that's bob woodward, of course. to one of the big stories in the financial times now, and it says japanese pm shinzo abe's looking to up the retirement age. it'll go from 65 to 70 in a bid to help the country's coffers. and then the times looks at people in the uk above 70 are smarter in september. over 70s fare better in intelligence tests in the autumn. the paper looks at some of the possible reasons. with me is david buik, who's a market commentator at core spreads. he was chuckling during that story. i'm going to have to answer for myself. you are very on the ball always, even at ibm the morning. let's look at city am, looking at the former brexit secretary david davis, it says he is fully poised to throw his weight behind the government's brexit strategy. what is he going to do next? what a mess.

i don't care, which way you voted, one way or another, nobody voted for this. the chequers agreement, i'm not saying it has been torn up but it has got a lot of opposition, particularly within the labour party and the tory party. david davis has obviously been in cahoots with jacob rees—mogg, who has had a conversation with michel barnier to discuss the whole chequers thing as being absolute rubbish. i think it is race out of a negotiator comes out and says something like that, so what is coming up and putting on the table is to say that you go by the world trade organization and then possibly to a canadian, norwegian style deal. there is only possible alternative is right now. you have david davis was about to come out and suggest his alternative, it have others suggesting a second referendum. there are many, many

alternatives. and no time. there is no time at all. knows. dominic raab, the current brexit secretary, has got to negotiate what the uk's position is. i think have got to talk about lord who has come into the debate recently and made some comments about how very upset he is. one comment he did make and i agree with him, the fact that dominic raab at the very last moment decided no brexit was on the table for discussion... he is a brexit supporter, and just for instancy sounds a bit like you, so frustrated with how this process is going. but, given what we have been through since the referendum decision, how could we have played this differently from your perspective? because, of course, the problem has

been all the infighting within conservative party that has delayed and delayed and delayed and meant that owl proposal has not been there for such a long time? june last year was the federal election, which was a shambles. unfortunate, any power that the theresa may government might have had was straight out of the window and therefore the factions of distrust, or mistrust should i say, grew and grew and grew and left everything in a very bad state. but i think one of the day about things that theresa may and david davis did incorrectly if they did not attach enough importance to employing hundreds, and i mean hundreds, of trade negotiators. this isa hundreds, of trade negotiators. this is a very professionaljob, and for politicians to assume that role is rubbish. it is like asking me to go and do rain surgery, it isjust ridiculous. and they did not identify this problem quickly enough. the problem is as the political problems have grown, then of course the negotiating stance of the government has dissipated. how

difficult or easy will it become your perspective? what is the outlook for the next 12 months? the outlook for the next 12 months? the outlook is in my opinion pretty dire, andi outlook is in my opinion pretty dire, and i can't honestly see the chequers agreement going through and i think we need a postponement, which i know most expertise will hates, so that we can regroup and negotiate this properly. and i suspect it is going to have to go through the wto eventually. —— most brexiteers will hate. we will talk about it again, many, many times. let's have a look at the guardian, it is also the front page of the times. we are talking about the fact thatis times. we are talking about the fact that is on is the second company in the world to get that $1 trillion valuation. this guardian article actually is very good. yeah, it is pitifully done, wonderful. now they are over $2000 each. $2050, yeah.

are many issues that come to the fore when a company becomes this large and has such an enormous influence on where its headquarters is, in seattle. —— there are so many issues. -- beautifully done. well, the thing that disturbs me is that it does seem to be a i—man band, jeff bizos has been there right since its inception in seattle. he has taken the companies through all these various things, whether it is a drone, and ryan, alexa, all these different things that have come in and are amazing. it is very much a i—man band and what worries me is that things like social responsibility, wages, the way the high street has been destroyed is a result of it. —— amazon prime. you

can't blame that on him, but that it has been there for several years now and it is about time that people grappled with this. i think you can live with it. goodness gracious me, if my family is anything to go by, we use it every day of the week virtually. and it has to be regulated to the degree that the way it has performed... see you believes amazon should be regulated? definitely. and i presume the likes of google, apple should be regulated? all of them, definitely. he has a net worth of $167 billion, the world's richest man. you cannot really get your head around that alone, but also i did not realise, andi alone, but also i did not realise, and i should have known arts, you know, they own the washington post, which of course is a huge critic of donald trump's administration and the white house. well, it is very important to him. there is more to this than just buying goods on

amazon. yeah, he wants to control the media. look atjeremy clarkson on amazon television. amazon prime. amazon prime, yeah. and is really moving on. we are keeping an eye on it, that is a sure. we're talking about the white house. we have picked out fox news coverage of the publication of a book written by vetera n publication of a book written by veteran reporter bob woodward, and the reason why we picked on fox news is looking for anything that would give a positive spin to this because of course, fox is very pro— the trump administration. but even this article on fox news is highlighting some of the... article on fox news is highlighting some of the. .. horrendous things. a damning indictment on how the white house has been run under donald trump. save fake news, as the expression is, have you read fire and fury mark? no, i haven't, i have not had the time. -- fire and fury.

