hello, i'm ros atkins, this is outside source. we'll start with more detail on the uk's brexit strategy this does break international law in a very specific and limited way. we'll work through the ramifications of the uk government admitting it may break international law. belarus president alexander lukashenko hints at an early election — but says he's not ready to stand down. and we've also been hearing how the opposition leader who was snatched by masked men on monday ripped up her passport and then threw it out the window on the ukraine border — in an act of defiance. also remember donald trump saying this. the vaccine will be very safe and very effective, and it'll delivered very soon. you could have a very

big surprise coming up. today, drug companies have vowed not to bow to political pressure. we'll hear from them. there have been many dramatic moments in the brexit story. there was another one today. the uk government has confirmed it's walking back some of the commitments it made in last year's withdrawal agreement, specifically on the issue of the commitments it made in last year's withdrawal agreement with the eu — specifically on the issue of northern ireland. this is the northern ireland secretary brandon lewis. yes, this does break international law in a very specific and limited way. we are taking the power to disapply the eu law concept of direct effect, required by article four in a certain very tightly defined circumstance. so breaking the law — but in ‘narrow circumstances'. the uk government argument is that this proposed change to the northern ireland protocol

is a back—up in case the uk and the eu fail to cut a new trade deal — a so—called no—deal brexit. but the protocol was specifically drawn up in case these talks went wrong. peter foster from the financial times broke this story on sunday. here he is today. "it was a very deliberately constructed insurance policy. so the government's apparent attempts to re—write it, pare it back is like an insurance company trying to wheedle out of a pre—agreed policy." borisjohnson‘s predecessor as prime minister theresa may has also go involved. this was in parliament earlier. the united kingdom government signed the withdrawal agreement with the northern ireland protocol. this parliament voted that withdrawal agreement into uk legislation. the government is now changing the operation of that agreement. partners that the uk can be trusted to abide by the legal obligations given that, how can the government reassure future international partners that the uk can be trusted

to abide by the legal obligations of the agreements it signs? and trust is very important here. northern ireland was the single biggest obstacle and trust is very important here. northern ireland was the single biggest obstacle to the withdrawal deal getting done. the issue has always been the border on the island of ireland. northern ireland is part of the united kingdom — it shares a border with the republic of ireland which is in the eu. and because of northern ireland's violent past and its successful peace process, the status of that border is highly sensititive. the question has always been — how do you avoid a hard border on the island of ireland — and take all of the uk out of the eu's single market. to get round this, the uk agreed to some checks between great britain and northern ireland. vicki young has more. it agreed that northern ireland would continue to follow some eu customs rules — that would mean extra paperwork, checks, and tariffs for some goods moving between great britain

and northern ireland. now the government's introducing its own law, so that uk ministers could decide how to apply the rules without the eu's agreement. the problem is that if the uk reneges on its international obligation to carry out internal checks, then we come back to the same question everyone‘s been wrestling with — how to avoid customs checks on the border with the republic of ireland. or to put it another way — having said initially they wouldn't agree to checks in the irish sea, the uk then did agree do that to get a deal, and is now saying actually in some circumstances it won't do that after all. the labour opposition leader told the bbc the government's focus is wrong. what the government's doing — which, in my view, is wrong — is reopening old arguments that have been settled. a deal is there to be had. let's negotiate, let's get that deal — that's what the public want — and move on. and also this week the latest round of trade talks are beginning. here's political

reporter nick eardley. the uk government wants to persuade the european union negotiators that it is prepared to walk away from this and that it has a plan. it strikes me that what we're hearing about northern ireland is related to that because essentially what ministers are saying is that if there is a dispute over what is going into northern ireland, whether it is going to end up in the european union and should face tariffs, if they can't agree with that of the european union, and the they will make a unilateral decision. it would avoid some sort of d efa u lt decision. it would avoid some sort of default were suddenly everything going into northern ireland from great britain needs tariffs. but as you say, there is real concern in westminster that this is potentially really undermining the uk in the

