if you are watching on bbc news, next is the news at ten with huw edwards. were "seriously defective". two women, who say they were victims ofjohn worboys, the serial six attacker, have won compensation from the metropolitan police, setting a new legal precedent. they had all the information there. they should have caught him. they could have stopped him. they could have caught him the very next day but they didn't, they chose to not believe me. following the warboys investigation and this landmark ruling, police warn they will have to set money aside to cover any future claims. we now need to look at all of those cases, look at how we balance the challenge of resourcing those against the many other demands that we face. we'll be considering the potentially far—reaching impact, of today's ruling at the supreme court. also tonight: the brexit bus is back, this time with a different message as the government set out key

proposals for the transition period after brexit. chanting students in florida on the march, demanding changes to gun laws after the recent shooting at their school. a special report on the extreme food shortage in venezuela, the country with the biggest oil reserves in the world. i want you to get a part of your seat right now and say i want you to get up out of your seat right now and say i want my sin forgiven... and, billy graham, the preacher who brought the christian message to many millions around the world, has died. and coming up on sportsday on bbc news... david de gea was at his brilliant best as manchester united looked to avoid defeat against sevilla in the last 16 of the champions league. good evening.

police forces could face new legal action by victims of serious crime, if the police investigations are found to be "seriously defective". judges at the supreme court gave the ruling, under human rights law, in a case brought by two women who say they were victims ofjohn worboys, the serial six attacker. the police say the outcome means they must set aside more money to cover possible claims for compensation. our legal affairs correspondent clive coleman has more details. if they'd have done theirjob in 2003, there would be one victim. what i can't deal with is 105 victims because i wasn't believed. this woman, known for legal reasons as dsd, was the first to report being attacked byjohn worboys back in 2003. why do you think the police simply didn't believe you? ad like to throw that one back at the police

because all the evidence was there. all the witnesses were there, everything was there, why didn't you believe me? why did you put me through this for 15 years? you get to the point where you think, you are going mad. from when that first report was made, it took a further six years for police to bring worboys to justice. during that time, he continued to cruise the streets looking for women to dupe, drug and sexually assault. the police can't be sued for negligence, so dsd and another of worboys' victims claimed police failures to investigate breached article three of the human rights act and amounted to inhuman and degrading treatment. the metropolitan police, with the backing of two home secretaries, fought them to the supreme court. but today, judges ruled in the womens' favour. we have held that failures in the investigation of the crimes, provided they are sufficiently serious, will give rise to liability on the part of the police.

today's landmark ruling has huge implications for both the victims of violent crime and the police who investigated it. if they seriously fail in an investigation, they can face human rights actions by the victim and had to pay compensation. this is the highest court in the land, telling the police that in the most serious of cases, they have to do theirjob properly. the police unreservedly apologised to the victims they failed. but suggested that today's ruling could mean resources being taken from less serious cases. the court referred to it as those cases involving serious violence and it's clear the worboys case fits in that criteria. we now need to look at all of those cases, look at how we balance the challenge of resourcing those against the many other demands we face. chanting: domestic violence... is a crime. today's judgment can't make up

for the police errors in investigating john worboys, but it will put real pressure on them to ensure that such mistakes do happen again. for yea rs for years it has been impossible for individuals to sue the police in the civil courts for a negligent investigation and that legal shield the police enjoy has been resented by victims. what is so extraordinary about this ruling, it provides a new, alternative route to hold the police to account in the civil courts under human rights law. as a result of that, we have heard of claims already been brought. make no mistake about it, in terms of police accountability, today is a game changer. clive coleman, thank you very much. 0n the eve of the cabinets key meeting to settle its approach to the brexit proces, downing street has published proposals, for the transition period after britain leaves the european union. the plans are being interpreted

by some conservative mps, as opening the way for a longer transition process than originally set out, with britain abiding by any new european laws, but not being able to sign trade deals without the eu's permission. this report from our political editor laura kuenssberg contains some flash photography. no, not that red bus. campaigners who want brexit to get stuck brought their own to westminster. the government is going to have more difficulty getting brexit through the house of lords than this bus is having coming in here. under pressure, it's a big week for the prime minister to show she is making progress with her plans. speaker: prime minister. we want to ensure this is a country that can negotiate free—trade deals around the rest of the world. we want to ensure we have a good trade agreement with the european union and that is what we are starting to negotiate. we want to ensure we have a good security partnership with the european union.

