north, south, north, south. silence in memory of the victims of grenfell on the first day of the public inquiry. the chairman says he can and will get answers. we'll speak to the local mp who's concerned he wont succeed. the winner of the 2017 hyundai mercury prize is... ..sampha! and they've just announced the winner of this year's big mercury music prize. our very own steve smith's down there and hoping to have a word. cheering good evening. are we about to witness the collapse of bitcoin — the currency they told us could offer a safer, more secure option for trading? it was the libertarians‘ dream to kindle something that operated beyond governments, beyond institutions. but this week, one of the biggest banks in the world labelled bitcoin a fraud which would eventually blow up. harsh words, but it's the actions of china that may seal its fate.

today, chinese authorities announced they will close all bitcoin exchanges by the end of this month. the currency took a massive tumble as speculators thought they were witnessing the beginning of the end. so will bitcoin recover from this? can cryptocurrencies still prove to the world they can revolutionise and democratise trading? or are they — along with tulipmania and the dot coms of the 19905 — an unsustainable economic bubble? here's david grossman. bitcoin has many fans but the head ofjp morgan, jamie diamond, isn't one. it's worse than tulip bulbs, he said. it won't end well. someone is going to get killed.

he is referring of course to the 17th century tulip mania that caused some bulbs to cost more than houses. before the bubble burst. it is perhaps unsurprising that someone who runs a conventional bank doesn't much like something that's been set up specifically to get around the conventional banking system. indeed one of the reasons for the phenomenal rise in bitcoin and other crypto currencies is that more and more people have less and less trust in the financial system. stock markets have fallen around the world. the financial crisis of a decade ago convinced many that the whole system was in fact rigged, the negative real interest rates that followed were actually a dishonest way for governments to boost treasury coffers and reduce debt by in effect taxing savers. when people are looking at preserving value they are hunting for some kind of return. you're not getting it from putting your money in a bank. so that's why we've seen rapid increases over the last ten years in stocks and other assets. bitcoin has caught the public imagination like nothing else, so the increase in that has been huge. the numbers are massive and terrifying in some ways but it

has been a function, notjust in the crypto currency world, it is happening in many asset classes. the essence of a crypto currency like bitcoin is that central banks have no control over it, its supply is capped so nobody can print money and a record of who owns what is spread across the entire community of users. part of that community is this law student in london, her brother in kenya finds bitcoin and easy way to send her money without having to use a bank. she can with a bit of fuss turn it into pounds at this atm machine. does it worry you that the currency goes up and down so quickly? a bit worrying, i have two check the price and i must buy orders at certain prices and that kind of thing. in the last week, the price has really gone down. do you lose sleep over it? the thing is i trade at a very low risk level so the loss i have is not so huge that i get depressed about it but i know people who lose a lot of sleep and get very stressed out. bitcoin and the tecnology behind it has spawned dozens of similar crypto

currencies and a new trend, the ico, initial coin offering, is an increasingly popular way to raise capitalfor a new venture. instead of issuing shares, you issue a new currency. is this a way for fraudsters to get the money of gullible people? this isn't necessarily a way for that to happen although we are seeing a lot of investment money raised from what you would call unsophisticated investors and on the back of what may be a fairly undeveloped product. in some cases it is an easy way to raise money but i wouldn't say that each of them is a scam. but amongst them there may be some fraudulent products? i'm afraid so, i would imagine so. china was this month the first authority to ban icos and other regulators are looking nervously, issuing stronger warnings

for investors to be aware. this is the third stage of the bubble, the mania phase, where people are investing on the basis that other investors will buy from them. and not because it is a solid opportunity. there are a few icos where people have done things in an orderly way but quite a lot of them say they are going to make some magic beans and sell them to somebody else and that is the offer. the value of bitcoin has risen exponentially, up 600% this year alone but back down 30% in recent weeks. a similar shape to the price of tulip bulbs 380 years ago but that graph went back to almost zero. malcolm pally is the chairman and co—founder of coinsilium, which invests in blockchain startups — it was the world's first blockchain technology company to float on the stock market. and dan mccrum from the financial times — he's more sceptical about the promise of crypto—currencies. so is bitcoin a profound financial innovation or an easy route

