the prime minister announces plans to boost britain's investment in africa after brexit. theresa may is pledging £4 billion in a bid to deepen economic and trade ties with the continent as she tries to move with the times. our integrated global economy means healthy african economies are good news for british people as well as for african people. we'll be looking at what impact new economic ties with africa could have on uk trade. also tonight... the former chief rabbi, jonathan sacks, callsjeremy corbyn an anti—semite, who has given support to racists, terrorists and dealers of hate. a major police hunt is underway for a 21—year—old wanted after his ex—girlfriend and her mother were stabbed to death in solihull yesterday. a huge blaze destroys a primark store in one of belfast‘s historic buildings — it had just been refurbished. this is the high school i went to.

and ed sheeran on why schools should stop cutting back on funding for the arts. and coming up on bbc news... what's next forjose mourinho and manchester united after their heaviest home defeat of his reign marked their worst start in 26 years? good evening and welcome to the bbc news at six. the prime minister has arrived in cape town at the start of a 3 day trade mission to boost economic ties with africa. she's pledged £4 billion as part of plans to boost britain's investment in africa after brexit. it's her first tour of the continent since becoming prime minister. in a speech in cape town she said she wanted britain to be the g7‘s leading investor in africa by 2022.

our political correspondent ben wright is there. dynamic, fast—growing african economies have plenty of suitors these days. china is a big player but the leaders of france, germany, india and other places have all been queueing up, wanting a bit of the action and looking for opportunities. today theresa may dismissed the suggestion that britain had missed the boat as she sought to build new alliances of on this, the first of a three—day dash around sub saharan africa. upbeat, certainly. on the beat? perhaps not. but theresa may arrived in south africa eager to talk trade, development and economic growth. the prime minister began her trip to cape town at a school, symbolising, she said, the youth and dynamism of many african nations. and it is jobs for these young people and millions like them the uk wants to help african economies create.

so, this was a trade mission underpinned by a promise, the prime minister pledged an extra £4 billion in direct uk government investment which she expects to be met by the private sector. i want to see strong african economies that british businesses can do business with in a free and fair fashion. whether through creating new customers for british exporters or opportunities for british investors, our integrated global economy means healthy african economies are good news for british people as well as for african people. to that end, the two countries signed a new trade agreement. prime minister theresa may and i and our various delegations have just concluded discussions that were characterised by a renewed commitment to forge a closer partnership between our two countries.

theresa may sees benefit flowing both ways, using uk companies' capital and government help to invest in african countries in the hope of keeping them politically stable later on. this is about a partnership, it is no longer about colonial relationships where the master would come and give you the instructions of what needed to be done, but it will understand what africa needs and how then we work with britain. mrs may also said that the uk would fundamentally shift the way it suspends aid money, towards building private enterprise. for the uk, of course, brexit is now a spur to expand trade beyond the eu, which is, by far, our biggest market. but with brexit talks seemingly stalled and time to do a deal running out, i asked the prime minister how she planned to break the deadlock. first of all, we are working for a good deal, we have put forward our

proposal for a good deal and i believe that that deal is to the benefit not only of the uk but also for the european union, but it is absolutely right that as a government, we take the common—sense approach of saying, we do not know what the outcome of the negotiations will be. that is why we make the preparations for no deal and we have stepped up those preparations. theresa may will need some nifty political footwork to get through the autumn but, for today, the troubles of brussels and westminster seemed far away. ben wright, bbc news, cape town. so, what impact will this new investment in africa have on both african economies and the uk? and how important could it prove to be for post—brexit britain? our economics editor kamal ahmed has been looking at the numbers and joins me now. the big question is, what is the value of the uk's with africa.

let's take the top five economies in africa for britain's exports for goods — they include nigeria and south africa which the pm is visiting. over the last ten years, there's not been a huge amount of change — between £5 billion and £7 billion a year. that might sound like a lot — but it's less than we export to, for example, spain. in total we export £8.4 billion of goods to africa every year. again, sounds pretty good. but the total amount we export to the european union? — £i64.i billion. so, what about the pm's pledge to be the biggest foreign investor in africa amongst the g7 countries — those are the largest economies in the world. well, we are nearly there already. the us invests £44.3 billion a year. the uk invests £42.7 billion.

