picture of clouds over mountains in hokkaido. this is topical as the view is said to be typical after long humid days, that have been dogging the country amid a heat wave leading to a number of deaths and thousands of emergency calls. and finally to the guardian online, who are reporting that the chocolate maker cadbury is to launch a new dairy milk chocolate bar in the uk with 30% less sugar. this following the government's drive to tackle obesity. so let's begin. with me isjoel kibazo — partner atjk associates and a former director of communications at africa development bank. good to have you with us. let's begin with the huffington post and the story we have been covering this morning. round two of talks, this time in washington but no word yet from the kremlin on any of this. this is, once again, the end of

tumultuous weak for president donald trump and chaos theory running once again in the white house. you had a situation where, as you reported, even the national intelligence director did not know that the president of russia is being invited to talks in the united states. two things occur to me. one, is this just a diversionary tactic from the problems that the president is happening? —— having? and number two, the president is keen to show that he has a handle on the russian issue and that, of course, all those accusations of collusion with the russians before he was elected, that they are not in any way real. as he says there was no pollution. ijust wonder if it is a diversion. of course, russia does not have to say anything. it has to let the white house to all the talking. it is

interesting because given how much clarification and extra clarification and extra clarification the president has had to do after that helsinki summit, you would observe the first rule of a whole. stock digging. that may have been the first rule for everybody else but this is donald trump. and what is real in his world is what matters. it does not matter what anyone else thinks. so we will continue seeing this for the rest of the administration. basically i tell people to hold there is more to come. into this calculation, if vladimir putin is weighing up whether to accept this likely invitation, he, by most observers‘s reckoning, emerged as the winner of that summer. he has nothing to gain and everything to lose if he does go. and because of that very fact i

think that is why the president of the united states is offering this summit. he wants to get back on an even keel. i think it hurts him but it seems like vladimir putin won the affair. he does not really have to do much. president putin, that is. moving on now to another topic featured heavily in the news agenda throughout the week. brexit. the other 27 members of the eu, without the uk, will be talking about britain's uprose —— proposed approach to a post—brexit trade arrangement later and theresa may is trying to come up with a solution for the almost in solvable problem of the border between ireland and northern ireland. were being told we will be told every week, warned with weekly information packs. this is

suggesting that everybody is considering a no deal is being more and more likely. i don't know that the situation has changed very much but i think there is a sort of megaphone diplomacy on both sides. so by raising the prospect that we might go for no deal, i think the idea of is that at some point the british government thinks that that may spur action on the european side to possibly ease things. and by actually addressing the public in the united kingdom about this, it does sort of put the frighten on everybody and make sure the people feel that in the event of that happening at least they are ready. for instance they have asked small business, the idea is that small business, the idea is that small business of up to 250,000, will start to look into customs declaration, which they have not had to do previously. so i think there is that sort of warning, the hope is still that there will be some deal at the end of it. it does feel as

though there has been a renewed pace and energy to the whole thing. i wonder how much of that is down to there being a new secretary and the vote we have seen. i think it is the timetable. by march 2019 the uk is supposed to leave in these negotiations really need to be signed off by the end of the year. i think the timetable is dictating the pace and there is nothing that can be done about that. it is a question of whether the interim period will be extended or not but i think it is very much timetable driven. and as if the government did not have enough on its plate, warning on front page of the independent that soaring violent crime in the uk is so soaring violent crime in the uk is so serious it should now be treated asa so serious it should now be treated as a public health emergency. the issue of crime, especially knife

attacks in cities like london has been one that has been gaining a lot of attention as more and more attacks have happened. of course it also plays it internationally. we have had president donald trump saying that there is blood on the streets of london. that more prosaically, i have spoken to a friend of mine from johannesburg who asked me and wanted to know if crime was really that big. that was interesting coming from somebody who lives in johannesburg, is interesting coming from somebody who lives injohannesburg, is a banker with real concerns. it does mean, that in a country such as this, an international business and tourism centre, but something does need to be done. and that is the danger that it does get overhyped and people get an impression that every street you turn down in london you will face somebody with a knife. that is not true. however that could be the impression given. the japan times

