hello, i'm ros atkins, this is outside source. an allegation of sexual abuse has thrown the confirmation hearing for president trump's nominee for the supreme court into turmoil. some republicans have nowjoined calls for a vote to be delayed. typhoon mangkhut is now the biggest storm the world has seen this year, it's caused devastation in the phillippines and across china. there's been a breakthrough in syria. russia and turkey have agreed to provide a buffer zone for people trapped in the last rebel stronghold there idlib, which is facing attack. and in australia, there have been multiple incidents of strawberries found containing sewing needles inside. the health minister's calling it a "vicious crime". a number of republicans are calling for a pause in the process of confirming brett kavanaugh

as a us supreme courtjustice. that's because at the weekend, christine blasey ford who's an academic in california made allegations about brett kavanaugh in the washington post. she says mr kavanaugh and a friend corralled her into a bedroom at a gathering in maryland in 1982 — when she was 15 and mr kavanaugh was 17 — and pinned her to the bed and groped her. she was able to eventually escape, but says "i thought he might inadvertently kill me" and "he was trying to attack me and remove my clothing". mr kavanaugh says: "i categorically and unequivocally deny this allegation. i did not do this back in high school or at any time." because this appointment is proposed by donald trump, it is highly political,

and some are questioning why this allegation has only emerged now, 35 years on? here's christine blasey ford's lawyer on that point, speaking on cbs this morning. like many trauma victims, especially young trauma victims, they try to put it away and try to go forward with their lives, and really try in their own heads to minimise it. unfortunately, this issue continued to come up and be extremely problematic, in her adult life, affecting her relationship with her husband, and that's the context in which this came up, which was in couples therapy. next this is white house adviser kellyanne conway on the idea of the process being paused. frankly, on behalf of the president, with whom i've spoken at length about this, so put aside all the nonsense that's on tv and in print from people who couldn't possibly be a source familiar with his thinking, she should not be ignored or insulted, she should be heard, but i talked to senator lyndsey graham and he said that could be done tomorrow, so we can proceed forward. in the last hour, mr trump himself has weighed in on the allegations —

let's have a listen. he is somebody very special. at the same time we want to go through a process, we want to make sure everything is perfect, everything is just right. i wish the democrats could have done this a lot sooner, because they had this information for many months, and they shouldn't have waited until literally the last days, they should have done it a lot sooner. but with all of that i have great confidence in the us senate, and in their procedures and what they're doing, and i think that's probably what they're going to do, they'll go through a process and hear everybody out. i think it's important, i believe they think it's important, but again, he is one of the great intellects and one of the finest people that anybody has known. our north america reporter anthony zurcher says as the allegation is well beyond the statute of limitations, this is a political rather than a legal move. it's going to be waged in the court of public opinion, no more importantly in the senate, because what really matters right now is what a small group of senate republicans think about this.

we've heard from some likejeff flake, who said they want to put the brakes on this and hear more from ms ford and her allegations, there are several other republican senators who are expressing similar sentiments. you have to remember it's a 51—49 republican majority in the senate, it would only take two of them to put the brakes on this whole thing, so it won't take too long before we find out what's going to happen. but do we know if the woman who's making the allegation is willing to speak to senators? she says she is. her lawyer came out and said she's willing to testify publicly on this, we don't know what form that's going to take however and that is going to be the big debate in the coming day, what the senate committee does with this. is it going to be an open hearing, where she comes forward and testifies publicly, in front of the cameras and perhaps have brett kavanaugh come in and give his side of the story? that doesn't seem to be what the republican leadership wants right now, they would prefer this to be a phone call, private consultation, some sort of investigation,

and then a report written up on it. that way they can move quickly along to get this senate confirmation committee vote, which was scheduled for thursday. typhoon mangkut has been as brutal as expected — it's now biggest storm the world's seen this year. it hit the philippines on saturday move then hong kong on sunday, before moving across china this morning. millions in guangdong have been told to leave. you can see why from these videos. this is guangdong, where four people died. streets are flooded. fishing boats sank. buildings are damaged. a big clean up is under way. this is hong kong, despite it not being directly hit. water surges reached almost 3.5 meters and low—lying areas were flooded. scaffolding was ripped off buildings.

