tonight at ten — the chancellor defends his tax rises, saying a healthy post pandemic economy, required tough measures. at the conservative party conference, rishi sunak warned that more borrowing to balance the books, would be "immoral". there can be no prosperous future unless it is built on the foundation strong public finances. i have to be blunt with you. our recovery comes with a cost. he was speaking as the army began deliveries of fuel, to ease the petrol crisis, in parts of the south east. we'll be analysing the chanacellor�*s speech, as the economic squeeze hits millions of households. also tonight...

millions around the world are forced off line, as a network blackout hits social media services. the tory party donor involved in a russian corruption scandal. we have a special report. and, feeling the heat... the nobel prize winners who worked out how our bodies respond to warmth and touch. and coming up in the sport on bbc news channel: welcome back, claudio! watford appoint ranieri as their new manager after sacking xisco munoz on sunday. good evening. the chancellor, rishi sunak, has defended the government's recent tax rises, saying funding an economic recovery after the pandemic, "comes with a cost." he also said taxes could only be cut when the public finances are on a "sustainable footing," and borrowing more money

would be "immoral." the comments came in his first speech to a conservative party conference in person as chancellor, where he also insisted brexit is in the long term interests of the uk, despite current challenges. our political editor, laura kuenssberg, has more from manchester. you're not going to get in there. can people start moving, please? no one wanted to give up a place in the queue. they weren't listening because they wanted to hear. standing room ran out for the chancellor, who let go of the purse strings during the pandemic. emerging today to remind this crowd his instinct is not to tax or spend. just borrowing more money and stacking up bills forfuture generations to pay isn'tjust economically irresponsible, it is immoral, and whilst i know tax rises are unpopular, some will even say un—conservative, i'll tell you what is un—conservative...

unfunded pledges, reckless borrowing and soaring debt. but coming out of the covid emergency has put new strains on the economy everywhere. the changes of brexit have brought pressure, too. we are facing challenges to supply chains, notjust here but right around the world. but tackling the cost of living isn't just a political soundbite. it's one of the central missions of this conservative government. but making ends meet is getting harderfor so many people, like leslie. she works at manchester college, but paid £5 tojoin this community grocer. like michelle, that means she can fill a basket for £3 per week. this unusual kind of shop only opened a year ago — its tenth branch is coming any day. the government need to be looking at the real world and the real people that suffer if there isn't a meal on the table. it doesn't matter how many hours you work,

it's not just about your food shop, you've got all the other aspects, your mortgage payments, rent payments, gas, electric. at the end of the month, you're lucky if you've got any money left. one cabinet minister told me the government is walking a tightrope when it comes to people and the public finances being able to pay their way. and rishi sunak�*s future will be shaped by whether he can hold his balance. atjust the moment when it feels like we've done enough, we must not stop. now is the time to show them that our plan will deliver, and now is the time, at long last, to finally turn to the future. thank you. maybe it was a down payment on his own politicalfuture, trying to reassure the rank and file he's a low—tax tory, but it might get much harder in the coming months to reassure the crowd outside that the tories are really on their side. your party took myjob off me!

just as jacob rees—mogg was confronted today, ministers can't turn their faces away. even the most polished political script can be written in a moment by what happens in the real world outside. laura kuenssberg, bbc news, manchester. while the chancellor has admitted that the supply chain problems in the uk are likely to continue until christmas, military personnel have begun trying to tackle one aspect of the resulting shortages, delivering fuel. while there's been a big improvement across much of the country, petrol stations in london and the south east are still running low on supplies. our economics editor, faisal islam, has been assessing the economic backdrop, to the chancellor's conference speech. this is the military, not as we are used to seeing them, helping out in petrol distribution.

