some rain and drizzle. west, cloud, some rain and drizzle. thicker cloud in northern ireland. again, that could be thick enough for patches of rain. breezy across the board with winter strong in the north—west. temperatures in the high teams. overnight, heavy and persistent rain spreading in from the west. to the north, clear skies allowing temperatures to fall away. more humid the further south you go. temperatures not much lower than 17 degrees in parts of the south—east. tomorrow, and improving story, rain moving eastwards. further north, one oi’ moving eastwards. further north, one or two showers. cloud further south, that could be thick enough for the odd spot of rain and drizzle, highs of 23 degrees. the headlines: kofi annan, the first black african to become un secretary—general has died. paying tribute, the organisation's current head, antonio guterres,

said that in many ways, kofi annan was the united nations. rescue teams in the indian state of kerala are still trying to reach thousands of people marooned by the severe monsoon flooding. it's the area's worst flooding for a century. italy's president has led thousands of mourners at a state funeral in genoa for many of the victims of the motorway bridge collapse. ministers are considering introducing a new plastics tax for items such as takeaway boxes and coffee cups after a government consultation on how to reduce plastic waste received a record response from the public. thank you for your company this morning. we will have the afternoon's means. —— afternoon's news.

now on bbc news — more from the money and power season, which looks at how money, and its power, shapes and reshape our lives. this week's programme profiles the lives of three entrepreneurs on their way — back from the brink. they say that to be a successful entrepreneur, you have to experience failure. thomas edison, considered the greatest inventor of his time, went through 10,000 prototypes to make the light bulb. the business magnate henry ford twice filed for bankruptcy before he revolutionised the car industry. these three entrepreneurs have faced extremely tough tests. now they are starting again. it's not always easy to pick yourself back up. we needed to fire great friends. for me, it was the most difficult thing. failure can come with a lot of baggage. if i'm facing that same failure again, then will i be able to get over that again? like, maybe not. and the struggle to build a viable long—term business is fraught with challenges. we have no answers right now,

and the stock, and no games and no idea what is going on. can they overcome the obstacles they face and turn everything around? seoul, south korea, a city powered by ten million people and home to a young entrepreneur with big ambitions. for her, engineering is a man's world, but it's her passion. told that it wasn't an acceptable subject for her to study, she'd sneak into her male friends' seminars at university. now 33, she is fighting to establish herself as an engineer. she wants to change the way we make electricity through portable water—powered generators. flowing water contains

maybe the most efficient and stable energy resource, so if you have a great product to harness energy from the river, then that would be the most stable and successful energy resource for us. this is the product she came up with, a portable generator and battery driven by water. she says it will produce enough energy to power lights and charge phones. her fledgling company has started selling in korea, europe and the us, and now she is about to embark on an ambitious and risky expansion programme. by integrating multiple units, then it will be able to power more electric products to power homes and villages. if she can prove it is possible to scale up her units, she could substantially increase oui’ revenue. it all comes down to a crucial river test. but it's a gamble, and she has

tasted failure before. five years ago, she was bankrupt. ten years ago, the sunglasses company absurda launched in brazil. its ceo, rafael rodrigues, had high hopes of making a splash in the competitive fashion world. but the business was brought under by counterfeits, which flooded the market. now, rafael has brought his company to america, where he hopes he can turn his fortunes around. he is in serious financial difficulty. this warehouse in miami is home to 14,000 pairs of unsold glasses. and rafael is down to his last few thousand dollars. to break even, we would need to sell around 1,000 pairs of glasses monthly.

in the average price of $70—$80, something like that. and we are selling around 200 pairs of glasses monthly. it's not easy to figure out it now, because i prefer to think and to expect the best, and i know the best is yet to come, but i would say i have now two different possibilities of people to invest in the company. so i will know if they are going to invest or not in the next few weeks. rafael desperately needs an investor to make a success of his business in america. his wife and young son moved with him from brazil, but they are fast running out of money and options. they found support in miami's brazilian community and services at a downtown church. what's the biggest challenges you face right now? the biggest one? the biggest one i would say is to adapt here with my family.

