and this is bbc news, i'm rebecca jones. the headlines at eight. a man is jailed for 17 years for the manslaughter of a nurse who died after being splashed head to toe with acid. it's emerged that the manchester bomber, salman abedi was rescued by the royal navy from libya's civil war three years before he murdered 22 people. the spectre of a giant ‘lorry park‘ on the m20 could last for years if there is a no—deal brexit — warns a council in kent. pressure grows on labour to take action against an ally of its leader after he was recorded criticising members of the jewish community. also this hour — president trump says collusion is not a crime — with timing that coincides with the opening of the first case brought by prosecutors investigating alleged links to russia. mr trump's former campaign manager, paul manafort, faces tax and bank fraud charges although the case doesn't allege collusion.

him him the scandal of five—year—olds unable to speak in full sentences. the education secretary pledges to tackle what he says is a gap "thatjust widens." the biggest reserve for seabirds in england has just got a bit bigger — as a special protection area on the yorkshire coast is extended. i a good evening and welcome. a teenager has been sentenced to 17 years in prison for an acid killing. 19—year—old general webster was fighting with another man in high wycombe when the acid he was carrying was knocked from his hand and hitjoanne rand — who happened to be sitting on a nearby bench. the nurse, and mother

of three, died days later. general webster pleaded guilty to manslaughter. here's our correspondent jo black. it's a busy saturday afternoon in high wycombe and jo rand is sitting on a bench in the town centre. nearby, and right next to other shoppers and families, general webster is threatening another man with a bottle of high—strength sulphuric acid. the man panics and kicks the bottle away. it hitsjo‘s leg and she is sprayed with the liquid and as it starts to burn, she runs away to get help. moments later, webster goes and picks up the bottle of acid, puts on a balaclava and leaves the scene. jo suffered 5% burns and although she was released from hospital, she developed sepsis and died 11 days later. lots of doctors there, just looking at us and they said, "i'm afraid we can't do any more forjoanne, we are going to have to turn all the machines off.

come and say goodbye." we just stood there, we watched the life drain out of her, her body shutting down. we just watched her die and it was the most horrendous day of my life. of all of our lives. general webster now has to face the consequences of his actions, but this will never bring back my mum. i have to live the rest of my life with the fact she will never be at my wedding or see me as i progress through life. this shouldn't have happened to her. this has had a huge impact on our lives. but we are satisfied to learn that this killer will not be able to hurt others now. the judge told him that joann had only been 47 when she died, and that his actions must bear responsibility for her tragic demise. in response, webster started swearing and shouting in court and had to be led away by doc officers. thames valley police say this is the first manslaughter conviction

in relation to an acid attack and during their investigation it transpired that two months before joanne rand's death webster himself had been attacked by acid. so, he knew what the consequences would be, and still chose to use it and threatened it as a weapon, so a very tragic outcome. as jo's family try tom move on without her, they are now calling for schools to teach youngsters the dangers and consequences that come with carrying acid. handing down that 17—year sentence at reading crown court the judge said "there is no sentence which of this court can pass which would reflect the value ofjo's life." i spoke to one of her sisters straight after sentencing and she said webster could be locked up for the rest of his life and it still wouldn't be enough. and we'll find out how this story — and many others — are covered in tomorrow's front pages at 10:45 and 11:30

this evening in the papers. our guests joining me tonight are camilla tominey, who's the political editor at the sunday express, and the political commentator, jane merrick. it's emerged that the man who carried out the manchester arena bombing last year, in which 22 people died, was rescued from the civil war in libya by a royal navy ship in 2014. 0ur correspondentjudith moritz is at the manchester arena and has been following the case. we have always known that hms enterprise was sent to libya in 2014 to help evacuate more than 100 british nationals caught up in the fighting there. what's new today is the information that onboard were hashem abedi and his brother salman who was then 19 and later became the man responsible for the bomb attack here at the arena. the brothers were in libya visiting their parents and salman abedi was on the radar of the security services,

but mi—5 couldn't find enough evidence of the extremist activity they'd originally suspected, and they closed the file on him a month before the evacuation. was that a missed opportunity? well, some of those who were bereaved and injured by the bomb have said it was, and they said that today. but it's also been said today that as a british national he had the right to be rescued and in fact the decision to close the file on salman abedi by the security services was not criticised by a review into what those services knew of abedi at the time of the arena attack. a brexit impact report commissioned by a kent council has warned of potential traffic chaos on kent's roads, which could last for "many years". the report by dover district council says dover and the m20 could be turned into a giant car park with lorries backed up 13 miles. it highlights what it calls a "major concern" about an increase in queuing lorries damaging air

quality and also says pressure needs to be put on the government to ensure the free flow of traffic through the port of dover as a top priority in its brexit negotiations. simonjones reports. brexit is less than a year away but the warning is effects on our roads could be felt for years. it could be chaotic and how long will it last, you cannot say. there are no plans i know at the moment for a plan b. the government's so—called temporary contingency plan, involves using a huge stretch of the 20 as a giant lorry park, that follows warnings that increasing checks on freight could lead to trafficjams stretching for 17 miles with the effeminate solution of an off—road lorry park would not be ready for yea rs. if you lined up all the lorries passing through the port of dover in a single day it would

