this is bbc news. i'm lukwesa burak. the headlines at 2. the us defence secretary warns china over its deployment of missiles in disputed areas of the south china sea. despite china's claims to the country, the placement of these weapons systems is tied directly to military use for the purposes of intimidation and coercion. visa says its services are now operating at full capacity — after customers across europe were left unable to make payments. spain's new prime minister has been sworn in, after leading the coalition which forced mariano rajoy out of office yesterday. also in the next hour — the latest on the recent disruption on the railways. the industry pledges to get its services in the north back on track as soon as possible. the bbc learns that a police investigation into the attempted murder of norman scott during the jeremy thorpe scandal is to be re—opened as police say hit man andrew newton may still be alive.

and at 230 — ‘extra time‘ interviews the south african olympic gold winning swimmer chad le clos. good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. the united states has accused china of ‘intimidating' its neighbours by continuing a military build—up in the south china sea. james mattis, the defense secretary, said china was using its military might to coerce other countries in the region to accept its ownership of the disputed waters. he was speaking at a security summit in singapore. president trump is due to meet with north korea's kimjong—un there in 10 days time. from singapore, karishma vas—wami has just sent this report. the us is here to stay in asia,

that's the message us defense secretary james mattis had for his asian counterparts in singapore today. but he also warned of china's increasing influence. china's militarisation of artificial features in the south china sea includes the deployment of anti—ship missiles, surface to air missiles, electronicjammers and the landing of bomber aircraft at woody island. despite their claims to the contrary, the placement of these weapons systems is tied directly to military use for the purposes of intimidation and coercion. china says it owns all of the south china sea, a lucrative and strategic shipping zone, even though six other countries lay claim to it. it's been building military installations in the area, and critics say beijing has silenced condemnation of its actions, either by paying off its asian allies or by bullying them, allegations china denies.

translation: it is within china's sovereignty to deploy troops and weapons on islands and reefs in the south china sea. it is allowed by international law. anyone making comments on this is trying to interfere in china's internal affairs. it's not worthy of refuting. but while the us is keen to assert its leadership in asia, president trump's america first policies are sometimes incompatible with those goals. in singapore, security is being stepped up, because in just ten days' time this city plays host to the summit of the century. the meeting between president trump and north korea's leader kim jong—un. the us has said it is committed to denuclearisation, and that pulling us troops out of this region isn't on the table. america is positioning itself as a force to be reckoned with in asia, and the superpower its asian allies should stick to.

karishma vaswami, bbc news, singapore. more on that upcoming summit in singapore. our correspondent, hywel griffith is in seoul. he says the south korean government is looking forward to the meeting between president trump and kimjong—un. the news that the summit is back on again has been welcomed here in seoul. a spokesman for the south korean government saying they await that moment on the 12th of june with excitement. they will also have been reading between the lines in terms of what donald trump said in the white house, particularly the idea that this will become a process and not everything will be done on a deal in singapore. and, vitally, he seemed to shy away from the issue of denuclearisation and what exactly that would mean, suggesting maybe that the gap between the us‘s demand for clear, irreversible, verifiable denuclearisation is still some way away from what north korea wants as stage by stage.

they will, however, have taken heart from the idea that a peace treaty could be part of the summit, an end officially to the war between north and south. the stalemate has lasted 65 years. meanwhile, here in the korean peninsula, south has been talking to north. they have had their own talks about cooperation in the future, about economic ties. one other piece of good news that has come to seoul are the words from america's defence secretary. now, he is in a defence summit in singapore already and he said that there will be no move to pull us troops out of this region as a result of the singapore summit. the security of the region, which at the moment depends on the us, is maintained, for the medium term at least, and obviously that prospect of a longer term peace is now hanging before us all with the summit on the 12th ofjune. visa's payment system is now operating at "full ca pacity" — following widespread disruption to card payments across the uk

and europe yesterday. the company says the problems were down to a ‘hardware failure‘ and has apologised to customers. payments processed through visa‘s systems account for one third of all uk spending. john mcmanus reports. visa says its high—tech payment system can handle 65,000 transactions per second, but on friday that boast fell flat as cardholders in the uk and across europe found their plastic simply wouldn‘t work. the problem began in the afternoon, appearing to largely affect electronic payments rather than cash machine withdrawals. many shoppers took to social media to complain, with the company forced to apologise. these people in droitwich said it wasn‘t just customers who were caught out. you can tell the staff are on tenterhooks, the manager‘sjumping and down. he‘s being a bit firm with his staff because it‘s territory they‘re not used to being in i think.

