today at 5pm: travel chaos across the uk, as the the transport network struggles in the extreme weather. rail services on the east coast mainline are disrupted after lightning strikes damaged signalling equipment. meanwhile, the heatwave disruption is continuing at the channel tunnel, where eurotunnel says there are delays at its folkestone terminal of over two hours. two and a half hours queuing from the motorway down to the check—in. sat on the motorway embankment in sa degrees heat. but the heatwave could be coming to an end. the met office has issued an amber weather warning for thunderstorms in the east of england and the east midlands we'll have the latest on the heatwave and the travel disruption, live from folkestone in kent. the other main stories on bbc news at 5pm. prince charles has expressed "deep personal regret" that he was decieved by the disgraced bishop, peter hall, who was later convicted of sex offences. economic growth in the us

hits its fastest rate since 2014. president trump hails the 4.1% growth as a "miracle" and predicts it will continue to rise. skywatchers hope for clear skies tonight as the longest total lunar eclipse of the century takes place, with the moon turning blood red. maybe they're here for you. maybe they're here for me. are you ready to ta ke they're here for me. are you ready to take that chance? and tom cruise returns as ethan hunt in the latest film in the "mission" impossible" franchise. we'll get james king's take on this and the rest of the new releases at 5:45pm. it's 5pm, our top story: the heatwave is causing disruption

for commuters and holiday makers at the start of the summer getaway. trains have been cancelled across yorkshire because of lightning strikes. eurotunnel has cancelled hundreds of day—trip tickets to try to ease the backlog caused when air—conditioning units failed on some carriages. meanwhile people are being urged to take care while swimming, after police confirmed two people died, trying to cool off. jenny kumah reports. thunderstorms and lightning, relieving the heat of recent days in don koester. but it has caused

signalling problems and rail disruption on the east coast main line and across yorkshire. several trains have been cancelled this afternoon, and passengers have been asked to delay theirjourneys until the weekend. there has also been a third day of misery for motorists trying to use the euro tunnel at folkestone. for many travellers stuck in their vehicles queuing for hours, it has been an uncomfortable start to their summer getaway. 12,000 cars are expected to use the channel tunnel today. 400 tickets for day trips have been cancelled as the company concentrates on getting holiday—makers on their way. is blaming unprecedented high temperatures, saying the air—conditioning on the cannot cope. so some carriages aren't being used to save passengers from sweltering. euro tunnel is apologising to passengers, but it says it cannot control the weather. 0n passengers, but it says it cannot control the weather. on one of the busiest days of the year for flights, airports are having to cope with not only the heat, but also

with not only the heat, but also with massive demand. traditional this last weekend injuly is the busiest day of the year. it's shaping up that way, so we are expecting over 8800 flights to fly through the uk airspace today. but this is just through the uk airspace today. but this isjust one through the uk airspace today. but this is just one of many busy days this is just one of many busy days this summer. but for some, there will be some respite from the heat, more rain is forecast for later. today we will see temperatures on par with yesterday up to the mid—305, but with the heat and humidity, they'll combine across eastern england. that could cause some flash flooding. storms and heat, people are being advised to ta ke heat, people are being advised to take care. the search for a teenager who was last seen in the senior clacking period essex is due to resume later. a sign of the dangers the warm weather can bring with it. jenny kumah, bbc news. let's speak now to 0livia crellin, who is at the entrance to the eurotunnel in folkestone. some people have had some really her

in this long waits, bring us up—to—date with the people are saying now. that's right, wait times at the moment set at about three hours. that's half an hour pre—check—in, and to .5 hours in the terminals. it's not bad —— not bad as yesterday, when wait times reached over six hours, but there are still experience and problems. as you are saying, they cancelled around 400 day tickets to try and bring some relief to the situation. but there are still many they're baking into use in their hot cars with their supplies and waters and snacks, because there are no water points while they wait to get on to the train. it's grim for a lot of people, and also for people who wa nted people, and also for people who wanted to travel across many parts of the uk today. huge disruption.

