hello, i'm ros atkins, this is outside source. only one place to start today. in america. america goes to the polls for the mid term elections. it's being seen as a referendum on donald trump's presidency and a high turnout is expected. at least 200 mass graves containing around 12,000 victims are discovered in iraq, in areas that had been controlled by the islamic state group. a new report finds facebook failed to prevent its platform being used to incite offline violence in myanmar. facebook agrees with it. and new research surprises experts, and parents: screen time has little effect on the quality of sleep of children. it's 4pm on the east coast of the us, 1pm on the west — and the polls are open.

here are some of the pictures coming into the newsroom. brooklyn, new york. looks like things are very busy there. arlington, virginia. we know virginia is a crucial state democrats want to make progress. many democrats want to make progress. ma ny states democrats want to make progress. many states like virginia come through. indianapolis, indiana. the president was in indiana yesterday to tell the republicans are focused on making sure they do welfare. —— making sure they do well, there. this is what's at stake. all the seats of the house of representatives and some of the seats in the senate. these are the two houses of congress — and they are both currently held by the republicans. lose either to democrats — and it gets a lot harder for donald trump to get things done. for example, that wall he wants to build along the border with mexico needs approval and funding from congress. that hasn't even happened with the republicans in charge. this isn't just about practicalities though. americans have two years of donald

trump's idiosyncratic presidency. this is their chance to say what they think of it. his predessor barack obama: "tomorrow's elections might be the most important of our lifetimes...the character of our country is on the ballot." and in many ways donald trump agrees with that — theyjust don't agree on what that character should be. well the president has campaigned all the way to the finish line. in ohio, then indiana, then missouri. here's mr trump in indiana. this is the greatest political movement in the history of our country. it really is. i don't even think it is close. if it was, they would be knocking it, let's see, what was better, well i don't think too many were better. this is the greatest in the history of our country. there's never been anything like this.

you can almost say because it is us. what is a bigger movement then this? and let's keep it going, by the way, tomorrow. let's keep it going. president trump calls the press the enemy of the people — not all the media mind you. he's very keen on fox news. they evidently like him — two of their hosts joined him on stage. make of this what you will. by the way, all those people in the back are fake news. cheering. and the one thing that has made and defined your presidency more than anything else, promises made, promises kept. sean hannity: "in spite of reports, i will be doing a live show from cape girardeau and interviewing president trump before the rally. to be clear, i will not be on stage

campaigning with the president. i am covering final rally for my show. as well as that — when a woman fainted in the crowd this happened. is there a doctor in the house? doctor, please. thank you. # how sweet the sound. # to save a wretch like me. that is one side of the political indications. well barack obama has been the most high profile campaigner for the democrats‘. his last stop was northern virginia. and he's been crisscrossing the counry — as you can tell from his voice. the good news is that all across the country, what i am saying is this great awakening, people i think who had taken

for granted that we have made certain strides, we have made certain progress, that of course women are treated with respect, of course we're not going to judge people based on their skin colour or last name. of course we're going to expect basic decency and honesty and straight talk from folks in high offices. suddenly, people woke up and said we can't take this for granted. we have to fight for this. this is the house of representatives at the moment. all the seats are up for election — the democrats increase their numnber of seats by 23 to take the house. next the senate — also held by the republicans at the moment. not all 100 seats are on the line. the democrats are defending 26

seats, including two independents, who usually vote with them — while the republicans defend nine. they're in a much stronger position as they go in to the both sides have done a good job of engaging the voters. here's a photo from correspondent nick bryant — this is pennsylvania — a republican seat the democrats are hoping to flip. he says they haven't seen lines like this since 2008. jane o'brien is in the city of alexandria in virginia. rajini vaidyanathan in miami for us. let's start with jane. any amount of polling about which issues people are animated about. what are people telling him virginia? this is why we are seeing such an extraordinary move towards the democrats here. what should be able reliably red

state in many respects although it has been getting purple is the last two years. and that is because the issue for democrats is health care. the issue for republicans immigration. that is why you have seen donald trump campaign on this issue in the run—up to today. and really trying to galvanise his base because he knows that is the number one issue for them. interestingly, he hasn't been talking about the economy and that is bizarre because the economy is doing well. 230,000 jobs added to the payroll on friday. lowest unemployment and a decade. so it has been doing really well, but has donald trump himself said last week, talking about the economy isn't that exciting. so he's talking about immigration instead. there's a real division on issues as there is a division on so many other things here in america. stay with us. how is it in miami, rajini?”

