this is bbc news. the headlines: campaigning intensifies, as politicians canvas in key battle grounds, with just days until the country goes to the polls. the conservatives say their australian—style points—based immigration system will control unskilled migration. we want to bear down on migration, particularly unskilled workers who have no job to come to. meanwhile, labour set out their plans for social care, offering free personal care for older people in england, and an additional £10 billion of funding. i want social care available for everybody all across the uk. in india, at least a0 people are killed in a fire at a factory making school

bags in delhi. a 13—year—old boy is among three people arrested for involvement in the murder of a woman, stabbed to death in northamptonshire. a man is arrested after video emerges of alleged racial abuse of manchester united players during yesterday's derby. and coming up, a look at the south korean beauty market — join us in seoul, with the travel show, at 20.30. with just four days to go till the general election, political leaders have been spending the day on the campaign trail, emphasising their key messages. borisjohnson called thursday's vote

a historic chance to move forward, whilejeremy corbyn said his party is offering an ambitious plan to transform the country. 0ur political correspondent, jonathan blake, reports. a warm welcome in wales today forjeremy corbyn, shoring up support in seats he needs to win. his message, that labour would transform the economy through investment in public services at levels not seen for decades. you can't cut your way to prosperity, you invest your way to prosperity and there is no more important investment than investing in young people, children and the next generation, and that is what... cheering and applause. and that is what i want our labour government to do. borisjohnson and the conservatives may be ahead in the polls, but it is still too close to call. hello, mr walker, borisjohnson here. hitting the phones today,

he talked up his plan for a new immigration system, and the message he has hammered home since the start. we are a party that is going to get brexit done, by when? by january the 315t, and we've got a deal that is ready to go. an absolutely fantastic deal, isn't it? it's already there. how many members of the conservative party standing at this election support our deal? every single one. both main parties are working to win a majority, here, at westminster, meaning they can form a government and put their plans in place. but in this unpredictable election, there is every chance that might not happen, and if neither labour nor the conservatives win enough support, then the smaller parties and their policies will come into play. the scottish national party leader has made it clear labour would have her support and suggested todayjeremy corbyn would be relying on the snp to get into power. i will never do anything that puts borisjohnson into downing street. so, he doesn't need to worry. but labour, in order to get a queen's speech and a budget through, if in a minority position,

need the support of another party, and if scotland votes for the snp, in a hung parliament giving scotland enormous leverage, then i will exercise that firstly in line with scotland's interests. jo swinson, leader of the liberal democrats! smiling in sheffield today, despite feeling a squeeze in the polls, jo swinson says neither borisjohnson orjeremy corbyn is fit to be prime minister, so what then if her party holds the balance of power? we have already, in the last couple of years, been working very constructively across party lines, with labour mps, with conservative mps, with nationalist mps, the green mps, independent mps, where we agree to try to secure a people's vote, and that constructive spirit will be the way in which the lib dems will approach things after the election. the stage is being set for more drama at westminster. in just a few days the election will be over, and the votes cast will give us a new story to tell. jonathan blake, bbc news. and jonathan blake joined me a little earlier and told me

what we should expect from the final few days of campaigning. well, don't expect much to change in terms of the message from the two main parties, certainly borisjohnson will have the laser—like focus on brexit that he has attempted to keep up throughout this campaign right from the very start saying that a vote for the conservatives will facilitate the uk's departure from the eu as quickly as possible. although a lot of people argue that he can get it done in the time frame that he is promising, but that will be the message we hear from him in the coming days and i can expect him to be travelling to parts of the country to attempt to shore up notjust traditional tory support but seats which could be hanging in the balance and where the conservatives are trying to attract support from maybe people who have voted labour all their lives in those leave voting constituencies that the tories really do need to pick up. and for labour, it will be more about their plan to invest in public services in the uk, to levels we haven't seen for a very long time,

