you're watching beyond one hundred days. a significant moment in the brexit negotiation. the uk and eu have agreed terms for a transition, pending a satisfactory divorce. under the terms of the deal britain will be allowed to sign new trade deals with the rest of the world that will come into force in 2021. but here's the hitch — the two sides still have a lot of tricky issues to figure out, not least the irish border question. businesses need not delay investment decisions all rushed through contingency plans based on guesses about the future deal. instead, they now have certainty about the terms that will apply immediately after oui’ that will apply immediately after our withdrawal. how safe is our personal information on facebook? the company's share price falls on news millions of profiles being used for political purposes. also on the programme: donald trump takes aim at robert mueller. at the moment it's just on twitter but is the president loosing patience with the prosecutor? uber suspends all tests

of its driverless cars, after one of them hit and killed a woman crossing a road in arizona. get in touch with us. hello and welcome — i'm katty kay in washington and christian fraser is in london. british business are welcoming a moment of certainty in the otherwise uncertain brexit negotiations. sterling rose today after the uk and the eu agreed a deal on the terms of the transition period. translation: what we are presenting to you today here with david is a legal text, a joint legal text, which constitutes in my mind a decisive step because we were able this morning to agree, and after all those days and nights of hard work, ona those days and nights of hard work, on a large part of what will make up an international agreement for the

ordered withdrawal of the united kingdom. in the colour—coded chart published by the two sides today, 75% of the withdrawal document is now in green, meaning "agreed in principle". that applies to the financial settlement — the divorce payment — and the rights of 4m citizens in the uk and the eu affected by brexit. also in green, the terms of the transition. it will last until dec 2020. during that time london will abide by eu rules but will lose any say in the decision making process. but the uk has got one concession. it will be able to sign trade deals with other countries during the transition; although they'll only come into effect after the transition. the uk won't have any say in eu rules during the transition but the two sides agreed a good faith clause, under which the uk will be consulted a range of issues. let's cross to brussels and our europe correspondent damian grammaticus.

so lots of green, damian, but 25% of this document is in white, not agreed, and they represent some of the most difficult obstacles to overcome. yes, because the important thing to remember is that this is a conditional agreement and you were saying at the beginning businesses are welcoming certainty. there is a big question mark at the heart of that, so it's not really certain. and that is because of those white areas, as you say, and key to that is the issue about ireland and the border between northern ireland and the republic of ireland, still that question bedevilling the negotiations and how to avoid it. the agreement today says that in the legal text there will be the eu's preferred or option that it has on the table at the minute, which is keeping northern ireland part of the uk still in the eu's customs and regulatory sort of sphere, so there's no need for a border. that is meant to go into the deal and the

agreement today says it will but that —— but that is still politically a very difficult thing for the uk government, and if that falls a pa rt for the uk government, and if that falls apart this whole deal falls apart, so still that question to be resolved. so why should we have any more confidence that they can agree issues that seem impossible to agree on today after the magic date of march of next year, when we go into the transition period 7 march of next year, when we go into the transition period? well, that's a good question. this issue of the irish border has to be agreed before march next year and it has to be agreed in the coming six months or so, because it has to be in the withdrawal text. that's what the eu is saying at the minute. if it isn't in that text, then the eu has a huge stumbling block to get over. i think the positive thing to take from this is that the overall picture from the uk's point of view is that one year to go until transition, that is in just nine days, that is when the

countdown starts, businesses have been sent to the uk government, we need a year's notice of what will happen or we will start can —— triggering contingency plans, so thatis triggering contingency plans, so that is where they need to get the agreement saying, yes, in principle a transition will happen as long as the other things can be agreed, but there are a lot of difficult things there are a lot of difficult things the uk has already agreed to and most of the eu's big demands, they uk being a payer and allowing free movement to continue for eu citizens, uk has signed up to all of those. thank you. let's speak now to henry newman, director at open europe. baseball have to take a leap of faith that there will be a political leap of faith —— they still say they have to take a leap of faith. how much movement or they have?”

have to take a leap of faith. how much movement or they have? i think they have some movement. there was good achievement on both sides and now, iam good achievement on both sides and now, i am assuming the european council signs this off, they should have got agreement on the transition. that is what businesses have been asking for. this is a gentleman's agreement from the heads of government, if you like, that they will keep things exactly the same for the period of roughly 21 months until the end of 2020, as though we were an eu member but without voting rights. it is possible things will fall apart in the later stages of the deal but i find that hard to imagine. this is now overwhelming like —— overwhelmingly likely that we will exit with this transition. it was said last week the idea that you put the order somewhere in the irish sea was not something that was possible. she would never get that through parliament so you wonder why you would put in the document. because if she brought that back the

