tonight at ten — the efforts to negotiate a brexit deal are to accelerate in the months ahead. after tonight's dinner in brussels, and the recent talk of deadlock, theresa may and the european commission president jean—claude juncker said they'd talked in a "friendly and constructive atmosphere". tonight's talks also included iran's nuclear programme, counter—terrorism, and internet extremism. we'll have the latest from brussels and from westminster. also tonight... storm ophelia — one of the most powerful storms to hit ireland and parts of the uk in recent years — has caused loss of life and power cuts to thousands of homes. we report from the kurdish—held city of kirkuk, where iraqi government forces have entered, taking over some areas. well, we've suddenly had to pullback. there was a sustained outburst of gunfire at the position up ahead. we can't be sure where it came from. a bomb attack in the somali capital mogadishu is now believed to have killed more than 300 people.

and — how scientists came across the effects of a cosmic collision — which happened 130 million years ago. and coming up on sportsday on bbc news: would west brom deny leicester the victory that would move the former champions out of the premier league's bottom three? good evening. the efforts to strike a deal in the brexit negotiations should accelerate in the months ahead — according to a joint statement issued tonight by theresa may and the president of the european commission, jean—claude juncker. they held talks over dinner in brussels this evening — in readiness for the crucial

european summit which takes place later this week. tonight's statement talked of a "constructive and friendly atmosphere" — as our europe editor katya adler reports from brussels. great expectations of the prime minister's dennett in brussels were a little one—sided. the european commission is theresa may's latest stop, ina commission is theresa may's latest stop, in a month long charm offensive across europe. russia from home demands she wrangles concessions from the eu, moving asap to stage two of brexit negotiations on trade and transition deals. but thatis on trade and transition deals. but that is unlikely to happen tonight. we do not know exactly what will be on the menu in there, but probably a

main helping of polite conversation with a side dish of awkwardness. the eu has made clear that it does not regard a private dinner as a forum for brexit negotiations. they see this visit as symbolic, even a pr exercise, trying to convince eu countries and the british public that she is in the driving seat and she means business. or hopefully makes more headway than during the last dinner date with eu commission chief jean—claude juncker. it began date with eu commission chief jean—claudejuncker. it began all smiling but ended in mutual mudslinging. at least the foreign secretary was on message today. at a meeting of eu foreign ministers in luxembourg. we think in the uk it is time to get on with these negotiations. it is for the great ship to go down the slipway and into the open sea and for us to start some serious conversations about the

future. but as time ticked by during the prime minister's dinner, little progress of that sort was made, at least has been disclosed. at the end, there were kisses from the eu commission chief, but no promises of trade talks. no press conference either. instead, this bland joint press statement. the prime minister and the president of the eu commission reviewed the progress made in the article 15 negotiations over, and agreed these efforts should accelerate over the months to come. as she headed out of brussels, theresa may's face said it all. she wa nts talks theresa may's face said it all. she wants talks to accelerate now. so why would the eu budget? reports in london, denied by berlin, suggests some eu countries are willing but powerful germany says no.|j some eu countries are willing but powerful germany says no. i think this is completely nonsense. the brexit debate in germany is in the background because we have had elections three weeks ago. i am

sorry, but it is not all of europe circling around the uk. tonight, brussels insists the eu speaks with one voice. the earliest trade talks can one voice. the earliest trade talks ca n start one voice. the earliest trade talks can start it says is in the new year. uk points to progress already made an brexit, but the eu wants more, on money. katya adler, bbc news, brussels. our political editor laura kuenssberg is in westminster. this talk of accelerating the effort, and the priorities we know the prime minster has, are there any signs of progress this week?|j the prime minster has, are there any signs of progress this week? i think that only a few days ago we were discussing the term deadlock which was thrown out by the eu was not chief negotiator, to the immense frustration of those in westminster where four weeks, ministers have been saying publicly and privately they just want the eu to been saying publicly and privately theyjust want the eu to get on with it and take these talks seriously. tonight, number ten is pleased that

