this is bbc news. the headlines at 2.00 — the foreign secretary, jeremy hunt, urges european leaders to "step back from the abyss," a day after theresa may demanded more respect from brussels in the brexit talks. jeremy corbyn has arrived in liverpool ahead of his party's annual conference. in a speech to labour's women's conference, he told delegates his is the party of equality. our party, and our movement, will a lwa ys our party, and our movement, will always have the very highest standards so that everyone is safe and secure in our movement, and sexual harassment has no place whatsoever in our movement. the battle for sky. rupert murdoch's 21st century fox and media giant rival comcast‘s bidding war for the broadcaster draws to a close tonight. in other news, chas hodges, one half of the musical duo chas and dave, has died. the singer passed away peacefully

in his sleep in the early hours of this morning. he was 7a. and coming up at 2.30 — the man booker prize—winning author dame hilary mantel is in conversation with rebecca jones for talking books. good afternoon. the foreign secretary has urged eu leaders to "step back from the abyss" of a no—deal brexit, and engage with the british government's proposals. jeremy hunt said they had not given a detailed response to theresa may's proposals. the so—called chequers plan was largely dismissed by eu leaders at the salzburg summit on thursday. last night, the european council

president donald tusk said the british had already known about the eu's objections. however, a brexit deal was still possible. our political correspondent matt cole reports. she was feeling the heat in salzburg, but by friday, theresa may was fighting back. i have treated the eu with nothing but respect. the uk expects the same. this social media post from the man who chaired the salzburg summit, donald tusk, hasn't helped matter, mocking mrs may for what he says he tried to trade pick the best bits of single market. but with increasingly bad blood over negotiations, what next for negotiations? if the eu's view is just saying no to every proposal by the united kingdom, we will capitulate and end up with the norway option or staying in the eu, if that is their view, they have

profoundly misjudged the british people. the man who chaired the eu summit said the leaders were surprised at mrs may's uncompromising tone and dismissed the suggestion that her chequers proposal had been rejected without negotiation. mr tusk said the results of the analysis had been known to the british side by many weeks but held out hope for a deal, continuing... labour says theresa may is out of her depth and has repeated its call for a general election is it can take power and take over. you negotiate with europeans and with our partners on the basis of mutual respect. we could change the atmosphere overnight with the negotiations. with a tricky party conference looming, mrs may is being buffeted from all sides. even some brexit supporting mps are demanding

a change of tack, which means she'll need powerful words to win support for sticking with her chosen plan, so what should she say? we are not going to be able to get anything we want, and neither will the other side, she needs to be very clear about that. and that is why chequers is the right thing to do. she needs to move beyond brexit and explain what the country is going to look like beyond the process because that's what the country want to hear. solving the northern ireland border issue could prove key to this and the government says it's working on new proposal. but theresa may says any deal cannot divide the province into a separate customs zone from the uk. the eu says it will not accept at solution which unravels its precious single market so right now the negotiations seem deadlocked. on the eve of his party's

conference, the labour leader jeremy corbyn has vowed to put equality at centre stage, with a commitment to measure all policies on their impact on women in society. during the conference in liverpool, the party leadership is expected to resist grassroot pressure for another referendum on eu membership. joining me now from liverpool is our political correspondent, alex forsyth. in terms of keynote speeches, how much focus will be on the subject of brexit? we know a number of proposals have been put forward by labour groups on whatever second vote on a brexit deal theresa may is able to negotiate, but the party really wa nts to negotiate, but the party really wants to focus on the plans to bring back the railways into public control, and as you mentioned, it has been a big focus on women and equality, with policies announced to

do more with victims of domestic abuse. i'm joined by do more with victims of domestic abuse. i'mjoined bya labour mp to talk about that. the conference does not start until tomorrow, but you have been at the labour women's conference. how do you think the party ca n conference. how do you think the party can help victims of domestic abuse? one of the policies outlined this morning is asking employers to give ten days paid leave to victims of domestic violence. i think that is really important, because for women who have experienced that kind of trauma in their lives, they really need that time that it would support women. why so much focus on women and equality is at the start of the conference? what message are you sending by trying to make that a focal point before the first day? why not have women at the centre of everything? in the speech, if you look at our local and what we stand for, which is for the many, not the few, women are not the many and this country, despite being 51% of the