government would collapse and there would be no deal. it seems a bit of a moot point. what they have done rather cleverly is parked some of the most difficult issues, the governments of the trading agreement and the questions of the irish border, until later in the negotiations. and that is good practice. you don't want to do with the most difficult issue in the beginning. some of this comes down to the problem that the uk has agreed to things which are contradictory back in december. both sides fudged the december text to make sure they could get over the line and we've seen more of that today. we don't know what the answer is northern ireland and ireland and we will have to wait and see, so that's a key area where there will need to be lots of discussion. henry, in any negotiation there is give and take. who has taken more and has given more? probably the uk has moved further but the eu has also moved. that's sensible because it is something primarily the uk was asking for. we could spend a lot of

capital trying to design bespoke transition periods or we could focus the capital of working at the future agreement, so i think it was quite sensible for the uk to broadly accept the eu terms for the transition. good to see you. thank you for coming in. facebook‘s share price fell sharply today as the company came under scrutiny for failing to protect information on millions of american voters that may have been used to influence the 2016 election. a joint report by the new york times and the observer newspapers found that 50 million facebook profiles were accessed, without users' knowledge, to help donald trump's campaign. the data was used by the uk firm cambridge analytica to gain information about voters so they could be influenced to support the trump campaign. alexander nix, the chief executive of cambridge analytica, told bbc newsnight the allegations were completely untrue. a lot of the allegations that have been put to cambridge are entirely

unfounded and unfair. we weren't involved with brexit. we've been crystal clear about this. at every single opportunity. and at last we are beginning to see in the media reporting that reflects this. only yesterday aaron banks came out with a statement for the first time clarifying we had absolutely no involvement. the guardian, who's been propagating a lot of this misinformation orfake been propagating a lot of this misinformation or fake news, been propagating a lot of this misinformation orfake news, printed that, and two days ago another statement saying we weren't involved. do you think the guardian is in the business of fake news?” think that there has been some... some fairly slipshod journalism in regards to our involvement in some of these things, where we presented unequivocally the fact of the matter to these newspapers and they've chosen to paint their own picture, which is now proving to be false. plenty in the weekend newspapers about this. cambridge analytical

boasted had 4000—5000 datapoints on americans who were voting but they did tell facebook reportedly that they deleted the information they had harvested. did they delete that information and have they been forthcoming and honest in these parliamentary inquiries about the information they hold? that's speak to the chair of the parliamentary committee in the uk, who is looking into this. you put out a statement last night saying you want mark zuckerberg to come back to really give evidence on what happened. are you concerned that facebook doesn't have control of what third parties are doing with its information? that's right, because they gave us assurances that they could track what people were doing with their data, that if somebody was breaching their rules they would get that data back and take action against the company that was doing that. and here we have a case with cambridge analytical who knew there was an

issue two years ago with data they had taken and that facebook had asked them to destroy. they did nothing to check they had and they only suspended them when it was about to hit the newspapers. facebook has been quite aggressive about this story. first they are saying there wasn't a breach because these user profiles were taken for academic purposes. then they threatened to sue the observer, they banned them from having a facebook account. do you think the facebook response is in any way, and we have not hard from mark zuckerberg himself, is their response in any way adequate? —— heard from mark zuckerberg. no. it just way adequate? —— heard from mark zuckerberg. no. itjust shows you they can take down accounts really quickly when they have the grounds to do it so they are punishing the whistle—blower for bringing very important information into the public domain. they knew what was going on and they didn't act on it. they can call it what they want but as far as members of the public are

concerned, an academic at cambridge university managed to access data of 50 million facebook users and themselves act to a commercial entity for them to use in their campaigns. i think that is a data breach and i think many will be concerned about actually how much data facebook has on them and that facebook cannot keep it safe. what about the chief executive? keeper parliament last month his company had never obtained or used facebook data. now we know they did and they did not delete face —— they did not delete the data they told facebook they had. exactly. we asked him whether he had acquired data directly and he said they hadn't. and that's why we want him to come back and explain to parliament his a nswe rs , back and explain to parliament his answers, because i don't think his a nswe rs a re answers, because i don't think his answers are in any way consistent with what we now know and therefore if parliament and the committee believe we have been misled, we will report back to the committee on

standards here in parliament. report back to the committee on standards here in parliamentm report back to the committee on standards here in parliament. it is not entirely clear what you or us investigators can do about facebook or mark zuckerberg but billions of our viewers around the world have facebook accounts. what would you say to those viewers?” facebook accounts. what would you say to those viewers? i think they should speak up and let facebook know how angry they are. i think it's terrible that mark zuckerberg or it's terrible that mark zuckerberg oran it's terrible that mark zuckerberg or an equally senior person in the company is not prepared to answer questions to discuss these concerns. ultimately this is about data facebook others on its users and how it sells that data to advertisers and whether it can keep it safe. this is fundamental to the way facebook work some people have a right to know if their data is being used properly. there is a bigger concern is well about the way in which consumer data gathered through surveys on consumer issues is being used in political campaigns, when nobody really gave their consent for that to take place. but in terms of what we can do, we can hold

