this is bbc news. i'm annita mcveigh. the headlines at 6pm. 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. fresh investigations into the novichok nerve agent attack in salisbury, as wiltshire police widen their search. president trump tweets his response to an alleged tape recording regarding a payment to a playboy model, saying he did ‘nothing wrong'. police seize 1.6 tonnes of cocaine off the coast of cornwall. as two dutch men are remanded in custody. also this hour, schools need more cash and less stress, that's according to education secretary damian hinds. in a newspaper interview, mr hinds rebukes schools that put too much pressure on young children facing exams — and says teachers‘ workloads are his ‘number one concern‘. and coming up at 6:30, sportsday bring you a round up

of all today‘s sporting action, including the latest from rory mcillroy in his third round at the open. mps say the multi—billion pound programme to install smart energy metres is behind schedule, uses out of date technology, and will save consumers much less than anticipated. it had been hoped the devices would on average trim £26 from annual bills. the british infrastructure group says the real figure is likely to be £11, with customers at serious risk of no meaningful return on their investment. well a little earlier my colleague shaun ley spoke to the robert cheesewright the director of policy at smart energy gb, the firm publicising the use of smart metres. the smart meter roll—out

marks the key transition towards a greener, smarter, cheaper energy future where we can have things like electric vehicles and renewable energy. and the alternative is a dirty, expensive system that makes all of our bills more expensive and more wasteful than they need to be. i‘m sorry to interrupt you, but the argument for a lot of people would be that our bills are expensive because we, as consumers, are paying for the smart meter programme. it‘s not being funded by the industry, it‘s being funded by a levy on people‘s energy bills, and we are not getting value for money. if all we‘re going to save at the end of the day is £11 per year, it‘s nice to have the extra £11 per year, but people would say it‘s being outweighed by the amount that is added to my bill over many years to fund this roll—out. so, that £11 is inclusive to all of the costs and the benefits. so that £11 is £11 in your pocket that you wouldn‘t otherwise have. it‘s important to remember that.

but that‘s just the average saving. we hear from thousands of smart energy owners across the country, and some of them are saving tens, and in some cases over £100 with their smart meter. you never know what you‘re going to find out about your energy once you‘ve got... and part of that is because of the behavioural change you hope will follow from people being able to look in real time and see what energy they‘re going to use. and i don‘t think anybody, even the people who‘ve written this report, and we heard from grant shapps a little earlier on bbc news, don‘t dispute those benefits. what they say is that the way this has been carried out has actually minimised the benefits and increased the dis—benefits. take an example. why on earth are energy companies still installing machines that are effectively going to be obsolete in a very short amount of time? no smart meter is ever obsolete. the only meters in this country that are obsolete are analogue meters that leave people crawling under the stairs to read their meter. 0r going out in the rain to top up their pre—paid meter. why are metres going dead when people switch energy suppliers? the first generation of smart meters, if you switch,

many people get to keep a smart service when they do, but for some people, their meter will temporarily start to act like an analog meter. the good news for everyone watching this they will all be rolled into a national smart data network. you need to further be changing the equipment in houses? they will be updated over the air, consumers will have to do nothing, there‘s no hassle. this is common, all of our technology upgrades all the time, we‘re used to our phone having upgrades on it. this is all that is happening with smart metering, the idea that these are obsolete is simply not true. what about the schedule? do you think mps are wrong in that in the report? as far as you are concerned, they are wrong to say that? yes. 0k. the 2020 target for completing this roll—out, do you accept that is not now realistic anymore? i think it‘s a really challenging thing to do. there are 13,000 smart meters being installed every day, that‘s lots of brilliant engineers going out into homes doing something really challenging and important for this country. the mps say you would have to do 420,000 per month, i‘m sorry, robert cheesewright, director