that's right, while down here in kent, we have problems with hot weather. up in the north and on eastern trail links, they're having issues with lightning strikes all stop northern services, all but three roots are not running because ofa three roots are not running because of a lightning strike which has led toa of a lightning strike which has led to a signal failure. there of a lightning strike which has led to a signalfailure. there has of a lightning strike which has led to a signal failure. there has also been some heavy rain and wind. so all around for the first day, the busiest day of travel for holiday—makers, it's not been looking good. thanks very much, 0livia. police scotland say a four—year—boy was among five people killed in a crash between a minibus and a car in moray. the collision happened overnight on the a—96 between keith and huntley. the boy was among a party of italian tourists travelling on the minibus. 0ur scotland correspondent james shaw reports the wreckage at the site this

morning suggested that this may have been a head—on crash, which happened at high speed. recovery teams spent several hours removing the remains of the vehicles, one a minibus, the other a four by four. there were casualties in both the best vehicles. in the four by four, a man in his 60s and two women, aged 69 and 70, died. the driver, a woman in her 30s, survived, but suffered serious injuries. police scotland gave details of the victims in the second vehicle. a white fee at minibus which had been carrying italian tour bus, was also involved in this collision. tragically, to people who were passengers in this vehicle, a woman and a four—year—old boy, have also died. the male driver, a male passenger, female passenger, and a three—year—old boy who were also in the minibus were

taken to hospital for injuries. 0vernight there was a big operation, including all the emergency services and a coast guard helicopter to rescue the casualties. clearly this isa rescue the casualties. clearly this is a truly horrific traffic accident. everyone i've spoken to in the local community here found it difficult to take in the scale of this accident, with so many people's lives and being injured. everyone's thoughts are with the loved ones of those lost or injured. they pay tribute to the emergency services. the injured are being treated in hospitals across the region. 0ne italian woman remains critically ill in aberdeen. the a96 reopened at lunchtime, but the investigation into this perfect crass is onlyjust beginning. police scotland will want to understand why so many people we re to understand why so many people were killed and injured. james shaw, our scotland

correspondent with that report. the foreign secretary has been asked to intervene in a custody case involving two children living in china, whose british father was murdered by their chinese mother. the family of michael simpson want jeremy hunt to appeal to chinese officials when he visits the country next week, as katharine da costa reports. seven—year—old jack and six—year—old alice are at the centre of an international custody battle. their british father, michael, seen here with them, was stabbed to death in his shanghai apartment in march of last year by his estranged chinese wife. she is now serving a life sentence for murder. since their dad's death, jack and alice have been living with their chinese grandparents, unaware of what has happened to their parents. happy birthday, grandpa! wait a minute, wait... but their english granddad wants to raise them back in the uk. he's fighting for them to be brought back here, which he says is what his son michael would so desperately have wanted. # happy birthday to you!

they do not know what has happened to their father. they do not know where their mother is. so they need to be brought into a truthful world, a world that michael wanted for them, which was very much a western environment. they have travelled with him, they've gone to english schools in shanghai. we need to get them back. in a statement, the foreign & commonwealth office said... during her trial, she said she would have no problem with the children coming to us. she said out loud at the trial in november that the

children love us, and that she knows how much we love them. she has no problem with them coming here. it was the family to stop this from happening. mr simpson says his daughter—in—law‘s family are demanding tens of thousands of pounds in exchange for the children. this is something they deny. he thinks political intervention is needed, and hopes that with the backing of the british government and the new foreign secretary, they can be reunited by the autumn. katharine da costa, bbc news. jack shepherd has been sentenced to 30 years in prison after a 24—year—old woman died in a speed —— speedboat crash on the river thames in theirfirst date. speedboat crash on the river thames in their first date. charlie brown was thrown from the boat, which had a number of defects, and december 20 15. -- a number of defects, and december 20 15. —— charlie brown. he skipped

bailand didn't 15. —— charlie brown. he skipped bail and didn't attend his trial at the old bailey —— charlotte brown. a 6—year—old boy has died from a pellet gun injury. stanley metcalfe was injured at a house in sparkly and east yorkshire yesterday afternoon. he was taken to hospital where he later died. police say they are looking into the circumstances of what happened, but initial suggestions are that this was a tragic accident. this man, christophe kania, a stalker, has been given a nine—month sentence. assista nt been given a nine—month sentence. assistant —— suspended for two years for bombarding christine lamb partnered with tweets which referred to her gravestone and her crucifixion. king had pleaded guilty to stalking her, but he had denied sending the tweets. it hoped it would lead to a reduction in

