of the uk government had the political cover they needed in westminster and belfast. which brings us neatly on to the irish times, which says he irish government seeks a firm guarantee from the uk their will be no return to a hard border with northern ireland whether britain exits the eu with or without a deal. the japan times focuses on north korea and comments made by us national security adviser hr mcmaster, who said the odds of war breaking out with pyongyang are moving closer to reality with each day and that the world is in a race to solve the problem. the guardian carries a warning from the bank for international settlements, who say the situation in the global economy was similar to the period before the 2008 crash when investors seeking high returns borrowed heavily to invest in risky assets. and finally, the independent online features a survey made by charity oxfam which revealed sentimental brits prefer to receive

a christmas card rather than a text or e—mail this festive season. what about those videos were you replace your body with an alpha or something like that? there's a lot more out there. —— elf. with me is oliver cornock, who's editor—in—chief of the oxford business group. let's get stuck in. we talked earlier about brexit but let's look at what the media had to say, eve ryo ne at what the media had to say, everyone has their own version of weekend events, the times is saying weekend events, the times is saying we are 90% there with theresa may having lunch withjean—claude juncker today. having lunch withjean—claude juncker today. if only everyone was as positive as the times, theresa may will be very hopeful! the mood music seems to be shifting more positively from brussels as well, we heard earlier from your brussels correspondent that there seems to be movement and that will be very welcome to theresa may, who is in a

very tight position. as i said earlier, anyone who thought this negotiation would be a walk in the woods has been sadly disappointed. in terms of where we're at with the timeline, the brexit timeline, the clock is ticking and it's getting louder and louder because the progress has been pretty minimal to this point and it's kind of in everybody‘s interests, both in the british government and brussels, to see some sort of movement, some sort of progress as we go into these negotiations. we must get onto the trade discussions, the trade is all—important here so we have to get through ireland, the divorce bill, the jurisdictions of the european court as well, that's another thing we've hardly touched upon and that will have huge imprecations both on a human rights level but also for business as well and from my perspective it's about getting to this trade negotiation, and we're not there yet, we have to get through these important first steps. the times is fairly positive, saying we're almost there but politico,

international online media, saying we're not as close as some might imply, theresa may's crunch weekend hasn't necessarily gone in her favour. it's very difficult to be hugely upbeat, why? it was no surprise as a brit that perhaps the eu was going to make it difficult for britain anyway. this idea, as i keep saying, that this would be easy when you have many years of political policy—making that has been done together, to unravel that, the idea it would be easy and made easy by european partners is cloud cuckoo land. let's focus on the issue with ireland, the irish times has it front and centre on the front page, they are saying the irish cabinet is meeting this morning for an update on the brexit talks. the irish government are really putting a stake in the ground to save this is important to us, we have to have this issue sorted out before we make any further progress in terms of trade. they had huge support from

the eu as well. we heard at the end of last week the european union said that any deal that was unacceptable to dublin would be unacceptable to brussels. that puts, as you say, a firm state in the ground but it's difficult to see with britain having voted democratically to leave the european union, the single market, the customs union, that there would bea the customs union, that there would be a border, there has to be some sort of mechanism and it comes back to the word regulatory diverges, which we keep hearing about, which is rather dreary. but step back from that and it's important to think about the political ramifications, what would a border mean to the good friday agreement? terrorism gone from northern ireland but is it gone for ever? one has to hope it is. one of my colleagues, rachel horne, illustrated last week and i know her report is still on bbc online, that this border and she was on both sides and people who move across it many times a day, some live on one side and work on the other, it would

bea side and work on the other, it would be a huge step back backwards in many people's opinion. let's look at the japan times and other stories out there. this story about north korea very much on everybody‘s radar, odds of north korean war said to be increasing everyday. this is the national security adviser to the white house hr mcmaster. this is a very interesting story. we've seen the trajectory and the distin espys intercontinental ballistic missiles that are being tested increasing time and again —— the distance these. it is pretty scary stuff. what's interesting is we have hawkish dovish from the white house as well, donald trump seems to send very mixed messages on this. what is possible here, and one of the great things here has to be china, we have to engage china, they are one of... north korea's only ally in the world, they supply fuel. there's an

argument they could cut off that fuel, and you can't launch missiles without the fuels. there's pressure on them from the us to do exactly that, isn't there? yes, but we need consistency in my opinion in terms of the global approach to this. what was interesting was listening to paul wood, our correspondent in seoul, when asked earlier about one of my colleagues on world service, about how people are digest doing this in south korea, the fear factor, in south korea it isn't as evident as it is in the us, where the feeling is very different ash digest in. south korea has lived with this on their border for many yea rs with this on their border for many years and they are rather more used to it —— digest ing. years and they are rather more used to it -- digest ing. this is in the financial times, investors ignoring warnings i is on the economy and they are talking about similar warnings prior to 2008 and the financial crisis. —— warnings on the

