who were practicing for a charity baseball game. a senior republican member of the house of representatives, steve scalise, is in a critical condition while the gunman was shot dead by police. and finally in the telegraph business section, the us federal reserve has said it would raise its key interest rate by 0.25%, the second rise this year. the central bank voted to raise its key rate target to a range of 1% to 1.25%. that's the highest level since 2008, when policymakers cut rates to encourage borrowing and spending after the financial crisis. let's get on with it. with us is jane. it is an awful story to start with, difficult not to be transfixed by the picture to start with. there are not many times that you get something that just are not many times that you get something thatjust gobbles up your

attention through the sheer power of the image. that is true. the pictures are horrifying and the pictures are horrifying and the picture is perhaps more horrifying than the headlines yesterday with children being thrown from windows. people trapped on the top floor... we are beginning to get more of the human, the personal stories coming through today. they are quite distressing. when i drove to work yesterday morning i pass this building and this was at three a.m. yesterday morning and it was bright orange top to bottom with flames. an owl right here in the newsroom, some colleagues are saying they have been receiving text messages of children being thrown from windows and things like that. i found it so hard to believe because this is london in 2017. surely they got everybody out before it got to this point, surely everybody is watching from a safe area. i could not believe it. in

london in 2017 fools of this is the issue. this building has been there since 197a. back in the 1950s, the advice given to people was to stay in your flat because the flat will be safe. because of fire crews should have distinguished the fire within 60 minutes. this headline suggests that it only took 15 minutes for the building to be engulfed in flames. people are immediately wondering now if it was to do with the cladding, this is speculation that inevitably something has changed. this is, i suppose what is so deeply disturbing, there would clearly residents and resident groups who had been a warning and talking about their fears had been a warning and talking about theirfears for some had been a warning and talking about their fears for some years before their fears for some years before the renovation and, of course, and we now speculate as to what the

renovation affect may have been with the plastic cladding. the rain screen cladding. that was on the co ntra ctor‘s screen cladding. that was on the contractor's website today. a case study about the website —— renovation. this substance has come under review in dubai. again, questions are being asked and investigations will continue on. there has been reviews and complaints by residents for some time. one local councillor said she raised a 19 individual complaints on behalf of the residents of this tower and each time she was made to feel like a nuisance. the firm responsible for the renovations have said that they followed all safety regulations. that is an important point to make will stop it is intriguing how quickly politics plays a role and immediately questions are being asked and so

immediately off the back of an election of one of theresa may's key figures. gavin bhawan, now her chief of staff. there is criticism, again this will now come out as part of the investigation but the criticism about he being slow to act when he was housing minister. again, even the breathing housing minister, again, in the spotlight now. did these politicians act correctly? did they sit on a report? we had a similarfire back in 2009 they sit on a report? we had a similar fire back in 2009 with an investigation and the question is now being asked, was the investigation, the facts found in that investigation, where they put into practice and would be put into practice quickly enough?m into practice and would be put into practice quickly enough? it is a fair comment to say that on the back ofa fair comment to say that on the back of a disaster like this all those little questions suddenly seem like glaring failures. we need to assess that and work it out. some of them

explained it as reducing the amount of red tape regulation, in way, trying to make it easier to get things built and to push ahead with accommodating people who needed it. that balance still needs to be struck somewhere. absolutely. and so the families and communities hit by this, no doubt there will be an awful lot of anger and this investigation will probably cover a lot of hurt. driving in again this morning, i noted several others close by are of similar highs, full of flats and people from those flights will now look at this building not that and will be wondering... ok, so what will happen in my building now? will i have a sprinkler system put in my flat or not? replicate that across the country. and in this building there

was one central stairwell, one escape route. no sprinter system. you can say that perhaps a sprinter syste m you can say that perhaps a sprinter system would not have saved more lives but it is a sprinkler system in addition to a whole suite of safety measures which clearly were not in place in this building. you make an interesting point earlier about gas also in the buildings and there was a point, while ago, when that was deemed unacceptable these days but the story here is that there was a gas pipe up through the central stairwell. i do remember seeing a documentary some years ago about eight tower block that caught on fire years ago and does a result gas cookers were removed from the building. there is a story today, many newspapers suggesting that gas pipes had been put back in some parts of this building. again, that will come into this review. a lot of