reoffending. but now the justice secretary is scrapping a number of private compacts after admitting they're not delivering the benefits they're not delivering the benefits they promised. the decision will cost £170 million. tom simons reports. but back in the kitchen, the staff are also serving sentences. this is community payback. it's great, to be honest. we're happy with them and they don't ask us questions, and we don't ask them. i've been sent here because of benefit fraud, so obviously it's payback. the fact i've been placed here is an amazing place. you know you've been convicted with something, you have to do yourtime, convicted with something, you have to do your time, and it is the best way you can do a. this is privatise

probation, run by what is called a community rehabilitation company. this is privatised probation run by a community rehabilitation company. the government's big idea to cut reoffending, transform the service and introduce investment and innovation. it has allowsed us to work more flexibly, work out in the community rather than set behind a desk or in interview rooms, which sometimes are not the nicest places to meet service users. but private provision has run into trouble, in particular financial trouble. these companies are paid for each offender they persuaded not to reoffend. but the courts have been sending fewer of them, partly because judges and magistrates are not certain if these sorts of schemes work. yes, the number of people heading back into prison has fallen by 2%. but reoffenders are reoffending more frequently. and partial privatisation caused upheaval in the probation service, as well as serious questions about standards. the clear majority of these companies are operating at a significant loss. it cannot be right that,

as a country, we rely on private providers to operate at a loss to deliver critical services, because those services will be pared down because of that. so the government is having a rethink. it is important that we have a probation system that helps people rehabilitate. the existing contracts are not working as well as they might do. they are not working as well for us in order to ensure that we can help rehabilitation, so we want to bring those to an end early. we want to improve some of the services in the interim and put in place new contracts which make sure that we get a probation service that is working properly. that would involve directing an additional £170 million into private probation. the changes were the brainchild of then justice secretary chris grayling. in ministerial language, they are now described as ambitious. new contracts will have to be designed. but the government insists there should still be a role

for companies in the community trying to steer offenders from committing more crime. tom symonds, bbc news, 0ldham. it is 5:15pm, these are tonight's headlines. travel network under pressure in the extreme weather with long delays on the eurotunnel and lightning strikes cause trains to be cancelled on the east coast mainline. prince charles has expressed "deep personal regret" that he was decieved by the disgraced bishop, peter ball, who was later convicted of sex offences us economic growth has hit an annual rate of over 4%, the fastest since 2014. president trump claims it shows his "america first" policies are working. in an sport, just two stages to go, the tour de france but —— the welsh

writer extend its —— extends his lead. sebastian vettel was fastest in second practise at the hungarian grand prix, lewis hamilton 17 points ahead in the driver's standing, finishing fifth. queens park rangers have been fined almost £42 million and won't be able to make any tra nsfers and won't be able to make any transfers in the january window. it's after they lost a claim against financialfair it's after they lost a claim against financial fair play. more on those stories for you in 15 minutes. let's talk more about one of those stories we heard in the headlines. a letter from the prince of wales has been read out at the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse. the inquiry is considering the case of peter ball, a former bishop of lewes, and gloucester, who was convicted of abusing 18 young men. prince charles was in close contact with ball, and it's been claimed he helped to protect him. but in the letter read

by counsel to the inquiry, prince charles says he was misled by ball, who told him he was a victim of a vendetta. jon donnison reports. peter ball was a senior and powerful figure within the church of england for decades. but in 2015, the former bishop of lewes and also of gloucester, seen here on the left with his twin brother, was jailed for 32 months for sexually abusing teenagers and young men. he had been cautioned by police more than ten years earlier, and resigned his position. this inquiry is addressing allegations of an establishment cover—up. a cover—up that allegedly involved the church, senior figures in the judiciary, and even the royalfamily. peter ball claimed to be a close friend of prince charles. today, the inquiry was read extracts from letters the prince of wales sent peter ball written in the 1990s, after he had been cautioned. this is what the prince wrote in february, 1995. i wish i could do more.