stretch from here to calais and back again twice, a distance of around 100 miles. 2.6 million freight vehicles passed through the port of dover every year, representing 16 of the uk total trade in goods ata value of £119 billion. —— one sixth of the uk total trade in goods. some in the town are concerned. it isjust going to be traffic chaos. i think people who live here and traders, you will not be able to get about, so you will be just sort of stuck here. others say let's stop the scaremongering. we need to see a bit less of project fear and a bit more action and investment, so i say we need to have modern, cutting—edge custom systems invested by the treasury and we need to be able to take back our borders on day one. the government insists it is confident of reaching

an agreement with the eu. we need to make contingencies but i do not envisage a no deal scenario because we're working towards a good deal that works for the uk and for the other countries. but the council says the time for delivery is now. there are calls for labour to suspend a member of its ruling body, after he was recorded calling some members of the jewish community "trump fanatics." peter willsman — an ally ofjeremy corbyn — claimed that accusations of anti—semitism in the party have been invented. he's since apologised, and said not all his remarks were accurately reported — as our political correspondent vicki young reports. do you plan to withdraw as a candidate from the nec? this is peter willsman, the man at the centre of yet another anti—semitism row in the labour party. he is a long—standing ally ofjeremy corbyn and is up for re—election to the party's ruling body. but some are calling on him to stand down after a recording emerged of him denying that labour had a problem with anti—semitism.

they can falsify social media very easily and some of these people thejewish community support trump. they are trump fanatics. and all the rest of it. so i am not going to be lectured to by trump fanatics making up information without any evidence at all. so i think we should ask the 70 rabbis, where is your evidence of severe and widespread anti—semitism in this party? mr willsman has apologised, saying his remarks fell short and labour says the matter has been resolved. but the party's deputy leader tom watson tweeted, "peter willsman is and always has been a loudmouthed bully. he disgusts me." this jewish labour mp spoke out in the commons about the anti—semitic abuse she has received. the time for action is now. she wants tougher measures against mr willsman. i think it's only appropriate that he is suspended and investigated,

and a formal inquiry is opened into that conduct because it is not acceptable. has labour done enough on anti—semitism, mr corbyn? jeremy corbyn has repeatedly condemned all racism, but jewish leaders accuse him of being too soft on anti—semitic behaviour. in a statement today the labour party said: "we are committed to tackling and eradicating anti—semitism in all its forms in our party and our society. jeremy corbyn has asked labour's general secretary to make speeding up and strengthening our disciplinary procedures against anti—semitism a top priority." but in one north london council, labour activists are worried, saying they saw earlier this year how the anti—semitism row turned voters away. it made a big difference in the local elections. by all the evidence we are gathering, it seems to be the reason that barnet hasn't got a labour council, that could do a lot for the residents here. so it's already done damage, and until it is sorted out it will continue to do damage.

labour has held inquiries about anti—semitism and there have been dozens of suspensions but some see peter willsman's case as a test for jeremy corbyn. whether he is prepared to personally intervene against an ally or stay silent and let such behaviour go unpunished. vicki young, bbc news, westminster. aid agencies are accused of being "almost complict" in sexual abuse across the sector, in a damning report by mps. the international development committee says the delivery of aid has been subverted by sexual predators — and that there's been a "culture of denial" since revelations that workers for 0xfam paid for sex while helping victims of the 2010 earthquake in haiti. charities have welcomed the report, and 0xfam concedes it has "further to go." here's our special correspondent, lucy manning. the charity workers were supposed to bring help, not abuse. they were supposed to bring aid, not exploitation.

but when people were at their most vulnerable, they couldn't rely on their rescuers. the charity workers were supposed to bring help, not abuse. the mps' report finds charities and aid agencies have failed to deal with abuse, rape and its workers demanding six in return for handing out food. we've reached the conclusion that in the aid sector, there has been complacency verging frankly, on complicity with what has happened. and that is because organisations, all too often have appeared more concerned to protect their own reputation in the sector rather than protecting victims and survivors. haiti, the aftermath of the earthquake in 2010. an investigation by the times earlier this year discovered 0xfam had covered up its staff using sex workers, exploiting vulnerable women and young girls. those who highlighted sexual abuse allegations were ignored. there was not the interbalised

acknowledgment of quite how big an issue this was. i think it is also very ha rd issue this was. i think it is also very hard for an aid agency that wa nts to very hard for an aid agency that wants to focus on doing good things to acknowledge there is this systemic issue. and the aid sector has had its mee too moment. the charity sector has helped many but the report found abuse was an open secret, that the response was patchy and sluggish, little has changed since the uncovering of a sex for food scandal in west africa 16 years ago. there hasn't been changed because organisations have become complacent, they have been left to their own devices, there is no external scrutiny or pressure. this is only the second time in 16 years there has been global media attention to this. the international development committee recommends independent aid ombudsman to help victims, annual safeguarding reports, and a register of aid workers to try to stop sexual predators working in this sector. sometimes people target our industry to get access to these people.

