promises after president trump cancelled next month's summit with kim jong—un. pyongyang says the move defies the world's wishes and it's willing to resolve differences with the us "whenever, however." hollywood film producer harvey weinstein is expected to hand himself in to police in new york thin hours over sexual assault allegations. more than 100 women have accused weinsten of sexually molesting them. he's denied all claims of non—consensual sex. yemen has declared a state of emergency on the island of socotra as a tropical storm intensified flooding villages and capsizing boats. at least 19 people are missing. hundreds have been evacuated from villages, but rescue workers are struggling to access the more remote regions. now on bbc news, it's time for a look back at the day in parliament. hello and welcome to

thursday in parliament. on this programme: what future for marks & spencer's staff and shops after the announcement that one hundred stores are to close? the government must ensure a fair market in retail for the good of businesses, workers, communities, and our high street. mps are left wondering what's happened to the government's flagship brexit bill, as the leader of the commons leaves them in suspense over its return from the lords. i'm confident i will be able to update the house on these bills shortly in the usual way. and a committee of mps delivers its verdict following the collapse of construction firm carillion. the system is broken. there are not enough suppliers bidding across whole swathes of government for contracts. but first, earlier this week, marks & spencer announced

it was planning to close 100 stores by 2022. of those, 21 have already been shut and m&s has now revealed the location of 1a further sites. the retailer also suffered a big fall in annual profits, as sales of food, clothing and homeware all declined. marks & spencer's proposed imminent closures, 1a soon, 100 in coming years, will not only result in thousands of potentialjob losses, but could devastate our local town centres. it's well—known that when anchor stores close the surrounding subsidiary stores feel the impact of reduced footfall and many close as well. our high streets to become ghost towns. the minister acknowledged m&s was a much—loved high street stalwart. who amongst us, mr speaker, is not touched by the hand of m&s?

i counted up today, i am wearing three items of marks & spencer clothing. i won't declare what they are. and my breakfast was composed entirely of items bought from marks & spencer at gatwick after a late flight back last night. it is a concerning time. as the honourable lady said, on tuesday, marks & spencer made an announcement regarding 1a of its uk stores. it's part of a plan, a well advertised plan, to reshape the store's estate and reshape its stores to compete with the big challenges facing many retailers in the country. she said the government had many plans to support the high street. she said it wasn't all bad news. amazon announced they would be creating 400 jobs. lidl have announced they will be creating a0 new stores. asos, ana amazomh online store, employing people in call centres

and sales, they have had sales up 30%, it is becoming a truly global brand. there is a rotation of the way we all shop. i'm sure we all buy many of our unmentionable items online, or sometimes in stores. but her labour opposite number was less optimistic. 21,000 retailjobs are at risk in the first three months of the year with administrations at maplin, toys "r" us, and store closures at house of fraser and carpetright. the marks & spencer closures show that leading market forces are not working. the government must ensure fair market and retail for the good of businesses, workers, communities, and our high streets. several conservatives were concerned about the treatment of store—based retailers. can i ask my right honourable friend to remain vigilant or at least sensitive to the impact of business rates for the physical retailers compared to the internet retailers. and monitor that carefully because i want to ensure a level playing field. marks & spencer is changing its business model in response to changing customer needs, behaviour and desires.

it has survived for so long because it continues to do that. revenues are up. let's not paint a picture of doom and gloom. but profits are challenged. it is fair and reasonable. we must make sure there is a level playing field on the high street between on and off—line. yes. a lib dem referred to the costs of one of the post—brexit customs options laid out on wednesday by the head of hm revenue and customs. if max fax is introduced, given that marks & spencer has a presence in 28 out of 32 countries. i'm not going to speak on hypotheticals pre—and post—brexit. but the honourable gentleman points out the absolute requirement to satisfy the referendum result in terms of leaving the eu and absolutely ensuring we have a trading relationship so that we don't see prices going up for these very integrated operations in the uk.

