the headlines: the bbc has been speaking to many of the yazidi families of iraq, trying to rebuild their lives after the fall of the so—called islamic state group. since the extremists were defeated in syria, hundreds of yazidis who had been captured and enslaved are now free and reuniting with their broken families. a landmark trial linked to the opioid epidemic that is killing nearly 1,000 americans each week has begun in oklahoma. state authorities are suing the pharmaceutical giantjohnson & johnson, accusing it of deceit in the way it marketed highly addictive painkillers. the company denies any wrongdoing. there is disagreement developing between france and germany over who should be the new president of the european commission. following last week's elections, germany is keen on one of its nationals securing the role, following the shift in the parliament's political balance, but france has so far not mentioned him.

stu d e nts students across the country are attending exams this week. our media editor has been speaking to students in reading. it's exam season. across the country, hundreds of thousands of young people have been imbibing knowledge and honing skills. but, compared to a generation ago, they have a challenge to contend with. smartphones are the most convenient and sophisticated consumer technology ever invented, reaching billions of people every day. but boy, are they addictive, as these students at the university of reading have been telling me. would you say you're addicted to your phone? i think i would, yeah, because without thinking about it, ijust pick up my phone to check instagram, or snapchat, or facebook, or anything. it's a bit of an issue with studying because, if i have it on my desk when i'm revising, i tend to get very, very tempted to just

look at my phone. i'll be like, ooh, i see a notification. i'll be tempted to just open it, and then ten, 15 minutes will go by, and ijust haven't done any work. is that a bit of a problem in exam season? like, i have to have my phone out of sight if i'm, like, trying to concentrate. because otherwise, i'm just so tempted to just, like, pick it up and go on instagram. and just, like, i will literally be sitting there just scrolling for, like, ages. smartphones have been rightly called a species—level environmental shock. while the science about their effect on young minds is contested and evolving, what is not in doubt is that in the space ofjust a few years, they've created a totalising environment, relentless information overload, and irresistible distraction. we live in an attention economy. this former google designer wrote an influential book about how big technology companies manipulate us. you have this entire persuasion industry that is dedicated to capturing, exploiting our attention. facebook is a persuasion machine. twitter is a persuasion machine. you know, instagram is a persuasion machine. and i think when we call these things social media, you know, that's not actually

what they're selling, that's not their business. they're essentially advertising companies, persuasion companies. study requires concentration, and distraction is the enemy of concentration. it mayjust be that the attention economy and academic education don't really mix. amol rajan, bbc news. now on bbc news, it's time for our world, which this week travels to iraq and syria to discover the disturbing story of the yazidis‘ secret children. the yazidis, an ancient religious minority and the victims of one of the islamic state's most ritual attacks. but they are a minority now hiding a secret. many yazidi women were forced into sexual slavery, and some have had children fathered by their islamic state captors. children who were often their only solace through years of torture.

translation: i was in prison for four years, but i've been able to put it all behind me now because of this child. but women like rojin are being forced to choose between their children and returning to the yazidi community. children born of rape are not welcome. translation: i want to ask you, are we wrong to miss our children? i mean women like us, are we wrong? over the past year, i've travelled across northern iraq and syria to find the women being forced to make this agonising choice, and to tell their story, the story yazidi leaders want to silence.

in, 2014, these pictures of desperate yazidis fleeing islamic state fighters shocked the world. trapped on northern iraq's sinjar mountain, hundreds of men were massacred and over 6000 women and children were forced into captivity. the yazidis are an ancient religious minority of around 800,000 people, most of whom live in northern iraq. they've been persecuted for centuries, but the attack by the islamic state was different. their main objective was to abduct women and girls to be traded as sex slaves.

five years later, and with the so—called islamic state all but defeated, i've come to a safe house in north—east syria, where a group of yazidi women are about to be sent home after surviving years as is prisoners. the fate of these women has captivated the world's media. the ultimate tale of good versus evil. but part of their story is being hidden, and the yazidi leadership wants to keep it that way. after five years of rape and forced marriage, many of these women have had children with their islamic state ca ptors.

sorry, sorry. hi, how are you? everyone did interview with her. but everybody, sheikh... this is the head of the yazidi community in syria. there are some women where you can interview them from the morning to the evening, while others, there are some speciality with that and we don't accept that. but she already did interview. but sheikh! so where is her kids? the women are swiftly placed into some cars and driven off to the iraqi border to be reunited

with theirfamilies. we followed, but were warned against further recording. this is the point where these women are finally leaving syria, and we know at least two of them here have had children with is militants, but it seems both of them are going back to iraq alone. some of these women have been forced to abandon their children before returning to the yazidi community. it makes for a bittersweet reunion with their long—lost relatives in iraq. because, for one family to reunite, another has been ripped apart. it was one year ago when i first met an islamic state survivor who had been through this.