here in america. stay with us. how is it in miami, rajini? ithink in many ways the race here it comes down to not just many ways the race here it comes down to notjust really local issues but to the president. he is not on the ballot, but really, the way that the ballot, but really, the way that the candidates and many of these races have aligned themselves is whether or not they love donald trump or whether indeed they cannot stand him and then suddenly when i found talking to voters here. all of the polling stations to start in the morning here and there were queues going around the block and i didn't unscientific exit poll and i spoke to 20 people i have to tell you, the state is always as i reported from here over the years, once again, too close to call. people came out of the polling station one person was the polling station one person was the vote republican and another one would say they voted democrat. it is worth noting that some 37, 30 8% of voters have already cast a ballot in early voting here in florida, which slightly favoured the democrats but

did not take too much stock in that because back in 2016, hillary clinton one and florida when it came to early voting, and voting by post but when he came to the date itself, the reason why donald trump won the state is because hejust managed the reason why donald trump won the state is because he just managed to turn out republican voters in force on the day. what we are hearing from some districts are in the state of florida is that republican turnout is just slightly edging higher than democratic turnout. so really it is difficult to predict which way this thing will go, based on early voting alone because the republicans are really turning out and forces. thank you. let's go back to virginia. if you. let's go back to virginia. if you look at the history books, americans seem to be fully aware that midterms can check the power of the president if they switch the nature of congress. yes, but in this case if the democrats do take over the house, which is the lower chamber, the republicans are still likely to hang onto the senate which is the upper chamber and that is the

body that is responsible for government supreme courtjustices and another missouri republicans have a lot to be please with donald trump about because he has already had two of his accent and two years who knows he might get a third pick. but if the house is is dominated by republicans by democrats and confusing myself there, and the senate stays in the control of republicans, you're basically having a gridlock because there is no way democrats will work with republicans on anything while donald trump was in the white house. thank you. back to miami. sometimes the midterms can feel like a dead squid but like the occasion of a presidential election. i'm hearing from a lot of people these might be a bit different. yes, thatis these might be a bit different. yes, that is utterly a real energy here and florida. not least because in many ways, these elections reflect the divisiveness of the state of american politics today. a divisiveness which is drawing people

out to the polls, let's take the governors race hair and the state of florida. you have a very progressive candidate and andrew gillum was the democratic candidate, he is the mayor of tallahassee and hoping to become florida's first african—american governor. on the polar opposite side of the political scale they have the candidate rhonda sa ntos, scale they have the candidate rhonda santos, the backing of donald trump and the two men couldn't be more different when it comes to their policy positions. often in american politics and indeed florida politics, art is imo more to centre to capture those swing voters but what we have seen in the governors race here is how all arising this is and that has drawn people out from both sides of the political aisle. people are believed exercising and local issues do matter, but while the gueye spoken to here say this is all about donald trump. thank you to you both. both of them will be helping us out as we go to the next two hours into the night. when the

results will start to come through. just a reminderfor you on how things will evolve thoughout the night as each state closes its polls. key states like florida and virginia will come in early and then we'll have to wait for the critical races in the midwest before we finally get the tally from california. right now, we have no results yet. full coverage online on bbc world news and the bbc news channel in the coming hours. stay with us on outside source — still to come... here in the uk senior ministers want a brexit deal by the end of this month, despite warning from brussels that there's still no solution to the irish border. this is outside source live from the bbc newsroom. our lead story is... america goes to the polls for the mid term elections. it's being seen as a referendum on donald trump's presidency and a high turnout is expected. a turn to some of the many stories

from bbc world service. china's spending on security—related construction in xinjiang jumped by 213% in 2017, as funds put towards vocational training declined. this is significant because hundreds of thousands of muslims are alleged to have been detained in internment camps, which china claims are training centres. from bbc chinese. a former ss guard has gone on trial in germany accused of complicity in mass murder at a nazi death camp during world war two. the 94—year—old is identified as johann rehboggen. he denies the charges. italy's populist deputy prime minister matteo salvini has brushed off his much publicised break—up with his girlfriend. she'd posted a picture of them in what looks like bed — that was on instagram on monday, though the break up was a while back. mr salvivni has also used instragram to say italians "did not care". he can count me in on that — but evidently i'm in the minority as it's in our most read list. we might have seen an olive

branch in the trade war between the us and china. tweet from bloomberg: china's vice president wang qishan says beijing is still ready to talk trade with trump and end their dispute. as this bbc graph shows us the world's two biggest economies have slapped tariffs on more than half of what they sell each other this year. it started because president trump argued that china's trade practises are unfair. this is the analysis of one former us trade official. china has always been ready to talk, the question is what is what is it the question is what is it that they are really to put on the table. and the new news in some ways

