this is bbc news. the headlines at 3pm: boots has said it is "truly sorry" for its response to calls to cut the cost of one of its morning—after pills. boots spectacularly misjudged where public opinion was on this issue, and that's why they responded initially in the way they did. e former white house press secretary, sean spicer, has moved to minimise e talk of divisions within the trump administration, after announcing his resignation. ijust think it's in the best interests of our communications department, of our press organisation, not to have too many cooks in the kitchen. the ruling body of cycling in the uk has voted to adopt a new code of conduct. more than £40 million in public funding was dependent on the vote. also in the next hour — the government plans to bring in closer monitoring of drones.

owners of the small, unmanned aircraft will have to register and take safety awareness courses. airline pilots have welcomed the move. a british grandfather's won £2 million by finishing fourth in the world's most prestigious poker tournament. and at 3.30pm, click will be looking at virtual reality technology, and asking if it's the next big thing or the next big flop. good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. boots has apologised for dismissing calls to cut the cost of its because it claimed that doing so would "incentivise inappropriate use". today, the firm apologised for what it described as its poor

choice of words and said it would look for cheaper brands. campaigners have welcomed the move but say it should have come sooner. our only disappointment is that it's taken this long, and really the threat of a boycott by its customers for boots, to reach this position. this was a position reached by superdrug and tesco far earlier. with me now is caroline farrow, columnist for the website conservative woman. good afternoon to you. what do you make of the latest development in this, well, it's angered a lot of women. it has. it's a shame that boots have capitulated to public pressure and to actually what was little more than a social media campaign. boots is saying that originally said they didn't want to encourage inappropriate use. what they meant by that was the morning

after pill is a high dose of synthetic hormones. it isn't designed to be taken regularly. it isa designed to be taken regularly. it is a one—off, emergency product. therefore by lowering the price of it, you're actually sending a message, you know, this is nothing more than a box of paracetamol. message, you know, this is nothing more than a box of paracetamolm it boots' place? yes, if we think of them as a trusted health care provider, the other thing to remember as well, the pill being available over the counter very easily isn't going to help women who perhaps are being abused, you know, it's going to enable people who are grooming, trafficking, abusing children because — grooming, trafficking, abusing children because - that's a very rare exception, isn't it? today, we've seen a rare exception, isn't it? today, we've seen a case in rare exception, isn't it? today, we've seen a case in the news of a man who is on trial because he raped a 14—year—old girl and he tried to introduce an abortion for her. this was back in the 70s. it's an historic case that's come up. this is back in the days before the

morning after pill was easily available. if a woman is needing to use the morning after pill, she needs to have medical attention and she needs to have some sort of conversation with somebody qualified as conversation with somebody qualified as to whether or not it's suitable for her. why price it, why outprice it? you agree that the morning after pill should be accessible to women, they should have that choice? do you agree with that? it's something that is there on the market. personally, i'm very uncomfortable with it because it's not contraception. it's contragestion. that's once the egg is fertilise today stops the egg implanting in the uterus. for those who believe human life begins at conception, this is ethically problematic. as well, it can have effects on the body. personally, i'm not that comfortable with it, as a method of contraception. i'm not campaigning for it to be withdrawn.

but where we are, here in the uk, women under the law can have access to this pill. so that's the place we're at. the problem is they were putting it at a price point, when you looked at it, a lot of women we re you looked at it, a lot of women were unable to afford. the point i wa nt to were unable to afford. the point i want to get to here is many women, particularly in the us, are now turning online where this pill, some of the pills are priced at around £7, so far more accessible for women. isn't there the risk that this could happen? in france, for example, the pill is only £5, 5. 50 i believe. the pill is available for free on the nhs. women can go and they should go to their gps, to family planning clinics. there's a wealth of — you know there's walk—in sexual health clinic. there's a wealth of clinics to go to get it free. they can go to other retailers as we free. they can go to other retailers as we know. we aren't living in a