to funny money? how much damage do you think his words did when he called it a fraud, or is it the actions of china that have spooked people? i think it is the actions of both, probably. this market, these cryptocurrencies, they are susceptible to emotion, more so than any other market. it trades 21w. effectively, a thing you say that can spooked the market... that's not good, is it, if it is even more susceptible to emotion than all of the other markets? is it good? i don't know. my disclaimer is that i invest in the technology. this is all a big distraction for me and for our company. everybody is focusing on the price of bitcoin and the price of cryptocurrencies, going up, going down, going broke. in reality, what we are seeing is the most phenomenal revolution

in technology, which has been brought about and underlying... you don't fear for that? i don't fearfor the technology at all. i think anybody could get involved in speculating... how can we use the technology of the currency is completely... it is the other way around. the technology is what drives the currency. it happened to have worked like money. are we focusing on the wrong thing, is the end of bitcoin just the start of something else? i am a bit of a sceptic on technology as well. he talked about emotion, the emotion driving bitcoin, in these silly tokens, icos, it is hoped, that somehow this technology will deliver all of these wonderful, promised, good things. i think what people are starting to see with china shutting down some of the exchanges, what we will eventually see, as with all bubbles, hope is going to turn to dust. the bubble will pop. you heard that phrase, when they were described

as unsophisticated investors, what does that say to you? does it mean people that don't have to go through big institutions, they don't have to be robbed blind by rate that banks are charging, or gullible people? i think it means gullible people in a sense. so you agree with that, that the people buying into these things are more gullible investors? i can't completely recall the figures. if you put a few pence in two bitcoin at the beginning you would have made multiple of your money and nobody was even bothering about it. right now, if people are chasing it now, i think they are gullible. i say that with a proviso that providing they don't know what they are doing, they are gullible. if they do, fine. is this the dot com bubble of the early 905? is it about to go? it is the time it could go completely bust. as jamie dimon said this week, you can't predict if it would jump up and double again,

that is the nature of the bubble. but you can be fairly certain that at some point it will pop. what happens if it does? the same as what happened with the internet. a lot of speculation goes out of it, the survivors, the amazons, the ebays, are allowed to develop in a way that is outside of that speculation. tell us what scare we are talking about. do a lot of regular people... i think we are at risk of overstating the importance of this. the hype of bitcoin is totally disproportionate to its size. if you add up all of the bitcoins, and if you could sell them for dollars, but i don't think you could, it would be worth about $60 billion. that's quite a bit of money to come from nothing, from computer code, but it is one moderate sized listed company. if it disappeared, i don't think the world would really notice. let's assume, and what we're talking about is not whether bitcoin comes or goes, but if this innovation, a currency that can circumnavigate institutions and government

still has a future? it is more than just a currency. it happens to act like money, so it is treated like money. but the blockchain technology that underlies that has some tremendous applications. like? well, one example, a professional social network on a distributed basis. people are tokenising assets. we could have a newsnight coin? yes, getting into deep coins and tokens, i think it is too early to have that debate. i don't think there is a working example of something in the real world being used on a regular basis attached to the blockchain technology. what you can do is create currency out of nothing, because that is ephemeral. it isjust the software. but the thing that all of the banks of throwing money at,

and you are seeing lots of businesses like yours, is on this promise that one day they can sort out all of the problems. but there are some big, inherent convictions. a quick thought, do you think... malcolm will be the one laughing, that he will be the one that puts his money where his mouth is, people that support the technology in ten years' time will be the ones on top of the market? the thing to realise about the currency is this big contradiction. it is somehow going to make you loads of money because the price is going to go up and up, but at the same time everybody's going to use it as something to buy and sell on a daily basis. it will never catch on? it won't catch on. everybody is worried about what is going on with this highly emotive stake. the regulation is the next thing that is going to come. these markets, certainly the technology and the applications, and those that are doing token offers, going to be regulated. icos are going to be

