you're watching beyond 100 days. a crucial 48 hours in austria. eu and uk leaders are meeting in salzburg to try to hash out a brexit deal right now. as he headed into the talks, the austrian chancellor warned that everything should be done to avoid a hard brexit. will christine ford testify before the senate over allegations that brett kavanaugh sexually assaulted her? will republicans vote to confirm him anyway? we just don't know, but mr trump is sticking by his supreme court nominee. as you know brett kavanaugh has been treated very, very tough and his family... ithink treated very, very tough and his family... i think it's a very tough thing which is going on. also on the programme... an upbeat ending to the north korean summit, as kimjung—un agrees to shut a main missile launch site. and why champagne is leaving both sides flat in the brexit negotiations. hello and welcome.

i'm katty kay in washington. and christian fraser is in salzburg, where tonight theresa may will have just 10 minutes to sell her brexit proposal to her european colleagues. as if that time pressure weren't enough to bring on indigestion, she also wants to persuade them not to make unacceptable demands on the issue of northern ireland. the president of the european council gave her a cautious welcome earlier, saying there was more hope, but less and less time. donald tusk confirmed there will be a special summit of eu leaders to discuss brexit in mid—november. the austrian chancellor, sebastian kurz, who is hosting the summit, says a hard brexit must be avoided and both sides needed to compromise. we want to do everything possible to avoid a hard brexit, we stand ready to compromise, but we also expect that from the uk. and so i hope that in her speech today, we will hear a step forward. this evening, tomorrow morning,

there will be the chance for the eu 27 to discuss what she said this evening. speaking in the last few minutes, theresa may said that while she welcomed michel barnier‘s stressing the need to find a new solution for northern ireland, she would not allow hard border checks. what we cannot accept is seeing northern ireland carved away from the united kingdom customs territory and, because regardless of where the checks would be, what that would mean would be that it would be a challenge to our constitutional and economic integrity. let's get more on this now with david herszenhorn, the brussels correspondent with politico. looking at the reality of what's going on here, it seems to me that we're hearing lots of positive noises from michel barnier, but he does not seem to have moved from his red lines, that northern ireland

must be in the customs zone, and theresa may doesn't appear to have moved from her red line, so who has missed cut in it if? they're both actually calculating exactly right, neither of them can movejust actually calculating exactly right, neither of them can move just yet. this may be the city of mozart but they are not ready to face the music, that will have to wait until next month. have a deal in sight but they need to continue doing this dance. it matters more —— what matters more the theresa may is the political relationship, the future declaration, which actually does not get negotiated until later. so if they hold on tight, they may be on track for a deal. 50 today, michel track for a deal. so today, michel barnier has set, maybe we can take some heat out of the northern ireland issue, in the worst—case scenario we could implement some technical checks and controls between britain and northern ireland. but a few months ago they we re ireland. but a few months ago they were saying these tech good solutions were just magical thinking but now he seems to have moved on to the ground of the brexiteers? well,

if he likes magical thinking he will somehow magically convince the uk to accept the eu's version of this backstop, which effectively keeps northern ireland under eu rules and in the customs union but he was describing it in a way which hopefully goes down with a lot of sugar and feels a lot more like nothing dramatic is happening. so if he can use those technical words to convince everyone, this is not a big deal, and anyway, everybody hopes the backstop will never be used, then maybe they can get through this stage and get to the withdrawal treaty and get to the stage which the uk really wants to be at, which is talking about the future. when the uk says we can't possibly have these controls within our own borders so why don't we use those solutions between northern ireland and the republic? because you have got mark carney warning of economic dust of the if there is no deal, you got the republic of ireland with its own concerns about what would happen if there was no backstop. so when

you think about it, mr kurz is right, both sides want a deal and what they are working towards is finding various ways to keep the critics quiet until they can get to that moment in october or november and slam it altogether. what we are looking to get over the line is the withdrawal agreement and what goes hand—in—hand with that is a political declaration. months ago theresa may was saying we need to know exactly what we're getting because the other side will have no leverage at all and yet now, all sides seem to be saying, that needs to be as vague as possible to keep the british parliament onside antigen seems they are saying they wa nt antigen seems they are saying they want it afraid in the areas where there is less agreement and where they know future negotiation will have to be done. but they will get very specific on some areas where they see eye to eye, especially on security and defence. so they are hoping the combination of some really good specifics on important stuff combined with some artful

vagaries on areas which are of more contention and will be the subject of serious negotiation even after the uk becomes the third country, but is where they hope is the sweet spotin but is where they hope is the sweet spot in this negotiation. they want a withdrawal treaty which gets the uk a withdrawal treaty which gets the u k safely a withdrawal treaty which gets the uk safely out, and that is the first real goal they all have, safely across to the other side and then they can begin the hard work for the future relationship. what a complicated dance it is. this is the home of the sound of music, after all! i should just explain where we are, we are in the gardenjust in front of the university, where tomorrow they're going to be holding the bulk of the talks, they're going to be talking about security tomorrow but also of course that issue of brexit and how far they wa nt to issue of brexit and how far they want to go but they will be doing it without theresa may in the room.- the dinner tonight she's only going to have ten minutes to make her case, and i guess that is an indication of the fact that brexit is not the only thing that these european leaders have on their minds at the moment. in britain this week

