hello, you're watching afternoon live — i'm simon mccoy. today at two. high street rescue. mike ashley's sports direct has bought house of fraserfor £90 million — but what it means for 16,000 staff is still unclear. i think we are trying to keep each up, we i think we are trying to keep each up, we are i think we are trying to keep each up, we are trying to stay motivated and hope for a good outcome. we hope they will find a solution, finely. cricketer ben stokes has said he can't remember knocking out a man, but did throw several punches, during his affray trial. staying firmly on the ground: ryanair pilots strike in five european countries — bringing travel misery for thousands at the height of the holiday season. hundreds of holiday—makers — including many in campsites — are evacuated as flash floods hit the south of france. coming up on afternoon live all the sport. that is with holly. there she is. here i am. absolutely. coming up jack laugher and chris mears are on

the hunt for another medal and at lord's it is a case of trying to stay out the water as rain causes further delay ops day two of the second test. all that coming up at 2.30. and what about the weather. here is i promise you later on the weather will be betterer and i will have the also coming up — there's a lot of hot air in bristol. the annual balloon fiesta is under way — and it's celebrating its 40th anniversary. and hello everyone — this is afternoon live — i'm simon mccoy. mike ashley's sports direct has agreed a deal to rescue the struggling department store chain, house of fraser. sports direct are paying 90 million pounds to buy the business, which had gone into administration

earlier on today, putting 16 thousand jobs at risk. staff are now waiting to find out what mr ashley plans to do with the 59 house of fraser stores he's bought. here's our business correspondent, rob young. house of fraser has a long, proud history. it started in glasgow in 1849 and has been on the high—street ever since. but early this morning, the company collapsed into administration. it is the biggest shock to british retail in over a decade. just yesterday, house of fraser warned it needed an injection of cash within ten days. the rescue deal with the owner of hamleys fell through last week leaving the chain in a precarious state. within hours of the collapse this morning, the controversial tycoon mike ashley swooped. i have been to the casino. sports direct has bought substantially all of house of fraser, for £90 million. before tha the owned

about a tenth of that. despite its troubles, there are loyal calum fraser customers. we have been here since the 70s, you can't have everything. very shocked. can't believe it could have happened to such a famous name in glasgow. it isa it is a nice shop but it is like a lot of these shops with the franchise, they are obviously not getting the sales any more. stores were closed for time this morning while staff were being briefed on the fast moving developments. it is an uncertain time for the company's 17,000 workers. i don't really have an understanding of it yet, it has not been explained to us at all. there was a meeting so we will be out of that meeting, and i don't really know much about the situation. i think we're just all trying to keep each other up and stay motivated. and just hope for a good outcome. we hope they will find some solution. finally, you know, nothing is finished yet. but christmas is coming, maybe it's going to be a christmas surprise.

sports direct is keeping us waiting. it has not revealed anything about its plans for house of fraser. the administration has said today's deal preserve as many of the jobs deal preserves as many of the jobs as possible but it hasn't said how many. i would guess, and i don't have any of inside information, he would probably continue the reduction by a round about half. he will look at the stores and the sales per square that and pick the ones who have the highest sales. it's been a terrible few years for the high streets. either branches shutting all brands going to the wall entirely, down to a toxic cocktail of circumstances, unaffordable rent, business rates and cash strapped shops. house of fraser is the latest and biggest casualty of the more. house of fraser is the latest and biggest casualty of them all.

but unlike the others, it will survive in some form. we can cross to glasgow, where house of fraser launched its original store in 1849, to speak to our correspondent catriona renton. you weren't round then but looking at what has happened today, on the face of it this is good news but there is a lot of detail that needs working out. i think that is right. from talking to people outside the store, and inside the store, just wandering round, finding out what people think, there is confuse about what is going to happen, uncertainty about the future, this is a sort of institution in glasgow. 0ver about the future, this is a sort of institution in glasgow. over on that side of the road there in 1849 as you said, arthur and frayeder was opened. that was a small draper, look at over here, we have the whole house of fraser store, that has been owned by frazer since the 50, it is

something you are almost certainly will have seen if you are in glasgow, somewhere you probably might have gone in for a look round, people saying when they were young children, getting lost in this great big department store, other people telling us about how they would go once a year at christmas, others that go there all the time. it is a fascinating feeling, i think today. there was a big crowd outside the shop before it opened, it opened late, presumably because staff were being briefed but that ignited a bit of curiosity from shoppers and giving them the opportunity to think about the nostalgia here, the decades it has been a huge part of this high street. thank you very much. joining me now is paddy lillis, general secretary the union of shop, distributive and allied workers — who represent workers in the retail sector. usdaw to many of us. i am wondering

if you share that view, that this is on the face of it good news. we welcome the brand of house of fraser, it was quick, so we welcome it, and hope that a resolution comes forth and that the stores aren't all closed but we will have to wait and see what mike ashley's plans are. he could turn them all into sports direct and split with some of the other chains he owns or keep them as house of fraser, what do you think, what are you hearing the are the options? i think there will be aics many of option, he will ensure it is a successful business otherwise he wouldn't have bought it, however, he will face the same problems that the retail sector faces, the challenges against bricks and mortar retailers versus the online retailers and the

imbalance of taxation, represent, rates and car parking, all the issue, the fact the bricks and mortar, high streets which has been in crisis for some time. it really has to be outside of house of fraser, there has to be a general sit down, round table discussion with government, local authorities, community, trade union, to look at the long—term future and make sure retail is fit for purpose for the next 20, 30 years. the liberal democrat leader sir vince cable he says it underlines the need to scrap business rates for a start. he has a point. it needs to be looked at. it has been one of the main problems for retail earthquakeers retail main problems for retail ea rthquakeers retail has main problems for retail earthquakeers retail has gone through a turbulent time in the last ten year, we are not saying a challenge should stop, technological change is happening, we need to try to anticipate, individuals are

skilled and trained up, to take the jobs of the future and i think there is not really an industrial strategy for retail e it has never been valued the way it should, remember, it is 20% of the economy of the uk, over 3 million people work in retail, families need it, and again, i want to see a round table discussion, looking at all the views and ideas and innovation and try to ensure we have a vibrant high street going forward. there is a feeling of deja vu about this, we remember bhs and what happened with that, what is your understanding about the position of staff contracts and pensions with this take over? again, this is still early day, there no doubt when it comes, you have the issues round the bricks and mortar store, the rate, rent, all the issues that goes, where there is an unlevel playing field between online, there is massive pressures

so online, there is massive pressures so government needs to, along with local authorities to make it easier for businesses to operate on the high street. 0ur member, the employees works are the valuable resource that makes the profits for these companies and who have so much expertise, the company, mike ashley in particular needs to listen to them, most are long—standing, this isa them, most are long—standing, this is a retailer that goes back to the 1800, and again, we need to ensure that people's values and their dignity is adhered to. thank you very much the england cricketer ben stokes has told his trial he can't remember knocking out a man in an alleged brawl outside a bristol nightclub last september. stokes, who denies affray, did admit to throwing several punches. let's go now to our correspondent andy moore, who's live outside bristol crown court. what else has the jury been told? well, ben stokes's defence has been yes, he was involved in this fight, but he was acting in self defence,

and he was acting to protect two gay men who had been the subject of homophobic abuse, so he was asked about when he threw this punch. he was asked by the prosecutor you punched the man full force in the face, surely you can remember that and ben stokes said he simply remembers that the man was a threat. he couldn't remember anything else about the incident. he was asked why he couldn't remember, about his drinking, ben stokes said he had about ten drink, he said he may have had a pat cummings ofjagerbomb, he was shown video evidence where he is accused of flicking a cigarette but in the face of a gay man, he said he wasn't sure what was happening, he wasn't sure what was happening, he was also asked about the details of the homophobic abuse, that these men had been subjected to, and he said he couldn't remember any specific words. so there was an interesting exchange at the end of the proceedings when the prosecution

said your real attitude was i'm going to show you what violence is, iam going going to show you what violence is, i am going to retaliate and punish you and hit you out of revenge, is that not the truth in ben stokes replied absolutely not. he was asked again, is it what we see on the footage an angry man who has lost all control, again stokes replied absolutely not. he has finished gives his evidence and this afternoon we are due to hear from ryan ali the man he is accused of hitting, also involved in the fight, also accused thousands of air passengers across europe are suffering disruption as some ryanair pilots and staff stage a 24—hour strike over pay and conditions. around 400 flights — up to 100 of them to and from the uk — have been cancelled in the budget airline's biggest ever walk—out. the no—frills airline, with no flights out of one of europe's busiest airports today. at frankfurt the message for passengers was clear, and the same for berlin, with 250 flights grounded in germany and another 150

cancellations in ireland, sweden, and belgium as well. ryanair is the second—biggest airline and there are usually big queues here to the airport at this time, but 80% of the flights to and from belgium have been cancelled, according to the unions. ryanair says it has texted or e—mailed people so they don't come here today wondering whether their flight is on. laura and her best friend claire from barrow in furness were due to fly with ryanair from manchester with 1a friends for a hen party in germany and they have had to cancel their plans. they didn't offer anything. it said in the e—mail there were a few things you could do, but really with a group of 16 us it is really difficult to try to get something organised, so we have to either try to find

another flight, or book our own, but it is just too expensive. at the heart of it, the european pilots are asking for better pay and requesting their contact be governed by the laws of the nation where they are based, not by irish legislation. all these people, around belgium, travelling to dublin, just for a problem, an issue, especially when you have to deal with legislation not familiar to do, not in a country where you can be defended. ryanair has described the strike is regrettable and unjustified, claiming their pilots are among the best paid in the budget airline market, and who in their view have the least reason to complain. gavin lee, bbc news. 0ur correspondent leigh milner has more for us from stansted. as we were hearing there this strike is in europe but it is affecting ryanair across this is in europe but it is affecting rya nair across this country.

is in europe but it is affecting ryanair across this country. that is right. you wouldn't be able to tell at the moment, it hasjust right. you wouldn't be able to tell at the moment, it has just been pouring with rain. a great day if you wanted to go on holiday but u nfortu nately you wanted to go on holiday but unfortunately 1a flights have been cancelled here due to the strike, affecting more than 2,500 people, but if you are a passenger with ryan airthis but if you are a passenger with ryan air this won't come as a surprise, over the past weeks tens of thousands of passengers have been affected, and some are even still stranded abroad. including terry fowler who is sill in budapest. still stuck in budapest airport, cancelled the flights, spent the whole day on the phone to them, trying to get hold of them for them to hang up ons us, they said they couldn't get us home till the weekend. we have had to book with anotherairline. weekend. we have had to book with another airline. it hasn't been a great week for ryanair, it started a

couple of weeks back when pilots in ireland went on strike, on tuesday ryanair decided to ireland went on strike, on tuesday rya nair decided to cancel flights because of thunderstorm, this had a none on “— because of thunderstorm, this had a none on —— knock on effect for passengers here, they were cueing for hours, now what is happening is the biggest co—ordinated strike by ryanair, the the biggest co—ordinated strike by rya nair, the dispute the biggest co—ordinated strike by ryanair, the dispute about pay and condition, it was only recently that ryanair condition, it was only recently that rya nair recognised condition, it was only recently that ryanair recognised union hearse in the uk for the first time and meetings of cabin crew and pilots have been meeting here over the past couple of day, so, this week, this may not be the end of disruption for ryanairor may not be the end of disruption for ryanair or stansted may not be the end of disruption for rya nair or sta nsted but do passengers still trust ryanair. i don't at all. i don't like the service. why not? the booking on line is terrible. you are booking online check, in they are cancelled.

ijust don't online check, in they are cancelled. i just don't trust them. this summer we have had disruptions constantly. they have had to try to claim and ryanairsaid it they have had to try to claim and ryanair said it was not your fault. ? will you go with ryanair? no. now as you can imagine ryanair has been pretty proactive on twitter, they say they apologise to customers for the disruption, these unnecessary strikes will cause, however, they are digging their heels when it comes to compensation as you can imagine, that i say they are offering passengers the option of either a refund or they can get an alternative flight for free, but if you have been affected this is some useful information, the civil aviation authority which regulates ryanair in the uk says that they are advising anyone caught up in the strikes anyone can apply for compensation because the strike was called at such you're watching afternoon live,

these are our headlines. 17,000 staff are waiting to hear what the future holds for them after sports direct owner mike ashley buys the troubled house of fraser. cricketer ben stokes has finished giving evidence at his affray trial, after he told the court he couldn't remember knocking out a man, but did throw several punches. and a strike by ryanair pilots has forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights, affecting around india collapsed to 15—3 either side of two rain breaks on the second day of the second test against england at lord's. james anderson took two wickets forfive runs in 15 balls in the 30 minutes' play possible before lunch to leave india 11 for two at the interval. at the european championships, we're back in the pool this afternoon — where it's the final of the men's synchronised 3m springboard with jack laugher and chris mears — the two reigning olympic and commonwealth champions in action — in the lead after three dives.