and, france — the third biggest g7 investor in africa? £38 billion. but look at this — china is racing up the league table. in 2011 the country invested £17.8 billion in africa. in 2016 that figure had grown to £4i.i billion. at that rate of change — china will soon overtake britain, showing that competition for african trade is high. and britain and theresa may are not the only game in town. sophie. a large police operation is continuing to find a man wanted over the double murder of a mother and daughter in solihull. 21—year—old janbaz tarin is being sought after his former partner and her mother were stabbed to death in the early hours of yesterday morning. neighbours say they were woken up by "a lot of screaming and shouting" and saw a man driving away in a van. sima kotecha reports. forensic tents are still up and a police cordon continues to surround

the area where two women were murdered in the early hours of monday morning. a huge manhunt is under way as police look for 21—year—old janbaz tarin — the ex—boyfriend of raneem 0udeh, the 22—year—old stabbed to death along with her mother, 49—year—old khaola saleem. today police confirmed that the two women who were fatally stabbed behind me were from syria, while the suspect is an afghan national who was living in this country legally. it's believed he worked in a local supermarket. a friend has described him as warm. he is a very nice guy and usually quiet. and always smiling and very kind. i go to the shop usually and everyone who is working there is nice. i never could imagine something like this about him. he absolutely always looks one of the nicest guys in this area who i know. more details have emerged about the women killed. 0fficers said raneem 0udeh had a two—year—old son.

but the suspect was not the father. while khaola saleem was the mother of six. police have raided three properties in birmingham while looking for the man, including a house on this street. tonight the manhunt continues. sima kotecha, bbc news, solihull. the former chief rabbi, lord sacks, has accused jeremy corbyn of being an anti—semite, calling the labour leader's remarks on zionists the most offensive by a senior politician since enoch powell's "rivers of blood" speech 50 years ago. mr corbyn has said his comments — which were made before he became labour leader — have been taken out of context. 0ur political correspondent vicki young is in westminster — lord sacks made these allegations in a magazine article? here is one of the most prominent members of the jewish

here is one of the most prominent members of thejewish community condemning mr corbyn in the strongest possible terms about comments from 2013 when mr corbyn talked about british zionists not understanding english irony. when the comments came to light last week many felt he was suggesting the jewish community were not full fully british. lord facts says they are the most offensive statement made by a senior politician since enoch powell's and your verse or rivers of blood speech where he strongly criticised mass immigration. —— enoch powell of mac rivers of blood speech. there has been a reaction from the labour party tonight. they said this comparison with the race baiting enoch powell is abseiled and offensive. they say he wants to build his relationship and rebuild trust with the jewish community.

build his relationship and rebuild trust with thejewish community. —— is absurd. they want to adopt in full the internationally recognised definition of anti—semitism. all of this will come to a head next week. it will have to see whether this will change the mind ofjeremy corbyn. firefighters have been tackling a huge blaze at the primark building in central belfast. it's believed the fire started on the top floor of the five—storey building and then spread to the ground floor. the store says all of its staff were evacuated safely. the historic building was being refurbished and police now say it's at imminent risk of collapse. 0ur ireland correspondent, , chris page, is at the scene for us this evening. chris... this is an extremely disturbing and dramatic sight, gutted by a severe fire in belfast city centre, certainly for several decades. the blaze started more than seven hours ago. more than 100 firefighters are

at the scene put up several times todayit at the scene put up several times today it has looked like they managed to get the fire under control but it sounded like they we re control but it sounded like they were small explosions from inside the building and the flames have sprung up again. debris has fallen onto the streets below on the roof has collapsed as have several of the five floors in the historic building behind me. in the past it has been a bank and the residents of a bishop. it has been out for 250 years and it is very uncertain if it will survive at all. i have been speaking to a senior business figure in belfast who said, as well as the damage to the prime arcs store which is all but destroyed, several neighbouring stores have been destroyed as well —— primark. the more fortunate news is that no one has been injured. air pollution may cause a drop in intelligence — that's according to new research in china. the four year study found that the longer people were exposed to dirty air the greater the damage