i think what is very welcome about this report is that recognition that this needs to be treated as kind of large—scale criminal activity. 0xfam says it is incredibly painful to read the report and it is truly sorry that it failed to protect the vulnerable women in haiti. it says improvements have been made but it accepts all charities need to give the same priority to stopping sexual abuse as they do to saving lives when helping in disaster areas. the public gives money to help those in need but charities, the un and governments all stand accused of failing to tackle a problem ignored for years. lucy manning, bbc news. we can speak now to professor andrew macleod, a former aid worker and co—founder of ‘hear their cries‘, an international advocacy organisation to protect vulnerable people in the developing world. he joins us on the line

from valencia in spain. be very good evening to you. good evening. what do you make of the reports findings that sexual abuse is endemic in the aid industry? the report itself says we should be angry, but not surprised, and i agree with that entirely. i highly welcome this report. this is probably the best, most objective report we have had into a problem that's three decades old. this has not been a culture of denialjust since the 0xfam haiti scandal, this has been a culture of denial that goes to the food for sex scandal you referred to in your package, but even earlier than that, the whistle—blower scandal in bosnia in the mid—19 90s, so i highly welcome this as a good start because we are today exactly where we were with the catholic church in the 1990s. we are just beginning to realise the scale of the problem. we have to understand this problem and now move

forward for solutions. when you worked as an aid worker did you witness some of the behaviour that's been talked about? certainly heard a lot of rumours and saw some behaviour in bars, that goes without saying i didn't see the behaviour inside bedrooms, but it was the aid industry's dirty little secret. people heard of the florida 2000 nightclub outside calais in bosnia. people knew of the food for sex gambles in west even a nun wrote in his book that one of his biggest regrets was not cracking down a paedophilia. there is no senior person in the aid industry in the last 30 years who can say with honesty they didn't know this was a problem. but if this is as widespread as you say and has been going on for as long as you say, how plausible is it that there will be prosecutions and that people will be brought to account, because if i'm right this is a report that runs to more than 100 pages in the word prosecution is only mentioned three

times. three times, 116 pages and three times and that three times it's mentioned it in the context of why it is difficult and the report writers are right. it is difficult in this report is not the full stop, it is the beginning of the sentence and there's no doubt british lawmakers will continue to work on this and both pretty but tell as secretary last year and —— priti patel, and others are taking this seriously and i expect the british government to continue to lead the way with the australian government but we need prosecutions and this is the critical bit. notjust prosecutions of the individual perpetrators but ceos and trustees of charities that have turned a willful blind eye and not done all they could to prevent the crimes happening. they should be prosecuted eitherfor happening. they should be prosecuted either for failing happening. they should be prosecuted eitherforfailing to happening. they should be prosecuted either for failing to prevent or failing to report child sex offences. remember, child sex offences. remember, child sex offences anywhere in the world are still a crime under uk law. may i ask you finally a personal question. why has this become something that

you clearly feel so passionate about? i've been asked this a couple of times today and there are three williams. firstly, it isjust wrong. secondly if a personal betrayal. every individual in the world, the ha rd est every individual in the world, the hardest resource you have is your time. choosing how to allocate your time. choosing how to allocate your time is the most important life decision and i chose to allocate my time to the aid industry and after ten yea rs time to the aid industry and after ten years in the aid industry i was getting senior enough to be complicit in the system and i cannot do that. thirdly, it is a betrayal of the donors. it is just wrong end of the donors. it is just wrong end of the donors. it is just wrong end of the trail of the victims, it's a personal betrayal of myself because i wanted to do good in the world and went to an organisation that did a lot of bad and thirdly it's a betrayal of the taxpayer funds and it's something we can and should fix and this report goes along way to starting the beginning of the process of fixing this. professor, good to talk to you. we are grateful for your time. thank you. thank you. the headlines on bbc news.

a man is sentenced to 17 years in prison for an acid attack after a woman dies. salman abedi, who killed 22 people in the manchester arena attack, was rescued from libya by a royal navy ship three years earlier. the spectre of a giant ‘lorry park‘ on the m20 could last for years if there is a no—deal brexit — warns a council in kent. sport now, and for a full round up, from the bbc sport centre, here‘s hugh woozencroft. at evening to you. hello, good evening. it is a big evening, crucially important night for the england hockey team at the world cup in london. playing south korea in the first knockout phase of the tournament. england needed a late goal at the weekend to ensure their progress. the match just goal at the weekend to ensure their progress. the matchjust started, still goalless so far. the winner would move on to play the defending champions the netherlands while the

losers would go out. full commentary of the match on radio five live sports extra. the father of the british snowboarder said she was scared of letting people down and the pressures of elite performance contributed to her death. she died last week on her 18th birthday. her family have set up a foundation in her name through which they hope to help young winter athletes with financial support. as a family and asa financial support. as a family and as a friend, would we all thought she came out on the other side of a particularly dark time in her life and that was a lot to do with the fa ct and that was a lot to do with the fact she was not able to compete la st fact she was not able to compete last season and do what she would have loved to have done through total lack of funding and that is why this foundation is so important to me and the rest of her family and her mother. uk sport has released a statement regarding her death. they say: adil rashid has been named in the

