welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is nkem ifejika. our top stories: america is to halt all funding of a un agency which supports palestinian refugees, saying it's irredeemably flawed. the state department said washington will hold talks with the un and others to consider new approaches to the conflict between israel and the palestinians. i asked our washington correspondent chris buckler what prompted this move. well, i think there are several different things here. first of all, america feels it's been funding this programme, has been leading certainly in terms of funding this programme, for a number of years and it doesn't want to carry that financial burden any more. but that's only part of it, because it also makes clear in its statement it has concerns about the way the programme is being run. it says for example it's been in crisis mode for many years, and it's an irredeemably flawed operation and it really attacks the whole agency in terms of the way it is providing aid and education. that of course is something the agency itself really rejects. but i think there's a third element to this as well and that's a political one, because i think

there's a political edge to this decision, and that's because relationships between washington and the palestinian leadership are not good, particularly since donald trump's decision to move the us embassy in israel tojerusalem. they've been at a low point and there's been a number of fights inside the united nations. as a result, there will be some who are saying there's a political element to this, and therefore given the amount of good this agency does do, there will be many who are saying, is this the right decision? well, chris, this has been in the offing because they did mention this earlier this year that they were going to do this. yeah, and we do have a statement from unrwa, which is this organisation, in which they say

they have deep regret and disappointment, but what they do not say is that there's surprise in this. they do strike back at some of the comments that have been made, particularly that one where it says they are irredeemably flawed when they do the programmes. they've pointed out that the world bank describe their activities as a global public good, and of course they also want to continue with their work. but there's potentially a big hole in their funding because the united states really offered more than $360 million last year to this organisation. this year, it's given $60 million, so that's $360 million of a hole, and course going forward it doesn't plan to contribute anything at all. trade talks between the us and canada have ended for the week without a deal to amend the north american free trade agreement, also known as nafta. tensions were high after leaked off—the—record comments made by the president suggested he wasn't interested in negotiating at all and wouldn't compromise with canada. lebo diseko has more. after days of negotiation, still no

deal. the us had set a deadline for friday, but for canada, no agreement is better than the wrong one. we are not there yet. this is a very complex agreement and we are going to continue working at it. as we said from the outset, our objective in these talks is to update and modernise nafta in a way that is good for canadians, good for americans, and good the mexicans. 0ne americans, and good the mexicans. one of the biggest sticking points was dairy. the us wants canada to open up access for its products. canada says it is standing firm. and on cars, will trump has threatened ta riffs on cars, will trump has threatened tariffs on paths from canada coming into the us if a deal is not reached. mr trump had been quoted as saying any deal would be totally on american‘s terms. the comments were made off the record, but he later tweeted, "at least canada knows

where i stand". 0ne tweeted, "at least canada knows where i stand". one thing that might really put the pressure on is another agreement that has been reached, this time between washington and the other nafta partner, mexico. wejust washington and the other nafta partner, mexico. we just made a great dealfor partner, mexico. we just made a great deal for both countries with mexico. big thing. dig, big thing. nafta was a disaster. and we've changed it around. the us says it will continue talks with canada next week, but president trump says if no agreement is reached, that's fine. in the meantime, he has notified congress he will sign the deal with mexico in 90 days. let's get some of the day's other news. friends and relatives have been paying their final respects to aretha franklin at an invitation—only funeral 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." a leader of russian—backed separatists in eastern ukraine, alexander zakharchenko, has been killed in an explosion in donetsk city. russia's foreign ministry said

it suspected ukraine of organising the killing. but the ukrainian government has denied any involvement. an independent review into suspicious deaths and brain injuries at a hospital maternity unit is to be expanded after nearly 20 more families have come forward. they are claiming babies and mothers have died because of blunders at shrewsbury and telford nhs trust, and that the hospital is failing to learn lessons from what's gone wrong. a year ago, the bbc revealed that the government had ordered an investigation into maternity care relating to 23 cases at the hospital. the bbc has also found that significant concerns about the trust were not flagged up by experts to the health regulators. this exclusive investigation from michael buchanan. these children should all be alive, but maternity errors by one nhs trust left their parents bereft.

