rising knife crime — the government says there's no direct link to falling police numbers. it follows the deaths of two more teenagers in london and greater manchester at the weekend. we all wish that there was one thing, just one, that we could do, to stop this violence, but there are no short cuts, there is no one single solution. we've a special report from sheffield where eight people were fatally stabbed last year. also tonight... is it a brexit bung? labour accuses the government over new money being offered to deprived towns. the inquiry into claims of past child abuse at westminster looks at whether political parties engaged ina coverup. a send off fit for a footballing legend as fellow goalkeepers carry the coffin of 1966 world cup winner gordon banks. # i'm a firestarter # twisted firestarter and the man who made electronic

music mainstream in the 1990s, keith flint, of the band prodigy, has died. and coming up on bbc news... are liverpool feeling the pressure in the title race as they chase their first league title in 29 years. good evening and welcome to the bbc‘s news at six. the home secretary has called for an end to the senseless violence of knife crime that is killing young people across the country. sajid javid is to meet police chiefs this week to find ways to tackle a 93% rise in the number of under—16s stabbed over five years. the latest victims in a spate of stabbings are two 17—year—olds who were killed in london and greater manchester over the weekend.

the prime minister has acknowledged public concern but insists there is "no direct correlation" between the rise in knife crime and a fall in police numbers. june kelly is at the park in romford, where 17—year—old jodie chesney was killed on friday. june. this park is in a residential area and you really feel you could be anywhere in the country but this is now a murder scene. of course these are children who are dying and now the debate is focusing on how we as a country protect our young people. awarning, a country protect our young people. a warning, this piece contains some flashing images. they lived at either end of the country butjodie chesney and yousef makki were the same age on the verge of adulthood. and it was in the suburbs, not the city, that both their young lives were suddenly taken. today at harold hill in romford those who loved jodie came to the park

at this playground where she died on friday night. she was with her boyfriend and some other friends when they were approached by two men. jodie was stabbed once in the back. as the hunt for evidence continues, her murderer described as black and in his late teens, remains at large. locally on the night of the murder between the hours of seven and 11pm there are many people who had the dashcam and potentially cctv. if you have got those, please come to us with that information. meanwhile the greater manchester force is investigating yousef makki's killing. today in a statement his family said, "we are absolutely devastated and cannot believe that our son has gone." locals in altrincham described how they tried to save him. we had to lay him on the road, so he was flat. we got him into the

recovery position. mike cradled his head. we just tried to do the best for him we could. unfortunately, it wasn't enough. two other 17—year—olds have been arrested and following this weekend's killings, there's been a blunt intervention from the former head of the met police. he says a knife tzar should be appointed. what i don't get a sense is that every day, somebody is leading this and somebody's managing it, pulling it all together. it's a very complex problem and it will require a big solution. but we need to get a grip on it. but from the prime minister, an insistence that the rise in knife crime isn't linked to a fall in officer numbers. if you look at the figures, what you see is that there is no direct correlation between certain crimes and police numbers. what matters is how we ensure that the police are responding to these criminal acts when they take place, that people are brought to justice, but what also matters is, as a government, that we look

at the issues that underpin, that underlie this use of knives. i can't magic officers out of thin air, but we are lucky that we've got officers who are professional, committed and what to make a difference, at the moment. and they are working incredibly hard, in difficult circumstances. as that debate goes on, jodie chesney‘s friends are mourning her. more young lives traumatised by the consequences of the knife crime epidemic. june kelly, bbc news, romford. it's notjust in london that knife crime is on the rise. violent crime is increasing faster outside the capital with nearly all police forces in england and wales recording a rise since 2010. 0ur correspondentjeremy cooke has been to sheffield, where eight people were fatally stabbed last year. he's been hearing the harrowing stories from some who have lost loved ones to knife crime. come on then, lily. this is wherejordan used to live. so, we just use this tree as a place to come, because we ain't got nowhere else. knife crime in sheffield means

