you're watching bbc newsroom live. it's ham, these are the main stories this morning: the health secretary, matt hancock drops out of the conservative leadership race. so far, he hasn't said which of the remain six he will give his backing to. the party clearly is looking for a candidate to deal with the here and now. i very much put myself forward as the candidate focused on the future. and so i've decided to withdraw from the race. two years on from the grenfell tower fire, survivors and relatives of the 72 dead come together to remember the tragedy. it is very hard to believe it has happened. even though you know and you have seen death certificates and everything else,

you find it very hard to accept. this is the scene in st helen's church in west london, where a memorial service is about to get underway. the us releases video which it says proves iran was behind attacks on two tankers in the gulf of oman. hundreds of passengers are rescued from a train overnight after heavy rain caused a landslide and widespread flooding in northamptonshire. so easy, a man can do it. a ban on offensive gender stereotypical adverts comes into force from today. good morning. welcome to bbc newsroom live,

i'm carrie gracie. we start this hour with some breaking news, that the conservative leadership candidate matt hancock has pulled out of the race to become tory party leader and prime minister. let's go straight to our political correspondent helena wilkinson in westminster. what reason is he giving? what the health secretary is saying is that he pitched himself in this campaign as somebody who wanted to look at the future of the conservative party, but he very much realises now that what people do want is somebody for the here and now, in other words, somebody who is able to deal with brexit. he has been mulling over sense that secret vote and the results of that ballot of the first round yesterday, matt hancock got 20 mps backing him in that vote. if you compare it to borisjohnson, who was well ahead of the other candidates

at 114, matt well ahead of the other candidates at 11a, matt hancock realising that it would be a huge struggle for him to continue on into the second round. we had a lunchtime deadline where candidates had to say whether they wanted to continue into the second round of voting, which takes place on tuesday, but confirmation 110w place on tuesday, but confirmation now from matt hancock that he is pulling out of the race to become the next conservative leader and the next prime minister. we can hear a bit more of what he had to say to oui’ bit more of what he had to say to our deputy political editor. i've tried to make the argument about the values that the conservative party needs to hold dear, free enterprise and support for a free society and being open and optimistic and enthusiastic about the future. but the party clearly is looking for a candidate to deal with the here and now. i very much put myself forward as the candidate focused on the future. and

so candidate focused on the future. and so i've decided to withdraw from the race and instead, see how best i can advance those values within the party, and the big and difficult task we have ahead. confirmation from matt hancock that he is pulling out of the race, he has decided not to continue on into the next round of the voting, which ta kes pla ce the next round of the voting, which takes place on tuesday, very much saying there that he realises that what people want is somebody for here and now, in other words, brexit. has he given any indication of where he intends to place his vote and whether that is in any way a guide to the 20 people who supported him yesterday? we don't know yet, and he has said in that interview that he hasn't decided yet who he will support. you would expect that matt hancock's phone might be ringing at the moment, many of the under candidates —— other candidates might be calling him to coax him, to encourage him to

support some of the other candidates. we don't know who he will endorse yet, and also, his supporters as well, who will they back? who will they back in this conservative leadership race? don't forget, three candidates dropped out yesterday, mark harper, andrea leadsom and esther mcvey. where will their supporters go? the numbers are very unclear at the moment, what is very unclear at the moment, what is very clear is that borisjohnson is the frontrunner, with 114 people, mps, backing him. there is a huge amount of pressure on borisjohnson at the moment to take part in a televised debate. we heard from jeremy hunt, the foreign secretary, on the today programme, saying that he thought boris johnson on the today programme, saying that he thought borisjohnson should be a little bit braver and be a bit more transparent, so there are critics of borisjohnson transparent, so there are critics of boris johnson and the transparent, so there are critics of borisjohnson and the pressure is growing on him to be more public

about his policies and what he stands for. you are talking about a lunchtime deadline for candidates to decide what they were going to do, do you expect any others to pull out by lunchtime? there haven't been any rumours, we don't think so at this stage. but who knows? somebody else could pull out, but what we expect this to do is to speed up the process. what happens next in this process. what happens next in this process is on tuesday, the second round of voting will take place. the six candidates who remain are now have to get the backing of many more mps, have to get the backing of many more mp5, 32 mp5 have to get the backing of many more mps, 32 mps they need to get in the next round. so, on thursday, some more votes on wednesday, then on thursday, we expect to have the final two candidates. don't forget, it will be up to the tory party members across the country, around 160,000 or so of them, and it will be up to them who will decide who

the next conservative leader is and the next conservative leader is and the prime minister. you will keep us posted, i know, thank you. memorial services and vigils are getting under way to mark the second anniversary of the grenfell tower fire in which 72 people died. two years on from the disaster, three—quarters of tall buildings with cladding categorised as unsafe still haven't had it removed or modified. the latest government figures suggest work hasn't yet started on more than half of those buildings, many of them privately owned. out of 328 buildings in england that still have aluminium composite material cladding, 221 buildings are awaiting work to start. these include private, social housing, student accommodation, hotels and public buildings. we will have more on all of that in a moment. 0ur correspondent richard galpin

is in kensington in west london. he is outside saint helen's church, where the services taking place this morning to remember those who lost their lives two years ago. tell us more about service, richard. as you say, it has literallyjust got under way in the last few moments, and it is bringing together the survivors, the families of those killed, bringing them together and very much about remembrance. 0bviously, at this very emotional time. there will also be members of the community here, politicians, government politicians are here, sadiq khan, the mayor of london, all attending this service on the second anniversary. of course, it will be very emotionalfor anniversary. of course, it will be very emotional for many people here. even more for someone very emotional for many people here. even more for someone who wasn't in the building at the time, but lost six members of his family in the fire. for him and many others, these

anniversaries are extremely important. it's to make sure that they are never forgotten. but it is also to show that we will give our prayers to all of the 72 members, getting the community all together, um, and ensuring that we will stick by each other, year after year until we get the justice and what we are looking for. you don't believe it has happened, you can't believe because it's hard. it's very hard to believe that it has happened. even though you know, and you see the death certificates and everything else, you find it very hard to accept, to believe. you know, it's not... it happened, you know it happened, but you don't believe it. and you don't want to accept it. but you have to accept it. so you're kind of in

that limbo situation. the thoughts of one man two years on. coming back to the cladding, it has been very controversial. as i said a moment ago, there are still a lot of buildings with dangerous material on them. absolutely, i think it is really shocking that two yea rs think it is really shocking that two years on, they are saying there are more than 200 high—rise buildings in england where they still have this highly dangerous cladding on them. that affects tens of thousands of people who are right now living in apartments which potentially could go apartments which potentially could 9° up apartments which potentially could go up in flames. it is really shocking that that has happened. the government is saying it has put £600 million to try and get this cladding removed, but it is taking a long

time. i think part of the reason is when these apartment blocks are owned by private owners, and it gets sticky then about who will pay for removing this cladding, will it be those owners or the tenants in those flats we will come back to you shortly, richard, for more on that memorial service. well, the fire brigades union is launching a campaign today, calling for urgent action on a range of fire and building safety issues. matt wrack, who's general secretary of the fbu, told the bbc more needs to be done to prevent another grenfell tragedy. we believe that the action to address it is far too slow, and not sufficient. so we have set out a series of calls, such as the removal of cladding, such as the investment to allow the fire service to undertake inspections and to train up and to reverse the loss of a specialist fire safety officers.

listening to tenants, clearly a factor — seems to have been a key factor in ignoring people at grenfell, and also in the barking fire. the people living in tower blocks are being ignored by their landlords or by the building owners. a government spokesperson from the ministry of housing, communities and local government said...

let's go back to that breaking news — that the conservative leadership candidate matt hancock has pulled out of the race to become tory party leader and prime minister. helena wilkinson is in westminster. what more can you say? we had expected matt hancock to confirm that he was going to be pulling out of the next round of the conservative party contest, he came sixth in that ballot yesterday, and he got 20 mps backing him, but he very clearly was well behind boris johnson, of course, who was well ahead of the other candidates, he got 114 mps backing him, but matt hancock came sixth, got 20 backers, but he has confirmed that he has now decided to not continue, it would have been a struggle for him in the

next round, given that mps have to get 32 mps backing them. that probably would have been difficult for him to do and continue, so he has confirmed this morning. there was a lunchtime deadline for any candidates to make a decision, if they wanted to pull out of the next round, that they had to make that decision by lunchtime. the health secretary, matt hancock, saying in an interview that he was pulling out of that race and he said he pitched his campaign as someone who wanted to look at the future of the conservative party. he then said he very much realised that what people wa nted very much realised that what people wanted in a candidate and the next prime minister was for somebody to look at the here and now, in other words, for somebody to sort out brexit. we can now hear from the health secretary, matt hancock. what have you decided and why?”