the idea is that basically when you see the names bob woodward and carl bernstein, you think of that wonderful feel all the king's lynn with robert redford. these guys do not make statements that they can't back up. so it is all very well, sarah saunders, saying these are disgruntled people trying to make the administration look worse than it is, there is no smoke without fire here. and following on from michael wolff, trust me, there is more than a grain of truth in it. —— king's men. we're all going to work in the grand old age. you are not retiring soon, are you? though, of course not. japan has got a very strange work culture, having worked

there for a number of years. this is inevitable, it is going to happen all over the world. interest rates are very low in most of the world's developed economies, you can't afford to sustain people. the japanese have a very strange culture, they look after people. for instance, if you lost yourjob, the whole street would look after you to make sure that you got sorted until you got thejob. anybody make sure that you got sorted until you got the job. anybody who tells you got the job. anybody who tells you that in japan, you got the job. anybody who tells you that injapan, people work harder than anyone else, don't believe it. the white collar workers, they just stay there longer than anyone else. thank you for joining us. have a lovely day and we will see you soon. bye—bye. hello again. well, if you're heading outside over the next few hours in england and wales, chances are it's going to be pretty cloudy, and that cloud will be thick enough for some rain from this weak weather front that we've got sat across the far east.

otherwise, a few showers coming into western scotland from time to time over the next few hours, that rain mostly focused towards the eastern coast of norfolk and suffolk. that's where it's going to be at its heaviest. a lot of cloud for england and wales, but that's keeping the temperatures up. so, for the early risers, double—figure temperatures. it's not going to be too cold a start to the day. for scotland and for northern ireland, chillier air here, but not quite as cold as it was last night. nevertheless, a cool start. but should see some early morning sunshine for scotland and northern ireland, before the cloud thickens up. and we'll start to see outbreaks of rain arriving through the afternoon, that rain turning progressively heavier, particularly across western scotland, turning wet too for northern ireland. england and wales for the most part, yes, it's a dry kind of day, cloud will be with us for most of the day, but there'll be some sunny spells coming through every now and then. temperatures high teens to low 20s. however, towards the end of the week, it is going to get more unsettled. cooler and breezier, with rain at times too. here's the charts then for thursday. low pressure starts to form

around about scotland, and that area of low pressure is going to be bringing fairly extensive outbreaks of rain across scotland, moving into northern england, and we'll see a weather front sliding its way in across wales, probably bringing some wet weather through thursday afternoon across parts of the midlands, and maybe southern counties of england as well. in between these areas, for the lucky few, we might actually stay dry, with some sunshine. but those temperatures will be edging down, so it will feel noticeably cooler, particularly so across the north of the uk. now, towards the end of the week, the jetstream pattern amplifies. now, if we were underneath this ridge, we'd have fine and dry weather, but we're not. we're underneath this trough, and within this trough, we get an area of low pressure spinning around like a washing machine, right over the top of the uk. that's through friday, and on into the weekend as well. so, you can imagine, it is going to be quite an unsettled looking weather picture. now, for friday, we'll see pretty extensive rain across the northern half of the uk. there could be a few showers, though, even in the south.

so an unsettled kind of day. quite breezy, quite cool as well, with temperatures coming down. we're looking at highs between 111, maybe 19 degrees if we see some brighter weather in the south. it looks like it will continue to be unsettled, though, into the weekend, with heavy showers across the north of the uk. now, for england and wales, we'll probably see a belt of heavy rain working in on saturday, probably turning a bit drier and brighter by sunday. that's your weather. good morning. welcome to breakfast with dan walker and louise minchin. our headlines today: breakthrough in treating child leukaemia. nhs patients in england will become the first in europe to receive a revolutionary new treatment. labour mps will vote today on the decision to include the full definition of anti—semitism in their party rules. good morning. time to balance the scales. a new report says the uk economy is not working. the archbishop of canterbury says a fundamental rethink is needed to make it fair for all. in sport, the history girls do it for scotland. they've qualified for the women's world cup for the first time ever, after beating albania.

after a record breaking summer for renewable energy, we'll ask what the future holds for solar power in the uk.