hello, i'm ros atkins, this is outside source. we'll hear from brussels first. the fourth round of brexit talks have concluded a little earlier. it seems progress has been made. how much depends on who you are. how much depends on who you are. thousands of student protesters take the streets of barcelona ahead of this weekend's vote on catalan independence. it comes a spanish authorities step up their efforts to stop the vote going ahead. police have raided a warehouse in the centre of the city, where ballot boxes are being stored. we'll be live in the city. and we'll bring you details about a team of researchers in china, who say they've successfully edited the dna in human embryo to remove a potentially life threatening disease. the latest round of brexit talks ended. mood music seems better than before. first here's david davis. and clear we've made considerable

progress on the issues that matter, increasing certainty, for citizens and businesses. providing reassurance to our eu partners regarding our mutual financial obligations. agreeing to some of the key principles with issues arising from northern ireland and ireland. the talks were all the in the context of last week's speech by theresa may. in it the prime minister proposed a transition period after brexit. it would be two years and during it the the uk would pay into the eu budget. here are the thoughts of the eu's michel barnier. translation: i think that it's positive that theresa may's speech made possible to unblock the situation to some extent and give a new dynamic to the situation. but we

are farfrom being at new dynamic to the situation. but we are far from being at a stage, new dynamic to the situation. but we are farfrom being at a stage, and it would take weeks, maybe even months, where we'll be able to say, yes, 0k, there has been sufficient progress on the principles of this orderly withdrawal. so far the talks have been focused on three issues. the divorce bill — where the uk settles ongoing commitments. the rights of eu citizens in the uk and uk citizens in the eu. and the border between ireland and northern ireland. and until they are resolved, the eu won't talk about a future trade deal with the uk. that still sounds some way off. meanwhile, theresa may is meeting the other 27 eu leaders at a banquet in estonia. here she is arriving at tallinn airport about an hour ago. it's the first time she'll meet eu leaders since her speech last week. gavin lee is in italian, here he is

updating us on what's happening. —— in tallin. watching her come from the aircraft, there is more of a spring in her step. less of a chill in the air in terms of talks. when she arrives here, though, bear in mind this: she's been told not to mention the b word, she's not allowed to talk about brexit tonight, explicit from donald tusk, head of the european council, to say this is about the future of the eu. in some senses she is a strange guest at somebody else's party. part of it is solidarity, there is a dinner behind me in the cultural centre in tallinn. tomorrow it is a digital summit, something estonia has set up. everyone will attend except mariano rajoy because of the constitutional crisis going on over the catalan independence referendum. tomorrow is when she'll have to choose her moment. we are told in

the last hour theresa may will meet with angela merkel before the talks tomorrow. two women you've been through a heck of a time in the last week. florence for theresa may, this big speech, she think there could be a breakthrough given the mood music in brussels today. the sense there may be two steps forward, one back on the brexit talks. for angela merkel as well, suddenly having a slight step back, as we saw in berlin this weekend, will now be meeting first thing tomorrow morning. the uk's very keen to have discussions about long—term economic plans have to brexit. i guess the issueis plans have to brexit. i guess the issue is whether the eu will have those conversations. couple of things to bearing mind. it's a really good point. it's something you could easily lose with what else is going on because tonight, behind me, emmanuel macron is giving his speech again that he gave on tuesday to the leaders about his vision for europe. digitisation, actually, there are times he with brexit, because... estonia is in charge of

the presidency of the european union, it gets to steer some of the agenda, you can do apparently all but three things in estonia online, get married, get divorced and buy a house. notably, a small thing in the sidelines, quite a lot of brits. something like 5000 from about 50, have suddenly taken eu residency in estonia, meaning they have to pay a certain amount of money, don't have to visit the country, but if you're in pr, advertising, and worried about brexit, the estonians have said, come to us, we'll give reduced tax and you can stay in the eu. they are thinking about how they can make the most of this as well. let's switch to catalonia. to barcelona now. because in the the centre of the city police raided a warehouse. inside were ballot boxes which the regional government plans to use in a referendum on catalonian independence. it's scheduled for sunday — but the spanish government doesn't want it to happen. and the spanish supreme court has

also drawn a similar conclusion. a major police operation is now under way. in barcelona and in tarragona three cruise ships have been chartered to house around 6,000 police officers being sent to the region. spanish police have also arrested senior catalan officials. and websites with information about the referendum have been shut down. but madrid's opposition hasn't stopped pro—independence activists taking to the streets 110,000 students marched in favour of independence in barcelona today. next this is the minister of foreign affairs in the government of catalonia talking to the bbc. the problem is not really in terms

