several actors have now accused him of inappropriate behaviour, sexual harassment or assault. the film producer denies claims of non—consensual sex and says he hopes for a second chance. pakistani forces have freed a north american family held hostage by the afghan taliban for five years. the family's three children were born in captivity. pakistan's army revealed they were rescued after a us tip—off. president trump said it was a "positive moment" for ties between the two countries. 29 people are now confirmed to have died in california's wildfires and hundreds are still unaccounted for. entire neighbourhoods have been destroyed with thousands made homeless. there are fears that strong winds could further fan the flames. now it's time for a look back at the day in parliament. hello there and welcome to our look

back at thursday in parliament. on this programme, the government announces a price cap on energy bills for millions of customers, but a former energy secretary questions whether it's needed. without a cap, we've seen competition expand dramatically, switching numbers soar, and a sustained reduction in the number of consumers on variable tariffs. as the eu's chief brexit negotiator says talks with the uk are deadlocked over financial commitments, one mp says british business is in despair. not one person i meet in those sectors wants us to continue with this folly of brexit. and the speaker gives mps pause for thought as he reveals the name of the family pet. and i don't have a dog. we have a cat called order.

more on that a little later. but first the government's published legislation designed to lower the cost of gas and electricity bills. it will give the energy regulator ofgem the power to cap what are called standard variable tariffs. about 12 million households are on some form of default rates, which can cost hundreds of pounds a year more than the cheapest deals. the cap will last until 2020 and possibly be extended to 2023. i'm determined that we will be on the side of all consumers and ensure that the market can become more effective. our goal is to ensure a fair deal, so the market currently has not delivered this, and that is why the energy companies and 0fgem needed to act, but it is also precisely for this reason that we are publishing this draft bill today. the labour mps lined up to ask why the change had taken so long. 0fgem have indicated it would take around five months after the bill

received royal assent for the regulator to enact a price cap. due to the government's dithering, the 4 million households in fuel poverty, almosti million of which includes a disabled person, will now face another winter of cold homes or astronomical bills. i would remind her that in 13 years of labour governments, not a single piece of protection was put in place for consumers on this. it was the conservative—led government that commissioned the competition and markets authority report, something that the right honourable gentleman, when he had the opportunity, singularly failed to do. and there is no doubt, with 18 million customers on default tariffs, that this is a welcome step forward, and we hope that they get the savings that are talked about and they get the benefit of this. however, going forward, we also need to make sure there is not too much equalisation in terms of coalescing of pricing around what the cap might be. we also need to make sure customer service is not affected as a consequence of this, of companies trying to find

other ways to save money. given that this policy was once described from that despatch box as a con, a joke, disastrous and living in a marxist universe, it would be churlish not to welcome his conversion to it today. well done. he is very welcome to the party. however... however, i still think his voyage into the marxist universe is a bit slow, if i can put it this way, because it's a draft bill. it's four months since the general election. he said there would be help this winter. he could have chosen to fast—track this with the front bench and get the help in now. greg clark said he hadn'tjoined the marxist universe and rejected the suggestion that time was being lost. a dup mp welcomed the move but had some concerns. i am not a marxist, but this is common sense for anyone in this chamber.

when the energy price cap is brought into effect, what safeguards will be brought into place to ensure that the big six do not switch customers onto a tariff which is in effect a standard variable tariff under a different name? he makes an excellent point, and he will see when he looks at the bill that there is precisely such a requirement that these abusive standard variable tariffs cannot be replaced by something which has a different name. will he confirm that without a cap we have seen competition expand dramatically, switching numbers soar, and a sustained reduction in the number of consumers on variable tariffs? isn't the real reason he has gone for this temporary and timid price cap that he doesn't really believe in it? the minister pointed to findings of the competition and markets authority, the cma. everyone agrees — no—one thinks that the market is fully competitive. the cma in its majority report identified that the market was not functioning in a fully competitive way. 0fgem said as much yesterday and, as far as switching goes, in the last year, only i6% of consumers switched,