claire perry there. now, mps were eagerly awaiting the announcement of what they'd be discussing when they return from their half term break. why? because it had been rumoured the eu withdrawal bill would be returning to the commons onjune the 11th. the bill's been much changed following government defeats in the house of lords. peers made significant additions to the bill which would for example keep open the possibility of the uk staying in the eu customs union. minister attempts to reverse those changes back in the commons could be fraught with difficulty given the government's small working majority. so was the government ready to tackle that challenge yet? with regards to important brexit legislation, i'm confident i will be able to update

the house on these bills shortly in the house on these bills shortly in the usual way. i will make sure the house can make swift progress in a matter of weeks, not months, in preparing for our new relationship with our friends and neighbours preparing for our new relationship with ourfriends and neighbours in the eu. her labour opposite number thought she knew when the eu withdrawal bill and other big brexit bills were to be debated thanks to a leak. can the leader of the house confirm what the government chief whip said to the 1922 committee that the withdrawal bill would be back on the withdrawal bill would be back on the 11th of june, the withdrawal bill would be back on the 11th ofjune, and it seems the respected journalist, faizal islam, is actually giving business out, he tweeted the withdrawal bill, the trade bill, the customs bill, is now going to be debated on the 11th of june. can you confirm whether he is the new virtual leader of the house? can the leader of the house say whether the trade bill and the customs bill that should have had its report stage in the third reading, could she say whether that's going to be debated on the 11th ofjune, ask her rather than

faisal islam. valerie vaz begun her comments by saying that the leader of the commons take less time giving her weekly update, letson brushed that aside. be on the honourable lady asked me to be swifter with a very swift business statement —— anguilla lesnar —— the honourable lady. she did! she asks about the business that was discussed —— anguilla letson. i'm a very clear i aim to bring back the very important brexit legislation within weeks. certainly within weeks. the honourable lady will know that in this place, the discussions take place and the businesses are announced through long—standing conventions, through the normal channels, and that is indeed the case on this occasion. there's been no announcement to any committee through any private meeting, there's not been any announcement. there's nothing in the business statement

about the repeal bill from the house of lords. can i ask the leader of the house when we should expect to see this and can we have a categoric assurance that she won't simply lumped together these lord's amendments into one package to try and curtail debate and voting on this? —— lump. these are important measures we have to consider probably for the first time and can we get assurance this government won't revert to type and try to close down debate, scrutiny and vote? macro close down debate, scrutiny and vote ? macro one close down debate, scrutiny and vote? macro one 70s would bring the bill back within weeks. i'm sure he would recognise as a very honourable gentleman that this house and the other players have debated at enormous length of the eu withdrawal bill and all brexit and non— brexit legislation —— andrea leadsom. bill and all brexit and non— brexit legislation -- andrea leadsom. the government has clearly been listening, a huge amount of change to those bills has been taking place, we will continue to do so, the bill is in a better place than it was and we have listened carefully to all views across the

chamber and will continue to do so. a conservative had a suggestion for when the bill did return. the 0pposition have asked for time to debate the eu withdrawal amendment, i wholeheartedly support that, so should we test the sincerity of the opposition by removing the moment of interruption when we debate this so we can talk all through the night if we can talk all through the night if we like? anguilla letson said there would be plenty of time for debate. —— andrea leadsom. a libdem wanted time in the schedule for something else. can the leader of the house confirm there will be an opportunity before the business and announced by faisal islam on the 11th ofjune for a debate on the increasing risk of no deal, the £900 drop in household incomes that mr mark carney referred to, the difficulty in securing a trade deal with a protectionist united states and the importance of securing a final say on the deal? well, i'm not going to bother with

most of the honourable gentleman's assertions, which are simply wrong, but i will bother with one assertion, because it is important, faisal islam does not announce the business of this house, it has not been announced by anyone at all, it is announced by me on a thursday, given assurances to the house that i will announce the business and it will announce the business and it will be the case the withdrawal bill comes back to this place in the next few weeks. andrea leadsom. confidential papers have been published which mps say show the government didn't take the opportunity to deal with the problems at the construction firm carillion in the months leading up to the collapse of the company. thousands of workers lost their jobs and contracts had to be redesigned after the company folded at the start of the year. the chair of the public accounts committee explained what her committee had found when it looked at the papers. mr deputy speaker, the government has become dependent on large contracts to deliver public projects and services

