hello, you're watching afternoon live — i'm simon mccoy. today at two. an army sergeant who tried to murder his wife by sabotaging her parachute has been jailed for life with a minimum of 18 years. it's a most appropriate sentence for a man who twice tried to kill his wife, and in a totally callous and cold way, very pleased today with the verdict. . this is a letterfrom my solicitor, telling you that your husband has filed divorce. the actor leslie grantham, who played "dirty den" in eastenders, has died at the age of 71. a damning report says the new universal credit benefits system is too slow and is not delivering value for money. coming up on afternoon live, all the sport with hugh. and mohamed salah has made it but he's still not happy. they will be talking about the world cup and mo salah, he is fit but he hasn't got a starting place for their match against uruguay, on his biday as wellham we will show you

the action round half past. thanks hugh. and sarah keith lucas has all the weather — sarah. there are a few showers round in the north and west and if you are a hay fever sufferer you will notice we have high levels of pollen so we will talk about the high pollen levels and have a full uk forecast levels and have a full uk forecast in half an hour. thanks sarah. also coming up — i'll be talking to thure lindhardt, one of the detective stars of the scandi noir series the bridge. as series four nears its climax, he'll be talking about his role as henrik sabroe. hello everyone — this is afternoon live — i'm simon mccoy. an army sergeant has been jailed for life — with a minimum of 18 years for trying to murder his wife by tampering with her parachute. the sentencing judge described

emile cilliers as "callous", and a person who would stop at nothing to gratify his own desires. duncan kennedy has been following events at winchester crown court. this has been an extraordinary story from start to finish, over the three years that it's unfolded, in court cases and various other places, a story of sex, of greed, of sabotage. it is incredible to think that emile cillers twice tried emile cilliers twice tried to kill his wife in the space of six days, once by attempting to blow up the house they lived in, and once by playing with the cords of her parachute, the main and reserve chute, in order to kill her. well, today, he was sentenced to two terms of life in prison, with a recommendation from the judge that he serve at least 18 years injail, and thejudge described him as an "exceptionally callous person", who would stop at nothing to gratify his desires. victoria cilliers, on the left, today came to see how long her husband would spend injail for two of the most bizarre murder attempts of recent years. she had no idea emile cilliers

would first try to blow her up, and then try to turn the sport she loved into a weapon of murder. that sport was skydiving. here's victoria on an earlier flight. just like this one, over the same airfield in wiltshire, where she would nearly die. when victoria leapt out in april 2015, she didn't know her parachute had been sabotaged by her husband. she fell 4,000 feet and crashed into this field, but incredibly, she survived. what was happening at the lcoker when you got there? emil cilliers denied cutting cords off her parachute or trying to rig a gas explosion at their home, in order to kill victoria for a life insurance pay out, but a jury found him guilty. nicolene shepherd was the mother of his first two children. she doesn't want her face shown, but said his superficial charm always hid a sinister personality.

i'm happy that i dodged a bullet. i'm glad she survived. i'm very glad he didn't manage to do what he tried to do. but, yeah, not surprised. he was the army sergeant, she was the army captain — two military lives torn apart by his uncontrollable appetite for sex and money, lives he eventually sabotaged to the point of death. thejudge said emile the judge said emile cilliers was motivated by three thing, first he wa nted motivated by three thing, first he wanted to get his hands on victoria's policy pay out. he needed her dead for that. he was afraid she might ruin his army career for his fill landering going on and thirdly he wanted to set up life with a new. woman and get rid of victoria in the process. the detective inspector

leading the inquiry, describes emile cilliers as a callous calculated individual. the twists and turns of the investigation which started from a lady we thought initially had crashed, turns out her husband tampered with her parachute. further investigation revealed the fact there had been a gas leak in her house not five, six days beforehand and throughout he lied, he turned, he never took any responsibility for any of his actions and presented a front of a cold callous man who as we found out did everything for himself, got what he wanted when he wa nted himself, got what he wanted when he wanted and that was his character throughout the trial. it made it difficult for our investigation. it took three years from start to the verdict. why did he do it, why did he want to kill her twice? we found out he lived for himself, his international sexual conquest, his sexual partners and financial. victoria cilliers had a life

insurance policy he thought he was going to get. he was wrong, that is what he did, he did it forfinance, sexual motives and his girlfriend in america. there was no reaction when emile cilliers was sentenced today. victoria has been in court listening to that sentence, she has told other interviews that she doesn't know why etried to kill her, but from today emile cilliers will begin two life sentences, with a recommendation he serve at least 818 years in jail. -- 18 serve at least 818 years in jail. —— 18 years injail. the actor leslie grantham, best known for playing dirty den watts in eastenders has died at the age of 71. the role was the biggest of his career, and he played the character in the popular soap from 1985 until 1989. the announcement follows news earlier this week that leslie grantham had returned to the uk from bulgaria to receive medical attention. 0ur correspondent david sillito has been looking back at his life. stinks in here, doesn't it? leslie grantham burst

onto our screens back in 1985 with the opening episode of a new soap opera — eastenders. you found him then, dennis? yeah, kicked his door in. can you send an ambulance to... what number is it? 23. 23 albert square, walford. i'm den watts, publican of the queen victoria. however, this devious rogue soon acquired a nickname — dirty den. touch of the old dodgy strawberry. where's me fags? you've given them up, haven't you? yeah, oh, yeah. six little months to live. six tragic little months and poor old angie's going to pop off. the battles between den and angie reached a crescendo on christmas day 1986. 30 million people watched this scene, a tv record. this, my sweet, is a letter from my solicitor telling you that your husband has filed a petition for divorce. three years later, he was gone, apparently murdered on a canal towpath. it was like working in a factory.

you have to make a decision that you are going to move on so i said i wanted to leave and they kindly came up with a deal where i would stay on the screen for a year but i would do all my episodes in five weeks. so that was just very nice. i didn't have anyjob to go to, ijust felt i had to make the break. the daleks have secured the self—destruct chamber. the station is safe. before eastenders, there had been one or two tv roles. here supporting the daleks on doctor who. but he had come late to acting. he'd spent his 20s in prison serving an 11—year sentence for the murder of a german cab driver. and then, 1k years after he left, he returned to eastenders. hello, princess. he had appeared in many other roles in the intervening years, but producers had long wanted him to return. it didn't last long. a lurid story involving a webcam and comments about his colleagues

saw him leave albert square for good. speaking bulgarian. i am from england. it wasn't the end of his career. seven years later, he was back on screen in bulgaria. the star of a comedy called the english neighbour. he also tried his hand at writing children's books, but for tv audiences here, he could never escape the shadow of dirty den. joining me now is jonathan hughes, editor of all about soap magazine. he tried to iam seeing i am seeing there is a statement from anita dobson. the two of them for many people were eastenders and

that, that final plot, the divorce, the christmas day special, 30 million viewer, in television terms... it has never been bettered for a soap or continuing drama or probably another episode of television, in the uk history. it is what all continuing drama is measured against still. that episode, the ground—breaking two hander episode with angie and den, had never been done in a soap, so when you talk about iconic coupling, episodes, leslie's creation is part of all three of these and it has never been bettered. it is and i connick creation, he was so responsible for that. yes, when eastenders was created it was round the fowlers and the beals and they we re the fowlers and the beals and they were the central focus, nobody expected den and angie to become the focus, but the chemistry between

them, interest in the characters, there was an appetite to see these flawed tragic, funny, cunning, kind of scurrilous people, like a taylor and burton relationship. that is what people were drawn to to the beginning, the focus shifted across the road from 45 albert square to the road from 45 albert square to the queen vic, you could say that the queen vic, you could say that the vic was because angie and den took off in a way thatjulia smith could not have envisaged. would you know who lived in each number of albert square? don't test me. how much was acting, he had an interesting personal life and some of that they say helped in that career? it may well have. today is is not the time to talk about what went in his personal life and scandal, of course there were, you know, let us focus on his talent, for acting which is really what brought dirty den alive. i think he

did bring a lot of himself, there was a lot thatjust did bring a lot of himself, there was a lot that just when you did bring a lot of himself, there was a lot thatjust when you get a certain role you can only envisage one actor playing, you that was him. he brought it to life. that was a double edged sword because he was a lwa ys double edged sword because he was always and will forever be dirty den there were no other career highlights. when he left in 89 before he came back in 2003, he did paradise club a hit on the bbc at the time, but no, dirty den eclipsed everything else. he remained working but it is the double edged sword. the role of a lifetime but one he never escaped. one he enjoyed up to a point. to a point. the early days of eastenders, you have to remember that the interest in the actors it still goes on today, but particularly in grantham was huge, it was a lot of attention, yes, it was a double edged sword. when he came back in 2003, and that return didn't go as well adds the show

hoped, perhaps that tarnished it a bit, but how could he say no? it followed him round, you have to look at the early day, today is a time for looking at those, you know, early days up to the late day day o angie and den and seeing magic at work, that is what we should focus on today. the government has been severely criticised in an official report on its flagship benefit reform, universal credit. the national audit office said the policy could prove more expensive than the system its replacing, and it accused ministers of being in denial over the financial hardship it causes to some claimants. almost a million people receive the new, combined benefit. the government insists it's good value for money, as kathryn stan—cheshun reports. a damning verdict on the government's flagship benefit policy. today, a report describes how universal credit is failing in multiple ways. it says there's no evidence it will end up delivering value for money and its roll—out has been flawed, leading to hardship for many.

anderson armstrong has been unemployed since losing his job as a chef. he's built up debts in the process. universal credit came in at the end of september and i signed on from the beginning of august. at the end of september, i got my first universal credit payment. there were loads of arrears to come out of that. since then, i've been living off £18 a week. universal credit was intended to simplify the benefits process, and allow people in work to reduce the amount they claim gradually. it merges six benefits into one payment. the payment is then made directly into a claimant's bank account. people then pay their own costs like rent from that pot of money. but crucially, the payment‘s made in arrears and the report says it is not working for everyone. a significant minority, we think, are struggling to claim online, they are struggling to cope while they wait for their first payment and they are struggling

to cope with the fluctuating income they get on universal credit. last year, out of those who received late payments, 40% waited 11 weeks. 8% waited almost eight months, with a resulting increase in rent arrears and the use of food banks when universal credit‘s rolled out in any given area. despite recent improvements to the system, the report says a fifth of new applicants in march this year were still waiting longer than they should be. critics say it's a shambles, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. but the department for work and pensions has refused to accept it's causing hardship. what's important for us as a department is to make sure that we're providing support to people. that's why i go back to this point that, at the end of the day, people are able to get 100% advances. and what we're also seeing is that under universal credit people are able to get into work faster and stay in work longer, and that is what is making a huge difference, positively to people's lives.

the national audit office says there is no other practical choice than to carry on with the roll—out, but it should go no further until the system can't cope with a higher number of claims. kathryn stanczyszyn, bbc news. sof summergrant died summer grant died after the inflata ble summer grant died after the inflatable was picked up by strong winds and dragged for 300 metres in 2006. william thurston and his wife failed to ensure the bouncy castle was adequately anchored to the ground. president trump has imposed 25% tariffs on $50 billion worth of chinese goods — accusing beijing of intellectual copyright theft. the us will impose further tariffs if china retaliates, the white house said. our business reporter paul blake is in new york. imean, china i mean, china has said it will retaliate. we are looking at a trade war, aren't we? both sides are

saying they don't want one but the chinese are saying they are not going to take this new imposition of ta riffs going to take this new imposition of tariffs sitting down. they say they wa nt to tariffs sitting down. they say they want to impose tariffs of similar size and intensity in retaliation on the us for this. both sides including donald trump saying we are not ina including donald trump saying we are not in a trade war, at least not yet. and yet, if it looks like it smells like it it probably is one, how does this stop? what does he say china needs to do? and to your point the president said if china imposes ta riffs the president said if china imposes tariffs the us will come back with more, so it is looking like there is a threat of a trade war, on the horizon at least. what the us is concerned is about, donald trump throughout his campaign, throughout his presidency has been focussed on the us trade deficit. most mainstream economies would tell you thatis mainstream economies would tell you that is not the best mesh for the health of an international relationship between to countries by the president is concerned is about the president is concerned is about the trade deficit. 0n the other hand

he is concerned about the transfer of us technology, intellectual property, the chinese are interested in breaking into the hi—tech market, and the us president is concerned that us intellectual property will get into the hands of chinese companies and that will disadvantage the us here. he hasjust been on american television, i know, he is clearly very angry. definitely angry. i mean, with the interestingly, in sort of typical donald trump fashion, it is is a personal thing, he said donald trump fashion, it is is a personalthing, he said in donald trump fashion, it is is a personal thing, he said in the statement that he has a great friendship with china's president xi jinping, nevertheless he was going ahead with these, so definitely angry about the trade relationship and the trade deficit and the tra nsfer of and the trade deficit and the transfer of us technology, intellectual property into chinese firms and the chinese parenting firms and the chinese parenting —— market. you're watching afternoon live, these are our headlines. an army sergeant who tried

to murder his wife by sabotaging her parachute has been jailed for life with a minimum of 18 years. leslie grantham, best known for playing the part of "dirty den" in eastenders, has died at the age of 71 the government defends its flagship benefit scheme — universal credit — despite claims it may end up costing more than the previous system. there hint ofjoy for there hint of joy for mohammed there hint ofjoy for mohammed salah as he was passed fit to take part in egypt's first match on his 26th birthday but he is on the bench, the latest score on is 0—0. what a week it has been for spain, they play their first match later, two days after the sacking of their head coach with former captain taking charge against the european champions portugal. and in cricket afghanistan have been thrashed in their inaugural first test, losing by an innings against india.