we are talking about brexit but it is not the only thing that european leaders are dealing with? you're absolutely right. we obsess about brexit in the uk and it is vitally important to us, as it is to them as well, they really, really want a deal when it comes to november. but the thing which poses the biggest existential threat to the european union is migration. look at the problems they have at the moment with hungary and the stand—off between italy and france over where migrants go and all the populism thatis migrants go and all the populism that is rising in europe and is unsettling the european union, that is where the problem is. you will have a lot of migration torquay and in october and november as well and probably the summit after that as well, it is crucially important that the eu finds the right solutions to its biggest problem. and crucially important that she gets over her point in ten minutes racing sinking tonight as well! generally we can make an informed call on how a political

story will pan out here. in the case of mr trump's nominee for the supreme court, we have no idea what the next act of this drama will be. the stakes are enormously high. if confirmed, brett kavanaugh will be on the court for life and will wield enormous power. right now, his confirmation is in chaos. the woman who has accused him of sexual assault wants an fbi investigation before she will testify before the senate. republicans say that's not possible. for the moment, the president is standing firmly behind his nominee. christine blasey ford says she's received death threats and has had to move house since her allegation against brett kavanaugh was made public on sunday. mr trump's sympathies today seemed to be more with the accused than the accuser. as you know, justice kavanaugh has been treated very, very tough, and his family, i think it's a very unfair thing what's going on. dr ford's lawyers have written to the senatejudiciary committee to say she doesn't want to appear with the judge, and wants an fbi investigation. that refusal to testify has angered even sympathetic republicans like senator bob corker,

who now says there should be a vote to confirm the judge on monday if dr ford doesn't appear. but one other important voice is recommending a pause. anita hill went through similar hearings in 199! and was widely seen to have been treated badly. my advice is to push the pause button on this hearing, get the information together, bring in the experts, and put together a hearing that is fair, that is impartial, that is not biased by politics or by myth. the memory of that hearing looms large, and there is clearly frustration among some women in the senate. i just want to say to the men in this country, just shut up and step up! do the right thing! there is political peril on both sides here, and no goodwill between democrats and republicans, which means that truth and fairness will be hard to find.

joining us now is former adviser to president george w bush ron christie. let's start with this idea that the judiciary committee in the senate is so judiciary committee in the senate is so divided that it's going to be very ha rd so divided that it's going to be very hard for the two sides to sit down and come to some kind of solution over this that gets to the truth of what happened? good afternoon to you. in fact not only the members of thejudiciary committee are divided but there are staffs are committee are divided but there are staffs a re not committee are divided but there are staffs are not even talking. how on earth are we supposed to get down to a very serious allegation if the elected leadership whose constitutional duty it is to advise ona constitutional duty it is to advise on a presidential nominee are not speaking to each other home and that tells you how divided our capital is. so the top democrat on the committee doing fine style has said that there is a precedent for the fbi investigating, pointing to 199! and anita hill and saying they could just expand their background check into kavanaugh, is that possible?”

don't think so. if you're looking at the allegations with justice thomas, he was a federal employee, anita hill was a federal employee, that would be within the realm of the fbi. but you're talking about an alleged incident that took place in the state of maryland no you would have the state or a city during sticks and looking at this. this is not even in the purview from a constitutional standpoint where the fbi could be looking into childhood conduct. clearly there is some political peril on both sides here, you've got the democrats trying to delay and take some political advantage and then on the republican side within the committee you've got these i! side within the committee you've got these 11 white men who are in danger of looking uncaring and we are just 48 days away from the midterms? good evening to you, christian. yes, the optics could not really look any worse on either side. the republicans are going to look bad if they try to badger this alleged witness, it is going to bring all

sorts of images back from the thomas hearing. but on the other hand the democrats don't look too good, either. senator feinstein sat on this letter for two months and they had every opportunity to talk to judge kavanaugh and they elected not to do so. many people are sympathetic to this woman and they wonder why the democrats did not move forward on this. the argument they have said is that the woman herself did not want her name out there, that she asked down fine style not to make her name public because she didn't want to go through this kind of hearing and, it exposure. she has had death threats and she has had to move house with herfamily, this and she has had to move house with her family, this is and she has had to move house with herfamily, this is a tough thing for a woman to go through. there is no question about that but i point back to the fact that this same person who wanted to remain anonymous called the washington post and gave the story and gave her name and gave the story and gave her name and phone number to them so i really don't know where the truth in this is. actually the truth is that we might not ever find out whatever