treated like ipos. so it is the end of what bitcoin are supposed to be? it will be part of the ecosystem, but it doesn't mean it is the end of it. thank you both very much. well it's been an interesting day for real currencies as well as virtual ones. the pound rose against the dollar and the euro after the bank of england put out a strongly worded statement that — although it was keeping uk interest rates unchanged for now — it's minded to increase them in the very near future. our business editor, helen thomas, is with me. how strong do think that hint was? are we looking at next month now? it comes down to four words, over the coming months. that is the time frame the bank is talking about potentially taking action. it was all caveat it. but in the world of reading the central bank tea leaves, it is pretty punchy stuff. it is pretty dramatic. markets were thinking about a rate rise towards the end of next year and now people are talking about as soon as november. what has changed? inflation, 2.9%, the bank target is 2%. employment growth is going pretty strong. 0n the other hand, you have weak wage growth and you actually have

pretty weak overall economic growth. we may be a step closer to our first rate rise in a decade, but it still feels pretty finely balanced. in terms of how it is spelt out, do you take that at face value? central banks do seem to like to lead the markets on a little bit. in this case, the pound rises, that helps to ease inflation and lessens the need for a rate rise. 0ne school of thought as it is just the band ramping up the rhetoric. but unless you get the wage growth coming through, they will not pull the trigger on a rate rise. another camp will say when they are being this direct, you pay attention. they are obviously very worried about inflation. there is a slightly odd third camp, that they want to undo last year's rate cuts. remember, they cut rates last august after the vote to leave the eu, that supported the economy.

the theory is that you hiked rates and get back to where we were and have a pause. it is hard perhaps to reconcile tragedy on the scale of grenfell tower with the legal process which began today. the first day of the public enquiry was held in the formal surroundings of a central london hall. the tone of the retired judge leading it was — in his words — calm and rational. inevitably perhaps, the session ended in heckles from those who felt the tone was wrong, and the point was being missed. sir martin moore—bick promised to get to the truth about the tragedy which killed at least 80 people, and to provide answers to the pressing questions of how a disaster of its kind could occur in 21st century london. i'm well aware that the past few months have turned the world of those who live in north kensington upside down. and that former residents of the tower and other local people feel a great sense of anger and betrayal. that is entirely natural and understandable,

but if the enquiry is to get to the truth of what happened, it must seek out all the relevant evidence and examine it calmly and rationally. martin moore—bick. our policy editor, chris cook was at the hearing. so how do you think it went today for the inquiry? so, one of the things he talked about is balancing the needs, firstly to keep the community engaged and to feel that they trust him and accept his recommendations. 0n the other hand he must remain judge like, impartial and detached. he did the former by talking about how much resources and time would be dedicated to the community and the latter with his tone, being judged like. at the end, he turned to leave, walked out and as he did so, the activist lawyer, michael lancefield, started holding forth and asking him questions and the judge ignored him and walked out.

that led to a bit of unhappiness. it felt a bit cold—blooded, really. how is this being seen from whitehall? there is a sense in which central government hate this. they've already sent letters to dc lg, the community department, the business department, looking into fire safety and deregulation. the key thing is that ministers are not allowed to see advice given to ministers in previous governments. what's going to come out of the enquiry is going to be going back, in some cases to 1999. so where exactly the unexploded bombs in whitehall advice and what ministers have done are going to emerge, ministers won't know until it's on the website of the enquiry. that's the first time they'll get to see it. thank you forjoining us. well, critics warned of a disconnect between the legalistic,

complicated trial and the ongoing ordeal of traumatised and grieving residents. so is this enquiry a process for the victims or a process for the truth? reconciling the two may be its biggest challenge. joining me now is the mp for kensington, emma dent coad. thank you forjoining us. the process, you called it cold and clinical. what do you mean? this is the first stage for a lot of people. many have been tucked in their hotels and hardly going out or living in the community with their immediate family and this is the first time they've been out in public and from the beginning, many people arrived quite early to ensure that they had a seat and they were left outside of the hotel, facing the press, which was very insensitive and most people wouldn't think about but many people wouldn't want to be faced