is the fact that trump had a conversation with president xi not too long ago and apparently is interested in at least considering a deal in the end of november, december, when the two of them meet. but for those who have been listening to china for a long time, the rhetoric isn't changing in terms of these raw promises without a lot of metrics, or timelines, and so that is beginning to wear i think on the global community and notjust the pointed end of the spear that is coming from the united states. that is one thing that will be a very important, the united states will not cut a deal with china if china does not come to the table with significant changes i think. the problem inside the united states of course is that i think inside of the administration, you have a set of china hawks that really don't believe you can negotiate with china and therefore would like to do their best to disengage us business from reliance on china so that china

cannot blackmail us business in the future. amazon seems to have run into difficulties in its plans to build a second headquarters. it's already has a base in seattle — and it's been involved in a public search for a new site. now we're told it might actually go two ways. new york, virginia getting mentioned a lot. kim gittleson. in new york. tell us more. a $5 billion investment at stake, something like 50,000 jobs and lead to this frenzy among cities here in north america there were 238 different places that submitted to amazon saying please come here and amazon saying please come here and amazon will of the doubt to the list of 20 finalists and now we have seen reports from both the wall street journal and the new york times that instead of just choosing journal and the new york times that instead ofjust choosing one winner, amazon might actually split the prize between two places, crystal

city virginia, right next to the pentagon which would give you a sense of why am might want to locate there, and it might also place a second office in long island city of the road here in queens, a crosta east river from midtown manhattan. because he the empire state building and the chrysler building. the idea is amazon needs to attract pet talent in a fact it didn't think that it could get a number of workers admitted that theyjust located and one city. we're in a very tight labour market here in the united states, record low unemployment, so the idea is that amazon might actually need to split this is big price between two different places an order to get the work is that it needs. thank you. the commodity company glencore has suspended cobalt sales at a mine in the democratic republic of congo after uranium was found there. cobalt is vital to the batteries which power electric vehicles and this mine is really important to the supply chain. here's business reporter jonathan josephs to explain.

this mine in the democratic republic of congo is really important to the global cobalt market, estimated to produce about 25% of global supplies. so it is likely that at least in the short term prices will be pushed up. this of a metal which really important to make it important for the battery as we all use not just on important for the battery as we all use notjust on mobile phones run now much bigger quantities are needed for the batteries in electric vehicles. which we are poised by in greater numbers now. what is happening here is that katanga mining company which is owned by glen court, which runs the mind, says that your radium has been discovered in the cold water, or iranian is dangerous because it is radioactive, and it has been discovered in levels which are deemed too hot to be saved and exported. —— iranian is dangerous. they are stockpiling the cobalt they have taken out of the ground at the mind and what they are doing is

putting in place a machine which will be able to clean the cobalt so that it will be able to clean the cobalt so thatitis will be able to clean the cobalt so that it is safe, but that is not expected to be up and running before the middle of next year. an list of pointing out that this comes up a convenient time for them because it means prices will go up just as they have been falling a little bit. —— a nalysts a re have been falling a little bit. —— analysts are pointing out. there will be more profit for them and other minors. in terms of the impact for the consumer, it is unlikely we will see any price rises for a while at at all if this is sorted quickly. but what you might notice is a squeeze on the profit margin of companies that use cobalt such as electric vehicle makers. if you have been counting like us until brexit, i don't know if we will get a braided belt. —— get a deal. the brexit negotiations go on. the eu's chief negotiator michel barnier spoke in slovakia today — the message was a familiar one. with an agreement, we need an operational backstop for ireland to protect the stability and peace and to protect the integrity

of the single market, which is a common goal for everybody, including slovakia, because when we are speaking about the single market, we're talking about the consumers and protection of businesses. next to brussels where the bbc‘s adam fleming was listening to michel barnier speak. he calls it ‘classic barnier‘. everything we heard so many times before, if there is no operational backstop, there is no withdrawal agreement and that means there is no transition period, the clock is ticking... have many times have we heard him say that? he said its decisions are needed at this point, not actually more time or more work. he says do not believe everything you read. we're not there yet on the last part of the negotiations, particularly the bit on ireland. he said yet again, the eu is prepared to rewrite bits of the backstop to make it more palatable to the uk. i think that revealed that for all of this talk

about a new exit mechanism or a uk wide element of the backstop to eliminate the need for a northern ireland only bit of it, it doesn't seem much concrete as happened on this side of things. despite all of the talk about that stuff. diplomats of the member states they say we have not seen any illegal text that could go into a treaty that spells out how a uk customs arrangement will work or how an exit mechanism would work. i think it's really still a lot of work to be done. also speaking to the eu diplomats, notjust how the customs bit of the backstop would work. some member states are worried this is starting to look like a bit of a trade deal they are writing into the withdrawal agreement, no quotas, no tariffs on goods, and the eu has always said that with the trade talks, you have to do to level the playing field, which is to manage the level of competition between the eu and the case of that is another complicating factor that makes this uk wide backstop harder to deliver than it sounds.

