the international new york times looks at somalia where presidential elections are taking place today. some observers say however the election is turning out to be a "milestone of corruption" and one of the most fraudulent political events in the country's history. transparency international says somalia is the most corrupt country on the planet. the telegraph business pages take a look at oil giant shell which to start decommissioning oil rigs in the north sea. the company say dismantling the huge structures could lead to the creation of hundreds ofjobs and finally barack obama has been enjoying his new found freedom by kite surfing with the virgin boss richard bra nson in the british virgin islands. the pair were competing to see who could surf for longer — a challenge which the 44th president of the united states won. fantastic to see. joining us is amrita sen who's an oil analyst at energy aspects good morning. what is your take on greece? when i saw your news story earlier this week, i thought, not

again. itjust never goes away. what is interesting is that the imf are saying, we cannot keep pouring in money to greece endlessly. the european union has to step up and give a lot more funds and bail out greece and we know germany is relu cta nt greece and we know germany is reluctant to do so. angela merkel is fighting a re—election battle which is proving quite challenging. this is proving quite challenging. this is going to be interesting. greek ministers are seeing the reports are not true because the greek economy is doing well but they always say that. it is difficult because the imf has been saying for a long time, we think that greece should be allowed to restructure its debt and germany in particular has been digging in their heels, saying, no way, we will not do that because berry difficult politically for them so berry difficult politically for them so interesting to see how this plays out because clearly the scenario in greece is unsustainable. economically. the tax rates, all of

it is unsustainable. and what they are asking for pensioners. the imf is right, they can't the eu huge crisis where eu fl crisis where the the eu faces a huge crisis where the existence of the euro - eurozone existence of the euro and eurozone is in question again. can either of you remind me of the arguments against pro— increase out of the eurozone. leave, we will deal with ourselves. there is no legal framework in place for a country to exit the euro as in the single currency. they could put one together. the problem is, it's the unknown. the question of the unknown, what would happen and politically, for all of those who we re politically, for all of those who were for the european single currency. admitting defeat. having to leave because of financial

colla pse to leave because of financial collapse is not good. and a run on banks, the peripheral countries, portugal and spain. just imagine, greece exceeds the eurozone ahead of the french and german election. yes, yes. have you got it now? i have. we have talked about it so much for the past couple of years. this is a hell ofa past couple of years. this is a hell of a story. this guy here, vladimir kara—murza, he has got multiple organ failure in a moscow hospital. his wife says he is suffering from severe poisoning. coincidentally or not, he is a big critic of vladimir putin and the mind goes back to us here in the uk of alexandre litvinenko who died of polonium poisoning. the uk would like to get to russians back to the country to try them. here is another example of coincidentally, vladimir putin's critics suffer. this happened two

years ago, with a far more vocal critic in opposition. they have just about confirmed because his lawyers have gone on facebook and posted that it has been a poisoning, an unidentified substance yet again, not necessarily linked to the last time two years ago but definitely poisoning yet again. and also comes a few days after trump said, the us, we also kill people just like ross —— russia does. we also kill people just like ross -- russia does. sometimes when i sit in this chair, am i able to ask questions i would like to ask outside the studio as a normal observer of international events. it isa observer of international events. it is a delicate matter this. journalists who have been critical of vladimir putin have been killed. his political opponents have been killed. you think back to the opportunity that russia was given with the fall of communism. of course. it has become a state where

people are worried, it is ruled by an autocrat, vladimir putin has a certain control over russia and it is what it is. it could be something different. it is not for us to judge. people look at russia and talk about it. saying, putin is responsible for what it is at the moment. 0k, somalia are heading to the polls today. the process is under way. is this democracy at work? allegedly the most corrupt elections in the history of somalia? transparency international says it is the most corrupt country in the world. what was most interesting, they have spent about $20 million trying to buy votes which is a huge amount. the politicians are trying to buy votes of all the different candidates. but i don't know where that money has come from because is what is interesting about the new york times article is that outside forces like turkey and sedan and the

uae, cacti, are believed to be buying off the presidential candidates because they all want to forge their own agenda, but lucrative deals or any type of policy. what is in somalia? commodities? not nearly to the extent of iraq. outside of iraq, somalia is the only other country which has received so much funding. it has no oil, some mining but not nearly to the same extent. when the current president was elected, the process was members of parliament went behind a white cloth, they marked their card and then took it toa marked their card and then took it to a transparent box with international observers. they put the card into the box. when parliamentarians are responsible for voting for the president, that would bea voting for the president, that would be a process that could be open to corruption because if you have a national ochre will register and

