pieces, and some of is some coloured pieces, and some of the papers, about herand her high spending proclivities, and equally of mugabe's sons and rather vulgar pictures they have been taking of themselves in nightclubs and the sort of thing. you were saying to me outside when you read the papers, look at the front pages, you get the sense what they are really trying to do here, the army, and mnangagwa, the vice president, is heal the rift within their own party. it has not been brought about by conditions in the country? this is the irony. people in zimbabwe have been suffering for many years now, and as we see on the front page of the financial times, charts showing the absolutely horrendous condition of the economy there, the crisis in agriculture, the runaway inflation etc, we have been hearing about that for years, and yet the whole situation does not seem to have been brought about by a revolt of ordinary people, because they have not been in a position to do that, but it is the fallout of

machinations right at the top. yes. the daily telegraph had an interesting piece. she has gone back to zimbabwe on her zimbabwean passport, and there is a scholar in here. we don't often speak about life in harare and how bad it has got, but what strikes you, aasmah, about what it is like in harare at the moment? i think it is very much a case of there is still a little bit of support for robert mugabe, the die—hard bit of support for robert mugabe, the die—ha rd loyalist bit of support for robert mugabe, the die—hard loyalist people who believe that he very much fights for african people, has done over the last a0 years, then there are also people who don't want to dare to dream, who say they can't believe this day has finally come, and because again no one is calling it a coup, they still don't want to believe, and they would believe it until they actually see it, until they see a new leader in the presidential mansion. i think it is very much that sense that comes through ofjust very much that sense that comes through of just being very much that sense that comes through ofjust being on the edge of something historic, but not quite there yet. it is the money as well,

though, the fact there is none, none on the banks? exactly, and mnangagwa has been making noises, outward noises, about bringing in foreign capital, and trying to rebuild the economy in a way perhaps that mugabe himself and his direct followers would not have had any truck with, because obviously he is a marxist. really, i mean, this story, we have been at this point, looking at the fall of dictators across so many countries over the last 20—30 years, and there is always this intense feeling of enthusiasm and excitement at the moment that appears to be happening, then so often unfortunately something else rushes in to fill the vacuum and we can... the zimbabwean spring. we will see. just before we moved off micah telegraph, a story you, jo—anne, would have been interested in the day. —— move off the telegraph. a

story of the rebels, the mutineers, as we tell them, a lot of criticism in that front page. theresa may you think came out in the right sort of way today? i think the conservative party has handled the story on the front page of the day's telegraph very effectively actually. they have closed on the story by really saying, we encourage people to make sensible amendments to bills, and this is all part of that process, andindeed this is all part of that process, and indeed the 15 so—called mutineers pretty much took that line themselves and ministers involved with the discussions are around the bill also took that line, so this idea, rightly or wrongly, whether the telegraph was trying to foment some further aggression, well, not aggression but falling out within sectors of the conservative party, it doesn't seem to have worked. but on that point we have heard on social media, some of these 15

people, one or perhaps more, have had death threats, which i have to say is very sad and does not surprise me at all, drew doesn't. which is why the newspapers need to be more careful, twitter and social media —— it really doesn't. let's talk about the financial times, and about scotland because scotland has brought in this regulation today about alcohol prices. tell us about it. this legislation was actual brought up many years ago, but it has been caught up in many legal challenges and it is the uk supreme court to have finally given it the go—ahead today because the scotch whisky association had said, norma, we don't want minimum alcohol pricing, clearly, because it would affect their margins. we are talking about... the clue is in the name, and minimum price, you can't go below that so obviously prices would then go up what the government hopes, that clearly it would become too expensive for some people and they would stop drinking and the

particular problem would be reduced. there have been other arguments that for example taxing it might be more effective, but the uk supreme court has said, norma, we think the most effective way of sorting this problem is going to be a minimum price —— has said, no. it could be at this point round about 50p per unit. a fantastic day for the snp. yet another piece of legislation, you know, that they would say that they are leading the way on, something that doesn't exist anywhere else in the uk. something the uk would follow? anywhere else in the world, i believe. canada and russia apparently have some form of minimum pricing on alcohol, which i didn't know until i read that. let's move didn't know until i read that. let's m ove o nto didn't know until i read that. let's move onto boris and nazanin zaghari—ratcliffe. he has been meeting her husband richard ratcliffe today. interesting, about the deal that might be on the table to bring her home? that's right. we

haven't heard very much about this but mr ratcliffe is saying in the expressed that he feels his wife is being used as a bargaining chip by iran to force britain to pay i think it is £400 million, which was agreed in an arms deal before the iranians revolution in 1979. 0bviously with the revolution that deal went on hold, as it were, and he is arguing that his wife... frozen, sitting in a bank, while the sanctions were in place? indeed, in his argument is that his wife has very unfortunately been caught up and is now is being used as a pawn to try to force the uk's hand to release this money to iran aasmah. it is interesting, we don't pay terrorist groups but we are prepared to pay governments that hold people hostage? nobody is saying we are prepared to do it but that now seems to be an element in the diplomatic... but the americans have done it. they don't pay

