in media across the world. we begin with brexit in the daily telegraph. a brexit newspaper, you might say. the front page headline speculating may will sign a deal today. that's looking very likely now with confirmation theresa may will meet with european commission chiefjean—claude juncker at ogoogmt. we are almost there, in fact. the front page of arab news is, of course, leading with palestinian anger erupting over thejerusalem embassy move. the article says residents shuttered schools and shops early on thursday to begin three days of rage. the digitalfront page of the jerusalem post has a multimedia piece looking ahead at the pending un security council meeting and future of the middle east peace plan. looking at the californian wildfires, the independent is reporting more than 200,000 people have been evacuated as gusting winds fan flames across southern california.

nasa has captured some incredible photos of the fire from space. 0nto the business pages of gulf news, another day and another record for cyptocurrency bitcoin, which has surpassed $16,000. it bounces up and down a lot. it has dropped 4% in the course of today. people are asking if it is a bubble. finally, staying with bitcoin, bloomberg is looking at electricity consumption that digital currencies like bitcoin absorb. giant farms of servers are needed to handle the massive transactions but has the environmental footprint been overblown? so let's begin. with me is cornelia meyer, ceo of business consultancy mrl corporation.

you have been a writing throughout the week about a brexit. it is all coming, one would hope, to a satisfactory head. we'll find out in due course. the daily telegraph are pretty confident a deal has been done. they seem to be spot-on. they said that theresa may would meet this morning with jean—claude juncker, when i read this this morning on the way in, i thought they were confident. but they seem to be spot—on. they were confident. but they seem to be spot-on. it is interesting. we have had talks going through the night, but we also knew yesterday that donald tusk, the president of the european council, would also have something to say. interesting choreography. what was interesting was that they had until tonight to finalise and then he had extended to yesterday. michel barnier, mr brexit for the commission. he had extended until sunday. it made me think it

would be further away. but we need to come to a conclusion, we need to have this resolved. for our economy in britain these trade talks are absolutely crucial. and business does not have much time to wait. do they keep people in operations here oi’ they keep people in operations here or do they relocate them? it tells you something. this is about sufficient progress in order to start trade negotiations. heaven knows how conflict and bitter they might become over the months ahead. 0h might become over the months ahead. oh yes. talking about bitterness. we focus on the arab news and the jerusalem post, we will get both sides of this issue. donald trump, of course, recognising jerusalem as the capital of israel. this picture tells a story. it is a tale of two stories. i have two besart, i have a regular column in arab news. i have to be open and transparent about that —— they have to confess. the

arab news says the court of the king of saudi arabia has warned about an irresponsible and unwarranted step. it violates no less than eight un security council resolutions, from 1957 until now. —— 1967. from the arab side, the palestinian side, it isa arab side, the palestinian side, it is a dynamo. for the israelis, they say it respects the status quo because we have our government here. —— dire move. because we have our government here. -- dire move. the jerusalem post does not shy away from the story. the explanation as to where we are, there is little indication of tangible progress. they are not

taking a view that this is the first big step towards some sort of wonderful overall universal settlement. no. is totally unacceptable settlement. no. is totally u na cce pta ble to settlement. no. is totally unacceptable to one side, don't expect them to come to the table —— if something is. that is why, vice president and is going to the region soon, and he will probably not be met. italians are being put out on patrol and what have you. -- battalions. the middle east is already inflamed enough. you keep using words that move us onto the tory. wildfires getting all the way to los angeles. i have to show you the picture on the independent. it isa the picture on the independent. it is a stunning image. it is odd how are things of the huge terror are also things of great natural beauty. it is an extraordinary picture. also things of great natural beauty. it is an extraordinary picturem is the first time that wildfires, i

think, made it into bel air, the most think, made it into bel air, the m ost afflu e nt think, made it into bel air, the most affluent area of los angeles. they are very close to getty museum, which has priceless art. it is quite something. the environment is not playing ball, clearly. climate change. it played ball in one point. i saw the los angeles mayor saying they promised erratic weather, luckily it was erratic in a good way. it just shows luckily it was erratic in a good way. itjust shows they luckily it was erratic in a good way. it just shows they are com pletely way. it just shows they are completely at the fortune of the elements. you are completely at neita's mursi. she will always win. let us hope not when it comes to los angeles —— nature's mercey. the gulf news. another day another record. we are talking bitcoin again. going over $16,000. it is worth pointing out that it has dropped 12% on the day. it is still up 50% on the week.

