this is bbc news. i'm rebecca jones. the headlines: the bank of england raises interest rates for only the second time since 2009. the increase to 0.75% will see some homeowners pay higher mortgages. every decision i make about what i'm doing in my daily life, i have to think, "do i have the money to do that?" and it's just really frustrating and it holds me back. calm on the streets zimbabwe. an announcement on a new president is imminent following the disputed election. the incumbent emmerson mnangagwa has a significant lead over the main opposition candidate nelson chamisa. we'll bring you the result of the remaining province as soon as it's declared. also this hour: a review finds chances were missed to save 18—month—old elsie skully—hicks, who was murdered by her adoptive father in 2016. with nearly 8 out of 10 britons owning a smartphone,

we look at how digital devices, are transforming people's lives. and at 11:30pm, we'll be taking an in—depth look at the papers with our reviewers political commentator, lance price, and caroline wheeler from the sunday times. stay with us for that. good evening. welcome. interest rates have been increased for only the second time since the financial crisis of 2008. the bank of england's monetary policy committee voted unanimously for the rise, from 0.5% to 0.75%. the change had been widely predicted, despite concerns over rising personal debt, and a slowing housing market. it means more than 3.5 million mortgages subject to variable rates will become more expensive. but it could be good

news for some savers. here's our business editor, simonjack. the road to rising interest rates has been a very slow one. like the tarmac on this road near lincoln, rates have been flattened for nearly ten years. that changed today for one main reason — wages are on the move. after years in the doldrums, they're rising at 2.7% per year. that's faster than prices are going up in the shops, as employers struggle to recruit and retain staff. that prompted the bank to raise rates from 0.5% byjust a quarter, to 0.75%. because although the economy doesn't look like it's moving very fast, according to the governor, upward pressure on prices is growing. the overall level of pay is now finally outstripping the rate of growth of inflation. pay packets are growing faster than prices online and in the shops.

what we want to do is part of the reason why we have made this adjustment, is to ensure that continues to be the case. so that the economy remains on track and people who are just starting to get ahead, those people in work or seeing the pay increases, that they continue to get ahead. back on the roads, the impact of unemployment at a 15—year low is clear. i'm having to offer at least 15—20% more than i was three years ago for the guys on the field to carry out the works for me. if i venture into the sub contract market, there's at least that percentage uplift in the value of the man hourly rate that i'm having to pay. that's the employer's view, what do employees think? gez haines is on a tracker mortgage, whose cost will rise, along with rates. starts making me think i haven't got much money in my pocket to spend on the high street. it starts making me worried that the disposable income i had

a week ago, last month, from my pay packet has gone. here on the high streets of lincoln, there are some young pedestrians who weren't even born last time rates were this high. it feels like interest rates have been at rock bottom forever. it's been a decade which has been great for borrowers and bad for savers, and it's changed our behaviour. we are now spending more than we are earning, and you can't do that forever, so the bank of england will hope that nudging interest rates higher will make us save a bit more and borrow a bit less. the question for the governor is how fast and how high will they now rise? let me answer it this way. if you take what financial markets think, which is about one interest rate increase a year, of a quarter of a percent a year for the next few years, you know, people want a rule of thumb, for now i would use that. that could be it for the time being. a sensible move given what's lurking around the corner, according to some city economists.

we think that interest rates won't rise now for another year, and that's because we see a number of uncertainties on the horizon, in particular over brexit. we think the policy makers will probably want to wait until after the uk has left the eu to see what, if any, impact there is on the economy, before they decide whether to raise rates again. a new era? not really, but it's a small step back towards economic normality. simon jack, bbc news. as we've been hearing, the rate rise was widely expected, with growth thought to be picking up after a weak start to the year. but what does it mean for households? 0ur personalfinance correspondent, simon gompertz, has been finding out. this is where a rate rise can hurt. for homeowners in the hertfordshire town of hemel hempstead. they're caught between the high house prices of london's commuter belt and the lower wages of middle england,

