hello, you're watching afternoon live — i'm ben brown. today at 2... the prime minister says two men suspected of carrying out the salisbury nerve agent attack work for russian military intelligence. the men have been named as alexander petrov and ruslan boshirov. the two individuals named by the police and cps are officers from the russian military intelligence service, also known as the gru. police have pieced together the movements of the two men before and after the attack on sergei and yulia skripal. we now have sufficient evidence to bring charges in relation to the attack on sergei and yulia skripal in salisbury, and domestic and european arrest warrants have been issued for the two suspects and we will be seeking to circulate interpol red notices. police believe the alleged salisbury attackers are back in russia, with almost no chance of ever being extradited. our moscow correspondent says the kremlin remains defiant. it doesn't matter how many facts the

british police come up with, russia will continue to deny any connection to the salisbury poisoning. in other news, the former govenor of the bank of england says incompetent preparations for brexit have undermined the uk's negotiating position. a revolutionary new treatment on the nhs for childhood leukaemia — using the body's own cells to fight it coming up on afternoon live, we'll have all the latest sport. in the next couple of minutes, we will find out the european wild cards for the ryder cup later this month. and late on afternoon live, we will hear from alastair cook as he explains the thinking behind his international retirement. thanks, olly, and the weather... today the weather is mostly behaving itself across the uk. i think tomorrow is when we will need our

brollies across some northern and western parts of the uk. more in half an hour. also this hour, rachael bland, the news presenter who charted her incurable cancer with an inspirational blog and podcast, dies at the age of a0. hello, everyone — this is afternoon live. these are the faces of the men police suspect carried out the salisbury nerve agent attack on sergei and yulia skripal. their names are alexander petrov and ruslan boshirov, although those are almost certainly aliases. in the commons, there were gasps as the prime minister said both men work for russian military intelligence service, the gru.

earlier in the commons, she gave details of their movements before and after the attack in salisbury, including the hotel they stayed in and the flights and trains they took. they arrived at gatwick airport at 3pm on friday 2nd march, having flown from moscow on flight su2588. they travelled by train to london victoria, then then on to waterloo, before going to the citystay hotel in bow road, east london. they stayed there on both friday and saturday evenings, and traces of novichok were found in their hotel room. on saturday 3rd march, they visited salisbury, arriving at approximately 2.25pm and leaving less than two hours later at 1liopm. the police are confident that this was for reconnaissance of the salisbury area. on sunday 4th march, they made the same journey travelling by underground from bow

to waterloo station at approximately 8. 05am before continuing by train to salisbury. the police have today released cctv footage of the two men, which clearly places them in the immediate vicinity of the skripals‘ house at 11:58am, which the police say was moments before the attack. they left salisbury and returned to waterloo, arriving at approximately 4:45pm, and boarded the underground at approximately 6:30pm to heathrow, from where they returned to moscow on flight su2585, departing at 10:30pm. mr speaker, this hard evidence has enabled the independent crown prosecution service to conclude that they have a sufficient basis on which to bring charges against these two men for the attack in salisbury. the prime minister also said the poisonings had not been a rogue operation and that the suspects are thought to be officers

military intelligence service. mr speaker, just as the police investigation has enabled the cps to bring charges against the two suspects, so the security and intelligence agencies have carried out their own investigations into the organisation behind this attack. based on this work, i can today tell the house that based on a body of intelligence, the government has concluded that the two individuals named by the police and cps are officers from the russian military intelligence service, also known as the gru. the gru is a highly disciplined organisation established chain of command. so this was not a rogue operation. it was almost certainly also approved outside the gru at a senior level of the russian state. mr speaker, the house will appreciate that i cannot go into details about the work

of our security and intelligence agencies, but we will be briefing opposition leaders and others on privy council terms and also giving further details to the intelligence and security committee. let me turn to our response to this appalling attack and the further knowledge we now have about those responsible. first, with respect to the two individuals, as the crown prosecution service and police announced earlier today, we have obtained a european arrest warrant and will shortly issue an interpol red notice. metropolitan police assistant commissioner neil basu is the national lead for counter terrorism. he says britain will be sending out international arrest warrants for the russian suspects identified today. over the last six months, we have meticulously followed the evidence, working closely with specialist forensic teams and scientists as we have investigated both the attack on sergei and yulia skripal in salisbury and the poisoning of dawn sturgess and charlie rowley.

let me be clear. we have no doubt that these two incidents are connected, and they form one investigation. today's announcement by the crown prosecution service marks the most significant development in this investigation. we now have sufficient evidence to bring charges in relation to the attack on sergei and yulia skripal in salisbury and domestic and european arrest warrants have been issued for the two suspects, and we will be seeking to circulate interpol red notices. however, our inquiries do not stop here and today, as well as updating you about the progress of the investigation, i'm appealing once more to the public for their help as we continue to build the evidence in this case. we can speak to our correspondentjon kay, who is in salisbury with the latest. we have had almost no information about the salisbury attack for

months and suddenly, an absolute deluge of detail about what allegedly happened 7 deluge of detail about what allegedly happened? that's right. it is exactly six months this week since sergei skripal and his daughter yulia collapsed in the centre of salisbury and almost since that moment, their property here has been a crime scene. it is still sealed off and still empty and it is still a reminderfor people in this neighbourhood and in the city about the extraordinary events that have gone on here. during those six months, there have been theories, rumours, ideas and thoughts, but nothing definite about the police case. a lot of people here wondered how much progress the authorities in the uk were making, how much did they really know or how much are they really know or how much are they suspect about who did this and how? and despite that, after all this conjecture, suddenly this morning, a blizzard of information, as well as pictures of suspects,

names, ages, addresses, places, cctv, where they spent the night, details of journeys cctv, where they spent the night, details ofjourneys to and from london into salisbury, train times. it's a lot for people around here to ta ke it's a lot for people around here to take in. but people are also saying it is reassuring and at least they now know that progress in the investigation has been made, even if no charges have formally been brought because these men have not been arrested. and quite chilling also for the residents of salisbury to suddenly see the faces of the men that the police believe were the attackers who carried novichok into the city? and pictures of them in salisbury as well. these two mugshots, if you like, of the individuals who have been named as alex and ruslan boshirov, all the authorities suspect that they are false names. but they have released these images, close—up head shots of these images, close—up head shots of the two men. and the prime minister

in the last hour has said that the authorities here believe they are russian military intelligence operatives, although of course the russian state has always denied any involvement in what happened. but yes, people in salisbury and in amesbury, where charlie rowley and his partner dawn sturgess were also taken ill three months later and she sadly died, an innocent victim in all this, people in both communities can now see pictures of these two men, notjust the mugshots, but we have pictures of them arriving into gatwick airport on friday night, leaving out of heathrow on sunday afternoon, oozing the trains between london and salisbury and on the streets here of salisbury, just minutes before and after what the police say was the attack here at the front door of the skripals' home. it is a lot for people to take in. all ofa home. it is a lot for people to take in. all of a sudden, they have all this information and pictures and thatis this information and pictures and that is crucial. the reason the police have released this is partly

political, to say, we are notjust making these claims from nothing, we have information. but the authorities will also be hoping that these images might trigger more information that may be somebody in this community remembers seeing those two individuals, maybe somebody might have dashcam footage oi’ somebody might have dashcam footage or there might be something else that might account for missing moments during this investigation which builds up the picture more fully. so as well as releasing this, the police today are appealing for the police today are appealing for the public to come forward with any extra information they might be able to add, any morejigsaw extra information they might be able to add, any more jigsaw pieces that can be contributed. and also more information about this perfume bottle, or fake perfume information about this perfume bottle, orfake perfume bottle information about this perfume bottle, or fake perfume bottle that was used to carry the novichok? that's right. we knew charlie rowley had said in interviews after he came back out of hospital during the summer back out of hospital during the summer that he had it up what he thought was a normal perfume bottle, maybe in a bin in the centre of

salisbury, and that that was believed to have contained novichok and that accidentally contaminated him and his girlfriend, dawn stu rg ess, him and his girlfriend, dawn sturgess, who later died. we now have images of that nina richie porte love perfume. it looks like a real bottle, but police are saying it is fake. it looks like it was sealed in some way. it is not known if it was fully sealed when charlie rowley found it or if it was partly sealed. it is crucial for the police to establish, where was that bottle of what looked like perfume between the skripals being poisoned here in march and charlie rowley finding it injune? did it sit in a binfor three months? or was it somewhere between? maybe by finding those missing jigsaw pieces, that might allow members of the public to help the authorities who are trying to establish where it was in between and who might have put it there. jon, many thanks. and to steve rosenberg in moscow now. what sort of reaction if any has

there been in moscow to what the prime minister has been saying and what the police have been saying? the predictable reaction. russia presents itself as an innocent party. we are having a few technical problems talking to steve rosenberg in moscow. we will come back to him as soon as we can with the reaction in moscow. let me move you on to other news this afternoon. the former bank of england governor mervyn king has branded britain's preparations for leaving the eu as "incompetent". lord king has previously spoken of his optimism about leaving the european union. but speaking to our business editor, simonjack, he now says the lack of planning for the possibility of a no—deal brexit has undermined the government in the negotiations. our business editor simon jack gave us more detail of what lord king has said. he is sympathetic to brexit. i

originally sat on to talk to him about what happened ten years ago during the financial crisis for some of our coverage which we will see next week. but the conversation turned to brexit and we spent a significant chunk of time talking about it. his view was that with six months to go and the risks of a no deal rising, with the current government saying they are uncomfortably high, he said things like talk of stockpiling the medicines and using the m20 as a car park and emergency energy matters reflected badly on those responsible for planning for that eventuality. it beggars belief that the sixth biggest economy in the world should get itself into that position. if a government cannot take action to prevent some of these catastrophic outcomes, whatever position you take oi'i outcomes, whatever position you take on the eu, it illustrates a lack of preparation. it doesn't tell us anything about whether the policy of staying in the eu is good or bad. it tells us everything about the incompetence of the preparation for it. he said his major fear is that

this will drag on for a long time. he doesn't feel either side are getting what they want and the referendum hasn't settled it, so he fears that this drowning out of the big issues will continue for some time. a major report on the british economy has called for a radical overhaul to put "fairness at the heart of the economy". the commission on economicjustice was set up two years ago and includes the archbishop of canterbury — as well as representatives of business, trade unionists and economists. it's called for higher pay, more investment and a change to the way big companies are run. here's our economics correspondent, andy verity. do you feel better off or worse off than you did ten years ago? worse, definitely. it's more expensive, everything is. yeah, it isjust harder. it's harder. i think, on the whole, this country is still very, very fair. so many people are now struggling. fair for people with a bit of money. romford, in essex. like most of the country, it's spoilt with shopping centres and unemployment‘s low.

yet few people feel prosperous living through what is expected to be the worst decade for living standards in 200 years. in the past 30 years, we've developed some unhealthy economic habits — like an addiction to rising house prices that make us feel better off, so we borrow more and spend more than ever before. but servicing those addictions over the years has made us feel the effects — like house prices that are unaffordable to young people, who can now expect to be worse off than their parents' generation. the commission is saying the only way to restore the economy to good health is to break those habits. its members from across the political spectrum say we now need the biggest reforms since the second world war. we have this enormous challenge of saying, "can we reimagine the future of this country so its foundations are in hope based on justice and fairness?" the commission's proposals include... businesses like this specialist

coffee shop face another economic unfairness — the near monopoly power of dominant companies. this one is succeeding in challenging them. we've had tad's for a year and a half now. we started with two of us, and we've got eight people now under my wing. i've saved up enough money to set up another place. but pravesh's start—up business was helped by space at this business centre — backed by local authority money. the funding is what fundamentally allows us to get these places running, and then our aim is to get them sustainable within x amount of years, usually between 18 months and two years. the government says it's helping with measures like the living wage and lower taxes, but the commission wants a much deeper change, away from shopping and finance towards an export—led

economy that is stronger because it is fairer. andy verity, bbc news, romford. you're watching afternoon live, these are our headlines. police say they have enough evidence evidence to charge two russian nationals — alexander petrov and ruslan boshirov — — with conspiracy to murder the former russian spy, sergei skripal, and his daughter — the prime minister says the suspects are russian military intelligence officers. it is believed the suspects are back in russia, with almost no chance of ever being extradited. the former governor of the bank of england, lord king, has condemned the uk's preparations for brexit as "incompetent" and in sport, thomas bjorn has picked four wild cards for the ryder cup. sergio garcia and henrik

stenson have made the cut. rafa nadal is through to the us open semifinals. he beat dominic thiem in five sets in just under five hours. he will playjuan martin del potro nextin he will playjuan martin del potro next in a repeat of last europe's semifinals. and serena williams is closer to a record equalling 24th grand slam singles title. she won her quarterfinal against karolina pliskova and will now face the latvian anastasia is a vast the next. i will have an update in 15 minutes. the bbc 5 live newsreader, rachael bland, who was widely praised for her podcast describing her treatment for breast cancer, has died. she was a0. her family said that her death had left a huge hole that they would never be able to fill, and that her work had helped to reduce the stigma around the disease. rachael's podcast — you, me and the big c — reached number one on the itunes chart yesterday — an ambition of hers,

which her husband tweeted had made her "very happy". our correspondent sophie long has been speaking to one of rachael's co—presenters, deborah james. talking about her dying has been the ha rd est talking about her dying has been the hardest thing. and for our conversation to change from the, it will be ok, come on, let's try this, there is a point that we all knew was going to happen, where the conversation changed, and that kind of come on, you'll be ok, isn't helpful any more and we had to talk very honestly about what things would look like moving forward. the most heartbreaking text that i received was from rachael saying that she was utterly devastated to have to do this, but we couldn't record any more, and she had gone home and been given a matter of days

to live. too you said you wanted to change the way that people talk about cancer, the language. do you think you achieve that? the key thing we wanted to do with the podcast, and i believe that rachael has done, is showing that yes, u nfortu nately, has done, is showing that yes, unfortunately, through rachael's cancer and her journey in unfortunately, through rachael's cancer and herjourney in terms of where we are as ended. but she has shown that she has lived an absolutely worthwhile, purposeful, amazing life that has had an impact on so many people up until that point and beyond. and for that, i feel honoured to be part of it and i think anyone close to her and lots of people who know her feel very proud to know that. whilst i have

