picking up from where he left off last night, many about revelations of the democratic campaign distracting opponents. he is trying to distract everyone from the investigation going on into his own campaign linked with russia. time for a look at the weather. here's ben rich. good afternoon. plenty of bonfire parties going on this weekend. will the weather give us fireworks? it will step up a gear after a quiet end to the week. very still conditions, giving fog in places. there is a that will bring some very wet weather. really it is all about the rain across the southern half of the british isles and heavy bursts of rain through the night. the skies will be clearing for northern ireland and scotland and showers coming in from the west and it will feel quite a lot colder here by the time we get to tomorrow morning. that we can start on a mild zero

across the south—east, but a soggy note. 13 celsius in london with some heavy rain. also stretching into east anglia and lincolnshire. out west, very different weather. spells of sunshine. showers pushing into the coast. at chilly start in eastern scotland. six celsius in aberdeen at 9am and some showers getting going. the show was perhaps wintry over the high ground of scotland. as we go on through the day, it will take awhile to clear the string away from the south—east. parts of east anglia stay in grey and down for a good part of the day. elsewhere, we will see some sunshine. showers blowing in in areas exposed to the westerly winds and temperatures just eight celsius in belfast. and as we through tomorrow evening, plenty of fireworks displays, of course. it will turn quite chilly. dry weather ina will turn quite chilly. dry weather in a major towns and cities but western areas could see some passing showers on saturday night. sunday

probably more politely dry, but also a little bit colder. we will start the day on sunday with some showers, but these will fade away through the day to leave some sunshine for the afternoon. a typing 10 celsius. and then quite a widespread frost to come during sunday night. to sum things up, rain initially, which will clear away to leave a mixture of sunshine and showers. a gear as we head into the weekend. thank you very much. a reminder of our main story here this lunchtime. there are questions for labour after it emerged that an mp who was accused of sexual harassment was promoted to the shadow cabinet. goodbye from eve ryo ne the shadow cabinet. goodbye from everyone here. wejoin the news teams wherever you are today. have a good afternoon. goodbye. good afternoon. i have the latest

headlines here at the bbc sports centre. there's been a blow for england's cricketers ahead of their ashes tour in australia. steven finn and moeen ali will both miss the first word matches with injury. steven finn is struggling with a knee problem, although scans have shown that it is not as bad as first feared. he will be assessed in the next week. england's first picture isa next week. england's first picture is a two match this weekend. moeen ali has an injury to his side. he will be back in for training by the middle of this month. the england captain has been speaking to the media ahead of that opening tour match. he believes that this side do have the strength in depth to cope. iam have the strength in depth to cope. i am quietly confident about the way we have gone about the first few days of practice here. it is going to be important that we play well in these warm up games but i look at these warm up games but i look at the squad that we have got and we

have got all bases covered. i think it will be important that we make big scores that the bat but we have a lot of experience in the bowling department and guys that are desperate to do well and prove point toa desperate to do well and prove point to a lot of people back home. the first round of the fa cup gets underway later today, with a team from the eighth year of an football taking on mk dons in front of a 3500 sell—out cloud and light on the bbc. their manager, darren kelly, is looking forward to what could be a historic night. i hope we can go and put on a good show for the supporters. we are not going to do anything differently. they are five leagues above, but we will give it a good go and no matter what i think the supporters will all be proud of the supporters will all be proud of the players and the effort that is being put in. we will be ready for it and the supporters will be getting on back and helping us through. fingers crossed. it could bea through. fingers crossed. it could be a good night from us. in golf, england's eleanor givens has shot into contention at the abu dhabi 0pen after producing the best round

