the latest headlines from bbc news. saudi arabia has angrily rejected a united nations report saying that is credible evidence to suggest crown prince mohammed in and other high—level officials are individually liable for the murder of jamaal individually liable for the murder ofjamaal shoji. individually liable for the murder of jamaal shoji. he was individually liable for the murder ofjamaal shoji. he was a prominent government critic. they have complained of false allegations and bias. the founder of the invm welcome to bbc news. i'm mike embley. culture in the us who treated women our top stories: as sex slaves has been found guilty on all charges. thejury saudi arabia rejects a un report as sex slaves has been found guilty on all charges. the jury has convicted keith raniere of that says there's evidence racketeering, forced labour, sex to suggest crown prince mohammed bin trafficking and child pornography. the russian foreign ministry has salman is among those criticised a decision by dutch individually liable for the murder prosecutors to put the russians and of the journalist, jamal khashoggi. a ukrainian on trialfor the leader of a cult prosecutors to put the russians and a ukrainian on trial for shooting down malaysia airlines flight mh 17. in the united states who treated the team says the four separatist women as sex slaves is found paramilitaries will go on trial in guilty on all charges. russia condemns a decision by dutch the netherlands in march, almost prosecutors to put three russians certainly in their absence. and a ukrainian on trial for shooting down

malaysia airlines flight mh17. satellite pictures show that himalayan glaciers are melting at a rapidly accelerating rate, it is 2:30 a.m.. you are up—to—date threatening long—term water supplies on the headlines. time now for to a vast number of people. wednesday in parliament. hello there and welcome to wednesday in parliament. coming up, the snp‘s westminster leader attacks the tory leadership frontrunner borisjohnson. not only is the member racist, he is stoking division in communities, and has a record of dishonesty. peers question government claims that it's tackling poverty. why are so many schools in my diocese having to feed children, and why does almost every parish contribute to food banks? also on this programme, ministers announce plans to help those in debt. and should veggie burgers and sausages be taken off the menu because their names are misleading?

so, instead of saying mock bacon, you'd be saying a wheat gluten—shaped, smoky, paprika—flavoured lump that's sliced thinly. but first, the snp‘s westminster leader has accused borisjohnson, the frontrunner in the contest to be the next prime minister, of being racist. ian blackford made the accusation at prime ministers' questions. it came after the leadership debate on tuesday night when borisjohnson was asked if he accepted that words had consequences following remarks he'd made about muslim women. the accusation from ian blackford came ahead of the latest round of voting in the tory leadership contest when mrjohnson once again topped the pole among mps. the total number of votes given to each candidate in alphabetical order were as follows... michael gove — 51. jeremy hunt — 5a.

sajid javid — 38. boris johnson “1113. rory stewart — 27. well, mr blackford puts some of borisjohnson‘s previous remarks to theresa may. does the prime minister agree with the frontrunner set to succeed her that the scottish people are a verminous race that should be placed in ghettos and exterminated? prime minister! can i just say to the right honourable gentleman that the conservative and unionist party takes the people of every part of this united kingdom not only seriously, but we welcome the contribution from people of every part of this united kingdom because that is what makes the united kingdom

the great country it is and long may scotland remain part of it. ian blackford! well, of course, mr speaker, words matter and actions matter. the man who published those words in his magazine, the prime minister thought was fit for the office of her top diplomat and he has not stopped there. he said that scots should be banned from being prime minister, banned from being prime minister, mr speaker, and that a pound spent in croydon was worth more than a pound spent in strathclyde. this is a man who is not fit for office. it has been said, mr speaker, that the ultimate measure of a person is not where they stand in moments of comfort, but where they stand at times of challenge and controversy. this is a time of challenge, and so i ask does the prime minister realise not only is the member racist, he is stoking division in communities and has a record of dishonesty. does the prime minister honestly believe...

order! if the right honourable gentleman is referring to a current member of this house, i don't know whether he is. but if he is, he should be extremely careful in the language he uses and should have notified the member in advance. but i would urge him... i would urge him to weigh his words. mr ian blackford. and indeed... and i think it would be much better if, for now, he would withdraw any allegation of racism... order! ..against any particular member. i don't think that this is the forum. i don't think it's the right way to behave. mr speaker, i have informed the member. but the member has called muslim women letter boxes, described african people as having watermelon smiles and another disgusting slur that i would never dignify by repeating.

