hello, you're watching afternoon live — i'm sumon mccoy. today at 2. no diplomatic immunity here — more personal tweets from president trump attacking the uk ambassador — he calls him ‘wacky‘ and ‘a very stupid guy‘ — and now a meeting with the president's daughter is cancelled. labour's shifting brexit policy — jeremy corbyn says there should be another referendum on a conservative brexit deal — or a no—deal exit — and labour should back remain a technique called gene—silencing — which doctors say will be life changing — is given the go—ahead for use on the nhs in england.

this is making an untreatable disease treatable. alison riske and then we have the mixed doubles and in the cricket new zealand are playing india. ben has the weather. one or two showers are forecast. some hefty downpours elsewhere but nothing like the rain we have seen on the other side of the pond. some oppressive pictures for you. also coming up, i am 0k oppressive pictures for you. also coming up, i am ok for the next decade and all of us here because we will not face the problems. but the

problems in the next 20 to 30 years and major ones that will cause great social unrest. upping the heat — sir david attenborough criticises world leaders who he says are not doing enough to address climate change. hello everyone — this is afternoon live — i'm simon mccoy. he can't have been up very long this morning — before president donald trump took to twitter to write more personal comments attacking the uk ambassador to washington sir kim darroch. ‘a wacky ambassador', he says ' not someone we are thrilled with‘, he adds — and ‘a very stupid guy'. more of the same, you might say after his comments yesterday,

but as mr trump was tweeting the embassy was cancelling a schedule meeting with the president's daughter — and advisor — ivanka trump. as the leak inquiry continues over here into who leaked sir kim's controversial comments on the trump white house there's a nagging concern — is the uk's diplomatic representative in the united states now being prevented from doing his job? our diplomatic correspondent james robbins reports. thank you for your continued hospitality. the emir of qatar thanks to donald trump at a white house dinner last night, you would think the british ambassador sir kim darroch was not there. originally invited, then warned off attending by the administration. after sir kim's highly critical description of the administration as dysfunctional, faction—ridden, clumsy and inept.

one of several secret assessments made for whitehall across two years and now spectacularly leaked. the great leak of the cache of documents has stung him to the quick and i think he is also deeply irritated by theresa may's full faith and support in sir kim darroch. put those two things together and from his point of view, you've got a toxic combination which has led to this shower of tweets. and the president tweeting is in century —— and the president tweeting is incendiary even by his own standards. condemning theresa may for what he calls the brexit mess she and her representatives have created. i told her how it should be done but she decided to go another way. before the president turns on sir kim darroch, i don't know the ambassador but he is not liked and we will not deal with him. sir kim darroch seems safe in his post as ambassador, theresa may has repeated her support for him. and in whitehall, across government leak inquiry is under way. could the messages have been hacked? that would be a devastating indictment of security or was this a

political plot inside the system? whoever has done it has taken a very great care across a couple of years political plot inside the system? whoever has done it has taken a very great care across a couple of years to do it, to fill it with the juiciest bits from these diplomatic telegrams, package them up and hand them to a journalist. i suspect it's going to be quite hard to find out who that person is. but now there's a new tweet from the president. person is. but now there's a new tweet from the president. this time done and troll calls sir kim darroch a wacky ambassador and a very stupid guy and repeats his criticism this time done and troll calls sir kim darroch a wacky ambassador and a very stupid guy and repeats his criticism of theresa may's entire brexit negotiation. there is no question uk relations with the trouble white house are now intensely strain. the president himself is rejoicing in the fact theresa may will soon be gone. her successor will have to decide how to repair the damage. james robbins, bbc news. live to washington and our correspondent nick bryant. i would use the word may be thermonuclear. this is really strong stuff from president trump. i often think in my minds eye of two and ten eye on the roof of the foreign office delicately calibrated to pick

up office delicately calibrated to pick up the slightest shift in the special relationship. —— two and ten eye. —— attenae. donald trump has doubled down on his attack notjust on sir kim darroch, a wacky ambassador, a very stupid guy, a pompous full. actually sir kim darroch is refreshingly down—to—earth under straightforward guide. he renews his attack on theresa may and approach to brexit and donald trump calls it a disaster. sir kim darroch was supposed to be at a meeting between a banker trump supposed to be at a meeting between a bankertrump —— ivanka trump

supposed to be at a meeting between a banker trump —— ivanka trump and liam fox later today. he has decided not to go to that meeting and not put ivanka trump in a difficult position. it is a case of wanting to be the adult not in the room. he made this decision ahead of the statement. you can call me cynical. is there something going on over there that president trump does not wa nt there that president trump does not want is to be talking about?” there that president trump does not want is to be talking about? i would not call you cynical at all. i think thatis not call you cynical at all. i think that is a pretty interesting insight because there is a big story in america right now the donald trump really does not want to be talking about. it concernsjeffrey ebbe steyn who was charged in new york with sex trafficking. donald trump

does not want to talk about it because he is a friend of geoffrey epstein. as is bill clinton. —— jeffrey epstein. the release of this lea k jeffrey epstein. the release of this leak is not dominating the news over here as it is back home. that speaks of how asymmetrical the special relationship really is. it is far more important to the uk than the usa and it always has been. it is not getting the play here, the story that it not getting the play here, the story thatitis not getting the play here, the story that it is obviously on your side of the atlantic. that said, i know you attend those dinner parties and all the ambassadors of air and all gossiping. who will the ambassadors from other‘s countries be siding with? what sir kim wrote in his e—mails you would not thought would be dramatically different from what many diplomats would send back to

their capitals. the french ambassador here till recently on twitter was highly critical often of the administration and are very snide and elegantly french way. you can imagine his cables back to paris would have been if not as strong more strong. there will be a feeling that sir kim darroch was doing his job. he is paid to give candid assessments of what is happening in washington. what we have read in his secret cables is essentially a foreign office version of what we have read in the newspapers virtually every day and books such as fire and theory. i think a lot of ambassadors in washington will be siding with sir kim and feeling very sorry for him. we have an extraordinary situation where britain's man in washington has been sent to coventry.

well, this story is likely to be raised in tonight's tv debate between the two conservative leadership candidates. our chief political correspondent vicki young is in salford where that debate will take place. vicki young is in salford where that they vicki young is in salford where that will both facet what they will both face the question of what will you do now? this response from donald trump does feel different to other things he has done. we are used to him taking to twitter and lashing out and being incredibly sensitive to any kind of criticism but this does feel like a different level. and although we have got used to all of that i think it is pretty astonishing because of the personal nature of the attack on the personal nature of the attack on the way he has broadened it from the ambassador to take an theresa may as well. someone who some would say mistakenly decided to invite donald trump toa mistakenly decided to invite donald trump to a state visit on her first meeting with him. she really went

out of her way to woo him and some would say this is the thanks she is getting in return. the response from the uk government, that has not been much of one. they have talked about the leaks saying they are u nfortu nate the leaks saying they are unfortunate but sir kim darroch was just doing hisjob. they have not responded to the personal attack on theresa may and the way she is handling brexit and for her to be the size like this by an american president is incredible and we will see how she will respond and given she only has two or three weeks on thejob she only has two or three weeks on the job maybe there she only has two or three weeks on thejob maybe there is she only has two or three weeks on the job maybe there is a little she only has two or three weeks on thejob maybe there is a little bit for that would like to respond but it is not really her style. it will be discussed tonight, jeremy hunt, the foreign secretary and former foreign secretary boris johnson. they have a massive headache because they have to decide whether sir kim darroch stays in his role until january even though he has been

ostracised by donald trump or do they decide that they cannot be bullied by the president so we will see what their responses. boris johnson has been in manchester on a visit here ahead of the debate tonight. he was asked about this and talked mainly in response about brexit. i have got a good relationship with the white house and no embarrassment in saying that. i think it is very important that we have a very strong relationship with oui’ have a very strong relationship with our most important ally, the united states is and has been and will be for the foreseeable future are number one trade and military friend and partner. we will continue to stress the importance of that relationship. is the right to criticise the prime minister and the way the brexit negotiations have been handled ? way the brexit negotiations have been handled? i myself have said some pretty critical things about the brexit negotiations so far. that is one of the reasons i am standing

tonight. one of the reasons i'm putting myself forward. i think there is a chance of doing things differently and break away from an old can kicking approach. now it's a time to really get a grip on this and stop being so defeatist in our approach to the eu negotiations and we need to be a lot more positive about our country and what it can do. vicky, this debate tonight will interesting to you and me is addressing a court of people who have perhaps already bloated and centre alex papers back. the ballot papers will have gone out and some will have sent them back straightaway. conservative party members. but it is worth bearing in mind that whoever wins this contest becomes prime ministers straightaway so becomes prime ministers straightaway so it is relevant to a wider audience. many see this as the last chance forjeremy hunt to try and turnit chance forjeremy hunt to try and turn it around. borisjohnson very much a favourite with the tory

grassroots so jeremy much a favourite with the tory grassroots sojeremy hunt much a favourite with the tory grassroots so jeremy hunt will much a favourite with the tory grassroots sojeremy hunt will be hoping in some way to trip up boris johnson and expose them in some way and show that he may be is not up to thejob. it will and show that he may be is not up to the job. it will be very difficult but it is the first head—to—head televised debate and the only one there will be so in that sense it will be fascinating to watch, not just for you and i. i know you will be tuned in. the labour leaderjeremy corbyn, has committed his party to campaign for remain in another referendum on a conservative brexit deal — or a no—deal exit from the european union — challenging the next prime minister "to put their deal to the people". the shift in the party's policy came after a meeting of the shadow cabinet this morning. but it's still not clear what labour would do if the party won a general election before brexit was resolved. our political correspondent nick eardley reports. brexit has not always been easy forjeremy corbyn, the landscape for the labour party has been

farfrom simple. party members back staying in the eu but when it comes to labour voters, the picture is more complicated. for months in here the party has tried to keep everyone happy, but road is running out. in a letter to all labour members, mr corbyn writes sometimes watching the labour party brexit position evolve has been a bit like watching an oil tanker turn round, but in a meeting up there at the shadow cabinet there has been a shift agreed. now the party will say to whoever the new prime minister is, you have to put your plan to the people and if they do, labour will back remain. all clear? not quite. we still don't know what labour would campaign for any general election and whether it would back remaining if it managed

to get its own brexit deal. it's entirely possible for the government, a labour government to put forward that this is our deal but to give a free vote to the front bench, a free vote to labour mps to campaign on what they want, it's happened in the last referendum in 1975, it can happen again. some anti—brexit campaigners want jeremy corbyn to go further, some brexiteers will accuse the labour party of ignoring the referendum result but the party is moving in a direction of backing staying in the eu even if thejourney isn't yet complete. and nickjoins us now. there is a shift in policy but does not go as far as some would like it too in the party. yes, what would labour do if there was a general election? what does a labour government say we do on the brexit issue? i have been over the road trying to find out and the simple a nswer trying to find out and the simple answer is we do not know. the reason

is if you think the process to get here has been complicated, the process of putting together a labour ma nifesto process of putting together a labour manifesto is even more complicated. if you got to the point where a general election was going to happen labour would have to figure it out and it may be the party in that circumstances would say we will go back to europe and try and get another deal if that is possible. if we get another deal, something that maybe has the customs union nx, we might be happy with that and as a party the people might vote for that in another referendum. the reason it is complicated is labour has struggled to present a united front on this under a different wings of the party saying different things but increasingly the one that is winning on the one that is largest and the one that is largest in making its voice heard as the one saying that as a party labour should back another referendum. and if that happens it should campaign to stop

brexit. has that split got wider there a sense they are pulling themselves together?” there a sense they are pulling themselves together? i am often confused, simon. the simple answer to that is the people who are com pletely to that is the people who are completely opposed to another referendum, this will be a hard pill to swallow. if you look at mps in the north of england whose constituents might have backed leaving the eu, they will be relu cta nt to leaving the eu, they will be reluctant to turn right now and say jeremy corbyn has shifted his policy toward something and we need to do the same. there are some like neil kinnock who want to stay close to the eu and say it would be anti—democratic to try and reverse the result and they will not change their minds overnight. what matters now is the party leadership, the man in charge, who will see these policies through, is saying that if the next prime minister comes then they should put this vote to another

referendum and labour will back staying and the european union. it isa staying and the european union. it is a long way off. we cannot stand here this afternoon and say the chances of the uk staying in the european union have gone up massively but we can say that labour is now backing remain and that gives them a chance. you're watching afternoon live, these are our headlines no diplomatic immunity here — more personal tweets from president trump attacking the uk ambassador — he calls him ‘wacky‘ and ‘a very stupid guy‘ — labour's shifting brexit policy — jeremy corbyn says there should be another referendum on a conservative brexit deal — or a no—deal exit — and labour should back remain a technique called gene—silencing — which doctors say will be life changing — is given the go—ahead for use selina wilson is one set up against —— mike serena williams is one set

up —— mike serena williams is one set up against alison riske .johanna konta . johanna konta plays .johanna konta plays half match later. new zealand are 211 for five against india. anti—government protesters in hong kong have said they are not reassured by the territory's leader, carrie lam, describing a controversial extradition bill as "dead." the proposed law — which would have allowed criminal suspects to be put on trial on the chinese mainland — sparked huge protests, even after the bill was suspended. rupert wingfield hayes has more. it has been a month of stunning, unprecedented scenes on the streets of hong kong. again and again, hundreds of thousands of ordinary people have come out demanding the government withdraw a widely reviled extradition bill. mostly peaceful, there

has also been violence, with radical student groups storming into hong kong's parliament. after another huge demonstration last weekend, today hong kong's chief executive finally came out to face the music and make what initially looked like a stunning climb—down. but there are still lingering doubts about the government's sincerity or worries whether the government will restart the process in a legislative council. so i reiterate here — there is no such plan. the bill is dead. "the bill is dead." it certainly sounds like an unambiguous climb—down by hong kong's chief executive, but the devil is in the detail. carrie lam is saying she has suspended this bill indefinitely, she won't bring it back, and therefore it will die at the end of the current legislative session. but what she is not saying is that she will withdraw the bill now, and that is what the opposition protesters are demanding.