even as there are wider post—lockdown supply chain challenges across the globe, these scenes are unique to britain. for the government, alongside some new visas for drivers, this is an example of what the chancellor referred to as whatever it takes to deal with problems in getting goods to market normally. the latest figures show there has been a marked improvement across the uk, except in london and south—east, where the petrol situation remains challenging. but the underlying haulage driver issue also remains. it's all very well saying improve pay and conditions. next week, boris will be whinging and whining that inflation has gone crazy because everyone is paying twice as much for their drivers as they were six months ago. the chancellor's speech didn't contain any big new announcements. he'll have the chance to do so at this month's budget. the entire thrust of economic policy now seems to be about trying to raise wages. so far it doesn't look as if overall there is a significant increase in wages. what really needs to happen

is that workers and unemployed people can have the best opportunity of moving to places where there are these shortages of workers, where there are vacancies, and that means signalling that in those particular sectors they can earn more. farmers made their concerns clear outside the conference. yesterday, the pm played down the prospect of a possible mass cull of pigs that farmers have blamed on a post—brexit worker shortage. we don't want to see consumers going short of food and not being able to access high—quality british food, and we don't want to see farmers and growers go out of business because they can't get their food to market. the chancellor's long—term economic optimism faces some serious short—term challenges. worker shortages and supply shortages are having a material impact on the bank of england's forecasts for the economy, on household disposable income, on consumer confidence. and it's notjust hauliers and farmers questioning whether the government is really doing everything it takes to solve this issue.

they were joined today by a prominent conservative and brexit—supporting retailer. the chief executive of next, lord wolfson, said cash alone cannot conjure up enough workers, and warned forcing a rise in wages could simply lead to a 1970s—style spiral of rising prices. right now, even keeping the normal wheels of the economy turning requires some pretty extraordinary intervention. the path to the chancellor's high—tech highways future may take some time. faisal islam, bbc news. hundreds of millions of people around the world, using some of the most popular social media sites facebook, instagram and whatsapp, have been forced offline, in a major global blackout. it's one of the longest outages, already lasted several hours, and facebook�*s share price has plummetted by nearly 5%. it's not known what's caused the problems, or when it will be fixed. our consumer affairs correspondent colletta smith reports.

it isa it is a trilogy of companies with one owner and this afternoon it was the same message about them all, facebook is down, instagram isn't working, and whatsapp went down, as well. the fact all three companies have been impacted suggested it is something right at the heart of that social media giant that has gone horribly wrong.— social media giant that has gone horribl wronu. , horribly wrong. facebook has servers eve here horribly wrong. facebook has servers everywhere all _ horribly wrong. facebook has servers everywhere all over _ horribly wrong. facebook has servers everywhere all over the _ horribly wrong. facebook has servers everywhere all over the world - horribly wrong. facebook has servers everywhere all over the world to - everywhere all over the world to make sure that the service it delivers is optimised and is a good service to the user so the fact it is global suggest it is not a problem with its server system. it could well be a problem at the heart of the technological engine that runs all those servers.— of the technological engine that runs all those servers. many within the tech industry _ runs all those servers. many within the tech industry think _ runs all those servers. many within the tech industry think it _ runs all those servers. many within the tech industry think it is - runs all those servers. many within the tech industry think it is a - the tech industry think it is a problem with the domain name system, thatis problem with the domain name system, that is effectively the internet�*s address book and something has been wiped at facebook so when you click an app and type the name, users are

not being sent anywhere.— an app and type the name, users are not being sent anywhere. it has been a nightmare. — not being sent anywhere. it has been a nightmare. trying _ not being sent anywhere. it has been a nightmare, trying to _ not being sent anywhere. it has been a nightmare, trying to find _ not being sent anywhere. it has been a nightmare, trying to find each - a nightmare, trying to find each other. �* ,., a nightmare, trying to find each other. �* ., , ., other. i'm so glad it is out, the word would _ other. i'm so glad it is out, the word would be _ other. i'm so glad it is out, the word would be a _ other. i'm so glad it is out, the word would be a better - other. i'm so glad it is out, the word would be a better place i other. i'm so glad it is out, the word would be a better place ifj other. i'm so glad it is out, the i word would be a better place if it doesn't _ word would be a better place if it doesn't come back! — the world. | doesn't come back! — the world. i have doesn't come back! — the world. have not doesn't come back! — the world. i have not been able to contact my mum because _ have not been able to contact my mum because she _ have not been able to contact my mum because she lives _ have not been able to contact my mum because she lives in _ have not been able to contact my mum because she lives in india. _ have not been able to contact my mum because she lives in india.— because she lives in india. whatsapp is raidl because she lives in india. whatsapp is rapidly replacing — because she lives in india. whatsapp is rapidly replacing texts _ because she lives in india. whatsapp is rapidly replacing texts and - is rapidly replacing texts and calling especially in the developing world is a cheaper way to communicate, and millions of small companies here and around the globe depend on facebook to conduct their entire business. today's outage is hugein entire business. today's outage is huge in scale but similar events have happened before. injuly problems with the domain name system meant that several companies were amongst a raft of sites to go down for hours but today with the biggest social media players down, other platforms like tick—tock and twitter are seizing their moment in the limelight. colette smith, bbc news.