if that's not racist, mr speaker, i don't know what is! does the prime minister honestly believe that this man is fit for the office of prime minister? prime minister! can i just say to the right honourable gentleman he has now been leader of the snp in this chamber for some time. he has been asking prime ministers' questions for some time, he might actually understand the purpose of prime ministers' questions, which is to ask the prime minister about the actions of the government. that is what he should be asking us about, and i can say to the right honourable gentleman, i say that i believe any conservative prime minister in the future will be better for scotland than the scottish nationalist party. the longest—serving conservative mp had another question about the leadership candidates. in the present uncertainty surrounding brexit and the change of government, it would be extremely unwise for candidates in the leadership election or for the outgoing government

to start making reckless commitments to tax cuts and spending promises which should properly be addressed responsibly in the spending round once the uncertainties are behind us. i can assure my right honourable friend that in my time as prime minister, we will not make any reckless commitments, but we do want to ensure that we see our public services supported as they should be to provide the services that we believe the people of this country deserve. while brexit is the key issue for the leadership contenders, an ex—conservative mp wanted to make sure mps wouldn't be kept away from westminster as the 31st of october deadline approached. the prime minister is keen to secure a legacy of acting in the country's very best interests, so will she commit to introducing legislation that will guarantee that this house sits in september and in october so that in the event of a no—deal brexit,

all options are available to this parliament, including revoking article 50? the dates for recess and times for sitting in this house will be published to this house in due course. theresa may there. people struggling with serious debt are to be given a 2—month breathing space, with time off from repayments and a stop on creditors contacting them. in return, they will have to consult debt advice services to work out a plan to fix their finances. the scheme, which is already working in scotland, will be expanded across the uk by early 2021. breathing space will provide debtors with a 60—day period where interest and charges on their debts are frozen and enforcement action from creditors is paused. creditors must not start new court action. communication with debtors relating to enforcement of their debt must stop.

and benefit reductions to reclaim debt will pause. during this time, debtors will have to seek professional debt advice to find a sustainable solution to their debt problem. labour welcomed the measure, but said there was still more to do. in the famous words of archbishop desmond tutu, "there comes a point where we need to stopjust pulling people out "of the river, but to go upstream and find out why "they are falling in." as well as a change of economic policy, we believe it's time to regulate further the interest that can be charged on overdrafts and credit cards, to look at the marketing of credit to vulnerable people, and to ensure there is real and effective financial education in schools. there is a lot to do. this statement is a move in the right direction today. but let's make sure we keep going in that direction. in scotland, we've got the debt arrangement scheme that was launched in 2004 and was reformed significantly in 2011, and that includes a breathing space

built into the scheme. since the reforms in scotland, over £200 million of debt has been repaid and 6,000 people have completed a debt payment plan through 2011—2018. so, i'm pleased to see in particularly the consultation response that the government published today, that the government has looked at the system in scotland and has learned lessons and looked at the way that's worked. it is mainly nhs workers and public sector workers who are in this debt trap because wages have not kept up with a cost of housing and energy fuel bills and other costs. in welcoming today's announcement, can i urge at the next stages, both that the new arrangements are properly resourced on the one hand and a sense of urgency, the sooner, the better, that we can see these new arrangements put in place relieving that terrible burden that afflicts so many people suffering from debt in our country? i have done everything i can to move this forward as quickly as possible.

there is a challenge to actually bring the sector along at the same pace to ensure that we've got complete commitment and sign—up to the processes so that it will be a success. john glenn. now, it has become a global phenomenon with more than 200 million players but critics, including prince harry, say it's addictive and should be banned. fortnite is an online game with a simple aim — to survive for as long as possible. its success has sparked a debate about whether gaming can be harmful to health. executives from the company behind fortnite, epic games, have been questioned by mps as part of an inquiry into immersive and addictive technologies. they told them prince harry had got it wrong. i'm sure you'll be familiar with the remarks that prince harry made about fortnite, which... pretty unprecedented for a member of the royal family to talk about a commercial organisation particular in a critical way.