inquiries to take people to account but we have also been debating in the house of commons today whether the house of commons today whether the government could change the law to give the information commissioner even more powers for tech companies not to disclose data to a request for in that nation to make sure data laws are properly being adhered to. —— request for information. on the whole we have to take it on trust that the big tech companies are abiding by the data protection laws that exist in our country and other countries and i think we need the right to go behind the curtain and see for ourselves that is the case. ican see for ourselves that is the case. i can understand why that shouldn't be parliament but an independent investigator could do that. thank you. ididn't investigator could do that. thank you. i didn't understand until this morning the fact that american to have their data held on harvested might have stronger legal grounds here in the uk because the information was stored in the uk, so there are americans now making representations over here, and

apparently, according to the america i saw this morning, he said the safeguards here in the uk are much stronger than the united states, so they are more confident in the system here in the uk. i think the question will be a commercial one. there has been so much bad publicity surrounding the story on facebook and so much pressure on facebook‘s executives to come forward and explain how they have this information and did nothing about it, because we saw the share price falling by something like 7%. if all of those people with accounts start speaking up about this and protesting, i would suspect you would see facebook moving a bit more quickly. do you know how much mark zuckerberg loss today in one—day? according to that share for? more than you or i will ever have in our lives! $5 billion! talking, by the way, of big internet companies who have not had a good day, one of

uber‘s vehicles, self driving vehicles, has hit and killed i%_n= arizona. the car was an in arizona. the car was an autonomous mode with an operator behind the wheel when the woman was struck. uber has not confirmed the vehicle within autonomous mode but it does say it is suspending self driving car tests in all cities. i think people will pay a lot of attention to this, don't you?” think so. we chatted about this earlier and you said you think the technology is already there but i suppose the point is that you have an incident there will be a public inquiry and people will have less confidence in it. and when i sort of reflect on whether i would be happy to get into one of these cars, how long would it take you as a driver to actually let go of the wheel to put your faith in the car and trust in the system? i think that's the problem a lot of people will have, particularly when they see a story like this. look at those pictures. that is just brutal. the poor woman

on her bicycle who was knocked over by this driverless car. people i speak to by this driverless car. people i speakto in by this driverless car. people i speak to in the tech world say that technology is there, you are right, and ultimately these cars will be safer than those driven by people because robots don't drink and they are. texting and driving and they don't get distracted, they don't speed, they know what they are doing, but the human appetite for trusting driverless cars is still something like 5—10 years off, and it would take me something a very long time —— it would take somebody like mea long time —— it would take somebody like me a very long time to trust a d riverless like me a very long time to trust a driverless car. that sets that public confidence. but we don't know who was to blame there. itjust ta kes who was to blame there. itjust takes me back to that incident involving a driver being killed and it became clear after the investigation he had ignored six audible warnings and seven visual warnings on his dashboard.” audible warnings and seven visual warnings on his dashboard. i think he was watching harry potter, wasn't he? that's it. you hear the story

but not the follow—up. but not the follow-up. ok, american politics. 0n on saturday, donald trump said there was no collusion and no crime and the probe should not have been trusted. this is the first time mr trump mentioned him by name, and then again today came a total witchhunt. for the most part there has been a deafening silence from the republican party protest at the president's attacks on the investigation but a couple of republican leaders were prompted to speak out on tv this weekend. republican leaders were prompted to speak out on tv this weekendm republican leaders were prompted to speak out on tv this weekend. if you look at the jurisdiction, first and foremost, what did russia do to this country in 2016? that is supremely

important and it has nothing to do with collusion. so to suggest that mullah should shutdown and all he is looking at is collusion, if you have an innocent client, act like it. are you worried that the president is ordering the fire of him? it looks like that from his tweets. that would be the beginning and end of his presidency because... we arejoined by and end of his presidency because... we are joined by ron christie from new york, who used to working the bush administration. —— ron christie in new york. what would the steps be word donald trump to decide to act on what his tweet seemed to be suggesting he would like to do and shut down the russia probe? it would be very simple, actually.

