for syrian life and more suffering for syrian people. is this the way to go about it? it's interesting, to the three pictures on the front, theresa may, macron and donald trump. the french seem to be very keen to be donald trump ayes best buddy at the moment stop live there was a clear shift in language today from the government. they concluded it is highly likely assad was behind these awful attacks and it is vital it does not go unchallenged. the question now is, when is it going to happen? we don't know. donald trump said earlier this week "get ready. my new smart missiles are coming," in a provocative tweet. not clear when it is coming. there have been huge movements in syria on the ground. as to what is coming, the mirror has its own take on, i think it's page

six of the mirror, blitz on a site's palaces, which is quite a good headline. when you see that in media, you think "what do they know? what have we missed was made" and then he read the top paragraph and then, it's a good headline but it's not really picked up the whole of the story. when you look in the american press overnight and this morning, you will see they're talking about very specific targets. they are talking about a select numberof they are talking about a select number of airfields, they're talking about limited action at the moment. a huge amassing of donald trump's forces and american forces in the mediterranean. we have got four warships currently and there are many more to come. the front page of the times and that respect, rachel, this rather striking image of a us

aircraft carrier. it sort of plays the point that stephen is saying, your concern and the concern which presumably must be on the mind of policymakers, that you could almost do as much damage in response as the original terrible incident because of the risk that civilians could die. absolutely, and this amassing of work capacity is very alarming and it looks like it's going to increase, which perhaps suggests that any action that will be taken with the taken immediately —— will be taken with the taken immediately —— will be ta ken immediately with the taken immediately —— will be taken immediately because these things take time to set into place. but of course that is actually the problem with this is there are now so problem with this is there are now so many different actors, somebody different nations and actors engaged in syria, in this proxy war. different forces allied and the danger is that this kind of military escalation is just

danger is that this kind of military escalation isjust going danger is that this kind of military escalation is just going to create more of that's command the people who will suffer from that are the syrian people, and that's this is the bit that... people often say, we have to do something, we have to do something. 0k, why do we not do something. 0k, why do we not do something humanitarian? how about we in short there are humanitarian corridors in conflict zones in syria? corridors in conflict zones in syria ? ones that corridors in conflict zones in syria? ones that are not abused by assad to bring about some kind of forced population transfers? there are many, many things that can begin to actively help syrians in this desperate situation without this kind military escalation that could be more harmful and more dangerous. stephen, just looking at that story on the times, the indication of that is several days before this force will get into position, is that going to make it slightly more difficult for theresa may, that she

has been so keen to say i could go ahead and do this without waiting for parliament first? there will be a lot more pressure. the timing is key here. next week, the mp5 are back from recess so there is a lot to say parliament should have a vote, mps should get a vote. labour certainly is screwing up for a vote. jeremy corbyn sang it in the strongest possible terms today. theresa may is saying that is not forgotten. she is the prime minister. —— theresa may is saying thatis minister. —— theresa may is saying that is not going to happen. next week, they could get... we are going to see more and more of this, and when parliament is back and sitting, that would get very strong indeed and as you say, there is a huge controversy over this in america over whether this, the defence secretary in america sentiment escalate the conflict. lips 0 canada the story, also on the front of the times. this is an intriguing one,

that it's all down to labour shadow secretary emily thornberry. she is caught on the prime minister... the commonwealth has a government meeting in london this week and she suggested the prime minister should ta ke suggested the prime minister should take this opportunity to apologise to the commonwealth, primarily it would seem for the conservative government positive result at the time when the international community was imposing sanctions on south africa, and i was very much a commonwealth led initiative. with fierce rose between margaret thatcher and... and she absolutely refused. she absolutely refused to do that. david cameron in 2006 did apologise to nelson mandela but emily thornberry is saying, you know what, you need to apologise to the commonwealth for that as well? which i think is sensible. what do you think? i think this also politics behind it. ithink

think? i think this also politics behind it. i think the government commits a big deal for the next week, the meeting of the commonwealth leaders summit in london. they wanted to be about things like the environment, i got plastics, about brexit. plastics and brexit! that it! look into the future, not the past stop look exactly, and the soap emily thornberry is throwing a bit of a grenade into that... that's a key question she is asking. you can take the moral high ground that there is some party politics involved as well. talking of which, in case anybody did not know, we are in the middle of local council elections. rachel, its social care again on the front of the ft. this is a really shocking story and it's one we keep seeing rumble on. this is what happens post financial crisis,

austerity cuts imposed by the coalition and conservative government. in particular, the social care budgets which not only will hit, but then with the nhs crisis as well, social care... pressure gets transferred from one bit to the other. exactly that, so we're seeing now and half the councils in england now running down their reserves in the last few yea rs, their reserves in the last few years, and it just their reserves in the last few years, and itjust seems like a desperate situation. councils are having to make these terrible decisions about which of the essential services that they provide meaning to be cut. and the big debate, because the government is saying... council, stop sitting on your reserves, start spending them. exactly, and there's also the politics at heart of this. it's

