welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. our top stories: at least 16 people, many of them schoolchildren, have been stabbed in an attack in japan. austria's chancellor, sebastian kurz, and his centre—right government are removed from office by a vote of no—confidence. after the election shake—up, who will europe's new meps choose to lead the commission? president trump ends his four—day trip to japan with a visit to a naval base. a stark warning from a himalayan climber as more deaths are confirmed at the world's tallest mountain. i should say it has become

a death race there, because there was massive traffic jam, and people are pushing themselves who are not even capable of doing it. hello. we start with breaking news from japan. at least 16 people have been stabbed in a park in kawasaki, near tokyo. it is being reported that at least two children and one adult may have died. a suspect has been arrested and police have recovered two knives. it is thought the suspect stabbed himself in the shoulder before he was detained. the bbc‘s hywel griffith has the latest from tokyo.

yes, the latest we understand is that one adult and one child may have been killed in the attack. a group of schoolchildren were queueing for their morning bus. the attacker, said to be a man in his 40s or early 50s, approached them and began to attack people, both in the queue for the bus and on the actual bus itself. now up to 16 people were injured in that. we understand that two of them have died, and that amongst the 16 was the attacker himself, who ended up stabbing himself in the neck or in the shoulder. the police were able to retrieve two knives from the scene. now, this clearly is a horrific attack, very rare injapan, which doesn't have a crime problem on this level. there were attacks three years ago at a care home in

tokyo where 19 people were killed, but that is really the only reason precedent of something like this happening in a public place. com pletely happening in a public place. completely unexpected. are we getting any sense of what is happening in the surrounding area? i am testing a large security operation must be under way right 110w. operation must be under way right now. absolutely, the police and emergency services, the paramedics, we re emergency services, the paramedics, were there very quickly. we saw tens being erected so they could carry out forensics searches and potentially work on some of those injured. we understand all have now been taken to hospital. it is a dynamic scene. that said, because police believe they have the man they accuse of the stabbings, then we do not think they will be having to search for anyone else in this investigation at this time, at least. in terms of motivation, nothing yet to suggest what may have lay behind this attack and why this

person, the accused person, has carried it out. thank you very much. hywell griffith. also injapan, president trump is ending his four—day visit to the country. he has been visiting the yokosuka naval base. that trip is now coming to an end with president trump on its way home. you can see life pictures of air force one getting ready to take president trump and first lady melania back home. it has been a four day visit full of pomp and ceremony and many photo opportunities, prime minister shinzo abe very keen to build strong relations with president trump over the last year or two, indeed laying on the first visit meeting with the

new emperor and empress ofjapan, thatis new emperor and empress ofjapan, that is how much steak is put into that is how much steak is put into that relationship with the new administration —— stake. let's get some of the day's other news. french police have arrested four people after a suspected parcel bomb exploded in lyon last week, injuring 13 people. the device, which was packed with screws and ball bearings, was detonated outside a bakery. detectives say one of those detained is a 24—year—old algerian man suspected of planting the bomb. at least 42 prisoners have been found strangled to death in four separate jails in brazil. officials say the killings appeared to have occurred in clashes between rival gangs. one of the prisons was the scene of a fight on sunday, in which 15 inmates died. the search for survivors continues after a deadly tornado swept through oklahoma. at least two people were killed when a storm hit the town of el reno.

it's the latest in a series of tornadoes that have affected the region in the last few days. ajapanese passenger has died on board a flight from colombia after swallowing nearly 250 tiny bags of cocaine. the man was travelling to tokyo on friday when flight attendants noticed him convulsing. prosecutors say he died from swelling of the brain due to a cocaine overdose. the austrian chancellor, sebastian kurz, has been forced from office, after he and his centre—right government lost a vote of no—confidence. mr kurz recently ended his coalition with the far—right freedom party, when its leader was caught in a covert video sting that suggested he was open to corruption. bethany bell reports from vienna. the young rising star of europe's conservatives,

sebastian kurz, has suffered a major setback. his centre—right government has become the first in austria since 1955 to lose a vote of no—confidence. the government was sworn in just last week, in the wake of a scandal which engulfed his former coalition partner, the far—right freedom party. technocrats replace the departing freedom party ministers. but sebastian kurz and his government lost a vote of no—confidence, supported by the opposition social democrats and the freedom party. they said mr kurz should bear some of the blame for the collapse of the coalition. mr kurz, who has been credited with turning around the fortunes of his conservatives, and who led the party to a clear win in the eu elections, and said he'd be back. translation: today, parliament decided. but at the end of the day,

