ahead of the commonwealth summit. but will a row over reparations dominate proceedings? the personal attacks intensify in the race for the white house — kamala harris steps up her condemnation of donald trump. it is clear from john kelly's words that donald trump is someone who, i quote, certainly falls into the general definition of fascists. the uk government announces that a ban on single—use vapes will come into force from june next year. is from june next year. this football's ticking time bomb? is this football's ticking time bomb? the dangers of repetitive head trauma and a call for change in the game. hello. the bbc has learned that commonwealth leaders

are preparing to defy the uk at their summit in samoa by agreeing to examine ways of securing reparatoryjustice for the tra ns—atla ntic slave trade. on wednesday, prime minister sir keir starmer, said that while there was "no question" slavery was "abhorrent" but he wanted the meeting on the pacific island to focus on the "here and now". reparations could cost the uk billions of dollars. meanwhile king charles and queen camilla are present for the commonwealth heads of government meeting. the couple will complete a day of engagements before meeting commonwealth leaders at the end of the week. frederick mitchell is the foreign minister of the bahamas. i think at the moment caricom countries want the conversation to start about it. there appears to be even a reluctance to have the conversation start. many of the institutions in the uk have already conceded the point of apology, the british government isn't quite there. but at this time the discussion needs to be had about the history of this and the ill effects of what happened after slavery was abolished which continue to affect our societies today.

that was the foreign minister of the bahamas. our political editor chris mason gathered the thoughts of sir keir starmer on the way to samoa. the british prime minister emphasising to us on the plane here, the 28—hourjourney from the uk, but as far as the conversation about reparations was concerned he felt that it was too backward—looking, he didn't want conversations to get bogged down over it, and instead he wanted to focus on the future, around trade and climate change, for instance. but now courtesy of this leak to our colleaguejames landale, the bbc�*s diplomatic correspondent, we have seen a draft communique, that is summit speak for the draft conclusions of an event like this, in which there is a specific reference in a couple of paragraphs to a desire from some commonwealth countries, as you say, not least those in the caribbean, for a conversation to properly begin about the question of if reparations and the suggestions that some countries, the uk among them, owe, so goes the argument, a debt to countries that feel they were disproportionately enslaved, and there should be apologies for it and there should be financial compensation for it. as far as the uk is concerned, there is no desire to express any apology or indeed

to allocate any money. but it does look like it will come up in the conversation here even if it isn't on the formal agenda. let's speak to kehinde andrews — who is a professor of black studies at birmingham city university. they give a being with us. what do you make of what is emerging from this commonwealth meeting? you think the government is going to have to look again at this question reparation? the? this question reparation? they certainly should _ this question reparation? they certainly should look _ this question reparation? tie: certainly should look again, the countries can say, we demand this debt be repaid because slavery in particular generated untold wealth and created podgy and the ravens. the greek dish empire took

trillions. when you talk about you don't want to look backwards, we need to look at the poverty that was caused by the poverty that was caused by the british empire. it's a significant debt. is the british empire. it's a significant debt.- the british empire. it's a significant debt. is at the obvious point, _ significant debt. is at the obvious point, though, i significant debt. is at the i obvious point, though, that significant debt. is at the - obvious point, though, that the government is struggling, that we keep being warned, by the budget to pay for what is currently hair, it is very unlikely, isn't it, that there would be public support to 7 be public �* " ' ' " ' what the british empire did and ’ be public support ' what the british empire did and t be public support to spend huge amounts of money would be public support to spend huge amounts of money with these compensation roots? with these compensation roots? it's very unlikely. even if it's very unlikely. even if there should be an apology, there should be an apology, they won't get one. i am a keir they won't get one. i am a keir starmer, i am sure he took a starmer, i am sure he took a knee after the george floyd knee after the george floyd murder. and that is the murder. and that is the problem, around empires and problem, around empires and here, all of these inequalities here, all of these inequalities that we talk about and racism that we talk about and racism are traced back directly to are traced back directly to what the british empire did and what the british empire did and

