this is bbc news. i'm lukwesa burak. the headlines at six. the disgraced american financier jeffrey epstein has been found dead in his prison cell after an apparent suicide, while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. national grid says it will "learn lessons," after nearly a million people across england and wales, were affected by yesterday's power cut. what we saw was an exceptionally rare event that we have not seen since 2008, but we will be looking very hard at what happened to make sure we minimise disruption in the future. wet and windy conditions cause disruption to travellers, with the west coast mainline hit by flooding. michael gove says there'll be a bail—out fund for businesses hit by brexit. the family of a 15—year—old girl

missing in malaysia make a fresh appealfor information to help find her. more than a million people are evacuated from their homes as a powerful typhoon hits china's east coast. and off to a flier — manchester city begin their premier league title defence — thrashing west ham five—nil. that and the rest of the day's sport coming up in half an hour on sportsday. good evening and welcome to bbc news. the us financierjeffrey epstein has been found dead in his manhattan police cell. reports in the new york times says his body was found early this morning. he was awaiting trial for sex

trafficking and conspiracy charges. the 66—year—old had pleaded not guilty to all charges. epstein‘s acquaintances included many of the rich and famous — such as us president donald trump, bill clinton and prince andrew. our correspondent in washington — chris buckler has been giving me more details. jeffrey epstein was a very well—known individual. he was notjust someone who during a period in the 1990s and early 2000s attended these parties that were attended by the rich and famous, he was someone who organised the parties and indeed hosted them and there are questions about exactly what that meant. there were suggestions he had procured underage girls and tried to force them into having sex on a number of occasions with those who attended the parties including prominent politicians and very well—known celebrities, and that has been something that has

been investigated for a very long time, a decade ago he did plead guilty to offences that involved a state prostitution offence and also involve procuring an underage girl for all those circumstances and that was something that attracted a lot of controversy because the plea deal involved him pleading to one case and it seems prosecutors were investigating multiple different cases. that is something that has come back to haunt the labour secretary of president trump's administration who was the us attorney for miami who organised that deal, had to resign from his post recently due to questions about it and that is because, injuly, jeffrey epstein was charged with a series of six trafficking with a series of sex trafficking offences that date back to the mid—2000s and they involve again underage girls.

he had been under lock and key in a manhattan correctional centre and there he was found this morning and i've just had a statement handed to me from the bureau of prisons in which they say he was found at 6:30am unresponsive in his cell in a special housing unit from what they are describing as an apparent suicide. live—saving measures were activated from responding staff and they requested medical services, life—saving efforts continued and then he was transported to a local hospital for treatment for those but he was subsequently pronounced dead by hospital staff. they say in a statement this is now being investigated by the fbi and you can imagine there will be a huge focus on this given the questions about this case and that this was also a very secure federal facility and that two or three weeks ago, jeffrey epstein had actually been found unresponsive in his cell on an earlier occasion two or three weeks ago and that, at that stage, it was suggested

he would be put onto suicide watch. there are already some public representatives saying we need answers, lots of them, about his death. you do ask the question as to whether this will open this case up even wider. he has been connected to a lot of high profile figures. two us presidents, british royalty. what sort of reaction have they had or given to past allegations of associations with him? many of them have denied any allegations of wrongdoing. in fact, some of them have tried to distance themselves from jeffrey epstein, president trump being one of them who was pictured with him at parties, pictured there standing alongside jeffrey epstein himself appearing to be very friendly and he now says

he did not regard him as a friend and he actually tried to distance himself from jeffrey epstein and that is something that is being watched very closely, his relationship with president trump, which has helped make this a huge story in the united states but you're right, he was pictured at these parties held in new york and florida with the likes of prince andrew for example and other very famous people. he was extremely well known. this court case was therefore going to get a huge amount of attention particularly since it did regard parties that he allegedly held in new york and florida. and there will be this concern now that if the court case goes away, what about the information but we are already seeing some information being revealed from that, for example in a civil suit that is connected but separate from the criminal investigation readers have some court findings only this week in which they talk

about a woman suggesting that when she was underage, she was being forced byjeffrey epstein into having sex with some very prominent individuals, some politicians. there will be attention on this and while the court case goes away, prosecutors make clear what information they had and what other avenues of investigation are purched. there will be a real push on that from some individuals. national grid says it will "learn the lessons," after nearly a million people across england and wales, were affected by yesterday's power cut. the company's confirmed to the bbc, that the simultaneous failure of two power stations, wasn't the result of a cyber attack. the regulator, 0fgem, has demanded an urgent report into what went wrong. the supply failure left thousands of train passengers stranded, homes up and down the country without electricity, and ipswich hospital lost power

