The parents of missing british teenager nora quoirin offer a £10,000 reward for her safe return in malaysia. A 50 1 one increase the surge in the number of gamblers complaining about british betting companies. And coming up on bbc news. Andy murray gets ready for a return to singles action later. He takes on Richard Gasquet in cincinnati. Hong Kong International airport has cancelled all its flights as Anti Government protests in its main terminal continue for a fourth day. Thousands of demonstrators are gathered at the airport which is one of the busiest in the world. It follows another weekend of violent confrontations between police and protestors across the former british colony. The unrest shows no sign of abating, more than two months after it was sparked by a controversial extradition bill. A warning that you may find some of the images in this report from our Global Affairs correspondent Naomi Grimley disturbing. Ground to a halt usually, hong Kong International airport is one of the busiest transport hubs in the world. But today, the planes have been stopped by yet another of the citys growing democracy protests. Hundreds of black clad protesters flooded this concourse. 0nly hundreds of black clad protesters flooded this concourse. Only a trickle of flights are leaving and landing. The vast majority are cancelled. The police are threatening the use of teargas here if they think it is what is needed to get things back to normal. This is why the protesters have doubled down on their demonstrations. Footage from this weekend shows police adopting heavy handed tactics. To subdue the crowds of protesters whove now spent weeks on the streets. As well as deploying their batons, the police have been filmed using teargas in enclosed spaces. Nonlethal rounds have also been fired at close range and there are reports of facial injuries as a result. Human Rights Groups are worried it is escalating to serious levels of violence. The police defended their actions. We have very stringent requirements on our offices when using force, and they should use the minimal level of force to achieve the operational objective. The protesters, too, are getting ever more fractious. Here, one lobs a petrol bomb, whilst at this subway station, they let off a fire hose. 0nlookers are exasperated bya fire hose. 0nlookers are exasperated by a city which now seems to be in the grip of two rival armies. There isa the grip of two rival armies. There is a good and a bad to both protesters and two police and ijust wish both sides would just stop. I understand what they re wish both sides would just stop. I understand what theyre fighting for andi understand what theyre fighting for and i appreciate it but this is not what we are supposed to be like, were supposed to be fighting together, not against each other. Back at the airport, the threat of Police Action has prompted some protesters to head home. But two months on from when these demonstrations started, there is no sign of them are baiting. The controversial extradition bill which sparked the initial demonstrations may have been discarded by the authorities, but this unrest is now something much bigger. Naomi grimley, bbc news. 0ur china correspondent Stephen Mcdonell is inside hong kong airport and a short while ago sent us this update. This is the scene here at hong Kong International airport. As passengers arrive they are greeted by chants in favour of democracy, criticising the government in hong kong and also the police. As you can see, there are still many black clad activists here, but fewer than before. Word came through that the police were going to engage in mass arrests and there was something of an exodus. Now id say there are only around a quarter the number of protesters in the building than we had, say, an hour or two ago. They have some reason to be concerned, because the government in beijing has accused this movement of sowing the seeds of terrorism in this city. Imagine if youre arrested on terrorism charges, that could mean having no lawyer, or no lawyer for quite some time, also being held in detention for a much longer period without trial. And yet despite these threats, despite the increased hardline nature of the police as they go in with baton charges much more quickly and with much more force to try and arrest these protesters, the resilience of this movement is quite considerable. Just when it looks like its running out of steam, Something Else comes along and revitalises it. Prime minister borisjohnson has announced a review of sentencing policy for violent and sexual offenders, saying punishments for such criminals must fit the crime. Ministers will consider whether the law needs to be changed so offenders spend more time injail. Its the latest in a series of announcements on law and order, including the creation of thousands of extra prison places in england and wales. Heres our Legal Correspondent clive coleman. Summoned by the Prime Minister for talks to address a crisis in criminal justice. 