this is bbc news. i'm simon mccoy. the headlines at four. four men appear in court in madrid over the barcelona killings , reports say one has admitted they were planning a much bigger attack. president trump commits more us troops to afghanistan as he takes on the fight against the taliban. we must ensure they have every weapon to apply swift, decisive and overwhelming force, our troops will fight to win. we will fight to win. the former owner of bhs is to be prosecuted by the pensions regulator, following the collapse of the high street store. a third child is pulled alive from the rubble of a house that collapsed last night, during an earthquake on the italian island of ischia . also in the next hour. taking the biscuit. as channel 4 prepares to launch it's the new bake off, one of the judges suggests viewers watch on catch—up

to skip the adverts. i'm not a fan of the new pound coin. but then again, i hate all change. a winning joke — no really it is, as ken cheng's gag is rated the funniest at the edinburgh fringe. good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. reports in spain say that one of the four men accused of being part of the terror cell behind last week's attacks in and around barcelona has told a court that the group was planning a much larger operation using explosives. mohamed houli chemlal appeared in court this afternoon — along with three other men arrested in the wake of the attacks, which left 15 people dead and more than 100 injured. we will get the latest in barcelona

ina we will get the latest in barcelona in a moment. among the distressing stories that have emerged from the attacks in spain, there have been those of kindness and bravery. british tourist harry athwal has been called a hero after he rushed to help a child on las ramblas, ignoring advice from the police to move to safety. adina campbell has been talking to him. we were in the restaurant. we had just eaten. i ordered the bill. i was waiting for the bill. that is when we saw the van. from where we were sitting, you could see it. we saw about five seconds of it. what we saw was tragic. we heard screaming. as we turned and looked, the van was shooting down las ramblas. it was hitting people. people were flying everywhere. you could hear the thuds. the thing i remember was the noise. we were 50 yards away. the noise was so clear. it was horrible. when did you first see the boy you went on to help?

in the middle of las ramblas was the body of a child. that automatically drew me to that child. i knew what i had to do. ijust raced to that child. many of us might have seen the picture of you crouching down beside the boy. what was going through your mind? i was afraid for the boy at that point. when i looked at his injuries, they were severe. i was actually quite emotional, as well, because i knew straightaway this boy was seven or eight years old, the same age as my son. like i said, due to the injuries i was quite upset. the first thing i tried to do was check his pulse, to see if he was alive. because of the nature of the injuries, i didn't want to move him. what made you stay there? he was a young boy.

he was my son's age. that was somebody‘s child as well. at that point it doesn't matter, i wasn't going to move. the first police officer who came down was screaming at me, he was speaking spanish, i was screaming at him saying, get me an ambulance. he was gesturing to me, he said get out of the way, get out of the way. i could see the fear in him and the fear in me. he was trying to say they could be another car or van coming down. i said i wasn't going to move because i wasn't going to move this child. people have called you a hero. i'm not a hero. i'm just a common man, the same as anybody else. these situations are occurring more and more often. we have to stand up and be counted. we can remind you of the update with one of the alleged plotters admitted a bigger attack was being planned.

this is mohamed houli chemlal, who was testifying in the court in madrid where suspects were appearing. he was injured in an accidental blast that reduced our house to rubble in the town of alcanar last house to rubble in the town of alca nar last wednesday. as house to rubble in the town of alcanar last wednesday. as we reported, assailants killed 15 people and injured more than 100 others in attacks around barcelona the following day and early on friday of last week. we will be talking to a correspondent who was in court about those developments later. more us troops to be sent to afghanistan to fight the taliban. the move was announced by president trump ina the move was announced by president trump in a speech in which he said the us would fight to win in afghanistan and concentrate on killing terrorists rather than nation—building. the speech the

president said he'd changed his mind and that a rapid exit from afghanistan would create a vacuum for terrorists to fill. the man who always said he didn't want to intervene abroad came to announce the intervention in afghanistan he's going to ratchet up. but said it was for the right reasons. we are a partner and a friend, but we will not dictate to the afghan people how to live, or how to govern their own complex society. we are not nation—building again. we are killing terrorists. he announced the lifting of a cap on the number of us troops in afghanistan, and that there would be no time limit on them staying there. my original instinct was to pull out. and, historically, i like following my instincts. but all my life i've heard that decisions are much different when you sit behind the desk in the oval office. a very different donald trump

to the one who said this kind of thing right through the 0bama years. "can you believe that the afghan war is our longest war ever? bring our troops home. rebuild the us. make america great again." and that's the basis on which he campaigned as a presidential candidate — that he wouldn't spend american resources abroad, but here at home. he says he now realises that pulling out american troops from afghanistan could leave a vacuum for militants. our primary mission for coming into afghanistan after 9/11 was to kill terrorists. and i think he is going back to the original purpose, that the reason we came into afghanistan was because of what happened on 9/11 and the fact that afghanistan was being used as sanctuary and safe haven for terrorists. the toughest words of his speech were directed at afghanistan's neighbour, pakistan. we have been paying pakistan

