this is bbc news, the headlines president biden has ordered that federal aid be sent to mississippi — as emergency services work to help hundreds of people who've been left homeless by a tornado. at least 25 people have died in mississippi with one person killed in alabama. security officials in ukraine have accused russia of depriving belarus of its sovereignty. it comes after russia's president, vladamir putin, announced that his country would station nuclear weapons there. donald trump has launched his campaign to return to the white house with a rally for supporters in the state of texas. he used the platform to attack those who are seeking to put him behind bars. and voters in berlin are to decide whether germany's

capital should be carbon neutral by 2030. it comes after a year of campaigning, but critics say the timeframe is unrealistic. you're watching bbc news. now it's time for witness history. 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, they decided to take a stand for workers�* rights and they captured the imagination of many other trade unionists, as lakshmi patel told me. mrs desai, her 220th. day on the picket line, was marked by a presentation. presentation on behalf of the north west london branch of usdaw, the shopworkers union! to mrs desai, treasurer of the strike committee. thank you very much, madam. translation: mrs 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 the workforce. commonly thought passive and hard working, the tables were about to turn. translation: 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 would challenge the stereotype of the submissive asian woman. translation: i was on the picket line from - the first day the ladies came out with mrs desai. how long will you stay here? when we will finish this dispute. a year? any time. five years? ten years. translation: unions _ from across england supported us. archive: there were two such piles, around 70 sacks in all. _ they have been building up since the local- branch of the postal union voted overwhelmingly to join the - boycott. all chanting.

translation: all the | unions were there with big banners. there were a lot of policeman. you could see them all over the street. and in the middle of them wasjayaben. cheering and applause. in spite of mass support, _ the strike committee found its power to act evermore self conscribed. two years after it had begun, the strike was called off. - translation: 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.

reason what we were fighting, we have achieved. the treatment with the staff has already changed. it's great. the wages was increased after that. don't you think it's a victory? translation: i'm 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 missing victims of war, atrocities, and state violence. in their search for the truth, her teams have found remains in

more than 30 countries, among them el salvador, the scene of a brutal civil war in the 1990s. 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. whatever they have in their pockets. those kind of details are actually the ones that kind of devastate you. they're very, 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 of. let's form an international organisation that

will do this globally or anything like that. it was more like, if you want to be consistent with what we think and what we believe, 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 hamlets nearby. separated children, women and men, execute them, burn their houses and everything. removing any possibility of civilian support of guerillas. at that 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 is 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 part of a reparation process. where something horrible had happened, we could not fix obviously what happened, but we could provide some solace by providing information, sometimes returning back the remains of missing people to their loved ones, which we have learned how important is. these are crimes that often started as political crimes in part of the 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, and often, we felt a very strong feeling of frustration. it was a very small courtroom very close to where the massacre happened, and we were testifying, something that we thought it was never going to happen. we were all kind of like, ok, now this is what we're supposed to have done 30 years ago. this process never ends, so we never feel complete... complete closure, or 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 as jewish men at one ofjudaism's holiest sites — the western wall. we spoke to anat hoffman, one of the founders of the so—called women of the wall. all singing. i've been the chauffeur more times than i'd like to think of. taking women of the wall to an emergency room. of course, endless eggs, water, thrown at the women. all shouting.

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 expression. 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.

when we went to court, it would be 1a years later when we receive a verdict. the court felt that our issue is so complex that it rocks thejewish world as we know it. cheering. we won three out of our four strategic goals. women can wear a prayer shawl 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 prayer shawl, praying out loud and saying, "hey old lady, it's always been this way." anat hoffman, one of the founding members of the women of the wall. our next story takes us to the 1980s and an anti—nuclear protest outside an american airbase in rural england that lasted 19 years. ann pettitt from wales organised a women's march from cardiff to the greenham common airbase where us nuclear missiles were being kept. a small group set up camp outside the base and as women from all over europejoined during the protest, it grew into thousands. the first american cruise missiles are now in britain. it was only this morning

in berkshire that a united states star lifter landed with its cargo of missiles. also represents the voice of rebellious women. a sisterhood of dissent. and pettit started _ we decided to stay, asking for a public debate between everybody in this country about the increased missiles. decisions were all taken by men, just seems right that it should be women. at that point in 1981, we had two children. we moved here because we wanted to run a small holding, 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 the place for refuge. could boxes of earth or sand on the stairs _ could boxes of earth or sand on the stairs start — could boxes of earth or sand on the stairs. start collecting them now. we were making a make in under the stairs with a few tens of food. you thought, what? are they insane? so many protests have taken the form of working. think of india. i have visions of women walking on the road. i did manage to get a little mention of the march in conventional women's magazines like cosmopolitan,

and there were women who had seen these and jumped at it and thought this is for them. most of them, women who had never done anything like this before. we walked from cardiff to greenham common. the press were not interested. trying to get on the front pages was... 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 gate. we had to stay a night, another night, two weeks. the support did come in. thousands of women surround the airbase in a peaceful protest in britain. it was the biggest women's demonstration ever. it was a brilliant title. embrace the base, embrace the base! give love into the base!

