this is bbc world news. 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 obama, who said mccain was an american hero. hello and welcome to bbc news. the us senator and former presidential candidate john mccain has died at the age of 81. the vietnam war veteran had been suffering from brain cancer. although a republican, he was a frequent critic of president trump. —— of president trump.

chris buckler looks back at his life. john mccain was a politician of principle. a patriot who believed in his country and fought for it at tremendous cost to himself. as a young navy pilot, he was shot down over hanoi, interrogated and tortured. his capture saw a potential propaganda coup, —— his captors saw a potential propaganda coup, when his father became the commander of us forces in vietnam and offered him release. butjohn mccain refused, despite the many beatings he had suffered. on his return, he was hailed as a war hero and entered politics and would eventually spend 35 years representing republicans inside congress. but he was fiercely independent and often spoke out against the party, notably challenging the influence of big money on american politics. the party establishment will not finish me off anywhere. why is that? because i will break the iron triangle in washington

of money, lobbying and legislation and they know would that would be very, very disruptive financially to a lot of people's lives. he may have challenged washington, but he was respected here, too. and in 2008, he was selected as a republican presidential candidate. but his campaign was not without mistakes and he was criticised as choosing sarah palin as his running mate. ultimately, he was to lose to history in the form of barack obama. i wish the outcome had been different, my friends, the road was a difficult one from the outset, but your support and friendship never wavered. in the divisive and aggressive world of american politics, there was always respect shown between president obama and john mccain. but donald trump didn't always show mccain such courtesy. he's not a war hero. he is a war hero because he was captured. i like people that weren't captured, 0k? i hate to tell you.

he was a war hero because he was captured! his influence was still obvious in the twilight of his career. after brain surgery, he walked into the senate and stopped donald trump's attempts to get rid of the obamacare health reforms. with a grand gesture, he turned his thumb down. john mccain was a fighter till the end. he lived longer than expected after being diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer. his family said it was with his usual strength of will that he chose to stop receiving medical treatment, but he was a man who never gave up hope in politics or in his own personal battles. i'm going home for a while to treat my illness. i have every intention of returning here and giving many of you cause to regret all the nice things you said about me. and i hope to impress on you again that it is an honour to serve the american people in your company. thank you, fellow senators, mr president.

applause. earlier, i spoke to katty kay, the presenter of the bbc‘s beyond 100 days programme. she gave me her memories of covering mr mccain since the mid ‘90s. well, he ran for president twice during the time i have been in washington and has been in the senate for many years as well. he became well known because he was one of those senators who chose to speak his mind, whoever was in power. he would speak out against republicans as well as democrats. even though he was a republican himself. he had a very high profile amongst the media, he was often on television. i interviewed him during the 2008 campaign when he was running his campaign and

trying to secure the republican nomination. he was a rare figure in washington as someone who would buck against the system, enjoyed the spotlight, was quite irascible, was certainly a flawed human being and happy to admit it. he could be very grumpy and taciturn, but he also got this prominence because he was outspoken against his own party and that is increasingly, in american politics, a rarity. amd of course in most recent times, he has been also outspoken against donald trump. i was going to ask you about that because it almost feels like he is from a different era with his criticism of both his party and his willingness to work across the aisle. a guess that is part of a too. -- i guess that is part of it too. he was willing to work with democrats and was good friends with ted kennedy, the former senator from the kennedy family. one of his key ambitions while he was a senator was to pass comprehensive immigration reform, and he drove that in 2007, along with democratic colleagues.

you look at american politics now and that happens so rarely, that people are prepared to cross the political divide, and john mccain came from that era of ronald reagan and o'neill in the 1980s when he was prepared to do that. he ran against barack obama in 2008, a bitterly fought campaign and yet the two men, after barack 0bama's election, became close and worked on a number of things and barack obama tonight is full of praise forjohn mccain. what sort of legacy do you think he leaves behind in terms of foreign policy? because that was another arena where he was very well—known. he was a hawk consistently on american foreign policy. he wanted america to intervene and believed in the possibility of america influencing foreign policy over the world. influencing democratic processes and

