cooler, cloudier and some rain across scotland and northern ireland, all courtesy of this frontal system this evening that heads its way further eastwards, bringing spells of rain for eastern parts of northern ireland, central and western scotland, and some of those bursts of rain headed into north—west england and wales during the early hours of monday. still hot and humid overnight further south and east of that, but things will turn fresher from the north west. during the day on monday, as that front works its way further eastwards, we'll see more cloud, with some showery rain for england, wales, down towards the south—west of england, too. in central and eastern parts of england there could be an isolated shower, but i think predominantly dry, hot and humid once again. up to around 29 in london. 20 in belfast, though, with a return to fresher conditions, with sunshine and one or two showers. then through the week ahead, things gradually turning cooler and fresher for all of us, with a mix of sunshine and showers, but wetter weather to end the week. bye— bye. hello, this is bbc news. the headlines: the us president, donald trump, has left the uk on air force one. he's on his way to meet the russian president in helsinki.

the prime minister warns conservative mps they are putting brexit at risk by arguing over her proposals for how the uk will leave the eu. if we were going to find something that was in britain's interest, that delivered on the referendum and that was negotiable, we had to make what is a compromise, but is a positive in terms of the benefits that it gives us. police say the search operation to find traces of the novichok nerve agent which poisoned dawn strugess and charlie rowley is "the most complex and difficult uk policing has ever faced". it's the world cup final in moscow this afternoon, and these were the scenes in paris after france took the lead against croatia. although croatia have just equalised. novak djokovic has won this year's men's wimbledon title, beating the south african kevin anderson in straight sets. tourists from all over the world

visit uluru every year, but for decades, there has been a dispute over the controversial practice of climbing the rock, which is a sacred place for indigenous australians. from the end of 2019, the chain that makes the climb possible will finally be removed. as rebecca henschke reports, it is a vital step in reclaiming the rock. it's considered one of the great natural wonders of the world. and is a deeply sacred place for australia's indigenous anangu people. one of the oldest civilisations on earth. uluru, also known as ayers rock, a sandstone monolith in the heart of northern territory‘s red centre, dates back more than 500 million years.

tourists from all over the world visit the site every year. for decades, there's been a bitter row over the controversial practice of climbing the rock. have you guys heard that the aboriginal people don't want people to climb? yes, i do. and i understand that. but i'm going to do it anyway. there are signs here at the base of the climb clearly saying, "please don't climb". "it's against traditional law". translated into six languages. but still, every day we've been here there has been a steady stream of climbers. indigenous communities have long campaigned for the behaviour, which they considered deeply offensive, to end. now, the time for talking is over.

from november next year, the climb will close. i'm here in the spiritual heart of australia, where i was born, to find out why it's taken so long, and how the anangu people feel about the multi—million dollar tourism operation that's been built around their sacred site. uluru is steeped in ancient stories about the creation time. the anangu people believe that in the beginning, the world was unformed and featureless. from this void, ancestral beings emerged and travelled across the land, creating all living species. uluru is the physical evidence of feats performed during the creation period. they have walked this land for over 50,000 years. the anangu believe they are

the direct descendants of the ancestral beings that created uluru, and are responsible for the protection of these ancestral lands. pamela taylor is one of the rock's traditional owners, a painter, and holder of the sacred stories enshrined in it. what would happen? i would be in trouble! individual stories passed down orally as precious inheritance through families. some shared with outsiders like me in the hope that they will understand their significance. pamela's family holds the story of lungkata,

a greedy and dishonest blue—tongue lizard ancestral being who came to uluru from the north, and stole meat from the emu and went back up to his cave. the foundation of anangu life and society is known as tjukurpa — a huge word that encompasses many things. it's religion and culture, but it's also law, with clear punishments for breaking it, explains auntie alison, another western desert elder. and through that process of listening to your elders, hearing the stories, do you get a sense of what's right and what's wrong? these creation stories

are the anangu's spiritual compass. they say the caves, marks and rock formations all live and breathe with them. senior traditional owner sammy wilson's family holds the story of kuniya, the python woman at uluru. sammy tells me that she fought liru, the poisonous snake here at uluru, and signs of that ferocious battle are all around this water hole. for ii—year—old tilly, going to uluru and into the caves, where there are rock art tens of thousands of years old, is a deeply spiritual experience.

