to responsibility for this and it is at number ten. and i think people understand that. now, on the levelling up the committee report today, are they right that levelling up will fail without sustainable funding and what can you do about that, if you were prime minister? i think the tragedy of levelling up is that we all know that across the united kingdom there is inequality that needs to be fixed, and that is why we, the labour party, have got a plan for growing our economy which needs to be felt in every part of the country. so i want living standards up in every part of the country. the problem we have got with this government is the same as every other problem with this government, which is they have got a slogan, levelling up, but they haven't got a plan. and here we are three, four years into this government and they still haven't delivered for most people across the united kingdom. it is yet another slogan, another broken promise, and i think that is why overwhelmingly now there is this a sense that we need change after 13 years of non—delivery. it is time for change, it is time

for a fresh start under labour. the latest search linked to the disappearance of madeleine mccann in portugal has ended following a three—day operation. officers were digging at a reservoir in the algarve, around 30 miles away from where the three—year—old went missing in may 2007. materials recovered will be sent to german authorities who are leading the investigation, as navtej johal reports from the algarve. the end of three days of intense, focused activity. as vehicles carrying equipment left the scene of the search operation yesterday afternoon, there were questions about what — if anything — police had found on the peninsula of the arade reservoir, where their work had been taking place since tuesday. over the course of the week, police have used a variety of equipment to clear undergrowth, dig the ground, and search for evidence. everything from drones to sniffer dogs have been seen in the area.

and this is where they've been focusing their efforts. you can see the amount of work that's been done to clear and flatten this area, the holes that have been left behind. and portuguese police say that the samples collected here are now on their way to germany. the operation — requested by german police — has been trying to find evidence in connection to the disappearance of madeleine mccann. last year, the convicted german sex offender christian bruckner was named as an official suspect in the case by portuguese authorities. he is known to have visited the reservoir at the time madeleine went missing. he denies being involved, and has never been charged over her disappearance. the german authorities have not said this week what they were hoping to find here, due to what they described as "tactical reasons". but we may hear soon whether anything significant has been uncovered. navteonhal, bbc news, in the algarve. the actor hugh grant has been given permission to sue the publisher of the sun newspaper for using unlawful information—gathering techniques.

the 62—year—old is bringing legal action claiming he was targeted byjournalists and private investigators against the news group newspapers in relation to the sun only, having previously settled a claim with the publisher in 2012 relating to the news of the world. the publisher denies the claims. british airways has cancelled over 80 flights scheduled for today because of the knock—on effect of technical issues on thursday. around 16,000 passengers have been affected, most of the cancelled flights departing or arriving from london's heathrow airport. it comes on the busiest day for uk air travel since 2019 with many families heading on holiday for half—term break. an experimental brain implant company founded by elon musk says it has won approval from us regulators to carry out its first clinical study on a human. neuralink has described it as an important first step, but has not elaborated on the aim of the study.

it's working on brain implants to treat conditions such as paralysis and blindness, and to help certain disabled people interface with computers. eventually, it says it wants to surpass able—bodied human performance with its technology. professorjonathan ives from the university of bristol told us more. when we are talking about potential enhancement we are looking at things far in the future, and i would be much more concerned now to get the ethics of the research correct. it is fair to say that if we are looking to test this technology on humans for the first time, which is apparently what there was approval for now, we need to first be confident there is going to be some potential benefit. and i think that that case, if this technology is safe and effective, it could potentially benefit many people. but i think we have to make sure that is done safely and what we need is to ensure there is effective and robust processes of consent and i think

it is really possible, potentially, for quite desperate and vulnerable people to be exploited in this setting. so we need to really ensure that doesn't happen and that the testing is safe and rigorous. the metaverse is an immersive virtual reality world where people can interact without ever coming into physical contact. facebook�*s mark zuckerberg has long been a fan and video—gamers have also spent plenty of time in the metaverse. but now a school in southern england is hoping to make meta matter. tim allman explains. # bright is the sunrise. # bright is the morning #. for as long as there have been schools, they have mostly looked like this. we've added the whole numbers. now what are we going to add together? pupils sat together, a teacher at the front imparting wisdom,

or at least trying to. but this is what a school could look like now in the 21st century. this is reddam house school in berkshire, where pupils wear vr headsets and explore education in a whole new way. the retention is fantastic. 0nce they've seen something they will remember it and there is a deeper understanding because they can manipulate an object, they can see it from all sides, they can see how it works, they can see the function. so they really get a better understanding. in a virtual teaching environment you can walk around celestial bodies, you can pick them up. and this is biology like you've never seen it before. the human heart magnified and dissected. the fact there are so many things you can't do normally. in the metaverse it's amazing because there are so many opportunities to try new things. i really enjoyed the experience. in a normal classroom, - if i went up to a human heart i wouldn't go anywhere near it.

