and when the harry potter films needed a pompous ministerfor magic, it was a part that could have been written for robert hardy. you will escort dumbledore to azka ban. or am i talking the most absolute nonsense? like siegfried, it was what he was best at — characters full of bluster and grand gestures that were trying desperately hard to hide the softer, more vulnerable person within. we have our differences, don't we? but we do understand each other, wouldn't you say? robert hardy, who has died today at the age of 91. now, we're just getting breaking news from dubai. one of the tallest residential buildings, the torch tower, has been engulfed in flames for the second time in two years. the authorities say the building has been successfully evacuated and firefighters are working to bring

the blaze under control. that's a summary of the news. newsday is coming up at midnight. now on bbc news it's time for newsnight. guilty: the top family courtjudge hands out an excoriating criticism of mental health support for the young. in this country. the particular case concerns a suicidal 17—year—old, but it's a worrying sign that many others in a dangerous state are unprotected. and when they leave hospital, when they're at their greatest need, at their highest risk of suicide, they don't get the support that they need. we'll ask if thejudge is right, and if so, how we put things right. also tonight, despite the prospect of brexit — or because of it? britain's economy is sluggish according to the bank of england. is it right to be so pessimistic about the prospects? move over neymar. we may have lost tonight, but everyone‘s talking about women's football now. we had the amazing hockey win

in rio, the women's cricket last week, women's rugbyjust off to the world cup. we feel that this is a watershed moment for women's sport, really. hello. every now and then, a judge wants to use the power of the bench to make a point that perhaps goes well beyond the specifics of the case in front of them. such is the case today, with sirjames munby, the president of family division of the high court who uttered scathing words about the treatment options for a suicidal 17 year old girl. if this is the best we can do for her, and others in similar crisis, what right do we, what right do the system, our society and indeed the state itself, have to call ourselves civilised ? the honest answer to this question should make us all feel ashamed, he said. the girl has been in custody for six months, but is due to be released in less than two weeks. staff at the unit where she is being

held think she will be dead within days of release if supervised care is not found, but no appropriate secure place is available. chris cook reports. what right does our society have to call itself civilised given the poor mental health services we provide for young people? that is the question posed by a seniorjudge, reflecting on the fate of a 17—year—old woman known only as x, who needs a place in a so—called low secure psychiatric unit, a place that so far can't be found. sir james munby‘s criticism of the government is unusually fierce and he had it sent to the relevant secretaries of state, but facing a case where a young woman was being

let down by our mental health services he felt he had no choice but to speak truth to power. x does have particular needs. sirjames munby said restraints had to be used on 117 occasions and there have been 102 significant acts of self harm. what x needs is suitable care in an appropriate setting. nhs england hopes tonight that a suitable care package might be found at one of three facilities, but there is a general problem with mental health care for young people. the young people and parents tell us that they have to navigate the gaps in the system themselves, and they have to wait ridiculously long periods of time before receiving that treatment, that might even be six months. there is a particular problem for people with eating disorders. some young people are told their weight is too high to receive care right now, and when they leave hospital at a time of great need, when they are at

their highest risk of suicide, they don't get the support they need. a royal college of psychiatrists survey confirms this picture. 89% said they knew of young people being placed into care which is not local, a challenge from local government and families, and 62% reported young people being put into inappropriate settings, like adult wards or police cells, and 14% reported patients had attempted suicide while awaiting a bed. respondents also say money has been a problem. the government pledged new money to transform children's mental health and that is welcome, but our research last year showed that money was not reaching the front line and in fact, half of all commissioners were spending it on other priorities. there is a particular problem around young adults who have left the young people's system and joined the back of the adult queue.

