this is bbc news i'm martine croxall. the headlines at eight. devastating monsoon floods in the southern indian state of kerala have killed 170 people, 200,000 more have been left homeless. helicopters are being used to airlift children to safety, with roads and even the local airport submerged. officials say it's the worst flooding for decades, and more rain is predicted to fall. translation: at the 36 years, the first time that such flooding has happened here, it is a disasterfor the whole population. here, mps call for the rules around e—cigarettes to be relaxed. they say they help people to stop smoking. the prisons minister, rory stewart, promisees to resign if he fails to reduce the level of drug use and violence in jails within a year. she touched everyjohn morra, every singer. —— everyjohn morra. every singer. —— everyjohn morra. every singer was applause by the way that

she saying. winnie the pooh is on a journey to find his friends and christopher robin. the billy mcewan macgregor stars as his playmate. find out the thoughts and the rest of the week releases in the dimmer view. —— in the film review. that evening and welcome to bbc news. devastating monsoon floods in india have killed nearly a thousand people. the state of kerala has been the worst hit region with the death toll at 171, as a result of recent flooding. local authorities say in total more than 320 people have died, due to the affects of the summer's heavy rain. rescuers in helicopters and boats are struggling to reach the thousands of people in the southern state,

who are still believed to be marooned by floodwaters, which are the worst to hit the region in nearly a century. more heavy rain is expected. yogita limaye reports. forced out of their homes by the floods, people are walking miles to safety. beyond this surging water, there are tens of thousands who are stuck, waiting to be rescued. this child is amongst several people who have been airlifted in kerala. dozens of helicopters are pulling out as many as they can. the monsoon always brings heavy rainfall to kerala, but locals say this year is different. translation: after 36 years, it's the first time 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 have been left homeless. cochin airport, the busiest in kerala, is unrecognisable. its runway resembles a river. rescue teams are being dispatched from other airports. river levels are rising, and the government has been forced to open dam gates. and there is more rainfall expected in the coming days. yogita limaye, bbc news, mumbai. let's now talk to ray kancharla, humanitarian director for save the children who is going to kerala tomorrow. thank you very much forjoining us. first, and your view for what you have seen, what are you likely to be dealing with in terms of the scale of the problem? absolutely. with so

many lives lost and so many district severely devastated in the situation is changing rapidly. it is the worst inioo is changing rapidly. it is the worst in 100 years. definitely this scale is something that was unpredicted and unprecedented that everyone is overwhelmed by such a large scale brain and 80 dan's opening and everybody is that in disaster management and the civil society are struggling to make sure that things are brought back and people are rescued and put in safer places. how many children have been affected and need your help? in the current scenario, about approximately 300,000 people in different camps, we estimate that about 40% would be

chosen, so roughly around a children. this is is a very large number, very spread out in several districts. it is quite a challenge to reach them, but what we would like to submit to everybody, they said authorities and civil authorities, prioritise chosen in this large—scale disaster. this is something that we would like to request. we know that children in the disaster every us are particularly for trouble if they are separated from families or orphans. —— are very affordable. how do you grade child safe spaces? -- very vulnerable. this is something that save the children do nationally and locally has been good at. we have a lwa ys locally has been good at. we have always been the first responder and this last ten years. we have monitored about 35 different responses of varying intensities. say the chosen believes that

children cannot... as soon as possible, a makeshift places are possible, a makeshift places are possible, immediately set up a safe space for children where they feel they are protected and immediately needs are met like water, food and sanitation. 0nce needs are met like water, food and sanitation. once that is done, to the creation and some learning, we tried to bring them out of the psychosocial distress or restlessness, , hit psychosocial distress or restlessness,, hit some of them but otherwise this is a child from the space and very important mechanism to ensure that children are safe and protected. as you rightly said, family reunification in another major challenge with large—scale disasters and people being displaced. jozefzoon definitely need to be prioritised in this case. —— chosen death money. how long is your

