ceremony in detroit. famous faces attending included jesse jackson and former president bill clinton. he described aretha as the voice of a generation if not the century. the trump administration has confirmed that it's stopping all funding for the un agency that supports palestinian refugees. washington had already drastically cut its support for the agency, which helps more than five million palestinians. a spokesman for the palestinian prime minister described the move as a ‘flagrant assault‘ on the palestinian people and a defiance of un resolution. a bbc investigation has found evidence that china has imprisoned up to a million muslim uighurs in so—called "re—education camps". the investigation uncovered allegations of torture. the un says it is alarmed by the reports — and called for the detainees‘ release. china has denied the camps even exist. police in the west midlands have charged a man with the murder of two women in a street in solihull last weekend.

21—year—old janbaz tarin is accused of killing raneem oudeh and her mother khaola saleem. our midlands correspondent, seema kotecha, has been talking exclusively to some of their relatives. khaola saleem and raneem oudeh, mother and daughter stabbed to death in the early hours of monday morning. as seen in this cctv footage, the prime suspect was arrested in the spark hill area of birmingham last night. janbaz tarin used to be married to raneem and had been on the run since the killings. today, the family of the two women pay tribute to them. she was my soulmate. we used to... life is just fun around her. that is all i can say. if you are sad, she will make you happy. and if you are happy, she will make you more happy. you can imagine it is not... unless you know her, then you understand what i‘m talking about.

people who knew her, they have a lot to say about her, more than me. raneem is the flower of our house. the flower of our life. a very very pretty girl. she had a lot to give to everybody and to the world and to the community. she wanted to study, she wanted to move on in her life. she wanted to raise her son up the best way she could. her mother says the feeling of losing a granddaughter is unimaginable. translation: how i feel is beyond words. beyond description. oh, the children. she had children. one boy is only one and a half years old. a baby. he calls out for her, "mama, mama." he has been looking for her. for a few days, we couldn't even think straight about what we saw, they saw, then trying to revive khaola. and when we arrived,

i took my wife into the property and just said, "don't look." we can't get that out of our minds. their inner strength, they say, is fuelled by hope. it will be an honour for me to stand there for them and to bring justice to them. and to find their killer. their murderer. and they sure no one gets harmed like that ever again. sima kotecha, bbc news, birmingham. there‘ll be a full bulletin at the top of the hour, but now on bbc news it‘s time for talking books. hello and welcome to talking books from the abba international book festival with me, kirsty wark. ——

edinburgh. ten years on from the election of barack obama, what progress does t geronimojohnson think that america has made in terms of race relations? he says too many of race relations? he says too many of us have stood idly by one —— has stood idly by way of america is run red shop. in welcome to braggsville, t geronimojohnson details the life ofa t geronimojohnson details the life of a young white boy from wraxall who wins a place at the university in california. the novel explores the conflict is of race and class both in berkely and in the traditions of the deep south. —— conflicts. t geronimojohnson, welcome to talking books. you have

been compared to some extremely fine authors, mark twain, it tumbled, and i wonder if that is because you have the capacity to put a magnifying glass to american life, with all its foibles, and chronicle lept in a very acute weight, but also a way that makes us laugh, to. right, i think that may definitely have something to do with it. that is definitely what moves me about a few of the writers that would mention there. but it has always felt it necessary to try to have a breath of emotional expresses in a novel, or it can get too heavy. and if it is too heavy all the way through, considering some of the topics they are dealing with, i don‘t know if that leads the reader and a good position to face forward and think about how we can move forward from where we are now. —— leaves. about how we can move forward from where we are now. -- leaves. you come at it from all angles. so every

