment of pride and some

poignancy. i returned yesterday from the uk, because my mum died three weeks ago. but the happy part of this is she died in cambridge. before she died, she knew i was going to be honoured here. in the 26 year career he served on board the russian platform and the international space station. he also helped repair the hubble space telescope, spending in total more than one year in orbit. also being honoured was doctor ellen 0choa, the first hispanic woman in space, and now the director of the johnson space centre. i remember that one of the first pieces of advice i got when ijoined the astronaut office was, ok, don't worry, there's really only two ways to mess up as an astronaut. number one, failing to follow the procedure is exactly as written, and number two, following

the procedures exactly as written. laughter so, nasa's hall of fame grows ever larger. a collection of individuals, but also a team who have the right stuff. tim holman, bbc news. in a moment we will have the national bulletin with reeta chakrabarti. but first,... whether it's french champagne or italian prosecco, the uk's love of fizz shows no sign of slowing down. but the technique for making it was first documented not by a frenchman or an italian — but by a 17th century scientist in england. nick higham has more. some call it "brit fizz," or simply bubbly. its proper name is ‘english sparkling wine', and it is just like champagne. the french will tell you the method was discovered by a frenchman. a monk called dom perignon in 1967. but here in winchcombe, they know better.

on monday, they will put up a plack on his birthplace to a local, christopher merritt, a pioneering scientist who recorded english scientists using the technique in 1662, more than 30 years before dom. he described the way that they were adding sugar and molasses to the wine, which was making it "sparkling." he was the first person to actually use that word, "sparkling," in connection to wine, wasn't he? yes. at this gloucestershire winery, they use the technique. they make sparkling wine for around 40 they make sparkling wine for around a0 english and welsh vineyards. they make it, bottle it, and add sugar and yeast to bring on what is called a secondary fermentation. we put the grapes into a vat, and we ferment them in the vats. that is the first.

the second is in the bottle itself. you get carbon dioxide from the first fermentation. from the first one you get bubbles, but we allow it to bubble off. then you get a secondary one and you need to contain that within the bottle to give us the bubble in the finished sparkling wine. one reason, it's said, the english did it first is that english bottles were thicker and heavier. flimsy french bottles exploded when the fizz built up inside them. sparkling wine was a menace to french makers. english glass was much more robust. english sparkling wine has a long history. even longer than champagne. but it has a long and cumbersome name as well. at this small vineyard in the coltswolds, they have tried to come up with a snappy title, with mixed success. we've come up with balarry, which is what we want to call it. it's derived from the latin word for bubbles. we thought about the welsh version,

which was swigot, but i do think that quite had the ring to it. "would you like a glass of swigot?" italians have prosecco, the spanish cava, and germans, sekt. what is the english equivalent? perhaps we should call at winchcombe. nikkei, bbc news, in the cotswolds. —— nikkei. donald trump makes his first trip abroad since becoming president — with a visit to saudi arabia. he's given a warm welcome by king salman — before signing lucrative trade deals between the two nations. hundreds of billions of dollars of investments into the united states and jobs, jobs, jobs. his success in saudi arabia contrasts with his political problems in washington. also tonight: trident — jeremy corbyn restates

labour's commitment after a senior colleague suggested support for it couldn't be guaranteed. a joyous reunion — dozens of schoolgirls kidnapped in nigeria by islamist militants three years ago finally see theirfamilies. and another middleton gets married — with the family's youngest members sharing centre stage. good evening. donald trump has been welcomed in saudi arabia as he began his first trip abroad since becoming president. he signed deals worth £270 billion, a third of which is defence—related. riyadh is his first stop on a nine—dayjourney around the middle east and europe.

it's a trip his aides hope will divert attention from his political problems back in washington. 0ur north america editorjon sopel is travelling with the president and sent this report. with the mercury touching 100 degrees fahrenheit, donald trump probably found the blast of desert air refreshing compared to the political hothouse that he's left behind in washington. he's hoping this first foreign trip will provide some respite from the mounting problems at home, and what a welcome his hosts laid on for him. the 81—year—old king came to greet him, red carpet for as far as the eye could see. he was even given saudi arabia's highest civilian honour, a weighty thing. a marked contrast to the almost hostile reception afforded barack 0bama when he was last here. wherever you go in riyadh, this is what you see — pictures of president trump and king salman with the slogan "together we prevail". a year ago, donald trump said in an interview, "i think islam hates us." from the reception he's receiving, and the warmth of it, you wouldn't guess it.