community. especially after that pretty astonishing admission today from the northern ireland secretary that yes, it could mean in some circumstances, breaking international law. another issue is the level playing field that if the uk wantsa the level playing field that if the uk wants a trade deal with the eu, it has to follow the regulations. where do we follow on that one? the uk ministers do not want to be tight to european rules. some want to give big cash grants to struggling businesses or put money into certain industries that are really important. they do not feel constrained by that and so, they seemed pretty adamant that there they are not going to sign up to anything that would allow them to do that. because there is a debate going on inside the uk government about just how important going on inside the uk government aboutjust how important this is with these massive subsidies anyway, but it is probably the main sticking

point in talks between brussels and london at the moment, the other one is fishing quotas in the uk and looking back to the referendum, fishing was an issue of whether europe had far too much ability to come in fishing uk waters. they seem to be hoarding from on that as well, those of the two main things and the two main things for a few weeks now. really, these talks are stuck and the big question is, is anyone going to blink? more important developments in belarus. we now have a clearer idea of what has happened to one of the country's main opposition leaders, maria koles—nikova. she was last seen in minsk being bundled into a van by masked men on monday. this is footage released by the belarussian border guards which — they say — show three opposition leaders including maria koles—nikova at the border with ukraine. this is ukraine's deputy interior minister.

translation: yesterday in minsk, three members of the opposition coordination council, including maria kolesnikova, were kidnapped by men in plain clothes — allegedly special service officers of belarus state security committee. afterwards, those citizens were driven to the border with ukraine, where theirforceful expulsion from belarussian territory was planned with an intention to use this fact as if opposition leaders betrayed hundreds of thousands of their followers and stopped fighting against the lukashenko regime. in the last few hours, those two members of the opposition coordination council have been giving a press conference. jonah fisher was there. here he is speaking with one of them — ivan kravtsov — who was with maria kolesnikova at the border. at that moment, maria was forcefully put into the car. she literally tore her passport into small pieces. exactly. it was lying in the car and she took it immediately and tore it up.

then she climbed out the car through the rear window because the doors were locked. then she crawled to the belarussian territory. so this was in no man's land? yes, and i think it is heroic. it's really fantastic what she did. so she was very clear with them that she did not want to be forced into the ukraine? you might want to seem absolutely clear with that, yeah. and do we know where miss kolesnikova is? this is a big problem, we don't know exactly where she is because i think on 7 september, she was in the kgb. but we don't know where she is now, and this is a real problem. the other important development comes from belarussian president alexander lukashenko — he's said he won't step down

after weeks of protests. that bit we could have predicted, but according to russian media he hasn't ruled out an early election. here's more. and he also had a warning for russia. but we did with the russian establishment and leadership, if we fall, russia is next. the un's special rapporteur on belarus has weighed in — she says there are alarming signs that mr lukashenko's administration was becoming increasingly unhinged as it tries to find ways to respond to the protests. there has never really been any respect for the rule of law in belarus. but what we have been witnessing for the last four weeks is more like lawlessness, a sense of anarchy. when a state tries to expel its own citizens, it just isn't acceptable from the perspective of international human rights law.

has called for sanctions against mr lukashenko's government. hundreds of people are jailed, beaten, raped. this should not be the norm in europe. this can't be the norm of the civilized world. but the power of sanctions seems limited. mr lukashenko has been in power since the 90s, and only one of two things would change that — the police and army would need to turn against him. or vladimir putin would need to tell him to go. at the moment, despite huge opposition pressure and some international pressure, those things haven't happened. earlier, i spoke to evelyn farkas, the former us deputy assistant secretary of defence for russia, ukraine and eurasia.

