rocket back into space. spacex has developed a way of landing its boosters — which are the most expensive part of a rocket — safely on earth after a mission. the company said it was a huge revolution in space flight after the rocket re—landed on a ship in the atlantic. time for a look at the weather. here's helen willets. hi there. it's an improving picture with the change of month tomorrow. some sunshine in cornwall right now with showers to come later. a little louder up in scotland. slightly different to yesterday, but we are seeing the improvement moving its way northward. you can see the cloud breaking up. already the showers are chasing that drain into northern ireland and cornwall. we will see sunshine between the showers, but we will pick up one or two across devon, cornwall and pembrokeshire. further east, temperatures are at 16 oi’ further east, temperatures are at 16 ori7, further east, temperatures are at 16 or17, so it further east, temperatures are at 16 or 17, so it feels very warm. we just had that 22 yesterday, so strengthening sunshine and feeling the effect of that. some dry weather

for a time the effect of that. some dry weather fora time in the effect of that. some dry weather for a time in northern ireland, but a scattering of showers. the same story for southern and central scotland, but for northern scotland still waiting to this evening. the rain moving away overnight, then showers coming in from the west and clear skies, so not as warm as it was last night, because it was very warm indeed. temperatures holding at about eight or nine celsius. a little fresher as we start our saturday morning but as i mentioned, change of month, change of weather and typically, it is april showers tomorrow. they will soon get going in many areas, and possibly heavy with hal and thunder and lightning as well. some may escape the showers, with coastlines seeing the best of the sunshine and outside of the showers with light winds and strengthening sunshine, it will fill very pleasant indeed. overnight, a wedge of low pressure comes in —— high pressure comes in, and that would tend to ease those showers

away, with drier weather on sunday morning. it will be chilly with some frost and fog and the outside chance ofa frost and fog and the outside chance of a shower in eastern england, but it is set fair. maybe some fair weather cloud, but feeling very pleasa nt weather cloud, but feeling very pleasant in that april sunshine. it looks set there if you are heading off to watch the boat race and hopefully conditions won't be as choppy as last weekend because we haven't got that strong easterly wind. the weekend is looking very promising, as i mentioned. april showers temporarily on saturday, as it looks fine on sunday, but chilly nights returning, so gardeners beware. otherwise, a pleasant day on sunday. as ever, if you want information further ahead of the easter holidays further afield, it's on the website. a reminder of our main story this lunchtime. the president of the eu council has warned britain that brexit talks will be difficult, complex and possibly confrontational. the eu 27

does not and will not pursue a punitive approach. brexit in itself is already punitive enough. that's all from the bbc news at one — so it's goodbye from me — good afternoon. time for a look at the day's news from the bbc sports centre. british canoeing has become the latest national sports governing body to become embroiled in an athlete welfare controversy. a coach was suspended last year following a formal complaint. our reporter david ornsteinjoins me now. what do we know about these allegations at british canoeing? following the suspension of that coach, an independent investigation was started, and that has yet to be concluded. british canoeing has confirmed to the bbc that the

complaint, the suspension and investigation have taken place. no further comment until the process has been concluded. uk sport, the government arm that provides public money for olympic and paralympic sports, they have also said they are aware of the investigation but says the responsibility of the governing body to deal with and they are not able to comment on the detail of any ongoing investigation. british canoeing had its most successful olympics in rio, with three gold and three bronze medals paralympics gb as they topped the paralympics medal table. this comes at an interesting time, because this isn't the first we have heard about this kind of thing in olympic and paralympic sport. there has been mounting concerned at the culture in high—performance programmes in british sport, especially the a few of welfare for athletes against winning of medals. last week bbc

sport revealed that british swimming was investigating bullying complaints by number of paralympic swimmers about a coach. last month, british cycling apologised for failing is afternoon dependent review into allegations of bullying and sexism. uk sport to borrow brings in new standards of governance, but a lot of change seems to be need to be made. thing you for bringing us up to date. everton midfielder tom cleverley‘s loan spell at watford will be made into a permanent move at the end of the season.cleverley has signed a five—year deal moving for an undisclosed fee. the england international joined watford injanuary and has made eight appearances so far. he also had a successful loan spell at vicarage road during the 2009—10 campaign while on manchester united's books johanna konta will climb to a career high seventh in the world tennis rankings if she beats caroline wozniacki in the miami open final this weekend.