commitment to the children sometimes? -- need to be prioritised. save the children will like to be a first responder in the last 30 different responses, promoted in different parts of india we arrived at as soon as we can, but we arrived at as soon as we can, but we do not leave soon. we are the first to reach andy last delay. this will be our own way of working to save the chosen. thank you for joining us. —— of working for save the children. and we'll find out how this story — and many others — are covered in tomorrow's front pages a 10:40 and 11:30 this evening in the papers — our guestsjoining me tonight are tim stanley, leader writer for the telegraph and susie boniface, columnist at the daily mirror i don't think i will need to save much and those reviews. —— say much in those reviews. rules governing e—cigarettes should be relaxed, to make it easier for people to vape in public places. that's one of many recommendations from a group of mps. around 2.9m people use electronic

cigarettes in the uk, with almost half a million, who are trying stop smoking. the report suggests tens of thousands of people, have already quit normal cigarettes, because of vaping. it's estimated they're 95% less harmful than conventional tobacco, but some say it still isn't clear, that they're completely safe, and more research is needed. here's our health editor hugh pym. the debate on e—cigarettes is heating up. a committee of mps has come down strongly in favour of vaping and the benefits it can bring, and it wants official backing for that. vaping is one route to help problem smokers give up and we should be doing far more to encourage it. the mps want to see more of this, nhs endorsement of vaping. e—cigarettes are on sale at mental health units in leicester. smoking isn't allowed on trust property, but vaping is. it's helpful when they bring the vapes in flavours, you can buy different flavours. two users of the service told me how it helps them. since my mental health deteriorated, i smoked more but as soon

as i was getting help, i went on my vape again. like, i started vaping and i don't really touch tobacco any more. i used to smoke about 20 to 30 a day and now i'm on about four to five a day. there is evidence those with mental health conditions tend to smoke more than others, so the trust says there is every reason to offer help. vaping has less harmful effects as far as we know from the data and research, and therefore the trust is of the view that we should be exploring the option for our patients and also promoting it for our staff as well. elsewhere in leicester, a stop smoking clinic is run by the city council. e—cigarettes are recommended for those who would like to try them. another example of official backing for vaping. your reading now is zero...

the mps' report calls for moves to allow e—cigs in more public places such as bus and train stations, and to allow nhs use of e—cigarettes. it also wants the authorities to loosen regulation of devices and liquids. the mps argue that e—cigarettes bring clear public health benefits in terms of helping smokers quit the habit. but can we be certain that there are no side effects? the answer is not yet. we know they do help people stop smoking, but we do also have to be careful about their long—term use, so they are safer than cigarettes, but we can't absolutely say they are safe. so do people mind the vapour? 0pinions we heard were divided. we wear contact lenses and when that smoke comes into your eyes, it feels uncomfortable. it's not like cigarettes, it doesn't have that stinky smell that bothers anyone. for us as nonsmokers and just generally, i think

the fumes are very bad. it's a sensitive area, and health authorities are likely to continue treading carefully before deciding what to do next. the prisons minister rory stewart says he'll resign if his campaign to tackle violence and drugs behind bars isn't successful within 12 months. some of england's toughest prisons are to get £10 million to bolster security — improve living conditions and raise standards of leadership. labour says the government needs to do much more. our home affairs correspondent danny shaw reports. how to stop drugs getting into prisons. here's one way. hmp leeds is one of ten prisons where sniffer dogs are being brought in and new technology is being used to detect synthetic substances, like the former legal high spice. it's led to record levels of violence in prisons — volatile places, say inmates, even at the best of times. it's good here.

but like anything and everything, things can change. the dynamics of a jail, the dynamics of a wing can change overnight. security around cell windows and perimeter walls will be strengthened to stop drugs being flown in by drones or thrown over fencing, and the government minister overseeing the improvement plan has promised that, if it doesn't work, he'll walk. i will quit if i haven't succeeded in 12 months in reducing the level of drugs and violence in those prisons. i want to make a measurable distance. that's what this investment is around. but prison conditions have been severely affected by a programme of cutbacks. that's the view of campaigners, who question if the new funding will make much difference. we have record levels of violence and self—harm in our prisons at the moment. too many prisons are failing to deliver even the basics for prisoners, and whilst this £10 million across ten prisons is welcome, it will only go so far. but at britain's biggest prison,

