05/09/2017 Newsnight

Tonight on Newsnight, we look at the way the authorities

investigate suspected cases of female genital mutilation.

And we meet families who sometimes wait for months to be cleared

We'll ask one campaigner, herself a survivor of this barbaric

practice, why the wait can be so long, and what can be done

We'll meet Helen and her 12-year-old daughter Lulya, who escaped

the inferno on the 21st floor of the Grenfell Tower,

speaking for the first time about the night,

and their search for new accommodation.

We came from the 21st floor, all the way down, my daughter,

she was stuck on the tenth floor and she was in a coma for ten days,

It's back to school for MPs, after a long summer

All the talk of course is about Brexit.

Nobody has ever pretended that this would be simple or easy.

I've always said this negotiation would be tough...

Tough, complex and at times confrontational.

We'll get the latest from Nick Watt and Chris Cook.

And get a first sight of a dramatic new report, in which the likes

of the Archbishop of Canterbury and a whole series of

heavy-hitting thinkers say "our economic model is broken".

And hot on the heels of Hurricane Harvey,

which devastated Texas, another massive storm

This is what it looks like from the weather satellites.

We'll ask how bad Hurricane Irma might be, and what parts of

the Caribbean and the United States are most at risk.

The distress of the former residents of Grenfell Tower

will never be erased, but it seems that for some

their subsequent treatment is only adding to their trauma.

Three months on, just ten families have accepted offers

164 more have engaged with a council system to find them homes -

but there appear to be at least two problems, the suitability

of the accommodation, and the way the council decides

Newsnight has been speaking to Helen and her 12-year-old

They escaped from their flat on the 21st floor and Lulya

spent ten days in a coma following the fire,

This is the first time they have spoken publicly about what happened.

And a warning - this film by our producer Sara Moralioglu

and special correspondent Katie Razzall contains content

I was sleeping and my mum, she got up, she saw the whole house,

the kitchen was on fire, so she grabbed me and she told me

to get the dog, so I got the dog and I ran out.

On their way to see what could become their new home,

beauty salon owner Helen and her daughter Lulya lived

They had a terrifying escape with neighbours, three hours

This is the first time they've spoken publicly about their ordeal.

I just looked up, at the window, there was a fire, I saw the fire

coming, so I just ran, and I grabbed my daughter.

Helen and Lulya are talking to us now because they and so many others

face yet another battle - for a new home.

A battle that can end up pitting resident against resident.

The plan is to rehouse some Grenfell tenants in what is termed affordable

Helen and Lulya thought they were going to visit a lower

floor flat, only to find out it had been given to someone else.

Instead they were shown one far higher up, on the tenth floor.

When you see the full windows and the height, that is

My mum likes them, the rooms and everything are OK,

but it's not what I think they should be showing us,

I never used to have any type of problem with anything,

but now I'm getting anxious whenever I see any tall

The council has opened a website to match Grenfell

Flats are being offered under a four band priority system.

Helen believes that is divisive at a time when the tower's

former tenants still feel traumatised and vulnerable.

We are the ones, we came from the 21st floor,

all the way down, my daughter, she was stuck on the tenth floor

and she was in a coma for ten days, so how come I am not priority?

Does she have to be dead for them to prioritise me?

In fact, it's not fair what they're doing it's not fair.

Kensington and Chelsea Council say this is a matching rather

Those who lost a family member are number one priority,

then comes anyone with a disability, then those with dependents and then

Grenfell residents and evacuated residents of nearby Grenfell Walk.

None of the flats in Grenfell Tower had a balcony.

After their horrific experience, Helen and Lulya are adamant

The flat they were initially shown didn't.

The fact that the fire was coming from the outside and the fire

was on the kitchen wall, so if you have a balcony,

you could step out and you would have a bigger chance

of being rescued, so they could bring anything to come and save you.

Hear their story, and you understand their logic.

