maw” e‘fir nations and now this hfi'it:"fi“"f~ mu.- “ _ _ united nations and now this big splash on the times. they had seen or learned of intelligence that went to britain's allies which said that the novichok agent used to poison sergei skripal and his daughter was produced at russia's equivalent of porton down. they also have intelligence that this laboratory was used to test novichok‘s effectiveness for assassination. a lot of false flags over the last 2a hours by people questioning the motive of britain, questioning whether britain was right because of this confusion that resulted from the foreign office press statement. but this intelligence looks pretty clear and persuasive. the former head of britain's chemical and biological and radiological regiment has seen intelligence and says it's very compelling and clearly points to russia. at their version of porton down. i think this is pretty clear—cut about where this came from. if our allies were persuaded

there is probably some truth to it. russia will just there is probably some truth to it. russia willjust dismiss this and say britain has not been transparent in its investigation and we heard that again repeated at the united nations this evening. russia has been playing a very clever gain of misinformation, disinformation and confusion over the last couple of weeks —— clever game. the russian government have said it's not about coming out with a coherent counter narrative. it'sjust coming out with a coherent counter narrative. it's just about confusion, they blamed terrorists, the us, ukraine, they said it was suicide at one point, any story they can to muddy the water and create confusion. it is probably working in their domestic audience. you almost have to admire the chutzpah of the russians at the moment and their discipline in sticking to this narrative even in the face of evidence of evidence clearly compelling for other governments. they accused written of playing with fire and said you will be "sorry". they brought in tony blair and

question our intelligence as a nation on past matters which is going to be the conspiracy theories. he really got into his stride at the un. a markedly different tone from oui’ un. a markedly different tone from our permanent representative. indeed, there was a reference to midsummer murders which said there are 100 different ways of killing someone are 100 different ways of killing someone which is a slightly sinister remark from the russian ambassador. there has been so much confusion about where it came from. we will hear from the uk government about whether they will deny it. the key thing is that this is what went to 28 other countries. if the uk government believes this, they believe it, we should all believe it and the sort of weapons grade idiots who have been pulling out these false flags and muddying the waters, look at the facts. beating of allies, on the daily telegraph we have trump targeting putin's friends with fresh sanctions. it wasn't so

long ago the donald trump was congratulating president putin on his election. i don't think you can never predict what trump is going to do. with this he has hit russia with sanctions and he will hit russian oligarchs in particular. ostensibly, it is about meddling in the us election. i think this has the fingerprints of congressional republicans all over it, traditionally very hawkish, some of whom have been very quiet about the meddling story but confronted with the evidence we were just talking about that russia attacked an individual in a foreign nation. that is something that... these are people who have defence backgrounds, they are very aware of foreign policy in a way that perhaps the president is not. i think this is coming from pressure from congress. it is slightly disturbing that the rules —based system that governs global trade seems to be collapsing before our very eyes. as well as throwing more sanctions towards russia, you have also got china, the

trade war going very well. day by day. it is very hard to see what the coherent foreign policy donald trump is. on the one hand, is he inviting vladimir putin, coming to the white house for a summit and then on the other hand target him with sanctions. there is no coherent foreign policy. who did he last speak to that flattered him the most? what was on tv? what was on fox and friends they don't watch this. maybe we should fix that. let's look at the crime story, number of murders that we have seen in the guardian and the metro. police have lost control of the streets, a former senior met officer saying there is a lack of leadership and budget cuts. this is the story that we have had some dreadful deaths in london over the past couple of days. an 18—year—old who collapsed after being stabbed. 50 suspected murders in the past three months. a story that got everyone

wound up, saying there were more murders in london than in new york. new york has this reputation as a crime capital. which is true. the overall trend is quite different between those two. this has gone into the whole question of austerity and police cuts. do the police have the resources? people on the right to say that it effective policing thatis to say that it effective policing that is needed and they need to focus on targeted measures. people on the left are saying we need a lot more resorts is and money. are your political view, people can read what they want into this story. my view is that there needs to be tougher, more targeted policing. glasgow is a very good example, an editorial in tamara's ft about this where we looked at the example of this. it used to have a huge knife crime problem. it was an educational thing and public health as well as policing, it was useful. sadiq khan, the mayor of london and cressida dig, the head of met police, they need a holistic approach. we were

talking to somebody from the violence reduction unit saying they got gang members in part to confront their behaviour what they had done. it was a carrot and stick approach. but we have david lammy saying this is the worst violence he has ever seen. he has been quite compelling on this, understandably it is his constituency particularly affected. what you were saying about comprehensive solutions is incredibly important. the left saying it is because the police cuts and the right saying it is because they can't you stop and search tactics. a bit in the times about the reduction in stop and search. it is very controversial because accusations of racism. that is why theresa may stopped it when she was home secretary. the police have to have a strong relationship with communities they serving. it is very delicate to say that what we need is more and search. more education,

more and search. more education, more social community work and a conversation about why this gang warfare has escalated. is it about drugs? do we need to have a conversation about potentially decriminalisation and other ways we can deal with this that is not just a law and order issue. david lammy in this interview in the metro has said it about, you know, gang wa rfa re said it about, you know, gang warfare and illegal drugs. that have caused this. if he is right in that sense that is something the met police should be focusing on as a specific issue. it is very worrying for people, particularly for parents who live in the capital, to see this growing when those days seem to have passed. we became used to crime falling and falling in london. punish companies missing gender pay deadline says equalities panel. how are they meant to be punished if they don't meet the deadline? we had they don't meet the deadline? we had the equality and human rights commission brought in this legislation that companies with over

