‘ with weather on thursday with frequent heavy showers. hello. this is bbc news. we'll be taking a look at tomorrow morning's papers in a moment — first the headlines. turkish troops advance into northern syria, opening up a complex new front in the conflict. ukip‘s ruling committee unanimously backs a vote of no confidence in leader henry bolton. henry was disappointed, but he understands that the party has a process to go through. henry was offered the opportunity to resign, but he has made clear he feels he is the right man to lead party forward. to lead party forward. 1a foreigners are among 18 people killed in the attack on a kabul hotel — they're thought to have been deliberately targeted. hello, and welcome to our look ahead to what the the papers will be bringing us tomorrow.

with me are ben chu, the economics editor at the independent, and ruth lea, who's an economics adviser for the arbuthnot banking group. many of tomorrow's front pages are already in. the ft leads with news that the german government has taken a step towards breaking a four—month deadlock, as angela merkel‘s social democratic party voted in favour of formal coalition talks. the metro reports on the death of eight year—old mylee billingham who was stabbed in walsall. the front page of the express features the bbc‘s interview with french president emmanuel macron — and his comments that french people would also vote to leave the eu if they had the chance. the i says wildlife conservations have issued a warning that the uk is aiding sales of ivory, because there is no outright ban on sales on the illegal goods. and the telegraph leads with a story

about the british army — the paper says that a lack of resources means our troops are struggling to keep up with military advances in other countries like russia. so it's a mixed bag of stories from those papers there — with lots to discuss and more front pages still to come in. we will bring you those as get them. let us start shall we with the ft, as our first story, and angela merkel, the german situation which has been a complete sort of flux for four months but finally the spd do seem to have been won round to entering formal coalition talk, to you think this has saved angela merkel? well, it is a significant moment obviously, because as you say, after the back in september when they had the election, it was expected she would sweep to a strong position, and it should be a simple process , position, and it should be a simple process, it has been anything but. she tried to make a coalition of the

greens and liberals, that failed. now she has been forced to other old partners in the spd. they have. voted just about to allow these talks to begin, pretty close. tighter than people thought it was going to be. it looks like they are going to be. it looks like they are going to be. it looks like they are going to go ahead. the betting is they will probably do a deal. what would be the price of that deal? what programme will this new fourth government led by angela merkel have? there is lots of speculation, maybe it will be more european integration, more health spending, it looks like it will probably be quite influenced by what the spd wanted, because merkel has nowhere to go now, this is her last chance. she has listen left a slightly wea ker she has listen left a slightly weakerfigure she has listen left a slightly weaker figure because of this. she has listen left a slightly weakerfigure because of this. she has been awful powerful in the eu for a long time, but this has been a bit of a knock back for her. it has been appalling for her. in fact her party, the cdu and the spd did very badly or relatively badly in the september elections and the spd

blamed having been in the grand coalition with the cdu for their poor showing. initially the spd leader said i don't want to do with any more coalitions so he has almost been dragged kicking and screaming into this position. so as ben said, the next thing is to have the detailed coalition arrangements decided, then it has to go the membership, that will be march, which is six months after the election, what a mess, and the membership may throw it out. merkel looks an incredibly weakened leader, interestingly enough, because of her weakness macron has managed to come in and look as though he is the golden boy and almost the leader of the european union. but it has certainly helped france that jeremy are so certainly helped france that jeremy are so weak. when we had a coalition here in 2010 we were frustrated it took ten days to sort it out. this is incredible, such a powerful country can be without a government. the germans are a lot more used to

cogses, the nature of their constitution and political system. this is abnormally long, even by german standards. and it does, it is, it is not uncharted territory but it is very fragile territory. what is interesting what does this mean for germany's role in brexit negotiations as far as the uk is concerned. you mentioned is macron there, let us look at the front—page of the daily express, man ron in an interview, a bbc interview today and after that visit to sandhurst to see theresa may which was quite an event. this headline saying the french would vote to leave the eu, i think that would be frexit. macron said he thinks the french people would feel the same way. why was that? frantic frexit. there are is a lot of euro—scepticism in france and le pen managed to pick up on this h but he was interesting what he said

to andrew marr, yes, probably in a similar context but our context would be different and he would fight hard for the prech people to stay within the european union, but the mere fact he sort of suggested you know perhaps the eu isn't all singing dancing for the french people is exciting. thinking back to the lisbon treaty in 2005. if memory serves me right the french voted against it. the dutch, the irish but they were asked to vote again. this idea is that europe is everything to france isjust idea is that europe is everything to france is just not idea is that europe is everything to france isjust not true, they are still a very nationalistic country that interesting because of this meeting with may, still wants to do bilateral deals which i find interesting. macron's solution to thatis interesting. macron's solution to that is closer integration, within the eu, so, that is how he thinks they should improve things with the european union. but he is also making the point about the nature of referendums, he went on to say if you give people a yes or no question

you give people a yes or no question you will get a distorted answer because you don't know exactly what people are voting about. he was saying, he seemed to be saying the way i read it, i would never have put myself in the position that david cameron put himself in by offering this all—or—nothing volt to the british people. he is saying, you have to give people about to find solution to the problems they may see in the relationship between your country and the european union, so it was a bit subtle. ruth is right, the idea french, all french love the eu and they are massively pro european is not true, at the same time he was making a slightly su btle same time he was making a slightly subtle point about the nature of referendums and how they can be, not a nswer referendums and how they can be, not answer the questions people want them to. you mentioned his clear ambition you know to be a leader in the eu, particularly with angela merkel maybe weakened, what did you make of his visit with theresa may, how he handled that. how he has handled things on the world stage. it was fine, some of my fellow

