this is bbc news. i'm mike embley with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. demands for moscow to explain what happened to alexei navalny, as german doctors say he was poisoned with a nerve agent. this is directly leading to the russians. they are the only ones who have ever made this off, they are the only ones who have been known to use it before. fourteen go on trial in france over the deadly attack on the satirical magazine charlie hebdo, five years ago. what happens when two black holes collide? scientists may have found the answer and it's challenging the laws of physics. and the bbc‘s mishal husein tells the story of her grandfather and the indian army's contribution in the second world war.

there is unequivocal proof that the russian opposition politician alexei navalny — was poisoned with a novichok nerve agent. that's the finding of the german government, which says mr navalny was the victim of attempted murder, and the world was looking to russia for answers. mr navalny was airlifted to berlin in a coma afterfalling ill on a flight last month. his team says he was poisoned on the orders of president putin, but the kremlin denies the allegation. novichok was used to poison the former russian spy sergei skripal and his daughter in the uk in 2018. our security correspondent gordon corera reports. alexei navalny has been the most prominent opposition figure in russia, campaigning against corruption. a thorn in the kremlin‘s side, he's been arrested

and had his offices raided. but soon after being pictured drinking tea at a siberian airport in august, he fell suddenly and violently ill on a flight to moscow. russian doctors said there was no sign of foul play and his blood sugar had simply dropped. but, amidst growing pressure, he was airlifted to berlin, where he remains in a coma. and today angela merkel revealed he'd been poisoned with a novichok nerve agent. translation: we expect the russian government to give an explanation. there are now grave questions which only the russian government can and must answer. and the prime minister said on twitter tonight: novichok is the same type of nerve agent used

in salisbury in 2018. secretly developed by moscow in the cold war, western intelligence believe it was turned into a tool for assassination and smeared on a door handle belonging to former russian spy, sergei skripal, poisoning him and his daughter in salisbury. they survived, but a local woman, dawn sturgess, was killed months later when she picked up a discarded perfume bottle used to transport the agent. the use of such a rare substance was crucial then and now in pointing the finger at the russian state. well on the face of it, it would appear that they just don't care who knows. this is directly leading to the russians. they're the only ones who have ever made this stuff, they're the only ones we've ever known who have used it before. and the other thing to consider, it took 18 months to clean up salisbury. if this stuff is lying around the airport where he was poisoned, or his hotel, there's a huge threat to the local population. today's revelations strengthens

the evidence alexei navalny was targeted by the russian state. the question now is how the international community will respond. lets go live now to new york and evelyn matt to matt, the former deputy secretary of defence. thank you very much for your time. you have experience in this region and we know what the government of germany is saying officially and we know the russians know the allegation. what do you think happened? i think it is exactly as angela merkel described it, the german doctors found evidence that novichok was used against navalny, alexi navalny in order to debilitate all probably assassinate him. and this is not the first time, as you pointed out, this is not the first time the russians have done this and the problem is that until we in the west

are sufficiently firm with the russians, they will keep doing this. they will do it in the uk, they would do it in russia, in germany, in the united states of donald trump wins. vladimir putin is not afraid. he is afraid of domestic discontent and the russian people are a little fed up and bored with having him as their leader, they also suffer from the coronavirus pandemic and economic stagnation. and navalny is running around russia making great headway with the opposition, putting individual people who are opposition leaders into the local election, into local infrastructure double top political infrastructure. he has been making progress. putin is unpopular and then there is belarus and putin will have to get involved militarily there because there is no other way to keep lu kashenko because there is no other way to keep lukashenko in power. so all this provided the rationale for whoever did this, the vladimir putin to move now, whether it was a direct order

from the vladimir putin right before it happened or not. and despite the russian denials, the point is that there are very, very few state powerful actors who have the capacity to produce novichok and deployed and who have history of using novichok. that is correct. your government, my government, we are all very closely, obviously we are allies and we provide this sensitive information to one another. we know that the russians produced this nerve agent although they denied it and it is military grade, they are the only country who produced it. clearly they are now using it as an assassination tool. it is a weapon of mass destruction. it flies in the face of the number of un and other conventions signed up to by the russians, leaving aside the fact that it is human not rights violations. is it your assertion that vladimir putin would have ordered something such as this ordered something such as this or loosely put it was done by

people who know what the boss would like? there is deniability. i don't think it matters, really. ultimately it was done in keeping with the overall commander's intent, if you will, that is what we say in the us military. whether commander says i want you to see that piece of territory but i won't tell you how to do with because i know conditions can change on the ground. vladimir putin can say that at some point i would like navalny removed from the political scene. if did he give an order that weikel was at a standing order? it does not matter. the kremlin is ordering assassination and for sure this was approved by vladimir putin because he is not going to let novichok nerve agents be running amok in russia to be used by any tom or igor. there is much more on this on the bbc website and more on all the bbc website and more on all the national and international news of course but specifically

