this is bbc news, the headlines... rescue efforts are under way. 25 people have died with more thought to have been trapped under the rubble of destroyed buildings in the tornado. the governor has declared a state of emergency. the uk government is set to announce alternatives behind hotel accommodation for migrants. there will be a shift to more basic accommodation in an effort to deter people from coming to the uk illegally. vladimir putin has said pressure will station nuclear weapons in belarus for the first time it has deployed such arms outside its territory in

almost 30 years. the us department of defence is that it was monitoring the situation but did not currently see any reason to adjust its nuclear posture. —— vladimir putin has that russia will station nuclear weapons in belarus. now on bbc news, witness history, women led movements. hello and welcome to witness history. i'm farhana haider, at the people's history museum in manchester, with more remarkable moments from the past, as told by people who were there. in this episode, we look back at five campaigns and protest movements led by women. coming up, we'll hear about the fight for the equal right to pray for women at the western wall injerusalem, the argentinian forensic pioneer unearthing war crimes, the anti—nuclear protest that was the biggest women—led movement in the uk since the suffragettes, and a watershed moment

for canada's indigenous people. but we start in london and a story about the strikers in saris, a group of south asian women employed in the grunwick film processing factory. because of the poor working conditions there, they decided to take a stand for workers�* rights and their action captured the imagination of many other trade unionists, as lakshmi patel told me. for housewife mrs jayaben desai, her 220th day on the picket line was marked by a presentation. this is a presentation - on behalf of the north west london branch of usdaw, i the shop workers union, to mrs desai, who is the treasurer of the strike committee. - thank you very much for coming along. . translation: jayaben desai was a very strong woman. . she had made up her mind to bring the union into the factory... ..because our women

were treated badly. we believed that if women have so many rights in this country, then why can't we have them too? grunwick relied upon the new influx of asians from east africa to supply its workforce. commonly thought passive and hard working, the tables were about to turn. in the grunwick factory, there was a big glass room, where the manager used to sit. he would observe us all from that room. he would keep an eye on us. if you were going to the toilet and it took too long, then he would ask why, what were you up to?

the unlikely leader of the grunwick strike, jayaben desai, would challenge the stereotype of the submissive asian woman. i was on the picket line from the first day. we ladies came out with mrs desai. how long will you stay here? unless, when we will finish this dispute. . a year? any time. five years? ten years. unions from across england supported us. there were two such piles, around 70 sacks in all, and they'd been building up since the local branch of the postal union voted overwhelmingly tojoin the boycott. all: the workers united will never be defeated! | all the unions were there, with big banners.

there were a lot of policemen. you could see them all over the street. and in the middle of them was jayaben. loud cheering. in spite of mass support, the strike committee found its power to act ever more circumscribed. two years after it had begun, the strike was called off. jayaben was not upset with the defeat at all. we felt that asian women in england had fought for two years for the union. and we were proud of that fact. the reason we were fighting, we have achieved. _

the treatment with the staff has already changed. - it is a great victory. the wages was - increased after that. don't you think it's a victory? i am so proud of myself that we fought for our rights. lakshmi patel remembering the grunwick strike, which inspired widespread trade union support. our next story is about mercedes doretti, a forensic anthropologist from argentina who founded a team dedicated to searching for the remains of the missing victims of war atrocities and state violence. in their search for the truth, her team has exhumed remains in more than 30 countries, among them el salvador, the scene of a brutal civil war in the 1980s.

we end up exhuming the remains of close to 140 kids that were all in this very small one—room house. we were exhuming all these little dresses and whatever they have in their pockets. those kind of details are actually the ones that kind of devastate you, they're very hard, yeah. i started doing this forensic work on human rights cases since 1984 when democracy returned to argentina after quite brutal military government. i was a student. most of us were, just finishing, very close to graduating. it wasn't something that we were thinking, "0h, let's form an international organisation "that will do this globally," or anything like that. it was more like, if we want

to be consistent with what we think and believed, we thought we couldn't say no. in december 1981, the el salvador army entered into the hamlet of el mozote, as well as another five in december 1981, the el salvador army entered into the hamlet of el mozote, as well as another five hamlets that were nearby, separated children, women and men, execute them, burn their houses and everything. removing any possibility of civilian support of guerrillas. at the time when we arrived, you could still see human bones in different parts of the houses. translation: these red flags indicate where we found - all the spent cartridges. this wall here was where

the victims were probably lined up before being executed. we were just amazed by what we were finding. we had never worked on a case of that scale at that time. i see the work that we do in different parts of the world as a part of a reparation process. where something horrible had happened, we cannot fix, obviously, what happened, but we can provide some solace by providing information, sometimes returning back the remains of missing people to their loved ones, which we have learned how important it is. these are crimes that often, you know, started as political crimes and part of a political situation. and so you learn to wait and push as much as you can, so that the evidence can be heard and have its day in court.

but it's a work that requires a lot of patience. often, we felt a very strong feeling of frustration. it was a very small courtroom, very close to where the massacre had happened. and we were testifying, something we thought was never going to happen. we were all kind of like, "ok, you know, "now this is what we were supposed to have done 30 years ago." these processes never end, so we never feel complete, you know, closure, or... you know, rarely.