elections around the world. he was a hawk on russia, on syria and was a critic of barack obama for not intervening more directly and closely in the syrian civil war. although john mccain was a self—styled maverick, and called himself a maverick and a straight talker, the one thing you could rely onjohn mccain being throughout his political career was a hawk on american foreign policy. he wanted america to intervene around conflict around the world, and very different from the current environment with donald trump, believed there was a role for the american military around the world. his relationship with donald trump, to put it mildly, was prickly. why do you think he felt he had to speak out openly against president trump? he can be a prickly man — i have been on the wrong side of it during the course of his career — and he was quite happy to turn on journalists if they thought

they were asking the wrong question or he wanted to make a different point and i have been on the receiving end of his tongue and over the last two years, it has been donald trump who has been on the singing end of that sharp tongue. —— it has been donald trump who has been on the receiving end of that sharp tongue. john mccain believed in an america that could act like a guide for the rest of the world, that was present in the rest of the world. he was a globalistm he believed in international organisations like nato, for example, and along comes donald trump who is a lot more isolationist, who has not had a career in public service, asjohn mccain had, including being a prisoner of war for five years, dedicated his life to public service and he had little time for donald trump and had little time for donald trump personally, he criticised him for the way he treated women during the course of the campaign when the access

hollywood tape came out, he had little time for donald trump's view on america and america's position in the rest of the world, in the last years of his life he made his views known, and he did it consistently, once he had to leave for treatment, he did it on twitter, and was prepared to be outspoken. it almost became a legacy forjohn mccain that he was going to spend the last years of his life saying what he really felt about donald trump and he didn't hold back. the bbc‘s anthony zurcher recently produced a radio documentary on the life and career ofjohn mccain. i think the most amazing thing about john mccain's life is he was more on the eve of world war two and came of age and what has been called the american century —— born. the time to read when the united states is at the peak of its military cultural clinical power across the globe. and

he embodied a lot of it, he was the son ofan he embodied a lot of it, he was the son of an admiral, the grandson of an admiral, he fought in vietnam, suffered as a prisoner of war, the same way the american nation suffered, and from that he emerged as the hero, capitalised on that to go into politics, became a congressman, and a senator very early in congressman, and a senator very early in his career, he had an interesting moment where he was engulfed in this influence—peddling scandal, the corrupting influence of power and money and emerged from it to bea power and money and emerged from it to be a reformer and to say that he needed to take on, head on, the idea that money is too influential in american politics. a couple of other interesting moments that will stand out is when he ran for president in 2000 he did so as an antiestablishment candidate, he was antiestablishment candidate, he was a straight talker, he travelled the country on the straight talk express bus. and he capitalised on the idea of authenticity that a lot of people we re of authenticity that a lot of people were hungry for and still hunger for

and in 2000 he ran against and lost against barack obama as the economy started to sour and you see within the republican party about time the antiestablishment is that he capitalised on in 2000 start to turn against member of his own party and eventually lead to the election of donald trump. so if you followed his life, from the very beginning he stands as part of american politics, america's role in the world, he is a towering figure for our time. something which has been made clear as well from the tweets which are coming, they are coming from both sides, both democrats and republicans. and that was the point that we just republicans. and that was the point that wejust made. republicans. and that was the point that we just made. 0ne republicans. and that was the point that we just made. one thing that was unique about him, particularly in the past ten or 20 years was his willingness to work across the aisle with the democrats, work with his own party of course as well, but he is set up these principles and what he believed in, it regardless of

where the partners in winds were blowing and made him friends among democrats and by and large republicans respected him although i will tell you there are people who at this point in time, the past time, were not fans of his, particularly in his own party, there we re particularly in his own party, there were people who thought that he was too much against his own president, but when he spoke out against donald trump, they did not approve of that at all and they thought he should have been more of a loyal soldier and there were people on the left who thought he was too much in favour of using american military might. so the very fact that he was an iconoclast, that he did his own thing and marched to the beat of his own drum, that has won him across the board praised but it is also won him some criticism. stay with us on bbc world news. still to come: we'll be having some personal reflections on the life ofjohn mccain by someone who was a long—standing friend. he's the first african—american to win the presidential nomination