happened 36 years ago allegedly. might not ever find out whatever happened 36 years ago allegedlym does that then cast a shadow over judge kavanaugh even if he is confirmed? it will, no question, a sexual allegation like this will be a stain on his nomination to the supreme court if he makes it. ron christie, thank you very much. i guess that is why in some senses if they were some kind of investigation you could argue, christian, that judge kavanaugh needs it as well because it would be betterfor judge kavanaugh needs it as well because it would be better for it to because it would be better for it to be confirmed for him without the * hanging over him and to go into this with a clean record and the issue of whether they could expand that background check to perhaps talk to schoolmates of christine blasey ford, and of mr kavanaugh, to try to get a fuller picture, that is what everybody is looking at at the moment. but as you referred to the situation she finds herself in, she is in hiding, she's getting e—mails and death threats, all sorts of abuse online and two months ago this

was exactly the reason she wanted to stay anonymous. yeah. every single time these issues of sexual assault and harassment are so tricky for everybody involved, this is going to get ugly, that is the only thing we know about this confirmation process. investigators looking into sexual assaults allegedly carried out by a california surgeon and his girlfriend say there could be hundreds more victims after the discovery of thousands of videos on the suspects' phones. grant robicheaux and cerissa riley are suspected of drugging and raping their victims, who they met in bars. they were charged last week with attacking two women in 2016. the chief executive of denmark's biggest bank, danske, has resigned over a money—laundering scandal. it follows an investigation into funds that were transferred through the bank's operation in estonia by customers based in russia and other parts of the former soviet union. the bank is investigating about $230 billion worth of suspicious transactions. north korea says it will take major steps to denuclearise,

including dismantling a key nuclear facility, but there's a caveat. pyongyang wants the us to take reciprocal measures. the developments have come at a north—south summit taking place in pyongyang. it's the first time in more than a decade that a south korean president has visited the north, and take a look at how loudly the leaders of the two countries were cheered by thousands of north koreans at a stadium in pyongyang. so there's been a public show of togetherness, but just how successful was the summit? here's the bbc‘s laura bicker. i think in terms of what president moon had to do, yes. i think in terms of denuclearisation, no. i think the us had demanded to get a list of north korea's weapons, they want a list of sites, they want to see the weapons moving out of the country — that is not happening. but we have managed to get some kind of detail on paper,

which all the other summits have failed to do. north korea has agreed, and this is the most important point, to allow in experts, they're calling them experts, from foreign countries, now, president trump has interpreted that as inspectors, to see the dismantling of one of their missile launch sites, so this is in the north of the country. so that is one of the key points. they also are offering, they say, to completely destroy one of their nuclear sites. it's partially destroyed anyway, but they say they'll completely destroy it, but only if — only if — the united states also takes a step forward. the question everyone's asking here in the peninsula is, does this agreement do enough for president trump to act? president trump has tweeted, saying he's very excited. but we'll have to wait and see perhaps what his advisers think certainly when it comes to this agreement and whether or not they're prepared to offer a peace deal.

balbina hwang formerly worked in the us state department on these issues and is now a professor at georgetown university. shejoins us now. professor balbina hwang, thanks for joining us. if you could spell out for is exactly what it is the north koreans want in this instance and whether you think the us is going to comply so that this summit can be called a success? well, it is still quite unclear just as called a success? well, it is still quite unclearjust as every single other summit with north korea has been unclear, and as we all know, the double us the details. i think once again korea has quite neatly walked away with a deal, with everything that it has gotten. quite ambiguous. and that is exactly what north korea has wanted to. it has gotten itself, bought itself

sometime. so, isn't that some risk for professor moon, we see them smiling and waving together with these crowds, it looks like he has gone all in on this relationship with kim jong—un, holding gone all in on this relationship with kimjong—un, holding hands and embracing, but isn't there some political risk for him here? 0h, absolutely, but in many ways he almost has had nothing to lose. his entire presidency has been based on risk. member, he went into this trip basically with everything to lose. his political poll numbers were essentially on an absolute avalanche downwards. the economy essentially is almost in crisis. south koreans are not falls, essentially they know that north korea has been bluffing, they were quite sceptical about the

entire president and's approach to north korea. and president moon's economic approach essentially has not been working. and the north koreans, despite what president trump might have claims, essentially the problem was not solve. and so this entire trip was based upon the premise that president moon had everything riding on it and what president moon and kim jong—un have achieved was essentially to buy sometime and now the ball is back in president trump's court, in the hands of the united states. just briefly, what donald trump wanted was complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearisation, if he wa nts irreversible denuclearisation, if he wants that he has to have an infa ntry of wants that he has to have an infantry of everything they've got and he doesn't have that? well, that is the long—term goal. and i think in some ways, all three countries have actually achieved the

