this is bbc news i'm shaun ley. the headlines at 12.00: security alert at seattle airport after an airline employee steals an empty plane and crashes on a nearby island. chemical giant monsanto is ordered to pay nearly $300 million in damages to an american man who said its weedkiller made him terminally ill with cancer. i am glad to be here to help with this situation after i learned about roundup and glyphusate and everything. i am glad to be here to be able to help, but the cause is way bigger than me. a man appears in court in charged with starting the california wild —fires. a warning the army could be deployed in new south wales to help australia's farmers deal with the worst drought in living memory. and mission to the sun on hold. nasa is forced to postpone its historic space probe launch until tomorrow because of technical problems. and the click team meet france's

very own rocket man — that's in half an hour on bbc news. a passenger plane has crashed after being stolen from seattle airport in the united states. alaska airlines says a member of the ground crew had taken the plane. no passengers or staff were on board at the time. andy moore reports. what the hell? the stolen plane was filmed by shocked witnesses flying low over the islands of puget sound. what is happening right now? ok, but why does it have jets? it was pursued by two f—15 military jets, the planes escorted the plane out of harm's way but were not instrumental in bringing it down. whilst he was performing acrobatic manoeuvres the 29—year—old man at the controls was talking to air traffic control. we are trying to find a place

for you to land safety. i'm not quite ready to bring it down just yet, but holy smokes, i've got to look out for the fuel because it is going down quick. 0k, rich if you could just start a left—hand turn it will take you down to the south—east, please. this is probablyjail time for life? i hope it is, for a guy like me. rich we're not going to think about that, just do a left turn please. the man piloting the plane said he would do one last barrel roll and then call it a night. he crashed into a sparsely populated island, causing there's fire. apparently the plane was taken from seattle airport. our information now was that there was only one person on the plane, that was the person flying it.

we understand the person may have been doing some air stunts, i know that some personnel were scrambled from the air force base. there was no indication that this person flying the plane was trying to damage or attack anything. the full circumstances of what happened are still being investigated. police said it involved only one local man who wanted to take his own life. that man said himself said he was not a qualified pilot, but he had enough knowledge to take a plane and fly it for some time before bringing hisjourney an end. andy moore, bbc news. an explosion at a military factory in wiltshire has killed one man and left another man in a critical condition in hospital. the dead man is a 29 year—old man from southampton who was pronounced dead at the scene. chemring countermeasures — which is based near salisbury —

makes products to protect military ships and aircraft from attack. the police said the incident was under control and there was no risk to the public. ianjohns is the group manufacturing director at the factory. he gave this statement on the incident. first and foremost we would like to extend our condolences to the families and loved ones of the two men involved. obviously our thoughts and prayers are with those two individuals at this moment in time. i can confirm that at approximately 5pm yesterday evening an incident occurred at chemring countermeasures in salisbury. regrettably, one employee was fatally injured. another employee is currently receiving treatment in hospital. the emergency services attended the scene and the incident was quickly made safe. a full and immediate investigation into the root cause of the incident is taking place, launched in cooperation with local hse and police authorities. meanwhile, the manufacturing operations at the site have been suspended until further notice. a further announcement will be made in due course. thank you. the maker of roundup weedkiller

is insisting british consumers are safe to use the product after a court in the united states ordered them to pay the equivalent of 196 million pounds to a man who became terminally ill after using the firm's weedkillers. in a landmark case, a californian jury found that monsanto knew its weedkillers were dangerous and failed to warn consumers. james cook reports. dwayne johnson applied monsanto's roundup and ranger pro herbicides up to 30 times a year. now 46 years old, and dying of non—hodgkin's lymphoma, he held his head in his hands after the judge related the jury's verdict. glyphosate did present a substantial danger. monsanto had been negligent in failing to warn users and had acted with malice or oppression. mrjohnson said he hoped the verdict would bolster thousands of similar cases. since beginning this case i have received a lot of support, a lot of thank you and a lot

of fear, a lot of everything. just getting energy from a lot of people that i don't even know, you know. and i'm glad to be here to help with this situation after i learned about roundup and glyphosate and everything, i'm glad to be here to be able to help. the cause is way bigger than me so hopefully this thing will start to get the attention that it needs, so folks can make a good choice. and finally i just want to thank my wife, my three sons, and my entire family and friends that have been here for me. thank you. his lawyer said the company had acted with reckless disregard for human life. but monsanto, owned by the german conglomerate bayer, says it will appeal and insists its products are vital, effective and safe tools forfarmers worldwide. the science is not certain. in 2015 world health organization classified glyphosate is probably carcinogenic but both the us and the eu, supported by the uk, have since approved its usage.

