this is bbc news. the headlines. the supermarket chains asda and sainsbury‘s are at an advanced stage talks over a £10 billion merger. unions say they are seeking urgent meetings to any deal doesn't impact jobs. alfie evans, the toddler at the centre of a legal battle over his treatment, has died. hundreds of balloons were released earlier next to order a hospital in liverpool as a tribute to the child. government minister offered their backing to home secretary amber rudd after she apologised for not knowing her department had targets for removing illegal immigrant. more than 30,000 people in the northern spanish city of pamplona protested against a court decision to convict a group of men for sexual abuse rather than rape. it's the third day of demonstrations. now on bbc news, figures for 2017 show that, away

from war zones, mexico is the deadliest place in the world to be a journalist. dying to report is the story of two journalists who risked all to uncover corruption in high places. mexico's drug war continues to claim thousands of lives. among the dying are the journalists telling the stories of the dead and the missing. the killings have muzzled most media, but a small band of brave journalists continue to put their lives on the line. this is culiacan, the drug cartel capital of mexico. mexico's bloody drug war has

lasted over a decade. more than 100,000 people have died since the government launched a crackdown on the drug cartels in 2006. almost 30,000 people were killed in 2017. the dead included politicians, students and journalists. barron is a reporter

with riodoce, a small weekly newspaper in culiacan. while others have stopped reporting the war on their doorstep, riodoce continues to write about the killings, the victims and the corruption. for the past nine months, a small team have been working on an expose that could have major implications. that risk can be deadly. last year, riodoce lost its star columnist, javier valdez. tonight, we honour a man who has refused to be intimidated into silence or self—censorship. javier valdez cardenas

is a brave man. hisjournalism won him international recognition. javier was an inspiration to many in mexico. among them, marcos vizcarra, one of the few journalists still writing about corruption and crime in the city. someone else familiar with the missing and the murders was miroslava breach, a committed investigative reporter. based in chihuahua, another region blighted by the drugs trade, she was killed in march, one of three journalists

murdered that month. patricia mayorga worked closely with miroslava. miroslava was shot in front of her son as she took him to school. her killers left behind a note with a message — "for being a loudmouth". marcos takes us on a tour of the city to see one of the cartel members‘ favourite haunts. back at the newspaper, aaron has heard someone wants to give him some secret documents. the documents detail a series

of money—laundering payments linked to a local crime figure. it's not just the journalists who are running risks. those who share secrets are also putting their lives on the line. marcos takes us to see another part of culiacan. la lomita is a quiet spot,

away from the city bustle. but menace is neverfar away. marcos spots something that makes him nervous — a man with a walkie—talkie. forjavier, living with the knowledge he was a target took a toll on his health. javier hoped his international profile might protect him. his last story was to prove otherwise. priceless, because it's the only copy they have. javier had interviewed the boss of a cartel locked in a bloody turf

war with the main sinaloa cartel. the sinaloa leadership didn't want its main rival to get the publicity. just as the paper went to print, ismael got a phone call. at each drop—off, the gunmen bought up every edition. a few weeks after the story was published, javier was pulled from his car and shot dead. as with miroslava, his killers delivered a message. javier was shot 12 times at 12 o'clock, outside his place of work, riodoce — which means "river12". ismael has something to show us.

it's the first time anyone outside the newspaper has seen the result of their months—long investigation. a vast multi—million dollar money—laundering operation. enough to get you killed. now in hiding, patricia says she will continue to report the stories she and miroslava used to do together. friday, and it's time to put the paper to bed. this week's cover story is marking a key anniversary of the drug war in sinaloa. hello. cast your mind back to the beginning of april, where it was cold, wet, and some of us saw some snow. if you can believe it, the end of the month is going to be very similar. certainly on the cool side, some heavy rain around, strong winds and maybe some transient snow over higher ground, but notjust yet. for the penultimate day of the month, this ridge of high pressure keeping many places mainly dry, with some spells of sunshine.

notice what's happening further south and east. more on that in a moment. a chilly start to sunday in places. fewer showers around, compared to saturday, so many places largely dry, but the cloud that was quite stubborn to go on saturday still lingering through sunday across parts of east and south—east england. here, temperatures struggling to get much above nine or 10 celsius. where we get the sunshine, 11 or 12. allow for a few showers, particularly for northern ireland through the afternoon. later on sunday, this area of rain and strong winds pushes up from france, bringing a very unsettled start to the new week. we could well see some travel disruption in places. heavy rain, strong winds, and perhaps a little bit of transient sleet and snow over higher ground for a time. here is how monday looks in more detail, very wet and miserable start across much of central, southern and eastern england. strong winds, with gusts in places of 50 to 60 mph. further north and west, for northern ireland and scotland, a different sort of day.

some spells of sunshine, temperatures up to 12 to 1a celsius, more like five to seven underneath the cloud and rain. for tuesday, somewhat of a transition day. that rain from monday slowly starting to ease away. a slice of something drier and brighter in between, before something wetter arrives from the west later in the afternoon. temperatures slowly starting to push up a little bit, but still on the cool side along the east coast, where we keep the cloud for longer. then we see another system heading in from the atlantic through wednesday. notice how the isobars start to squeeze together. that's going to strengthen the winds. wet and quite windy again on wednesday. that sweeps east. behind it, we will see some brighter skies but, as we often see in this situation, a few showers starting to push through on a brisk north—westerly wind. that will make it feel quite cool by this stage, particularly for north—western scotland and northern ireland. further south and east, a sign of things recovering as those temperatures start to rise. that's the theme as we go into the early part of may.

an area of high pressure starting to push its way across, settling things down across much of england and wales, but a reversal in fortune, because as we get to the end of next week, something wetter and windier for north—west scotland and down into northern ireland. further south, across much of england and wales, thursday could be a reasonable day. a fair amount of cloud, with some spells of sunshine, and temperatures up to between 15 and 17 celsius, quite a difference from what we started the week with. for the end of next week, rain across more northern parts of the uk, drier but fairly cloudy further south. temperatures will be slowly starting to rise. later next week, as we go into the bank holiday weekend, you can see these orange colours pushing across part of the country. temperatures will be on the rise, but noticed something windier across northern ireland and scotland. for the bank holiday weekend, breezy with some rain at times across scotland and northern ireland. further south, across much and england and wales, more likely to be drier, but it's still a long way away,

so we'll keep you updated over the next few days. that's all from me. a shock move that could shake up britain's grocery market — sainsbury‘s and asda are in advanced talks to merge. the deal between the two supermarket giants would challenge tesco — and could be worth more than £10 billion — but will customers and the competition commission approve? alfie evans, the terminally ill toddler at the centre of a long legal battle about his hospital treatment has died. tens of thousands take to the streets in spain after a court acquits five men of raping a teenager, convicting them of sexual abuse instead. senior tories rally round the home secretary amber rudd, as she faces renewed pressure to resign after the windrush scandal. it's taken an awful long time. he

pats him on the tummy to say well