this is bbc news. i'm martine croxhall. the headlines at eight. the future of zimbabwe's robert mugabe, hangs in the balance after the military seized power yesterday. i'm ben brown live in zimbabwe. according to some reports robert mugabe is refusing to stand down, he has been holding talks with south african mediators and the head of the zimbabwe military. police investigating the disappearance of 19—year—old gaia pope in dorset have arrested a 49—year—old man on suspicion of murder. the metropolitan police says 71 people are now known to have died in the grenfell tower fire. they say they have identified all the victims and they have a final figure for the number of the dead. a pledge to build more homes — the prime minister promises to take personal charge of dealing with britain's housing crisis. also ahead this hour. concern over the increasing amount of dog attacks on britain's livestock. sheep and cattle are being injured, even killed by dogs as they roam in

open fields. thousands turn out in hull to see the queen as she visits key innovations in the city of culture. good evening and welcome to bbc news. crisis talks are being held in the capital of zimbabwe, harare, after its long—term leader robert mugabe was placed under house arrest by the country's military on wednesday. officials from south africa are meeting the 93—year—old — and also zimbabwe's generals, who deny there's been a coup. opposition leader morgan tsvangirai says mr mugabe must resign but sources suggest the president is resistant. president mugabe has been in control of zimbabwe since it threw off white minority rule in 1980. however, the power struggle over who might succeed him, between his wife grace mugabe, and former vice—president emmerson

mnangagwa, has split the ruling zanu—pf party in recent months. last week, mr mugabe came down in favour of his wife, sacking mr mnangagwa, a veteran of zimbabwe's anti—colonial struggle. that proved too much for military leaders, who seized control of the country on wednesday. we canjoin we can join the we canjoin the ben brown in zimbabwe. hello, people here are waiting with baited breath to see what happens next in this crisis. and to see whether the 37 year rule or misrule as many would say of robert mugabe will finally end. he's still under house arrest after the military takeover but has been having talks today with the head of the zimbabwean military and also with south african mediators and a catholic priest. some reports say he refuses to stand down, clinging to power, perhaps waiting for elections that are scheduled next year. according to other reports he may be

prepared to stand down as early as tomorrow if he's given guarantees about the safety of himself and his family. in that case there would be a transitional government and morgan tsvangirai, the leader of the opposition party, such arrival of robert mugabe for seven years, would step in for prime minister, and oversee the restoration committee would hope, of the economy and also fresh elections. this report on the days events from another correspondent in zimbabwe. it looks like normal life. the daily commute to work, children going to school. but look more closely. tanks on street corners, and what you can't see behind closed doors, delicate and intense horse—trading over zimba bwe‘s future is taking place. and here is the evidence — the first images of robert mugabe

since he was placed under house arrest. it has to be said that the 93—year—old still looks in charge. one of the people in the shot is an envoy from south africa, and here he is with constanino chiwenga, the general that many believe ordered the takeover. loyalty has been a tradable commodity within zanu—pf for many years, and in these uncertain times, that loyalty is shifting rapidly. representatives from neighbouring african states have arrived in zimbabwe to facilitate a deal that could determine whether president mugabe stays or leaves. robert mugabe's power is ebbing away. there will be no change unless he resigns or agrees to a handover plan. but look more closely. although the army set things going, zanu—pf, the party mugabe created,

might force him out. emmerson mnangagwa, mugabe's former deputy, believed to be behind it, has several cards he could play. he has the support of the war veterans, the influential group who kept mugabe in power who now appear to have turned against him. the other power groups that will be key in any negotiations are the party's youth and women's league. the military want to ensure that his departure is done by the book. mr mugabe needs to be persuaded to resign. that is the obvious route to take. if one starts taking the impeachment route, the ill—health route and trying to get the parliamentary vote, this could be a long and protracted process and the outcome could be uncertain. that would mean that the military needs to remain in control over that period, and then we have an extended period of unconstitutionality, which is obviously highly undesirable. zimbabwe is once again at the centre of regional crisis talks. people i talked to in harare want a speedy resolution. we don't have many ways about it. mugabe must go.