when you turn 18, literally at midnight you are taken off their system and not given any further support and to be put into adult services counselling you have to self—refer to a different system. and there are new queues? yes, eight months waiting list for them. harriet was admitted to an adult ward which struggled with her needs. i saw the age gap between me and the other patients, quite some distance, 25 years, i would say, and also the gender difference, i was in a ward with around 12 men and three other women. it was gender inappropriate and there were no appropriate activities. harriet was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and she said there was a lack of nurses. there were not enough of them to look after us individually and when i was attacked by a schizophrenic man on christmas day, it was another patient who saved me, if you like, before the shift nurse. and there weren't many psychiatrists? i waited 11 days before i was seen by a psychiatrist and when they see you,

they see you for ten minutes. mental health has had a higher profile in recent years but this is still an area where there are serious systematic problems for children and adults alike. interestingly, last week, the new york times carried a long item on mental health provision in england, describing it as "the world's most ambitious effort to treat common mental illnesses", implying that the rest of the world is watching to see how its done. really? well, i am joined by the former minister for children and families tim loughton and mental health activist nikki mattocks. you had many problems going right back to childhood. we have heard one case in that film, how bad was it for you? i became ill when i was about 1k, and i struggled to get the help i needed.

i was going to a&e repeatedly in a state of crisis, i was taking overdoses and self harming and i was struggling with my mental health. i was desperately trying to get help and my family was on my behalf, but there was a massive barrier and i could not access the help i needed. until i took numerous overdoses and i was finally listened to. what happens when you go to a&e? you go there, the staff are generally physical health trained and they don't understand the support and the helpful as you getjudged a lot, but you get seen by someone. i sometimes waited 18 hours, sitting there not

knowing what was going on, it is not appropriate for a person to go there in crisis but that is where often we are sent to go. did you ever get a regular, stable consistent therapy of some kind that you needed? i did manage, but from the start when i asked for help until the time when i got the help i needed it took a long time, far too long. if more focus was put into preventative services rather than crisis services, it would never have got to the point where it did. tim is nodding his head. you are trading to be a mental health nurse, so you see the service from the other side. better or worse than your day? i think people are trying their best, but because the resources are not there from the government and things, it is a massive struggle for everyone. thanks for that. tim, do you agree with what the judge had to say today? i do, i'm afraid. sir james munby is a senior and well respected judge, and am afraid what he said is nothing new. and it is one aspect of the shortcomings of

mental health services in this country, especially for children and young people and vulnerable people, and i agree with everything that wasjust said, and it is right that she has come forward and will speak up about it. this is a severe wake—up call and we have got do much better for children in our country who are suffering these kind of mental illnesses. what will happen to x, the woman involved in the case the judge was talking about? he wants her in a low secure unit where she is not held to stop her attacking other people, although she is clearly a danger to herself, but there aren't many beds. what is going to happen if there isn't one of those beds? it looks as though, in this case, nhs england has come forward and identified three places that might be able to offer her a

bed when she needs it and hopefully offer her the support and care and protection that she needs for as long as it takes. but this is a high—profile problem today, but i'm afraid it is something which happens all too often. there is a shortage of beds generally, certainly at the severe end. the shortage of beds for those people who need help because they are a harm to themselves potentially but also in some cases they are a harm to others if they are out at large. but also we have got to do much better, as nikki said, notjust crisis management, but on early detection and prevention and that means getting more staff in at an earlier stage, early detection and earlier support an effective support and this is not happening in too many cases at the moment. did you see the piece

in the new york times last week, it was a long piece about england as this pioneering nation in mental health, is that right? are we doing something? it read a bit strangely with what we know about the treatment here. idid not see that article, and i was surprised by it when you said it, but there are some very good services in this country in all parts of the nhs and in mental health, as well, but the problem is there is not enough of it. to give the government credit, more money has been announced, {1.3 billion, and earlier this week jeremy hunt said we will be recruiting 23,000, a lot of people, and that will be a big challenge in mental health in the next five years, with the five—year plan. i want to see that come to fruition, but the problem is, there are too many young people now who is mental illness is not picked up up early enough. half of people who