i will have more just after half the chief executive officer of govia thameslink railway, charles horton has announced his resignation. mr horton — who oversaw the southern railway line which has suffered renewed industrial action — said in a statement that he recognised passengers were "hugely frustrated at the significant disruption caused by the introduction of new timetables." i can speak now to paul cox from the rmt union. paul, good afternoon to you. afternoon simon. has he done the right thing? yes. he has done it three orfour right thing? yes. he has done it three or four years too late. he says, in his defence, if you like, this is an industry wide problem, but as boss he has to go. this is an industry wide problem, but as boss he has to golj this is an industry wide problem, but as boss he has to go. i think it's, there has been so much incompetence and they have managed to camouflage it, making allegation of industrial action two years ago, 110w of industrial action two years ago, now blaming network rail for the

most now blaming network rail for the m ost rece nt now blaming network rail for the most recent debacle. it is never them. clearly the trail leads back to him, and he has done the right thing eventually, but, it has took a long time and it should have happen add long time ago. does that mean whoever replaces hip, you will back them? simon, i am not going to back them, because the company that runs them, because the company that runs the franchise eare every bit at cull papable the franchise eare every bit at cull pa pable as charles the franchise eare every bit at cull papable as charles horton. i believe that the transport minister is culpable because he has been his greatest advocate in keeping them in charge of the franchise, for the last two—and—a—half years where he has been transport minister, and i think he has to think about his position as well. i do think that the franchise should be taken into public ownership, similar to what is happening on the east coast, and has happened historically on south

eastern. i think publicly run railway is necessary to prove to the public and to give them the confidence that the passenger is a lwa ys confidence that the passenger is always going to come first. is there any evidence anywhere this timetable is now bedding in in it will eventually, but it is not really the timetable, what they have tried to disguise and hide is the fact that they haven't got enough crew trained on either the rolling stock, or the routes, over which the new trains go. that is what has created the impossible situation, but, they do tell fibs i am afraid, to defend themselves, because if it is truth what i am seeing it is incompetence that has led to the current situation, and of course they are never going to accept that is the case. just hypothetically if you waved that magic ward and it was a nationalised rail system tomorrow, how quickly would passengers notice any difference and what would it be?

the difference would be that people could have the confidence it was whatever measures were taken were taken for the benefit, not to line the pockets of shareholders, but simply to look after the passenger, and it is about time this happened, these people have been allowed as a business to carry on for nearly four year, in two—and—a—half to three yea rs year, in two—and—a—half to three years which have been horrendous for the travelling public and for the people who work for them, and it is just a nightmare that people deserve to come out of. you can have confidence that a publicly run railway, ran for the public would deliver, they would know that if there was anything going wrong they would get an honest answer for a start. starting from a position of honesty you can start to put problems right a ceremony has taken place in westminster abbey, for the burial of the ashes of stephen hawking. the physicist was laid to rest among other great scientists,

as his voice is being beamed into space. we can cross to westminster abby and speak to our correspondent victoria gill. the stars came out for him as well. they did indeed. there were a thousand members of the public among 25,000 people who applied but the guest list of friends and family from science, film and television and politics shows how far he reached across the bounds of science, he was just famous for physics he was a real celebrity, one of those was dallas campbell. so, dallasers tell us a bit about the ceremony, the royal astronomer royal spoke, what did he say? it was a great eulogy, martin is terrific, they have been friends since the early 60, since cambridge day, he touched on those things, brilliant

scientist, obviously, not since einstein has anyone come a long quite like that with his fantastic ideas about gravity and quantum mechanic, but also, the fact he was such a brilliant personality, he transcended science into popular culture, he was a giant of popular culture, he was a giant of popular culture and really funny, martin said what a wicked seasons of humour he had. how will you remember him? i met him a couple of time, i knew his daughter lucy very well, so when i was younger stephen was just lucy's dad and then he became huge when history of time came out. the last timei history of time came out. the last time i saw him, it was at fancy dress party of all places and stephen was dressed up as pluto god of the underworld, whep it was when the mission went out to flew toe, my last memory was martin rhys neiling, chatting about black hole, what ever

but stephen wearing this crazy wig and orange gash with this pluto god of the underworld cane, so that was the last time i saw him, a couple of yea rs the last time i saw him, a couple of years ago. to understand that conversation. remember going, this is something i am not going to see again. print that. and you are someone again. print that. and you are someone who shared his passion for communicating science, having science part of public culture, what do you think his legacy is? hopefullifully it will be what you said, the most important thing, to tell people or show people science isn't just for scientist, tell people or show people science isn'tjust for scientist, it is a pa rt isn'tjust for scientist, it is a part of churl as much as anything else is, not just part of churl as much as anything else is, notjust music or art or anything else, science is something we can all enjoy, revel in, try and understand, we can take wonder in the difficult questions he was trying to answer, we may not get to the bottom of it but that is the fun, the difficult stuff that is the interesting thing, so stephen

really, you know, transcends the idea of what a scientist is, brings it to the mainstream and for that he isa giant, it to the mainstream and for that he is a giant, he is without equal. he was someone is a giant, he is without equal. he was someone that certainly has become part of public consciousness. he is next to newton, darwin, they are all there, what a fitting tribute. there could not be a better tribute, a higher accolade than been interred there with the great scientists. thank you forjoining us and sharing your thoughts on professor hawking, as his ashes were interred, his voice was beamed into space, to the black hole nearest to the sun, from a satellite dish operated by the european space agency in spain. i think he would have found that quite fitting. thank you for that. time for a look at the weather. the pollen, all you hear is people

sneezing. yes, record numbers are suffering this year, so i have heard people talking about itchy back of the throat, watering eye, it has been a particularly bad start to the summer been a particularly bad start to the summer in terms of the pollen levels here. what is going on? it is do with the weather, since the start of spring, we get different types of pollen, so starting off with tree pollen, so starting off with tree pollen, so starting off with tree pollen, so generally that comes out round late march to may, then we start to see the grass pollen, that is out there at the moment. so round about the middle of may tojuly, then weed pollen takes over too. that is round latejune to september. this year, if you cast your mind back we had that yo—yoing weather, the beast from the east, cold, snowy weather, that was replaced by something of a heat wave in april, so that has led to something called a condensed spring, so some something called a condensed spring, so some of the earlier flowering plans didn't, because of that very

cold weather, then they all came out at once, so we have had a lot of pollen exploding. who knew there was so pollen exploding. who knew there was so many types of pollen? is grass pollen bad for you as opposed to weed? the grass pollen seems to be affecting people the worst, yes, the hay fever sufferers have been complaining a lot about the grass pollen in particular this year that has opinion pretty bad. so is there any sign that it is going to calm down a bit? still pretty high at the moment but there are a few things you can do, there are some things that can help the situation, so to help keep the grass really short does help but mowing the grass isn't great if you have... you have to get the gardener to do it. don't hang your washing outside because the pollen sticks to your clothing and when you wear it you can suffer with that following you round, keep the windows closed, that seems a shame

and you can keep your eye on the weather app because we have a daily forecast for the next five days. if you do suffer from pollen, if you do sufferfrom pollen, the forecast is that the pollen will be very high, i'm afraid, particularly across central and south—eastern parts of the country. elsewhere, moderate or high, low in the far north of scotland. tomorrow, the levels do come down a little bit. we are looking at high levels in the south—east, moderate or low elsewhere across the uk. certainly todayit elsewhere across the uk. certainly today it is a fine day for many of us. today it is a fine day for many of us. not everywhere. some sunshine, this is the isle of wight. blue skies, a bit of fair weather cloud around. not dry everywhere. although we have spells of sunshine and light wind out there, still a few showers lingering, particularly to the north and west. storm hector that we had yesterday as clearing towards the north. fewer isobars on the map today. less windy conditions. we have got another weather front

approaching from the west. one or two sharp showers through the rest of the afternoon across scotland, northern ireland. any of the showers across england and wales are very isolated, perhaps one or two down towards the south—west. the best of the sunny spells for central and eastern parts of england, where we are likely to see temperatures up to 24 are likely to see temperatures up to 2a degrees. cooler further north, 18 celsius around scotland and northern ireland. most showers is away. rain from the west and during the early hours of saturday will see rain arriving across western part of england and wales and pushing into the west of scotland first thing. the weekend will shape up to be a little bit mixed. a few sharp showers around for many on saturday. sunday looks drier, still fairly cloudy, but a little bit warmer. this is the low pressure system on saturday that is going to move from west to east across the country. bringing a bit of rain for many places, not everywhere. the heaviest rain will be across northern

ireland, scotland, northern england, where we could well see thunder and lightning, one or two spots of rain further south. central and eastern parts of england are likely to avoid that for quite a good part of the day. temperatures on saturday, not as warm as they have been over recent days. 15 or 18 celsius, could just squeeze 20 in the sunny spells in the south—east. the second half of the weekend, the first weather system peers to the east. another weather front moves towards the west. for much of the day, sunday looking largely dry. the best of the sunshine to the east. cloudy in the west. it will be a little bit warmer than saturday, top temperatures between 18 and 20 degrees. this is bbc news — our latest headlines... a former army sergeant has been jailed for life, with a minimum of 18 years, for attempting to murder his wife by tampering with her parachute. thejudge described emile cilliers as callous. the most appropriate sentence for a man who twice tried

to kill his wife in a totally callous and cold way. i'm very pleased today with the verdict. this, my sweet, is a letter from my solicitor, telling you that your husband has filed a petition for divorce. the actor leslie grantham, famous for his portrayal of dirty den in eastenders, has died at the age of 71. a damning new report has said the government's flagship benefit scheme is not delivering value for money. the national audit office said universal credit was slow, expensive and had caused hardship. and the ashes of renowned physicist stephen hawking have been buried in westminster abbey, alongside charles darwin and sir isaac newton. sport now on afternoon live with hugh. we are talking egypt, and mo salah? yes. you might remember that mohamed

salah's world cup was thrown into doubt a few weeks ago when he was injured in the champions league final. that was a shoulder problem. it healed well and he was fit enough to be named in the squad for the opener today against uruguay. but he did not look overly pleased as he was only named on the bench. we are still waiting to see if his manager will bring him on for the game. he might be keen to protect his star man because the liverpool forward will be needed for some winnable games for egypt against morocco and iran. the match itself has not been a classic. former liverpool star luis suarez started and should have scored, missing what was by far the best chance of an uneventful 45 minutes. suarez was in again after the break, but was denied by the egypt keeper full stop the egyptians have held their own so far, even without their star man. maybe he will come on for the last ten

minutes. there are about ten minutes to go in that match. very exciting. mactwomac words you don't hear about the england team at the start of a world cup, good news? yes. i've got to say, it has been an uneventful, calm builder compared to some of the major tournaments we have had in the past, the media circus around the players. all 23 players are fit. there are no concerns for gareth southgate. the only one had been marcus rashford. today, he took part in full training after a bit of a knee issue for the manchester united forward. he had not trained in the previous sessions before today. many newspapers talking about what the tea m newspapers talking about what the team might be against tunisia. ashley young is one of those being touted, as isjordan henderson. he might come into central midfield with harry maguire possibly playing, as well as three centre backs.

southgate has not yet told his players who will be starting the match on monday. it is different for different players. i'm not too bothered. if i had to choose, i would like to know earlier, then you can get your head around it. any game in the world cup is a tough game. you know, the atmosphere brings a lot out of both teams. so, we are ready for a tough game, and aggressive start. we need to be ready. there might be some debate over who gets the remote control today. two more games to follow after egypt and uruguay have concluded. iran play morocco, followed by a mouthwatering clash between rivals portugal and spain. spain, the 2010 world champions. they only sacked their head coach two days ago. the man has stepped in to him as the former national captain. sergio ramos, the current

captain, says he is confident he is the right man for the job. translation: i don't think there are many people better than fernando to cover that absence, which is quite large. fernando is a great player and all of us have admired him for a long time. we know him really well andi long time. we know him really well and i think he is one of the best choices to take over this role. hopefully we will be a team with the same intentions and streams, and it should not change at all because of what has happened. dashed dreams. former england defender phil neville says it is fundamental for the growth of the women's game that team gb are present at the tokyo 2020 0lympics. gb are present at the tokyo 2020 olympics. the current england head coach says he would like to be part of any step up if that happens. the 0lympic of any step up if that happens. the olympic games, the world cup come i don't think there is much between them. having spoken to some of the senior players, the old and retired players that have already been to a

world cup in england, i realise how big an occasion that would be to go to an olympic games. it's fantastic that gb will have a women's football team. likei that gb will have a women's football team. like i say, it would be great ifi team. like i say, it would be great if i could be part of it. in cricket, afghanistan have been thrashed by india in their historic first test match. they were bowled out for 109 and 103 on day two to slip to defeat by an innings and 262 runs. it's only the fourth time in test history a team has been bowled out twice in a day. that's all the sport for now. remember that you can watch egypt against uruguay on bbc one now. no, you can't, stay and watch us! well, if you like the news. we may come back to you, i will think about it. it's the scandi—noir series that's taken the uk by storm.

and tonight the bridge is back on bbc two as it approaches the climax of series 4. the big question — what's in store for detectives henrik and saga? well earlier i wasjoined by the danish star thure lindhardt — who plays henrik. but a first a look at the last episode. and thurejoins me now. welcome. wow, this is one of the high points of the whole series for you, i would guess. that relationship is crucial. yes. how does it work? because she has asperger‘s? yes. and then this love story develops? yes. she is the only one who understands him. he is a tormented man. he's a man who is in deep sorrow and deep pain. sorrow can be very lonely, and not a lot of people understand mourning, what mourning is really about. but she accepts him the way he is. because you arrived into the series later. yes. she'd already had one partner? yes. was it an easy thing, as an actor, to do? because they were very

much entrenched by the time you were there. it was already a successful programme. right, well, it was, because the character was so sparkling and so different, and so new. it was really a very... i really loved that character from the moment i read it. well, he seems nice. and then very soon we realise he is not quite as easy, probably more complex in some ways than she is. did you know in advance how the story was going to go? yes. i knew a lot of things. especially in season 4, which we are in now. i almost knew everything. in season 3, i knew almost everything. how easy was it to get into that character with her? she plays a very difficult person? yes. it was very challenging, because sofia, privately, is like the most lovely, wonderful... she's a joker, isn't she? yes, yes, very much. she is very intelligent, and very lovely. and then she goes into this character that is very honest, very brutal and very obnoxious.

it was like just meeting a real human being that was really annoying. it was very interesting. you, as a character, have your issues. drugs, a family who have just disappeared. and it suddenly becomes very much about you? yes. how was that to deal with? well, i think when we decided to do season 4, it was pretty obvious that we had to go after henrik‘s story and figure out what happened to his children, and what happened to him. so, i kind of knew that is what it would be about. i don't want to give too much away, because it's on tonight. but that relationship between the two of you, it's about everybody else really pussyfooting around you, really? she doesn't, she gets you?