only known rachael for a couple of yea rs, only known rachael for a couple of years, i feel that in that time, i have developed such an intense relationship with rach. she has helped me in probably the darkest times that i have ever experienced. and i wouldn't be able to talk or do or even function half the time if it wasn't for the support that she has shown me. so am so grateful to her. iamjust so shown me. so am so grateful to her. i am just so grateful to her for allowing me to be part of her life. and just thank you. i want to... i kind of feel really riled up by making damn sure that nobody else

has to go through this. i feel really passionate about it, actually. i was passionate about it before and that was why we did the podcast, but seeing it first hand and experiencing it from so closely, actually... i am even more driven to make sure we continue to have the conversation. you were having to say goodbye to a friend and you have a different form of the same disease. what are your thoughts now? you have been with rachael and she has talked about how she not scared of dying, but she is scared for freddie, who she will leave behind, her very young son. you too have very young children. how do you feel, watching her go first? it's heartbreaking, but i know, i know that steve and

theirfamily but i know, i know that steve and their family and their friends and us their family and their friends and us and everyone will make certain to know that freddy knows what his mum was like. it's almost one of those things where i think i don't want to ever have to do this, but if rachael can do it, i can do it. that sounds a bit random and it sounds very sad to say that, and i pray that i don't, but i hope that my children will be proud of me, because i know that freddie would be proud of rach. and that is what you take from it. you take knowing that you are doing something worthwhile whilst you have been dealt a really rubbish and. and i think that's all you can do, because i have a choice. and rachael

had a choice, and she chose not to curlup ina had a choice, and she chose not to curl up in a ball. she chose to shout about it. and i chose that. so just because rachael has died, doesn't mean i am now going to curl up doesn't mean i am now going to curl up in doesn't mean i am now going to curl upina doesn't mean i am now going to curl up in a ball. i'm still going to continue to shout about it, because thatis continue to shout about it, because that is what she would have wanted to happen. deborah james, reflecting deborahjames, reflecting on the life of rachael bland. let's pause and look at the weather with tomasz schafernaker. before we get to the forecast here, are you going to tell us more about that horrific typhoon that has been raging in the far east? yes, it left a trail of devastation. we have been seeing pictures in the last couple of days of entire tankers or ships being smashed into the bridge. i wa nt to being smashed into the bridge. i want to show you what it looked like on the satellite image. this is a

repeating image from the last five or six days of this ferociously spinning storm. we have spared it up. look how credible abysses. you can pick out the eye in the middle where those massive winds are. you can see japan where those massive winds are. you can seejapan and where those massive winds are. you can see japan and the knickers to the north and fizzles away, really dramatic picture. we can look at it again. spinning around a perfect typhoon. here is the eye, then it approaches the coastline, bring those ferocious winds. and look how quickly it gets lifted up by the jet strea m quickly it gets lifted up by the jet stream across hock ido. the storm has now gone. it has left a trail of devastation. but unfortunately, the storm has blown itself out and now they will have to pick up the bits and pieces. let's get into the forecast for us on the underside of the world. this afternoon, not too

bad. plenty of sunshine around many parts of the country. some of have been waking up to clear blue skies across the uk. but there is a change on the way across north—western parts into northern ireland and western scotland. there is a weather front moving in, so we will need our brollies later. in glasgow and belfast, you can see the heavy rain, the blue. across england and wales, the blue. across england and wales, the weather is looking fine. the average for the time of year in the south—east is 19 degrees. so anything more than 20, we are doing good. here is thursday morning. it is looking dry and clearfor good. here is thursday morning. it is looking dry and clear for many of us is looking dry and clear for many of us first thing. then things will change. thursday looks a bit more u nsettled. change. thursday looks a bit more unsettled. we have been predicting this for a few days. north—westerly winds will cool things down. there will be some rain getting to parts

of wales and the midlands. looks as if the south—east gets away with the weather again. there should be some sunshine around and again around 21, above average for the time of year. on friday, this low pressure is still expected to park itself around newcastle. that means stronger winds and heavy rain sweeping across eastern scotland. maybe around the north york moors. elsewhere in the country, glasgow, belfast, birmingham, cardiff and london should be sunny. not bad at all. temperatures will be bang on the average. the weekend is looking cooler, especially across northern parts of the uk. temperatures will be in the mid—teens and were looking at further spells of rain. but it is not going to be reading all the time. we are not forecasting a wall of water across the uk. it is going

to be cloudy most of the time, with sunny spells. before i go, let me show an outlook into next week. this is showing the cooler air across the north atlantic trying to push into the uk. but there is a lot of orange to the south of us. there is potentially a heatwave developing across southern and more western and central parts of europe. at this stage, it looks like it is probably going to miss us, but that is something we are watching for some time into next week, things possibly settling down and turning warmer in the south. but it looks like the cooler air will win across northern parts of the uk and keep things fresh, as they are now. this is bbc news — our latest headlines. theresa may says the two men accused of carrying out the novichok nerve—agent attack in salisbury were russian military

intelligence officers. scotland yard named the men as alexander petrov and ruslan boshirov, but said those were probably aliases. the former governor of the bank of england, lord mervyn king, claims incompetent brexit preparations have undermined the uk's negotiating position. lord king, who supported leave during the referendum, warns britain could have to follow eu rules it had no say in making. bbc 5 live presenter and newsreader rachael bland, has died in the early hours of this morning, nearly two years after she was first diagnosed with breast cancer. the nhs says children in england will be able to get a revolutionary new treatment for leukaemia — after striking a deal with the treatment‘s manufacturers. car—t is a cutting—edge treatment for aggressive leukaemia when other drugs have failed. sport now on afternoon live with olly foster. we now know who will tee off for the european team in the ryder cup in three weeks' time.

we already knew eight of the 12 man squad because they came through qualifying and had enough points to go straight into the team, so this is the captain's pic, thomas bjorn, the european captain, and it can be a tough call for ryder cup captains but no surprises. these common experience and the four wild cards almost pick themselves. ian poulter has given us some of the defining moments in the tournament in recent yea rs. moments in the tournament in recent years. five ryder cups, playing in 18 matches and lostjust four of them. never lost a singles match, so he has been one of those captains picks and you can expect some more of those fist pumping celebrations if he starts sinking those monster parts. thomas bjorn says he is a man for the occasion and a special person, and he certainly is when he gets going. sergio garcia has also been picked. he won the masters last

year but has gone off the boil since then. missed the cut of the last five majors and it will be his ninth ryder cup. thomas bjorn says you have to look at him in certain ways. the heartbeat of the team. it's like the football team going without their captain. he makes everybody around him better and is everything that the european ryder cup is about. there it is and he's got his 12 men. the other two pics i henrik stenson and paul caseyjoining the a2 qualified by right. the top four on the european money list and the top four on the rankings. there are five rookies with the likes of tommy fleetwood. he's had a great year, but five rookies, alex noren as well, so that's why he's gone with experience with those wild cards. jim furyk named three of his wild cards overnight, and as we all expected, tiger woods is going to play in the us team. a very strong

us team it is as well. from golf to cricket now. alastair cook will play his final test for england on friday, and there has been so much praise in the last few days since he made the announcement. nothing but praise. he has been a rock for england forever a decade and is a leading run scorer but says he's been mulling over the decision about six months, because of it like sergio garcia, the runs and results have dried up for him personally. england won the series against india but alastair cook has been well below par during it. so he says he has lost his edge and it was an easy decision in the end. the final test is at the oval on friday and that will be his last. he said he cried when he told his team—mates in hampshire last weekend after they had won the fourth test but has been explaining the thinking behind why he is going to concentrate on the cou nty he is going to concentrate on the county game after this last test match. i've never really done any

media or coaching and i've just focused on trying to score runs for england and essex and i thought whenever this day camel england and essex and i thought whenever this day came i would cross that bridge and it has come. it was always going to happen. i will have always going to happen. i will have a few months off now and then go back home and i imagine i will be changing nappies and after what happened with isabel, i will get some payback and then we will see what ever happens in the new year and it will be exciting. exciting, changing nappies. it's not really. the defending champion, rafael nadal came through five set thriller to reach the us open semi—finals. his match against dominic thiem lasted almost five hours . nadal lost the first set 6—love against the austrian, but the match went the distance in really humid conditions , it finished at two in the morning. he'll face juan martin del potro next. but he knows it was a tough battle.

one of the women's semi—finals has also been confirmed. serena williams has taken a step closer to equalling the grand slam singles record. she beat karolina pliskova in straight sets and will now fave the latvian anastasia sevastova. the england rugby union team will play a world cup warm up match at stjames park next year. they'll play italy there on september 6th before heading to japan . it's the first time they will have played a test in newcastle and the first time in three years they have staged a home—match away from twickenham. that was the world cup group game against uruguay at manchester city's etihad stadium. they will also play wales twice in august at twickenham and cardiff and will also face ireland at twickenham. that's all the sport for now. let's get more now on our main news story. prosecutors say they have sufficient evidence to charge two russian

nationals with the nerve agent attack in salisbury. former russian spy sergei skripal and his daughter were poisoned with the nerve agent novichok in march. the suspects have been named as alexander petrov and ruslan boshirov, although it's believed these were aliases. the police have video footage showing the two men arriving at gatwick airport. earlier, theresa may told mps there is reason to believe that the two men were officers in the russian military intelligence agency, the gru. i can today tell the house that based on a body of intelligence, the government has concluded that the two individuals named by the police and cps are officers from the russian military intelligence service, also known as the gru. the gi you is a highly disciplined organisation with a well established chain of command —— gru. this was not a rogue operation, it was almost

certainly approved outside of the gru ata certainly approved outside of the gru at a senior level of the russian state. the house will appreciate that i cannot go into details about the work of our security and intelligence agencies, but we will be breaching opposition leaders and others on privy council terms and giving further detail to the intelligence and security committee. let me turn to our response to this appalling attack and the further knowledge we now have about those responsible. first, with respect to the two individuals, as the crown prosecution service and police announced today, we have obtained a european arrest warrant and will shortly issue and interpol red notice. russia has repeatedly refused to allow its nationals to stand trial overseas, citing a bar on extradition in the constitution. as we found, following the murder of alexander litvinenko, any formal request would be futile. but should any of the individuals again travel outside of russia, we will take

every possible step to detain them, to extradite them and bring them to face justice here to extradite them and bring them to facejustice here in the united kingdom. that was the prime minister in the commons, and we havejust been hearing that britain has summoned russia charge d'affaires in london after all the news and details of the prime minister was living in the house of commons about the two suspects that british authorities believe are responsible for the poisoning in salisbury. so, britain's summoning russia's charge d'affaires in london. our correspondent steve rosenberg is in moscow. more condemnation of the russian state from the british government. the charge d'affaires as we have heard have been summoned, but is this all water off a duck‘s back to russian authorities question toa to a large extent it is and i would describe the reaction today as

pretty predictable. the russians presenting themselves as the innocent party in all of this sober example we heard from the kremlin that russia had been ready for cooperation all along with the united kingdom but faced either refusal or silence and we heard from the russian foreign minister said that the names and photographs of the suspects mean nothing to us and accuse the uk authorities of information manipulation. this is pretty much the default position for russia any time, every time it is accused by the international community of having committed a crime. we saw this six months ago after the salisbury poisoning, russia denying any connection to it and we saw this with eastern ukraine with russia denying any connection to destabilising the situation there and we saw that with the hacking scandal in america before the us

presidential election and we see it again today. but nonetheless, behind the scenes in the kremlin, do you think there might be a bit of concern about the level of detail provided by british authorities that might convince other countries around the world who have been in some doubt about whether the russian state was involved in this, that by providing so much detail, it does incriminate the russian state? you are right, and to an extent the russians have boxed themselves into a corner by continuing to deny it, but there's a lot of detail about the hacking scandal in america. there's a lot of detail the shooting down of the malaysians bowing four yea rs down of the malaysians bowing four years ago which an investigation recently linked to the russian federation and yet moscow continues to deny any connection to these events. and that is why, i think, although we've seen a very detailed

investigation being presented today by the british police, cctv footage details about hotels about flights and photographs of the two suspects, i think it is unlikely we will hear moscow changing its position and admitting a connection to this. just briefly to make clear the position on extradition, they cannot be won under the russian constitution, even if the russian authorities were prepared to extradite these men? that is correct. even if vladimir putin woke up tomorrow and decided that i am happy to extradite these people, yes, there is a clause in the russian constitution which prevents him from doing so but i think he is unlikely to wake up with that attitude. steve, thank you for that. metropolitan police assistant commissioner neil basu is the national lead for counter terrorism. he said uk authorities would be issuing international arrest warrants for the two suspects.

over the last six months we have meticulously followed the evidence, working closely with specialist forensic teams and scientists, as we have investigated both the attack on sergei and yulia skripal in salisbury and the poisoning of dawn sturgess and charlie rowley. let me be clear, we have no doubt that these two incidents are connected and they form one investigation. today's announcement by the cps marks the most significant development in this investigation. we now have sufficient evidence to bring charges in relation to the attack on sergei and yulia skripal in salisbury, and domestic and european arrest warrants have been issued for the two suspects, and we will be seeking to circulate interpol red notices. however, our enquiries do not stop here. today, as well as updating you on the progress of the investigation, i'm appealing once more to the public for their help as we continue to build the evidence in this case. marianne hasjoined

marianne has joined me marianne hasjoined me with marianne has joined me with the latest business news and she will bring it to us in a moment. but a look at the headlines. police say they have enough evidence evidence to charge two russian nationals with conspiracy to murder the former russian spy, sergei skripal, and his daughter. the prime minister says the suspects are russian military intelligence officers. investigators believe the alleged salisbury attackers are back in russia, with almost no chance of ever being extradited. that is because it is banned by the russian constitution. the former governor of the bank of england, lord king, has condemned the uk's preparations for brexit as "incompetent" here's your business headlines on afternoon live.

