tributes are being paid to the united states senator and former presidential candidate john mccain, who has died at the age of 81. he was diagnosed with a brain tumour last year. he was a critic of president trump and continued to play an active role in politics until very recently. on his first official visit to ireland, pope francis has met survivors of abuse by members of the roman catholic church. among them was a prominent survivor of sexual abuse by a priest in the 1960s and at least two people born in homes for unmarried mothers. hundreds of venezuelans have been allowed into peru, just hours after the country said any venezuelan crossing the border would need a passport. a senior official in one border town said they were requesting refugee status. many had travelled with an identity card only and were stranded at the border. women in england will be allowed to take an early abortion pill at home, under a government plan due to take effect by the end of the year.

at present, women ending a pregnancy in its first 10 weeks must take two pills at a clinic, 2a to 48 hours apart. the move will bring england into line with scotland and wales. ena miller reports. at the moment in england, women who want to end a pregnancy before ten weeks have to take two pills up to 48 hours apart and at a clinic. but some people, like zoe, have experienced bleeding and cramping on their way home. it was so traumatic and so unexpected, the pain and nausea was so extreme that i had to get off the tube, i lay down on a bench and basically just decided that i wasn't going to move any further. changes to the law will help minimise the stress. the department of health says, by the end of the year, it will allow women to take the second pill in the familiar surroundings of their own home. but abortion has been

legal for many years — why has the decision happened now? this tiny change has taken so long because ministers and civil servants, i think, have exaggerated, they have an exaggerated sense of what the opposition to abortion is. most people, even if they don't like the idea of abortion, recognise that it's legal and it should be allowed as safely as possible. 180,000 women have an abortion each year in england and four out of five of those are early medical terminations. the move has been welcomed. this is a way in which girls and women can access the second pills in their early medical abortion in a safe, effective and compassionate way. england will fall in line with wales and scotland. in northern ireland, abortion is still illegal, unless there is a serious risk to a woman's health or life. campaigners say they're ready to make the changes now, and the government's end—of—year deadline couldn't come fast enough. ena miller, bbc news. now on bbc news, it's time for more from the money &

power season which looks at how money, and it's power, shapes our lives. this week's programme looks at an ambitious and controversial plan to build private and gated cities in honduras. honduras, centralamerica. until recently, this tiny country had the world's highest murder rate. like other nations in the region, it faces daunting challenges of poverty and inequality. rampant corruption is part of life here and political instability is the norm. last year's elections were overshadowed by allegations of fraud, followed by violent clashes with protesters. despite being rich with natural resources, honduras can't seem to escape a cycle of poverty and violence.

i grew up in latin america, i'm used to inequality, but it never stops to strike you. i mean, parts of san pedro, you can see there's real money here. it wouldn't be — perhaps some buildings wouldn't be out of place in miami. butjust across the river and the street, you have a really nasty slum. it's tough here. now, the country is proposing a bold plan to lure investment and try to put the brakes on its downward spiral. but not everyone is on board. critics, from politicians to human rights activists, say it is a dangerous experiment from an illegitimate government. it's past midnight at the bus station in san pedro sula.

it's here that you get a true sense of how desperate the situation has become for most hondurans. tens of thousands of people risk their lives every year on a long and a gruelling journey to the united states. many will endanger their lives riding freight trains across mexico. others will be exploited, kidnapped, or even killed by criminal gangs. around a third will be caught and deported back to honduras. 24—year—old juan francisco knows all of this but for him, this is the only option left. a university graduate, he lost his job with a car company soon after the election crisis last december. juan francisco is hoping

to make it to houston, texas, to work with a friend in construction. two thirds of hondurans live in poverty, but for people of all social classes here, even the possibility of scraping by in the us is worth risking everything for. what can honduras do to turn things around? american economists have proposed a radical experiment and the honduran government has jumped on board. the idea is to create special zones, new cities, with foreign laws and foreign judges. but how would that work, and what are the implications

for the country? isn't that giving up a little bit of your sovereignty? the plan is inspired by the financial success of places like hong kong and macau, who tailored their financial rulebooks to foreign business interests. but what would that look like here? the honduran government would invite foreign investors in, giving them the leading role in managing these areas. schools, hospitals, malls — everything would likely be built from scratch. mark klugmann is an american who has lived in honduras for more than a decade. a former speech writer for ronald reagan, he is a key advocate of the proposal and has been an adviser to the government on how to bring it to life. he invited me to the unconventional little school he runs with his wife in the capital, tegucigalpa. there's a contract. all the students here have all signed this contract. there's a concept

