Than it was a decade ago, says the tuc. More than a Million People are evacuated from their homes as a powerful typhoon hits china. Liverpool make an ideal start to the season as they thrash newly promoted norwich 4 1 at anfield. And in dateline london well discuss the lockdown in kashmir as well as the speculation here in the uk about a possible general election. The Energy Regulator is demanding answers from the National Grid after a major blackout which struck large areas of england and wales yesterday evening. Around a Million People were affected by the power cut which led to major disruption for rail passengers, caused traffic lights to fail and left thousands of homes without electricity. The National Grid said the major power cut was a rare and unusual event caused by the almost simultaneous loss of power at a gas station and an offshore wind farm atjust before five oclock yesterday. Disruption lasted for around an half and a hour before power was restored at 6. 30 last night. Train passengers were stranded across the network and particularly at Kings Cross Station with many not getting home until the early hours. Further knock on disruption is expected to continue until lunchtime today. Andy moore reports. Darkness at clapham station. The lights went out, the display boards died, even the ticket machines were completely dead. After four hours on a train outside saint pancras, this passenger was glad to see help arrived. The people on board were offloaded and escorted to a nearby station where Water Bottles were waiting. Others werent so lucky. This was the message for travellers stuck on a train that finally got into kings cross just before two oclock in the morning. They tried to provide taxis but the weight was about a0 minutes. Which meant i wouldnt have got home until even later, so i would have had to pay out of pocket again for an uber, which cost me £40. National grid has given Little Details about what caused the power cuts, but Industry Experts say that at 16 58pm the gas fired plant at Little Barford failed. Two minutes later, the hornsey offshore wind farm also disconnected from the grid. There were still problems on the trains hours after power was restored to the million or so homes that lost their electricity. It was about a 5 loss of power over about 90 minutes. Thats what happened. So why that led to the heart of the National Transport infrastructure being closed down is a big question that the grid have to address. The regulator, 0fgem, has asked for an urgent report about what went wrong, and enforcement action, including fines, could follow. 0ur correspondent Greg Mckenzie is outside Kings Cross Station. Very different picture there from how it looked last night. But the effects are still being felt . Well, there has been a knock on effect following yesterdays power outage. 0f effect following yesterdays power outage. Of course it started at five, finished 90 minutes later but that was little consolation to those trying to get somewhere. Especially here at kings cross. Yesterday there were scenes of anger, really, frustration, just outside the station. There were hundreds if not thousands of people just wanting a nswe rs. Thousands of people just wanting answers. The police even had to be called he had to control the crowds because many people were simply stranded out here. This morning some trains cancelled, as of now there is one train that is delayed, albeit up to bradford by about 15 minutes. So what we are starting to see now is a normal service resuming out of kings cross was up however, passengers have complained they have been waiting up to two or three hours to get to the capital. A couple to have just got in from lincolnshire. Since last night at 5 30pm we were trying to get a train from lanesboro to get to london here at kings cross and we waited for hours. We kept getting at the last minute cancellations. Until last night at 7 30pm no one could really tell us which train was going to be on time, how long the power outage was going to be. It was a little scary. We waited for almost three hours without getting any notice was not the got cancellation after an hour and a half and they told us the train was cancelled. That was very disappointing. We did not get any prior notice anything and even when we tried calling we were not getting any answer so we tried calling we were not getting any answer so that was very disappointing for us. Off disappointing for us. 0ff gem has ordered an urgent review, report, if you like. They wa nt review, report, if you like. They want a detailed report from the National Grid to find out why and when this happened and why it happened. Spekaing to bbc breakfast, the director of operation for the National Grid, duncan birt said there were many lessons to learn from this rare and unusal event. We saw an incredibly rare event yesterday evening, the near simultaneous loss of two large power stations. The normal Protection Systems we have responded normally to try and manage that, but the loss was so large that we went into our secondary systems, and what they do is disconnect small amounts of electrical demand around the country in order to protect the rest of national demand. The power cuts last night made a sick could impact on peoples evenings, they were related to those Protection Systems firing. How much of a shock to it was to National Grid . It is rare but we are ready for it. The last time we saw a similar event was in 2008 and the progression of that event was very similar. We saw the