to take the industries into public ownership, to tax the very richest in society more to do that but expect to hear more criticism for that too from those economists that say that the economic formula is perhaps not as simple asjeremy corbyn would like it to sound. and then, as you saw in the report there, the snp, the liberal democrats, focusing their fire on preventing a conservative majority and pushing forward their similar message of wanting to stop brexit. and, i suppose in the closing days, all the campaign teams are going to be eyeing those polls very closely? yes, interesting, a few are out that broadly the trend we have seen of the past few days is that the conservatives have a lead of about 10%, ten percentage points over labour but the gap has narrowed slightly in recent days. they will want to maintain that in the final few days of campaigning but labour will, of course, be wanting to close the gap further

and what happens if that is the case is that the smaller parties get squeezed out so they will be looking to keep their messages front and centre as well. if the polls stay as they are, we could be looking at a significant majority for boris johnson and the conservative party but it wouldn't need to be too much of a shift at all for that not to be the case and for another hung parliament to be the result of this election. just very quickly, jonathan, we have seen a lot of talk about tactical voting and advising people how to vote tactically and also alliances, possible alliances, depending on who wins, the morning of the 13th. how is that going down with the public? have you got a feel for that? it depends where you go really and out about on the campaign trail, just speaking to the voters which i and my colleagues have, you get the impression that people are making up their minds on individual issues, all the broadbrush messages that both main parties are putting forwards but of course, people make their minds up on local

issues sometimes as well. or with brexit in mind and that tactical voting mentality to either stop the conservatives winning a majority or to make sure their preferred outcome to brexit has more of a chance of getting through. so, it will be a factor in this election but i think we haven't seen necessarily the nationwide coordinated campaign, particularly that some people hoped would happen around a remain alliance, too, if you like, put forward the resources of parties against the conservatives to stop brexit so it really will be in pockets of seats around the country that we see tactical voting come to the fore and those results will be there for all to see on friday morning. and we'll find out how this story, and many others, are covered in tomorrow's front pages at 11:30 this evening in the papers. there's only one review tonight because the weekend news starts at the later time of 10:30. our guests joining me tonight

are the parliamentary journalist, tony grew, and the journalist and broadcaster, caroline frost. police in india have arrested the owner of a bag factory in delhi, where a fire killed more than a0 people overnight. emergency services said their work had been hampered by the narrow streets around the building, but they had been able to rescue more than 50 people. from delhi, pratiksha ghildial reports. the blaze broke out on the ground floor of this multistorey factory, in the early hours of the morning, and then quickly spread to other levels. rescue services say at least 100 people were sleeping inside the building at the time. they died due to suffocation. at this hospital, relatives of the victims have been waiting desperately all day for any news on their loved ones.

many victims were migrant labourers from neighbouring states of delhi. among the families, there are several heart—wrenching stories. yasmin says her younger brother who died in the fire had been blessed with a baby boy this morning. translation: his third child was born today. he did not know about it. we can't find his dead body. we don't have any information. mohammed lost two of his brothers in the blaze. translation: my elder brother called me and said, save me, the fire is really big. there is no hope to survive. there are many of us, and we are all stuck inside. the country's prime minister, narendra modi, described the fire as extremely horrific and expressed his condolences to the families of the victims. this is one of the worst fire incidents in delhi in recent times. but they happen regularly across the country. many buildings lack proper fire exits and illegal

construction is rampant. the cause of the fire is uncertain and the inquiry has now been launched into the incident. pratiksha ghildial, bbc news, delhi. a 41—year—old man has been arrested after video emerged appearing to show players being racially abused during yesterday's manchester football derby. the manchester united player, fred, also said he was hit by an object thrown from the stands. katie gornall reports. it was the moment the manchester derby turned ugly. something has just hit fred. yesterday, as the united midfielder fred went to take a corner in the second half, objects, including cigarette lighters, were thrown at him. oh, this is really poor. things are now raining down. ..before a man was caught on camera, apparently making monkey noises and gestures towards united's players. a video of the incident began circulating on social media.

we encourage people to report and we are really heartened that yesterday a lot of people reported to us. so, that message is clearly getting through. today, greater manchester police announced that a 41—year—old man has been arrested, saying... what happened here at the etihad is yet another reminder of how racism continues to plague football, and it comes almost a year to the day after the city forward raheem sterling was racially abused playing at stamford bridge. that abuse led to a chelsea supporter receiving a permanent ban, while sterling was also one of a number of england players who faced racism and nazi salutes during the euro 2020 qualifiers this year. last night, manchester united's players left the pitch celebrating an important win, but today, football yet again has to confront an all—too—familiar problem. katie gornall, bbc news, manchester.

