mankind is no match against mother nature. tens of thousands of people have been left without power as authorities deal with gas leaks and search for people still trapped by debris. more severe weather is forecast and while the tornadoes may this is the briefing, i'm ben bland. have waned, their impact may never our top story: go away. european leaders meet to thrash out who gets the top eu jobs, but there's already the meteorologist gerard jebaily, a diplomatic disagreement. of nbc affiliate kshb 41 action news is in kansas city. massive tornados hit america's midwest in one of the worst—ever storm seasons. baku prepares for a major european football final, where the nation's politcs are proving more problematic than the match. you have shot remarkable video that huawei strikes back! gives us a sense of the storms. talk us gives us a sense of the storms. talk us through that. 0k, good morning the chinese telecoms giant files out there across the sea, and while a lawsuit against the us government. it has been an incredible night for us it has been an incredible night for us here just it has been an incredible night for us herejust outside it has been an incredible night for us here just outside of kansas city, you will see just how massive this is. what is that that you are looking at? it is a violent, large, rain wrapped tornado, estimated to

be about a quarter of a mile... no hello there. a warm welcome to the programme, briefing you on all you need to know way to know exactly the width of it until tomorrow morning. we will be in global news, business and sport. looking carefully at that. you will and as the eiffel tower marks 130 notice how intense it was as it years by giving people the chance to zipline down from the top, tracked just to the south of the i'd like to know about your best town of lawrence, kansas, we were birthday or anniversary celebration. what's the most memorable, exciting or unusual way you've marked a special occasion? able to continue to move and follow it as it came very close to the let me know, just use outskirts of the kansas city the hashtag #bbcthebriefing. metropolitan area there were many places destroyed and many of them we re places destroyed and many of them were damaged along the way. that hello. there's a top—level division tornado brought a lot of people, developing in the european union, a polite but intense disagreement especially in the town of lawrence, quite a scare. it mist the central over who should be given the eu's most seniorjobs. pa rt quite a scare. it mist the central part of the town but it did do the two big powers in europe, damage on the outskirts, so that germany and france, have very town as well as many others, as it different views over who should become president of the european commission. tracked often came very close to impacting the kansas city and reaching consensus is likely metropolitan area. we can see over to be more difficult because the recent elections have your shoulder the graphic showing

left the eu so fragmented. the part of the storm. ijust gareth barlow reports. france and germany have long been wonder, what is the outlook the political powerhouses in europe, currently? is it to intensify or is the worst over? that particular and though the traditional parties lost their majorities following last storm that produced that tornado has week's elections, it seems com pletely storm that produced that tornado has completely dissipated. as the night angela merkel and emmanuel macron goes on tonight we are expecting still want to exert their influence. things to quiet down substantially. usually this time of the year as at a meeting of eu leaders well as other times are peak time to in brussels, mrs merkel was pushing see tornadoes of this magnitude. for one of her allies to be the next president of the eu commission. but emmanuel macron has his own they generally happen late afternoon preferences for the next eu leaders. translation: the key for me is that and evening, they can go into late people in the most sensitive overnight hours, but tonight it looks like we are at least out of positions to share our project the woods for seeing any more should be the most charismatic, violent tornadoes like this, but the creative and competent, that's all. same storm, and this is a look at i don't have any other criteria. what it looked like as it approached the area, it because this violent a time when europe is increasingly divided, the leaders are keen tornado, which lifted or dissipated to find unity as parties on the far for a brief time before it crossed right and far left also gain ground. over the northern side of the city, and then it dropped another pretty the president of the european large and violent tornado, and we council, donald tusk, says despite division, brexit had brought people together.

call these wedge tornadoes when they i have no doubt that one are much wider than they are tall. we are talking about a magnitude, of the reasons why people some like this can be as much as two on the continent voted for pro— european majority is also brexit. miles wide. this one doesn't appear as europeans see what that to be as big but it is very means in the practice, powerful. as far as the rating of they also draw conclusions. the winds inside, our radar is estimating winds of 150 mph, and we brexit has been a vaccine against anti—eu propaganda have had debris lofted in the air so and fake news. high that it landed 50 miles away at the eu has committed to balancing gender, oui’ high that it landed 50 miles away at our international airport. we are talking big pieces of metalfrom geography and political affiliation when it fills its top jobs. homes and buildings that made it all the way. but before that, the 28 leaders will need to find balance amongst themselves if they want to secure the future of europe as they've known it. gareth barlow, bbc news. how does this compare with previous storms you have covered? i've been this is the fourth—worst month covering storms vermis 20 years and this season has been quite active, for tornadoes ever recorded as far as being unprecedented, well, we have seen seasons that have been in the us and the threat continues with warnings posted in at least a bit more active, but for the half a dozen states from oklahoma to newjersey. kansas city area we haven't seen a a tornado killed a man in ohio, tornado of this magnitude since and since last week 15 people have around 200a. there have been another