the wealth and prosperity that we have it really is built from that. you can't say you want to be antiracist and you won't discuss addressing the problem. is that narrow sense of reality that the people in government, the guardian is reporting that david lammy, the foreign secretary back in 2018 was calling for reparations to be paid for caribbean nations. as we say, keir starmer says he wants to focus on looking forward for the that

to make these compromises, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't make the changes and you shouldn't have the argument. we need kind of society that we want and the one that we have at the moment is one in which unfortunately black people die all around the world and in the uk because we haven't dealt with this problem and the only way to do it is to repair the wound. ., , ., �* wound. the money wouldn't necessarily _ wound. the money wouldn't necessarily fall _ wound. the money wouldn't necessarily fall to _ wound. the money wouldn't necessarily fall to black - necessarily fall to black communities or populations here, what it? has there been any estimate to the cost of such a move?— such a move? just in the caribbean _ such a move? just in the caribbean the _ such a move? just in the caribbean the estimates | such a move? just in the - caribbean the estimates vary between three and 1a trillion us dollars. we are talking about a massive amount of money. the question is, when you think about immigration, why are so many people rushing to come to the uk? because the places where the british empire was struggling. if we dealt with that, people wouldn't want

to leave so much. we have created this world which is deeply unequal and it has its consequences. do we want to fix that will continue burying our heads in the sand and carry on as if nothing ever happened? the logic of this is that many countries around the world would have to look deep into their history, the uk would have to look at places like india. this is an unaffordable aspiration, isn't it? it’s aspiration, isn't it? it's unaffordable _ aspiration, isn't it? it's unaffordable not - aspiration, isn't it? it's unaffordable not to. i aspiration, isn't it? it�*s unaffordable not to. there are 1005 unaffordable not to. there are 100s of millions of poor people, we have racist riots recently, the unrest at different times. the inequality cost a billion, it cost the economy billions globally. the question is what kind of world do we want? and we have to remake it. just to say, we have all this wealth and poverty. the world is created by the image of white supremacy but we can't carry on and pretend it never happened. that leads to

much more poverty. just never happened. that leads to much more poverty.— never happened. that leads to much more poverty. just to pick ou u- much more poverty. just to pick you up on _ much more poverty. just to pick you up on that _ much more poverty. just to pick you up on that talking _ much more poverty. just to pick you up on that talking about - you up on that talking about white supremacy. we have seen globally the brics gathering, there is huge wealth right across asia, huge amounts of development across the continent. things are shifting anyway, surely, aren't they? things aren't shifting as we would like to see. china and india, for example, very large example but they also have 4 million people living in poverty. actually, life expectancy isn't going up as we would like to think it is. and all people who live in extreme poverty live on the african continent. but it still massively unequal and that is because of the legacy of not just the british empire, obviously, but the wealth and the empire. the second night is saying and the former empires of the commonwealth are saying, we demand change. at some point britain and the wealth has to do is —— west have to do

something about it. the majority of the world is saying, we demand reparations, you can't ignore the whole world forever. it you can't ignore the whole world forever.— you can't ignore the whole world forever. it is a debate that i world forever. it is a debate that l think _ world forever. it is a debate that i think we'll _ world forever. it is a debate that i think we'll run. - world forever. it is a debate that i think we'll run. for i that i think we'll run. for now, professor kehinde andrews, thank you so much for your time. let it shift our focus 110w now to the us elections. with less than two weeks to go, the rhetoric between the two candidates is becoming increasingly competitive. —— combative. at a campaign event, vice president kamala harris has labeled donald trump a "fascist. this is a window into who donald trump really is, from the people who know him best, from the people who worked with him side by side in the oval office and in the situation room. and it is clear from john kelly's words that donald trump is someone who, i quote, "certainly falls into the general definition of fascist", who in fact vowed to be a dictator on day one and vowed to use the military as his personal militia to carry out his personal and political vendettas.

donald trump has responded on his truth social platform — calling vice president harris "a warped mind" and a "threat to democracy". the comments at the heart of the latest attack lines from kamala harris come from john kelly, the trump white house's longest—serving chief of staff. speaking to the new york times, he said that he believed that donald trump met the definition of a fascist, let's hear what he had to say. looking at the definition of fascism, it's a far—right, authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology or movement characterised by a dictatorial leader, centralised autocracy, militarism and the forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy. so certainly, in my experience, those are the kind of things that he thinks would work better in terms of running america.