have a mental illness problem, that will develop before they reach the age of 14, and if you don't do something about it early, then of course it festers and continues and becomes a much worse illness later oi'i. we have got to detect early and have the people there who can offer all sorts of appropriate therapies in appropriate settings and quickly, and it would be a national scandal if we expected people who have symptoms of cancer to wait six or 12 months before they got specialist treatment and why should it be anything different for someone suffering a mental illness. everyone agrees with this, but there is a parallel to what we were discussing last night regarding prisons, and we had a tory former minister saying last night we have not dealt with prisons properly, and now you are saying we have not dealt with children's mental health services properly, so what is the country you have been in government for the last seven years. short of you leaving your party

and joining another one, what is the country meant to do? we look to you to get this right. we don't need to make this a party political issue, because we have not got this right for many years and this case is not a one—off case by any means. the thing that links the interview last night and this one is mental health because that is a big problem in prisons. there is a mindset still amongst nhs management that mental health is a secondary issue and is not a priority and for all the good words about parity of esteem it is not there in practice and that is why the extra money that is going into mental health, not enough, but at least it is extra money going into mental health, is not getting to the sharp end where it is needed and it is being diverted into repairing the hospital roof and other crisis management in other

parts of the health service and that has got to stop. we need proper practitioners giving the service at the sharp end when it is needed. thank you very much to both of you. it's never a quiet day in washington, and in the last hour news has broken that the special counsel investigating the trump team's ties to russia, robert mueller, has put together a grand jury that has the right to compel people to give evidence. john sopel‘s here to tell us what this all means. is this a significant development in this special counsel's actions? yes, it is significant, but let me add a couple of caveats, does not mean that any prosecution or indictment is imminent, it doesn't mean that there will be any, but a prosecution could not happen without a grand jury being sworn in. if you like, it is the next logical step in the investigation. that said, as you point out, they will be able to take sworn statements from witnesses, subpoena people and documents to the investigation, and to the simple question, does this mean the investigation is winding down... or ramping up...? only one conclusion, it is ramping up. are the proceedings all in public, the grand jury proceedings? now, a lot of this is going to take place behind closed doors, what will happen is, they are going to follow

the evidence wherever it takes them, it means they have great investigative powers, they can compel people to give evidence. speaking about one of the first meetings they want to look at is the meeting that donald trump junior had with the then campaign manager, and jared kushner, with the russians, to get dirt on hillary clinton. i should say there has been some reaction from donald trump's legal team, the president's legal team have said, the white house favours any that would excel rate the conclusion of this work fairly, the white house is committed to fully cooperating with robert mueller, that is very conciliatory. will those be the sentiments of donald trump tonight? i would guess not, i would imagine he is spitting tacks about it! who would have thought it? the bank of england didn't raise interest rates today. again. and it also published its latest quarterly inflation report, which gave a somewhat brexit—sceptic view of the economy. the bank's not predicting doom and gloom, but it is predicting economic mediocrity. the bank governor didn't use the words "despite brexit, the economy is going quite well." he more or less said, because of brexit the economy is not doing so well. three reasons: in the short term, it's all about us, the consumer. we've already been hit

by an effective pay cut thanks to a lower exchange rate, pushing up prices. households looked through brexit related uncertainties initially but more recently, as the consequences of sterling's fall have shown up in the shops and squeezed their real incomes, they've cut back on spending, slowing the economy. right, that's the first. in the medium term, it's about business investment. because if consumers spend less, we'd like companies to spend more. but since the referendum, they've invested much less aggressively than usual in response to an otherwise very favourable environment. and then there is the long term, less investment now means less productive capacity into the future. moreover, prolonged low investment will restrain growth in the capital stock and increases in productivity. indeed, if the mpc‘s current forecast comes to pass, the level of investment in 2020 is expected to be 20 points below the level which the mpc had projected just before the referendum. that is the banks expert view,