been killed by the storms. nimesh thaker reports. 00:04:21,409 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 i needed i heard him say, coming and very busy seasons and this one definitely is well above average and continues to be quite active. this month of may has been much busier than the recent past years, but certainly it looks to continue for another couple of days, at least, not in the kansas city area but in other areas of the united states. really good to get your take on that. thank you. let's brief you on some of the other stories making the news: the us supreme court has agreed to compromise on whether indiana's strict abortion law should be reinstated. the justices chose not to rule on part of the law which would prohibit all abortions carried out on the basis of foetal characteristics such as gender, race and disability. raids by kosovan police in the serb—dominated north of the region have sharply raised tensions, and european union officials are urging kosovo and serbia to show maximum restraint. several people were injured

and at least 20 arrested in what kosovan authorities describe as an operation against organised crime. nicola sturgeon will today set out plans for a potential referendum on scottish independence. the first minister will publish a bill containing the framework rules for any future referendum. 0pponents say she should abandon what they call an "obsession". the chinese telecoms firm huawei is asking the us courts to speed up judgement in its legal battle with the government. this is over president trump's decision to ban the company from doing business with federal government agencies. huawei is requesting what's known as a ‘summaryjudgement‘ in a case against the us government. 0liver cornock, editor—in—chief at oxford business group joins me now. this really is the chinese telecoms

giant trying to, i suppose secure its access to a very lucrative market? absolutely. one donald trump seaward us and it's important to point out this is an issue that has a lot of cross—party support in congress as well. this does have quite a lot of domestic support. it's an interesting story, that you are right, it's about access to that market. it's also being talked about as part of a national security issue as part of a national security issue as well because there is an accusation against huawei that it is being thought of a vehicle of chinese espionage over the years. something that i point out it strongly denies, of course. but it is not a normal business. i think that's important to know. it has got this cloud hanging over it —— clout, the sanctions are really serious in terms of its business and they are beginning to bite. stepping back again and it is part of that broader us- again and it is part of that broader us — trade war and i'm sure we will come back to that. the us has put

pressure on its allies as well do not use huawei equipment in their 5g next generation of mobile networks. if they do, the us has said they may not share intelligence. absolutely. we've heard that in the uk, of course. huawei says this isn't affecting just developing economies, that its technology has a real ability to be a change agent in quite for replaces, they say that telecommunication is a right and thatis telecommunication is a right and that is part of its lawsuit. it's asking for it the lawsuit to be speeded up any decision to be made weekly. oliver, we will talk more about some of the stories making headlines a little later. thank you. do stay us on bbc news. still to come on the briefing: people returning home after the fukushima

disaster. 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 4,500 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?

you're watching the briefing. 0ur headlines: european leaders meet to thrash out who gets the top eu jobs — but there's already a diplomatic, disagreement between germany and france. powerful tornados kill unprecedented numbers in the mid—west of the us. it's one of the worst storm seasons ever. eight years after the meltdown at the fukushima nuclear plant injapan, people are finally being allowed to return to their homes. they were evacuated when a huge tsunami struck the area. just under half the land in the small town of 0kuma has been cleaned up. so, are people actually now taking the chance to go home? rupert wingfield hayes sent this report, from there. oops, i pulled the whole lot out. salad fresh from the fields of fu kushima. speaks japanese.