rbs is closing a further 5a royal bank of scotland branches in england and wales with the loss of 258jobs. the branches will be shut injanuary 2019 and are in addition to 162 branch closures already announced this year. the bank said the closures are a result of the collapse of plans to float off a new "challenger bank" under the name williams & glyn. britain's large services sector — everything from restaurants to banking — surprised economists by picking up more strongly than expected last month. the sector, which makes up about 80% of the economy, saw many companies working at capacity with full order books. but firms said brexit worries were slowing investment for the year ahead. lord king has criticised brexit preparations, with a warning over the way negotations have been handled. the former governor of the bank of england, who supports brexit, said it "beggared belief" that the world's sixth—biggest

economy should be talking of stockpiling food and medicines, warning that it left the government without a credible bargaining position. so today could be a difficult day for some of the biggest names in tech? with the us midterm elections less than two months away, the us government has called tech bosses to washington, to explain what they're doing to prevent foreign manipulation of the elections via social media. today, bosses of twitter and facebook will answer questions from the senate intelligence committee. facebook‘s chief operating officer, sheryl sandberg will say the social media giant has already disabled almost 1.3 billion fake accounts — a staggering sum — and the firm has doubled the number of people it has working to combat misinformation on the site. let's start talking about this

committee. interestingly, the bigger names will be there, but one big names will be there, but one big name is noticeable for its absence. that's right. google is not going to be at this tech hearing despite the senators wanting to see somebody from google appear. in fact, what google wanted to see, or rather what the senators wanted to see, with either the head of google itself, the chief officer of google or the chief of the parent company, larry page, but neither will be in attendance and they wanted to send one of their top lawyers, but senators in washington said absolutely not we would rather have an empty seat to represent google than have somebody not as well—known as some of the top executives. so why has google done this and what is their response be? google has

submitted a blog post from its top lawyer who they wanted to send, and they said he would be responding to questions from senators in a private setting but they did not want to do it in this more public setting. this could be setting off a bit of a public ‘s relations mess for google and it comes at a particularly difficult time considering how much has been around with regard to google and what it has been doing during the elections and how actually the algorithms work in terms of the information you are able to pull up. i doubt that us senators will let this slide. what is the response going to be?m senators will let this slide. what is the response going to be? if i we re is the response going to be? if i were a betting person i would expect that senators will try to subpoenaed the executives. it is more of an imitation. we see that twitter and facebook are in attendance and

google are not, so we will see senators trying to rope in some of the google executives to make that big trip to washington. samir, thank you very much. let's look at the market. what are they doing? not a good day to the london markets at all. a number of factors here dragging the market down, in particular the oil stocks, and a lot of other oil majors have dragged that market down. the pound is still wea k that market down. the pound is still weak and the dax and cak in europe are down. not looking good for markets. more on that in our‘s time. it's being hailed as a turning point in the treatment of a rare form of childhood cancer, and nhs patients in england will be the first in europe to benefit from it. car—t therapy uses the body's own immune cells to fight the particular form of leukemia in youngsters. it's adoption by the nhs comes just

ten days after it was cleared by the european medicines agency, one of the fastest funding approvals in the history of the nhs. dominic hughes reports. you're fine, i know you're fine. they're some of the most vulnerable patients the health service looks after. children with cancer require special care. targeting the disease, while protecting the patient from the side—effects of treatment. the chief executive of nhs england, simon stephens, was in newcastle to witness that care first hand. and to announce a ground—breaking treatment for children with leukaemia would now be available on the nhs. nhs patients are the first in europe to get this new treatment. and because we are at the beginning of a new era of personalised medicine, where cells from your own body are being reprogrammed to provide treatments for previously untreatable conditions. leukaemia is a form of blood cancer and, in most cases, is highly treatable. but some patients don't respond, so researchers have been looking at the potential for individualised therapies. this is cutting—edge science,

and it's expensive. but within a few weeks, via the nhs in england, it could be available to up to 30 children and young people who otherwise have run out of treatment options. doctors in newcastle could be among the first to prescribe the new therapy. it's an amazing feeling to know that we are in a position where we can say to families in the worst situations, we can offer you something else. and not only can we offer you that treatment but, hopefully, we will be able to offer it locally within the region. this is how the blood cancer treatment works. a blood sample is removed from the patient and then immune cells, known as t cells, are taken from the blood. these are then modified to detect and kill cancer cells. they're then grown in the laboratory and injected back into the patient. children with blood cancer, it's going to make a huge difference to them. but we can expect to see this type of therapy being rolled out in other blood cancers and in other types of cancers over the next few years.

and for those families who have children battling cancer, today's announcement is a big moment. in the back of any parent's mind when a child is diagnosed with cancer, there's always the fear of relapse. and to know there is another treatment available should that happen, and we have seen it happen to many families we have been in contact with and got to know very well, then that is so reassuring for us. this announcement marks a big step forward for a form of therapy that many believe is game changing. after years of promise, personalised medicine is becoming a major weapon in the fight against cancer. dominic hughes, bbc news. britain 5 first—ever disabled air display team has taken to the skies today. the three pilots were inspired by the world war two flying ace, sir douglas bader, who flew spitfires despite having no legs. one of the crew, who has been a wheelchair user for 20 years, says learning to fly has been "like the light coming on again". our correspondent duncan kennedy

sent this report from blackbushe airport in surrey. mike, barry and alan. three men who live with disability, but who are all determined to reach for the skies. today, they became britain's first ever disabled air display team, taking off over surrey in a unique triple formation. the fact that you may be disabled, you can achieve great things. barry hobkirk became a paraplegic after a rugby accident, but was determined nothing would stop him getting airborne. from being told in 1990 that i would probably never walk again, and i'd certainly neverfly again, to being in a three ship formation team... yes, ifeel very proud, yes. the three men have been practising for three months, dealing with the stresses of formation flying without the full use of their limbs. mike wildeman lost the lower part

of his leg in a motorbike accident, but says aviation can be an inspiration. at the moment we are flying in training aircraft which have been adapted for a training role here at blackbushe, but eventually we'd like to be flying in aerobatic aeroplanes and doing close aerobatic formation work, just the same as other teams you see on the display circuit. archive: bader: tin legs and iron courage... the team was inspired by sir douglas bader, the world war ii spitfire pilot who flew despite having no legs. he was later shot down and became a pow. today's display involved several complicated manoeuvres. the aircraft feet controls are adapted to help the pilots, each one of which is hoping to send a clear, inclusive message about flying — put into words by alan robinson, who lost part of his leg in a motorbike accident. disabled people, once you get into an aeroplane, are as able—bodied as anybody else.

there are no real limitations. this is believed to be only the second disabled air display team anywhere in the world. when they thought of the idea to an arm of years ago 13 people put their name forward to be part of what is going on here. this is believed to be only the second disabled air display team anywhere in the world. the setbacks of physical limitations set aside — in the freedom of the skies. time for a look at the weather. for most of us today it will turn out to be a pretty decent day with plenty of sunny spells on the way and in the sunshine it will feel relatively warm in the south but

northern parts of the country has a change on the way and we anticipate raina change on the way and we anticipate rain a little bit later on in the day. this is the weather front approaching north western parts of the country, so northern ireland, western areas of scotland and hear today we will need a la brollies. let's look at the forecast for the second half of the afternoon and it's already raining across western scotla nd it's already raining across western scotland and elsewhere the weather is fine and it might be clouding in some areas but essentially it is sunny spells. through the course of the night the weather front moves through with a bit of scattered cloud, 12 degrees is the overnight low in london and a bit fresher in the north at around seven for edinburgh. tomorrow the thinking is there will be increasing amounts of cloud around wales and south—western parts. notice the rain drifting out of the republic of ireland man may be into the west country as well. and also in scotland and northern

england we expect showers. some of them could be heavy and the wind is coming in from the north and it will feel cool, only 1a in belfast in the dry spot probably east anglia at around 21 degrees. on friday, low— pressure around 21 degrees. on friday, low—pressure coming and that will establish itself around the north sea region, quite a breeze across the north and certainly that will send a lot of cloud and rain moving through eastern scotland, the borders, into north—east england and here it could be quite wet for a time on friday. elsewhere across the country, certainly belfast, wales, the midlands, further south, the weather looks fine and getting away with another fine day in london for example, 19 celsius expected on friday. the weather is going to turn a little more unsettled as we go through the course of the weekend and it will turn cooler and we expect further spells of rain, not all the time, so the temperatures most of the time will be around the

teens, no higher than the mid—teens across the north of the country may be bumping up towards the end of the weekend in london up to 22. goodbye. hello, you're watching afternoon live — i'm ben brown. today at 3... the prime minister says two men suspected of carrying out the salisbury nerve agent attack work for russian military intelligence. the men have been named as alexander petrov and ruslan boshirov. the two individuals named by the police and cps are officers from the russian military intelligence service, also known as the gru. police have pieced together the movements of the two men before and after the attack on sergei and yulia skripal. russia's government says the names of the suspects mean nothing to them. britain has summoned the

russia's charge d'affaires in london. in other news, the former govenor of the bank of england says incompetent preparations for a possible "no—deal" brexit have undermined the uk's negotiating position. a revolutionary new treatment on the nhs for childhood leukaemia — using the body's own cells to fight it. coming up on afternoon live, all the sport. the european ryder cup captain thomas bjorn has gone with experience with his four wild card picks. importer, garcia, stenson and casey will all face the us later this month. thanks, and we'll bejoining you for a full update just after half—past. tomasz has all the weather. today, the weather is mostly behaving itself. quite a lot of bright weather around. from tomorrow onwards, it's starting to turn a little bit more unsettled, particularly in the north. thanks, tomasz. also coming up — rachael bland, the bbc news presenter who charted her incurable cancer with an inspirational blog and podcast, dies at the age of a0. hello, everyone —

this is afternoon live. two russian nationals have been named as suspects in the attempted murder of the former russian spy, sergei skripal, and his daughter yulia. police say there is sufficient evidence to charge ruslan boshirov and alexander petrov over the poison attack in salisbury in march — and they are also linking them to the subsequent poisonings of dawn sturgess — who died — and charlie rowley. a european arrest warrant for the men has been issued — but there's no chance of the pair being extradited

as that's prohibited by the russian constitution. scotland yard has provided extensive details about the attack on the skripals, and in the commons, the prime minister said britain has established that both men are agents with the russian military intelligence service, the gru. richard galpin reports. these are the two men, both russian nationals, who are suspected of poisoning sergei and yulia skripal with the deadly nerve agent novichok. named as alexander petrov and ruslan boshirov, although these are probably aliases. and the police investigation has video footage showing their movements from the moment they arrived at gatwick airport on march 2nd, two days before the poisoning. from gatwick, they travelled to east london, staying in a hotel where investigators found traces of novichok, although those traces soon faded. on saturday march 3rd, they travelled by train to salisbury, where it is alleged they carried out reconnaissance before returning to london. on sunday, they again travelled

to salisbury by train and they were seen near the skripals' house near the skripals' housejust before midday. it is alleged around this time, the novichok nerve agent was sprayed on the door handle. later that day, they were seen at heathrow airport, where they boarded an aeroflot flight to moscow. salisbury was soon turned into a major crime scene after it was discovered a nerve agent had been used to try to kill the former russian military intelligence officer sergei skripal and his daughter, yulia, but they survived, and the investigation has gathered enough evidence to bring charges against the two suspects. today's announcement marks the most significant development in this investigation. we now have sufficient evidence to bring charges against the attack on sergei and

yulia skripal. the government has concluded that the two individuals named by the police and cps are officers from the russian military intelligence service, also known as the gru. the gru isa service, also known as the gru. the gru is a highly disciplined organisation with a well—established chain of command. so this was not a rogue operation. it was almost certainly also approved outside the gru ata certainly also approved outside the gru at a senior level of the russian state. but as for putting alexander petrov and ruslan boshirov on trial in this country, there is no prospect of that. russia does not extradite its own nationals who are accused of crimes in other countries. our correspondentjohn kay is in salisbury and has been

following the story. that's right. it's exactly six months this week since sergei skripal and his daughter yulia collapsed in the centre of salisbury and almost since that moment, their property here has been a crime scene. it's still sealed off and still empty and it is still a reminder for people in this neighbourhood and in the city about the extraordinary events that have gone on here. during those six months, there have been theories, rumours, ideas and thoughts, but nothing definite about the police case. a lot of people here wondered how much progress the authorities in the uk were making, how much did they really know or how much did they suspect about who did this and how? and despite that, after all this conjecture, suddenly this morning, a blizzard of information as well as pictures of suspects, names, ages, addresses, places, cctv, where they spent the night, details ofjourneys to and from london into salisbury, train times.

it's a lot for people around here to take in. but people are also saying it's reassuring and at least they now know that progress in the investigation has been made, even if no charges have formally been brought because these men have not been arrested. and quite chilling also for the residents of salisbury to suddenly see the faces of the men that the police believe were the attackers who carried novichok into the city? and pictures of them in salisbury as well. these two mugshots, if you like, of the individuals who have been named as alexander petrov and ruslan boshirov, although the authorities suspect that they are false names. but they have released these images, close—up head shots of the two men. and the prime minister in the last hour has said that the authorities

here believe they are russian military intelligence operatives, although of course the russian state has always denied any involvement in what happened. but yes, people in salisbury and in amesbury, where charlie rowley and his partner dawn sturgess were also taken ill three months later and she sadly died, an innocent victim in all this, people in both communities can now see pictures of these two men, notjust the mugshots, but we have pictures of them arriving into gatwick airport on friday night, leaving out of heathrow on sunday afternoon, using the trains between london and salisbury and on the streets here of salisbury, just minutes before and after what the police say was the attack here at the front door of the skripals' home. it's a lot for people in salisbury to take in. all of a sudden, they have all this information and pictures, and that's crucial.

