is bbc news, and these are the headlines: italy's populace have called for the impeachment of the president following failed efforts to form a government. sergio matta rella to form a government. sergio mattarella is accused of provoking a constitutional crisis by vetoing the new prime minister's appointment of a eurosceptic to the post of finance minister. there is growing pressure on the british prime minister to reform northern ireland's strict abortion laws following the republic of ireland's boat to overturn the abortion ban. any move by theresa may would be opposed by her political allies, the democratic unionist, the largest party northern ireland. and us officials in north korea trying to revive the proposed summit between donald trump and kim jong—un. the discussions are thought to be on details of a possible denuclearisation deal. now on bbc news, time for the week in parliament.

hello there, and welcome to the week in parliament, where, after more tough talk on brexit, a conservative mp cuts to the chase. how are the european union negotiations going? as mps debate how to tackle knife and gun violence, a minister points the finger at the uk's growing drugs habit. united kingdom is fast becoming the biggest consumer of cocaine in europe. after yet more appointments to the lords and a row over cutting the size of the commons, i've been talking to two experts on how we ended up with such a super—sized parliament. and is it time to ban puppy sales via pet shops and dealers? poor hygiene standards throughout the chain frequently mean that many puppies are infected with bacteria, viruses and parasites that, in some cases, can even be tra nsmittable to humans. but first, let's round up

the week's brexit news. theresa may's cabinet is still trying to thrash out how we might trade goods with the eu after brexit with as few taxes and delays as possible. one of the major sticking points is how to resolve the issue of the border between northern ireland and the republic. on tuesday, an immigration minister appeared before the northern ireland committee to talk about passports. caroline nokes told mps that she'd not read any irish history in a "very long time" and was "probably giving birth" when the good friday agreement was being signed. can i just ask you if you've read the belfast agreement? uh, not in its entirety, no. so it is crucially important to the british government to uphold the belfast agreement, but you, as the immigration minister, looking at passports, looking at the issue that we were asking for evidence and inviting evidence this afternoon, did not think fit to actually read the belfast agreement in its entirety? i haven't read the whole document, no.

have you ever read it in the 20 years since we marked its anniversary this year? have you ever read it in its entirety? no, no, i haven't. but 20 years ago, i think i was probably giving birth. caroline nokes. well, that session also covered the smuggling of diesel across the border, and future border customs checks came up at another committee the next day. the cabinet is considering two options, one known as maximum facilitation, or ‘max fac‘, which would rely on technology. the other is a new customs partnership with the european union. the most senior tax official, the head of hmrc, told mps that under max fac, companies would have to pay £32.50 for each customs declaration. so you've got 200 million customs declarations — that's £32.50, that's £6.5 billion. £6.5 billion. and the same for goods coming from the eu, taking the total to £13 billion. you've then got the question about what might be the requirements

from the european union on rules of origin. you know, is this cheese from cheddar? yep. you know, and so it's quite difficult to estimate that, but it would be reasonable to think that it's several billion pounds more, so i think you need to think about the highly streamlined customs arrangement costing businesses somewhere in the late teens of billions of pounds to... i've started to lose count now of the number of bullions. but, you know, so somewhere between £17 and £20 billion. meanwhile, the governor of the bank of england said households are, on average, £900 a year worse off in real terms since the vote to leave the european union in 2016. he said people's spending had been... influenced heavily by where their real incomes have gone and their real incomes have been large — one of the biggest drivers of that has been referendum—induced fall in the exchange rate, and the inflation

that's come through. and at prime minister's questions, theresa may faced a blunt inquiry from one of her own mps about the way brexit was being handled. how are the european union negotiations going? they're going with purpose and good intent and goodwill on both sides, and we have negotiators over in brussels this week doing further work on those negotiations, and we are determined to deliver a good brexit for the united kingdom. the prime minister and the leader of the labour opposition both agree that we should leave the single market, leave the european customs union, and that the public should not have a final say on the brexit deal. so would she dispense with our tradition of party political point scoring? and in that spirit which i'm setting, would she publicly thank the leadership of the labour party for their help and support in making brexit happen? can i say to the right