of the day to move up to third on the leaderboard. an eagle and six birdies on her card round of 64 to end up on 12 under. she trails a player from india by end up on 12 under. she trails a playerfrom india by three end up on 12 under. she trails a player from india by three shots and is just player from india by three shots and isjust one behind an player from india by three shots and is just one behind an american. despite a bogey on the 14th, a round of 69 saw georgia hall remain in contention. she isjust contention. she is just one shot behind givens. wayne graham was the star of the match as australia thrashed france 52—60 to win their second match at the rugby league world cup. in only his second appearance for his country, he ran infour appearance for his country, he ran in four tries, equalling the record for tries scored in a single match ata for tries scored in a single match at a world cup. cameron munster marked his debut with two tries before balla ntyne homes before ballantyne homes completed the round. after the success in baseball's world series, the champions the houston astros have returned to their home city. world series most valuable player george springer helped the trophy high as he walked down the steps from the

plane. the team will be honoured with a parade through downtown houston today. a rally will follow on the city hall steps and schoolchildren have benefited from the astros went over the dodgers. all classes in the houston school district work cancelled for the day. that is all for now. you can find out more including reaction to the patrice evra incident last night on the bbc sport website. there are details of the 1000 hours of extra sport the bbc plans to broadcast on each year. i will have more per year in the next hour or so. thank you very much. good afternoon. you are watching bbc news. let's take a look at the main stories. a labour activist who accused an mp of sexual harassment has told the bbc she feels disillusioned by how the party handled it. ava etemadzadeh, 27, said she was left feeling "very powerless and isolated" after kelvin hopkins was promoted the year

after she complained about him. labour says it takes such complaints "extremely seriously." mr hopkins, who represents luton north, has yet to comment. 27—year—old ava etemadzadeh has been speaking to our deputy political editor, john pienaar. she told him what had happened. the first incident happened on campus and he hugged me very tightly and rubbed himself against me. it made me feel extremely uncomfortable and it was a revolting act. the second incident was in parliament, when i went to have a conversation with him and he told me that, let's not talk about politics, do you have a boyfriend. he also said that if nobody was in his office he would have ta ken

nobody was in his office he would have taken me there. i was absolutely shocked and wasn't really expecting that. and you brought your phone. there was a text message, or more than one text message. so a few weeks after i refuse to respond to his calls, he left that message saying that i am an attractive, lovely young woman and a man would be lucky to have me as a lover, and if he was young, but he's not. how did you feel then and now? again, if he was young, but he's not. how did you feelthen and now? again, i was really shocked. i wasn't expecting that and i don't think people in parliament should act like that. it made me feel extremely uncomfortable. this is why i decided to do something about it. did you say anything to kelvin hopkins at the time? yes, i did. i said thank you for your kind words. but you didn't protest? at the time, no. you

complained later on? yes. did you give every detail of what you say happened? yes. it took me a few months to decide if i wanted to raise it with the party. eventually, i got raise it with the party. eventually, igot in raise it with the party. eventually, i got in touch with one of my mp5 offices and they put me in touch with someone on behalf of the labour party and she responded to my complaint. although i didn't... she told me that it can't be anonymous if we are going to report it. and that actually really that scared me. because obviously i didn't want my name to be all over the place. and so name to be all over the place. and sol name to be all over the place. and so i didn't take it further. 0k, name to be all over the place. and so i didn't take it further. ok, but then you were told that your complaint was being taken seriously? yes. but by the leader's office, no.

because the chief whip of the labour party at the time, she informed the leader's office and i was to have evidence that the regional office contacted the leader's office about this and it was ignored and i myself tweeted tojeremy this and it was ignored and i myself tweeted to jeremy corbyn about this incident. it was during the cabinet reshuffle. you tweeted. .. directly tojeremy corbyn. reshuffle. you tweeted. .. directly to jeremy corbyn. in a direct message? no, it was not a direct message. you just put it on twitter. what did you say tojeremy corbyn? message. you just put it on twitter. what did you say to jeremy corbyn?|j told him that he shouldn't demote rosa winterton because she stood by me whenl rosa winterton because she stood by