has a stunning image on its front page of clouds above the mountains however it poses problems, this, for the olympics in 2020. they have to alter some of the timing to beat the heat. this speaks to... we suffer the heat in the united kingdom. you say suffer, i say enjoyed. next week it will be even hotter! bring it on! bring it on! he says, sitting in an air—conditioned room. bring it on! he says, sitting in an air-conditioned room. the reality is that they are also pointing out that we are three years away from the olympics and some events will have to be staged much earlier than usual echoes of the temperature and we expect the temperature will continue to rise. there is a serious point in terms of the olympics. in the same week injapan terms of the olympics. in the same week in japan you terms of the olympics. in the same week injapan you have had on wednesday there were 3000 people

treated for heatstroke and the effect of heat. it is a serious problem and something that, as we move forward, we will need to consider. notjust forsport move forward, we will need to consider. not just for sport but for other things as well. moving on now to the guardian. i like this story. cadbury making a version of dairy milk with 30% less sugar. they will keep the full sugar version available but they are not the first to do this. nestle has already cut sugar. what do you think? would you like a chocolate bar with 30% less sugar? in this way. i wondered if this was just put in because of mean. are you partial to chocolate? iam mean. are you partial to chocolate? i am partial to chocolate. but i need to watch my weight. i would be going for the 30% less to try and pretend that there has been little effect whatsoever. we have had

plenty of online tweets about this. charles says that 30% less meat room foran charles says that 30% less meat room for an apple on the menu. —— 30% less makes room. someone else wonders if it is a gimmick or if we should swell to healthier snacks. —— swapped a healthier snacks. shirley says that anything is worth a try in this current obesity world we live in. stay with us here on bbc news. there is more to come. hello there. we're set to see a little bit of a change to our weather for the next 2a hours, some very useful rain moving in across northern and western areas.

thursday, though, was another fine, dry day. quite warm, too, plenty of sunshine. we start to see the change taking place, though, across the north—west corner of the country. clouds thickening, outbreaks of rain pushing there into the highlands later on in the day. now, during the early hours of friday, that tangle of weather fronts will continue to move south—eastwards slowly across the country, bringing some rain, initially to parts of northern ireland and scotland, with some heavy bursts of rain, turning quite breezy as well. but early on on friday, it's going to be a dry one again for england and wales, bar the odd shower across the extreme south—east. a warm and muggy to start the day, too, but something a bit cooler and fresher in the north, with that cloud and rain. so this is the picture for friday, then. a lot more cloud across northern and western areas, with outbreaks of rain, some of it quite heavy. the rain will tend to become light and patchier as it pushes further southwards and eastwards. so it will be a cooler day because of more cloud around, the rain, the breeze, temperatures in the mid—to—upper teens celsius. but across the south—east, it could be quite warm again, 211—25 degrees. now, what we'll see

through the afternoon across the south—east is also the risk of some thundery downpours. hit—and—miss showers, generally starting in a line from the wash down to hampshire, and then moving their way eastwards. if you catch one of these downpours, you really will know about it, and it could give rise to some disruption, perhaps some flash—flooding too. now, as we head on in towards saturday, we lose the showers across southern areas, and then actually across england and wales will have good spells of sunshine. a little bit of patchy cloud in the afternoon, and there'll also be a bit more sunshine across northern and western areas. so it'll feel that bit warmer, certainly across england and wales, 24—27 degrees. high—teens to low 20s further north. on sunday, again a fine—looking day for much england and wales, and more sunshine around, so it's going to be warmer, too. a bit more cloud further north, more of a breeze. thicker cloud could bring some outbreaks of rain to western parts of scotland, where it'll be cooler. but eastern scotland will do pretty well. we could be looking at 26—29 celsius in england and wales. then, as we head on in towards next week we'll see this weather front, a new one, waxing and waning across the north—west corner of the country.

further south and east, though, we'll be tapping into some very warm and humid air off the near continent, so it's likely we could see temperatures reaching the low 30s celsius in one or two places. so always a little bit cooler and cloudier further north and west, with some fierce heat and humidity further south and east. good morning. welcome to breakfast, with charlie stayt and naga munchetty. our headlines today: president trump invites putin to the white house for talks. the controversial move takes even his intelligence chief by surprise. . yes. that's going to be special. theresa may will call on the european union to evolve its position on brexit, as she rejects its plans for the irish border. we are still not recycling 40% of

the plastic bottles that we use, so iamata the plastic bottles that we use, so i am at a factory that makes beds out of bottles this morning to see what more businesses and