opposition politicians of every shade have immediately jumped in to make clear carrie lam's statement is not enough. i don't know why it is so difficult for her to utter the word "withdrawal". is it face? or... i don't know what it is. and she knows very well that that is what the people, the protesters are demanding. so she should come out and say, "yes, the bill is withdrawn." carrie lam must be hoping her statement will reassure the protesters — the majority of whom are moderate — that the hated extradition bill really is dead, and they have no reason to continue taking to the streets. the first test of whether it has worked will come this weekend when more big protests are planned. a new form of medicine called "gene—silencing" has been approved for use by the nhs in england. it will be used to reverse a disease called amyloidosis,

which causes nerve and organ damage, and can be fatal. doctors have described the impact of the gene—silencing technique as amazing. our health correspondent james gallagher reports. neil and vince nicholas know the pain of amyloidosis. they had toxic proteins building up inside their bodies that were damaging their nerves and weakening their hearts. the disease runs through families and eventually it's deadly. it's decimated our family. but they've been given gene silencing medicine that can halt and even reverse their disease. and you just hope that someone is going to invent a drug that will do it. you know, i'm lucky that i'm here today to be able to talk to you about that. this is how it works. inside our cells are genes, they send out messages containing instructions for running our body. but in this form of amyloidosis, a rogue gene leads to

a build—up of toxic proteins. gene silencing intercepts the messenger, disabling it and restoring the correct balance of proteins. today's decision applies in england. choices on which drugs to fund are devolved in the uk. scotland made it available injune. this is huge. this is making a disease that was previously untreatable, treatable. and has the potential to make patients' lives dramatically better. the drug may have saved neil's music career as he was starting to lose feeling in his fingers and his voice. but the implications of this study go much further than the brothers and amyloidosis. experts say gene silencing is an exciting new area of medicine with the potential to work on diseases that are currently untreatable. james gallagher, bbc news. the swiss defence ministry has had to apologise after their crack air

display team performed a fly—by — over the wrong town. the patrouille swiss — the equivalent of our red arrows — were due to fly over langenbruck to honour a swiss flying pioneer. but instead the the team flew four miles further away — over the town of mumlisvil — which happened to be hosting the 31st north west yodelling festival.the squadron leader apparantly saw the huge marquee set up for the yodellers — and misdirected the jets. a spokesman for the swiss military says the tiger 2 aircraft isn't equipped with gps technology.the group performed four formations for the startled yodellers, who are said to have enjoyed the unexpected show. the pilot is reported to have said ‘the valleys look confusingly similarfrom the air' time for a look at the weather... here's ben rich.

they have had some severe flooding on the east coast of the usa. this is how it looked for the monday morning commute in washington, dc. an awful lot of rain fell, not foul ofa an awful lot of rain fell, not foul of a months worth of rain fell in six hours giving scenes like these. not a greatjourney six hours giving scenes like these. not a great journey to work. six hours giving scenes like these. not a greatjourney to work. not far away in arlington, virginia, a p pa re ntly away in arlington, virginia, apparently this is a little creek and it turned into a raging torrent so some and it turned into a raging torrent so some really spectacular scenes in the united states. it has been really humid there over the last few days and that has brought showers and thunderstorms that club of that pa rt and thunderstorms that club of that part of the united states. how unusual is this because we seem to be seeing more scenes like this then be seeing more scenes like this then be used to? it is not unusual to see

big downpours and thunderstorms like theirs. i guess it depends weather you are in the right place with a camera at the right time. the east coast in the us in the summer is a very humid place and you have a very warm they are pushing up from the south and quite often that can bring showers and thunderstorms and so it is not that surprising. the trick is, unlike the swiss air force, to be in the right place. look at this on the radar, this big lump of blue that works its way through what you call the wrong place. i mentioned a months worth of rain. 87 millimetres of rain fell in just six hours, getting on forfour of rain fell in just six hours, getting on for four inches of rain so getting on for four inches of rain so huge deluge. what about us? some downpours here and some of those could give a little bit of flooding in some places over the next couple of days. at the moment some of us get to see some sunshine. the north and the south of the uk best

favoured. lerwick from one of our weather watchers earlier on and this was weybridge and cornwall with beautiful blue skies overhead but it is not like that everywhere. cloud spinning in from the west across northern ireland and scotland and into northern england and parts of wales and the midlands producing outbreaks of rain. one lump of rain moving through merseyside into the middle and through the afternoon and shouted rain for the north. best of the sunshine in the far ear and far north. the winds are relatively light. as we go to this ceiling of things will turn increasingly muggy and humid so it might start to get a little uncomfortable for sleeping. a fairamount of dry little uncomfortable for sleeping. a fair amount of dry weather around for the south. one to get a little uncomfortable for sleeping. a fair amount of dry weather around for the south. one or two showers here but bit cloudy and showery rain continuing to affect northern ireland and scotland. overnight lows between 12 and down to the south and

it is still clinging on but areas of low pressure and frontal systems processing and from the west so we will see further outbreaks of rain at times. through tomorrow parts of northern ireland and scotland and northern england will see shouted rain at times. further south not as many showers but maybe one or two. equally dry weather and some spells of sunshine. high temperatures towards the south with 25 degrees in london. with a muggy feel we are likely to see some of the showers and thunderstorms across eastern parts of scotland. that could even be the odd shower at wimbledon tomorrow afternoon. it may stay dry but we can't completely rule out a shower. a similar story at wimbledon on thursday. a mixture of sunshine and showers across the uk. across north—eastern england into scotland the potential for a heavy slow—moving thunderstorms which could dump quite a lot of rain in a short space of time. as we look ahead to friday a slightly cooler and fresher feel across the uk.

against sunshine and showers but maybe not as many showers at this stage. maybe the odd heavy one towards the north—east. temperatures up towards the north—east. temperatures up to 23 degrees. a brief look at the forecast for the weekend. showers will fade away and we will see more dry weather and some spells of sunshine. this is bbc news — our latest headlines. no diplomatic immunity here —

more personal tweets from president trump attacking the uk ambassador — he calls him wacky and a very stupid guy — and now his meeting with the president's daughter is cancelled. labour's shifting brexit policy — jeremy corbyn says there should be another referendum on a conservative brexit deal — or a no—deal exit — and labour should back remain. a technique called gene—silencing — which doctors say will be life changing — is given the go—ahead for use on the nhs in england. sport now on afternoon live with will perry. yesterday was manic monday. what is today? a fascinating few hours for that centre court crowd with serena williams and andy murray serena to finish things off on centre later in the mixed doubles. let's take you to the all england club and join john watson. john, before all of that, serena is well and truly in a contest right now.

yes. just as we were saying that serena williams is hitting top gear with that victory yesterday, she is ina real with that victory yesterday, she is in a real tussle out on centre court at the moment against someone who upset the odds yesterday, knocking out ash barty. we can take it to centre court and bring you the latest. serena williams took the first set 6—4 but her opponent has taken the second 6—4. riske said she would have to push williams as far as she could. this is the further she has gone on a grand slam, reaching the quarterfinal at wimbledon, and she is doing what she said she would do. after that huge upset yesterday, could we see another today? riske is very much in this one as she receives less from serena williams. very early on in the third and decisive set. we will

stay across it throughout the afternoon. simona halep is on court one. halep was 4—1 down at one stage in the opening set before coming back to take it 7—6. she is on the cusp of breaking her place in the wimbledon semi—finals with that hefty lead in the second set. 5—i wimbledon semi—finals with that hefty lead in the second set. 5—1 up and serving for the match, simona halep. former semifinalist at wimbledon previously. all eyes will be on you are —— you are a and she produced a brilliant result beating petra kvitova. she will be second on centre court after serena williams. i will be seeing andy

murray. alongside serena williams. they will be out in the next doubles later. as far as things on centre court are concerned, riske has just broken serena williams at the start of the third set so we could well see a huge upset with serena williams chasing bacillus of 24th grand slam to try to pull level with the record. she has a lot to do, trailing early on in the third set and potentially facing an exit from these wimbledon quarterfinals against riske. we will be keeping a at this afternoon. you can watch all of the action on bbc one and bbc two at the bbc sport website.

it's the first of the cricket world cup semi—finals. india have made a good start against new zealand at old trafford. the black caps won the toss and chose to bat first. martin guptill went for just i. fellow opener henry nicholls has followed him, he made 28. bumrah and jadeja with the wickets. captain kane williamson made a steady 67 before getting out to chahal. it's currently 2ii—5 in the 47th over and rain has stopped play in manchester. there's coverage from old trafford on the bbc sport website, with in—play video highlights. england and australia play their semi—final at edgbaston on thursday. the first qualifying stages of the champions league start this evening. scottish champions celtic are in the bosnian capital to play fc sarajevo. their opponents have never reached the group stage before. welsh champions the new saints face also play tonight. that's all the sport for now. it is tantalising to stay!

sir david attenborough has told mps that they cannot be "radical enough" in dealing with climate change. giving evidence to the commons business, energy and industrial strategy committee, the natural historian and broadcaster said he wished he didn't have to make tv programmes arguing for action to tackle the problem. our environment correspondent, matt mcgrath, has been following the proceedings and joins me now. it isa it is a familiar message for him in time and again he is having to tell us time and again he is having to tell us what damage climate change is doing. yes. he appeared before mps to tell them how britain might get to tell them how britain might get to net zero by 2050 and he painted a picture about how things have changed over the course of his long career. he said about 60 years ago nobody talked about climate change. it didn't exist in some respects and he didn't envisage it could have this irreversible change on the planet. he was asked by mps what he had himself had seen as the most dramatic impacts of climate change

in his career. i will never forget diving on a reef about ten years ago and suddenly seeing that instead of wonderful forms of life, it was stark white, it had bleached white, because of the rising temperatures and the increasing acidity of the sea. about 30 to 40% of all oceanic fish, fish throughout the seas, depend upon the coral reefs at some time in theirlives, and if you wipe that out you wipe out whole areas of the ocean, and the notion that somehow we have stopped this, the oceans on which we depend for our food, and so many nations around the world do, is appalling. critical of politicians but offering some hope. he warned about the

serious collapse we could see over the next 20 or 30 years and the worries about migration particularly from africa with a combination of population growth and climate change causing people to move but he offered some solutions. he said aeroplane travel was too cheap and the government should tax it more. he said he was very hopeful because of the way things had changed in the past, comparing the example of slavery in the 19th century and within 20 or 30 years people had begun to believe that the idea of owning other people was appalling and he hopes that could happen with climate change. i suspect that we are right now in the beginning of a big change. young people, particularly, are the stimulus that is bringing that about, in which people are... members of the public are understanding that to chuck plastic into the ocean is an insult.

to have the nerve to say this is our rubbish and we will give you money and you can spread it on your land instead of ours in the far east is intolerable, and for some reason or other young people see that very clearly now, and that's a source of great hope. the impact of his programmes is well known. what is he hoping to achieve? he had parliamentarians eating out of the palm of his hand. he brought a big young audience with him and mps were struck by theirs. they said it was the most hopeful session they had had. he may be sending a message of doom and gloom but he is also bringing a message of hope. nearly 30,000 cases of cancer in men in the uk are likely to be prevented in the next four decades, say researchers — because of a scheme to vaccinate boys against the human papilloma virus. until now only girls have

been offered the jab, but from the next school year it will also be available to 12 and 13—year—old boys. lauren moss has more details. whenjamie rae was 44, he noticed a lump on the side of his neck about the size of a iop coin. tests at a clinic in scotland revealed that he had throat cancer caused by the human papilloma virus, or hpv. jamie needed surgery, radio— and chemotherapy. i couldn't eat properly. i couldn't speak for a good three months. and i really couldn't swallow anything. i was struggling to swallow water, just because of the inflammation and the burning and pain that the radiation had caused. more or less all of the side right around my throat was terribly burned. it was very painful. girls have been vaccinated against hpv since 2008. that wasn't available to jamie when he was younger, but from the next school term, boys aged 12 and 13 across the uk will be given the jab for free. hpv is most commonly spread by sexual contact, and causes most cases of cervical cancer. but it is also linked

to several cancers among men. a study by the university of warwick estimates that over the next a0 years, expanding the vaccination programme to boys could prevent more than 100,000 cancers in the uk, including 21,000 fewer throat cancers among men. cases of anal cancer could be reduced by almost 7000. and it could also result in 64,000 fewer cases of cervical cancer. those boys will be protected against some of the cancers that are due to this infection, but they will also protect their partners by not spreading the infection, and that will impact on women and men. so we should see a major change in the rates of cancer in the future. older teenage boys will have to pay for the vaccine, but doctors say they will be protected, because women up to the age of 25 can receive it. gay men under 45 years old are eligible to get it for free. a recent study found that, over the last ten years, there has been a dramatic reduction in cases of hpv and precancerous growths. it's hoped that this roll—out

will save more lives in the decades to come. lauren moss, bbc news. there is an ethnicity pay gap in britain for many workers, according to the first study of its kind. the office for national statistics found that members of some ethnic groups earn less on average than their white counterparts — workers from pakistani and bangladeshi ethnic groups had the lowest median hourly pay. but people of chinese and indian groups buck the trend. simon jones has been looking at the data. does the colour of your skin affect what you earn? after the recent row over the gender pay gap, focus has now turned to the disadvantage that others face, with too many ethnic minority employees hitting a brick wall in their careers, according to the government. this is the first analysis we've been able to do looking at specific different ethnicities and their pay gaps in regards to white british. the ethnic pay gap is largest in london,

and it's smallest, in fact, it's positive, in the north—east and eastern regions of great britain. the office of national statistics calculated that the median pay for a worker who is white british is just over £12 an hour, but employees from bangladesh earn just £9.60 an hour on average. chinese workers, though, buck the trend, earning £15.75 in comparison. in fact, all ethnic groups other than indian, chinese and those of mixed or multiple ethnicity had lower average wages than white british employees. it's a complicated picture, but unlike the data for the gender pay gap, which is reported by companies themselves, today's figures compiled by the office for national statistics come from looking at the annual population survey where people are asked their ethnicity and how much they earn. the pay gap is particularly prevalent in london. when you compare with your colleagues who are not from the same community, the same group, you can see a big gap. yeah, obviously, we are fighting it

and i hope by bringing that up, it will make a change. i work in hr, so yes, you can see that beyond a certain level, there is a discrepancy amongst ethnicities, but i don't think that's anything to do... anything malicious or anything untoward. i think it's just that people on that level just happen to be white. today's figures don't analyse in detail the reason for the pay gap, but pressure will now grow on firms to address the imbalance. shining a light on the issue gets people and employers and employees themselves talking about where these gaps come from and what they can do, so shining a light on the issue is a really important first step. it won't solve it, but it's a good first step. and to make businesses fully reflective of the communities they serve, the government is now considering obliging companies to publish their own ethnicity pay gaps. simon jones, bbc news.

