BBC在线收听下载:沙特国王掌权以来首次出访

I'm Stuart Mackintosh with the BBC News, hello.

People across the United States are voting in the most hotly contested midterm elections in decades. All eyes are on the House of Representatives, which Democrats are hoping to retake from the Republicans. There's a stiffer challenge in the Senate where only about a third of seats are in play. Our correspondent Barbara Plett Usher says it's being viewed as a referendum on President Trump. Most midterm elections are a referendum on the president's first two years because it's the first chance voters have after they've been elected the president. But it's more so this year than others because Mr. Trump has put himself right front and center of this election. He said I'm not on the ballot but an actual fact this is about me, go out and vote. So I think many people do feel that. Certainly Democrats, what they would call the Democratic resistance is kind of really finding its feet today. And then Mr Trump has been trying to whip up his base in saying if the Democrats win, this will be a threat to me. This will be a threat to my policies, so go out and vote.

The BBC understands that the British government has drawn up a timetable to sell a deal on the country's departure from the EU to the public, even though no agreements been reached. The details from Laura Kuenssberg. The notes saying ministers would seek to claim "measured success", a deal that's good for everyone. There would be a major speech from Theresa May at a conference in the middle of the month, endorsements from foreign leaders and former foreign secretaries and businesses coming on board. A government spokesman described some of the notice childish and denied that it was an official document. But it's clear that there are advanced discussions about how to get a deal through parliament and convince the public if and when a deal is done.

King Salman of Saudi Arabia is embarking on his first tour of the country since ascending to the throne as the international furor over the murder of Jamal Khashoggi continues. Here's our Middle East editor Sebastian Usher. As each day brings still more revelations over the apparent circumstances of Jamal Khashoggi's death, the pressure on Saudi Arabia has yet to ease. As part of its response, the country has promoted the eighty-two-year old King Salman as a more dynamic figure in contrast to the huge leeway he had previously given to his ambitious son, the crown prince. Now Mohammad Bin Salman has disappeared from the scene, but there's clearly concern in Saudi Arabia that the program of social and economic reform he spearheaded has been put at risk by suspicions of his involvement in the Khashoggi killing.

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