believing that the game shouldn't be played and he even said and i quote, "it is created to addicts in addiction to keep "you in front of the computer for as long as possible. "it's so irresponsible." what response would you give to prince harry about the concerns that he has expressed about fortnite? we were quite taken aback at epic by that. really rather surprised because the statements that were made, in ourview, couldn't be further from the truth from our intentions and design philosophy, and just our multi—decade approach to developing a long—term healthy and sustainable relationship with our audience. it's really always been our effort and intent to create a fun, fair, flexible, engaging and generous form of interactive entertainment for our audience.

and so i feel like a statement that suggests that there was some sort of nefarious attempt to extract short—term profit is a real mischaracterisation. interesting. so you believe he got it wrong? that what he said is a lack of understanding... i do. the mps wanted to know how long people played online for. as a company, have you done any research into what might be harmful levels of engagement with your games, particularly fortnite? harmful levels of engagement? have you done any research? i don't believe... at least from my point of view, is fairly consistent with what carrie said earlier. we think it's difficult to kind of have a categorical understanding

of what healthy engagement is, that varies from person to person and it varies from time to time even on a person by person basis. have you done any research into engagement and length of engagement? research to me... it's a simple question. do you do research on the length of time people play the game? have we commissioned any research on it by scientists? no. have we spent time thinking about it? sure. canon pence from epic games. you're watching wednesday in parliament with me, alicia mccarthy. now let's go back to prime minister's questions, where after the second anniversary of the grenfell tower fire, the labour leader wanted to know why action to protect other buildings was taking so long. two years on, why do 328 high—rise buildings, homes to thousands of people from newham to newcastle, still have the same grenfell—style cladding?

theresa may said in the immediate aftermath of the fire, she had set up an inquiry to look at what had happened. as for the cladding... of course, we are asked building owners in the private sector to do the action that we believed was necessary. but we have seen they have not been acting quickly enough, and that is why we will fully fund the replacement of cladding on high—rise residential buildings and interim measures are in place where necessary on all 163 high—rise private residential buildings with unsafe acm cladding. the government spent £1013 million on fire services in 2016—17. this year, it's £858 million. £155 million cut from fire services. every fire authority across the country, from the 11% cut in greater manchester to the 42% in warwickshire, are going through the same experience. mr speaker, you cannot put

a price on people's lives. you cannot keep people safe on the cheap. the prime minister told the country at the conservative party conference last autumn that austerity is over. will she now pledge that her government will increase fire service funding and firefighter numbers next year? prime minister! to the right honourable gentleman, that indeed we are able to end austerity, we are able to put more money into public services. the reason we're able to do that is because a conservative government takes a balanced approach to the economy. we have been putting right the wrongs that were left by a labour government that left us the largest deficit in our peacetime history. that's the legacy of labour. we saw fewer people in work and less money to spend on public services and we won't let it happen again! theresa may. the government has announced that for the first time, large businesses could be fined for failing to pay smaller suppliers on time. i would take a tough compliance approach to large companies

who do not comply with the payment practice reporting duty. the legislation allows for the prosecution of those who do not comply, and i will use its enforcement power against those who do not comply where necessary. mr deputy speaker, i can inform the house that we are already writing to those businesses who we have assessed to be within scope to remind them of their duty. as part of the plan, the government is proposing new powers for the small business commissioner to tackle late payments through fines and binding payment plans. the number of companies who are members of the prompt payment code, as the minister told us, have been found not to comply with the code. the scandal of carillion is an example of the abuse of that code, we saw payment times of 120—180 days becoming the norm. policing of the code being given to the small business commissioner is a sensible idea, so can the minister say again what additional resources for powers