in september, in this democracy, the people will decide, and i'm looking forward to that. austria's president, alexander van der bellen, now has to nominate a caretaker government to hold the fort ahead of fresh elections, which are expected in september. in the meantime, he has named the former finance minister hartwig loger, of the conservatives, as an interim chancellor for the next few days. bethany bell, bbc news, vienna. germany and france have turned their thoughts to choosing the next president of the european commission, after mainstream parties lost their overall majority in the european parliament. the new meps will start debating who should succeed jean—claude juncker in july. our europe editor katya adler has more. much about this european election is not what it first may seem. nationalist marine le pen beat president macron to top the polls in france. "this is a people's victory," said a delighted mrs le pen.

"the people have taken power back into their own hands." but the people, aka europe's voters, didn't support mrs le pen's political allies as much as she had hoped across the eu. millions of europeans cast a vote for change, but not all looked for answers in the far—right. the pro—european greens did phenomenally well, as did europe's liberals. we are witnessing a polarised society, so now we are going to use the leverage that the citizens gave us to try and enact change at european level, reducing social inequality, reducing our ecological footprint, improving public health. but we will see whether the others are prepared for that. seemingly unprepared for this new, fragmented political order are the eu's traditional power blocs, the centre—left and the centre—right. germany's government was given a very bloody nose. like in the uk, europe's voters are favouring political movements they believe better

reflect their priorities. there are questions today as to how long angela merkel can or should stay in office. and all this could well affect the brexit process. the woes of angela merkel, the far—right breathing down the neck again of emmanuel macron, looming general elections in a number of eu countries — all of this distracts eu leaders, and makes them that much more unlikely to reopen and renegotiate the brexit deal if they are asked to do so by the next uk prime minister. the attitude here, anyway, is that there is no better alternative. and how does the eu feel about 73 uk meps returning to the european parliament? it will be interesting to see how long they will actually be active in the european parliament. emmanuel macron has said he is worried that a reluctant uk still in the eu could cause internal trouble.

are you concerned about that? well, prime minister may was very clear that she said the uk would play a constructive role until the 31st... she's going. well, she's going, exactly. we'll have to wait and see what this means for the next prime minister. eu leaders, including theresa may, meet here tomorrow to discuss the "what next" after the european elections. our prime minister may feel a bit out of place. for the rest, the horse trading as to which political groups now get the eu's topjobs, like president of the european commission, is only just starting. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: queen victoria smiles, in new clearfootage found in a new york archive. in the biggest international sporting spectacle ever seen, up to 30 million people have taken part in sponsored athletic events to aid famine relief in africa. the first of what the makers of star wars hope will be thousands of queues started forming at 7:00am.

taunting which led to scuffles, scuffles to fighting, fighting to full—scale riot, as the liverpool fans broke out of their area and into the juve ntus enclosure. the belgian police had lost control. the whole world will mourn the tragic death of mr nehru today. he was the father of the indian people from the day of independence. the oprah winfrey show comes to an end after 25 years and more than 11,500 episodes. the chat show has made her one of the richest people on the planet. geri haliwell, otherwise known as ginger spice, has announced she has left the spice girls. i don't believe it! she's the one with the bounce, the go, the girl power. not geri. why? this is bbc world news. the latest headlines:

at least 16 people, many of them schoolchildren, have been stabbed in an attack in the japanese city of kawasaki. president trump ends his four—day visit to japan. north korea and trade have been on the agenda in meetings with prime minister abe. let's get more on president trump's visit to japan which is coming to a close. these are live pictures of air force one waiting for the president and the first lady as they lined up their trip. they have been plenty of their trip. they have been plenty of the discussions. a few hours ago, the discussions. a few hours ago, the prime minister and the president we re the prime minister and the president were looking at a japanese destroyer, meeting troops and now we understand president trump will go

off to hold memorial events with us troops. live pictures coming from air force one injapan. earlier, i spoke tojeff kingston, an american professor at temple university in tokyo. well, prime minister abe pulled out all the stops. he wants to create good vibes, he wants to see this blooming bromance and he wants to convey a sense of solidarity with the united states, particularly to beijing and pyongyang. so, it was pomp and circumstance. some people thought it was a little excessive fanning but i think prime minister abe understands that stroking the ego of his erratic partner is the best way forward. we had signs yesterday of some divisions between them over north korea and over trade. you just mentioned some people might

