welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is nkem ifejika. our top stories: dealing with the opioid epidemic — president trump says traffickers should face the death penalty. police hunt a serial bomber wanted for the parcel bomb attacks in austin, texas. homes destroyed, cattle killed and thousands of acres of land devastated by wildfires in south—west australia. and president xijinping wraps up the national people's congress saying only socialism can solve china's problems. president trump has outlined plans to combat america's opioid epidemic — including introducing the death penalty for drug dealers

in certain circumstances. over—prescription of opioid painkillers such as morphine and codeine has created a nationwide addiction crisis with patients turning to heroin and other street drugs when their prescriptions stop. our north america editor jon sopel reports. during the election campaign, donald trump called new hampshire a drug—infested den. today, he has gone back to the granite state to show his rock solid determination to deal with america's appalling opioid crisis and by using the most draconian measures possible. if we do not get tough on the drug dealers, we're wasting our time. remember that, we are wasting our time. that toughness includes the death penalty. applause. but it is notjust about the criminaljustice system. he wants opioid prescriptions cut by a third and the drugs companies held more accountable.

this crisis is hitting every community, rich and poor, black and white, young and old, urban and rural. the biggest cause of death is drug overdose amongst the under 50s in america. and two thirds of those deaths are caused by opioid abuse. that is $110 right there. america for decades has had a war on drugs and, yes, it has resulted in hundreds of thousands of mainly black and latinos men being incarcerated, but it has had zero success in reducing dependency or use of illegal drugs or prescription drugs. thank you, please be seated. this court in buffalo, new york state, looks unremarkable, but has become the first in america to deal with only one type of case, opioid addiction. i will release you today and i need you to report here tomorrow... the judge, himself once an addict, is determined to rethink the way america handles opioid abuse. i think we made a tremendous mistake

in the 1960s and 70s and 80s and 90s of locking people up and we are not going to make that same mistake now, because we have the research and data to show that you cannot lock up an addiction. carly mayor had to be resuscitated three times in one week at the height of her addiction to opioids. when someone cares about you, what your problems are, how we can help you, it remind you that deep inside there is a person, that needs and deserves love. much has been made of how polarised politics has become in the us. on this, though, there is broad agreement that simply locking people up is not enough, but finding the correct policy prescription, to deal with the abuse of prescription drugs is proving elusive. jon sopel, bbc news, washington. professor keith humphreys is from stanford university and a specialist on addiction. he was drug policy advisor in the 0bama and bush administrations. thank you forjoining us. let's

start with that headline grabbing statement. how effective would the death penalty be in deterring the drug dealing? it would not be as effective at all. it is not exactly here who the president is directing this out. like a lot of his speeches, they was not a lot of detail and we know that he would either change his mind orforget what he said a few weeks before that if you are going after low—level people, they are very easily replaced and if you are going after high—level traffickers, they are not scared of the death penalty. people who will deal with afghan warlords and mexican cartels to ship hundreds of pounds of heroin into the united states clearly are not people scared of the risks. adding the very remote risk of a federal prosecution at it —— ending in capital punishment

would be nothing to them.” —— ending in capital punishment would be nothing to them. i suppose this is now being seen as a health issue rather than a law enforcement issue. addiction is, in my view, a health issue and one of the good things that happened over the last 20 years or so is that has become a bipartisan agreement. the president isa bipartisan agreement. the president is a bit out of the mainstream by emphasising punishment, so much. most of the congress have people in both parties who really agree that treatment is essential for responding to addiction. 0k. here is another headline grabbing statement that president trump made which is to go after big pharmaceutical companies who produce and prescribe, 01’ companies who produce and prescribe, or promote, these opioids. in that, he is very much correct. the partisan speech which i found offputting was blaming mexicans,