i am eating their salad without asking. after eight years as a nuclear refugee, this 70—year—old man is back in his fields. this is very interesting, this man has come back here, planted his crops. this is basically for his own consumption and to experiment, to see what grows here, whether it's safe after it's grown. he says they have taken the top five centimetres of soil, it's been removed from his fields and from his garden here, and he said consequently it is not nearly as good as it used to be. on a nearby field, in giant letters, the japanese words "we came back". they were planted by this 80—year—old man. translation: i have been back many times, so i am not

worried about radiation at all. only a tiny part of 0kuma has been reopened, the rest remaining completely off—limits. as we have driven down into 0kuma town proper, the old town, the atmosphere completely changed. you can see the gates, abandoned buildings, nothing has been touched here for eight years. the centre of the town is four kilometres from the nuclear reactors of fu kushima. before the disaster, 11,000 people lived here. you can see by the door post here, the name of the man who took us on patrol this morning. this is his house. he couldn't come with us because he is busy, but he can't come back here, and this is how it has been for the last eight years or more, because this is considered a high radiation zone still. this is a hotspot, and you can see it is

because water has gathered here, and the water tends to, when it washes down from the hills, it tends to bring a lot of radiation with it. you can see just this local area he has a particularly high reading. this is the first time i have been back here in the exclusion zone around the powerplant in about 3.5 years, but it doesn't get any less strange. radiation levels, we have taken measurements, they are much higher than outside the exclusion zone, around ten to 15 times higher. whether the levels here are a danger to human health is open to debate. some scientists say you could quite safely live here without much damage to your health. others say that can't be determined. whatever the truth about that, this place is now pretty much abandoned for the foreseeable future. there are no plans to clean it up, no plans for people

to move back here. now it's time to get all the latest from the bbc sports centre. hello, i'm tulsen tollett and this is your wednesday sport briefing. we start with the news that defending champion simona halep needed three sets to move through to the second round of the french open on tuesday. she overcame australia's aijla tomlanovic to progress and there were similar issues for top seed and world number one naomi osaka, who lost the first set without winning a game before responding against slovakia's anna karolina schmiedlova to set up a second round game against victoria azarenka. for me, today was weird, because usually the nerves go away, but it kind of stayed the entire match and then ijust kind of stayed the entire match and then i just felt like kind of stayed the entire match and then ijust felt like it kind of stayed the entire match and then i just felt like it was a fight of willpower, and i managed to wind in the end. scotland's women beat jamaica 3—2 at hampden park in their last

warm—up game before next month's world cup in france. substitute defender sophie howard scored the winner in the 67th minute. the friendly in glasgow was watched by a record home crowd of 18,500 fans. one other football line is that neymar limped out of training with a knee injury as his brazil prepare to host next month's copa america. it comes after the 27—year—old lost the captaincy to paris saint—germain teammate dani alves. mankind is no match against mother nature. maurizio sarri stormed out of chelsea's final training session ahead of the europa league final against arsenal in baku. chelsea claim it wasn't due to an incident between david luiz and gonzalo higuain but because they couldn't practice set pieces due to it being an open training session way from that their star midfielder n'golo kante is rated a 50/50 chance of playing as he still appears to be struggling with a knee injury after he trained separately

to the team on tuesday. it's familiar territory for arsenal boss unai emery who won the europa league trophy three times with sevilla. uefa have been criticised for the choice of host city as well as the poor ticket allocation for fans. victory for arsenal will guarantee champions league football next season. this stadium with all the supporters from arsenal and chelsea, i think it isa from arsenal and chelsea, i think it is a match with two very good teams, and really i prefer with our supporters but i know we're going to play for our supporters here or london. defending french open champion rafael nadal plays german qualifer yannick maden in the next few hours. nadal‘s record win—loss record at roland garros now reads 87 wins and two losses. while roger federer is also playing later, the 2009 champion faces another german, oscar otte, for a place in the third round. it was a wet and wild stage 16

of the giro d'italia for the riders as it culminated in the gruelling 11.9km ascent of the mortirolo pass as giulio ciccone claimed the win. while richard carapaz has taken a big step towards the overall title the ecuadorian has a 1:47 minute lead heading into wednesday's stage 17. finally, gymnasts love showing off, especially when they can combine it with other sports. here's britain's 2018 commonwealth games gold medallist, dom cunningham, with an unbelievable basketball trick shot. he posted this video on instagram, and even his celebrations are pretty impressive. you can get all the latest sports news at our website. that's bbc.com/sport. but from me and the rest of the team, that's your wednesday sport briefing. you heard there about