of policy at smart energy gb. in a moment we‘ll be joined by bbc one viewers for a full round up of the day‘s news with clive myrie. stay with us for that. good evening. hundreds of people have attended the funeral of six—year—old alesha macphail, who was raped and murdered on the isle of bute earlier this month. mourners were asked to wear her favorite colour of pink. a 16—year—old boy has been charged. the funeral took place near her home in north lanarkshire, from where catrina renton reports. everyone was asked to wear something pink. alesha‘s favourite colour. 0utside, dozens of ribbons were tied to the railings. # all creatures great and small... inside, family and friends paid tribute to alesha. they called her the best big sister, best daughter, best granddaughter anyone could ask for. she had just finished primary two at chapelside primary school in airdrie.

she always came into class with that big, beautiful smile of hers and tried her hardest in everything she did. it was an absolute pleasure to teach alesha. i was so grateful to have known this special little girl. alesha had been visiting her grandparents and father on the isle of bute when she went missing. she was later found dead in woodland. a 16—year—old boy has been charged with rape and murder. her uncle, callum, cannot believe that she is gone. alesha does not want anyone here to be sad. no thinking about whatever has happened. the only thing that i want today to be about is her. alesha‘s tiny pink coffin was then brought to the waiting carriage. drawn by white horses, as mourners formed a guard of honour to say goodbye. catriona renton, bbc news, north lanarkshire. the government‘s scheme to install smart energy meters in millions of homes and small businesses across the country, has been heavily criticised by a group of mps.

their report claims the project, costing £11 billion, will actually only end up saving consumers less than a pound a month. here‘s our business correspondent, joe lynam. advert: malcolm got a smart meter so every year he could save... it‘s the biggest infrastructure project you may not have heard of. costing £11 billion, the mass roll—out of smart meters into 30 million homes throughout the uk is designed to cut our bills and make our lives easier. but things aren‘t going to plan. the mobile phone mast isjust there. it‘s touching distance. warren lives in london and he‘s having problems with his smart meter connection. this so—called smart meter wasn‘t so smart after all. i‘m finding my bills still come through as estimated, where i have to keep manually phoning them to give them an actual reading, until they finally reset the meter and they confirm that it was sending its readings again. the big infrastructure group of mps says that smart meters may not be so bright after all.

it says the government is rolling out technology which may be out—of—date already in some areas. and it may be useless due to insufficient mobile coverage. and the cost savings for consumers that were expected may not materialise. certainly, consumers won‘t get anywhere near what they were promised originally. it‘s already down to just about £11 from the originally projected 26. it‘s likely to fall further as well as the problems with this roll—out continue. not so, according to the group charged with rolling out the new technology. this infrastructure upgrade is the biggest one that is happening in energy in our lifetimes. so it‘s really important that people get to talk about this debate but the 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 says it has already installed 11 billion smart meters and users are overwhelmingly satisfied. —— million. others say it‘s the wrong technology and it‘s behind

schedule, and won‘t deliver the savings advertised. joe lynam, bbc news. let‘s take a look at some of the day‘s other top stories. two men have appeared in court in bristol after what‘s been described as a "significant seizure of cocaine" from a boat in the english channel. the dutch nationals were arrested, after a yacht was intercepted off the cornish coast on thursday. police investigating the novichok nerve agent poisoning in salisbury have stepped up their searches of a park in the city. detectives have been focussing on a bench and public toilets in queen elizabeth gardens. one of the victims of the poisoning, charlie rowley, was discharged from hospital yesterday. his partner, dawn sturgess, died two weeks ago. president trump has denied doing anything wrong following claims a conversation was taped of him discussing payments to a former playboy model in the months leading up to the 2016 presidential election. the recording was reportedly seized during a raid by the fbi on the offices of his former lawyer, michael cohen, earlier this year. the new york times claims the two men discussed