short—term goal, which is to buy sometime. and what this particular announcement has done is bye some time to work out those details. so in that sense we can call it somewhat of a success. sceptical though we might be about the long—term goal of cb! d. when you think of brexit battles, parma ham and cornish pasties probably don't spring immediately to mind. but the issue of whether the uk will respect the eu's system linking products to a particular location is another issue which the two sides just can't agree on adam fleming reports from the french wine—making region of champagne. if you've celebrated anything recently with a bottle of fizz and it was champagne, it was produced in this region of france, which has become a battleground in the brexit talks. it's over the eu's system

of geographical indications, gis, which protect products that have a link to a particular location. if your patch earns a gi, then no—one else can use the name in the eu. the producers love it. people know that champagne only comes from champagne, that region, so it's very important and we have a good organisation fighting for that worldwide. it's notjust things made from grapes. there are more than 3,000 other products on the list including parma ham, balsamic vinegar and feta cheese. and there are some british gis, like scotch whisky and cornish pasties. the eu wants the uk to guarantee all the existing gis under british law after brexit. the government hasn't agreed to that, with some voices in britain saying the whole thing is a barrier to free trade. it's impossible to understand, you know, i would say, 300, 400 kilometres from here, that not respecting, you know,

the tradition and the name, the very important name, you know, of french wine or italian wine. it may sound a bit weird that wine and cheese have become this kind of roadblock but grumbles about gis have been a feature of global trade for decades. for example, america makes its own champagne... (whispers) . . much to their annoyance. i'm very sad. it's american sparkling, it's californian sparkling, it's napa sparkling but it's not american champagne. if there's no brexit deal on this, there's no brexit deal at all and no celebratory fizz for the brexit negotiators. i can resist it no more. i'm in salzburg. home of the von trapps. i think we should have some sound of music — who knows, maybe they even will play it this

evening at the dinner as theresa may takes the floor. # so long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, good night. # i hate to go and leave this pretty sight. # so long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, adieu. i've been gathering some facts and so the first thing i need to tell you, salzburg means salt fortress because before they had fridges they kept the meat fresh with salt and in those mountains behind me, they have plenty of salt. excellent! tonight not far from here they're going to be in the place where the von trapp

family fled from in the film and they will be there tonight having a dinnerand they will be there tonight having a dinner and guess what they're going to be talking about? they're going to be talking about? they're going to be talking about? they're going to be talking about migration, which is quite ironic given that the family went over the mountains. factor number three. it used to be a riding school, that's why they've got all those arches. and then in the 1920s they converted it for the salzburg festival and if you know your history of the von trapp family your history of the von trapp family you will know that they won first prize at the festival in 1936. george, the father of the family, was as the film suggests, an austrian hero but in fact he was italian. he was this submarine captain, did wonderful things in world war i but he was in fact from a place which is now in croatia, pa rt a place which is now in croatia, part of the austrian honduran empire. —— of the austrian hungarian empire. —— of the austrian hungarian empire. the reason i am telling you thatis empire. the reason i am telling you that is because they didn't leave

salzburg and go over the swiss alps. why? citizens wannabe switzerland... ? you don't why? citizens wannabe switzerland...? you don't know, do you? no, go on! that's right. switzerland doesn't border salzburg! that's the reason they didn't get into switzerland but because he was an italian citizen, they went to italy and they called the american embassy saying they wanted to go to the united states to perform and the rest, as they say, is history. this is beyond 100 days from the bbc. coming up for viewers on the bbc news channel and bbc world news — five days after hurricane florence made landfall in north carolina, president trump is visiting the state — to see for himself, the immense damage it caused. and we meet five women preparing to put their fittness to the test, in a gruelling experiment in the south pole, all to see how age affects a woman's fitness. good evening. the amber warning from

the met office has now lapsed but it is still very windy out there. some of the windiest weather is currently in the north and the east and you can see it as the northern half of the country which has borne the brunt of those damaging winds through the day. it is blowing out into the north sea now and it will give a battering across scandinavia. some very windy weather left behind, blowing in showers and longer spells of rain across scotland and northern ireland. this is the trailing weather front associated with it further south, where it has also been blustery. this evening and overnight the rain is likely to pick up overnight the rain is likely to pick up across parts of wales, central and northern england. here, with the humid airstillaround it and northern england. here, with the humid air still around it could be a very mild night indeed. but cooler to the north of that weather front. in the north—west of scotland the

rain will persist during thursday. brisk wind, not as windy as it has been to day. starting to look towards further south, a sob day in parts of wales and northern england and the midlands and the south—west of england. " 5°99y —— soggy day. the amount of rainfall could lead to flooding and also a speu could lead to flooding and also a spell of gales further south to watch out for thursday night into friday morning. we could wake up to quite a few branches down, even a few trees uprooted as this next area of low pressure comes across the country. to the south of that, some very windy and wet weather. clearly there could be some uncertainty about the exact position of the low pressure, we will keep you updated on that, but behind it, we say goodbye to the humid air and it is back into a north—westerly, more usual type of weather for this time