have been incredibly encouraged and humbled by the amount of support that i have had in this campaign, andl that i have had in this campaign, and i have tried to make the argument about the values that the conservative party needs to hold dear, of free enterprise and support for a free society and being open and optimistic and enthusiastic about the future. the party clearly is looking for a candidate to deal with the here and now. i very much put myself forward as the candidate focused on the future. and so i've decided to withdraw from the race and instead, see how best i can advance those values within the party, and the big and difficult task we have ahead. obviously a great disappointing to have to pull out in this way. naturally, you enter these contests in order to win, andl enter these contests in order to win, and i have also tried to make

that happen on the values that i ca re that happen on the values that i care about, and really making the argument about the things that matter. the conservative party always needs to be pro—business, pro—enterprise, and i think that i have been winning that argument and more or other candidates are starting to say these things. we need to be open and attracting vote rs need to be open and attracting voters from the centre ground, vote rs voters from the centre ground, voters who might be for other parties, like thinking about voting for the labour party and lib dems. now, the other candidates are also making those arguments. i feel like i have been winning arguments, but it is also clear that where i have put myself forward as a candidate focused on the future, the party's understandably focus on the here and now, and how we get through brexit in the next few months. so i've decided to withdraw from the contest andl decided to withdraw from the contest and i will be looking at howl decided to withdraw from the contest and i will be looking at how i can make those values sing and make sure

the party encapsulates the values that are so important. who will you endorse now? 0r that are so important. who will you endorse now? or will you back?” that are so important. who will you endorse now? or will you back? i am talking to all the other candidates, and i'm setting out clearly in the campaign and now, as i withdraw, what really matters, in terms of being pro—business and pro—enterprise, and a politics that brings people together, and i will be talking to all the other candidates about how they can do that. what should the party focus on with their values as it decides who to back from here on?” with their values as it decides who to back from here on? i will be focusing on my dayjob as being health secretary, and also, on making sure that in this context, it is the ideas of being aspirational, entrepreneurial, pro—enterprise, pro—business mother of really valuing every individual in society and having policies to support people to make the most of their

lives. these are the things that i really care about and that is what i will focus on. when it comes to europe, from everything you have said, the party should not look towards someone who is in anyway enthusiastic or unaware of the dangers of leaving without a deal, that would be a big warning of yours? i have always been clear that the big risk in parliament, which i made perfectly obvious in the past that it would stop a no—deal brexit, we need to deliver brexit, and the best way to do that is with a deal. i have made that case pretty strongly over the past few weeks in this context, and indeed over the past few months and years since the referendum. i look forward to supporting the party, in order to try to do that and to deliver brexit, and then we can move forward. so you will urge the party on that, to look away from the candidates, boris johnson, dominic raab, who say they will leave on

0ctober raab, who say they will leave on october the 31st, deal or no—deal? raab, who say they will leave on october the sist, deal or no—deal?|i am not saying anything about the other candidates, there are admirable qualities to all of my colleagues who are running. i have always been clear that the party needs to come together, the government needs to come together, ultimately, the country needs to come together after this contest, and we need to look forward. i will think about how best we can advance the values that i care so much about, andl the values that i care so much about, and i will make a comment about, and i will make a comment about how to do that in the days to come. you would say it would be wrong to look at leaving on the 31st of october, deal or no—deal, come what may, you would say that would be the wrong way to go and would you urge the party to look away from that option? i have always made the case that the risk that was demonstrated before the 29th of march, when we were meant to leave, the risk is that parliament stops that from happening, that has always been my argument. i have then tried

to make the case about what we need to make the case about what we need to be doing in the future, and where we need to be going as a country, making sure that post—brexit britain is open and international and engaged with the whole world, and a bastian of enterprise and supporting people to meet their aspirations. but the most important thing for you would be to get a deal, for as long as that necessarily takes?” would be to get a deal, for as long as that necessarily takes? i think the best way to deliver brexit is with a deal on the slst of october, meeting our commitments to deliver the results of the referendum, in a way that supports the economy and supports people. we can then move forward. if it takes longer than that, for you, then so be it?” forward. if it takes longer than that, for you, then so be it? i will not go back on anything i said in the campaign, i made my case clearly. the thing i really stood

for in the campaign was trying to cast list contest forward. it is clear that the party is trying to concentrate on what we should do here and now. just a final thought on the magnitude of the choice now facing the conservative party and the country, the implications for the country, the implications for the country. we are at a moment of risk, possibly of danger, edifying moment. we stand at a defining moment. we stand at a defining moment in our country's history, thatis moment in our country's history, that is absolutely true. i am clear about how we need to get through it. we need to deliver brexit and then we need to cast forward and try to bring the country together. that is the goal. is there a moment of risk or danger? would that be fair? the goal. is there a moment of risk or danger? would that be fair7m the goal. is there a moment of risk or danger? would that be fair? it is an incredibly important moment to get right, and it is also very difficult. i'm very clear about the

values that i have promoted and want to promote. i think they are very important for the party, but also very important for the country and it is about bringing the country together. ultimately, we also need here in parliament, the conservative party to come together after this, because that is the best way to deliver for our constituents, for the citizens of this country. the debates coming up will be important, whatever happens, what would you say about boris johnson's apparent relu cta nce about boris johnson's apparent reluctance to commit? i've said all along that all the contestants should be in the tv debates, i think there should be scrutiny, and because of the nature of this contest, it isn'tjust to be the leader of the conservative party, it is to be the next prime minister. that scrutiny is important. what does it say about boris johnson that

he hasn't committed ? does it say about boris johnson that he hasn't committed? as i say, i think all the contestants should put themselves forward for scrutiny. so, matt hancock withdrawing from the race, meaning it takes the number of candidates from seven down to six. the voting, the next round of votes takes place next tuesday, and there has been a bit of reaction to matt hancock's announcement that he is withdrawing from that race from damian green, the former de fa cto from damian green, the former de facto deputy, saying, i am proud to have supported matt hancock and the values he stands for, he will be a great prime minister one day. meanwhile, to all candidates, until monday, do not disturb. i think what many people now are looking towards are those television debates, you just heard there are, there is growing pressure on borisjohnson to ta ke growing pressure on borisjohnson to take part in the debate. sources close to borisjohnson say take part in the debate. sources close to boris johnson say that take part in the debate. sources close to borisjohnson say that it is being considered, he hasn't yet confirmed that he will be taking place, but we heard earlierfrom the

foreign secretary, jeremy hunt, on the today programme, saying that he wa nted the today programme, saying that he wanted boris johnson the today programme, saying that he wanted borisjohnson to be a little bit braver. he said, what would churchill say if someone wanted to be prime minister? and they were hiding away from the media? a lot of pressure building on borisjohnson to ta ke pressure building on borisjohnson to take part in those televised debates. thank you forjoining us. iran says it denies being behind two oil tank attacks. the type of weapons used indicated that iranian forces were involved. speaking on state radio in the last few hours, an iranian foreign ministry spokesman said...

this is the second such attack on tankers, using these strategically important waterways, which separates iran from the arabian peninsula. crude oil prices have risen in response and gareth barlow has the latest. crewmembers from the targeted tankers appearing on iranian state tv. one after another, they tell the camera, they have hosted us really well, everyone has taken care of us. a narrative iran will be keen to promote, as it denies any involvement in the attacks. a narrative strongly opposed by the united states, which has released footage it claims shows iran's military removing a mine from the side of one of the tankers. the united states assesses that iran is responsible for these attacks. no proxy group in the area has the resources or skill to act with this level of sophistication. iran, however, has the weapons, the expertise and the requisite intelligence information to pull this off.

as both sides promote their version of events, iranian state tv broadcast these images, reportedly showing a rescue boat tackling a fire on the norwegian tanker. wrapped in flames, one of the two vessels hit by a blast on thursday morning, as tensions between washington and tehran continue to rise following the collapse of the iranian nuclear deal. there isn't absolute evidence at this point. but we can assume the most likely suspect, which is probably hardline elements inside iran, or those operating outside, that want to make sure that there are not negotiations that are renewed between the united states and iran. the straits of hormuz are critically important for the world's oil supply, and also for both sides. as iran uses the power of its press and possible political factions, america is flexing the power of its planes. both countries say they don't want war, but both do want the upper hand.

hundreds of passengers have been rescued from a train in northamptonshire overnight, after a landslide caused by heavy rain blocked the tracks. up to 20 flood warnings are in place across england and wales. in lincolnshire, raf helicopter crews worked through the night to repair a river which had burst its banks. one of the county's top police officers described the situation as one of the most challenging emergencies he's ever seen. charlotte simpson reports. passengers finally led to safety after almost eight hours stranded on the tracks. emergency services worked late into the night to rescue around 500 people on board this east midlands train from nottingham to london. the trouble began when the 14:34 service was derailed by a landslide near corby in northamptonshire. a second train which came to rescue them then also got trapped by floodwater. they did have about 25,

