this is bbc news. the headlines at 6pm: the prime minister insists it's her firm intention to cut taxes, but declined to give any guarantees. what people will know when they go to vote on thursday is that it is the conservative party that always has been, is and always will be, a low tax party. jeremy corbyn accuses the conservatives of being in disarray over their tax plans. 1 minister said they're not going to give any tax rises, and can't answer questions about tax rises for the rest the population, and can't answer questions about funding social care. ariana grande makes a surprise visit to fans injured in the terror attack at her concert last week — ahead of her benefit ariana grande makes a surprise visit to fans injured in the terror attack at her concert last week — ahead of her benefit concert tomorrow evening. the deputy leader of afghanistan, abdullah abdullah, survives a bomb attack at a funeral in the capital

kabul— at least seven people were killed and many more injured. civilians killed while fleeing so—called islamic state in mosul. also in this hour...advancements in cancer treatments. one of the largest clinical trials produces ‘powerful results‘ for prostate cancer patients. and sportsday — in half an hour's time — will be live in cardiff — as the city prepares for tonight's champions league final between real madrid and juventus. good evening and welcome to bbc news. jeremy corbyn has accused the conservatives‘ of being in "complete chaos" over their tax policy. it comes after theresa may avoided repeating comments made by a senior colleague who told a newspaper

there would be no income tax rises under a conservative government. with more — our political correspondent iain watson. senior conservatives have been sending out a strong message to their core voters. if you‘re worried that income tax may rise if we are re—elected, simply because it is not oui’ re—elected, simply because it is not our intention. but the conservative ma nifesto our intention. but the conservative manifesto is the premier as explicit. is it being rewritten? our position on tax hasn‘t changed. we have set out in the manifesto. what people will know when they go to vote on thursday is that it is the conservative party that always has been is and always will be a low tax party. it is our firm intention to reduce taxes for ordinary working families. 50 what is the

conservative manifesto saying on tax? and the last election, david cameron promised not to increase income tax, national insurance wobbling too. but in the 2017 ma nifesto, wobbling too. but in the 2017 manifesto, only the pledge on vat remains. 0ther promising to raise the level at which people pay the standard and higher rates of tax would also amount to a reduction. if theresa may has returned to number ten downing st, she has the prospect of tough brexit talks had, after ma nifesto of tough brexit talks had, after manifesto doesn‘t boxer in on income tax. there is no pledge not to increase it. but colleagues are talking about tax today because they to refocus attention in this campaign on what would happen if a labour chancellor musson to number 11 downing st. but labour said they have nothing to hide on tax. they claim a policy of making the better off and big business pay more is popular and it is the conservatives

who lacked clarity. i think there is com plete who lacked clarity. i think there is complete chaos going on at the top of the government. what labour are offering is no tax rises or national insurance rises offering is no tax rises or national insurance rises 01’ offering is no tax rises or national insurance rises or vat rises 95% of the population. increase in corporation tax and some other tax increases at the top end is to pay for social care. theresa may to be finding it is more convivial to talk about tax and social care. she and collea g u es about tax and social care. she and colleagues are trying to stir the enthusiasm of traditional supporters by suggesting that instinct on taxation are the same. in scotland, the leader of the scottish national party, nicola sturgeon, is undertaking a tour of 30 constituencies by helicopter. scotland‘s first minister took to the skies in the final weekend of election campaigning, and is visiting six key constituencies over the course of saturday. the snp won 56 of the 59 seats in scotland in the 2015 general election, a record result which polls suggest they will struggle to match this time round. speaking to the bbc mrs sturgeon, said that she would be willing to enter into a coalition with the labour party in the event of a hung parliament.