breaking news. the labour whip has resigned citing anti—semitism as the reason. he was general party secretary of the labour party previously. labour thought they were getting on top of things and now this. this is not what labour would wa nt this. this is not what labour would want today when they are trying to focus on the shift in the brexit policy. nor do they want us to be talking again about how the party deals with anti—semitism. lord triesman is not a household name in the party but he was general

secretary under tony blair so he is somebody who knows how it works and clearly he has got to the point where he just cannot get his head round how it is operating. let me ta ke round how it is operating. let me take you through a couple of lines of this letter that he has written, seeing that people with anti—semitic views are shielded in the party, that life in the party has become sickening, that he finds it ugly, but he has not changed ideologies but he has not changed ideologies but he has not changed ideologies but he believes the party has changed for him. the problem labour has is that there issue keeps coming up has is that there issue keeps coming up time and again and we come to a position where someone reaches the end of their tether with the leadership when it comes to dealing with anti—semitism. a couple of weeks ago it was the chris williamson case won by the parties executive is looking at today as to whether he has allowed back in. it is unlikely there will be any firm outcome to that today but it is something that keeps dragging on and

on and all the time when it comes up into something that the labour party would rather not be talking about, something it has completely failed to put a lid on. anybody thinking i know that name, he was chair of the football association in the past. a seniorfigure whose football association in the past. a senior figure whose resignation will hurt the party if he states as he has done that this is the issue behind it. absolutely. he is he is a member of the house of lords, not somebody we would see talking about labour party policy on a daily basis. it will not affect the numbers in the house of commons when it comes to crunch votes but it undermines the party's argument that it is taking anti—semitism as seriously as seriously as it can. that is what we hear from jeremy corbyn on a regular basis. it is what we hear from senior figures corbyn on a regular basis. it is what we hearfrom seniorfigures in the party. they believe they are doing everything they can that they have set up a folded procedure, that

the new general secretary who was brought in is dealing with it as robustly as she can, and that swift decisions are being made. clearly lord triesman doesn't agree and he has contrasting the way that anti—semitism is dealt with with people like alistair campbell who, as we know, was thrown out of the party pretty swiftly after admitting on the bbc had voted for the liberal democrats in european elections. another damaging day for the party when it comes to those allegations of anti—semitism. when it comes to those allegations of anti-semitism. lord triesman has resigned the labour party whip. president trump fires off more personal tweets calling the uk ambassdor "wacky" and "a very stupid guy".

jeremy corbyn calls for a second referendum before the uk leaves the eu — saying labour will campaign for remain. a technique called gene—silencing — which doctors say will be life changing — is given the go—ahead for use on the nhs in england. here's your business headlines on afternoon live. online delivery firm ocado says the fire that ripped through its andover warehouse in february cost £110 million. the company has already claimed millions of pounds back from its insurers but the fire did force it to report a half year loss of £143 million last year, and hit sales by 2%. a new survey from the shopkeepers association — the brc — shows consumer spending injune was at its weakest since the mid—1990s. it says it's further evidence that the british economy is shrinking. total sales fell injune by 1.3%, while the annual rate of growth slowed to 0.6%. supplier e.on is to provide all of its residential uk customers with an electricity supply that is wholly matched by renewable sources including wind, biomass and solar.

it's one of the biggest green energy switches to date, and comes at no extra cost to customers. virgin galactic doing something interesting here on earth. i would volunteer, i tell you. the space tourism company virgin galactic plans to break barriers by becoming the first spaceflight company to go public and list on the markets. branson‘s space unit has so far already sold 600 tickets to aspiring astronauts, raking in £64 million. it's currently locked in a tense space race with rivals including tesla ceo elon musk‘s spacex and amazon boss jeff bezos‘ blue origin. it has decided to list itself on the stock market. it is doing it in a

different way. samira hussein is in new york for us. this report in the wall street journal. talk us through the plans. we have heard from virgin galactic themselves that they are going to partner up with the company that trades here on the floor of the new york stock exchange called social capital which is an investment company. this company got all this money from different investors and had a time limit in terms of when it could invest the money into another technology company before it had to give the money back to its original investors. enter virgin galactic who are looking for more avenues to start there space tourism and the two met and there seems to be a marriage that works for both companies. virgin galactic gets an

ingestion, injection of $800 million right away and it serves a purpose for social capital. its value has skyrocketed, an indication that investors are excited by this venture. there is competition from others in this race to get tourists to space. where do we stand? there isa to space. where do we stand? there is a lot of competition and the competitors are throwing a lot of money into this kind of venture to try to get space to do some of the ground, out of this world. from mac to's point of they believe they can start some more trips in 2019 and they are hoping they might be able to get actual people into space for tourism basis perhaps by the end of the year. good to speak together.

would you go to space? some days! some days i am already there! how awkward has today been funny? for you, quite awkward! when william wordsworth came across a belt of golden daffodils in the lake district 200 years ago — he famously wrote a poem about it. today, would he be more likely to take a quick picture and share it online? the country's tourist attractions now have to appeal to a new generation of visitors — and become instagram—friendly. danny savage has been to find out more. visit somewhere special while living life through the lens. the power of social media is seeing a different generation heading to those special spots to prove they've been there. after all, the camera never lies. so we'll start in york, which has lots to see and loads of history. they took to the tower... john has started a bespoke instagram tour of the city,

with the specific aim of getting in the right place for the best pictures. i think it is really changing the way people want to consume, and the way people want to visit a city and particularly capture it very much in the present and share their adventure and share and create stories about what they're doing with people. having that tour that takes you to those locations where you can take those types of pictures is really, kind of, like, the goal. everyone at home wants to see them, our families are waiting for them, you get calls all the time asking, "where are you now?" it's nice for them to be able to see. the name instagram, instant, the moment we're there, they get to experience it at home too. a few miles down the road at castle howard, there's a frame to help you get the right picture. knowing the audience is the key here. it's absolutely essential that we engage with younger markets. places like castle howard are the lifeblood of the country's history and how we make it relevant for younger markets is really important for us.

this was also the venue for a taiwanese pop star's wedding reception, and that's brought in thousands of visitors. saw the picture from a popstar, a famous taiwan popstar, from his app. his instagram? instagram. and he got married here? yes. and you saw the pictures? that's how we know castle howard. over at the unesco world heritage site at the lake district, there's a more cautionary note. everyone wants to take photographs and get them straight on social media so they can show their friends where they've been. you've got to get up high to get the top shots, and mountain rescue teams are worried. many people have fallen to their death or major injury. all you need is a gust of wind when you're concentrating on that photograph and you're over the edge. you need to be careful and know what's around you when you're taking selfies. one big question when taking selfies is, to have a selfie stick or not

to have a selfie stick? my daughters tell me that these are not very cool, but i suspect that's because when you do use one, you get far more of the view and less of the pouting human. danny savage, bbc news. danny savage there on the latest selfie trend. scientists in the us have been studying a cockatoo that became a viral internet sensation. a video of snowball dancing to a hit by backstreet boys was viewed millions of times back in 2007. but researchers looking at his uncanny ability to dance in time to a beat now say the bird has provided insights into the evolution of dance — and they've identified 14 seperate moves. that includes the "head — foot sync" and the "head bang". scientists say the moves come from an urge to socialise — meaning snowball has learnt to strut his stuff without any formal dance training.

time for a look at the weather. as far as the weather goes for this afternoon, sunshine to the north and south of the uk. look at this beautiful shot in plymouth with blue skies overhead. you can see the south west of england has seen the best of the sunshine. some sunny skies through wales and the met ones as well. in between quite a lot of cloud producing outbreaks of showery rain. temperatures between 16 and 24 degrees and winds will be relatively light as we head through the rest of the day. through the rush hour we could see that heavy rain bringing wet weather for the time through merseyside and north midlands. tonight we will continue to see clear spells across southern areas,

more quite further north wish dating across northern ireland, and scotla nd across northern ireland, and scotland and northern england. it will turn muggy during the night. high pressure has been trying to cling on. further north and west you can see a procession of frontal system so there will be more cloud and outbreaks of rain. the rain on and outbreaks of rain. the rain on and off through the day particularly through northern ireland and into scotland. we could see some hefty servers across the eastern side of scotla nd servers across the eastern side of scotland as we go through the afternoon. further safe mode and the way of dry weather. temperatures up to 25 degrees in london. you cannot com pletely to 25 degrees in london. you cannot completely relate a shower at wimbledon tomorrow with some sunny spells as well. thursday could bring some real drenching downpour is across the northern half of the uk

in particular north—eastern england and into scotland. thunderstorms could give a lot of rain in a short space of time. elsewhere some sunny spells with temperatures 24 degrees in the side but even for aberdeen and glasgow highs of 20 degrees. friday will probably bring fewer sharers and more spells of sunshine but some hefty downpours across eastern scotland and north—east england. a cooler fresher feel after a muggy couple of days. winds coming from the north. showers feeding and some spells of sunshine.

hello, you're watching afternoon live — i'm simon mccoy. today at 3pm. labour's shifting brexit policy — jeremy corbyn says there should be another referendum on a conservative brexit deal — or a no—deal exit — and labour should back remain. the tories want no deal. we will stop that and we believe the public should have a boat to decide whether it will be no deal or to remain in the eu. -- it will be no deal or to remain in the eu. —— vote. no diplomatic immunity here. more personal tweets from president trump attacking the uk ambassador — he calls him "wacky" and "a very stupid guy". a technique called gene—silencing — which doctors say will be life changing — is given the go—ahead for use on the nhs in england. this is huge. this is making a

disease which was previously untreatable treatable and has the potential to make the lives of patients dramatically better. coming up on afternoon live all the sport — will perry. tantalising tuesday. simon, you can do better than that. we'll bring you up to date with wimbledon where serena williams is level at one set all in her quarterfinal against alison riske. johanna konta's on centre after serena and then we have the andy murray—serena mixed doubles to come plus the latest from the cricket world cup semi final between new zealand and india. it is currently rained off. thanks, will, and ben rich has all the weather — many places have sunshine this afternoon but we have cloud and outbreaks of rain and much more rain the next few days but not as much as we have seen in washington, dc. we have some impressive pictures for you later. also coming up...

iamok i am ok for the next decade and all of us here are ok because we will not face the problems but there will be in the next 20 or 30 years with major problems which will cause great social unrest. turning up the heat — sir david attenborough criticises world leaders, who he says are not doing enough to address climate change. hello, everyone. this is afternoon live, i'm simon mccoy. the labour leaderjeremy corbyn, has committed his party to campaign for remain in another referendum on a conservative brexit deal — or a no—deal exit from the european union, challenging the next prime minister "to put their deal to the people". the shift in the party's policy came after a meeting of the shadow cabinet this morning.

but it's still not clear what labour would do if the party won a general election before brexit was resolved. our political correspondent nick eardley reports. brexit has not always been easy forjeremy corbyn, the landscape for labour has been far from simple. party members back staying in the eu but when it comes to labour voters, the picture is more complicated. for months in here the party has tried to keep everyone happy, but road is running out. in a letter to all labour members, mr corbyn writes... sometimes watching the labour brexit position evolve has been a bit like watching an oil tanker turn round, but in a meeting up there at

the shadow cabinet there has been a shift agreed. now the party will say to whoever the new prime minister is, you have to put your plan to the people and if they do, labour will back remain. all clear? not quite. we still don't know what labour would campaign for any —— in a general election and whether it would back remaining if it managed to get its own brexit deal. it's entirely possible for the government, a labour government to put forward that this is our deal but to give a free vote to the front bench, a free vote to labour mps to be able campaign on what they want, its happened in the last referendum in 1975, it can happen again. some anti—brexit campaigners want jeremy corbyn to go further, some brexiteers will accuse the labour party of ignoring the referendum result but the party is moving in a direction is moving in the direction of backing staying in the eu even if thejourney isn't yet complete. and nickjoins us now.

a shift in policy, but, what the labour party are seeing today explicitly as it is going to try to force the new prime minister, be it borisjohnson orjeremy force the new prime minister, be it boris johnson orjeremy hunt, force the new prime minister, be it borisjohnson orjeremy hunt, to hold a new referendum and if that happens they will back staying in the eu. as you say it is not quite there yet because we still do not know exactly what the party would do if there was a general election, what their policy would be and whether that deal would then be put back to the people. and what they would recommend voters do. let's have a listen tojeremy corbyn speaking in the last couple of hours about how he got here. what i have doneis about how he got here. what i have done is what i think leaders should done is what i think leaders should do not to spend some time listening to people. many of my colleagues find this a very frustrating experience because they have said why don't you just tell us what you think? i said no, iwant to

why don't you just tell us what you think? i said no, i want to take the movement with me, i want to take the membership with me and take the unions with me. i want to take the public with us if we can because this is a very important time for this is a very important time for this country. however you voted in 2016 you have a stake in the future, how much investment we have and how much trade we have and what jobs we have or do we go into the scenario which hunt and johnson are discussing with each other if that is how you can describe the debate of having a sweetheart deal with the united states which i think would bring about britain's deregulation of environment, food and standards and damage to workers' rights and other things in this country. we have to have a trade relationship with europe in the future. chatting to people involved in this process over the last couple of hours i think the feeling is if you think it is hard to get here, getting to a position to which it in a manifesto

a position it has not been confirmed is harder yet so the party has not gone there yet. the question is will it be enough for everyone on the remain wing of the party? i think some will be delighted jeremy corbyn has got this far but still think there is distance for him to go before the party becomes unequivocally supportive of staying in the european union. we have heard from one of the most pro—remain people in the top team of the labour party, tom watson, the labour deputy leader. we will campaign for the men and a peoples vote on any deal adopted by the current government. members have been telling us for some time now they want us to be a remain party and they want us to put the new deal to the people. we are now going to campaign for that and i'm very proud that the shadow cabinet have listened to their

concerns. it does feel as if labour has been dragged kicking and screaming towards positions on brexit but it has got to a new one today. the question is whether it will have to go further at some point. i know the issue of anti—semitism is come back to bite them. resignation this afternoon. this is lord triesman who was general secretary under tony blair and has been on happy about —— might unhappy about how labour has dealt with anti—semitism. he writes, my sad conclusion is the labour party is institutionally anti semitic and the labour leader and his circle are anti semitic having never made the rightjudgment anti semitic having never made the right judgment call about an anti semitic having never made the rightjudgment call about an issue reflecting the prejudice. it is