it's a mission 60 years in the making, but nasa's solar probe launch will have to wait one more day, after its scheduled ta ke—off was cancelled. we have expired our time and our window for tonight's launch. we will begin to recycle and go for a 24—hour turnaround time. it's one of the space agency's most ambitious missions and will send a probe into the sun's atmosphere for the first time. the rocket carrying the parker solar probe was scheduled to blast off from cape canaveral, in florida, around 8.30am this morning, but after an hour of delays the launch was rescheduled for tomorrow. scientists hope the seven—year mission will gather data to help understand the solar storms which can disrupt satellite communications here on earth. earlier i spoke to professor tim horbury, professor of physics at imperial college london

and a member of the science team working on the parker solar probe, and asked him about how the mission is expected to progress when it does take—off. it is disappointing this morning but it is always better to be on the ground and fixing a problem than flying with a problem. they made the right decision and we are happy to wait. when the mission goes the spacecraft will go quickly from the beginning. we will launch an fly past venus in september and then we'll get our first close pass to sun in november and get the first data back in december. although space is big, it takes a long time to get to the places, we will get some of the first data very rapidly. i am very excited. it sounds flippant, but it almost sounds like a pr, press release saying it has been in the planning for 60 years, but in this case, it's not an exaggeration? from the beginning of the space age, one of the clear things that needed to be done was go

and explore the sun. it drives all of our life on earth, its heat and its light lets us live on the planet. we are dependent on it and it is important we understand what it does. there are lots of things we don't understand because we haven't been able to get close enough to measure it in detail. one of the conundrums about the sun, is its atmosphere is hotter than its surface. 0n the top of a mountain it is colder than it is at the surface. the opposite is true of the sun. its atmosphere isi million degrees and we don't understand why. without understanding that, we cannot understand how it generates the phenomena it does. it fills interplanetary space with the solar wind. when it interacts with

the earth's magnetic field. it can knock out satellites and harm astronauts and do damage on the earth's surface as well. we need to understand the sun if we are to depend upon it and make predictions when it will do stuff that will affect us. you are putting your faith in a piece of equipment that is just 4.5 inches thick, yet somehow it will protect this probe from the power of the sun, it sounds unimaginable? it does and the reason we waited so long for this mission, we didn't have the technology up until now. it is a very high technology mission. the heat shield on the front is high technology and the front will get to about 1300 celsius, which is unimaginable. the spacecraft that hides behind the heat shield and the spacecraft is only about the height of an adult and weighs about 600 kilograms.

it is a tiny little space craft we are sending and plunging it into the sun's atmosphere. the technology is important and they have spent a lot of time getting it right. conservative mpjacob rees—mogg has claimed an investigation into borisjohnson is a "show trial" to stop him becoming leader. writing in the daily telegraph, the tory backbencher blamed theresa may's "personal rivalry" with mrjohnson for "taking the heat off labour", and said that some senior conservatives are envious of the former foreign secretary's popularity. mrjohnson is under investigation for a newspaper article in which he compared muslim women in full face veils to letter boxes and bank robbers. a man's appeared in court in calfornia charged with starting a wild—fire that led to more than 20,000 people having to leave their homes. the holy fire, as it

has become known, burned nearly 10,000 acres through the mountains of southern california. prosecutors say forrest clark had a grudge against a neighbour. he could face life in prison if convicted. another inferno. a rapidly—moving wildfire fuelled by high temperatures, gusty winds, and tinder dry brush. named after a local hiking trail, the holy fire broke out on monday, about 70 miles south—east of los angeles. dangerously close to homes, the flames leave residents with no choice. the police told us just a few minutes ago that it's time to leave. yesterday was mandatory evacuations. i left for the night and came back up. in the matter of about an hour were they were driving around with their sirens on and forcing residents to leave, so all of us down at the park. steep, inaccessible terrain has hampered firefighters and the blaze is still out of control.

officials are warning that worsening weather conditions with thunderstorms in the forecast will lead to extreme fire behaviour over the next few days. there are a lot of resources available nationwide, but we are in competition with a number of fires up and down the state and also nationally. as those fires wind down and they release firefighting resources we're able to get them here. the authorities say it was started deliberately by this man, 51—year—old forrest clark has appeared in court charged with arson. he could face life in prison if convicted. at least a dozen wildfires are burning across california. 111,000 firefighters, including crews from overseas, are battling the flames from the ground and the air. so we've got a really good relationship between america and new zealand and we've had the american usar taskforce teams and come out and help with the kaikoura and christchurch earthquakes in 2010, 2011, so we were really grateful

to provide that reciprocal help. the national weather service says smoke from california and other fires burning in western states appears to have drifted as far as new york, 3000 miles away. some of the fires are expected to burn for several weeks. peter bowes, bbc news, los angeles. officials in new south wales in australia say the army could be deployed to help farmers as the worst drought in living memory continues to take its toll. the state government says the miltary could be called in to help transport animal feed and water to badly hit communities in the outback. a warm, dry winter has left many farmers struggling to survive and little rain is expected in the months ahead. more on this now with our sydney correspondent phil mercer, who has spent time in the drought zone this week, near the city in tamworth in new south wales.

