the new york times looks at sex and the city's cynthia nixon running for governor. so do screen stars have more power in politics? it asks that question. and then the final story in the china daily? why the country's craze for cats is fuelling big business in beijing. thomas james roby here, james hughes, he says he does not like cats at all but let's not hold that against him. let's look at the times‘s front—page. they are dominating, facebook shares hit extremely hard, no surprise really? no, on this story probably has a lot of lex to go. there is a lot going to happen before we see the end of this. —— legs. what this story

really focuses on is almost the landslide we saw when this news came out and obviously, we have these so—called stocks, facebook, is on, google or alphabet, as they are known, these companies have been so well known for so long, with very little bad press coming out about them. —— amazon. little bad press coming out about them. -- amazon. apart from uber. yeah, apart from uber. we know that data is always a sticking point for any sort of social company, we know that when that has been compromised or used outside of anything it should be used for, there is a downside to the price. on the issue of cause for facebook and google, for example, in that group, and for twitter and others, if the decision is made, they should be regulated, policed in some way, what impact will that have on the likes of facebook? also, some are asking the

question about to what extent they wa nt to question about to what extent they want to be using these platforms at all if their data is being used, find out or sent out without their knowledge. of course, facebook is denying any wrongdoing, as are the other companies involved in this but it will be interesting to see how marks up about reacts to this, what he decides to do in terms of talking to politicians on both side of the atla ntic to politicians on both side of the atlantic and that sort of thing. -- bbc.co.uk. yeah, and i think that is what they have said they are going to do. -- mark zuckerberg. all of the big tech companies will be following this story really closely, because it has a knock—on effect, all these big companies get hit when there is any news around these big tech stocks. now, the san francisco chronicle looking in detail of what

actually happens, this self driving taxi on the road, testing condition but actually on the real road and a woman was not down and tragically, she died. this is no fault by uber, but this is the problem with this technology, isn't it? is very difficult to predict human behaviour. absolutely, and the argument behind this would save look, this is computer code we are looking out. algorithms. these algorithms, they are not the reactions of a computer, this is hull computer will react in the face ofa hull computer will react in the face of a situation like this. the police and the officials who run this said that it was not at fault, the driver was not at fault, this would have happened, and an interesting line in this, this would have happened... because the ladyjust came out in between two vehicles. autonomous or human driving car, the exact same situation would have happened, so these dougherty said. i do not think

it is necessarily the end of the road for this kind of tech knowledge it because this is seen as the kind of future car travel especially. —— the authorities said. it is or is different when the name uber is involved because there is such bad press around uber, there is such bad perception. because bbc.co.uk is testing all this is well. the perception of which is totally different to uber. it is totally opposite, as you say. looking at this innovation, as it were. what do you think? do you feel safer with self driving cars on the road or not? it is like viewers have been saying, driverless car cannot drink, ta ke saying, driverless car cannot drink, take drugs or use a mobile phone when it is driving. can't be overtired. can't be overtired. changing the cd, and is anybody do

that any more? all right, let's move on. let's talk brexit, james. i know you love this subject, you love talking brexit. other papers have this story too, and you know there isa this story too, and you know there is a difference of opinion as to what degree it is a breakthrough or not, but would you argue that this decision on the part of michel barnier and david davis to agree on a transition bill, what happens after march, is good news for companies and businesses in terms of their planning? well, yes and no, this is firstly, breakthrough, is that a breakthrough really? or is thisjust some of that a breakthrough really? or is this just some of the bits that we already knew they were common ground on, they have officially said yes, we have common ground in these situations? some of the enormous issues, like the biggest issue to brexit of all, the irish border issue, there is no ground made on that issue at all. well, there is no breakthrough on that at all, critically. and that is the biggest

thing that could derail this. a transition deal in this period after march 2019, there is an agreement on some of the situation after that time, yes. company six ports said that in the uk, they know where they are presumably until december 2020, which is important. yes, that is important. they know where they are forjust over a year but in terms of long—term business, that is not a long—term business, that is not a long period of time. no, it is not. and it does not necessarily mean anything if you were to say to a business this period between march 2019 and 2020, you are a little bit clear on that but the rest of your future you have got no idea about because we have no idea what post—brexit britain looks like, we do not know what post—brexit, the eu looks like, but that little period you are fine with. ok, i feel the