the forensic anthropologist mercedes doretti. next, we go back to the 1980s, when a group ofjewish feminists started campaigning for the right to pray as openly asjewish men at one ofjudaism's holiest sites, the western wall. witness history spoke to anat hoffman, one of the founders of the so—called women of the wall. i've been the chauffeur more times than i'd like to think of, taking women of the wall to emergency room. and of course, endless eggs, water, thrown at the women of the wall.

when israel took over eastjerusalem, they built a partition between men and women at the wall. the partition is not equal. men are encouraged to explore alljewish expressions. what some people allow themselves to say about us and to us is quite shocking. "wrap them in their prayer shawl and bury them alive," and we're being called nazis by otherjewish people.

and when we went to court, it would be 1a years later when we will receive a verdict. the court felt that our issue is so complex that it rocks thejewish world as we know it. we won three out of our four strategic goals. women can wear a prayer shawl now at the wall. i won't say it's a pleasure, but you can do it. i am waiting for the day

where a young girl's going to be reading the torah, wearing her tallit, her prayer shawl, praying out loud and she'll say to me, "hey, old lady, "it's always been this way." anat hoffman, one of the founding members of the women of the wall. our next eyewitness story takes us to the 1980s and an anti—nuclear protest outside an american air base in rural england that lasted 19 years. ann pettitt from wales organised a women's march from the welsh capital cardiff to the greenham common air base, where us nuclear missiles were being kept. a small group set up camp outside the base, but, as ann told witness history, as women from all over europe joined the protest, it grew into thousands. the first american cruise missiles are now in britain. it was earlier this morning at greenham common raf base in berkshire that

a united states starlifter landed with its cargo of missiles. the women's peace camp . at greenham also represents the disquieting voicel of rebellious women, a sisterhood of dissent. ann pettitt was one | of the women who'd started the whole thing. we decided to call it a peace camp and decided to stay, asking for a public debate between everybody in this country about the siting of cruise missiles. decisions about nuclear weapons and about military things in general, they're all taken by men, just seems right that it should be women. at that point in 1981, we had two children. we moved here to west wales because we wanted to run a smallholding, grow vegetables. the possibility that the cold war would escalate into a nuclear war began to seem more and more likely. the government was sending out leaflets called protect and survive and issued a film about what we should do. a cupboard under the stairs, that is another good place for a refuge.

put boxes of earth or sand on the stairs, start collecting them now. we were meant to make a makeshift little den in our house, or hide in the cupboard under the stairs with a few tins of food, and you thought, "what?! "are they insane? !" so many protests have taken the form of walking. think of the salt marches in india, the marches in selma in america, led by martin luther king. itjust is a natural form of political protest. i began to have visions of women walking down the road with our banners and our placards. i'd managed to get a little mention of the march in conventional women's magazines, like cosmopolitan, i seem to remember, and there were women who had seen these and jumped at it and thought, "yes, this is for me."

most of them, women who had never done anything like this before. so we walked from cardiff, the capital of wales, to greenham common. the press were not interested. trying to get on the front pages of newspapers was, well, you know, i was told to get lost i don't know how many times. we had to do something more dramatic and we decided to chain ourselves up to the gates of greenham. when we got there, we had to stay a night and another night, a week, two weeks. gradually, the support did come in. thousands of women surround the american air base at greenham common in a peaceful protest against the siting of american cruise missiles in britain. it was the biggest women's demonstration ever, i think, in this country. i think it's a brilliant title, actually, embrace the base. embrace the base! sort of... give love into the base! we decorated the fence as well. i remember seeing a woman had hung her wedding dress on the fence. i suppose relations with the police had begun on quite a courteous basis,

but they got quite violent, really. security at greenham common has been substantially increased... at one time, a group - of about 15 women struggled with soldiers before being arrested. - the greenham protest forced mrs thatcher to abandon her plan to let ronald reagan station nuclear missiles on british soil. the fact that it was a movement of women who made some leaders see sense, it did change things. i'm very proud of what i did, really. ann pettitt and the formidable greenham common women. for ourfinalfilm, we go to canada in the 1990s, where indigenous canadians objected to plans to develop a golf course on the sight of a burial ground in quebec. the dispute led to a

summer—long siege between mohawk demonstrators and canadian security forces. witness history spoke to mohawk activist ellen katsi'tsa kwas gabriel. to see the tanks coming in, we even had the fighter jets fly over us. the mood was very tense. this is all for a golf course. this is all for some group of rich people, the elite, and their playground. like many other indigenous peoples, we call the earth our mother. the place where our ancestors rest is extremely important. they wanted to extend their nine—hole golf course into an 18—hole golf course, but at the same time, they also wanted to dig up our burial ground to extend their parking lot.

