economy £9 billion a year. the daily mail has mi5 chief andrew parker saying web giants must do more to stop terror on our streets. we begin with the photo on the front of the guardian. there are lots of stories about this, but it is an important day in the middle east in the battle against the group that calls itself islamic state. what i wa nted calls itself islamic state. what i wanted to say about that is that the islamic state is suffering a major loss in territory is due to air strikes as well as fighting on the ground, but let's be clear, the ideology is not going anywhere. u nfortu nately, ideology is not going anywhere. unfortunately, it will go underground and go elsewhere, whether vulnerable, politically vulnerable countries where it can grow, and it will also feed on the discourse of grievance, that it has

lost the islamic state, where the caliphate was, and it needs to get that back and we need to fight the good fight, so it will feed on a discourse of grievance with vulnerable groups, and that's the danger. the optimism of this photographs which is one of the opposition soldiers from the syrian democratic forces, waving a flag in celebration. we also saw that in mosul. the different bits of the alliance starts wobbling with each other. go back a decade ago and you can see al-qaeda. the whole question now, surely, is whetherthe hearts and minds, as an lse professor i was listening to this afternoon was saying, of the sunni community can be won round by those who now take control. and that's a big question. is that conceivable ? control. and that's a big question. is that conceivable? has anything changed? i don't think so. i think

it's tactical achievements on the ground are very different from the battle for hearts and minds and the ideological battle, which is crucial for the fight against terrorism. and thatis for the fight against terrorism. and that is a more difficult fight, and i don't think that much has changed on that front. at the bottom of the front page of the guardian, this is a story they began on yesterday, the one from this morning, which is the murder of the campaigning investigative journalist in malta. it still has the capacity to shock, a journalist being blown up, particularly in a place like malta. and people who care about malta and nearby gozo, and people who care about malta and nearby 6020, we have been shocked that this sort of thing does happen in western europe, in the year of

2017. having said that, when you read more about this journalist, 2017. having said that, when you read more about thisjournalist, i mean, she was a pretty brave woman, and some of the quotes from this blog which became very much part of the news seen in malta — there are crooks everywhere, the situation is desperate. she believed that malign and criminal interests are captured malta and turned it into an island mafia state. quite a statement. and clearly there were people who found her too much. interesting that the president walter moved quickly to say, we have got foreign investigators coming — the fbi, the dutch — almost to offer reassurance. whatever happens, there will be independent voices looking. and because he was one of the main targets of the blog. it is

interesting, the kind of person she was as well. i am reading reports saying she was very reserved, almost shy, not some in your face journalist. she had the strongest standards of personal integrity, we're told, and helped herself to those standards. it will be interesting to see how malta, an eu country, does deal with this. this is one of the perennial criticisms of journalists, that as is one of the perennial criticisms ofjournalists, that as a profession, it is easier for us to write and criticise others in jobs but not necessarily maintaining those high standards ourselves, which is she was doing, and which perhaps protected her from which is she was doing, and which perhaps protected herfrom some which is she was doing, and which perhaps protected her from some of the criticism. moving onto the front of the 'i', and the man of the moment, in a sense, andrew parker. he is a very sort of unassuming man, not the image of a spy master. he's

brilliant. it's a perfect disguise, i think, for a spy chief! it is a rare appearance for security journalists, at an undisclosed location in central london. very mysterious! i wish i was there. no laughing matter, he brings to our attention the fact that the terror warnings are at their most critical level. unprecedented tempo over his 34 level. unprecedented tempo over his 3a year career in security. and i think the guardian makes an interesting point, that this report comes at a time when the government is expecting, this month, a report on an independent review of the security behind the attacks happening in london. in other words, did we know and not act? was

anything missed ? did we know and not act? was anything missed? and they refused for the security people to review themselves on their own, so it is an independent review from an outsider. it might be a pre—emptive strike. you have to look at the enormity of what is going on. there are 500 live operations targeting 3000 people, with 20,000 more who have been on the counterterrorism radar, and others who are not even known to the law agencies. talk about looking for a needle in a haystack — this is it, and this is the job. he also talks about the threat from returning fighters, islamist fighters. having talked about raqqa, that is a clear and present danger. eventually, some of those people will come home. and you have to have a system of dealing with this threat. it isn't going

away. you slightly took issue with the headline that the 'i" has gone with. i didn't think he gave them warning at all but was using a careful tone, trying to strike a balance between saying that they have a role to play in exposing terrorism, or helping us deal with plots and attacks. they can't be a platform, so to speak. but on the other hand, he didn't want to go into specifics on detail such as encryption, and didn't want to join the debate on whether encryption should be targeted or not, encrypted communication, so i didn't get the impression that he was giving a warning at all. i thought he was striking a careful balance, and it's because of the larger implications for business and for commerce in general. let's move on to the financial times, david. this story that i don't think anyone will have missed today — inflation hits a

