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. patrice evra, now with marseille, has questions to answer, after appearing to kick a supporter of his current club, before a europa league

game last night. uefa have opened disciplinary proceedings and marseille have opened an internal investigation. ben has all the weather. eyes to the skies this weekend, fireworks displays across the country. tonight is soggy. colder weather in subsequent nights. all the details later on. thanks, ben. also coming up: a parting gesture — the twitter employee who took down donald trump's account on his last day at work. hello, everyone. this is afternoon live. i'm rebecca jones. the labour leaderjeremy corbyn is under pressure to explain why he promoted the mp kelvin hopkins into his shadow cabinet,

a few months after hopkins had been reprimanded, following allegations that he'd sexually harrassed a young activist. the mp for luton north has now been suspended while an investigation is carried out. he was suspended last night while the claims made by ava etemadzadeh are investigated. mr hopkins has not commented but labour says it takes such complaints ‘extremely seriously‘. meanwhile, sir michael fallon, who resigned as defence secretary earlier this week, has categorically denied making inappropriate sexual comments to the leader of the commons andrea leadsom. our political correspondent iain watson has the latest on the continuing allegations of misconduct at westminster. he is a close ally ofjeremy corbyn, and nominated him for the party leadership but now the luton mp kelvin hopkins has been suspended from the parliamentary labour party. that's because of allegations made by this labour activist who told the bbc he'd acted

inappropriately towards her. 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 political conversation with him and he told me that, let's not talk about politics, do you have a boyfriend? and he also mentioned that he also said that if nobody was in his office he would have taken me there. i was absolutely shocked. she says she also received a suggestive text and took her concerns to another labour mp who reported them to the most seniorfigure in charge of labour party discipline, the then chief whip rosie winterton. kelvin hopkins was reprimanded and subs kweptly temporarily promoted to the shadow cabinet. that made me feel powerless,

and isolated and alone. last year, around 80% ofjeremy corbyn‘s mps voted that they had no confidence in his leadership, that meant he had trouble filling some of his front rankjobs. kelvin hopkins was happy to help out. but i've been very reliably informed thatjeremy corbyn did indeed know that kelvin hopkins had been reprimanded before he promoted him to the shadow cabinet, although i'm also being told he wasn't made aware of some of the more dramatic aspects of this case. jeremy corbyn wasn't any more forthcoming today, but labour point out that kelvin hopkins has now been suspended and new more robust proceedures for reporting harassment have been put in place. were you aware of the allegations against mr hopkins? goodbye. some say even recent reforms aren't adequate. it needs a big injection of independence from a specialist

agency, a specialist sexual violence, sexual harassment agency so people can feel when they first report there's no fear or favour and also that when any arbitration of anything below a criminal threshold is being decided on that there is a specialist in the room advising any panel. and she was surprised at kelvin hopkins had been given a shadow cabinet role. i don't think i would have promoted him and i know the victim felt a little bit bereft by his promotion. kelvin hopkins hasn't responded to requests for a statement. it's not just labour under scrutiny. some newspapers carried new allegations about former defence secretary sir michael fallon, suggesting he made lewd remarks some years ago to andrea leadsom. he categorically denies this and she won't comment. but beyond specific allegations, the bigger question is what reforms major political parties are willing to agree to enable victims of harassment to come forward and receive support? ian watson, bbc news, westminster.

let's start with the suspension of this labourmp, it let's start with the suspension of this labour mp, it would appear he was promoted after he'd been reprimanded, what kind of problems does this pose for the labour leadership? i think, does this pose for the labour leadership? ithink, rebecca, does this pose for the labour leadership? i think, rebecca, this puts jeremy corbyn under some pressure, because it questions, calls into question his own judgment. he has spoken out very forcibly at against sexual harassment since the allegations have surfaced in westminster, talking about labour having a zero tolerance approach. sieges have been put in place, but these allegations from this young labour activists concerning job and hopkins speak to the fact that this was during a time whenjeremy the fact that this was during a time when jeremy corbyn the fact that this was during a time whenjeremy corbyn was leader. it is a series allegation made under his watch. as you heard in the package, it goes back to the time thatjeremy corbyn was struggling to fill top

posts in his team, in his close team, because of the wave of resignations that hit the shadow cabinet after the eu referendum. this was a time when the leadership was in some disarray. it is unclear whetherjeremy corbyn, at that time, about the allegations that had been, we understand, but to him six months beforehand, before kelvin hopkins was promoted. labour say an investigation is underway. kelvin hopkins has been suspended. we have not heard anything from him. really. but it puts labour under pressure to explain whatjeremy corbyn knew precisely, when and why he did not ta ke precisely, when and why he did not take this incident into account when he promoted kelvin hopkins to the shadow cabinet. meanwhile, in the conservative party, more allegations about michael fallon and what he's supposed to have said to andrea leadsom, any comment from either of them? we have not heard anything

from andrea leadsom about this claim that she took to downing street. this week, a report of some lewd comments allegedly made by sir michael fallon to her, some six weeks ago at a parliamentary meeting. there are newspapers digestion is that this was the ca ta lyst digestion is that this was the catalyst for sir michael fallon to 90, catalyst for sir michael fallon to go, to either be pushed out, or to resign. but we have had a categorical denial from michael fallon‘s spokesperson about the specifics of those comments. but we have also this afternoon had a statement from number ten to say that the leader of the house, which is andrea leadsom did not and had not asked the prime minister to consider the position of sir michael when he was defence secretary. downing street denying quite forcefully that andrea leadsom's comments, or alleged comments to the

prime minister had anything to do with sir michael fallon‘s departure, making clear that sir michael fallon laid out his reasons for resigning in his letter. but i think we can see already that this is a cross— party see already that this is a cross—party issue. more allegations are surfacing day by day. on monday, we have a cross—party meeting, convened by theresa may with other party leaders in westminster, to figure out a way forward. but the buzzword on monday will be independent, because there have been calls from all ports for there to be independent mechanisms for people to report harassment that doesn't involve going to senior figures within their own political parties. we will leave it there. leila matthew in westminster. it's believed that london's metropolitan police are investigating an allegation of sexual assault against the hollywood actor kevin spacey. according to the sun newspaper, the allegation was made on tuesday but the alleged assault took place back in 2008. joining me on set is our entertainment correspondent,

chi chi izundu. what can you tell us? i can tell you that the sun are reporting a british 32—year—old man walked into a city of london police station on tuesday, and made a complete about a sexual assault, as you say, dating back to 2008, when the victim was 23 years of age. the alleged attacker is a p pa re ntly of age. the alleged attacker is apparently kevin spacey. authorities have confirmed they have received a complaint about an assault dating back from 2008. it is alleged to have happened in the london borough of lambeth. however, the police would not confirm that the allegations had been made against kevin spacey. they would not name him. this is the first allegation that has been made against kevin spacey that would have gone to the police. we mustn't forget that kevin spacey was the artistic director of the old vic from 200a—15.

spacey was the artistic director of the old vic from 2004-15. this comes after a number of allegations against him. indeed, this started on sunday night with actor anthony rapp, starring in star trek. sunday night with actor anthony rapp, starring in startrek. he sunday night with actor anthony rapp, starring in star trek. he said he had an improper in counter with kevin spacey when he was 14 years of age. another man told the bbc earlier this week that he had another improper in counter with kevin spacey when he was 17 years of age. they both allege that these things happen. several others have come out in la, as well, claiming similar accounts. overnight, kevin spa cey‘s similar accounts. overnight, kevin spacey‘s publicist said they are no longer his representation. the charity commission has confirmed it has contacted the old vic trust and kevin spacey foundation, to seek applications on matters of safeguarding, and whether they should step in as the regulatory body. on safeguarding issues as well, cnn have also said a number of employees from the house of cards

production that kevin spacey stars m, production that kevin spacey stars in, they have come forward to make a number of allegations. we must say that kevin spacey, in terms of anthony rapp's allegation, did apologise and said he did not recall the encounter. since the allegations have come forward, he has also said that he is seeking evaluation and treatment. 0k, chi chi izundu, thanks. an army sergeant accused of trying to kill his wife by sabotaging her parachute has begun giving evidence in his defence. victoria cilliers suffered multiple injuries when her parachute failed to open during a jump in wiltshire in 2015. emile cilliers denies all the charges. helena lee is following the case at winchester crown court. shejoins us now, what has record been hearing so far? rebecca, as you say, this is the first time the man at the centre of this trial at

winchester crown court has spoken in court in front of the jury. he is alleged to have tried to kill his wife on two separate occasions. he took to the witness box. he wore a navy suit and a yellow tie. his hands were classed in front of him. he stood up as he gave his evidence, and faced the jury. he was questioned by his defence solicitor elizabeth marsh qc, who essentially wa nted elizabeth marsh qc, who essentially wanted to paint a picture of his life before these alleged incidents took place. what he told the court was that he was born in south africa. he had two children in south africa. he had two children in south africa. he had two children in south africa. he then moved to the uk seven africa. he then moved to the uk seve n yea rs africa. he then moved to the uk seven years ago. he met his first wife here in the uk, they had two children together. they got married. he alsojoined the children together. they got married. he also joined the military. they then separated, and he went on to meet his second wife, victoria cilliers, who they had two children together as well. the background to

this case, the prosecution alleges he tried to sabotage his wife's parachute. it was in 2015. victoria cilliers, her parachute failed, and also her reserve parachute failed. she fell 4000 feet, and suffered from multiple injuries, including broken vertebrae, and also broken ribs as well. she has already given evidence to this trial, but it is the turn now of emile cilliers, who is 37 years old. he is going to be continued to be questioned this afternoon by his defence solicitor. thanks, helena lee at winchester crown court. you are watching afternoon live. these are the headlines. a labour activist who accused the mp kelvin hopkins of sexual harassment has said she felt let down by the party's response — he has yet to comment. an army sergeant — on trial accused of attempting to murder his wife by sabotaging her parachute —

has taken the stand for the first time and nine former catalan ministers are appearing in court in madrid, for a second day, accused of rebellion and sedition, over the region's declaration of independence. in a moment,silencing the president, the twitter employee who took down donald trump's account on his last day at work. in sport, uefa have opened disciplinary proceedings against the former manchester united defender, patras evra, after appearing to aim a kick at a supporter of his current team, marseille, before their europa league match last night. the manchester united bossjose mourinho has pleaded innocence afterfacing tax fraud allegations relating to his time as real madrid boss. leaving court in spain, borini told thejudge he had already paid an amount demanded by the authorities to close the matter. the judge will decide if the case will go to trial. and england captain joe

decide if the case will go to trial. and england captainjoe root says the ashes isn't about going out and getting drunk, but maintaining the right balance between enjoying australia, and focusing on their cricket. i will be back with those stories after 14:30. let's get more on the woman who complained about the labour mp, kelvin hopkins,and says she feels let down by the way the party has handled the matter. jeremy corbyn is under pressure to explain why mr hopkins was promoted to the shadow cabinet just months after being reprimanded over the sexual harassment allegations. mr hopkins has not commented. ava etemadzadeh spoke to our deputy political editor, john pienaar. 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 political conversation with him.

and he told me that, "let's not talk about politics, do you have a boyfriend?" and he also mentioned that, he also said that if nobody was in his office, he would have taken me there. i was absolutely shocked. i wasn't really expecting that. and you brought your phone, there was a text message or more than one text message, tell me about that. so a few weeks after i refused to respond to his cause, 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, how do you feel now? again, i was very shocked. i wasn't really expecting that. and i don't think someone who's representing the people in parliament should act like that. it made me feel extremely uncomfortable. this is why i've decided to do something about it. with me is anne mcelvoy, senior editor at the economist. a week is a long time in politics,

and these rumours have been circulating all week, reflecting back over the last few days, what do you make of it all? it started out asa you make of it all? it started out as a firestorm, it looked like a lot of things were going to come out that looked unpleasant, perhaps you could use yourjudgment about what was serious and what wasn't. the more serious rape allegations were in the background, but it looked like you could draw a clean divide between these things. what has happened since, it is now so toxic, and it is seeping to the top of the government, anyone who has anything in their past had better come forward now, this is going to be the cleaning house that ruth davidson spoke about, it is gone to happen. but it is not going to happen without collateral damage, and we have seen that with sir michael fallon stepping down. apparently, prodded by a cabinet colleague,

andrea let's. you have worked in and around westminster for a while, has this week surprised you, be honest? —— andrea leadsom. this week surprised you, be honest? -- andrea leadsom. the reason i give you that response is, it is interesting how many things we put away or think of as being the run of the place, a bit of a culture. i have never come across a egregious, terrible bullying harassment. but as a journalist, what we have to worry about most is how are our input use —— our employees. i think what i have realised more this week is that there are a lot of women who didn't feel there was anywhere to go. you have to have a reporting line. if,

as it turns out, if you make a complaint, it is immediately known that it must be you, and political reprisals could be taken against you or your career, and you are no further forward. that has surprised me, the scale of that feeling. further forward. that has surprised me, the scale of that feelinglj perhaps shouldn't ask you this question, and you don't have to a nswer question, and you don't have to answer it, have you ever been harassed there? i have taken a personal decision to not go the route that things i didn't fit to complain about, not to say anything in light of this story. we are talking about low—level, and to ring, harassment, a bit over the line of inappropriate, then yes. but i think it is quite important at the moment that we distinguish. people that feel somewhat on that side of the oregon, but i feel that a lot of

people really in westminster probably knew about things and felt unable to come forward. i would probably say that, too. but i can't see why they didn't, and i know why they didn't, either they didn't want to be in broiled in something, that they couldn't easily get out of, or they couldn't easily get out of, or they did not think it would be heeded, and these characters would still be in senior positions. as of this week, they won't be. it is different. next week, the party leaders meet to discuss the issue and what is to be done. what would you like to see come out of that? the thing that matters most, in the way that we had with expenses with mps, we cannot bejudge and jury in the case, but appropriate behaviour, it won't be the chief whip listening in the back door, that is clear to me! but we want the parties to come

toa me! but we want the parties to come to a unified position. it will be quite hard, to be crudely political about it, after all, which is what they pay me for, the government is, it is suffering more. the government is getting towards a tipping on this. it could see the end of theresa may, not that she has done anything wrong, but the sins of omission as well as commission will matter. it will be hard to do something. the parties need to put aside personal interest, and say, what is a sanction? are we prepared to withdraw the whip and ultimately get rid of people sitting as mps however high they maybe will —— or lowly. they have to be absolutely clear that they are prepared to do that. now the pressure is on them. if you had asked me on monday, i would say they would seek wriggle

room. they don't want by—elections. the government doesn't want that. they may find it hard to avoid. we may talk about this again, but for now, and mcavoy: thanks very much. eight former ministers from the catalan government are in prison, after they were charged with rebellion for holding the disputed independence referendum. an arrest warrant could be issued today for catalonia's sacked leader, carles puigdemont, who is now in belgium. thousands of catalans staged protests in barcelona last night, saying the politicians had become political prisoners. our correspondent, tom burridge, has been to meet one family in the city where opinions are divided about the region's future. there is flash photography in his report. last week, they ran catalonia's government. eight former ministers spent last night behind bars. they face charges of rebellion. and were denied bail by a judge at spain's high court.

