this is bbc news. the headlines at 8pm. prince harry and actress meghan markle have announced their engagement. in an interview with the bbc, the couple spoke of how they knew from early on that they would commit to each other. all the stars were aligned, everything was perfect. this woman fell in to my life, i fell into her life, and the fact she'll be really good at the job is part of it as well. very early on we realised we were going to commit to each other. we knew we would have to invest the time and the energy to make that happen. the ring, designed by the prince, contains diamonds that belonged to his mother. the royal family have expressed their best wishes. members of the public have also been reacting. i think it's fantastic, marvellous. i think it's another sign of how modern the royal family are, and i think it's fantastic, it's good. i hope he's a happy chap, that's the main thing. it shows, i suppose, that the royal family are modernising, for want of a better word.

in other news, the government unveils plans to boost britain's productivity, as the uk's biotech industry, gets £1 billion boost from abroad. police say the five victims of a fatal car crash in leeds at the weekend were all in the vehicle when it hit a tree. and more than 100,000 people are ordered to leave their homes on the indonesian island of bali, after warnings mount agung volcano, could erupt at any time. good evening and welcome to bbc news. prince harry and his girlfriend the american actress meghan markle are to get married. the couple were engaged in secret earlier this month,

announced it to the world today and say their wedding will take place in the spring. the couple revealed how they had been cooking roast chicken at home when harry got down on one knee to propose. she said she had had no hesitation in saying yes. harry said the stars had aligned, to bring them together. among well—wishers around the world, the queen and the duke of edinburgh say they are "delighted" and prince charles has declared himself thrilled. our first report tonight on the royal engagement from our royal correspondent nicholas witchell. finally it's official, they are engaged to be married. prince harry, fifth in line to the british throne, and meghan markle, an american, an actress, a divorcee. and, as she has put it herself, a woman who's proud of her mixed—race heritage. her mother is an african—american. seldom can a royal wedding have indicated so clearly how times have changed. how are you both feeling? thrilled.

and we're very glad it's not raining as well. harry was asked when he realised meghan was the one. the very first time we met. meghan, can you show us the ring, please? ah yes, the ring. designed, it turns out, by harry, and including two diamonds owned by his late mother. harry and meghan. he 33, she 36. a happy couple who met 18 months ago and who are now starting to plan a wedding, which will take place next spring. designed, it turns out, by harry, and including two diamonds owned by his late mother. later, in an interview with the bbc‘s mishal husain, the couple talked about the moment, earlier this month, when harry proposed. just an amazing surprise. it was so sweet and natural, and very romantic. he got on one knee. of course.

was it an instant yes from you? yes, as a matter of fact i could barely let you finish proposing! i was like, can i say yes now? she didn't even let me finish. then there was hugs and i had the ring in my finger. i said, "can i give you the ring?" she said, "oh yes, the ring!" so it was really nice moment, just the two of us and i think i managed to catch her by surprise as well. yeah. and harry spoke of the instant impact meghan had had on him. the fact that i fell in love with meghan so incredibly quickly was sort of confirmation to me that everything, all the stars are aligned, everything was perfect. this beautiful woman, just literally tripped and fell into my life. i fell into her life, and the fact that she... i know the fact that she will be really unbelievably good at the job part of it as well is obviously a huge relief to me because she will be able to deal with everything else that comes with it. within the royal family, there is, as you'd expect, great happiness at the news. the queen was delighted, as was harry's father, the prince of wales. we're thrilled, thank you very much, for both of them. i hope they'll be very happy indeed, is all i can say. the duke and duchess of cambridge

tweeted their excitement for the couple, saying it had been wonderful to getting to know meghan and to see how happy the couple were together. so now, next spring, there will be a double royal celebration — another baby for william and catherine, and a wedding in a so far unidentified church for harry and his bride, meghan markle. nicholas witchell, bbc news. prince harry and meghan markle began dating last summer and just a year and a half on news of their coming wedding has raced around the world. earlier today they spoke publicly for the first time about their engagement in an interview, with my colleague mishal husain. how did you first meet? we were introduced by a mutualfriend. we should protect her privacy and not share too much of that. it was literally through her and then we met once or twice back

