good afternoon. the former secretary—general of the united nations, kofi annan, has died at the age of 80. mr annan, the son of a ghanaian chief, spent his career with the un. he led the organisation for ten years. richard galpin looks back at his life in this report, which includes some flashing images. ally, kofi anand, solemnly swear... to exercise in all loyalty... the first black african to become un secretary general and the first to be appointed from within the organisation. during his two terms in office, he used his position as one of the world's top diplomats to try to mediate in many different international crises. for him, the focus was always on the issues. leadership is not about the

individual. when you have matt chilton leaders who believe they have to shine, and it all has to be about them, forgetting what is required is a welfare of society and the people they serve. within five yea rs of the people they serve. within five years of taking office, he'd been awarded the nobel peace prize for revitalising the un and for putting an emphasis on human rights. in a statement this morning, his family paid tribute to him, saying that wherever there had been suffering or in need, you'd reached out and touched many people with his deep compassion and empathy. he had selflessly placed others, radiating a genuine kindness, warmth and brilliance in all he did. after ten yea rs brilliance in all he did. after ten years as secretary—general, mr annan have no thoughts of stepping out of the limelight. instead taking on other global roles, including becoming you when special envoy to

syria, trying to end the civil war there. already there have been many tributes from around the world for a leading diplomat who will be greatly missed. the life of kofi anand, who has died at the age of 80. a huge rescue and relief operation is being mounted in the southern indian state of kerala, where unusually heavy monsoon rains have caused what officials are describing as the worst flooding in a century. more than 320 people have died in kerala since the rainy season began injune and more than 300—thousand have began injune and more than 300,000 have been made homeless. yogita limaye is in kerala — she sent this report. there are over a0 rivers in kerala and every one of them has breached their banks. when there is no way out, people are being rescued by helicopter. the state has been hit with over a third more rainfall than usual and the effects have been devastating. more rain is forecast

for the rest of the day. translation: it has been raining heavily since yesterday. it is not slowing down and that is why people are scared. they are scared that the water will enter their homes again. torrential rains have also caused other disasters, like here behind me. the mud up there became loose because of continuous rainfall and slipped all the way down onto this, which used to be a two—storey house. nine people were killed here. there was one family, some relatives and some neighbours as well, and that is really how difficult this rescue operation is, because it is notjust about evacuating people who are stranded in flooded areas. a large part of kerala is also hilly, so it is also about taking people who might be at risk in parts like these out of here. from an air force helicopter, india's prime minister sees for himself the extent of the disaster. narendra modi says there will be

more helicopters and boats to evacuate tens of thousands of stranded people. hundreds of troops are already engaged in rescue and relief operations. air force transport planes have started bringing supplies to the coastal state. but hundreds of thousands of people are homeless. this is one of 1,500 emergency relief camps. they are overcrowded and somewhat under threat from rising water. yogita limaye, bbc news, in kerala. a state funeral is taking place in the italian city of genoa for some of the victims of the motorway bridge disaster. this morning, fire—fighters found the bodies of a couple and their nine—year—old daughter inside their crushed car, taking the death toll to 41. 0ur correspondent james reynolds is at the funeral, and sent this update. this state funeral is forjust under half the victims of the genoa bridge collapse and it is of course

a chance for politicians, family members, relief workers, and also members of the public to come together and to pause. it is worth saying that many families have chosen not to take part in this ceremony — their relatives, their victims, are from other parts of the country and they have simply preferred to carry out private burials — but we do know of at least two families who say they want nothing to do with any official or state ceremonies. 0ne father in particular has said that his son was murdered, and therefore a state ceremony for that family was not appropriate. this is a chance for people here to stop, but it is not enough for this country to put aside the divisions and the arguments about why the bridge collapsed. once the ceremonies are over, once the politicians have gone, those arguments will re—intensify. an official commission will now look at the causes of the bridge's

