both the cast and story lines have become more diverse. neighbours had australia's first same—sex wedding on tv, broadcast soon after gay marriage was legalised in the country. forthe finale, neighbours stars have returned. i like to think i'm just going to hang the shoes up, or in paul's case, the suit up, and walk away. but i don't know. i think it will probably take a bit of a while to shake off. how the show ends is a closely guarded secret. the producers want the finale to be fulfilling, joyous, and a big group hug for all the fans, for whom neighbours became good friends. shaima kalil, bbc news, melbourne. # that's when good neighbours become good...friends #.

that tune will be in your head all afternoon! time for a look at the weather. we need it to be fine over birmingham. yes, it's not going to be bathed in sunshine for the opening ceremony of the commonwealth games but it is looking dry and timbers easing down from 20 degrees during the course of the ceremony. where we are seeing sunshine today is to the north and north—west of scotland. very limited elsewhere. whilst there is a lot of dry weather around, we have also seen some heavy rain so far today, impacting parts of northern england, into southern scotland, thundery rain through the isle of man for a time and it is edging further north. we have high pressure close by so overall, a lot of dry weather and also a weather disturbance has been brought into that wiltshire will continue to feed these outbreaks of rain, slowly a little further north in scotland but still holding the sunny spells in the north and north—west. a few patches of rain or showers in wales and south—west england, one or two heading towards

coastal sussex and kent. despite the cloud elsewhere, it is looking largely dry and temperature is fairly close to average for the time of year, high teens and low 20s, just a light south easterly breeze. into tonight and from the cloud, it is towards northern england and parts of scotland where we will continue to see some outbreaks of rain. clear spells developing elsewhere. it is going to be a touch warmer tonight. warmer nights on the way. most noticeably in scotland tonight. tomorrow, a more generous amount of sunshine here and there, alongside some patches of cloud. we will begin in northern england and south—east scotland with outbreaks of rain slowly clearing. scotland and northern england most likely to see some scattered showers full stops i'm showers possiblejust about anywhere. 0verall, still a lot of dry weather and it will feel warmer in the sunny spells and notice towards the south—east, getting back into the upper 20s. going into friday evening, outbreaks of rain across northern ireland from an area of low pressure which will turn things wetter and windier through scotland overnight into saturday morning. these weather fronts are going to be around during

the whole of the weekend but they will weaken as they try to move south on saturday. towards the north and west in particular, a few splashes of rain, cloud increasing and that it east anglia and the south—east but once where you get the sunshine, including for example into eastern parts of scotland. it will be a breezy picture. by sunday, although it looks as though scotland and northern ireland will be behind the weather system and it will be cooler, a bit fresher and mainly dry, through england and wales, these weather fronts will still be close by. some uncertainty about the position, they could end up being a bit further south. of course, the next big sporting event is that football game taking place on sunday and if you are watching the weather for that, watch this space. i like it, very good, trailing ahead. thank you, nick. that's all from the bbc news at 0ne, so it's goodbye from me, good afternoon.

iam i am pulled scott with the latest from the bbc sport centre this lunchtime. it's been nearly five years in the making — but the wait is almost over. the 2022 commonwealth games opening ceremony takes place this evening in birmingham. peaky blinders creator, steven knight, is producing the event, duran duran headlining. 0rganisers have given us a taster of what to expect at the alexander stadium. we are trying to tell a really big story and there is a big story to tell about this place. birmingham is an extraordinary place in the midlands, an extraordinary, pioneering place. it has an incredible history and a really exciting present as well. we have these screens, we have black sabbath making an appearance. some great younger artists performing. it is the story, it is 30,000

