this is bbc news. the headlines at eleven. the polls have closed in local elections across england — more than 4,000 seats are up grabs more than 8000 women have contacted a helpline set up to deal with a failure in the programme to screen for breast cancer. president trump has admitted covering the cost of a pay—out to silence a porn star about an alleged affair, but he insisted no campaign money was used. fierce dust storms in northern india leave more than one hundred people dead and many more injured. good evening and welcome to bbc news. the polls closed an hour ago for this year's local

elections in england. there are nearly 4,400 seats up for grabs across 100 and 50 local authorities and six mayoral elections. it is the first test for the political parties since last year's general election. and chris mason, our political correspondent, is here. he'll be up all night — chris. how significant are these election, do you think? evening to you, ben it sat festival of democracy a fight like this in a smatter of places england. it is real votes in real ballot boxes and people here at westminster obsess about opinion polls, with all of the caveats we have to insert about those methods of testing public opinion, these are real votes, and so offer political parties a snapshot, yes, but a

snapshot of genuine public opinion expressed in a polling station, so, yes, all of the boroughs of london, all 32 had election today, also elections in major cities in newcastle, leeds, manchester and brurm and a good number of plays in urban england, these are seats that predominantly are held by labour, given the geography of where the contests have ta ken given the geography of where the contests have taken place, what is fascinating tonight, ben, is it is worth looking back to when they were last fought. 2014. when you think back to 2014, on one hand it doesn't seem that long ago, on the other hand who was prime minister then? david cameron, nick clegg was deputy prime minister. ed miliband was the wannabe prime minister and ukip‘s nigel farage was prominent on the stage and so were ukip. since then of course, a huge amount has changed. yet a lot of people will have been motivated to vote by

particular local concerns but people will have weighed up national concerns they might have had with each individual political party as well. so fascinating night ahead but a sufficiently long night it will only behalf way through when the sun rises because lots of counting carrying are on tomorrow as well, so we won't have is a full picture until pretty much tomorrow tea time, i suspect, and certainly for the next couple of hour, it he will be a case of cometh the hour cometh the expectation management. parties who hoped to do well saying maybe we wa nt hoped to do well saying maybe we want and maybe the opposite for parties of the opposite inclination. thank you for the moment. we will find out how polls has gone in several areas of the country. we will go to swindon, to dudley, but first let us go to richmond and our correspondent there liz. hello, thank you bench welcome to

twickenham them in stadium, the home of england rug bier, tonight the home of count for the rich and local election, if the story across the rest of london is about the fight between red and blue, then, here in richmond it is about the fight between the liberal democrats, and the conservative this is a council which has flip—flopped between the two for decades a, it has been held though by the conservatives since 2010, and they consolidated their position here in 2014, when the lib dems had a very bad election. but, it is now a big target for the lib dem, as you might expect because the local mp here is vince cable, the lib dem party leader, so a lot, a lot to look forward to tonight, the boxes have come in and counting is well under way here, although the limbs are fairly, they are quite far behind, 15 seats here, last time, to

the conservatives 38, some of the swings they require to improve their situation here are very very small, we are talking about two to 3% for them to take those seat, something interesting that is happening here, is that the limbs are working with the greens and have agreed no to stand in some seats, so a lot of cooperation going on between those two party, as i have said a real target for the limbs, if they do well here they will be able to say they are recovering, they are winning back some of the ground lost post the coalition, if the conservatives manage to hold op, well, depending on what happens in the rest of london they will be able to claim things aren't perhaps so bad as people may have been suggesting, for a look at what is going on outside london, let us speak to paul bar drop in swindon. this is a key contest, be in no doubt. the counting is well under way and a lot of eyes will be on

swindon tonight. the conservatives have the narrowest of majoritieses on this council. if they lose two seats tonight, a third of the cowen ill is being contested, if they lose two they have lost their majority, if labour take four, then this town turns red. so it has been a big push on by the labour party, jeremy corbyn has visited, no less than five times in the last six month, there have been shadow cabinet members down here several time, mps from across the south have been despatched to campaign in swindon don. it means a great deal to them. an interesting point to mention, voter id is being tried out here today, one of the five places in england where they are asking voters to come along with id. here you could bring your poll card, that was acceptable, or alternativistly your drives license or passport, we have heard there have been cases of people being told you haven't got that and asked to go home and get some id. also some a bit of

