today at 5pm: more than 300 people have died in the worst monsoon floods in some parts of india for nearly a century. rescuers are desperately trying to reach thousands of people who are trapped. 200,000 people have been made homeless. translation: after 36 years, it's the first time that such flooding is happening here. it's a disaster for the whole population. we'll have the latest from the region. the other main stories on bbc news at 5: mps call for the rules around e—cigarettes to be relaxed. they say they help people to stop smoking. the prisons minister, rory stewart, promises to resign if he fails to reduce the level of drugs and violence in jails within a year. ben stokes will play in the third test against india, just days after being found not guilty of affray. we just need a league of faith!

and winnie the pooh, eeyore and tigger are back in christopher robin. we'll talk about that and the other big cinema releases this week in the film review at 5:45pm. it's 5pm. our main story: devastating monsoon floods in the southern indian state of kerala have left more than 300 people dead and 200,000 without homes. rescuers in helicopters and boats are struggling to reach the thousands of people who are still believed to be marooned by the floodwaters. more heavy rain is expected. yogita limaye reports. the only route out of a flooded home. this child is among several people that have been airlifted in kerala.

dozens of helicopters are pulling out as many as they can. shouting. those who can are walking miles to safety. but beyond the surging water, there are tens of thousands who are still stuck, waiting to be rescued. the monsoon always brings heavy rainfall to kerala. but locals say this year is different. translation: after 36 years, it's the first time that such flooding is happening here. it's a disaster for the whole population. shelters have been set up wherever possible. locals are volunteering, cooking food and distributing supplies to people who've been left homeless. cochin airport, the busiest in kerala, is unrecognisable. its runway resembles a river.

rescue teams are being dispatched from other airports. these teams are engaged in basically rescue and evacuation works, medicalfirst response, and they are tackling the situations arising out of landslides, building collapse and also assisting the state administration, distributing relief materials over there. river levels are rising. the government has been forced to open dam gates. and there's more rainfall expected in the coming days. yogita limaye, bbc news, mumbai. a committee of mps is calling for the government to throw its support behind vaping as a safe alternative to cigarettes. the science and technology committee says e—cigarettes help tens of thousands of smokers quit every year. but, earlier this week, researchers at the university of birmingham warned that e—cigarettes may not be as safe as people think.

nearly three million people in the uk currently use them. 0ur health correspondent, catherine burns, reports. they look similar, but this committee says e—cigarettes are substantially different to conventional ones. they don't produce carbon monoxide or tar. and so the best estimate is that they are 95% less harmful. david holder used to smoke up to 30 a day but hasn't had a cigarette for two and a half years now. he says e—cigarettes helped him to quit. vaping has made a massive, massive difference. my sense of taste, sense of smell, i'm a chef so it's imperative for my job. when i thought i was seasoning food perfectly i was way off. and now i can taste things i never tasted before. i can play with my children, i'm not out of breath. it's just made a remarkable difference. almost 3 million people in the uk use e—cigarettes, and every year tens of thousands of them manage to successfully stop smoking. the committee of mps calls smoking

a national health crisis and says e—cigarettes are a golden opportunity to save lives. my message to the nhs is, take this issue far more seriously. we cannot tolerate the continued death toll of 79,000 people in england alone every single yearfrom smoking. vaping is one route to help problem smokers give up and we should be doing far more to encourage it. we're very lucky in this country to have a health department and a government that really understands vaping and gets behind it as part of their smoking cessation programmes. i think what is frustrating is the fact that the general public think that vaping is just as harmful as smoking. i think getting that public health message out there is the most crucial thing we can do. just this week, a study from the university of birmingham criticised vaping, with research showing it sped up the death of lung cells and may trigger lung diseases later in life. what we would caution is that to replace smoking with e—cigarette

use is not a risk—free alternative. and our research has shown that there may well be significant health risks associated with prolonged e—cigarette use. e—cigarettes are still relatively new. they've been in the uk for just 11 years now. the committee says there needs to be more research into the effects of using them in the long term. catherine burns, bbc news. in a moment we'll speak to professor martin mckee from the london school of hygiene and tropical medicine. but first joining me now from our studio in edinburgh is doug mutter, board member of the uk vaping industry association and he works at vaporized, the uk s largest vaping retailer. your thoughts on this report from