what makes the deaths more unbearable is that the shrewsbury and telford trust often didn't learn lessons. we've had quite a few scares. after what happened previously it is quite hard to get excited. devon and gavin cadwallader‘s baby should now be eight months old but last december their daughter quinn died in the princess royal hospital in telford. devon had complained to staff that her baby's movements had slowed. the hospital constantly reassured her everything was fine but it wasn't. after three days in hospital, the couple was told their daughter had no heartbeat. in your mind, was your daughter's death preventable? yes. yeah. going in, she was...

i mean, even after the postmortem that we had back, they couldn't find anything to say that there was something wrong with her. i think, in our heads, although it's horrible to say, if something had been wrong with her, we could maybe have dealt with it a bit more. the feeling that we got was just... the feeling that we got was just... the whole time i was in there, i was just a the whole time i was in there, i was justa numberto the whole time i was in there, i was just a number to them, it was just a bad, and no one stopped to think, hang on, this isn't normal, for devon. a postmortem failed to find a cause of death, but the family still have questions. tonight, the trust says the death had been fully investigated, but have offered to meet the family. this latest death, however, raises questions that have swirled around this trust for years. the trust say they are cooperating with the investigation,

but family is asking serious questions of that review. last summer, the royal college found significant failings at the trust. the culture of learning from incident investigations wasn't apparent, managers were required to deal with clinical areas they had no experience with, a lack of staff was a patient safety issue. but they failed to alert the regulator about any of those concerns. these recommendations are open for all to see, and that includes you, me, users of the trust, and also the regulators. are you aware of any further fatalities? since that review happened, there may well have been fatalities. something which the college has deep

sympathy for anybody who has lost a baby in these circumstances. caley and colin griffiths lost a daughter judy errors at the trust in 2016. they have been pushing for significant change since, as they believe the trust keeps making the same mistakes. they tell you they have learned and they are sorry but, in reality, it's just a statement, and until they can prove to us that they have stopped and the deaths have stopped, we'll keep fighting. avoidable deaths leave lifelong scars, and in shropshire, the lives of too many families have been blighted by nhs failures. 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 0udeh and her mother khaola saleem. 0ur midlands correspondent, seema kotecha, has been talking exclusively to some of their relatives. khaola saleem and raneem 0udeh,

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. 0ne 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. a man who plotted to kill theresa may in a suicide attack on downing street has beenjailed for life with a minimum term of 30 years. naa'imur rahman, who's 21, was convicted last month of preparing acts of terrorism. rahman had planned to detonate a bomb at the gates of downing street and then kill theresa may with a knife or gun. just three months before it was due to open, the launch of europe's biggest infrastructure project, the crossrail line through central

london, has been postponed by almost a year. developers say they need more time to test the main section of the link, which is already £600 million over budget. trains are now expected to start running next september. talks will take place between british and french fishermen next week to try to resolve a dispute about scallop dredging in the english channel. it follows clashes on tuesday, when dozens of french boats confronted british vessels off the coast of normandy, claiming they were "pillaging" stocks of the shellfish. britain insists the fishermen are operating within the law. the brexit secretary, dominic raab, has given an upbeat assessment of his latest talks in brussels with his eu counterpart michel barnier. he said he was "stubbornly optimistic" that a deal was within reach. the big hold—up is over parmesan cheese, parma ham and polish vodka.

why? because brussels wants the uk to replicate the european system that protects some regional european products and stops them being made anywhere else, and the british government isn't too sure about signing up to that. there are still big divisions between the two sides about this eu backup plan for preventing the reintroduction of customs checks on the irish border, a situation michel barnier, the eu chief negotiator, says is urgent and critical. but where there are big strides being made forward is in post—brexit cooperation on security and the fight against terrorism and money laundering, where there are now the building blocks for an agreement although not quite an agreement yet. so after the two men had six hours of talks today, we're a couple of steps forward, no steps backward and by my calculation, there's a maximum of around ten more weeks of to go. that was adam fleming.