millions of people are going out there, you can't fight every single person. but you could if you wanted to ride 230 parliamentarians. the process itself is open to corruption if it is proven and our correspondence, who has filed a piece about the selection, he says there has been money changing hands. shell. what is it doing in the north sea? shell is not go to be alone. it is taking down the rigs. i bought bp was doing that already. this is the big one. the brent platform, really big, used to produce about half a million barrels per day and produces a fraction of that now. the north sea, with the article focusing on the job side of things, north sea decommissioning is going to be one of the biggest industries in the next few years because the north sea is coming to the end of its

lifeline. a lot of rigs have to be dismantled. when they start to decommission old rigs, do they make money from that? or is that cost? decommission old rigs, do they make money from that? or is that cost7m isa money from that? or is that cost7m is a huge cost. they can't turn it into another way of making money? flogging bits off? shell sold a significant amount of private equity and what they will do, they will buy assets at the tail end of their life and you can extract a lot of the oil out, probably at a lower cost and they send it off but they have been criticised by some of the mp5, saying, you should continue prove —— producing longer but it is a trade—off. do they decommission? right now, they would say they could produce at a lower cost was going forward , produce at a lower cost was going forward, if they continue to produce, the costs will be higher. ever been on an oil rig? almost, not offshore, but almost. i am interested in the whole process of decommissioning. it is massive. ever

been to the caribbean? with richard branson? no, iwish. iwould be so happy to go. what a lovely picture this is. what a perfect pair of teeth. and he is having a great time. he has been kite surfing, richard branson has allegedly been teaching him. i do not know who won. barack obama. i've seen him on the basketball court. is having a great time and were learned. lovely to see you have a good rest of the week. thank you very much of co. have a good day, season. —— see you soon. hi there. well, for some of us on tuesday it felt quite springlike. for others, though, it was distinctly wintry,

with some snow up over the higher ground of scotland in particular. well, the message is, over the next few days, the cold air is going to make its presence felt, easterly winds setting in. that process really beginning during the course of today, with those easterlies bringing a lot of cloud into many eastern parts of the uk, with some dampness around. some snow up over the higher ground of scotland, initially. best of the brightness across the more southern and western parts of the uk. this is breakfast time. there will be a cold start, one or two icy surfaces across wales. but here, some of the best of the sunshine, as we will see across northern ireland as well. a few freezing fog patches around, but plenty of sunshine, as there will be across some western parts of scotland. further east, though, across scotland it will be dreary, it will be raw. yes, some snow up over the grampians. no great amounts, though, at this stage. some of the patchy rain across the high ground in north—east england will begin to turn wintry with time. temperatures never really climbing above these values,

where we have had the clear skies overnight, it could well be a slippery start to the day, particularly where we had some in on that and north—east england. as i mentioned, temperatures not really climbing at all through the day here, levelling out around three orfour degrees, certainly a chilly end to the day across some central areas. best of the temperatures where we see the best of the sunshine, across the west. now, as we head into the night, that easterly will continue to feed cloud westwards, some patchy rain. some sleet or snow falling to quite low levels, eventually, across parts of eastern england and eastern scotland. again, no great amounts at this stage. there will be a cold one, and there'll be some frost around first thing on thursday morning, slippery surfaces around.

thursday, again, the best of the sunshine probably across more western areas. a fair bit of cloud further east. the cloud, though, will tend to break up, so even across these more eastern parts we see some sunshine, but also some wintry showers. and again, snow down to quite low levels, not much above freezing on thursday afternoon across eastern parts of the uk, settling snow too. by friday, that snow could be a bit of an issue, especially over the high ground. watch out for warnings. again, these more eastern areas which will bear the brunt of the wintry weather, the best of the dry conditions further west. hello. this is breakfast, with dan walker and louise minchin. the brexit bill goes to the vote as mps decide whether to give theresa may the power to leave the eu. last night, the government saw off a possible rebellion after promising that any final deal will be put to the commons. we'll be live at westminster with the latest in the next few minutes. good morning.

it's wednesday the 8th of february. sorry. i got got excited there. also this morning: a damning report says a plan to free up hospital beds in england is "nothing but a pipe dream."