the parliamentary committee, talking about the fact that we should be a bit more relaxed around this industry. i think the reports very welcome for the industry. it's been a long time with all the research coming through, and for the committee to look at it properly. evidence was given by the british heart foundation, cancer research uk, the royal college of physicians, to namejust uk, the royal college of physicians, to name just a few that are really painting the picture that smoking, vaping is 95% at least a safer alternative than smoking cigarettes. we are hearing a lot about the number of people who commented appears, are able to give up smoking traditional cigarettes by going through this route. now, that is fantastic, and that's good news for public health, but aren't there two things going on? that is a positive, but we don't know, do we, whether

people are perhaps vaping when they don't need to put up how do we know whether people are just vaping now because they think it's something thatis because they think it's something that is safe and negligible? so far, there is nothing to do differentiate there is nothing to do differentiate the claims that nonsmokers are using the claims that nonsmokers are using the product is gateway to conventional cigarette smoking. all of the signs point to adult smokers taking up vaping as a route to get away from their cigarette habit. as an industry, can you actively discourage younger people in particular from taking it up, just as something to do? absolutely. 0urselves as a retailer, we have a policy, there is a conversation ta kes pla ce policy, there is a conversation takes place with every customer, and the first question is, are you a smoker? if a person isn't a smoker, we don't have a product for them. the products are therefore adult smokers as a means of getting them

on theirjourney to quitting cigarettes. but if somebody is prepared to pay for it, no retailer is going to turn down a sale, are they? there is a district code, and also challenge 25, certainly across scotland, and i think it is in england as well now, and there are challenges in place to police as best you can like product, if somebody is going out to actively buy it, they are going to get it somewhere, but we can take responsible steps to ensure that most of what we do is getting the product in the hands of the right people, adult smokers. there is still some nicotine in some of the products? yes, there is nicotine in the electronic macro liquids, and there is a education gap in the uk, whereby nicotine and tobacco are two different things. nicotine itself doesn't carry the harmful chemicals in cigarettes and. thank you for the

doug mutter, a board member of the vaping industry association. turn to professor martin mckay. thank you for being with us. i know this parliamentary report that out today, i know you have been talking to other research as in other countries, so i'm interested what the general response is, both from yourself and people you've been talking to, about the report. input has been known for some time to be an outlier in this, because people have been much more positive about e—cigarettes than elsewhere in the world even with that, the comments i've had from my comments elsewhere are that this report is way out, in terms of the international norms for the when you say england, i think thatis the when you say england, i think that is because public health england is what we are talking about today, in terms of the positives, encouraging people to give up smoking pot there is a benefit for the. if you look at the evidence

given about capital cash scotland, 95% was repeated again, and they said it was overly speculative, so evenin said it was overly speculative, so even in scotland that figure is not accepted. is vaping undeniable that some people, a lot of people have been able to quit smoking? we all know the health risks of that, to be able to move to these. we can look at the large study of 2000 people in the united states that recently reported, which showed that the people using electronic cigarettes and smoking were so using electronic cigarettes over a year, and some did quit, but twice as many went the other direction, so the net effect was that more people moved from electronic cigarettes to dual use or to sole smoking. so some people are doing both... the net effect is that more people are moving towards smoking than quitting.|j

more people are moving towards smoking than quitting. i think people watching will think i don't understand why this committee of mps is saying, we need a debate about this, we need to perhaps be more relaxed, and there are benefits, but you are saint that research is like talking to in other countries say that his wrongful it is also the european health organisation and european health organisation and european respiratory societies who have written a critical piece of views in the united kingdom, and they say they can see little evidence that these are effective in cessation, and nobody can say confidently that these are safe in the long—term. we know from a large randomised clinical trial, undertaken in the us recently, that found no benefit, quote unquote, of using electronic cigarettes in people that were randomised to information and support and electronic cigarettes or not, so the argued it is a cessation tool is not supported by the evidence. in terms of the long—term impact, is it a