she gets me. i tend to see them... you know that pink floyd song, i wish you were here? we're just two lost souls swimming in a fishbowl. that's that's how i see them. i see them as two very lost souls, two very lonely characters that get each other. i think that's the love story of the show. you get each other. the brits get this form of drama. anybody who hasn't seen it says, hang on, it's got subtitles. within seconds, that doesn't matter. what is it about these scandi—noirs that we talk about? there's the killing, there's borgen there's the bridge. why do you think the british particularly get it? i think we share a sense of humour. and i think there's an honesty about these shows that the brits get. i think we actually have a lot in common, in that way. we also love your comic shows in scandinavia. and i think it's a mix between that very dark, brutal and honest story,

and then all the comedy, the reliefs. very lonely, the portrayal of your country, in some ways, in the bridge? that's true, maybe we have that in common as well. or we will! we won't go into that right now. let's talk about you. some people are looking at your face now, i've never seen the bridge, but i know that face. you were in angels and demons, fast and furious. you've been around ? i have, yes. and what's next? what's next? i'm going to do a film, i'm going to do a tv series. i teach as well, so i'm going to go to a school and teach acting students. then i'm going to do theatre as well. i'm actually going to play shakespeare, in shakespeare in love. where will that be? in denmark. you will all have to come to denmark. but you will know the play and the film. yes, we will have a rough idea of it, won't we? and you've got a family at home, an eight—month—old daughter, i think.

so, life is busy? life is busy, but it's good. i hesitate to ask, will there be more the bridge? we haven't seen the final episode, so we are not quite sure how things end. well, we decided this should be the final season. you have just broken hearts around the country. thure lindhardt, very good to talk to you. thank you very much forjoining us. thank you very much. some breaking news, we have been predicting all day that there will be an attempt to introduce a law in england and wales, it currently exists in scotland, the so—called offence of upskirting. it bit to make it a specific offence has been blocked by a tory mp. it is the bill which has been blocked by christopher chope. it would have

brought upskirting in line with other offences. it only requires one mp to shout object when the title is read out to halt its progress, then cries of shame after sir christopher blocked it in the house of commons. you are watching afternoon live. we will have the business news with jamie ina will have the business news with jamie in a moment. first, the headlines. an army sergeant who tried to murder his wife by sabotaging her parachute has been jailed for life with a minimum of 18 years. leslie grantham, best known for playing the part of dirty den in eastenders, has died at the age of 71. the government defends its flagship benefit scheme — universal credit — despite claims it may end up costing more than the previous system. charles horton the boss of the country's biggest rail

franchise govia thameslink railway has resigned. gtr which runs services including thameslink, southern and great northern, cancelled hundred of trains after the botched introduction of new timetables last month, something the prime minister mrs may called "totally u na cce pta ble". about 60 bank branches are closing every month — that's according to consumer group which? it claims that rbs is closing the most, and says it leaves many people left without proper access to services. the banks say they are closing branches because more and more customers are banking online. the at&t time warner deal has completed. a us judge the at&t time warner deal has completed. a usjudge has ruled that it did not violate anti—competition laws and it was closed today. these tariffs, donald trump saying

he is putting tariffs on all kinds of things? we are in a trade war between china and the us. the next stage is for china to do the same, and they are saying they will do the same quantity of tariffs on the same amount of goods. so, you are in an escalating war. worrying for everybody. the stock market has reacted, the ftse is down 1%. the reason is that it is just bad for global trade, bad for global business. if you think of something like the ftse100, business. if you think of something like the ftse 100, which business. if you think of something like the ftse100, which is double has so many international stocks, their businesses will be affected. at&t ta ke n at&t ta ken over? at&t taken over? huge deal? at&t taken over? huge deanm at&t taken over? huge deal? it has been years in the making. trump did

not want us to happen. time warner owns cnn and he does not like cnn. there are other reasons why he objected to it. at&t is a distributor, in broad terms, and time warner is a content provider. what the department ofjustice was worried about is that at&t would use time warner's content, put up the price of the content to other distributors, so that customers would say, we don't want to use them, we will go to at&t with lower prices. they were worried it would be anti—competitive. it seems to have gone through. we can talk about this more with kim. let's start on that story. a lot of people objected and say it was anti—competitive, but it looks like it has gone through?

right, it has gone through. the us justice department had a big task ahead of it. it had to overturn or two years of legal precedent. as you mentioned, time warner and at&t operate in different arenas, it is what is known as a vertical merger. at&t provides the fibre networks, the pipes that take time warner's content, things like cable news network cnn, hbo, game of thrones. it was argued that if they wanted to merge it would not be a violation of anti—trust because they were not merging in the same industry. the judge bought that argument, which means the merger was allowed to proceed once the us government said it would not be appealing the ruling. the key thing is that it is set to set off a wave of mergers. we have already seen a bidding war set up have already seen a bidding war set up for 21st century fox, rupert murdoch's 21st century fox. we saw that come offered something like $60

billion. ——, that come offered something like $60 billion. --, -- that come offered something like $60 billion. ——, —— comcast. it has fundamentally changed the us media industry landscape. a big impact on the stock market. on the other hand, you have this idea of a trade war, really negative in terms of growth and profitability for the economy generally? exactly. on the floor of the stock exchange, markets have been significantly lower after president donald trump confirmed he would be following through with the planned tariffs. they will not go into effect until july planned tariffs. they will not go into effect untiljuly the 6th. we have seen that many us businesses and many associations have come out and many associations have come out and said they oppose the move. the us chamberof and said they oppose the move. the us chamber of commerce said this was not the way to get china to play fairwhen it not the way to get china to play fair when it comes to global trade.

it remains to be seen if investors can put pressure on the government to renegotiate their stance, or, for instance, if china's retaliatory tariffs will have an impact on wall street. what do you think the effect on the economy will be? some people are saying all of the growth we have seen over are saying all of the growth we have seen over the last couple of years, what some people are calling the trump boom, it could be put in jeopardy? you know, it is really interesting. the us federal reserve met this week. when it comes to central bankers, they say we are not seeing any significant impact of this trade war in the united states. so far, investors and consumers seem confident that all of the other things that trump is doing, the tax cuts we saw that went into effect this year, they will be enough to sustain growth in the united states. the question is, what happens if the confidence is shaken? that is what investors are wary about. playing for high stakes. it's

interesting that you have so many huge forces at work, the tax cuts, and then you have a trade war going on. you have interest rates going up, big things. they are colliding and coinciding. interesting to see how it will play out and which forces will predominated. i don't know what happened, it disappeared. shall we leave them? we don't have much choice, we could just sit and look at it. the dow jones is opening about half a percent, the ftse was down about 1% last time i looked. that should keep you going until the next time we meet. last night marked the end of ramadan. for the world's 1.8 billion muslims, observing ramadan involves abstaining from food and drink during daylight hours. but according to a recent study by mps, ramadan is also boosting donations to british charities. tim muffett reports. sunset, and in central london, hundreds are gathering for iftar,

the meal that ends a day of fasting during ramadan. you really appreciate the first sip of water you take and the first bite of food you have. it just makes you appreciate that actually you can eat. there is many, many out there that for them it is almost like ramadan every day. 0pen iftar began in london in 2013, and has spread to other cities in the uk, europe and america. it's a chance to break the fast, with friends, family, and strangers. abstinence and fasting are two key aspects of ramadan, probably the best known, but there is another pillar of islam, which means that ramadan is having a huge impact in other ways. we have a certain principle within our tenements of faith callaed zakat, which is where you have to give 2.5% of your wealth to the poor, to put to the needy. an all—party parliamentary group has been analysing the impact

zakat is having on uk charities during ramadan. it's thought around £100 million is donated during the islamic holy month. the report says that could reach £500 million every year. there has been a huge rise in donations, especially among 25—34—year—olds. back at open iftar, 0mar, who started the events, believes islam's positive impact is too often overlooked. it is just unfortunate that these actions, or projects and initiatives aren't picked up by mass media, and i think quite often, the few bad apples are taking the headlines. an ancient act of religious observance having an impact in new and different ways. tim muffett, bbc news. time for a look at the weather. here's sarah keith lucas.

hello, there. after yesterday's very windy weather, all courtesy of storm hector, today is much quieter, weather—wise. much less windy, pleasant sunshine around, too. this scene comes from one of our weather watchers in norfolk. so, blue skies there, just a bit of fair weather cloud around. today, with those lighter winds, there should be a good deal of sunshine. but not everywhere staying dry. a few showers on the cards, too. storm hector, this area of low pressure, clearing up, heading towards northern parts of scandinavia now. we have another frontal system approaching from the atlantic later on in the day. for much of the day, this is the scene. temperatures doing reasonably well, up to 23 degrees towards southeast, mid—to—high teams further north. showers for northern ireland and for scotland. just one or two isolated ones further south. many of us dry into the evening hours. 0vernight, the cloud increases from the west ahead of this frontal system. so, rain working in during the early hours on saturday, to northern ireland, western scotland, western parts of england and wales.

reasonably mild and under fair amount of cloud first thing saturday. how is the weekend shaping up? well, it is looking a little bit mixed. it will be quite a showery picture through the day on saturday. most of us drier, although staying fairly cloudy by sunday. here is saturday for you. this frontal system, crossing from west to east. the heaviest of the rain will be in the north and west. so, there could be some thunderstorms mixed in with those heavy showers across parts of wales, northern england, northern ireland, scotland. further south east you are more likely to stay dry for quite a good part of the day. but it will be that little bit cooler, compared to the temperatures we are seeing out there today. in the warmer spots towards the south and east, 19 or 20 degrees possible. we are looking at the mid—teens further west. through into the second half of the weekend, although there is another front approaching from the west it is a fairly weak warm front this time. we are left with a westerly airflow. through the day on sunday, the best of the sunshine will be for eastern scotland and eastern parts of england, more cloud working in from the west,

bringing with it a few spots offairly light rain later on in the day. we will see those top temperatures on sunday afternoon, about 19 or 20 degrees towards the east, a touch cooler than that further west where you have more in the way of cloud. looking ahead towards next week it is going to be warming up a little, lots of dry weather, some rain around, mainly in the north and west. goodbye for now. hello, you're watching afternoon live — i'm simon mccoy. today at three. an army sergeant who tried to murder his wife by sabotaging her parachute has been jailed for life with a minimum of 18 years. it's a most appropriate sentence for a man who twice tried to kill his wife, and in a totally callous and cold way, very pleased today with the verdict. the actor leslie grantham, who played "dirty den" in eastenders, has died at the age of 71 a damning report says the new universal credit benefits system is too slow — and is not delivering

value for money. coming up on afternoon live, all the sport with hugh, and there are birthday blues for mo salah. it is not a great day for the egypt forward moment salah. an unused substitute on his birthday as uruguay leave it late to steal victory. thanks, and we'll bejoining you for a full update just after half—past. a fine day for many, there are showers in the north—west. the weekend is looking a bit mixed. showers on saturday, drier on suspend but i will bring you all the details in about half an hour. thanks. also coming up — we'll be talking to the head of the working animal charity spana, who says millions of donkeys are at risk because of the growing demand for chinese beauty products. hello everyone, this is afternoon live — i'm simon mccoy.

an army sergeant has been jailed for life — with a minimum of 18 years for trying to murder his wife by tampering with her parachute. the sentencing judge described emile cilliers as callous, and a person who would stop at nothing to gratify his own desires. duncan kennedy has been following events at winchester crown court. this has been an extraordinary story from start to finish, over the three years that it's unfolded, in court cases and various other places, a story of sex, of greed, of sabotage. it is incredible to think that emile cilliers twice tried to kill his wife in the space of six days, once by attempting to blow up the house they lived in, and once by playing with the cords of her parachute, the main and reserve chute, in order to kill her. well, today, he was sentenced to two terms of life in prison, with a recommendation from the judge that he serve at least 18 years injail, and thejudge described him

as an "exceptionally callous person", who would stop at nothing to gratify his desires. victoria cilliers, on the left, today came to see how long her husband would spend injail for two of the most bizarre murder attempts of recent years. she had no idea emile cilliers would first try to blow her up, and then try to turn the sport she loved into a weapon of murder. that sport was skydiving. here's victoria on an earlier flight. just like this one, over the same airfield in wiltshire, where she would nearly die. when victoria leapt out in april 2015, she didn't know her parachute had been sabotaged by her husband. she fell 4,000 feet and crashed into this field, but incredibly, she survived. what was happening at the lcoker when you got there? emil cilliers denied cutting cords off her parachute or trying to rig a gas explosion at their home, in order to kill victoria for a life insurance pay out, but a jury found him guilty.

nicolene shepherd was the mother of his first two children. she doesn't want her face shown, but said his superficial charm always hid a sinister personality. i'm happy that i dodged a bullet. i'm glad she survived. i'm very glad he didn't manage to do what he tried to do. but, yeah, not surprised. he was the army sergeant, she was the army captain — two military lives torn apart by his uncontrollable appetite for sex and money, lives he eventually sabotaged to the point of death. thejudge said that the judge said that emile cilliers was motivated by three thing, first he wanted to get his hands on

victoria cilliers's insurance policy pay out. he needed her dead for that. he was afraid she might ruin his army careerfor that. he was afraid she might ruin his army career for his philandering that was going on and thirdly he wa nted that was going on and thirdly he wanted to set up life with a new woman, and get rid of victoria. the detective inspector leading the inquiry described emile cilliers as a callous calculated individual. the twists and turns of the investigation which started from a lady initially we thought had crashed through a mall function, her husband tampered with her parachute, further investigation revealed a gas explosion at her house and throughout he lied, squirmed, turned he never took any responsibility for any of his actions and friend presented a front of a cold man who did everything for himself, got what he wanted when he wanted and that whizz character throughout the trial. it made it difficult, it took

three years from the start to today. why did he want to kill her twice? what we found out he lived for himself, so his initial sexual conquest, his sexual partners and financial. she had £120,000 life insurance. he thought he was going to get that. he did it for finance, sexual motives and his girlfriend in there was no reaction when emile cilliers was sentenced today, victoria cilliers has been in court, to listen to that sentence, she has told other interviews that she doesn't know why he tried to kill her on those two occasion but from today he will begin two life sentences with a recommendation he serve at least 18 years the actor leslie grantham, best known for playing dirty den watts in eastenders has died at the age of 71. the role was the biggest of his career, and he played the character in the popular soap from 1985 until 1989. the announcement follows news earlier this week that leslie grantham had returned

to the uk from bulgaria to receive medical attention. 0ur correspondent david sillito looks back at his life. stinks in here, doesn't it? leslie grantham burst onto our screens back in 1985 with the opening episode of a new soap opera — eastenders. you found him then, dennis? yeah, kicked his door in. can you send an ambulance to... what number is it? 23. 23 albert square, walford. i'm den watts, publican of the queen victoria. however, this devious rogue soon acquired a nickname — dirty den. touch of the old dodgy strawberry. where's me fags? you've given them up, haven't you? yeah, oh, yeah. six little months to live. six tragic little months and poor old angie's going to pop off. the battles between den and angie reached a crescendo on christmas day 1986. 30 million people watched

this scene, a tv record. this, my sweet, is a letter from my solicitor telling you that your husband has filed a petition for divorce. three years later, he was gone, apparently murdered on a canal towpath. it was like working in a factory. you have to make a decision that you are going to move on so i said i wanted to leave and they kindly came up with a deal where i would stay on the screen for a year but i would do all my episodes in five weeks. so that was just very nice. i didn't have anyjob to go to, ijust felt i had to make the break. the daleks have secured the self—destruct chamber. the station is safe. before eastenders, there had been one or two tv roles. here supporting the daleks on doctor who. but he had come late to acting. he'd spent his 20s in prison serving an 11—year sentence for the murder of a german cab driver. and then, 14 years after he left, he returned to eastenders. hello, princess.