of logistics. let me be very clear. what we are promoting is a referendum where no and yes will be heard. it's a situation where you can here and listen properly all possibilities, all options. the problem is that the spanish government is simply keeping these people silent and this is a violation of one of the many fundamental rights they are violating. as faras we as far as we know there is an intention from the side of the catalan society who wants to vote, to keep this sunday completely peaceful. there are clear instructions from organisations who are pro—independence to keep this a really peaceful mobilisation. we don't know what the spanish government has a mistake, nobody knows. whatever happens on sunday,

whatever is the outcome, the spanish government and spanish media are going to try to make, to minimise the impact. the interesting to how the impact. the interesting to how the results are interpreted on monday. given the arrests and raids we seen today is it realistic for the vote to be held anyway? the catalan government is saying they have a plan b for every scenario. so it will be to be seen what will happen on sunday. people are decided to vote, to vote peacefully. right now there is no doubt for them that this vote will take place. they will present themselves in a big mobilisation. it's interesting to point out not only people in favour of independence have called for this vote, also groups not in favour of independence but in favour of

democracy, left—wing groups, they have also called for the participation, because they consider that in this situation what is important is to defend democracy in spain and catalonia. what do we understand about how people feel about the issue? we know that between 75 and 80% of people in catalonia want to have your say on their political future. the last poll a few months ago was that 67% of the people in catalonia would participate in a referendum even though it was called unilaterally. between 41 and 44% is to be said to be in favour of independence but this might have shifted in the last days since the 20th of september when the spanish government made a leap, equality leap, here in catalonia. in a few minutes we'll hear about how scientists in china have carried out what they call chemical surgery. they've removed a

disease from an embryo by looking at its dna. it hasn't been done before. we'll explain exactly how this works. the murder of a teenage girl by a fellow care home resident was preve nta ble, fellow care home resident was preventable, according to a serious case review. melissa matheson, 18, was strangled by 19—year—old jason conroy at alexandra house in bristol in 2014. it's a home specialising in caring for people with asperger syndrome. herfather, james, caring for people with asperger syndrome. her father, james, said caring for people with asperger syndrome. herfather, james, said to date proper safeguards should have beenin date proper safeguards should have been in place. it's shocking, the amount of mistakes that were made. they all add up to a shocking event. my they all add up to a shocking event. my daughter has taken the brunt of it all. they were both let down. you

read the report, jason conroy was let down. my daughter was let down. and it's heartbreaking. i'm ross atkins, welcome to outside source. theresa may ‘s meeting of the european union leaders in estonia. this is as the latest round of brexit talks finished in brussels, both sides striking a reasonably positive tone. president trump has waived shipping restrictions to help get fuel and supplies to puerto rico. many residents have been without electricity and clean drinking water since hurricane maria struck last week. the us coroner who examined

the body of an american student who died in captivity in north korea say there is no indication he was tortured. he was released earlier this year but was already unconscious and died days later. his pa rents unconscious and died days later. his parents have said he had been systematically tortured. that is on bbc world service radio. ryanair has been given until the close of business on friday to correct its compensation policy, that a man comes from the uk civil aviation authority after ryanair comes from the uk civil aviation authority after rya nair cancelled yet more flights. we've been reporting a lot on the hurricanes in the caribbean and the us, let's look at that story from the point of view of insurers. the world's biggest insurance market is lloyds of london. to give an idea of scale it made a pre—tax profit of $1.6 billion for the first half of this year. we have to see what impact hurricanes have had. we have

to base all our estimates on models because people are still putting their lives back together, we can't make a true assessment about the final cost of some of these disasters. 0ur estimate for the lloyd's market at the moment, for harvey and hurricane irma, based on simulations of events and modelling is about four and a half billion dollars. net impact. to the lloyd's market. fully manageable for lloyd's. we've got net financial resources , resources lloyd's. we've got net financial resources, resources available. we've got robust capital position, reserves sitting in the members of lloyd's, ready to pay claims. 0ur net financial resources at the half—year are £28 billion. we're in a very strong position to react to these claims. the bosses of facebook, google and twitter have been asked to testify to the us congress about the alleged russian interference in last year's us election. michelle fleury is live in

new york. who instigated these invitations? look, ithink there new york. who instigated these invitations? look, i think there has been a lot of interest in washington about what happened with us election and russia's involvement. this has started to spread out into the role social media may have played in all of this. facebook, you may recall, came out and said there were signs there was russian involvement in content that had spread on its platform. now we're learning twitter was behind closed doors, executives from twitter today talking about this. we're getting statements coming out from some of the senators, including mark warner, democrat, who said he was disappointed from the information he learned today from twitter. now the bosses of not just learned today from twitter. now the bosses of notjust twitter, but google and facebook, are being invited for an open hearing, likely to ta ke invited for an open hearing, likely

