hear you and i papers, very nice to hear you and i mean what i say, interesting to hear the ways you come together and thank you for returning to newsnight. let's take a quick look at a few of the stories on the front pages. we start with the daily mail, so much for an economic crisis. chancellor rachel reeves came under fire after her doom laden claims about the tory economy were left in tatters. the financial times, recession fears ease as a robust retail sales raise us hopes for soft landing. and below, chat gpt surprises english speakers by providing answers in fluent welsh. the daily telegraph, the story at the top is of the 20 doses of keita man that killed matthew perry. the friends legend who gave a memorable interview tojeremy newsnight in 2013, you can look for that if you wish to online. dm plasma cash

hand—outs and ukraine uses british tanks on russian soil in cross—border raid. that story is at the bottom of the daily telegraph, reminding me at least of the grim news cycle in which we live where that story is down there and search of the small print. how the rich ruin the art market in the times. 0ne ruin the art market in the times. one in ten a—level grades are top grade on record outside covid. ministers favouring unions over pensioners and harry and megan doing something. and a—level results highlight regional divide and a picture ofjoe biden back with kamala harris. that is it for tonight. us media say the talks in doha have been constructive. that's it for tonight. i'm back tomorrow. till then, thanks for watching. goodnight.

five people have been charged in the us over the death of the friends star matthew perry. the 54—year—old actor was found dead in a hot tub at his house. he had taken ketamine. those charged include the actor's former personal assistant, two doctors who are accused of supplying the star with the drug and a woman known as the ketamine queen. court documents allege matthew perry's assistant injected him more than 20 times with ketamine in the days before he died. emma vardy has more. hey, i got you a present. oh, my goodness, where did you hide it?!

to fans, matthew perry, best known as chandler bing, was the funny character from friends who'd made no secret of his flaws. he'd struggled with drugs and alcohol throughout his career. i'm in control of the first drink and so i do all these things to protect myself from not having the first drink. at the time of his death, he was said to have been undergoing therapy for depression, taking small doses of ketamine. but when he was found in the jacuzzi at his home, the levels of the drug in his body were much higher. the five people facing charges are alleged to be part of a criminal network supplying the drug, including two doctors, who used the actor, say law enforcement, as a way to make money. these defendants took advantage of mr perry's addiction issues to enrich themselves. they knew what they were doing was wrong. were doing was risking great danger to mr perry, but they did it anyways. the desperation that led perry. to these individuals was not met

with help as it should have been from the doctors, but instead i it was met with exploitation. exploitation by those have should have guided him towards help. i matthew perry was charged 2,000 for a dose of ketamine worth around $12. the doctors are accused of acquiring the drug and falsifying medical records. one of them, writing in a text, "i wonder how much this moron will pay?" and matthew perry's personal assistant has admitted injecting him on the day he died. investigators say why looking into the actor's death they uncovered a drug supply network involving a dealer known as the ketamine queen in hollywood and say other suspects in connection with the operation are continuing to be investigated. investigators say the high—profile nature of matthew perry's death has helped them to shut down this particular drug dealing network,

emma vardy there. 11 days after the riots outside a hotel in rotherham that was housing asylum seekers, some of those who were trapped inside the holiday inn express have shown us footage of what was happening inside. the hotel became a target after false information was spread online about who was behind the southport stabbings. 0ur uk editor ed thomas has spoken to one of the asylum seekers — who was staying in the hotel — about his experience of coming face to face with rioters in the corridors. some people, please stay here. 0k. we heard all the time people saying come outside, we kill you if come outside. we feel all scared. we can't do anything. we just must waiting and looking. if the police not here, maybe i would be dead. for the first time, we see and hear the panic inside the holiday inn, the asylum seeker hotel under siege. this was filmed by abdullah, an iraqi kurd who says he arrived here four months ago by small boat from france.

