of madagascar is under threat. lemurs depend on primary old—growth forest like this. but across madagascar, 80% of the habitat has been cut down. the driver of that is agriculture. slash and burn. burning forests to produce a plot of fertile soil. but here there is a farming revolution going on. with the help of a malagasy charity, teenagers here are learning to grow food in a new and sustainable way. these ae lessons in weeding, pruning and maintaining the soil using compost and crop rotation to keep the same plot. translation: it is difficult with the traditional farming techniques because you move from one field to another and cut and burn trees. with the new method you stay in one place and it is much easier. translation: if the forest continues to be destroyed there will be less

water to drink and there will be a loss of habitat for the wildlife. lemurs will disappear or die out. today, the community is celebrating the newest group of recruits who will sign up to learn these new skills. and a training scheme will soon be brought to other villages in the region because as well as protecting the forest, this way of farming is producing higher yields. critical in a community that relies entirely on what people can grow. we always want to know what the weather is going to be like for monday on a bank holiday weekend. let's look at the map. good afternoon. the weather has taken all sorts of colours over the last few days. is it settling down? sort of. settling down with a few caveats. good afternoon. the weather isn't looking too bad this weekend, there are some spells of sunshine but it

doesn't feel too special. some cold aircoming down doesn't feel too special. some cold air coming down across the uk, there are blue skies but it feels quite chilly and across eastern areas we have a future is at the moment, this is the latest satellite picture. lots of showers coming down the eastern side, some with some thunder and heavy downpours. some showers gci’oss and heavy downpours. some showers across scotland have been a following as sleet and snow, we had a covering of snow over some high ground. away from these areas and further west it is largely dry with sunshine for northern ireland, for wales and the south—west of england, these showers are feeding across eastern parts of england and son getting into the bristol area, just further west to the afternoon. very windy for the north east coasts. 9 degrees in hull will not feel pleasa nt degrees in hull will not feel pleasant at all and across scotland ina band pleasant at all and across scotland in a band of cloud syncing southwards. showers will tend to ease. through this evening and tonight, showers continuing for a time but once we get past midnight

most of those showers should have gone up. more cloud into northern scotland, now as cold as it was last night but away from these areas temperatures hovering very close to freezing. there could be a touch of frost tomorrow morning. this is sunday's weather chart. high pressure trying to build and but remains out to the west and that allows us to continue with this cold airfrom the north. when‘s allows us to continue with this cold air from the north. when‘s feeding that pulls air our way would be a strong tomorrow, if you're spending your day across the north sea coast it might not feel quite as chilly or as today. there will be one or two showers and generally cloudy weather going sideways across scotland with some outbreaks of patchy rain and wind trainers over higher ground. elsewhere sunny spells and patchy cloud. we get on into bank holiday monday and his band of cloud and showery rain drips very slowly southwards. the south of the uk, a mix of patchy cloud and sunny spells, pretty much dry. scotland

will be brighter but rather chilly weather filtering on it will be brighter but rather chilly weatherfiltering on it with will be brighter but rather chilly weather filtering on it with some wintry showers, single digits in aberdeen and newcastle, and chilly feeling day. into next week, heading back to work tuesday and wednesday this area of low pressure comes into the picture threatening to bring some of us some wind and rain. still plenty going on in our weather over the next few days. hello, this is bbc news. the headlines. senior conservatives have called for the party to pull together after it suffered its worst results in english local elections for almost 25 years. the party lost over a thousand councillors. labour also suffered key losses. police say the leak of information from the national security council about chinese tech giant huawei "did not contain information that would breach the official secrets act" and "did not amount to a criminal offence". india has hailed as a success its evacuation of more than a million people to safety to avoid cyclone fani.

between eight and twelve people were killed by the storm, but officials said the loss of life could have been far worse. one of the uk's busiest routes, the west coast mainline, is closed between london euston and milton keynes. rail passengers are being warned to expect disruption to theirjourneys this weekend, as bank holiday engineering work gets underway. now on bbc news, it's time to witness history. this is from the former conservative party leader iain duncan smith and he has said the prime minister must announce she is standing down very soon after the party suffered heavy defeats in the english elections. he referred to theresa may as only a ca reta ker referred to theresa may as only a caretaker prime minister and urged her to set her departure date, and inset, but said if she didn't

literally at 1922 committee which represents all backbenchers would have to force her to do so. iain duncan smith who has been reluctant to publicly say this, he suffered a fair number of fullbacks in his time, trying to find a brexiteer with labour was absurd and many conservatives would refuse to back it. more of this on two o'clock. thanks for your company this morning. now on bbc news, it's time to witness history. razia iqbal presents five extraordinary testimonies from the past, including a fashion industry pioneer from the days of the soviet union. hello, and welcome to witness, with me razia iqbal. i'm here at the british library to guide you through five extraordinary moments in recent history, told to us by the people who were there. we start with an individual who helped create a fashion industry in the soviet union. under communism, clothes and designs were regulated by the state.