to take place in early november. invited for an open hearing, likely to take place in early novemberli guess to take place in early november.” guess one of the pressures on these companies is why they weren't spotted early on patterns in advertising purchases in particular. i think it's taken quite a while to get behind this idea, think back to mark zuckerberg's initial reaction when people started talking about what role facebook played in the election. he described it as crazy at the time. now he's walked back those statements and responded to a tweet from donald trump suggesting he was being criticised from both sides and saw that as a positive sign. there is growing recognition from the firms in silicon valley, not just twitter, we're from the firms in silicon valley, notjust twitter, we're talking about facebook and google, that perhaps russian about whether bots, whether it's buying of advertising, perhaps this was used to try and influence. the question is, i think this is what lawmakers are trying to establish, yes, you could have

people posting tweets, making up posts, but how much did that spread into the rest of society? how much filtered into mainstream media and mainstream consciousness? i think thatis mainstream consciousness? i think that is what lawmakers are trying to understand. let's talk about amazon's echo. it's been a very popular item in the last couple of yea rs. popular item in the last couple of years. a voice assistant. it also been a bestseller. dave lee talks about its latest incarnation. 0ur rolled off a flurry of devices for about an hour, including its updated echo assistant, and added premium version called echo plus, some new buttons to use with it. a small version with a screen called echo spot and an updated smart tv device. this is the new amazon echo that will cost £89, $99. it's shorter than the previous model. amazon says it has much better sound

as well. it comes in a variety of different shells designed to make it fit in better to the decor in your own home. there is the upgraded echo plus with smart home capability so i can walk into my kitchen in the morning and say, alexa, good morning. it'll give me a travel update a weather update, it'll turn on the lights and, best yet, pop the kettle on as well. there are a lot of new options now. do you think normal people might find them too confusing? one of the confusions will be between the echo, the new one, a smaller device, looks quite cute, nice fabric or wood veneer, and the echo plus, the same thing that makes smart home connectivity easier. there will be people saying, i'm not sure which one i need. if you suddenly create that void i don't know what i need, sometimes they panicked and buy something com pletely they panicked and buy something completely different. the selection upfront doesn't confuse the simplicity. what's most important is

once you've installed the product, it's incredibly simple. nothing has changed about that, alexa is super simple, very approachable, she's able to do all she's ever been able do and more. amazon has clearly been working very hard to increase the lead it has in home assistance. all eyes a re lead it has in home assistance. all eyes are now on google, who are expecting a new home device as early as next week. dave lee, bbc news, seattle. more pressure on north korea, china announcing all north korean businesses operating in its territories will be closed by january. part of a broader range of new sanctions. celia hatton can tell us more. new sanctions. celia hatton can tell us more. you might hear another round of north korea sanctions, maybe you won't think these ones are particularly important. yes, it is true north korea has a vast financial network that spreads around the globe, that helps it evade sanctions and get hard currency. it also uses a lot of middlemen companies to allow it to

make money on the side to bring money into north korea. today's announcement from china that it's going to force north korean companies operating in china to close within 120 companies operating in china to close within120 days and to force chinese north korean ventures to close within 140 chinese north korean ventures to close within140 days really is a significant announcement. for several reasons. first, it was made by the chinese commerce minister, one of the more powerful ministries run by the chinese government. any time they say something and they give a deadline, you have to pay attention. it's quite significant announcement, not giving a lot of loopholes to allow north korean companies to continue to operate. this will make it more difficult for north korean businesspeople to take money in and out of the country, north korea. it'll make it easier for chinese banks to freeze more north korean accounts. it will help sanctions already in place. key to this is the fact that joint ventures

between china and north korea will between china and north korea will be forced to shut down, forcing the chinese economy to take a hit. it'll show beijing is willing to suffer and inflict pain on itself to carry on sanctions to punish north korea. it's really important because china has been under a lot of criticism for years, has been under a lot of criticism for yea rs, really. has been under a lot of criticism foryears, really. criticism from the united states and other countries around the world, who say china is unfairly shielding north korea, that china is the one protecting north korea from really suffering the weight of sanctions. the fact china is willing to inflict pain on its own economy to force chinese, some chinese businesses, to shut down, is quite key. next, we turn to italy. there has to be a general election there by the middle of next year and a key figure when that election happened is likely to bea that election happened is likely to be a young guy called luigi who has

been chosen to lead the populist 5—star movement. james reynolds has met him. 5—star announces a new leader who was a few years ago a university dropout working on a web start—up. 31—year—old mp luigi di maio is campaigning to become italy's youngest ever prime minister. i asked italy's youngest ever prime minister. iasked him if he italy's youngest ever prime minister. i asked him if he was too inexperienced to lead his country. translation: young people are not the future, they are the present. they are the people who can change our country with their energy and innovation. when i went to your parliament in westminster i found that senior officials were maximum 50 yea rs old that senior officials were maximum 50 years old which was normal. by contrast that would be considered extremely young in italy, that's what we also have to change. mike