holding 2,000 offenders, they‘ re bringing stability to the wings by giving inmates more say. 0ak—wood prison has its own approach to dealing with conflict and violence. it involves prisoners themselves taking the lead and providing support and mentoring. a lot of it has to be empathy, shared experiences, reliving your own experiences to the individual. it's about connecting with the individual and not making any judgement. ben is showing there can be hope behind bars. the political career of a government minister rests on prisoners like him steering clear of drugs and violence. danny shaw, bbc news, at oak—wood prison. fewer than half the families of victims of the genoa bridge collapse in northern italy have accepted the offer of a state funeral. at least 38 people have died in the disaster. there's growing anger at the authorities over 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. it is worth adding that a number of families have decided not to take pa rt families have decided not to take part in the several money, instead they have chosen to hold a private burialfor they have chosen to hold a private burial for the relatives elsewhere in italy. but the state funeral here will allow a short pause in a bitter

argument which had broken us as the colla pse argument which had broken us as the collapse of the bridge on tuesday. 0nce those ceremonies are over, those arguments, that debate about decade of decision—making, maybury intensified. —— may intensify. the headlines on bbc news... devastating monsoon floods in the southern indian state of kerala have killed 170 people — 200,000 more have been left homeless. here — 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 drug use and violence in jails within a year. sport now, and for a full round up, from the bbc sport centre, here's chris mitchell. good evening. ben stokes will make his return to england cricket site tomorrow and the third test against india at tracked bridge, four days after being found not guilty. he

missed the second test match because of that trial. sam curran is the man to miss out. the captain says he is sure ben stokes is ready to play. >> we had today's practise to engage them. in terms of fitness and making sure he was physically write the play. we found out last nightjust being here and asked him honestly are you in the right place to go out and play for england. he assured me that he has absolutely ready to go perform at his best. from that perspective, i have no worries or doubts they will be able to go and deliver just like he has doubts they will be able to go and deliverjust like he has done on so many times before. the county side drum have signed cameron bancroft, he is the australian open was banned for nine months after admitting all tampering. —— durham. some flash photography coming up in this. part of the scandal with the captain steve smith and vice captain david

warner also suspended. bancroft committee of the sandpaper on the ball ina committee of the sandpaper on the ball in a game against south africa in march. and his dealt with somerset was cancelled, now he would join dural next year. gloucester say that surprise and extremely disappointed after their fly half danny cipriani with summoned to a disciplinary panel next week and it follows the england international conviction for assault earlier this week. he has now been charged with conduct prejudicial to the interests of the game by the rfu. after the incident outside of a jersey nightclub. however, gloucester, his clu b nightclub. however, gloucester, his club have released a statement criticising the decision and the timing of the announcement. man city manager at warren ellis is the intense football schedule has contributed to the injury of his midfielder kevin de bruyne. the club has confirmed that the international suffered a knee ligament injury on wednesday. the same knee he injured it to the other 16 that kept him out for ten weeks. the club say he won't

need surgery, he's likely to be sidelined until mid—november. bad news for all concerned. the arrest. it was a tough season last season. —— they do not rest. we demand them because we are anti—competition. —— are anti—competition. human beings have a limit. sometimes, this kind of thing happened. >> the women have preached at a 20 welcome semifinals for the first time by beating the netherlands. great run and finish from georgia england equalise, eight minutes after the netherlands had gone ahead. and the man city striker scored the winner, 19—year—old showing great persistence to get the second england will face three—time winners germany orjapan next. man city women's champions league campaign begins with a difficult

looking tie against the spanish champions. the job was looking tie against the spanish champions. thejob was made earlier today. three british loves to lowball. the double wonders if they spot you. glasgow city will meet barcelona from ciphers. the wbc world heavyweight champion the abbey wilder says there's no question he will fight tyson fury later this year, against some flash photography coming up. the american argued with his dad at of the doubt tomorrow. he added that bit heated as you can see. but wilder says the deal has been done, and the fight is likely to ta ke been done, and the fight is likely to take place in the united states towards the end of the year. bno will be very‘s 2nd of august is the former heavyweight champion came back from a two and a half year break. —— will be tyson fury‘s up it. as long as he gets his day at of the way, it is done. when two fighters with to fight each other, it will happen. me in tyson fury, we