when back up generators failed. ben ando has more. it was the biggest and most disruptive power failure in over a decade. major stations, in chaos, passengers stranded or trapped, traffic control is inactive and a large nhs hospital without power. one of the many caught on electric trains that went dead was lily winin. the power cut off and i was sat in a carriage by myself and the storm had started outside, so all of the rain was coming onto the windows and it was pitch black and then we all started to sit together to try and piece together what was going on, because no one could really understand and the announcements were failing because of the lack of power. and then we all had to walk to the very end of the carriage in the pitch black, going through a tunnel. after four hours, lily and her fellow passengers were led along the tracks to the nearest station. at ipswich hospital, the main power cut was followed by a failure in emergency back—up generators, but hospital managers say essential

equipment was able to keep working on batteries. so what went wrong? two generator plans, one a gas—fired power station in cambridgeshire, the other a large wind farm in the north sea failed almost simultaneously. to protect the rest of the network, power was cut to certain areas. a double failure has happened before, in 2008, but with far less impact. so why so much worse this time? the energy regulator has asked for an urgent report. we need to do a detailed technical examination of the event and we will be sending that report through to 0fgem and we will build that analysis over the coming days and weeks as we review it. and then, off that, i am sure we will learn lessons and want to review how this works to avoid some other significant impacts in future. national grid could now face a fine of up to 10% of its annual turnover. but some argue that years of underinvestment by successive governments is partly to blame, leaving the uk with a power

network that works fine, most of the time, but is exposed when the unexpected happens. ben is at king's cross for us now. 0ne one of the worst hit stations. yes. i think this evening things are becoming back to normal as far as they can. i had a look a short time ago at the 18 departures scheduled from kings cross in the next hour, four have been cancelled. so the majority are running in the majority of people are able to complete their journey. but i think in the aftermath of what happened yesterday, there are two words that have come to the fore, one is resilience, the other is impact. when it comes to resilience, people asking why have two power stations 01’ asking why have two power stations or two power generators go down, what happened then? was the cut power to people to cut power to businesses and cut power to hospitals or to railways? what is

clear is that when it using renewables, it is not always easy as we to immediately ramp up more generating capacity. the other question the people are talking about is impact. why is it that even though power was restored by half past six, for the rest of the night and well into today, there have been huge problems on the railways and one thing has become clear. there is a new fleet of trains from kings cross where i am now. they do not react well when power is cut. they get stuffy and get hot and have not got windows that passages can open, conditions inside get quite difficult. and also, in certain circumstances, it is impossible, even when power was restored for the driver to restart the training to may have to involve an engineer or a fencer coming got to do that. and that i think it is certainly something about the department for transport who specified the trains and the train operating companies will want to look at. thank you,

ben. well meanwhile — travellers have been hit by widespread disruption this afternoon — as rail operators across the country battled hazards caused by wet and windy conditions. these pictures are from the west coast mainline, which was temporarily closed in both directions after five trains became trapped in floodwaters on the tracks between lockerbie and carlisle. the southbound line has now reopened but with trains subject to severely restricted speed limits. brittany ferries says services between portsmouth and cherbourg have been cancelled. p and 0 is warning passengers to expect delays of up to 2.5 hours on the dover to calais route. and the site of the bristol balloon fiesta — which attracts thousands of people every year — has also been temporarily closed, due to strong winds. michael gove, the cabinet minister in charge of preparing for a possible no—deal brexit, says a support fund for british businesses will help firms to deal

with any "bumps in the road". he spoke openly for the first time about what's known as ‘0peration kingfisher‘, while on a visit to northern ireland. meanwhile, as the government ramps up it's no deal planning, a leaked memo from the department for the environment, food and rural affairs, seen by the bbc, claims there's "a lot of uncertainty" about the uk's capacity to patrol fishing waters after a no—deal brexit. the note says there are just 12 ships "to monitor a space three times the size of the surface area of the uk". a little earlier i spoke to our political correspondent, tony bonsignore — and began by asking him about 0peration kingfisher... we understand it has been planned for a while, it predates borisjohnson becoming prime minister, and we know it will be discussed at a brexit committee in the coming week. what the government says is this — it wants to support fundamentally viable companies, it says, who have temporary difficulties,

so for example a lack of cash flow in the event of a no—deal brexit. beyond that, lots of questions — how much, what sort of practical help are they going to give, which companies? the times newspaper says a list has already been drawn up of companies that might be helped. and how would you decide what a commercially viable company is? that is going to be controversial. so there are clearly concerns about the economic effect of a no—deal brexit on a number of companies, but more details we will have to wait for. another aspect of no—deal brexit was highlighted yesterday in these leaked memo, tell us more about that. this was sent out accidentally, can you believe, by a government official? one of the things it talked about was the impact on fishing of a no—deal brexit, because there would be no agreement on the waters around the uk.