john kelly speaking there, the former chief of staff to donald trump. let's see how the presidential candidates are polling. new polls are arriving every day, each one with its slightly different take on the figures. if you look at the overall trends, rather than the individual points, you see harris retains a small lead over trump in the national polling averages. and if we turn to the battleground states: these are the states that were very close last time around and could be decisive in this election. the polling in each one is very tight, with kamala harrisjust ahead in three and donald trump just ahead in four. these are our latest polls — we'll bring you the new data when it updates later this morning. the usjustice department has reportedly weighed on in elon musk�*s actions on the us presidential campaign trail. it has warned the tech mogul that his million dollar giveaway for registered voters in swing states may violate federal law. it comes after elon musk�*s political action committee said it was offering the prize money to increase voter registration — in a controversial move that

some state officials warned, might be illegal. 0ur north america correspondent david willis correspondent david willis has the latest. reports here suggest the us justice department's head of election crimes has written to the political action committee, headed by elon musk, alerting it to the fact that it is against the law in the united states to pay anyone to vote or to register to vote. elon musk has said he will pick one person a day and present them with a cheque of $1 million between now and election day. in return for them signing a petition in support of free speech and gun rights. he has already presented four such cheques, three in the state of pennsylvania, one in north carolina. a key condition is all the participants be registered to vote in one of the seven key battleground states. those are the states that could determine the outcome of this election. democrats have argued that it's part of a ploy by mr musk to swing the election the way

of the republicans, who he supports. mr musk and his people for their part contend this contest is open to anyone regardless of their political affiliation. and that he is not effectively paying republicans to vote. mr musk has been campaigning energetically on behalf of his preferred candidate, donald trump, who has vowed if he is elected president to appoint mr musk to lead a government efficiency commission. the usjustice department apparently did not specify what it planned to do in response to this alleged infringement, potential infringement of the voting laws, but it did spell out some of the penalties for breaking those laws, which include up to five years potentially in prison.

around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news.

the metropolitan police says it will carry out a new investigation into a crash at a school in wimbledon in south london last year when two children were killed by a car driving into a playground. the driver has previously been told she won't be charged as she had an epileptic seizure. the force now says information which requires further examination has been identified. some news coming to us from ireland, the regulator they're ireland, the regulator they�* re helping ireland, the regulator they're helping to police european union data privacy has found leaked in the networking

platform 310 million euros, $335 million over breaching users personal data for targeting advertising, so linked in apparently being fined 310 million euros for breaching personal data in ireland. the data protection commission, the microsoft owned website, its first eu fine saying that the data obtained by linkedin was not obtained freely. we will bring you more on that when we get it. the uk government has announced that a ban on single use vapes will come into force from june next year. it's hoped this will reduce the number of young vapers. 0ur chief political correspondent henry zeffman gave me more details about the ban. the conservatives announced this injanuary and the labour opposition, as they then were, were supportive but it wasn't in their general election manifesto so we didn't actually know for sure until late last night that this new government would be pressing ahead with the ban. actually the process from here on is fairly simple, the government doesn't require a new piece of legislation

or a vote in the house of commons, they can do this under existing powers. so this will come into force in england from june 2025. i stress england because the other devolved governments, scotland, wales and northern ireland will have to make their own decisions, although, as it happens, all of them are pressing ahead with fairly similar policies which will probably end up coming into force at around the same time. around the same time. this is separate to a bigger this is separate to a bigger piece of legislation and again piece of legislation and again initiated by the previous conservative government initiated by the previous conservative government but being picked up by this but being picked up by this new labour government. new labour government. that's the tobacco that's the tobacco and vapes bill. and vapes bill. the headline act in that piece the headline act in that piece of legislation is going to be the essential banning of smoking for future of legislation is going to be generations altogether. but it will also have various but it will also have various measures to deal but it measures to deal but it will also have various measures from june next year, will also have various measures to do with the marketing, to do with the marketing, restricting the marketing, restricting the marketing, essentially, of non—disposable essentially, of non—disposable non—disposable vapes. non—disposable vapes. so there is lots more so there is lots more legislation coming down legislation coming down the track in this area. the track in this area. but for now, we can say that but for now, we can say that