talk to each other, we made the fightjust talk to each other, we made the fight just that. i talk to each other, we made the fightjust that. i told him to get with this new book, we got together, it happened overnight. just like that. what do fighters with the fight, they will fight. that is it for now. more in sports day. thank you, see you later. a teenage boy is in a critical condition in hospital, after four people were stabbed in south london. the victims, all aged between 15 and 16, were attacked on the elmington estate in camberwell yesterday evening. six boys of the same age have been arrested on suspicion of violent disorder and grievous bodily harm. 0ur correspondent simonjones sent us this update. the police have said, if you want an example of the utter senselessness of knife crime, this is it. witnesses say yesterday evening they saw around 30 boys running around this estate, and one said she saw a boy armed with what looked like a large carving knife and then, one witness heard a voice scream, help, help, and the other boys ran off.

another witness said they saw one of the victims come round the corner, clutching his stomach, and then he collapsed the floor. four people were taken to hospital, four boys aged 15 and 16, one in a critical condition, the other described as serious but stable. two others have minor injuries. six people have been arrested, and they are boys aged 15 and 16, according to police. they were arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and violent disorder. the sad reality is police here in london often have to deal with many stabbings each day, but what makes this rather unusual is the fact that we had four stabbings in a single incident, and the age of those who were stabbed, just 15 and 16, arrested, also 15 and 16. police are appealing for witnesses to what happened. they say they recognise some might be reluctant to contact them, but their message is that anyone

who has information should think of the boys who have been hurt and theirfamilies and do the right thing and come forward. the department store chain house of fraser is cancelling all online orders and refunding customers. it follows a payment dispute with the firm that handles its warehouse operations. xpo logistics is owed £30 million by house of fraser, which was taken over by sports direct last week, and hundreds of suppliers say they're owed money too. our business correspondent emma simpson reports. it's the last thing this business needs — a stream of angry customers. the website is down and orders cancelled, thousands of them. house of fraser says it's sorry, and refunds will be given. nearly a fifth of its sales are now online — business this chain can ill afford to lose. one of house of fraser's failings over the last few years has been that its online offer has not been good enough, and that's something mike ashley and his team will be

wanting to remedy pretty quickly, but it demonstrates how, suddenly, if your online offer cannot be delivered, how it impacts your customers and their ability to spend money with you straightaway. here's the problem. its warehouse operator xpo logistics has stopped processing orders, including at this site in milton keynes, in a dispute over payment. this time last week, mike ashley came riding to the rescue. he did so by buying this chain through what's known as prepack administration, a much—used process that is controversial, because it means mr ashley's sports direct has no legal obligation to pay any of house of fraser's debts owed to suppliers. the fallout was laid bare today. some £418 million is owed to unsecured creditors, like landlords and suppliers. xpo logistics alone is out of pocket

by more than 30 million. jigsaw the fashion retailer is owed much less, but it has now removed stock from 20 house of fraser stores. this small nottingham business supplied dry—cleaning services, one of hundreds who'll get next to nothing back. house of fraser at the moment owe us about £270. that'sjust one month's invoice. but a lot of companies have gone in the past, austin reed to mentionjust one, but over the past ten years probably £12,000 to £15,000. we may not know mike ashley's plans for these big stores, but one things for sure. he'll need plenty of good will to turn things around, from customers and suppliers. emma simpson, bbc news. some of the biggest names in music have been paying their tributes to the queen of soul, aretha franklin, who died yesterday. 0ur correspondent aleem maqbool has more from the singer's

home city of detroit. here in detroit, the trickle of mourners turned into a crowd of people celebrating the life of this incredible artist. aretha franklin was one of the spearheads of an extraordinary group of musicians in detroit at the time that lived in these streets, performed at venues like the fox theatre, people like smokey robinson, the temptations, diana ross and, of course, the legend that is stevie wonder. he knew aretha franklin from the age of four years old. he saw her in herfinal days, and as recently as two months ago talked about collaborating with her again. there's a song that i had written called the future, and we were going to sing it together. and so, er... he clears his throat. i,er... i thought i had cried my last tear. i said i would get it together.