blaming people from other countries for these problems when the truth is, these problems were started by white guys in business suits who live in connecticut and they overpromoted these opioids. if the president wants to put the central government up against those companies to help the states around the nation that are trying to do that, that would be a very good thing. we see if he has the political will. not just speaking thing. we see if he has the political will. notjust speaking in defence of big pharma that many would say they were acting within the law. finally, do you think we have reached the bottom of this? u nfortu nately have reached the bottom of this? unfortunately not. all of the evidence shows that the deaths are accelerating and the best example of thatis accelerating and the best example of that is fentanyl. that is an opioid synthesised in the late 90s. we reached 20,000 deaths in 2016. this is getting worse, not better. police in texas say a serial bomber is on the loose

in the city of austin. three parcel bombs earlier this month killed two african—american men, and wounded a hispanic woman. in the latest attack on sunday, a bomb seriously injured two young white men. gary 0'donoghue reports. and neighbourhood emerging from a night long locked down at the police we re night long locked down at the police were forced to wait for daylight before they could declare this part of the city safe. nothing like that happens around here. he reviews, a block and a half away. it's scary. this is fourth bombing in 16 daily —— days. attacks that have body killed two african—american men and seriously injured three other people. this latest attack was different, not parcel bombs like the others, seemingly aimed at specific people but a device left on the sidewalk and triggered by some kind of trip wire as two young men walked

by. this changes things. it is more sophisticated and not targeted to individual at —— individuals. we are concerned at child could walk to down and trip on it. if anyone sees anyone —— anything suspicious, do not go near the package, immediately call law enforcement so we can deal with the suspect package. the latest victims have significant injuries but a stable in hospital. police say that they have no suspects so far. we are clearly dealing with what we think is a serial mark. especially after the fourth device. as we look at this individual and patent and what we are looking at, we will have to determine if we see a specific ideology behind this. the bomber's first two victims were black from prominent african—american families who knew each other leading to speculation this could be hate

crimes at the indiscriminate nature of last night's attack web victims we re of last night's attack web victims were white, means that authorities simply don't know what motivation they are dealing with. —— must let's attack, whether the —— where the victims were white. china's president xijinping has delivered his closing speech to the annual session of the national people's congress. it's been a significant people's congress with the presidential term limits being lifted — in effect making xijingping ‘president for life' — should he choose to. 0ur correspondent stephen mcdonell is following the people's congress for us in beijing. i know we keep stressing it but it is worth pointing out. this is indeed historic for the world's most populous nation. absolutely. the national people's congress finished with a major speech from president xijinping and with a major speech from president xi jinping and ever with a major speech from president xijinping and ever more powerful xi jinping giving his big vision for china. at these national people's congress is in the past, we didn't

hear from the congress is in the past, we didn't hearfrom the president congress is in the past, we didn't hear from the president on the last day because this is all about the premier. for example, the premier's press c0 nfe re nce premier. for example, the premier's press conference is going on right 110w press conference is going on right now behind me. this is the time of xijinping and all now behind me. this is the time of xi jinping and all the now behind me. this is the time of xijinping and all the rules have changed. you mentioned that at this congress, he has become ever more strong and can stay on beyond a second term as the president of china and so he has used this speech again to show, "i am in charge with the party in control". and xi jinping as the core, as they say. normally during these things, there is always a stress on what happens internally, the economy, et cetera. maintaining public order. but of course this time around, he was looking to the outside and the interests china has in the wider world. absolutely and one thing in his speech which was interesting, he got very big applause when he

mentioned that not one inch of china would be carved off and that is obviously a bit of a reference to hong kong or tibet. he is appealing toa hong kong or tibet. he is appealing to a nationalist approach. he also said that the party is solidly in control of the military. again, it isa control of the military. again, it is a message going out to everybody i suppose at a time where there are party institutions and government into chuxi is that now it is the party who is in charge and nobody is doubting who is in control of the party and that is a xijinping. —— government institutions. the uk's information commissioner elizabeth denham says she will seek a warrant to look at the databases and servers used by the data mining company cambridge analytica. a former employee at the firm claims they were handed the personal data of 50 million facebook users