well, i have always said if the arithmetic allowed it, i would want the snp to be part of an progressive alternative to a tory government, a progressive alternative that invested in public services and protected pensions and policies lifting people out of poverty, but i think the polls in the rest of the uk still suggest the tories will win this election. but it‘s no longer inevitable that theresa may increases her majority. and she‘s been exposed throughout this campaign as being weak, evasive, no answers to basic questions. you‘ve got pollsters now saying whether or not she increases her majority could come down to the outcome here in scotland, so let‘s not throw theresa may a lifeline by boosting her majority. let‘s put scotland‘s interest first, get strong snp mps to the house of commons so we can continue to stand up for scotland and stand up for the kind of country we want to be. the liberal democrats have unveiled a poster

attacking the conservative‘s social care plans. the image was revealed in westminster. the poster features a picture of theresa may with the caption ‘hash tag dementiatax. don‘t bet your house on it‘. police investigating the manchester suicide bombing have made among those she visited, 8 —year—old fan lilli harrison. she suffered spinal injuries in the last in manchester arena. our room is at the end of the ward corridor, and she was working her way up. we were the last to be seen. i think i was as nervous as lily. her hands were shaking. she said she might need to go to the toilet, she didn‘t know what to do and she was really nervous. and then she came skipping onto our ward. she was brilliant. has been an outpouring of love and 22 victims who died in the blast last month. arianna has returned to

the uk for last month. arianna has returned to the ukfora last month. arianna has returned to the uk for a benefit concert in manchester tomorrow night, and many of those injured, including lili, hoping to be there. lily expressed a wish to go. we didn‘t force it. we said if you want to go, we will make sure you get tickets. but if we get to the venue or we are on the way there and you say you don‘t want to go, we are more than happy to bring you home. it‘s whatever she wants. proceeds from the concert will go towards the wheelock manchester emergency fund, set up by manchester city council and the british red cross to support grieving families and grieving victims and —— victims of the bombing. this is where the eyes of the world will be focused tomorrow night. millions of people will watch as

coldplay, take that and katy perry on the stage. this concert will be broadcast to more than 50 countries around the world. a night of unity, remembrance and a shared love of music. at least seven people have been killed in explosions at a funeral in kabul — the afghan capital — where the son of a prominent politician was being buried. he died yesterday when police clashed with demonstrators protesting about deteriorating security. 3 suicide bombers made it into the crowd of hundreds of mourners here in campbell. and then they exploded their guests among those in the funeral. we understand from afghan government that 119 people are

injured, taken to hospital, being treated. some of them are very seriously, and 7 others wounded. but among them, there seems to be no high—profile afghan government officials, although tens of them attended his funeral, including the country‘s deputy leader. and the afg ha n country‘s deputy leader. and the afghan foreign minister. could you just confirmed to us exactly how many people died? the official figure is that 7 people died as a result of 3 consecutive explosions, but the number of casualties, civilian, who were wounded, is very high, 119. just going back to what happens yesterday, the deteriorating security, this is why this protest

was being held 1 man‘s funeral, his funeral was being held today when this attack happens. just talk to us simple bit more about security in afghanistan, and why people are so upset about it. on wednesday, a massive bombing went off here in campbell, killing over 90 people and injuring 450. as a result of that, people came to the streets, trying to condemn the government‘s weakness in protecting the security of afghan civilians. i was in the crowd when police clashed with protesters, killing at least 5 of them and injuring at least 10. when they were trying to hold their funeral today, this explosion, this consecutive

explosions, went off, killing even many more. the security situation in general is very chaotic, it is a matter of serious concern. the president of the country has called for unity and calmness. he is about to speak now, trying to appeal for unity of the people. an 18 year old man has died after being shot in liverpool. merseyside police said armed officers and the ambulance service were called after the injured teenager was found on near lodge lane, in the toxteth area last night. he was later pronounced dead in hospital. the incident follows two gun attacks in merseyside earlier this week. explosives and detonators discovered in ireland last night have been linked by police to dissident republican terrorists. the seizure in dublin has been described as highly significant. detectives say they believe the explosives were to be used in attacks in northern ireland. two men are being questioned.