will be given to the commissioner? one of the key things that came out of call for evidence from the people that responded was they wanted to see the small business commissioner having more powers. and using that as an umbrella to allow it to encompass a number of enforcement abilities for the small business commissioner to act on behalf of small businesses. let's be frank that this does not go nearly far enough. for anyone tuning into last night's tory hard brexit hustings, it will come as no surprise that the uk government remains opposed to taking the steps required to protect scottish business. so, does the minister have the good grace to agree that it is now beyond a joke that in place of serious policy steps, her statement merely proposes some minor technological measures and platitudes on best practice? now, could vegetarian

sausages and veggie burgers be taken off the menu? the eu is weighing up proposals to prevent the manufacturers of vegetarian food from using words like sausage, burgerand mince to describe their products. supporters of the idea say that using terms associated with meat is misleading for consumers. but a lords inquiry has heard that using new terms such as veggie tube or veggie disc could deter people from buying food that is healthier and better for the environment than meat. since my masterchef final days, i've had a business for seven years and i used to be a researcher in public health for 18 years, so i actually have a great passion for and interest in public health and well—being. and i am a massive... i've been a vegetarian since i was 1a, so i've been eating veggie burgers for more than 35 years now. so it does seem like this is a new turn of events when in fact it's been around for so long, i think i may have been one of the first customers. we get thousands of consumer

contacts per month, and not one person in 30 years has said they bought a corn sausage or corn burger or corn mince thinking it was animal meat. so it's totally unnecessary. jackie kearney pondered the consequences of restricting the terms used to describe vegetarian food. so instead of saying mock bacon, you would be saying a wheat gluten—shaped smoky paprika —flavoured lump that's sliced thinly. it just would become quite impossible. who owns the word mince? if you look at the word mince, it means chopped up finally. you mince onions, you mince garlic, you mince herbs, and in fact inside a minced pie there is no meat, right? it's got chopped—up fruits. so, i think language in terms like that mean that you can be overly restrictive on terms. stopping the word sausages, which is a shape, or mince, which means to chop things up into a small piece, it's ridiculous. no—one can own that, and it's not owned by the meat industry. the nfu is relaxed about vegetarian sausages and burgers, but not other items. i think we are quite concerned

about, i think you used the term ripping off or sort of mimicking terms. we are quite concerned about that. as i said in terms of chicken style, or there's a product called vegetarian shredded duck, well, is the duck vegetarian or is it a vegetarian product? what is it? to my mind, you've got some fantastic products coming through. 20% of products coming to shelves are vegetarian or vegan products with fantastic credentials and you're getting customers excited about it. quite why you need to rip off meat terms, i don't know. actually, we do want to mimic meat because we want people to have a conscious choice and to continue with their same eating behaviours, so putting a vegetarian burger inside a bun and still enjoying a barbecue with people whether they want to eat meat or not eat meat. the government has described as "inflammatory and overtly political" a un report on poverty. the special rapporteur on extreme poverty, philip alston, said the uk social safety net had been deliberately removed

and replaced with a harsh and uncaring ethos. the government described his findings as barely believable. but in the lords, peers reckoned the system was going wrong. why are so many schools in my diocese having to feed children? and why does almost every parish contribute to food banks? my lords, we have done an enormous amount to tackle poverty since we came into government. and we have invested huge sums of additional money into developing a welfare system that encourages people into work, supports them in work, supports them with progression in theirjobs so that they can better provide. the report says wales faces the highest relative poverty rise in the united kingdom with almost one in four people living in relative income poverty. 25% ofjobs pay below the minimum wage. my lords, we are tackling poverty across the country,

and i can say i would refer noble lords to the leader article in the times, the 25th of may. let me quote, "this is nonsense, yet poverty in this sense does not exist in britain in the 21st century." responding to reports with care, but in all seriousness, we have to say that many things in this report have been exaggerated and inflammatory. given the fact that we are getting notjust this report, but one after another report coming out showing that families on low incomes are really struggling, and given the really crucial point made by the right reverend that families are turning to food banks all over the country, working parents are going to food banks, schools are feeding hungry children, something is going wrong. please, will the minister

