welcome to bbc news. i'm reged ahmad. our top stories: the eyes to the right, 293, the noes to the left, 146. britain's parliament defies boris johnson — again blocking his call for a snap general election. it's the sixth defeat for the prime minister in little over a week. parliament's now set to be suspended for five weeks. authorities in the bahamas defend their response to hurricane dorian. we report from the abaco islands where tens of thousands are still desperate for help. myanmar steps up efforts to repatriate rohigya refugees. but hundreds of thousands who've fled to bangladesh refuse to return.

and as the long—awaited sequel to the handmaid's tale is published, author margaret atwood tells the bbc her story's "closer to reality" than ever. in another day of high drama the british parliament has again rejected the prime minister's call for a snap general election. it's the sixth defeat for borisjohnson, in a little over a week. in a fiery final debate before parliament is controversially suspended for five weeks, mrjohnson insisted that he would not ask the eu for an extension to the date of brexit, in spite of a law passed by mps compelling him to do so. opposition leaders accused the prime minister of trying to call an election to secure

a no—deal brexit by stealth at the end of october. this is how the result was announced. the ayes to the right — 293. the noes to the left — 46. that's less than last time. yes. for us. not for you. the ayes to the right — 293. the noes to the left — 46. so the ayes have it, the ayes have it. hear, hear. that's quite the reaction there. the prime minister said the oppositon was simply afraid they would lose the election, and the exchanges continued after the vote. i will go to that crucial summit in brussels on october 17th and no matter how many devices this parliament invents to tie my hands i will strive, mr speaker,

to get an agreement in the national interest. this government will not delay brexit any further. we will not allow the emphatic verdict of the referendum to be slowly suffocated by further calculated drift and paralysis. the one thing the prime minister didn't say was that he was going to obey the law of this country. he did not say he acknowledged or accepted three votes that have taken place in this parliament and, under his request, the house is now due, apparently, this evening, to be prorogued for one of the longest prorogations in history, simply in order to avoid any questioning of what he is doing or not doing, simply to avoid discussion about yellowhammer, particularly to avoid any discussion

about the proposals he has or hasn't or do or don't exist that have been put to the european union. mr speaker, this government is a disgrace and the way the prime minister operates is a disgrace. jeremy corbyn, leader of the opposition ending that there. with me is our news reporter gareth barlow. a lot of people will be asking, this isa a lot of people will be asking, this is a crucial time, why is the government for a road? the line from the government is that this suspension is needed is because it has been such a long session. one of the longest in the history of the uk parliament was that they say alongside brexit it is still business as usual, there is still a country to run and we need this break to set up their plans, their legislations, the laws of the forthcoming year. what they will do is suspend parliament, and give it as though it's the end of a school term and then they will go off and make plans for the next term. they need five weeks, they will come back on october 14 and during the queen's speech, though they are plans for

policies like nhs spending plans for the police, for example. and this though, is highly controversial because the opposition parties say the timing is so pivotal that they need this opportunity to influence, to question, to scrutinise the government. by proroguing government, the government avoid that. this is also a very long suspension. in 2016, it wasjust four days, in 2013, it was 30 days, this year, 2a working days. as mps that the house of commons after the final debate this evening, there we re final debate this evening, there were chance of shame, shame, shame, but i think there is that sense of the opposition that it is just trying to avoid any scrutiny dash cha nts trying to avoid any scrutiny dash chants of, parliament at the moment has quite a lot of power. and we have those pictures of parliamentarians leaving the chamber a short time ago. they've been very busy, they've passed a law that forces the prime minister to seek a delay to devoid a no—deal brexit ——

avoid a no—deal brexit, does that mean no deal is off the table? no. this is a very controversial thing again. like you say, politicians have said if borisjohnson can't get an agreement with the european union by october 19, then he has to ask foran by october 19, then he has to ask for an extra extension, that would ta ke for an extra extension, that would take the uk and brexit deadline to the end of january 2020. boris johnson says hejust the end of january 2020. boris johnson says he just won't do that, he won't go and ask for an extension to the deadline, he's used very strong language — i would rather die ina ditch, strong language — i would rather die in a ditch, he said. so, he could still write to the european union and say i would like an extension to the deadline, he could abide by the law passed by parliament, then right a second letter, saying ignore the first letter, pretend that didn't happen. he could also ask for a member state to veto any extension the eu gives. we will have to see.