i feel so desperately strongly about the monstrous wrongs that have been done to you and the way you have been treated. the inquiry also heard about a house that prince charles' duchy estate had bought and rented to peter ball and his brother after he had been cautioned by police and resigned his position of bishop. the inquiry heard extracts from a letter the prince had written to peter ball, talking about that transaction, negotiated by a figure known only as x. i am so glad x has been in touch. i pray the duchy will be able to find something suitable for you in due course but it may take a little time to locate it. i long to see you both settled somewhere that suits you and gives you peace and tranquillity. prince charles was out and about in norfolk today. in a letter submitted to the inquiry, he admitted he had occasionally sent peter ball and his brother small gifts of money, but that the details of the house rental were handled by the duchy estate.

he said he was aware of the transaction, but didn't select the house. the prince stressed that at no point had he sought to influence the police investigations into peter ball, or encouraged staff to do so. peter ball was released from prison in 2017 after serving 16 months. jon donnison, bbc news. 0ur royal correspondent nicholas witchell is here. the fact that this letter has been read out now, does clearance house believe and hope this is the end of the matter as far as they're concerned? yes, in fairness to the prince of wales, as embarrassing as it is to have this personal correspondence read—out, he recognises the importance of this inquiry and has made no hesitation in making all this available. the point that clearance house would wish to make is essentially there

are for it —— frustration and anger at this, that we are looking at this through the perspective of 2018, knowing what we know now. and certainly without question, seeing letters in which the prince of wales ex presses letters in which the prince of wales expresses sympathy to this man for the monstrous wrong that supposedly was being done to him, that is embarrassing. it suggests a degree of na ivete embarrassing. it suggests a degree of naivete and a disk —— disinclination to be curious and ask questions. but back in the 1990s when all this was happening, prince charles was far from being the only person being na ve and being disinclined to ask questions. the wider church, the nhs, the bbc is guilty of precisely the same in different circumstances. two other fax we must keep in mind is that charles has an interest in faith. he has drawn to other charismatic people of faith who make faith

accessible, and bishop ball was one of those figures. he was described as an interesting person and he was really ta ke n as an interesting person and he was really ta ken by as an interesting person and he was really taken by him. back in the 90s, charles will have felt that he, charles, was under persistent and unfair attacks by the media. and i think that may have made him unduly sympathetic to this charismatic figure who is a telling him that he was also the victim of media persecution. and that is just a combination of circumstances that may well have appealed to charles and help bishop ball deceive him so totally. but there is no doubt now, asi totally. but there is no doubt now, as i think the prince of wales says in his statement, he feels extremely betrayed, and feels great regret that this presumption of good faith was betrayed. thank you very much, nic. north korea has returned what is believed to be the remains

of about 50 american soldiers who died during the korean war. the repatriation of those killed in action was a promise made by kim jong—un to president trump during their meeting in singapore earlier this year. the move comes on the 65th anniversary of the signing of the armistice that ended the korean war. laura bicker reports. after nearly 70 years, the fallen soldiers are welcomed home with an honour guard. one by one the small caskets, wrapped in the united nations flag, were carried back onto american soil, a us airbase in south korea. this is just the start of their final journey. next week, they will be taken to hawaii to be examined, to check they are the remains of us soldiers. this appears to fulfil a key pledge made by kimjong—un to president trump during the singapore summit. and it comes in the same week as north korea appears to be dismantling one of its main missile launch sites. but what does north korea want in return?

kim jong—un chose his date well to keep his word. today marks the 65th anniversary of the signing of the armistice which officially ended the korean war. in north korea, they call it the day of victory. "in tears and rapture, veterans run into the arms of chairman kim," announced state media. mr kim is trying to persuade the world his focus is on building his country's economy rather than building nuclear weapons. some doubt his sincerity. president trump, however, will see this as a promise kept, and publicly thanked him in a tweet. "after so many years this will be a great moment for so many families. thank you to kim jong—un," he said. in seoul, korean war veterans from around the world gathered to remember the millions who died. and they hope that at some point, peace will one day come to the peninsula.