the headlines: the trump administration is stopping all funding for the un agency that supports palestinian refugees. the soul singer aretha franklin has been given a musical farewell at a star—studded funeral in her home city of detroit. let's get more on our top story now. a little earlier i spoke to 0mar baddar, deputy director of the arab american institute. he gave his reaction to the halting of all us funding to palestinian refugees. imean, i mean, it's really appalling, it's ha rd to i mean, it's really appalling, it's hard to find the right words to describe it as. he's effectively going after the most vulnerable populations in the region. it is politically stupid because it gets us politically stupid because it gets us further away from peace and it's also potentially destabilising

because we don't know the consequences of denying millions of people the vital assistance they need. so it's really negative from every angle. this hasn't come out of the blue, they did say they were going to do this possibly earlier this year, so that should have given unrwa possibly time to prepare? it's difficult to know what preparing is, it depends how much other countries are going to step up to fill the gap believe, the us is leaving. less not forget this is about... —— fill the gap the us is leaving. let's not forget this is about getting peace negotiations under difficult circumstances, let's just call it that. sorry to in the ruck, omar, you're saying acquiesced but they would say that hamas refuses to recognise israel —— sorry to

interrupted. they need to do more for the palestinian people instead of relying on an raw. let's be clear about one thing, israel is the one that created the refugee crisis in the first place —— an raw. israel has rejected a 2—state solution by building more and more israeli settlements on top of palestinian lands. the problem has been a lack of american pressure on israel to get it to abide by international law and to get it to occu py international law and to get it to occupy the palestinian territories poppies to move forward and when the trump administration payment instead of applying peace pressure —— peace process pressure on the israelis, they shifted it on the palestinians, moving us in the wrong direction in a sense. coming to negotiations under these circumstances... there's basically no reason to come to the negotiating table when the party

that's meant to be mediating these talks ends a perfect like a participant in israel's war on the palestinians. if we look at this from the us perspective, that this agency has been running since 1950, siu r 68 years on, that is too long foran siu r 68 years on, that is too long for an agency to be running a programme looking after refugees. that's probably the only thing the trump administration and i would agree on the hash so that's 68 years on. the way to solve things is not by crushing the victims, the king... it's about getting the israeli government for taking responsibility for creating the crisis and to get them more interested in resolving them more interested in resolving the crisis that takes care of the refugees rather than putting pressure on the victims. the israeli

prime minister benjamin netanyahu said that what an wire does is it makes palestinians dependent on aid, dependent on being given money rather than using their own now is to build up the economy and...m rather than using their own now is to build up the economy and... it is easy for someone trying to get away with... easy for someone trying to get away with. .. what neta nyahu easy for someone trying to get away with... what netanyahu is trying to do is invade the responsibility the israeli government has towards refugees by saying those who are trying to sustain their life are somehow responsible for perpetuating the refugee crisis when again you cannot end the refugee crisis by withholding aid from people, the only way to do it is by resolving theissue only way to do it is by resolving the issue politically and that's really be any place where the conversation can take place and it's about who is being rejectionist when it comes to moving the peace process forward and that's where the conversation ought to be happening. 0mar, deputy director of the arab american institute. in the other major farewell today,

senatorjohn mccain's body was taken back to the us capitol for the final time. colleagues, friends and family all gathered to honour the lawmaker, who will lie in state until his funeral on saturday. all week, messages of support and tribute. and today, john mccain's casket arrived at the capitol, scene of some of his greatest trials and triumphs. here he will lie in state, a rare honour afforded to only a dozen other senators. and an opportunity for his congressional colleagues to pay their respects to a man who often frustrated them as much as they admired him. depending on the issue, you knewjohn would either be your staunchest ally or your most stubborn opponent. at any moment, he might be preparing an eloquent reflection on human liberty, or a devastating joke served up with his signature cackle and that john mccain glint in his eye. this was also a moment for personal grief. the public setting made intimate

once again by his wife, cindy. tears from his daughter, meghan. and his mother, aged 106, who must have believed she'd lost him years before as a prisoner of war in vietnam. and although president trump was conspicuous by his absence, vice president mike pence summed up the ideal of service that john mccain personified for so much of his life. on behalf of a grateful nation, we will ever remember thatjohn mccain served his country, and john mccain served his country honourably. john mccain was, of course, a flawed man and deeply human, but, for many americans filing past his coffin, he was an american hero in the real sense.