billions and billions of dollars. at the same time they are housing the very terrorists that we are fighting. but that will have to change. and that will change immediately. how the president expects pakistan to comply, and more broadly, how he believes the us will, in his words, fight to win in afghanistan, wasn't made entirely clear. the only thing that is certain is that there is still no end in sight for america's longest war. aleem maqbool, bbc news, washington. earlier i spoke to our washington correspondent gary 0'donoghue about how donald trump's policy has shifted. it is a volte face, no question in what he said as a candidate, even describing it in the campaign as a waste of money and that is a lot of base thought as well about foreign adventures.

but you heard him giving the justification for why he changed his mind — things look different behind the desk of the oval office. what has changed? a couple of things. the metrics that have been always used are being dropped, in other words how long and how many? those two things that were constant during the time of president 0bama and president bush. he wants to drop those kinds of measurements from the discussion. the other thing that has changed, more gradually, is the pentagon has been given more flexibility, more of its own decision—making power. president 0bama used to fight wars from the white house, well the pentagon will now be in charge now. some of the fundamentals have not changed. clearly the goal of pushing the taliban back from the half of the country it controls is still there and eradicating those islamic state affiliates in the east of the country

and bashing pakistan for having safe havens, that is still there. bits of changed, most of it hasn't. the difficulty for him is people who will not like the message rather like the america first message of the presidential campaign. the america first thing was powerful, not least because of overtones to the 1930s, but also because isolationism is a word people resist here, but there is a tradition i guess of american isolationism going back to the revolution and their ideas about not getting entangled in foreign adventures. it is a powerful idea for many american voters. we will see whether his base turns against him as a result of this. an interesting glimmer from the breitbart website. that one, steve bannon, his fired chief strategist, has

gone back to breitbart to help them carry on their commentary. breitbart talking about this as a flip—flop. you may see the signs are there of the right beginning to be disillusioned with president trump. we have heard reports in spain that one of the men in court said the group were planning a larger attack using explosives. we arejoined by a radio reporterfrom spain. this is the only survivor of the explosion. mohamed houli chemlal is his name. he was testifying today in first place because there are four suspects in total in court today.

from the morning to the afternoon. mohamed houli chemlal is the first to testify. he was hurt in the blast in alcanar the night before the las ramblas attack. now he has said they we re ramblas attack. now he has said they were planning a bigger attack. but were planning a bigger attack. but we have not so far more details about this. he is still being treated for his injuries. now we are expecting the others to come before thejudge. expecting the others to come before the judge. did he expecting the others to come before thejudge. did he say expecting the others to come before the judge. did he say any more about what the target would be, what was involved? not yet. it seems there is some information that we are not at this moment able to say it is correct, this information. you may see probably rumours about the

cathedral or somewhere else but at this point it is not possible to confirm this information. at the time of the explosion in which she was injured, police found a large number of gas canisters. yes, 120 gas canisters at the scene. but it seems the blast was provoked by something else, a mistake probably, something else, a mistake probably, something they were working on at this moment. the judge has to decide which charges to press, is that right? yes, but first of all, he will listen to all the testimony and then decide how the suspects remain in custody, and of course, we suppose that he will deny bail as demanded by the prosecutor. maria, it is good of you to join us from

catalu nya it is good of you to join us from catalunya radio. the former owner of the collapsed retailer bhs is to be prosecuted. the pensions regulator says it's decided to take action against dominic chappell, after he failed to provide information and documents requested during an investigation into the sale of the retailer. bhs went into administration last year, with the loss of about 11,000 jobs. this spectacular collapse was the biggest retail failure since woolworths went down and 11,000 jobs, and a big scandal over the pension deficit. sir philip green controversially sold that business for £1 to dominic chappell in 2015. he was a former racing driver, bankruptee, no retail experience. a year later, the chain collapse sparking a host of enquiries. we havd the parliamentary committee. it produced a damning report. fast forward to february 2017, sir philip green reached a deal with the pension

regulator, a £363 million settlement to rescue the pension scheme to avoid it going into the pension protection fund. today's action is specific — focused on dominic chappell. it is technical because it relates to the investigation into what happened. yes. i will tell you how technical. he has been summoned to appear at brighton magistrates‘ court next month for failing to comply with three notices issued under section 72 of the pensions act 200a. three charges of neglecting or refusing to provide information or documents without a reasonable excuse. that is quite a specific set of charges. but meanwhile, the pension regulator is still pursuing him over whether he also avoided any pension responsibilities. they began enforcement action.