to dates in london lastjuly. yes. beginning ofjuly. and then it was three or four weeks later that i managed to persuade her to come and join me in botswana and we camped out with each other under the stars and we spent five days out there which was fantastic. then we were really by ourselves, which was crucial to me to make sure we had a chance to get to know each other. the friend who introduced you, was she trying to set you up? it was definitely a setup! we talk about it now, because i'm from the states, we don't grow up with the same understanding of the royal family and so while i understand now very clearly there is a global interest there, i didn't know much about him and so the only thing i asked her when she said she wanted

to set us up, one question — was he nice? because if he wasn't kind, it didn't seem to make sense. in the case of your relationship, unlike many people, there's a layer of what it means to get involved with someone the royal family. how much of a sense did you have of the enormity of what you be getting into and what it would mean for your life? as naive as it sounds now, having gone through this learning curve over the last year and a half, i didn't have any understanding of what it would be like. i think we both said that. no, i tried to warn her as much as possible but i think both of us were totally surprised by the reaction after the first five or six months we had to ourselves of what happened from then. i think you can have as many conversations as you'd like and prepare as much as possible but we were totally unprepared for what happened. the scrutiny? well, all sorts.

and also, there's a misconception that because i've worked in the entertainment industry that this would be something i'd be familiar with but even though i've been on my show for six years at that point, and working before that, i've never been part of tabloid culture, pop culture to that degree and had lived a relatively quiet life even though i focused so much on myjob. so that was a really stark difference out of the gate. and we were hit so hard with a lot of untruths that i made the choice not to read anything, positive or negative, instead we focus our energies on nurturing our relationship. 0n us. some of that scrutiny, you made a public statement about it, some of the scrutiny was centred around your ethnicity, i think. when you realised that, what did you think? of course it's disheartening. it's a shame that that is

the climate in this world, to focus that much which would be discriminatory in that sense but at the end of the day i'm really proud of where i am and where i come from. we have never put any focus on that, we've just focused on who we are as a couple. when you take those extra layers away, all of that noise, i think it makes it really easy to just enjoy being together and tune the rest of it out. what was it like introducing meghan to your father and your brother? erm... what was it like? exciting. i've been saying it for a period of time i didn't tell anybody at all. and then william was longing to meet her and so was catherine. we will be neighbours, we got that in a couple of times and catherine has been absolutely

amazing, as has william, fantastic support. my father as well, we had a handful of teas and meetings and all sorts of gatherings at his place as well. the family together have been absolutely solid support. and you met the queen? yes, i have a couple of times. what's that like? it's incredible. first, to be able to meet her, through his lens, notjust with his honour and respect for her as the monarch but the love he has for her as his grandmother, those layers have been important for me so when i met her i had a deep understanding and of course incredible respect for having that time with her. we've had a really... she's an incredible woman. the last 33 years of being barked at, this one, walking in, the corgis. tell us about the ring.

it is yellow gold and the main stone is from botswana and the diamonds either side are from my mother's jewellery collection. she's with us on this crazy journey together. it's beautiful and he designed it. it's incredible. yeah. make sure it stays on that finger. of course! what does it mean to you, meghan, to have those stones on your finger that once belonged to princess diana? i think everything about harry's thoughtfulness and the inclusion of that and obviously not being able to meet his mum, it's so important for me to know that she's a part of this with us. what do you think your mother would have thought of meghan

and said about her? she'd say we are as thick as thieves! without question, she'd be over the moon, jumping up and down, so excited for me. but then, we've been best friends. it is days like today when i really miss her being around and being able to show her the happy news but with the ring and everything else going on i'm sure she is with us and jumping up and down somewhere else. prince harry, meghan markle, thank you both very much. thank you so much. so what do we know about meghan markle? well, she is 36, divorced and describes herself as a "strong, confident, mixed—raced woman". she grew up in los angeles and until she met prince harry was best known for playing rachel zane in the us tv drama suits. she's also campaigned for gender equality and a variety of humanitarian causes.