to their cognitive abilities. and it seems men are affected more than women as our science editor david shukman reports. a wave of pollution rolls into the centre of beijing. dirty air is a reality of life for many in china. in fact, for billions of people around the world. and scientists now know how it can damage the lungs and the heart, how it can shorten lives. some of the pollution we breathe in gets trapped in the nose. but tiny particles can slip into the lungs. and then make their way into the bloodstream. and there's evidence they can even reach the brain. so pollution may not only have a physical effect, but a mental one as well. to explore what pollution might be doing to the mind, scientists in china embarked on a massive investigation. people's mental abilities can be affected by so many different factors that this task was never going to be easy. this was one of the largest studies of its kind. it looked at levels of air pollution in dozens of cities across china.

and at the results of tests of verbal reasoning and maths taken by 25,000 people in those places. the researchers conclude that long—term exposure to air pollution impedes cognitive performance. that is a bold claim. and it doesn't provide direct evidence of cause and effect, but it does follow a few other studies that have also suggested that polluted air may affect the brain. so a link is thought to be possible. we asked one of britain's leading pollution scientists to look at the chinese research and he says it's another red flag warning that pollution may undermine mental ability. what they find is that older men were more susceptible. other studies have shown older women. so there's a few things that we need to resolve. but certainly those red flags, there's more of them, and itjust adds to the weight of evidence that air pollution has a wide range of effects in your body. this matters because most

of the world's population lives in air that's polluted. india, for example, has some of the dirtiest conditions. and as the research into pollution advances, it may well be that the implications won't only be physical, but mental as well. and may only become obvious in decades ahead. david shukman, bbc news. the time is quarter past six. our top story this evening. the prime minister announces plans to boost britain's investment in africa after brexit. and ed sheeran on how school helped him achieve global success as he calls for cuts to arts funding to stop. coming up in sportsday on bbc news, british number one, johanna konta

says she is in a better mental and emotional space as she prepares to begin her us open campaign against sixth seed caroline garcia. for more than 3 weeks this summer these flames devoured moorland across parts of north west england at the height of the summer heatwave. some six thousand acres were affected. a hundred soldiers were drafted in to help firefighters but it was long time before they finally put the fires out. 0ur correspondent danny savage has returned to the scene near stalybridge in greater manchester to find out how local farmers have coped since and to see what effect it all had on the wildlife there. hejoins us now. sophie, it is not a pretty sight, mile after mile of lifeless merlins and as faras mile after mile of lifeless merlins and as far as you can see, all that black land is where the fire swept through at the end ofjune. the

fires are out and the smoke has gone but we have been speaking to people who live and work here at about the way forward, how do we go about repairing this landscape? the desperate days of high summer on the roof of england. several square miles of pennine moorland burned for days. it was difficult to contain and left a thick pall of smoke hanging over vast areas of greater manchester. in the thick of it, farmers took dangerous risks to rescue their livestock, dodging the flames to find their animals. the survivors now graze on the lower slopes — their owners are still working out where to go from here. it was quite shocking at the time because the fire was raging, worse than any fire i'd ever seen before in my life. claire says the sheep ran for their lives and ended up scattered over a huge area. we had a big team of farmers come from miles and miles away to get the sheep off at the time and still now we're getting phone calls from farmers miles away

saying, "we've got a few more of your sheep." they're turning up in various places. just devastation. nine weeks on from the fires, the gamekeeper here has lost most of the moorland he manages. very depressing. yeah. to pick yourself up and go forward on it, you know, so sad. the only thing that's keeping me going at the minute is this is all coming back. the heather is reshooting. if we can get it all back together again, it would be good. how many years will it take to get it back to where it was? some of this, four years. other bits, maybe 20 years. that long? yeah. it is estimated seven square miles above stalybridge was destroyed. the rspb manage part of the area and have seen rejuvenation on the fire boundary. the mimute you go into these damper gulleys, the firejustjumped over these areas and they are really still growing green. there has been quite a patchwork of areas unaffected actually. a few days of fire changed