skyscrapers swayed. neighbouring macau felt it too. for the first time, its casinos were forced to close. i enshunned the impact on people's offices. —— mentioned. you get an idea of the extent of the harm this storm brought. a journalist has been collating videos. if you look her up online. we have this from robin brant who is also in hong kong. here in hong kong where for a two hour period

yesterday in the middle of the day the winds were immensely strong, what we have now, is an operation to make what we have now, is an operation to ma ke safe what we have now, is an operation to make safe windows across plenty of high rise build, trees that have fallen in paths and a big clean up operation, this is actually what is supposed to be a kids' children's playground area, we are 30, a0 metres from the shoreline, that is the south china sea. it is not supposed to be covered in sand, rubble, benches that have been forced back to beyond where our camera is. iwas forced back to beyond where our camera is. i was over forced back to beyond where our camera is. i was over there earlier in that playground area, fortunately no children clearly there at the time. and i had foam boxes and plastic bottles round my feet. that is 30, a0 metres away from the shoreline. it tells you how far inland that surge came at its peak yesterday. what we have in hong kong, fortunately, is no reported death, 362 people were injured, yesterday, there is a lot of shattered glass round, a lot of debris in the streets but they are

having to deal with the fallen trees but people are back at work, the schools are closed as they try to make sure they are safe but it's a big clean up operation here, very different on the mainland of southern china, where i think they will be pleased that that large—scale evacuation moving some 2.5 million people away from the path of mangkhut appears to have averted a much more devastating typhoon when it comes to those areas of mainland china. two people have been reported to have lost their lives there, a very small number when you consider the amount of people that were in its path. we know at least 65 people in the philippines. many died in landslides on the island of luzon. 0fficials there are saying illegal mines were partly responsible. in the town of itogon 32 miners were killed. more are missing. you can see teams pulling away the rubble with their bare hands. they're not looking for survivors, they're looking for the bodies

of their loved ones. the international 0rganisation for migration says the miners were huddled with their families in a two—story shelter as the typhoon hit. this drone footage gives you a sense of how big this landslide was. the country's chamber of mines said miners had been told to leave — but that a mine had been operating illegally near the shelter where the men were taking refuge. the charity, world vision, visited the scene. we spoke to one of its staff earlier. it's so heartbreaking and there have been a lot of family members of this miners who i have talked to and one of them is a father of two, who just heard about the news yesterday, and so he rushed

to get to see his children, retrieved but until today there is no news about his sons being retrieved. similar scenes further north is a city called tuguegarao. it's home to ia0,000 people — some residents say it's all but been wiped out, though we can't confirm that. the city has been placed under a "state of calamity". here's drone picture showing the devastation. many have been left homeless now. you can see their houses are damaged. most of this area is without electricity. the countryside is flooded. rice paddies are devastated. it's a familiar scene.

this was the devastation brought by super typhoon haiyan in 2013. 7—thousand people died. preparation and evacuation procedures have improved since then. howard johnson shows us the scene in santiago. he is in santiago. we are standing in front of the provincial government headquarters, you can see someone government headquarters, you can see someone repairing the roof. this grand old american colonial era building took a battering when the storm went past, you can see the roof and trees shredded behind me, this region was one of the worsting affected but a few provinces along we have heard of a merging story of a mining community devastated by a landslide. what happened in the area was the miners and their families went to a bunk house that was converted to a chapel. this three

storey building was then inundated bya storey building was then inundated by a landslide, following heavy winds and rain. today search and rescue teams are scouring the area for the missing people. we have heard that dozens are already dead. the president, the philippine president is travelling to the region to meet those haves affected by the —— families affected by the storm. he will offer condolences to them when he meets them today. next, hurricane florence. the us weather service is calling it a "storm of a lifetime'”. we know at least 17 people have been killed in north and south carolinas, and that the coastal city of wilmington has been cut off. we do have pictures from there. already around a00 people have had to be rescued from the flood waters. most of wilmington is without electricity and a curfew's in place. the authorities say flash floods could continue for another two

days before any respite. the message is clear. "do not come here". you can see why. here are more pictures of north carolina. everything is submerged. and this water will take days to clear. this washington post article calls wilmington an "island state". nell barber lives there. she managed to get back to her house before the city was cut off. she described the scene when she arrived. this room was terrible because we we re this room was terrible because we were driving through torrential rain and the road wes kind of flooding as we passed. all the roads are closed so we were some of the last people

to get through. when we got back we drove into town and everything was kind of like... and there is a lot, increasingly all the parking lots have been flooded, the roads have flooded, buildings have collapsed, gas station, awnings are torn down. almost no power, although there is more now. why did you decide to go back? some viewers are probably thinking it would have been easier to stay away for a few more days? well the problem was i figured they we re well the problem was i figured they were going to get the power bark up before the roads would be safe to travel, so i thought it was kind of like a window i could get back and be at home with power, and just wait for everything to return to normal instead of being stuck in charlotte four hours away for maybe a week. i don't know how long it will be before the roads are open again.|j saw the washington post call where you are an island. are you able to get enough food, enough clean drinking water and so on? yes, most

of the grocery stores are re—opening and they are all fully stocked. there was a bit of a, there was concern about not having enough fuel to supply water, like plumbing and water, but i think that they resolved that. the only problem is people getting in, to bring like, like people coming to the fix the electric. nobody else can come in. and i guess if the roads don't, like, if they don't fix the roads, then like, i guess we could be in a hairy situation, especially with gas. how wet it is around where you are? it is fairly wet. wet. when -- we we re are? it is fairly wet. wet. when -- we were just able to drive into the complex, my apartment complex but we drove through eight or nine incheses of water to get into the complex. the parking lots are mostly flooded, but now it is kind of, i it is not raining any more, so flooding is