by the press at all. standing there for 20 minutes was one thing. the room they chose was not wheelchair accessible, so some people couldn't have got in, if they'd been able to get through the journey, which is quite a long journey from west london up to hoban. some people didn't make it. the tone of this, this was the first moment of thinking, getting some kind ofjustice and the tone of it, the venue, super luxury, not a regular hotel, i felt uncomfortable. people felt uncomfortable and the tone of sir martin, it was very unfriendly. it sounds like you found itjarring and i understand what you're talking about, disability access, which is critical. sir martin talked about the need to be calm and rational and you called it cold and clinical. at this point, you have

to say, how do you want your justice served? this is a community that must grieve, we know that, but this is a justice process, not a grieving process now, isn't it? he talked about compassion but he didn't show any. that's his personal manner. maybe he can't change that but people were saying to me afterwards, emma, if they call me i'm not going to give evidence. they can use section 129, and are they going to arrest me? what will you tell them? i will encourage them to go forward. people have been traumatised. have you decided he won't be able to provide full a nswers ? do you think he's the wrong man and it won't work? i hope it does work. it is a very narrow set of terms for this particular bit of justice we want. we have the criminal investigation. this is one little chunk of it. i'm sure he's very meticulous but people won't

engage properly because they don't trust the process, it's going to be difficult. they may not trust the process it is being undermined by people in the community that they respect. this process has been given the full weight of authority. isn't it really important that you don't undermined his chance by talking about chandeliers or big buildings? i was reflecting what people are telling me, i don't make it up. i'm reflecting what people tell me. i was feeling uncomfortable. they came in and said, what are we doing here? i reflect what i'm told. do you say that this is a legal process that is starting and the way to get the most out of it is to let a man who is a retired judge, presumably you have faith in his ability as a judge... he's a very meticulous man, no doubt, but the setting was wrong, the process of getting there was wrong, why were we in hoban? it was messy, it

didn't look organised. it sounds like a perception thing, just a perception thing, as opposed to... given the lack of trust in any form of authority from a lot of people it was a very poor start. the us secretary of state, rex tillerson, called again today for china to cut north korea's oil supplies in response to its latest nuclear tests. earlier this week the un imposed some sanctions — a ban on textile exports and restrictions on north koreans working overseas — but they didn't go as far as britain and america wanted. it's feared pyongyang may soon develop a nuclear—armed missile capable of hitting japan or the united states. donald trump has been talking tough, saying military options are on the table. newsnight‘s gabriel gatehouse has been to the 38th parallel — the border between north and south korea — to assess the level of tension.

we're not going to the amusement park. we're going to the dmz. we're heading for the 38th parallel, the border between north and south korea. what does the dmz stand for? demilitarised zone. the korean war ended in 1953 with an armistice agreement between north korea and the united states. no peace settlement was ever reached, the two sides are formally still at war. on a tourist bus, on a tour of the dmz. we're told, not a theme park. we can take pictures heading north, but not south. an american soldier boards the bus to check our passports. the dmz is a strip of land two and a half miles wide that bisects the korean peninsular. outside of that narrow strip, there's heavy military

build—up on both sides. as you drive north out of seoul, you start seeing strange structures on the road. at first glance they look like ordinary advertising hoardings. but look again. so, these structures are actually designed to be blown up in the case of an invasion. they dynamite it, cover the road in rubble and slow down the advancing tanks. they're known here colloquially as north korea speed bumps. koreans have lived with the threat of war for decades but actual hostilities seemed unlikely, so long as the north didn't strike first. now, some are questioning that. i would prefer not going the route of the military but it's something certainly that could happen. right in the middle of the dmz is the border itself, where south korean soldiers come face—to—face with troops from the north. see that building over there? there's a soldier on the steps in a green uniform. that's a north korean soldier.

do not take a photograph of that building to your left. there are american troops here too, part of a 30,000 strong us force on the peninsular. has anything changed because of the tensions here? we're so close that security is always pretty high as it is. the blue huts straddle the border. it's here that the two sides officially meet. there's also a site for general officer and high—level talks. that meeting is done in two languages, english and korean. when we talk about tensions on the korean peninsula, this is the place where they reach their apex. we're in north korea now. this line. yes, the other side of that microphone. south, north, south, north. that door over there goes straight out into north korea. peering across the border into the world's most isolated nation may be fun for tourists but it doesn't really give you a sense of what it's like to live there.