20,000 more Police Officers, 10,000 extra prison places already announced. Today, its sentencing. And the big idea . Take away Early Release from serious sexual and violent offenders who are given a fixed term to serve but are automatically released at the halfway stage. Its not a system that we always had in our country. Its been around for about 15 years. And there are real questions being asked by people with a concern about the system, a knowledge of the system, as to whether or not that is the most effective way to punish offenders and to protect the public. The chance of Early Release has always been seen as one way of keeping order in prisons. Last year, there were record numbers of assaults on staff, inmates and self harm, and many in the criminal Justice System believe that if you take away the possibility of Early Release from dangerous offenders, that can cause a spike in violence and disorder. The Prison Service is in desperate need of investment. Moves like this serve only to extinguish hope and make the crisis in our prisons worse. We need an intelligent system that means that people retain hope and can be rehabilitated, because in the end almost everybody has to come out of prison. The decline in the number of criminal prosecutions is stark. In 2011 2012, 895,000 cases were prosecuted in the crown and magistrates courts. In 2018 2019, that was down to 495,000 a 45 decline. And only 7. 8 of reported crime results in a charge within 12 months of the initial report. So, another announcement today is for an additional £85 million for the Crown Prosecution Service welcomed by the director of public prosecutions, max hill. But the labour partys unimpressed by the new raft of spending pledges on criminaljustice. This is a pre election period. Even if he doesnt go ahead and have an election in the autumn, hes clearing the ground, and anybody can promise tens of thousands of Police Officers if youre not saying exactly how youre going to fund it. Theres been a whole series of these announcements, and boris doesnt quite explain how he will pay for it. A review of sentencing. Solving the many complex problems of the criminalJustice System is hugely challenging. The Prime Minister wants recommendations on his desk by the autumn. And clive is here. At the moment, clive, do all violent sexual offenders get released after serving half their sentence . Generally speaking, anyone who is given a fixed term for their sentence will be released automatically halfway through on licence. But there is another category of sentence, which applies to dangerous offenders, at the very top end of the range, just before they would get a life sentence, it is between the life sentence and the fixed term sentence, and for those, the court can extend for a period, five years maximum for violence, eight years maximum for a sexual offence, and the way it works is that there was offenders have to serve two thirds of their sentence, and even at that point they dont get automatic release, they are eligible for parole. If they are on parole, then they are unlicensed for the remainder of the custodial sentence plus the period of the extension. From what we have heard today the government does not seem today the government does not seem to wa nt today the government does not seem to want to change those. What it seems to want to look at and change is those fixed term sentences and the fear is that if you say to these, still dangerous people, youre going to prison for ten yea rs, youre going to prison for ten years, and however you behave in prison, whatever you do, youre going to serve the full ten years, then there is a real concern that that could lead to a spike in violence and disorder, and that is very worrying. The news fuels speculation ministers are preparing for a general election, with a series of spending commitments and new initiatives, but downing street says it is not planning an early election. Lets get more from our Political Correspondent helena wilkinson. The shadow home secretary suggests that this is part of an election campaign, is she right . Well, it certainly adds to the speculation. This follows through from what Boris Johnson said he would set out to do as soon as he got into no 10, that he would be tough on crime. Hes made these bold promises over the last couple of days, using pretty tough language, saying that dangerous criminals need to be taken off the streets, that the punishment must fit the crime. But there have been some serious questions from those within the criminalJustice System about whether these measures will actually work, whether they are needed, and where is the evidence . But also, the timing of all of this. This announcement, the announcement on the nhs spending, the number of Police Officers, why now . Well, it all adds to speculation that no 10 is planning for an early election in the autumn. Downing street absolutely say, this is not the case, were not planning for an early election. The other point to note is that borisjohnson has yet again gone on another spending spree. Now, the treasury says that yes, we do have that money, the question is, where exactly is the money going to come from . What is going to have to give in order to pay for all of this . A bbc investigation has found drugs crime has fallen in the centre of many big cities over the last five years, but its rising in other parts of the country. Dealers known as county lines gangs are expanding their networks to suburbs, smaller towns and rural areas, using violence and exploiting vulnerable young people to sell drugs. 