:00:00. > :00:00.for the first half of the year largely due to warmer weather. But
:00:00. > :00:00.Ofgem says that the big six firms are set to double profit margins
:00:00. > :00:30.over the next year. Welcome to the papers. With me are
:00:31. > :00:32.Martin Bentham, whose the home affairs Editor from the London
:00:33. > :00:36.Evening Standard and the Financial Analyst, Louise Cooper. Let's take a
:00:37. > :00:40.look at the front pages. The FT reports European businesses are
:00:41. > :00:43.starting to feel the effects of The Times says the cost of rebuilding
:00:44. > :00:50.Afghanistan has surpassed the amount spent restoring Europe after World
:00:51. > :00:53.War II. The Telegraph has a story about the increase in households
:00:54. > :00:57.being forced to pay higher rates of stamp duty. The Metro carries a
:00:58. > :01:00.story about a TV interview in which a UN official broke down in tears,
:01:01. > :01:03.saying his organisation had reached "breaking point" in Gaza. The Mail
:01:04. > :01:06.leads on a driver who killed a man while using two mobile phones at the
:01:07. > :01:14.wheel of her car. The Guardian reports on the conflict in Gaza. It
:01:15. > :01:16.says the number of people killed is greater than in both previous rounds
:01:17. > :01:20.of fighting between Israel and Hamas. The Express has a story on a
:01:21. > :01:25.funding boost for the NHS to help tackle cancer. And finally, the
:01:26. > :01:28.Mirror describes how a Commonwealth Games cyclist from Sierra Leone was
:01:29. > :01:35.held in isolation for four days ` before being cleared ` because of
:01:36. > :01:42.fears about the Ebola virus. I'm going to start with the Guardian,
:01:43. > :01:47.the headline is Gaza death toll goes past 1400. Israel going to continue
:01:48. > :01:51.until the Hamas tunnels are destroyed. This was printed before
:01:52. > :01:57.we got news of the humanitarian truce which has been announced this
:01:58. > :02:01.evening, and hopefully that will be bolstered by a longer term, durable
:02:02. > :02:05.ceasefire if negotiators in Cairo over the weekend can make something
:02:06. > :02:11.stick. But nonetheless, Louise, the Guardian headline still holds that
:02:12. > :02:16.the reason this number is so significant is that it is more than
:02:17. > :02:27.the two previous Gaza conflicts we have seen in terms of casualties.
:02:28. > :02:38.It is an appallingly large number of people. 80% of them, they say, all
:02:39. > :02:48.civilians as well. I spent the last hour doing something useful. 20
:02:49. > :02:53.years ago that Yasser Arafat actually got the Nobel Peace Prize
:02:54. > :03:02.for supposedly negotiating peace. Here we are, with the death toll
:03:03. > :03:07.1400 in just the past few weeks. It seems every step forward is
:03:08. > :03:12.accompanied by a step backwards, and little progress is made. But
:03:13. > :03:18.sometimes, diplomatically things are going on behind the scenes that we
:03:19. > :03:25.are not privy to. This agreement by both sides, and unconditional
:03:26. > :03:30.humanitarian truce that will give people a breathing space. It is
:03:31. > :03:38.fantastic news. What is crucial is if they can flush out something that
:03:39. > :03:41.will stick. Israel promises to continue attacks until all Hamas
:03:42. > :03:44.tunnels will be destroyed. That will be one of the key questions about
:03:45. > :03:52.what happens to the amending tunnels. `` remaining. The Israelis
:03:53. > :03:58.will have to presumably withdraw from Gaza. There will be a halt in a
:03:59. > :04:08.rocket fire from Gaza as well, I suppose. All of those problematic
:04:09. > :04:14.obstacles. It seems to be with that they have got a set point in morning
:04:15. > :04:18.when you can shoot, but one minute past seven o'clock, you can't. Why
:04:19. > :04:25.don't you just stop killing each other right now? Maybe it is to get
:04:26. > :04:33.the word out to people? We are looking at you like the expert. We
:04:34. > :04:41.have had ceasefires before where rockets were fired and that triggers
