this is bbc news. i'm reeta chakrabarti. the headlines at seven. the bbc learns that police have reopened an investigation into one of the central figures in the jeremy thorpe scandal of the 1970s. visa says its services are now operating at full capacity — after customers across europe were left unable to make payments. washington says the issue of us troops based in south korea will not be on the agenda at president trump's summit with kimjong—un. the us defence secretary warns china over its deployment of missiles in disputed areas of the south china sea. also in the next hour —— a recovery plan to get train services in the north of england, back on track. northern rail is to run an emergency timetable until the end of next month — to give passengers a degree of certainty and the england football team are currently beating nigeria at wembley — we'll have details of that game and the rest of today's sporting action in sportsday. good evening and

welcome to bbc news. the bbc has learned that an investigation is to be reopened into the attempted murder of norman scott — a former lover of the liberal party leaderjeremy thorpe. it follows an admission by police, that a hitman allegedly hired to kill scott, may not in fact be dead, as previously believed. the story has been brought to life in the bbc one drama a very english scandal, which concludes tomorrow evening. jon donnison reports. where's the head boy? 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's the love of my life. 0h, 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 about thorpe. 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 and kept it as a tape, i converted it to disk, my dog tried to eat the disc

but i stil managed to save it and that is 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 gwint 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 though the police have told the bbc andre newton might still be alive they're not saying why they think he still alive. but say they are trying to trace him. norman scott now in his late 70s has welcomed the new. i don't think anyone has tried hard enough to look

for him. i really don't. there must be people who knew him, and there would surely be 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. john donnison, bbc news. and you can see tom mangold's documentary the jeremy thorpe scandal, on bbc four tomorrow night at 10. visa's payment system is now operating at "full capacity," 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, they have the manager's jumping 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. that's why friday's events left

so many of us frustrated. as a nation, we're using cards more than ever. 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. let's speak to the financial writer, dominic frisby. thank you very urgent forjoining us on bbc news. let's look first of all —— thank you very much forjoining us. —— thank you very much forjoining us. this has given everybody a bit ofa us. this has given everybody a bit of a scare because people are so reliant, how nervous should people be about a three liability?”

reliant, how nervous should people be about a three liability? i think not that nervous. as your reporters pays to have a back—up. what the episode shows is just how dependent the financial system is on payments providers, in particular on two payments providers, visa and mastercard. i think 95% of all credit card transactions in the uk go through these the's network —— visa's network. we have come to use cash less and less in our lives because payment technology is so evil old, but —— so evil old, but it still involves a third party in this case visa, and whereas cache is direct from one person to another and when you are relying on third parties, there's always the risk of failure. so, do you think that people are going to think of carrying more cash as a result of what happened 7 carrying more cash as a result of what happened? they probably will for a bit and then the payment technology will work very well and

people will forget, but then we will start... you know, it is very rare that people are that disappointed about having back—up systems. a lot of people now just about having back—up systems. a lot of people nowjust go out without any cash at all, i know i do, sometimes. bad habits form very quickly. you talked about how reliant we are on third party providers like visa and mastercard. what is the alternative? cash. this is one of the reasons in fact why bitcoin and all of crypto currencies we re bitcoin and all of crypto currencies were invented. they wanted to replicate cache for the internet. if you think of a cash transaction, i have the money in my pocket, i hand it directly to you or whoever i'm paying and that transaction, there is no middleman so the cash transaction empowers its users. as soon transaction empowers its users. as soon as you transaction empowers its users. as soon as you put a middleman in there

the two users are weakened because of dependence on the third—party and fsa this is one of the reason why bitcoin and crypto currencies were invented. they were invented to take out their parties from transactions, transactions direct from me to you over the internet. that is really interesting because many people will not know very much about bitcoin and other crypto currencies. may well. do you think this is maybe likely to spark more interest? it will spark a little bit of interest. to be honest, i think the episode is a bit ofa honest, i think the episode is a bit of a storm in a teacup. there is a very strong moral to the episode as a reveals just how fragile the payment system is and how quickly it can break down. and i guess if there we re can break down. and i guess if there were some brilliant hacker that could probably take it down if they really put their mind to it and many yea rs of really put their mind to it and many years of endeavour, but it shows how potentially fragile the system is. like i say it's was an inconvenience

