windy underneath the wet and windy weather but better in london and the south—east of england. of tonnes of medical waste — including body parts — are allowed to pile up at disposal sites across the uk. ministers have been criticised for not revealing the extent of the problem despite convening the government's emergency committee to discuss the problem last month. it's irresponsible that the health department and the environment agency still haven't told us the full facts about what on earth is going on. the authorities insist there's no risk to human health. also tonight... attempted murder — a man is found guilty of pushing a 91—year—old complete stranger onto the tracks of the london tube. a u—turn for unilever — the consumer goods giant decides to keep its headquarters in the uk after all. a first for fracking. work could finally begin at this site in lancashire next week despite protestors‘ last minute bid to stop it. and waking the giants — thousands turn out in liverpool to see the huge puppets for the last time. and coming up on bbc news...

it's the standout game of the weekend, liverpool versus manchester city — a meeting of the premier league pacesetters. are we in for another thriller at anfield? good evening and welcome to the bbc news at six. a criminal investigation is underway after hundreds of tonnes of medical waste, including body parts, were left to pile up at incineration sites in the uk. healthcare environmental services have the contract for disposing of much of the hospital waste from england and scotland. the government has been urged to explain why it did not tell parliament it had convened the cobra emergency committee last month to discuss the problems. here's our health editor hugh pym. one of the main sights at the centre

of this medical waste saga, in west yorkshire, the company allowed a backlog of voice to build up at centres in england and scotland which should have been sent for incineration. the regulator, the environment agency, told the government injuly, environment agency, told the government in july, ministers discussed it at a meeting of the cobra emergency committee last month, but it was only revealed yesterday and local mp yvette cooper told me mps should have been informed sooner. i think it's irresponsible that the health department and environment agency still haven't told us the full facts about what on earth is going on, on an issue where there are environmental health questions being raised and we still don't know the full facts. it's completely unfair on the local community. the other main site is in lanarkshire. the company is run from here. a new facility was opened in april by princess anne. the managing director wasn't available for comment today.

the company had a contract to remove and dispose of medical waste, including body parts, from hospitals. now unions are questioning whether this sort of work should ever have been outsourced. this is a really solid example of what happens when we start to regard services that should be central to our public services, services like cleaning, catering, portering, as those that can easily be contract it out and we can devolve ourselves of responsibility. the department of health and social ca re the department of health and social care covering england said in a statement... the environment agency said as part of its enforcement action it had partially suspended the company's permit here at the normanton site.

that means it will not be able to receive any more hospital waste for incineration while it concentrates on trying to reduce the backlog. health care environmental services say there was a shortage of incineration capacity and it had been warning the authorities for some time. with enforcement action under way, it's not clear what this will mean for the company's future and the ability of the nhs to dispose of its medical waste. hospital trusts like this one in leeds which have contracts with the company say they have contingency plans and patient services will not be affected. the company has put out a new statement strongly denying it has been stockpiling body parts saying that anatomical waste is a very small proportion of what it handles. labour mps say they will continue to press the government for explanations when parliament comes back next week. studio: health editor hugh pym, thank you. a man who tried to push two people onto the tracks on the london underground has been found guilty of attempted murder.

paul crossley, who's 46 and from east london, said he had chosen his victims at random and hadn't intended to kill them. one of those he pushed was the 91—year—old former boss of eurotunnel, sir robert malpas, who was left with a fractured pelvis. richard lister‘s report contains some shocking images. watch the man in the macintosh coat, sir robert malpass, aged 90, and he never saw this coming. sir robert is badly hurt. commuters tried to raise the alarm. eventually one of them pulls him to safety. little earlier, another attack at another station. tobias french just avoids the train pulling in, but his assailant escaped. when passengers finally grabbed paul crossley, he said he knew what he had done was wrong. he told the court he'd had an allergic reaction to his schizophrenia medication. this was a most shocking

