here has the showers and this zone here has the showers and moving its way southwards. earlier, plenty of cloud on the satellite pictures. this zone here that has got the showers, it has been moving its way southwards, brighter skies have followed on behind, so for many of us, actually, a fine end to the day. the last of the showers though, clearing away from the south—east and clearly still very wet for some of us in northern scotland. this area of rain overnight will sink a little bit further south across the rest of scotland, some further outbreaks of rain developing again in northern ireland. compared with last night. a fine start for many in england and wales for the bank holiday. for southern scotland into northern ireland, some cloud, outbreaks of rain, it will turn a bit more showery during the day, not moving too far further south, but certainly keeping a zone of thicker cloud. elsewhere it is sunny spells, some showers developing. catch one and it could be on the heavy side. some filtering a bit further south, and east during the day, especially on the north, north—westerly breeze. not too many showers at all, though, in southern england. some of the gardens are crying out for it.

temperatures, they have been in the low to mid 20s, just into the high teens, but in the north of scotland, barely into double figures. a big range of temperatures across the uk. for tuesday, most of the showers look like being across northern and central and eastern parts of england. really quite heavy ones out there, so a chance that some may see a soaking, others, well, missing them and getting barely anything. sunny spells, one or two showers to be found elsewhere, catch a shower in the higher hills of scotland, it could be something wintry associated with these. it is a little cooler than average across many parts of the uk. then on wednesday, it looks fine and settled for many at the start of the day, some cloud building, a few showers breaking out and another atlantic weather system starting to move in and that brings some outbreaks of rain into northern ireland later in the day. that has got to move on through during thursday and friday. so, this way, then, it is cooler for a time and yes, there will be some sunshine. some places will see a lot of dry weather, especially the further south you are, but there is that chance of rain, more especially across the northern half of the uk. we notice as we go into next weekend, things are settling down again, and those temperatures

are heading up once more. hello this is bbc news with shaun ley. the headlines... borisjohnson and michael gove — the two figureheads of the official leave campaign — take on each other for the conservative party leadership. i will be putting my name forward to be prime minister of this country. i believe i am ready to unite the conservative and unionist party, deliver brexit and lead this great country. andrea leadsom and dominic raab have also joined in the race hoping to be prime minister by the end ofjuly. polling in the eu elections ends at 10 pm tonight. 21 member states are voting today. results will be released after polls close at 10 pm tonight. a man and a woman are charged with murder after two children died following an "incident" at a house in sheffield on friday. a hiker has been found alive more than two weeks after she went missing in a forest on the hawaiian

island of maui. amanda eller was rescued by helicopter from a deep ravine. she says she faced difficult choices "between life and death". now on bbc news, the first of two special programmes on the efforts to rebuild the lives of communities devastated by war. betta ny hughes travels tojordan in paths to peace. years of brutal civil war have ripped syria apart, with horrific devastation to its historical and archaeological heritage. hopeless. no future. nobody is looking forward for the future. your biggest hope is just finding food for your kids whatever. but now, refugees from the war are coming together to learn an ancient craft, creating something beautiful and lasting out of the toughest of materials.

their hope that one day they could return to their homeland to use the skills of stone masonry to help rescue their country's shattered heritage and rebuild their broken lives. in its own tiny way it might help to create more peace. here injordan or in syria, maybe this is the first time here in arabian countries, that a lady is working in a stone, in carving a stone. when you build something you start from just a tiny little bit,

and this is the tiny little bit. like so many, i watched the destruction of homes, lives and heritage, in the war zones of the middle east with horror and sorrow. these are the lands i love. boasting unique ancient sites like this, umm el—jimal, just four miles from the syrian border in jordan. built 2000 years ago, out of basal stone, for centuries it has been a crossroad of cultures from all points of the compass. i've been travelling to this part

of the world for years because i'm drawn here by the remarkable monuments and stories left behind by some of the most vibrant and energetic civilizations in human history — the nabateans, the greeks, the romans, the byzantines, the abbasids, the umayyads, the ottomans, to name but a few. these people were often at war and conflict with one another but one thing that united them was their sheer delight in the raw resource of this region — building blocks of stone, and the other thing that united them was their desire for their creations to out—live them, to stand the test of time. but i'm notjust here to investigate history, because heritage sites like these are in danger across the region.

i have come tojordan because i want to see how, in the desolation of war, the restoration of the past is bringing rare hope for the future. this is the border town of mafraq, a place haunted by the violence of syria's civil war. here, we are close enough to hear shelling at night. death is moments away. mafraq has been on the front—line of the refugee crisis since the start of the war. wave after wave of refugees have poured over here across the border, which means there are actually more refugees here than there are locals so the atmosphere can be a bit charged. these are the kinds of images

we have grown used to. lines of refugees, desperate for help. but i have come to mafraq to visit a place which has defied those stereotypes. these are the outskirts of mafraq. just over there is a reception centre for refugees. but where i'm heading is this modest little building. now, this is originally the home of the international medical corps but now it is a trading centre, and there is something rather remarkable happening here.