he would be within his legal authority to fire him if he thought it the appropriate action to do so. but all that does, as we've seen, is bring very bad press and attention to the president, so while it is within his legal rights to do so, we have heard so many people talk about a constitutional crisis, i think the president would have more people against him in his own party than he would be —— than would be supportive. we played a couple there but so far, the republican party has been pretty forgiving of donald trump. do you think this would be the straw that would break the repubblica... the straw that would break the repubblica. .. 0n getting the straw that would break the repubblica... 0n getting lost in that one! with this be a bridge too far? it would be a bridge too far. what little audience i have on twitter, i've taken to twitter myself this weekend and have said the president is not acting presidential. it's an honourfor him to hold that office and he demeaned by some of his tweets and outlandish

comments that he makes. let the special counsel do its work. if your client is innocent and they have nothing to find, then let the investigation go. and you heard one of the current members of congress say, stop acting guilty, mr president. aside from the fact that there would be all these repercussions if he sacked mueller, the important point, and that what his lawyers keep saying to him, is the obstruction of a non—crime is a crime, and that is the real danger. it's good to see you, christian. obstruction of justice here it's good to see you, christian. 0bstruction ofjustice here with united states is a very simple crime to prove. what you're looking at here is, has an individual taken steps to a legal proceeding? to impede an investigation? and one could certainly make the argument that, yes, the president is well within his legal power to dismiss the special counsel but it does bring into question, is that obstructing an investigation? that

is certainly not a road he wants to go down. it's a bridge too far. the question remains, what does mr trump thing and will he act on it?” question remains, what does mr trump thing and will he act on it? i know you've got your into the ground. what is going on? he's got rid of gary coen, among others. he has an ambiguous relationship with his chief of staff. these are the people who rent him in. the shackles off now and is this real trump we're starting to see? —— these are the people who rein him in.” starting to see? —— these are the people who rein him in. i can tell you the times i've been in the white house, i wouldn't call it disarray but it's certainly been very chaotic. the president likes chaos and pitting his staff against each other, and what you've seen, the so—called adult supervision the president has, those figures are largely gone. he likes these folks being at each other‘s throats and running around because that's how he's always operated. the question is, it might be good for the

president but is it good for our country? and of course it is not. i'm not sure it is for us either because it's exhausting. he has often a real spin because there is so much news! thank you forjoining us. this is interesting — the idea of the president being unshackled. because he is also facing the weight of the mueller investigation. his business has been subpoenaed for business documents. and i wonder where —— i wonder whether the two aren't related. he feels he can do things the way he wants to do. he fired people and the markets didn't crash. he lodged a trade war and the markets didn't crash. he had korean trade talks and everything was fine. and he's saying, hey, i could fire bob mueller and everything will be fine. yes, maybe. he's got a year into thejob fine. yes, maybe. he's got a year into the job and thinks he can fine. yes, maybe. he's got a year into thejob and thinks he can do it his own way. maybe he doesn't believe the accounts of those closest to him. anyway, we will

watch this with interest. anyway, over to my favourite story of the day. andy murray getting woken up by the comedian michael mcintyre. the rude awakening was in aid of sports relief. let's have a look at the tennis star getting prank. andy! welcome! holy bleep! ..to the sport relief midnight game—show. bleep morning, and the! from your favourite tv show, please tell us who is this person? that's,

erm... that's daddy pig. tell us who is this person? that's, erm. .. that's daddy pig. that's it! brilliant! he gets a high five! he walks in on an unsuspecting member of the public in that show. and plays a game show. i love the cameramen in the tennis gear, bjorn lomborg style! this is beyond 100 days. coming up, as president trump unveils his strategy to tackle the us opioid crisis, we pay a visit to the country's first opioid court, getting users into treatment within hours rather than weeks of their arrest. plus the facebook data scandal and why one author claims its as much ourfault as it why one author claims its as much our fault as it is theirs. all to come. good evening. it is the equinox and

after a weekend of heavy snowfall, no signs of spring out there. —— sums lines —— some signs of spring. temperatures are on the rise for the rest of this week as the wind goes from an easterly direction to a more westerly one. still north—easterly wind across the country and that's going to fade. more cloud across england and wales overnight and that means the temperatures will be up and down a bit. clearer skies in scotla nd and down a bit. clearer skies in scotland and northern ireland and temperatures will drop the furthest here. glasgow down to —6 and some places —7 or minus eight. 0ccasional cloud breaks with a frost across england and wales. but signs of change and that's because high pressure to the north of us is drifting southwards, and that will allow wind coming off the atlantic.

