what we have been up to on facebook and twitter and bbc click. but for now, thank you for watching. hello — this is breakfast, naga munchetty and charlie stayt. the search begins for two british tourists kidnapped at gunpoint in the democratic republic of congo. they were taken while they were visiting a national park — a park ranger who was with them was killed. good morning — it's saturday 12th may. also this morning: america promises to help rebuild

north korea's economy if it agrees to give up its nuclear weapons, more than 50 mps call for urgent action to improve mobile phone coverage in the countryside. in sport, kyle edmund's winning run on clay is over, he's knocked out of the madrid masters, by denis shapovalov but will still be in the world's top 20 for the first time come monday. and i'll be trying out the sport the needs a good suit of armour and a brave heart — but please don't try this at home. this is how it's looking in shrophire this morning at telford's balloon and kite festival. stav has the weather for the rest of the uk. good morning to you. competitor last holiday weekend, this weekend is looking a lot cooler, but more unsettled. some

rain in the forecast but also sunshine. british diplomats say they're working with authorities in the democratic republic of congo, after two british tourists were kidnapped at gunpoint in the east of the country. the pair were among three people who were taken by armed men at the virunga national park conservation area. the director of the park said a ranger who was in a vehicle with the tourists was killed. the bbc‘s louise dewast is in the congolese capital, kinshasa. just take us through what the latest information is. good morning. the situation is very serious. the attack happened as you said in virunga national park which is not too far from uganda and rwanda. it's a world heritage site known for its mountain gorillas but also a place where there are armed groups operating in and around the park. there have been kidnappings there before and the park spokesman

confirmed that two british nationals had been kidnapped and arranger had been killed in the attack and we are learning a driver of the car may have been found. the situation here this morning is very much fluid. tell us about some of the problems that have happened in that area. this is a very complex region of conroe. conflict is rife in the country but in the region in particular. experts believe there are two 70 different armed militias operating in eastern congo. we don't know how many do exactly are operating in and around. but as i mentioned, kidnaps are happening before. children have been reported to have been kidnapped so the situation is very difficult here at

the moment. america says it will help north korea to rebuild its economy, if it agrees to give up its nuclear weapons. the us secretary of state mike pompeo made the remarks after meeting his south korean counterpart. president trump and kim jong un are due to meet for talks next month. rajini vaydya nathan reports. another step towards the historic summit between america and north korea as us secretary of state mike pompeo welcomed his south korean counterpart to washington. both countries have a shared goal of what they want from pyongyang. if north korea takes bold action, the united states is prepared to work with north korea to achieve prosperity on a par with our south korean friends. it's been a whirlwind week for mr pompeo. on monday night, flew to north korea where he met with kimjong—un. he returned on thursday with three americans who had been detained by pyongyang. his boss, president trump, was there to welcome the freed

prisoners back to american soil. for a president whose style of diplomacy isn't to everyone's taste, it's been quite a turnaround. the north korean leader, wants the pariah, now the recipient of praise. kim jong—un did a great service to himself, to his country by doing this. and remember, it's only been eight months since he described him as "little rocket man". speaking to a crowd in indiana, the president was full of optimism for the planned summit. the two men will come face to face in a months time in singapore and for president trump, the stakes couldn't be higher. rajini vaydyanathan, bbc news. countryside campaigners are calling for action

on what they say is an appalling lack of progress in improving mobile phone coverage in rural areas. they've been backed by more than 50 mp5, who've accused mobile operators of failing to put up new masts, despite help from government. jon donnison reports. these days, life without your mobile, for many, seems almost unimaginable. but in some parts of rural britain, it remains a reality. the communications regulator 0fcom says only 57% of people living i think ithinki i thinkl in premises in rural areas are able to make phone calls on all four mobile networks. that compares to 90% in urban areas. now 50 rural mps have written to the secretary of state for digital culture, media and sport, matt hancock, calling for urgent action to change that. they want legally binding targets to force mobile operators to improve coverage. but the operators say they are investing millions of pounds in rural areas but that

planning applications the new mobile phone masts are often rejected by local people. the government says mobile phone coverage is improving but that it is already changed planning laws to make it easier to put up new masts. it says the mobile companies now need to respond to those changes and act fast to increase coverage in rural areas. jon donnison, bbc news. downing street says the prime minister has re—iterated to donald trump that the uk remains committed to the iran nuclear deal. in a telephone conversation last night, theresa may said the agreement remained the best way to stop tehran from developing a nuclear weapon. here's our political correspondent, chris mason. this telephone call serves to emphasise the wedge that now exists between the uk and america, between washington and europe, over this whole question of a deal

that was done with iran three years ago. the uk and the us were signatories, amongst others, and the idea was iran would curb its nuclear ambitions in return for an easing of sanctions but president trump has argued for a while that he thought the deal was a dud. he said on tuesday the us was withdrawing from it but in this telephone call last night, the prime minister emphasised the uk would maintain its position alongside its european partners in standing up for this deal and also stressed her concern about the potential impact on british businesses who do business in iran and could be hit by this new wave of us sanctions. what's intriguing is that we have learned all of this from downing street. a spokesman for downing street giving us a sense of this telephone call. a spokesman for the white house who had seen the same conversation going on did acknowledge that yes, the two leaders had talked about iran but made no reference whatsoever to this big