from june next year, unless something significant changes, disposable plastic vapes will no longer be available for sale or supply in england. so does this have broad political support? because already it is illegal to sell any vape to anyone under the age of 18 but it is seen as a real problem for younger teenagers, isn't it? i think before the general election there was definitely broad political consensus on this. you can see this from the fact this was a policy initiated by conservative government and is being picked up by a labour government. i think it will be interesting, though, to see depending on who wins the conservative leadership election where we will have a result a week on saturday, it will be

lebanon's caretaker prime minister najib mikati has said 13 hospitals have been put out of service by israeli attacks. 0vernight israel carried out another series of heavy air strikes on the capital beirut. lebanese state media said an israeli drone strike hit an apartment block in thejnah neighbourhood of south beirut. there are reports of up to 10 strikes in southern beirut after the israeli army issued a new evacuation call for southern beirut. lebanese media say six buildings have been flattened in one suburb. meanwhile, tens of thousands of people have fled their homes in the southern port city of tyre — where israel has struck what it called hezbollah targets. it's the first time the historic city centre has been targeted. huge plumes of smoke were seen rising just a few hundred meters from roman ruins that are listed as a unesco world heritage site. meanwhile, the us secretary of state antony blinken has arrived in qatar as he continues his 11th visit to the middle east since the october 7th attacks. 0ur correspondent tom bateman has been travelling with secretary blinken and has this update. in doha, mr blinken is meeting

the emir, sheikh tamim bin hamad al—thani, as well as the prime minister and foreign minister. the key question here is about what is going on with hamas, because the qataris are key mediators with hamas. hamas have a political office here historically, and that is why the leadership in doha have been key brokers, really, in trying to establish this ceasefire for hostage release deal. but since the israelis killed the hamas leader in gaza, yahya sinwar, and the americans have said they see that as an opportunity, they saw him as the key obstacle to a deal. they said, despite the obstacles that mr netanyahu was also throwing in front of this deal. the question now is what is going on with the hamas leadership? is there anyone to talk to? the americans have said that sinwar walked

away from the deal that he wasn't... simply, he wasn't engaging for many weeks. and so i think they're going to be trying to establish with the qataris, is there a negotiating partner for these mediated talks? we know that hamas, for example, have said that there is now a five—man kind of leadership council that they might keep the identity of the next leader secret for security reasons. so that doesn't bode well for progress in trying to hammer out this deal. um, before this moment, mr blinken had been in riyadh. he'd just flown from saudi arabia talking to mohammed bin salman, the crown prince there. that is very much about a so—called day after plan, post—war plan for gaza. and the saudis still want, and the americans are pushing, this wider so—called normalisation deal between the saudis and israel, which would be sort of dangled as a prize to the israelis to try and engage with the diplomatic process in the long term. but really, the diplomatic

track on all this is in a mess because of what's going on with hamas, because of the israeli military assault in the north of gaza. and mr netanyahu appearing to show that there is a lack of interest, frankly, in diplomacy and much more in the military path. and that's what mr blinken is trying to do, is to sort of pull the israelis back towards trying to get a deal. but at the moment, all of that and the chance of any kind of breakthrough and even getting discussions back up and running seems very slim. tom bateman there from joe hart. families of footballers who died from chronic traumatic encephalopathy — including the family of england 1966 world cup hero nobby stiles — have written an open letter to the uk government, insisting it becomes mandatory for anyone who's played contact sport to be checked for the disease when they die. cte is linked to repetitive head trauma and can cause mood changes and aggression.