the reason the police have released this is partly political, to say, to say, we are onto it, we are notjust making these claims from nothing, we have information. but the authorities will also be hoping that these images might trigger more information that maybe somebody in this community remembers seeing those two individuals, maybe somebody might have dashcam footage or there might be something else that might account for missing moments during this investigation which builds up the picture more fully. so as well as releasing this, the police today are appealing for the public to come forward with any extra information they might be able to add, any more jigsaw pieces that can be contributed. and also more information about this perfume bottle, or fake perfume bottle that was used to carry the novichok? that's right. we knew charlie rowley had said in interviews after he came out of hospital during the summer that he had picked up what he thought was a normal perfume bottle, maybe in a bin in the centre of salisbury, and that

that was believed to have contained novichok and that accidentally contaminated him and his girlfriend, dawn sturgess, who later died. we now have images of that nina ricci bottle of perfume. it looks like a real bottle, but police are saying it is fake. it looks like it was sealed in some way. it is not known if it was fully sealed when charlie rowley found it or if it was partly sealed. it's crucial for the police to establish, where was that bottle of what looked like perfume between the skripals being poisoned here in march and charlie rowley finding it injune? did it sit in a bin for three months? or was it somewhere between? maybe by finding those missing jigsaw pieces, that might allow members of the public to help the authorities in trying to establish where it was in between and who might have put it there. we can now speak to conservative mp john glen, who represents the constiuency of salisbury. so we have the faces of these

suspects. we have the details of what they did, but the reality is that they are never going to be arrested or put on trial, are they? they are in russia and they can't be extradited because that is against the russian constitution. and they probably will never leave russia, so they will never be arrested. well, we should think first about the massive step forward this is in finding out who has done this. the people of salisbury, for six months, have been asking questions. they have been asking questions. they have today been given clear evidence. in answer to your question, i would evidence. in answer to your question, iwould not evidence. in answer to your question, i would not say they will never face justice. we have question, i would not say they will neverfacejustice. we have issued a european arrest warrant. we have made clear what happened and we will be making that clear as the prime minister said in the commons, what happens to our allies. if they ever leave russia, they will face arrest by interpol and i hope further action will be taken, given how

serious an intervention this is into our way of life in this country. how shocking is it for you to see the faces of these men who the police believe were walking the streets of your constituency with novichok? believe were walking the streets of your constituency with novichok7m is shocking. but i pay tribute to the police and the counterterrorism network, who have been working under difficult circumstances. everyone has been desperate to get a picture of what has been happening. they have worked incredibly hard over the last six months to make this announcement today. so i am grateful for that progress. it has brought clarity to events. i was frustrated that people were questioning what happened, and i am now pleased that concrete evidence with pictures, movements, train times and details of what they did and how they did it and when they did it has been made clear to the public today. and if that level of evidence useful for

britain in persuading people around the world who may have doubted whether russia was behind this attack, for convincing them that russia was and it needs to be punished? well, i condemned the russian state for what they did and iam russian state for what they did and i am disappointed that some in the house of commons, notably the leader of the opposition, was unable to do that. i am sure there will be some who wilfully want to resist pointing the finger at the russian state, even though the evidence is so compelling. but we can socialise that information to our allies. those who were sceptical in march can now be reassured, and those who stood with us can be vindicated in the action they took. to have over 150 diplomats from 28 countries removed in the single biggest action of removal of diplomats does say something about how strong the case was from the start. but i am pleased that this has now been made available to the public at large and to my constituents in salisbury, who have suffered a lot, let alone the family of dawn sturgess, who sadly

lost her life as a consequence of the actions of these two individuals. thank you for talking to us. our chief political correspondent vicki young is in westminster for us now. you were watching as the prime minister made that dramatic announcement to mp5, with all the details about what these two suspects had done, and then revealed that the british authorities believe that the british authorities believe that these two work for the russian military intelligence service, the gru. what has been the reaction of mps to that news? as you say, it was a dramatic announcement, the news had first come out in march when parliament was stunned by what they we re parliament was stunned by what they were hearing. but now this evidence has built up. the prosecution, if it ever becomes that, and the pursuing of these two men. as it was back in

march, the case is still that the labour leaderjeremy corbyn is being accused of weasel words. that was how borisjohnson, accused of weasel words. that was how boris johnson, the accused of weasel words. that was how borisjohnson, the former foreign secretary, described it. he said jeremy corbyn wasn't being robust enough in condemning the russian state and their involvement in all of this. afterwards, a labour spokesman was asked whether mr corbyn regretted the approach he had taken in march by not going further. and he said that was not the case. he said i'm a jeremy corbyn has a lwa ys he said i'm a jeremy corbyn has always looked at the evidence and have a proportional response to all of this. he is saying that clearly now the evidence has built up, mr corbyn has had a security briefing this morning and he will have others on this case. and they say there is now more evidence which point is much more directly to russian culpability and they sayjeremy‘s approach has always been based on evidence. they say mr corbyn accepts what the prime minister said today that the suspects are gru officers.

in terms of what more action can be taken, the in terms of what more action can be ta ken, the power in terms of what more action can be taken, the power minister's official spokespersons said the expulsion of russians from this country back in march was disrupting the gru network here. they have also brought in a new power which means the authorities can look at people coming in on flights from russia, something which didn't happen before. so they are saying more action is being taken, but they will be looking at eu counterparts in saying we need more sanctions. vicki young, thank you. we can get more on this with mick neville, who is the former head of the metrpolitan police's central forensic images team. it is an incredible amount of detail which has been provided on these suspects and a lot of cctv pictures of them. how hard will it have been for police to put all that detail

together and to establish who they are? well, it would have taken a lot of time to view the cctv. it shows how vital cctv is, but the met are using super recognisers. these are humans with an amazing ability to remember and match faces. so it would have taken a long time. perhaps in this day and age, you can use analytics and machines to sift through evidence. i imagine that it was done literally by hand, by the super recognisers viewing, and they would have had to watch thousands of hours at the airport and railway stations and the rest, trying to match the same people in the different locations. so these super recognisers you are talking about are people who have an incredible ability to remember faces. are people who have an incredible ability to rememberfaces. we are people who have an incredible ability to remember faces. we are not just talking about face recognition technology, we are talking about humans with an ability to recognise other human faces? absolutely. if you look at many of

the pictures, as i have done, many of those images would be unsuitable for automated facial recognition because they look like —— they do not look like passport photographs, there are not straight on. super recognisers are less than 1% of the population who have an innate ability. you can't train it, you are born with it. these are the people who are exceptional at looking through cctv and matching suspects orfinding victims. through cctv and matching suspects or finding victims. this must have been very challenging, because there we re been very challenging, because there were presumably thousands of hours of cctv to trawl through. it shows the dedication of the counterterrorism team. when i ran the investigation into the cctv images from the london riots, we had 100,000 hours of cctv. you have got to divide it up and decide what is a priority. you have two task the teams, and the met have used the right individuals, who will have made thejob quicker. right individuals, who will have

made the job quicker. they found that using super recognisers was quicker thanjust that using super recognisers was quicker than just trusting anybody to watch cctv. and once you think you have picked out the faces of the suspects, that then provides you with a new impetus to find the same faces in other bits of cctv, is that how it works? absolutely. they have named these men. they put the mugshots of these men out. did the authorities suspect these men to begin with? that would have made the job easier. otherwise, the super recognisers would have just trawl through all the footage and tried to play face snapping, as we used to call it, where you try and match the images looking at all the flights coming in from russia and all the images from salisbury, can we have a snap, can we match anybody on the footage? and they have obviously done that very well. and it shows how useful cctv in general is to the police. years ago, this kind of

thing would not have been possible. absolutely. cctv plays a vital role in solving crime. it is a massive help to the police, particularly when you have these serious crimes and you have to piece together which hotel they are in, where they went. all those places may be contaminated. it is notjust about solving crime, it is about public safety as well. good to talk to you. that was the former chief inspector who set up the super recognisers unit in 2011. you're watching afternoon live, these are our headlines... police say they have enough evidence evidence to charge two russian nationals with conspiracy to murder the former russian spy, sergei skripal, and his daughter — the prime minister says the suspects are russian military intelligence officers. investigators believe the alleged salisbury attackers are back in russia, and there is virtually no chance of them ever being extradited — britain has summoned russia's charge the former governor of the bank

of england, lord king, has condemned the uk's preparations for brexit as "incompetent". in sport, the european ryder cup captain thomas bjorn has named his four wild cards for the tournament later this month. he has gone with experience. ian poulter makes the 12 man team alongside sergio garcia, paul casey and henrik stenson. the defending champion rafa nadal is due to the us open semifinals. he beat dominic thiem in five sets in just underfive hours. dominic thiem in five sets in just under five hours. he dominic thiem in five sets in just underfive hours. he will playjuan martin del potro next, a repeat of last yea r‘s martin del potro next, a repeat of last year's semifinal. and the england rugby union team are going to play at st james's park next year. the one—off game against italy will be a warm up match for the world cup in japan. will be a warm up match for the world cup injapan. i will be back in15 world cup injapan. i will be back in 15 minutes with a full update. the former bank of england governor mervyn king has branded britain's preparations for leaving

the eu as "incompetent". lord king has previously spoken of his optimism about leaving the european union. but speaking to our business editor, simonjack, he said the lack of planning for the possibility of a no—deal brexit has undermined the government in the negotiations. our business editor, simonjack gave us more detail of what lord king told him. he is sympathetic to brexit. i originally sat on to talk to him about what happened ten years ago during the financial crisis for some of our coverage which we'll see next week. but the conversation turned to brexit and we spent a significant chunk of time talking about it. his view was that with six months to go and the risks of a no—deal rising, with the current governor saying they are uncomfortably high, he said things like talk of stockpiling the medicines and using the m20 as a car park and emergency energy matters reflected badly on those responsible for planning for that eventuality. it beggars belief that the sixth biggest economy in the world should get itself into that position.

if a government cannot take action to prevent some of these catastrophic outcomes, whatever position you take on the eu, it illustrates a lack of preparation. it doesn't tell us anything about whether the policy of staying in the eu is good or bad. it tells us everything about the incompetence of the preparation for it. he said his major fear is that this will drag on for a long time. he doesn't feel either side are getting what they want and the referendum hasn't settled it, so he fears that this drowning out of the big issues will continue for some time. let's get more now on our top story — that two russian nationals have been named as suspects in the attempted murder of the former russian spy, sergei skripal, and his daughter yulia. they were attacked in salisbury in march with the nerve agent novichok. dr andrew foxall is the director of the russia and eurasia studies centre at the right wing—leaning foreign policy thinktank the henry jackson society — he's in our central london studio. what do you make of this news is

that this is what the british authorities are saying, that these are the suspects who carried out the attack, probably back in russia and may never face justice, attack, probably back in russia and may neverfacejustice, but attack, probably back in russia and may never face justice, but what are the implications for relations between britain and russia?m the implications for relations between britain and russia? it was interesting as the pm announced that these individuals worked for the gru, russia's military intelligence agency. the gru specialises in high risk, short—term operations, the kind that we have seen like russia's other two intelligence and security committee agencies. it is increasingly active, increasingly aggressive and increasingly well—financed. the question you ask is the question we have been asking since march, which is, what do we do about this now? it seems to me that

if it were not obvious in march that we ought to give zero tolerance approach to russia's intelligence for security operations abroad, then it certainly is obvious now. that is something the uk ought to undertake, but that is something we ought to undertake together with our western allies as well. it seems that these men were using aliases, but are there questions about how they were ever able to get into the uk in the first place? there are. as with so many aspects of the skripal poisoning, the comparison we draw is with the murder of alexander litvinenko in 2006. when he was murdered, at sir robert owen's inquiry, which was published a number of years ago now, highlighted that the fco's warning index, which is the alarm bell system that the fco has in place which seeks to identify individuals who perhaps deserved greater due diligence

procedures being conducted on them than others, didn't work. in 2006 the warnings index didn't flag that they two suspects were former kgb officers and perhaps m15 or mi6 ought to look into their activities and their movements while they were in the uk. and it seems that same warning index didn't work in march, when seemingly two current members of the gru were able to travel not only freely to the uk, but also travelled freely whilst in the uk. questions need to be asked about whether that system is fit for purpose. although it is very hard for anyone here to predict what they might have done, ie allegedly carry out a novichok attack on the streets of salisbury? indeed. there is also the case here of quantifying this risk or threat. we don't know how many people work for the gru. estimates suggest anywhere between 250,000 and 500,000 people work for

them. in our embassy in moscow, you're talking about anything between 25 and 50 people who would between 25 and 50 people who would be based there, perhaps only a handful of people who deal with the so—called warnings index. so there is an issue of scale and proportionality to address. good to talk to. that was dr andrew foxall, director of the russia and eurasia studies centre at the henry jackson society. it's being hailed as a turning point in the treatment of a rare form of childhood cancer. . and nhs patients in england will be the first in europe to benefit from it. car—t therapy uses the body's own immune cells to fight the particular form of leukaemia in youngsters. its adoption by the nhs comes just ten days after it was cleared by the european medicines agency, one of the fastest funding approvals in the history of the nhs. dominic hughes reports. you're fine, i know you're fine. they're some of the most vulnerable patients the health service looks after.

children with cancer require special care. targeting the disease, while protecting the patient from the side—effects of treatment. the chief executive of nhs england, simon stephens, was in newcastle to witness that care first hand and to announce a ground—breaking treatment for children with leukaemia would now be available on the nhs. nhs patients are the first in europe to get this new treatment. and because we are at the beginning of a new era of personalised medicine, where cells from your own body are being reprogrammed to provide treatments for previously untreatable conditions. leukaemia is a form of blood cancer and, in most cases, is highly treatable. but some patients don't respond, so researchers have been looking at the potential for individualised therapies. this is cutting—edge science, and it's expensive. but within a few weeks, via the nhs in england, it could be available to up to 30 children and young people who otherwise have run out

of treatment options. doctors in newcastle could be among the first to prescribe the new therapy. it's an amazing feeling to know that we are in a position where we can say to families in the worst situations, we can offer you something else. and not only can we offer you that treatment but, hopefully, we will be able to offer it locally within the region. this is how the blood cancer treatment works. a blood sample is removed from the patient and then immune cells, known as t cells, are taken from the blood. these are then modified to detect and kill cancer cells. they're then grown in the laboratory and injected back into the patient. children with blood cancer, it's going to make a huge difference to them. but we can expect to see this type of therapy being rolled out in other blood cancers and in other types of cancers over the next few years. and for those families who have children battling cancer, today's announcement is a big moment. in the back of any parent's mind when a child is diagnosed with cancer, there's always the fear of relapse.

