where he finished only third. but there was certainly no doubt he would win the race. it was an extraordinary performance from him, as he charged clear to win by some ten lengths. a brilliant performance from energumene — ridden by paul townend, trained by willie mullins, owned by the owner of brighton & hove albion, tony bloom. the big highlight tomorrow is the stayers�* hurdle, where all eyes will be on flooring porter, who is going for a hat—trick of wins in the race. he won it in 2021, won it in 2022 — can he win it in 2023? he's not been in the best of form over the last 12 months, and he'll face plenty of high—quality opposition, including another former champion in paisley park. so while energumene took the headlines in the big race of the day, it was also a day to remember for one teenage jockey. 18—year—old john gleeson, on his first ever ride at cheltenham festival, provided the fairytale finish to day two —

by winning the final race aboard the aptly named a dream to share! ireland's team have made the decision to change the colour of their shorts for this year's women's six nations tournament. they were white, but will now be blue to combat period anxiety. and other sides are considering following suit. the tournament kicks off march 25, with england once again favourites to win the title for what would be a fifth time in a row. our reporter sara orchard has been at the launch. we're in a very trendy corner of east london for this women's six nations launch, where the players and the captains — a lot of them — have been talking a lot to social media creators, having their photos done, of course mixing with journalists and reporters as well about how they'll all go in the championship this year. however, one of the big talking points is the fact that every country taking part — for the very first time — will have either professional or semi—professional players. and for scotland, they are the earliest country on that journey,

having only given out their contracts in december. feeling slightly less tired all the time, which has been really incredible, in terms ofjust the impact it has on your training. i think i've got more out of the last six months — or the last year, really — in terms of individually, for my training, than ever before. yeah, it's definitely growing. they've put in the - celtic cup challenge squad, so we'll have six players coming from there this year. _ so hopefully that will grow. and develop rugby in wales. all the younger girls, actually... iremembergrowing up, being like, "i want to be a professional rugby player, but it's never going to happen in my lifetime." and that's what they've done. and now girls can have that and they can see it and feel it — and boys as well. i've got dads saying, "thank you." and mums. yeah, it is amazing. one of the big talking points today has been the news that came out of ireland — it was splashed all over social media channels — and that was the single fact that they'll no longer

play in white shorts. they got together with their kit sponsor and decided that navy blue was a better option for them. why? quite simply, it's to give them confidence that women when playing in those white shorts had been on their period. i caught up with the ireland captain nichola fryday, about the reaction to the decision but also how it came about. i feel as a female athlete, that shouldn't be a concern you have when you walk out onto the pitch, and the negative reaction that there would be if something happened. like, i think it'sjust a whole scenario that is controllable and we've made that change, we've made that less of a concern or to not have as much of a concern for a female athlete. you can see it on social media, everyone is really relishing the change and the girls are all really happy as well, so it's only positive for us. the jewel in the ground this year is arguably the final match between england and france at twickenham. it'll be the very first time it's a stand—alone women's fixture at that venue.

they've sold 36,000 tickets, but there are hopes that number will rise significantly once the tournament gets under way on the 25th of march. and finally, we have some tennis for you, but it's not great news, sadly. there'll be no british winner at indian wells this year, as cameron norrie�*s run in california ended with an error—strewn defeat against american frances tiafoe in the quarterfinals. norrie, who won the tournament two years ago, was the last brit standing and was well below his best, the british number one with 28 unforced errors, losing 6—4, 6—4 to the 14th seed. and that's all the sport for now. for more on all of those stories, do head to bbc.co.uk/sport. but from me, marc edwards, and the rest of the sports team, bye—bye. this is bbc news.

we'll have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour, straight after this programme. screaming i'm at the men arena in manchester, there's a bombjust gone off in the foyer. 0k, just hold the line. the main concourse has had a very loud bang go off. - evacuating the station immediately. it's definitely a bomb. people injured, at i least 20 casualties. 10.31, may 22, 2017. salman abedi detonates a bomb in the city room entrance to the manchester arena... so we've got mass—casualties, it does look like it's been like a nail bomb. there's bolts and shrapnel everywhere inside. ..an area packed full of happy children and their families leaving the ariana grande concert. 22 people are killed, hundreds injured. it's the most devastating terrorist attack on uk soil since the london bombings in july 2005.

