this is bbc news. the headlines at midday... " locked and loaded". america tells syria it's ready to strike again after yesterday's attacks on suspected chemical weapons facilities. labour leaderjeremy corbyn has called for a vote in parliament tomorrow, following yesterday's air strikes it looked awfully to me as though the prime minister was more interested in following donald trump's lead than anything else. this is policy made up by twitter. the chief executive of the world's largest advertising agency, martin sorrell, is stepping down five people have been treated by paramedics after a car collided with a group of pedestrians in essex. also coming up, jubilation at the commonwealth games england beat australia in the netball to secure the greatest result in their history and win their first commonwealth gold medal. and, at 12.30, click visits a farm where robots drive tractors, manage a field, and harvest crops.

good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. donald trump has warned the syrian government the us is "locked and loaded" and prepared to strike again if there are any further chemical weapons attacks in the country. britain, france and the united states have called on the un to hold an independent investigation into last week's suspected chemical attack in douma. but that would need the support of russia — which has condemned saturday's air strikes as an aggression. here — the foreign secretary boris johnson has told the bbc the action was "essential". the labour leader, jeremy corbyn, meanwhile, has called for a commons vote tomorrow.

more on the uk political reaction in a moment, but first our correspondent chris buckler reports from washington. the british, french and american forces were deployed to send a message to president assad, and there was no way they went unnoticed in damascus. one hour of strikes and explosions were, despite the sights and sounds, limited in their scope and very deliberate in their targeting of facilities connected to chemical weapons. the united states and our allies will not tolerate the use of chemical weapons against innocent men, women and children. and we are prepared to deter any further use of chemical weapons by the assad regime. this was one of the sites where the missiles landed. the syrian government says this building in damascus was home to science labs and training facilities. the western allies claim it was a place where technology for chemical and biological warfare

was being developed. after the alleged attack in douma, there are still concerns about chemical weapons, and that means there is still a threat of further action. the united states is locked and loaded. straight talking has replaced diplomatic language at the un security council. here, there are proposals for a new resolution that would call for a full investigation into the alleged attacks. butjudging by recent clashes, that is likely to be vetoed by syria's ally russia. translation: this is how you want international affairs to be conducted now? this is hooliganism. and not minor hooliganism, given that we are talking about major nuclear powers. theresa may has now published her government's legal case for approving the air strikes but she knows she will face questions at westminster this week about why parliament was not

given a say. trump says "more war". we say "no more!" after the briefest of bombing campaigns, some are asking what has been achieved by these air strikes and whether the west really has a strategy for syria. chris buckler, bbc news, washington. our correspondent, lina sinjab, is in beirut — and she's been telling me what's known about the impact of the air strikes in syria. well, they definitely did the damage for the use of chemical weapons. they have sent a strong message to the government of president bashar al—assad not to use prohibited weapons in syria any more, but did it affect the course of the war of the position of the president? definitely not. this is a warning for the president and other persons not to use chemical weapons, but it says nothing about using other conventional weapons

and we have seen over the last seven years the highest number and the vast majority of civilians killed, reaching around 500,000 in the last seven years, they were killed with conventional weapons, not chemical weapons. so for the course of the war and for peace in syria, they are not making any difference, but for the security of using chemical weapons, yes, they are sending a strong message to the government. we saw the pictures yesterday appearing to show president assad going to work as normal and the message from the syrian regime seems to be business as usual? well, yes, that is definitely the case. you watch what they are broadcasting, the messages they are sending and you talk to people on the ground, it's a message of defiance. it is a message to tell the aggression as they call it that we are here to stay. at the end of the day, it is only three sites according to the americans that were targeted. none of the military

bases or airbases. these military powers are still up and running, he still has the support from russia and iran and he is still going to win the war. he had full control of douma yesterday, the area that witnessed the chemical attack last week, so nothing has changed for him, only the use of chemical weapons will stop , but we are not sure if he will commit to it in the future. the foreign secretary, borisjohnson, has strongly defended the use of air strikes, saying it was necessary to deter the use of chemical weapons. 0ur political correspondent mark lobel explains more. he said about the air strike that it's sending a message to the world that enough is enough. he says there is an overwhelming reason why it was the right thing to do in syria. he was asked if the uk was locked and loaded, as they are in america, for another attack.