30 network rail staff trying to dig through the landslide to make sure the ballast on the track was safe and we could go through but, in the end, they made the safety decision to say, "no, we're going to take you off the train." in lincolnshire, the raf has been working throughout the night after the river steeping broke its banks, causing severe flooding in the village of wainfleet. the town received more than two months rain in two days, forcing over 100 people to leave their homes. lincolnshire police described it as one of the most challenging emergencies the county has faced in recent times. elsewhere, downpours continue to cause disruption in north wales, where the river alyn burst its banks on wednesday, while parts of shropshire have seen 16 inches of rainfall. despite the heavy rain, the met office says this month still has some way to go before it overtakes the uk's wettestjune when 149 millimetres of rain fell in 2012. the environment agency has issued up

to 20 flood warnings across england and wales, with more wet weather forecast for today. charlotte simpson, bbc news. let's talk to elliot gardner. he was on that train that became stranded in northamptonshire. he was travelling with his girlfriend and only got home at around 3am this morning. yes, so, we set off early afternoon, and the journey lasted a lot longer than we expected. we were static for about 6—7 hours. we were on the original train coming from london, which got stuck. the second train... we reported that it had come to rescue us, but we were just told it was going in the direction. several of the arrows were working out how to get onto the second train. we we re to get onto the second train. we were one by one led over a small

gangway onto this other train. our train was relatively full, theirs was very full. there was no seating, it was incredibly overcrowded. where people concerned, was their information from east midlands rail? did you feel that the situation was under control and being well—managed ? under control and being well-managed? there wasn't a lot of information that we received, no. we had frequent thai noise from the train staff, but we got impression that they didn't have information themselves. we were in an area without a lot of signal between stations, was so we couldn't really check phones, we could just about get a few phone calls out. they were in the same position. i'm sure they did the best they could, but it was just an irregular situation. the second train was so crowded, it got to the point where passengers were

being ill, paramedics had to board, and they had trouble making their way to their passengers. it was so crowded. towards the beginning of the first train stopping, we got handed out some water and biscuits. that was quite early on in the first couple of hours, several hours later, we were still alone, unless you had provisions for you for the journey, you are left hungry and thirsty, i'm afraid. presumably, i'm just thinking about the toilet facilities on the train with this hugely overcrowded train with basically two trainers of passengers on it. yeah, thankfully, everyone on board was quite polite with each other. we knew we were in at the same position so we were quite good at getting people to the actual to i lets. at getting people to the actual toilets. it was just so crowded. a lot of the people who were stuck in the middle of cars, it was so hot, there was no ventilation, it was an

old train with windows and no air conditioning. it was a tricky situation for everyone involved. i think the passengers, we all stuck together, everyone was quite good at keeping each other can't. that is often the case that people, the public in these situations behaved with great dignity and calm and manage each other‘s alarm. whether moments when you did feel alarmed your physical safety? not at all. if anything, we were just very bored with the amount of time we had to spend sitting around, standing around. they always assured us that safety was paramount. but we didn't ever seem in any unsafe situations at all. the only problem was when we had to come to evacuate the train, a lot of people were told to leave their luggage behind. if anything, their luggage behind. if anything, the troubles came after we left the train. several people were told to

leave anything that wasn't essential, that included, for some people, i saw young mothers with small children in their arms who had to leave baby clothes, prams, they we re to leave baby clothes, prams, they were stranded with nothing to clothe their children. a lot of people are going to download festival, they had no clothes for the weekend and no way to get them. we were told on the tannoy that we would get the, that they would get their luggage back, i don't know whether they did or not. people we saw online were stranded at 2am with no hotels in the middle of nowhere. we were quite lucky that we managed to get on the train to sheffield and, through twitter, arranged a taxi with east midlands. but a lot of people were very confused and had no access to internet and couldn't do that. there was a train sorted to go back to london because the second train that we boarded was set to go down south. but a lot of people going up north did not have information about how to get to their destination. we will

leave it there but thank you very much for describing that challenging night that you had. i'm glad that you got home in at the end and i hope everyone else did too. take care. are pretty tired, but thanks. lets ta ke care. are pretty tired, but thanks. lets take a look at the weather and see what that rain is doing for us today. after all of that rainfall and that horrendous flooding that we have seen over the last few days, the forecast today is a bit more promising for many of us. finally, for a lot of us, we will see more sunshine, that has been in short supply over the last few days. that was in kentjust a short time ago. we will see sunny spells develop in quite widely across england and wales will stop still some showers across central, south—western areas and north—east loving and throughout this afternoon. still some showers for scotla nd afternoon. still some showers for scotland and northern ireland. in between the showers, there will be some sunshine. in the sunshine, it will feel quite pleasant with

maximum temperatures of 17 or 19 degrees. through tonight, there is a bit more rain than forecast, not just tomorrow but for the weekend. the rain spread into western areas during saturday morning. it will push its way further eastward, may be some sunny spells either side of that. by sunday, a mixture of sunny spells and showers will stop temperatures are starting to rise. in the sunshine over the weekend, it will certainly feel much warmer. hello this is bbc newsroom live. the health secretary, matt hancock, drops out of the conservative leadership race. so far, he hasn't said which of the remaining six candidates he will give his backing to. two years on from the grenfell tower fire, survivors and relatives of the 72 dead come together today to remember the tragedy.

the us releases video which it says proves iran was behind attacks on two tankers in the gulf of oman. it claims that iran's revolutionary guards can be seen removing an unexploded mine from the side of one of the vessels. sport now. good morning. play is back on at the cricket world cup after a rain—affected thursday. and it's a great match—up as england face west indies at the hampshire bowl. england won the toss and chose to field. let's catch up on the latest with our sports correspondent, joe wilson. things are starting well? it has been a good morning for england. a fascinating one for mark would in particular. yesterday, glenn said he would have a sore ankle and would not play. he must have had a spring in his step. chris gayle boomed one

of his drives, mis—hit it into the hampshire sky. there was mark wood underneath it, but he dropped it. he had made 15, and to drop chris gayle can be very costly. on this occasion, he only got the 36 when england did dismiss him. liam plunkett, the bowler, caught behind. then mark wood came back into the attack and took a wicket, the third wa nt to attack and took a wicket, the third want to fall today. hope gone for a painstaking 11. that made it 55—3. i think england have taken advantage, taking the toss and deciding to bowl. making the most of cloudy overhead conditions here on the south coast will stop the biggest news is the most obvious one, it is not to repeat, not raining. there's an equally important day at another world cup. this time it's football and the women's world cup in france. scotland take onjapan today.

knowing they need a good result, for a much needed boost their hopes of progressing in the tournament, after defeat to england in their opening game. we're having a fantastic time. it's our first world cup. we don't want it to be an isolated case. we want scottish teams to be competing on the world stage and the european stage on a regular basis. to do that, we need to be successful so, again, it's been a great experience but it can be even better if you win games. that's all the sport for now. i'll have more for you in the next hour. inaccurate preconceptions about gender should not be reinforced in advertising. it is phrases like

this, stereotypes like this, goes to bally while boys do maths. and offensive preconceptions, women unable to handle diy tasks, that could find themselves in trouble. women, don't expect any help on a thursday. the print and online are covered too, so ads like this, think like a covered too, so ads like this, think likea man covered too, so ads like this, think like a man if you want to be a boss or this one... they will be under the spotlight. the asa wants to prevent stereotypes that pressurise women into acting in a particular way thanks, beautiful. you're welcome. how can such a beautiful wife make such bad coffee? things have slowly changed since the early days of advertising. have slowly changed since the early days of advertisinglj have slowly changed since the early days of advertising. i hardly ever buy fairy liquid. i hardly ever buy fairy liquid. but this is the first

time that proper guidelines have come into force to tackle the harm potentially caused by gender stereotypes. we have some breaking news on the wikileaks founder, julian assigns. a britishjudge news on the wikileaks founder, julian assigns. a british judge at a hearing this morning has set february next year, fabry 2020 for the extradition hearing for the wikileaks the extradition hearing for the wikilea ks founder to the the extradition hearing for the wikileaks founder to the united states on a us request. mrjulian assange, who spoke to the court via video link, told the court 175 years of my life are effectively at stake. he defended his website against hacking claims are saying that wikileaks is hacking claims are saying that wikilea ks is nothing hacking claims are saying that wikileaks is nothing but a publisher. the court heard that he has a date at the court of appeal with his legal team later explained that he is to appeal against his

sentence. that, iassume, it is that he is to appeal against his sentence. that, i assume, it is not clear of this copy from the court, but i assume that is an appeal against the 50 week sentence that he had or skipping bail in 2012. we will bring you more on that when we get it from the court. white house press secretary, sarah sanders, is leaving her post. announcing her departure, president trump said she was a "warrior" and a "special woman". for the past two years, ms sanders has had a combative relationship with the media, who have accused her of lying repeatedly. she hasn't spoken to them much recently — her last press briefing at the white house was three months ago. our north america correspondent chris buckler reports. for much of this presidency, sarah sanders has been the face of the white house, often the person left to defend the words of america's outspoken commander—in—chief. we've been through a lot together, and she's tough, but she's good.

as the press secretary for a president who dismissed most of the media as fake news, or something worse, herjob was rarely easy... the president of the united states should not refer to us as the enemy of the people. ..particularly in the often hostile white house briefing room. i have addressed this question. i have addressed my personal feelings. i'm here to speak on behalf of the president, he's made his comments clear. but the special counsel, robert mueller, revealed in his report into allegations of electoral interference and obstruction ofjustice that sarah sanders admitted to lying from the podium when she claimed that fbi agents had contacted her to support president trump's firing of the agency's then—director, james comey. the rank—and—file of the fbi had lost confidence in their director. over time, there were fewer and fewer press briefings. the last one was more than three months ago. but sarah sanders has remained a close advisor to the president, putting her family in the fire of his critics. and i'm never really sure what to call sarah huckabee sanders...

perhaps most notoriously, she was mercilessly attacked by the comedian michelle wolf at the white house correspondents' dinner. what's uncle tom, but for white women who disappoint other white women? from a very political family, she always attempted to show the sometimes savage criticism didn't get to her. however, at times she couldn't help but show emotion, most notably when talking about a mass shooting in las vegas that left dozens dead. the memory of those who displayed the ultimate expression of love in the midst of an unimaginable act of hate will never fade. in a tweet announcing her departure, president trump said he hoped she would follow her father, mike huckabee, in running to become the governor of her home state of arkansas. but, for the moment, she has another priority. i have three amazing kids, and i'm going to spend a little more time with them. and, in the meantime, i'm going to continue to be one of the most outspoken and loyal

supporters of the president and his agenda. although, if sarah sanders has learnt anything from being this president's spokesperson, it's that he likes to speak for himself. a nationwide women's strike takes place in switzerland today with demonstrations across the country. marches were held 28 years ago for pay equality but campaigners say little has changed and discrimination in the workplace still exists. imogen foulkes reports from berne. 14june 1991, 500,000 swiss women took to the streets to protest against inequality. they had no right to maternity leave, and not a single woman in the swiss government. dore heim was there.

