tonight at ten — the queen tells dozens of world leaders that she'd like prince charles to succeed her, one day, as head of the commonwealth. her majesty was welcoming commonwealth heads of government to buckingham palace for their biennial conference as she looked to the future of the organisation after her reign. it is my sincere wish that the commonwealth will continue to offer stability and continuity forfuture generations, and will decide that one day the prince of wales should carry on the important work started by my father in 1949. leaders of the 53 commonwealth countries and territories have been attending a formal dinner at buckingham palace tonight. we'll have the latest on the summit, which is happening amid intense controversy about the government's mistreatment of caribbean migrants. also tonight. the bank of england says people should prepare for a "few interest rate rises over the next few years". as a ban on plastic straws and cotton buds is due to be enforced in england, we report from a part

of the world where plastic pollution is out of control. i'm in indonesia, where there's so much plastic waste choking the rivers that the army has been called in to help. a new attempt to invigorate english cricket — shorter matches and ten ball overs. and the british designer stella mccartney tells the fashion industry to clean up its act. and coming up on sportsday bbc news, can chelsea capitalise on their good start away at burnley to close the gap in the race for a place in the champions league? good evening. the queen has welcomed commonwealth leaders to buckingham palace

for the formal opening of the commonwealth heads of government meeting, which involves representatives from 53 countries and territories. looking to the future, her majesty, who'll be 92 this weekend, told the leaders that it's her "sincere wish" that prince charles will succeed her one day as head of the commonwealth. the summit is happening amid intense controversy, about the government's mistreatment of caribbean migrants who settled in the uk. our royal correspondent nicholas witchell reports. the diplomatic term for it is "transition". the careful, discreet preparation for the inevitable, when a monarch who will be 92 this saturday is no longer on the throne. commonwealth leaders at a banquet at buckingham palace tonight must decide who will be the next head of the commonwealth. the title is not hereditary, but it is clear that the commonwealth's choice is prince charles. in the palace ballroom this morning, the 53 commonwealth

leaders prepared the way. # god save our gracious queen #. they know that this will almost certainly be the last commonwealth conference over which the queen will preside in person. change is coming, and prince charles reminded the commonwealth of his long—standing involvement in their affairs. for my part, the commonwealth has been a fundamental feature of my life for as long as i can remember. i pray that this commonwealth heads of government meeting will not only revitalise the bonds between our countries, but will also give the commonwealth a renewed relevance to all its citizens. from britain's prime minister theresa may, a reminder of the incredible opportunities offered by the commonwealth, important of course in the post—brexit world. but then to the topic that bound them all emotionally today. a tribute to the queen. you have seen us through some

of our most serious challenges and we commit to sustaining this commonwealth, which you have so carefully nurtured. and then it was the turn of the queen to speak. she had committed her life to the commonwealth at the age of 21. now, 71 years later, it was apparent that she was keen to prepare the ground for the leadership of the commonwealth after her death. it's my sincere wish that the commonwealth will continue to offer stability and continuity for future generations and will decide that one day the prince of wales should carry on the important work started by my father in 1949. by continuing to treasure and reinvigorate our associations and activities, i believe we will secure a safer, more prosperous and sustainable world for those who follow us. the commonwealth has big issues for discussion.

preserving the oceans, democracy, trade, gay rights, but the significance of today was that for the first time publicly, through the medium of the commonwealth, elizabeth ii looked ahead to the time after her reign is over. and those words from the queen this morning have really taken us to a place where we haven't been before, certainly not as explicitly or publicly. everyone knows but of course one day her reign will end, it's not something understandably that palace officials are keen to talk about, but this morning she took the lead in the context of the commonwealth, saying that it was a sincere wish that when charles becomes king, king of the united kingdom, that she hopes he will also be named as head of the commonwealth. i think the tone of her language must mean that it's inevitable, given, that when the commonwealth heads of government

have their retreat at windsor tomorrow, they will formalise her wish and named charles is now inevitable, given, that when the commonwealth heads of government have their retreat at windsor tomorrow, they will formalise her wish and named charles as a future head so far of the careful preparations which are under way for the eventual transition from the reign of elizabeth, to the reign of charles. nicholas witchell, our royal correspondent at buckingham palace. the governor of the bank of england, mark carney, has told the bbc that a rise in interest rates this year is still likely, but that any increases will be gradual and will depend on progress in the brexit negotiations. mr carney is in washington for the annual meetings of the international monetary fund and the world bank. he's been speaking to our economics editor, kamal ahmed. a mixed economic bag. retail sales fell by the fastest rate for a year. there's brexit uncertainty, but wages are going up and unemployment is at record lows.