it isn't clear from today's exchanges this government isn't on the road to brexit, mr speaker, it's on the road to nowhere. but for all the arguing, what matters to the government right now is this, the guidelines for the implementation phase, or the transition. that is the period of time after we've left the european union when broadly, not very much will change for quite some time. the uk thinks it will take about two years to make all the changes, but brexiteers are nervous about this phrase, "that the time frame could be shaped simply by how long it will take to prepare and implement the new processes and systems." basically, it will be the eu status quo, the rights and obligations of the uk will continue, but a joint committee should be set up so the uk still has a say over changes to any rules and on some specific areas like fishing. there is no mention in today's text about immigration,

the core argument in the referendum. number ten says the prime minister will still insist that the system changes as soon as we leave the european union. but a government source told me to expect the uk to back down down on that in the face of resistance from brussels. how bullish are ministers? are starting point has been as the prime minister set out, that we would allow people to come and go and live out their lives and live and work in the uk during the implementation period on the same basis as before but we will need to have a conversation about how they will continue on after the implementation. eu leaders and theresa may aren't a million miles apart in the talks about transition, but however friendly the three—kiss greetings with the dutch pm were today, ends have to be tied up and a lot of discussion still to be had. discussion at this moment is about two years and of course the discussion will then be, if things move smoothly, at the end of the two

years you would allow for a short extension. that debate is still going on. the brexit secretary and his cabinet colleagues still have plenty of convincing to do. in european capitals like in athens today, at home with their party and of course, most importantly, with you. laura kuenssberg, bbc news, westminster. students in florida have been protesting in the state capital, to demand stricter controls on gun sales, after last week's school shooting, when 17 students and teachers were shot dead by a former pupil. it was the first organised protest by a movement led by young people, calling itself "never again", which was established after last week's attack. 0ur north america editor jon sopel is in tallahassee. a school trip like no other. these stu d e nts a school trip like no other. these students from marjory stoneman douglas high school have not come to the florida state capitol to listen, they have come to speak and the man

change after 17 of their classmates and teachers were killed last week. and they are determined to be heard. no one needs these weapons that are taking children's no one needs these weapons that are taking child ren‘s lives. no one needs these weapons that are taking children's lives. they should ban them because all they are used for is destruction and they are just not needed. you should go to school feeling safe and be confident you are therefore an education and a bright future, not worry about getting shot. the students were joined by thousands of others from gci’oss joined by thousands of others from across the state, noisy, determined and emboldened. the streets are literally echoing to the sound of these young people demanding gun control. but last night, state legislators voted against even opening a debate on semiautomatic weapons. the fight for gun control is going to be an uphill struggle.

but that decision, not even to debate guns in the state assembly has infuriated pupils, teachers and community leaders alike.|j has infuriated pupils, teachers and community leaders alike. i have buried in the last four days, three kids from my congregation. i watched the father wanting to climb into the mausoleum with his son. i watched the mother climbing into a ball and refusing to come out for the family. then they have the gall not even to discuss the issue, i am very upset. from the white house, small but significant signs of improvement and the president has been meeting stu d e nts the president has been meeting students and teachers, notjust from florida, but from other shootings as well. we want to be strong on background checks, very strong and emphasis on the mental health of somebody and we are going to do plenty of other things. this heartfelt plea from one of the pa rents. heartfelt plea from one of the parents. justin was text in me

