The political stories that made the headlines this week in politics europe. Good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. The former Prime Minister, sirjohn major, has weighed into the debate over theresa mays future, calling those conservatives whore seeking to undermine the Prime Minister self absorbed and disloyal. Mrs may has admitted her difficult speech at the Party Conference last week had been uncomfortable for her but says shes resilient and determined to carry on in the job. Heres our political correspondent, susana mendonca. And there is some flash photography in her report. If i win, i shall continue as Prime Minister. Fending off the plotters was a full time job for sirjohn major. When he was Prime Minister, he faced a leadership election and won. More than two decades on, hes now coming to the defence of theresa may against those plotting to take her down. Writing in a sunday newspaper, sirjohn said, the country has had enough of the self absorbed and frankly disloyal behaviour seen among some in the conservative party, and he urged Party Members involved to focus their minds instead on the needs of the british people, rather than on their own personal ambition. The deficit is back to precrisis levels. Theresa mays speech to her Party Conference was beset with problems. It sounds as if my voice isnt on track. Now the Prime Minister has admitted that that speech was uncomfortable, but insisted she was resilient and determined to keep going, and senior colleagues have joined calls for the plotters who want her out to pipe down. Its all about delivering for the country. Its not and should never be about private ambition. Are you fully behind the Prime Minister . Long viewed as being in the running as a potential successor, the foreign secretary, borisjohnson, has joined the chorus of cheerleaders for the Prime Minister, after weeks of accusations that he was attempting to undermine her. Hes come out this week to say that hes fully behind every dot, comma and t and words of the florence speech. Do you believe him . Well, i want to see the Prime Minister hold him to that. The steam appears to have gone out of a plot by former Party Chairman grant shapps to unseat theresa may, but now some are calling for a reshuffle. She needs to stamp her foot down. Thats a reshuffle, is it . I think one of the ways to do that is to have a reshuffle, also to bring in some of the brilliant talent, as well, that we had post 2010. Downing street says talk of a reshuffle is just speculation, but after whats been a gruelling week, the Prime Minister may be hoping for some time for quiet contemplation over what to do next. Susana mendonca, bbc news. Tens of thousands of people are showing their support for the Spanish Government today, with demonstrations against independence for catalonia. The pro unity rally is taking place on the streets of barcelona, the heart of the independence movement. The spanish Prime Minister has said he will not allow the region to declare independence under any circumstances. Gavin lee is in barcelona for us this lunchtime. These are the so called silent majority, now in full voice, taking to the streets of barcelona, uniting under the colours of the rojigualda spains nationalflag. Many here refused to vote in catalonias banned independence referendum. The result was 90 in favour of independence, but more than half of the voting population stayed away from the polling stations. Theyre calling for unity. People here are saying once and forever that we want to be free to speak our minds, we want to be heard, to say that catalonia is spain. We want to show people that not everyone in catalonia wants the independence. As you can see, there are a lot of people that want spain and catalonia to be together. There has been a week of demonstrations, Pro Independence, those calling for dialogue, but the Spanish Government is claiming this is the biggest by far and it is huge. Streets have been blocked off, and coaches coming in from elsewhere in spain cant get here, but those who are supporting independence are saying, stay indoors today, dont add to these numbers, and then well see the real support on both sides. The spanish Prime Minister, mariano rajoy, was unflinching when he spoke. Translation have the absolute reassurance that the government will prevent any declaration of independence from turning into something. Spain will continue to be spain, and it will continue being spain for a very long time. 4000 National Police officers have been drafted to the region, though since the violence at the banned referendum, they have all been forced to leave catalan hotels, staying in military bases instead. As well as the divide on the streets, there are reports that the Catalan Government is also divided over the next steps it will take. According to a government source, if there are no negotiations by tuesday, when the catalan president , Carles Puigdemont, addresses parliament, unilateral independence may be declared two days after that. Gavin lee, bbc news, barcelona. Earlier, my colleagues spoke to gavin with the pro unity demonstration. The silent majority of 950,000 people. According to the organisers, the pro Union Organisation who have just anotherfigure the pro Union Organisation who have just another figure in the past few minutes, very hard to know, but i have been here for the past week and a half, i have seen the crowds at the other demonstrations, the Pro Independence demonstrations, they were much smaller than this. There are coaches and buses that cannot get five miles near the city because all of the street in downtown barcelona are blocked. You can see the spanish flags, the cata la n can see the spanish flags, the catalan flags, people saying they are rallying to the government called to be here today together to say they want to stay united. Bear this in mind as well because it is about what images go around the world support the government or the independence movement, the independence movement, the independence supporters are being urged to stay indoors. They do not wa nt to urged to stay indoors. They do not want to add to the numbers. The other thing to bear in mind, there are 7. 