hello, you're watching afternoon live — i'm simon mccoy. today at 2:00. dozens are feared dead as a major motorway bridge collapses near the northern italian city of genoa — a huge rescue operation is under way a man in his 20s is arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences — after a car crashes into barriers outside the houses of parliament. the ford fiesta car hit cyclists and pedestrians — before crashing into a security barrier protecting the palace of westminster given that this appears to be a deliberate act, the method and this being an iconic site, we are treating it as a terrorist incident. i'll be reporting live from westminster. please say they are still questioning the man who they arrested here this morning. he is understood to be from the birmingham area. he is being held at a police station in south london but so far he is not cooperating with the police. not guilty — england cricketer ben stokes is cleared of a charge of affray at bristol crown court. coming up on afternoon

live all the sport — more on that not guilty verdict with that against ben stokes. and what does the weather hold? well, we have a quieter day today. not a great deal of whether around as you can see from our map here. there is a better brain across scotland and northern ireland and throughout the week atlantic winds are a lot of clout to come. we are going straight to bristol crown court. this has been an 11th month ordeal for ben when he has had to maintain a balance when many on social media and certain parts of the press predetermined his guilt long before the trial began. last week, the jury had been able to see and hear all of the evidence and not merely what the

media have chosen to report. the evidence available to the jury included the full range. cctv footage which does exactly what happened in september. thejury ‘s decision that ben is not guilty only reflects the truth of what happened in bristol that night. on the 25th of september he had been out with team—mates celebrating an england win. contrary to some reports, there was no curfew in place. he was minding his own business when he came across two men being subjected to what he identified as serious a homophobic abuse. it was only when others came under threat that he became physically engaged with the men in question. these debts that he took were solely aimed at ensuring the safety of himself and the others present. in addition to the extreme stress placed on him and his family and the trial, his intervention that

night has already cost them the england vice captaincy, his place on the national tour and his place on a number of other england matches. the past 11 months have served to highlight to him just how highly he values his position as an england representative both in terms of the privilege that role entails and the responsibility that accompany it. now that the trial is over, he is keen to get back to cricket being his sole focus. thank you. the law you're representing ben stokes who has been found not guilty of affray at breadstick crown court emphasising how he values his position in the england cricket team. of course, it is now down to the bzw as to whether he will retain his place in the england squad and

what action they may take. we will maybe hear from them later today. bristol crown court as ben stokes leads having been found not guilty in bristol nightclub. we will have more on that year and in our sports bulletins. a motorway bridge has partially collapsed in the italian city of genoa with dozens feared dead , the government descibed it as an immense tragedy. the section of road that collapsed was over a river, and an area of the city. matt cole reports. man shouts in italian the fear of those watching can clearly be heard as they watched the bridge structure crumble. police have spoken of a violent cloudburst of rain at the time of the collapse. viewed from a different angle, the size of the missing section is clear. down below, crumpled cars and lorries. witnesses say vehicles had tumbled from the falling roadway. firefighters say there

have been fatalities, and in poor weather, work is ongoing to free people who are trapped. the viaduct was built in the 19605 but refurbished two years ago. much of the fallen section landed on rail tracks. there had been a queue of traffic on the morandi bridge when it collapsed. a local news agency claims the italian ambulance service is suggesting there may be dozens of dead. the italian transport minister has said the collapse seems like an immense tragedy. the death toll from the collapse is expected to rise. this is a very serious incident. the italian transport minister is talking about it being an immense tragedy. he says he is following the news with great apprehension. we have so far not got any indication of how many people

have died, but the ambulance services are talking about dozens of people who have died. it is thought there may have been about 20 vehicles on the span bridge when it came down. you can vehicles on the span bridge when it came down. you can see vehicles on the span bridge when it came down. you can see from the picture is it seems to have come down in an industrial section of genoa. the rubble, you can see, it is concertina to cross a river. and also a railway. very serious indeed and the rescue services are obviously now sifting through that wreckage of rubble and steel rods to try and see if they can rescue any of the drivers. a man's being held on suspicion of terror offences after a car collided with cyclists in westminster. the vehicle ploughed into a security barrier near old palace yard in front of the houses of parliament. several people were taken to hospital and the area is still cordoned off. the man in custody is in his late 20s , and police said he is not to cooperating with them. it's believed the suspect is from the birmingham area. theresa may has praised the rapid

response of the emergency services and said her thoughts were with the people who'd been hurt. the government's emergency cobra committee are meeting this afternoon. ben brown is in westminster for us now. yes, iam yes, i am in the lockdown around westminster. the police cordon has been relaxed a little bit. we have been relaxed a little bit. we have been able to get closer to the scene of where that silver ford fiesta, this morning, where it onto the wrong side of the road, hit a number of cyclists and then ramped at an accelerated speed into the security barrier —— barriers that protect westminster. the man was arrested very quickly by armed officers. you then his late 20s. he is being held great night at a police station in south london. he is not cooperating with the police. they are trying to establish who he is and why he did what he did. so far he is not answering any questions, not

cooperating. in terms of the injured, we gather three people were injured, we gather three people were injured altogether, two were taken to hospital, one has been discharged from hospital. it is pretty clear that if this was a terror attack it could have been a lot worse. sirens wailing across westminster as police converge on the car within seconds. immediately after the crash, a moment of confusion as the car sits smoking at the barriers outside the house of lords. police start pushing people back. armed officers, weapons drawn, swarm over to the car. at this stage, they don't know if this is an accident or an attack. the driver is pulled out. he is filmed standing quietly at the scene in handcuffs. police confirmed later he has been arrested

on suspicion of terror offences. a bbc camera caught the progress of the silver ford fiesta making its way slowly around parliament square. but then the driver darts back onto the wrong side of the road, ploughing through several cyclists waiting for the lights to change. he appears to accelerate and then pulls into the parliamentary access lane, crashing into the barriers. he was driving at at least 50 mph. the guy seemed very focused, he was not panicked or anything. but this is what he left in his wake. on the ground, one cyclist lies seriously injured and is treated by paramedics. two people were taken to hospital. a man retrieves the car's license plate and another sits on the pavement in a state of shock. this man was with them when the car struck. my initial reaction was to run after him because i thought he was an errant car driver, and then as the police said clearly

area it became more apparent that it was more serious. with the area cleared, police began their investigation. sniffer dogs were brought in to check the car for explosives. police say no weapons were found, but they are treating this as a terror attack. given that this appears to be a deliberate act, the method, and this being an iconic site, we are treating it as a terrorist incident and the investigation is being led from officers from the counterterror command. there is no intelligence at this time of further danger to london as all the rest of the uk connected to the incident. as one of the busiest parts of london remained on lockdown, the prime minister praised the courage of the emergency responders. the government, like everyone else, is waiting for a clearer picture to emerge of what happened here. our thoughts are with everyone who has been involved with this morning's incident. and i want to thank the emergency services for their response. this is being led by the police,

the counterterrorism police are leading the investigation for the metropolitan police. but they are keeping open—minded around this incident. the police have still not formally identified the arrested man, thought to be in his 20s. they have said he is not cooperating with their investigation. just outside the palace of westminster the police officers are carrying out forensic work outside westminster and the scene of the couegein westminster and the scene of the college in this morning. they have been interviewing eyewitnesses and may be filmed it on their mobile phones and collecting footage and so on and the investigation gathers pace. we have been getting a reaction, a political reaction from what happened here from the mayor of london. well, first of all, my thoughts are with those injured this morning.

one person was treated at the scene, two were taken to hospital. thankfully, the injuries aren't very serious, but clearly it was very scary. anybody who has seen the images from this morning will have seen how scary it must have been. but also will have seen the brave response from our police officers who ran towards this car not knowing who was inside it, what was inside it, to catch the perpetrator, and that is one of the reasons i am confident that we have got the best police service in the world and they are doing all that they can with emergency services, with security services to keep us as safe as we possibly can be. let's go to our home affairs correspondent. what is the latest you have been hearing from the police? there is still a problem with cooperation with the man arrested who is believed to be the driver of the vehicle, but in terms of establishing his identity we have got to the stage where police believe he is from the birmingham area and presumably they have got

quite close to working out who he is and so the investigation is now got to bronx to it. the investigation in london of a family what happened when that silver fiesta ploughed through cyclists, pedestrians and into that security barrier outside parliament itself but also an investigation to try and burnt out more details about the man from birmingham and who his associates may have been, what his mindset might have been, they want to work out what his motivation might have been as this appears to have been a deliberate attack and of course there will be looking at anything on his telephones, his computer, any paperwork which can give any clue to the planning or the wider network behind the attack. the assistant commissioner said both along the embankment here and

also around parliament square. vehicles are not allowed to approach anywhere near, that is perhaps for another day. at the moment we have this man in his 20s still being questioned at a police station in south london. one woman still in hospital with serious injuries but not life—threatening. what we have at the moment is too much of people injured and a very high profile target at the centre of another police investigation. we have been here before. there are those who will say there has been an overreaction? you have to put it in context. you have an incident here which as you described takes place in an iconic location of the methodology we have seen repeatedly used by terrorists and frankly all

ideologies. we can see there is something that could materialise as a terrorist incident and the police are handling it that way, if we think back to march will be happy individual driving into parliament this way, the murder of a police officer and some other people walking around, that did turn into a terrorist incident, the first of five we saw that year. in some ways, those were inspired by each other. the success of the first one many others all to some degree saw something they could emulate and react to. you can understand why security forces would be very keen to clamp down on this quickly and make sure it gets shut down as an incident immediately so they can get on with else. it is the nature of a terror attack that it brings you to the streets, which again this does. again, the way police respond and indeed the way the media respond can add to that. there will be fear is causes copycats if you like. that's a lwa ys causes copycats if you like. that's always a concern, that the attention

around the incident will attract more attention which will mean other people, loosely thinking about doing something will say, now clearly is the moment for me to leap forward and do something. it's a difficult balance you must strike because the alternative is that we don't react. we suppress the information and keep it hidden, and the accusation will be why are we hiding this? it's a difficult balance to strike. the authorities in this country have decided that the best way is to rapidly resolve the situation and keep updating the public as much as they can to make sure that void is not filled by panic fuelled speculation but a more coherent narrative. a particular aspect of this morning was the speed of the response. there were five armed policemen around the car before the suspect even got out of it. it began to last year but the attack outside westminster where it turned out that the individuals who shot and ended up the individuals who shot and ended up killing the perpetrator of that attack were in fact the security

protection detailfor i attack were in fact the security protection detail for i think the defence secretary michael fallon who happens to be walking past at that moment. the parliamentary response was not there at that moment, they we re was not there at that moment, they were somewhere else. i think clearly ever since that incident in number of lessons have been learned. if you go now to the bridges around parliament you will see the security barriers have really been pushed back to the other side of bridge. it's been completely sealed off and also the armed response units have been redeployed so they can cover the the area quickly. quickly, when ben brown was talking about people calling for pedestrianisation of this part of westminster, you looked disapproving? if you suddenly pedestrianise one of the heart of london, you must think carefully about that. if you are com pletely carefully about that. if you are completely changing your society and your city to respond to a terrorist

incident which is now expressing itself potentially in the nature of randomly driving into the bollards and injuring people, then you're going to reshape the heart of your city, i wonder if there is a question about calibrating your response responsibly. it is an open institution and people should have access to it. we should not overrea ct. access to it. we should not overreact. if we harden our entire city and turn into a completely state. very good to talk to you. thank you very much for coming on. to bring an update on the collapse of the motorway bridge we have just heard from the italian deputy minister who has said that 22 people have died. that is coming from the italian authorities in italy saying that at least 22 people have died. a huge rescue operation is under way after that bridge collapsed plunging some 100 metres to the ground. the

local emergency officials have been quoted as saying that dozens will be found as a result of this accident. many people living in houses under the bridge. a huge rescue operation is under way and we will keep you updated with the progress of that rescue operation as we get it. england cricketer ben stokes, 27, has been found not guilty of affray by a jury at bristol crown court. the durham all—rounder was arrested after he was involved in a brawl hours after england played the west indies in a one—day international in the city in september last year. his lawyer said he the player was keen to get back to playing cricket. andy is at bristol crown court for us. his key focus is now cricket, isn't that right? that was his only focus. the law for ben stokes said. thejudicial

focus. the law for ben stokes said. the judicial process is over now. it was day seven of the trial. the jury had been out for about two and a half hours. as the verdict was released, ben stokes closed his eyes briefly and then looked up in relief. he went over to shake hands with his co—accused, the man he actually knocked out at that fight in bristol last september. his wife who has been here and throughout, cried when the jury came back with their verdict. as you said, ben stokes, left court with his lawyer about 15 minutes ago. he did not speak but his lawyer spoke on his behalf saying that this had been an ordealfor his client behalf saying that this had been an ordeal for his client and that the jury ordeal for his client and that the jury had obviously listened to all the evidence, not a selective version of it that the public had been presented with. let's look at the background to the case with our bbc sports correspondent. he is one of world cricket's biggest

stars with both bat and ball, ben stokes is arguably england's most important and high—profile player. but 11 months ago, the all—rounder‘s career and reputation was plunged into uncertainty after he was arrested following a late—night brawl. stokes found himself forced to swap cricket field for courtroom, accompanied throughout his trial each day by his wife and agent. the 27—year—old, along with two other men, ryan hale and ryan ali, all deny the charge of affray. the three had been involved in this late—night brawl outside the city's mbargo nightclub in the early hours of september 25th last year. the court was taken through the events leading up to the incident as some of england's players visited the venue after winning a one day international. cctv footage showed stokes and team—mate alex hale try to re—enter the club. the court heard from doorman, andrew cunningham, who said stokes had been abusive to him and then mocked two gay men, throwing a cigarette butt at one of them. the defence insisted it had just

been playful banter. mobile phone footage of the fight that followed was played in court. the jury heard both ali and hale had bottles on them initially. ali appearing to threaten hale with his. an off—duty community police officer who saw the violence described stokes as the main aggressor. he knocked both hale and ali unconscious, the latter left with significant injuries, including a fractured eye socket. these are the two gay men seen chatting to stokes outside the nightclub earlier that evening. neither were called as witnesses in the trial. i didn't get involved. i was more on the sideline, but, yes, it turned into a massive brawl and obviously i got a bit scared, so i kind of walked out. you didn't witness the entire fight till the end? i witnessed most of it. when the guy was on the floor, that is when i kind of thought it was too much for me. with the prosecution case over, thejudge directed the jury to acquit hale. and the defence began. the court hearing from stokes for the first time.