england team to face england at edgbaston. his election is controversial because he‘s only contracted to play 2020 and one—day matches for his cloud. critics say his selection devalues the county championship butjoe root has been supportive thing his development in the shorter form of the game gives england a good attacking option. football managers and coaches will be given red and yellow cards for misconduct this season. the new rules will apply to be efl fa cup and league cup competitions and can beissued and league cup competitions and can be issued for things like swearing 01’ be issued for things like swearing or gesturing at officials, sarcastic clapping and waving imaginary cards. they will be suspended also when the cards build up. premier league managers will be given verbal conscience instead. andy murray is back on court and back to winning

ways as he continues his comeback following a year out and hip surgery. he threw to the second round at the washington open but it was not a comfortable experience for him as paul garrity reports. starting from scratch again, that is how andy murray described his comeback from injury. shaking those hits is not easy after surgery. the early stages of this contest with mackenzie mcdonald proved it. murray found it hard to get his rhythm and his feet moving. losing the first set to be american. 0nce his feet moving. losing the first set to be american. once he was in his grooves and a white shirt the former world number one was dancing to his old tune, taking control and winning the second set. he‘s in a hurry to get back to the top table and he could have been off the dance floor a lot quicker than he was, failing to take five match points, cue the frustration. 0nce harmony was restored he ended his torment, he will face fellow briton kyle edmund in round two. for now though the world will wait and see how

quickly andy murray can climb the charts. england's all-time most capped rugby player is retiring from playing for our country. she made her debut in 2003 and has played 137 times for england. affectionately known as rocky, clark said it has been a fairy tale career but she‘s not popping completely. she will carry on playing for her cloud wasps. stalin‘s head coach has signed a new two—year contract extension since taking over last summer style and have enjoyed wins in australia as well as over england in this year‘s six nations. he will now be in charge until at least 2021. england hope they have taken the lead at the hockey against south korea in that playoff match. sophie has the ball in the net but it‘s being reviewed. you can find out exactly what happened in the game in sports day at half past ten. 0r check it out on the bbc sports website. we will. thank you, see you later.

the trial of president donald trump‘s former campaign manager, paul manafort, on tax and bank fraud charges has opened in a court outside washington. it‘s the first case brought by federal prosecutors investigating alleged links between the trump campaign and russia. manafort has pleaded ‘not guilty‘ to all 18 charges, but could face up to 30 years injail. rajini vaidya—nah—thun reports. paul manafort held a coveted place in donald trump‘s inner circle as his campaign manager. just weeks after being seen at the republican national convention in 2016, his political career began to unravel. forced to quit over his alleged ties to foreign governments. today he is injail, facing charges relating to his work before he joined the trump campaign. arriving at court in virginia, manafort is accused of laundering millions of dollars in cash while he worked as a political consultant in ukraine.

his clients include the former president. prosecutors say he funnelled the money to offshore accounts in exotic locations and with lavish purchases, buying multi—million dollar properties in new york and virginia and spending more than $1 million in men‘s clothing. mr manafort denies the charges. his former right—hand man, who also worked for donald trump is charged on a number of counts, but had most of those dropped in exchange for his cooperation during the investigation. he is expected to testify against mr manafort. paul manafort work for me for a very short period of time. the present isn‘t directly implicated in this trial, but these are the first charges brought by special counsel robert mueller who is investigating if the trump campaign colluded with the russians. in a tweet, donald trump claimed collusion isn‘t a crime and denied there was any in the first place. a small group of anti—trump protesters who gathered outside the court

believe the campaign did have ties to russia. it is believed paul manafort does have the answers and as his trial gets under way, it is believed he could co—operate with the wider investigation. earlier i spoke to our correspondent in washington, gary 0‘donoghue, and asked him first about president trump‘s tweet today, saying that "collusion" wasn‘t a crime. 0ver over the last few days there has been a to and fro. and a bit of an onslaught around this issue of collusion. his lawyer, rudy giuliani, the former mayor of new york, he‘s been talking about collusion not being a crime. and it comes against the background of increased speculation about the one piece of concrete evidence of any connection between the trump campaign and russia during the election, and that is that famous meeting injune of 2016 where president trump‘s son took a meeting with a group of russians he believed were going to provide

some dirt on hillary clinton. so that‘s really what we‘re talking about, what was that going to constitute? did the president know? he denies knowing about that meaning at all, yet his own lawyer, michael cohen, yet again under investigation, has said in recent days that the president knew about that meeting. the tweet came just hours before the start of this trial of president trump‘s former campaign manager. now he is not in court on charges of collusion, is he? how significant is that? it is significant in the sense that this is the first trial leading from that investigation by the special counsel who is also looking into those issues of alleged collusion. so this has been thrown up by the investigation, this is president trump‘s former campaign manager who is accused of bank and financial fraud.

