welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley. our top stories: aretha franklin, the queen of american soul music, has died at the age of 76. tributes pour in from musicians worldwide and former presidents, praising her contributions to music and to the fight for social justice. as a government investigation into italy's private motorway operator begins, we ask what might have caused the genoa bridge to collapse. and a secret of the mummies is revealed. mcientists work out the 6,000—year—old recipe for successful embalming. she was lovingly known as the queen of soul,

the definition of how soul music, at its best, can sound. but today, she ended her reign at the age of 76. aretha franklin died of pancreatic cancer, surrounded by family at home in detroit. she only retired from performing last year, and her career as singer, pianist and arranger spanned seven decades. she was also a political activist. the songs she sang helped define the civil rights and feminist movements. from detroit, aleem maqbool reports. # all i'm asking... # is for a little respect. # i'm about to give all of my money...# aretha franklin was peerless. with a voice so stunning it could lift spirits, and so powerful it could and often did move those who heard her to tears. at the church where she first started singing, people who grew up

in the same street as her have already started coming to pay tribute. i was born and raised in detroit, born on her music, raised on her music. yeah, it's a sad day. i'm going to miss her, i'm going to miss seeing her in concert, but i still have her music to the bone, so i'm good. as long as i can hear, i'm good. # you make me feel# she had the best voice, and when she sang you feel it in your soul, and she always sang something nice. i remember as a kid growing up back in the '505 and '605 and you hate

for her to go. she feels like family. this is the very stage where i suppose aretha franklin started to become a star. in fact, many said they were drawn to this church because they heard there was a young singer here, the daughter of the preacher, who had the kind of voice that only came along once in a generation. # they tell me that you ain't no good # but, oh, they don't know...# but by the late ‘60s, a wider audience was being touched by the brilliance of aretha franklin as her career soared. she grew from being a gospel artist into an international sensation, and she did it through her unique vocal talents, but also a renowned toughness and professionalism. she could sometimes be perceived as having a bit of an attitude. i'm not intimidated, a lot of men, some men, it depends on the man, i think. i have always maintained that a real

man is not going to be intimidated by me. some men can rise to the occasion and others cannot. # i wake up # before i put on my make up # i say a little prayer for you # oh yes, i do #. for all the moulds she broke as a singer, as a successful black woman, aretha franklin came to symbolise more than just a sensational voice. # i say a little prayerfor you# she became heavily involved in the civil rights movement, with activists like her long—time friend, reverend jesse jackson. if you are going to summarise what aretha franklin meant to you, to this country, what would you say? a singer whose music impacted the world, whose sense of social

justice was global. she also fought for doctor king, she fought for nelson mandela, she fought for barack obama. her sense of community service was as broad—basewd as her music. aretha sang at the funeral of martin luther king after the civil rights leader's assassination, but she provided the soundtrack to african—american history and progress long after that. being the most straightforward of choices for barack obama to sing at his inauguration. as she'd done a two previous presidential inauguration. he today paid tribute to the woman he says managed to convey in her voice all the power and pain of the american experience. # the moment i wake up...# amongst the tributes today, carole king. "what a life," she said. sir elton saying rejoice in her remarkable legacy and from sir paul mccartney,

"let's give thanks for her beautiful life." people in her home city feel they've lost a family member, one who was generous and who helped give them a sense of worth. she released her final album just last year and she still allowed countless new musicians to influence her too. # rolling in the deep...# but the world has lost a musical giant who made it to the top in the toughest of times. aretha franklin, the queen of soul. # you make me feel like...# so many tributes, what happens