for the last 30 years, we have not seen anything very positive. and i think today we are starting to see a few positive things happening. the return of these remains may breathe new life into a peace process that has seeemed stalled since the singapore summit. the fundamental problem remains. north korea has yet to hand over any of its nuclear weapons. and until it does, the us will still believe it poses a global threat. laura bicker, bbc news, south korea. bringing you emerging news, something we have been touching on a lot the last few days, we are hearing that bedfordshire police are out in the village of harold in bedfordshire because there is great

concern for the safety of a man who's been swimming in the river great news. we have heard the emergency services are at the scene and there is a helicopter search going on for this man. bedfordshire police, it would seem all emergency services in the village of harold and bedfordshire are looking for a man who went swimming in the river great news, this is following after a number of stories would have been relating in the last few days, and these upset —— exceptional hot temperatures in his country, and those warnings from the authorities not to go swimming if you don't know where you are or if you're not a strong swimmer, just be aware of water. the authorities make the point that it is tempting to jump into the water in these hot temperatures, but we have seen other tragedies, and that is as much as we know now that this specific case about that coming with the context

of the warnings that have been put out by the emergency services in the last few days about taking care if you are out in the water in these hot temperatures. but there is clearly a search going on of some magnitude, we know a helicopter is out, so we will bring you more details as of when we get them from the police. the us economy grew by 4.1% in the second quarter of the year. the rate is the fastest in almost four years, and among the highest in industrial nations. growth was boosted by domestic sales, and strong exports, although some of these are now facing chinese tariffs that came into force in response to ones imposed by washington. welcoming the new figures at the white house, president trump said the economic progress was set to continue. once again, we are the economic envy of the entire world. when i meet the leaders of countries, the first thing they say invariably is, "mr president, so nice to meet you, congratulations on your economy, you're leading the entire world".

they say that almost each and every time. america is being respected again in america's winning again because we are finally putting america first. everywhere we look, we are seeing the effects of the american economic miracle. at the same time, we are finally cracking down on decades of abusive foreign trade practise. we were abused by companies, we were abused by companies within the countries. but in particular, we were abused by the countries themselves, including allies. abused like no nation has ever been abused before, because we had nobody watching. they stole our jobs and they plundered our wealth. but that ended. we can speak to our business correspondent kim gittleson,

who's in new york. what are analytic —— economic a nalysts a re what are analytic —— economic analysts are saying about the strong figures, about how much of it is down to president trump's approach, and whether it can continue? economists are calling this a sugar rush, essentially saying that while this particular economic report was boosted by a net exports and american businesses selling their products abroad, that is something thatis products abroad, that is something that is not set to continue. in fa ct, that is not set to continue. in fact, those businesses were trying to sell abroad before retaliatory ta riffs went to sell abroad before retaliatory tariffs went into the place in places like mexico and china. that is what boosted this act —— economic growth figure, and as a result, many a nalysts a re growth figure, and as a result, many analysts are saying this is not sustainable, not something we will see in the third and fourth car —— quarters of this year. so while president trump might say this for

.1% annualfigure president trump might say this for .1% annual figure indicates that his economic policies are working, when it comes to investing —— comic they don't seem quite convinced by his rhetoric there. we will see what else emerges, thank you, kim. time for a look at the weather, with tomasz. 0ur attention is now being steered towards the thunderstorms which are breaking out against parts of the country. there is an amber warning in force from the met office, so storms could be particularly vicious. we have already had downpours and bolts of lightning, hail, gusty winds. i also want to emphasise that these are localised storms, many of us are completely missing them. in fact the town dump the road from you can have a storm and you would be in a dry zone. 0ver the evening and tonight, these central areas will see storms, some

breaking out across east anglia. but the real weather front that will bring the pressure conditions are still way out to the west of us, but eventually it will sweep through, and saturday is promising to be a much cooler day in east anglia and the southeast. today we got into the mid 30s in east anglia, tomorrow we are talking about a massive drop, at least 10 degrees for some of us here. for many of us, it will be around the high teens with sunshine and showers. so a mixed bag, that classic british mixed bag on the way tomorrow. this is bbc news.

