this is bbc news. the headlines at 11am. sinn fein make big gains in northern ireland's assembly elections. the dup is still the biggest party but with just one more seat than the republicans. fears for the future of vauxhall plants in britain, as a french car company reportedly reaches a deal to buy general motors‘ european operations. mercedes recalls 75,000 cars in the uk because of a risk of them catching fire. also in the next hour. just how much will it cost british taxpayers to leave the european union? a house of lords report says the uk has no legal obligation to make any final payment. and the dateline panel analyse donald trump's claim the us economy is booming; and asks about those contacts with russia? that's in half an hour, here on bbc news. good morning and

welcome to bbc news. sinn fein are celebrating their best ever showing in elections to the northern ireland assembly. with all the votes counted, they've won 27 seats, just one behind the democratic unionists. sinn fein‘s president, gerry adams, has described the result as "an end to the old status quo". the two parties now have three weeks to try to agree a new power—sharing coalition. for the latest, annita mcveigh is in belfast. if walking out of government was a gamble for sinn fein, it's paid off. they increased their share of the vote and narrowed the gap between them and their own coalition partners, the dup. but the result leaves major questions about the future of power—sharing in northern ireland. i said consistently throughout the campaign that sinn fein are not interested in going back to the status quo.

that remains the position. the dup need to fundamentally change their ways and be true to the principles of power—sharing if they want to go back into the institutions. sinn fein had called for the dup leader, arlene foster, to step aside as first minister during a public enquiry into a botched green energy scheme. when she refused, sinn fein left the coalition government, forcing powerfrom office. there is work to be done and work to quickly mend the relationship which has been frayed by the discord of this election. but it was some of stormont‘s opposition parties that suffered most in this election. i shall make my statement and leave the stage. the leader of the ulster unionists, mike nesbitt, stood down because of their poor performance. it will now be up to the leaders of sinn fein and the dup to draw battle lines in the inevitable negotiations to try and form a government. chris buckler, bbc news, belfast. we can get the latest from belfast

with anita mcveigh. thank you. yes, we moved into belfast city centre, now bustling, busy city centre. but today everybody waking up in northern ireland to a shift in the political power balance here. what that means exactly in terms of negotiations currently happening at stormont over the next few weeks, nobody knows just yet. let me take you through, in detail, the figures from the election for those 90 seats across 18 constituencies to look at how the balance of power now lies. still the biggest party is the democratic unionist party, but with a much reduced majority. they have 28 seats. at the last assembly elections, last may, they had 38 seats. and the dup is nowjust one seats. and the dup is nowjust one seat ahead of the republican party,

sinn fein with 27 seats. sinn fein really the big winners in this election. the sdlp, the nationalist sdlp have 12 seats, they have held onto the same number of seats as last time so they think they have done very well considering the overall number of seats has been reduced in these elections. the ulster unionist party, ten seats, down from 16 last time, big losers in this. their leader mike nesbitt saying he will go because of those results. across community alliance party, eight seats, holding onto the same number of seats. interestingly they could become power brokers in northern ireland. other smaller parties and an independent making up the additionalfive parties and an independent making up the additional five seats. so what does all this mean and what happens next? well, the parties, the assembly members return to stormont on monday. they then theoretically have three weeks, taking us up to

the 27th of march. at the end of which they are supposed to elect a new first minister and deputy first minister in order to allow devolved government to return to northern ireland. i don't think you'll find many people who will say this can somehow miraculously be sold and all theissues somehow miraculously be sold and all the issues between the two parties resolved within that three—week period. lots of people are suggesting that there needs to be a pause, a longer period of negotiation. among them are very senior unionist figure, lord trimble, former leader of the ulster unionist party. i would suggest it would be a good idea that the secretary of state for northern ireland be ready to rush through a little piece of legislation to give the parties more time. you see, underthe belfast agreement there was more time. and when sinn fein and the dup did their original deal back in 2007, they reduced the time for the formation ofan