konta beat venus williams to become the first british woman to reach the final. amazing to think, konta was just six years old when williams first won this tournament 19 years ago. konta has said venus is one of her all time heroes, but dispatched of her opponent in straight sets. i was very happy to have come through that. i wasn't able to serve it out the first time that the second time around i was able to soak it is relief and excitement that i get to be part of the last day of the tournament. in the men's tournament roger federer‘s great run of form continued with a three set win over tomas berdych. federer will play nick kyrgios in the semi finals late this evening. the enigmatic australian was at his crowd pleasing best during his win against alexander zverev, producing an array of astonishing shots — just watch this. plenty of reason to celebrate...

the other semi later today is between rafa nadal and italy's fabio fognini. defending championjudd trump is out of the china open snooker. he lost 5—3 to the world number 76 hossein vafaei. his opponent made breaks of 100 and 106. the 22—year—old from iran now ta kes 106. the 22—year—old from iran now takes on mark williams for a place in the final after williams beat sean murphy. that's all sport for now. i'll have more in the next hour. that afternoon, you are watching bbc news. we will take a look at some of today's main stories. donald trump says his former national security adviser, mike flynn, is right to ask for immunity in exchange for talking about russia. it's been revealed the retired general is in discussions with the house and senate intelligence committees on receiving immunity from "unfair prosecution" in exchange for answering questions. flynn was fired from his job

as trump's national security adviser after it was disclosed that he misled the vice president about a conversation he had shortly after the election with the russian ambassador. in a tweet donald trump said michael flynn should ask for immunity because this is a "witch hunt, by the media and democrats, of historic proportion". our correspondent gary o'donoghue joins me now from washington. it's all a witchhunt, according to donald trump. that's what he said this morning. it's an extraordinary intervention by the president. well, extraordinary in normal circumstances, but we're used to this. even though there is an ongoing investigation by the fbi into russian links to meddling in the us election, tuesday also

michael flynn, who is now asking for immunity from prosecution —— curiously also. he said last september when talking about hillary clinton, saying that those who seek immunity tend to have committed a crime. i think those words will come back to haunt him somewhat. i think what was likely to happen is that he was on the list of people that the senate intelligence committee wanted to speak to. he will have been concerned that he may have said something that would incriminate himself. he perhaps didn't want to go to that committee and plead the fifth amendment waken turn up and say no comment, no comment, no comment. he is trying to get a deal through his lawyers. he has lots of lawyers. so that what every says to that committee can't be used to prosecute in a prosecution against him. is the feeling that he will get this, that this is what will end up happening? what's the feeling where you are? i think that's far from

clear at the moment, in terms of whether they will give him that. they will be conscious that there is this fbi investigation and that jeopardising that could be seen as a pretty silly, pretty dangerous kind of move. it would require a vote on the committee to do that. you can't -- it the committee to do that. you can't —— it can't just the committee to do that. you can't —— it can'tjust be a decision of the committee chairman, for example. i think they will be very careful about that, because given that it's splitting down sort of political lines in the house, the senate is still approaching it in a bipartisan way. i think if they were forced to that, there may be some strain put on that bipartisanship. well, we will talk again later in the day. gary o'donoghue in washington. a letter from the scottish

government formally requesting the power to hold a second referendum on scottish independence has been delivered to the prime minister. in the letter, the first minister nicola sturgeon repeats her call for a vote within the next two years. theresa may has already said it won't happen ‘before brexit is complete.‘ ms sturgeon argues "there appears to be no rational reason for you to stand in the way of the will of the scottish parliament and i hope you will not do so." she goes on to say "it is my firm view that the mandate of the scottish parliament must be respected and progressed. the question is not if, but how. i hope that will be by constructive discussion between our governments. however, if that is not yet possible, i will set out to the scottish parliament the steps i intend to take to ensure that progress is made towards a referendum." well nicola sturgeon has been speaking to bbc scotland political editor, brian taylor about why the scottish people should have the chance to decide their future in a second referendum on independence.