disagreement on policy. worth also mentioning president trump coming to the uk on a visit in a couple of months time. real wages are still below where they were before the financial crisis, according to a new report. the trades union congress has found that workers in britain are experiencing the longest squeeze in real incomes in modern history. our business correspondent, joe lynam has more. more of us are at work than ever before and real wages are finally rising again. that means our spending power in the shops is going up but, according to the trades union congress, we are still poorer than we were a decade ago. using official data, the tuc found that real wages, which takes account of inflation, went up by 27% in the decade before the financial crisis of 2008 but in the last 10 years, they have fallen by 4%. it says the average worker will have lost around £18,500 in real earnings by 2025.

the tuc, which is holding a demonstration in london today, is calling for a new deal for workers and public services. working people are now suffering the longest pay squeeze in 200 years. on average, workers worse off in real terms, £24 a week. and of course it's going to take until 2025 until they get back to where they were before the financial crash. that's pretty shocking. but the government said the new higher and national living wage had boosted pay for the lowest earners by £2,000 already. it said that it had cut taxes and was making sure people had the skills they needed to secure high—quality, well—paid jobs. joe lynam, bbc news. nasa is sending a helicopter that's not much bigger than a tennis ball to mars. the " roverco pter" is designed for the planet's ultra—thin atmosphere and will be launched in two years. its four blades will spin io—times faster than a standard helicopter. nasa should have been in touch with

me, diddycopter is a much better name. get in touch and let me know what you think. a reliable mobile phone signals something many of us take for granted, but in rural areas it's a very different story. mps have accused providers of failing to improve their signals in the countryside. in return, the phone companies say there's often opposition when they announce plans to put up a new mast. let's talk about this to ruth george, mp for high peak in derbyshire, and mark bridgeman from the country, land and business association which has 30,000 members across england and wales. good morning to you both. my constituents have had this problem ongoing prolonged time. now we see

for gm even five g coverage rolling out across urban areas. most of the providers don't have coverage across my whole area. they can go to one area of the other with different signals. the mobile phone providers say they are building that something will don't want masts in certain areas. we've seen very little of that. i've only had complaints about one of them which was blocking the line of vision on a corner on the road but most of the masts, when you have people walking, driving in country areas, it's really important that they have a mobile signal so that they have a mobile signal so

that they have a mobile signal so that they need emergency services help, they can get hold of them. how do you analyse the scale of the problem? if you look at the government dato, ag, you get about 90% but in rural areas, it's about 50%. you mention masts, we did a freedom of information search to see how many applications were going forward. we can't do it, it's too expensive, we can't get permission. we got some staggering results. in rutland, weather is 3% of households getting all four networks, not a single application has gone in over the last few years. these are private companies responsible to their shareholders and they need targets to be set. you accept the idea that in some places, is going

to more expensive to have this is doable but more expensive. it's more expensive to put a mast on an urban area. these are remote areas where there is little usage. the only problem with the commercial argument, in one way or another, we all have to pay. if a telephone company has to spend more money to improve the network to these areas and costs go up, one way or another, that has to be paid for. do we all pay a bit more? you think everybody has got used to having such cheap services. ever can have the same service. if you get one provider putting in services. they are on a competitive disadvantage to other providers, who wants making the effort and putting investment into rural areas. they can provide

services more cheaply in urban areas. and it means people in urban areas. and it means people in urban areas are likely to get that network. we see a lot of visitors distressed at the fact that they can't get those signals. do you force the telecoms companies? the government is going to have to put some legally binding targets into the operators. nothing is legally binding and it's going slowly. we are not seeing the applications, the masts going in. they threatened them with roaming in 201a, in france can roam between different networks. they met those targets but life has moved on and we have got more sophisticated phones and it has become part of people 's everyday life, so many things, we

will send you the security code on your mobile number to put it, you know, if you can't, if you don't have it, if you are running a business, if you are visitor, for safety nowadays, you know, if you are a homeworker we farmers working out or, for security, the safety, so they need to set targets, they need to back but targets have been set and they haven't been met. they have met lower targets. we need to move forward because it has become what is required is a higher level of cove rage. is required is a higher level of coverage. and what, what, what you are seeing is the targets they are talking about, not another a—5 years, often, the operator has the ability as they sell more spectrum to put conditions around it. —— 0fcom. what we are talking about this are the conditions to be much more ina this are the conditions to be much more in a race in terms of coverage and timeliness. and sure we will talk about this and other time, feel free to get in touch as well if you haveissues