we set up a blockade on a secondary dirt road. at that time, the majority of the people who were at the barricades were women. 0ur matrilineal, our clans come from our mothers, and we are the ones who are supposed to protect the land and it's the duty of the men to protect the people. the women said we would go to the front, when the police arrived. the men said they would watch and protect us if anything happened. so on the morning ofjuly11th, we were interrupted at 5:15 in the morning by a swat team and so we went towards the front of the barricade, towards the highway, with our hands in the air to make sure that they saw we had no weapons. but they still met us with a lot of aggression and a lot of force. what i said to them was that this is our land and we have every right to be here. they were not too happy with that. that's why they wanted to talk to a man, because the women were, i guess, being very

unreasonable to them. 0riginally, people said there would be no weapons, but there were individuals who carried their weapons. we couldn't do anything about it. we said, "it's a peaceful barricade." around 8:30, the police started firing tear gas and concussion grenades at us. concussion grenades, for those who don't know, sound like gunshots. they're quite a loud noise. i had to tell some of the people i was with to run, you know, let's run for cover. it was scary because we didn't know if anyone was killed. you know, on both sides. the police force continued to block the roads, people coming in or out. they prevented food, medicine. they were quite aggressive and always provoking. it was a siege. a 78—day siege. well, we did decide to end it. wejust had enough and we said, "we're

going back to our homes." september 26 is when it was supposedly finished. a big melee happened. some of the soldiers had their bayonets on, because they were afraid. they were totally, totally afraid of the people who were coming out. there were a lot of arrests on that day. and this ain't a surrender either! we were still not surrendering, because the land dispute is still in full force. it's not been settled. i mean, the golf course sparked a discussion about the real issues that indigenous people have been fighting for for centuries, which is land dispossession, protection of our languages and culture, our way of life. so it woke up people, i would say. it woke up people. the mohawk activist ellen katsi'tsakwas. well, that's all for this edition of witness history here at the people's history museum in manchester. from me and the rest of the

witness history team, goodbye. hello there. it looks like things are turning colder briefly, just in time for the start of british summertime. 0ur clocks went forward one hour during the early hours of sunday. it will be turning colder, certainly across northern areas today, and we will start to notice the difference in the south once we lose the early morning rain, all courtesy of this area of low pressure pushing on into the near continent. as it pulls away, northerly winds will set in, initially across the north of the uk and then spread southwards, you'll notice the blue colours spreading to pretty much all areas by the end of sunday. but we start this morning on a rather wet note across southern areas. that rain takes its time to clear away from east anglia and the south—east, it could leave a little bit of hang—back of cloud. further north, some good spells

of sunshine around but it will be cold in that northerly wind with a few showers which will have a wintry element, particularly in the north and east of scotland, so temperatures here below the single digits and single figures for much of england and wales as well, away from the south—west. as we move through sunday night, that cold air spreads southwards, skies clear, it is going to be a very cold night, widespread frost away from the far south—west of england and south wales, so ice and frost could be an issue. into monday, we are in between weather systems. this will arrive as we head into tuesday, but a ridge of high pressure will bring a lot of fine and dry conditions on monday to much of the uk. it will start cold and frosty, mind you, watch out for any early ice across northern areas. it should stay sunny into the afternoon as well, cloud tending to build across southern and western areas later on, temperatures here lifting to around 11 degrees, but after the cold start and the strong late march sunshine, temperatures will reach highs of seven to nine celsius. a different feeling and day on tuesday, it starts

to turn cloudier, windier, wetter, rain pushes northwards and eastwards, preceded by some snow on its leading edge, certainly across the hills across the north of england and across scotland. temperatures will be on the rise you'll notice, in southern and western areas we're back into the low teens. and then beyond tuesday, it looks like low pressure dominates the scene, sitting out to the west of us in the atlantic, that will usher in some very mild air at times from the south—west but there will be strong winds and rain, too. i think one of the mildest days will be thursday, we could be up to 16 or 17 degrees across southern and eastern areas but it will be mild and unsettled right across the board.

welcome to bbc news. i'm monika plaha. 0urtop welcome to bbc news. i'm monika plaha. our top stories — like a state of emergency in mississippi after a violent tornado kills at least 25 people. tornado kills at least 25 --eole. �* , tornado kills at least 25 maple-— tornado kills at least 25 ..eole, m ., tornado kills at least 25 ..eole. �*, ., ., people. as soon as we would go from one vehicle _ people. as soon as we would go from one vehicle to _ people. as soon as we would go from one vehicle to the - people. as soon as we would go from one vehicle to the next - from one vehicle to the next vehicle orfrom building to building, we could hear screams and we could hear cries for help. and we could hear cries for hel. ., _ , help. vladimir putin says russia has _ help. vladimir putin says russia has agreed - help. vladimir putin says russia has agreed to - help. vladimir putin says | russia has agreed to keep tactical nuclear weapons in neighbouring belarus. thousands of israelis take to the streets for the 12th straight week, protesting benjamin netanyahu's protesting benjamin neta nyahu's proposed protesting benjamin netanyahu's proposed changes to the law. the uk government is set to announce the use of ferries as part of a series of alternatives to hotel accommodation for migrants as early as next week.