he said he had stepped in when the two gay men had been subject to homophobic comments, something he suggested to police back when he was arrested. that is all i have been told at the moment. that is why i have arrested you on suspicion of assault. ali denied that, however, insisting they had just had banter between him, hale, and the two gay men. stokes may have since returned to cricket, but in the wake of the incident, he was suspended meaning that he missed the ashes series to australia last winter. here at lord's, the ecb will now conduct its own internal enquiry into a saga that has been damaging for both the player and those who run the game. obviously, when you are trying to attract new people, families, kids, even women to cricket, you want to show it as a sport which respects people generally and attracts good people, good people who are respectful of each other and have good behaviour, so it wasn't a particularly good episode. today's not guilty verdict will come as a huge relief

to stokes and to england, but having been cleared by the courts, he must now wait to see if cricket's governing body takes any action. dan roan, bbc news. the legal process is over but there will be eight internal disciplinary committee that will meet to decide the fate of ben stokes and his colleague who was also out with him that night. that committee is due to meet in the next few days. they expect to work very quickly. some say that ben stokes has already been punished enough because he has missed so many games while this court case was pending. time for a look at the weather... here in the studio is a broken microphone. quality. it is all going

so well, isn't it? it is hurricane season at the moment which goes on to the end of november. it has been pretty quiet, but sometimes we do see systems tracking in this direction and heading towards the uk. it has been very quiet in the north atlantic so far. different in mexico and the east pacific. we will look at that later on. what have we got coming our way? this is a typical weather pattern across the uk. forget about high pressure and heat and humidity. we are not seeing that over this week. we have got a strongerjet over this week. we have got a stronger jet stream. it over this week. we have got a strongerjet stream. it is closer to the uk. and we get atlantic weather. no hurricanes but we do have bands of cloud. rain in the north—west. rain pushing its way eastwards across scotland. it is moving away from west in scotland, it has improved across northern ireland, we have got this rain in eastern scotla nd have got this rain in eastern scotland which will push away out of the way. across england and wales,

most the way. across england and wales, m ost pla ces the way. across england and wales, most places still dry, limited amount of sunshine. if you have got sunshine you are doing quite well because there is a fair bit of cloud coming in. decent temperatures in the south east. 25 celsius. and late sunshine in the north of scotland. a little bit of rain and drizzle across northern ireland and the far north of england and that will come and go through this evening. and overnight to. across better scotland it will will be wetter. we have a south—westerly wind which is pushing ina lot south—westerly wind which is pushing in a lot of cloud. the temperatures are staying up. quite a warm night ahead. tomorrow, england and wales, generally dry with spells of sunshine but we will find some rain coming down from the north—west. bands of cloud that we saw on the satellite picture earlier. more rain coming into scotland. could be dry in northern ireland. even in scotla nd in northern ireland. even in scotland a bit of sunshine. but the higher temperatures will be across the midlands and eastern link when.

24 the midlands and eastern link when. 2a or 25 degrees this time. things will change because they are going to get cooler and fresher air coming our way as we head into thursday. two whether france are pushing their way south eastwards across the uk bringing ina way south eastwards across the uk bringing in a north—westerly breeze and that means some sunshine but also some fresh air. the ring by thursday more across the south east ofan thursday more across the south east of an england and east anglia. then we will see some sunshine, some increasing numbers of showers across scotland. some heavy showers in western scotland. and these are the temperatures. in general the temperatures. in general the temperatures will be lower. it will feel a bit cooler and a little bit fresher. by friday we are back to square one, another weather front coming in from the north—west bringing rain to northern ireland and scotland and for most of england and scotland and for most of england and wales it will be dry with sunshine, best of all in the south—east. temperatures get a bit ofa south—east. temperatures get a bit of a boost but further north, much cooler where you have the cloud and

rain. this is bbc news — our latest headlines. at least 22 people are feared dead as a major motorway bridge collapses in northern italy —— the government says it's an ‘immense tragedy‘ a man in his 20s is arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences — after a car crashes into barriers outside the houses of parliament. police say the suspect is ‘not co—operating' london ambulance service treated several people at the scene and two people taken to hospital have now been discharged. england cricketer ben stokes is cleared of a charge of affray at bristol crown court. his lawyer says he's looking forward to playing cricket again. sport now on afternoon live withjohn watson one. what next for ben stokes cricket career? when will we see him next in an england shirt? the ecb must decide what action they will take following the not guilty verdict with their independent disciplinary commission due to meet in the coming days. they

said they would make an assessment on his immediate involvement in the trial was over. the player was left out of the england squad for the first test, it could see a band still handed out, team—mate alex hales also possibly sanctioned as well, also involved in that incident outside the nightclub at any possible ban could be reduced by including the time spent out of the tea m including the time spent out of the team last year when stokes missed the ashes tour. we understand from pa that he has in fact been added to the ashes squad for the third test against india, with england currently leading 2—0 at the moment. an interesting move from the ecb. looks as though ben stokes could be making a quick return to the england setup. as expressions of intent go, it doesn't go any stronger than that. indeed, a significant plus for the england team, not one they need perhaps you could argue following that impressive performance against india in the second test. chris

woa kes india in the second test. chris woakes stepping up in his absence as england won by an innings and 60 odd ones i think it was. a real boost to the england squad. interesting they have moved so quickly after that not guilty verdict at bristol crown court today. champions league, celtic have a big game head? yes, they must score tonight in the second leg of their champions league qualifier if they are to keep alive their hopes of reaching the tournament group phase, it is 1—1 from the first leg at celtic park. they are in greece to face athens off the back of a defeat to hearts in the scottish premiership over the weekend. a place in the play—off round so still one more match to come. moussa dembele their striker returns from injury, but he won't be starting in athens later. probably too much to start. he will take his place on the bench. but he has

looked very fit and strong. in his rehabilitation. the beauty with him is he wants to play, he wants to be involved so too much of a risk to start but i am sure at some point in the game he will play a part. it's day two of the para swimming world championships in dublin. paralympian ellie simmonds qualifying from today's 200m individual medley sm6 heats to reach tonight's final. kate grey has more. to this! medals included ellie simmonds, the first time she has competed in a british cap since the rio paralympics and she qualified in third, the 15—year—old maisie summers qualifying fastest. when i caught up with symonds at the end of her race she admitted she was focused on her long—term targets. her race she admitted she was focused on her long-term targets. to be honest i'm not really thinking

about medals. i'm just going to go out and race tonight. me and my coach are focusing on admission 2020, that's our aim. i wasjust so surprised to make the team let alone be here and race tonight so i'm just going to see how it goes. british teams continued to dominate this time in the 200 metres freestyle. world record—holder tom hayman qualified in second but he reassured me there was more to come this evening with hopes to add to his medal collection. commonwealth gold medallist serena guthrie will be returning to the uk for the 2019 netball season. she's been playing in australia for two seasons but she's decided to come back for the build—up to the world cup. it was in australia that guthrie helped england to a sensational victory over australia in the commonwealth games final. she plays at centre but it's not yet know which club she'll be signing for when she returns. that's all the sport for now.

let's get more on the arrest of a man on suspicion of terror offences after a car crashed into security barriers outside the houses of parliament. it happened just outside the palace of westminster at about seven thirty this morning — as people were heading to work in central london. the car was travelling westbound past the houses of parliament when it swerved into eastbound traffic — hitting security barriers. several cyclists were hit — two people were taken to hospital — one was discharged and a woman is being treated for serious injuries. police arrested a man a 20—year—old man at the scene — it's believed the suspect is from the birmingham area. prime minister theresa may said her thoughts were with those injured in the westminster car crash and thanked the emergency services for their "immediate and courageous" response. the government's emergency cobra committee is meeting now. our security correspondent frank gardner is here. the suspect is in custody, not being

cooperative we understand but police still treating this as a terror attack. it was very clearly a deliberate action by the driver. we don't know what the motives were, whether or not he was being directed by anybody else or whether this was a case of somebody having some kind of road rage or something far more sinister. no one is committing themselves get to what that is. he will have been processed through the whole arrest process biometric fingerprints etc. they will be looking at the whole data background, whether he was on any kind of watch list et. more details are going to come out about this, but the reaction was very swift. anybody who tries anything like that in sucha anybody who tries anything like that in such a high—profile, iconic area is going to expect an immediate response. if you drive through westminster you are never going to be much more than eight minutes at the most from an armed police response vehicle. one of the

remarkable aspects of this morning is there were five armed policeman with their guns trained on that car and he had not even got out of it at that point, it was a very quick reaction. that is a result of the attack on march 22 last year when halley massoud rammed his car into people on westminster bridge and then got out with a knife. in this case no weapons were involved. the driver appeared to be driving normally and then an ambulance was coming up behind him, sirens blazing and he suddenly swerved and then crashed into people. or took a deliberate path and sped up. some people are suggesting, was he doing some kind of reconnaissance? it's all speculation right now. it will be hard for them if he does not cooperate but eventually whatever other evidence they can find, usually from digitalfootprints, that will be presented to him and his lawyer. thankfully we are looking at relatively low scale

injuries. one person seriously injured, one discharged from hospital with scrapes and bruises perhaps. it is that phrase what really sore from you, what if? what if he had taken a slightly different route. ? you canjudge you can judge to some extent how serious this is not from the level of the cobra committee that's going on right now. cobra stands for cabinet office briefing room, it's a subterranean chamber in the cabinet office in whitehall where every there is any kind of crisis or hostage situation, a flood, an epidemic on anything like that, the government will have this emergency meeting, if it's really serious it will be chaired by the prime minister. she is in switzerland, she is still there, it's not even being chaired by ministers, it's officials level cobra meeting. that's not to say it's not being taken seriously but it's not so important as

tu bercle but it's not so important as tubercle ministers from their holidays. as soon as police say they are treating it as a terrorist accident, it goes up a notch for all of us? apart from anything it means the investigation is led by the metropolitan police counterterrorism command. the big picture here, we are still at severe. there are five levels of national terrorist threat. we are at the second highest, severe meaning that a terrorist attack of some sort is thought to be highly likely. does that mean it will involve you on me individually? the chances are small, but the chances ofa chances are small, but the chances of a terrorist attack happening somewhere in mainland britain are thought to be highly likely. at the same time, m15 and the police are currently on close to 600 active investigations into possible acts of terrorism. 600 at the moment? yes.

there is a dynamic, fluid list of around 3000 voters called sois, subjects of interest. in addition there is around 20,000 former sois who can then again throwback, like a tidal flow. you can who can then again throwback, like a tidalflow. you can get who can then again throwback, like a tidal flow. you can get somebody who was under investigation, find them not to be involved in criminal activity that is still under suspicion, but there are higher priorities. they move down into a lower list but then they can move back into that high interest. it's a lot of people to keep an eye on. they don't have the resources to watch them all. at the moment, the suspect is being questioned. until he says something, the police are presumably looking into his background? it will be a bit more than that. the first thing they need to do is confirm his identity. when assista nt to do is confirm his identity. when assistant commissioner neil basu gave his statement this morning, he said we still have not confirmed his

identity, all we know is he is a man in his late 20s who was not cooperating. but we live in a digital age, there are no secrets. it will be out pretty soon, what he's been up to, who he's been communicating with and where he's been going. what he has been doing, frankly what he had for breakfast. they will now pretty soon. looking at this image, he looks while driving his car around westminster square, that ambulances almost bumping into him. this is where he hits the cyclists, though he comes past parliaments and takes one of these roads off which have these barriers at the side. it seems an odd way for someone to be acting, obviously, that's what police picked up obviously, that's what police picked up on. i'm very reluctant to get drawn into speculation. there are people saying, was he an reconnaissance, was he having some kind of psychotic episode? who knows, i'm not going to go either way on that. let's see what they come outwith. and what the evidence

is in the end. i don't think he was somebody who was being followed, we pretty much know this, the police effectively said there was no pursuit of the sky. if you remember the case last year where somebody was tackled to the ground on whitehall carrying knives, that case came to court and that was somebody who was being actively under surveillance by police and m15. i don't think that's the case in this incident. let's see what it is but once again, big picture, the reaction, the reason the police were able to react so quickly, it all stems from the 2008 mumbai attack, ten yea rs stems from the 2008 mumbai attack, ten years ago, people came down from pakistan by boat, infiltrated mumbai with kalashnikovs and rucksacks full of magazines that they were able to reload and they killed over 100 people. they help that city hostage

for something like 36 hours. —— held that city hostage. that got people thinking in other cities, what if that happened here? could we cope with that? the answer at the time was now. the police would simply be outgunned. there would have had to call in special forces. —— the a nswer call in special forces. —— the answer at the time was no. they have spent the intervening period up and running the deploying a certain brand of vehicle, with mobile armour and powerful firepower. that brand of vehicle, with mobile armour and powerfulfirepower. that is brand of vehicle, with mobile armour and powerful firepower. that is why we saw the police able to react really quickly in central london. thank you very much. labour leaderjeremy corbyn has refused to apologise for being present when a wreath was laid in memory of some of those accused of carrying out the 1972 munich terror attack. his attendance at the ceremony has prompted criticism from the israeli prime minister. let's go live to westminster and our political correspondent, jonathan blake. this is a controversy that is just