their supporters streamed down to catalonia's parliament. stunned as the news filtered through. whether the case is politically motivated or not, it will polarise opinions further. which, even in sleepy catalan villages, is now often on public display. the abuse hurled atjordi, a pro—independence counsellor. at a local school where a month or he, arms crossed at the front, led a human wall blocking spain's civil guard. it's because of that

disputed referendum that his political leaders are now in jail ahead of their trial. translation: it is a really sad situation. it reminds me more of a repressive state like turkey than a country in the european union. it's not democratic to lock up people for their ideas. lively discussions at home as well. this family split on that key question. his sister is in favour of independence but his mum and dad are wavering. jordi's not. spain's laws have to be followed, he tells me, and those that don't should be prosecuted. in madrid, the argument for years has been that the constitution, the country's rules, must be followed. but a spanish writer,

who is against independence, believe they have got it wrong. they have actually being fuelling the engine of catalonian independence by their own intransigence and also in the gestures and words. a manifest lack of respect, even an insulting attitude towards the catalan people. almost every day a new chapter in the catalan crisis. on the horizon now, regional elections. but with pro—independence leaders in jail, divisions below the surface are ever more entrenched. tom burridge reporting there. the social media giant twitter was a little less busy last night as one of its most prolific tweeters fell silent. the account of president trump, who is famous for daily messages lambasting opponents, was closed for 11 minutes. the company said it was deliberately shut down by an employee on their last day at the firm. our correspondent nick higham joins me now. what happened ?

what happened? as you say, he is president come, a very enthusiastic twitter user. he uses it to announce policy, and to announce and belittle opponents. he has 40.7 million followers, which is a lot. anyone trying to access the account last night, around 7pm, washington time, 11 o'clock british time, got this message. it was only off for about 11 minutes, and twitter subsequently said it had been inadvertently deactivated due to human error. later, they expanded that to say that a customer service employee had taken the that a customer service employee had ta ken the account that a customer service employee had taken the account down on their last day at work. we can assume that that person was not a trump enthusiasts. what has been the reaction? trumper erected in a bullish way, tweeting at 6am, washington time, when he got

up, saying,"| at 6am, washington time, when he got up, saying," i guess word must finally be getting out, and having an impact." boasting about how important his twitter feed is. there were lots of people sell britain, trump supporters took a rather different view, one suggested the celebrations proved once again that liberals love censorship and hate free speech. there were worries raised about what it said about twitter security, and whether donald trump's account could be hijacked. somebody impersonating donald trump could tweet who knows what? that is a serious worry. it was for 11 minutes, but as you suggest, he is already back on twitter. back with a vengeance. already back on twitter. back with a vengeance. i am already back on twitter. back with a vengeance. iam not already back on twitter. back with a vengeance. i am not entirely sure he realised it had gone down, in fact. but this morning, as well as tweeting that he was having an

impact, he was producing a barraged of tweets, most of them about ructions in the democratic party camp. suggestions that hillary clinton and bernie sanders were at odds during the election campaign. asking what's again, as he has done often, why various allegations about the democrats aren't being investigated. all of this typical of the way donald trump uses twitter. it is to distract attention from the big political story at the moment, the investigation into his own campaign's links with russia. nick, good to talk to you. thanks. don't forget, you can let us know what you think. tweet us using the hashtag, #afternoonlive. all the ways to contact us on screen right now. president trump, you can tweet us, too, if you'd like to. court documents have revealed that the remains

of the moors murderer, ian brady, have been buried at sea. the paperwork shows brady, who died in may, was cremated without ceremony in southport last week. the high court had intervened to ensure his ashes weren't scattered on saddleworth moor, where four of his victims were buried. five decades on from crimes that shocked the country, ian brady's body has been unceremoniously buried at sea. there was no music and flowers were not allowed. these were the conditions set by a high court, who stepped in because of fears. it was here that brady and myra hindley buried the victims they tortured and killed. brady was sent to prison in 1966 for murdering john gilbride, ten—year—old lesley ann downey, and 17 new rd edward evans. in 1985, he also admitted killing 16—year—old pauline reade. he died of natural causes in may of this year. in the early hours of wednesday 26th october, ian brady's remains were sealed in a weighted urn and sent to the bottom of the sea. time for a look at the weather.

that is a pretty impressive moon you have got behind you! it actually came from one of our weather watchers, last night in east yorkshire. tonight is actually the full moon and native american people used to give every full moon in the year and then, it helps them to keep track of where they were in the year, and this one they named the beaver moon, because it was the time of year when they set their traps to catch beavers so they could collect the furtive keep them warm before the furtive keep them warm before the first frost. so watch out for the first frost. so watch out for the beaver moon. having said that, you will need clear skies to see it. but there will be a lot of cloud around tonight, so you might not have much luck. a weather forecast and his to roon as an all in one, what more could you ask?! people will want to know

what the weather is like for the bonfire parties? you will have some more good luck with this because as we go through the weekend, tonight will be soggy but saturday and sunday more in the way of clear spells, showers in the west but you will want to back—up because it will be chilly as well. that is the big theme of our weather this weekend. if we look at what is going on at the moment, it has been quiet today, started with bob in places, this was the scene in abingdon in oxfordshire. once the fog had cleared away, we were left with cloud and some sunshine as well. this was aberdeenshire early on from one of our weather watchers. largely cloudy skies, the best of the brightness in the midlands, east anglia, the south—east, and eastern scotland. as we go through into this evening, we will keep quite a lot of cloud, what we will also see is what is initially a weak weather front the north—west, joining forces with this developing system from the south—west, that is going to make things pretty soggy during tonight

so if you are having a bonfire party tonight, there could be rain, particularly across england and wales, early fog in the south—east, but northern ireland and scotland will see clearer skies, the odd shower, and the north—west will turn colder. your weekend starts like this, if you are out and about tomorrow morning, mild across the south—east, 12 or 13 degrees but with outbreaks of rain, heavy bursts of rain from many areas, but further west into the south—west of england and wales, the south—west of england and wales, the rain will clear away, spells of sunshine, showers blooming into western areas, northern england seeing spells of sunshine, showers from the word go across western scotla nd from the word go across western scotland and, yes, that is some snow on the map, wintry showers in the high ground of scotland and northern ireland as well. it will take a while to push the rain away from east anglia, some spots here could say cloudy and damp all day long. out west is where we see sunnier skies, a scattering of showers on the westerly wind, heavy at that. 8

degrees in belfast the afternoon high, still getting into the mid—teens in the south—east. bonfire parties on saturday night, as i mentioned, some clear spells, showers across western areas, so there will be showers during sunday, but they tend to migrate eastward and will tend to fade away so some spells of sunshine by the end of the day. temperatures really struggling, seven in aberdeen, ten in london, and a keen wind though it will feel chilly. a widespread frost to take us through sunday night. so, the weekend, rain tonight and tomorrow morning will clear away, sunshine and showers, and, for all of us, it will feel colder. this is bbc news — our latest headlines... a labour activist who accused the mp kelvin hopkins of sexual harassment has said she felt let down by the party's response. he has yet to comment. they refused to act and that made me

feel very powerless and isolated and alone. it's believed that london's metropolitan police are investigating an allegation of sexual assault against the hollywood actor kevin spacey. an army sergeant on trial accused of attempting to murder his wife by sabotaging her parachute has taken the stand for the first time. several former catalan ministers are appearing in court in madrid, for a second day, accused of rebellion. twitter is investigating how an employee in their last day with the company managed to briefly deactivate president trump's account. sport now on afternoon live with hugh. the kung fu kick is making the

headlines? astonishing scenes last night. former manchester united defender patrice evra is now with marseille, it is rare to see a player sent off before the game has even begun but even more red to see a player a naked at a supporter of their own team, but that is what happened to him. our sports correspondent katie gornall explains. it was a warm—up that boiled over. ahead of marseille europa league match in portugal, patrice evra became involved in an angry exchange with the club's fans. as some supporters scaled the stands to confront him, he was pulled away by team—mates before returning to apparently aimed kick at the head of one of them. the defender was sent to the stands by the referee and it is still unclear exactly what prompted his reaction. translation: the first thing i can say is when you are as experienced a player as pat evra,

you cannot react to insults, even if they are unacceptable. we had the chance to have more than 500 fans here but there was a pseudo—fan. he is not a supporter of marseille. he insulted patrice and this is unacceptable. these actions bring back memories of eric cantona's infamous kung fu kick at selhurst park in 1995. the manchester united player launched at a crystal palace supporter who had taunted him after he had been sent off. it led to a nine—month ban, still one of the longest in football. cantona would return to play for united but a former team—mate of evra believes his future is uncertain. from the fans' standpoint, and the ownership's,

i think it is difficult to see him continue. he will most likely move on to a different club, different league, most likely i would say. evra can expect to receive an extended ban when uefa's disciplinary body meets to decide his case next week. with a champions league medal and several league titles to his name, the 36—year—old has enjoyed plenty of success and will hope this is not the final chapter. manchester united bossjose mourinho has appeared in a spanish court today to face tax fraud allegations relating to his time as manager of the spanish giants real madrid. he has been accused of owing nearly £2.9 million of undeclared image rights revenue. he emerged after a brief hearing at a court in the spanish capital madrid today and afterwards he said he told the judge that about two years ago he paid an amount demanded by the authorities to close the matter. the judge will now decide if the case needs to go to trial. england's cricketers start their

ashes tour matches in australia tomorrow morning but steven finn and moeen ali will miss their first two games with injury. finn is struggling with a knee injury although scans have shown it isn't as bad as was first feared. he'll be assessed over the next week. england's first fixture is a two—day match against a western australia eleven this weekend. moeen is suffering with an injury to his side but it's thought he will be back in full training by the middle of this month. england captainjoe root has been speaking to the media ahead of that opening tour match — he believes that the side have the strength in depth to cope. i'm quietly confident about the way we've gone about the first few days practice here. it's going to be important play well in these games but i look at the squad we've got, we've got all bases covered. i think it will be important to make big scores with the bat but we've got a lot of experience in the bowling department and guys that are desperate to do well and prove a point to a lot of people back home. 12 hours' time, 2:30am, the test

match special team will take you through that. more sport in the next hour. we will look forward to it, many thanks, see you later. a labour activist who accused an mp of sexual harassment has told the bbc she feels disillusioned by how the party handled it. 27—year—old ava etemadzadeh said she was left feeling "very powerless and isolated" after kelvin hopkins, who is 76, 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. ava etemadzadeh has been speaking to our deputy political editor, john pienaar, and gave her account of 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 and he told me that, "let's not talk about politics, do you have a boyfriend?" and he also said that if nobody was in his office he would've taken me there. i was absolutely shocked and i wasn't really expecting that. you've brought your phone, there was a text message... more than one. tell me about that? so a few weeks after i refused to respond to his calls, he left me that message saying that i'm 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, i was very shocked, i wasn't really expecting that and i don't think that someone's who representing the 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? um, yes, i did. i said, "thank you for your kind words." but you didn't protest at the way he was behaving at the time? at the time, no, no. you complained later on? yes. did you give every detail of what you say happened? yes, yes. it took me a few months to actually decide if i wanted to raise it with the party. eventually i got in touch with one of the mp's offices and they put me in touch with rosie winterton, the chief whip of the labour party. and she responded to my complaint. um, although 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 i didn't take it further. ok, but then you were told that your complaint was being taken seriously? by rosie winterton, 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 also have evidence that the regional office in the east of england, they contacted the leader's office about this, and it was ignored. i myself tweeted to jeremy corbyn about this incident, it was during the cabinet reshuffle. you tweeted. . . ? directly to jeremy corbyn.

in a direct message? no, no, it was not a direct message. you just put it on twitter? yes. what did you put on twitter to jeremy corbyn? i told him that he shouldn't demote rosie winterton because she stood by me when i reported an mp for misbehaviour. so i'm absolutely... i'm very disillusioned, because just a few months later i realised thatjeremy 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 pretty let down by the party which you still support? 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 were people in the party who helped me with raising this issue. what really this taught me is that the leader's office knew this and they didn't act on it. a couple of weeks ago, i have been working on this issue with the 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... what was told was that i have to make a complaint through a formal procedure, that means going through the nec. a few hours later,

the nec, a lady... someone called me from the labour party and asked me for an explanation about what happened. she told me, "if you could write down a statement and send it to us we would... deal with your complaint, but it's a very formal complaint and it's 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 so, "i've spoken to the whip and we've decided to suspend kelvin hopkins."