which means to say that 84% of the population did not, and it seems to me that people who are in that category, until competition is fully established, deserve the government to be on their side to make sure they can't be ripped off. 0ne conservative said he wanted to escape this marxist universe. we capped university fees and, lo and behold, all the universities charged the maximum. can he persuade me that electricity will be any different? mr speaker, because he will know that there is a vigorous market for deals that are available through a lot of new entrants, there is a very vigorous, competitive market there, and what we want to do is to expand that market. the competition authority has established that at the moment there is insufficient competition in the standard variable tariffs. our aim is to expand the competitive part of the market, and in the meanwhile to provide some protection for those that are paying too much on the standard variable tariffs. the energy secretary greg clark. the fifth round of talks on brexit have concluded,

with the eu's chief negotiator michel barnier saying that there had not been enough progress to move onto the next stage, trade talks, as the uk wants. he said there was new momentum in the process but there was still deadlock over the so—called divorce bill, which he said was disturbing. but the brexit secretary david davis insisted considerable headway had been made. back in the commons, mps were digesting a declaration by the chancellor, philip hammond, that taxpayers' money would not be spent on preparing for a no—deal brexit until the very last moment, a comment the prime minister appeared to contradict. theresa may said the government was ready to spend whatever was needed to make sure the uk was ready to leave the eu. what are the plans his department have laid out, in particular

relation to the wto, if we don't go into the agreement and the quotas? mr speaker, as i said, first of all, we have to get our trading schedules agreed. then we have to get our free trade agreements with the countries agreed — they involve the division of quotas. we are making good progress on that. we want to see a comprehensive agreement because we believe that is in the interests of all concerned, but, of course, the government is making preparations contingent on there being no agreement. that would be the only responsible thing for any government to do. can he inform the house that the treasury is giving him all the resources he needs to prepare for no deal in terms of preparing schedules and making deals with other countries? this is absolutely vital. well, mr speaker, our department, and i don't really wish to trumpet this to other departments, does have a unique agreement with the treasury that we are able to increase our staffing levels where it relates to brexit—related issues, and we will continue to do so, but, as i said, we want to ensure

that we will get a good deal. but there is no difference between the chancellor and myself. the chancellor says that we need to spend money only as necessary. i think that's correct, but we also need to ensure that we spend money on all areas where contingency plans are necessary. several mps made the point that business was not happy with the way the negotiations were progressing. we know the secretary of state has consulted the business community to find out how it will affect them, but will he commit today to publish the findings as called on by a range of mps across this house, even if the findings show that business wants to stay in the single market and customs union? at what point will this government stop governing in secret and publish the reality of the impact of brexit? hear, hear. mr speaker, the government is of course extremely concerned about any perceptions of instability, and we will consult widely, particularly when it comes

to a new free—trade agreements. but, of course, the greatest threat to instability, particularly in scotland, is the insistence of scottish government on threatening a second referendum on independence. i am very happy for him to go selling britain around the world. will he come to the real economy in places like huddersfield, where we have a strong manufacturing sector? will he come to the city or to leeds where we have a financial sector? and not one person i meet in those sectors want us to continue with this folly of brexit. but the trade minister who voted for remain in the referendum disagreed and offered a mea culpa. since the brexit vote, we are seeing a huge number of investment projects coming into the uk that are creating new jobs. there's doom—mongers like myself, mr speaker, who, during the referendum, were part of the project fear campaign, and have been proved wrong. i think it is important that we stand up and say, so far, we have not got this right, and that is incredibly good news for both britain and our individual constituencies. mr speaker, the government's own figures show a 9% drop in the number of newjobs created through foreign direct

investment projects, and a record trade deficit in goods and exports. so, in the realworld, that means thousands of workers losing theirjobs, as we've seen at bae systems, mr speaker. does he accept it will take a fully aligned trade and industrial strategy to protect jobs in this country? the current policy of relying on a falling pound is simply not good enough. i would just refer the gentleman to the fact that we now have record numbers of people in work, record employment and record unemployment. well, later, mps expressed concern about the progress of legislation through the commons to enable the uk's departure from the eu. the government has yet to decide when mps will be able to discuss the clauses of the bill in detail. mr speaker, when are we going to see the repeal bill? we sort of thought you might have mentioned a little