volunteers who have made the show, 2000 in the cast. an audience of over a billion. i have never done anything on this scale. well the commonwealth games isn't the only major sporting event taking place in england. the women's euros final is at wembley on sunday. england will take on eight—time champions germany. that's after they beat france 2—1 in milton keynes. germany captain alexandra popp scoring twice. she's now the tournament's joint leading scorer, along with england striker beth mead, on six goals. i think both teams have pressure because both teams know what you can win that night. they have the whole nation behind them but it can also give energy. the whole england nation is expecting them to win and to win in their own country. we are going to give our best to avoid that. we'll be back to birmingham shortly, but some breaking news elsewhere this morning. four—time formula one world champion

sebastian vettel is retiring at the end of the season. the german, who currently drives for aston martin, is one of the sport's most succesful ever drivers. he's won 53 races in his career and enjoyed his most prolific spell between 2010 and 2013 when he won all four of his world titles, back—to—back, for red bull. committing to my passion the way i did in the way i think it is right does no longer go side by side with my wish to be a great father and husband. the energy it takes to become one with the car and the team, to chase perfection takes focus and commitment. my goals have shifted from winning races and fighting for championships, to seeing my children grow, passing on my values, helping them up when they fall, listening to them when they need me, not having to say goodbye and most importantly, being able to learn from them and let them inspire me. england's white ball cricketers are back to winning ways,

with a much needed iii—run win over south africa, in the first of their t20 matches. there were 29 sixes in the game, with moeen ali reaching a half century in just 16 balls, the fastest ever by an england player. they made 249 from their 20 overs. and it was too much for south africa, they could only manage 193 in reply. it's reported that two—time former masters champion bubba watson will be the next big—name to join golf�*s controversial saudi—backed liv series. the announcement is expected later today, when the third event on the tour gets under way in bedminster, newjersey. england's paul casey will make his liv debut at trump national and insists his move was not motivated by money. the tga tour is something, it was a goal of mine to play on the pga tour. it has been an incredible journey, but i am also a guy who has

one or multiple tools, the agent, the pga tour, and i would love to add a live victory to that as well. that's all the sport for now. you can find more on all those stories on the bbc sport website. paul, thank you very much. the first lady of ukraine, 0lena zelenska, has been speaking to bbc world news. 0lena zelenska has played a key role for many ukrainians as the conflict with russia continues. she told us about the toll the russian invasion has had on the mental health of her nation. let's hear some of the interview now. translation: the whole of ukraine i is currently in constant stress, i for example, there was a mass rocket attack last night, and this morning, on the ukrainian territory. it was the kyiv region, and in the east and in the north of ukraine, and we feel that constantly. every person lives in constant stress from the 24th of february.

that does not relent. so, each and every one of us has to learn to live with their feeling, to be strong, and that is a long—distance work. unfortunately, it's not just advice we need. we need expert help. that's why we approach the world health organization for expertise, and they are already helping us with psychological interventions, so we use proper tools which have been already developed in the world in order to help people in ukraine, and the ministry of health care, and the 15 million of ukrainians need to contact people for psychological help during the war.

for example, ptsm, ptsd, and that might notjust concerned soldiers. 70% of russian war machine is used against the civilian population, including children, and currently we are implementing a programme of psychological health on the national level, and psychological support that will help us to overcome the possible consequences of this tragedy. this is already at work, as i said, many countries are helping us, including israel and the us, and the un, and the world health organization, by trying to find the best practices to help ukrainians, and we have to build a system for every

ukrainian to be able to get the support and to receive rapid support of their mental health. as we've been hearing, unions have reacted angrily to the decision by labour to sack thejunior shadow transport minister sam tarry. it was after he joined striking rail workers on a picket line. here's the labour leader sir keir starmer talking about the sam tarry situation this morning. sam tarry was sacked because he booked himself on to media programmes without permission and then made up policy on the hoof. and that can't be tolerated in any organisation because we've got collective responsibility. so that was relatively straightforward. of course, as far as the industrial action is concerned, i completely understand the frustration of so many working people who've seen the prices go up, see an inflation through the roof and their wages haven't gone up. so the labour party will always be on the side of working people. but we need collective responsibility as any organisation does. well, you mentioned collective responsibility,

