this is bbc news. i'm duncan golestani. our top stories: the war of words hots up, with north korea's foreign minister launching a blistering attack on president trump at the united nations. translation: he tried to insult the dignity of my country by referring to it as a rocket. by doing so, he omitted an irreversible mistake. —— committed. it comes as iran test—fires a new medium—range missile, days after a warning from the united states. rescuers in mexico are forced to suspend their search efforts temporarily after the country is hit by another earthquake. and the king versus the president — why one of basketball‘s biggest names has picked a fight with donald trump. hello and welcome to the programme.

north korea's foreign minister has launched a fresh verbal attack on president trump. ri yong—ho called president trump "a mentally deranged person full of megalomania". he made the speech at the united nations, saying that mr trump's threat to destroy his country had made a rocket assault on the united states "all the more inevitable". all this comes as us bombers flew off the coast of north korea in a demonstration of america's military capability. andrew plant has the story. yeong yang, the capital of north korea. the place where tens of thousands of north koreans gathered to show support for their leader, it kimjong un, and their anger at america's leader, donald trump.

translation: who the hail is doubled to about the collapse of our government? we are result to solve oui’ government? we are result to solve our problems with military force if necessary. translation: after her the news, my angerat translation: after her the news, my anger at donald trump is uncontainable. eastwards at the un we re uncontainable. eastwards at the un were unacceptable. america, in turn, has devastated its strength. the us air force has devastated its strength. the us airforce has has devastated its strength. the us air force has flown has devastated its strength. the us airforce has flown bombers has devastated its strength. the us air force has flown bombers and fighters over waters near north korea. the close as they have flown to the country in years, says the pentagon. a sign that they are taking the baby seriously. 25 million people live in north korea. it is increasingly antagonistic, with words and missile test making people uneasy. but there has been no

sign of north korea hoping to placate or appease any escalating tension. its foreign minister said donald trump was mentally deranged and ona donald trump was mentally deranged and on a suicide mission. translation: the absurd reality is that somebody like donald trump, a mentally that somebody like donald trump, a m e nta lly to that somebody like donald trump, a mentally to reach person, full of megalomania, who is chastised by his own people as the commander in grief, a gambler who uses threats, fraud, and schemes, has his hand on the nuclear button. this is the greatest threat to international peace. donald trump said north korea would pay dearly for its hostile behaviour. america, he said, would totally destroy the country, if it was ever forced to defend itself. let's get some analysis now, joining me is drjohn park, who is a director of the korea working group at harvard kennedy school.

thank you forjoining us here on bbc news. the rhetoric is escalating at such a rate that it almost feels that at some point very soon, the two lea d e rs that at some point very soon, the two leaders are going to run out of angry words. it is an alarming situation. not only are their words, but we have entered a phase at this pa rt but we have entered a phase at this part of the crisis where we are looking at very emotional and very personal types of attacks. this is happening amidst elevated military exercises and displays shows of strength. essentially, the united states is trained to signal to the north koreans that they are strong and vigilant in terms of being ready at any moment. the latest show of strength from the united states, this flyby north of the demilitarised zone, the pentagon said its mission demonstrates the us has many military option to defeat

any threat. what do you make of that assessment? that is a consistent message from the us side. but it is pa rt message from the us side. but it is part of the timing aspect that we are concerned about. the room for miscommunication and inadvertent conflict is growing. the message being sent from the us side is being said with confidence that it is a clear message. but the question is how is the north korean side receded that message? our concern is that the gap between the message being sent and that being receipt is growing as well. do you sense this is what kim jong un wanted? he wa nted is what kim jong un wanted? he wanted direct interaction with donald trump, with no other countries involved ? donald trump, with no other countries involved? to go a step beyond that, the north korean effort to decouple the united states from its allies in the region, such as

south korea. it is a saying in the united states is, don't let a good crisis go to waste. but for kim jong un right now, these statements and m essa 9 es un right now, these statements and messages came from the north korean side is something that he is taking advantage of. a week is not go by where we are not talking about one alarming development or another. putting that in context, how worrying do you find this last few announcements? it is very worrying. these tours of exchanges are happening at a time when north korea is moving along with its programme. this is not a stand—alone event when north korea tries to raise the sta kes north korea tries to raise the stakes and get a larger power. we have seen 85 missile tests in the five years that kim jong un has been in power. they are trained to work ona in power. they are trained to work on a nuclear icbm, but amongst his personal attack exchange, which increases the situation and makes the dangerous even more dangerous.

