this is bbc news. the headlines at apm. the scottish government put plans for a second independence referendum on hold until after brexit. the scottish government remains committed, strongly, to the principle of giving scotland a choice at the end of this process. but i want to reassure people that our proposal is not for a referendum now or before there is sufficient clarity about the options. a major cyber attack is underway affecting banks and power companies in a a number of countries including russia and the ukraine, where it was first reported. google is fined more than £2.1 billion by the european commission for favouring its own shopping services. theresa may says there should be a "major national investigation" into what went wrong with cladding on high rise buildings. and in the next hour... an amber warning on the state of the uk economy. the bank of england says it's worried about a sharp rise

in consumer borrowing through credit cards, personal loans and car finance deals. and one of germany's most decorated war—time pilots takes to the skies above england, in a spitfire. good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. the scottish government has put plans for a second independence referendum on hold. this afternoon, scotland's first minister, nicola sturgeon, has said that she wants to "reset" her plans on a second vote and ask the scottish electorate instead in the autumn of next year or the spring of 2019, once the brexit negotiations are over. ms sturgeon has also told msps that she would now "redouble"

her efforts to keep the country in the european single market. our scotland correspondent, lorna gordon, is in edinburgh with the latest. calls for nicola sturgeon to take the idea of an independence referendum off the table in but clearly she wants to have it there asa clearly she wants to have it there as a possibility, she says, depending on the outcome of brexit and that will allow scottish voters to decide what they want to do next. nicola sturgeon is keeping her options open going forward. in effect she is saying today that her plans for a second independence referendum are on hold but they are not off the table entirely. there is a subtle change in the language i think and very definitely a slippage in any proposed timetable for a possible second independence referendum. she is saying that there is no chance now of any legislation

before 2018 and that in effect means there is no possibility of a referendum on scottish independence before the brexit process is complete. i want to reassure people that our proposal is not for a referendum now or before there is sufficient clarity about the options, but rather to give them a choice at the end of the brexit process when that clarity has emerged. i am therefore confirming today that, having listened and reflected, the scottish government will reset the plan i set out on march 13th. we will not seek to introduce the legislation for an independence referendum immediately. instead we will, in good faith, redouble our efforts and put our shoulder to the wheel in seeking to influence the brexit talks in a way that protects scotland's interests. we will seek to build maximum support around the proposals set out in the paper we published in december, scotland's place in europe, to keep us in the single market with substantial new powers for this parliament. we will do everything we can to influence

the uk in that direction. and then, at the end of this period of negotiation with the eu, likely to be around next autumn, when the terms of brexit will be clearer, we will come back to parliament to set out ourjudgment on the best way forward at that time, including our view on the precise timescale for offering people a choice over the country's future. in setting out this position today i'm also issuing a challenge to the other parties. the scottish government will stand the best chance of positively influencing the brexit outcome if we are at the table, with the full backing of our national parliament, arguing for the sensible option of staying in the single market. sojoin us now with no equivocation, back the demand for the democratically elected scottish government to be at the table, able to influence the uk's negotiating strategy and for scotland and the uk to stay in the european single market. nicola sturgeon calling on all

parties in the scottish parliament to back the scottish government in what she called a redoubling of their efforts to secure scotland's position going forward as those brexit negotiations continue. she was trying to focus less on a second independence referendum and more on theissue independence referendum and more on the issue of brexit going forward. the opposition unionist parties at holyrood however decided to focus more on the possibility of a second referendum rather than brexit. ruth davidson, the leader of the scottish conservatives, said that nicola sturgeon was singing the same old song to the same old tune. the issue we have had this last year has been with a first minister who has tried to use the uk's decision to leave the european union to try and impose another referendum on independence on scotland at the earliest opportunity. no once in a generation, no edinburgh agreement of respecting the result, just a single—vision drive to the line by nicola sturgeon to try and secure her

place in history. and as her own msps have accepted, that decision cost her 21 seats and the support of half a million scottish voters in the general election. yes voters and no voters, most people simply don't want this brought back any time soon. and none of the questions, none of the questions that are raised by brexit are answered by ripping scotland out of our own union of nations, our biggest market and our closest friends. there were several accusations from the other unionist parties at holyrood, the liberal democrats, willie rennie said that nothing had changed with nicholas dakin‘s position and kezia dugdale accused the first minister of pressing on regardless —— nicola sturgeon‘s position. she says she has heard the views of the people, that she has reflected on the result of the general election, and her incredulous conclusion is to double down and continue with her campaign for independence.