the europa league final between arsenal and chelsea — that match has been overshadowed by controversy ever since the venue in baku, azerbaijan, was announced. the 2,500—mile journey from the uk has proven to be so problematic for fans that neither club has sold their ticket allocation. arsenal's star striker, henrikh mkhitaryan, has pulled out because of concerns for his safety. from baku, sarah rainsford, reports. they slid into baku on a slow train from georgia. some fans for the europa league final arrived bleary eyed after two flights and all night on here. it wasn't too fun, it was long. arsenal fans are also upset that their midfielder from armenia won't be travelling here. henrikh mkhitaryan decided it wasn't safe for him. it all stems back to the

war that forced this theatre group to flee their homes three decades ago. they are from a part of azerbaijan that is now under armenian control. it is an emotional issue for many, even now. the region's football team is still going too, in exile, and they say henrikh mkhitaryan would have been safe in the final. may be the maximum pressure with some screaming something, but it is enough, nothing else. azerbaijan wants this final to project its best face to the world, but this is also a country where government critics, activists and bloggers are behind bars, and that is aside the football fans want to see. the government firmly denies it is trying to whitewash its image through sport. for the fans who have made it, the talk of cost and controversy has already faded,

drowned out by the sound of hope. people are calling it a once—in—a—lifetimejourney. on the 130th birthday of the eiffel tower, there's a chance to go on a hair—raising trip. as gail maclellan reports, it's not for the faint—hearted. the eiffel tower, paris's 324—metre—tall wrought iron landmark. your first thought is probably not to hurl yourself off it. tourists gawp in amazement. from today untiljune the second, those lucky enough to have won a ticket in an online ballot will climb to the second level of the monument, 115 metres, and spend a terrifying 60 seconds flying across paris to end up at the ecole militaire. it's huge, i didn't know,

when i woke up this morning i didn't know it was going to be this big. the temporary zipline celebrating the tennis french open coincides with the 130th anniversary of the eiffel tower. translation: the feeling is smoother than it would seem, the start is incredible because it feels like we're going to fall but it is actually very smooth. and it is huge, the length is huge. it's great. 7 million people climb up the iron lady every year, but only 260 of them will get to fly back down. i can't promise you quite the same adrenaline rush, but i will zipped through all of the business stories ina through all of the business stories in a moment.

hello. it looks like being a very warm start to the weekend for some areas. right now though, we are in a spell of cooler weather. there has been a bit of rain around, and another chance of rain is on the way during wednesday as we see a weather system taking outbreaks of rain eastwards, across the uk. here it comes. ahead of it though, as the day begins under clear skies, quite chilly out there, in fact, it may be cold enough for a touch of frost in the coldest part of northern england, and more especially into scotland. as the day starts, we can see temperatures widely into single figures. and ahead of that weather system, there will be a bit of early sunshine to be had for many. but that weather system already bringing cloud and outbreaks of rain towards parts of wales, western england, northern ireland, pushing onto towards southern scotland,

feeding further east during the day. so after early sunshine, increasing cloud in eastern england. maybe a shower quite late on beforewe see outbreaks of rain heading in here. wind's changing direction from a northerly at the start of the week more to a southerly now. it starts to pick up as well so it is quite breezy out there, and it will eventually bring some milder air our way. northern scotland seeing the best of the sunshine. heavy showers though in the northern isles, nowhere particularly warm, especially in the strenghtening breeze. but that change of wind direction starts to bring in something milder, more humid as well, overnight wednesday into thursday. still with cloud and patching rain around. but notice those temperatures are higher. much milder start to the day on thursday but still quite chilly across parts of northern scotland. we are bringing this warmer air up. it is england and wales that will get the lion share of it, on through the remainder of the week, into the start

of the weekend. the weather front never too far away from scotland, northern ireland, at times north—west england, north wales, with a bit of rain around. a lot of cloud on thursday. breezy, humid and patchy rain peeping up for north wales, north—west england, northern ireland and scotland as the day goes on. but at the same time, we'll have some warmer and sunny spells developing in central and eastern england. the temperatures head up further here on friday, into the start of the weekend — upper 20s in some spots but the warmth is not evenly distributed across the uk. and certainly for scotland, northern ireland, maybe north—west england, north wales at times, close to a weather front, there will be some cloud, some outbreaks of rain. it looks like a very wet end to the week, for example, in western scotland.

this is the business briefing. i'm ben bland. huawei strikes back. the chinese telecoms giant files a lawsuit against the us government, asking a us court to declare that president trump's defence bill is "unconstitutional". groundbreaking technology — we look at the new tools that could revolutionise the construction industry. and on the markets: asian shares stumble as investors fret over the outlook for world growth.