this is bbc news. the headlines: michael gove acknowledges he committed a crime when he took cocaine while working as a journalist 20 years ago. yes, it was a crime, it was a mistake. i deeply regret it. violence flares at a huge protest in hong kong against a new law that would allow suspected criminals to be extradited to china. 100 firefighters tackle a blaze at a block of flats in east london. two people have been taken to hospital with minor injuries. so i picked up my sons and my missus, and wejust ran — just ran out. and as we came out the front door, behind us was the most raging fire i've ever — scariest thing i've ever seen. police are investigating after two female actors were targeted in an alleged homophobic

attack in southampton. england hang on to beat scotland 2—1 in the women's world cup. good evening. the conservative leadership candidate, michael gove, has admitted he commited a criminal offence when he took cocaine on several occasions. speaking for the first time about his use of the class a drug, he said he had a profound sense of regret about it. it happened while he was working as a journalist 20 years ago. here's our political correspondent, susana mendonca. these weren't the headlines michael gove would have been hoping for this weekend as he embarked on setting out his pitch for the tory leadership.

after it emerged that he'd taken cocaine 20 years ago, today, an admission of lawbreaking from the formerjustice secretary. yes, it was a crime, it was a mistake. i deeply regret it. should you have gone to prison? i was fortunate in that i didn't, but i do think that it was a profound mistake, and i've seen the damage that drugs do. he had wanted to focus on his pro—business agenda, and plans to replace vat with a simpler system. instead, he was questioned about whether he'd been honest about his drug use, including when he applied for a visa to enter the united states. i don't believe that i have ever on any occasion failed to tell the truth about this when asked directly. but it would be on the form. i mean, you would have to say yes or no, and, if you said yes, you could be banned for life from entering the united states. i think it is the case that, if i were elected to be prime minister of this country, then of course it would be the case

that i would be able to go go to the united states. and i think that it's foolish to suggest otherwise. the environment secretary said he respected the country's most senior police officer, cressida dick, who has said that class a drug users have "blood on their hands". that's a view echoed by the home secretary, who's also in the running to be prime minister. today, he said middle—class people and others who take drugs destroy lives. they have their organic food and boast about buying fair trade, and talk about climate change — and, at the same time, come friday or saturday night, they're all doing class a drugs. and they should be thinking about the impact they're having especially on children. are you going to be the next prime minister? another leading contender has come out of the shadows, promising not to pay the £39 billion divorce bill to the eu, which labour says is a legal obligation. i always thought it was extraordinary that we should agree to write that entire cheque before having a final deal. i don't wish to conduct a postmortem of the original negotiations,

but it was extraordinary that we agreed to pay the money in advance of a deal on the future partnership. while borisjohnson is promising tory members that if the eu doesn't renegotiate, he'll take the uk out with no deal in october, michael gove has suggested a delay to the brexit date of weeks or days to get a deal done. the real question is whether parliament will let any of this happen. susana mendonca, bbc news. 0ur political correspondent, chris mason, explained how difficult michael gove‘s current situation is. for mr gove this morning... it doesn't get much more awkward if your pitch is that you want to be prime minister next month and you're having to plead with viewers that if you become prime minister, you will be let into the very country whose leader we hosted on a state business just the other day — that whole row about what he may or may not have put on his visa forms when travelling to the us. desperately awkward for mr gove,

and i think it tells you the extent to which the headlines have been dominated this weekend by his personal conduct that his announcement that he wants to scrap vat, a huge economic policy if he wants to do it, gets a mention of i—2 sentences, but little scrutiny beyond that because obviously, as part of the contest to become prime minister, policy and brexit matters, but character matters also. intense investigations of a person's character in the process of becoming the prime minister, and that's what mr gove has been subjected to. i've also read a lot of people saying this was sheer hypocrisy. these people want to hold high office, yet other people would go to prison for the things he's said to have been done years ago. and mr gove and monk alleged that what he did was a crime. if you are seen to have done