about the fact we keep talking about the position. the labour party has failed to get a lid on it and many are frustrated that the leadership is not just kick are frustrated that the leadership is notjust kick people accused of anti—semitism out of the party. the labour leadership would say they have put new rules into place and the new general secretary says she is absolutely committed to tackling this issue. jeremy corbyn himself seeing him —— saying this afternoon anti—semitism is evil and he will do everything it can to get it out of the party. but as we've seen time and time again there are many who do not think the labour leader has gone far enough. he can't have been up very long this morning — before president donald trump took to twitter to write more personal comments attacking the uk ambassador to washington sir kim darroch. (ff ‘a wacky ambassador', he says ' not someone

we are thrilled with‘, he adds — and ‘a very stupid guy'. more of the same, you might say after his comments yesterday, but as mr trump was tweeting — the embassy was cancelling — cancelling a scheduled meeting between the ambassador and the president's daughter — and advisor — ivanka trump. as the leak inquiry continues over here into who leaked sir kim's controversial comments on the trump white house there's a nagging concern — is the uk's diplomatic representative in the united states now being prevented from doing his job? our diplomatic correspondent james robbins reports. thank you for your continued hospitality. the emir of qatar thanks donald trump at a white house dinner last night. routine, you might think, except that britain's ambassador, sir kim darroch, was not there, originally invited, then warned off attending by the administration after sir kim's highly critical description of his administration as dysfunctional, faction—riven, clumsy and inept, one of several secret assessments made for whitehall across two years and now spectacularly leaked. the great leak of the cache of documents has stung him to the quick, and i think he is also

deeply irritated by theresa may's full faith and support in sir kim. so put those two things together and from his point of view, you've got a toxic combination which has led to this shower of tweets. and the president's tweets are incendiary, even by his own standards, condemning theresa may for what he calls the brexit mess she and her representatives have created. "i told her how it should be done, but she decided to go another way", before the president turns on sir kim — "i don't know the ambassador, but he is not liked and we will not deal with him." sir kim darroch seems safe in his post as ambassador. theresa may has repeated her support for him. and in whitehall, a cross—government leak inquiry is now under way. could the messages have been hacked? that would be a devastating indictment of security. or was this a political plot inside the system? whoever has done it has taken very great care across a couple of years to do it,

to fillet the juiciest bits from these diplomatic telegrams, package them up and hand them to a journalist. i suspect it's going to be quite hard to find out who that person is. but now there's a new tweet from the president. this time donald trump calls sir kim darroch a wacky ambassador and a very stupid guy, and repeats his criticism of theresa may's entire brexit negotiation. there is no question that uk relations with the trump white house are now intensely strained. the president himself is rejoicing in the fact that theresa may will soon be gone. her successor will have to decide how to repair the damage. james robbins, bbc news. let's speak now to lewis lukens, who was the deputy chief of mission of the us embassy in london until earlier this year. that language, a wacky ambassador and not someone we are thrilled with and not someone we are thrilled with and a very stupid guide. how presidential is that language? you

forgot pompous full. it is not presidential at all and it is astonishing to see the president of united states attacking her majesties government and her prime minister and representative in washington in this way. we have a lwa ys washington in this way. we have always managed to work out disagreements in a spirit of cooperation and shared values but this kind of personal attack is something i have never seen before. is sort of hard because you actually responded when president trump attacked sadiq khan after the terrorist attack. clearly his feud with sadiq khan has been going on for a couple of years now but to attack the prime minister and the ambassador is unprecedented. never before have we seen this kind of public take—down of leadership in another country, any country, let

alone our closest and important ally. what is driving him? i can't pretend to get into his head. i think he is simply thin skinned and he reacted very poorly to the criticism that came out in those lea ked criticism that came out in those leaked documents, the criticism and the observations sir kim darroch had made of how the white house functions or doesn't function and the president take these things very personally and as the only thing he knows how to do which is to strike back and attack the person from whence the criticism came. i'm wondering what reaction there would be in the american embassy here when they saw that. i'm sure there are embarrassed and mortified and struggling with how to manage this really unnecessary strain on the relationship. for now i have not seen much from the embassy so i think they're probably keeping a low profile which is the safest thing to do but at some point i think the

embassy will have to weigh in on this. we have sort of been on this before because some of the wikileaks documents were quite embarrassing for us officials. there was one about gordon brown. these things past. you sense this might not. these things do pass but what is different this time is the way the personal attacks from the president against their ambassador and the prime minister. but it will pass. the prime minister is in her last few weeks in office and sir kim darroch is in his last few months in washington. there will be a new prime minister and you ambassador and a way to reset the relationship. but if the new prime minister says to sir kim darroch you will have to leave, you have the americans running ourforest leave, you have the americans running our forest in leave, you have the americans running ourforest in policy. ——

foreign policy. the president has given an extra minister opposing challenge because either they ambassador remains as sir kim darroch and risked the wrath of the president or he pulls back so i came early and then —— pulls back sir kim darroch and then it can be seen that america is running british foreign policy. what word would you use for the president? he uses wacky for the ambassador. what what would you use? embarrassing. you're watching afternoon live, these are our headlines jeremy corbyn calls for a second referendum before the uk leaves the eu — saying labour will campaign for remain.

president trump fires off more personal tweets calling the uk ambassdor "wacky" and ‘a very stupid suv-i a technique called gene—silencing — which doctors say will be life changing — is given the go—ahead for use on the nhs in england. serena williams it is through to the semifinals after beating fellow american alison riske. johanna konta v barbora strycova later. and new zealand are 211 runs for five wickets against india with just four overs to go before rain stopped play.

anti—government protesters in hong kong have said they are not reassured by the territory's leader, carrie lam, describing a controversial extradition bill as "dead." the proposed law — which would have allowed criminal suspects to be put on trial on the chinese mainland — sparked huge protests, even after the bill was suspended. rupert wingfield hayes has more. it has been a month of stunning, unprecedented scenes on the streets of hong kong. again and again, hundreds of thousands of ordinary people have come out demanding the government withdraw a widely reviled extradition bill. mostly peaceful, there has also been violence, with radical student groups storming into hong kong's parliament. after another huge demonstration last weekend, today hong kong's chief executive finally came out to face the music and make what initially looked like a stunning climb—down. but there are still lingering doubts about the government's sincerity or worries whether the government will restart the process in a legislative council. so i reiterate here —

there is no such plan. the bill is dead. "the bill is dead." it certainly sounds like an unambiguous climb—down by hong kong's chief executive, but the devil is in the detail. carrie lam is saying she has suspended this bill indefinitely, she won't bring it back, and therefore it will die at the end of the current legislative session. but what she is not saying is that she will withdraw the bill now, and that is what the opposition protesters are demanding. opposition politicians of every shade have immediately jumped in to make clear carrie lam's statement is not enough. i don't know why it is so difficult for her to utter the word "withdrawal". is it face? or... i don't know what it is. and she knows very well that that is what the people, the protesters are demanding. so she should come out and say, "yes, the bill is withdrawn." carrie lam must be hoping her statement will reassure the protesters — the majority of whom are moderate —

that the hated extradition bill really is dead, and they have no reason to continue taking to the streets. the first test of whether it has worked will come this weekend when more big protests are planned. a new form of medicine called "gene—silencing" has been approved for use by the nhs in england. it will be used to reverse a disease called amyloidosis, which causes nerve and organ damage, and can be fatal. doctors have described the impact of the gene—silencing technique as amazing. our health correspondent james gallagher reports. neil and vince nicholas know the pain of amyloidosis. they had toxic proteins building up inside their bodies that were damaging their nerves and weakening their hearts. the disease runs through families and eventually it's deadly. it's decimated our family. but they've been given gene silencing medicine that can halt and even reverse their disease. and you just hope that

someone is going to invent a drug that will do it. you know, i'm lucky that i'm here today to be able to talk to you about that. this is how it works. inside our cells are genes, they send out messages containing instructions for running our body. but in this form of amyloidosis, a rogue gene leads to a build—up of toxic proteins. gene silencing intercepts the messenger, disabling it and restoring the correct balance of proteins. today's decision applies in england. choices on which drugs to fund are devolved in the uk. scotland made it available injune. this is huge. this is making a disease that was previously untreatable, treatable. and has the potential to make patients' lives dramatically better. the drug may have saved neil's music

career as he was starting to lose feeling in his fingers and his voice. but the implications of this study go much further than the brothers and amyloidosis. experts say gene silencing is an exciting new area of medicine with the potential to work on diseases that are currently untreatable. james gallagher, bbc news. breaking news from our colleagues at bbc newsnight who broke the news of lord triesman resigning. we are now

breaking the news that another labour politician is resigning. very accomplished doctor and in 2006 nhs london asked him to develop a strategy on london health needs and he published a framework for action 2007. he was appointed parliamentary home secretary of state in the department of health by gordon brown. then he was raised to the peerage in 2007. so another resignation for labour over anti—semitism following on from the resignation of lord triesman, this

resignation of lord triesman, this resignation by lord darzi. nearly 30,000 cases of cancer in men in the uk are likely to be prevented in the next four decades, say researchers — because of a scheme to vaccinate boys against the human papilloma virus. until now only girls have been offered the jab, but from the next school year it will also be available to 12 and 13—year—old boys. lauren moss has more details. whenjamie rae was 44, he noticed a lump on the side of his neck about the size of a 10p coin. tests at a clinic in scotland revealed that he had throat cancer caused by the human papilloma virus, or hpv. jamie needed surgery, radio— and chemotherapy. i couldn't eat properly. i couldn't speak for a good three months. and i really couldn't swallow anything. i was struggling to swallow water, just because of the inflammation and the burning and pain that the radiation had caused. more or less all of the side right around my throat was terribly burned. it was very painful. girls have been vaccinated against hpv since 2008.

that wasn't available to jamie when he was younger, but from the next school term, boys aged 12 and 13 across the uk will be given the jab for free. hpv is most commonly spread by sexual contact, and causes most cases of cervical cancer. but it is also linked to several cancers among men. a study by the university of warwick estimates that over the next 40 years, expanding the vaccination programme to boys could prevent more than 100,000 cancers in the uk, including 21,000 fewer throat cancers among men. cases of anal cancer could be reduced by almost 7000. and it could also result in 64,000 fewer cases of cervical cancer. those boys will be protected against some of the cancers that are due to this infection, but they will also protect their partners by not spreading the infection, and that will impact on women and men. so we should see a major change in the rates of cancer in the future. older teenage boys will have to pay for the vaccine, but doctors say they will be

protected, because women up to the age of 25 can receive it. gay men under 45 years old are eligible to get it for free. a recent study found that over the last ten years, there has been a dramatic reduction in cases of hpv and precancerous growths. it's hoped that this roll—out will save more lives in the decades to come. lauren moss, bbc news. there are some people who say at the age of 93 perhaps the queen should ta ke age of 93 perhaps the queen should take things a little easier. the queen says at 93, she's not too old to plant a tree. speaking on a visit to the national institute of agriculture.

we showed you that because it has just come in and we can. that is the queen insisting she is still up to planting a tree. time for a look at the weather... here's ben rich. a lovely outfit for planting a tree. rather than a rather dull blue and grey number. what we are going to talk about today is not my fashion sense but washington, dc where things have been looking pretty grey in terms of the sky and we have seen a huge amount of rain. huge, a months worth of rain and just a few hours. this is monday morning, a lot of rain fell and not too far away at arlington, virginia, some pictures of what is normallyjust arlington, virginia, some pictures of what is normally just a arlington, virginia, some pictures of what is normallyjust a little

creek that runs through. instead it was turned into a raging torrent. over the last few weeks it has been really hot and humid in the east coast of the united states and it often is this time of year. new york had 15 consecutive days of 30 degrees or more. a lot of heat and a lot of humidity in the atmosphere is loaded to produce severe thunderstorms which is exactly what we saw. that is the cause of it there? we talked about that heat and humidity and what happens is colder airdigs down and humidity and what happens is colder air digs down and all the big thunderclouds race up on this big blob of deep blue work through the morning on monday and we saw 80 centimetres of rain in six hours —— 87 millimetres of rain. there are some downpours to come here. we have rain to come. this is how it looked

in shetland. beautiful blue skies and at the other end of the country blue skies to be had. the shot over plymouth sound. but that is not the case for everybody. for some it is much more cloudy, this is the recent satellite picture and you can see a lot of cloud spending across northern ireland and scotland and england and wales. it has been producing outbreaks of rain which will continue on and off quite sporadically through the rest of this afternoon. temperatures 16 to 23 and maybe 24 degrees across the far south west where there is quite a lot of sunshine. the winds are pretty light as we had through the rest of today. during this evening and tonight you will notice an increase in the humidity. it will turn quite close and muggy. there will be a lot of dry weather towards the south and one or two showers but show a the south and one or two showers but showa rain the south and one or two showers but show a rain once again affecting northern ireland and scotland and spending down to northern england at times. overnight temperatures not

dropping very far at all. 12 to 16 degrees. high pressure has been trying to assert itself this week these frontal systems processing and from the atlantic will ensure we will see more rain tomorrow. rain affecting northern ireland and scotla nd affecting northern ireland and scotland at times and that rain quite sporadic and showery in nature but some of it could be quite heavy and through the afternoon across eastern scotland we could see quite fierce thunderstorms break out. across england and wales some showers but more dry weather in the humid airwill showers but more dry weather in the humid air will have wafted on by the stage. 20 degrees for newcastle on 25 for london. i wouldn't want to rule out a shower at wimbledon tomorrow. most of the day should be dry and spells of sunshine but there might be the odd passing shower and that could be a shower here again as we going to thursday. a day of sunshine and showers but we can see these thunderstorms erupt in eastern coast of scotland and north—east england and some could dump a lot of rain and a short space of time.

attem pt rain and a short space of time. atte m pt of rain and a short space of time. attempt of 24 degrees. on friday winds start to come down from the north—west. still some showers but not as many by the stage. still could be a hefty one across eastern scotla nd could be a hefty one across eastern scotland and the north of england. 17 in aberdeen and 23 in cardiff. we keep that feel as we head into the weekend with winds from the north or north—west. but should be mainly dry and is the showers fade we should see some spells of sunshine. —— as the showers fade.