0ur correspondent dan johnson reports. The latest frontier in the fight against drugs. Heroin and crack cocaine are pouring into north wales from merseyside and manchester. Theres always someone wanting to use the drugs, so theres always going to be people wanting to supply the drugs because theres a lot of money to be made in this town. Children and young people are carrying drugs hundreds of miles. Have you got any clothes on underneath . What are you wearing . They are vulnerable, and at risk. If someone becomes established here, then llandudno is their town, if you like, so if another rival gang or someone from manchester or Something Like that tried coming into town and muscling in on the business, well, then youre going to start getting sort of fighting between the two gangs. Its a struggle to keep people safe and to get drugs off the streets. The minute you get rid of one or two, theres another three or four readily available to come down. And heres how the problem is shifting. Across the north, look where drug crime is down big cities like liverpool, manchester, leeds and sheffield. But the pink spots show there are more drug offences in smaller places like chester, huddersfield and lincoln. Further south, in westminster in central london, over the last five years, drug crime more than halved. But 20 miles away, offences quadrupled in the tiny village of westhumble. And this is it, a sleepy spot in rural surrey. Its the last place you would expect to have any sort of drug problem. Its a very quiet area. It would be easy for people to come out here and be unobtrusive. So, yes, i could see how it might happen. How often do you see the police . Very infrequently. Now, the figures here are still really low. But the fact that theres been this steady increase over the last few years does show that drug dealers are more active in places like this, and you can see why its quiet, its rural. The police are very thinly spread in this part of the world. So that is the appeal, and its also the challenge. Theres been some huge successes in the major cities in terms of how they tackle drugs, and of course the county lines model will move to somewhere where there is greater demand and less competition. So, the rural areas are prime for people to move out to the gangs as the cities do well at tackling the problem. And its Police Forces like north wales that are dealing with the extended reach of county lines gangs, spreading more drugs and more misery. Theres most probably enough of us to just about manage the situation, in terms of making sure no ones getting seriously hurt. But in terms of seriously disrupting or attempting to stop the supply, theres nowhere near enough of us. Dan johnson, bbc news. And, you can find out more about the bbcs investigation into drug crime in england and wales, including seeing what it is like in your area, at bbc. Co. Uk news. And you can find out more about the bbcs investigation into drug crime in england and wales, including seeing what it is like in your area, at bbc. Co. Uk news. The Usjustice Department and the fbi have started an investigation into the death of the multi millionaire businessman jeffrey epstein, who was found dead in his prison cell in new york at the weekend. The 66 year old was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges involving underage girls. President trump has been criticised for retweeting conspiracy theories about epsteins death. The cbs correspondent Laura Podesta is in new york. There are still a lot of questions about his death. Several, the first being how was he able to commit suicide . The New York Times reported sunday that epstein was supposed to be checked on by guards every 30 minutes. That procedure was not being followed the night before he was found. It might have come down to overlooked protocol or simply an estate. The jail was apparently staffed with one guard who was working a fifth straight day of overtime, another who was working mandatory overtime. The second question, there are conspiracy theories as to whether he actually committed suicide or was potentially killed by someone else and President Trump killed by someone else and president tru m p retweeted killed by someone else and President Trump retweeted a tweet featuring that potential conspiracy. It is a video of someone speculating that if epstein had actually died by suicide, given he may have had information on a former president bill clinton, and that retweet has been viewed about 5 million times, retweeted roughly 60,000 or 70,000 times. There is no evidence to support that theory and there are questions about whether the president should have done that or if that is a dangerous retweet. There are also questions about what will happen next. Some of epstein plus my alleged victims say they are very disappointed he is not to face trial. His apparent suicide ends the criminal case, however prosecutors say they will continue to investigate the alleged sex trafficking. It was said over the week in the indictment includes a conspiracy charge, which means other people could face charges in the future. Laura podesta, thank you very much. It is coming up to 20 past one. Our top story this lunchtime. Hong Kong International airport cancels all its flights, as Anti Government protests in its main terminal continue for a fourth day. And women going through the menopause face a National Shortage of hormone replacement therapy. Coming up on bbc news. Eddiejones names his england squad for the Rugby World Cup next month, after beating wales in the first of their warm up matches. The number of shops that are sitting empty in town centres has reached its highest level in four years thats according to a report from the analytics firm, springboard. The Retail Trade Association blames sluggish sales growth and declining footfall. Our business correspondent, emma simpson, is here. We have spoken before about the difficulties in the high street so how surprising is this . Not surprising. According to springboard, who tracks vacancy rates in our main towns and cities, injulyjust over one in ten shops we re injulyjust over one in ten shops were sitting empty. 