it does do a loss of this. it complained that markets are not volatile enough. the we have volatility. it is very interesting. hollans, tulips in the 1600 come to mind. —— holland. the first real economic bubble. when things get that volatile and grow that fast it is probably a sign that the bubble is probably a sign that the bubble is about to burst. what worries me about bitcoin is that it is not a regulated. usually with money you have a central bank that regulates things and it is used in things like the dark web and to avoid taxes, it is used to push money into countries that are under sanctions. i ask myself as an investor do you want to be in public like that? what worries me, andi be in public like that? what worries me, and i do not understand it like you do, we are talking about $16,000 and they are quoting the chief crypto economist at blockchain capital management, so you get an

idea where he is coming from, forget the price target is $200,000. i would not be the only one sitting there thinking, hang on a minute, $200,000, it is still only $16,000. what do i do with my cash? we will see where it goes. i am sure at some stage somebody will say we had to regulate this stuff and that will probably put a little bit of reasoning to the whole bubble. good sideline on the bitcoin revolution, if i can call it that. that is the amount of energy it ta kes to that is the amount of energy it takes to generate a transaction. because this is such complex stuff. bloomberg have ta ken because this is such complex stuff. bloomberg have taken a view on this, the environmental cost, as it is being discussed, of bitcoin. but whether that is actually a fair thing, afairway whether that is actually a fair thing, a fair way of looking at it, but it is extraordinary. they say it uses but it is extraordinary. they say it uses about 18 of all the data

centres in the us. that is quite a lot. if we compare it to watchou in regular transactions. they use it as well —— what you get. regular transactions. they use it as well -- what you get. and we are flying around the world. 21st century life is high in energy. we are going to stop there. thank you so are going to stop there. thank you so much for that. you will be interested in this. the cars are rolling in at brussels, just trying to get a view. theresa may arriving for those talks. have we got a breakthrough in brexit? hello there. right now we're more concerned about snow and ice rather than the strength of the wind. but for a while on thursday we had a gust of 90mph in the far north of scotland, all due of course to storm caroline.

the centre of that storm is heading away from scotland and over towards scandinavia. but around that deep area of low pressure we've still got some very windy weather right now. very quickly we're drawing down some much colder air rapidly down across the whole of the country. so we've had some snow already. there will be more of that and some icy conditions continuing into friday. keep up to date with any travel disruption on bbc local radio. now, snow not unusual across northern scotland at this time of year and there'll be more snow piling up. blizzards in the hills as well. probably largely dry and sunny and frosty across lothian borders into much of the central belt too, but more snow showers for northern ireland, getting blown over the irish see into north—west england, into the north—west midlands and wales, and it's here we could see most of the disruption into the morning, as well as northern ireland. rain right along the coast. a wintry mix in the south—west of england. but for many eastern parts of england, friday could be largely

dry and quite sunny as well. those wintry showers mostly of snow inland continuing in roughly the same sort of area through the day, perhaps moving further into the midlands. the totals could be 5—10 centimetres here and there, perhaps more than that in the north—west of scotland. it will be a cold day. these are the temperatures. because it's going to be windy there will be a significant windchill, so it will feel quite a bit colder, a real change from what we've seen earlier this week. the winds gradually ease off a little overnight, but the wintry showers, mostly snow inland, continue, perhaps lacking some of the potency, but nevertheless, icy conditions and a covering of snow in many northern and western parts of the uk. and a frost more widely and quite severe again, particularly in the countryside and over the higher ground. it won't be quite as windy on saturday. there will still be wintry showers around, but not as heavy. probably turning more to rain in the south—west with damp is beginning to rise a little.

—— temperatures. nevertheless, elsewhere it's a cold day. coming into that cold air, more problems on sunday, with this weather system here. a lot of uncertainty about the position of that weather system. but there's the potential for significant snowfall across parts of wales, midlands, northern england and northern ireland. very cold in that wet weather and to the north. mild and windy in the south—west. hello, this is breakfast, with charlie stayt and naga munchetty. hopes for a breakthrough on brexit as the prime minister arrives in brussels. after days of deadlock over the irish border and negotiations lasting late into the night, theresa may is and eu negotiatiors are expected to make an announcement this morning. good morning. it's friday, the 8th of december.

also this morning: firefighters are stretched to the limit and nearly 200,000 residents are evacuated in california as more wildfires break out. good morning. failing to pay the minimum wage.