i felt like my nana was right beside me, and my grandpa, my great—great—grandpa. and ifelt sad, because it was a very long time ago, when he passed, when he did that painting. and is that place a very special place for you? yeah, because we're not really allowed to go in the rock, because we will get sick, and on that rock, when you step on the rock, you will get sick because you are stepping on your culture and your dreaming. stepping on the dreaming is what hundreds of thousands of tourists around the world have done. including princess diana and prince charles, when they visited. the indigenous owners have asked us not to show footage of the climb, which is why we're not doing it. when the first known white

australian explorers came to the area in 1873, they named the rock ayers rock, after the premier of south australia, henry ayers. ayers arrived in australia with his wife, ann potts, from england in 1840. he gained wealth and power through mining before entering politics. over the next three decades in parliament, he exercised significant influence over the shaping of modern australia. voiceover: this is the goal: ayers rock looms up like a giant mound from ten miles away... by the 1950s, increasing numbers of nonindigenous australians were flocking to ayers rock. the radio mast goes up to confound the spirits of the primitive men

who made the rock for untold ages the focal point of their legends and ceremony. and the anangu people were displaced. they might not look it, but they are nearly civilised. then to climb the rock itself. no easy task, as the climb steepens to an angle of 60 degrees. and the surface is flaky and treacherous. the big climb became the white australian's sacred duty. it's almost like a rite of passage. they have heard from their parents and often their parents' parents that you have to come out here and climb. australians like to conquer things, and i think that's probably one of the reasons, but it's notjust australians — we get lots of europeans, and people from asia particularly, that do want to climb. many of the climbers i meet at the base of the rock have come to do it before it closes.

it's always been my dream, and ifinally made it. yeah, i like to do challenges. i'll see how far we get in the morning. have you guys heard that the aboriginal people don't want people to climb? yes, i do. and i understand that but going to do it anyway. yeah. because this will be the last chance, because they're closing it off next year, and next year i will be too old. so you don't feel at all kind of uneasy about that, if they say this is like a sacred site for them, like climbing notre dame or a sacred church? i hadn't thought of that aspect of it. no, me neither. i think we need to work with them and understand their culture and things like that. in years to come, they might change their minds and say all right, let's open it again. or they might open it for a certain period of a time each year

or something like that. i came here with some girlfriends specifically to climb it before they closed it, we just wanted to get the full experience of uluru. and you know why the climb is closing, don't you? that the anangu people don't like it, they feel like it's trampling on one of their sacred sites, did you not feel at all bad doing it? idid. i did, and after climbing it, i'm glad that i climbed it and had the opportunity to climb it, but i respect is why they don't want people to climb it. it's very sacred and very important to them. so when you were climbing, you didn't feel at all bad? idid. there were parts of me that did. but the experience of wanting to get the full experience of the rock, i suppose... pushed that aside, to... i don't know, get the overall experience of it. it wasn't until 1985 that the anangu people,

after being recognised as traditional owners, were presented with the freehold title deeds for the uluru national park area. an event known as the handback. 2000 invited guests were there to enjoy a happy occasion, and it was. just before sunset, they handed over the title to uluru national park — 1,300 square kilometres of land, including ayers rock and mount 0lga. in 2011, the indigenous land council bought the ayers rock resort, with a promise to employ and train aboriginal people for jobs in the tourism sector. as well as being blown away by the natural beauty of this area, equally impressive is the tourism machine that's been built around it. buses bringing in hundreds of people each day into this very isolated area. 300,000 visiting each year. bringing in hundreds

of millions of dollars into the australian economy. the threat of losing the tourist dollar if they push for the climb to be closed was enormous pressure for the indigenous owners. you said it felt like a gun was held to your head. and talk they did. in an historic vote, the board of 12 people, including eight anangu elders, decided to shut the climb down last year. i was there on the day, and there were tears in people's eyes. not just anangu, but from staff who have been here for many, many years.

everyone was just so excited that finally the decision had been made. why did it take so long, though? well, anangu are very mindful, particularly for tourism, that there are many people who do want to climb uluru and that's why you have the lead time of two years for the decision to be implemented. again, they've done things the right way, there's been lots of consultation and the tourism ministry is fully supportive of the decision. sammy wilson has set up his own tourism company to try and get some of those visitors to see the land through their eyes. he's referring to the 35 people who have died attempting to climb uluru. we actually say to people, it's the equivalent of you clambering over notre dame.

once you explain it that way, people are horrified, and they realise, but if you say it's culturally significant and it's really important to traditional owners, that doesn't resonate. when we explain what you have done is sacrilege, they are taken aback and they understand. later in the day, pamela, who was planning to climb uluru in the morning, catches up with me at a different part of the rock, and she's very keen to talk again. my true reason for climbing is my ego, because i've just turned 70, i've got two replacement knees, and i want to see if i could challenge myself to get as far as i can. and you've been thinking about that since we saw you last? i have been thinking about it since i saw you. and yes. it's the ego? it's the ego, definitely. almost 200 years since the british invasion, australia remains the only commonwealth country to have never signed a treaty with its indigenous people. last year, around 300 indigenous leaders came together at uluru, demanding real legal and political

recognition and power as the first nation people of australia. i grew up on anangu land, in an area european settlers called new england, because with its cool climate and rolling hills, it reminded them of home. where's the ham ? but my family on my father's side were amongst the first settlers to come from europe to south australia. what you think, rebecca? do you like prawns? while i was working on this story, i realised i had a much closer connection to uluru, or ayers rock, then i had realised. with the arrogance of invaders and the ignorance of outsiders, they gave the rock the name ayers rock after my great—great—great uncle, henry ayers, who was the senior politician in australia at the time.