but who knows if they are right, or trapped in a remainer mindset and sticking to an old script? with me now, gerard lyons, one of the most prominent brexit supporting economists, who has worked or works closely with borisjohnson. and ann pettifor, who is author of the book "the production of money" and a member of labour's economic advisory committee. do you agree with my interpretation that the bank is taking a brexit sceptic view? certainly, clearly one needs to be realistic, because there are challenges, what struck me today was that in his opening statement, the governor was cautious, blamed brexit for everything, then in the one—hour press conference, in terms of the short—term, he came out with four positives, in my view, if he was balanced, he should have mentioned them at the beginning. inflation is falling, consumers bending will grow in line with income, therefore there will not be a rise in debt, he said the balance of the economy is going to improve, exports and investment picking up.

and also he talked about the fact that the world economy will improve. why frankie, even though he was cautious, in the one—hour -- quite frankly, even though he was cautious, in the one—hour press conference, you had to squeeze out of him reasons to be optimistic. clearly there are challenges, no one denies that. the bank has been optimistic for a long time, about wage rises, investment, about all kinds of things, and proven wrong. it was pessimistic about brexit, wasn't it? there was a lot more going to go wrong band did go wrong. and rightly so. this time last year, mark carney said, plan is better than no plan. fully a year later, no plans. he has reasons to be concerned.

lets remember that one year ago, the bank of england and the treasury said that by now, we would have half a million people unemployed because of the leave vote, what has happened, unemployment is at a 42 year low. there are challenges, wages are not picking up, the governor seemed to suggest that was because of brexit. they're not rising in the us or eurozone. that is what is scary, the global economy, despite what we say about the positive aspects, the global economy is weakening. inflation is falling. everyone has been warning about rises in inflation, and members of the bank of england, mpc, they are willing to put up interest rates, at a time when the consumer is quite vulnerable. we are very dependent upon consumers. and very high levels of debt. i don't think it is half as positive. is it your view that there is a groupthink, a confirmation

bias, some kind of cognitive process that is gripping the economic establishment and the bank of england in particular? economics has been gripped by groupthink for ages, i remember when i said the lawson boom was going to become a bust, i was told i was wrong, i was told i was wrong that if we left the erf it is a good thing. there is groupthink. today what is interesting, over and above groupthink, something anne touched upon, it is about longer term deep—rooted structural problems. what was underlying the bank's pessimism was not brexit, it was a lack of investment and low productivity. add brexit to that, add lack of planning, a government that is paranoid, and... they certainly should plan more, no doubt. do you buy this figure, in 2020, 20% lower investment, than there would be? that is very possible,

there is deep lack of confidence, the big thing that is missing is that the private sector is over indebted, worried, lacking in confidence. frightened, terrified, unlike gerrard. the government should be stepping in but instead, it promised investment, that will not even move the needle. more infrastructure, things like that. the government has to step in because the private sector is so weak, despite low interest rates. do you buy this figure, do you accept that by 2020, investment may be 20% lower than in the absence. yes. private investment, definitely. today, the governor said, the supply is down to one and three quarters percent, but in the press conference he said they have been cutting it for the last nine years. what we need is investment, infrastructure spending and more innovation. the three is. if we have brexit and we do it properly, we will not only protect workers' rights, we will have more innovation from the small

to medium—sized business sector. this is far too delusional, honestly, you cannot... there are challenges, i agree. brexit is going to be utterly destructive and we have no plan for it, no short—term, medium—term, or long—term plan, for what will happen to this complex network of relationships, trading relationships we have with european partners. we have no plan, no proper transitional plan. and that is terrifying. and that is why we have low—levels of investment, low—levels of confidence. why we will continue to have... you must accept that brexit has at least put a lot of companies' decisions on hold, so maybe there will be a spurt when... at the moment they are saying, we had better wait and see. a year ago i was on this programme and i thought the economy would do well over the last year, it did do, i called it a nike swoosh, that there might be

