hello and welcome to bbc news. the pharmaceutical company bayer says its monsanto weedkillers are safe. this follows a court ruling ordering them to pay nearly $290 million in damages to a man who became terminally ill after using them. dewaynejohnson, a school groundsman, alleges his cancer was caused by glyphosate in the herbicides. here's our north america correspondent james cook. for dewayne johnson, the verdict was bittersweet, to say the least. at 46 years old, he is dying of cancer, caused — the jury found — by monsa nto‘s weedkillers. thousands more americans claim they too were sickened by the herbicides and their key ingredient, glyphosate. since the beginning of this case, i've received a lot of support, thank you, and a lot of prayers and everything, just getting energy from a lot of people that i don't even know, you know. 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 but the cause is way bigger than me. the jury ruled notjust that roundup caused cancer but that monsanto knew. monsanto had acted with malice or oppression and the company had been negligent in failing to put a cancer label on the product. that is a choice that reflects reckless disregard for human health. it is a choice that monsanto made and today is their day of reckoning. every single cancer risk that has been found had this moment. every single one. where the science finally caught up, where they couldn't bury it any more. but among scientists, they say glyphosate is essential for farming.

they insist —— monsanto insists the chemical is safe. it is the most widely used herbicide in the world. it's the most widely studied herbicide in the world. there are over 800 scientific, medical, peer reviewed published studies that demonstrate glyphosate is safe and does not cause cancer. and yet world health organization scientists say glyphosate is probably carcinogenic, while the us and the eu continue to approve its use. this case by no means ends the controversy about the most heavily used herbicide in history. james cook, bbc news, los angeles. tens of thousands of romanians have taken to the streets of bucharest for a second night running to protest against the government, accusing it of corruption and abuse of power. many of the demonstrators returned from across europe to voice their opposition. they are particularly angry at the government's sacking of an anti—corruption prosecutor. on friday police used batons, tear gas and water cannon to disperse the crowds. vlad macelaru is protester and a un youth delegate,

who's in bucharest. these protests have been built up over the past month. since the current government is trying to weaken the justice system and the rule of law in general so overall, we have protests against a corrupt government. would you say that trying to enter a government building isjustified under the circumstances? no, i wouldn't say so definitely, i don't think that was the intent of the protesters, so most of them were peaceful, i'm talking about100,000, 150,000 and maybe we had 50 instigators. what happens is, those instigators taint the whole crowd, for example, they were throwing bricks at police who felt they had to respond. indeed, and typically the response you would expect would be to isolate the instigators and neutralise them but instead the task force decided to abuse everyone who was protesting peacefully, kids and women

and elders and so on, so i don't think that was the right response. this government was democratically elected, wasn't it? so why do you want it to resign? basically, as i mentioned before, they decriminalised low—level corruption offences to their advantage and they are working on weakening the justice system and pretty much ignoring the economy and the well—being of the country in general. events are being held in charlottesville virginia, to mark the one year anniversary of deadly clashes in the us, spaked by a white supremacist rally. earlier, president trump tweeted that last year's violence between far—right demonstrators and their opponents resulted in senseless death and division. stay with us here on bbc news, still to come — we look back on the life of british author and nobel prize

winner vs naipaul who's died at the age of 85. police investigating the death of a seven year old boy in a fire in south london have arrested two men. the body ofjoel urhie was found at his home in deptford on tuesday. his mother and sister managed to escape from the house. simon jones has more. the police have described the fire as horrific, saying it has shattered the lives of the family. 7—year—old joel urhie was found dead by firefighters in the early hours of tuesday morning. he had dreamt of becoming a firefighter himself when he became older. his sister and his mother were in the house at the time the fire broke out. they managed to escape byjumping from a first—floor window. we understand his mother is still being treated in hospital. police have been examining cctv and going through the house, and today they have arrested two men aged 21 and 29 on suspicion of murder, and suspicion of attempted murder and arson with intent to endanger life. they are being questioned

in south london. joel's sister sarah has paid tribute to him on social media. she says she simply cannot understand what has happened. a bbc investigation has found the metropolitan police has spent almost half a billion pounds on overtime in the last five years — the highest amount in the country. on average, officers in the uk worked nearly 100 hours overtime each, in one year. the home office says forces can apply for additional funding when their staffing is stretched. emma north reports. from terror attacks to a visit by donald trump, from protests to processions, the metropolitan police deal with events faced by few other forces. the frequency and type of challenges haven't dropped but police numbers have. two years ago, there were a little over 32,000 metropolitan police officers. a year later, that number had dropped by about 600. the current figure now stands at less than 30,000 police officers. but while the staffing levels fall, the overtime bill has gone up.