there was a lot of uncertainty about the uk's ability to patrol its own waters, only 12 ships to police in an area that is three times the surface area of the uk. we have spoken to the government, who say this was just an internal e—mail looking at media stories, they say they are very confident they can patrol the waters, but it suggests potentially a lot of problems after an no—deal brexit, and in the last few minutes we have had a statement from labour, really trying to press the point home, saying this revelation shows the chaos and damage a no—deal brexit would inflict, they will push the government into better preparations to defend ourfishing industry and make sure others are not allowed to bully their way into our waters. just a quarter past six. the headlines on bbc news... the disgraced us financier, jeffrey epstein, has been found dead

in his prison cell while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. national grid has said it will "learn lessons" — after nearly1 million people across england and wales lost power yesterday. michael gove says there will be a government support fund to help british businesses in the event of a no—deal brexit. the family of a 15 year old british schoolgirl, who disappeared while on holiday with her family in malaysia, have made a fresh appeal for information to help find her. a 200 strong search team is continuing to scour dense forest near the resort, where nora quiron, who has learning difficulties, was staying. from malaysia, here's howard johnson. it has been a week since their daughter went missing — a teenager with serious learning difficulties who disappeared while on holiday, suspected missing in the jungle.

we are extremely impressed with the effort, your expertise, your dedication. and we hope that you find nora, and thank you so much. the malaysian authorities have used drones, sniffer dogs and thermal scanning technology to try to find nora, but in the last few days they've tried a different tact. "nora!" "nora, darling!" the 15—year—old was born with a condition limiting the development of her brain and it means she needs help with simple, everyday tasks. the family have stressed that given nora's learning difficulties, it is very unlikely she would have walked off alone. they believe she may have been abducted. but today, the police say they are continuing to treat her disappearance as a missing person's case. this is the seventh day

of search and rescue efforts. as you can see, some commandos here and other search and rescue workers are coming down into this area, around 30 of them exploring an area about a kilometre away from the dusan resort. they're looking in a riverbed to see if there are any signs of nora, any traces that might help with this investigation. this time last week, nora's family were arriving for a luxury break but today they remain wracked with emotion, not knowing the fate of their much—loved daughter. howard johnson, bbc news, pantai, in malaysia. police are investigating after a shotgun was fired and a man sustained machete wounds in birmingham. officers have described the incident in the saltley area of the city last night as ‘truly outrageous'. the incident — which police believe was a targetted attack — took place only four miles from where a 20—year—old man was shot dead on thursday evening. lindsay doyle reports. a second night of violence

on the streets of birmingham. it began with a car chase involving a vw golf in a dark blue bmw which crashed into a wall. the two occupants targeted with a shotgun and a machete by masked man, not far from the busy rock road. a car with a couple of people came in and ran in with machetes and shooting guns with no care or no consequences of their actions. a 22—year—old man is being treated in hospitalfor cuts to his leg. a 23—year—old escaped with a minor graze from a shotgun pellet, he was discharged from hospital, but arrested on suspicion of also possessing a firearm. the police have described this as a truly outrageous incident, coming to an end in a cul—de—sac with children playing. with several shots being fired, local people have spoken of their relief that none of them were injured. just a day earlier, 20—year—old james tierre died in a drive—by shooting

just metres from his home. we don't really know, is too early to say at this stage, we do not want to speculate, but at the same time, the community is concerned and we want reassurance from the local police and the quick apprehension of the two people will send a lot of reassurance to the community. the police believe last night's incident was a targeted attack, but do not think the two incidents are linked. as investigations continue, they believe the answer may lie with the public as they appeal for information. pay rates have fallen for millions of lower and middle income earners in the uk over the past decade according to a report from the trades union congress. the report said austerity and a lack of bargaining rights had held down pay in working and middle class jobs. a treasury spokesperson said it had given the lowest earners a pay rise, and had cut income tax for 32—million people. the tuc has called for more

action to be taken. what we are seeing is people seeing real cuts in their pay packets, people in middle earning jobs actually seeing their pay fall. that might bejobs in things like construction, may be in local government, if you are doing a more kind of administrative job there, you are likely to have seen your pay go down over this period. and of course that has a real impact on your ability to live, your cost of living, your ability to pay your bills as well. in china, at least 13 people have been killed — 16 are missing — and over a million people have been forced from their homes, as a powerful typhoon heads towards the financial capital, shanghai.