an impact on uncertainty... there is a reaction between policy and competence, and the most difficult to predict is confidence, so if the leaders start to talk us into an unnecessary downturn, then those people, those companies, with the ability to spend or not spend. what i'm saying is, we need more balance in the debate, brexit has challenges but great opportunities. if we have a unplanned brexit and a weakening economy, that is the worst of all worlds — that is terrifying for most people involved, both in the public and private sector. the debate remains unresolved. thank you both. paul kagame has been the president of rwanda since 2000, but has had a dominant role in running the country right back to the time of the civil war of the ‘90s, when his rebels brought an end to the genocide. after a long period of rule, he faces the voters again tomorrow in a national election. although pundits have got a lot of electoral predictions wrong recently, no—one has much doubt that kagame will still be in power after the ballot. for one thing, at the last election

in 2010, he got 93% of the vote. and anyway, three potential opponents were disqualified from standing by the electoral commission there. but kagame is a complex character, and arouses very different reactions. here he is speaking in 1999 about the genocide and chances of reconciliation. well, you can imagine, somebody, an orphan, no father, the mother, no sisters, no relatives. all of them already killed. we need to get together, we need to understand our history, overcome it, we need to educate our people how to overcome that, but those who were responsible for the genocide have got to be punished. for some, he's just another african dictator, albeit a smooth talker. for others, he's a force for stability despite any flaws. we'll hear both perspectives now. first, david himbara, a former aide to president kagame who is now in exile in canada.

what was it that made you leave? well, my issue, actually, was more about statistical manipulations, he always wanted... he would basically dictate the percentages that economic growth had achieved. i was always uncomfortable, and i started to oppose him, and that would have been 2009. as we were getting closer to the elections, that we just mentioned, the place started to get a lot more violence... i decided that was not for me. i fled and i went to south africa. there will be an election tomorrow, you obviously will not be voting, you are in ex—aisle.

we are certain he wins, is it a free and fair election? no, it cannot be a fair election because the people who could have challenged him have been blocked from competing. almost all the political parties are behind him. and he himself announced a few days ago that he will win by 100%. so that is exact to what will happen, the opposition, in early elections, some of the opposition leaders were imprisoned. they remain in prison. one of them was killed. and others have fled into ex—aisle. i would be surprised indeed if he does not get 100%. he seems to have a way with a lot of foreign leaders, bill clinton called him one of the great leaders of our time. what is it that you think makes him so impressive to many others?

basically, he has developed a brand about himself, he has branded himself as kind of a equivalent to the premiere of singapore, developing reminder, and he has argued there is a trade—off. what has to be done now is economic development, human rights and democracy can wait. a lot of people have bought into that. plus, there was a bit of sympathy, given to the way that the un moralists abandoned rwanda during the genocide. so people have turned a blind eye. the price is simply too high, when you look at the total suppression of the population,

violence in the neighbouring congo. the uk aid programme, we give aid to rwanda and you think it is wrong to do that. yes, the british aid is the worst aid, because, basically, britain dumps taxpayer money into paul kagame's budget, and he is the only one that decides what happens to that budget. what happens to british aid? you will never know. at least other countries... yes? i need to move onto andrew mitchell, but your point has been well made. thank you forjoining us. and joining me now is former international development secretary andrew mitchell. do you buy this criticism of aid, because we were suspending aid, and you were the secretary of state who came in and said, turn on the tap, give him the cash. i suspended it and then restored it, and indeed, it has been restored not as general budget support, david is wrong on that point, but as specific support

to agriculture and education. we know that in rwanda, the quality of the way our money is spent is yielding quite remarkable results, for example, in the last three orfour years, rwanda has managed to lift more than1 million people out of poverty, a remarkable success story. david says that the statistics have been made up, so we know that from our own statistics... of course, the british taxpayer's money must be carefully followed and it is followed very carefully by that department, and it is in rwanda. david says that a lot