pushing tens of millions of dollars through foreign accounts, not declaring money to the tax authorities here in the united states. he denies all the charges against him, however his former business associate, rick gates, has agreed to testify and to co—operate with the prosecutors. so it will be about a three—week trial or so, we know we have a jury, six women and six men have been impaneled. that was quicker than we had thought, funny enough. we should get opening statements in that trial this afternoon. and has president trump made any comment on that trial? there was some indication he could actually pardon mr manafort if he was found guilty, is that right? he can pardon him. the president can pardon pretty much anyone in the united states that he chooses, and there has certainly been a lot of speculation around those who are caught up in the molar investigation

—— muller. that the president might be willing to pardon him. he has sent out a couple of messages in terms of pardons already not connected with this, but with a very controversial sheriff out in arizona who was convicted on immigration grounds for treating people pretty badly over there. he was pardoned by the president, so there is some suggestion that some of these people are going through this process in the hope of a pardon. a pretty high risk strategy, because the kinds of sentences that paul manafort might be looking at are into the 30—plus years, and if the president chooses not to pardon him, he could spend the rest of his life in prison, given that he is 69 years old. that was gary 0‘donoghue talking to us that was gary 0‘donoghue talking to usa that was gary 0‘donoghue talking to us a little earlier from washington. since then the us federal prosecutor has started making their opening

statements. i will give you a flavour of what has been said. the federal prosecutor has said that the evidence will show that paul ma nafort evidence will show that paul manafort placed himself and his money above the law that all charges against manafort boil down to one issue, that he lied, and the us federal prosecutors said the evidence will show that paul ma nafort evidence will show that paul manafort opened over 30 bank accou nts manafort opened over 30 bank accounts in three foreign countries. so, clearly more on that as the evening develops and we will bring you news of that here on bbc news. now it‘s time for a look at the weather with tomasz. we had our spell of cooler weather and some rain, but now it looks like the temperatures are going to sort once again and the headline is that the heat wave will be back, in fact starting from around about thursday across the southeast and then warming up in other parts of the country two. in the short term,

through tonight and into tomorrow we have clear skies, no rain showers across east anglia, the midlands, much of england and wales, the northwest of scotland here breezy air with spots of rain and temperatures on the fresh side around 11—13d. tomorrow, sunny skies across the bulk of england and it looks as though it will cloud over across western areas and we are expecting rainfall in northern ireland and actually turning quite murky around some of these western coasts, but the temperatures starting to climb in the southeast, mid or high 20s and into the mid—20s as far north as yorkshire. the outlook for the coming days you can see how hot it turns in the south. hello, this is bbc news with rebecca jones. the headlines. a man is sentenced to 17 years in prison for an acid attack, which resulted in the death of a woman in high wycombe. joanne rand died 11 days after the acid was thrown over her. today, xeneral webster was sentenced for manslaughter.

it‘s emerged that the manchester bomber, salman abedi, was rescued by the royal navy from libya‘s civil war, three years before he murdered 22 people at an ariana grande concert last year. the spectre of a giant "lorry park" on the m20 could last for years if there is a no—deal brexit, warns a council in kent. labour is urged to suspend a leading party member, after he was recorded describing some of thejewish community as "trump fanatics". jewish leaders have called peter willsman‘s remarks disgusting. donald trump tweets to say collusion is not a crime. it coincides with the opening of the first case brought by federal prosecutors investigating alleged links between the trump presidential campaign and russia. the president‘s former campaign manager, paul manafort, arrives at court to stand trial. the scandal of five—year—olds unable

to speak in full sentences, the education secretary pledges to tackle what he says is a gab that "just widens". the biggest reserve for sea birds in england has just got a bit bigger, as a special protection area on the yorkshire coast is extended. facebook says it‘s identified a coordinated attempt to influence november‘s mid—term elections in the united states. the social media giant says it‘s detected and removed 32 fake accounts and pages. the company says it doesn‘t know who is behind these latest attacks and no link to russia has been established. a short while ago, i spoke to our north american technology reporter, dave lee, he says details arejust emerging. facebook have put out a lot of

information about what they call in authentic activity on their platform. they have removed 32 pages and accounts from facebook. that might seem like too many, but between them they managed 10,000 posts, placing 150 pieces of advertising, and they did start using methods that were more sophisticated than what facebook has seenin sophisticated than what facebook has seen in the past. facebook says they use better software to better hide their tracks, and also they bought advertising using third parties, so it looked like they were being bought from within the us or canada. 0ne bought from within the us or canada. one of the most interesting things about what this group is trying to do, they arranged 30 event on facebook, 30 events in the real world, most of which have taken place. another one was supposed to happen later in august, but facebook says it‘s now shut that down. there are some links to the kremlin, facebook say they have seen these new accounts were operating fairly