which was then used to influence the 2016 us presidential election. facebook‘s shares finished nearly 7% down after a turbulent day on the new york stock exchange. both cambridge analytica and facebook deny any wrongdoing. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: how a statue of the virgin mary stopped god—fearing fishermen from destroying coral reefs. today, we have closed the book on apartheid and that chapter. more than 3,000 subway passengers were affected. nausea, bleeding, headaches and the dimming of vision, all of this caused by an apparently organised attack. the trophy itself was on the pedestal in the middle of the cabinet here.

now, this was an international trophy and we understand now that the search for it has become an international search. above all, this was a triumph for the christian democrats of the west, offering reunification as quickly as possible, and that's what the voters wanted. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: president trump outlines his plans to deal with the opioid epidemic, saying traffickers should face the death penalty. here in the uk, an international team of chemical weapons experts has arrived in salisbury, to examine the nerve agent used to poison the former russian spy, sergei skripal, and his daughter, yulia. the bbc understands british investigators have broadened their search,

to include a car that yulia skripal is believed to have travelled in, as our diplomatic correspondent james landale reports. the focus today shifted to the village of durrington, ten miles north of salisbury, where investigators removed a car that was used to pick up yulia skripal from the airport the day before she and herfather, sergei, were attacked with nerve agent. nearby, at the military research complex at porton down, inspectors from the global chemical weapons watchdog, the 0pcw, were due to start analysing the nerve agent that british experts believe came from russia. in brussels, the foreign secretary arrived to brief eu counterparts, saying russian denials were increasingly absurd. this is a classic russian strategy of trying to conceal the needle of truth in a haystack of lies and obfuscation. there is scarcely a country round the table here in brussels that has not been affected

in recent years by some kind of malign or disruptive russian behaviour. eu foreign ministers issued a statement expressing their unqualified solidarity with the uk, and taking its assessment that russia was to blame extremely seriously. the eu and nato speaking as one. what is absolutely clear is our full solidarity with the united kingdom, and oui’ extreme concern about what has happened. it is really unacceptable. all 29 nato allies stand united. we stand in solidarity with the united kingdom. and the uk is not alone. but in moscow, as president putin began his fourth term, the defiance continued. his foreign ministry dismissing the eu statement as an anti—russian reflex. as for russia's diplomats in london, well, some of these officials and their families will be heading home tomorrow,

23 in all, with a similar number of british diplomats leaving moscow shortly. tomorrow, the national security council will meet to decide britain's next step. there is a live debate within government — should they retaliate and escalate, or simply do nothing? should they kick yet more russian diplomats out of the embassy here, or should they find new ways of penalising russia ? the risk for britain is that a bilateral confrontation with russia might overshadow attempts to maintain international pressure. back in salisbury, the police tonight revealed the full scale of the investigation, with 250 counter—terrorism officers examining 4,000 hours of cctv, 800 exhibits and 400 witness statements. detectives said this could last many months. james landale, bbc news. residents in parts of australia hit by bushfires have been told

it's still not safe to return home, after more than seventy properties were destroyed. officials say the fires in new south wales and neighbouring victoria are now being brought under control, but hundreds of cattle have been killed and over a hundred—thousand acres of land burnt. joining me live from sydney is rob rogers, deputy commissioner of the rural fire service — the authority in charge of fighting the fire. thank you forjoining us. first thing first, how many people have been perfect did by this? —— effected. 70 properties were lost in a town with 1800 people that live in the town and other people have been dislocated by the road being dislocated. a lot of people have been affected. why is the fire

moving so fast? on the day of the fire burnt those properties, we had very high temperatures — almost a0 celsius, winds of up to 50 mph so really awful conditions and that on the back of not a lot of rainfall in preceding months. a lot of conditions coming together to make that fire moving incredibly quickly that fire moving incredibly quickly that day. it went through that area very quickly and that all those properties. apart from those homes, 20- 30 properties. apart from those homes, 20— 30 caravans and caverns lost and in some cases they were peoples homes. it has been devastated by the community in the south coast of new south wales. i believe you're coming towards the end of the bushfire season towards the end of the bushfire season at does this area typically experienced these kinds of fires?

