this is bbc news, i'm carole walker. the headlines at 11:00pm: two russian nationals are named as suspects in the poisoning of former spy sergei skripal and his daughter yulia in salisbury. after an extensive study of cctv and other images, scotland yard says there would be sufficient evidence to charge the two men, named as alexander petrov and ruslan boshirov. the two individuals named by the police and cps are officiers from the russian military intelligence services, also known as the gru. top members of donald trump's administration are so alarmed by the president's behavior that they are actively working to undermine him, an anonymous senior official has written in the new york times. also this hour: britain and france reach a deal over scallop fishing in the english channel. it comes after tensiones boiled over last month when fishermen from both countries clashed at sea.

and at 11:30pm, we will be taking an in—depth look at the papers with our reviewers, lucy fisher from the times and the political commentator lance price. stay with us for that. good evening. after months of detailed investigation, police have identified two russian nationals as suspects in the attempted murder of the former russian spy sergei skripal and his daughter yulia. the men, using the names ruslan boshirov and alexander petrov, are thought to be officers from russia's military intelligence service. mr skripal and his daughter were poisoned with the nerve agent novichok in salisbury in march this year. but moscow has denied any knowledge of the men, as our security correspondent gordon corera reports. these two russians now stand accused

of the salisbury nerve agent attack. it is claimed that in march they deployed the nerve agent which poisoned sergei and yulia skripal, and which months later accidentally contaminated charlie rowley, and killed dawn stu rg ess. police say they came to the country as alexander petrov and ruslan boshirov, but those are thought to be false names, used by two undercover operatives. 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. the two men, police say, carried out a remarkably sophisticated attack. they flew in from moscow, and are seen here in salisbury, shortly after it is alleged they smeared nerve agent on sergei skripal‘s front door. and this was what is believed to have been their weapon — the perfume bottle used to carry the novichok nerve agent. today's announcement by the crown prosecution service marks the most significant in the 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. we'll be seeking to circulate interpol red notices. prosecutors say they have enough evidence to charge the two with conspiracy to murder

sergei skripal, attempted murder of sergei skripal, his daughter yulia and detective sergeant nick bailey, a police officer who went to their house, use and possession of novichok contrary to the chemical weapons act, and causing grievous bodily harm with intent to yulia skripal and nick bailey. so what is the gru? based in this building, it is the intelligence arm of the russian military, with a long track record of undercover operations around the world. undeeradimir putin, seen here visiting its headquarters, observers say it has become even more aggressive, accused of hacking america's 2016 election, operations in ukraine, and now using nerve agent in britain. its prime target in salisbury was sergei skripal, himself a former officer in the gru. sergei skripal, it is thought, was targeted by former colleagues in the gru because they viewed him as a traitor for working for the british secret service, mi6. today was about much more than just

naming two individuals, but also, in the government's eyes, exposing the role of the gru. and the prime minister made clear that, as well as the public accusation, british intelligence would be asked to do more to counter the gru's activities out of sight. today, russia's deputy ambassador was summoned to the foreign office. moscow has said it doesn't recognise the names of the two men accused. the british government acknowledges there is no real chance they will be extradited, but it will be hoping that today increases the pressure on moscow. gordon corera, bbc news. as we heard, more than 250 detectives have been working on the investigation, and they combed through 11,000 hours of cctv footage to identify the attackers. in the process, they have also taken more than 1,400 statements. our home affairs correspondent daniel sandford looks at the scale and depth of the investigation. this was the moment on the first friday in march that two men,

calling themselves alexander petrov and ruslan boshirov, arrived at gatwick on a flight from moscow. after six months of painstaking work, detectives believe the men used this hotel in east london to spend their first night in britain, before travelling by train down to salisbury on a reconnaissance mission that saturday afternoon. detectives want anyone who saw them that day between 2:00pm and az30pm to come forward. the next day, sunday, the day of the attack, they returned to salisbury, and were caught on cctvjust before 12:00pm on wilson road. that image was recorded just moments before the attack, because from here, it is just a short walk to sergei skripal‘s house, where detectives think the two men used a perfume dispenser to pump the nerve agent, a novichok, onto the front door. that looks like the perfect kind of vessel to have applied some form of agent, through a pump,