the new president's tough stance on iran has endeared him to the saudis and other sunni nations in the region. as part of that, a massive £75 billion arms deal was signed to supply the kingdom with weapons and know—how to meet the iranian threat. and this allowed the president to talk about what he likes most, jobs. that was a tremendous day, i just want to thank everybody. tremendous investments into the united states, and our military community is very happy, and we want to thank you and saudi arabia. but hundreds of billions of dollars of investments into the united states and jobs, jobs, jobs. at a news conference, the deal was welcomed by the secretary of state. this huge arms sales package reduces the burden on the united states to provide this same equipment to our own military forces and will strengthen saudi security forces for the future so that saudi arabia is more capable

of carrying a greater share of the burden. less welcome news came overnight from james comey. the sacked fbi director has accepted an invitation to give evidence to congress in a public session, although that won't happen before this trip has concluded. according to the new york times, the president described him to the russian foreign minister as a "nutjob" whose sacking had relieved a lot of the pressure on the president — claims the white house has not denied. donald trump complained earlier this week that no politician had been treated worse or more unfairly than him. that is not something that could be said today. out-of-tune rendition of us anthem. though the composer of the national anthem probably could. jon sopel, bbc news, riyadh. jeremy corbyn has restated labour's commitment to renewing trident after his shadow foreign secretary suggested the party's support for the nuclear deterrent couldn't be guaranteed. mr corbyn insisted labour's manifesto commitment

to trident was unequivocal. here's our political correspondent alex forsyth. cheering. 0n the campaign trail, the last thing he wanted was fresh questions about the uk's nuclear deterrent. but today he had to clarify his party's stance. it came after a senior labour figure, when asked if the party would commit to keeping the trident missile system even after a defence review, said this. well, no, of course not. if you have a review, you have to have a review. the policy is, the labour party policy is that we... i know what it is. i'm asking, could it in the future change? but overwhelmingly we need to make sure that our policy is up—to—date and meets 21st—century threats and no one can disagree with that, surely. jeremy corbyn has long opposed nuclear weapons, but his party's policy is to support the renewal of trident, something

he had to confirm again today. the manifesto makes it very clear that the labour party has come to the decision that it's committed to trident. we're also going to look at the real security needs of this country, on other areas such as cyber security. the snp was quick to strike. trident‘s based in scotland so matters to voters here, and her party opposes it. the confusion and chaos at the heart of the labour party on trident really does illustrate the point that labour's not strong enough to stand up to the tories. but theresa may thinks her stance on security and defence will cut through with voters and, out campaigning today, wasted no time in saying so. we have seen yet again from jeremy corbyn‘s labour party today that a labour government led byjeremy corbyn would not be unequivocally committed to the trident nuclear deterrent. they would not be able

to defend this country. theresa may has made so much of this campaign about leadership qualities. she wants to keep it that way. but now the parties have published their manifestos, there's also plenty of policy to pick over. tories out! and not everyone agrees with some tory proposals. these are labour protesters, but there are rumblings in the tory party about changes to social care. elections can lay bare divisions across the board. and alex forsyth is here. the conservatives have got their own problems with social care, haven't they? their manifesto included a proposal to change how it is funded. currently if you have assets more than £23,000 you may have to pay towards the cost of your care, that will go up to £100,000. for those who need care at home, the value of their house could be taken into account. labour and the liberal

democrats have been highly critical saying that it is pensioners and long—term ill people who may be affected by this and there is some concern from within the conservative party. some activists and members say that they want more detail, others worried that there is no cap on what people could pay. theresa may has said that this is about making the system fairer between the generations and making sure that social care funding is sustainable in the long term but it seems there are some in the conservative party worried about the impact this may have, not least on traditional tory voters. thank you forjoining us. the liberal democrats have unveiled their latest election poster. it's a picture of nigel farage's face, superimposed onto the head and shoulders of theresa may. former business secretary — and lib dem candidate — sir vince cable — said it represented how conservatives had "adopted wholesale" policies from ukip. dozens of the schoolgirls who were kidnapped from the nigerian town of chibok three years ago have been reunited with their

families. the girls were released earlier this month as part of a deal between the nigerian government and the boko haram islamist militants who'd been holding them. our correspondent alistair leithead reports now on the emotional reunions in the nigerian capital abuja. the moment they've been waiting more than three years for, to see each other again. an emotional reunion, the newly returned chibok girls with theirfamilies. 82 the newly returned chibok girls with their families. 82 of the the newly returned chibok girls with theirfamilies. 82 of the missing girls were released two weeks ago. it was a celebratory first meeting but this is the start of a long process. i cannot overemphasise how i feel. process. i cannot overemphasise how ifeel. i'm just laughing process. i cannot overemphasise how i feel. i'm just laughing in process. i cannot overemphasise how ifeel. i'mjust laughing in my heart, all the family, happiness and jov- heart, all the family, happiness and joy. assimilating them back into society after so long being held hostage in the forest by boko haram

militants. the girls and their pa rents militants. the girls and their parents have gone through a lot of changes since the kidnapping. and they won't be heading back home to chibok any time soon. they are under the care of the women's affairs ministry and the security services, keen to talk to them about their experiences. the bbc has been with the families in remote chibok all this week. it's taken a while to make 100% sure of the girls' identities. this was the moment pa rents were identities. this was the moment parents were asked to confirm a photo that their girls were among those released. he is her daughter. the 82 chibok girls were only released after months of complicated negotiations. five boko haram commanders were exchanged for them and the bbc was told that 2 million euros may also have been part of the deal — but that can't yet be confirmed. the government says it's doing all it can and talks are going on to try and release

the 113 still being held. their medical checks are continuing and the girls will be given psychological therapy before starting their education again, amid tight security. we weren't allowed to ask them any questions. the intense media focus on the chewbacca girls had at least helped many to be freed —— the chewbacca girls. there are thousands of other women and girls that have been abducted by 0kung ram. iran's newly re—elected president, hassan rouhani, has said he will continue, in his second term in office,