this is bbc news — our latest headlines. labour's shifting brexit policy — jeremy corbyn says there should be another referendum on a conservative brexit deal — or a no—deal exit — and labour should back remain the tories want no deal, we will. that and we believe the public should have a vote to decide whether it should be no deal or remain in the eu. meanwhile to senior figures resigned the labour wept over the pa rty‘s resigned the labour wept over the party's handling resigned the labour wept over the pa rty‘s handling of resigned the labour wept over the party's handling of anti—semitism. no diplomatic immunity here. more personal tweets from president trump attacking the uk ambassador. he calls him "wacky" and "a very stupid guy". a technique called gene—silencing — which doctors say will be life changing — is given the go—ahead for use on the nhs in england. sport now on afternoon

live with will perry. what is happening at wimbledon? i like it, short, i like it. the big story of the day so far on day 8 at wimbledon is that serena williams is into the semi—finals of the women's singles, she's won this 7 times before. williams beat fellow american allison riske in 3 sets and keeps alive the possibility of equalling margret court's grand slam title record. could that happen on saturday? she'll face the winner ofjohanna konta and barbora streecova in the last 4, they're on centre next i was really pumped, obviously it was for a place in the semis at wimbledon. that is not happen everyday. it is a long, arduous road, it is not easy. i was really pumped. i lost my serve a few times,

it made it even more. that match will be on bbc one very shortly. johanna konta has been to december of the french, australian and wimbledon. can she get there again this year? that match next. former world number one simona halep has reached her first semi—final in five years with a straight sets win over china's shuai zhang. the romanian needed a tie—break to take the first set, but cruised through the second, 6—1. halep will play the winner of elina svitolina and karolina muchova on thursday for a place in saturday's final. karolina muchova is for— one up right now.

as for the cricket, it is raining and the forecast is not that great for the rest of the day. india made the better start against new zealand at old trafford but tain has halted proceedings. sports correspondentjoe wilson reports from old trafford. the rain that began to fall earlier was forecast, but new zealand's innings has not gone the way they expected. they decided to bat first, generally in the world cup that has been a big advantage. new zealand have found it tough from the word go. partly that is down to india plasma bowling. thereafter, new zealand struggled. partly down to the pitch conditions, that strip of turf any medal of old trafford behind me has been steady and tricky. we saw new zealand's captain... just found it a struggle to really get any boundaries. once

more, in this world cup, in england, it has felt like a home game for india with so many supporters here backin india with so many supporters here back in the indian team. they began the day but the conviction that india were heading to another world cup final. over the credits that we have seen today, as i think probably reinforce that conviction. the indianfans are reinforce that conviction. the indian fans are loving it over at old trafford. that could have course go into tomorrow, that match. the first qualifying stages of the champions league start this evening. scottish champions celtic are in the bosnian capital to play fc sarajevo. their opponents have never reached the group stage before. welsh champions the new saints face kosovo's feron—i—kelly tonight and rangers start their europa league campaign this evening — against stjosephs from gibraltar. and manchester city women have signed defender eefer mannion from birmingham city, on a two—year deal. she was voted player of the season by birmingham fans last year, and she'll be reunited with her former team—mate ellen white, one of seven man city players in the england squad that

made the world cup semi—finals. that's all the sport for now. i'll have more for you in the next hour. more on our top story — and after weeks of intense debate within the labour party, jeremy corbyn has called on the next prime minister to hold a second referendum on any brexit deal they negotiate with brussels, or on whether to leave without a deal. mr corbyn spoke to our deputy political editor jon pienaar a short while ago. could you just sum up so it is easy to understand, what is labour‘s position now? ds, what we have said is that any deal that goes before parliament, no deal or a tory deal, should be put to a public vote. so that people can decide whether they wish to accept that position where as an alternative to remain in the european union. because i believe both conservative leadership

candidates are vying with each other in the extremities of no deal and i think that is very dangerous to our economy, to fit supplies, to medicine supplies and to industrial investment. have you given into pressure here from colleagues or have you changed your mind? what i have you changed your mind? what i have done is what i think in leadership day. that is spent some time listening to people. many of my collea g u es time listening to people. many of my colleagues have found this a very frustrating experience, because they had said, you know, why do notjust tells what you think? i have said no, iwant tells what you think? i have said no, i want to take the movement with me. i want to take the membership with me, i want to take the unions with me, i want to take the unions with me. i want to take the public with me. i want to take the public with us, if we can. because this is a very important time for this country. however you voted into 2016, he will have a stake in the future. how much investment we have, what trade, what jobs future. how much investment we have, what trade, whatjobs we have or do we go into the scenario which hunt and johnson are discussing with each

other, if that is how it can be described, of having a sweetheart idea that the united states, which would i believe see the deregulation of our environment and food standards and i think ultimately damage to worker's wright and other things in this country. we have to have a trade relationship with europe in any scenario in the future. but you have backed off here. you never wanted this position, you did not want to upset future labour voters. i want to bring people together. they either voted to remain or even 2016. as i have often said, if you voted to remain in tottenham and you are on universal credit and you are living a very difficult life with insecure work, pro—quality housing and you wa nt work, pro—quality housing and you want some thing better, you probably voted remain as most people in that area did. if you are living in the east midlands and you are faced with exactly the same problems as people in tottenham, you might well have voted lee. in reality, your interest

at the same. you want a government that will get rid of universal credit, you have the government that will invest in your future, you want a government that will invest in your community. many communities have voted leave, you can take a parallel turns, had almost no investments in the end of the minor‘s strike and have only seen low—paid, pro—qualityjobs as a replacement for the industrialjobs lost in the past. a labour government with the national doesn't bank, with regional transformation funds investing in all parts of our country will make a huge difference. i want the space to make that argument, to put that case to people andi argument, to put that case to people and i do think that we have to say no to no deal, because no deal would be disastrous for people all across this country. that is why i have come to this position, after an awful lot of blessington of a lot of people for the most of them actually in this room. 0k, people for the most of them actually in this room. ok, you promise to observe and follow the result of the 2016 referendum. now you have this

position, are you worried that many voters voted leave will turn away from labour? sometime agnew, not at all. we said we would respect the result of the 2016 referendum. we campaign from that and got the result we got, which was a small majority to leave and we support the indication of article 50 early in 2017. we thought the general election respecting that result. since then, we force the government to get a position where there was a meaningful vote in parliament, we force the government to accept there was a majority in parliament against no deal and we also, for the first time in recorded history, said that parliament held government in content, because of the way it had refused information to parliament. so, ithink refused information to parliament. so, i think we have felt a very good piece of opposition to what the cove na nt has piece of opposition to what the covenant has been doing. we also... leave voters, jeremy. some try and i finish? please? sometime at the

government then invited us into talks and they clearly could not get theresa may's deal three parliament. it was defeated. we put forward our five pillars, the protection... at the end of the day, it became very clear to me that the government simply could not deliver, even if they agreed anything with us, and so, i stopped the talks and said well, this was the end of the road on that. we would have to go back to parliament on it. the prime minister subsequently resigned, we now have a new prime minister coming in in a few weeks' time and we will have to see what happens then. but i made it very clear, our important position now is to prevent a new deal scenario in this. that was jeremy corbyn. rania ramli is the national chair of labour students and she's at westminster.

is this progress for you, this announcement? absolutely, i think it is great to see the labour party has come out and supported the remain, which is what the majority of our supporters back. we are in now in a situation where the next prime minister will have a mandate of 25% of the electorate and that is just not good enough. where are you getting the figure from? that is the percentage of the electorate statutory members. i'm a bit confused. the country voted out, you wa nt confused. the country voted out, you want a people's vote. you want to remain, a rerun of the referendum, don't you? i think the country voted to leave, that history and i respect that, but that is not the situation we are in. you cannot say that, with respect, can you ? we are in. you cannot say that, with respect, can you? we are now three yea rs on respect, can you? we are now three years on from the referendum, but we we re years on from the referendum, but we were promised in 2016 has not come to fruition. parliament had failed to fruition. parliament had failed to come to a deal which is what we spoke about in the referendum, nobody spoke about no deal. that is

not good enough to suggest that the next tory prime minister will have a out of the with no deal was a disastrous tory baxendale. now, so you are happy with the wayjeremy corbyn is taking the party in those events. what we do not yet know still, is where the labour party will stand if there's a general election? absolutely, i think that is the next step of the labour party. i think we need to come out very clearly in favour of people because my foot, including in the general election. that must be a key pa rt general election. that must be a key part of our manifesto, we cannot be ambiguous about it anymore. that worked years ago but not this time the topic underneath the official opposition to have a clear outline a remain party for what is likely labour voters devoted out? and in large numbers in many parts of this country. they narrative around labour leave voters is unsaturated. a very small proportion of labour members and labour voters actually voted to leave. but even in that

case we are not taking that chance away from people, we are giving them the opportunity to get their voices heard of this i want to leave any referendum, that was. i think you cannot claim to be supporting democracy if you're scared of more democracy if you're scared of more democracy for i think that is the key argument going forward. we are not taking away people's rightful to leave, we are adjusting the situation has changed three years on. there are different things on the ballot paper, we cannot have this fantasy brexit we were promised. the people need to decide if this is dealt what they want. is taking a long time to find out what the labour party and its leader stand for on this. bags it is a divisive issue. fundamentally, labour members and labour voters are the most important people in this debate when it comes to the labour party. i think it is great that leadership has finally come out and back that. i think the next step, like you said, needs to be clear about a general election. progress on that. a quick read, we have had

two resignations of anti—semitism. this is an issue thatjust will not go away. absolutely. i think more needs to be done to deal with it. i do not think the leadership has done enough to deal anti—semitism. i think it is quite disgusting, the state of the labour party and the views of some members. i think it is about time we make this a priority. we should move forward with making sure we are truly an anti—race party. very good to talk to you. thank you for your time. more on the news that president trump has renewed his criticism of the uk's ambassador to the uk — describing him as "wacky" and a "very stupid guy." it's after leaked emails revealed sir kim darroch called the trump administration inept. amanda sloat — is senior fellow at the centre on the united states and europe at brookings institution in washington. as you can see, joins me now. i am just wondering what you make of the language president trump has used about a senior diplomat in the

united kingdom? i think in diplomatic terms, it is very u nfortu nate. diplomatic terms, it is very unfortunate. he has made this very personal and has been very insulting to the ambassador directly. but u nfortu nately, to the ambassador directly. but unfortunately, this is fairly typical language for this president to use. if i typical language for this president to use. if! can typical language for this president to use. if i can just typical language for this president to use. if! canjust go back to typical language for this president to use. if i can just go back to the original cause of this, if you like. this is the linked memo from sir kim dark. the line which that he used, the words inept, are these words that you would expect an ambassador to use when he is sending what should be confidential information back to base, if you like? the important thing to remember is that there is a big difference between there is a big difference between the language that diplomats use publicly when they are conducting the diplomatic business in the country as the very frank assessments that we are expecting our diplomats to send back to capitals, giving their best political assessment of the situation and the leadership in the countries that they are representing. certainly following

wikileaks in the us and now following the sleek in the uk, i would think that diplomats and british embassies around the world are going to be much more careful in what they write. there is a culture that, however, because it means that london is not necessarily going to be getting the most frank assessment from its people in the field. your cd, you have served among government departments than i can shake a stick at. you have served oliver the i am just wondering if you were in a capital city right now and you had the president talking about in these terms to any foreign ambassador, where would that leave, where does that leave the relations between the two countries? because there is now huge pressure on britain to get soaking dark out. that is a problem in itself, isn't it? certainly in talking with some of my former state department colleagues about the situation, there is a lot of sympathy here in washington for the situation that ambassador kim darroch finds himself in, giving

what happened with the united states with wikileaks, where a number of our diplomats also got burned for sending in their bank assessments. but a certainly escalating into a larger diplomatic row between two countries. i think it is also important to remember that your president trump, he does not necessarily have anything to lose at this stage by lashing out against theresa may. it is by pointing out that the line which he is using his tweets about nay certainly not write a polite either. he knows that she is going to be leaving in two weeks table had a new prime minister to deal with. president trump is using this row to turn attention away from something else, let us talk about that theory. on any given day that isa number of that theory. on any given day that is a number of crises that are brewing in washington. i think we have seen that this president does not like to be insulted, he takes comments about him very personally and his tweet yesterday and again today, seem to be in response to

theresa may expressing continued support for kim darroch. so, the question really is going to be how theresa may successor ends up responding to this, in an effort to manage relations with the president. so, there is a theory running that this is a deliberate ploy that when borisjohnson get this is a deliberate ploy that when boris johnson get in, this is a deliberate ploy that when borisjohnson get in, it is a way of getting the present‘s friend nigel farage to be present. is that being spoken about? people have certainly speculated about that somewhat. they have seen that nigel wright has been very quick to tweet about this and they are aware he has been making they are aware he has been making the rounds on the british media. —— nigel farage. certainly, donald trump after a few days of being elected in 2016, he spoke very highly about nigel farage and suggested he should be the ambassador here, as well. the president has made no secret about his preference for boys president has made no secret about his preference for bostohnson as prime minister and nigel farage as

ambassador. but that of course be a decision for the incoming prime minister. of course, this is a headache for the other man who may become a prime minister, jeremy hunt, what is the feeling there about what he should be doing before we even have a new prime minster? certainly, the expectation is that the foreign office is going to be investigating who the sort of the lea k investigating who the sort of the leak was and that certainly seems to be whatjeremy hunt is doing. there's a lot of speculation about whether this was done by political insiders, eitherfrom boris whether this was done by political insiders, either from boris johnson plasma camp to try and discredit hunt from people that are supportive of brexit and want to see that going forward. people are aware that the journalist to put the story forward isa journalist to put the story forward is a brexit supporter herself and has ties. certainly, everybody in washington is watching a lot of this political conversation unfolds in london, but again having been burned in its capital by wikileaks, nurse

would be considerable interest in seeing who was the person that put the slicks forward, what's the motivation was and ensuring that there are consequences for the very serious act of leaking classified and confidential political cables. amanda, thank you to much for your time. in the past few minutes, it's been announced that the texas billionaire ross perot, who ran twice as an independent candidate for us president in the nineteen nineties —— has died at the age of 89. he was one of the most successful third—party candidates in american history. now for only business news, injust a moment. but first the headlines. jeremy corbyn calls for a second referendum before the uk leaves the eu — saying labour will campaignfor remain president trump fires off more personal tweets calling the uk ambassdor "wacky" and ‘a very stupid suv-i a technique called gene—silencing — which doctors say will be life changing — is given the go—ahead for use

on the nhs in england. here's your business headlines on afternoon live. online delivery firm ocado says the fire that ripped through its andover warehouse in february cost £110m. the company has already claimed millions of pounds back from its insurers, but the fire did force it to report a half year loss of £143m last year, and hit sales by 2%. a new survey from the shopkeepers association — the brc — shows consumer spending in june was at its weakest since the mid—1990s. it says it's further evidence that the british economy is shrinking. total sales fell injune by 1.3%, while the annual rate of growth slowed to 0.6%. supplier e.on is to provide all of its residential uk customers with an electricity supply that is wholly matched by renewable sources including wind, biomass and solar. it's one of the biggest green energy switches to date, and comes at no extra cost to customers.