this happened exactlyjust a few minutes before the publication of the article and the reason they did this was because a few minutes or hours before the labour party received... was contacted by the telegraph regarding a comment on this issue. so you believe the labour party took the action that it's taken now simply to avoid embarrassment? yes, absolutely, yeah. 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, after the journalist contacted them, they suddenly decided to suspend him and they say it was because "obviously you had

raised this issue two years ago", but i don't believe that because they had previously told me that this has to go through a formal process. what do you hope is going to change as a result of all this? it was a very hard decision for me to go public on this, but i don't want this to happen to future political activists and i would like... 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. do you believe this sort of thing, as you describe it, will go on happening, or do you think something is going to change for good? yeah, i believe so because over the past few weeks we have witnessed all the mps, whether in the labour party or in the conservative party or other parties, have been exposed

and as we saw a few days ago michael fallon resigned from the cabinet. this shows that westminster, the culture is changing and they are working on it and i am very pleased, but i am still disillusioned by the labour party by how they handled this. especially the leadership... corbyn's leadership. ava etemadzadeh they're speaking to john pienaar. some breaking news from the metropolitan police, a teenage boy has been arrested over two separate acid attacks in london, including one which has left a man in danger of losing his eyesight. this relates to an incident yesterday evening in full from stoke, in which the victim, a fast—food delivery driver, was approached by two men on a scooter. the men attempted to steal the

victim's mopeds and during the course of the attempted robbery police believe a corrosive substance was thrown on the victim's face. the metropolitan police now saying that a teenage boy has been arrested over two separate acid attacks in london. in a moment the business news with vishala. first, a look at the headlines on afternoon live. a labourmp a labour mp accused of sexually harassing a young woman activist has been suspended by the party. he is yet to comment. it is believed london's metropolitan police service is investigating an allegation of sexual assault against the hollywood actor kevin spacey. an army sergeant who denies attempting to murder his wife by sabotaging her parachute is taking the stand for the first time. here's your business headlines on afternoon live. activity in the uk's dominant services sector grew at the fastest

rate for six months in october. it was helped by stronger order books and "resilient" demand. the purchasing managers' index for services rose to 55.6, up from 53.6 in september. both figures well above the 50 threshold that indicates growth. 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 embarrassed him — he was back online tweeting about tax cuts to his 41 million followers, soon after. 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. we have had the focus on interest

rates here, let's go across the pond and data for usjobs, what is it telling us? it has come in and expectations, 261,000 jobs added, market expecting a rise of 310,000 as a reprise from the harry kane ‘s —— hurricane irma and hurricane harvey. still healthy, dropped 4.1% in october. joining us now is michelle fleury from new york. is this cause for concern? well, i mean, it is a bit of a mixed report because if you look at the unemployment rate, it is the lowest level in 17 years. i was looking back at the chart from the financial crisis and it seems to go in a straight line down. the concern comes from the fact that part of the reason for the decline is that some people have dropped out of the

labour force, the labour force participation rate fell as people are essentially gave up looking for work, and i think that is one of the reasons why people are looking at is saying, well, on the surface it is great news thatjobs are being created, certainly more than the previous month, a sign that we are bouncing back from the hurricanes, but on the other hand wages remain flat, labour participation has fallen. in terms of interest rates, a lot of analysts think that we are still on course to see another rise? and i don't think this report has changed that. part of the reason is that, for the fed, they are caught between, on the one hand, continuing to see the labour market improves, we look at the jobs growth, i think i saw apparently ever since janet yellen became head of the federal reserve she has presided overjob

growth month on month after month, especially after last month's figure was revised upwards. on the other hand, though, the missing piece of the puzzle is, where is the inflation? where are the inflationary pressures? it goes back to the idea that wages are not really creeping higher, which we would expect at this point in a recovery when you have that many people returning to the labour market, unemployment that low, the think you would expect is that employers would be forced to start increasing wages. with jerome howell now at the helm, he is somebody that is said to favour lower interest rates. how are markets and businesses reacting to him? the funny thing was, i was at the stock exchange not far from funny thing was, i was at the stock exchange not farfrom here funny thing was, i was at the stock exchange not far from here with the announcement was made in the rose garden in washington and there was barely any reaction at all. that is actually a good thing, it is a sign that the markets don't see this as a

cause for concern. the reason is that he has been a federal reserve board governor since 2012, he has, for the most part, shared many of the same views as janet yellen, or at least has not descended, so talking to traders they were saying, well, we expect the path of monetary and of the in america to continue along the same route that it was, which is gradual rate increase, a winding down of the asset that they bought to try to shore up the economy after the financial crisis. 0k, economy after the financial crisis. ok, we have to leave it there, thank you forjoining us. as we know, the bank of england raised interest rates yesterday and sa bres raised interest rates yesterday and sabres in particular are getting in touch to ask what this means for them. i want to direct those viewers to this article on the bbc website. markets? the pound has gained today after falling yesterday after that

decision by the bank of england to raise rates. why is that? that is because of strong data about manufacturers, it has been positive, soi manufacturers, it has been positive, so i reverse in the fall slightly from yesterday. anything else we need to know? the ftse 100 fell slightly, in the red, generally when the pound goes up red, generally when the pound goes up the ftse falls, that is what has happened today. we will be watching those, see you in an hour, thank you for that. time for a look at the weather now. it has been a quiet week of weather but things will step up into the weekend. we started this morning with light wind and quite a bit of fog in some places. there were some spells of sunshine but generally quite a lot of cloud. you can see the satellite picture from earlier on, cloudy conditions across many parts of the country and this stripe of cloud to the far north—west is a weather front which, during this evening, will push southward and

eastwood and join forces with this frontal system pushing from the south—west. the two weather systems combine to bring a spell of really wet weather, particularly across england and wales tonight, some heavy bursts of rain, but has that clear from scotland and northern ireland, the skies were clear, it will turn chilly, and we will. to the showers pushing from the west. so your weekend gets off toa the west. so your weekend gets off to a soggy start across east anglia and the south—east, heavy rain trundling slowly eastwards, still fairly mild, 13 degrees in london, but out west we will see brighter skies but a the of the older the weather, some showers blowing into western coast of england and wales. bright skies across northern england and eastern scotland, some sunshine for western scotland and northern ireland but a scattering of showers blowing it on the westerly wind. it will be chilly in the wind tomorrow, cold air across the country as we push this band of rain away. it is likely to stay cloudy and damp

across the extreme east of england for a good part of the date but elsewhere we will see a sunny skies, showers to the west, wintry over the scottish hills and mountains, temperatures just eight to 14 degrees. if you are off to a firework display on saturday night, for many areas it will be fine and dry but there is always a chance of showers across western areas, sunday should generally be a quieter night with dry weather and clear skies across many parts of the country, but it will feel decidedly chilly by then because, as we go through sunday, it is a day of things settling down, showers in the chilly but they tend to fade away, 8010 degrees the daytime high and on sunday night we will see quite a widespread frost. to sum up the weekend, rain initially, clearing to leave a mixture of sunshine and showers, but it will feel colder. hello, you're watching afternoon live. i'm rebecca jones. today at three: labour suspends the mp kelvin hopkins 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, who denies attempting to murder his wife by sabotaging her parachute, takes the stand for the first time. and it is believed the metropolitan police are investigating an allegation of sexual assault against the hollywood actor kevin spacey. coming up on afternoon live, all the sport with hugh. and an extraordinary... there you are. an extraordinary kick making the news. yes, former manchester patrice evra will face a uefa disciplinary committee next week after appearing to kick a fan of his current side marseille. his club have told him he needs to ‘keep his cool‘ and we‘ll have more

later in the hour. eyes to the skies this weekend with fireworks displays across the country. tonight looks soggy, something drier later in the weekend. all the details later on. also coming up, a parting gesture, be twitter employee that took down donald trump‘s account on his last day of work. hello, everyone. this is afternoon live. i‘m rebecca jones. a labour activist who accused an mp of sexual harassment has told the bbc she feels disillusioned by how the party handled the matter. ava etemadzadeh says she felt ‘powerless and isolated‘ after the mp kelvin hopkins was promoted the year after she complained about him. mr hopkins has not commented

but labour says it takes such complaints ‘extremely seriously‘. meanwhile, sir michael fallon, who resigned as defence secretary earlier this week, has categorically denied making inappropriate sexual comments to the leader of the commons andrea leadsom. our political correspondent iain watson has the latest on the continuing allegations of misconduct at westminster. he‘s a close ally ofjeremy corbyn and nominated him for the party leadership, but now luton mp kelvin hopkins has been suspended from the parliamentary labour party. that‘s because of allegations made by this labour activist who told the bbc he‘d acted inappropriately towards her. 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 political conversation with him. and he told me that, "let‘s not talk about politics." "do you have a boyfriend?" and he also mentioned that, he said that if nobody was in his office he would have taken me there. i was absolutely shocked. she says she also received a suggestive text and took her concerns to another labour mp who reported them to the most senior figure in charge of labour party discipline, the then chief whip rosie winterton. kelvin hopkins was reprimanded for his behaviour and subsequently he was temporarily promoted to labour‘s shadow cabinet. that made me feel very powerless, and isolated and alone. last year, around 80% of jeremy corbyn‘s mps voted that they had no confidence in his leadership.

that meant he had trouble filling some of his front ranked jobs. kelvin hopkins was happy to help out. but i‘ve been very reliably informed thatjeremy corbyn did indeed know that kelvin hopkins had been reprimanded before he promoted him to the shadow cabinet. although, i‘m also been told he wasn‘t made aware of some of the more dramatic aspects of this case. jeremy corbyn wasn‘t any more forthcoming today, but labour point out kelvin hopkins has now been suspended and that new more robust procedures for reporting harassment have been put in place. were you aware of the allegations against mr hopkins, sir? goodbye. but some say even these recent reforms aren‘t adequate. i think it needs a big injection of independence from a specialist agency. a specialist sexual violence, sexual harassment agency. so that people can feel that when they first report, there‘s no fear or favour. and also that when any arbitration of anything below

a criminal threshold is being decided on, that there is a specialist in the room advising any panel. and she was surprised that kelvin hopkins had been given a shadow cabinet role. i don‘t think i would‘ve promoted him. and i know that the victim felt a little bit bereft by his promotion. kelvin hopkins hasn‘t responded to requests for a statement. but it‘s notjust labour who are under scrutiny. some newspapers carry new allegations about the former defence secretary sir michael fallon, suggesting he made lewd remarks some years ago to ministerial colleague andrea leadsom. he categorically denies this, and she won‘t comment. but beyond specific allegations, the bigger question is now what reforms major political parties are willing to agree to enable victims of harassment to come forward and receive support. ian watson, bbc news, westminster. our political correspondent is in westminster. some awkward questions here for the labour leadership, appearing to

promote someone that has been reprimanded. what has the leadership had to say? that is right. jeremy corbyn is under pressure over this, because it comes during his leadership, is the latest allegation to come during a period when he was in charge of the party. a suggestion that he perhaps ignored the fact that he perhaps ignored the fact that kelvin hopkins had been verbally reprimanded by the then chief whip, the person in charge of party discipline, it ignoring that warning and promoting him to the shadow cabinet in june, warning and promoting him to the shadow cabinet injune, 2016. but you have to put this in context at the time. as you heard in the package, jeremy corbyn was scrambling to fill vacancies after a wave of resignations hit his shadow cabinet, his front bench. but we do not know yet, it is an clear that a unclear, the reprimand happened six months beforehand, when he made the appointment. the labour leadership

so far have not said anything specific about this allegation, apart from saying the party takes these allegations seriously. kelvin hopkins has been suspended from the party, and there is an investigation, as we have heard. no comment from kelvin hopkins himself, but labour certainly under pressure on this. this isn't restricted to labour, is it. no, we have heard since these allegations started to emerge in westminster, it has clearly been a cross—party issue, and the latest allegations happen to be in relation to labour. we have heard allegations from within the cabinet, claims this morning, the sun newspaper am a andrea leadsom took reports of inappropriate remarks made by sir michael fallon, the former defence secretary, to ten downing st this week. it was allegedly sixes ago. number ten very clear this afternoon, releasing a

statement saying that the leader of the house, andrea leadsom, did not and had not asked the prime ministers to consider the position of sir michael wilshaw was defence secretary. very much a cross—party issue. on monday, there will be a cross party meeting to discuss the way forward. and i am sure the crucial aspect of independence is one that is discussed. leila nathoo in westminster, thank you. joining me from westminster is the liberal democrat mp christine jardine. we are grateful for your time. this isa we are grateful for your time. this is a cross—party problem, i need to ask you first of all, are you confident that your liberal democrat collea g u es confident that your liberal democrat colleagues are whiter than white?|j am confident that we have robust reporting in place, and we will deal with any complaints that come forward from anyone. that is the way it should be. each of the parties should be putting their house in order, and making sure that the mps

of behaving themselves. that they are living up to the standards that the public expect of us in office. and we should be putting each of our houses in order, but i do think the cross— party houses in order, but i do think the cross—party approach is vital, and we have some sort of independent structure, which the prime minister has said. that does not release the parties from their obligations. why has it taken so long for action to be taken? i don't know is the answer to that, frankly. ifind it so frustrating that a form of behaviour that should have been removed, should have been put to one side long ago is still going on, and has been going on. i haven‘t seen any exa m ples of been going on. i haven‘t seen any examples of it personally, but the reports coming out, and the examples we are hearing, frankly, are depressing. we should have moved on from here. i don‘t think it is enough for people to say, make excuses, like, it was a different

time. it is not. respect for one another and for the employees is vital, to make anyone uncomfortable in the workplace is not acceptable. you say you haven‘t personally been affected, have people in the past spoken to you about their experiences? in parliament, no. no one has spoken to me directly about their own experiences. 0k, we will leave it there. christine jardine, liberal democrat mp, we are grateful for your time. a member of the welsh government, carl sargeant, has stood down after allegations were made about his personal conduct and he has also been suspended from the labour party while an investigation takes places.