not for england and wales to begin with. a brisk wind coming in for the north—east. but temperatures up on what we have seen. —— from the north—east. the odd spot of light rain and sleet but most staying dry. cloud increases into the north—west later but temperatures way up on what we've seen recently. back up to nine or ten what we've seen recently. back up to nine orten in what we've seen recently. back up to nine or ten in one or two spots. high pressure continues to drift down towards the south—west, the atla ntic down towards the south—west, the atlantic air will gradually flood in. that process starts in earnest on wednesday. a brighter day over england and wales but westerly winds for ireland and northern ireland. 0ccasional rain and drizzle further west, the odd shower further north, but temperatures climbing. aberdeenshire, 11 or 12. and a few spots in england and wales getting closer to double figures. that continues into thursday. at the same

time, the atlantic weather front will be gathering towards the west so the cloud thickening up and some rain into the west of northern ireland. a dry day on thursday, increasing cloud with the best of the breaks in eastern counties. it could hit 13 degrees in parts of aberdeenshire on thursday. 12 or 13. also possible across parts of the south—east, spring will be with us. this is beyond one hundred days, with me katty kay in washington. christian fraser's in london. our top stories: a big step on the road to brexit, as agreement is reached on the uk's transition period, but there are still issues to be resolved, notably the irish border. facebook‘s share price has fallen sharply on news of millions of profiles were used for political purposes. coming up in the next half hour... president trump has continued his twitter attack on special counsel robert mueller, calling the ongoing investigation into russia's interference in the 2016 election a "witch hunt." uber suspends all tests of its driverless cars, after one of them hit and killed a woman crossing a road in arizona. let us know your thoughts by using the hashtag...

‘beyond—0ne—hundred—days‘. international chemical weapons experts have arrived in salisbury to examine the nerve agent used to poison the former russian spy sergei skripal and his daughter. the team from the organisation for the prohibition of chemical weapons will also visit the military research base at porton down in wiltshire. it comes as police say the investigation will take months and eu foreign ministers meeting in brussels have expressed today "unqualified solidarity" with britain. here's our diplomatic correspondent james landale. though the focus of the investigation today shifted ten miles of salisbury. to the village of

durrington. here, officers examined and then removed a car that was used to pick up yulia skripal from the airport the day before she and her father, sergei, were attacked with nerve agent. nearby, at the military research complex of porton down, inspectors from the global chemical weapons watchdog the 0pcw were due to start analysing the nerve agent that british experts believe came from russia, a process that officials say could take some weeks. in brussels, the foreign secretary was talking to nato and european allies, trying to maintain the diplomatic pressure on russia — looking notjust for statements of support, but tangible, joined—up action. there are things we can and must do together, tackling disinformation from russia, and the uk has been helping to fund that at an eu level. tackling cyber together. sharing intelligence about what russia is up to. and for now, at least, allies standing shoulder to shoulder. all 29 nato allies stand united. we stand in solidarity with the united kingdom. and the uk is not alone. earlier, eu foreign ministers gathered to discuss the attack

and issued a joint statement expressing unqualified solidarity with the uk, saying they took its assessment that russia was to blame extremely seriously. what is absolutely clear is that solidarity with the united kingdom and our extreme concern about what has happened, that is really unacceptable. but in moscow, the defiance continued. as president putin began his fourth term of office, his spokesman said the uk must prove russia's role in the poisoning of mr skripal or apologise. as for russia's diplomats in london, well, some of these officials and their families will be heading home tomorrow — 23 in all, with a similar number of british diplomats leaving moscow shortly. tomorrow, the national security council will meet to decide britain's next steps and there is a live debate within government — should they retaliate and escalate, or simply do nothing? should they kick more russian diplomats out of the embassy here or should they find new ways of penalising russia ? the question is, what further diplomatic price is the government prepared to pay? james langdale, bbc news. global reaction to vladimir putin's

re—election tells you a lot about the state of the world today. the president's victory in this weekend's poll prompted effusive praise from among others china, venezuela and cuba and a rather frosty response from the west. election monitoring groups pointed to a lack of real choice in the election in which mr putin won three quarters of the vote. the main opposition leader, alexei navalny, was barred from standing. there have also been accounts of ballot stuffing and forced voting. for more we are joined now by angela stent, an expert in russian politics who teaches at georgetown university. i want to get to the real election of president putin in a second but first the spy story in the uk and the latest developments. it doesn't look like the russian government has any intention of giving anything on

this one. of course not, they never do, they didn't do it with alexander litvinenko and they won't now. that's how they respond to these things, with denial, which makes it more difficult to hold people to account. you have written recently that institutions in russia have rarely been as insignificant as they are today over the course of the last 100 years. does that mean vladimir putin is therefore much more powerful? certainly at the moment. he appears to be very powerful now. he hasjust moment. he appears to be very powerful now. he has just won 76% of the vote and even if there was some cheating he's definitely popular. but i think going forward we will have to see whether this is indeed his last term, you start to get people manoeuvring for succession, you start to get people questioning what's happening but right now and i would say that the next year or two he will be very powerful.” would say that the next year or two he will be very powerful. i want to pick up on that because their risk

