working, people in that group from working, nothing in universal credit that says you will be penalised if you work. there is an amount in universal credit that you can earn without it affecting universal credit at all. that was part of the design of it so that people would not be worse off in work, so actually, this policy that they are suggesting is really unnecessary. they can improve employment support for disabled people but that will not remove barriers to the workplace or housing and social care, and to be honest it is a bit strange how they have the employment support hand—in—hand with the benefits. there are already disabled organisations out there that help disabled people into work who would be better placed to help people who are disabled and who do want to work, and to find jobs. is are disabled and who do want to work, and to find jobs.— are disabled and who do want to work, and to find jobs. work, and to find “obs. is there a link in your_ work, and to find “obs. is there a link in your mind — work, and to find jobs. is there a link in your mind between - work, and to find jobs. is there a link in your mind between more | link in your mind between more people claiming sickness and disability benefit, and the fact that there are over 7 million people on nhs waiting lists? yes. that there are over 7 million people on nhs waiting lists?— that there are over 7 million people on nhs waiting lists? yes, for sure. i seak to on nhs waiting lists? yes, for sure.

i speak to clients _ on nhs waiting lists? yes, for sure. i speak to clients over _ on nhs waiting lists? yes, for sure. i speak to clients over time - on nhs waiting lists? yes, for sure. i speak to clients over time who - on nhs waiting lists? yes, for sure. i speak to clients over time who for| i speak to clients over time who for example if they have been waiting a year to see an mnf nurse or a neurologist it is a real issue when people do get treatment that can help them, often that can minimise, and help people potentially work when they might not have been able to before treatment. harare when they might not have been able to before treatment.— to before treatment. have you had calls from clients _ to before treatment. have you had calls from clients today _ to before treatment. have you had calls from clients today worried - calls from clients today worried about this? i calls from clients today worried about this?— about this? i am anticipating, because the _ about this? i am anticipating, because the changes - about this? i am anticipating, i because the changes announced about this? i am anticipating, - because the changes announced are complicated, we expect to get a lot of calls tomorrow.— of calls tomorrow. thank you very much forjoining _ of calls tomorrow. thank you very much forjoining us, _ of calls tomorrow. thank you very much forjoining us, darren - of calls tomorrow. thank you very much forjoining us, darren ely. i so, let's take a look at the front pages. the times, the mentally ill to work from home in benefits revamp, the conversation we have just been having with darren. and britain braced for highs of 32 celsius. onto

the mirror, old school ties, where did the money go, i the mirror, old school ties, where did the money go, 1 million from the rebuilding fund went to a company that the education secretary's husband works for. and the back to work to drive shelved until 2025, some of those proposals from mel stride not due to come in until 2025. that is all from us tonight.

to france, where dozens of girls have been sent home from school for insisting on wearing the abaya — a traditional muslim dress. the french government announced a ban last month, arguing that wearing the garment broke rules on keeping education secular. there is now a legal challenge in front of the courts on the matter. azadeh moshiri has more on the first day of the ban. here's how the first day of the band played out. according to official figures, 298 girls turned up to school in an abaya. now, a strict protocol was already in place, and so each student then had a dialogue with school staff. in most cases, they changed and were able to start their classes, and yet 67 of them refused. and so instead they were sent home. now, according to the government, 12 million boys and girls started their school term on monday.

and so as far as they're concerned, they believe the ban was widely accepted. and yet this comes after months, if not years, of debate over whether the abaya is fit for purpose in france's classrooms. some context — france has a strict ban on any religious items of clothing in state schools as well as government buildings. that includes things that the government believes are ostentatious, like large christian crosses, and that's because they believe these items go against france's secular system. and so they made it official in 2004, they passed a law banning headscarves in state run schools. in 2010, they went further, they banned full face veils in public. now, this caused protests both inside the country as well as outside of it. and yet that wasn't the end of it. france went further and in 2016 banned full body swimsuits, also known as burkinis. now that one was then overruled in courts. and so what took so long to make

a decision about the abaya? well, that's because people consider it a lot more complicated as an issue, because the abaya, unlike other banned items of clothing like the burqa, the niqab or the hijab, is more of a loose fitting dress, a robe from the shoulders down. and so even within the muslim community, there's debate over whether this is a religious item or a cultural one. but as far as president emmanuel macron is concerned, he backs the ban. his education minister, gabriel attal, explained... the government believes that this principle is at the core of france's secular society. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news. let's look at some other stories making news. more than 13 hundred jobs are to go at the collapsed retail chain wilko

after it failed to secure a buyer for the whole business. a rival chain has agreed to buy 51 shops, but 52 others will be closed. the stores affected won't be made public until tomorrow morning once staff have been told. the uk government has confirmed it will "immediately" change planning rules to make it easier for developers in england to build onshore wind turbines. in a written statement, the levelling up secretary, michael gove, said councils would be able to approve developments as long as there was community support for them. laughing gas — nitrous oxide will be made illegal in the uk by the end of the year and will be classed as a class c drug. possession will carry a sentence of up to 2 years in prison, but health experts have warned a proposed this could stop people using it going to hospital for medical help. you're live with bbc news.