our sports correspondent natalie pirks has been speaking to some of the widows affected. kevin bird was a mansfield town legend. a no nonsense defender who played for the stags a50 times. loved, loved football. thought he was a really lucky man to play football for a living. 12 years ago, sue started to notice changes in her husband. diagnosed with alzheimer's and depression, he'd gone from a loving granddad... come to mummy, to mummy. ..to snappy and aggressive. it all came to a head on new year's eve in 2019, when kevin attacked sue but couldn't remember. i said to him, i've got to go to a&e, you'll have to come with me. i sat him on a chair and i went to the desk. sorry. i said, "my husband's got dementia and he's attacked me "and i don't know what to do." and they sectioned him. and i thought they'd give him something to calm him down, and he'd come home.

but he never came home after that. when kevin died last year, sue had his brain examined. she believes the results were unequivocal. heading the ball. football. the game he loved killed him. this is one of those sections we've examined from kevin's brain and you can see the level of damage that there is here in the brain. professor willie stewart is a consultant neuropathologist at the university of glasgow. all this brown material that you see on the screen shouldn't be there. these brown splotches are cte, chronic traumatic encephalopathy. it's a form of dementia, likely caused by repetitive head impacts and it can only conclusively be proven after death. both dr stewart's and the fa's own studies show footballers are three and a half times more likely to develop neurodegenerative diseases than the average population. all our attempts to try and find other reasons fail. we keep coming back to it is something to do with the sport. it is repetitive head impact.

the english fa is phasing out deliberate heading for under—11s seconds over the next three seasons and says for under—11s over the next three seasons and says its continuing to take a leading role in reviewing and improving the safety of the game, including investing in multiple projects to research the issue. i'm absolutely certain that it's a ticking time bomb. but the woman behind the safe football charity believes but the woman behind the head safe football charity believes education for the next generation is lacking. judith gates' husband, bill, played for middlesbrough. he never headed a ball again after retiring with terrible migraines the day before his 30th birthday, yet died with cte last year. cte is brutal. i would like to have a national slogan that says "think head safe, reduce heading in training." i hope that bill's legacy

from ourjourney will be saving every kid who plays football on a cobbled backstreet. natalie pirks, bbc news. there is more online on that very important story. stay with us it on bbc news. good morning. it's going to be a breezy day today than it was yesterday. strongest went out towards the west. for most of us it will be dry and sunny spells developing. and across the board, mild. the mild theme continues as we go through the next few days. as you can see with the yellows and ambers on the chart. maybe a dip in temperatures overnight saturday to sunday but sunday itself still on the mild side and that continues into monday with temperatures generally above average for the time of year. what we have today is windy conditions out towards the west, here too there is some figure cloud producing

spots of drizzle. central and eastern areas breezy and the cloud will turn over, some sunny skies will develop. in fact, we could have a high of 17 or 18 degrees across the moray firth today at 18 or 19 across the far south—east but mild wherever you are. through this evening, a fair bit of cloud around and we will see mist and fog patches developing across north—east england. meanwhile, an area of low pressure develops across the south—west and around that we will locally see some heavy rain and it will also be windy but once again a mild night across the board. here is the area of low pressure i was talking about. very slowly tomorrow the front around it will move northwards, and in doing so it will tend to weaken. we start with some mist and fog, that will lift, some of it into low cloud, brightening up behind it but it will still be windy in the south—western quarter. and we will see some breaks in the cloud across north—west england and also south—west scotland. temperatures 11—18 celsius. on saturday the low pressure start slipping southwards into the bay of biscay.

you have a couple of weather fronts coming in across the north west, introducing some rain across scotland and northern ireland and the remnants of the weather front in the east could still produce the odd spot of rain across the south—east. but in between there will be some dry conditions and some sunshine. but a subtle change in the wind direction to more of a westerly, so temperature is not as high but still mild. sunday morning, we start with some mist and fog that will lift, then we see the cloud near to scotland and northern ireland with rain arriving here later, strengthening winds, drier and brighter across england and with top temperatures up to about 16 celsius.

no deal! striking boeing workers reject the latest pay offer from the aerospace giant. we'll look at what it means for the new boss' plans to turn around the business. the imf tells the bbc tariffs could spark a trade war with huge global consequences. you could end up with a loss of gdp close to 7%. so these are very large numbers. i mean, 7% is basically losing the french and german economies. that is the size of the last.

—— the loss. and tasting sweet — unilever food sales are boosted