welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. our top stories: chemical giant monsanto insists its products are safe after a court orders it to payout nearly $300 million to a man who claims its weedkiller caused his cancer. romanians rally against the government for a second day. the protests pass peacefully after friday's violence. british author and nobel prize winner vs naipaul has died at the age of 85. and we meet the scientists behind a new type of mosquito net that could save thousands from malaria. 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, a lot of 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 causes cancer but that monsanto knew and decided not to put a warning on the label. mrjohnson‘s lawyer laid out the case in dramatic terms. 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 farmers and scientists, there's this agreement, monsanto and its german owner bayer say glyphosate is vital for agriculture. the us firm denies bullying researchers and colluding with regulators, insisting 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. 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 built up over the past months 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 from a task force 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. young activist vlad macelaru, speaking to me earlier from bucharest. 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. 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. what was it, was it a certain anger? 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.

us authorities are trying to establish why an airline worker stole a passenger plane. the plane took off from the seattle tacoma airport and flew over seattle. after flying erratically, the plane crashed in ketron islands, some 80 km south of the airport. the local sheriff's department said it appeared the man was 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. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: can a football match between north and south korean workers help score peace off the pitch? the big crowds became bigger as the time of

the funeral approached. as the lines of fans became longer, the police prepared for a hugejob of crowd control. idi amin, uganda's brutal former dictator, has died at the age of 80. he's been buried in saudi arabia, where he lived in exile since being overthrown in 1979. two billion people around the world have seen the last total eclipse of the sun to take place in this millennium. it began itsjourney off the coast of canada, ending three hours later, when the sun set over the bay of bengal. this is bbc world news.

our main headline: m o nsa nto monsanto and its parent company, they are, insist that world's bestselling weedkiller is safe despite monsanto being ordered to pay hundreds of millions of pounds in damages to a man who says it gave him cancer. —— parent company, bayer. let's stay with that story. earlier i spoke tojeffrey smith. he is a consumer activist and monsanto critic. i asked him if he was happy with the verdict. oh, yes, we've been celebrating. in fact, notjust the verdict, but the jury trial itself forced monsanto to release millions of documents where it became very clear that they knew for decades of the link between roundup and its active ingredient, glyphosate, and cancer. and they have been denying it, and pointing to studies which show that it's safe. but the documents which have been made public show that they ghost—wrote those studies,

and then paid scientists to put their name on it. so they had rigged the research, they had covered up the evidence, and they continued to do so. but fortunately the jury heard the truth, and awarded a groundskeeper $289 million after using roundup and getting non—hodgkin's lymphoma. i'm just 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 are authorities which have the task of keeping their citizens safe, and yet they're saying it doesn't cause cancer. the world health organization's top cancer committee 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's an increase of cancer in the population. now, from the documents that were made public, we realise that monsanto had a lapdog in the epa working

on its behalf, named jess rowland. and his name came up, and he had a deposition in the court, and it turns 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 ofjess rowland, sending him a note saying i'm dying of cancer, and i want to make sure i've done what is right, and i want to tell you that glyphosate, by virtue of the research, is certainly a cause of 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, i imagine that they would say different, jeffrey. but, i mean, monsanto themself

are still saying the jury got it wrong — they certainly are sympathetic to mrjohnson‘s predicament, but that the jury got it wrong. you know, i was 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 monsanto systematically heard that evidence. then monsanto's attorney came up in a very dramatic way, 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, it's exactly the opposite conclusion. this was there, the jury saw it — 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 national television in the united states,

and she said she backs it up 100%. when you look at the documents made public from the lawsuit, it turns out she says we can't say that roundup doesn't cause cancer, and she also ghost—wrote a study and hid the evidence of glyphosate causing miscarriages. so we have plenty of evidence from the inside that's very different from what they say on the outside. 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 leaches it out slowly over time. so you can wash this net 20 times,

but it still has the insecticide on it, 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 really 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. workers from north and south korea

have played each other in a football match in seoul. the game, aimed to cement ties between their peoples, follows a meeting of their political leaders in april, and the game was good—natu red, as rhodri davies reports. a simple game of football. but it has been a while since these neighbours, from north and south korea, went for a kickabout. here in seoul, workers from the north, in red, played counterparts from the south, fulfilling on their three—day trip perhaps every amateur football player's dream — to play in a world cup stadium. the message all around it — "red unification", and the friendly game is part of an objective to improve korean civilian exchanges, born from the leaders' summit in april. and, while political tensions persist, here there was only sporting goodwill. translation: i hope there will be more events like this,