birmingham city council — the largest local authority in europe has declared itself effectively bankrupt. it says all new council spending in the city must stop — except for services that it has to provide by law — schools, social care, waste collection, protecting the vulnerable for example. the labour run council is still struggling to pay off a huge equal pay claim that dates back more than a decade. it has also had major issues with a new it system. our midlands correspondent, navteonhal is there. the pressure on this city's finances has been rising and rising, and europe's biggest local authority is now in big trouble. the news that their council is, in effect, declaring itself bankrupt has left many people living in birmingham shocked and angry. oh my god, i've never heard of such a thing in my life. how can the council be bankrupt? after the commonwealth games last year, this city was thriving. it is a dynamic vibrant city.

but this should never have happened. it should never have got to this point. it's really, really sad. its problems began more than a decade ago, when a landmark case was brought against the council which has led to it having to pay out more than £1 billion so far in equal pay claims to mostly female staff. but earlier this summer the authority announced it had up to £760 million still to find to settle the equal pay claims and that is on top of the cost of a botched roll—out of a new it system which has set it back another £100 million. the city council leader who is currently abroad, he says, as part of a long—standing family commitment, told us questions on this will be answered. we have already got a governance review that has been commissioned jointly with the department for levelling up that's looking at those issues of governance and accountability within the authority. i've also made it clear that at the end of this,

there needs to be a judge—led inquiry that looks at the issues around equal pay. this is devastating news for birmingham taxpayers here. the administration have had to declare that they are effectively bankrupt because of their failure to deliver proper accounts for the last three years and their failure to get to grips with the equal pay mess. the council is responsible for, among other things, social care, housing, and waste collection. it says it will protect core services but nonessential spending has stopped and no new expenditure is permitted. it's currently unclear what services will have to be cut, but could include parks, libraries orfunding for cultural projects. the fact they've done this, the nuclear option, the last possible thing, because they know going cap in hand to government, they are not going to get much joy, anything the government do for them is going to come with lots of strings attached. the commonwealth games here last year were supposed to herald the start of a golden decade for the city but instead,

the outlook for residents is one of cuts to services instead. navteonhal, bbc news, birmingham. staying in the uk and it's emerged that three major water companies in england discharged sewage hundreds of times last year on days when it wasn't raining and that's illegal. the practice is known as "dry spilling". this is what should happen when the sewage process is working normally. the waste water flows smoothly through the system to the sewage treatment plant and stays out of rivers and the sea. if it rains very heavily orfor a long time, water companies are allowed to spill untreated water under certain conditions. but what is illegal is when waste water spills straight into rivers and the sea when there is no rain — that is called dry spill. it's been uncovered by a bbc investigation, as our environment correspondentjonah fisher reports. rural west sussex, and one

of southern england's celebrated chalk streams. here we are, welcome to the river lavant, or as we locally call it, the river lav. the river lav? the river lav, just full of effluent. rob, a retired businessman, is notjoking. there would be no river lavant in the summer without the treated discharges from the next door sewage plant. we had the storm overflow coming out here. untreated sewage coming out here. last march, rob found and filmed a spill during dry weather, illegal under environmental law. much to his annoyance, the company involved, southern water, only received a warning from the environment agency. they treated it as a one—off, absolutely, whereas it had probably been going for three to four months. it is a scandal. so how common are dry spills? to find out, the bbc requested details from all nine english water companies. three of the largest complied, providing us

with huge amounts of data. we then cross—referenced that with rainfall, and found what looks like nearly 400 sewage spills, lasting thousands of hours, that started during dry weather. many of the water companies, like southern water at the lavant, say ground water leaking into cracked pipes is behind some of the spills. thames water apologised, while wessex told us there were flaws in their own data. there should never be a dry spill, and any suggestion that there has been one should be investigated fully by the environment agency. the environment agency is the regulator, they are the people who will do the detailed investigation and understanding. but the environment agency has endured years of cuts. this man has worked at the regulator for two decades, and told us it no longer had enough resources or experienced staff. it's quite simple. we are doing less and less,