for the governor of the bank of england it's a delicate balancing act. is it time to raise interest rates next month to cool the economy and bring down inflation, or wait and be cautious? the big picture for people watching is that yes, prepare for a few interest rate rises over the next few years and i think the one other thing we would say is that the biggest set of economic decisions over the course of the next few years are going to be taken in the brexit negotiations — whatever deal we end up with. and then we will adjust to the impact of those decisions. given that inflation has come down more rapidly than you expected, we've had very bad retail sales figures today, some people might say this isjust the time not to be raising interest rates. i think we're all aware of the squeeze that's going on on the high street. we'll sit down calmly, look at it all in the round.

i asked him with price rises easing, was the squeeze in living standards over? i hesitate to say the real income squeeze is coming to an end because i'm sure there's a lot of people sitting at home watching this saying i don't feel that. it's very marginal at this point. the challenge for the medium term is to make sure it widens out. the challenge is to make sure that real wages are picking up. mr carney was in washington for the spring meeting of the international monetary fund, the global economic power broker. its head warned the uk that brexit uncertainty needs to clear. i think it will not surprise you that the cloud of uncertainty that covers the british economy is certainly one of the causes why the british economy is not enjoying the same kind of upswings as the other advanced economies, and hopefully this cloud will clear up as time goes by. the message from washington, from

the governor, is to all those economists, those market investors, who thought that an interest rate rise next month was nailed on certainty, yes, interest rate rises may be coming, but maybe not as quickly as a lot of people thought. kamal ahmed, bbc news, washington. the chairman of save the children, the charity facing claims of harrassment against a number of its staff, has resigned. sir alan parker said there'd been "some unacceptable workplace behaviour" at the charity while he was in charge. save the children is currently facing an investigation by the charity commission. our correspondent, james landale, is here. what do we know about the reasons for the resignation? back in february there was a scandal involving inappropriate behaviour, sexual harassment, across the charitable sector and save the children was one of those organisations. two senior figures who had worked for the charity, justin forsyth and brendan cox, had

been investigated following complaints about their behaviour. the bbc revealed there had been an internal report which had raised questions about the way those investigations had been handled, particularly there were suggestions that both men were very, very close to the international chairman, sir alan parker, and there was a suggestion this might have affected the way the investigation have been handled. there was a row. former and existing employees demanded sir alan went and tonight, he did go, eight months before his tenure was due to end. he said given the complex mix of challenges the organisation of the sector are facing, change is needed. this matters part because of who sir alan is. a big public relations man at the heart of the political establishment, close to gordon brown and david cameron. but it also matters because it shows that now accountability for this kind of behaviour goes all the way to the top. james langdale with the latest. a brief look at some of the day's other other news stories. a woman has gone on trial for murder, after being accused of throwing acid over her former partner, in an attack that left him

with such serious injuries he was granted the right to end his life. berlinah wallace is accused of attacking the dutch engineer mark van dongen in bristol in 2015. she denies all the charges. the pilot of a jet which crashed during the shoreham airshow has appeared in court charged with manslaughter. 54—year—old andrew hill was flying a hawker hunterjet fighter as part of an aerobatic display when it came down on the a27 shoreham by—pass nearly three years ago, leading to the deaths of 11 people. documents circulated internally at the home office over two years ago warned that theresa may's attempt as home secretary to create a "hostile environment" for illegal immigrants might well cause difficulties for british citizens born overseas. some people who've been unable to prove their migration status have been denied nhs treatment, lost theirjobs, and even been threatened with deportation. our community affairs correspondent, adina campbell, is at the home office tonight. what is the latest? well, these were

documents designed to make it more difficult for people living here in the uk without the right paperwork to access benefits, benefits such as property within the rental market. the first document came in in the 2014 immigration act in a second similar document came in a couple of yea rs similar document came in a couple of years later, in 2016. the home 0ffice years later, in 2016. the home office has responded to this and said significant work was done to ensure that there wasn't an adverse impact on this group of people. tonight, a big public meeting has been taking place. it was a meeting arranged by labour mps. hundreds of people turned up for that meeting. we had some very personal emotive stories from some of those affected, as well as some angry speeches by mps supporting the group of people. we know that a helpline set up earlier this week to help people affected, there have been more than 200 enquiries to bat helpline. tonight, we can confirm four people

have had their cases resolved. adina campbell with the latest at the home 0ffice. sir cliff richard is continuing his legal action against the bbc, alleging a serious invasion of his privacy when the bbc provided live coverage of a police raid on one of his homes in 2014, following an allegation of sexual assault. the bbcjournalist who broke the story told the high court that editors did consider privacy issues when making decisions about coverage. dan johnson also said the story had not been about the singer being ‘guilty‘, but about him being ‘investigated'. sir cliff was never arrested or charged. the bbc says its coverage was in the public interest. our special correspondent, lucy manning, reports. look who's here! sir cliff richard, with his friend gloria hunniford alongside him, heard the journalist who reported the police investigation into him strongly defend his right to run the story. what is the latest there, dan? the police search is still going on here... dan johnson was praised by his bosses for this reporting.