1991 was a real big bang. i think it was like a wake—up call for our collectives, and since then, i think it was like a wake—up call for our politics, and since then, we have achieved a lot. we have more women being politicians, we have more laws for women, for example paid maternity leave. so that day, almost 30 years ago, did achieve some things. but for a century, swiss women have complained that equality is moving at a snail‘s pace. they didn't even get the vote until 1971. today, combining work and family remains a huge challenge. swiss women earn an average of 20% less than men. for pensions, the gap is 37%. that's why women not even born in the last strike are preparing for another one, and hoping for a change. there are so many things i wish could be achieved after this strike. one is, like, equal pay for equal work, less discrimination in the workplace,

and also in everyday life, just because of your gender. hundreds of thousands of women are expected out on the streets for the strike, and swiss employers are taking a relaxed attitude. no—one is expected to be penalised for leaving work. the question really is what will change in the long—term, especially around that pay gap? in a moment we'll have all the business news, but first the headlines on bbc news. the health secretary, matt hancock, drops out of the conservative leadership race. so far, he hasn't said which of the remaining six candidates he will give his backing to. two years on from the grenfell tower fire, survivors and relatives of the 72 dead come together today to remember the tragedy. the us releases video which it says proves iran was behind attacks on two tankers in the gulf of oman.

now the business news. a ban on adverts featuring "harmful gender stereotypes" or those which are likely to cause "serious or widespread offence" has come into force. the ban covers scenarios such as a man with his feet up while a woman cleans, or a woman failing to park a car. more in a moment. the price of oil has continued to rise following a spike of more than 4% yesterday, after explosions damaged two tankers off the coast of iran. us secretary of state mike pompeo has called them ‘the latest in a series of attacks' by iran. attacks which iran has categorically denied. construction firm kier has seen its share price fall by more than 11% this morning. the fall comes after reports in the times that it's looking at selling its house—building division for between £100

million and £150 million. analysts have said that "at face value", the amount of £100 million to £150 million would be "disappointing". brexit uncertainty, although weighing on both business and consumer sentiment, may not damage the uk economy as much as expected, according to the institute of chartered accountants in england and wales. in its latest economic forecast, the icaew believes that the economy should be able to bear the burden of continued uncertainty and highlights the role consumers, businesses, and policy makers have had in insulating the economy from political uncertainty in the past. explain to me exactly how you come about with this figure and with your forecast in the survey. we have 153,000 members in senior business positions all around the world in

something like 125 thousand businesses delete or visit them as are in the uk. they have a thing on the pulse of business. they make investment decisions for the future, they have a good sense of what might be going on. as a result of that strong talking to our members, we are upgrading our economic forecast of 2019 from 1.3% to 1.5%. as you said, thinking that the uk economy can wear that uncertainty caused by brexit. so how do you come to the conclusion that prolonged uncertainty which normally one would suspect is not good for anything or anybody has less of a negative impact than previously thought?” wouldn't want to underestimate the importance of that certainty and how it can drag down business sentiment, investment decisions, and the overall forecast for the uk economy. but what i would suggest is that the underlying strength of the uk economy, we are the fifth largest in the world, and some of the events that are going on and the characteristics at the moment in terms of higher pay growth, the

growth of wages is exceeding. record levels of employment, that means that people they think we will be able to stand this such as a no deal. that is what i want to bring m, deal. that is what i want to bring in, you have said in a survey that as long as there is not a no deal, then your forecast will remain less negative than previously thought.” don't know what the circumstances are with regards to a no deal, i don't know the pub ability of that, i don't think anybody does. but i think if we have a no deal, it is a whole different ball game. you can't find a mentally altar your trading and regular tory arrangements with your largest trading neighbour and go live on day one without any real testing without having a real negative impact on your economic forecasts. we would suggest that, in the event of a no deal, as i said, i have no inside knowledge about what the probably tee off that is, that you would see a real dampener of economic growth in the last two

months of 2019 and extending well into 2020. what is the role of policymakers in all this? they can help mitigate some of the negative impacts. policymakers are vital in this. i would draw your attention to the firm and clear leadership provided by the bank of england in the immediate aftermath of the eu referendum decision. they reduced interest rates, they promised liquidity into the markets, and he really avoided capital flight. liquidity into the markets, and he really avoided capitalflight. i think it is fair to say that the bank of england really did help avoid recession in the aftermath of june 2016. we need a similar situation from both regulators, central banks like the bank of england and the government in the event of the next two months. good to talk to you. let's take a look at what is happening in the markets. at the moment, the london market is down 49 points. more business from

my colleague jamie down 49 points. more business from my colleaguejamie throughout down 49 points. more business from my colleague jamie throughout the afternoon. research from america suggests people who strike up conversations with strangers on public transport have a significantly happier time than those who don't, according to new research. as part of the bbc‘s ‘crossing divides' season, which aims to bring people together, john maguire has been to see if making small talk can really improve our mood. at least the sun is out. i just want to sit outside at a cafe or something. we may warn our children of stranger danger, but the idea here is for adults to build bridges by talking to someone they've never met before. and researchers at the university of essex have been doing exactly that. we're filming from a distance so as not to affect the experiment. we want to know if people are willing to talk to strangers and make conversations, because it's not usual that a stranger will come up to you and talk to you about something random. after the conversation, jessica writes up findings. i have to estimate how happy

they are to talk to me and i have to report how happy i am to talk to them. are you a chatty person? do you strike up conversations with strangers normally? when i get on ijust talk to anybody, everybody. they always talk to me. people are generally quite friendly. in the day i was a nurse. that's pretty much what nurses do, communicate, so. as part of the bbc‘s crossing divides initiatives, aimed at forging links across disparate groups, the scientists have developed an app. you can play along, too, on your smartphone. download goosechase and then look for the game crossing divides bbc. and up pops an entire list of people you might like to strike up a conversation with. baggage — find someone who's carrying loads of bag, blue mood — someone who seems to be sad, or bossy pants — find someone who looks like a leader and talk to them for a few minutes. you can then input the data about your conversation, that helps the university and it

makes for good citizen science. the aim is to break down barriers, learn something new starting with a blank canvas and exploring the art of conversation. john maguire, bbc news, colchester. keep an eagle eye out forjohn maguire, he is always worth talking to. one of the most—watched items on the bbc news websites today features the actor keanu reeves — one of the latest hollywood superstars to lend his voice, face, and performance to a video game character. and he's been insisting gaming doesn't need legitimising. the star plastohnny silverhand in cyberpunk 2077, a futuristic action—adventure game which will be released next year. we have a city to burn. i'm kind of a guide, but i'm also... you have to do something, butjohnny wants to do something too.

and so there is this: am i your friend? am i yourfoe? am i really helping you, am i not helping you? are you in my way? do you think that having performers like yourself who can sell out hollywood theatres easily for the more traditional industries of movies and things like that, working in games helps legitimise it as something in the entertainment world? does it even need legitimising? yeah, i mean, iwould go with that thread. i don't think they need legitimising. if anything, i would say it has gone the other way. it is more of the influence gaming has had on, let's call it hollywood. certainly, with the marvel universe, right? but then gaming probably started in the beginning with hollywood, right. i think these technologies have been talking to each other. ithink, um,...

marlon brando in the first superman, i remember, you know, he was like... i'm not going to do brando! i thought you were going to do brando then! i almost went to do brando, and i'm not going to do brando! but i remember him saying like, "ok, so now they can just digitise how i am. and do another performance. i don't need to be there." that idea of the technology of image capture and performance, we are seeing in hollywood now so many performances where, you know, they are ageing or making other performers younger. so it is the elasticity of performance and time, what you look like and who you are that is getting kind of more complex. and also wider, right, the bandwidth performance. now it's time for a look at the weather.

i have some better news in the forecast, if you have been fed up of the rain that we have been experiencing over the last few days. it has been a rather wet start to the day. we have had this rain. but you can see from the radar image from earlier it tends to disappear, it is fizzling out. for the north of, we still have sites like this, a lot of cloud and outbreaks of rain. further south, a bit more in the wa ke further south, a bit more in the wake of sunshine starting to break through the cloud. thanks to our weather watcher in essex. we will continue with sunny spells developing across england and wales. there will still be showers which could be on the heavy side this afternoon. further north across scotla nd afternoon. further north across scotland and northern ireland, we continue with sunny spells and showers. let's take a look at the country around 4pm. a few showers around scotland with sunshine it will feel fairly pleasant. 16 degrees in glasgow. more showers to

come in northern ireland, the cloud increasing here this afternoon. sunny spells and showers for england and fairly well scattered. for many of us, it will stay dry with temperatures around 18 or 19 in the south east of eglin. we have the sunshine, blue skies, it will feel quite pleasant. we will continue with quite a bit of cloud. that will bring rain moving its way gradually eastward into the start of the weekend. overnight temperatures down between eight or 10 celsius. not particularly chilly in saturday morning. we will have this rain across northern ireland. it will move its way eastward into scotland, wales, and the south—west of england. as it moves eastward, it will break up and turn more showery across eastern parts into the afternoon. sunny spells either side of that. again, temperatures into the mid and high teens. low pressure is still in charge of the weather throughout the weekend. it is drifting its way further westward. having less of an influence, but still making things fairly unsettled throughout sunday. with that, we

will see a mixture of sunshine and showers will stop the showers merging to give longer spells of rain across scotland across the day. elsewhere, there should be a good deal of dry weather. those temperatures are creeping up a bit more, about 16 to about 20 degrees. the temperatures will continue to rise into next week. look at this, in london on tuesday we could see 25 or 26 degrees. from the outlook across the uk, there aren't too many of these rainy symbols, so the emphasis is that it is going to be much drier than it has been throughout this week. the temperatures for many of us will be mid to high teens or even 20s.