collapse and the public prosecutor here in genoa will decide whether or not anybody should be held legally responsible for what happened. a new tax on plastics is expected to be introduced by the government — in order to curb the use of non—recyclable plastic items such as drinking straws, single—use cutlery and black food trays. it comes after a record 162,000 responses to a government consultation on how to reduce waste and improve recycling. tom barton reports. how best to reduce the tonnes of plastic that end up in landfill... and the oceans every year. that was the question posed by the treasury in a consultation earlier this year and it received a record response. among the ideas being considered by ministers are new taxes. some of these could target the demand for disposable coffee cups and takeaway boxes, while others are likely to encouragement manufacturers

to change their products. we want to see if there are smart, intelligent incentives that we can create to encourage the producers of plastic to take responsibility when they are designing the materials that end up on supermarket shelves and ultimately in our own homes, to use recycled materials whenever possible, not to use those materials that are very difficult to recycle, such as black carbon plastic, and of course, overall, to reduce the amount of plastic and use other materials such as cardboard, paper and foil wherever possible. ministers also say they want to encourage recycling for waste that is currently incinerated. the final details of any proposals will be revealed as part of the budget later this year. tom barton, bbc news. with all the sport now, here's holly hamilton at the bbc sport centre. good afternoon.

ben stokes has been back in the field for england, on day one of the third test against india at trent bridge. it's his first match since he was found not guilty of affray earlier this week. and after england won the toss, india went into lunch on 82—3, as patrick gearey reports. few cricketers will ever have a week like ben stokes has had. from the trial to the test in four days. at least the cameras who constantly followed him would be elsewhere. 0n jimmy anderson who with a new ball can make almost any delivery and event. in the past two tests, events have been beyond india's control. there start this time was more careful, even fruitful. stokes, this is how trent bridge treated him. as a bowler and fielder, he is never sheepish. last bowl of his second over coming together. like most of the first hour's action it was

innocuous. bowling with stokes was chris woakes. innocuous. bowling with stokes was chris woa kes. man innocuous. bowling with stokes was chris woakes. man of the match in the last test, clearly on a roll. next, lbw, 65-2. the last test, clearly on a roll. next, lbw, 65—2. having worked so ha rd next, lbw, 65—2. having worked so hard for those, he earned a bonus. with that, it was england's morning. paralympic champion ellie robinson is through to tonight's finals at the european para—swimming championships in dublin. she was quickest in the heats for the s6 50—metres butterfly — this is her best event, the one that gave her gold in rio. paralympic canoeing champion emma wiggs will bid for her sixth successive world title in portugal next week — but she's expected to face the biggest challenge of her career to date from a new kid on the water. nick hope has more. two women paddling for one gold. the former volleyball turned champion canoeist, emma wiggs. and the

swimmer who is now targeting success on the water rather than in it. we are sitting at the closing ceremony in rio with the swimming team and i thought, i don't want this to be it. i would need to find a way of trying to get myself to another one of these things. got in a boat and something clicked that gave me that new lease of life that i needed. as sooi'i new lease of life that i needed. as soon as i got in a boat i felt something was right. i love moving quickly, it was out of the wheelchair and for me it was a chance to really see what i could do with the bits of me that worked to make that boat go as fast as i could. they've only been team-mates and rivals for the last 12 months but both are feeling the benefits.” knew of emma and she'd won everything there was to win and she was a brilliant athlete. for me to have someone like charlotte is an incredible motivator but also a real support. she's very encouraging. she's an incredible competitor. we wa nt she's an incredible competitor. we want to dominate the world together.

seems like a friendly rivalry. we are good friends off the water but any athlete wants to line up and win but if she beats me she's putting the work to do so. they are friends of the water but practically those off fit. emma wiggs —— practically foes office. we could be set for something pretty special at the world championships. over the last few races we've had its very tight racing but the times we are doing oui’ racing but the times we are doing ourfar in advance of racing but the times we are doing our far in advance of the rest of the world. if we are on that start line ina the world. if we are on that start line in a good shake, we can put on a show for the world. that's all the sport for now. that's it. the next news on bbc one is at 6.40, bye for now. hello.