with the whole family, and everything. that's everything. and maybe the business, and to figure out what to do nowadays. so everything is new and we are starting from scratch. i was 14 years old when we arrived here in miami. and i guess one of the biggest challenges, and i think every immigrant has, is you come with a mindset of how things are going to be, you come with a plan, you come with an idea. but when you actually arrive here, it's totally different. rafael has gone through a lot, but he still has faith that he and his business can be a success in america. this is a tv show that never got past the pilot. hey, check it out. it's the work of a small team led by the american—israeli entrepreneur miriam lottner.

an experienced tech expert, she is passionate about encouraging girls to get into science and maths. when miriam's twin daughters were born, she began to worry there were not enough role models for girls in these industries. can't you see? i'm building a 3—d printer. sensing a gap in the market, she and a business partner created purple & nine. related to them is that they were real people that we brought along on a journey and i really believed that if we can get sort of a mass following behind us, if girls can meet and fall in love with them and these characters that we have developed, then it was clear to me that we were going to be on tv. hey, purple, check it out, look what you can make. seeing the artwork for the first time and watching the animations, it was life—affirming. it felt like, wow, these are characters that need to exist. listen, we'll figure this out. how hard can it be? we had all the scripts, we had ten essentially episodes already written and ready to go.

miriam tried to raise crowdfunding support for her project. we went on indiegogo, our campaign was not successful and we did not raise the necessary 50% within the first three days, so that we knew that it was essentially over. and once you have failed on a crowdfunding platform, you're kind of closed out of institutional investors. it is little bit to have this big loser stamp on your forehead, like she did not even raise. in total, miriam lost $50,000 of her family's money. the days and weeks following, i'm pretty sure that i was hiding under the covers in my room. i was depressed, i was devastated, i felt like a complete loser. for some, $30,000 would be a joke, and for us, at the time, we were still young, our kids... our kids were young, so it was like college savings or how are we going to buy a house, etc? so that was, at this point, we could have bought a house with that money and we did not buy a house or apartment, and instead i have a tv show on youtube. now, miriam is back

with a new business. she's developed a way to get children engaged by science and maths, releasing nine card games, all of which she says have sold out online. and she is expanding. the letters are all going to be straight. yeah. miriam and her designer are meeting to put the final touches to their latest game. i didn't have a lot of resources, i remember, i think that first conversation where i said i do not have a tonne of money but here is my huge dream, right? i admired the fact that she was willing to put everything she had again into this new business. something that is special with miriam is the even though this business had not worked out, she had lost everything, she was not going to let that defeat her. she was ready to start something new and make something great. i'm not sure that i want so much

to be an entrepreneur as i want to change the world. and that might seem like a huge goal, with a bunch of card games. but my mother raised me to believe that women, girls, can do anything, we can be anything, we can take risks, we can achieve anything that we want to. and you can push the boundaries. that self—confidence can be easily shaken, though. and seeing a gap in the market does not guarantee success. in south korea, hyerin learnt that the hard way. now she spends every waking hour trying to make her current venture a success. when i see people having, and spending, their weekends like this, somehow i feel like i'm missing having that relaxed time with family and friends. if i think about my schedule

or days, i would not say it is well— balanced. hyerin‘s first business, an ambitious project to install a tidal project on the korean peninsula, received a $3 million grant. but while the plant produced energy, bureaucracy meant her company failed to connect it to the power grid. koreans are not really supportive to someone who has failed here. mostly they consider them, like, a loser. there was literally no—one who supported me when i faced failure. just one year after the plant was installed, she was bankrupt. the business was wiped out. the project manager