of self—governance. uh-huh. 15 points on the contract. that's right, that's right. the students actually wrote this. it wasn't imposed on them. they had a — they had their own constitutional convention, as it — as it were. it all feels like a microcosm of how he sees the world, where the right rules can be the key to progress. mark has been developing his version of the private cities idea for years. he says using the anglo—saxon legal system, favoured and understood by investors, would reassure them and provide a key incentive that would also work for hondurans. it's to create a place for hondurans, it's to give hondurans a place that provides hondurans with what they want by creating also a place where foreign investors and foreign capital are able to combine in an environment that they understand. imagine in miami, you have a street, and there are ten chinese restaurants in a row, and every single one of those ten restaurants, they have no forks, only chopsticks. they all serve exactly the same

menu at the same prices. food is equally good. and then, one day, one of the restaurants says, "waita minute, we're in miami. there are lots of people who don't feel comfortable with chopsticks. we're going to offer a fork." instantly, the competitive advantage of that one restaurant compared with the other nine is overwhelming. he insists it wouldn't be incompatible with national sovereignty because the honduran constitution would underpin the plan every step of the way. but would bringing in a set of anglo—saxon laws really be enough to pull more foreign companies to a country this troubled? the legal system definitely isn't working as it is. 95% of crimes go unpunished, and at the country's supreme court in tegucigalpa, there's a clear backlog. if you run a business here,

it typically takes 920 days to resolve a contractual dispute. the result is endemic violence and little investment. everywhere we go, it's clear that anyone who can is already finding ways to shut themselves off from this reality. maybe it is inevitable that multinational companies would end up doing the same in private cities. there's nowhere this division is more tangible than in the business capital of the country, san pedro sula. i grew up in latin america, i'm used to inequality, but it never stops to strike you. i mean, parts of san pedro, you can see there's real money here,

it wouldn't be — perhaps some buildings wouldn't be out of place in miami. butjust across the river and the street, you have a really nasty slum. it's tough here. i'm heading to see what the future here might look like. altia smart city, a massive business park catering to multinationals and their employees. it's the closest thing to a private city in honduras right now. there are 6,000 people working here. you can shop, dine, even go to the doctor on campus. it's like you don't need to step outside. the park has been operating for around eight years now. so we started construction about ten years ago. it was designed originally to attract the outsourcing industry. it's huge, yeah? it's big, yes. we have — this is our corporate offices right here, and then currently, we have three towers. what you see here is our recreational centre. a lot of this works kind of like a private city —

the corporation taking over functions that would normally be done by the city government. do you think business in honduras needs this kind of system to work efficiently? definitely. i think this has been a very unique project and that's why it has been very successful, because we have integrated different parts into one same, secure community, so we definitely hope that altia is a model for the region and for honduras to do different and more of these projects, so we can keep on growing and continuing to have more development in honduras. and it's notjust the stability and convenience that appeals to companies setting up here, there are generous tax breaks forforeign clients. most of the office space is filled

with call centres for us companies. they are staffed by english—speaking hondurans. next door is a private university, unitec. it's a part of the same campus. these four international relations students tell me they are torn over whether private cities should be the way of the future. the government says that in a few years, a part of honduras will look like hong kong because of these cities. the cities can be very, very good for the country if they are applied in the right way. this is like a bubble, you could say. we like to use that term here. and we need to know that we're living in that bubble. what do we need to do to expand that bubble so more people can fit inside that bubble of well—being? it is a threat for our national sovereignty. i think it is also a threat for our social cohesion. i don't think we need any more sort of distortions in our cohesion inside the country.

isabel knows plenty about these "distortions", as she calls them. like many of the country's elite, she lives her life in a protective bubble. her neighbourhood, like many others, is firmly gated. herschool, home, even her gym, have armed guards. in fact, her dad roberto developed one of the city's most upscale gated communities. isabel and herfriend paola are part of a generation living more and more of their lives this way.

but the vast majority of hondurans don't have the luxury of living or working in safe spaces like these. extortion, corruption and impossible bureaucracy are a daily challenge for most people. the scheme is very ambitious and promises a lot but honduras is a country with a long history of inequality and i wonder sometimes who would benefit and who would be excluded from this.

the plan for model cities seems designed with large multinationals in mind but there's no clear guarantee the wealth would stay in honduras or trickle down. mirian lives and works in what used to be one of the most dangerous neighbourhoods on the planet. things have calmed down since then, but keeping her sewing business alive is still a constant struggle for her, her husband, and their three children. she'd love to turn her workshop into something bigger but it seems an impossible challenge.