many onlyjust managing to pay the mortgage as it is, let alone with an increase. young buyers like sarah... hello. ..who already has to find £800 a month. any more and she'll struggle to support her fledgling business, advising on how to sell on the internet. it would affect my food shopping, i don't buy meat products any more, it's just too expensive. my heating and energy bills i'm constantly watching because all my spare money has to go on paying my mortgage now. how do you deal with that pressure? it makes me feel really stressed out. i hate thinking about money, but it's constantly on my mind. it's those like sarah, with variable rate mortgages, who might see payments go up. there are 3.5 million of them, with an average mortgage of £112,000, with today's increase likely to put an extra £14 on their monthly bill, though it could be more. it's notjust mortgage borrowers like sarah here who care about interest rates,

plenty of her neighbours are savers, and while their worry is whether the banks and building societies pass the interest rate rise on, they welcome higher rates. as a family, we have an isa, and we haven't really benefitted for the last couple of years. also being a single mum, i'm going to see benefit for my whole family. instead of people being encouraged to save, the message always, always seems to be, just go out and borrow more money. so higher interest rates, that encourages people to save? absolutely, yes. the most popular way of saving is in a tax free cash isa. 16 million people have them, with average savings of more than £11,000. the rate hike will yield just £28 extra a year if it's passed on. none of this makes much difference if you rent, and don't have much to save. it doesn't affect me

at all because i've got no savings and if i did want a loan at some point then maybe it would. so some dodge the effects of the interest rate rise but those facing higher costs in towns like this have to worry that soon, perhaps next year, rates are set to go up again. simon gompertz, bbc news, hemel hempstead. results in zimba bwe‘s presidential election are expected imminently. today there were calls from the international community for restraint as the nation waited for an announcement following yesterday's violence. the two main candidates are emmerson mnangagwa of the ruling zanu—pf party, and nelson chamisa, leader of the main opposition group, the movement for democratic change, which claims zanu—pf has rigged the election. in the last hour the country's

electoral commission said nine out of ten provinces had reported their results, with emmerson mnangagwa firmly in the lead. 0ur africa editor, fergal keane, is in the zimbabwean capital, harare, and sent this report. the city awoke to no result, and the traumatised aftermath of violence. but there was a dramatic public appearance by the leader of the opposition. nelson chamisa had come to visit wounded people in hospital. but international pressure on him to help de—escalate the crisis seems to have had little effect. offered the chance to call for a restraint from his supporters, this was his response. there is no reason for us to ask them to show restraint, because it's always been restrained. our people are peace—loving. we have demonstrated several times and we are peace—loving people. zimbabweans love peace, but they have a very violent government. in the aftermath of death and injury, this was the normally bustling centre of harare today.

soldiers had warned people to go home. this isn't the typical busy harare of a thursday afternoon. it's an apprehensive place. it's a city whose streets don't belong to the people today, but to men with batons and guns. at the headquarters of the opposition, we found a stand—off. police had arrested several people who had been taking refuge there since yesterday. the face of a prisoner. they were still seeking the surrender of more holding out inside. the government side has given mixed messages, some warning mdc leaders they face arrest. 0thers appealing for restraint. certainly it is supporters of the mdc led by chamisa who caused the trouble. i am happy that our supporters exercised maximum restraint and were not involved, and i am appealing to them to continue to exercise that maturity. in the wake of the harare violence, pressure mounted for an imminent declaration of the presidential result.

do you accept that the longer this goes on, the more it looks, particularly to opposition supporters, that there's a fix? we do acknowledge, like the deputy chair says, that the longer it takes, the more anxiety that is there amongst our citizens, but we need to do the whole process within the confines of the law. back in mdc headquarters, the police, armed with a warrant, raided and arrested the remaining supporters holed up inside. the faces of those arrested tell their own story, of harare and of zimbabwe's politics today. 0ur correspondent shingai nyoka is in harare. the process of the announcement has been started in the last hour, why