incident and the victims in this case were extremely lucky to have survived. this could easily have been a double murder investigation. paul crossley showed no emotion during the proceedings. thejudge has delayed sentencing until a psychiatric report on him has been completed. the police stress this kind of attack is extremely rare, but for these two men it could easily have been far worse. richard lister, bbc news, at the old bailey. the consumer goods giant unilever, which makes products from dove soap to marmite, has decided not to move its headquarters out of the uk after all. the company had planned to close its uk hq in london and operate instead out of the netherlands. but most shareholders were against the idea. our business editor, simonjack, explains why. you either love it or hate it, and enough people hated the idea of unilever scrapping its uk headquarters for the company to shelve its plans. formed nearly a century ago when the dutch company margarine unie merged with british soapmaker lever brothers,

the company has always been headquartered in both london and rotterdam, employing 7500 people in the uk and 3000 in the netherlands. since then, it has grown into a global consumer giant, producing brands such as pg tips, persil washing powder and magnum ice creams. its london home was opened in 1932 and it has been in the ftse 100 index of leading firms for decades. that means some pension funds that track the index have to own it. leaving would have meant they would have had to sell it. bad news for savers and why this investor voted no. unilever is a very profitable company, with growth prospects all over the world. and if it had left the uk index, many uk pensioners and savers would have lost the ability to benefit from the future profits and dividends of the company. so a determined group of city institutions managed to shut the exit door in the face of the company management, who still believe abandoning its london hq was the right idea. scrapping their uk headquarters here was not to do with brexit. the company insisted

it was to make it simpler, more nimble and better able to protect itself against foreign takeovers. but shareholders' insistence that a company like unilever belongs on the london stock exchange will be a welcome pre—brexit boost. this is great news for london. it comes as a real shot in the arm at this time of uncertainty, in particular. it confirms london's status as one of the world's leading global financial centres. you know, we've got more european headquarters of global companies unilever is not the only anglo—dutch company. the biggest payer into uk pension funds is royal dutch shell, who are watching this process carefully. the message seems clear. uk investors want the world's biggest companies to call the uk home. simon jack, bbc news. the manager of the star footballer cristiano ronaldo says he is doing well and is "ready to return to action", despite being accused of rape. shares in the italian football club juventus, where he plays, have fallen by 5% following the allegations, which date back to 2009.

it comes as new pictures emerged of the footballer in a las vegas nightclub, which are said to show him with his accuser, kathryn mayorga. cristiano ronaldo strongly denies the allegation made against him. president trump's nominee, brett kavanaugh, is a step closer to joining the supreme court after the us senate narrowly backed him in a preliminary vote. a final vote to decide his future will take place tomorrow. more than 300 people were arrested last night while protesting against brett kavanaugh, who denies historical claims of sexual assault by several women. and there've been more protests today. our north america correspondent, nick bryant, is in washington for us now. is that it, is it a done deal, will he get the job? brett kavanaugh ove rca m e he get the job? brett kavanaugh overcame a major obstacle today. the senate could have killed off his nomination but instead it voted to progress to a final climactic vote tomorrow. the white house is

confident of victory. donald trump thinks he will get his man, but it's not over yet. in the next couple of hours we will hear from a female senator, susan collins, who voted in favour of the procedural motion this morning but hasn't yet indicated whether or not she will ultimately support brett kavanaugh. if it comes down to a democrat, a west virginia senator who comes from a state who voted for donald trump. this morning he sided with the republicans. this has been a uniquely american melodrama. we are waiting to see if there are any more twists and turns. nick bryant in washington, thank you. the head of an nhs trust at the centre of scores of allegations of poor maternity care says he won't be resigning. his comments come as a former nurse tells the bbc that problems on maternity units have been not been properly addressed for almost two decades. the chief executive of the trust, simon wright, says he has a difficultjob to do and has apologised to any families who've been failed over the past two decades.