mirian and her husband see no good future here. they dream of heading north to the us or canada. critics say inviting foreign investors into honduras smacks of neocolonialism, exploiting honduras for foreign gain. despite the lack of clarity on exactly how this proposal would work, legislation was passed in 2013 to allow it to go ahead. though, with so much political instability, that might be subject to change. honduras is a very

polarised society. lots of grievances and lots of protests. and i wonder if this initiative isn't going to make things worse. having your own laws and your ownjudges is a big part of having a country, it's a big part of nationhood, and i'm not surprised at all that it doesn't become a politically sensitive issue, a politically hot issue. the loudest opposition voice is salvador nasralla, the tv star turned presidential candidate. he's clearly got a lot of support and represents a big part

of the country who question the viability of these model cities. according to the world bank, honduras is already the most unequal country in latin america. many people here just see politicians as corrupt businessmen. i want the government to talk to me and have the opportunity to address these concerns. but days go by and interview after interview is cancelled. i really don't understand. i mean, this is a very big dealfor honduras. they're saying it's a big deal, it's supposed to be one of the big initiatives that's going to help honduras develop and still, people are really nervous to talk about it. finally, on our last night, the minister for economic development agrees to meet with me. he promises it will be up to local communities to decide if they want to set up these special zones in their territory. so i head to the far south of the country to speak with someone

wrestling with this very question. this is amapala, a tiny island that was once a bustling port and the country's capital. but its glory days are long gone. its 111,000 residents scrape by eking a wage from fishing. the plan is to turn all of this into a cutting—edge city and megaport. mayor alberto cruz has been courted by the honduran government and south korean investors. he was flown out to south korea to be dazzled with what could be. he would be happy tojump on board

with the plan if he knew locals would truly benefit, but the uncertainty worries him. amapala may not be rich but it is amazingly peaceful compared to the rest of the country. i wonder much of that would be lost if the plans were to go ahead here. would the people living here benefit, or be pushed out? so, is this going to be the next hong kong? it's hard to believe it, but parts of the world have experienced dramatic transformations, so who knows? it is clear it will take a lot more than honduran leaders have shown

so far to convince people that allowing foreign investors to build and run these new cities is the key to saving their nation, or that it is a safer bet than taking a bus to the us in search of a better life. hello, good morning. fewer showers and more sunshine on saturday but it still didn't feel very warm. this is how we ended the day at leigh on sea, shown by one of our weather watchers, but already those skies have changed.

everything is coming in from the atlantic, you would expect it to be a bit warmer but that may not be the case. 0vernight, temperatures not quite as low, but it will feel quite chilly, i think, during sunday, because it is going to be dull and it is going to be a bit rainy as well. mainly starting dry for eastern scotland and eastern england, but we will see the rain pushing east. quite heavy at times, especially for wales and the south—west. improving and brightening up in northern ireland in the afternoon, breaks coming out of the irish sea later. quite a blustery day later in the day. the wettest weather in the south—east. 17 perhaps, but only 12 or 13 in scotland even though the rain might not amount to much. typically it all clears away as things start to get dark. we see the skies clearing overnight. a few showers across the northern isles of the uk, and a bit of a breeze as well. not too cold, despite those temperatures in the day. monday, bank holiday for most, and a much better day.

still a blustery westerly wind, with showers blowing in for the western and northern half of the uk. further south and east it is probably going to be largely dry. with some sunshine it will be warmer, significantly so in scotland, low 20s in the south—east of england and east anglia. in between these two weather systems on monday and tuesday, this one arrives into the north—west. we'll keep our eyes on this developing system of low pressure. we don't really see the rain getting going until later in north scotland and northern ireland. also, good spells of sunshine and probably a bit warmer, temperatures into the mid—20s in the south—east. a few showers not far away on the other side of the channel, we saw that high pressure and that could arrive and push some showers north up the east side of england overnight. a lot of uncertainty about the forecast on wednesday. that weather front is moving in from the atlantic and that could be a bit more dominant. most of the showers and rains steering away from east anglia and the south—east. that weather not amounting to much. some sunshine coming on behind that. slightly cooler and fresher.

as we head towards the end of the week and the end of the month we are likely to find high pressure building which will see a return to dry conditions and some good spells of sunshine, and it should feel a bit warmer as well. that's it from me. goodnight. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is nkem ifejika. our top stories: john mccain, the us senator and former presidential candidate, has died. senator mccain was 81, a vietnam war veteran who'd been taken prisoner. he'd been diagnosed with a brain tumour last year. tributes have been paid

across the political world, led by presidents trump and 0bama, who said mccain was an american hero. the us senator and former presidential candidate john mccain