season at does this area typically experienced these kinds of firefim has not been impacted in some time but it is quite prone to fires. we have a mountain range that leads down to these coastal, isolated communities with one road in and out, surrounded by national park so they are dotted up and down the coast and they are areas we worry about but the main thing is is a fa ct about but the main thing is is a fact that there was no life lost. we made sure people understood the situation and made informed decisions. that is something that has worked well but, of course, we have a lot of people who have lost their homes and we will salvage what is left. some buildings burnt, others left standing but i wanted to ask about the residents, are they able to return home? no, they are

not but, what we are doing, those residents told who have been lost their homes, they have been taken in a vehicle to show their homes but we have structural integrity and asbestos issues. we are working fast to get them back home. thank you very much. rob rogers, the deputy commissioner of the rural fire service. uber has suspended all tests of self driving car after a woman was killed after the vehicle was running in baton is mode. it is the first time a pedestrian has died in an accident involving a self driving car. uber said it was incredibly sad and will corporate with authorities.

it was late sunday night when, according to police, elaine herzberg was struck by uber‘s self—driving car. the a9—year—old was crossing the road, but not using the pedestrian zone. there was a driver behind the wheel, but uber said the vehicle was in full autonomous mode, meaning it was handling all aspects of the driving. miss herzberg was taken to hospital, but died from her injuries. taking to twitter, uber‘s chief executive, dara khosrowshahi, said the news from arizona was "incredibly sad", adding: as part of its licensing agreement, uber must keep detailed logs in case of an incident like this. although miss herzberg is the first pedestrian to be killed by an autonomous vehicle, her death comes one year after uber temporarily took its self—driving cars off the road following an accident that left a volvo suv on its side in arizona. the programme was later reinstated. there are so many motor vehicle deaths in the united states, and generally, every year. and the ultimate goal of self—driving cars is to eliminate those entirely. but these are complex systems that are just sort of starting to navigate the roads. arizona has positioned itself

as a testing ground for this new technology. but incidents like this will no doubt concerned those who do not believe these systems are yet safe enough to be on our roads. eight years ago a statue of the virgin mary was sunk off the coast of bohol in the philippines in an attempt to dissuade the god—fearing community there from dynamite fishing. the illegal practice causes huge damage to coral reefs, an essential ecosystem forfish breeding. now a group called the sea knights — who helped to put the statue in place — have returned to assess its success. howard johnson reports. dotted across the blue waters of the pacific ocean are the 7000 islands that make up the philippines. many of them hours away from the mainland, and that makes policing them incredibly difficult. joselito ca ba nsay knows that only too well. for years, he was a dynamite fisherman —

an illegal practice that risks life and limb, but rewards with lucrative catches. translation: normal fishing is like earning a minimum wage salary compared to illegal fishing, that produces a large sum of fish. fishermen see it as a jackpot income. in 2010, dynamite fishing was so widespread that the local authorities and a group of faith inspired divers, called the sea knights, decided to take action. they placed a statue of the virgin mary at a site where most of the explosions took place. it was hoped that the god—fearing fishing community would stop illegal activity in the presence of a religious icon. nearly ten years on, and the sea knights have returned to the statue. aside from paying their respects to the virgin mary today