meanbwhile katarina johnson thompson is on the hunt for gold in the heptathlon — depsite scoring a personal best in the javelin it wasn't enough to beat her nearest rival — the world and olympic champion naffi thiam. she'll finish the heptathlon tonight with the 800—metres. new figures show the recent warm weather has given the uk economy a boost — with growth of 0.4% in the second quarter of the year. economists say both retail sales and construction were helped by the sunshine and high temperatures. it's an improvement on the first three months of the year, where growth slumped amid the cold weather brought in by the beast from the east. here's joe lynam. robert runs a crop spraying business. he has trouble getting

staff into to work in the winter because of the beast from the east. since then a weak pound and good products mean his exports have boomed we have been able to expand on the site. we are making the site fit for purpose for going forward, we see whatever happens with brexit, we see whatever happens with brexit, we export 40% of product, round the world, to many different countries and so we have people wanting our product. and the improved growth figures were welcomed by the chancellor at the launch of a new government fund for technology. we are pleased to see a recovery of the economy in the second quarter, a robust growth figure which points to the underlying strengths of the british economy, and we are not complacent, we are here today, for me to announce nearly one billion of investment in high tech manufacturing an research to ensure that britain's businesses remain at the cutting—edge. that britain's businesses remain at the cutting-edge. after the beast from the east it appears as if the economy benefitted from a royal

wedding, amazing weather and a thrilling world cup. that allowed consumers to increase their spending. the latest figures from the official statics the 0ns show that in the three months to the end of up, gdp grew by 0. 4%, that is better than the 0.2% seen in the first quarter. consumer spending and construction were the main growth drivers between april and june. we were looking for a bounce in the second quarter after that first weak quarter but the bounce we got was small in our view, given the supportive factors you had, and that goes back the a weak underlying picture, you know, household spending growth has slowed a lot since 2016 because wale wages aren't rising. that least the bank of england raised the cost of borrowing to 0.70% and hinted the next rise will be next year. that is because the

economy is still quite weak and nobody knows how the brexit situation will play out and the impact that will the employers organisation, the cbi, is calling for a new immigration system to make sure businesses can still attract workers from the eu after brexit. it wants immigration targets to be scrapped; instead, it says people coming to the uk should be asked to prove they can make a positive contribution to the economy. matt cole reports. british agriculture needs 60,000 seasonal farm workers every year, just one reason the cbi says eu immigration matters. then there are nurses, software engineers, builders, architects, with that claim that they constitute between four and 30% of different sectors' workforces. so the government must abandon caps on numbers, but it recommends controls, limiting those without a job to a three—month stay, unless they are studying or financially independent. eu citizens will also have to register with the authorities

and would be limited to what in work benefits they can claim. the cbi also said companies must prioritise recruitment of british staff in areas with high unemployment. if in particular area an appointment is creeping up it feels wrong to have immigration creeping up on those areas. we should be able to control that and give priority to the local labour market, and we should be able to support communities with particular pressures by increased investment for example in hospitals and schools. the cbi says the current non—eu immigration system is too bureaucratic to work for the volume of european citizens needed. critics disagree, and insist firms haven't tried hard enough to recruit locally, but the cbi has support, although even supporters highlight the need to back british. we do need to prioritise people who are currently uk residents. obviously, you know, there are different approach is needed. people coming over is one approach but we need to make sure we are committed to upskilling our own people in this country as well.

the cbi admits there is a fine balance to be struck here. 0n the one hand, keeping enough access to labour to support the economy. 0n the other, keeping enough control to keep public trust and confidence. the government says the home office will publish its post—brexit immigration plans in due course, but it's promising there will be a system that works for the whole of the uk. matt cole, bbc news, at the home office. the chairman of british summer fruits, nick marston joins us from tunbridge wells. raised the cost do you agree with the cbi, that these target, immigration targets should be scrapped 7 these target, immigration targets should be scrapped? we comely endorse the entire position laid out by the cbi, there are three parts to it as far as the berry industry is concerned, a significant number of our supervisory managers and managers are from the european union, live here and work here, and obviously surety of their position is important, the second thing is we

have a major skills shortage in horticultural, farming has not been seen as an attractive career for many years and while again i agree we should upskill our own workforce, thatis we should upskill our own workforce, that is going to be the work of yea rs not that is going to be the work of years not a year or two, so we do need continued access to the european union, in terms of recruiting skilled workers to wok in park houses growing and so force, in addition the cbi mentioned the need for non—eea source schemes, and that is critical to us, the labour source supply is starting to dry up, there are fewer seasonal workers available, germany for instance has available, germany for instance has a scheme for 60,000 ukrainians alone, and that is vital we have that and that is part of the cbi's position. are you experiencing difficulties getting workers from the eu already and that is related to the fact they are put off by

brexit? there are several factors at play. there might have been a bit of a put off by brexit. the pound is weaker, the growers are paying more to attract people but the critical thing is unemployment in romania is falling rapidly, it was over 20% three years ago, it is now in single figures and few people want to do seasonal work in the whole of the currency union european union for so we need to look outside, to other country, every other country in the european union, with a serious horticultural industry already had those schemes in place, and i think it is incumbent on the government to alhour growers to compete on a level playing field and to have a similar scheme to others. soa scheme to others. so a seasonal agricultural scheme? yes, it is a permit - which yes, it is a permit scheme which allows people to come here, work in allows people to come here, work in a defined place for a defined period of time, and then go home, one

existed until 2012. it was very successful and it worked well, so will there is no reason it cannot be done and it isn't net migration, they come here, help us grow healthy crops for the nation on a very economical basis, and then they go home, so they are not immigrants. that scheme would still work after brexit, would it? it would certainly work after brexit, i mean it is needed now but it will be needed more in future, access to workers from the european union is also important, and the cbi have said that and we would endorse that as well. 0k, nick, thank you police in eastern canada say at least four people have been killed in a shooting in the city of fredericton. the incident is reported to have happened in a residential area — in the north of the city. one person has now been taken into police custody. time for a look at the weather.

tomasz is here. that picture says it all. different weather system, what has been happening here in the uk and across the continent, not necessarily linked but it does seem like now that the heat wave is over the rains keep come, even though the different weather systems that are bringing the rainfall are not linked it is kind of is, we have seen a very big shift in the atmosphere in the circulation in the last few days orso, the circulation in the last few days or so, the the circulation in the last few days orso, the air the circulation in the last few days or so, the air currents are coming off the atlantic, and that is why we are getting the cooler weather, interestingly, today, is the 15th anniversary of the highest temperature ever recorded in the uk, so that was back in 2003, on the 10th august, and it was 38.5 degrees andi

10th august, and it was 38.5 degrees and i guess the irony is we have had such a prolonged hot summer, and today, are experiencing some of the coolest, the lowest temperatures this summer. is that linked to what is going on in europe, we have been reporting on problems in france, is this linked? the storms we have had across france and germany. that is all because we have seen this transition from the heat wave to thele cooler air. when you get cooler air clashing with hot air you get energy released in the atmosphere and you get towering storms, so it is all part of this transition, it is what nature, nature wa nts transition, it is what nature, nature wants to each out the energy in the atmosphere, get this unusual, this wrong heat wave, this, you know, big anomaly in europe, get it out the way and get that cooler air to come in, but it is only the 10th august. summer is not over yet. that was going to be it. summer is not

over yet, we can quote you. technically summer runs to the third week in september. traditionally we still have potentially weeks of fine weather. let us not write it off yet. i hope you are right. off you go. let us see what is happening on the weather front for this weekend, and actually it is looking pretty changeable, so no surprise there. we will see the showers coming and going through the course of the weekend, so, you know if you have any plans be prepared to catch a bit of rainfall. so here is the satellite image, weather system, one here, coming off eastern canada, another close to our shores and we have up wills of cloud in the uk as bell but it is not raining everywhere, it is that mixed bag, with the sunny spells and showers and the winds i mentioned, there is air current, here they are, swinging in and temperatures are really struggling in some parts of the young, today, you know, low teens, at best in one or two is notes, so a

pretty cool day afzal amin that heat we have been used to. let us look at forecast then, this is more or less, round about now you can see some heavy showers in eastern parts of the country, the midlands and south—east have had heavy shower, the weather will improve, if you are looking through the window now, and you see the dark clouds, the chances are they will push away, we will see some clear blue skies and a clear night on the way. it will be colder, colder than last night. three or four degree, single figures in most major towns and city, here is saturday's forecast, more breeze coming in off the atlantic, more cloud and spots of rain, so starts off sunny, that is because the low pleasure is still out there, starts off sunny and fine, fine, fine, fine and chilly, then the clouds increase and chilly, then the clouds increase and we will get rain into the west country and wales, notice the temperatures are rising. saturday

will be warmer, we have humid air coming out the south—west, so it is going to feel more muggy, i think, tomorrow, but tomorrow, evening if you are out, be prepared to catch some rain, so take a brolly inin case, saturday into sunday, weather systems keep on moving through, the moment, sunday is forecast is looking a little bit uncertain, i don't want to write it off, i know there is a lot of blue on the map and a lot of rain fall and cloud but what is going to happen with the rain, it might come and go, you will get sunshine, and then maybe another bit of rain, some point during sunday, back in to the ‘20s, so, yes, i think classic, summer time weekend weather. 0n the way. that this is bbc news — our latest headlines. mike ashley's sports direct has struck a £90 million deal to buy house of fraser. the england cricketer, ben stokes, has admitted throwing several punches in an alleged brawl outside a nightclub in bristol last september. the durham all—rounder, who denies affray, also told the court during his second day

on the stand that he can't remember knocking the man out. 400 flights will not take off as planned today because of a strike by ryanair pilots. the walkout, by staff in ireland, germany, sweden, belgium and the netherlands, will affect 75,000 passengers. 1,600 people had to be rescued from campsites after flash floods hit the south of france. officials say a german man who was helping to supervise children at a summer camps is missing. sport now on afternoon live with holly. we are talking diving. 0lympic champions jack laugher and chris mears are going for gold in the 3 metre springboard final. that is right. back in the pool this afternoon — where great britain has been performing very well during these championships. we've had the final of the men's

synchronised 3m springboard with britain's most decorated diver jack laugher and chris mears — the two reigning 0lympic and commonwealth champions. they had been looking impressive — as you might expect — topiing the leaderboard after 5 dives but their final dive just wasn't good enough with gold going to russia — who were always their main competion in this event — the current world and european champions. so it's a silver for great britain and a third medalforjack laugher at these championships. in berlin, another athlete in medal contention — britain's katerina johnson—thompson is second in the women's heptathlon, with just one event left to go. but she's in a real battle with the world and olympic champion naffi thiam. johnson—thompson won the long jump earlier today, to pull further ahead. then came the javelin — kjt's weakest event — but she threw a personal best, in her bid to hold off thiam. however, the belgian came up with a championship record throw to win the event and put her into the overall lead.

well, jessica ennis—hill's former coach tony minichiello says it might be too much of an ask for kjt to win from here. before this competition she had never scored 6600 in a major championships that she is now looking likely to score over 6700 and the critical thing about 6600 is that score has never failed to put you on a world podium so the world championships and the olympics, she has improved to the point where she can wina has improved to the point where she can win a medal, but whether it is a god —— gold medal, there is a phenomenal athlete in thiam, who could finish in front of her. the heptathlon finishes tonight with the 800—metres at 720 — and you can watch it live on bbc 2. and now the cricket? remember back when we were complaining about the heatwave? business as normal at lord's where rain is disrupting play again

on day two of the second test between england and india. but the home side have been dominant in the eight overs they have managed so far today with jimmy anderson already taking two wickets. anderson struck in the first over of the day to remove murali vijay. he also then got india's other opener kl rahul caught behind forjust eight. but then the tourists gave away their third wicket with this awful run out. pujara stranded as 20—year—old debutant 0llie pope removed the bails to leave india struggling on 15 for 3 when the covers came back on at lord's. manchester united manager jose mourinho wasn't happy that they didn't manage to make any more signings in the transfer window but now it's closed, it's time for action — and united welcome leicester city to old trafford tonight in the first premier league game of the season. and after conceding that he'll have to work with the squad he's got, mourinho says the fans willjust have to be patient. i think by the end of november, december, you will see why, by then,

which teams are candidates to win the premier league. in this moment words are not important. let's play football and by the end of november, december, you don't need words. you will see which teams are candidates. johanna konta is out of the canadian open in montreal. she completed victory over victoria azarenka in a match delayed overnight because of rain. but she then lost in straight sets to the defending champion elina svitolina. that's all the sport for now. head over to the website for the latest from the european championships. and i'll have the latest in the next hour. you keep telling people to go and look at the website that they are watching this programme! thanks, holly. bit more of an update on house

of fraser: mike ashley who's the chief exec of sports direct has said, "this is a massive step forward and further enhances our strategy of elevation across the group. this will benefit both house of fraser and flannels in the luxury sector. we will do our best to keep as many stores open as possible. it is vital that we restore the right level of ongoing relationships with the luxury brands. 0ur deal was conservative, consistent and simple. my ambition is to transform house of fraser into the harrods of the high street". we will be talking to a restructuring expert about this issue later on at around three o'clock. more than 1,500 people — many of them campers — have been evacuated after powerful storms and flash floods hit the south of france. hundreds of police and firefighters

have been deployed. a 70—year—old german man — who was helping supervise children at a summer camp — is missing after his caravan was swept away. richard lister reports. after the heatwave, the deluge. there were marble—sized hail stones in south—eastern france, as thunderstorms rolled in. torrential rain turned drought—hit rivers into raging torrents. lapping at waterside houses, spilling over the road and causing chaos downstream. a string of campsites were quickly overwhelmed. the water moving through with such force, that possessions were swept away and buried. these german teenagers were in a campsite north of avignon when the flood came. they were among more than 100 people

who had to be rescued, most with only the clothes they were wearing. "we couldn't even take a suitcase", she said, "but the most important thing is that we are all 0k". later, though, it was discovered that a german man in his 70s was missing. the caravan he took refuge in had been swept away. more than 400 police and firemen fanned out to look for stranded holiday—makers and take them to safety. translation: the first thing did i was find people who were clinging to trees, especially the children. they had to be evacuated because some had hypothermia. even driving out of the area was difficult with roads flooded and closed. british holiday—makers were among those trying to get to somewhere drier today. the river which was just a very shallow river the day before, that our children were paddling in, in just a few hours turned into a raging torrential winter river.

we hope people are ok, we are fine and very lucky. it was an abrupt and frightening finish to the holiday season for many here. this family's tents were ruined. but the deluge in surrounding towns and villages caused damage here, too, and left people trapped inside. in ardeche, streets churned with dangerous floodwater, engulfing cars and everything else in its path. the wind, rain and hail damaged roofs, broke windows and flooded basement. a violent end to a long, hot summer. richard lister, bbc news. from one extreme to another. parts of australia are trying to cope with the worst drought in living memory. a warm, dry winter has left many outback farmers in new south wales struggling to survive, and little rain is expected in the months ahead. 0ur correspondent, phil mercer, sent this report from gunnedah, about 260 miles north of sydney. it's been two years since decent

rains fell here, but this farming family is determined to beat the drought. keeping its beef herd alive is exhausting and expensive. crops have failed and the monthly food bill is £25,000. it's a daily grind that is taking its toll. everyone is stressed, under more pressure financially and therefore you are stressed and stressed in your relationships, and just trying to keep it together. we can see that our seasons are no longer what we would call normal. we have had the lowest rainfall in 116 years of recording, so this is the worst. this should be some of australia's prime agricultural land. in good times, these fields would have crops up to your knees, butjust look at it now. the earth is bone dry and barren, and many farming communities are struggling like never before, as the big dry in eastern

australia strengthens its grip. the lack of rain has dramatically altered the landscape. all of new south wales is now officially in drought. for many it's a disaster. this small town is in the heart of the drought zone. at the local school the children are farming families and share the sense of pain and uncertainty. you can sense that sorrow in their voices when we're talking about home and the farmers at the moment. it is pretty heartbreaking for them to watch their stock slowly but surely starve in front of them. pretty stressful for me. i do a lot of study so i wake up earlier, go to bed later, to keep on top of that, keep working on the farm, so everything gets done and the cows are looked after. the money is held very tightly. we're not spending it on unnecessary things. we're making sure we are counting every dollar we spend. australia's climate can be cruel.