bit about that today, because as the leader of the house knows, this bill is still unacceptable to the scottish government and it is not prepared to give this bill a legislative consent motion. we are not prepared to have our devolution settlement undermined, our parliament emasculated and subjected to this unprecedented power grab. what is she doing in order to get this fixed out? what i can say to all members is, of course, there are some 300 amendments and 54 new claused being proposed, quite rightly, by members who have very real concerns about the bill, and those are being closely evaluated. that is taking a bit of time to have proper, thoughtful, well—considered responses to those, but we will of course be bringing forward the committee of the whole house just as soon as we are able to. 0ne mp called for a debate to give ministers from each department the opportunity to set out the cost of brexit. they could set out, for instance, the cost of the contingency plans, the cost of the 50 different sectors set out in the sectorial reports that we're not allowed to see, and the cost of the nissan deal and any other deals that are secret

deals with car manufacturers, and of course it would also enable ministers like the right honourable lady to set out exactly what they had said during the course of the eu referendum campaign about what the cost of leaving the european union was going to be to the taxpayer. well, i canjust say to the honourable gentleman that i absolutely disagree with most of the points he has made in that what he is clearly seeking to do is to fulfil the liberal democrats' ambition of denying the public their say in last year's referendum by trying to tie the government up in knots, in talking about contingent possibilities which may or may not come to fruition. well, the question of funding for a no deal scenario at the end of brexit negotiations continued to reverberate. away from westminster, a former conservative chancellor, lord lawson, said what philip hammond was doing was close to sabotage. but in the lords, another tory peer took a different view. my lords, are we not singularly fortunate in having a chancellor who is entirely sensible

and optimistic, who looks forward to a good deal, who realises that no deal would not be good for this country, and should we not give him every possible support? yes, my lord, just as the whole of the cabinet is in the same frame of mind. another conservative wondered if the uk might actually end up being quids in. when does my noble friend expect the valuation of eu assets to be completed? is it not the case that if a proper account is taken of the assets that we could even end up with the eu paying us rather than the other way around? you first heard the idea here. what a very interesting idea that my noble friend puts forward. i hope the eu commission listens very carefully to him but he makes a very serious point that when we issued a written statement back injuly, we made it clear that we will honour our obligations, both legal and moral

to the european union, but also that that is reciprocal. there are obligations from the eu to us, and that does include the valuation of assets. for labour, lady hayter was worried about how long the talks process was taking. the british chamber of commerce says further delay in opening trade talks is a lose—lose scenario, so how many more warnings, dire warnings about what this will do to the economy and the jobs do the government need until they start negotiating seriously? and of course as we move to the stage of wanting to have negotiations about our future partnership, there will be political decisions to be made about that. i and my colleagues have been engaging across europe in setting out the reasons why we think it's right for the economy of all countries of europe that we move to that negotiation swiftly. lady anelay. you're watching thursday in parliament with me, alicia mccarthy. don't forget, you can follow bbc parliament on twitter and catch previous editions of this programme

on the bbc iplayer. the prisons minister has told mps that the outbreak of violence at the long lartin prison in worcestershire was a very rare occurrence. the minister was answering an urgent question after staff were attacked with pool balls during the disturbance. 81 inmates are said to have been involved. so—called tornado teams of riot officers have been sent to the prison and 18 prisoners have been moved to other jails. we cannot regulate on the cause of this incident but we know the prison was running a full regime and that this was not linked to any shortfalls in a prison officer staffing levels. but labour said it marked another low point in the government prisons policy. does the minister believe forcing through hundreds of millions of budget cuts to our prisons in recent years has left our prisons more safe or less safe ?

