this is bbc news. the headlines: the spanish government convenes a special cabinet meeting to begin imposing central control over the region of catalonia. experts have been called in to deal with a chemical incident at the sellafield nuclear site in cumbria. german police have arrested a suspect following a knife attack in munich in which several people were injured. bracing for storm brian — the uk prepares for gale—force winds and possible flooding. spain's prime minister, mariano rajoy, is chairing an emergency meeting of his cabinet which is expected to decide to impose central control over the catalonia region. its regional government says it will respond with a unilateral declaration of independence. my colleague tim willcox is in barcelona for us. welcome to a sunny barcelona. i'm

standing here are both one of the most famous streets in the capital of this region. just behind me, one of this region. just behind me, one of the houses designed by the famous architect. in the next few hours, we are expecting hundreds of thousands of people, maybe even a million people packing this street below me. demonstrating against it is happening in madrid at the moment because there are, the spanish prime minister has held a crisis cabinet meeting discussing which measures he will use as part of this article 115 which has never been used before all stop it will then have to go to the senate but then perhaps we will see some concrete decisions on the ground here. it could be the suspension of the catalan parliament, it could be putting the

local police, 17,000 strong, under direct rule, or taking the economic ministry away from this region. let us ministry away from this region. let us bring in a guest, who writes for the newspaper which takes a pro unity position. but where are we now? they're still has not been an official declaration of independence which stands. we had it for a few seconds but then it was suspended. the situation now is that independence is still strong enough to declare independence but not strong enough to defend it to the waiting for an excuse to go to elections, i would say, the blame madrid for what has happened. but is pa rt madrid for what has happened. but is part of the report that we are hearing, at madrid want to go to elections quite quickly, maybe as early as january, but if the cata la ns early as january, but if the catalans say, we're not taking part and boycott the selection, what happens then? i don't know, it is

mystery is. it is very difficult to say. they will probably split. there will be some say, we have to show the world that we are still independence, still a majority, and the other one will not. this is a huge headache for madrid. the prime minister has to run a region from 400 miles away, which will be unpopular with a large group of the publishing. that is what they are trying to do, they are trying to show that they are weak and the majority of catalans do not support them so that they can roll again. that used to be the case, is that the case now? is difficult to see. when things go this way, we will see that tensions begin to grow chewing

independence. we are seeing now,. apr disaster on october the 1st when that illegal referendum was held and the police activity. what do you think they will a? if there are 1 million people on the streets here, as long as they are now rioting, will madrid just where that, do you think is mike if, that is not a problem. we have had a lot of peaceful demonstrations for the last year and has never been a problem. it is not a problem for madrid, their problem is in the ballot. it is the outcome of elections and they usually show a big majority and a big minority that madrid parties represented in catalonia. the stakes are high. explain, we had to local politicians who are separatists, already held in prison in madrid and sedition charges. they have not been

charged yet but they could be held like that without any trial for up to four years? yes, that is what worries people because they see the regression but they don't see the outcome of it. they don't see a peaceful future and that is what we are all expecting to see. but it is obvious that madrid is exasperated with the catalan president. the king says he is as well. if there was to arrest him, how dramatic escalation would that be when you have two of hisjunior coalition would that be when you have two of his junior coalition partners already held in prison? that would be very difficult to bear. the thing is, they are trying to apply the 155 article without going to this kind of repression. he is probablyjust a public figure without real power and thatis public figure without real power and that is why they are expecting the elections soon to the don't have the arrest him against the will of the people. there could be a peaceful resista nce people. there could be a peaceful resistance in all of this. a press

conference is starting by the spanish government. amateur if we are listening to the prime minister 01’ are listening to the prime minister or his deputy who has had some pretty hardline comment to make about that referendum. that is due to start in a few minutes. but that is the latest here in barcelona. we will bring you that news conference just as soon as it begins. police in germany say an attacker with a knife has injured several people in the southern city of munich. the stabbings occurred near the rosenheimer underground station. there were no life—threatening injuries. the suspect has been detained. explosives experts have been called to the sellafield nuclear plant in cumbria to deal with a chemical incident. a cordon was put in place following an audit of chemicals which had been stored at the site since 1992. joining me now with more on this story is our

correspondent alice hutton. what we know about the incident? we 110w what we know about the incident? we now know that the army's expose of experts were called to the site about 8pm last night after staff discovered several canisters including a chemical industrial solvent that is not only potentially flammable at it had been stored at the site for 25 years. the army could a cordon around the lab and evacuated the staff as a precaution and after they carried out the tests, they decided the safest way to dispose of the canisters is to bury them in sound and carry out a controlled explosion. that is something that will happen later today, what other companies saying about this? earlier this morning, sellafield talk to me and said they had been no lake and the chemicals industrial solvents and didn't involve nuclear waste but it was routine to call in experts to advise them how to dispose of the chemicals