around the stars on the hollywood walk of fame often so visible, there it is right now, her star, she began singing solos at ten and released her first record at 14 and 118 her first record at 1a and 118 grammys. one of the world's bestselling artist, 75 million records, 63 career, spanning seven decades —— won 18 grammys. she has 17 entries in the us billboard hot 100, 20 17 entries in the us billboard hot 100,20 number—1 singles on the r&b chart. live now to newjersey and to jazz violinist regina carter, who hails originally from detroit and actually played with aretha. i say you played with her, you went toa i say you played with her, you went to a party at her house? i know you're from detroit, she was living in detroit's. tell us about that, what a moment. i was hired to play ina what a moment. i was hired to play in a string section with a big band. a lot of the cards that word jazz

musicians were also motown musician is that you hear on those records. i was hired at her house. she had a chef that was hired but she also did cooking downstairs herself. it was a relaxed vibe. it was really like... aretha franklin's home, you think of this icon, this star, but she wasn't so this icon, this star, but she wasn't so completely down—to—earth. regina, you're a very experienced jazz violinist, when the queen of soul opens her mouth to sing, it must be quite easy to forget to play? yes, you have to really pay attention to what i'm doing! she was an incredible being is all i could say. when she opened her mouth, she was church. she was the last word. no matter what kind of music you like, didn't like, no matterwhere you came from, when you could hear

her sing, she would just reach into the depths of your soul and touch you. maryj blige i think said she was the singer most other thing is measured themselves against. also eltonjohn saying her musicianship was underrated, she was a great pianist and arranger, very meticulous about her arrangements. she was, she always knew what was happening on the bandstand, although she had a musical director always, but she knew in the chance if something was wrong and she'd stop the band and say, no, she could tell you what section. she could hear that. shejust you what section. she could hear that. she just wasn't a single standing in front of the band letting everyone else handle it, she handled her business and she a lwa ys it, she handled her business and she always knew what was going on and she was a really strong woman. it's interesting, because i was listening earlier to part of the interview where she was saying some people we re where she was saying some people were intimidated by her, and yes, she was a very strong

were intimidated by her, and yes, she was a very strong woman, were intimidated by her, and yes, she was a very strong woman, a were intimidated by her, and yes, she was a very strong woman, a very strong figure that knew what she wanted. i think a lot of times, especially in the entertainment industry, when someone has that strong of a personality, and the talent to match, they can be very intimidating. but if you really got to know her, and work with her, she loved all of her musicians. i have a dearfriend loved all of her musicians. i have a dear friend that's been touring with herfor the dear friend that's been touring with her for the last at least five yea rs, her for the last at least five years, and just said how she really supported her as a woman, as a musician, and just how genuine... she was just musician, and just how genuine... she wasjust a musician, and just how genuine... she was just a genuine woman. musician, and just how genuine... she wasjust a genuine woman. of course, at a time when lots of people were desperate to leave detroit, she'd stayed in detroit, she invested there, at real estate and open a club there and when she sang about life, she knew about life. her mother died very young, she had four sons, the first two of

them born before she was 16. she had a tough life, she lived! when she sang,it a tough life, she lived! when she sang, it wasn't just something a tough life, she lived! when she sang, it wasn'tjust something she had heard about or read about, she was singing life. it was very authentic. and just very, very involved in civil rights. she was an activist. she really deeply cared... she cared deeply about the city, and that says a lot because she could have left. she, along with several other important musicians, decided that, no, the pride was their home, it was important enough to be there. regina carter, thank you so much for giving us your time on this sad day. many thanks. thank you. let's get some of the day's other news. a jury in the trial of former donald trump campaign chairman paul manafort did not reach a verdict after its first full day of deliberations in virginia. manafort is facing 18 counts of tax evasion, bank fraud and hiding foreign bank accounts, brought forward by special counsel robert mueller as part of the investigation into russian interference in the 2016 election. the jury its deliberations