and to know there is another treatment available, should that happen, and we have seen it happen to many families we have been in contact with and got to know very well, then that is so reassuring for us. this announcement marks a big step forward for a form of therapy that many believe is game changing. after years of promise, personalised medicine is becoming a major weapon in the fight against cancer. dominic hughes, bbc news. now it's time for a look at the weather with tomasz. hello. we are forecasting rain today, but the most of the weather not looking bad at all. plenty of sunny spells, particularly across england, wales, eastern parts of scotla nd england, wales, eastern parts of scotland as well. let's look at the forecast the second part of the afternoon and you can see it's raining across the western isles, and some of the rain is moving

through belfast. the rest of the country, dry weather with sunny spells. tonight there will be a bit of rain moving in through the lake district and other parts of northern england but that's pretty much it with a few more showers in the western isles. cool in the north and double figures across the south. tomorrow, watch the weather go downhill a bit across wales and the south—west with increasing cloud, rain moving in and we expect showers across scotland and into the lake district. some of them be heavy and the winds are coming in from the north. but still dry and the south—east, up to 21 in london. this is bbc news — our latest headlines. theresa may says the two men accused of carrying out the novichok nerve—agent attack in salisbury were russian military intelligence officers. scotland yard named the men as alexander petrov and ruslan boshirov, but said those were probably aliases. russia's government say

the names of the suspects mean nothing to them. britain has summoned russia's charge d'affaires in london the former governor of the bank of england, lord mervyn king, claims incompetent brexit preparations have undermined the uk's negotiating position. lord king, who supported leave during the referendum, warns britain could have to follow eu rules it had no say in making. the nhs says children in england will be able to get a revolutionary new treatment for leukaemia after striking a deal with the treatment‘s manufacturers. car—t is a cutting—edge treatment for aggressive leukaemia when other drugs have failed. sport now on afternoon live with olly foster. you have the latest on the ryder cup. we have heard from thomas

bjorn, the european captain and he knew eight of his team had already qualified, just three weeks away and it will be held in france at the end of the month but he had his four important captain ‘s picks, his wild cards and he chose those today. no surprises really. but he has common experience. ian poulter has given us some of the defining moments in recent years , five ryder cups he's played in 18 matches lost just four of them, never lost a singles match, so expect some more of those first pumping celebrations if he starts sinking some of those monster putts. bjorn says he is a man for the occasion and he is a special person. we will see how he gets on. he was even more glowing about sergio garcia, but the spaniard can think himself quite fortunate to be going at all. he won the masters last year but has missed the cut at the last five majors,

and this will be the spaniard's ninth ryder cup. bjorn says, you have to look at sergio in certain ways, he is the heartbeat of the team. it's like a football team going without their captain. he makes everybody around him better. the other two pics i henrik stenson and paul caseyjoining the other two pics i henrik stenson and paul casey joining the the other two pics i henrik stenson and paul caseyjoining the eight who qualified by right. the top or on the money list on the top four europeans in the world. there are five rookies in there. jim furyk revealed three of his captain ‘s picks, and tiger woods is in there in what is a very, very strong american team. alistair cook preparing to play his very last test match for england against india, starting on friday. he announced his

retirement a couple of days ago. he says he's been mulling it overfor 6 months, england won the series against india but alistair cook was well below par and he has lost his edge somewhat but the leading run scorer says he knew the time was right and said he cried when he told his team—mates down in hampshire after they sealed the series victory. he says there would always be another alistair cook. i am definitely replaceable. there will be another very good player coming along, i'm sure. with the same attributes as you? that's not for me to say. all i can say is, it's very hard when you still have another game to play and i'm determined to play that in the game. and it's summer will be never be around again, but it has been a surreal couple of days and let's

play well in this game and try and win a—1. the defending champion, rafael nadal came through five set thriller to reach the us open semi—finals. his match against dominic thiem lasted almost five hours. nadal lost the first set 6—0 against the austrian, but the match went the distance in really humid conditions, even though the game finished at 2 in the morning. he'll face juan martin del potro next, a repeat of last year's semi—final. the england rugby union team will play a world cup warm up match at st james park next year. they'll play italy there on september 6th before heading to japan. it's the first time they will have played a test in newcastle and the first time in three years they have staged a home match away from twickenham. that was the world cup group game against uruguay at manchester city's etihad stadium. they will also play wales twice in august at twickenham and cardiff and will also face ireland at twickenham. that's all the sport and i will be

backin that's all the sport and i will be back in the next hour. a major report on the british economy has called for a radical overhaul to put ‘fairness at the heart of the economy'. the commission on economicjustice was set up two years ago by the left—leaning policy unit, the ippr, and includes the archbishop of canterbury — as well as representatives of business, trade unionists and economists. it's called for higher pay, more investment and a change to the way big companies are run. here's our economics correspondent, andy verity. do you feel better off or worse off than you did ten years ago? worse, definitely. it's more expensive, everything is. yeah, it isjust harder. it's harder. i think, on the whole, this country is still very, very fair. so many people are now struggling. fair for people with a bit of money. romford in essex. like most of the country, it's spoilt with shopping centres and unemployment‘s low. yet few people feel prosperous

living through what is expected to be the worst decade for living standards in 200 years. in the past 30 years, we've developed some unhealthy economic habits — like an addiction to rising house prices that make us feel better off so we borrow more and spend more than ever before. but servicing those addictions over the years has made us feel the effects — like house prices that are unaffordable to young people, who can now expect to be worse off than their parents' generation. the commission is saying the only way to restore the economy to good health is to break those habits. its members from across the political spectrum say we now need the biggest reforms since the second world war. we have this enormous challenge of saying, "can we reimagine the future of this country so its foundations are in hope based on justice and fairness?" the commission's proposals include... businesses like this specialist

coffee shop face another economic unfairness — the near monopoly power of dominant companies. this one is succeeding in challenging them. we've had tad's for a year and a half now. we started with two of us, and we've got eight people now under my wing. i've saved up enough money to set up another place. but pravesh's start—up business is helped by space at this business centre — backed by local authority money. the funding is what fundamentally allows us to get these places running, and then our aim is to get them sustainable within x amount of years, usually between 18 months and two years. the government says it's helping with measures like the living wage and lower taxes, but the commission wants a much deeper change, away from shopping and finance

towards an export—led economy that is stronger because it is fairer. the bbc five live newsreader, rachael bland, who was widely praised for her podcast describing her treatment for breast cancer, has died. she was a0. her family said that her death had left a huge hole that they would never be able to fill and that her work had helped to reduce the stigma around the disease. rachael's podcast, "you, me and the big c", reached number one on the itunes chart yesterday, an ambition of hers, which her husband tweeted had made her "very happy". our correspondent sophie long has been speaking to one of rachael's co—presenters, deborah james, who also has stage four cancer. she began by asking what the hardest thing had been. talking about her dying has been the hardest thing. and for our conversation to change from the "it'll be ok,

come on, let's try this", there's a point that we all knew was going to happen where the conversation changed, and that kind of "come on, you'll be ok" isn't helpful any more and we had to talk very honestly about what things would look like moving forward. the most heartbreaking text that i received was from rachael saying that she was utterly devastated to have to do this, but we couldn't record any more, and she had gone home and been given a matter of days to live. you said you wanted to change the way that people talk about cancer, the language. do you think you achieved that? the key thing we wanted to do with the podcast, and i believe that rachael has done, is showing that yes, unfortunately, though rachael's cancer and herjourney in terms

of where we are has ended, she has shown that she has lived an absolutely worthwhile, purposeful, amazing life that has had an impact on so many people up until that point and beyond. and for that, i feel honoured to be part of it and i think anyone close to her and lots of people who know her feel very proud to know that. whilst i have only known rachael for a couple of years, i feel that in that time, i have developed such an intense relationship with rach. she has helped me in probably the darkest times that i have ever experienced. and i wouldn't be able to talk or do or even function half the time if it

wasn't for the support that she has shown me. so i am so grateful to her. i am just so grateful to herfor allowing me to be part of her life. and just, thank you. iwant to... i kind of feel really riled up by making damn sure that nobody else has to go through this. i feel really passionate about it, actually. i was passionate about it before and that was why we did the podcast, we have to find a way to move

forward and take her with us. we need to be able to laugh again. we need to be able to laugh again. we need to be able to sit in a room and laugh and take rachel with us and know that she would be laughing when iam yet know that she would be laughing when i am yet again dressed in a stupid costu me, i am yet again dressed in a stupid costume, or whatever i might be, and thatis costume, or whatever i might be, and that is probably what people want to hear from us and want us to do, but it's going to be hard to do that. you were having to say goodbye to a friend and you have a different form of the same disease. what are your thoughts now? you have been with rachael and she has talked about how she's not scared of dying, but she is scared for freddie, who she will leave behind, her very young son. you too have very young children. how do you feel,

watching her go first? it's heartbreaking, but i know, i know that steve and their family and their friends and us and everyone will make certain to know that freddie knows what his mum was like. it's almost one of those things where i think i don't want to ever have to do this, but if rachael can do it, i can do it. that sounds a bit random and it sounds very sad to say that, and i pray that i don't, but i hope that my children will be proud of me, because i know that freddie would be proud of rach. and that is what you take from it. you take knowing that you're doing something worthwhile, whilst you've been dealt a really rubbish hand.

and i think that's all you can do, because i have a choice. and rachael had a choice, and she chose not to curl up in a ball. she chose to shout about it. and i chose that. so just because rachael has died, doesn't mean i'm now going to curl up in a ball. i'm still going to continue to shout about it, because that's what she would have wanted to happen. maryam is here — in a moment she will be telling us what's hot and what's not in the business news. first a look at the headlines on afternoon live. police say they have enough evidence evidence to charge two russian nationals, alexander petrov and ruslan boshirov

, with conspiracy to murder the former russian spy, sergei skripal, and his daughter. the prime minister says the suspects are russian military intelligence officers. investigators believe the alleged salisbury attackers are back in russia, and there is virtually no chance of them ever being extradited. britain has summoned russia's charge d'affaires in london the former governor of the bank of england, lord king, has condemned the uk's preparations for brexit as "incompetent" here's your business headlines on afternoon live. rbs is closing a further 5a royal bank of scotland branches in england and wales with the loss of 258jobs. the branches will be shut injanuary 2019 and are in addition to 162 branch closures already announced this year. the bank said the closures are a result of the collapse

of plans to float off a new "challenger bank" under the name williams & glyn. britain's large services sector — everything from restaurants to banking — surprised economists by picking up more strongly than expected last month. the sector, which makes up about 80% of the economy, saw many companies working at capacity with full order books. but firms said brexit worries were slowing investment for the year ahead. tesco has angered shoppers in its inner—city stores by hiking the cost of individual bananas. it's stopped charging by weight and is instead charging by single banana, meaning the cost of each yellow fruit has more than doubled at its tesco metro and express stores. the price rise, from around 10p—15p to 25p, has led to a flood of angry complaints on social media. the grocer blames the increase on "more expensive" leases. that really is bananas. you are part

of the complaints, i am sure. i do love ba na nas, of the complaints, i am sure. i do love bananas, i have to say that. they give you good energy. let's talk about social media. we have seen a survey today from barclays bank which is quite worrying that shows that young people, 15 to 2a—year—olds, believe that social media, they could not live without it. and what's more, the way they spend money is being influenced by social media. not a surprise. it's the new kind of advertising that young people, so let's talk to clare francis who is a director at ba rclays francis who is a director at barclays bank. francis who is a director at ba rclays bank. talk francis who is a director at barclays bank. talk me through what the research shows. we always want to understand customers better so we commissioned the research to engage —— gauge what impact social media was having on people's lives and we

found that in the young group, 15 to 24—year—olds, they are checking their social media feeds around 30 times per day and it's having a massive influence on their spending and they are spending an average 30 billion a year through this and trying to better understand that and help people to reduce the amount they are spending. how can you help people reduce spending? ultimately advertising gets you one way or another. it is a clever way of advertising but when you on your phone you can just tap and click and buy instantly and what we are trying to do is get people to think about things. we also saw that 50% of people thought it had a negative impact, so it's sacrificing other things, whether that sacrificing. and just get a bit clever about how

they manage their money. and that will lead to a reward when they get older. how might it get you to manage money at that age? we teamed up manage money at that age? we teamed up with one of the influences on social media to do it to engage with them. you have teamed up with the enemy, claire. well, trying to get the recognition that it isn't necessarily bad and we are not saying people should not do it. it isjust limiting saying people should not do it. it is just limiting and saying people should not do it. it isjust limiting and having the self—discipline to spend what you can afford and not spending what you cannot afford. claire, thank you very much indeed. advertising, it was ever thus, bonera social media is changing all that with one click to buy those bananas. you can just walk into a shop and buy bananas. what are the markets do in question are not doing markets again. all the markets have gone. in question are not doing markets again. all the markets have gonelj will do them in an hour. thank you

very much. good to have you with us. let's get more now on our main news story. prosecutors say they have sufficient evidence to charge two russian nationals with the nerve agent attack in salisbury. former russian spy sergei skripal and his daughter were poisoned with the nerve agent novichok in march. the suspects have been named as alexander petrov and ruslan boshirov, although it's believed these were aliases. police have tracked their movements from their arrival at gatwick, to a hotel in london, and then to salisbury, before departing the uk. let's speak to the conservative mp dominic grieve, who's chair of the intelligence and security committee. thank you for being with us. what do you make of all of the detail that this huge amount of detail and the faces of the suspect that we have suddenly been provided with today? the detail does not come as any great surprise, but what is useful

is that the security services and police have been able to obtain so much detail because of assiduous forensic examination, including the photographic evidence that goes with it. i have no doubt that my committee will have the opportunity of finding better aspects not able to put into the public domain. what it reinforces this was a state act by the russian state, losing its —— using its agents to kill people in another country with which it enjoys to dramatic relationships and is meant to be at peace, so this is a serious thing to do. what should be the ramifications? now we have all of that detail and pictures of the suspects and the prime minister, with we be ramping up the punishment of russia? i'm not sure that is the

right way forward because it is for the cabinet to make an assessment because the government took immediate action in response because it was already satisfied this was an act of the russian state. whether the further details make a difference to the level of punishment as you might put it, i'm not sure that is the case. what we do need to think about is whether there are preventative measures that we need to put in place to try and reduce the opportunities for russia and its agents behaving in this way. it is not something we can entirely ignore and i think the intelligence and security might go into the russia enquiry as to how it's done. russian apriljones stepping off at gatwick agent in the future, we should stop them coming into the country —— —— russian agents coming into gatwick airport. we would need to look at the status of the men

when they came in and the basis on which they came into the country or the claimed basis, those were all matters for the future, but there are issues which i do think need to be looked at and we need to have a better understanding of what else might be done. as i said in the chamber, it's impossible to cut ourselves off from another country and nor is that desirable but seeing as the russian state is to caving in this fashion we need to look and see what we can do to at least hinder them from operating in this way. to be honest it's very unlikely these two men, if they are the attackers, will ever face justice. they will not be extradited and they probably won't leave russia so they can probably never be arrested. that, i'm afraid is almost certainly the case and i have no doubt that think that the russians would give them up to face trial and the chances of getting them back probably zero.