but the truth is the threat of an unwanted second independence referendum is dead. and this did not happen because nicola sturgeon wanted it to. the people of scotland have taken that decision for her. but the first minister is digging her heels in, putting her fingers in her ears and pressing on regardless. she isjust not listening. first minister, why don't you understand the people of scotland sent you a clear message at the general election, get back to governing? when will you listen and get on with the job that really matters? improving our schools, growing our economy and fixing our nhs. all the focus on nicola sturgeon‘s comment about a second independence referendum but there were a couple of other point she made in her statement this afternoon, the first that independence, as she saw it, was not only about brexit but she believes it goes far beyond that and

he wants to widen at the independence movement going forward. ina independence movement going forward. in a sense she is accepting some of the criticisms from some of those who believe in independence here in scotla nd who believe in independence here in scotland that the campaign for it has been too focused on the snp. the second thing was that she almost acknowledged some of those criticisms made by opposition parties when they said she was not focusing on the dayjob. she is acknowledging them but rejecting them, saying she is proud of the achievement of the snp in their last ten yea rs achievement of the snp in their last ten years in government but she would refresh their agenda this summer. would refresh their agenda this summer. ultimately, all the focus on her comments about that possible second independence referendum, a slippage in any possible timetable, but she still said she strongly believes people here in scotland should have a choice about their future at the end of the brexit process. we're hearing that the government has identified four further local authorities where cladding from

high—rise buildings has failed fire safety tests. those tests were ordered of course in the wake of the g re nfell tower ordered of course in the wake of the grenfell tower tragedy. cambridge with two buildings, salford with nine, sheffield with one and tower hamlets with two. there are more put the government has only named 20 of the government has only named 20 of the 32 areas where cladding from tower blocks has failed the tests. all of those tests have so far failed. companies in a number of countries are reporting that they have been hit by a major cyber attack. in ukraine, government ministries, the main airport in kiev and the city's metro system have been targeted. there are also reports of companies affected in russia, denmark and spain. here in the uk, the advertising agency wpp says it has been hit. it is understood that computers have been infected with ransomware with demands for payment. well in ukraine, the central bank, several tv channels and postal services have also been affected. 0ur correspondentjonah fisher said it was a large scale attack on both the private and public sector. well, this is looking like an extremely widespread attack.

it is impacting on both state—owned and private companies here in ukraine. at the last count there were more than 25 companies who had been effected in some way by this cyber attack. as you mentioned, the airport has been effected, the arrival and departure boards have gone down and it looks like flights may well be delayed. the metro here, the underground system has also has been impacted. you cannot pay with a credit card at the moment because of the impact on the banking system. several banks have reported being affected by this cyber attack. the indications are at the moment, this is a very far—reaching attack. the response of many of the companies appears to have been to try to shut down their systems and prevent it spreading but it does look, in the first few hours of this at least, like it is extremely serious for many ukrainian companies. the internet giant google has been fined a record £2.1 billion by the european commission

for putting its own online shopping services at the top of search results. it's the biggest fine in the commission's history. it said google had abused its market dominance. google now has 90 days to end the practice. more details from our technology correspondent, rory cellan—jones. put the name of something you might want to buy into google‘s search engine and right at the top, up pops a helpful box with images of products. do it on a mobile phone and the images are even more prominent. every time you click on one of the adverts, the search giant earns money. it is called google shopping and now it has resulted in a record fine from europe's competition commissioner. google has abused its market dominance in its search engine by promoting its own shopping comparison service in its search results and demoting its competitors. google is under fire

because of its sheer size and it's accused of using its position as the dominant player in online search to squash rivals. kelkoo, a price comparison site which says it's being squeezed by google shopping and is celebrating today's move. without competition, google can charge merchants whatever they like for advertising. with competition, you end up with lots of people like ourselves, companies competing on prices which brings the price down and that's got to be good for consumers. merchants will charge less. that's a good day for consumers. google said it come from tech giants like amazon and it believes brussels has improved the consumers are being harmed for the firm released a statement saying google showed shopping ads connecting our users with thousands of advertisers large and small in ways that are useful for both. we respectfully disagree with the conclusions announced today. this is the latest in a series of battles which have pitched europe against american technology companies. the eu says it's enforcing

competition law but the americans may suspect this is all about politics. staying with technology and return it to that cyber attack we have been hearing about which has crippled banks and private companies in ukraine and is now spreading and fast. it has already had one large advertising company in this country but other places in europe as well but other places in europe as well but a spanish food giant said it has been hit and firms in france as well, the netherlands, it looks like it isa well, the netherlands, it looks like it is a global outbreak. in a similar fashion it is a global outbreak. in a similarfashion to the it is a global outbreak. in a similar fashion to the wannacry virus we saw spreading so rapidly last month. this crippled the nhs and caused huge problem but it is the same idea, ransomware? this is a bit of malware that gets into a computer, it could be by a spam e—mail, there are all kinds of ways

that these can get into systems and when they do they freeze it and send you a message saying, if you want to get your systems back you have to pay a ransom in bitcoin, a virtual currency. on the basis that the last attack was eventually brought to a halt, somewhere or something has upgraded the attack and this is a new one? some reports are suggesting, and obviously that this is an early stage, that this is older software than wannacry. quite a few security expert and the swiss government have said it could be a variant of a bit of ransom ware called petya, we don't know if that is the case yet but there are a lot about and it shows that if a criminal gang ora about and it shows that if a criminal gang or a state—sponsored group get hold of this malware they can doa group get hold of this malware they can do a lot of damage with it. group get hold of this malware they can do a lot of damage with itm is targeted or has somebody sent it out on the basis that somebody would be unlucky enough to log in at the wrong time and be hit by it? the only target seems to be that they