situation where, because it is still quite new, actually wejust situation where, because it is still quite new, actually we just don't know? is your point, because we don't know, we should be a ring on the side of caution? we don't know, and we need to keep an open mind. it may be in the long—term we find some benefits, it is possible, but we've been looking for some time and we've had the profits for quite a few yea rs, had the profits for quite a few years, and we've been unable to show there is a benefit in cessation and every week we are finding more and more evidence pointing to the risk of harmful in the long—term, looking ten yea rs of harmful in the long—term, looking ten years after people, people might have said smoking was ok in the 20th end with, but we needn't look at the long—term effects end with, but we needn't look at the long-term effects of. we may well be returning to this topic can. fewer than half the families of victims of the genoa bridge collapse in northern italy have accepted the offer of a state funeral. there's growing anger at the authorities following tuesday's disaster, amid claims of years of neglect by successive italian governments

in maintaining vital infrastructure. from genoa, james reynolds reports. amid the heavy machinery and the tonnes of rubble, the search for survivors sometimes comes down to a single voice. anybody there, shouts a rescuer. there's no reply. but they'll keep going for a while longer. it's difficult to say we will finish tomorrow, but i can tell you that probably in a couple of days we should finish, but it is really depending on how we can remove the debris. parts of the operation are extremely delicate. here, firefighters reverse a truck, abandoned right next to the edge of the collapse. professor antonio brencic is on the official investigation commission.

before he was appointed, he told me the original engineer's bridge design was flawed. he made some decisions that produced a bridge, a new bridge, different from the others, that attempted to find a new way, a new structure format, that failed. it failed? failed, si. this is the result of that collapse. this afternoon, the families of the dead gathered around their coffins. in the morning, the victims will be given a state funeral. james reynolds, bbc news, genoa. the headlines on bbc news: devastating monsoon floods in the southern indian state of kerala have left more than 300 people dead and 200,000 without homes. mps call for the rules around

e—cigarettes to be relaxed. they say they help people to stop smoking. the prisons minister, rory stewart, promises to resign if he fails to reduce the level of drugs and violence in jails within a year. in sport, ben stokes will play for england tomorrow. the all—rounder has been named in the team to face india in the third test, just days after being cleared of affray fostered sam curran misses out. england fly half danny cipriani has been charged by the rfu after his conviction for assault and resisting arrest on a pre—season tour with gloucester. he'll face a disciplinary panel. manchester city have confirmed midfielder kevin de bruyne will be out for three months with a knee injury, sustained during training earlier this week. i'll be back with more on those stories at half—past. the leader of pakistan's largest party, the former cricket star imran khan,

has been confirmed as prime minister. he will need to form a coalition government after winning 176 votes in the 342—seat national assembly. he's due to be sworn in tomorrow. 0ur correspondent secunder kermani is in islamabad. the formal ratification, if you like, has gone through. how significant a moment is this politically? well, this is one of two formal steps imran khan has to go through before officially becoming prime minister. today, he was elected by parliament. tomorrow, he will be sworn into office in a ceremony in islamabad. this is a huge political moment for imran khan. the culmination of a 22 year political career. for pakistan, it's a huge moment, too. he's broken through a political system that, for

the past few decades, has been dominated by two established status quo political parties, and imran khan has come in as a third force in the pakistani system, and he's upset the pakistani system, and he's upset the pakistani system, and he's upset the pakistani political establishment. today in parliament, he gave a very fiery speech, in which he vowed to hold account those who he said had looted the country. he had stood on a populist, anti—corruption he had stood on a populist, anti—corru ption platform. he had stood on a populist, anti—corruption platform. and he's also vowed to create a new pakistani, and according to him that means a society where everyone, whether rich or poor, is accountable, and where there are improved services for ordinary people, like health care and education. at the moment, the country has huge problems, one of the highest levels of infant mortality in the world, over 20 million children out of school, but

imran khan will also face well, he will inherit a financial that is brewing in the country. analysts say the country needs 510000000000“$12000000000 the country needs $10000000000—$12000000000 pumped into the economy in the next few months, and those loans, whether they come from the imf or other friendly countries, might make it harderfor him to friendly countries, might make it harder for him to increase friendly countries, might make it harderfor him to increase public spending and create this kind of islamic inspired welfare state, which he says he wants to create. interesting. thank you very much. the department store chain house of fraser has cancelled all its online orders because of a dispute with its warehouse operator. the retailer, which was bought out of administration by sports direct a week ago, says it will refund customers who haven't received their goods. 0ne leading fashion brand —jigsaw — has pulled stock out of some house of fraser stores. our business correspondent, jonty bloom, is here. he has been following this. this is

