america's secretary of state, mike pompeo, has paid a brief visit to iraq to reassure it of us support. after talks with the prime minister, mr pompeo said he didn't want iraq to be beholden to its neighbour, iran. there's growing tension between washington and teheran. venezuela's supreme court has ordered the prosecution of six leading opposition lawmakers for treason. the court said the prosecutor—general should open criminal cases against the mp5. although the group does not include the current president of the country's national assembly, juan guaido. it follows an uprising last week. an 18—year—old student has died and at least eight people have been injured in a school shooting in colorado. police have arrested two pupils from the school, which is just about five miles from columbine — scene of one of america's deadliest school shootings, 20 years ago.

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 teachers 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 tawse 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 the older kids at school about the tawse. it's a single use thing, it doesn't have any other legitimate use. it's just 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 it 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.

it didn't do me any harm. i think it should be kept. reporter: why? because there will be more vandalism and fighting and 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 parent's wishes 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 judgement, there was a lot

of spontaneous dancing and hugging of my dad, which any west of scotland family just 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.

in 1970, life in east london wasn't very pleasant due to 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 put through our letterbox. urinating in our letterbox. people were frightened to leave the house. spitting, pushing. 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. all day 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 of a sudden we heard a siren from every angle, every siren from... (sirens). 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, everyone was shouting, crying.

the community finally united. the national front is a nazi front! 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 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 their grip. because they know our community is no longer frightened. we stood firmly. where i'm sitting now, altab ali park, this has been named after altab ali. he will always be remembered. we have a memorial there at the back. we come and we lay flowers in his memory. he is not forgotten. 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 radio programmes in our online archive, just go to... at the 2004 athens 0lympics a young 800 metre runnerfrom the gaza strip became the first woman to lead the palestinian delegation at an opening ceremony. translation: it was my greatest moment. my name went down in history as the first palestinian woman the palestinian flag at the olympics. running was a hobby for me. i started as an 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 run i feel happy, free and relaxed. all of my worries disappear. i prepared for the athens 0lympics in the stadium in gaza, which had a track. i was then sponsored by a palestinian businessman to go on a training camp for a month on a greek 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 50011 as everyone saw the palestinian flag, they began clapping. but i also felt overwhelmed to find myself in the starting line—up. i had this feeling inside but as soon as you get going, you forget about everything. 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 event outside. a short while 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 we head to france in the late 19705, where dr michel 0dent started a childbirth revolution 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. dr michel 0dent, an 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 60s was the same as a hospital. 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 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 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 births a year to 1000 births a year. a pool to help mothers ease the pain of labour, babies are occasionally born underwater. we have changed the rules. many women couldn't wait, they wanted to enter the birthing pool before it was full. they could not wait. the main objective was to break a vicious circle. by replacing drugs. all medication and drugs

have side effects. after being in the womb in warm fluid for nine months, the baby emerges happily into the warm water with its life support system from the mother is still intact. i remember the visit we had with this british obstetrician. what do you think of the pool? i don't think we'd have room for it in our hospital and i find dr 0dent's views on it as a wonderful mixture of mysticism and science. i don't think the word mysticism is appropriate! i tried to consider in a scientific language some emotional state. translation: it felt like a family atmosphere, very reassuring.

it 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. dr michel 0dent on the water birth revolution. that's all from witness this month from the british library. we'll be back next month with more first—hand accounts of extraordinary moments in history. now from me and the rest of the witness team, goodbye.

hello there, good morning. with the benefit of some sunshine yesterday, temperatures reached 17 degrees at heathrow. but for the most part it remains chilly and that's the way it's going to stay through the rest of this week. and there will be some showers or some longer spells of rain. the weather is changing again. you can see how this cloud is sort of curling itself up into a knot. the thickest of the cloud is producing some rain and that is continuing to push its way up from the south—west. still quite chilly though, ahead of that. across some northern parts of scotland there may be a touch of frost. and we've still got some rain elsewhere across scotland, and that's going to be joined by this general wet weather that we've got moving up from the south—west, heading northwards across england and wales. following that, across wales, midlands and southern england, we should actually get some sunshine but the showers developing could be heavy and thundery as well. the wind is turning to more of a south—westerly, lifting the temperatures, but with an easterly wind and that rain for eastern scotland and the north—east of england, it really is going to be a cold day. temperatures 6—8 degrees i think

degrees in many places. not quite so chilly for western scotland because we've got that easterly wind. temperatures may make double figures in northern ireland, but rain is never too far away. a cold day with rain on—and—off across northern england, and perhaps north wales. some heavy, thundery showers heading towards norfolk, through the home counties, and towards the south—west of england. low pressure essentially in charge of our weather. that was that curl in the cloud. the low centre itself is just going to drift slowly eastwards across the uk on thursday. still got a weather front end of the north, producing rain and drizzle but that should be moving away from scotland. sunshine following on behind but still cloudy and damp across northern england. some showers for northern ireland. and some showers across parts of england and wales, especially in the south—east of england this time. those temperatures — there they are — still disappointing for this time of the year, below average and quite chilly again underneath the cloud and rain in northern england. that low pressure though is going to pull away or take away most of that rain with it as well. we've got low pressure, low pressure, high pressure, high pressure — it's what we call a cull, and when we have that sort of weather pattern you're going to get some showers.

there's going to be some sunshine. difficult to say exactly where the showers are going to be. that's where they're looking at moment for friday. and some of those could be on the heavy side once again. but large parts of the uk will still have a dry day. but again, those temperatures are below par — 10—15 degrees fairly typically. however, as we head into the weekend, we've still got some chilly air to begin with, but it is going to be warming up as the weekend goes on and into next week. much more sunshine and temperatures probably getting up to 19 or 20 celsius.

a very warm welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to our viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley. our top stories: the us secretary of state visits iraq, as trump administration officials claim iran may try to attack american forces. venezuela's supreme court orders the criminal prosecution of six leading opposition assembly members — accusing them of treason. as south africa prepares to go to the polls, claims of corruption still dominate the campaign. adding another grandchild to the family.