but slava zaitsev had the urge to break away and create new designs. he became the first soviet designer to start his own haute couture fashion label. translation: what is the point of a fashion designer? it's to give people joy, the joy of connecting with beauty you see. this has been the most important thing in my life. reporter: for the ordinary russian in the street, such styles are a long way off. fabric runs are altered only once in three years. to get a design from drawing to mass production takes two years. soviet factories produced very basic clothes, poorly cut and badly stitched. soviet fashion houses worked for clothes factories and every

design had to be approved or rejected by a commission of representatives from ministries and other organisations. they had nothing to do with the art of fashion, yet they told artists what to do. myjob was boring and uninspiring. so i left the state fashion industry. ideas were pouring out of me. i got together a group of young people and we began to create our own collection. at the time, the problem was getting hold of enough cloth. there was a shortage of fabric. we used fabric from a state warehouse. the fabric belonged to the state and we got state funding. the tickets are as hard to get and just as expensive as the bolshoi ballet. it's the fashion show — moscow's latest entertainment and one that can be assured of a full house as often as russia's top designer can be persuaded to put his models through their paces.

working with black only is boring. but we didn't have any other colours, so i kept buying black fabric. for the moment, the fashion world regards zaitsev's work as rather old—fashioned. but then that's hardly surprising for a man who, until a few years ago, had to rely on friends to give him old copies of fashion magazines. in 1989 i went to america and got hold of new italian fabrics. these were beautiful fabrics and i used them for a high fashion collection. in the past few months he's taken his models to new york and paris and the changes are already beginning to show. see, high fashion is high art. it is the art of creating a costume, a style which reflects its time. high fashion is still well above the heads of most of his audience. high fashion reflects the most

striking features of its era. the 19805 was all about shoulder pads, creating the image of a woman who is more refined, more confident, she's in touch with herself, she is free of male influence. but although zaitsev's customers are part of the elite, it's hard to imagine the kremlin wives in some of his numbers. in 1989 when i showed my collection injapan, i was recognised as one of the top five designers in the world. that was an amazing moment. i am a working man, i push myself hard and fashion is what gives me greatjoy. our next film takes us to scotland in 1983.

corporal punishment in schools was still legal across the uk. but grace campbell objected to the possibility of her children being beaten and campaigned to get the law changed. a recent survey of scottish teenagers show that a third of the boys and one in 12 of the girls had been belted in one fortnight period. to people who say that if you don't hit kids you're spoiling them, i say they have to take a long, cold, hard look in the mirror. when you strip it away, what you're really talking about is hitting another individual. most scottish secondary school teachers possess one of these thick leather straps with a double tongue. the largest teaching union in scotland maintains it's an unpleasant necessity in today's unruly classrooms. corporal punishment in scotland was institutionalised. it was really strange that in a county like britain in the '70s and '80s,

corporal punishment was still around because actually it wasn't in many european countries. local authorities, local education authorities had set down guidance for teachers on what implements to use, what was known as a belt, was used to hit you on the hand. it's difficult to describe why the belt was such a terrifying thing to look at. i think it'sjust because from a very early age, you hear it from a very early age, you hear it from the older kids at school about the belt. it's a single use thing, it doesn't have any other legitimate use. it doesn't have any other legitimate use. it'sjust for it doesn't have any other legitimate use. it's just for hitting it doesn't have any other legitimate use. it'sjust for hitting people. when you see it, ok, that's something to be wary of. my mother had been subjected to corporal punishment when she was at school and she was clear she didn't want

that for her children. she tried to seek assurances from the local school, could you make sure my kids will not be belted. she went to the local authority, strathclyde regional council, they were clear that it gets used and she was in touch with the local mp, the councillors, trying to get something done and eventually it was clear that under scots law at the time there was no point in trying to go through the courts in scotland. my mother had no choice, she had to go to the european court of humans rights in strasbourg. ididn't do i didn't do me any harm. i didn't do me any harmlj i didn't do me any harm. i think it should be kept because there will be more vandalism and fighting and bullying. in society at the time, we we re bullying. in society at the time, we were definitely perceived to be troublemaking. the majority in