is it taking so long and is there any further update? there isn't a further update. what we know is within the next ten to 15 minutes, that last province of the results... the province results from the last province will be announced, the last province will be announced, the election commission said earlier it was still trying to verify the results to make sure all the 23 presidential candidates were happy with that outcome. but so far it seems emmerson mnangagwa is in the lead by about 200,000 votes. the remaining problems, ironically, is the home province of former president robert mugabe, but it's also a zanu—pf stronghold, a rural area. it's not clear whether emmerson mnangagwa will earn the 50% plus one vote, that's the majority that he needs, to avoid a run—off. if not, this process could go on for much longer with a second round of

voting expected in september if no one is a clear winner tonight. whoever wins, though, and whenever they win, he's going to have a devil ofa they win, he's going to have a devil of a job bringing the country together, isn't he? absolutely. the result of this presidential vote showed how divided the country is. he's about 250,000 votes a hea d the country is. he's about 250,000 votes ahead but still there's a substantial number of votes for nelson chamisa, a leader who said he accept emmerson mnangagwa winning, he believes he has evidence and results that counter emmerson mnangagwa's winning —— he won't accept. some very tense days that lie ahead after these presidential results are announced. shingai nyoka, we will leave it there for 110w nyoka, we will leave it there for now but we will come straight back to you if there are any developments. joining me is expert in african politics and elections

at the american university, adrienne lebas. we are grateful for your time, good evening to you. good evening. i appreciate we don't fully know what the result is, but what are your initial thoughts about what we know so initial thoughts about what we know so far? as your correspondent pointed out, the remaining problems for which the presidential elections have not been announced, this is a zanu—pf stronghold and given emmerson mnangagwa's lead, we can be fairly certain that they are going to call this for emmerson mnangagwa. i should note we have parliamentary results that have been announced and currently zanu—pf, the ruling party, has a two thirds majority in parliament that would allow it to unilaterally amend the constitution. that's a fairly bare my majority at

this point and if a few of the parliamentary seats are contested or if the results are changed, they could lose that two thirds majority —— their majority. what's going to dominate the coming hours is the opposition result and whether there will be a call from nelson chamisa to continue protests or if the opposition decides to contest this in the courts. chamisa has said the mdc alliance isn't necessarily interested right now in contesting the results in courts because they have doubts about judicial independence in zimbabwe. you are mentioning whether they would organise protest, the question is what would the aim of those peak? —— those bees. —— those be. that is one of the questions at. the question would be what about the rerun of the elections, given the results that were problematic ——

problematic. it will be hard to reconcile these differences between the two parties. would they demand a rerun because that would they demand reforms? would they demand a power—sharing government? those are options on the table. the other making —— major question about any organised protest is do they still have the organisational strength to bring zimbabweans out on the street and do so for a protracted period of time? they did in the past organised large—scale time? they did in the past organised la rge—scale protest time? they did in the past organised large—scale protest that were fairly effective in terms of getting turnout, but they didn't have any advocacy in terms of changing the response 01’ advocacy in terms of changing the response or achieving any aim is. —— and thes. so any protests, even if they were effective in bringing supporters out to the street, what they would yield at this point. nonetheless, if we think about the growing polarisation that we have seen growing polarisation that we have seenin growing polarisation that we have seen in zimbabwe over the last few

days, it does make you wonder, looking ahead, where it leaves a new government and how will it be able to govern? i think it is important to govern? i think it is important to point out that polarisation is not new and is not a product of these elections this topic for the past 20 years you basically have had the country split in terms of support between zanu—pf and this opposition party that was formed in 2000, the movement for democratic change. now, any government that comes in is go—to tuque cope with that level of laura seshan. a positive step would probably be from moving from a public discourse of confrontation to one of co—operation is. unfortunately the statements made by government officials in the aftermath of the violence on the streets yesterday that i suggest that that is their plan. instead, protesters were described as bandits, seemed to be a defence of

the military‘s disproportionate use of force. i think it could he quite ha rd to of force. i think it could he quite hard to see any kind of real shift 01’ hard to see any kind of real shift orany kind of hard to see any kind of real shift or any kind of immediate reduction of levels of polarisation in zimbabwe in the coming weeks. very briefly, can you just give us a sense of the kind of problems that any new government is going to have to deal with? the attention, obviously around the elections is obviously around the elections is obviously on the political dynamics. zimbabwe is right now in the middle ofan zimbabwe is right now in the middle of an economic crisis as well the. they are in need to relax the dollar standards, which ended hyperinflation in zimbabwe and has been a reintroduction of bond notes to deal with the persistent foreign exchange shortage. there are real concerns in zimbabwe that the reintroduction of these bond notes