system working again and a number of points of electrical demand disconnected around the country. Obviously it has a huge impact on people, but ourjob is to operate that network 24 7 as reliably as we can make sure that people the power they need, but when we have a very rare event like this, that operations continue as much as they can. You say yourjob is to operate as reliably as you can, it was the idea of two Power Generators failing in succession is you are ready for, but that doesnt really balance up with the chaos that this has caused across the country . We recognised a very significant amount of disruption across the country, and. People were stuck on trays for hours until the early hours of the morning, it doesnt sound as if you are ready for holding up your end of the bargain in terms of being responsible for our power supply. Following the loss of the generators, the systems worked to protect supply to the majority of the country. The supplies were remade available again within 15 minutes, and Distribution Networks who operate that process confirmed that power was restored to the supply by 6 30pm. So a large amount of disruption going on from that through the evening and that is something we want to sit down with colleagues across the electricity industry and key partners such as network rail to understand what happened and how we can avoid it happening in future. Have you not had conversations like that before . Absolutely, it is a regular part of our review of these contingency arrangements, we wouldnt want to see the kind of effects we did. We needed a detailed technical examination of the event, we will be sending that report through to 0fgem and will build that analysis over the coming days and weeks as we review it. Off that, i am sure we well known lessons and want to review how this worked to avoid some of those impacts in future. Yesterday, a quote from the National Grid says the events were out with their control. That could worry a lot of people. Are you in control . Absolutely, and when we say that what we mean is that the simultaneous loss of those two power stations is very rare and sits outside the normal standards we would work to, to make sure people have all the power they need 21w. That level of extreme event meant we went into those secondary Protection Systems which caused the disruption that we saw yesterday evening. Let me refer back to something you were explaining to is earlier in this interview, that you chose to deliver a cut power to certain services, signals, trains, hospitals. How is that logical . That is something we want to look at. Those are open automatic Protection Systems on the local networks around the country, and those Protection Systems, this event happens very quickly, so those signals fire at the electricity demand is removed, and that has had a big impact on transport, railways, hospitals, and newcastle airport. We will want to look at that closely. We would always want to minimise the disruption that is seen even under these severe and unusual events, and of easily what we saw last night, we appreciate the real challenge that put on people and the significant disruption it made to peoples lives let me bring you some breaking news. It isa let me bring you some breaking news. It is a statement from one of the power station that went off line yesterday resulting in the technical problems the grid was trying to deal with. It is issued by the German Company which owns one of the power stations and it says a technical issue occurred at our power station. 730 megawatts capacity. The demand at this point in time was a approximately 23,000 megawatts. Yesterday, that is at the time of the outage, when the power was lost, it resulted in a station shut down in accordance with our normal operating procedure. The issue has been resolved and the station is available. Such events are not uncommon in power station and it adds, what is now needed is for National Grid and for off gem to investigate why the wider system issues occurred. Hence there that there is a bit of irritation for the operating company because they are being blamed for the power being lost and National Grid says we do not generate power we just kind of ensure it gets from where it is generated to where it needs to be. But the owner of the power station appears to be saying that the issues were resolved as far as we are concerned but there is a bigger issue here about how the system bigger issue here about how the syste m co pes bigger issue here about how the system copes when power stations, as they do from time to time, go off line and the power is temporarily unavailable for that thatis temporarily unavailable for that that is the Statement Issued in the last few minutes. Earlier i spoke to the labour peer and former chair of the National Infrastructure commission, lord adonis. He said that National Grid have a lot of explaining at one level it is a very rare event. Two power stations going down a few minutes apart. And that leading to loss of power across the system which has two trip mechanisms on which lead to people losing electricity but it it is the resilience of the system that is the first issue and the second issue is the design of the systems that meant with a 5 loss of power, which is what happened over 90 minutes, one of the first thing is to be affected is the National Transport system and in particular the electric rail least able to cope with a loss of power of that level and though the National Grid are saying today that this was a very random, not random but unusual event, nonetheless they designed the system is and why is it that the led to the National Rail system collapsing . 