safely but they also said that because this is happening in the sellafield site, exercise extreme caution and leave nothing to chance. a big side and one that'll take a long time to clear. the nuclear production has stopped there but the clean—up of the waste and all these other things could take a long time? the sellafield site is about six square kilometre array is. it is a huge site and has more than 1,000 buildings. it is so big it has its own bus service. a spokesman told me today that the decommissioning process of the plant could take about 100 years. expect to continue finding old chemicals and having to put plans in place to dispose of them safely. speed limits through motorway roadworks could be raised from 50 to 60 miles per hour. the proposed changes follow trials by highways england, which found drivers would feel safer at higher speeds. roadworks and mile after mile of little orange cones are the bane of many driver's lives. the current speed limit when passing through motorway roadworks is 50 mph, but highways england says that could be increased to up to 60.

it follows trials where drivers were fitted with heartrate monitors to measure stress levels, driving through roadworks at different speeds. 60% of participants recorded a decrease in average heart rates in the 60 mph trial zone. in the 55 mph zone, the decrease was 56%. some drivers said they were more relaxed at higher speeds because it allowed them to accelerate away from large lorries. but ucatt, the union representing road workers, has described the plans as a deadly version of wacky races, which would make dangerous work areas twice as dangerous. highways england says it is carrying out further tests, but the changes could be phased in by the end of the year. jon donnison, bbc news. earlier i spoke to the president of the aa, edmund king. i asked if he thought increasing the speed limit in some circumstances would be a good idea.

we've got so many roadworks at the moment, there are hundreds and hundreds of miles of road works particularly where we are converting the hard shoulder into a running lane on these smart motorways and what they actually found in some pilots that we have long stretches, five, six, seven, eight miles of road works with quite a wide lane, they found that at 50 miles an hour, it was more dangerous and the reason being that many trucks have their speed limited to 56 so they tailgate ca i’s speed limited to 56 so they tailgate cars because they know over an average distance, they might slow down going up a hill and that causes a lot of problems, a lot of anxiety for drivers that they actually had heart monitors on the drivers and when they were doing 60 miles an hour, they were much more relaxed than at 50 because they didn't have this interaction. so they feel they can outmanoeuvre the truck and get

ahead it became necessary? absolutely. i have seen on the m3 in the roadworks there, trucks driving so the roadworks there, trucks driving so closely the vehicles. in fact, i have reported some the companies because it was so dangerous. i think we have to put it into context because there are other stretches where it would be totally unsafe to drive at 55 or indeed 60 and in particular where there are good workers, narrow lanes, that would not be safe, so i think we need a more flexible attitude. the logic of speed limit is that obviously the braking distance that you need to avoid an accident and that always has to be borne in mind? it has because it doesn't matter what speed you are doing, if you are driving too close to the vehicle in front, thatis too close to the vehicle in front, that is a danger. there are not road workers there, if it is a relatively straight stretch of road, it could work. this is only one element of reducing congestion. there are other things they need to look at like more labour eyes on the smart motorways because if you haven't got

a hard shoulder and you break down, if you can see a lay—by, you will get their and if you cannot, you will not and then you are stuck in traffic. it can cause severe congestion so we are also calling for twice as many labour eyes because there is space every mile and a half. we would like to see twice that many. then broken down vehicles can get off the carriageway and you don't have that congestion. was about the concern that they would be the anxiety among some of those who work on our roads who say even as things currently are, there are times when they don't feel safe 01’ are times when they don't feel safe or they don't think drivers are respectful of the fact that they are very short distance from people? absolutely, i think the safety of oui’ absolutely, i think the safety of our road workers should be absolutely paramount. but there are stretches of road where the road workers are the other side of concrete barriers still is the theme

of the central reservation, so now stretches, fine, but if there is any danger at all, in fact i think some of the speed limits should be produced lower than 55 if people are at risk. winds of 60 miles an hour have already struck the welsh coast and gusts are expected to reach 70 miles an hour in places. let's talk to our reporter clare woodling. it looks a lovely morning? well yes, the sun has come out and that is one very good thing but as you can tell, there are some strong south—westerly winds blowing in and see how there is very rough. the waves are barrelling in at great frequency. there are no boards out on the water at all. certainly here in terms of

flooding, there are two car parks here that have actually been com pletely here that have actually been completely flooded over. the killing 110w cars were completely flooded over. the killing now cars were parked in them at the time and as you can see, the road is com pletely time and as you can see, the road is completely submerged as well. it is at least six feet deep. i paddled in the check it myself, it is totally murky. some cars have driven up to it and turned around, others have ploughed through and hoping for the best, among them, a bus which made it through. elsewhere on the road, there is sand all over the road, even there is sand all over the road, eve n clu m ps there is sand all over the road, even clumps of seaweed visible, so the wind is up, it is likely sunny for now. we have had rain on and off in the last half an hour. strong winds are expected to continue until at least 11pm tonight so we will monitor the situation. strong enough wins to keep a cornish flag flying behind you! is the worst over as far as the south—west of in that is