subsiding. you have decided to go back, have most stayed away or are there a few people with you? most people who, almost everybody who evacuated is still gone. we are among almost nobody i know who came back but there is is a lot of people who stayed, so there are a lot of people around, but nobody else really i know has come back so early. what is the atmosphere like? tense. especially at the grocery store, and there is maybe a five gas stations, open, and people are using the gas for the generators so people are running out of gas and so they have like police at all of the grocery stores and the gas stations so people can get ugly when they are trying to get their gas. but mostly everyone's happy, they have been opening bars and... but presumably normal life is a long way away in terms of erne going back to work and so on? yes,y, i go to the university

here and it won't be open for another two weeks. best wishes to nell and everyone in stay with us on 0utside source. still to come. the australian government is investigating after sewing needles were found hidden in punnets of strawberries in six states and territories across the country. the mp tobias ellwood has told the inquests into the victims of the westminster bridge attack how he fought to save the life of pc keith palmer. jenny kumar reports. in the a5 minutes before the attack, there had been no armed officers at carriage gates at the entrance to new palace yard. at the time when khalid masood crashed his car, they, the two armed officers were positioned in the corner of new

palace yard. in the colonnade area where there is a series of arches, they remained there when the attacks happened and the footage shows the two officers is moved towards an area where khalid masood and pc palmer had collapsed actual three shots had rang out. they arrived at the scene at around ia.a2. 0ne shots had rang out. they arrived at the scene at around ia.a2. one of those officers on duty, pc ashby has been giving evidence this afternoon and he is expected to continue doing so tomorrow morning. this is 0utside source live from the bbc newsroom. 0ur lead story. an allegation of sexual abuse has thrown the confirmation hearing for president trump's nominee for the supreme court into turmoil. some republicans have nowjoined calls for a vote to be delayed. we're expecting president trump to announce tariffs on $200 billion worth of chinese goods.

it's part of his escalating trade row with beijing. let us speak to kim gittleson in new york. i i feel like let us speak to kim gittleson in new york. i ifeel like i have said that few times over. there is no sign of this slowing down. no, and let me bring you back up to speed with what we are talking about. because the trump administration has proposed quite a number of tariffs but a lot haven't gone into effect so so far there have only be tariffs of 25% imposed on $50 billion worth of chinese imports to the united states so what we are looking for now is an announcement that is expected to be made any moment now, the finalist of imports from china into the united states that will be subject to 10% tariff, we expect the total value of that number of goods to be something like $200 billion which would bring the total amount to $250 billion, and just to put that number in

contesting, that is about half of what china sent to the us last year. and kim, i am what china sent to the us last year. and kim, iam getting what china sent to the us last year. and kim, i am getting confused because at the end of last week we heard the chinese and the americans we re heard the chinese and the americans were supposed to be sitting down to thrash this all out? . yes, we did. as ever with this escalating trade tension it is hard to figure out where things stand between the us and china and even whether they stand within members of mr trump's white house. but in this instance we did see that there were sort of gestures that talks renewing talks between washington and china, that was kind of called into question, because president trump said the us wasn't willing to back down when it comes to rectifying what he says is an unfairtrade relationship with china, so it is unclear where the talks stand at the moment now. the imposition of this list, it has been something we have expecting for some time now, so it won't catch the chinese authorities off guard but it

will make the negotiating harder. time magazine is changing hands again, at the start of the year you might remember it was sold to a us media group, now it is being bought by the co—founder of sales force.com for $1790 million. what was it that meant that meredith didn't want to hold on to it? you know it has been a kind of awkward member of the meredith family, meredith is best known for lifestyle magazines like best moments and gardens time is a news magazine. when they bought the magazine brands under it it said it was planning on selling time. time and others that don't fit with its portfolio of brands. we haven't seen whether the other three titles have any buyers but this one has been in the works for some time and it gives

timea the works for some time and it gives time a lifeline, to figure out whether it can exist in that digital age in declining print sales. thank you very much. horrible story from australia — there are multiple reports of strawberries containing sewing needles. the health minister's calling it a "vicious crime" and it's taking a terrible toll on farmers. first, this is the police. the investigation is still open, we are not going to get into speculation, we are keeping a very open this man is one of the victims. i bit into it, felt it break, my knee jerk reaction was to swallow and what was left over was half of a sewing needle. it's a shock, so you go to get some strawberries, last thing you expect is to end up in hospital. the strawberry industry is already taking a hit. supermarkets have recalled strawberries altogether — others are discounting them. in western australia growers have started dumping stock because prices are now below the cost of production. plus two of new zealand's largest food distributors have stopped importing australian strawberries.