you're watching the bbc news channel. let's return to the death at the age of 80 of the former un secretary general kofi annan. mr annan held the post of secretary general from january 1997 until december 2006. he was the first black african to hold the position. he later served as the un special envoy for syria, leading efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict. mr annan also won the nobel peace prize in 2001, for helping to revitalise the un. as you can imagine, twitter has been active in the couple of hours since the news of his death. this is the tribute from his present—day equivalent. secretary—general of the united nations — ant nio guterres tweeted ‘kofi annan was a guiding force for good. ijoin the world in mourning his loss.

in these turbulent and trying times, his legacy as a global champion for peace will remain a true inspiration for us all.‘ former uk prime minister tony blair wrote: he had quite a deep disagreement with him as to whether or not the iraq law was law —— iraq war was lawful. gordon brown and his wife sarah worked with him on the africa commission, working to cancel the debt of many african countries. he and his wife said... prime minister theresa may

paid tribute tweeting — ‘sad to hear of the death of kofi annan. a great leader and reformer of the un, he made a huge contribution to making the world he has left a better place than the one he was born into. my thoughts and condolences are with his family‘ now we will look back at an extract ofa now we will look back at an extract of a hardtalk interview that he did. mr annan spoke to zeinab badawi from the bbc‘s hard talk programme and reflected on whether he thought the world was a more troubled place in 2018 than when he left as un secretary general... i think i went through difficult moments at the un. you've referred to some of them, including the iraq war. but the world is particularly messy, today, when we look at what is happening in the middle east, what is happening in some parts of africa, some parts of asia. and also, the fact that i don't see the strong leaders around who could cope with it.

so you don't think there are strong leaders in the world, today? i mean, there's donald trump in the white house and... laughter. ..he's making very strong, robust statements about syria, now, for instance. yeah. saying that the suspected chemical attack in duma, that we've just seen recently, killing dozens of people, including children, needs a robust response. different people have different definitions of leadership. laughter. applause. i believe that leadership is not about the individual. when you have macho leaders, who believe they have to shine, and it all has to be about them, forgetting that what is interest, what is required, is the welfare of society and the people they serve. are you referring to donald trump, though? because when you look

at what's happening in syria, so many people were appalled by the recent attack and we saw one also last year. sure. you know, he referred to bashar al—assad, the president of syria, as an animal, a "gas—killing animal". he has said we've got to have a response. "get ready for nice, new, smart missiles in syria". i don't approve of that. not only don't i approve of that, i like the secretary general‘s position. he said... secretary general of the un, antonio guterres. he said what is required is unfettered investigation, to determine who was responsible, hold them to account, and ensure that impunity is not allowed to stand. kofi annan there. 0ur correspondent imogen foulkes told us about the reaction to kofi annan‘s death. we will all miss him greatly. just a couple of years ago, i was with kofi annan, chairing just a little debate in geneva, in which

he was taking part. often, with these events in geneva, you don't fill the room. it was packed. there were people queueing outside the door, to get into an assembly hall which actually holds hundreds of people. and, just about, you know, every un worker in geneva who could get an hour off was in that room. they wanted to hear the former secretary general talk about the issues facing the world. he was greatly, greatly loved in geneva. particularly because of his dedication to peace promotion, to humanitarian issues. that's what most people in geneva, an international aid agencies, work in. they liked someone who would raise the things that they were working on, the work they are trying to do and speak for the voices of people, millions of them, affected by war or by famine or by environmental disaster. the work that the un often relatively quietly does.