the look of this countryside for decades to come. the great scars no longer smoulder, they now have to heal. danny savage, bbc news, stalybridge. rallies are being held in northern ireland to demand the restoration of devolved government after stormont equalled the record today for having the world's longest peacetime period without a properly functioning government. there has been no assembly in place for more than 18 months after the power—sharing arrangement between the dup and sinn fein collapsed in january last year. our ireland correspondent emma vardy reports. two years ago, northern ireland won the bid to stage the 2021 commonwealth youth games. but the devolved government collapsed before ministers could agree the funding. now northern ireland has been stripped of the chance to host the event. i was annoyed because it would have been a good opportunity

for people here. i was quite shocked. how come we're not sticking together, not helping each other? as well as losing the games, £1—2 billion worth of infrastructure projects have now been put on hold. a new transport hub for belfast, a cruise ship terminal for the harbour, just a couple of the developments being left in limbo. the corridors of power remain empty at stormont, where northern ireland's government collapsed last year. a row over a mishandled renewable energy scheme caused the break—up and since then talks between the dup and sinn fein have repeatedly failed. it's being 589 days since northern ireland had a functioning assembly and civil servants say that while there's no cliff edge, what they are seeing is stagnation and a slow decay across public services. schools and health care are suffering. northern ireland has the longest hospital waiting lists in the uk and has no politicians in place to help tackle the problem.

today, at stormont, the dup accused sinn fein of prolonging the deadlock. there is only one problem party and let's call it out — it's sinn fein. they need to end their boycott and allow government to happen here in northern ireland. sinn fein insists it is up for a deal but says the dup won't compromise. we want to intensify discussions and we're not meeting any reciprocation from either the dup or british government. power—sharing in northern ireland is a legacy of its troubled past but it is in danger of becoming a barrier to a better future. what would it take to get them to agree? shake their hands, forget about the past. children are returning to school across the uk as the summer draws to a close. for families — struggling with finances — it means the welcome return of free school meals after the long school holidays. our education correspondent elaine dunkley has been to st helens to find out how some families have been coping over the summer.

this may look like any other play centre but there is a difference. first of all we're going to have for dinner, we've got some chicken pasta bake and... at this lunch club in st helens, many of the families who come here struggle to feed their children during the summer holidays. it's a chance for brendan, nicole, cara and jade to have a hot meal and play. we make friends and do painting, stuff like that... and have lovely food. i do worry a lot about food not being in the cupboards as much as we used to have. it's been very hard for mum. it's been very hard for my sisters and brothers and mainly very hard for me to see mum struggle. fortheir mum, sarah, the school holidays is a difficult time of year. she's on universal credit. changes to her benefits

have brought hardship. we're struggling, you know, to get the food in and get in places. it's not good. how much do you worry? a lot. quite a lot. every day i wake up thinking that social services is going to come knocking on my door taking the kids away because i can't feed them. right, are you spinning orjust going for it? the tlg make lunch group works with churches around the country to ensure that children, who usually get free school meals, are fed during the summer holidays. they're are also seeing more working families using the service. we know there's 1.5 million kids are on free school meals. another 3 million quite close to the poverty line we don't even know about. it's a massive need. it's heartbreaking to see the kids who come in. i wasjust asking one of the kids, we were talking about what would you do if you had a spare £500. the first response was, i'd get gas and electric. kind of the needs go notjust for food, it goes beyond that. so, for sarah, any spare money

as a treat for the children. she's the best mum ever. she put 15p in myjar because i only had 35 but now i've got 50p. the government says it has invested an additional £2 million into projects for poorer children in england during the summer. but, for many families, every school holiday is a time of hunger. elaine dunkley, bbc news. he's sold 26 million albums and 100 million singles worldwide making him one of the world's best selling music artists of all time. but ed sheeran says he would have not made it in the industry, without school funding in arts and doesn't understand why money to creative subjects is being cut. he's been chatting with our entertainment correspondent chi chi izundu, ahead of the release of his new documentary. the thing that i always get is... you know, people...