race, come at it from all angles. so every ra ce , every come at it from all angles. so every race, every variation, every ethnicity, gets it with both barrels and get some love directed towards it. your most recent book is welcome to braggsville. before we delve into that rollercoaster novel, i want to begin with your first novel, hold it 'til it begin with your first novel, hold it ‘til it hurts, which is attended novel. at its heart, there are two young men, achilles and troy, who we re young men, achilles and troy, who were adopted. they are not lied brothers, but they are adopted sons ofa brothers, but they are adopted sons of a white couple, and afghanistan vetera ns. of a white couple, and afghanistan veterans. they took two tours together and much of the action ta kes pla ce together and much of the action takes place in new orleans. i also wa nt to takes place in new orleans. i also want to talk about the family dynamics are the relationship. here we have two young black man, adopted by—i

we have two young black man, adopted by — i would say a lower—middle—class white family, five acres, they have. me how you came to that family dynamic. five acres, they have. me how you came to that family dynamiclj wa nted came to that family dynamiclj wanted to put together a cast of people were tried to do the best regina but did not necessarily know how. and this is what ends up happening with achilles‘ parents, who don‘t know how to repair him for what he will face when he leaves his small home town where everybody knows him, and becomesjust this anonymous black kid walking down the street, which is in much of american society a symbol to danger. people are worried when they see this. also between the two brothers, with all of the tension and competitiveness that can arise between siblings, you mix in this notion of masculinity, used send them off to war, and they come back, and achilles really wants to do what is best but he does not know how because he is following to many different rules. and so this is pa rt many different rules. and so this is part of what i was thinking at the

beginning. but it is a very, very tender dynamic in the mother and the suns, particularly. what happens is sending both — well, achilles signs up sending both — well, achilles signs upa sending both — well, achilles signs up a treats us to go. it is about loyalty a nd up a treats us to go. it is about loyalty and it seems to me that is about nature versus nurture. loyalty and it seems to me that is about nature versus nurturem loyalty and it seems to me that is about nature versus nurture. it is certainly about this conflict between from where do you draw who you are? is a genetics or your environment, that in which you have been raised. the funny thing for them is because they go off to war, ata them is because they go off to war, at a young age, and have an extremely traumatic and concentrated experience, we know that whatever nurturing they have had, and whatever nature they brought into it, have changed over this 18 months

of basically been charged with killing people. this is essentially theirjob when they are deployed. today grabs a bit, i want to talk about afghanistan, because when you are writing this book, you knew a lot of people in the military. and you spoke to a lot of people about those radek stress disorder in particular. at the time in america there was no discussion about how to help these young men ran to society. so they spent a number of months literally being under fire, so they spent a number of months literally being underfire, being afraid for their lives, and then actually going through the changes that you go through when you become committed to being afraid to your life, when you become accustomed to people shooting at you. and there you go home but your triggers are still there, right? you still have all of this emotional vortex

carrying you along. i really wanted to explore that in the novel, because it just — to explore that in the novel, because itjust — derby was talking about it at the time and it seemed a shame. it resonated with vietnam and korea as well. you imagine after something as dramatic as vietnam, and people came home and did not know how to deal with these vetera ns, know how to deal with these veterans, it might be that a place. i think veterans, it might be that a place. ithinka veterans, it might be that a place. i think a lot of the philosophy around reintegrating after vietnam 01’ around reintegrating after vietnam or korea or even world war i was just the silent. you don‘t talk about it. this is also a part of the code of masculinity in which you do not talk about what is bothering you. you basically don‘t talk about anything. that is why i would say most men die of masculinity, not to the extent that we die of heart disease or stress related conditions. i was also thinking in the novel about what it is to be a

young man to be given the ultimate responsibility and the ultimate duty and then have that licence removed and then have that licence removed and kind of find yourself basically and kind of find yourself basically a warrior in peacetime. a warrior in peacetime. and a warrior in peacetime. and a warrior in peacetime who is also african american. and then comes back to new o rlea ns american. and then comes back to new orleans and faces black on black violence. we have this file is weighing —— we have this violence weighing —— we have this violence weighing against experiences in afghanistan, and this is the first time he‘s been around a lot of people who look like him, and he is supposed to shoot them. so that ended up, i think, allowing supposed to shoot them. so that ended up, ithink, allowing me supposed to shoot them. so that ended up, i think, allowing me to create kind of a richer story in a way. and also when you look at the domestic lives, and achilles returns from afghanistan, and there is no

