promising, not bad at all. i think most of us will have a fine weekend. lots of sunshine on the way, however there is a risk of showers and some of them could be quite heavy tomorrow across parts of scotland and parts of northern ireland, but most of us hopefully will escape the worst of the showers. on a not so positive note, the pollen levels are higher, so not all singing and dancing as far as the weekend is concerned. there are some angry looking clouds to the south across spain, portugal and france, looking clouds to the south across spain, portugaland france, some thunderstorms across europe brewing, and of course we will have some of our own over the weekend with heavy showers. in the short term, as and this evening are concerned, not bad at all. there are a few showers bring their across scotland, one or two in northern ireland, but out this evening they should be in the teens orjust over 20 degrees in the south or bigger cities —— in the high teens. a bit of cloud close to the north sea coast there. the

further north you are, the cooler it will be. eight or nine in the south —— and in the south still relatively mild. where will the showers brew? the anticipation is across parts of scotland, and i want to emphasise the word part, because not everybody will catch them. let's zoom in for a closer look. this is at three o'clock in the afternoon on saturday. you can see splodges, only sorbet, some only a mile across, others 20—30 males. a few across scotla nd others 20—30 males. a few across scotland and one or two in northern ireland —— only so big, some only a mile across. saturday should be a bright day for most, if not a funny one. it is looking pleasant in the saturday evening. but not as those showers across scotland. they could be heavy. some could even develop into thunderstorms. there might be a bit of flash flooding if you are unlucky. look at the european weather map, look how hot it is across central europe, but still u nsettled across central europe, but still unsettled here across parts of

france, spain and portugal. that is because the good settled weather is actually across our part of the world. i knowi actually across our part of the world. i know i am talking about showers developing, but look how many there are across france and into germany. we are actually in a window of opportunity with the weather is not bad at all. sunday is looking promising across the uk, except for the odd shower. again, some could be on the heavy side. there are indications in the next week that the weather might turn a little more unsettled, but in the short—term let's just enjoy the fine weather this weekend. thanks so much, tomasz, thank you. a reminder of our main story this lunchtime... borisjohnson has told a private dinner the brexit talks are heading for meltdown, and that president trump could negotiate better. and while we've been on air the eu's chief brexit negotiator michel barnier has been giving a news conference — he says there's been progress in recent days, and that the eu is willing to step up the pace of negotiations. translation: as time is of the

essence. . . translation: as time is of the essence... we are happy and ready to step up the frequency of our discussions and negotiations. well, thatis discussions and negotiations. well, that is the latest. that's all from the news at one — so it's goodbye from me — good afternoon. i'm damianjohnson with the sports news. premier league clubs will have a winter break every february from the the season after next. it will be staggered across two weeks with five matches being played on the first weekend and five on the following one. it means the fa cup fifth round will move to midweek and an end to replays at that stage of the competition like this one between tottenham and rochdale last season which was played in horrendous conditions.

it's hoped fewer matches will be played during the worst weather and england players will be better prepared for major summer tournaments. it's a move that is sure to be welcomed by england boss gareth southgate. but he says he'll have to sleep on a few selection dilemmas after his side's win over costa rica in their final world cup warm up friendly before they set off for russia next week. manchester united's marcus rashford staked a determined claim for a place in the starting line up, scoring a stunning opening goal in their 2—0 win over costa rica in leeds. i wanted him, like the others, to be making mistakes. if they make mistakes, they are trying things. for me, all of our players, if they want to try and be as good as they can be, they've got to try things and we have to accept that could mean the failure but then you get moments like he produced tonight. a bit to sort out but it is great because we want a squad that are playing well and have the spirit

that these lads have at moment. england's women can go back to the top of their world cup qualifying group this evening if they avoid defeat against russia. kick—off in moscow is at five o'clock — and it's worth noting that england thrashed russia 6—0 back in september; not that the england coach is taking another win for granted. that's all the sport for now. sorry to cut the sport short, much more this afternoon, but we need to return to our main story, the brexit negotiations, particularly in light of boris johnson's comments negotiations, particularly in light of borisjohnson‘s comments of the elements we saw yesterday. michel barnier is still talking, so let's hear what he has been saying. we do have an interpreter as well. let's go to pragmatism. checks