a murder investigation is under way after a 25—year—old woman was killed following an attack in rushden in northamptonshire. two men and a 13—year—old boy have been arrested. 0ur correspondent, simon jones, gave us this update a little earlier. this happened yesterday evening at about 8.30 in wellingborough road. a woman was stabbed to death. we are told she died in the road. police made three arrests. a 13—year—old boy has been arrested on suspicion of murder. a 27—year—old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder and another 27—year—old man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder. police have not said if the victim and those arrested were known to one another but officers have described this as a tragic event and they say the community is in a state of shock. a lot of people may have seen the aftermath of the attack or seen the attack themselves. they want to hear from anyone who saw anything important and they are asking if anyone has dashcam footage from the scene

at the time of the attack. they say the area remains cordoned off and is likely to remain that way for some time to come, as the investigation continues. they are working round the clock to bring those responsible to justice and they will have increased patrols over the coming days and hours. they are trying to reassure the community that is very much in a state of shock. firefighters in australia are trying to contain more than 140 fires, before very hot and windy conditions return to fan the flames in the next few days. australia is experiencing a devastating start to its fire season due to the effects of climate change. 2019 is on track to be one of australia's hottest and driest years on record. courtney bembridge reports. authorities are calling it a mega fire. five fires have merged and it has become too big to tackle. the front is 60 kilometres long

and so far more than 300,000 hectares of bush has been burnt. the fire is now the size of australia's largest city, sydney. firefighters say it could burn untiljanuary or even february unless there is some heavy rain soon but with none in the forecast, emergency services are being stretched to the limit. to match the scale of this fire, every firefighter in the state would need to be deployed. with nearly 100 fires burning across the state, that is an impossible ask and reinforcements have now been flown in from the us and canada. we have got literally, more than1 million hectares bunny ——burning across new south wales at the moment and we have gotjust under 2000 firefighters and personal walking on these fire grounds and we have got communities up and down the coast, that are all being impacted by these fires. residents were told to pack up and leave before it is too late. putting your life on hold

is the hardest thing, you know, you go out during the day and you don't know when you are going to be able to get back and in the afternoon. you don't know whether you will be able to be here to defend your property. life still has to go on. the fire is burning about an hour north of sydney, bringing toxic smoke and ash falling from the sky. the fire season has hit harder and earlier than previous years due to climate change since the crisis began in september, six people have been killed. more than 700 homes destroyed and an estimated 2 million hectares scorched. firefighters are bracing for more high temperatures and strong winds this week, a dangerous combination, likely to make the situation much worse. courtney bembridge, bbc news. the headlines on bbc news: campaigning intensifies, as politicians canvass in key battlegrounds — with just days until the country goes to the polls. in india, at least a0 people are killed in a fire at a factory making school bags in delhi.

a 13—year—old boy is among three people arrested for involvement in the murder of a woman — stabbed to death in northamptonshire. sport and for a full round up, from the bbc sport centre, here's ben. good evening. the green and white half of glasgow will be celebrating tonight after celtic won their 10th consecutive domestic trophy. they beat rivals rangers 1—0 in the scottish league cup final at hampden park. christopherjullien scored the winner on the hour mark and against the run of the play. rangers had a penalty saved and played the last half an hour with a man advantage. manager neil lennon admitted they weren't at their best but that's what cup football is all about. four games in the premier league today — the pick of them at villa park where leicester city won their eighth game in a row to close eight points behind leaders liverpool at the top

of the table. jamie vardy scored for the eighth game running too, scoring once in each half. jonny evans and kelechi ianacho also found the scoresheet. we knew this was going to be a tough game but our approach in the game was very good. intensity and concentration was great from the players. we scored very good goals. and that second half, we kept going right till the very end, to score... collectively as a team, we defended very well. disappointed that we conceded just before half—time, but the message in the second half was to keep doing what we had been doing. brighton and wolves shared the points in the late kick—off after a 2—2 draw. all four goals came in the first half, neal maupauy scored the pick of them to make it 1—1. but after brighton went ahead 2 minutes later, this equaliser from diego jota extended wolves unbeaten run to 11 matches and moved them up to 6th.

