today at five — a church warden found guilty of murdering an author he had tricked into changing his will. ben field manipulated 69—year—old peter fa rquhar for financial gain and tried to make his death look like an accident or suicide. police warn field is evil and that he'd drawn up a list of future targets. as the average age of the population increases, our society needs to be more aware of the additional dangers which elderly people may face. we'll have the latest from oxford crown court. the other main stories on bbc news at 5pm. the chancellor says he doesn't expect the uk to slide into a recession after the economy shrinks for the first time since 2012. i'm not expecting a recession at all, and in fact don'tjust take my word for it.

there is not a single leading forecaster out there that is expecting a recession. a man has appeared in court charged with the attempted murder of a police constable in east london yesterday. heavy rain and strong winds cause disruption across the uk — many outdoor events and festivals are cancelled. bruce springsteen is the inspiration for blinded by the light — a coming of age story set in luton. we'll see whatjames king makes of that and the week's other big releases in the film review.

hello, good evening. a 28—year—old church warden has been found guilty of murdering a novelist who he tricked into changing his will. ben field killed 69—year—old peter fa rquhar in the buckinghamshire village of maids moreton and tried to make his death look like an accident or suicide. police say field was cruel, calculating, manipulative and deceitful. they say he fitted the profile of a psychopath, who had taken pleasure in mentally and physically torturing his victim. our correspondentjo black has been following the trial at oxford crown court. peter farquhar, vulnerable and confused. he thought he was losing his mind, suffering from a mystery illness. he would often fall and injure himself, but all along he was secretly being drugged by his partner, ben field,

who was targeting him to try and inherit his house. he got massive pleasure from other people's misery and pain. and it was all about financial gain in some way, shape or form. a nasty, cruel man. field was one of peter farquhar‘s students. they met at the university of buckingham, and during their relationship, even pledged to marry at a betrothal ceremony. as peter farquhar‘s health declined, field suggested dementia or alcoholism could be to blame. and when the lecturer‘s body was discovered next to a half empty bottle of whisky, even a coroner thought he had drunk himself to death. the police now believe field suffocated him. ben field did inherit peter fa rquha r‘s house, and his focus then switched to the house of ann moore—martin, and the 83—year—old became his next target. despite the 57—year age gap,

they had a sexual relationship. but for field, it was more pretence. his sketchbook shows one of his tactics, writing religious messages on her mirrors, some saying she should leave her house to him. she was deeply religious, and believed they were communications from god. then, there was this... hello, i'm thinking of withdrawing all my accounts, money held in my accounts. ann moore—martin released £27,000 from her bank and gave it to field after he said his brother was ill and needed his own dialysis machine. it was another lie. it's actually quite urgent. in life, one must not be selfish. she died of natural causes, but before her death she confided in her niece about her relationship with field and the mirrors. the court was told she said he had given her white powder to help her sleep. a police investigation revealed

field's links with both neighbours and 18 months after his death, peter farquar‘s body was exhumed. new forensics showed he had drugs in his system. in terms of the death of peter farquar, there is a very good chance that benjamin field would have gotten away with that death had it not been for the suspicions that were raised once ann moore—martin was removed from benjamin's control. in fact, at that stage he had already gotten away with it. in ben field, they thought they had found someone they could love, but motivated by greed, he preyed on their loneliness and vulnerability. jo black, bbc news. the senior investigating officer in the case mark glover has been speaking outside 0xford crown court. giving evidence in court, and never appear to show any genuine emotional contrition, despite admitting to defrauding both peter and ann moore—martin,

by allowing them to think he was in a loving relationship with them, and also admitting that he was repeatedly dragging peter without his knowledge. this speaks volumes as to ben's character. i am convinced that had he not been stopped, he would have posed an ongoing danger to society. this investigation highlights the fact that there are many ways people can be vulnerable. peter and anne were defrauded through their age, their independence, and their religious beliefs. as the average age of the population increases, our society needs to be more aware of the additional dangers which elderly people may face. well, i guess that the first word that springs to mind and is at the foremost is evil. here is a cold, calculating, devious man who took pleasure from inflicting both physical and mental torment on his victim. yeah, evil.