0ur royal correspondent daniella relph has been finding out more about meghan markle — and speaking to her friends. have you heard? there is breaking news out of london this morning. drum roll, please. prince harry and american actress meghan markle are engaged — yay! congratulations, harry and meghan. we don't know you, but congratulations! but we will all get to know meghan markle much better over the next few months. she is no ordinary royal fiancee. her early acting career was made up of small television and film parts and adverts. there was also a stint opening the boxes on the tv programme deal or no deal. it's meghan markle! wow, you're pretty. good, you've hit on me. we can get it out of the way that i am not interested. no, i'm sorry... before her big break in the legal drama suits. but she sometimes took issue with the way her character, rachel zane, was portrayed. this season, every script seemed to begin with "rachel enters wearing a towel."

and i said, "nope, not doing it any more." not doing it, and i called the creator and i was like, "it's just gratuitous." we get it, you've already seen it once, so i think that at a certain point, you feel empowered enough to just say no. meghan markle will bring something different to the british royalfamily. she is a proud american but she's also a campaigner with strong opinions and, if possible, she won't want her marriage to limit that side her life. her humanitarian work has taken her around the world, here in rwanda. she's focused on gender equality. particularly as an advocate for united nations women. it's really hands—on, being part of this. it feels really nice. i think her passion for other people and wanting to create social

change is something, with that platform, can only be positive. i bet she'll be fine, she'll be great in fact! meghan markle grew up in this affluent neighbourhood of los angeles and went to a private catholic school. she's mixed race, the daughter of divorced parents. her mother, a yoga teacher and herfather, a tv and lighting director. in the early days of her relationship with prince harry some of the media coverage unsettled them, prince harry releasing a statement suggesting coverage had racial undertones. it felt racist to me, like there was an attempt to make her seem like an outsider. so yeah that was pretty startling. this will be a whole new world for meghan markle. swapping the small screen for a far bigger stage. well, stay tuned because we'll be

running that special interview by prince harry and meghan markle on their engagement, in full here on the news channel, at 8.30pm tonight. 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 guestsjoining me tonight are martin bentham, home affairs editor at the london evening standard and victoria murphy, royal correspondent at the daily mirror. the headlines on bbc news. prince harry and meghan markle have announced their engagement. in an interview with the bbc they spoke about how they knew they would end up about how they knew they would end up together. the government unveils plans to boost britain's productivity as the uk's biotech industry gets £1 billion beast from

abroad. and more than 100,000 people are ordered to leave their homes on the indonesian island of barley, after warnings mount agung volcano could erupt at any time —— the indonesian island of barley. sport now, and for a full round up from the bbc sport centre, here's holly hamilton. good evening — first to this year's sports personality of the year. tonight this year's 12 nominees have been revealed with the winner to be announced during the live show in liverpool next month. so who will take home the trophy? — let's take a look at the contenders. music here is the list in full.

you can find out more about all the nominees on the bbc sport website. former england cricket captain michael vaughan says england need to focus on matters on the pitch rather then off it ahead of the second ashes test in adelaide on saturday. attention has been off the pitch following england's heavy defeat in the first test this morning after wicket keeperjonny bairstow had to field questions today about an alleged headbutt towards australian opening batsman cameron bancroft earlier this month. michael vaughan says that are more