worth saying we had a more optimistic message from theresa may last night — she said a deal was 95% done. meanwhile, in the uk, theresa may's cabinet met earlier. political editor laura kuenssberg says "cabinet agreed horror of missing a november deal deadline — not impossible but deeply undesirable". all of which is basically where we've been for a long time. iain watsonjoins me now from westminster. this is in the greatest front end but i guess at this stage, no news is news because every day this goes by we get closer to no deal. that is right. the british government things have moved. they think it is significant that brussels is now consider bringing a way out of this backstop they have been avoiding a ha rd backstop they have been avoiding a hard border of northern ireland and thatis hard border of northern ireland and that is not required moving in to a

final trade deal. the big demand from many around the cabinet table was to make sure that there will be some kind of time limit to any kind of backstop. a time limit effectively that has been rolled out, but they do take some encouragement from the fact that brussels has not ruled out some kind of review mechanism of this backstop which may allow britain out of it. however, as you heard earlier, we are not close to a deal yet. downing street are emphasising there is a lot of work still to be done on this proposal. they are hoping on total of all the cabinet ministers barack theresa may could still get a special summit by the end of this month, one had been put in by donald tusk by mid—november that look like that will be off the agenda. but they are keen to do it by the end of november because as we heard the clock is ticking and they would have to get a vote in parliament to approve this of course is a proven by the eu parliament as well. the arcane this is not run into

december. and there is some feeling there may be some kind of movement on the irish backstop which would allow a deal to be done, not one which would allow unanimity of views within the conservative party would allow police department is to recommend a delta parliament. -- allow parliament to recommend. thank you forjoining us. if you need exclamations of any aspect of the brexit negotiation the bbc news website is the best place to go. it has helped with all the jargon and analysis and you could find/ news. see you in a couple of minutes. —— hello there. quite a lot going on around the world. we have floods, cyclones, cold weather, and tornadoes. all coming over the next few minutes. let's take a look at

weather around the world. first, tornadoes, we had the squally weather front moving through parts of the south, that has spawned tornadoes on it. it continues to push his way to push its way eastwards, that will be clear of the skulls as we headed to wednesday but following that, we get a shot of really cold airworking in. unusually cold for this, the year. temperatures in winnipeg, minus four celsius but across the border, those temperatures will be falling over the next couple of days and we will be struggling to get above freezing across parts of wyoming, montana, north and south dakota, with frost widespread across northern parts. so cold weather on the way. a bit of snow over the mountains in colorado. the storm clouds across the middle east. this one moving across kuwait. huge amounts of rain for them. 58mm of rain fell. that is a third or a little bit more than a third of the annual rainfall that they normally expect. that is led to some flooding issues. the weather stays quite unsettled across as part of the middle east over the next two days a week,

could see further rain downpours, notjust an core but also affecting iraq, syria, was impressed of iran and northern areas of saudi arabia. we could see further localised flooding over the next two days. the storm clouds in sri lanka have brought 145 millimetres of rainfall over the last 2a hours. the rains are heavy here at the moment, we have an area of low pressure that is enhancing the normal monsoon rains that we get. we will see some further heavy rain. some areas could see 150 to 200 mm. we could see localised flooding issues here. just to the east of this area, an area of low pressure set to the east of malaysia. now, initially this area of low pressure will be bringing some wet weather over the next few days to malaysia, and thailand and the south could see some localised flooding. but as we head into next week, we may well see that every of low

pressure started to turn into a cyclone. could be a powerful one. we will keep a close eye on progress there. meanwhile in europe we have some fairly wet and windy weather pushing it across the united kingdom and to france and the netherlands. rain using coffins being where it has wet. eastern europe stays in a very mild for this, together with temperatures in the high teens perhaps even the low 20s. cold air continues to move them to moscow, temperatures dropping over the next few days. that is to latest weather. the full forecast in the next half—hour. hello, i'm ros atkins, this is outside source. america goes to the polls for the mid—term elections. it's being seen as a referendum on donald trump's presidency and a high turnout is expected. at least 200 mass graves containing around 12,000 victims are discovered in iraq in areas that had been controlled by the

islamic state group. a new report finds facebook failed to prevent its platform being used to incite offline violence in myanmar. and remember, if you want to get in touch, the hashtag is bbc os. let's get more on the us mid—terms. people are choosing all of the seats in the house of representatives and some of the seats in the senate. security and stamping out misinformation is crucial in this election and, today, these top—level security agencies — the department of homeland security, department ofjustice, office of national intelligence and the fbi — put out this joint statement. it says they've been working in unprecedented ways to make sure there's no outside influence —

