this is bbc news. the headlines at 11am: not—so—smart smart meters? a criticism of delays in the multi—billion pound roll—out scheme — which may only save some customers 11 pounds a year. police in wiltshire widen their search for clues into novichok poisonings, as a man who was left critically ill in amesbury is discharged from hospital. nine people from the same family were among the 17 who died when an amphibious boat capsized on a lake in missouri. also coming up this hour, has your ryanair flight been cancelled this week? if so, you may be in line for a payout. the civil aviation authority says passengers should be compensated by the airline if their journey is affected by strike action. and in 30 minutes, i'll bejoined by a panel of international journalists to get their views on this week's events in dateline london. the government's multi—billion pound

roll out of smart energy meters has been heavily criticised by a group of mps. the programme was meant to give customers a better idea of how much they're spending on energy, but is now believed to be behind schedule and heavily over budget. our business correspondent joe lynam reports. it is one of the biggest infrastructure projects under way at the moment, smart meters in 30 million british homes by 2020, designed to connect households in real—time with their energy suppliers, and hopefully cut bills. but for one group of mps, things are not going to plan. the cross—party big infrastructure group says the project may miss its target. it says the government is rolling out technology that is already obsolete in some homes, and the smart meters will go dumb due to insufficient mobile coverage in some areas. the mps say the expected savings for consumers may also be in doubt.

that accusation is rejected by the group which is rolling out the technology. this infrastructure upgrade is the biggest one that's happening in energy in our lifetimes, so it's really important that people get to talk about this debate. but the main thing that everyone needs to know is to get a smart meter, because it's going to save us all billions of pounds over the next few years. the government said smart meters were already benefiting millions of homes by putting consumers in control of their energy. it said it was simply wrong to say that first—generation smart meters were obsolete. police investigating the wiltshire novichok poisonings are expanding their search for clues. protective screens have been erected around public toilets at queen elizabeth gardens in salisbury. it comes after charlie rowley, who was exposed to the substance two weeks ago, was discharged from hospital yesterday. investigators are concentrating on a river bank near one of the spots mr rowley and his partner dawn sturgess visited the day before they collapsed at his house, where police found a bottle containing the deadly nerve agent. simonjones is in salisbury.

the queen elizabeth park had been a focus of this investigation for the last two weeks. why now the toilets? it seems there has been a lot of activity this morning. yesterday, there were offices in hazmat suits who went into the toilets and then brought out evidence from there. today, we have seen that area cordoned off. the focus this morning has been on the tents behind me where we saw a number of officers put on the protective suits under the heat of the sun, then move away from that area towards the centre of the park where we saw them examining a park bench. they were taking swa bs, a park bench. they were taking swabs, taking photographs, and then they bagged up some evidence and took that away. it appears the search of the park is being stepped

up. what was described as a fingertip search was getting under way because it is believed this may have been the location where charlie rowley and his partner picked up that bottle, contaminated with novichok. the important advance the police have now compared to weeks ago is that charlie rowley is conscious and discharged from hospital and able to give them information. —— the important advantage the police have now. he was discharged from hospital yesterday, and we know initially when he regained consciousness around ten days ago, the police were able to speak to him briefly. what the met have said today is that they have carried out a number of further conversations with him and he has been able to provide them with what they describe as important lines of enquiry. they also say they are giving him advice about his own security. they would not discuss whether they have put him into any sort of protective security but they

are stressing that they don't believe he and his partner, who sadly died in hospital, were specifically targeted. it was not necessarily aimed at them. like any person who is the victim of a crime, they say they are keeping them up to date with the investigation as that is appropriate. as regards his health, he's been unable to return to his own house because that remains part of the police investigations. his whereabouts are unknown at the moment. regarding his health, we are told he has been decontaminated and that means he should not face any further danger from the norwich rock, though he is obviously going to be monitored by staff at the hospital. danger from the novichok. he does not represent any danger to members of the public he might come into contact with. but when you see things like this in the park, police dressed in hazmat suits, that does cause a degree of concern. thank you.