you're watching bbc newsroom live — these are today's main stories: the health secretary, matt hancock, drops out of the conservative leadership race, and declines to say, for now, which of the remaining candidates he will endorse. i have put myself forward as a candidate focused on the future. the party's understandably focused on the here and now and how we get through brexit in the next few months. and so i've decided to withdraw from the contest. two years on from the grenfell tower fire, survivors and relatives of the 72 dead come together to remember the tragedy. it is very hard to believe it has happened. even though you know and you have seen death certificates and everything else, you find it very hard to accept.

this is the scene in st helen's church in west london where a memorial service is taking place. the us releases video which it says proves iran was behind attacks on two tankers in the gulf of oman. hundreds of passengers are rescued from a train overnight after heavy rain caused a landslide and widespread flooding in northamptonshire. so easy, a man can do it. a ban on offensive gender stereotypical adverts comes into force from today. good morning. welcome to bbc newsroom live, i'm carrie gracie. one of the contenders to be conservative leader,

matt hancock has announced that he is pulling out of the race to become party leader and prime minister. the health secretary came sixth in the first round of the contest, with 20 votes. he has said that the party clearly is looking for a candidate to deal with the here and now and that he was a candidate focused on the future. his departure leaves six mps competing for the conservative leadership. mr hancock says he will talk to all of them before deciding who to support. the remaining candidates have signed a joint statement committing to televised debates, to try to put pressure on borisjohnson to join them. our political correspondent jonathan blake is in westminster for us now. tell us more about matt hancock's decision. well, ten became seven yesterday, and today, seven has become six, as matt hancock has clearly co m e become six, as matt hancock has clearly come to the view that clearly, afterfinishing in sixth place yesterday, with 20 votes from

conservative mps, he didn't have a hope of winning this contest and it was clearly better for him to withdraw in a dignified way at this stage, rather than being forced to pull out of the race or be eliminated from the contest went further votes are held next week. as you say, he pitched himself very much as a candidate for the future, and if we think back to his launch of his campaign last week, it had the feel of a tech start—up event prowess young entrepreneurs —— with young entrepreneurs in the audience, and him about being entrepreneurs and him about being entrepreneurs and looking to the future, saying the party needed to turn a page and look beyond brexit. he has said that whilst it was his message and one he believed in, the party, on the other hand, have been very clear and the results of the votes so far that they need a candidate to tackle the here and now. the party is clearly looking for a

candidate to deal with the here and now. i very much put myself forward asa now. i very much put myself forward as a candidate focused on the future, and so i have decided to withdraw from the race and instead, see how best i can advance those values within the party, and the big and difficult task that we have a head. a big decision to have to pull out in this way and disappointment. naturally, you enter these contests in orderto win, naturally, you enter these contests in order to win, and i naturally, you enter these contests in orderto win, and i have naturally, you enter these contests in order to win, and i have also tried to make that happen on the values that i care about, and making the argument about the things that matter. the conservative party always needs to be pro—business, pro—enterprise, and i think that i have been winning that argument and more and more other candidates are starting to say these things, and that we need to be open and attracting voters from the centre ground, voters who might vote for other parties, those who might think

about that voting for the labour party and the lib dems. now, other candidates are making those arguments. i feel like candidates are making those arguments. ifeel like i have been winning arguments, but it is also clear that where i had that myself forward as a candidate focused on the future, the party's understandably focused very much on the here and now and how we get through brexit in the next few months. so i have decided to withdraw from the contest, and i will be looking to howl withdraw from the contest, and i will be looking to how i can make those values sing and make sure the party encapsulates the values that are so party encapsulates the values that are so important. matt hancock there, speaking a while ago. no hint from him as to who he may support in the contest from here on. it is a bit of a come and get me a message from matt hancock to the others, making the point that he is open to persuasion from the other candidates in the race, in terms of who he and his supporters will back from now on. those that i have

contacted today are saying nothing about who they are prepared to back. there are 20 votes, those who supported matt hancock in the first round, they won't necessarily move asa round, they won't necessarily move as a block. if you look down the list of names who supported him, they don't necessarily feel like natural supporters of the front runner, boris johnson, but natural supporters of the front runner, borisjohnson, but we will have to see how the next round of voting goes. and what about the other candidates in the 20, is the pressure growing on them to follow what matt hancock does? yes, i think there is a feeling among conservative mps that this field needs to narrow relatively quickly, and there is a feeling amongst some that the campaigns need to come to an agreement and coalesce around a candidate who will face boris johnson in that final run—off. if things continue in the way they went

in the first secret ballot among tory mps, then it looks like boris johnson is a dead cert to be in the final two. it then comes down to who will face him. there is a tv debate on sunday, another one next week, and there are conservative party hustings being held in the meantime. the candidates will want to have their say and have an airing in those, but it may not be long now before we see campaigns working together and coming to an agreement about who will drop out and when, and who it is that faces boris johnson in the final run—off. the candidate closest to him, the foreign secretary, jeremy hunt, giving no suggestion that he is about to withdraw from the race, so, there may be more votes to come before this field is narrowed further. thank you, jonathan. memorial services and vigils are under way to mark the second anniversary of the grenfell tower fire in which 72 people died.

two years on from the disaster, three—quarters of tall buildings with cladding categorised as unsafe still haven't had it removed or modified. the latest government figures suggest work hasn't yet started on more than half of those buildings, many of them privately owned. out of 328 buildings in england that still have aluminium composite material cladding, 22! buildings are awaiting work to start. these include private, social housing, student accommodation, hotels and public buildings. a memorial service is under way at st helens church in kensington. music the service began with singing of the hymn, amazing grace.

the names of those who lost their lives at grenfell tower were then read out. london mayor sadiq khan also spoke at the memorial service — he paid tribute to the victims, and promised to ensure justice for those who lost their lives. those harrowed images of the building ablaze will forever be seared in all our minds. those of us not from this wonderful north kensington community will never really be able to fully grasp the toll it has inflicted upon many of

you. what we can do and what i'm determined to do is to continue to support you in any way we can, and help secure justice for your loved ones. i know many of you will never feel that you can truly rest until justice has been served. you are not alone in your struggle, we all stand with you, and we recognise that the best way to truly honour those who perished is not only to find out how this tragedy occurred and to ensure that justice is done, this tragedy occurred and to ensure thatjustice is done, but to make sure it can never ever happen again, and to fix the deep inequality that the grenfell tower fire exposed in our society. thank you. applause

well it's clearly a very emotional day for many people, including nabil choucair — who wasn't in the building at the time but lost six members of his family at the time. it's to make sure that they are never forgotten. but it is also to show that we will give our prayers to all of the 72 members, getting the community all together, um, and ensuring that we will stick by each other, year after year until we get the justice and what we are looking for. you don't believe it has happened, you can't believe because it's hard. it's very hard to believe that it has happened. even though you know, and you see the death certificates and everything else, you find it very hard to accept, to believe. you know, it's not...

it happened, you know it happened, but you don't believe it. and you don't want to accept it. but you have to accept it. so you're kind of in that limbo situation. well the fire brigades union is launching a campaign today, calling for urgent action on a range of fire and building safety issues. matt wrack, who's general secretary of the fbu, told the bbc more needs to be done to prevent another grenfell tragedy. we believe that the action to address it is far too slow, and not sufficient. so we have set out a series of calls, such as the removal of cladding, such as the investment to allow the fire service to undertake inspections and to train up and to reverse the loss of a specialist fire safety officers. listening to tenants, clearly a factor — seems to have been a key factor in ignoring people at grenfell, and also in the barking fire.