i wanted and i did want to see her, so i decided on monday 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. hey! written and produced by mr stevie wonder, called me late one night and said, re, i've got a song for you. i said, i'll take it! he said, send somebody down to get it. # yo—ho, yeah yeah yeah yeah...#. the greatest gift for me was when i heard her sing till you come back to me. when she sings your song, she takes it and you don't get it back, and that's what she did. # give me a freedom like this. # i'm gonna walk back...

she was just consistently a great human being. # i'll make you see ourlove is dying... incredibly moving stuff from stevie wonder. of course, in terms of aretha franklin's funeral, we have had no official word from her family but we are hearing rumours it could be a four—day event. in any case, lots of the venues at which she performed are going to hold their own memorials. as many people as possible will be able to pay their own tributes to the queen of soul. hundreds of people have lined the streets in rotherham today for the funeral of the comedian, barry chuckle, who died earlier this month aged 73. his brother, paul, who appeared alongside him in the long—running bbc children's series ‘chucklevision' was one of the pallbearers. the service for family and close friends was held at the home of rotherham football club, where barry was an

honourary president. now it's time for a look at the weather with louise lear. good evening. a bit of a west—east divide with our weather today. the best of the sunshine and the warmth has been in the southeast of england. and as we go through the night tonight, we see quite a lot of cloud invading from the west, and that's going to push its way right across the country. it will bring outbreaks of rain and rather windy conditions on those exposed northwest coasts, in comparison to last night, those temperatures will hold up, perhaps just overnight lows of 12—15 degrees. so it looks likely that there will be some usable weather around for the weekend. mostly dry on saturday, but there will be a little more in the way of rain around perhaps on sunday. any rain will be fairly light and patchy across the scottish borders and northern ireland, i suspect, for the start of the weekend, but still pretty windy on those exposed northwest coasts. further south, lighter winds and the cloud will break up and allow for some sunshine to come through, so temperatures will respond. mid—20s quite possible, 2a or 25 degrees. as we move into the second

half of the weekend, there's the potential for a little more rain, but the best of any brightness and warmth further south. hello, this is bbc news. the headlines: devastating monsoon floods in the southern indian state of kerala have killed 170 people. 200,000 more have been left homeless. 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 drug use and violence in jails within a year. we just need a leap of faith! and coming up in the film review, jane hill and jason solomons discuss this week's top movie releases as winnie the pooh,

eeyore and tigger are back in christopher robin. let's get more now on one of our main stories today. there's been a mixed reaction to a call by mps for the government to relax the rules on e—cigarettes so they can be more widely used as an alternative to tobacco. the science and technology committee claims that vaping is much less harmful than smoking and could prevent deaths. joining me from our newcastle studio is ailsa rutter, the director of fresh smoke free, a tobacco control programme in the north east of england. and les trustrum is against people from vaping in public places and joins us from our studio in stoke—on—trent. there is a bit of a delay on the line so we will give you a bit of time to respond. first of all, what

are the arguments in your view for relaxing the arguments about use. the first thing is it vaping is not smoking. we want to relax these because smoking is our biggest killer. smoking cigarettes are the most lethal consumable product. we have always taken a very practical pragmatic approach to electronic cigarettes. they are significantly less harmful than actual real cigarette so we do overwrought welcome the majority of the recommendations in the report today. and we do think there are big opportunities to do more to encourage smokers to quit smoking, and that they have tried to quit before, to at least switch to an electronic cigarette. it will be much less harmful and damaging to their health and also to the help their health and also to the help the people around them. and what is your view, you are not in favour?

why is that? leaving aside the fact that people like the world health organisation have considerable doubts about the validity of the claims about vaping, my concern is not that vividly, is a the effect on those who do not smoke or vape. you only need to see the news programmes to see the amount of smoke that plumes into the air as the people vape along. i do not want to inhale stale air possibly containing nicotine and people's germs. even more than that, my wife has had a tracheostomy. she is not alone in that, many others do. she is very affected by extraneous material in the air. for example, we went to the local hospital which we do quite often, we are constantly dodging plumes of paper. it would not be so bad if those who used to these things were more considerate about the way they blew the vapour out all around them. would you not except