let's get the latest from our north america business correspondent michelle fleury in boston. this outage has gone on for quite a few hours, it has broken the internet! ~ ., few hours, it has broken the internet!_ few hours, it has broken the internet! ~ ~ ., ., ., , internet! we think the outage has one on internet! we think the outage has gone on for _ internet! we think the outage has gone on for around _ internet! we think the outage has gone on for around five _ internet! we think the outage has gone on for around five hours - internet! we think the outage has gone on for around five hours at l gone on for around five hours at this point. they do happen from time to time but typically these problems are fixed very quickly so and outage this lung is highly unusual. — an outage this long. billions of people use these services, facebook has nearly 2 billion daily users and instagram has nearly a billion. the damage to the company was reflected in the share price which closed down nearly 5%. but even at the start of the day, it was already lower because facebook has been hit by a series of damning reports from a whistle—blower, accusing the company

of prioritising profit over misinformation and the health and safety of users. that whistle—blower is due to appear before lawmakers on tuesday to testify about facebook�*s impact. we have already heard one senator compare facebook to big tobacco in the way that they draw in teenagers and cause them harm. so a bad week already for this company. 0k. thanks forjoining us. a secretive russian whose businesses have backed 3a conservative mps was involved in a russian corruption scandal, an investigation by bbc panorama reveals. leaked documents show that former oil executive victor fedotov secretly benefitted from an alleged $4 billion fraud. his lawyers told the bbc "there is no evidence whatsoever that mr fedotov behaved improperly." the revelations come from pandora papers, a leak of 12 million offshore documents. richard bilton reports.

these are the beaches of eastney. a russian businessman has big plans for them. france is 100 miles across the channel. now, later this month, the uk government will decide whether or not to approve an ambitious plan to link the two with an underwater energy and communication cable. the billion—pound scheme would be built by aquind, a company owned by viktor fedotov. it's controversial because his businesses have given the conservatives £740,000, including donations to sa tory mps. the reason this matters is that aquind wants to lay a power cable under the channel. you have to ask yourself why, in those circumstances, aquind feels it needs to go to such elaborate efforts and spend such money and so much time to get access

to the conservative party? working with the international consortium of investigative journalists and the guardian, panorama has found out how the man behind the plan made a fortune. the total length of our trunk- pipelines is over 68,000 kilometres. documents show how mr fedotov and two managers of transneft, the russian state oil pipeline firm, secretly owned company that was awarded transneft contracts. it has previously been alleged in russia that the company was paid huge sums for work that was never done. now the files show how profits from the transneft contracts were pushed through offshore companies to secretive trusts controlled by mr fedotov and the two other men. it looks like they siphoned off more than $100 million from transneft. if people are able to construct a scheme whereby they can extract, for doing nothing, $100 million

plus, out of government funds, then the real loser are the men, women and children who rely on the government to give them education, health, roads, social services. lawyers for aquind and viktor fedotov said there was no evidence that funds were embezzled from transneft. mr fedotov denies any allegations of wrongdoing and he never had any interest in british politics and has operated in an open and transparent manner. some of the money from the alleged fraud ended up in the uk, helping to pay for viktor fedotov�*s impressive country house. it also funded his company, aquind, and its donations to the conservative party. the prime minister today defended the vetting process. i see that story today but all i can say on that one is that all these donations are vetted in the normal

way in accordance with the rules that were set up under the labour government, so we vet them the whole time. a conservative party spokesperson said fundraising is a legitimate part of the democratic process and government policy is in no way influenced by donations. richard bilton, bbc news. there's much more detail about the pandora papers and what they reveal on the bbc news website, and on the iplayer. the government's latest coronavirus figures show there were 35,077 new infections recorded in the latest 24—hour period, meaning an average of 34,160 new cases were reported per day, in the last week. there were 33 deaths, that's people who died within 28 days of a positive covid—19 test, although some data has been delayed. that means on average, 111 deaths were announced every day in the past week.