for that, we need to speak to a defector. of course we have smiles and laughing, we go to schools with our parents and people go to work in factories, whatever. but at the same time, we grow up with constant public executions. we have to face that people are dying in front of us. during the famine, we could easily see the dead bodies and sometimes the bodies weren't removed, so the smell of decomposing flesh was everywhere. we have a lot of political prison camps. people are disappearing sometimes, the whole family, in the middle of the night. hyeonseon lee escaped from north korea when she was 17. today, she lives in exile in seoul, watching nervously as the regime raises the stakes. everything pyongyang does, she says, is aimed at one primary audience: the united states of america. everywhere in school go

there are huge posters, killing americans with a pen, a knife, a gun, whatever. so, we learned that americans are our primary enemies. we thought that americans are not normal human beings because in north korea we don't have the word american. we never learned that. we only learned "american bastards," this is the only word. living in exile, many north koreans believe their only hope of seeing their homeland again is regime change. last week we saw them demonstrating outside the us embassy in seoul, urging donald trump to do just that. but south koreans are divided over the presence of the americans. 0ver there, they're saying, "let's start a war." over here, they're saying, "american military, get out of here." south korea's current government has

traditionally taken a more conciliatory approach towards the north but after the recent nuclear and ballistic tests, seoul has agreed to the deployment of more american missiles. throughout the decades, the kim dynasty‘s ultimate goal has remained consistent, to drive the americans out of the korean peninsular. but democracies, unlike totalitarian regimes, are subject to the whims of changing administrations. when you were in intelligence, what was your main concern? north korea. this man has spent half a lifetime studying the kim regimes. is kim jong—un mad? no, no. highly rational man. highly competent, i think. if outside the world reacts to the north korean

crisis in a prudent, rational way, a sensible way, i do not believe there is much chance of north korea actually using that weapon against other countries. i myself cannot quite make out what washington is ultimately up to, what they're going to do. the president seems to be saying something and the secretary of state is saying something else. the strategy, is it a tactic orjust a confusion within the administration? i do not know. back in the demilitarised zone, the interactions between these nuclear armed adversaries are like moves in a carefully choreographed dance. we picked a fisherman. we thought he was north korean. he wanted to go back. we set up a meeting, a date in which we did a turnover

between him and them. so we all had our troops around. what are the relations like? are they friendly? not at all friendly. they hate us. one of the things about all of these rituals is that they make the whole situation feel more safe. it's ritualised, nothing can possibly go wrong. the worry, of course, is that it's a false sense of security. it's the end of our trip. time for the tourists to leave the dmz in the care of the soldiers whose job it is to keep a precarious peace. in seoul, the threat of nuclear annihilation has become part of the fabric of life. most people believe it will never happen. but are they being naive? this time is not a worry about the north korean dictator, kim jong—un. what i am worried about, donald trump! right now, kim jong—un is really scared about trump, i believe, because he knows that he can't predict trump. you know the regime's mentality.

what would be their reaction, his reaction, if he was pressed, if he felt threatened? click the nuclear button. this is a game played for impossibly high stakes. until now, the rules have been clear. an escalation is punished by sanctions. compromise is rewarded with sanction relief. the key to keeping the cold war cold, no sudden movements. all this week we've been looking back at the collapse of northern rock ten years ago — and talking to those who had to deal with the crisis about what challenges they faced and what lessons they now draw from the whole time. shriti vadera spent years as an economic adviser to gordon brown — eventually

becoming baroness vadera and a junior minister. during the whole northern rock crisis she was a key member of the team trying to ensure the bank survived — or at least that it didn't take the british economy down with it. she is now the chairman of santander uk, one of the most influential voices in the city, although here she is speaking in a personal capacity. i began by asking her about her recollections of that time. i do try and think of it as little as possible, it's fair to say it was just incredibly fraught then, because what we were doing was quite unprecedented, both globally and historically. so, i think it was unnerving. it was one of the most frightening times of my life, actually. did you know you were right, or did you think, i'm flying blind here and praying? i think, at the time, you have to have conviction and, in particular, carry your team with conviction. carry the team in government

