a very warm welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to our 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. was the manchester arena bomber radicalised by an imam at his local mosque? we have a special investigation. hello. 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. but 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 '50s and '60s 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 aint no good # but 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, whose sense of social justice was global. she also fought for doctor king, for nelson mandela, she fought for barack obama. her sense of community service was as broad as her music.

aretha sang at the funeral of martin luther king after the civil rights leader's assassination, and 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 had 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. # when i wake up...#. amongst the tributes today, carole king, "what a life," she said, annie lennox, 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..." aleem maqbool there. tributes coming in. this is what is happening on the hollywood walk of fame on your screens right now. that is happening around aretha's staff.

she had a career that lasted 63 yea rs, she had a career that lasted 63 years, spanning seven decades, selling more than 75 million records. it is worth remembering that she started singing at the age of ten. she recorded herfirst album at 14. she signed to atlantique records in 1966. by at 1a. she signed to atlantique records in 1966. by that time she really had three children and had been performing and recording for a decade. barack obama said nobody embodies more fully the connection between music and hardship and sorrow, transforming it into beauty, vitality, and hope. —— atlantic records. earlier i spoke to regina carter, a jazz violinist, who played with aretha. i asked her how that came about. yes, i was hired to play with a string section with a big band. a lot of the cats who were jazz musicians were also motown musicians that you hear on those records. we were hired to play a party at her house. i remember she had a chef there cooking but she was also doing some cooking downstairs herself.

it was a very relaxed vibe. it was really like... aretha franklin's home, you think of this icon, this star, but she was 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! i 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 matter where you came from, when you hear her sing, she would just reach into the depths of your soul and touch you. yeah, maryj blige i think said she was the singer so many other singers measured themselves against.

also eltonjohn saying her musicianship was underrated, she was a considerable pianist and arranger, very meticulous about her arrangements. yeah, right, she was. she always knew what was happening on the bandstand, although she had a musical director always, but she knew in the charts if something was wrong and she'd stop the band and say, "no." she could tell you what section. she could hear that. she just wasn't a singer standing in front of the band letting everyone else handle 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 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 dear friend that's been touring with her, a drummer, gayelynn mckinney, 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 a genuine woman. violinist regina carter there. 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. jury 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. these post bags contain eight years' worth of mail which israel had been blocking from being delivered to the west bank. the ten tonnes of letters and parcels had been building up in jordan since 2010. israel has released the mail under a one—time agreement. palestinian postal staff injericho say the mail is likely to take a fortnight to sort and deliver. 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. 0ur science editor david shukman has been investigating what could have caused the bridge to collapse. 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. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: a secret of the mummies is revealed. scientists work out the 6,000—year—old recipe for successful embalming. 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 news. the latest headlines:

there has been an outpouring of tributes to the soul singer aretha franklin, who has died at her home in detroit aged 76. last year's suicide bombing at manchester arena was the most deadly terror attack in the uk for over a decade. 23 people were killed and more than 130 people were injured. among the dead was the suicide bomber, salman abedi. the mosque in didsbury in the south of the city which he attended was quick to condemn his actions. but, after being contacted by concerned worshippers at that mosque, the bbc obtained a recording of a sermon delivered there six months before the bombing. we have played it to two islamic scholars who described it as a call for armed jihad. the imam denies this. our special correspondent ed thomas has this exclusive report. is this a prayer, or a call for armed jihad? heard not in syria or iraq,

but in a mosque in manchester. it's wrong, it's evil, it shouldn't be happening in manchester. mustafa graf, these are your words. "you must dojihad in allah's path." tonight, we confront the imam in charge and reveal his connections to the manchester bomber, salman abedi. sadly, i wouldn't be surprised if salman abedi's horrific suicide bombing was partly inspired by this sermon. this audio was obtained by the bbc, a recording of friday prayers inside didsbury mosque in december, 2016. the same mosque where salman abedi and his family would pray. we played the sermon in full to two islamic scholars. the jihad he's referring

to here is actually being in the battlefield. there's no ifs and buts in this. from the context of the way these texts are used, it's very clearly referring to militaryjihad, to armed jihad. the sermon focused on people suffering in syria. it included an appeal for donations, and also this: oh, dear.

