this is bbc news. i'm ben bland. the headlines at 10... hundreds of thousands of demonstrators take to the streets of london to demand another brexit referendum. today we make our voices heard this is bbc world news, and what our voices are saying the headlines... us—backed forces in syria have loudly and clearly is this... announced a final territorial win put it back to the people. over so—called islamic state, raising their yellow flag over baghouz. the kurdish—led syrian democratic forces called american—backed kurdish forces declare victory for their administration over islamic state after capturing the group's last remaining stronghold in syria. in the region to be recognised. us special counsel robert mueller police in west london launch a murder investigation, has completed his investigation following the fatal stabbing into alleged links between russia of a teenager last night. and the trump campaign. a huge operation is underway off ajustice department official said the coast of norway to rescue it did not recommend any further indictments. 1300 passengers stranded on a cruise the democrats have demanded that the full report is made public. hundreds of thousands ship in trouble on stormy seas. of anti—brexit campaigners are marching through central london, demanding a second referendum. and at 10:30pm and again at 11:30pm, we ll be taking an in—depth look at the papers prime minister theresa may says she wouldn't seek a third vote with our reviewers, the political on her brexit deal next week, unless she thought it could pass. rescuers in norway are evacuating

more than 1,000 people from a cruise ship in stormy seas. the viking sky sent out a distress call after suffering an engine failure. at 10:00 ben bland will be here with a full round up of the day's news. first, our world. australia is suffering the hottest summer on record. water is often scarce but growing demand, mainly from farming, and higher temperatures linked to climate change, have created the country's worst ever water shortage. in australia's iconic outback, an environmental disaster is unfolding. when you threaten my family, and threaten my future, and you threaten the world's future of feeding our nation and other nations around the world, then you can't get more personal than that. the darling river, a main artery of australia's murray—darling basin,

is drying up. some blame climate change. others, the growth of industrial—scale cotton farming. whatever the cause, the result is sparking outrage on social media. look at these iconic fish of australia being treated like this. youse have to be bloody disgusted with yourself, you politicians and cotton grower manipulators. these lakes should never be drained. with national elections due in may, a recent royal commission report containing revelations of government bungling, corporate greed and corruption has thrust the issue to the forefront of australian political debate. with politicians ducking for cover, the worst environmental catastrophe in australia's history looms large. the empty rivers are threatening not only the nation's food security

but more than 40,000 years of subsistence living by its native people. it's a man—made drought we're living in now. we just won't suffer it. and it's notjust black people, it's everyone. white people, and all. and it's got to stop. 10 years ago, after the worst drought in living memory, i travelled to australia's outback to investigate a water crisis that was described then as exceptional. a decade later, i returned to find communities on the edge of disaster, facing the possibility that the water crisis is permanent. this landscape is at the heart of the battle over australia's scarce water supply. a nation which likes to call itself

the lucky country is endowed with a fabulous wealth of natural resources. but when it comes to one of the essentials of life, the country is in deep trouble. water has never been plentiful here but growing demand, mainly from farming, and higher temperatures linked to climate change, have collided to create the country's worst ever water crisis. the murray—darling basin drains more than a million square kilometres of south—eastern australia. a network of tributaries flow into the darling river which crosses the region to join the murray river, australia's longest at more than 2,500km. the darling river also feeds the menindee lakes. australia's most important agricultural region relies on these rivers and lakes but after the hottest summer on record,

most of the darling river has run dry and the lakes are virtually empty. for millennia, the menindee lakes system has been a flourishing ecosystem on the driest continent on earth and a vital lifeline for the outback. but that has all changed. just a few years ago, these lakes were almost 90% full but after a decision by the new south wales state government to decommission the lakes for water storage, they were drained dry, and this is the result. as australia's drought has worsened, and with nothing in reserve, the darling river is now reduced to a few stretches

of stagnating water. in december and january, at the peak of summer, a series of massive so—called fish kills, when more than a million fish died, left the country reeling. this is nothing to do with drought. this is a man—made disaster brought to you by the new south wales government and the federal government, and the murray—darling basin authority. this is the result of draining the menindee lakes twice in four years, and killing the system. these are just two of the many. this is the most disgusting thing i've ever seen in my life. in nearby menindee, population 550, residents are being forced to rely on bottled water and watch the local wildlife disappear. with each new fish kill, local fishermen graeme mccrabb has witnessed the devastation. there was just fish all the way down

