this is bbc news, i'm geeta guru—murthy. the headlines at 8: former defence secretary, gavin williamson, says he is victim of a witchhunt after the police say they won't investigate a leak from the national security council about the tech giant huawei. in duncan smith says the prime minister must go now oi’ says the prime minister must go now or in the party suffers losses in the local elections. officials in gaza say a mother and a baby are among three people killed in israeli air strikes. israel says they retaliated after palestinian militants fired at least 200 rockets into israel. cyclone fani causes destruction in india and bangladesh, but the indian government's rapid evacuation of overi million people is praised for saving lives.

the england captain lifts the fa cup. and it's victory for manchester city in the women's fa cup final, as they defeat west ham 3—0 at wembley. good evening and welcome to bbc news. former defence secretary gavin williamson has described an investigation into the national security council leak as a "shabby and discredited witch hunt" — and called for a "proper, full and impartial" assessment of the investigation. it comes after the met police said the leak, about the chinese tech giant huawei, did not amount to a criminal offence. mr williamson was sacked after the prime minister said she had evidence to suggest he was the source of the leak — which is something he denies.

our correspondent simonjones explained what might happen now that mr williamson has asked for this investigation. the police have said that they do not believe that the leak was a breach of the official secrets act or amounts to misconduct in a public office. what the police are not saying is who actually did this leak, who is responsible for it. but gavin williamson maintained that he wanted a full police investigation because he felt that would clear his name. now he is calling for an independent investigation, but what you have to consider is he has been already investigated by the chief civil servant, who found he did have a case to answer, the prime minister saying there was compelling evidence he was behind that leak which he has denied. the police do not want to get involved, they don't believe it's a police matter. so, where could this go next? what would the independent investigation be? perhaps two paths he could follow which would be unfair dismissal against the prime minister or launch a judicial review into

the metropolitan police's decision to take this no further. people in the labour party saying this does breach the official secrets act. can that decision by the police, saying it does not, can that be challenged? and have the police given any reasons for that statement? we have had a statement from the police saying that they had spoken to the cabinet office and from the cabinet office, they had been given details of what had been discussed at this national security council meeting. they also said they looked at what had been leaked and that it did not breach the secrets act. but they did not give any explanation why. it was simply, as far as they were concerned, closed and they are not investigating any further. i think that's what's been casting some doubt. we don't have any clear explanation of how they have come to this decision. perhaps they're reluctant to give too much detail because that might reveal more about what was discussed and the threshold to meet these requirements.

the actual decision on huawei itself, which is a big topic of controversy, are we any closer to finding out what the government decision is? all we have is this leaked information, we have no confirmation. the leak suggested that the government was going to allow huawei to take a part in the development of the 5g network and it has been controversial due to concerns over national security and allowing this firm to play a role in it. huawei have said there's nothing for britain to be worried about in terms of this but in terms of what we know, we are simply talking about lea ks here and the government haven't confirmed anything in terms of the details of that. the former tory leader iain duncan smith says the prime minister must go now or be forced out. speaking to the radio station lbc, he referred to theresa may as a "caretaker pm". his comments come after the party suffered its worst local election result since 1995.

senior conservatives acknowledged that failure to leave the eu contributed to the heavy losses. ruth davidson, the leader of scotland's conservatives, says the tories and labour are getting closer to a brexit deal and an agreement could be reached within days. our political correspondent nick eardley reports. urgently seeking a solution. tories mulling over devastating local election results, trying to find a way to solve the party's troubles. these members are in scotland. there were not any elections here this week but many agree failing to deliver brexit is behind the election drubbing. this former leader has had enough. he believes theresa may has lost her authority and has to go now. we have in a sense a kind of caretaker prime minister at the moment, you could argue a caretaker leader of the labour party but a caretaker prime minister and therefore, i think making fundamental decisions about where we go with this would be a big mistake. the conservatives always knew that