because of the stigma attached to having a child with an is fighter, we have hidden herface and given her a different name. like thousands of other women, jovan‘s ordeal started on sinjar mountain. translation: all the women and girls were captured. while the men were gathered, and i believe they were killed. they took girls as young as eight. we couldn't do anything about it. they really tortured us. jovan was kidnapped with her three yazidi children and to keep the family together, she was forced to convert to islam and marry a tunisianjihadist. translation: that is when the monster took us. i stayed with that tunisian is member for 11 months, until he was killed, but by that time, i was seven months pregnant, and three months after his death, i gave birth to my son.

eventually, jovan‘s yazidi husband located her through a network of people smugglers and paid for their children to be brought back to iraq. butjovan remained in syria for another two years because her husband refused to accept the child fathered by her is captor. translation: i was being held with eight or nine other women and girls. they also had children with members of is, and so couldn't come home because of their families. her husband finally allowed her to return to iraq with her son, but she didn't keep him for long. translation: i wanted to keep my son, but i couldn't. the community wouldn't accept him.

is did terrible things to us. they kidnapped and killed lots of us. i didn't want to offend my community by keeping my son. a decision that continues to cause her pain. translation: i want to ask you, are we wrong to miss our children? i mean women like us, are we wrong? this is lalish, the holiest temple in the yazidi faith. the yazidis say that their religion is the oldest in the world, but it is a religion

that is not open to all. maintaining a pure bloodline is central to the faith. amongst this group are a number of young victims of the islamic state. five years ago, they would have been banished from the community for having sexual relations with someone outside of the yazidi faith, even though they did so under duress. but in a historic move, baba sheikh, the religious leader of the yazidi community, issued a ruling that those enslaved by the islamic state could rejoin the community. it is incredible to see these young victims of is being welcomed back into the community, and now thousands more yazidis are arriving in lalish to celebrate the new year. the yazidi faith seems to be modernising, yet another ancient doctrine remains in place. to be a yazidi, both of your parents must be yazidi. so for women raped by is fighters, their children are not accepted.

but if their religious leaders changed the rules once, couldn't they do it again? to find out, i've had to leave the celebration in lalish to meet ali khedar alyas. so if it wasn't because of the iraqi law, would yazidi community, yazidi council, and baba sheikh,

would they accept these children? but i met families that they said that there should be a fatwa. if there is a fatwa from baba sheikh, we will accept, otherwise, we won't accept these children. a week later, the yazidi council published a statement saying children born to islamic state fighters are not accepted. despite what ali khedar alyas told me, this policy

of non—acceptance had clearly been in place for a while. during our year—long investigation, we identified 20 yazidi women who had given birth to children under the caliphate. none had been allowed to bring their child home. we did find one woman who had kept her baby. we arranged to meet her in the privacy of my hotel room. she doesn't want the community to know she is speaking to us. rojin, not her real name, fell pregnantjust weeks before she was freed by the islamic state and gave birth seven months later when she was back in iraq. she is now secretly raising the child, who we've called nadia, as a yazidi, with the help of her husband. translation: neither my parents,

nor the community, know the truth about this child. i'm always worried about that. i was in prison forfour years, but i've been able to put it all behind me now because of this child. do you think that if they know, if they find out, they would force you to leave nadia? translation: yes, if they find out, they will take the child from me or i will be forced to leave my family. so it must be very difficult to live with all these concerns and fears all the time? translation: yes, it's really difficult. i was held by isis for four years and we suffered a lot — beating, thirst and hunger. but what would be even worse would be to have my son taken off me now.

this is the al—hol camp in north—eastern syria. it is home to over 70,000 women and children from the islamic state. they were rounded up when coalition forces defeated jihadist fighters. conditions are dire and many of the inhabitants still cling to isis's hate—filled ideology. yet it is thought that many yazidis are also among its residents, hiding the children they bore to islamic state fighters. dr ghaufouri is a kurdish activist who searches the camp, looking for yazidi women and children, to persuade them

to go home. how many women with is children are we talking about and how many children? those who are coming back now, eight of ten. and how many each? most of them, they have one, up to three or four kids. you know, the feeling of a mother, you know — you will not believe how they are holding their babies because a mother is a mother. the feeling, the love of mother comes above all kind of religion or belief or anything. dr ghaufouri helps the yazidi women and children who go home, even if that means leaving is—born children behind. she has a team of yazidi women who escaped is. they have come to the camp to work undercover, dressed in niqab, to find the yazidis.