from the beginning, michael buchanan's report contains some distressing details. the forceps were used. the baby comes out, there is no cry. i thought, no, she is dead. i know. julie hughes' daughter should be 16 today. but memories and medical records are all that remain. she says staff failed to spot the baby was in distress. i remember saying to the lady who's got the little pink badge... sorry — i get upset. she is dead. leave her. no, no, no. and these people are around her, trying to recover her. they worked on herfor 20 minutes. i said, please leave her alone. and that was it. no more. i held her,

said goodbye. and went home empty—handed. said goodbye. and went home empty-handed. her daughter's birth was brutal. the forceps delivery leftjulie needing was brutal. the forceps delivery left julie needing reconstructive surgery. left julie needing reconstructive surgery. she said no investigation was carried out into what happened to her baby or to her. this former nurse who wishes to remain anonymous spent more than a decade at the maternity unit of the trust and says m ista kes maternity unit of the trust and says mistakes were rarely investigated properly. when i was there, i don't think we learned from it. i think it was a case of, we will cross our fingers that it doesn't happen again. if you don't learn, you risk repeating errors. eva is three, happy and healthy. but her mother andrea is anything but. her daughter's forceps delivery left her with an open wound for nine months and ongoing incontinence problems. she has had two major surgeries and

may need more and suffers with depression. it hasjust totally changed our life as a family. my daughter is ok, and i am grateful for that. but we haven't had any more children. i feel upset, the fa ct more children. i feel upset, the fact that i am perhaps not the only person this has happened to. more than 100 allegations of maternity errors over nearly 20 years have currently being investigated by an independent review. all adding pressure to the trust's chief executive. he refused several interview requests from us so we went to interview him. are you out of your depth? not at all. i have a difficultjob to do and intend to see it through. i want to take the opportunity once again to save that for any parent, any mother, who has had issues, please talk to our organisation. we want to make sure we ta ke organisation. we want to make sure we take the learning on board and we are deeply sorry for any harm that has occurred to any baby in our

organisation over the last 20 years. as well as historical problems nhs inspectors have concerns over the current maternity services but the trust insists its care is safe. for those who have been failed before, they certainly hope care now has improved. michael buchanan, bbc news. our top story this evening... a criminal investigation is launched after hundreds of tonnes of medical waste — including body parts — are allowed to pile up at disposal sites across the uk. and still to come... the campaigners against rape in warfare who've been named joint winners of this year's nobel peace price. coming up on sportsday on bbc news... can tonight's super league semi—final live up to the drama of last night's? we'll be at the dw stadium ahead of wigan warriors against castleford tigers with a place in the grand final at old trafford at stake. the death toll continues to rise in indonesia after last week's earthquake and tsunami. at least 1,500 people are known to have died

but rescuers fear the final death toll could be much higher as they try to reach remote areas on the island of sulawesi that have been cut off. our south east asia correspondent has been speaking to people in a village in one of the worst—hit areas, where they're struggling to cope. if you want help in palu, you have to turn up and demand it. and even that doesn't always work. these men have come from a village submerged under a sea of mud. i met them yesterday after their request for government aid had been turned down. but today, when we went to see how they were living, camped in the local mosque, our arrival coincided with that of a police truck carrying some much appreciated rice and noodles, albeit enough only for a couple of days. "they showed up out of the blue", said this man, one of the men i had met in palu just as the supplies were running out.

"we're really happy. " it was a welcome opportunity, too, for some community outreach by a police force accused by some locals here of insensitivity to their plight. these officers wanted to correct that impression. "this is actually our own food", said the colonel. "but we heard about these people and we felt sorry for them." so many of palu's inhabitants are still living like this. day—to—day challenges are hard enough. but their biggest concern is over when and how they can get back to their homes. i was taken to see where the torrent of mud had swept across the village. so they are telling me there were four houses here that have just completely disappeared. yes, totally buried under the mud. there is nothing left of them at all. without heavy machinery, which they don't have, there is no hope of clearing out this much mud. and there is another worry.