mr sargeant, the cabinet secretary for communities and children, said he didn‘t know the details of the claims, but he hoped to return to the government "after being allowed to clear his name". an army sergeant accused of trying to kill his wife by sabotaging her parachute has begun giving evidence in his defence. victoria cilliers suffered multiple injuries when her parachute failed to open during a jump in wiltshire in 2015. emile cilliers denies all the charges. helena lee is following the case at winchester crown court. this is the first time the man at the centre of the trial at winchester crown court has spoken in court in front of the jury. he is alleged to have tried to kill his wife on two separate occasions. he took to the witness box. he wore a navy suit and a yellow tie. his hands were clasped in front of him. he stood up as he gave his evidence, and faced the jury. he was questioned by his defence solicitor elizabeth marsh qc, who essentially wanted to paint a picture of his life before these alleged incidents took place. what he told the court was that he was born in south africa. he had two children in south africa.

he then moved over to the uk seven years ago. he met his first wife, carly, here in the uk. they had two children together. they got married. he also joined the military. they then separated, and he went on to meet his second wife, victoria cilliers, who they had two children as well together . the background to this case, the prosecution alleges he tried to sabotage his wife‘s parachute. it was in 2015. victoria cilliers, her parachute failed, and also her reserve parachute failed. she fell 4,000 feet, and suffered from multiple injuries, including broken vertebrae, and also broken ribs as well. she‘s already given evidence to this trial, but it is the turn now of emile cilliers, who is 37 years old. he is going to be continued to be questioned this afternoon by his defence solicitor.

helen and lee reporting there. it‘s believed that london‘s metropolitan police are investigating an allegation of sexual assault against the hollywood actor kevin spacey. according to the sun newspaper, the allegation was made on tuesday but the alleged assault took place back in 2008. a little earlier, our correspondence chi chi izundu gave us more details. i can tell you that the sun are reporting a british 32—year—old man walked into a city of london police station on tuesday, and made a complaint about a sexual assault, as you say, dating back to 2008, when the victim was 23 years of age. the sun are reporting that the alleged attacker is apparently kevin spacey. metropolitan police have confirmed they have received a complaint about an assault dating back from 2008. it‘s alleged to have happened in the london borough of lambeth. however, the police would not confirm that the allegations had been made against kevin spacey. they would not name him.

this is the first allegation that has been made against kevin spacey that would have gone to the police. we mustn‘t forget that kevin spacey was actually the artistic director of the old vic from 2004 to 2015. this does come after a number of allegations against him. indeed, this all started on sunday night with actor anthony rapp, who‘s currently starring in star trek. he said he had an improper encounter with kevin spacey when he was 14 years of age. another man told the bbc earlier this week that he had another improper encounter with kevin spacey when he was 17 years of age. they both allege that these things happened. several others have come out in la, as well, claiming similar accounts. overnight, kevin spacey‘s publicist said they are no longer his representation. the charity commission has confirmed

it has contacted the old vic trust and the kevin spacey foundation, to seek clarifications on matters of safeguarding, and whether they should step in as the regulatory body. on safeguarding issues as well, cnn have also said a number the netflix production that kevin spacey stars in, they have come forward to make a number of allegations. we must say that kevin spacey, in terms of anthony rapp‘s allegation, did apologise and said he did not recall the encounter. since the allegations have come forward, he has also said that he is seeking evaluation and treatment. our correspondent, chi chi izundu. you‘re watching afternoon live, these are our headlines: a labour mp accused of sexually harassing a young woman activist has been suspended by the party. he has yet to comment. it‘s believed that london‘s metropolitan police are investigating an allegation of sexual assault against the hollywood actor kevin spacey.

an army sergeant who denies attempting to murder his wife by sabotaging her parachute has taken the stand for the first time. and in sport: uefa have opened disciplinary proceedings against the former manchester united defender patrice evra — after he appeared to aim a kick at a supporter of his current team marseille before their europa league match last night. manchester united bossjose mourinho has pleaded his innocence after facing tax fraud allegations relating to his time as manager of real madrid. leaving court in spain, mourinho said he‘d told the judge, he had already paid an amount demanded by the authorities to close the matter. the judge will now decide if the case should go to trial. and world number one rafael nadal has withdrawn from the paris masters with a knee injury. nadal says he will "do his best" to return for the season—ending atp tour finals, which take place in london later this month. i will be back with more on those

stories just after i will be back with more on those storiesjust after 3:30. a delivery driver is critically ill in hospital and may lose his sight after a corrosive substance was repeatedly sprayed in his face during an attempted robbery. police say the attackers tried to steal the driver‘s moped yesterday evening in walthamstow in north—east london. let‘s cross to our correspondent danjohnson, who is in walthamstow for us and can bring us the latest on this attack. what can you tell us, dan? yes, this is the street where the first of those attacks happened at around 6pm last night. you can see, still intense police activity here this afternoon, as offers a search for any afternoon, as offers a search for a ny clu es afternoon, as offers a search for any clues that might lead to the that carried out this attack. searching through bins, looking for anything that may give them clues about who carried out this attack. as you say, the latest breaking news

in the last hour is that police have arrested a teenage boy on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm. he is now being questioned in relation to the first attack that took place here last night at around 6pm. a 32—year—old man, a delivery driver, bringing a takeaway to the street, was attacked in attempt to rob his mopeds. police believe there were two men involved in that attack, and the man had a corrosive substance. the police they was thrown in his face. he is receiving treatment in hospital now. they say his injuries are serious, and potentially life—threatening, which is why there is such an intensive investigation going on. detectives are warning that he could at least lose his sight. we should be in no doubt about how serious these attacks can be. there was another attack involving a corrosive substance, not farfrom here, involving a corrosive substance, not far from here, about involving a corrosive substance, not farfrom here, about 30 minutes later last night. police are investigating the possible itty of

them being linked. police still investigating who else may have been pa rt investigating who else may have been part of this attack, and the other one away in tottenham last night. dan, we will leave it there for now, thank you for the update. eight former ministers from the catalan government are in disputed independence referendum! an arrest warrant could be issued today for catalonia‘s sacked leader, carles puigdemont, who is now in belgium. thousands of catalans staged protests in barcelona last night, saying the politicians had become political prisoners. our correspondent, tom burridge, has been to meet one family in the city where opinions are divided about the region‘s future. there is flash photography in his report. last week, they ran catalonia‘s government. eight former ministers spent last night behind bars. they face charges of rebellion.

and were denied bail by a judge at spain‘s high court. their supporters streamed down to catalonia‘s parliament. stunned as the news filtered through. whether the case is politically motivated or not, it will polarise opinions further. which, even in sleepy catalan villages, is now often on public display. the abuse hurled atjordi, a pro—independence counsellor. at a local school where a month or he, arms crossed at the front, led a human wall blocking spain‘s civil guard. it‘s because of that disputed referendum that his

political leaders are now in jail ahead of their trial. translation: it is a really sad situation. it reminds me more of a repressive state like turkey than a country in the european union. it‘s not democratic to lock up people for their ideas. lively discussions at home, too. this family split on that key question. his sister is in favour of independence, but his mum and dad are wavering. jordi‘s not. "spain‘s laws have to be followed," he tells me, "and those that don‘t should be prosecuted." in madrid, the argument for years has been that the constitution, the country‘s rules, must be followed. but a spanish writer, who is against independence,

believe they have got it wrong. they‘ve actually being fuelling the engine of catalonian independence by their own intransigence and also in the gestures and words. a manifest lack of respect, even an insulting attitude towards the catalan people. almost every day, a new chapter in the catalan crisis. on the horizon now, regional elections. but with pro—independence leaders in jail, divisions below the surface are ever more entrenched. tom burridge reporting. the islamic state group has suffered big new losses on both sides of the border between iraq and syria, further shrinking the territory it holds. in iraq, pro—government forces said they had entered the region‘s main town still held by is. in syria, the syrian army said it

had forced all is militants out of the eastern city of deir al—zour, marking the last stage of the final defeat of the militants in syria. the government says it will speed up the process of getting new, life—changing medicines available on the nhs. a panel of experts is to choose five treatments for fast—track approval in england each year. ministers hope it could halve the time it takes to get new drugs to patients. our health editor, hugh pym, reports. andrew has a rare eye condition. his sight is getting steadily worse. there are new drugs which could save it, but it can take as much as seven years to get clearance and adoption by the nhs. at some point in my life, i expect that i will go blind. but there are trials of new drugs at the moment and knowing that they could be ready, but i might have to wait seven years to get access,

in that time i could have gone blind. there have been significant advances in medical technology as well as research on new drugs and treatments, but the big question is how rapidly can they be brought into nhs hospitals for the benefit of all patients? this health minister says the government has an answer, he was visiting hammersmith hospital in london today to see new technology for heart procedures. the idea is to cut delays in the approval process for breakthrough drugs and treatments. at the moment, there are various stages that any product, whether it‘s a drug or a device, whatever it is, has to go through in terms of regulatory approval or cost—effectiveness and so on, commercial negotiations with the nhs. the idea is to bring them all together to run in parallel which will make the process operate much more quickly so those things that really do have life—changing impacts on people can be brought forward sooner. under what‘s is the accelerated access pathway it will be cut from as much as seven years to three. next year five new drugs and treatments will be selected

for fast—track approval. this number could be increased annually in future. pharmaceutical companies and technology suppliers have been frustrated by the slow pace in getting new products into the nhs, compared to other healthcare systems. sometimes the pace of adoption isn‘t as fast as we would like. the accelerated access review will give the opportunity for game—changing devices, things that can make a very significant difference to patients‘ lives to come into the healthcare system faster than they otherwise would, which has got to be a good thing for patients. medical charities have welcomed the news, though with some reservations. we feel that the government could go even further still. we have some concerns that drugs could be overlooked as part of the scheme. we know the department of health have said about five drugs are looked at every year but there are so many emerging treatments on the horizon, we don't think five is going to be enough. health campaigners say it‘s a start but they want to know more detail about the new process and they‘ve noted that the policy does not

at this stage involve any new money for the nhs in england to spend on drugs and treatments. hugh pym, bbc news. the social media giant twitter was a little less busy last night as one of its most prolific tweeters fell silent. the account of president trump, who is famous for daily messages lambasting opponents, was closed for 11 minutes. the company said it was deliberately shut down by an employee on their last day at the firm. earlier, i spoke to bbc correspondent nick higham and began by asking him what happened. anyone trying to access the account last night, around 7pm, washington time, which is 11 o‘clock british time, got this message. it was only off for about 11 minutes, and twitter subsequently said it had been inadvertently deactivated due to human error. but later, they expanded that to say that a customer service employee had taken the account down on their last day at work. i think we can assume that that

person was not a trump enthusiast. what has been the reaction? trump himself reacted in a bullish way, tweeting at 6am, washington washington time, when he got up, saying, "i guess word must finally be getting out, and having an impact." boasting about how important his twitter feed is. there were lots of people celebrating. trump supporters took a rather different view, one suggested the celebrations proved once again that liberals love censorship and hate free speech. there were worries raised about what it said about twitter security, and whether donald trump‘s account could be hijacked. somebody impersonating donald trump could tweet, well, who knows what?

that is a serious worry. it was for 11 minutes, but as you suggest, he is already back on twitter. back with a vengeance. i‘m not entirely sure he realised it had gone down, in fact. but this morning, as well as tweeting that he was having an impact, he was producing a barrage of tweets, most of them about ructions in the democratic party camp. suggestions that hillary clinton and bernie sanders were at odds during the primary election campaign. asking once again, as he has done often, why various allegations about the democrats aren‘t being investigated. all of this typical of the way donald trump uses twitter. breaking news for you, the prime minister theresa may has written to the speaker of the house of commons, john burke oh, to set out a new code of conduct for conservative party we re of conduct for conservative party were presented tips. this follows a

series of allegations relating to sexual harassment at westminster and the resignation of the defence secretary, michael fallon, earlier this week. today and yesterday, we have had the suspension of a labour mp, but the prime minister theresa may has written to the speaker to set out a new code of conduct for conservative party representatives. more details on that as we get it. in the meantime, let‘s catch up with the weather news, ben rich has the details. good afternoon, the week is ending on a quiet note, but as we head towards the weekend, things are going to step up a gear, because we have a frontal system pushing in from the north—west, another one pushing up in the south, and the two will combine to bring a spell of really wet weather across england and wales tonight. for northern ireland and scotland, skies will clear. there will be showers some showers and it will start to turn chilly. that sets us up for the weekend, rain at first will clear away to bring a mixture of sunshine

and showers, but for all of us, a colder feel to the weather. the rain will make for a soggy start across east anglia and the south—east. it will slowly clear away eastwards. but behind it, sunnier skies, a colderfeel with showers blowing in. the showers turning wintry over the hills and mountains of scotland. 9 degrees in scotland. 14 in london, all of us cold on sunday. showers initially, which fade away to leave sunshine, but temperatures just 8—10 degrees. this is bbc news, our latest headlines. a labour activist who accused the mp kelvin hopkins of sexual harassment has said she felt let down by the party‘s response — he has yet to comment. it made me feel very isolated and

alone. an army sergeant — on trial accused of attempting to murder his wife by sabotaging her parachute — has taken the stand for the first time. it‘s believed that london‘s metropolitan police are investigating an allegation of sexual assault against the hollywood actor kevin spacey. several former ministers from the catalan government are in prison, after they were charged with rebellion, for holding the disputed independence referendum. twitter is investigating how an employee, in their last day with the company, managed to briefly deactivate president trump‘s account. hugh has the sport for us once again. hugh, iam hugh, i am told you have injury concerns, i am concerned in case they are yours! and fine, don‘t worry about me but if you like english cricket, before the ashes tour there have been concerns that the team that fears have been allayed slightly today, news of the