he had appeared in many other roles in the intervening years, but producers had long wanted him to return. it didn't last long. a lurid story involving a webcam and comments about his colleagues saw him leave albert square for good. speaking bulgarian. i am from england. it wasn't the end of his career. seven years later, he was back on screen in bulgaria. the star of a comedy called the english neighbour. he also tried his hand at writing children's books, but for tv audiences here, he could never escape the shadow of dirty den. we've been keeping across twitter on afternoon live.

here's what's caught our eye. this is from the production team and from john york. nick berry who played alongside leslie grantham in eastenders letitia dean playing his daughter on screen and the press team have issued this statement from her. so those are the tributes that have been on twitter and there is also a quote here from june brown saying:

we will keep an eye on any further tributes. the government has been severely criticised in an official report on its flagship benefit reform, universal credit. the national audit office said the policy could prove more expensive than the system its replacing, and it accused ministers of being in denial over the financial hardship it causes to some claimants. almost a million people receive the new, combined benefit. the government insists it's good value for money, as kathryn stanczyszyn reports. a damning verdict on the government's flagship benefit policy. today, a report describes how universal credit is failing in multiple ways. it says there's no evidence it will end up delivering value for money and its roll—out has been flawed, leading to hardship for many. anderson armstrong has been unemployed since losing his job as a chef. he's built up debts in the process. universal credit came in at the end of september and i signed on from the beginning of august. at the end of september, i got my first universal credit payment. there were loads of arrears

to come out of that. since then, i've been living off £18 a week. universal credit was intended to simplify the benefits process, and allow people in work to reduce the amount they claim gradually. it merges six benefits into one payment. the payment is then made directly into a claimant's bank account. people then pay their own costs like rent from that pot of money. but crucially, the payment‘s made in arrears and the report says it is not working for everyone. a significant minority, we think, are struggling to claim online, they are struggling to cope while they wait for their first payment and they are struggling to cope with the fluctuating income they get on universal credit. last year, out of those who received late payments, 40% waited 11 weeks. 8% waited almost eight months,

with a resulting increase in rent arrears and the use of food banks when universal credit‘s rolled out in any given area. despite recent improvements to the system, the report says a fifth of new applicants in march this year were still waiting longer than they should be. critics say it's a shambles, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. but the department for work and pensions has refused to accept it's causing hardship. what's important for us as a department is to make sure that we're providing support to people. that's why i go back to this point that, at the end of the day, people are able to get 100% advances. and what we're also seeing is that under universal credit people are able to get into work faster and stay in work longer, and that is what is making a huge difference, positively to people's lives. the national audit office says there is no other practical choice than to carry on with the roll—out, but it should go no further until the system can't cope with a higher number of claims. kathryn stanczyszyn, bbc news. in an impromptu live interview, president trump claims he has largely solved the problem over north korea's nuclear programme. after a flurry of early morning tweets, he sent one saying

he could see an american news channel broadcasting from in front of the white house and he was thinking about walking down there. and that's exactly what he did. he made his way past the waiting journalists to head for fox news — which seems to be his favourite news channel. he had this to say about his meeting on tuesday with the north korean we now have a very good relationship with north korea, when i came into thisjob, it looked like war, not because of me but if you remember the sit down with barack 0bama, i think he will admit this he said the biggest problem the us has and by far the most dangerous problem and he said to me we have ever had, because of nuclear, is north korea, now that was shortly before i entered office. i have solved that problem. now we are getting a memorial... that problem is largely solved and part of the reason is we

signed a very good document. more importantly than the document, more importantly than the document, more importantly than the document, more importantly than the document, i have a good relationship with kim jong un. that is a very important thing. ican jong un. that is a very important thing. i can now, wait, i can now call him, i can now say, well, we have a problem, i told call him, i can now say, well, we have a problem, itold him, i gave him a very direct number, he can now call me if he has any difficulty. i can call him. we have communication, it isa can call him. we have communication, it is a very good thing. people are shocked this is, they thought trump was going to get in and start throwing bombs all over the place, it is the opposite. but we are building a military so strong, $716 billion, next year, 700 this year, we are building a military so strong, nobody is going to mess with us, you know what, i never want to have i never want to have to use it. live now to washington and our correspondent gary 0'donoghue. we would be lying if we said we didn't wish the president did that to us, he decided to go and do an interview off—the—cuff. to us, he decided to go and do an interview off-the-cuff. yes, looks

like it. it was a lengthy interview and he did a separate discussion with journalists who were hanging around the north lawn watching him do this, so, i mean it was an extraordinary impromptu decision, and there were some extraordinary things he said. talking about north korea, there, he said he would be having a discussion with north korea on sunday which we take to mean the leader of north korea. that he had swapped phone numbers with kimjong un, that he largely solved the problem as you heard him saying that, and that was one of testify subjects he ranged across the whole spectrum, he should come and present afternoon live from the north lawn. take your chances simon. afternoon live from the north lawn. take your chances simonlj afternoon live from the north lawn. take your chances simon. i will see you there! he had a few words about g7 and justin trudeau. yes, he was, again talked about the russia part of that particularly, the question that he threw into the mix an hour

before landing, in canada last week, just about to get on marine one to come to the summit and he said russia ought to be included in the gs russia ought to be included in the g8 again, i was up there and that caused a huge kind of ripple through the whole process of the g7. he also talked in this interview about this big report yesterday from the inspector general on justice about james comey, the former fbi director and his handling of hillary clinton's e—mail investigations and the president claimed that the report exonerated him, the report wasn't about president trump, he said it exonerated him but he also disagreed with its main conclusion, that james comey hadn't shown any bias, any political bias in the decisions he made. there was a little bit of scatter gun approach going on here let's say. we would say this but there is something rather refreshing about the leader of testify free world tweeting in front of the telly and going outside

and getting on it. what there hasn't been is any sort of formal press conferences with the president for some time, in terms of opening up the floor to journalists and saying request what you like. he does pool prays where he has journalists request what you like. he does pool prays where he hasjournalists in request what you like. he does pool prays where he has journalists in at the beginnings of meetings, with other people, and he takes questions and those more than his advisers would like, he has the occasional press co nfe re nce would like, he has the occasional press conference after he has had a foreign lead here, here he is exposing himself to quite a a long period of questioning, it looked a bit chaotic, it sounded a bit chaotic but it was him out there, answering questions, and his answers will unquestionably drive the news cycle for the next two or three days. it will next see you at the afternoon live tent outside you're watching afternoon live,

these are our headlines. an army sergeant who tried to murder his wife by sabotaging her parachute has been jailed for life with a minimum of 18 years. leslie grantham, best known for playing the part of "dirty den" in eastenders, has died at the age of 71. the government defends its flagship benefit scheme — universal credit — despite claims it may end up costing more than the previous system. and in sport, birthday blues for the egypt forward mohammed salah at the world cup. the unused substitute watches on while uruguay snatch a late win. johanna konta is through to the semifinals at the nottingham open. and england's anya shrubsole has struck early in the third and deciding one day international against south africa. the visitors are currently 72—2 after 222 of their 50 overs at canterbury. —— 22. the former wimbledon champion, boris becker, has claimed diplomatic

immunity from bankruptcy proceedings in london, because of his new role as a sports attache to the central african republic. his lawyers claim he can't face any legal action without the consent of the foreign secretary, borisjohnson. joining me now is professor craig barker, dean of the school of law from london south bank university to give us some insight. he can ex palestinian why this is an inspired action or something pretty desperate i think it is interesting to consider whether boris berk what his motivations were behind seeking this appointment. that is the question, whether the central african republic were wear of his, the proceedings that were looming. i mean from my perspective the timing is very odd. just explain the principle of diplomatic immunity, because as an attachy to a government is he covered? he is covered. assuming everything is in

place and we can't doubt that, he was accredited, in interestingly by the eu and not the british government, but as an accredited diplomat he is entitled to diplomatic immunity. it has been round for thousands of year, it is there to facilitate the proper diplomatic relations between state, it is an incredibly important principle. it is much maligned, a lot of people... it is much abused too. well, it is abused but much less frequently than people suggest. i think if you look at the details there is not much abuse. it is not for to us say whether this is abuse north in this particular case but will it work? i think if you look the law, the serena cone haven'tion there is a clear exception for diplomatic immunity in the case of professional and commercial activity, that are outside the

functions of his role. he is an aattach away for sport, development and culture and he is claiming community for —— immunity, for debts owed long before he was an attach away and nothing to do with the central african republic and so therefore i think if you look the law carefully, there is a strong argument against him having diplomatic immunity. will this turn into the battle of the borises? does borisjohnson into the battle of the borises? does boris johnson have any into the battle of the borises? does borisjohnson have any say? into the battle of the borises? does boris johnson have any say? the key group in this is the government of the central african republic, it is their immunity, they get immune the ifor their immunity, they get immune the i for their diplomat, they have their immunity, they get immune the ifor their diplomat, they have it on themselves, but it is the immunity of the government. so the central african republic may think there is a slight problem here. it is possible... will they care? they don't perhaps don't want to get involved, say the law is the law? don't perhaps don't want to get

involved, say the law is the law7m will come back to them at the end of the day. at the end of the day they have to be sure their diplomats are behaving properly and there are you know, up holding their diplomatic privileges because if they are not that will backfire on them. if they don't care, it may be down to boris johnson to do something, but i think he would still have to negotiate with the government of the central african public for them to waive immunity. he has no power to waive the immunity of boris becker, he can declare him persona non grata and ask him to return to the country he is representing but he has no ties with them. it is is a bit of a weave, a problem. when a professor of law says it's a little bit of a weave, what are you really say something? is there a bit of trying it on here? you know, i couldn't speaking for what mr becker is doing, i think the timing was problematic, i would take the

position, let me be frank here, joking aside, diplomatic privilege and immunity are enessential tools for the conduct of diplomacy. if mr becker is using this in order to escape a earnal debt, and that is it, and he has managed to manipulate or get some way of getting them to appoint him, that is a huge problem, because there are many thousands of british diplomats abroad and foreign diplomats round the world who rely on privileges every day, i don't think mr becker has taken onboard the impact of the position he is taking. an ace orjust gone in the net?|j would an ace orjust gone in the net?” would lie to think it has just gone in the net but we will see. two fairground workers have been sentenced to three years each for the gross negligence after a bouncy castle blew away with a young girl inside. seven—year—old summer grant died after the inflatable she was in was picked up by strong

winds and was dragged for 300 meters in harlow in 2016. william thurston and his wife shelby had failed to ensure the bouncy castle was "adequately anchored" to the ground. two teenage moped riders who stabbed a man to death during a violent robbery spree in west london have been given life sentences. 18—year—old troy thomas and 19—year—old nathan gilmaney from maida vale were found guilty murdering abdul samad for his mobile phone. the court heard the pair left a trail of destruction in their wake as they tried to rob as many people as possible over a four—hour period last october. the sentencing judge described the cctv footage of their crimes as chilling. the chief executive officer of govia thameslink railway, charles horton has announced his resignation. mr horton — who oversaw the southern railway line which has suffered renewed industrial action — said in a statement that he recognised passengers were "hugely frustrated at the significant disruption caused by the introduction of new timetables." a ceremony has taken place

in westminster abbey for the burial of the ashes of stephen hawking. the physicist was laid to rest among other great scientists, as his voice is being beamed into space. 0ur reporter sarah campbell has been speaking to two young people about why they wanted to attend today's service. well, professor stephen hawking was renowned not just as a brilliant scientist, but as somebody who was able to overcome severe disability, and as an inspiration to others. that will very much be reflected in the memorial here today, and two of the people that will be in the congregation i am very pleased are here tojoin me, they are from the national star college in cheltenham, which is for people with learning difficulties and disabilities. would you mind introducing yourself, first jack? my name is jack. i attend national star college where i study sports. i love festivals and music and i want to be a dj. and rose? hi, my name is rose, i go to national star college,

where i study drama. i love movies and i'm working on writing film reviews to be published. thank you rose. both are going to be here today, so jack, if i can ask you first of all, what did professor stephen hawking mean to you? he was a great scientist. and rose, for you, what it is like to be here today at his memorial? i should explain rose is using a similar sort of voice recognition system to stephen hawking's. it will be sad, but it is an honour to be here. and jack, back to you, is the fact that people are familiar with sort of voice recognition systems like yours because of stephen hawking? has that made it easier for you, for people to understand your communication? absolutely.