in 2016, the bill was £92.5 million. in april this year, the overtime cost £107 million. the total paid out in overtime in the last five years, almost £0.5 billion. it seems like a lot but the met police commissioner claims it makes financial sense. policing has always actually relied quite a lot on people working overtime. it is by definition a very flexible way of working. it's often, actually, overall a cheaper way of providing a service because it is so flexible compared with having to recruit a whole new person, for example, and pay all the on—costs you get with that. but while some may see this as lucrative, others say it comes at a price. if you are working tirelessly the amount of hours that they're working, it adds to your family life, the pressures there that

you're not seeing your family enough, it adds to you mentally because you are having to concentrate in different areas that you didn't have to before, and just the sheer strain of the volume of work you're doing is added upon you. the met say they're actively recruiting and hope to have more than 30,000 officers in the force next year, and the home office says forces can always ask for more money if they're stretched. so, for those young officers passing out yesterday, there's a prospect of long hours of work, but at least they may earn enough to save for a rainy day. emma north, bbc london news. a sussex farmer has died after apparently being trampled to death by his own cattle. stephen sands body was found last night at his farm in the village of groombridge. amanda akass reports. this herd of aberdeen angus cattle were stephen sands‘s livelihood, but when he went out to feed them last night, he did not come back. it's thought the 64—year—old was trampled to death. stephen's partner christine was too

upset to speak on camera but told me she had gone looking for him after he did not turn up to collect her from the station last night as planned. she found his body in the field behind those trees over there, surrounded by cows and the farm's 9—year—old bull. he was stamping and snorting. she called the police, they had to shoot the bull in order to retrieve stephen's body. neighbour brett walker says stephen inherited the beef farm from his father several years ago. he was a super guy. he looked after his cattle as though they were his children. and never got a bad word to say for anybody. so... it's a great loss. the national farmers union said it's unusualfor a farmer to be killed in this way. this breed of cattle are normally quite docile and easy to handle. the only thing is, i understand this is a bull that could have been the problem. it may be that there was a cow in season and a farmer got caught between the cow and the bull.

sussex police say the investigation has been passed to the coroner. turkey will look for new friends and allies unless washington stops its unilateralism and disrespect — that is the warning from the turkish president recep tayyip erdogan. his comments follow president trump's doubling of tariffs on metal imports from turkey — a move which helped drive the turkish currency, the lira, to record lows on friday. joe lynam reports. crowds were out in force in northern turkey today in support of their president in this escalating and very public row between two nato allies. this dispute could destabilise the middle east and global markets and today president erdogan did nothing to calm the situation. he told supporters that the economy was not in a crisis nor going bankrupt and the fluctuations

in the foreign exchange rate were missiles in an economic war waged against turkey. although president erdogan may be standing firm, his currency, the turkish lira was collapsing. it is down 40% so far this year against the us dollar — yesterday alone and it fell by 14%. that could push up prices rapidly for turkish consumers, interest rates might soar and restrictions could be placed on turks withdrawing their own money. this row seems to have come out of nowhere. turkey has held an american pastor, andrew brunson, for two years over suspected but unproven links to the failed coup in 2016. america applied sanctions on senior turkish ministers last week and when turkey refused to release the pastor, president trump doubled us tariffs on turkish steel and aluminium yesterday, in a tweet. while the collapse of the lira spells danger for the turkish economy, british tourists could see the cost of their holiday plunge. turkey has become a popular location

since the pound weakened in 2016. joe lynam, bbc news. the nobel—prizewinning writer vs naipaul has died aged 85. raised in trinidad, he studied at oxford and worked for the bbc before becoming a prolific author. his best—known works include a house for mr biswas, and the booker prize—winner in a free state. he won the nobel prize for literature in 2001, for, as the award panel put it, "works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories". judy raymond is the editor in chief ohas interviewed vs naipaul many times, she is the editor in chief of daily newspaper, trinidad and tobago newsday. he had a very ambivalent relationship with trinidad. there were some things that he obviously loved about it or which were embedded in him from birth. and conversely, there were also things he couldn't bear.