will resume on friday. former indian prime minister atal behari vajpayee has died aged 93. he was being treated for age—related illnesses at a delhi hospital. mr vajpayee was one of the founding members of the hindu nationalist bjp, which currently governs india. the vatican has expressed shame and sorrow in response to a damning report into the sexual abuse of children by priests in pennsylvania. a grand jury found more than 300 priests in the state had abused minors in the past 70 years. the pope said he wanted to root out the tragic horror of priests abusing children. the italian government has begun an investigation into the private operator of the motorway bridge that collapsed in genoa on tuesday, killing at least 38 people. another 20 are still missing. people living near the bridge have been moved from their homes because of safety fears and have been told their homes may be demolished. our science editor, david shukman, has been investigating what could have caused

the bridge to go. battered by the weather and patched up over the years, this is the bridge pictured before the collapse. it was in a forlorn and worrying state, and then disaster struck. the tangle of wreckage where there should be the clues that investigators will need as they ask if the structure was substandard, or if the steel had corroded inside the concrete, where no—one could see. so what went wrong? well, let's look at a virtual model of the bridge. an unusual design from the ‘60s, it's needed a lot of reinforcement over the years. a key focus in the investigation will be on these diagonal sections. they're called the stays. they're a mix of steel and concrete and they carry the road. but they were in bad condition, and i understand were due to be

replaced next year. another weakness might be the anchors that fix the stays to the road. one of them might have rusted and snapped. and then there are steel cables that run through the bridge to give it strength. if they were in poor shape, inspectors might not have noticed. the investigators face a massive challenge and finding a single answer might not be easy. a big concern is that the concrete was getting old and that water was getting into it and may have weakened the steel inside. concrete does deteriorate with time, does age. but the main problem in this kind of construction is the steel inside the concrete, which if it corrodes, that can lead to severe problems. that needs to be investigated, inspected and maintained. when the bridge was built, it was heralded as a symbol of futuristic engineering. but the standard of construction back then has left a legacy. italy now has an estimated 10,000 bridges that need to be modernised. the cost will be tens of billions of euros.

and the collapse has sent shock waves to other countries as well. inspections are now under way on bridges in france and germany. the tragedy has sparked a crisis of confidence far beyond genoa. david shukman, bbc news. israel finally allows a ten—year backlog of mail to enter stay with us on bbc news, still to come: palestinian postal staff have a bit of a headache. israel finally allows a ten—year backlog of mail to enter the occupied territories. washington, the world's most political city, is today assessing the political health of the world's most powerful man. indeed, i did have a relationship with miss lewinsky that was not appropriate.

in fact, it was wrong. in south africa, 97 people have been killed today, in one of the worst days of violence between rival black groups. over the last ten days, 500 have died. chanting: czechoslovakia must be free! russia is observing a national day of mourning for the 118 submariners who died on board the kursk. we're all with them now, within our hearts. the pope has celebrated mass before a congregation of more than 2.5 million people, in his hometown of krakow. "stay with us, stay with us," chanted this ocean of humanity. "well, well," joked the pope, "so you want me to desert rome?" this is bbc world news. our headlines: there has been an outpouring of tributes to the soul singer, aretha franklin, who has died at her home in detroit, aged 76. italy's transport ministry has begun an investigation into the private operator

of the motorway bridge that collapsed in genoa on tuesday, killing at least 38 people. the australian state of new south wales is not only in the grip of one of its worst droughts in years, fire fighters are now battling more than 80 bush and grass fires which have destroyed several homes and threatened many more. authorities say the fires are unseasonal, and have been made worse by the dry, windy conditions. a short while ago the deputy commissioner of the new south wales rural fire service gave us the latest on the firefighting effort. the entire state is drought—declared. there are a lot of dams that are going quite empty now, and obviously we have to be very careful of taking water from dams for firefighting, because farmers need it, because they're doing it very tough. so it is a balancing act. it's just very dry and very gusty winds. if you add the heat, when we get in the summer, and you start getting 35, 40—degree days, then if we don't get meaningful rain, then we'll be