it is a dangerous job. the islamic state's female police force still operate in the camp. a number of yazidi women have left al—hol. i spent months searching in north—east syria for their is children but no—one would tell me where they are. still, i am determined to find out what has happened to them. i have been told about an orphanage in mosul, in northern iraq, which has seen an influx of children since the war against is started. this government—run orphanage takes care of more than 50 children. sakineh muhammed ali is the local government official responsible for running this place.

i have discovered that sakineh knows jovan, the yazidi woman i met over a year ago who was forced to give up her is son who we called "adam". she tells mejovan‘s husband approached and asked her to take the child.

sakineh told jovan that she was only giving up her son for a week, knowing full well that her husband would not allow her to return and collect him. this would be the last time that jovan would ever see adam. months later, the orphanage ran into financial difficulties and decided to put some children up for adoption. it turns out i am not the only one to have visited sakineh's orphanage. jovan did came back looking

for her son but it was too late. the news he had been adopted without her consent must have been devastating. i wanted to find out how she is coping and decided to track her down. sadly, she is now living in a woman's refuge far from home, having been divorced by her husband. translation: my family and my husband were extremely strict and they separated me from my son. i got the depression and i left my other children. it is now impossible for me to go back to them. i betrayed him. i did not want to abandon my child.

i felt like i betrayed that child. i betrayed that kid. she cries. my three other children know that i have not betrayed them because they are old enough, but this child was just a poor, poor kid. it was such a terrible day when i left them. a woman has adopted my child, and has taken him for herself. my baby does not know me but i think about him every day. but i think it is betterfor him to live with the other person now. it is betterfor him. it is horrible to seejovan so upset

after losing all four of her children. ijust had to try to speak to her family to find out if there is any way they could have saved themselves from this pain. surprisingly, jovan‘s husband agrees to meet me and seems keen to talk. translation: i told you that the child is not at fault. i said it was god's will that the child was born. but when someone comes and kills all the men in a community and then that killer fathers a child with your wife, it does not matter whether they are is or from any other religious group — who would accept that child? perhaps in the west that is acceptable but in the east it is not.

we do not accept these kind of things here. it is an unforgiving position and one that i did not expect to find shared byjovan‘s son. translation: i do not want her to come back. she came back from isis and left us again. so i do not want to see her. you do not accept that child as your brother? no, it is true our mother gave birth to that child, but he's not our father's so it is not possible. he is the son of isis and we cannot accept him as our brother. jovan may have left the horror of the islamic state but the demands of the yazidi religion now casts a long shadow of her life but there are no winners when a mother is made to choose between her children and her religion.

translation: i decided to name him adam and i called this one after my son, hatton. i hope my children will not forget me. hopefully one day, if god has mercy on me, then we will see each other again. hello. it looks like being a very warm start to the weekend across some parts of the uk, but right now we are in a spell of cooler weather, there has been a bit of rain, another chance of rain is on the way. 0utbreaks another chance of rain is on the way. 0utbrea ks of another chance of rain is on the way. outbreaks of rain experts

across the uk. quite chilly out there as the day begins with a touch of frost in the coldest part of northern england and more especially into scotland. temperatures widely into scotland. temperatures widely into single figures. bit of sunshine to be had a head of the system. rain towards parts of wales, western england, northern ireland, pushing onto scotland. after early sunshine, increasing cloud in eastern england. 0utbreaks increasing cloud in eastern england. outbreaks of rain heading here. when change direction to a more southerly now. it starts to pick up as well so it is quite breezy and it will bring milderair it is quite breezy and it will bring milder air eventually. northern scotla nd milder air eventually. northern scotland with the best of the sunshine. nowhere particularly warm especially with the breeze. the wind direction starts to bring in something milder and more humid as well. cloud and patching rain around. temperatures higher and are

much milder start to the day. still quite chilly across parts of northern scotland. it is england and wales that will get the lion share of the warm air. the weather front never too far away from scotland, northern ireland, north—west england. picture rain peeping up for north wales, north—west england, northern ireland and scotland. at the same time, some warm and sunny spells developing in central and eastern england. 0n spells developing in central and eastern england. on friday, into the start of the weekend, upper 20s in some spots but the warmth is not evenly distributed. scotland, northern ireland, north—west england, decent cloud with outbreaks of rain. i went and to the week in scotland. temperatures held down. for england and wales, for many some warmth at the start of the weekend.

0n the current timing by sunday, it will be a bit cooler.

welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. our top stories: torn apart by the islamic state group, the yazidi families of iraq rebuilding their lives after the fall of is. we have a special report. islamic state group is on the run now, but the pain and the suffering that they've caused has been amplified with tens of thousands of families here in iraq, and in syria too, and that's going to take generations to recover from. america's opioid epidemic. now, a major drug company goes on trial in a landmark court case, accused of cynical brainwashing.