hiding ina parents. justin was text in me hiding in a closet saying, if something happens, i love you. if something happens, i love you. if something happens, i love you. if something happens, i love you. you cannot imagine what that is like as a parent. it is not political, it is a parent. it is not political, it is a human issue, people are dying. we have to stop this. if he is not old enough to go and buy a drink, you shouldn't be able to buy a gun at 18. these students have captured public attention with their demand for change, but it is a tough journey and winning support is a different thing to winning reform. that meeting at the white house is still going on. a smart decision by the president and also a risky one. he has heard from one child saying i turned 18 on the day after the shooting and i could have bought a weapon. another one from sandy hook, these deaths are preventable, consider your own children, you don't want to be me. a lot of the time, donald trump was nodding emphatically with what they were saying. if he acts, he risks

offending the national rifle association and some of his base. if he doesn't, people will say, what was the meeting for? jon sopel, thank you very much with the latest from the rally in tallahassee. two young men have been stabbed to death within the space of two hours in camden town in north london. police are investigating whether the deaths of abdikarim hassan and sadiq adan mohamed are linked. 16 people have been stabbed to death in london since january this year, including five teenagers. in syria, the rebel—held enclave of eastern ghouta has been turned into "hell on earth" for civilians there, according to the un secretary—general. antonio guterres called for an immediate halt in fighting in the suburb, where a bombing campaign by syrian government forces has resulted in the death of 300 people so far this week, as our middle east editor jeremy bowen reports. the syrians deny targeting civilians in eastern ghouta. explosions. these, they say, are precision

strikes against artillery that has hit central damascus. screaming. but the evidence from inside the enclave is that civilians are getting hurt and dying. the suffering of civilians could have a political effect, putting pressure on the rebel groups in eastern ghouta to make a deal. the lives of their children against strategic front line territory near central damascus that the regime wants to get back. this activist says, "helicopters are hovering over us here in eastern ghouta. god help us, we are being exterminated." i was able to cross from government—controlled damascus to eastern ghouta several times at the beginning of the war. even then it was very badly damaged by regime bombing. morale among the rebels was high and dozens of young men were joining

what they believed was a revolution. what do you think will happen to assad? killed. must be killed. when the war started, the regime was under severe pressure. it lost control of a crescent of suburbs around damascus. eastern ghouta is the last of them that hasn't surrendered. in 2013, eastern ghouta was hit by a chemical attack that killed hundreds. the americans threatened a military strike against the regime and then decided against it. it was a turning point in the war, after that the regime lost its fear of western intervention. in september 2015 russia intervened, decisively on assad's side. now he's more secure and he ‘s emboldened, more so than at any time since the war started,

and the russians are becoming the dominant foreign power in the middle east. in northern syria, the president has just sent in militia men to join the fight against the turkish incursion. he wouldn't have the confidence to move against a nato power without the russians. and it suggests he won't listen to foreign condemnation of the attack on eastern ghouta. jeremy bowen, bbc news. the government has ordered a review into the way medical problems, caused by nhs treatments, are dealt with. it follows three high—profile campaigns related to the the epilepsy drug sodium valproate, the hormone pregnancy test primodos and the use of vaginal mesh implants. the uk has seen the strongest six months of productivity growth since the recession of 2008, according to the latest figures from the office for national statistics. there was also a better than expected rise in wages in the first three months of the year.

but unemployment was also up for the first time in two years, as our economics editor, kamal ahmed, explains. bring on the robots, more efficient in helping this firm in hastings make electrical equipment more quickly. and the more quickly you make things, the more you make every hour, and the more wealth you create. that's productivity. since the financial crisis, our productivity performance has been pretty poor, but over the last six months there has been a jump into positive territory, the strongest since before 2008. global growth is helping firms. we're seeing a huge opportunity for us in the chinese market that we've been working on for the past 18 months, two years and that's starting to come to fruition now, and that's why we've found its time to reward the staff. it's time to reward them in terms of bringing in machinery, like the robot behind me, that will help them and help us increase productivity. and where productivity goes, wages tend to follow, up over the last three months to 2.5% from 2.3%.