in trouble in summer. that is the latest from new south wales. in spain, ceremonies began remembering one year since the terrorist attack in barcelona. the extremist group that calls itself islamic state claimed responsibility for the attack in 2017. andrew plant reports. flowers a nd flowers and messages of remembrance played in the place the attack began here on 17 august last year. it happened in the height of summer, and van driven through the crowds on this busy spanish street. by the time it stopped, dozens were seriously injured. translation: time it stopped, dozens were seriously injured. translationzlj remember the sound of the engine as

it hit against the people. the van was only a metre away from me, less than a metre, and it didn't touch us, and then it left that trail of death and pain. now survivors and relatives of those skills are returning to las ramblas to remember the lives lost one year ago. we wa nted the lives lost one year ago. we wanted to come and remember my father and also remember all of the victims of this terrible event, and to remember and thank the incredible people who put their own lives at risk to help my mother and father, the first responders, the police, ambulance. investigators are still piecing together how closely the attackers were linked to the so—called islamic state group. prime minister pedro sanchez and spain was a king felipe vi attend a ceremony on friday to honour the victims of what was staying part is on at worst

terrorist attack since the bombings in madrid 13 years before. —— what was spain is in a worst terrorist attack. palestinian postal workers are sorting through a mountain of mail that israel has finally delivered to the occupied west bank, after blocking it for years. ten tonnes of parcels and envelopes have been building up injordan for almost a decade. israel is now allowing the mail through as part of confidence building measures between the two sides. here's our middle east correspondent tom bateman. palestinian postal staff are working overtime in this depot in the occupied west bank. israel controls the border with neighbouring jordan, where the mail was being held. it agreed nearly a decade ago that some international post for palestinians could be flown intojordan and brought here. a deal that is taking as long to deliver as these parcels. thousands of people are still waiting, says the man in charge here. we're doing the best we can to deliver those in a very short

time, but let me say that it's better to come later than never to come at all. there's 10.5 tons of mail here, it's come from all over the world, i can see a bag from china, there's one here that has come from saudi arabia. there doesn't seem to be much in that. the workers are saying it's going to take at least two weeks to process all this, to get it to the people it has been addressed to, but they say because it's been held injordan for up to eight years it's in a pretty terrible condition. there's a bundle of letters here, a letter addressed to a charity in the city of hebron in the west bank and something else that has come from greece, and they're saying look at the state of that, somebody is going to be getting that through the letterbox. this wheelchair was destined for gaza. it was sent from turkey, three years ago, but the manager says the problem is the label has fallen off so they don't know who was supposed to get this.

they say they are in touch with the authorities in turkey to try and find out so it can be delivered. this is one of the oldest items they found here, a high—definition television which has been sent to somebody in the west bank who was expecting it six years ago. the label says it was posted in 2012. tom bateman with a lot of mail. if you've ever been at the antiquities section of a museum, looking at those egyptian mummies and wondering how they lasted through the ages, well, now we know. an international team of scientists has revealed the secret recipe of ancient egyptian mummification. our science correspondent victoria gill has more. fabric, fragments of ancient history, the 6000 year old pieces of lin and contain the chemical secret of mummification. the egyptian mummy, the body preserved for the eternal soul, is an icon of the ancient civilisation and has been resurrected in many hollywood films. farfrom resurrected in many hollywood films. far from egypt's great tombs here resurrected in many hollywood films. farfrom egypt's great tombs here in a storage facility in northern

england the ancient egyptian embalming the city has come to light, contained in textiles in the collection. with things like these textiles that don't look much to look at all, you do the chemistry, and suddenly they become hugely significant to our human past, and really gets to the heart of what they are about at this time through they are about at this time through the science, which you simply can't tell by looking. so, really, the science brings this material to life. the recipe they revealed, embalming liquid containing plant extracts, was next in a base of sesame oil. you can find some of the key ingredients from that embalming recipe today, so this is one of them, gum arabic, play based confectioners to gum, and this is pine resin, antibacterial, to prevent the body from decaying. the same mixture was found on this in ta ct same mixture was found on this in tact mummy from 3500 bc showing that