on this story. a trial has started in paris of fourteen people charged with supporting the fatal terror attacks on the french satirical magazine charlie hebdo and a jewish supermarket in 2015. after the magazine printed cartoons of the prophet mohamed, three islamist gunmen stormed the charlie hebdo office and shot and killed seventeen employees. the trial is expected to clarify what really happened and why. lucy williamson reports from paris. they arrived today, 11 men dwarfed by the security and symbolism around this trial — the state reclaiming its authority over those who, prosecutors say, helped terrorise france. sitting behind security screens they heard the charges — complicity, weapons procurement, membership of a terrorist group. the events at the heart of this trial are seared into the national memory of france, but the people standing in the dock today are almost completely unknown, suspected of being small backroom

accomplices and the only remaining links to the violence that erupted five years ago. the violence in 2015 stunned france. 17 people were gunned down in targeted attacks during three days of cold—blooded killing, followed with disbelief on live television. the widow of one cartoonist killed in the charlie hebdo attack said she had been haunted ever since by nightmares of her husband's killers. translation: the defendants are the ones in the dock, but behind them are the kouachi brothers. it's cherif kouachi who i will see. the trial is going to be traumatising, but in the end it might help. i'm asking myself if it will bring healing. i'm not sure. as france remembers the victims of these attacks, the government said this week that the risk remains extremely high. we should not become the victims ourselves of terrorists, by thinking that islam is not compatible with what the french republic is.

the trap of the terrorists is precisely to create oppositions, to create tensions and divisions that we would hate each other, we should refuse that. charlie hebdo this week reprinted the cartoons of mohammed that originally made it a target forjihadist violence. five years ago, france expressed its grief through solidarity with the paper. but its brash, belligerent satire is also a reminder that whatever conclusions this trial may reach, it won't settle debate around the rights and limits to freedom of speech. lucy williamson, bbc news, paris. let's get some of the day's other news. a record number of migrants crossed the english channel from france on wednesday according to the uk border force. the authorities say they've dealt with 27 incidents so far, involving 409 people. the previous daily high was 235. heavy rain and powerful winds

are battering south korea, as typhoon maysak works its way up from the island ofjeju towards the country's second largest city, busan. the authorities are warning of flooding and potential mudslides as maysak hits the mainland. flights have been cancelled and ferries suspended. anti—government protesters in bulgaria have clashed with police in front of the national assembly building in the capital, sofia. police used pepper spray to disperse the thousands of demonstrators, who in turn attacked officers and police vehicles. the protesters are demanding the resignation of the prime minister over allegations of corruption. the united states has imposed further sanctions on the chief prosecutor of the international criminal court, fatou bensouda. the secretary of state, mike pompeo, has described the icc as a kangaroo court, accusing it of targeting americans by continuing its investigation into possible us war crimes in afghanistan. the court said it was an unprecedented and serious attack on the international criminal justice system and the rule of law.

joining me from washington is our correspondent nomia iqbal. help us with some of the background to this. this all began earlier in the year after the international criminal court announced it was going to investigate alleged crimes committed by the united states and others in the afghan conflict. as you said there, mike pompeo was not happy about it. he vowed to protect americans from this and said it was truly breathtaking action, calling it a kangaroo court. in june president trump imposed travel restrictions on fatou bensouda, the main chief prosecutor and her colleague and as we have now seen they have gone a step further. isn't it unusual for sanctions to be applied like this against an individual representing an international organisation? i know the un has condemned it. what is likely to happen next?

the biggest question is that donald trump has a history of sucking institution he does not like, look at the world health 0rganization as an example. recently announcing he is pulling out funding. but what human rights group says different about this, apart from going after another institution, one committed to defending, dedicated to criminal justice defending, dedicated to criminaljustice by going after individuals who are simply doing theirjob and they say this undermines the global effort to protect human rights defenders and potentially sets a bad example for other countries around the world. thanks to you for being with us. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: curfews in cuba. hava na's latest efforts in curbing coronavirus. she received the

nobel peace prize for her work with the poor and the dying in india's slums. the head of the catholic church said mother teresa was a wonderful example of how to help people in need. we have to identify the bodies, then arrange the coffins and take them back home. parents are waiting and wives are waiting. hostages appeared. some carried, some running, trying to escape the nightmare behind them. britain lost a princess today, described by all to whom she reached out as irreplaceable. an early morning car crash in a paris underpass ended a life with more than its share of pain and courage, warmth and compassion.