paying off karen mcdougal, who alleges she had an affairwith mrtrump. the exceptionally dry start to the summer is forcing the closure of one of britain‘s longest waterways. 55 miles of the leeds and liverpool canal will shut for a month at the end ofjuly because of concerns over water supplies. phil bodmer has the story. a narrowboat navigates barrowford lock on the leeds liverpool canal. but from the end of this month, that will no longer be possible as a 55 mile stretch of one of britain‘s most popular waterways is closed simply because of a lack of water. we have not got the water to feed into the canal to keep them going. it is a difficult decision for us to take but it is simply down to this glorious summer that we are all enjoying. the leeds liverpool canal, which crosses the pennines through yorkshire and lancashire, is the longest man—made waterway in britain. it is also one of the highest, with water travelling downhill

from huge reservoirs it is stored in. this is just one of a number of reservoirs high in the pennines which feeds the canal network. at the moment, as you can see, it is around 20% of its total capacity. indeed, sheep are now even beginning to graze where the water level should be. just 50 millimetres of rain fell between the 1st of june and the 19th ofjuly this year. meaning this is the driest summer since records began. despite recent rain in the north—west of england, it is not enough to replenish depleted reserves. phil bodmer, bbc news, foulridge in lancashire. now with all the day‘s sports news, here‘s 0lly foster at the bbc sport centre. the top of the leaderboard at the open championship could hardly be tighter. the third round is still underway on a day of low scoring, including blistering rounds from tiger woods and justin rose to put them in contention. katherine downes is at carnoustie. flat and calm eye to see that on the

course it would prove anything but. as the english launched their attack on the scottish links. justin rose just made the cut last night, today he shot the best round of the tournament so far. delighted with that. one of those days where you hope the wind picks up and it gets tough for the leaders and they don‘t get too stretched too far ahead but the way the course is playing i expect the leaders to make more birdies. another englishman chris wood was on the charge, his game coming good when he needed it too. but america fought back. jordan spieth driving the first green to 0pen spieth driving the first green to open with an eagle. tiger, peppering the pin for three birdies in a row. advantage, america. but with the arrival of this man, it is set to become a transatlantic tussle. rory mcilroy looked a little bit rocky.

instead, england‘s tommy fleetwood stepped up to mind his challenge for the first major. to win, he will lead to topple the man who has led from the start. kevin kisner still clinging to the top spot. the problem with the americans is they have so many other potential 0pen champion is in reserve. there is no two—way lead for the tie, jordan spieth joining two—way lead for the tie, jordan spiethjoining fellow two—way lead for the tie, jordan spieth joining fellow american kevin kisner on eight under par and rory mcilroy has picked up a few birdies and the italian francesco molinari and the italian francesco molinari and alex noren from sweden in the mix and a couple of south africans they are also lurking amongst the americans. it has been an electric day of golf at carnoustie. who will lift the claret jug day of golf at carnoustie. who will lift the claretjug tomorrow? it is anybody‘s guess. many thanks indeed. britain‘s geraint thomas has retained the yellowjersey at the tour de france. the 188 kilometre 14th stage was won by the spaniard 0mar fraile, but though thomas was a long way behind, he kept his main rivals in sight and is still over a minute and a half clear of the reigning champion, chris froome.

some of the world‘s top athletes are competing at the anniversary games at the london stadium this weekend british race walker tom bosworth broke the world record in the 3000 metres. another british winner was shara proctor in the long jump. and 10 years after finishing fifth at the olympics, the team gb relay quartet of christine 0huruogu, kelly sotherton, marilyn 0koro and nicola sanders were awarded bronze medals from beijing. that‘s after the disqualification of russia and belarus for doping. the women‘s hockey world cup is also taking place in queen elizabeth olympic park. england had to come from behind to draw their opening pool match against india. lily 0wsley with the equaliser in the final quarter. they will next face the usa on wednesday. lewis hamilton will start from 14th on the grid in tomorrow‘s german grand prix. he tried to push his mercedes back to the pits after breaking down in the first qualifying session at hockenheim. he is eight points behind championship leader