somebody who put ideals and love of country above politics, and who believed passionately in something greater than himself. the european commission is drawing up plans to abolish seasonal clock changes in the eu. it says most people want to stop having to switch between summer—time and winter—time. andy beatt reports. is time up for daylight saving? europe it seems says yes. an online poll of nearly 500 million people found the overwhelming majority want to scrap the six monthly ritual to forward and fallback. this is the highest number of responses we have ever received in any of our public consultations, and the result of this public consultation is very clear. 84% of respondents are in

favour of putting and end to the biannual clock change. among the reasons, the disruption to sleep patterns and the impact on productivity at work. translation: i'm a fan of summertime andi translation: i'm a fan of summertime and i always find it silly changing the clocks back and forth every year, so i think it's great if we can stick with one time. translation: i think it's good. changing the clocks has always bothered me and now with the children it's even worse. they notice the time change and they struggle with it. but others aren't pleased at the prospect of losing an extra hour or two of daylight. switching, they say, cuts traffic accidents and saves energy. even the most dedicated clock watcher isn't entirely sure if he wants the practice to end. translation: at

first i was really pleased. i thought it was great. but now i thought it over and actually it was fun changing all 365 clocks. it ta kes fun changing all 365 clocks. it takes five days but i don't mind. if ididn't takes five days but i don't mind. if i didn't change them, i wouldn't bust them. i'd be too lazy. still to be resolved, when any change mine ta ke be resolved, when any change mine take place and whether to choose permanent winter or summer time the. brussels wants everybody to be on the same time but with each member state to be able to decide themselves the prospect of changing your watch at european borders can't be ruled out. andy beatt, bbc news. just put it halfway through and leave it there for the whole year. let's get the weather now with tomasz schafernaker. well, the weekend's upon us, and the weather is actually looking pretty good across much of the country over the next couple of days.

some warmth, summerlike warmth. in fact, temperatures could get up into the mid—20s. the nights are drawing in, the days are getting shorter and any warmth that we do get, we really should make the most of it. so let's see what's happening then into the weekend, high pressure's very close to the uk, so that means settled weather conditions, but there are weather fronts very close to our neighbourhood. they will be nudging in later in the weekend, possibly bringing some rain to north—western areas. but before that happens, we've got that warmth being drawn in from the south, from spain, portugal, france as well and, as i say, temperatures will be well into the twenties. this is what it looks like through the rest of the night into the early hours of saturday morning, clear skies across many eastern and central areas so here there will be a nip in the air very early in the morning. temperatures dipping down to single figures.

not as cold as last night. across western areas, more cloud here, more of a breeze and a little bit warmer. that means in the west of the country, temperatures first thing will be around about 15 degrees but there's quite a lot of cloud you can see here from cornwall, devon, throughout wales, the irish sea and into south—western scotland, and if you squint you'll notice there's even a little bit of rain here, so perhaps for some of us, a grey start to the day across western parts of the country. the clouds here will be breaking up here, it's not one layer of grey, there will be some sunshine out for sure, and even if you get a grey morning, by late morning, lunch time, you will probably see some sunshine by then. best of the weather by far will be across eastern and southern areas and here, temperatures could reach around the mid—20s, but certainly around 20 degrees on the cards for northern ireland, and not far off that in the lowlands of scotland. that was saturday, this is sunday now. again the best of the weather will be across eastern and southern areas but this weather front is edging closer and closer. the winds are strengthening, really quite blustery around

the western isles, in the north and west coast of northern ireland. but the real warmth develops in central and eastern areas, that's that plume of warmth coming out of france, so temperatures will get into the mid—20s in london, possibly even the mid—20s as far north as yorkshire, but in the north—west, a little bit of rain on the way for belfast later in the afternoon on sunday or early evening. the outlook into next week isn't looking bad at all, variable amounts of cloud. looks like the temperatures will drop a little bit, but essentially speaking it's looking fine, into the 20s or high teens for most of us. bye— bye. this is bbc news, the headlines: 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 president described the move as a "flagra nt assault" on the palestinian people and a defiance of un resolution. friends and relatives have been paying their final respects to aretha franklin at an invitation—only funeral 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." a bbc investigation has found evidence that china has imprisoned up to a million muslim uighurs in so—call "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. the venice film festival is underway and one of the movies making its premiere is roma, from the oscar—winning director alfonso cuaron. it's being distributed by netflix, which has a strong presence at this year's event — something that doesn't go down well with everyone in the film world. 0ur arts editor will gompertz explains. alfonso cuaron's latest film

is a black—and—white cinematic memoir based on his childhood growing up in mexico city in a middle—class family that enjoys the support and love of domestic worker cleo. in reality this film is about cleo. but, more important, as a woman from a different social class and a different social context, even if she is part of my family than my own family. and racially different...? and more important, race, and through that the prism to talk