it was extraordinary to see prime agricultural land that has been laid to waste. many farmers haven't seen decent rain for the best part of two years. we went to a small community and met kate james. she is a beef farmer, struggling to stay on the land, determined to beat the drought but she says the daily grind of life on the farm is a challenge. you wake up and you think, 0k, we've got to do this all again. there's no room for a break, no room to be sick, there's no room to not feel like doing it today. the cows need to be fed. it is a gorgeous day, it is a sunny, winter's day but we are having quite warm days in the middle of winter and this is not normal. this is quite exceptional. the land is brown, the land is cracked, it is barren in that

part of new south wales. it's not just farmers being affected, their families and children are also being psychologically, as well as financially affected by the big dry. we went to the town of manila in new south wales and the deputy principal is a woman called rachel ferguson. she said the drought is likely to force students from farming families off the land. if you are born on the land, it is a very hard thing to walk away from. but i think increasingly, when you look at what fodder costs have been, the costs of carting water, the time in psychological and emotional cost, it is tempting for those students to go away. i can understand why, because i think for most of them, that idea of secure employment, secure financial stability is obviously very appealing against sort of playing the numbers

on the farm. we have had one of the driest ever autumns here in southern australia, a very dry winter has followed. and the forecast isn't good. the outlook the new south wales over the next three months is for more drier than normal conditions. it is clear in this part of australia the big dry will continue to tighten its grip. the headlines on bbc news... a passenger plane has crashed after an employee carried out "an unauthorised take off" from the seattle tacoma international airport. chemical giant monsanto is ordered to pay nearly $300 million in damages to an american man who said its weedkiller made him terminally ill with cancer. calls to allow boxing and martial arts lessons in prisons and young

offenders institutions have been rejected by the government. the proposal was part of a review into how sport and a healthy diet could be used to help rehabilitate inmates and reduce re—offending. but the ministry ofjustice said it was concerned the classes would amount to combat training for inmates. the author of the report is professor rosie meek. a little earlier i spoke to professor meek and also a former inmate, john mcavoy, who turned his life around through exercise and sport in prison. my suggestion is that governors and pe staff in our prisons should be given the autonomy to make their own decisions when boxing related activities are appropriate. we do know from community findings that boxing and boxing related educational programmes can be an incredible powerful way of engaging with some of our most difficult to reach,

disengaged particularly young men but also women and young adults in our communities. it is a shame if we are missing out on the opportunity to deliver some of these programmes in our prisons, where we could argue we need them most where we have very violent prisoners and we need some innovation in terms of trying to deal with some of the issues we face in our prisons today and ultimately reduce reoffending. let me bring injohn, you were a life prisoner? yes. exercise became your way out? explain how? i went to prison when i was 18, got sentenced to five years in prison. it didn't change me, i didn't want to be rehabilitated. i came out of prison worse than when i went in and carried on committing offences. i went back in when i was 22, at 24 i got two life sentences. conspiracy to commit robbery.

whilst i was serving a prison sentence a friend of mine passed away and i had a moment of realisation in prison as to how short my life was and i haven't achieved anything with my life. i had access to the prison gym and there was an amazing prison officer there, darren davis. he spotted i was better than average on an indoor rowing machine. he came back to me a couple of days later and gave me these pieces of paper that had these records. the prison facilitated me to try and break some of these british and world records on a rowing machine. it wasn't just you having the desire, you needed it to be facilitated by somebody else? 100%. it wouldn't have mattered how much physical prowess i had, i was in an environment where somebody had to help me. the prison governor reached out and facilitated me to break those records. that opened up my eyes to my potential and i realised

i could use my body as a vehicle to get me out of the life of crime. that is exactly what you have done? i had a dream in prison to become an athlete. lots of people laughed at me because i was serving a life sentence, but i believed could do it. there is 85,000 men, women and children in prison in this country. if i have managed to turn my life around, i was one of the most hard—core criminals, it was about money. if i have managed to do what i have with my life, anybody can do it with their lives. prisoners throw themselves into education, drugs or the gym. your emphasis is on healthy eating and awareness of body and all the rest of it, but do you think this exercise aspect of prison life has a wider use beyond just getting the prisoners fitter? absolutely, it's notjust a public—health element, which of course is critical. but we have evidence we can use

sport to promote learning, education and revive ex—prisoners with the route into meaningful employment in the sports and fitness sectors. you talk about drug use and we have evidence of sports being used as a way of working with people who are dealing with substance misuse issues. as well as a whole range of other psychological and physical health issues. how patchy is provision at the moment? patchy is the right word. i include in my review, a set of good practice examples from across the estate of england and wales. i use these examples to demonstrate they are possible but they are few and far between. one of the purposes of this review is to highlight how sport is being used and to demonstrate to the rest of the prison system that we should be making better use of the sporting programmes. but it is patchy and that depends on the senior management, the governor of a prison, how much they support a sporting programme.