not going away for him. another day of questions thatjeremy corbyn about exactly what he was doing on that day in 2014, at the palestinian martyrs cemetery in tunisia. he wrote about it when he returned from that visit when he was a mere labour backbench mp, he also answered questions about it last year during the general election campaign but it has come to light again this week after the daily mail published photos which have yet to show him laying a wreath need to a memorial to those who were accused of carrying out the 1972 attack at the munich olympics in which 11 israeli athletes were held hostage and killed. yesterday, mr corbyn said he was there to lay a wreath in memory of the victims of an israeli air strike in 1985 on the headquarters of the palestinian liberation organisation. in tunis. asked about the wreath laying close to the graves of those who were alleged to

be involved in the 1972 munich attack, he said he was there when it happened but he did not think he was involved in it. that left other people asking questions and critics of mr corbyn saying he had not explained himself properly. today on a visit to shropshire, mr corbyn again was asked whether he laid a wreath at the graves of those people accused of being involved in the 1972 attacks and whether as some of his own mps had called on him to do, he would apologise for being there at the time. i was there when they laid the wreaths. that is pretty obvious. there were many others there who were witness to that. i witnessed many other people laying wreaths. did you lay a wreath? i laid one wreath along with many other people in memory as i've said of all those who died in the awful attack in 1985 which, asi keep repeating, you seem not to understand, was condemned by the whole world. i'm not apologising for being there at all. i went to a conference to try and promote peace in the middle east. i remembered those that had

died in an attack on tunis by the israeli air force which was condemned by the whole world. whether that settles it or not i think we will have to see but it's unlikely mr corbyn's critics will be satisfied with explanation, many feel he should apologise for even being there in the first place. when a wreath was laid in the memory of those who died, who were killed, who had been accused of carrying out the 1972 attack at the munich olympics. mr corbyn has of course defended himself being there last night, he hit back at criticism from the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu israeli prime minister benjamin neta nyahu and today israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu and today the foreign secretary has criticised mr corbyn, saying given what has happened, he would have no moral authority to criticise terror attacks in the uk. labour saying unequivocally he was not there to lay a wreath or all those who were killed, accused of

carrying out the 1972 attack in munich. thank you. egon cossou is here — in a moment he will be telling us what's hot and what's not in the business news. first a look at the headlines on afternoon live at last 22 people have died a when motorway bridge has partially collapsed in the italian city of genoa, sending cars and lorries crashing to the ground. a man is arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences after a car crashes outside the houses of parliament, injuring several people. england cricketer ben stokes is found not guilty of affray at bristol crown court. here's your business headlines on afternoon live. unemployment fell by 65,000 to 1.3 million in the three months tojune — that's the lowest its been in more than 40 years. but the growth in wages has slowed down. they're about 2.7% higher than they were a year ago. we'll have more on this in a moment.

homebase is expected to announce plans to close 42 stores, putting about 1,500 jobs at risk — that's abut 10% of its workforce. it's already closed 17 stores this year. mike ashley — the founder of sports direct — says he'll keep most house of frazer stores open. he bought the chain last week — just hours after it went into administration. he says he wants the shops to be the "harrods of the high street" uk unemployment is at the lowest level since 1975? that's right, pretty good news on thejobs that's right, pretty good news on the jobs front. that figure fell by 65,000 toi.3 the jobs front. that figure fell by 65,000 to 1.3 million. that figure is good and it happened despite the fa ct is good and it happened despite the fact the economy created fewer than expected jobs, 42,000, as we can see

there. the number of people from the eu working in the uk fell by the largest amount on record. it fell by 80 6000. if you look at what happened in terms of people who work outside the eu, who work in the uk, that went up to 70 4000. there was a slowdown in the growth of wages, wages went up by 2.7%. the analyst and a leach says this means living standards are really going suffer. households have remained, incomes have remained under pressure for quite some time now. so it certainly doesn't do anything to ease that pressure. it is worth bearing in mind that the bank of england have been saying for some time that they are expecting a temporary slowdown in wage growth, so we can expect wage growth to pick up slightly in the months ahead. but underpinning the weakness in wage growth is the weakness in productivity. and we have seen productivity figures for

02 published today. we have seen a bit of improvement in productivity growth but the underlying picture remains very weak. and without any material improvement in the productivity story, we are not really going to see any material improvement in wage growth and we can therefore expect consumers to remain under pressure for the foreseeable future. donald trump, headlines... this time he has found a huge new defence bill? we try to keep him out of the headlines! yeah, this defence bill is worth 700 and it wraps up spending on things like wages for service men and women and new weapons, new planes, new helicopters. what it also does is give congress greater powers to

police business deals, to see whether they are against the defence interests of the united states. washington is already a major —— in a major showdown with beijing, and it had been thought this bill would be used to really socket to the chinese but it looks like it's actually been watered down. joining me now is our north america business correspondent, kim gittleson. is it right to say this has been watered down? there are two key things in this bill when it comes to international transactions, the first is regarding the embattled chinese smartphone manufacturer as well as one way. both were targeted in original draft of the bill, the final bill did go as —— not go as far as some members wanted, they wa nted far as some members wanted, they wanted that band reinstituted. that

did not happen in this particular bill partly under the urging of president donald trump but there is a second thing in the bill which has to do with the policing of foreign investment in us firms, it's this little committee called the committee on foreign investment in the united states, and this committee has been given broader powers to investigate foreign companies that want to invest in american firms and what their interests are and whether or not these investments could be a threat to us national security. do we think this watering down when it comes to chinese companies is the sign of a more conciliatory approach in the way washington is looking at beijing? i think it's quite interesting. you have not seen that much republican push back to you donald trump's protectionist trade policies, for the most part republicans are willing to issue vague statement saying they might oppose tit—for—tat tariffs that they have not actually done anything to

significantly imperil president trump's policies. this was the first sustained effort by republicans in congress to push back on donald trump when it comes to his policies relating to doing business with china, clearly it was something they did not feel they needed to stand firmly on, as a result these provisions were somewhat watered down. it suggests if you are president trump one of his advisers, you might have more political leeway than you thought when it comes to engaging in these sorts of tit—for—tat policies with china and other measures meant to curb foreign investment in the us. as president trump would say, to put america first. indeed. thank you. shall we have a quick catch up on markets. lacklustre trade on the ftse today. biggest faller is the copper miner antofagasta — its disappointed investors with a 16 % fall in profits. the insurance company esure — is on the rise — after announcing its going to be bought for more than a billion pounds royal mail though

is under pressure — that's after being fined £50 million by the regulator for abusing its market position. that's all the business news. let's return to italy and genoa and that bridge collapse which has killed at least 22 people, with the deputy transport minister warning that death toll will rise. that is because as you can see, the sheer scale of what has happened in the last couple of hours, there are reports that a number of cars are still crushed under the rubble and a risky operation, in full operation as you can see there, with fire brigade. —— and the rescue operation

in full operation. there is one report suggesting 20 or 30 cars are still buried under the remains of that motorway section that came down in what was described as torrential rain earlier this morning. we will keep you updated with the development is that rescue operation continues in genoa. time for a look at the weather... what we are seeing at the moment is a fairly typical weather pattern for this time of the year, instead of high pressure dominating we have a strongerjet high pressure dominating we have a stronger jet stream closer to high pressure dominating we have a strongerjet stream closer to the uk and our weather coming in from the atlantic. over the next few days we will find bands of clown fish down to the north—west to bring outbreaks of rain at times. not much rain today for england and wales but a different story across scotland and northern ireland, outbreaks of rain pushing east of scotland, turning to pete, so may get late sunshine. ——

tending to peter out. lots of dry weather to come, the best temperatures with limited sunshine in south—east england. most places dry this evening, we may well find later on in the night more rain coming back into northern ireland, towards northern west of england and north—west scotland. lots of cloud coming our way, coming north—west scotland. lots of cloud coming ourway, coming in on north—west scotland. lots of cloud coming our way, coming in on those south—westerly breeze is, to keep the temperature is up, perhaps no lower than 13 or 14. wednesday, starting with sunshine across most of england and wales but outbreaks of england and wales but outbreaks of rain developing more widely through the day across scotland and northern ireland. maybe later a bit of rain crossing the irish sea into north—western parts of england and wales. highest temperatures likely to be in eastern england where it will be dry with some sunshine across scotland and northern ireland, 21 maybe in between the rain. the real heat across the channel into france where it is about 31 in paris. this weather

front will take the rains south—eastwards overnight into the south—eastwards overnight into the south—east of england on thursday. north—westerly breeze following behind, we will drop temperatures, cooler and fresh air. thursday, rain more likely across the south—east and east anglia where it will linger in the day. sunshine follows that, though quite a few showers coming into north—western england and northern ireland. across the board, temperatures will be lower on thursday with a top number probably around 21, it will feel somewhat fresher. by friday, the next weather system is arriving to bring some outbreaks of rain again, mainly to scotla nd outbreaks of rain again, mainly to scotland and northern ireland, perhaps the north—west of england. further south and east, dry, increasing amounts of sunshine, temperatures beginning to pick up again, a little bit in the south—east of england but further north under the rain it will be quite a bit cooler. hello, you're watching afternoon live. today at 3. more than 20 people are killed as a major motorway bridge collapses near the northern italian city of genoa — a huge rescue operation is underway.

a man in his 20s is arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences — after a car crashes into barriers outside the houses of parliament. the ford fiesta car hit cyclists and pedestrians — before crashing into a security barrier protecting the palace of westminster. given that this appeared to be a deliberate act, the method and this being an iconic site, we are treating it as a terrorist incident. i'm live at westminster. the police say they're still questioning that suspect in london. they say the man is from the birmingham area, but so far he is refusing to co—operate with officers who are questioning him. not guilty — england cricketer ben stokes is cleared of a charge of affray at bristol crown court. we will have more sport. the

all—rounder has been called up to the england squad for the third test with india. more from you laterjohn and with the latest weather here is darren. so far today most of rain has been across northern parts of the uk. we have atlantic wind and i will show you what that means later. also coming up — should a straight actor play a gay character? the row overjack whitehall‘s casting in a new disney film. hello this is afternoon live.

a motorway bridge has partially collapsed in the italian city of genoa —— killing at least 22 people. this is the scene there live now. rescuers are trying to free people trapped in crushed vehicles below — a government spokesman said it appeared to be ‘an immense tragedy‘. the section of road that collapsed was over a river, and an area of the city. matt cole reports. the fear of those watching can clearly be heard as they watch the bridge structure crumble. police have spoken of a violent cloud burst of rain at the time of the collapse. viewed from a different angle, the size of the missing section is clear. down below, crumpled cars and

lorries. witnesses say vehicles had tumbled from the roadway. firefighters say there have been fatalities and in poor weather, work is ongoing to free trapped people. the viaduct was built in the 60s, but refurbished two years anding. —— two years ago. there was traffic on the bridge when it collapsed. a local news agency claim there is maybe dozens of dead. the transport minister said the collapse seems like an immense tragedy. our global affairs orrespondent cnaomi grimley says the death toll from the collapse is expected to rise. this is a very serious incident. the italian transport minister is talking about it being an immense tragedy. he said he is following the news with great apprehension. we have not got any indication of how

many people have died, but the ambulance services are talking about dozens dead. it is thought there may have been 20 vehicles on this span of bridge when it came down. you can see it seems to have come down in an industrial section of genoa, the rubble is concertinaed across a river and a railway. so very serious indeed and the rescue services are now sifting through that wreckage of rubble and steel rods to try and see if it can rescue any of the drivers. these are the pictures come in live from the bridge in genoa, which trapsed during from the bridge in genoa, which tra psed during a from the bridge in genoa, which trapsed during a heavy rain storm. some reports that lightning had been seenin some reports that lightning had been seen in the area as well. but helicopters now being used in that rescue operation. several people already injured have been taken to hospital. two people seriously injured when the bridge collapsed,

crushing their homes, according to the italian news agency. one woman suffered from smoke inhalation after a fire suffered from smoke inhalation after afire in suffered from smoke inhalation after a fire in her home. a man in his 30s had a severe head injury. the rescue operation involving a lot of rubble and trying to find many vehicles still under the rubble of that bridge. the motorway bridge which collapsed this morning. we will keep you you updated with that story, but the fear is that that death toll will rise as more vehicles are found and the bodies of those are recovered. a man‘s being held on suspicion of terror offences after a car collided with cyclists in westminster. the vehicle ploughed into a security barrier

near old palace yard in front of the houses of parliament. two people were taken to hospital — one of them is still being treated for serious but not life—threatening injuries. the man in custody is in his late twenties and believed to be from the birmingham area — police say he is not to cooperating with them. theresa may has praised the rapid response of the emergency services and said her thoughts were with the people who‘d been hurt. the government‘s emergency cobra committee are meeting this afternoon. ben brown is in westminster for us now. yes, this whole area was in lock down after it happened at seven. 37 this morning. the police have relaxed the cordons. this road is still blocked off. just down there is where it happened this morning. around the westminster area, many other roads have been re—opened. the police say they are questioning this man in his late 20s from the birmingham area, we understand. he

is being held at a police station in south london. so far he is not co—operating, that what is the police are telling us, he is not answering questions about who he is and what his mow tifrs were. in terms of injured, three people were injured. only one of those is still in hospital, a woman who is at st mary‘s hospital, with serious but not life—threatening injuries. the sense here among the emergency services and people who work at westminster, is if this was a terror attack it could have been much worse. our correspondent report ts. sirens in westminster as police co nve rg e sirens in westminster as police converge on the car within seconds. after the crash, a moment of confusion as the car sits smoking at the barriers outside the house of lords. police start pushing people back. armed officer, weapons drawn, swarm over to the car. at this stage