here in clumps and it was pretty well connected for 30 kilometres of river, just dead fish. you saw the pictures of the little boneys all in pools but they were just scattered everywhere like confetti here through this section of the river. we had a stinking hot week, probably seven or eight days over as, a couple of days close to 50 and we dropped to about 20 degrees overnight that night, and it's hard to say, really. it's still emotional now for a lot of people, i suggest, probably two or three weeks on. with entire species of native fish under threat, government fisheries staff mounted a desperate last—minute rescue bid. but there was little left to salvage. with the water level continuing to drop, graeme travels the few remaining stretches looking for fish in distress in water made toxic by algae. i'm angry that we haven't got any bargaining in place,

that irrigation has got to come first and then they will look to see if they will embargo the water coming down the river. surely there should be an embargo on the water to get a connection of the barwon river all the way through the darling to the murray. that should be first and then visit it if there is enough waterfor irrigation. i can't believe anyone can sit there and say an embargo isn't in place at this stage. devastating now when you realise it's the nursery of the golden perch and silver perch for the whole murray—darling basin. 80% of the golden perch come from here. this is a nursery, they are recruited here and it's just been smashed by these fish kills and no help and no real political desire to take the environment into account with any decisions and any policies going forward. in 2009, i first travelled along the darling and murray rivers. already in crisis, the murray river no longer made it to the sea. the mouth of the river in south australia had run dry, setting off alarm bells

across the country. a $7 billion project, the murray—darling basin plan was drawn up with the hope it would help manage the scarce water resources for everyone. 10 years on, the plan appears to have failed. both the state and federal governments have been eager to label this crisis as a natural ecological event that's been exacerbated by the big drought. there is growing evidence that systematic mismanagement and the uncontrollable theft of water resources has played a huge role in this outback river disaster. in 2018, the south australian state government ordered a royal commission report into the effectiveness of the murray—darling basin plan. the federal government refused to give evidence and prevented its agricultural officials from appearing

before the enquiry. the report was published in february, just weeks after the death of an estimated million fish. it found that gross maladministration and negligence at both state and federal levels along with unlawful activity have undermined the integrity of australia's greatest river system. 100km upstream from menindee, in the town of wilcannia, the darling river has long ago run dry. more than a century ago, this town was one of australia's busiest inland ports, with hundreds of paddle steamers plying the river laden with produce from the land. more than 60% of the town's

residents are aboriginal, most of them from the barkindji tribe, known as the people of the river. a long time ago, before i was born, my mum was a young girl, my grandmother cut a canoe out of there, see? out of this. out of this here, she took the bark away, and that's how big the canoe was. with his family history etched along the banks of the darling, badger bates, a barkindji elder, shares his people's intimate connection with the river. see, even animals are dying. and one of our concerns is the mussel shells, see, the old mussels. they're just dying. it probves that the water sharing

plan is not worth the piece of paper it's written on and they're just a bunch of liars that wrote the plan because look what they've given us. they made the mess, they clean it, and they fix it. you can drink it. it is a little bit brackish but it is good water. although the barkindji people have native title to their lands, their rights do not extend to the river water, which his people call the "baka". in 2015 they gave us native title, recognition that we are barkindji people and we say what is the good in giving us native title and taking our water. the river is our mother, it owns us, we do not own the river. according to aboriginal legend, the river was created by a dreamtime serpent, which scoured the land,

joining up the waterholes. for the barkindji people the imminent death of a river they consider their mother is a catastrophe that is difficult to comprehend. we're just all suffering. and it is notjust black people, it's everyone. white people and all. it's gotta stop. under the government's murray darling plan, public money is spent buying back water from farmers but the last release of so—called bought—back water was almost a year ago. with billions of dollars allocated to fund the water buyback scheme, questions are now being asked about how the money is being spent. this march, a peer—reviewed study produced by australia's national university found the federal government had grossly exaggerated the amount of water that had been bought back and returned to the environment.

in fact, it found that less than 10% of the water the government claimed was being returned ever reached the river. it is said that modern australia was built on the sheep's back. 150 kilometres downstream from badger bate‘s home, sheep farming is on the verge of collapse. at tolarno station, farmer rob mcbride is seeing his family's future evaporating before him as the water crisis worsens. it seems big corporates and big industries are killing the murray darling basin and we are just one of the many who have been absolutely devastated by what they are doing. we are borrowing the country from our kids, we are, and it's being destroyed.