about online orders. explain what's been happening for the basically, house of fraser went bust and it was bought out of administration, but the suppliers didn't get paid. 0ne of those is the logistics company which helps the rumble website. it delivers everything ordered online. at the it is refusing to do it with house of fraser orders, and it is owed £30 million from before administration. this has left many customers, including this one, very frustrated. so, after placing an order with house of fraser online last friday, i'm expecting my delivery this week, and i've got this e—mail this morning that came into my junk e—mails. this is basically a generic e—mail that i believe they're sending to everybody who placed an order online in the last week or so, just advising that they're going to cancel and refund everybody's orders, because they can't fulfil delivery. the problem is that i have, i used a gift card and, when the order went through, i assumed everything was fine, so i actually binned the gift card, and i don't know how i'm going to be

able to get my money back. i've tweeted them and had no response. i've called their customer service line this morning. unfortunately, they are not taking any calls at the moment. so, short of actually going into the store, i'm not sure what my options are. just one customer who has been affected. as we mentioned, it's not just about customers. lots of people are impacted. lots of companies, large and small. i was talking to a company a while ago which does alterations for one store, and it is down about £250. over the last couple years, it has lost thousands of pounds from retailers going bust and not paying their bills, and this is what supplies are angry about house of fraser went into administration and the next day the stores went and opened again. sports direct have done nothing illegal, they are keeping the company going,

but suppliers think the system is unfairand but suppliers think the system is unfair and they suffer every time. thank you, jonty bloom. a boy is in a critical condition and another is seriously ill after four teenagers were stabbed in south london. it happened yesterday evening on a housing estate in camberwell. police say the victims are 15 and 16 years old. six teenage boys are being questioned in connection with the attack. we can cross now to south london and speak to our correspondent, simonjones. what more are the police saying? how much do we know? well, the stabbing happened in broad daylight around this time yesterday. police say, if you want an example of the senselessness of life crime, this is it. witnesses say they saw around 30 boys running around the estate. 0ne witness said she saw one of the boys armed with what looked like a large carving knife. and then, we've heard from witnesses, they heard one boy

screaming, help, help, and then another person saw one of the injured boy is coming round the corner, collapsing his stomach collapsing to the ground. four boys, aged 15 and 16, were taken to hospital, and one remains in a critical condition. another is in a serious but stable condition. the other two received minor injuries. police have made dixon rests, also boys aged 15 and 16, on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and violent disorder. lisa are appealing for witnesses, and many in the area remain shocked. it is sad reality that, on an average day, police in london have to deal with a number of stabbings. i think what makes it unusual is that we get four boys stabbed in a single incident, and the fact that the victims were so young, and those arrested were also 15 and 16. police are asking people if they know who was behind this to contact them. they accept people may

be reluctant to talk to the police but, they say, think about the families affected and the boys, do the right thing and come forward. simonjones in the right thing and come forward. simon jones in camberwell. the funeral of entertainer barry chuckle — one half of comedy duo the chuckle brothers — has taken place in rotherham today. the performer, whose real name was barry elliott, died on 5th august aged 73. his younger brother and chucklevision co—star paul was among the pallbearers. around 400 fans gathered to pay their respects outside rotherham united football ground, where the service was held. the prisons minister, rory stewart, has said he will resign if his campaign to tackle violence and drugs behind bars doesn't succeed within 12 months. ten of england's most challenging prisons are to be given a total of £10 million to bolster security, improve living conditions and raise standards of leadership. our home affairs correspondent, danny shaw, has been given exclusive access to 0akwood prison near wolverhampton. i do it because i feel it is my way of giving back to society.

ben has got a job in prison. he is nearing the end of a 19—year sentence for plotting to supply cocaine. he's been at 0akwood for five years. and has become a mentor, a middleman between prison officers and prisoners. basically dealing with problems and tensions in society. a lot of guys come in with a vengeance against authority. a lot of it has to be empathy. shared experiences. relating your own experiences to the individual. it's about connecting with the individual. and not making anyjudgment. and it's about treating prisoners with respect. 0akwood was one of the first prisons to have in—cell telephones so inmates could keep in touch with theirfamilies. some prisoners can wear their own clothes and staff are encouraged to defuse tension through dialogue. they do not carry batons.