close to accounts they knew were coming out of russia, but they say they‘re investigating and are not 100% sure whether it can be directly linked to russia just yet, but there is at least some overlap. their hope is at least some overlap. their hope is that facebook will be seen as getting on top of this problem in a way it did before the last presidential election here. in november there is a us midterm election —— elections, and facebook is under a lot of pressure to not let this information have any influence on that boat like it did backin influence on that boat like it did back in 2016. is there any word from facebook about how they came to detect this going on was yellow? facebook said they learned the hard lessons of what happened last time, they have increased the number of staff they had looking for the stuff. the atlantic council was able to help them go through some of these posts and spot patterns that would suggest that maybe it was

misinformation and these accounts we re misinformation and these accounts were now what they said they were, they post as regular americans looking to be involved in the political process. artificial intelligence plays a big part in finding this, but facebook did stress that this is an ongoing situation. the chief operating officer on facebook held a call of reporters earlier, describing it as an arms race to stay ahead of these actors, but on this particular campaign, facebook feels it‘s managed to get on top of this one. dave fleet reporting from san francisco. —— dave lee. more than a quarter of children in england starting primary school lack basic communication and literacy skills, according to new research. the education secretary damian hinds says it‘s a "persistent scandal" and that children left behind early on rarely catch up as adults. he‘s called on parents to read and learn new words with their children.

here‘s our education editor bra nwen jeffreys. it might be summer, but they‘re still coming to school. in one of london‘s poorest boroughs, a council—run scheme to help families keep learning, to give these children a love of words. some of my favourite words are "like" and "that" and "and". lovable, valuable, and empathy. when you read or write, you get good gcses and then you get a good job. the school already runs classes for parents. they told me more advice can only help. if children learn what language is, and the sort of foundation blocks of it before they go to school, it gives them a head start. it doesn't take that long to read, five or ten minutes, you know. even if it is a nursery rhyme. reading to your child is one of the most important things that you can do with them. some parents will really welcome extra tips and advice. language skills are a basic building block of learning.

but in the most disadvantaged communities, ten years of austerity have really whittled away at services, leading some to question this government‘s commitment to social mobility. if parents are trying their best already, why does he think some should be doing more? the shocking thing, if you like, is then how the gap you have early on between kids from different backgrounds have different starts, how that gap widens as you go through school. do you agree with the chief inspector of schools that working—class communities often lack ambition? look, i think there is talent in every part of our community. we need to make sure that where people have talent, they have ability, they are also aware of the opportunities that are there. parents play an important part in that, schools play an important part in that. some parents might feel patronised, but at this school, they believe home matters, too.

reading a book at bedtime, reading to your child if your child is at a young age of five. those are the things that really have a big impact on further learning later in life. what no one can answer, how do you reach the families that don‘t get involved? branwen jeffreys, bbc news. now let‘s talk to courtenay norbury, professor of developmental language and communication disorders at university college london. thank you so much for coming in to talk to us. you‘ve been involved in a study which tracked children‘s progress in the early years, just tell us a little bit about what that involved and what you found? we've been doing a population study in surrey where we recruited children when they started school in a mainstream school, and we‘ve been tracking them now through to year

six. what we found was quite striking, when children start school, their oral language, vocabulary, grammar, and ability to have conversations or tell stories, was the single biggest predictor of their academic retain met early on. and it‘s not just their academic retain met early on. and it‘s notjust about speech and communication, it‘s all aspects of the curriculum. language is important for maths, for science, for your personal and social development. that is one key finding. the otherfinding development. that is one key finding. the other finding was that those children who started behind the rest of their peers really don‘t catch up, that gap maintains all the way through primary school. what can be done to improve children‘s literacy skills at this very young age? oral language is the foundation of literacy, so what we want to do for the early years is to really build a good foundation of vocabulary and grammar, and give them lots of exposure to good stories and talking about things that are removed from the here and

now. so if you want to do that, there are three key things we need to focus on. damon hines is right, language starts at home, so supporting vulnerable families, particularly to talk more to their children. i know we focus on reading, and reading is a brilliant thing to do because books contain very high quality of vocabulary and more complex sentences. but sometimes parents find it quite challenging to do that, particularly those who might not be very skilled at language were reading themselves. so my advice is always to think about talking to your child, providing an ongoing commentary with what‘s going on throughout the day. for example, it‘s weird to think about talking to a baby, but you can absolutely talk to a baby at bath time, tell them about washing their feet were their back. they make that connection between what you‘re saying and their parts of the body. 0r saying and their parts of the body. or when you go to the part, point out things they can see or describe the actions. using gestures so they

can make that communicative connection. you said there were three things, that‘s one stop three. it's three things, that‘s one stop three. it‘s great we are providing more nursing hours to families, but we need to make sure vulnerable communities, that is the highest education they can have. really focus on play and developing oral language skills. interrupt you there, you can have more nursery provision, but at the end of the day, that provision is only as good as the people who work in it. absolutely, and as you know nurseries are often staffed by women who are poorly paid and not necessarily those that have high qualifications in that kind of education. they do a very good job of caring for children, but what you need is people who can look at the situation and provide a really high—quality language input that focuses on what children are doing

so they can develop those skills. thirdly, improve access to speech and language therapy. there are some children who are at the bottom of the distribution who have a developmental language disorder, and they really need extra support from expert clinicians. and getting access to that is getting harder and harder, so moving those sorts of specialists clinicians into those nursery environments would really help parents and children from vulnerable backgrounds access the help that they need. so those are your recommendations. how optimistic are you about the future? obviously it requires investment, but i think now that more people are you realising how critical language skills are to education, success, mental health, future employment prospects, i hope people will start to see it as a good investment with long—term benefit to everyone. professor, thank you so much for coming in to talk to us. thank you for having me.