0ur correspondentjo black has been following the trial at oxford crown court. yes, this has been a long and complex case. it started at the beginning of may, and there have been thousands of articles and evidence, and peter parker kept journal and ben field kept a diary. it has been very long and complex and it took the jury almost 13 days of deliberation to come to the verdicts. ben field was in the business —— witness box for many days, he held his hands up and said he tried to default defraud them but that he didn't murder them. in terms

of peter farquahr, the guilty verdict came back today, but they did clear him on conspiracy to murder. he said, i have done terrible things to these people, but ididn't terrible things to these people, but ididn‘t do terrible things to these people, but i didn't do what you say i have done. but of course the verdicts came back today as they did. we have had reaction from the families of peter farquahar and and more martin. first, from peter farquahar‘s family. listening to the trial and hearing ben field give his evidence about what he did to peter has been extremely difficult. his actions have been unbelievably callous and he has told lie after lie after lie in order to achieve his goals, deceiving everyone he met. ben field is an arrogant man who has an extremely high opinion of himself. he used my brother as some kind of object to get his hands. all of the things that were precious to peter ben robbed him of.

he did it alljust to get some money, which we find absolutely astonishing. if people hear their story, we hope that they are very, very careful if somebody unexpected walks into the life of a loved one when that loved one is vulnerable and lonely. they must be other people out there like ben field, and we would not want anyone to have to go through the things that we have. ann moore—martin's family also gave a statement and that was right outside the court today. auntie ann was an inspiration to us all. she faced challenges with strength and courage and always wore a smile, even in the face of adversity. and peter's family are united in grief and sorrow, but also in and memories. auntie ann was a kind, gentle, beautiful soul who touched so many lives, leaving behind a legacy of wonderful memories. we are truly blessed to be able to call her our aunt.

well, there was very little reaction from ben field in court today as that guilty verdict was read out by the jury. that guilty verdict was read out by thejury. he that guilty verdict was read out by the jury. he simply nodded at his pa rents the jury. he simply nodded at his parents who had been sitting in the public gallery every day since this case started, and the judge told the court that he would be sentenced in a month or so. the economy shrank for the first time in more than six years between april and june, according to new figures today. the office for national statistics says gdp decreased by 0.2% in the second quarter, as manufacturing and construction contracted and the service sector stalled. the figures were worse than economists had expected, and follow a strong start to the year when businesses were stockpiling in anticipation of brexit. here's our economics correspondent, andy verity. this food packaging company in leicester grew rapidly until this

year, and was looking to open a second site, stepping up its turnover from £25 million to £115 million. it piled up stock ahead of the march brexit deadline, diverting funds from its new site. then in the second quarter, orders dropped off, and it had to refinance to keep its expansion plans on track. political uncertainty isn't helping. it's all about the cloudy sky again. we went through this pre—march, and now between march and october, we have had a lot of unstable uncertainty, and the cloudy sky is upon us again. we can't move forward, we can't move back. we are static, we are stuck in a rut. that's where we are. most economists were expecting a weak performance in the second quarter of the year, but not this weak. you have to go all the way back to 2012, when the euro zone crisis was in full swing, to find a weak economic performance. we've got record employment. we've got unemployment

at its lowest level for 44 years. wages are growing at their fastest rate for a decade. we've got national debt falling as a proportion of gdp. in fact, the imf is forecasting that we will grow faster this year than germany, than italy, than japan, as fast as france. and so the fundamentals of the uk economy remain resilient and strong. manufacturing activity shrank in the second quarter. it's now shrunk over the past year. an output from industrial production, heavy industries such as oil and gas, also dropped as a global slowdown took hold. most people can see for themselves the lack of business confidence, of investment, that's taking place. people not knowing what's going to happen from one week to the next. will we be in europe? will we be outside of it? i think that is corrosive. it's undermining people's confidence in the economy, and i think these figures reflect that. business investment is essential to improving the amount each worker

can produce so employers can afford inflation beating pay rises, but that also dropped. i think it's a bit about a global slowdown, and we can see that in the weak manufacturing numbers, the weak export numbers. but there are some political uncertainty factors here as well, so business investment falling, exports falling, particularly to the eu, and that weakness in the service sector as well, all adds up to a sense that political uncertainty is weighing on the economy. the services sector that makes up most of the economyjust about grew, by 0.1%. because the figures hark back tojune, we don't yet know what's been happening to the economy since then. the hope is the second quarter will be the only time the economy shrinks this year. the fear is it won't be. andy verity, bbc news. we can speak now to the economist and author of the great economists, linda yueh.