10. 3 , up ever so slightly from the previous quarter, but it is the highest va ca ncy quarter, but it is the highest vacancy rates in four years, and of course this is all to do with the fallout from the wave of the structuring is an have seen over the last 18 months so after years of expansion retailers have ended up with too many shops, costs are rising and the traditional Business Model has been under tremendous pressure, even broken. The shake out is still far from over. Just the other day, the shoe chain 0ffice, is still far from over. Just the other day, the shoe chain office, we learned they could be closing stores. White might on this fitful being down is that it is the internet . Being down is that it is the internet . And the guess on why this footfall is down. Yes, july compared with last year, 2. 7 drop. The heatwave injuly explains some of it, but this has been a steady shift over the last few years. If you have a shop on the high street you have a shop on the high street you really need customers to be coming into your town centre. Shopping centres fared even worse, down 3. 1 as customers stayed away. 0ne brighter spot was out of town retail parks. They saw an increase in customers. So they seem to be giving customers more of what they want. Emma, thank you very much. A man has appeared in court charged with the attempted murder of a policeman who was run over by the officers own marked patrol car. Police say the officer had attempted to pull over a suspected stolen car in moseley on saturday. 0ur correspondent, peter wilson, is at birmingham magistrates court. Tell us what happened in court, peter. Mubashar hussain appeared in court only to state his name, his date of birth and the fact he is of no fixed abode. He has been charged with attempted murder of a 42 year old West Midlands police officer, along with causing serious injury by dangerous driving, wounding another officer who suffered a cut arm and four counts of assault and other police a24 year old man, ahsan ghafoor, was alongside him in the dock and he also faces two counts of stealing range rover cars, plus dangerous driving. Both men had been remanded in custody until the 9th of september. It is all allegedly linked to an incident on saturday when, allegedly, a Police Patrol car was hijacked, and that car was used to drive over a West Midlands police officer, and in court today we learned the name of that officer. 42 year old gareth phillips, a vetera n 42 year old gareth phillips, a veteran of the force. He has served for over 20 years. He has undergone numerous surgery this weekend and his injuries are not said to be life threatening, but i understand he is unlikely to be fit enough to return to front line duties. There has been a whole host of tributes paid to that particular officer, and the other men serving in the front line here in birmingham. Peter birmingham at birmingham magistrates court, thank you very much. The family of missing teenager nora quoirin have offered a reward of around £10,000 for information leading to her return. The 15 year old who has special needs went missing from a Holiday Resort in malaysia more than a week ago. 0ur correspondent Howard Johnson is there. Howard, what of the family been saying . Simon, yes, the ninth day of search and rescue efforts here. They have been scouring the jungle behind me and so far no luck, no sightings of honourable lady. The family came forward to offer this reward for any information that would lead to the discovery of their child. The mother of nora, maeve, she said in a very emotional speech, she was having to fight back tears, that she was really missing her daughter, and she gave the speech today. This speech. She has been vulnerable since the day she was born. She is so precious to us, and our hearts are breaking. We are appealing to anyone who has information about nora to help us to find her. The police have been working extremely ha rd to police have been working extremely hard to bring nora home. In order to help their investigation, we have decided to offer a reward. 50,000 ringgit has been donated by an anonymous belfast based business for any information that directly helps us to find nora. 300 army and Police Personnel are continuing to look around this area, using everything they can throw at this case to try to find nora. They say this is a missing persons case and the family of nora would like to push it towards an abduction case. They feel they have evidence to suggest it may have been an abduction case. The police say they are not ruling that out but continue to set as a missing persons case for now. Howard johnson, thanks very much. Continue to say that it is a missing persons case. Manufacturing delays are being blamed for a National Shortage of hormone replacement therapy. Many of the most commonly prescribed forms of hrt which help women deal with symptoms of the menopause are out of stock at chemists. Its estimated about a million women in the uk use treatment for menopausal symptoms. 