billy bragg said it the other day, i heard in an interview, where he was like, i'm not... i'm not a big fan of ed sheeran‘s music, but what i do like is that kids can look at him and think, well, if he can do it, i can do it. # my pretty little galway girl... ed sheerin is a humble man but the success ed sheerin is a humble man but the success of his music has made him one of the richest musicians in scotla nd one of the richest musicians in scotland and ireland. i went to a comprehensive high school in suffolk and lived in the middle of nowhere and ended up being here and it isjust through writing loads of songs and doing loads of gigs and you can get to that. i didn't start off being able to sing or play guitar, i had to learn to do both. he credits that in his new documentary to a teacher in his former school. there were a lot of teachers who didn't quite get it. i think mr stanley never had a doubt. he says he cannot understand why the

artist focus in increasing numbers secondary schools. the thing that confuses me about it is most of the wealthiest people in england, who stay in england and pay taxes, are musicians and artists, you know, paul mccartney, damien hirst, all those people who have, like, tens and tens, hundreds of millions, stay in england and pay their taxes and half the people that don't pay their taxes are the people, you know, who have nothing to do with music, so what i don't understand is, if you are cutting art, drama and music from schools, that isn't going to happen any more and you're not going to have home—grown talent. at all. and the music industry in england has always been one of the most powerful things in the world and it just makes no sense that you would take that off the school curriculum. music: ‘the shape of you' — ed sheeran. he says he is now funding creative a rts he says he is now funding creative arts subject at his former school because he believes it is in investment in the future of the creative industries in the uk.

time for a look at the weather... here's ben rich. it was pretty cloudy today, but at least that cloud did not produce huge amounts of rain. most places have been dry and this is how it looked in west yorkshire earlier. a bit of rain in our forecast tonight, much of that is going to come from this cloud in the north—west and you can see it here, weather fronts bringing rain into the west of scotla nd bringing rain into the west of scotland and northern ireland. it will sink further south as the night wears on. there are chances of showers in east anglia and the south—east and for the south and east, a relatively warm night but a cooler and pressure one up to the north—west. into tomorrow, we take this weather from, we north—west. into tomorrow, we take this weatherfrom, we move it out north—west. into tomorrow, we take this weather from, we move it out of scotla nd this weather from, we move it out of scotland into the north of england, into the midlands, the south west, it will weaken, not much rain left on by the afternoon, just a few

showers. we could see showery rain into the far south—east, but for most of us, tomorrow is another largely dry day and i am hopeful of more sunshine, a cooler and fresh feel for many, something more humid in the south—east corner. we push these various weather fronts away to these various weather fronts away to the east, high pressure built in from the south and for the later pa rt from the south and for the later part of the week, things are going to be mostly dry, a bit of sunshine, but the nights will be quite chilly. thursday morning, a case in point. you can see the green and even blue shades, temperature chart, towns and cities down into single digits. you can takea cities down into single digits. you can take a few degrees of those values if you're in the countryside. after that fairly cool start, thursday is a nice looking day, spells of sunshine, extra crowd building as the day wears on, small chance of a shower and temperatures between 17 and 20 degrees, which in light winds will not feel too bad and heading towards the end of the week and the weekend, there is the

chance of a bit of rain in the west. the further south and east, some sunshine and in the south—east, things might warm up a little bit. clinging on to summer by our fingertips. that's all from the bbc news at six, so it's goodbye from me and on bbc one we nowjoin the bbc‘s news teams where you are. hello, this is bbc news. the headlines. theresa may has called for a new trading partnership with africa after brexit, saying she wants britain to become the g7‘s leading investor in africa. the prime minister is in cape town at the start of a three—nation african tour. the former chief rabbi has compared some ofjeremy corbyn‘s