carried out on ferries are less disruptive than a long 500 kilometres of land border. in addition, these checks can build on arrangements and facilities which already exist between the rest of the uk and northern ireland. obviously behind all these rules we wa nt to obviously behind all these rules we want to preserve the fluidity and ease of trade and production of the island of ireland, and once again, we need such a solution. we will not leave this issue unresolved. translation: my third and final point relates to that very point, out point relates to that very point, our future relationship with the

united kingdom. in line with the mandate that i received from the european council in march, and in line with the wishes expressed by the european parliament in its resolution, we are now in the process of discussing the framework of this new relationship, which will comprise an economic partnership and strategic corporation on security matters. up until now, in all the british papers that we've received, andl british papers that we've received, and i do read them very carefully with my team, there is a request for the status quo, a request for continuity, which is somewhat paradoxical when the country took the decision to leave the european union. the european union therefore seems to want to keep all the benefits of the existing relationship whilst leaving our

regulatory, and supervisory and implementation framework. when we tell our british counterparts that these benefits are not accessible outside the system created by the european union, that this is a result of their own decision, some parties in the united kingdom try to make is responsible for the consequences of that decision. let me say the following. we are not going to be intimidated by this form of blame game. the european union, the united kingdom has decided to leave the european union. the united kingdom has to accept the consequences, the united kingdom has to accept the consequences, and if we want to

build a new relationship, there needs to be trust, but there also needs to be trust, but there also needs to be more realism about what's possible and what not possible. so, ladies and gentlemen, we have two working weeks left before the european council at the end ofjune, and i hope we will put them to good use, to consolidate progress and make further progress in these difficult, context negotiations. i am in these difficult, context negotiations. lam happy in these difficult, context negotiations. i am happy to take any questions. i will start here and then move over there. gibran still from the financial times. mr barnier, i know you said you are analysing the uk paper, but you also seem to have ruled out a core part of it, because you have said it is not feasible for the whole of the united kingdom to stay in a customs territory, a joint customs territory with the eu. doesn't that mean effectively you are rolling out the whole ethos of what the uk is

proposing? translation: well, what i was saying is clearly set out in all the decisions and the guidelines of the european council itself. we don't acce pt european council itself. we don't accept ana european council itself. we don't accept an a la carte approach to the single market. the freedoms go hand—in—hand, and are inseparable. i welcome the publication of the document, because we need text on which to work. but being very frank, i think it raises more questions thanit i think it raises more questions than it provides answers. in reading this document, we ourselves have a lot of questions spring to mind, additional questions. i have mentioned a number of these already. so in the coming days on the basis of this document, we will be raising

these very questions. i will do so myself with david davis, and we will indeed put these very issues to our british opposite numbers, and we need answers on these. of course, the point which i've just raised, and can confirm that, we have presented this exceptional proposal on behalf of the european union, in other words to include northern ireland in our customs territory. that is quite an exceptional offer by the 27, and there are no other can parabolic examples, and this is a framework that the united kingdom will be very familiar with, because they drew it up and designed it with us they drew it up and designed it with us and have been doing so for the la st 44 us and have been doing so for the last 44 years. on the same applies with a customs union, so on an

exceptional basis, therefore, we have wanted to make our contribution to north — south corporation in northern ireland, the good friday agreement and the need to avoid a ha rd agreement and the need to avoid a hard border in ireland, that is why we need this proposal, and i have always said that nobody should be surprised that this exceptional proposal and very specific proposal to meet a specific situation, that of ireland and northern ireland, aside from that, the other point of disagreement, of course, is on the issue of how temporary the backstop would be. backstop means backstop. eddie is next and then we moved here and come to tom, and i have already seen a few others i am noting down, bruno. mr barnier, patti smith, irish

times. just back immediately to that question of an all—weather backstop, thatis question of an all—weather backstop, that is taken by most people to mean that is taken by most people to mean that the guarantee that the backstop provides is a permanent one, that will not disappear whether or not an overall deal is done. are you satisfied by the language in the british paper that this does not provide a time—limited backstop? is the language of expecting a deal by a particular time sufficient for you to continue discussions on that issue? and secondly, ijust want to know if you are looking tojune, the june summit, and you are saying that more work has to be done, is it