for rob's son, james, the stakes are high. i am going to find as much as i can so that i do have a future on here. because i was born and brought up on this place. i love it. i know every inch of it. and i love every part of it. i love the country, i love being able to ride down along the river and see beautiful big gum trees, and healthy sheep, kangaroos and wildlife everywhere. but we can't have that if things keep going the way they are going. for more than a decade, state governments have developed a complex system of water trading, with most water going to the highest bidders, leaving less for the environment. it is a system which many believe has encouraged corruption. we need the federal government to step in here because you need a broader scope of the whole thing. each state is only looking at itself, when you need to look at the big picture, so that you can spread the water

across all the states equally, rather than one state pulling in all of the water and being like, "oh, we're good, we don't need to worry about the other states." because they do not worry about the other states, they worry about themselves. g'day everyone, kate mcbride from tolarno station... james's sister, kate, has taken the battle online. communities and people along the river need to be put before opportunistic crops like cotton. we need people to get on to their politicians right now and encourage them to place embargoes in new south wales. she has been travelling the length of the dying darling river, to document the devastation. we need to remember that 2019 is of the year where our vote will count. unfortunately, climate change in australia right now seems to get largely avoided by a number of the parties. i think it is set to become a larger issue. right now, it is not highly enough put on the radar, but it is inevitable that our climate is changing. right now in australia, we've got flooding in queensland, we've got massive drought over almost 100% of new south wales and tasmania is on fire.

with the rivers running dry, the focus has turned to the upper reaches to the north, where massive irrigated farms are mostly growing cotton, a famously thirsty crop. it is heartbreaking to see that this water should be going down the darling. it is the controversial practice of floodplain harvesting, where rain water is diverted from streams and rivers and stored, which has come under the spotlight. in particular in the state of queensland, where it is almost completely unregulated. 0n the new south wales-queensland border, the town of goondiwindi is thriving. this is cotton country and the wealth the industry creates is clear to see, but scratch the surface and it is clear that water, and lots of it, underpins that success.

i have travelled to the giant floodplains of southern queensland to meet a cotton farmer turned whistleblower, who decided to speak out after he says his livelihood and that of his neighbours was nearly destroyed by industrial—scale cotton farming. oh, yeah, i really put myself out there. i've fronted lobby groups, i've fronted neighbours, i've fronted friends. you know, that is where i went to first. i believe that my problem, letting the river run, could have just been dealt internally but that... i received no help. no—one bothered to lift a finger. this is the macintyre river. it's new south wales on one side, queensland here. so we're in queensland. we're in queensland here. those trees there are new south wales. and the point is the river is very small. the river has to flood out over this country, and i want it to be protected.

this water is being intercepted. so when it comes out over this floodplain — like it has to — it is just being intercepted, called flood water and taken. but the longer you hold it, the more you can take. so that's what's happened to my family, it's just been held on us, our crops are all destroyed and the water does not continue into the river so for us to survive as farmers we just want the river to run. my neighbour can't get stock and domestic water. we're on a big river here that's running full steam within three kays, he can't get water. and they have been there for four generations. for years, as chris toiled with so—called dry—land cotton crops that rely purely on rainfall, he says a huge industrial—scale cotton farm was diverting water from the macintyre river into a network of channels and dams. you just can't turn communities off.

you have to look after people, you've got to look after the environment and extraction should always come last. over the last ten years, as hundreds of kilometres of giant levies and channels were built, chris took his concerns to the authorities and other cotton growers, but he was ignored and ostracised. my moral compass won't let me stop. i have been called a crusader, i am on a crusade trying to fix the problem with a neighbour, but it is so much bigger than that. cotton is a franchise. it is like owning a mcdonald's. every crop is a prescription. add water and you can roll out huge acres, that is the difference. welcome, kate. applause.