lily has lost her dad. adam is scarred for life. i got stabbed in my kidney, i lost four and a half pints of blood. i thought i were dead. and dawn is overwhelmed by constant grief for her son. that day whenjamie died, i lost everything, everything. # it must be love, love, love #. i got a phone call from me mum. she says, "you've got to get to hospital, straight away, he's been stabbed". ithought, "god, no, please, no, please don't be dead". i thought, he can't be dead. i thought, he's not going to be dead, and then they came through, about five surgeons and just sat down and said, "sorry, we tried everything, we couldn't save him". i thought, "you've got to be kidding, you're kidding me, you've got to be kidding, he only went out for a drink". jamie was stabbed to death at the age of 19, leaving his killer

starting a life sentence, his mother starting hers. and he just laid on this bed with all these tubes coming out of his mouth. ithought, "no, it's not jamie, he's asleep, he'll be home in a bit" and it took about a week before it hit me. no, he's not coming home and it is him. then i thought, it can't have happened to him, it can't, why? and then you're thinking, why? why would somebody do this to him? why? some idiot with a knife. adam's lost too many friends to knife crime and he himself is lucky to be alive. i was awake for... one of my friends who'd been stabbed. i left that and i was walking home. there was a big argument. somebody stabbed me in my back. sheffield has got a problem. it's just... people just need to stop carrying knives and that. as in london, knife attacks here are usually by young

men, against young men. but the victims are any and every age. send it to him. aww. to daddy in the sky. lily was three when her dad, jordan, was stabbed to death in his flat. who's that? daddy. two years on, her mum, emily, fights to keep his memory alive. but there's no escaping the fact that lily will grow up without her dad. lily, to this day, struggles really, really bad. she came in probably less than two weeks ago saying, "mum, are you going to die soon?" and i said, "no, not yet". and she said, "but you need to die, one day", and then she absolutely broke down in tears, saying, "i don't want to not have no mum". she is absolutely petrified that

when somebody leaves, they're just never going to come back. as soon as you open a paper, somebody's been stabbed. until today, dawn has grieved forjamie in private. now, she's speaking out for the first time, against the rise of knife crime and the agony that it brings. even though it's seven and a half years now, i miss him more. i miss him more, because ijust want to see him and hold him, and give him a big hug. i'm never going to come to terms with it, i'm always going to think, i want you back, i want you back, please come back. ijust say that all the time. i look at his photo, "please come back, you need to come back". jeremy cooke talking with dawn gray, and others, affected by knife crime. so, is knife crime getting worse? are we living in more violent society now than before? our home editor mark easton is here. mark, you've got some answers. barely a week goes by, it seems, without yet another teenager being stabbed,

often also by a teenager. is it getting worse? we are talking about a subset of a subset of a crime but there are some troubling signs. two thirds of police forces in england and wales recently responded to a freedom of information request, which showed that, in those force areas, the number of teenagers recorded as having killed with a knife has risen from 26 in 2016 to 46 last year. if we look at victims, patient records from hospitals in england show that seven years ago, 1111 teenagers were admitted after assaults with a sharp implement like a knife. last year it was 267, with a clear rising trend. these are still, thankfully, relatively rare crimes but they are also devastating for those affected. and today in the commons, the home secretary defended government policy arguing money and effort were being applied to the problem, and notjust from the home office. we must all acknowledge that this is an issue that transcends party

lines, politics can be divisive but if there was ever an issue to unite oui’ if there was ever an issue to unite our efforts and inspire us to stand together, then surely this is it. this country is facing a crisis. it's time for leadership from our prime minister and home secretary for clear action under united vision from all arms of government and for emergency funding for the police and prevention programmes to keep our children safe. warm words are no longer enough. something is going horribly wrong and particularly in certain communities. in london, where knife crime incidents are higher than any other part of the country, victims and perpetrators are disproportionately young black men from poorer neighbourhoods. in other cities, the profile may be different. it is a crime that feeds on itself. if one person gets stabbed, similar youngsters locally are more likely to carry a knife for their own protection, and so the infection spreads. and that idea of an infection is also prompting home office proposals to deal with knife crime