something and set another. in his argument that was in the past, when you read an article featured in the papers from 1999 when he was a writer in the times, he acknowledges he took cocaine. he talks about the dangers of cocaine, in particular the hypocrisy among some middle—class users who advocated legalization. he has never advocated legalization. interestingly, there's a line in that article where he doesn't admit to being a drug taker himself, but he acknowledges that it is right to have tough laws even if you occasionally break them because that shows that your values are in the right place and the law is upholding you to solid standards. but obviously that condition of hip toss test hypocrisy. we are going to see the leadership process come to life. tomorrow the nominations go in and close, we'll find out by the end of play tomorrow how many

actual contenders they are. thursday is the first round of voting and, in subsequent rounds in the weeks after that, i think very quickly the list will shrink down from 11 to a much smaller number. and we will have a new prime minister in six weeks. and we'll find out how this story and many others are covered in tomorrow's front pages at 10:30pm and 11:30pm in the papers. the guests joining me tonight are the parliamentaryjournalist tony grew and the entertainment broadcaster caroline frost. around 100 firefighters have brought a large fire at a block of flats in east london under control. 15 fire engines were called to the flats at de pass gardens near barking, where the fire had engulfed six floors of the building. the cause of the fire is not yet known, and two people have been taken to hospital with minor injuries. barking and dagenham council has opened a rest centre and says it will be arranging temporary accommodation for those who need it. joining me now from the scene is our correspondent, leigh milner.

i have just moved away from that building but the flames have died down and smokers finally stopped pouring out of the broken windows. what is left? a scene of devastation. there are four floors, all absolutely gutted out from the fla mes all absolutely gutted out from the flames which engulfed that building earlier on today. i know that the fire service arrived quickly on the scene just after four p m with 100 firefighters and 15 fire engines. i am already surrounded by residents who are waiting to be told what to do. i have been speaking to a few of them who are not only sad about what has happened but also angry. a lot of them have been telling me they raised concerns about this building months before, including serena, who actually lost her flat. i live in the second flat down from the top, which is completely burned out. i nipped out five minutes,

got a call in the car park because people are asking me if i was in the flat. i came back, so, within seven minutes of me getting there and back, the whole thing was completely in an inferno, basically. but it begs to question the fact that we have fire marshals in the evening. so if there is a fire marshal, there is clearly an issue with fire regulations. this is a system failure at the end of the day. if you have something like grenfell happening, why aren't people learning from it? we can stand here and be grateful for the fact that we are all here, and just because we are all fine — but, at the end of the day, something has happened before and we should learn from this. we have fire marshals — there was an incident, something needed to have happen to. how do you feel looking at your flat now? everything is gone! my grandma passed away — everything she gave me has gone. i'm thankful for the fact that i'm

standing here and not in there, because you just don't know what could've happened. and the fact that it took that long — so quickly for that to go up in complete flames to show you structurally, in terms of the building regulations, that is not ok. 0ne one of many residents who are very upset and sad about what has happened. you might be able to see behind me the fire engines which are still here, still trying to tackle the devastation that has been left behind ina the devastation that has been left behind in a block of flats, and with me is the instant commander from the london fire brigade. please tell me what is happening at the moment. we have crews working really hard to extinguish deep—seated polyps of fire and support the investigation and our partners and the police and local authority in bringing this incident to a swift revolution. we keep using the word devastation because that's what has been left behind. what been destroyed? we have had an extensive fire today. the

fire service were called at 3:31pm and at its height we had 15 fire engines. at its height we had 130 five fighters fighting an extensive fire. unfortunately, there have been multiple properties affected by this incident but we are working really ha rd incident but we are working really hard to minimise the disruption, working with our partners. and our people say? have we had any injuries? unfortunately we have had two injuries but thankfully they are minor. the fire service assisted and rescued one gentleman. we have been hearing of a local hero who has been helping out with you. i know you don't encourage people to come and help, but you have had real community support here? the community support here? the community have come together and helped each other out, there has been food passed around, and by identifying people who really helped us identifying people who really helped us look to ensure we can make sure everyone is accounted for and