important issues to address. i'm concerned that the cricketing side of what i've seen is going to be difficult to get right. i think they've got a chance at adelaide because of the pink ball, because you could potentially get conditions that are similar to what we find in the uk. the ball might move around which looks to me the england team desperately need to do so. if they lose that the adelaide oval this tour will get very messy. sam allardyce is the leading contenderfor the evertonjob. allardyce was an early candidate to succeed ronald koeman, who was sacked last month but publicly withdrew after everton delayed making an offer. the former england manager is back in frame for the job after everton suffered a 4—1 yesterday. everton have lost five of their seven games under caretaker boss david unsworth. the search has become increasingly urgent. romelu lukaku will face no further punishment from the fa, for an apparent kick at brighton defender gayton bong. the alleged incident wasn't seen by the referee at the time but retrospective action could have meant the striker was banned for three games. a panel of three former

premier league referees failed to all agree it was deemed worthy of a red card. wales' ross moriarty willjoin dragons from gloucester, for the start of next season the british and irish lion has never played his club rugby in wales, but the move was made necessary by their new selection policy and follows team—mate george north's return back to his home country. world champion bianca walkden and olympic champion jade jones admit they are "shocked and saddened" by coach paul green's decision to leave the gb setup. green guided jones to her two 0lympic taekwondo titles before the pair fell—out over her appearance in channel 4's thejump series late last year. he went on to coach walkden to a defence of her world title before leaving earlier this month. formally we started having ups and downs because we didn't agree with a few things. i'm a young girl but wa nts to few things. i'm a young girl but wants to do media opportunities so we clashed a bit with that. since

rio he hasn't really coached me. 0bviously i'll be forever grateful for what he's done. we can't stop and cry and just finished so we have to keep moving forward. that's all the sport for now. i'll have more for you in sportsday at 10.30. head over to the website for more on sports personality of the year nominees. now sports personality of the year nominees. now some sports personality of the year nominees. now some of today's other news. two pharmaceutical companies say they'll invest more than £1 billion in the uk, creating hundreds of newjobs in london and manchester. it comes as the government unveiled its industrial strategy today, designed to boost productivity and attract investment in areas such as artificial intelligence, driverless cars and clean energy. here's our business editor simonjack. investing in new drugs isjust the kind of medicine the economy needs after the bleak diagnosis of slowing growth and poor productivity it received last week. the government's plan to incentivise investment arrives at a time when businesses are wary of brexit uncertainty.

we are the place that is going to be able to take a lead in these new industries of the future. at a time when companies are making investments, and in the context of brexit, to set that out with a clarity that we have i think is all the more important. the way it's supposed to work is basically this. the government invest money in research and development. academic institutions work in partnership with business to provide skills and know—how. the government provide test—beds for new products like faster trials of new drugs or public roads for driverless cars, and hey presto, private companies invest. this gene therapy company in oxford likes the approach. this new strategy is very important for a business like ours. it allows us to look at what we can work on in the future, look at the grants we can get to help us expand the business and make our processes better, to keep us at the leading edge of our science. it's perhaps no surprise the government chose life sciences to be the poster child for its new industrial strategy.

these are highly skilled, highly productivejobs, in an industry which seems to have no problem attracting investment. most of the uk economy is not like this. the government's challenge will be to increase productivity in areas of the economy where workers are more likely to drive white vans than wear white coats. most people work in what we sometimes call the everyday economy, so shops, care homes, public services as well. we think in order to boost that earning power, which is what the secretary of state wanted to do, we need a strategy that takes them into account. government intervention in industry has a chequered history with memories of money being poured into failing companies, but even opposition parties now agree the government does have a role, and a problem. you're getting business and government working together and trying to think long—term and that must be right, but the problem the government's now got is that, because of the brexit negotiations, companies don't know where they stand so they are not investing, or very few of them are. will the plan work?