as far as as farasi as far as i can make out, the prime minister has a position to opposition to a referendum based on timing, not principle. she said now was not the time, and i agree with that. i'm not proposing one now... the other point i'm making, we require to have talks around the section 30 order if it is going to be possible for scotland to have a choice when the time is right. it is simplya choice when the time is right. it is simply a practical statement of fa ct. simply a practical statement of fact. the point i'm making in my letter is that we have precedent in the 2012 edinburgh agreement, where many of the issues that require to be resolved around such an order we re be resolved around such an order were resolved then. i don't foresee that this would require to be a protracted or particularly competitive process. i think that addresses any concerns she might have to scratching her officials who are preparing for a new negotiations. the other point i'm making —— distracting her officials. i want the prime minister to succeed in her ambitions for the future

relationship between the uk and the eu. like many others, i might have scepticism about her ability to do so, but i want her to succeed. i wish her well in the negotiations, because a good dealfor the uk is in scotland's interests, no matter the constitutional future we might use. the secretary of state has said no, the leader of scottish conservatives has said no. if they continue to say no, they won't countenance a referendum or talks, what avenues are open to you? we see polling evidence showing they are on the wrong side of public opinion. the majority of people in scotland, whatever their views might be about leave remain, yes or no, believe it should be the scottish parliament, not westminster that makes the decision about a referendum on the principle and timing, and at westminster should not block the decision of the scottish parliament. now, writing to the prime minister today to set out the rational case for the will of the scottish

parliament... she has said no. let me finish. i'm writing to her to formally request that she respects the view of the scottish parliament. what were dealing with is not a request from me or the snp, or even just the scottish government. this is the will of the scottish parliament. if she refuses to into enter into the discussions, as i anticipate she might. what i've said is this: in my view, the will of the scottish parliament must be respected. it is not a question of if, but how. if the prime minister chooses not to do that, i will set out to parliament over the next few weeks what i intend to do to make sure that the will of the parliament is respected, and we make progress towards giving the people of scotla nd towards giving the people of scotland tries. nicola sturgeon talking to brian taylor. in a moment, the day's business news. the president of the european council, donald tusk, suggests a phased approach to brexit negotiations — and says discussions on future trade relations can only

begin after ‘sufficient progress' has been made on a divorce deal. the chief executive of nhs england simon stevens, has warned that nhs waiting times will be longer for routine operations, as a "trade off" for better treatment in other areas. defence secretary michael fallon has denied there is a ‘black hole' in the defence budget, but refused to rule out cuts to the royal marines. in the business news: hotels, restaurants and tourist attractions have warned the government that they rely on 60 thousand workers from the european union every year. the british hospitality association has sent downing street a report which predicts the industry will be damaged if immigration is strictly limited after the uk exits the european union. the chancellor, phillip hammond, has authorised the sale of nearly £11.8 billion worth of bradford &

bingley loans acquired by the taxpayer during the financial crisis. they're being sold to prudential plc and to funds managed by blackstone. borrowers won't be affected. the minimum wage known as the national living wage goes up tomorrow by 30p to £7.50 for people over 25. by 2020 the government plans for it to reach £9. young people in the 16 to 24—year—old age bracket will see their pay rise in october. president donald trump talked tough on trade on the campaign trail, vowing to renegotiate a range of major deals and to label china a currency manipulator on day one. now his administration appears to be taking a more cautious approach. the president will though be signing a pair of executive orders aimed at cracking down on trade abuses. our business correspondent michelle fleuryjoins me now from the new york stock exchange

firstly, what our trade abuses? what is he define that as? expect him to sign executive orders later today. the first one orders review of what are some of the causes behind america's trade imbalances with some of its partners, trading partners. what i mean by that? if we look at america, it has some trade deficit of about $500 billion. in other words, it imports more goods than it exports. if you think about countries like china, that has been a bone of contention certainly for donald trump, the fact that the country exports less to china than it imports from the country. that's why it's ordering this review, to try and see what are the reasons behind this? is it unfair trade practices? is of the currency? what might be the sort of causes? the other aspect is enforcement, policing if you like, of sort of