the people living in tower blocks are being ignored by their landlords or by the building owners. a government spokesperson from the ministry of housing, communities and local government said... that the service in saint helen's is still under way in west london to

remember those who lost their lives in the grenfell tower fire. more on today's main stories coming up on newsroom live here on the bbc news channel, but now we say goodbye to viewers on bbc two. the wikilea ks founder, julian assange, has appeared via video link at westminster magistrates for a case management hearing after the united states requested his extradition. the us wants mr assange to face trial on computer hacking charges and for distributing information related to national defence systems. our correspondent sangita myska is at westminster magistrates' court for us. tell us more of what we heard in court. let mejust tell us more of what we heard in court. let me just tell you first about the people behind me, you can see 50—100 of them this morning outside westminster magistrates' court, all here in support ofjulian assange. all of them claiming that

this extradition and the possible subsequent prosecution are politically motivated and a way for the us government to clamp down on free speech. so, what happened inside? well, julian assange appeared via video link at the court, that is because he is currently serving a 15 week sentence forjumping currently serving a 15 week sentence for jumping bail back currently serving a 15 week sentence forjumping bail back in 2012. he was told today that the next time he will appear in court will be in october, but he won't face a full extradition hearing until next year. a cps representative, the crown prosecution services representative was effectively putting forward the american point of view and i told the chief magistrate that the us allegations against julian assange relate to one of the largest compromises of classified information in us history, and he said that is why the us is seeking his extradition. we had the home secretary yesterday saying he has now rubber—stamped this, he has done

the paperwork, he has certified that extradition request. as i say, we have had these protesters out here saying it was politically motivated, again, that appears to bejulian assange's defence in court. today, a number of major news organisations we re number of major news organisations were not allowed inside the court, were not allowed inside the court, we we re were not allowed inside the court, we were told there was not enough space for us, so the bbc and sky news, a number of other broadcasters and newspapers told they could not have representatives inside court. i do understand that matter has now been dealt with. thank you for that update. the headlines on bbc news: the health secretary, matt hancock, drops out of the conservative leadership race. so far he hasn't said which of the remaining six candidates he will give his backing to. two years on from the grenfell tower fire survivors and relatives of the 72 dead come together today to remember the tragedy. the us releases video which it says proves iran was behind attacks on two tankers in the gulf of oman.

sport now on bbc newsroom live. good afternoon. england have made a positive start to their group game against west indies at the men's cricket world cup in southampton. chris woakes stuck early, dismissing opener evin lewis for just 2. chris gayle was dropped by 16 but england weren't left ruing that too much as he was caught byjonny bairstow for 36 of the bowling of liam plunkett. chris wood added another, meaning west indies are 94 for 3 after 22 of their 50 overs. in—play highlights are available on the bbc sport website and app. it's an equally important day at another world cup. this time it's football, and the women's world cup in france. scotland take onjapan this afternoon knowing they need a good result for a much—needed boost. their hopes of progressing in the tournament, after defeat to england in their opening game.

we're having a fantastic time. it's our first world cup. we don't want it to be an isolated case. we want scottish teams to be competing on the world stage and the european stage on a regular basis. to do that, we need to be successful so, again, it's been a great experience but it can be even better if you win games. the game between scotland and japan kicks off at two o'clock, with england facing argentina at 8pm. both games are live on bbc one. manager phil neville is looking forward to renewing one of football's great rivalries. what you've got with this game is the football history and rivalry. and i think that's... that's what we've got to handle. when the draw was made, the scotland—argentina games were games where you thought we've got to handle the occasion as well as the game, handle the emotion of the game, the rivalry of both scotland and argentina. and this is another game where we'll

have to handle that kind of emotion. having ended the season by winning the europa league title, maurizio sarri is set to leave chelsea afterjust one year. an agreement with juventus was reached late last night with a compensation fee in excess of £5 million likely to be paid by the italian champions. a deal could potentially being completed today, with derby boss frank lampard now the favourite to take over at stamford bridge. england'sjustin rose leads the us open by one shot after the opening round. rose, who won the tournament back in 2013, finished with three successive birdies, to top the leaderboard at pebble beach. the california coastline throws up some unexpected challenges for all the players, and as you're about to see, also the local wildlife. this deer not only held up play, for a while with his charge up the fairway, but probably also did some damage to the greens. that's all the sport for now.

i'll have more for you in the next hour. just a line of breaking news on the tory leadership campaign, because we understand that borisjohnson has told the bbc, on a programme which will go out and about 40 minutes, he has said he will take part in a bbc debate on tuesday night, that live debate on tuesday night, that live debate which will be chaired by emily maitlis, with all the candidates. there was doubt, he hadn't confirmed that he would take pa rt hadn't confirmed that he would take part in the tv debate, and some of the other candidates were complaining that he was hiding away. he has now confirmed he will take place, that will of course take place, that will of course take place after the next round of voting, which is on tuesday. we still don't know whether he will ta ke still don't know whether he will take part in a channel 4 event on sunday night, but maybe that emerges

in the course of that interview, we will bring you more on that as we get it. let's go over to the liberal democrats for a moment, because you can see, an event has already begun, but we are about to see vince cable, the departing leader, on stage, introducing the front bench for the labour party, moved into the independent when he left, alongside a handful of others. this then became chains uk, this morning, we heard him saying that had been a mistake, there is room for only one major party in the middle ground of uk politics. —— this became change uk. this is partly because of the first past the post system, but also the difficulties of establishing a new party fast without infrastructure. anyway, what we are about to see is vince cable for the

liberal democrats, because he has announced that he will be joining the liberal democrats, and this is his first appearance with the yellow rosette. i'm just looking at another line coming in on borisjohnson, so the quote from his interview on the bbc, of course, the front runner currently and, by a considerable margin in the race to become tory leader and prime minister. the quote from borisjohnson leader and prime minister. the quote from boris johnson in leader and prime minister. the quote from borisjohnson in the interview... i think it is important that we had a sensible grown—up debate, my own observation is that in the past, when you have had loads of candidates, it can be slightly cacophonous and i think the public has had quite a lot of blue on blue action, frankly, over the last three yea rs. we action, frankly, over the last three years. we don't necessarily need a lot more of that and so why i think the best solution would be to have a debate on what we all have to offer the country, and the best time to do that would be after the second

ballot on tuesday. the best forum is the proposed bbc debate, i think thatis the proposed bbc debate, i think that is a good idea. that is the quote from boris johnson, that is a good idea. that is the quote from borisjohnson, almost implying he will not take part on sunday at‘s channel 4 event, but i'm sure we will get more clarity on that shortly. while we wait for the chuka umunna introduction by vince cable at the liberal democrats stage. i'm just pausing for a moment, in case he is getting up. he has been consistent in the message throughout the whole brexit saga, throughout the local elections, the european elections, that our liberal democrat door is welcome, is open, for anybody who shares our values, and that has been a beacon of hope for a lot of people in the recent period. he is also the reason, and you will learn this, chuka umunna, quite quickly now, why so many of us on a daily basis are

required to shout rubbish to brexit, at least on some cases. i would like to hand over to vince cable, thank you very much. applause welcome, everybody, and i am here essentially to welcome chuka umunna to the liberal democrats. he isa to the liberal democrats. he is a big political figure, to the liberal democrats. he is a big politicalfigure, big political personality, and we are really delighted to have him in our ranks. actually, the two of us go back quite a long way. he was my shadow when i was secretary of state in the coalition, and we exchanged some fairly heavy blows, i think, most of them would have been recorded by some of the journalists present. i think out of it, there was mutual respect, and we retained a relationship, which has blossomed into a friendship. when i came back

into a friendship. when i came back into power in 2017, when chuka was feeling increasingly uncomfortable, as many others were with the direction of the labour party, we maintaina direction of the labour party, we maintain a dialogue that subsequently continued. i'm delighted that that relationship has sustained in that way. i think one of the things i realised through these conversations was that he is somebody who shares our and my liberal and social democratic values very clearly. this was brought to a head ina very clearly. this was brought to a head in a few months ago, we both wrote pamphlets on the world after brexit, if there ever is one. trying to describe a vision of the future, andl to describe a vision of the future, and i think as we read them, they we re and i think as we read them, they were intended as competing products, but when our teams read through them, they found it impossible to find anything that was actually different. we have now come

together, the political situation is evolving quite rapidly, we have just had these elections, which demonstrated the liberal democrats are demonstrated the liberal democrats a re clearly demonstrated the liberal democrats are clearly the undisputed force in the centre ground of british politics. it is important, of course, to have the values, which we do, the liberal and social democratic values, and it is also important to have a large, engaged membership and political infrastructure and organisation, and we have been demonstrating why those things actually do matter. but chuka is joining things actually do matter. but chuka isjoining us at unimportant things actually do matter. but chuka is joining us at unimportant and dangerous time. we are seeing the two traditional major party is doubling down on the things that got them into trouble in the first place. the conservatives competing for a leader who is harder and harder on brexit and retreating into very regressive tax and social

policies, and following the peterborough by—election, we have seenjeremy peterborough by—election, we have seen jeremy corbyn doubling down on a failed strategy of constructive and beauty —— constructive ambiguity. never was this more important a time for the liberal democrats to be there and in force and the rising force. the fact that we have had two good elections is by no means the end, we are not sitting on our laurels, there is a vast amount still to be done, we have to broaden out, become a wider movement, and this is part of that process. i'm absolutely delighted chuka isjoining process. i'm absolutely delighted chuka is joining us process. i'm absolutely delighted chuka isjoining us and i invite him now to say a few words. applause well, thank you very much to siobhan

and vince, and i am absolutely delighted to be part of the liberal democrat team and a member of this party. i'm incredibly gratefulfor the wonderful warm welcome that i have had since the news broke last night. i thought i should say something about why i have made this decision, why have i done this? i suppose you could say, i mean, i have never been a particularly tribal person, but i think you can probably tell that through the number of parties i have been a member of this year. laughing my laughing my values and principles come first in all of this, they are the reason i started a politicaljourney in leaving the labour party earlier this year. i am a social democrat with liberal values, as vince has said, and those values revolve around afairand said, and those values revolve around a fair and open britain, one with a mixed economy, which enables