:04:42. > :04:47.a new exchange. Does Hamas control those firing the rockets? You are
:04:48. > :04:52.assuming they do, maybe they do not. Let us look at the Times. We are
:04:53. > :04:55.talking about the tunnels. This is the picture of some Israeli soldiers
:04:56. > :05:02.trying to clear one of the tunnels. This is the thing that is
:05:03. > :05:06.interesting. They have got these tunnels where people can access
:05:07. > :05:14.Israel. That is terrifying to the Israeli populace. It started with
:05:15. > :05:22.that rocket fire from Gaza. It has changed completely into this title
:05:23. > :05:26.issue. `` tunnel. Israel has galvanised opinion and
:05:27. > :05:31.understandably it is very terrifying for them. They have been relatively
:05:32. > :05:38.immune from suicide attacks as of the wall they built. And they
:05:39. > :05:42.control the borders. Isn't it because they control the borders
:05:43. > :05:48.that tunnels were built in the first place to get food, livestock, what
:05:49. > :05:55.ever? And now they are being used for military purposes. They were
:05:56. > :06:01.built from Egypt. But still, you learn to build a tunnels because
:06:02. > :06:06.Israel puts a wall around you. Staying with the Times. Cost of
:06:07. > :06:12.Afghan rebuild on scale with the Second World War. Corruption and
:06:13. > :06:18.waste is pushing the figure that time. There was not a great deal of
:06:19. > :06:22.infrastructure in parts of Afghanistan in the first place. You
:06:23. > :06:30.have to wonder what they will end up with. There has been some progress.
:06:31. > :06:33.I have been to Afghanistan in different points over the past
:06:34. > :06:40.decade. There has been some progress, albeit very slowly. One of
:06:41. > :06:50.the problems is, highlighted this report, most projects have been
:06:51. > :06:57.hampered by poor planning, shoddy construction and bad oversight. A
:06:58. > :07:04.lot of money has been going astray. That clearly is a problem. It is a
:07:05. > :07:12.difficult country to keep a grip on. All of the systems, the checks and
:07:13. > :07:16.balances, I'm not in place. What the Times has done is compare the cost
:07:17. > :07:22.of the war in Afghanistan to the Marshall plan of rebuilding
:07:23. > :07:28.Germany. They have worked out into the's prices, the Marshall plan cost
:07:29. > :07:35.the equivalent of ?61 billion. American taxpayers have offered
:07:36. > :07:40.?61.5 billion and Britain ?890 million for this development.
:07:41. > :07:48.Germany is in a pretty bad state after the Second World War. And here
:07:49. > :07:52.we are, Afghanistan is costing more. But if you want to try and stop
:07:53. > :07:58.fundamentalism rising up and people being radicalised, you give people
:07:59. > :08:04.jobs and a better life. The report is saying the amount of corruption
:08:05. > :08:11.and wasted money. That is the question and I agree with it. It is
:08:12. > :08:20.a question of the management. That has been a problematic issue. That
:08:21. > :08:30.is the real question. It seems very poorly. The Financial Times, the
:08:31. > :08:36.property loan. ?122 billion of property in England and Wales is
:08:37. > :08:42.held in offshore funds and tax havens. We did not know who is
:08:43. > :08:52.buying it up? This is a bit of them, especially in London. They quit and
:08:53. > :08:58.anticorruption watchdog and they talk about corrupt leaders have used
:08:59. > :09:05.shell companies to hide assets. That is one issue. There is a separate
:09:06. > :09:20.issue. Sometimes these companies are being used to avoid stamp duty. The
:09:21. > :09:29.government has changed that. My favourite, there is a bit here that
:09:30. > :09:34.says, laundering which make regulations require real estate
:09:35. > :09:39.agents to carry out due diligence. There is a reference from an estate
:09:40. > :09:44.agents and, when you have accompanied hidden offshore, it is
:09:45. > :09:50.almost impossible for an estate agent to find out what is going on.
