existing residential property. one of the reasons behind the move is to stop the global super—rich snapping up luxury estates in the hope of securing a bolt—hole in case of global catastrophe. and finally, on the front of the independent is a picture of the queen of pop herself, madonna, who turns 60 today. can you believe it! considered one of the greatest selling artists of all times she is also recognised for her life long work in campaigning for aids awareness and research. so, let's begin. with me is mark davies, who's ceo of strategy consultancy, camberton. mark, first of all, let's talk about the front page of the telegraph. security clearance revoked for cia directorjohn brennan. this is a move donald trump says is about national security. clearly not. you laugh? clearly not

about national security, it's about donald trump's ego i think, everyone around the world will know that. john brennan described the press conference donald trump had with the russians a couple of weeks ago as nothing short of treasonous, and has a lwa ys nothing short of treasonous, and has always been as active on twitter as the president himself. he loves twitter, doesn't he? he does, he says it seems you will never understand what it means to be president or what it takes to be a good, these and honest person. donald trump isn't the kind of person that likes that criticism and he's decided to do this. nothing to do with national security or his politics because brennan, although he worked with barack obama, he isn't a woolly liberal, he also worked with george bush and when he did so he was a fan of rendition. it's not like there's a political issue here, this is absolutely a personal dislike because of the criticism that's come from brennan to trump. security clearance, what does it mean for these people? the

reason it's important is there's a corporate memory in the white house, which is being lost here as a result of brennan going. he doesn't input u nless of brennan going. he doesn't input unless he is asked to, but in order to be able to do so, and to give the benefit of the experience he had, he needs to know what's going on today. if he's not going to be told, he can't do that, so there's a problem there, particularly in a white house where there is such an obvious absence of strategy. interesting, we will see if the removal of security clea ra nce will see if the removal of security clearance is stretched to other big names, which was hinted at by his press spokesman. the turkish lira, i don't know if you've been following this, but in the financial page of the guardian, it has rallied slightly after qatar said it would shore up the banking sector in turkey. why would they pledge so much money? it's a year since the qataris appealed to the world trade organization about saudi sanctions on them. they know what it's like to

be the subject of sanctions, economic sanctions. there's a big geopolitical play going on here. i think one of the concerns is that donald trump is doing something which he thinks is pure the economic, and, of course, it's not, it has much wider geopolitical implications. the turks are toiling towards the qataris. one of the reasons turkey has been problematic in nato over the last ten or 15 yea rs in nato over the last ten or 15 years is because of the action it's taken against the kurds and the impact that's had in the middle eastern region. the qataris are stirring the pot, looking like they're being very helpful... indeed, they are being helpful to the turks but they're not being very helpful at the same time. $15 billion, is it a large amount of money? it will paper over the cracks, but not change anything structural, not changing the fact erdogan is telling them what to do

and not pushing up interest rates won't change the fact he has put relatives in charge of the finance department. it won't change any of the structural issues. it will save the structural issues. it will save the turks having to go to the imf. they just don't want to the turks having to go to the imf. theyjust don't want to do that? no country ever does. doesn't america have a veto on getting money from the imf? possibly, but that's less ofa the imf? possibly, but that's less of a concern. the wider implications of a concern. the wider implications of this are that... there are bigger knock on effects to the economic sanctions than the economics. absolutely. it's all about politics, politics, economics, there's no line between them. how worried are you about a nuclear holocaust, all this geopolitical... all these problems causing a big global event? if you have the money would you buy a property in new zealand?” have the money would you buy a property in new zealand? i can't any more because the law has just been passed. this is a story about the fa ct passed. this is a story about the fact the new zealand government has

just passed a law to ban foreigners from buying property and the reason behind it is because some quite high profile people with more money than sense have decided to... in the event that the world goes to pot, they're going to go to new zealand, to the large piece of real estate they've bought. peter thiel, the founder of paypal, is one mentioned in this. this tells you a lot about the worldview of these people with uber amounts of money. from a new zealand perspective, it's not that surprising really that they've gone down this route. this is a law that already exists in australia. the fa ct already exists in australia. the fact they've introduced it in new zealand is perhaps not unsurprising. these are rich survivalists preparing for an apocalypse, what is going to happen that won't affect the new zealand ? going to happen that won't affect the new zealand? if there was a nuclear apocalypse, all the world would be affected. they think it is sufficiently off the end of the map not to be affected by nuclear war or