what we see on the news often is the fights at the general assembly with the security council. but kofi annan raised the profile of the humanitarian work that the un does. and for that, he was greatly, greatly loved in geneva. he continued in geneva, after ending his post as un secretary general. he continued in peace promotion. and i think, notjust in geneva, but around the world, he's going to be greatly, greatly missed. one of the priorities he established, in his first term, with the fight against hiv. and the associated illnesses that come from... that can affect those that have contracted the virus. obviously, the global aids fund, all the rest of it, he's very active on that. and in his own continent of africa, hiv had done terrible things, particularly in southern africa. how important was he, do you think, in raising the profile of african issues, within the un? i think he did a very

good job with that. but he also, for example, he looked at places he could go to, which other un secretary generals had not thought of. avenues he could explore to really get this issue, which was, at that time, devastating the continent of africa and sub—saharan africa. so, he worked, for example, with rock stars like bono. he worked with the blair—brown government in the uk on african debt relief. not a very popular subject among industrialised nations who had loaned a lot of money to africa. but he raised that profile and he worked together with the world health organization and un aids, i have to say, to put pressure on the pharmaceutical companies. "0k, you've developed this drug, why is it so expensive? why can only people in america and europe afford it? make it cheaper, make it accessible to the millions and millions

who are suffering from hiv on the continent of africa". that is a huge achievement. it's never enough. the un can never do enough. but i think what he achieved there is enormous. what he achieved in raising the profile of humanitarian issues, generally, is enormous. imogen foulkes talking to me from switzerland about the death of kofi annan. a look at the headlines now. former united nations secretary general kofi annan dies aged 80 — the un's first black african to hold the position. more heavy rain is forecast in southern india, where monsoons have caused the area's worst floods in a century. and a state funeral is underway for some of the victims of the genoa bridge collapse. the royal military academy at sandhurst has said it will deal "robustly" with anyone found to have

fallen short of the highest standards of behaviour — after allegations that a cadet was waterboarded. the sun newspaper is reporting that two trainee officers pinned down a fellow recruit and poured water over a cloth covering his face. the incident, earlier this month, is being investigated by the military police. a former labour mp has been suspended from the party over comments apparently made online about the jewish community. jim sheridan — a former paisley and renfrewshire north mp — is said to have posted a comment on social media in which he spoke of his loss of "respect and empathy" for the community. labour hasn't commented but said all complaints of anti—semitism are fully investigated by the party. former cricketer imran khan has been sworn in as the new prime minister of pakistan, more than two decades after he entered politics. he was elected prime minister in a vote at the country's national assembly on friday. his pti party won the most seats

injuly‘s elections and mr khan has become pm with the help of smaller parties. however, opposition leaders have claimed elements ofjuly's ballot were rigged. 0ur correspondent secunder kermani gave us the latest from pakistan. it's been a remarkable few weeks for imran khan's supporters. it's a huge achievement that he's made, breaking into a political... that has often been dominated for the past few decades by two established parties. it's imran khan's first time in government, certainly his first time as prime minister. and he'll face a lot of challenges, not least because he only has a very slim majority. he's only managed to achieve that with the help of a number of other smaller parties, as you say. but this slim majority in parliament will mean that pushing through reform could be quite challenging. the country also faces a mounting financial crisis. which could make it very difficult to increase public spending.

imran khan was elected on a promise to create a corruption—free society and also to create a kind of islamic inspired welfare state, in which people had better access to health care, better to education. but this financial crisis, which means that the country needs around $12 billion in a loan over the next few months could make it a very difficult for imran khan to deliver those kind of services. certainly in the short term. he's done a lot of work in terms of attracting politicians to his side, to try and give him a working majority. but how stable a coalition is he able to command? well, as i say, it's quite a slender majority that he's been able to command. and he's actually attracted quite a lot of criticism, at times, certainly the coalition parties he's chosen, he's been, in the past, critical of these parties. one of the leading members of one

of the coalition parties he's allied with he once referred to as "the biggest thief in the province of punjab". he's now been given a fairly prominent position in that province. so, for his critics, some of the compromises that imran khan has made contradict his claims to be creating a new pakistan that's different from the dynastic form of politics that has dominated the country in the past. but for his supporters, he's just done what a good politician needs to do in order to take power and make the changes that he wants to implement, and, it seems, that the country wants to see. new figures show the number of young people being treated for type 2 diabetes has risen by 40% injust four years to more than 700.

