this is bbc news. i'm geeta guru—murthy. the headlines at midday: several people have died after a crash involving a minibus and two lorries on the m1 in buckinghamshire. for others have been taken to hospital. counter—terrorism police investigate after two officers were injured while arresting a man with a sword outside buckingham palace. during the struggle the individual repeatedly repeated the words allahu akbar. hurricane harvey batters the coast of texas with winds of 130mph — the most powerful storm to hit the us mainland for 12 years. record flooding is predicted as thousands flee their homes. wind speeds have dropped as the storm moves inland. thousands of rail passengers face disruption of

major train stations are affected by engineering works. also in the next hour: the countdown in vegas begins. conor mcgregor vows to knock out the unbeaten floyd mayweather, ct halfv|cgregor vows to knock out ct half an iregor vows to knock out ct half an hour r vows to knock out ct half an hour click ‘s to knock out ct half an hour click hits knock out ct half an hour click hits the ck out ct half an hour click hits the road, railand ct half an hour click hits the road, rail and water as the team hands to india to find out how the country stays connected. good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. police say several people have died, and four people taken to hospital, after a serious crash involving two lorries and a minibus on the mi in buckinghamshire. the incident occurred near newport pagnell in the early hours of this morning. the southbound carriageway is expected to remain closed for some

time. our correspondent gave us this update on the incident. thames valley police were called to the scene at around 3:15am this morning betweenjunctions the scene at around 3:15am this morning between junctions 15 and 14 on the mi southbound. all of the vehicles involved, two lorries and a minibus, were heading in the same direction, southhampton —— southbound, around newport pagnell. the collision appears to have taken several lives and four people have been taken to hospital. the key thing for motorists on the mi, many of whom are waiting as a result of this tragic accident, they are advised to avoid the area if they can. some cars are being released from the mi who have been caught between those junctions already, and there will be further updates. this isa there will be further updates. this is a statement from the chief inspector from the is a statement from the chief inspectorfrom thejoint is a statement from the chief inspector from the joint operations unit for roads and policing. he is in charge and he said emergency

services are currently on the scene responding to this collision and road closures are in place. we ask all motorists to avoid the area and use alternative routes and await further updates before attempting to travel on this route. we appreciate the patience while we deal with the incident. obviously a very busy weekend on the roads and rail. never a good time to have a tragic accident like this but it does coincide with so much stuff that is forcing people onto the road this weekend. a long bank holiday weekend, as you know. apart from premier league matches up and down the country today and tomorrow you have got silverstone racing as well but crucially there is a huge amount of rail repair going on, extraordinary rail repair, that has shut down a huge number of stations in the ropes on such a busy

weekend and, of course, you have this tragic incident as well. we arejust we are just hearing about another accident that has happened at compton abbas airfield where a tiger moth has come down. a passenger and a pilot, both in their 60s, has died in the crash. police express their condolences to the families. road closures are in place at that site near shaftesbury. counterterrorism police say a man

arrested near buckingham palace last night was found to be in possession ofa night was found to be in possession of a four foot long sword. the weapon was discovered in the foot well of the passenger seat. the man had been arrested under the terrorism act. detectives from the counterterrorism command are currently investigating an incident that took place just after 830 yesterday evening in constitution hill, ina yesterday evening in constitution hill, in a restricted area, near to buckingham palace. a blue toyota prius deliberately drove at a marked police vehicle and stopped in front of it. uniformed officers confronted the driver of that vehicle and during that confrontation the driver reached four at four foot scored that was in the passenger foot well. cs gas was used as part of the arrests and during the struggle the individual repeatedly shouted the words allahu akbar. the individual

was quickly brought under control and he is 26 years old and from the luton area and i'm glad to say he is now in custody at a central london police station. i want to pay tribute to the officers concerned, three were injured as a result of the incident and i want to pay tribute to their bravery and their courage and quickly bringing the incident under control. it is due to their vigilance and the wider professionalism of the metropolitan police that helps to keep the public safe at this time. i am confident that this is an isolated incident and the individual was quickly brought under control but, of course, we now into a bank holiday weekend with numerous events across london, including the notting hill carnival, and there is an increased police presence in any way across london at this time. i want to remind the public to be vigilant and alert and if they see anything suspicious then please contact us on the anti—terrorism hotline or, of course, through the normal 909

emergency service. it was quickly declared a terrorist incident last night. that is due to the location which was outside buckingham palace. the individual deliberately drove at police officers and he was in possession of a four foot long sword. at the moment it is early stages of the investigation and we are looking into the history of the individual and there are a number of lines of enquiry that are ongoing. there is also a search on going in the luton area and it makes sense at this time due to all of those circumstances that we deal with it within the counterterrorism command but it will be kept constantly under review. two officers went to hospital with minor injuries to their hands, lacerations and cuts to their hands, lacerations and cuts to their hands, lacerations and cuts to their hands and therefore arms, and a third officer. received minor bet alli " ' bet all 7 have bet all* and * have if that from the