of people take the view, trample over human rights if you can get the economy right, is that your view of how develop and sometimes work? it is not, because i think we are right to press with rwanda that they open up the political space more, open of the media space more. but they have made remarkable progress since this terrible genocide took place and the country was destroyed. the truth is, president paul kagame rescued his country while the world looked the other way and has built a stable and strong state, and if you are a waitress, working there tonight, you can walk home safely, for people like that, that is the first and most important human right, that the terrible violence in rwanda was ended. will the election be free and fair? yes. i suspect he will win, although the percentage will go down because the space has opened up, but the previous elections were marred by violence and that hasn't happened this time. for the day last two elections his numbers were over 90%, was that a true reflection of public support?

i think it is, this is a country that was destroyed by violence but he has stopped that and he has built an economy that is strong. we have got to be careful in the west, notjudging ways to a westminster lens, and i say this, although previous elections were marred by elements of violence, this election so far has been entirely peaceful and it has been more peaceful than the british election which took place a few months ago. but the electoral commission has banned some of the most credible opponents. there was one opponent who did not have the correct number of supporters on her nomination paperand in britain, if we stand in an election we have to have a certain number of supporters who are on the register in our constituencies, and she was in breach of that. if i had been in breach of that at the last election i would have been struck off the register, as well. i am listening to your critic but i hear these criticisms of the labour party

regarding venezuelan politics at the moment, but you seem to be taking a rather unambivalent view of paul kagame. are you getting a bit starry—eyed? i have been there before, i will be taking a project there, we know the country very well, and we know what is happening there, and i have not said anything about the labour party and venezuela, but i would say that they are completely different, rwa nada and venezuela. we know rawnda very well. rwanda is much better run. thanks forjoining us. so in the women's european football championships tonight, england lost to the netherlands, 3—0. sadly failing to make their way to the final of the tournament. but it was a good run. the viewing figures for the match are not in yet, obviously, but the audience for sunday's quarter final game on channel 4 peaked at 3.3 million. in fact, that england—france game was even watched by a million people

in the netherlands. the money for womens' football may be small, the entire revenue for the tournament is probably a tenth of neymar‘s transfer fee, but as everybody keeps saying, there is unprecedented interest in the women's game. our culture editor, stephen smith, hasjumped on the bandwagon. commentator: three in the penalty area. they have used the space well! it was a decisive win for the lionesses. but alas, for fans of england's women, that turned out to be the nickname of the dutch team as well as ours. but even though england have been dumped out of the semis, the consolation for the losers is that their run in the tournament has put the game in the spotlight at home. archive voicover: girls will be boys, and as football is a man's game, girls have to play it.

and take a look at the way these darlington girls dress for the game. the women's game hasn't always basked in the unalloyed respect of the men who attended to report on it and administered it. you never saw such fast girls in your life. at least the 10,000 spectators think so. altogether there is a lot of pretty play. despite the sizeable crowd drawn to this fixture, the fa frowned on women's football for a while as "unladylike." i think if you talk to these players, of course they want to earn a living, and so they should, playing the game they love, but what makes them special and what is very visible when you work with them, is they haven't lost the feeling of being an amateur sportsperson. someone who had to battle through life to be the best you could be. and i think we want that sort of olympian spirit, if you want to call it that. shot—stopping practice for the london bees, putting in some preseason training this evening. they are semiprofessional players, earning several thousand pounds a season. but have other jobs. several are teachers. they are linked to the second division men's side, barnet.