concerned? wellies but the environment agency earlier, i felt it wasn't quite as bad as they had anticipated which is a good thing but they are going to keep monitoring the situation to see if there are any changes or if it worsens in the next few hours and of course the weather warning, the wind warning from the met office is in place and that will be in place until 11pm tonight. the majority of households have experienced problems with their broadband over the last year, with slow speeds the most common complaint. a survey by ‘which‘ suggested customers of virgin media, talktalk, sky and bt were the worst affected. frustration with broadband is boiling over in some households, we've become so dependent on it for shopping, banking and entertainment that the internet not working can drive people mad. it cuts out more than it should. i live in the countryside and its terrible, five megabytes of a second is the most you will get. speed in my area doesn't work

as well as it should. it depends where you live, i live in a new build apartment and the speed is pretty good. i get what i pay for. which‘s survey shows that 21% of customers had problems with speed, 17% experienced frequent dropouts in the connection and 12% had a wireless router fault and 8% had no connection at all for hours or days. 33% said their speed was very slow with talktalk. 38% of virgin customers complained about price increases. talktalk says it is disappointed and its extensive investment programme has already led to fewer faults and quicker repair times. virgin says its services are faster and the majority of its customers get their advertised speed or above at peak times. there is a regulator 0fcom with the job of making sure the companies provide what they promise. it says they must up their game.

the headlines on bbc news: spain ‘s government has convened a special cabinet meeting to begin imposing central control. we're hoping to hearfrom imposing central control. we're hoping to hear from the imposing central control. we're hoping to hearfrom the prime minister setting out details in a news c0 nfe re nce minister setting out details in a news conference later. experts have been called in to deal with a chemical incident in sellafield. german police arrest a suspect after a knife attack in munich in which several people are injured. two boys have been injured in a serious collision with a van in cleethorpes in lincolnshire this morning. humberside police were called to the incident, which involved a white peugeot van, on st peter's avenue at about 8.30. one of the boys suffered life threatening injuries, and both have been taken to hospital. the us and south korea are conducting joint military exercises off the korean peninsula, amid heightened tensions with north korea.

the us has says the drills are designed to be a show of sea and air power, to deter north korea from any military action. pyongyang has described the exercises as a "rehearsal for war". among the ships taking part is the uss ronald reagan, the biggest of the us navy's fleet in the asia region. 0ur correspondent mark lowen was on the ship. we've come down here to south korea's second city where the uss ronald reagan earlier today. if i step back, we comes in. you can see there the enormous aircraft carrier, there the enormous aircraft carrier, the uss ronald reagan, that leads the uss ronald reagan, that leads the fleet, stationed injapan. it has a crew of 5,000 and on—board, we had a short time on deck and saw some of the 70 fighterjets and bombers stationed on there. this is one of the vessels that have been

taking part in ten days ofjoint military exercises between the us and south korea. the commander of the vessel spoke to us and look of an iron clad alliance between the us and south korea, clearly the us is very keen to reinforce its monetary support for the republic of korea at a time when the escalation of a nuclear tension with north korea and also without escalation puts strain on international relations and of course has caused some fear here in south korea. the church of england is to debate holding services of blessing for same—sex couples for the first time. if it's agreed by the church's ruling general synod, the services could be held after a couple has married in a secular ceremony, or formed a civil partnership. i, david, take you, peter, to be my lawfully wedded husband. since 2014, same—sex couples have been able to marry outside the church, but the church of england does not allow their relationships to be blessed.

since 2014, same—sex couples have been able to marry outside the church, but the church of england it says there is real and profound disagreement about sexuality. bishops set up a group to spend three years discussing what to do next, but their hand may now have been forced by some in hereford, who voted in favour of prayer and dedication following a marriage or civil partnership. now it will be debated by the church's ruling synod. the proposed service is described as neither contrary to or opposed to the current doctrine and some priests will be able to opt out. they haven't yet gone as far as anglicans in the scottish episcopal church, which began holding same—sex weddings this year, and conservative campaigners called the move a fundamental departure from church teaching. the synod which meets twice a year is yet to fix a date for the debate to take place. thousands of people have rallied in the australian city of sydney to express their support for the legalisation

of same—sex marriages. similar events are being held in towns and cities across the country this weekend. australians are taking part in a postal vote to gauge the level of support for same—sex unions. the poll closes in two weeks' time, with the result due to be announced in mid—november. 17—year—old carers grill take steps on her road to recovery, she has rediscovered her voice. carys crow loves to sing. she has been performing since the age of three. but earlier this year, the 17—year—old and her friend were caught up in a terror attack at manchester arena.

