are in a sort of proxy war with russia, and he is president putin a p pa re ntly russia, and he is president putin apparently taking out one of his traitorous enemies, so the papers have viewed it, and this unfortunate chapis have viewed it, and this unfortunate chap is a must buy at —— retired spy colonel, sergei skripal, found slumped outside a bench in salisbury, of all places. apparently poisoned by a mysterious substance. following on from litvinenko, if this is proved to be poison, and it does seem to have been perpetrated by someone with connections to moscow, then the question is how can this be allowed to have happened again, after what happened with alexander litvinenko? there are a lot of ifs, and clearly it may turn out to be none of those things, but on the other hand if it does, i suppose the reality is it is not absolutely possible to stop somebody who is determined to do this, and of

course we have been at loggerheads really with the russians ever since then. our diplomatic relations have never recovered and this will certainly prevent any restoration of diplomatic links with them, and ultimately the russians, if they wanted to do this type of thing, if they wanted to do it, i suppose they are powerful enough potentially to be altered do it. however good our policing, counterterrorism operation is, which is pretty good, it is not fail—safe. they have plenty of other things to be looking at as well. i think that is probably the reality. this is another story where people think about the papers if they wanted to make up a story can you could not make up a story of this extraordinary nurse. it goes back to litvinenko, there have been one or two others, boris berezovsky, who subsequently died as well, a businessman in surrey, who also died

in circumstances which some people think of mysterious. so there have beena think of mysterious. so there have been a succession. any russian who dies in order circumstances, the immediate conclusion that people wa nt immediate conclusion that people want to leap to, it may or may not turn out to be correct but certainly an extraordinary concert. the i going with it as well. what is interesting about this man is that he was deemed a traitor by the russians in 2006, and he ended up in the uk as a result of a spy swap. with the famous anna chapman, was pa rt with the famous anna chapman, was part of a sleeper cell in the united states. somehow he was viewed as an essential asset, and some of the papers are reporting he was the second most important after the other russian defector. it was

obviously worth something, and he provided various details of various russian espionage activities. i suppose coming back to the point is how do we stop any of this. you can't really, because they only have to be right once, and we have to be right all the time. that is the problem when you are dealing with it. we would probably want to say to the russians, two can play at this game but i am not sure whether that is really a british response was top we wa nt is really a british response was top we want to go around bumping people off moscow? probably not.” we want to go around bumping people off moscow? probably not. i say probably for stop we had a very robust response after it was established that litvinenko had been poisoned on the orders of the kremlin, ultimately, as the inquest established. we couldn't really have done a great deal more. it has come in the context of some overt state m e nts in the context of some overt statements about the overt aggressive intent of russia towards

this country. so it is not as if we have been soft with them. the amount of blacklisting of russian nationals, where their money goes, where their assets are, there is a series of sanctions we can impose, but we are not going to get to the stage and we are playing john le carre novels out on the streets of moscow. no, but it does sound like that on the front page of the telegraph ‘stop russian spy fights for life after poisoning double agent who sold secrets to britain found collapsed on bench in salisbury. the big worry is what kind of chemical, as with litvinenko, was potentially used to poison this man and his companion. a p pa re ntly poison this man and his companion. apparently a restaurant, late—breaking news this evening, a restau ra nt late—breaking news this evening, a restaurant in salisbury has been closed as a precaution because of all this. they are obviously concerned as to what the substances. obviously we haven't had any information as to what the substance is and whether they have established that not. it took some time with the litvinenko thing to establish

exactly what would have been used. so it may be the case here. it is clear from all the pictures you can see, and the areas that had been cordoned off, that there is a great keel of concern about this. a major incident launched at the hospital where these people are being treated. sticking with the front page of the telegraph, trump softens sta nce page of the telegraph, trump softens stance on paris. suggestions that he will properly and formally announce a trade walk something he believes he can win. it is an odd thing to start a walk even for donald trump, but on the issue of trade, if you we re but on the issue of trade, if you were to clap tariffs on, that would hit us consumers. politics is about perception, and for him, his base has viewed itself as one of the

losers of globalisation, that they have pay the price well is others have pay the price well is others have got cheaper goods. he is probably trying to speak to that base was that we know there has been a row in the white house between globalists on the one hand and economic nationalists on the other, and economic nationalists have won. there has been some background to trump's outburst, but he has ploughed this furrow for some time, and it did with him rust belt‘s vote. so i don't think he is being, he is not reversing. he is also doing that old—fashioned thing of making a promise of an election and following through. that is a shocker, isn't it? i suppose we can't blame him for doing that, whether it turns out to be counter—productive whether it turns out to be counter— productive or whether it turns out to be counter—productive or not, that is another issue. i suppose the eye given should be, should he have made ita given should be, should he have made it a promise in the first place? we are talking about global gdp growth rising. anything from i.5%, 2%,