that's the only way. mugabe must cease. he should step down. as negotiations continue, a nation waits. mugabe may be 93 years old, but he's still a shrewd, sharp and some would say cunning negotiator, the ultimate comeback kid. for some africans robert mugabe has a lwa ys for some africans robert mugabe has always been a revolutionary hero who helped lead the fight against white rule here but some see him as a despot who has ravaged the economy. we've been getting the blues of the united nations secretary general, antonio guterres, about this crisis. and never like to see the military

involved in politics but it is a confusing situation. i hope firstly that there is no blood, that this is done peacefully. i hope this will lead to a democratic solution and the next elections scheduled free and fairforthe the next elections scheduled free and fair for the people of the country to choose their own future. that's antonio guterres, secretary—general of the united nations. the military who have carried out the takeover deny it is the coup. some shots were fired but they say it wasn't a coup d'etat. having been driving around today, it seems relatively calm, people seem quite relaxed going about their normal daily business, as usual, state radio and tv have run normal programmes, there is a real normality yet underneath it all, there is uncertainty, about what will happen next, no doubt zimbabwe

is ata will happen next, no doubt zimbabwe is at a crossroads. back to you in the studio. ben brown, in zimbabwe. and we'll find out how this story — and many others — are covered in tomorrow's front pages at 10:40 this evening in the papers — our guests joining me tonight are giles kenningham, pr and former tory advisor and the economics commentator and author, dharshini david. a 49—year—old man has been arrested by police in dorset on suspicion of the murder of gaia pope. the teenager, who has severe epilepsy, was last seen nine days ago. earlier, police found items of women's clothing in a field near swanage. a search is now taking place in the field and surrounding area — as our correspondent duncan kennedy reports. this is the cliff area above swanage where the woman's clothes were found. police have been joined by specialist search teams from the coastguard and other units. officers say the pieces discovered are similar to clothing worn by gaia.

the items of clothing were found by a member of public at around 10.30 this morning. since then, this coastal path just outside swanage has been sealed off as police have carried out further investigations. gaia, who's 19, has been missing for nine days and has severe epilepsy. tonight, police said they'd made an arrest. this afternoon, we have arrested a 49—year—old male on suspicion of murder. he is believed to be known to gaia and is from the swanage area. speaking before the police announcement, gaia's father richard said all herfamily are finding her disappearance extremely hard to deal with. the family know she'll be found. until we don't know that... we have every hope with every

minute that goes by. we still have hope. it's... you know, you can imagine. it's just about the toughest thing you can go through. it's tough, but we'll hang on in there. we'll hang on in there for gaia. for her sisters, for her mum, for everybody, we'll hang on in there. earlier this week, police released these cctv images of gaia while she was running on a road in swanage. and at a petrol station in the town, buying an ice cream on the afternoon she disappeared. police divers and other search teams have been operating in a number of locations around the town. officers say those will continue for as long as necessary. duncan kennedy, bbc news, in swanage. it's five months since the grenfell tower disaster and today the metropolitan police believe the final number

of people known to have died in the tragedy is 71. that figure includes a baby who was stillborn in hospital after his mother escaped. detectives began their investigation in the summer with a list of 400 missing people. the final two victims were formally identified today and have been named as victoria king and her daughter alexandra atala. here's our correspondent elaine dunkley. it was a night of unprecedented horror. as people escaped the flames of the grenfell tower, they were haunted by the thoughts of those left behind. many believed the initial death toll would be in the hundreds, but today the police confirmed that 71 people in total lost their lives. a little bit of closure that now everyone has been identified. amongst them, karim mussilhy‘s uncle, hesham rahman. we have to accept it at face value. people are going to question it, but now it's about getting