all of a sudden, this huge bang just went off, and everyone stood still for what felt like forever, it was about ten seconds, then they turned around and ran in the opposite direction from where it went off. we ended up at the bottom of a pile of people. they both survived, but carys crow was left with mental scars. she could not sing at all. she could not listen to music without crying. i would hold her for hours on a night trying to get to sleep. it upset me a lot that 22 people died loving music. music had a completely different meaning to it to me, it had a meaning of anger for the first week. carys crow is now on the road to recovery, but her next hurdle was to sing again.

then her dream came true. she was chosen to become the support act for the ‘60s soul legend, pp arnold. it was a nervous experience, it was a very small room. it was quite nerve—racking. the next day she was back at school. but how did it go? the nerves were there before, but my friends and family turned up and it was like, "you can do this, carys, you can do this." and i did it. 0n the night of manchester, 22 people did not make it out that night. ifeel like i have bad days and i think "why not me, why them?" you do this for them because they don't get to live

the life that i now do, and i should do all the things in life with them in mind. swansea is bidding to be crowned uk city of culture in 2021 — wales's second city claims it could attract over a million extra visitors and a £31 million economic boost if it's awarded the accolade. it does face competition though — from paisley, sunderland, stoke—on—trent and coventry. nick higham has been to swansea to discover why it thinks it deserves the title. swansea and its magnificent bay. a place once famous for industrial grime and male voice choirs, the birthplace of the poet dylan thomas, now hopes to be the uk's next city of culture. tammy davis grew up 15 miles away.

now she's back, performing cabaret in the city centre, and she's delighted by swansea's bid. nobody loves music like welsh people. i honestly believe that. when they say to be born welsh is to be born privileged, not with a silver spoon in your mouth. it's with music in your heart and soul, i believe that. that's how we are born. with music. 0urvoices, ouraccents, sing. she is performing here at a new venue in the city's dilapidated high—street. swansea has problems — high unemployment, homelessness, depravation. the city of culture bid could be part of the solution. for decades swansea has been struggling to revive a local economy which never really recovered from the collapse of traditional industries like this. bidding to be city of culture is one way of doing that, and of turning the decaying legacy of the past into something positive — an engine of regeneration. this is all that remains

of hafod morfa, the largest copper foundry in what was once the copper capital of the world. next door, in swansea museum's warehouse, they have a model of the works in its heyday, surrounded by vast slagheaps. the pollution it produced was appalling. the city's past, including its maritime heritage, is an important plank in its bid. go and see the birthplace of dylan thomas, you can see where he did his early writings. you can come to swansea and visit a tate collection in the new glynn vivian gallery. we have the national waterfront museum and soon we will have a brand—new, first of its kind, digital arena in the uk. this is what the digital arena will look like. they will build it anyway, but city of culture status could draw more visitors to swansea and make the locals feel good about the place. this youth theatre, busily rehearsing, occupies another previously empty building

in the high street. the director here knows what kind of city of culture he wants. it needs to be organic, community—led, cultural vision and practice. otherwise it's not going to feed into a wider debate about real economic change. and this is one of three buildings colonised by artists. almost 100 of them. i could have easily worked at home, but i wouldn't have this community, i wouldn't have that input, i wouldn't have that communication and what's going on and how we feed off each other, which is really important. 0utwardly a rather drab place, swansea turns out to have a vibrant flourishing cultural scene. they're already using it to revitalise and regenerate some of the city's poorest corners. nick higham, bbc news, swansea. let's cross street to madrid for the

press c0 nfe re nce . translation: for two days, there was total disregard for the rights of the members of the opposition. in a quarter of an hour, there was a project of law that had not been dealt with with everybody. the order of the day was altered and it was totally un—democratic and in a few hours, the spanish constitution of catalonia was disregarded, the statute for catalonia was approved, and the law for catalonia and that

is what they said in catalonia, which was a transitional period until the law was finally approved. all this was suspended, as you know, by the constitutional tribunal but the government had placed itself outside of the law and consequently it did not feel the need to comply with the constitutional tribunal. it took place in spite of this. it was their intention to do something that was forbidden by the tribunal and which had no democratic guarantees and it hurt its last point on the 10th of october when in a session in the parliament, the adopted the solutions that i have mentioned. what the government to? the government on the 11th of october

required that the catalonian, its president, to explain something that can be explained easily. howard league or have you not declared independence? the government could have asked them earlier as public opinion was asking us. when the constitution was disregarded, there were a lot of opportunities. but we preferred to act, think one must in these cases, with responsibility, with common sense, and tried to reach a point where there would be a rectification which never took place. the general syndicate have decided this but they did not they did not reply within the