everyone is accounted for and everyone is accounted for and everyone is then passed to the local authority to ensure we can assist them on their travels. what now? we are surrounded by residents standing out here. what advice would you give to them? we will be on scene throughout the night. this will be protected by the london fire brigade but we will work with the local authority, go to the rest centre where we can assure everyone is accounted for, and where there is accommodation and assistance needed, the local authority will help. as you heard there, if you do live in the community, you are being urged to go to the local community centre where there will be shelter, food, fortu nately where there will be shelter, food, fortunately only two people have been sent to hospital with minor injuries. there have been violent clashes outside the seat of the hong kong government after one of the biggest marches the territory has ever seen. hundreds of protesters tried to break into the legislative council complex, clashing with police in riot gear. 0rganisers say1 million people took to the streets on sunday,

but the hong kong government insists it will press ahead with the highly controversial extradition law. critics fear the bill will erode thejudicial independence of hong kong, which was guaranteed when britain handed it back to beijing. it's overwhelmingly peaceful — a mixture of hong kong's diverse society is here. their worry is a new law that would allow people to be extradited to the chinese mainland, where the courts are not impartial and people can be imprisoned for their politics. well, people are afraid, people are also angry about this extradition treaty. mainland china uses all sorts

of ways to exercise their so—called dictatorship in hong kong — to kidnap the people they treat as enemies. say no to the evil bill! say no to extradition to china! hong kong's new extradition law was controversial from the minute it was proposed. supporters say it will target criminals taking refuge in hong kong. but critics see it as a further erosion of the independence of the former british colony, which has a separate judicial system from the rest of china. a protest of that scale would never, ever be permitted here in mainland china — certainly not now in 2019, anyway. and it's very unlikely that the will of the people marching on the streets of hong kong tonight will prevail on this particular issue. it is the will of china's communist party leaders in beijing that is almost certain to win out. as they move slowly

step—by—step to reintegrate hong kong with the mainland. robin brant, bbc news. helier cheung used to be the bbc‘s reporter in hong kong, she told me more about out why this law is being proposed. a man in hong kong is alleged to have killed his girlfriend in taiwan when they were on holiday there together. but then the man fled taiwan and went back to hong kong. now, the hong kong government says it can't extradite him to taiwan to be charged for this alleged crime because they have no expedition agreement. but a lot of people say this also includes mainland china and seems to be going beyond their scope. a lot of people are simply worried because the prospect of hong kong citizens being sent to mainland china where they don't trust the government there. supporters say there are safeguards in place so that anyone accused people safeguarded from religious

and political persecution. why are the critics not happy with that? it all comes down to the fact that critics just don't trust the hong kong government any more. they feel it answers to beijing, not to the hong kong people. people feel that this could still open the way to more extraditions that they think could affect not just political activists, but business people and visitors as well. how risky is it to stage demonstrations in hong kong these days? hong kong as a former british colony inherited certain rights and freedoms you don't see in mainland china, which is why, in hong kong, they generally have their right to free speech and free protest. and as long as that's agreed with the authorities the same way in the uk. staging a political devastation is not risky, but we have seen some violent clashes at midnight after the police permit expired. that's because a lot of hard—line

protesters tend to stay on longer because they feel traditional peaceful protest hasn't worked. i was on my way into work today and saw hundreds and hundreds of people in london protesting about the same extradition laws. so how much attention is it grabbing around the world? it has grabbed a lot of attention around the world. in fact, they call these solidarity protests in 29 cities around the world, including sydney, berlin and tokyo — a lot of them are linked to the chinese diaspora, but a lot of people have worked in hong kong since it is an international city. they talk about the erosion of the freedoms that exist in hong kong — what evidence is there that that is happening? it's an interesting subject because supporters of the hong kong government will point out that hong kong has plenty of freedoms, that's why they could stage such a large protest. but critics say they've been seeing a drip drip effect where they feel the government has been slowly encroaching on hong kong's rights. there was the case of the missing book—sellers a few years

ago who were detained, disappeared and reappeared in mainland china. there was also the case of the financial times journalist who had his visa revoked after he invited a pro—independence but in recent years, the chinese government has taken a much harder stance against hong kong. most people think that, in this case, the legislation will push through an protest won't change their minds. the government has said it plans to continue with its second reading later this week.