are going for big firms and for things like oil companies energy suppliers, quite big targets with perhaps the view is that they don't wa nt perhaps the view is that they don't want disruption and if they don't have the back—ups they should have in place they might pay the ransom in order to get their systems up and running. 0ne in order to get their systems up and running. one of the first reports in ukraine said that the ticketing system at the metro was disrupted so when it's not impacting on the daily lives of people, the airport also said it have delays, that is when it becomes a profitable thing for these hackers. the lesson of the last attack was to back up your information but companies that did all they could last time, checking that software was up—to—date and their protection, are they still vulnerable? it would seem that these companies are very vulnerable. there is always a bit of code that can be exploited by hackers and when they get into systems they can shut them down but as long as a company has good back—up it should not mean that

the problem lasts for a long time and we saw with wannacry that things got sorted fairly rapidly so hopefully the same with this. thank you. the headlines on bbc news... the scottish government has put plans for a second independence referendum on hold, until after the brexit process is complete. as we have been hearing, a major cyber attack is taking place in ukraine with government ministries, power companies and banks all experiencing major problems. google has been hit with a record fine of more than £2 billion by the eu competition regulator for illegally favouring its shopping services in search results. and in sport england under 21 have announced that nathan redmond is fit to face germany in the european championship semifinal in krakow. pakistan lose early wicket in reply to england's highest women's world cup to england's highest women's world

cu p total of to england's highest women's world cup total of 377th in their group match. and the british and irish lions miss out on a morale boosting victory over super rugby champions the hurricanes in theirfinal midweek match in new zealand as it finished 31—31 in wellington. i will be back with more on those stories at half—past. as we have been reporting, four more errors have been identified as having buildings with cladding that has failed fire safety tests, cambridge, salford, tower hamlets and sheffield. theresa may has said there must be "a major national investigation" into the use of cladding on high—rise buildings across the country stretching back decades. our home affairs correspondent, tom symonds, has been following the latest developments. he said the announcement has prompted a range of fire safety actions. the problem is if you're a council housing manager or perhaps the private managerfor the council you need to know what you've done wrong in terms of fitting this stuff and also, the government's guidance to these housing managers is that if you find you have a problem,

there are various steps you have to take, for example, bringing in fire safety inspectors to look at the building. in the case of camden, those steps included taking pretty much all the residents of four tower blocks out of those towers for their own safety. we're in a bizarre situation where anybody in the council would say, what we did at the time was absolutely legal. the building regulations are incredibly confusing. as far as we can understand, the cladding in place was legal. i mean the various regulations say you can use cladding that is potentially going to burn in a fire, as long as the system that you design you put it in is safe. that's a separate test. the government is testing the materials. that's a different approach. there's a growing feeling really that the goal posts have been moved and that councils really don't know what is safe now. adding to the chaos, we've got scenes in camden, where families are being rehoused in hotels for a day or two and they're saying, well, that's not going to work for me. i may as well go home.

i spoke to some of them in the council blocks last night, they were saying we're not going to leave. we don't feel unsafe. we're not going. when you look at the scale of the work facing camden there, it's pretty enormous. it's notjust the cladding on the outside. it's putting in potentially a thousand fire doors. the leader of the council told me yesterday that they're going to have to ask the government to help them get hold of that number of fire doors in such a short space of time. also, we have got information that the fire doors were never put into the tower blocks because of cost. that's something we put to the council last night. they've not given us a detailed response. the leader of the council didn't deny it. she said those were questions she too had. scotland's finance secretary is writing to the treasury to complain about the government's deal with northern ireland's dup. in return for the party's ten mps supporting the conservatives, the government is diverting £1 billion to the province. derek mackay says it's a clear breach of the established rules on devolved funding.

it's likely he'll invoke a dispute process. the snp believe scotland should be in line for its share of extra cash — almost £3 billion. the government says a prosperity fund for the whole uk will be introduced after brexit. a senior cabinet minister has strongly criticised the conservative party's general election campaign. brexit secretary david davis said theresa may's personal standing in the polls had been undermined by "some very significant mistakes". he blamed proposals on social care and free school meals for damaging the tory campaign. he gave credit for labour's use of social media for reaching the youth vote. very significant mistakes were made. the social care proposals, which pretty much switched off a very large tory vote in the elderly sector. the proposals on doing away with free school meals for certain categories of children. again, it hit another tory vote sector in the middle aged group.