5 Million People living here and at the same time a lot of People Living in madrid and elsewhere that the very hard to calculate. Listen to the noise. A realfiesta at the very hard to calculate. Listen to the noise. A real fiesta at the sea, celebrations, it is not violence, people feared that, but at the moment, it is songs and that the book despite that, on tuesday, the cata la n book despite that, on tuesday, the catalan parliament, it is expected there will be a declaration of independence. Im struggling to hear you. These are the next steps. We have had another comment by the scottish Prime Minister spanish Prime Minister, mariano rajoy, unflinching, uncompromising, even if it means extreme action legally, they will make sure the Catalan Government cannot have independence. He said spain is spain and will a lwa ys he said spain is spain and will always be spain for the future. What the Catalan Government are saying is tuesday, Carles Puigdemont will announce in our speech in parliament the next steps. Thursday, that will be the declaration of unilateral independence. Here is the caveat. They want to negotiate, they want to create room for a legal referendum, said this is what happens if they do not have that. This will go on through the day today. Gavin reporting from barcelona. Huge explosions at a fuel depot in ghana have killed at least six people and injured more than 30 others. The first blast in the capital, accra, last night sent a giant fireball into the sky, forcing residents to flee. Its understood to have triggered a second explosion and a fire at a nearby petrol station. The north Korean Leader kim youngman has promoted his sister kim jong un. She replaces her aunt. Close to four tonnes of cocaine has been seized after a ship was intercepted in the atlantic. The spanish authorities acted on intelligence provided by the National Crime agency in the uk to intercept the boat between madeira and the azores. The nca says, if sold, the cocaine would have fetched more than £200 million. Seven men have been arrested. Mental health staff in the uk are working in a powder keg environment, as assaults by patients soar, according to a bbc investigation. Figures obtained by 5 live investigates show there were more than 42,000 reported attacks on staff over the last year. They included a healthcare assistant who was stabbed to death, and a worker having part of their thumb bitten off. The department of health says its supporting Mental Health staff and plans to create 21,000 new posts by 2021. Hurricane nate has hit the united states, bringing torrential rain and powerful winds to communities along the southern coast. Since making landfall, its winds are weakening and it has now been downgraded to a tropical storm. But weather officials warn the threat of dangerous storm surges remain. After claiming at least 30 lives in central america, it became the fourth major storm to make landfall in the us this year. Anisa kadri reports. As it approached, Hurricane Nate promised strong winds and torrential rain. It hit the gulf coast of the united states, causing flooding in parts of mississippi, alabama, florida and louisiana, where people have been ordered to evacuate. Although it is weakening, the impact is still being felt. We are still seen wind gusts between 70 and 80 mph. We have water coming up on most of our roadways, about two miles inland. So weve got about seven to ten feet of storm surge. So our First Responders are kind of overwhelmed right now. The force of nature has already devastated central america, killing at least 25 people. In nicaragua, honduras and costa rica, where hundreds of thousands of people are reported to be without running water. And scenes like these have become all too familiar in the past few months. After back to back hurricanes irma and maria, people in the caribbean have been left without homes, power or clean water. Visiting the islands to see the damage, the United Nations secretary general had a stark message. It is clear warmer climate means more hurricanes and more devastating hurricanes and we need to do everything to stop this. We need to make sure that the Paris Agreement on Climate Change is implemented, and more, as the paris is not enough, that enhanced commitments are made by all countries around the world, in order to make sure that we are able to dominate this very dramatic evolution. People in new orleans, who remember the devastation of Hurricane Katrina 12 years ago, did what they could to prepare themselves for the impact of nate. But early indications are that they have been spared the worst. Some americans are seeing nate as a near