flexibility being shown, where other people were able to vouch for those who had come to vote without the right form of id. it will be interesting to see what the result of that will be, it will be interesting to see what the result of this count is, they are rattling through it pretty fast, we may have a result by midnight. let's us go to patrick in dudley. welcome to the crystal leisure ce ntre welcome to the crystal leisure centre in dudley. there is nothing leisurely about the atmosphere here, they are cracking on with the counting, very quickly indeed. the tension is palpable because this is one of two key black country local authority, up the road in walsall, labour need three more seats for an overall majority there but here they need just two more to overthrow the conservative minority administration, which theresa may and others have made great play of in the house of commons, indeed she andjeremy in the house of commons, indeed she and jeremy corbyn have been visiting dudley during the course of this very close nip and tuck election

campaign, i very close nip and tuck election campaign, lam very close nip and tuck election campaign, iamjoined very close nip and tuck election campaign, i am joined here very close nip and tuck election campaign, iamjoined here bya seasoned observer of the local political scene matt coal. what are we looking for here in dudley. what we looking for here in dudley. what we are looking for is some sign of how the british public feels about the state of politics, we are here in dudley in the cockpit of british politics because we have got two parties both of which is talking up up parties both of which is talking up up its prospects of taking control ofa up its prospects of taking control of a council that has been a measure of a council that has been a measure of public opinion between elections. ukip polled well here in the base, the last time, in 2014. four years ago ukip got a quarter of the vote and did very well round country, so that vote which has been disintegrating since the referendum is there to be harvested by the labour party. what will determine the result is how many of those votes the main parties can collect and how many of their own people they can get to vote. the big one in they can get to vote. the big one in the midland isn't until tomorrow, the midland isn't until tomorrow, the count in birmingham, what can we

expect there, giving it is an all out election, mass snitch the biggest local authority of all. hewn council but it has undergone huge change, the council has been reduced from 120 to 101, the boundaries have changed and we have had controversy in the last year. another key one to look out for that is also counting this evening, down the road in worcester, again, nip and tuck between labour and the kith, that symbolic city, the city of worcester woman, new labour's conquest of middle england, at the moment there isa middle england, at the moment there is a minority conservative administration but that could go either way. back to you ben. . thank you. than to paul and liz. many thanks to a of you, and we will be back with all our correspondents throughout the evening, finding out how the election results are going,

and we have that results programme for you, with huw edwards and laura kuenssberg from 11.45 tonight. more than 8,000 women have contacted a helpline set up to deal with a failure in the programme to screen for breast cancer. the error — dating back nine years — has meant that around 450,000 women in england could have been affected. up to 270 women — all in their 70s — may have had their lives shortened. tonight the bbc has learnt that two nhs trusts raised concerns about it issues as early as march last year but they were told the problems were a local — not national — matter. here's our health editor hugh pym. rowena, who's 70, is one of those who says she never got any letter offering routine screening, which might have detected her breast cancer sooner.

she was diagnosed in 2016. i hadn't had any communication at all, to ask me to go fora mammogram. when i went to my gp, he said, "have you had any requests?" and i said no, i hadn't. he said, "you should have done". that might well have saved my surgery, saved the nhs money. who's to say? he said, "you should have done". that might well have saved my surgery, saved the nhs money. who's to say? the role of gps in the screening failures has been raised, that they point out they don't run the programme or get involved in sending out letters. they can only react to concerns raised by their patients. gps have said to us that they have had women in the past to have said to them, i think i have missed my screen, but they have rightly and properly said the women, here's the number of the local screening unit, you need to phone up yourself and ask the question, because we have no control and no input into the process. letters like this have been sent to tens of thousands of women who missed a final routine screening. some will be offered a catch—up appointment.