and thatjust knocked the whole campaign off—balance and forced us into a u—turn which in turn undermined her standing and the rest is history. the bank of england has warned against rising consumer borrowing and household debt, in its twice—yearly report about the uk economy. borrowing on credit cards and car finance are at their fastest rate in more than a decade. banks will also be forced to find a further £11 billion in the next 18 months, to protect their finances against the risk of bad loans. 0ur economics correspondent, andy verity, has the details. are we borrowing too much and could we still afford it if something went wrong? the bank of england warned today that banks were loosening lending to consumers and action was needed to make it tighter. consumer borrowing, outside of mortgages, is nearly £200 billion. consumer credit growth has far outpaced that of household income

over the past year with notable increases across credit cards, personal loans and autofinance. in an environment of intense competition interest margins have fallen and risk assessments by banks have declined, or by lenders have declined. lenders are more vulnerable to losses and stress. the bank's big concern is consumer lending, on credit cards, personal loans and notably car finance. so far there haven't been that many people who can't keep up their repayments. the bank says lenders may be assuming it's just going to carry on that way. the bank's acting to stop lenders being complacent in case those loans go bad, with consumer credit up by 10.3% and car loans growing at 15%, farfaster than wages, banks are being ordered to set aside an extra £11 billion in case those loans can't be repaid. i think mark carney wants to be proactive. he talked of increasing additional

capital a year ago, but he held off because of the brexit issue. i think he wants to make sure the banks are reminded they have to be more cautious in consumer lending given the speed the loan books have grown. if banks are forced to tighten up lending, households won't find it as easy to top up sagging incomes with cheap borrowing. there will be consequences. banks will lend less and charge more. currently there are 8.8 million people using credit for daily living costs. it's those people who i'm concerned about. because they will get into trouble and what we need to make sure is that we need to protect those people. most of the growth in consumer borrowing has been in so—called personal contract purchase agreements for cars, where car buyers can return the car when the loan period is up. if second—hand car prices drop, drivers would be safe, lenders would be hit. if that happened, the bank of england said, the banks could withstand any losses.

the partner of former eastenders actress sian blake has lost his appeal against his ‘whole—life' jail sentence for killing her and their two children. 49—year—old arthur simpson—kent was sentenced to life in prison in 0ctoberfor stabbing ms blake to death along with their sons zachary, eight, and amon, four. this was the verdict a short time ago from the court of appeal. in ourjudgment, having considered all the circumstances put before us, we are entirely satisfied that the judge was entitled to reach that conclusion and on this basis, therefore, we dismiss this application. the amount of public money the queen receives to carry out her work as head of state is to increase next year by around 8%, to £82 million. it will help to pay for repairs costing £369 million being carried out at buckingham palace over the next decade. 0ur royal correspondent, nicholas witchell, has been given

a breakdown of the figures. the way it's worked out is that in normal times, the queen receives 15% of the net profits of something called the crown estate. this is the estate which owns large parts of london, royal ascot, windsor great park, all sorts of other things. because of the need for this refurbishment of buckingham palace, which is going to costjust under £400 million over ten years, the proportion of the profits from the crown estate which will go to the monarchy has been raised to 25% of the net profits. that is what accounts for this increase in the money that is going to buckingham palace. the increase is specifically tied to the refurbishment. now that hasn't actually started yet. they're still at the planning stage, preliminary work. but it is going to be a huge effort. little of it will be visible. because it's all the bits behind the walls and under the floors,

which haven't been touched for decades, and which they regard as a significant risk to the integrity of the building. republic anti—monarchist group they say this amount of money is unsustainable. they say that the sovereign grant has risen 167% since 2012 and they say that the figure from the palace, the palace figure is that the cost of the monarchy equates to 65p per person in this country, which conveniently is the cost of a first class stamp. republic says that doesn't include security, doesn't include a host of other costs. they say the real annual cost is £345 million, not quite sure how they work that out. but they say that the whole method of financing the monarchy in this country needs to be completely overhauled. a sikh couple say they were told they couldn't adopt a white child because of their cultural heritage. sandeep and reena mander were both born in britain, and told an adoption agency

they were happy to take a child from any ethnic background, but say they were advised instead to adopt a child from india. it's legal for adoption agencies to give preference to parents from the same ethnic group, but government guidelines say different racial backgrounds shouldn't be a barrier. 0ur correspondent sara smith has been to meet the couple. after seven years of trying and 16 failed ivf attempts sandeep and reena mander accepted they were not going to have a baby of their own. convinced they could offer a child a loving home, though, they went to an introductory session on adoption. when they told the agency, adopt berkshire, they would like to move forward, they were informed, with only white babies needing families, their indian heritage meant there was no point in proceeding. i was hurt, to be honest. we had already gone through a long journey and initially i was hurt and then i was angry. they should be looking at us as people and understanding more about our lives, who we are and not just

one particular area, such as cultural heritage. because that could mean anything. the couple, both born and raised in britain, tried to get the decision reversed through the agency's own complaints division. they have had support from their mp, theresa may, but they have not even been allowed to start the long application process which is why now they're taking legal action. i feel that the council has got it wrong in the sense they have prioritised cultural heritage as the one and primary factor that they will consider before even allowing couples to register. and the effect of doing that is creating a form of segregation. adopt berkshire is the council's adoption agency. when we asked about this case a spokesperson said they wouldn't comment on ongoing court cases, but on the web—site it says... when placing children for adoption it will first try to identify adopters that reflect the child's culture and religion of heritage. for us, colour doesn't mean