and great secrecy surrounds them. if and great secrecy surrounds them. if a company providing a number of these contracts fails, this is bad news for service users and the taxpayer. the government should be acting in the interests of the taxpayer and the public, but the system has become skewed so the government is too often acting to protect the contractor rather than the service user. the system is broken. there are not enough suppliers bidding across a whole swathes of government for contracts and the system is skewed against the smaller specialist businesses which only get work as part of a longer supply chain, and at each stage, margins are squeezed and too often we see for service, sharp practice and an unnecessary cost to taxpayers to boot. after the first credit warning, the uk government continued to give £2 billion, the scottish government mitigated trillions and offset it right there and then. after the second warning, more

contracts, third warning, more contracts. i wonder if you agree, the government word adopting the attitude of too big to fail, playing fa st attitude of too big to fail, playing fast and loose with taxpayer money and wanted to paper over the cracks “ were and wanted to paper over the cracks —— were adopting. it was clearly a cash —— were adopting. it was clearly a ca s h flow —— were adopting. it was clearly a cash flow problem in the first place. that's important because the problem with large companies dealing with large contracts is cash flow can bea with large contracts is cash flow can be a problem and it tends the government to step in. she points out the system is broken with sharp practice, a poor service to... —— tempts. how can these problems stop from happening again? the honourable gentleman who served with distinction on the public accounts committee in the last parliament highlights a really important point and something that we as a committee co nsta ntly and something that we as a committee constantly highlight, we need more

transparency on these contracts. this is taxpayer money funding public services, albeit delivered by private companies, have the government will share our view where we shine some light we cannot also see benefits. you're watching thursday in parliament with me, alicia mccarthy. the chair of the northern ireland committee says people in northern ireland are fed up with silly nonsense from obstinate politicians. the northern ireland executive collapsed in january, the northern ireland executive collapsed injanuary, 2017 and there's been an impasse ever since. andrew muir sunset civil servants we re andrew muir sunset civil servants were doing a fantasticjob of holding things it is not good enough to expect the northern ireland civil service to continue with this work of trying to keep the ship on an even keel. the time now has come for, i think, some further measures that will enable good governments in northern ireland. i guess it's a demonstration of the importance of ministers

in our way of life and in our democracy. this deficit should have been caused by the collapse of the executive and for it to be very clear to everybody that the lack of ministerial decisionmaking is impacting on people's everyday lives. ijust wonder has — what the chairman's thoughts are and where we go to try to move forward sinn fein from the obstinance they have in relation to their position. sometimes, we need to move forward and part of the things that we disagree on. i would urge dup and all the other parties in northern ireland to set aside those things on which they cannot agree and get on with what they can agree. i think people in northern ireland are increasingly frustrated with silly nonsense around politicking in northern ireland. which means that their day—to—day, things that are important to them on a day—to—day basis,

health care, education, infrastructure, are not being done because of obstinate politicians standing on their dignity in respect of particular areas though they may hold them dearly, clearly, the rest of the population of northern ireland feels that they are not of a nature thatjustify putting on hold the good governance of northern ireland. the plight of the ahmadi muslim community around the world was highlighted by a labour mp. ahmadis do not believe that mohammed was the final prophet. its largest community is in pakistan, where it's not legally allowed to call itself muslim. only this morning, i have awoken to terrifying reports of an ahmadi house and mosque attacked by extremists last night. with more leader calling for this to happen to all ahmadi mosques. the situation could not be more precarious. for an ahmadi in pakistan faces

widespread hatred from the moment that they are born to the moment that they die. perpetrators are given free reign to attack innocent ahmadis in the knowledge that they will never face prosecution for their actions. 0ne mp turned to the killing of glasgow shopkeeper, asad shah, stabbed to death because he was an ahmadi. itjust shows we have much to do through the support for the minority whip. he was a brilliant man loved by everyone in his community. recognising that the differences between people are vastly outweighed by our similarities. asad left us a tremendous gift and we must continue that gift, by loving taking care of each other. from anti—ahmadi sermons preached in mosues to posters calling for a boycott of ahmadi businesses and customers, there is a constant undercurrent of hostility being pushed against the ahmadi community. the action taken by 0fcom against a variety of television channels in the uk provides further examples of this hate. which, if unchecked, will start spreading to other faith groups as well.