the latest figures on those being treated in hospital, and percentage of people who've been vaccinated, haven't been made available. london's top police officer, dame cressida dick, has announced an independent review, into the metropolitan police's culture and standards. the move follows the conviction of wayne couzens, who was a serving officer, when he kidnapped, raped and murdered, sarah everard in march. cressida dick says she won't resign over what happened, but admits the way recruits are vetted before joining the force, should be looked at. she's been speaking to our special correspondent, lucy manning. the metropolitan police commissioner on patrol this morning, on the same streets that some women feel scared to walk down alone at night. she and herforce have been rocked by wayne couzens' crimes, and are now promising to restore trust, in the first interview since couzens was sentenced. your officer kidnapped, raped and murdered a lone

female, sarah everard. you were his ultimate boss. it was on your watch. why won't you resign? these events have been absolutely dreadful. they have made everybody in the met furious. and we depend on public trust, so today, i am announcing that we will be doing a review that will be led by a high profile independent person, and the review will look at our internal culture and our professional standards. some would say that is not enough, that you need to go, did you offer to resign? people will be entitled to their opinion. i've got a job to do, i'm getting on with it. myjob now is to lead the met through difficult times. couzens, seen here the night that he murdered sarah, buying things to use in the attack. but could he have been stopped days earlier

in the met were investigating two incidents of indecent exposure? we have an independent office of police conduct investigation. there is one thing i do want to say, which is, as far as i am aware, and this needs to be assured by the iopc, at no stage during an investigation into indecent exposure was a police officer identified. how did couzensjoin the met�*s firearms unit, when there had been a previous allegation of indecent exposure when he worked as an officer in kent, six years ago? what went wrong on vetting? in terms of vetting, the public will be rightly concerned. i have asked that there should be a review of national police vetting standards. couzens was not re—vetted when he became a firearms officer or when he joined the met. i am not going to discuss the details. this is for the iopc to say what happened, but what i can say that there has been much speculation about an incident in kent. no police officer was arrested, charged, convicted at all.

the met will allow itself to be examined, but it is not a public inquiry or the resignation that some have called for. lucy manning, bbc news. let's take a look at some of the day's other top stories. and a metropolitan police officer, has been remanded in custody, charged with raping a woman he met on a dating app. st albans' magistrates' court heard that pc david carrick, who's a6, was off duty at the time of the alleged offence, "emphatically denies" the allegation. she is in the hospital in canterbury! insulate britain protesters, have again been confronted by angry drivers, as the group blocked more roads in london. 38 of the climate change activists were arrested near the blackwall tunnel entrance during the morning rush hour. it follows recent protests on the m25 and the m4. london ambulance service has issued

a plea asking protesters to let their crews pass. a 31—year—old nurse has pleaded not guilty to murdering eight babies, at a hospital in chester. lucy letby appeared at manchester crown court via video link, where she also denied ten counts of attempted murder, at the countess of chester hospital, between 2015 and 2016. her trial is due to begin next 0ctober. ministers are considering whether to reduce the threshold at which graduates must begin to repay their student loans. currently anyone earning just over £27,000 a year starts to pay their debt. but with just 25% of students expected to pay off their loan in full, the government is looking at proposals for the future funding of universities in england. 0ur education editor, branwenjeffreys, has been talking to students in staffordshire. growing up in stoke, few go from school to university — half the rate of wealthier southern england, even though most graduates earn more. students starting at