voters were likely to give them a bloody nose this week, but the extent, losing 1300 councillors, was worse than they feared. because of that, some are saying their patience has run out. it is not the first time we have heard senior tories calling for theresa may to go. in the past, she has simply ignored their calls but it is another reminder that many in the conservative party think theresa may simply can't deliver. others, though, say there should be compromise with labour to make sure brexit is delivered. i think we do need a mood for compromise but compromise often involves looking at the different positions of different groups and coming up with something in between. clearly, i have supported the prime minister's deal which i think is better. but there are options in between. talks between the government and opposition will resume early next week. sources tell me there are still substantial differences. but after labour had a tough time at the polls, too, jeremy corbyn says there is impetus

to get a deal done. but opinion in labour is split. some point to losses in brexit supporting areas and say failing to deliver would a breach of trust. i think we have got to leave because we had a referendum, we asked people if they wanted to leave the eu, and by a small majority, they said they did and we said we would honour the result. but many labour mps are arguing the exact opposite. the party needs to back another referendum and ultimately, staying in the eu. they point to huge gains at the local elections for the greens and the big winners, the liberal democrats. i think there were some local factors but there is no doubt the big nationalfactor was the issue of brexit. the liberal democrats have been against brexit and campaigning against it, campaigning for a final say for the british people for the last nearly three years. i think people have heard that now from the liberal democrats, that we are the stop brexit party. these elections have caused a big questions for a government struggling to deliver brexit. answering them won't

necessarily be easy. the cross community alliance party has made significant gains in northern ireland's local government election. let's take a closer look at those results, which have come in in the last hour. the dup and sinn fein remain the largest parties, with 118 and 97 respectively. each of them took around 25 % of first preference votes. however, alliance also sharply increased their share of the vote to almost 12%. other cross community parties, such as the greens, also made gains. you can see how significant that change in vote share is for the alliance party, with an increase in vote share of almost five percent. talks aimed at reviving northern ireland's power sharing administration are due to be held next week. earlier i spoke to our correspondent john campbell, who told me what the results meant for those talks. there is no real surprise in that the dup and sinn fein are still the two largest parties, the dup the biggest unionist party, saw its vote share arise a little,

sinn fein, the biggest national party, saw its vote share fall a little. but the big story was that surge by the alliance party. that cross community party which draws support from both catholics and protestants, mainly, it has its support in greater belfast, in middle—class areas. but in this election, it pushed its appeal far beyond that. for example, it has won a seat on the derry city council for the first time in a0 years. the leader of that party, naomi long, says what this indicates is that many voters in northern ireland are looking to new solutions to its problems. i think what it is saying is that people want to see politics that are delivered. they are not interested in the tribal politics of the past, in terms of unionism and nationalism. what they want is the kind of politics that puts people first. that is what we have been offering. northern ireland politics is full of problems, whether it is stagnation in stormont, with the chaos around brexit. what alliance has been doing consistently and persistently is offering solutions. i think that is what people want to see from their politicians,

and that is what we have given them. we have also had an interesting new member of the dup elected. yes, for the first time in an openly gay councillor has been elected for the dup. alison bennington, elected a lot of the greater belfast councils. what the leader of the alliance party were saying a short while ago was that she thinks that when you ta ke was that she thinks that when you take everything together, especially the results are alison bennington, there may have been a progressive turn in northern ireland politics at this election. voters knew that alison was an openly gay woman, that was no problem for them. she was elected. it may be a problem for some people within the dup, because they have their roots in conservative, evangelical religion, we have heard some veteran figures in the party who are clearly uncomfortable with alison bennington. they suggested that what it might mean is that the dup could be preparing to soft in its

opposition to gay marriage. the dup would deny that, they say that they remain opposed to gay marriage. some people think they could just be testing the water on this policy. we will find out how this story and many others... and we'll find out how this story — and many others — are covered in tomorrow's front pages at 10:30 and 11:30 this evening in the papers — our guests joining me tonight are anne ashworth, associate editor of the times, and john rentoul, chief political commentator for the independent. a 17—year—old boy has been arrested on suspicion of murdering a teenage girl in wiltshire. the victim, who's not been named, died at a property in calne yesterday afternoon. police say they will have a "significa nt presence" in the town over the weekend as inquiries continue. up to 12 people have been killed by cyclone fani in the north—eastern indian state of odisha. officials say the loss of life could have been far worse — had they not evacuated more than 1 million people from their homes. cyclone fani came ashore near the city of puri, in odisha yesterday.