hello, you're through to breast cancer care's helpline. breast cancer charities running helplines said they were extremely busy. 0ne reporting 40 calls in the first 15 minutes this morning, with women wanting to know whether they were affected by what's been called a colossal system failure with breast screening. hundreds of thousands not receiving invitations to have mammograms. it has emerged this evening that in two areas of england, concerns about it problems in breast screening were raised by nhs trusts in march last year. local public health officials passed them on to the it contractor, who said they were localised problems with no national significance. so who exactly knew what and when? in 2016, an it upgrade for the screening programme in england was started. last year, the local concerns emerged. but public health england say it was not untiljanuary this year they were aware it was a national problem. in march, minsters were informed. critics say a swifter response was needed. officials say it couldn't be rushed. we've had an expert advisory group

running with expert clinicians, who have told us they are very clear that women need to have a helpline in place, to have all of these things there and for us to have the complete picture before we go out to them, so that we don't cause them any more anxiety than the current situation is. helen is one of many who want to know who is responsible for the catalogue of errors. her mother ann was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 72 and died two years later. helen remembers her saying she hadn't been called for a screening for a long time before the diagnosis. i think the worst bit is itjust brings back all the grief. it brings back all the grief of losing somebody, with a whole load of questions around could it have been different? could her life have been longer? could her quality of life have been better? because by the time she had the diagnosis, the cancer was well advanced and there was nothing really they could do for her. a brief look at some of the day's other other news stories.

a former official at the houses of parliament has accused the commons speaker, john bercow, of behaviour "unworthy of someone in public office". mr bercow has issued a statement strongly denying the claims. the former official, david leakey — who retired as black rod last year — said he had experienced "intolerable" rudeness from mr bercow. mr bercow‘s spokesman said they were two people who had very different ideas. more than 330 million twitter users worldwide have been urged to change their passwords. the social media network said a glitch had exposed some passwords on its internal computer network. twitter says it has now resolved the issue and there is no indication that any passwords have been stolen or misused. the headlines on bbc news: the polls have closed in local elections in england, there are over 4000 seats up for grabs, as well as as well as six mayoral elections.

more than 8000 women have contacted a helpline set up to deal with a failure in the programme to screen for breast cancer. president trump has admitted covering the cost of a pay—out to silence a porn star about an alleged affair, but he insisted no campaign money was used. donald trump has admitted that he reimbursed his lawyer for buying the silence of a porn star over an alleged affair. mrtrump said the payment of $130,000 — made before the 2016 election — was designed to stop stormy daniels making false accusations. president trump denies having an affair with her, and also denies illegally using money from election campaign funds to pay her off. here's our north america editor, jon sopel. this is the story of the porn star, the president

and the president's personal lawyer. stormy daniels claimed she had a one night fling with donald trump in 2006 but was paid $130,000, ten years later, and just coincidentally, weeks before the presidential election, to buy her silence. the money was handed over by this man, michael cohen, the president's mr fix it, who says he paid her the cash out of a personal account and was never reimbursed by the president. donald trump has always denied the affair and has maintained he knew nothing of the payment. he was asked about it on air force one four weeks ago. but now, that story has been flatly contradicted by former new york mayor rudy giuliani who joined the trump legal team two weeks ago and says the president has paid michael cohen the money. but now, that story has been flatly contradicted by former new york mayor rudy giuliani

who joined the trump legal team two weeks ago and says the president has paid michael cohen the money. he was definitely reimbursed. there is no doubt about it. so why did he say he wasn't? maybe... first of all, if we had to defend this as not being a campaign contribution, i think we can do that. this was for personal reasons. and last night in a separate fox interview he talked about how much the president knew about what was going on. he did not know about the specifics of it as far as i know. but he did know about the general arrangement, that michael would take care of things like this. like i take care of things like this. but today, the president's spokeswoman, who has been happy until now to comment on this, is hiding behind "it's all very complicated legally." when did you know that the president

repaid mr coen for the $130,000? you personally? during the interest view last night. it is hard to avoid conclusion that someone has been lie, is it is the president, is it his personal lawyer michael cohen, or is it rudy giuliani who eames to have tried to put out a fire with can of kerosene, certainly all the state m e nts can of kerosene, certainly all the statements cannot be reconciled. i suppose the bigger question is, does anyone care? certainly past disclosures have done him no harm with supporters but lawyers tend to be less accommodating. today, the president proclaimed a national day of prayer across america, but if he has been willing the stormy daniels saga to go away, the prayers haven't been answered. two teenagers have gone on trial, accused of plotting to kill pupils and teachers at a school in north yorkshire. the prosecution says