with public awareness of the crisis gaining traction, the mcbride family have decided to take their fight to save the darling river to australia's largest city, sydney. i get texts from people sometimes saying i speak with too much emotion but when you see your homeland dying, it is absolutely heartbreaking. these people, they need to come out and see a million dead fish in front of their doorstep and speak to the people that living off these bottled waters that have seen the river decline their entire life. because i have and i'm only 20. i have a great connection to the land just as many barkindji people have an even greater one, and that includes the river that sustains it. and so for me i do speak with emotion because it's my home. with state and national governments failing to provide answers, events like these are raising awareness in the cities of the crisis in the bush. we don't have to have the guts to stand up to politicians,

to say that we've had enough. why you're not listening to first nation people? i'm emotional, just like my sister over here. she belongs to the land. she has connection to the land and she cries when she speaks and i cry when i speak. 0ur connection goes through our blood, through our hearts. it is where we stamp our feet. 0ur feet are part of the earth. g'day, everyone, lam dave, from cotton australia... with big irrigators now firmly under the spotlight, industry body, cotton australia, is keen to deflect blame. i do welcome the comments that people actually understand it is not about the crop that grows, it is about the water. i think that's good. unfortunately sometimes some of the rhetoric is very much aimed at our growers and that is very disappointing because these are hard—working farmers just like all our rural producers

and they have been demonised. i spent a day in the box of the south australian royal commission. we're not afraid to get out there and tell the story. i acknowledge it is a natural disaster out there on the darling, but we do need to work towards solutions and that is what we're really looking at. the one thing i would say is, coming up to the questions, is that we are fully supportive of the recovery of the water. as australia's water wars rage, there are calls to establish a federal royal commission. right now, demands for an immediate suspension of water trading and an embargo on further irrigation across the eastern states of australia grow louder. this one means a lot to us, as barkindji people. 0ur river, our culture, our life. without a river, there is no life.

if they could help us get our water back, cause the water means a lot to us black people and i do not think we are going to have the same life like our dad did, drinking out of the river, because it is all dirty now, not clear. hello, there. across the north we have seen plenty of showers driven by strong wind. a similar recipe for sunday. tightly packed i suppose across the north. we have the showers feeding in and also brisk west and north westerly

wind. another blow we kind of day on sunday. and it is those brisk north—westerly winds that will make it feel a little on the chilly side across northern areas of scotland. the wind will drive the showers. unload more showers than we saw on saturday, across northern england and north wales by the end of the day. the south, meanwhile, less cloud around and more sunshine. probably feeling warmer with temperatures up to 1a degrees during sunday afternoon. as we go through the night, the north—westerly winds will continue to bring showers in ash times across northern ireland, perhaps a few for western scotland. through sunday night it is going to be another quite chilly night across the north and east of the country. that is where the wind is likeliest, the skies are clear risk, temperatures in the towns and cities as low as two degrees. for the week ahead, a lot of dry weather on the cards. some sunshine, and some chilly nights to come as well. here is the weather picture for monday.

high—pressure building in across the uk. the wind will be lighter in scotland. still a chilly wind coming down the eastern side of scotland around eastern coastal counties of england as well. that will peg the temperatures back. 9 degrees in norwich. not particularly special for this time of the year. 13 in london, similar weather to what we have seen over recent days. the high pressure is going nowhere fast. it will be with us for much of the week ahead. tuesday, for most of us, a dry —looking picture with some sunshine. the only exception is northern scotland where we will have thicker cloud, outbreaks of rain across the northern isles, southwards across moray and aberdeenshire in the afternoon. 1a degrees in the south, perhaps turning claudia. for wednesday, we look at the jet stream, and you can see that we have a ridge in the jet strea m see that we have a ridge in the jet stream across the uk. that is why we have high pressure over the top. it means another financial dry day weather—wise on wednesday. the

amount of cloud is going to vary, but the best of sunshine will be across western areas of england. starting to get warmer. temperatures around 15 degrees in the warmer spots. temperatures picking up in aberdeen. in to thursday, dry weather, with further spells of sunshine. may be more in the way of sunshine. may be more in the way of sunshine to go around. temperatures continuing to left. highs reaching 17 degrees in london. towards the end of the week we started to lose the influence of the ridge in the jet stream. we started to get more ofa jet stream. we started to get more of a trough coming in from the west. that will bring some thicker areas of cloud, and we might see some rain moving into the north and west of the uk. perhaps a bit of rain for scotland, northern ireland, may be across northern england as well. further southwards, we still have the dry weather, still with some sunshine. 16 degrees is not bad at all for this time of year. into next weekend, we have something of a

trough in the jet stream. that will continue to feed in showers across the north—west of the uk. that is latest weather.