when conservative cabinet ministers decision collective responsibility to defend partygate and things like that, your supporters accuse them of being spineless. shouldn't sam tarry be allowed to stick up for his principles? i think any organisation, certainly any political party, everybody understands that if you're on the front bench, you can't book yourself onto media programmes without permission and you can't make up policy on the hoof. i think that's very straightforward in political parties. i think that's pretty straightforward for any organisation or any business. and so we've got collective responsibility and that's what that's about. obviously the labour party's relationship with the trade unions is historic. they're part of our movement, they always have been, always will be. and that's why we've worked with them on things like employment rights from day one, the most comprehensive set of rights that we set out at our conference last year. so this is about collective responsibility, i think everybody understands that. sojust to be clear then, on saturday, when the strikes

are next happening, if a shadow minister goes onto the picket line but doesn't have any unauthorised media appearances, is that 0k? well, look, we take each case as it comes. i want to see these issues resolved. and my criticism is really of the government, because it's inevitable, i think, when you've got a cost of living crisis that so many working people are concerned about their wages. i understand that, i understand the concerns. the role of government is to do something in relation to cost of living crisis. it's why we were saying a windfall tax on oil and gas companies that made more money than expected use that to help people pay their bills, but also get people around the table to resolve these issues. the welsh labour government got the key players around the table and resolve the issues and there aren't strikes there. that's the role of a responsible government. are you worried that the unite union might withdraw their funding from the labour party? the unite union and the labour party have a very strong relationship. i'm a member of the unite union. that relationship is historic, its present and it will be

the future of the labour party and they work with us on our employment rights draft legislation, which you know is the most comprehensive set of employment rights that we've ever seen coming out of the labour party. now on bbc news, it's time to look at some of the other stories making the headlines from our newsrooms across the uk. letsjoin our wales lets join our wales correspondent who is following a story about a poisoning. what is the background? this started on monday afternoon, a family of five from cardiff, from this area of cardiff, riverside,

where there is a strong bangladeshi community had gone over to bangladesh on a two—month trip, they were visiting the city of sylhet in the south—eastern part of bangladesh. that evening they had supper and then went to bed. the following morning, tuesday morning, relative came to the flat where they were staying and they couldn't wake the family and they couldn't get in. when they did manage to get income it appeared the family were very ill. they all went to hospital and the father, 51—year—old rafiqul islam and 16—year—old son, mahiqul died. the other three, mother, daughter and another son are still in hospital. the daughter is in a critical condition. initially it was thought this might be food poisoning. however, it has now transpired it is poisoning of another kind and the police are investigating into what exactly has happened. the funeralfor investigating into what exactly has happened. the funeral for rafiqul islam and his son has taken place today in bangladesh at about 1.30

local time. today in bangladesh at about 1.30 localtime. hundreds today in bangladesh at about 1.30 local time. hundreds of people lined the streets of sylhet when the funeral took place. i was also speaking just a moment to go with a member of the community here in cardiff, that new mr islam and said he was a quiet and unassuming man, close member of the community and a very sad and extraordinary loss, extraordinary set of circumstances and we are waiting to hear the details of the postmortem and investigation by the police in bangladesh. investigation by the police in bangladesh-— investigation by the police in banuladesh. . ~' , . investigation by the police in banuladesh. . ~ , . ., bangladesh. thank you very much for the moment — some private care homes in the west say they're at risk of going under, after losing out on income from the nhs. it's chosen to limit the number of homes it works with, choosing just three of the larger ones. homes not on the list warn an increase in empty beds might force them to close. here's health correspondent matthew hill. ambulances waiting to admit patients to our hospitals an all too familiar sight. the reason often given for this