sebastien vettel, with the german clinching pole in his home grand prix. there‘s much more formula one reaction on the the bbc sport website and there are also details of how scotland and england‘s men reached the quarterfinals at the rugby 7s world cup in san francisco. that‘s it. there‘s more throughout the evening on the bbc news channel and i‘ll be back with the late news at 10pm. now on bbc one, it‘s time for the news where you are. bye for now. hello. this is bbc news with annita mcveigh searches have been continuing throughout the day at a park in salisbury where it‘s believed that two people, poisoned by a nerve agent, may have picked up a contaminated bottle. charlie rowley — whose partner dawn sturgess died — is now out of hospital but still unable to return to his home, which remains cordoned off. earlier our news correspondent simon jones, whose been at the scene in salisbury, sent us this update.

you have got officers with protective suits who go into the park to try to search for clues. what we had around lunchtime is the officers heading over to that area, to a park bench. they took samples from that bench, and photos, and took away evidence bags as part of their investigation. what we do know is police are not prepared to give a running commentary on what they are doing. but we understand they have been able to speak to charlie rowley fairly extensively since his recovery has improved in hospital. we know he was released yesterday, we don‘t know where he has been released. he can‘t return to his home in amesbury. that is because that remains part of the police investigation. two men have appeared in court after one—point—six tonnes

of cocaine was seized from a yacht off south west cornwall. the men, who are both dutch, were remanded in custody. janine jansen reports. the dutch flags yacht was intercepted 120 miles off the cornish coast on wednesday. the marcia was escorted into newlyn harbour by the border force cutter hmc vigilant. officers found bails of cocaine wrapped in plastic bags in a compartment underneath the decking. we have recovered a significant amount of controlled drugs, literally hundreds of millions of pounds worth, potentially even the second largest seizure in the uk, on a sailing vessel. an estimated two tonnes has been recovered from the vessel. the national crime agency, border force and devon and cornwall police officers remain on the scene. the two crew members — 59—year—old maarten peter pieterse and 44—year—old emile adriaanjeroen schoemaker — appeared at bristol magistrates‘ court this morning via video link, charged with drug importation offences.

pieterse didn‘t enter a plea. schoemaker pleaded not guilty. they were remanded in custody to appear at bristol crown court next month. janine jansen, bbc news. the education secretary damian hinds has said that schools need more cash and less stress. in an interview with the guardian, he said too many teachers in england are being overwhelmed by excessive workloads. the labour shadow education secretary angela rayner said ‘we need action, notjust warm words and sympathy‘. in his interview, mr hinds defended the tougher gcse‘s & a—level exams. rebuked primary schools who put pressure on young pupils to do well in sat exams and said workload of teachers was his ‘number one concern.‘ helena brothwell is principal at queen elizabeth‘s academy in mansfield. she said workload of teachers is the biggest problem. we are in a recruitment crisis,

a retention crisis at the moment. schools have got two do all they can now to reduce the bureaucracy around data planning and data entry, lesson planning. it is really important. as a school we have done an awful lot to make sure our staff can be energetic in class, full of life, have a life outside school, that is important. we can achieve a balance if we want it badly enough. give us an idea how you encourage your staff to manage their workload? we have removed britain marking as a requirement. some schools ask staff for a written mark, students to respond to that, then the teacher has to respond to that response. none of it makes any difference to progress. if it did we would ask our staff to do it and our staff would happily do so.