does the minister believe that fewer and fewer staff dealing with more and more dangerous prisoners leads prisons more or less safe? yesterday the head of the prison service ruled out shutting down and selling off the dilapidated victorian jails across england and wales. this amounts to a shelving of a 2017 conservative general election manifesto promise. so does the minister believe that housing more and more people in victorian conditions will leave our prisons more safe or less safe? we are making huge efforts to increase the number of staff, not just the number, but also the ratio of staff to prison officers so you'd have one prison officer having a caseload of six prisoners to be able to help rehabilitation as well. the shadow spokesperson also ask about our commitment to close down old victorian prisons and new prison places. that remains within the cause of this parliament. ian portman road beat

up prison officer adam jackson stops and —— in stockton. he was ordered to pay £20 compensation to the officer. does the minister agree that such a slap on the wrist is totally inadequate, that it offers no deterrent at all to the folks who attack prison officers? the courts need to be given a clear responsibility that they too need to protect prison officers. absolutely. 0ur prison officers do a very difficult and challenging job. and where they are assaulted or threatened at work, we should follow the full course of the law. can the minister outlined what the government is doing to prevent the use of drones to bring contraband into prison. drones are an emerging and serious threat to

our prisons, especially as they carry an increasing payload as the development goes. we're working with drone manufacturers to use technology to stop drones, but we are also focusing on the law enforcement aspect. before i became the prisons minister there had only been one conviction for someone flying a drone into prison. this year alone there have been 11 convictions. labour mp paul sheriff was at the forefront of a campaign to put an end to what was dubbed the tampon tax. the vat added to women's sanitary products. now fighting a new are doing some girls are too —— now she's fighting a new campaign, arguing some girls are too poor to afford proper sanitary protection, which stops them going to school. schoolgirls in yorkshire and elsewhere have had to use toilet paper and even socks stuffed into their underwear because families

can't afford sanitary protection due to poverty pay and welfare cuts. will the secretary of state consider matching our commitment to set aside funding to tackle period poverty and in showgirls never miss out —— and ensure girls never miss out on their educationjust because they are having periods. schools already have discretion over how they can use their funding if they want to make sanitary products available to disadvantaged students. then they are free to do so. i think the whole house will recognise this is a situation and issue that goes wider than the role of schools. it's about making sure parents understand the need to play their role in educating their own children, but also separately, the very clear—cut duty parents have make sure their children are attending school and complying with the law to do so. that answer prompted shouts of disgrace from the opposition benches. a labourmp... i find her attitude harsh around the period question.

and wonder whether she would review it in the light of today's debate because i think it needs a second look and i think her approach is a little harsh in terms of schools having to stump up money for sanitary pads, firstly, and secondly blaming parents, because periods are just one of those things, you can't name parents for periods. i think this is an important area clearly but in the end we have to recognise that we need to allow school some discretion with how they want to deal with this alongside a range of other specific issues that the pupils they teach may face. i have to say i don't agree with her actually, i do think parents have a responsibility to play their role in making sure children understand how they will approach adult life. and i think parents do have a responsibility. justine greening. the government has launched a clean growth strategy with the aim of increasing uk wealth whilst cutting emissions harmful to the environment. it set up 50 proposals

including 30 new ones. in what was an unusually harmonious session, business minister claire perry took the rare step of congratulating opposition politicians for their role in tackling climate change. it is our belief the uk can lead the world in creating clean technologies, jobs and businesses. this is the core message. we will establish an industrial energy efficiency scheme to help large companies cut their bills and announced today a new commitment to demonstrate international leadership in carbon capture uses and storages. in leading edge innovation to drive down costs. there have been many years of hard work on these issues, the minister said, signalling out former labour leader ed miliband and the liberal democrats sir edward davey. like to highlight the right honourable member for kingston and surbiton, and for

doncaster, and thank them for their efforts for the government in opposition, pitiful to getting us where we are today. —— pivotal to getting us where we are today. and like many members across both houses you have absolutely doubled down and face this challenge. i agree with the minister that the uk has been, as it should be, towards the front of the pack in action to decarbonise our economy. i also agree with the minister that the responsibility for that lies with the honourable members she has paid tribute to today in terms of getting us to the position we have got to. i also very much welcome, as far as she's concerned, the evident position that she is fundamentally onside on the need to radically decarbonise our country to meet climate change imperatives. i have to say, unlike many of her honourable friends on the backbenches on her own side. he wanted to know about the prospect for continuing membership of the eu