perhaps even more by the end of the year. the major economist saul, it seems convincing, in terms of moving upwards. this is the kind of thing that could hit them. i suppose if it's partly because of that he can get away with it. possibly. there is a public concern about goods which are made cheaper through labour standards and environmental standards being low. and for americans that is a valid public concern. for too long, americans that is a valid public concern. fortoo long, politicians haven't. in some respect, give him credit. it may be economic nonsense. it may benefit. absolutely. onto the huffington post, martin. a story that has been bubbling throughout the day, theresa may's housing

announcement gives no guarantee of more homes. this is the verdict of the huff post. theresa may and the government have been saying, look, if you are a developer and you get land and you get planning permission, build a house on it, rather than sit on it, waiting for the land prices to go up. umaga yes, there is a lot of intent from the government. i suppose the question is, and there have been lots of statement of intent from various governments over quite a long period now i think. some of them have not come to deliver a great deal in the way of large and as an extra houses. that is obviously the allegation here. the point you make there that taking back houses, land, that has not been built on, some of the developers have questioned this and have said there is not undeveloped land they are just sitting on. on the other hand it is clearly potentially a problem, so that could help. i think the other thing that is always missing from this debate personally is if you are talking about house prices, which is often

what is talked about, and affordability, just building more homes on its own does not address the full scale of things, because you have advice led investment, foreign investment coming in, there isa foreign investment coming in, there is a great money flying at housing in general and that gets overlooked. you can build an awful lot more houses but it won't necessarily bring houses prices down. clearly the huff post is a cynical beasts. a lot of people would say this government, the last government before that, the government before that, they have all talked about building more houses and all of them have done nothing about it. there is an easy way of building houses, councils and old houses, you borrow to invest. this government has refused to do that, which means it all sounds very radical but it is just a tweaking of this system that is not working. sticking plaster. people understand that they will probably be penalised despite the good intentions. ok, briefly, the front page of the ft, italy said for

eu clash after winning four populists. no suggestion that italy wa nts to populists. no suggestion that italy wants to leave the european union, but there could be a feud dates there. let's go straight to the back page of the metro finally. exclusive interview with the bbc, dan roan, oui’ interview with the bbc, dan roan, our sports editor. and mr begins making it clear that he is not a cheat. this is very unsatisfactory all—round. sir bradley wiggins is saying that he didn't cheat, he absolutely didn't do what the commons committee has alleged, which was preaching the ethical boundaries, not actually breaking the rules, per se, because the rules allowed what took place, these therapeutic aids that he had. he is insisting he has been thrown under the line, but it doesn't look great good. you would like to think sportsmen and women can win without

any sort of assistance, and it does appear at it too much that this has happened. he was a shining light for british sport. it has dimmed somewhat as a result of all of this. you would like to win in a way that eve ryo ne you would like to win in a way that everyone thinks you deserve to win. clea n. everyone thinks you deserve to win. clean. and of course he maintains his innocence. absolutely. good to see you both, many thanks for that. that is it for the papers tonight, don't forget you can see all of them on the bbc news website. if you've missed the papers any evening, you know how to log into iplayer by now i sincerely hope. thanks again. it is obviously nowhere near as cold as it was last week, milder

conditions have spread to most parts of the uk. we have lost the beast from the east, the bitterly cold siberian wind and the air tends to come more from the south. that has been drawing in some wild air across most of the uk but you can see where it is still cold. we have low pressure dominating our weather at the moment. within that area of low pressure we have that weather system here, tracking its way northwards. we are getting a bit of snow over the tops of the cumbrian fells. more especially late in the night back into scotland. with no wind it will

turn rather misty, a lot of low cloud, typical coverages overnight roundabout two or three degrees, a risk of some frost perhaps. a mixture of rain, sleet and snow over the hills, should brighten up a bit. get some sunshine in the south—west and the extreme south—east, that could pop off one or two showers. through the middle it may well be cloudy, quite a range of temperatures. still got low pressure in charge as we go to the middle pa rt in charge as we go to the middle part of the week was dogged nothing much moving at all, that weather front bringing some showers, that one in the north gives the wetter weather going, more towards the highlands and islands. again there will be some snow over the hills. further south, a bit of a breeze picking up, breaking a mcleod, a bit of more sunshine. still lighter winds across central and southern

scotla nd winds across central and southern scotland where temperatures are no better than 7 degrees. disappointing on wednesday, same again on thursday. that wet weather just clinging to the far west of scotland. a few showers clean to england and wales, they could be a little heavy. this is bbc news. the headlines at 11:00 — a former russian spy is one of two people critically ill after a suspected poisoning in wiltshire. police investigating the scene have closed a restaurant in the town. sir bradley wiggins tells the bbc he is not a drugs cheat after mps accuse him of crossing an ethical line. and thousands of people in england and wales have faced disruption, this time from rising temperatures as burst pipes drain water supplies. a russian man who spied for britain

lies critically ill. we asked a former mi6 officer what they think is going on.