society where retailers should be forced to sell you something at the price you want them to sell it to you at. i can't go into a dress shop and say, i'd really like this item of clothing, i need it for work, but i can't afford it, therefore you need to sell it to me cheaper. that's not how the free market works. boots is well within their rights to sell it at whatever price they want. we see this as well with alcohol, we see it with tobacco. we see it with food. we see a fizzy drinks tax, sugar tax, obesity tax, we see, you know — drinks tax, sugar tax, obesity tax, we see, you know - boots as a retailer, they are not there to pass moraljudgment. they're retailer, they are not there to pass moral judgment. they're not retailer, they are not there to pass moraljudgment. they're not being forced to sell a product at a price that's good for the retail, for the customer. this drug is clearly, can clearly be priced at a much lower price point and it is often priced ata price point and it is often priced at a much lower price point. price point and it is often priced at a much lower price pointm price point and it is often priced at a much lower price point. it can,

but boots aren't actually passing a moraljudgment. what but boots aren't actually passing a moral judgment. what they were trying to do, they may have worded it clumsily, but they were trying to optimise women's sexual health to say, you know, you shouldn't be taking this on a regular basis. and if you are, there is perhaps something going on here that needs medical attention. something going on here that needs medicalattention. something something going on here that needs medical attention. something in your life that needs looking at, if you keep needing to make recourse to this emergency contraception which is, should be taken on a one—off basis. actually, whatever boots did, they're basis. actually, whatever boots did, they‘ re damned in basis. actually, whatever boots did, they're damned in they do, damned if they're damned in they do, damned if they don't. they're trying to look out for people's health. i think they're completely within their rights to say ok, we as a responsible retailer, this is what we're going to do. it's funny, we don't argue or quibble about responsible drinking, responsible eating habits, exercise. all our other areas of life we're urged moderation and responsibility. but as soon moderation and responsibility. but as soon as you moderation and responsibility. but as soon as you start bringing that into sexual morality people get very

uptight and say you know you're being judgemental. there is a way to optimise sexual health. 0k, we'll leave there. thank you very much. donald trump's spokesman, sean spicer, has said he had to resign from the post because there would be "too many cooks in the kitchen". he announced his departure after the president appointed a new communications director. it comes as mr trump's son — and other key officials — face questioning in congress about their links to russia. richard galpin reports. just six months in into his presidency, donald trump and his administration are beset by crises. most damaging, the growing scandal of the russian interference into the election, allegedly to help donald trump into the white house. in response, big changes are now under way in the trump team. his press secretary, the latest to leave the white house. the new seniorfigures in the communication department

are anthony scaramouchie, and sarah huckerby—sanders. i think it was in the best interests of the communications department, to not have too many cooks in the kitchen. so i think that is a good quality. they need the team here that work so hard, so tirelessly to advance the president's agenda to have clear leadership. lesley to advance the president's agenda to have clear leadership. i thought it would be confusing having additional people at the top. this is one of the people who now poses the biggest threat to the trump administration. robert mueller, the former fbi director, overseeing the investigation into the alleged links between the russian government and trump's campaign team. next week donald trump's son and son—in—law, jarod kushner,

are due to testify. the white house is in urgent need of a beefed up team to defend itself. president trump is getting ready for a scorched earth campaign. they are going to fight very hard against this which is coming closer and closer to things that make the white house very uncomfortable. sean spicer, he wasn't a good press secretary by any means. he wasn't a particularly honest man, but he was somebody who was recognisably from the familiar world of political communication. donald trump has always dismissed the allegations of collusion with the kremlin. but the investigation is closing in steadily, putting him under intense pressure. richard galpin, bbc news. afghan officials say 16 police officers are now known to have been killed in a us air strike in helmand province. two commanders were among those who died, when warplanes accidentally attacked the group in the district of gereshk. police had just recaptured the area from the taliban when they were bombed. the nato mission in afghanistan said

the incident would be investigated. almost 1,000 children are being forced into temporary accommodation every month, because more families are becoming homeless, according to councils in england. the local government association says the number has increased by a third in three years. it wants more powers to build what are described as "genuinely affordable homes". 0ur social affairs correspondent, michael buchanan, reports. councils say more than 900 children, what they describe as the equivalent of a secondary school, are becoming homeless each month. in total, they say more than 120,000 children and their families are being supported in temporary accommodation, an increase of more than a third since 2014. councils in the south—east and major cities are dealing with the largest numbers. though cornwall and the isle of wight, for instance, also have significant problems.