we know the parliament has rejected a snap election, so what are these parliamentarians going to be doing? they're going to be doing just that, preparing for a snap election. it's not a question of if, it's a question of when. they will be going back to the people and saying you need to prepare yourself to decide what the uk deserves. gareth barlow taking us through that. no of course there are still a lot of details and questions for what comes next. you can questions for what comes next. you ca n follow questions for what comes next. you can follow all the latest developments on our website, all the spicks and specks of brexit at bbc.com/news or download the bbc news app. officials in the bahamas have defended their response to hurricane dorian, saying they are dealing with the disaster. at least 45 people were killed last week and aid agencies say tens of thousands of people in the worst—hit areas, still have no access to food or clean water. aleem maqbool reports now from the abaco islands,

one of the worst hit areas. with little left to stay for after the hurricane, there's a clamor now to get off this devastated island. the airstrip's opened on abaco, and though the planes keep coming, theyjust can't match demand. there's not enough. there's nothing to do, so... all you can do is try. marsh harbor close by, though, is nowjust and obliterated and empty town. people who were here during the hurricane say those shipping containers were lifted up by the winds and the powerful tidal surges, and smashed into people's homes, and pushed further and further back. and the stories of loss and of those who are missing are everywhere. around here was the home of ebma francoise. we were going to accompany him back to the spot for the first time,

but when we got to the edge of the town, he froze. you don't want to go there? no. why don't you want to go there? because you see how i smell? you see how it is. you could smell, you don't know what you smell there. it looks like something, people are still in there i know, so there are plenty of people dead. plenty people dead. among the ghosts here for ebma is that of his girlfriend, lisa. her body was found, but the stench ebma talks of suggests many still haven't been. eva survived with her children, but three of her cousins are still missing. she's reluctant to fly out to the bahamian capital, nassau. they tell people to go nassau, i don't know nothing about nassau. because i ain't got no family in nassau there, because my kids need to go to school. i ain't got nothing, i lost all my things. i ain't got nothing in my life.

it is the poorest who have been affected most by the hurricane, mainly from abaco's haitian community. many of them and feel the prospects are bleak, whether they stay or go. aleem maqbool, bbc news, on the abaco islands of the bahamas. north korea has launched two unidentified projectiles into the sea, according to the south korean military. the launch comes just a few hours after pyongyang said it was willing to hold denuclearisation talks with washington in late september, the first concrete offer of talks since the summit between donald trump and kim jong—un broke down in hanoi in february. so that was the news from pyongyang but earlier on monday, president trump declared that the talks with the taliban are dead. he said he cancelled talks due to be held over the weekend at camp david because the militants killed a us service member.

mr trump explained his decision. we had a meeting scheduled. it was my idea and it was my idea to the —— terminated. when i heard very simply they killed one of our soldiers and 12 innocent other people i said there is no way i'm meeting on that basis, there is no way i'm meeting. michael kugelman is south asia senior associate at the wilson center and has been following the afghan peace process. he joins us from washington. he says the talks with the taliban are dead. why do you think, after this whole peace process, that is pulled the plug? i think president trump saw the writing on the wild. i think he saw there is increasing concern about this deal that was emerging between the us and the taliban concerning — internationally

but also within his own in his administration, john bolton was getting concerned about a deal that would really not have caused the taliban to have to do anything. you didn't have to make any concessions at all other than denying space to terrorists. what really concerned people in kabul, was that it wouldn't compel the taliban to do a ceasefire. so think is looking for a pretext to pull the plug is in order to —— orthe pretext to pull the plug is in order to —— or the plug in order to step back and find a deal better for the united states, that's way he basically cited this taliban attack that killed a us soldier. in reality, the taliban has been staging attacks in increasing form over the last few months since the talks have intensified, and you had american servicemen that have died at the hands of the taliban in recent months as well, more than a dozen infarcts. and i think

president trump was saying that it's time to step back and think about what to do next. as you say, civilians and us soldiers have been dying, especially civilians, throughout the whole process of these thoughts. was donald trump right then to make this move? was that taliban ever serious about these thoughts? it's hard to say. it's really ha rd these thoughts? it's hard to say. it's really hard to read the taliban. there's a lot we don't know about the taliban in terms of what it wants. what we do know is it wa nts it wants. what we do know is it wants us troops out of afghanistan. soi wants us troops out of afghanistan. so i think in that sense that taliban was really interested in negotiating with united states, which of course also wanted an agreement to allow troops to leave. the back of the matter is the taliban always had the upper hand in these negotiations, it operated from a position of strength of the negotiation table because it had the luxury of not needing a deal right away. yes, it wanted troops from the us to leave, but not right away.

it's believed all along if it doesn't like what it is being asked to do it could back out, reject or refuse demands that the us makes and thatis refuse demands that the us makes and that is what the taliban did throughout these thoughts. and that is where the us was in the position that it was, a deal that was very wea k that it was, a deal that was very weak that the united states because it wouldn't have obliged the taliban to do much of anything. so short of the matter, i do think that taliban is interested in negotiating, i think it would be ready to come back to the table, but in the end of the day, it's not in any rush to do that. we will have to see if those peace talks ever do resume. michael kugelman, thank you. thank you. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: a concert in korea's demilitarized zone. how culture hopes to ease tensions between north and south.