five—year peak. missed today — inflation hits a five-year peak. which is good news for some of us of a certain age! surely not, david! those of us who are happy to draw our pensions, and whose wives even draw a pension as well, this is the man that they decide what the increase is going to be. the best month, from the point of view are pensioners. the chancellor, and by the way, isn't he the one whom some of his tory colleagues bash, day in, day out? and now they rely on him in the budget to get a little bit of success budget to get a little bit of success and to address this dilemma of the gap between the young and not quite so young, which is getting wider and wider. it is an interesting paradox, isn't it? we lived through times with record low interest rates and record

employment, and yet, there is a sense that maybe the economy isn't doing as well as people had hoped it would be in these kinds of circumstances, that the combination of factors that we used to be able to say, if that goes up, that will go down, things no longer work that way, and we no longer seemed to know which labour is to poke to have this effect on the economy. did we never know when did we delude ourselves?|j can know when did we delude ourselves?” can remember economics classes 40 years ago, when one of my lecturers would tell me x, and a day later, another one would tell me y, which explains why i never became an economist. it isn't an exact art, that's for sure, but the circumstances i'iow that's for sure, but the circumstances now and the uncertainty of something called brexit and where its leading, we might get to that, is with us every day. getting more and more obvious. but like you talked about philip

hammond, the chancellor, being the target of some people who wanted rid of him. we are told by the top of the times that the cabinet is split over plans to freeze university fees. it is potentially another headache by him in talking about revenue and expenditure. lam revenue and expenditure. iamon revenue and expenditure. i am on the council of the university of birmingham, let me declare that interest. that announcement at the conservative party conference, i have it on authority, there was no warning to higher education of what was coming, and what the times calls the announcement of the £2 billion promised to freeze tuition fees. it is running into operation the opposition, surprise surprise, and it isa opposition, surprise surprise, and it is a cabinet minister, no less, who was quoted. party conferences require announcements to be made, and sometimes they leave you saddled with policy commitments that are not

always entirely thought through. i rememberother always entirely thought through. i remember other people in days gone by google accused of making policy up by google accused of making policy up on the back of cigarette packets, in taxis in liverpool. do you agree with the article when it says that party —— people accused of making policy up. they have got to find a solution. i was thinking today, ahead of that tory party conference, we we re ahead of that tory party conference, we were being told that the co nfe re nce we were being told that the conference organisers were asking for for young people that could be announced. were there any? i don't rememberany. announced. were there any? i don't remember any. labour, lib dems and conservatives have all reversed their positions on student funding over the years. they have been in

favour and against tuition fees and all the rest of it. it looks like it is one of those subjects in which there is no resolution. the dilemma won't go away. promising the earth, equally, when you're not going to win an election, has all sorts of other consequences. and finally, this is a story that i know will amuse dina slightly, about traffic jams. the cost is £9 billion a year. a p pa re ntly jams. the cost is £9 billion a year. apparently motorways are kept close for too long, particularly after accidents, but also when roadworks have been completed and all the rest of it, it is not being done quicker. as someone who moved here from egypt not so long ago, what do you think others might i am from cairo, so you haven't seen anything yet. if you think this is a trafficjam, you have to come for a visit. by the

way, i learned to drive there, and i am afraid of driving in this country, because we didn't learn the rules. it is survival of the fittest. it is like a jungle out there, and you drive to reach your destination. we may be heading for a pile—up ourselves, because iipm destination. we may be heading for a pile—up ourselves, because ”pm is approaching fast! dina and david, thank you for being with us this evening. don't forget, you can keep up evening. don't forget, you can keep up with the papers online. from us, thank you very much forjoining us on sportsday. on the papers. —— good evening. things look, than they were 24 hours ago. we have lost ex—hurricane ophelia, the winds are lighter, but

calm does not mean necessarily dry. we have cloud and outbreaks of brain moving into southern parts of the uk tonight. northern england, northern ireland, the far north of scotland, there are clear spells and it will be chilly. northern scotland is where we will have the best of the sunshine through the day. more cloud into southern scotland, and certainly more creeping north across england and wales, with misty, murky conditions for some coasts and hills, and quite a humid feel in the south. thursday and friday will bring bands of rain eastwards. it is when we get into the weekend that there is the potential for very windy weather indeed. do stay tuned to the forecast. this is bbc news.

i'm shaun ley. the headlines at 11:00pm: the head of mi5 says the uk is facing intense pressure from terrorism. more plots are emerging at a faster pace. inflation has reached 3%, its highest level in more than five years, largely due to rising food and transport prices. us—backed militia in syria say they've taken control of raqqa after months of fighting with islamic state militants. lincoln in the bardo. george saunders wins this year's man booker prize for his novel lincoln in the bardo, becoming the second us author to take home the £50,000 fiction award.