batons are weapons, as i see it. i've no time for them myself. that's my own personal choice. i would rather have people engaging with each other and finding solutions than resorting to drawing a baton to resolve an issue. my prison operates without batons very successfully. but after 0akwood opened, six years ago, staff struggled to keep control. prisoners staged a rooftop protest in 2013 and, a year later, there was a riot. one of britain's biggest and newest prisons was a laughing stock. now, there's a positive mood at the jail, reflected in a glowing inspection report which praised the way inmates are consulted and involved in decision—making. for a man to have gone through working with one of our mentors and come through the other side, it gives us that level of assurance that actually these projects are working. and that we're actually providing a place where prisoners can develop and grow as men. and, hopefully, be released

into the community as men with something to offer. and that means being employable. in this workshop, prisoners are assembling parts for a private company, learning skills and getting experience that will help them on the outside. but 0akwood still has a long way to go. like many prisons, violence has increased. illicit drugs are readily available and incidents of self—harm remain high. try and get in touch with them and they should help you with that. ben, though, is showing that there is hope. prisoners can take the initiative, helping each other to get through their sentence and stay on the right side of the tracks. danny shaw, bbc news, at 0akwood prison. time for a look at the weather. here's stav with the forecast. hello. the all—importa nt weekend

hello. the all—important weekend weather. it's looking like a game of two hearts. i think saturday will be better day, with some rain on sunday but it was a miserable day across western parts of the country this afternoon, and quite windy. but the rain will tend to be out through the night. there will be some dampness in northern and western areas, particularly western hills. a dry night for most, with higher temperatures than last night, generally 13 to 16. for the weekend, mostly dry on saturday, not com pletely mostly dry on saturday, not completely dry, and we expect some rainfor many completely dry, and we expect some rain for many on sunday. 0n saturday, those eastern areas should see the best brightness, and generally quite cloudy in western areas. a few showers for central and southern scotland and northern ireland. it will feel warmer and more humid across the board, making 24 to 25 in the south—east. sunday stays warm and humid, but outbreaks of rain times, windy in england and

wales, and monday could turn even warmer in the south—east, but generally fairly cloudy. this is bbc news. the headlines: devastating monsoon floods in the southern indian state of kerala have left more than 300 people dead and 200 thousand without homes. mps call for the rules around e—cigarettes to be relaxed — they say they help people to stop smoking. the prisons minister, rory stewart, promises to resign if he fails to reduce the level of drugs and violence in jails within a year. the department store chain house of fraser has cancelled all its online orders, because of a dispute with its warehouse operator. much more to come, including film review, of course. but first... let's get the sport now with chris mitchell. good evening.

ben stokes will make his return to the england cricket side tomorrow in the third test against india at trent bridge, just four days after being found not guilty of affray. the durham all—rounder missed the second test match because of that trial and sam curran is the man to miss out. we had two days' practice to gauge that on, in terms of fitness and making sure he was physically right to play. sat him down last night, just me and him, and asked him, quite brutally and honestly, you know, "are you in the right place to go out and play for england?", and he assured me that he was absolutely ready to go and perform at his best. so, you know, from that perspective, i have no worries or doubts that he would be able to go and deliverjust like he has done so many times for england. gloucester say they're "surprised and extremely disappointed" after their fly half danny cipriani was summoned to an rfu disciplinary panel next week. it follows the england international‘s conviction for assault earlier this week. cirpiani has now been charged with "conduct pre—judicial to the interests of the game" by the rfu after the incident

outside a jersey nightclub. however, gloucester have released a statment criticising the decision and the timing of the announcement. manchester city's manager pep guardiola says the intense footballing schedule has contributed to the injury of his midfielder kevin de bruyne. the club has confirmed that the belgian international suffered a knee ligament injury in training on wednesday. it's the same knee he injured in early 2016 that kept him out for 10 weeks, and although the club say he won't need surgery, he's likely to be sidelined until mid—november. they don't rest, they don't have... it was a tough, tough season last season. they come back, sure recovery, and it is demanding, the first morning, come on, let's go, because we are in the competition, and of course human beings have a limit. and sometimes these kind of things happen. england's women have reached the under—20 world cup