he was most famous for science, and the fact he used a communicator came second to this. yes, and rose, finally, an important question, did he break down barriers for people with disabilities? well, i think he showed what people with disabilities can do. i'm going to be an actress. everybody who puts their mind to something gets to be it. stephen hawking proved that more than anyone. let's get a weather update now. hello, there we've got a fairly quiet day out there weather—wise, we are between weather system, so storm hector from yesterday has cleared away, just a few showers left today across scotland

and northern ireland, one or two on the heavy side. further south across england and wales, temperatures up to round 23 degrees in the sunnier spells, a lot of dry weather most places dry on into the evening hours but you will notice overnight this area of rain, this is the next weather front working into the west, bringing some rain saturday morning for northern ireland, western scotland, and western parts of england and wales, relatively mild under that cloud but during the day on saturday we will see this frontal system making its way from west to east across the country. some of the rain could be heavy and potentially thundery, particularly in scotland, northern england and northern ireland too, further south, the showers are fewer and further between and the south—east likely to stay dry for much of the day. here temperatures 18 or 19 degrees, the mid teens further north so it will feel a bit fresher than it has done, a showery day on saturday, drier on sunday. bye. this is bbc news — our latest headlines. a former army sergeant has been jailed for life, with a minimum of 18 years, for attempting to murder his wife by tampering with her parachute. thejudge described emile cilliers as callous. the actor leslie grantham, famous for his portrayal of "dirty" den watts in eastenders, has died at the age of 71.

a damning new report has said the government's flagship benefit scheme is not delivering value for money. the national audit office said universal credit was slow, expensive and had caused hardship. a last gasp winner? not here, but uruguay? yes, not made people call me anything but a loser. mo salah was very disappointed. uruguay beat egyptin was very disappointed. uruguay beat egypt in the second game of the world cup. we were wondering salah would come on, but his boss decided to hold him back for the upcoming games against russia and saudi arabia. that allowed uruguay to steal the victory. birthday disappointment for mohamed salah, 26 today. maybe he didn't get on but

his world cup dream could come to fruition in the next few weeks. england play on monday and already you lot want to know what is on gareth southgate's mind. plenty of speculation about what his starting 11 would be when england take on tunisia on monday. interesting news this morning, all 23 players in his squad trained. there were no injury concerns. the only one that had been lingering was over marcus rashford. but he took part in full training for the first time since england arrived in russia. some players saying ashley young might be named in the starting line—up. jordan henderson may come into central midfield for eric dier. the other rumour, and it is all rumours, was that harry maguire might be starting at centre half. southgate has not told the players what his plans are. it is different for

different players. i'm not too bothered. if i had to choose, i would like to know earlier, then you can get your head around it. any game in the world cup is a tough game. you know, the atmosphere brings a lot out of both teams. so, we are ready for a tough game, and aggressive start. we need to be ready. iran and morocco need to be ready. they are kicking off at four o'clock. that is followed by a clash between rivals portugal and spain. the 2010 winners, who only sacked their head coach 2 days ago. the man who has stepped into the role is the former national captain fernando hierro. sergio ramos is confident that he is the right man to do the job. translation: i don't think there are many people better than fernando to cover that absence, which is quite large. fernando is a great player and all of us have admired him for a long time.

we know him really well and i think he is one of the best choices to take over this role. hopefully we will be a team with the same intentions and dreams, and it should not change at all because of what has happened. in cricket, afghanistan have been thrashed by india in their historic first test match. they were bowled out for 109 and 103 on day two to slip to defeat by an innings and 262 runs. it's only the fourth time in test history a team has been bowled out twice in a day. england's women cricketers are playing their third and deciding one day international against south africa in canterbury south africa won the toss and batted but soon lost opener lizelle lee to anya shrubsole for just 2. andrie steyn went to sophie ecclestone for 19. south africa were 91—2 in the 27th

of their 50 overs. johanna konta has reached herfirst semifinal since wimbledon last year after beating dalila jakupovic at the nottingham 0pen. the british number one, who has had a disappointing season so far, recovered from a break down to take the first set and then improved further to win in straight sets. 6—4, 6—2 the final score. she'll face donna vekic in the semis. just time to tell you that dustion johnson has taken the outright lead on day two of the us open — he's 3 under par through 7 holes. we'll keep you updated. that's all the sport for now. plans to create a new criminal offence of "upskirting" — which is when people secretly take photos under someone's clothes without their consent — have been halted by a senior conservative mp. the government had signalled its support for plans to make it against the law in england and wales. the draft law was expected to be nodded through at two thirty this afternoon — but when the title of the bill

was read out, the conservative mp, sir christopher chope, shouted out "object". that one word was enough to halt the bill's progress. the private member's bill was put forward by the liberal democrat mp, wera hobhouse — shejoins us from westminster. how are you feeling right now? angry and frustrated, and disappointed. because we had built so much support, we had the backing of two ministers in the ministry ofjustice and the women's and equalities minister, we worked so well with jean martin, the campaign. a recent poll this morning showed 96% of the people in this country are behind this change in the law. and then one person can block the whole thing. it seems very frustrating and wrong. but that is the parliamentary procedure that we are faced with. when he shouted out object, how did you react? to be fair to his

conservative colleagues, they were sitting in their benches, they were supportive of the change and they said shame. he is pretty isolated in his own party. the procedure allows him to do it and he took advantage of that. for me, it was very annoying. to be honest, we were warned this would be coming since yesterday, so i have been trying to talk to so many people, including sir christopher myself, but he has shown no way of changing his mind today. if we can change his mind, we have another opportunity, the 6th of july have another opportunity, the 6th of july is the next update when i am trying again. maybe we can make a difference then. the minister is very much in favour and wants to do something. it is not lost. but it is delayed, and any delay is annoying in itself. the open—air season and the concert season is coming again, young women of all ages, but also girls as young as ten, was the

latest victim, are exposed to this heinous practice and we should stop it as soon as possible. do you know why so christopher chope objected? a p pa re ntly why so christopher chope objected? apparently he does it all the time. he does not believe in the process of private members bills, he says the government should give it debating time. but we have had so many discussions with lawyers. it is a small bill, same as is in place in scotla nd a small bill, same as is in place in scotland since 2009. a small amendment to the law which would make a big difference. he could have engage with me but he chose not to. it is his procedural objection to it. it seems so wrong that a procedural objection can stand against doing the right thing. you said you were frustrated, in reality, you must be furious?” said you were frustrated, in reality, you must be furious? i am, iam reality, you must be furious? i am, i am really angry. but i don't want to give up. this morning we had so

much positive feeling that we felt we could make a difference. this afternoon we are angry, but that is politics. not giving up is also politics. not giving up is also politics. thank you very much for your time this afternoon. millions of donkeys are at risk because of the growing demand for a traditional chinese medicine. the product is made by boiling donkey skins down into a paste, which is then used in a range of beauty products. the number of donkeys in china has halved since 1990 as the growth of china's middle—class means demand has soared. now producers are looking further afield, to africa, and one charity — spana — wants the trade stopped. the charity's ceo is geoffrey dennis — and he's here with me now. good of you to come. this product, what is it, and why donkeys?m good of you to come. this product, what is it, and why donkeys? it is used for traditional medicine and anti—ageing cream in china. it comes from donkey skin. you use the

gelatin, which is extremely cruel to the donkeys, quite often people starve them first so it is easier to get the skin off. secondly, a lot of the demand is being led towards african and african countries, who rely on these animals, these donkeys, for their livelihood. there are enormous numbers of people in the world that rely totally on working animals for their livelihood. they are destroying this. this is your involvement, as a charity, you go around the world, particularly to africa. it is not just the veterinary side of things that you are involved in, you also teach people how to look after their animals. because this is their livelihood? we do free veterinary ca re livelihood? we do free veterinary care in 25 countries around the world, mostly africa but some in asia. we do community training, which is really important, teaching owners to look after their animals. we do education in schools to teach children to admire and appreciate

animals. these are young donkeys, clearly, way above their own weight in terms of what they are pulling? in the past, it has been quite cruel the way they have been treated. but iam the way they have been treated. but i am really positive about the way we are doing community training, teaching people to look after animals. it is crucial in the world. you have been out to these places, you have taken some pictures. i want to warn the audience, these are by no means the worst pictures you have taken of what is involved in this particular outrage. the chinese demand is there, in africa, what happens to the donkeys? initially, a lot of the governments have allowed this to happen. 0ne lot of the governments have allowed this to happen. one of the things that spana is doing is working with african governments to ban the trade. we have been pretty successful. then it tends to go

underground and a lot of these are stolen. we are then advising the owners to look after their animals, advising them how valuable they are to them, because it is their livelihood, and also doing things like security fencing to help them. we are doing a lot. it has been pretty successful in africa but it is an enormous problem.” pretty successful in africa but it is an enormous problem. i know you are heading out to africa soon. what about the reaction when you confront people and say that this has got to stop? most of them, virtually all of the stuff we have in any of these countries come from these countries. so the country director in mali will talk to local people, he comes from there, he will say, this is wrong, what you're doing. in the past, people have been offered something like 150 for a donkey. some of the poorest communities in the world will say, actually, that's quite a lot of money. then they realise they haven't got a livelihood any more. we are advising them that we are

working with governments, it is pretty successful but an enormous problem. it must be pretty frustrating for you, or anybody that goes out and sees this happening?m is, it is also very sad. we were in zimbabwe and we save the lives of 40 or 50 donkeys. there were taken to one side or they would have died. thank you very much for coming in. the american justice department has released a long—awaited report into the way the fbi handled an investigation into hillary clinton's emails. she claims it contributed towards her losing the 2016 presidential race. the report accuses the former head of the agency, james comey, of being insubordinate but not politically biased. president trump said he did the country a great service by firing mr comey. chris buckler reports from washington james comey is a man who has been criticised by both sides of america's political divide. hillary clinton believes the former fbi director played a part in her losing the presidency, and he was subsequently fired by president trump.

during the 2016 campaign, mr comey was in charge of an investigation into hillary clinton's use of a private e—mail server. crowd: lock her up! it became a deeply contentious issue. and this new report finds james comey was insubordinate and made serious errors injudgement in how he handled that inquiry. but the fbi says there there was no attempt to influence the election. this report did not find any evidence of political bias or improper considerations actually impacting the investigation under review. however, this report does give details of text messages sent between fbi staff members, and in one of them, an agent talks of stopping donald trump becoming president. certainly, there are many things in this report that not only worry those of us in the administration but should worry a lot of americans, that people played this political bias and injected that in a department that

shouldn't have any of that. with a special counsel investigation still taking place into allegations of collusion and russian meddling, donald trump knows that all the events of the presidential election will remain under scrutiny. chris buckler, bbc news, washington. in a moment the business news. first a look at the headlines on afternoon live. an army sergeant who tried to murder his wife by sabotaging her parachute has been jailed for life with a minimum of 18 years. leslie grantham, best known for playing the part of dirty den in eastenders, has died at the age of 71 the government defends its flagship benefit scheme — universal credit — despite claims it may end up costing more than the previous system. here's your business headlines on afternoon live. charles horton, the boss

of the country's biggest rail franchise govia thameslink railway, has resigned. gtr which runs services including thameslink, southern and great northern, cancelled hundred of trains after the botched introduction of new timetables last month, something the prime minister mrs may called "totally u na cce pta ble". about 60 bank branches are closing every month — that's according to consumer group which? it claims that rbs is closing the most, and says it leaves many people left without proper access to services. the banks say they are closing branches because more and more customers are banking online. us telecoms giant at&t has completed its takeover of time warner. the deal, worth more than £60 billion, has been two years in the making, and was bedevilled by legal arguments over whether it was good — or bad — for competiton. but on tuesday us judge has ruled the deal didn't violate anti—competition laws and the deal was closed today. the head of govia thameslink railway has left. no tears shed there. i imagine a lot

of people are celebrating that. one wonders whether. .. i of people are celebrating that. one wonders whether... i mean, he was really have the forefront of the timetable crisis. remember when he had the driver strikes, the consolations. then we have the introduction of the new timetables. that was a complete disaster. he has decided he is going to go. there is a feeling that he is a cog in a much larger infrastructure problem that needs to be addressed. there are two review is under way. this is going to go on and on. this is the opening salvo in the repercussions of all of those problems. we can talk to sam ta rry those problems. we can talk to sam tarry from tssa, a union for the

transport and trade industries. is it charles horton's failure he is paying for? i think it is. it charles horton's failure he is paying for? ithink it is. if it charles horton's failure he is paying for? i think it is. if you speak to any of the hard—pressed staff along the line, if you speak to the tens of thousands of commuters that have notjust to the tens of thousands of commuters that have not just for the la st commuters that have not just for the last few weeks, because of the disastrous timetable change over, but for the four five years of disastrous delays, this is the line where instead of keeping the timetable to say it is one hour from london to brighton, theyjust increased it by about 20 minutes because they knew they would never because they knew they would never be on time. it is one of the worst franchises and one of the worst organised rail franchises in the country. we know the nature, in a way, of the problem, the symptoms, but isn't the problem actually deeper? southern was given all of that new timetable with three weeks notice and it suddenly wasn't enough time in order to be able to train

the drivers to actually carry out the drivers to actually carry out the new timetables? absolutely. our staff, members within gtr, said clearly that there were going to be problems. it seems to me that one area of the rail industry was not talking to another. the problem is, the rot goes all of the way to the top. today, charles horton has resigned. there will not be many people shedding tears for him. the buck has to stop with mr grayling, the transport secretary. ultimately, he was the person that has overseen this vast and unwieldy franchise that has been failing from the start. he is the person that has encouraged such a big and long industrial dispute with one of the other unions that has plagued passenger lives. at the same time, it has really given carte blanche for too long for gtr to plough the same furrow. this latest episode, for anybody that works in the rail industry themselves, they were not

surprised, just disappointed that it had not been picked up before. there is absolutely no reason that it should have happened. isn't it also down to things like the mechanics, the management contract? they were under contract and basically the company was told what to do, they said get on and manage it. it didn't really have an enormous control over what they were doing. they weren't allowed to? well, absolutely. management contracts in this particular instance are very badly designed, a badly designed way of running such a vast chunk of the network. the vast majority of passengers' journey every day are made on the gdr network. millions of journeys every single day. to have such a vast franchise almost set up to fell from the start. you only have a set amount of money coming from the government, so internally they salami sliced, they did not train drivers in time, they did not