this weight of evidence, is it useful in perhaps persuading some countries around the world who have not been as outright in their do nancy and of russia, perhaps as britain would have wanted —— denunciation of russia. it's fair to say that a number of countries took the view from an early stage when they realised where the agent could only possibly have come from that this was an act of russian, state organised terror. that's what it boils down to and they took action in support of us which was extremely good and we have reason to be grateful. there may be other countries where this extra evidence will act as a persuader but what we clearly faces a big challenge and this is a country which exists in an international rules —based system but frequently violent —— violated when it once did and that makes it a very difficult partner, or neighbour, rather than partner, with whom to live and it's time we woke up whom to live and it's time we woke up to the threat which the russians

pose for us in this respect. thank you so much for your time, dominic grieve, chair of the commons and intelligence security committee. well get a quick look at the weather now and tomasz has that for us at three minutes to four. for most of us today will turn to be a decent day with plenty of sunny spells on the way and in the sunshine it will feel relatively warm in the south but northern parts of the country, there's a change the way and we anticipate rain later in the day. this is a weather front approaching the western part of the country so northern ireland, western areas of scotland and hear today we will need our brollies at one point or another. let's have a look at the forecast for the second half of the afternoon and you can see it is raining across western scotland, just about moving through belfast, but elsewhere the weather is absolutely fine. maybe cloudy in one

or two areas but essentially sunny spells. through the course of the night the weather front moves through scotland and the many of us it's a clear night with some scattered cloud. 12 degrees is the overnight low and the pressure in the north, around seven for edinburgh. tomorrow the thinking is there will be increasing cloud around wales and the south—west of england and you can see the rain drifting through wales and possibly eventually into the west country but also in scotland and northern england we expect showers and some of them could be heavy and the winds we re of them could be heavy and the winds were coming from the north and it will feel cool, only 1a in belfast with the dry spot probably east anglia and the south—east at 21 degrees. on friday, low pressure, and we've been forecasting this were and we've been forecasting this were a while, that will establish itself around the north sea and quite a breeze across the north and that will send a lot of cloud and rain into eastern scotland, the borders, into eastern scotland, the borders, into north—east england as well, so

it could be really wet for a time on friday and elsewhere across the country, certainly belfast, wales, the midlands, further south the weather looks absolutely fine so getting away with another fine day in london for example at 19 celsius as expected on friday. the weather will turn a bit more unsettled as we go through the course of the weekend and it will turn cooler and we expect further spells of rain. not all the time. temperatures most of the time will be around the teens, especially around northern parts of the country. maybe bumping up towards the end of the weekend in london. goodbye. hello, you're watching afternoon live. today at a... the prime minister says two men suspected of carrying out the salisbury nerve agent attack work for russian military intelligence. the men have been named as alexander petrov and ruslan boshirov. the two individuals named by the police and cps are officers from the russian military intelligence service, also known as the gru. police have pieced together

the movements of the two men before and after the attack on sergei and yulia skripal. we now have sufficient evidence to bring charges in relation to the attack on sergei and yulia skripal in salisbury, and domestic and european arrest warrants have been issued for the two suspects and we will be seeking to circulate interpol red notices. russia's government say the names of the suspects mean nothing to them — britain has summoned russia's charge d'affaires in london. in other news, the former govenor of the bank of england says incompetent preparations for a possible "no—deal" brexit have undermined the uk's negotiating position. a revolutionary new treatment on the nhs for childhood leukaemia — using the body's own cells to fight it. coming up on afternoon live, all the sport with olly. and ryder cup captain thomas bjorn

has gone with experience with his wild card picks. poulter, garcia, sta nton wild card picks. poulter, garcia, stanton and casey will all face the us later this month. thanks. and tomasz shafernaker has all the weather. he has lots of experience. you are giving away my age! it is not bad across the uk. today, some sunshine. from tomorrow, northern parts of the country are becoming more unsettled. details in half an hour. also coming up — at a.30 on news nationwide, we're off to norwich, where bees have had a bumper yearfor honey production. hello, everyone — this is afternoon live. two russian nationals have been named as suspects in the attempted

murder of the former russian spy, sergei skripal, and his daughter yulia. police say there is sufficient evidence to charge ruslan boshirov and alexander petrov over the novichok attack in salisbury in march — and they are also linking them to the subsequent poisonings of dawn sturgess — who died — and charlie rowley. a european arrest warrant for the men has been issued but there's no chance of the pair being extradited, as that's prohibited by the russian constitution. scotland yard has provided extensive details about the attack on the skripals, and in the commons, the prime minister said british security services have established that both men are agents of the russian military intelligence service, the gru. richard galpin reports. these are the two men, both russian nationals, who are suspected of poisoning sergei and yulia skripal with the deadly nerve agent novichok, named as alexander petrov and ruslan boshirov,

although these are probably aliases. and the police investigation has video footage showing their movements from the moment they arrived at gatwick airport on march 2nd, two days before the poisoning. from gatwick, they travelled to east london, staying in a hotel where investigators found traces of novichok, although those traces soon faded. on saturday march 3rd, they travelled by train to salisbury, where it's alleged they carried out reconnaissance before returning to london. on sunday ath march, they again travelled to salisbury by train and were seen near the skripals' house just before midday. it's alleged this was around the time that novichok nerve agent was sprayed on the door handle. later that day, they were seen at heathrow airport, where they boarded an aeroflot flight to moscow. salisbury was soon turned into a major crime scene after it was discovered a nerve agent had been used to try to kill

the former russian military intelligence officer sergei skripal and his daughter, yulia, but they survived, and the investigation has gathered enough evidence to bring charges against the two suspects. today's announcement by the crown prosecution service marks the most significant development in this investigation. we now have sufficient evidence to bring charges in relation to the attack on sergei and yulia skripal in salisbury, and domestic and european arrest warrants have been issued for the two suspects and we will be seeking to circulate interpol red notices. and in the house of commons earlier today, another huge announcement, this time from the prime minister. the government has concluded that the two individuals named by the police and cps are officers from the russian military intelligence service, also known as the gru. the gru is a highly disciplined organisation with a well—established chain of command.

so this was not a rogue operation. it was almost certainly also approved outside the gru at a senior level of the russian state. but as for putting alexander petrov and ruslan boshirov on trial in this country, there is no prospect of that. russia does not extradite its own nationals who are accused of crimes in other countries. we can speak to our correspondent jon kay, who is in salisbury. what jon kay, who is in salisbury. is the reaction of peo; when what is the reaction of people there when they see these pictures released today of the two men who the police believed carried out that novichok attack on the streets of the city? for the last six months, all people around here have seen is that house. that was sergei skripal‘s house on the other side of the police tent is mac, they have

looked at the empty property, which is still a crime scene, and wondered how much the police really knew about what happened here. we have heard russia blamed, but people here wondered how much of a case there was, how much real evidence. that they have names, pictures, actual suspects? today, there is this blizzard of information — pictures, times, dates, cctv. and it is hard for people to take it all in. all of a sudden, they have time to look at these images of men on the streets of salisbury, men who are suspected of salisbury, men who are suspected of carrying out the attack here, and they are being asked to look at those faces and say, did you see these men that day or another day? did you see that perfume bottle between march, when the skripal ‘s we re between march, when the skripal ‘s were attacked, and when charlie rowley apparently found in a bin in salisbury in june, and rowley apparently found in a bin in salisbury injune, and where could it have been in between? people have been almost deluged with information and data today, which is in some ways reassuring because now at least they know what this investigation is

about, what the case is about. the unknown has been frustrating for them over the last six months. frustrating and of course damaging for businesses. so many of them have been hit hard by this incident. is salisbury getting back to normal now? it wasjust getting back to normal about three months after the attack on the skripals and business was beginning to pick up and people we re was beginning to pick up and people were reassured that nobody was going to be contaminated, and then of course, charlie rowley and dawn stu rg ess were course, charlie rowley and dawn stu rgess were accidentally contaminated by the novichok in that perfume bottle. she sadly died, and that hit everybody‘s confidence as well as affecting everybody personally. they felt sorry for her and her family, and personally. they felt sorry for her and herfamily, and that was a real knock the confidence as well as morale. there is a sense of progress and is reassurance today that this is the case and a few potential a nswe rs. is the case and a few potential answers. but as richard's piecejust said, there is no prospect

realistically at the moment that these two suspects will come to britain or be extradited or formally charged or would face any kind of criminal trial. so in a way, although this provides some answers, it doesn't provide any solutions. people here want to know, where does this go now? doesn't go anywhere? is this go now? doesn't go anywhere? is this the end of the road? and that will provide additional frustrations after the six months of frustrations they have already had if that is the case. jon kay, our correspondent in salisbury. i just want to bring case. jon kay, our correspondent in salisbury. ijust want to bring you a couple of lines we are hearing from downing street from the prime minister's spokesman. we know the russian charged d'affaires was summoned just after that announcement from the prime minister in the commons with details about the two suspects. we are hearing that the prime minister's spokesman has said that uk officials stressed

to the russian charge d'affaires the britain once those responsible for the poisoning brought tojustice, and britain is calling for a un security council meeting on thursday to update the security council on the novichok poisoning, presumably to provide these details that the police and the prime minister have been providing us with today. so downing street say britain is calling for a un security council meeting tomorrow to update the un on the novichok poisoning. our chief political correspondent vicki young is in westminster for us now. that announcement by the prime minister today with all the details was very dramatic. it was. it was a huge step forward from what we had known up until now, real progress in that police investigation with the

intelligence services. the prime minister's official spokesman afterwards said they felt they had exposed the role of these gru officials and they feel it was sanctioned at the highest level by the russian state. they also say that action previously taken in march fundamentally degraded the russian intelligence network in the uk. they will not go into specifics on that, of course, but they say they are stepping up efforts to dismantle those networks even further. we also know theresa may spoke to the american president donald trump last night about all of this. and as she said today in the house of commons, they will be pushing for the eu to bring in more sanctions to follow where the americans have gone. so there is more they feel they can do, but when it comes to any prosecution, the fa ct it comes to any prosecution, the fact that russia do not extradite their citizens in this way means

that this could come to a halt. although the prime minister's official spokesman said that if these two men were ever to step foot out of russia, the uk would continue to pursue them. the labour leader jeremy corbyn has come under attack from people like borisjohnson, the former foreign secretary, who accused him of weaselly language by not condemning the russian state today in the house of commons. afterwards, a labour spokesman said thejeremy afterwards, a labour spokesman said the jeremy corbyn's afterwards, a labour spokesman said thejeremy corbyn's approach all along has been about following the evidence. in march, he didn't feel the evidence was overwhelming. he has had security briefings including one today, and he feels the evidence has piled up. they now feel that he does accept what the prime minister is saying, that these were russian intelligence officers who did this, and they think more evidence now points to direct russian culpability. asked whether he would be willing to condemn and named

president putin, the spokesman said even theresa may didn't do that. but labour are saying they would back more steps which were proportionate and reasonable. vicki, thank you. scott lucas is professor of international politics at birmingham university, and hejoins us now via webcam. what more do you think britain can do to punish russia? in this specific case, we are close to as far as you can get with these two suspects, if they are in fact military intelligence officers of the gru. it is beyond impossible to get them extradited, with the russian constitution formally blocking that. therefore, from the law enforcement side of this, you will see britain continuing to produce evidence for the case built

up produce evidence for the case built up that this was a russian state ordered, russian state backed nerve agent attack on our soil. but in the wider sense, two things will happen. first, there is a line that britain will draw and i will hope allies will draw and i will hope allies will draw and i will hope allies will draw this as well, that this act cannot be repeated, that the russian state cannot act with impunity to carry out chemical nerve agent tax in our country or any other country. secondly, watch what happens in the united states because if the uk has taken the law enforcement lead, it is the americans who take the economic league. in august they passed the first stage of sanctions against russia over this case. they have given the russians 90 days to cooperate, to explain what has happened, probably in this case now to hand these two men over, or else russia will face a second larger set of sanctions in november. those us sanctions are what britain hopes will be part of a multilateral

economic spearhead, and that is where your punishment will come in against vladimir putin if he ordered this attack. the trouble is that in the past, mr putin doesn't seem to have been bothered by sanctions, does he? well, yes and no. the kremlin will always talk a good game about how they are being victimised by the west and how they can prevail against this, but the sanctions are having an effect on russia's economic position. the russian economy is not very strong and when you add these possible sanctions to those which have been imposed on moscow, for example over its annexation of crimea, they are taking a toll. but more important than the specific economic effect, you have the question of whether a line is going to be drawn over this attack. if you do not do anything, there is no reason for the kremlin not try this again if they are culpable. at the very least, the action which the uk and the us are taking and which others will probably take in forthcoming weeks

do draw that line, finally, against this type of action if not necessarily against russian aggression in other areas. as soon as this attack happened, the prime minister was quick to say this was the work of the russian state, but now there is always evidence that she and the have provided today, all the details on the pictures of the suspects and so on. is that useful for britain in trying to persuade people around the world who might be in doubt about whether this was the work of russia, that it definitely was russian intelligence agents who carried out the attack?|j was russian intelligence agents who carried out the attack? i think it is vital. the reason why the government made its strong assertion in march that it was highly likely that the russian state was responsible was because novichok, the nerve agent, was developed in the nerve agent, was developed in the soviet union, was held by russia and there were no known stocks of it elsewhere that could have been used. the kremlin said, how do you know it is thus? —— how do you know it is