a late goalfrom a late goal from scotland set up a tight finish in the match and the south of france. england are one of the best in the world, scotland have never been better. but the rivalry and so does this, it began the most modern way. that was the evidence, that was the decision. perhaps fittingly, paris capitalised in france. england should have been further ahead by the time the ball eventually fell for ellen white. the finish was perfect. this will scotland's first ever game at a world cup and had it

not been for goalkeeper lee alexander, it would have been well beyond their reach, but in a moment the mood change. 2—1 and finally some reward. argentina face japan, in the other group d match tomorrow. but in group c, brazil beat world cup debutants jamaica 3—0. became the oldest person to score a hat—trick in either the mens or women's world cup. brazil were without marta, the leading scorer in the tournament's history. and in valenciennes, italy came from behind to beat australia. the aussies were ahead after sam kerr scored a rebound off her penalty. but italy levelled through barbara bonansea, who scored her second with a header off a corner in injury time. in italy's first world cup appearance in 20 years. england's men won the third place play—off in the inaugral nations league, beating swizerland on penalties in portugal.

0—0 after extra—time — so it went to a penalty shoot—out and jordan pickford — who'd already stepped up to score one — saved yosef dermich's spot—kick to secure third place. portugal are currently playing netherlands in the final now. rafael nadal claimed an historic 12th french open title. and 18th overall grand slam crown with a four set win over austria's dominic thiem. it was a repeat of last year's final, and this time thiem did manage to win a set. but once again the king of clay was just too good. the win means he becomes the first player to win the same grand slam tournament 12 times. and puts him just two behind roger federer‘s all—time record of 20 majors. india have continued their impressive start to the cricket world cup after beating australia by 36 runs at the oval, in one of the best games of the tournament yet. australia were set a world cup record run chase of 353 for victory, thanks mainly to a hundred from shikar dhawan. steve smith top—scored for australia with 69, but his side fell short in their chase. so india remain undefeated.

england's women have taken an unassailable 2—0 series lead against west indies. after a rain affected match in worcester. england batted first and reached 233 for seven from 41 overs. tammy beaumont hit 61 and anya shrubsole boosted the total with some big hitting late on. in response, the windies never really threatened, with england winning by 121 runs via the duckworth—lewis method. the win all but guarantees their qualification for the 2021 world cup. that's all the sport for now. you can find more on all those stories on the bbc sport website. four people have been killed in sudan as protesters clashed with security forces on the first day of a civil disobedience campaign against military rule. many of the streets in the capital, khartoum, are deserted with people responding to opposition calls

for a general strike. it's part of a campaign of civil disobedience aimed at forcing the ruling military council to relinquish power. a woman has died after being struck by lightning while walking in the scottish highlands. the 55—year—old was hiking near kinlochleven when she and another member of the group were hit. police scotland said both were airlifted to hospital in fort william, but one died of her injuries. the other walker is in a stable condition. a labour mp has been reported to the party's chief whip after he supported campaigners who've been protesting against same—sex relationship teaching at a birmingham primary school. roger godsiff is the mp for the constituency which includes anderton park school — the focus of recent demonstrations. daniela relph reports. chanting: our children! our choice! their protests have been forced away from the school by a court injunction. but the local mp has defied his own party to support these families.