the councils say they need to build more affordable homes. they want rules on borrowing relaxed so they can invest in housing development. councils need the power to intervene more in the homes market. we need more affordable housing built in the right place to provide people with decent affordable housing. we also need to be able to intervene earlier as well. rather than waiting for people to become homeless, we need to stop them becoming homeless in the first place. ministers say they are spending £550 million to tackle homelessness, and that a new bill passed earlier this year will prevent families from losing homes in the first place. michael buchanan, bbc news. the ruling body of cycling in the uk has voted to accept a new code of conduct drawn up by government ministers. british cycling had been warned that funding, worth tens of millions of pounds, could be withdrawn if it

does not introduce new standards of governance. earlier i spoke to phil bodmer, who's in warrington this afternoon where that meeting is taking place. phil, tell us more about this decision and give us a slight background to it as well. i think there's a palpable sense of relief here in warrington this lunch time by british cycling, because at stake £113 million of funding was potentially at risk. now this decision today means that british cycling will continue to get funding in exchange for governance reforms. over the last decade or so, cycling has grown exponentially. it's one of the most popular sports in the uk. its funding has risen in line with that too. of course, as we know, the reputation of the sport has been tarnished, in recent times by allegations of bullying and sexism and doping. it was a knife—edge vote, that's how it was billed. but in the end it was overwhelming. this is what the chief executive had to say a few moments ago. in terms of the past, i've been with british cycling

for the last three months, so i'm very much focussed on the future listening to some of the lessons from the independent review, listening to our membership and making sure that as a national governing body we're fit for purpose to continue to grow the sport in future. you face bullying, sexism and doping allegations. that makes the public have a suspicion about whether cycling can get its house in order. there were themes that came out of the independent review that showed we need to do better in some areas. but way before the review was published, there's been an action plan in place to make sure that any of those instances, that every rider, but also members of staff and the membership have the right controls in place, that we're a well run business with the right policies and procedures in place. we have a 39—point action plan that we've been working on since christmas, well before the report was published. i'm confident, as are our funders, that those action plans were going to address any concerns. so the chief executive talking

to me a few moments ago. that sword of damocles hanging over the sport was here today. but there is a realisation and common sense maybe broke out here. that doesn't mean everybody‘s happy. 0ne gentleman here said or he accused the executive of a cover up. he said he thought it'd let members down. earlier this week, ten english regions had mandate regions where many people voted to reject the reforms. still a lot of debate, i think there's a sense of relief this afternoon that funding is now in place, subject to the governance reforms of course. british sport, certainly british cycling is now likely to receive that £113 million over the next few years in the run up to the tokyo olympics in 2020. were you given any indication as to why there were some that

wanted to reject their reforms, what were they against? yeah, this is about control in many ways, because as we talk to one individual this afternoon, he said afternoon, he said we haven't got control of this sport. it's purely in the hands of the executive and what they wanted was the more widespread membership to have more control. these governance reforms we don't know the full details yet. there were a number of amendments tabled this afternoon. some of those have gone through, some haven't. what this does is it means the board will have more control over the sport. i think that's what's the grass—roots membership is against. i think their resolve really was to have more control over the sport. having said that, of course, they acknowledge that control of the sport is no good if you haven't got any money. £113 million is a sizeable chunk of funding which many people here think the sport can ill afford to lose. the headlines on bbc news:

boots has said it is "truly sorry" for its response to calls to cut the cost of one of its morning—after pills. former white house press secretary, sean spicer, has moved to minimise talk of divisions within the trump administration, after announcing his resignation. the ruling body of cycling in the uk has voted to adopt a new code of conduct. more than ho million in pub -- £40 conduct. more than ho million in pub —— £40 million in public fubding was dependent on the vote. —— funding. some residents on the greek island of kos have spent the night in tents after a big earthquake. two people were killed, hundreds were injured and buildings were damaged during the quake. british visitors were caught up in it. police say the two who died were tourists — a 22—year—old from sweden and a 39—year—old from turkey. train firms could be forced to reduce first—class seats on busy

commuter lines to ease overcrowding. the transport secretary, chris grayling, says travellers will see less first class in the future with busy suburban trains having one class instead. the minister also suggested operators may be forced to scrap first—class areas when franchises are awarded in the future. poland's senate has backed an overhaul of the supreme court, that's despite huge street protests and international warnings that the independence of the country's legal system will be undermined. the legislation paves the way for all supreme courtjudges to be removed and replaced. the government says it's needed to fight corruption. greg dawson reports. free poland, the chants of a crowd who claim democracy in their country is under attack. rot testers

gathered outside poland's supreme court, the focal point of an argument which has split the country. friday night's vote makes it more likely that all of its judges will be removed. the fear of these people is that they will be replaced with judges sympathetic to the ruling law party. translation: unfortunately, we're going back to the old days, to the communism when they were shutting our mouths, whenjudges communism when they were shutting our mouths, when judges gave verdicts that the authorities wanted. then there's donald tusk, european council president and former polish prime minister who has called the changes backwards. the european commission has expressed concern that one of its member states is abolishing judicial independence. on wednesday it threatened to strip poland of its voting rights, the first time such a sanction would be used. the eyes of europe now fall on the president

here, who as an ally of the ruling party is likely to approve these changes. if he does, the anger and accusations of authoritarianism in poland are likely to grow. here, the government plans to introduce a registration system for drones because of growing concern about the risk they pose to aircraft. drone owners will have to complete a safety awareness course. dozens of near misses have been reported in the past year, joining me now from our southampton studio is paul rigby, ceo of consortiq, a commercial drone operator. he's also a member of the department for tranport‘s working group on drones. thank you forjoining us. what do you make of the new regulations?” think it's a great step in the right direction to make sure that we can integrate this exciting technology into the air—space system. it's

nothing new to go through a structured training scheme and it has other users to have confidence they know what they're doing in a busy airspace. the main area of concern is airports. drones have been proven to be used, for example, around prisons as well. absolutely. there's quite a lot of place that's we don't really want drones operating in. there's easy technical solutions, such as geofencing, to ensure the aircraft are digitally prevented from entering a zone. we will get onto this explanation offee offencing in a moment. —— explanation of geofencing in a moment. will these ideas go far enough? it will help users who are unaware that they are unware of the regulations. how we capture those who go around the rules is a good point. how do you implement here?

how do you then police it? don't you need the retailers on board, the manufacturers on board as well? absolutely. providing resources and dedicating them to policing and enforcement is something that needs to be thought about carefully. we have already a structured regulation system in place at the moment. there is very much enforcement at the moment, especially because it's a cross between the civil aviation authority and the police who need tone force regulations. this idea of geofencing, we've heard through the day that it's some form of data that's placed on the drone. can you have something similar on the ground as have something similar on the ground as well, for example, around praise snns # that is one potential route you could go. you're straying into what is counter uav technology. the geofencing lives alongside the aircraft. its easy to circumnavigate and there's hacking communities dedicating their time to circumventing this restriction. you have worked with the department for

transport, many drone hobbyists are pointing out that the research that was carried out by the dft is flawed because it used an old model of a drone, the weight was unrealistic, because modern day drones can be size of a smartphone. so how can that then be used to justify the fa ct that then be used to justify the fact that a drone, the claim that a drone could damage an aircraft?“ you read the report, that was undertaken by the military aviation authority and the dft they used a popular piece of kit that represented the battery technology, the airframe, and demonstrated that against aircraft at high and low speeds. if a drone was the size of a smartphone it would probably be exempt from the system that's been employed. the cut off is 250 grand. —— grams. anything above that could cause damage. thank you very much. britain's got talentjudges have paid tribute to the dog pudsey,