they still don‘t know if this is an accident or an attack. the driver is pulled out. he is filmed standing quietly at the scene in handcuffs. police later confirm he has been arrested on suspicion of terror offences. a bbc camera caught the progress of the silver ford fiesta making it way around parliament square. but then the driver darts back on to the wrong side of the road, ploughing through several cyclists waiting for the lights to change. he appears to accelerate and then pulls into the parliamentary access lane, crashing into the a barriers. he was driving at at least 50mph. the guy seemed very focussed. he wasn‘t panicked or anything. 50mph. the guy seemed very focussed. he wasn't panicked or anything. but is in what is he left in his wake — one cyclist lies injured and is

treated by paramedics. the man retrieves the car‘s licence plate. this man was with them. my initial reaction was to run after him, then it became apparent it was something more serious. with the area cleared, police began their investigation. sniffer dogs were brought in to check the car for explosives. police are treating this as a terror attack. given this appears to be a deliberate attack, the method and this being an iconic site, we are treating it as a terrorist incidents. there is no intelligence at this time of further danger to londoner or the rest of the uk connected to this incident. as one of busiest parts of london remained on lock down, the prime minister praised the courage of the emergency

responders, the government, like eve ryo ne responders, the government, like everyone else, is waiting for a clearer picture to emerge of what happened here. our thoughts are with eve ryo ne happened here. our thoughts are with everyone who has been involved with this incident. i want to thank the emergency services for their response. this is being led by the police, the counter terrorism police are leading the investigation for the metropolitan police, but they‘re keeping open—minded around this incident. the police have still not formally identified the arrested man, thought to be in his 20s. they have said he is not co—operating with their investigations. at two o‘clock a meeting started of the government‘s cobra emergency meeting. we understand that was a government officials meeting, rather than ministers. british transport police say they‘re increasing the amount of officers on patrol around

london. the mayor of london said there will be more police officers on the streets of london. well, first of all, my thoughts are with those injured this morning. one person was treated at the scene, two were taken to hospital. thankfully, the injuries aren't very serious, but clearly it was very scary. anybody who has seen the images from this morning will have seen how scary it must have been. but also will have seen the brave response from our police officers who ran towards this car not knowing who was inside it, what was inside it, to catch the perpetrator, and that is one of the reasons i am confident that we have got the best police service in the world and they are doing all that they can with emergency services, with security services to keep us as safe as we possibly can be. with me now is the security and terror analyst will geddes. as we have been saying, it could have been worse, one man in custody.

could this be a lone wolf or part of a conspiracy. it is difficult to say. based on the information that we have, that this individual didn‘t have any other weapons, it is difficult to say how sophisticated this individual was in terms of planning or any connectivity to others, or even a cell. the vehicle used for one thing, a small vehicle, the ones that we have seen in similar terror attacks have been much bigger — vans or trucks. particularly at that time of day. he wouldn‘t have been hindered so much by the greater flow of traffic that you will see around parliament square. again the delivery of the attack against what is very visibly attack against what is very visibly a good counter measure for these kinds of attacks is very curious in itself. but i think the officers and the counter terrorism commander will be interviewing this individual and

carrying out intelligence gathering around them and will no doubt get some of the answers as to what motivated this individual. a p pa re ntly motivated this individual. apparently he is not giving them any a nswe rs , apparently he is not giving them any answers, although we gather he is from the birmingham area. so it is clear they know who he is. yes it is likely they already know the identify of this individual, they won‘t release that until they have rinsed that identity for as much intelligence as they can to see any background, particularly to any cases they may be investigating and bearing in mind the authorities have said they‘re anything like 600 cases at any given time, there could be cross—fertilisation with others. they will hold that information back. with the history and experience that we have in this cou nts experience that we have in this counts country, it won‘t take long to find out who he is. they know

what happened, although they have forensic experts there, but the question is motivation, why did he do what he did? yes, again is he doing it on behalf of a particular ideology or a group? maybe there are rumours as why he may not be revealing his identity until such time as the group that he is acting on behalf of may potentially lay claim and disclose the name of the individual before he does. but that is pure speculation. the police as well as interviewing himf is pure speculation. the police as well as interviewing him f they know from he is from, checking his home and his computer and mobile phone and his computer and mobile phone and those things that might give them more clues? yes added to which his picture has now been extensively distributed and circulated on social media. although this individual isn‘t disclosing their own identity, there will be someone who will see it on the media or on social media

and probably come fear ward to the authorities and —— forward to the authorities and —— forward to the authorities with the investigation. do you think they need to improve security around here again. it has already been ramped up. this will be based on incidents taking place. it is the second attack in virtually a year. there are some good questions as to whether this area needs to be pedestrianised. bearing in mind its iconic position and there are mps and members of public and visitors to the country, that will circulate around the palace of westminster and maybe more steps need to be taken to keep them more secure. thank you very much. just to sum up then, that man still being questioned on

suspicion of terrorism offences at a police station in london and one casualty still in hospital, with serious injuries, but not life—threatening injuries. that is the latest from westminster. back to you in the studio. thank you. you‘re watching afternoon live, these are our headlines. at last 11 people have died a when motorway bridge has partially collapsed in the italian city of genoa — sending cars and lorries crashing to the ground. a man is arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences after a car crashes outside the houses of parliament, injuring several people. england cricketer ben stokes is found not guilty of affray at bristol crown court .in . in sport ben stokes is called up to the england squad for the third test with india. the ecb said their disciplinary commission will assess to decide what punishment will be handed out to stokes. celtic must score in the second leg of their

champions league qualifier with athens. eilie symonds has qualified for the final of 200 metre individual medley at the european championships. i‘m back with more at around half past. england cricketer ben stokes, has been found not guilty of affray by a jury at bristol crown court. the durham all—rounder denied the charge following the brawl between a group of men last september. speaking outside court afterwards, his lawyer said the player was keen to get back to playing cricket. ben was minding his own business when he came across two men being subjected to what ben identified as serious homophobic abuse. it was only when others came under threat that ben became physically engaged with the men in question. the steps that he took were solely aimed at

ensuring the safety of himself or the others present. the past 11 months have served to highlight to benjust how highly he values his position as an england representative both in terms of the privilege that role entails and the responsibilities that accompany it. now that the trial is over, ben is keen back to cricket being his sole focus. thank you. our sports editor dan roan has the background to this case. he is one of world cricket‘s biggest stars — with both bat and ball, ben stokes is arguably one of england‘s most important and high profile players. but 11 months ago, the all—rounder‘s career and reputation was plunged into uncertainty after he was arrested following a late—night brawl. stokes found himself forced to swap cricket field for courtroom — accompanied throughout his trial each day by his wife and agent. the 27—year—old along with two other men, ryan hale

and ryan ali, all denied the charge of affray. the three had been involved in this late—night brawl outside the city‘s mbargo nightclub in the early hours of september 25th last year. the court was taken through the events leading up to the incident, as some of england‘s players visited the venue after winning a one—day international. cctv footage showed stokes and team mate alex hales trying to re—enter the club. the court heard from doorman, andrew cunningham, who said stokes had been abusive to him and then mocked two gay men — throwing a cigarette but at one of them. the defence had insisted it was just playful banter. mobile phone footage of the fight that followed was played in court. the jury heard both ali and hale had bottles on them initially — ali appearing to threaten hales with his. an off duty community police officer who saw the violence, described stokes as the main aggressor. he knocked both hale and ali unconscious. the latter left with significant injuries, including a fractured eye socket.

these are the two gay men seen chatting to stokes outside the club earlier that evening. neither were called as witnesses in the trial. i didn‘t get involved, i was more on the sidelines, but, yeah, it turned into a massive brawl and obviously i got a bit scared, so i carried on walking. you didn‘t witness the entire fight to the end? i witnessed most of it, yeah, when the guy was on the floor, that is when i thought it was a bit too much for me. with the prosecution case over, thejudge directed the jury to acquit hale. and the defence began. the court hearing from stokes for the first time. he said he had stepped in when the two gay men had been subject to homophobic comments — something he suggested to police back when he was arrested. ali denied that, however, insisting there had just been banter between him, hale and the two gay men. stokes may have since returned to cricket, but in the wake of incident he was suspended,

meaning that he missed the ashes series to australia last year. here at lord‘s the ecb will now conduct its own internal inquiry into a saga that has been damaging for both the player and those who run the game. obviously, when you're trying to attract new people — families kids, even women — to cricket, you want to show it as a sport which respects people generally and attracts good people, good people who are respectful of each other and have good behaviour. so it wasn't a particularly good episode. today‘s not guilty verdict will come as a huge relief to stokes and england. but having been cleared by the courts he must now wait to see if cricket‘s governing body takes any action. the rate of unemployment in the three months tojune of this year fell to its lowest level since februrary 1975. today‘s figures also show that pay rose on average by 2.7%, that‘s higher than the official rate of inflation. there was also a record fall in the number of eu

nationals working in the uk. our economics correspondent andy verity reports. many of the uk‘s workers weren‘t yet born when unemployment was last this low. at this leeds factory, workers have to be skilled to make products for use in everything from water treatment tanks to showers. theory says when there are not as many workers, you have to pay more. this firm fits that mould. pay rises have been between three and 4% for the last four years. it gets more expensive living. i remember my dad saying about seven years ago the national minimum wage was in his words ok. if you‘re clever with your money it will be all right. to me, i didn‘t really think so. because everything just seems to be going up and up and up. and ijust think that

we asa and up and up. and ijust think that we as a company had to work on ensuring that it was a fair reward for what people did. paying inflation—beating pay rises is working at this firm. staff who feel value rd prepared to stay, even if they could get more elsewhere. value rd prepared to stay, even if they could get more elsewherelj value rd prepared to stay, even if they could get more elsewhere. i got offered doubled and i didn't ask what he wanted do, i said i wasn't interested. it is not the money here it's the people. that is what makes it's the people. that is what makes it good to work here. workers are being dealt a stronger hand. the average pay rise was 2.7%, more than inflation and the number of unemployed is just 4. 0% inflation and the number of unemployed is just 4.0% of the available workforce. separately today‘s figures show the number of eu workers is down by 86,000. the biggest fall in 21 years. employers can biggest fall in 21 years. employers ca n afford biggest fall in 21 years. employers can afford to pay rises if the

amount each worker produces is going up. give than today‘s figures also show that that is improving, the puzzle for some is why pay isn‘t rising faster. unions don't have the same influence they did and in the private sector in particular there is only about 15% of people have anyone to speak up for them. that drives the sentiment. unless people can change employment, their stuck with the wages they have. many employers are worried they won‘t get the skilled workers they need. which may get worse when we leave te you. holding back economic growth. jack whitehall‘s casting in a new disney film has sparked an outcry, following reports he will play a character who‘s gay. the comedian wrote that he was "honoured" to be part ofjungle cruise, which is due out next year, and it was later reported that he would be playing a gay man. the news has led some people to ask why a gay actor wasn‘t cast for the role.

lizo mzimba has more. world, get ready for the adventure of a lifetime. welcome tojungle cruise! based on a theme park ride, jungle cruise starring dwayne "the rock" johnson and filmed on huge sets in hawaii, is set to be one of 2019‘s biggest movies. it comes from disney. the studio has been praised for the way it‘s dealt with issues like diversity in films like black panther. hi everybody, welcome to the set ofjungle cruise. but the movie, which also stars emily blunt, is facing controversy over how her character‘s brother has reportedly been cast. class, i've got good news and bad news, what do you want? the bad news. it‘s not really that jack whitehall, best known for his stand—up act and the tv comedy bad education, has been cast. it is that according to a newspaper report his character is a gay man, with many people saying they are upset that a gay actor wasn‘t picked for the role. it‘s great that disney has got a gay role like this in one of their big films.

but there are so many gay actors who could have played the role that it seems a missed opportunity. lgbt people are underrepresented in the media and in films, so disney had an opportunity here to improve that representation by having a talented gay actor that can embrace the role and play something like this in the film. neitherjack whitehall nor disney have confirmed the character‘s sexuality, but unsurprisingly the issue is still being vigorously debated on social media. omar shariffjunior is an actor and campaigner on issues like gay representation, he said: "really, disney? your first significant gay role will be played by a straight white man perpetuating stereotypes? fail! this ship should sink." however stephen fry, who has also campaigned on issues affecting gay people, tweeted: "i share your shame jack whitehall — i played a straight man more than once. a father even. i should have been sent fortraining, correction and adjustment years ago". disney are no doubt already carefully assessing

whetherjungle cruise still looks likely to sail to box office success, or whether they think it‘s already heading for difficult waters. lizo mzimba, bbc news. now it‘s time for a look at the weather with darren bett. hello, it has been a drier today for eastern parts of england. we have seen some rain pushing eastwards across scotland and northern ireland. that rain rain tending to peter out. england and wales dry with some sunshine. highs of 25 degrees. there was a fair bit of cloud heading our way and we may see some rain in northern ireland back into northern england and across western scotland later on in the night. south—westerly breezes, that isa mild night. south—westerly breezes, that is a mild direction, keeping the cloud coming in and preventing temperatures from falling any lower than 13 degrees. tomorrow, we start dry with sunshine in england and

wales. we will see cloud thickening in scotland and northern ireland. rain developing more widely through the day. but still some sunshine between the rain. a finger of rain comes over the irish sea into north western england and wales. highest temperatures in eastern england 24 or 25. this is bbc news — our latest headlines. at least 22 people have died after a major motorway bridge collapses in northern italy, rescuers are searching the rubble and wrecked vehicles for survivors a man in his 20s is arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences — after a car crashes into barriers outside the houses of parliament. police say the suspect is ‘not co—operating‘. london ambulance service treated several people at the scene — one person is still being treated in hospital. england cricketer ben stokes is cleared of a charge of affray at bristol crown court. his lawyer says he‘s looking forward to playing cricket again. and tenants are to be given greater powers —

according to new government proposals for social housing. is this a step in the right direction? we‘ll be finding out what one ‘social change organisation‘ make of the proposals. sport now on afternoon live withjohn watson. it looks like ben stokes‘ request being listened to? he could be back in england shirt sooner than you expect. soon, he‘s been called up into the england squad and could now play in the third test against india at trent bridge on saturday. his inclusion came hours after that not guilty verdict having not been named in the initial squad yesterday. the ecb‘s independent disciplinary commission will now meet to decide if any further action will be taken against stokes and alex hales following that incident outside a nightclub in bristol. any possible ban could be reduced by including time spent out of the team last year when he wasn‘t selected for teh ashes tour.