will spur hyperinflation. the new government is going to be able to stabilise the country, then it needs to stabilise the economy. kidneys to come up with a solution to this persistent currency problem —— it needs to come up. that has dogged zimbabwe to two decades. —— for two decades. had to talk to you, thanks. —— good. the headlines on bbc news: the bank of england raises interest rates, for only the second time since 2009. the increase to 0.75%, will see some homeowners pay higher mortgages. calm on the streets of zimbabwe, as the nation awaits the announcement of their new president, following the disputed election. a review finds chances were missed to save 18 month old elsie skully—hicks, who was murdered by her adoptive father in 2016. a report has found that there

were missed opportunities to protect an 18 month old baby girl, who was murdered by her adoptive father. cardiff and vale's safeguarding children board has apologised, following the death of elsie scully—hicks, who died in may 2016. she was subjected to a series of injuries by matthew scully—hicks, who's been jailed for life. sian lloyd reports. elsie was 18 months old when she was murdered by her adoptive father. matthew scully—hicks was sentenced to 18 years in prison. his violent attacks had left her with a fractured skull, broken ribs and a fractured leg. today a report was published into whether lessons could be learned from her death. there were missed opportunities to raise safeguarding concerns. for this, all agencies involved in elsie's care would like to sincerely apologise. the report also found that the adoption was viewed as very successful.

opportunities to explore elsie's injuries were missed, and information was not shared between agencies. together with his husband, matthew scully—hicks had already adopted one child, and the family were known to social services. the report says the couple were seen through a positive lens by social workers, who hadn't always questioned elsie's injuries or recorded them. why was there this lack of professional curiosity, because there is a duty on social workers to be asking questions, particularly round injuries they can see during an adoption process? that positive lens meant they weren't looking in the way they should have been, and so you're right. that's something they should have done, that's something we have as an organisation recognised, we have taken that fully onboard. children's charities say lessons must be learned. some resolution needs to be found, so that information is shared. but the other thing is that basic

social work premise of questioning, and having professional curiosity about what you're being told. elsie was treated here at the university hospital of wales on a number of occasions, but they didn't spot that her injury had been inflicted. now, changes have been introduced to ensure that any child brought here under the age of two for an x—ray will be seen by a specialist, who will assess whether the injury is non—accidental. in all, nine recommendations have been made to prevent opportunities to save other children being missed in the future. sian lloyd, bbc news, cardiff. the tech giant, apple, has become the first company to reach a trillion dollars in market value. the firm's shares briefly peaked today at $207.05 cents —— the firm's shares briefly peaked today at $207.05

on the new york stock exchange, following strong financial results posted yesterday. apple began 42 years ago, selling personal computers. it then expanded its range to include the ipod music player, and the lucrative iphone in 2007. the way we interact with technology has changed dramatically in the last decade. nearly 8 out of 10 people now own a smartphone, and according to a new report by the communications regulator, 0fcom, we're now becoming increasingly dependent on them. it's estimated the average person checks their phone, every 12 minutes, with a0 percent of us taking a look within five minutes of waking up in the morning. but for the first time ever, the number of calls made on mobiles has fallen. instead we're turning to messaging services like whatsapp and facebook messenger to keep in touch. rory cellan—jones has been to meet one family, to see how technology has changed their lives. dad, what you doing? making some crazy music for instagram. meet the louis family and a home full of smartphones and tablets

which have transformed the way they live. i'm andre and i have a smartphone. i'm kirsten, i have a smartphone. i'm jake and i have a smartphone. i'm alice and i'm too small. dad, how do you use your smart phone? i use it to check e—mail and texts. how has it changed your life? it's made me become a more independent person. i am visually impaired so i find i can i use my phone to do more tasks than i could previously and it enables me to navigate safely. mum, how do you use yours? i use it to wake me up, tell us the weather so we can plan our day, to do all the shopping, so i don't have to drag you guys round the supermarket every week. andre makes a living from composing music. the technology for visually impaired people on smartphones has given him a whole new way of working. and 2.28. but 0fcom says we have become dependent on our phones over the last decade.