linda, disappointing figures, how much of a surprise are they?” linda, disappointing figures, how much of a surprise are they? i think they were a surprise to economists who thought they would be stagnant, in other words they economy would not have changed much from the first three months of the year. what's happened is it looks like manufacturing companies had pushed production forward to before the end of march because that was originally brexit day so that accounts for some of the very dramatic fall in manufacturing. but that is not the only thing we have to bear in mind as to why today's figures came in worse than expected and showed a contraction. globally, the global economy is in a cyclical downturn, the whole world is slowing down, so exports were also, in terms of manufacturing and services, affected by the fact that the world economy has seen slower trade, slower growth, and we are a very open economy, so growth, and we are a very open economy, so i think for those reasons, the numbers probably came down slightly lower—than—expected. but i think that is consistent with

an overall world economy picture, as well as the uncertainties around brexit, which is what the 0ns has pointed to, which has dampened investment which is also an issue in this quarter. the chancellor says the fundamentals of the economy are good but some people say we are just one step from recession. who is right, do you think? well, technically a recession is two quarters of contraction, so the economy shrinks for two quarters in a row. now, as we havejust been saying, it is very difficult to predict, to do economic forecasts, but the overall picture is that the british economy is very linked to the global economy, we are subject to the same business forces around the world, so in a cyclical downturn, that is not a comment on fundamentals, that is a comment on the fact that all major economies are entering a slowing period. it is very ha rd to

are entering a slowing period. it is very hard to separate that from what is going on structurally in the economy. i think one thing i will add to that is that the fundamentals of the economy are related to what is happening around brexit and one of the things i pointed out a moment ago is that uncertainty is causing businesses not to invest, even though consumption remains pretty good. now, that is specific to the uk, and that does point to, i'm trying to see whether or not we can get some certainty around brexit, the new brexit is at the end of 0ctober, so that means that for the end of this quarter, we won't have necessarily certainty around where brexit will be which means in the third quarter we may get something like stagnation, maybe it will be slightly better because maybe the government will spend more to boost the economy, may be the bank of england will take some action, so i think all of that adds to the uncertainty. but the overall picture

ofa uncertainty. but the overall picture of a slowing economy that is largely cyclical due to the global economy. a man has appeared in court charged with the attempted murder of a policeman in east london. the officer, pc stuart 0utten, is in a serious but stable condition in hospital, after being stabbed in the head and body with a machete. his family have said they are incredibly proud of his bravery. the headlines on bbc news: a church warden found guilty of murdering an author he had tricked into changing his will. the chancellor says he doesn't expect the uk to slide into a recession, after the economy shrinks for the first time since 2012. a man has appeared in court charged with the attempted murder of a police constable in east london yesterday. and in sport: the premier league season is less than three hours away. liverpool host norwich at anfield, withjurgen klopp saying the newly—promoted side are a banana skin and if they're not 100%, they'll slip. after a disappointing first ashes test, moeen ali has been dropped

by england for the second. jofra archer is included, though, whilstjoe denly keeps his place in the 12—man squad. and bath winger rory mcconnachie is in line for an england debut in rugby union. along with will heinz, he's one of two uncapped players in the experimental side to face wales at twickenham on sunday. i'll have all the details just after 5.30pm. jeremy corbyn has written to britain's most the prime minister has written to civil servants to say that preparing for the possibility of a no—deal brexit should be their top priority. earlier, jeremy corbyn urged the country's top civil servant to intervene to prevent a no—deal brexit happening during a general electionthe labour leader is worried an election might be called this autumn, just as britain is due to leave the eu — and then take place after brexit has happened. that could leave mps powerless

to intervene, because parliament wouldn't be sitting. jeremy corbyn says that brexit in those circumstances would be an abuse of power. since he became prime minister just over two weeks ago, borisjohnson has been consistently clear about one thing. we have to leave the eu in october the 31st. but would suggestions the prime minister can make that happen by ensuring brexit date falls during an election campaign, jeremy corbyn has asked the country's top civil servant to intervene. writing to mark sedwill to say that forcing through a no—deal brexit against a decision of parliament and denying the choice to voters in a general election already under way would be an institution or , an unprecedented, unconstitutional and anti—democratic abuse of power. if we don't have a prime minister who will do the decent thing and behave honourably, we have to go around him and say to the head of the civil service, you also have duties here that you must adhere to, and we might end up in a situation