honourable gentleman, first of all, i'm not so sure about the position of the labour party because they are talking about a second referendum? but secondly, can ijust say to him there is nobody knows more about party political point scoring in this house than the liberal democrats? on thursday, mps were eagerly awaiting another bit of brexit news, following rumours that the eu withdrawal bill would return to the commons onjune the 11th. the flagship bill that puts eu law into uk law to stop a legislative black hole opening up has been much changed in the lords, where peers have defeated it 15 times. ministers' attempts to reverse those changes when it returns to the commons could prove tricky, given the government's small working majority. so, june the 11th or not? can the leader of the house confirm what the government chief whip said to the 1922 committee, that the withdrawal bill will be back on the 11th june?

and it seems that the respected journalist, faisal islam, is actually giving business out. he tweeted the withdrawal bill, the trade bill, the customs bill, is now going to be debated on 11th june. i made very clear i aim to bring back the very important brexit legislation within weeks, certainly within weeks, and the honourable lady will know that in this place, the discussions take place and the business is announced through very long—standing conventions, through the usual channels, and that is indeed the case on this occasion. there has been no announcement to any committee through any private meeting. there has not been any announcement. but a government source later suggested the bill will be back in the house of commons on the 11th ofjune. now, what can be done to tackle the rise in knife crime on our streets? knife crime rose by 22% in england and wales in 2017, according to the office for national statistics. the figures, which cover crimes

recorded by the police, also showed an 11% increase in firearms offences. the government has produced a serious violence strategy, but labour reckons the rise was down to the fall in police numbers. they have cut 21,000 police officers since 2010. i reject utterly this connection. we would have to swamp the streets with policemen. there would have to be policemen available at every violent incident for it to make that form of difference. we'd be back to cromwell, saying "if i arm one in ten, will that be enough? " the minister turned to the role of drugs. the united kingdom is fast becoming the biggest consumer of cocaine in europe, so there is a high demand by the consumer. no longer is cocaine the preserve of the yuppie or the rich. you are seeing cocaine in my villages and in rural communities, and in communities that previously would not have been

using cocaine in london. it is a high margin, high—supply drug at the moment, and that is fuelling that increased violence. for many of our people who end up selling drugs or even killing or dying because of a drug gang, the downward spiral starts with something really simple, like being befriended by a really cool older boy. you know, a new best friend. he gives them chicken and chips or new trainers, and they take the elder boy's gifts and respect, but it doesn't take long before those gifts become debts, and that respect domination. by the time that realisation dawns, too late. we've got to find a way of giving our young people resilience to grooming. and that means peers, teachers, youth workers, role models making them aware of where accepting that gift of chicken and chips may lead.

we have also got to educate those people who think that drug use, that occasional line of coke at some middle—class party, is some victimless crime. it is not. there is an absolute causal relationship between that so—called victimless crime at some party or some club and the kid that lies bleeding out in the stairwell of a block of flats in south london, and until we look people in the eye and remind them of that fact, this problem, as much as we try to mitigate it, will not go away. james cleverly. now let's take a look at some westminster news in brief. mps joined the commemorations to mark the first anniversary of the manchester arena attack. 22 people were killed and hundreds injured when a bomb was detonated at the end of an ariana grande concert on the 22nd of may, 2017. prince william and the prime minister, theresa may, joined families of victims

at a service in manchester cathedral. the commons speaker, john bercow, led mps in a national minute's silence. in a moment, colleagues, we will all stand to observe a one—minute silence to remember all those affected by the terror attack in manchester a year ago today. minute‘s silence on monday, nearly a year after the grenfell tower fire, the public inquiry into the tragedy began. relatives of the 72 people who died are being given the chance to commemorate their loved ones during the inquiry. among the first to speak was marcio gomes, whose son logan was stillborn in hospital after his family escaped the fire. and the sister of denis murphy, anne marie, described him as the "linchpin to our family". in the commons, the housing secretary said everyone need to reflect extremely carefully on the testimony given