free to get in touch as well if you have issues in your area, please tell us. here's stav with a look at this morning's weather. we saw it was glorious in telford this morning where there is the balloon festival. is that the kind of whether most of us should expect? to begin with, i think it will be a nice start for many southern and western areas. good sunny spells, quite chilly start at the weekend is looking mixed because eastern areas will be rain. it will start in the south and affect the eastern side of the country tonight so a wet start for some on sunday. i love these weather pictures coming through the sunshine. but was from cornwall. . mraround sunshine. but was from cornwall. . mr around here sunshine. but was from cornwall. . mraround here in sunshine. but was from cornwall. . mr around here in central wales. —— some missed. rhien is moving northwards across the north—east of scotland. we look to the south, the rain is moving up from the near continent which will push into the southern parts of the country later this morning into the afternoon and across into the south—east, some bursts of rain and some into the

south—west as well but will move perhaps in the south wales later. the odd shower developing across northern ireland. apart from that it is dry, not bad in the sunshine, the high teens celsius will be your top temperature, pretty pleasant in the strong sunshine. the rain across the south, particularly the south—east, the this evening, it pushes its way northward, it could be heavy in places. becoming more widespread, pushing on in the eastern scotland is the night goes on. and a bit further westwards, some uncertainty how far it will come. it is looking driver much of western scotland, northern ireland, wales and the south—west of england. cooler here, slightly less cold here because of the rain and cloud cover but it means there will be a miserable start the thunder across the eastern side of the country with heavy burst of rain, poor road conditions if you are heading out, but an improvement across the south—east of the country into the afternoon with a brain becoming confined to the far

north—east of england, east and north—east of england, east and north—east scotland, elsewhere some sunny spells breaking through the cloud but fairly fresh for the time being is, the midteens, 16 or 17 maybe. in between weather systems on monday, the ridge of high pressure will start to exert its force. you are settling down as we start next week. plenty of sunshine around. the cloud across western scotland, maybe in the northern ireland, the odd patch of cloud further south. because the wind that will be light, lots of strong sunshine, the temperatures responds nicely, maybe 21 degrees. the new week starts on a fine note, it will warm up a little, perhaps cooling down later in the wa ke perhaps cooling down later in the wake of the pick of the northerly winds. thank you! we're in telford this morning, the shropshire town that's celebrating its 50th birthday. to mark the occasion, residents are taking to the skies with hot—air balloons and flying giant kites. 0ur reporter fiona lamdin is there. what can you see now? fiona, it must be marvellous.

fiona, it must be marvellousm fiona, it must be marvellous. it is a glorious morning, the sun is shining and the last few balloons are yet to take off. about 18 have already gone this morning. it is to celebrate the 50th anniversary, the 50th birthday. however here and talk to the flight direct to because walloons are pretty rare here. coming over to you, mark, in your hop. before you take off, you fly balloons around europe but it is rare to see them here. it is special to the balloons back in telford. i am originally from telford so i remember a balloon festival being here when i was a teenager, over 20 yea rs here when i was a teenager, over 20 years ago, really special the telford to see the balloons again, good weather this weekend, especially for today, we should get another 20 balloons launched this afternoon with some balloon activity through the day. really looking forward to it. a lot of bullion have

already landed but it has been a good flight, you fat?|i already landed but it has been a good flight, you fat? i had a fantastic flight, you can still see some in the sky. we have had about 20 take off this morning. the balloonists are really happy as well. they are heading towards brighton and costed, beautiful countryside and hopefully the ref over their welcome us with open arms as well. thank you and we will see you later. before this flight over here text the sky, we have been finding out why telford is so famous. i've been told it is roundabouts. the birth of the industrial revolution. and captain webb, the first man to swim across the channel. good morning, richard. morning. tell us why telford is such a great place to live will stop i have been born and bred here and it is amazing, as you said, captain webb, it is named after thomas telford, it is the birthplace of the

industrial revolution, it is 50 yea rs industrial revolution, it is 50 years old. for you, industrial revolution, it is 50 years old. foryou, incredibly industrial revolution, it is 50 years old. for you, incredibly proud moment this morning, seeing the crowd, people coming to see the balloons. what are you so were excited about over the year of celebrations? lots of events and this is special, i remember as a kid seeing many balloons and they have faded away but today people have come to see them, an amazing number of balloons taking off, the night it will be a night—time view of them with their fires. will be a night—time view of them with theirfires. an will be a night—time view of them with their fires. an amazing day to everybody. thank you very much. i think this balloon is ready to take off, quickly before you do what is like flying here? amazing, the of structure a re like flying here? amazing, the of structure are so welcoming, —— the people of shropshire have been so welcoming, it is amazing. what are you looking forward to? the beauty of the countryside, telford is amazing and it is more amazing to go up amazing and it is more amazing to go up in the sky and fly for and

promote their ability which is a disabled charity, and it is approved before a privilege. it might have landed anywhere around here i have ended up with a cup of tea and a sandwich. -- air ability. let's hope that happens this morning. have a brilliant flight. this isjust that happens this morning. have a brilliant flight. this is just one of the things that telford is doing. balloon flight today, street parties, theatres, a whole year of celebrations as they celebrate their 50th year. let's watch it go up. we have got the hazards down there to be have to wait a little bit. it looks glorious, can we finish on the shot from the drones looking down on the scene? doesn't that look spectacular. it is the balloons are gentle giving is about to take off. a glorious sight. imagine being on the grass there looking up. fiona will be back later. we've been telling you this morning about the grandmother who found a horse had been delivered