review to be done. certainly. plenty to do and our thoughts are with those are still grappling with this and it is still unknown how many people have died but let's move on how people have died but let's move on now to some other stories. in emerging story from washington where a 66—year—old man, a supporter of bernie sanders, going with a gun and shooting at republican politicians. ata shooting at republican politicians. at a charity event. he was a left—wing supporter. bernie sanders is shocked and horrified as everyone else is and he was an unemployed surveyor that walked into this charity match and took out a lot of republicans. he walked in with an assault rifle. one thing that is poignant to us in the uk is that the charity match, a match that has been going on since 1909, and this year they were raising money for

manchester and the victims they are. again, it has a different resonance for us here but the point is again we need to consider the impact of us gun laws. this was five people including a very senior republican. indeed, it was the bodyguards of the senior republican who returned fire and killed the gunmen yesterday.- and killed the gunmen yesterday.- a postscript that i saw in a house a wild applause when they said that the show must go on. the match will be going on in defiance. in comparison to what we have been discussing it seems rather detail oriented to talk about the fed bank raising interest rates but that is significant, isn't it? the marker was expecting this what is significant is that in the us recently there has been mixed data in respect of the economy,

particularly inflation. the usa have low levels of wage inflation, similarto low levels of wage inflation, similar to the low levels of wage inflation, similarto the uk low levels of wage inflation, similar to the uk and many other geelong economies and yet janet yellen went ahead and raised interest rates. also signalled... would you have held fire? there is credibility here and so many official suggested that they would do it but to not do it would be odd. the question now is can they really back this up? thank you. one big story dominating today and we would like to close were some pictures from grenfell tower that we have for you. this is the scene live and we will keep across that throughout the day. bbc news. the next 2a hours will bring us some cooler, fresher weather but it won't last long. the warmth will return for the weekend.

and we certainly pulled some warmth up from the south during wednesday. 27 degrees was our top temperature at heathrow. thursday, though, is going to be a different feeling day. this cold front pushing in from the west. behind that some fresh air will be introduced. ahead of that it is quite a warm and muggy start to thursday morning, particularly in our big town and city centres. 16,17,18 degrees. and with some sunshine, temperatures in eastern england will rise very quickly through the morning. but here's our weather front, our cold front. a band of cloud and at this stage showery rain, and as that pushes through it will introduce that fresher air from the west. so, by 4pm in the afternoon, south—west england will still enjoy sunshine but the temperature will have dropped off a little bit. still some warmth clinging on across the south—east and east anglia. 22, 23 degrees here — a mainly fine afternoon across the midlands. we start to encounter showers as we push across northern england, here it will be quite a lot fresher. 16—17 degrees.

across scotland there will be cloudy periods, i suspect, with some showery rain. equally bright spells in between and breezy towards the north—west. similar story for northern ireland, some bright spells but large areas of cloud and showery rain. but then we come back to wales where it is fine through the afternoon but the temperatures only getting as high as 17 or 18 degrees. and with that fresher air in place, thursday night should be a little more comfortable for sleeping, i suspect. 11 there in aberdeen, 13 in london. and out in the countryside will be even a little cooler than that. so, quite a fresh start to friday but a bright start with sunshine. however, there will be changes through the day. more cloud into northern ireland, scotland, parts of northern england and north wales, a little bit of patchy rain moving through as well. and also you will start to notice those temperatures creeping upwards again, and that is what is going to take us into the weekend. this warm front bringing some patchy rain across northern areas but also introducing some warm air from the south. and you will notice an area of high pressure building in from the south as well.

so, across england and wales, saturday will not only be warm but a sunny day. 28 degrees there in london. always cooler with showery rain for northern ireland and western scotland. a bit breezy here as well. on sunday the rain really confined to the far north—west. further south and east, quite a lot of sunshine, some humid air in place, temperatures could get as high as high as 30 or 31 degrees. hello, this is breakfast, with charlie stayt in west london. the desperate search continues to find the missing after the london tower block fire. over 2a hours on from the blaze, 12 people are known to have died.

dozens more are still unaccounted for. we don't know if they are alive or dead or if they are in hospital or not. the prime minister promises a full investigation onto the causes of the blaze. on the ground there's anger that warnings may have been ignored. there will have been people trapped in that tower knowing that the people who were supposed to look after them didn't care about them. many spend the night in emergency shelters as the community pull together to support people left without homes and basic needs.