it's a gel or a liquid, onto the door of the skripals‘ home, which is what has contaminated sergei and then yulia. an hour and a half later, already contaminated from theirfront door, sergei and yulia skripal drove into town. they had a drink in the mill pub, and after lunch at zizzi's, were found seriously ill on a park bench at 4:15pm. they very nearly died, while the suspects walked calmly back to the station, took the train to london, and flew out of heathrow at 10:30pm that night to moscow, safely out of reach. by now, detective sergeant nick bailey had also become contaminated. the fake perfume bottle police think the men used had a specially adapted nozzle, and was full of novichok. it was found injune in this counterfeit nina ricci packaging by charlie rowley. he thinks it may have been in a charity collection bin. his partner, dawn sturgess, died after spraying herself

with the bottle, and tonight charlie rowley said of the suspects, i want to see them brought tojustice. and the leader of salisbury council is also desperate to see a trial of those who carried out the novichok attack. it was reckless, it was irresponsible, it was criminal. and i hope, however unlikely, that these people will be brought tojustice. six months on, the quiet city of salisbury is still suffering, both economically and psychologically. even the grass where the skripals were found has had to be relayed, because of contamination, and the chief medical officer was still advising residents today not to pick up any strange objects. daniel sandford, bbc news, salisbury. earlier i spoke to our moscow correspondent steve rosenberg, who told me that the effect of the sanctions that have been imposed on russia already, in the wake of the attack, is starting to be felt.

ido i do get the impression that, in the last few weeks, perhaps, you do get the feeling that sanctions are starting to bite. and there is concern here about the next wave of us sanctions, which are expected in less tha n us sanctions, which are expected in less than three months‘ time. now, if these are announced, this could really deal a blow to the russian economy. and i think there is a concern that that could affect the national currency, the ruble. so although you hear a lot of bravado from the russians, saying that sanctions have an affected us, i think there is a feeling now that things are getting quite serious here in terms of the effects sanctions may have in the coming months. we can speak now to sir tony brenton, a former british ambassador to moscow. hejoins me down the line from cambridge. thank you very much indeed for talking to us. we heard there from steve rosenberg that the russians are essentially dismissing what the

prime minister set out today. but it isa prime minister set out today. but it is a pretty serious accusation for a british prime minister, to say that she believes that these two man were directed by the russian state to carry out this attack. yes, it is, but it is not an unfamiliar accusation, of course. we made exactly the same accusation in regards to the murder of litvinenko, when i was ambassador. the russians are denying this, as they deny that, and there is no sign they are going to give way on this point. so what are the options for the uk? it‘s going to be very, very difficult indeed to bring these two men to justice. well, what is obviously going on here, again as in the case of litvinenko, is that we are hoping that the west, we, the americans, will take actions that demonstrate to the russians that this sort of thing is not worth doing. the price is much higher than isjustified by

the result. in the case of litvinenko, we plainly got that wrong, in that they have done it again. we will see with regard to the much more serious range of sanctions and the much more serious range of expulsions which have happened this time, which i‘m pretty sure have come as a substantial shock to the russians. the degree of western unity and forced this time has been much greater than last time round. theresa may talked about effo rts round. theresa may talked about efforts to try to dismantle the military intelligence service, which is now believed to be behind this attack. is that something that she has a realistic prospect of actually achieving? i don't think i has a realistic prospect of actually achieving? i don't thinki heard her say that. i mean, obviously we need to defend ourselves against the activities of the gru. i think there‘s little prospect of actually effectively altering the way russia organises itself and its intelligence services. what we can do, and have been doing quite effectively. again, all those

expulsions earlier this year are a demonstration of how thoroughly we knew which ostensibly russian diplomats were gru or fsb or other intelligence agents and which were not. and one of the reasons why the action was so successful is that an awful lot of our allies seize the opportunity to throw out people whom they knew were intelligence agents. and is there scope for the action along those? i would guess that it is probably pretty limited. i think we cleared the stables are pretty thoroughly last time round. so what is obviously coming now, and indeed the government said this, is an effort to strengthen western sanctions. the americans have already gone a long way down this route. we are about to try and encourage europeans to go further along the same way as the americans. it is questionable how far we can ta ke it is questionable how far we can take the europeans, because a number of major european countries are obviously quite keen to re—establish some sort of normality in their relations with russia. and overall