have thought it was excessive. is there any downside to this domestically? i'm thinking particularly of the kind of reception donald trump gets in europe. is that shared into japan? well, both leaders had invested a lot in this relationship. for trump, he gets to show that he is not reviled everywhere, he is not all alone. for abe, the security relationship is paramount so even though trump is the least popular us president ever in japan, when he went to the sumo tournament, he got a rousing, standing 0. so he has been basking in the glory, but in his remarks about north korea, saying the missile launch is no big deal, yet in tokyo, it is a very big deal. and here, nobody shares his optimism about sealing a deal on north korea's denuclearisation and they worry that the longer negotiations are dragged out, ina sense, it becomes a de facto nuclear power.

what also worries shinzo abe are trump's comments yesterday in the presser where he talks about having a deal in august. there's a lot of things to do. a deal in august, that's really plays hardball. he did cut abe slack, saying they will wait until after the july elections. but he also indicated he is expecting big numbers. i think abe and his negotiating team are facing some very tough negotiations and it will remain to be seen whether this good vibes and the bromance will extract concessions. i rather doubt that will happen. for abe, what are the difficulties on trade, what are the sticking points in terms of delivering what donald trump wants? donald trump talks about beef exports to japan. well that's a lot of sukiyaki to try and narrow the $60 billion trade deficit. in april alone,

it $6 billion this year. abe will say they are going to be buying big—ticket military hardware systems for the defence of japan and that will probably mitigate the situation. but trump needs to be seen to have a win so he will play hardball but also for abe, he is really worried about the escalating trade war with china because the collateral damage forjapan would be substantial. ok, really good to get your analysis. mountaineers in nepal have described the year's deadly climbing season on mount everest, the world's highest mountain, as a death race. 11 mountaineers have died in a matter of days — nine on the nepalese side of the mountain, two in neighbouring tibet. on monday, an american climber died as he descended from the summit. gareth barlow has more details.

everest, where mankind battles mother nature to reach the top of the world. it's a deadly endeavour. standing over 8800 metres tall, a lack of oxygen means humans slowly die on the peaks upper slopes. the number of deaths this year already higher than the whole of 2018. it's been a carnage and i should say, it has become a death race there because there was a massive trafficjam and people are pushing themselves who are not even capable of doing it, they do it, they try the summit and instead of summiting, they kill themselves. mountaineers say overcrowding is partly to blame as record numbers of climbers try to conquer one of the world's toughest tests. conditions have been also worse than normal with high winds blasting the mountain, leaving a narrow window to reach the summit. it really comes down to,

this year, a deadly confluence of three factors. you had a limited number of suitable weather days. the second is that you had a record number of permits issued by nepal, along with a requirement each person has to hire a guide. and the third is due to the market forces, there are now companies offering everest at the lowest priced ever which is bringing in a bunch of people that really don't have the experience and also you have some guides that simply aren't qualified. despite the danger, despite having to climb past the bodies of dead mountaineers and despite the monumental effort required to reach the top, the pull of everest means people will continue to push for the summit and continue to die doing so. the highest mountain, the highest risk. gareth barlow, bbc news. the power of dance will be on display this week in charleston, south carolina, where a trilogy by the choreographer bill tjones will be performed.

the dance ensemble, which bears his name alongside arnie zane, has created the pieces in collaboration with the company's janet wong. we sat down withjones in washington, dc after the premiere to talk about the importance of the arts. go for it. i'm here to present an event... it's supposed to be a man's world that's out of control. ..that demands your attention and your heart. yeah, good! the way the stage comes together, the way themes are repeated. yes, i think that's what we're looking for. that's what i'm trying to do in these works. singing. this work is called analogy: a trilogy. three stories from contrasting individuals raises the question, what is a meaningful life? what is fear, what is triumph, and what is perseverance.

what is fear, what is triumph, and what is perseverance? in my early days as a young choreographer, we were very, very prejudiced against narrative. we thought there was too much storytelling, too much linear storytelling, and we wanted to free the form. as i have aged, i now have become more literary in my interests and at the same time trying not to abandon that freedom of form and gesture. and how did you get sick? now, be honest with me. i believe you did something that you're ashamed of, that there are things that you're not even talk about. that's not true, that's not true! i have to keep saying to those who fund the arts, to those who come to the arts — come, give, this is really good for us. when i put these elements together of time and space and gesture, lighting, costumes and my wonderful performers, and there's something happening that's very difficult to describe and people are moved by it or excited by it.