farmers are appealing for consumers to stick with them. it is going to do damage to the commodity. hopefully consumers will see it was a criminal act. for those who are buying them — queensland's health authority is advising people to cut their strawberries before consuming them. well, earlier i was joined by the bbc‘s katie silver. we know it is across all of australia's states. six different ones and within each one there has been between one and three different towns affected so it looks like maybe about eight to ten but the police haven't said how many people

have been affected by this. who is leading the investigation? there is two investigations going on, we have the police investigation, it has been going for a little while and today, as you said, as you mentioned there was this decision to have the food standards of australia to investigate it, to see how this occurred. what i can tell you about the police investigation is they have about 100 different people they are planning to interview, workers who have worked on these farms and what they are trying to do is find which workers have worked at one farm and another to investigate them more thoroughly. it is possible to track a pen nit of strawberries from when somebody buys it to where it came from. that is part of the investigation. to look at how exactly what level of tracking that can be done and whether there needs to be some change that occurs within, within the industry itself. and in terms of why someone or some people might do something like this, are the police saying anything? there was reports that it was

perhaps a disgruntled employee, that may have been the trigger, there is talk about whether or not there is perhaps copy cat instances because of the widespread but it is really u nclea rly of the widespread but it is really unclearly and we saw for instance the attack on a banana as well, something similar was found in a banana, as yet, no motive is known. for the farmer, however this investigation is resolved, for this year at least the damage is already done. devastating damage for them. so now at the moment the price of strawberries is down to 33 australian cents a punnet. they need it to be $2 to break even. we have seen it to be $2 to break even. we have seenin it to be $2 to break even. we have seen in queensland where the incidents began, we have seen them have to destroy 90% of their crop so only 10% has been able to be sold and 90% went in the bin. see you in a couple of minutes type. —— time. it that time of day we look

at interesting weather happening round the world and it is a very active spell in terms of typhoons, tropical storms and hurricanes. hurricane florence made landfall in the carolinas bringing record—breaking amounts of rainfall. it is no longer a hurricane, it's a tropical depresentation but it will still bring heavy rain, and it will push up to new york, new england, it will bring further heavy rain so still the chance of flash flooding. elsewhere, temperatures on the warm side orfor elsewhere, temperatures on the warm side or for many central state, some areas 10 degrees higher, fairly cool and cloudy in parts of canada. here is the outlook for the next five days or so for some of our featured cities. sunny spells for los angeles, heavy showers in montreal later in the week. across africa there has been heavy rain and flooding in the west, across parts

of nigeria, towards senegal as well. still some heavy showers here but they won't be as heavy or frequent round the gulf of guinea. southern africa pretty a warm for the time of year, here is the outlook for some of the major cities, plenty of sunshine on offer for most area, of the major cities, plenty of sunshine on offerfor most area, in fa ct sunshine on offerfor most area, in fact as we look through the next five days or so. now, typhoon mangkhut made landfall, the remnant of the system are still bringing heavy rain, further north it's a dry spell. some heavy rain up to beijing, shanghai and as we move further south there are the remnants of that old typhoon. it is going to be affecting the weather, bringing heavy showers to vet. that, thailand and indonesia. the outlook in tokyo mostly dry but we will see some rain, it could be heavy. hong kong, things are looking quieter and less windy with a return to sunny sky,

europe, and we have remnants of an ex—hurricane helene, that is bringing a windy spell of weather, the uk and up towards scandinavia too. it is drawing in this warm tropical air, too. it is drawing in this warm tropicalair, particularly for too. it is drawing in this warm tropical air, particularly for parts of northern france, into germany, we are set to see temperatures well above average so up are set to see temperatures well above average so up to 32 degrees in frankfurt. there are showers in the alps down into italy and central and western parts of the mediterranean too. here is the outlook then, in the uk, for our capital city, a bit mixed over the next few days, we expect some showery rain and it is going to be particularly windy, especially in the north and west on wednesday, so an unsettled week, with strong winds, rain at times but it will be pretty warm. more weather for the week ahead right here in about half an hour. bye. hello, i'm ros atkins, this is 0utside source. an allegation of sexual abuse has

thrown the confirmation hearing for president trump's nominee for the supreme court into turmoil. some republicans have nowjoined calls for a vote to be delayed. typhoon mangkhut is now the biggest storm the world has seen this year, it's caused devastation in the philippines and across china. it's six months to go until brexit. theresa may is warning her opponents that there's no alternative to her plan for leaving the eu. i believe we will get a good deal, we will bring that back from the eu negotiations. the alternative to that would be not having a deal. and we'll be looking at cuba, where the new president wants to do something that would have been unthinkable under the castros, allowing same—sex couples to marry. and we'll be looking at cuba, where the new president wants to do cuba's new president