the arch eurocrat jean—claude juncker himself, has agreed to go on record calling for just juncker himself, has agreed to go on record calling forjust that, the talks to accelerate. so in political terms, it does have a meaning. the use of this word agreed on both sides, will help fend off accusations that these talks have been going nowhere at all. they will help downing street fend off claims that the uk may well have been shouting into an empty cupboard on its own, for all the eu has been paying attention to what they want. that said, does it change anything in terms of the substance, this pledge to accelerate? if you are driving your car you can accelerate from five miles an hour to ten miles an hour, but it will still take you an hour, but it will still take you a very long time to drive from london to glasgow or brussels to berlin. and on the fundamentals, there is no sign yet that either side is willing to budge on the money. and money talks. until either

side is willing to take one step towards a compromise on that point, it is hard to see how these talks will begin to get anywhere fast. the frustration in westminster is they genuinely believe they have made some compromises already, and most of their counterparts are not willing to do the same. thank you. laura kuenssberg with the latest at westminster. hurricane—force winds have hit many parts of ireland, as one of the most powerful storms in decades sweeps across the british isles. storm ophelia has claimed the lives of three people in the irish republic, and around 360,000 homes and businesses have been without electricity. an amber weather warning — indicating a potential risk to life and property — has been in force in northern ireland, many parts of wales, south—west scotland, and the isle of man. our correspondent chris buckler reports. from the atlantic ophelia arrived in force. no longer a hurricane, but a storm still determined to show her power. severe weather warnings

were in place across ireland and homes, cars, even stadiums were no match for the winds. this roof was torn from a school in county cork amid what the irish government repeatedly called a national emergency. this is a national red alert. it applies to all cities, all counties and all areas. also bear in mind, that even after the storm has passed, there will still be dangers. galway was in the direct path. here many listened to the appeals for people to stay inside. in the city centre most shops stayed shut because of the storm. but in galway bay, even with ophelia approaching, some ignored all the warnings to go swimming. that's the type of idiot that will put somebody‘s life at risk and wasting the resources of the emergency services that should be somewhere else at the same time. lives have been lost as a result of fallen trees. and the challenges posed by this extreme weather has been obvious.

it's no surprise that many flights into and out of ireland were cancelled today. we are keeping a little bit of a distance. but even at this point, you can really feel the sheer power of ophelia. and it's quite impressive. but it gives you a sense of why the authorities have been so concerned about these winds. they are going to cause a lot of damage and indeed destruction. power lines have been brought down across the island leaving hundreds of thousands of homes without electricity. with this number of customers out its unprecedented. it's going to be a number of days before people have their power back. about 5% of customised, it will be up to ten days before they have their power back. the strong winds were felt along britain's west coast too. in wales, roads and railways were closed amid gusts that reached speeds of up to 90 mph.

it was a sight which some had to see and experience for themselves. it's spectacular. are you not mad being out in it? i love big weather. watching big seas, ijust love it. ophelia has left much to clean up and repair. for a second day schools right across this island will remain closed. the aftermath of a storm that's tested ireland. chris buckler, bbc news, galway. thousands of civilians are fleeing the iraqi city of kirkuk, after the iraqi army seized control of the city from kurdish forces. kurdish fighters — known as peshmerga — have been in control of the city since 2014, when iraqi forces fled in the face of an advance by so—called islamic state. the city lies in a region claimed by both the kurds and the iraqi government, and is outside the autonomous kurdish region in the north of iraq. last month, kurds voted

overwhelmingly for independence, provoking the iraqi government to send in troops. our middle east correspondent orla guerin and cameraman duncan stone have sent this report from kirkuk. pledging to defend kirkuk. peshmerga fighters began the day with defiance but this small band was no match for tanks. nor were the locals armed with whatever came to hand. we lost 2000 men fighting is, he says. we are not afraid of the iraqi prime minister. but that's not how it looked, deep in the city. a checkpoint on the outskirts, now a