semi—finals for the first time, by beating the netherlands 2—1 in france. a great run and finish from georgia sta nway a great run and finish from georgia stanway here saw england equalised just eight minutes after the netherlands had gone ahead. and the manchester city striker scored the winner too. the 19—year—old showing her persistence to get a second. england will face three—time winners germany orjapan next. the wbc world heavyweight champion deontay wilder says there is "no question" he'll fight tyson fury later this year. the american argued with fury‘s dad, john, at today's weigh—in ahead of his son's bout with francesco pianeta in belfast tomorrow. it all got a bit heated, but wilder says that the deal has been done with the fight expected to take place in the united states towards the end of the year. pianeta will be fury‘s second opponent since the former heavyweight champion came back from a two—and—a—half—year break. the way it is done. that's how

simple it is, you know what i mean? if two fighters want to fight each other, that's what happens. we spoke to each other and we made the fight just then. i told him to get with his people, he told me to get with mine, so we did that, and that is that. when two fighters want to fight, they will fight. ellie simmonds qualified second fastest for tonight's 400—metres freestyle s6 final at the european para swimming championships in dublin. simmonds won her heat, ahead of maisie summers—newton, who beat her to the 200—metres title on tuesday. this will be her last race of the competition. meanwhile, alice tai is well—placed to win a second gold at these championships — she was quickest in qualifying for the 100—metres freestyle final. we'll have more for you in sportsday at half past six. thanks very much, chris. thank you.

coming up to 25 to six. now, hoteliers and bed—and—breakfast owners in bath and bristol are calling for tighter regulations on companies which offer home rentals — such as airbnb — because they claim their business is being badly hit by homeowners offering unregulated accommodation. both councils are considering whether restrictions should be introduced. the chairman of the bristol hoteliers association called on bristol city council to "level the playing field between airbnb and hotels." we asked airbnb for an interview. they were unable to provide a spokesperson, but sent us this statement: with me now is kurt janson, the director

of the tourism alliance, which lobbies the government on the issues facing the british tourism industry. let's discuss the broader issue. hello, good evening to you. this particular example, which has come to our attention, is about bath and bristol, but there are an awful lot of towns and cities up and down the country where this debate is being had. what is your take on the validity of this debate? sure. i think the issues raised in these situations are valid for a lot of towns and cities in the uk, and in fa ct towns and cities in the uk, and in fact there was a tourism parliamentary group that just released a report couple of weeks back which highlighted some of the issues facing these places. and they are legitimate concerns, around the regulations, how they apply, the safety a nd regulations, how they apply, the safety and legitimacy of some of the places that are being put on technology websites. also protecting the hosts of airbnb customers,

because they are often not told of the steps they need to take on the regulations they are breaking, and they put themselves at risk as well. like when you're talking about the hosts you're talking about the people renting their place out in the first place. —— people renting their place out in the first place. -- and when you are talking about the hosts. they must be told there are certain statutory obligations you have? the people who are hosting properties, with their statutory responsible days, are very wea k statutory responsible days, are very weak part of the sharing economy at the moment. most people who put their places on airbnb don't realise they need public liability insurance, don't realise it is invalidating their home and contents insurance. even if there isn't a customer in the property at the time, and that is a real board of concern to us. they are the issues facing them, and they don't realise they need a fire safety certificate, that they need a gas safety certificate. all of these issues are kind of building up, and you think

if it is ok for a normal b&b where someone is coming into a person's home to be covered by the full protection of the law, why shouldn't other people who are putting on properties through technology sites like this, why shouldn't they be covered as well? so there are statutory, regulatory issues here. could it not also be the case, though, that some hotel groups or individual hotels are, frankly, annoyed, and they may be valid from annoyed, and they may be valid from a business perspective, but they are annoyed because they are losing business because people are choosing to rent out a room or their whole flat or whatever for holiday—makers? that's an easy accusation to make, but if you trace it back, ever since we've had kind of thomas cook, britain has been at the forefront of innovation in tourism, and we welcome it. done properly, you know, the sharing economy is a great asset to local communities and it provides customers with new experiences and

destinations. so we are all for that. it just needs destinations. so we are all for that. itjust needs to be done properly. all right. so much more we could discuss there, and i am sorry we are out of time but, kurtjanson, thank you, from the tourism. —— tourism alliance. tributes have been pouring in for the singer aretha franklin, who died yesterday aged 76 at her home in detroit. speaking on cbs television's this morning, an emotional stevie wonder spoke of the last moments he spent with aretha. i thought i cried my last tear. you know, i mean, as i said, i'll get it together, because i did want to see her, so i decided on monday that i would go, so i flew out, from la to detroit, and went to see her. and spoke with her. she wasn't able to speak back, but her family felt that she could hear me, and so ijust said all the things that i wanted to say, and told her to say hello to my sister, that i lost this year as well. but, you know, she did incredible music.