it can turn fertile ground into a wasteland. the government is helping with money but what is really needed is rain, lots of it, but the forecast for the months ahead doesn't look good. phil mercer, bbc news, near gunnedah, in new south wales. alice is here — in a moment she will be telling us what's hot and what's not in the business news. first a look at the headlines on afternoon live. 15,000 staff are waiting to hear what the future holds for them after sports direct owner mike ashley buys the troubled house of fraser. cricketer ben stokes has finished giving evidence at his affray trial — he admitted being involved in a fight, but said he was acting in self defence. heavy floods force the evacuation of more than 1,600 people in south—eastern france — one man is missing after being swept away. here's your business headlines on afternoon live. the summer heatwave

and england's world cup run helped the uk economy grow by 0.4% in the second quarter. there was also a boost from strongerfigures in construction and services. those gdp numbers have had little effect on sterling, which has fallen below 1.28 against the dollar for the first time in more than year, as those doubts over a no—deal on brexit keep investors concerned. and a massive data breach at butlins. the holiday firm says up to 34,000 guests at their resorts may have had their personal information stolen by hackers. butlin's says it's set up a "dedicated team" to contact guests who may have been affected. so alice it looks like the tensions between the united states and russia are rising in this ongoing tariffs spat? yes — earlier this week, washington said it would place more sanctions on moscow.

now russia has warned the united states it would regard any american move to curb the activities of its banks as a declaration of economic war which it would retaliate against. it is having an immediate effect on the russian economy. after the sanctions were imposed yeserday, it sent the russian rouble to its lowest levels since novemeber 2016. that will hurt ordinary russians on the ground. joining us now from new york is our north american business correspondent paul blake. what specifically are the russians worried about? you will remember that russians have been trying to make warmer relations with the us but the us this week has imposed new sanctions over the poisoning of the skripals. we are talking about a new bill passing through congress and that has drawn the anger of the russian prime minister, the bill would it

sanctions on state—owned banks in russia and also new limits on using the us dollar if it was to be passed. dmitry medvedev has said that if it passes that would a map to economic warfare. —— that would amount to. what are they threatening to retaliate? dmitry medvedev has said he would look at economic and political and other means as a form of retaliation and you have to remember that any of these moves potentially has some level of blowback on the us economy as well is on the russian economy so there will be a level of concern from russian officials that any retaliation could lead to russian consumers having access to less goods and the russian currency falling further against the dollar which would hurt the average russian and so they will be looking at various options. what they will actually be able to do is up in the

airforfear actually be able to do is up in the air for fear of blowback on the russian economy. what happens next? the bill is making its way through the us congress but congress is on summer recess until september so it would be considered until they are back. congressionalaides would be considered until they are back. congressional aides are telling reuters that as a wholesale passage the bit was not like —— the bill is not likely to go through but it might go through in part. so look for bits of it to make their way into other parts of legislation potentially putting more pressure on the russian economy. yes, big companies are affected, big banks. paul, thanks forjoining us. so sports direct have bought house of fraser,

give us some more details. yes — mike ashley's sports direct is to buy the ailing department store chain house of fraser. mike ashley is said he is going to try and turn it into the harrods of the high street. i wonder what that means! sports direct will pay £90m for house of fraser. sport direct already owned 11% of the retailer — but will now take full control. that means it will take over all 59 stores. joining us now from our westminister studio is andrew dalton,

who's an director at begbies traynor. is mike ashley going to regret saying that he did turn house of fraser into the harrods of the high street? it is very interesting he wants to take house of fraser slightly upmarket and i believe he is looking to inject some of the additional brands he has got into two hull that happen. —— to help make that happen. he will need the help of the concession partners that exist at the house of fraser and they will be discussions ongoing on an urgent basis to secure that. —— there will be. sports direct already owned a percentage of house of fraser, was it always inevitable they were going to try to come in and take over the rest? it was not inevitable. as you know until very re ce ntly

inevitable. as you know until very recently there was a deal lined up with chinese investors who own a large part of hamleys and identity was large part of hamleys and identity was inevitable, no. —— i don't think it was inevitable. what happens to the employees at house of fraser? what can they expect? what has happened, the limited company house of fraser and house of fraser stores omitted have been placed into administration and the ministrations have sold the business and assets of those companies to sports direct —— administration is. what that means for employees is that their contracts of employment automatically transfer to the buyer and their rights and remedies remain in full but what is yet to be clear andl in full but what is yet to be clear and i know mike ashley has raised a statement saying they are looking to get as many stores open as possible, but what is yet to be clear is whether the 31 stores that were

identified for closure will still be closed. this is an ongoing story, isn't it? thanks forjoining us. the markets? department store debenhams has been given a boost by the sports direct deal for house of fraser, with its share price up 2% at 11.76p. and as you can see sterling is still down on the day after those gdp results. it fell below 1.28 against the dollar for the first time in a year. thanks forjoining us. the famous bristol balloon fiesta is well underway. it's the 40th time the event's been held — but those expecting to see the skies full of colourful balloons this morning were left disappointed as rain meant the planned mass ascent had to be cancelled. rosie blunt reports from bristol.

burning up the night sky, lumen ate ambient and dancing, this was a special celebration to mark 40 years of the annual bristol balloon fiesta. the biggest in europe. of the annual bristol balloon fiesta. the biggest in europem did isa fiesta. the biggest in europem did is a magicalfeeling having this heat above my head as it lights up this huge colourful balloon above me. earlier not such graceful scenes as organisers battled winds to get their balloons inflated. but rupert their balloons inflated. but rupert the bear and >> studio: was rescued after being buried in a field for the last 15 years and just about managed to make it into the air to wave to the ground. we can member saying that going over our house when we were small children so that is something we have not seen. one of the things is that we decided in those early days that we wanted to make it a free event for the people of bristol and we have managed to hold it to that for 40 years. i hope

we can continue. today there will be further celebrations to mark the anniversary. this really is quite an incredible feeling. floating up above the ground. being surrounded by these amazing balloons of all different shapes and sizes, we have a great view of this over here. everyone below me is getting smaller and smaller as we float up into the sky. so exciting. rosie blunt, bbc news, bristol. the weather is letting them down, but what about the rest of us? here's tomas. it feels like summer has come to an abrupt end, it is fairly cool and it has been raining, very changeable weather. the weekend will remain changeable and this evening will turn quite cold and we have a nippy night on the way. the atlantic is adding very active at the moment, one weather system coming out of

north america and another one in the north america and another one in the north atlantic —— the atlantic is looking very active stock these weather systems will come in off the atla ntic weather systems will come in off the atlantic over the course of today and into the weekend and this is where the wind will be coming from, at times breezy and cool. today temperatures will peak in the high teens and 20s in the south but for many it is the mid—teens. lots of showers around and maybe even a few more than we were expecting. this evening turns clear so starry skies. very nippy in the countryside could be as low as four, even in london barely double figures, so we will be waking up to sunny but cold weather. there's a weather front approaching on saturday but ahead of that much the country is in the clear, so first thing in the morning on saturday it is looking beautiful across the uk, cold but sunny, and then the cloud increases of the

atla ntic then the cloud increases of the atlantic and we will see some rain reaching the west country and wales by the time we get to the afternoon but for many in the east and north it is not looking bad at all on saturday and it will feel a bit warmer because there will be more sunshine but if you are out saturday night expect the cloud to increase across the country and saturday night most of us will see a bit of rain here and there. as we go to the course of the weekend, saturday into sunday, the low pressure is over us and that means we will see outbreaks of rain spreading across the country so pretty unsettled and i think sunday on the way. winds coming from the a southerly component, that means the temperatures will rise and it will feel a bit more humid, so plan miss back into the 20s quite widely across the uk. —— temperatures back into the 20s. temperatures rising in the south for next week but generally it is a mixed bag. hello, you're watching

afternoon live — i'm simon mccoy. today at three. high street rescue. mike ashley's sports direct has bought house of fraser for £90 million — but what it means for 16,000 staff is still unclear. i think we are trying to keep each up, we are trying to stay motivated and hope for a good outcome. we hope they will find a solution, finally. it's not finished yet. england cricketer ben stokes has said he can't remember knocking out a man, but did throw several punches, during his affray trial. staying firmly on the ground: ryanair pilots strike in five european countries — bringing travel misery for thousands at the height of the holiday season hundreds of holiday—makers — including many in campsites — are evacuated as flash floods hit the south of france coming up on afternoon live, all the sport. that is with holly. jack laugher an

chris mears will have to settle for silver, meanwhile it is a case of staying out of the water for england's cricketers as rain stops play once again at lord's. the weather will be better and i will have the weekend forecast. also coming up. there's a lot of hot air in bristol. the annual balloon fiesta is under way — and it's celebrating its 40th anniversary. hello everyone, this is afternoon live. i'm simon mccoy. mike ashley's sports direct has agreed a deal to rescue the department store chain, house of fraser — within hours of it going into administration.

sports direct are paying 90 million pounds to buy the business — but there's confusion over what it will mean for the 16,000 people who work there — staff waiting to find out what mr ashley plans to do with the 59 house of fraser stores that are now his. here's our business correspondent, rob young. house of fraser has a long, proud history. it started in glasgow in 1849 and has been on the high—street ever since. but early this morning, the company collapsed into administration. it is the biggest shock to british retail in over a decade. just yesterday, house of fraser warned it needed an injection of cash within ten days. the rescue deal with the owner of hamleys fell through last week leaving the chain in a precarious state. within hours of the collapse this morning, the controversial tycoon mike ashley swooped. i have been to the casino. sports direct has bought substantially all of house of fraser, for £90 million. before tha the owned about a tenth of that.

despite its troubles, there are loyal calum fraser customers. we have been here since the 70s, you can't have everything. very shocked. can't believe it could have happened to such a famous name in glasgow. it is a nice shop but it is like a lot of these shops with the franchise, they are obviously not getting the sales any more. stores were closed for time this morning while staff were being briefed on the fast moving developments. it is an uncertain time for the company's17,000 workers. i don't really have an understanding of it yet, it has not been explained to us at all. there was a meeting so we will be out of that meeting, there was a meeting so we will be at that meeting, and i don't really know much about the situation. i think we're just all trying to keep each other up and stay motivated.

and just hope for a good outcome. we hope they will find some solution. finally, you know, nothing is finished yet. but christmas is coming, maybe it's going to be a christmas surprise. sports direct is keeping us waiting. it has not revealed anything about its plans for house of fraser. the administration has said today's deal preserves as many of the jobs as possible but it hasn't said how many. there are at stores nationwide, before the compa ny‘s there are at stores nationwide, before the company's collapse there was a plan to close 31 of them. it is unclear if that will still happen. i would guess, and i don't have any of inside information, he would probably continue the reduction by a round about half. he will look at the stores and the sales per square that and pick the ones who have the highest sales. it's been a terrible few years for the high streets. either branches shutting all brands going to the wall entirely, down to a toxic cocktail of circumstances, unaffordable rent, business rates and cash strapped shops. 0thers

others have gone under in recent yea rs. house of fraser is the latest and biggest casualty of them all. but unlike the others, it will survive in some form. let's speak with simon bonney, a structuring expert from the business advisory firm quantuma. so, this was, well it was all a bit sud. it went intoed a my opinion strange and suddenly, a couple of hours later, a knight in shining armour is that the perception? yes, it isa armour is that the perception? yes, it is a normal perception, what will have happened is there will have been a period of preparation, a period of negotiation and then, the administration is the process by which you can sell the business without selling the creditors as well. are there eyebrows being raised at the timing of this? well. are there eyebrows being raised at the timing of thi57m well. are there eyebrows being raised at the timing of this? it is up raised at the timing of this? it is up pricing not long ago the company went into a voluntary arrangement and there was going to be money

placed in, and a month latert company has gone into administration and a lot of creditors are left without their money. and they won't get that back. they may get back a very small amount but unlikely they will see much. what about staff who will see much. what about staff who will have their issues as to what it means for them. in the last few minute, we have heard from mike ashley who says he wants to turn house of fraser into the harrods of the high street. i think the problem, the challenge is that house of fraser is one of those department stores that i think lost its identity, and i assume what he means is he is trying to take a business which lost its identity, lost its brand, not many people recognise what it is for and hopefully develop something people can identify. he has a brand which might fit that particular market. indeed. the challenge now, is going to be what house of fraser was can compared to what it will be turned into, because it must be that shops are being

closed and there is a risk of... we have a sense of deja vu in terms of the bhs debacle, and pensions and that, is that bought out by a deal like this? no, i mean, i don't know exactly what the pension position is, but the reason that the company has gone into administration, is so to the purchaser can buy what they want, without taking on all the liabilities. and so the pension will be something that needs to be dealt with, within the administration. there may be commitment within the purchase, to deal with it, but that is not clear at moment. the fact that mike ashley owned 11% of house of fraser and he owns other store, other brands, is that seen as a positive sign, he knows what he is doing? i absolutely agree, ithink, i think that the, one of the positives that comes out of this, is that a lot is said about mike ashley and sports direct but one thing we

know is that he has a run a successful business, whatever business that maybe it has been profitable. it is good for the staff, the employees because hopefully it is being run by a team who know how to have a successful business and keep people injobs. finally, what does he owe the staff? they are going, they wonder whether he rebrands it as, they suddenly are working for sports direct or he says i want you to work for flannels, he holds all the cards as far as they are concerned. let us be clear, this isa are concerned. let us be clear, this is a business that has failed, and now, work has to be done to convert it into something that can hopefully go on to successful, and keep lots of people in employment. so, he has to do something. ok. great to talk to do something. ok. great to talk to you. the england cricketer ben stokes has told his trial he can't remember knocking out a man in an alleged brawl outside a bristol

nightclub last september. stokes, who denies affray, did admit to throwing several punches. 0ur correspondent andy moore is at the trial at bristol crown court. he told me that stokes felt under threat, and told the court he was acting in self defence. well, ben stokes's defence has been that yes, he was involved in this fight, but he was acting in self—defence, and he was acting to protect two gay men the subject of homophobic abuse, so he was asked about when he threw this punch, he was asked by the prosecutor you punched the man full force in the face, surely you can remember that? and ben stokes said he simply remembers that the man was a threat, he couldn't remember anything else. he was asked why he couldn't remember, he was asked about his drinking, ben stokes admitted he had about ten drinks, on top of that he may have had a couple of jagerbombs, he was shown video evidence where he is accused of flicking a cigarette but in the face of a gay man and ben stokes said he could see he motioned but he wasn't sure what was happening. he was also asked about

the details of the homophobic abuse, that these men had been subjected to, and he said he couldn't remember any specific words. so there was an interesting exchange at the end of the morning proceedings when the prosecution said your real attitude was i am going to show you what real violence is, i will punish you and and hit you. ben stokes said no, he was asked again, is it what we see on the footage, an angry man who has lost all control again stokes replied absolutely not. so he has finished giving evidence and this afternoon we are due to hear from ryan ali the man he is accused of hitting, also involved in this fight, also thousands of air passengers across europe are suffering disruption as some ryanair pilots and staff stage a 24—hour strike over pay and conditions. around 400 flights — up to 100 of them to and from the uk — have been cancelled in the budget airline's biggest ever walk—out.