of year. type of temperature, i should say. but still there will be quite a lot of showers coming down but it will feel cooler for all of usi but it will feel cooler for all of us i think on friday. then we get a brief spell of quieter high pressure to start the weekend before we get the next low pressure coming in on sunday and it looks really nasty. this is beyond 100 days, with me katty kay in washington, christian fraser is in salzburg — our top stories: theresa may sets out her stall in salzburg — tonight she'll address eu leaders and urge them not to demand the "unacceptable" in negotiations over northern ireland's borders. the woman who's accused donald trump's supreme court nominee, of sexual assault says she wont testify until there's an fbi investigation into judge kavanaugh. coming up in the next half hour:

president trump visits north carolina to assess the damage in the aftermath of hurricane florence. and how to tidy up in outer space. a first go, at using giant nets to catch space junk. today, theresa may is appealing to eu leaders to show "goodwill and determination" at the brexit talks in salzburg. it's a crucial 48 hours for negotiators and high on the agenda are the irish border, and migration. but it's notjust movement in and out of the uk that eu leaders want to talk about, asylum seekers will be discussed too. prior to the salzburg summit, i spoke with the former italian foreign minister and european commissioner franco frattini. he told me that italy has been let down by the eu and that the union still isn t ding enough to help his country. we have been appealing to all the member states to do more, and more, and more.

but then they have been doing less, less, less. today, we have a situation where italy, which is quite a small country compared to 1 billion people living in africa, has been left alone to face tremendously huge flows of migrants and refugees. they are refugees and they are economic migrants. and when it came to the new government decision to close the italian ports, there was a furious reaction from a number of member states and then we said, ok, let's share the burden. at that moment, president macron said, no, the french port will remain closed. so this is not solidarity. but look what this is doing to the politics in italy. mr salvini, back at the election, was around 16, 18%? now he's about 32. so he's doubled his support in italy?

yes. and now we have italy, one of the disruptor countries aligning with the likes of poland and hungary? well, not necessarily. i think the government of italy will respect european rules. that said, frankly speaking, it is not possible that italy remains silent, over the efforts of a number of states to deny the necessary support to italy, that is ready to host a large number of people, but not alone. this is the key point. mr macron has talked of an awakening of nationalist and extremes in europe, do you agree with that analysis? er, well, president macron was denying solidarity to italy in a difficult

moment in the recent past. i think he's right, but if he wants to create more european feeling of cooperation, that he himself, the first bloke, this kind of solidarity, frankly speaking, i think is necessary that the head of state and government, once they decide in brussels that we have to share the burden, they keep their promise. which is not the case so far. i must ask you before you go, you are well versed in how the european union deals with the crisis and how it comes to a solution at the very last minute. so as you watch the brexit debate, do you think it is inevitable at the end of the day, the decision will be taken out of the hands of the commission and done at the top level among the leaders? can the european union afford another failure after immigration, after inability to solve

the mediterranean crisis? i don't think so. mr frattini, very interesting. thank you for your time. thanks a lot. joining us now is anand manon, professor of european politics and foreign affairs at kings college, london. how good is the polling on immigration, how is it behind this rise of populism we are seeing around the continent? we talk about italy there, but eastern europe and we have seen it in the recent german elections, immigration is an issue thatis elections, immigration is an issue that is getting people out to vote against the established mainstream parties for the more populist parties. we saw it in the brexit referendum as well, immigration is an issue that political elites have

found very hard to deal with of late. it is one of the issues that will have to be dealt with in what is the final brexit deal theresa may manages to strike with her eu counterparts. we have been talking about it in terms of six months to 90, about it in terms of six months to go, but it can still a valve, after march 2019? very much so, they are discussing the rights of eu citizens in the uk and brits living in other eu countries. it is about what immigration will look like in the future, will take place after we have left. we had a report by the migration advisory committee. as we speak, theresa may will be addressing leaders over drinks tonight and she has just ten minutes. she has been saying in the german newspaper today, chequers is the best way to avoid the no—deal

brexit. she can say that because we should impress on people but the bulk of the negotiation will not come until after brexit when britain becomes a third country. it is one of the curiosities of where we are at the moment, there is this raging fight going on in the uk around chequers, trade deals and customs unions. but all we will get is a non—binding political declaration when this deal is signed. the real meat of this is nothing to do with all those issues. go ahead, christian. i was going to say we heard earlier in the programme, that we are as far apart on the issue of northern ireland as we were at the last summit and there has to be a crisis as the governor of the bank of england puts it, and economic catastrophe before you get the two sides to come together? as you