maryam is here with more on the ethnic minority pay gap the office for national statistics found that members of some ethnic groups earn less on average than their white counterparts — workers from pakistani and bangladeshi ethnic groups had the lowest median hourly pay. the story is a little bit more complicated than that. specific groups, for example chinese and indian people, earn on average more than white people in this country. so, it is important to look at every aspect of it in a different way. let us talk all of this through now with the diversity and inclusion consulting director at pwc. do these bigger surprise you? they do not. to be honest, i think we were surprised that the overall gap is not a little bit higher. but the fact that there isa gap bit higher. but the fact that there is a gap and a lot of work today and actually a lot of complexity there

is not surprising at all. torpey through the complexity, because of course he had different figures for different ethnic minorities. yes, that's right. i think ultimately we talk about pay gaps and people think about the gender pay gap. there is more complicated things going on here. we have different ethnic groups, as you say. but also we know that in different parts of the group the ethnic make—up is different. so where somebody is basement a big difference to their pay and you also need to think about education levels and if someone was born here in the uk. what should we make of the fact that chinese ethnic minority people and indians earn more on average than white people in the uk? what does that callous or is that figure in that a bit skewed? certainly we know that the chinese ethnic group, it is quite good. just because there is not that many proportionately people who would describe themselves as chinese ethnic here in the uk. so, the ons in particular that you have to be careful in interpreting the data. you do have to look at the

big picture here and say you cannot just protect somebody‘s gap based on the ethnic group stop it also depends where they are based, what type of work they are doing and i think that is privacy some of the differences coming through. why is it important for us to know the think is? why does it matter? st germain i think more than anything else, this tells us we still have work to do in the uk. pwc is one of a number of countries that calculate and publish their pay gaps. that kind of fortitude to really say well, ok, watch committee differently? what can be changed to make sure that at the top of our organisations we are reflecting the communities we are working in? thank you very much. there is now a new survey third labour resignation.

lord turner burke has resigned the labour whip. —— —— lord turnberg. we will have much more on that, three resignations now in the labour laws. time for a look at the weather. the sunnier skies today have been found at the top and tail of the country. they can the picture behind me now is taken in shetland and this one comes from cornwall. beautiful blue skies overhead and as you can save on the satellite picture, the far north and south—west have been at the sunshine. in between, a lot of cloud. that cloud is producing some outbreaks of rain. we were considered to see some wet weather

throughout the afternoon particular across northern ireland and scotland. a clump of rain getting into the midlands and they may even be the odd shower at wimbledon. the winds are generally very light and temperatures in the low to mid 20s for many. as we go through this evening tonight, we will see a lot of dry weather across the south. it will turn quite muggy, quite muggy, quite sticky here as well. whereas, further north you see further outbreaks of rain putting across northern ireland into northern england and scotland. temperatures overnight only dropping to between 12 and 16 degrees. as i mentioned, in maggie night for many tomorrow, high—pressure tricycles on the south. that is where we'll have the best of the dry weather, frontal systems pushing towards the north—west banging further aspects of rain. the rain will be quite sporadic in nature, showery across northern ireland and up into scotland. the further south you are across england and wales you will see one or two showers. again could bea see one or two showers. again could be a shower at wimbledon. but the most pa rt be a shower at wimbledon. but the most part it is dry in the cell. some want to, 25 degrees in london. through the late afternoon eastern

scotla nd through the late afternoon eastern scotland and north—east england could see some pretty heavy thunder downpours. nothing like that at wimbledon. as i mentioned, there is just the chance of a shower as we go through tomorrow afternoon. look ahead to thursday, it is to all intents and purposes a day of patchy cloud and bright spells and showers. again, across northern ireland and scotla nd again, across northern ireland and scotland some of the showers could be very heavy with some flashes of lightning, prams often don't mix in. damage your eyes, eyes between 20 and 24 degrees. friday should paint fewer showers, having said that they could be the old heavy one across parts of north—east england and scotland. a slightly fresher field by the stage was to keep that slightly fattier feel for many as we head into the weekend. the showers will slowly but surely fade away and there will be some dry weather. some spells of sunshine, as well.

hello, you're watching afternoon live. i'm simon mccoy. today at 4. labour's shifting brexit policy — jeremy corbyn says there should be another referendum on a conservative brexit deal — or a no—deal exit — and labour should back remain. the tories want no deal. we will stop that, and we believe the public should have a vote to decide whether it should be no deal, or remain in the eu. meanwhile three labour peers, including lord triesman, resign the whip over anti—semitism. no diplomatic immunity here. more personal tweets from president trump attacking the uk ambassador — he calls him ‘wacky‘ and ‘a very stupid guy'. a technique called gene—silencing, which doctors say will be life changing, is given the go—ahead for use on the nhs in england. this is huge. this is making a disease

that was previously untreatable treatable, and has the potential to make patients's lives dramatically better. coming up on afternoon live all the sport. there a lot going on. we go to wimbledon where jo konta there a lot going on. we go to wimbledon wherejo konta is in quarterfinal action against strycova. konta has a break point to go strycova. konta has a break point to 9° up strycova. konta has a break point to go up in the first set. no change in the world cup semifinal, new zealand 211-5. the world cup semifinal, new zealand 211—5. rain has stopped play at old trafford. thanks will, and we'll be joining you for a full update just after half—past. ben rich has all the weather. the best of the sunshine at the top and tail of the uk, through what's left of the afternoon. in between, cloud, rain, heavy downpours for the next few days. all the details coming up. also coming up.

his moves made him into an internet sensation. now scientists say snowball the cockatoo's desire to dance comes from an urge to socialise. hello, everyone. this is afternoon live. the labour leaderjeremy corbyn, has committed his party to campaign for remain in another referendum on a conservative brexit deal or a no—deal exit from the european union, challenging the next prime minister "to put their deal to the people". the shift in the party's policy came after a meeting of the shadow cabinet this morning. speaking to the bbc this lunchtime, mr corbyn said labour is yet to decide what to do if there's a general election before brexit is resolved. our political correspondent nick eardley reports. brexit has not always been

easy forjeremy corbyn. the landscape for labour has been far from simple. party members back staying in the eu, but when it comes to labour voters, the picture is more complicated. for months in here, the party has tried to keep everyone happy, but road is running out. today mr corbyn said the new tory prime ministers should put their plan to a referendum and labour would back remain. any deal should be put to the public vote so people can decide whether they want to accept that position, or, as an alternative, to remain in the eu. sometimes watching the labour party's brexit position evolve has been a bit like watching an oil tanker turn round. but in a meeting up there at the shadow cabinet, there has been a shift agreed. now the party will say to whoever the new prime minister is, you have to put your plan to the people, and if they do, the labour party will back remain. all clear?

not quite. we still don't know what labour would campaign for in a general election and whether it would back remaining if it managed to get its own brexit deal. the next election will come when it comes. it may be in october, it may be next year, even 2022. i don't know. what you've gathered from this discussion is that we have a very large barty and a very large membership and many parts to the barty and movement. we are going to decide what our position is going to be. we don't know whether we will have left the eu, whether we are in the eu, or in a parliamentary struggle. right now we have a very strong pre—election policy that i'm proud of, the members will be proud, they campaigned for it. it has taken too long but hopefully we can go and campaign for it.

some will wantjeremy corbyn to go further. some brexiteers will accuse the labour party of ignoring the referendum result. but the party is now moving in the direction of backing staying in the eu, even if the journey isn't yet complete. nick eardley, bbc news, westminster. nick is in westminster. in the last hour, after saying they are dealing with the brexit issue, along comes anti—semitism to bite them very hard. another issue that labour has struggled to keep a lid on over the last couple of years, in the party. this afternoon it is seeing resignations in the house of lords. three peers have said they are resigning the labour whip including some fairly senior figures. lord triesman, the former general secretary of the labour party, who says the experience of his life in the party has become sickening. he said they may one day be the party of antiracism once again but it isn't today. the former health

minister lord darcy who says he has no tolerance of anti—semitism and that the decision hasn't been taken lightly. in the last half—an—hour, another lord. this is an issue that labour say they are dealing with. jeremy corbyn says it is a sickening issue that he is determined to root out of the party. the party have brought in more robust procedures to deal with the issue. clearly there are some in the party who just don't believe that enough is being done. this afternoon we are seeing some taking the pretty nuclear option and quitting the party altogether. many people are going to be saying, lord who? are these names going to really hurt the labour party brazil are not in the sense that we are going to lose big names from the tv screens, big personalities that drive the

party in public but what these are, people who supported the labour party for years. a former general secretary is a big deal. that is someone who basically ran the party under tony blair 2001—2003, and also a former health minister. we are talking about people who gave a lot to the labour party and care about the party. it isn't an easy decision for people like that to make the decision to quit. clearly they are doing it because they've come to the end of their tether when it comes to theissue end of their tether when it comes to the issue of anti—semitism, and not believing that the leadership is doing enough. jeremy corbyn says he's determined to out anti—semitism, to take it seriously, and to make sure that the labour party gets a grip on it. but there are many who think that the rhetoric the labour leader has when it comes to antiracism isn't being matched when it comes to action. when it comes to people on the left of the party who may support mr corbyn more

broadly, he isn't big enough to get them out when they are guilty of anti—semitism, orfailing them out when they are guilty of anti—semitism, or failing to tackle it. thanks, nick. he can't have been up very long this morning — before president donald trump took to twitter to write more personal comments attacking the uk ambassador to washington sir kim darroch. ‘a wacky ambassador', he says ' not someone we are thrilled with‘, he adds — and ‘a very stupid guy'. more of the same, you might say after his comments yesterday, but as mr trump was tweeting — the embassy was cancelling — cancelling a scheduled meeting between the ambassador and the president's daughter — and advisor — ivanka trump. as the leak inquiry continues over here into who leaked sir kim's controversial comments on the trump white house there's a nagging concern — is the uk's diplomatic representative in the united states now being prevented from doing his job? our diplomatic correspondent james robbins reports. ..for your continued hospitality.

the emir of qatar thanks donald trump at a white house dinner last night. routine, you might think, except that britain's originally invited. then warned off attending by the administration after sir kim's highly critical description of his administration as "dysfunctional, faction—riven, clumsy and inept," one of several secret assessments made for whitehall across two years and now spectacularly leaked. the great leak of the cache of documents has stung him to the quick, and i think he is also deeply irritated by theresa may's full faith and support in sir kim. so put those two things together and from his point of view, you've got a toxic combination which has led to this shower of tweets. and the president's latest tweets are incendiary, even by his own standards.

the president goes on. sir kim darroch seems safe in his post as ambassador. theresa may has repeated her support for him. and in whitehall, a cross—government leak inquiry is now under way. could the messages have been hacked? that would be a devastating indictment of security. or was this a political plot inside the system? whoever has done it has taken very great care across a couple of years to do it, to fillet the juiciest bits from these diplomatic telegrams, package them up and hand them to a journalist.

sir kim darroch seems safe in his post as ambassador. there is no question that uk relations with the trump white house are now intensely strained. the president himself is rejoicing in the fact that theresa may will soon be gone. her successor will have to decide how to repair the damage. james robbins, bbc news. we were hearing from downing street that the prime minister's spokesman was asked about president trump's comments and the spokesman said that sir kim darroch is a dutiful, respected government official. we understand the prime minister has spoken to sir kim and reminded him that he has her full spoken to sir kim and reminded him that he has herfull support. earlier i spoke to lewis lukens, who was the deputy chief of mission at the us embassy in london until earlier this year — and asked him what he makes of president trump's behaviour. it is not presidential at all and it is extraordinary to see

the president of united states attacking her majesty‘s government and her prime minister and representative in washington in this way. we have had policy disagreements many times over the years. we have always managed to work out disagreements in a spirit of cooperation and shared values, but this kind of personal attack is something i have never seen before. you sort of have, haven't you, because you responded when president trump attacked so the car after the terrorist attack in 2017 —— attacked sadiq khan. clearly his feud with sadiq khan has been going on for a couple of years now but to attack the prime minister and the ambassador takes it to a new level. it is all unprecedented with this president. never before have we seen this kind of public take—down of leadership in another country, any country, let alone our closest and important ally. what's driving him ? i can't pretend to get into his head.

i think he is simply thin—skinned and he reacted very poorly to the criticism that came out in those leaked documents, the criticism and the observations sir kim had made of how the white house functions or doesn't function and the president take these things very personally and does the only thing he knows how to do which is to strike back and attack the person from whence the criticism came. i'm wondering what reaction there would be in the american embassy here when they saw that. i'm sure they are embarrassed and mortified and struggling with how to manage this really unnecessary strain on the relationship. for now i have not seen much from the embassy so i think they're probably keeping a low profile, which is the safest thing to do but at some point i think the embassy will have to weigh in on this. we have sort of been here before in that some of the wikileaks documents

we re that some of the wikileaks documents were embarrassing for us officials because they were describing what they personally thought. there was one about gordon brown. these things pass. you sense this might not. these things do pass. what is different this time is the way the personal attacks from the president against the ambassador and the prime minister. but it will pass. the prime minister is in her last few weeks in office and sir kim darroch is in his last few months, or less, in washington. there will be a new prime minister and new ambassador and a way to reset the relationship. you says that but if the new prime minister says to sir kim, sorry, you must leave, you've got americans running our foreign policy, must leave, you've got americans running ourforeign policy, haven't you yellow? the president has given an extra

minister opposing challenge because either they ambassador remains as sir kim darroch and risked the wrath of the president or he pulls back sir kim early and then it can be seen that america is running british foreign policy. it's a no—win situation for the next point minister, which i don't think the president thought through. what word would you use for the president? he uses wacky for the ambassador. what what would you use for the president? embarrassing. you're watching afternoon live, these are our headlines. labour's shifting brexit policy — jeremy corbyn says there should be another referendum on a conservative brexit deal — or a no—deal exit — and labour should back remain meanwhile three labour peers resign the party whip over anti—semitism. president trump launches a twitter tirade attacking the uk ambassador — calling him ‘wacky‘ and ‘a very stupid guy'. a brilliant start from johanna konta who is 4—1 up at wimbledon against

strycova on centre court. the winner plays serena williams who is through to the last four after a 3—set win over alison riske. no play at old trafford over the last couple of hours. new zealand, 211 — five in the world cup semifinal. a new form of medicine called "gene—silencing" has been approved for use by the nhs in england. it will be used to reverse a disease called amyloidosis, which causes nerve and organ damage, and can be fatal. doctors have described the impact of the gene—silencing technique as amazing. our health correspondent james gallagher reports. neil and vince nicholas know the pain of amyloidosis. they had toxic proteins building up inside their bodies that were damaging their nerves and weakening their hearts. the disease runs through families and eventually it's deadly.