bottleneck is so called bed blockers, patients who are well enough to be discharged, but can't be, due to a lack of care beds in the community. for example, in any one day, we have may have up to a third of our patients who could be better cared for in a different setting, such as home, care home or nursing home. 0nce patients are able to leave hospital, they are usually transferred to a nursing home, where a six week assessment of their needs is carried out. this is paid for by the nhs to the tune of up to £1400 a week. before the pandemic, that could be any nursing home of their choice, but now a block contract means only three major providers, including st monica's, can be used in north somerset, bristol or south gloucestershire. so, this is one of your rooms. yes, room 15, it's empty... but this leaves private care homes with a third of their beds lying empty, without the valuable nhs referrals, they say it's hard to stay afloat. we have had families that have been in tears because they don't want their loved ones in the big,

big, big homes. but they have been told that if they go outside of this programme, they have to pay themselves. having a big home it is much easier to deliver things like physio, so, do see that point? if you are after the best, and that's what we are after, the best opportunity of assessment and almost to may also recovery, it's got to be the choice of the person. they have to be comfortable within that environment. the decision to introduce these block contracts came about through the local council, as well as the nhs. now, in a statement, the healthier together partnership says that many patients need more intensive support during their assessments, and that's why they go there, but once they've been assessed, they are welcome to go to private nursing homes. i've seen a letter from north somerset council which says it has not favoured the solely block contract approach because of a lack choice, but the policy means this home now has seven out of 33 beds unused.

the council tells us they are not happy with the lack of choice, but unfortunately they haven't come public with that view. with limited reserves, its only a matter of time before some smaller nursing homes close, leaving patients with less choice, and hospital beds blocked. they are one of the great sights and sounds of the summer. but the elegant swifts that swoop at speed over us are having a hard time in the heat. even though these birds migrate to the uk from africa, the recent uk heatwave has been too much. experts trying to help the birds say they've been inundated in recent weeks. our environment correspondent paul murphy reports. feeding the chicks begins at dawn in megan sutherland's kitchen, and in recent weeks she has cared

for as many as a0 rescued swifts at any one time. at 5:30am is the first feed of the day, and i come down and i go from the weakest, poorliest, youngest swifts up to the oldest. so, it goes in order of need. adult swifts arrive in the uk from africa in may. they breed and raise chicks before returning home in august. but it's thought our recent record temperatures have driven the chicks from their nests before they can fly and feed. maybe they are fledging a bit too soon because it's too hot in their nests. they nest in roofs, under pantiles and things, and the heat builds up. they stick their head out just to get a breath of air, and they might overbalance. these are live crickets, banded crickets and black crickets. if you listen, you can hear them hopping around in the bags. it costs megan around £100 per week to keep the hungry chicks in crickets, and she hand feeds them all. the decline in natural insect populations is

believed to be hitting the species hard. an awful lot of the chicks are seen in the last maybe five years are just so thin, they are so thin, and i think the parents are really struggling to get either enough insects all the right insect. diet is absolutely vital to these birds. they need to be absolute peak perfection to migrate all the way to africa. the rspb says biodiversity loss and climate change has caused swift populations to decline by up to 50% in the last decade. megan is now appealing for volunteers to help her care for this elegant summer visitor, one that we can no longer take for granted. paul murphy, bbc look north, sleaford.

let's get more now on the 22nd commonwealth games. the opening ceremony takes place in birmingham tonight. prince charles will represent the queen and 30,000 people will be inside the alexander stadium, with millions more watching around the world. someone who knows the alexander stadium in birminham very well is the midlands' very own denise lewis. the track and field athlete won gold in herfirst commonwealth games in canada in 1994, and her second in kuala lumpur in 1998. she's been sharing what it means to have the games so close to home. my childhood, growing up in wolverhampton, travelling back and forth to birmingham was literally like a ritual. i hustled and bustled through new street station. i was a regular child, but with big ambitions. if i remember visiting