tense new front line. the kurds, who fought is with iraqi forces, now fearing an attack by their former allies. locals said they were closing in. shia militia units linked to the iraqi government, out of sight behind these buildings. then this. gunfire. we had to scramble for cover. we have suddenly had to pull back. there was a sustained outburst of gunfire at the position of the head. we cannot be sure where it came from but it seemed to be coming ahead of us, from positions where we were told there were iraqi military forces. in the last few seconds, we have heard gunfire up ahead. as kirkuk slipped out of kurdish hands,

and exodus began. desperate civilians heading north towards the autonomous kurdish region. many eager to escape the feared shia militias. it looked like the city was emptying before our eyes. we met peshmerga volunteers heading to kirkuk, asking why the world had abandoned the kurds again. the kurds have been betrayed one more time. the world is just silent when it comes to the kurds. it is not fair. it is not fair. this lone fighter arrived to help. all he could do was try to organise the retreat. but he insisted last month's independence vote by the kurds was the right move, though it angered baghdad, and

triggered all this. by evening, an iraqi victory parade. there is an ethnic mix in the city, and some locals welcomed the troops. but the winner here may be the so—called islamic state, whose enemies in iraq are now fighting each other. a brief look at some of the day's other news stories. an academic at birmingham university — matthew falder — has admitted 137 offences, including blackmailing young people into sending him degrading pictures, and then sharing them on the so—called dark web. the 28—year—old is said to have humiliated more than 50 victims. he'll be sentenced in december. the company co—founded by the hollywood producer harvey weinstein could be bought out by a private equity firm. weinstein was sacked from his own company when allegations of sexual assault came to light earlier this month. the board of the weinstein company will meet tomorrow to consider the offer.

an american soldier — bowe bergdahl — who was held captive by the taliban for five years — has pleaded guilty to desertion and misconduct. the army sergeant was accused of endangering the soldiers who went to look for him after he left his post in afghanistan in 2009. bergdahl said he'd got lost. he was eventually freed in a prisoner exchange. wildfires have claimed the lives of at least 35 people in northern and central portugal. 4000 firefighters have been tackling nearly 150 fires, which are being fanned by the strong winds from the remnants of hurricane ophelia passing the iberian coast. a state of emergency has been declared. many young people are having to go into debt to cover basic living costs — that's the warning by britain's financial regulator, the financial conduct authority. 20% of young people say they've been borrowing to cover food, rent and essential bills. 28% are worried that they can't make repayments. ten mainly seaside towns in england and wales have the highest rates of bankruptcy amongst the young.

scarborough is high on the list. our personal finance correspondent simon gompertz sent this report. on the face of it, there's money in scarborough, from the arcade, the restaurants and hotels, but scratch the surface, and you see a different story. what do you want to do after school? skate park? there's so much debt amongst the young, people like kelly, a single mum, that increasingly, they're opting to go legally insolvent to escape their creditors. have a lovely day. love you loads. see you later. this is the debt relief order that i have done. kelly's debt relief order is a slimline version of bankruptcy, from her credit card, shopping on the jacamo catalogue, along with money owed for her phone, energy and water. itjust all racked up, and they give you more credit than you can afford to pay back. and every time i went online

to check it, we've given you another £1000 to spend with us. so, at one point, i had to ring jacamo and say, please, stop putting my credit limit up. i can't afford to keep paying it back. by paying £90, she gets out of her £4000 of debt. but it was you who was doing the borrowing, so did you have to do that? well, i needed to, because, on income support, low income, your little lad's growing up, he needs clothes, i need clothes. insolvency means the chance to make a fresh start, but that's not easy here. you're contending with seasonal work and the lowest average wage in the country. even for the youngest, debt is taking over. so, how much is going out and on what? many getting help at this scarborough hostel are just 20. i'm in debt with argos, over £200. i'm in debt with id mobile, over £300. quickquid as well. obviously, you've got to look out in case bailiffs come, like, to take your stuff,