where her majesty the queen becomes involved in this. the reason this matters is because some mps, determined to try to stop a no—deal brexit, could try to pass a vote of no confidence in boris johnson's government. if boris johnson lost that, under new government wasn't formed a couple of weeks, then a general election would follow. if that happened, the date of the election would be in the hands of borisjohnson, and his advisers are said to believe he could choose to set a date in november, forcing a no—deal brexit by default. if boris johnson can't hold the confidence of parliament, i am convinced there is nobody else who could and we could go for a general election, and it is up to the prime minister, borisjohnson, to set the date. and i think setting the 1st of november is a political masterstroke. with just 83 days to go until the end of october,

and brexit talks still stuck in a stalemate, politicians are gearing up for a stormy autumn. tom barton, bbc news, westminster. 0ur political correspondent jessica parker is in westminster1. the prime minister writing to civil servants, tell us more about that. if we hadn't heard it many times already from boris johnson, if we hadn't heard it many times already from borisjohnson, he has reiterated today in this letter to all civil servants that they need to get ready for a potential or no deal. i'll bring you some of the letter he has written. he said, my approach to press that is simple and i want you to be in no doubt about it. we must restore trust in our democracy, come out of the eu on 0ctober democracy, come out of the eu on october the 31st. he says they need to prepare urging and rapidly for the possibility of a no deal departure, still stressing for his

preface to lead with a deal, same are preparing for a possible no deal scenario will be a top priority for him and for the civil service too. 0n the day that you have the labour leader really questioning boris johnson's approach to brexit, with all the speculation about whether he could try to bypass parliament in order to force through a no—deal brexit, borisjohnson order to force through a no—deal brexit, boris johnson really just hammering home his intention to leave the eu on october the 31st, do ordie, leave the eu on october the 31st, do or die, come what may. also, we had today the rare sight of a johnson government minister saying that actually a no—deal brexit would be an absolute disaster. yes, because you will remember that when we had a cabinet reshuffle and we had ministerial appointments, cabinet reshuffle and we had ministerialappointments, it cabinet reshuffle and we had ministerial appointments, it was pretty clear that when people were invited to take part in that government, they were told, you've got to get fully on—board with the government's message on brexit, ie, discussing that we are living on the

20 -- sist discussing that we are living on the 20 —— 31st and it has to be no deal, so be it. we've heard from the transport minister today and he has been talking about the possibility ofa no been talking about the possibility of a no deal departure, let's have a listen to what he has been saying. of a no deal departure, let's have a listen to what he has been sayinglj think being able to use the legitimate threat of a no deal to get a good deal is a perfectly a cce pta ble get a good deal is a perfectly acceptable strategy. i do not agree with those very few —— a few ha rdliners with those very few —— a few hardliners who think the wto long term would be satisfactory. i don't think it at all. i think it would be a disaster and politically for my party would see us out of office for two decades, i think. more importantly, i think it would be damaging to the stability of this country. so, arguably not quite on message but downing street has made it clear that george frame it has the support of the government and he has sent out some clarifying tweets, stressing that he was talk about

longer term. he sent a tweet saying the government is clear, we are leaving the eu on october the 31st, deal or no deal, the prime minister has set out his desire for a deal and his willingness to negotiate. this shows he supports the prime minister's approach. we will see a few brea kaways minister's approach. we will see a few breakaways from the central message, i think there has been a sense that discipline, particular being instilled by the senior adviser to borisjohnson, being instilled by the senior adviser to boris johnson, dominic cummings, has been an essential part of the new government, but let's be honest, it is pretty hard to keep discipline and keep people totally on message all the time. thank you very much indeed. some breaking news. in the last few minutes we've

heard from uk power networks that a power cut is affecting large parts of london and the south east.|t said on twitter: "we believe this is due "to a failure to national grid's network, which is affecting our customers." uk power networks owns and maintains the electricity cables in south east england, the east of england and london. thameslink have also tweeted, "due to failure of the electricity supply, train services running "across the whole network may be cancelled or delayed." we will bring you more on that in the next few minutes, as it comes end to us. the effects of that power cut, and indeed, the effects that will have on rail services as well. much more on that to come on the programme. let's have a look at some of today's other stories. two people have been warned they face jail, after they admitted accessing cctv footage from a mortuary, showing the body of the footballer emiliano sala.