in the same way you might deal with a public health emergency. increasingly it is argued that solutions to young people being stabbed do not lie exclusively with the criminaljustice system. an nhs regulator has abandoned plans to appoint a panel overseeing the inquiry into maternity failures at the shrewsbury and telford nhs trust. more than 200 families have come forward alleging poor care at the trust had led to mothers and babies dying or suffering harm. some families had threatened to withdraw their consent from the inquiry if nhs improvement had proceeded with the panel, arguing it would undermine its independence. towns in deprived areas in england are to get a £1.6 billion funding boost, which has immediately been dubbed a brexit bribe by labour, who say theresa may is trying to use the money to win support for her brexit deal from opposition mps in areas which strongly voted to leave the eu. the communities secretary, james brokenshire, denies that and insists the money

will have a transformative" impact on areas that feel left behind. 0ur political editor laura kuenssberg reports from stainforth in south yorkshire. just look at this, look at it, there is nothing. we've got nothing in this town. we've got this feeling that we're unimportant anymore, it's not a gold mine, it's just a dead town, now. keith allsop wants his home to feel like something to him again. hatfield main pitch shut for good, four years ago. there is a plan for a heritage centre, to create new work where it's gone, if there is the cash. i'm not sure whether it's a piecrust promise. that could be broken at any time. once the vote's gone the way theresa may wanted it to go, if you like. why do you say that? history. there will be 1.6 billion up for grabs in places like this, in england, but spread over seven years.

and there's no question things are tight already. what was the library is now a centre for volunteers. well, ithink, generally speaking, all they worry about is major cities. we are absolutely desperate for that kind of money. this is the only public building in stainforth now. there used to be seven or eight, but the government cutbacks have closed these places down. there are plenty of questions, too. i think there's also a complete lack of detail there about exactly what this is for. the prime minister's announced the cash in the hope of persuading labour mps to back her on brexit. but businesses, some thriving here, don't want a sympathy vote. ultimately, if there's a pot of cash there, an economy like doncaster will want to access that, so it can do great things for our businesses and great things for our communities here. but the timing of that feels a little cynical, today. and i think we would be a little bit frustrated if we were still being defined by the challenge and the deprivation.

but maybe brexit is a chance to reset the scales. doncaster voted strongly for brexit, because it feels left behind. there's nojobs and people feeling that everything's being spent in london and in the south, government money. people feel as if nobody cares, which leads to a feeling of bravado, where people put on a very hard front, and it hides a lack of confidence and a feeling that they're not worth anything. so, for me, and our charity, it's very important to say this place has got a lot of heritage, there's a lot of pride here. the embers are still there and we want to stoke that. some labour mps have dismissed this promise of extra cash as an insult or even a bribe. don't expect there to be a sudden rush of support for theresa may's brexit dealfrom them. butjust as she is crying out for votes, so, too, some parts of the country are crying out for a fairer slice of the pie. but, brexit, like all politics, is about what can get done. not always the same as what seems right or fair.

laura kuenssberg, bbc news. the time is 6:16pm. our top story this evening: following the death of two more teenagers this weekend, the government says there's no direct link between rising knife crime and falling police numbers. # i'm #i'ma # i'm a firestarter # twisted fi resta rter # i'm a firestarter # twisted firestarter # and keith flint, lead singer of the prodigy, has died. coming up on sportsday on bbc news... after defeat in their one—day series, england make a strong start in their twenty20 contest with india as they win by 41 runs, going for a first series win against their opponents. thousands of people have lined the streets of stoke for the funeral of world cup winning goalkeeper gordon banks. fellow england goalkeepers peter shilton and david seaman were among the mourners. also there were sir geoff hurst

and sir bobby and jack charlton, all of whom played alongside banks in the 1966 world cup—winning squad, our sports editor dan roan reports. for one final time, they'd come to honour the greatest goalkeeper this club, this country, has ever had. fitting that the final journey of gordan banks began here at stoke city, where he went from legendary player to life president. the funeral procession pausing at the statue, which, since his death last month, has become a focal point for fans‘ tributes. some of the game's most famous faces, both past and present, among the mourners here at stoke minster, including team—mates from england's iconic 1966 world cup winning side. describe what kind of man gordon banks was. well, he was a superstar on the field, but the beauty about him was, off the field, he was an ordinary guy. he was down to earth and we were very fortunate in