a single thing to us. love does haven't a colour, so why differentiate that and the well being of the child growing up down to the fact that i suppose we are brown—skinned. the legal battle, they say, is for future couples in the same position. they have now been approved for adoption from the us. sarah smith, bbc news, maidenhead. it is time for the weather. are you feeling glum about it now that summer feeling glum about it now that summer has gone? i know what is coming!, sjekloca with the miserable news. the weather, it is a little bit to be honest this week. it will be a little bit exhausting with the cloud and the rain that's heading our way

and the rain that's heading our way and there is a real heavy rain area of rain heading towards south—eastern parts of the uk right now. it has been raining. i was out earlier. a bit of everything. across the country it has been cloudy and damp. this is where we have had thunderstorms in the last few hours across east anglia. lots of heavy rain head to go central and southern england. it looks like the rush hour will be particularly soggy across the south. watch out if you're travelling here, there could be a lot of surface on the fast routes. nasty, nasty weather and that rain will be slowly moving into the midlands and northwards through the course of the night. not so much across scotland and northern ireland. then that damp weather with rain on and off during the course of wednesday, but wednesday it is more central parts of the uk. so northern england, the north midlands that will get the rain. the far south—east and the far north probably tomorrow a lull bit drier and brighter. that's it from me. hello.

this is bbc news. the headlines at a.31pm: the first minister of scotland, nicola sturgeon, has announced that her plans for a second independence referendum are on hold until after brexit. a number of businesses around the world have been hit by a cyber attack. some russian banks and businesses are affected as well as organisations in the ukraine, spain and denmark. the search engine google has been hit with a record fine of more than £2 billion by the european commission, for abusing its power and illegally promoting its own shopping service. the bank of england has issued an amber warning as figures for consumer borrowing and household debt are on the rise. a further four local authorities have been identified by the government as having high rise buildings with cladding that has failed fire safety tests. let's catch up with the sport now.

damien is at the bbc sports centre. hi damien. good afternoon. england face germany in the semi—finals of the european under—21 championship in poland shortly hoping to emulate the recent success enjoyed by the otherjunior national sides. the u20's won the recent world cup, while the u17s reached the final of the euros. 0lly foster is in poland. and 0lly there were injury concerns, do we have any team news? nathan redman has not made it. he has had a fantastic tournament during the group stages, but he picked up a knock against poland and john swift has dropped out of the starting 11. let's show you what the manager is going with. it won't be the four, four, two

formation. chalobah is fit. he was a worry and that tried and tested back five really becausejordan pickford had a good season with chambers and holgate. how are they going to do without nathan redman. germany made their first changes. they were runners up because they lost to italy, but keep an eye out for arnold and mayer as well, so skilful in the german mid—field. they lost to germany back in march, a warm up for both teams ahead of this tournament. the germans were so much better. they met in 2009, that was a germany team had that a

generation of players that went on to win the world cup five years later. it could be a watershed moment for england if they can beat the germans. we are expecting a capacity crowd here. the polish schoolchildren pouring in will be supporting england. the kick off is 5pm. thank you, 0lly. it put a link to the report compiled by its chief ethics investigator on its website after it was leaked to a german newspaper. fifa said had it had been done in the interests of transparency. 0nto cricket and england look well on course to win their second match of the women's world cup against pakistan at grace road, leicester.

they racked up the second highest total in the history of the competition — 377—7 in their 50 overs with hundreds from natalie sciver and captain heather knight. in reply, pakistan 107—3. the british and irish lions threw away a 14—point lead as they drew the final midweek match of their tour of new zealand against super rugby champions the hurricanes. the match turned on a yellow card for ian henderson which left the lions down to 1a men for most of the final period of the match and gave the hurricanes the chance to mount a fight back. those players were caught out as cover. i know a lot has been made about that in terms of we made the decision to bring players in there for cover and protect as many as the test 23 as we could. if we didn't

have those players there tonight then we probably would have had players on the bench for saturday. they may have had to have been exposed. that's all sport for now. i'll have more in the next hour. some breaking news. continuing the fall—out from the grenfell tower tragedy. a panel has been appointed to advice on the safety action following the grenfell tower fire. this announcement coming from the communities secretary, sajid javid. the most interesting perhaps to appear on the list, the make up of the panel is sir ken knight, a chief fire and rescue advisor. the communities secretary saying the expert panel will look at any immediate action that's required so that the public can be confident everything possible is being done to make all public and private buildings safe as quickly as possible. so this is one of the