17 people — including nine members of one family — have drowned after an amphibious "duck boat" carrying tourists sank in stormy weather in the us state of missouri. the vessel was carrying 31 people when it overturned near the town of branson. our north america correspondent, james cook reports. oh, this is not good. this duck boat made it back to the shore. the passengers, not wearing life jackets, apparently unaware of quite how much danger they were in. oh, my god. oh, it's going under. further out, a second duck boat was in bigger trouble, unable to cope with the blast from a severe thunderstorm. of the 31 on board, just 1a survived, brought ashore in shock. among the dead was a one—year—old baby. emts — tell one of the emts, please. the missouri governor's office told

the bbc that nine of the dead were from one family, and two other members of that family survived. again, like i said, it's been a long night, and a very trying night. and please keep all of the families involved, and all our first responder personnel in your thoughts and prayers. now the questions — a weather warning had been issued, so why were the boats on the water? and were the passengers wearing personal flotation devices, or pfds? itjust happened so quick. i guess everybody should have had a pfd a little closer, i don't know. you know, they were up over our head when we rode in it. you don't think that stuff like that's going to happen, and then, man, it happens. based on the amphibious landing craft of the second world war, duck boats are popular with tourists, but their safety record is now under scrutiny. worldwide, more than a0 people have died in accidents involving them in the past 20 years. this is just the latest

in a long line of tragedies. james cook, bbc news. facebook has suspended a us—based analytics firm while it investigates concerns about the collection and sharing of user data. crimson hexagon, based in boston, describes itself as offering consumer insights and has contracts with government agencies around the world. facebook said it was looking into whether some of these deals were in violation of its policies on surveillance. the funeral of a six—year—old girl who was killed while on holiday on the isle of bute is being held this morning. the body of alesha macphail was found in woods after she went missing earlier this month. a 16—year—old has appeared in court charged with her rape and murder. mourners have been asked to wear pink in her memory. the fbi is reported to have seized a secret recording of donald trump discussing a payment to a former playboy model. the new york times says the tapes were discovered in the offices of mr trump's former lawyer during a police raid. 0ur washington correspondent chris buckler reports.

karen mcdougal was a model for hugh hefner's playboy magazine, and she claims that she had an affair with donald trump that lasted for months. # and i'm proud to be an american... their alleged relationship took place a decade before mr trump ran for president. but in the months leading up to that vote, karen mcdougal sold her story to a tabloid newspaper. however, the national enquirer, which is owned by one of donald trump's friends, never published it. his campaign team denied knowing anything about that payment. but it seems donald trump did talk about it with this man, his former lawyer and so—called fixer michael cohen, who is currently under investigation for a series of possible offences. in a raid on mr cohen's offices, fbi agents apparently seized a secret recording in which mr trump discussed with his lawyer the possibility of paying money to keep ms mcdougal quiet, perhaps by buying the rights to her story. reporter: sir, can you talk

about michael cohen? the president left washington for a weekend at one of his golf clubs without answering that question. but payments to bury embarrassing stories about an election candidate could potentially be seen as breaking campaign finance laws, although his representatives insist that no cash was actually handed over. in a statement, michael cohen's own lawyer said... donald trump's political opponents are also still trying to discover exactly what he said to vladimir putin during their private meeting in helsinki, amid the controversy over plans to invite the russian president to the white house this autumn. they believe there is a possibility that mr trump's own words could yet come back to haunt him. chris buckler, bbc news, washington.

israeli forces have carried out a series of attacks across the gaza strip after a soldier was shot dead at the border. at least four palestinians are reported to have been killed. hamas — which controls gaza — said both sides had now agreed to a ceasefire. ajudge has made the unusual decision to publicly name two teenagers who were sentenced yesterday for plotting an attack at their school. thomas wyllie and alex bolland were sentenced to a total of 22 years in prison. thejudge said naming them was in the interests of open justice. but enver solomon from the legal charity ‘just for kids law‘ told the bbc that naming them could have a negative impact on their rehabilitation. we know from representing teenagers and young people in criminal cases and then seeing what happens to them in the future that it serves no purpose whatsoever. it is also important to remember, in the digital age, and the legislation that currently exists was set back in 1933, way before the current digital age,

and they could not imagine then the current situation, but once your name remains in perpetuity, it is available online to be found for the rest of one's life. as the peak holiday season gets under way, more than 100,000 passengers on ryanair have been told their flights have been cancelled because of a series of strikes in the coming week. but its emerged that they could be in line for hundreds of pounds in compensation, in an unprecedented move by the civil aviation authority which is encouraging all persons affected to make a claim. earlier simon calder — travel editor at the independent — told me why these strikes are happening and how passengers affected can claim. pilots employed by ryan air in ireland are unhappy