:09:51. > :09:54.You have to make a professional judgement whether you are satisfied
:09:55. > :10:00.with the information provided. So if you say, yes, I am happy with the
:10:01. > :10:06.information, I get hundreds and thousands of pounds commission or if
:10:07. > :10:11.I say no, I am not happy at, I do not get any commission. I wonder
:10:12. > :10:16.what the answer could be. Sometimes the level of cynicism on the BBC
:10:17. > :10:22.papers got back cynicism towards real estate agents failing hundreds
:10:23. > :10:36.of thousands in commission. `` owning. Let us look at the
:10:37. > :10:42.Independent. ?300 million genetic revolution. Trying to map our entire
:10:43. > :10:49.DNA. But always alarms some people. Too much would be known about us.
:10:50. > :10:56.What we know is that different drugs work well on you depending on your
:10:57. > :10:59.genetic make`up. You have got a disposition towards certain
:11:00. > :11:02.illnesses depending on your genetic make`up. What your genome looks like
:11:03. > :11:10.will affect your health in the future and how it is treated. At
:11:11. > :11:19.some point in the future, AGP will know your whole dinner. `` genome.
:11:20. > :11:23.What worries me is the organisation sorting this out say they want drug
:11:24. > :11:30.companies to have access to all of that data. Almost makes you feel a
:11:31. > :11:36.little naked having that information in your file. The interesting thing
:11:37. > :11:42.about the drug companies. As long as it is properly regulated and
:11:43. > :11:45.controlled. That always works. If they develop new drugs to help us,
:11:46. > :11:56.they need to have access to material like this. That aren't `` are
:11:57. > :12:02.problems, but they have a positive role. I am not sure I want to know
:12:03. > :12:08.too much of what is going to happen down the line. There is a
:12:09. > :12:16.probability that things will happen. It's not that you will exactly know.
:12:17. > :12:22.If you have got a perfect set of DNA. You are not much use to the
:12:23. > :12:28.drugs companies, I suppose. We are going to do a compare and contrast
:12:29. > :12:32.exercise with how women are photographed and featured on the
:12:33. > :12:35.newspaper. We know the Daily Telegraph likes to put a pretty lady
:12:36. > :12:40.on the front. The model Miranda Kerr. She has been fought over by a
:12:41. > :12:54.number of men, compared to Helen of Troy. Compare the Daily Mail. Here
:12:55. > :13:00.we have a picture of Zara Philips. She is on the front page. I think
:13:01. > :13:05.they traditionally choose on flattering photographs. The one on
:13:06. > :13:15.the Daily Mail is not too bad. But the one on the Metro. What a brutal
:13:16. > :13:21.photo in the Metro. Tom Cruise looks gorgeous, Zara Philips is pulling a
:13:22. > :13:26.face. And there is another one on the front page of the Express. She
:13:27. > :13:34.does not look too bad. Picture editors, leave her alone. I am not
:13:35. > :13:41.even a royalist. It did not even occur to you. I think they look
:13:42. > :13:46.perfectly reasonable. It is the sensitivity of it. The one on the
:13:47. > :13:57.Metro looks a bit hideous, but the others look reasonable. Tom Cruise
:13:58. > :14:04.is looking pretty good. That is what you say. Louise has a bit of a
:14:05. > :14:10.fondness for Tom Cruise. Goes back a long way. That is it for the night,
:14:11. > :14:17.before we get any more carried away. Lovely to have you both. Coming up
:14:18. > :14:23.next, it is time for Commonwealth games Sportsday. I will be back
:14:24. > :14:29.again at midnight for another look at the main news, particularly the
:14:30. > :14:33.truce that has been announced in the Gaza conflict this evening.