gavin lee reports the no—frills airline, with no flights out of one of europe's busiest airports today. at frankfurt the message for passengers was clear, and the same for berlin today, with 250 flights grounded in germany and another 150 cancellations in ireland, sweden, and here in belgium as well. ryanair is the second—biggest airline in europe, and usually during summer budget airlines like this have queues snaking through the airports, but 80% of the flights to and from belgium have been cancelled, according to the unions. ryanair says it has texted or e—mailed up to 75,000 people so they don't come here today wondering whether their flight is on. bride—to—be laura and her best friend claire from barrow in furness were due to fly with ryanair from manchester with 14 friends for a hen party in germany and they have had to cancel their plans. they didn't offer us anything.

it said in the e—mail there were a few things you could do, but really with a group of 16 us it is really difficult to try to get something organised, so we have to either try to find another flight around the days, but there weren't any, or book our own, but it is just too expensive. at the heart of it, the european pilots are asking for better pay and requesting their contacts be governed by the laws of the nation where they are based, not by irish legislation. all these people, their daily life is based around belgium — travelling to dublin, just for a claim, a problem, an issue, especially when you have to deal then with legislation not familiar to you, not in the country you live in where you can be defended. it's a nightmare, basically. ryanair has described the strike is regrettable and unjustified, claiming their pilots are among the best paid in the budget airline market, and who in their view have the least reason to complain. gavin lee, bbc news. 0ur correspondent leigh milner has more for us from stansted.

and it is affecting travellers here obviously. . it certainly is, yes, i have just been told that the check—in desks funnily enough are very very quiet for ryanair as 14 flights have been cancelled due to the strikes affecting more than 2,500 passengers but if you are a passenger with ryanair that won't come as a surprise, as tens of thousands have had their flights cancelled or delays and believe it or not, there are so many people stranded across the globe, still waiting to get home, including terry fowler who is currently in budapest. still stuck in budapest airport, two days after ryanair let us down, with no explore nation, just cancelled the flight. spent a day on the phone to them, trying to get hold of them for them to like hang up on us, not even give us a flight home, and they said they couldn't get us home to

the weekend so we have had no other option but to book with another airline. it has been a bit of a disaster for rare rankings airline. it has been a bit of a disasterfor rare rankings it airline. it has been a bit of a disaster for rare rankings it has been a tough week, it started a couple of weeks back with pilots in ireland going on strike, on tuesday ryanair decided to ireland going on strike, on tuesday rya nair decided to cancel ireland going on strike, on tuesday ryanair decided to cancel some flights because of a predicted thunderstorm, this had a knock—on effect on passengers who came the next morning to rebook their flights and that were queueing for our, what is happening is the biggest co—ed or nighted strike by ryanair pilots in five different country, the main dispute about pay and conditions. but it was only recently really that ryanair actually but it was only recently really that rya nair actually recognised unions here in the uk, and there have been a few meetings going on at stansted with the staff and pilots, so this really will not be the end probably of disruption for ryanair or sta nsted of disruption for ryanair or stansted but of disruption for ryanair or sta nsted but i of disruption for ryanair or stansted but i think the main question here, is do people still have a lot of trust in this airline,

i have been to harlow to find out. no, i don't at all. i just don't like the service. why not? the booking on line is terrible, your booking online check—in, they're always cancelled, i just don't trust them. this summer we've had disruptions constantly. my son's recently returned, they had a five hour delay. they've actually tried to claim under the eu law and they've turned round and said it's not their fault. next time you book a flight will you go to ryanair? no, we'll be moving on to eastjet and jet2, thank you. as you can imagine ryanair has been vocal on social media, they say they apologise to customers for the disruption, these unnecessary strikes will cause, however, they are still digging their heels with a. compensation side of thing, they say that passengers can either opt for a refund or possibly have another flight free of charge. but if you are travelling with ryanair and you have been affected by these strikes here is useful information,

the civil aviation authority, which regulates ryanair the civil aviation authority, which regulates rya nair in the civil aviation authority, which regulates ryanair in the uk is advising anyone caught up with the strike they can apply for compensation, because the strike was called at such you're watching afternoon live, these are our headlines ben stokes has finished giving evidence at his trial for affray. he said he was acting in self—defence. a muslim convert has admitted plotting to kill people outside the disney store in london's 0xford street, more on that in a moment. in sport we are back in the pool at the european championships, and british pairjack laugher and chris mere they missed out on gold after leading the final of the men's

synchronised three metre springboard. katrina jopson thompson is on the hunt in the heptathlon. it wasn't enough to beat her nearest rival. it puts her in second place ahead of the 800 metres. and james anderson led the way as england put india in big trouble on a stop start second day in the rain ravaged lord's test after a first day wash out. joe root chose to bowl under cloud cover while rain stopped play. i will be back with more on those stories at a muslim convert who plotted to carry out a terror attack in central london, in which he hoped to kill dozens of people, has pleaded guilty to terrorism charges. 26—year—old lewis ludlow, from rochester admitted to raising money for terrorist purposes and plotting attacks. he will be sentenced next month let us talk to our correspondent,

because he has admitted this offence and please police had found out what his targets, potential targets could have been. this is quite a sudden change because we had expected him to go to trial later this year for this very serious allegation, but this very serious allegation, but this afternoon at the old bailey he suddenly entering a plea to guilty to preparation of an act of terrorism, what he did as part of that was he swore an oath of allegiance to the is terrorism group to its leader, in syria, he wrote out an attack plan, he carried out reconnaissance of targets in london and researched van rental, for what was going to be a. whering attack. what we know from the evidence in the pretrial phase of this, was that lewis ludlow had been involved with the jailed preacher for some years and he has been questioned about his involvement with him. there was suggestion that ludlow, who used the name ali hussein had thought about going to syria but discounted that

and decided he wasn't going to go, there was no specific allegation to calm him with that, he turned his attention to the uk and began planning an attack in march of this year, how he went about that that was he came into london, researched whether there was a police station in oxford street, when he decided there wasn't he came to oxford street, took a picture of oxford circus london underground station a few hundred yards from here, went from there to the disney store which is very popular on 0xford from there to the disney store which is very popular on oxford street further down, took a picture there and he went from there, to madame tussauds waxwork, so it is not clear what his target was but he had written notes and when police searched his home they found torn up notes which suggested the extent of his planning so the first note listed the targets but also said crowded london areas long road with no bollards or barriers preventing a

van mounting the pavement busiest time between 11 and midday, saturdays the busiest, he talks about how that would be ripe for an attack, he said it is expected nearly 100 could be killed. he mentioned staying the night before in the area, and van rental. he tried to cover his tracks by throwing his phone away but police managed to recover that and recover the data off it. they found a lot his planning hidden in an app, and critically they found a slightly bizarre video where he is hooded and making an oath of allegiance to the is group in syria, that was part of the key evidence against him. he was also accused of plotting to alternatively go to philippines to joinjihadist alternatively go to philippines to join jihadist fighters there, this has been an emerging theme among some brit, he denied that charge

today, and prosecutes decided to lie that on file because he admitted the more serious charge. the crown prosecution service said he is a serious danger to the public. he will be stepsed on 2nd november. he previously known to police, wasn't he, they tried to put him on a deradicalisation programme. this is interesting, we get to see some of the workings behind the scene, what has happened is that the police are very closely focussing their attention on people who are close to awem attention on people who are close to anjem choudhry before his was jailed and his network. the network was banned, there was an attempt to ban it byjailing some of the key leaders, so offends which were proven in court. ludlow was questioned in relation to his activities with that group and ewas seen on demonstrations near to anjem choudhry, you will see on a meeting where he was close to one of the killers of fusilier lee rigby in

2013 and other well—known treatment mist, he didn't answer questions when he was asked about it and officers is tried to put him on the official prevent deradicalisation scheme. he was offered a mentor, a typical process to get someone to talk about their views and challenge their ideology, he appears to have not moved on from there, what, this is one of those cases where they have tried the prevent route. it failed so they have thrown the deebbing techtive resources thinking if he is not going to move away from potential terrorism we have to do what we can to bring him to justice. and it has four people, including two police officers, have been killed in a shooting in the eastern canadian city of fredericton. the incident is reported to have happened in a residential area — in the north of the city. one person has now been taken into police custody. new figures show the recent

warm weather has given the uk economy a boost — with growth of 0.4% in the second quarter of the year. economists say both retail sales and construction were helped by the sunshine and high temperatures. it's an improvement on the first three months of the year, where growth slumped amid the cold weather brought in by the beast from the east. robert wiley runs a crop spraying business in lincolnshire. he had problems getting staff in to work in the winter as the beast from the east blew through the uk. since then, a weak pound and good products mean his exports have boomed. we have been able to expand on the site. we are making the site fit for purpose for going forward, because we see whatever happens with brexit, we export 40% of product, round the world, to many different countries, and so we have people wanting our product. and the improved growth figures were welcomed by the chancellor at the launch of a new government fund for technology. we're pleased to see a recovery of the economy in the second quarter, a robust growth figure which points to the underlying strengths

of the british economy, and we are not complacent, we are here today, for me to announce nearly £1 billion of new investment in high tech manufacturing and research to ensure that britain's businesses remain at the cutting—edge. after the beast from the east it appears as if the economy benefitted from a royal wedding, amazing weather and a thrilling world cup. that allowed consumers to increase their spending. the latest figures from the official statics, the 0ns, show that in the three months to the end of up, gdp grew by 0.4%, that is better than the meagre 0.2% seen in the first quarter. consumer spending and construction were the main growth drivers between april and june. we were looking for a bounce in the second quarter after that first weak quarter with the snow, but the bounce we got was small in our view, given the supportive factors you had, and that goes back

to a weak underlying picture, you know, household spending growth has slowed a lot since 2016 because real wages aren't rising. people don't feel richer so they're not growing their spending. last week the bank of england raised the cost of borrowing to 0.70% and hinted the next rise will be next year. that is because the economy is still quite weak and nobody knows how the brexit situation will play out and the impact that will have on the economy. we are hearing that the white house says the united states strongly condemned russia's use of keptical weapon, this reference to the novichock nerve agent attack on script vip script in salisbury, the white house calls the attack a

reckless display of contempt for the held norm against chemical weapon, the significance of this so far we have heard nothing from donald trump or indeed the white house, it was it was decided to increase sanctions against russia, the us state department saying it had been determined that russia had used them in violation of international law and the sanctions were brought in at the time, donald trump and the white house said nothing, the united kingdom foreign secretaryjeremy hunt thanked the us in a tweet, he said nerve agents and other horrific weapons must not become a new norm and states that use them need to know there is a price to pay. yesterday, donald trump sent a letter to vladimir putin, no—one knows what was inside that letter, but this will further push tensions between the two countries as the

white house say, the us strongly condemns russia's use of chemical weapon, much more and we will have reaction from police have named the 9—year—old girl who was killed by a rock fall on the north yorkshire coast on wednesday. harriet forster — from oxford — was visiting the village of staithes with her family when the accident happened. they have described her as "the light of our lives". more than one and a half thousand people , many of them campers , have been evacuated after powerful storms and flash floods hit the south of france. hundreds of police and firefighters have been deployed. a 70—year—old german man , who was helping supervise children at a summer camp, is missing after his caravan was swept away. richard lister reports. after the heatwave the deluge, there we re after the heatwave the deluge, there were marble sized hail so stones as

thunderstorms rolled in. treason shall rain turned drought hit rivers into raging torrents. lapping at water side house, spilling over the road, and causing chaos downstream. a string of campsites were quickly overwhelmed, the water moving through with such force that possessions were swept away and buried. these german teenagers were in a campsite north of avenue none when the flood came. they were among more than 100 people who had to be rescued, most with only the clothes they were wearing. we count take a suitcase she said but the most important thing is that we are all 0k. later though, it was discovered that a german man in his 70s was missing. the caravan he took refuge in had been swept away. more than 400 police and firemen

fanned out to look for stranded holiday—maker, and take them to safety. the first thing i did was to find people clinging to tree, especially the children. they had to be evacuated because some had hypothermia. even driving out the area was difficult with roads flooded and close, british holiday—makers were aamong those trying to get to somewhere drier today. the river which was just trying to get to somewhere drier today. the river which wasjust a very shallow river the day before that our children were paddling in, inafew that our children were paddling in, in a few hours turned into a raging torrential winter river, so really hoping that people are ok, we are absolutely fine and very lucky. hoping that people are ok, we are absolutely fine and very luckym was a frightening finish to the holiday season for many here, this family's tents were ruined. but the deluge in towns and villages caused damage here and left people trapped inside. streets churned with