he said he hoped it would be enough of a deterrent not to happen again. again, leaving the door open to a future strike if there was perhaps another suspected chemical weapons attack in syria. but he made one point about the wider war in syria. let's have a listen to this clip. i think it's important to understand the limits of what we are trying to do. this is not... trying to end the war? that's right, andrew. and i think that this is not going to... we must be honest, this is not going to turn the tide of the conflict in syria. one can hope that it encourages the russians to get assad to the negotiating table in geneva, to get a political process properly going. but that is, as it were, an extra. the primary purpose is to say no to the use of barbaric chemical weapons. you heard it there, treading a fine line with the russians. he was talking about conversations that did take place before the air strike so that nothing was escalated on that front. but he did say at one point

contacts with the russians have not been good. still very frustrated that they won't. .. he called it the extraordinary weight of evidence in the skripal case, the chemical poisoning in salisbury, that the russians are still denying involvement in that. so, kind of frustration. it you got a sense he was having to hold it back. now, labour had been talking about this as well, particularlyjeremy corbyn, the labour party leader. what has he had to say? that's right. jeremy corbyn was asked a lot about these strikes. one interesting line that came out of a question on andrew marr, that we will listen to a second, if you bear in mind that he was chairman of stop the war for a long time, is seen by many people as a pacifist, and facing the prospect of possibly being prime minister, he was asked directly whether he would never say never on military action. let's take a listen. if you were prime minister, you would never, ever authorise the use of force against countries? no, nobody would never say never. what i would say... almost never, though? no, what i would say is there has to be a process where the objective is to bring about peace, to bring about a resolution

to conflict, to bring about a political solution. listen, there's going to be no military winner in syria. the war could go on and get worse. the killing could get worse. he continued to air his objections with what the government have done in syria. the government have come forward, saying that international law allows them to do what they have done based on humanitarian reasons. he said that was legally debatable. so, then he was asked where he thought the legal basis for a strike would come from. this is what he had to say. i say to the foreign secretary, i say to the prime minister, where is the legal basis for this? the legal basis would have to be... humanitarian, they would say. it has to be self defence or the authority of the un security council. the humanitarian intervention is a legally debatable concept at the present time. i would have thought, from the point of recalling parliament, or waiting two days, things could have been different. it looked awfully to me as if the prime minister

was more interested in following donald trump's lead than anything else. and this is policy made up by twitter. clearly suggesting theresa may was being led by donald trump there. what about tomorrow's statement the prime minister was going to give? well, jeremy corbyn saying there should have been a bigger role for parliament. parliament should have been recalled. he wants a vote for what happens next now, how the organisation for the prohibition of chemical weapons joins in and investigates what is happening now. he wants a un resolution to bring russia and america closer together. he mentioned a war powers act, which he thinks should be brought in to hold the government to account fortheiractions, including these types of strikes. earlier i spoke to sir mark lyall grant, who was the uk's ambassador to the united nations in 2013 when the commons voted against military action in syria. he said it was right that the uk took part in the air strikes, without parliament being consulted. frankly, this convention is a very recent convention

and is a constraint that many of our allies, including france and the united states, don't face. the reality is that the situation in crises like these move quickly and decisions need to be made quickly and it's very rare that all the information available to the government when coming to a decision will be able to be put into the public domain. so i think parliament certainly should hold the government to account for its executive decisions, but i do think parliament is the right body to take those executive decisions that naturally fall to the prime minister and her cabinet. was the prime minister under pressure because france also wanted to carry out military intervention and he is close with the united states on this. we might have been slightly isolated if we hadn't joined

we might have been slightly isolated if we hadn'tjoined in the military action, more distant from the united states ? action, more distant from the united states? there may be an element of that. the united states was supportive over the poisoning of these skripals, but there is a wider point here that is more significant and that is that the rules—based international order is important for countries like the united kingdom. more important arguably for us and france and other european countries than the united states. we rely on that for our prosperity and security. it's right that we should participate in defence of that order and using chemical weapons is a direct violation of that international order, so it's right that the british government should play a role in defending it. are these missile strikes too late? it's been said that there were 50 chemical weapon strikes at least in syria, maybe 200. this is a response to one. what really is the point?

