now it's time for our news review. we begin with the arab news which is leading on daesh, or the so—called islamic state, being defeated in its de facto capital of raqqa. the daily telegraph carries a warning from the head of britain's security service mi5 that terror attacks cannot be prevented in a free society. the guardian reports on the last blog post published by murdered maltese journalist daphne ca ruana galizia, where she signs off with the words "there are crooks everywhere you look, the situation is desperate." the china daily is of course focussing on the 19th national congress and says the country will stick to the policy of opening up and further expanding market access to foreign investors. and finally, city am has billionaire richard branson getting in a pickle over scammers who almost conned him out of millions. we will reflect on that in a moment

but let's begin. with me is andrew tuck, the editor of monocle, a global news and business magazine. andrew, good to see you again. good to see you. let's start on daesh, the taking back of raqqa, as is a lwa ys the taking back of raqqa, as is always the case, it takes so long to do it. even now i see they are still saying there are a few is militants holding up in there? roughly 90% of holding up in there? roughly 9096 of the people have been cleared out who we re the people have been cleared out who were working with daesh. they're still 100 fighters within the city but it looks like the city will properly fall in the coming days but eve ryo ne properly fall in the coming days but everyone is wondering what that will mean, notjust everyone is wondering what that will mean, not just for terrorism everyone is wondering what that will mean, notjust for terrorism but what it will mean for the region, it seems once the city has fallen the syrian government will be able to turn its fire on the people who have

taken the city back, the turks are looking to come back in and push back the kurds. it seems more regional forces will be pulled back the kurds. it seems more regionalforces will be pulled in. it's only one phase, isn't it? this is the end of one stage. you have nailed it, such a patchwork of alliances in dealing with is, none of whom have a lot of interest in each other? lots of them want to make sure the kurds don't get an independent territory, we've seen over the last few days iraqi troops going into kirkuk to take back the big oilfields. it seems going into kirkuk to take back the big oil fields. it seems the turks are ready to come in and push back all the forces they don't like. it seems there are many more big battles that will be happening around the city. does it link into oui’ around the city. does it link into our next story? i think it does. not stopping terror in a free society. one of the consequences is if you have daesh fighters, is biters, moving out of the area, where do they go next? -- fighters. the numbers given yesterday by

andrew parker, the extraordinary thing, he said there's been more than 500 live investigations at the moment with 3000 people known to be connected to extremist activity being tracked. what's interesting is he is almost stating the obvious saying that you can't expect 100% success. if we look around our cities, airports, where we live, everything is being re—engineered in a permanent way to accept we are living with terrorism for many decades to come. where does that leave us? he is stating the blindingly obvious most of the time, but it has turned into an unprecedented and more uncertain world than ever before. we know that. the nugget in there is interesting, he is saying what can happen now is the stage when somebody decides to commit a crime toa somebody decides to commit a crime to a terrorist act can happen within 36 hours. it means the idea that we

are listening into people and tracking people is impossible. it's the speed which is the scary thing that he is highlighting here. isn't there a really unpalatable truth which is, and it is implicit in everything he says, that there will be successful terrorist attacks and there's nothing we can do about it if we want to live in a free society, so the consequence is people will die and you have to accept it if you're going to live in accept it if you're going to live in a free society. two things, there are things you can do, after the attacks on the bridges in london there's been a re—engineering of the cityscape. he says you will never be safe... part of that is a pr story for the city because undoubtedly you can turn the corner when you get off the curb. he is highlighting the fa ct the curb. he is highlighting the fact that we need to adjust. we need to a cce pt fact that we need to adjust. we need to accept it. the other brutal truth is, when you have things like the

7/7 attacks, you felt london was uneasy for days, after the most recent attacks there was a sense the city got back to normal within 26 hours. maybe it's important there is that adjustment. let move on to our next story, which is the death of catalan megalitre year, and herston has said malta is a mafia state basically. her story is amazing, it's been a huge local story, she covers what was in the panama papers, put pressure on the prime minister, there's been a general election because of her work but she has upset many others, suddenly this is an international storage. whoever carried out this attack, they have brought more attention to mulder than it's had in many years —— international storage. what is worrying is she is very much an independentjournalist. what is worrying is she is very much an independent journalist. not attached to any big news organisation, which, in a way is encouraging, it shows us the power

of the small independentjournalist, but on the other hand it shows their vulnerability. it shows a woman who is running a blog and putting a stick in the hornets nest almost every day and there's no network to protect her. we know the police on the island didn't like what she was doing. it's interesting this note from her son about the mafia, i was looking in the italian press yesterday, back in may this year they were pointing out much money laundering goes on via malta through the proper mafia in southern italy. will anything happen as a result of this? the pressure from the eu will begin to look about whether this is a place where money laundering is going on and the level of corruption. even under the years of gaddafi libyan money was coming out via malta, so it's always had a strange reputation as a place where grannies go on holiday and where there's a bit of organised crime going on as well. it's an island tucked away out of the way, it has