We tried to come out three times, but then,

we had to go out the fourth, because the bedrooms

Smoke had long ago entered Grenfell Tower's only stairwell.

While I was going down, all the smoke, it was really thick,

so it's like thick air going into you,

I can hear everyone trying to find air,

like everyone screaming, choking, gagging, then

I trip over someone, someone lying on the floor,

which is the worst part of everything.

So, I'm squeezing my dog so much and my dog is trying to reach up

to me and I roll down the stairs with my dog.

I roll down like another ten sets of stairs and...

And then I passed out and then I let go of my dog because I couldn't

After I'd passed out and I dropped him, he went back

up to the 21st floor, which is the floor that we lived

Lily, the other dog, they found them both together.

Lulya spent ten days in an induced coma undergoing treatment

Like, you don't know what's happening.

You're sleeping, you feel relaxed, but in a coma, you feel everything.

Neither Lulya nor Helen will ever forget their experience.

I'm saying to myself, you know, it's just a bad dream.

Helen and Lulya have now seen two flats that they'e keen on.

They're still waiting to find out if either

She really liked the third floor, so let's hope they can do something

Because we've been let down and I hope they're not

Helen and daughter Lulya talking to Katie Razzle.

In a statement, Kensington and Chelsea Council deputy leader

Kim Taylor-Smith told us the council had prioritised bereaved families

and made accommodation offers to them all.

He added that the council had secured more than 100 homes

to resettle people and said the housing team was working hard

No one - David Davis observed today of Brexit negotiations -

ever pretended this would be simple or easy.

The Brexit Secretary came before the Commons with a concrete example

of something he HAD managed to agree with the EU negotiator this week -

continued use of the European-wide health insurance card for those

Britons living in the EU when this country leaves the bloc.

It's a step that will reassure many older retirees outside of Britain -

although we don't yet know if the same priveleges will apply

to tourists and visitors as they do at present.

The chance to dwell on this was shortlived, however.

This evening, the Guardian splashed on a leaked

This evening, the Guardian splashed on a leaked government

Britain might END free movement of Labour immediately after Brexit.

Something mooted, but never previously laid quite so bare.