reduced the time for the formation of an administration. that is going to come back and bite them. and i put that point about the parties needing more time for some sort of pause or extended negotiation period to claire hanna, who is a member of the assembly for the stl p in south belfast. it is very difficult to see exactly where we going but the fact is bringing the institutions down is the easy part and reinstating them will be very difficult. yes people will be very difficult. yes people will want to give that space. we are ina very will want to give that space. we are in a very difficult situation in governance terms. no budget in place as of the 1st of april, no plans for brexit, and we are stepping into a little bit of a void. so going back to direct rule is an abdication of direct responsibility and is letting people down here. so we do want to avoid that. claire hanna of the sdlp. with me now is the commentator and author, observer of politics in northern

ireland, barney rohan. thanks for joining us again. claire hanna says people do not want to direct rule, they do not want a lame duck assembly either, and assembly in some sort of limbo. what do you think will happen next and what are the options? i think what is needed isa the options? i think what is needed is a longer negotiation. you made the point in your introduction, three weeks is not enough time. certainly nobody here believes you can deal with the impossible issues in that's short space of time. i think it is right. david trimble has mentioned this morning, somebody needs to press the pause button at this stage, allow time for some to manage the shock of these election results, particularly within unionism. and then to allow in a thought through way a sufficient period of time to try to get agreements that this time will stick. because if this fails again then people will want to know what this crisis was all about. sol think there is a sense that this really is the last chance to try to

get this right. just remind our viewers what the difficult issues are between the two main parties, some of them are current issues, some of them are current issues, some of them are current issues, some of them are legacy, historical issues. well, there is the whole issues. well, there is the whole issue of partnership government, is ita issue of partnership government, is it a partnership or not? republicans making very clear that partnership has to be what it says on the tin. but it can't be in anyway a return to the ghosts of the political past and one rule. there is the issue of the irish land which act which caused so much controversy during the election campaign. then there is the election campaign. then there is theissue the election campaign. then there is the issue of how you address northern ireland's violent past, what is the process we put in place to try to get answers to the questions that people have. they've been talking about that for ten years. so the idea or the sense that you could sort that out in three weeks isjust you could sort that out in three weeks is just not you could sort that out in three weeks isjust not realistic at all. to what extent do you think personality will come into this negotiation process? we've had arlene foster, the dup leader, she's

been criticised by some people for, during the election campaign, saying that sinn fein was like a crocodile, if you fed it it would come back for more. other political leaders saying she was a chief recruiting officer for sinn fein because of those comments. there is no doubt that the crocodile comment is what we motivated and re—energised the nationalist community in terms of the turnout in this election. it is why sinn fein had such a good election, it is why the sdlp held its own ground. so, sinn fein has put a red line around arlene foster saying she cannot go back into government until the public enquiry reports on the renewable heat incentive debacle. if arlene foster is not prepared to step aside, if the dup are not prepared to put in some sort of caretaker first minister, then we could be jogging on the political spot for a considerable period of time. what do you think the dup‘s calculation is

will be about all of that? they will have to sit and look at this in the cold of the figures that were produced yesterday, ten seats down. sinn fein in a very strong position. if people want devolution to work, then there's going to have to be a compromise of some description. i think the big question now is who wants storm wand mode, —— who wants storm stormont most. so there are red lines on both sides, the sinn fein leader michelle 0'neill has said she won't go into devolved government with arlene foster. there does not seem to be any comp eyes on that from their perspective and that has always been the difficulty in northern ireland politics, finding areas of compromise, finding a route through. when we have come to big,

difficult moments in the past we have needed outside help. the good friday agreement of 1998 was steered through by senator george mitchell. the issue of arms decommissioning, and others. this time this needs to be something wider in terms of negotiation, it needs outside help, it needs its hand—held again. negotiation, it needs outside help, it needs its hand-held again. but not james brokenshire? they are making it very clear that they do not considerjames making it very clear that they do not consider james brokenshire making it very clear that they do not considerjames brokenshire to be an independent broker, and that they would prefer someone from outside. 0n the big occasions and on the big issues of the past, when we have needed to find a way through, it is people from outside of here who have, if you like, drawn the map, showing the path, helped the direction. a final thought, showing the path, helped the direction. a finalthought, mike nesbitt when announcing he was standing down as ulster unionist leader, said his biggest regret was