by that they're referring to russian meddling in the last presidential election. it says, "our goal is clear — ensure every vote is counted and counted correctly. at this time, we have no indication of compromise that would prevent voting, change vote counts or disrupt the ability to tally votes. but americans should be aware that foreign actors — and russia in particular — continue to try to influence public sentiment and voter perceptions." rumours and spin are everywhere, especially online. there was a rumour that immigration agents would be patrolling vote stations. the agency put out this tweet a few days ago to clear that up. we do not patrol or conduct enforcement operations and any

flyers claiming otherwise our force. social media sites like facebook and twitter have taken a lot of heat for not better policing their platforms during the 2016 elections. they've since pledged to do better this time around. the bbc‘s technology correspondent, dave lee, is in washington. in practical terms, what are they doing? we know that twitter and facebook have hired an awful lot more people to deal with this problem. facebook has launched its war room where they have staff dedicated to trying to monitor what is happening on facebook, notjust today but in the run—up to these votes. i think it is too early to make too many claims here, but i do think some of those efforts appeared to be working. we have had updates throughout the day as americans have been voting from the department of homeland security and they have said effo rts homeland security and they have said efforts and misinformation have either been stamped out quickly or

not materialised at all. that is in stark contrast to what happened in 2016 when many different messages and images were shared on social media, designed to stop people voting will sway people's decision when they did vote. we really have not seen some of those patterns again this year so i think social networking companies are under a lot of pressure, but so far they will be pretty pleased with how today has turned out. isn't one of the challenges that often people will share information they know is not true or suspect is not true but they don't care because it reinforces the politics they want to promote? don't care because it reinforces the politics they want to promote ?|j think that is the issue and, when it comes down to what these companies can do to stop that, it is very difficult because of the past two yea rs difficult because of the past two years since that election, they have been several hearings in washington where mark sucker berg and other

bosses of tech companies have tried to explain how difficult a problem thatis to explain how difficult a problem that is to solve because there is a very important freedom of speech argument in terms of what people should and should not be allowed to say online but, of course, with clear misinformation, in the case of a vote, the voters on a different day we have to be somewhere else to vote, and that not being the case, where it is clear misinformation, thatis where it is clear misinformation, that is easier to block when it is more subtle, though, arguments and news pushed from unverified sources, much harder to stamp out which is why these companies for this vote have turned more to humans rather than algorithms which is what they have relied upon in 2016 with fairly disastrous results that do not seem to have been repeated the same way time around. the newsroom is gearing

up time around. the newsroom is gearing upfora time around. the newsroom is gearing up for a very long night, full coverage of the midterms across the next few hours on the bbc news channel, bbc world news and bbc online. at least 200 mass graves containing as many as 12,000 victims have been discovered in areas of iraq that had been controlled by the islamic state group. the un has published this report on the discoveries. in it, we're told, "the mass grave sites are testament to harrowing human loss, profound suffering and shocking cruelty. " this map shows you the different regions whee the graves are along with the number of bodies found so far. these were areas seized by is from 2014 onwards. the red area on this map represents is control in january 2015. you can see how it's shrunk progressively until today, where it

holds virtually no territory. hadya al—alawi from bbc arabic tells us how much we know about the thousands of people who appear to be in these graves. so it appears by the investigators that a lot of them were women, elderly people with disabilities, foreign workers and also security forces, iraqi security forces. the number is 6—12,000, so it's a huge number. we haven't seen anything on that scale in the last couple of years, although we've seen mass graves before, but nothing compared to this. and does this tally with the number of people who are missing from the period of time that is controlled this territory? yes, absolutely, because most of these graves were actually 95... in total, there are 202. 95 of those have been found in part of mosul, which was controlled by is for a really long time. we've seen the horrific stories that came out of that territory

when it was controlled by is so, absolutely, it actually coincides with the same period that is was controlling that area. fortunately, even though there's more horrific detail here from the un, it's not really a surprise, is it? it's not really a surprise and, as depressing as that sounds, in the last couple of years, as i mentioned, we have seen mass graves come out of different areas in iraq and syria which has been controlled by is. we've seen that also happen on a larger scale in the northern part and right now also in the western part of iraq. however, the iraqi government needs to respond to this on a scale which actually is on the same level as this horrific news coming out, so there needs to be a proper investigation into this. but does the iraqi government or the iraqi security services or the iraqi justice system have the capacity to even take this on in terms of bringing people to justice?