for a few hours, i know a lot of people cannot get to where they're going, blockages and people cannot buy train tickets and so on, but the episode has cleared itself up fairly quickly and i imagine by next week it will be pretty much forgotten. we see. many thanks forjoining us. —— we shall see. and we'll find out how this story — and many others — are covered in tomorrow's front pages at 10:30 and 11:30pm. this evening in the papers — our guests joining me tonight are broadcasterjohn stapleton and kate proctor, the political correspondent of the london evening standard. america says it will not discuss removing thousands of us troops from the korean peninsula at its summit with north korea. the meeting — which has been confirmed as taking place in singapore onjune 12th — is expected to focus on the denuclearisation of the peninsula. more from hywell griffith in seoul. the news that the summit is back on again has been welcomed here seoul. a spokesman for the south korean government saying that they await that moment onjune 12 with excitement. they will also have been reading

between the lines in terms of what donald trump said in the white house, particularly on the idea this will become a process — that not everything will be done on a deal in singapore. and vitally, 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 — 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 for 65 years. meanwhile here in the korean peninsula the south has been talking to the north, they've had their own talks about cooperation the future, about economic ties. one other piece of good news that has come to seoul are the words from america's defence secretary. he's in a defence summit in singapore already and he said there'll be no move to pull us

troops out of this region as a result of the singapore summit. so, 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 june 12th. let's talk to christoph bluth, professor of international relations and security at the university of bradford. thank you so much forjoining us. you heard what our correspondent had to say there about this on and off son summit which appears very much on at the moment. how would you characterize the expectations on each side? good evening. yes, the top administration has tried very ha rd top administration has tried very hard not to downplay expectations, it will basically be a get to know you meeting. it's supposed to be the

start of a process, but from the american point of view very much focused on a process of denuclearization, which could take a very long time and from the point of view of the north koreans it should be based on giving legitimacy to the regime, their political relations and economic benefits. and are these two different views of the summit, are they mutually exclusive? can each side take something away from this summit? they probably will take something away from it, but the question is how well it worked out in the long run? and i don't think that the aims of the trump administration to completely de—nuclear rights and north korea are realistic for some time to come, so are realistic for some time to come, soi are realistic for some time to come, so i think at some point the process might run into difficulties assuming it gets going in the first place, because these objectives will be achieved and moreover there is much pressure now taken off of north korea because the chinese and south koreans are absolutely determined to

maintaina koreans are absolutely determined to maintain a process and not to implement very harsh sanctions against north korea. so they will have an effect on the summit even though they're not actually participating? absolutely, because south korea has had to summits already with north korea in recent times. it was responsible for getting this whole process going in the first place. the chinese have beenin the first place. the chinese have been in the background and they would obviously like north korea to open up to the world and to become economically more prosperous. they also want to see denuclearization, but for the chinese it is not the be—all end—all. but for the chinese it is not the be-all end-all. what do you think about president donald trump you alluding to the fact that the summit might be one of several meetings. do you think that that is likely? that is quite possible, but i think there could be a problem when some disappointment sets in in the trump administration eight, and it depends

on how much patience the united states government will have in terms of getting really concrete result in terms of denuclearization. we will have to leave it there. thank you very much forjoining us. thank you. the headlines on bbc news: the bbc learns that police have reopened an investigation into one of the central figures in the jeremy thorpe scandal of the 1970s. visa says its systems are working normally — after computer problems caused bank card payments to fail yesterday. (00v) washington says the issue of us troops based in south korea washington says the issue of us troops based in south korea will not be on the agenda at president trump's summit with kim jong—un. a war of words has broken out between america and china after the us accused the chinese of using military build up in the south china sea to intimidate its neighbours. china said the comments — by us defence secretary james mattis, were irresponsible and not worthy of rebuke. mr mattis was speaking at a security summit in singapore.

from there karishma vas—wani has just sent this report. singapore is playing host to the dialogue this week, and is taking no chances with security. after all, defence ministers and representatives from all over the world are attending the event — including from the united states and china. and whenever the two sides are in the same room, they usually argue about the same thing — china's power in the region and the impact on its neighbours. china's militarization of artificial features in the south china sea includes the deployment of anti—ship missiles, surface to air missiles, electronic jammers and more recently, the landing of bomber aircraft at woody island. despite china's 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. translation: it's within china's sovereignty to deploy troops and weapons on islands and reefs in the south china sea, and it's allowed by international law. anyone who makes comments on this is trying to interfere in china's internal affairs. it's not worthy of refuting. the us and china are also battling over trade. an american delegation, led by the us commerce secretary, is in beijing this weekend to address what the united states says are unfair trade terms set by china. tonight american and chinese defence delegations are just departing from their dinner at the singapore presidential palace. on the menu: trade, security and the jostling of the two superpowers for regional influence in the very heart of asia.