after two hours i see people coming more and more, like, i think more than 1,000 people. he is now too scared to show his face on camera. the people come inside with a weapon, a knife. the police came inside to say we save you, just stay here. 0utside on the 11th of august, hundreds gathered. chanting: get them out. there was rage, anger towards those inside the hotel. inside, this man in black was filmed threatening the asylum seekers. the windows broke in my room and all the windows for my friends' room, same. we were scared because inside is on fire. we couldn't breathe. we think today we will die. the police, outnumbered, come under sustained attack. then they break through the police lines, smashing their way inside the hotel. abdullah says he then came

face—to—face with the rioters. outside of my room i saw five people with a mask, black mask, and he say, come to me, he wants a fight with me, but the police come and he saved me. more than 60 police officers, four police dogs and a police horse were injured protecting everyone inside. the hotel is now empty, boarded up, a crime scene. one, two, three, four, five, six, seven smashed windows, and this is just one side of the hotel. there is still glass all along the floor. and we've also spoken to people who work inside this place. they were here on the night. they are too scared to go on camera right now, but they too feared for their lives. 38 people have now been charged in connection with the disorder. many of those who live here are appalled at the violence. it was terrible, you know,

and it's not representative of rotherham, i don't think. people around here are disgusted because this is a good community that look out for each other. but there are other voices here. it's difficult to look- at with the police tape, with the boarded up windows, stuff like that, but at the end | of the day the people that were inside this hotel, - they shouldn't have been here in the first place. i like anthony's, he disagrees with the violence but he is worried about illegal immigration. the people that i feel sorry - for are the workers, absolutely. but not the asylum seekers inside? they've all had to leave this place, to leave rotherham. you say you feel sorry for them, lthey've had to leave this area. i that means whatever happened i round here, it worked, it worked. abdullah has been moved to another hotel. i'm still scared, if i go outside here i'm still scared, yeah. he feels lucky to be alive. ed thomas, bbc news, rotherham.

to the middle east now and the number of people killed in gaza since hamas launched the attacks on israel in october last year has now passed 40,000. the figures which include armed palestinian fighters and civilians who've been killed are released by the hamas—run health ministry. the death toll is often disputed by the israeli government. 0ur middle east correspondent, lucy williamson, sent this report. as the leaders of israel and hamas weigh the price of making peace, nadja is counting the cost of war. after ten months of conflict, he says, the cemeteries are full. gaza, always crowded with the living, is struggling to find room for its dead. "we are opening up old graves to bury people," he said. "we are putting bodies, one on top of another." israel says military pressure is pushing hamas to soften its demands. in khan younis, news of ceasefire talks in doha today not enough

to stop people fleeing. the abu hammad family, 22 people in all, say they have been displaced almost ten times already. translation: the death toll has now reached 40,000. i what more do you want? do you want to wipe us off the earth completely? we are pleading with all the country's governing in doha to seek a ceasefire. enough. we are dying. in israel, too, there is pressure for a deal, from protesters in tel aviv tonight, who say this is the last chance to get israel's hostages out. the chance to free the remaining israeli hostages in gaza is one of the most powerful incentives for benjamin netanyahu to make a deal, but so far, his promise of total victory over hamas has taken priority. now even his defence minister says total victory is unachievable and is reportedly pushing for an end to the war. israel's goal of reaching gaza's southern border was one reason it continued the war.

the army said it destroyed 50 smuggling tunnels there last week. the withdrawal of israeli forces from this area is one sticking point in these talks. but many believe the real challenge lies with the two leaders themselves. mr sinwar, who is an arch terrorist and is trying to ensure his own personal survival and the survival of hamas in gaza, and we have mr netanyahu who was fighting for his own political future. the question is whether we can find some neutral ground here that will provide for the breakthrough because if not, we are probably heading for a war. this conflict is threatening to spiral across the region. a ceasefire is seen as one way to stop it. but gaza's war is testing the limits of diplomacy and the limits of desperation. lucy williamson, bbc news, tel aviv.

the number of students awarded top a—level results has risen for the first time since 2021. and because universities want to bolster their finances — 82% of students have had their first choice confirmed, that's up from last year. 400,000 vocational or technical qualifications were also awarded — including btecs and t levels. from coventry, our education editor, branwenjeffreys reports. she gasps. yay! better than expected for these two friends — one hoping to travel, the other to go on and study. it has opened so many doors for me because i didn't think i'd get into uni. i instantly logged into ucas, - and ijust saw "congratulations". like, it took so much - weight off my shoulders. anyone that didn't get what they were hoping for, life is life. - everything will work out in the end. such a weight off my shoulders... others were weighing up different options. apprenticeships, i think, offer more, like, life skills.