Chris Cook - our policy editor - and Nick Watt our political

Does this sound like confirmation of what we knew would happen? It is a

lot more colour in the picture. The dilemma was that we wanted a really

smooth transition after leaving the EU, we wanted EU to treat us much

like a member for a little while until we get our acts together just

that and that we wanted to convince the EU that basically free movement

was probably going to continue during that transition period. At

the same time the Government wanted to convince us, the British public,

that free movement whatever to 30 ending. So it was a delicate needle

to thread. The thing is, this document doesn't do it, it is very

clearly ending free movement, even the registration of workers coming

in during the transition period. I think this signals that this is a

document from the Home Office side, the anti-migration side of the civil

service, it's about a government, if it were to be followed, worrying

more about domestic consumption than perhaps securing the best deal we

can get from the EU. In terms of what David Davis said today in the

Commons, Nick, what did you pick out from what he had to offer? Very

important illustration of the old phrase follow the money just if

David Davis has his way, we will be following the money for the entirety

of these two-year negotiations. Now, that is not what the EU wants. They

want the UK to come to an agreement on the framework in three areas -

the divorce bill, the rights of EU citizens who are already here at the

point of departure and Northern Ireland. And what this intervention

from David Davis today shows is his confidence that he is going to be

able to say to the EU, you have a rigid structure and we simply cannot

agree the fundamentals on these three points until we know what the

overall deal for the future will be. A lot of chat in Whitehall how

Michel Barnier, the EU's chief negotiator, carrying out the agreed

mandate of the 27 member states, is being rigid and there is a hope, not

a belief, that if Angela Merkel is re-elected in September come we

might get a Brexit may well provide the biggest

structural change to the British Tomorrow, the IPPR will release

a report containing its response to the challenges -

and interestingly, for a think tank often seen as on the centre-left

of the political spectrum - they've got together

with Helena Morrisey, the high profile fund manager

and keen Brexiteer - I'm in the City of London, ranked

the world's top financial centre. And outside the City, of course,

Britain is home to many But as well as those

world-class companies, we also have a problem,

we have more companies than our international competitors

that are lower productivity. Productivity is a measure

of output versus input. And since the financial crisis

a decade ago, the UK's overall productivity growth has stalled,

reducing our economic potential. And no-one is quite sure why

and economists have dubbed this the productivity puzzle,

but it really matters, because if we're not making

the best use of skills, then people are in insecure

jobs and on low wages. At this stage, we have

rising pay inequality, stagnating household

incomes and many young to have higher living

standards than their parents and that is the first time that has

happened for many generations. And the UK's economy is also

geographically very imbalanced, with about 40% of output generated

by London and the south-east and there are many geopolitical

uncertainties, including Brexit. You could argue that we don't really

so much have an economic model, The specific challenges may be quite

different, but in many ways, the situation we are at today is not

dissimilar from the 1940s, when we were looking to rebuild

the economy after the war, or the 1980s, when we were

recovering from a deep recession. The question is, how do we change

the economy for the better? How can we make it

work for more people? Our economy needs fundamental

change, not just tinkering We need the City and British

businesses to be investing We need employers to be focused

on creating good jobs that contribute to higher productivity

and improved competitiveness. And we need the government

to implement an industrial strategy that helps British businesses grow

at home and compete abroad. Well, another of those behind

the report is the man whose job it once was to respond to these changes

in Government, the Head the Civil Service between 2012

and 2014, Sir Bob Kerslake. Thank you for joining us. This

report, as her lean out was same air and as the Archbishop of Canterbury

has said, is pretty bleak. It says the economy is broken, the model is

broken, it is a real slating of the British economy. You have to

recognise that the UK economy has simply stopped working for ordinary

people and the statistics are really very start. We have had the longest

period of wage stagnation for 150 years and at the same time, the very

wealthy people, the chief executives have raced ahead. 30 years ago aged

Chief Executive may on average may be 20 times that of a worker, now it

is 150 times. There are some very fundamental questions about our

economy and they will not be tackled... If Phillip Hammond was

sitting here, he would say we have low unemployment, faster growth than

Europe over the years, the deficit has come down, the structure is

there, is he wrong? He is talking about

one set of measures but if you look at the economy over a period of

time, we have deep structural problems that have been there for a

while. Productivity, 20% lower than France and Germany and our

investment has fallen for 30 years and the differences between

different parts of the country are extraordinary. In the north-east and

the north-west you might be on 30% less in terms of your salary. Is

this the way the free market is operating? Partly. It is actually

about what kind of economy do we want to create? There is a sense in

which people say we cannot do much about the economy, it is settled by

the market but I think we can have an ambition for a prosperous and

just a economy and work towards it. It is a question of clarity and

well. You used the word just and it is striking when you have a figure

like the Archbishop in this, do you think the way the economy is being

run is a moral? I think it is producing outcomes that we will find

hard to defend if we ask the question because it is not

delivering their outcomes for many of the people in this country.