justice for the people that lost their lives that night. the long journey begins now, i guess. identifying those that died has been a mammoth task, meticulously carried out by investigators. today the final two victims of grenfell were named, 71—year—old victoria king and her daughter, alexandra atala. the challenge of it has been immense. we have had our specialist teams work through 15 and a half tonnes of debris on each floor of grenfell tower by hand to find every single fragment that they can of all those that died. that has been extremely distressing to the families and indeed to those involved in the operation. initially in the days following the fire, there were thousands of calls. 400 people were reported missing amongst the confusion. as the months have gone by, police have said that number would be closer to 80, and today, final confirmation that it's lower. but this isn't about a number, it's about the human cost and recognising every

life that has been lost. anita raphael knew people who were killed. as a child, she used to play in the tower. it's going to take a while for us to know the truth. i don't think it's going to be now, or by the end of the year. i think it will take about two years for everything to come to light. what's in the dark must come to light, that's how i see it. today perhaps marks a significant milestone, but time cannot heal when so many feel they are so far from the truth. this community has said it will not rest until there are answers for those that survived and justice for the 71 lives lost in this tragedy. elaine dunkley, bbc news. twenty people have claimed they experienced ‘inappropriate behaviour‘ by the actor kevin spacey, following an investigation by the old vic theatre in london. the hollywood star was artistic director there between 2004 and 2015. our entertainment correspondent lizo mzimba gave us this update. when allegations first became public

about kevin spacey, the old vic launched an independent inquiry, dozens launched an independent inquiry, d oze ns of launched an independent inquiry, dozens of people came forward, many of them with waffter and of course and verified accounts and allegations, 20 of them all younger men, said kevin spacey had behaved inappropriately towards them. none of the allegations involved rape but 14 of the men were encouraged to contact the police because the independent investigators said that the alleged behaviour could constitute a criminal offence. the bulk of the allegations took place between 2004 and 2009, when kevin spacey was artistic director and the majority of those reported incidents took place at the old vic theatre in london. the theatre has apologised saying new procedures are in place to enjoy something like this can no

longer happen, there's been no response to today's allegations from kevin spacey. it's a good apostate, the headlines. the future of robert mugabe, president of zimbabwe, hangs in the balance, the ousted leader is in crisis talks with military envoys who seized control of the country. police investigating the disappearance of 19—year—old gaia popein disappearance of 19—year—old gaia pope in dorset have arrested a man of 49 on suspicion of murder. the authorities claimed another final death toll from the grenfell tower tragedy. the victims include a stillborn baby. now a round—up of the sports news. we will know another semifinalist at the atp tour finals shortly, alexander zverev and jack sock are playing each other and the winner will advance to the last four. it's

just getting underway. both players have won one and loss one. roger federer made it three wins out of three even though he was already one of the semifinalists, marin cilic was his opponent, it was a repeat of the wimbledon final, this time roger federer came from one set down to win easily again. i told myself, try to relax, we have a lot of pressure because if you lose you go home, in a way it is nice to play this way, where you can maybe play more freely andi where you can maybe play more freely and i think i was able to do that midway through the second set and remind myself that i'm through, regardless. but of course i want to try to do well and keep the momentum going and play the right way and win is always very helpful, looking forward. one week to go before the start of the ashes in australia, england's form is improving, most of the top order getting in the runs against a cricket australia xi. mark

stoneman scored a century, alastair cook and dawid malan and joe root scored half centuries. england start the third stay with the lead of 87 runs, seven wickets remaining in townsville. i'm in decent touch. it has been well documented and eve ryo ne has been well documented and everyone is critical of our opposition but i'm fairly happy and everything has gone well, and the practice as well so i feel my game is in good order. it's going to be tested a hell of a lot more come next week. there's no doubt of that and everyone is aware of it. as far as things go i am happy. gregor townsend has made to injury enforced changes to his line—up for saturday's autumn test with new zealand at murrayfield, du preez mixes start at number eight while sunder farquharson comes into the front row. owen farrell is back in england's starting 15 to play