also you get paid for it, which is always nice. i've done however many years of, like, learning. i feel i'm ready to go into the working world now. it's always an emotional day. there's elation, sometimes a little bit of disappointment. but whatever your grades are today, if you want to go to university, there are plenty of choices. nice. maths is now the most popular a—level in england, contributing to a small increase in top grades. vocational qualifications are a big part of today's celebrations. some were getting t—levels in burnley, though across england, a quarter dropped out from this newer qualification. and in enniskillen, keyan and his friends were getting b—tecs. was feeling a wee bit anxious before today. i kind of knew that i was pretty, you know, set for getting what i wanted to achieve,

getting where i wanted to go. in northern ireland, there was a return to pre—covid standards, so in a—levels, a small drop in top grades here. and in wales, too, where the normal exam process kicked in, though that didn't dampen celebrations in wrexham. we've had to adapt, and i think we've all done really well getting what we have. and speaking to my other friends, who've done really, really well. we're all so proud of each other, and, you know, it was difficult, but we've managed to overcome it. and hopefully we'll be able to do the same at university. exam results reveal differences, and in england, they are stark. even though there was faster improvement in some parts of the north this year, london still pulls ahead of the rest of the country. i want to make sure _ as education secretary that we break down those barriers to opportunity for our young people, _ that where you're from doesn't determine what you can go - on to achieve in life. changing the pattern of decades will be hard, and getting to university is just one measure. thank you for calling coventry university group clearing hotline. .. at coventry, calls were slightly down in clearing. other universities quietly

dropping their entry grades and making offers. this year is really different because 82% of the cohort have received offers to their first choice. that's unprecedented, you know? i've never seen... in 32 years of doing clearing, i've never seen anything like that. and in that process, universities have dropped their grades for admission in order to fill courses. perfect, thank you! they'll be taking calls well into 0ctober. universities need to fill places to help their finances. some young people looking at the cost will decide work or apprenticeships are a better deal. branwen jeffreys, bbc news. official figures say the uk economy grew by 0.6% between april and june, continuing its recovery from recession at the end of last year. that's the second consecutive quarter of growth. the chancellor, rachel reeves says the government is "under no

illusion" there is work to do "to make every part of the country better off." the conservatives say labour has benefited from inheriting a growing economy. here's our economics editor, faisal islam. across the british economy, the signs are of businesses and people daring to believe years of crisis and inflationary shocks are behind us, that they're getting ready for more normal growth, not just at this robotics factory in birmingham. business in general�*s very good. we're very busy. currently on the shop floor we've got a lot of work going on. we've got a lot in our pipeline. we're expecting a lot more work coming in in the nearfuture. we think interest rates coming down is maybe going to be a thing that people saw was going to happen towards the end of the year, so maybe they're holding off a little bit to wait for the interest rates coming down. between march and june, the british economy grew by 0.6%, continuing solid growth this year as the inflation numbers, too, return to more normal levels.

the new government's central economic mission, it says, is to get the british economy growing faster than the rest of the g7 advanced economies. now, if you take today's second quarter number and the first quarter's number, so far in 2024, the uk is already the fastest—growing economy in the g7. now, if you adjust this chart for a longer time frame orfor population, that picture would change, but it does raise reasonable questions aboutjust how dire labour's economic inheritance actually was. here at the treasury, the chancellor's deputy said the problem was with the tax and debt burdens specifically. people at home know, and anyone can look at the statistics, that what we inherited from the conservatives was the worst fiscal inheritance since the second world war, and that means we've got very challenging economic circumstances. we welcome growth in the economy, and growth is our first and most important mission here at the treasury. but we've got much, much more work to do to recover from the mess

that we were left with. but the opposition said today's numbers made a mockery of the government's central justification for pondering tax rises at the autumn budget. rachel reeves is sitting in the treasury fuming i because this is yet more data to undermine her narrative . that the economic inheritance - was bad, and she can no longer use that as a pretext for the tax rises that she was planning all along. i the path in front of us now is still not certain. at this skateboard shop in digbeth, the weather held things back in june. nobody�*s really been coming out and buying stuff just because, you know, the weather's been terrible. we've not really had weather that's conducive to any kind of outdoor activities, so it's been very difficult. and it's kind of picked up in the last month, but that'sjust cos, i guess, things are a bit warmer and it has been slightly sunnier. but the wheels are back on the british economy. how fast it goes from here is still up for grabs. faisal islam, bbc news.