potentially explosive. the tories had something labelled the dementia tax, which... the amount of people who have to worry about social care is on the front of the daily telegraph. it's jeremy hunt, is on the front of the daily telegraph. it'sjeremy hunt, the secretary of state for health and social care, this is the telegraph story. tell us about it stop look so last year, jeremy hunt, the health secretary,. he bought some properties... however, he bought them with a company, and he had to declare that to companies house and actually, it's a punishable offence byur) actually, it's a punishable offence by up to two years in prison not to declare that in jeremy says, by up to two years in prison not to declare that injeremy says, and he's admitted to a mistake, an oversight on his part, that he did declare that —— did not declare that. he also did not declare to the

parliamentary authorities. in a piece today, he's apologised for failing to declare to the parliamentary authorities. downing street says it has confidence in mr hunt. they put out a statement saying he has apologised... but as you say, still potential problems with companies house and presumably parliament as well. yes, exactly, the committee of standards could look at it. the former chairman of the committee saying it's a double standard here, that if the conservative government brought in the legislation he is now... he should be held to the highest values asa should be held to the highest values as a minister. finally, as they say, i don't know whether this is happy news or not, rachel, on the front of the guardian. and that is about drink. yeah. not happy news if you drink. yeah. not happy news if you drink. it shortens your life. although the headline might not be

...ifelt although the headline might not be ifelt bad, matching although the headline might not be i felt bad, matching the story, iimagine i felt bad, matching the story, i imagine people at home relaxing after a long, hard day at work and here we are saying it is about to shorten your life just as people are enjoying it. actually it's a bit mean. if you're watching, put it down now. note, don't put it down. keep watching. every glass of wine oi’ keep watching. every glass of wine or pint of beer over your suggested daily limit will cut half an hour from the expected life span of a ao—year—old person. you can drink quite a bit before you've cut your life by a date. there you go, it's the old glass half full, glass half empty argument. rachel, steven, thank you for being with us. we are sticking with the water. it's all there for you seven days a week. bbc.co.uk/papers.

and if you miss the programme any evening, you can watch it later on bbc iplayer. my my thanks to rachel and steven. good evening. many of us spent thursday once again stuck underneath grey, cloudy skies with some mist and drizzle. that's how the weather watch looked in kent a little bit earlier on, but it wasn't like that everywhere. the scottish highlands had beautiful sunshine, some spring flowers showing through as well, and i think more and more of us will see some slightly more springlike weather as we head through the next few days. but during tonight, we will see some showery rain pushing its way northwards. some of that could be on the heavy side. generally, a lot of clouds. temperatures between 4—9 degrees. into tomorrow, a grey start once again. we'll see these outbreaks of rain moving across northern england and scotland, some a heavy burst of rain for a time. things drying out from the south

but still, predominantly cloudy. we will have to wait to late in the day to get any brightness in across the south coast particularly, but these temperatures, well, not doing too well where you're stuck underneath the cloud up towards the northeast, particularly with a feed of winds off the north sea. up into double digits further south and things, generally speaking, will warm up as we go through the weekend with some spells of sunshine. quite breezy though and still with the potential for some hefty showers. saturday should be a largely dry day, and with plenty of sunshine around. certainly more brightness than we've had in recent days. there was still be some large areas of cloud floating around in the sky as well, turning increasingly breezy but that won't stop the temperatures. 15 degrees in edinburgh, 18 degrees there in london. now as we go into sunday, this area of low pressure will try to squash its way in from the west and that will strengthen up the winds in western areas. could see wind gusts of up to 50 mph later on sunday across northern ireland. we'll see some spells of sunshine, yes, but a scattering of showers this time and some of these could be

on the heavy side. the wind still coming from a pretty warm direction, so you can expect double digit temperatures just about wherever you are. and that theme continues on into the new working week, because we keep those southerly winds, and particularly by the time we get to the middle of the week, we'll tap into some really warm air from the near continent, so temperatures in the south particularly look likely to climb into the low to mid 20s, plenty of other places not too far behind. so after a few days stuck in gloom for many of us, there's some spring weather on the way. this is bbc news, i'm shaun ley. the headlines at 11:00pm: cabinet ministers agree that the use of chemical weapons by the assad regime cannot go unchallenged. president trump says no decision has been made on syria. the president will speak with theresa may and emmanuel macron later. the international chemical weapons watchdog backs the uk's assessment of the nerve agent used

in the salisbury nerve gas attack. and a newsnight, the emergency cabinet today agreed on the need to ta ke cabinet today agreed on the need to take action over the use of chemical weapons in syria. but are we any the wiser about what that might be, and when it might come?