a connection i've only recently realised, and i'm not sure how i feel about it. i spent the day thinking about this connection. after years living away from australia, this trip has made me realise how dislocated nonindigenous australians are to the stories of the land we live in. i tell sammy that henry ayers is my great—great—great—great uncle. the person that, the first white person to come here named this rock after. it's something ifeel a little uncomfortable about. i want to say sorry for the disrespectful way and brutal way that families like mine treated aboriginal people in the past. his reaction surprises me. he's excited, because he says his great—great grandfather met explorer william goss. what did they talk about?

do you think it was weird that they came up with that name, ayers rock, that they wanted to call it something different? sorry about that. later that afternoon, i tell alison. well, aboriginal people don't hold grudges. what was past is past. from the beginning. i speak five languages. and english is my fifth. with alison's language skills, she works as a bridge between the elders, the government and the tourism operators. today is dancing in a welcome ceremony for visitors

here for a cultural festival. on stage is tilly, with her all—female schoolgirls drumming group. it's an event that showcases indigenous culture from across australia, for a mixed audience. renowned australian indigenous country music singer troy cassar—daley is a regular performer. what it does is bring people from the outside and helps immerse them in some cultural things they'll never see in sydney, black and white people should all come here and carry this bit of the spirit home. i mean, touch your foot over there near uluru and take a bit of that feeling with you, it's not hard to feel it, it's a great place.

and then, as night falls, a new way of stories being told is revealed. indigenous australian fashion brands using material with the paintings that tell the ancient stories of the creation time. led by australia's leading indigenous model. indigenous art work is on canvas and things like that, but it's really great that now it's being put into fashion, it also has into fashion, it also has lots of meaning behind it, there is a story behind it, it's notjust a normal dress you would buy in a shop. it's special. elder auntie alison, who helped organise this festival, says she wants to see more of this kind of tourism at uluru. a sharing of stories, rather than conquering the rock. do you think there's enough of this kind of talking? the sharing of our shared

australian history in order to heal and create a new, more inclusive, modern narrative on this ancient land. hello there. for many places, the warm, glorious summer weather is to continue through the course of the weekend. but things are starting to change.

this was the scene sunday afternoon in hastings. beautiful blue skies there captured by one of our weather watchers. and as we head through the coming week, things will gradually start to turn a little bit cooler. there will be the chance that that sunshine will be interrupted by some rain, which will be welcome rainfall across some parts of the country that have seen barely any rain over the past six weeks or so. so, the rain that we're going to see at some point this week is all down to frontal systems moving in from the north west, while high—pressure still keeps things dry over the south and east of the uk. so, here's the satellite and radar showing the cloud and rain that we've had out there during sunday afternoon. particularly for northern ireland and the western half of scotland, it has been raining. but for eastern scotland, things remaining dry into the evening hours. england and wales ending the day on a warm, humid and dry note. through this evening and overnight, we will start to see more cloud just pushing its way into parts of north—west england and wales as well, with a few spells of rain. northern ireland clearer, drier and fresher overnight. but down towards the south east,

still 17 degrees or so in london, that's the overnight low, which will feel quite warm and quite humid to start monday morning. monday, another warm, humid day for central and eastern parts of england with the sunshine again. but further north west, a change behind that front. more cloud working dinner across parts of eastern scotland, northern england and wales, with some sharp showers as that front makes its way eastwards. so, temperatures ranging from about 20 in belfast to nearer 30 towards london. so, certainly a contrast in temperature from east to west behind that cold front. there could still be some showers on that frontal system across eastern england through tuesday. they should ease away. but of course, this will be welcome rainfall for parts of the country that really are desperate for a bit of rain. so, most places, though, do look largely dry, with a mix of sunny spells and just one or two scattered showers tending to bubble up almost anywhere, i think, during the afternoon, in the daytime heat. but temperatures 23—25 for most

of us, about 5 degrees cooler than we've seen during the weekend. then if we look ahead through the middle of the week, still some sunny spells, temperatures not doing too badly at all. but it will turn cooler and wetter as we look towards the end of the week and on into the weekend. bye— bye. he is this is bbc news the headlines. the us president, donald trump, has left the uk on air force one. an he's on his way to meet the russian president in helsinki. the prime minister has revealed the advice she was given from us president donald trump about brexit.// on and on and on. not going to negotiations but see them. i should sue the eu.