0ur health editor, hugh pym, is with me. A lot of women will be very worried about this . Yes, that is right, and about this . Yes, that is right, and a lot of women have contacted the bbc and said they are very anxious because they cant get the form of hrt they use, which could be jailed, patch, and. Talking to manufacturers and could be a gel. The advice officially to talk to your pharmacist and doctor and go foran your pharmacist and doctor and go for an alternative. Well, sometimes the alternatives are not appropriate. Even a gap between ending the medication and starting it up again can start real can cause real physical problems and distress. And sometimes what happens is one or two of these go short, people switch to others, then there are shortages as well. What is the reason for all this . It appears there are manufacturing and supply issues somewhere out there and that sometimes a small number of these difficulties, getting ingredients, can difficulties, getting ingredients, ca n affect difficulties, getting ingredients, can affect the whole supply chain. Soa can affect the whole supply chain. So a worrying time, and advice is to talk to your doctor and another alternative might be possible, but certainly judging alternative might be possible, but certainlyjudging by the volume of calls and from pharmacists it is a problem out there which doesnt seem to have been resolved will be resolved very quickly. Hugh, thank you very much. The number of gamblers complaining about british betting companies has increased almost 50 fold in the past five years. New Gambling Commission figures obtained by bbc panorama show that there were a record eight thousand complaints in 2018. Most were about companies refusing to pay out on winning bets, orfailing to operate in a socially responsible way. The big betting Companies Say they are working on a plan to reduce gambling related harm. Bronagh munro reports. The betting business is booming, and its punters who are paying the price. The amount theyre losing to the Gambling Companies has almost doubled in a decade. Last year, it was £14. 5 billion. The biggest rise has been in online gambling. Amanda was in her 50s when she started gambling on a site called jackpotjoy. There is a winner every minute on jackpotjoy. She doesnt want to be identified, but she lost £633,000 before being made bankrupt. Its horrific, what ive done to myself, really. Everything that id worked for, everything that my children were, you know. Looked up to me. Now ive blown their inheritance, as such. Jackpotjoy says it had frequent contact with amanda and encouraged her to use responsible gambling tools. High stakes betting machines have been banned from the high street, but there are no legal limits online. You can make multiple bets on each spin. If were playing 20 lines, and weve gone up to £10 per line, were going to be paying £200 per spin. And youve seen how quickly the spins go through. If theyre all losses, and those spins take one second, one and a half seconds, its only a matter of seconds and you can lose hundreds of pounds. The industry certainly seems to have a lot of unhappy customers. Figures obtained by panorama show there were 8,266 complaints last year, compared tojust 169 in 2013. Thats a rise of almost 5,000 . The Gambling Commission says its a complicated picture. Were pushing the industry to know its customers, and part of this is actually possibly a good sign because its suggesting that consumers are demanding more of the gambling operators. And id encourage them to continue to do that. The major betting companies have already agreed to increase safer gambling messages, and to review the tone of their promotional material. Theyve also promised to provide £60 million a year to help problem gamblers. Bronagh munro, bbc news. And you can watch bbc panorama addicted to gambling tonight at 8. 30pm on bbc one and on the bbc iplayer afterwards. Nowjust before we go to the weather, if theres one image i could show you to prove it was snowing in australia it would have to be this. These pictures of kangaroos hopping in the snow went viral on the internet after parts of australia were blanketed over the weekend, as a polar front moved from the south of the country up to parts of new south wales, victoria and even on the gold coast in queensland. Now, a hop and a skip to matt taylor. Yes, those kangaroos look hoppier than the sheep the me. Hoppier . Yes, hoppier anyway, moving on. 0ver yes, hoppier anyway, moving on. Over a month of august rainfall in just four days. I know august is a wet month, but it is going to extremes at the moment. If youre on your holiday break at the moment in the uk, for the week ahead you will need a wet weather plan just in case. There will be further downpours at times, and overall for the time of the year, fairly cool and at times fairly breezy as well. Some of the wetter conditions are through the English Channel in parts of the south east, east anglia, rumbles of thunder with torrential downpours possible this afternoon. Wa nt to downpours possible this afternoon. Want to match ours elsewhere, particularly northern ireland, starting to turn thundery as they could in northern scotland
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