maybe just donald trump! quite! i think we skipped a story, didn't we? we missed uber. we've talked about them already on this programme but what interests me about this company is it is very a. private companies don't need to tell us how they're doing but they give us updates on how much money they're making —— very open. is it ahead of the ipo next year? the loss was $181 million, a narrow loss compares with the more than $1 billion it was last year. i think the thing with uber and the reason they want to be quite public about the numbers is because they are a company that is absolutely based on brand. if they can maintain the massive brand presence and domination that they have in this particular space, then they can make their ipo work and

they can make their ipo work and they can make their ipo work and they can get out with a return not just for the investors that started, that have already had a return, because they've had some kind of secondary markets already, but for the people who got into the business more recently. the fact is their brand presence is so much greater than anybody else. if i told you that mercedes launched viavan in london in april. i missed that one! they need to sack their pr. they might have heard of left, there's a few others, caddie and gettaxi. didn't uber get in first or better? better with better technology. crucially they spread on a global basis. the key for uber and the market it attracts is people who do use it in different cities. if you can arrive in london and call a cab in exactly the same way as you got to the airport in new york, that's a

big advantage. that's the massive difference. they are in more cities, more quickly with more effective technology. it's that kind of simple idea that makes money? it's always the simple idea. i was a bit late for that one, any idea to be honest! let's end on a lighter piece, and in many papers, today is the 16th of august and as any madonna super fund will no, edged on their memory, it is her birthday and she turns 60 —— superfan is her birthday and she turns 60 —— super fan will no. does it make you feel old? it does. i remember all her 19805 hits, i'm sure you do as well. i do, when i was thinking of my favourite song of hers, it's largely based on how old i was at the time because when her first album came out, like a virgin, was a bit too young. i've enjoyed into the

groove. i knew what it was all about! by the time true blue came out. that was my favourite madonna song and my favourite madonna album. that was my grandmother's favourite song. rate memories. mark davis, great to speak to you and to hear your madonna memories —— great memories. stay with us because we have plenty more to come. from me and the team on the briefing, thanks for watching. bye for now. hello there. really over the next few days, with some rain around. we'll certainly get some rain as we go on through

the next 2a hours. the satellite picture shows a band of cloud pushing in across the united kingdom for today, and this i5 rain—bearing cloud. now, we have seen three bands of rain that will tend to merge together into one as it moves its way in across england and wales as we go on through the next few hours. so there is some rain on the way for some of us. if you're out early a bit in the morning, a lot of cloud for england and wales, with bursts of heavy rain swinging acro55 western england, wales, and on towards the midlands and central, southern england. add to that, a lot of cloud, and it will feel humid for these areas. a fresher feel to the weather in the north—west, but a lot of cloud and widespread, frequent heavy thundery showers working in here as we go through thursday morning. so, the forecast through thursday. we've got our band of rain that will begin to spread into east anglia and south—east england. as it pushes that bit further eastwards, it will tend to weaken at times, so the rain becomes a little bit lighter as it swings into kent. further north and west,

a cloudy morning coming up for scotland and northern ireland, with widespread heavy and at times thundery showers. it will be quite a breezy kind of day as well. there'll be some sunny spells between those showers as we head through the afternoon, with the showers becoming less widespread in northern ireland later in the day, and probably a bit more sunshine too for wales and south—west england later in the day too. for friday's chart, we've got another area of low pressure steaming in off the atlantic. this one's going to be bringing a belt of heavy rain into northern ireland, although there'll also be some rain for western scotland. after a dry and sunny start to the day on friday across eastern counties of england, well, it'll cloud over, but it should stay dry. it will be quite a gusty kind of day, though, with gusts up to 30—odd mph in the north—west of the country, along with that band of rain. now, temperature—wise, we're looking at highs of around 16—18 degrees across the north and west, but temperatures near average. in london, highs of 23. now, looking ahead to the weekend, we have got some wet weather on the way. it's going to be quite breezy, the driest weather towards the south—east of england, particularly on saturday. but this area of low pressure has the remains of sub—tropical storm ernesto, and that's going to be bringing a belt of heavy rain that's probably going to be

working in more really across northern ireland and scotland through sunday. so, in a bit more detail, across northern parts of the uk, scotland and northern ireland are likely to pick up a belt of very heavy rain on sunday. further south, meanwhile, we'll probably have drier conditions on saturday, but still the threat of rather cloudy skies on sunday, with some patchy bits and pieces of rain, especially in the west. that's your latest weather. bye for now. good morning. welcome to breakfast, with charlie stayt and steph mcgovern. our headlines today: the wait is nearly over for hundreds of thousands of students in england, wales and northern ireland, as a—level results are released this morning. italy declares a year—long state of emergency in the genoa region after the motorway bridge collapse. so we just literally — "kids, run, run," because we didn't know what was happening. we left everything in the car, and we just ran for our lives. donald trump withdraws the security clearance of his former cia chief,