dangerous floodwater, engulfing cars and anything else in its path. the wind rain and hail damaged roofs, broke windows and flooded basements, a violent end to a long hot the clouds keep roll offing bringing rain. the weekend is looking very changeable and this very much applies to today's weathers well so some of us have the sunshine, others have a spell of heavy rain, so it will be chopping and changing for the rest of the afternoon and into the rest of the afternoon and into the evening, a cool day, most of us in the mid or high teens, clear this evening and really chilly, this coming night is going to be colder than last night, in some rural spot, temperatures could be down to three orfour temperatures could be down to three or four degrees temperatures could be down to three orfour degrees in the north, london round ten, the warmest spot there 12 in plymouth. tomorrow, starts off

nippy and glorious with sunshine, but quickly the clouds are going to increase and we are going to see skies turning hazier and hazier in western areas with rain in wales and the west country, looks like the east coast will hang on to the sunshine and then sunday looks like it will bring cloud and this is bbc news — our latest headlines. mike ashley's sports direct has struck a £90 million deal to buy house of fraser. the england cricketer, ben stokes, has admitted throwing several punches in an alleged brawl outside a nightclub in bristol last september. the durham all—rounder, who denies affray, also told the court during his second day on the stand that he can't remember knocking the man out. 400 flights will not take off as planned today because of a strike by ryanair pilots. the walkout, by staff in ireland, germany, sweden, belgium and the netherlands, will affect 75,000 passengers. the white house has strongly

condemned russia's use of chemical weapons, calling the attack against a former russian agent in britain a "reckless display of contempt for the universally held norm against chemical weapons". 1600 people had to be rescued from campsites after flash floods hit the south of france. officials say a german man who was helping to supervise children at a summer camps is missing. sport now on afternoon live with holly. more medalis in the diving pool — but not maybe the one we were expecting. absolutely. back in the pool this afternoon — where great britain has been performing very well during these championships. we've had the final of the men's synchronised 3m springboard with britain's most decorated diver jack laugher and his synchro partner chris mears —

the two reigning 0lympic and commonwealth champions. they had been looking impressive — as you might expect — topping the leaderboard after 5 dives but their final dive just wasn't strong enough which meant the gold went to russia — who were always going to be their main competition in this event — the current world and european champions. so it's a silver for great britain and a third medalforjack laugher at these championships. over in berlin, another british athlete in medal contention — katerina johnson—thompson is currently second in the women's heptathlon, with just one event left to go. she's in a real battle with the world and olympic champion naffi thiam. johnson—thompson won the long jump earlier today, to pull further ahead. then came the javelin — which is kjt's weakest event — but she threw a personal best, in her bid to hold off thiam. however, the belgian came up with a championship record throw to win the event and put her into the overall lead. well, jessica ennis—hill's former coach tony minichiello says it might be too much of an ask for kjt to win from here. before this competition she had

never scored 6600 in a major championships — she is now looking likely to score over 6700. the critical thing about 6600 is that score has never failed to put you on a world podium. ao the world championships and the olympics, she has improved to the point where she can win a medal, but whether it is a to be beaten first. gold medal, there is a phenomenal athlete in thiam, the heptathlon finishes tonight with the 800—metres at 720 — and you can watch it live on bbc 2. what about the cricket? it has been

very disruptive today. i miss the days we were complaining about the heateave — it feels like business as normal at lord's where rain is disrupting play again on day two of the second test between england and india. but the home side have been dominant in the eight overs they have managed so far today with jimmy anderson already taking two wickets. anderson struck in the first over of the day to remove murali vijay. he also then got india's other opener kl rahul caught behind forjust eight. but then the tourists gave away their third wicket with this awful run out. pujara stranded as 20—year—old debutant 0llie pope removed the bails to leave india struggling on 15 for 3 when the covers came back on at lord's. rain stopped play again about an hour and a half ago. it looked like the covers might be coming soon so we will keep you posted through the afternoon. manchester united manager jose mourinho wasn't happy that they didn't manage to make any more signings in the transfer window but now it's closed, it's time for action — and united welcome leicester city to old trafford tonight in the first premier league game of the season. and after conceding that he'll have to work with the squad he's got, mourinho says the fans willjust

have to be patient. i think by the end of november, december, you will see why, by then, which teams are candidates to win the premier league. in this moment words are not important. let's play football and by the end of november, december, you don't need words. you will see which teams are candidates. there was a late burst of activity on transfer deadline day but nothing came close to the excitement of santi cazorla's presentation at villareal. the ex—arsenal player's return to the spanish club was marked by an extravagant magic trick on the pitch, as shown on their tv channel. cazorla came through the youth ranks at villareal and said he felt he was home — although presumably we can expect a rather more conventional entrance on match days.

i think the programme should start with you entering like that! studio studio: i think we will need a bigger dome that it spice was once a so—called legal high, but it's been illegal since 2016. that hasn't stopped the spread of it's use — especially among the homeless — and the sight of people in a trance after taking it has become increasingly common in towns and cities. abbiejones has been looking at schemes to help spice users in manchester. 11am in the centre of manchester and two women are lying apparently high on drugs in a pub doorway. these guys are definitely on spice. i can see it, being on the streets, working here every day. damian and his boss mick run a homeless outreach project. they know the addicts and the dealers, and the tell—tale signs somebody has taken spice.

how often have you taken it? five, six times a day. five or six times a day, you're taking spice? testament to the growing problem, greater manchester police is now the only force in the uk to have a state—of—the—art machine that can test for spice in 15 minutes. it used to take six weeks. developed with manchester metropolitan university, the machine is so new it's not even patented. it gives us the ability withing 20 minutes, half an hour, to get information to the paramedics and ourselves on the front line. what about prevention? there are operations going on at the moment, and we're looking at all levels of criminality, not just the street dealers. those are the ones who are approaching persons and selling all manners of drugs, but these are the ones actually manufacturing and bringing this evil drug onto the streets. manchester city council says it is carrying out extensive outreach work to get people off spice, increasing supported accommodation and using civil injunctions and criminal behaviour orders to stop begging. abbie jones, bbc news.

citizens advice has urged the government to slow down the roll—out of smart meters in england, scotland and wales — after receiving thousands of complaints. the charity says some customers have reported aggressive sales practices, while others have complained the meters don't work properly when they switch energy suppliers. the government says it remains committed to the current timetable. parts of australia are trying to cope with the worst drought in living memory. a warm, dry winter has left many outback farmers in new south wales struggling to survive, and little rain is expected in the months ahead. 0ur correspondent, phil mercer, sent this report from gunnedah, about 260 miles north of sydney. it's been two years since decent rains fell here, but this farming family is determined to beat the drought. keeping its beef herd alive is exhausting and expensive. crops have failed and the monthly food bill is £25,000. a daily grind taking its toll. everyone is a bit stressed,

under more pressure financially and therefore you are stressed in your own relationships, and just trying to keep it together. we can see that our seasons are no longer what we would call normal. we have had the lowest rainfall in 116 years of recording, so this is the worst. this should be some of australia's prime agricultural land. in good times, these fields would have crops up to your knees, butjust look at it now. the earth is bone dry and barren, and many farming communities are struggling like never before, as the big dry in eastern australia strengthens its grip. the lack of rain has dramatically altered the landscape. all of new south wales is now officially in drought. for many it's a disaster. the small town of manilla is in the heart of the drought zone. at the local school the children

of farming families share the sense of uncertainty. a lot of sorrow. you can sense that sorrow in their voices when talking about home and the farms at the moment. it is pretty heartbreaking for them to watch their stock slowly but surely starve to death in front of them. pretty stressful for me. i have to do a lot of study so i wake up earlier, go to bed later, to keep on top of that, as well as keep working on the farm, so everything gets done and the cows are looked after. the money is held very tightly. we're not spending it on unnecessary things. we are making sure we are counting every dollar we spend. australia's capricious climate can be cruel. it can turn fertile ground into a wasteland. money from the government is helping but what is really needed is rain, lots of it, but the forecast for the months ahead doesn't look good. phil mercer, bbc news, near gunnedah, in new south wales. a new app is to offer rewards

for families for talking to each other around the dinner table rather than checking their screens. the idea was originally designed to help students study. this comes as facebook and instagram release a new tool to limit how much time people spend on their apps. catrin nye has been looking at the rise of ‘anti—tech, tech'. can i ask you both how much you check your phone? recently. every day. every hour. quite often. every hour. too much! it is quite bad. at least every 20 minutes. every couple of hours. i am always on it, now i have got a phone call! there are now loads of apps to get you off your phone. 0ne called mute tracks your screen time, space helps you set goals to use it less, and moment

is its daily limit on your use and will even send you a barrage of messages if you are on it too much. and one called forest grows you a tree as long as you are not browsing. it is, of course, very debatable whether tech companies are the ones who should it helping us to spend less time on tech. facebook and instagram are releasing their own time limit tools. an app called hold was created in the uk, created for students by three students in copenhagen. why was it that you wanted to start this? we were struggling so much about actually focusing, we checked our phones all the time and we started to give ourselves incentives. the ones that checked their phones for the last get a coffee and that has worked for us. it allows you to start a timer to put your phone on hold, which means you cannot

get on other apps. the idea is you are putting the phone to one side, it then gets locked, having the screen can be a distraction, but it can be to one side and the idea is to say, i am going to be productive now. once you have done 20 minutes on hold you start earning rewards, things like cheap cinema tickets, free drinks, donations to charity. this app is still doing advertising, it allows brands to market their products to users, but as rewards. it doesn't work overnight and is currentlyjust for students. like clara, a masters student at the london school of economics. she says the distraction of phones is a problem for her whole family. i have voiced my unhappiness to my parents before. about them using their phones? yeah. because i really think that it does compromise the quality of the interactions you have and the depth of interactions you have with family members or friends at the dinner

table, for instance. the creators of hold are now making a version for families to use together. they say they have had tens of thousands of people get in touch because phones are disturbing their dinner time, too. catrin nye, bbc news. breaking news, nelson chamisa has filed a constitutional court challenge against the zimbabwe president's victory. nelson chamisa says they have a good case and cause. we have got to look at the ramifications of that later. that was a challenge to the election result in zimbabwe by nelson chamisa. alice is here — in a moment she will be telling us what's hot and what's not in the business news. first a look at the headlines on afternoon live. 16,000 staff are waiting to hear

what the future holds for them after sports direct owner mike ashley buys the troubled house of fraser. cricketer ben stokes has finished giving evidence at his affray trial — he admitted being involved in a fight, but said he was acting in self defence. the white house says the united states strongly condemns russia's use of chemical weapons, calling the attack in britain a reckless display of contempt for the universally held norm against chemical weapons here's your business headlines on afternoon live. the summer heatwave and england's world cup run help the uk economy grow by 0.4% in the second quarter. there was also a boost from strongerfigures in construction and services. those gdp numbers have had little effect on sterling, which has fallen below 1.28 against the dollar for the first time in more than year, as those doubts over a no—deal on brexit keep investors concerned. and a massive data breach at butlins. the holiday firm says up to 34,000 guests at their resorts may have had their personal information

stolen by hackers. butlin's says it's set up a "dedicated team" to contact guests who may have been affected. we are going to talk brexit. the confederation of british industry has made some interesting comments regarding immigration. yes, the cbi says net migration targets should be scrapped after brexit. the business group claims, "targets should be replaced with a system that ensures people coming to the uk make a positive contribution to the economy". however, the home office said it had no plans to scrap immigration targets. joining us now from our newsroom is nadine goldfoot who's a partner at fragomen. what exactly is the cbi calling for?

they are looking at balance and that is what the new immigration system needs, a balance between the current free movement we have and the european law, thereby european —— to —— european nationals have access to the uk labour market, where we now change it to a restriction to skilled migrants which can be costly in his processing and would not be fit for purpose in the post brexit environment because it is limited to skilled migration and does not take into account the broader skills and labour needs of the uk. do they offer any practical solutions as to how they would filter out those who could make a positive contribution to the uk economy? their proposal is to the uk economy? their proposal is to make the contribution on the basis of people coming here for the purpose of work or self—sufficiency or studies and the premise of their

claim is that migrant workers make a net positive contribution to the k and they acknowledge the fact the public has concerns about the cost of public services —— contribution to the uk. but that overall any migrant coming to the uk is going to be in gainful employment and that will make a positive net contribution and they have a lot of information around the different sectors which rely again not just skilled but lower skilled migration which the current system would not be able to support. the home office has said there are no plans to set or scrap immigration targets, but they do say there is no consent in britain for uncontrolled immigration and that there —— their pledge to bring migration down to the tens of thousands, so what is the home

office proposal? they have a challenge that they have made a mandate to reduce net migration targets and the issue they have is honouring that but at the same time having an immigration system after brexit that will be fit for purpose. and that will enable companies to continue to function as well as grow and grow the economy. that is the challenge they have now, to come with an immigration system that balances the public need and also what businesses need. thanks for joining us. so there's more turblence for ryanair, what's going on? yes, huge trouble for the airline after their pilots decided to strike in five european countries. the 24—hour walk—out involves staff in germany, sweden, ireland, belgium and the netherlands. pilots are demanding better pay

and working conditions. ryanair said 400 flights had been cancelled due to today's strike action. the airline added around 50,000 passengers would be affected. earlier i spoke to sally gethin from gethin's inflight news and she explained what options were available to affected passengers. ryanairsaid ryanair said that by 3pm on wednesday the 8th of august it had contacted all passengers which were going to be impacted with a refund or re—routing them with all possible alternatives and compensation as well. these passengers therefore should have been giving these options, but if you type in the hashtag ryanair strike you will see

a different perspective coming from passengers. there are many that are frustrated and they have followed the links and the forms for compensation but they are not working and some have said the live chat facility is not effective. we need to talk about department stores and lots going on. debenhams are up. he focuses on house fraser, though, and sports direct. —— the focus is on. department store debenhams has been given a boost by the sports direct deal for house of fraser, with its share price up 2% at 11.76p. we know that sports direct is going to buy all of house of fraser and mike ashley has said he would like to turn house of fraser into the harrods of the high street but that has not boosted the ftse100 overall. it is down again, fairly flat. sterling is the other big

story of the week. and as you can see sterling is still down on the day after those gdp results. it fell below 1.28 against the dollar for the first time in a year. that's all the business news. thanks forjoining us. it's been 14 years since it ended, but the sit—com friends seems to have won over a whole new generation of fans. the 90s comedy following the lives of six young new yorkers — has topped the list of the uk's most—watched streaming shows. its continuing popularity is all the more remarkable given the huge sums of money pumped into new blockbusters by streaming services such as netflix and amazon. 0ur entertainment correspondent, colin paterson, reports. # so no one told you life was going to be this way... it's 14 years since friends ended. but joey and chandler's bachelor pad... ..monica's apartment... ..the hallway between them...