thank you forjoining us. my pleasure. iran says it's successfully tested a new ballistic missile, with a range of almost 2000 kilometres, and so able to hit anywhere in the middle east. it comes just days after president trump attacked the country's weapons programme, in a speech at the united nations. the us has warned iran that missile tests could jeopardise the deal struck with the 0bama administration, that ended sanctions against tehran, in return for it's nuclear programme being halted. 0ur diplomatic correspondent, caroline hawley reports. a show of power from tehran. a missile with a message for the americans. this was state—run television in iran broadcasting what it says was the successful test of the newly developed khorramshahr missile with a range of 2,000 kilometres. the launch came just days after president trump attacked iran at the united nations for destabilising the middle east, and condemned its missile programme. he again threatened to abandon a historic nuclear deal painstakingly negotiated

over many yea rs. we cannot let a murderous regime continue these destabilising activities while building dangerous missiles, and we cannot abide by an agreement if it provides cover for the eventual construction of a nuclear programme. iran insists its missile programme does not contravene the nuclear agreement. and the iranian president says his people are now waiting for an apology from mr trump. in defiance of mr trump came this military display on friday at which the new missile was proudly unveiled. translation: like it or not, we will increase our deterrents and defence power in any form we deem to be necessary. in addition to upgrading the missile systems we will also strengthen our naval, ground and air forces. iran's missile programme

is in the hands of hardliners and they, it seems, are only being strengthened by the rhetoric from washington. there seems to be a much broader consensus on the need to develop the missile tests as a deterrent because they feel there might be a threat coming especially from the united states with regard to the possibility of regime change. no response from the americans so far to the latest iranian missile launch, but there is little doubt that the belligerent tone coming from both countries will ratchet up tensions. just as in north korea, iran is trying to show that it will not be pushed around. caroline hawley, bbc news. there's been another strong earthquake in mexico. the latest had a magnitude of 6.1. its epicentre was close to the town of matios romero in the south—western

state of oaxaca. the tremors were felt in mexico city where the rescue effort from a massive quake that killed nearly three hundred people was temporarily suspended. the bbc‘s juan paullier is in mexico city and gave us this update about the impact of the latest quake there. here it swayed buildings in mexico city. it set off the seismic alarm. many people ran onto the streets. there are reports of victims who died of heart attacks as they tried to leave their homes. two people. of course, this is a country already traumatised, and today people are a bit more in panic and a bit more in shock. rescuers to free survivors from tuesday's quake were temporarily suspended. they were trying to make sure you were still safe. hope is fading that more survivors can be rescued from under the rubble.

and the mood here in the capital, and across mexico, is one of anguish. there is a lot of tension here because many relatives are closely following the rescue efforts. dozens of people are believed to be trapped under rubble. at least five people have been injured in a suspected noxious substance attack near a busy shopping centre in east london. scotland yard was called to the stratford centre following reports a group of men had used sprays in the area. three people have been hospitalised, but none are thought to have life—threatening or life changing injuries. the incident is not being treated as terror related. a short time ago our news correspondentjon donnison gave us more information. eye should say, first of all, that figure police are treating this as a criminal incident, as opposed to a

terrorist one. 0bviously, enquiries are ongoing. —— i should. at the moment, they are saying one male, not whether it is a young man or an adult, has been arrested on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm. they said they received calls ofa number of harm. they said they received calls of a number of males sprang a substance around. you wonder what happened to the others. six people injured, and as we saw in the footage, a large police presence, and a large presence from the emergency services. and this is a growing concern, of course, for police around the country. particularly in east london. in 2016, more than a50 attacks using noxious substances, acid, perhaps, in and across the capital. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. the local government in the region of catalonia in spain has refused to allow madrid to take command of its police force in a continuing row over a proposed catalan independence referendum. the central government has been

attempting to block the referendum, which it describes as illegal. central police have been sent to catalonia and several referendum organisers have been taken to court. supporters of the french far—left politician jean—luc melenchon have marched through the streets of paris. they were demonstrating against president macron's labour reforms. they say the changes, signed into law on friday, are an attack on workers rights. uber‘s announced that it's prepared to make concessions to reverse the decision that its operating licence in london should not be renewed. the city's mayor sadiq khan has said he had sympathy with the ride hailing app's drivers and customers but the company had failed to act as a fit and proper operator. new zealand's ruling national party has won the country's parliamentary elections but fallen just short of a majority. prime minister bill english saw off

a challenge from his main opponent labour leaderjacinda ardern, but his government's future has again been placed in the hands of a minor party. chris chang reports from auckland. labour had ridden the high of jacinda—mania, but it was not enough to rein in the national party. i know we gave it our all. volatile polls suggested a neck and neck race til the end. the national party pulled ahead early and maintained its distance. thank you for the opportunity, as your leader, to debate intensively and consistently with new zealanders about how this country can do so much better. but with just a6% of the vote, new zealand's first veteran politician holds the main cards.