by the victims' relatives. i know this will be an incredibly difficult time for all those affected. the whole house willjoin me, i'm sure, in sending them our thoughts and prayers, and i am determined to ensure no community suffers again as they have done. the government has been off the pace at every stage since the fire. more than 11 months on from grenfell, how is it that two thirds of the grenfell survivors are still in hotels or temporary accommodation? the government launched a consultation on tackling air pollution. michael gove called it ambitious, enabling the creation of clean air zones and cutting emission from wood burners and other fuels. but critics say it does little to encourage people out of their cars and onto public transport. the time for half measures and public consultation has to end. we need real action now to tackle this public health emergency. it seems that in her desire,

in her desire to be grudging, she failed to share with the househ the detail of our ambition. the speaker, john bercow, has defended remarks he made about the government's management of parliamentary business. it was reported that mr bercow called the leader of the commons, andrea leadsom, "a stupid woman". i used the word "stupid" in a muttered aside. that adjective simply summed up how i felt about the way that that day's business had been conducted. a ban on the sale of puppies by pet shops and third party dealers in england is being considered. more than 100,000 people have signed a petition calling for a change in the law. poor hygiene standards throughout the chain frequently mean that many puppies are infected with bacteria, viruses and parasites that can, in some cases, even be tra nsmittable to humans. for example, rabies in inappropriately vaccinated imported pups, or they'll exhibit

significant behavioural issues such as separation anxiety, house soiling and nervous aggression. it is not known how many puppies die before they are even sold. the puppy market is very lucrative, which means there are big financial incentives for breeders and sellers to minimise costs in order to maximise profits. now, in the lords, peers said the northern ireland parties should be locked away until they reached a deal to break the deadlock over power—sharing. there's been no assembly for 16 months. in the interim, major decisions have been taken by civil servants. but recently, a high courtjudge ruled that a decision to approve an incinerator on the outskirts of belfast was "unlawful" as civil servants had no power to approve the planning application. 0ne peer reckoned that could have a big impact. i understand there will be an appeal, that will take six months, and then another appeal, and that will take six months. i have to tell the minister, northern ireland doesn't have that capacity.

we don't have that time. the one question that's being asked on the streets of northern ireland today is, who is actually running northern ireland? the people of northern ireland deserve an executive focused upon the issues that matter to them — education, health, schools, farming, all the obvious stuff. we need to get the executive back up and running. the parties themselves need to do so. at the moment, the pilot light is on but no—one is twirling those knobs. we need to get the executive restored. lord duncan. now, do we simply have too many mps and peers? there was an urgent debate at the start of the week over the government's handling of a bill from a labour mp which would, in effect, halt plans to cut the number of members of the commons from 650 to 600. at the same time, the latest list of new peers has been released with 13 names — the majority of them conservative, which will take the total to 793. so how does the uk parliament shape up compared to other countries? here's julia butler. britain is thought to be the only democracy in the world with a second chamber larger than its first.

let's take a tour. australia has 150 seats in its house of representatives, and only 76 places in its upper house or senate. canada now, its house of commons has 338 members, making it more than three times the size of its senate. and what about france? its national assembly has 577 deputies, with 348 in the senate. in fact, the only assembly bigger than the house of lords is china's national people's congress, with 2,980 deputies. julia butler. well, one mp clearly thinks we've got too many members of the lords, as he made clear at prime minister's questions. after all these defeats, apparently we need the right type of crony. there are now over 800 cronies, donors and aristocrats in that circus down the corridor,

embarrassing this nation and mocking any notion of democracy. how many more is she going to appoint, and when enough be enough? can i say to the right honourable gentleman that actually the total size of the house of lords has fallen since i took office injuly 2016. from the sound of what he says, he is making a bid for himself to be put in the house of lords. he needs to speak to his leader. so what chance of the house of lords and the house of commons becoming a bit smaller? we brought together dr catherine haddon from the institute for government, and professorjustin fisher from brunel university. i began by asking catherine haddon how we got to where we are. it has been a long journey. many years of house of lords evolving into the version that we'e still got, that hasn't really changed that much. you really need to go back to the late 1990s,