this is bbc news, the latest headlines: the german government says there is unequivocal evidence that the russian 0pposition leader alexei navalny was poisoned with novichok. the kremlin says there is no proof to support the claim. 1a people have gone on trial in paris, charged with helping the gunmen who carried out the attacks on the french satirical magazine, charlie hebdo. they are perhaps the greatest mystery of the universe. black holes, where matter is so densely packed it creates a gravitational pull strong enough that not even light can escape. on wednesday scientists announced they had discovered one of the largest ever, and it's 17 billion light years away, as our science correspondent, pallab ghosh, reports. it was the most powerful explosion ever detected, the collision of two massive black holes.

it happened halfway across the universe, and its blast was felt on earth. this is where it was detected, in louisiana. it looks like an oil pipeline, but inside it are sophisticated instruments designed to detect black hole collisions. when we saw this for the first time, of course, this was incredibly exciting, because it pushes to the limits our understanding of the origin of these black holes and opens up new ways of, you know, investigating the creation and evolution of such massive stellar objects. black holes matter on earth, because they're the reason the life here exists. their extreme gravity pulls together stars and planets to form galaxies. by understanding how they collide, scientists hope to learn how the universe was built. a black hole is created when a star collapses in on itself, but the new one is too large to have been produced that way.

so scientists think it was a merger of two black holes to produce one that was 85 times the mass of our sun. scientists also observed it merge with another black hole to produce an even larger monster of 142 solar masses. that sent a shock wave across the universe with the explosive power of eight suns. that's powerful enough to have been detected 100 billion trillion miles away on earth. each black hole is many times the mass of the sun, so tightly packed they're just a few hundred miles across. black holes have an important part to play in helping us understand how galaxies form and evolve, and indeed how the universe evolves, but there are significant gaps in that story which is detection will begin to help us plug. gigantic black holes lie at the heart of galaxies, including our own milky way. this is a photograph

of one taken last year. we now know that they're created by smaller ones coming together from across the vastness of space to become bigger and bigger. pallab ghosh, bbc news. the cuban government has imposed a night—time curfew on the capital, havana, as the authorities struggle to contain the latest outbreak of coronavirus. cuba had previously thought it had controlled covid—19, but in recent weeks there has been a surge in new cases. now, people have been ordered to remain in their homes at night for two weeks. from havana, will grant reports. havana is under curfew — not by day, as people still venture out to find food or in some cases, continue to go to work. but at night, the streets of the cuban capital are completely deserted. from 7pm until 5am, for at least the next two weeks, people must remain in their homes — as the authorities attempt to bring this latest outbreak of coronavirus back under control.

now, cuba had been praised for its response to covid—19 and for containing its local infection rates. indeed, in one day injuly, they registered no deaths and no new infections. however, since then, they've gradually seen the numbers creep up, which has forced the communist run government into these latest measures. they include a halt on national tourism and only certain vehicles are allowed to circulate the streets. the governments say that people welcome these stringent new measures, as they want to see the outbreak brought back under control. but on the streets, they were greeted with mixed emotions. translation: the queues are much longer than the supplies available in stores. if they carry on only stocking some stores in havana with food and not all of them, then people will keep flocking to those shops.

it will be terrible, and covid will keep spreading. translation: there are many basic goods which aren't available everywhere. i think all neighbourhoods must be treated equally to avoid problems of too many people crowding around the same place. translation: the curfew measures are good. i agree that they're necessary, but i don't agree with the rule that says we can only buy products in our local neighbourhoods. some of us have spent hours queuing for nothing. as well as the night—time curfew, residents of havana can only purchase goods in their own municipalities — something which complicates matters for many, especially those living in the poorest neighbourhoods. now, it's worth remembering that even at its height, cuba's coronavirus outbreak is far more controlled than those in hot spots in the region, like brazil and mexico.

nevertheless, the island's healthcare system is stretched to its limits, and the government is well aware that it simply can't afford a major second wave. will grant, bbc news, havana. this week marks the 75th anniversary of the formal end of the second world war — and some bbc colleagues are telling the stories of their families' role in the people's war effort. tonight, my colleague mishal husain, looks at her grandfather's role and that of the indian army. they served in deserts and jungles, from african battlefields to asia and in europe. and without what was then the british indian army, the war might not have been won. it's all commemorated here at the royal military academy sandhurst, which has trained officers for generations, and where this entire room on is the contribution

of south asian troops through successive conflicts in different parts of the world. my grandfather, syed shahid hamid, was at university in northern india when he found out he'd won a place at sandhurst. it was 1932, and he was one of the few indian cadets. i'd like to show you this lovely photograph of your grandfather as part of the old military college second six tennis team, named there, and you'll spot him there. yes! this is one of the earliest pictures i've ever seen of him, cos he would only have been about 20 at this point. back home, he became a husband and father, and when war broke out, india began to play a central role. archive: no praise is too high for these fine men who are doing so much forthe empire. when britain went into the war, it was an imperial endeavour, and the imagination was that everybody around the empire would come to help and to serve and save the motherland. from december 1941, the conflict

