worldwide. and in in the uk, just 50 worldwide. and in essex, two of the world's best, husband and wife rob and clare. men's world number two, woman's number one. i have bragging rights at the moment, but rob has outnumbered me in terms of being a world champion, and open titles, so lam keeping world champion, and open titles, so i am keeping quiet and modest until hopefully one day i can top his tally. the sport dates back about 400 yea rs tally. the sport dates back about 400 years to tudor times. henry viii loved it, and filters and facility at hampton court. equipment is not easy to come by. rob has to make his own balls. i choose to use a call centre for —— cork, and then we have the string around it. we then find the string around it. we then find the tight nylon string, keeping around and so nice and hard. and ultimately, we have got a needle and

thread, so we pop the stitches on, and then finally, we end up with the completed object. each one can take up completed object. each one can take up to an hour. the pair recently cleared up in australia, winning the singles and doubles titles. claire now has time away expecting the birth of the second child. for rob, the practice court is calling before the practice court is calling before the cold about world title. coverage of that all—importa nt the cold about world title. coverage of that all—important champions league game between manchester city and liverpool from the etihad stadium. that start—ups 7.45. city captain vincent kompany drops to the bench, while former liverpool forward raheem sterling isn't. mo salah will start. thanks forjoining us on salah will start. thanks forjoining us on sportsday. well, let's get more now

on the news that yulia skripal, the daughter of a former russian spy, who was poisoned in along with her father, has left hospital in salisbury. sergei skripal is also said to be responding to treatment, more than a month after the nerve agent attack, which the government has said was most likely carried out by russia. medical staff said they hoped he would also be discharged soon. we can speak now to professor martin mccauley, who's a russia analyst and author of russia, america and the cold war. he joins us live in the studio. thanks for talking to us. we know that yulia skripal has made in some ways a miraculous recovery. she has left hospital. does that surprise you? it does, which it wasn't as badly affected as her father from the beginning, and it is extremely

good news that she has left hospital, which means presumably that she will be given a clean bill of health, and no brain—damaged, because the field was the nerve agent could have affected the brain. but it appears not. if sergei skripal, that would be even more remarkable. it would mean that the medical staff have been extremely good, because originally, they said there was no antidote to novichok 234, but apparently they have been using antidotes which have worked, which is quite remarkable. so it is a remarkable medical story as well asa a remarkable medical story as well as a political story. the big question is whether yulia skripal are her father question is whether yulia skripal are herfather can question is whether yulia skripal are her father can be question is whether yulia skripal are herfather can be any question is whether yulia skripal are her father can be any assistance to the police investigation as to how they were poisoned. what are your thoughts on that?” how they were poisoned. what are your thoughts on that? i expect that yulia skripal will not be able to give much information, but if you keep talking to her, she may say something which she remembers which may in fact be important. but sergei skripal is the important one,

because investigators consider him, think back a month or two or three before what you told us, and the people you talk to us about. did it affect his economic interest negatively, did it affect the intelligence operation? can you give us some intelligence operation? can you give us some idea about the motive behind this? as they still do not know the motive. why did they attack these two when needed? and sergei skripal may be able to give some indication, and then work backwards from there, because at present, they are in the dark, and also they do not thought how it was administered, and reasonably will be able to give them some indication about that. and of course the question is, where did novichok 234 come from? and obviously ask that as well. you go along with the view that russia was responsible? no, it has not been proven. you can list 56 countries

that could make this. who else could make it? yarde israel, britain, france. at least. it requires highly sophisticated laboratory, medical laboratory, military laboratory, these countries have the ability, these countries have the ability, the technology and the skilled scientists to do it. and it is not only russia that produces this weapon. the british government has come to the conclusion that it is probably russia. there was a report that a message was intercepted from britain to russia, saying that the parcel has arrived. wherever talking about novichok, or something else? that is one clue, and then they go back to novichok. we know that it was manufactured at a laboratory

outside moscow from the 1960s onwards, so that ignores it was there. the russians keep insisting we no longer manufacture that. and britain says, can become and investigate? but what would you do if the british investigators were coming there? you would remove all evidence of it. so there is no point in going there. so we are still in this situation with the russians deny all knowledge, and they say it is from somewhere else. and serve a lover of actually said britain did it at the note. —— sergey lavrov, the russian foreign minister. brexit is going very well, so then the british government brings is in as a red herring because there is russia pulled out in the west. —— brexit is not going well. newspapers automatically blame russia. i suppose the argument is that circuits cabell was a former russian

spyr circuits cabell was a former russian spy, and therefore russia has in motive, as other countries might not. again, you would say, it is difficult to see why france or israel or the united states would wa nt to israel or the united states would want to kill them? but that is way out there, and not fully credible. in fact it is possible that the novichok came from somewhere else. in fact it is possible that the novichok came from somewhere elselj understand, novichok came from somewhere else.|j understand, yes. russia says that yulia skripal is one of our citizens, and that they want access to her. what do you think she might feel about that? she would probably be nervous about that and would not wa nt to be nervous about that and would not want to meet a russian official, almost certainly. because she will be quizzed about her movements, and does she believe that the attack was from russia? does she believe that the attack was from russia ? because does she believe that the attack was from russia? because the russians will want to prove, and say that she in fact does not believe that the

novichok nerve agent came from russia. that is what they want her to say. thank you, professor, we have to leave it there. the founder of facebook, mark zuckerberg, will testify before the us congress in the next hour, to answer questions about the improper sharing of people's data with the political consulting firm cambridge analytica. and we'll have special coverage of mark zuckerberg's appearance before the senate live from washington in a moment. watch that with katty kay from 7.00 tonight here on bbc news. time for a look at the weather forecast now. we do not know what the weather will be doing from one heart of the next. pretty miserable across northern pa rt pretty miserable across northern part of the uk. really chilly on the north sea coast, but east anglia and some of the southern captain ‘s, including the london area, starting to brighten up, and later this afternoon, temperatures could reach 18 celsius. through the course of

tonight, the skies were clear a time. the north is cloudy and damp before the rain clears away here, too. but later in the night, another speu too. but later in the night, another spell of rain coming from holland living at east anglia and the south—east. but it looks like the far southern counties could just about stay dry. and that will set the scene for wednesday. again, the isle of wight could be sunny, but farther north, it will be cloudy but outbreaks of rain from london to birmingham. the best of the weather tomorrow will probably be across the north—east of the country. mark serco berg versus the us senate. senators tell the bbc they wa nt senate. senators tell the bbc they want more than that. they want to regulate the tech giant. donald trump cancels trip to latin america to focus on a response to syria. he speaks to the syrian people about an

effort. the fbi raised his own lawyer's office and says it is a witchhunt.