for ten months, these 45 students, drawn here by word of mouth, have been taught heritage stone masonry from scratch. this has to be one of the most extraordinary of fine craft courses. most of these students are dispossessed refugees — women, men, teenagers, who have lost their homes and fled syria with nothing. and now creating architectural triumphs. learning the skills which could one day help rebuild their shattered land.

and a third of the students are women tackling a job which has traditionally been the preserve of men. in the future, the women of syria will play a role in rebuilding what others have destroyed. how lovely to see you. for over a year, the project has been overseen by a powerhouse duo, baraa and nour. it is amazing to see because i'm used to looking at these buildings from the ancient world so imagining those stonemasons from the past creating something. so just explain to me what exactly is happening here? we have now 45 students, jordanian and syrian, male and female. they age from 17 to a0. 17 to 40? 17 to 40, yes. actually, no—one worked with the stone before. so nobody‘s...none of these people have ever done this before? no. and so is the idea that,

these are skills, when they can go back to syria, they will be able to work as stonemasons in the country? yes, they can go and rebuild syrian heritage and they can work in our cultural places because here we are teaching them all the islamic and cultural architectural features. this is such an important project, it feels, because when we hear about syria all we hear about is destruction but here something is being created. yes. as part of their training, the students are taken to local heritage sites, likejerash, a jewel in the crown of the roman empire, to study the kind of architecture they could one day be asked to rebuild. the trips ram home the shared cultural power of these places and the value of preserving and restoring.

in the workshop, they are systematically taught the entire process. with a rough limestone block they create flat surfaces. and then carve a variety of architectural features, reproducing what they have seen. like this cylindrical plinth created by students which could be the base of a column or a pedestal for a statue. nour is a trained engineer, and teaches the theory, from geometry to conservation and preservation techniques. while baraa it is the local project manager. i have to say, it is so impressive to me that you are two women running this project. it is brilliant and also that you have so many women who are training as stone masons. yes, we have 14 women here. all the women here are housewives.

to rebuild the places and to rebuild the old cities, like here in old souq. yes, ‘cause that's aleppo, what used to be... yes, it's an old souq in aleppo. baraa says the trips to heritage sites have triggered a passion for the remnants of the past. all the time the students ask, why this is stones here, why they built this castle here. they feel something in their heart actually, because when when you work in the heritage places, we need to rebuild our countries. but they are also taught how it could be restored and renewed. and also it must give them hope that there is a chance, because this is terrible but if they can do this, then they can rebuild what was lost? yes. i'm told two of the most promising students are khadija and aisha.

they both fled from syria at the beginning of the war and were forced to reconstruct their lives here from scratch. in this impoverished area, localjordanians have been severely challenged by the crisis at their borders, and jordan's heritage sites also need repair,

restoration and preservation. so locals have been welcomed too. reina and nourare mother and daughter. they grew up near mafraq and always work on the same stone together. with more refugees than locals in mafraq, there have inevitably been tensions between the communities. but here, jordanians and syrians have bonded and become close friends. in the punishing heat of the afternoon, the students take a break, and kadijah invites reina,

nour and me for a girl power lunch. you look so beautiful! what a lovely dress. kadijah and her young family fled from homs in syria with nothing at all except a few treasured photos of happier times at the home they have lost. that's the only thing you brought with you? so those photographs, those memories, will be very precious? it seems to me, ladies, that in a way you are making history, because it was very unusual for there to be female stonemasons. do you think it has made you feel more powerful, doing this?

it has actually made you stronger! show me your muscles, yeah! hearing all this, ladies, it must make you feel very proud of what you have been doing? we are proud of our women, syrian and jordanian. the work is notjust for the men. actually, that women can do everything. you can see that.

inshallah, thank you. these students are notjust taught a craft here. the course acts as a form of timeless art therapy. the first civilisations who built in stone were often brutal and violent, as well as brilliant. seeing this in action makes me wonder if, for centuries, stonemasonry has offered its artisans a kind of oasis of calm and fulfilment and achievement. a number of these students told me that stone masonry has a therapeutic effect. that it gives order and structure to your day, that the sound of the chisels is hypnotic.

the work becomes the sole centre of your attention. some become completely absorbed in the work, as if they're able to lose themselves for a time. scientists will tell us that we are at our happiest when we are using our hands to make things, that it takes us back to a kind of model state. but creating things that are beautiful or useful or both is one of the things that, as a species, makes us, us. mohammed is the youngest student here. his family fled from homs when he was just 11, after their home was bombed. life as a refugee can be aimless and dispiriting.