doubt that his mother was warning him away from his girlfriend, because she was considered white trash. is parents wanted him to date somebody of high standing than janice. you have this notion of class and race, what might be white trash, being juxtaposed against the slow and steady work of love. you do that in another character in the book, and is, who is african american. —— ines. one of the great things you do is burst the bubble of the gap year, or the "gap yar", as it is called there. but he still thinks that she is a bit snooty. he thinks that she is a bit snooty. he thinks that she is a bit snooty. he thinks that she is snooty and also, oddly enough, he is more attracted to her because he does not know that she is black. so that kind of sets

them up to have a reckoning and conciliation in which they change the way they look at themselves in the way they look at themselves in the world. you do that in both novels, and undercut what we think, andi novels, and undercut what we think, and i think you do that so well. because you have this incredibly energetic, vibrant page of writing, but at the end, you stop and say a need to think about that for a minute. which brings me on to actually how you literally right, because you are a professor of writing and do lots of different things. you participate in different writers programmes. use either you serial monogamous. when you do one project, you do one project. when you have one relationship, you do one relationship. how much you literally put your life in writing together? i have to admit last fall is little promiscuous and lives as we like confessions. and i thought

several progress at the same time. i think it is better for me to focus ona think it is better for me to focus on a single book because it allows me to look at the world i am living in and fell to the experiences through a unique mind. each book has unique mind. i read a lot of religious texts as a child. there is something of the bible but i think is part of these influences as well. also listening to music. i think all of that goes in. are you religious now? depends on who is watching this show. mum, i am very religious. my friends, you know the truth. no, my mother knows the truth. i look back and feel that the religious upbringingi and feel that the religious upbringing i had was one of the most important components of my development, because it gave me a sense of what it means to believe in something outside of myself, something outside of myself, something higher, and even if

someone later leaves their religion, there is this space, this imaginative space, you know, in your soul, this outward sense of belief and belonging, and also it is important to me, looking back, because i have an appreciation for what it means to believe something that other people don‘t, or to believe something and feel like you are an outsider, right? and also a sense of the totality of that bail, right? once it you put it on, it determines everything you do. but it also, coming back to this idea, you believe what other people don‘t believe and vice—versa, but it gives you a compassion rather than an intolerance? certainly, certainly. i think that at the global level, we often see a lot of religious conflict that would lead

us religious conflict that would lead us to believe the regions are inherently intolerant but when you read the text themselves, they pretty much all extol the golden rule and that‘s a great quote from the dalai lama, but everyone does not need to become buddhist, they simply need to practise whatever religion it is they claim to be following. let's come on properly to the much garlanded braggsville, which the new york times said was the funniest sendup of identity politics and racial anxiety in yea rs. politics and racial anxiety in years. it begins with a 500 word sentence which crackles with energy and sets the pace. the style challenges the reader. what did you wa nt to challenges the reader. what did you want to think in this first huge rush of language? this is not for me. or maybe it is. but i wanted to let the reader know very early on that it was going to have this kind of frenetic pace and also, it wasn‘t

going to be a book that wants to tell you what you already know in a way that you have already heard it andi way that you have already heard it and i feel like this was the important thing, you‘re going to start talking about contemporary society or social issues, no one needs me to tell them what they already know in a way they have heard it said to —— said the poor. braggsville itself is a place of 700 souls and it is wary young boy comes from who goes to berkely and he doesn‘t fit in until he meets three other people visit the methods —— ethnicity and they call themselves the four little indians. the four little indians are quite, quite different in that one coming from georgia, in the south. all the way through the novel, he talks about his name and how it‘s pronounced. through the novel, he talks about his name and how it's pronounced. he talks about dropping the‘ early on.