population. what we want is for women to have 85% of cuts impact on women to have 85% of cuts impact on women and children, children are in poverty, we have more people using food banks, what we really want is a government which is fit for purpose, and it is right that we focus on women and equality. you say you are a government in waiting, but plenty of people stay that labour is still confused and divided over brexit in particular. what is labour's policy? it is just to have your cake and eat it, and we have heard from the eu in terms of theresa may's proposals that that is not going to wash. we are very clear that we want a new customs union and we want a new and stronger relationship with the single market, that gives us tariff—free access to the single market. we are very clear about that. we are also clear about having a government, which is more busy negotiating between themselves than it is with the eu, and the government are in civil war and they are not delivered an brexit for this

country, for the jobs, the economic security, businesses, it isjust not there. there is a fair out of civil war in labouras there. there is a fair out of civil war in labour as well, with changes to the party rules on this question of brexit, pushing for a second vote on the brexit deal. although the party leadership does not seem to be going down that route. do you think they should bow to that pressure now? the truth is we're not going down the wood of a second random —— second referendum. we welcome those debates, but what we are saying is that we need a team that delivers for great britain and its people, and that team is a liberty which will deliver that, and when we get to where we are with theresa may and her non—negotiating at the moment, we will come to a decision to say that we need to go for a second election. we need an election to make sure that the people can see which team they want to deliver further brexit. naz shah, thank you very much. a lot will be discussed

over the next few days as the conference gets fully under way. focus the party wants undoubtedly honest domestic policy agenda, as much as its possession an brexit, but i expect some intense debate on all the issues. alex, thank you very much. alex forsyth there. chas hodges — one half of the musical duo chas and dave — has died at the age of 7a. he formed the pop rock band with dave peacock in 1975, and became pioneers of the musical style labelled "rockney". they had eight top—a0 singles, including rabbit, ain't no pleasing you, and snooker loopy. chas hodges passed away as a result of organ failure. he'd been suffering from cancer for some time. let's listen now to the first top 20 hit front of the pops

in 1979 chas hodges has died at the age of 7a. the british broadcaster sky will be auctioned off today, in a dramatic end to a two—year £26bn takeover battle. the broadcaster has been subject to rival bids from rupert muroch‘s fox and the us company comcast. the auction begun on friday at 5.00pm, and the takeover panel said all parties had agreed to the process, which will have a maximum of three rounds. well, joining us now is alice enders, head of research at enders analysis. these two have you with us today. perhaps for our viewers' benefit, you could take us back to the beginning of this process undermined as why this bidding is happening in the first place. fox put in a bid first and december 2016 for the

shares in sky it doesn't already own, because fox owns 39% of sky. and then in the middle of this very long drawn—out battle of sky which involve regulatory clearance, disney and fox decided to get together and then comcast decided to bid for fox, and also decided to defer sky. so 110w and also decided to defer sky. so now disney and comcast have basically settled their battle on fox, disney is merging with fox, and then that leaves only the sky contest outstanding. now, the reason we are in an auction situation is because neither of the two bidders, fox and comcast, had finalised the bid by friday, so that is why we have an auction. pretty unusual. very unusual. this is the third insta nce very unusual. this is the third instance of an auction. of course we know that when there are two virus, that means the value of the asset is good to go up. so one of the unusual situations as we have two buyers who

are desperate for sky. white act when the result of this option is to announced tonight, there are still potentially some ts to be crossed and is to be dotted. the winner will need to buy the company, but that company needs to prepare an announcement to the market for monday morning. what will this mean for sky news's what is going to mean for sky news's what is going to mean for people with a sky ‘s discussion in the uk? today sky distributes disney and nbc content, side and not think there is a big contract player in any of these narratives. contrast isa in any of these narratives. contrast is a big company, a broadband company, telecom indications company, telecom indications company, citing torpid a lot more emphasis on the technical side of sky, and i think in the case of disney, it is a studio and he must,

they do fantastic content and distribution, so this is perhaps two different destinies, that i think the key point is that both of them are very intense on keeping sky in the uk. both have signed up to undertakings that will ensure that, for example, the sky news operation is completely guaranteed. ten years in the case of comcast, 15 years in the case of fox, and also they have a great safeguard —— agreed to safeguard the independence of sky news. alice, the given image. alison enders from enders analysis. —— thank you very much. gunmen in iran have opened fire at a military parade in the south—western city of ahvaz. officials say more than 20 people were killed, and many more injured. reports say two of the attackers were killed by police, and two were arrested. a spokesman for iran's revolutionary guards said the attack is thought to have been carried out by sunni arab separatists.