they did it with sir philip green and with dominic chappell. sir philip settled in february. this is relating to documents. clearly the regulator wanted to get its hands on. meanwhile, as they still investigate the case. the headlines. one of the four men who appeared in court over the barcelona attack is reported to have admitted it was part of a much bigger operation. president trump commits more troops to afghanistan. the former owner of bhs dominic chappell is to be prosecuted by the pensions regulator following the collapse of the high street store. the strongest team for their toughest test so far. england face france in the wooded's

by england face france in the wooded's rug by world england face france in the wooded's rugby world cup. england's women at the eurohockey tournament in the netherlands. chelsea have commended eniola aluko for speaking of her experiences after she accused england boss mark sampson of bullying and discrimination. sampson has been previously cleared of wrongdoing and vehemently denies the claims. more on those stories at half—past. rescue workers are still trying to reach survivors, after a magnitude four earthquake hit the italian island of ischia. at least two people have been killed, and nearly a0 injured, after the tremor brought down several buildings. the island, off the coast of naples, has a population of about 50,000, and is also popular with tourists. richard lister has the latest. minutes after the earthquake, dazed survivors picked their way through a ruined house in the town of casamicciola. around them, in a blizzard of dust, buried cars and rubble—strewn streets. their neighbours are escaping, too,

as the emergency services move in. "it was terrible", she said. "i was terrified. ischia was a trap." several buildings collapsed. under the wreckage, rescuers worked frantically to get to those buried. at this site, rescuers hear the faint sound of a baby crying. and after some careful digging, a minor miracle. seven—month—old pascale was tearful, but safe. work continued at the house to reach his two brothers. daylight revealed the extent of the damage. the earthquake struck as people were sitting down for their evening meal. some houses were almost untouched. others may have to be demolished. translation: the house is destroyed.

we can't even get in. what should we do? translation: i was really scared. in all the years i've lived here, it is the first time there has been such a strong quake. at least one of the dead was killed by falling masonry. it remained a threat, as the emergency services brought in more resources to continue their search and rescue operation. translation: we have helped more than 1,000 people leave ischia. we have set up a coordination centre. technical teams are checking hotels to make sure they are safe. as the work continued, some good news. both of little pascale's brothers were found alive. his family survived. 0thers though are counting the cost of a terrifying night. richard lister, bbc news. divers searching for ten missing american sailors off singapore have found human remains in their damaged warship, according to the us navy. the remains were in sealed compartments of the uss

john s mccain, which was nearing port yesterday when it collided with a merchant tanker. the impact tore a hole in its port side and flooded a crew sleeping area. 0ur correspondent rupert wingfield—hayes sent this update from singapore. this is the news i think we expected, certainly everybody in the us naval community feared. it is the second serious incident, and for the families and personnel, the second major disaster in the space of two months. to make it i suppose worse — it is bad — but these ships, the uss fitzgerald and john s mccain are sister ships and both based injapan and this is a small community of us service personnel and families based injapan. this potentially means seven sailors were killed injune and possibly another ten here in singapore.

it will be a huge blow to the community. the relatives, along with everyone else, wanting to know how it happened. yes, and we did not get a huge amount of information from admiral swift on that front. he said the investigation had just begun and he was asked about rumours of was there a cyber attack and he said there was no evidence to support that. had the steering failed? he said no evidence to support that. there has been talk of the internet amongst families of us naval sailors saying they are overstretched and overworked and exhausted, and one expert in singapore today said the last 16 years, since 9/11, the us military and particularly the navy has become very stretched and there is widespread talk of exhaustion and the rate of going out on deployment being higher than before.

a disaster in human terms but looking at the damage as we are at the moment, this is not going to be an inexpensive vessel to repair. no, as with the uss fitzgerald, this is a very major piece of damage. for them in singapore, it is a logistical problem because they do not have the facilities they have injapan. injapan they have dry docks, very extensive repair facilities. in singapore, they are basically visiting another country. they will have to do some sort of temporary repairs to the hole in the ship. i asked admiral swift about this and he said he did not know how they would do that yet, but they will have to do a temporary repair and maybe go back to japan and in the case of the fitzgerald, they say it will take at least a year to repair that ship. the former conservative chancellor, george osborne, has called on the prime minister to commit to building a high speed rail line across the north of england.