that it around them. would you not except thatitis around them. would you not except that it is a market improvement over the days where to be in public places indoors and surrounded by cigarette smoke? yes some it's that as of the comparison we should make. the comparison we should make it situation we have had in the last two years. i entirely agree that it is not as bad it will not be as bad as it used to be. those were awful day. i suffered with them for many years. but the fact remains that we still steal large clouds of vapour enveloping people as they walk along. you only have to see your own news items that you drew pictures of the vapour enveloping the smokers and enveloping all around them. how would you answer that that these things may or may not be safer than smoking? some scientists are still unsure of their safety, but they are anti—social nonetheless. unsure of their safety, but they are anti—social nonethelesslj unsure of their safety, but they are anti-social nonetheless. i think all of the evidence around the world and the consensus is building that this

is less harmful significantly than tobacco smoke, which contains a toxic cocktail of over 6000 chemicals. the chemicals in the vapour chemicals. the chemicals in the vapour are chemicals. the chemicals in the vapour are significantly reduced levels to that contained in smoke. irrespective the comment about hospital trips, i would say the nhs has a big role to play here to do more to support smokers to stop and i certainly think that is one place where love to see a much more positive approach being taken and certainly we would not want to see hospital grounds having policies to say you cannot use electronic cigarettes on the ground. it is sending the wrong message. we have got 40% of smokers here in the country who have not even tried the electronic cigarette. if they continue to smoke, the reality is they have got a high chance of dying from a completely unavoidable smoking—related illness. somebody need to get across the message that this is a much less harmful thing to

do. i've do think the vast majority of vapers are highly considerate. they do they give out who is around them and they use their electronic cigarettes. i think we have to have some sensible kind of reaction around this. most people are considerate, she says, surely you do go to places where you can keep out of the way, do you not? i'm sorry, thatis of the way, do you not? i'm sorry, that is not my experience at all. if you are walking along the pavement, into a you are walking along the pavement, intoa car you are walking along the pavement, into a car park, the hospital entrance, you had to dodge an duck and dive and i do not want to do that. i do not want to affect my wife that i have no choice. i still say that, just let the debate was looking originally as to the effect it had a people and people at that time denied that it had an effect, i still believe that when you look at what the world health organisation have to say, that there is doubt about whether it really is safe.

yes, it may be safer than the alternative, but that does not mean to say it is safe. i still say that for those of us who do not smoke, why should we go back to the period when we had to sit in a room away from everybody else, set by open doors so as to avoid the pollution of the air by somebody using one of these devices? what further research we do like to see to address those concerns that they are still a toxic substance? they may be less so than cigarettes are but there is still a concern. there has been as if to get him out of research studies undertaken already and the cal chemicals he is talking about contained in tobacco smoke just are not there in the vapour given off by electronic cigarette. i think he is right that we cannot say what they are 100% safe, there are very few things that are that safe. but certainly they are much much less

harmful than tobacco smoking. i think what we want to see and i would agree with ham on this is we wa nt to would agree with ham on this is we want to make smoking history. we do not want people actually smoking. we'd certainly do not be people to be using electronic cigarettes to use them for a very long time. we wa nted use them for a very long time. we wanted to use it to get off their most lethal thing possible, which is a to ba cco most lethal thing possible, which is a tobacco cigarette and ultimately not use these things. but we are making good progress. here in the northeast that we have actually had the biggest drop of smoking in the country. we do believe that we can make smoking history. these are not a magic solution by any stretch of the imagination, but if i was a smoker, i would the imagination, but if i was a smoker, iwould be the imagination, but if i was a smoker, i would be up getting a very clear message that do not continue to smoke, tried to quit, switch to an electronic cigarette. thank you both forjoining us this evening. diets designed to take inches off waistlines could potentially end up taking years off someone's life. researchers in america have found that cutting down on carbohydrates in foods like pasta, potatoes and bread may reduce life expectancy by up to four years.