the headlines... major disruption on parts of the uk's travel network, as the extreme heat causes delays on the eurotunnel, and there are big problems on the east coast mainline after signals were hit by lightning. the prince of wales has denied trying to influence a police investigation into the convicted paedophile, peter ball. the former church of england bishop was found guilty of sex offences in 2015. president trump announces "amazing" ecomonic growth as the us economy grew at an annual rate of more than four percent, the fastest since 2014. and stargazers prepare for the longest total lunar eclipse of the century as the moon passes through the earth's shadow this evening. much more to come in the next few

minutes with someone i am pleased to say who knows a lot more than me. right now it is time for the sport. chris mitchell is at the bbc sport centre. good evening.... geraint thomas has been hurtling down the mountains of the pyranees at almost 80—km/hour. . . .. the final mountain stage — stage 19 of the tour de france — hasjust ended... thomas finished second on the stage, behind primoz roglic. that means he picked up six bonus seconds which extends his lead two minutes and five seconds... and with one day of racing to go until the ceremonial finish in paris, that should give him a race—winning advantage going into tomorrow's time trial. so here's the overall classification... two stages to go... a time trial tomorrow followed by the procession to paris... thomas is leading. chris froome now

slips back to fourth. he looked quite tired at one stage in the mountains earlier. sebastian vettel was fastest in second practice at the hungarian grand prix. the ferrari driver took advantage of errors from other drivers to finish just less than a tenth of a second quicker than max verstappen's red bull. lewis hamilton, who has a championship lead of 17 points over vettel, was three quarters of a second off the pacesetting time at the hungaroring. queens park rangers have been fined almost 42 million pounds and won't be able to make any transfers in the january window after a football league arbitration panel dismissed their claims that football's financial fair play rules are unlawful. the championship club's case relates to breaking spending limits on their way to winning promotion to the premier league in 2014. it's believed the efl will let them

settle the fine over 10 years. wolves' goalkeeper carl ikeme has announced his retirement from football. the 32 year old's decision came following advice from with medical experts following his year—long battle with leukaemia. ikeme announced last month he's in complete remission. he made more than 200 appearances for wolves afterjoining the club as a 14—year—old. the long awaited world boxing super series super—middleweight final between george groves and callum smith will take place in saudi arabia on the 28th of september. the fight was due to be held injune but it was delayed after groves suffered a shoulder injury in his victory over chris eubankjr back in february. he'll defend his wba world title against the unbeaten smith at the king abdullah sports city in jeddah. the world series triathlon continues on bbc tv this weekend.

this time around the men's and women's races are in canada, and the british athletes have made a promising start to this year's competition. five british women now occupy the world's top 16 in the sport — that's more than any other nation, and for non stanford that means they're all looking to push each other. i think at the minute of the british women especially are in a really good plays. we are a really good unitand good plays. we are a really good unit and consistently top ten athletes now and that is great that we have not just athletes now and that is great that we have notjust got a couple doing that, we have four orfive we have notjust got a couple doing that, we have four or five and women who cannot even make the world series star line because too many britons are there. it is good for the sport and means we will push each other on and increase the standards and this began we will be looking to finish top ten and eve ryo ne

everyone is capable of that. most of the girls have a podium already this year, i thinkjodie is the exception that she has been endured and seems to be getting better. i am sure she will get her podium by the end of the season. if we can get five girls into the top ten that is pretty consistent racing and it is definitely not out of our realm. so the canadian leg of triathlon's world series starts with the women's race after midnight tonight and you can see highlights on bbc two from 12 o'clock on sunday. we'll have more for you in sportsday at half past six. we've been talking a lot about the sun this week, but tonight all eyes will be on the moon as it turns blood red in the sky. it's the result of a total lunar eclipse — when the earth comes between the sun and the moon. tonight's eclipse will be the longest of the twenty—first century. that's because the moon will pass through the widest part of the earth's shadow. but it's notjust the so—called "blood moon" that will be glowing red. mars will also be visible as it makes its closest

approach to us since 2003 — as our science correspondent victoria gill explains. where they are at their nearest point to each other, it is known as a close approach of mars. the minimum distance is 54.6 million kilometres, but that does significantly improve our view of the red planet. there is a much longer explanation coming up. forecasters say there's a risk rain clouds and thunderstorms could scupper the view for many, but that's not stopping people from wanting to catch a glimpse of tonight's spectacular red moon. it is fascinating and it is one of those natural occurrences that i definitely want to watch, out in probably my garden tonight. how important is it? i think it is one of those natural beauties that everyone should experience once in a life. and you do not have to wear ridiculous glasses to look at it. i mean, who wouldn't want to see it? i think it will be very special,