the boys wanted to re—enact leeds crown court heard they were planning to use guns and explosives at the school in their hometown of northallerton. but the jury was told that the boys claim it was a fantasy they'd never act upon. british military police have started digging up a river bank in germany to search for the remains of a british soldier's daughter who went missing 36 years ago. two—year—old katrice lee, from hartlepool, was last seen at a supermarket near paderborn in 1981. she had been shopping with her mother when she disappeared. a report about alleged institutional abuse at a mental health ward in denbighshire has found no evidence to support the claims. an inquiry in 2015 was told by relatives that conditions on the tawel van ward near rhyl were like a zoo. but a new investigation has concluded that the evidence it relied on was incomplete. tomos morgan reports. she was vibrant, she

was kind, considerate. you always think your own mother is the best. for six weeks in 2012, joyce elizabeth dickerty was cared for at the tawel fan ward at glan clwyd hospital, north wales. a mental health ward with elderly dementia patients. but from the outset, her children, christine and philip, had concerns about their mother. her bed was by the door and there were lots of beds piled up on top of each other, and a curtain ripped down that was supposed to be hiding, so it was like a store room. she deteriorated quicker than expected, and joyce's family were called in one evening as they were told the mother was about to die. and their experience of what happened that evening still shocks them now, almost six years on. it was chaos. there were people outside with underpants on their head running around naked. they sat outside our door, banging the door. trying to get in.

and of course we were talking about it, how bad it was, not realising at the time that my mum could probably hear all this. she was probably worried about us on her deathbed. after serious concerns were raised a year later, the board closed and the first report launched immediately. it detailed some of the most serious claims of mistreatment ever made within the nhs in wales. today's report by independent health consultants the health and care advisory service is the most comprehensive investigation into the tawel fan ward. it found no evidence of institutional abuse and said the previous evidence in previous reviews was misinterpreted and taken out of context. it goes on to say that overall there was a good standard of care. it does say there were problems across some services and the government at the health board prevented a robust approach to patient safety. i accept that people will find this report a challenge to read, but this whole process has been very, very difficult. but i do hope that when they have got the chance to read it

in depth they will find, as i believe it to be, that this was a really well evidenced—based, substantial piece of investigation. the trust and betsi cadwaladr health board has been damaged in the eyes of some families, like philip and christine. with others feeling that this review has been a whitewash. more than 100 people have been killed and many more have been injured in fierce dust storms that have swept across northern india. many of the dead were sleeping when their houses collapsed, after being struck by intense bursts of lightning and high winds. it was the most intense storm for decades in uttar pradesh and rajasthan. it uprooted trees, flattened crops and killed livestock. and it's thought more storms on their way. storms are on their way. 0ur correspondentjustin rowlatt sent this report. first came the choking dust. huge clouds of it whipped up by winds of up to 80 miles an hour. then came the rain. a torrential downpour.

the storm swept across north india, bringing devastation. electricity pylons were torn down, the arcing cables sparked this ferocious fire. storms are common in india at this time of year, but this one was much bigger and more damaging than had been forecast. as always, it was the poorest who suffered most. many were killed or injured when theirfeeble mud and brick homes collapsed, crushing those inside. there were widespread power cuts. trees and other debris closed roads, making it hard for rescue teams to get to those in need. the indian met office, the country's main weather forecaster, admits that the intensity of the storm took it by surprise. and it had a warning today — this turbulent weather is not over, more storms are on their way. justin rowlatt, bbc news, delhi. the defence secretary, gavin williamson, says he's made

clear to the home office that afghan interpreters for british forces who moved to the uk should be allowed to stay. he described them as brave individuals who had every right to be in the country. it comes after more than 100 and 50 interpreters wrote a letter it comes after more than 150 interpreters wrote a letter to mr williamson demanding a change to the immigration rules. the electric car company tesla has reported its worst ever results, announcing a loss of £523 million in the first three months of the year. the company is striving to produce more cars as questions mount about its financial situation. tesla says it hopes to be profitable in the second half of this year, but only if it can make five thousand of its new model 3 cars every week. theo leggett reports. tesla has already proved that electric cars can be fast, luxurious and have long range, but it hasn't yet shown that it can