Others will form a view whether that is about morality. You had to defend

those practices, you worked in the civil service over many years, did

you find, did you find them wrong at the time? I don't think we

necessarily saw individual policies as wrong, but what you need to look

that is a longer period of what has happened in the UK... Help me on

this, give me a sense, it is all very well to save the model is

broken and we need to change the structure, fundamental reform, what

does that mean? When you talk about taxation you say we need there,

smarter, simpler taxes, you do not address the question of whether we

need more taxes, should we be taking in more taxes? My personal view is

that the current austerity approach has run out of road and we need a

new approach... That is broadly agreed across the spectrum, even to

reason may have said that now. Consequences flow from that, we have

a fiscal gap that will need to be addressed. We need to look at who

pays what and how the system works. You will not get people to buy into

a change around tax unless they feel the system is fair. Do you want to

see more intervention of the state, the government playing a bigger

role? We do not start from presumption that it is about more of

a stable, we start from a sense were you need to be clear what kind of

economy you're trying to create and everyone gets behind it. There will

be really important tasks for the state to do and in the report we set

out 30 different new ideas that can be considered. It is not just about

the state... Let me put this to you. A couple of years ago, Jeremy Corbyn

became Labour leader and he said pretty much what is in your report,

many in the establishment laughed at him and today you have the likes of

yourself and the Archbishop of Canterbury broadly saying, he is on

the right track with what he is talking about now! What you have is

a number of politicians, including the Prime Minister, saying, there

are issues. She talked about burning injustices that needed to be

tackled, Jeremy Corbyn is saying something, so with Vince Cable...

Would you now embrace that vision for Britain? We want a vision that

is embraced not just by one party, but by the country, a clear sense in

which we can create a fairer, just and prosperous economy and then we

want business and trade unions and others to get behind it. We are not,

as you will sleep in the membership of the commission, starting from one

political party. Let's talk about Brexit, you were a civil servant at

the heart of this, when David Davis said no one thought it would be

easy, there were some sniggers, because some suggested it would, you

ran the civil service, do you think they are embracing this challenge,

are they ready for this and can they deliver it? The civil service

prides itself on doing the job it is asked to do by the government of the

day. It serves the government of the day and the government of the day is

wanting to deliver Brexit. The challenge here and I will be direct,

from my perspective, there is no upside. This is about damage

limitation and we are working the situation where policy has not been

properly settled. The Guardian story that Chris was talking about, it

would be the end of free movement of Labour, pretty much from the start

of Brexit and the document, draft document admittedly, it describes a

massive IT operation and solution which would let people know, whether

that person was allowed to work in the UK, where tapping on a number,

is that feasible? I have not seen the details and I cannot comment. An

election that was intended to settle the way we left the European Union

did nothing of the sword. We still have a very live debate about how

the transition period will work. In that situation, civil servants will

struggle to get coherent policies, if the politicians have not sorted

out their priorities. When the Prime Minister says that no deal is better

than a bad deal, from a civil service point of view, no deal even

an option? Could we survive no deal? I don't know what the civil service

would say but I know my view, it would be an utter and complete

disaster for this country and we need to be very frank about this,

there is not a no deal option that would be good for this country.

Thank you for coming in. Thank you. or health care professional suspects

that a child has been the victim of female genital mutilation,

they're obliged to to the local child

safeguarding authority. But an investigation for Newsnight

and Radio 4's The World At One has established that it can take months

for children to be examined in cases And families can face

lengthy and traumatic waits to prove their innocence -

in some cases, children have been taken into care before

they have even been examined. Newsnight has also revealed

questions about the capabilities and credibility of one of the UK's

best-known FGM specialists, Comfort Momoh, when it comes

to examining children for FGM. Dr Faye Kirkland, a practising GP

and investigative reporter, It has been called a hidden crime.

FGM has been illegal in the UK for more than 30 years. It is still a

common cultural practice in many countries in Africa, parts of Asia

and the Middle East. There are no definitive figures, but the British

Government has warned thousands are at risk and has committed to ending

FGM worldwide within a generation. The issue of FGM is one on which I

think we are all agreed across this whole house, it is an abhorrent

activity, it should not be taking place. But are the

authorities taking the right approach to investigating suspected

cases of FGM, especially where children are concerned? We have been

told that excessive waits for the examination of children are causing

unnecessary trauma and that children can be placed under child protection

measures while enquiries are ongoing. I felt like the whole world

was crumbling down on me. Newsnight heard concerns about the credibility

of one of the country's leading FGM campaigners and health care

professionals. Nearly two years ago, it became a legal requirement for

health care professionals, social workers and teachers to report cases

of FGM in children to the police. But there are concerns the way some

cases are being investigated is harming children and their families.