elsewhere, there were wins this afternoon for newcastle and sheffield united. we are very proud of all the things that we have achieved together. thus, the fans, the club has grown, trying to become better and it is a day by day situation so we want to keep on going and growing so the next game of the europa league we have to compete and prepare ourselves. chelsea remain unbeaten in the women's super league, but had to come from behind against manchester city. after caroline weir opened the scoring, bethany england was at the heart of both chelsea's goals in their 2—1 win at kingsmeadow. she reacted first toji so yun‘s effort to equalise and just two minutes later, her shot come cross was turned in by marin mjelde. it's six straight league wins for emma hayes‘ side. they're two points behind league leaders arsenal who have played a game more. vivianne miedema grabbed a brace

as they beat reading 3—0. manchester united, spurs and birmingham also won. anthonyjoshua has had 2a hours to reflect on his world heavyweight title victory over andy ruinunior and says he has plenty of work to do when he returns to the uk. he expected to have to fight mandatory challengers for his 3 belts in the next 12 months unless a lucrative fight with deyontay wilder or tyson fury can be arranged. i can't keep on fighting all these champions and fighting all the best in the division and then other people say that they want to fight step up and i think wider that one step up and i think wider that one step up and that one doesn't. as you can see, we are not running away from anyone. all challenges are welcome to take on this current champion.

the final session of the uk snooker championship final is under way at the york barbican. 2 time winner ding junhui from china is up against the 2004 champion stephen maguire. dings lead 8—11 at the mid session interval at the york barbican. bbc two, online and connected tvs to keep watching this. first to ten is the winner. that's all the sport for now. let's return to the general election now and as the parties place considerable emphasis on their social media campaigning, community groups set up to discuss local issues on facebook have become hotbeds of political discussion. 0ur media editor, amol rajan, reports from hastings on the south coast on the role online forums are playing in the election. you have probably heard a bit about the election today, and chances are, you read about it on facebook first of all. research by bbc trending, the bbc social media investigations unit, shows how much of the election conversation around the country is happening in facebook groups. hastings and rye, a marginal, illustrates this story.

a closed facebook group called hastings 2020 decides aims to be impartial. it was founded by plant biologist, russell hall, who keeps it on a tight leash. a lot of people see facebook as a threat to democracy, would you argue that it's actually a benefit? very much it can, yes. i mean, the ability for citizens right across the town to actually talk directly with each other is great. what i am seeing though is a lot of... well, non—factual information being passed around, let's say. it is fake news. i mean, people are consciously doing it. these facebook groups show the growing power of self—appointed group moderators who curate discussion amongst communities that are sometimes bigger than the readership of the local paper. this is where so much of the discussion about this election is taking place, and often it is the groups that were set up to talk about hedgehogs and wheelie bins that have suddenly become the political wild west.

even when they are not about politics. st leonards is on the west of the borough of hastings. over a decade ago, an open facebook group was set up to celebrate st leonards as a tourist destination. its founder died in 2010. today, this group has morphed into a hotbed of political activity — some of it is horrible. but you went in thinking it was one thing and actually, it's turned out to be something very different. it wasn't what i looked for. i was looking for a lovely local group. is it hostile to people that don't. . . ? it is hostile. i've just found it disgusting. really disgusting. do you think some people might be surprised that actually it's become so political? yes, but there are 5000 people, and so what we all do, i think, is we block people that annoy us. it's a really good representation about what is going on. there are a few people that can get deeply offensive. you get what they call trolling, but we deal with that. the closer it has got to the election, it has got livelier.