the government says it's investing billions of pounds across the north of england. mr osborne, who spearheaded the northern powerhouse project while in government, said more money should be spent on public transport outside the capital. if the government is serious it needs to commit to high—speed links between the northern cities so we bring those cities together and the whole of the north will be stronger than the individual parts. this autumn is when we need to get on with that because businesses are crying out for a long—term plan that enables them to invest and bring jobs to the north of england. how would these proposals affect the main towns and cities in the region? 0ur correspondent dan whitworth is at leeds train station. presumably there, they are saying they would welcome any investment on this scale. yes, we have been at this scale. yes, we have been at this train station all day to get a

flavour of public opinion from the former chancellor's comments. it is not the first time he has spoken on the issue. leeds is a hub commuter station with lots of places if you look at the departure boards, such as sheffield, hull, newcastle, penzance, liverpool. a real transport hub. it is stations like this george osborne and lines through leeds, that the former chancellor wants to see improved. he was calling this morning in an interview with the bbc and an article in the financial times for commitment from theresa may and her government to create a high—speed line from hull to liverpool across the north of england. he wants a priority on that line of electric —— electrification between leeds and manchester. he believes there will

bea manchester. he believes there will be a strong return on investment. george osborne saying if the high—speed rail line is introduced, an extra 7 million people will be within a 90 minutejourney an extra 7 million people will be within a 90 minute journey of towns and cities in the north and also three times as many businesses, so a call to action from the former chancellor this morning. it is never just about what people say that when they say it and that is interesting? yes, it is no coincidence the timing of the former chancellor's article and interview. tomorrow, in leeds, regional mayors, local politicians and business leaders will be meeting as part of the northern transport summit. to be discussed at that meeting certainly the frustration thatis meeting certainly the frustration that is almost boiling over for many who will be there as to what they see as a prioritisation by national government to spend money on public transport in the capital in london, to the detriment certainly to the north of england and potentially the rest of the uk. also that

frustration from those leaders i think mirrored by many members of the public in the north of england. 70,000 people have signed a petition demanding more money from national government for public sector transport projects. we wait to see what happens out of that meeting. the government, it says it is spending billions of pounds to better connect communities in the north and indeed improvejourneys. thank you. a joke about the new pound coin has been named the funniest of the edinburgh festival fringe. ken cheng won the tenth annual dave's funniestjoke of the fringe, triumphing over the likes of tim vine and frankie boyle, among many others. this is thejoke. i'm not a fan of the new pound coin. but then again, i hate all change. it is also about the delivery. with me now is adele cliff , who's joke was featured on the top 15 list.

she's performing her show cliff notes at the edinburgh fringe. you perhaps change the timing to appear on telly now. what was your joke? myjoke was as a vegan, i think people who sell meat are disgusting, but, apparently, people who sell fruit and veg are grocer. when did you come up with that? last month i was walking down to my flat andi month i was walking down to my flat and i walked past a lot of fruit and veg stalls and i had an epiphany. what did you think of the one that won? can's joke is good, and at the time everyone is thinking of a similarthing, time everyone is thinking of a similar thing, but he is very funny, so good for him. i am looking at the list of others. alexei sayle. i have given up asking rhetorical

questions. what is the point? they are quite clever. yes, that is the best thing about a one—liner, you feel clever if you have written a good one. do you sit down and try to think of them? i do, sometimes i will sit down with one topic and try to write a lot ofjokes about one topic, and sometimes theyjust come topic, and sometimes theyjust come to you. tim vine, a previous winner, he makes 15 but he says he went to a pretenders gig, it was a tribute act. you are laughing at that one. i am pleased i beat tim vine. there was the one about the hoover collecting dust. i think that was two years ago. myjokes are older than they should be! when you tell these jokes at the fringe, how do you judge if it is quite good? with

a good one—liner, it surprises people, so even if they are groaning, they are surprised by the punch line. if they are making a good amount of noise, they have at least been surprised and that is a good thing. what was the worst joke and response? i have heard lots of jokes told to complete silence. i have, to! i cannot think of the worst one. i mean, you know, when you start at, you hear some of the samejokes getting you start at, you hear some of the same jokes getting very little. mark simmonds, combine harvesters... and you will have a really big restau ra nt. you will have a really big restaurant. that is very good. i have two boys, five and six. we are not good at naming things in this house. that is from ed byrne. i like angela barnes, the tennis one. friend tricked me into going to wimbledon by telling me it was a

mend's singles event. that is good. the trouble with a lot of these, you feel you have heard them before. sometimes you do, especially if it is about a current event. parallel thinking and people trying to think about jokes of a thinking and people trying to think aboutjokes of a similar kind. a lot is about delivery. when judges go around shows they see people delivering a joke and get an idea of what pleases audiences. what else do you putting your show? my show, is like a revision guide. i have divided myjokes into topics and there is an exam at the end. do i ask for example? one of the jokes in it was on the top ten list last year. a historyjoke. why is henry's wife covered in tooth marks? because

he is tudor. i would do more tudor jokes but that would be aragon off me. here all week! are you here all week? i am till sunday. for comedian, it must be nerve—racking particular at the fringe. do you seek inspiration from other acts? there are so many great shows on, so i like to see as many as i can because i'm a comedy fan as well as a comedian. if you see something good, it can be inspiring to help you work harder. if i said come up with a joke now, would you have one at the top of your head?” with a joke now, would you have one at the top of your head? i have a whole show in my head. off you go. i don't want to brag but i can control