to her back yard in stoke—on—trent. her 13—year—old granddaughter had seen an advert online, appealing for someone to take the animal so it didn't have to be put to sleep. animal welfare charities say there's a worrying increase in the number of horses they are called out to rescue. david bowles from the rspca is in our london newsroom. good morning. do you know at first glance, this story is almost a bit ofa quirky glance, this story is almost a bit of a quirky story, a grandmother wa kes of a quirky story, a grandmother wakes up to a course in her backyard, whale! but it is a serious message behind it. absolutely. the story contains two worrying things. 0bviously story contains two worrying things. obviously the 13—year—old girl was on the internet looking at free ads and she saw the ad which said that u nless and she saw the ad which said that unless you take this course i am going to kill it. the shoes at 0k, bring it over. the first problem, people buying and selling animals on the internet. —— horse. the rspca is

concerned about that and we need tighter regulations and the other thing is there is a huge symptomatic problem here of a horse crisis, the rspca last year had the like 80,000 horses that it came out to investigate and last year, horses we re investigate and last year, horses were our second highest number of animals that we had to prosecute the cruelty. we have seen over the last two years a huge increase in the number of calls we are getting for horses and the number of horses we have to take in and frankly the rspca is full up at the moment, as are other animal welfare charities and we need to address the problem. we have seen pictures of the horse that was in the grandmother's backyard. his name is with the melbourne andrews. i'm assuming the name has come from the family will stop —— mr melbourne andrews. machining he was in a dire condition? the neighbours were actually calling the inspector who came to get him, the hall is himself with a debate, —— the surie himself was underweight, he wasn't

microchip, and therefore the owner probably broke the law on the welfare rules and the only definitely broken on the microchip in rules —— horse himself. this is the problem we find all the time, time and time again horses have been abandoned a lift in poor condition because essentially, they are worthless. because the market has fallen out of the hall ‘s trade, people are still breeding them, —— horse trade, people don't know what to do with them so they abandon them on different verges, sometimes at the end of the road, although stop feeding them, and that is where we have to come and pick up the pieces. it was a time and we would speak a lot about abandoned pets, dogs and cats. it seems now we are talking about horses, you mentioned breeders but what is attracting people in the first place to think that eight horse is a good pet? obviously, the rspca wants people to have horses if they have the money and the time and they have the money and the time and they know what they are doing.

lastly we re— homed nearly 250 horses and we have nearly 980 horses in ourcare. we horses and we have nearly 980 horses in our care. we want people to re— home horses for us but only if they do their research, they have got the accommodation, they have got the funds because don't forget horses are very expensive, they cost something like 100— £100 a week to look after which cost the rspca something like £100,000 a year to look after but an individual you need to know what you were doing. —— 100-15- need to know what you were doing. —— 100—15— pounds. at the moment people are breeding horses because they think they can make money out of it that they cannot, they are worthless and coming at auction for no money and coming at auction for no money and this is what happened at this point with this poor girl who thought she was doing a favour to this horse obviously clicked on that and the guess i will give it a home and the guess i will give it a home and look at the window and there she suddenly found a course in her backyard and then she did the right thing, she called the rspca and we went and collected it and it is now

being rehabilitated. it is a good ending to what was a sad story. briefly if you will what was the challenge now, where should the laws of the restrictions come? if you set auction houses are being able to sell, owners are going to be irresponsible, where should the owners be then and when it comes to responsibility and safety of the animals? we have got pretty good legislation, we have now got good legislation, we have now got good legislation on horses that have been flight legislation on horses that have been flight raised, in the next month, we have been better written legislation for anyone to have a microchip for their horse —— fly grazed. in this case the horse was not identified the bat is illegal. help lead to the owners and people who are thinking of breeding horses is think very carefully before you do it, if you haven't got a market would you do not know where your horse will go it will cost you money and do not read the horse, needs to be a lot more educational horse owners in the country to stop it otherwise we will see this horse crisis escalate year

on year. david, thank you. coming up in the next half hour: despite our best and worst efforts, the uk hasn't won eurovision for 21 years. spread your love. give all you've got. hold your head up. don't give up. don't give up could be a motto for the uk's attempts to win eurovision. taking place tonight, of course. so, will surie bring the title home tonight? we'll be taking a look at who the favourites are. stay with us, headlines coming up. hello, this is breakfast with naga munchetty and charlie stayt. here's a summary of today's main stories from bbc news. british diplomats say they're

working with authorities in the democratic republic of congo, after two british tourists were kidnapped at gunpoint in the east of the country. the pair were among three people who were taken by armed men at the virunga national park, a vast conservation area known for its endangered mountain gorillas. the director of the park, said a ranger who was in a vehicle with the tourists, was killed. america says it will help north korea to rebuild its economy if it agrees to give up its nuclear weapons. the us secretary of state, mike pompeo, made the remarks after meeting his south korean counterpart. he also said he was confident that washington and pyongyang had a shared understanding of their objectives. president trump and kim jong un are due to meet for talks next month. if chairman kim chooses the right path, there is a future bringing peace and posterity for north korea, the north korean people. america's track record of support for the korean people is second to none. if north korea takes bold action