according to the royal college of paediatrics and child health more than three quarters of the patients were also obese. type 2 diabetes can lead to a range of health problems such as heart disease and strokes. earlier i spoke to peter hindmarsh, professor of paediatric endocrinology at the royal college of paediatrics and child health. he told me that the rise in the numbers of young people with type 2 diabetes is a concern. although the numbers are relatively small, at present, we know that the number of individuals with obesity, both adults and children, is rising. if you have obesity as a child, it's more likely that you will end up as an adult with obesity. obesity is one of the... 0r causes of the development of type 2 diabetes, which brings with it a huge cost to society, in terms of mortality, morbidity and, of course, to the individual themselves. and for these illnesses...

this illness to be appearing at this age, obviously, type one diabetes, there are lots of children with that. and they are born with that, it's something that is not within their control or their families' control. but type 2 diabetes is preventable. it is preventable. it has a genetic basis. yeah. that is absolutely correct. the situation, though, is, if it's going to manifest itself, something else has to happen. and what's been happening in the last 20 or 30 years is that there is a major shift in the way in which we've been living, in essence. and one of the things that we have to remember is that obesity and type 2 diabetes isn't necessarily a disease of affluence. it's a disease of poverty. and what we're seeing is the effects of the society that we're living in, in terms of family incomes, impacting on food choices, which is then influencing the type of foods that people are having and weight gain. so, cheap food, but cheap food

that is filled with things that are damaging to us and increase the prospects of children developing this? so, sugary, fatty foods? that's right. highly—refined carbohydrates and fatty foods. the most important point is that these are foods which are animal—based. if you have a similar sort of vegetable—based carbohydrate intake, then your chances of becoming overweight or obese is reduced. what might slightly confuse people is that i was talking, a little earlier, councils saying this, the department of health saying that. we need to be clear, public health spending, in other words, information that is provided to us about diet and exercise, all of those things now are a council responsibility. they've become their charge rather than the nhs's charge. has that made a difference, do you think, in how much information is getting out to families? i think it has.

and it's also been a change in policy, as well, for local councils, which are under enormous pressure, these days. so, you've got schools with pressures on playing fields, for example. it's great, let's have more exercise in school, but if there's nowhere to exercise, we're not going to get much furtherforward. so it's that sort of thing. the safe provision of commuting space for children to walk to school or cycling to school. it's going to be what other provisions councils have, in terms of their ability to deliver exercise programmes in their community. but, essentially, if we don't do something about this, we are going to see those numbers rise? yeah, this is just the tip of the iceberg. and it's, sadly, going to increase as we go through the next ten, 15 years. time for a look at the weather with lucy martin. good afternoon, lucy. thank you.

that afternoon. today looks to be the better of the two days this weekend. it will be humoured and predominantly cloudy. bright intervals, the best of which are across england and wales in central and eastern parts, lingering in the west, cloud, some rain and drizzle. thicker cloud in northern ireland. again, that could be thick enough for patches of rain. breezy across the board with winter strong in the north—west. temperatures in the high teams. 0vernight, heavy and persistent rain spreading in from the west. to the north, clear skies allowing temperatures to fall away. more humid the further south you go. temperatures not much lower than 17 degrees in parts of the south—east. tomorrow, and improving story, rain moving eastwards. further north, one 01’ moving eastwards. further north, one or two showers. cloud further south, that could be thick enough for the

odd spot of rain and drizzle, highs of 23 degrees. the headlines: kofi annan, the first black african to become un secretary—general has died.