the bomber was a young mancunian, radicalised to the point where he could kill and maim children in the heart of the city he was born and raised in. what was salman abedi's journey towards mass murder? could the attack have been stopped? the final day of the manchester arena inquiry. it's lasted more than two years, heard from 267 witnesses and collected tens of thousands of pages of evidence. it's the day when the families of the 22 victims will hear inquiry chairman sirjohn saunders�* verdict on how the security services dealt with salman abedi, someone who'd been known to them for years before the attack. he said there were failures. there was a realistic possibility that actionable intelligence could have been obtained, which might have led to action preventing the attack. the reasons for this missed opportunity included a failure

by the security service, in my view, to act swiftly enough. those that played any part in the murder of our children will never, ever get forgiveness. from top to bottom, m15, to the associates of the attacker, we will always believe that you all played a part in the murder of our children. as a result of these failures, at the very least, a real possibility of preventing this attack was lost. this is a devastating conclusion for us. may 23, the day after the arena attack. the hunt for answers has begun. detectives and forensic teams descend on salman abedi's home. it's the starting point of a trail that will lead from the unremarkable streets of inner—city south manchester to a north african

war zone and into the dark complexities of radicalisation. salman abedi was a mancunian of libyan background, born and raised on these streets. he went to primary school round the corner, secondary school down the road. he was a manchester united supporter, played football on the streets with his mates, took little interest in schoolwork. a pretty typical teenage boy. but those teenage years became increasingly unstable. there were fights, shouting matches with teachers, petty crime. the head teacher at burnage high school described him as unlikable, lacklustre, just not engaged. moss side/hulme was a big hunting ground for people trying to recruit young people, especially for is and other related groups, due to social deprivation, people feeling marginalised, disenfranchised. ismael lee south spends his life

trying to tackle the spread of islamic extremism. he says some young muslims like salman abedi were seduced by the violent glamour of the is story, a stark contrast to their lives here. these things you would see on everyday news, front page of the newspapers are muslims, benefit frauds, benefit thieves. so muslims were very demonised, muslim youths were demonised and disenfranchised. so, many muslims felt under attack. so when people were seeing the marketing of is, they were saying, "hey, i'm hated, but this could be a place "where i can live, where i'm free, where i can live in, "like, a utopia." salman abedi accessed extreme islamist propaganda online, but it was his immediate family who exerted the strongest influence. his father, ramadan abedi, was a hardcore islamist who fled gaddafi's regime. he arrived in manchester with his wife samia in 1993 and settled into what was to become the largest libyan exile community in the uk.

people living in this area call it little tripoli. ramadan was a member of the libyan islamic fighting group. it's thought all the key figures in this organisation lived in manchester at some point. in 2010, there was a report produced by thejoint terrorism analysis centre, which is jtac. that's a... that's..an office that exists in the heart of m15. and within that report, they highlighted that the libyan community, or members of the libyan community, were at risk of being radicalised, the younger members at risk of being radicalised by some of the older members who had perhaps lived through the gaddafi regime, who had got a different view around islamism and that this activity was going on. i'd like to think that if that report arrived on somebody�*s desk today, they'd look at it and they'd think, "0k, we need some sort of community strategy to try and disrupt what's

"going on", or actually understand better what's going on and identify those specific individuals who are involved. i see no evidence in the inquiry that that happened. one of those libyan extremists living in the city was this man, anas al—libi, a friend of ramadan abedi. given asylum here in 1995, he was later arrested by the us government, accused of plotting attacks on us embassies in nairobi and dar es salaam. this 180—page text on how to wage a jihadist war was found in his flat. it's now known as the manchester manual. salman abedi's brothers, ismail and hashem, were also significant influences. the investigation revealed they both had large amounts of material relating to is. ismail, bbc news. can i ask you a few questions, please? ismail refused to give evidence to the inquiry or talk to the bbc

and is now in libya. why won't you speak to the inquiry? hashem was jailed for life for his part in planning the arena attack. disengaged, angry, salman abedi was, according to one expert witness to the arena inquiry, ripe for radicalisation. his close family clearly...held the law in this country in pretty scant regard. it didn't really matter too much if they broke it. that was the first thing. so he had no connection to the legal side of british life, in the sense of being law—abiding, getting a law—abiding world view. as we've already mentioned, for various reasons — such as lack of parental support — he didn't engage with that massive mechanism of mainstream education. that wasn't open to him, although he did try, to be fair. he had various moments when he tried to engage. erm, and so, really, he had no active connection to law—abiding british society. i must admit, i've never seen such

a complete picture of... ..of the petri dish absolutely brimming with germs, if you like. chanting of prayers didsbury mosque. the abedi family worshipped here. the arena inquiry heard claims from the family's legal teams that the mosque had turned a blind eye to extremism. sirjohn didn't find any evidence of that or that it radicalised salman abedi, but he said it wilfully ignored highly charged political tensions between libyan factions there. for the first time, the mosque agreed to answer those extremism allegations. how can people say that we have radicalised or are radicalising people? as i mentioned to other people, my children could have been at the arena. there were muslim children at the arena. what that person, salman abedi, did was evil. and he definitely did not become