no, i think there needs to be some international help on this case, and i think also because of the large number of bodies that they found, it's going to be really difficult to exhume them. they don't have the resources, they don't have the expertise and, also, its going to take a really long time to identify them and be in contact with their families. i mean, hundreds of families have been waiting to hear about the fate of their loved ones, but it's going to be a very, very difficult mission for the iraqi government on its own. can i ask you more broadly about the territory that used to be controlled by is, in particular mosul? we used to talk a lot about efforts to seize back mosul. we haven't talked so much since it was taken back. how is life in the city? is it gradually being rebuilt? i mean, we arejust seeing the aftermath of that whole period, the three years between 2014 and 2017, when is was in control. this is part of it. it's the horrific killings and the mass murders and the terror that has happened during that period. it's gradually, slowly going back to normal, but you have to put normal into context of what's happening in iraq right now.

for us, probably, in europe, normal‘s quite different from what it is in iraq, so it's progressing, but is it actually going back to normal? i'm not quite sure i can answer that. this is an independent report commissioned by facebook on the role it played during violence in myanmar last year. it says, "facebook has become a means for those seeking to spread hate and cause harm, and posts have been linked to offline violence." it also said the platform had created an "enabling environment" for the proliferation of human rights abuses. the most high—profile example of this was the rohingya crisis when, in 2017, a military crackdown followed attacks on police. thousands of people died and more than 700,000 rohingya fled across the border to bangladesh. as well as this new report, a un report into the crisis has already detailed how facebook was used to spread

anti—rohingya messages. here's more from zoe kleinman. facebook has said it will be doing two things, or one of which they should have done sooner, the higher burmese language specialists to keep a close eye on what has been put on the platform. one issue they have had is that burmese people tend to write in a different font and it is very difficult to translate into english so that means it has been more difficult for facebook to monitor what is being said. they have also said they will not let new users use that want any more and pushing people to use more internationally recognised font to make it easier for the internationally recognised font to make it easierfor the platform internationally recognised font to make it easier for the platform to keep a closer eye on, but that has been one significant practical issue that they have not got round until now. nonetheless, the scale of information placed on facebook means

it is very hard to monitor all of anyway. this is facebook's argument, 2 billion members updating their profiles in real time all around the world, how do you police that? the algorithms they are developing, tall and catch certain things, the alarm people flagging content to them, but nothing is good enough to be fully automated and they are still relying on human moderators, and that is hugely bottlenecking and slowing the process down, so it will always be difficult for them to catch everything that is on the platform that should not be. what is facebook's strategy here? it would've known when it commissioned this report it was likely to criticise facebook in a number of ways so in terms of its pr and positioning, what is its objective here? it is trying to show more corporate responsibility, more kindness, it is looking at creating a human rights policy and that is a

really interesting thing for a tech firm to say. you have to ask the question, is up facebook? do you wa nt question, is up facebook? do you want facebook deciding what can and cannot be said on a public forum? and if not him, who? people who championed free speech are very nervous about anybody making those decisions and taking back control. but this violence and hatred that has been appearing so often on that platform cannot go on and they have to do something to stem the flow. the confident this information and videos and images and not still being shed in the armagh? facebook will tell you it is confident. it is relying on the community to self police and that's a difficult thing because people are seeing things they do not like to see, they are not likely to report. it is certainly not everybody. myanmar is new to the incident and has had decades of state—controlled propaganda. for a lot of people

facebook is the internet, what a colourful explosion and amazing liberation it must‘ve been the scene for the first time, but what they are also seeing is the power of it, not only to spread messages but also to galvanise massive support and massive groups of people in a way that was not possible before. stay with us on outside source. the still to come: we'll have the latest from cameroon, where dozens of schoolchildren have been kidnapped from a boarding school. police are questioning six men from south london about footage posted online which shows a group of people laughing as they burnt a cardboard model of grenfell tower on a bonfire. the men handed themselves in last night after the video was widely circulated on social media. they've been arrested on suspicion of intentionally causing harassment, alarm or distress. our home affairs correspondent, june kelly, reports. this afternoon, a house in south—east london became

the focus for police gathering possible evidence. 24 hours on from the appearance of the video, the investigation was well under way. this is a still from the video, which shows a model of grenfell tower on a bonfire. the footage emerged on social media. men being questioned are being held on the public order act. the men being questioned are being held under the public order act, which says that, "a person is guilty of an offence if, with intent to cause person harrassment, alarm, or distress, he uses threatening, abusive, or insulting words or behaviour, or disorderly behaviour". the reality is that, as grossly offensive as this is, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's a federal offence. when you post grossly offensive material online, you can be guilty of an offence under the communications act, for which you can go to prison for up to six months. the video has horrified all those affected by the grenfell tragedy, like rukayet mamadu, who escaped from the tower