let‘s talk celtic. they have a big champions league games tonight? celtic must score tonight in the second leg of their champions league qualifier, if they‘re to keep alive their hopes of reaching the tournament‘s group phase. one all from the first leg at celtic park, they‘re in greece to face aek athens, off the back of a defeat to hearts in the scottish premiership at the weekend. at stake later, a place in the play—off round, and while striker moussa dembele returns from injury, he won‘t be starting in athens... probably too much to start. he will take his place on the bench. but he has looked very fit and strong. in his rehabilitation. the beauty with moussa is he wants to play, he wants to be involved so too much of a risk to start but i am sure at some point in the game he will play a part.

tottenham have apologised to supporters after the unavoidable delay to the opening of their new stadium at white hart lane and have offered to reimburse supporters some of the cost of their season tickets. on monday the club announced that next months first game in the new stadium would have to be moved. the club said in a statement that they couldn‘t compromise on safety and went on to apologise to the supporters for the delay — saying they‘re acutely aware of the disappointment this may cause it‘s day two of the para swimming european championships in dublin. paralympian ellie simmonds qualifying from today‘s 200m individual medley sm6 heats to reach tonight‘s final. kate grey has more. it was a busy morning for the british team, with 11 athletes qualifying through to this evening‘s final. three of which came from the women‘s sm6 childrenm individual medley, sm6 200m individual medley, including paralympic champion, ellie simmonds. it was the first time she was competing in a british cap

since the rio paralympics and she qualified in third position, with 15—year—old briton maisie summers newton qualifying fastest. when i caught up with simmonds at the end of her race, she admitted she was focused on her long—term targets. to be honest, i‘m not really thinking about medals at the minute, i‘m just rented about their own race tonight. like i say, me and my coach say "mission: 2020", that‘s our aim. this isjust... i was just so surprised to make the team, let alone be here and race tonight. i‘m just going to see how it goes. the british s14s continued to dominate, this time in the 200m freestyle. jessica —jane applegate qualified fastest in the women‘s event and world—record holder and commonwealth champion tom hamer qualified in second. but he reassured me there was more to come this evening with hopes to add to his medal collection. commonwealth gold medallist serena guthrie will be returning to the uk for the 2019 netball season. she‘s been playing in australia for two seasons but she‘s decided to come back for the build—up to the world cup. it was in australia that guthrie

helped england to a sensational victory over australia in the commonwealth games final. she plays at centre but it‘s not yet know which club she‘ll be signing for when she returns. that‘s all the sport for now. thank you. let‘s ta ke let‘s take you back to genoa because that rescue operation still under way at that collapsed bridge. this is an 80 metre section of the bridge, including one set of the support that tower above it. it came down earlier this morning about 11:30am and local time during heavy rain. one eyewitness said she saw the bridge struck by lightning. cars and trucks trapped in the rubble, thatis and trucks trapped in the rubble, that is what rescue operators are concentrating on. nearby buildings

we re concentrating on. nearby buildings were also damaged. when the tonnes of rubble came down around them. questions already being asked about the structural nature of the bridge. it was built in the 60s but underwent refurbishmentjust it was built in the 60s but underwent refurbishment just two yea rs underwent refurbishment just two years ago. the deputy transport minister in italy has said it is not a cce pta ble minister in italy has said it is not acceptable that such an important bridge was not built to avoid this kind of collapse. recriminations already starting but in the middle of what is still a alive rescue operation, with a number of cars and trucks still thought to be underneath the rubble. and the as you can see are on standby on the road, but until this morning that was under the bridge. some cars are perched precariously at the edge of that bridge, one lorryjust metres

away as that bridge collapsed in front of her. so, that is the scene now in genoa. we will have much more information as we get it. it is our main story, more on that until 4pm. let‘s get more on the arrest of a man on suspicion of terror offences after a car crashed into security barriers outside the houses of parliament. it happened just outside the palace of westminster at about seven thirty this morning — as people were heading to work in central london. the car was travelling westbound past the houses of parliament when it swerved into eastbound traffic — hitting security barriers. it came to rest at the barriers. severe damage at the front of the car. several cyclists were hit — two people were taken to hospital — one was discharged and a woman is being treated for serious injuries. thought not to be life—threatening.

police arrested a man a 20 year old man at the scene — it‘s believed the suspect is from the birmingham area. prime minister theresa may said her thoughts were with those injured in the westminster car crash and thanked the emergency services for their "immediate and courageous" response. the government‘s emergency cobra committee is meeting now. metropolitan police assistant commissioner neil basu gave a statement outside new scotland yard. at 7:37am, a silver ford fiesta was involved in a collision in front of the houses of parliament. that vehicle collided with cyclists and pedestrians before hitting the barrier and coming to a stop. two people have been taken to hospital.

one man has already been discharged and one woman remains in hospital being treated for serious but tha nkfully being treated for serious but thankfully not life—threatening injuries. another man is also being treated at the scene but did not require hospital treatment. the driver of the fiesta who was alone in the vehicle was arrested at the scene by armed officers who were already nearby. the man is in his late 20s, arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences and has been taken to a south london police station where he remains in custody. given this appears to be a deliberate act, the method and this being an iconic site, we are treating it as a terrorist incident on the investigation is being led by officers from the counter terrorism command. officers are searching the vehicle but no other weapons have been found at this time. at this early stage of the investigation, no other suspects that the scene have been identified or reported to police. there is no intelligence at

this time of further danger to londoners for the rest of the uk, connected to this incident. our priority now is to formally establish the identity of the suspect, and establishes motivation if we can. he is not currently cooperating. as you would expect, detectives from the counter terrorism command are various other urgent enquiries to ensure there is no outstanding risk to the public. the mayor of london, sadiq khan, has been giving his response to this morning‘s events. well, first of all, my thoughts are with those injured this morning. one person was treated at the scene, two were taken to hospital. thankfully, the injuries aren‘t very serious, but clearly it was very scary. anybody who has seen the images from this morning will have seen how scary it must have been. but also will have seen the brave response from our police officers who ran towards this car not knowing who was inside it, what was inside it, to catch the perpetrator, and that is one of the reasons i am confident that we have got the best police service in the world and they are doing all that they can

with emergency services, with security services to keep us as safe as we possibly can be. what about the security measures in place? why are you satisfied? we have seen across the world, major cities facing threats of terrorism from targets who wants to divide our communities, cause injury and cause death. as a city we continue to evolve our response to terror attacks but also to evolve to keep us safe to deter and prevent attacks taking place in the first place. i am reassured our police and security services, emergency services, we are all doing what we can to keep our city safe. londoners will have seen during the course of the last 18 months various measures taken across our city from hostile vehicle barriers on bridges and other parts of london when it comes to designing buildings now, we often designed them to make sure they are as safe as they can be. over the course of

the next few days londoners and tourists will see more armed police officers, more an armed police officers, more an armed police officers, they should not be scared by that, they should remain calm and vigilant. if anyone sees anything at all dangerous they can ring 999 if it‘s an emergency or if they have any information about terrorist activity they can ring the counterterrorism hotline. the government is considering giving tenants in england more support to hold landlords to account — by speeding up the complaints procedure and publishing league tables. the measures are part of what ministers call "a landmark opportunity for major reform" on social housing. but campaign groups say what‘s needed is more homes for people on low incomes. frankie mccamley has more. in the wake of the grenfell tower today the government promised tragedy the government promised to gear its social housing policy towards making tenants lives better. today it released a green paper on the issue, among the ideas are measures to speed up the complaints process,

a drive to help get rid of the stigma often attached to social housing and a scheme giving tenants the right to buy 1% of their home each year. this is an important next step, we want to consult on it further but it sets out these significant principles that are about delivering that step change in social housing. the government paper says a priority is building the social homes we need. but it gives no details on how that will be done. which leaves hundreds of thousands of people on social housing lists. freddie has been waiting for a house for more than 18 years because he cannot afford to rent or buy. i‘ve got a very big family and it‘s basically to make sure my family is being supported. the situation is where we have lost money. i did not have that money to basically buy my own place. this is one of the sites in england where you can see new social housing being built.

we are around a mile and a half from manchester city centre where 500 new units are going up. 200 of those will be social housing. but campaigners say it‘s not enough, they want more concrete plans from the government. this green paper was an opportunity for the government are right that for the government to right that wrong and set out an ambitious target to deliver the low—cost rented homes england needs. unfortunately what we see in the green paper is a restatement of announcements which have already been made and not a single additional house will be built as a result of this green paper. a consultation will run until november but the questions remain. will this lead to new homes being built, and will the government deliver on the promises it made in the wake of a fire that killed so many? we can talk now to katie schmuecker, head of policy at thejoseph rowntree foundation — a charity who promote research for social policy.

thank you forjoining us. the organisation had three tests by which they were going to judge this, how does it do on those? u nfortu nately how does it do on those? unfortunately it has not done overly well. one of the tests we set out was that the social housing green paper was serious about giving te na nts paper was serious about giving tenants voice and addressing issues of stigma in the social rented sector. we think it‘s really important that the government has highlighted these issues that the government is looking at the way in which it talks about social housing, soi which it talks about social housing, so i think we‘ve done quite well on that front, front, it certainly what we would like to see from the government— talking about low—cost rented housing is playing a vital role in our society in terms of enabling people to build a better life for themselves and for their families. they have not gone too badly on that one, it‘s the other two tests where we have not seen what we need to see from this green

paper. those were about having a really ambitious approach to increasing the supply of low—cost rented housing in england and also making sure the low—cost rented housing that is being delivered is actually affordable to people who are locked in lower earnings, to people who live in poverty and on low incomes. unfortunately, what we don‘t see in this green paper is any firm commitment to increase the amount offunding firm commitment to increase the amount of funding that is going into increasing the supply of low—cost rented homes and making up that gap that we all know we face in terms of the housing available. if we are looking at low income working families, what‘s the difference between an affordable rents, social rent undeliverable rent? they all seem to suggest the same thing. affordable rent is a government policy which is a newer, slightly higher rent than the traditional social rent. an affordable rent is set in relation to the local private rented sector rents. we have real issue with this, as to whether or

not this actually delivers an affordable rents to people. a typical two—bedroom property is about £1400 per month more expensive if it‘s an affordable rent compared to the social rent. to put that into some perspective, that‘s a typical low income family‘s energy bill for the year. that‘s a substantial amount of money more that it costs to live in one of these affordable rented homes, we don‘t think they actually give people the breathing space to enable them to build a better life for themselves and their families. what we think needs to happen is that families are offered a living rent, a rent set in relation to the amount of money people are actually earning, so if you are on low pay, a typical low job for your local area, you would actually be able to afford the rent. at the end of the day, if you are a cleaner or a cashier or working behind a bar, you need to be able to afford your rent and it is simply not right that so many people are being pushed into poverty because of

the high cost housing. yesterday we we re the high cost housing. yesterday we were talking about government initiatives to tackle homelessness and one thing out of that was building more homes. it‘s the same argument here. absolutely, that's something these two issues clearly have in common. we are simply not building enough low—cost rented housing that actually would help to loosen the grip of poverty on people‘slives and help them build better lives. it‘s essential we begin to make up the difference because we have been failing to build around 30,000 generally affordable homes that we need every year. what that means is 30,000 families every year are being pushed into the private rented sector where rents a re into the private rented sector where rents are higher, where tenancies are rents are higher, where tenancies a re less rents are higher, where tenancies are less secure, and where families are less secure, and where families a re really are less secure, and where families are really struggling to make ends meet at the end of the month, the thought of even being able to find the breathing space to start to begin to save for a deposit is simply out of the question for so many of those families at the moment, and a lower cost rent would

give them the opportunity to begin to build a better. thank you so much for your time. -- build a better life. first a look at the headlines on afternoon live. at last 22 people have died after a motorway bridge partially collapsed in the italian city of genoa , sending cars and lorries crashing to the ground. a man is arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences after a car crashes outside the houses of parliament, injuring several people. england cricketer ben stokes is found not guilty of affray at bristol crown court. here‘s your business headlines on afternoon live. unemployment fell by 65 thousand to 1.3 milliion in the three months tojune. that‘s the lowest it‘s been in more than 40 years. but the growth in wages has slowed down. they‘re about 2.7 per cent higher than they were a year ago. we‘ll have more on this in a moment.

ofcom has fined royal mail a record £50 million for breaching competition law. the fine is for its actions in 2014 when whistl, which was then known as tnt, was trying to become its first competitor in wholesale mail delivery. whistl is seeking damages. royal mail says it will challenge the fine. homebase has announced plans to close 42 stores, putting about 1,500 jobs at risk — that‘s abut 10% of its workforce. it‘s already closed 17 stores this year. uk unemployment is at the lowest level since 1975? and encouraging figure. that's right, more than 40 years. as we can see on the screen there, the figure fell by 65,000 to one million in the three months according to official figures. that‘s despite the number ofjobs figures. that‘s despite the number of jobs that was created figures. that‘s despite the number ofjobs that was created by the economy going up slower than expected a chest 40 2000.