a kayak brilliantly, k an—ou! !|j miss my best friend dave the militia room, he was a fungi? nice one. did you know it's impossible to run in a campsite, you can only ran because it's campsite, you can only ran because its past tense. not bad. campsite, you can only ran because it's past tense. not bad. yes. how do you end your show and how do you judge if it's a success or not, presumably you've still got an audience? yes, that is a good success. i end my show, there's a quiz element, then i have a conclusion about being on the best jokes list last year. because i'm doing the free fringe i end by politely asking people if they would like to donate any money. how is that going? very well, people have been generous, they're seeming to enjoy it so it's very good. it's an unbeatable atmosphere, that must help? yes and my room's really nice. it's small but you get an amazing

atmosphere in there when people enjoy it. i've got one for you, the best this afternoon, i was waiting to use cash machine when the elderly woman infront of me asked me to check her balance soy pushed her over. that's quite good, yes, i like that one. use that tonight. credit us? i've got to keep it original and keep my own ones. have you? yes. you have probably delayed your show a bit to appear on this, thank you for bringing a bit of laughter. it's nice to have a laugh isn't it, it's a really good anecdote. yes, it's good. thank you very much adele. we wish you luck with the rest of the fringe. thanks. now darren has the weather forecast. today no joke, we now darren has the weather forecast. today nojoke, we have now darren has the weather forecast. today no joke, we have got some sunshine! the cloud has been breaking upa sunshine! the cloud has been breaking up a bit more, especially across england and wales and it's

warm and humid out there. the wettest weather clearly there across northern ireland. it's been tipping it down across fermanagh and tyrone and the rain will push across the rest of the country over the next few hours. scotland and northern england will get the showers later. we have warm and muggy air, temperatures no lower than 17 tonight. we start with some outbreaks of rain. wet start for northern england and scotland will ta ke northern england and scotland will take a while for that to clear. we have warm and humid air ahead of the weather front. cooler fresher air coming in behind but sunshine chasing the rain away with one or two showers arriving in the west, especially across northern ireland. last of the warm and humid airfor a while across east anglia and the south—east. that's where we'll get the highest temperatures. in the fresher air, pleasant in the sunshine it's 19 or 20. hello, this is bbc news

with the headlines. reports in spain say that one of the four men accused of belonging to the terror cell behind last week's barcelona killings has told a judge that they were planning a ‘much bigger attack‘ involving explosives. president trump says he's changed his mind on afghanistan and that more us troops should be sent there to fight the war on terror. he says us forces will stay and "fight to win" to avoid mistakes made in iraq. the pensions regulator says it will prosecute the former owner of bhs, dominic chappell. he's accused of failing to provide information that was requested during the regulator's investigation into the sale of the high street store. a third child is pulled alive from the rubble of a house which collapsed last night, during an earthquake on the italian island of ischia. at least two women have died and 39 people have been injured. england face their toughest test of

their rugby tournament so far. two matches are played later. kat is in belfast. belfast, a city proud of its past. but one which chooses not to dwell there. swap nation for team and england's women have chosen to follow the same philosophy. they're defending world champions grand slam winners but no—one knows england's wea knesses winners but no—one knows england's weaknesses like today's opponents. france have won two of the last four nations titles and finished third at the last world cup. they're england's toughest test yet. we know that every time we play france it will be one hell of a game there, a

tough opposition, they have a lot of strength around the whole of their game. they're an all round team. we know if we are to get the result we want, we'll have to put in a performance that is an improvement so farfrom performance that is an improvement so far from the games we have played in. england the tournament's only fully professional side have enjoyed straight forward wins so far over spain, italy and the usa. now two matches away from back—to—back world titles, they've named the strongest squad yet. this is about putting the best 23 out that you feel are right for thejob. if you best 23 out that you feel are right for the job. if you feel it's the right 23 for the next, you will put them out again. if you don't, we'll make changes, simple as that. we don't even need to think about the next game until we get this one out of the way. this is going to be huge. we are focussed on this game. england play the semi—final at 7. 45 this evening. the other kicks off at 5 between the usa and the four—time world champions, new zealand. the final is expected the be between the

black ferns and the red roses of england. france will be hoping to keep a good splash of bleu in the mix too. barcelona are to sue neymar weeks after his £200 million world record move to psg. there is some flash photography coming up. he moved to the french capital after they met his buyout clause but barcelona are claiming breach of contract over a bonus payment when he was allegedly given a bonus last year. they're seeking damages plus 10% in interest. the women are through to the hockey championships in amsterdam. they beat scotland 2—0 to reach the last four. england took the lead following this great pass there from anna tonan. joe hunter