this marginal seat on the south coast shows the new landscape of modern elections — online, off message and a long way from the glare of public scrutiny. amol rajan, bbc news, hastings. up and coming american rapper, juice erd, has died in hospital, after what's been described as a "medical emergency" at an airport in chicago. the 21—year—old rapper, whose real name was jarad anthony higgins, was best—known for his 2018 hit song " lucid dreams", and appeared on a track with ellie goulding this year. at this stage, the cause of his death is unknown. the fbi says it is treating a deadly attack on a florida naval base as a presumed terrorist attack. the gunman, a saudi soldier who was training at the pensacola site, killed 3 people and wounded 8 on friday. the us defence secretary has ordered a review of the screening process

for foreign military in the country. investigators say they believe he was acting alone but they're working with the saudi authorities to establish whether he had connections to any particular group. hundreds of thousands of people have filled the narrow streets of hong kong to take part in a peaceful march, demanding greater political rights. singing pro—democracy anthems and shining lights in the dark, the crowd followed the route of previous large protests to the financial district. this is the first time since april police have allowed a rally to take place. 0ur correpondent, laura bicker, followed the protestors on the march and explained what those taking part want to see happen. it is the eve of the six—month anniversary of these protests. it began injune as protesters took to the streets to contest the extradition bill and what they believe is encroaching pro—beijing on their civil liberties.

when it comes to what they want now, they say they have five demands, not one less. that includes a public inquiry into what they believe has been police brutality within the last six months. they also want an amnesty for the near 6,000 people that have been arrested in that time. i think, if people were looking at hong kong wondering if the streets were going to remain empty after the local council elections, where pro—democracy candidates won the election in a landslide, a lot of people looked to hong kong and thought, is it all over? has it all been and gone now? but i think, when it comes to what we are seeing today with hundreds of thousands at least to the streets, the answer is a resounding no. the number of people in the uk attending church regularly on sundays continues to fall, but congregations at mid—week evensong services in cathedrals are increasing. researchers are now trying

to understand what's attracting a new following to the ancient service. 0ur religion editor, martin bashir, reports. the buildings are ancient, the service designed more than 600 years ago, but it seems we can't get enough of choral evensong. amazing, really. what's so special about it? i think the building, i think the music, i think the message behind it all. it's just something you can't get anywhere else. i think we all lead busy lives and that pause gives you time to think about things beyond that hustle and bustle that can take over all too often in our lives. this service takes place at 5:00pm on weekdays in all anglican cathedrals and lasts 45 minutes. it includes readings from the bible, hymns, and prayers.

and there is no sermon. the number attending choral evensong is going up across all age groups, even though sunday church attendance has halved over the last 50 years. it seems that believers and nonbelievers are attracted to this service. the question is why. catherine king has started a research project to answer that question. it's a completely different experience to everyday life. you walk into that chapel, you switch your phone off, it's candlelit, you hear often unaccompanied voices. so, i'lljust start the film... she's using a virtual reality recording of evensong and is monitoring people's responses during the service. my key research question was: what is actually happening in people's minds and their bodies when they're in a choral

evensong service? i can see the beautiful stained glass windows, the sound of the choir. so the cycle of thoughts, feelings, and emotions that some people describe when they're in this service is very similar to doing a meditation. back at st paul's, the bishop of london, a former chief nursing officer, says the service offers an antidote to the stresses of modern life. evensong in churches and cathedrals demands nothing of us. and i think we know for those 45 minutes we cannot do anything but listen to whether it's the prayers, the music, or the bible readings, but we listen and are fed. whether it connects us to the spiritual or disconnects us from social media, the research will provide the answers. martin bashir, bbc news, at st paul's cathedral.

us puppeteer caroll spinney has died at the age of 85. he was famous for playing big bird and oscar the grouch on the children's tv show sesame street. he voiced the characters from the show‘s beginning in 1969 until he retired last year, aged 84. now it's time for a look at the weather with darren bett. are it's going to be a wind few days ahead, the strongest of the wins overnight towards the south—west of the uk, but there's been a lot of showers around today and it's these two areas of cloud that are squeezing the wind and strengthening them further and we are already seeing that across parts of ireland and for the seeing that across parts of ireland and forthe uk seeing that across parts of ireland and for the uk will be the south and west of wales on the south—west of england that get the strongest of the wind through the evening and overnight together with some big waves there will be heavy bursts of rain as well which will move away.

most rain as well which will move away. m ost pla ces