george w bush: freedom itself was attacked this morning, and freedom will be defended. the united states will hunt down and punish those responsible. bishop tutu now becomes spiritual leader of 100,000 anglicans here, of the blacks in soweto township, as well as the whites in their rich suburbs. we say to you today in a loud and a clear voice "enough of blood and tears. enough!" translation: the difficult decision we reached together was one that required great and exceptional courage. it's an exodus of up to 60,000 people caused by the uneven pace of political change in eastern europe. iam free!

this is bbc news. the latest headlines: mps have defeated the british government's call for a general election. parliament is now set to be suspended for five—weeks. authorities in the bahamas have defended their response to hurricane dorian. aid still hasn't reached tens of thousands in the worst—hit areas. two years after more than 700,000 muslim rohingyas fled from a savage military operation, they remain stuck in overcrowded camps in bangladesh. a second attempt to start repatriating the refugees failed last month when none of the 3,500 rohingyas selected would agree to go, citing fears for their safety. the government of myanmar says it is committed to bringing them back. however, our correspondent jonathan head was able to find evidence that, far from welcoming the rohingyas back, the authorities in rakhine state have been erasing

all trace of their villages. the border post in northern rhakine state. an immigration officer shows us lists of the rohingya refugees his government had approved last month. they want the world to understand how ready they are to have at least some of them back. though so far, they've had no takers. well, we've been allowed to come right up here to the border with bangladesh, and it's through these rusting gates that myanmar officials say they were expecting hundreds, even thousands, of rohingya refugees to come under the latest repatriation scheme. but, of course, without any promises of citizenship, without any real investigation into the abuses they suffered, and most of all, without any

reassurances about what kind of future they have, we know that at the moment none of the rohingyas over there on that side of the border are willing to make this crossing. if significant numbers of rohingya refugees do decide to come back, this is where they're likely to spend at least their first two months. it is a transit camp and, as you can see, it would be pretty basic living. it's also fenced in, with watchtowers and armed police, and it's unlikely they'll be free to come and go. but most of them will not be able to go back to their villages, because they've notjust been destroyed by the violence of two years ago, but they've continued to be demolished even since then. in fact, this very camp is built on the site of what was an intact rohingya village that was then bulldozed. satellite images show two relatively undamaged settlements at the end of 2017, which within a few months are flattened to make way

for the transit camp. yet the camp administrator seems unaware of this. why did you destroy the village, the muslim village that was here, to build this camp? "there's no village in this area," he said. "there are no villages where we built the camp." two years ago, at the height of the military campaign against the rohingyas, i was able to film a muslim neighbourhood, which had just been burnt. today, on exactly the same stretch of road, there's a newly constructed government complex instead. it has completely vanished. we were also shown a relocation camp where returning refugees are expected to live, closely monitored by the security forces. there is a large new police barracks close by. here, two satellite images show that a rohingya village was demolished to make way for it. well, this is perhaps the strangest part of this tightly

controlled government trip. they've brought us to a village called inn din, which is notorious for a massacre of ten muslim men in september 2017, and for which two reuters journalists went to prison after investigating it. now, they've brought us here showing us scenes of ordinary life to stress that it is all peaceful and harmonious now with the non—muslim population. but if you come over here, behind this barbed wire fence is where the muslims used to live. there's no trace of them now. they've constructed some kind of government barracks behind there, and it's quite clear that the muslims are never coming back here. as we heard earlier, north korea has said that it is ready to resume nuclear talks with the united states. it comes exactly a year after the leaders of north and south korea signed a historic deal to take steps to demilitarise the border between them.

since then, relations have soured, with the north now declaring it will no longer talk to the south, so it may come as a surprise that the south has held a peace concert on the demilitarised border between the two koreas. the bbc‘s laura bicker was there. for world—renowned cellist yo—yo ma, this is a dream come true — playing at the border between the two koreas. culture allows us to dream together, and together, we can achieve the impossible. this makeshift stage at dorasan train station is the last stop in the south. beyond lie lines of barbed wire and fields of landmines which make up the dmz. just last year, there were discussions to change that. last september, south korea's president moon and north korea's kimjong—un declared to work together

towards disarmament. the two sides destroyed watchtowers along the heavily—fortified border, and removed landmines. but in recent months, harsher signals have come from pyongyang. they've tested missile after missile. injune, there was this surprise meeting between donald trump and mr kim. each month since, the us has said talks would follow in coming days or weeks, but there's been nothing. the north has said it would no longer talk to the south. so, as crowd—pleasing as this concert may be, is it in vain? translation: if we keep trying, i believe one day we will be unified. so, for some, the dream continues. there are those in the south who cling to the hope that

even if the north is not talking, it is at least listening. laura bicker, bbc news, the dmz. one of the year's most eagerly awaited novels has been released at midnight in london. there were queues round the block at one bookshop in central london. the testaments is margaret atwood's sequel to the handmaid's tale. it returns to the fictional world where women are little more than slaves, recently brought to a new audience on television. our arts correspondent rebecca jones has been speaking with the author. the world, as she sees it, can be a terrifying place, and in a career spanning five decades, margaret atwood's vision is as disturbing as ever. only dead people are allowed to have statues, but i've been given one while still alive.