after his death was announced yesterday by his owner ashleigh butler. they won the contest in 2012 with their dance routine to the mission impossible theme tune. ashleigh described pudsey as a "beautiful boy" who had changed her life. one of the programme's judges, david walliams tweeted: "farewell to a very special dog that the nation fell in love with." an official photograph has been unveiled to mark prince george's fourth birthday. the young prince has just returned to the uk, along with his parents, the duke and duchess of cambridge, and sister princess charlotte, from an official visit to poland and germany. our royal correspondent, peter hunt, reports. beaming george at four, a prince poised to start school soon. a happy little boy, according to the photographer who took this official portrait. once more.

this isn't george let loose on a violin. rather, hamburg's young being encouraged to take up music, something kate did in her youth. yeah! one day, william will be centre stage. not this day, which was left to his wife to take up the baton he declined. music: beethoven's fifth symphony for a helicopter—mad young prince, a pre—birthday treat, being shown around one similar to the one his dad uses as an air ambulance pilot. this is the sort of moment when being on public display has its drawbacks. a sit—down protest from princess charlotte who, like any two—year—old, is not overly keen on delayed gratification. homeward bound for a birthday prince

with a party to enjoy. a british man has won more than $2.5 million, after making it to the final table of poker‘s most prestigious tournament. john hesp has come fourth in the world series of poker‘s main event in las vegas. the grandfather of seven has little experience and usually plays a £10 tournament at his local casino in hull. a short while ago, we spoke tojohn as he was celebrating in his hotel room in las vegas. i wanted to do this world series poker tournament for a couple of years, it was on my bucket list. my wife kindly agreed to allow me to go if you like, she was happy for me to go this year, and i entered with the expectation and hope that i might be able to manage to get in the top 1,000 people.

over 7,000 people entered the tournament. ifi if i got in the 10,000 i would win $15,000 pay for the entry into the tournament and my expenses in relation to my hotel and flight etc. for my expenses in relation to my holiday, my hotel and flight. then i managed to get in the top 500, then 100, 50, 30, and so on. almost the point where sub—100 was indescribable. nobody believed i could do it as an amateur but i dropped below the 100 and it seemed to be that quite a number of the world's media got on board and started to want to talk to me. we got down to the final table where nine people were playing and i got busted out in the fourth position with a win of $2.6 million. it has been quite awesome

and i have said it many times, i have been living the dream, loving every minute of it. i've had so much fun and entertainment. i came here not expecting to win big—money and i wanted to play some poker with some professionals and other people i do not normally do. i would like to spoil my family and take my wife on holiday. she is not bothered about going on holiday, she is happy to go away to ourcaravan in the yorkshire dales. that's about it, i can't say any more than that. very happy looking john hesp there. mo farah may be one of our most decorated olympians,

but now a graphic designer from swindon claims to have broken one of his world records. sir mo set the record for the 100—metre sack race in 2014 with a time of 39.91 seconds. but yesterday, dad of two, stephen wildish, took on the challenge and hopped over the line in just over 28 seconds — smashing mo's attempt. he's now waiting for his time to be officially verified in order to claim his new world record. this is bbc news — coming up in the next few minutes: your weekly guide to the latest technology news. they'll be looking at virtual reality and asking if it's the next big thing or the next big flop. in the meantime, let's look at the weather. once again today, huge contrasts in

the weather. sunny in some places in others, pouring with rain. further showers on the way. this is the what the weather looks like this evening. cool where we had showers, warmer where there is sunshine. a mixed evening on the way. take a brolly. as far as the light is concerned, a lot of clear weather out there. early on sunday, lots of clear skies across the country and a sunny start to the day. for a larger swathe of the uk. but those clouds and showers will get going later in the morning and afternoon and so that shallow chance exists through the day. but there will be fewer heavy showers tomorrow. temperatures around the high teens with a bit of sunshine.