but as the storm continued across india and into bangladesh — its winds have calmed — and its power has reduced significantly. angus crawford reports. the strongest cyclone to hit india in five years. wind and rain tore through the state of odisha. gusts hit more than 120 miles an hour, destroying homes and businesses... ..uprooting trees, cutting roads, destroying communications. this man says it doesn't matter what preparations we made, houses and shops, everything is destroyed. but more than a million people were evacuated from the storm's path, kept safe in shelters. the numbers of deaths and injuries remain low. now, a time to assess the damage, clear and rebuild.

workers start by unblocking the roads. an officer coordinating efforts says his teams are responding to reports wherever they come from. cyclone fani has decreased in strength and moved north. prompt action did save lives, but still it leaves mile after mile of low—lying areas flooded, crops, villages, livelihoods destroyed. israel says it has responded with air strikes after palestinian militants fired around 200 rockets, injuring two israelis. the gazan health ministry says a mother and her baby are among three people who've been killed in the exchange of fire today. israel has closed a number of border crossings in response to the rockets. our correspondentjon donnison gave us the latest. probably the most serious escalation on the gaza israel boundary in the last few months.

it is always difficult to say how it started, to pinpoint the moment, because both sides will say they were responding to something that happened previously. if you go down that path, you could end up going back decades, if not longer. but yesterday, we had the friday protests on the boundary, which have happened every week now for several months. we had two israeli soldiers injured when palestinian militants opened fire. we have now had israel responding with tank fire and two palestinian militants killed, two israeli civilians killed. this morning, a significant escalation, now more than 200 rockets fired out of gaza by palestinian militants, a number of israelis injured on the israeli side. and then israel responding with military force. that has led, as we have heard in the last hour, to the news that a pregnant woman has died, as well as a one—year—old baby. and where are we on any long—term attempts to get a ceasefire here? these escalations, they come

and go in gaza and israel. but, there are some constants, and one of them is that there is basically no prospect, really, as a peace deal between the israelis and palestinians in what has been one of the world's most intractable conflicts. we do have the americans and donald trump, his son—in—law in the next few months is supposed to be putting forward this new us peace proposal. but there is tremendous scepticism about that in the region. i would say, especially amongst palestinians. another constant is that palestinians are not united, so you have one side controlling gaza, and their rivals in the west bank, they have been promising to unify for almost as long as i can remember, and they never managed to pull it off. i guess the key constant is that for people living in gaza, life just gets more and more bleak, and on the israeli side, those people living along the border continue to live under threat.

we have people running to the air raid shelters again today. that is just not changing and it is a pretty depressing story. the headlines on bbc news: former defence secretary gavin williamson claims he's a victim of a "witch hunt" after police say they won't be investigating a leak from the national security council about the tech giant huawei. former conservative party leader iain duncan smith says the prime minister must go now or be forced out — after the party suffers heavy losses in the english local elections. officials in gaza say a mother and a baby are among three people killed in israeli air strikes. israel says they retaliated after palestinian militants fired at least 200 rockets into israel. coming up at 8.30, bbc wales investigates teenage girls who were abused for decades in barry.

sport and for a full round up, from the bbc sport centre, here's holly. good evening. we start with the premier league with liverpool in action at the moment — looking to return to the top and put pressure on manchester city. it's 31 minutes into the first half. and jurgen klopp's side are leading 2—1 against newcastle. after virgil van dijk put liverpool ahead, christian atsu equalised for the hosts but in the last few moments mo salah has put liveprool ahead once again. city play their game in hand against leicester on monday night. down at the other end — bad news for cardiff city — they've been relegated from the premier league after they were beaten at home by crystal palace. neil warnock‘s side needed a win to avoid going down. but andros townsend secured a 3—2 victory for the visitors. cardiff return to the championship next season. they are relegated along

with with fulham and huddersfield. earlier, west ham beat southampton thanks to two marko arnautovic goals, and wolves beat fulham moving them a step closer to a seventh place finish, and the chance of european football next season. in the early kickoff, nine—man tottenham were beaten 1—0 by burnley, missing their chance to confirm a top four finish. manchester city beat west ham united 3—0 at wembley to win the women's fa cup for a second time in three years. the hammers are in their first season as a professional club and went behind when kiera walsh scored in the 51st minute. west ham simply ran out of steam and england international georgia stanway soon doubled city's lead. city weren't done, though, west ham were now being overrun and lauren hemp completed her side's emphatic victory. city have added the fa cup to the continental cup they had already won. they narrowly lost the league to arsenal but remain unbeaten in domestic competition this season.