finished it off before a penalty by ansley finished off. we knew they we re ansley finished off. we knew they were good and would drop deep. we knew it would be a close game, particularly in the first hatch which is exactly what it was. we knew if we continued to do the right things, tuns would open. joe hunter got a fantastic goal then giselle with the next. really happy. we were just going out to stick to the syste m just going out to stick to the system we wanted to play and see if we could get the result. slightly disappointed but all in all it was a good performance and we have proven how well we can play. moving forward to the rest of the tournament, we are happy with that performance. germany beat ireland 5—1 to reach the last four with their third straight win of the competition. ferrari have extended raikkonen‘s contract until the end of the 2018 season. the finn whose contract was

due to expire at the end of the year is fifth in the championship standings. talking of jokes, is fifth in the championship standings. talking ofjokes, simon, i've got one for you — what time does play begin... we are out of time, john. you will love this. what time, john. you will love this. what time does play begin at wimbledon? say again? what time does play begin at wimbledon? go on? tennish! yeah. what about this one? i wasn't particularly close to my dad before he died which was lucky cos he trod ona landmine. that's number nine on the list of top ones. that's got you going. sense of humour. good to see you! you should know better. the liberal democrat's new leader, sir vince cable, says he continues to support the legalisation of cannabis. his comments came in an interview for bbc radio 0ne's newsbeat, which has been speaking to a number of politicians across the political spectrum about whether it's time

for laws relating to the drug to be looked at. jim connolly, has the details. at the last election the liberal democrats made headlines with one of their most eye—catching manifesto promises, to legalise cannabis. lib dem insiders tell us it wasn't that popular. so is it a policy the party continues to back? the evidence is clear that if you want to stop abuse and damage to young people, you've got to bring the trade into the open and out of the hands of the criminal underworld. attitudes to cannabis are changing across the world. take, for example, north america. in the us, 21 states have decriminalised personal possession, and eight have legalised it. next year canada is expected to go further and make the drug legal across the whole country. back in europe, portugal has some of the most liberal drug laws. all substances are decriminalised. we've come to meet the man often described as the architect of the portuguese system.

we had one of the highest rates of problematic drug use in europe by the late ‘90s. 15, 16 years later we can look back and say that we were... of course, it's not a solved problem in our society, but we have a lot of improvement. cannabis is the most commonly used illegal drug in the uk. take, for example, england and wales — in the past year, more than 2 million people have admitted using it, and there's a growing campaign to change the law on the substance. united kingdom cannabis social clubs is an umbrella group campaigning for the drug to be freely available. it went from no clubs back in 2011 to more than 100 this year. these brighton members get together to eat meals with cannabis cooked into them. take a look at spain, portugal, canada and america — they are all coming through with progressive, forward—thinking policies that are basically spreading more of a positive impact and utilising

the cannabis culture for the positive it can do for local community, for the industry, for medical patients, for recreational users thatjust want to have a social experience but not be criminalised for it. the government says it's aware of different approaches being taken abroad, but won't be changing how things are done here, arguing it's overly simplistic to say that legalisation works. so, whilst there's no chance of a change of law any time soon, these users say they'lljust carry on regardless. jim connolly, bbc news. and at 9 tonight there's a special programme by radio 1's newsbeat debating the future of britain's laws and attitudes to cannabis. presented by tina daheley it will be shown live on the bbc news channel as well as on bbc radio 1. ford has become the latest car company to offer customers an incentive to trade in an old vehicle for a new, less polluting one. the scrappage scheme

will run for four months, and will offer £2,000 off some new models. unlike similar schemes by bmw and mercedes, which apply only to diesel vehicles, ford says it will also accept petrol cars. 0ur transport correspondent richard westcott has the details. millions of us still drive older, more polluting cars, but what's the best way to get them off the road? ford has become the latest and biggest firm to offer a scrappage scheme, £2,000 to crush your old car or van, as long as you buy a new one. it wouldn't be an incentive to me. good for the people who want to do it and have £2,000 if they have an old car that isn't roadworthy, good for them. but it wouldn't be an incentive for me at all. a good incentive, give you £2,000 towards a new car and if the side—effect is a environmental benefit, why not? cleaner air, it benefits everybody, and i get a new car. if you can afford it. ford claims it is about protecting the environment not boosting sales, which have been falling for months.

some people will look at this cynically and say, sales are down, you're only offering this for four months, only £2,000 scrappage scheme, this is about selling more cars, isn't it? it really is anything but a cynical marketing ploy. i can spend my money on much more efficient things to drive sales, this genuinely is about air quality. ford sells more cars than any other company in britain, and the fiesta is the most popular model, that is why it is significant they have come up with a scrappage scheme. but it's only going to last four months initially, the company is talking about perhaps a few thousand dirty cars being scrapped and taken off the road. there are 19 million in total, so could it really make a difference? the problem with a scrappage scheme that is aimed at air quality is that it really needs to be targeted at the vehicle driving around most in the areas where air quality is a problem. things like buses and trucks are particularly important, and so are commercial vehicles too.