it's quite alarming. there appears to be a growing persecution of the ahmadi community here in the united kingdom, especially given the valuable contributions that the community make to wider society and in our constituencies. the minister accepted more could be done in relation to the persecution of ahmadis in pakistan. i do accept that we perhaps need to do a little more. a little more indeed, publicly as well. it was raised by a number of members here and i did not wish to suggest that because we tend to deal with these issues privately and quietly and we do, very persistently, with all our counterparts, but there is an opportunity perhaps at times to go a little more public on these matters and i will do my level best to try to achieve this. mark field. it's been a tough week for commuters across england following the introduction of a new timetable. among the worst affected

were passengers on govia thameslink. the company rescheduled every service on its great northern, thameslink and southern franchise as part of an overhaul billed as the biggest in the uk. at transport questions, mps lined up to tell the secretary of state just how bad things had been. this week, in hitchin, for example, on monday, the first day of the timetable for commuters, 24% of services were cancelled, and over 50% were delayed. please, could the minister reassure me and my constituents that the department will do everything it can to force govia thameslink to drastically improve its performance or be stripped of its franchise. last month, the secretary of state promised quicker and better trains to sheffield. as a result of these thameslink changes, the priority has been given to these new trains on thameslink services, over and above the trains to sheffield. as a result, peak time trains to sheffiled are now 6—8 minutes slower than they were in the previous timetable. slower than they were ten years ago. what is it that this government's

got against the east midlands yet again, we are getting a raw deal. mr speaker, the may 18 timetable will see around 90% of our services change. it is the single biggest time table change perhaps in the country's history, and it will bring an extra 1300 train services across our network. this is a very significant operational challenge. we recognise the disruption that is temporarily occurring in various places and we are working carefully with train operators to reduce it as rapidly as possible. this is not the fault of 400 hard—working time tablers. this is the fault of train companies who do not have enough drivers with the right knowledge in the right places at the right time. isn't it the case that these train companies have had years to prepare for this, and this secretary of state simply trashes the hard—working men and women across the industry who strive to deliver real improvements and he simply throws them under the bus? this is a problem with network rail.

i've said this cannot happen again. we have now had a late delivery of time table twice in six months, at this moment in time, with such a big complex change, it is not what i would have expected to happen, but nonetheless, it's because we are running vastly more trains to more destinations. people this week have had new trains, there are people getting on trains this week, mr speaker, with a seat for the first time in fouryears, and that is a good thing. and there were more complaints about train services in the lords, where peers were concerned over the treatment of people with disabilities. last week, thames govia introduced new formal guidance for staff, saying that if the train might be delayed or late, the prm, that is a passenger with reduced mobility to you and me, must not be put on the train, not even if they have pre—booked and arrived in time. the train is now more important. i believe this breaches the equality act, and the office of rail and road

has said so. what can the government do to assure all train operating companies comply with the equality act, and what would it say to thames govia? i've seen the guidance issued by govia. it is insensitive and unacceptable. the government have made its views clear to gtr, they are withdrawing the guidance, and replacing it with guidance that makes it clear that their policy is to assist all passengers safely who need help with theirjourney. 0n the question of enforcement, we are keen to see the 0rr, the office or rail regulator use its enforcement powers to train operating companies to hold account where they let disabled passengers down. and i understand the distress that was caused by the guidance which the noble baronness has referred to. it's very difficult, if you're a disabled person, having booked assistance, which i have sometimes, and you get delayed, generally stuck in a taxi in the traffic, and you can't get through to the station to warn them you are not coming on the train. could you do something about that?