incredible singer. and she touched every genre — every singer was influenced in some way by the way she sang, and they will forever be influenced by her, because her voice, her emotion, her sincerity, is unforgettable. i remember hearing her singing at reverend franklin's church when i was little — maybe i was four or five years old — because my mother always listened to the church services on sunday, and so the voices i remember most in my life would be dr king, her voice and her father, reverend franklin, and obviously, growing older, i will always rememberjohn lennon's song imagine, just the emotional places, yeah.

she was consistently a great human being, and she always, even with whatever turmoil may have been happening in her life, even through her illness, she did not put that on anybody else. she believed i think that most of all she was doing god's work, and she was. she broughtjoy to a lot of lives and her voice and the essence of her will long live all of us that are here right now. that was stevie wonder, of course. smokey robinson also spoke to the programme about how he and aretha franklin spent their childhood in detroit together. in detroit, we lived in the hood — in the hood—hood.

but in the middle of that were these two plush blocks, where they had mansions and all that, right in the middle — it was an amazing place. and so they lived on one of those blocks, because reverend cl franklin was of course one of the biggest ministers in the country. and so we went around to see their new house, which was a mansion. we're walking through the house to see, and i hear this little voice and a piano playing somewhere in this room, and this voice coming. and i peek in, and there is aretha sitting at the piano, playing and singing almost like she did as an adult. she was probably only about five years old, but that's how i first met her. yeah, and what was it like performing with her side by side, smokey? you guys did that many times. well, you know, it was always wonderful to do anything with aretha. aretha was, like i said, my ace, she was my baby. yeah. and so we were really, really close. and to do anything with her was always a joy. smokey, can you talk a little bit about the cultural moment that both you and she embodied,

in america at a time when african americans were... where it was a very tough part of american history. she was cultural icon and was at the centre of a cultural change? well, yeah, i would say that we all grew up in that era. we grew up in the rosa parks era, i call it, because she was the start of it all. and we marched with dr martin luther king and reverend ralph abernathy. we did the sit—ins. we did all the stuff that was required of us at that time. we turned the other cheek, which was really, really hard to do sometimes, under the circumstances, but that's what we had to do because that was the plan and it was a masterplan, and as you can see it worked pretty well. what do you think that the music world has lost with the death of aretha franklin, in terms of what she meant to us musically? just her presence. because, you know, italked

to aretha may be about five weeks ago or so, and her plan was she was going to retire from doing performances, but she was always going to record. she said, "smoke, i'mjust not going to do any more dates, but i'm going to continue to record," but she has left us with a musical legacy that kids who haven't even been born yet will get a chance to experience. smokey robinson talking on cbs news. the headlines on bbc news: devastating monsoon floods in the southern indian state of kerala have left more than 300 people dead and 200,000 without homes. mps call for the rules around e—cigarettes to be relaxed — they say they help people to stop smoking. the prisons minister, rory stewart, promises to resign

if he fails to reduce the level of drugs and violence in jails within a year. an update on the market numbers for you — here's how london's and frankfurt ended the day. and in the the united states this is how the dow and the nasdaq are getting on. a mixed bag of fortunes. trading still going on of course over the states. —— in their 0ut—mac states. almost film review time, but first a look ahead to sportsday. sportsday at 6:30pm brings you all the day's sportsday sports news as jose mourinho denies rift with his star man paul pogba. in cricket ben stokes returns for england, named for the third test against india at trent bridge tomorrow. his captain joe root has called it, though, the toughest call he has had to make a skipper. we also have the latest from belfast as both carl frampton and tyson fury prepare to perform in front of a big crowd at windsor park. all coming up in sportsday at

6:30pm but