the most powerful storm to strike mainland america in more than a decade has made landfall in texas. hurricane harvey has brought winds of i30mph to coastal areas and is expected to move on to louisiana in the coming days. some residents are reported to be trapped inside collapsed buildings. the emergency services say it's too dangerous to respond to some calls. david willis reports. harvey hit texas hard overnight, bringing with it high winds and heavy rain. a category four hurricane, capable of causing catastrophic damage. billed as the most powerful storm to hit the us mainland in over a decade. this is going to be a very major disaster. this is harvey from above, a malevolent storm system ten miles wide, capable of dumping up to a0 inches of rain. corpus christi, a city in the eye of the storm, had seen a rush to evacuate. fears of a power outage forcing

the sickest babies at a children's hospital to be moved out of the hurricane's path. the national weather service warned of winds that could leave homes uninhabitable for weeks or even months. among those heeding the local mayor's advice to get out of dodge, this woman and her three children. i try to be strong because i don't want my children to see. they get scared and i don't want to have them scared. i have to be a strong mother for them. briefed earlier by his advisers, president trump is facing the first national disaster of his term in office. the lessons of hurricane katrina i2 years ago still serve as an indelible reminder of the political cost of underestimating a weather system such as this. the president urged texans to heed calls to evacuate, but, with several days of storm force winds and rain ahead, it's likely many of those who leave may not have much to come back to. david willis, bbc news, washington.

earlier i spoke to don champion, a reporter for the cbs network in the us. he's in corpus christi, texas and described what it was like there. hurricane harvey is still showing little mercy on this part of the texas gulf coast. the storm is already making two landfalls, the first one last night around 10.00pm local time and the second one just a few hours after that. the storm is nowjust to the north of us and will basically be stalling out through the weekend. folks here are not expecting rain in inches but rather in feet through the next two, three, four or even five days in this region. this is a slow—moving disaster that is far from over. already, even in the dark of night, we are getting damage reports from around the region, including in the town of rockport

which is about 30 miles north of where i am standing, which is where the category four hurricane made landfall. we have possibly some senior citizens were trapped in a senior citizens home there and collapsed buildings there as well. certainly the sun rises here soon and in the next few hours the initial damage will be visible, but there is still a lot more storm to go. would you say most people there have tried to protect themselves somehow, or have they just left the area? that is right. thankfully it appeared that a lot of people did head for inland areas in the days before the storm but yesterday, quite frankly, the governor here in texas, and a lot of other local officials were concerned that a lot of people were taking chances with this storm. you have to remember that this was the first hurricane to hit this

part of the texas gulf coast in nine years and so they felt like some people were staying behind and certainly we have heard from some people needing help overnight at first responders have not been able to reach them because of the conditions out here. joinining me now is dr tom sabbatelli, a hurricane specialist for the company risk management solutions. thank you for coming in. good afternoon. with this sort of weather, what can you do to protect your property, for a start. in the immediate, sandbags to prevent the incoming storm surge flooding from inundating your home and i would say plywood to protect your windows and exposed openings and doors. ahead of time you can take extra precautions and put strong storm shutters and cla m ps to and put strong storm shutters and clamps to keep the roof onto the

building, but it has to take some advanced preparation. with just a few hours or days, what would you advise people to do? first of all, evacuate, but before you do secure all openings, windows and doors, and protect your home from the storm surge on the coach. you are talking about securing these by putting wood across the top? absolutely, and nearly down very securely. that is difficult to do a large scale unless you are very handy with it yourself. there are at the big box stores on these sort of event so it is best to be prepared. a lot of people on the coast need a preparation plan and many tend to do but there has been complacency because it has been awhile a coastline event has occurred in texas. in a emergency even sandbags will not stop one metre of water. you are is tough to

mitigate or risk but it's best to do all the preparation you can. people expect property damage. they do not wa nt to expect property damage. they do not want to leave the property with all their possessions but they have to keep them and their families safe which is why you see these warnings coming and being ignored. which is why you see these warnings coming and being ignoredm which is why you see these warnings coming and being ignored. it has been a long time so you have to keep the public consciousness aware of the public consciousness aware of the risk that is constantly threatening every summer in notjust texas but the entire us coastline with hurricanes and you have to make them aware that with time memory can fade. if people were staying in the property and may be going up to second or third floors, are they technically safe? absolutely not. with the high winds we are seeing trees could come down and branches could come down and we have reports of people trapped in buildings on the basis of trees coming through the basis of trees coming through the roof. even if you are elevating yourself there are so many different hazards at play here you are never truly safe. would you say the risk

