this is one of the allegations. these are credible claims. the mod response to this, we've had a spokesperson saying the royal military police has found no evidence of criminal behaviour by the armed forces in afghanistan. they discount over 90% of the 600 of the allegations made and 10% of the allegations remain. that is a summary allegations remain. that is a summary of the response from the mod. very quickly, i would like to move on to... at the back to the sunday express, this is going to get people talking. it is hard enough to get him to see the gp, but things possibly getting more tough. apparently family doctors will be able to turn away all but life or death patients under a new court. the sunday express has new details of this plan drawn up by members of

the bma's general practitioners committee after a unanimous approval. it would see surgeries closing their doors in emergencies such as flu epidemic, staff shortages, or a cyber attack. that is pretty scary. very quickly, the sunday express. do you know when wimbledon starts? monday? very good! andy murray says he is fighting fit. he isn't playing very well, he had a bad end at queens club. so fingers crossed he can make a decent fist at defending the title. we will be there. murray hill, orwhatever defending the title. we will be there. murray hill, or whatever it is called these days. thank you very

much. an absolute pleasure. that's it from us. meet the author is next. the irish writer paula mcgrath's novel, a history of running away, is about three women separated by time and place, who are all trying to escape the circumstances of their lives. they're all connected although we don't know how at the start of the book and their stories are about a society that seems to thwart them at every turn, but then perhaps begins to offer something different, and something hopeful. welcome. what fascinated you about these three women who are apart but connected 7 i began with jasmine,

who's our 19805 character who decides that she wants to box. which wasn't allowed at that time for women. that's right, yes, which i didn't realise initially. i had an image of a character, which is unusual for me because usually i forget to write what they look like at all. but this character was extremely vivid to me. she had... she was the 19805 rural only goth in the village so i knew my setting would be ‘805, and i knew it was rural ireland to begin with. she runs away from home because she wants to join legs & co initially, but the bbc gave her short shrift and she ends up back in dublin and discovers boxing. at the time i was starting to think about this novel in the beginning, i was fascinated by katie taylor, the irish boxer. she was fighting for olympic gold, and there was something about the fact boxing had been illegal and now she was winning a gold medal.

did you have any feelings about women's boxing? not really, it wasn't something i wanted to do. i had one attempt at kick boxing and fell out of the gym. it was very strenuous so i had no objection but no real interest myself. so let's talk about the other two principal characters, since we have started off with jasmine. jasmine led me back to her mother's story, and through her to ali, who is a recently orphaned teenager who was running away from her grandparents — grandparents that she didn't know until recently she has. she's in maryland in the states and it's not clear what the connection is between the characters to the reader at this point. the other narrator is a gynaecologist in present—day dublin and she's increasingly frustrated with her working conditions. so, they are all imprisoned in different ways? yes, you could say that. they feel the need to run.

in any case, they all run, and injasmine's case she runs away twice. i suppose we have our fight or flight options and they go for flight each time. the gynaecologist is on the brink, she is trying to decide whether to stay. they have all got great difficulties either because of intimate relationships, work, family or by the social pressures around them, and they seem to be trying to escape. but there's a feeling in the book that things in that respect may be getting better. is that how you feel? i did feel that from looking at the boxing story certainly, things were getting better. obviously katie taylor is a shining example of why women should be allowed to decide whether or not they want to box. it's not for everybody but there were and still are other things that women can't do, that they're not allowed to decide for themselves.

and i don't feel that that's getting better. it needs to change but there was an anger underlying the writing of the book. it was inescapable for me, and i think for many, to think you are living at home in ireland in a society which has changed radically really in the last, even the last decade. the country has gone through an economic crash, a recovery, and now seems to be booming again. it has a sort of irrepressible self—confidence about it. you've lived through a very dramatic period in the history of ireland, haven't you? yes, starting from the ‘805, i came to dublin to college in the ‘805 and it feels to me that we have come, in a way, almost a full circle, a second recession. going back to the abortion referendum again, it happened in the early ‘805 and yet we're back again in 2014, 2016, 2017, and there's fresh new scandals. so, although ireland has come a long way, the hold of the catholic church has