that's still below the rise in prices, but that living standard squeeze is easing. we've just had a pay rise. we haven't had it long enough yet to really decide whether it does make a difference or not. i'm sure it will but, like you say, it's still early stages. despite having a pay rise, when you look at how things, the cost of things is increasing, then what you have fluid at the end of each month after you've done your essential, utilities and things like that, the difference is quite noticeable. quite a noticeable difference for the government as well, the public finances are £7 billion better off than they were last year. better growth means higher tax revenues and less borrowing. a lot of important figures about the economy today. three of those figures are better, one is a worry. lower levels of government borrowing are good for the public finances. productivity is up, that's good for the creation of wealth. that leads to higher incomes, and there is some evidence of that. the one worry, unemployment, which has risen slightly

for the first time in two years. it's very hard to predict whether unemployment‘s going to carry on rising. you can't read too much into one month's figures. the employment rate is still quite high, but it's all going to depend on the outlook for the economy in the next few months. it's that outlook that really matters, for our incomes, for ourjobs. brexit uncertainty is still weighing on the economy, government debts are still high, but today it was the better economic figures that won out. kamal ahmed, bbc news. venezuela, which has the largest oil reserves in the world, is nonetheless facing a humanitarian crisis because of a shortage of food. charities say the situation is out of control, with no end in sight, as the economy has collapsed, bringing extreme hardship for millions. it's estimated that the rate of inflation could increase to 13,000% this year.

and the level of child malnutrition now stands at almost 17%. the bbc‘s vladimir hernandez is one of the few international journalists who's been able to report from venezuela. singing they sing, but they're hungry. these are the faces of extreme poverty in venezuela. here, the economic collapse has left an unsettling sight. extremely thin children, who don't know when they'll eat next. kimberly has two young children, she says it's never been so hard to find food. this is the medical report for kimberly‘s youngest son, he was taken recently to hospital. what it says here is that he was suffering from diarrhoea, asthma, anaemia, but also from acute malnutrition. there's a whole list of medicines here also for him. i've just asked her and they haven't been able to buy them. freddie, a father of five, struggles to get by on the rare

government hand—out, and he's often paid with fish when he finds work. this catholic church—run centre offers food to people from these poor communities. feeding time here can be frantic, some desperate to finally eat. what we see here can be disturbing. this young boy looks like a newborn, but he's two. liliana, looks like she's two, but she's five, and jose is almost eight. chronic malnutrition leads to stunting, theyjust don't grow.

the government says this crisis is the result of recently imposed foreign sanctions, promoted by the united states against the socialist revolution, but critics would just call its mismanagement. in the capital caracas, things are no different. this is what a supermarket looks like. just empty shelves, no food. no food. this christian charity offers a free lunch every day and a prayer. even some people with full—time jobs have to come here to get a meal. and that lack of food means people here have lost an average of 11 kilos in the last year. venezuela today is an oil—rich

country of hunger and queues. vladimir hernandez, bbc news, caracas. the political leaders of northern ireland have been in downing street today, for talks with the prime minister on trying to restore the power—sharing executive at stormont. the president of sinn fein, mary lou mcdonald, accused the government of having no plan for restoring devolved government after a 13—month political stalemate, but the dup‘s arlene foster said the time had now come for ministers at westminster to set a budget and make decisions about public spending. i believe, whether intentionally or not, theresa may is actually facilitating the dup blocking advancement and resolution on these core issues. we're concerned about the fact that we have this instability, that we don't have proper governance in northern ireland and it's incumbent upon the uk government to come forward and to fill that gap. 0ur ireland correspondent, chris page, is at stormont. where do we stand after today's

talks, chris? well, huw, the parties at the centre of the stormont stalemate have continued to trade blows even on the other side of the irish sea. sinn fein's criticism of the government was particularly strong, i thought. the government was particularly strong, ithought. this the government was particularly strong, i thought. this was mary lou mcdonald's first trip to london since she took over from gerry adams as sinn fein president a few weeks ago. she pointed at the conservative pa rty‘s ago. she pointed at the conservative party's reliance ago. she pointed at the conservative pa rty‘s reliance on ago. she pointed at the conservative party's reliance on dup votes in parliament as a major reason why negotiations here had continually stalled. the dup though still blame sinn fein for the deadlock and they expect westminster to pass a budget for northern ireland in the coming weeks. the government still saying tonight that it regards devolution as the only way forward, but if there was any hope that political relationships here would start to heal after last week's negotiations break down. if anything, there are signs that divisions are deepening. chris, many thanks again for latest thoughts there at stormont. chris

