again ' ill-vim”? , ‘jz‘v\\-a itfii‘i we heard it again today from the president of the european council will task, he called on the catalans not to take any step today that was a reversible. —— donald tusk. he also called for dialogue. but the spanish position as explained again today by deputies from the governing party, they're willing to talk about anyissues party, they're willing to talk about any issues but not with this what they view as illegal act trying to declare independence for catalonia hanging over those negotiations. what they've said was the result constitutional process that can be followed if catalonia wanted to separate from spain. that is a complicated process involving changing the constitution because the spanish constitution does not allow for any part of this country to break away. that is what lies at the heart of this dispute, that provision in the constitution. can —— catalonia could seek to change the constitution and that requires a majority in parliament, new elections to happen, a rewriting of

the constitution, a very competent process. but the spanish government said there is a route that could be followed if the catalans wished to do things legally. what they are not prepared to countenance is doing something illegally and using that to force a negotiation to happen. thank you very much. so complicated emotions here in barcelona this evening as well. those hundreds of thousands of people who ruled that they did not, they came out to demonstrate that they did not want to separate from spain. and the last hour the catalan president saying he believes he does have a mandate for independence. tears in the parliament building behind me here when he announced that. but then a very quick change of mood as he said he wanted to suspend that for negotiation with other parties. so he has gone halfway there, will it be enough to stop spain invoking

article 155, interestingly in the last are so the newspaper here, the cata la n last are so the newspaper here, the catalan paper says that the state police have been reinforcing the airports, train stations, borders and nuclear power stations. this certainly is not over. carles puigdemont did not step back, he has gone halfway there. will it be enough to keep its coalition behind him, the hard left communist party, will they still support this and what indeed will spain said when they've had time to digest thoroughly what the catalan president has said. for now back to you in london. many thanks for that. let's get more analysis on this now with my guest sebastian prodl for, emeritus professor at the london school of economics. fascinating speech from

ca rles economics. fascinating speech from carles puigdemont. but it is a fudge? absolutely and that is something i'm not the only one to have expected. i thought it was going to happen. one obvious reason why it is going to be difficult to declare independence is obviously the draining away of headquarters of businesses and banks. but another reason to try and insist on the importance of the vote on the 1st of october and the need to go towards independence is that the partner in the parliament on which the government depends, the government coalition depends as has been mentioned in that report, they are very impatient already long before

this speech took place. what they wa nt this speech took place. what they want was actually an immediate vote the day after the 1st of october referendum, an immediate declaration of independence. and with this fudge it is quite possible they will withdraw support. i suspect, i it is quite possible they will withdraw support. isuspect, i may be wrong but i suspect that this long delay was part of the effort to try to keep the month award. whether they are successful or not is another matter. indeed because we expected the speech a good hour earlier than it happen. let's hear a bit of that speech now from the president of the catalonian parliament carles puigdemont querrey talks about the fact that he is going to suspend the actual implementation of a unilateral declaration of independence until there has been some negotiation and dialogue with the authorities in madrid. translation: the government and myself proposed that this

parliament suspends the effect of the independence declaration in order to establish dialogue. without which we cannot reach a solution. we wa nt which we cannot reach a solution. we want the tension to de—escalates. in order to work towards putting into practice the results of the referendum. so a classic fudge it would seem. make it clear that he wa nted would seem. make it clear that he wanted to abide by the results of the referendum but he was going to step back from the brink. quite frankly an international organisation of notable figures is not something that is going to wash with madrid. so there is a problem. the other thing is that and it should be stated for reasons of balance, half the population of

catalonia does not want independence. we will have to leave it there, many thanks for that. let's get the weather now. the next 2a hours in one or two places in the uk will be very soggy indeed especially the north—west of the country around the lake district, that is where we will see a lot of rainfall, perhaps up to 100 millimetres. the reason for that is weather systems coming in from the atlantic, this is very moist air and extensive cloud. many of us will miss the rainfall altogether. many southern and eastern areas. the rain pushes into northern ireland, scotland, that localised very heavy rain around the lake district there. and very mild just like last night. here's the weather system as it moves through, notice how the rain is confined to the upland areas around wales, the north—west and also the western part of scotland.

the east of scotland and lowlands getting some sunshine. here is that weather front and either side of that the weather is going to be a little bit better. improving weather for the lowlands and for belfast. worst of the south we have south westerly wind, that mild and damp air. then the heavy rain across the hills. so many different areas of whether happening across the uk tomorrow afternoon. you can see the weather front sliding east and south during the course of the day. out of the time we get to thursday and then we're in between weather systems. in this this bump of high—pressure. so the weather on thursday not looking too bad at all with some sunshine around. a bit cold first thing but overall a fine day on the way but the weather fronts continued to scrape the far north—west of the uk. always a bit more cloudy here with some spots of rain. but across the

midlands, wales, some very nice weather. temperatures in the high teens. so the south reasonably close to this high across the continent but the north—west getting another weather front pushing in to belfast and glasgow once again. friday however southerly winds developing across the south so temperatures keep on rising. and heading toward saturday and sunday in some areas temperatures could be as high as 23 degrees. you're watching beyond 100 days. catalan's president says he has a mandate to declare and will fulfill the wishes of the catalan people but suspends the decision pending dialogue. madrid has already denied the offer of mediation and has stepped up security at airports, train stations and this is the scene in barcelona — where the carles puigdemont has just been speaking. president trump challenges his secretary of state to an iq test — then ups his twitter attack on a key

republican senator. both men are critical to his foreign policy. firefighters in california are battling 15 separate blazes that have already killed at least 11 people. now there's a state of emergency and people are being evacuated. also on the programme,