so... dear, oh, dear. so he's reiterated the call not only to stop living a normal life, do something drastic, but to be with the small group of true muslims. he's giving them the narrative of "them against us". he is psychologically and practically brainwashing young people into either travelling, or to do something to take action. we can't be sure where salman abedi was on the day of the sermon, but we've been told that ten days after, he bought a ticket for the ariana grande concert. if abedi was in this congregation, i fear that this sermon may well have contributed to his resolve to punish civilians in britain for somehow being complicit in the murder of muslims in syria. mustafa g raf refused to be interviewed. mustafa, ed from bbc news.

but we wanted to know why he gave the sermon inside the mosque. were you trying to incite violence? were you calling for armed jihad? no, never did that. well, do you want to take a look at these words? these are your words. mustafa graf, can we talk? after the manchester bomb, he condemned the attack. off—camera, he denied preaching islamist extremism. mustafa graf, these are your words, "you must dojihad in allah's path." this is what we know about the manchester imam. in 2011, he travelled from didsbury mosque to the frontline during the libyan revolution. in this interview, mustafa graf talks about waiting for orders to attack. all these criminal acts... and here he is, back home in manchester in 2015. he is the leader of this

group, demonstrating about the conflict in libya. ..are causing chaos in libya. months later, here is the same group in london. graf isn't there, but watch as the camera moves right. wearing a red t—shirt, smiling, the manchester bomber, salman abedi, nearly two years before he'd murder 22 people. we shared our investigation with martin hibbert. he and his daughter were closest to salman abedi when his bomb exploded. he wanted to listen to mustafa graf‘s sermon. yeah, i'm speechless, in a way, that it's going on, kind of, 30 minutes away from here, and that this was...

if he was in that room that day, a week before christmas, you know, a week later i was — or my daughter was unwrapping a surprise ariana grande ticket. this was martin and his daughter eve, hours before the concert. she's been left severely brain damaged. she can't eat. she can't speak. she can't move the left side. if you could go and see this imam, what would you say to him? oh, god. i'd probably take him round to see eve. i don't think i'd need to say anything really. our investigation heard at least five men who attended didsbury mosque either travelled to syria or have been jailed for supporting so—called islamic state. trustees of the mosque deny this. can we come inside? they said mustafa graf‘s sermon was highlighting the plight of syrians, his use of the words

"jihad" and "mujahideen" have been misinterpreted, and they don't tolerate extremist preaching. the entire recording obtained by the bbc has been passed to greater manchester police for investigation. if you have 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. 0ur science correspondent victoria gill has more. fabric fragments of ancient history. these 6,000—year—old pieces of linen contain the chemical secret of mummification. the egyptian mummy, the body preserved for the eternal soul, is an icon of the ancient civilisation. it has been

resurrected in many a hollywood film. but far from egypt's great tombs, here in a storage facility in northern england, the ancient egyptians' embalming method has finally come to light, contained in textiles in the collection. with things like these textiles, that don't look much to look at, 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 the science, which you simply can't tell by looking. so, really, the science brings this material to life. the recipe they revealed — an embalming liquid containing plant extracts was mixed 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, which is a plant—based confectioners' gum that is on sale in egypt. and this is pine resin, antibacterial, to prevent

the body from decaying. the same mixture of substances was found on this intact mummy from 3500 bc, showing that the process is much older than previously thought. pushing the timeline back by 1,500 years, it shows to us that it wasn'tjust 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 unearth next in the storeroom of a local museum. moron bbc website. —— more on that on the bbc website. and you can get in touch with me and most of the team on twitter. i'm @bbcmikeembley. 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, is going to be bringing warmer 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 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 across, say, southern parts into the bristol channel to give us the odd spot of 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, as well, through the day. temperatures — high teens to low 20s. and then, 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 will be 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. it 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 there 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 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 met all its obligations to ensure the properfunctioning of the bridge. rescue teams have said they will continue working in the rubble for another two days. the jury in the trial of paul manafort — the former chairman of donald trump's election campaign — has not yet reached a verdict after a full day of deliberations. mr manafort is facing 18 counts of tax evasion, bank fraud and hiding foreign bank accounts. ceremonies have begun in spain to mark one year since a terrorist attack which killed 16 people and injured