after months of speculation about a possible government scrappage scheme for dirty vehicles, it's now the carmakers who are taking the initiative, but not yet on a scale that could really make a difference. richard westcott, bbc news. in a moment a look at how the financial markets in europe closed the day, but first the headlines on bbc news. one of the four men who appeared in court over the barcelona attack is reported to have admitted they were planning a much bigger operation. president trump commits more us troops to afghanistan — the move is welcomed by the afghan president. the former owner of bhs, dominic chappell, is to be prosecuted by the pensions regulator, following the high street chain's collapse which saw the loss of thousands of jobs. in a moment, bake 0ff‘s back but will it have the right recipe for success, when it airs on channel four tonight? we'll be taking a sneak peak. hello, i'm egon cossou

with a look at the markets. it's been a positive day in europe — especially here in the uk. the ftse ending up in positive territory after yesterday's losses. the same for most of europe. gains also in the us — but its thin trade ahead of the central bankers meeting at jacksons hole later this week. here are some of the stories that have been moving the markets. the government recorded a budget surplus last month for the first time since 2002. that's been fuelled by more taxes coming in from the self employed. the surplus forjuly was around 200 million pounds. the housebuilder persimmon has announced a rise in half year profit to 457 million pounds. shares in the doorstep lender provident financial plunged after it issued its second profit warning.

it now says it expects to make a loss of up to 120 million pounds. analyst lathe khalafjoins us now... that's all from me, there is a roundup of all the other top business stories on our website — bbc.co.uk/business these are huge losses, why so high, lathe? huge fall in the share price, as you say, around 65% today. that's because we have had the second profit warning in around two months. the first was late on injune and we have had a second one today, basically telling us that actually the on souper credit division, rather than making a £60 million profit, is making a loss of between £80 million and £120 million. the dividend has been axed as well. the chief executive has resigned. they've also announced that one of their divisions van questions is

facing an fca investigation over some of the products it's sold. add all of that together and it's a bad day for shareholders. also problems in collecting its own debt, only collecting about 57% of the debts it's owed? yes, that is correct. this is the big problem that has arisen this year, the company's moved from using a number of self—employed agents to collect its debts to actually full—time em—moyesees and there haven't been that many people who've moved across from one to the other, much less than the company expected. as a result, the efficiency of their debt collection‘s fallen significantly. let us move on to persimmon, the house builder. a big rise in profits there. what are they doing right? like all the highest builders, they are sillth sitting pretty, seeing almost a third rise in the first half of this year, so two things driving profits, one they're selling more homes and two at higher prices

because the property market is very buoyant at the moment, driven by low interest rates of course and high levels of consumer demand and low levels of consumer demand and low levels of consumer demand and low levels of supply. it's also driven by government initiatives like help to buy. all those things have been helping the house building sector which took a tumble after the eu referendum vote because people thought there might be some problems but the results from the house building companies have confounded those doubts. can we read across from the results like persimmon‘s to the help of the housing market as a hole? i think it's difficult to do a very accurate read across. what you see from the likes of persimmon and the other house builders is the state of homes that are new builds, that's just one part of the uk housing market which has second hand stock as well. if you look at the latest house price surveys, they're showing that house prices are still

growing annually perhaps less than they were but still at a reasonable rate. the housing sector is looking like it's in 0k shape, particularly given the fact that we've seen two fairly disappointing quarters for economic growth in the uk. let's turn to the government spending figures now showing a surplus for july. does this mean the government is starting to live within its means? not quite. it would be nice if it was. but yes, the july means? not quite. it would be nice if it was. but yes, thejuly figures are if it was. but yes, thejuly figures a re really boosted if it was. but yes, thejuly figures are really boosted by tax receipts from self—assessment. a lot of it comes from the self—employed. if you look at a slightly longer picture, and the financial year going back to april, actually government borrowing has risen on last year by around £2 billion. we borrowed £23 billion over the course of this financial year alen over the course of this financial yearalen and over the course of this financial year alen and total government debt still stands at around £1.75 trillion. the amount that we are borrowing year on year seems to be

coming down very slightly although there's been a blip. the wilder question is will government finances stand up because there are concerns that the tax may be under pressure if we see a continuation of the disappointing growth. what do the spending figures mean for the ordinary person in the street like me and you? in terms of one month's figure, they are not particularly significant. the wider picture is that the government's still very endebted. it's still going to have difficulty balancing the books. that probably means that it can't give too much away in terms of tax give—aways and can't do too much in terms of fiscal spending without relaxing the borrowing constraints. lathe, thank you very much indeed. that is it from me. back to you. it's no longer on the bbc — but "the great british bake off" returns to our screens later this