celtic have won an eighth consecutive scottish premiership title. they went into the game with aberdeen knowing a win would seal it, taking them beyond the reach of second placed rangers, and so it proved as they won 3—0 at pittodrie. as patrick gearey reports. on the day celtic could win their latest trophy, they paid tribute to two men who won their most famous one. two of the european cup side billy mcneill and stevie chalmers passed away. this one would be for them. a point against aberdeen was all they needed for the title. but the dons were reluctant to give it. one they ought to have scored here. they made good on that reprieve was up up on the back was michael lustig, with a good strike. the rest was an extended lap of honour. another cross, another header, the difference between celtic

and the reds was it was treated by the third goal—scorer. he was signed for a club record £9 million beyond the reach of any of their rivals. and the manager had fulfilled his brief, an eighth straight scottish title. i'm very proud, very privileged. the are great moments in your life and career and you to savour them. we have a fantastic bunch of players in there. and the quality is fantastic. so as in mcneill and chalmers' day, celtic reign supreme. the greatness of scottish football for some and of course for others concerned. can anyone catch them? veteran four—time champion john higgins is through to the final of the world snooker championship for the eighth time after an epic final frame victory over david gilbert. higgins fought back from five frames down three times as he beat gilbert 17 frames to 16. gilbert had led 16—15 before higgins made a break of 139 to force a deciding frame. the scot then capitalised on a missed black by gilbert,

sealing his spot in the final with a match—deciding break of 55. it's the third consecutive year higgins has made the final, having finished runner—up in each of the last two world championships. absolutely incredible. i was saying before we went out there, it was as if playing the semi final at wembley, isn't it? i thought, if playing the semi final at wembley, isn't it? ithought, he just kept that special for the final. when you're walking down the stairs, we have done it for the four sessions, and it added to the atmosphere. the atmosphere was incredible for the four sessions. and i can't wait to walk back down the steps again. let's cross live to the other semifinal at the crucible now. judd trump leads gary wilson by 15—10. first to 17 to meet higgins in the final. you can follow the action on the bbc sport website, app and red button.

that's all the sport for now. president trump has said he remains confident of striking a deal with north korea, despite reports that pyongyang has carried out another missile test. kim jong—un is thought to have become frustrated with the united states' refusal to ease sanctions. the south korean government see it as both a worrying development and a breach of a military agreement between the north and the south. a plane with 143 people on board slid off a runway and into a river injacksonville, florida as it attempted to land during a thunderstorm. the chartered flight was carrying naval personnel from the us base at guantanamo bay — but none were seriously hurt. however, some pets are still on board the aircraft, while the authorities wait for inspectors to declare the aircraft safe to board. the commanding officer of the naval air station says the cause of the incident is yet to be determined. it's a miracle. i could have ended... we could be talking about a different story this evening.

so i think there is a lot to say about the professionalism of the folks that helped the passengers off the aeroplane. there's a lot to say about that because it very well could be worse. thailand's king maha vajiralongkorn has been crowned in a three day ceremony. his coronation comes at a time of political uncertainty for the country. a general election was held in march — the first since the army took control in a coup five years ago — but a new government has yet to be declared. this is a sight that few thais have ever seen, a new king purifying himself with consecrated waters as he prepared to ascend to the throne. maha vajiralongkorn, or king rama x, as he's known more formally, became king in 2016 after the death of his father, who'd reigned for 70 long years. but he's waited until now to be crowned over three days of elaborate

buddhist and hindu ceremony. to many thais, the monarch is revered as an almost godlike figure, and some were on the streets, dressed in royal yellow, to see their king make the transition from the human to the almost divine. and, for many, this was a rare glimpse of a sovereign who spends much time abroad and has appeared more remote than his much—loved late father. at 66 years old, he spent his life preparing for this moment, placing a crown weighing more than seven kilograms on his head, issuing his first royal command. translation: i shall reign with righteousness, for the benefit and happiness of the people forever. king vajiralongkorn has had a colourful and at times controversial life. today, his fourth wife, whom he married only this week, was formally recognised as his new queen.