recoveries of moeen ali and steven finn to come, and we‘ll hear from the captain, joe root, it tells us of the squad can cope with an injury problem. but will no doubt be fit enough to make it to the atp tour finals in london? things are not looking very positive for rafael nadal. they are not looking positive for a former manchester united player as well. it may be a long time before we seek patrice evra back on a football pitch. he has been charged by uefa before appearing to kick a fan of his current team, marseille. that was before europa league game last night. katie gornall has more on it. it is unclear what prompted this but the trouble flared up in the warm up to the game against the portuguese side victoria. as we will see in the footage, marseille fans jammed the barrier, patrice evra goes to confront them. but first he scored away because his team mates

intervene, later he goes back and seems to aim a kick at the head of one of the marseille supporters. he‘s sent off and is forced to watch the game from the stands. the first player in europa league history to be sent off before the game begins. we have had a statement from marseille giving their take on it, they say an internal investigation will be carried out, they say a professional player must keep his cool in the face of insults, as unjustified as they are. similarly the club can only condemn what the court destructive behaviour by players who attack their own supporters who have come there to supporters who have come there to support the team. that is the stance taken by the club. jose mourinho has appeared in court facing tax concerns, relating to his time managing real madrid, he is accused of going over £1 million regarding

to undeclared tv rights revenue. leaving the court mourinho said he had told thejudge leaving the court mourinho said he had told the judge that two years ago he paid an amount demanded by the authorities to close the matter. thejudge will now the authorities to close the matter. the judge will now decide if the case needs to go to trial. we mentioned world number one rafael nadal. he has withdrawn from paris masters with a knee injury. he was due to play in the quarterfinals this afternoon, they said he was suffering from a right knee problem and pulled out before the match. he had his knee strapped before his third round win. he says he will do his best to return before the season—ending atp tour finals in london later this month. a blow for england‘s cricketers at the start of the ashes tour in australia, steve finnan and moeen ali won‘t be going home and they will both miss the first two warm up games with injury. steve finnan is struggling with a knee problem although scans have shown it isn‘t as bad as feared. —— steven finn. the first fixture is a

two—day match against western australia 11 tomorrow morning. moeen ali has an injury to his side but it is believed he will be back training later this month. joe root, the captain, has been speaking to the media and believes the side has the strength and depth to cope. i‘m quietly confident about the way we‘ve gone about the first few days of practice, it is important we play well in these warm up games, if i look at our squad we‘ve got all bases covered, it‘s important to make big scores with the bat but we have experience with bowling and quys have experience with bowling and guys desperate to do well and prove a point to people back on. in golf and ina a point to people back on. in golf and in a given set of england has shot into contention at the abu dhabi open by producing the best round of the day to go up to third on the leaderboard. an eagle and six birdies saw her on to 12 under further tournament, she‘s telling the reader by three shots, despite a

bogey on the 14th, her compatriot is just one shot behind gibbons. that‘s all the sport for now. lizzie will be more for you in the next hour. thank you, hugh. some quick breaking news. a 24 hour strike on a reeva rail north will go ahead on the mind november after talks aimed at resolving a dispute over the role of the guard collapsed. that‘s according to the rmt union is, so a 24—hour strike by arriva rail north which is the primary trail operator in northern england, will go ahead on november nine. a labour activist who accused an mp of sexual harassment has told the bbc she feels disillusioned by how the party handled it. 27—year—old ava etemadzadeh said she was left feeling "very

powerless and isolated" after kelvin hopkins, who is 76, 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. ava etemadzadeh has been speaking to our deputy political editor, john pienaar. he hugged me very tightly and rubbed himself against me, 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?" and he also said that if nobody was in his office he would‘ve taken me there.

i was absolutely shocked and i wasn‘t really expecting that. you‘ve brought your phone, there was a text message... tell me about that? so a few weeks after i refused to respond to his calls he left me that message saying that i‘m 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 do you feel then and now? again i was very shocked, i wasn‘t really expecting that and i don‘t think that someone‘s who representing the 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? um, yes i did. i said, thank you for your kind words. but you didn‘t protest at the way he was behaving at the time? at the time, no, no. you complained later on?

did you give every detail of what you say happened? yes, yes. it took me a few months to actually decide if i wanted to raise it with the party. eventually i got in touch with one of the mp‘s offices and they put me in touch with rosie winterton, the chief whip of the labour party. and she responded to my complaint. um, although 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, i didn‘t take it further. what do you hope is going to change as a result of all this?

it was a very hard decision for me to go public on this but i don‘t want this to happen to future political activists and i would like .. 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. ava etemadzadeh talking tojohn pienaar. 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 think it will probably be all pa rt well i think it will probably be all part ofan well i think it will probably be all part of an investigation but i don‘t think i would have promoted him, knowing that this had taken place, and there was evidence, because that was text message evidence. so i don‘t think i‘d have promoted him andi

don‘t think i‘d have promoted him and i know the victim felt a little bit bereft by his promotion. that was just bit bereft by his promotion. that wasjust phillips. but labour‘s leader jeremy corbyn refused to comment when approached this morning. were you aware of the allegations against mr hopkins, sir? goodbye. did you know about mr hopkins‘s behaviour before you promoted him? were you aware of the allegations before you promoted him to the shadow cabinet? were you aware of the allegations against mr hopkins, sir? goodbye. pretty definitive there! now, how much have your parents influenced your career choice? kat woodruffe was so inspired by her dad that she followed in his footsteps and became a british airways pilot, becoming the airline‘s only father—daughter boeing 777 pilot team. yesterday kat and david woodruffe flew together for the last time on david‘s retirement flight, a transatlantic crossing from new york to london, landing yesterday morning.

and david and kat woodruffejoin me now from horsham via webcam. wonderful news, david, i must start with you. congratulations on your retirement, how emotional was that flight retirement, how emotional was that flight yesterday? thank you very much. i‘m incredibly proud to have done 35 years of british airways, flying, to me, has been a way of life and passion, not a job. ifeel very privileged on my last flight to have flown with my daughter catherine and i know she will carry on the legacy that i left behind. how was the final flight for you, katherine? am so proud of my dad, having grown up with him in his uniform for as long as i can remember it was lovely to be there for his last flight. i have to ask

you both do you wear the uniform at home or have you put it on just for us? would put it onjust home or have you put it on just for us? would put it on just who you! 0k. us? would put it on just who you! ok. when you are in the cockpit together what do you call each other? everyone at work calls me kat but as dad has just done he calls me katherine, as the parents do, the more formal title. by often flip between captain and dad. are you pleased that kat is following in your footsteps or did you secretly wish she would be a doctor or a lawyer? i am pleased that she followed me but i want her to do it for herself, not from me. any parent would want their child to follow them into their career path but i said, do it for yourself, them into their career path but i said, do it foryourself, not for me. katherine, you must have mixed feelings knowing that now it‘s just down to you, your dog will be there.

it is sad to think i am on my own in british airways now because from the day ijoined i was dave's daughter. that will still carry on, obviously but and was always lovely to see dad and fly with him or sometimes see him downward. i will miss him a lot. do you fly in the same way that he does or do you have your own procedures that you go through? improvements, perhaps? to be honest, the pilots are so highly trained and we all fly the same way, is whether it is your dad or somebody you've never met, it's exactly the same. safety is paramount and british airways. you must be so proud. david, i think you have flown together 13 or 14 times, what was it likely you, david, on that first flight, likely you, david, on that first flight, were you nervous her?m likely you, david, on that first flight, were you nervous her? it was about 12 or 13 years ago that we first flew together. i remember it

vividly because katherine was just 21, very young to be flying boeing treble seven on the haul route. i just wondered how i would introduce her to the cabin crew and the rest of the crew. we walked into the briefing, and they all looked at us and they could see clearly that we have the same surname which is very unusual, and i sensed this is my daughter, and one of the cabin crews from the back had a big smile and said, she‘s far too pretty to be your wife, we could have guessed that! and you have never argued in the cockpit, kat? never. we are far too professional to do that. it is strictly business on the flight deck. david, we have heard what this twitter employee did on his last day in work, he took down president trump‘s account from twitter, we

attempted to do anything on your last day in work? not at all, we came into london yesterday it was a foggy morning, quite demanding approach, wejust foggy morning, quite demanding approach, we just did foggy morning, quite demanding approach, wejust did it in a professional way we always like. terrific note on which to end. david and kat, it‘s been great to talk to you, good luck with your retirement and good luck with your future flights, kat. liverpool thank you. in a moment the business news with vishala. first a look at the headlines on afternoon live. a labour mp accused of sexually harassing a young woman activist has been suspended by the party. he has yet to comment. it‘s believed that london‘s metropolitan police are investigating an allegation of sexual assault against the hollywood actor kevin spacey. an army sergeant who denies attempting to murder his wife by sabotaging her parachute has taken the stand for the first time. here‘s your business headlines on afternoon live.

twitter is investigating how president trump‘s account was deactivated for 11 minutes. it has blamed an employee on their last day of the company. it doesn‘t seem to have phased the president, he was back to eating about tax cuts to his 41 million followers soon afterwards. —— back to tweeting. shoppers have been queuing up at apple stores in dozens of countries, as the high—end iphone ten, 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. and activity in the uk‘s dominant services sector grew at the fastest rate for six months in october. it was helped by stronger order books and "resilient" demand. the purchasing managers‘ index for services rose to 55.6, up from 53.6 in september. both figures well above the 50 threshold that indicates growth. here is something i never thought i

would say, chester is the most sexist city in the uk. and it's so nice with its cobbled high street and lovely shops. it is the biggest gender pay gap, 54%. that‘s quite staggering. it doesn‘t come out of this research very well. the southeast is the biggest region for the gender pay gap in terms of region, guildford, high wycombe, crawley not doing well. who did this research? a company that examines cvs and labour markets, it has come out with these statistics today. the uk does have form with this sort of thing compared to other european countries it isn‘t doing well. there have been recommendations of how to improve the gaps. this could be due to the type of work that women do, part—time work seems more prevalent with female workers. however there isa with female workers. however there is a lot of work to do. joining us

now from central london is kate andrews. news editor, at the ?institute of economic affairs. i think before we get into what can be done to improve women's experiences in the workplace especially when it comes to motherhood, but take gap is the main reason, we have to look at these statistics today, the company that published this report was using evidence from tvs and trying to calculate the earning potential of people whose cv is they were looking at the state isn't even necessarily accurate in terms of what men and women are earning. the office of national statistics puts the gender pay gap and things like 9%. this apparent full—time work from part—time work. these statistics are lumping all of these numbers in

together which is the only way you can come up with a really inflated numberlike can come up with a really inflated number like 54%. to put this in perspective, what they call the least sexist areas of the uk, belfast and southeast and then asked a the gender pay gap that the ons ranks about. sol a the gender pay gap that the ons ranks about. so i think we have to be very sceptical about these figures today. in terms of how we can help women do better in the workplace it comes down to shared pa re ntal workplace it comes down to shared parental leave. very few people are taking up the offer is on offer. i am not want to tell others how to live. women and their partners have to decide who is best faced to stay home with the child. more men are volunteering to take on the responsibilities, that's the only way that this figure which i believe is most accurate will change over time. 0k, kate. just to end on twitter, donald trump had an 11

minute gap in his tweeting that, because an employee on their last day with the company deactivated his account, apparently. is this career sabotage? should people be more prudent on their last day or should they just not prudent on their last day or should theyjust not care, the way you leave a company, does it matter?” think it does matter, i think this employee is in some trouble. i do think this is quite light—hearted story and i am sure the president was distressed at being off twitter for 11 minutes he is back tweeting and the world is still spinning so not the end of the world. but everyone should be careful of how they leave their mark on any form of employment! kate andrews, from the institute of economic affairs, thank you. the bank of england raised interest rates yesterday, savers are getting in touch to ask what this means for them. there‘s an article

on the bbc website that covers this. before that, let‘s talk about the markets. the ftse is basically flat for most of this day, the pound has recovered because of the purchasing managers index that we got today, stronger so it has pushed the pound up stronger so it has pushed the pound upa bit. stronger so it has pushed the pound up a bit. one mining company that produces platinum has wiped off one fifth because it says it won‘t be publishing its financial results in time. markets don‘t like that. mining companies are considerable sta ke mining companies are considerable stake in the ftse100, they make up a bit. so this would affect the results of it seems to be in the green at the moment. has that interest rates decision had any impact? it did yesterday, the pound dropped considerably against the euro but seems to be recovering

now. thank you, we'll talk to you in an hour. thank you. the house where the composer george bizet created the opera carmen is up for sale. a campaign is under way to buy it and turn it into a museum or cultural centre. they need to raise 3 million euros by crowdfunding. from france, hugh schofield reports. this is the house where the composer created the opera about the gypsy woman from spain. for years the u psta i rs woman from spain. for years the upstairs room where he wrote has been kept as a shrine. the first timei been kept as a shrine. the first time i came here it was with a very famous singer who played carmen. and we could not stop crying. for us it is very moving to be in this room,

and also to know what was the life of this great man. the piano is the actual one which the composer wrote on. there were constant exchanges up and down the stairs. comment should have been a triumph for the composer but alas it wasn‘t. when it was put on at the opera comic in paris it was not success, the critics were not kind and the audiences stayed away, embittered, depressed, the composer went for a swim one evening in the river near his home, he caught a chill, and three days later, he was dead. bizet was just 36. could he have dreams that one—day carmen would be the most performed opera ever? its arias insta ntly performed opera ever? its arias instantly recognisable, here in a 2007 vision in the royal in london. and here in the 1932 film.