immediate measures that's being put if place, as simon was saying, following the dreadful fire at the g re nfell tower tower following the dreadful fire at the grenfell tower tower block. that news is just coming grenfell tower tower block. that news isjust coming in grenfell tower tower block. that news is just coming in to us. let's get more now on the announcement made by the first minister of scotland, nicola sturgeon to put plans for a second independence referendum on hold. ms sturgeon told msps that she wants to "reset" her plans and ask the scottish electorate instead in the autumn of 2018 or the spring of 2019. we can speak to patrick harvie. it depends on who you're listening to, whether they think the idea of a second referendum has been scrapped or parked or perhaps even that a thing hasn't changed, certainly the leader of the scottish lib dems, willie rennie, says nicola sturgeon hasn't budged an inch. what do you make of it because you wanted her to stick with her plans and her schedule for a second referendum, didn't you? what's clearly change issed that the scottish government does not now intend to introduce

legislation to permit to enable a referendum to be held during the brexit time scale. what's about to happen, of course, is that a uk government, scotland didn't vote for is going to negotiate brexit which scotla nd is going to negotiate brexit which scotland didn't vote for, with eu institutions on which scotland is no longer represented after which every other eu member state will be able to ratify or reject the deal that emerges. so, the people who live scotla nd emerges. so, the people who live scotland would be the only people in the hole of europe voiceless in this process. we think that once the deal is published that is the time to get people who live in scotland the opportunity to make their choice, to have the opportunity to decide their future and... to enable that referendum until after autumn next year, it would be years after brexit before we have the opportunity to make that choice. so in that sense though, people in scotland would have a voice, wouldn't they, because

nicola sturgeon is saying that she is keeping that option up her sleeve. she said at the end of brexit the people of scotland should have a choice about the future of the country and she thought that demand for that choice would increase, but at this point, are you disappointed with what she said today? yes, i agree with her that we should continue to pursue the section 30 order, that's the mechanism that allows the scottish parliament to pass legislation for a referendum and i agree with her that the people of scotland need a choice once the brexit deal is known, but what i don't agree with is the idea of parking the bill, the legislation to create that referendum until the deal is known. we need to be progressing the deal now or it will ta ke progressing the deal now or it will take another year or two to legislate for the referendum after that process. that means we will be dragged out of europe and probably out of the single market first of all. scotland has not consented to leaving the european union. we voted by 62% to remain. scotland has not consented to be dragged out of the

single market, to have our right of free movement destroyed, to have our social and environmental protections, that have been at a one european level ripped off. we have not consented to these things and it is critical that people in scotland have a choice of the future that we wish to face. is it going to be one as part of a progressive european project or is it as part of a oon ace lationist brexit britain? this is where you have the voters in scotla nd is where you have the voters in scotland considering two very complex questions, the issue of the union and whether or not to stay in the union, the issue of the eu referendum. and brexit. do you understand though why nicola sturgeon has perhaps slowed things down at this point because clearly, parties like the scottish conservatives, who campaigned on a very strong pro—union message, they didn't really well at the election? well, the scottish conservatives seemed to have only two things to

say during the recent election in scotland. they didn't want another... do you understand why nicola sturgeon has done what she has done because this is what the voters seem to be saying? well, the voters seem to be saying? well, the voters returned fewer snp mps than they did two years ago. still by far and away the largest group. i don't vote for the snp, but that's still looks like an electional win to me. the critical thing to me is what has changed in the principled arguments have nothing to do with the snp‘s electoral fortunes, the only thing what's changed a uk government triggered an election it didn't seeking a man did for a hard brexit and they were denied that mandate, people did not give theresa may the mandate for that strong and stable government that she is clearly incapable of offering to people. so, the ability of the uk government to plough on regardless with a hard brexit, that will be so destructive to our society and to our economy,

you know that, only reinforces the case for scotland to have have the chance to make its own choice, for the people who live here, including the people who live here, including the eu citizens and the young voters who were deliberately excluded from the eu referendum debate to be given the eu referendum debate to be given the opportunity to make their choice and control the future of this country. so we can clearly hear what you are going to be campaigning on until scotla nd going to be campaigning on until scotland gets to the point where it is considering to move towards other independence referendum? well, very clearly we will continue to make the case that we have been making actually since october last year, not long after the eu referendum, we said clearly, that section 30 order, that enabling measure to allow a referendum to be held should be sought by the scottish government. there is a great deal more than that we have to do. we will hold the scottish government to account on anything from fracking to taxation

policy, we forced them to reverse cuts, we will keep building the case for scotland to have a strong future at heart of a progressive europe and at heart of a progressive europe and a more democratic europe as well as many european countries are rock nicing is necessary, but we'll put that case to the people of scotland. that's something that they should be able to choose, not politicians in this parliament, not politicians at westminster, but it's the people who live in scotland who should have that power to cast a vote and make their choice. patrick harvie, thank you very much. thank you. the united states has accused the syrian government of preparing for another chemical weapons attack on forces opposing president assad. 80 people died in the attack in april, which prompted president trump to order a strike against a syrian air base. the us state department said president assad and his military would "pay a heavy price"