page our ireland correspondent. for the third time, the high court has ruled that ministers must to do more to deal with air pollution in towns and cities in england and wales. it said existing plans were unlawful because they won't bring pollution levels within legal limits in the "shortest possible time." ministers will now have to introduce new measures in a further 33 towns and cities. 0ur science editor, david shukman, reports. the air we breathe. in dozens of places, it's dirtier than the law allows. for years, an environmental group has challenged the government to do more, and today the high court ordered ministers to double the number of areas where pollutions be cut. what it means today is that in those towns and cities that were covered by this order, the local authorities will have to take measures to try and fix that as soon as possible. and the government will have to help those local authorities to do that. this app shows that today in london the air quality isn't that bad. the problem is that, in towns and cities across the country, there are days when the air pollution reaches illegal limits. now the judgment, here at the high court, acknowledges that the government is doing a great

deal to clean up, but also says ministers need to do a great deal more. at prime minister's questions theresa may was asked about the court ruling. they have asked us to go further in areas with less severe air—quality problems. where we thought a pragmatic approach was appropriate, we will now formalise that. but actually, on two out of the three counts, they found in the government's favour. wales will now see a new effort to improve the air. the welsh government admitted to the high court that its plans weren't adequate. southampton is one of several major cities where the government recently ordered a faster response. so too in leeds, another pollution hotspot, where today we found people are concerned. i feel like it's slowly killing us because it's bad air and ifell like they should find a way to cut down and sort it. we can't let it go because of our young people. it'sjust not fair. local authorities in leeds and other cities are working on plans to tackle pollution, but they feel they're having to make

all the effort and they say national government isn't helping enough. we need to ensure that there's proper funding and that they're thinking for the country as a whole and they're notjust passporting this responsibility down to already stretched local authorities, expecting us to do it without that support in place. the most obvious solution is to charge the dirtiest vehicles for coming into polluted areas, but that's also the most controversial option and ministers aren't keen on it. so what else can be done to cut pollution? switching away from diesels is one option. so is encouraging people onto public transport. none of this is cheap, but the government now knows that the courts are watching. david shukman, bbc news. tonight's brit awards is under way at london's o2 arena this evening. here's to more women on these

stages, more women winning awards and more women taking over the world. thank you so much. dua lipa won best female solo artist and best british breakthrough act. stormzy picked up the best male award and best british album of the year. football now, and manchester united have been in action in the last 16 of the champions league. commentator: sevilla finishing the half strongly. in it goes towards muriel. what a save, david de gea. brilliant save. thanks in part to some great saves from their goalkeeper, david de gea, they held on for a 0—0 draw away to sevilla. the return leg in manchester will be in three weeks' time. one of the most influential christian preachers of the past century, billy graham, has died at the age of 99. the american evangelist devoted his life to promoting christianity, holding mass rallies across the world and he was the first preacher to harness the power of television to broadcast his message to millions. he was a spiritual adviser to every us president, from harry truman to barack 0bama.

0ur religion editor, martin bashir, looks back at his life. problems that face us tonight that never be solved unless we bring them to the lord jesus christ. charismatic and handsome, billy graham preached a simple message that he took around the world, speaking to more than 220 million people, in 185 countries. london first felt the force of his evangelism in 195a. we've come here at the invitation of these churches to help lead you in a crusade to win intojesus christ. i want you to get up out you have your seat right now. he would lead a17 crusades, often in major sporting stadiums, from new york to nigeria. i don't believe anybody is here by accident. he was god. he was also man. it was at an earl's court rally, in 1966, that cliff richard publicly declared his christianity.

# he'll do for you #. he was also a pastor to presidents, from nixon to clinton, but he never took sides. he was even invited to preach before the queen and other members