it was just after 6 pm last night when armed police stopped a taxi travelling in dublin as part of an ongoing investigation into dissident republican terrorist activity. in that taxi, irish police discovered more than 5 kg of plastic explosives, detonators and other military grade items. today they have described that find as highly significant. they say it is so significant. they say it is so significant because it indicates that dissident republican groups have now found a new —— news sources and new ways to get their hands on commercial explosives, where previously i had been removed from old ira weapons dumps. they have also said they believe is explosives we re also said they believe is explosives were destined for northern ireland. as this explosive material was being investigated last night, nearby homes were evacuated for more than 3 hours. 0ther

homes were evacuated for more than 3 hours. other residents were later allowed to return to their homes. 2 men were arrested at the scene and they are still being questioned by police. just how much of a threat or use dissident groups that are being monitored by police? police have been very clear in stating that dissident republican terrorist groups still do pose a threat, but 2 members of the security forces and members of the security forces and members of the public, but they say their numbers are dispersed and they are being constantly monitors and under surveillance. last night‘s feature of such a large amount of explosives is of significant in getting that kind of material off the streets and out of the hands of dissident republican groups. the headlines on bbc news: the prime minister has insisted that the conservative position on tax hasn‘t changed — and that she‘s hoping to lower taxes. jeremy corbyn has accused the conservatives‘ tax plans of being "in chaos", and has urged the party to publish them in full. ariana grande has visited fans in hospital, who were injured

in the bombing at her concert. she spent time talking to them and posing for photographs. an early and small scale trial of a new drug to combat ovarian cancer has shown "promising results", according to researchers. the drug shrank tumours in almost half of the 15 women in the advanced stages of the disease who took part. here‘s our health correspondent, sophie hutchinson. marianne heath has advanced ovarian cancer. there are very few drugs to treat this type of cancer, and the ones that exist can no longer help her. so she says when she was asked to take part in a trial fora new drug, shejumped at the chance. well, i decided to go on the trial because there were no other way out for me, there were no options presented so it was the trial orjust radiotherapy, so i decided to do the trial first.

the trial, run by the institute of cancer research and the royal marsden, aimed to test the safety of the new drug known as 0nx—0801. it involved just 15 women, all with advanced ovarian cancer. the result — tumours shrank significantly in almost half of the women over the course of five weeks. one of the fantastic things about this new drug that‘s being developed here is that it has so few side—effects compared to traditional chemotherapy. and that‘s because it specifically targets cancer cells, leaving healthy cells unharmed. this drug attacks the tumour, and you see very encouraging tumour responses, but you don‘t see the common side—effects like hair loss or sore mouth or diarrhoea or susceptibility to infections as seen with other chemotherapeutic agents. but the scientists are urging caution. they say it was a very small study, and it‘s too early to know

whether the success could be replicated in a larger group of patients. they now want to plan the next phase of the trial. sophie hutchinson, bbc news. researchers have also been testing a new combination of hormone therapies, for prostate cancer. they say it has increased survival rates by more than a third. cancer research uk — which organised the trial — believes the findings could transform the treatment what the research has looked at was, could this drug be used to treat women who have an advanced stage of ovarian cancer? women for whom there are no other treatment options.

any research which find and identifies potential new treatment for cancer, particularly when it is in the later stages, certainly is something to be excited about. the researchers themselves say, however, we need to be cautious because it was a very small scale trial. how does it work and why does it work? what‘s so special about this drug? what the research has found was that this drug can mimic how another molecule gets into cancer cells, and when it gets in there it damages the dna so much that the cells can‘t grow and they can‘t replicate and make copies of themselves. essentially it kills the cancer cells. why was the trial group so small? it is only 15 women. the trial was what we call a phase 1 trial, and the partners of these phases or to 1st test if a drug is safe to use. all phase 1 clinical trials to recruit small

numbers of patients. they want to test, is the drug is safe? following on from this, if they show it is safe to use in people, they will then carry out larger clinical trials to see if it works and what benefits it can ring to these patients. it‘s not unusualfor a phase1 clinical trial to have so few patients. just turning to this breakthrough in the treatment of prostate cancer as well, who benefits most from this? it is a combination of 2 drugs, is how it works. is it early or late stage prostate cancer? the researchers looked at a group of men who have what we call high risk prostate cancer, some men who aren at risk of the cancer spreading or who are at risk of having their treatment may be not work as well. they looked in this group of men and found that when they combined the normal treatments, where they reduce hormones, combined with another drug, it greatly improved survival compared to just the hormone therapy on its own. that was the senior science