intimated in your interview with the italian minister, the eu leads things —— leave things to the last minute. i don't think the brexit negotiations will be any different. as things stand at the moment it is ha rd to as things stand at the moment it is hard to see a compromise acceptable to both sides over the irish border. what the prime minister will do this evening is impress on her colleagues that the deal michel barnier has put on the table is an acceptable because it means dividing up legal authority over the uk itself and thatis authority over the uk itself and that is something parliament will not buy. 0k, thank you very much indeed for your thoughts. it is interesting that as part of this solution on migration, they will put forward a proposal to the leaders they should have this external borderforce which is increased they should have this external border force which is increased to 10,000. but the trouble european countries are facing, they don't wa nt countries are facing, they don't want this border force countries are facing, they don't want this borderforce in our

country because it affects our sovereignty. when you look across europe and you talk about the migration crisis, asylum claims in europe have been falling over the last year, 18 months. they have only been going up in italy. it is strange the political problem is growing at a time when the migration problem has been much reduced. president trump has been to north carolina to see the damage from hurricane florence six days after the storm made landfall. the president, who's been criticised for his handling of hurricane maria in puerto rico last year, promised residents that the government would do all it can. we will never forget your loss and we will never leave your side. we are with you all the way and to all those impacted by this terrible storm, our entire american family is with you and ready to help and he will recover. laura trevelyan was there as hurricane florence hit north carolina and she joins us now.

the rivers are still rising, this is what people don't understand about this hurricane, it passed and we have forgotten about it but in north and south carolina, the rivers are still rising and the danger is still rising? yes, 16 rivers in this state are at major flood stage and the cape fear river i was standing next to last week is due to crest today at four times its normal height. it will be 61 feet, if you can imagine that? the worst of the flooding is not yet over and people evacuated are being told don't go back to your homes. this is the situation the president is seen for himself and he has promised to do 100% of what it ta kes. has promised to do 100% of what it takes. clearly, a lot of federal help will be needed because 200,000 people are still without power. we saw laura last year when hurricane

harvey was in houston and we saw the amount of damage it caused to homes, are we looking at similar damage in north carolina? possibly even worse. i was there reporting on the aftermath of hurricane harvey and in north carolina, there are so many creeks across the state. the hurricane was like a bulldozer and it pushed the water inland. the ground was already sodden because there had been so much rainfall over there had been so much rainfall over the summer so you are seeing this catastrophic flooding. these are areas not really equipped for people to flee and live somewhere else. houston is a major city and there was lots of housing available, but thatis was lots of housing available, but that is not the case in north carolina. there are 120 shelters but there is very little rental infantry in wilmington. ifi am there is very little rental infantry in wilmington. if i am one of the people that owns these houses we are looking at now, i don't know if they

had flood insurance or notz, what can they get from the federal government? can the federal government? can the federal government say we can pay for the cost of your house, we can pave the cost of your house, we can pave the cost of your furniture, what does the president mean? there is a of bureaucracy and some people won't have flood insurance because they we re have flood insurance because they were not expecting it. they were a very long way from the coast. there isa limit very long way from the coast. there is a limit to what they can do and for people who lost their homes there is an incredible amount of paperwork and stressed to line up and be with bureaucrats, and chequers put should there be —— femur but you somewhere, somewhere you don't know, there are drug dealers on the street and you cannot ta ke dealers on the street and you cannot take your pets with you. it is so stressful. hurricane can take your roof off but when your home is flooded, it stinks and there is

mould and have allergies, it is grim. and it is the people with less income and resources are the ones who suffer the most. laura, thank you for keeping us up—to—date with that story. there are ways to treat your employees politely and ways to totally trash them. when it comes to his attorney generaljeff sessions, mr trump appears to prefer the latter. in a brutal interview, the president dismissed his top law enforcer as incompetent, at one point saying mr sessions is so irrelevant that he doesn't consider he even has an attorney general. asked about the interview today mrtrump didn't offer mr sessions much reassurance. i'm disappointed in the attorney general for numerous reasons. but we have an attorney general and i'm disappointed in the attorney general for many reasons and you understand that. which begs two questions, why doesn't mr sessions, who has taken a lot of abuse from mr trump, simply resign? and, if the president is so unhappy with his attorney general, why doesn't he just fire him?

here with answers is our political reporter anthony zurcher. if somebody treated me like this, i would just quit, why doesn't mr sessions say i have had enough, i am off? jeff sessions thinks he's doing good as attorney general, he is pursuing what he sees his policy goals on immigration and crime in the justice department and goals on immigration and crime in thejustice department and he goals on immigration and crime in the justice department and he feels he has been successful, so he wants to stick around. it is like richard gere in an officer and a gentleman, he has nowhere else to go, he gave up he has nowhere else to go, he gave up his senate seat and saw this as a crowning achievement of his career. if he gets forced out it is pretty much retirement or some sort of lobbying gig. it is an egg remain this way to go out. anthony, if katty spoke to me like

