tonight at ten. the bosses of carillion accused of being ‘asleep at the wheel‘ as the company headed towards collapse. the construction giant — which employed 40,000 worldwide — went into liquidation last month with huge debts and a massive pension deficit. the former executives appeared before a parliamentary committee where they were reprimanded for refusing to hand back their bonuses. large numbers of people will not get paid for their contracts and other people have lost theirjobs. and you are still all right. all of you. aren't you? and the collapse of carillion means the new hospital in liverpool is unlikely to be completed this year. also tonight. stock markets have experienced further volatility — after dramatic moves in global share prices in the past 2a hours. reports in south africa that president zuma — who's been accused of corruption —

is now preparing to stand down. how some of england's most deprived areas suffer some of the biggest cuts in spending on children's services. hundreds of women gather at westminster to celebrate the events of a century ago — when millions were given the right to vote. and the world's most powerful rocket has been launched tonight from kennedy space center — experts say it could transform space exploration. coming up on sportsday on bbc news. could swansea's carlos carvalhal guide his side past notts county in tonight's fourth round replay to set up a tie against his former club sheffield wednesday? good evening.

for the first time former executives of carillion have spoken publicly about the collapse of the construction firm — which went into liquidation last month with debts of one and a half billion pounds. the senior figures appeared before a parliamentary committee — which accused them of being ‘delusional‘ — and of falling ‘asleep at the wheel‘. the former executives rejected suggestions that they should hand back their bonuses. carillion was responsible for building and maintaining schools, hospitals and prisons and employed more than 40,000 people worldwide, as our business editor simonjack reports. summoned to westminster, carillion‘s top brass. philip green was chairman of the board when the company collapsed. and he started with an apology. i would say i‘m deeply sorry for the impact that the collapse of the company had on employees, pensioners, customers, suppliers and all stakeholders. so what went wrong? zafar khan was finance director. he said hundreds of millions

was owed by middle east customers, projects hit trouble, and then new business dried up. we had some contracts that we have preferred bidders for, but they continued to drift out to the right because of the brexit related uncertainty. and that was amplified by the general elections. so the board knew that the company was in trouble in may of last year. keith cochrane eventually stepped in as ceo and was a senior director when the board approved a £50 million dividend injune. if we had suspended dividend and not paid that 50 million payment that was made in 2017, would that have made a difference? possibly. i don‘t think given all the moving parts, i don‘t think you could say definitively it would have changed the outlook. here in king‘s cross there are a few old signs still up. carillion has been replaced on this project. today we saw a mixture of regret, of shock and a bit of anger at how a company passed fit in its own annual statement last

march suffered a crippling profit warning four months later and six months after that, was liquidated. one thing everyone agrees on is the company had far too much debt, so when nasty surprises came along the company was in no fit state to withstand them. other projects are facing major delays. the royal liverpool hospital was originally due to open this month. structural problems, cost overruns and now sub contractor financial hardship means that this hospital may not be ready for patients before the end of next year. were the bosses rewarded for these failures? former chief executive richard howson was paid £1.5 million in salary, perks and bonuses in 2016. do you feel comfortable with the level of bonus you received in the year before the company that you ran collapsed ? yes, i do, for the attributes that i earned it for. half of that bonus is deferred and half of it was paid in cash.

there will be heated moments to come in this postmortem. and there will be awkward ones. large numbers of people are not going to get paid for their contracts. other people have lost theirjobs. and you are still all right. all of you. aren‘t you? simon jack, bbc news. stock markets in asia, europe and the united states have seen further volatility after dramatic falls in global share prices yesterday and overnight. investors have been concerned about the prospect of interest rates rising in the us more quickly than expected, which would push up the cost of borrowing for companies and consumers. 0ur economics editor kamal ahmed looks at the latest activity and examines the importance of what‘s happening. the opening bell in new york today. 0ptimistic as ever. it is america. but on trading floors around the world, frankfurt, tokyo, london, worry as stock markets

suffered their third day of falls. after the calm, the record highs, this is the correction. we still see this as a correction, not as a profound change in the fundamentals which would mean that potentially we are entering a more difficult environment. but nevertheless we have to understand that we are at a juncture in the global economy and in markets that might imply that the way forward is a lot more difficult and trickier than it was. the dramatic falls follow a remarkable upward run. the major american market, the dow, and in the uk, the ftse 100, have been rising for a decade before the sell—off began. over the last three days the dow has fallen by 4.9%. and the ftse 100 has also fallen, by 4.7%. this has been an era of money printing. central banks that have kept interest rates at record lows and pumped in trillions of pounds of economic stimulus. the fear in the markets now is that inflation is returning because of strong global growth, interest rates will rise, and the stimulus taps

will be turned off. events in the city, events on wall street, can seem a long way away from the high street. but the health of the stock markets does matter. it matters of course if you own shares, it matters if you have a pension fund. 0ften invested in stock markets. it matters if you have savings, often invested in stock markets. when stock markets go down, the negative effects can be felt by many millions of people. america led the rise and has been leading the dip. and that is a bit tricky for this man. the stock market has smashed one record after another. we have hit, i guess, close to 60 records. 0ur stock market has reached an all—time high today. will the president have to eat a little humble pie? the stock market is up significantly, over 30% since president trump was elected. we‘re monitoring the stock markets, they are functioning very well, and we continue to believe in the long—term impact