done its own thing for a long time. out of the way but physically on a map it is very close to libya, it is very close to southern italy, so it makes it an obvious place for people from both countries to want to go to ta ke from both countries to want to go to take their cash and find ways of spending it. let's move on to the china daily. opening up will remain the basic policy of china. is there anything we saw from this speech that we didn't know was going to happen? three and a half hours, i'm sure we we re three and a half hours, i'm sure we were all listening to every last word! i'm sure the sinologist will be picking it apart today. in the south china morning post they follow up south china morning post they follow up with the up with the idea with the king at who is on the committees. in the coming days we will see the people named for the central committee, 200 people —— looking at. then those people look at who is on the politburo. there's people who aren't within the party

and who is on that rostrum and deciding who is going to be the podium people to watch. that's the next generation, is that the view? many people have to step down from the committee this time because they are at the age of retirement or they will be so over the next five years. it will be a turnaround. i imagine all of them will have dark black hairfor many all of them will have dark black hair for many years to come. also xi jingping, who will continue for the next five years, he is saying this is how we are going to do it to the new incoming new boys. there's a huge machinery which presents an image of democracy, but of course in the background he's incredibly influential and he will make sure his people are presented at every stage and at every level. we have to move on to our last story, the story ofa move on to our last story, the story of a hapless pensioner who hasjust managed to avoid a nasty scamming experience and his name happens to be richard branson! this is a nuts

story. first of all we think the people who fall to these scammers are probably old, lonely, maybe a bit dotty, that's often how they get presented by the media. i'm not saying anything about mr branson! he got a call from somebody pretending to be serve michael fallon and asking whether he would pay up some money because a ransom had to pay for someone that had been kidnapped —— serve michael fallon. he was kind of going on with it and then he phoned downing street. there's someone out there impersonating michael fallon! of all people! we have to call it a date. good to see you. thanks for watching. —— call it a day. well, wednesday is expected to be quite a mixed day across the uk. there's certainly some rain in the forecast. the clouds have been gathering for the last 26 hours or so. some quite pretty pictures,

gloomy pictures in places. here's one from dorset, and this is the weather front moving in from the south. here it is as it drifts in from the bay of biscay across france. and this is going to bring some quite wet weather for a time across southern and some central areas, particularly around the midlands, during the course of wednesday. so first thing in the morning, i think, from the southern counties through the south midlands, into the east midlands, there'll be some rain around. but many northern areas, northern england, northern wales, clear here. and, across the far north of scotland, even a touch of grass frost in one or two areas, particularly in those sheltered glens. so let's have a look at the morning weather, then. this is 8:00am, and it really is looking very cloudy, very dull in many areas, temperatures around 11 or 12 degrees. and then we move a little bit further northwards, into northern wales, the north—west of england, around cumbria there, and into northern ireland. here, i think, some sunshine first thing in the morning. it is going to feel a lot fresher, so a much better start to the day. but, even here, notice

that there are a few spots of rain through the lowlands, here in glasgow and edinburgh. but this is really light, and we are back into the sunshine at 8:00am in the morning across most of yorkshire, and then back into that weather front across the midlands, east anglia, and down into the south—east. now, through the course of the morning, into the afternoon, what is going to happen with this weather front is it'll move a little bit further northwards. but it is also going to introduce some very muggy air, so it is not going to feel particular cold across the south. it is going to be sort of that damp, muggy, grey sort of feeling, with on—and—off light rain or drizzle. you can see those temperatures, despite the cloud and the rain, getting up to 17 in london. but then the other side of this weather front here, further north, it's a lot fresher. it's only 13 degrees. here's a look at thursday. you can see it is relatively quiet, but cloudy, with a few spots of rain in eastern areas, but this weather front of low pressure moving in. and that's going to introduce some wet and windy weather to some of these south—western and western

areas during the course of thursday evening. and then, on friday, that weather front and the low pressure is moving northwards across the uk. quite brisk conditions, windy conditions for a time. fresher there in scotland and northern ireland, at 13. still 16 in london. and then we are watching this next big area of low pressure heading our way. a lot of isobars, the track of the low still a little uncertain. it is probably going to go a little bit further north. but severe gales are on the cards, especially in the south. hello, this is breakfast, with louise minchin and dan walker. new evidence that the nhs is failing to meet key targets across the uk. major research by the bbc charts a decline in performance over the last four years, with many areas failing to meet targets on a & e, cancer and operations. this is the scene in nottingham hospital this morning. through out the programme we're asking what the bbc‘s findings tell us about life for patients and staff there, and up and down the country. good morning, it's wednesday

the 18th of october. also this morning, the universal credit benefit comes under scrutiny in the house of commons amid indications that