but often, it comes down to resources where we are facing staff shortages in our prisons and prisoners are kept locked in their cells. it is difficult to engage them in any meaningful activity, whether it is physical education or other forms of education or therapy. seven marks and spencer stores will shut today as part of a major restructuring plan. it comes a day after house of fraser was bought out of administration, and as more and more high street stores face pressure from rising costs and online retailers. our business correspondent joe lynam has more. this store in northampton will close its doors for the last time today. it's been trading for almost a century. yet another victim of intense competition from web retailers. in 2006, m&s announced a restructuring plan to cut costs to include the closure,

shrinking or relocation of more than 100 stores by 2022. by the end of today, they will have closed down 28 stores. today, its shops in these areas will trade for the last time. these closures join an ever growing list of retailers facing existential threats from the internet, including mothercare, toys ‘r' us, carpetright and most recently, house of fraser. 2018 has been a tough year for retailers. we have seen quite a few retailers go into administration or announce they are closing a significant number of stores. this is in reaction to consumer spends both shifting online and being held back where consumer confidence is low. house of fraser was bought out of administration yesterday by mike ashley, the owner of sports direct, but it is unlikely he will keep all of the 59 stores open. so the attrition on the high

street is set to continue. joe lynam, bbc news. in november, americans will go to the polls to vote in the crucial midterm elections. but as intelligence chiefs in the country continue to warn of russian interference, there's growing concern about the us voting infrastructure and how vulnerable it could be to cyber—attack. at a conference in las vegas, we met children with the hacking skills needed to crack america s defences. now i am going to try and change the votes for donald trump. i'm going to try and give him less votes. these are the websites that are very important because they report the election results to the public.

they also tell the public where to go to vote. you can imagine if either of these two things were changed, the chaos that would ensue. if you need any assistance, please just raise your hand and we will come and help you. delete the rows, updating the rows. deleting them, adding them. you canjust go in, we can call somebody our own name if we want to, make it look like we won the election. time has expired.

you have the opportunity to do that today. do so, vote yes on this ammendment for your country. chanting: usa! usa! do you think these systems should be more secure? we should be more secure because russians are out there, people. a rhino calf, one of only 650 in the world, has been playing outside for the first time, just over a week after being born at chester zoo. the baby, which is yet to be named, was born in front of astonished visitors 11 days ago, despite rhinos usually calving at night. with so few eastern black rhinos left on the planet, he is a very important new addition to the breeding programme working to prevent their extinction.

now it's time for a look at the weather with chris fawkes. for many it has been a sunny start, if not chilly. cloud will thicken from the south—west. 0utbreaks if not chilly. cloud will thicken from the south—west. outbreaks of rain getting into south—west england with strengthening south—westerly winds. bus stop the sunshine is eastern scotland and eastern england. but the northern isles there will be one or two passing showers. 0vernight the area of rain expands across england and wales before spreading into northern ireland and parts of scotland. the far north stays dry. 0therwise, ireland and parts of scotland. the far north stays dry. otherwise, and mild night. some fog patches developing over the hills. sunday's forecasts, it will be cloudy and wet to start. the weather front we have got will bring pulses of heavy rain

and it may be be rain band is much slower to push away a cross into eastern england followed by another band of rain into wales and south—west england. a band of rain best sums up tomorrow's weather. hello this is bbc news. the headlines... a passenger plane has crashed after an employee carried out "an unauthorised take off" from the seattle tacoma international airport. chemical giant monsanto is ordered to pay nearly $300 million in damages to an american man who said its weedkiller made him terminally ill with cancer. a 29 year—old man has been killed and another man is seriously injured after an explosion at a military hardware factory in wiltshire. a man appears in court in charged with starting the california wild —fires. sport and for a full round up, from the bbc sport centre, here's jon acres. england have lost both openers

on day three of the second test with india at lords. they lost alistair cook for 21, and keaton jennings for 11 and are currently 64—2 in reply to india's 107 all out. 20—year—old nick pope is at the wicket for england, he's 20 not out. the first saturday of the new premier league season is about to kick off... newcastle host spurs in the day's early kick off... harry kane starts despite his short break after the world cup with england... two sides with different priorities this season but clubs that had a very similar transfer window where there