and the other people say, "i knew that you would fail because you are young, you are not an engineer." that's the answer that i always hear from people back then. and i agree about it. because it was true. hyerin was 29 years old and $300,000 in debt. the pain of that time is still with her. i was so depressed. if i'm facing that same failure again, then would i be able to get over that again? like, maybe not. after her first business went bust, hyerin was homeless. she spent two months sleeping in 24—hour restaurants while she planned how to pay off her debts and start over again. the current customers

in north america care about environmental impact, but customers in europe care about that much more. now, she is back in the business world, with bold ambitions and serious investors. i think hyerin is very exceptional. a startup is a tough journey for anyone. i think she is the entrepreneur and she is invincible. all the great achievements were started from very small ideas and big passion. a backer like this is exactly who sunglasses entrepreneur rafael is hoping to find. he is meeting with potential investors who he needs to keep his sunglasses company alive. we are in the middle of those meetings.

of due diligence. they are analysing the company and my plans to see if they are willing to invest. i don't want to talk of value, the lowest value. it's not about money, it's about a dream. the most important thing is to connect with people that the same values as mine. that has the same values as mine. this is the first thing. i don't know anything about selling sunglasses, but from what i understood, it's an asset purchase. yes. at a pretty decent price. who are these people? my wife and my son. how old is he? 18 months. do you have kids? no. no? i think it is really viable checking over the model i created here, so you can be aligned in terms of our assumptions and then we have a estimate of the numbers as they come into play. the variables that may affect the outcomes. the meeting lasts

more than two hours. of course, you never know. people are people, things can change, but after this meeting, i seem confident that we are going to have a deal and i am dealing with great people, nice people. very smart people that will be great partners. for now, rafael is doing everything on his own, taking his glasses from shop to shop in the hope of making sales. i love to sell, it's something i love to do. but it's not easy when you are in a different country and selling a brand that nobody knows yet. sorry, i'm a bit late. that's ok. and it takes time in a new country with new brands. i feel like these are the most popular... when you are new in the market, you need to know if you are selling at the right price point. if the products are great, if the consumers are liking the product, the package, the whole experience.

you need to have constantly this kind of feedback to get better. back in seoul, it's the night before hyerin‘s big product test. tomorrow's evaluation has been months in the planning. she has gone into the city for a drink with friends, a rare chance to unwind. there was a little problem from our factory to preparing the whole structure for installation for tomorrow's testing, so i keep having remote conversations with our team at the factory. her team tell her that conditions have changed and that has put the carefully planned test in jeopardy. six months of preparation, and her future plans are on the line. whenever something happened wrong, it is always easy to blame someone.

i was always the target. sometimes it is really hard to give them an answer right back because this is my first time to do all this stuff. in israel, it's a tense time formiriam. because of problems with a manufacturer, her games business is in limbo. right now, i'm in a situation where we're out of stock on amazon, we're completely sold out in the us and our manufacturer has disappeared. what that means is that they have disappeared completely off the face of the earth, e—mails have gone unanswered, phone calls, wechat, we sent private investigators, chinese police and other investigators that we hired through the chinese investigators, and we have no answers right now.

and no stock, and no games, and no idea what is going on. there are two things obviously in your mind all the time. one, that somebody stole your games and they're going to start selling to your distributors. any other fear is they have absconded with my money and are selling my games, then i have lost maybe half a million in sales. but i will not know that until they show up on the street and go to the manufacturer. in this scenario b, then i have to still bring them to the manufacturer. because i do not have any information, i can't decide. is also a need team. but it's stilljust me, i make this decision, right? i'm out $500,000 worth of sales. right now, i'm not selling anything in the us or amazon because i have no stock, so i am missing out on sales. but we don't know what the result is yet because i do not