of the two companies who announced investment today, one told the bbc it would have done it with or without the strategy and the second said it hadn't finalised the size of its investment, but the life sciences industry broadly welcomed it. there have been industrial strategies before and you haven't heard the last of this one. simon jack, bbc news. let's get more on today's royal and engagement announcement. joining me from toronto is tina brown, author of the diana chronicles. hoping to joining us. much excitement here as you can imagine about the announcement of this royal engagement. it was striking botching couple together —— watching the couple together —— watching the couple together —— watching the couple together how different this was from the engagement of lady diana and prince charles. times have really changed. yes, they have. meghan markle is so media savvy and

relaxed in front of the camera, as is harry. they are media professionals in a way that is quite different from the enormously painful, awkward royal engagement interview that was played again and again of charles and di and all those years ago. it was a marked difference between the two kinds of royalty that we have now. meghan markle will still face pressures. she made it clear in that interview that although she is an actress, she's used to being in front the cameras, she says she hasn't be part of the tabloid circuit. how is she going to deal with this? very well. she's more used to it than either kate middleton or princess diana we re kate middleton or princess diana were at the time of their engagements. she's going to find it harder. she's also 36. she's nearly

the same age diana was when she died. diana was 19 when they got engaged. the difference is huge. 0ne isa engaged. the difference is huge. 0ne is a mature woman who has had a life, a career. she was essentially a teenage girljust out of being a child who was in the middle of this incredibly old—fashioned child who was in the middle of this incredibly old —fashioned and suffocating monarchy that has reformed quite a lot since then. what do you think princess diana would have thought today?|j what do you think princess diana would have thought today? i didn't she would have been absolutely thrilled. in a sense this is the a nswer to thrilled. in a sense this is the answer to her desire for her boys to have a normal, loving, informal,

regular as it were, life where they can choose their partner. where they can choose their partner. where they can choose their partner. where they can choose to be with who they love. and where they get to have their own happiness on their own terms. i think she would be thrilled to see harry has chosen such a wonderful girl who isa harry has chosen such a wonderful girl who is a humanitarian, and also has a great deal of fun and is clearly mad about him. it all works. thank you. west yorkshire police say the five victims of a fatal car crash in leeds over the weekend, were all in the vehicle when it hit a tree. two men and three boys died in the incident on saturday night in the meanwood area of the city. a 15—year—old youth is being held on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving. another teenager who wasn't in the car has been released pending further enquiries. the government has been accused

of keeping parliament "in the dark" after handing over edited versions of analysis of the potential impact of brexit on 58 sectors of the uk economy. the papers have been passed to the cross—party select committee on exiting the eu, chaired by the labour mp hilary benn, on the eve of a deadline agreed by the brexit secretary david davis. for more on this we can speak to our political correspondent iain watson. the government has reluctantly handed over these papers but mps are not satisfied it seems. that's right. it's not the information perhaps the mps were asking for. at the beginning of this month the commons voted for the government to hand over the analysis. effectively it is its assessment of the potential impact of brexit and 58 parts of the economy, something it hadn't volunteered to do. the commons voted in favour of it and they said you we understand you might not want to make it public but

can you handed over to a cross—party committee that is meant to be scrutinising brexit. in a letter to the committee today, the brexit secretary david davis made it clear they were holding back information he regarded as either commercially sensitive or information that might undermine negotiations with the eu. i've spoken to several members of that committee and they are very happy unhappy about it indeed. labour are happy unhappy about it indeed. labourare upping happy unhappy about it indeed. labour are upping the ante. i spoke to the shadow brexit secretary keir starmer and he suggested david davis was holding following peas in contempt. there was a decision in the house of commons that was binding. the leader of the house accepted it was binding and it was clear these reports, and redacted in full, should be handed over. if that doesn't happen arguably that is contempt of the house. in the first instance we will obviously raise it in parliament to get answers to these pressing questions. this is likely to be raised tomorrow in parliament by labour. there will

also be a meeting that committee tomorrow to discuss if they will make public the information they have from the government. what looks as though it is a technical wrangle may now be an almighty political i’ow. may now be an almighty political row. thank you. indonesian authorities have urged nearly 100,000 people living near a volcano on the island of bali to move to safety. this is after fears that an explosion is imminent. cons of thick smoke have billowed from the mountain in the last week. the main airport on the island has remained closed leaving thousands of people stranded. time for a look at the weather now.