existing policies. they say money's being left on the table. they need to do being left on the table. they need todoa being left on the table. they need to do a betterjob of encouraging us agencies to actually enforce what laws and rules are ready on the box. do you get a sense that people feel he is dialling down those quite sort of almost outrageous pledges he made on the campaign trail? that's the interesting thing. all along, we heard for months and months how china was a currency manipulator, tough talk against mexico. this idea that countries were taking advantage of america. hence the idea of america first and trying to bolster the us manufacturing sector. it does seem the us manufacturing sector. it does seem like he is ratcheting down some of the language. the commerce secretary gave a briefing to reporters yesterday evening. one comment he made was the reason for this review was to do a kind of courses, i think that was the word you use, sort of look at what are the reasons behind this. an example

that was given was looking at oil, for example. america imports a lot of oilfrom a for example. america imports a lot of oil from a abroad. for example. america imports a lot of oilfrom a abroad. it is for example. america imports a lot of oil from a abroad. it is unlikely to change, so no need to take action ifa to change, so no need to take action if a trade deficit exists there. it seems to be a more systematic approach than we were expecting, perhaps to see from donald trump, given the campaign rhetoric. thank you forjoining us. the hospitality sector has warned it faces a shortfall of 60,000 workers a year if immigration from the european union is too tightly controlled. staff from the eu make up nearly a quarter of alljobs in the sector. the british hospitality association said that thousands of businesses are facing having to drastically reduce their dependence on eu workers. ufi ibrahim is the chief executive of british hospitality association the figures show some very important figures, notjust for london and urban environment in the uk, but across the country. so the dependence of our industry on eu workers and the contribution they've made is very significant.

we have record levels of low unemployment in the united kingdom, and the competition for what's becoming a scarce resource is intense. as we go forward, we as an industry have said today publicly that we are going to up our game. we're going to ramp up all existing efforts. and one thing that we have to do in the united kingdom is to actually tackle the perception of careers in our industry, which isn't necessarily the same as it is in france, switzerland, austria or germany, where hospitality careers are actually seen as a career of choice. we're going to have to focus particularly on the next generation. so we're talking about going to 11—year—olds, for example. back to schools, children. you know, what we want is when asked, a child to say as many times as a child would say, "i want to be a doctor or a fireman or a teacher when i grow up", we want a child to say, "i want to run a bar when i grow up, i want to be a hotel manager or a restaurant manager". other business stories we have again

today... business customers can choose their water supplier as from tomorrow, the uk's water market opens for competition between suppliers. water—switching has been a long time coming and something companies have campaigned for. hsbc is to let customers choose more non—gender specific titles for their retail bank accounts. customers can choose from nine titles including "m" and "misc". the prefixes are designed to give non—binary people more choices if they don't want to be identified by gender. peppa pig has been bringing home the bacon for entertainment one, which reported strong growth for both revenue and profits in the year to march. it expects revenues for the family division to be at least 25% higher than the previous 12 months. the money it makes from selling products in the us was more than $200 million last year following the launch of a wider licensing scheme ahead of the christmas period. and a californian company has made history by launching a used rocket back into space. spacex has developed a way of landing its boosters safely

on earth after a mission. traditionally, rockets have only been used once to get satellite payloads into orbit, before being discarded. space companies have been racing to create a low—cost re—usable system which is more cost—effective than nasa's space shuttle programme. the uk market was trading lower, with companies with business interests in south africa hit after the country's finance minister was sacked. the removal of pravin gordhan after days of speculation sent south africa's currency, the rand, lower. insurer old mutual, which has significant interests in south africa, fell 8% in response. direct line was the biggest riser in the ftse100, climbing 3%, that's all the business news. see you later, thank you. china is closing almost half of its official ivory carving factories and shops today, with the rest due to close

by the end of the next year. the news has been welcomed by conservationists in their battle against the illegal trade in ivory. despite a global ban on international sales, a surge in demand has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of african elephants in recent years. my my colleague has been talking to someone my colleague has been talking to someone from convention on international trade in endangered species in beijing and associate director of the born free foundation. they explained why today so important. yes, it was a very big day. the government of china made this announcement back in december and they are working very, very fast to implement that decision. over a third closed today, i visited some that were closed today. by the end of the year, domestic ivory markets will be closed in their entirety. a very big decision, a bold decision and being rolled out very quickly. what about the black market, is that still a big concern? yes, so closing down the legal ivory