economy. we've seen huge consumer debt in our own country. that hasn't really grabbed headlines. we have seen unusually low interest rates all stood by quantitative easing globally, a very unusual status quo for the economy —— bolstered. people have got used to lower risk. it's not surprisingly. aren't we more savvy and once bitten twice shy when it comes to 2008? of course we've got regulatory authorities all over the world stress testing the banks, making sure they have the capital to withstand any kind of financial crisis so therefore it wouldn't be the same? it's interesting, the bangkok international settlement is known as the central bankers' bank. it's time to listen. —— the bank of international settlement. it's interesting, today greece is expected to get the approval of its

next bailout muggy. economies like greece are still on the receiving end of aid because of the fallout —— money. there are huge mismatches, there are huge valuations, frothy markets, asset bubbles, there are warning signs. the final story in the independent, british people prefer a real christmas card to a text. i prefer a christmas card but it's a big job and it's quite expensive to send them. indeed, quite expensive, it's a very traditional thing to do, sit there and write out your christmas cards if you got the time! what is your preference? a card every time. definitely a card. i'm getting videos from people on social media. i like the cards because you don't have to decorate the house as much. i've asked you to think of a word of the year, is that too tough for you? his face when i asked, he grimaced. my his face when i asked, he grimaced. my word of the year is regulatory

sandbox, it isn't a sandpit, it sounds dreary, it is a space where people can test their apps in almost a hermetically sealed environment to see how they can work, it can be regulatory or it, it is called a sandbox, i never heard of it and as editor i had to get used to it. interesting, thanks,. thank you for all your words —— thanks very much. andrew in yorkshire says the word of the year is remoaners. we'll leave that thought forjo with you. that's the briefing. —— we'll leave that thought with you. goodbye. hello once again. there were certainly enough gaps in the cloud in the first part of the night for our weather watchers to get a really good view of the night's supermoon,

after what had been a pretty reasonable day, especially so across parts of northern ireland, scotland, the north of england, probably the best of the sunshine here. that's not to say that we start the new day with plenty of gaps around, because we have weather fronts not a million miles away, and there may well be enough cloud for there to be the odd spot of rain across the far north of scotland, showersjust running through the western side of scotland, and down through the irish sea. out east, bit of a concern aboutjust how dense some of the fog patches are going to be. notjust first thing, some may linger in east anglia, the south—east and central and southern england. elsewhere, it's a cooler not start, as you would expect for the start of the year, and essentially it's a dry one. that's not the case across the north of scotland, quite breezy, quite wet here, especially in the northern isles. elsewhere, a speckling of showers for northern scotland and northern ireland. but that's the exception to essentially a dry rule.

as i say, some of the fog may take time to get away from that south—eastern quarter. and there may well be a little bit more low cloud than i'm showing here, giving a rather grey aspect to the day, that gradually drifting, that prospect, from west to east. if yourfog lingers, six degrees could be your high, but elsewhere, eight, nine, ten. not a great deal happening during the course of the evening, perhaps just freshening up the wind. and that's a sign of things to come, especially for northern scotland, wet and windy here as we get on during the day on tuesday. but elsewhere not a bad day, quite a quiet start to the week. notice monday and tuesday. however, we begin to change things quite markedly as we get on into wednesday. here, across northern and western parts, it's either wet and windy, orjust, for some, windy. but at least it's coming in from the south. that's your mildest day of the week by some degree. notice how we've got a lot of isobars here, hence that windy nature to wednesday. it becomes more widespread, and crucially, through thursday, the wind begins to change direction. i'm just about to show you how extensive that change becomes in the latter part of the week.

look at that — cold air right down and across all parts of the british isles, rather like the middle of last week. i'm just going to show you the effect on the temperatures. see how through the day they begin to fall away, ten degrees in norwich at the start of the day, where you've got the mild air and wet and windy weather, and brighter skies later, but the temperatures fall away. see how through the day they begin to fall away, ten degrees in norwich at the start of the day, where you've got the mild air and wet and windy weather, and brighter skies later, but the temperatures fall away. so the start of the week is mostly fine, then it gets wet and windy, and certainly, by the latter part of the week, it turns much, much colder. hello, this is breakfast, with dan walker and louise minchin. negotiations through the night to clear the way for the next stage of brexit talks. theresa may heads to brussels today to try break weeks of deadlock. the main sticking point is thought to be the border between northern ireland and ireland.

good morning, it is monday four december. also this morning: a british foreign aid scheme for civilian police in syria is suspended, after a bbc investigation finds some of the money was being diverted to extremists.