cynicism, a sensor concern about this. let's now move on swiftly. cynthia nixon, who we all know as miranda from sex and the city, has decided to run as governor of new york. she grew up in new york, lives in new york, she is known as her character who is very prominent in new york. has she got a chance? well, yes of course she has got a chance. she is very well-known. she is very well known that she is fighting a tough challenge, andrew cuomo... fighting a tough challenge, andrew cuomo. .. he is fighting a tough challenge, andrew cuomo... he is very fighting a tough challenge, andrew cuomo. .. he is very strong. a very strong candidates, with the lot of money behind him in campaigning, a lot of experience in campaigning. as we have seen with other celebrities going for politicians, and i think there is this air of it donald trump can do it, anyone can do it... yeah, absolutely. then yes, of course she has a chance but is this rise of well—known individuals running for office, we have seen oprah winfrey said that she is not going to do it,

but there is all the pr that went around her speech. arnold schwarzenegger didn't. we don't really see it in the uk. no, we don't actually. they see the brexit mess and do not bother. that he does, when you listen to her speech and she announced that this is what iam going and she announced that this is what i am going for, she really tried to strike the time that those issues that are on her mind of the inequality, the vast inequality in new york state, she says it is the worst state in the whole of the united dates, with the gap between the rich and the poor is as vast. which is not surprising to hear when you think financial there, wall street, investment banking, that kind of thing. right, love of cats is big business. absolutely. it is big business, james, despite the fa ct big business, james, despite the fact that you do not like them. no, ido fact that you do not like them. no, i do not like them. this is in china, is big business, iwould i do not like them. this is in china, is big business, i would say it is big is this everywhere.

lovers, pet lovers, it is pets in general, isn't it? to get myself out of issue here, pets in general are an enormous business and in china of course, cats, or owning of cats is enormous, enormous business from the medical care and all of the different... hospitality, food, toys, cafes, apparently. we even see it in this country these days. even in the uk, we have dogged health clu bs in the uk, we have dogged health clubs and pet health cloud. people are willing to spend hard cash. are you willing to... notjust yet, we are moving that way of course, but not just yet. all right, are moving that way of course, but notjust yet. all right, thank you, james. and you for your comments. thank you too for your tweets. you can see what people have been seeing. i will see you soon. hello there.

our weather's showing signs of catching up on the season, going from something that has felt a bit more like winter to something more springlike over the next few days. now, over the weekend, london temperatures barely got above freezing. we've had that heavy snow as well. there's a trend to seeing things warm up and by thursday, temperatures should reach double temperatures in the capital. of course, the big change has been this area of high pressure, which brought us the mini beast from the east. that same area of high pressure has now just sunk to the south—west of the uk. and so, we're dragging in some slightly less cold air. that will continue to be the case over the next couple of days. on the satellite picture, we're looking at an area of cloud sinking its way southwards at the moment and that cloud is just thick enough to bring us a few light showers, so for the early risers there is the potential of catching one or two showers across parts of the midlands, east anglia and south—east england. i wouldn't be surprised to see an odd flake falling from it, given that the temperatures for most of us are at or below freezing. and a particularly cold start to the day in scotland,

where temperatures potentially down as low as —8 in the coldest spots. for tuesday, we'll have a cloudy start to the day for most of england. should be fairly sunny across scotland. a decent amount of showers. with this cloud, one or two showers pushing on towards the midlands for a time during the day, but the cloud will tend to shrink and shrivel, with some sunshine either side of it as we go on through the afternoon. for many of us, a decent kind of day. those temperatures up to nine degrees in london. that was tuesday's weather. now, as we get towards wednesday, we start to drag in some milder air off the atlantic, but with that comes the threat of some rain. rain will be working way into the north—west of the uk. but before that arrives, it's going to be another fairly cold night, particularly across england and wales. the temperatures not as low in scotland and northern ireland, where we'll have that increasingly cloudy look to the weather, with outbreaks of rain skirting into northern ireland. the rain heavy at times and quite persistent across the western side of scotland. a few breaks in the cloud, the best of any sunshine probably across central and eastern parts of england. we are looking at highs of around

nine degrees in london again, but the temperatures in scotland and northern ireland are reaching double figures. ten or 11 degrees in the warmest spots, and that warming trend continues on into thursday. thursday, well, potentially a little bit of rain around, getting close to eastern england. so it could be quite wet for some. but there will be some brighter spells. the best towards eastern areas. the weather going downhill further west, as the next band of rain works in. temperatures pretty much across the board will be reaching double figures. that's your latest weather. hello, this is breakfast, with louise minchin and dan walker. the british company accused of using the data of 50 million facebook users without their consent — today the information watchdog steps up the investigation. the information commissioner says it will apply for a warrant to search computers used by technology company cambridge analytica amid claims of a data breach. good morning, it's tuesday

the 20th of march. also this morning — the diplomatic row continues after the attack on a former spy in salisbury — more than 20 russian embassy staff will leave london today.