which is when the biggest reforms of the house of lords came in. at that point we were actually nearer 1,300, so it is quite reduced since then. however, after the reductions, it started to creep back up, because the majority for any party in house of lords, it means that the only way that prime ministers can try and get their way is to appoint yet more peers, and so that is what we keep seeing prime ministers doing. and we have seen this week that theresa may says her appointments have been far more modest than previous prime ministers. they have been far more modest, but not as far as a commission that the house of lords themselves had last year, which said that they ought to go, and that is the key issue. at the moment, to reduce them to the 600 that they want to get to, you would have to have an almost two out, one in policy. that would mean huge restrictions on the number of peers that prime ministers could appoint, and she has not been quite willing to go that far. it is true, she has appointed fewer

than her predecessor, david cameron. meanwhile, talking about getting numbers down to 600, there is a move to get the number of mps down from 650 to 600. that's right. this came about really as a result of the expenses scandal. david cameron's response was that he wanted to cut the size of parliament by 10%. in fact he put the figure up from what would have been 585 to 600, effectively a random number, and a not terribly intellectually coherent approach to the size of parliament. what makes you say that? there were two driving forces behind the act in 2011. one to equalise the size of the constituencies, because there was a view, that was supported by evidence, that the electoral system or the distribution of the electorate tended to favour labour. but then there was also a reduction in the commons. the equalisation of constituencies had some intellectual rationale behind it.

the reduction in the number of mps, with a number plucked out of the air, had no basis. there is a feeling that cutting the number to 600 might benefit one party much more than the other. is there any truth in that? which party would come out on top? the estimate at present seem to suggest that the conservatives might have some electoral advantage from that. largely because many of the large reductions that we have seen from the initial reviews would be in places where labour does well, such as the northwest and in london, as well as in wales. that is not the purpose of it. the purpose is to equalise constituencies and to reduce the number, and overtime any advantage can shift from one party to another. david cameron famously said that one of the things he wanted to do was cut the cost of politics. would it save much money? yes, by definition, having fewer mps would save money. whether or not it would make parliament more efficient is a moot point.

for example, one of the problems with parliament is that there is too much going on, rather than not enough. tackling with issues like brexit, it becomes a great strain in terms of appropriate scrutiny. the house of lords particularly has had a lots of criticism in the press because of the way it has voted on the eu withdrawal bill, and the number of defeats it has inflicted on the government. do you think that is likely to do the lords long—term damage, or is this something that is just going to blow over? will party leaders look at this and think, actually, i don't want to have this problem in the future, i will do something about the lords? many prime ministers end up getting into some kind of battle with the lords over the key issues. tony blair, david cameron both had their defeats and their problems with the lords. we have already seen a number of times when threats of reform have come because of that kind of behaviour, the last was the strathclyde review which looked into the lords as a statutory instrument, secondary legislation. but whether it will really lead to the kind of fundamental reform is a much trickier question. it depends on many other things.

it would take a much greater political will from both parties to want to get lords reform through than there is at the moment. finally, briefly, that would seem to be the thing, having to get both parties to work together. jeremy corbyn has said that his peers that he appoints will have to vote in favour of abolishing the lords. he may well say that, but he has not appointed very many of them. don't forget, the reform that the blair government made, removing most of the hereditaries, was the most significant reform we had seen in decades. the idea that you can get rid of the house of lords and given that the amount of parliamentary time it would take, the lack of interest in it from the general public, i think it would be very unlikely that any government would seek to do that. they would be much more likely to try and impose new restrictions on lords' behaviour. all right, thank you both very much for coming on to the programme. now, what's been happening in the wider world of politics this week?

robbie hawkins has our countdown. at five, conservative mp douglas ross kicks us off, taking a tumble while running the line and the scottish cup final, as his mp colleagues were happy to remind him. i was very much impressed with his skills in the scottish cup final the other day. his recovery technique was absolutely superb. it was the highlight of the game for me. at four, new labour peers include a civil rights campaigner, with daughter kate already in the commons, that makes three generations in office. at three, live peer news prompted questions over lords' numbers and how many the lib dems should lose. 50. 60? any advance on 60? laughter. at two, a statement on m&s‘s problems had mps lining up to list what they were wearing. some took it a bit too far. i'm tempted to say knickers, but i'm not sure if you might rule it out of order. and at one, a russian prank caller targeted foreign secretary boris johnson,

