ready winter olympics that it was ready for talks, according to south korea. the front page of the financial times looks at a chinese proposal to remove the 2—term limit for presidency which would pave the way for president xijinping presidency which would pave the way for president xi jinping to presidency which would pave the way for president xijinping to remain in office beyond 2023. if we stay with the ft, if you want to know if a recession is on its way, counting how many women are pregnant is one way to find out. us research found evidence of a bump slump before the recession strikes. and in the guardian online, the uk is being told to brace itself for an exceptionally cold week. parts of the uk will be feeling very cold, because of an arctic circle of freezing siberian air, bringing blizzards, snowdrifts and travel disruption. with me isjoseph sternberg, european editor of the wall streetjournal. you have been busy looking at these

since i last saw you. can you tell is whatjeremy corbyn‘s policy shift is whatjeremy corbyn‘s policy shift is going to be in this speech later? labour seem to be working towards a softer version of brexit, remaining ina softer version of brexit, remaining in a customs union with the rest of the eu, keeping close links, that britain did not go its own way in terms of economic regulation and the like. so finally, after this long period where it seemed like we were shadow—boxing between labour and the conservatives over what brexit would look like, voters will hopefully after this have some real divisions that they can chew on. of course, that they can chew on. of course, thatis that they can chew on. of course, that is his speech today. he's putting his line nissan, as it were. theresa may will deliver a speech on friday. —— his line in the sand. what everybody wants is some clarity about whether the government in power is going to negotiate, and from which position. what will we

hear from from which position. what will we hearfrom her? the conservatives seem to be moving towards a harder for more brexit with more separation from the eu, that labour is working around too. we have discovered since 2016 there are a lot of different ways that you can do this. there will probably be a bruising debate about how we will leave. in this article it talks about the fact that labour leaderjeremy corbyn will talk about saying —— staying in some form of customs union, and trying to protect workers' rights and issues like the environment. almost implying that the current government is not going to do that. it is that big discussion about, if you do exit fully, what does that mean in terms of legislation in place that protects workers? there are people who are pro—brexit than the conservatives arguing that part of the purpose of this process is that

britain can go in its own regulatory direction and liberalise the economy relative to the rest of the year. againi relative to the rest of the year. again i think that voters have to decide if that's the vision that they have for brexit and i think that we will find out in the coming months. we will indeed. let's move on. there's this issue —— this image that has appeared across the papers, on the front page of the times newspaper and elsewhere, of the daughter of presidentjohn, ivanka, and behind her, the representative from north korea. an interesting choice for the person to represent north korea at the closing ceremony, given his history. indeed, but more interesting to me than some of the specific personalities is the fact that we still seem to be in business as usual with north korea, after all of the fire at yury rhetoric we have 5 mi e??? 3e 5-5? efiifléiaibiaé efe efii e'ei 3e 5-5? maggggnssg from washington last year, we heard from washington last year, we are still in the patter and were

north korea escalates missile tests, nuclear tests and the like, then makes noises about coming back. so the big story here is that the more things seemed to change last year, the more they have been the same. this article points out that washington has increased sanctions as of friday last week and a lot of the attention is now sunday's closing ceremony might go, because of the political story that has been, in some ways, dominating the winter olympics, despite the effort of south korea to make it about the games itself. to what extent has this event helped, because many would argue that it has brought north korea to the table in terms of diplomacy and the conversation, whereas they were not anywhere near that, prior to this event taking place. it certainly created an opportunity, this discussion about the return of talks to happen but it

is also important to be very clear about the fact that the north koreans might have done that in different circumstances anyway and at the same time, continuing to research with the weapons programmes that create problems. it will be interesting to see what happens in the near future, given interesting to see what happens in the nearfuture, given that interesting to see what happens in the near future, given that they are saying that they want to talk, but the us says it will not talk unless they give up their nuclear programme, as the central part of the conversation. the financial times, president xijinping set the conversation. the financial times, president xi jinping set to packing his grip on power as china is set to extend the presidency. this is not new news. it was announced in the massive gathering that was announced earlier in beijing. give us your take on this extension of his power. it is an important reminder that china ‘s political evolution is still in