..ross' living room... ..are veryfamiliar to a whole new generation. pivot! shut up! subscription streaming services netflix, amazon prime and now tv don't reveal their viewing figures, but industry regulator 0fcom has released new research, and now we know the uk's most streamed shows of 2018. at number five, flat cap thuggery — peaky blinders. maybe all this is happening for a reason... at four, as 80s as a rubik's cube, but far scarier — stranger things. and at three, already tv royalty, the crown. at two, you can watch on your pc, but it's not pc — the grand tour. how you doin'? and at one, a show which started

in 1994 — the year before the dvd was invented. friends. i, ross... take thee emily. ..take thee rachel. so why has it endured? who better to ask than those at comedy central‘s friendsfest, which is touring the uk and selling out wherever it goes. just the characters are hilarious. ross is my favourite character, just brilliant. why? just his facial expressions. ijust watch it over and over. if there's no one's in, that's all i watch. i'm not evenjoking. i grew up watching fresh prince of bel—air, but since i watched friends i have never stopped. you were born years after friends ended. why do you like it? because it makes me laugh. who is your favourite character? rachel. why? she's funny. to sum up, using the very device the show employed

to name each episode, this is the one where friends is still number one. time for a look at the weather. here's tomas. for some it feels like summer has come to an abrupt end, it is fairly cool and it has been raining, very changeable weather. the weekend will remain changeable and this evening will turn quite cold and we have a nippy night on the way. the atlantic is looking very active at the moment, one weather system coming out of north america and another one in the north atlantic. these weather systems will come in off the atlantic over the course of today and into the weekend and this is where the wind will be coming from, so at times breezy and cool. today temperatures will peak in the high teens and 20s in the south but for many

it is the mid or high teens. lots of showers around and maybe even a few more than we were expecting. this evening turns clear so starry skies. very nippy in the countryside — could be as low as 4c. even in london barely double figures, so we will be waking up to sunny but cold weather. there's a weather front approaching on saturday but ahead of that much of the country is in the clear, so first thing in the morning on saturday it is looking beautiful across the uk. cold but sunny, and then the cloud increases off the atlantic and we will see some rain reaching the west country and wales by the time we get to the afternoon but for many in the east and north it is not looking bad at all on saturday and it will feel a bit warmer because there will be more sunshine but if you are out saturday night expect the cloud to increase across the country and saturday night most of us will see a bit

of rain here and there. as we go through the course of the weekend, saturday into sunday, the low pressure is over us and that means we will see outbreaks of rain spreading across the country so pretty unsettled, and i think sunday on the way. winds coming from a southerly component, that means the temperatures will rise and it will feel a bit more humid, so temperatures back into the 20s quite widely across the uk. temperatures rising in the south for next week but generally it is a mixed bag. hello, you're watching afternoon live, i'm simon mccoy. today at four. high street rescue. mike ashley's sports direct has bought house of fraser for £90 million — but what it means for 16,000 staff is still unclear. clouds are going to we are trying to stay motivated and

hope for a goodout come. we hope they will find some solution. finally, you know, cricketer ben stokes has said he can't remember knocking out a man, but did throw several punches, during his affray trial. a muslim convert has admitted plotting to kill around 100 people in a terror attack in central london. staying firmly on the ground. ryanair pilots strike in five european countries — bringing travel misery for thousands at the height of the holiday season. coming up on afternoon live all the sport. simon, good afternoon. jack laugher has been denied a third goal at the european championship, we will bring you the news from edinburgh and berlin. the covers back on at lord's with rain ruining the second test. we will lock ahead the new premier league season kicking lots of rain tomasz? the heavens have been opening, thunder and lightning at the moment, but you

know, the point is that later today, the weather will improve. i will talk about that in half an hour. thank you very much. also coming up. at 4.30 on news nationwide we'll be going to hull, where a tunnel being built under the humber has reached the one kilometer mark. hello everyone, — this is afternoon live. i'm simon mccoy. mike ashley's sports direct has agreed a deal to rescue the department store chain, house of fraser — within hours of it going into administration. sports direct are paying £90 million to buy the business — but there's confusion over what it will mean for the 16,000 people who work there — staff are waiting to find out what mr ashley plans to do with the 59 house of fraser stores that are now his.

here's our business correspondent, rob young. house of fraser has a long, proud history. it started in glasgow in 1849 and has been on the high—street ever since. but early this morning, the company collapsed into administration. it is the biggest shock to british retail in over a decade. just yesterday, house of fraser warned it needed an injection of cash within ten days. the rescue deal with the owner of hamleys fell through last week, leaving the chain in a precarious state. within hours of the collapse this morning, the controversial tycoon mike ashley swooped. i have been to the casino. sports direct has bought substantially all of house of fraser, for £90 million. before that he owned about a tenth of that. despite its troubles, there are loyal calum fraser customers. we have been here since the 70s, you can't have everything. very shocked.

can't believe it could have happened to such a famous name in glasgow. it is a nice shop but it is like a lot of these shops with the franchises, they are obviously not getting the sales any more. stores were closed for time this morning while staff were being briefed on the fast moving developments. it is an uncertain time for the company's17,000 workers. i don't really have an understanding of it yet, it has not been explained to us at all. there was a meeting so we will be at that meeting, and i don't really know much about the situation. i think we're just all trying to keep each other up and stay motivated. and just hope for a good outcome. we hope they will find some solution. finally, you know, nothing is finished yet. but christmas is coming, maybe it's going to be a christmas surprise. sports direct is keeping us waiting. it has not revealed anything about its plans for house of fraser. the administration has said today's deal preserves as many of the jobs

as possible but it hasn't said how many. there are 59 stores nationwide — before the company's collapse there was a plan to close 31 of them. it is unclear if that will still happen. i would guess, and i don't have any inside information, he would probably continue the reduction by a round about half. he will look at the stores and the sales per square foot and pick the ones who have the highest sales. it's been a terrible few years for the high streets. either branches shutting all brands going to the wall entirely, down to a toxic cocktail of circumstances, unaffordable rent, business rates and cash strapped shops. toysrus, maplin and bhs have gone under in recent years. house of fraser is the latest and biggest casualty of them all. but unlike the others, it will survive in some form. we can cross to glasgow, where house of fraser launched its original store in 1849, to speak to our correspondent catriona renton.

we saw there, there is a lot of concern among staff because we are talking particularly where you are, something that is iconic. well, absolutely, in fact it is interesting to be here, becausejust over my shoulder there, is where house of fraser started in 1849, of course, it has moved just across to the other side of the street there, so in that time, it has been an established institution here in glasgow. there won't be many people you will speak to who won't have heard of house of fraser, indeed beenin heard of house of fraser, indeed been in house of fraser at some point. there has been a lot of nostalgia talked round here today, that building has been owned by frazer since the ‘50s so you can imagine the decade, generations of people have grown up with it as something that is part of the high street and economically it is very important to the high street in glasgow, it is one of the keyjewels in the crown of the style mile as it is called, which is fashion

retailers that stretch for round a mile through the centre of glasgow. it is one of the key points. it is ha rd we it is one of the key points. it is hard we were talking about this earlier to imagine this area without it and of course we know that is unlikely to be what happens, of course there is uncertainty for staff, they don't know what is going to happen to them here, this is the most profitable of the house of fraser stores in the uk. last year, so it suggests that this one has a good future, it is an amazing shop inside, if there is a whole range of things that you can't get in many other shops in the whole of scotland so it does kind of have that usp. people here are concerned and interesting in what will happen to the future, there is not many people who haven't been in it, people have been talking to me saying they remember being very small child and this huge great big department store, other people saying they only come here at christmas, people have been and others saying they are regular shoppers here, so there is a

whole range of emotions and this isn't the only store in scotland, there are four house of fraser sites in scotland, another one you will probably have heard of, if you are a regular on the high street is jenners in edinburgh, so there is a lot of people's futures dependent on what happens here, what happens next, this is a company with a hugely long 170 year long history in scotland, and of course, it is what happens next, that is mattering to people now. we will be back to you later thousands of air passengers across europe are suffering disruption as some ryanair pilots and staff stage a 24—hour strike over pay and conditions. around 400 flights — up to 100 of them to and from the uk — have been cancelled in the budget airline's biggest ever walk—out. gavin lee reports. the no—frills airline, with no flights out of one of europe's busiest airports today. at frankfurt the message for passengers was clear, and the same for berlin today, with 250 flights grounded in germany and another 150 cancellations in ireland,

sweden, and here in belgium as well. ryanair is the second—biggest airline in europe, and usually during summer budget airlines like this have queues snaking through the airports, but 80% of the flights to and from belgium have been cancelled, according to the unions. ryanair says it has texted or e—mailed up to 75,000 people so they don't come here today wondering whether their flight is on. bride—to—be laura and her best friend claire from barrow in furness were due to fly with ryanair from manchester with 14 friends for a hen party in germany and they have had to cancel their plans. they didn't offer us anything. it said in the e—mail there were a few things you could do, but really with a group of 16 us it is really difficult to try to get something organised, so we have to either try to find another flight around the days, but there weren't any, or book our own, but it is just too expensive. at the heart of it, the european

pilots are asking for better pay and requesting their contacts be governed by the laws of the nation where they are based, not by irish legislation. all these people, their daily life is based around belgium — travelling to dublin, just for a claim, a problem, an issue, especially when you have to deal then with legislation not familiar to you, not in the country you live in where you can be defended. it's a nightmare, basically. ryanair has described the strike is regrettable and unjustified, claiming their pilots are among the best paid in the budget airline market, and who in their view have the least reason to complain. gavin lee, bbc news. earlier, my colleague leigh milner sent this report from stansted. it hasn't been a great week for ryanair, we can all agree on that. it started a couple of weeks bag when pilots in ireland he went on

strike, last tuesday ryanair decided to cancel a few of its flights due to cancel a few of its flights due to thunderstorm, this had a knock on effect for passenger, particularly here at stansted who came back to rebook their flights and were queueing for hour, now what is happening is the biggest can ordinated strike by ryanair pilots in five different country, the main dispute being mainly about pay and conditions. it was only recently, remember, that ryanair recognised unions here in the uk, for the first time. meetings of ryanair cabin crew and pilots have been meeting here over the past couple of days. so, this week, this may not be the end of disruption for ryanair or sta nsted of disruption for ryanair or stansted but the question really is for passenger, do they still trust ryanair? i have been to harlow to find out. no, i don't, ryanair? i have been to harlow to find out. no, idon't, i ryanair? i have been to harlow to find out. no, i don't, i don't like the service. why not? the booking on line is terrible. your check in, they are always cancelled. ijust don't trust them. this summer we had

disruptions constantly. my sons returned, they had a five hour delay, they tried to claim under eu law and they said it was not their fault again. next teem you book a flight fault again. next teem you book a flight will you go with ryanair? no we will go with easyjet and jet2. ryanair has rya nair has been ryanair has been pretty proactive on twitter, they say they apologise to customers for the disruption the unnecessary strikes will cause. they are digging their heels when it comes to compensation, they say they are offering passengers the option ofa are offering passengers the option of a refund or they can get an alternative flight for free, but if you have been affected by the strikes this is useful information, the civil aviation authority which regulates ryanair the civil aviation authority which regulates rya nair in the civil aviation authority which regulates ryanair in the uk says that they are advising anyone caught up that they are advising anyone caught up in the strikes, that anyone can apply for compensation, because the strike was called at the england cricketer ben stokes has told his trial he can't remember

knocking out a man in an alleged brawl outside a bristol nightclub last september. stokes, who denies affray, did admit to throwing several punches. 0ur correspondent andy moore is at the trial at bristol crown court. he says it was in self—defence? he says it was in self-defence? that is is right. he said that all along he said a struck a man ryan ali because that man was abusing two gay men and he also felt threatened himself. now this afternoon, we have heard from ryan ali, the man that stokes knocked up conscious, that man who is jointly charged with affray, he said he wasn't abusing the men, he said he wasjust having ba nter the men, he said he wasjust having banter with them. he said he saw a tall blonde guy charging at him, that was stokes, he said he had no idea why stokes was approaching him, he said later on, in evidence, that he said later on, in evidence, that he felt perhaps stokes was angry, and looking for someone to pick on.

now ryan ali did admit that at one stage he took up a bottle. he said that was in self—defence, he also said he seemed to strike out against one of the gay men, at some stage, he admits that he took stokes in a headlock at one stage, during this fight outside the nightclub. so that was the evidence of ryan ali, earlier on, we heard from stokes himself, he said many of the events that night he couldn't recall, in detail. he said he was asked why he had punched a man in the face and knocked him unconscious, he said he couldn't recall that, he said everything he was doing with us in self—defence or to protect those two 93v self—defence or to protect those two gay men, he was asked about his drinking, he said he had ten drinks and then he said he may have had a fewjagerbombs and then he said he may have had a few jagerbombs on top and then he said he may have had a fewjagerbombs on top of that but he said he wasn't drunk. he was asked whether he had flicked a cigarette but in the face of one of these gay men, he was shown the video, he said there was a gesture there but he didn't quite know what was going on,

he was also asked about this homophobic abuse that he said he was protecting the two gay men from, and he said he couldn't remember in detail any of the words used. so we have now had all the evidence in this case, there will be a summing up this case, there will be a summing up from the judge and the barristers on monday, and then the jury will go out. thank you're watching afternoon live, these are our headlines 16,000 staff are waiting to hear what the future holds for them after sports direct owner mike ashley buys the troubled house of fraser. cricketer ben stokes has finished giving evidence at his affray trial — he admitted being involved in a fight, but said he was acting in self defence. a muslim convert has admitted plotting to kill around 100 people in a terror attack outside the disney store on london's oxford street. and we will be going to hull, where a tunnel being built under the humber has reached the one clem

terse mark. and in sport british pairjack laugher and chris mears miss out on gold falling shot on their final dive miss out on gold falling shot on theirfinal dive after miss out on gold falling shot on their final dive after leading the final of the men's 3 metre springboard at the european championships. katrina johnson—thompson wasn't good enough to beat her rival and is now second ahead of the 800 metres and the cove rs ahead of the 800 metres and the covers back on at lord's afterjimmy anderson led the way, england put india in big trouble on the beginning of day two in that second test against india. i will be back with more at 4.30. see the white house has issued a statement calling the chemical attack on a former russian spy in the uk "a reckless display of contempt for the universally held norm against chemical weapons". this comes after the us imposed sanctions on moscow for the attack on sergei skripal and his daughter yulia were discovered unconscious on a bench in the wiltshire city of salisbury on four march.