there was a couple in front of us, and we hear that all the cashpoints there... all the cards were down, and apparently it was all over the world. so i was, like, panicking. i've just gone on to barclays bank and drew some money out. payment processing through visa systems accounts for £1 of every £3 of all uk spending, that adds up to a lot of unhappy customers. by friday night, the company said their cards were now largely working at normal levels and that the "issue was the result of a hardware failure. we have no reason to believe this was associated with any unauthorised access or malicious event." as a nation, we‘re using cards more than ever. that‘s why friday‘s events left so many of us frustrated. but experts say it would be wise to have some back—up payment optionsjust in case, that‘s cash to you and me. the consumer group which has warned people to be wary of any phone calls or e—mails about the visa problems. they mayjust be fraudsters trying to use the event

to gain your personal details. john mcmanus, bbc news. earlier we spoke to paul lewis, presenter of bbc radio 4‘s moneybox, about what visa has been saying this morning, and whether card holders could be eligible for compensation. i‘m saying to people, don‘tjust have ca rd i‘m saying to people, don‘tjust have card girlfriend different banks, have a mastercard and i visa ca rd banks, have a mastercard and i visa card —— just have cards from two different banks. i barely take 20 quid out with me but you have to have enough to get you to the next few hours in case something happens. there is the issue of compensation because people have been losing money, going to extra expense and small businesses have lost money. visa have apologised but will that turn into cash for those who have lost money? the new prime minister of spain, pedro sanchez, has officially been sworn into office today by king felipe in madrid. the ceremony comes less than 2a hours after his predecessor,

mariano rajoy, was forced out of office. gavin lee has been following events in madrid. the new spanish prime minister pedro sanchez has brought about a political first in the past 2a hours, engineering a motion of no—confidence against mariano rajoy, the man who seemed unshakeable, even a week ago. the fact he survived as the people‘s party prime minister, attempts for his resignation, people calling for it, a no—confidence motionjust a year ago, and he got enough, pedro sanchez, enough people behind him to support that motion. what happened today? a short while ago, there was a brief formal ceremony, the swearing—in process at the royal palace on the outskirts of madrid. the victor stood side by side with the ousted former prime minister in that formal passing over of the role. and another political first, while pedro sanchez swore an oath on the constitution,

he asked for the bible and crucifix not to be present. he is an atheist prime minister. the first that spain has had in its history. he has spoken about the importance of not having religion in education. he will announce his government in the next few days. there are six other parties who have made demands on the prime minister, saying they have supported his motion and they want something in return, including catalan and basque nationalists. it has been dubbed the frankenstein coalition by critics. he wants to rule for two years and bring in sweeping changes, keeping to the budget, but there are questions about how long this government will last. a 43—year—old man has been charged in connection with the attempted murder of two police officers. constables kenny mckenzie and laura sayers were stabbed as they attended a routine visit at a house in greenock yesterday. they‘re due to be discharged from hospital today. the united states has vetoed a un

security council resolution calling for protection for palestinians in gaza and the west bank, following the deaths of more than 100 people during recent violent protests. the us ambassador to the un, nikki haley, said it was because the resolution failed to mention hamas — which israel views as a terrorist organisation. britain abstained in the vote. google is reported to be pulling out of a contract to do artificial intelligence work for the us defense department — following opposition within the technology giant‘s own workforce. some employees resigned and thousands of others signed a protest petition saying it was the first step towards using artificial intelligence for lethal purposes. google‘s work is said to have involved helping the military identify people from drone footage. the rail industry has pledged to get train services in the north of england back on track as quickly as possible, following days of disruption.