if chemical weapons were used again. let's speak to the conservative mp andrew mitchell who is co—chair of the all—party parliamentary group on syria. hejoins from our studios in westminster. good afternoon to you. good afternoon. a bit surprising that they're being open in in this warning. this is the sort of thing that normally would go on behind the scenes? aren't they revealing their hand? it's right thing to do. the appalling prospect of chemical weapons being used yet again by the assad regime is too awful to contemplate and therefore, if there are any indications at all, i think, it is quite right, absolutely the right thing to do for the americans to give a very clear, international warning that were they to be used they will take strong action and of course, that action is being taken in defence of an international treaty. we cannot allow international humanitarian law to be breached in this way and the americans are right quite to stand up americans are right quite to stand upfor americans are right quite to stand up for it. what's proportionate? what's a heavy price in the words of the americans? well, i think the key

thing is to make it clear to the assad regime that the further use of chemical weapons simply will not be tolerated by the international community. one would hope, of course, that the russians as a key member of the international community, one of the five permanent representatives on the united nations security council, would make that point as well. and would stop the assad regime from even contemplating using these dreadful weapons, but a stern and strong message on behalf of the international community has been given by the americans and i very much hope it will be heeded in da masses can yous by the assad regime. the russians, after the previous attack, said that it was american action that had caused that because they had attacked a weapons store in effect. do you have in z a concern that any such action just ratchets up that any such action just ratchets up the tension when you're talking about russia and the united states and that has to be a real concern? well, the british and the americans

have sat on the sidelines over the conflict in syria for much of it and our current engagement is specifically to confront and defeat militarily isil and that's the right thing to do. so that's where our key intervention is these days, but in terms of the suffering of the syrian people, the fact that half the population, 11 million people are on the move as a result of this war, and the fact that once again, assad can consider using chemical weapons is truly terrible and an indictment of the effectiveness of the international community in reigning him in. so as i say, i think the americans are absolutely right to make it clear that there will be a very heavy price to pay if once again assad breaches international law and a convention that was set—up after the first world war, if he breaches that, then on behalf of the

international community, the americans will take action and i hope that by making that threat, they deter assad from using these dreadful weapons again. sadly, history tells us, he doesn't give two figs, indeed, he has been visit ago russian air base as we speak? well, i think he does care. he wasn't warned last time and went ahead and did it and the americans retaliated, by warning him in advance, they increase the hope that he won't use them and decease the risk that he will and that, of course, protects innocent people, it stands up for humanitarian law and that's what we should be doing. andrew mitchell, thank you for joining us. thank you. wear hearing from germany that a high—rise block of flats is being evacuated as a precautionary measure after it was take—overed to have similar clad to go that of the g re nfell tower similar clad to go that of the grenfell tower in london. jenny hill

reports that according to german building guidelines this sort of material shouldn't be used on multistorey buildings. that news is just coming in to us. in a moment a look at how the financial markets in europe closed the day, but first the headlines on bbc news: the scottish government has put plans for a second independence referendum on hold until after the brexit process is complete. a major cyber attack is taking place in ukraine, government ministries, power companies and banks are all experiencing major problems. google has been hit with a record fine of more than £2 billion by the eu competition regulator for illegally favouring its shopping services in search results. more coming up. hello. now a look at how the markets in europe have ended the trading session. a bit of a flat day on the markets with car—makers particularly

coming under pressure. let's look at the other stories that have been moving the markets. the chancellor philip hammond has been stressing the need to maintain good trade relations with europe after brexit. speaking in germany mr hammond warned against petty politics getting in the way of the economic interests of both the uk and europe. high street banks are being forced to find and extra £11.11 billion to act as a buffer in case borrowers default on their loans. it's being ordered by the bank of england which is worried some lenders have become a bit too relaxed about lending. the european commission has fined the company that owns google more than £2 billion for illegally promoting its own shopping services in search results. it's the biggest ever such fine handed out by the commission. helal miah is from the share centre. thank you forjoining us. let's start with google. does this play into the narrative of those who say

that european regulators really focus quite tightly on american companies? well, the europeans aren't really saying that. they're focussing on the competition related issues, but google have already said that. this is political. and no doubt you're going to have somebody like donald trump tweeting later on saying that it is political, but going forward, this is a big issue for google. yes, 2.4 billion is a huge fine k but for google, it is tiny. the bigger issue for them is the earnings that they're going to lose out on going forward. this practise was highly profitable for them, so they are going to have to find another way of monetising the services. it does open up some potential cases amongst consumers who feel that they may have been short changed by the practise and some of their rivals maybe looking at some form of litigation going forward. what do you mean civil action against google? potentially

civil action or damages going forward and that could be protracted and it will involve a lot of legal costs with google's assets, it's big, but it doesn't give they will a good pr at the moment and that could amongst consumers anyway, see them inafairly amongst consumers anyway, see them in a fairly negative light. it is bound to appeal? they have said that. they will be looking to appeal. they don't agree with the eu's decision, but again, this is something that we will find out in due course, what their version of the situation is, but certainly, it doesn't look good for google at the moment. let's talk about that cash buffer that the banks have been told to put in place in case people start defaulting on their loans. what's your sense? do you think we're borrowing too much these days? is there any evidence for that? well, there any evidence for that? well, the bank of england reduced the risk to the financial system to standard, but what they have noticed is that there are pockets of risks within