the average person spends two hours and 28 minutes a day on their phone. 71% of users say they never turn it off, while 78% say they couldn't live without it. this report shows that generally we are pretty happy with the changes smartphones have brought, particularly the ability to connect with friends and family, but we are concerned about how much we use them, and there are questions of good manners. should you be checking your phone at the dinner table? well, nearly everybody over a certain age thinks that is right out, but the under 35s, well, round half of them are ok with that. and are there any rules about how we use our phones? there are rules, you are not allowed to use it outside of the house, we do not use our phones at the table. and you are not allowed to use it for overa certain amount of time each day. the family rules do allow everyone to multitask on phones and tablets while in front of the tv.

up and down the country we are all deciding what are good manners for the smartphone era. rory cellan—jones, bbc news. and we'll be taking an in—depth look at the papers with our reviewers political commentator lance price and caroline wheeler from the sunday times. that's coming up after the headlines at 11:30. now it's time for the weather with tomasz. hello. in the way that we have got right now across the southern part of the uk isn't quite as intense as it was last time, but it is still very hot and it is going to peak on friday when temperatures across some southern part of the uk could hit 33 degrees. that will probably be around london, low to mid— 30sjust about you could call it. a cross some northern and eastern parts of the country we could seek to riches

in the high 20s, especially around lincolnshire. pretty hot for this pa rt lincolnshire. pretty hot for this part of the world. in scotland, generally speaking, we are talking about 23 are fairly similar values in northern ireland as well. 0bviously in northern ireland as well. obviously the heat is reserved for southern areas, coming out of spain and portugal, france, also spreading to other parts of the continent. the really extremely hot air will be reserved for these south—eastern parts of spain this. we could see temperatures of around 48 celsius during friday and saturday and that could be a record for europe. the record is a8, we need a little over that to beat the record. back home. into friday we are expecting rain for a time across yorkshire, but other than that it is hot and dry, 32 in london, in the low 20s across scotla nd 32 in london, in the low 20s across scotland and northern ireland. into the weekend, saturday, high pressure

builds, the exhaust time because it builds, the exhaust time because it builds which is a roundabout here and a lot of fine weather developing across the uk. england, wales, with across the uk. england, wales, with a bit more clout across scotland and northern ireland and see the wind blowing off the ocean, these yellow colours, temperatures not quite so high in the west. talking around 15, whereas in the south on saturday it will be around 30 degrees mark in london and comfortably into the mid— 20s or i 20s across the midlands and into yorkshire. high pressure is still with us on sunday, covering most of the uk, but we do have low pressures which are starting to nudgein pressures which are starting to nudge in and these are going to bring some slightly cooler rider into next week ‘s topic lets summarise the second half of the weekend and into monday across the northern parts of the uk. temperatures mostly into the 20s, dry and sunny spells and in the south we still have the heat. in london, it looks like it will hover around 30 degrees into next week,

monday and quite possibly tuesday as well. monday's weather forecast, this high pressure tends to fizzle out across the south and we will see low pressure developing and these blobs of blue here is an indication that we will see weather fronts moving in this topic on tuesday it looks as though atlantic wind will start to drag in cloud and the potential for rain later on into north—western areas. we are still expecting heat across the south—east. temperatures of around 30 degrees but in the western isles it will be around the teens. this is really a schematic of the airflow around our part of the world into early next week ‘s topic cooler air in the north, hot in the south but later next week we think that that fresher and will win, it will push the heat a way a temperatures will start to climb. i don't want to say that it will turn cool because we could build sea temperatures in the mid—to high 20s. 0verall,

could build sea temperatures in the mid—to high 20s. overall, the warm weather will stay around. hello. this is bbc news with rebecca jones. we'll be taking a look at tomorrow morning's papers in a moment,