a man has been rescued from a ferry on lake victoria in tanzania two days after it capsized. the engineer is in hospital and is reported to be in a serious condition. at least 170 people are known to have died when the ferry capsized on friday. a rescue operation is ongoing. the country's president declared four days of national mourning and ordered the arrest of those who were managing the ferry. the supermarket chain co—op is scrapping plastic carrier bags from 1,400 of its uk shops today, and replacing them with a compost—able version. it's the latest retailer to cut down after the government laid out plans to eradicate all avoidable plastic waste in britain within 25 years, as our business correspondent emma simpson reports. plastic waste — we're drowning in it. around a million tonnes of plastic is generated by uk supermarkets every year, and they've been coming up with a host of measures to try to stem the tide.

take iceland, where plastic packaging is on the way out, from fruit and veg to plastic dishes for ready meals. all its own branded products will have paper or biodegradable packaging within five years. at morrisons, you can take your own container when you buy meat and fish, and there are now paper bags, not plastic, for loose fruit and veg. black plastic is difficult to recycle, but asda has replaced it for all its fruit and veg. now the co—op has an environmentally friendly alternative for carrying shopping home. these bags will be rolled out in 1,400 stores. all of the major retailers have signed up to a really ambitious commitment under the uk plastics pact, and that's to make 100% of plastics packaging recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025. and so, all of them are working incredibly hard and fast to meet those objectives.

it's notjust retailers — all businesses are now under pressure to act since the world has woken up to the scourge of plastic pollution. emma simpson, bbc news. the headlines on bbc news — step back from the abyss. the foreign secretary jeremy hunt's warning to european leaders following the summit in saltburn. jeremy corbyn tells delegates at labour's women conference that his isa labour's women conference that his is a party of equality. and chas hodges, lead singer of the musical duel chas and dave, has died at the age of 7a. —— musical duo. for the first time in 20 years, the british army is introducing new physical tests for soldiers. press—ups, sit—ups and eight—mile marches are out, and exercises replicating the battlefield are in. the changes also coincide with a lifting of the ban on women

serving in close combat roles. so, are the new tests any easier? 0ur defence correspondent jonathan beale went to find out. the old test was carrying a big weight like this, 25kg, over eight miles in under two hours. the new test, we are told, to simulate conditions in battle, and they are meant to be harder, not easier. so, i'm about to have a go. 0h! the telegraph's beating me! the idea of this is to simulate extracting a casualty after a firefight. piece of cake. what i've got here is a repeated lift—and—carry. it's similar to a replenish task, moving a 20kg obstacle from one site to another site over a distance of 30 metres. what you're going to do, pick the 20 kilos up, run round the cone and back, placing it onto the platform safely. from there, all you're going to do is place it on the floor, turn round and run back, simulating running back to the start position to grab another obstacle.

combat is gritty, it's dirty, it's hard work, and running one and a half miles in trainersjust doesn't represent what i do on the battlefield. whereas lifting, carrying ammunition, sandbags, dragging casualties, moving underfire, that's all things we expect our ground close—combat troops to deal with. i do think it's probably difficult for a lot of females. those choosing to go that route, then i am sure they would be fit enough to pass the tests. this is not a test, you don't think, that's designed to make it easier for women to join the infantry? definitely not, no. these new army tests make no allowance for gender or age, which is a shame for me. i managed to complete just a quarter of the test. yes! jonathan beale, bbc news. earlier my colleague shaun ley spoke to james prisbeck,