the argentinian striker had just signed for cardiff city when the plane he was travelling in crashed into the english channel in january. sherry bray and christopher ashford pleaded guilty to three counts of computer misuse. eight people have been arrested following the disappearance of a teenage vietnamese tourist. police say that lihn le who is 15 and does not speak english, went missing on tuesday while visiting york, and now could be anywhere in the country. a 14—year—old girl who died after she was pulled from the sea in essex has been named by police. malika shamas from luton, was rescued along with two of her teenage relatives in clacton—on—sea on yesterday. an 18 year old man remains in hospital in a critical condition whilst a 15—year—old girl is in a stable condition. the number of people dying from an asthma attack is at its highest for more than a decade, in england and wales. analysis of official data suggests 11100 people died from an attack last year — an increase of a third since 2008.

the charity asthma uk says too many lives are being cut short by a lack of basic care, such as inhaler checks. here's our health correspondent, dominic hughes. nearly five million people in england and wales suffer from asthma, which can cause coughing, wheezing, a tight chest and breathlessness. treated properly, it should be easy to manage, but the number of asthma—related deaths is now at a ten year high. it may be a result of people not getting really good very basic care which we know is a problem. i think there is an issue of complacency. people with asthma don't themselves take it terribly seriously so i think that's an issue and then maybe things like weather and different weather patterns and pollution that could be also causing and led to those deaths. so i think it's really difficult to pin it down to one thing. mre than 1,400 people died from an asthma attack last year. that's equal to two and a half people out of every 100,000 dying from asthma.

the number of deaths is up by 8% when compared with the previous year. 0verall more than 12,700 people have died from asthma in england and wales over the last decade. there is particular concern over the impact of air pollution on the health of children. nhs england says a third of childhood asthma cases are linked to poor air quality. ella kissi—debrah died in 2013 after suffering a series of asthma attacks. her family believe air pollution contributed to her death. a lot of people still do not know about the impact of air pollution. i think all the urban cities across the uk have issues with asthma. manchester, birmingham, all over. so there needs to be a whole program of education in school and out of school about the impact of air pollution on young people's health. asthma uk acknowledges there are signs that care is getting better. nhs england says it's worked with asthma uk to improve standards, but it warns the link between air

pollution and asthma shows the challenge is not one the nhs can meet on its own. dominic hughes, bbc news. time for a look at the weather. it's causing all sorts of problems, festivals cancelled, chaos across the country. not only is there wet weather in the forecast, there is some pretty windy weather in the forecast as well. unusually windy weather for this time of year. there could well be some travel problems and if you are out at any outdoor events, be prepared for some disruption. as we go through this evening at an ad, very gusty winds many winds increasing in england and wales, northern ireland, the wind is easing. lots of showers from the south 13 to 17 degrees. tomorrow, we

will see quite a few heavy thundery downpours. across southern areas, the amount —— damp possible move through quickly because the winds are strong. lighter winds in scotland, they could dump a lot of rain in one or two individual locations. when did that in england and wales given us cause for concern, 50 mph in land, strung around the coast. into sunday, the winds will ease, and in the north, it will turn very cool indeed.

this is bbc news. the headlines: a churchwarden has been found guilty of murdering an author he had tricked into changing his will. now police warn he'd drawn up a list of future targets. as the average age of the population increases, our society needs to be more aware of the additional dangers which elderly people may face. the chancellor says he doesn't expect the uk to slide into a recession — after the economy shrinks for the first time since 2012. a man has appeared in court charged with the attempted murder of a police constable in east london yesterday. let's get all the latest sport for you now. ben crouch‘s got that for

us, including the football premier league kicking off every soon. just about two and half hours from now. the new premier league season kicks off this evening, with all eyes on anfield. a friday night launch for newly—promoted norwich city against last season's runners—up liverpool. jurgen klopp's side were pipped by a single point to the title in may, losing just one game to winner manchester city. the manager wants them to pick up where they left off, and says they need to be "angry and greedy". what's very, very important, even as a team who won the champions league last year, we have to stay the team who nobody wants to play against — and not because of the name, not because of the quality, but because of the intensity we put in the game, and that is what i will ask the boys for and that's what we have to show tomorrow night for the first time in this season. we are playing a team who won the champions league title, who finished with more than 90 points last year