laughter. 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... they had begun quite politely. but they got quite violent. the fact that it was a movement of women that made some leaders see sense, it did change things. i'm very proud of what i did, really. anne, and the formidable women. for our final film,

we go to canada and the 1990s, where indigenous canadians objected to plans to develop a golf course on the site of a burial ground in quebec. the dispute led to a summer—long siege between demonstrators and canadian security forces. witness history spoke to activist ellen gabrielle. to see the tanks coming in, we even had the flyer jets fight 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. it's 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 people who were at the barricades were women. 0ur clans come from our mothers, and they were the ones who were supposed to protect the land, and is the duty of the men to protect the people. the women said they 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 ofjuly11, we were interrupted at 5:15am by a swat team, so we went towards the front of the barricade and towards the highway with our hands in the air to make sure they saw we had no weapons, but they still met us with a lot of aggression and force. what i said to them was this is our land and we have every right to be here. they weren't too happy with that.

that's why they wanted to talk to a man because the women were being very unreasonable to them. people originally said there be no weapons, but there were individuals who carry their weapons. we couldn't do anything about it. it was a peaceful barricade. around 8:30, they started firing tear gas and grenades. concussion grenades for those who don't know, sound like gunshots. they're quite a loud noise. i have to tell some of the people i was with to run. run for cover. it was scary because we didn't know if anyone was killed. 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 of 78 days.

we did decide to end it, wejust had enough and said we were 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 of the people who were coming out. there were a lot of arrests on that day. they were still not surrendering because the land was still in full force. it hasn't been settled. the golf course sparked a discussion, but the real issues that indigenous people have been fighting for for centuries. which is protection of our languages and culture. so, it woke up people, i would say. that's all for this edition of witness history.

here at the people's history museum, we will be back as amazing moments in history but for now, for me and the rest of the team, goodbye. it's been a wet started the day for england and wales. quite a few puddles around. the scene in kent at the moment. it will get drier as the day goes on, the rain clearing away from kent and east sussex this afternoon. some bright spells and showers affecting the point north—east of scotland, snow over higher ground, colderairspreading

higher ground, colder air spreading saw temperatures higher ground, colderairspreading saw temperatures or three or 4 degrees in the north, and cold with the exposed wind. further south, in double figures but we are now in british summertime with clocks going forward, some said today roughly 7:30pm. in town tonight, we will see showers clearing. some clear skies, must have for purchase forming into the early hours of monday but with clear skies and cold moving south we see a first quite widely across north and north—eastern areas, temperatures as low as minus two degrees. three or 4 degrees in the south and west. monday high pressure is in charge keeping things settled so a dry day, we keep these weather systems at bay for the time being. some mist and fog first then but those were clear quickly. we are looking at lots of blue sky and sunshine through the day, some

showers perhaps in the far south—west of england and south wales later but feeling quite chilly, temperatures maximum of 11 degrees, hopefully some sunshine will compensate. into tuesday, we see this area of high pressure moving away and a big of low pressure in the atlantic throwing weather systems into the uk and is the wet weather hits colder air across scotland there could be snow over higher ground, pretty wet conditions developing in the west. towards the east and south—east staying dry until later in the day, blustery wind developing, temperatures creeping up to about 11 or 12 degrees, still chilling across the far east. for the rest of the week remaining pretty unsettled, you notice temperatures continuing to climb so by thursday because he temperatures rising to a maximum of 18 degrees. temple pep of cold weather before it turns milder

again. goodbye. —— temporary blip.

this is bbc news — welcome if you're watching here in the uk or around the globe. our top stories... ukraine accuses vladimir putin of making belarus a "nuclear hostage" after the russian leader said he would station nuclear weapons there. a state of emergency in mississippi — after a powerful tornado kills at least 26 people. as soon as we would go from one vehicle to the next vehicle or from building to building we could hear screams and we could hear cries for help. voters in berlin are to decide whether germany's capital should be carbon neutral by 2030. donald trump heads to texas to start his campaign to win back the us presidency in 202a.