british gas lost more than 300,000 accounts in the first half of this year, according to the chief executive of the firm‘s parent company. centrica‘s profits were also down by 20% to £430 million, as our business editor simonjack reports. switching your energy supplier, have you? i have, yes. no. yes, i have. yes. no. well, record numbers of people are switching, which turns out is bad news for the uk‘s biggest supplier, british gas. last year, british gas lost 1.2 million gas and electricity accounts. so far this year, it‘s lost a further 341,000, and that‘s hurt the bottom line with profits falling 20%. but the exodus is slowing, according to the boss of parent company centrica. overall, i believe we‘re now seeing the beginnings of our ability to stabilise customer numbers.

so when i speak to you in six months‘ time, you won‘t have lost any more customers? i‘m not going to give you a prediction about when we‘ll actually stabilise customer numbers and customer accounts in consumer, but it‘s definitely slowing. there are dozens of smaller, new competitors who don‘t pay in environmental levies, which gives them a price advantage. there's 80 energy suppliers now in the uk, so so much competition that british gas would really struggle to gain customers nowadays, they're almost certainly going to lose every year. there's 80 energy suppliers now in the uk, so so much competition a sea of cheaper deals from smaller suppliers. you have to scroll down a long, long way to get to a british gas deal, so they're struggling to gain new customers. but, 3.5 million british gas customers are still on expensive, standard, variable rate tariffs which the government has pledged to cap by the end of this year. the company insists that could end up with some customers paying more. it‘s a price control and wherever price controls have been put

in place in competitive energy markets, customers have lost out. they‘ve lost out because of less competition, prices tend to bunch around the cap, and it tends to remove choice from the market. the company also warned wholesale energy prices have been going up recently, a hint perhaps that bills could still rise before the long—awaited cap comes into effect. simon jack, bbc news. the headlines on bbc news. a man is sentenced to 17 years in prison for an acid attack after a woman dies. salman abedi, who killed 22 people in the manchester arena attack, was rescued from libya by a royal navy ship three years earlier. the spectre of a giant "lorry park" on the m20 could last for years if there is a no—deal brexit, warns a council in kent. the father of the great britain snowboarder ellie soutter,

who took her own life on her 18th birthday, has told bbc news that she wanted to be the best, but the pressure of competing weighed heavily on her. miss soutter won great britain‘s only medal at the youth winter olympics last year. herfather, tony soutter, is now establishing a foundation to support other young athletes struggling with the pressures of top level sport. juliette parkin has this report. this was ellie soutter at her very best. she took bronze last year at the youth 0lympics... and was hotly tipped for a place at the 2022 winter games. sitting on the podium was really good. it‘s been my first multisport competition, and it was amazing to have so many people watching us. i hope the preparatory for the beijing olympic games. but it was not meant to be. her body was

found ina it was not meant to be. her body was found in a remote part ofj late at night on her 18th birthday. she had been upbeat the day before, but her father believed her past history of mental health issues, coupled with the pressure of the elite performance, may have been the ca ta lysts performance, may have been the catalysts to ending her life. unfortunately, it all kind of... which then meant she didn't go training with the gb squad. she felt she'd let them down, let me down, and tragically it just takes one silly little thing like that the tip somebody over the edge. ellie soutter had spent the last season competing on the free ride junior to her, and just last month was named the senior gb squad for the snowboard cross europe circuit. but training and accommodation at that level comes with a price, over £30,000 a year. as a family and a

friend, we all thought ellie had come out of the other side of a particularly dark time of her life. that was a lot to do with the fact that she was unable to compete last season and do what she would have loved to have done their total lack of funding. and that's why this foundation is so important to me and the rest of her family, and her mother. it was here in the french alps where her hot ash heart lay. she was made ambassador, very unusualfor a she was made ambassador, very unusual for a british athlete. transcripts she was like an ant —— english ambassador for the town who snowboard for the english team and was here for quite some time. she was here for quite some time. she was an ambassador to them because she was an excellent snowboarder. you don't get that here every day of the week. it didn't make a difference to us whether she snowboard for the english team or for france. ellie love these mountains, it was where she felt most at home. but the pressure of

competing at such a high level took its toll. now her family hopes that a foundation set up in her name will help others achieve their goals. i've lost my best friend, my total body. she was my luck and everything. i've done nothing but live for her for the last 18 years, and now i have to start again, really. and if i didn't, she would be mortified. the foundation page has just been set up an already donations have come flooding in. ellie‘s funeral will be attended by hundreds here on thursday, a life sorely missed. a price war future, sadly lost. juliette parkin, bbc southeast today. it is 8:59pm. how fast is your broadband? some villages in england are enjoying some of the fastest speeds in the country. tired of waiting for the government‘s roll out of high speed broadband to rural areas,