of a major party, and he accepts exactly 45 years ago to the day that martin luther king declared "i have a dream." as darkness falls tonight, an unfamiliar light will appear in the south—eastern sky. an orange glowing disk that is brighter than anything save the moon — our neighbouring planet, mars. there is no doubt that this election is an important milestone in the birth of east timor as the world's newest nation. it'll take months and billions of dollars to repair what katrina achieved in just hours. three weeks is the longest the great clock has been off duty in 117 years, so it was with great satisfaction that clock maker john vernon swung the pendulum to set the clock going again. this is bbc news, the latest headlines:

john mccain, the us senator and former presidential candidate, has died at the age of 81. he'd been suffering from brain cancer and decided to stop treatment earlier this week. senator mccain had a reputation as a political maverick , and was one of the republican party's fiercest critics of president trump. mica mosbacher was national co—chair of women for mccain whenjohn mccain ran for president and she knew him for over 20 years. she's been speaking to me about her fondest memories of senator mccain. i have a personal story to share. my husband and i have decided to help john mccain in the 2008 presidential election, but we were helping him on sort of a marginal basis, and in about 2007,

john mccain's money dried up. and you know, money is the mothers milk politics. john mccain's campaign was pretty much gutted. and my husband and i had decided that after my son got married in 2007, we were going to sort of semi—retire from politics and take a honeymoon cruise kind of really have the honeymoon to the bahamas, and one night my husband came to me and said, "i have got to help this man." i thought, i guess i'm not packing for a cruise. he said, "i'm going to washington, his money has dried up," and the secretary of commerce was a legendary fundraiser for george bush senior who really credited him with putting him into office, and so bob went to washington and they offered him an extension of the pentagon, kind of these crummy headquarters,

quite frankly, certainly not commerce department, and bob sat with the then finance chair susan nelson, and bob made the phone calls and would slowly, one by one, procure a cheque from donors, and they sent a messenger out to pick up the cheque and davis was a campaign manager, he would walk across the street to the bank and deposit the cheques. slowly, the money came in. i relocated to washington as well and bob and i shared an office, we raised money forjohn mccain. we spent a lot of time in our home in houston withjohn as well helping to raise money and to strategise, and i got to know his family really well, cindy and meghan, both

women of independent spirit, cindy did so many things worldwide for charity including 0peration smile, and followed other interests. she was very quiet about what she did. meghan was a fiercely independent bright young woman, and i know that her father as well as cindy's husband was the light of their lives. my husband lost his life in 2010 and john mccain was speaker at his funeral in washington. this is a very emotional moment for me. ican imagine. we have seen various pictures, for example, the last statement he made on the senate floor before leaving to go and receive treatment, and also pictures of both of you together. we often talk about his childhood and the fact that he moved around a lot because of his father's job as an admiral in the navy. but he found a home in arizona where he sort of became a staple of the community, and we saw pictures, people were commenting on how sad they were seeing the pictures

of the hearse pulling in to his ranch in arizona. yes, it's such a beautiful place, very peaceful. he met the love of his life, cindy, who was from arizona, but that explained why he was drawn to that state. i would like to think of it this way. he was the phoenix that rose from the ashes so to speak during the campaign, especially after his monetary funds dried up. and i think that exemplifies who he was. he kept rising from the ashes so graciously, gave such a wonderful concession speech the night he lost and he reached out to president obama and you said earlier on your programme, your correspondence said that he was able to reach across the aisle and to understand john mccain, you had to have known his mother, roberta. the most fiercely independent woman i have ever met. during the campaign, she shrugged and said,

i don't want any aid, i do want any assistance. she was so fiercely independent that when she was too old to rent a car in europe, she just went out and bought one. that is whojohn mccain was. thank you forjoining us, kurt. tell us thank you forjoining us, kurt. tell us how you came to work for the institute? well, it goes back a long way, i was in the diplomatic service of the us and i spent a gear on a detailfrom the of the us and i spent a gear on a detail from the state department working in senator mccain's offers in the mid—19 90s. —— a year. so early on when he was working with arizona state university to create an in situ to focus on character driven leadership, he and the university got back to me and asked ifi university got back to me and asked if i would be willing to help set that up, because i had a knowledge