the poisoning of a couple in nearby amesbury injuly is believed to be linked to the attack. police say four people have been killed in a shooting, including two of their officers in the canadian city of fredericton. 0ne suspect is in custody following the attack and police say there is no further threat to the public. the canadian prime minister, justin trudeau, said the government was following the situation closely. he said his heart went out to everyone affected. an eye—witness descibribed what he saw and heard during the shooting. it was round 7.30 o'clock in the morning and i thought i heard what was someone slamming the dumpster lid, like twice. but after the first slam i heard somebody scream and then after the second one there was no more sound, and then not too longer after that, more shots started ringing out. how long did it

last? i want to say like 15, 20 minute, and then it stopped for a while. and where were you? i was in the basement of the building with the, they suspect the shooter was in. and do you, is it a place where you live? no it's many i mother's house. so wow were there overnight at your mother's place? yes, i was. then what happened ? at your mother's place? yes, i was. then what happened? the swat rescue tea m then what happened? the swat rescue team pulled up. they were evacuating, trying to evacuate people that were on the other side ofa car, people that were on the other side of a car, out of the window i was looking out. and there was two people hiding behind there, and they got them out of there. where were they hiding? behind a car, like, where, when i was locking down where they were, apparently. and you think that the shooter was inside the

building where you were? yes. that's where everybody is saying he was. and how did you feel?” where everybody is saying he was. and how did you feel? i was worried about people that were injured, and my family. your mother? yeah, my mother and a muslim convert who plotted to carry out a terror attack in central london, in which he hoped to kill dozens of people, has pleaded guilty to terrorism charges. 26—year—old lewis ludlow, from rochester admitted to raising money for terrorist purposes and plotting attacks. i spoke earlier to our home affairs correspondent dominic casciani — who said the news of lewis ludlow pleading guilty to terror charges was unexpected. this is quite a sudden change because we had expected lewis ludlow to go to trial later this year for this very serious allegation, but this very serious allegation, but this afternoon at the old bailey he suddenly entered a plea of guilty, to preparation of an act of terrorism. what he did as part of that was he swore an oath of

allegiance to the is terrorism group to its leader, in syria, he wrote out an attack plan, he carried out reconnaissance of potential targets and researched van rentalfor a ramming effect. what we know from the evidence in the pretrial phase of this, was that lewis ludlow had been involved in with anjem choudhry the jailed preacher for some years and he has been questioned about his involvement with him, and there were suggestions that ludlow who used the name ali hussein had thought about going to syria, but discounted that and decided he wasn't going to go. there was no specific allegation to charge him over that but it appears he turned his attention to the uk, and began planning an attack in march of this year. how he went about that, was that he came into london, researched whether or not there was a police station in oxford street and when he decided there wasn't he was safe to do so, came to 0xford wasn't he was safe to do so, came to oxford street, took a picture of

0xford oxford street, took a picture of oxford circus london underground station a few hundred yards from here, went from there to the disney store which is very popular on 0xford store which is very popular on oxford street, further down, took a picture there, and it appeared he went from there, to madame tussauds waxworks o it is not clear what his target was, but he has also written notes and when police searched his home they found torn up notes that suggested the extent of the planker the first note listed the targets but also said crowded london areas, long road with no bollard or barriers preventing a van mounting the pavement. busiest time is between 11 and midday, saturday is the busiest, he talks about how that would be ripe for an attack. he says it is expected nearly 100 could be killed. he mentioned accommodation, staying the night before perhaps in the area and van ran tell. he tried to cover his tracks by throwing his phone away down a storm drain, but police managed to recover that, and

recover the data off it. fey found a lot of his planning hidden in an encrypted app which is shared among extremists online. they found a slightly bizarre video where he is hooded and making an oath of allegiance to the is group if syria, that was a key part of the evidence against him. one other thing he was accused of plotting to alternatively go to philippines to joinjihadist fights there, this is an merging theme among some brit, whether they wa nt to theme among some brit, whether they want to go out there. he denied that charge today, and prosecutors have decided to lie that on file because he admitted the more serious charge. the cbs said he is a serious danger to the public he will be sentenced on2and new figures show the recent warm weather has given the uk economy a boost — with growth of 0.4% in the second quarter of the year. economists say both retail sales and construction were helped by the sunshine and high temperatures. it's an improvement on the first three months of the year,

where growth slumped amid the cold weather brought in by the beast from the east. here's joe lynam. robert wiley runs a crop spraying business in lincolnshire. he had problems getting staff in to work in the winter as the beast from the east blew through the uk. since then, a weak pound and good products mean his exports have boomed. we have been able to expand on the site. we are making the site fit for purpose for going forward, because we see whatever happens with brexit, we export 40% of product, round the world, to many different countries, and so we have people wanting our product. and the improved growth figures were welcomed by the chancellor at the launch of a new government fund for technology. we're pleased to see a recovery of the economy in the second quarter, a robust growth figure which points to the underlying strengths of the british economy, and we are not complacent, we are here today, for me to announce nearly £1 billion

of new investment in high tech manufacturing and research to ensure that britain's businesses remain at the cutting—edge. after the beast from the east it appears as if the economy benefitted from a royal wedding, amazing weather and a thrilling world cup. that allowed consumers to increase their spending. the latest figures from the official statics, the 0ns, show that in the three months to the end of up, gdp grew by 0.4%, that is better than the meagre 0.2% seen in the first quarter. consumer spending and construction were the main growth drivers between april and june. we were looking for a bounce in the second quarter after that first weak quarter with the snow, but the bounce we got was small in our view, given the supportive factors you had, and that goes back to a weak underlying picture, you know, household spending growth has slowed a lot since 2016 because real wages aren't rising. people don't feel richer so they're not growing their spending.

last week the bank of england raised the cost of borrowing to 0.70% and hinted the next rise will be next year. that is because the economy is still quite weak and nobody knows how the brexit situation will play out and the impact that will have on the economy. the employers organisation, the cbi, is calling for a new immigration system to make sure businesses can still attract workers from the eu after brexit. it wants immigration targets to be scrapped; instead, it says people coming to the uk should be asked to prove they can make a positive contribution to the economy. matt cole reports. british agriculture needs 60,000 seasonal farm workers every year, just one reason the cbi says eu immigration matters. then there are nurses, software engineers, builders, architects, with that claim that they constitute between four and 30% of different sectors' workforces. so the government must abandon caps on numbers, but it recommends controls, limiting those without a job

to a three—month stay, unless they are studying or financially independent. eu citizens will also have to register with the authorities and would be limited to what in work benefits they can claim. the cbi also said companies must prioritise recruitment of british staff in areas with high unemployment. if in particular area an appointment is creeping up it feels wrong to have immigration creeping up on those areas. if in particular area an appointment is creeping up it feels wrong to have immigration creeping up on those areas. we should be able to control that and give priority to the local labour market, and we should be able to support communities with particular pressures by increased investment for example in hospitals and schools. the cbi says the current non—eu immigration system is too bureaucratic to work for the volume of european citizens needed. critics disagree, and insist firms haven't tried hard enough to recruit locally, but the cbi has support, although even supporters highlight the need to back british.

we do need to prioritise people who are currently uk residents. obviously, you know, there are different approach is needed. people coming over is one approach but we need to make sure we are committed to upskilling our own people in this country as well. the cbi admits there is a fine balance to be struck here. 0n the one hand, keeping enough access to labour to support the economy. 0n the other, keeping enough control to keep public trust and confidence. the government says the home office will publish its post—brexit immigration plans in due course, but it's promising there will be a system that works for the whole of the uk. matt cole, bbc news, at the home office. citizens advice has urged the government to slow down the roll—out of smart meters in england, scotland and wales, after receiving thousands of complaints. the charity says some customers have reported aggressive sales practices, while others have complained

the meters don't work properly when they switch energy suppliers. the government says it remains committed to the current timetable. now time for a look at the weather around it is incredibly lively out there which is why we are co mforta ble there which is why we are comfortable off in here. you are right. we were in the weather sitting and it was coming down really ha rd 20 sitting and it was coming down really hard 20 minutes ago, the road filled up with a terse. did you sit there as though you were surprised? i tell you what, the showers are quite hefty today, perhaps a bit more so than i expected. and we have some big thunderstorms, south of birmingham, think that has been affecting the cricket and also around... cricket in london. in london we have a thunderstorm, thunderstorm as well, so all this weather is affecting a lot of outdoor activity, so yes. a lot of people were saying there is report of hail out there, we have seen that in europe. yes, really big hail. we are in summerand in europe. yes, really big hail. we are in summer and that is ice. it is

interesting, because quite often people ask that question how is it possible that you get ice falling out of the sky in summer, sometimes it happens when the temperature is really high. i have one simple analogy to explain that. if you were to go to the top of a building, say one of the skyscraper, let us take london because the buildings are big, 50 floors up and you took a chunk of ice, and you dropped it from that 50th floor, i am not suggesting we should be doing that, but that ice cube is not going to melt, the point is that ice forms high up in the sky where it is well below freezing, but as it fall there's the atmosphere it won't melt, so there you go. there is our lesson for today! marvellous. so what is in store over the weekend? i think not necessarily more of the same, because no are ever the same. we will keep this u nsettled, ever the same. we will keep this unsettled, theme with us, certainly

through saturday and sunday, i think saturday morning might be nice across the uk, let us look at the satellite image, so it is looking pretty busy, when i say busy, a lot of weather fronts moving across the atla ntic of weather fronts moving across the atlantic here, like soldier, heading in ourdirection, and atlantic here, like soldier, heading in our direction, and this is the u nsettled in our direction, and this is the unsettled weather. this is the jet strea m unsettled weather. this is the jet stream that is stirring up the weather systems and shunting them in our direction and look the air currents moving off the atlantic. across, into europe as well so, that is why it is cooling down everywhere, that is why we have seen the massive storms in europe and france and germany, that clash between the hot air and that colder air sweeping off the atlantic, so we are seeing a massive cool down in the northern half of europe. this evening still showers round but they will quickly clear away, so even though it looks awful out there for some of us, dark clouds, thunder and lightning it will be out of way. the skies will clear and we are going to

have a chilly night in fact. temperatures down single figures widely. we haven't had that for a while. ten degree, barely ten degrees in central london. saturday, so here is one low pressure moving in, this will affect by the afternoon i think south—west parts of the country so that means if you are up early, i don't know what you might be doing in the morning, might be going for a jog, it is looking great. lots of fine wetter round but notice 4.00 you can see some rain getting into the south—west, into wales, possibly in the north—west, scotland's fine, the north east of england is fine, newcastle will probably have dry weather into saturday evening but saturday night, into sunday, it will cloud over, and all of us should see a bit of rain. now, sunday, it is looking u nsettled. now, sunday, it is looking unsettled. so that is day where most of us will see at one point or another a lot of cloud and outbreaks of rain, doesn't look like it is

going to be raining all there the day, there will be sunshine round as well but we are starting to see the winds turning a bit on sunday, maybe more from the south, south—west, so that will scoop up the warmth from france and move it in our drengion, temperatures will rise. the humidity will as well. the outlook for the next few day, it is about not far off average, maybe up to 25 there on tuesday. 0n off average, maybe up to 25 there on tuesday. on tuesday in london. this is bbc news — our latest headlines. mike ashley's sports direct has struck a £90 million deal to buy house of fraser. a muslim convert has admitted at the old bailey plotting a terror attack in central london. his targets are said to have included the disney store in oxford street. lewis ludlow, who's 26, had sworn an oath of allegiance to the leader of the islamic state group, will be sentenced next month. the england cricketer, ben stokes, has admitted throwing several punches in an alleged brawl outside a nightclub in bristol last september. the durham all—rounder, who denies affray, also told the court during his second day on the stand that he can't remember

knocking the man out. 400 flights will not take off as planned today because of a strike by ryanair pilots. the walkout, by staff in ireland, germany, sweden, belgium and the netherlands, will affect 75,000 passengers. sport now on afternoon live with will perry. more medals in the diving pool — but not maybe the one we were expecting. they're back in the diving pool in edinburgh this afternoon — where great britain has had a decent championships. in the last hour it was the men's synchronised 3m springboard with britain's most decorated diver jack laugher and his synchro partner chris mears — the two reigning 0lympic and commonwealth champions. they'd been looking good — topping the leaderboard after five dives but their final dive just wasn't strong enough which meant the gold went to russia — who were always going to be their main competition in this event — the current world

and european champions. so it's a silver for britain and a third medalforjack laugher at these championships. two golds and a silver. and if you want to follow the fortunes of britian's alistair brownlee in the triathlon it's live on bbc1 right now. they've been swimming and now they're on the cycling leg of that event. johnny brownlee is not taking part in this one because he is in the world series. meanwhile over in berlin, another british athlete in medal contention — katerina johnson—thompson is currently second in the women's heptathlon, with just one event left to go. but she's in a real battle with the world and olympic champion naffi thiam. johnson—thompson won the long jump earlier today, to pull further ahead. then came the javelin — which is kjt's weakest event — but she threw a personal best, in her bid to hold off thiam. however, the belgian came up with a championship record throw to win the event and put her into the overall lead. well, jessica ennis—hill's former coach tony minichiello says it might be too much of an ask forjohnson—thopmson

to win from here. the heptathlon finishes tonight with the 800—metres at 720 — and you can watch it live on bbc 2. you will be doing that on a friday night? studio: absolutely, staying in, you know that. and now to lord's, it has been affected by the weather but a great start by england. that is right. there will be an inspection shortly and so we might geta be an inspection shortly and so we might get a bit of play. rain's playing havoc with england's 2nd test against india, the covers are back on at lords again. this is the 2nd rain delay of the day after what was a wash out yesterday. but england were dominant in the eight overs they managed so far today, jimmy anderson took two wickets. anderson struck in the first over of the day to remove vijay.