is backing same—sex marriage. miguel diaz canel confirmed this on the international tv network telesur. translation: the approach of recognising marriage between to make people without limitations will help eliminate all types of discrimination in society. this would have been unthinkable during fidel castro's rule. homosexuals were persecuted for decades after the revolution in 1959. now the cuban constitution is being updated in various ways and the new president wants same sex marriage rights enshrined in it. this is in part thanks to this woman, mariela castro. she's the former president ra l castro's daughter and has been a champion of gay rights. bbc mundo's liliet heredero is in miami. first of all, is this definitely

going to happen, if the president wa nts going to happen, if the president wants it to? i think it will. i mean, this didn't come as a surprise. cuba is in the process of changing the trinkets—mac its constitution. it is now in a process of popular discussions throughout the island and it will be voted on a referendum next year but it is pretty clearly i would say pretty definitely likely to happen, if voted in this referendum. using the text of this constitution that is being discussed and we know the concept of how it sees marriage will change. it previously said a marriage would be union between a man and woman and now it'll say it is between two persons. it is very interesting, the wording is that miguel diaz canel used in this interview, his first tv interview since taking power for mike interview, his first tv interview since taking powerfor mike months ago. i want to read to you exactly how he referred to it because i

think it is telling. "the country had been changing and we were not unaware of these changes. many taboos had been broking and the younger generation was seeing it that way." so, he nudged to the younger generation and how cute dig—mac kuebler is changing. he was challenged by the reporter, he was asked personally do you agree with same—sex marriage. this is something cuban media would never be allowed to do so he had to respond and he said exactly and i'll read it you, "yes, i do agree." he then left some room for differences of opinion which i thought was interesting. he said it is a controversial topic, there is the topic of family tradition and adoption but they shouldn't be no discrimination. i thought it was interesting he used those terms to describe the issue. should we see this as a broader willingness of the president to move away from what fidel castro stood

for in cuba? well, i'm not sure. this has been a process. it has been coming for the last two decades, as you mentioned. i definitely do think it is the work of mariela castro, raul castro's daughter, who is a psychologist, the head of the centre for health education, and she has been pushing very, very hard for this, for advancing lgbt rights in cuba so it has been years in the making andi cuba so it has been years in the making and i must remind our viewers that, actually, in 2010, surprisingly, fidel castro gave an interview to a mexican newspaper, and he said that a great injustice had been taking place in cuba against the gay community. and if there was someone against the gay community. and if there was someone to blame, it was himself. so, in 2010, he acknowledged this. he didn't apologise, as many people would have liked to see, but he acknowledged it was time to make it right. thank you

very much indeed. we are lucky we can lean on all our colleagues from bbc world service. so, now to this story on bbc turkish. russia and turkey have agreed to create a demilitarised buffer zone in idlib in syria. the idea is to separate government forces from rebels. this animation helps us understand what is happening. idlib province, and adjoining areas of hama and aleppo, are home to an estimated 2.9 million people. the province is the syrian opposition's last major stronghold. we've talked about a lot on outside source because it is the last rebel stronghold in syria, and it is almost completely surrounded by government forces. the un had warned of a humanitarian catastrophe if the syrian army launches an all—out assault to retake idlib. today's deal may at least delay that attack. sarah rainsford has more from moscow. the talks in sochi overran by

several hours would suggest there was an awful lot of negotiating that was an awful lot of negotiating that was needed. the two presidents urged to announce a deal on idlib and how to announce a deal on idlib and how to move forward and what they came up to move forward and what they came up with was this idea of a demilitarised zone which is to stretch in some parts to up to 20 kilometres wide around idlib, and it will be a buffer zone essentially between rebel troops and syrian government forces. from that zone all read cool forces, as they've described it, would need to withdraw and also all heavy weaponry should be withdrawn. once that happens, russian and turkish troops will patrol the zone to ensure the demille tries to serve and is maintained. the important, and then came from russia's defence minister who said that this means there will be no imminent military operation by syrian government forces in idlib. cagil kasapoglu, bbc turkish.

help me understand the motivation president erred again to make a deal like this. well, turkey, in the short run, seems it got what it was aiming for which is holding a possible assault to idlib. and turkey, as the united nations, was warning that would cause a humanitarian crisis but what makes this deal is significant is that now we have a date, 15th of october, and, by then, all the heavenly heavy r and, by then, all the heavenly heavy weaponry is going to be withdrawn. this could be like that deadline in idlib province to sort it out. turkey has called for a ceasefire when they met less than two weeks ago and is worth mentioning it is the second time putin and erdogan are meeting so we see that the intention there is strong to find a solution. but this deal is not yet a