and our relationship with the senator in the past. i had some other experience that might have been helpful to them. so we set that up been helpful to them. so we set that upafew been helpful to them. so we set that up a few years ago and i have to say it has been a tremendous journey because following that path of building something that is going to bea building something that is going to be a legacy to be courage and leadership of senator mccain has been a remarkable thing. and what was it like, just working with him, being around him in his company? well, first off, it is frustrating, because he is never satisfied. it is never good enough. you can always do more, you can always do better, you can more, you can always do better, you ca n always more, you can always do better, you can always do the next thing. so as much as you are working hard and trying to do what you think is right and trying to accomplish something, he always sets a high standard and holds everybody to that higher standard. what did think is philosophy all ethos of leadership

is? i think it boils down to two words. it is courage and integrity. leadership means that you have to have impeccable integrity, you have to be serving a cause greater than yourself, you are doing something for others and you can't be cowered in the way you go about things. you have to be willing to face whatever consequences there are and show courage in the face of that in order to bea courage in the face of that in order to be a good leaderfor others and help others that have them respect you and support what you are doing. i think those aspects, courage and integrity, really tie into his leadership and are a model for what we try to do. i was going to ask you, is that this sort of thing you try to instil in people who come to the institute? absolutely. we run a next—generation of leaders, training and equipping midcareer

professionals from around the world to give them experience is to help them develop professionally and personally and give them the tools we re personally and give them the tools were they can be great leaders in the future. on the programme, do the stu d e nts to the future. on the programme, do the students to meet the senator? yes, thatis students to meet the senator? yes, that is a regular part. i wouldn't call them students, they are midcareer professionals. that was a sta ple midcareer professionals. that was a staple of what we did, trying to introduce them to people like senator mccain to have them spend some time with him, so they can get a sense of what somebody like him is like in the flash, what a real person hears. —— flash. because you build up these images of somebody he seem so build up these images of somebody he seem so distant and so important, but it was really somebody you could sit down and talk to as well, and i think giving them that personal impression gave them the inspiration to think, you know, i can do that as well, and at least i have to hold myself to that standard that he holds himself to. and he was a man

who succeeded in all the acts of his life, pictures you had his time in via our —— vietnam's, granted, he was shot down, but he was a towering figure he did well in politics, despite not becoming president as he would have liked. i would say the way to think about that, there is nobody i can think of who was more consequential as a leader and as an american politicalfigure consequential as a leader and as an american political figure in consequential as a leader and as an american politicalfigure in foreign policy and in domestic policy, bipartisan work and in the united states, who was not the president of the united states. you think about anybody else who comes to mind who did as much not been president and yet had such impact on such reach. chuck schumer, who was the democratic party leader in the —— and the senate minority leader in the us, he has said he was going to put forward a motion to name one of

the buildings afterjohn mccain. i mean, there is a ship named after one of his ancestors, his father, is that a fitting tribute to him? personally i am not surejohn mccain would be interested in welding is being named after him. that was not his style. he would be much more interested in things we actually do asa interested in things we actually do as a people and as a country, weather it is standing up for values that freedom and democracy and human rights and human dignity around here and around the world, but also about security, because you cannot achieve those things in any lasting way without security. so i think it would be more interested in accomplishments in the name of a building but it is quite an honour. 0k, thank you very much forjoining us. 0k, thank you very much forjoining us. that was kurt falter, us ambassador and currently executive director of the mccain institute in arizona, who knew him very well. we

arejust arizona, who knew him very well. we are just looking at arizona, who knew him very well. we arejust looking at some arizona, who knew him very well. we are just looking at some of the tweets from presidents barack obama, who ran againstjohn mccain, of course, in 2008. "few of us have been tested the wayjohn once was, or required to show the kind of courage that he did, but all of us can aspire to the courage that he had, to put the greater good above our own. atjohn's best he showed us all what that means. then there is also his daughter, meghan mccain, issued a statement saying "all that iam is issued a statement saying "all that i am is thanks to him, now that he is gone the task of my lifetime is to live up to his example". and his wife, cindy mccain, has tweeted as well, "my heart is broken, i am so lucky to have lives the adventure of loving this in cranbourne man for 38 yea rs, loving this in cranbourne man for 38 years, he passed away on his own terms in the place he loved best, surrounded by the people he loved". thank you forjoining us. goodbye. 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. this is bbc news. the headlines — 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