then, that's like the taste buds. tasting a well—prepared meal. singing. what's believed to be the clearest remaining footage of queen victoria has been discovered in a film archive in new york. the images were taken during the queen's visit to dublin, nine months before her death in 1901. our royal correspondent, sarah campbell, has been looking at the footage. queen victoria in a sharper focus than ever seen before. this was her last trip to ireland in 1900 and is believed to be the last time she was filmed before her death less than a year later. it's the best view you will ever get of queen victoria in moving pictures.

the footage had been stored for decades in new york's museum of modern art. but it was only when bryony dixon — a curator with the british film institute — was shown it, that its historical significance was truly realised. i nearly fell off my chair because i'd never seen queen victoria in close—up before. it's completely unique because you can see the queen's face for the first time, probably since 1900, since this was shown. it's close up, you can see expressions, you can see her in movement rather than just as a stiff portrait or a still photograph. queen victoria embraced the new medium of film. she and tsar nicholas ii were filled at balmoral in 1896 and the following year, a0 cameras were used to capture the queen's diamond jubilee. very much film was an extension of a whole series of image making about queen victoria. it makes her seem real. it makes her seem real and she is real. but what sets this film apart

is the level of detail and that's largely down to the film's size. 68 millimetres on the left and on the right, the footage was filmed in 35 millimetres, a cheaperformat which became the industry standard despite the loss of detail. the result, very few films of such high quality were made and no others capture so clearly this living, breathing, moving monarch. sarah campbell, bbc news. before we go, i want to show you some live pictures from japan. that is air force one waiting for us president donald trump and the first lady as they come towards the end of their four—day trip to japan. it has been full of photo opportunities for the two countries. prime minister abe has made great effort to forge a bond with president trump. they went toa sumo

bond with president trump. they went to a sumo wrestling match, eating burgers and playing golf but there have been a serious discussions as well. it is fair to say that during those serious discussions, that is where there were some slight tensions beneath the surface, first of all as they talked about trade stop donald trump could not help to bring up what he says the tremendous trade deficit that the us has with japan and they hope to do something about that before august although what that is exactly is not clear and then on north korea. president trump appears to downplay short—range missile tests by north korea, really putting him at odds with national security adviser and prime minister abe because japan is within range of those short—range missiles and views them with the art most seriousness. ——at most. he also

met emperor naruhito and empress masako. i met emperor naruhito and empress masa ko. i hope met emperor naruhito and empress masako. i hope you canjoin us again very masako. i hope you canjoin us again very soon. good morning. our final bank holiday of may has been and gone now. it was a tale of two halves, really. the best of the weather was down into the south—east corner on monday — in the london area where we saw 20 degrees, 68 fahrenheit. further north, a beautiful weather watcher picture was sent in. but it was a cold, grey, slightly disappointing story in parts of aberdeenshire with just a daytime maximum of 11 degrees. this is important because the cold air that has been sat across scotland throughout the weekend will push its way steadily southwards, taking the milder air back into the near continent as the northerly winds are set to win out for a couple of days at least. but hopefully only a short, sharp shock. more on that in a moment. the north—westerly direction will drive in some showers across the western isles and running down through the north sea we could see a rush of showers being driven in along the east coast during tuesday. sheltered western areas perhaps

seeing the best of the drier, brighter weather but it will be a degree or so cooler than it has been, 10—19 as the daytime maximum. moving out of tuesday, the winds will start to fall light and skies will clear. so a chilly start to wednesday morning before another series of weather fronts push in from the atlantic. during the early hours of wednesday, we will start to see it clouding over from the west but with clearer skies further east, the temperatures are likely to fall away and it could be a chilly start for one or two of us with low single figures first thing on wednesday morning. but the cloud and the rain continues to gather and here it will sit across south—west england and wales. so eight degrees as a minimum. three or four along the east coast. we start off on a chilly note but with some sunshine around first thing on wednesday. the cloud and the rain gathers and continues to push its way steadily east as we go through the day. there is a level of uncertainty as to just where this rain

is going to be sitting by the middle part of the week but it looks as though it will light and patchy as it continues to push in across the country. further north, a largely dry affair but not particularly warm, 11—18 degrees. as we move out of wednesday, we see that weather front and area of low pressure continuing to drift steadily north and high pressure builds from the south. but more importantly, the winds change direction again and swing back to more of a south—westerly direction, driving milder air once again back across the country. so it's half term for many this week and it does look as though the silver lining is — as we head towards the weekend, for many of us, it will be sunnier and warmer again. the only exception again, the far north of scotland. that's it, whatever you're doing, enjoy if you can.