know what the issue is. hey, vanessa, how are you? how are you? good. this battle, thisjourney, this experience is exhausting. it is all—encompassing. the worst—case scenario is i lose everything, plus i lose the money i have to start remanufacturing. it is hard to think about anything else, but at the same time, i know that if i sit and just worry and i don't move forward and do not make a decision, then only bad is going to happen. to keep his business alive, rafael is starting to look beyond miami. i can drive, put everything inside my car and drive from miami to la, stopping in every city trying to sell to make working capital and launch new styles and keep alive. i would need to talk to my wife and she would need to be comfortable to have her husband travelling from miami to la. she's supporting me, always. she says, "i truly believe

in you and i am very proud of you. we are a family. we are going to be with you no matter what." so this is what gives me power to believe and keep going forward. back in south korea, hyerin needs to prove to investors that her idea for expansion works. if this test proves successful, it could be a game—changerfor her business. but that is still a big if. hyerin and her team were up all night trying to salvage the test all night, trying to salvage the test after the unexpected change in conditions. but they couldn't agree on how move forward. we all had a big argument, but we all agreed that this testing is really important and we really

need to succeed. we all learned how to lose the game. everybody has their own opinion and last night, like, maybe i learned how to lose and how to... i don't know... ijust let them do what they want. after the changes, the test can go ahead. her generators will be lowered into the han river in seoul to see whether they work together and how much power they can generate. i'm looking at how two different types of insulation and structure works. so we are going to figure out how to build an initial guideline

through this testing. there. yay. it works very well. there. i feel really excited to take another step. imagine they will install 100 units a year and all generating power. harness energy from this river. the would be really amazing.

we can change the world, even. it is feeling fairly humid and some bright intervals but also a lot of cloud around and it is thick enough for outbreaks of rain and drizzle. now looking at the pressure charts, we have a next area of low pressure, moving in from the west. that will come in through tonight and tomorrow, bringing in more persistent rain and fairly breezy conditions. the bands, today the kingi better day of the two. a good deal of cloud around today —— on balance, today is the better looking. cloud is thicker in the west. that should produce one or two spots of rain and drizzle, fairly thick cloud for central and southern scotland, northern england and parts of northern ireland. a few spots of drizzle. breezy and windy in the

north—west with one or two showers possible. some brightness for eastern parts of scotland, temperatures in the high teens, low 20s, temperatures in the high teens, low 205, 24, 20 temperatures in the high teens, low 20s, 2a, 20 five celsius in sunny spells. it looks like it'll be a good deal of dry weather at the cricket —— 25 celsius. temperatures ata cricket —— 25 celsius. temperatures at a maximum of 23 celsius and it is feeling humid. overnight, we will see that rain pushing in from the west and going into northern ireland to making its way to central and southern scotland, part of northern england and wales, turning windy in the south west. some clear spells further north and northern parts of scotla nd further north and northern parts of scotland will allow temperatures to fall away. fairly humid in the far north of scotland, temperatures between 13 and 17 celsius. tomorrow the rain will head east, heavy and persistent through the morning, increasingly patchy in the afternoon. further north missing the bulk of cloud and rain, sunny spells and one or two showers, cloud over england and wales with some rain and

drizzle where the cloud is thick enough. temperatures cooler than today, maximum of 23. there is more cloud. monday, we have seen that area of low pressure coming towards the east and bad weather front grazing the north. monday, there will be a good deal of cloud, patchy outbreaks of rain and drizzle. always cloudy in the north and west and where it is thick enough, some rain. bright intervals at times and the best of those in central and eastern england. temperatures warm on monday, more in the way of sunshine and the south—east. 26 celsius. this is bbc news. the headlines at 2pm. former united nations secretary general and nobel peace prize winner kofi annan dies aged 80 in hospital in switzerland after a short illness. made here are some forecasting more

heavy rain in southern india. extensive flooding has already triggered landslides and killed nearly 200 people. indian prime minister narendra modi has met senior officials to help co—ordinate the relief effort after the area's worst monsoon rains in a century. ministers plan a new plastics tax for items such as takeaway boxes and coffee cups after the public backs tough action in record numbers. we want to see if there are smart, intelligent incentives we can create to encourage the producers of