radicalised by listening to a ten—minute sermon here or join forces with other so—called terrorists or other radicalised people at the centre. we have no room for radicalisation. i can say that 100%, i'm very sure. tell me about your relationship with the police and security services. i mean, there were some criticism that you hadn't worked, this mosque hadn't worked that closely. but were you ever told anything about abedi? you know, were you ever given any worrying information? we were never told anything about abedi. and i would reiterate and repeat that — we were never told anything about abedi or anybody else. there were other terrorists who we were told used to frequent the centre. we never knew them. we were never told about them. of course, i'm going to criticise the police, if they knew, had they been told

by the counterterrorism unit that these people are frequenting this mosque or that mosque. and remember something else, it is not only this mosque that these people frequented. i do feel that this centre is being used as a scapegoat. i really do feel that. i know that the police and the ctu will always do their best. but as i said earlier on, and i'll repeat it, if we are not aware of these radical people who are coming to this centre to pray and go, i cannot help the police. they refuse to tell us. we never know anything about what's going on. we want to really put this behind us. but again, i cannot put everything that's happened behind me. 22 victims have gone. i cannot forget about them. may their souls rest in peace. whatever happened in manchester, it was the collapse of the gaddafi regime in 2011 and the years of civil war that followed that appear to have played a major part in turning radicalised salman abedi into a killer. from 2011, salman abedi and his brothers made numerous trips

to libya to join their parents and may have fought with the libyan islamic fighting group. anyone being involved in a conflict zone is likely to instigate a degree of trauma. they would have seen things, experienced things that we wouldn't normally expect, especially young teenagers, to go through in the united kingdom. but also, alongside that, we see a normalisation of violence. we see a normalisation of violence such that it becomes a solution to problems. it becomes something that they can imagine doing because they can see other people doing. but it also reinforces a sense of masculinity, especially where becoming a hero, a defender, being willing to protect through violence, through willingness to take up arms, is linked to being a hero, a good man. following his trips to libya, salman abedi became increasingly withdrawn. the partying stopped.

he was seen in the street outside his home, chanting prayers and wearing robes. he argued with fellow muslims who condemned is. he intensified his contact with this man, abdulraouf abdallah, who'd also fought in libya. the pair exchanged hundreds of texts. in some of them, salman abedi talked of martyrdom. abdallah was laterjailed for trying to recruit fighters for is. salman abedi visited him in prison. abdallah gave evidence at the arena inquiry. i didn't play any part of radicalisation or anything. and again, just to tell you that my fight was against gaddafi and assad and the dictators in our countries. did you ever have any suspicion that he would become a suicide bomber? not me or my friends or anyone... ..had... ..any idea of what was going on in salman�*s head. the fact is, when it happened,

i heard it on the radio because i was in basic at the time in prison, and i actually called my friend elias on a prison phone, and i was crying and confused and shocked. i said, "what the hell happened? "i thought he was in libya." he said, "it's true, yeah, it is him. "it's in the news." so... what happened to salman? it's a very... it's something that i can never, ever, ever take out of my mind. and it's haunting me to know because he's my friend and the salman that i knew... ..he had never, ever spoke about something like that. salman abedi returned from his final visit to libya in early may 2017 an unhappy, angry young man radicalised by his family, his friends online propaganda and exposure to violent conflict. he was days away from launching

his devastating attack. he put the bomb together here at a rented city centre flat, the parts collected over several weeks with the help of his younger brother, hashem. at 7.00 in the evening, salman abedi set out to maim and kill, the rucksack he was carrying packed with 3,000 nuts and bolts around the explosive. salman abedi's final journey to the arena. as the crowds filled the city room, he detonated the device. witnesses said he smiled as he did so. 22 dead, more than 200 injured. could m15 and counter—terrorism

officers have prevented the attack? that was the focus of the third part of the manchester arena inquiry in 2022. much of the evidence was heard behind closed doors, a decision that angered families of the victims. but the inquiry did reveal that abedi had been known to police and m15 for years. members of the libyan community reported abedi to an anti—terrorism hotline. no further action was taken. m15 twice classified abedi as a subject of interest, but he was regarded as low level and his case file was closed. in 2014, abdulraouf abdallah's phone was seized in a counter—terrorism raid on his manchesterflat. there was no attempt to track down his friend salman, who sent texts about martyrdom. when abdallah's phone was seized, erm... ..abedi's telephone number was on that phone.

it was identified as a distinct phone number, but no further investigative work was done to figure out who that person was. for me, it is again another missed opportunity. m15 knew that he was visiting abdallah. does the detail of what was in those messages, had they been ascribed back to abedi, possibly change our view of the intensity of the contact that he was having and the nature of the contact he was having with abdallah? i think probably, yes. in 2015 and 2016, salman abedi's name cropped up during investigations into extremists in manchester. his case wasn't reopened. may 2016, and concerns were raised that he travelled from turkey into libya. he wasn't questioned on his return. in 2017, he returned from another trip to libya, days before the attack.