australia at twickenham, the saracens back was rested for the victory of argentina last week. coach eddiejones says he expects a bigger test against his countrymen than in recent games. had a bit of an itch at the back of a head, as the game gets tied their memory goes back to those previous games, so that's an advantage, we've got to that's an advantage, we've got to that itch to the back of their head and that's the hard part. in golf, justin rose has put himself into a great position going into day two of the world tour championships in dubai. the englishman was one off the lead after the first round. this eagle out of the bunker helped him to six under par. patrick reed of the usa is the leaderfor to six under par. patrick reed of the usa is the leader for now. that's all the sport for now. or in a couple of hours' time, sportsday is at half past ten. lots to do before then. i'm sure you'll be kept very busy! zero later. police have arrested a man after the

death of a father who died when a firework went off in his arm. this afternoon and 22—year—old man handed himself into police and being questioned. the government has signalled that tackling housing is likely to be a key theme of next week's budget. today ministers announced a technical change, reclassifying housing associations as private not public bodies, in the hope that it will lead to the building of more affordable homes. but labour said the government had no coherent plan to address the "housing crisis". our home editor mark easton reports. after building the fewest social homes since the second world war, the prime minister had tea with council house tenants rita and val today, to illustrate how providing affordable homes is now her personal mission. the government is clear. we want more people to be able to have the security of a roof over their head, their own home, for themselves and their family. meanwhile, the communities secretary

in bristol today was stressing how united the government is on building a lot more homes. i'm totally committed to building more of the right homes in the right places at the right prices. so is the prime minister. so is the chancellor. it's the chancellor as much as voters who was the focus of today's choreographed government activity on housing. no 10 and the communities department have been urging the treasury to do something big on housing in next week's budget. the signs are that all that lobbying may have paid off. today, housing associations in england, non—profit organisations which provide most social and affordable homes, were officially redesignated as private bodies, which means that £63 billion of borrowing moves off the public sector balance sheet. and some think that gives the chancellor a bit more flexibility ahead of his budget next week.

so what would housing associations like to see him do? it's really great to see that housing is at the top of the political agenda. we're hoping to see more help for social housing. if we build a social rented home, it takes us 30 years before we get that money back, so we need help in the form of land which is affordable for the rents we need to charge, or in terms of some kind of money subsidy. and what does the labour party think is the chancellor's challenge? homelessness has gone up 50% since this government has been in power. rough sleeping in our cities has doubled. overcrowding like we've not seen for generations now. this is a crisis that has to be tackled. some in government and some even in the conservative party recognise that, but philip hammond doesn't seem to. the government is giving a big build—up to a budget on building. but many in the housing sector say they've heard it all before, and even the chancellor's warning that there's no silver bullet to providing the homes britain

needs. mark easton, bbc news. we are joined now by nathan brooker, the property editor at house and home magazine. nathan, thank you for coming in. pretty much anywhere in the country you can find homes that are empty, that people don't want to live in for one reason or another. so what is going wrong in the housing market? that peculiar thing. it's good news that house—building has stepped up in the last year but trying to build yourself out over housing crisis is digging yourself out of a hole. you have to recognise the particular circumstances of the situation. you're right, if you go through london you will see multi—million pound homes which are empty, they've been on the market for months, perhaps the years. london is not under—supplied, it is over—supplied with homes that are too expensive. how do you stop that? before you build anything you must

combat the fact that homes are too expensive. you've got to look at why land values are much more expensive in the uk than they are overseas and look at our planning system. which is incredibly political. if you green— light to many new developments you are likely to get voted out. so all of this adds cost, you've also got, some of the most lax overseas buying laws in the world. were you to build 10,000 homes in london, impressed, in the morning you would have a queue — a thousand people along from all over the world. it still wouldn't mean that local people could afford a house. he mentioned the planning system is the problem. how likely is it that they could depoliticise it, given that it is a council that control it, and its councillors that sit on those bodies. it's a very

difficult question. not easy to answer. but i suppose what you could do is look to what they have in mainland europe where they basically elect the plan, not the person. they decide how many new homes they need, what infrastructure they need, and when individual developers submit applications, as long as the adheres to that plan, they can bank on getting green lit and getting through. so that there's not a person at the end of it. so how likely is it that property in this country might become less appealing with the interest rates to go up as we have seen by that court of 1%? that is something to look at. i think really, for london, the thing that will change it is london's global appeal and what happens after brexit. you think that might really make people think twice about investing and then we'll end up with these big homes that can't be lived and worked in? people are already