the reason teachers are irritated because they know it doesn‘t make any difference, it doesn‘t have the impact some leaders think it does. we have removed that as a requirement completely. damian hinds says in his interview schools are on a par with the nhs as a special case for extra government spending. there was no announcement on teachers‘s pay. in england, if that money did not come from an extra pot from central government, it would have to be taken from some other budget you might wish to spend on some other area of school spending. would it be worth it if it led to better retention of staff? it would be worth it. teachers are the biggest asset in a school. we have to pay them properly. the fact the announcement hasn‘t been made and schools have broken up, and we haven‘t been able to plan our budget next year

effectively, is a let down. having said that, schools are working extremely hard to find other savings so we don‘t have to pass those costs on to teachers. teachers are our best asset, we need them. it is really difficult. we want a broad balanced curriculum, offer the arts, music and drama, but those areas get cut first when schools are in difficulty. especially in a working—class area, where we don‘t have as much access to the arts, like mansfield, we don‘t want to cut those subjects from school. we heard the shadow education secretary saying warm words are all very well but actions are needed, what would you like to see from the education secretary to make the biggest difference to teachers and pupils? i would like him to continue to reassure school leaders some

of the bureaucracy around data entry and measuring, that doesn‘tjust fatten the pig but measured it. reduce some of that bureaucracy for teaching staff. it will do an awful lot to improve our retention figures. you need to do some work to improve the status of teachers. we have spent decades having ourjob reduced to entertainers, ba by—sitters. that isn‘t what we do, we are trained to do this job. 0ur status should be appropriate. also, he needs to find us some money. the authorities injapan are urging people to take precautions as a severe heatwave continues. more than 30 people are reported to have died as a result of the heat over the last fortnight,

in the city of kyoto, temperatures have hit, or exceeded, 38 degrees, for seven consecutive days. the heatwave is also complicating recovery efforts in the west of the country, where around 200 people died in floods earlier this month. 0livia crellin reports. earlier this month, western japan looked like this. after being buffeted by severe storms and waves of up to nine metres. now, the ways look somewhat more inviting as temperatures have rocketed to over 40 temperatures have rocketed to over a0 celsius in some parts. a five—year nationwide high. translation: it's hot all over japan. it was 39 celsius yesterday, and the day before. when i was a kid the hottest day was about 33 degrees. the recent climate is

surely abnormal. it's a dangerous high. and it‘s already killed about 30 people. and with thousands were hospitalized for heat related conditions, authorities are urging people to stay hydrated. translation: my job is his widow amazing so i majored to drink lots water. that job is even more challenging for the volunteers taking part in flood recovery afterwards. they rain that out of perjapan led to flooding and landslides. over 200 people died and more than 2500 people who evacuated are still not ready to return. the heat is weighing on their minds as they continued the clean—up effort. translation: i will take care not to get sick from the heat because that would only cause trouble for other people. it's no longer rain, but raise down in japan. people. it's no longer rain, but raise down injapan. a new

meteorological trial for assistance but for some, like these children soaking up the sun on a beach open for the first time since the country‘s 2011 tsunami, the weather means summer has arrived. 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 is 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‘s 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 it‘s going on such an ambitious journey to voyage to the red planet. well, i don‘t think we‘re 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. time for a look at the

weather with tomasz. let‘s see what the weather has gotten let‘s see what the weather has gotte n store let‘s see what the weather has gotten store or over the next couple of days. a pretty good idea of what is in the forecast. tomorrow, a lot of very warm weather on the way and quite sunny, and not a clear blue skies but sunny enough. however, through this evening and overnight we are going to see a lot of cloud, very moist humid air coming our way andi very moist humid air coming our way and i might be a little bit of drizzle around the coasts and murky conditions in the countryside. warm, 15 in belfast and early on sunday morning. no lower than around 18 degrees in london. promises to be a hot sunday across the uk. not clear blue skies, but summertime clouds andi blue skies, but summertime clouds and i think hazy conditions may be out towards the northwest with a few spots of rain. down south i think

the high 20s is the story. then for the high 20s is the story. then for the coming days the temperatures are going to soar and i could even be an underestimate. new searches are taking place into the no talk poisonings. the government defended its multi—billion pound scheme to install smart energy metres, after a group of mps and peers said the project was failing to deliver value for money. president trump treats his with spots two and its alleged tape recording regarding a payment toa tape recording regarding a payment to a playboy model, saying he did nothing wrong. two dutch men have