to quickly denuclearise, the united states is willing to work with north korea to achieve prosperity on a par with our south korean friends. countryside campaigners are calling for action on what they say is an "appalling lack of progress" in improving mobile phone coverage in rural areas. they've been backed by more than 50 mp5, who've accused mobile operators of failing to put up new masts. the government says 91 percent of the uk now has mobile coverage. phone companies say they often face opposition when they want to put up masts on green spaces. downing street says the prime minister has reiterated to donald trump that the uk remains committed to the iran nuclear deal. in a telephone conversation last night, theresa may said the agreement remained the best way to stop tehran from developing a nuclear weapon. earlier this week, mr trump said the us would withdraw from the agreement. motorists are being reminded to expect delays while part

of the m1 motorway is closed over the weekend. junctions 23a to 2a near to east midlands airport will remain shut until tomorrow afternoon. the closure is taking place so that a bridge to be put in place for a new bypass. a motorised garden shed will aim to break a world record on a welsh beach this weekend. this is the shed on wheels that will hope to smash its own 80 miles—an—hour record in carmarthenshire. it's believed to be only road—safe motorised shed in the world and its owner claims it's more powerful than many sports cars. it was good considering the wind resistance. something tells you have

been on one of this. i have been on the world 's fastest sled and the world fastest bathroom. i was in the bath and the inventors sat on the throne, riding along, adapted onto a sidecar. that can go 80 miles an hour. so it was a bath, a toilet and a sink. the sink was where you steered. it went 80 miles an hour. did you do 80 miles an hour? no, i didn't. but that one looks fun. we are struggling to move on to sport. carl edmund has had a fantastic week. novak djokovic. —— kyle adnam. he can conserve his energy to the french open. kyle edmund, says he will take plenty of positives from the madrid 0pen, even though his brilliant run is over. the british number one lost in straight sets to the canadian teenager, denis shapovalov, despite saving a match point in the second set. ghowever, the quarterfinals was the furthest edmund had gone

in madrid and so will break into the world's top 20 next week. and do not adjust your sets — rafael nadal has lost a match on clay. dominic thiem beat him in straight sets, ending a winning streak which stretches back 50 sets. it means roger federer will replace nadal as the world number one. now to the the teams chasing the biggest price in football — a place in the premier league, and it's advantage derby in the first semi—final in the championship playoffs. they beat fulham 1—0 in the first leg at pride park, thanks to cameron jerome's first half header. the second leg is at craven cottage on monday. middlesborough play aston villa tonight in the first leg of the second championship semifinal. livingston are a game away from being promoted to the top division of scottish football. a 1—1 draw at home to dundee united last night saw them progress a—3 on aggregate. alan lithgow‘s goal put the home side on their way. they'll now face the team

finishing second bottom in the scottish premiership. it's european finals weekend in rugby union. leinster play racing 92 later in the final of the champions cup but last night, cardiff blues snatched the second tier european challenge cup from the hands of gloucester with a last—minute penalty. patrick gearey reports. it was agony. but that's what you want. ina it was agony. but that's what you want. in a final, you want something that goes to the wire. 90 seconds to go. somebody's got to win it. the sundappled land of the basque country is, for this weekend, rugby country. new turf for an old rivalry. gloucester v cardiff is 13a years of history and, after eight minutes, got a few seconds of timeless beauty. billy burns to henry trinder, one for the ages. mark atkinson scored again. cardiff blues were chasing this, 1a points down at the break. desperate for a change of direction, here it was. the ball bounced for thomas williams, ricochet rugby. garyn smith then put them in the lead. gloucester had a problem, time for pragmatism and for power. a wrestle for the line,

james hanson over and ahead. into the final minutes, cardiff were desperate now. one more pass, one more sprint. blaine scully‘s try, but gareth anscombe needed the conversion to level the scores. the first kick missed in the match at the worst possible time, but there would be one last chance. cardiff penalty, very last minute — anscombe agasin. a moment of blue steel had stolen the silver. rory mcilroy has missed the cut at the players championship in florida — the tournament dubbed the fifth major. the course at sawgrass is built on the site of an old swamp and there's water all around at the 17th and mclroy found it. annoyingly for him, that left him one over par which doesn't sound too bad, until you realised that the runaway leader, webb simpson, is 16 shots ahead of him. the american also found that water on the 17th but still finished 15—under par for the tournament. lewis hamilton edged ahead