of course carmen is looking at him with very beautiful eyes and he just falls in love with her and she with him. and that is the beautiful story of carmen! for bizet is a rare composer who is less well known than the thing he wrote. saving his house for posterity is perhaps a way to do justice to the man as well as the work. hugh schofield, bbc news. were

he not, i would not, iwould not not, i would not be singing. here‘s the weather. good afternoon, a quiet day, things will liven up at the weekend, we started with a lot of folk but as one weather watcher in powys has captured, some spells of sunshine, generally quite a lot of clout. see the satellite picture from earlier, the satellite picture from earlier, the cloudy conditions across many parts of the country, and to the far north—west this is a weather front which doing this evening will push southward and eastwards and will join forces with this frontal system gushing from the south—west so the two weather systems combine to bring a spell of really wet weather particularly across england and wales tonight, some heavy bursts of rain and as the wet weather clears from scotland and northern ireland to hear the skies were clear, it will turn chilly and we will start to see some show was pushing up from the west. your weekend gets into a

5°99y the west. your weekend gets into a soggy start across east anglia and the heavy bursts of rain trundling slowly eastwards, still mired at this stage, but out west we should see brighter skies but with a cold field to the weather, solskjaer was already blowing into western england and wales, brad skies across northern england and also eastern scotla nd northern england and also eastern scotland and some sunshine for western scotland and northern ireland, here are scattering of showers blown in on the west of the wind, it will feel chilly tomorrow, cold air working in across the country as we push this band of rain away. it‘s likely to state cold and damp across eastern england for part of the day yet elsewhere we will see sunshine and skies will be less wintry over the wins and mountains, temperatures just 8 degrees. if you are going to a fireworks display on saturday for many places, dry i‘m fine, always the chance of solskjaer was pushing in across western areas. sunday should generally be quieter, with drier weather and clear skies

across many parts of the country. but it will feel decidedly chilly because as we go through sunday it‘s a day of things settling down, some showers tending to fade away, 8—10d are the daytime highs and on sunday night we will see quite widespread frost. to sum up initially some rain which should clear to leave a mixture of sunshine and showers but it will feel colder. hello, you‘re watching afternoon live. i‘m rebecca jones. today at four: labour suspends the mp kelvin hopkins 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.

and it is understood the metropolitan police are investigating an allegation of sexual assault against the hollywood actor kevin spacey. an army sergeant, who denies attempting to murder his wife by sabotaging her parachute, has been giving evidence in his defence. coming up on afternoon live, all the sport with lizzie. an extraordinary kick is making the headlines. patrice evra is charged with violent conduct by uefa after high—kicking one of his marseille fans before a europa league game last night. he was sent off and could face a lengthy suspension. more on that, later. ben has all the weather. eyes to the skies this weekend with fireworks displays across the country. tonight looks soggy, something drier later in the weekend. all the details later on.

also coming up, a parting gesture — the twitter employee that took down donald trump‘s account on his last day of work. hello, everyone. this is afternoon live. i‘m rebecca jones. a labour activist who accused an mp of sexual harassment has told the bbc she feels disillusioned by how the party handled the matter. ava etemadzadeh says she felt ‘powerless and isolated‘ after the mp kelvin hopkins was promoted the year after she complained about him. mr hopkins has not commented, but labour says it takes such complaints ‘extremely seriously‘. meanwhile, sir michael fallon, who resigned as defence secretary earlier this week, has categorically

denied making inappropriate sexual comments to the leader of the commons andrea leadsom. in the last half an hour, it has been announced that the prime minister has written to the commons speakerjohn bercow to set out a new code of conduct for conservative party representatives, after the recent allegations against several figures in westminster. our political correspondent iain watson has the latest on the continuing allegations of misconduct at westminster. he‘s a close ally ofjeremy corbyn and nominated him for the party leadership, but now luton mp kelvin hopkins has been suspended from the parliamentary labour party. that‘s because of allegations made by this labour activist who told the bbc he‘d acted inappropriately towards her. 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 political conversation with him. and he told me that, "let‘s not talk about politics. do you have a boyfriend?" and he also mentioned that, he said that if nobody was in his office he would have taken me there. i was absolutely shocked. she says she also received a suggestive text and took her concerns to another labour mp who reported them to the most senior figure in charge of labour party discipline, the then chief whip rosie winterton. kelvin hopkins was reprimanded for his behaviour and subsequently he was temporarily promoted to labour‘s shadow cabinet. that made me feel very powerless, and isolated and alone. last year, around 80% of jeremy corbyn‘s mps voted that they had no confidence in his leadership. that meant he had trouble filling some of his front ranked jobs.

kelvin hopkins was happy to help out. but i‘ve been very reliably informed thatjeremy corbyn did indeed know that kelvin hopkins had been reprimanded before he promoted him to the shadow cabinet. although, i‘m also being told he wasn‘t made aware of some of the more dramatic aspects of this case. jeremy corbyn wasn‘t any more forthcoming today, but labour point out kelvin hopkins has now been suspended and that new more robust procedures for reporting harassment have been put in place. were you aware of the allegations against mr hopkins, sir? goodbye. but some say even these recent reforms aren‘t adequate. i think it needs a big injection of independence from a specialist agency. a specialist sexual violence, sexual harassment agency. so that people can feel that when they first report, there‘s no fear or favour. and also that when any arbitration of anything below a criminal threshold is being decided on, that there is a specialist in the room advising any panel.

and she was surprised that kelvin hopkins had been given a shadow cabinet role. i don‘t think i would‘ve promoted him. and i know that the victim felt a little bit bereft by his promotion. kelvin hopkins hasn‘t responded to requests for a statement. but it‘s notjust labour who are under scrutiny. some newspapers carry new allegations about the former defence secretary sir michael fallon, suggesting he made lewd remarks some years ago to ministerial colleague andrea leadsom. he categorically denies this, and she won‘t comment. but beyond specific allegations, the bigger question is now what reforms major political parties are willing to agree to enable victims of harassment to come forward and receive support. iain watson, bbc news, westminster. let‘s go straight to westminster now. our political correspondingly leila nathoo is there. let‘s talk about the news that has broken in the last hour, the new code of

conduct, tell us more about that. this is an internal conservative party document they have published rules setting out what applies to anyone who represents the party, elected or appointed. these set of rules describe some values that all conservative members and representatives should abide by. importantly, representatives should abide by. importa ntly, it sets representatives should abide by. importantly, it sets out a procedure for dealing with complaints. there will be a confidential hotline, and the party is promising there will be a panel, including at least one independent member, what they described as an independent member, sitting on the panel, to assess any claims. this is something going on across parties. the labour party has set out grievance procedures, agreed earlier in the summer. jeremy corbyn has written to mps and party members about those procedures. the parties are getting their houses in order, if you like. setting up codified in

their procedures for dealing with claims of harassment. there is also a clear push from the prime minister. she said in her letter written to the speaker this afternoon, pointing him to this code of conduct. but there also needs to bea of conduct. but there also needs to be a cross—party push to get something together, so that anyone working in parliament, in westminster, regardless of political affiliation, can have an independent and transparent grievance procedure. one that they can go to outside of political parties. remember, this is something that has been pointed to from all sides, the party structures for dealing with any complaints are, themselves, a deterrent to people coming forward, because they believe they will not get a fair hearing, or believe they may not want to appeal to people who are possibly friends with the person they are accusing. as well as the internal party procedures, this code of conduct, the way of dealing with complaints,

there will be on monday a meeting between theresa may and other party leaders on monday to agree to a wider mechanism that can be put in place in westminster to help people that want to come forward outside their political party structures. you say the parties are trying to get their houses in order, nonetheless today, we have more allegations about the conservatives, sir michael fallon, and a labour mp suspended. yeah, so the labour party is under pressure, really, over this claim that labour mp kelvin hopkins made inappropriate remarks, said inappropriate text messages, to a young woman some years ago. and the labour party, jeremy corbyn specifically, knew about this before promoting him to the shadow cabinet, which he did in 2016, kelvin hopkins briefly served as shadow culture secretary afterjeremy corbyn was scrambling to get a shadow cabinet together after a wave of

resignations following the eu referendum. this woman alleges that kelvin hopkins, he was reprimanded by the chief whip. she took her complaint to the chief whip, and kelvin hopkins was verbally reprimanded. but she is very unhappy about the way the party has dealt with it. she was dismayed to find out kelvin hopkins was subsequently promoted. labour are not commenting on those claims, they take all the allegations seriously. kelvin hopkins has been suspended. he himself has not commented on those complaints. but it has called into questionjeremy complaints. but it has called into question jeremy corbyn‘s judgment, whether he knew and was aware at the time, specifically when he appointed him shadow culture secretary, that he had had this allegation against him. yes, sir michael fallon, the defence secretary, this morning, another claim ina defence secretary, this morning, another claim in a newspaper that he had made lewd remarks to the leader

of the house andrea leadsom, six yea rs of the house andrea leadsom, six years ago, at a parliamentary meeting. the claim in the newspaper is andrea leadsom took those this week to downing street, and that is a bit dated sir michael‘s resignation. sir michael fallon repeats the claim is categorically. andrea leadsom did not speak to the primary store or encourage the prime minister to get sir michael fallon to stand down. lots of claims surfacing day by day, new allegations coming out. it seems this scandal revolving in westminster has some way to run. good to talk to you. leila nathoo in westminster. a member of the welsh government, carl sargeant, has stood down after allegations were made about his personal conduct and he has also been suspended from the labour party while an investigation takes places. mr sargeant, the cabinet secretary for communities and children, said he didn‘t know the details of the claims, but he hoped to return to the government "after being allowed to clear his name". the hollywood actor kevin spacey

is being investigated by the metropolitan police over an alleged sexual assault. it‘s understood officers from the child abuse and sexual offences command are looking into claims that the house of cards actor sexually assaulted a man in lambeth in 2008. the met has declined to identify the suspect. earlier our correspondent chi chi izundu gave us more details. i can tell you that the sun are reporting a british 32—year—old man walked into a city of london police station on tuesday, and made a complaint about a sexual assault, as you say, dating back to 2008, when the victim was 23 years of age. the sun are reporting that the alleged attacker is apparently kevin spacey. the metropolitan police have confirmed they have received a complaint about an assault dating back from 2008. it‘s alleged to have happened in the london borough of lambeth. however, the police would not confirm that the allegations had been made against kevin spacey. they would not name him.

this is the first allegation that has been made against kevin spacey that would have gone to the police. we mustn‘t forget that kevin spacey was actually the artistic director of the old vic from 2004 to 2015. this does come after a number of allegations against him. indeed, this all started on sunday night with actor anthony rapp, who‘s currently starring in star trek. he says that he had an improper encounter with kevin spacey when he was 14 years of age. another man told the bbc earlier this week that he had another improper encounter with kevin spacey when he was 17 years of age. they both allege that these things happened. several others have come out in la, as well, claiming similar accounts. now, overnight, kevin spacey‘s publicist said they are no longer his representation.

the charity commission has confirmed it has contacted the old vic trust and the kevin spacey foundation, to seek clarifications on matters of safeguarding, and whether they should step in as the regulatory body. on safeguarding issues as well, cnn have also said a number of employees from the house of cards production, the netflix production that kevin spacey stars in, they have also come forward to make a number of allegations. we must say that kevin spacey, in terms of anthony rapp‘s allegation, did apologise and say that he did not recall the encounter. since the allegations have come forward, he has also said that he is seeking evaluation and treatment. chi chi izundu there. an army sergeant accused of trying to kill his wife by sabotaging her parachute has begun giving evidence in his defence. victoria cilliers suffered multiple injuries when her parachute failed to open during a jump in wiltshire in 2015. emile cilliers denies all the charges.

helena lee is following the case at winchester crown court. shejoins us now. what she joins us now. what has the cord been hearing? we have had a couple of hours of evidence from the man himself at the centre of this trial. he is accused as you say, of two attem pts he is accused as you say, of two atte m pts to he is accused as you say, of two attempts to murder his wife, victoria cilliers, in 2015. what we have been hearing is he has been answering questions, he has been asked questions by his defence solicitor this afternoon. he has been telling the jury, the court, he isa man been telling the jury, the court, he is a man that has struggled very much financially, that he struggles to control how much he spends. he said he has always lived above his means. he has, in the past, had to ta ke means. he has, in the past, had to take out a loan, and then take out another loan to repay that debt. he married his first wife, carly, here

in the uk, and had two children with her. hejoined the military. he then said they separated, and he owed her between £5,000 and £6,000 worth of debt. he then went on to marry his second wife, victoria cilliers, who he is accused of attempting to murder on two occasions. he said he was scared, he told the court, to tell her how much debt he was in with to begin with. he said he was worried she would leave him. he told thejury worried she would leave him. he told the jury that he owed her around £19,000 in debt. we also heard from the 37—year—old, who was giving evidence in the witness box this afternoon, that he went on a four they advanced parachute packing cars in 2012. he said he packed victoria‘s parachute on one occasion, he then went to aldershot for a number of months, and then he told the court that, after that, "i wouldn‘t have liked to have attempted it again." backing a

sheet. he said, "he wanted to take a refresher course." he was asked, "did you attempts to packed victoria‘s parachute after that?" he replied no. court has concluded for the afternoon, emile cilliers has denied all charges against him. 0k, helena lee, thanks for that update. an american soldier will serve no prison time. he has been given a dishonourable discharge, had his rank reduced to private, and will have to pay a $10,000 fine. army coloneljeffrey nance have to pay a $10,000 fine. army colonel jeffrey nance delivered have to pay a $10,000 fine. army coloneljeffrey nance delivered the sentence in a hearing that lasted just two minutes. prosecutors asked thejudge to send just two minutes. prosecutors asked the judge to send him to prison for 14 years. a 24—hour strike on arriva

