Your morning briefing: What you should know for Monday, October 15

Brexit talks fail to find breakthrough

Theresa May's leadership and her plans for Brexit are under pressure following a setback in talks with Brussels.

A hastily arranged meeting between Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab and EU negotiator Michel Barnier failed to produce a breakthrough , leaving the process on a knife-edge ahead of a crunch summit on Wednesday.

The impasse over measures to prevent a hard border with Ireland has thrown the timetable for reaching a Brexit deal at this week's EU meeting into doubt.

It comes as Boris Johnson has again used his newspaper column to take aim at Mrs May, telling her it was time to stop being bullied by the EU.

Harry and Meghan arrive for South Pacific royal tour

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have touched down in Australia ahead of their first royal tour as a married couple.

Hundreds of people gathered to catch a glimpse of Harry and Meghan as they were driven to the Governor General’s official residence in Sydney this morning.

The royal couple are embarking on a 16-day visit to Australia, Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand.

The tour officially begins on Tuesday and will see the couple watch the Invictus Games, visit a Sydney zoo and visit the rural Flying Doctor service.

Merkel allies suffer in Bavarian elections as far-right party makes gains

German chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative allies have lost their absolute majority in Bavaria's state parliament in a result that could cause more turbulence within the national government.

The Christian Social Union’s support plummeted to 37.2 per cent in this weekend’s regional election, its worst performance since 1950 in a region it has traditionally dominated.

There were gains for parties to its left and right, with The Greens securing second place and the far-right Alternative for Germany entering the state legislature with more than 10 per cent of the vote.

JustGiving to drop charges for major disaster appeals

Fundraising website JustGiving is to stop taking a cut of donations made for victims of disasters.

Thousands of people have pledged money to appeals through the site following major atrocities such as the Manchester Arena attack and Grenfell Tower fire.

The website takes a 5 per cent fee from each donation but has told The Sun it is dropping the charge for major incidents including terrorism attacks and natural disasters.

Mission to Mercury to take off

A British built spacecraft will blast off later this week as part of Europe’s first mission to unravel the mysteries of Mercury.

BepidColombo launches on Saturday and will take seven years to reach the scorching planet closest to the Sun.

It will then deploy two probes to study Mercury’s surface and electromagnetic environment surrounding the planet.

Seann and Katya stay on Strictly

Comedian Seann Walsh and Katya Jones have survived on Strictly Come Dancing despite the uproar after they were photographed kissing each other.

The couple were the bookies’ favourites to be eliminated, but it was acid attack survivor Katie Piper and her partner Gorka Marquez who were sent home by the judges last night.

On this day…

1666: The first waistcoat was worn by King Charles II, according to Samuel Pepys.

1839: Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were betrothed. She proposed to him and confided to her diary: "It was a nervous thing to do, but Albert could not propose to the Queen of England. He would never presume to take such a liberty."

1917: Mata Hari, legendary Dutch spy who danced in the nude, was executed by a firing squad in Paris.

1940: A 500lb bomb hit Broadcasting House, London, killing seven people. Bruce Belfrage was reading the news at the time and paused for only a second before continuing.

1987: The worst hurricane in Britain since records began hit during the night, devastating southern England and causing at least 17 deaths.