the women play to crowds of up to 700 supporters. there is clearly not as much money in the game, so you probably have more female players who are just in it for the love of the game. not for the money side. otherwise we wouldn't be playing. i think there's a few of the girls already who are full—time in the top women's league, but i think it needs to progress throughout the top couple of women's leagues for it to really push on and progress. because if we have our full—time jobs and then we're coming to training until 1030 at night, then we have got to be in ourjobs the next day, it is quite hard mentally. are there still misconceptions, things that people say to you that make you grind your teeth? yes, there will always be people who compare men's and women's football, but to be honest they are two completely different games. that is a mistake to do that? yes, i wouldn't compare them, there is different skill sets

in each of the games. you don't have to choose to support a men's team or a woman's team. you can do both. i can imagine some football fans a bit dyed in the wool saying, if it's a choice between a good men's game and a good women's game, i would go for the former. football is a game of opinions, and everyone is entitled to their opinion, and i know everyone who comes to watch a women's game gets full value for money, and more. the ticket prices in the men's game have gone up and up and if you want to take your family and friends to a game, it is increasingly more difficult. but you can guarantee value for money when you do come to a women's football game, whether it is international or the national teams. and there is the whistle. back in the netherlands, the sad truth for england is that the dutch were very good value for their win. it wasn't our night, things did not go our way, and they are a good team. tough crowd to play in front

of and we are disappointed but it wasn't our night. the rude health of women's football will not be on the other minds of england's players who are as sick as a parrot tonight. we can have a quick look at the papers, the financial times is leading on that bank of england and brexit, mark carney warning brexit uncertainty is choking business investment. the times, nhs must cut waste if it wants more cash. there is a picture of someone who stole £1000 of goods from harrods and was given a conditional discharge by a magistrate who praised her considerable talents, and there will be follow up to that. daily mailfront page, get to the airport three hours early, advice for british holiday—makers returning from europe, to do with them imposing border controls of some kind. before we go, today came the sad news of the death of the actor

robert hardy. he was best known as siegfried in all creatures great and small, or — to a younger audience — as cornelius fudge in the harry potter films. but it may well be his acclaimed portrayal of winston churchill — a part he played in five different films — that will be remembered in perpetuity. here's a taste from 1981's the wilderness years, his first outing as churchill. goodnight. i don't suppose that this is the end. this is only the beginning of the reckoning. this is only the first sip, the first foretaste of a bitter cup. it will be proffered to us year by year unless... unless, by a supreme recovery of martial vigour we arise again and take our stand for freedom. how to follow that? good evening to

you. we are almost done with birthday. we have today gone? another day of sunny spells and showers. first thing on friday, we will do it all again. not a cold start across the british isles. temperatures mostly in double figures. low pressure perilously close as it has been for much of the week. it is notjust showers here, longer spells of rain and cloud as well. very disappointing for the first week in august. coming down further south, things dry in the central belt. dry in northern ireland, some sunshine. the north—western quarter of england, the north of wales, seeing some showers. the eastern side of the

midlands, east anglia, dry and sunny. showers in the south—west into the bristol channel and the bristol area. less in the way of wind, as we get on through the day. some rain breaking up into showers, maybe some brightness in south—eastern scotland. however, sharp showers in the afternoon, possibly some fonder. but the south, a scattering of showers, more in the way of sunshine and less breeze, feeling a bit summery. through the evening, showers aplenty across the western areas. trying to build an area of high pressure to replace that dominant low pressure this week. it does not quite kill off all the showers. showers aplenty for parts of wales and the midlands, southern parts of northern england. gradually drifting further east.

northern ireland and scotland, a scattering of showers. temperatures will not warrant a postcard home. saturday and into sunday, high—pressure breaking up the cloud. a chilly start, single figures outside the cities. at least it is funny. make the most of it in northern ireland scotland. another set atlantic fronts coming in with wind and rain to finish your day. elsewhere, an odd shower, but pretty decent. the weekend, if you forget the calendar, looking too bad. all details are on our website. good night. iama i am a reader or in singapore. the headlines: —— mariko oi. two men arrested in australia due in court, accused of plotting to bring down a plane. more pressure on president trump asa plane. more pressure on president trump as a grand jury is set up to

investigate allegations of russian interference in last year's collections. i am alpa patel in london. also on the programme: one of the world's tallest building is in dubai is engulfed in flames for the second time in two years. and you are never too old to rock ‘n‘ roll, meet singapore's grandma