it is important to draw a line in the sand on this. this was a particularly egregious chemical attack. there was clear evidence it was the assad regime so it was right to respond, but you are right, this will not change the dynamic on the ground. it will not change the outcome of the syrian war and that's what i was disappointed in 2013 when parliament did vote against military action because don't forget, that was two years before russia entered the conflict at all and military strikes then might have fundamentally changed the dynamic on the ground. so in a way, that was the time? that was a time and it could have saved hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties in syria. that is not the case now and this was a limited objective, which was a focus on chemical weapons only. people will say why this response on chemical weapons because assad

has been doing all sorts of horrific things to civilians in terms of conventional weapons for years, killing as you said, hundreds of thousands. use of chemical weapons is a strong international taboo. they have not been used in widespread terms since the first world war, but they were used in the second world war and in the iran—iraq war and in smaller cases in syria, but given that every country practically in the world has signed up to the chemical weapons convention, it's an unpleasant way of killing people and i think it is right that we should in force that international taboo that everyone has agreed to. some other news 110w. sir martin sorrell, the highest paid boss of a british public company,

has resigned after being investigated for personal misconduct. sir martin announced he had stepped down as chief executive of wpp with immediate effect, saying it was in the "best interests of the business" for him to go. last year wpp, the world's largest advertising agency, cut sir martin's salary by nearly a third — to £48.1 million. the company announced that they were launching an internal investigation into accusations that funds of the company had been inappropriately used. 0utside counsel was brought in to launch that investigation. we now know that that investigation is now complete, it has been concluded. we cannot infer that sir martin did anything wrong. in fact, he has denied any wrongdoing whatsoever. he strenuously denies that. but he is stepping down for the sake of the company. he says he is going to leave it

in much better hands and that now is the time to go. he is 73 years of age. the salary figure has been hugely controversial? as you also said, it was a pay cut to £48 million. in 2016, he got £70 million. his salary is huge. he will say, the company is worth £15 billion today. that's a 32% drop from one year ago, so worth almost £20 billion more one year ago. he has raised it from nothing. if you bought shares in wire & plastic products, which is what wpp stands for, 30 years ago, your growth would have been exponential. he would say he has given value to the shareholders, i am worth that money as the driving force of a company that is in 112 countries around the world. a man has died and a woman is in a critical condition, after the vehicle they were in, collided with a car during a police pursuit, on the outskirts of stoke—on—trent. the pair were being followed by officers on the a50 near longton

after failing their vehicle failed to stop. they collided with a car on the eastbound carriageway at around 6.15 this morning. staffordshire police have referred the incident to the independent police complaints commission, which is routine when somebody dies police have launched a murder investigation after a man was shot dead in birmingham. officers were called to a shooting in bordesley area of the city at just after midnight. a 20—year—old man was pronounced dead at the scene. forensic teams are carrying out investigations this morning — and police are appealing to the public for information. police are continuing to investigate after a car ploughed into a group of pedestrians in essex. one person remains in a critical condition in hospital, and another has potentially life—changing injuries, after the incident in canvey island yesterday afternoon. ben ando reports crash investigators at the scene, marking down the track of a car that

veered off the road and struck six people on the pavementjust yards north of the seafront at ca nvey island. it is not clear what happened or why, but five of those hit were hurt, one critically, another with life—changing injuries, and a major incident was declared. three helicopters and four land ambulances were scrambled to the scene. it is quite quiet along the seafront and, yeah, i've not seen anything round here at all like this. i was quite shocked when i saw it. as soon as i saw the helicopters fly over, and i thought something has been serious. in a tweet, essex police urged people to avoid the area, but so far have not commented on suggestions from some eyewitnesses that the driver involved was being chased by a patrol car at the time of the crash. the two most seriously hurt victims are now being treated in hospitals in london. so far, no—one has been arrested. ben ando, bbc news. the headlines on bbc news:

" locked and loaded". america tells syria it's ready to strike again after yesterdays attacks on suspected chemical weapons facilities. labour leaderjeremy corbyn has called for a vote in parliament tomorrow, following yesterday's air strikes. the chief executive of the world's largest advertising agency, martin sorrell, is stepping down. sport now, and for a full round up, from the bbc sport centre, here's ben. the best pile up in history. that's how helen housby described this bundle just moments after scoring the goal that gave england their first commonwealth title in netball. they only reached the final thanks to a last gasp goal, and history repeated itself in the early hours this morning. tied at 51—51 against hosts australia, housby made the shot to round of the games in some style. it's the first time they'd even been in the final, and beats their previous best result at a major games

which was a world cup silver back in 1975. some achievement for coach tracey neville. it's my dream come true, i think. the girls worked so hard over the last international phase. they were against the world number one. renowned, not beaten and once in the whole cycle. to beat them at that time is just a stupendous. i think the preparation yesterday really got us up for the games. really proud, really, really proud. success seemed to have captivated the country. tracy is proud and so is her brother, gary neville. her instagram has been inundated with congratulatory messages, even one from david beckham. and helen richardson walsh knows exactly how

important a major title can be and the impact it can have on sport in the impact it can have on sport in the country. contrast those emotions to callum hawkins. set for gold in the men's marathon, the scottish athlete collapsed whilst lead just a mile from the end in searing sunday sunshine. he is sitting up and recovering in hospital. his compatriot robbie simpson won bronze. there were two english golds on the badminton court. chris and gabby adcock retained the mixed doubles title, beating marcus ellis and lauren smith in the final. so this is how the final medal table looks, australia way out in front at their home games. 45 golds for england in their haul of 136. wales' 36 is a record. scotland are just behind them with their best at an overseas games. 12 medals for northern ireland too. so it's over to birmingham now. these are live pictures from the closing ceremony on the gold coast.

australia said they'd deliver the friendly games. think they've achieved that. a colourful one as well. birmingham with an some act to follow in four years. if we could just get some of that sunshine and sand. a little cooler in shanghai today. the coolest head of the lot belonged to danielle ricciardo who pulled off a series of stunning overtakes for his first win of the season. a processional race was turned on its head when the two toro rossos collided on the 30th lap. that saw the safety car come out and ricciardo make a pit stop. after the restart his fresher tyres saw him move from sixth to first in just ten laps to take his first win in 15 races. sebastian vettel, who started from pole, could only finish 8th after being hit by max verstappen. the dutchman was given a penalty that saw lewis hamilton claim fourth. vettel‘s championship lead is down to nine points. manchester city could be crowned premier league champions without kicking a ball this afternoon. the 3—1win over tottenham hotspur means manchester united must avoid defeat against west brom

or the title will be city's. raheem sterling grabbed city's third at wembley. pep guardiola's side are 16 points clear but the city boss has other priorities this afternoon. newcastle against arsenal is the early kick off in the premier league. commentary of both games in england is on radio 5 live. two semi finals in the women's fa cup too. 1a time winners travel to everton in a repeat of the 2014 final. that one is on the red button. 0n bbc two later, the top two in the super league, chelsea and manchester city meet at kingsmeadow. ian poulter will be chasing his second victory in three weeks this evening. he holds a one shot lead going into the final round of the rbc heritage in south carolina. poulter, who won the houston 0pen two weeks ago, leads on 13 under par. he's one shot clear of luke list of the usa