everybody to achieve their dreams and aspirations, regardless of their background. we have absolutely got to overhaul the ridiculous constitution and the way that our democracy in this country works, and iam democracy in this country works, and i am unapologetically and internationalist. that's why we have to oppose this brexit, and we have to oppose this brexit, and we have to ensure we do all we can to keep our country as a member of the european union. now, those are very much my values, they are the values of the people that i represent in streatham, the community that i am from, that i was born into. they are the things on which i stood in the last general election, and they are the values of the liberal democrats. our politics is broken, and we have obviously got two main parties that sit at the heart of the system, who are not addressing the challenges that we face as a country, because

they are part of the problem, and they are part of the problem, and they have exacerbated those problems that we have, they are fuelling divisions, not only within their own parties, but also in our country, too. above all, they have failed to do their duties as a government and an opposition. in spite of all the upheaval and the dangerous place that we are in that vince referred to, ithink that we are in that vince referred to, i think there is huge because to optimistic and hopeful about the future. this is the most exciting time in my lifetime, i think, in many respects, for the progressive, liberal politics that we have in our country. the local and european elections illustrated that millions of voters agree that the two main parties in british politics are broken. the tectonic plates are

clearly shifting, and i think the public is now more in favour of upending the 2—party system than at any time in my lifetime, including on the 80s, and i was a child then. i think this provides an historic opportunity to change the system, to realign british politics, to fix our broken politics, and too of course deal with the problems that cause people to vote for brexit in the first place. for the sake of all of our citizens, we have to grab that opportunity now, in my view. after leaving the labour party, i thought that britain needed a new party, and i believed that the millions of politically homeless people in our country wanted a new party. i was wrong. you have your ups and downs

in politics, politicians, we are all human, believe it or not, we have our flaws. i have human, believe it or not, we have ourflaws. i have plenty, as people in the media tell me about on a daily basis. i think the important thing is to learn the lessons of any m ista kes thing is to learn the lessons of any mistakes you make, to listen to what your constituents are saying, to listen to what the electorate is telling you, and to strive to do better. there are two big lessons for me from the last few months. the first is that i massively underestimated the challenge of building a new, fully fledged party like change uk in the midst of a national crisis. and attempting to do so at the same time as running a national election campaign like the european elections. and vince, who had always pointed this out to me, is one of those i told you so moments. he was right to point out the importance of having an existing

party infrastructure with long—standing relationships with hundreds of thousands of voters. and, obviously, that was a massive factor in the success of this party, not just factor in the success of this party, notjust in the local elections but are european elections too. i think the lesson is this, there is no doubt that under our first past the post electoral system, which by the way, needs to be dumped and replaced with a system of proportional representation, in my view. applause and before people say, "you arejust saying that because you're a liberal democrat." i was saying that when i was in the labour party! but we are saddled with this unfair, undemocratic system. it is clear that in the system which is used at westminster elections, there is only space for one main, progressive, centre ground offer, and that is clearly the liberal democrats, in my

view. so what more was stopping me from joining? accounting for the last two things i have just mentioned. i will be honest, ifound it hard to come to terms with the impact of the public spending cuts which were instigated by the conservative— liberal coalition in 2010-2015. as conservative— liberal coalition in 2010—2015. as you would expect, the comments i made then as a shadow business secretary are doing the rounds as i speak. in fact, they are probably getting more of an airing now than when i first said them. i didn't disagree about the need to reduce the public sector debt and deficit. indeed, labour's last chancellor alistair darling accepted the need for that too. i did disagree with the speed and severity of fiscal consolidation and the extent to which those cuts to public spending were born mainly by public spending were born mainly by public spending cuts as opposed to tax increases. i would say, and i say

this in particular to people who have four voted labour or still vote for labour now, let me say this to you, four years on from this party's time in office, things have changed. the liberal democrats have voted against every single one of the conservative budgets since 2015, this party stood on an anti—austerity manifesto in 2017, for example with commitments to enter the public sector pay cap, increase tax to pay for the nhs, reversing cuts to housing benefits, universal credit, and so on. and seniorfigures in this party, including vince, have said that although the party curb george osborne's worst excesses, things like the bedroom tax should never have been allowed to be introduced. of course, people have accepted a major mistake was made in breaking that pledge on breaking the pledge on university tuition fees. i don't see that happening ever again. most

importantly, the biggest impediment to ending austerity currently is pressing on with brexit. in every brexit scenario, tax receipts will be hit hard, depriving the exchequer of much—needed revenue to invest in public services. both labour and the conservatives are committed to facilitating brexit. and you cannot end austerity and sponsor brexit. that is absolutely clear. applause and i am proud to be a member of a party that was committed to a people's vote and remaining in the eu right from the start. i suspect that those who are going to be most critical of the decision that i have made will be many of those that i left behind in the labour party. the question they must answer now is

this — if they are committed to ending austerity too, continued support of a party leadership committed to brexit cannot enable you to end austerity. privately, many accept this. they also know that visceral hatred of people who don't share your views, of the west, there is the anti—semitism too, they know that that is commonplace in labour circles. they abhor the bullying, the behaviour by supporters of their leadership as much as they abhor the fact that that leadership tacitly sanctions this. so in its words and deeds, labour is not being true to the progressive values that i believe m, progressive values that i believe in, they are not being true to the progressive values that many labour people believe in, and many labour people believe in, and many labour people know that. we all do. and i say to them, particularly the social democratic centre—left, there is a home for you, it is the liberal democrats.

applause ijust want i just want to finish by saying this — ensuring that progressive liberal values prevail in this country is not something that can be done by any one force on any one organisation. but i am convinced that the liberal democrats are the spearhead of a broader progressive movement in civil society, they offer the best chance to improve the lives of those i represent as well as countless other citizens across our country. so i say that the time has come to put past differences behind us, and in the national interest, do what is right for the country. which is why i have made this decision. thank you very much for listening. applause thank you.

we now get to add the difficult questions, starting with ian. how many other independent mps, former conservative and labour mps do you expect to follow suit, if any? i am not quantifying it, we are having conversations with the other independent mps. they are making a decision based on personal circumstances and in their own time. but it is clear that we share values and objectives with quite a few of them. it was also very clear, particularly after the debate a couple of days ago, that there is

now a substantial chunk of the conservatives who have crossed the rubicon mentally, across the field. the conservatives view of their brexit, when they go away they go, i can't predict. it is important that we talk to them. and similarly, we know through our contacts that there is this suppressed civil war in the labour party. people attended that meeting on monday night, they said it was the worst parliamentary labour party meeting that they had ever been to, probably worse than other ones. stability on that side is far from guaranteed foot if you ask for names and dates, i can't give you them. we are reaching out to that cohort of people, and we expect over the coming months to bring them in. in your new party,

you said you are not a tribal politician, but this is your third party since the start of the year.” am not intending onjoining any others laughter when you, you represent streatham, is it your intention to stand again in that constituency? if so, why not coina in that constituency? if so, why not coin a phrase, have a people's vote, have a by—election because of your third label since the general election. you are somebody who is the official spokesman of a new party after the european election results, you bottled it and left. some of your former colleagues... you like the word bottled, don't you? some people are throwing some at you and saying that you are guilty of bad faith and bad politicaljudgment. guilty of bad faith and bad political judgment. can you absolutely guarantee that the liberal democrats is going to be, to coina

liberal democrats is going to be, to coin a phrase, your final resting place in politics? yes. laughter iam not laughter i am not intending to die anytime soon. people throw things around in politics all the time. to coin a phrase of a famous liberal, when the fa cts phrase of a famous liberal, when the facts change, you have got to change your mind. and not ignore what is happening around you. i actually think it is a bad thing in british politics for people to plough on regardless of the facts. i think we are far too ideological, and i think people find it refreshing when politicians stand up and say, "look, i got something wrong, something is jane, i have changed my mind." look, iama jane, i have changed my mind." look, i am a streatham boy born and bred. iam i am a streatham boy born and bred. i am absolutely committed to my constituency. i have been a member of this party for one day almost, andi of this party for one day almost, and i think for me to start dictating what happens in the future and pretending that i shall have to

go through the usual process is like every body else would be the wrong thing. but here is the thing i would say to, perhaps, the broader point. what i have found with those who haven't changed parties, haven't changed their minds on things, over the last few months is that privately, they say, "look, i privately, they say, "look, i privately agree with everything you say." but i wonder why they don't do anything about it. the easy thing is to sit in your comfort zone in a party that you know is doing the wrong thing, that has changed beyond belief, and not do anything about it because, personally for you, that is the best course. i think that if you are going to do the very important sacred a job that you do as an mp, if you are not going to put your values and principles before absolutely everything else, you should not be doing the job. absolutely everything else, you should not be doing thejob. the values and the principles i would have given me to do what i have, and to try and do something about our

broken politics which is why i have been on thisjourney broken politics which is why i have been on this journey since february. i make no apologies for that whatsoever. love the chairman of the labour party loves to talk about... we will leave chuka umunna there, one day into his membership of the liberal democrats standing alongside vince cable. he is the current and departing leader of that party. let's talk now to jonathan departing leader of that party. let's talk now tojonathan blake who is our correspondent in westminster. it was quite an interesting event, wasn't it? in terms of listening to him corner turn around his moves between parties as to explain the values which have brought him to this final resting place, though no plans to die soon moment. three parties in almost as many months for chuka umunna. he was always going to face questions about whether that means he will make another move at some point in the future or whether he has made up his mind which party he has made up his mind which party he wants to be a part of. but he