If a child is suspected of having been subjected to FGM they should be

physically examined by a specialist. In many cases however, it is a final

part of the investigative process and can take place months after an

accusation is made. When the child could already be on a child

protection plan or in foster care. One reason being told is that police

and social services and often misunderstand the nature of the

examination, believing it to be more intrusive to the child than it

actually is. This is the letter... It says there, there is no evidence

of FGM. Yes. Pregnant with her third child, this woman, we will call her

Emma, to protect the identities of children, asked a question out of

curiosity during a routine medical appointment after the midwife

mentioned FGM. Emma told me that she wanted to clarify what FGM was but a

question sparked an investigation. It was curiosity. And who would be

the best person to ask? It was the midwife. That same night a police

officer came to her door, gave her leaflets and warned her about the

practice. One year later, the same officer came back with social

services, this time they said they had been informed she had had the

procedure herself and there were concerns it had been carried out on

her daughters. Emma denied the accusations, but the girls were put

on a child protection plan, and measure local authorities used to

safeguard children and maintain oversight of the family, before they

had even been examined. What happened over the next few months?

The atmosphere changed in the house. I wasn't myself. I had just had a

baby, I was not given time to recover. I felt like the whole world

was crumbling down on me and my children's behaviour changed in

school. It triggered naughty behaviour and that had not happened

before. I needed an examination done on me and my children and I knew

that I had not undergone FGM and neither had my children. My children

were fine and healthy, I had not heard them in any way. -- I had not

hurt them. Newsnight has been told that her story is not uncommon. A

charity that works with families told us they had seen a child is

placed into foster care for eight months while waiting to be examined.

She was found not to have had FGM, but the delay caused serious

distress. They are calling for changes to be made. Using the right

translators, ensuring that there is effective support for families to

get legal assistance, because of the challenges with Legal Aid and

ensuring that families are examined on time and children are as well,

but in a sensitive way and within the right environments. Do you think

the way some investigations are being handled is letting families

down? Oh, yes. A lot of times, what becomes a problem is possibly lack

of training for professionals, effective training. There is a knee

jerk reaction from professionals when they hear FGM, sometimes, I

don't know whether it is terrified or wanting to make sure that

something does not go wrong. So, they really go in too hard. At 26

team by experts at university College London Hospital, showed

children were waiting nearly two months on average to be referred for

an examination, but there are cases of weights of over one year. In a

Home Affairs Select Committee report two years ago, Keith Vaz warned,

while agencies play pass the parcel responsibility, young girls are

being mutilated every hour of every day. This barbaric crime which is

committed daily on such a huge scale across the UK cannot continue to go

unpunished. But I have been told by specialists around the country that

many cases they see are historic and they do not believe that FGM is

taking place in this country at anything like the same rates as some

politicians have stated. There are three main specialist centres in the

UK where children are examined for FGM, based in London, Birmingham and

here in Manchester. Doctor Catherine White of Saint Mary 's sexual

assault referral centre has seen more than 40 referrals since

mandatory reporting came in. 14 of those cases were found an

examination to have had FGM. So far we have not noticed FGM in cases

where the family have said, no, the child has not had it. Of the cases

you have seen, how many of them have occurred here in the UK? None. Where

we have seen evidence of FGM, the children have been born outside of

the UK and the history is that they have had the FGM done outside of the

UK. In the media we have been told that they might be thousands of

cases. Why do you think there is a discrepancy in those figures?