terrorist groups but they did pay money that was frozen in the bank for americans held in iran? what's the difference? discuss! you could say there is no difference, but a lot of people who are very sympathetic for nazanin zaghari—ratcliffe, they would that is what it takes, after the awful mess we got into over a misguided remarks, then so be it.” mess we got into over a misguided remarks, then so be it. i think the british government does everyday money has to go back, that it is their money. but it would be very unfortunate if it were seen to have been triggered by this particular incident. that is the point. the court ruled the money was theirs, but it is about how it is given back... it is interesting because it does begin to shed light on exactly how complex this is as a diplomatic negotiation, regardless of whether ministers have said clumsy things or whatever, there are many more layers of this under the surface that we have yet to find out about. yes. let's look at the story on the

times. record number of eu workers in britain, despite brexit. i thought they were all supposed to be going home because they didn't want to be in brexit britain. absolutely. i think there was either about to be a documentary about crops lie and wasted in the fields because no one wa nts to wasted in the fields because no one wants to do the work that the eu workers previously dead, that they have gone or were about to go, and allegedly no british workers want to do that —— workers previously did. but these figures would suggest that is not the case. it is all about the particular timescale we are speaking about here, isn't it? 2.37 million migrants from the u the eu states employed between july and migrants from the u the eu states employed betweenjuly and december. compared with the same period last year —— from that year. what will the next set of figures say? this is perhaps not something that will happen straightaway and the repercussions will happen perhaps in the next set of figures, but at this point, no, they don't seem to have left yet. you have a nine-year-old.

do you send them to school with glue and p? i thought you were going to say, do you send them to school with... laughter —— glue and pens. the front page of the mirror. schools making parents pay for pens and go. theli the mirror. schools making parents pay for pens and go. the i suspect this is a chance for the daily mirror to have go at theresa may. this is a chance for the daily mirror to have go at theresa maym they are short of money, that is one thing, but who makes parents pay for pens and glue? i know i do...” don't think that is unusual. if the mirror really wanted to embarrass the prime minister then i'm sure there would be more fundamental elements of the school requirements that perhaps periods are being prepared to pay for now. i'm asking. are their parents at some schools, poorer parents, who get help with this, and should be? this is a school in berkshire. £90 a year for

each child to buy basic items like books, glue and pens. again i am not dogma my daughter is not quite at that age i'm deferring to both of you who have school aged children. would you be expected to buy books and glue? pens and pencils, yes, but books and glue? let's not get hung up books and glue? let's not get hung up on glue, per se, but i think it can become more contentious. absolutely. if you're able to it is great to buy your children books, but if it is an expectation on parents who has not previously been before, that would be where the story might be. just very quickly, the telegraph has a story that google wants the us government to ban foreign governments from posting election adverts. we have heard lots more from google and facebook recently that there were more, you know, for an ad is being paid for, and now they want to get to grips with it. yes, well, it seems it is about time they did. the question is, it seems to me, not understanding a great deal

necessarily about the technology of it, how can you ensure that that doesn't... i it, how can you ensure that that doesn't. .. i mean it, how can you ensure that that doesn't... i mean the internet is global, and if you badly for foreign add any particular jurisdiction, global, and if you badly for foreign add any particularjurisdiction, how could you ensure it was not seen elsewhere? could you ensure it was not seen elsewhere ? 0n could you ensure it was not seen elsewhere? 0n the same platform? i would need to hear a bit more about how that was going to work. able to police themselves. we are out of time. thank you both for your company. that is almost it for the papers tonight. there are papers that have since come in. the daily mail splash with a warning from probert —— brexit tories, don't betray your voters. and the son, bbc staff sleeping at their desk. really? —— the sun. anyway, we are very much a week! thanks very much for watching.

let's have a look at the night whether headline. it looks like it is going to be drizzly and murky and that applies to most of us but there are some changes on the way and this is true for north—western parts of the uk. through the early hours of thursday morning we see a cold front moving and so there will be some rain, stronger winds, and moving and so there will be some rain, strongerwinds, and behind that cold atlantic in all the way from the north atlantic, so it was to be relatively mild, around 10 degrees. that cold front marches across the uk during the course of thursday, and behind that clear and crisp skies. ia degrees and in the north into single figures then a clear and chilly night for thursday, which means first thing on friday morning there could be a touch frost around and we end the working week is fine and sunny. and this is bbc news. i am christian

fraser. the headlines at 11pm: robert mugabe's decades in power seem to be over following a military takeover in zimbabwe. he's now under house arrest in the capital harare. armoured vehicles are patrolling the streets, but military leaders claim they haven't mounted a coup. we wish to make it abundantly clear that this is not a military takeover of government. the husband of nazanin zaghari—ratcliffe, the british woman jailed in iran, has finally met the foreign secretary borisjohnson. scotland is to become the first country in the world to set a minimum price for alcohol, following a ruling by the supreme court. and on newsnight, we look at mark zuckerberg's political ambitions. why is the facebook founder on a

mission to meet the