rail north will go ahead on the ninth november. members of the rail, maritime and transport union will walk out next week after talks aimed at resolving a row over the role of guards onboard trains "collapsed" today. you‘re watching afternoon live, these are our headlines: a labour mp accused of sexually harassing a young woman activist has been suspended by the party. he has yet to comment. it‘s believed that london‘s metropolitan police are investigating an allegation of sexual assault against the hollywood actor kevin spacey. an army sergeant who denies attempting to murder his wife by sabotaging her parachute has taken the stand for the first time. in a moment: the latest from catalonia, where aid leaders of the independence movement we re leaders of the independence movement were jailed last night, accused of rebellion. and in sport: uefa charge patrice evra with violent conduct after he high—kicked one of his marseille team‘s supporters before their europa league

match last night. he could face lengthy ban. the manchester united manager jose mourinho says the spanish fraud case against him is now closed. it relates to accusations over unpaid taxes from image rights whilst he was in charge of real madrid. a judge will now decide whether the case will proceed to trial. and world number one rafael nadal withdraws from the paris masters with a knee injury. nadal says he‘ll "do his best" to return for the season—ending atp tour finals, which take place in london later this month. more sport for you just after 4:30. don‘t forget, you can let us know what you think. tweet us using the hashtag, #afternoonlive. all the ways to contact us on screen right now. several former ministers from the catalan government are in prison, after they were charged with rebellion for holding the disputed independence referendum. an arrest warrant could be issued today for catalonia‘s sacked leader, carles puigdemont, who is now in belgium. thousands of catalans staged protests in barcelona last night,

saying the politicians had become political prisoners. our correspondent, tom burridge, has been to meet one family in the city where opinions are divided about the region‘s future. there is flash photography in his report. last week, they ran catalonia‘s government. eight former ministers spent last night behind bars. they face charges of rebellion. and were denied bail by a judge at spain‘s high court. their supporters streamed down to catalonia‘s parliament. stunned as the news filtered through. whether the case is politically motivated or not, it will polarise opinions further. which, even in sleepy

catalan villages, is now often on public display. the abuse hurled atjordi, a pro—independence counsellor. at a local school where a month or he, arms crossed at the front, led a human wall blocking spain‘s civil guard. it‘s because of that disputed referendum that his political leaders are now in jail ahead of their trial. translation: it is a really sad situation. it reminds me more of a repressive state like turkey than a country of the european union. it‘s not democratic to lock up people for their ideas. lively discussions at home, too. this family split on that key question.

who is in favour of independence for catalonia? his sister is in favour of independence, but his mum and dad are wavering. jordi‘s not. "spain‘s laws have to be followed," he tells me, "and those that don‘t should be prosecuted." in madrid, the argument for years has been that the constitution, the country‘s rules, must be followed. but a spanish writer, who is against independence, believes they‘ve got it wrong. they‘ve actually being fuelling the engine of catalonian independence by their own intransigence and also in the gestures and words. a manifest lack of respect, even an insulting attitude towards the catalan people. almost every day, a new chapter in the catalan crisis. on the horizon now, regional elections. but with pro—independence leaders in jail, divisions below the surface are ever more entrenched.

tom burridge reporting there. a teenage boy has been arrested after an acid attack in north—east london which left a delivery driver in danger of losing his eyesight. police say the attackers tried to steal the man‘s moped yesterday evening in walthamstow. it was one of two acid attacks in london yesterday. a little earlier, i spoke to our correspondence dan johnson, who a little earlier, i spoke to our correspondence danjohnson, who gave us the latest. yes, this is the street where the first of those attacks happened at around 6pm last night. you can see, still intense police activity here this afternoon, as offers a search for any clues that might lead to the that carried out this attack. we‘ve got officers searching under cars, around vehicles, in front gardens,

searching through bins, looking for anything that may give them clues about who carried out this attack. as you say, the latest breaking news in the last hour is that police have arrested a teenage boy on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm. he is now being questioned in relation to the first attack that took place here last night at around 6pm. a 32—year—old man, a delivery driver, bringing a takeaway to the street, was attacked in attempt to rob his moped. police believe there were two people involved in that attack, and the man had a corrosive substance. the police say it was thrown in his face. he is receiving treatment in hospital now. they say his injuries are serious, and potentially life—threatening, which is why there‘s such an intensive investigation going on. detectives are warning that he could at least lose his sight. so we should be in no doubt about how serious these attacks can be. there was another attack involving a corrosive substance, not farfrom here, about 30 minutes later last night. police haven‘t confirmed that they think the attacks are linked, but

they are investigating that possibility. police still investigating who else may have been part of this attack, and the other one away in tottenham last night. our reporter there, dan johnson. the social media giant twitter was a little less busy last night as one of its most prolific tweeters fell silent. the account of president trump, who is famous for daily messages lambasting opponents, was closed for 11 minutes. the company said it was deliberately shut down by an employee on their last day at the firm. earlier, i spoke to bbc correspondent nick higham and began by asking him what happened. anyone trying to access the account last night, around 7pm, washington time, which is 11 o‘clock british time, here, got this message. it was only off for about 11 minutes, and twitter subsequently said it had been inadvertently deactivated due to human error. but later, they expanded that to say that a customer service employee had

taken the account down on their last day at work. i think we can assume that that person was not a trump enthusiast. what has been the reaction? well, trump himself reacted in a bullish way, tweeting at 6am, washington time, presumably when he got up, saying, "i guess word must finally be getting out, and having an impact." boasting about how important his twitter feed is. but there were critics reacting with glee. lots of people celebrating. trump supporters took a rather different view, one suggested the celebrations proved once again that liberals love censorship and hate free speech. there were worries raised about what it said about twitter security, and whether donald trump‘s account could be hijacked. somebody impersonating donald trump could tweet, well, who knows what? that is a serious worry. it was off for 11 minutes,

but as you suggest, he is already back on twitter. back with a vengeance. i‘m not entirely sure he realised it had gone down, in fact. but this morning, as well as tweeting that he was having an impact, he was producing a barrage of tweets, most of them about ructions in the democratic party camp. suggestions that hillary clinton and bernie sanders were at odds during the primary election campaign. asking once again, as he has done often, why various allegations about the democrats aren‘t being investigated. all of this typical of the way trump uses twitter. time for a look at the weather. here‘s ben rich you have something very big behind you. one place to look this weekend, up

to the sky. the full moon happens tonight. it happens in the early hours of tomorrow morning. this was a picture captured last night by a weather watcher in yorkshire. a beautiful shot, zoomed in. the interesting thing about full moons is, native americans in the past named every full moon in the year to help them keep track of where we are in the calendar, basically. this moon was called the beaver moon. it was the time of year when they put down traps to catch beavers, to get refers to keep them warm in the winter. you mentioned it was cold. what is it like for bonfire night? should we wrap up? we should. the moon will be cloudy tonight. not many people will see it. for fireworks, later tonight. not many people will see it. forfireworks, later in the weekend, saturday and sunday, which is bonfire night itself. saturday

looks mainly dry. there will be showers to the west, sunday with reliably dry weather. by that stage, cold and frosty night on sunday. all in all, not too bad if you want to see fireworks. as far as things go at the moment, pretty quiet out there. cloudy today, this was yorkshire earlier, but there has been sunshine as well. if i show you the next shot, beautiful, sunny scene in essex, clacton. as we go through the next few hours, we will see a pincer movement of weather systems, whether front pushing see a pincer movement of weather systems, whetherfront pushing in from the north—west, and another from the north—west, and another from the north—west, and another from the south. these willjoin forces to night. that will bring all the cloud, obscuring the view of the moon, and outbreaks of rain. the rain becoming increasingly expensive across england and wales, fog for a time across the south—east as well. northern ireland and scotland, different weather here. there will

be showers, and that is where we start to get into the colder air. tomorrow morning, your weekend sta rts tomorrow morning, your weekend starts like this. in the south east, it starts mild but soggy. dark blue and green colours on the chart. that suggests heavy bursts of rain here and there. further west, the skies will brighten. a few showers blowing into western coastal areas. a noticeably cooler feel to the weather. six in inverness, seven in aberdeen, as far as temperatures. showers blowing into western scotland. wintry over high ground, here, showers in northern ireland as well. showers feeding into western areas as we go through the day, but quite a lot of sunshine as well, away from the extreme south—east. it will be a struggle to clear the cloud and rain away. temperatures, 14 in london, eight in belfast, nine in glasgow. the best we can it spat. bonfire padres on saturday, dry

weather, but a chance of showers blowing in from the west. sunday sta rts blowing in from the west. sunday starts with showers as well, wintry over hills in the north, but they should fade away and we will see dry weather and sunshine, a pretty nice day to get out and about for a stroll if you wrap up. 7—10, the top temperatures, and windy towards the south—west. for the weekend, temperatures, and windy towards the south—west. forthe weekend, rain temperatures, and windy towards the south—west. for the weekend, rain at first, which will clear, to leave a mixture of sunshine and showers. most of us will note is a colder feel. it has been a pretty quiet week. this is bbc news — our latest headlines. a labour activist who accused the mp kelvin hopkins of sexual harassment has said she felt let down by the party‘s response. he has yet to comment. they refused to act and that made me feel very powerless and isolated and alone. it‘s believed that london‘s metropolitan police

are investigating an allegation of sexual assault against the hollywood actor kevin spacey. an army sergeant on trial accused of attempting to murder his wife by sabotaging her parachute has taken the stand for the first time. several former ministers from the catalan government are in prison, after they were charged with rebellion for holding the disputed independence referendum. twitter is investigating how an employee, in their last day with the company, managed to briefly deactivate president trump‘s account. in a moment... the crowdfunding project to try and buy the house where the composer george bizet created the opera, carmen. lizzie has the sport for us once again. the footballer could face a lengthy ban for the footballer could face a lengthy banfora the footballer could face a lengthy ban for a kick? the pictures are

extraordinary. patrice evra has been charged with uefa for violent conduct, the format manchester united defender win a place on marseille tried to kick one of his supporters in the head in the warm up supporters in the head in the warm upfor supporters in the head in the warm up for the game against the portuguese opponents last night. katie gornall has more. it was a warm up that boiled over, before the marseille europa league match in prodigal patrice evra became involved in an angry exchange with fans. as some supporters scaled the stands to confront him he was pulled away by team mates before returning to apparently aim a kick at the head of one of them. the defender was sent to the stands by the referee and it is not clear what prompted his reaction. translation: the first thing i can say is when you are as experienced player as you can‘t react to insults even if they are not acceptable. we have the chance to have more than 500 fans here and

i thank them for coming. however there was a fake fan who isn‘t a supporter of our club who insulted patrice and one of our players and this is not acceptable. the player ‘s actions bring back memories of eric cantona and his infamous kung fu kick at selhurst park in 1995. the player launched at crystal palace supporter who had taunted him after he had been sent off. it led toa after he had been sent off. it led to a nine—month ban. still one of the longest in football. eric ca nto na the longest in football. eric ca ntona would the longest in football. eric cantona would return to play for united but a former team—mate of his beliefs is huge is not certain.” think it's difficult to see it continue. most likely he will move onto a different club. the player can expect to face an extended when

u efa can expect to face an extended when uefa ‘s disciplinary body meets next week. he has several league titles to his name, he will hope this is the final chapter. katie gornall, bbc news. jose mourinho has appeared ina bbc news. jose mourinho has appeared in a spanish court today to face tax fraud allegations relating to his time as manager of real madrid. he is accused of owing almost £3 million from undeclared image rights revenue. mourinho emerged after a brief hearing in madrid today saying he‘d already paid an amount demanded by the authorities to close the matter. thejudge will by the authorities to close the matter. the judge will now decide if the case needs to go to trial. to tennis. rafael nadal has withdrawn from the paris masters with a knee injury. he was due to break in the quarterfinals this afternoon but says he is suffering from a right knee problem and product before the match. he says he will do his best to return to the season—ending atp tour finals

to return to the season—ending atp tourfinals which to return to the season—ending atp tour finals which take place in london later this month. england have some key injury concerns before the opening ashes test which begins in three weeks‘ time. steven finn and moeen ali will miss the first two warm up games with injury, steven finn struggling with a knee problem although scans show it is not as bad as feared, and he will be assessed in the first week. the first england fixtures a two—day match against western australian in this again. moeen has a side injury but it is thought he will be back in full training by the middle of this month. and eleanor givens of england is in contention at the abu dhabi open after shooting the best round of the day to move up to third on the leaderboard, one eagle and six birdies mean she is currently 12 under, trailing the leader by three shots. her fellow englishwoman, georgia hall, is also in contention despite a bogey on the 14th, just

one shot behind eleanor givens at the moment. that‘s all the sport for now, more for you in one hour, join us then. thank you, lizzie. now on afternoon live — let‘s go nationwide — and see what‘s happening around the country — in our daily visit to the bbc newsrooms around the uk. jeff brown is in newcastle. hi,jeff, he hi, jeff, he will tell me about a remarkable young girl. and in a minute i‘ll be speaking to rob smith in tunbridge wells about an firework display that has divided opinion in east sussex. welcome to you both. but to jeff first and a seven—year—old‘s dream has come true today? yes, a great story, rebecca. freya was born with the condition which is a bit complicated but it is basically an acronym for a range of problems to do with the heart, the eyes, ea rs, problems to do with the heart, the eyes, ears, with breathing. it‘s a condition that affects one in 10,000

births so clearly a little girl with problems but her one dream was to be able to swim. it was thought that because of breathing problems, she‘s got a tube and a windpipe to help her breathe, it was thought she could never get into the pool, it was too risky but with help from the surgeons she made it into the swimming pool today, a milestone of her. he was delighted, so was her family. her mum said she couldn‘t believe what you was seeing. you allow yourself to dream and you allow yourself to dream and you allow yourself to think of possibilities but they were impossibilities. freya never walked unaided until she was five and a half. she always had a walking frame or always needed something. she had no balance. and her airway always had issues, and it was a massive dream for the trachea to come out but that was the dream. then the dream is for the hole to close independently but even in our dreams it was years and years away. but