around 75,000 rail passengers who were prosecuted and fined for fare evasion are set to be refunded after a judge ruled that their convictions were void. six train operating companies, including northern rail and greater anglia, brought prosecutions against train users using something called the singlejustice procedure — a fast track process — despite not being permitted to do so. here's our transport correspondent, katy austin. a couple of years ago, sarah, from barnsley, had an experience that put her off train travel. a ticket machine wouldn't accept her card. she thought she could buy one on the train, but she ended up being prosecuted for fare evasion under a fast—track process called a single justice procedure. she's not the only one. when it was happening to me, i thought it was just me. since it's been made more public, a lot of people have come forward. a lot of people have approached me personally and said the same thing happened to them or a relative. the single justice procedure is used to deal with a range of minor offences efficiently, but some train companies used it in recent years to prosecute people

for a specific fare dodging offence. they weren't allowed to. now, tens of thousands of people are set to have their convictions voided following a decision about a handful of cases, including sarah's. the chief magistrate declared the six test cases a nullity, meaning it's as if they never happened. and he said at some point in the future he'd make a similar ruling in relation to other cases. it's not known at the moment exactly how many, but he said the current best guess was more than 74,000. now the courts and train companies will try to identify those people and then contact them before fines can be refunded. it's likely to take several months. following the ruling, one expert lawyer said as much as £30 million might have to be paid out, but he had this warning. it doesn't mean that people canjust get on trains and dodge their fare. the train companies can simply amend their procedures and always prosecute under the railway by—laws when using the single justice procedure. the department for transport

welcomed an apology from train operators and said people affected would be directly contacted in due course. katy austin, bbc news. time now to take a look at what the papers will be bringing us tomorrow. starting with the financial times which leads with some strong retail figures coming out of the us which it reports is easing concerns around a possible recession. the daily telegraph leads with a reported hand out for nhs gps, with doctors demanding an 11% pay rise. it comes off the back of a revised pay offer for rail workers. the times reports on the government hand—outs, too, reporting ministers have been accused of prioritising unions over pensioners, after the chancellor announced universal winter fuel payments for pensioners will be scrapped in england and wales. the guardian splashes with what it calls a �*two tier�* education system, reporting today's a—level results have highlighted a regional divide.

the mirror meanwhile carries that story we've been covering tonight on the five people charged over the death of the friends star, matthew perry. its front page also features taylor swift's return to the stage in london, after her shows in vienna were cancelled following a possible security threat. the express features taylor's emotional return to the stage too, but leads with calls from the conservatives for the chancellor to scrap plans to increase taxes in the upcoming autumn budget. and the chancellor also comes under the spotlight in the daily mail, which claims the uk's economic landscape left by the last government is different to the one painted by rachel reeves as she came into office. sweden's public health agency says it has recorded the first case of a contagious new variant of mpox outside the african continent. on wednesday, the world health organization declared mpox a global public health emergency for the second time in two years,

following an outbreak in the democratic republic of congo that has since spread to other countries. mpox, which was previously known as monkeypox, is transmitted through close contact. the bbc has been told that british challenger 2 tanks have been used in ukraine's surprise incursion into russia. the ministry of defence said that ukraine had "a clear right" to use uk—supplied weapons for "self—defence against russia's illegal attacks, and, "that does not preclude operations inside russia," the uk donated i4 challenger 2 tanks to ukraine last year. presidentjoe biden and democrat nominee vice president kamala harris have made their first election campaign appearance together, since he dropped out of the presidential election race. speaking at a rally in maryland, where they announced a deal to reduce the cost of 10 key medicines for older americans. 0ur north america editor sarah smith has been looking at how the next phase of the harris campaign will unfold.