it's decimated our family. but they've been given gene silencing medicine that can halt and even reverse the disease. and you just hope that someone is going to invent a drug. you know, i'm lucky that i'm here today to be able to talk to you about that. this is how it works. inside our cells are genes, they send out messages containing instructions for running our body. but in this form of amyloidosis, a rogue gene leads to a build—up of toxic proteins. gene silencing intercepts a messenger, disabling it and restoring the correct balance of proteins. today's decision applies in england. choices on which drugs to fund are devolved in the uk. scotland made it available injune. this is huge. this is making a disease that was previously untreatable, treatable.

and has the potential to make patients' lives dramatically better. the drug may have saved neil's music career as he was starting to lose feeling in his fingers and his voice. but the implications of this study go much further than the brothers and amyloidosis. experts say gene silencing is an exciting new area of medicine with the potential to work on diseases that are currently untreatable. james gallagher, bbc news. with little over a fortnight to go until the new leader of the conservative party is announced, the conservative leadership rivals boris johnson and jeremy hunt will debate head—to—head later for the first time in front of a live tv audience. party members are voting on which of the two men should succeed theresa may as leader and prime minister, with the winner due to be announced on 23july. ahead of that we're looking at the policies being promoted by the two candidates. yesterday we looked atjeremy hunt's plans if he was to get the keys to number 10, so today it's the turn

of borisjohnson. with me now is our reality check correspondent, chris morris, to take us through some of the former foreign secretary's key campaign pledges. former foreign secretary! the keys to downing street, the only door in the land that doesn't have a lock. brexit, where does mrjohnson stand on what should happen next? item number one in the industry when the winner gets to that keyless door in downing street. the main thing is he says that on october 31 we are going to leave, deal or no deal, it's a promise, do or die. that's his opinion. he also said during hustings that he thinks the chance of leaving with no deal are one in a million. by my calculation he thinks there is a 99.999% chance that going to renegotiate, ratify and legislate a new deal, an eternity of do theresa may's deal by the 31st of

october which is very unlikely. he wa nts to october which is very unlikely. he wants to ditch the backstop. he wa nts to wants to ditch the backstop. he wants to deal with the problems surrounding the irish border after we've left. the problem with that is that the eu have said consistently, it hasn't changed its mind, if you don't have a backstop you don't have a withdrawal agreement and if you don't have that, you don't have a transition period in which you claim keep things pretty much the same and do the tree trade agreement. —— free trade agreement. he also wants to hold back the £39 billion of force bill. he and his supporters say we have to play hardball, so then we mean business, which may be true, but threatening to withhold money which has already been agreed, in theory, is not exactly going to generate a lot of goodwill. given all of that and that we know there are many people including those on his own benches in the commons who are determined to stop no deal, the

timetable for getting a deal is almost impossibly tight. it is quite possible, whatever either candidate say, that on the 31st of october, we won't leave. tax and spend, where does he stand ? won't leave. tax and spend, where does he stand? this is an election with a fairly limited number of people. his big offer on taxis to raise the threshold where you go to the high level of income tax. when you stop paying 20% and you start paying 40%. at the moment the threshold is £50,000. he wants to increase into £80,000. will cost nine or 10 billion a year. not cheap. the criticism is that it helps people who are already earning more than £50,000 a year. he has another policy proposal that will help the lower paid, raising the national insurance threshold. if you are employed, you play class one national insurance when you start earning just over £8,500 a year. to

increase that floor by £1000 would cost at least £3 billion for every £1000 you increase, so again, quite expensive. on top of that, the money he wants us not to pay, spending proposals. they want to spend on things you like. one thing he says he will do is increase public sector pgy- he will do is increase public sector pay. it's not clear by how much. for every 1% you put on public sector pay, it costs about 1.8 billion—a—year. the other thing he's going to do is put more than £4 billion into education. he wants to increase the number of police officers. he proposes that there should be 20,000 more police officers in england and wales, taking us back to roughly where we we re taking us back to roughly where we were in 2010, just over 140,000 police officers in england and wales. the cost of that is more than £1 billion. if you add it together,

these are big pledges, as they are with jeremy hunt, which these are big pledges, as they are withjeremy hunt, which is why we've seen the outgoing chancellor saying, hold your horses, you can't spend money you don't have. we are conservatives, let's not promise things we can't deliver. that will be the focus of the debate, they can talk to each other about them. be the focus of the debate, they can talk to each other about themm will be the one time in the campaign when they can challenge each other. in brexit, their policies are quite similar. as the underdog, it is mr hunt's chance to set himself apart from mrjohnson and i expect to go for him in a few policies. thanks. anti—government protesters in hong kong have said they are not reassured by the territory's leader, carrie lam, describing a controversial extradition bill as "dead." the proposed law, which would have allowed criminal suspects to be put on trial on the chinese mainland, sparked huge protests, even after the bill was suspended. rupert wingfield—hayes has more. it has been a month of stunning,

unprecedented scenes on the streets of hong kong. again and again, hundreds of thousands of ordinary people have come out demanding the government withdraw a widely reviled extradition bill. mostly peaceful, there has also been violence, with radical student groups storming into hong kong's parliament. after another huge demonstration last weekend, today hong kong's chief executive finally came out to face the music and make what initially looked like a stunning climb—down. but there are still lingering doubts about the government's sincerity or worries whether the government will restart the process in the legislative council. so i reiterate here — there is no such plan. the bill is dead. "the bill is dead." it certainly sounds like an unambiguous climb—down by hong kong's chief executive, but the devil is in the detail.

carrie lam is saying she has suspended this bill indefinitely, she won't bring it back, and therefore it will die at the end of the current legislative session. but what she is not saying is that she will withdraw the bill now, and that is what the opposition protesters are demanding. opposition politicians of every shade have immediately jumped in to make clear carrie lam's statement is not enough. i don't know why it is so difficult for her to utter word "withdrawal". is it face? or... i don't know what it is. and she knows very well that that is what the people, the protesters are demanding. so she should come out and say, "yes, the bill is withdrawn." carrie lam must be hoping her statement will reassure the protesters — the majority of whom are moderate — that the hated extradition bill really is dead, and they have no reason to continue taking to the streets. the first test of whether it has worked will come this weekend when more big protests are planned.

scientists in the us have been studying a cockatoo that became a viral internet sensation. a video of snowball dancing was viewed millions of times back in 2007. pop music a video of snowball dancing was viewed millions of times back in 2007. but researchers looking at his uncanny ability to dance in time to a beat say the moves come from an urge to socialise — meaning snowball has learnt to strut his stuff without any formal dance training. no lessons, nothing. this is natural. let's speak now to professor aniruddh patel, in boston, whose whose team carried out the research. i want to take you back to 2008 because i think you were watching a performance of the backstreet boys,

wasn't it, and you noticed something quite special? yes, i saw a video on the internet of this bird, snowball, seeming to move to the beat of music, something you see in every human culture, it's a universal human culture, it's a universal human culture, it's a universal human culture but we've never seen it in another species. this was remarkable to me. i was working on whether or not this was a uniquely human trait, so we took the opportunity to study it properly and see if it's true. we showed that he really sensed the beat of the music and moved to spontaneously. can you explain why this is so special? snowball can actually perform a number of different dance moves. yes, that's the new finding. the original study showed synchronisation, focusing on his head bobbing and foot lifting, innate movements synchronised to the beat, which we've not seen another species, including primates, our closest genetic relatives. this new study, soon after that study his

owner noticed he was making new moves when he was dancing to music. she's never trained him to move in particular ways, she just dances with him. she doesn't do many moves herself but he seems to be experimenting and coming up with new moves. so we studied that to see how many he has. it would suggest this is more complex than we originally imagined. it's not just is more complex than we originally imagined. it's notjust innate movements, moving to the beat, it is complex actions he's choosing. we documented in the new study 14 different dance moves that he developed without any specific training. so he can do what i certainly can't come and others i've seen can't do come and go on a dance floor and get the right move to that particular song? yeah, i wish i could dance like snowball! we all do! we always assume this is a human thing, dancing to the beat, getting with the rhythm, but snowball does it better than most that well, he's

not perfect. we think he's more like a human child. sometimes he loses the beat and he comes back on. the important finding the beat and he comes back on. the importantfinding in the beat and he comes back on. the important finding in the new study is that beat synchronisation, which we've studied before, it is the sheer diversity and potentially even creativity of his movement. again, not for a food reward, or a chance to mate, but because of his social interaction with humans. we've never seen another species, a monkey, a dog, a cat, moving spontaneously and with diversity to human music. this touches on the eveleigh and of music —— the eveleigh music —— the evolution of music. it isn't unique, we have links to several other music videos of parrots moving to music with diverse dance moves and we think it has to do with the development of a particular parrot. snowball had a particular rhythmic

response which was untrained and he got attention to that and people danced with him, so it's developed through every social interaction. not every parrot has that. there was one move we saw, the madonna vote move, which impressed you the most. —— vogue move. i'm sure that's not a parrot move in the wild, in courtship or any other behaviour. it seems that something that he potentially came up with... he's a pet, living in a bird shelter. we don't know which ones are imitations of humans and which are his own creativity but even if it's imitation, that's a very sophisticated ability, to see another animal, human, making sophisticated ability, to see anotheranimal, human, making a movement and mapping it onto a com pletely movement and mapping it onto a completely different body. it's a very challenging neurobiological problem and if he can do that, it's remarkable because we don't see cats and dogs doing it. he's doing the

vogue now. you and i are talking about a bird doing these dance moves. you're a professor, i've been training asa moves. you're a professor, i've been training as a journalist for some time and this is what we've reached! is this a peak moment for you? it's pa rt is this a peak moment for you? it's part of a larger research programme studying the responses to music from other species and what it teaches about the evolution of our musicality. what's scientifically interesting about this is that it suggests to me and my colleagues that dancing to music isn'tjust an arbitrary product of human culture. it's an impulse of rising when certain cognitive and neural capacities come together in animal brains, and snowball has that convergence of capacities and so to humans but very few other species do. . thanks forjoining us. let us at the weather. good afternoon. the

top and tail of the uk have seen the best of the sunshine so far today. particularly across the shetlands and south—west of england. in between, there is a lot of cloud. some outbreaks of rain on and off throughout the rest of today. as we go into tonight we will continue to see parts of shari rain the northern ireland, scotland and into northern england. more dry weather in the south, increasingly warm and muggy night. temperatures between 12 and 16 degrees. going into tomorrow we will see more cloud and rain in northern ireland, scotland and northern england. the southern areas are where we will see the best of the dry weather and sunny spells tomorrow. highs of 25 to graze, kisses and very heavy, thundery downpours in eastern scotland. some more showers and thunderstorms and northern areas on thursday. showers start to fade as we hedge through friday.

this is bbc news — our latest headlines. labour's shifting brexit policy — jeremy corbyn says there should be another referendum on a conservative brexit deal, or a no—deal exit, and labour should back remain. the tories want no deal, we will stop that and we believe the public should have a vote to decide whether it should be no deal or remain in the eu. meanwhile, three labour peers resign the party whip over anti—semitism. no diplomatic immunity here. more personal tweets from president trump attacking the uk ambassador — he calls him "wacky" and "a very stupid guy". a technique called gene—silencing — which doctors say will be life changing — is given the go—ahead for use on the nhs in england. sport now on afternoon live with will perry. the nation holds its breath withjohanna konta in quarter—final action at wimbledon.

johanna konta, britain's last remaining hope. let us take your life to wimbledon to speak tojohn watson. yes, it was all looking very good forjohanna konta in the first set. she made a blistering start against her opponent, the lowest ranked of the three czech players that she has played so far instrument. but she has been pegged back now in the past set. let us to the live pictures from centre court, shall be. contact has just held serve to go 5—4 up in that verse that. you can see her set in her chair just that. you can see her set in her chairjust there. she was four up before her opponent broke back. such a brilliant tournament so for that big when yesterday. she has been playing some brilliant tennis and

she is going to need to draw on that form that she has the chewing of late. —— that she has been showing of late. as we know, a little bit earlier on serena williams was in action. she awaits them when of this match. she bit her opponent from the united states, there was no further upset today as serena williams had to work hard to pick her place in the semifinals. she came 36—4, 4—6, 6-3. the semifinals. she came 36—4, 4—6, 6—3. serena williams of the back out on quite a little bit later on, alongside andy murray. mrs what she had to say after that victory. alongside andy murray. mrs what she had to say after that victorym really counted today, i had to just button up and play hard. she was playing her heart out and she had

nothing to lose. i realised i did nothing to lose. i realised i did not eitherand, nothing to lose. i realised i did not either and, you know, ijust needed to do better. how easy or ha rd needed to do better. how easy or hard to let peter get yourself ready for a hard to let peter get yourself ready fora certain hard to let peter get yourself ready for a certain mixed doubles match later today? i am so pumped right now i am ready. over on court number one at the moment elina svitolina is serving for the match against karolina muchova, she is 5—2 on top. looking like they she would be backing her place in the first wimbledon semifinal. a little earlier on simona halep, also three. she was training advantage, but she came went in straight sets. she will await elina svitolina in the next

round if she can close out that second set. all eyes at the moment well onjohanna second set. all eyes at the moment well on johanna konta second set. all eyes at the moment well onjohanna konta if she can come through that first set. she will try and get a crucial first athletes. john, thank you very much. it is raining at the cricket. india made the better start against new zealand at old trafford. the black caps won the toss and chose to bat first. martin guptill went for just one. fellow opener henry nicholls has followed him, he made 28. bumrah and jadeja with the wickets. captain kane williamson made a steady 67 before getting out to chahal. it's currently 211—5 in the 47th over and rain has stopped play in manchester. it could go into tomorrow this one. former arsenal midfielder edu has been named the club's first technical director.