he wrote about waking up in oxford, having left the gas fire on in his room, so it got very hot, and having nightmares that he was back in trinidad again. but on the other hand, he came home to trinidad regularly, as long as he was physically able to, he had family here, and he would slip in and out quietly, very often, so it's a kind of love—hate relationship on his side and on the other side, so trinidadians admired his life and were pleased and proud he had done so well internationally and represented the country but also resented some of the things he wrote about it and the fact that in his later years, he was being referred to as a british writer born in trinidad when a lot of the subject matter, certainty of his early work, was drawn from things that happened or could have happened or the kind of things that happened in trinidad

so they felt he owed trinidad a debt that he did not always acknowledge to the extent that he ought to have. just tell us a bit about his literary legacy and what his writing meant to not just trinidad but the wider world. well, his early books about trinidad were received with a lot of affection and humour. miguel street, for instance, which is somwehere between a novel and a collection of linked short stories. a lot of his stories is based on the period when his family lived in an area of port—of—spain called woodbrook. it was based on the idea of something he heard while living there. the novel, the suffrage of elvira, for instance, was about the first elections held in this country after universal adult suffrage. the house of mr biswas is very, very autobiographical. people like those books, they loved those books, a lot of what he wrote about trinidad resonated with them. but as i said, they resented some of the more critical writing about the lack of civilisation, the fact that people didn't read,

that wherever you went, there was loud music playing, there whether it was a party or not, there had to be loud music. all of those things. painting trinidad as backward and so on, some of the things he wrote and said about postcolonial africa and africans, all of those were deeply resented. judy raymond of the trinidad tobago newsday newspaper there. our top story this hour: the chemical giant monsanto has insisted that the world's bestselling weedkiller is safe, despite the verdict of an american court that it caused a man's cancer. more on our top story now: jeffrey smith is a consumer activist and monsanto critic. hejoins us from anaheim, california.

i suppose you are pleased by the verdict that was delivered? 0h i suppose you are pleased by the verdict that was delivered? oh yes. we have been celebrating. in fact, not just the verdict, we have been celebrating. in fact, notjust the verdict, but we have been celebrating. in fact, not just the verdict, but the jury trial itself forced monsanto to release millions of documents where it became very clear that they have been for decades the link between round—up and its ingredient glyphosate and cancer, and they have been denying it and pointing to studies which show that it is safe, but the documents which have been made public show that they ghost wrote those studies and paid scientist to put their name on it. so they had rigged the research, covered up the evidence, they had continued to do so but fortunately thejury continued to do so but fortunately the jury heard the truth and awarded a groundskeeper $289 million after using round—up and getting non—hodgkin's lymphoma. using round—up and getting non—hodgkin's lymphomalj using round—up and getting non-hodgkin's lymphoma. i amjust having a look at what the us environment protection agency, the

epa, says. it insists it is safe when used correctly. the european food safety authority says glyphosate is unlikely to cause cancer in humans. and these authorities which have the task of keeping their citizens safe, and yet they are saying it doesn't cause cancer. the world health organization's top cancer committee determined in 2015 that glyphosate causes. . . determined in 2015 that glyphosate causes... is a probable human carcinogen, and definitely causes cancer to animals. also, where it is sprayed in high concentrations there is an increase of cancer in the population. now, from the documents that were made public, we realise that were made public, we realise that monsanto had a lapdog in the epa working on its behalf, and his name came up when epa working on its behalf, and his name came up when he had a deposition in the court, and it turned out that he was working on behalf of monsanto to suppress research, successfully, and he was in charge of the committee at the epa that determined that glyphosate was not carcinogenic. however, we also have a letter from a former