and therefore the potential is there for more to get by us. this ea official told us morale was good, and that they were investing in digital monitoring of water quality. it's the water companies' job not to pollute our environment. and it's yourjob to police them. and that's what we're doing. in the last... but you're not doing very well, are you? because the spills are still taking place. but in the last eight years alone, we've brought 59 prosecutions, with fines totalling £150 million. stopping the sewage spills will require many billions more. it is a cost likely to be paid by all of us through a higher water bills. jonah fisher, bbc news. and finally — one uk zoo is "over the moon" celebrating the birth of an endangered monkey. the male francois' langur baby was born a month ago at whipsnade zoo in bedfordshire but has remained mostly hidden away by his mother until recently.

native to china and northern vietnam. it's estimated there are only 2,000 of the species left in the wild due to illegal hunting. he has been nicknamed citrus because of his brightly coloured fur. we will have more pictures on our website put upjust we will have more pictures on our website put up just a quick update on the big story we've been tracking, the story that broke a short while back is proud boys the verdict on the former member in the us, the far—right group who was on trial enrique tarrio, has now been sentenced to 20 years in prison put far the longest sentence, the big focus on our bbc news website. he has beenjailed for 22 focus on our bbc news website. he has been jailed for 22 years. you could find regular updates on what was said on both sides, what kind of arguments because there were some emotive scenes that also plead out

as well. the judge was sentencing said seditious conspiracy was a serious offense. that's all for now — stay with bbc news. hello there. our september heatwave is set to continue with more sunshine around the corner over the next few days. now temperatures on tuesday reached 30.8 degrees celsius in hampshire. we don't see 30 degrees every single september. we had similar kind of temperatures back in 2021 and 2020. now, so far this year, the highest temperature we've recorded all year was 32.2 degrees celsius. and we're going to get really close to that during wednesday. if we get past 32.2, well, that becomes something quite unusual. there have only been four years in the last century that have had the hottest temperature of the year recorded in september. so we'll be keeping a close eye on that stat. now, right now, we've got some low

cloud filtering in and around some of our north sea coasts, a little bit of mist and fog around as well, but otherwise clear and starry skies and pretty warm as well. temperatures only towards dawn getting down to around 15 to 17 celsius. now, you might have been hearing about the extreme rainfall we've seen across south—east europe with some severe flooding here. we're underneath this area of high pressure, though, and that's what's bringing us the fine, settled and sunny weather. so we've got more of that to come on wednesday. any morning mist and fog, low cloud will tend to burn away from these eastern coast and then the sunshine comes out. it's going to be another hot day. temperatures quite widely in scotland and northern ireland reaching the mid 20s. but for england and wales, somewhere between 26 and 32 degrees for most of us, very hot for the time of year and could be the hottest day of the year so far. now for thursday, more of the same to come. a few subtle changes — there'll be a little bit more in the way of high cloud across north—western areas, making the sunshine little hazy. and you'd be unlucky, but you could see an odd shower

in the west as well. most, though, will continue with the hot, dry, sunny weather with those high temperatures as well. for friday, probably a little bit more in the way of mist and fog patches running both through the irish sea coasts and also our north sea coasts. but aside from that, it's another dry day with lots of sunshine around for the vast majority. top temperatures well, again, mid to high 20s, pretty widely. low 30s in the very hottest areas. and we've got more of the same into the weekend. it's only really probably during the second part of the weekend and more especially next week, that we start to see the weather pattern breaking down, rain starts to arrive and those temperatures drop closer to normal for the time of year.

this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, straight after hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur. and this is lake como in northern italy, backdrop for the ambrosetti forum, a gathering of international politicians. there is a real sense of geopolitical unease here, partly because of the ukraine war, but also because another us presidential election looms, and it looks likely to be a rematch between trump and biden. and that will not be pretty.

my guest today is the us congresswoman nancy pelosi, former speaker of the house of representatives. is her democratic party right to stick with biden? nancy pelosi, welcome to hardtalk. my pleasure to be with you. it is a pleasure to have you on the show. now, you have always been seen as an incredibly internationalist american politician. i think in your years as speaker of the house and congresswoman you visited more than 80 countries. yes. but in that experience, would you say you have seen american power and influence on the wane? well, i certainly hope not. yes, i've visited over 80

countries, for 30 years i have