a former royal marine who now runs a crossfit gym. he explained why these new tests will help soldiers train for front—line combat. modernisation for these tasks has been a long time coming, so creating a realistic battle environment rather than just what we had before. presumably you kind of required level of fitness was higher than is required within the soldiers, as a marine, but how far away from the sort of conditions that you have to work in were the sort of fitness tests that the army was pursuing? do you think they did in anyway prepare soldiers for active engagement in the battlefield? no, not at all, to be honest. the soft continuation will take a lot deeper into that, we creating situations and that environment, but your basic tasks we re environment, but your basic tasks were morejust the environment, but your basic tasks were more just the tasks of sort of

muscular endurance, how many press ups you can do, if you can run somewhere in a certain time. in afghanistan, there was never a time when i was seeing how many press ups ican do. when i was seeing how many press ups i can do. that wasn't much use, but it was notjust i can do. that wasn't much use, but it was not just about general levels of fitness and maintaining those?” think it'sjust of fitness and maintaining those?” think it's just needs to move, as it is doing, towards this functional style fitness, this sort of training is getting bigger and bigger, and thatis is getting bigger and bigger, and that is more everyday life than specific services, so army, fire service, police, it is everyday stuff, being able to carry loads, being able to carry a casualties, moving things, that is the job. a lot of companies and organisations have had to take a long, hard look in recent years at the way they recruit and treat female employees. but the royal horticultural society is looking into an incident of sexual discrimination with a difference.

it took place 120 years ago. helen briggs has more. the turn—of—the—century — queen victoria's on the throne, but women still can't vote, serve on a jury, or, as it turns out, win a prize to train as a gardener. this box revealed the prize that had been won but never given for one simple reason — the winner was a woman. clearly a very determined young woman. she's entered this exam, she's done well and she claims her rightful prize. she single—handedly has sent the rhs into a bit of a tailspin. her name was miss harrison, and after getting top marks, she should have been given the equivalent of £5,000 and a training scholarship, but that never happened. scrawled over a document, the words of reverend william wilkes, then—leader of the rhs, "it was never contemplated that a female might claim the scholarship." although she may not personally have succeeded,

she's chip—chip—chipping away at that sense that women can't do these things. if she'd been awarded that prize today, she would have trained here at rhs wisley, and who knows where her career might have taken her? a picture's starting to emerge of the mysterious miss harrison. we know from the syllabus of the exam she took, that she was well—versed in all the main principles of gardening, from the names and orders of plants to growing fruit. and student gardeners say it's hard to imagine women being excluded. it makes me feel very frustrated and angry. i would hate to have been restricted in that way, and i'm grateful to the people who've gone before that made it possible. but we still need to go further to make sure everyone's included. miss harrison paved the way for a new generation of gardeners. the rhs wants to make sure her name's not forgotten. they think her family may have letters that can tell them more about her.

i'd really love to know what happened next. did she carry on fighting, did she carry on into a career in horticulture, and make a living that way? i'm really curious to know what happened to miss harrison, because she's clearly a character, and did she prevail? and with your help, maybe they'll finally solve the mystery. helen briggs, bbc news. racing driver billy monger is preparing to return to donnington park today, less than 18 months after a near—fatal crash there cost him both of his legs. aided by a specially adapted car which hits speeds of up to 150mph, the 19—year—old is hoping to finish on the podium. 0ur reporter angela rafferty has been to meet him. it's hard to believe it's been just 18 months since the horrific crash that almost cost him his life and left him a double amputee. billy monger‘s recovery has been truly remarkable. this weekend, he returns for the first time to race at the track where his life was changed forever. my memories of the accident and from

donnington are quite strong. like, i remembera lot. i don't tend to really think about it too much nowadays, which is quite nice. the motor racing world rallied round the teenage driver, but support for billy came from far and wide. £800,000 was donated to his fund within days of his crash, an outpouring of affection that meant so much. for me, at that stage, mentally, was probably the toughest time, so to have that sort of positivity keep coming through the whole time i was in hospital meant a lot. his determination to return to racing saw him back behind the wheeljust 11 weeks after his accident. in his first season racing in formula 3, he's already made the podium, and celebrated in his own inimitable style. it might come back out if i win races, that's what i'm going to say. if i win races this weekend, for sure, you'll see it again. billy's boyhood dream of racing in formula 1 remains the same, and back at the track where everything changed, he's focused on just one thing. for me, it's all about getting