about a range of issues, including seniority and transfers and so on. 16 flights grounded. more seriously, in terms of numbers, cabin crew in belgium, spain and portugal are going on strike on wednesday and thursday, and over 600 flights have been cancelled, affecting 100,000 people. unbelievably, yesterday, late on, the civil aviation authority put out a statement saying, 0k, is yourflight has been cancelled, claim your compensation. why do you see unbelievably? compensation these days is almost routine. let's remember how european rules work. if your flight is cancelled or delayed by the zamora, or delayed by three hours or more, the airline has to pay you compensation. unless it can demonstrate extraordinary circumstances were responsible, which could possibly have been affected. it has always been held by the airlines that strikes are extraordinary circumstances, even though you and i might think, surely you can sort it out by paying them more.

in april, there was a ruling by the european court 0fjustice about wildcat strikes and they said, if your airline has been hit by a wildcat strike... if they suddenly down tools and walk out? you know what i mean. you will get compensation. there is still no certainty, rather, there was not, about official strikes, what these are. this one will have been notified over a certain period. exactly. air france has had lots of strikes the last few months, cabin crew in britain were on strike. they were not paying compensation. for the official body which looks after consumer rights to come out and say, claim your money, it was really unprecedented. i have never seen anything like that, and immediately i contacted ryanair who said, no, it is extraordinary circumstances, the behaviour of the unions is outrageous and we are not paying

anybody a penny. you apply for compensation as passenger. ryanair says no, it is extraordinary circumstances, we are not obliged to pay you anything. what do you then do? according to the civil aviation authority, you go to the dispute resolution partner and putting your claim and it gets sorted out. i suspect it will not be easy. i imagine we will see legal challenges going to the high court, possibly the european court 0fjustice and if it were to be held that passengers were entitled to compensation, as the phrase goes, the floodgates would open, and people would be able to retrospectively claim for last year's ba cabin crew strikes. 0ne imagines the industry will fight this hard? yes. it does not yet apply retrospectively. if you were given more than two weeks notice of the strike, which none of these passengers were, you do not get any compensation, but there is always a duty of care, they have got to find your

alternative flight and pay for your hotel and meals while you're waiting to get there. in the meantime, do not spend the compensation you expect to get, it might be a few years. but your instinct is that people should apply. that is what the civil aviation authority says and who am i to say different? simon calder, travel editor of the independent, off on his holidays now. the headlines on bbc news... mps criticise delays to the eleven—billion pound smart meter roll—out scheme — as a new report questions the value of the technology to customers. fresh investigations into the nerve agent attack in salisbury — as a man poisoned by novichok in amesbury is discharged from hospital. nine members of the same family are confirmed to be among the 17 people who died when an amphibious vehicle sank in missouri. the european space agency is asking for the public‘s help to name their new mars rover. the robot is currently called ‘exomars', but it's hoped the public can come up with something a little more inspiring, as

caroline rigby reports. it's a competition that's, well, out of this world — what to call a robot set to explore mars in 2021. currently called exomars, this six—wheeled rover will travel across the red planet in search of life. capable of drilling to depths of two metres, it will also look for microbes deep below the surface. it's set to be a fascinating mission, and that is why scientists from the european space agency think this little robot deserves a big name. in america, nasa has previously opted to call its mars rovers names like opportunity and curiosity, and the european space agency has launched a public competition to find something equally inspiring. any other names, any other ideas? british astronaut tim peake is leading the hunt, which he hopes will inspire future

generations to follow in his footsteps. it's always nice to give something a name, especially when is going on such an ambitious journey to voyage to the red planet. well, i don't think we are going to end up with boaty mcboatface on this mars rover. that was, of course, the name chosen by more than 100,000 people for this polar explorer ship in 2016. butjust in case you are tempted by the likes of rovey mcroverface, for exomars, be warned. an expert panel will have the final say. caroline rigby, bbc news. millions of passengers pass through the london underground network each year — but in the hustle and bustle hundreds get injured in trips, slips and falls. now, in an effort to cut these numbers, victoria station is taking an unusual approach to get passengers to pay attention to safety announcements. dougal shaw reports. around 250,000 people use victoria station

