this is bbc news. the headlines: police in londonderry investigating the murder of the journalist lyra mckee continue to question two teenage men. more than 750 arrests in six days, as climate change protests continue in central london. the head of the police force urges demostrators to move on. to 25.5 degrees. at ten o'clock kate silverton will be here with a full round up of the days news. now on bbc news, our world reports from australia. with a general election just weeks away, revelations of government

bungling, corporate greed and corruption have thrust water to the forefront of political debate. in australia's iconic outback and 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 and they treat it like this. you'd have to be bloody disgusted with yourself, you politicians and cotton grower manipulators.

these lakes should never be drained... with the 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 is a man—made drought we are living in now. we'll all suffer for it. and it's notjust black people, it's everyone, white people... and it's got to stop. ten 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 have returned to find communities on the edge of disaster and facing the possibility 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 billion square kilometres of south—eastern australia. --1 ——1 million square kilometres. a network of tributaries flow into the darling river which crosses the region to join the murray river, australia's longest at more than 2500 kilometres. the darling 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 lake 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, where 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, the federal government and the murray darling authority, basin authority. this is the result of draining

the menindee lakes twice in four years, killing the system. pan back behind us. 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 through here in clumps and it was pretty well connected for 30 kilometres of river, just fish. i saw the pictures of them all in pools but they were just scattered everywhere here like confetti through this section of the river. we had a stinking hot heatwave of seven and a half days over a5, a couple of days over 50 and we dropped to about 20 degrees overnight that night and, i don't know, it's hard to say really, it's still emotional now for a lot of people just

two or three weeks on. with entire species of native fish under threat, government fishery 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 is going to come first and then they're going to look and see if they would embargo the water coming down the river. surely there should be an embargo on the water to get connection of the river all the way through the murray, that should be first and then visit it if there is enough waterfor irrigation. i can't believe that anyone can sit there and say that 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 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 just no help and no real political desire to take the environment into account with any decisions or 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. ten 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 has been exacerbated by the big drought. this 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 gross maladministration and negligence at both state and federal levels along with unlawful activity have undermined the integrity of

australia's greatest river system. 100 kilometres upstream from menindee and 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 here. she pushed 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 shows his people's intimate connection with the river. see, even animals are dying. and one of our concerns are the mussel shells, darling mussels. they are just dying. well, it's proof that the water sharing plan is not worth the piece of paper it's written on and that it's a bunch of lies that wrote the plan, because look. look what they have given us. they have made the mess, they clean it and they fix it. you can drink it. a little bit brackish but it's good water. although the barkindji people have native title to their lands,

their rights don't extend to the river water which is what people called the barker. in 2015 they gave us native title of the recognition that we are the barkindji people, and we say what's the good of giving us a native title and taking our water? the river is our mother, it owns us, we don't own the river. according to aboriginal legend, the river was created by a dreamtime serpent which scoured the land, joining up the water holes. for the barkindji people, the imminent death of a river they consider their mother is a catastrophe that is difficult to comprehend. we will all suffer. it's notjust black people, it's everyone, white people and all. and it's got to stop.

under the government's murray darling plan, public money is spent buying backwater 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 buy—back 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 brought 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 bates‘ home, sheep

farming is on the verge of collapse. at tolarno station, farmer robert mcbride is seeing his family's future evaporate 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 are being absolutely devastated by what they are doing. we are borrowing the country from our kids. we are. and it's been destroyed. for rob's son, james, the stakes are high. i'm going to fight as much as i can so 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 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 the 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 you can spread water all along the states equally rather than one state pulling in all the water and thinking, we are good, we don't need to worry about the other states, because they don't worry they worry about themselves. good day. kate here from tolarno station. james's sister, kate, has taken their battle online. communities and people on the river need to be put before opportunistic crops like cotton, so we need people to get onto their politicians right now and encourage them to enforce embargoes on 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 the year where our votes 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 have 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's heartbreaking to see that this water should be going down the darling. it's the controversial practice of flood plane harvesting where rainwater is diverted from streams and rivers and stored,

which has come under the spotlight. in particular in the state of queensland where it's 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's clear that water and lots of it underpins that success. i have travelled to the giant flood plains of southern queensland to meet a cotton farmer turned whistle—blower who decided to speak out after he says his livelihood and that of his neighbours was nearly destroyed by industrial scale cotton farming. i really put myself out there. i have fronted lobby groups,

fronted neighbours, friends, you know, that's where i went to first. i believe my problem letting the river run could have just been dealt internally, but 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 are in queensland? we are queensland here, those trees are in 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 flood plain like it has to, it has just been intercepted, called flood water and taken. but the longer you hold it, the more you can take so that is what has happened to my family, it'sjust been held. 0ur crops are all destroyed and the water does not continue into the river so that's... for us to survive as farmers, we just want the river to run.