this, this programme would be called just one day. but is nobody sticking up just one day. but is nobody sticking upfor just one day. but is nobody sticking up for him? are they starting to side with the president? that is a development in the past two months which is telling. you see lindsey graham, who used to criticise the president's treatment ofjeff sessions and said, if you lose the faith in your attorney general, may be the attorney general should move on. donald trump has said he will be fired sometime after the mid—term elections. but the reality is, if donald trump has had to fill this spot, it will be a hard left to find someone, who can be confirmed by this senate, there could be a democratic control senate injanuary and someone who is willing to take thejob. people and someone who is willing to take the job. people who are possible

attorney general ‘s, looking at the way donald trump has treated jeff sessions, that is going to be discouraging, who would want to put themselves under that type of pressure? and who, who is qualified, wa nt pressure? and who, who is qualified, want the job? this pressure? and who, who is qualified, want thejob? this is not how presidents should treat their attorney general. all of this because he recused himself from the russian investigation, which he had no option to do and the president seems to fundamentally misunderstand that point. because jeff sessions was on the campaign, he also wasn't forthcoming about his contacts with russian officials during the campaign and that is why he felt obligated to recuse himself. he is ina obligated to recuse himself. he is in a situation where he did something he had to do. but then you saw donald trump criticised his handling of border security and immigration. he is broadening his

criticisms today. anthony, thank you very much forjoining us. it seems president trump doesn't want to be the one to say, you are fired, effectively to jeff sessions because he recused himself from the russian investigation. but these new issues he is raising ofjeff sessions‘ competence, wonder if he is laying the groundwork to get rid of him on some other grounds. this is beyond 100 days. still to come: five women born in five different decades are preparing to embark on a trip to the south pole. we‘ll tell you why. two people have died after storm ali swept across ireland and parts of the uk with winds gusting to over 90 miles an hour. a woman died after a caravan was blown off a cliff and a man has been killed by a falling tree. emma vardy is in in northern ireland and has this report. a casualty of the extreme weather which lashed

the west coast of ireland. early this morning, police received reports of a caravan blown onto a beach in county galway. the body of a woman in her 50s was recovered, believed to be a tourist visiting from switzerland, who had been asleep inside. powerful winds wrenched this cruise ship from its moorings at inverclyde in scotland. the nautica, became detached from the dock and had to be secured at sea by tugs. no one on board was injured. elsewhere in scotland, and major incident was declared as people were injured by flying debris. network rail worked to clear trees that struck a level crossing. as storm ali swept across the uk, a roof torn off a hotel in the isle of man, damaged cars below. the strong winds ravaged northern ireland. a man was killed by a falling tree and another injured. parks and playgrounds were closed as branches fell on cars and houses. i heard a thud at the back of my roof, which i was

a bit worried about, but it was smaller type branches. it was only about five minutes later i went out to the front and i noticed all the big branches down. dozens of roads were closed as debris blocked the way. we are still experiencing extreme gusts of wind and more problems are occurring. we definitely do at this stage, expect to be working through the night and into tomorrow. in northern ireland, with the worst of the storm now believed to have passed, the clear up operation is well under way. emma vardy, bbc news, belfast. the polar maidens are not bears, they are a team of five women, each born in a different decade, who are about to embark on a gruelling expedition to the south pole. it‘s all in the interest of science. the want to find out what affect a woman‘s age has on her level of fitness. before they leave, tim muffett went to meet them.

jan is approaching her 74th birthday, and one of the world‘s toughest challenges. before my husband died, he died at 47 of cancer, he was into reading classical music and after that, i felt like i had to was well. jen has reading about going form the atlantic and into the north pole. now she wants to find out how women of different ages react to the same extreme conditions by leading the polar maidens to the south pole. what‘s the difference between the ages, how we recover physically and how we recover emotionally? it‘s done with men and it‘s done athletes but it hasn‘t been much been done with women. today‘s training session is in nairn, near inverness. it‘s particularly hard pulling on sand but i guess this might give us a good idea of snow conditions. tanvi is 23, 50 years younger than jan. how hard are you

finding the training? i think for me, it is hard. being young, we have that want to adapt fast physically. 0xygen levels in the blood will be measured throughout the expedition to see what effects age has on fitness and recovery rates in extremely cold conditions. culturally, we are quite ageist, i think, and we expect less of people as they get older. often, older people have more resilience and ability to just keep going when the going gets really tough. maybe do one walking... as one of the older members of the group, how are you getting on compared to the younger members? i think we‘re re giving them a run for their money. i‘m hoping that age is no barrier. i‘m hoping that the difference in the blood sugar levels or maybe the oxygen levels will not be too different. my grandfather went to the antarctic three times and on the second expedition with scott,

he was sent back 150 miles from the pole so he was absolutely gutted, in fact, he cried — so it would be in honour for me to finish hisjourney. we are different women from different culture and different ages and we are representing all the women all over the world. to those who say jan, you are too old for things like this, what you say? age isjust a number. i have a really good trainer who is mr universe and he takes no prisoners. is that your nickname for him? no, he is mr universe. he was mr universe and mr europe last year and there he was with his oiled body and i though, thank goodness he has his clothes on, i would not be able to concentrate! best of luck. thank you very much. see you when i get back. christmas in the antarctic awaits with temperatures of —30 celsius. 73 is an age at which you take things easy.