0nce that the led to the National Rail system collapsing . Once the electricity is gone for 90 minutes getting anything running again is a massive job getting anything running again is a massivejob and getting anything running again is a massive job and that is a big set of questions. Was still chairman of the National Infrastructure commission i would be asking National Grid bottom really serious evaluation of the design of their system so that when Something Like this happens which i think one can accept that sometimes two power stations do go down together, it does not lead to the whole country grinding to a halt. 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 whats known as 0peration kingfisher, while on a visit to northern ireland. With me is our political correspondent. You have been looking at the story. What do we know about this fund . Very little at this stage is the answer. What we know is that the government is trying to put in place a package, it says, to try and help what it is calling commercially viable businesses you might temporarily hit problems as a result ofa temporarily hit problems as a result of a new deal begs it. So, for example, might hit a cash flow crisis put up now, you can imagine what sort of problems they might face come 0ctober what sort of problems they might face come october that it that if there is no deal brexit. For example, export tariffs are import costs going up, that type of course been talked about at the moment but what i shall help they will put in place, that remains to be seen. We know it will be discussed at a brexit cabinet this week. Brexit committee, rather, this week. And we will wait for details on how biggest packages. What practical help might be on offer. And of course as well how they are going to decide what a commercially viable businesses. That could be quite controversial, particularly for businesses they deem not to be commercially viable which think they are commercially viable. And the kind of way this could operate, presumably to some kind of emergency money that is available relatively quickly, because the problems we are talking about, ones that are probably going to arise immediately, deemed not to be commercially viable which think they are commercially viable. And they are commercially viable. And the kind of way this could operate, presumably to some kind of emergency money that is available relatively quickly, because the kind of problems we are talking about, ones that are probably going to arise immediately, suddenly. For example, ais immediately, suddenly. For example, a is as immediately, suddenly. For example, aisasa immediately, suddenly. For example, a is as a result unable to be sold and the company has lost money that way, a lot of these Companies Operate in quite small margins, dont they . The government will have to move quickly and knows this. The money will have to be available potentially there is no deal brexit which might be on the cards. What it might look like, we dont know. Loans potentially all loan guarantees. What announce that he was to agree over the next couple of months a one Year Spending round and is instead going to agree over the, behind that, is to deal with brexit, put money in place for brexit presumably for things like project kingfisher. Thank you very much for coming to talk about 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. The mother of the missing 15 Year Old Girl nora quoirin, has thanked the malaysian search teams who are looking for her daughter. Nora went missing nearly a week ago while on a family holiday. Her mother maeve spoke to rescue workers early this morning. We want to say thank you to each and every one of you we know you searching night and day for nora, we see you working so hard at also praying with us, being with us. We know you have given up your time, especially at a special festival time, to be with ours here. It means the world to us, and we are so grateful for everything that you are doing for us. Several hundred families have taken part in a pro democracy protest in hong kong as activists gear up for another weekend of demonstrations. The peaceful rally, attended by many children, had been granted permission by the authorities. 0ther unauthorised protests are expected later today with the territory braced for further violence between protesters and security forces. A sit in at hong kong airport is continuing. Stephen mcdonell is in hong kong for us he explained the situation to me a short while ago. I , behind that, is to deal with brexit, put money in place for brexit, put money in place for brexit presumably for things like project kingfisher. This gives you an idea, a between these protesters and the riot police who are up the other end of the street. I would just show you the lay of the land a bit. If i come round here we have barricades and the like being there has been a stand off, really, between these protesters and the riot police who are up the other end of the street. I would show you the lay of the land a bit. If i come and thatis lay of the land a bit. If i come and that is to slow the police down when the riot police come for these protesters. Why would you want to slow the police down . That is because more and more instead of trying to control the situation, they are trying to arrest these militant pro democracy activist. So instead of