markets where there was a certain degree of laundering in some of these markets is one thing, but we have to maintain that enforcement effort to tackle the black market as well. the black market was not working through legal outlets, it is a pure black market, so as is understood by everybody here in china and across the convention, we need to maintain that strong enforcement effort to knock out the black market as well. i think we can talk to markjones as well, hopefully the line has improved. mark, what sort of difference is this going to make to african elephants, to the population? well, it's important to remember why this news matters. elephant populations across africa have plummeted from maybe 10 million a century ago, to not much more than about 400,000 today. as many as 20,00 or 30,000 are being slaughtered

for their tusks each and every year. if this continues, elephants could disappear altogether from much of the african continent. now, china is widely seen as being the biggest marketplace and the major driver of global demand for both legal and illegal ivory. so the news chinese authorities will be closing down their domestic ivory markets by the end of this year, was hugely welcome and the closure today of a significant proportion of its ivory factories represents an important step in that process. that was markjones from born free foundation and john scanlon from convention on international trade in endangered species. we'll be talking more about that after 2pm. right now, the weather. hi, helen. hi,jane. the hi, helen. hi, jane. the easter weekend approaching, but easter holidays for many. they have started for some today. it couldn't be better in cornwall, with sunshine. more cloud, thick cloud with rain in

highland scotland, but an improving picture, at least today. change of mother, change of weather tomorrow. some try materialising behind this cloud. we have showers chasing back into the south and west, and heavy rain across highland scotland. not com pletely rain across highland scotland. not completely wet all the time with these showers, some sunshine between them. not as wet as to start. further east, already 16 or 17 degrees, 60 in cardiff. lovely and warm in the sunshine, the strong much sun drying o 16 in cardiff. northern ireland not as wet as this morning. a couple of hours of dry weather, but showers towards evening time. heavy rain across highland scotla nd time. heavy rain across highland scotland region. it'll still be there this evening, but it will slowly retreat, still affecting the northern isles through the night. elsewhere, clear skies and a scattering of showers in western areas. all in all, temperatures will hold up. not as warm as last night, when it was no lower than 13 for some. nine and ten generally not to

chile. a fairly decent start tomorrow for some, but showers in western areas. it is one day of sunny spells and showers for the 1st of april, coinciding with a push our tails. some decent spells of sunshine. there will be some hail and thunder with them as well. 13 to 16 isa and thunder with them as well. 13 to 16 is a bit lower, slightly fresher air but pleasant enough in the sunshine because of a light wind. that continues into sunday, but instead of low pressure bringing showers, high pressure brings more settled weather. it will be chilly to start sunday morning, could even be some fog around first thing, but should clear quite quickly as the outside chance of a light shower potentially in eastern england. you can see for most of us, it is dry and fine. plenty of sunshine, will feel very pleasant with a light winds now that we have the stronger sunshine coming through. it is set fairat sunshine coming through. it is set fair at the moment for the boat race, shouldn't be as rough as the thames was last week. the weekend is looking fairly decent on sunday. we

have that showery picture on saturday, but not for all. a good deal of fine and dry weather. that ridge of high pressure and chilly night, notjust ridge of high pressure and chilly night, not just settling ridge of high pressure and chilly night, notjust settling into sunday, but beyond. it might stay with us into next week, which is great news if you have just started your easter holidays. heading further afield, there is plenty more information available to you on our website. see you later. this is bbc news, the headlines: the president of the european council, donald tusk, suggests a phased strategy for brexit negotiations, allowing trade talks to begin once progress is made on the divorce deal. starting our talks on all issues at the same time as suggested by some in the uk will not happen. we really are moving forward now and there is

are moving forward now and there is a lot of goodwill, a lot of willingness to achieve what the prime minister has said she wants to achieve, which is an orderly transition. longer waits for routine operations like hip replacements as the nhs in england tries to improve a&e and cancer treatments. the government denies reports of a £10 billion hole in britain's defence budget but admits there will be will