in london each weekday, and for past few months, they've been hearing an unusual voice. meet the station's newest — and youngest — safety announcer, 9—year—old megan. her proud parents both work at the station. i said to my colleague that my wife was bringing down the two kids to meet me after work and he said, "would megan mind doing a pa announcement?" she does like a bit of acting. i knew she's be up for it. i was really nervous when i first was gonna do it but then once i did it, i thought "this is actually 0k!" hello, everybody, and please listen up. take care on the escalators, hold on to the handrail and your luggage. megan's recorded announcement is designed to tackle a serious problem — around ten people a day get injured on the underground network. what we have noticed is that when people do injure themselves, it's typically because they are not taking enough care when using stairs and escalators. at victoria alone, on average, 15 people a month are injured this way. for some passengers, at least, megan's message seems

to be getting through. gets your attention straight away. you think, "0h, what's going on?" i think everyone takes notice when a child says something, and because they don't — you know, they always mean it. so what does somebody who studies the psychology of the human voice make of this? research shows that deeper adult voices are perceived by humans as having more authority than higher voices, so a child's voice wouldn't have that authority. but perhaps it's the shock factor of using a child's voice. it may be just a short—term result from this shock factor, but the station says injuries have dropped by nearly two thirds since megan's announcement started. do you think adults listen enough to children? um, no. they should listen more to children because, sometimes, children are right. dougal shaw, bbc news. more than a thousand spectators gathered to cheer on the release of two sea turtles,

who were rescued and rehabilitated at an animal hospital in florida. they've been fitted with satellite—trackers and returned to the ocean to become part of the ‘tour de turtles' — an annual event that follows the long—distance migration of different species of sea turtles. sport now and for a full round up, from the bbc sport centre, here's mike. i don't think he has been fitted with a tracker yet despite his many travels! no need to track me today! good morning. having just made the cut, it's been a good start to the 3rd round, of the open for england's justin rose. he still has a long way to go to make up enough ground on the leaders, at carnoustie, who don't go out until this afternoon. among the americans, tommy fleetwood, and rory mclroy are in the mix for england and northern ireland. let's join our man there, john watson. hi, john. back to the benign, warm conditions

unlike the rain yesterday? absolutely. it certainly helps the early starters. justin rose who just made the cut yesterday on three over. lee's rather calm conditions, not a breath of wind, no rain and certainly benefiting those early starters. justin rose picking up a couple of early birdies to move to one over. patrick reed as well, the masters champion, three overjust making the cut also. he had three birdies ina making the cut also. he had three birdies in a row to move level par. favourable conditions. the latest starters will fancy their chances of scoring low when they do make it out a bit later. let's look at the leaderboard. zachjohnson a bit later. let's look at the leaderboard. zach johnson and a bit later. let's look at the leaderboard. zachjohnson and kevin kisner in share of the lead at six under par. it could have been very different for kevin kisner had he not found the infamous barry burn

where he double bogeyed to drop two shots. that saw him back to six under. a impressive round from tommy fleetwood. a round of 65, six birdies, a bogey free round. and all eyes on rory mcilroy, the former open champion. let's hearfrom tommy fleetwood who was clearly delighted with his round yesterday. i can't lie about it. if i could pick one tournament in my life to win, it would be the open. i've never been anywhere near before. so far, for two rounds, i'm up there on the leaderboard. but, yeah, it would be something to have in my career that would be amazing. by the time i'm done, whenever it is, when i'm playing, the open is something i would like. it's amazing, isn't it, for tommy fleetwood, just how much it would mean to win the open. he has history with this course at carnoustie. he holds the course record. with

favourable conditions, you would certainly back him when he goes out later. he goes out at ten to four. then there's too leaders, johnson and kisner go out at out at apm. looking fantastic behind you, there. and you yourself, of course! it looks like everton are about to make their biggest signing of the summer. they're close to bringing in the brazilian forward, richarlison, from watford in a deal that could be worth up to £50 million. he's well known to the new everton boss marco silva, who managed him during his stint at watford. there was a thriller, in the t20 blast at old trafford last night as lancashire beat yorkshire in the battle of the roses. after a rain delay, lancs captain liam livingstone, scored 79 off 37 balls to help them, set yorkshire a big target of 176 from just 1a overs. yorkshire got so so close in reply — england'sjoe root and adam lyth both making 50s, but they felljust short — losing byjust one run in the end.