with her grandson. there are still people who have no human feelings, particularly when there are people going through the inquiry now, going through what they went through during the fire. and some people are making it like it's a joke, with children in the background. tonight, scotland yard announced a further arrest. a 19—year—old was detained after he went to a police station in south london today. he is now in custody with the five others that handed themselves in last night. june kelly, bbc news. this is outside source live from the bbc newsroom. our lead story is: america goes to the polls for the mid—term elections. they will choose their representation in the senate and

house of representatives. it's being seen as a referendum on donald trump's presidency and a high turnout is expected. footage has emerged of some of the 79 children who were abducted in cameroon on monday. this video has been circulating on social media. we hear some of the children saying they've been taken by english—speaking separatists. some people are arguing the accent we hear from the captor is francophone. no group is taking responsibility. these are pictures showing the school where the children and three adults were taken. one local priest says the captors have told him they want schools closed. now, that is a known demand of anglophone separatists — they argue francophone education is supressing their culture. the government is blaming the separatists for the abductions, but the communications secretary for the separatists,

who are seeking to establish an independent state called ambazonia, has told the bbc the government staged the kidnappings. the allegations that our restoration forces have kidnapped the students are absolutely false. the french cameroon government has stage—managed this so as to paint our restoration forces as terrorists, something they've always done since this struggle for the independence of ambazonia. that man is accusing the government of staging the whole thing. while the search goes on, cameroon's president, paul biya, was sworn in for a seventh term today, and he addressed the concerns of english—speaking cameroonians in his speech. i want to emphasise that i have carefully considered the frustrations and aspirations of the vast majority of our compatriots in the north and south—west regions. a good number of responses to their concerns and aspirations will be provided as part

of the acceleration of the ongoing decentralisation process. cameroon has two english—speaking regions — the north—west and south—west. that's where the separatists want their own state called ambazonia. the movement started last year after mass protests over percieved marginalisation of english legal and educational systems there and a subsequent crackdown. cameroon's english—speaking minority make up about 20% of the population. the school that was attacked is in bamenda in the north—west. journalist peter tah has been to the school. what we have seen in this school this afternoon, very anxious faces of pa rents this afternoon, very anxious faces of parents who want to know the whereabouts of the children. many of them are simply shocked and they are still trying to digest the news that

the children have been kidnapped. the unfortunate thing for these pa rents the unfortunate thing for these parents is that, since yesterday, they have not been able to even know whether the children have been kidnapped or not because the authorities have simply banned access to this school where i am now. i have actually tried to look across the fence and i have seen so many of the children who have been left behind, most of them in the lower forms and the school, who are just idling around and are quite confused as well because the do not know where their parents are. the bbc‘s mayeni jones, in lagos in neighbouring nigeria, gave us some context to this story. why is all of this important? it is a region that can ill afford another violent security threat. the cameroonian army is already fighting boko haram with the nigerian army in the north of the country into the

east there is the central african republic were number of refugees have come into cameroon, fleeing violence. many analysts fear that, if the conflicts between english—speaking separates and the governments escalates, it would stretch the cameroonian army. —— separatists. back to our top story: the mid—terms. these are the results of a recent survey by gallup. they found that health care, the economy and immigration come top of issues voters are concerned about in these elections. president obama has wanted to talk about the economy and immigration. on monday a campaign advert was produced by the president's campaign committee. in fact, on monday, a campaign advert about immigration produced by the president's campaign committee was pulled by several networks. paul farhi writes about media for the washington post: "so, to summarize today's ad action: @cnn, @nbc, @foxnews and @facebook have all rejected an ad by the president of the united states because they consider it racist. amazing." the clip falsely claimed democrats

let into the us an undocumented mexican immigrant who murdered two california sheriff's deputies in 2014. it also made a connection between that man's story and the migrant caravan travelling up through mexico, hoping to reach the us. the president has claimed it contains criminals without offering any evidence. ana gabriela rojas is with the caravan and has been finding out if those within it are following the mid—terms. mexico city is a crucial point for the thousands of people walking through mexico. this is a gathering point. people are getting together and getting much better treatment than in other states. the local government is considered to have a century for migrants so they are receiving shelter, food and more importantly information. most of the

people do not know the politics and the us, they do not know about the mid—term elections and what it means for them, that it can get harder for them to get into the us. so here there is lots of different information from the government and ngos who told them the implications to look for refugee status either here or in the us, so they need to know what to do is groups or as individuals. some of them have also reported that has been harassment from police in different parts of mexico but nevertheless they say the mexican people have been very welcoming to them and, as you can see, hundreds of volunteers here are helping them, giving them food and different services. some surprising findings: the amount of time children spend on devices has little effect on how long they sleep. previous research has suggested that excessive screen time was linked to children not sleep well. here's jane wakefield. this research looked at the