of the stock market. this is not yet a market crisis. the economic fundamentals are strong, particularly in trump‘s america. the us market staged a recovery today, and not many believe a full crash is imminent. but sentiment, emotion, drives markets as much as facts and sentiment is hard to predict. kamal ahmed, bbc news. we can talk to our correspondent yogita limaye in new york. is there any sign of this volatility going away? i was on the floor of the new york stock exchange today when the opening bell rang and after that the dowjones industrial average plunged by 500 points. now it is up more than 500 points at close sell a massive swing, more than 1000 points today. so the market seems to change direction

about bit but the volatility has not gone away. i spoke to traders on the floor of the stock market today and they expect markets will remain choppy at least until the end of the week. that potentially could have a effect on markets around the world and they will be watching what is happening here. of course it has been a good day compared yesterday, and that is evidence of what a nalysts and that is evidence of what a na lysts ha d and that is evidence of what analysts had been saying, there is nothing to panic aboutjust analysts had been saying, there is nothing to panic about just yet. the fundamentals of the us economy remains strong. thank you very much. within the past couple of hours it‘s been reported in south africa that president zuma is preparing to stand down — as soon as a list of conditions has been finalised. he held a meeting earlier with cyril ramaphosa deputy president and leader of the ruling party the anc. mr zuma has been accused of being unfit to govern, following a wave of corruption allegations. 0ur africa editor fergal keane is in cape town. what is your reading of these events

today? it has been an extraordinary day. first the postponement for the first time in the history of the democratic south africa of a state of the nation address by president. that‘s because his own party the african national congress threatened to recall him from the presidency vote called an emergency meeting of the national executive committee. we know tonight jacob zuma the national executive committee. we know tonightjacob zuma has met the national executive committee. we know tonight jacob zuma has met with his would—be political nemesis the new leader of the anc, cyril ramaphosa in what has been described prodl and constructive talks. i take that to be anc speak for a deal being in the making. we‘re told there are a set of preconditions that jacob zuma wants to see filled before he would step down. that is where it gets tricky, the thing that has bothered him the most is the possibility of facing trial on corruption charges. it is not within the gift of the anc or of cyril

ramaphosa to granting immunity. so what could they be talking about, possibly financial support in his legal battles and continuing support for him when he leaves the presidency. it may simply be the case that jacob zuma has realised that he has lost the support of his party, his people and is now trying to negotiate as dignified and exit as he possibly can. we will know very soon. the extent of the spending cuts in england affecting council services for vulnerable children and families has been highlighted in research seen by the bbc. 0verall spending on children‘s services has fallen by 16 per cent since 2010 and local authorities with the highest levels of deprivation have seen cuts of nearly 30 per cent. ministers insist that extra money has been made available to councils. 0ur social affairs correspondent alison holt has the story. in a cramped room in one of birmingham‘s most deprived areas, volunteers run a cook and eat

session for local families. many face money or other worries. here mums find counselling, childcare and friends. they‘ve asked not to be identified. that help is vital for mental health and, obviously, having the mothers emotionally stable helps the children, and happy parents, is happy children. but today‘s research shows as council spending on children‘s services has been cut, it‘s become increasingly hard to get early intervention and family support like this. a charity runs this place, they said neglect cases are increasing massively. what we see is where that early help could have happened and their mum was able to get on her feet, and keep those children and then go on to actually be a very effective parent. we‘re now seeing that that is just left and left until a crisis emerges and then you‘re at the very top end of crisis, that involves removal of children. and this mother, who now looks after a relative‘s children who would otherwise be in care,

told me she believes the family didn‘t get enough early support. it would have made a lot of difference. it maybe would have helped probably keep the family together and not 315! 41335! leaflet“? he‘s; 5.33". 53-33 of the greatest cuts to their children‘s services budgets. at the same time, the demands keep increasing. councils in england say 10 years ago they started 200 child protection investigations each day. now, they begin 500 a day. this new research shows vital child protection in children in care services have been largely shielded from cuts, but in the most deprived areas there‘s been a 54% fall in spending so this is the room that was used for stay and play. that has meant the closure

of children‘s centres, like this one in birmingham. here they say they‘ve lost staff who really knew what was going on locally. the same issues are still there. the community, as all communities in super deprived areas, still need that support. but councils maintain the squeeze on their funding from government leaves them with no choice. many councils now face a tipping point where they know they‘re having to take away the services that keep people out of the most expensive child protection services. however, they‘ve simply got no choice because they‘ve got to keep funding the child protection work and everything else therefore has to go in order to pay for it. f5 2 355,325; ; i but with no letupindemand the arguments over funding will get tougher. alison holt, bbc news, birmingham.

a brief look at some of the day‘s other news stories. a man has beenjailed for a minimum of 26 years for murdering his former girlfriend in a car park in kent. the judge told joshua stimpson he had committed a "cruel, calculated and wicked act." stimpson stalked molly mclaren before stabbing her over