information officer at cancer research uk. statins — which are usually prescribed to lower cholesterol — could help reduce the risk of dying from breast cancer by 27 percent, according to a new study. scientists in china who analysed research involving 200—thousand women, found patients who took the drug were less likely to see their cancer return. charities have welcomed the news but say more clinical trials are needed. most will have -- iraqi —— iraqi security forces say they have gained more ground advancing 800 metres in the central neighbourhood. they have reportedly seized a warehouse that had been used to store weapons and explosives, including suicide belts.

the battle for has gone on for months, with the militants putting up months, with the militants putting up fierce resistance to almost every —— in almost every street. the fighting has ta ken —— in almost every street. the fighting has taken its toll on the city. agencies reported as seeing dozens city. agencies reported as seeing d oze ns of city. agencies reported as seeing dozens of civilian bodies killed whilst they were trying to flee an islamic —— so—called islamic state health neighbourhood. witnesses say men, women and children were among the dead. life in which they carried their belongings were reportedly strewn around the street, leading out of the district. hundreds of others managed to reach the government lines, many of them badly injured. the consumer group which is calling on british airways to create an automatic compensation system for passengers who are affected by serious flight—delays and cancellations. it comes a week after a major it failure caused hundreds of the airline‘s flights to be grounded. here‘s our business correspondent joe lynam. the images of the week for ba.

passengers waiting for flights, some of which ended up being cancelled. the compensation bill could exceed £100 million for the airline. ba says it will treat customers fairly and refund legitimate expenses, but consumer advocates say that is not enough. in a letter to the chief executive, which? says compensation should be automatic for passengers out of pocket. they should not have to apply directly to airlines for a refund. it says an automated system would save time and money for ba as well as prevent companies from making profit from the misery of others. people are entitled to money but they are not given it automatically. passengers are often not realising what they are entitled to. the airlines can easily pay compensation because they know what flight you were on and what you are entitled to and we think that should be the rules. in other sectors, in energy and water, you are automatically paid compensation if you do

not receive services. in response, ba said it had put additional resources into its call centres to process claims quickly as possible. one group that is not out of pocket are investors in ba‘s parent company iag. its shares were up this week despite the woe endured by customers. joe lynam, bbc news. let‘s get more now on the general election — and with less than a week until the country heads to the ballot box — reality check‘s chris morris has been taking a look at the reliability of the opinion polls. throughout this general election campaign, opinion polls and analysis of the numbers have been hitting the front pages. but questions have been raised about how reliable they are. the last few days, author of the conservative lead over labour, with anywhere between 3 and 14%. have

water is lost their mojo? have certainly had problems in the past, most notably during the general election campaign in 2015, when all the polls said it would be a hung parliament by the conservatives won an outright majority. what is going on? let‘s ask a man who really should know. is a persistent issue which the polling industry has been trying to deal with, which is how to avoid overestimated labour, underestimating the conservatives. that problem certainly re—emerged quite starkly in 2013, and is a problem the industry have been further trying to work on to try to avoid this time around. after the 2015 election, the british polling council held an enquiry, concluding that the polls had failed because the samples weren‘t truly representative of the voting population. in particular they overestimated the number of young people who would vote. now the pollsters have changed their methods, including waiting results by educational background and by

interest in politics. and crucially different way of estimating how many people really will vote. but different polling companies have different polling companies have different methods, which makes the numbers really hard to interpret. even from the experts. people who we re even from the experts. people who were likely to vote, interested in elections, are more likely to be willing to participate in polls. but the problem with that is that you fail to identify adequately who doesn‘t, isn‘t going to make it to the polls. if you get that wrong, particularly if you overestimate the level of turnout amongst a group in society particularly likely to vote for1 society particularly likely to vote for 1 party rather than society particularly likely to vote for1 party rather than another, then europe ultimately wrong. all then europe ultimately wrong. all the polls pointed towards an overwhelming conservative victory consistently points ahead of labour. but during the course of the campaign, the gap has narrowed. this is the bbc‘s poll tracker, and all the dots are individual polls. but look at the mine which shows how