clear at this stage that the british paper does not actually do the work to establish sufficient progress? it seems that there are so many reservations in what you are saying that it couldn't possibly be regarded as sufficient progress in terms ofjune. translation: firstly on the british paper, once again, we are reading it very carefully, very objectively, without any prejudices with a view to finding a practical solution. why doi to finding a practical solution. why do i say that? this has to be a backstop which provides a guarantee under all circumstances. and you will have heard me saying already no

doubt unless and until. unless and until we find a solution, that is why the time—limited terminology doesn't work for us. until in our future relationship on which we are going to start working we find a better solution which will meet the goals that we have set ourselves with the uk, no border, maintaining in full the good friday agreement and maintaining all forms of north— south corporation. so the temporary backstop is not in line with what we wa nt backstop is not in line with what we want or what ireland or northern ireland want. you ask me if i find this discouraging in terms of continuing the discussions. no, not at all. nothing will discourage me. we have to find a solution for an orderly withdrawal of the united

kingdom, and at the same time, limiting the potential harmful consequences of brexit for ireland, for the island of ireland, that is what we are working towards. i'm sorry, i forget your second question. but it was an important question, i know. yes, the june summit. question, i know. yes, thejune summit. i didn't question, i know. yes, the june summit. i didn't use the word sufficient progress, as we did in december, because we are not involved in the same exercise. we wa nt involved in the same exercise. we want to make progress, because of course june is an important stage in creating the confidence and consolidating the confidence we need foran consolidating the confidence we need for an orderly withdrawal, and in order to ensure that the discussions can continue on what is really the

keyissue can continue on what is really the key issue beyond orderly withdrawal. that is our future partnership with united kingdom. we will see in the coming days as we continue working with our british colleagues, we will make progress in terms of moving more articles of this draft treaty into the green, and i'm hopefulwe will make progress on a number of issues where we haven't made progress up until now. i'm talking about separation issues. i mentioned the three issues on which we still have a lot of work to do, and two on which views clearly diverged. since you are particularly concerned about theissue you are particularly concerned about the issue of ireland and northern ireland, of course, on this issue i hope that i will be able to present to the european council and parliament clear progress on a

common analysis with our british friends of the type of border patrols which you will need. and also along the same lines, there are very specific issues concerning daily life in ireland and northern ireland, goods and agriculture and so on and so forth, issues on which we will be proposing regulative alignment. so we are doing already the screening and scoping work for all these points, which you will find in our proposal for the backstop. you can be read that if you like. i would just point out that theresa may, from whom i have great respect, and i continue to have great respect for her, theresa may and her team have agreed to the backstop in the march agreement. and there is no question of backtracking on that.

mr barnier, britain's foreign secretary says that president trump would have done better in these talks, that a meltdown may be coming and that we shouldn't panic. do you think president trump would have done better? is a meltdown coming? should we panic? translation: you probably know better than i do! i understood your point. i'm not going to comment on what the british foreign secretary has said. i always listen very attentively to what he says, and it's always very stimulating, but i'm not going to comment on that. what i can say is that, being very earnest and calm

about this issue, and along with other ministers who raise issues and make proposals, sometimes we are surprised by these, sometimes they may seem rather paradoxical, and sometimes you detect an element of nostalgia, perhaps, about belonging to the eu, because they want to remain injust about everything without having to respect the regulatory framework. but let's leave nostalgia to one side. one has to assume the consequences. that is what i can say in reply to boris johnson is that we are drawing up our position, taking full account as objectively, scrupulously and honestly as we can, taking account of the british red lines, those which borisjohnson of the british red lines, those which boris johnson and of the british red lines, those which borisjohnson and his colleagues have set out, and which have been set out, too, by the british government. from time to

time, we respect the british red lines, and it would be perhaps good if britain could also respect its own red lines, and just to be quite clear about this, if these red lines we re clear about this, if these red lines were to evolve on the british side, were to evolve on the british side, we would be open straightaway, and the european council itself has said this in its own guidelines, we would be prepared to adjust our position to reopen or adjust our offer in the light of whatever redlines britain has. we are working on the basis of the current redlines. translation: on the future relationship, you talked about an economic partnership and strategic cooperation on security matters. looking at where we stand at the