invest in staff. or couldn't? well, our position has been quite clear. privatised rail does not work. the vast majority of this country agree with us. use a privatised rail doesn't work, if you are looking for nationalised rail, national rail itself could be held responsible and thatis itself could be held responsible and that is a nationalised system? but it was network rail's fault. it's very convenient for mr grayling and charles horton to blame them, but it is not people in network rail resigning today, it is charles horton. part of the problem is that there is a disconnect. it would be better to have the whole system overseen by network rail, to have a public operator running those lines. they are trying to squeeze profit out of something which we have given them a certain amount of money for, and it means that vast to be cut back, because it is the only way they will make more money. that doesn't work, less staff on trains, less safe, it has been a disaster from day one. i'm sorry, we are

running out of time, but thank you for joining running out of time, but thank you forjoining us. sorry to cut you short. i called it national rail, i meant to call it network rail. we are innate —— on a tight timetable. i watched to the four branches of my bank and they have all gone. suddenly. there are now 60 branches closing. sorry, mate, do it online! you can't put in a cheque online! don't take it out on me! that is the way it is going. this whole idea rob banks closure —— of banks closing. it reminds me of when the bus companies became privatised. so many of them got fewer and fewer customers, eventually they were taking in three men and a dog into

town once a day. we thought, what is the point of running this? nobody is using it, get rid of the thing. they are commercial entities, but carrying out a public service. not everybody does everything on computer. a lot of our viewers will 90, computer. a lot of our viewers will go, hang on, lots of us being left behind? but it is not a public utility. stop backing off like this! you are being very... the problem is, it is a conflict between a public good, a public utility, which is being provided by commercial entities. some people are getting in and filling the gap, things like metro bank, it breaks and mortar bank, top—up banks, in certain areas, one day a week or whenever it happens to be. there are solutions that are not being fully embraced. just getting to grips with what the problem is. gareth shaw is from

which. the way we bank today has changed radically. fewer people are visiting bank branches. the number of people walking into a brush to do their business has dropped by 20% underuse of online banking has raised by 13%. but there are a significant number of people out there that are not doing online banking. the banking industry says that 71% of people are. that leaves a third of people that aren't. there are a third of people that aren't. there a re two a third of people that aren't. there are two per7 a third of people that aren't. there are two per 7 million people in the country solely reliant on cash. when a bank closes its doors, it really hurts rural and a bank closes its doors, it really hurts ruraland semi a bank closes its doors, it really hurts rural and semi rural areas that don't have good access to broadband, they don't have good mobile coverage, they have higher populations of elderly people, they cannot order simply do not want to engage with online banking. what happens to them when the local bank

branch disappears? exactly. making your point. it is a real problem. how are you going to provide those banks to go into rural communities where they might have a dozen or so customers that are going to walk in each week? that is enough to justify having that breaks and mortar expense. well, that is what they say. but if you are running a bank and it is a very competitive industry, there are more banks around now than there have been four yea rs. around now than there have been four years. since probably a century ago. but they are all online. let's look at the market. the ftse is suffering. this is worries about the trade war, mr trump really opening this salvo. china has said they will retaliate. it looks like it'll get worse. it is odd, you might regard this as a kind of... you know, high octane negotiation. in many ways is what the americans would say. that we carry out what we threaten to do, we carry out what we threaten to do, we will still negotiate. it is

brinksmanship? brinkmanship once you have gone over the brink. it is going beyond. it is a trade war. and what damage it is going to do in the meantime. that is why the markets are down. what is happening with tesco ? are down. what is happening with tesco? they had some good results. they took over booker, a wholesale food supplier. the pound is looking strong. the euro is looking pretty strong. the euro is looking pretty strong. interest rates in the eurozone are not going to go up for about a year. don't look so nervous. you go and lie down.” about a year. don't look so nervous. you go and lie down. i will put a cold towel on my head. your suggestion, not mine! time for a look at the weather. here's sarah keith lucas. hello, there. after yesterday's very windy weather, all courtesy of storm hector, today

is much quieter, weather—wise. much less windy, plenty of sunshine around, too. this scene comes from one of our weather watchers in norfolk. so, blue skies there, just a bit of fair weather cloud around. today, with those lighter winds, there should be a good deal of sunshine. but not everywhere staying dry. a few showers on the cards, too. storm hector, this area of low pressure, clearing up, heading towards northern parts of scandinavia now. we have another frontal system approaching from the atlantic later on in the day. for much of the day, this is the scene. temperatures doing reasonably well, up to 23 degrees towards southeast, mid—to—high teams further north. mid—to—high teens further north. showers for northern ireland and for scotland. just one or two isolated ones further south. many of us dry into the evening hours. 0vernight, the cloud increases from the west ahead of this frontal system. so, rain working in during the early hours on saturday, to northern ireland, western scotland, western parts of england and wales. reasonably mild and under fair amount of cloud first thing saturday. how is the weekend shaping up? well, it is looking a little bit mixed.

it will be quite a showery picture through the day on saturday. most of us drier, although staying fairly cloudy by sunday. here is saturday for you. this frontal system, crossing from west to east. the heaviest of the rain will be in the north and west. so, there could be some thunderstorms mixed in with those heavy showers across parts of wales, northern england, northern ireland, scotland. further south east you are more likely to stay dry for quite a good part of the day. but it will be that little bit cooler, compared to the temperatures we are seeing out there today. in the warmer spots towards the south and east, 19 or 20 degrees possible. we are looking at the mid—teens further north west. through into the second half of the weekend, although there is another front approaching from the west it is a fairly weak warm front this time. we are left with a westerly airflow. through the day on sunday, the best of the sunshine will be for eastern scotland and eastern parts of england, more cloud working in from the west, bringing with it a few spots offairly light rain later on in the day. we will see those top temperatures on sunday afternoon, about 19 or 20 degrees towards the east, a touch cooler than that further west where you have more

in the way of cloud. looking ahead towards next week it is going to be warming up a little, lots of dry weather, some rain around, mainly in the north and west. goodbye for now. hello, you're watching afternoon live. i'm simon mccoy. today at four. an army sergeant who tried to murder his wife by sabotaging her parachute has been jailed for life with a minimum of 18 years. it is most appropriate sentence for man who twice tried to kill his wife. and we are pleased today with the verdict. this is a letter from my solicitor telling you your husband has filed a petition for divorce. the actor leslie grantham, who played dirty den in eastenders, has died at the age of 71. he was the archetypal charming rogue. he was good—looking, charming, funny. he was a good actor. an attempt to make ‘upskirting' a criminal offence in england and wales has been blocked by a single conservative mp.

coming up on afternoon live all the sport — hugh woozencroft. world cup? yes and a case of close but no salah. mo salah missing out on the world cup opener. you almost got away with that! talk to you later. let's look at the weather. there is sunshine, particularly in the south and east. some showers in the north west but if you suffer from hay fever, there are high levels of pollen and we will talk about that in about half an hour. i've been talking to thure lindhardt — one of the detective stars of the scandi noir series the bridge. as series four nears its climax he'll tell me about his role as henrik sabroe. hello, this is afternoon live.

i'm simon mccoy. an army sergeant has been jailed for life with a minimum of 18 years for trying to murder his wife by tampering with her parachute. the sentencing judge described emile cilliers as callous, and a person who would stop at nothing to gratify his own desires. duncan kennedy, has been following events at winchester crown court. this has been an extraordinary story from start to finish, over the three years that it's unfolded, in court cases and various other places. a story of sex, of greed, of sabotage. it is incredible to think that emile cilliers twice tried to kill his wife in the space of six days, once by attempting to blow up the house they lived in, and once by playing with the cords on her parachute, the main and reserve chute, in order to kill her. well, today, he was sentenced to two terms of life in prison, with a recommendation from the judge that he serve at least 18 years

injail, and thejudge described him as an "exceptionally callous person", who would stop at nothing to gratify his desires. victoria cilliers, on the left, today came to hear how long her husband would spend injail for two of the most bizarre murder attempts of recent years. she had no idea emile cilliers would first try to blow her up, and then try to turn the sport she loved into a weapon of murder. that sport was skydiving. here's victoria on an earlier flight. just like this one, over the same airfield in wiltshire, where she would nearly die. when victoria leapt out in april 2015, she didn't know her parachute had been sabotaged by her husband. she fell 4,000 feet and crashed into this field, but, incredibly, she survived. what was happening at the lcoker when you got there?

emile cilliers denied cutting cords off her parachute or trying to rig a gas explosion at their home, in order to kill victoria for a life insurance pay—out. but a jury found him guilty. nicolene shepherd was the mother of his first two children. she doesn't want her face shown, but told me his superficial charm always hid a sinister personality. i'm happy that i dodged a bullet. i'm glad she survived. i'm very glad he didn't manage to do what he tried to do. but, yeah, not surprised. he was the army sergeant, she was the army captain — two military lives torn apart by his uncontrollable appetite for sex and money, lives he eventually sabotaged to the point of death. thejudge said that

the judge said that he was motivated by three things. he wanted to get his hands on victoria's policy pay—out and needed her death for that, he was also afraid she might ruin his army career with his philandering going on. and also he wa nted philandering going on. and also he wanted to set up life with a new woman and get rid of victoria in the process. the detective inspector who has led the enquiry described him as a callous, calculating individual. the twists and turns of the investigation that started from a lady we thought had crashed through a malfunction, it turned out the husband tampered with the parachute and further investigation reveals there have been a gas leak in the house he was responsible for and throughout he lied, squirmed, never took any responsibility for his actions, and presented the front of actions, and presented the front of a cold and callous man who did everything for himself and got what he wanted when he wanted and that

was his character throughout the trial and it made it difficult for our investigation. it was three yea rs our investigation. it was three years from the start to the verdict. why did he want to kill her twice? he was a man who lived for himself. his initial sexual conquest commie have multiple partners. 0ur financial. victoria had life—insurance he thought he would get but he was wrong in that. he did it forfinance, get but he was wrong in that. he did it for finance, sexual motives and the girlfriend he had in america. there was no reaction when he was sentenced today. victoria has been in court to listen to the sentence. she told other interviews she does not know why he tried to kill her on those occasions. from today emile cilliers will begin two life sentences with the recommendation he will serve at least 18 years in jail. the actor leslie grantham, best known for playing dirty den watts in eastenders, has died at the age of 71.

the role was the biggest of his career, and he played the character in the popular soap from 1985 until 1989. the announcement follows news earlier this week that leslie grantham had returned to the uk from bulgaria to receive medical attention. 0ur correspondent david sillito looks back at his life. stinks in here, doesn't it? leslie grantham burst onto our screens back in 1985 with the opening episode of a new soap opera — eastenders. you found him then, dennis? yeah, kicked his door in. can you send an ambulance to... what number is it? 23. 23 albert square, walford. i'm den watts, publican of the queen victoria. however, this devious rogue soon acquired a nickname — dirty den. touch of the old dodgy strawberry. where's me fags? you've given them up, haven't you? yeah, oh, yeah. six little months to live. six tragic little months and poor old angie's going to pop off. the battles between den and angie reached a crescendo on christmas day 1986. 30 million people watched this

scene — a tv record. this, my sweet, is a letter from my solicitor telling you that your husband has filed a petition for divorce. three years later, he was gone, apparently murdered on a canal towpath. it was like working in a factory. you have to make a decision that you are going to move on so i said i wanted to leave and they kindly came up with a deal where i would stay on the screen for a year but i would do all my episodes in five weeks. so that was just very nice. i didn't have anyjob to go to, ijust felt i had to make the break. the daleks have secured the self—destruct chamber. the station is safe. before eastenders, there had been one or two tv roles. here supporting the daleks on doctor who. but he had come late to acting. he'd spent his 20s in prison serving an 11—year sentence for the murder

of a german cab driver. and then, 14 years after he left, he returned to eastenders. hello, princess. he had appeared in many other roles in the intervening years, but producers had long wanted him to return. it didn't last long. a lurid story involving a webcam and comments about his colleagues saw him leave albert square for good. speaking bulgarian. i am from england. it wasn't the end of his career. seven years later, he was back on screen in bulgaria. the star of a comedy called the english neighbour. he also tried his hand at writing children's books, but for tv audiences here, he could never escape the shadow of dirty den. leslie grantham who has died at the

age of 71. anita dobson has paid tribute in the past hour. i think he was the archetypal charming rogue. he was a good—looking guy, charming, funny. he was a good actor. he was fun to be around, we were good mates. but yes, it is always that kind of, that look about him that you just did not know what he would do next. that was his ace in the whole, that bit about in that was slightly unpredictable. which i liked, and which gave him the edge on tv. there was a restlessness in hi m, the edge on tv. there was a restlessness in him, which was in eight to leslie himself. they were memorable times. they changed my life —— they were innate to him. we

we re life —— they were innate to him. we were lucky with the cast opposite each other because the chemistry was magic. we did not have to do anything, it happened. we learned our lines, met onset and we were on and if anything went wrong recovered each other. it was miraculous. he joked, your mouth shut, mine opens, my mouth shut, your mouth opens. i came from nothing, from the east end, had no money. leslie had a chequered life before eastenders. but we understood each other, we understood that life can be tough. we were fortunate, we were catapulted to an exotic place. but we we re catapulted to an exotic place. but we were playing real people, people that we knew. i loved it. the scenes we re that we knew. i loved it. the scenes were terrific to play, we had great writers who wrote for us, once they realised there was a chemistry

there. the first rehearsal we did, he said, yes! that is all he did. i went, i know what you mean. something magic is happening. i knew exactly what he meant. he was thrilled that somehow it works. straight off the cuff it worked. anita dobson paying tribute to leslie grantham who has died at the age of 70. the government has been severely criticised in an official report on its flagship benefit reform, universal credit. the national audit office said the policy could prove more expensive than the system its replacing and it accused ministers of being in denial over the financial hardship it causes to some claimants. almost a million people receive the new combined benefit. the government insists it's good value for money, as kathryn stanczyszn reports. a damning verdict on the government's flagship benefit policy. today, a report describes how universal credit is failing in multiple ways. it says there's no evidence it will end up delivering value for money and its roll—out has been

flawed, leading to hardship for many. anderson armstrong has been unemployed since losing his job as a chef. he's built up debts in the process. universal credit came in at the end of september and i signed on from the beginning of august. at the end of september, i got my first universal credit payment. there were loads of arrears to come out of that. since then, i've been living off £18 a week. universal credit was intended to simplify the benefits process, and allow people in work to reduce the amount they claim gradually. it merges six benefits into one payment. the payment is then made directly into a claimant's bank account. people then pay their own costs like rent from that pot of money. but crucially, the payment‘s made in arrears and the report says it is not working for everyone. a significant minority, we think, are struggling to claim online, they are struggling to cope while they wait for their first

payment and they are struggling to cope with the fluctuating income they get on universal credit. last year, out of those who received late payments, 40% waited 11 weeks. 8% waited almost eight months, with a resulting increase in rent arrears and the use of food banks when universal credit‘s rolled out in any given area. despite recent improvements to the system, the report says a fifth of new applicants in march this year were still waiting longer than they should be. critics say it's a shambles, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. but the department for work and pensions has refused to accept it's causing hardship. what's important for us as a department is to make sure that we're providing support to people. that's why i go back to this point that, at the end of the day, people are able to get 100% advances. and what we're also seeing is that under universal credit people are able to get into work faster and stay in work longer, and that is what is making a huge difference, positively to people's lives.