thus? how do you know it is not porton down, the uk weapons facility, carrying this out, or maybe the americans did it, which was what the kremlin suggested. now that you have names and photographs and the identification of military intelligence, that makes this very human and very real not only for those in salisbury who suffered from it about for the rest of us who are trying to put this together and establish once and for all what went on. good to talk to you. professor scott lucas, professor of international politics at the university of birmingham. an emirates airline jetliner travelling from dubai has been quarantined at new york's jfk airport, amid reports of passengers feeling sick on board. the airline said 10 people had been taken ill, but us media said dozens were affected. officials say approximately 100

passengers, including some crew on the flight, complained of illness including cough and some with fever. police and health officials are responding to the situation, and emergency vehicles have been seen on the runway. more on that as we get it. the former bank of england governor mervyn king has branded britain's preparations for leaving the eu as "incompetent". lord king has previously spoken of his optimism about leaving the european union. but speaking to our business editor, simonjack, he said the lack of planning for the possibility of a no—deal brexit has undermined the government in the negotiations. our business editor, simonjack gave us more detail of what lord king told him. he is sympathetic to brexit, he was supportive. i originally sat down to talk to him about what happened ten years ago during the financial crisis for some of our coverage which we'll see next week. but the conversation turned to brexit and we spent a significant chunk of time talking about it. his view was that with six months to go and the risks of a no deal rising, with the current governor saying

they are uncomfortably high, he said things like talk of stockpiling the medicines and using the m20 as a car park and emergency energy matters reflected badly on those responsible for planning for that eventuality. it beggars belief that the sixth biggest economy in the world should get itself into that position. if a government cannot take action to prevent some of these catastrophic outcomes, whatever position you take on the eu, it illustrates a lack of preparation. it doesn't tell us anything about whether the policy of staying in the eu is good or bad. it tells us everything about the incompetence of the preparation for it. he said his major fear is that this will drag on for a long time. he doesn't feel either side are getting what they want and the referendum hasn't settled it, so he fears that this drowning out of the big issues will continue for some time. you're watching afternoon live, these are our headlines:p police say they have enough evidence evidence to charge two russian nationals — alexander petrov and ruslan boshirov

— with conspiracy to murder the former russian spy, sergei skripal, and his daughter — the prime minister says the suspects are russian military intelligence officers. investigators believe the alleged salisbury attackers are back in russia, and there is virtually no chance of them ever being extradited — britain has summoned russia's charge d'affaires in london. the former governor of the bank of england, lord king, has condemned the uk's preparations for brexit as "incompetent". and at a.30 on news nationwide, there's a buzz about norwich, where it's been a bumper year for honey. in sport, the european ryder cup captain thomas bjorn has named his four wild cards for the tournament later this month. he's gone with experience. ian poulter makes the 12—man team alongside sergio garcia, paul casey and henrik stenson. alastair cook says he is not a

respectable and had been considering international retirement for the past month. he says he will play at his best in the final test against india on friday. and the england rugby union team are going to play at st james's park next year. the one—off game against italy will be a warm up match for the world cup in japan. i will be back in 15 minutes with a full update. the bbc 5 live newsreader, rachael bland, who was widely praised for her podcast describing her treatment for breast cancer, has died. she was a0. her family said that her death had left a huge hole that they would never be able to fill, and that her work had helped to reduce the stigma around the disease. judith moritz reports. so i went to the doctor and she did the same thing, "nine times out of ten when we refer someone

to the breast clinic, it is benign, so try not to worry too much." as a broadcaster, rachael bland was used to reading the news, but it was her own story which became the most important. diagnosed with breast cancer, she chose to share herjourney. we thought we'd come back with a bang and talk about death! the reason that we're all terrified of our cancer coming back and getting worse and going down that road is that ultimately, we worry it's going to kill us. rachael wrote an award—winning blog, which she started after her diagnosis in 2016. and then with two others she launched you, me and the big c — a podcast to put the "can" into cancer. all three presenters have or had the disease and supported each other as well as their growing audience. i would not be able to talk or do or even function half the time if not for the support that she showed me. so i'm so grateful to her. i'm just so grateful to her for allowing me to be part of her life. i want it to be a party,

don't wear black. the women were frank and funny, talking about cancer in a fresh way, and they were so popular that yesterday they went to number one in the uk podcast charts. it confounded the expectations of the bosses who put it on air. she came to me with an idea to do a podcast that i thought was not going to work, and then i heard the first episode of it and thought it was the most important conversation i've ever heard about the subject. because it was so honest and so real, and funny in places as well. she wasn't frightened to make it funny, and that was why it worked so well. rachael's impact has been huge, with tributes everywhere from the london underground to the health secretary, who said her legacy is a testament to how much more needs to be done to beat cancer. she really wanted you, me and the big c to punch through. and there are many tributes

from those who worked alongside rachael at bbc radio 5 live. she really did cut loose and find her own voice and open up a conversation that other people perhaps could not find the right words for, but she managed to do that and did it in a really brave and bold way. this morning, rachael's death was announced on the station where she worked for 17 years. our beloved colleague, 5 live presenter and newsreader rachael bland has died this morning. amongst the tributes, the most poignant from her husband steve and their little boy freddie. at the end, they say even though her body was at its weakest, rachael's voice was at its strongest and most powerful and she will always be an inspiration. judith moritz, bbc news. french and british fishermen

are holding talks in london to try to avert further confrontations in the so—called scallop war. tensions flared last week when vessels from the two countries clashed off the coast of northern france — and stones and smoke bombs were lobbed at british boats. french fishermen have accused the british of depleting shellfish stocks in the area. it's being hailed as a turning point in the treatment of a rare form of childhood cancer and nhs patients in england will be the first in europe to benefit from it. car—t therapy uses the body's own immune cells to fight the particular form of leukemia in youngsters. its adoption by the nhs comes just ten days after it was cleared by the european medicines agency, one of the fastest funding approvals in the history of the nhs. dominic hughes reports. you're fine, i know you're fine.

they're some of the most vulnerable patients the health service looks after. children with cancer require special care. targeting the disease, while protecting the patient from the side—effects of treatment. the chief executive of nhs england, simon stephens, was in newcastle to witness that care first hand and to announce a ground—breaking treatment for children with leukaemia would now be available on the nhs. nhs patients are the first in europe to get this new treatment. and because we are at the beginning of a new era of personalised medicine, where cells from your own body are being reprogrammed to provide treatments for previously untreatable conditions. leukaemia is a form of blood cancer and, in most cases, is highly treatable. but some patients don't respond, so researchers have been looking at the potential for individualised therapies. this is cutting—edge science, and it's expensive. but within a few weeks, via the nhs in england,

it could be available to up to 30 children and young people who otherwise have run out of treatment options. doctors in newcastle could be among the first to prescribe the new therapy. it's an amazing feeling to know that we are in a position where we can say to families in the worst situations, we can offer you something else. and not only can we offer you that treatment but, hopefully, we will be able to offer it locally within the region. this is how the blood cancer treatment works. a blood sample is removed from the patient and then immune cells, known as t cells, are taken from the blood. these are then modified to detect and kill cancer cells. they're then grown in the laboratory and injected back into the patient. children with blood cancer, it's going to make a huge difference to them. but we can expect to see this type of therapy being rolled out in other blood cancers and in other types of cancers over the next few years. and for those families who have children battling cancer, today's announcement is a big moment.

in the back of any parent's mind when a child is diagnosed with cancer, there's always the fear of relapse. and to know there is another treatment available, should that happen, and we have seen it happen to many families we have been in contact with and got to know very well, then that is so reassuring for us. this announcement marks a big step forward for a form of therapy that many believe is game changing. after years of promise, personalised medicine is becoming a major weapon in the fight against cancer. dominic hughes, bbc news. time for a look at the weather. here's tomasz. my my first question to you is, how we had our summer? is it over? feels like it for some of us already across the north thomas temperatures struggling a bit. but let's look what is going to happen next week. this graphic is what we call air

mass, but that is a technical term. you don't need to worry about that. basically, it is the temperature of the air. obviously, it is warm towards the south here. it is cooler at the polls, and we live in this zone of climate where it chops and changes from warm to cool. over the next few days, we are going to see shots of cooler air moving into the uk. but noticed this distinct area of real ones developing across spain and into france and germany. some computer models are suggesting temperatures in excess of 30 degrees across parts of france. it is like the middle of summer. but this heatwave is very close to us and at this stage, about a week away, it is difficult to say whether the heatwave. here or whether it will merge into parts of the uk. so anybody who wants of summer, there isa anybody who wants of summer, there is a chance but at the moment it looks like these swirls of blue, the

cooler air, will win. it will certainly be winning across the northern half the uk. but the south may well get a spell of warmer weather at some point next week. may well get a spell of warmer weather at some point next weekm mightjust creep across the channel. meanwhile, we have been reporting on this terrible typhoon that hit japan. you have got some graphics representing that typhoon. yes, as its world towards japan over the space of five days. here it is. look how ferociously fast that storm is spinning. but then noticed once the cyclone makes landfall, or typhoon, it kind of just cyclone makes landfall, or typhoon, it kind ofjust falls apart. so it is like a heat engine, drawing its energy from the evaporating ocean surface. and then by the time it reaches land, the eye's energy is

cut off and then it falls apart. i like your sound effects. what is your forecast for the next few days? as we said, it is starting to feel more autumnal across northern parts of the uk. the rest of the week is going to be turning unsettled. there will be sunshine for some of us. it is not going to be all bad. you know the map i showed you of the blue and yellow? the blues are here and the oranges are down there. this is where we are seeing the weather systems coming in. so we have one weather front across the north of the country. this is what is happening across the uk. through the night, that weather front routes across scotland, bringing rain into northern england. in the south, it looks as though it is going to stay dry and not particularly cold in the south. tomorrow, it is turning more

u nsettled, south. tomorrow, it is turning more unsettled, particularly in the north. the winds are blowing out of the north—west, so we expect showers across parts of scotland and northern england. there is also a weather front which will be moving to ireland into wales and possibly into the midlands. so there could be a trail of cloud and rain further south. but the far south—east looks like it will get away with it on thursday. on friday, low pressure parks itself close to the north sea coast of england. it will affect eastern scotland down to the borders into north—east england. so we are expecting some rate. it could be heavy here for a time. an increasing breeze as well. the further west and the further south you are, the better the weather will be. so once again in the south, if you are living here, it is going to be bright. whereas on the north sea coast, barely making the mid—teens.

and the weekend will remain quite changeable. it will stay cool, particularly across the northern half of the uk. temperatures in some areas will struggle. but in the south, it looks as though in london, temperatures could be picking up a bit. but the prospects of warm weather in the south are still some time away and it will not happen until well into next week. if you are travelling across europe, say germany or france, it looks as though things are going to be hotting up, that last summer shout. police say they have enough evidence to charge two russian nationals — alexander petrov and ruslan borshov — with conspiracy to murder the former russian spy, sergei skripal, and his daughter. the prime minister says the suspects are russian military intelligence officers.

investigators believe the alleged salisbury attackers are back in russia, and there is virtually no chance of them ever being extradited. britain has summoned russia's charge d'affaires in london. the former governor of the bank of england, lord mervyn king, claims incompetent brexit preparations have undermined the uk's negotiating position. lord king, who supported leave during the referendum, warns britain could have to follow eu rules it had no say in making. the nhs says children in england will be able to get a revolutionary new treatment for leukaemia — after striking a deal with the treatment‘s manufacturers. car—t is a cutting—edge treatment for aggressive leukaemia when other drugs have failed. sport now on afternoon live with olly foster. news of the european team for the

ryder cup. thomas bjorn is the captain and has been travelling the world looking at his players, monitoring results and he had four wild card picks to make and this tournament is in france in three weeks' time just tournament is in france in three weeks' timejust outside tournament is in france in three weeks' time just outside paris and he has picked his wild cards and gone with experience. they almost pick themselves. ian poulter, who has given us fantastic performances in the five ryder cup sin which is participated. he's played in 18 matches and lost just participated. he's played in 18 matches and lostjust four of participated. he's played in 18 matches and lost just four of those matches. never lost a singles match. so will we see some more of that just outside of paris at the end of this month? he certainly turns it on the big occasion. thomas bjorn says he isa the big occasion. thomas bjorn says he is a special person but was even more glowing about sergio garcia. this is slightly surprising and he

can think himself fortunate to be going at all. he won the masters last year, of course but has missed the cut of the last five majors this will his ninth ryder cup but thomas bjorn says you have to look at surgery in certain ways, the heartbeat of the team. it's like a football tea m heartbeat of the team. it's like a football team going without their captain. he makes everybody around him better. the other wild card picks are henrik stenson and paul casey. you could look at the likes of matt wallace not in there who won a tournament recently. he will be a bit hard done by. eddie pepperell as well. but the other eight have qualified by right, the top four on the european money list, then the top four europeans in the world rankings. but there are five rookies in their which is why i think he has gone with the experienced wild card picks and when you look at how strong the american team is, fa ntastically strong the american team is,

fantastically strong, and overnight jim furyk picked his wild cards and has one left to pick but tiger woods is going to play as well phil mickleson. in cricket, alastair cook, so much written and said about him since he announced his retirement from test cricket but he's been saying today that he has been thinking about giving it up for months. it coincides with a real dip inform, months. it coincides with a real dip in form, difficult ashes over the winter and a big knock out there but a realdip in winter and a big knock out there but a real dip in form, certainly below paras a real dip in form, certainly below par as he has been in the series against india which they won but he did not contribute much in the runs department. he said he cried when he told his team—mates last weekend when they sealed the series that he was going to finish his career internationally and will carry on playing with essex and has extended his contract with his county side but his former —— his form has certainly been below par and he says

he has lost his edge so this final test against india starts on friday and that will be his last but he says there will always be somebody to fill his shoes as an opener. i am definitely replaceable. there will be another very good player coming along, iam be another very good player coming along, i am sure. with the same attribute showers you? that's not for me to say. but it's very hard when you talk about this and you have another game to play and i'm determined to play well in this game and it's nice to have these kind words, as if i have died and i will never be around again, but it has been a surreal couple of days, but let's play well and try to win a—1. joe wilson asking the questions. the head coach, eddie jones, joe wilson asking the questions. the head coach, eddiejones, says danny cipriani still has an international

future after the fly half was fined for common assault and resisting arrest. he made a first start for his country in a decade over the summer but was arrested injersey outside a nightclub on a pre—season tour with gloucester and was fined by his club as well as the magistrates on the island and given a warning by the rfu. jones says we never close the door on anyone and everybody makes mistakes and he realises he has done the wrong thing and we move on from that. and that is all your sport. now on afternoon live, let's go nationwide, and see what's happening around the country in our daily visit to the bbc newsrooms around the uk. let's go to steve humphrey in dorchester, with news of campaigners who have lost a high court battle over plans to reorganise dorset‘s nhs. and in norwich is amelia reynolds, where bees in the east of england have had a bumper yearfor honey production.