the bodies of those caught by the mudslide. well, we have reached a point in the village where there is a really strong smell because of a body that is buried in some of this debris. they cannot get it out. it is really distressing the people who live here and it gives you an idea, with all this mud, just what an immensejob it is going to be to get these villages back to some kind of normal life again. that worry was brought home to them later when a search and rescue team brought a corpse to the mosque. a reminder these people really don't need of the immense human cost of this disaster. jonathan head, bbc news, palu, indonesia. next week the controversial process of horizontal shale fracking is due to start for the first time in the uk. nothing on this scale has ever been carried out in britain before. but protestors have now sought a last minute injunction to try to stop the fracking getting

underway at the major site near preston in lancashire. our north of england correspondent, judith moritz, is there for us toninght. deep in the heart of the lancashire countryside, there is a new feature on the landscape. pipeline and pumps... and a huddle of engineers and geologists. this is a fracking site and it is the first time the energy company has allowed cameras to see the machinery here. two years ago, this was just a farmer's field, now the equipment is in and the company said they are ready to start fracking within days. and it could make an impact far beyond here cause the kind of shale that is suitable for fracking extends across the whole of the north of england. the company says it has the potential to power the uk for decades. as they are fracturing this, it makes noises at the fractures open. upstairs in the monitoring room, computers show the wells that have been dug more

than two kilometres underground. so, fracking is taking water from the surface and pumping down a well and into the rock to create fractures, so the term fracking is just short for creating fractures. we do that by putting water at high pressure with sand which create fractures and it can release gas back out. fracking is controversial. outside the site, protesters warn of potential air and water pollution. it is terrifying and ijust feel like we are on the eve of an environmental disaster. there is genuinely not a plan b. once you have ruined the north of england, it is ruined. one protester has made a late attempt to block a fracking by getting a court injunction. there will be a legal hearing next week but the energy company say they do not think it will stop them. it is possible it might slow them down, but i don't think it will even do that because i think the case is very weak and we will demonstrate

that in court but it will not stop us, we will test this shale oil. it will be monitored by independent agencies and the public can check daily reports. the company says it once it starts fracking, it will be around three months until the gas flows here. the head of interpol has disappeared after travelling to china to visit family. he has not been seen since he left his home in lyon or interpol is based a week ago. the alarm was raised by his wife, who said she had not heard from him since his departure. this year's nobel peace prize has been awarded to two people who have campaigned against sexual violence in war. one is a congolese gynaecologist denis mukwege, the other a yazidi human rights activist, nadia murad. the nobel committee said they wanted to send a message of awareness that women are being used as weapons of war and the perpetrators should be held to account. our chief international correspondent, lyse doucet, reports. a peace prize to fight. one of the

worst weapons of war. sexual violence. 25—year—old nadia murad was brutalised by islamic state fighters. it all came back when she returned to her village in northern iraq last year. horrific memories of being raped every day for months. her mother and six brothers killed when islamic state stormed into the yazidi heartland, including their village. she spoke of this when i met in new york with her body, amal clooney. i went to visit my family home a few months ago. it was com pletely home a few months ago. it was completely destroyed. isis had left nothing behind and it is going to be ha rd to nothing behind and it is going to be hard to forget but at least working

now to bring those criminals to justice. at least that is something. tiny victory. and today, in eastern congo, sweet celebration in a place known for its pain. the clinic or gynaecologist denis mukwege treats victims of sexual violence. the prize has a big meaning that although it took time for the world to recognise us, the world has started listening to women and not just listening but getting to know the problems that you face. applause. understanding our problems is not enough, they must realise that when you commit a crime against anyone, it is not right. they call him the medical doctor. in congo's war, sexual violence, so severe, many require surgery. they have used the worlds podiums to fight forjustice. now, they are armed with a powerful

prize. to try to end one of the worst crimes of war. lyse doucet, bbc news. the new leader of plaid cymru has described brexit as having left wales "at the mercy of westminster". speaking at the party's conference, adam price compared brexit with the sinking of the titanic. he said voters should be given a chance to "avert disaster" through a fresh referendum on any final deal with the eu. but it's the people that are left locked in the third class cabins below. we've got to break that deadlock. we've got to give people a chance and a choice to avert a disaster for which it is they that will pay the heaviest price. which is why we say it's time for a people's vote. applause at their annual conference, the green party have suggested that the amount of spare time people have should be used as an official measure of wellbeing. the party says a "free time index" of time spent away from work or commuting would be better than gdp, which focuses on economic activity.