this is bbc news. the headlines: at least 16 people have been stabbed, three of them fatally, in an attack in the japanese city of kawasaki. eight of the victims are believed to be children. police say they have a man in custody. there is no apparent motive for the attack. president trump has visited a naval base at the end of his four—day trip to japan, where he was the first head of state to meet the new emperor. on the agenda with prime minister abe have been north korea and trade deals. the austrian parliament has forced the chancellor and his centre—right government from office. sebastian kurz recently ended his coalition with the far—right freedom party when its leader was caught in a covert video sting that suggested he was open to corruption.

now on bbc news, hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur. the arab experience of the past 50 years has been scarred by dictatorship, repression and cruelty, inflicted and endured. since the uprisings of 2011, voices have risen in protest, but how much has really changed? and to what extent can the western world really understand the impact of this prolonged trauma? my guest today is renowned libyan writer hisham matar, whose writing has explored the impact of having a father disappeared by the gaddafi regime. how hard is it to move on?

hisham matar, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. you have written extensively about the impact of your father's disappearance on yourself, both in terms of novel, memoir, and ijust wonder, now, years on, whether you have found peace? i think what i'm interested in, is what every writer is interested in, is taking an experience that you...that has initiated you, into certain themes, certain experiences and ideas, and making something of it, exploring it. not in order to prove a point or to close a door on a subject

but rather to explore or understand it. in this case, it is the relationship between these things out there, these big political ideas and formations and policies, and how they infiltrate and affect personal life, and the life of ordinary people. so the absurd thing is that i'm not, on some level, really, i'm not very interested in myself or in my father or necessarily in my country. in otherwords, i mean, i'm interested in them in the personal sense, but i don't objectively think that they are more interesting than other people, other countries, but they have taught me things. yes, and they've beenjumping—off points for you to get into these very big things themes, which include the relationship between father and son, they include the notion of exile, what it means to belong somewhere and yet not belong. i mean, all these things seem to be wrapped up in your work.

yes and also our relationship to the dead, you know, that in my case i have a father who disappeared... and we should remind people who are not aware of your personal story that your father was a libyan of some renown. he had been a soldier, a diplomat, a successful businessman. he fell out — he certainly could not tolerate the gaddafi regime so went to live in exile in cairo. and there he was literally picked up on the street by the intelligence services of libya, who appeared to be working with the egyptians. he was taken, ghosted, back to libya, imprisoned and, well, i have to ask you, in your mind, is he definitely dead? through the laws of deduction he's dead. i do not have any evidence, regardless of all my efforts and the efforts of so many other people, to find information

about when, how, where he was killed, if he was killed, where his remains might be. we do not know any of those things and that, of course, is a very specific case that involves me and the search of my father. but as a writer, also, has really taught me something, i feel, about the strange business of being in the present, alive, and yet still in conference and in some close intimacy with the dead. you evocatively described yourself as living in a sort of cage as a result of what happened to you as a youth, ‘cause i think you were just 19 when he disappeared and, of course, you never got to see him again and you were not even in cairo at the time, i think you were studying abroad...

i was in london, yeah. so i just wonder, if we take that metaphor of the cage, whether you are still in a cage? no, i mean, one of the things i tried to do in my book, the return, is i tried to sort of expose the different stages that i went through. my father disappeared when i was 19. he was kidnapped when i was 19, and i am today a8, so there's much of my life has been spent under this inconclusive absence, and so i tried to explore but also expose some of the things i went through and, certainly, in my 20s i felt captured by this fate, by the double bind of being afraid to speak about it, in case this would endanger his life, and being also compelled to speak about it.