that northern ireland politics seemed more polarised than ever. yet the cross community alliance party increased its share of the vote, held onto eight seats, same as last time round. what role could be alliance party now play? the alliance party now play? the alliance party now play? the alliance party with eight seats and the green party with two seats punched above their weight in this election. and if you are going to have a negotiation it cannotjust be between the two big parties and the two governments. you need other voices in there. you need other thinking in there, thinking outside the box, you need some new conversations if we are going to lift politics out of this mud it has been stuck in for the past several months. barney, thank you very much for your thoughts. lifting politics out of the rough is the challenge ahead and it's going to require statesmen and states women thinking to do that. many contemporary issues

and legacy issues to be resolved before, it seems, we can get back to a devolved assembly at stormont here in belfast. 0ne a devolved assembly at stormont here in belfast. one that is working for people right across northern ireland. so everyone believes that three weeks is simply too short a period to do that. so they are looking to the northern ireland secretary james brokenshire to find a way of buying more time for discussions. 0ne a way of buying more time for discussions. one of the options open to him of course is to call fresh elections, another set of elections. interestingly within a reasonable period of time. and that line, within a reasonable period of time, that could buy him and the politicians hear a lot of breathing space. a pause, a limbo, perhaps some might call it, but perhaps enough time to try to make some progress. thank you. reports from france suggest the owner of peugeot and citroen has

reached an agreement to buy vauxhall and 0pel from the american car maker general motors. the deal will raise concerns about the future of vauxhall‘s two uk factories which employ more than four thousand people. andy moore reports. vauxhall builds the vivaro van at luton. around 70,000 rolled off the production line last year. and at elsemere port about 120,000 vauxhall astras are built every year. as well as those employed directly by gm, thousands more work in the supply chain. there are also 15,000 people in the pension scheme, one of the uk's largest. they have already been told that they will be no worse off under the new deal. the good news is that the psa group, which owns peugeot and citroen, has promised not to cut anyjobs in the uk before 2020, and the future after that is uncertain. psa's boss carlo tavares has already had talks on the phone with the pm theresa may. there were reassuring words but no promises were made. vauxhall is set to become the

second—biggest carmaker after vw. french government has a 14% in this and there are fears french jobs will come ahead of british and german ones. the unite secretary, len mccluskey, has been involved in talks with the psa bosses. he called vauxhall a jewel within the crown of gm's european business. last autumn, the government did a deal to keep nissan in sunderland. the company was promised free access to european markets whatever happened after brexit. psa may well seek similar assurances. the bbc business correspondent says it is expected to be confirmed at a press co nfe re nce it is expected to be confirmed at a press conference on monday morning. officially no comment from either company but i called them last night, there was nothing they could

add all would say on or off the record. suffice it to say that this negotiation has been very brief for two giant companies. general motors genuinely wanted to get rid of gm europe because it has been loss—making for about 16 or 17 yea rs, loss—making for about 16 or 17 years, and they can sustain it no longer. they want to focus on core brands in america, core american brands. for peugeot, they definitely wa nt to brands. for peugeot, they definitely want to be a bigger player in europe. and this would make them toto almost with volkswagen in europe. so there is a lot at stake. more thanjobs europe. so there is a lot at stake. more than jobs and security as well, the question of pensions? yes, a really important issue actually. because these are very old companies and they had very generous pension schemes. there is an estimate that there could be a pensions black hole or shortfall of 10 billion euros. that is mostly on the opel site which is a german company. but also about £1 billion on the vauxhall side here in the uk. so we don't

know how they square that circle. has psa agreed to take on all 10 billion euros? i doubt it. or is this a heads up agreement, we have agreed to annotate this, that and the other and we will revisit in coming months. that has to be renegotiated. make no doubt about it, a giant pensions black hole of 10 billion euros would be too much for psa to swallow. mercedes—benz is to recall around one million cars because they're at risk of catching fire. it's because of a fault found within newer models which can cause them to overheat on starting. it's thought around 75,000 cars in the uk could be affected, but mercedes says the risk to customers is small. the models at fault include some a, b, c, and e—class cars as well as mercedes' cla, gla and glc vehicles. anyone who's bought a car between 2015 and 2017 could be affected. mercedes say they're aware of 51 fires so far, but that no deaths or injuries had been recorded. it's thought owners will be contacted later this year. the foreign office has announced