of red bull's daniel riccardo and max verstappen to top second practice ahead of tomorrow's spanish grand prix. there were some high profile spins in barcelona, including verstappen, while his red bull team—mate riccardo came second to hamilton. britain's simon yates still has the overall lead at the giro d'italia after stage 7. ireland's sam bennett won the stage, his first win, in this, one of road cycling's big 3 tours. second tier leigh have knocked super league side salford out of rugby league's challenge cup. promotion—chasing leigh claimed a 22 points to 10 sixth—round victory at the sports village, extending their winning run to 10 matches. over 500 knights are fighting this weekend in the world's biggest medieval combat championship. it was started 20 years ago by historical re—enactors bored with simply playing out scenes from the past. it's the first time the sport has come to the uk and i was drafted in to help team scotland, at scoon palace near perth. from across the known

world, they came hither. ye olde and not quite so olde, ye brave and not quite as brave. the bold and not quite as bold. a force like never before. a chance to keep alive the conflict and culture of the time gone by. but this is no re—enactment. it is a recognised sport with 31 countries here. hello, we're team china! we are obviously re—enacting a period of time in history this is a full contact sport. this is mma in armour. most things are allowed. there are certain places you shouldn't hit. you shouldn't hit the groin

for obvious reasons. you shouldn't hit the back of the knees. you shouldn't twist limbs in an unnatural direction. we don't want bone breaks. we get a few injuries but it's not that bad. 0ther full—contact sports, hockey and rugby and stuff, that is basically the same level of injuries. we do have them but not that common. watching scotland against the not so ye olde usa, it is amazing there aren't more injuries, but it is that thick armour and helmets that protect you. brutal! i can't even watch ufc or anything like that, boxing, i find it too violent. yes! people are coming out. this is ok, you have protection everywhere. you can kick... right. psychologically, it is hard to take a hit sometimes. the main thing is to stay on your feet, because the people who win, the team that wins is the one with the last person standing.

how many times have you been hurt? it looks dangerous. i've never been hurt. never been hurt? just a bruise now and then, more from the armour pinching than the actual hit. that's what i mean, it feels worse than it is. reassured, it was time for me, sir mikealot, to try and fight—a—lot. the tactic was to give a bit of a runaround, until quebec's tallest gladiator came to put a chink in my armour. but i had a cunning plan. hold on for dear life. in the end, a non—contest of course, with andrew from quebec victorious. that wasn't exactly your hardest fight, sir. you were fine, though. some fights go on a lot longer. this outnumbered australian stood his ground against the odds to force a draw against england. and it looks like we both got off lightly. a reminder here that

you shouldn't try this at home. a crestfallen fighter from finland carted off by ye olde paramedics. luckily a precaution — and he's ready to fight another day. i'm glad to say the fighter from finland is fine and will fight again. i was falling in the armour. a couple of things. it's the eurovision song contest tonight and increasingly, it's about more than just the music. the performances these days are increasingly spectacular and for many artists, it's a life—changing experience, as our arts correspondent david sillito has been finding out. good evening, europe! and good morning, australia! hello to the rest of the world! and if there are any submarines passing by. all: hellooo! eurovision. it's a world all of its own and whatever you think of the songs, it certainly knows how to do spectacle these days. # ‘cause i'm way up and i ain't coming down.

# keep taking me higher. and this is where it's all going to be happening tonight and what gets you about this is how big it has become. it has grown like topsy over the years. but at the heart of all of this are very personal stories of many artists who never, ever thought they'd get a chance to be on such a stage. # i'm not your toy. # not your toy. # you stupid boy. # stupid boy. this is netta from israel, and she's one of the front—runners. the song, a rallying cry of female empowerment. butjust getting here has been life—changing for her. i didn't expect to win. i expected to get recognition, to get some gigs to afford my rent. you know, i had a — i had a hard time being me as a child. i was fat. i am fat. sorry, i'm still the same girl.

and i was thinking "how can i be this skinny star? i have to be skinny if i want to be a star. it needs to happen. i will be beautiful when i grow up, i will be skinny and i will perform everywhere." and looking back then — me looking back — and i'm realising i'm the same girl. i look exactly the same. and this is big. this is absolutely — this is big. i feel sexy, i feel pretty, ifeel me. i feel myself. # storms don't last forever. # forever. # give all you've got! of course, it's been 20 years since israel last won.

and for the uk, it's 21. # give all you got. # hold your head up. # through the storm. this year, the bookies have the uk's surie at 200:1. but this is a place for outsiders and for netta, whatever happens on the night, just being here is already a victory. david sillito, bbc news. people have really big parties. especially when i have early shift, iam going especially when i have early shift, i am going to be tucked up in bed. stav, live a little! i enjoyed last year and stav, live a little! i enjoyed last yearandi stav, live a little! i enjoyed last year and i enjoyed the winning song. but we have to be supportive of surie. we do. there will not be the many outdoor events. eastern side of the country this evening on tonight will be pretty wet, i think staying

in front of the tv in doors will be your best bet. this weekend is a mixed one, lots of sunshine, much of southern and central parts of the country. the photograph in essex as you can see shows some country. the photograph in essex as you can see shows some try not too far away across the south coast, starting the season cloud moving in and it will herald some rain. you can see here, showing up on the radar pick two, moving out of front northwards, soon to arrive across the south—east, a few showers developing into the south—west of england as well as the morning wears on. this looks like conditions will be coming downhill through the day. an improvement for the north—east of scotland, the rain clearing in the next two hours. the odd sharp showers and northern ireland but as you can see, could spells of sunshine in the afternoon. all across scotland and northern ireland than yesterday but further south, a few degrees cooler because there is more cloud around. 16 or 17. the rain will start to pep up across the