the number of people from the eu working in the uk, fell by 86 thousand — that‘s the biggest fall since records began in 1997. but the number of workers from outside the eu went up by 74 thousand to just over a million. there was a slowdown in the growth of wages — they went up byjust 2.7 per cent. analyst anna leach says that living standards are still under pressure. households have remained, incomes have remained under pressure for quite some time. it certainly does not do anything to ease that pressure. it's worth bearing in mind that the bank of england have been saying for some time that they are expecting a temporary slowdown in wage growth. we can expect wage growth to pick up slightly in the months ahead, but underpinning the weakness in wage growth is the weakness in wage growth is the weakness in wage growth is the

weakness in productivity. we have seen productivity figures for key published today. they show a bit of an improvement in productivity growth but the underlying picture remains very weak. without any material improvement in productivity story, we are not really going to see any material improvement in wage growth and we can therefore expect consumers to remain under pressure for the foreseeable future. and as we‘ve been hearing homebase is to close 42 stores in uk and ireland. this puts 1,500 jobs at risk. entering a company voluntary arrangement — inwolvency procedure allows insolvency procedure allows struggling firms to close underpferforming shops and reach agreement with creditors over paying off debt. companies like carpetright, mothercare and new look have all entered these agreements

in recent months. it's it‘s just really a sign of the kind of trouble that many parts of the high street are in. let‘s hear from retail analyst catherine shuttleworth. we are buying houses later, we are not spending on diy and more of us are shopping online. more places are selling things like homebase self, sell, so we can do that in supermarkets or. —— more places are selling things that homebase cell. lacklustre trade on the ftse today. biggest faller is the copper miner antofagasta — its disappointed investors with a 16 per cent fall in profits. that really has not gone down well

with investors. the insurance company esure — is on the rise — after announcing its going to be bought for more than a billion pounds royal mail though is under pressure — that‘s after being fined £50 million by the regulator for abusing its market position. they have stamped on them. they have stamped on themlj they have stamped on them. i see what you did there! there has been a dramatic fall in the number of mountain hares in the eastern highlands. a new study shows their population is less than 1% of the levels seen in the 19505. conservationists blame culling, but that is disputed by moorland managers. kevin keane has been to find out more. they are majestic mammals whose

colour changes with the seasons. but this secretly recorded film shows that mountain hares are regularly culled by shooting estates where they are seen as a threat to the grouse. now this renowned ecologist says their numbers in the east highlands are a tiny fraction of their levels in the middle of the last century. looking at the long—term data, places which were moving with hares, until then — now, you wouldn‘t see one, or you might see one in the winter, and that was a colossal change. one of the best costs about £4000 a year. doctor adam watson has been an authority on the cairngorms for many decades, with details stretching back to the second world war. then, he was just a boy of 14.

i‘ve got this massive fieldwork from 1943 coming up to date — that‘s 75 years, a lifetime. hares are an important prey species for some of our most endangered and iconic birds, but they can carry a virus which passes to the grouse, which is so important to our shooting estates. top predators like golden eagles, white—tailed eagles, are a conservation concern in their own right and the mountain hare is an important prey component for the species. probably, by reducing mountain hare densities at low levels, we are limiting the population of golden eagles indirectly. the studies‘ findings are disputed by land managers who say the decimation described is not recognised on the ground. the levels of mountain hares on managed grouse areas can be extremely high, and our members find the reality is simply not

that they are disappearing, they are quite difficult to contain sometimes. some groups want hare culling banned entirely but adam watson says it wouldn‘t be necessary if proper controls were put in place to ensure their continued survival. time for a look at the weather. here‘s darren bett. what we are seeing at the moment is a fairly typical weather pattern for this time of the year, instead of high pressure dominating we have a strongerjet stream closer to the uk and our weather coming in from the atlantic. over the next few days we will find bands of clown fish down to the north—west to bring outbreaks of rain at times. —— bands of cloud pushing down from the north—west. not much rain today for england and wales but a different story across scotland and northern ireland, outbreaks of rain pushing east of scotland, tending to peter out,

so may get late sunshine. lots of dry weather to come, the best temperatures with limited sunshine in south—east england. most places dry this evening, we may well find later on in the night more rain coming back into northern ireland, towards the north west of england and north—west scotland. lots of cloud coming our way, coming in on those south—westerly breezes, to keep the temperature is up, perhaps no lower than 13 or 14. wednesday, starting with sunshine across most of england and wales but outbreaks of rain developing more widely through the day across scotland and northern ireland. maybe later a bit of rain crossing the irish sea into north—western parts of england and wales. highest temperatures likely to be in eastern england where it will be dry with some sunshine across scotland and northern ireland, 21 maybe in between the rain. the real heat across the channel into france where it is about 31 in paris. this weather front will take the rains south—eastwards

overnight into the south—east of england on thursday. north—westerly breeze following behind, we will drop temperatures, cooler and fresh air. thursday, rain more likely across the south—east and east anglia where it will linger in the day. sunshine follows that, though quite a few showers coming into north—western england and northern ireland. across the board, temperatures will be lower on thursday with a top number probably around 21, it will feel somewhat fresher. by friday, the next weather system is arriving to bring some outbreaks of rain again, mainly to scotland and northern ireland, perhaps the north—west of england. further south and east, dry, increasing amounts of sunshine, temperatures beginning to pick up again, a little bit in the south—east of england but further north under the rain it will be quite a bit cooler. hello, you‘re watching afternoon live. i‘m simon mccoy. today at 4. at least 30 people are killed as a major motorway bridge collapses near the northern italian city of genoa.

a man in his 20s is arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences — after a car crashes into barriers outside the houses of parliament. the ford fiesta car hit cyclists and pedestrians, before crashing into a security barrier protecting the palace of westminster. given this appears a deliberate act, the method and this being an iconic site, we are treating it as a terrorist incident. i'm ben brown, i will be reporting from the scene. the car is behind the screens behind me. the police are still interviewing that suspect they arrested. they say so far he is refusing to answer their questions. not guilty — england cricketer ben stokes is cleared of a charge of affray at bristol crown court. coming up on afternoon live all the sport. and will he be playing again soon?

we could see him sooner than expected. he has been called up to the england squad for the third test with india. thank you. talk to you later. darren has all the weather. we have atlantic wind bringing cloud across many parts. most of the rain has faded away. we will keep atlantic winds through the week and into next week. i will explain what that means later. also coming up — should a straight actor play a gay character? the row overjack whitehall‘s casting in a new disney film. hello everyone — this is afternoon live, i‘m simon mccoy. a motorway bridge has partially collapsed in the italian city of genoa — killing at least 30 people. this is the scene there live now.

rescuers are trying to free people trapped in crushed vehicles below. a government spokesman said it appeared to be ‘an immense tragedy‘. the section of road that collapsed was over a river, and an area of the city. matt cole reports. man shouting. the fear of those watching can clearly be heard as they watch the bridge structure crumble. police have spoken of a violent cloud burst of rain. viewed from above, the size of missing section is clear. some 200 metres of a10 motorway now gone. down below, crumpled cars and lorries. witnesses say vehicles had tumbled from the roadway. firefighters contended with

poor weather as they attempted rescues. this is how the viaduct had looked. it was built in the 60s, but refurbished two years ago. now collapsed, much of the fallen section landed 100 metres below on railtracks. the scale of the structure is made clear. look at how small the emergency workers are in comparison. with weather improving, there is now a sizeable emergency effort ongoing. but more than 20 people have been confirmed dead. a figure which officials say could rise still more. the italian transport minister said the collapse seems like an immense tragedy. our global affairs correspondent naomi grimley says the death toll from the collapse is expected to rise. this is a very serious incident. the italian transport minister is talking about it being an immense tragedy. he said he is following the news with great apprehension. we have so far not got

any indication of how many people have died, but the ambulance services are talking about dozens dead. it is thought there may have been 20 vehicles on this span of bridge when it came down. you can see it seems to have come down in an industrial section of genoa. the rubble is concertinaed across a river and a railway. so very serious indeed and the rescue services are now sifting through that wreckage of rubble and steel rods to try and see if it can rescue any of the drivers. it seems there was torrential rain in the area over the last 24 hours. there is speculation the bridge may have been struck by lightning. but it is within the eu where bridges and infrastructure are made to high

standarded and supposed to be monitored all the time. there has been a quote from the motorway operator saying they were carrying out maintenance to the bridge, saying they were strengthening the road foundations of the bridge and stressing it was under constant monitoring. clearly the weather, but also what‘s being going on, what kind of reconstruction have they been trying to do to the bridge, these things will be key to the investigation. a man‘s being held on suspicion of terror offences after a car collided with cyclists in westminster. the vehicle ploughed into a security barrier near old palace yard in front of the houses of parliament. two people were taken to hospital — one of them is still being treated for serious but not life—threatening injuries. the man in custody is in his late twenties and believed to be from the birmingham area — police say he is not to cooperating with them. theresa may has praised the rapid response of the emergency services and said her thoughts were with the people

who‘d been hurt. the government‘s emergency cobra committee are meeting this afternoon. ben brown is in westminster for us now. good afternoon from westminster, well this whole area was in lock down after it happened at seven. 37 this morning. the police have now relaxed the cordons. parliament square, which is where we are, has been reopened. but there are still some roads sealed off. you can see the screens behind me, behind those screens is the car that was involved, this silver ford fiesta. forensic experts are still examining it, looking for any clues. they have a police drone flying above it as well. they‘re trying to piece together what happened. what we know is that the fiesta swerved, hit some cyclists, three cyclists at least

we re cyclists, three cyclists at least were injured. one is still in hospital. a woman at st mary‘s with serious injuries. it veered and accelerated, witnesses say up to 40mph was the speed when it hit the security barriers and drove into those barriers. quickly after that, armed police were on the scene and arresting the suspect. he is being questioned on suspicion of terrorism offences. he is at a south london police station. we don‘t yet know his identity, although it is being said he is from the birmingham area and the car was registered in noting ham. but police say that at the moment he is not co—operating and not answering their questions about who he is and what were his motives. this report from our correspondent richard lister. sirens in westminster as police converge on the car within seconds. after the crash, a moment of confusion as the car sits smoking at the barriers outside the house of lords. police start pushing people back.

armed officers, weapons drawn, swarm over to the car. at this stage, they still don‘t know if this is an accident or an attack. the driver is pulled out. he is filmed standing quietly at the scene in handcuffs. police later confirm he has been arrested on suspicion of terror offences. a bbc camera caught the progress of the silver ford fiesta making it way around parliament square. but then the driver darts back on to the wrong side of the road, ploughing through several cyclists waiting for the lights to change. he appears to accelerate and then pulls into the parliamentary access lane, crashing into the barriers. he was driving about at least 50mph. the guy seemed very focussed. he wasn‘t panicked or anything. but this what is he left in his wake —

one cyclist lies seriously injured and is treated by paramedics. two people were taken to hospital. a man retrieves the car‘s licence plate. another sits on the pavement in a state of shock. this man was with them when the car struck. my initial reaction was to run after him, because i thought he was an errant car driver. then it became apparent it was something more serious. with the area cleared, police began their investigation. sniffer dogs were brought in to check the car for explosives. police say no weapons were found, but they are treating this as a terror attack. given this appears to be a deliberate act, the method and this being an iconic site, we are treating it as a terrorist incident. there is no intelligence at this time of further danger to londoners, or the rest of the uk

connected to this incident. as one of busiest parts of london remained on lockdown, the prime minister praised the courage of the emergency responders. the government, like everyone else, is waiting for a clearer picture to emerge of what happened here. our thoughts are with everyone who has been involved with this incident. i want to thank the emergency services for their response. this is being led by the police, the counter terrorism police are leading the investigation for the metropolitan police, but they‘re keeping open—minded around this incident. londoners will see and tourists will sigh more armed police officers, more police officers. they shouldn't be scared by that. they should remain calm and vigilant. the police have still not formally identified the arrested man, thought to be in his 20s. they have said he is not co—operating

with their investigations. as the police continue their investigation, the government‘s cobra emergency committee has been meeting this afternoon. to discuss the threat raised by this, what appears to have been a terror attack at westminster. we can show you the scene from our other camera, with that ford fiesta still outside the palace of westminster. i can see it from where i am. the scenes of crimes officers just still examining the car. they have been for some time now. examining that vehicle for any forensic clues or evidence that. it is not so much what happened here, it is clear what happened. there is a lot of cctv footage and mobile phone footage and witnesses. it is more why this was carried out and they are still interviewing the suspect at that police station in

south london. of course, it was last march last year that khalid masoud carried out an attack here that left four people dead. after that security was ramped up. people are saying, does it need to be ramped up further? perhaps pedestrianising the whole area. to stop any kind of vehicle attack in the future. that is perhaps to be debated another day. for the moment we know that one of the casualties is still in hospital with serious injury, but not life—threatening injuries. that suspect is still being interviewed ina suspect is still being interviewed in a police station. back to you. thank you. joining me now is andrew trotter. the one thing that is clear is how very, very fast the police came into action as soon as there

was any sign of trouble? yes, that was any sign of trouble? yes, that was any sign of trouble? yes, that was an impressive response. it shows since the last attacks, they have had officers on duty 24 hours a day, ready for an instant response. it shows how well prepared the police are for such an occurrence. you will know better than i, what makes this, why would police say at an early stage it is being treated as a terrorist incident? it is an iconic site, the nature of the attack, we still don‘t know what the motivation was. but it is right that counter terrorism command have taken on the investigation. given the history of attacks on that site and the nature of this particular one. but it is still a strange attack this one and quite clearly they will be telling us more in due course and as we know, cobra has been sitting this afternoon, they will have been briefed on what‘s going on. and no doubt we will hear more in due course. when you say strange,

because as you say we are talking about an iconic site, but parliament is not sitting and it would appear amateurish on the face of it, if it was indeed an attack. yes, that is my thoughts. if you were planning an attack in such a place, why do it when parliament is not sitting? while it is dreadfully tragic we have these injuries to the cyclists, but a lot more damage could have been done if the attack had been carried out in another way and driving straight down into the barriers and the barriers are there to dojust barriers and the barriers are there to do just what they did — to stop him. so it is a strange one. so there may well be other explanations to what the motivation for this vyd ra. to what the motivation for this vydra. but we have heard he is not co—operating. no doubt we will hear more as the case unfolds. it is clear that a procedure immediately kicks into action when something like this happens. at a senior level