staffordshire will all pay fees of more than £9,000. from engineers who will earn higher salaries, to digital artists like vincent in his final year, who doesn't think graduates should start repaying earlier. computer science and engineering are popular subjects, so i think they are ok to maybe pay that share, but for the creative fields it can definitely be a lot more demanding, again, because our salary is so low starting out. emma should get work straightaway in forensics, but says that graduates need a bit of leeway in the first few years. there is so much stress surrounding that, you need to pay rent, the bills, food, you might have a car, insurance. and on top of that you have to pay your loan, and now at this point you don't need to think about that until you are earning 27k a year, which is a decent amount of money a year. today's students will

repay their loans for 30 years after graduation. how much they repay depends on how much they earn. and, at the end of those 30 years, we all pick up the bill for the unpaid loans, whether we went to university or not. and that taxpayers' share of student loans has now reached more than 50% of the total value. when earnings hitjust over £27,000, graduates repay 9% of income above that threshold. if it was lowered to £21,000 or £23,000, as some suggest, that would mean they start repaying sooner, and repay more. the vice chancellor tells me that it would penalise students getting a degree later in life. if they're already paying for a family and paying

for a mortgage, can they afford to start repaying their student loan as early as they might have to? and so there are challenges there, but there may be a balance we could have. we have been saying for some time now that maintenance grants are really important. despite the debate about cost, more students have chosen to sign up in england this year. branwenjeffreys, bbc news, staffordshire. two american scientists who discovered how our bodies sense the warmth of the sun, or the feel of a hug from a loved one, have won the nobel prize for medicine. david julius and ardem patapoutian used chilli to identify the sensors that enable the body to feel temperatures and pressure, which could lead to new ways of treating pain. james clayton has more details from california. the challenge that we set out to solve in the lab

was to understand the molecules and signalling pathways that underlie our sense of touch. professor david julius and his team set out to better understand how we interact the world, from our morning coffee to a hug from a loved one. you might think it is pretty obvious when a cup of coffee is too hot or a drink is too cold, but scientists haven't actually understood fully how we experience those sensations, and that is why this research is deemed to be so important. not only does it improve our understanding, but it could have huge implications for how we manage pain. researchers investigated the burning sensation we feel from eating a hot chile pepper. that is give it a particular receptor, part of ourselves that detects the world around them that response to pain. touch is one of the five senses. but it does something very special, because most cells in our bodies communicate through chemicals. and yet, these touch neurons have to sense physical stimuli,

such as pressure and temperature, and in a way, transform this information into chemical signals that cells can understand, and no—one really knew how this happened. places like san francisco are in the grip of an opioid crisis. more people died here in this city of drugs overdoses than from covid last year. the hope is that this research will allow scientists to create more targeted and perhaps even less addictive pain relief in the future. james clayton, bbc news, san francisco. that's it. now on bbc one, time for the news where you are. hello there it's been a day of sunshine and showers. followed by thickening cloud and rain developing in wales in the southwest in this more organised band of rain will push eastwards across much of

england and wales overnight. heavy bursts of rain particularly hearing that will be accompanied by some gusty winds. wind and rain keep and the temperatures up overnight but drierfor northern the temperatures up overnight but drier for northern ireland the temperatures up overnight but drierfor northern ireland and much of scotland were in the north of scotland temperatures could be close to freezing. we've still got this wet and windy weather around on tuesday. heavy rains to do next in the north of scotland temperatures could be close to freezing. we've still got this wet and windy weather around on tuesday. heavy rains to do next and clears what weather continues to much of northern england, wales pushing into the midlands as well for the surrounding area of low pressure strong winds many seeing rain particular chilli. some sunshine across other parts of england and wales, northern ireland and western areas of scotland for the temperatures mid—teens at best. that wet and windy weather does clear way overnight for the brief fridge of pressure on wednesday more rain coming in from the atlantic into northern ireland.

this is bbc news. the headlines. the

secret wealth of leaders have been exposed to one of the biggest ever leaks of financial documents dubbed the pandora papers. hundreds of journalists have had access to 12,000,000 documents sparking allegations of corruptions, money laundering and tax avoidance by the rich and powerful. the us has a strategy for tackling tree tensions with china but has decided not to drop tariffs imposed by donald trump. the subsidised steel and solar panels are squeezing our competition. three major social media sites owned by and operated by facebook have suffered an outage affecting millions of users. instagram and whatsapp are down as well is facebook itself.