colleague of his sending him a note saying i am dying of cancer and i wa nt to saying i am dying of cancer and i want to make sure i have done what is right, and i want to tell you that glyphosate, by virtue of the research, is certainly a cause cancer, and you shouldn't be working on behalf of the companies instead of working on behalf of the public. so we have glaring evidence of collusion, as well as covering up the evidence from the side of the epa, at the very least. just because the epa isn't here to defend itself, iimagine the epa isn't here to defend itself, i imagine they would say different, geoffrey. but monsanto himself are still saying the jury got it wrong. they certainly are sympathetic to mr johnson's predicament, but that the jury johnson's predicament, but that the jury got it wrong. you know, i was there for the closing arguments, and there for the closing arguments, and the plaintiff's lawyer put out really clear evidence showing the relationship between the various aspects of the science and non—hodgkin's lymphoma, and how m o nsa nto non—hodgkin's lymphoma, and how monsanto systematically hear that

evidence. then monsa nto's monsanto systematically hear that evidence. then monsanto's pettini came up in a very dramatic weight, and evidently apparently cut the legs off every one of those arguments by showing quotes to the opposite. and then the plaintiff's attorney had 35 minutes to turn it around, and in every case he showed that monsanto had cherry picked phrases within quotes, where if you look at the entire document is exactly the opposite conclusion. this was there. the jury saw it, that the very basis and foundation of monsanto's claims of that the very basis and foundation of monsa nto's claims of safety turned out not to be true. i debated one of monsanto's toxicologists on television in the united states and she said she backs about 100%. when you look at the documents made public from the lawsuit, it turns out she says we can say that round—up doesn't cause cancer and she ghost wrote a studied and hid the evidence of glyphosate causing miscarriages. so we have plenty of evidence from the inside that is very different from what they say on the outside. thank you very much. the leader of the liberal democrats,

sir vince cable, has called on opponents of brexit to work together to push for a second eu referendum. he told a rally in bristol that the centre of gravity, as he called it, was now shifting in favour of a referendum on a final deal. laura jones reports. they came determined to have their say. following months of debate about the ins and outs and complexities of brexit, supporters of the people's vote had one clear message in bristol this afternoon — that we should all be able to vote on whatever the government's final brexit plan is, before it is a done deal. it's not a second referendum because the facts have changed. there were all kinds of things we were told at the time, that it was relatively simple and then we discovered problems like the irish border. there is now roughly two—to—one support for a public vote in these circumstances. even people who supported brexit now

feel that under the circumstances we need to have a fresh look at it. the campaign is supported by politicians from many different backgrounds and political parties, but also by many individuals who just feel it makes sense. i think this is such a big issue. it will affect my industry, and it will affect basically every other industry, in a negative capacity. and i think we must, must campaign on this, for the future of our country. but plenty of others, of course, disagree. many of those who voted for brexit say they knew what they were voting for, and that this is all an excuse for a second referendum, put forward by those who didn't like the results of the first one. today, the prominent brexiteer and mp for north east somerset, jacob rees—mogg, told points west... this is a campaign that we can win. so optimism from those gathered here in bristol this afternoon, but the arguments about brexit

are unlikely to go away any time soon. us authorities are trying to establish why an airline worker stole an empty passenger plane. the 76—seater aircraft took off from tacoma airport and flew over seattle. it eventually crashed in ketron islands, some 80 km away. police say the man appeared to be suicidal. andy moore reports. what the hell? the stolen plane was filmed by shocked witnesses flying low over the islands of puget sound. oh, my god. what is happening right now? ok, but why has it gotjets? it was pursued by at least two f—15 military jets. the authorities said those aircraft escorted the plane out of harm's way but were not instrumental in bringing it down. what the hell is this guy doing? whilst he was performing aerobatic manoeuvres, the 29—year—old man at the controls was talking to air traffic control. the man piloting the plane said he would perform a last barrel roll and then call it a night.

he crashed into a sparsely populated island, causing this fire. there was the loud boom, and i looked at her and said, "what, did they drop a bomb over there?" and that really must have been it. 0ur information now is there was only one person on the plane, and that was the person flying the plane. there is no indication that this person who was flying the plane was trying to damage anything or attack anything. that man said himself he was not a qualified pilot, but he had enough knowledge to take a plane and fly it for some time, before bringing his journey to an end. andy moore, bbc news. israeli arabs have held a protest in tel aviv against the country's new nation—state law. it defines israel as a principally jewish state and removes arabic as an official language. bbc arabic‘s nawal assad reports from the rally. thousands of israeli arabs came to the heart of tel aviv, near rabin square, to demonstrate in a big rally with thousands

participating, demanding to abolition of this controversial law. the law does not make them equal to otherjewish citizens in the state of israel. they are carrying banners which is demanding justice, and they are also calling for other jews to support them in their quest. i just want to remind our viewers that these arabs are actually forming 20% of the israeli population, which the new israeli state law says they are not equal with the otherjews who are citizens of the state of israel. nawal assad, bbc, tel aviv. scientists working to stop the spread of malaria have developed a new net which could save more than a million lives. treated with insecticides, they reduce the lifespan of mosquitoes carrying the disease. a trial of the nets has already reduced the number of children catching malaria in west africa.

