this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour, straight after this programme. reporters speak spanish. it was once the murder capital of the world. cries. for decades, rival gangs ruled the streets of el salvador through violence, extortion and fear. until now. for a year, the country's young, media—savvy president has declared war on the gangs...

..imposing emergency security measures and giving police sweeping powers of arrest. thousands are now behind bars and the country is transforming before people's eyes. but there's a dark underside hidden from view. human rights groups are dismayed, as are relatives, at the thousands that have been arbitrarily arrested. peace may have come to el salvador, but at what price?

teacher audelia has lived here since the late 1990s — la campanera, in the capital's notorious soyapango district.

more than 20 years ago, rival gangs the ms—13 and the 18th street gang took control of neighbourhoods across the country. they became, in effect, no—go areas for outsiders and the police. thousands were murdered or caught in the crossfire. and in those years of the growth of the gangs, can you explain to us what it was like living here?

but in the last 12 months, audelia has witnessed the change on these streets that she never thought possible. for the past year, el salvador has been living under an emergency measure called the state of exception. police and military have been mobilised in vast numbers and some constitutional

rights suspended. defeating the gangs was one of the main election promises of nayib bukele, a former marketing executive turned president. so, what's the policy meant on the streets? in the suburbs of san salvador, another security patrol is about to set off. every day for a year, dozens of police, soldiers and elite troops have been sent into the back streets of the capital, carrying lists. they search anyone with a possible profile or tattoos of a gang member. it's alleged that some officers

have been given daily quotas for arrests. others are sent to specific houses, often using anonymous tip—offs. this neighbour explains the person they're looking for has already been arrested. but this ruthless new security policy hasn't brought peace to everyone in el salvador. in this small rural community, i've come to meet marcela. she tells me about the moment the police swept into their

village last year. her sonjose duval was working in the fields. jose was arrested under a charge being widely used by the police during this crackdown. unlawful association has been criticised by human rights organisations for its broad interpretation. it justifies arrest

on the grounds of being even indirectly connected with a gang. did he have any gang affiliation that they accuse him of? this is like a petition, signed by members of the community tojose duval�*s good character,

to his lack of involvement in any gang activity, signed by all of the neighbours in the village. there must be 100 or so of them, and she says she has more inside. do you have any information at all about how he's doing inside? have you been able to see him at all?

marcela's greatest fear is that jose may end up here — a new mega prison built to house gang members. president bukele ensured these carefully choreographed images made headlines across the globe. more than 65,000 people have been arrested in just 12 months, making el salvador�*s prison population proportionally the highest in the world. do you think that you will have the strength to get through these next months?

marcela is not alone. it's the one—year anniversary of the state of exception. in the capital, hundreds of families are taking to the streets. all chant. they say that their loved ones have been detained arbitrarily in flagrant abuse of their human rights and of the constitution. they say they haven't heard from them, have no information about them, and simply don't know when or if they will ever be let out again — and there are people here who've lost loved

ones in prison, too. outside the national assembly building, the protesters call for the release of their

detained relatives. yelling. they can only imagine the poor conditions inside the prisons. but one woman has agreed to talk about her experience. dolores — a union leader and single mum — was at home when she received an unexpected knock at the door. do you think your arrest was related to your union activities?

dolores was not told the grounds of her arrest — one of the rights suspended under the state of exception. it wasn't until days later that she realised she was being charged with unlawful association. soon after, she was sent to prison. can you tell me what that experience was like?

while dolores was in prison, her teenage daughter had to care for her five siblings.

union members protested tirelessly against her sentence. after seven months, she was released. the government says that the international committee of the red cross makes regular visits to assess prison conditions. critics say targeting union leaders like dolores shows the president is using the emergency measure to undermine potential opposition. i put this to his vice—president, felix ulloa, in an exclusive interview. you have made it sound very innocent, very light, but the truth is, it grants some extremely draconian powers to the police, that they can arrest you merely on an anonymous phone call, merely for having tattoos, merely for suspecting that you have an association

with illicit gang activity. what you said is not true. i mean, the police, didn't go, or didn't went to the communities to capture people because they have tattoo, or because there is an anonymous phone call, no. it's not like that. this is a lie that has been spread overfor the political position in el salvador. the truth is that when the police go to capture a person in a community, it's because they have the profile. nevertheless, human rights organisations and many others, including the families of many of those who been arrested, say they have been arrested with absolutely no link to gain crime, that there are thousands of people in prison. it could be, when you handle an operation of this size, there will be some mistakes and some people could be arrested with no link with the gangs. and how do you feel about that? you are admitting on camera that there are thousands of people, potentially