moment in this negotiation, how far have we got, what is going to happen, how are you going to proceed with those negotiations? obviously thatis with those negotiations? obviously that is a very important question. translation: i want to tell you what i think is negotiator. this is very complicated matter. obviously we have to look ahead to the future relationship. you heard me say this before, and other leaders have said this, for example angela merkel, i think she said that the future of europe is more important than brexit, and i think obviously in the future of europe, there is a place for a strong economic and strategic relationship with the united kingdom, so where do we stand? well,

there are no negotiations at the moment, because you can't negotiate with the european union country. the negotiations will be officially opened on the basis of terms of reference once the united kingdom has left the european union institutions on the 30th of march. obviously time will be quite limited after that, because we have to look at international agreements and the necessary preparatory work. our main aim is basically to work towards the autumn, october perhaps, i can't tell you exactly when, but by then, we will have to have finalised this text, the separation agreement, i hope that will be the case anyway, thatis hope that will be the case anyway, that is what i'm working on at the moment. that will then go through

the ratification process, and when this is approved by the european council, and when it is submitted to the european parliament, this will go hand—in—hand with a political declaration, so that will be in parallel if you like. that is basically the structure of the negotiations, and i would refer you to what the european council said in march. there is an offer of an economic partnership on the basis of a free—trade agreement, bearing in mind the british redlines. that is still the option of a free—trade agreement. and then there would be a second partnership, and i called it a strategic partnership on security matters. obviously we would have to draw a distinction tween internal security and judicial cooperation,

and external security and foreign policy. but we are working on our offer internally. to take this matter forward. only this morning, i was discussing this with colleagues, so we are working at this at our level, and you will find all the details of the structure in the guidelines. there are other agreements which will be necessary as well, for example an aviation, we will need a bilateral agreement, because the united kingdom has decided to leave the single sky as well as the european union, another very complex matter, everything is very complex matter, everything is very complicated here. so we will need specific agreements for that. and in the european union's tool box, our tool box of cooperation with third countries, we are exploring all possible ways of

building the best relationship with united kingdom, because the united kingdom will be a third country. subjects such as cooperation between research laboratories, universities, erasmus, there is a whole raft of third country corporation tools that we can use to enrich our partnership with the united kingdom. we will see how many questions we still can have. translation: mr barnier, in the report in december, paragraph 50 where the uk says that it will ensure unfettered access for northern ireland's businesses to the uk's internal market. now, this is a joint uk/ eu agreement. what the uk appears to have proposed yesterday isa appears to have proposed yesterday is a partial way of addressing this

issue, and today you are ruling that out. was it misleading of the eu to agree to this in the joint report if you are going to automatically rule it out? thank you. translation: well, i'm being very upfront about this. i'm not brushing anything aside, because this is a very serious issue. we have to reach an international agreement which would be legally sound, and which can preserve the interests of businesses, of people, right across the board. so we take this very seriously, i'm working hard with my team, andl seriously, i'm working hard with my team, and i take it very seriously indeed. we want a fully respect all the points agreed in the march

agreement, and later. what i have doneis agreement, and later. what i have done is to raise a lot of questions. there are others as well but i haven't mentioned that we await answers on the point is that in particular you mentioned. bruno waterfield for the times. first of all i need to press you on what my colleaguejim branston asked you, because you didn't give him a clear a nswer, you, because you didn't give him a clear answer, you merely referred to another document and apparently a discussion. will you categorically rule out the idea of a shared customs territory and access to the single market, certainly an industrial goods on a uk wide basis? do you categorically rule that out? and a uk paper says it is time—limited in the sense that it is

until future customs arrangements, shared customs territory,, the final customs arrangements means there will not be a hard border in ireland. that mirrors the withdrawal agreement unless and until the uk has gone for the until. you saying that the until is not possible because of your pessimism about the uk wanting a uk wide option that would effectively be more or less the final relationship? translation: the i thought that i was clear in answering jim. the european council itself said quite clearly that there would not be any ala clearly that there would not be any a la carte access to the single market. services, capital, not to

mention the free movement of people. the single market is one and indivisible with the united kingdom, and contributed to the creation of the single market, and the united kingdom was in fact a very influential. i was commission of the single market for five years, and i can testify to the united kingdom's commitment to the single market and the proper working of the single market. they are familiar with the rules. so the united kingdom has to decide what is going to happen when they leave. do they respect the rules, or do they not? it is up to the uk. i mentioned earlier, a free—trade agreement with the whole of the uk. on the proposal that