but you don't know when they're going to come, or if. when you're going to get a letter through the post. so, that makes you worried as well, and that makes your mental health go down even more. do you see the worry that the debt causes? yeah, we see the worry every day in the young people. one of the first things we do is a budgeting fit kit to look at exactly what debt they've got, how we can address sorting it out, paying it back in instalments, and often when they come here, they're at breaking point. what makes scarborough the sort of place where more people in debt —— what makes scarborough the sort of place where more young people are in debt and more going in solvent is a concentration of the problems besetting the young across the country. work is getting more casual, there is low pay, problems with benefits and rents, and no savings to fall back on. the signs from here are that the debt problem's getting worse. young families, starting out in life, already behind. simon gompertz, bbc news, in scarborough. a bomb attack in the somali capital mogadishu on saturday, is now believed to have killed more

than 300 people. hundreds more were injured in the explosion, which destroyed hotels, government offices and restaurants. it's the deadliest attack in somalia since the islamist militant group al—shabaab began an insurgency a decade ago. our diplomatic correspondent james robbins has more details. even somalia has never seen devastation on this scale before. imagine your nearest city centre ravaged by a huge bomb beside a petrol tanker. in mogadishu, as many as 165 unidentifiable bodies have a p pa re ntly as 165 unidentifiable bodies have apparently already been buried after the weekend attack, blamed on the extremists of al sha baab. the weekend attack, blamed on the extremists of al shabaab. more than 100 others were also killed. translation: there were five more people found alive under the rubble

yesterday, and just now, another dead body was found over lie. among the dead, this woman, due to graduate as a doctor the day after the bombing. her cousin said her father had travelled from london to be at her graduation but instead attended her funeral. the be at her graduation but instead attended herfuneral. the president has previously said that he would talk to al shabaab, but politically, that may now be even more difficult. just one measure of somalia's desperate plight sea the heavily defended airport is one of the safest places in the country. that is why the cabinet had to meet their two elect their latest leader. turki said a military plane with medical

supplies to mogadishu today, and it was then used to evacuate some of the most seriously injured for treatment. somalia's hospitals cannot cope with the hundreds of casualties requiring specialist treatment. a bbc crew in mogadishu has been filming the first efforts to try to the raise the scars of this massive attack. but no amount of humanitarian and military support for somalia has so far succeeded in stopping all this. james robbins, bbc news. an international team of scientists has discovered the effects of a collision between two dead stars called neutron stars which happened 130 million years ago. the collision caused gravitational waves — the ripples in space and time predicted by albert einstein — which were first detected in august, by three observatories. one of which is in louisiana, from where our science correspondent, pallab ghosh, sent this report — and yes, there are some flashing images coming up. it's the longest straight line in the world. a 2.5 mile pipe containing a laser

that can detect powerful explosions in space. inside, a technician fine—tunes the instrument. it has made a discovery that has shaken the scientific world. two stars colliding in a galaxy far, far away. around 800 billion billion miles from earth. the two stars got closer and closer until they merged, resulting in a huge shock wave that rippled across the universe. the massive explosion led to the production of rare elements, such as gold and platinum. neutron stars are what is left over when giant suns die and collapse in on themselves. they are so densely packed that a teaspoon would weigh one billion tonnes. and here is the actual sound of the collision. low humming and pop they then become part

of planets when they form, including here on earth. the explosion was picked up in the control room here. it took place 130 million years ago when dinosaurs roamed the earth. it is only now that the light and gravitational waves have reached us. ooh, it was... we have been waiting for this for so long. we don't know if we were lucky and this happened to be an event that happened close, relatively close, to earth. but it's very rare. or, perhaps there are many more neutron stars than we thought. we don't know yet, but we will know. within seconds, telescopes all over the world were pointed at the colliding stars. this is what they saw. the collision created distortions, stretching and squeezing space. these are known as gravitational waves. a new observational window on the universe typically leads

to surprises that cannot yet be foreseen. we are still rubbing our eyes, or our ears, as we havejust woken up to the sound of gravitational waves. researchers say that there are likely to be many more discoveries using gravitational waves. of objects in the universe that we have not yet imagined. pallab ghosh, bbc news, livingston, louisiana. the social media giant facebook is preparing to give evidence to the us congress next month, on how it's tackling the profusion of fake news and misleading information online — a trend that's come into sharp focus in the wake of last year's presidential election. here in the united kingdom, one growing area of public concern is the exposure of children and young people to unreliable information online, with some calling for news literacy courses, to help people distinguish fact from fiction. our media editor amol rajan reports from birmingham. the 45th president of

