hello. this is bbc news with ben brown. the headlines: all four board members of the government's social mobility commission have resigned, in protest at what they see as a lack of progress towards a "fairer britain". the government, probably for understandable reasons, is focused on brexit and seems to lack the bandwith to be able to translate the rhetoric of healing social division and promoting social justice into reality. donald trump faces accusations of obstructing justice, after suggesting that he knew his former national security advisor, michael flynn, had lied to the fbi about contacts with russia before the president fired him. the government sets out plans to make it easierfor children in england to get access to mental health services. schools and colleges will be encouraged to appoint staff who'll work with the nhs to provide specialist support. now on bbc news, it's time for the 100 women challenge,

which this week is looking at how to make our streets safer. we are challenging teams of women in four locations around the world. to tackle the everyday problems that blight their lives in the workplace. you need a working prototype by tomorrow morning. in education. emoji is not showing up. public transport. i don't know, 50 more to do or something? and on the sports field. using bbc outlets, the teams can appeal to help from around the world. they have just one week to find a modern solution to a long—standing issue. welcome to the bbc‘s 100 women challenge 2017. millions of women experience street harassment around the world.

there is an ocean of viral videos from groping to wolf whistling, street harassment can be verbal or physical. rush hour in this transport hub. around 3.5 million commuters every day swarm in, cramming into packed trains. a survey found 51% of women in london felt at risk of harassment on public transport. the global problem is so vast that it does seem insurmountable. but is it really unsolvable? i'm here in central london to host a hackathon. for those like me, not quite clued up on their urban dictionary definition, it's where experts come together, form teams around a problem and collaboratively find unique solutions.

can bright minds actually solve harassment on public transport? we've gathered a team of experts from very different fields to find ground—breaking solutions, and tackle street harassment head—on. today they will brainstorm with an audience from around the world, then they've gotjust one week to design, test and implement solutions. let's meet the team. at the london transport museum, we've invited an audience to participate in this hackathon which will be broadcast live on bbc radio around the world. in the crowd, i meet our team of experts. each bring a unique superpower to the table which, when combined, have the potential to make real, lasting change. ellie is an engineer. she lectures in urban innovation in policy,

working and making spaces saferfor women. laura is the founder of advertising agency, mr president. you are all so eager, i'm just let it go on for a bit longer. anne—marie co—founded an organisation inspires the next generation of girls in science, technology, engineering and maths. from a wish to control. academic liz co—chairs the end violence against women coalition in the uk. and last but by no means least, hannah, she's a retired london tube driver and now a power lifter. she's competed in world's strongest woman. don't mess with her. we are here at the london transport museum... shortly after the hack begins, problems with current solutions are laid bare. i only this year was sexually assaulted on the tube. i was going up an escalator

and a man followed me, repeatedly touching me even though i tried to move away. i ended up having to give the same statement three times which, having to repeat that three times to three different people, is pretty harrowing. i can't talk about the specific case and am you shouldn't have had that experience. the whole setup of this is that the police are set up to take reports, to support victims, support women of experiences through the criminaljustice system if they choose to go that way. many suggested technology as a solution. actually, i'd like, there's a harasser on the tube button. it stops the train, everybody can know, everyone knows. as the discussion continued, one idea grew stronger. perhaps the solution doesn't resolve around the victims or offenders but is about fellow passengers intervening when they see harassment? we met on a west london bus when i was assaulted on a bus and threat stepped in. and i, yeah.

no one interferes, people tend to think it's an issue on the side, let's let it slide. but one day if you let it slide, it may not directly affect you, it might affect your mother or your sister. i'm afraid we'll have to leave it there because we have to end the programme. we could keep on talking forever but it's a great start to the week... with what felt like a bombardment of ideas, the team has their work cut out for them this week. as the sun sets over london, i can't help thinking about the mammoth task ahead. this is bbc radio 4 and now it's time for woman's hour. warly—morning commuters set off for the day ahead. this is the very week that the hashtag #metoo went viral. it was a way for women to tag and share their

experiences of harassment. this week, we are taking over the machine room in east london's maker mile, an area full of workshops and art studiso. before yesterday i was like, it'll be fun. try some stuff up, whatever but actually, after yesterday, this is a moment that we can... we can make a difference. i know you want to get started, so walk this way. and right on time... your bus. we have hired this bus for the week. the team can use it how they wish to exhibit and test potential solutions. this is your space to play with it. exactly. this is going to be