claiming to be the new pm of armenia. mrjohnson rumbled the prank after 18 minutes of chat. robbie hawkins there. mps and peers have now gone off on their whitsun break, but as we heard earlier in the programme, when they return they're due to start considering all the changes made to the government's flagship brexit bill by the house of lords, beginning a round or two of parliamentary ping—pong. so, what is it and how does it work? 0ur man at the table is gary connor. first the bill goes... back to the commons, where mps look at changes that their colleagues in the upper house have made. if mps agree with the amendments, the bill can quickly become law. i beg to move that the house agrees with the lords in amendment two, and following that brief moment of disagreement with their lordships, i am pleased to say that we are now encouraging the house to agree with their lordships in all other amendments. but if some or all of the changes go

against what the government wants, then the bill bounces back... to the house of lords, along with reasons why the government doesn't agree with them. during parliamentary ping—pong, the text of the bill is still physically transported from one chamber to another and back again. parliamentary clerks act as messengers between the commons and the lords, and use norman french to indicate what stage the discussions have got to, although they set out the reasons why an agreement can't be reached in english. the game between the green team in the commons and the red team in the lords has a number of possible outcomes. the bill will continue to bounce backwards and forwards as lords insist their amendments remain and mps disagree. if all players dig their heels in and no compromise can be found, time runs out and the government loses the game and the bill is lost. sometimes the government agrees with the lords' amendments,

peers get their changes, the government gets its bill through, so both sides are winners. and, on other occasions, the government may get its bill passed by letting some amendments remain on the condition that others are withdrawn. but what usually happens is the party whips from both houses discuss their objections behind the scenes and try to find some middle ground. a compromise will be made and the bill will be allowed to pass, and both sides can claim victory. gary connor, limbering up for pa rliament‘s return on june the fourth. and we'll be back with you then — every weeknight at 11 on bbc parliament, for a full round—up of the day at westminster. but for now, from me, alicia mccarthy, goodbye. hello once again. the thunderstorms of this holiday weekend have certainly been

making the headlines. and we are not alone. a quick look at western europe and you see that there are plenty of thunderstorms to be had here. great rafts of cloud across france and germany. in the forthcoming week, we will see further thunderstorms in places. it will be on the warm side initially. light winds in the forecast. low cloud to study forecast on monday there were from the lothians down to about the wash. elsewhere, a lot of sunshine to start the day. once that heat pour into the middle half the afternoon, showers to parts of east anglia, the southern counties of england, and up into wales. the eastern shore is plagued in places, but elsewhere, much of scotland, the north of england and wales, and into northern ireland, dry, fine, and sunny, and really very warm as well. 20—something in a number of locations. in the south—east, it could get to 28 degrees, we think. that will keep showers

going across the southern counties for a good part of the evening. the low cloud will pull in off the north sea. this is set up because we have this flabby area of low pressure dominating western europe. around its northern flank, we bring warmth and the continent are cold north sea. the moisture condenses and clouds will form. and it will stay like that for much of the showers on tuesday. eventually that retreats to the eastern shores and we import more showers later in the day. bruce is not as high as monday, but still want this time of year. moving to the middle part of the week not a grey changes. still low pressure over biscay. still tapping into warm from the continent. some thunderstorms were bound through the northern parts of scotland and eventually down into it in england, too. today around 22, maybe 23 degrees or so. many well on into the teens. cooler conditions?

you have to go a long way to find them. northern parts of scandinavia, out in the middle part of the atlantic, but much of the near continent and we ourselves are still sink because above the seasonal norm. not a great deal of change is far ahead as thursday. does it show any signs of changing? still a lot of there. while towards the weekend, a high—pressure builds, tending to suppress the shower activity, but still keeping it on the warm side. welcome to bbc news — broadcasting to viewers

in north america and around the globe. my name is gavin grey. our top stories: italy's populists call for the president to be impeached, following failed efforts to establish a coalition government. calls for change in northern ireland, after the republic overturns the ban on abortion. salvaging the summit: us and north korean officials try to get president trump and kimjong—un's historic meeting back on track. and decoding dolphins: we find out what makes the marine world's most charismatic mammals click.