250 employees have to report their gender pay data. we saw lots of it come out in drips and trance with lots of stories coming out but still 1500 companies out of 10,000 that should have reported that haven't done it. the powers to enforce are a bit sketchy they can obtain. sums court orders —— they can obtain some court orders —— they can obtain some court order. maria miller who chairs the parliament select committee on this issue have said there should be much harsher punishment and they need to ensure it should happen. it is amazing. they knew about this deadline for a long time and they have failed to act. it is one of those things where you will get some useful data out of it and one of the most interesting things in this story is that the gender pay gap in the private sector is much better than the public sector. that is not something you would automatically assume. there is a lot of criticism into what this data is measuring, not like for like jobs. there is a

worry that it will skew statistics if you have organisations that have more high profile men. it is an interesting and important start to a conversation on gender equality in the workplace. but we will not get anywhere on it if those companies don't file data. yours have filed? we have filed. mine is too small, we don't have to reveal anything. as has the bbc, you can search it online easily. in this case, as much as baronetcy as possible is key and having access to this data in an easy format so you can look at this kind of thing. often, more complicated story behind the headline numbers. it is good we are having this. when this comes around next year, there should be much tougher deadlines. there is no point having this if they can't enforce it. what is their excuse? they didn't know about it? if you are one of the smaller 250 companies you might say it is cost, effort, what have you. there is no real excuse.

maybe we will see some improvements this time next year with some of those yawning gaps we have seen in some places. the daily telegraph, cutting sugar to beat tax. already having an impact. great economics at work, the government say they will tax drinks with this much sugar and the drugs companies go away and say we will make the drinks less sugary. that is good if what you want is to reduce the population's sugar intake. you could say instead of having a coke they will have a chocolate bar instead and chocolate box are not taxed and drinks are. inconsistent. the —— chocolates are not taxed. i think this was designed to raise more revenue without people seeing it as a tax. that is what they are meant to do. if the drinks companies have made their drink less sugary it will not raise revenue. companies have made their drink less

sugary it will not raise revenuelj am sugary it will not raise revenue.” am different. i think it is about nudging behaviour. was it, though? i think so. when they said they will raise it there were never huge sums of money this was going to raise. raise it there were never huge sums of money this was going to raisem was all about money. i think this was all about money. i think this was about public health, that is why the campaign was fought. whether people don't buy drinks because they are more expensive or because the drinks are less sugary, that is a success. will you still buy them? i might enjoy an occasional caliper gorka urkola, we will see if the new recipe is good or not. parallel arte with cream. other soft drinks are available. -- carabao laughed a with that's it for the papers tonight. don't forget you can see the front pages of the papers online on the bbc news website. it's all there for you — seven days a week at bbc.co.uk/papers — and if you miss the programme any evening you can watch it later on bbc iplayer. thank you sebastian and rachel. next, the weather. goodbye. hello.

thursday was a beautiful day, right across the uk. not all that warm, though. temperatures were only around 9—13c, but the sun is very strong, so that is why it felt so pleasant. how about tomorrow? there is a little bit of rain in the forecast. not an awful lot, but it is heading our way and it's supposed to be affecting western parts of the uk. so, here's all that sunshine we had on thursday. that white stuff there is actually still snow across scotland. here is the area of low pressure and it's a weather front here, swinging in from the south, but rather than this weather front moving from the west and sweeping the country eastwards, it's actually going to be almost sort of sliding along the width of the uk, so all the way from southern areas to the north. that is where the rain is going to be travelling, from south to north. so, we are expecting some rain in belfast, western isles of scotland, but for much of the country, it's actually a dry night and a pretty chilly night as well. here is friday's weather forecast. that fine weather that we had on thursday and that high—pressure slips away towards the east, whereas we get the low pressure,

but notice what happens. that low pressure is pushing in mild air in ourdirection, so that means that through friday and indeed into saturday as well the weather is going to be very pleasant, particularly across our southern and southeastern areas. but on friday, we are expecting the weather to turn wet in the western fringes of cornwall there, western wales, more rainfall expected in belfast. although it might brighten up a little bit later into the afternoon and the rain ends up in southwestern and western scotland. look at the temperatures in london, possibly up to 17 celsius. then as we head into friday night, we have still got weather fronts moving across the uk. this weather front here is probably going to bring a little bit of rainfall toward southern areas here, so i think on saturday there will be some rain moving from the south, across wales into northern parts of england as well. but, importantly, the winds are coming from the south so it will still be mild. we may not get the blue skies, but i think temperatures easily getting up into the mid teens in the south and quite possibly as high as 18 celsius

in norwich in east anglia, in norwich in east anglia. but for the rest of the country, it's going to be a little bit cooler. and then on sunday maybe again, one or two spots of rain. you can see it is not clear, a bit of cloud around but on balance with these winds coming in from the south, it's still going to be mild in the south. this is bbc news. i'm martine croxall. the headlines at 11pm: one of the salisbury poisoning victims, yulia skripal, issues a statement to say she's getting stronger by the day. russia's ambassador to the un warns britain it's pursuing a dangerous course by accusing russia of being behind the attack. the five—time world darts champion eric bristow dies at the age of 60. two people are arrested on suspicion of murder following the stabbing of a teenager in east london. julia skripal is getting stronger by the day, she says, she spoke through uk police and asked for privacy but

what of the tape passed from a cousin to journalists in moscow, allegedly a telephone conversation between the two women. is it real or is it fake?