right here for you. you can do what you like. yeah, why not? it's going to be really interesting now we have the bus in real life here to take apart and put back together as we see fit. i wasjust feeling really overwhelmed, this is a big challenge. now we have a big, massive toy. and i'm an engineer so a big machine to muck about with, it's very exciting. so i want to play with the buttons, all of course in the name of research. i'm excited to work with this group of women because i think there is an alchemy. we come from different industries, different ways of thinking. so i guess this morning will be, how are we going to stop harassment and at what point? are we going to do something around that point of being harassed, are we going to look at how we change social norms before that happens? 0k. assault alarm, what does that do?

if you're being assaulted, you push it. who does that send a message to? everyone within earshot. is that on every bus? pretty much. ideas flowing, the team head inside to discuss the solutions they want to work on this week. building on yesterday's hack, a strong solution emerges. the concept resolve around the community of passengers travelling on buses and trains. how do we almost build some sort of social, immediate social structure so when you get on this bus you are immediately part of this team. and how do you nudge people to then take responsibility as part of that team? because everyone is primed, notjust victims being primed, then we are all doing this together, it's not just ask versus them it's all us together. we need people to stand up and say yes, it's awful. this happened to me.

but i'm not alone. i will not be alone. the team will collaborate on the central concept of finding ways to change the community's behaviour so that they act together against harassment. laura is working on messaging and design. anne—marie will work up a technological solution for women to signal distress using a badge. professor liz will work on how those passengers can then safely and effectively step in to deal with the harasser. train driver hannah will focus on the inside of the bus. but ellie the engineer leaves the discussion still unsure of her solution. time is ticking... at the end of the week, we will reveal the team's solution on the bus to an audience in central london's busy covent garden. an audience will put it to the test. will the results of their hard work really start to solve harassment on a global scale?

to achieve all they want to this week, they can't do it alone. they need help from passionate volunteers. so hannah collaborates with an artist lela eleanor smith who has travelled down from scotland to help out. 0bviously with the week, it is constrained as well. we can't achieve a plea in a week redesign and we can to get a whole bus and tear it apart and do that. i think it would be really good to do a visual kind of projection of what is happening. as the team pack up for the night, there is still so much work to be done. despite starting the day full of ideas, no tangible progress has been made. in order for the printers to get the design stand for the bus, the team must send off work today.

without a concrete design for the bus, laura is quick to call punting team to try and extend the deadline. they think the problem we have is we really only start work yesterday morning. i'm hoping that... we will get free stuff quickly as we can but it will only be end of today rather than lunchtime unfortunately. end of today, i don't think we can do it. for friday? we've got to get you printed remember? yeah. i don't want to be awkward, ijust don't want to get you down. i totally... i totally understand. we would go as fast as we can as well, we are under quite a lot of pressure this side. 0k. don't delay. thanks laura, bye. yeah, let's start. meanwhile, anne—marie has got a deadline of her own. in order to get the badges made, she isjoined by arundhati and nadine, electrical engineers that have just 2a hours

to produce prototype badges. but the concept isn't exactly crystal clear. so the brief is that it's the person, were helping the person that is attacked. then then your badge... as a victim can make you wouldn't necessarily have a badge. you have the activator but not badge. they would yell? does that make sense? if they could make a scene, they would make the scene. anne—marie's ground—breaking idea revolves around connecting the community of passengers. when the victim presses a panic button, orapp, passengers' badges will light up, alerting them to the problem. with the concept as clear as mud, anne—marie drops another bombshell. surprise. in theory, your deadline would be tomorrow. laura's advertising team have had a light bulb moment. the idea comes from miranda,

a junior creative as laura's agency. you have the commute that is such a problem on the train anyway. we watched the video this morning about a month shouting that this woman, everyone was silent. unmute the commute is quite good actually. unmute the commute? that's quite cool actually. unmute the commute is a concept that not only encourages victims to speak out but also asks fellow passengers to step in. artist leila's installation involves so many elements that she is collaborating with makers anna and susannah to help get it done. the concept involves foam, a lot of foam. so the plan we have at the moment is to cut some hand shapes out to go into this stairwell so you have to wage your way through these

foam hands to get to the art installation. it's representative of the kind of invasion of interpersonal space. a key part of the team's message of unmute the commute is the idea of the passenger's pledge. that they will step in when they see harassment. so professor liz has asked katie from activist group hollaback to hold one of their workshops which teach people about safe ways to intervene. they hope these workshops which they teach around the world will encourage people from being just passive bystanders into actively intervening. actually talking to a tfl member of staff is a good idea or even british transport police. a lot of us aren't that comfortable engaging with the police. particularly people of colour, particularly lgbtq people, migrants, anyone with an insecure status who could be a victim of one of these kinds of crimes.