look again at this? my lords, we are continuing to listen and we are continuing to learn. this government continues to spend over £95 billion a year on benefits for people of working age, and i say again and i've said so many times before, when the party opposite were in government, 20% of all working age households in the united kingdom, including wales, were workless. the bishop had a direct and interesting question to the minister. is the minister going to answer it? what we're saying is that we have listened and we have taken the questions and the statements of the rapporteur very seriously. what we do not accept is, in the words of people at the united nations last week, the political scaremongering, the hyper... my lords, hyperbole, sorry, i'm tired, jet—lagged. the hyperbole, the actual

inflammatory and scaremongering approach to this whole subject, it is not helpful and it's not helpful from someone who was not keen to engage with our officials. lady buscombe. a labour mp says the government needs to come up with a strategy for recycling out—of—service nuclear submarines. luke pollard said the uk still had every nuclear sub it had ever owned, with 13 in plymouth and seven in rosyth. which he said can be clearly seen on google maps. and he argued it was time for the government to deal with the problem. it would be easy for me to make for cheap headlines by saying there is a safety risk of these submarines, but populism is not my style. so i want to be clear that there is no immediate safety risk to our local communities from these submarines. but plymouth and rosyth cannot be asked to look after these submarines indefinitely without a plan for their disposal. now, these submarines are not only taking up valuable space in our dockyards, but they are costing the taxpayer millions of pounds a year in storage and maintenance costs. the public accounts committee have today released a report which puts the cost at the taxpayer at £13 million a year. this money could and should be used for dismantling and de—fuelling those submarines and finally dealing with these retired boats. the report warns the mod is reaching a crisis point in terms of space.

it says of the mod will run out of space to store the submarines by the mid—2020s. so he said a funding plan was needed to deal with the submarines already being stored and to make space for those coming out of service soon. well, luke pollard won the right to take his bill forward, but unless government backs it, it will not become law. and that's it for me for another day at westminster. do join me at the same time tomorrow for the highlights of the commons and the house of lords, but for now, from me, alicia mccarthy, goodbye.

hello there. the recent warm, humid, thundery, weather across the south—east was just a little taster of what perhaps might be a bit more widespread across the uk as we head on into next week. more on that in the moment. this is the thundery front which brought those downpours to the far south—east recently, low pressure will be more the dominant feature as we had through thursday. and that will feed in some showers maybe to northern and western areas early on this morning. and also a cooler west or north—westerly wind. so it will be a fresher start to the day this morning, most noticeably across the south—east. at least largely dry with some sunshine. and today, in fact, will be a day of sunny spells and scattered showers. these heaviest and most frequent across northern and western areas. it will be quite blustery as well across scotland, wind gusts in exposure, 30 or 35 miles an hour. the showers here could be heavy and thundery, same into northern ireland. further south we will see a few showers spreading across england and wales but there's also a good deal of sunshine around, but it will feel noticeably cooler and fresher. 19, maybe 20 degrees in the south—east, closer to 12—16 celsius

across scotland and northern ireland. as we head on into friday, high pressure is building in from the south, that will settle things down, but we have low pressure still anchored to the north of the uk. so that will bring another fairly blustery day for scotland on friday, with scattered showers, again a few heavier ones. further south, a better chance of staying dry although there could be a few showers around, close to that high—pressure, the winds will be lighter, so in the strong sunshine it will feel a bit warmer, 20 or 21 degrees, but still on the fresh side for the time of year in the north. high pressure though, builds in, moves across in towards the north sea, during saturday and that will bring us a run of fairly warm south, south—easterly winds. but we will have this area of low pressure nearby slowly encroaching in as the weekend wears on. for much of the country, it is going to be a fine saturday, a little bit of fairweather cloud bubbling up in the afternoon. we could see an isolated shower but most places will be dry and temperatures away from the east coast reaching below 20 celsius. high—pressure still dominating the scene, i think, on into sunday, this is the area of low pressure which will start to bring more cloud and perhaps a little bit of rain to western areas later in the day on sunday, but we will be importing some

warm and humid air during sunday and into next week. so we could see 2a, 25 degrees in the south—east on sunday, and for parts of the country, a bit of uncertainty. it could turn briefly very warm into next week, 00:29:10,551 --> 2147483051:51:19,990 but that could spark off widespread 2147483051:51:19,990 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 heavy, thundery showers.