is more from wind or the accumulated reign over many days? the winds diminishes as the storm weakens but the threat is more immediate. the longer threat is that the storm will stall over texas and louisiana and dump up to a years worth of rain in a couple of days, up to feet potentially. thank you very much. millions of travellers on the move this bank holiday this weekend are facing disruption because of major rail engineering works. the south east of england will be badly affected with station closures at charing cross, euston and liverpool street. there will be limited services at other stations. in the north west of england engineering work will affect stations in manchester, preston, blackpool and bolton. our correspondent spencer stokes is at wigan station. just how much travel disruption is there? a lot of people are moving because of sports today. yes, we can

station is a railway station in the north—west affected by engineering work, not directly happening here, but 200 miles away at euston in london. preparatory work for hs2. rail services that previously would ta ke rail services that previously would take around two hours to get from wigan down to london are actually taking something in the region of four or five hours with passengers advised to travel to manchester and then sheffield and then sent pancras instead. longerjourneys for passengers, not just instead. longerjourneys for passengers, notjust from wigan, but several stations across the north—west of england. one group of passengers that could be severely affected other fans of wigan warriors who play hull at wembley this afternoon. the kick—off is 3pm. sensibly the vast bulk of them decided not to take the train but took coaches from wigan down to london in the early hours of this morning. it is all part of network rail ‘s £130 million bank holiday

upgrade programme and they say it is the biggest bank holiday upgrade programme they have ever carried out, with 1700 staff involved in the engineering works here in the north—west and in the south—east of england. you may ask why they choose a bank holiday weekend because it is particularly busy but the truth of the matter is bank holidays are not as busy as the usual operating days because it is august with not as many commuters travelling into railway stations. from the network rail point of view this is a good weekend to carry out the engineering work. not so good for passengers who wa nt to work. not so good for passengers who want to get somewhere and people have been travelling into wigan this weekend for a example the portsmouth fa ns weekend for a example the portsmouth fans who will see we can play football here this afternoon and they have a particularly long journey. the advice from network rail if you are planning to travel today or tomorrow is to check your journey to see how long it could ta ke journey to see how long it could take and whether or not it is sensible to take your normal rate.

it is always the same on a bank holiday, isn't it? thank you very much. the headlines on bbc news: several people have died and four others taken to hospital after a crash involving a minibus and two lorries on the m1 in buckinghamshire. counterterrorism police investigate after three officers were injured while arresting a man with a four foot sword outside buckingham palace. hurricane harvey slams into texas with winds of 130mph, it's the most powerful storm to hit the us mainland for 12 years. us president donald trump has pardoned the controversial former arizona sheriff, joe arpaio. he had been convicted of criminal contempt, after he defied a court order to stop traffic patrols targeting suspected immigrants. ben schreckinger is a staff writer with poltico magazine. he explained why the pardon will be seen as controversial. sheriff arpaio had been convicted of contempt of court. a federaljudge had ordered him to stop a practice that had been deemed racial profiling

of hispanics, in his attempt to crack down on illegal immigration. obviously trump was elected on a promise of cracking down on illegal immigration. arpaio endorsed trump's campaign way back at the very beginning, back around july of 2015. so politically, this is on message for trump, but obviously this is going to be controversial — if not explosive. north korea has fired three short—range ballistic missiles, according to the american military. two of the missiles failed in flight, the third blew up almost immediately after it was launched. the latest firings come during a joint us—south korea military exercise, which has been strongly criticised by pyongyang. there will be extra police on duty at this weekend's

manchester pride event, with thousands of people expected to attend. following the manchester arena bombing in may security will be increased, though the police stress there's no evidence of a specific threat. andy gill reports. well before the official start of manchester pride, the party for many was in full swing. gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people from all over europe getting together to celebrate who they are. 50 years ago this would not be allowed so it is a great way to celebrate this. we can celebrate what those people have done for us and it's a great achievement and we still have a long way to go. everyone has different issues through the year. it is one chance to relax a bit. out of this world. it is the only one to talk about. if you want to do pride, it has to be manchester pride.

the organiser is promising a four—day feast of fun. it is a fantastic celebration. we still face discrimination and pride events like this are key to show we can all stand together united as one to work towards eradicating discrimination. there is a serious side to the pride this year. police say there is no specific intelligence of a terrorist threat to the lgbt community or greater manchester, but after the attack in may and more recent atrocities in europe, they have reviewed security. we will look at a number of security measures around the site. and wider areas in terms of any threats or risks. there are events across the bank holiday weekend, ending in a candlelit vigil on monday night to remember those lost to the hiv virus. andy gill, bbc news, manchester. a teacher at eton has left the school after he was found to have circulated an exam paper to other teachers before students had sat the test. an investigation by the cambridge international examinations board found the member of staff had been in possession of a leaked economics pre—u exam —

an equivalent to the a—levels sat by most sixth formers. eton college says it deeply regrets the incident. a unique new fitness trend has arrived in the uk. goat yoga sees animals helping people with mind calming exercises... apparently. it's already proved highly popular in the us. mike bushell has been to devon to try it out. this is all about broadening your horizons. there are so many new ways to practise yoga these days, for example on a paddle board in devon. but the class here have also been introduced to an even stranger form down on the farm. we all know how good yoga is for you, spiritually and also for the body. in devon, they now like to do things differently. hence we're in a barn of straw. they want to bring out the animal in us. i don't know if they're...kidding?!