brexiteers had a nervous breakdown he came at all. he is talking about britain can get a bespoke trade deal with the eu. i think this is positive. then he went on the talk about financial services but that is negotiation, that is one noise, i thought he was being positive. i was interested in the way he wanted to have this bilateral security agreement with the united kingdom, in other words we still want to be friends, we still want to deal with you even though you are having the temerity to leave the currency union european union. he did talk about britain can't cherry pick. he was straight about it. that is why people appreciate it. if you leave the eu you can't expect to have the same benefits a being in otherwise there would be no point being in it, a simple line. he says when it comes to the single market the same apply, you can't have it unless you are in it. a lot of people are falling over themselves in admiration about a french politician who comes over

here and speaks english. it is the clarity of the message, that people appreciate that sort of straighted for wardness as well. talking of -- straightforwardness. for wardness as well. talking of -- straightforward ness. let for wardness as well. talking of -- straightforwardness. let us move on to the story about ukip. and their leader henry bolton, who is today had a vote of no confidence and the party membership will have to vote on what happens to him. i have lost track how many leaders. or how many girlfriends he has has. it is because of her tweets he is in some trouble. his argument is this is what my girlfriend, what she says, it shouldn't have anything to do with his leadership of ukip. what do you think? i think he looks incredibly weak and the national executive committee, they met today and voted in no confidence. i think he is toast. but come to that, i think ukip is pretty much toast, i think ukip is pretty much toast, i think he is the fourth or the fifth leader, there was diane james and

paul nuttall, and someone called nigel farage if my memory serves my correctly! the big question has to be for ukip do they have a future andl be for ukip do they have a future and i suspect they don't. their great raison d'etre was to leave the eu. what is interesting, we have a picture here in the express, of nigel farage, and he is presumably or apparently in conversation with someone called aaron banks with the idea of having a new organisation, which may be out of what, there is something at the moment called leave means leave i think it might be something out of that to keep theresa may's nose to the grindstone. but that is the role. i remember on the morning of the referendum interviewing nigel farage and saying that, what is the point? you have succeeded, you have got what you wanted but he said we are going to hold their feet to the fire, we will make sure they deliver brexit, that is what some brexiteers feel, is there a role for ukip? you

can make that case, i mean the trouble is it has become such a pantomime, the ins and outs of the character in it and what their views are and this stuff, it is not anything to do with the project which the party was founded to further, and to what extent does this now distract from their point of view, from the actual objective itself? and i presume this is why aaron banks and nigel farage are setting up a new organisation, because the existing one is so tainted, even by the standard of political parties it is just become a hindrance rather than a help. do you think the party or any party with this view can succeed, without nigel farage? it seems to be without him at the mel. they can't cut through? i think that is right. i think that is why he wants to have this this new movement away from ukip. it is worth remembering that backin ukip. it is worth remembering that back in 2014, ukip won the european

union elections in this country, which was extraordinary, so obviously that was, but it has gone, i think ukip's time is over. 0k. let us go now to the financial times again and this time the us shut down. i thought this happened all the time. it has only happened four times all the time. it has only happened fourtimes in 25 all the time. it has only happened four times in 25 year, the difference one party the republicans are in control of both houses, so thatis are in control of both houses, so that is unusual. what is going on? they have failed to agree to roll over the agreement to keep funning the federal government. without that, it means that apart from the very basic law enforcement and the military, everything shuts down, they can't pay the wanes of people who work in it, and they don't have to work until that i do, they are going to meet again on monday so presumably the last shut down was 16 day, they will aim do better than that. it is interesting you say it

has only happened four times in 25 yea rs, has only happened four times in 25 years, that is a lot. huge responsibilities and very important jobs to do, all across the public sector in the us, it is a sign of dysfunction, this really is s they couldn't agree, senior politicians on each side, and the brokering of the presidency couldn't agree to keep federal government running. it is not a great symbol of american democracy. it is a massive fail your of american government. the last time it happened in 2013 and the government closed down for a month. this is about the budget for the fiscal year, 2017/18 which started in october, but as ben was saying they were talking about rolling over and they have had two extension, they can't agree on the third, and they can't agree on the third, and they can't agree on the budget, it is isa they can't agree on the budget, it is is a bit ofa they can't agree on the budget, it is is a bit of a mess, what trump needs is a 60 vote support in the senate, so he has to have 60—40 vote

and the problem is he only had 51 senators so he has to say something nice to the democrats. is that going to come easily, do you think?m nice to the democrats. is that going to come easily, do you think? it is interesting because he styled himself as this great deal broker, the guy who wasn't sort of mired in the guy who wasn't sort of mired in the infighting of politics, he was above that. but he has not been able to... the democrats say we will do a deal but we need you to go the republicans and say, they say he is too weak to do that, to stand up to the republican, who knows what the truth is, that what they are saying. he will have to come of politics, he was above that. but he has not been able to... the democrats say we will doa able to... the democrats say we will do a deal but we need you to go the republicans and say, they say he is too weak to do that, to stand up to the republican, who knows what the truth is, that what they are saying. he will have to come pro—mize, but he isa he will have to come pro—mize, but he is a "deal maker" he will sort it. let us finish with the daily telegraph. we have heard a