my neighbour can't get stock on domestic water. we are on a big river here that is running within three ks, he can't get water and they've been there for four generations. for years chris toiled with so—called dry land cotton crops that relied purely on rainfall. he says a huge industrial scale cotton farm was diverting water from the mcintyre river into a network of channels and dams. you just can't turn communities away. you've got to look after people, 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'm on a crusade trying to fix a problem with a neighbour, but it is so much bigger than that. cotton, it's a franchise, it's like owning a mcdonald's, every crop is a prescription. add water and you can roll out huge acres, that's 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 attacks from people sometimes saying i speak with too much emotion but when you see your homeland dying, it is absolutely heartbreaking. these people need to come out and see dead fish in front of their doorstep and

speak to the people that are living off these bottom waters that have seen the river decline their entire life because i have and i am only 20. i have a great connection to the land just as many barkindji people. and that includes the river that sustains it and so for me i do speak with emotion because it is my home. with the state and national governments failing to provide answers, events like this are raising awareness in the cities of the crisis in the bush. who's going to have the guts to stand up to politicians to say that we have had enough? why are you not listening to first nations people? i am just like my sister over here. she belongs to the land. she's got connections to the land. and she cries when she speaks and i cry when i speak. so our connection goes through our blood, through our heart. it's where we stamp our feet. 0ur feet are touching the earth.

good day, everyone, my name is dave. with big irrigators now firmly under the spotlight, industry body cotton australia is keen to deflect blame. i did welcome the comments there that people, understanding that it's not about the crop that grows, it's about the water. i think that's good. unfortunately sometimes some of their rhetoric is very much aimed at our growers and that has been very disappointing because these are hard—working farmers just like all our rural producers and they have been demonised. i spent a day in south australia, we are not afraid to get out there and tell the story, i acknowledge that it is a natural disaster out there on the darling but we do need to work towards the solutions and that is what we are looking at. the one thing i would say is coming up to the question 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, demand for a immediate suspension of water trading and an embargo on further irrigation across the eastern states of australia grow louder. this means a lot to us as barkindji people. 0ur river, our culture, our life. and without no river, there is no life. if they could help us get our water back because the water means a lot to us black people and i don't think we are going to have the same life like dad did drinking out of the river because it is all dirty now, not clear.

saturday turned out to be a decent day for many parts of the british isles. you could have gone to a number of locations to get a similar effect because you can see that the heat was widespread across the british isles. the colours dribble away in this north—western quarter good reason. it wasn't a heatwave right around the coast, there were some onshore breezes along east anglia. the reason it was so cool across that north—western quarter is because of this weather front. it will still be around on sunday. a lot of cloud and some rain there as

well. but elsewhere, sunday is going to prove to be another sparkling day. temperatures still in the low 20s and a number of locations just a fraction cooler around some of those exposed coasts about those temperatures are well above the seasonal norm. through the evening and overnight it will be a lovely evening again for many parts. there will be a sense that they will push this rain away from the mainland of scotland. not a cold night under —— underneath the clear skies. here we are for easter monday. it looks as though it will be a fine and subtle day. not a great deal of change save in this north—western quarter which will pull that front out to the atla ntic will pull that front out to the atlantic and at last the sun will come on through. well on into the

mid—teens and elsewhere, 22, 23, 2a is distinctly possible. 0nce mid—teens and elsewhere, 22, 23, 2a is distinctly possible. once we are through monday and into tuesday things will change with the low pressure becoming dominant through biscay and out towards the western side of the british isles and in the middle part of the week, we will lose the influence of the continent and it will be more of an atlantic influence that will dominate. tuesday something of a transition day. first signs of cloud with the odd showery burst of rain wanting to try to get into resting areas. we will not see temperatures plummet straightaway, still 21, 22 on offer but once we pick up that atlantic influence, introducing more moisture into the atmosphere that we will begin to see heavy downpours of rain gradually drifting from the south, from the west and it is at this point where we will see temperatures

beginning to fall back. into the upper teens. here we are into thursday and those bells of rain will work their way further northwards, ever further from west to east where most areas will buy the second half of the week will see some rain and for some, that will be quite welcome. by that stage, temperatures will be lurking around the mid—teens, so by the end of the next week we will be looking at something more unsettled. the risk of thundery showers and it will turn cooler with temperatures ending at the seasonal norm.

this is bbc news, the headlines at 10pm. police investigating the murder of the journalist, lyra mckee say they are dealing with a "new breed of terrorist". scotland yard requests two—hundred extra officers from neighbouring forces to help with the climate change protests, as the number of arrests reaches seven—hundred—and fifty hottest day of the year so far — as temperatures reach 25 and a half degrees and at 10:30 and again at 11:30 we'll be taking an in—depth look at the papers with our reviewers bonnie greer and penny smith — stay with us for that.