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 viole nt 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. meanwhile, thousands of palestinians have attended the funeral in gaza of a 21—year—old volunteer nurse who was shot during protests yesterday. palestinian officials say razan al—najar, was killed by israeli soldiers, as she ran towards the border—fence to help someone who was injured. israel says it's investigating. razan's mother has called for justice. translation: the whole world saw what happened to my daughter and i call for international protection. where is this international protection? where are the human rights? how was my daughter a threat?

this is her weapon, this is my daughter's weapon. this is what she was resisting with. on what basis did the soldier kill her? she's been targeted since the first day of the protest. so many times she has survived death, she would come and tell me what she went through. may god account every person who is silent about this. 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. richard galpin reports. the leader of spain's socialist party taking the formal steps to becoming the country's new prime minister. translation: i promise on my conscience and honour to loyally fulfill the responsibilities of prime minister and to be loyal to the king and to safeguard the constitution, as well as keeping the deliberations of the cabinet secret. king felipe the first

to congratulate pedro sanchez, at today's ceremony in the royal palace on the outskirts of madrid. all of this following a parliamentary vote of no—confidence in the long—standing prime minister mariano rajoy on friday. forced out as a result of a corruption scandal within his party. 46—year—old pedro sanchez takes the reins of power without ever having held government office before. and his party has only a quarter of the seats in parliament. he need allies urgently. meanwhile, the new leader of catalonia, quim torra, on the left, was also attending a swearing—in ceremony. this in barcelona, for members of his separatist regional government. a move which ends seven months of direct, emergency rule of the region by madrid, and already

the catalan leader is saying he will pursue the goal of independence, despite last year's failed attempt to break away following a referendum. translation: this government is committed to advancing in accordance with the referendum of october the 1st. that is to pursue an independent state in the form of a republic — a mandate which was supported by the december 21 elections. it will not be easy, there are powerful interests against this. singing. this catalan government wants negotiations with spain's new prime minister about independence. their support in the last few days helped bring him to power. but madrid says the constitution bans any break—up of the nation. let's talk to spanish journalist miguel—ancho murado

who is in madrid. thank you for speaking to us this evening on bbc news. many issues are raised by the elevation of pedro sanchez. how would you characterize his victory? is it because of his popularity or mariano rajoy‘s unpopularity? eight it is clearly mariano rajoy‘s unpopularity. —— it is clearly. the question is in spain no—confidence votes are peculiar, they are constructive no—confidence vote, meaning that you don't vote just to oust the government, you actually have to vote for an alternative candidate or another government. in this case it was very clear, and some of the people voting for pedro sanchez made it very clear that they did not like him that much, it was they wanted to oust mariano rajoy. it has been a

coalition of interest and i would say hatred. mariano rajoy had many enemies in parliament, and that is what has caused his downfall. and what has caused his downfall. and what do you think was the key cause of his downfall? this ongoing corruption issue or was that catalonia? that is an interesting question because the fact is that things that were tried and condemned by thejudges in things that were tried and condemned by the judges in the days of this corruption scandal were known and mariano rajoy had won three elections after those scandals so that sort of thing was known. yes, of course corruption has been instrumental in bringing down his popularity, no doubt, but it is the issue of catalonia that has been more important in my view. the issue of catalonia has deprived him of crucial support among his people, among the right wing people who saw him as too soft on catalonia. and so

they abandoned him and this along with the scandal of corruption which was not an resented by his people but also the rest of spain, —— not only resented, that is what caused him to be ousted. is pedro sanchez going to be tougher on catalonia? he's been elected with some cattlemen support. he has been changing on these issues. his position has been changing all the time. initially he was more understanding of the demands of the cata la n understanding of the demands of the catalan nationalist, that he thought that was again in his case making him lose that was again in his case making hi m lose votes that was again in his case making him lose votes because also within the socialist party the voters opposed catalan independent and the rest of spain of course, so he changed again and he became as tough as mariano rajoy, and in fact until recently he was going hand—in—hand with the government on this issue. what you say is true, he's been