the alexander stadium for the first time as a school athlete. walking into the stadium in awe. i had never seen stands like it. i loved it. and subsequently over the years, it has just been my second home. my mum came overfrom jamaica in her teens and she had me, and so life was just very simple. we were just a team. but very early on she instilled in me that love of the caribbean, that jamaican heritage. and i used to watch the commonwealth athletes, athletes from jamaica just really flying the flag for that country. that dual relationship between britain, my home, and my heritage ofjamaica, was always connected and intertwined. ..there to celebrate the 15th commonwealth games. my first commonwealth games, i remember being really nervous,

but actually excited because it was an opportunity to put my name and the event on the map. and this is denise lewis of england. going into the second day i was lying in third place, but the javelin throw... what about this? she has absolutely smashed her lifetime best with that one. ..that freaky javelin throw that catapulted me into first position changed my whole championships. come on, denise. iran my heart out for the 800. come on! she is over the line. nearly out on her feet. and i heard people yelping that i had done it, secured my gold medal. standing on the podium all those years ago, look at me, i'm still smiling now, and that is all i did on the podium, which was grin from ear to ear, and that was the arrival of denise lewis on the international scene. there's something really magical about the commonwealth games.

for young athletes it's an opportunity to showcase what they do, but there's something really special about the environment itself. to know that energy, that friendly, competitive atmosphere is coming to birmingham isjust the best thing ever. now it's time for a look at the weather with nick miller. hello. the driest parts of the uk are set to stay that way for at least the next few days. we have seen some rain in parts of scotland so far today. that said, the further north you are, the more likely it is you'll stay dry today and get to see some sunny spells where southwest scotland so far today is seen some heavy, even thundery rain. high pressure beginning to edge your way into that, we've brought a weak weather disturbance which is giving a lot of cloud and the chance for either some patchy rain or showers from parts of south west england, wales, northwest england, eastern

most parts of northern ireland, but especially through the rest of the day, edging further north through scotland, though not reaching the far north and northwest with the sunny spells here. and a bit of hazy brightness into the east and south east of england as well — temperatures, high teens, low 20s. of course, the opening ceremony of the commonwealth games in birmingham this evening, it's likely to stay dry despite all of the cloud around and temperatures just slowly edging down from around 20 degrees. into tonight, there will be still a lot of cloud producing some patchy rain in places, i think more especially into northern england, parts of scotland, mainly into the south, some clear spells developing elsewhere. temperatures a touch higher overnight and that's most noticeably so into scotland. and tomorrow there will be more in the way of sunny spells around. cloudy starts in northern england, southern south east scotland, outbreaks of rain just clearing eastwards. and for scotland and northern england, there'll be further scattered showers following on behind and there's a chance of a showerjust about anywhere else. but many places will be staying dry, broken cloud, sunny spells, and it'll feel warmer. infact, central, eastern

and southeast england, mid to upper 20s in places. northern ireland in the evening, cloud thickening outbreaks of rain with a freshening breeze, rain pushing across scotland overnight and into saturday morning from an area of low pressure well to the north of scotland, driving some weather front southwards though around it during saturday, weakening as they do so, so cloud and a few splashes of rain. it's a rather mixed picture on saturday, nowhere getting really a wash out. there'll still be a few bright or sunny spells towards eastern scotland early on in the east and south east of england. it'll feel warm where you get to see some sunshine. now as well as this system in no hurry to clear away during part two of the weekend on sunday, there's a chance of seeing some rain even further south than you see here. of course, there's a big football match happening on sunday at wembley. so if you're following that one, it is the case, when it comes to the weather, of watch this space. bye— bye.

this is bbc news. iam due i am due guru murphy. -- i am gita uuru i am due guru murphy. -- i am gita guru murphy- _ the headlines: excitement in birmingham as the opening ceremony for the commonwealth games takes place this evening. a woman is asking local authorities in the north of england why her child was taken from her at birth and given to a woman who later murdered him. how can someone hurt an innocent child? what, just because they couldn't cope with him? doesn't mean you've got to kill him. british gas owner centrica defends a decision to resume payouts to shareholders, as uk households come under pressure from rising energy bills. legal history is made as broadcasters airjudges' the nhs has announced it