again, he wasn't spoken to. that stop could have been useful. we don't know, but it could have been useful. it could have been useful for a number of reasons. first of all, it is possible that they would have gained intelligence from material that he would have had on him, like a phone, commonly. but secondly, it could have also acted as a disruption or deterrence. coming back from your route to libya, landing at heathrow or manchester, wherever it might be, and being stopped by the police under the terrorism act is probably going to say to you, you're being watched. and might that have affected his psyche? might that have changed his approach? we will never know. but the scale of the challenge faced by the security services can't be underestimated. in 2017, they were dealing with around 800 active investigations into potential terrorist attacks. there were 3,000 subjects of interest that were being monitored at some level.

but there were more than 20,000 former or lapsed subjects of interest no longer being monitored. and salman abedi was in this category. for the families of the 22 victims and the survivors of the attack, the third volume of the arena report was the one they'd been waiting for, answers to the big question — could the security services have anticipated and stopped salman abedi's attack? there are plenty of mights and could haves in sirjohn saunders�* 200—page report, but he does conclude there were missed opportunities, two pieces of intelligence relating to abedi that may have led to the plot being uncovered. this, according to sirjohn, could have led police to the car where the bomb was being stored. the criticism of m15 prompted a rare public apology from the agency, but they refused to take questions. gathering covert intelligence is difficult, but had we managed

to seize the slim chance we had, those impacted might not have experienced such appalling loss and trauma. i am profoundly sorry that m15 did not prevent the attack. martyn hett was one of abedi's 22 victims — pr manager, coronation street superfan, described by his friends as a one—man hen party. he suffered unsurvivable injuries in the blast. for his mother, figen murray, sirjohn saunders�* findings weren't a surprise. turning the clock back, i'm sure things would have maybe been done differently with the benefit of hindsight, but hindsight wasn't there, and whatever went wrong went wrong and you can't turn the clock back. so this is the situation we are faced with. a lot of the families have got a real intense anger, as i'm sure you can understand.

you haven't, have you? i have not been angry because anger to me is not a very useful emotion. i'd much rather channel my energy into proactivity and moving forward because, you know, martyn was such a fun—loving and people—loving guy. he was so full ofjoy. and i think if i was angry, depressed, sad all the time, i... i'd do his very essence a disservice. the day after the anniversary, i remember coming downstairs and saying to my husband, the anniversary is over now. i now feel i need to go to schools because i felt that young people are so vulnerable to radicalisation and ijust wanted to give them the tools to know what to do if they feel they're being radicalised and also the knowledge to even know and recognise how they're being or if they're being radicalised. 0bviously, when the attack happened

we didn't have the tv or radio on because we were all really upset, understandably. and yet somebody kept buying newspapers and putting them on the dining room table. and i remember on day three, walking past the table and going, "oh, my god!" and i saw the picture of him for the first time because i didn't know who did the attack. and there he was on the front page, and the caption said he was 22 years old. so i was shocked at the young age of the guy. so i've forgiven salman abedi because, as far as i'm concerned, he wasn't the true monster. the true monster is the ideology who turns people into extremists and turns them into people who go and kill. so i feel that he was born innocent and, erm... therefore, i feel that on that day, 23 people died, not 22. people always mention 22, but actually the 23rd person lost their life as well.

and that was salman abedi. and now you're at the end of that two—year process, do you feel that word "closure" or how do you feel now? no, no. you know, martyn died out of sequence. it should have been me dying before him. so he was ripped out of our lives. and he was young and full of life and joy. so i've got a permanent, martyn—shaped hole in my soul that will always be there till the day i die. i'm... i feel very broken, but not destroyed. and the brokenness is something that will never allow me to have closure. you know, it can't be fixed.

hello. mild air has been spreading across the country. it's brought a lot of cloud, outbreaks of rain.

we had some transient snow also in the highlands and the pennines, but even that is now turning to sleet and rain. early morning temperatures will be around 10 degrees in plymouth and also belfast, but still a little on the chilly side in parts of northern scotland, around 2 degrees. you can see where the rain is heaviest in the morning. also rain elsewhere. but sunny spells will develop through the afternoon, for example, in northern ireland, but also heavy showers, possibly thundery ones. towards the south—east and east anglia, one or two glimmers of sunshine also possible in the afternoon. and it will be mild right across the board, temperatures typically around 13 to 15 degrees. in the north of scotland, still chilly — around 7, for example, in stornoway. now, friday is going to be every bit as mild but often cloudy, outbreaks of rain from time to time, but one or two sunny spells as well.

welcome to newsday, reporting live from singapore, i'm karishma vaswani. the headlines. the race to recover the wreckage of an american surveillance drone downed over the black sea. financial regulators in switzerland step in after a share crash at credit suisse causes jitters in european markets authorities in pakistan pause their attempts to arrest the opposition leader, imran khan, after clashes between police and his supporters.