at scotland yard, what would be going on as they get the initial reports? the senior officer on duty all the time, the moment they have that report, they will immediately call together all the relevant agencies at the strategic level. but on the ground where the reaction is, thatis on the ground where the reaction is, that is down to the superb front line officers who respond instantly. they won‘t need any command to tell them what to do. they‘re very well trained and highly professional. they will get on and do that. straightaway those back at the yard will pull together the agencies and to talk to security services and the government and the mayor. and of course to make sure that the public are told what is going on via the media. it is a well—rehearsed u nfortu nately, media. it is a well—rehearsed unfortunately, london has been through so many attacks and the met and the other forces learn from everything that went on. they

debrief rigorously and make sure lessons a re debrief rigorously and make sure lessons are learned each time. it is becoming a slick operation. you say well prepared, but human beings who when they first hear this, will think, oh, gosh, not again? what's impressed me over the years, going on from 7/7 is through the training and the rehearsals, they help enormously. when you‘re under pressure, you know you have been through this routine and know what to do, it is a well tried response. that is not to say you can‘t respond to changing circumstances, i think the police in london are good at doing that. it is so well rehearsed and exercised that people slot into roles straightaway and what impresses me is how calm they are. i have seen people in operation under intense pressure, but they have carried out all sorts of training and operations through the years. everything from public order

matters, demonstrations, riots, through to counter terrorism, they have undergone a long apprenticeship, before they‘re left to be in command of such operations. from the investigating side, these are very from the investigating side, these are very experienced detectives. we have a very good team dealing with this. thank you. you‘re watching afternoon live, these are our headlines italy‘s deputy prime minister says around 30 people have died after a motorway bridge partially collapsed in the italian city of genoa — sending cars and lorries crashing to the ground. a man is arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences after a car crashes outside the houses of parliament, injuring several people. england cricketer ben stokes is found not guilty of affray at bristol crown court. in sport stokes has been called up to the england squad ahead of third test with india on saturday following the verdict. the ecb said their disciplinary commission will meet to discuss what punishments if

any will be handed out to stokes. celtic must score in the second leg of their champions league qualifier. they face aek athens in greece. tieson fury has been goading his rival ahead of their fight this weekend. i‘m back with more at around half past. some breaking news. we are hearing from the prime minister‘s spokesman who has been talking to to lobby, saying that since march last year, 13 islamists plots and four right plots have been successfully foiled. this is a new number. the last number in the public domain was 12

islamist plots. as of the end of june there was 676 live investigations by police into potential terrorist plots. this confirming what our correspondent said an hour ago. the last number was in the, the last... number in the public domain was there were more than 500 investigations. that is updated to 676. the prime minister‘s spokesman saying we can assume between march and june the number of investigations has indeed risen. on top of the events in westminster, though not directly related to them. we are just also, something else to tell you, more breaking news from formula one, the two—time champion, fernando alonso, is to retire from formula one at the end of the season. confirmation from his team mclaren. the 37—year—old

spaniard, who has 32 grand prix wins, has become increasingly disenchanted formula one as mclaren have fallen well off the pace. a statement from mclaren, there is a time for everyone to make a change. fernando alonso has decided the end of season to be his. we respect his decision, even if we believe he is in the finest form of his career. more on that in our sports bulletin later. homebase is expected to close 42 of its stores — putting around 1,500 jobs at risk. after a comprehensive review, the company said its current store portfolio was no longer viable. it‘s the latest in a series of store closures on the high street. our business correspondent emma simpson has more. homebase has already been closing stores. 16 in the last year and this one in west london is also going. today news of more to come. homebase now wants to get rid of another 42 underperforming shops.

more stores closing. i mean, it is a shame. it really is. because where can we go here in walking distance to get some plants and things like this, there‘s nowhere. i am ambivalent about it in a way, but obviously there was a lot ofjobs and that kind of thing and it is very tricky for people. and we're losing lots and lots of the high—street shops. there is no doubt retailers are having a tough time, but here is the thing, homebase was a profitable business until it was bought two years ago by one of australia‘s biggest companies. they thought they could teach the brits a thing or two about diy, but they made a real hash of it. we have got carpet and we have even got rugs, whatever your budget is, bunnings has got all the flooring that you need. in australia, the bunnings diy chain is a big success, but its promise of low prices and no—frills stores didn‘t work and the losses quickly mounted. homebase was then sold for £1 in may

to the turnaround company hilco. winning back customers will be tough. we have got a changing dynamic in the population where we are buying houses later and we are not spending money refurbishing and on diy. more of us are shopping online and there are more places to buy the things that homebase sell, so we are able to do that in supermarkets and variety discounters. its new owners said today‘s decision had not been taken lightly, but decisive action was needed to rebuild this well—known brand. this restructuring will need the approval of landlords, but it is yet another blow to our high streets and towns. emma simpson, bbc news. england cricketer ben stokes, has been found not guilty of affray by a jury at bristol crown court. the durham all—rounder denied the charge following the brawl between a group of men last september. he‘lljoin the england squad for the third test against india

at trent bridgespeaking outside court afterwards, his lawyer said the player was keen to get back to playing cricket. our correspondent andy moore is at bristol crown court for us now. that was his message? yes this was day seven of the trial. the jury have been out for two and a half hours, when they came back with their verdict, ben stokes briefly closed his eyes and looked up with relief when they delivered that not guilty verdict. he went over to shake hands with his co—defendant, the man also accused of affray, the man he knocked unconscious in that brawl last september. his wife, claire, she started crying when that verdict was delivered. ryan ali, the man co—accused of affray, he said he wasry leaved. later —— was relieved.

ben stokes didn‘t make any comment, but his lawyer made this statement to the media. ben was minding his own business when he came across two men being subjected to what ben identified as serious homophobic abuse. it was only when others came under threat that ben became physically engaged with the men in question. the steps that he took were solely aimed at ensuring the safety of himself or the others present. the past 11 months have served to highlight to benjust how highly he values his position as an england representative both in terms of the privilege that role entails and the responsibilities that accompany it. now that the trial is over, ben is keen back to cricket being his sole focus. thank you. and shortly after that statement was delivered, we heard from the english cricket board, who said ben stokes had been selected to play against india in the third test at trent

bridge. a disciplinary commit tee will happen in due course. before that will be ben stokes and alex hales who was also involved in that incident in september, although he didn‘t face any legal action. let‘s look at the background to this case. he is one of world cricket‘s biggest stars — with both bat and ball, ben stokes is arguably one of england‘s most important and high profile players. but 11 months ago, the all—rounder‘s career and reputation was plunged into uncertainty after he was arrested following a late—night brawl. stokes found himself forced to swap cricket field for courtroom — accompanied throughout his trial each day by his wife and agent. the 27—year—old along with two other men, ryan hale and ryan ali, all denied the charge of affray. the three had been involved in this late—night brawl outside the city‘s mbargo nightclub in the early hours of

september 25th last year. the court was taken through the events leading up to the incident, as some of england‘s players visited the venue after winning a one—day international. cctv footage showed stokes and team mate alex hales trying to re—enter the club. the court heard from doorman, andrew cunningham, who said stokes had been abusive to him and then mocked two gay men — throwing a cigarette but at one of them. butt at one of them. the defence had insisted it was just playful banter. mobile phone footage of the fight that followed was played in court. the jury heard both ali and hale had bottles on them initially — ali appearing to threaten hales with his. an off duty community police officer who saw the violence, described stokes as the main aggressor. he knocked both hale and ali unconscious. the latter left with significant injuries, including a fractured eye socket. these are the two gay men seen chatting to stokes outside the club earlier that evening. neither were called as witnesses in the trial.

i didn‘t get involved, i was more on the sidelines, but, yeah, it turned into a massive brawl and obviously i got a bit scared, so i carried on walking. you didn‘t witness the entire fight to the end? i witnessed most of it, yeah, when the guy was on the floor, that is when i thought it was a bit too much for me. with the prosecution case over, thejudge directed the jury to acquit hale. and the defence began. the court hearing from stokes for the first time. he said he had stepped in when the two gay men had been subject to homophobic comments — something he suggested to police back when he was arrested. ali denied that, however, insisting there had just been banter between him, hale and the two gay men. stokes may have since returned to cricket, but in the wake of the incident he was suspended, meaning that he missed the ashes series to australia last year. here at lord‘s the ecb will now conduct its own

internal inquiry into a saga that has been damaging for both the player and those who run the game. obviously, when you're trying to attract new people — families kids, even women — to cricket, you want to show it as a sport which respects people generally and attracts good people, good people who are respectful of each other and have good behaviour. so it wasn't a particularly good episode. today‘s not guilty verdict will come as a huge relief to stokes and england. but having been cleared by the courts he must now wait to see if cricket‘s governing body takes any action. we can tell you that right at the start of the trial, the prosecution wa nted start of the trial, the prosecution wanted to introduce a new charge, two new charges in fact, of assault causing actual bodily harm against ben stokes. but the judge was not having any of that and the trial continued on the single charge of affray. ben stokes found not guilty.

thank you very much. following that suspected attack in london this morning, the prime minister, who is still on holiday, has issued a statement, saying the attack is shocking. for the second time in as many years the home of our democracy, which is a potent similar of our values, has witnessed terrible scenes just yards from its door. she goes on, my thoughts are with the innocent members of the public who were hurt. i wish them a speedy recover y. we must be thankful no one suffered life—threaten injuries. i want to praise the courage of our emergency services who were on the scene immediately and in significant numbers. they did not flinch and ran towards a dangerous situation. the country is grateful for their calmness and professionalism. she said the threat from terrorism

remains and! said the threat from terrorism remains and i would urge the public to be village vigilant. but also to carry on. the twisted aim of the extremists is to use violence to divide us. they will never succeed. that is the statement from the prime minister. let‘s catch up with the weather and you have had your eye on hector. yes, just on the edge of the globe we have the coast of mexico and we are going to focus on this area of cloud because this was huriicane hector which has run across the pacific. this is the big island in hawaii and it made contact there on

wednesday. what‘s interesting about this particular hurricane... that looks like the international date line. it has gone over that but not asa line. it has gone over that but not as a hurricane but as a tropical storm. this was a major hurricane for seven and a half consecutive days and that breaks the record. it has never happened for that long before that we have a major hurricane category three or higher for seven and a half days consecutively. so how has that happened? that is a very interesting question. sorry, we haven't rehearsed that. you are quite evil. i‘m not going to give you an answer because i don‘t really know, maybe it is climate change, we will see, but what happens is usually you have very active seasons in the east pacific when you have an el nino. we

don‘t have an el nino. don‘t ask me why that is. i‘m keeping very quiet! but we could see one developing in the next few months which may lead to more of these storms developing into more major hurricanes and transferring into the east pacific. that could have an impact on the atla ntic that could have an impact on the atlantic hurricane season, anybody going on holiday in the caribbean for example, you would normally expect some hurricanes, maybe we won‘t see many. expect some hurricanes, maybe we won't see many. none of this has any impact on us whatsoever. no, but what happens in the atlantic does so we will see over the next few months how many hurricanes form and if they had over to the uk. what happens after hector? it is an i? igor? i

made that up. let me go towards home, here is the atlantic and we are seeing a typical weather pattern for this time of year. no big area of high pressure dominating, no heat wave. the weather is coming from the atla ntic wave. the weather is coming from the atlantic and a couple of runs of cloud are heading our way. we have had some rain which has been clearing away from eastern parts of scotla nd clearing away from eastern parts of scotland and we may get some late sunshine, particularly in the north—east of scotland. that has left showers behind it. many places have been cloudy but we have seen more sunshine in essex for example which has boosted temperatures to the mid—20s. call up further north, 20 degrees across scotland and northern ireland. not a great deal of rain left over this evening but we may see more rain coming back into northern ireland and western scotla nd into northern ireland and western scotland overnight. we have south—westerly winds dragging in a lot of cloud and it is a mild wind

and solar temperatures probably staying around 13 degrees. many parts of england and wales tomorrow, we start gyre but through the day we will find more rain coming from the north—west into scotland, with sunshine in between the rain. a little bit of rain moving over the irish sea for central and eastern parts of england probably dry. this is where it will be warmest with temperatures in the mid—20s again. things are set to change. you saw the cloud earlier on, these weather front are bumping into each other and taking cloud over the uk into thursday. this is a cool and fresh air mass. moving into thursday we have the rain clearing away from the south—west, sunshine following on behind, but we pick up more showers for western scotland and across—the—board for western scotland and across—the—boa rd temperatures will be lower. it will feel cooler and fresher. then we are almost back to

square one, another weather system coming in off the atlantic and bringing most of the rain into the north—west of the uk. further south and east it is likely to be dry, temperatures getting a boost in the south—east of england. near average for the time of year but further north we have more cloud and rain, and temperatures will be much lower. this is bbc news — our latest headlines... around 30 people have died after a major motorway bridge collapses in northern italy — that‘s according to the deputy prime minister. rescuers are searching the rubble and wrecked vehicles for survivors. a man in his 20s is arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences after a car crashes into barriers outside the houses of parliament. police say the suspect is not co—operating. london ambulance service treated several people at the scene. one person is still being treated in hospital. england cricketer ben stokes is cleared of a charge of affray at bristol crown court. his lawyer says he‘s looking forward to playing cricket again. and coming up on news nationwide,

warnings in southend about the dangers of unlicensed tattoo artist‘s who are targeting underage customers. sport now on afternoon live withjohn watson. how soon are we likely to see ben stokes in an england cricket shirt? not long — he has been called up to the england squad for the third test against india at trent bridge on saturday. his inclusion came hours after a not guilty verdict of affray at bristol crown court. the ecb‘s independent disciplinary commission will now meet to decide if any further action will be taken against stokes and team mate alex hales following that fight outside a nightclub in bristol. stokes helped england to victory in the first test, but missed the second because of the trial and could now play on saturday at trent bridge. and you have news of a big name retirement from formula one.

