know, happened to me. because, you know, as was described in the northumbria report, one of my coping mechanisms was to try to be the very best military person that i could be, knowing that i was failing in that because i was living this lie, and then to be dismissed with an adverse confidential report because i was gay, and it was quite clear that i had let the side down. i will always remember that on the day i was suspended, my commanding officer arrived and told me how embarrassing this was, by which he meant for him, not for me. there was no concern for my well—being from anybody who was immediately responsible for me, and i spent seven months in what was affectionately called gardening leave, effectively ostracised and cut off from the people that i had lived and worked with for over 12 years. that was my family, which i lost, and i have lived with the bereavement of that. so an apology won't change that, but it will go some way to acknowledging that what happened was wrong. find some way to acknowledging that what happened was wrong.— some way to acknowledging that what happened was wrong. and not 'ust the a olo: ,

happened was wrong. and not 'ust the apology. but— happened was wrong. and not 'ust the apology. out the i happened was wrong. and not 'ust the apology, but the possibility h happened was wrong. and not 'ust the apology, but the possibility of h apology, but the possibility of compensation. is that something that is realistic? it is compensation. is that something that is realistic? , ., , , is realistic? it is absolutely realistic — is realistic? it is absolutely realistic. the _ is realistic? it is absolutely realistic. the people - is realistic? it is absolutely realistic. the people most| is realistic? it is absolutely - realistic. the people most affected by the _ realistic. the people most affected by the band have had every day of their_ by the band have had every day of their lives — by the band have had every day of their lives blighted. they live in poor— their lives blighted. they live in poor accommodation, they live in appalling — poor accommodation, they live in appalling financial circumstances, and most — appalling financial circumstances, and most importantly, they live their_ and most importantly, they live their lives— and most importantly, they live their lives different to all other veterans — their lives different to all other veterans. this is an appalling breach— veterans. this is an appalling breach of— veterans. this is an appalling breach of the armed forces covenant. thank— breach of the armed forces covenant. thank you _ breach of the armed forces covenant. thank you both very much indeed for coming in. that's almost it for tonight. before we go, the bbc has recorded an interview today with the former itv presenter phillip schofield. he sat down earlier with amol rajan to respond to reports about the circumstances of his departure from this morning, of his departure from this morning, where phillip scofield has admitted having an affair with a much younger colleague. you'll be able to see that interview in full from tomorrow morning — here's a taste of it. you met someone who was a child, . you were in a position of power. overthem. you used your power, eventually, to give them something - they craved, which is . a shot at a job in media,

nurtured a relationship and then that relationship became sexual. _ they might ask, what's the difference between that and grooming? well, i would say that your initial list of things was not right anyway. tell me, why? because it was a totally innocent picture, a totally innocent twitter follow, of which i follow 11,400 people, and then it was a completely innocent backwards and forwards over a period of time about a job. that's all from us tonight. victoria's here tomorrow. until then, sleep well. goodnight.

our correspondent lucy williamson explains why the bbc thought it was important to interview such a controversialfigure. well, we've been following this case very closely here in romania ever since the tapes were arrested at the very end of last year. since the tates were arrested at the very end of last year. and we've spoken to as many people as possible around the case to try and get an accurate picture. we've spoken to the prosecutors, we've spoken to former employees, witnesses, neighbours, everyone to try and get to build up an accurate picture. the tates themselves were in custody for three months and not able to do media interviews, but they were

released in april into house arrest when that became possible. at that point we were talking to their team because we thought it was important that we try and put some of these allegations to them. and also, as i said there in the interview, some of those wider concerns that schools and police and others in the uk have expressed about the things they say. we went to their compound outside bucharest to do the interview. very much on their territory. it was quite combative, as you heard there. mr tate was quite evasive on some of the issues, quite hard to pin down on some of the specifics, but i think it was valuable to put some of those allegations to him and to hear how he responded to them. there will be some people in the audience who feel that giving him a platform was wrong. but i think on balance, we did consider it quite carefully. i think on balance, it was important to talk to the people at the center of this story and hear what they had to say about those very serious allegations. defence ministers are gathering at the shangri—la