been broken to some extent, i think the effects of that have yet to be felt, for women at any rate. for anybody who talks to people about these events, you realise how profound the change has been, how profound the questioning is of the kinds of assumptions there were in the generation before yours. i mean the society is a much more mobile, open one than it's ever been before in modern times. yes, and i tried with the book to show, and i think this is why i ended up with three different narrators and brought them together, just to show that the underlying theme that the irish state's relationship with women's bodies has been... difficult i suppose, historically, and still is but things have changed. so back in the ‘505 we had mother baby homes, then we had this abortion referendum,

and now we have katie taylor winning gold, but we still have to go to the next stage. this is no coincidence that one of the main characters is a gynaecologist. no, coincidence, no! and her mother is a boxer. obviously there's a mystery involved in the story, a set of mysteries, but it's not a tease for the reader. i mean it's really a story that's meant to have you thinking about their characters and the difficulties and how they cope with them, isn't it? that's really what drives you. yes, it's the characters, each of them at their own stage, trying to figure out where they are in their lives and what they want and who they are in a way, as they also gradually come to discover or the reader comes to discover who they are. irish writing is in such a healthy state — there are young novelists, young poets, young storytellers in ireland which is, you know, is a small country. the rich literary tradition really is still alive, isn't it? very much so.

yes. are you conscious of that? i am conscious of it. there's a lot of support out there. tax breaks and vibrant literary journals. i think literature is something we take seriously. i'm not too sure why, whether its economic or whatever — it's pretty cheap to sit down and write! i think these tax breaks don't really cost the government very much but they do kind of foster a community. but when you say you don't know why, i think that if you talk to some of the sort of world—renowned irish writers of today, they all say, look, you know, if you come from the small country that produced joyce and beckett and flann o'brien, then you really are always conscious you have got kind of an obligation to these great figures that are standing on your shoulders. yes, they are quite intimidating and for a long time i think i studied literature in college

and that's probably why i found it so difficult to get started as a writer... because you were aware of what's behind you! exactly, yeah. where do you think — this is your second novel, generation was the first couple of years ago — where is your writing going to take you, do you think? well, i know where it's taking me at the moment. i'm working on a third novel. what kind of theme has that got? the theme of trauma, if that doesn't sound too off—putting! oh, it's not off—putting. multiple trauma... you can't have a novel where nothing happens, nothing exciting. no, and i'm conscious of all of what might have become cliches of irish writing. i don't want the child abuse story, i want multiple traumas that can be read that are palatable to the reader, so that's what i'm working on. and avoiding the irish cliche. trying hard! paula mcgrath, thank you very much indeed. thank you. hello once again. here is a little

composition for you. it is one of our weather watchers. this is getting a lot of play on twitter today. i tweeted that sometime ago. manteit yulara ‘s cloud. that will probably be a distant men —— memory. —— lenticularis cloud. some of the sheu —— lenticularis cloud. some of the shell is quite sharp. come the afternoon, plenty of them. further south, when we get rid of that rain in the south—eastern quarter, really rather lovely. not wall—to—wall sunshine but really acceptable for the second ofjuly. a bit more in the second ofjuly. a bit more in the way of cloud across east anglia but that will not stop the temperatures getting up to around 23 out east. more cloud across northern ireland. sunshine in rather short

supply. i think there are some chances out east. the wind will be used from the sort of strength we will have seen through tonight. it will have seen through tonight. it will be a breezy old day in the showers could turn boundary to finish off your sunday across the far north west of scotland. there is monday. the tail end of the weather front slumps its way down england and wales. not much more in the east than a band of cloud. that has got to be good news if your ports have turned to wimbledon. yes, cloudy but dry. there is the rub until perhaps, later on, a shower at that stage. there is more about that weather front. there will be one of those days. it is quite disappointing. furthermore, a passing shower. many of you will stay dry. july to either

side of it. wednesday, that high—pressure topples in. it tends to, b prior to a little bit warmer. just one or two sharp showers. there isa just one or two sharp showers. there is a wee bit on. if you want more, it is on the website. good night. this is bbc news. i'm alpa patel. our top stories: iraqi forces say they've taken control of the main base of the so—called islamic state in mosul, we report from the frontline. the remaining militants have been driven from here, but at what cost? this hospital complex which was a place of healing now lies in ruins,

like many other parts of mosul. scuffles in hong kong as its newly appointed chief executive is sworn china warns against any challenge to its sovereignty. world leaders pay tribute to helmut kohl, uniter of germany and architect of the european union's expansion.