connecting with the earth... teacher, donna, has over 70 animal names for her class's yoga positions, but this summer she has been combining animal bonding with yoga moves by introducing pygmy goats to her classes. we're combining all of the amazing benefits of a standard yoga practice along with the benefits of animal therapy. there's research to prove that animal therapy, when you are with animals and stroking animal, it helps to reduce the cortisol in the body, so the stress response within the body, and it also helps to increase the oxytocin and dopamine chemicals, happy hormones. this does focus the mind on other things, so you're still trying to do the yoga poses but you're concentrating on bonding with our furry friends here. they seem to love it! there is no evidence and it's not being suggested that the goats enhance the physical benefits of yoga in any way when they're

treading on your back, they're certainly not trained masseurs, but they do bring laughter to a session. they like to nibble on my hair. i think it's the blonde hair, maybe it looks like straw! i'm not sure it helps a great deal, but it's good for the concentration because you have to work really hard not to fall over while they're doing it. strangely very relaxing. when the hooves go into you it's therapeutic, like a massage ball. it's funny and funny makes you happy. i've done laughing yoga before but you have to sort of force yourself to laugh. here, it'sjust hysterical. goat yoga was first started in america by a farmer who claimed the goats were making her feel better from an autoimmune illness, and the consensus here was that the goats were beneficial and will be invited back every week. brilliant. because goats love people. slight whackey, it's great fun. you could be doing pilates or press ups, whatever. we end up in the sleeping dog pose, when the goats are naturally attracted to us, to come and sleep on us as well, maybe. gorgeous!

i've never known a yoga class to be so interactive! normally you zone out and go into your own world, but this has been very interactive! we arejust we are just getting an update on that fatal collision on the m1 that happens near newport pagnell. it has now emerged that eight people have died and four been taken to hospital according to thames valley police. emergency services are still at the scene of this collision near newport pagnell on the m1. it has been confirmed that eight people have been killed in this crash which happened just before 3:15am. it took place on the southbound carriageway between junctions 1a and 15. two

lorries and a minibus were involved and they were travelling in the same direction and it is believed the minibus had travelled from the nottingham area. that information is just coming out from police in the thames valley. motorists are being advised to continue to avoid the area if they can because the southbound carriageway is closed and will be closed for some time. that is an update on that accident that has happened near newport pagnell on the m1. it comes at a very busy time with the bank holiday weekend and many people are travelling this weekend. we hope everyone stays as safe as possible. now for a look at the weather prospects. a few showers and splashes of rain around in the uk in the next few days but given the fact it is the weekend and an extended weekend at

that for many of you and compare it to what we have had mostly this august it is pretty good. a bit more cloud across the southern areas compared to yesterday with a few showers here and there, mainly in the east as we finished the day. showers in scotland as well with the heavy ones at the east. most of you will stay dry this afternoon and once the sun is out then temperatures are into the high teens or low to mid 20s. a day for sun hat instead of a raincoat at headingley and that will continue through to monday for the second test. rain later in the evening on monday and it will stay clear of belfast for the world cup final. a dry evening for many with sunny spells and isolated showers in scotland that fade away overnight. a few showers in the far west, particularly in the islands of western scotland. most of you will be dry with mist patches

and temperatures in rural parts at the lowest of eight or nine. mostly in double figures. mist and fog patches in the morning were clear and more cloud in western scotland through the day, particularly high and islands. patchy drizzle. early showers should fade away and then a dry day forjust showers should fade away and then a dry day for just about all and feeling warm again once the sun is on your back. temperatures could be a degree or so higher than the values today. good news for those heading off to the notting hill carnival. it will be hot up by monday and it is also drive for the leeds carnival. there are weather fronts you can see on the chart that are pushing into the north—west. high pressure in charge in the east and a lovely sunny start for england ru nway and a lovely sunny start for england runway is. clouding over to the north and west later on with a few spots of rain by the evening. outbreaks of rain and gusty winds spreading across scotland and northern ireland. the wettest weather on the western isles of scotla nd weather on the western isles of scotland with not too much rain in the east of high ground. sunshine

returns later to north. further south and east you go there are blue skies overhead and some of the warmest conditions of august so far with a of 28. hello. this is bbc news with geeta guru—murthy.