this lies the overwhelming point that, given all the sanctions that we have imposed since 2014, following ukraine and all the subsequent outrages, the russians have sat very firmly, and there is no evidence they have affected russian policy one jot. where does this leave relations between the uk and russia ? this leave relations between the uk and russia? 0h, awful. i mean, as bad as they have ever been in worse probably than russia‘s relations with any other country, which is one reason, i suspect, with any other country, which is one reason, isuspect, why with any other country, which is one reason, i suspect, why the skripal attack happened here. now, there are obvious reasons why those relations are going to be kept very cold for a while to come. what we, the uk, as a major country, have serious business to do with russia. 0ver what happens in syria, for example, what happens in regard to iran. there is real business to be done here, and sooner or later we are going to find a way back from the current deep—freeze between us and the russians to something approaching normalcy again. thank you very much indeed for talking to us this evening. labour‘s parliamentary party has agreed to adopt the international

definition and examples of antisemitism, without any caveats. eight mps voted against adopting it, and 12 spoiled their ballots. it comes a day after the ruling national executive also adopted the code, but added a proviso that free speech on israeli and palestinian issues would be protected. britain and france have agreed the principles of a deal, a week after violent clashes between scallop fishermen from the two countries. some 40 french boats clashed with five uk vessels last week when the dispute erupted about rights to fish scallops off the french coast. the french navy is on standby to intervene to prevent further violence. 0ur environment correspondent claire marshall reports from brixham in devon. heading out from brixham today, a very different boat from the huge dredgers that left from this same harbour last week and clashed with french fishermen. we were taken to a secret location with divers that gather scallops by hand.

they showed us their technique. there‘s no large machinery involved. they select the right ones and leave the rest. there is another way to get scallops that leaves the sea bed intact, and the growing success of businesses like this shows that more and more people are caring about how their scallops are fished. if you take too much, there‘s going to be nothing left. if you don‘t leave enough breeding stock to breed, then you can‘t keep fishing. and this so—called scallop war is about dredging, industrial boats that catch huge amounts. the british were fishing legally, but french fishermen say they‘ll leave them with no catch in the bay de seine this year. this blue boat is a 200 ton british trawler crashing into a french boat. british fishermen say these smaller vessels deliberately got in their way. it took four hours of negotiations, but a deal of sorts was done. no uk vessels will be allowed into the bay

until the first of october. there will be compensation, though, for smaller ships. i‘m very pleased that we‘ve negotiated a deal that satisfies the honour of both sides, that our fishermen will be fishing where they want to fish, the larger vessels and the smaller vessels. and from the first of october, that bay de seine fishery is going to be open. this is brixham harbour tonight. locally caught scallops are being sorted. there‘s scepticism about the plan. the level of compensation wasn‘t decided. that‘s down to a summit in paris on friday. it‘s down to the amount. it‘s down to the amount, yeah. do they think the french will pay a lot of money? nope! all british scallop boats have been asked to voluntarily stay away from the contested area until a formal deal is signed. so at the moment, it‘s up to the skippers whether or not to comply.

claire marshall, bbc news, brixham. the headlines on bbc news: two russian intelligence officers are named as suspects in the poisoning of former spy sergei skripal and his daughter yulia in salisbury. top members of donald trump‘s administration are so alarmed by the president‘s behaviour that they are actively working to undermine him, an anonymous senior official writes in the new york times. labour‘s parliamentary party agrees to adopt the international definition and examples of anti—semitism without any caveats. the personal views of a senior white house aide have been published in the new york times, which reveal in detail the apparent inner workings of the oval office. the author of the opinion piece, who wishes to remain anonymous, said, president trump is facing a test to his presidency unlike any faced by a modern american leader. here is a little more of what was written.

the author added: and then this from the writer: well, the president himself was meeting a group of his sheriffs tonight, and he spoke out in response with this reaction. wii has the dash we have somebody in what i call the new york times, saying that he is a part of the resista nce saying that he is a part of the resistance within the trump administration. this is what we have to deal with. the dishonest media, it you people deal with it as easy asido it you people deal with it as easy as i do not it really is a disgrace.