absolutely. first of all, we need to be engaged in the international community and more actively, trying to essentially engineer transition, much as we did in the ukraine. we know the transition didn't work because the leader who had been discredited and basically forced by his people from his position lost his people from his position lost his nerve and fled to russia. but before that happened, the european union united states and russia brokered the transition for the ukrainian so they could go to elections and in the case of belarus, they did to sort elections, so belarus, they did to sort elections, so that god is the issue so so that is not the issue. but they we re so that is not the issue. but they were largely discredited by eyewitnesses who saw the ballot and saw that the victor was actually not

lukashenko. we saw that the victor was actually not lu kashenko. we need saw that the victor was actually not lukashenko. we need the transition it if that doesn't work, sanctions need to be a threat out there. to push for a fundamental change in a country, yet to be confident that that country can take that opportunity create something solid and it is littered with examples, libya and iraq being two examples that even with the west does push for change and support change, what follows is not what the west wants. the west is not pushing for change in the government or the regime, thatis in the government or the regime, that is something that the belarussian people that is something that the bela russian people decided that is something that the belarussian people decided amongst themselves. they wanted to change and enough of them voted for it. that reality has nothing to do with the west, but we want to protect the

freedom of these people to pick theirform of government freedom of these people to pick their form of government and freedom for them to not be abused and that if their human rights violated by the government. that is with the international community has an interest in. more tension in the himalayas on the disputed border between india and china. both sides accuse the other of firing shots in the air on monday night. the disputed area is around what's called the line of actual control or the lac — it runs between indian administered kashmir and chinese administered aksai chin — and this tension isn't new. back injune, 20 indian soldiers were killed in clashes. we don't know if china lost soldiers too. that clash took place in the galwan river valley — and was reported to involve hand to hand combat and spiked bats. and while that was highly unusual — military patrols often get close because there is no marked border. the significance of monday night is that it involved firearms. for decades both sides have stuck to an agreement to avoid using guns in the disputed territory. now as you'd expect — both sides are blaming each other.

first, here's the chinese foreign ministry. translation: on 7 september, indian troops illegally crossed the line of actual control and entered the southbank of the lake at the western sector of the china—india border. the indian troops blatantly fired threatening shots at the chinese border patrol troops, who were there for negotiations. and the chinese border troops were compelled to take countermeasures to stabilise the situation. the indian army denies entering territory it shouldn't have — orfiring shots. what is certain is the language around these moments continues to escalate. this is the editor of the chinese state supported global times: a border conflict is looming due to the #indian side's misjudgment and repeated provocations. if indian troops open fire toward the pla — that's the chinese army — its troops in conflicted areas will be defeated. here's our south asia editor anbarasan ethirajan on where these clashing

could be heading. the change of language on both sides, both china and india and if you look at the chinese military statement on monday night, it was very blunt, they said they had to ta ke very blunt, they said they had to take countermeasures and they strongly criticised and warned that china will be forced to take other steps so that the indian troops will not intrude into their territory. for months, the indian defence minister kept quiet on this alleged intrusions but the indian army was very swift this morning and issuing a statement and saying they did not fire a shot and that it was the chinese the fired and india and towards the position. it shows that things are really getting hot around the border and both sides are saying that they want to dislodge each other from these territories. you have to understand this is a very punishing territory, we are talking

about 10000 and 15,000 feet high, it is called snow desert mountain, no one can live there during winter and this is where two of the worlds biggest armies are locked in the art eye ball to biggest armies are locked in the art eyeball to eyeball on the situation and that is dangerous because any of one wrong step by the side can lead to escalation. stay with us on outside source. still to come: we hear from an australia correspondent forced to leave china after being questioned by chinese state security. tighter coronavirus restrictions have come into force in parts of the uk — to stem rising virus cases. the number of deaths in the past 2a hours has moved from three on monday — to 30 today. deaths remain low compared to early in the pandemic, average hospital numbers — as we saw there in fergus's piece —

also remain very low compared to before. but ministers are concerned that, although it's not inevitable they will go up because we have seen more cases, they might do based on what has happened in france and spain, with younger people maybe inadvertently infecting older members of their family or those who are vulnerable. that's why we have seen the tough new rules being imposed in bolton, that is why the scottish and welsh governments have brought in their own restrictions in certain areas and that's why the government at westminster isn't ruling out the possibility of tighter new rules on the numbers who can visit other people's houses, possibly even being announced tomorrow. this is outside source live from the bbc newsroom. our lead story is? a british minister admits that uk plans to change the brexit agreement would ‘break international law'.