the results this week. as much as this place has a special and weird emotion that it brings out in me, when i get in the car, it's all about driving as fast as i can. angela rafferty, bbc news. more now that the supermarket chain co—op is scrapping plastic carrier bags from 1,400 of its uk shops today, and replacing them with a compost—able version. it's the latest retailer to cut down after the government laid out plans to eradicate all avoidable plastic waste in britain within 25 years. with me is alice ellison, enviroment policy adviser at the british retail consortium. good to have you with us. the idea that the co—op is promoting is that people can use these compostable bags, use them home and —— take them home and use them to collect wood

waste, so it is leading the charge here. i am sure other supermarkets will follow soon. other supermarkets are doing all sorts of things threw, they have all signed up to a commitment. the co—op is one of the first to look at compostable bags. it is important that we look at the whole system, so in order to have compostable bags, we will need to be able to use them to compost, which means that local authorities need to be collecting your food waste, we need to have a composting system at home. so it is part of a solution, but we need to look at the whole system. there needs to be simpler for those compostable bags full of food to go to. but do you think that the thing other supermarkets will follow suit with a compostable bags specifically? because we have heard more and more about the need for more and more about the need for more recycling, morejoined up recycling, but recycling is on the pa rt recycling, but recycling is on the part of the answer. a big part is not using so many plastic products in the first place. absolutely, and

supermarkets and other retailers have made all sorts of different announcements recently, so some are moving away from plastic straws and plastic cutlery, some are allowing customers to bring their own tupperware in when getting things from the salad bars, some are looking at biodegradable litter, so the laurel sorts of approaches and they are all the things would work for them and their customers. the point you made the british retail consortium is, if you are introducing an alternative to plastic, you want the carbon footprint of that replacement to be examined as well, don't you?m footprint of that replacement to be examined as well, don't you? it is important to look at the bigger picture and what the consequences could be if you move away from plastic, so we know plastic quite often has a low carbon footprint, so if you move away from packaging for food waste, plastic packaging, then that could increase food waste. so that could increase food waste. so that could increase food waste. so that could bring a higher carbon footprint, so it is looking at the whole picture, not just footprint, so it is looking at the whole picture, notjust moving away from plastic. from a business point of view, what evidence is there that

a supermarket, for instance, is progressive in terms of its environmental policy, but that im proves environmental policy, but that improves trade? you have to look at the whole thing, and at the moment what is happening is that this is what is happening is that this is what customers are asking for. there isa what customers are asking for. there is a huge interest in the environment and plastics at the moment, subtly retailer's point of view, that is great, because sometimes they do things and customers are not receptive to it, so we know that this is what customers want and supermarkets are going, which is good. but sometimes in the long run... doesn't bring more customers through the door, essentially? we don't know yet, i guess. we don't know that, it could do, but it means they are doing the right thing, they could be market leaders in developing new technology, and just being more efficient generally. 4k, alice, thank you very much for coming along. now it's time for a look at the weather.

a cool weekend across most of the country, but for some of us it is right, with a mix of sunshine and showers. this is how it looked in the highlands are live on, but it was a different story in the south—west of england, some cloud and rain, some lump of rain that has been working its way across the southern half of the uk, particularly heavy rain across england, wales, part of the midlands, moving up into manchester and sheffield. that rain continues to move through during the afternoon, a brisk breeze as well, but further north and west, they have the brightness and sunshine and a few showers, temperatures just 12 in cardiff and birmingham. maybe around 15 and 16 in the far south—west. during this evening and tonight, the rainbow move away from

the south, that will keep quite a lot of cloud around. further north, with clear, starry skies, it will turn chilly, especially across scotland. in the middle of glasgow, the middle of edinburgh, could be two or three celsius, but in the countryside, lower than that, so there could be a touch of frost. tomorrow morning. but with this area of high pressure moving in, it could be northern areas that see the driest weather during tomorrow, againa driest weather during tomorrow, again a sunshine and showers today. further south, another lump of rain moving in. this one is moving quite quickly, so by around lunchtime, things should be clearing up across the south—east as the rain does clearly, we get a short sharp burst of gusty winds. maybe 45, 50 mile per hour gusts. elsewhere, a breezy day but not as windy, and again a mixture of sunshine and showers. 0ne or two could be