process. there had been this long period in the 1990s and the 2000 is, where it was normalising, it was not becoming a democracy but it was preventing the creation of personality cults as they had seen in the error of mao but now we see the pendulum swinging back again. president xijinping could be in power for president xijinping could be in powerfor a long time, like the german mao era. is the concern about that, given his agenda and how he seems to be, in terms of the economy and globalisation, swinging more in the direction of global trade and protectionism, as opposed to less protectionism, as opposed to the us? i wouldn't take that for granted. it is one of these things we have to see what he - do where we have to see what he will do with this power now that he has consolidated it, he has gone through this period when he was consolidating his position within

the party. now, ithink consolidating his position within the party. now, i think the crucial question will become, as he is doing his political changes, will it bring economic reform and how is that going to pan out? what do you make of this study in the united states that shows that, actually, if you check out women's fertility, the number of women who are pregnant, it could indicate that a recession is on the way. if it turns out to be true it is a sign that people always know in their own lives, about the headline statistics in the economy. why does that indicate that a recession could be coming? having children is an optimistic act, you are optimistic about the future in general and yura min the prospects of being able to support a family, so of being able to support a family, soi of being able to support a family, so i think what this suggests to me is that people are so i think what this suggests to me is that- people are rightly is that actually, people are rightly

—— verifiably tuned to their opportunities in their own jobs and communities as to what the future might look like for them. we have this seriously cold weather we could coming. everybody is warning us, including the bbc weather team. icy blasts or on their way, because of this siberian winds that are heading in our direction from russia. as ever, we are being told to get ready to prepare, and yet, in this country we are not great about preparing well for these events. it pains to cause chaos. i find this story fascinating because it is not that winter is called, so... -- news that winter is called, so... -- cold. it is about whether you can keep the trains and buses running. is heathrow airport going to close? exactly, and will you be able to

ta ke exactly, and will you be able to take care of the people who might be vulnerable to this kind of cold snap? anyone else watching this in europe would be watching this and thinking, my goodness me, of course many parts of europe have had extraordinary amounts of snow. it has just been quite incredible this year, hasn't it? it is all relative. if you are in switzerland and austria having a lot of snow is very different to having it here in britain. i remember that story about four metres of snow in the village in switzerland. thank you for joining us. good to have you here today. thank you for your company as well. we will be back at the top of the hour. see you soon. hello there. we have got some very cold and wintry weather on the cards to see out the end of february and into the start of march. in fact, this week, the weather is going to be

particularly disruptive. some really heavy snowfall along with bitter east winds. a lot of frost and ice around. some wintry sunshine but really, the temperatures will be really low. that's because we've got the air coming in from siberia, across the uk. this week temperatures below where would expect for this time of year. we start off monday morning with a few snow showers, particularly towards the east, but it is the cold and frosty start to the working week. cloud across eastern england and scotland bringing a few snow showers pushing their way further west to the day. a little bit of snow through the midlands. perhaps wales, too. although temperatures are a little bit above freezing by a few degrees, it is going to feel colder when you add on the affect of the wind—chill. for some of us, it won't feel much warmer than minus five celsius. bitterly cold. some more persistent and heavy snow showers working.

those snow showers working. will be across eastern scotla nd those will be across eastern scotland and eastern england. certainly well below freezing to start your day on tuesday. it won't warm up in a hurry because we have got cold easterly winds. heavy snowfall and the met office has issued an amber warning for potentially very disruptive snow on tuesday, particularly for eastern england, the south—east too. we could seek disruption to travel, perhaps school closures. as these heavy snow showers continue to work in. some of the snow showers reaching wales, down towards the southwest of england. but i think it will be eastern areas that will see the heaviest and most persistent of the snow showers. a bit of sunshine in between. a fair bit of dry weather for western scotland. looking to wednesday — easterly winds once again, with that mix of sun and heavy snow showers drifting from east to west across many parts of the country. temperatures will be below freezing all day for many of us through the course of wednesday.

it is going to feel cold. snow will accumulate fairly quickly. we could see around 10—20 centimetres. perhaps more than that over the higher ground. probably not so much snow further west. it looks like we could see this area of low pressure breathing heavy and widespread snow from the south up to the country by thursday. bye for now. hello, this is breakfast, with dan walker and louise minchin. a promise of cheaper energy bills for millions of households. new laws will limit how much companies can charge customers on expensive energy tariffs. the government says 11 million people will benefit but there's a warning that it could reduce competition. good morning it's monday, 26th, february.

also this morning. six people are injured after an explosion destroys a shop in leicester. witnesses say it felt like an earthquake. i heard a low explosion then felt a tremendous shock through the house, it felt like it