for more than two months, there have been demonstrations outside anderton park school. parents arguing that their children are too young to learn about lg bt relationships. now the local mp has spoken out during a meeting with concerned families. i think you have a just cause. and i regret the fact that it hasn't been reciprocated by the head teacher. i will continue to work to try and bring this dispute to an end, because all of you want your kids back in school. i will continue to fight your corner because you're right. nothing more, nothing less. you're right. strongly critical of the comments, in a tweet, the shadow education secretary angela rayner said... a labour party spokesperson has also said that the mp will be reminded

of his responsibilities. there is, though, no sign of the protests stopping. this week, the parents will go to court to challenge the injunction that has moved them from in front of the school gates. daniela relph, bbc news. five teenagers arrested in connection with a homophobic attack on two women on a london night bus have been released on bail. a group of young men began harassing the women after discovering they were a couple and asked them to kiss while making sexual gestures. the suspects were questioned on suspicion of robbery and aggravated grievous bodily harm. a southampton theatre has been forced to cancel its last performances of a gay and lesbian play after some of the cast reported that they had been victims of a homophobic attack. two women actors say they were verbally abused and one was struck in the face with a flying object as they made their way to the nuffield theatre at southampton university yesterday. the police are now investigating, as roger finn reports.

two actors, who are also partners, pausing before they leave southampton after what they say was a shocking ordeal. yesterday morning, they were on their way to the nuffield theatre on the university campus where they were due to perform in the award—winning comedy rotterdam. they say they were kissing when a car drew up. we kissed once, and i saw the car approaching out of my eye. and then we kissed again. you know, like, you kiss and you laugh, and you kiss again. and then they shouted something out of the window, and i felt something hit my face, but i was turned this way. i felt it hit my face, it knocked me down, and i could hear laughing because the car window was down as they were driving off. it was obviously quite upsetting because i didn't really know what happened. i heard some shouts, and then luce was in pain and on the floor — and, like, was struggling to breathe properly, and i was trying to calm her down. i heard boys' voices — young boys' voices — and then, laughing as they were going off.

not really sure why they were laughing. it's not really funny to do that. the play they're in is described as a queer love story which explores issues of gender and sexuality. we're just people. we're just two people looking for happiness, like everybody else is, so i don't really understand why we were met with aggression from strangers to strangers. and now some pictures of a baby elephant. here she is, taking herfirst steps at a zoo in belgium. she's only a few hours old here and hasn't been given a name. it wasn't long until the calf was up on herfeet with help from her mum and getting used to her new surroundings. asian elephants are critically endangered with just 38,000 left in the world.

now it's time for a look at the weather with chris fawkes. today has been a day of sunshine and showers. for the most part, the showers. for the most part, the showers will fade away as we go on through the night. the weather will become dry to many of us but later on in the night cloud will thicken, outbreaks of rain will spread into east anglia and south—east england and will turn heavier, a sign of the weather to come. 0ver and will turn heavier, a sign of the weather to come. over the next few days, a real clash of their mass is taking place, warm moist air moving from north africa and the mediterranean colliding with cooler fresher air. and it is those contrasts that will power a very active weather front, contrasts that will power a very active weatherfront, bringing heavy rain to eastern areas of england as we head into monday. the amount of rain variable but some areas up to 60 millimetres of rain. there is a risk of some localised flooding. through the day, that rain will push

towards western parts of england and wales. bright with sunshine and a few passing showers, but the rain could ring localised flooding issues through the day. hello this is bbc news. the headlines. michael gove acknowledges he committed a crime when he took cocaine while working as a journalist 20 years ago. yes, it was a crime, it was a mistake. i deeply regret it. violence flares at a huge protest in hong kong — against a new law that would allow suspected criminals to be extradited to china. 130 firefighters tackle a blaze at a block of flats in east london — two people have been taken to hospital with minor injuries so i picked up my sons and my missus, and wejust ran — just ran out. and as we came out the front door, behind us was the most raging fire i've ever — scariest thing i've ever seen.

and england hang on to beat scotland 2—1 — in the women's world cup. now on bbc news. we follow three hundred veterans as they board a ship to return to the d—day beaches in normandy — in ‘d—day 75: return to the beaches'. it's a duty to go back, it is, i feel it's a duty to go back. what these men did on d—day was the most important moment — just that one d—day — in the whole war. injune 19114, allied forces invaded nazi—occupied france, marking the beginning of the end of hitler's domination of europe. 75 years on, we follow a group of five veterans as they return to the beaches for what could be

the last time.