there are pockets of risks within the economy and one of those is the credit can growth amongst credit cards and car loans which has grown about 10% over the last couple of yea rs. about 10% over the last couple of years. so they are becoming concerned about that and the reason why they are becoming concerned about that is amongst those loans should the economy turn worse, those borrowers are far more likely to default than mortgage borrowers are. this is just another one of their tools that they have at their disposal to even out lending throughout the economy. so, i think, it's a good move going forward and i think it's a way of restricting lending without punishing existing borrowers by raising interest rates. rates. you can't blame people for borrowing when interest rates have been at such historic lose? no, you can't. if borrowing, if interest rates are attractive, people are going to borrow, but it's a way of limiting the supplies through the banks and asking them to hold more reserves for worse times going forward. thank you very much.

that's all from me. thank you very much. railways and romance — that's the perfect combination for geoff marshall and vicki pipe, who've decided to spend their summer visiting every single train station in britian. it will take them 14 weeks to travel to all 2,563 stations. 0ur correspondent david sillito went to spend a day with them. good morning. what are you doing? we are travelling to all 2,563 railway stations in great britain. this is kingsbury.

it is the cutest train i have ever seen! that is not a train! geoff and vicki in stourbridge, on a class 139 parry people mover. this looks fun. so i asked, "can ijoin you?" "sure," they said, "meet us at westbury." are we on the wrong platform? geoff. hello. vicki. i feel as though i know you already. the question is, why? so we both have an interest in railways. coming from different perspectives. but really, why? how is skegness and the weather so far? we can't blame skegness for the weather. life is short, you should have an adventure.

this is britain's least—used station. there's no one here. no one. except for these guys! 12 people used shippea request stop last year. geoff and vicki managed to gather 19 for their visit. we've got victoria sponge cake which is amazing! and some tea! as you can see, they have already acquired some fans. it's good tea. i don't really like tea! the peterborough incident! we can talk about it! we did not talk for an hour. i lost track of time in the cathedral.

they missed the train. geoff takes it very seriously. are you having doubts? every day i edge towards the line of doubt! as ernest hemingway said, do not travel with those you do not love. fortunately, we're 0k. that's sweet! i hope the weather improves for them this week with all that station hopping. i saw what you did there, that was very good. i meant it. i did mean it. let's join tomasz schafernaker. people used to find it strange when i liked clouds and look where i am now. so you can make a career out of it, i guess! the weather is going to stay, well, it is not going to change a lot this week to be honest. it is looking pretty grotty. this picture says it all really. it is so

overcast out there. the rain is getting heavier and heavier across the south. standing water and surface spray. be careful if you're travelling on the fast routes particularly in the south east and eastern areas. there is a lot of heavy rain sweeping in this. is what it looks like at 7pm. maybe the graphics are under doing the heaviness of the rain. in the south—west, some rain here on and off during the evening. the heavier rain is forsure, off during the evening. the heavier rain is for sure, just off the screen now, in the midlands, east anglia and the south east. further north, we had the rain here yesterday evening overnight and this morning. most of the rain that was here has now shifted into scotland and sort of started to fall apart. so what's left of it is across eastern areas, but it has been a very unpleasant day across the eastern areas. a wind off the north sea and legacy here is just cloud and rain. so the heavier rain in the

south, but looks what happens, it kind of envelopes and expands as we go through the evening and eastern areas could have quite a bit of heavy rain. warm and muggy, 16 celsius in the south. fresher in scotla nd celsius in the south. fresher in scotland at ten celsius, wednesday, tomorrow, the low is still with us and multiple lows and various weather fronts and multiple lows and various weatherfronts spinning and multiple lows and various weather fronts spinning around here. again, the worst of the weather i think where the weather front is, so somewhere around here, out of the north sea, the wind brings rain. these areas here the worst of the weather. to so the south of that, it looks like things may temporarily brighten up. right now, so far today in eastern scotland, it it has been soggy. look at that, the western isles might get sunshine. a reversal of fortu nes isles might get sunshine. a reversal of fortunes on thursday, the weather front of fortunes on thursday, the weather fro nt m oves of fortunes on thursday, the weather front moves northwards and a strong wind blowing into this area of low pressure and the centre of the low

there could be sunshine. the outlook is looking better. i'm not promising a completely dry week. today at 5: plans for a second referendum on scottish independence are put on hold. the first minister nicola sturgeon told the scottish parliament she has reconsidered — it comes after the snp lost 21 seats in the general election. when the terms of brexit will be clearer, we will come back to parliament to set out ourjudgement on the best way forward at that time, including our view on the precise timescale for offering people a choice over the country's future. none of the questions, none of the questions that are raised by brexit are answered by ripping scotland out of our own union of nations, our biggest markets and our closest friends.

we'll have the latest from edinburgh, and will discuss when the snp might try to push ahead with its plans. the other main stories on bbc news tonight: a major cyber—attack has hit companies in