walking in the riot police come running in and grabbing and that is to slow the police down when the riot police come for these protesters. Why would you want to slow the police down . That is because more and more instead of trying to control the situation, they are trying to arrest these militant pro democracy activist. So instead of walking i think they believe that if they can arrest enough people it might start to take the wind out of this movement, apart from this protest we have a lot of people sitting in the airport giving out pamphlets who gathers illegally and the police had put a sign up of any warning to arrest anyone who gathers illegally and so that is usually the sign we get to before they come out so that is usually warning and then we get the we are going to shoot rubber bullets warning. That has not we get the tear gas warning and then we get the we are going to shoot rubber bullets warning. That has not come yet but, many of these protesters dont want to be arrested. You can, many of these protesters dont discussing where they are going to go and people are saying theyre going to move to another area. They have a new tactic as a sort of guerrilla tactic, if you started to leave now. They are discussing where they are going to go and people are saying theyre going to move to another area. They have a new move to another there will will go somewhere and throw projectiles at a Police Station or something along those lines then quickly, before the police can grab them, they will move to another area. At least 50 people have been killed after a fuel tanker exploded in tanzania. The lorry is believed to have exploded in the area of morogoro around 200 kilometres to the west of the capital city dar es salaam. Unconfirmed reports suggest people were trying to remove fuel from the vehicle when the blast happened. More than a Million People in china have been forced from their homes as a powerful typhoon has made landfall bringing gusts of 200 kilometres an hour, torrents of water in the streets and heavy rain. 13 people have died. Typhoon lekima is the strongest to hit the country in 5 years. A red alert has been issued along the path of the storm, which is likely to reach shanghai, later. Police in the us city of el paso say a man suspected of shooting dead 22 people last saturday, has said that he was targeting mexicans. The gunman will face the Death Penalty if hes convicted. Donald trump has called for a strengthening of background checks on people who buy firearms. The Environment Agency is investigating why the water in the river frome has turned bright blue. These pictures show the turquoise coloured water in the somerset river which is believed to have been caused by pollution. A spokesman for the Environment Agency said samples of the water had been sent for testing and there hasnt been any harm to wildlife. Quite an unusual sight, sport and for a full round up, from the bbc sport centre. I cannot believe were talking about the i cannot ready. Leather bill making a flying start to their campaignfor making a flying start to their campaign for that they beat norwich in the opening match. Full, system already. Liverpool making a flying start to their campaign for that was an injury to the goalkeeper who had to be substituted. Andy was watching. , just a little. The start of the new season left some liverpool fans literally jumping for jov liverpool fans literally jumping for joy. And who can blame them . They are the european champions, after all but the coming english champions is what they, just a little. The start of the new season left some liverpool fans literally jumping for jov liverpool fans literally jumping for joy. And who can blame them . They are the european champions, after a nightmare. An own goalfrom are the european champions, after a nightmare. An own goal from their captain set the tone as any early liverpool nerves quickly after being pipped to the title last season they began this one against newly promoted norwich. A big night for the visitors but their premier league dream soon became a nightmare. An own goalfrom league dream soon became a nightmare. An own goal from their captain. Before norwichs defensive frailties where once again. Liverpool look to their irresistible best that there was a fourth just before the break, even the that there was found it hard to stomach. To their credit, they did not crumble full. In fact, as liverpool faded the visitors flourished. The striker gave norwich some second half consolation but still a co mforta ble second half consolation but still a comfortable 4 1 victory for the hosts. Theirnorwich fan surely found it hard to stomach. To their credit, they did not crumble full. In fact, as liverpool faded the visitors flourished. The striker gave norwich some second half consolation but still liverpool season is up and running. Remember they are looking for their First League Title since 1990. Could this finally be the year . Manchester city get their campaign under way later. They pipped liverpool by a single point last season. Their manager is hoping to wina third season. Their manager is hoping to win a third league title in row, just as he did when he was manager of barcelona and bayern munich. Im as confident when i see the team alive, when i see the team training, what they want to do, trying to do what they want to do, trying to do what you have to do. When this happens, you say, ok. We can be confident and we will be competitors, you know, for the openings. And that is the nicest