that's kind of why this bystander intervention stuff is so important, because we need to rely on each other. as the day nears a close, led engineer finally finds her stride. following an from her slogan that laura's team came up with, unmute the commute, ellie wants to create a soundscape of victim's story. she has recruited her theatre create a friend imogen butler—cole, to help. the idea of unmuting is really nice because it's about activation and making noise, it's about being heard. hi there, how's it going? i think it's getting there. what we want to do on friday is have to hear the soundscape on the bus. so we'd need speakers around the bus. and then we would just play it. and let people in that space here what has happened to other people in that space and then sort of end with an invitation to do something.

that is where we are. 0k, it sounds really good. sounds like lot though. it's wednesday. they've got to get this pretty much finished by tomorrow, can we manage that? um, yes. i'm incredibly confident. well, i'm convinced. come and see. around the corner in the workshop, anna and susanna are busy cutting hands. the foam variety, luckily. i think they are really nice. how theyjust stand up like that. the first attempt did not go so well. no template meant disastrous looking hands. now there is a wooden template, things are going a lot more smoothly. we just need 50 more to do or something? seriously? but with the bus looking decidedly untransformed, all the work must happen tomorrow if it is going to be ready

for the big reveal on friday. it's crunch time. our final day of prep and the workshop is a hive of activity. hundreds of unmute the commute badges are being laser cut. this is ourfirst badge. oh my goodness. oh look, no way! and right on time, the printing team arrives with the vinyls. hi, laura. nice to meet you. hi, nancy. amazing. about three or four hours. thank you. well tony gets stuck in, across london, i meet ellie at the bbc where she is recording and mixing the soundscape project today. this is an incredibly personal project for her. she recalled a day six years ago that she has never forgotten. it was about 8am, it was so busy and i'd seen this man help

what i thought was his girlfriend on to the two, kind of touching her on to the tube, kind of touching her quite intimately on the lower back. i felt him pressed up against me. i felt him getting aroused. so ellie responded in the way she felt most natural. she danced on the tube. she posted a video on new chew. there is no way i was going to stand up and do a big speech about it. but i decided to dance it. that was just what made sense to me. the video went viral. i obviously knew people would see it and people would have an opinion about it. but that wasn't really ever the point, it was about an expression of myself. 0k, go for it. ellie invites collaborators to record the stories of real account that the campaign group hollaback created. real testimonies from victims

and bystanders from around the world are read out. as i stood up, one of the two standing guys grabbed and squeezed my crotch through my skirt. i'm not sure why but i almost froze on the spot and i didn't say anything. the rush—hour crowd, two were standing over me. i'm totally unaware that this stuff might be going on. then ellie decides she wants to step up and record her own story. it made me feel on edge and over time i got increasingly angry, this is not my issue, this should not be women's issue, we should be able to move around and go to work, go to school in freedom. this is our body, our space, and we should have the right to live in it. across town at the base, leila is racing to get the art installation finished on the inside of the bus. at the same time, tony is working away on the outside the bus.

meanwhile, the electronics to the unmute the commute badges must be soldered on quickly. today, anne—marie's organisation is holding a business confidence event for hundreds of teenage girls in london. it is the perfect place to test the buttons. so we asked a few of the students what they thought. the idea is that you will be notified that something is happening around you and somebody is in need of help. i think the idea is really good. doing it in a discrete way allows the person to have time to think about how they will help you rather than act on impulse which may cause something drastic to happen. it's a great idea but it should have something like a gps location. when women are harassed, usually the first reaction is what were you wearing? probably brought it on yourself. this allows women to help other women in a really discreet way. the badge was later presented to tfl who said they will consider implementing it. perhaps this is the start

of a real solution. time will tell. but time is something the rest of the team don't have. night draws in and they are forced to pack up. with thousands of tourists flooding through covent garden tomorrow, what will the verdict be on the bus? 5am, lynne, our bus driver arrives, bright and early. the crowd arrive. time to reveal all. ta—da, look what you've done! isn't that incredible?