make a profit out of them. it's been pouring money into building up its business. and as this chart shows, it's burning through cash at a seemingly ever—increasing rate. and this is a big part of the problem. the new tesla model three. it's meant to be a mass—market electric car, but the company can't yet build enough of them. it's working flat out to increase production. the question is whether it can do it quickly enough. there are a few challenges facing tesla. firstly they're in a race against time. the competition are mobilising with electric models. also incentives have a very finite time period and also they're burning through cash very quickly, and that's a worry to investors. not that tesla's boss elon musk seems worried. during a conference call with financial analysts to discuss the results he even cut off one caller, saying, these questions are so dry they're killing me. that dismissive attitude helped send the company's shares down 4%. for the moment though,

investors are still backing tesla. the company is worth £38 billion. that's more than ford or general motors. but unless it can start making money as well as spending it, it may find the wheels come off its drive to enter the fast lane of the motor industry. theo leggett, bbc news. and that story about after gap interpreters who worked for the british forces in afghanistan. about 150 of them and whether or not they can stay in this country, there has been a consume pain to allow them to stay, the defence secretary gavin williamson saying they should be able to settle in the uk, we have had a statement in from the home 0ffice, had a statement in from the home office, and it says that afghan interpreters who worked for the armed forces and have relocated to the uk will be able to apply for

settle m e nt the uk will be able to apply for settlement free of charge, this is from the home secretary, the new home secretary, and this means that afg ha n interpreters home secretary, and this means that afghan interpreters who have been in the uk for five years will not have to pay the usual fee, which the uk for five years will not have to pay the usualfee, which is £2398, when they are applying for permanent settlement, and the offer will also be open to family members who have been in the uk forfive year, and some quotes from the new home secretary, the local afghan interpreters worked in dangerous situations regularly putting their lives at risk, we have always been clear they will be able to stay in the uk with their families and today i have announced they will be able do this forfree. about 400 former afghan interpreters have relocated to the uk, that is the latest on that from the home 0ffice the latest on that from the home office and we will bring you more on that as it comes in. that's the news — stay with us for the papers and at 1145 —

full coverage of the local election results — that will also be over on bbc one. we will have the results of those also on bbc one. stay tuned for that, but let us check out the weather. here is helen. it was the spots where we sunnier spots where we saw; w . , - . more sunnier spots where we saw—flan; w . , s s more places join in with gu- this a}; it temperatures won't fall as ”a. =: iii—2257‘s: r"?— "' ' as ”a. =: iii—2257‘s: r"?— "' ' more ffff ff 7 t" "t? "w” "t ”a. =: iizzzrf—z: r"?— "' ' more cloud tttt t t t ttt ttttt tttt tt tm; == iizzzrf—‘s s... "' ' more cloud itttt t t t ttt ttttt ttttttt tttt tm; == iizzzrf—‘s s... "' ' more cloud it wont t ttt ttttt tttttt ttt tm; == iizzzrf—‘s s... "' ' more cloud it won't be ttt ttttt tttttt ttt tm; == iizzzrf—‘s s... "' ' more cloud it won't be as t ttttt tttttt ttt have more cloud it won't be as chilly. the cloud will be thick enough for rain towards dawn across

the high land and island of scotland but with the high pressure further south that is settling things down south that is settling things down so more areas will dry in with the dry bright weather. cloud in eastern area, the sunshine comes out at this time of year, it will feel quite warm but towards the north—west it is still cool breezy and at times a little dump —— damp. 17 for belfast and 19 in deerntion it is fairly pleasant. the bank holiday weekend promises more of that dry, warm and sunny weather, the reason is because we will keep high pressure close by, so it is as if the weather hasn't worked out the dates. but there is the high pressure, keeping the weather fronts as bay, the high pressure, keeping the weatherfronts as bay, but the high pressure, keeping the weather fronts as bay, but we still have the south—westerly wind and at times it will pull cloud and rain into the far north—west of scotland in particular, for most of us we are pulling in drier, warmer air, south—easterly wind which should give more sunshine, there will be fair weather cloud mulling round,

the remnant of the weather front we have had today. lengthy spells of sunshine, of warm, sunshine, light winds, coastal sea breezes but to the north—west later on friday into sunday we have this weather front to give heavier bursts of rain. that will be the question mark, how far south that comes, but it looks as if the majority of northern ireland, central southern and eastern scotla nd central southern and eastern scotland will be warm and dry and in england and wales temperatures are building. 25 on sunday, possibly even higher on monday. by monday we are pushing the weather fronts out of the way as the high pressure extends its influence further north. we will see things warming further north. bye for now.