I know that some of it might be that it's hidden, but I think if certain

types of FGM were being done at the rates that we were led to expect, we

would be seeing cases coming through with infection or bleeding, they

would be ending up in front of health officials and they would then

be referred to us - and that's just hasn't happened. These clinics

provide very specialised care. But Newsnight has learned that some

children have been examined by people whose qualifications and

experience have been called into question. Comfort Momoh is a midwife

and leading campaigner against FGM. She established one of the UK's

first FGM clinics at a Guy's Hospital and is recently retired

from Guy's and St Thomas' trust. Gee whizz! MBE for her work in women's

health, but senior specialists have raised concerns to Newsnight about

whether she is completely credible, specifically when it comes to

examining children for FGM. The Home Office and the bodies which set the

standards for the forensic examination of children all say that

only doctors with the relevant qualifications and experience should

examine children for FGM. But Comfort Momoh has examined at least

five children, despite not having the relevant codification is. In a

high-profile case she testified that a child had had FGM. Adjudged

ascribed her report as a remarkably shoddy piece of work and worse than

useless. He concluded the child had not undergone FGM. A week later, in

a separate court case, Comfort Momoh was listed as a key expert witness

for the prosecution of the trial of the first doctor in the UK

prosecuted for allegedly carrying out FGM. Newsnight understands

Comfort Momoh was due to give evidence but was dropped just before

the trial, although no reasons were given. A jury acquitted the doctor

after less than half an hour of deliberations. There are also

suggestions that Comfort Momoh might be exaggerating her professional

qualifications. She has repeatedly describe herself as a doctor but is

not a qualified medical doctor. Instead she has an honorary

doctorate from Middlesex university. A university spokesman confirmed to

Newsnight that this does not enable her to use the title doctor.

Newsnight put these allegations to Comfort Momoh but she has chosen not

to respond. Newsnight also approached the Nursing And Midwifery

Council and they told us they were already investigating concerns about

Comfort Momoh. We do not know whether this is connected in any way

with our findings. Emma had to fight to get her children examine the, but

she says the struggle has had long-lasting effects on her and her

family. The police officer said to me, if I had not had the examination

taken for my children because I would have lost my children - social

services would have taken them away. What impact has this had on you as a

mum and your children? I didn't want to lose my children. It would have

been so heartbreaking, so it gave me the strength to get them examined by

a specialist that is trained to examine in that field, knock

anybody, any doctor or any GP, it should be somebody trained

specifically for that. Protecting women and girls from FGM is crucial.

At examinations needs to be timely and carried out by qualified people.