it should be on every bus. so excited. i'm so thrilled that it's done. and we have fantastic ideas, the concept, the buttons, i can't wait to see at the top of the bus. everyone's working towards a common goal and injust a week you can come up with something. so much money, so much brainstorming. you get passionate people together, after a week... why don't we head into the bus and get a better look? oh, wow. as people crowd inside the bus, they have to worm their way through the art installation of hands. up to the top deck where more hang down in their way. 0n headphones, passengers listen to the testimonies that

ellie recorded yesterday. everywhere you go, you are reminded of what it feels like to be harassed. focusing on others and the bystander in this case might be a way for us to tackle an old problem in a new way. as part of ellie's testimony project, she has choreographed the words to a new dance. he just kept his head down and got off at the next station. then i sat down and tried to stop myself from shaking. i even felt embarrassed i stood up to this man. it's actually a very powerful experience, these hand shapes as you go up the stairs and then they are hanging down. but what was most powerful was hearing the accounts of women and then ellie doing her dance performance upstairs on the bus. the two together were really profoundly moving. it's absolutely fantastic what has

been done in one week. i think i'm running on fumes by now as far as the mental side goes but i'm absolutely so positive and i feel that have really made a start. there is a huge way to go on this. there seems to be anyway a wave of awareness that is coming. that is here. will you pledge to take action? make a pledge to unmute the commute. the sun sets over london. it is time to take stock. when we started out, i was thinking the problem is global, it's far too huge, what are we realistically going to get done in five days? but these women i've met this

week are inspirational. past solutions have either been about the victim or the perpetrator but they've made this about the community. it doesn't matter where you go in the world, you will find community and if this week has taught me anything at all, it is that by working together, globally, we can solve any problem. hello, it is an improving picture.

we have seen more sunshine in scotland, particularly in the borders. further south in suffolk, the cloud low enough and thick enough to give drizzle around. generally the low cloud and drizzle sinking southwards along the cloud to break more from the north and give us some to break more from the north and give us some more to break more from the north and give us some more sunshine. a few places will stave dull and damp, the south—west corner of england staying robert grey and the cloud may linger across western fringes of wales. i'll swear we will see more sunshine coming through. a struggle to break out the sunshine across the south—east but not as cold as it was yesterday. further north, after a chilly start, more in the way of sunshine for scotland and northern ireland. in northern ireland, we'll see drizzle around, a few showers coming in on a blustery wind. low

cloud and drizzle pushes further into scotland, north—west part of england and wales. clear spells developing ahead of that and it could be a chilly night. some frost in the countryside. chance of seeing the super moon in scotland and eastern areas of england as well. there will be mist and fog around and that will lift in the morning on monday. but for a few showers coming into the north—west it is generally dry day and the cloud thinning and breaking at times to give spells of wea k breaking at times to give spells of weak sunshine. seven to 10 degrees, not terribly windy yet as we head to tuesday. the winds will start to pick up especially across the north and we will see rain arriving in the north—west. for much of england and wales it will be dry, bright towards the east and those temperatures 7010 degrees. big changes around the middle part of the week where we will find the rain coming down from the north—west which will be happy to give some local flooding and it

will be accompanied by gale force winds. it is this tangle of weather fronts coming from the north—west bringing heavy rain, sweeping eastwards a cross bringing heavy rain, sweeping eastwards across the uk and then we get a significant change again by the end of the week. instead of the mild south—westerly winds, we change wind direction draw airfrom mild south—westerly winds, we change wind direction draw air from the arctic and a blast of cold air will arrive. very quickly at the end of the week, it will turn much colder. yes, there will be sunshine but though showers will soon turned wintry. this is bbc news.

i'm ben brown. the headlines at 11.00am. the chair of the government's social mobility commission — and his team resign, warning that the prime minister is failing to build a "fairer britain." the government, probably for understandable reasons, is focused on brexit and seems to lack the bandwith to be able to translate the rhetoric of healing social division and promoting socialjustice into reality. president trump faces accusations that he obstructed justice, after suggesting he'd known that his former national security adviser had lied to the fbi. children in england are to get access to mental health support at school or college under government plans to improve services.