a group of volunteers has gone ahead and installed it themselves. other communities are now following their lead. danny savage has been to killington in cumbria to meet the volunteers. —— 8:51pm. the british countryside, a place where most teenagers and quite a few adults get a bit twitchy about wi—fi and getting online. take the newbold family for example, who live at rural cumbria, have dismal download speeds and can‘t get what their mates can. snapchat, loads of stuff on instagram. download videos, youtube. is that a big difference to your life, does it matter? yes! it's having a think, it may work, it may not. in a nutshell, we've had to relocate our business to an office where we've got a decent internet connection. miles away? yes, 4—5 miles away. this rolled—up wire and the cabinet here shows that in this case in cumbria, bt are putting the infrastructure in.

but what local people say is what comes out of this isn‘t good enough, so they are putting in their own system which they say is faster and better. nearby, a not—for—profit venture is feeding fibre—optic cables through and under a field. a coalition of willing landowners is working with volunteers to bring superfast broadband to all of these remote properties. most weekends and even in the week, there will be stalwarts amongst us who are out with diggers, digging the trenches so this will have been going on virtually every week and all weekends for the past 18 months. cable is now shooting out of the ground across these hillsides as the project spreads from farm, to business, to home. it's far better for us to do it for ourselves. it's quicker, less red tape. cheaper, because the landowners are part of the project. the government says ventures like this are part of the broader plan for connecting rural areas. soon, the fibre—optic box

on the side of the newbold‘s home will be activated too, where maybe there‘ll be a bit less trampolining and more modern teenage pursuits. danny savage, bbc news, cumbria. thousands of puffins and other sea birds are set to benefit from the expansion of a protected area off the yorkshire coast. a special protection area is being extended to help secure the future of the birds on that particular stretch of coast. 0ur reporter phillip norton is at flamborough in east yorkshire with the details. you join me here at what will be the start of a newly—extended special protection area for the birds, and i can tell you that the noise from these sea birds who are starting to bed down for the night is incredible. this part of the yorkshire coast is home to many thousands and thousands of birds including puffins, guillemots and ganets and this protection area will now be extended to filey meaning it will total almost 12 miles to better protect england‘s largest sea bird

colony, and it will mean that more than 4,000 puffins will be given extra protection, meaning they can live a safer life and that news has been welcomed by visitors to the area today. we live off the dorset coast and it‘s rare to see a puffin, whereas if we come up here we can see some. no doubt on the north coast we would see more of them. it is fabulous news as they have been in decline for years. the reserve managerfor the rspb, alison, is with us, and you must be delighted with the announcement. we really are because this is years in the making. this is hours and hours of volunteer staff time counting the birds and working with partners and other managers across this head land to bring it to fruition.

what does it mean to all of these birds? it means that the birds are afforded a safe place to breed and for a colony of this size and significance, that‘s really important. we are talking thousands and thousands. yes, last year we did a full colony count and counted every single bird across the 12—mile stretch, and we found we had 300,000 breeding sea birds who produced about 100,000 offspring and tens of thousands of river birds not breeding yet makes it one of the most important colonies in the uk and certainly the largest in england. and out to sea as well? we have designated an area where the birds spend time whether it is trading was socialising, things that are important to them. what does this mean to this coastal area? what it means as we have

something very special, that we are protecting for the future and bringing hundreds of thousands of people to see this amazing spectacle which is pretty much unique. it‘s hoped today‘s announcement means the coastal environment and all of these sea birds can be enjoyed by many future generations to come. now it‘s time for a look at the weather with tomasz. we had our spell of cooler weather and some rain, but now it looks like the temperatures are going to soar once again, and the headline is that the heat wave will be back starting from thursday across the southeast, and warming up in other parts of the country. but in the short term through tonight and into tomorrow, we‘ve got clear skies, no rain showers across east anglia, the

midlands, much of england and wales. the northwest of scotland here is breezy or with spots of rain, with temperatures on the fresh site around 11—13d. tomorrow, sunny skies across the of england, it looks like it will cloud over across western areas, and we are expecting rainfall in northern ireland. turning quite murky around some of these western coasts, but the temperatures are starting to climb in the southeast, mid or high 20s, even into the mid—20s as high as yorkshire. you can see how hot it terms democrat turns in the south the next few days. hello, i‘m karin giannone, this is 0utside source. facebook announces it‘s identified dozens of fake accounts thought to be engaging in political activity in the run up to november s us midterm elections. north korea may be building new ballistic missiles — despite warming ties with the us and promises to denuclearise. there‘s growing tension in zimbabwe, with just a handful of results so far released

from yesterday‘s elections. drama at an aquarium in the us as thieves steal a shark by disguising it as a baby and pushing it away in a pram. we have the story.