me when i reported an mp who was misbehaving. i am actually very disillusioned because just a few months later i realised that jeremy corbyn promoted kelvin hopkins to the shadow cabinet, despite the fact that the leader's office was aware of this, and they refused to act and that made me feel very powerless and isolated and alone. so you feel let down by the party, which you still support, i presume? i do, because the amount of support i have been receiving from the party, from various people within the labour party, has been absolutely phenomenal. there are people in the party who helped me with raising this issue. what makes me distraught

is that the leader's office knew this and they didn't act on it and a couple of weeks ago i had been working on this issue with that telegraph and yesterday i had a meeting with the chief whip of the labour party and raised it with them again. but what they told me was that i have to make a complaint through a formal procedure, that means going through the nec. a a few hours later, the ndc, a lady a few hours later, the ndc, a lady a few hours later, the ndc, a lady a few hours later someone cold me from the labour party and told me that... asked me for an explanation about what happened and she told me if you could write down a statement and send it to us we would publish it... sorry, we would deal with your complaint, a very formal complaint,

and it is going to take a few days. but a few hours later, i was contacted again by the same person in the labour party and she told me they were contacted by a journalist and they were going to publish about kelvin hopkins, sol and they were going to publish about kelvin hopkins, so i have spoken to the wet and we have decided to suspend kelvin hopkins. this happened exactly just a suspend kelvin hopkins. this happened exactlyjust a few minutes before the publication of the article. and the reason they did this is because a few minutes before... sorry, if you minutes or hours before, the labour party received... it was contacted by the telegraph regarding a comment on this issue. so you believe the

labour party took the action that it has taken now simply to avoid embarrassment? yes, yes, absolutely, yell. basically, they tried to cover it up because they had no intention to act this quickly before that, and i have evidence to prove it. but a few hours later, they told me that they suddenly decided after the journalist contacted them, they suddenly decided to suspend him and they say it is because obviously you had raised this issue two years ago andl had raised this issue two years ago and i don't believe that. because they had previously told me this has to go through a formal process. what do you hope happens now is the result of yours and maybe other cases? what do you hope is going to change as a result of all this? well, it was a very hard decision for me to go public on this, but i didn't want this to happen to future political activists and what we need

fiow political activists and what we need now is an independent reporting body to investigate this because what we saw yesterday shows that this wasn't dealt with independently and the party tried to cover it up. and you believe this sort of thing, as you describe it, will go on happening, 01’ describe it, will go on happening, or do you believe that something will change now maybe for good? or do you believe that something will change now maybe for good ?|j believe, will change now maybe for good?” believe, yeah. i believe so because over the past few weeks we have witnessed all of the mp '5 weather of the labour party or the other parties being exposed, and we saw that michael fallon resigned from the cabinet, which i think this shows that westminster is... you know, the culture is changing and they are working on it. and i am very pleased, but obviously i am still disillusioned by the labour party by how they handled this,

especially the leadership, jeremy corbyn's leadership. well, that was ava etemadzadeh talking to our deputy political editor. the prominent labour backbencher jess philips has criticised the promotion of kelvin hopkins to the shadow cabinet last year after the allegation had been made, saying it "seemed wrong". well, i mean, ithink it well, i mean, i think it is probably going to be all part of an investigation but i don't think i would have promoted him, having known that this had taken place, and there was evidence because there was text m essa g e there was evidence because there was text message evidence, so i don't think i would have promoted him and i know that the victim felt a little bit bereft by his promotion. that was jessica bit bereft by his promotion. that wasjessica phillips. and labour's shadow chief secretary peter dowd welcomed cross—party action on the issue but stressed that it should be "transparent." i think that what the key to this is to make sure that this is

transparent and open. and people feel able, whatever the mechanism, whatever the process, that they don't feel that they are discouraged from coming forward with a particular complaint or allegation. but the exact mechanisms around that are very important, and i think it has got to feed into that open and transparent environment that we all should operate in. labour's leaderjeremy corbyn also refused to comment when approached this morning. good morning, mr corbyn. good morning. nice to see you. thinking to —— thank you for coming to my street. goodbye. were you aware of the allegations against him, mr corbyn? leave him alone! thanks. were you aware of the allegations against him, mr corbyn? goodbye.