term limit in russia, and by the end of this he will have served 2a yea rs. of this he will have served 2a years. will his priority shift because of that jostling years. will his priority shift because of thatjostling for power? his priority should shift to economic reform, to strengthening the economy, and to make sure people's standard of living don't fall and people around him don't start grumbling more. it's not clear who really will do anything. the other possibility is more assertive foreign policy. going back to the pre—election speech he made, it had two parts to it, one was economic reform and the other was showing off nuclear weapons and basically telling the united states, we can evade any weapons you have and don't mess with us. but i wonder if history and his worldview ensures that he really does like the way things are drifting at the moment, going back to a cold war and nearer

really where russia and the soviet bloc was all powerful. if you think back to where he was as an fsb agent, there was chaos. there was not a strong economy although there was more democracy. his goal has been to get the outside world to treat russia as if it were the soviet union, a great superpower, people should respect and fear it, and is on his way to achieving that despite an economy that is not functioning that well, despite crumbling infrastructure and bad demographics. he has been able to project russian power into its neighbourhood and beyond. so to what extent neighbourhood and beyond. so to what exte nt d oes neighbourhood and beyond. so to what extent does interfering in elections around the world, in the west in particular, and the spy story in the uk constitute part of vladimir putin's c? it will be part of his legacy because it is exacerbating the polarisation that exists in the west, making people question their

own societies. this will be part of his legacy, then deploying these tactics, poisoning, and these tough tactics, poisoning, and these tough tactics which were deployed in the soviet times too, but with greater intensity now. thank you for coming in. angela merkel has been in poland today. and top of her agenda was north stream two — the gas pipeline that would ship russian gas to germany. mrs merkel‘s government has given it the green light — but poland is urging western sanctions be imposed on it. it's not the only topic that the two countries fail to see eye to eye on. berlin is less than impressed with warsaw's sweeping judicial reforms. poland's minister of investment and economic development and is in london today to talk trade.

we spoke to him a little earlier and i asked him for poland's response to the alleged russian poisoning of a former russian spy here in the uk and whether he believed the eu was ready to take strong action? the united kingdom can count on polish support and i think not only the government but especially european society and the media should say very clearly what do they think about actions like that because that was not only be action against the former spy but it was also the action against his family up also the action against his family up against common citizens who u nfortu nately suffered up against common citizens who unfortunately suffered from that.” know that poland is supporting —— has supported in the past british sanctions on russia, and angela merkel is in warsaw today talking about the gas pipeline that will bring gas from russia into europe. i know this is something you seek as a potential for sanctions, if russia were to continue misbehaving. for us

it's important the dialogue between poland and germany continues, and at a very high level. at the level of our prime ministers. but you're right, north stream two is something we do not accept at all in poland and we do not concede that commercial economic undertaking. that is an investment which could monopolise the transfer of gas from russia to europe. we think that it could make not only poland but especially ukraine in a very, very co mforta ble especially ukraine in a very, very comfortable situation.” especially ukraine in a very, very comfortable situation. i wanted to ask, the german government spokesperson ahead of angela merkel‘s visit today said european democrats must stand together

against trump and putin. is that how you see it from poland's point of view? the united states are very close ally of poland. you know, these days. we received strong support from nato especially on our eastern border, and that was extremely important for us that we have got now the nato troops led by american soldiers of poland. we have very good relations in the area of defence cooperation and now we want to foster our economic relations with the united states. so i think that comparison of trump and putin is not really relevant. i must ask you finally about the relationship between britain and poland, 1 million polish people live in the

uk, you must be encouraged by the agreement signed in brussels today that will assure their rights post brexit. it is very good news for both polish citizens in the uk but also british citizens. do you think brexit deal can be done? yes, i'm much more optimistic after the end of the last year, when the compromise was made and also by today's agreement, so i'm much more optimistic than i was a year ago. significant moment. minister, thank you for coming. my pleasure. today president trump rolled out his long awaited plan to tackle the nation's growing opioid crises. drug overdoses have become leading cause of death for americans under the age of 50, a problem fuelled by a spike in opioids. the president said that drug companies must be held accountable and added there would be stiffer penalties for high intensity drug traffickers. we can have all of the blue riband

committees we want but if we don't get tough on the drug dealers, we are wasting our time, just remember that, we are wasting our time. that toughness includes the death penalty. well it is notjust first responders and treatment centres which are being taxed by the opioid crisis, the nation's criminal justice system is also struggling to keep up. in buffalo, new york they are trying an innovative approach which could prove a model for the rest of the nation. the bbc‘s nada tawfik has gone to see the country's first opioid court in action. this unremarkable courtroom in new york might be america's best new defence against its deadliest drug crisis. the goal here in the nation ‘s first opioid court is basic yet ambitious, to keep people alive. when offenders who appear in court