emissions trading scheme. in her report the importance long—term of the eu eds is underlined, but we currently have no certainty the uk will remain within the eu ets on brexit, and whether there will be any commitment if not. a connected uk trading scheme will be established that will continue to keep the trading sector on target. i don't know if my honourable friend got a chance to read one on the circular economy by me actually. if she does, she'll realise why i'm such a happy person today, to see that hard wired across government is an understanding that resource efficiency is not something we just require of businesses and congratulate them when we do it. we have to lead. not only lead in this country, but lead globally. i've read the excellent document put forward by the conservative

environmental network and want to remind the house the first person who raised the issue of man—made activities, men's and women's activities on the impact of the climate was, of course, mrs thatcher, who understood the core conservative principle that you take care of what you inherited and try to pass it onto the next generation in a betterform. with green energy is fast becoming the cheapest, may i thank the minister for her kind words on my role and in that spirit take the unusual approach in this house of reserving myjudgment on the strategy before i actually read it. sir ed davey. good news for dog lovers, only two weeks until the annual westminster dog of the year contest. a charity event is a chance for parliamentarians to show off their four—legged friends and find out who really is top dog. an mp wondered if the speakerjohn bercow would be entering the competition. it turns out there was a problem with that idea.

i don't have a dog. we have a cat, called 0rder. which of course means the speaker can use his signature catchphrase to call his kitty in every night. that's it from us for now. dojoin me on friday night at 11 for our round—up of the week at westminster when among other things we'll hear from the speakerjohn bercow. not on his thought about pets, but his views for reforming parliament. for now, from me, alicia mccarthy, goodbye. hi there. i'm going to talk about hurricane 0phelia in a moment, but first of all the weather here in the uk. this is the set up.

low pressure to the north of the uk. a weather front moving in with some wet weather and tightly packed isobars, telling you it will be a windy day with gales around coasts and hills in the north and west. the wettest weather will be in northern ireland in scotland the brightness across north—west england and wales as well. as we go on through the rest of the day, we will eventually see sunshine across scotla nd eventually see sunshine across scotland and northern ireland is a band of rain continues to move southwards. rain to the cumbrian fells again, a lot of rain causing localised surface flooding. a lot of the full list of england, occasional blustery skills. 0n the full list of england, occasional blustery skills. on friday night, the weather front stops working southwards and turns northwards. further wet weather to come and in the north of wales. temperatures in double figures everywhere but particularly mild, 16 degrees to cardiff and manchester as well. this weekend, high pressure is with us to

go this one pushes northwards, we will have the wind coming from a long way south and means it will be mild, even warmth at this time of year with the temperature potentially reaching 23 degrees where we see sunshine coming through. that is far above average for the stage in october. most of us on saturday begins on a cloudy notes will be awhile before the cloud brea ks will be awhile before the cloud breaks up and we will occasionally glimpses of sunshine. when it does happen it will fill warm. rank list from northern england but lingered awhile in ireland and scotland as well. temperatures reaching 23 degrees in the best of across eastern areas. cloudy, wet and cold the far north west of scotland. beyond we need to look at the south. this is the hurricane 0phelia. this weekend will pass close to the eastern azores and then worked northwards. and will not be a hurricane any longer from sunday but the wind expands and moves underneath the powerfuljet steam. the storm is heading towards the

british isles, we don't know of will head west of ireland or to attract further east. the storm, though not a hurricane, bring destructive weather. the track is uncertain but make sure you stay in touch with the weather forecast over the next few days. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley. our top stories: police in the us and uk launch investigations into sexual assault claims against the hollywood producer harvey weinstein. oscar winner emma thompson tells us... this man is at the top of a very particular iceberg — i don't think you can describe him as a sex addict, he's a predator. held hostage by the afghan taliban for five years — pakistani forces rescue a north american couple

and their three young children. fears for a new civil war in iraq as iraqi troops head north towards the country's kurdish population. and fighting london's monster ‘fatberg.’ we meet the team unclogging the city's ageing sewers.