even if they are not organised by the government, but rather by civilian groups. i hope we will soon achieve independent unification, so that the south and the north can be together. as you can see, i came here to cheer them on. tens of thousands of spectators gave similar messages. this sign reads, "we are one." and, after six decades of separation, the neighbours were close enough to touch. translation: being able to shake the players' hands here, so close up, really gave me the impression that they are so far away, and so close at the same time. and the symbolism of two sides technically still at war, holding hands, with banners raised of a unified peninsula, and opposing delegates sitting together, will raise hopes

for more talks between the countries. this as both sides' officials plan to meet next week to discuss a possible summit in the autumn, and one suspects the leaders were looking on here. officials stressed that this match wouldn't have a victor, and although north korea's team did win 3—1, perhaps a feeling of togetherness came out on top. in 1988, a huge wave of popular demonstrations gripped myanmar, then known as burma, against the ruling military dictatorship. but the protests were violently suppressed, and over the course of the year, thousands of people were killed in what became known as the burmese uprising. it was at that time that aung san suu kyi emerged as a national icon. the bbc‘s witness programme has been speaking to ma thida, who was then a young doctor in yangon. archive: the main cause

of the rioting is burma's economic crisis. the demonstrations are led by students demanding economic reforms and a return to democracy. at that time, i was in my final year of medical school. it was like the whole country is in the mood of the protest. today, there have been more clashes with troops in the suburbs of rangoon. several times, troops have opened fire on the crowds... the way the government took action against this was very violent, very militant. some students have been killed. one of my friends was shot. the medical professionals, they were taking the lead, and then the rangoon general hospital became the central place for the protests. it was a very big rally inside the rangoon general hospital,

and the truck arrived, and the government army shotjust randomly into the hospital. we tried to help some injured people. i never treated a gunshot wound patient in the past. it was shocking to treat gunshot—wound—injured people. so, so many patients at the same time, it's a little bit difficult to handle. archive: at rangoon general hospital, aung san suu kyi addressed tens of thousands of people who were gathered. at that time, aung san suu kyi was not well known by the international community. a woman who, for the last 20 years, has lived in england. her father was assassinated when aung san suu kyi was just two. she'd returned quietly to burma in april, after two years away. that was a very emotional moment. her speech was really

groundbreaking, i think, her commitment and her vision for our country. with the army on the streets, there is a mood of fear in rangoon tonight. the situation after the crackdown in september was even worse than the situation before the protests. it does seem most of the army is backing the coup. i have no choice. i already believe in the revolution, i couldn't stop anymore. i expected one day i might be arrested. well, i was arrested in 1993. it was a couple of days just before my 27th birthday, and i was a little bit excited to be in prison, because i really wanted to write my own prison

memoir one day. i spent five years, six months in prison, in solitary confinement throughout the prison term. after i was released, i went back to the hospital. then, a quite unforgettable moment — aung san suu kyi, a free woman, walking to meet her people. we're all having such a high expectation to aung san suu kyi. i want to run for president, and i'm quite frank about it. if we go back 20 years ago, the situation really was bad. the current situation is still not yet enough, so we're still hoping. you can reach me on twitter.

i'm @nkem|fejika. could buy. —— goodbye. 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 actually, 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 orkney and shetland, mainly dry, the best of the sunshine here. but 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 of 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, perhaps 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. this is bbc news.

the headlines — the pharmaceutical giant bayer says its monsanto weedkillers are safe, after a us court ordered it to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in damages to a man who claimed his terminal cancer was caused by the ingredient glyphosate. there's been a second day of anti—government rallies across romania, with around 40,000 people estimated to have gathered in the capital bucharest alone. noisy crowds demanded the government step down over alleged corruption and abuse of power. the protests passed peacefully compared to friday when up to 100,000 people took to the streets resulting in clashes between police and protesters. hunbdreds of people needed medical attention. the british author and nobel prize winner vs naipaul has died. he was 85. born to an indian family in trinidad, he worked for the bbc before becoming a prolific author.