correlation between screen time and sleep deprivation. it is an issue thatis sleep deprivation. it is an issue that is affecting lots of people because most young people have devices and spend lots of time on them and health professionals, pa rents them and health professionals, parents and teachers are concerned that the amount of time that children are spending on the devices means they are not getting enough sleep. there have been studies to suggest this is the case that this study seems to run counter to some of those, suggesting that actually it is not bigger problem is people talk. the study the data that was donein talk. the study the data that was done in 2006 in the us, a vast amount of amount sampling, done in 2006 in the us, a vast amount sampling, 30,000 youngsters. the study was done to look at the help of households and it was done by pa rents help of households and it was done by parents self reporting how many hours the children slept. —— 50,000. but looking at the figures, a

teenager who spent no time on screen gotan teenager who spent no time on screen got an average only 20 minutes more sleep than a teenager spending up to eight hours on screen. we might be worrying unnecessarily about the amount of time children spend using the devices. some doctors though have said that despite the study, and they were kameni research in the area, they stick to the recommendations that the blue knight admitted from the screen can affect sleep that people can get and they say pa rents sleep that people can get and they say parents should ask the children to come of the devices up to an hour before they go to bed and they should come of the devices. —— blue light. our weather is very much on the mild side, and that is the weight will stay in the coming days. it will also do remain unsettled. we are at the mercy of low pressure area is pushing in from the atlantic, but those lows at the moment are pulling

a pairfrom the those lows at the moment are pulling a pair from the south and across the continent and to the south of us it is very warm for this time of year. in switzerland, temperatures were 16 celsius above average. the warm air is all the way up into scandinavia and we are on the periphery of that. so, we start wednesday on a more fitting with temperatures in double figures, not a cloud around though, fog thirsting for northern ireland, more persistent rain arriving for the afternoon, heavy rain for the south—west scotland, heavy showers further eastern regions likely to be driest and brightest, but that wind factor across the board and those averages showing you do sustained wind speed. temperatures remaining very healthy, 14 or 15 in some spots. this train will clear but look towards the south—west. the first sign of what is waiting in the wings for thursday. another frontal system pushes its way in. at the

moment, the thinking it will come to rest, bringing the most persistent rain into the south—west of england and wales, where we have seen the heaviest of it recently. later in the day, it will be in the north—west of england and southern scotland. drier, brighter conditions for northern ireland, sunshine for scotla nd for northern ireland, sunshine for scotland and central and eastern england, and healthy temperatures, up england, and healthy temperatures, up into the mid—teens. towards the end of the week, thursday into friday, and further out towards the west, this area of low pressure has the potential to deepen considerably. first thing on friday, cloudy, like rain around, but by the end of the day severe gales and some western exposures and pretty heavy rain swinging its way right across the country later on friday. that could be a dramatic low, and we will keep you posted. on into the weekend, we stay with low pressure, it will stay breezy, mild, showers around but perhaps not so extensive

on saturday, perhaps focusing on southern england. but the majority of them dry, not too bad at all. for sunday, the potential for us of them dry, not too bad at all. for sunday, the potentialfor us to of them dry, not too bad at all. for sunday, the potential for us to seek a bit of development on the tail end of the weather system to the south but currently we have eased back on that and we will have a breezy day, we still have the low with us, the milder so healthy temperatures, the showers may come together in the longest bars of rain across some parts of england and wales. scotland and northern ireland currently looked like they will enjoy fine weather and our temperatures again still doing pretty well, we're talking about the low to mid teens. as for next week, low pressure stays to the west of us but high pressure across the continent looks like it could extend our way so a toss—up at the moment, which one becomes the more dominant? and therefore exactly where we will see more unsettled weather. either way, we will stay in

the mild airstream is so warm with us the mild airstream is so warm with us in the next week. stay tuned for us us in the next week. stay tuned for us to pin the detail down where we will see the wet windy weather. tonight at 10pm. millions of americans cast their votes in the first nationwide test of donald trump's presidency. all the signs are that turnout is high in many areas as americans decide who should control both houses of congress. i don't agree with his texting or twittering, but other than that, i think the country is in a better place than it was two years ago. donald trump and the whole republican party needs to go. we need to be done with them. it's been a deeply divisive campiagn, with president trump admitting his tone could have been softened, at some points. polling stations on the east coast will close in a couple of hours' time, and soon after that we will learn whether donald trump's efforts

have paid off, or whether change is coming. we'll have the latest — and we'll be asking how the outcome could affect the direction of us government in the coming years.