that borisjohnson will visit russia in the coming weeks. in the meeting, the foreign secretary is expected to hold talks with his russian counterpart, sergey lavrov. mrjohnson has stated that britain's policy towards russia is to ‘engage but beware'. discussions will focus on the uk—russia relationship, as well as current international issues including syria and ukraine. borisjohnson will be the be the first british minister to travel to moscow for an official visit in more than five years. the headlines on bbc news. sinn fein make big gains in northern ireland's assembly elections. the dup is still the biggest party but with just one more seat than the republicans. there are fears for the future of vauxhall plants in britain after a french car company which produces peugeot vehicles reportedly reaches a deal to buy general motors' european operations. mercedes is recalling 75,000 cars

in the uk because of a risk of them catching fire. it follows the discovery of a fault in a fuse in some models. a parliamentary committee says britain wouldn't be legally obliged to make a final budget contribution to the eu after brexit. the house of lords study said the uk would be in a "strong" legal position to walk away without any payment if the article 50 negotiations ended without a deal. downing street has described the report as a "significant contribution". however, the committee's chairwoman, lady falkner, says a payment may be politically necessary to reach an agreement. if you are going to walk away with not a penny to be paid over, then essentially you are closing the door. and it seems to me that that would be the nuclear option. so i don't think, and there is nothing i have heard from the government that implies

to me that they are wanting to trigger the nuclear option, but it is as big as that. schools in england are to get a share of £215 million to improve facilities for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities. ministers say the money can be spent on specialised classrooms and resources, but not on general day—to—day school budgets. it comes as many local councils complain of a crisis in school funding. one teaching union has described the new money as just a ‘drop in the ocean‘, but the government insists it will make a difference. i know of one head teacher who spoke to me who said just a small amount of capital investment can have a huge impact. it could be putting a lift into the school, it could be putting a kitchen, enhancing specialism in the classroom, so these are really important parts of investing in those children who have every right to have a great education as any other. environment audit committee said the

situation needs to be looked at because only 23% of the plastic used in the uk in 2014 was recycled. the committee is concerned there could be more plastic in the oceans than fish by 2050. nhs england data analysed by the bbc suggests that the number of children under the age of 14 attending hospitals with sleep disorders has tripled in ten years. poor sleep in children has been linked to a greater risk of obesity, mental health issues, and poor performance at school. sport now. and for a full round up, from the bbc sport centre, here‘s katherine downes. richard kilty has made a good start to the defence of his 60—metres title at the european indoor athletics championships in belgrade. he won his heat and was fastest overall, to qualify for the semi—finals. he‘ll be joined there this

evening by theo etienne and andrew robertson, who also won their heats. and through to tomorrow‘s women‘s semi—finals is britain‘s asha philip — who was part of britain‘s bronze medal winning 4 by 100 relay team at the rio olympics. she too qualified first in her heat — the semis take place tomorrow afternoon. coverage continues on the red button, as well as the bbc sport website. jody cundy produced a stunning ride to win the c4 one—kilometre time trial at the para—cycling world championships in los angeles. cundy has never been beaten in this event — it‘s his 13th world title in a career that also includes four paralympic gold medals on the track. certainly getting harder as i‘m getting older, the recovery afterwards. don‘t know if it is just because i‘m getting older or the fa ct we because i‘m getting older or the fact we had seven weeks notice to get ready. both of those things came into place so when i crossed the line i don‘t think i even looked at the crowd celebrated. i really struggled when i got off the bike. the only reason i got off the floor

was to come to the medal presentation. pretty out of it for a while. england beat west indies by 45 runs in the first one—day international in antigua. and captain eoin morgan was inspirational, hitting a century as england set their hosts a victory target of 297. chris woakes and liam plunkett did the damage in the reply, taking four wickets apiece. so england are one—nil up in the three match series, with the second game tomorrow at the same ground. after last weekend‘s league cup final, it‘s back to a full weekend of premier league fixtures. liverpool—arsenal at tea—time is the big one. and in the lunchtime kick—off, the winners of that league cup final, manchester united, take on struggling bournemouth, who‘ve gone seven matches without a win in the league. we are excited by this game. i think we can only be positive and only look to the future in a positive way. certainly there is no other way to approach this game or any other game. we are as confident as we can be with a lot of fixtures. we know that a win is needed