month on channel 4. three quarters of the presenting line up has changed —— so is it still as good? lets have a look at a clip... nouven it sounds straightforward. we had to send somebody away. you could send noel. i'll go now. i'll go now actually and take a hit for the team. it's been great, i've loved working with you guys. simon, you will be fine. 0ur entertainment correspondent lizo mzimba has seen the first episode — and says fans will find many of the familiar features of the show — despite its move to channel 4. it belongs to the nation, it's part of the national fabric. it belongs to the nation, it's part of the nationalfabric. the it belongs to the nation, it's part of the national fabric. the final‘s become a national event talked about all over the country. so of course there have been changes. we have seen three of the presenters leave and three new ones come in. but as far as and three new ones come in. but as faras i'm and three new ones come in. but as far as i'm concerned, i think it's

prue leith, not quite mary berry but has great experience and sandy toksvig and noel fielding make a great double act, they work together for things that play to their own strengths. the music and tent and the bunting are the same. the bakers baking off against each other too. being on channel 4, there are adverts, 17 minutes of them in one hour i was raiding. prue leith said you should watch it on catch—up and then you can skip through the ads which may not make her channel 4's favourite person. people could watch it on catch—up. favourite person. people could watch it on catch-up. ok! and when she said that, i was in the room at the press events and the chief operating officer sort of had her head in her hands ina officer sort of had her head in her hands in a slightlyjoeingish manner. they know that younger people watch tv in all sorts of different ways. what made bake 0ff special is that it's one of the few

programmes that brings all generations together and of course the best way they'll hope for people to watch that is actually when it's on. also it's a programme that generates an awful lot of social media traffic and part of the attraction for many is watching it whilst the on, so taking part in the conversation. even the ad breaks then, some might see them as exa m ples of then, some might see them as examples of being able to catch up with what is happenling, talk about who might be in or out. they might be going on social media saying, i can't believe there is another ad break, five minutes before it's on again. it was a huge hit for the bbc. people will be watching and seeing what they think of the new line—up. darren has the weather. a long time ago, darren, a joke, darren has the weather. a long time ago, darren, ajoke, i've been on darren has the weather. a long time ago, darren, a joke, i've been on a once ina ago, darren, a joke, i've been on a once in a lifetime holiday, darren. have you? never again. oh, why? no,

no, darren, it's a once in a lifetime holiday, darren. never again. oh, yes, yes. weather, weather. ok. thanks very much. made my day so much better. sunshine would help and we are getting some across parts of the uk today. we have seen some sunshine along many of the coasts, along the beach here in lincolnshire as well. looks good out there. it's not sunny anywhere. very wet here in fermanagh actually. most very wet here in fermanagh actually. m ost pla ces very wet here in fermanagh actually. most places ending the day fine. thick cloud arriving in northern ireland and the wet weather will push across the whole of the country in the next few hours. heavy rain, thunder storms likely in the western side of scotland and maybe nudging into the north—west of england. a bit of rain for wales perhaps but head towards the

south—east and it will be dry with brea ks south—east and it will be dry with breaks in the cloud. a warm night like last night, humid out there too. tomorrow, we'll find that humidity dropping quickly in northern ireland. the sun will be coming out after the overnight rain. there'll be a fresher feel. we have got this rain in scotland and it will be heavy and around for the rush hour, could make things tricky. the wettest weather in northern england likely at this stage to be in the north—west. a little rain coming in around the welsh borders into the west midlands but some brea ks into the west midlands but some breaks in the cloud already arriving across west wales and the far south—west of england. a band of cloud running east ahead of some early sunshine. ahead of this weather system, the muggy air. cooler fresher conditions but more in the way of sunshine. a few showers across northern ireland. ahead of that weather front we have got the warm and muggy air, this is the last of that across east anglia and the south—east. fresher air

coming in and so temperatures will be back down to 19 or 20. sunshine to end the day for most. that weather front sought of the way for thursday, low pressure in the north—west and that's been sitting there a good few days. it will get closer to northern ireland. further south, high pressure so dry weather generally continues through thursday and friday. temperatures around about the low 20s at best. further north nearer the low pressure we'll get some longer spells of rain probably for northern ireland and quite a few showers into scotland. fewer showers and maybe a bit more sunshine across england. a north south split for thursday and friday. tonight at 5.00pm: one of the men suspected of belonging to a terrorist cell behind the barcelona attacks, tells a judge the group was planning a bigger assault. four men have appeared in court, following the attacks that killed 15 people and injured more than 100. and we hearfrom one british tourist who stayed

to help an injured child — ignoring police advice to move to safety. i could see the fear in him. i could see the fear in me. he was basically trying to say — there could be another car or van coming down. but i said, "no, i'm not going to move, i'm not going to leave this child." we'll have the latest on the aftermath of the attacks in catalonia. the other main stories on bbc news at 5.00. president trump reverses a campaign promise, and says more us troops will go to afghanistan. he said withdrawing would leave a vacuum for terrorists to fill.