the united states uses the term fake news to describe stories he doesn't like. we are fighting the fake news. it's fake, phoney, fake. that shouldn't distract us, however, from the fact that the internet is awash with information that can't be trusted. but what effect is this having on our children, the smartphone generation, who are bombarded by information on a daily basis? here at cardinal wiseman school in birmingham, we set pupils a difficult test to gauge their news literacy. you're going to be looking at three news stories, and i want us to write down t if we think it is a true story, or f if you think it's a false story. among the stories was one about hillary clinton's latest book from a website called the onion. who thinks that that is true? let me tell you what's going on. this story is a fake news story, and the reason it's a false news story is because the onion is actually a joke website.

another story was an extraordinary tale about airport security on the website of the daily express. that's quite an interesting headline, isn't it? who thinks that is true? can we have a show of hands, please? so, hands up forfalse, then. most of us. so, this story is true. so, let's just re—cap. with each of those stories, i think some of you have been a bit kind of surprised by what you've discovered. what would you say you learned from that experience? you expect the news, everything to be true, because there is, like, because you're not there at the time, you expect what people are telling you to be true. it's like we're being taken advantage of as well. pupils are confronted by a digital onslaught every day. that concerns the headmistress at cardinal wiseman. how do they know that what they are reading is accurate information? even if it is accurate information, is it the best source of information?

and do they understand that there are lots of people out there who have an agenda and they are not being upfront about that agenda? teaching news literacy is one way to combat fake news. tech giants have their own answers. facebook is working with independent fact checkers, and is making it easierfor users to flag suspicious material. meanwhile, google's trying to make it harder for creators of fake news to earn money from advertising. this generation of teenagers is increasingly aware that the internet is full of unreliable sources, but their belief that everything online should be free may come at a price. put your hand up if you think that the truth matters. 0k. put your hand up if, as a result of our exercises earlier, you trust the news less than you did before. and put your hand up if, when you're older, you think you'll pay for news. amol rajan, bbc news.

the irish comedian and writer sean hughes has died in hospital at the age of 51. sean hughes, ladies and gentlemen. best remembered perhaps as team captain of the bbc‘s never mind the buzzcocks, he was the youngest winner of the perrier comedy award backin winner of the perrier comedy award back in 1990. many parts of the uk have been experiencing a red sky for most of the day. scotney castle in kent was badly damaged in the great storm of 1987. women's raging at 100 miles an hour

ripped trailers off the ground. group of houses all but swept away. the most devastating storms in 1703. it caught the southern half of the uk totally by surprise. gusts of up to 115 miles an hour ripped 15 million trees from the wet ground, tore off roofs and cut power to thousands of homes. 18 people were killed and the damage ran to over £1 billion. andrea pell celebrates her 30th birthday today. her mother still remembers a hazardous dash to hospitalfor the birth. as we got further and further, the storm got worse and worse. trees started falling in front of us and behind us. at one stage, we just had to stop suddenly because a tree had fallen right in front of us. part of the reason that so many were caught on the hop could be found in a now infamous forecast the previous day... apparently a woman rang the bbc and said she had heard there was a hurricane on the way.

well, if you are watching — don't worry, there isn't. the most lasting effect was the devastation of ancient woodland. emmetts garden near sevenoaks lost 95% of its trees to the gale. some were more than 300 years old. we lost our electricity for nine days. our telephone for five days. our water supply for four days... caught up in the storm, nature expert matthew oates remembers a change of emphasis during years of recovery. the managers were under terrific pressure from a lot of local people, to clear up and replant. then we found that actually, if you left the woods to themselves, they would regenerate naturally. not necessarily with like for like, but nonetheless you would get woodland back very quickly. that's what happened. a lot has changed over the last three decades. we now have the technology to predict and prepare, as we have