there are some who criticise the metaverse, saying it can impair young people's ability to develop proper relationships in the real world. but the pupils of reddam house seem convinced that virtual reality has a future. tim allman, bbc news. newly released documents from the fbi reveal that queen elizabeth ii faced a potential assassination threat during a visit to the united states in 1983. the documents share details of the fbi�*s concerns following an assassination threat made to an american police officer. 0ur north america correspondent david willis sent this update. this information is contained amongst a cache of documents, more than 100 in total, but were released by the fbi under a freedom of information request submitted by the us media. the documents reveal that the late queen elizabeth ii was the subject of a potential assassination threats here in the us by the ira

during a ten—day visit to the state of california back in 1983. according to those documents, the threat was made in a phone call to a san francisco police officer by a man he had met in an irish pub in the city. this man was claiming that he was seeking revenge for the death of his daughter who had been killed by a rubber bullet in northern ireland. the caller apparently said that he was intending to harm the queen either by dropping an object from san francisco's golden gate bridge onto the royal yacht britannia is the yacht was passing underneath the bridge, or by mounting some other unspecified threat intending to kill the queen during a visit to the yosemite national park.

it's unclear how seriously the authorities took those threats but the came at a time of heightened tension involving northern ireland with the irish republic army fighting for independence from the british mainland. and this of course only four years as well after the death of the queen's second cousin, lord mountbatten, killed by the ira off the coast of the republic of ireland. as it was the queen and prince philip's ten—day visit to california in 1983 passed off without incident. there were some protests but that there is culminated in a banquet hosted by the then us president ronald reagan and his wife nancy in san francisco. now, it's just a jump to the left. and then a step to the right. # let's do the time warp again...

the world—famous rocky horror show turns 50 this year and is returning to the west end. the show has been translated into more than 20 languages, and watched by over 30 million people around the world. as half—term begins for many parents, today is the busiest day at east midlands airport since 2019. 0ur reporter emma snow went to the airport to find out where people are going. 5am and lots of excited faces have come through the airport already to jet off on their holidays. so, we're going to marbella for my hen do. i get married injuly. and how long are you going for? just for a week. is it for a special occasion? just a family holiday. it's my birthday on sunday.

0h, we'll forget about that. yeah, they always forget that. ten days but we have not been for eight years. formentera, we're going for our golden wedding anniversary. so we're going back there for a celebration. i'm just probably going to go splashing in the pools and everything. splashing in the pool. with my underpants on. during the coming week, 155,000 passengers are expected to fly from east midlands airport, something it says will have a positive impact on the local economy. this airport has a huge catalytic effect on the regional economy. lots of people are employed here. the flights that connect people to other parts of the world from this region provides that great international connectivity. of course, all that wouldn't be possible without the staff. and this year there's been a big recruitment drive at the airport. i met sonny at a job fair in may, and he's now working

in assisted travel. if you canjust make that bit of difference with the people that travel through. and you can see it in the face, the appreciation of staff is very rewarding and you know, they're very happy and they go. so on the busiest day of the year so far, how was the passenger experience? really easy, actually. we've just took on like carry—on cases. so straight through security. yeah, really good. straight through. just no waiting. brilliant. really positive. it's been really, really good, really quick. . everybody's been, like, really friendly as well. i yeah, yeah. really good experience. no problem at all. really good. well, this morning will continue to be busy here. and do you think they'll notice if i sneak off on a holiday? let me just tell you about what's coming up on bbc news — we'll bring you live coverage from derby crown court of the sentencing of

the killers of finley boden. he's the ten—month—old who died on christmas day 2020. his parents have been convicted of his murder. now it's time for a look at the weather with darren bett. hello there. it is a lovely end to the week for much of the country and the prospects are looking good for the bank holiday weekend. some of the warmest weather today may well be across the west country and into south—eastern part of wales. it could make 23 degrees here. i think more widely temperatures will be hovering around 19—20 celsius, pleasant in the sunshine. there will be some cloud continuing to develop across parts of northern england and into wales. that will tend to melt away later on in the evening. clearer skies developing for most of us overnight, except in the north—west where their breezes picking up a little and it will blow in some cloud. so keeping the temperatures a bit higher here. another chilly night to come across eastern areas of england, where temperatures were as low

as one celsius in suffolk last night. it will turn cooler for many of us during the bank holiday weekend, but there is a lot of dry weather and some sunshine. the exception is in the north—west where we have got a little rain coming into north—west scotland, some spots in northern ireland, sunshine does follow later on, mind you. dry for south—eastern parts of scotland and for england and wales there should be a lot of sunshine around. lighter winds in the south of england and a warmer day for england and wales. temperatures widely 22 or 23 degrees. it will be cooler in the north—west of scotland. the cooler weather follows that weak weather front that cloud into the north sea. high pressure tends to build in behind that and that cooler air follows down from the north. we may see sunshine around in the morning but probably more cloud in the afternoon developing more widely across the uk on sunday. a small risk of a shower in the peak district. it will be cooler across many northern and eastern areas. the higher temperature squeezes down towards the south west

and there is a significant drop in temperature on sunday in the north—east of england. as we head into bank holiday monday, high pressure continues to sit over the uk keeping the dry theme going. more isobars across southern part of england, so it will be quite windy here on monday, quite a chilly wind blowing in off the north sea. that will peg back the temperatures and take the edge off those numbers as well. but we should see after some cloud pushes in on that breeze, the cloud breaking up more and more sunshine across the uk on monday and where we have got lighter winds in scotland and northern ireland temperatures beginning to rise here but it will feel cooler across england and wales. welcome back to bbc news. for the next hour or so we're going to bring you live coverage of the sentencing of a couple who been convicted of

murdering their own baby. this