yes, two time world champion has announced his retirment from formula one. the mclaren driver will leave the sport at the end of the season. his team have again failed to produce a competitive car for the spanish driver who won the title in 2005 and 2006. a move to race in the states could be in the offing — it‘s long been his ambition to complete motorsport‘s triple crown by winning the monaco grand prix, le mans and the indy 500. it‘s just the latter he‘s still to win, he‘d become only the second driver to achieve the feat after graham hill. celtic must score tonight in the second leg of their champions league qualifier, if they‘re to keep alive their hopes of reaching the tournament‘s group phase. 1—1 from the first leg at celtic park, they‘re in greece to face aek athens. at stake, a place in the play—off round and a chance to reach the group phase proper. striker moussa dembele returns from injury, and despite needing goals, won‘t be starting in athens. yes, probably too much to start. he

will take his place on the bench, but he has looked very fit and strong in his rehabilitation and the beauty is he wants to play and be involved. so yes, too much of a risk to start but i'm sure at some point in the game he will play a part. tyson fury‘s goaded heavyweight rival deontay wilder as his comeback continues with a fight this weekend against francesco pianeta. just a warning there‘s some flash photography coming up. it‘s just his second fight back after a troublesome two years which saw him battle depression and an anti doping case. he faces the experienced pianeta at windsor park where wilder will ringside. negotiations for the two to meet in december are at an advanced stage and, should fury win, then one of the divisions super fights

will move a step closer. i‘m i'm fit, i‘m fit, i‘m on fire and it‘s back to good performance. his defence is terrified. i‘m here to put on a show and a good performance, get back to the top, climb back to the top of the top, climb back to the top of the ladder where i belong. i expect a great atmosphere. belfast fight fa ns a great atmosphere. belfast fight fans are amazing. i‘m looking forward to watching the fight at windsor park, getting there and having a good time. commonwealth gold medallist serena guthrie will be returning to the uk for the 2019 netball season. she‘s been playing in australia for two seasons but she‘s decided to come back for the build—up to the world cup. it was in australia that guthrie helped england to a sensational victory over australia in the commonwealth games final. she plays at centre but it‘s not yet know which club she‘ll be signing for when she returns. that‘s all the sport for now. i‘ll have more for you 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. donna traynor is in belfast, where they‘ve been investigating record levels of alcohol related deaths across northern ireland. and amelia reynolds is in norwich, where local tattoo parlours are warning of rogue artists targeting people too young to be inked legally. so, donna, we‘ve seen record levels of alcohol related deeaths in northern ireland, the highest since 2001. what is behind this? a belfast coroner has said it is the greatest health care problem in northern ireland. there are only 1.8 million people here so looking at the statistics you can see just how bad

it is. between 2001 and 2016 more than 3500 deaths were attributed to alcohol and in the last year alone 289 men lost their lives. a majority of those who died were aged between 55 and 64. those figures include only deaths known to be caused exclusively by alcohol, not deaths through the likes of drinking and driving or heart attacks after heavy drinking. the coroner says the figures are the tip of the iceberg and this is part of our interview with that coroner. the death rate gives a window into the problem we might have, but my view is, and i speak to people in the health service, they will confirm this, we have an even bigger problem that is currently being dealt with, and an even bigger problem again that is coming our way because we are

creating a society that has a big problem with alcohol. the statistics arejust problem with alcohol. the statistics are just statistics and behind every one of them is a very human story and the human cost. so often they are the untold stories and this evening we will be hearing from one woman who has lost her husband and her daughter to alcohol. she doesn‘t wa nt to her daughter to alcohol. she doesn‘t want to be identified but she says alcohol changed her husband‘s character. this is a clip of her interview. once he'd had a drink, his personality changed completely. he would have changed from somebody very loving, very outgoing to somebody who would have been very argumentative and antagonistic, and also very violent. the coroner says that alcohol has never been cheaper

in northern ireland or more widely available and he fears for the future, as you heard in the interview. people in ireland north and south have always had a reputation for drinking alcohol, having fun with a fewjars up this evening on the programme it is certainly not a happy story. thank you for that. tattoo artists are warning of rogue operators working illegally in southend potentially putting young lives at risk. surely there are laws to stop this? yes, but if you want to get a tattoo, say a tattoo that takes an hour and tattoo, say a tattoo that takes an hourand a tattoo, say a tattoo that takes an hour and a half, you will be looking at about £90 and these rogue operators are saying they can do three tattoos for £30 so the allegation here is you get what you pay for. we have been speaking to a mother and her daughter. they want

to remain anonymous. the daughter is under 18, that is important because you have to be 18 to legally have a tattoo and they are very worried about what happened to the daughter. she came back with the tattoo on her hand and they are so worried they have taken her for blood tests today because there is the risk of contracting hepatitis or hiv and they will get the results of those tests in two or three days. our reporter has been to speak to the owner of a tattoo place that is reputable and licensed, but that owner is warning of the dangers of going to what we call these backstreet tattoo artists. the dangers, the complications, at the end of the day the licensing needs to be tightened up though these rogue operators can stop operating. so you had a mother who phoned up and said my daughter has had a dodgy tattoo carried out by one of your staff and that wasn‘t right?

tattoo carried out by one of your staff and that wasn't right? totally disgusted. and the risk for her daughter is what? hepatitis, a bad tattoo on her hand which could stop her getting a job and a boyfriend, and how people see that poor girl. and that is the point, we are talking about real problems for people who get this wrong. real problems and there are regulations in place as you say. they have to apply to the council for a licence, if you get one you are only allowed to operate in the area that the licence covers. but there are lots of people who say those regulations need to be tightened up. interestingly, what seems to be happening is tattoo is are quite mainstream now so people are looking for new ways to rebel and be different. worryingly that is leading some people to get what are being known as bad tattoo is so they

are being described to me as designs which are quite scratchy and they area which are quite scratchy and they are a badge of honour if you like. people are going online onto websites and being able to pick up these tattoo kits. whereas they may be quite cool i suppose, considered to be that anyway when you are 15 or 16, when you are 35 with children and you want to go to a job interview, they become a problem and thatis interview, they become a problem and that is why we are also hearing of a tenfold increase in the number of people offering laser technology in order to be able to remove tattoo is. and that is not always as simple as it sounds. amelia, plenty more with you tonight. amelia and donna, thank you very much. that is nationwide. if you would like to see

any more on any of those stories you can any more on any of those stories you ca n a ccess any more on any of those stories you can access them via the bbc iplayer and a reminder we go nationwide every afternoon at 4:30pm here on afternoon live. the government is considering giving tenants in england more support to hold landlords to account, by speeding up the complaints procedure and publishing league tables. the measures are part of what ministers call "a landmark opportunity for major reform" on social housing. but campaign groups say what‘s needed is more homes for people on low incomes. frankie mccamley has more. in the wake of the grenfell tragedy, the government promised to gear its social housing policy towards making tenants lives better. today it released a green paper on the issue. among the ideas are measures to speed up the complaints process, a drive to help get rid of the stigma often attached to social housing, and a scheme giving tenants the right to buy 1% of their home each year. this is an important next step, we want to consult on it further but it sets out these significant

principles that are about delivering that step change in social housing. the government paper says a priority is building the social homes we need. but it gives no details on how that will be done. which leaves hundreds of thousands of people on social housing lists. freddie has been waiting for a house for more than 18 years because he cannot afford to rent or buy. i‘ve got a very big family and it‘s basically to make sure my family is being supported. the situation is where we have lost money. i did not have that money to basically buy my own place. this is one of the sites in england where you can see new social housing being built. we are around a mile and a half from manchester city centre where 500 new units are going up. 200 of those will be social housing. but campaigners say it‘s not enough, they want more concrete plans

from the government. this green paper was an opportunity for the government to right that wrong, and set out an ambitious target to deliver the low—cost rented homes england needs. unfortunately what we see in the green paper is a restatement of announcements that have already been made and not a single additional house will be built as a result of this green paper. a consultation will run until november but the questions remain. will this lead to new homes being built? and will the government deliver on the promises it made in the wake of a fire that killed so many? all of the business news injust all of the business news in just a moment but first the headlines. italy‘s deputy prime minister says around 30 people have died after a motorway bridge partially collapsed in the italian city of genoa, sending cars and lorries

crashing to the ground. a man is arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences after a car crashes outside the houses of parliament, injuring several people. england cricketer ben stokes is found not guilty of affray at bristol crown court. here‘s your business headlines on afternoon live. unemployment fell by 65,000 to 1.3 million in the three months tojune — that‘s the lowest its been in more than 40 years. but the growth in wages has slowed down. they‘re about 2.7% higher than they were a year ago. we‘ll have more on this in a moment. ofcom has fined royal mail a record £50 million for breaching competition law. the fine is for its actions in 2014 when whistl was trying to become its first competitor in wholesale mail delivery. whistl is seeking damages. free range egg producers are calling for an immediate price rise as the cost of feed

continues to go up. dry weather has caused poor crops across europe‘s major wheat—growing countries and the knock—on effect is being felt by egg producers, with some reporting a 50% increase in feed costs. let‘s talk about unemployment. the lowest level since 1975? that‘s right, in the quarter between... the three months tojune i should say, the unemployment rate fell to 1.36 million so good news on jobs and this figure came despite the fact the number of jobs created by the economy was smaller than expected at 42,000. the number of people from the eu who were working in the uk fell at its biggest rate since 1997 by 86,000, so a massive

number of people no longer contributing to the workforce. but the number of workers from outside the number of workers from outside the eu who are working in the uk rose to 74,000. there was a slowdown in the growth of wages to 2.7% which is probably going to have a knock—on effect on living standards. let‘s hear now from an analyst who joins us now. good news onjobs but not such great news on wages. indeed, 2.7% is obviously of excess of the consumer price index inflation rate of 2.4% but some way below the the retail price index rate of 3.4%. and not everybody is getting the same rate hike. younger people generally get higher wages and older people have much slower and indeed quite often reverse increases. what impact is this going to have on living

standards, do we think? more elderly people will find their living standards are crimped, households will generally find it difficult to enhance living standards but young people are benefiting. let's look at royal mail and the record of the million pound fine what impact has not had its share prices today?‘ remarkably limited impact and therefore there is a breath of relief for city participants who believe there is one hurdle of uncertainty the wake. that said royal mail will contest this judgment, and whistl say they are going to see damages. there is an interesting subtext because it relates to the expectation royal mail will have universal delivery, so delivery to any part of the uk at the same price but they wanted to charge more. the fact they cannot do thatis charge more. the fact they cannot do that is big challenge for royal mail going forward. and homebase at

closing 42 stores? yes, this is a challenge we knew was going to be coming along, they have closed 17 already this year, their total portfolio is 241 so perhaps we can be grateful it wasn't worse in terms of store closures but the management are turning around a company that was well recognised as being in trouble. they have a plan to put the business back on its feet and although it is difficult to see both shop closures and job losses, at least we can see corrective action that should put the company in a better position going forward. and it is going for a cba? yes, so this isa it is going for a cba? yes, so this is a contentious way of avoiding more challenges. it requires the property owners where they have leases to agree and that is uncertain. whitley on the other side of things, the new owner of house of fraser thinks he can keep most of the stores open. it is an exciting but ambitious target and i will

watch and wait with interest. the challenge is hard to achieve, the idea we will have harrods on the high street which is the promise looks like a demanding task. thank you, and that is all of the business news for me today. thank you. that visit from your afternoon live tea m that visit from your afternoon live team today, next you‘ll bbc news at five o‘clock and ben brown will be reporting from westminster with the latest on the attack. now let‘s get the weather. what we are seeing at the moment is a typical weather pattern for this time of year. instead of high pressure dominating we have a strongerjet pressure dominating we have a stronger jet stream closer to pressure dominating we have a strongerjet stream closer to the uk and the weather is coming in from the atlantic. over the next few days we will find bands of cloud bringing outbreaks of rain. not much rain today for england and wales but it has been a different story across scotla nd has been a different story across scotland and northern ireland with outbreaks of rain pushing eastwards across scotland, petering out though we may get late sunshine in the

north—east giving temperatures a boost. in england and wales a of dry weather to come. for this evening most weather to come. for this evening m ost pla ces weather to come. for this evening most places will be dry by this stage. we may well find later in the night more rain coming back into northern ireland back towards the north—west of england and more especially later towards western scotland. there is a lot of cloud coming our way too, on the south westerly breezes keeping the temperatures up to no lower than 13 degrees. for wednesday, we will start with sunshine across most of england and wales but we will see outbreaks of rain developing a little more widely through the day across scotland and northern ireland and maybe later some rain crossing the irish sea into north—western parts of england and wales. highest temperatures likely to be in eastern england, but across scotland and northern ireland 21 in between the rain. the real heat is in france where it is about 31 degrees in paris. this weather front will take

the reins out ways —— take the rain down south—eastwards overnight. on thursday the rain is likely to be across the south—east of england and east anglia where it will linger for most of the day. sunshine follows that and then quite a few showers coming into the far north of england and scotland and northern ireland. temperatures will be lower on thursday with a top figure of 21 degrees. by the time we get to friday the next weather system is arriving to bring outbreaks of rain again, mainly to scotland and northern ireland. further south and east it will be dry with increasing amounts of sunshine and temperatures picking up in the south—east of england but further north under the rain it will be quite a bit cooler. today at 5pm, at least 30 are dead after a motorway bridge collapse near genoa in northern italy. the bridge partially gave way in a powerful thunderstorm, sending vehicles crashing

to the ground. emergency workers are trying to free people caught in crushed vehicles and under rubble. italy‘s transport minister says it‘s an "immense tragedy", and now it‘s been revealed the bridge was refurbished just two years ago. the other main stories on bbc news at 5pm: a man in his 20s is arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences after a car crashes deliberately outside parliament. the ford fiesta hit cyclists and pedestrians, then smashed into a security barrier. given that this appears to be a deliberate act, the method and this being an iconic site, we are treating it as a terrorist incident.