hotel here in singapore today to attend asia's biggest annual security summit, and the relationship between the us and china is expected to take centre stage. earlier this week, washington accused beijing of an "unnecessarily aggressive manoeuvre" near a us surveillance aircraft. and in the build—up to the summit, china turned down an invitation for its defence minister to meet with us secretary of defence, lloyd austin. monica miller has the details. top military brass from more than a dozen countries are meeting here in singapore to discuss critical security issues. and on top of the agenda is the rising tension between ukraine and russia as members of nato's are expected to attend. the us and china will be represented by defence ministers. on saturday, lloyd

austin is expected to talk about us security issues in indo—pacific. and on sunday, lee xiang fu will give a speech about china's new security initiatives. the relationship between the two countries is in a precarious spot. however, presidentjoe biden has predicted that there may be a thaw in the tension with beijing. at the g7 summit two weeks ago, members had decided to change their wording from decoupling to de—risking when they talk about china. trade ministers met one on one when they met in the united states last week. this was after months of no conversations taking place on a high level after the downing of a chinese surveillance balloon in the united states. if tensions continue to thaw, there is hope the two leaders may meet if they attend the 620 summit in india or the apec summit in san francisco in november. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news. bbc news, bringing you different stories from across the uk. nasa want to return to the moon in the near future. they've heard about the famous potholes of orpington and decided that some of the potholes have a remarkable resemblance to moon craters.

orpington resident tim webb has found a creative way to highlight the issue of potholes. he's turning them into art using the help of some bath—time friends in an attempt to speed up repairs. i post it on various facebook groups, and i'm amazed at the number of likes i get, sometimes into the hundreds. and people seem to enjoy and understand my sense of humour. bromley council says harsh winter conditions has meant the number of repairjobs has gone up, but it is investing more money into solving the problem. i have used the official channels, and because i'd been doing this for a while and some of the potholes hadn't been resolved, i decided to try a slightly different approach, which is why i went down this route in particular. for more stories from across the uk, head to the bbc news website. you're live with bbc news. a support scheme, set up by the church of england, to help survivors of abuse, risks subjecting people to more trauma, according

to a report seen by the bbc. the report, by the church's independent safeguarding board, says one man's experience of the scheme left him suicidal. other survivors told the bbc they had been treated with contempt. the scheme is said to have been �*set up in haste' and was �*under resourced'. our religion editor aleem maqbool has the story. they won't let us go. they won't realise that they are the problem. the church, the institution that damaged him, still has a hold on graham sawyer. but now it's notjust because of the clergymen that abused him. i was able to forgive that man from my heart many, many years ago. no, no. it's the... enduring trauma of dealing with the church of england. he didn't lose his faith but he did move to ireland, partly to escape the past. the trouble is, every time i have any contact

from the church of england, it retraumatises me. as a teenager, graham was a victim of peter ball, the former bishop convicted of a string of sex offences. it was the case that led to a massive inquiry and a scheme was set up by the church to offer support to survivors. but it's dealing with that scheme that some survivors say is causing their anguish now. teresa cooper has serious health problems after being drugged and abused as a child in a church—run home. she's received funds from the church scheme but has also been denied applications for help. when she criticised the scheme on social media, the church threatened legal action. they're supposed to be christians. they're supposed to be caring. they're supposed to want to look after you and help you. this was forced on me through no fault of my own. the least they could have done was looked after me.

we've seen a report by a new independent board reviewing one survivor's experience of the church. and what it concludes is that the support scheme was under thought, under resourced and dealing with it took a heavy toll on the mental health on the abuse survivor involved. the church says it's paid nearly £1.5 million in support to 68 abuse survivors but acknowledges some have had terrible experiences. i would say that i wish it had been for them and i am genuinely sorry that they've had poor experience of the scheme. i know others have had positive experiences. i do get those phone calls and e—mails where they sing the praises of the scheme. both are true and i am genuinely sorry for those who haven't had that positive experience. in 2020 and inquiry called on church leaders to quickly settle final compensation claims, notjust these interim payments.