that was jeremy corbyn's reaction. this morning, we will keep an eye on that story and keep you up to date throughout the day here on bbc news. coming up, we have a summary of the latest business news this hour. the headlines on bbc news: a labour mp is suspended over allegations he harassed a member of staff — and was later promoted to the frontbench byjeremy corbyn. the man accused of trying to kill his wife by tampering with her parachute begins to give evidence in his defence. life—changing drugs to be prescribed faster — the government wants five medicines each year to be fast—tracked. now it's time for the business news. twitter is investigating how president trump's account was deactivated for 11 minutes — it's blaming an employee who was on their last day at their company. the downtime doesn't seem to have phased him — he was back online tweeting

about tax cuts, to his 41 million followers, soon after. growth in the uk services sector has accelerated to a six month high thanks to new orders. robust demand from clients helped the industry which accounts for three quarters of the economy notched up its fastest rise since april according to the purchasing managers index for markit/cips. shoppers have been queuing up at apple stores in dozens of countries, as the high—end iphone x, which retails for £999, went on sale on today. the tenth anniversary iphone abandons the signature "home" button and can be unlocked with face—scanning technology, among other new features. the launch coincided with strong results for the tech firm, with sales increasing by 12% to £40 billion for the three months to september. hello, welcome to the business news this afternoon. we're going to be talking shopping this hour. do you research online before you buy? well, if you do, you're not alone, according to new research out today

by the british retail confederation. total uk retail search volumes grew 9% across all devices in the last few months compared with the same quarter a year ago. joining me now is rachel lund, head of retail insight & analytics rachel lund, head of retail insight & analytics at the british retail consortium hello. thank you forjoining us. let's start off with these figures about researching an hour for smartphones and devices. how do we know this and what is the killers in terms of patterns? so we have gathered some data from google and their data basically allows it to tell us whether the data has come from smartphones are desktop dark ta blets. from smartphones are desktop dark tablets. what we have seen is the rapid rise in browsing on smartphones. and if there are regional difference that we are finding in these patterns? not particularly. patterns in browsing do tend to follow population

distribution in the uk, but it is fair to say across the country people are using smartphones more. 0k, what about sector? are there are sectors that people research more than others? so retail as a whole sector has had her high penetration of smartphones and other industries, but down below that beauty and fashion have been some of the big areas where people use their smartphones to browse online because for example they see something in this street and they like it and they look it up and try to find it online. and how does this affect the high street retailer, then?” online. and how does this affect the high street retailer, then? i think the big issue for the high street retailer is getting its mobile website right because the same website right because the same website won't necessarily work on a desktop and on a mobile. you can show as much, so retailers have to invest more in the mobile platforms. 0k, and what about more traditional online shopping. is that perhaps taking the lion's share, then, as we

are going forward? online shopping is certainly growing a lot faster than in—store shopping. however, it still only accounts for about 15% of all retail sales. what is clear is that there is a real symbiosis between stores and online so stores can drive online group and vice ve rsa can drive online group and vice versa as well. 0k. thank you very much forjoining us. now, as i explained, the pound fell yesterday after indications as future rate rises would be few and far between. well, today, the deputy governor of the bank of england has told the bbc that the rise in inflation since brexit was one of the main reasons for yesterday's decision to increase interest rates. the fall in sterling has been partly blamed for the rise in prices. ben broadbent was asked whether that rise combined with the wage squeeze would cause many people economic pain. there will be some, but i think it is one part of how monetary policy works. equally, one should keep this in context — around a third of

households have owner—occupied mortgages, interest payments on debt in aggregate for households are lower than they have ever been relative to income. us president trump is preparing to embark on his longest trip abroad in his presidency so far, starting injapan on sunday and ending in the philippines. he will spend two days injapan meeting with prime minister shinzo abe. so what are some of the issues they will be talking about? we spoke to stephen mcdonell in toyko a little earlier. well, really, there's a lot of people in japan and well, really, there's a lot of people injapan and the united states who would love this visit to be focused around trade, but i think the concern is that it's all going to be swamped by north korea. but for example japan is to be swamped by north korea. but for examplejapan is in to be swamped by north korea. but for example japan is in favour of getting together the tpp in lebanon, as it is calling it. so that is the transpacific partnership without the us involved. the hope is that everybody would get involved and somehow get this initiative from the