the chief executives of the world's biggest drug companies have signed a joint pledge promising to "uphold the integrity of the scientific process" for developing coronavirus vaccines. the pledge says they will "only submit for approval or emergency use authorisation after demonstrating safety and efficacy through a phase three clinical study." the statement goes on to say: "we believe this pledge will help ensure public confidence in the rigorous scientific and regulatory process by which covid—19 vaccines are evaluated." among the signatories are astrazeneca and pfizer, who both have candidate vaccines in those phase three trials. given the huge human cost of the coronavirus pandemic the race to find a vaccine is paramount everywhere — and there are signs governments may be willing to cut corners — or fast—track the process — depending on your point of view. russia has already licensed its vaccine, its called ‘sputnik 5‘ — before test results were even published. they have now released the results of the trial —

but experts say it wasn't large or rigorous enough to meet international standards. it's notjust in russia this is an issue — in the us, the presidential election in november presents a huge incentive for president trump to get a vaccine out there now. he's not shy of speaking about it. it's going to be... it's going to be done in a very short period of time. could even have it during the month of october. the vaccine will be very safe and very effective, and it'll be delivered very soon. you could have a very big surprise coming up. the regulator too, is keen to speed things up. the head of the us food and drug adminstration says he would be willing to bypass the normal approval process for licensing a vaccine. stephen hahn told the financial times "the legal, medical and scientific standard. is that the benefit outweighs the risk in a public health emergency. thomas cooney is director—general of the international federation

of pharmaceutical manufacturers, which represents the companies who signed the pledge. the message is clear, there is a temptation for politicians to push a vaccine faster than might be good for the testing of the quality. they certainly do not want that to happen. can you be clear with me here, we heard donald trump yesterday saying that he thinks a vaccine could be possible by october. that would raise the expectations of not just october. that would raise the expectations of notjust americans, but people all around the world. is he wrong to suggest that it's possible? we can expect some results of these clinical trials by the end of these clinical trials by the end of october, but you still need to look at the date a steed to validate the data. i still think it is fairly unlikely that we will have a vaccine and this and that large—scale before

the end of this year. we may be surprised but clearly, the manufacturers do not want speed above quality. distilled the most important information from stories around the world. relations between australia and china have been getting worse all year — that's carrying on. two australian journalists have fled china because of fears they were going to be detained. here they are boarding theirflight home. that's mike smith on the left — he works for the newspaper the australian financial review. and that's bill birtles on the right. he's from the abc — australia's national broadcaster. they spoke to the press when they arrived in sydney. it's so good to be home, so happy. i can't say any more at the moment, but it such a relief to be home. so really happy... did you feel threatened at all when you were over there? a little bit, yes. very disappointing to have to leave under those circumstances. and it's a relief to be back in a country with genuine rule of law. this is a really significant moment

— these men were the last two journalists working for australian media organisations in china. here's bill birtles telling the bbc more about what happened. it's a whirlwind week where, to me, this kind of came out of nowhere. last monday, i got a call advising me that i needed to leave china immediately. this was the australian officials, and they had received some sort of warning or advance — they never specified what — but they said, "our advice is for you to get out quick" — which isn't easy because of covid. well bill birtles was preparing to take that official advice when things escalated. here he is on how. sure enough, at midnight on the wednesday, six state security police plus a translator were at my door in beijing — not to detain me, but to inform me that i'm involved in a national security investigation, that there's an exit ban placed on me, and i'm not allowed to leave the country. the national security investigation

he mentions there is a reference to the case of this journalist — the australian citizen chung lay. she's a respected business presenter and reporter for china's state—owned television network cgtn. in august, she suddenly stopped appearing on screen and ceased all contact with friends and family. her profile and interviews were also wiped from cgtn's website. now the chinese government has confirmed that she's been detained — and she's being accused of spying. here's china's foreign ministry spokesman. translation: the relevant departments recently took compulsory measures in accordance with the law against australian national cheng lei, who was suspected of criminal activity endangering china's national security. and we are conducting an investigation. her various rights and interests are all receiving full legal protection. the treatment of chung lay prompted australia's government to warn bill birtles and mike smith to leave. they then took refuge in the australian embassy for four days while diplomatic negotiations