the national audit office says there is no other practical choice than to carry on with the roll—out, but it should go no further until the system can't cope with a higher number of claims. kathryn stanczyszyn, bbc news. louisa mcgeehan director of policy for the charity child poverty action group and shejoins me now. iam i am wondering if this chimes with your experience. the report is damning and says it is not working. it is damning and when the national audit office has to come out and say this as an organisation with a strong reputation for analytics, thorough research, very robust, it is time to take notice. what has gone wrong? is the principal at fault, or its implementation? there area number of fault, or its implementation? there are a number of factors. the principal is initially attractive, the idea you wrap up different benefits into a package to make it

easierfor people to benefits into a package to make it easier for people to budget, benefits into a package to make it easierfor people to budget, however the way it has been implemented has created structural problems and unintended consequences, as well as those intended. we are talking about real hardship for people and when children are involved the hardship is made worse. at child poverty action group we have a warning system where we collect examples from around the country and look at them for common themes and we take them for common themes and we take them to the government to say these are the problems, this is what we suggest you do. give me an example. delays are continuing, so people heard about the government shortening the delay period but five weeks is an incredibly long time for afamily weeks is an incredibly long time for a family without resources to fall back on. nothing at all? no. they can apply in advance but that

becomes debt they have to pay back. some wait longer periods. there are areas in the system, one of the most easily fixable issues is around the way monthly income is assessed, so they are assessing every month to see how much someone has earned because generally we are talking about people who work, looking at how much they have earned and how much universal credit they should have to top it up but the way that works is so flexible, and so complicated, it does not reflect the real world of work these people are doing. they were told in good faith this is a system, you work and do your best for the family, the system will support you, and being in work will support you, and being in work will pay. unfortunately, we are finding it is not that people are worse off. the irony is the government introduce the system to help people, that work will pay but

thatis help people, that work will pay but that is not the experience you are seeing? not for a large number of people. the dwp did a survey and as well as finding around half the people found it difficult to use the online application system, 20% felt completely, but after 8—9 weeks on the benefit people suffered severe hardship, the money was not adding up hardship, the money was not adding up and it was not proving that it paid to be in work which is difficult when you look at families who are doing all they can to give their children a better life. thank you. you're watching afternoon live, these are our headlines. an army sergeant who tried to murder his wife by sabotaging her parachute has been jailed for life with a minimum of 18 years. leslie grantham, best known for playing the part of "dirty den" in eastenders, has died at the age of 71 halted by a senior conservative mp. plans to create a new criminal offence of "upskirting" have been halted by a senior conservative mp. and in sport, birthday blues for

egypt forward mohamed salah of the world cup. the unused substitute watches on as uruguay snatch a late 1-o watches on as uruguay snatch a late 1—0 win. south africa women cricketers look set for a commanding total in the one—day international against england in canterbury. johanna konta is through to the semifinals at the nottingham 0pen, winning in straight sets. i will be back with more on those stories just after half past. a senior conservative mp has blockaded a new law to prohibit taking photographs under someone's clothes — known commonly as upskirting. sir christopher chope shouted ‘object' when the title of the legislation was read out in the commons — despite the bill having government support. the draft law was expected to be nodded through at 2:30 this afternoon and sir christopher's decision to halt its progress has been strongly criticised.

earlier i spoke to wera hobhouse, who tried to bring in the bill, and asked her what happened. we had the backing of two ministers in the ministry ofjustice and we worked so well withjean martin the campaign. 0nlya recent worked so well withjean martin the campaign. only a recent poll this morning showed 96% of the people in this country are behind the change in the law and one person can block the whole thing, it seems frustrating and wrong. that is the parliamentary procedure we are faced with. when he shouted object, how did you react? to be fair to his conservative colleagues, they were supportive of the change and they said "shame". he is isolated in his party but the procedure allows him to do it and he took advantage of it. for me that was annoying. we

we re it. for me that was annoying. we were warned this would be coming since yesterday so i have tried to talk to so many people, including sir christopher, but he showed no way of changing his mind. we have another opportunity on the 6th of july, the next stage, when i try again. maybe we can make a difference then. the minister is very much in favour still and wants to do something, so it is not lost. but it is delayed and any delay is annoying in itself. the concert seasonis annoying in itself. the concert season is coming along again, the open—air season, and women of all ages and girls as young as ten, the latest victim, are exposed to this heinous practice and they should stop it as soon as possible. do you know why sir christopher objected? a p pa re ntly know why sir christopher objected? apparently he does it all the time. he does not believe in the process

of private members bills and he said the government should give it debating time. we have had discussions with lawyers on this bill. it is a small bill, already in place in scotland since 2009. it is a small amendment to the law that will make quite a big difference and to be honest, sir christopher could have engaged with me but chose not to. it is his procedural objection and it seems wrong a procedural objections can stand against doing the right thing. you say you are frustrated, in reality you must be furious? i am, i am angry, but! frustrated, in reality you must be furious? i am, i am angry, but i do not want to give up. this morning we had so much positive feeling we could make a difference. we are angry, but that is politics. not giving up is also politics. two teenage moped riders who stabbed a man to death during a violent robbery spree in west london have been given life sentences. 18—year—old troy thomas and 19—year—old nathan gilmaney

from maida vale were found guilty of murdering abdul samad for his mobile phone. the court heard the pair left a trail of destruction in their wake as they tried to rob as many people as possible over a four—hour period last october. the sentencing judge described the cctv footage of their crimes as chilling. two fairground workers have been sentenced to three years each for the gross negligence after a bouncy castle blew away with a young girl inside. seven—year—old summer grant died after the inflatable she was in was picked up by strong winds and was dragged for 300 metres in harlow in 2016. william thurston and his wife shelby had failed to ensure the bouncy castle was "adequately anchored" to the ground. the chief executive officer of govia thameslink railway, charles horton, has announced his resignation. mr horton — who oversaw the southern railway line which has suffered renewed industrial action — said in a statement that he recognised passengers were "hugely frustrated at the significant disruption caused by the introduction of new timetables."

i spoke to paul cox from the rmt union — and he said this should have happened some time ago. i think it's... there has been so much incompetence and they have managed to camouflage it, making allegation of unofficial industrial action two years ago, now blaming network rail for the most recent debacle. it is always someone else. it is never them. clearly the trail leads back to him, and he has done the right thing eventually, but, it has took a long time and it should have happen add long time ago. does that mean whoever replaces him, you will back them? simon, i am not going to back them, because the company that runs the franchise are every bit at culpable as charles horton. i believe that the transport minister is culpable because he has been charles horton's greatest advocate in keeping them in charge

of the franchise, supporting him and the franchise for the last two—and—a—half years where he has been transport minister, and i think he has to think about his position as well. i do think that the franchise should be taken into public ownership, similar to what is happening on the east coast, and has happened historically on southeastern. i think a publicly run railway is necessary to prove to the public and to give them the confidence that the passenger is always going to come first. is there any evidence anywhere this timetable is now bedding in? it will eventually, but it is not really the timetable, what they have tried to disguise and hide is the fact that they haven't got enough crew trained on either the rolling or the routes, over which the new trains go. that is what has created the impossible situation, but, they do tell fibs i am afraid, to defend themselves, because if it is truth what i am

seeing, it is incompetence that has led to the current situation, and of course they are never going to accept that is the case. just hypothetically, if you waved that magic ward and it was a nationalised rail system tomorrow, how quickly would passengers notice any difference and what would it be? the difference would be that people could have the confidence that whatever measures were taken were taken for the benefit, not to line the pockets of shareholders, but simply to look after the passenger, and it is about time this happened, these people have been allowed as a business to carry on for nearly four years. in two—and—a—half to three years which have been horrendous for the travelling public and for the people who work for them, and it isjust a nightmare that people deserve to come out of. you can have confidence that a publicly run railway, ran for the public, would deliver,

they would know that if there was anything going wrong they would get an honest answer for a start. starting from a position of honesty, you can start to put problems right on the railway. that was paul cox from the rmt union. time for a look at the weather. everybody is red eyed and affected by pollen. if you are a hay fever sufferer you will have noticed pollen levels have been really high, particularly this year, all down to the yo—yo weather. we get different types of pollen in different months. up to may from march it is tree pollen that dominates and later in the season grass pollen, which is dominant at the moment. mid—may until around july the moment. mid—may until around july and after the grass pollen, the weed pollen dominates and sometimes the seasons overlap. this year, we had a cold start to spring. cast

your mind back to march, the beast from the east, some of the early flowering plants did not flower, and later in april, warm weather, which meant everything exploded at once. some of the early plants did not get going early in the season and they are coming together now. it is known asa are coming together now. it is known as a condensed spring. what can we do? keep the grass short in your garden. that helps to keep pollen levels down. but not when you mow it. it does not when you mow it, get a friend to do it if you suffer from hay fever! clothes absorb pollen, so do not hang washing outside. keep windows closed. sounds boring on a summer's day. and check the bbc weather app, which will tell you what the expected pollen levels will be.

and you can tell us what is expected over the next few days. the pollen is very high across parts of the country, particularly central and south—east parts. tomorrow's levels will be lower across the country. still pretty high in the south—east. moderate to low elsewhere. today it is looking largely dry with sunny spells across many parts. this is the scene in gloucestershire at the moment. more showers in the far north—west, but lighter winds them recently. through the weekend, keeping with showers on saturday. drier on sunday. storm hector is clearing towards the north now. although we have another front approaching from the west, before that, many looking at a dry evening. temperatures up to 23 in the south.

still some scattered showers in scotla nd still some scattered showers in scotland and northern ireland which will fade this evening. 0vernight, the next area of rain arrives. it brings rain to northern ireland, far west scotland and western fringes of england and wales in the early hours of saturday. eastern areas starting largely dry. it is the east where we will keep the sunshine the longest because this system will work in from the west. the heaviest rain on that front will be in the north, northern ireland, scotland, north—west england and parts of north wales. there could be thunder and lightning mixed in. further south, lighter and patchy across southern england and wales. and in the south—east, it looks like we will hold the drier weather longest. a cooler day than we have seen today. that front gets out of the way through saturday evening. a dry

speu way through saturday evening. a dry spell overnight into sunday. another front tries to move in on sunday but it isa front tries to move in on sunday but it is a week, warm front. introducing cloud from the west. introducing cloud from the west. introducing some rain in the west. but some sunshine breaking through. 0n but some sunshine breaking through. on balance, sunday probably the best day of the weekend. a quick look ahead at next week and it looks like a lot of dry weather and things will be warming up. watch out for rain at times in the north—west. this is bbc news — our latest headlines...

a former army sergeant has been jailed for life, with a minimum of 18 years, for attempting to murder his wife by tampering with her parachute. thejudge described emile cilliers as callous. the most appropriate sentence for a man who twice tried to kill his wife in a totally callous and cold way. i'm very pleased today with the verdict. this, my sweet, is a letterfrom my solicitor, telling you that your husband has filed a petition for divorce. tributes have poured in for actor leslie grantham, famous for his portrayal of dirty den in eastenders, who died at the age of 71. he was the archetypal charming rogue. he was a good—looking guy, a charmer, funny. he was a good actor. a damning new report has said the government's flagship benefit scheme is not delivering value for money. the national audit office said universal credit was slow, expensive and had caused hardship.

attempts to make ‘upskirting' a criminal offence have been derailed by a conservative mp. sir christopher chope objected to the government—backed bill, halting its progress. sport now on afternoon live. day two at the world cup is well under way. one match down, and two to go. 0lly foster is in moscow. russia already have early competition in their group, but it was not the day that mohamed salah was not the day that mohamed salah was hoping for? heartbreak for them, the first much of the day. egypt against uruguay was the second match in group a. mo salah's shoulder was

not 100%, as the manager said, overall. he started on the bench and didn't come off the bench. egypt tried to keep uruguay at bay. luis suarez had an off day and rosti. cavani hit the post. at the end, gimenez rose highest, a brilliant header to win it for uruguay. they arejust header to win it for uruguay. they are just below russia, with russia's magnificent goal difference. heart rate for egypt, and even more questions about just rate for egypt, and even more questions aboutjust how fit mohamed salah is. clearly, he is not fit at all otherwise he would have played some part, surely coming today's match. i imagine he would. onto group b, with spain and portugal in the group, the current match between

morocco and iran will be vital for the teams desperate to get three points? absolutely, the games are coming thick and fast. we have seen all of the group b teams by the end of the day. this is taking place in st petersburg. morocco have been well on top, a goalmouth scramble early on in the first half. still about 50 minutes to play. morocco really felt they should have scored. they have just had another chance as well, well saved by the iranians keeper. but that one is still goalless. then we turn our attentions to sochi, between portugal, cristiano ronaldo, the world player of the year, and spain, who sacked their coach a couple of days ago. we have told that story so may times. how will they be affected by all of that shenanigans for the last few days? then a little bit of

focus on england. things seem to be going very well in terms of planning. apparently the starting tea m planning. apparently the starting team for monday night against tunisia is not yet nailed on? no, we heard whispers that gareth southgate was not the kind of guy that would only tell his players on the eve of the match, the morning of the match, we thought he wanted his players settled. the good news is that marcus rashford's knee seems to be better. he should have a full 23 to pick from before they had to play tunisia in the opener on monday. it all seems calm at the team camp. the players have been asked about the time when they find out if they are in or out. it is different for different players. i'm not too bothered.