‘66 to have some superstar players, like banksy who off the field were just ordinary guys. in a poignant tribute, banks‘ coffin was then carried into the service by goalkeepers from the teams he graced. we remember gordon as someone who gave so much to this city, this nation, and the world. as well as being in goal for england's finest hour, banks will be remembered for that save, one of the greatest the game has seen, miraculously denying pele the 1970 world cup. what a save! but for all his footballing achievements, banks was also a family man. we shared gordon banks, a great goalkeeper, with the world, but gordon banks, the great dad, grandad, great grandad and all around amazing man, was oui’s. dad made our world a happy, wonderful, magical place. # i did what i had to do #

to the sound of frank sinatra's my way, a moving service then came to an end. undeniably english football's safest pair of hands banks‘s sporting immortality is just as secure. dan roan, bbc news, stoke. a major inquiry into allegations of past child sexual abuse linked to westminster will consider whether political parties "turned a blind eye" to it. the latest phase of the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse will examine whether there were any attempted cover—ups, including how what was then the liberal party responded to allegations made against the late mp cyril smith. our home affairs correspondent, tom symonds has more. "we will continue to examine whether the british establishment harboured paedophiles", the promise today from a public inquiry, regularly derided as a witch hunt. its most senior lawyer asked, "were there cover—ups to protect the status quo, rather than children?" we shall investigate and attempt to answer these questions, which have given rise to considerable public concern. concern dating back to 2012,

the savile scandal. but also, a senior labour politician, who told the commons there was... ..clear intelligence suggesting a powerful paedophile network linked to parliament and number ten. it turned out that the evidence was not clear, and, in some some cases, not there at all. this morning, the inquiry‘s gone through all the main allegations, but it said it won't be investigating whether they're true. instead, its job will be to assess whether the establishment responded properly, when the allegations came to light. for critics like danieljanner, the son of the late lord janner, who was accused, it's still a witchhunt. if you're going to have an investigation, do it in relation to people who were convicted, or people who are alive and can answer back. but there will be evidence that m15 warns that the conservative mp peter morrison had a "penchant for small boys". evidence in a 1995 interview that party whips helped members in trouble.

..might be scandal involving small boys, or any kind of scandal. and evidence that prosecutors and the liberal democrats turned a blind eye to the activities of cyril smith, never charged. tom symonds, bbc news, at the child abuse inquiry. let's take a look at some of today's other news. prince harry has officially dedicated a memorial in birmingham to the british victims of the 2015 tunisia terrorist attacks. the memorial will be a focus of remembrance for those killed in two separate attacks on the bardo museum in tunis and a hotel beach resort in sousse. a number of the british victims were from the midlands. the founder and chief executive of the fashion chain ted baker has resigned following allegations of misconduct, including "forced hugging". ray kelvin had been on a voluntary leave of absence since december last year, following the misconduct allegations. mr kelvin denies any wrongdoing.

its often said that social media is one of the primary causes of social divisions today — but many argue it's also a force for good. this week the bbc s launched a new series of crossing divides, examining the causes of polarization and fragmentation in the 21st century. 0ur media editor, amol rajan, has been looking at the link between digital media and social divides in the uk today. a common assumption about modern media is that it has created filter bubbles. 0nline experiences that confirm our prejudices, rather than challenge them. whether they are racist themselves 01’ whether they are racist themselves or not, doesn't matter, the effect is the same... 0ne collective of students intent on breaking out of echo chambers is called the cabinet, it started as a facebook group