There is more work to be done to save young girls from unnecessary

distress. We asked to speak to someone

from the Home Office, Joining us now is Leyla Hussein,

a psychotherapist It is nice of you to come in. You've

seen some of these delayed cases - why are children separated from

their parents for so long? For me I think it is important that we make

it very clear - whenever a child is at risk of any harm, obviously, I

think the authorities do the right thing by removing the child. Is it

delayed? Yes. Is it wrong? Yes. But there is a reason. The reason it

happens, unfortunately, when we work in such cases, multi-agency work

needs to take place. Unfortunately when we are dealing with FGM, there

aren't enough experts who are working with the authorities, hence

why there is such a long delay. But when you talk about multi-agency

approaches, for most people watching, they assume it's physical

college is fairly easy to spot, it's something that actually a doctor can

look at and tell very quickly - why isn't that the case? There are

different types of FGM, that important. But also we need to

understand, communities who practice FGM still don't see this as a form

of abuse. This was something that was good for us, it's something for

professionals to understand, so we're not going to come forward and

say this happened to us, hence why it is still not being picked up as

it should be. But when the suspected cases were followed up, most of them

were found to be false, these allegations, so does that suggest

the system is wrong or they are chasing the wrong people or they are

not able to...? I think we need to be careful when we say it's false

allegations. From my own experience, we are talking about... Since the

protection orders were introduced, it invented girls from undergoing

the practice. And any family, you contact them regarding any form of

abuse, they're not going to say to you, we abuse our child. From my own

experience, when protection orders were introduced over a two years

ago, the first year, there were over 90 reported cases, 90 protection

orders were put in place and a lot of them came from family members, we

cannot ignore that. Of those 90, do we know how many...? I can't give a

specific... From my own experience, families who I worked with, it came

from siblings who overheard families talk about planning to take them

away. And of course, if you take somebody away before it's happened

and there is no physical evidence, it doesn't mean it's not going to

happen? And this is the thing with FGM. The only way you can actually

prove it takes place is if it actually happens. What we are trying

to do, and the UK Government, is to do the prevention work. I'm going to

repeat myself but if you are dealing with any form of abuse of a child,

there is a procedure you have to go through to investigate. Does it take

long? Absolutely and it shouldn't, but what the Government needs to do

is invest more resources in working with the local authorities, and

that's what's been missing. Let me ask you something. We heard in the

film, what's remarkable is that many quietly think the problem of FGM in

this country has shrunk, that it's a good news story, a positive story

they don't say that for fear that people will turn round and say,

you're covering this up - where do you stand on that? For me, in terms

of attitude is changing, we are seeing a little bit of change. And

also I think those of us who work in the UK, what we need to take credit

for, if you look at FGM globally, we really are leading in terms of how

we are dealing with this. But we have a law, the French don't have a

law - has the law actually hindered us compared to the French system,

which has actually...? I have always been against the FGM Act. For me, if

you have a child because you treat it like any other form of abuse. If

you were cutting a child's finger, it should not be any different from

cutting their genitals. That's why a lot of communities feel ostracised,

because they feel they need to have a specific law just for them. And

hence why no-one comes forward. The reason France has been successful in

this particular aspect of the work, it's because they haven't treated it

differently. I know from colleagues who work in France who say to me, we

would see this as a form of child abuse. It's a form of child abuse.

I've had police officers here in the UK who have come up to me and said,

if I walked into such a scene, I wouldn't call it female genital

mutilation comma it's a sexual assault against a child. Thanks for

coming in. And last but certainly

not least tonight, growing fears about another giant

hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean. Hurricane Irma is gaining

in strength and heading towards the Caribbean

and United States. Stav Danaos, from our

Weather Centre, is here. Talk us through what you're

expecting - how do you know how big it's going to be? We are looking at

the satellite picture, which is proving what a huge monster this

storm is. But in the last few hours, it has intensified rapidly. It has

become an extremely catastrophic, strong Eckel category five storm,

with winds of 185mph with gusts in excess of 220mph. It does not really

get stronger than this. You have a sense of where it is going to hit

land? Most computer models agree that it is heading westwards into a

cluster of islands. Because it's such a big storm, it is difficult

for it to avoid that cluster of islands. The strongest winds are

around the eye, where we see the extreme devastation. But even

further out, the winds will be damaging. And then you have got an

extremely powerful is Toms surge associated with it and with the low

pressure and the strong winds as well and the heavy rain. We can see

here on the satellite picture the intensity of the eye. They're saying

this is the biggest for ten years? It is and it could be up with the

top three strongest ever Atlantic storms and it is not far off being

THE stronger stuff all. Is it possible that it could avoid land

treaty? Not really, because it's going to be heading westwards

towards the Virgin Islands and Haiti. Bluntly, you would be getting

out if you were in any of those islands tonight? Absolutely, and in

places like Antigua, Barbuda, which are going to be hit in the early

hours, if you're in a concrete, reinforced building, you will be

fine, but other areas will be completely flattened. The difference

with Harvey, back did cause damage on the coast, but because the

landmass of the United States is so huge, the landmass kills off the

supply of moisture, so all the rain which fell in Harvey fell in a small

area. It almost stalled around the Houston area. This one is going to

be more mobile and it's going to maintain its strength.

We would like to leave you with more pictures from outer space, the

Voyager probe, launched 40 years ago today, the first man-made probe to

leave our solar system, built in the 1970s and still sending us back

answers - as well as questions - about the universe. Good night. We

have lift-off! Hello from the children of planet Earth...