0bama administration going again, and that this would drive the us back into the tpp. but by the same token, they don't want to embarrass donald trump on his visit here, so i'm not sure how hard they're going to be pushing for it. the other thing, of course, that they will both speak about is the possibility ofa both speak about is the possibility of a free—trade agreement between the two countries. again, i don't think they will be going into any detail, but everything could be kicked off and then i suppose the administrations in both countries would be pretty happy with it that talks were at least underway. 0n the financial markets, in london, frankfurt and paris — this is how european shares are trading. the uk services sector accounts for most of the uk economy and it grew by its fastest rate in six months in 0ctober by its fastest rate in six months in october is, so the saying goes against the dollar. that's all the business news. thank you very much indeed.

ime for a look at the weather. it very good afternoon to year. i think we would agree that this week has been pretty quiet. things stepped up a gear as we head into the weekend. there are some changes ahead. things pretty calm out there today. that is the scene in north yorkshire, but there has been some sunshine as well. a beautiful picture from one of our weather watchers in aberdeenshire. by the rest of the afternoon, there will be cloud, but parts of mid wales and the south—east england scenes and brightness. 9—16dc as far as the temperature school. this weather front doesn't look like much at the moment, but as we head through to tonight, that will sink southwards and eastwards and join forces with this approaching weather system from the south—west, and this will add up to give a really wet night across many parts of england and wales,

perhaps some fog early on. really it is all about the rain overnight. for northern ireland and scotland, clear skies. showers coming in from the west and colder feel. skies. showers coming in from the west and colderfeel. we skies. showers coming in from the west and colder feel. we start the weekend on soggy note. a pretty mild start to the weekend. 13 celsius in london. 0ut west, things brightening up. sunshine across the south—west of england and wales. a cooler fuel, certainly across north—west england, where we will see some sunshine which also stretches up into eastern scotland. showers over high ground will be falling as sleet and snow and some showers for northern ireland along with sunshine. as we go on through the day, for most it isa go on through the day, for most it is a story of bright skies and sunshine. 0nce is a story of bright skies and sunshine. once we have cleared this rain away. that will not be a quick process. in fact, rain away. that will not be a quick process. infact, it rain away. that will not be a quick process. in fact, it will be cloudy and dump all the way through until the end of the day. 0ut and dump all the way through until the end of the day. out west, some sunshine and showers. wintry over high ground in the north and those temperatures 8—14dc. it will be

chilly if you are going to see the fireworks on saturday night. still some showers in western areas. some clear spells as well. sunday will be more reliably dry for more others. things certainly will be getting cold during sunday night. on sunday, we start with showers which fade away to leave dry conditions and some spells of sunshine. wendy to the western temperatures struggling. a widespread frost during sunday night. so for the weekend, rain at first which will clear to leave a mixture of sunshine and showers, but for all others are cold fuelled by day and night. get the weather for your area online. hello, you're watching afternoon live. i'm rebecca jones. today at two: labour suspends an mp after a party activist alleged he sexually harassed her three years ago. he is yet to comment.

they refused to act, and that made me feel very powerless, and isolated and alone. an army sergeant, on trial accused of attempting to murder his wife by sabotaging her parachute, takes the stand for the first time. charged with rebellion and sedition, eight former catalan ministers spend the night in prison. coming up on afternoon live all the sport with hugh, and a former manchester united player could be facing a long ban.