attempted, as you say, to address those concerns and criticisms from some. that is about his flip flopping from the labour party to change uk to the liberal democrats. he will also face questions about things he has said about the lib dems as he did then in the past and their record on coalition government with the conservatives and being partners, as he sees it, or saw it in the past, with the austerity programme. chuka umunna has clearly taken a decision, as he was exploding there, that it was far too difficult, far more difficult than he envisaged to gain any kind of momentum or electoral success with a new party. then in fact he was wrong about people wanting that because they clearly don't if the result of they clearly don't if the result of the european elections and local elections were to go on. he is much better off as part of the liberal democrats movement and party with its existing infrastructure. vince

cable welcoming him, interesting to seejo cable welcoming him, interesting to see jo swinson cable welcoming him, interesting to seejo swinson the current deputy leader and candidate for the leadership of the party also welcoming him and are saying that it isa welcoming him and are saying that it is a good thing he has chosen to join. will be interesting to see, is one of the liberal democrat mps in parliament, which now number 12, with his addition, how high—profile he takes on within the grouping in parliament and how much of a natural home it ends up being for him. and very briefly, on the practicalities of all of that, what about by—elections. i mean, party hopping like this, is that a strategic and tactical question furthermore about whether he should stand as a liberal democrat in these constituencies? when the mps left the labour party and formed the independent group that became change uk including chuka umunna, they faced calls to stand, re—stand for elections in

their constituencies in a by—election because many people make the argument that although the individual is elected, they do so on a platform of policies for a particular party. so that is something that chuka umunna is something that chuka umunna is something that chuka umunna is something that it might having to deal with again. it will be interesting how his support base and supporters in streatham in south london react come the next general election, or indeed if there is a by—election before the. in the news conference, he was certainly not suggesting that he has any intention to trigger that anytime soon. let's turn to different material then. the conservative race for leadership and prime minister. a lot of pressure from various candidates on boris johnson the frontrunner to commit to taking part in tv debates. it seems that in an interview with the bbc‘s world at one, he has committed to taking part in a debate on tuesday. he has. since the campaign started, borisjohnson has he has. since the campaign started, boris johnson has kept he has. since the campaign started, borisjohnson has kept a relatively low profile, aside from his official

campaign launch where he made a speech and took half a dozen questions from the media earlier this week, he has not engaged. and aside from one newspaper interview, he has done very little in terms of public appearances and interviews with the media. criticism has only grown of him from his fellow candidates in the race for that. so whilst up until now the campaign for borisjohnson to be leader of the conservative party have taken the view that they are better off holding back, working on the mps that they need to keep their position as the frontrunner, the criticism has now got to a point where perhaps it was starting to dog his campaign and looks like some thing of a problem for him. let's leave it to borisjohnson himself to explain why he has now decided to ta ke explain why he has now decided to take part in the bbc conservative leadership debate next tuesday. he was speaking to the world at one. i

think it is important that we have a grown—up central debate and that my observation is that in the past when you have had loads of candidates it can be slightly cacophonous. and i think the public have had quite a lot of blue on blue action, frankie, over the last three years. we don't necessarily need a lot more of that. so what i think the best solution would be would be to have a debate on what we all have to offer the country, our programme to take britain forward, my programme to unite the country, and the best time to do that i think would be after the second ballot on tuesday. and the second ballot on tuesday. and the best forum is the bbc, the proposed bbc debate. so boris johnson is pressing his views now, will that stop some of the cacophony around him and some of the blue on blue action? i think so. it will keep it at bay for now. there is

another debate on channel 4 on sunday which it doesn't tell like it is intended to be part of. that may bea minor is intended to be part of. that may be a minor embarrassment for his campaign. it will, if you like, the nip in the bud the criticism from his opponent that he has shying away from scrutiny and not engaging in a debate and discussion with them about why he is the best candidate to lead the party and the uk. we will have to see how he does, and how the other candidates do. but i think what was potentially going to become a parallel contest between opponents to borisjohnson, in terms of who would join him on the final ballot, will now be a fully fledged debate between all of them which are certainly the other candidates will welcome at this stage. thank you so much. we are going to leave politics for a moment and bring you some breaking news from the high court in

glasgow. this is the case of two ca re rs glasgow. this is the case of two carers who have been found guilty of murdering a 19—year—old woman whose death they covered up for 20 years. her body has never been found. the victim is margaret fleming, she was a young woman who had learning difficulties and she had been living with this couple since her father's death in 1995. she went to live with them then. authorities only became suspicious in october 2016 when concerns were raised about a benefits claim made by one of the now convicted murderers, avril jones, on miss fleming's behalf. the couple who have been convicted are

edward cairney and avriljones. they are convicted of killing margaret fleming between december 1999 and january of the following year. as i say, the police search operation failed to find any trace of ms fleming. her body has never been found. the only became suspicious in 2016 after concerns were raised over the benefit claim. the couple have been found guilty of not only murdering ms fleming, but also of claiming £182,000 in benefits by pretending that ms fleming was alive. we will have a correspondent in glasgow on that very terrible case shortly. let's look at some foreign news because iran says it has categorically rejected us claims that it was behind attacks on two oil tankers in the gulf of oman. the denial comes after the us secretary of state said intelligence about the type of weapon used indicated that

iranians forces were involved. an iranian foreign ministry spokesman said... it's the second such attack on tankers using the strategically important waterway — which separates iran from the arabian peninsula — in the last month. crude oil prices have risen in response. gareth barlow has the latest. crew members from the targeted tankers appearing on iranian state tv. one after another, they tell the camera, they have the camera, "they have hosted us really well, everyone has taken care of us." a narrative iran will be keen

to promote, as it denies any involvement in the attacks. a narrative strongly opposed by the united states, which has released footage it claims shows iran's military removing a mine from the side of one of the tankers. the united states assesses that iran is responsible for these attacks. no proxy group in the area has the resources or skill to act with this level of sophistication. iran, however, has the weapons, the expertise, and the requisite intelligence information to pull this off. as both sides promote their version of events, iranian state tv broadcast these images, reportedly showing a rescue boat tackling a fire on the norwegian tanker. wrapped in flames, one of the two vessels hit by blasts on thursday morning, as tensions between washington and tehran continue to rise following the collapse of the iranian nuclear deal. there isn't absolute evidence at this point. but we can assume the most likely suspect, which is probably hardline elements inside iran, or those operating outside,

that want to make sure that there are not negotiations that are renewed between the united states and iran. the straits of hormuz are critically important for the world's oil supply, and also for both sides. as iran uses the power of its press and possible political factions, america is flexing the power of its planes. both countries say they don't want war, but both do want the upper hand. president trump has announced that his press secretary will leave at the end of the month. she broke decades of tradition by abandoning the daily white house press briefing. mr trump said she had done an incrediblejob. i'll try not to get emotional

because i know that crying can make us look weak sometimes, right? this has been the honour of a lifetime, the opportunity of a lifetime. i couldn't be prouder to have had the opportunity to serve my country, particularly to work for this president. time for a look at the weather. for some, in northumberland on wednesday, we had a record—breaking rainfall totals. some of us have seenin rainfall totals. some of us have seen in nearly three months worth of rain, and it has been quite cool, particularly forjune. i'm pleased to say as we move into next week, we will see an improvement. dry for most of us, there will still be some rain around but nowhere near as bad as this week. more sunshine and just feeling that little bit warmer as well. before then and we are feeling the influence of low pressure, as you can see quite clearly and spiralling like a catherine wheel around that low, bans of weather fronts bringing showery outbreaks of rain. the story so far today, the

rain. the story so far today, the rain weakening as it moves through the midlands and eastern england. shall the western scotland and northern ireland. that will be the case as we move into the afternoon. some of us will continue to see some spells of sunshine. as a result, it will feel a little warmer. values of 13 and 20 degrees in the south—eastern corner. tonight, we will see a band of more persistent rain starting to push in with another frontal system from the west. we will start our saturday morning with a bit of a west— east divide. western areas of starting off on saturday cloudy with some rain at times. shouted eastern areas might have early morning sunshine. eventually, clouding over as we go into the afternoon, a few showers ahead of that rain. it will push its way into eastern england, the midlands and down to the south coast by the middle of the afternoon. a wea ker by the middle of the afternoon. a weaker affair by then, showery

outbreaks of rain. still that area of low pressure with us on sunday just to the north—west. still the potential for some fronts to move in. generally speaking on sunday, it isa in. generally speaking on sunday, it is a case of sunny spells and scattered showers. most of the showers will be close to the low up into the north—west. western areas, particularly scotland and northern ireland seeing showery outbreaks at times. sheltered eastern areas are seeing more sunshine and more in the weight of one. i promise you something a bit more optimistic as we move into next week. it could get one in the south. a bit of a blip with rain in the middle of the week but much better than the week we have just seen.

the front—runner in the tory leadership race, boris johnson, says he will take part in the bbc tv debate next week. all other candidates had agreed to take part. the former foreign secretary had faced accusations of avoiding media scrutiny. what i think the best solution would be would be to have a debate on what we all have two of the country, our programme to take britain forward. earlier, the health secretary, matt hancock, dropped out of the contest. it leaves six candidates going through to next week's ballot. we'll have the latest live from westminster. also this lunchtime: two years after the grenfell tower fire, a service of remembrance is held for the 72 people who lost their lives.