with the knowledge that you're doing the right thing. and be more private with your doubts. how much influence do you believe the crash ten years ago had on the politics we are seeing today? in one sense, what we are seeing today is a direct result of the financial crisis and the recession that followed it, because recessions that follow financial crises, particularly if they are as a result of excess credit, can be deeper and longer than recessions caused by other factors. and they're always followed, in the years that follow them, they are always followed by a decimation of the centre ground of politics, an increase in the votes for the far right. but it's also fair to say that the financial crisis itself was a part of a bigger phenomenon around globalisation. but if you believe that the crash created or encouraged, if you like, the left behinds, the people that went on to mistrust

institutions and experts, doesn't that tell you that the solution of the time, the propping up of the banks, was the wrong answer? well, it was never about saving the banks. but it was. but it was about saving the economy, not the banks. and the point about the reason why financial crises lead to very deep recessions is that the depth of the financial problem dictates the level of the recession that follows. systemically, then, could this happen again? we should never assume that a bank is fail—safe. it is not intended for all businesses to be permanently the same, permanently safe, all of the time. i think what we have tried to do over the years that have followed,

through the regulatory system in particular, to the change of leadership in all of the banks, is to ensure that if there is a failure it is not the taxpayers and not the public that pays the cost. the philosophy, though, that was a moment when new labour could have set, reset the whole economic system. you could have said there is a tendency to prioritise the south london over the north, there is a tendency to prioritise financial sectors over other industries. there is an unhappiness at the inequality, there is unhappiness at these people, the villains, the rogues that seem to have created this mess not being punished. do you regret that labour didn't do more to just recalibrate at that point? i did, in fact, leave the government a year after the financial crisis, just after the g20.

but it's not that globalisation is good or bad, it's how we manage its forces. we didn't manage some of the forces very well, and that led, in part, to the financial crisis. what we've now seen is an additional element of the level of substitution ofjobs through automation, through 3d printing, through the rise of a new generation of robots, through algorithms. we have to deal with the issue of the fact that this type of technology, which could be an enormous force for good, is also not creating jobs. we have five big technology companies. they are all american. they have the most amazing global reach, more than any public or private institutions. they don't create manyjobs. their taxation level seems to be lower than other corporates. they are natural monopolies and use content from other people. this is content that is owned by people, and by individuals. is one of the solutions that we give people ownership of their own data? in the way we talked about how property rights would create a whole

degree of entrepreneurship, should we give people, as a way of their own wealth, their data? so we have to find a new social accommodation, a new social contract with people about how they are going to benefit. finally tonight, the winner of the prestigious mercury prize for the best british or irish album was announced about an hour ago at a glittering ceremony in london. the nominees included the previous winners the xx and other big stars such as ed sheeran and stormzy. this year the winner turned out to be the singer, songwriter and record producer sampha from london. music: no one knows me by sampha # you assure me i have something, some people call it soul our very

own steve smith has managed to grab a few moments with him. we are in the glamorous surroundings of the car park at the old hammersmith 0deon, as was, with a very glamorous figure, the winner of the mercury prize 2017, a young man called sampha. congratulations. applause can we look at a trophy? yes, it's very nice. are you surprised? you look calm. pretty surprised. it's completely unreal, to be honest. your album is called process. just in case some of our viewers have not caught up with it, can you tell us a little bit about it, what they might expect? i guess it is an album that is full of my production ideas, lots of genres influenced like west african music, folk music, hip—hop, grime. i really enjoyed the track

you played, no one knows me like the piano in my mother's house. clearly autobiographical. do you want to tell us about that? it is a song about me going home and realising how important some other things i've grown up with our. about loss. more of a metaphor for my mother than anything else, realising how important she is and nothing lasts forever. what is the loss you're talking about? unfortunately my mum was diagnosed with cancer. whilst i was writing the album, so i was looking after her. it was a moment of clarity. said this is a tribute to her? yeah, most definitely. you've worked with a lot of well—known people, kanye west, beyonce. can you tell me a bit about that