he then got india's other opener kl rahul caught behind forjust eight. but then the tourists gave away their third wicket with a run out. pujara stranded as 20—year—old debutant 0llie pope removed the bails to leave india struggling on 15 for 3 which is how they”l resume when covers eventually come off at lords. they're going to have an inspection at 5 o'clock. manchester united boss jose mourinho wasn't happy that they didn't manage to make any more signings in the transfer window but now it's closed, it's time for action — united kick off the new premier league seaosn against leicester to old trafford tonight and after conceding that he'll have to work with the squad he's got, mourinho says the fans willjust have to be patient. i think by the end of november, december, you will see why, by then, which teams are candidates to win the premier league. in this moment words are not important. let's play football and by the end of november, december, you don't need words. you will see which teams are candidates. united had no new players to show off on deadline day, spanish side villareal did

though, and look at how they welcomed back former arsenal midfielder santi cazorla. his return was marked by an extravagant magic trick on the pitch, as shown on their tv channel. and don't forget the second round of the uspga is underway. all the details with live text commentary on our website. kevin kisner leading the way at the moment with a one—shot lead. and i'll have the latest in the next hour. now on afternoon live — let's go nationwide — and see what's happening around the country — in our daily visit to the bbc newsrooms around the uk. amelia reynolds is in norwich

to tell us more about the cancellation of ryanair flights from sta nsted airport. an estimated 4,000 passengers have been affected in the last 24 hours and bbc look east has talked to some of them. and peter levy is in hull where a tunnel being built under the humber has reached the 1km mark. that is right. you have daniel home work. amelia, let's go back to you. liverpool —— euro you have done first to amelia. it must have been quite hard for the passengers, will they get compensation? we have been reporting on this chaos for well over a week and at stansted today has been one of the smoothest days we have seen since the beginning of august with just 3000 passengers disrupted, and i know that sounds a lot but compared to

the tens of thousands of holiday—makers and people who need to get to places for businesses that have seen destruction, today has gone fairly smoothly. —— that have seen destruction. ryanair were blaming it on the bad weather and the thunderstorms and air traffic control problems and this has meant many people are stranded and can't get home. terry fowler is a carpenter from newmarket and get home. terry fowler is a carpenterfrom newmarket and he's in budapest at the moment but he needs to get home for work and to look after his young daughter. he's extremely angry and he resorted to posting a picture of a plea for help on twitter today, begging ryanair to get him home. we spoke to him earlier. still stuck in budapest two days after ryanair let us down with no explanation, just cancelled the flight. no explanation, just cancelled the flight. spent the whole day on the phone trying to get hold of them but then they hang up on last and they said we could not get home until the

weekend so we have had no other option but to book with another airline. what about compensation? ryanair is airline. what about compensation? rya nair is now airline. what about compensation? ryanair is now accepting any responsibility, saying the cancellations were out of their control. the civil aviation authority which regulates ryanair in the uk is in courage and passengers —— encouraging passengers to apply for compensation, 250 euros and they can go to arbitration if they are refused. many people have forked out extra money on meals and hotel rooms. ryanair extra money on meals and hotel rooms. rya nair have extra money on meals and hotel rooms. ryanair have said that today's strikes taking place across five countries in europe are not justified and are not necessarily and they are saying they are managing to fly 85% of flights but thatis managing to fly 85% of flights but that is little comfort to the sending 5000 passengers who are having a difficult time of it at the moment —— 75,000 passengers. having a difficult time of it at the moment -- 75,000 passengers. just

looking through your programme running order. and also you have got another story on your tonight's programme about a man who has admitted in court that he has walked a piglet along a busy city street without a lead. tell us about this. the man was walking down the prince of wales road in norwich which is a very busy street, where the nig htclu bs very busy street, where the nightclubs are. the piglet was not ona nightclubs are. the piglet was not on a lead and apparently the police officers said they were lost for words at this at having a pig untethered and loose on a public highway. the outcome was that the man involved was charged with a public order offence and if anyone is worried about the piglet, i can reassure you that she is being taken very good care of but because she is so tiny she is having to be hand reared at the moment but she is doing well. so the police had no lead... oh! sorry, i had to do that.

i could see that one a mile off the don't you start! peter, why are they building this huge under water link? the national grid needs a new gas main tunnel to go under it to carry the gas going from north lincolnshire to east yorkshire, starting on the south bank and heading north. they are one kilometre in and this is a vital link in the national grid. you can see the start of it, it will carry 20% of the gas in britain, that is actually inside. the current pipeline is in danger of damage and they have been patching it up using divers but like so many of us it is on borrowed time. just how big is it? three miles longer much 90 feet below the humber. it is notjust a river, it is absolutely huge. they started using the machine in april

and they should reach the other end of the humber by march of next year and the diameter of the tunnel is 13 feet and the machine that does the work is the length of 16 double—decker buses. on—board eight workers for each shift. imagine going through the ocean bed and doing clearing of one engine minute “ one doing clearing of one engine minute —— one inch per minute, that is quite a lot, and so it is like a mini tunnel. by march 2020 it will be carrying a fifth of the supply of gas to the uk and that is the story. just imagine something boring five days a week, day in, day out. 630 bbc one in your region? touch ! we

will quit there. peter, amelia, thanks forjoining us. if you'd like to see more on any of those stories you can access them through the bbc iplayer. nationwide is every weekday afternoon at 430 here on afternoon live. more than 1,500 people — many of them campers — have been evacuated after powerful storms and flash floods hit the south of france. hundreds of police and firefighters have been deployed. a 70—year—old german man — who was helping supervise children at a summer camp — is missing after his caravan was swept away. richard lister reports. after the heatwave, the deluge. there were marble—sized hail stones in south—eastern france, as thunderstorms rolled in.

torrential rain turned drought—hit rivers into raging torrents. lapping at waterside houses, spilling over the road and causing chaos downstream. a string of campsites were quickly overwhelmed. the water moving through with such force, that possessions were swept away and buried. these german teenagers were in a campsite north of avignon when the flood came. they were among more than 100 people who had to be rescued, most with only the clothes they were wearing. "we couldn't even take a suitcase", she said, "but the most important thing is that we are all 0k". later, though, it was discovered that a german man in his 70s was missing. the caravan he took refuge in had been swept away. more than 400 police and firemen fanned out to look for stranded

holiday—makers and take them to safety. translation: the first thing did i was find people who were clinging to trees, especially the children. they had to be evacuated because some had hypothermia. even driving out of the area was difficult with roads flooded and closed. british holiday—makers were among those trying to get to somewhere drier today. the river which was just a very shallow river the day before, that our children were paddling in, in just a few hours turned into a raging torrential winter river. we hope people are ok, we are fine and very lucky. it was an abrupt and frightening finish to the holiday season for many here. this family's tents were ruined. but the deluge in surrounding towns and villages caused damage here, too, and left people trapped inside. in ardeche, streets churned

with dangerous floodwater, engulfing cars and everything else in its path. the wind, rain and hail damaged roofs, broke windows and flooded basement. a violent end to a long, hot summer. richard lister, bbc news. breaking news. an investigation has been called for into a airfield in yemen. the coalition backs the yemen government against the houthi rebels. alistair burt says a transparent investigation is required and at least 29 children we re required and at least 29 children were killed in that air strike. more

on that later. alice is here — in a moment she will be telling us what's hot and what's not in the business news. first a look at the headlines on afternoon live. 16,000 staff are waiting to hear what the future holds for them after sports direct owner mike ashley buys the troubled house of fraser. cricketer ben stokes has finished giving evidence at his affray trial — he admitted being involved in a fight, but said he was acting in self defence. a muslim convert has admitted plotting to kill around 100 people in a terror attack outside the disney store on london's oxford street. here's your business headlines on afternoon live. the summer heatwave and england's world cup run help the uk economy grow by 0.4% in the second quarter. there was also a boost from strongerfigures in construction and services. more turbulence at ryanair, after it's pilots walk out across five european countries.

the airline has cancelled 400 flights and around 50,000 passengers are likely to be affected. and a massive data breach at butlins. the holiday firm says up to 34,000 guests at their resorts may have had their personal information stolen by hackers. butlin's says it's set up a "dedicated team" to contact guests who may have been affected. the gdp figues for the second quarter were out today, how's the uk economy doing? the summer heatwave and stronger perfomances by the construction and services sectors helped boost the uk economy in three months tojune. and also the royal wedding. yes, exactly. according to the office for national statistics the uk economy expanded by 0.4%

in the second quarter. during that period the service sector grew 0.5%. the construction sector also showed signs of growth, growing by 0.9%. however industrial production fell 0.8% during the quarter. and what effect has those gdp numbers had on sterling? not very much. those gdp numbers have had little effect on sterling, which has fallen below 1.28 against the dollar for the first time in more than year, as those doubts over a no—deal on brexit keep investors concerned. speaking to investors, it is the ongoing jitters over brexit which is what is causing the jitters in the market. so sports direct has bought house of fraser, let's go through the figures. yes — mike ashley's sports direct is to buy the ailing department store chain

house of fraser. he says he will turn the house of fraser into the harrods of the high street. sports direct will pay £90m for house of fraser, it actually already owned 11% of the retailer — but will now take full control. that means it will take over all 59 stores, all stock and the brand name. but he won't take responsibility for their pension obligations so we have got to see what happens on that front. they will pay £90 million for house of fraser. joining us now from our newsroom is russ mould, investment director at aj bell. let's talk about house of fraser. mike ashley has stated he would like it to be the harrods of the high street, echoing his previous stated desire to make sports direct the selfridge's of sport. interestingly, sports direct share price is down after the announcement. mike ashley

has been here before, he's a bargain hunter, buying stakes in going digital, debenhams and french connection and he bought the lines read jane —— and connection and he bought the lines readjane —— and he connection and he bought the lines read jane —— and he clearly likes a bargain but he doesn't like to be thought of as a bargain provider. he could it has plans to take the brand 's upmarket. he has brought this final chain of shops sells luxury goods and so he is moving to move up the market about whether he can achieve that or not, house of fraser was achieve that or not, house of fraser was part of the harrods group in the 805 and was part of the harrod5 group in the 805 and 905 for a little while, interestingly. it won't be easy. i'm reminded more of a jumble 5ale than harrod5 or selfridge'5 with house of fra5er but we have got to wait and 5ee. fra5er but we have got to wait and see. we don't know what will happen to the house of fraser employees and those stores and we know 31 have been earmarked for closure and also penson obligations. —— pension.

been earmarked for closure and also penson obligations. -- pension. the good news is that mike ashley ha5 stepped good news is that mike ashley has stepped in otherwise it could have been administration and they could have closed off or sold off parts of the business. you would like to think a large and about staff can breathe more easily tonight but whether all 5000 employees and 12,000 through the concessions can feel completely safe in the long one, that remains to be seen. gdp figures out this morning, slight improvement on what we saw in the first three months of the year, a sign of things to come? the number is in line with what the office for budget responsibility is forecasting for the year as a whole and we have the beast from the east in february and march which called things down and march which called things down and we have had a rebound from that, but one point 3% year—on—year growth is nothing to be excited about and that explains why mark carney is moving very very slowly when it comes to those interest rate rises

"1.396 comes to those interest rate rises “1.3% year—on—year growth and. what effect is this having on the currency? the pound has been under pressure all week, still languishing in the doldrums at the moment against the dollar and the euro. in the doldrums at the moment against the dollar and the eurom has lost 10% of its value since may against the dollar and 5% against the euro, partly down to mark carney, he has backtracked after being a bit tougher in may, use talking about incremental increases in the cost of borrowing —— he is talking. and the old cliche, business does not like uncertainty and no one knows what the hard brexit would mean and that is why sterling is taking fright at the moment. there is one currency which the sterling is up against, the turkish lira, because of their own economic woes, so if you are looking for a late holiday that might be one

place to think about. yes, silver lining and all that. and now the markets. the markets don't like uncertainty. the ftse100 is down. it has been down all week, investors jittery over no dealfor down all week, investors jittery over no deal for brexit. sterling still down. sports direct, their shares are down. department store debenhams has been given a boost by the sports direct deal for house of fraser, with its share price up 2% at 11.76p. and that's because some analysts speculate that ashley could use his 29.7% debenhams stake to push for a merger with that business. any competition issues? not as far as we know, but this is pure

speculation at this stage. have a lovely weekend. that's it from your afternoon live team for today, next the bbc news at five. time for a look at the weather. for some today it feels like summer has come to an abrupt end, it is fairly cool and it has been raining, very changeable weather. the weekend will remain changeable and this evening will turn quite cold and we have a nippy night on the way. the atlantic is looking very active at the moment, one weather system coming out of north america and another one in the north atlantic. these weather systems will come in off the atlantic over the course of today and into the weekend and this is where the wind will be coming from, so at times breezy and cool. today temperatures will peak in the high teens and 20s in the south but for many it is the mid or high teens. lots of showers around and maybe even a few more than we were expecting. this evening turns

clear so starry skies. very nippy in the countryside — could be as low as 4c. even in london barely double figures, so we will be waking up to sunny but cold weather. there's a weather front approaching on saturday but ahead of that much of the country is in the clear, so first thing in the morning on saturday it is looking beautiful across the uk. cold but sunny, and then the cloud increases off the atlantic and we will see some rain reaching the west country and wales by the time we get to the afternoon but for many in the east and north it is not looking bad at all on saturday and it will feel a bit warmer because there will be more sunshine but if you are out saturday night expect the cloud to increase across the country and saturday night most of us will see a bit of rain here and there. as we go through the course

of the weekend, saturday into sunday, the low pressure is over us and that means we will see outbreaks of rain spreading across the country so pretty unsettled, and i think sunday on the way. winds coming from a southerly component, that means the temperatures will rise and it will feel a bit more humid, so temperatures back into the 20s quite widely across the uk. temperatures rising in the south for next week but generally it is a mixed bag. today at 5pm: the harrods of the high street. mike ashley's vision for the house of fraser department store chain after he buys it for £90 million. the tycoon and owner of sports direct has rescued house of fraser from administration but its 16,000 staff are waiting to find out what he plans to do with its stores. i think we're alljust trying to keep each other up, we're all trying to stay motivated and hope for a good outcome. we hope they're going to find some solution, finally. you know, there's

nothing finished yet. lam in i am in glasgow where frasers was established in 1949. almost 150 years on, we have engaging reaction to today's announcement.