giants have appeared on the streets of liverpool again tonight. huge crowds are lining the streets to get a glimpse of them. it's their final visit to the city. our correspondent danny savage is there and has been following in their footsteps. this huge bed behind me is literally fit for a giant, it is where one of these huge puppets will slumber this evening. many thousands have turned out on the streets to see this extraordinary street theatre and art, with hundreds of thousands really responding from liverpool and many miles beyond to come and see what has been happening... it's thirsty work walking the streets of liverpool, even if you're a giant. this extraordinary, huge mechanical dog was going down a storm today. operated by a team of nearly 20 artists, the giants here are becoming the stuff of legend. he and his master woke up in the centre of liverpool this

morning before setting out. there are huge and they have all these mechanical bits. and the design of the vehicles that drove them is amazing. what's so special about them? it's just the mannerisms, the puppeteering. everything about it. between now and sunday, these giants will walk more than 20 miles across merseyside, with hundreds of thousands of people expected to turn out to see them. the dog, whose name is xolo, had a great time, climbing on a bus shelter and stopping to be a pampered pooch. what was it like to manicure a giant dog? very difficult! but we did our best and it was excellent. it was a wonderful experience. we're so happy that they've come to liverpool and included us. there's also a third giant, washed up on the shore of the wirral. the operators, known as lilliputians, from the land of tiny people, are mainly french. but some locals are involved, too. so i'm controlling the rope,

which is attached to the giant's right hand. so helping him to walk in the most natural way possible. it's quite a physically demanding role, i've never done anything like this before. it's ten years since liverpool was europe's capital of culture. this weekend celebrates the legacy of that title. every artist wants to perform here now. all the artists always had a love for the city but now they really want to perform here. this is all about a moving spectacle of street theatre on a grand scale. for the next 48 hours, merseyside really is the land of giants. danny savage, bbc news, liverpool. amazing! chris fawkes has the weather. we could see hugh pym in leeds, but it has been like summer in london's autumn is going to be

back with a vengeance going through the weekend. the cooler air is weather it is already across scotla nd weather it is already across scotland and northern ireland with the third at the sunshine but look at this drop in temperatures around the corner. from around 21 degrees in reading down tojust 12 degrees, some places will even see nine degrees celsius drop in temperatures. it is down to this cold front pushing southwards, sweeping away the milder air and replacing it with chilly air that we have in the north. tonight, the dividing line is with us, the rain heavy at times for wales and northern ireland is of england and to the south—east, no cloud develops with mist and fog patches over the hills and it is down at times also. temperatures for the south—east, 10-12d but temperatures for the south—east, 10—12d but in northern areas with clear skies, it is a cold night in patti frost first thing in the morning in the countryside. if you head into saturday, england and wales have a wet and cloudy start, the rain pushes into the south—east where it could turn heavier and the

winds are picking up your later in the day. further north and west, plenty of sunshine poor scotland, northern ireland, the north of england and parts of wales for the afternoon but whenever you are it is going to feel quite with temperatures between ten and 1a degrees. a reversal of fortunes into sunday, after a cold and locally frosty start it is england and wales with the best sunshine and further north we have clouds spreading into northern ireland and scotland and outbreaks of rain turning increasingly heavy for western scotland, driven by gale force gusts. temperatures underneath the cloud and rain in the north, 11 or 12 degrees for sunday, 1a to 16 degrees for the south but it will feel cooler than it has done certainly today. that's the weather. a criminal investigation is launched after hundreds of tonnes of medical waste including body parts are not to pile up a disposal sites across the uk. that's all from the bbc news at six, so it's goodbye from me. on bbc one we nowjoin the bbc‘s news teams where you are.

this is bbc news. a reminder of the headlines. in a test of support for president trump's us senate nominee. the us senate decided by 51 votes to 49 to make a final decision on brett kavanaugh's nomination 49 to make a final decision on brett kava naugh's nomination later this weekend, even though he has been accused of sexual assault. a man who pushed and 90 rolled passenger on cheap tracks in central london has been found guilty of attempted murder. the 46—year—old told his trial that he did not intend to kill the man. ministers are being urged to explain why it didn't tell