at your lowest ebb, when you were dealing with all this, and as you say, you are now in your late 40s, but i believe in your very early 30s, and you have written very frankly about it, you reached such a low ebb in your dealing with this or yourfailing to deal with it, in a way, that you contemplated suicide? yes, i mean, there are certain things that you can write about, but you are not very good at talking about. and that is certainly one of them. i write about it in the book because i have always assumed that such dark thoughts about taking your own life come out of long contemplation — that is why people leave letters and so on. that is what i always thought. i also assumed and this is something that is true, that i have taken very much from my mother, which is the very deep conviction that life is for the living. notwithstanding all the tragedies, i have a very deep passion for life and for living.

yet this situation got me to such a dark point that, at one point, when i was crossing one of the bridges across the seine in paris, and when it was a particularly dark time for me, where my father, my two uncles, my two cousins, were imprisoned for their political views, a friend of mine was killed under tortured — i do not even write about that in the book. and suddenly, as i walked across the bridge, i looked at the water and the thought emerged so naturally so available, "why not?" it is difficult to talk about it and you are talking about it with me but i wonder, as your use these words to describe that experience, whether you feel very, very distant from the man you were those years ago?

i think our contemporary culture places a lot of value in thinking of the self in these terms, in this way. we talk about moving on. my experience of living is not like that. my experience is more a kind of layering that happens. so i feel that self is available to me, or intimate to me, but i also feel there are other selves or a lot of other layers that have reshaped me in some way. so, yes, ifeel, in some essential ways, very different, and in some essential ways, very similar. you of course had to come to terms with the fact that your father could not be found and all of the evidence that you gathered ultimately pointed to his probably being murdered in gaddafi's infamous prison, just outside of tripoli, i think in 1996, probably... with the massacre that took place

there in the summer of 1996. ijust wonder, when you look back on that quest you made for information and all the extraordinary things that happen to you, including sort of delving deep inside the british establishment to try and get the british government to take seriously the case of your father and other libyans who'd been imprisoned, at a time when the british government was trying to cosy up to gaddafi, for all sorts of reasons. what did that teach you about political systems, about the way men — maybe sometimes women as well — in power work and think? that is such an interesting question. i mean, it is one of the subjects that has always fascinated me. and partly because of my mischievous autobiography that makes me feel i'm libyan but i'm also very deeply a londoner — i've lived in london longer — three times as long as i have lived anywhere else. i am american by birth.

and i know these countries very intimately. i teach — i live a part of the year in new york, where i teach. so i am very close to these places. most of my friends are from these places. it has always been fascinating to me that this strange and tragic distance that exists between my experience of society in london and new york and my experience as a libyan of us and british foreign policy and those things are not commiserate... so where is the disconnect and what does it mean to you? i think that, particularly with the middle east, that there has—been this story that's been told and it is a very clever story by the systems, by the political systems and not wishing to speak abstractly, but by the political system in britain and the united states, that goes something like this, that says these countries are too complicated and too volatile to not be interfered with in some way.

democracy does not quite work there. they're just hardwired not to be democratic as societies. they are a different kind of people. ok, i am simplifying butjust for the purposes of being expedient. whereas, on the ground, what ends up happing is that very strong ties are then formed between whitehall and washington and the sort of despotic regimes that are stable, that give these governments, these superpowers a kind of guarantee of contract... because these dictators become people "we can do business with". we can do business with but also they are super—reliant on us. so they are great agents. there is a wonderful?

there has been lots written on this, but there is a very good new book, called anglo arabia, by david wearing, in which he really dissects the ways in which britain and america have created a kind of new forms of colonies, particularly in the gulf of arabia. and so all of this, in action, in foreign—policy action, it is everything that is antidemocratic. you're promoting things that are very antidemocratic and at the same time making it very difficult for things like what happened in my country... and the embodiment, in a way, of this was your relationship, if i can call it that, with gaddafi's son, saif al—islam, whom you met in london because at the time britain was reaching out to gaddafi, was building some sort of relationship with the man, and indeed his family, and they were free to come and go.

and in the course of i think it was 2010, in your efforts to really get to the truth of what had happened to your dad, you had the most extraordinary encounter with sa if al—islam, in london, which you have described as the hardest thing you've ever done. yes... and ijust wonder again, now that years have passed — nine years have passed since then, do you look back and regret that you did it because it didn't yield anything, the man never told you the truth? no, i do not regret it, but it was very difficult and i think it was very dangerous. it was more dangerous i later learned, than i assumed it was then. because? because gaddafi's extended system, whether the hard or the soft of it, whether it was saif islam or the secret services, arejust very good. they were very good, they were very well—trained. they had a lot of experience in co—opting, tricking decent people into positions of compromise and i... ..not totally but partly function on the assumption that i was immune from this but maybe not. maybe i could have been tricked into a position where my position would have been compromised. so what i wanted from him was i wanted him to confirm

the whereabouts of my father, to tell me if my father is dead or alive. and he told me right from the beginning that he knows but he can't tell me, yet. and then proceeded, over a period of about ten months, to tempt me into certain situations that would then earn me the information. and this was the game. but would compromise you at the same time? yes, and so this was the game. the game was, i wanted this information and he wanted to basically stop this troublesome writer who keeps writing, you know, ‘cause there was a big campaign to varnish the image of that dictatorship.