solution. but this deal is not yet a solution. it is just delaying a possible offensive and turkey now, it buys it time to negotiate with the local forces and also find perhaps an alternate permanent solution. turkey might be concerned about the humanitarian solution but it is always concerned about kurdish fighters as well so where do the kurds fit in to turkey's lands for this part of syria? in the meeting, president erdogan stressed that was turkey considers terrorist organisation is not limited in idlib but in northern syria there are kurdish militant groups also which turkey sees as affiliated to the pkk, the turkish militant group in turkey. some might say this is not directly linked to idlib. but it is a strong dimensional of this

conflict and recently we had from the spokesperson of the kurdish militant trip ypg they would not get involved in a possible attack in idlib. they said they made it fear they would not take sides. so it was significant. but now idlib is a hub for many rebels, some turkish, some backed by turkey, some not. so, it is significant for the fate of the syrian war. thank you very much indeed. those of you watching, if you speak turkish, you can get news on bbc .com. you'll find coverage of the situation in syria and lots of background on this conflict going on for a number of years now plus coverage of all the main stories we are covering today. those of you watching on the bbc news channel, don't go away anywhere. let me show you one of the websites

we turn to unlock, the brexit countdown clock. six months to go. a number of parts of this story i want to update you on. first, bbc panorama has been inside number ten as theresa may guides the brexit negotiations. we got to see this. that's the prime minister waiting to be put through to the president of the european commission. there is a bit of music, then a little silence and, then... hello, jean—claude. hello. it seems rather menacing somehow. the idea is to put the pressure on the contestant. theresa may watched a game show with her philip. perhaps not too much time to watch the telly. well, mrs may has set out her chequers plan as her best option for a deal with the eu. plenty in her party don't like it and want the uk to take a different approach. they'd prefer the uk to take a

different approach as you'll hear in this clip with nick robinson. the prominence to its pretty clear on this saying there are only two option 5 chequers or no—deal. i think we will get a good deal from the european negotiations. the alternative would be no deal because i don't think there will be negotiations on that deal and we are leaving on the 29th of march 2019. plenty of reaction to that. here's the former deputy prime minister nick clegg. he's a liberal democracy and he wants a second second referendum on brexit. i think it is a deep disservice to our democratic democracy for promised to say it is my fudge or the abyss. that's not true, we have more choices if we are prepared to ta ke more choices if we are prepared to take them. theresa may is getting it from both sides. from remainers, like nick clegg, and from her own conservative colleagues.

just in case we hadn't got the message the first few times, the former foreign secretary's, borisjohnson, displeasure with the prime minister got another outing in the daily telegraph. he's warning of a "car crash" brexit. and he comparing the prime minister's plan to victory by william the conqueror saying if chequers were adopted it would mean that "for the first time since 1066 our leaders were deliberately acquiescing in foreign rule." plenty of discussion about whether harold ii acquiesced when he died in the battle of hastings, but i digress. better news for the prime minister in the times, "boost for theresa may as eu backs irish border plan." this a reference to the proposal that lorries carrying goods will be able to travel freely between northern ireland and the republic of ireland with technology replacing customs checks to avoid a hard border. thus avoiding a hard border which so

many people are concerned about. alex forsyth is in westminster. i'm always a bit sceptical about these reports because both sides are placing stories in the media to influence the negotiations, or how they are going. at this stage all we know for sure is that you and the uk are talking about the issue of the irish border because it has proved to be one of the hardest to resolve. it does appear that you have softened their tone. michel barnier struck a note of optimism about trying to work through some of these issues and reach a deal with the united kingdom but that doesn't mean they will budge on the fundamental principles they've is duck to in this negotiation, they're not prepared to make huge concessions or compromises. what they are seeing is theresa may has got such a lot of political difficulties on her own doorstep in the uk, they are trying

to back off and give her some breathing space because we are going into the party conference season when the conservatives will gather, and that's going to be crucial for theresa may to try to keep them on side, to try to sell this brexit plan, the chequers proposal which has faced criticism from all sides of her party. the eu are trying to allow her to keep our party onside as much as she can which isn't going to be easy itself. please stay with us. stay there, alex, someone else entered the fray today, the head of the international monetary fund, christine lagarde. she's visiting the uk here's her assessment of a "no—deal" brexit. it would inevitably have a series of consequences, in terms of reduced growth, going forward. increased deficit, most likely. depreciation of the currency. and it would... in

reasonably short order mean a reduction of the size of the uk economy. in the past, those who are promoting brexit would put christine lagarde in the broader camp of project fear, people who don't want to happen and, so, threatened the poseable outcomes are terrible. people point to the fact the imf made predictions what would happen if we voted for brexit all those yea rs if we voted for brexit all those years ago now, it feels, and they point to the fact the imf was not right in terms of its predictions then so they say you've got to be sceptical about what the imf is saying now but the chancellor philip hammond striking quite a different note, saying we must pay heed to the warnings of the imf today about the prospect of no deal. theresa may has office trying to frame this at the moment as a choice between her chequers plan and no deal at all. such dire warnings of economic impact of no deal may serve on that front but it won't help a