they have been moving. in the last few weeks, labour has risen dramatically but is so below the tories. 1 pollster, yougov, has tried to use it data to forecast the likely result in every seat, which has led to the most eye—catching prediction of all, a hung parliament. but that is out of the filter which pretty much every other falcao. the thing is, which method will be the most accurate? some —— someone will be the most accurate? some —— someone will look pretty smart, others will end up without interfaces. 0nce others will end up without interfaces. once we know the results onjune interfaces. once we know the results on june 9. thousands of people have marched through glasgow in support of scottish independence. police estimate up to 15,000 people took part. marchers waved banners and heard speeches from pro—independence campaigners. 0rganisers said the event aimed to show theresa may that "scotland has spoken". however, the uk government has said "now is not the time" for another poll. a scientist has called for european beavers to be re—introduced

across the uk to help prevent floods and tackle soil loss. tests by professor richard brazier — from exeter university — show beavers have had a beneficial impact on wildlife and water quality. 0ur environment analyst, roger harrabin, has more details: this site is a scientific experiment on reintroducing beavers. in six years, a pair of sharp—toothed beavers has re—engineered this woodland into a wetland. they have felled willow trees to lie horizontally because they like to chew the bark off the vertical sprouts. their stick dams have recreated the sort of landscape that existed before beavers were hunted to extinction. this is another of the ponds that has been created by beavers and right here demonstrates just how much they can re—engineer the landscape. so where i am, it looks like there is just grass growing out of the ground — wrong. this is a beaver stick dam,

right underneath me. the place has been shaped by rodents‘ teeth. the way that they have manipulated this site has just been dramatic. we have had a range of different species coming in, particularly bats, amphibians, lots of wetland plants, it has just been incredible. in scotland, where beavers have been brought back, some landowners have angrily complained that they have damaged farmland, trees and watercourses. the nfu fear unintended consequences of beaver reintroduction. the scientists working here have said that the beavers have notjust improved water quality but also helped to protect downstream areas from flooding by slowing heavy rainfall with their dams. they want creatures like this reintroduced nationwide. not all are convinced. but the beavers here are making their own watery case. roger harrabin, bbc news, devon. some wet and windy weather on the

way for some of us. into a weekend now of sunshine and showers. pleasa nt now of sunshine and showers. pleasant and the sun, cool weather underneath building cloud. heavy downpour in places, especially scotla nd downpour in places, especially scotland and northern ireland. some have developed in england and wales, drifting further east. you may need an umbrella deceiving as you head out. when you come home, most of the showers will have faded away. clear skies overnight, but showers continuing into the northern isles. temperatures dipping away, turning quite chilly away from larger towns and cities. some sports, in highlands and grampian, getting close to freezing. tomorrow morning, most close to freezing. tomorrow morning, m ost pla ces close to freezing. tomorrow morning, most places with blue skies. showers kept going quite readily across parts of wales in south—west england. in scotland, northern ireland, northern england, the odds heavily one around. some drifting

east during the day. this is 4pm in the afternoon. showers dotted around, heavy, thundery with the risk of hail. quite breezy as well. not everyone will see the showers. and improving picture in wales into the afternoon, also in north—west england. gradually pushing down across parts of east anglia and south—east england, going into the evening. then looking mainly dry. most bases with temperatures in the teams. gradual movement showers towards the south—east on sunday evening tending to fizzle out. rain moving into northern ireland overnight and into monday. that weather pattern completely changes with two areas of low pressure coming into monday, taking a band of rain through. with match the wings. to pick up as well. some wet weather, looks like it could last longer in parts of northern england and wales. when is strengthening,

perhaps severe gales and part of the south. as it continues, monday to tuesday, and could be some disruption in places from either wind or rain. some pretty miserable weather for a wind or rain. some pretty miserable weatherfor a time. wind or rain. some pretty miserable weather for a time. difficult travelling conditions. before it gradually clears eastwards to me the quieter wednesday. they could be some disruption. we will keep you updated.