no—one told jen. tim muffett, bbc news. now christian i know you‘ve been worried for some time about the amount of junk floating around in space, so you must be relieved to know that a british satellite has for the first time thrown a net into orbit demonstrating how to capture space debris. it is great news, there are millions of items of space junk floating around the earth, posing a risk to spacecraft and satellites. here‘s our science reporter, laura foster with more. from old bits of rocket to small tools dropped by spacewalking astronauts, there is more than 7,500 tons of space junk littering earth‘s orbit. there is so much, this rubbish could cause problems for our gps systems, phone and television signals, and the systems we use to predict the weather. so scientists have devised this satellite, called remove debris. launched injune, it has now successfully fired a net and captured a piece of rubbish. the idea now — that the junk will

burn up when dragged back to earth. but the net isn‘t the only cleaning method the satellite has to test. next up is the on—board harpoon. this is the harpoon that we‘ve been developing, and on the remove debris mission, they‘re going to be testing the kind of smaller brother of this one, to show that we can successfully capture a piece of space debris in space using a harpoon. some had questioned whether the problem of spacejunk could really be solved by adding more devices to the earth‘s orbit, but these early results suggest low—cost techniques such as these could work, though this project is still at an early stage, and more tests need to be done before it can be used to collect every piece of rubbish. laura foster, bbc news. so christian, on monday you bought

me a football shirt from burnley. i tweeted you earlier, to find out if i‘d be getting a souvenir from salzburg, and i never heard back. but i did hearfrom one of our viewers with some kind suggestions. apparently "salzberg is famous for it‘s rolex watches, ferraris, rolls royces and 12kg gold bars." i found ifound a i found a rolex watch, it is only $196,000. it would look very good. if you feel it‘s not good enough, i know have found you are of me, you could go for the ferrari, also made in austria. this is a cool $1.5 million. luckily, i know yourwallet is very deep. so just saying, i will be expecting one of those, 0k? is very deep. so just saying, i will be expecting one of those, ok? i went to the ferrari garage and they

only have right—hand drive, which is no good to you and the rolex watch wash—out. i went next door to the newsagent and instead of 12 gold bars, igot newsagent and instead of 12 gold bars, i got you 12 gold chocolates. these are mozart balls. not quite the same really. not exactly the same. the amber warning for the met office regarding storm ali has elapsed, but it is very windy out there. some of the windiest weather is sitting in the windiest weather is sitting in the north and the east but it is the northern half of the country which has borne the brunt of those damaging winds during the day. they are blowing out into the north sea and it will give a battering across scandinavia. windy weather is left behind, blowing in showers and longer spells of rain across much of scotla nd longer spells of rain across much of scotland and northern ireland. this is the trailing whether fronts

associated with it further south. it has been blustery here with minor branches down. the rain is likely to p0p up branches down. the rain is likely to pop up between wales and central england. it will be a mild night but coolly to the north of the weather from, which, as you can see with the showers are congregating in the north—west of scotland which is where they will persist during the day on thursday. brisk wind here, not as windy as today, however we are starting to turn our attention to matters further south. looks like a soggy date reports of wales, northern england, the midlands and perhaps the south—west of england. the stout should stay largely dry until later and warm in the humid air. but it will get windy as the day goes on. a couple of concerns, the amount of rainfall leading to potential flooding and then a spell of gales further south as we go through thursday night and into friday morning. we could wake up to a few branches down and even trees

uprooted as this next area of low pressure ru ns across uprooted as this next area of low pressure runs across central part of the country. to the south of that, windy and wet weather as well. there could be some uncertainty about the exact position of the area of low pressure and we will keep you updated on bad but behind it we say goodbye to the humid air and it is back into a north—westerly, usual type of weather for this type of year. this type of temperature for this time of year. still, a lot of showers on the north—westerly breeze, but it will feel cooler for all of us on friday. then a brief ridge of high pressure and a brief speu ridge of high pressure and a brief spell of quieter weather to start the weekend but we have this low pressure, which looks nasty winding itself up for sunday. the warnings are on the website. this is bbc news, i‘m rebecca jones. the headlines at 8pm. the prime minister arrives in salzburg to present her brexit

plan to eu leaders. she said the eu "will need to evolve its position" in order to make brexit a success. i believe this is the right proposal because it maintains frictionless trade. it‘s the only credible and negotiable plan on the table that delivers no hard border in northern ireland, and also delivers on the vote of the british people. two people have died as storm ali brings winds of up to 100 mph to ireland and parts of the uk. bbc news has learned that a review into maternity errors at shrewsbury and telford nhs trust is now examining more than 100 cases. the government announces plans to make an extra £2 billion available, to build more affordable social housing in england from 2022.