northern has announced it will be running an emergency timetable until the end ofjuly, with 165 services scrapped. peter marshall has been speaking to passengers in the lake district. replacement buses have been doing brisk service at the start of the lakes line, oxenholme station near kendall, because trains are few and far between. it‘s a bit hard for us, being a bit disabled. a long journey ahead of us, we can do without the extra hour that it's cost us. the majority of services between oxenholme and windermere were cancelled yesterday. for passengers like nick hay, trying to get home to liverpool after a family break in windermere, it‘s frustrating. i think it‘s absolutely scandalous. you can see there people here with prams, dogs, we‘re not getting all the help. anybody here? nowhere. and this could go on for weeks on this line in particular? i believe so, yes. i think it‘s scandalous, something needs to be done about it.

businesses in the lake district rely on visitors coming back time and time again. anything which affects that, like a poor rail connection, is worrying. if people aren‘t having the type of quality visitor experience that they deserve, then that‘s going to be the legacy. that‘s what they‘re going to remember. not the fantastic scenery, not the great visitor attractions, all let down by something outside our control. tourism leaders fear poor rail services could do long—term damage to the lake district‘s reputation around the world. to be let down at that very first point of contact with the county, to come out of that station and to not be able to have that smooth onward journey is just unacceptable. and now there‘s confirmation from northern that for an initial two—week period from monday, all lake line services are to be removed and replaced with a bus service, as it struggles to cope with timetable changes and driver shortages. those who rely on the rail link

have another suggestion. i would like to see this line taken out of the northern franchise and operated by a prudent operator. whether that‘s initially the government as they‘re doing on the east coast mainline. northern has apologised for the disruption and says it‘s doing all it can to improve the situation quickly. peter marshall, bbc news, oxenholme. a little earlier our correspondent, olivia richwald, gave us this update from wakefield station in west yorkshire. 165 trains cancelled everyday across the northern network starting on monday until the end ofjuly, that is the new emergency timetable which has been brought in to bring to an end a couple of weeks of chaos following the introduction of new timetables. yesterday there were 350 trains cancelled across the northern network which is one of the worst affected operators, and today i spoken to a spokesman for the

operator and they say in wakefield and in yorkshire it is an improving picture and things are getting back to normal but they are still major problems in greater manchester, especially in manchester and blackpool, that is where drivers have not been trained on the new timetables which is causing these problems. northern ireland has apologised again and promised it will deliver improvements but it may ta ke will deliver improvements but it may take some time —— northern rail. the houses of parliament are supposed to be debating this debacle next week. the headlines on bbc news: the us defence secretary warns china over its deployment of missiles in disputed areas of the south china sea. visa says its services are now operating at full capacity — after customers across europe were left unable to make payments. spain‘s new prime minister has been sworn in, after leading the coalition which forced mariano rajoy out of office yesterday

five people have now died in an e coli outbreak in the us. a total of 197 cases across 35 states have been reported in the largest us outbreak since 2006. the contaminated food is believed to be romaine lettuce — but an investigation is still ongoing as to its source. earlier, andrew skinner, fellow of the society of food hygiene & technology explained things. the investigation has been going on for around a couple of months and there are still uncertainties in terms of the causes of it. we will come back to that in a moment. let‘s not forget this is a very nasty bacteria. whilst they are many types ofe bacteria. whilst they are many types of e coli, this one, it produces a very nasty toxin and once ingested