cue wild celebrations from the home fans. elsewhere there were wins for durham, somerset, hampshire and leicestershire. castleford tigers missed—out on the chance, to go second in super league as they lost to the huddersfield giants. castleford lead for much of the first half — but huddersfield took control in the second half with, jermaine mcgill—vary helping himself to a hat—trick. elsewhere, leeds rhinos beat widnes, and warrington won on the road at hull kr. before we go, just time to remind you that the tour de france starts again in just under an hour's time. britain's geraint thomas still has the leader's yellowjersey, and you can follow it all live on the bbc sport website. that's all the sport for now. now for the weather with helen willetts. many of us had at least a little rain — a rarity — yesterday. but it's back to business as usual today. we've seen a little drizzly rain first thing.

but behind this weather front the high pressure is building again for the rest of saturday, which means there will be more sunshine around than we had during the day on friday. there are one or two exceptions. the main one is this front bringing rain into the north—west of scotland. the other could be one or two sharp showers around in the afternoon hours as temperatures are expected to get to the high 20s. compared with yesterday it'll feel warmer with more sunshine. the best of the sunshine will be around the coasts. maybe more cloud in north—east england. warmer, brighter, with more sunshine from northern ireland, for much of scotland as well. however, later in the day we have patchy rain coming back into the north and west. for eastern scotland, for the open, it does look mostly fine and dry. drizzle will clear away and it should be a largely bright picture. warmer tomorrow with a bit more sunshine around here then as well. that's because we picked up more of a westerly breeze, so it dries out the air as it comes over the grampian mountains. we see that happening tonight, but there will be more moisture around generally across scotland, northern ireland, perhaps a bit more cloud for england and wales.

again, that mist and fog will return at lower levels. again, i think it will be a fairly uncomfortable night's sleeping as we start to build the humidity in the coming days as well. so, sunday looks like another fine and sunny day for the majority of england and wales. the east of scotland, east of northern ireland. again, the north west will be cloudier than we are seeing today, with the cloud thickener for some rain and drizzle, particularly north—west of the great glen across western isles and northern isles as well. so, around those western coasts, obviously a little bit cooler. 25 potentially for eastern scotland, 23 from northern ireland, pushing towards 30 degrees across the south and east of england. only the smallest chance of a shower, diminishing, really, as high pressure building. however, we will have this weather front early next week and a meandering its way across scotland and northern ireland in particular. we are into the atlantic, fresher air here. it ahead of it, the heat

will continue to build. we see more heat being given by the sun than escaping at this time of year. so come on balance, temperatures start to gradually increase by day and we could creep towards the mid—30s as we go to next week. as ever, there is more on the website. hello and welcome to dateline london, the programme in which some of the uk's leading columnists debate with foreign correspondents whose dateline is london. this week: theresa may's pragmatic brexit receives the approval of mps by a whisker. does a no—deal exit from europe now look more likely? and did the president mis—speak, or is he trump the traitor? to discuss all that, with me agnes poirier of the french magazine marianne, polly toynbee, columnist with the guardian, iain martin, whose columns appear in the times, and the irish broadcaster brian 0'connell. a warm welcome to all of you. living in brexitland does sometimes feel like being on the other side of the looking glass. how's this for starters — one of theresa may's ministers resigned this week because he wanted to support her chequers brexit plan, but said he was being ordered

to vote against it. part of that plan was approved by a majority of just three in a house of commons of 650 — and then only because three mps from the labour opposition supported her, and the leader of the liberal democrats, another opposition party, told by his party managers it wouldn't be a close vote, went off for dinner instead. iain, in alice in wonderland, the red queen likes to believe six impossible things before breakfast, what do you think our blue queen believes at the moment? well, alice in wonderland is a really good comparison. she has survived, though. it is extraordinary. i am not a fan of theresa may, or her approach to brexit, but she certainly has resilience. somehow, she has managed to survive all of these votes. calamitous by most political standards, ten or 12 days, involving the departure of key