he has this anxiety about being a southerner. on the west coast, there isa southerner. on the west coast, there is a division —— there is derision about people who are from the south so he‘s trying to figure out how he can fit so he‘s trying to figure out how he canfit in so he‘s trying to figure out how he can fit in and sound smart but he is coming from small town where he was the valedictorian and that was easy but it seems like everyone at berkely was a valedictorian and so how does he stand out? he ends up falling in with candace, who is one quarter native american. she puts it, one quarter indian, the kind you found, not the kind you were looking. then you have charlie, who is this african—american kid from a poor area of chicago but who threw an athletic scholarship ends up attending a residential school and it gives in this great education. lastly, we have lewis chang who wa nts to lastly, we have lewis chang who wants to be the next lenny bruce

lee, the kung fu comedian. one of the things i was interested in daron, whatever we are going to call them, was originally black but you changed him. why? when i first started on the novel, i imagined he would be a black teenager from a small town in georgia but as i tried to get started, it didn‘t make sense that this teenager would move and leave a small town in georgia, go to california and agreed to return and visit and participate in the civil war re—enactment and also have no historical sense of it. its something his parents, growing up in the south, would have advised him against. you get a lot of explicit instruction growing up a person of colour in the south, always be respectful when the police talk to you, you know, don‘t talk back. your

pa rents you, you know, don‘t talk back. your parents basically give you a laundry list of things that you should do to ensure that you will come home in one piece each night. and that being the case, the story wasn‘t working because the main character would already know... all that. not to go back and do what he did. but they go back and do what he did. but they go back because the professor of alternative history, of course, is talking about the civil war re—enactments that of becoming more popular again, one of which is in braggsville and the four of them, they go on an adventure which has dark consequences because they decide to do what? they decide what they want to do is stayjeff flake lynching at the civil war re—enactment to give people a sense of everything at stake. —— they want to stage a fake lynching. and see they can start a conversation about what this history means. give us a reading. so this is from the scene

when they are in school, in class, and they come up with the idea to do this project. "the table was shocked, the entire class, in fact. they had heard tales of civil war re—enactments but they were still occurring? the war between the states was another time and another country, as was the south. our barbers still surgeons? is there still sharecropping? what barbers still surgeons? is there still sharecropping ? what about indoor plumbing? like an old loony tunes skit, every tag and skewed. c gawked at lewis who balked at candace who generously suggested it asa candace who generously suggested it as a capstone project to the professor who googled the event and announced it coincided with spring break. serendipity has spoken. announced it coincided with spring break. serendipity has spokeni announced it coincided with spring break. serendipity has spoken. " so here we have a big pot shot at the liberal elite at berkely. you have lectured in taking classes there but

because you are fearless, are you taking a pot shot at the liberal elite? no, no. it was more of sustained volley. but let me explain what‘s kind of happening in the book, i‘m thinking very much about the far right and the far left and these incompatibilities and using them as a space to explore all of them as a space to explore all of the positions in between. when you talk about different black experiences where you are in america, it‘s so obvious. like atla nta, america, it‘s so obvious. like atlanta, the african—american experience in atlanta is completely different in the projects of philadelphia. atlanta is unique in that regard. i didn‘t realise it or appreciate it perhaps as much as when i lived there because i remember moving to oakland and working with a group that was giving kids access to the sciences and they told the kids that they should be very grateful to be around so many

other people of colour who were successful and be grateful to be in the same room with other people of colour who were successful and i was puzzled and asked the speaker afterwards, why do you act like this is an anomaly? this happens all the time and he says, no, not out here. maybe in atlanta, not out here so thatis maybe in atlanta, not out here so that is a big difference between atla nta a nd that is a big difference between atlanta and most of the other cities. atlanta is still a viable, what you would say, like a chocolate city where there are enough people of colour who are plugged into the economy at every level. there is representation at every level. it is rare. when i live in atlanta, i worked in banking for a minute and there was a time when banks would put under writers on buses and take them on to as of southwest atlanta so they could see with their own eyes these large homes owned by