it can have some fairly serious effects on the person. it is not just diarrhoea but stomach cramps and it can result in very watery diarrhoea and it can result in blood in the diarrhoea. in very extent cases it can result in kidney failure so this is pretty nasty —— very extreme cases. they need to get back to the source and the course they can be absently certain they have eliminated it and also they can ta ke have eliminated it and also they can take action to make sure it doesn‘t happen again. venezuela has released almost a0 opposition activists who‘d spent months in detention. many of them, however, are still banned from giving interviews, posting material on social media — and from leaving the country. the opposition, which boycotted last month‘s presidential election, has demanded the release of all political prisoners. lebo diseko has more. an invitation for dialogue says the venezuela government, a token

gesture from a dictatorship says its critics. this is the first to 39 opposition activists to be released shortly before being allowed to go home. translation: we formally announced the beginning of this process and we will gradually announce more measures of this nature. one person who was not released was this man, lopez, one of the most vocal critics of the president, he is pictured here on house arrest before being taken by police and placed in detention. venezuela is in crisis, last year there were months of running street battles between and opposition protesters, angry about changes to the constitution. it is facing tough sanctions from the us, eu and canada as well as neighbouring countries who say they are concerned about democracy. its economy is on its knees meaning queueing forfood and basic necessities is a daily

reality. the opposition boycotted the recent election which saw the president voted in for another six yea rs, president voted in for another six years, and he promised to free some political opponents to overcome the wounds left by last year‘s protests but as his country teeters on the brink of collapse more work may need to be done to heal its bitter divide. the bbc has learned that an investigation into the attempted murder of norman scott is to be re—opened — as police concede they may have wrongly concluded that andrew newton — a hitman allegedly hired to kill him — was dead. scott was an ex—lover of former liberal party leader, jeremy thorpe, at a time when homosexuality was illegal. the story has been bought to life in the bbc one drama, a very english scandal, which concludes tomorrow evening. jon donnison reports. jeremy thorpe, charming, ambitious and powerful, was at the heart of one of the biggest political scandals

of the 20th century. in an old bailey trial, the married liberal party leader was accused but acquitted of masterminding a plot to kill his former lover, norman scott. he was the love of my life. don't be ridiculous. a current bbc drama starring hugh grant as thorpe has renewed interest in the case. safe journey, peter, and i wish you a happy life. and then i wish norman scott to be killed. but what is fiction and what is fact? this weekend a new bbc documentary will make fresh revelations. it‘s based on a panorama film made at the time of the trial in 1979, which has never been broadcast until now. it couldn‘t be shown because we had evidence ofjeremy thorpe‘s guilt. and, of course, he was found not guilty. so the documentary couldn‘t be shown, and furthermore i was ordered to destroy it by the director—general of the bbc.

i declined that offer. i kept it as a tape, i converted it to disc. my dog tried to eat the disc but i still managed to save it, and that‘s what‘s running tomorrow night. the documentary will look at the role of andrew newton, portrayed here in the bbc drama. he‘s the man who has admitted shooting norman scott‘s dog, before his gun jammed as he tried to shoot scott. newton said he was paid to do it. in 2015 gwent police began looking into the case again, after fresh claims that newton could prove there was a cover—up. but officers stopped when they concluded newton was dead. now, gwent police have told the bbc andrew newton might still be alive, and are trying to trace him. norman scott, now in his late 70s, has welcomed the news. i don‘t think anybody has tried hard enough to look for him. i really don‘t. there must be people who knew him, and there would surely be

a record of him dying. surely. jeremy thorpe died four years ago, but the case continues to fascinate, and the intrigue and the hunt for the truth continues. jon donnison, bbc news. earlier we heard from panorama‘s reporter, tom mangold — who you just saw in that report. he explained why he thinks the case should be reopened. the new evidence we have uncovered is from a man called dennis meehan, who told me he was part of the original conspiracy to murder norman scott, and that he, meehan, andrew newton, remember the guy who shot rinka, scott‘s dog, and a member of the liberal party, conspired at the ritz cafe in shepherd‘s bush to murder norman scott. meehan was the first person who was hired as the hitman. he went down to barnstaple to kill scott, lost his nerve at the last moment, gave the gun to newton