the church still hasn't done that and graham sawyer is desperate that it does. please, just let go and leave us alone. you can get on with your lives and do your thing. and then finally, perhaps, we will be allowed to do the same. aleem maqbool, bbc news. now to israel, where tensions are high at the country's lgbtq pride week, which started with thejerusalem pride march. the country's far—right police minister itamar ben—gvir has been jeered by those attending the event — there were thousands of them, despite security fears over online threats and counter—protests. our middle east correspondent tom bateman was at the event and sent us this report. the theme of this year's gay pride injerusalem is tolerance. now, there is a very specific reason for that, and that is because this is the first gay pride injerusalem

since israel elected its most right wing ultranationalist government in the country's history, and a government that includes openly homophobic ministers, senior ministers, some of whom lead far right parties. now, one of those people is itamar ben—gvir. he's the police minister in israel. so he is actually responsible for the safety of all these people. he's overseeing the police operation. now he's somebody with a homophobic track history. he, in the past, has attended counter—protests to gay pride. he arrived there a few minutes ago. he walked down the street here with his security detail. there were cries of shame from the crowd. we caught up with him. i asked him if what he was doing was a provocation. he denied that. but it gives you a real insight into why there is such a sense of tension this year. and the other reason is because there's been a lot of activity on telegram social media in the run up to this from far right

ultranationalist groups, particularly one called la habra, which tries to prevent relationships betweenjews and arabs. it is an openly homophobic organisation as well. now, some of their demonstrators have a counter—protest which is over here. if you turn this way, the police have completely separated these two events. now, i'd say there's only about a couple of dozen people over there. we were just over filming them. i asked one of them why they were there and they were talking very biblical terms about why they disagree with all of this. butjerusalem always has extremely high tensions when it comes to this event. this is a holy city with the world's three monotheistic religions. here we could actually see christian fundamentalists campaigning or protesting as well about this. and since 2015, when an ultra orthodox extremist stabbed to death, a 16—year—old marcher, he was in prison. but there has always

been very high security. why this entire event is sealed by the police. everyone is screened before they're able to get in. but it is in that context of an unprecedented clash this year between secular israelis and national religious israelis who support the government in that climate. the organisers had said they wanted a huge show out, so today they wanted record numbers of people here. finally we wanted to leave you with some of the images from today's royal wedding in jordan. crown prince hussein married his fiance, saudi architect, rajwa al saif. britain's prince william and his wife kate were among the royals from around the world at the ceremony. their attendance had been kept a secret from the media untiljust before the event. this is the moment that the 28—year—old heir to the thone exchanged rings with his bride in front of their families and 140 guests. the newly titled princess rajwa chose a modern gown by a lebanese designer.

that's all for now — stay with bbc news. hello there. the next couple of days should bring a bit more in the way of sunshine to some parts of the uk that haven't seen that much of it recently. the brightest and warmest of the weather has been found in the west of the uk, whereas some spots further east have had a lingering cloud and onshore breeze which has made it feel cool, even chilly — during thursday, some eastern parts only got to around 11 celsius under cloudy skies. 0ut west, 2a—25 in some sunshine. but what is coming our way shows up clearly here on the earlier satellite picture — some thinner cloud, which will be in place for friday morning, particularly across england and wales. but because that cloud is thinner, it should break up a little more

readily, so i'm hopeful that more places will see sunshine during friday. just a bit of cloud close to the east coast of england, and also some more cloud into the western isles. but otherwise, largely sunny skies overhead, still a little bit on the chilly side for some eastern coasts with the breeze off the sea, highest temperatures in the west 23 celsius. with more of us, though, seeing sunshine, i think high uv levels will be an issue pretty much wherever you are. and then, as we head through friday night, we'll keep largely clear skies overhead, a few patches of cloud will float in from the north sea, and a bit more cloud hugging the coast of northwest scotland. but unusually chilly for an earlyjune night — temperatures perhaps down to 3—4 celsius in a few places. but after that cool or chilly start, saturday will be a predominantly dry day, with high pressure still firmly in charge, and most of us should get to see quite a lot of sunshine. there will be some patches of cloud close to this eastern coast. at times a bit more cloud maybe for the north coast of northern ireland, certainly for northwest scotland, and there is just the small chance,

a very small chance of catching a shower in scotland, particularly over high ground. highest temperatures again in the west, up to around 22—23 celsius. now as we move through saturday night, our area of high pressure, slightly changing shape, and i think we will pull a bit more of this cloud back around that high into some eastern counties of england. i don't think it'll linger in many places, it mayjust stay a little bit grey for some along the coast. but further west, again, lots of sunshine and highs of 23 celsius. and if you're looking for some rain, well, very little in the forecast next week — any that does turn up will be very short—lived. it'll stay predominantly dry with some spells of warm sunshine.

this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour, as newsday continues — straight after hardtalk. south africa has entered a dark age. as winter sets in, the power is off for up to 12 hours a day. it's notjust power failure. on a host of basic services — housing, policing and jobs — south africa's government

is struggling to deliver.