he is protected by severe laws prohibiting any criticism, but some thais hope that a crown prince who was seen by some as unpredictable will become a figure of stability for a country facing political uncertainty. for the king has real political influence. what will matter is his relationship with the army, which took power in a coup in 2014, and what role he might play in the balance between military and civilian rule that emerges from recent elections. for this king will be more than just a spiritual leader. james landale, bbc news. police are stepping up security at mosques across the uk, in response to fears that they could be targetted during ramadan, which begins this weekend. there's been concern over safety among some in the muslim community. the bbc asian network's, shabnam mahmood has more. for mosques across the country, the focus on this year's ramadan is on worshippers' safety as well as spirituality.

for mosques like this and others across the country, ramadan is one of the most important and busiest times of the year. thousands of worshippers gather for special prayers every single night during the month of fasting. in the mosque kitchen, this mum says following recent attacks on places of worship, some in her community in east london are really worried. people are scared, you know, they are afraid to come to the mosque of the kids are afraid. and it's the areas where mostly women and children pray that have now been identified in safety assessments as needing extra security. mosque leaders say they have a duty to protect their congregation. the world for us changed after christchurch and the reality kicked in that it happened there, it could most certainly happen here and we have to be prepared for it. we completely understand why people feel the way they do.

i'm here to reassure them we have no information or intelligence to suggest anybody at the uk is in specific risk and i want to make sure they feel safe and supported the uk policing in their worship. nevertheless, extra layers of security will remain in place through the islamic holy month with a message to remain alert not alarmed. now it's time for a look at the weather with matt taylor. the show is in england and scotland will fade into the night and it'll bea will fade into the night and it'll be a cold night. still some showers in east anglia and coastal part of the southeast, orkney and shetland could see some as well. cloud will increase across the north west of scotland, elsewhere, clearing skies and wind following a lighter, a widespread frost into the morning as well for top temperatures below

freezing for many in the west. sunny start tomorrow, isolated showers in the south—east, further cloud and showers in the north. temperature is only five or 6 degrees in the north. elsewhere, light wind, some sunshine and temperatures 10—13. as for bank holiday monday, the figure cloud from southern scotland and northern ireland, drifting through northern england and into wales. heavy showers potentially on that, to the north of it, some sunshine, isolated showers, a cold to the south. many will stay dry on bank holiday monday. hello, this is bbc news with geeta guru—murthy. the headlines... police say the leak of information from the national security council about chinese tech giant huawei isn't a criminal offence and it won't launch an investigation. but former defence secretary gavin williamson claims he's a victim of a witch hunt. former conservative party

leader iain duncan smith says the prime minister must go now or be forced out after the party suffers heavy losses in the english local elections. officials in gaza say a mother and a baby are among three people killed in israeli air strikes. israel says they retaliated after palestinian militants fired at least 200 rockets into israel. now on bbc news, it's time for lost girls: dark side of the island. bbc wales investigates a couple who abused teenage girls for decades in the seaside town of barry — but did they act alone? you may find some parts of wyre davies' film upsetting. barry island.

beyond the facade of the fun fair, this is a place which for some holds dark memories. they're like us, calm on the top. flapping underneath. sally and joanne grew up in barry during the 1980s. these swans had been here since i was a child. this was where we would hang around. this was our playground. yeah. their paths crossed as children. i remember being little girls and then gone, so. girls and then i was gone, so. myself. i always thought about you. 0h, bless you. always. but, 30 years on, they discovered they shared a sickening secret. i thought that you all knew. i thought that we all knew. what was happening to each other.

it's crazy how they made you probably feel like that.