are addicts, thejudge immediately puts their case on hold. i'm going to release you today but i need you to release you today but i need you to report here tomorrow so we can go over everything about your treatment. no longer viewed as criminals, they are given help and have a chance to get their sentence reduced. we are not going to make the same mistake as we did in the 19905 the same mistake as we did in the 1990s because we have the research and data to show you cannot lock up and data to show you cannot lock up an addiction is the second they walk out ofjail an addiction is the second they walk out of jail they will an addiction is the second they walk out ofjail they will have the same need for that substance. participants are given treatment within hours. they agreed to drug tests, a curfew and daily court appearances. the judge knows tests, a curfew and daily court appearances. thejudge knows often this court can be the only support system some people have, so having them checked in daily and trying to form a personal bond is a way to keep them on track. carly has been

clea n for two keep them on track. carly has been clean for two months since starting the programme. she was arrested for drug possession and says she has used prescription pills and heroin for over a decade. in one week alone she was arrived —— revived three times after overdoses. you are a dog to drug dealers, you don't have any self—worth at all so when somebody looks at you and actually cares about what you are going through in your life, what your problems are, how we can help, it reminds you that deep inside there is a person that needs and deserves love. carly is trying to develop a plan for the day she no longer has to check in with the courts. she hopes to have a career in criminaljustice, just likejudge career in criminaljustice, just like judge hannah, himself career in criminaljustice, just likejudge hannah, himself a recovering addict. the only difference between me and

individuals you saw today is time. 0nce individuals you saw today is time. once they have spent enough time is clea n once they have spent enough time is clean as i have, they can accomplish anything in life. in buffalo they already think it is a success, the number of overdose deaths has significantly increased and that has other cities taking notice. this is such a huge problem in the united states, but that proposition of giving the death penalty to some drug traffickers will be controversial. this is beyond one hundred days. still to come — the actress cynthia nixon announces her candidacy for governor of new york. recognise her? the tv presenter, ant mcpartlin, says he will seek further treatment after he was arrested on suspicion of drink—driving. he was detained yesterday afternoon following a collision involving three cars in south west london. itv says his saturday night programme broadcast with his partner declan donnelly will not be broadcast this weekend. mr mcpartlin spent time in rehab last year and will take time off

for the foreseeable future according to his publicist. lizo mzimba has more. moments after the mini he was driving was involved in a collision with two cars, ant mcpartlin at the scene of the crash. when police arrived, he was taken away under arrest, after failing a breath test. a number of people were treated for minor injuries and a child passenger taken to hospital for a precautionary checkup. the evening before, ant mcpartlin had presented itv‘s saturday night takeaway. he returned to tv last year, after going into rehab visitation to treat addiction to alcohol and painkillers. this afternoon, the broadcaster said... from britain's got talent

through to i'm a celebrity, so much of itv‘s output is built on ant mcpartlin, as well as his co—host, declan donnelly. they will be trying to work out what all this will mean for the long—term future of one of its biggest stars. police say inquiries into the collision are continuing. itv said they hoped the presenter will get the help he needs, police say inquiries are continuing. here is a strange, alarming story. police in austin, texas, are warning of a new bomb threat after the city

was hit by a fourth explosion injust one month. two people were injured by a device that may have been triggered by a trip wire. the previous bombs were stuffed inside packages and left on residents' doorsteps. authorities have little understanding of who could be setting off these devices and why. police gave this update earlier today. we are clearly dealing with what we expect to be a serial bomber at this point based on the similarities between now what is the fourth device and again as we look at this individual and the pattern, and what we are looking at here, we will have to determine whether we see a specific ideology behind this or something that will lead us to make that decision along with our federal partners. two people died in the previous attacks. for the latest we can speak to our correspondent gary 0'donoghue who joins us from austin. what more do the police know about this? they don't know a great deal andi this? they don't know a great deal and i think that was pretty clear from what they said this morning. they don't have a suspect, they are

following up a few final leads but they haven't lighted on any person or more importantly perhaps any motive. there was speculation after the first three bombings that seemed to target black people and someone from an hispanic background as well, but last night's attack here was indiscriminate. it actually affected two young white men but it was a trip wire so it could have affected anyone including children as the police pointed out this morning. they sound pretty baffled. they are offering not just money they sound pretty baffled. they are offering notjust money for advice and information about who might be doing this, $115,000, but they are also trying to reach out to the bomber himself or themselves to say, look, we can listen to you and take on board what you want to say. but they don't know if this is a hate

crime or domestic terrorism case or any of the other possibilities. thank you, gary. what's the last thing you did on the internet? did it involve handing over great dollops of private information about yourself? it is something most of us do everyday, as we ‘share', ‘post‘, ‘like', ‘tweet‘. but how much time do we spend thinking about where all that information ends up? the allegations surrounding the use of personal facebook data by cambridge analytica offers another reminder of how much we've all been willing to hand over. so should we be concerned? we're joined in the studio now byjulia hobsbawm author of ‘fully connected: social health in an age of 0verload'. we talk about this a lot on this programme, about how we are deluged by social media and things on the internet, so we are really to blame, aren't we? we are, yes. i like the freudian slip of overlord, it is