we're not going to rush out and make decisions and all sorts of statements. in fact, we will not be giving any answers tonight or until we have had a full chance to talk to the new zealand board. the greens party leader has urged mr peters to side with them and labour. it would give them the required total of seats in the house. with special votes still to come, negotiations may take some time. but the fate of bill english will be at the hand of kingmaker winston peters. stay with us on bbc news. still to come, we report from the caribbean, where uk troops are in the british virgin islands, helping to clean up after hurricane maria. ben johnson, the fastest man on earth, is flying home to canada in disgrace. all the athletes should be clean going into the games.

i'm just happy that justice is served. it is a simple fact that this morning, these people were in their homes. tonight, those homes have been burnt down by serbian soldiers and police. all the taliban positions along here have been strengthened, presumably in case the americans invade. it's no use having a secret service which cannot preserve its own secrets against the world. and so the british government has no option but to continue this action, and even after any adverse judgement in australia. concorde had crossed the atlantic faster than any plane ever before, breaking the record by six minutes. this is bbc news.

the latest headlines — north korea's foreign minister has launched an attack on president trump and warned that un sanctions would not force his country to change its nuclear policy. iran defies america by test—firing a new medium—range missile, days after a warning from donald trump. hurricane maria — and the heavy rain that followed — are continuing to wreak havoc in puerto rico. thousands of people have been asked to leave the area near a dam showing signs of weakness. the dam began flooding a nearby river on friday. thirteen people have died so far in puerto rico since the storm hit the island. and nearby in the british virgin islands, britain's biggest warship has arrived to give support for those affected by the recent hurricanes. jeremy cooke reports from tortola. into the disaster zone, hms 0cean off the british virgin islands, straight to work delivering aid where it is desperately needed. for the flight crews,

the first look at this hurricane—shattered landscape, almost every building damaged, widespread devastation. already 0cean's landing craft are heading to the main island of tortola. the navy's working parties on the ground getting stuck in. hot, humid conditions, stinking, stagnant water. welcome to the caribbean. on board ship there are 60 tons of essential cargo and with nine helicopters, the means of delivery. we've arrived with a stack of building material, we've got timber, plumbing materials, hacksaws, chainsaws but importantly also a lot of professional personnel who are highly skilled in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. it is an urgent mission. the flight deck has been open for business since the moment 0cean arrived. she has been steaming at full speed for two weeks,

everyone on board ready now to go to work. the priority is to improve shelter. everyone knows the hurricane season is not over yet. of course it is notjust about the british aid effort here. the scale of destruction across these islands is so immense, to get things better will take a superhuman effort by the islanders themselves. they are getting on with the task but they know it will take months or years to get this job done. most here are delighted that hms 0cean has arrived, but they also know there must be self—help. we don't sit back and relax. when things happen, we act. we get straight to it. as you can see, after a hurricane we are straight to work. we don't wait for nobody to come and help us, we start to do things ourselves. those leading the uk mission here say the arrival of hms ocean is a game changer.

the relief effort will gain pace but for these islands to recover will be a greater task still and they will look to the uk for long—term strategic support. jeremy cooke, bbc news, on the british virgin islands. germans are going to the polls on sunday to elect a new parliament. it's widely expected that chancellor merkel‘s christian democrats will retain its majority. polls suggest that six parties will be represented in the new bundestag, one of which is the first right—wing nationalist party to enter parliament since the second world war. damien mcguinness reports from berlin. angela merkel‘s centre—right party looks set to get the most votes in parliament to that would mean she will lead the country for another four years. will we do not know is what sort of government she will lead. 0r what sort of government she will lead. or the potential government

parties that she could form a coalition with our very different policies on things like migration, the eurozone, the economy. so forming a coalition could be quite difficult and keeping that coalition together could also be tricky. the other big thing about this election is the emergence of a new anti— migrantanti— is the emergence of a new anti— migrant anti— muslim party, alternative for germany. they are set for parliament for the first time. they will not form government because they are so controversial no other party will work with them because some of the party members in queues of racism, xenophobia and so angela merkel is clear she will not form a coalition government with them. if they do well and they get a lot of seats in this building, they will have a big impact on debate here in germany. the third invictus games — a sporting tournament founded by britain's prince harry, for wounded and injured servicemen and women has got under way in toronto.

more than 550 servicemen and women from 17 allied nations are taking part in 12 adaptive sports in the games. ahead of the games, prince harry and canadian prime ministerjustin trudeau held a bilateral meeting. and earlier prince harry met melania trump in toronto to mark the beginning of harry's invictus games. the us first lady, who's on her first official solo international trip, also invited the prince to visit the white house. one of us basketball‘s biggest stars, lebron james, has described president trump as a ‘bum' in an escalating row between the president and leading sports figures. on friday donald trump used an obscenity to describe american footballers who fail to stand for the national anthem, as colin kaepernick did last year in a protest at police brutality. the bbc‘s tim allman reports. california's golden state warriors.