to fully feel good about ourselves and hopefully that‘s not far away. we know that liverpool plays asrenal, which is one of these weekends that you know for sure that somebody is going to lose points, so we should win against bournemouth. but bournemouth is a very tricky team, very dangerous team. it‘s scottish cup quarter—final day, with rangers against hamilton academical in the 12.30 kick off and hibs versus ayr at 3 o‘clock. after all the talk, some of it not too pleasant, finally it‘s fight night. tony bellew and david haye will go head to head tonight — the fight live on 5live from 10 o‘clock. bellew, the world cruiserweight champion, is fighting for the first time as a heavyweight. and he was nearly a stone lighter than haye on the scales. he is prepared and ready to perform for the two—round fight.

he should never be that weight. he has manufactured heavyweight. he is not really a heavyweight right now. not in a million years. up there he looks fantastic. when you get close to him he is trembling. he is trembling. and he isjust... he doesn‘t... he is not as confident and he does not believe the things he is saying. i look at him, he is actually trembling. i was hoping he would look a little bit more physically impressive. you know, some type of remnants of abdominal muscles or some sort, but he looked very smooth, he didn't look good in my opinion, so it doesn't bode well for him. you know, i have knocked out guys a lot bigger, stronger and more athletic than him, so i don't see what he can do other than just get smashed. that‘s all sport for now. now the weather with sarah—keith lucas.

good morning. we‘ve certainly got a mixed bag of weather for you as we head through the remainder of the weekend. a bit of everything thrown in. there will be some sunshine, some heavy showers, too. here was the view taken on saturday morning by one of our weather watchers in neath port talbot and you can see the big shower clouds but also some sunshine around. it will be pretty showery for many western areas. more persistent rain towards the north, where we‘ve got this frontal system, but it is really low pressure that is the driving force of the weather through the weekend. across scotland in particular, we are set to see further persistent rain and hill snow. plenty of showers around western parts of the country but towards the east, it‘s a different story with drier weather, some sunshine and lighter winds, too. by 3pm, we are still seeing rain and a bit of hill snow across northern and eastern parts of scotland. a slight improvement towards the south—west. heavy downpours for northern ireland, the isle of man, down towards wales, too, as we head through the afternoon. there will be some brighter spells in between these showers but most of the dry and bright weather

will be reserved for the eastern half of the country and, with the light winds, 12 degrees or so towards the london region should feel relatively pleasant. but towards the south—west of england and wales, plenty of frequent heavy showers, strong blustery winds, too. could be the odd rumble of thunder. the showers in the west work their way north—eastwards this evening and overnight, so showers for parts of northern england, into scotland, too, and then the next band of rain arrives in the south—west through the early hours of sunday morning, so a wet start for wales, south—west england, too. further east, it should be dry first thing but the weather tomorrow dominated by this weather front shifting its way west to east across england and wales. quite tight isobars, so a blustery spell of weather. wet and windy weather working west to east, followed by further heavy showers across england and wales. but, for scotland and northern ireland, a slightly improved day. fewer showers, a bit more in the way of sunshine and light winds, too, temperatures just seven or eight for scotland and northern ireland. further south, we could see ten or 11 celsius. in terms of the premier league football action tomorrow, i think for tottenham and in sunderland as well, we are likely to see some of those showers on and off,

certainly a chance of some wet weather. best to pack those brollies! into next week, the unsettled theme continues. most of the rain will be towards the north and the west. could be a bit of brightness for many of us by the time we get to tuesday. that‘s it for now. bye— bye. hello and welcome to dateline london. the bumpy road towards brexit. is the united kingdom‘s only land border with the republic of ireland a potential flashpoint again? and donald trump says the us economy is booming, but what about those contacts with russia? my guests today are brian o‘connell, who is an irish writer and broadcaster. stephanie baker of bloomberg news. eunice goes, who is a portuguese author and journalist. adam raphael who is a british political commentator. brexit first and the house of lords is very exercised about eu residents in britain and trying to make sure they continue to be welcome here. is this a bit of humanitarian good sense or an attempt to throw

a spanner in the works of the government‘s brexit plans? there are quite a lot of spammers that lie ahead. you see this as being that or is it trying to do something for people who are resident here? the government has