because it is once—in—a—lifetime. i am going to be watching from my bedroom window. i am very excited about it. i think it is going to bring change into our lives. so, very excited. i think it isjust the beauty of it and i don't know how historic it is, but yeah, it is something wonderful in nature. it is something different. it fires people up. makes you think more. it should do. i think with all that has been going on, i think we need cheering up, don't we? something exciting. we all echo that. let's discuss this further with chris lintott — professor of astrophysics at the university of oxford — and presenter of the sky at night. lovely to see you. i can feel that lots of us are quite excited. is this exciting for you? it is exciting, scientifically, maybe not, but for something to observe in the sky, i think everyone will be out

hoping that the clouds part and we can see this. a lunar eclipse gives me an easyjob, all we need to tell people is go outside, look out between nine o'clock and ten o'clock to the south—east and look for the moon and if it is clear, it will be a strange colour. look to the south—east. how much of this is to do with the atmospherics, the weather, how much can we see? we need clear skies or a gap in the clouds. the interesting thing about the colour is we cannot predict quite what the colour will be. people have used the term blood moon but it can even be some in paying or a brick red, it depends on the earth's atmosphere. the moon is in the shadow of the earth but sunlight does get through being bound by our atmosphere and where our atmosphere is dirty, you get a darker eclipse,

so it depends on the atmosphere of the earth. we simply do not know about that until we are out there. i was curious. we have been talking about it being blood red. we will find out when we reach total eclipse and that happens in a couple of hours and then the moon rises while eclipsed at around 8:30 p:m.. that is interesting and very exciting. when people of my age here at the word eclipse, we think of about protecting your eyes and you should not look directly at it, does this apply here? that is mostly a solar eclipse. we had one in cornwall and south devon in 1999. that is bad news but staring at the moon is perfectly safe. when the moon is very low, try looking with binoculars, because the moon may be so faint against the bright sky that you need help. if you have binoculars, take them with you. for

people like you and scientists, is this moment something something that is studied or is it a moment of enjoyment? i will be out as an amateur astronomer at enjoying the spectacle of nature but we do learn things about the upper atmosphere of the earth. when there have been large volcanic eruptions, they have been followed by dark lunar eclipses. people who study the earth will care about this but for me it isa will care about this but for me it is a chance to enjoy something happening in the sky. we are used to thinking about earthly things and this is a chance to be in the solar system for a moment enjoying one of the spectacles of nature. as that lady said, we all need that. lovely, enjoy it and we certainly will. thank you. this

for fans of the beatles and sir paul mccartney, it was a once—in—a—lifetime experience. yesterday, sir paul played a surprise gig at liverpool's cavern club in front of an audience ofjust 250. it's the venue wherejohn, paul, george and ringo made their names. naomi cornwell was there to witness the return of beatlemania. # magical mystery tour... this is the moment fans have been waiting for. the excitement had been building since sir paul dropped a massive hint. we have a little secret gig somewhere in liverpool. some fans spent the night outside the cavern club, hoping to get in early, only to find out that tickets were being given out across town at the echo arena. they were told there were no tickets. they were running across the streets to the arena. the first 110 managed to get them. it was a once in a lifetime.

yes, i am away from work. i am not really bothered. i got a ticket. it was amazing. chance of a lifetime. absolutely overwhelmed, overjoyed. delighted. super fans. we follow paul over the world. i have this tattoo of the beatles. and i also have this one. for the lucky ones with tickets, they have already gone in, but matthew street is crowded full of people. someone with a loud—hailer made an official announcement telling everyone that sir paul will not come outside to make an appearance. they are not deterred. they are waiting hoping for a glimpse. all those years ago we came here and played, you know,

and we didn't know if we would ever have any future, but we did 0k. it was amazing. i can't believe thatjust happened. i am shocked. extraordinary. amazing. it was just unbelievable. and, if you missed out, he will be back playing to a few people at the echo arena in december. the headlines on bbc news... delays on the travel network as the extreme weather causes disruption to eurotunnel services and lightning leads to cancellations on the east coast mainline.