hamza is from damascus and came here in his early teens. he has become particularly skilled in calligraphy, spending hours carefully carving arabic script into the finished stone. what does the second word say? allah? god is the merciful. yeah. do you find when you are doing this kind of thing that you feel connected to the craftsmen

and stonemasons who would have done this 500 years ago? exactly, yeah. when you look at those things that they built, they are so, so... so beautiful, so amazing to look at. they did it with their hands. so that'sjust, you know, thinking about that is amazing... the process of creating something absolutely beautiful, something you can enjoy looking at, can be proud of. it is the beginning of the process of becoming something, something that happens to you in the past, you know, trying to do something new. no—one at the school is under any illusions about the scale of the task ahead. this is a video shown to students, just one terrible example of the damage to syria's historic monuments. by the use of drones and 3d scanners, archaeologists have revealed the devastation

to beit ghazaleh, one of the largest ottoman—era palaces in aleppo. the skills taught at the stonemasonry courses injordan could help rebuild and restore every architectural feature of this palace, and others like it. perhaps, just perhaps, this offers a glimmer of hope. the lack of skilled stonemasons is a serious cultural threat. after the civil war in lebanon, for instance, many of the historic buildings that were damaged were simply bulldozed away. and there is a very real possibility that that might well happen in syria too, which is why this scheme, it feels to me, is fighting the cause of the past, and the future. reima and nour grew upjust a stone's throw from this spot.

i am back at the remote desert site of umm el—jimal, the city built by stonemasons 2000 years ago using exactly the same techniques that they have been taught. i am so delighted that you've brought me here, but why did you bring me? why is this place special to you? i have to ask this, because i have two daughters. what is it like working together as mother and daughter?

in the end, it is notjust about art, but about love. love for archaeology, for the legacy of the past, and the power of culture to bring people together, helping to find direction for the future, and to heal the wounds of the past. for all their weight and solidity, there is something else. something intangible about these remarkable blocks of stone.

these are storehouses of generations' worth of inspiration and ambition. and for dislocated refugees, they are also a reminder of a culture that has been lost but could live again. and surely there is something else more fundamental, too. surely these tell us that we should always create rather than destroy, and that how we choose to live in the world impacts notjust the present but the lives of others, and the future.

hello. there is an atlantic weather system affecting us today, so many of us have seen a bit of rain. there will be a few more showers to come for the bank holiday and a bit more cloud around as well than some of us have had so far this weekend and temperatures have come down a little bit as a result. earlier, plenty of cloud on the satellite pictures. this zone here that has got the showers, it has been moving its way southwards, brighter skies have followed on behind, so for many of us, actually, a fine end to the day. the last of the showers though, clearing away from the south—east and clearly still very wet for some of us in northern scotland. this area of rain overnight will sink a little bit further south across the rest of scotland, some further outbreaks of rain developing again

in northern ireland. it will feel a bit cooler and fresher, certainly compared with last night. a fine start for many in england and wales for the bank holiday. for southern scotland into northern ireland, some cloud, outbreaks of rain, it will turn a bit more showery during the day, not moving too far further south, but certainly keeping a zone of thicker cloud. elsewhere it is sunny spells, some showers developing. catch one and it could be on the heavy side. some filtering a bit further south, and east during the day, especially on the north, north—westerly breeze. not too many showers at all, though, in southern england. some of the gardens are crying out for it. temperatures, they have been in the low to mid 20s, just into the high teens, but in the north of scotland, barely into double figures. a big range of temperatures across the uk. for tuesday, most of the showers look like being across northern and central and eastern parts of england. really quite heavy ones out there, so a chance that some may see a soaking, others, well, missing them and getting barely anything. sunny spells, one or two showers to be found elsewhere, catch a shower in the higher hills of scotland, it could be something wintry associated with these. it is a little cooler than average

across many parts of the uk. then on wednesday, it looks fine and settled for many at the start of the day, some cloud building, a few showers breaking out and another atlantic weather system starting to move in and that brings some outbreaks of rain into northern ireland later in the day. that has got to move on through during thursday and friday. so, this week, then, it is cooler for a time and yes, there will be some sunshine. some places will see a lot of dry weather, especially the further south you are, but there is that chance of rain, more especially across the northern half of the uk. we notice as we go into next weekend, things are settling down again, and those temperatures are heading up once more.

this is bbc news. i'm shaun ley. the headlines at 5pm: borisjohnson and michael gove — who campaigned for brexit together, but fell out three years ago when both wanted to become prime minister — will again contest the conservative party leadership. i will be putting my name forward to be prime minister of this country. i believe i'm ready to unite the conservative and unionist party, ready to deliver brexit and ready to lead this great country. the latest to enter the race to succeed theresa may by the end ofjuly include dominic raab and andrea leadsom. final voting in the eu elections in underway in 21 member states. results will be released after polls close at 10pm tonight. a man and a woman are charged with murder after two children died following an "incident" at a house in sheffield on friday.