secured their freedom. but they weren't allowed to leave china without submitting to police interviews first. and during those interviews they were asked about chung lay. here's bill birtles again. it did know her particularly well. it didn't really seem like i would be the most logical person to interrogate if you wanted evidence about her case. so they did ask me about that, they also asked me about hong kong national security law and, when i report on that, what sort of channels do i go to to get my information? there was also a bit of back—and—forth about the general australia—china relationship. you just got the general sense from the whole process that this was all part of a bigger political game — and myself and mike smith, the otherjournalist, we were simply small pawns in a much bigger dispute. now we should definitely see this story in the context of worsening relations between australia and china. and there are a number of reasons behind this.

it's been quite humid today but some of the very warm in fact all parts of the very warm in fact all parts of the very warm in fact all parts of the uk quitting somewhere the hello. it's been quite a humid day out there, but for some of us, very warm. in fact, all parts of the uk recording somewhere with a temperature above 20, but some spots into the mid—20s saw plenty of sunshine across parts of eastern scotland, whereas in the west, it's been turning wetter. this cold front is about to move south across the uk into tomorrow, and that's bringing cooler and fresher air with it. now some rain then for scotland and northern ireland to end the day, running in the parts of northern england and north wales as the night goes on. it's to the south of that where we hold onto a lot of cloud, and mild, muggy air with some spots around 15—16 celsius as we start the day tomorrow. this is a cold front,

this area of cloud and rain weakening all the while as it moves further south during the day, not a whole lot of rain left on it. won't clear from the south of england until right at the end of the afternoon. but behind it, you've got the sunshine — and it is a cold front, so behind it, you get the cooler, fresher air moving in with a few blustery showers moving through northern scotland. now the wind just tilting around for a west—northwesterly out of the south—west today. and that is that fresh air moving in. but where we see temperatures today into the low 20s, they'll be down towards the mid—to—high teens. so still very pleasant where you get that sunshine through the afternoon, but bear in mind with largely clear skies that's been going through wednesday evening, it will be a much cooler night into thursday morning, with temperatures quite widely into the single figures. with an area of high pressure nosing in for thursday, that brings a lot of fine, settled weather. a good deal of sunshine to start the day, there will be some cloud building and probably more so towards the west, especially towards northern ireland, north west england, and western scotland. another atlantic weather system pushing a weaker front end

which will give some patchy rain and a fresh new breeze once again. and temperatures for the most part on thursday are in the mid—to—high teens. now there will be a stronger weather front initially coming into scotland on friday, so expect stronger winds and heavy rain moving through scotland on friday, through northern ireland, again feeding down towards parts of northern england and north wales later in the day. whereas to the south of that, you stay dry with heavy showers running into western scotland — again, temperatures running into the mid—to—high teens with something warmer by the end of the weekend.

hello, this is bbc news with me, tim willcox. the headlines: concerns over the sharp rise in coronavirus cases — particularly among the young — as part of greater manchester is placed under tight new restrictions. bolton has the highest infection rate in the uk. well, we'rejust beginning to build

ourselves back up, albeit slow, but now we're going to go right back to day one. new restrictions have just come into force in caerphilly as well, which has the highest infection rate in wales. nazanin zaghari—ratcliffe, the british—iranian woman who was arrested in iran four years ago, is told she'll face another trial. the foreign, commonwealth and development office calls the action unacceptable. the inquiry into the manchester arena bombing which killed 22 people hears that a0 minutes after the explosion, only one paramedic had arrived at the scene. this does break international law in a very specific and limited way. a government minister admits a new bill to amend the uk's brexit deal with the eu will break international law. heading towards the point of no return — andrew lloyd webber warns of the damage done by the pandemic on theatre and the