came closer to india, as japanese offensive threatened british strongholds in asia. shahid was ordered to burma. his ship arrived in rangoon in the middle of an air strike. it was the first of many searing experiences which have been pieced together by my uncle. when the japanese surrounded rangoon, they blocked the road, and he writes that there was a column of over 40 miles long. where is the water coming from? where is the food coming from? what is happening to the injured? the plight of the civilians is terrible. he said that the stage came where they were offering a fistful of rupees for a fistful of rice. burma was about to fall, and he was living through a perilous time. "it was terrible when the wooden houses caught fire and the ammunition

dumps started exploding. i was blown into a trench and thought that i'd been hit and could not open my eyes." the picture that emerges from these pages is of the intensity of this period in burma, and i didn't realise until now what my grandfather faced from the very moment that he arrived. and for him it comes to a very sudden end when an injury to his eyes means he is evacuated back to india in april 1942. the indian army was made up not of conscripts but volunteers, some of them still with us today, who joined up for many reasons. very, very poor people. for this man, it was a livelihood. translation: when the british asked us to help, we thought there is no work available, so instead of going hungry, we would do this. and there was the hope that if the british won the war, they would give india its independence. by 1945, more than 2

million indians had served, part of a bigger contribution. there are vast numbers of men recruited, but it also produces raw materials, uniforms, timber goods, cotton. there's a drive to build up factories, munitions factories in india itself. after the war, my grandfather continued his military career and had a long life. others were not so fortunate. it was a war that drew in many countries, changing millions of lives, and taking some far from home, never to return. my colleague mishal husain on her grandfather and the second world war. netflix is saying it has signed a deal with britain's prince harry and his wife meghan to produce programmes. the agreement will last for several years, financial details have not been released. it will involve documentaries, feature films, scripted shows and childrens‘ programming.

the duke and duchess of sussex say the focus will be on content which informs but also gives hope. that's it for now, thank you for watching. hello. it will be a much milder into the night and that is because it is picked up atla ntic because it is picked up atlantic weather fronts although that is clearing away for many, we will still have quite a cool and brisk breeze with showers coming in on that atla ntic with showers coming in on that atlantic wind. some heavy thundery rain for a time through the night, this cold weather front here bringing some more persistent rain southwards and to the south of that it southwards and to the south of thatitis southwards and to the south of that it is very misty. low cloud in the hills and headlands, it will be a milder start, but a grey one for some. already, though, the brightest quys already, though, the brightest guys are already, though, the brightest guys are with us for scotland, northern ireland, england, filtering through wales into the midlands in the afternoon,

but the more appreciable rain could linger into the second pa rt could linger into the second part of the afternoon further south and the cloud towards evening as well. but we will still see temperatures into the high teens in the low 20s, but there will be a gale force wind in the far north—west of scotland, most will have a breezy day. that breeze will blow the cloud in the rain away from the south on friday, continue to push ours into the north and west but actually, through into friday it will be chillier to start, so much milder this morning but a chilly one again on friday morning. there is some uncertainty on the details of friday regarding the rain. still sunny spells and showers, but this area of rain may push in across southern parts of england and wales, through the second half or during through the day and it's just uncertain as to how much we are going to get. is that then clears away the weekend is set up with low pressure to the north and a brisk north—westerly wind. high—pressure starting to build

into the southwest. but again, it's a chilly direction so if anything temperatures will be suppressed a little bit more this weekend, just the high teens for most, and showers continuing, possibly something a little wetter in the day in northern ireland but at this stage, the devil is in the details but that does develop that could push further southwards during saturday night and into sunday bringing more showers across england and wales. either side of that, some drier brighter weather, still quite cool and that brisk north—westerly wind, high still into the high teens. as ever, there is more online including there is more online including the warnings.

this is bbc news. the headlines:

russia is facing demands for a full investigation into what happened to the outspoken kremlin critic, alexei navalny. germany says it has proven he was poisoned with a novichok nerve agent — the same substance used in an attack in salisbury in 2018. 14 people have gone on trial in paris charged with helping the gunmen who carried out attacks on french satirical magazine, charlie hebdo, and a jewish supermarket, five years ago. three men killed 17 people across a three day period — before being shot dead by police. scientists have discovered a black hole so large that it challenges current theories of physics. it theories of physics. raises the possibility that black it raises the possibility that black holes merge often crossed the vastness of space. the number of people under 25 who are on universal credit has