miss, as it is been downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm, but there are still warnings of life threatening storm surge flooding. White nationalists have held another rally in Charlottesville Virginia after a woman died after clashes at after a woman died after clashes at a previous protest in august. Several dozen people took part in a torchlight protest led by far right activist Richard Spencer to oppose the removal of a statue of the confederate general robert e. Lee. The citys mayor, mike signer, tweeted saying the protestors were not welcome and telling them to go home. The headlines on bbc news. Fter her difficult Party Conference, theresa may says shes resilient and wont hide from a challenge. As the snps conference gets under way, Nicola Sturgeon says her party would guarantee the rights of eu citizens living and working in scotla nd citizens living and working in scotland after the uk leaves the eu. And tens of thousands of people show their support for the Spanish Government with demonstrations against independence for catalonia. The duke of cambridge and prince harry have been very open about their own experiences with Mental Health, and set up their charity Heads Together to encourage people to speak out. Now theyve announced the next phase of their mission a £2 Million Investment fund to help improve the nations Mental Health through technology. 0ur royal correspondent, sarah campbell, has finding out more. In the run up to the london marathon, the younger royals focus was almost exclusively centred on Heads Together the campaign they founded, and which aims to improve the nations Mental Health. In april, thousands took up the challenge to run the 26 miles and in doing so, help to raise awareness of an issue that affects millions of people. This has been an unapologetically personal mission, with the princes opening up in a way they hadnt previously. Do you think weve made enough of an impact, or a stepping stone into the schools area at a younger age . We will come back to that report later. John swinney is opening the snps later. John swinney is opening the snps annual conference. Later. John swinney is opening the snps annual conference. Across all of those decades, no speaker at a Party Conference has been able to say the words, the words that i am about to say to you today, conference, the snp leads the city of glasgow. Applause cheering the victory of susan aitken and her tea m the victory of susan aitken and her team marks the latest in a string of historic successes for our party. First they told us we would never win at holyrood. We won in 2007, 2011, and again in 2016. Applause then they told us we would never win a westminster election in scotland. But we have, notjust once, but twice. 2015 and again earlier this yearin twice. 2015 and again earlier this year in 2017. Applause winning at holyrood, westminster and winning for all of scotlands communities, we are the one and only party in scotland that is national in reach, in scope and in perspective. We are truly a National Party of all of scotland. Applause and what was the first decision we took when we won control of glasgow . It was to put forward our nominee to be the lord provost of the city, an individual to hold that great historic office, that symbol of the character and the identity of the city and we chose someone not born here, not raised here, but a fellow eu citizen who has made scotland her home and that says something profound about the snp. Applause we are applause we a re party applause we are party that embraces diversity, celebrates our relationships with others, extends a warm welcome to people of all backgrounds, those are the actions ofa backgrounds, those are the actions of a truly inclusive National Party of a truly inclusive National Party of scotland. Applause at the heart of everything that we do, at the heart of who we are, a fundamental truth, power should be applied for the common good and exercised with principle. It is that ethos that powers your snp government, it led us to make University Education free, delivering record numbers accepted to universities and record numbers from the poorest backgrounds too. It led us to hold labour and the tories creeping privatisation of the nhs creeping it firmly in public hands. It led us to set one leading Climate Change target and we have already reduced Greenhouse Gas emissions by 41 . Earlier this week. Applause earlier this week, it was that ethos that led Paul Wheelhouse to announce a ban on fracking in scotland. Cheering applause conference, paul considered the detail, he asked the hard questions on both sides of the argument, he listen to the people and he took a decision anchored in the National Interest, that is the mark and style of our party, the National Party that takes decisions in the National Interest of scotland. At all times. Applause every conference brings scrutiny of the position of Political Parties and hours is no different. At this point in ourfirst and hours is no different. At this point in our first Government Back in october, 2008, we were polling about 38 , not bad. But at this point in our second government, we had hit 40 . Point in our second government, we had hit a0 . Getting better. But now, ten years into government, what is our most recent polling number . It is 42 . In fact. Applause in fact, our lead over our nearest rival is only stonking17 , five