and the rest is history. meehan made a full confession to scotland yard detectives about this. way back in the 70s. that full confession was subsequently disappeared. and in its place meehan was invited to sign a much more anodyne statement which happened not to mention jeremy thorpe or the fact that he, meehan, had gone down to kill norman. of course, meehan was anxious to sign it. as the result of my revelation on that, gwent police were invited to conduct an investigation into these allegations. the investigation lasted a year, and i‘m afraid it has been a bit ineffectual, because they said, we cannot proceed with this because andrew newton, the third member, is dead. sadly, they have now had to revise their opinion because they don‘t think andrew newton is dead. it seems to me the investigation

must start again because my guess is, when i knew newton, he was a fit young man, and i would not be surprised at all if he is still alive. the jeremy thorpe scandal is on bbc four this sunday at 10pm. it‘s the sport in which the passenger gets a rough ride. sidecar—cross will change all you thought you knew about motorbike sidecars. the british championship continues this month and mike bushell has been to hampshire, to meet the team for whom this unique style of racing is a family affair. it is not a typical way for a dad to spend time with his daughter at the weekend but this bone crunching sport will shake up much of what you thought that you knew about sidecars which were originally popular as cheap alternatives to the motorcar. it‘s brilliant.

where else can you spend an entire day with your teenage daughter and really enjoy yourselves? off the track dad is in charge but on the track i'm in charge. we shout at each other occasionally. she sometimes tells me because i‘m going too fast or hit a bump too hard but it works really well. this could not be more different than the traditional image of a sidecar. it‘s sidecar cross and the passengers are not just there for the ride. in sidecar cross the passenger is in the most precarious position, throwing their weight around on the back. brian and his daughter spent years watching until clarissa suggested forming a team. the first time we took it out for a run and started it up we drove into a tree within ten seconds! did you think he‘s mad to do it?

kind of. we did have a few scares, especially at the start with all the noise and the others with you, but it's great. it‘s notjust beginners who come a cropper, there is often carnage around every corner. it's painful. you spend a whole race behind someone and your face can become numb because of the stones hitting you, you can have a fat lip, bleeding gums, and i thoroughly enjoy that! not exactly what i want to hear before my first lap as a passenger! it‘s all about transferring your weight. you have to switch over suddenly and take a seat like that. what do you need to be a good passenger? more fitness and strength. i‘m not massively strong in my arms but you‘ve got to be pretty agile and fast moving. this is where i‘ve got to do the work and lean over as brian turns the corner,

over onto my bottom side and transfer the weight through the mud. back to the middle. by the end ofjust one lap, my arms felt locked in position, my knees like jelly. do you want yourjob back? it‘s all yours! i can see what you do now, congratulations. footage has emerged of the moment a plane was forced to make an emergency landing on a busy street. a student pilot dodged power lines and traffic to bring the cessna down safely. local media in los angeles said the pilot was the only person on board at the time. the plane was reportedly heading towardsjohn wayne airport, in santa ana — when it began to experience engine troubles. luckily there are no reports of injuries or damage. the cult comedy father ted is set

to return as a musical. the co—creator of the sitcom that ran on channel 4 said the show was almost written. the show ran for three series from 1995 to 1998, and chronicled the escapades of irish parish priest father ted crilly. and now we have the weather forecast. good afternoon. a few storms around, areas of rain, more in the northern half, with sunny skies in the south. rain in northern england and a few showers in northern ireland and you can see the slow—moving downpours inland across scotland. round the coast, pretty warm, 25 in london, and wales and

the midlands, southern wales, enjoying dry weather and very warm sunshine. storms to end the day further north, baby east anglia, as well, but most of them will fade away overnight —— may be. missed and fog patches and temperatures 10—13 overnight. cloudy tomorrow, central and southern scotland, sunny spells to the north of scotland and northern ireland, maybe if you storms, —— maybe a few storms, but more sunshine for england and wales. maybe the odd shower but most places will be dry and maybe a bit warmer than today. as we head into next week, central and eastern parts of england, more of that, but few are heavy and thundery showers.