negotiating strategy with brussels because she has always said she is prepared to walk away if came to it. that will be chewed over and picked over to work out how it fits in this difficult political scene that collates around brexit right now. we saw that clip in panorama of the primers to being put through to the phone to jean—claude juncker. how frequently is the prime minister directly negotiating with the people at the top of the eu? is it going on every day and we are not seeing it? it is definitely being led by the brexit secretary, who has wanted to ta ke brexit secretary, who has wanted to take a more hands—on approach than his predecessor but also ollie robbins, who works alongside the prime minister. he is involved in direct negotiations on a more frequent basis. we know there are conversations that take place between the prime minister and jean—claude juncker and other european leaders. they would get together later this week when they

will discuss about where this all goes, will discuss about where this all o will discuss about where this all goes, on the sidelines. thank you, alex. so we've heard from the prime minister, we've talked about the irish border, there's plenty more to be sorted. here's chris morris from bbc reality check. according to a new report, time is running short to implement a successful brexit. when it comes to no deal plans, ministers say they are far advanced, but the institute for government, an independent think—tank says the government has left its no deal preparations to help many businesses. they have used a traffic light system to assess progress. only one policy area, eu programmes and funds is green. nine others are given a red light, suggesting the government won't be able to avoid major negative impacts of no deal next year. even if a deal is reached, which is what the government want, implementing brexit in the 21 month transition period, which would, among other things, mean agreeing

and ratifying a future trade deal, looks completely unfeasible. for example, the ifg says more than 1a0,000 businesses will need to be ready for changes at uk borders and new customs systems won't be ready, despite the government hiring 9,000 extra staff and spending £2 billion on brexit preparations by march 2019. there's been lots of talk about whether people have changed their mind since the referendum. the polling suggests there has not been much movement. every week, yougov asks do you think britain was right or wrong to vote to leave the eu? green is wrong to leave. blue is right to leave. green is slightly ahead, but still close. no great swing that some predicted would happen. one place that voted strongly to leave was burnley in the north of england.

home town to the bbc‘s christian fraser. he's gone back. it's one of the oldest stadiums in england. and the smallest town ever to field a premier league team. this burnley squad loves to upset the established order, with players that seem to reflect the same stubborn character as the men and women who follow them around the country. on you get. this time, it's a trip to wolverhampton wanderers. another chance to defy the odds. and as with football, so it is with brexit. if we don't leave now, it will raise its head again. our children will have this in the years to come. we've spoken, that's the end of it. now get on with it and make the best of it. i agree that we voted to leave and that's what we'll have to do. we can'tjust keep changing our mind like people want to do, but i do have worries what's going to happen, but as i say, it's just the fear of the unknown.

so does that uncertainty lead some here to reconsider? those who voted for brexit, keep your hands up if you still think it's a good idea. so you've not changed your minds at all? no. no german's telling me what to do any how. laughter. well, this's what i think is a good view, that. i spoke to christian earlier and asked him whether what's being said in westminster and brussels translates to the people there in burnley and what they think about brexit. well, i'd say two things about that, yes, it does, because i spoke to people yesterday, who were talking about the comments from the governor of the bank of england, mark carney, that house prices might collapse in the very worst case, by 35%, so that news does filter through. but in answer to you, do they reflect the debate in the westminster bubble? no, they don't. i see far more unity here among remainers and brexiteers than you see back in london, and overwhelmingly the people

that we spoke to yesterday, the remainers we spoke to, who are anxious, they say "get on with it". it is no point going backwards, crying over spilt milk. let's just get on with it and come together again as a country. and that is quite refreshing when you spend your days in westminster talking about brexit. there's really two things, i think, when you consider burnley, that you need to talk about when you deal with brexit. one is the persistent poverty in the centre of town. there are concerns of course that if there is a downturn in the british economy it is those people who have nothing the lose who are always hardest hit, and without the structural funds that come from europe and the support from the government, there will be concerns they will be left out in the cold if it goes wrong. but on the flip side of that, as you will see from my report, there is a really thriving economy here in burnley — 20,30, a0 companies have arrived here in the last year. they deal with markets all round the world. some of them deal under world trade organisation rules already, and they are very bullish about brexit. the only thing they want is some

certainty, they want to know what the deal will be and then they can get on with it and adapt. we will have much more brexit coverage throughout the week. a bbc investigation has found that women in the uk are using a blood test to find out the sex of their child and that some of those women are using responding to the information by having sex—selective abortions. this has led to calls for a blanket ban on revealing the sex of the baby this early in a pregnancy given the pressures on women in some communities to give birth to boys. amber haque has the story. in the uk, if you are pregnant, you can usually find out the gender of your baby at an nhs scan around 18 weeks. but for women in some communities, news of a girl can mean an end to their pregnancy. sara, that's not her real name, is south asian and lives in london. when i went for the scan and i asked if i could find out the gender of the baby, they said, "you are having a girl."