wealthy african—america ns so eyes these large homes owned by wealthy african—americans so that when they went back to their offices to do their credit scoring and their underwriting, they wouldn‘t stare in disbelief if an application crosses their desk with an african american buyer making a million wanting to buyer making a million wanting to buy a $2 million house. they are just resistant to that being a possible reality. which brings me talk about barack obama and whether or not, it‘s almost a decade since we knew he was going to be the us president, and how did you view his election? the great thing about his election? the great thing about his election is that it showed us what was possible and it also opened the doors to the unfinished conversations that we still needed to have at the time and are only now having so it wasn‘t until after... everything we see now with trump actually started under obama in terms of the alt right and the

militias... under obama‘s administration, the militia screw 1000 % across the nation. people started stockpiling assault rifles and there is this general anxiety of fear that you might in some way retaliate for this perceived historical injustice that people of colour had experienced in the country. all of this anxiety is mixed up with, will he live and what is the pushback going to be? we are seeing the push back now. the writer is running roughshod. yes. are you pessimistic about america? no, i'm not pessimistic. it‘s just that i don‘t focus wholly on the aspirational as a writer. i think that everyone has to do what works for them and it‘s very important fries to have books that look at how things could be and it‘s just that

these two novels, i felt a things could be and it‘s just that these two novels, ifelt a bit things could be and it‘s just that these two novels, i felt a bit more important to talk about things as they are now and to find a way to talk about the difficulties we are facing as a society, right now in this moment. i want someone who reads the novel to walk away, any of my wall —— works, to walk away with a slightly different perspective and perhaps a little bit more of an opening in the heart and to me that means i have to have some of the criticism as well as the hook. there has to be a movement in the book we re has to be a movement in the book were there to be a movement in the reader. they keepjoining us and talking books. t geronimojohnson, thank you! some of us this weekend are in for a

little dose of summer, nothing too hot but certainly warm enough and actually, today, the first of september is meteorologically speaking, the first day of autumns of the knights will be drawing on now. we have to make the most of any warmth we get it into the weekend, high pressure is going to be very close to the uk, around about the southern parts of scandinavia. the weather fronts try to push in but ahead of it, what‘s happening is we are seeing that warm air from spain and france pushing so we will see that warmth reaching our shores over the next 12— 2a hours. this is what it looks like, the early hours of saturday. still pretty nippy across eastern areas where we would have had clear skies, temperatures down to single figures. we have cloud and warmth coming out of the atlantic. around 1a degrees in belfast. but some of the forecast first thing. that is always a warm direction. temperatures at nine o‘clock already, 1a degrees in cardiff.

notice there is a lot of cloud across western areas and a few spots of rain. if you squint, you canjust about make it out in 12 other places and further north in the northern isles. the morning is going to remain right across eastern and central areas, which is how we start the afternoon but in the west, it will remain fairly cloudy at times but it won‘t be completely overcast and the sun will be potent at times so not a bad day, temperatures in the low 20s but it in their mid—20s in the south—east. that was saturday, this sunday. approaching the very far north—west of the uk, probably late in the day, really late in the day we could get some in belfast in gloucester, to be approaching the western isles with some stronger winds quite early in the afternoon. the most of us, sunday is a very warm day with partly cloudy skies and the best of the sunshine a further east and south you are, temperatures could

top 25 on sunday and 20 expected in belfast as well. the outlook for the next couple of days as we head into next couple of days as we head into next week, it cools off a little bit but essentially speaking, the weather remains settled across most of the uk. goodbye. hello and welcome to bbc news. i‘m ben bland. our top stories: a star—studded send off for aretha franklin at a funeral ceremony in her hometown of detroit. the world is celebrating you. and the world is mourning you. and the world is going to miss you. the trump administration confirms that it‘s stopping all funding for the un agency that supports palestinian refugees. a bbc investigation uncovers evidence of the mass—detention of members of china‘s uighur community. how genetic science is helping britain‘s magnificent golden eagles

spread their wings.