i will say this, nobody has done what this administration has done in terms of getting things past and getting things through. so when you tell me about some anonymous source within the administration, probably who is failing and probably here for all of the wrong reasons. and the new york times is failing. if i weren‘t here, i believe the new york times probably wouldn‘t even exist. chris buckler is in washington for us. even by the turbulent standards of this white house, this is really something. yeah, it is quite a read when you look at it. it talks about the white house in complete dysfunction, it suggests that there are people specifically try to frustrate president trump, not because they are concerned about specifically the politics of the administration as a whole, but as they are concerned about his instincts. this is someone who specifically says that they are not the resistance of the land. they are there as they are a republican, they

area there as they are a republican, they are a conservative and believe in all of those principles, but actually they believe that president trump is not reflecting the views of the party. when you read some of it it is amazing. they say his impulses are generally anti trade and antidemocratic. they described his leadership style as impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective. they talk about repetitive rents and make the point that some eight have been cast as villains in the media went in fact they have gone to great lengths to keep bad decisions content lengths to keep bad decisions co nte nt of lengths to keep bad decisions content of the white house and americans should know that there are adults in the room try to prevent all of this happening. like i said, all of this happening. like i said, a remarkable read. the things we have to point out again is that it is anonymous. that has angered the white house. there has been a statement from sarah sanders within the last few minutes, she says that the last few minutes, she says that the individual behind this piece has that —— has chosen to deceive, rather than support the duly elected

president of the united states. they are not putting their country first, but themselves first and the ego ahead of the american people and they say this coward should do the right thing and resign. is also worth saying that within literally the last few minutes, the president himself has been tweaked it and tweeted one word, the word treason with a passion mark after it. —— questioned mark. —— question mark. trying to dismiss this but also describing it as treason. this is a serious issue if indeed it is true that there is someone in the white house working to thwart the president and presumably, the new york times would not have published this unless it was pretty confident that this was genuine, that it was authentic. they make very clear that as far as the opinion department of the new york times goes, they are

aware of who this individual is, that they are a senior member of leadership. in some ways, what makes this doubly damaging to the white house is that it follows the extracts that work released yesterday of bob woodward‘s new book, the famed journalist involved in revealing some of the watergate scandal —— watergate scandal. he has written a book and is looking at what is happening inside the white house. if you look at this editorial it backs up some of his statement. he claimed that they were removing documents from the desk in the oval 0ffice documents from the desk in the oval office to make sure that donald trump didn‘t sign them, that they would try to thwart what he was doing, a real attempt to try and avoid him. i have to say again, the president has tweeted in the last day or so of that is untrue, he has tweeted for example, statements from general kelly, the white house chief of staff, from general mattis,

denying pacific things, saying that a question his ability and he himself. nonetheless, all of this builds to the suggestion that there isa builds to the suggestion that there is a dysfunctional white house and thatis is a dysfunctional white house and that is very bad for the white house itself. certainly, you saw president trump addressing what he described asa trump addressing what he described as a gutless editorial, he was angry but it will lead to questions about what exactly is happening in and around the oval office. in the. for all of the turbulence we have been hearing about, this clearly is going to make the atmosphere inside that building behind you even more difficult, even more turbulent. yeah, and people will be fundamentally looking over their shoulders, trying to work out who has been leaking what information to bob woodward, i think now the big focus will be who is the senior official who has said this? i have sent this statement number of times and what strikes me from sarah

sanders‘ comment is they say that he is not putting the country first, referring to this individual, we don‘t know whether it is a man or woman, they simply think it is a man. they also say, i will use this phrase again because it is so important, this coward should do the right wing and resign. the fact that they are saying that, although the attack, what they describe in the new york times, they —— it does seem that they accept there is authenticity to the source of this claim, if not the claim itself. thank you very much from joining us —— thank you very much forjoining us —— thank you very much forjoining us from washington. the bbc presenter rachael bland has died at the age of 40, almost two years after being diagnosed with breast cancer. her family confirmed she died peacefully at home in the early hours of this morning. rachael was a familiar voice on radio 5 live as a newsreader and presenter, and won praise for her podcast about the cancer treatment she‘d undergone. 0ur correspondentjudith moritz