south—east, it becomes heavy and widespread. it moves northwards. brings it to a western extent, baby parts of the midlands could also see it. it will spread into the north—east of england, eddie just into the south—east of scotland but elsewhere, a dry night with clear spells. sunday morning will be pretty grim across the eastern side of the country. very wet. it looks like conditions will improve across the south—east, the brightness moving into the afternoon and the rain becomes confined to the north—east of england in towards north—eastern scotland but elsewhere, dry and sunny spells, maybe the odd show but i think dry, temperatures reaching the mid teens celsius. conditions get better, typically, after the weekend. this ridge of high—pressure noses in from the south—west, settling things down. of sunshine on monday and cloud across the south, mainly western parts of scotland, and for northern ireland. winds will be

light, strong sunshine, a recipe for a warm afternoon. 19, 20, maybe 21. that is how it will remain on tuesday, possibly warm up. wednesday, with a high pressure, we will see things calling down a little from the north but a fine start to next week apart from a little bit fresher later in the week. acta u2. thank you, stav. we'll be back with the headlines at 8:00. hello, and welcome to newswatch, with me, samir ahmed. as iran hits the headlines, we find out why bbc persian journalists have been targeted by the authorities in tehran. we have breaking news of a serious incident between russia and... and how hoaxes are hijacking bbc branding to circulate fake news online. first, the local elections in england last week provided an incomplete and complicated picture of electoral support but the verdict from bbc news

seemed pretty clear. a disappointing night for labour in the local elections in england as the party makes limited gains and doesn't win some of its key councils. jeremy corbyn‘s party took plymouth from the conservatives but failed to win any of its target councils in london and lost nuneaton and bedworth. the conservatives celebrated london as the party held —— the conservatives celebrate in london as the party held onto their flagship boroughs but lose trafford, their only council in greater manchester. theresa may said overall, it was a good night. it's hard to detect trends in local elections because not all seats are up for grabs and gains and losses have to be weighed against the last time they were contested and the state of the parties then. success or failure also relate, of course, to expectations, but did bbc news raise or at least amplify expectations for the labour party, and then judge their performance a failure for not living up to them? some viewers certainly thought so, with rose doyle writing:

sarah coates sent us this sarcastic version of bbc news headlines, as they sounded to her. and ben lawrence e—mailed: . well, we put those points to bbc news, and they told us: now, president trump's announcement on tuesday that the usa was withdrawing from the nuclear agreement signed by barack 0bama has pushed iran to the top of the news agenda. wednesday's news at ten examined

the impact of that decision with some specialist input. my colleague, rana rahimpour of bbc persian, is with me here in the studio to tell us more about the reaction in tehran. rana? yes, huw. almost three years ago when the nuclear deal was signed, there were... but rana rahimpourand her colleagues have a problem. for the past nine years, bbc persian staff have faced persecution at the hands of the iranian authorities, and that has recently escalated. in march, the bbc made an unprecedented appeal to the united nations to lobby iran to stop harassing its staff on world press freedom day. the campaign continued with a demonstration outside broadcasting house in london. well, jamie angus, the director of the bbc‘s world service group, is here to tell us more. can you summarise first what has been happening with bbc persian journalists? well, ourjournalists who broadcast in farsi to iran are all based here in london and that's primarily because they can't safely return to iran under fear of arrest.

that's gone on for many years now but more worryingly, in recent years, we've had an escalation of that harassment which now applies to their wider families back in iran and in particular to an entirely vexatious national security case brought by one of the revolutionary courts in iran which has seen their families' assets of up to 150 persian service staff effectively frozen, which has been very, very worrisome for them. what are the bbc doing about the situation? we've been running a series of public campaigns to draw attention to the plight of the persian service staff in this regard and we've engaged significantly, as you mention, with the united nations, at the un human rights council in geneva and we'll be continuing that kind of engagement with the un and other bodies during the course of the year. but, of course, it's important that everyone remembers that these journalists have done nothing wrong. they are engaged under the same editorial terms as all other bbc staff who produce our trusted international news and the harassment and collective punishment, if you like, of theirfamilies inside iran

is a really big and significant and worrying step and it's one that we are urging publicly the iranian authorities to reverse as soon as possible. now, we are in a situation with rapidly escalating things going on in the middle east over the nuclear deal and with israel. how is the bbc going to be able to report this all safely? well, of course, the persian service, you know, have their own contacts inside iran and we inform ourselves as to what's happening there, as we've done for a number of years. it is true that some of our english news—gathering colleagues are able to travel to iran on occasion — sometimes in the context of ministerial or other state visits, so lyse doucet and jeremy bowen have travelled to iran in recent years and reported for the english—language output of the bbc. so there has never been a more important time for the kind of understanding of the iranians' story, like you just saw in the clip there, that comes from the world service, the funded iranian service, to reach licence fee—paying audiences here in the uk,