a warning — this report contains flashing images. along the shore of the chesapeake bay, it costs more to eat out than it did before. maryland's famous crabs and seafood have increased in price likejust about everything else in america. so it may look like the living is easy but people are still worried about inflation. who do you blame for the crisis? i blame the democrats. yeah? i believe... yeah, the policies are hurting the working man. i get paid by the hour so to get up and go to work every day, i take it you have to do that to get the american dream but ijust know it's getting harder. every three days i have to go to a grocery - store and i spend $100 every time i go to the grocery store. - it's nuts. that gets really hard to take. donald trump's pitch that he is making is, if you felt better off four years ago than you do now, vote for me. does that make sense? that isn't an compelling

argument to me. i mean, maybe for people who already decided they are going to vote for trump will be something that they will repeat. most voters say the economy is their number one issue in the coming election, and despite good news about record job creation, economic growth and the lowest inflation rate in years, it is still a potential liability for the democrats. now, while the rate of inflation may be falling, prices are of course still increasing and very few voters say they feel as though the economy is improving. even in the white house economists describe there being a bad vibe around. and in an election year, that really matters. kamara harris plans to lay out an economic policy focused on reducing the cost of living, including banning excessive corporate profits on food. today, she is announcing lower prices for prescription drugs. and so in the united states

of america, no senior should have to choose between either filling their prescription or paying their rent. now, this is a little bit day because this is... we're talking about a thing called the economy. the economy could be a winning issue for donald trump but he just can't stay on message. he says he doesn't think it's the most important topic and attacks the way ms harris laughs. he's got an idiosyncratic take on inflation. this is tic tac. this is inflation. this is what has happened. kamara harris was right besidejoe biden as his vice president during a period of rampant inflation. will she be blamed for those price rises or rewarded for her promises to bring them down in future? sarah smith, bbc news, maryland. taylor swift has been back on stage tonight — this time in london — a week after her concerts in vienna were cancelled over fear over a security threat. the singer performed the first of herfive—night sell out show at wembley — which will bring her

european tour to a close. our music correspondent marc savage was there. 92,000 fans poured into wembley stadium dressed in tassels, sequins and ball gowns, as taylor swift returned to the uk. this was her first time on stage since an alleged terror plot against her shows in austria last week. some fans who missed out when those concerts were cancelled managed to make it to london. i was just so devastated and the whole city really did have an air of depression. there was kind of a cloud over the city, but i managed to get very last minute tickets last night, finished work early today, ran here, and i'm here now. there was increased security at wembley and fans who didn't have tickets were warned to stay away. that didn't stop some of them gathering outside to sing along. and they were just as enthusiastic as the fans who managed to get inside. everyone is so friendly. all the friendship bracelets, the amount of people that stopped and said, happy birthday and wanted to swap wristbands.

anywhere you go at any taylor swift thing, at any event, everyone isjust, it'sjust like a community. i think that she is, like, so sisterhood, like, she joins every single girl here. i really think she is like an idol because she has been - through so much and then she still, like, rises like a phoenix. _ on stage, taylor chose to celebrate her music and her fans rather than dwell on recent events, and there was a special treat in the shape of a surprise appearance from ed sheeran. she plays another four nights at wembley before the eras tour returns to north america for its final leg. when it ends in december it will have taken more than $2 billion in ticket sales alone. mark savage, bbc news.

welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur. replacing joe biden with kamala harris has injected a shot of adrenaline into the democratic party's campaign to retain the white house. the upcoming party convention should maintain that bounce. but then what? well, the next three months will be a battle for the hearts and minds of key swing voters. my guest will be in the thick of it. shannon watts founded a nationwide

gun control movement led by women, and now she's rallying women, specifically white women, for harris. is her activism, strategically savvy or potentially divisive? shannon watts in san francisco, welcome to hardtalk. thank you for having me. it's a pleasure to have you on the show. you have had a powerful voice in the american political arena for the last decade and more, but you never sought elected political office.

you chose to be an activist. why?