never did i think about her getting into a never did i think about her getting intoa swimming never did i think about her getting into a swimming pool and swimming. jeff, a wonderful story. out of the hospital make it happen? —— had and they make it happen? they did give her help that this was down to freya herself. she had trachea to me as a baby, she has a small windpipe that you need that to be removed to be able to go into a swimming pool. the doctors said it was a risk and normally you would have to be older to have it removed but she was determined and wanted to do it. they gave her a masked so she could learn to breathe through your nose and mouth for the first time and when the hole finally healed when the trachea was removed she could finally get into the pool. the doctors say they have never met more determined little girl. a real fighter. terrific, thank you for telling us about her. good luck to

her and her family. now, telling us about her. good luck to herand herfamily. now, rob. rob, it‘s the annual bonfire night celebration is tomorrow in lewes, but there‘s been controversy already? absolutely. the first thing to say about lewes bonfire night is that it is not like bonfire night anywhere else in the country. it‘s absolutely bonkers. around 80,000 people will be cramming into the streets around lewes for the event, some 3000 people take part and they carry burning effigies down the streets and they let off firecrackers and they have burning crosses and all sorts of things that go on. is the most extraordinary, vibrant, occasionally frightening spectacle you could go to. there are seven bonfire societies that organise all the mayhem at lewes. and one of them has for many years, and a large number of the members of society, they have dressed as zulu warriors. it's they have dressed as zulu warriors. it‘s always been a bit

controversial, growing more controversial, growing more controversial over the years, and there was an organisation called bonfire against racism that i‘ve told them not to do it and they have dug in their heels and said, it‘s a tradition, we will carry on blacking up. this year, there was a group zulu dancers do to bejoining the parade in lewes this year. and they contacted the society to basically say, if you black at we want them because it‘s disrespectful. they say that some of the costumes with monkey skulls, it‘s a gross misrepresentation and a stereotype of black people. so that the first time they have been dressing up, the bonfire society has told its members, don‘t black up any more, paint yourface green, members, don‘t black up any more, paint your face green, painted members, don‘t black up any more, paint yourface green, painted a bright colour, use traditional zulu patterns but don‘t black up. the significant fact is that this has

been such a big issue in the area for years, there motto is, we won‘t be driven. but this time they have changed their minds. it‘ll be interesting to see how many people taking part take that advice and do not black up. you say 80,000 people will attend, will it be difficult to get there? it‘s a massive police operation and if you‘re trying to drive into operation and if you‘re trying to d rive into lewes operation and if you‘re trying to drive into lewes on saturday don‘t do it because you want get close to the town centre at all. they also close the railway lines around lewes. that‘s caused major problems as far as one local mp says come he says it‘s not democratic, they are closing stations, including some in brighton, miles away, you can walk from there, but he says it is not democratic and it will be difficult

to do their normal business, he is writing to ask if we can please rethink that one. we are told that people are asked to stay back from the bonfire for safety reasons but we must remember the wildlife. yes, hedgehogs. we all know they like to hibernate in piles of leaves and bonfires provide those in abundance and lewes of course has a lot of bonfires for lewes bonfire night. one local has shown you can do something about this, they‘ve got a thermal imaging system and they are going out to bonfires, looking to see whether or not there‘s a mrs tiggy winkle hiding in the middle of the leaves at the bottom of the bonfires and then they can pull them out. the advice to everyone in general terms is, make sure that there isn‘t a hedgehog in your bonfire. if you find one, the advice

is to put one in shoe box with leaves, wear gloves because they can be prickly, and put them out of the way until the fireworks have been let off and then you can release them under a hedge or something. find out more from the british hedgehog preservation society online. really good to talk about that. enjoy bonfire night, and jeff in newcastle, good to talk to you, thank you both. this is afternoon live. if you‘d like to catch up with more of those news nationwide stories, go to the bbc iplayer. the government says it will speed up the process of getting new, life—changing medicines available on the nhs. a panel of experts is to choose five treatments for fast—track approval in england each year. ministers hope it could halve the time it takes to get new drugs to patients. our health editor, hugh pym, reports. andrew has a rare eye condition.

his sight is getting steadily worse. there are new drugs which could save it but it can take as much as seven years to get clearance and adoption by the nhs. at some point in my life i expect that i will go blind. but there are trials of new drugs at the moment and knowing that they could be ready but i might have to wait seven years to get access, in that time i could have gone blind. there have been significant advances in medical technology as well as research on new drugs and treatments, but the big question is how rapidly can they be brought into nhs hospitals for the benefit of all patients? this health minister says the government has an answer, he was visiting hammersmith hospital in london today to see new technology for heart procedures. the idea is to cut delays in the approval process for breakthrough drugs and treatments. at the moment there are various stages that any product, whether it‘s a drug or a device, whatever it is, has to go through in terms of regulatory approval or cost—effectiveness and so on, commercial negotiations with the nhs,

the idea is to bring them all together to run in parallel which will make the process operate much more quickly so those things that really do have life—changing impacts on people can be brought forward sooner. under what‘s called the accelerated access pathway it will be cut from as much as seven years to three. in april next year five new drugs and treatments will be selected for fast—track approval. this number could be increased annually in future. pharmaceutical companies and technology suppliers have been frustrated by the slow pace in getting new products into the nhs, compared to other healthcare systems. sometimes the pace of adoption isn‘t as fast as we would like. the accelerated access review will give the opportunity for game—changing devices, things that can make a significant difference to patients‘ lives to come into the healthcare system faster than they otherwise would, which has to be a good thing for patients. medical charities have welcomed the news, though with some reservations. we would feel that the government could go even further still. we have some concerns that

drugs could be overlooked as part of the scheme. the department of health have said about five drugs are looked at every year but there are so many emerging treatments on the horizon, we don't think five is going to be enough. health campaigners say it‘s a start but they want to know more detail about the new process and they‘ve noted that the policy does not at this stage involve any new money for the nhs in england to spend on drugs and treatments. hugh pym, bbc news. it‘s emerged that the ashes of the moors murderer ian brady have been buried at sea after his body was cremated last week. he died in may at the age of 79, at ashworth high security hospital in merseyside. court documents show that the cremation took place in southport without any ceremony. five decades on from crimes that shocked the country, ian brady‘s

body has been unceremoniously buried at sea. there was no music and flowers were not allowed. these were the conditions set by the high court, which stepped in over fears his remains would be scattered on saddleworth moor. it was here that brady and myra hindley buried the victims they tortured and killed. brady was sent to prison in 1966 for murdering 12—year—old john kilbride, 10—year—old lesley ann downey and 17—year—old edward evans. in 1985, he also admitted killing 16—year—old pauline reade and 12—year—old keith bennett, whose body has never been found. he died of natural causes in may of this year. in the early hours of wednesday 26th october, ian brady‘s remains were sealed in a weighted urn and sent to the bottom of the sea. the ftse100 has closed at a record high, more about that in the business news later. the headlines.

a labour mp accused of sexually harassing a young woman activist has been suspended by the party. he has yet to comment. it‘s believed that london‘s metropolitan police are investigating an allegation of sexual assault against the hollywood actor kevin spacey. an army sergeant who denies attempting to murder his wife by sabotaging her parachute has taken the stand for the first time. he has given evidence in his own defence. your business headlines. twitter is investigating how president teresa berganza‘s account was deactivated for 11 minutes, it is claimed it was an employee on their last day with the company but this doesn‘t seem to have bothered him because he was back online writing about tax cuts to his 41 million followers shortly afterwards. shoppers have been queueing for the new apple phone which retails for 999 pounds and went on sale today. this abandons

the signature home button and can be unlocked with face scanning technology. and activity in the uk‘s dominant services sector grew the fastest rate for six months in october, helped by stronger order books and resilient demand. the purchasing manager‘s in texas for services rose to 50 fits deloitte -55.6%, services rose to 50 fits deloitte —55.6%, up from 53.6 in december. the figure is well above the 50 threshold that indicates growth. first, the news that the ftse has closed at a record high. in the last few hours it was flirting with a record high, and apparently it now has. it has been helped by this lower sterling we have seen since yesterday. after that decision by the bank of england to raise interest rates we saw sterling drop, because of the trajectory of interest rates that the bank of england was talking about yesterday, about raising rates for the next two

yea rs. about raising rates for the next two years. it dropped on that means. it does help the ftse100, and we have seen that boost today. we will look at some of the top business stories of the week and that rise in interest rates yesterday must be the headline. it was widely anticipated because mark carney the governor of the bank of england signalled a good month ago that possibly rates would rise some markets had priced that in. but economists yesterday did point to the fact that before the uk- eu point to the fact that before the uk— eu referendum last year rates for half a percent down and dropped after we got the result of the referendum. it‘s just reversing that cut. this was considered largely expected rather than significant. what about the services sector? we got dated today which indicated healthy growth in the services

sector and that dominates the uk economy “— sector and that dominates the uk economy —— we got data. that has been on a gradual rise of the next few quarters. the new iphone. global domination continues? there was this huge queue outside regent street and it was the apple store, 900 99p is not cheap but clearly isn‘t putting people off. the new feature is that you can unlock a phone with a selfie, face recognition. we shouldn‘t open it with the phone any more. should talk more about these stories isjeremy cooke, chief economist let‘s start with the interest rise. it was a hike in name only. the language we heard from mark carney and the rest of the

committee was the fact that it was not unanimous vote to hike rates. two members of the monetary policy committee thought it would be best of the bank of england held rates yesterday, kind of symbolising that we are back to 0.5% and interest rates in the uk have doubled in the past rates in the uk have doubled in the pa st 24 rates in the uk have doubled in the past 24 hours, in the grand scheme of things we are back to a level where we've been in the past seven years and this doesn't look great for the uk economy, people talking about further rate rises may be disappointed. we saw sterling slipped on the news yesterday and we have a record finish that the ftse 100. they linked? absolutely correlated. a lot of the ftse100 may have their headquarters in london and be listed in london as well but a lot of their income will come from abroad and as they translate that back onto the uk balance sheet, the week of the pound, the healthier those profits look. —— the more the pound looks weak. a lot of people expect in the

ftse100 and expect dividends so the likelihood is that the bank is not going to raise interest rates much further from now, going to raise interest rates much furtherfrom now, therefore they will get paid a higher dividend than they would by putting money into a savings account and that makes interesting look more attractive. sterling reversed some of those losses this morning when the pmi data came out, that strongly represented the service sectors, they did well. absolutely, the bank of england, the sterling rate, it‘s all mixed up on one thing we took from the decision today e—fit yesterday is that everything will be data — dependent. looking at the sterling and looking at the ftse it sounds obvious but good numbers will be good for sterling and bat numbers bad for sterling. in the short—term, maybe 80% of the uk economy, if that was good in october, the best that we have seen as an overall figure of six months but new orders, and most

importantly probably unemployment still remains weak. businesses not willing to commit. they are worried about what the future may hold. thank you, jeremy, will have to leave it there. a quick look at the markets. that that record finish there. have a good weekend, many thanks. the house where the composer george bizet created the opera carmen is up for sale. a campaign is under way to buy it and turn it into a museum or cultural centre. they need to raise 3 million euros by crowdfunding. from france, hugh schofield reports. this is the house where the composer georges bizet created the opera about the gypsy woman from spain.

for years the upstairs room where he wrote has been kept as a shrine. the first time i came here it was with teresa berganza, a very famous singer who played carmen. and we could not stop crying. for us it is very moving to be in this room, and also to know what was the life of this great man. the piano is the actual one which the composer wrote on. his librettist worked on the floor below. his librettist worked on the floor below. there were constant exchanges up and down the stairs. carmen should have been a triumph for the composer but alas it wasn‘t. when it was put on at the opera comique in paris it was not a success, the critics were not kind and the audiences stayed away. embittered, depressed, the composer went for a swim one

evening in the river near his home, he caught a chill, and three days later, he was dead. bizet was just 36. could he have dreamed that one day carmen would be the most performed opera ever? its arias instantly recognisable, here in a 2007 vision in the royal in london. and here in the 1932 film. of course afterwards carmen is looking at him with very beautiful eyes and escamilo just falls in love with her and she with him. and that is the beautiful story of carmen! poor georges bizet is a rare composer who is less well known than

the thing he wrote. saving his house for posterity is perhaps a way to do justice to the man as well as the work. hugh schofield, bbc news. that is it from afternoon live today, simon will be back on monday, next the news at five including the film review with jane hill. now here‘s ben with the weather. ending ona ending on a quiet note that this weekend things. but because of her frontal system pushing in from the north—west, anotherfrom frontal system pushing in from the north—west, another from the south and they will combine to bring a speu and they will combine to bring a spell of what weather across england and wales tonight. for northern ireland and scotland the skies will clear with showers and it will be chilly, setting us up for the weekend, some rain at first will clear to leave a mixture of sunshine and showers but for all of us a colder feel to the weather. that

rain will make for a soggy start across east anglia and the south—east. it will only slowly clear away eastwards but behind it we will see sunny skies, a colder feel with some showers blowing into western coastal areas, this show was also telling wintry over the western mountains of scotland, 19 degrees, only 14 degrees in london, shell is fading to leave sunshine but temperatures of between eight and 10 degrees. today at five. questions about why jeremy corbyn promoted kelvin hopkins to his shadow cabinet — after he‘d been reprimanded for alleged inappropriate behaviour. the mp is suspended as the party investigates allegations of sexual

harassment against an activist three years ago. she says she‘s disillusioned by how the matter was handled. they refused to act and it made me feel powerless and isolated and alone. we‘ll have the latest from westminster. the other main stories on bbc news at 5... the metropolitan police is understood to be investigating an allegation of sexual assault against the hollywood actor kevin spacey. an army sergeant accused of attempting to murder his wife by sabotaging her parachute, takes the stand for the first time. the government announces plans to fast—track access