the, um... i understand, i understand the noble baroness' concern, all the train operating companies have to sign up to passenger assist, which enables people to pre—book, to make sure that the right facilities are in place at the right station at the right time. if, for whatever reason, the passenger is unable to get to the station at the right time, or if the station is ill accessible to the passenger, the train operating company should make arrangements, perhaps with an accessible taxi, to get the passenger to a station which they can access. —— inaccessible. that's where the station is inaccessible. but as the 0rr is currently reviewing the disabled passengers policy, and i will see that the noble baroness ' point is passed onto them. some disabilities are, of course, hidden disabilities. and i declare an interest as someone who wears two hearing aids,

and actually hears very little. now, those people have great difficulty coping with train announcements and bus announcements, made audibly, to passengers who do not suffer in that way. what progress has the government made with ensuring that there is an obligatory provision of both visual and audio announcements on both buses and trains? my recollection is that when the buses went through your lordship's house a few years ago, an amendment was passed obliging buses to have both audio and visual information available. my understanding is that the regulations in order to facilitate that will be introduced shortly. in the meantime, 27% of bus services have accessibility, making it possible for those in wheelchairs to use the public transport.

staying with transport, at business questions, a conservative mp had something he wanted to get off his chest. speeding cyclists on rural roads in the new forest are putting residents and other pedestrians at risk, simply because they cannot be bothered to fit a bell on their bikes, so that they can warn pedestrians of their approach. when i wrote to a transport minister about this 18 months ago, he replied that, through rule 66 of the highway code, we recommend that a bell is fitted to a bicycle and used as necessary. under current regulations, a cyclist is not compelled to keep the bell fitted after the bicycle has been purchased. we have no plans to make bells compulsory as this would be difficult to enforce. may we have a statement from the government about this rather insipid reply, so that my constituents, like margaret, can go about their business without fear of being mowed down

by silent rogue cyclists? well, i might be tempted to say this is a bit of a ding—dong. but she said the issue was in fact a serious one and she'd encourage him to ask for a debate on it. which brings us to the end of this edition of the programme. but dojoin me on bbc parliament on friday night at 11pm for a full round up of the week here in westminster. but for now, from me, alicia mccarthy, goodbye. . the outlook for the weekend is somewhat messy one because while

there will be some warm and actually rather muggy conditions and some spells of sunshine, there is also the chance for some thundery downpours and some of those could really m ea n downpours and some of those could really mean business. what we have at the moment, you can see on satellite picture, is all these areas of cloud pushing up from the new continent. thundery downpours, which it is going to continue to feed into southern areas as we go the weekend. during friday, we will see an area of showers and thunderstorms drifting across wales, the midlands and into northern england. a bitter behind that down towards the south. we should see some sunshine spells developing down towards the south of england, but still some showers across wales and up still some showers across wales and up into northern england. some of these could be heavy with flashes of lightning and thunder. still some mist and lightning and thunder. still some mistand murk lightning and thunder. still some mist and murk for some coastal areas in the far north—east of scotland. temperatures on friday afternoon widely into the high teens or the low 20s, but still a little bit

chilly close to some of these north sea coast. as we go to friday night, we will see these showers and thunderstorms drifting northwards and westwards, tending to fizzle at the night wears on. will be a fair amount of mist and murk and low cloud developing across the country. is going to be a muggy night as well. perhaps a little uncomfortable for sleeping. now as we look ahead to saturday, a lot of dry weather and sunshine, particularly the further north you up, just the odd isolated showers. as we go to the day, we will cease increasingly heavy and thundery downpours developing across southern and south—western parts of england and also wales. some real warmth by this period and that is particularly down towards the south—east. that is the story, drawing bear spray, warmer airup to the story, drawing bear spray, warmer air up to the north of the continent. bands of showery and probably thundery rain drifting up from the south. we season particularly heavy downpours across

south—western parts of the country. further north to sunday and monday, it looks mainly fine. some spells of sunshine and some pleasant warmth to enjoy a. risk of some really heavy and thundery downpours, but still some spells of sunshine in between. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is lewis vaughanjones. our top stories: the white house blames north korea for a trail of broken promises as president trump cancels the summit with kim jong—un. pyongyang says the move defies the world's wishes and it's willing to resolve differences with the us "whenever, however." hollywood film producer harvey weinstein is expected to hand himself in to police in new york within hours following allegations of sexual assault. an island off the coast of yemen is declared a disaster zone after a powerful cyclone. at least 19 people are missing. and it saw a pedestrian

but it was too late. more questions about the safety of self—drive cars.