the brazilian was a member of the "invincibles" side who were undefeated in the 2003/2004 season. he leaves his role as general co—ordinator with brazil to oversee coaching, scouting, recruitment and the academy at the emirates stadium. the first qualifying stages of the champions league now on afternoon live — let's go nationwide — and see what's happening around the country in our daily visit to the bbc newsrooms around the uk. let's go to robbie meredith in belfast to tell us about calls to introduce mandatory training for all teachers in how to support pupils with autism. and alex lovell is in bristol to tell us about a recruitment drive to get more female bus drivers. robbie, there are now calls for all teachers to receive training to support the rising number of pupils with autism in northern ireland? well, that is right, simon. the reason for that call is the

rocketing number of children with autism in schools in northern ireland. according to our department of health a decade ago one in 80 school age children had a diagnosis of autism, now it is closer to one in 30. now, the department says that more awareness of autism and also a change of legislation at the start of the decade which led to more legal protection against this commission for people with autism are mainly responsible for that price. some of the schoolchildren will be in special schools, but many will be in special schools, but many will be in mainstream education. most of them will get good support from teachers and classroom assista nts from teachers and classroom assistants who are properly trained to help those with asd, but that is not the case across the board. as you say, that has led to campaigners in northern ireland like autism and a one of the big autism charities here, to call for all teachers are to get mandatory autism training. get autism practice is good autism practice. hope it will provide a culture of change within schools and

within society for better autism awareness. more and more about children are being diagnosed and this is something that needs to be done to ensure that they get the best educational outcomes. that was carrie from autism nite, the department for education says it is not yet in a position to introduce that mandatory training. in fact, said it will be premature to even try to do so, as it is still trying to find out where the gaps are when it comes to teacher training. some pa rent it comes to teacher training. some parent and they will have to battle to get support for their children? that is right, simon. something we have been looking at in northern ireland of the past three days. now, many parents say that they are happy with the help that their sons and daughters are receiving, but for others it is a very different story. they say the appropriate support in schools for their children just is not there. so, we have heard tales of children having to be home educators, others that have mixed large drums of the education or in

the case of paul buzz max and jen, frequent suspensions from skill. 30 daysin frequent suspensions from skill. 30 days in the last... paul says that his son is more support, not more suspensions. i am doing everyday tasks. so, if you give him a demand of pick something up, his first response will be no. but if you ask in the right way, is on the right strategy, he will happily pick it up and be as calm as anything. the majority of the problem that jim would present with would—be anxiety. soa would present with would—be anxiety. so a synergy given a direct manner, he would experience anxiety. as a result of the anxiety he would start refusing. now, all the parents that i have spoken to like paul, also teachers and principal, also that there are questions to ask about whether they are getting the right help and support to autistic children here in schools. those concerns actually shared by the man who heads up our department for

education. remember, we have a permanent secretary at the moment, we have no governments are therefore no education minister. i permit secretary recently told the committee that the belfry helping children miss budget educational needs including autism was rising. invite, it is around one eighth of the entire education budget. so, no easy a nswe rs the entire education budget. so, no easy answers for that question support for autistic children. thank you. alex, this recruitment for women bus drivers. st germain, that is right. first bus, the biggest bus operator says come on, we need more women drivers. it is a job for everyone. they are saying that women ipaid everyone. they are saying that women i paid the same as men for doing the samejob in i paid the same as men for doing the same job in terms i paid the same as men for doing the samejob in terms of numbers, we had a little it, first bus there are already 143 women bus drivers across the west. but it is not a type that into perspective that you realise whether that is a good number are not. in actualfact, it seems it whether that is a good number are not. in actual fact, it seems it is only 10% of the total, so clearly

they do need to do something. if you look back in 1973 the first woman bus driver took to the streets of bristol. he would think they would be some improvement in that time, but first but says no, they still need a fina recruiter dry. so, they had a huge open day recently. they had a huge open day recently. they had women come along to talk to others to have taken on the role, to be encouraged by them. they were given the opportunity to have a go at the dragon, as well. to see if they enjoyed it and i think that even be interviewed and talk about progress and that even further. c f some of the female bus drivers keen to encourage others. it is easier thanjoining a to encourage others. it is easier than joining a car. to encourage others. it is easier thanjoining a car. when we come into our own is customer service and the passengers love having women behind the steering wheel. it is about getting that message out. noted days are the same. you always meet a lot of different people and i love driving, as well. i do enjoy it

every day. i never thought i would be driving a bus, but certainly i am glad that i made the decision to come and work for this company and get through the training and get my license. as an open day goes, that looks pretty successful. apparently, it was. they had this recruitment drive and eight applied for the job on the spot. they took some people on, as well. to be honest, some people might say look, it is 2019, it is built not necessary for a company to have an all—female recruitment drive. but first i'd say that they could, want to challenge the stereotypes and show that eve ryo ne the stereotypes and show that everyone can be a bus driver with the right customer service skills and with an interest in helping others, as well. and they are recruiting men, too. in that clip, i love when the lady said, it is easier than driving a car. now, i have not driven a bus, but really? yes, we may avoid that one. i will not say any more. alex, thank you.

and also to robbie. yourfirst not say any more. alex, thank you. and also to robbie. your first time a nationwide, great to see you. if you would like to see more and any of those stories you can access them via the bbc iplayer. we go nationwide every weekday afternoon at 430 year afterlife. cressida cowell, the author best known for her series ‘how to train your dragon', has been announced as the new children's laureate. she's the eleventh person to take on the role and says she has a ten point plan to encourage more youngsters to read and write. earlier we heard from our arts editor, will gompertz. procedure is the 11th children's laureate. the idea is that it is a two—year term, you come in with an

idea about what you want to do, how you want to change things. what do you want to change things. what do you want to put on the agenda? she is coming with a giant to—do list. one other thing things you must see for example is all primates because having a library, a librarian, good choice of books, old, classic and new. so that the right that can be in the right child but i can't at the right time. it is quite expensive. the other thing she wants to do, which is not extensive at all, is to encourage creativity in children. thejoy of all, is to encourage creativity in children. the joy of writing. i spoke to her about that and she put it very well. 15 minutes every friday for a kid to have a special bag with a combined whatever they want. no rules, no marking, just fun. getting lots of parents and grandparents and carers writing to me saying my kid is to love writing, but now they are so worried about writing. you know, their spelling and handwriting, they no longer even wa nt and handwriting, they no longer even want to put pencil to paper. the new

children's laureate cressida cowell. here's your business headlines on afternoon live labour's shifting brexit policy — jeremy corbyn says there should be another referendum on a conservative brexit deal — or a no—deal exit — and labour should back remain. meanwhile, three labour peers resign the party whip over anti—semitism. president trump launches a twitter tirade attacking the uk ambassador — calling him "wacky" and "a very stupid guy". online delivery firm ocado says the fire that ripped through its andover warehouse in february cost £110m. the company has already claimed millions of pounds back from its insurers but the fire did force it to report a half year loss of £143m last year, and hit sales by 2%

a new survey from the shopkeepers association — the brc — shows consumer spending in june was at its weakest since the mid—1990s. it says it's further evidence that the british economy is shrinking. total sales fell injune by 1.3%, while the annual rate of growth slowed to 0.6%. supplier e.on is to provide all of its residential uk customers with an electricity supply that is wholly matched by renewable sources including wind, biomass and solar. it's one of the biggest green energy switches to date, and comes at no extra cost to customers. iamjust i am just looking at the currency, the pound is not doing well. i am just looking at the currency, the pound is not doing weltm i am just looking at the currency, the pound is not doing well. it is pretty wea k the pound is not doing well. it is pretty weak right now. the pound has been hovering around a two—year low. the reason why is investors are worried about the direction of the uk economy and also the worries over the potential no—deal brexit.

investors do not want that to happen in october. the london market is pretty flat and ocado share price, they have told their investors that they have told their investors that the fire cost £110 million, but that is not put people off its shares. huge appetite for the shares of ocado. let us acknowledge through thejeremy ocado. let us acknowledge through the jeremy stretch. jeremy, let us talk about the pound. we have seen wea kness talk about the pound. we have seen weakness in counselling today. topically why. of course, it is not just today that we have been saying that. we have been saying that of the last three months. sterling has been the worst performing major currency been the worst performing major currency against both the dollar and the euro over the last three months. the real kicker in term of the current uncertainty is related to that macular story, which you just highlighted entrance of the brc and retail spending. it does that increasingly probable that growth in the uk economy in q2 was negligible

and indeed, most likely is probably fell. the outlook for q3 does not look much better. markets are starting to speculate about the risks of bank of england being forced to look at interest—rate policy as a consequence of that. it is starting to consider cuts. overall, investors certainly shying away from selling. of course, markets only around the world are looking pitiful at negative right now. they are. what we have seen, of course, as markets are very much reflective of what is happening in the interest rate story. in the context of not just the outlook for the bank of england, but particularly for how the federal reserve are going to portray their own interest rate expectations,. own interest rate markets reserve are going to portray their own interest rate markets are really looking for the stimulus from... that is going to be a real driver in terms of market sentiment. if he opens up the possibility of great

cuts, then we may well see risk appetite under equity markets moving higher as consequence of dobson try we have a talking about ocado all day here on bbc news. it is, it was something good and it had a fire at a warehouse which impacted things. so, tell it why either share prices are nearly 7%? you're absolutely right. look at the losses that result the first half, you would see that the company should be retreating. of course, it is not the impact of the fire of the last xmas, but the outlook for future sales. the outlook continues to be relatively bright, we have obviously seen these cash infusions, the deal with marks & spencer. that is why we have seen a significant bounce rather than necessarily focusing on the impact of the fire earlier in the impact of the fire earlier in the year. always adjusting to see what investors focus on. jeremy,

good to talk to, thank you. that is the business for me, i'll be back in a few days. just a few days? i will be paxton, sooner than you hope. a few days. just a few days? i will be paxton, sooner than you hopelj just want to bring in some breaking news from labour. lord triesman has resigned, lord darzi has also resigned, lord darzi has also resigned and we are hearing also lord turnberg has resigned. the labour party says the labour party at all levels is implacably opposed to an descent... we are doubling the number of staff dealing with complaints and kisses. the records show that anti—semitism cases have gone through the stages of a disciplinary procedure is the 2015 account were not .06% of the party's

membership. this represents a tiny minority, but one anti—semite is one too many and we will continue to possess this repugnant form of racism. the resignations of three labour peers this afternoon. sir david attenborough has told mps that they cannot be "radical enough" in dealing with climate change. giving evidence to the commons business, energy and industrial strategy committee, the natural historian and broadcaster said he wished he didn't have to make tv programmes we cannot be radical enough in dealing with the issues that face us at the moment. the question is what is practically possible? how can we take the electorate with us in dealing with these things? because it costs money in realistic terms. i mean, dealing with these problems means we have to change our lifestyle. dealing with the problem is going to cost internationally, it is going to cost money. and so the question of how fast can

go, is how fast can we carry the electorate with us? the most encouraging thing that i see, of course, is that the electors of tomorrow are already making their voices very, very clear. that is a source of great comfort, anyway. but also, ofjustification and reality that these people, young people, now recognising that their world is what is in the future. i'm ok, you know. for the next decade i'm ok and all of us here are ok, because we will not face the problems that are coming. but the problems coming in the next 20 or 30 years are really major problems, that are going to cause great social unrest and make changes in the way that we live, what we eat and so on. it is going to happen.

performing the view, the story of the davis of the swiss defence mentioned have had to apologise after their team performed a flyby of the wrong town. the equivalent of our red arrows were due to fly over a particular city to honour a swiss pioneer, but instead the team fully for miles further away. this happened to be hosting the 31st northwest yodelling festival. the squadron leader apparently saw the huge marquee set up in the u dollars and misdirected thejets. a spokesman for the swiss mark military says that the aircraft is not equipped with gps technology. the group performed four formations for the startled you dollars he was said to enjoy the unexpected show. now, if you're wondering what usually looks and sounds like, and need a reminder, here are some you

dollars. they yodel those are apparently are also new to load and not swiss you dollars. the pilot in charge of the air display said that it confusingly similar from the r. that is related from the action live team. first let us catch up action live team. first let us catch up with the weather. the sunnier skies today have been found across the top and tail of the country. beautiful blue skies overhead, as you can save on the satellite picture define north and north—west have been enjoying the best of this entitles up in between a lot of cloud. that's cloud produces a matchbox of rain and there will be some wet weather throughout the rest of the afternoon is optically across northern ireland, scotland and down

into northern anger. a clump of rain getting into the midlands and maybe even the odd shower at wimbledon. the wind is generally pretty light and temperature is only low to mid 20s. as we go through this evening and tonight, we will see a lot of dry weather across the south. it will try and quite muggy and sticky here, as well as whereas, for the north will have further aspects of net rain putting across northern ireland into northern and in scotland. ireland into northern and in scotla nd. ca ptu res ireland into northern and in scotland. captures overnight only dropping to between 12 and 16 degrees. as i mentioned, a muggy night for many. tomorrow, high—pressure tricycle done across the south where they will have the best of the dry weather. frontal systems but it was not first brings of other aspects of rain. the rain will be quite sporadic in nature, quite showery across northern ireland and up into scotland. the further south you are a in that and we'll come up one or two showers. again the could be a shower at wimbledon for the most part, southern areas will be driver some sunshine. 25 degrees london, through the late afternoon is to scotland and north—east england could see

some heavy thundery downpours backing out. nothing like that at wimbledon as i mentioned, there is just the chance of a shower. looking ahead to thursday, it is to all intents and purposes a day of patchy cloud. bright spells and showers, again across northern ireland and scotla nd again across northern ireland and scotland some of the showers could be heavy with some flashes of lightning and rumbles of thunder mixing. eyes looking at highs of 20 of 20 and 24 degrees. now, friday shipping fewer showers. having said that, there still could be the old heavy thundery one across north—east scotland. otherwise, the image of dry weather and a slightly fresher field by the state was topically that slightly fresher feel for many of the head into the. the shower slowly but surely fade away. dry weather and sun spells of sunshine, as well.

today at 5: after weeks of intense debate, a major shift in labour's brexit policy. jeremy corbyn says there should be another referendum on a conservative brexit deal or a no—deal exit and that labour should back remain. the tories want no deal. we will stop that, and we believe the public should have a vote to decide whether it should be no deal or remain in the eu. meanwhile, three prominent labour peers resign the whip, citing the party's failure to tackle anti—semitism. we'll have all the latest from westminster and will be getting the thoughts of two leading labour mps. the other main stories on bbc news at 5: president trump launches another twitter tirade against the british ambassador in washington — this time mr trump