mccoy one of italy's over 50s shows no desire to step aside. 5—star founder debbie grillo is a professional comedian. and amateur singer. —— he remains the loudest voice in the movement. will you be taking instructions? translation: loonie's voice will always be welcome but this is a movement based on the actions of the members themselves, and that we'll continue. in recent years in europe there has been a wave of populist parties and also nationalist parties. does 5—star identify with the other movements in europe? translation: when i think of which political model to follow i think of the countries in northern europe, which are spending money on health and the environment. you've talked about

renegotiating italy's role within the european union. and if possible, at the end, having a referendum on the euro. would you like to go one step further and take italy out of the european union, like britain? translation: first of all, we've never said that we wanted to leave the european union. we've always said we want to remain inside the european union and reform it from within. how unusual is it for italy to have such a young contender? it's absolutely stunning but if you look at italian history the last 25 yea rs, at italian history the last 25 years, this can be easily explained. italy has been consuming political classes and nowadays in italy to have experience is more of a liability than resource. but luigi di maio's only younger generation

isn't entirely convinced by his promises. i would feel represented by him because he's very young and he's not prepared enough in my opinion to become prime minister. i'm quite afraid of the fact that he is the most... almost no experience. luigi di maio might face similar scepticism in this, his rome neighbourhood. the staff at his favourite bar aren't particularly starstruck. translation: so many people come here every day, so yes, i've certainly seen him. by contrast, his own supporters can barely let him go. now luigi di maio has to persuade an entire country he is ready to govern. we have to wait to find out exactly when that italian election will be. it has to be at some point between

now and the middle of next year. before we finish this half of outside source, we must talk about hugh hefner, you may have seen he's died at the age of 91. you don't need me to tell you he found a playboy and became a very, very famous man in notjust america but around the world. quotes from cindy crawford saying... this is a journalist called victoria brown worth who has a different sentiment... more on hugh hefner on the bbc news app. i'll see you in a couple of minutes. all weather forecasting eyes are

turned towards the atlantic. for this broadcast we'll take a look further afield. starting injapan we've had wet weather in the past 24 hours resulting in flash flooding and mudslides. it's to do with this front, a slow—moving monsoon trough meandering north and south across asia. it's particularly potent in the east of china as well. easing away from japan. one of the stories i mentioned last night is the extreme heat for the time of year in australia. almost record—breaking heat during wednesday. hot again on thursday. brisbane still 34 on friday. if it does diminish into the weekend. the heat will start to diminish across the western side of the us, it's been exacerbating the risk of wildfires. starts to diminish for seattle through friday. showers to the east are a concern because if there is a start from

thunderstorms it won't be great. showers across the great lakes. things taking a turn for the chilly across the north and east. the plunge of cold air following from the passage of maria. the weekend forecast brings a much more settled picture across vancouver, seattle and portland, temperatures back into the 60s or 50s, but fine in la. not great news because of the wildfire risk. further east, cooler. u nsettled risk. further east, cooler. unsettled through cuba. an update on the monsoon, they continue for mumbai and go over the coming few days. they stop to pick up across the north—east, into bangladesh and myanmar. further flash flooding situations. it already looks very autumnal with these weather systems ploughing in. iceland very wet at the moment. further south, ploughing in. iceland very wet at the moment. furthersouth, more thundery. still summer thunderstorm

effect from the heat in the mediterranean. progressively across turkey and the levant we'll see more showers picking up through friday at the weekend. courtesy of this area of low pressure. with high pressure in between, stagnant air will give fog in the mornings, showers and thunderstorms for germany. this big area of driving low pressure is with us across area of driving low pressure is with us across the uk. friday looks like it might be wintry over the tops of the mountains. the main idea is we'll see more rain initially, then it'll steadily clear. the westerly wind behind, much fresher air. it'll steadily clear. the westerly wind behind, much fresherair. a peppering of showers with low pressure close by. saturday looks dry. this is the system that may have tropical air mixed in, potentially very wet and windy. darren will have more in half an hour. the fourth round of brexit talks have concluded them for the first time both parties struck a reasonably positive tone. when i

look across the full range of issues i think we have made look across the full range of issues ithink we have made pro look across the full range of issues i think we have made pro to progress on the issues that matter. thousands of student protesters take the streets of barcelona ahead of this weekend's vote on catalan independence. spanish authorities are stepping up effo rts spanish authorities are stepping up efforts to stop the voting going ahead. police have raided a warehouse in the centre of the city where ballot boxes are being stored. and we'll bring you details about a team of researchers in china, who say they've successfully edited the dna in human embryo to remove a potentially life threatening disease.