and of course, that relationship of sorts between you and him ended, not least because the revolution came along and his father was killed and saif al—islam was imprisoned and i believe he is still somewhere in libya today. so let's fast forward. here you sit, as you say, you're not a straightforward libyan, you have great, strong ties to britain and the us as well, but you still are a libyan and you have been back to libya since the revolution. what do you say to those, and maybe some ordinary libyans say it to you, that actually, things were better or indeed less bad under the gaddafi dictatorship than they are in the chaos and the violence of libya today. i think the trouble with that sentiment, even though one can understand it, and you are right, i've spoken with libyans who feel that way, and i've always sensed a tragic flavour of self—loathing because that does occur when things

are so terrible like this. say well, maybe we don't actually deserve to live decently. but there's a structural problem with the question. the present is far truer to the reality of the dictatorship than it is to the aspirations of the revolution. the fact that a 42—year—old dictatorship leaves a country with such rudimentary state institutions tells you a lot about what it was doing there, that it was run as a family. it was run the way a mafia might run a country. so there was no investment in anything that has a semblance of institutional efficiency. and so you have that which means that after we succeeded in toppling

gaddafi, we were left with very little to work with. so do you mean that the country is robbed of all of the sort of social, the emotional capital to actually be anything different other than a screwed up society? no. no, no, no, that's not what i'm saying. i'm saying that not having a state, a proper state infrastructure, meant that we didn't only have to topple a dictatorship but we had to topple a dictatorship, which in itself is very difficult, and then build from scratch a state structure and that made it very, very difficult for libyans. i tell you what, a very good comparison is, because that's not the only difficulty, it's one of the difficulties. the other difficulty is that we have an extremely large territory. libya is very large and it has a very small population, 6 million. seven times the size

of the united kingdom in landmass. we have that and then we are excessively wealthy. we are so rich. king idris when he inaugurated the first oil well in 1963, he gave a very short speech. libyan history can be very ironic because we had basically two indigenous leaders since independence. one was infamous for the brevity of his speeches and the other one was infamous for his very long speeches. king idris when he inaugurated the oil well said, "i don't know if this will be a blessing or a curse but let's hope that it will be a blessing". there's a lot of wisdom in that because actually now, from this moment in history, hopefully not from a further moment in the future, but from this moment in history it is not unreasonable to say that oil has been a curse for libya because it has excited the parasitic appetites of foreign powers and of neighbours and of libyans too!

it has complicated the project of what it means to be part of the society. where is my responsibility to society? a lot of people say where is my share? when we're talking about responsibility and personal stake in libya, i do want to bring it back to you because i'm fascinated by some of the things you reveal about what happened to you. in 2011 for example, members of the revolutionary council reached out to you and said, essentially, do you feel like playing a role as this revolution unfolds? and you write very honestly about how you were struck by the uselessness of being a writer at a time when practical skills were needed, whether it be literally baking bread or even handling a kalashnikov. but all you handled was a pen, metaphorically speaking. yes, i mean, i don't remember writing about it being useless but certainly there was, in moments of great urgency, my kind of work is challenged.

i suppose what i'm getting at is you could have chosen or attempted, at least, a different life. because you feel so connected to this country, albeit you haven't lived there since you were a child, were you ever drawn to do that? you had a cousin, for example, who fought in 2011... several. and one particular you have written about who was killed trying to get into gaddafi's palace. that's right. did you think, maybe it's time for me to get involved? certainly in those days i did. it was hard not to. but what about now? because now we have general haftar, who of course was gadhafi's general, on the doorstep of tripoli. we've got the potential for a horrible conflict in your country. we do, yes, absolutely, yeah. your feelings now about whether there's something you can do in libya?