not investing in london. there are thousands of these new homes which have been built, incredibly expensive, £750,000 for a studio apartment in aldgate for example and people are not buying them because the yields are not good enough for investors, something like 3.5% is the average. if you are an investor looking at that, after tax and interest is taken into account it will take you 200 years before you see any profit. not a great incentive to buy! lets see what they come up with in the budget. nathan brooker, property editorfor come up with in the budget. nathan brooker, property editor for house and home, thank you. it's the day the uk's city of culture was given the royal seal of approval. thousands of wellwishers have welcomed her majesty the queen to hull today as she made herfirst visit to the city since 2009. today she saw at first hand how hull is now at the forefront of renewable

energy and she officially opened a new medical centre while visiting the university. she was also introduced to hull's city of culture volunteers. caroline bilton reports. the crowds waited patiently at hull's paragon station this morning ready to greet her majesty the queen. and what a welcome she received as she stepped off the royal train. cheering over a decade since her last visit, there was a lot to tell her about, and there on the platform to greet her, the city of culture volunteers. she did speak to me. she said, it's been a wonderful yearfor you. and i said yes, thank you for coming, ma'am. it was fantastic, fabulous. absolutely fabulous, it really was. i've never ever seen her that close up. dressed brilliantly in blue, her majesty spent around 20 minutes talking to many of those who had waited to see her. some with flowers, some with flags, some with their special royal phone cover.

i am such a fan. i so admire her. i saw her 40 years ago driving past in a car. she's just so adorable, so radiant, and so smiley. she may be 91 but there was certainly no sign of slowing down. she left paragon station to yet more cheers as she made her way onto her next destination. the siemens gamesa wind turbine factory, another example of how hull has redefined itself. after unveiling a plaque, her majesty got up close to the giant blades, to meet apprentices like charlie. she asked me if i was enjoying it, she asked me what work i was doing, what happened to the blades, she asked me if i liked the people i worked for which was funny because the top boss was stood next to me! when she saw the size of the blades, the technology, the way they were made, i think she was very interested certainly in renewable energy.

you see them, you don't realise the size of them but also the skills required in making these blades and all the local people that have acquired those skills. at the university of hull another large crowd were waiting, others stayed inside to get a good view. her majesty was here to open the new medical building, the centrepiece of a new £28 million health campaign, and they didn't shy away from showing her majesty the true picture of nursing. i think it's amazing just to see the queen on our campus. it's great, yeah. it was amazing. and i liked it and it was very very nice. in the year that has celebrated the city of hull, celebrated its history, its people, its culture, people here have told me today that this isjust the icing on the cake

to have her majesty pay a visit. a royal seal of approval in what has been a very special year for hull. caroline bilton, bbc news, hull. let's look at the weather with nick. a cold frosty night, patchy rain clearing from the north—east, winter on the hills in scotland, quite strong winds giving the temperature up strong winds giving the temperature upa strong winds giving the temperature up a little and you don't have to travel too far away to find temperatures a few degrees below freezing. people scraping the eyes of the car in the morning. wintry on hills, may be running into

lancashire and cumbria, the majority will have a fine day with plenty of sunshine but for most of as the temperatures will be in single figures, just a few around 12 degrees in the south. sadly, the best sunshine in scotland, still wind and showers in the far north, will cloud with a few showers moving through. hello, this is bbc news with martine croxhall. the headlines at 8.30pm: the future of zimbabwe's president, robert mugabe, hangs in the balance. the ousted leader is in crisis talks with regional envoys and the military, who seized control of the country. police investigating the disappearance of 19—year—old gaia pope in dorset have arrested a 49—year—old man on suspicion of murder. the metropolitan police say 71 people are now known to have died in the grenfell tower fire. the final death toll includes a stillborn baby.

london's old vic theatre says it has received 20 claims of inappropriate behaviour by the actor kevin spacey, during his time but in a new report, mps say they're increasingly