and laying flowers at her feet, biologists within the group will also be looking to assess the health of the coral down there, to see if it has improved since their last visit. as we descended towards the virgin mary, it became clear that the statue's appearance had undergone a dramatic change. it is now entirely covered in coral. after praying, the sea knights cleaned the statue, removing barnacles and limpets. back on the surface, i spoke to the group's marine biologist. so around the statue, what was the state of the coral? they are also growing. so positive signs today? yeah, there was positive signs. the local authorities say the virgin mary has reduced the number of dynamite fishers from hundreds to just a handful but, with limited resources, it is unlikely that illegal fishing can be totally eradicated. despite this, the sea knights continue their work in the community

to raise awareness about marine conservation. they will be back in september to celebrate the nativity of the virgin mary. howard johnson, bbc news, bohol, in the philippines. finally, before we go, swimming club mascot, a giant inflatable duck has been found after it was blown out to sea. it is set to be part of an annual competition and it went missing just a week ago. it was reported hundreds of miles away. you cannot go wrong with a story about rubber ducks. and you can get in touch with me and most of the team on twitter — i'm @nkem ifejika. bye—bye..

hello there. 0ur weather's showing signs of catching up on the season, going from something that has felt a bit more like winter to something more springlike over the next few days. now, over the weekend, london temperatures barely got above freezing. we've had that heavy snow as well. there is a trend to seeing things warm up and by thursday, temperatures should reach double temperatures in the capital. of course, the big change has been this area of high pressure, which brought us the mini beast from the east. that same area of high pressure has now just sunk to the south—west of the uk. and so, we're dragging in some slightly less cold air. that will continue to be the case over the next couple of days. 0n the satellite picture, we're looking at an area of cloud sinking its way southwards at the moment and that cloud is just thick enough to bring us a few light showers, so for the early risers there is the potential of catching one or two showers across parts of the midlands, east anglia and south—east england. i wouldn't be surprised to see an odd flake falling from it, given that the temperatures for most of us are at or below freezing.

and a particularly cold start to the day in scotland, where temperatures potentially down as low as —8 in the coldest spots. for tuesday, we'll have a cloudy start to the day for most of england. should be fairly sunny across scotland. a decent amount of showers. with this cloud, one or two showers pushing on towards the midlands for a time during the day, but the cloud will tend to shrink and shrivel, with some sunshine either side of it as we go on through the afternoon. for many of us, a decent kind of day. those temperatures up to nine degrees in london. that was tuesday's weather. now, as we get towards wednesday, we start to drag in some milder air off the atlantic, but with that comes the threat of some rain. rain working its way into the north—west. before that arrives, it's going to be another fairly cold night, particularly across england and wales. the temperatures not as low in scotland and northern ireland, where we'll have that increasingly cloudy look to the weather, with outbreaks of rain skirting into northern ireland. the rain heavy at times and quite persistent across the western side of scotland.

a few breaks in the cloud, the best of any sunshine probably across central and eastern parts of england. we are looking at highs of around nine degrees in london again, but the temperatures in scotland and northern ireland are reaching double figures. ten or 11 degrees in the warmest spots, and that warming trend continues on into thursday. thursday, well, potentially a little bit of rain around, getting close to eastern england. so it could be quite wet for some. there will be some brighter spells. the weather going downhill further west, as the next band of rain works in. temperatures pretty much across the board will be reaching double figures. that's your latest weather. this is bbc news — the headlines. president trump has outlined plans to combat america's opioid epidemic, including introducing the death penalty for drug dealers in certain circumstances. 0ver—prescription of opioid painkillers — such as morphine and codeine — has created a nationwide addiction crisis. police in texas say a serial bomber is on the loose in the city of austin. three parcel bombs earlier this month killed two african—american men, and wounded an hispanic woman.

in the latest attack on sunday, a bomb seriously injured two white men. officers say it's not clear if the attacks are hate crimes or terrorism. an international team of chemical weapons experts has arrived in salisbury, in the west of england to examine the nerve agent used to poison the former russian spy, sergei skripal, and his daughter, yulia. british investigators have broadened their search to include a car that she's believed to have travelled in. doctors have restored the sight of two patients with the most common