chi chi izundu reports. this is the kind of carbohydrate—heavy food that, for years, has had a bad reputation when it comes to our diets. low—carb, high carb, just meat, plant—based, sugar—free — there are so many different pieces of advice on what's best to eat. but a new study of more than 15,000 people over 25 years suggests that cutting carbs altogether could increase the risk of an early death. when people think of carbohydrates, they might think of foods like this, and this report is saying that those who substitute their carbohydrates for more meat isn't the best option. in fact, what they would rather you did was substitute it for more nutritious carbohydrates, so effectively eating more fruit and vegetables. researchers of the report say people who consume very small amounts of carbohydrates will have a life expectancy of around 79 years. those who only focus really on foods like breads,

potatoes and cereals will have a life expectancy of around 82 years. but those who eat between 50 to 55% of carbohydrates in their diet, the healthiest, expect to live to about 83. carbs are good for us. it's really about making the most of getting a balanced diet, with everything in moderation, lots of colour — that's the key. the findings of this study did rely on people's self—reporting, remembering the amount of carbohydrates they were eating, and that's something those who are conscious of what they are putting inside their bodies also keep an eye on. i watch my carbs a little, yeah, but i don't restrict myself a lot, because i like pasta too much, i like bread. ijust like to keep an eye to see what i'm putting into my body and just keep an eye, really. i don't watch them. i think it should be about balance. as long as you've got a little bit of everything, if your body is craving something, it's for a reason, so you've just got to listen to what your body is telling you, and that's the healthiest way to be.

the report also supports the advice of public health england, which suggests starchy carbohydrates should form the main components of a healthy diet. the overall message is there is a sweet spot of consumption levels for all nutrients. eating too much or too little will be damaging. chi chi izundu, bbc news. councillors in birmingham are asking the public for ideas on how to promote more racial integration. though the city is one of the most diverse in the uk with more than a third of the population made up of ethnic minority groups, some areas are heavily segregated leaving different communities living in isolation. sima kotecha reports. birmingham is home to families from nearly 200 countries. but its council says people aren't always mixing, and that's holding communities back both socially and economically. those of asian origin make up more than 25% of the population here, and some of them say they have not always felt welcome. if you knocked at a random white door and asked them

if you now know a pakistani or a muslim family is coming to move in, what would you do? i think a lot of them would probably say it's time to move out. that is a fear they have within themselves, not that we have brought fear into them. those people who have issues need to fight their own fears. of course, that is just one perspective. on this road in the area of acocks green, it's overwhelmingly occupied by white residents. but literally a few streets in that direction, and it's predominantly asian—populated. now, the council wants things to change and is calling on the public to come up with ideas on how that change can take place. it says integration is key to building a resilient community. the asian people want to sort of be happy round their people but if the move to other certain areas where it's more... you find more races that wouldn't be happy. so they want to mix them

with their own people. and what do you think about that? i think it's wrong, i think everyone should mix, you know. i think it's right in that way that they are going to be more comfortable and more happy. the council encourages people of an older and younger generation to come and spend time together at this community centre. these women live in nechells, which has a large pakistani muslim population. here, we are told integration isn't always straightforward. i'm just surrounded by foreigners. so i feel quite lonely that, you know, where is my country? but they would say they are british. they would say they are british, but they don't communicate with you, you feel that as though you are not british, you are the outcast and they, you know, they say you call me an outcast, and no i'm not. i'm not calling you an outcast, you are welcome to our country the same as anybody.

the challenge for the council is to make this city somewhere that people from a range of backgrounds can live and work together in harmony. the question is how and if they can achieve that. a council is to start offering free sanitary products in all its public buildings, as part of efforts to tackle so—called "period poverty". north ayrshire council in scotland says it's the first local authority in the uk to provide free sanitary towels and tampons in libraries, community centres and other public offices. katie hunter reports. people have always been able to access free brooks at this library. now women and girls can access free cemetery products. it is always good at it as their you know it is there. these girls already get tampons and towels in their schools. they support extending the scheme. you

find people that often had the money to go out and spend on cemetery products which leads to instances where young people use newspapers, size, things that you should not really use that are unhealthy and bad for your body. it is breaking down the taboo because it is not an issue we should not talk about, it issue we should not talk about, it is natural. why should we not talk about a? this is the toilet in the library and this is a vending machine but with a difference. all women and girls will have to do is press one of these two buttons and every cemetery product will be dispensed. research by charity plant international suggest one in ten girls will be unable to afford sanitary. but it is notjust teenagers who cannot afford one. some women are unable to afford briskly an essential need. i think