actually overload. but we have reached the point where we feel out of control and yet we have given the control away. research has shown that less than one in 1000 people ever read the small print. how many times have you clicked, yes yes yes, sign me up. it's a great story, a fantastic piece of investigative reporting, but i think there is another story behind it which is that we, the public, that down —— download apps, we know they give data away. it is a well stated precondition very often so my point about this story is of course we should be up in arms about not knowing that facebook has lost control of its data but data loss of control of its data but data loss of control is everywhere. that's why

the gdpr is coming in in europe. we will talk about that in a second but i want to talk about a tweet from ian, says funny how everyone is in uproar about data issues but people use chrome, android, nobody ever complains about those companies so they have been harvesting information for years. they do, there is an enormous tech lash, it is just that facebook is getting it in the neck now. the truth is we are all waking up to something we have slightly brought upon ourselves which is for free social media for the last ten years, we have given away our privacy and our data. that is now being harvested, terrible word to use really, it is being

harvested and sold. we have a choice in society, what are we going to do about that and i believe we have to ta ke about that and i believe we have to take our social health, our behaviours around how we connect as seriously as we take our physical and mental health. i totally agree, i thought christian was doing one of his terrible puns with overlord! this hasn't been around for long, so we asa this hasn't been around for long, so we as a species have to get smarter about the way we use the internet and social media. what will it take to trigger the learning process and the revolution where we say that is enough? you are completely right it is down to the human and not the machine. a bit like you see people in the gym and they are reading but not really engaging, we have got to engage with what we are doing online and on the internet. 0ur and on the internet. our data goes somewhere. unless we obsessively set

high privacy settings, and even if we do, there is a back door. back in 1999 and very prominent net person said there is zero privacy, get over it. so the choice is do you want to be online, in which case why because really about 20% of our time is now lost, and if you do, what are you sharing and why. so we have to take responsibility. yulia, we have to leave it there. very quickly before we go, here is a blast from the past. the actress cynthia nixon has announced her candidacy for governor of new york. ms nixon — who's most famous for playing the character of miranda in sex and the city — will challenge andrew cuomo for the democratic nomination. who else do we know who did this?

was he a success? all i'm saying is have a television show, become president. we will be back at the same time tomorrow, goodbye. good evening. the start of spring tomorrow astronomically speaking and there were signs of spring out there. this was the scene in york, crocuses appearing. as we stick with the forecast trend, temperatures are on the rise as the winds go from an easterly direction to a more westerly on. easterly winds across the country will feed more cloud across england and wales overnight so that pitches will be up and down a bit. it is in northern ireland and scotla nd a bit. it is in northern ireland and scotland but temperatures will be

down the furthest, possibly down to minus eight. close to a frost bow with occasional cloud breaks across england and wales. signs of a change with high pressured to the north drifting southwards and that will allow winds over the top of it coming from the atlantic. fairly brisk winds coming in from the north—east but temperatures up on what we have seen in recent days. the cloud may be thick enough across eastern counties, but most will stay dry. the cloud increases into the north—west later but temperatures up on what we have seen in recent days, back to where they should be at around nine or 10 degrees. 0ver back to where they should be at around nine or 10 degrees. over the coming days, as high pressure drifts towards the south—west, the milder atla ntic towards the south—west, the milder atlantic air will flood in. that process starts in earnest on wednesday. a brighter day with sunny spells, westerly winds for northern

ireland. 0ccasional rain and drizzle in the west, the odd shower further north but temperatures climbing. a few spots across england and wales getting closer to double figures. that process continues wednesday night into thursday as the high pressure pushes even further southwards. at the same time the atla ntic southwards. at the same time the atlantic weather front will be gathering towards the south—west. cloud thickening up here, most have a dry day again on thursday. increasing amounts of cloud, the best of the cloud breaks across eastern counties. we could hit 13 degrees across parts of aberdeenshire on thursday. spring will be with us. this is bbc news. i'm julian worricker. the headlines at 8pm. a big step on the road brexit, as agreement is reached on the uk's transition period, but a warning there's still work to be done. businesses need not delay investment decisions or rush through contingency plans based on guesses about the future deal, instead they now have certainty about the terms that will apply

immediately after our withdrawal. translation: a decisive step remains a step. we're not at the end of the road, there is a lot of work still to be done. also tonight, the met police say the investigation in to the poisoning of a former russian double agent in salisbury could take months. close to the town forensic teams examine another car in an bid