if i had to choose, i would like to know earlier, then you can get your head around it. any game in the world cup is a tough game. you know, the atmosphere brings a lot out of both teams. so, we are ready for a tough game, and aggressive start. we need to be ready. all will be revealed soon enough. a quick update, iran have had a 40 ya rd quick update, iran have had a 40 yard free kick. i think it is still sailing high into the russian skies. still goalless between morocco and iran. thanks forjoining us. he will be back with a full look out the action in sportsday. that is all of the sport for now. a ceremony has taken place in westminster abbey, for the burial of the ashes of stephen hawking. the physicist was laid to rest among other great scientists, as his voice is being beamed into space. 0ur reporter sarah campbell has been speaking to two young people about why they wanted to attend today's service. well, professor stephen hawking

was renowned not just as a brilliant scientist, but as somebody who was able to overcome severe disability, and as an inspiration to others. that will very much be reflected in the memorial here today, and two of the people that will be in the congregation i am very pleased are here tojoin me, they are from the national star college in cheltenham, which is for people with learning difficulties and disabilities. would you mind introducing yourself, first jack? my name is jack. i attend national star college where i study sports. i love festivals and music and i want to be a dj. and rose? hi, my name is rose, i go to national star college, where i study drama. i love movies and i'm working on writing film reviews to be published. thank you, rose. both are going to be here today, so jack, if i can ask you first of all, what did professor stephen hawking mean to you?

he was a great scientist. and rose, for you, what it is like to be here today at his memorial? i should explain rose is using a similar sort of voice recognition system to stephen hawking's. it will be sad, but it is an honour to be here. and jack, back to you, is the fact that people are familiar with sort of voice recognition systems like yours because of stephen hawking? has that made it easier for you, for people to understand your communication? absolutely. he was most famous for science, and the fact he used a communicator came second to this. yes, and rose, finally, an important question, did he break down barriers for people with disabilities?

well, i think he showed what people with disabilities can do. i'm going to be an actress. everybody who puts their mind to something gets to be it. stephen hawking proved that more than anyone. it's the scandi—noir series that's taken the uk by storm. and tonight the bridge is back on bbc two as it approaches the climax of series 4. the big question — what's in store for detectives henrik and saga? well earlier i wasjoined by the danish star thure lindhardt — who plays henrik.. but a first a look at the last episode. and thurejoins me now. welcome. wow, this is one of the high points of the whole series for you, i would guess. that relationship is crucial. yes. how does it work? because she has asperger‘s? yes.

and then this love story develops? yes. she is the only one who understands him. he is a tormented man. he's a man who is in deep sorrow and deep pain. sorrow can be very lonely, and not a lot of people understand mourning, what mourning is really about. but she accepts him the way he is. because you arrived into the series later. yes. she'd already had one partner? yes. was it an easy thing, as an actor, to do? because they were very much entrenched by the time you were there. it was already a successful programme. right, well, it was, because the character was so sparkling and so different, and so new. it was really a very... i really loved that character from the moment i read it. well, he seems nice. and then very soon we realise he is not quite as easy, probably more complex in some ways than she is. did you know in advance how the story was going to go? yes. i knew a lot of things. especially in season 4, which we are in now.

i almost knew everything. in season 3, i knew almost everything. how easy was it to get into that character with her? she plays a very difficult person? yes. it was very challenging, because sofia, privately, is like the most lovely, wonderful... she's a joker, isn't she? yes, yes, very much. she is very intelligent, and very lovely. and then she goes into this character that is very honest, very brutal and very obnoxious. it was like just meeting a real human being that was really annoying. it was very interesting. you, as a character, you have your issues. drugs, a family who have just disappeared. and it suddenly becomes very much about you? yes. how was that to deal with? well, i think when we decided to do season 4, it was pretty obvious that we had to go after henrik‘s

story and figure out what happened to his children, and what happened to him. so, i kind of knew that is what it would be about. i don't want to give too much away, because it's on tonight. but that relationship between the two of you, it's about everybody else really pussyfooting around you, really? she doesn't, she gets you? she gets me. i tend to see them... you know that pink floyd song, i wish you were here? we're just two lost souls swimming in a fishbowl. that's that's how i see them. i see them as two very lost souls, two lonely characters that get each other. i think that's the love story of the show. you get each other. the brits get this form of drama. anybody who hasn't seen it says, hang on, it's got subtitles.

within seconds, that doesn't matter. what is it about these scandi—noirs that we talk about? there's the killing, there's borgen there's the bridge. why do you think the british particularly get it? i think we share a sense of humour. and i think there's an honesty about these shows that the brits get. i think we actually have a lot in common, in that way. we also love your comic shows in scandinavia. and i think it's a mix between that very dark, brutal and honest story, and then all the comedy, the reliefs. very lonely, the portrayal of your country, in some ways, in the bridge? that's true, maybe we have that in common as well. or we will! we won't go into that right now. let's talk about you. some people are looking at your face now, i've never seen the bridge, but i know that face. you were in angels and demons, fast and furious. you've been around ?

i have, yes. and what's next? what's next? i'm going to do a film, i'm going to do a tv series. i teach as well, so i'm going to go to a school and teach acting students. then i'm going to do theatre as well. i'm actually going to play shakespeare, in shakespeare in love. where will that be? in denmark. you will all have to come to denmark. but you will know the play and the film. yes, we will have a rough idea of it, won't we? and you've got a family at home, an eight—month—old daughter, i think. so, life is busy? life is busy, but it's good. i hesitate to ask, will there be more the bridge? we haven't seen the final episode, so we are not quite sure how things end. well, we decided this should be the final season. you have just broken hearts around the country. thure lindhardt, very good to talk to you. thank you very much forjoining us. thank you very much. ina

in a moment... good interview. you are relaxed, you were in a foul mood and hour ago. first, are relaxed, you were in a foul mood and hourago. first, the are relaxed, you were in a foul mood and hour ago. first, the headlines. an army sergeant who tried to murder his wife by sabotaging her parachute has been jailed for life with a minimum of 18 years. leslie grantham, best known for playing the part of dirty den in eastenders, has died at the age of 71 plans to create a new criminal offence of "upskirting" have been halted by a senior conservative mp here's your business headlines on afternoon live... charles horton, the boss of the country's biggest rail franchise govia thameslink railway has resigned. gtr, which runs services including thameslink, southern and great northern, cancelled hundred of trains after the botched introduction of new timetables last month, something the prime minister mrs may called "totally u na cce pta ble". about 60 bank branches are closing every month — that's according to

consumer group which. it claims that rbs is closing the most, and says it leaves many people without proper access to services. the banks say they are closing branches because more and more customers are banking online. us telecoms giant at&t has completed its takeover of time warner. the deal, worth more than £60 billion, has been two years in the making, and was bedevilled by legal arguments over whether it was good — or bad — for competiton. but on tuesday a us judge has ruled the deal didn't violate anti—competition laws and the deal was closed today. tesco shares are on the up? they had good results. ten quarters they have been growing, basically. they had that turnaround, the accounting scandal four years that turnaround, the accounting scandalfour years ago. that turnaround, the accounting scandal four years ago. that has been put behind it. it had a recovery plan and is doing extremely well. also, in a way, it's got to do

well. also, in a way, it's got to do well because there is so much competition in the market. we have the asda and sainsbury possible tie—up, aldi and lidl in the background. behind this is online grocery shopping, they are all trying to get themselves prepared for that. that is why they are trying to scale. that is why tesco took over booker, the wholesale business, to get the kind of size to compete on a fairly major... get to a kind of level where they can get to compete on that level. rolls—royce as well. yesterday, shocking news, given the figure of jobs are going. the muppets liked it yesterday and they like it even more today. the company has been talking today. the company has been talking to a nalysts, today. the company has been talking to analysts, they say they are on target to beat —— the markets like it yesterday, and they are on track

to beat the forecast. they are making the company more streamlined. they are getting rid of large areas of middle management. they have saved engineerjobs, they are not at risk. they will be putting them there to sort out the problems with there to sort out the problems with the engine, these new engines which are powering things like the 787, the dreamliner and things like this, they are saying the problems they have there, the parts they are putting in, are wearing out too quickly. that has still got to be dealt with. they are calling it a significant issue. on the other hand, they say because of the way they are restructuring the company, it is going to be doing well in the coming months. markets generally are a bit spooked. we could be looking ata a bit spooked. we could be looking at a rather serious trade war? you have made is going on, good figures, but we have mr trump and xijinping

declaring a trade war. mr trump said he would put $50 billion worth of imports, they are going to receive taxes. and xijinping has said he will reciprocate one way or another. it is upping the stakes and rhetoric. it is a trade war? yes, people's lives. 0nce rhetoric. it is a trade war? yes, people's lives. once you start slapping taxes on import, that is a trade war. joining me now is russ mould, investment director at aj bell. are we going to feel this? we will find out. the president is trying to be quite canny, the areas affecting tariffs are areas that china is focusing on, industrial automation, robotics, automobiles, made in china, the export drive outlined by president xi, but he is not putting

taxes on things like televisions. but if you stick a tax on something it will be more expensive. three questions are addressed, one is what this does to world trade, does that mean it starts to slow down, and the latter is the experience where we go to the 1930s. does it drive inflation up and make things more expensive? inflation up and make things more expensive ? does inflation up and make things more expensive? does it mean that central backs have to raise interest rates more quickly? all of those things mean that is why the stock markets are down this afternoon. on the other hand, we have good corporate results. well, rolls—royce is not exactly a corporate results. the markets really like what they were saying. can you give me detail about what was said at the analyst meeting today that so encourage investors? yes, they have laid down a target of £1 billion a year in free cash flow for 2020. he said the company is better placed to exceed that target. a big part of this is the job reductions announced yesterday, no comfort to the people of derby. but

he will say they don't make the cost cuts, the company is too complex and cost heavy, we will not be able to make the profits, and if we don't make the profits, and if we don't make the profits and cash flow, we will not be able to invest in our product and remain competitive against heavy hitters like general electric. analysts got excited by the talk of more cash flow to cement the talk of more cash flow to cement the competitive future. what about tesco ? the competitive future. what about tesco? good figures, but there is a lot of competition around. if sainsbury‘s and asda put themselves together, that is quicker? under dave lewis and charles wilson, booker tesco is doing a betterjob than many people expected. booker sales were up 10%, the tesco uk operation has grown for ten quarters ina row, operation has grown for ten quarters in a row, they seem to be getting them to work together more quickly. it is generating revenue benefits. there are still cost benefits to come. it was a £4 billion deal, lots

of questions asked about it at the time. tesco sees to be making it work, that is why the shares at a four—year high, despite lingering concerns four—year high, despite lingering concerns about what amazon will do if it enters the market more fully thanit if it enters the market more fully than it has so far. good to talk to you. all very cheery! the markets? the ftse, as we were talking about, it is down. tesco, up 2%. rolls—royce has come off the boil a little bit. the pound against the euro, the euro was looking quite weak. it is not so much the strength of the pound, wea kness much the strength of the pound, weakness of the euro, they said interest rates are probably not going to go up in the eurozone for about a year. we are done, have a good weekend. you too. nice to end ona good weekend. you too. nice to end on a friendly note... a bit of news we are getting from washington. we are hearing that a federaljudge has

revoked the bail conditions for paul manafort. he is the former campaign chairman for the us president donald trump. this will mean he is going to have to spend his time in a jail cell awaiting his criminal trial. a judge making this decision after prosecutors working for the special counsel, robert mueller, investigating russia's role in the presidential election, alleging that paul manafort and an associate try to tampa in witnesses in the case. he was first indicted in october, he was on home confinement, required to a monitoring device. his trial is not until september. it would appear now that he has to go to prison and await the start of a trial in a few months. we will have much more on that. we will get reaction from president trump as well no doubt. we will be watching twitter. that is it from us. next, the bbc news at five

o'clock. let's look at the weather now. hello, there. after yesterday's very windy weather, all courtesy of storm hector, today is much quieter, weather—wise. much less windy, plenty of sunshine around, too. this scene comes from one of our weather watchers in norfolk. so, blue skies there, just a bit of fair weather cloud around. today, with those lighter winds, there should be a good deal of sunshine. but not everywhere staying dry. a few showers on the cards, too. storm hector, this area of low pressure, clearing up, heading towards northern parts of scandinavia now. we have another frontal system approaching from the atlantic later on in the day. for much of the day, this is the scene. temperatures doing reasonably well, up to 23 degrees towards southeast, mid—to—high teens further north. showers for northern ireland and for scotland. just one or two isolated ones further south. many of us dry into the evening hours. 0vernight, the cloud increases from the west ahead of this frontal system. so, rain working in during the early hours on saturday, to northern ireland, western scotland, western parts of england and wales. reasonably mild under a fair amount of cloud first thing saturday.

how is the weekend shaping up? well, it is looking a little bit mixed. it will be quite a showery picture through the day on saturday. most of us drier, although staying fairly cloudy by sunday. here is saturday for you. this frontal system, crossing from west to east. the heaviest of the rain will be in the north and west. so, there could be some thunderstorms mixed in with those heavy showers across parts of wales, northern england, northern ireland, scotland. further south east you are more likely to stay dry for quite a good part of the day. but it will be that little bit cooler, compared to the temperatures we are seeing out there today. in the warmer spots towards the south and east, 19 or 20 degrees possible. we are looking at the mid—teens further north west. through into the second half of the weekend, although there is another front approaching from the west it is a fairly weak warm front this time. we are left with a westerly airflow. through the day on sunday, the best of the sunshine will be for eastern scotland and eastern parts of england, more cloud working in from the west, bringing with it a few spots

offairly light rain later on in the day. we will see those top temperatures on sunday afternoon, about 19 or 20 degrees towards the east, a touch cooler than that further west where you have more in the way of cloud. looking ahead towards next week it is going to be warming up a little, lots of dry weather, some rain around, mainly in the north and west. bye for now. today at 5: the attempt to make upskirting a criminal offence is blocked by a single conservative mp. the bill to prohibit the taking of photos under someone's clothes was halted when sir christopher chope objected — even though the move had government support. 0nly only a recent poll this morning showed 96% of the people in this country are behind this change in the law and then one person can block the whole thing, it seems very frustrating and wrong. we will be live at westminster.

we'll find out why he wanted to halt the bill. the other main stories on bbc news at 5. a former army sergeant is sentenced to life in prison after he twice tried to murder his wife, in a gas explosion and by tampering with her parachute.