so starts her latest novel, the testaments, in which she returns to the nightmare future she created in the handmaid's tale. blessed be the fruit. may the lord open. 30 years after she wrote it, the television adaptation brought the book to a vast, new audience. in the novel, america is ruled by religious fundamentalists, and women are reduced to sexual slavery. margaret atwood thinks its message of oppression has never felt more relevant. young women of reproductive age are always in the minority in any society. they feel that they're on the verge of having decisions made about them, and about their entire future and fate and body and health, that they have not been able to decide. and, after the election of donald trump, the handmaid's tale took on a new resonance. in america and beyond, women have adopted the striking uniform worn by characters in the novel to protest against laws written restricting their rights.

it's a brilliant demonstration strategem, because you can't kick them out because they're not saying anything. they're sitting very modestly. and you can't kick them out because they're dressed improperly. they're all covered up. but everybody looking at them knows what they mean. there is so much... hype, fanfare associated with the testaments... i apologise. well, do you feel any pressure at all? well, it is a book. it's not regime change. it's not riots in moscow. it's not brexit, dare i say. so it is actually a book. the wait may be over, but no danger, then, of margaret atwood getting caught up in the excitement. but, at the age of 79, having written 50 books and winning more than 100 literary prizes, perhaps that's not surprising. rebecca jones, bbc news. iam sure i am sure many i am sure many are

i am sure many are looking forward to that book now that it is coming out in certain areas. much more coming up. see you soon. hello. weather—wise, yesterday certainly wasn't the most shining of starts to the new week. it was cloudy, it was pretty wet for many of us, and also it felt on the chilly side. today, we flip the coin. it's much drier, it should be much brighter, and also consequently it will also feel warmer. this area of low pressure is the area responsible for the wet weather yesterday. that's off into the continent. today, we have a little ridge of high pressure. we start with quite a bit of cloud around, perhaps some patchy mist and fog. could be a problem for the early rush—hour in the midlands, but that will lift and there's a lot of sunshine to be had in the afternoon. however, you don't need to look

too closely to observe there's quite a significant change approaching northern ireland by the end of the afternoon. this weather front is part of an area of low pressure that is actually ex—hurricane dorian. it's nowhere near hurricane—strength as it makes its way to the uk, let's be clear about that. but it will be a very windy night as the low pressure goes across and weather fronts will slide their way southwards, rain around, but mild into wednesday. through wednesday day, the centre of the low stays to the north of the uk. the isobars stay closely packed together. much of the rain will sweep away south—eastwards. we should be left with quite a bit of sunshine into the second half of the day, but the strong westerly wind will feed quite a few showers into western scotland. and the wind will be particularly gusty, so potentially even disruptive, as gusts could touch up to ao—asmph for exposed areas to the north and west of the uk. but the temperatures already starting to look healthier than they did at the start of the week. we're into the low 20s in the south—east. wednesday into thursday,

we get another little area of low pressure running across us. this is ex—tropical storm gabrielle. again basically quite a deep area of low pressure. it will bring some windy weather perhaps to the south and west in western exposures for a time. the biggest difference, though, is the tropical area it pulls up to the south of it on thursday. so wet for northrthern ireland and scotland, windy, that then sets us up for the remainder of the week and to take us into the weekend. with high pressure building from the south—west. we feed the warmer air north across the uk, settling the weather down nicely. friday into the weekend, dry weather around, some pleasant spells of sunshine, and a return as well of some warmer weather.

this is bbc news. the headlines: in britain, mps have again rejected government efforts to call a snap general election. it's the sixth defeat for the prime minister, borisjohnson, in little over a week. parliament is now set to be suspended for five weeks. authorities in the bahamas have defended their response to hurricane dorian. aid still hasn't reached tens of thousands in the worst—hit area. people who've remained in marsh harbour in the abaco islands say there hasn't even been a concerted attempt to recover bodies. president trump says us talks with the afghan taliban are "dead". the decision to scrap negotiations came in response to last week's militant attack that killed 12 people, including an american soldier. the taliban said americans will "lose the most" for cancelling. those are the headlines.