because this is a really crucial time for that story. jamie angus, thank you, and stay with us because we are going to talk about something else now which is the threat to bbc‘s journalism where the danger is not so much to individual employees as to the integrity and reputation of the corporation itself and to the democratic process. we have breaking news of a serious incident between russian and nato forces, near the coast of latvia. this is not a bbc news bulletin, despite the authentic—looking studio. but a video posted on youtube last month and then circulated, minus the fictional dramatisation warning, on whatsapp. the bbc made it clear it was fake but not before it had been widely shared. these are truly extraordinary scenes. russian warships firing directly at us and british forces from nato in what now surely must represent a state of war. and it's not the first time this has happened. lastjuly, a report appeared on social media imitating the bbc‘s focus on africa programme and featuring a bogus survey, falsely showing president kenyatta to be well ahead in the polls for the forthcoming kenyan election.

the programme's editor pointed out the discrepancies. now, at first sight, it could pass for a clip from this programme. but if you look very carefully, you will notice there is a noticeable difference in the programme's branding, focus on africa. this is what the fake news strap looks like and this is what the focus on africa strap actually looks like. and this particular version of fake news is on the increase with another invented survey ahead of a state election in india being shared last week. on monday, the bbc tweeted that it did not in fact come from bbc news. jamie angus is still with me. so there is all kinds of nonsense, we know, being circulated on the internet.

what is it about this material that is so worrying for the bbc? one thing i am particularly concerned about is how material is shared on chat apps, so if a story is published on a regular website like facebook, twitter, it is easily searchable, but chat apps are very difficult to search because they are private and the material almost surfaces once it has already been seen potentially by hundreds of thousands, millions of people. what you think the motives are of people posting videos like that one we showed? it is very interesting. the fake nato—russia confrontation was a perfectly innocent video and when it appeared on youtube as part of a corporate training exercise, it was very clearly labelled as fake, it was clear what it was. but once people strip off and circulate it in chat apps, all of that context gets lost. the other two examples you quoted which are interestingly around elections — something we are noticing more and more — were probably more malicious attempts to influence voting intentions and is something

we are particularly looking out for with big elections in india and nigeria, both sets of national elections, so something we need to look at in world service, when to call these out and when do we just ignore them. the bbc press office does sometimes go public to disassociate itself with some of the hoax stories we have seen, as with the indian one in the past week. why do you notjust ignore it? and what do you choose what to ignore? a difficult balance has to be struck because we very much don't want to draw attention to things which are entirely fictitious and fictitious and bogus and malicious and have not acquired a profile. in these three instances, the reason we did respond is we knew they had circulated really widely, and as you saw from rachel explaining the focus on africa clip, it is not that easy to tell sometimes. they can be quite professionally faked and done, so we are urging audiences when you see bbc material that does not link directly to a bbc app or come from another trusted third party adviser, take care before you share, think about the material before you share, and have the idea it might not always be what it seems.

that is telling viewers what they can do. is there anything else the bbc can do to stop this? we can take legal steps to protect our own brands and copyright but i think what you're seeing from these examples, the proliferation of malicious fake news can take place very quickly and it is often harder for code of slow—moving legal —— kind of of slow—moving legal process to catch up with that, so that is why as a news organisation, we need to take decisions in real—time on whether to college things when we see them coming up. but with things like the whatsapp showed footage, we wonder —— but with things like the whatsapp shared footage, we wonder if there is a connection with trolling, which we have seen. are you worried trust in the bbc brand is being eroded with these incidents? no, actually, i think the fake news conversation around the world remains people to double down and go back to their most trusted news providers, and we know the bbc news brand globally is the most trusted brand so we are reasonably confident overall that audiences will come

back to the brands they trust the most, but what you're seeing is these individual instances where we have to be really careful about protecting our brand and our values and challenging it when they are being misused maliciously. jamie angus, thank you. thank you. thank you for all your comments this week. if you want to share your views on current affairs or even appear on the programme, you can call us on the number on screen or e—mail us at newswatch, you can contact us on twitter, and keep an eye on the website. next week, we won't be appearing on bbc one saturday breakfast as normal because they will be looking forward to a certain high—profile wedding that day, which you may want to contact us about, but you will be able to watch the programme at 8:a5pm on friday evening, an hour later than normal, on the news channel, or catch up with us, of course, on the iplayer. hello, this is breakfast, naga munchetty and charlie stayt. the search begins for two british tourists kidnapped at gunpoint in the democratic republic of congo.

they were taken while they were visiting a national park — a park ranger who was with them was killed. good morning, it's saturday 12th may. also this morning. more than 50 mps call for urgent action to improve mobile phone coverage in the countryside. a horse abandoned in a grandmother's back yard — campaigners say it highlights a growing problem of neglect and abuse by irresponsible owners. in sport, kyle edmund's winning run on clay is over. he's knocked out of the madrid masters by denis shapovalov,