megan paterson reports. after two decades of decline, malaria rates in some parts of sub—saharan africa are rising. mosquitoes have become resistant to existing insecticides. that is where this new net, treated with different chemicals, will help. it looks just like an ordinary net, but it's robust, and most importantly contains the insecticide inside the fibres, and it leeches it out slowly over time. so you can wash this net 20 times, but it still has insecticide on it. it's still protective, it can still protect people against mosquitoes. so this is a very sophisticated piece of equipment. it doesn't look it, but it is. and for you, that will cost about $2 a net, so it's very cheap. the bed nets have already been tested in burkina faso, where they reduced clinical malaria cases by 12% in a group of 2,000 children.

we're comparing the old net with a new net with two active ingredients in, and what we show is that with a new net it works better than the old net. so we've got something which is a potential game—changer, and at least gives us a step forward for malaria control. the latest figures from the world health organization found 216 million people were infected with malaria. the biggest number of victims — children underfive. the scientists hope these new nets will stop increase of the disease and help in its eradication. hello. it stays fairly changeable over the next few days, and as a general rule of thumb, if you saw some sunshine on saturday, like here in north yorkshire, there's a good chance you'll see a bit of rain around on sunday. and it's all connected to this area of low pressure to the west of the uk, which through the early hours of sunday will continue to push fronts and outbreaks of rain eastwards through northern ireland, england, wales, into southern parts of scotland. clearing fairly early on on sunday

morning from northern ireland, so after some initial rain here, turning brighter, some spells of sunshine. outbreaks of rain continuing to work their way eastwards through england and wales, replaced by sunny spells, but also some sharp and maybe thundery showers, and the rain becoming slow—moving on itsjourney northwards through scotland. so here we are at a:00pm on sunday afternoon, and we've still got some outbreaks of rain across southern england. sunny spells following on behind, but yes, still the potential for some showers, which could be heavy and thundery. just one or two showers for northern ireland and the far north of england, but here the best of the sunshine, and mainly dry in the afternoon. meanwhile across scotland, although it will be turning drier through dumfries and galloway and the borders, further outbreaks of rain for central and northern scotland. but the far north of scotland, into 0rkney and shetland, mainly dry and the best of the sunshine here. quite breezy for the western isles, and a noticeable wind as well for south—west england. elsewhere, a gentle to moderate breeze. in the sunshine, we'll see temperatures getting up

to between 19 and 21 celsius, but they may struggle around 15 or 16 celsius across central and northern parts of scotland, where that rain is somewhat stubborn to go. but, through sunday evening, slowly we'll see that rain just pushing its way northwards across scotland, with some late spells of sunshine for southern areas of scotland. meanwhile, across england and wales, watch out for further heavy and maybe thundery showers, just slowly clearing their way eastwards. and through the early hours of monday morning, still some showers around, and another fairly mild if not warm and muggy night, with lows between 12 and 16 celsius. so, on monday, we still have our area of low pressure clearing the eastern side of the uk. so that means we're still going to see some showers really anywhere from the east coast of scotland down through north—east england, east anglia and south—east england through monday morning. again, still heavy and thundery. as they clear eastwards, behind it, across much of england and wales and northern ireland, we'll see some spells of sunshine. but it looks like scotland will always keep a little bit more cloud, and maybe some showers for the western isles. so 16—18 celsius here on monday, getting up to 2a celsius across central and south—east england in the best of the sunshine. so, looking ahead to tuesday

and wednesday, always the chance that we could see some showers, some longer spells of rain across scotland and northern ireland. meanwhile, for much of england and wales, drier, brighter and feeling warmer. bye— bye.