society wanted to keep corporal punishment. the court ruled that beating children against their pa re nt‘s beating children against their parent's which are violated the human rights convention. i'm very pleased with the outcome of the case and feel that a speedy implementing of the findings will improve the educational environment for both teachers and pupils. when my mum got the news of the judgment, there was a lot of spontaneous dancing and hugging of my dad, which any west of scotland family just isn't hugging of my dad, which any west of scotland familyjust isn't a normal thing. they were really, really pleased. after the law was changed, it was changed just before the start of the school term, and itjust disappeared overnight. it was like it never existed. andrew campbell remembering his mother, grace. in 1978, a bengali textile worker was

murdered in london's east end. the killing of a 25—year—old was racially motivated and mobilised to bengali community to act. we recall what life was like in the east end and the events around the murderer. —— the murder. and the events around the murderer. -- the murder. in 1970, life in east london wasn't very pleasant due to hatred, due to racial abuse. a re ce nt hatred, due to racial abuse. a recent report on racial violence in this area described it as an isolated and terrorised community, the victims of an appalling catalogue of violent crime. we had a fire pit through our letterbox. urinating in our letterbox. spitting, fishing. it was common. it

was very frightening. i was in fear all the time. national front is a group of people who hate other people. most of them are skinheads. the message was against immigration. it was thursday the 11th of may, election day after work, he was walking through this street through here to go home, approximately six and when he got there, he was attacked and knifed in his neck. all ofa attacked and knifed in his neck. all of a sudden we heard a siren from every angle, every siren from... you

can hear silence now, similar siren from every angle. after about half an hour, we heard a bengali man had been stabbed to death. we were very angry and didn't know what to do, eve ryo ne angry and didn't know what to do, everyone was shouting, crying. the community finally united. smash the national front! we organised a march to hyde park corner. it was the biggest bengali late march in the uk. and our message was no more killing. in brick lane are a

favourite sunday morning gathering spot for national front supporters a group of 200 bengalis sat down to... after the big march, the national front continued with their activities, so we had to march every sunday after that and our slogan was — black and white unite and fight. eventually, the national front lost. because they know our community is no longerfighting. because they know our community is no longer fighting. —— frightened. where i'm sitting now, altab ali park, this has been named after alta b park, this has been named after altab ali. he will always be remembered. we have a memorial they

are at the back. we commend we laid flowers in his memory. he is not forgotten. —— mike v, and. flowers in his memory. he is not forgotten. -- mike v, and. remember, you can watch witness every month on the bbc news channel or you can catch up on all our films along with more than 1000 video programmes in our online archive, just go to... at the 2004 athens olympics a young 800 metre runner from the gaza strip became the first woman to lead the palestinian delegation at an opening ceremony. it was my greatest moment. my name went down in history as the first

palestinian to cali the palestinian flag at the olympics. running was a hobby for me. i started as an amateur in school. at the school we we re amateur in school. at the school we were confined to inside the grounds but ijoined the national team and started running on the streets, our conservative society did not look favourably on a palestinian girl running in public. but when i persisted people accepted to me and began to encourage and support me. when i ran i feel happy, free and relaxed. all of my worries disappear.

i prepared for the athens olympics in the stadium in gaza, which had a track. i was then sponsored by a palestinian businessman to go on a training campfora palestinian businessman to go on a training camp for a month on a greek island. a month wasn't enough to ta ke island. a month wasn't enough to take part in the olympics and get good results. my participation was symbolic because the situation in gaza doesn't allow us to prepare properly for medals. it was such a beautiful scene. as soon as everyone at some of it was such a beautiful scene. as soon as everyone at some of the palestinian flag, they began clapping. but i also felt overwhelmed to find myself in the starting line—up. i had this feeling

inside that as soon as you get going you forget about everything. —— but as soon as. you forget about everything. —— but 3s soon as. whoever comes you forget about everything. —— but as soon as. whoever comes last still gets cheered, just like the winner. athens was a start for me. in 2009 i took part in the athletics world championships in berlin. i'm still training, but because of the siege i can't go outside of the gaza strip. i cannot compete in international races. i manage with things, thank god, because of my husband's support, he is now my coach. for the past four years, no athletes from gaza have been able to take part in any gaza have been able to take part in a ny eve nt gaza have been able to take part in any event outside. a short while ago, there was an invitation to go tojerusalem for events, but