elected with some support from catalan, so he may have to give back something. he announced he will at least have some dialogue with the new catalan president. he of course has to add within the law and constitution meaning he will not offer independence or even a referendum, but at least there will bei referendum, but at least there will be i assume some sort of dialogue, not a negotiation but some sort of dialogue. briefly if you could, is the election of pedro sanchez likely to change in any way stained's attitude toward the european union? we have seen what's been going on in italy all week. is it likely to change the country's attitude? no, not really. mariano rajoy was very much liked in brussels because of his handling of the economy, pedro sanchez has already done many things to try to calm the fears of the market. he has accepted the budget passed by the previous governing

party and he will probably appoint a minister of economy that will calm the fears in europe. very good to talk to you. thank you so much for your time. a 33—year—old man has been arrested in connection with the death of a man following a hit—and—run near glasgow. 27—year—old steven campbell had been walking in rotherglen in the early hours of this morning when he was hit by a transit van. earlier police said they were treating his death as murder. a 43—year—old man's been charged in connection with the attempted murder of two police officers yesterday. constables kenny mckenzie and laura sayers were stabbed as they attended a routine visit at a house in greenock. they're due to be discharged from hospital today. around 10,000 people held a demonstration in dumfries — in support of scottish independence. the event was organised by campaigners all under one banner, and follows a recent march in glasgow, which attracted an estimated 35,000 people. delays and cancellations have

continued today on northern rail ahead of the introduction of an emergency timetable on monday. the company says it'll mean a hundred and sixty five services being cancelled everyday. from rochdale olivia richwald reports. after almost two weeks of commuter misery across northern england, today was a weekend reprieve. there were fewer passengers on the railways, but still more than 120 cancelled northern rail trains. tell us what's going on. don't wait two minutes before a train is going and say, "i'm sorry, it's been cancelled." they kept changing platforms. we are told, "go to this platform, the next one is coming." then they say again it's been cancelled or going somewhere else. the new timetables were designed to make things better for passengers. here in the north—west, it actually made things considerably worse, with people late for work, late home, fed up and frustrated. so from monday, a new emergency timetable kicks in and that means 165

fewer trains every day. northern rail apologised again for the problems, but said even under the emergency timetable, it would still be running more trains than before. that's not good enough, say mps. the north has been disproportionately affected by the timetable disruption. people in the north have had an evening peak introduced on their rail fares in 2014. they are paying more for dirty, overcrowded, under heated, overpriced trains and these trains sometimes don't even turn up. although there have been calls for transport secretary, chris grayling, to resign, mary cray said she'd rather he kept his job and sorted the problem out. olivia richwald, bbc news, rochdale. torrential rain is causing disruption in north—east england tonight. these were the scenes between consett and burnopfield in county durham as flash flooding meant one car driver had to be rescued.

a yellow weather warning has been issued by the met office for rain until 8pm. at this stage there are no reports of any injuries. let's get a forecast of around the country. over to nick miller with the weather. seeing flooding in parts of scotland, also in aberdeenshire. scotland, northern and eastern parts of england that have been seeing torrential thundery downpours. they are slowly going to be fading now as we go into the night, but still have a few more hours of them out there. in fact through the night across northernmost parts of northern england and southern scotland thunder and lightning may decrease but there could still be some outbreaks of heavy rain around. clearer skies, southern half of england into wales there could be a few mist and fog patches, single figure temperatures for some but for most of us around 10—14d. still outbreaks of rain earlier on. southern scotland, northern england.

at the deal of clout, that's a good deal of clout. the northern half of scotla nd deal of clout. the northern half of scotland we will see sunny spells but a few torrential thunderstorms getting going, particularly into the afternoon. in northern ireland and the rest of england and wales some warm sunny the rest of england and wales some warm sunny stalls around, only isolated showers, most places will avoid them and stay dry will stop —— sunny spells. this is bbc news. our latest headlines: the bbc learns that police have reopened an investigation into one of the central figures in the jeremy thorpe scandal of the 1970s. visa released a statement saying its services are now operating at full capacity, after customers across europe were left unable to make payments. washington says the issue of us troops based in south korea will not be on the agenda at president trump's