i don't know why writers are often spoken to this way. i'm not accusing you, stephen, but this idea that, you know, "haven't you thought of something else to do that's more active?" is that really annoying? no, but i find it very interesting, because i think it says something about how our culture looks at writing and what writing is. i mean, look, i've given my vows years ago to this practice, to this work of writing. writing takes all of my time. is it useful? is it not useful? that's not for me to say but that's what i do. but, yeah. when i used the word useless i didn't mean it to be any sort ofjudgement on your writing which has won acclaim around the world. it's just a question of what, i suppose, what is life for?

it's very interesting to me that you almost use religious terminology. you've made a vow to write. that is your... for now. meaning the vow is connected to whether i have something to write. i don't want to be a careerist and just keep writing for the sake of it, but as long as long as i have something to write, and this has been the case with me, a book arrives with its appetites, with its demands on you. and, you know, i really do think your books are your fate because they do form the habits of your work. but where is fate taking you then because it is very striking to me that in different, very interesting and different and creative ways, you have reflected deeply in different books on your past, on yourfamily, on loss, on place. yes. are you going somewhere different now or are you still dealing with those themes by drawing upon your personal experience? i am the worst person to give you a reading of the work

as the writer, him or herself, because it's too close. but i can tell you that after the return, so after my third book, i did feel that those three books that i wrote were dealing with a similar subject. they're different from each other but they're thinking about similar ideas. i certainly felt after them that now i have now a different kind of curiosity about something else, and certainly my new book which is not out yet, but is about a set of paintings that i've been looking out for a long time in siena and about my relationship to those paintings but also to the ideas in them. again, to do with grief and love and death. and so that's what that's about. the book i'm writing now i can't talk about but it's not, it feels new and different to me.

and it's not libya. it has libya in it, yes. laughs. it has libya in it a bit, but also other places. we look forward to reading it when it does come out. hisham matar, it has been a pleasure having you on hardtalk. thank you. thank you very much indeed. thanks for having me. good morning. our final bank holiday of may has been and gone now. it was a tale of two halves, really. the best of the weather was down into the south—east corner on monday in the london area where we saw 20 degrees, 68 fahrenheit. further north, a beautiful weather watcher picture was sent in.

but it was a cold, grey, slightly disappointing story in parts of aberdeenshire with just a daytime maximum of 11 degrees. this is important because the cold air that has been sat across scotland throughout the weekend will push its way steadily southwards, taking the milder air back into the near continent as the northerly winds are set to win out for a couple of days at least. but hopefully only a short, sharp shock. more on that in a moment. the north—westerly direction will drive in some showers across the western isles and running down through the north sea we could see a rush of showers being driven in along the east coast during tuesday. sheltered western areas perhaps seeing the best of the drier, brighter weather but it will be a degree or so cooler than it has been, 10—19 as the daytime maximum. moving out of tuesday, the winds will start to fall light and skies will clear. so a chilly start to wednesday morning before another series of weather fronts push in from the atlantic. during the early hours of wednesday, we will start to see it clouding over from the west but with clearer skies further east, the temperatures are likely to fall away and it could be a chilly start

for one or two of us with low single figures first thing on wednesday morning. but the cloud and the rain continues to gather and here it will sit across south—west england and wales. so eight degrees as a minimum. three or four along the east coast. we start off on a chilly note but with some sunshine around first thing on wednesday. the cloud and the rain gathers and continues to push its way steadily east as we go through the day. there is a level of uncertainty as to just where this rain is going to be sitting by the middle part of the week but it looks as though it will light and patchy as it continues to push in across the country. further north, a largely dry affair but not particularly warm, 11—18 degrees. as we move out of wednesday, we see that weather front and area of low pressure continuing to drift steadily north and high pressure builds from the south. but more importantly, the winds change direction again

and swing back to more of a south—westerly direction, driving milder air once again back across the country. so it's half term for many this week and it does look as though the silver lining is — as we head towards the weekend, for many of us, it will be sunnier and warmer again. the only exception again, the far north of scotland. that's it, whatever you're doing, enjoy if you can.

this is the briefing — i'm ben bland. our top story: at least 16 people, many of them schoolchildren, have been stabbed in an attack in japan. after the election shake—up, who will europe's new meps choose to lead the commission? a stark warning from a himalayan climber as more deaths are confirmed at the world's tallest mountain. i should say it has become a death race there, because there was massive traffic jam, and people are pushing themselves who are not even capable of doing it.