thing as a manager in that period. Of course, when the weeks come, the players dont play regularly, you have to lift them, come on, lets go. I know it is focus. There are four 3pm kick offs today. Crystal palace taking on everton and before that tottenham up against aston villa. That one is at 530. There are four games in scotland today. Celtic travel to motherwell at midday looking to follow up their impressive opening 7 0 win over st johnson last week. Livingstone, hamilton, commanding and hearts in action. Serena williams beat a competitor 63, 64. It is the Serena Williams beat a competitor 6 3, 6 4. It is the first time the pair have met since last years open final when williams argued with the umpire. She now drops off the top spot following a rather tough result. Wales, england and ireland all play all world cup warm up matches this weekend. Ireland taking on 6 nation strugglers italy and dublin before england face wales at twickenham tomorrow. It is an experimental irish side with 12 players to be cut from their squad before the tournament injapan which sta rts before the tournament injapan which starts next month. And that is all from me. Now here is matt taylor with the weather. Now here is matt taylor with the weather. Hello. Whilst there will be some sunshine around this weekend, its not the ideal weekend if youve got travel plans or plans for the outdoors. Weve got some pretty disruptive weather. Some heavy downpours still to come today and through the weekend. Today, the focus really is on the strength of the winds, particularly for england and wales. An area of low pressure has been with us since yesterday, slowly moving its way eastwards. Strongest winds on the southern edge of it and, as that pushes its way east, we continue to see those strongest winds feed in across england and wales especially. Winds over 40, 50 mph. Nothing untoward for winter or autumn, but we are in mid august. That will cause a few trees to come down, no doubt, given that they are in full leaf, and some disruption to travel plans. The strongest winds in the south. We will continue to see some showers and more persistent rain in central areas. Further north, the winds will pick up later across the hebrides, touching gale force, but for much of scotland, northern ireland, lighter winds today. Whilst we will lose the persistent rain across the far south of scotland, we will start to see some intense thunderstorms develop elsewhere. If you get caught underneath those, there is a risk of some flash flooding, but with them being slow moving, some of you will sit under sunny spells for the rest of the day. Outbreaks of heavy rain across northern england, with the wind picking up through the afternoon. The winds remain strong across the midlands, wales and southern england throughout. The showers perhaps becoming fewer in number with a bit more sunshine around. Temperatures this afternoon, down on recent days 22, 23 in the south and east, mid teens across parts of scotland. Into tonight, we continue with some dry weather across the far south, but more in the way of rain for the north of england, into parts of north wales, and rain comes and goes across scotland and northern ireland. A strengthening breeze in the north of scotland. Temperatures here around 9 or 10 degrees, but most in the low to mid teens as we start sunday. It will be not quite as windy across southern areas compared with today, but Northern Areas feeling a bit breezy. Clearing away some of the early rain in northern scotland, and brightening up as well in northern ireland, but for central and southern scotland, the far north of england, there is potentially heavy and persistent rain, which could cause further issues. Some thunderstorms brewing across central and western parts of england and wales, but the brightest conditions in the south east corner 22, 23, compared to up to 12 or 13 in the north of scotland. That cooler air pushes for all of us this week. Its going to be a week when temperatures are below average for the time of year and well see some further rain at times, but also still some sunshine. Hello and welcome to the programme that brings together some of the uks leading columnists with the Foreign Correspondents who file stories for the folks back home with the dateline london. This week, indias prime minister, narendra modi, ends autonomy for kashmir to free it from being terrorised by violence, but could it make that problem worse . And youve probably heard of fantasy football. Is the weeks chatter in the uk about a general election and a government of National Unity fantasy politics . With me are. Tim stanley, a leader writer on the Daily Telegraph newspaper. Michael goldfarb, the us broadcaster who presents the podcast the first rough draft of history. Ashis ray, whos been a Foreign Correspondent since 1977, including with the times of india. Nesrine malik, a sudanese born writer whos a columnist for the guardian newspaper. A warm welcome to all of you. Donald trump has offered his services as a mediator not a talent you might associate with a politician as polarising as the us president. But it offers one explanation for this weeks big change the scrapping of article 370 of indias constitution, which permitted Jammu And Kashmir, the only state in india which has a muslim majority, a degree of autonomy. Kashmir is contested a permanent source of tension and occasional bouts of conflict with indias neighbour, pakistan. Until now, the us has treated Jammu And Kashmir as an internal matter