so steve, this is the biggest change for the nhs in your region since its inception. yes, they call it the biggest change the way the health services are in dorset since the nhs was set up in 19a8 and it will affect everybody from here in dorchester up to bournemouth and poole and one of the biggest talking points has been over the plan to close accident and emergency and emergency services in paul hospital and transfer them to bournemouth hospital. today i've been talking to people in dorset to get their reaction to the fact that today the high court has signalled that the big changes can go ahead. what do people like us do if we have

to travel all the way to bournemouth. for accident to happen and somebody go to bournemouth, let alone local people with emergencies, i think it is really bad. that is devastating because losing the facilities in polle will have an impact, and i've just facilities in polle will have an impact, and i'vejust had a baby and to have to go to bournemouth to have your child will be horrendous, especially for our community and the people in swanage. the campaigners who took the case to the high court say they believe the changes to health care in dorset will put lives at risk. i've been talking to debbie monkhouse from the defender dorset nhs campaign group. we are really shocked. those of us who sat through the hearing witness that there were no practical answers to many of the issues we raised and the primary concern for us is that dorset a&e is calculated from the report that 180

residents a year who currently arrive at polle by ambulance are at risk of dying as a result of these dangerous plans. those are the plans, but is there clear evidence about what the motivation is behind the changes? three things. one is financial. if they don't make the changes they will rack up a deficit of £158 million by 2021 and the other thing they want to sort out his staffing issues and they also say they want to deliver better clinical outcomes. i've been talking to the man in charge of the dorset clinical commissioning group. doing nothing is not an option for dorset. everyone is well aware of the challenges that the nhs face and we feel we need to take some of these difficult conversations and make difficult conversations and make difficult decisions as a result of it. so, some massive changes to implement. dorset nhs is the second

biggest employer in the county with some 15,000 people and they think it will take until 2023 to make all of the changes that they are proposing. steve, many thanks. steve humphrey there. and amelia reynolds, in knowledge —— norwich. a bumper year for the bees and honey production. is that because of the lovely warm weather? it is absolutely that and it means that the bees can get out every day and fly and collect nectar, so that is quite simple, if there is heavy rain or the temperature dips below 10 degrees, the bees do not like it and they tend to stay in the hive but not many cool days or rainy days this summerand isa many cool days or rainy days this summer and is a bumper honey production. we have been to one beekeeper in suffolk who has 17 hives, about 1 million beekeeper in suffolk who has 17 hives, about1 million bees and even though he said it was a cold winter

and things started slowly the summer has more than made up it and he thinks production is by about a third and he estimates he will be able to produce about 3000 jars of honey and also says it will taste particularly nice this year as well. what i've noticed when i have been extracting is they have brought in quite a lot of borage, blackberry and quite a lot of honeydew. and you can tell that by the colour? the borage is very pale, white, the blackberry is very golden amber honeydew is a very dark brown and very strong tasting. i must say i don't like arnie at all, so never mind. never mind. you can't win them all. a bumper year for mind. never mind. you can't win them all. a bumper yearfor honey production, but what about the bees themselves? we often hear they are in trouble generally. we do, and they are. the beekeeper we heard from is doing his bit. and in two

and a half years he has raised a number of colonies from six up to 80 injust two number of colonies from six up to 80 in just two and number of colonies from six up to 80 injust two and a number of colonies from six up to 80 in just two and a half years which is pretty impressive. there is still a decline in what are called feral or wild bees like you might find in buildings or under roofs and that is because there is pressure on the habitat they need to forage from and those pressures are particularly bad in east anglia and they need hedgerows, flowers, fruit trees and interestingly experts say it is the rural bees that struggle more than the urban bees. beekeepers are blaming pesticides used by farmers and there are lots of specific diseases that do affect the bees. there have been problems across the country, but as far as the summer is concerned and honey production, and i know you are not a fan, but it is good news. i am sorry about that. amelia, thank you for being with us,

and many thanks to steve humphrey with the latest on those nhs changes in dorset as well. if you'd like to see more on any of those stories, you can access them via the bbc i player, and a reminder that we go nationwide every weekday afternoon at a:30pm on afternoon live. thomas cook have confirmed high levels of e—coli were found at the egypt hotel where a british couple died last month. the tour operator revealed the results of independent tests conducted at the steigenberger aqua magic hotel in hurghada in egypt. thomas cook say the results do not shed "any light on the still unexplained cause of death" ofjohn and susan cooper. the company says it's putting together a compensation package for those who say they became ill while staying at the hotel. an emirates passengerjet travelling from dubai has been

quarantined at new york's jfk airport, amid reports of passengers feeling sick on board. officials say approximately 100 passengers, including some of the crew, complained of feeling ill, with coughs and high temperatures. pictures posted on social media show ambulances lined up on the runway, next to the aircraft. police and experts from the centres for disease control and prevention are investigating the cause. senators in the united states have begun questioning top executives from twitter and facebook, about their efforts to tackle disinformation and meddling before the us mid—term elections. twitter‘s chief executive jack dorsey said his platform was "unprepared and ill—equipped" for the "weaponisation" of debate. in his prepared opening remarks jack dorsey, said the spread of fake news was a threat to his compa ny‘s business. we found ourselves prepared and ill—equipped for the immensity of

the problems we acknowledged. abuse, harassment, trawl armies, propaganda through robots and human coordination, misinformation campaigns and divisive filter bubbles. that is not a healthy public square. worse, a relatively small number of bad faith actors we re small number of bad faith actors were able to gain twitter to have an outsize impact. our interests are aligned with the american people and this committee. if we do not find scalable solutions to the problems we are seeing we lose business and we are seeing we lose business and we continue to threaten the original privilege and liberty with which we created twitter in the first place. maryam is here and in a moment she will be telling us what's hot and what's not in the business news. first a look at the headlines on afternoon live. police say they have enough

evidence to charge two russian nationals — alexander petrov and ruslan borshov — with conspiracy to murder the former russian spy, sergei skripal, and his daughter. the prime minister says the suspects are russian military intelligence officers. investigators believe the alleged salisbury attackers are back in russia, and there is virtually no chance of them ever being extradited. britain has summoned russia's charge d'affaires in london. the former governor of the bank of england, lord king, has condemned the uk's preparations for brexit as "incompetent" here's your business headlines on afternoon live. the pound has gained strongly against both the dollar and the euro following reports that the uk and germany have made progress towards a brexit deal. sterling rose nearly 1% against the us currency and 0.5% against the euro after the reports on financial news service bloomberg. rbs is closing a further 5a royal bank of scotland branches

in england and wales with the loss of 258jobs. the branches will be shut injanuary 2019 and are in addition to 162 branch closures already announced this year. the bank said the closures are a result of the collapse of plans to float off a new "challenger bank" under the name williams & glyn. new car registrations in august rose by 23.1% to 9a,09a compared to the same month last year, according to the society of motor manufacturers and traders. one on twelve cars sold were hybrid, plug—in hybrid and pure electric cars, smmt says. i know you like bringing us good news and you have good news about the services sector. it is important and makes up 80% of the economy are talking about things like restau ra nts, talking about things like restaurants, hotels, banks, shops, soa restaurants, hotels, banks, shops, so a huge part of the economy. the latest purchasing managers index on the sector,

which makes up about 80% of the economy, saw many companies working at capacity with full order books. about our people have expressed worry about the impact of brexit over the coming year, but that is reassuring news there. the pound also doing quite well and it seems to happen is that it reacts to what happens with brexit. we were talking about the pound weakening earlier today and that is what has happened over the last few days with a weaker pound but now we have had reports from the bloomberg service suggesting that the german government is happy to accept a less ha rd government is happy to accept a less hard agreement on future trade ties. these are only reports that the pound has changed significantly and risen against the dollar and euro so let's digester all of that. joining us now is shanti kelemen,

senior portfolio manager, at coutts bank. let's talk about the pound because early on we were e—mailing each other about how weak the pound was that we have seen a shift in the last hour or so. yes, we saw the news come out that the uk and germany might be open to not having every single detail agreed by march which the market rightly saw as a positive because it is a complex issue and it will be hard to sort out everything in that time period. i think the economics are also very important when you think about the pound because we have fairly sluggish economic growth in the uk relative to places like the us. and that means it weighs on the currency as well and we have low interest rates which means if you hold cash and you're putting money into sterling, the interest is not outweigh the inflation in the economy, so those factors continue to weigh on sterling in addition to

the political news we have, which changes on a daily basis. we have also had pressure on big oil companies today, so talk through what is going on in the markets. the oil price was down a bit today. there is data coming out tomorrow on the supplies of oil held in infantry in the us and those have increased in recent weeks and had expected that they will increase tomorrow. there's also a threat to the oil field, but that looks to have passed. the overall oil companies tend to trade weaker when oil is lower but longer term the issue for oil companies is how they diversify away from oil and become more general energy companies in natural gas and renewables, and also how they will keep investing in delivering supplies to consumers while keeping the costs low and they

have cut expenditure dramatically and they will be interesting to see how they increase production without spending too much going forward. let's talk briefly about the service sector showing signs of positivity but worries about the future. yes, and in the uk, it's a very global, outward looking economy and we have great financial services in addition to accountancy, legal issues, and i think the strong growth in the service sector will be the economy going strongly, and china is going ata going strongly, and china is going at a good pace, so as long as we have the global economy, the uk will follow that and continue to see reasonable results from that sector. thank you very much indeed. a quick look at how the markets have close, but the ftse is down 1%, the pound slightly stronger against the dollar

and against the euro. that's it from me. maryam, thank you. nearly 30 years ago, tracey edwards skippered the first all—female crew in a round the world yacht race. but when she discovered the boat they had used — the maiden — was abandoned and rotting away, she vowed to rescue and restore it. now she is about to lead a crew on a new global adventure. our correspondentjohn maguire has been to meet them. the last time maiden sailed out of the hamble boat yard after a major refit, she was about to circumnavigate the globe and become a record—breaker. her all—female crew was the first to complete the whitbread round the world race and her skipper, tracy edwards, became a household name. that was 1990. then last year, tracy discovered maiden was abandoned in the seychelles and made plans to bring her back to life. it's just an incredible feeling, really. it's very overwhelming. when we first got her back to the uk she was in such a dreadful state.

and we never lost hope, but there were times when we did think, "what are we doing? !" since then, she's been made ready for a new global adventure. this time a three—year voyage working with charities to raise awareness of education for girls. the full—time crew will have guest skippers, some of the best sailors in the world. dee caffari has just returned from the volvo ocean race. i grew up with pictures of this yacht doing a whitbread round the world race. and now having come back from this edition of the volvo ocean race to speak to tracy and she said, you know, "can you help me out?" i was like, "yes, with pleasure." and it's lovely to be able to have a great group of girls that have got this three—year project ahead of them. you know, and just help them and impart the knowledge that i've learned along the way to see if it can help them. four women will make up the permanent crew. amelia is the youngest atjust 21. i saw maiden come back on the ship and be lowered off in southampton. and i was out sailing and i thought, "oh my gosh, i've got to sail on that boat."

so i started trying to get involved in the project and hassling tracy, offering to volunteer to scrub the hull! and six months later tracy decided she wanted to employ me. and for tilly, who comes from finland, and clearly has no problem with heights, the maiden project gives her a once—in—a—lifetime opportunity. obviously the whole three—year trip around the world is pretty amazing for any sailor. but my background academically is actually in human rights. and i would never in a million years have thought that i could combine my two passions. but when this came up it was a no—brainer. the refit has seen maiden changed from a racing yacht to one that's slightly more comfortable and with the latest equipment. so after three decades, maiden is ready to set sail once again. even in her original colours. ahead of her this time, not a race, but an equally important voyage. john maguire, bbc news, hampshire. that's it from your afternoon live team

for today, next the bbc news at five with huw edwards. time for a look at the weather. here's tomasz shafernaker. for most of us today will turn to be a decent day with plenty of sunny that's our forecast the second half of the afternoon and it's raining across the western isles and some of that rain is moving through belfast where is the rest of the country has dry weather with those sunny spells. tonight there will be a bit of rain moving through the lake district and parts of northern england but that's pretty much it and a few showers in the western isles. cool in the north, and double figures across the cell. tomorrow watch the weather go downhill across wales and the south

west with increasing cloud, rain moving in and we expect showers across scotland and into the lake district. some of them could be heavy and it will feel cool with wind coming in from the north, 15 degrees, but dry in the south—east, up degrees, but dry in the south—east, up to 21 in london. today at 5pm: two russian nationals are named as suspects in the poisoning of former spy sergei skripal, and his daughter yulia. after an extensive study of cctv and other images scotland yard says there's sufficient evidence to charge the two men identified by the authorities. it came six months after the skripals were poisoned by a russian—made nerve agent in salisbury, prompting a huge international outcry. the two individuals named by the police and cps are officers from the russian military intelligence service. also known as the gru. the men have been named as alexander petrov and ruslan boshirov, whose movements have

been traced in detail by the british authorities. four months people here in salisbury have had so