and what your plans are. i've been fortunate to work with quite a few people from all around the world. yeah i've done a lot of collaborations until this point. it took me a long time to make this. it's been really important for me. and are you ready for this step up in terms of prominence and recognition? how does that feel? i have no idea, to be honest. i'm going to try and keep doing what i'm doing. it means you have to go on shows like newsnight! does it? as long as we are recording this. well done, 2017 mercury music prize winner. just time to show you the papers, the times says doctors must send obese patients to cookery class. taxpayers will spend billions on cookery courses. it probably means we need to read some of the small print. the independent has a picture of the press conference

with rex tillerson and boris johnson. the us will be a reliable friend and steadfast ally to the uk. failure to free up beds risks and nhs winter of woe. that's all we have time for tonight. kirsty‘s here tomorrow night. but we leave you with images from the spacecraft cassini. for 13 years it has had onejob. to orbit saturn and its moons — sending its extraordinary close up images back to earth. it's discovered everything from oceans to giant hexagonal hurricanes. tomorrow, for its grande finale, it will plunge into the planet's lethal atmosphere in a 70,000 mile death dive. it will continue to transmit its findings until the very last. # if i'm beating every hand away # no—one stays # i've got so cautious

# and now i trip on every move i make # let one play... well, back down here on earth, one thing heading downwards over the next couple of days will be the temperature. quite a cool field to the weather as we had through friday into the weekend. and we will see a mixture of sunny spells and showers. still some showers out there through the rest of the night. most likely to be in place is exposed to this north—westerly winds, although some showers moving across north of england, wales, the midlands and the

south—west through the first part of friday morning. these showers continue to trundle south eastwards during the day tomorrow, where they will turn pretty heavy and thundery. a scattering of showers will continue wherever you are, blowing in on continue wherever you are, blowing inona continue wherever you are, blowing in on a cool northerly breeze. temperatures will struggle, 15 in plymouth if you get some dry spells but once the showers come through those temperatures will dip away and east anglia and the south—east tomorrow afternoon could have some heavy showers with hail and thunder. showers for the midlands, wales, northern england and northern ireland. south—west a decent chance you will see more on the way of showers in dry weather, showers being blown into northern scotland ona being blown into northern scotland on a brisk breeze and the winds will be quite strong for some western coastal areas as well. as we had through friday night into the first pa rt through friday night into the first part of the weekend it is a repeat performance. most of the showers fade away but some continue the north—east england, the midlands, wales and the south—west. towns and city, a city temperatures, eight or

nine degrees. a touch of frost and places on saturday morning. we start the weekend stranded between low pressure and high pressure. it leaves us with a northerly wind, never a warm wind direction, and once again on saturday, you guessed it, a mixture of sunshine and showers. some of the showers heavy and thundery but a few places will probably avoid a showers completely and stay dry all day long. temperatures of 12 degrees in glasgow or belfast, 15 in cardiff and 16 in london as soon as it gets dark on saturday night, with clear skies overhead, temperatures will ta ke skies overhead, temperatures will take a tumble. seven in the centre of glasgow, but the northern and western areas, one to three degrees could be your overnight low. sunday, on balance, not a bad day. mainly dry for many, especially out west. not as many showers and even further east they will just be a not as many showers and even further east they willjust be a scattering of showers here and there. generally for the weekend the story is that showers will slowly ease away. we will see some sunny spells at times,

but the knights will feel decidedly chilly, with a touch of frost. that is all for me now. good night. this is newsday on the bbc. i'm rico hizon in singapore. the headlines: in breaking news this hour: north korea has launched an unidentified missile towards japan. we'll have the latest. at least 23 students and teachers perish in a blaze at a religious school in kuala lumpur. now, questions are being asked over fire safety standards in malaysia. japan braces for typhoon talim, as the strong storm system makes it's way across the southern islands towards the mainland. and after nearly 20 years in space, the cassini space probe will be sending back its last pictures of saturn before burning up in the planet's atmosphere.