the process is much older than previously thought. pushing the timeline back 1500 years shows to us that it wasn't just at the point where mummification we know was very popular, it was happening much earlier, so it was much more within the culture of egyptology for much longer than we thought. so who knows what secrets scientists will on earth next in the storeroom of a local museum ? now, a reminder of our top story, and the death of aretha franklin. her passing at the age of 76 from pancreatic cancer was confirmed earlier today. here's a flavour of that extraordinary voice. # looking out on the morning rain. # i used to feel so uninspired. # and when i knew i had to face another day. # lord, it made me feel so tired. # now i'm no longer doubtful

of what i'm living for. # and if i make you happy, i don't need to do more. # ‘cause you make me feel. # you make me feel. # you make me feel like a natural woman. # awoman!# the unmistakable voice of aretha franklin.

you can get more on that and all of the news on the bbc website. and you can get in touch with me and most of the team on twitter. i'm @bbc mike embley. thank you for watching. hello there. well, we should get off to a pretty sunny start across eastern areas of the country before things generally turn cloudier later today, and that cloud will hang around into the weekend as well. weather front brought the rain yesterday. that's clearing out into europe, clearer skies following but then we've got this next wodge of cloud. this weather front, this warm front, that's going to bring warm air across the uk, yes, but also we'll have outbreaks of rain spreading in as well. so, the forecast in a bit more detail. for the early risers, clear skies to start the day across england and wales, but further north and west, the clouds that bit thicker and there'll be a few showers for western scotland and northern ireland. for the early risers, temperatures just into double

figures, but in the countryside, single figures, so there will be a certain chill in the airfirst thing in the morning. now, quite quickly, england and wales and should get off to a sunny start on friday before the cloud tends to thicken. it will stay bright across eastern areas, mind you, but later in the afternoon the cloud probably thick enough in southern parts into the bristol channel to give us some light rain or drizzle. further north and west, we've got some wet weather moving into northern ireland. the rain quite heavy here at times. that wet weather spreads to western scotland, north—west england and north—west wales through the day. the temperatures, high teens to low 20s. into the weekend, we'll continue to have this feed of pretty warm air across southern parts of the uk. so even though we won't see much in the way of sunshine, temperatures still widely into the low—to—mid 20s. fresher conditions across the north of the uk. this low pressure bringing some strong winds as well. so, we get off to a blustery start to the weekend. into scotland, exposed coasts and hills could have gusts of wind of 50mph, maybe even 60mph. but it is quite a blowy start wherever you are. a lot of cloud around. some limited brighter spells possible. the best of these probably heading

into eastern england and also the far north—east of scotland, but in between we've got a weather front, a weak one at that, that will bring the thickest cloud across northern ireland, parts of northern england and southern scotland, where we could continue to see occasional spits of light rain or drizzle. and then for the second half of the weekend, we're taking a look at this. this is subtropical storm ernesto, and it's going to be bringing some heavy rain to the united kingdom on sunday. now, probably the worst of the rain getting away across northern ireland, northern england and in across scotland for the first part of sunday should tend to clear through. in the south, cloud tending to thicken up, so we might well see some spots of rain, but not really amounting to too much. look at the temperatures, mild, quite humid in the south, we've got the fresher air across more northern parts. so, to sum up this weekend, we are expecting it to be quite cloudy, and it will be quite wet at times, particularly in the north—west. this is bbc news.

the headlines: former us presidents have led tributes to the soul singer, aretha franklin, who has died at her home in detroit. she was 76. barack obama said she had helped to define the american experience. bill clinton said the country had lost one of its greatest national treasures. the italian transport ministry has begun an investigation into the private operator of the motorway bridge that collapsed in genoa on tuesday, killing at least 38 people. the company has 15 days to demonstrate that it had met all its obligations to ensure the properfunctioning of the bridge. rescue team say their work on in the rubble for two more days. thejury in the trial of paul manafort did not reach a verdict on its first