in the premier league. you can discuss about it, but for me, it is probably the best team in the world for me and it is one of the toughest tasks you can get. he was england's break—out star from the world cup, and now jofra archer is in line for a test debut, having recovered from a side strain to take his place in the 12—man squad for the second ashes test at lord's. he proved his fitness for sussex seconds earlier this week in the wickets and the runs. he looks like to replace james anderson, who's out with a calf injury. the most notable absentee is moeen ali, who struggled with bat and ball in the defeat at edgbaston. he's replaced byjack leach. 0lly stone misses out with a back problem, joe denly and sam curran expected to compete for the final spot in the side. the rugby world cup starts injapan towards the end of next month. wales and england have named their teams for their first warm—up game at twickenham on sunday. fly half george ford will captain england and there are two uncapped players in the england side, the bath wing rury mconnachie and gloucester scrum half willie heinz. the final 31—man squad

will be named on monday. it has been a whirlwind couple of months, getting the call from eddie to say he was interested in how i was playing in the premiership season, and to get named in the training squad to start preparing for the world cup, it has been incredible. still pinching myself that i am here, ijust feel so grateful to be surrounded by players in a squad who have helped me play this week, and really looking forward to sunday. wales captain alun wynjones will win a record 135th test cap on sunday, nine of those with the lions. with england experimenting a bit, wales's 15 looks strong with an unchanged backline. gareth anscombe starts at fly half. wales welcome england to cardiff next weekend before playing two games against ireland. scotland head coach gregor townsend has released four players from his world cup training squad. henry pyrgos, kyle steyn, gary graham and nick grigg the men to miss out.

now here's one player we'll probably not see on a rugby pitch again. former wasps wing christian wade gave up the sport in october to try his hand at american football. he's hit the ground running all right. he made his debut for the buffalo bills overnight, having onlyjoined them in april, and he scored a clinical 65—yard touchdown in pre—season as his team beat the indianapolis colts. he now hopes to earn a place on the roster for the start of the season. that's all the sport for now. plenty more on the website, including build up to that game at anfield tonight. full commentary from the radio at 8pm, but if you can't wait until then, sportsday is live at anfield at 6:30. hope to see you then. i look forward to that. let's tell you more about that power cut. you power networks are saying they believe it's because of a failure on the national grid network committee drop in power also affecting

a p pa re ntly drop in power also affecting apparently traffic lights in the capital. that is accord to transport for london. western power has said we are currently experiencing a major incident on the national electricity... and there have been reports of outages across north staffordshire. cheshire police have tweeted, we are aware. . . western power telling bbc radio stoke that around 80,000 homes are affected in the stoke area, so those are some of the details that are just coming into us. wejust are some of the details that are

just coming into us. we just getting picture of power cuts really in different parts of the country, and also in london, train services across the whole network may be delayed or cancelled. more information to follow. that appears to bea information to follow. that appears to be a power cut affecting different parts of the country, london and the southeast certainly, but other parts as well. so we will bring you more details as they come into us, clearly a changing situation and we will keep in touch with that for you throughout the next hour or two. the electoral commission says it needs new powers to regulate political advertising online. it says the current rules need updating because its focus is on traditional campaign financing at a time when spending on political adverts on social media is rising sharply. 0ur media editor amol rajan has more.

there is a lot of talk around a possible snap election. well, who knows? but while there is such chatter, you are going to see a lot more political ads such as these recent ones from facebook and other social media. facebook, twitter and all the rest arose out of the 20th century advertising industry. they are advertising companies, giant persuasion machines which use thousands of data points to let advertisers micro target all of us in a very cheap way. that could be for commercial campaigns or for political ones. here is a recent facebook ad from the conservatives that targets younger people. and here is a similar one that was aimed at older women. many of the uk's election rules were designed when mark zuckerberg was still at school. now there are calls for election rules which are fit for the digital age. we've been calling for changes to the law to make political campaigning online more transparent and to make the funding of it known much quicker than it currently is. we think that absolutely needs to happen so the voter can know where the money is coming from.