they called it a gold—plated scoop. the story, he explained in court, wasn't about sir cliff richard being guilty but about the police investigation, and he claimed although it could be damaging, it doesn't mean we don't have the right to tell people what the police were doing. sir cliff richard's barrister questioned why mrjohnson had felt the need to report the allegation against the singer at all. he said, "you don't have to be sherlock holmes to conclude this looks like potentially a pretty flimsy complaint, do you?" mrjohnson replied, "i'm not sherlock holmes, i'm not the police. that's theirjob. but given they had decided to take this forward, to take it seriously, to take it to the next stage, i couldn't just ignore what they were doing." the bbc was criticised for using a helicopter to film the search of his flat. mrjohnson claimed issues about sir cliff richard's privacy were considered by those higher up — his bosses in london.

mrjohnson claimed, "this was a story involving allegations of a serious nature against a figure of the highest profile, against the backdrop of a number of other allegations being made against celebrities, some having beenjailed, guilty as a result of other victims coming forward because of media coverage in some instances." mrjohnson was asked about remarks he'd made about a billy graham religious rally, which is where the allegation about sir cliff richard was said to have happened. the reporter wrote an e—mail saying, "it wasn'tjust the hand of god doing the touching". sir cliff richard shook his head as mrjohnson denied he'd been treating the singer as a guilty man. lucy manning, bbc news. billions of plastic straws, drinks stirrers and cotton buds could be banned from sale in england. the government is to launch a consultation, while scotland has already announced plans to ban plastic cotton buds.

today's move has been prompted, in part, by the huge amount of plastic polluting the world's oceans and waterways. 0ur science editor, david shukman, has been to indonesia, to see how serious the problem is there. soldiers hack away at a dense mass of plastic waste. it's hard to believe, but this is actually a river, and they're trying to clear it up. you can just see the water — underneath all the bags, containers and bottles. this is bandung, one of many indonesian cities choking in so much waste that the army's been called in. for the military, plastic is a new and strange kind of enemy. this looks like a rubbish dump — it certainly smells like one — but what's striking is that this massive accumulation of plastic is happening on indonesia's rivers, despite the country making a huge

effort for several years now to tackle it. itjust shows you the staggering scale of the problem. all the time that the soldiers are at work, the flow of the river brings yet more plastic waste. it's a constant struggle for the officials in charge. do you think you're winning this battle against the plastic? i think so, yeah. we have to win. if not, this is very dangerous for our life. but how long will it take you? i'm sure within ten years. within ten years, you could clear everything up? yes. while we're filming, the soldiers realise they don't have enough trucks to carry away the waste. so, they use a diggerjust to push it downstream. it's not exactly a long—term solution and the plastic floats away to become someone else's problem. right beside the river, another nightmare sight — incinerators openly burning plastic.

a desolate scene, as children stand in the path of the toxic fumes. this is illegal, but the authorities turn a blind eye because it does do something to reduce the mountain of waste, and campaigners say everyone must take responsibility. we need to solve the problem. at the same time, we need to also to convince people that we're doing something about this. we're notjust staying still, but we're solving the problem also. and part of that problem is that this landfill site is the only one bandung has. the convoys of rubbish trucks collect just a fraction of the waste generated by several million people in the city. a new load is dumped. flies swarm in the tropical heat. people rush to be first to search the rubbish. it's incredibly risky. dodging an excavator.

someone died here recently. but ironically, they're after the very things that most people want to get rid of. a plastic bottle. 500 people make a living on the dump, including this woman and her children. i ask her how. people are looking for plastic, she says. it can be sold. the other rubbish has no value. so, toiling in the foul conditions does bring in some cash. plastic, by the sackload, is sold to companies that use it to make new products. the challenge is getting everyone to see that there is value in plastic. little by little, the message is spreading that recycling can create an income. in a village outside the city, this scheme is tiny, but it's one of many.

and separating the different types of plastic earns a higher price. experts say that a culture of just throwing things away is now changing. i think particularly young people here are very much aware of, er, of that they don't want to be part of this problem, and they want to have a future that is at least a plastic—free environment. so, they're working hard for that. we... . t. . u... t t”... z...