nba champions, considered by some one of the greatest teams of all time. by tradition, basketball‘s topside is usually invited to the white house to meet the president. but one of their star players, stephen curry, said he had other plans. i don't want to go. that's about it. the things that he said and the things that he has not said at the right time, we will not stand for it. by acting and not going, hopefully that will, um, inspires some change when it comes to what we tolerate in this country. as so often, the president chose to respond on social media. going to the white house is considered a great honour for the white house is considered a great honourfor a the white house is considered a great honour for a championship team, he tweeted. stephen curry is hesitating, there for invitation is withdrawn! which prompted a brutal

comeback from one basketball‘s greatest ever players, lebronjames. you bomb he replied. stephen curry already said he ain't going, there for a now invite. go into the white house was a great honour until you showed up to # 0h, say can you see. the president had already condemned high—profile football players like colin kaepernick refused to stand for the star spangled banner. speaking at a rally on friday, mr trump did not hold back. would you love to see one of these nfl owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, get that son of a (bleep) off the field right now. 0ut! he is fired! he is fired! as the golden state warriors, the teens damp youth stephen curry was not invited, none of them will go. instead they will

use their trip to washington, dc to celebrate a quality, diversity and inclusion. time to bring you some unusual science news. this time a cornish pasty has been sent into the stratosphere beneath a weather balloon. it reached an altitude of over 35 kilometres, making it the first ever such a meat pie to be sent to the edge of space. 0n first ever such a meat pie to be sent to the edge of space. on its return to earth do itsjob sent to the edge of space. on its return to earth do its job was not done, despite being frozen after spending around 90 minutes in temperatures as low as —62 celsius, it was eaten by staff and pupils. that has to be value for muggy, doesn't it? stay with us here on bbc news. hi there. yesterday, we had two types

of weather through the afternoon. for a number of places, northern ireland, scotland, northern england, it stayed rather cloudy. this was one scene in buttermere, in cumbria. other places had glorious sunshine. good parts of southern england, and the midlands, and into wales had the best of that. where the sunshine came out, it became warm, with temperatures up to 21 celsius. that is 70 in fahrenheit. notably, across scotland, around the moray firth, temperatures were about six degrees above average for this time of year. looking at the weather, as we start the day today, we have a band of rain pushing east. as it does so, it will bump into high—pressure across scandinavia and europe. so it will be a slow—moving front. quite often, it will be weak as well. starting with a band of rain to start the day for western scotland. damp in northern ireland, and spits and spots of rain across west wales, devon, and cornwall, too. 12 to 15 degrees in towns and cities. sunny spells all day.

high cloud in the sky will make it hazy at times. you can see the rain does not move far from where it starts. it gradually trickles into central areas of scotland, with cloud breaks for eastern scotland, sunny spells will come through from time to time. northern ireland perhaps brightening up in the afternoon. across wales and south—east england, sunshine at a premium, quite often be cloudy with patches of rain. not rain all the time, but some on and off through the day. central and eastern england in the sunshine will be warmer. temperatures 22—23 celsius for a high. going through sunday evening, it looks like the rain will be pepping up. more persistent across scotland. we will see some fog patches form underneath underneath clearing skies in northern ireland, where things will turn out quite chilly. it could be a murky start there on monday. monday morning, that fog will clear away slowly in northern ireland. this band of rain will weaken

across scotland, west england and wales. after a cloudy start across eastern england, the cloud break up with sunny spells throughout. temperatures for most of us between 16—19 degrees celsius with that sunshine coming through northern ireland. once the fog clears out of the way. looking at the next few days, often the weather will be dry in the week ahead. warm as well with sunny spells. but a band of rain is coming through on thursday. and that's your weather. bye for now. hello. this is bbc news. the headlines: north korea's foreign minister has told the un general assembly that president trump's threats made it inevitable north korean rockets would, as he put it, visit the entire us mainland. the comments come as the us flew bombers and fighterjets over international waters east of north korea. iran says it has successfully tested a new ballistic missile with a range of 2,000 kilometres.

the us has warned that tests could jeopardise the deal that ended sanctions in return for the halt of its nuclear programme. iran denies its missile development breaches the un resolution. mexico has been struck by another strong earthquake, the third in less than three weeks. the latest tremor, measured 6.1 and was centred in the southern state of oaxaca. the labour leader, jeremy corbyn, has told delegates gathering for the party's annual conference, that they're "in a moment of great