thousands of people innocent. and thousands of people have been released. we are aware, as you said, that some people, probably innocent people could be part, but as i said, the perfect is enemy of the good. we are doing something really good, appreciated by the population, over 90% of the population agree with the state of exception, and they want to be extended. his policy has brought bukele unprecedented levels of support in el salvador. with a series of high—impact, headline—grabbing orders captured by his well—oiled media machine, mr bukele is now trying to wipe away any trace of the gangs from public view, even destroying gravestones with gang symbols on them. hundreds of former gang safe houses are also being reclaimed.

with the help of low—interest loans, they are passed on to localfamilies, like audelia's. if the president does stand for re—election, will you vote for him?

100 kilometres away, marcela is also taking me to see a new house. hola. it's the one her sonjose was building for his wife, his daughter and the baby son he is yet to meet, born after he was sent to prison.

despite opponents saying it's unconstitutional, president bukele is expected to stand for re—election in 202a. his security crackdown should make him unassailable at the polls. but are thousands of families like marcela's paying the price?

hello there. at this time of year, tropical weather systems that originated in the atlantic can help to turn our weather quite turbulent and autumnal. that's exactly what's happening right now. during the day on sunday, it will turn warmer, but wetter and windier, thanks to this shield of cloud. and this contains the remnants

of what was hurricane nigel. certainly not a hurricane any more, but it's all feeding into this weather system, this area of low pressure, that extra injection of tropical moisture bringing some slightly higher temperatures, but also some very heavy rain. outbreaks of rain through sunday, particularly across western and northern parts of the uk. the further east and especially the further south east you are, not a huge amount of rain, plenty of dry weather and some spells of sunshine, but a noticeable wind, that wind coming up from the south bringing some warmer conditions. so temperatures generally between 16 and 20, maybe 21 degrees. and then during sunday evening, we are going to see some very heavy, squally downpours of rain moving across the south west of england, wales, very wet for a time in northern ireland. this rain especially heavy and persistent across a good part of scotland and very windy too, with wind gusts of 50 to 60 miles per hour in places. now, as we move through sunday

night and into monday, these frontal systems will clear through, low pressure, though, still very much in charge of the weather for the start of the new working week. so on monday, this frontal system clearing the south east corner, basically no rain left on it by this stage, further north and west, some pretty hefty showers across parts of northern ireland and scotland — some of those could contain the odd rumble of thunder, still relatively warm for the time of year, 15 to 22 degrees. now for tuesday, we could see a clutch of thunderstorms to start off across eastern counties of england and then a band of heavy rain moving eastwards. behind that, further showers returning. so quite an unsettled complexion to things, 15 to 22 degrees. now, as we head into the middle part of the week, we have to look at what's going on right now across the east coast of the usa. this was tropical storm 0phelia making landfall. now some energy from that storm system feeding into this area of low pressure here threatens to spin up

into a very deep low indeed for the middle part of the week. but there is a huge amount of uncertainty about exactly how this is going to pan out. so the details will change. but on wednesday, it looks like we'll see some very heavy rains swirling in from the southwest somewhere across the uk. don't take the position of this too literally. and with that, we could well see some very, very strong winds indeed. gales are quite possible. through wednesday night into thursday, that weather system looks set to clear eastwards behind that, perhaps a zone of drier weather but further showers or longer spells of rain are expected to follow on from the southwest. and temperatures a little lower than at the start of the week, 13 to 20 degrees. now into next weekend, we may briefly see a little ridge of high pressure giving some drier conditions, but that's not expected to last very long. it looks like frontal systems will then start to push back in from the atlantic so there is the ongoing chance for some quite heavy downpours of rain. some quite strong winds could still feature in our forecast. best chance of any lengthy dry

spells, probably down towards the south of the uk. so, a very unsettled autumnal week ahead.

live from washington. this is bbc news ukraine claims russian navy commanders have been killed by a missile strike in crimea help is on the way — the first aid convoy has reached nagorno karabakh, since azerbaijan captured the disputed territory five days ago and how plans to make going abroad for surrogacy a crime in italy could impact some families we start with the war in ukraine. russian foreign minister sergey lavrov says —