and kim si woo from south korea. that's all the sport for now. 0ne score from the championship, wolves are beating birmingham city 1-0. as he was set to win a gold medal at the commonwealth games in australia. earlier, i spoke to former world marathon champion paula radcliffe, who gave us her thoughts and explained some of the challenges runners face. it was really hard to watch. especially knowing callum and knowing how well he had run up to that point, how well he had prepared for the race in general. to see him go down, to see him struggle to carry on, and in particular to see the medical assistants take so long to get to him and to help him, i think all of our concerns

were primarily for his well—being and we just wanted people to get to him as soon as possible and help them. it really is quite upsetting to watch. why do you think the medical teams did take so long? he isjust there, stranded, alone by himself for a long time. well, it actually took a minute and 41 seconds to get to him, but that was the second time he went down. it is always difficult in a marathon. i think there needs to be some kind of contingency plans that come in when conditions change in the run—up to a major championship marathon that has already been run in difficult conditions, and the conditions become worse, and become tougher. there was a little bit of a situation with how much water was available to them, easily available to them on the course, because they had to open their own bottles. the first time he went down, he wanted to carry on, but at that point he probably wasn't

thinking coherently or rationally. he needed assistance at the very least if he wanted to try to get running again, to be alongside him on a bike. that would have been sensible to have medical assistance following him from that point, because clearly he couldn't carry on. he was going to fall or hurt himself really badly at some point. then when he did go down, it took a very long time for somebody to actually come to him. i couldn't see that they did very much when they did arrive. he really needed people to react quickly. thankfully, callum is ok. he's spending a night in hospital, as i understand, but he is up and talking to people, he is able to make some kind of light hearted jokes about the situation, so he is trying to move on, in his mind. do you think it was simply because of the heat, the extreme heat that happened? yes, it is very hard to tell. probably even callum himself, for him to put those pieces

together, it will take him a long time. it will take people with a lot more medical experience than i have to say exactly what went wrong. i think the conditions were tough. they were hotter than expected. it was very humid. direct sunlight, a lot of runners had trouble out there. he was pushing to the limits of his capacities, because he was trying to win the commonwealth title. he was well en route to doing that. maybe some kind of electrolyte imbalance, maybe some kind of dehydration orjust hitting the marathon wall. but it came on so quickly. to guess at it, it is not going to do callum any favours, the biggest thing now is that his health is recovering and he is able to bounce back from this and show what a great champion he can be in future. you have run marathons, i don't know of anything like that happened to you. obviously the legs go.

you were saying he was not thinking straight. does the mind go in a sense as well? well, i think when you hit that degree of exhaustion, i have not even approached that, but in the athens 0lympic marathon i kind of hit the wall and i wasn't able to run in a straight line, which is where he was at. he was able to get up and push through that, which i think is testament to how tough he is and how badly he really wanted to force his body to finish. but at that point, his mind can't have been thinking rationally, because he clearly wasn't able to run well. the worry was that he was going to hurt himself really badly. as i say, thankfully, he has not. he is ok, he is recovering and he will bounce back from this. but, at that point, every runner is going to finish. ithink, medically, people needed to intervene to say it's not in your best interests health—wise to try and push on any further. the weather has taken a step

backwards today, as cloud and outbreaks of rain were northwards. northern scotland will stay dry with some sunshine through the afternoon. the warmest weather in the uk today, 17 or 18 degrees in some spots. brighter skies coming back later to south—west england, wales and northern ireland. some heavy showers around. for most of us today, cooler compared to yesterday. windy as well. gusty wind in northern ireland to 40 mph. further showers overnight. mostly into scotland, in the second part of six or 9 degrees. monday, early showery rain clearing away from scotland. most places are looking fine and dry. some cloud around, sunny spells and it will feel warmer compared with today as

temperatures reach back to the mid—teens. look at this, wet weather permitting northern ireland and scotla nd permitting northern ireland and scotland on monday night and into tuesday. after that, as the week goes on, it gets warmer.