looks back at her life. we are three friends, we‘re also bloggers. we have one thing in common — we all have or have had cancer. rachael bland changed the conversation about cancer. the newsreader whose own story became the most important. diagnosed with breast cancer, rachael created the podcast "you, me and the big c", three women with cancer in common, talking about it in a funny, frank and fresh way. we thought we would come back with a bang and talk about death and dying. and mainly i think we really wanted to talk about the subject because people don‘t talk about it. no, they don't. the podcast has been so popular that yesterday, it reached number one in the uk charts. unfortunately for rachael‘s cancer, herjourney in terms of where we are, it has ended, but what she has shown is that she has lived and she has lived absolutely a worthwhile, purposeful, amazing life that has had an impact on so many people. after more than 15 years

on bbc radio 5 live, rachael found that the podcast brought her a new audience. it wasn‘t about her. she didn‘t want any personal fame, it was a crusade to help others get through cancer, and she was adamant she wanted to do that. and alongside that, she wanted to help her son, freddie, come to terms with what‘s happened to her. rachael‘s little boy is just three years old. she‘s wrapped presents for him to open on every birthday until he‘s 21. she spoke about being with him when she learned her cancer was incurable. the call came through and he said, "i‘m really sorry. it‘s the cancer, it‘s back." and all the way home, i was saying to freddie, "i‘m so sorry, i‘m so sorry." don‘t, because you‘re going to make me... sorry, that‘s the first thing that has made me cry in the first 12 episodes of the podcast!

it‘s finally broken me! today, rachael‘s death was announced on air. the news that our beloved colleague, 5 live presenter and newsreader rachael bland has died this morning. in tributes, rachael was said to have helped improve understanding of cancer and reduce its stigma. and this from her husband, steve. "at the end," he said, "even though her body was at its weakest, rachael‘s voice was at its strongest and most powerful and she‘ll always be an incredible inspiration." the bbc‘s rachael bland, who died this morning at the age of 40. and we‘ll be taking an in—depth look at the papers with our reviewers political commetator lance price and defence correspondent for the times, lucy fisher. that‘s coming up after the headlines at 11:30. now it‘s time for the weather with nick miller. hello. with various weather systems

affecting the uk in the coming days, our weather is about to become more u nsettled. our weather is about to become more unsettled. here is our satellite view from wednesday, but i want to head south to find something much more active in the central atlantic. the first major hurricane of the season. the problem for us and our weather, even though it is a long way away, the computer models were used to deride our forecast trouble with hurricanes, but struggled with where they are going and the warm air associated with. if the computers are struggling to produce a forecast here, they will be struggling to reduce a forecast across the white atlantic, we get a lot of whether from there, so that feeds into a degree of uncertainty looking ahead into next week as we will see in a moment. a better handle on the short term, for

thursday ‘s weather. for scotland it is sunshine and showers and possibly thundery, showers pushing into northern ireland and northern england will start with rain in the far south and some outbreaks of rain fitting in towards wales, part of the midlands and after sunshine late in the day towards is anglia and south—east england, warm in the sunny spells, around the mid—to high teens. 0ur weather is a bit more active on friday, with active whether parking itself in the north sea, the closer to that the wetter it will be particularly into eastern scotla nd it will be particularly into eastern scotland and north—east england. elsewhere, even though it will feel cool with a strong breeze, there are still fair amount of dry weather to be had. to riches coming down more than further south you are. —— temperatures. it is a set of getting into the weekend, that area to the north sea near scotland, it may start a producing rain for parts of northern ireland and french southern

scotland. some of this will be heavy as it wishes east, the breeze associated with that will not be particularly warm. may be a dry afternoon in northern ireland and may brighten up later in the day across the western spots of england and wales. part two of the weekend, that system clears away and something quieter on its way. more of us try and sing sunshine, maybe some showers, especially across this zone which could move in from the west as we go on to the day. not bone dry, but more dry, bridges in the teens, a few into the low 20s. 0n the teens, a few into the low 20s. on monday, the view clearly shows athletic driven weather, this front all the way. atlantic. some cloud, outbreaks of rain, not everywhere wet and cloudy, some spells in northern