the electoral commission wants to make sure that digital campaigns follow the current electoral rules in the uk. it wants an imprint on the screen to make it clear who's behind the campaign. it wants spending returns broken down to show how money is being spent. it wants a ban on foreign individuals or organisations spending money here on the uk and it wants more powers and biggerfines. facebook have made more information about who is advertising publicly available through their ads library. but there is plenty we still don't know. i think it's an absolute real concern, the technology companies are really setting the debate here. they've done some things on transparency but it's almost enough to appear that they've done something. they've not done what you would ideally want and i think there needs to be more push for regulation from government in terms of actually setting the agenda about what does good transparency look like? what is it necessary for citizens to know and what is it necessary for researchers and journalists to be able to access in order to be able to scrutinise and hold these companies to account?

regulators regulate the law, but changes to the law require primary legislation. today, the gulf between technology and the law is growing. amol rajan, bbc news. with me now is louis knight—webb, co—founder of who targets me — software which monitors the use of political adverts on social media. thanks for being with us. there's been kind of an explosion of this sort of advertising online. there certainly has. we started our campaign about two years ago, and in that time, we have seen a huge growth in the number of parties and candidates using these tools to reach voters and more efficient way. and these tools are obviously very effective, otherwise they would not be doing it. they are reaching younger voters, is that right? the types of people who use social media are more susceptible to this marketing. the bye election, there

was a low amount of advertising. you can say perhaps that is down to the graphics in that area and the sorts of voters that will be coming out —— the demographics. your concern is how to regular this kind of advertising. that's correct. what we are trying to do here is draw awareness to the issue, and it's very proactive as well as reactive. not saying that the scenario has happened yet but we want to prevent the worst case scenario we have seen in other countries which have less regulation than we do. how much relation is there at the moment? have got four different trips that look into it, four tiffin watchdog regulators. we have got off, on the electoral commission in the information commissioner's office. no single one of them handles the entire journey, from the data collection to the spending report, and it that way we have a sort of reduced responsibility, we would

actually like one great latitude ta ke actually like one great latitude take response ability for the whole pipeline so it can be managed appropriately. what are you worried about? if there were a few for all and anybody could put and what they wa nt and anybody could put and what they want online, what really wrong with that? it is very important during political campaigns that you cannot just five votes. we have spending rules for a reason. 0ne just five votes. we have spending rules for a reason. one of the big things that was a topic during brexit and in 2017, was how the spending rules were being adhered to come and regulation is a core way of making sure we let the big viceregal who overspend. we need to monitor campaigns. right now, the electoral commission is not able to see what groups are spending. is it also about what the adverts say? correct. there is a fact checking side to it as well. it is all down to transparency. you need to be able to see the ads in order to actually

factor it properly. interesting. there may well be a general election coming up in the not—too—distant future, so we'll what happens. louis knight—webb, thanks so much for being with us. let's just update you one more on those power cuts. major power failures reported across large parts of the country, and they are affecting trains, airports and traffic lights. uk power networks say they believe it is because of a failure on the national grid failure. this is the transport for london wheat. western power... in supply, london wheat. western power... in supply, and will provide updates and we are sorry for the inconvenience this is causing... we have had reports of outages across north staffordshire. cheshire police have

been tweeting. .. a staffordshire. cheshire police have been tweeting... a whole range of problems that are beginning to emerge from cuts on the national grid, on the power supply. causing all four subproblems around the country. we will continue to keep you informed and updated. 0ur country. we will continue to keep you informed and updated. our latest headlines. that is our top story. a power cut is affecting large areas of the country — it's thought to be due to a national grid failure. it is affecting trains, airports and traffic lights. a churchwarden found guilty of murdering an author he had tricked into changing his will. the chancellor says he doesn't expect the uk to slide into a recession — after the economy shrinks for the first time since 2012. and a look at the market numbers for you. this is how london and frankfurt ended the day, and the

states, how the dow and the nasdaq are getting on at the moment. film review coming your way very soon. a look ahead to sportsday at 6.30pm tonight. coming up on bbc news, it's the start of the premier league season. european champions liverpool face norwich city under the lights here at anfield. we will be looking ahead to what will be a pretty thrilling title race. and we'll be finding out what var could mean for fans and players. we will also be looking ahead to next week's second ashes test and the rugby world cup. that's all on sportsday at 6.30pm. now on bbc news, it's time for the film review.