ago, there was an invitation to go to jerusalem for events, but we ago, there was an invitation to go tojerusalem for events, but we were all denied travel permits. my advice to other palestinian women is hold onto your dreams, do not give up, do not allow any pressures to defeat you. go for what you love most. for our final story you. go for what you love most. for ourfinal story we head you. go for what you love most. for our final story we head to france you. go for what you love most. for ourfinal story we head to france in the late 19705 where a doctor sta rted a the late 19705 where a doctor started a child by the revolution with his new invention, the birthing pool with his new invention, the birthing pool. he tells us how it came about. there is something special about human beings and water. as soon as

it's lifted into the air, its lungs start to work normally. this obstetrician ru n5 a start to work normally. this obstetrician runs a maternity unit which are based on natural childbirth. the right place to give birth would be the right place to make love. the way women were giving both in the 605 was the same as a ho5pital. legs in stirrups. but gradually everything was reconsidered. we introduced the concept of a home like birthing room, a smaller room with no visible medical equipment to help women to

feel more at home in a hospital. they still have the vision of a ho5pital, they still have the vision of a hospital, a place for you, your sec or to die. 1am and a young couple have driven a 150 miles to have their first baby here in an ordinary state hospital in northern france. by state hospital in northern france. by changing the environment, we have attracted more women to a maternity unit, women come from far away. that's why i became an obstetrician. from 200 bytes a year to 1000 births a year. a pill to help mothers ease the pain of labour, babies are occasionally born underwater. —— a

pool occasionally born underwater. —— a pool. many women couldn't wait, they wa nted pool. many women couldn't wait, they wanted to enter the birthing pool before it was full. the main objective was to break a vicious circle. by replacing drugs. all medication and drugs have side effects. after being in the womb for nine months of the bb emerges happily into the warm water with its life support system from the mother is still intact. —— the baby. life support system from the mother is still intact. —— the babylj remember the visit we had with this british obstetrician. what do you think of the pool? i don't think we'd have a room for it in our hospital and i find doctor michel

odent's views on it as a wonderful mixture of mysticism and science. odent's views on it as a wonderful mixture of mysticism and sciencelj don't think the word mysticism i5 appropriate! i try to consider any 5cientific language some emotional state. it felt like a family atmosphere, very reassuring. it gives you confidence in yourself and that's what i needed. gives you confidence in yourself and that's what i neededlj gives you confidence in yourself and that's what i needed. i am pleased when i heard women talking any positive way that the birth of their baby. we have to learn from positive experiences about the way forward. doctor michel 0dent on the water both revolution. that's all from a michel witness this man from the british library. we'll be back next month with more first—hand accounts of extraordinary moments in history.

no from me and the rest of the witness team, goodbye. good afternoon. the bank holiday weekend hasn't 5tarted good afternoon. the bank holiday weekend hasn't started off too badly. there is some 5un5hine around but also hefty showers and it feels really chilly particularly in eastern pa rt5 of really chilly particularly in eastern parts of england where we've got lots of showers, some heavy with hailand got lots of showers, some heavy with hail and thunder. some acro55 scotla nd hail and thunder. some acro55 scotland been following as snow. showers in scotland ea5ing. cloud pushing southwards. the further west you are, it should be dry with lighter wind5. still breezy but spell5 of sunshine. for that ea5t coa5t where we have the showers and

very strong winds gu5ting coa5t where we have the showers and very strong winds gusting to 40 mph it will feel decidedly chilly. through this evening and tonight mo5t through this evening and tonight most of the showers will fade, some places will see frost but not as cold as last night on the far north of scotland. there is a bit more cloud. that will push southwards across scotland. eventually some rain and hill 5now into the far north, elsewhere patchy cloud and sunny spell5. not too many showers sunny spells. not too many showers tomorrow and for the east coast it won't feel quite as cold because they winds will be a little bit lighter.

this is bbc news. i'm lukwesa burak. the headlines at two... former conservative party leader iain duncan smith says the prime minister must say she will go "very soon" after the party suffered heavy losses in the english local elections. police say the leak of information from the national security council about chinese tech giant huawei didn't breach the official secrets act and so isn't a criminal offence. cyclone fani causes destruction in india and bangladesh, bringing torrential rain and winds of up to 125mph. thailand's new king is crowned at bangkok's grand palace, marking his official accession to the throne.

here, rail passengers face disruption to theirjourneys this