as soon as i found out, i had a panic attack. i panicked. i had straightaway made that decision that i didn't want to have this baby. sara decided to have an abortion at 18 weeks because of the cultural pressure for her to have a boy. and a blood test available privately, called nipt, allows women to find out the gender at just eight weeks. the bbc has found evidence that thousands of british women are using a website to discuss using nipt testing purely to find out the gender. and then some are even saying that they're going to have a sex—selective abortion as a result of that information. one example we have here on the website from a british pregnant woman. she says, "i need a son to heal me. "my only option is nipt, followed by continuation "only if it's a boy." we showed our findings

to the labour party, who are now saying early gender testing should be banned. for any clinic to be marketing in terms of gender determination i think is absolutely deplorable. communities in south asia have made huge strides in tackling this social evil. and that has primarily been through legislation, banning gender determination clinics, and i think that in the uk we need to be doing likewise with regards to the private sector as well. the department of health says that nipt testing isn't meant to be used for gender and that they will continue to monitor the evidence. i think not only do the government not understand there is an issue around sex—selective abortion but also organisations, charities and statutory sectors aren't asking the questions. this is gendercide, this is sex—selection abortion. it is going on in india, it is going on in china and, yes, it is going on here. and there are many girls

missing as a result. amber haque, bbc news. i'll see you tomorrow. bye—bye. we're looking at quite a turbulent, blustery spell of weather coming up over the next few days and it is partly down to this, about a week ago we had a hurricane. it was spinning off the coast of the cape verde islands, off the west coast of africa, quite a powerful hurricane as well with sustained winds of 105 miles an hour. why am i telling you about it? it has been tracking northwards, weekend, turned into a normal area of low pressure and here it is, bringing fairly brisk winds across england and wales through tuesday. the strongest winds wilber outbreaks of rain across england and wales with sunshine following becoming warm although blustery. this goes of wind, 50—60 mile an

hour, strong enough to bring down some tree branches. further north, tea rain moves out of the way in scotla nd tea rain moves out of the way in scotland and although it brightens up scotland and although it brightens up in northern ireland, the rain returns in the afternoon. further wet and windy weather for wednesday thanks to this area of low pressure, this time living in of the atlantic at this time targeting the strongest winds across more northern areas so northern ireland, scotland, northern england and the north of wales it is going to be a blowy day on wednesday. the gusts could reach 70 miles an hour in the most exposed locations on the western side of scotland. further south, not locations on the western side of scotland. furthersouth, not much locations on the western side of scotland. further south, not much in the way of rain reaching the south—east of england. pretty warm with temperatures up to 2a celsius here. thursday's for cars, the official forecast at the moment has this band of rain, slow—moving, affecting england and wales so it is going to be a wednesday for some, however i must stress there are a

number of computer models that actually develop a much deeper area of low pressure and that would bring much, much stronger winds than these across the uk, particularly for central areas but as well as that, rain kerning in back to scotland and northern ireland. thursday is going to be unsettled but the details about where the rain is going to be and about where the rain is going to be a nd exa ctly about where the rain is going to be and exactly how strong the winds are going to be are still open to doubt. by going to be are still open to doubt. by the time we get a friday morning, there is a question about whether there is a question about whether the rain is there or thereabouts across the south—east but it will move out of the way eventually followed by some sunshine and showers across north—western areas which might merge to give lengthy spells of rain across this part of the world. otherwise, a dry and sunny date for many of us. cooler across the east, highs of 17 in london. the weekend, a modest build—up of pressure across the country so the weather should become largely dry and fine for many of us although there will be some showers

for western scotland are made in the day we might see the cloud the can across the south—east to threaten a little bit of late day rain. otherwise after equal start to the day, temperatures recovering to 1a-17. day, temperatures recovering to 1a—17. sunday and monday, probably going to be wet and windy again but then the general trend into next week is that there may be some rain in the north—west which will mean we will see bands of rain pushing in to the north—west where it will be windy at times but the tenth further south means it'll become try from tuesday onwards with some spells of sunshine. that is your weather. it'll be her deal or no deal at all. the prime minister says it's the government's duty to make a success of brexit, even if there's no formal deal at the end of negotiations. we'll get a good deal. we'll bring that back from the european...

from the eu negotiations and put that to parliament. i think that the alternative to that will be not having a deal. but mrs may's critics have again piled in to her plan, agreed at chequers, saying it's not the outcome people voted for. you're not really fulfilling the mandate of the people and you're not really coming out of the eu and that would be a real, real shame and i think a bit of a political disaster. and the latest warnings were not limited to the prime minister's opponents.