and resistance in his administration. a number of his closest aides have publicly denied being the author of an anonymous article, apparently written by an insider, which describes how staff are ignoring his orders. the writer was described by the newspaper as a senior official and says that staff are blocking the misguided impulses of the president for the good of the country. world leaders have backed the uk over its assessment that the salisbury novichok attack was carried out by russian military intelligence. the us, france and germany agreed that moscow ‘almost certainly‘ approved the poisoning of the former spy sergei skripal, and his daughter. russia has denied the claims. british airways says it's investigating the theft of customer data from its website and mobile app. it says details of 380,000 bank cards have been stolen but the data did not include travel or passport details. now it's time for a look back at the day in parliament. hello there, and welcome

to thursday in parliament. coming up in the next half hour: the northern ireland secretary announces she‘s cutting stormont members‘ pay, as the deadlock between the main parties drags on. but one mp thinks it‘s time for outside help. can i say to her that it‘s surely apparent now that the exercise in handling we‘re all involved in collectively today is not going to bring about the change we need. mps say too many children in england are being excluded from mainstream schools. we do not say that schools should not exclude pupils, we do not say schools should include pupils that are violent and dangerous and pose a threat to safety, but we do say that schools should be inclusive. and the snp‘s pete wishart trips through his version of the summer‘s brexit action.

eu negotiators are waltzing round the uk, while the honourable member is doing a quick step, while this government can barely muster a cha—cha—cha! but first, members of the northern ireland assembly are to have their pay cut by around a third, as the political deadlock at stormont continues. there has been no devolved government since power—sharing collapsed in january 2017. mlas‘ salaries will be reduced from £1i9,500tojust over 42,000 in november, with a further cut three months later if the assembly is not restored. it is clear that during any such interim period, they will not be performing the full range of their legislative functions.

so in parallel, i will take the steps necessary to reduce assembly members‘ salaries, in line with recommendations made by trevor rainey. the reduction will take effect in two stages, commencing in november. and to confirm, it will not reduce the allowance of staff, as i do not think the mlas‘ staff should suffer because of the politicians failing to form an executive. karen bradley said she‘d also bring forward legislation to enable civil servants to continue taking decisions, in the absence of the executive, and she‘d be setting aside the legal requirement for a stormont assembly election if there‘s no devolved government. i have not believed, and do not now believe, that holding an election during this time of significant change and political uncertainty would be helpful, or would increase the prospects of restoring an executive. i give a cautious welcome to the proposals she's set forward here today. although let us be very clear, the demand of the people of northern ireland is, quite rightly, to see the restoration of democratic government, and that demand must be echoed in this chamber. i welcome clearly, this is overdue,

the decision on mlas' pay. i know members on all sides of the house have been urging this on the secretary of state. it is well beyond time. so, that is a step in the right direction. the irish border is a really significant issue in the brexit negotiations, and it's really important the voice of the people of northern ireland is heard in those negotiations. can the secretary of state give assurances that that voice will be heard, despite there not currently being a functioning executive there? she is quite right when she says that the voice of the people of northern ireland is not being heard through the proper channels in the brexit discussions. she will know that there are representatives from the scottish government and the welsh assembly on the variousjmc meetings etc, committees etc, and they are able to make sure that the voice of the people of scotland and the voice of the people of wales is put through those forums. that is simply not possible without a devolved government in northern ireland. but we have ensured that all parties, all the main parties

in northern ireland, receive thorough briefings. it‘s absolutely unacceptable for politicians to walk away from their decision—making responsibilities, but still to continue to pocket their pay. i'm very pleased to see the secretary of state for international development, who holds responsibility for women and equalities, sitting listening very intently today. does the secretary of state for northern ireland agree with me that crucial decisions on women's rights should be taken locally in northern ireland, but if they are not taken, they cannot be delayed in perpetuity? the sooner we have those people in stormont taking those decisions and dealing with those important matters, the better for everyone. this exercise we are engaged in

today will not bring about the change that we need to. in the past, when we have reached an impasse of this sort, we have looked outside. i look at senator george mitchell who played an important role in moving on the process when it has been necessary in the past. would she give that sort of initiative the bulk of her attention? as somebody who has been engaged in this for years, i don't see any other means of achieving the progress that we need. cutting mla pay is the right decision. and i put that on record. although most mlas, including my own colleagues, want to get the assembly working fully and immediately. however, everyone is being punished due to the refusal of one party — namely, sinn fein. so if you‘re going to hit the pockets of those of the northern ireland assembly members — which is right to do, secretary of state — will the secretary of state agree that the same principles for northern ireland assembly members should now be applied to those who refuse to do their work in this house? the minister said that any decision

on the pay of mps was a matter for parliament to. pearce had been told that the government is looking closely to changes in their divorce laws in england and wales. earlier this year, a woman who wants to divorce her husband — on the grounds she is unhappy — lost her supreme court appeal. tini 0wens wanted the court to grant her a divorce from her husband of a0 years, hugh, who is refusing this, forcing her to stay married until 2020. surely this summer, the recent case of owens and 0wens has shown clearly that our divorce law isn‘t working, it‘s not up to standard, and encourages people to enter into a blame game and therefore increases acrimony within the family. so, can i press my honourable friend a little further? can she today now confirm the report, as reported in the press, thatjustice ministers are now wanting to work with the noble and learned baroness butler—sloss on her private members‘ bill, taking forward reform on divorce law? indeed, the case of 0wens v 0wens

in the supreme court this summer is not typical. only 2% of respondents actually contest the divorce usually and only a handful of those do so in a contested court hearing. however, that said, we have noted thejudgment and — as importantly — the comments by lord justice munby that change is needed. divorce proceedings should involve collaboration to protect the future of the families involved yet, in far too many cases — including cases which end up undefended — they start with a string of allegations, often exaggerated, to demonstrate fault. in view of the overwhelming views of thejudiciary and the professions, and the complete discrediting of the present law by the supreme court in the owens case, can the government have any reason for not supporting the noble lady baroness butler—sloss‘s divorce review bill mentioned by the noble lady baroness anelay? with a view to introducing no—fault

divorce, with a simple scheme of application and confirmation of irretrievable breakdown. the noble lord is quite right, collaboration should be at the heart of all divorcing couples. and at the moment, it is the case that three in five divorcing couples use conduct—based allegations — which, of course, create a huge amount of conflict. as i have already said, the government is looking extremely closely at this. we‘re looking at ways that we can reduce conflict within a divorce, whether that be no—fault, whether that be other financial provisions, whether that be for enforceable nuptial agreements. and i very much hope that noble lords will see progress in the near future. as a practising divorce lawyer, may i ask my noble friend the minister what is actually going to go in the timetable? i don‘t think there‘s a family in the land that isn‘t affected by divorce somewhere along the line.

to accelerate reform in relation to the breakdown of the marriage is good, but it‘s not good when the people who are divorced are still living in the same house because they haven‘t sorted out the money. could i just turn to the point that my noble friend made about timing? i‘d like to mention the online divorce system that we‘ve set up recently, in may 2018. it‘s had 11,000 applications. people can submit theirforms online. it is quicker. it is easier to access justice. and, as importantly, it means that the number of mistakes made in these forms is vastly reduced — thereby speeding up the whole process of divorce. the rise in zero tolerance behaviour policies means too many children are being excluded from mainstream schools in england. that was one of the conclusions of a hard—hitting report called forgotten children by the education committee. the report also said alternative provision was to variable, with some outstanding, but others far too poor. critics suggested that the committee was attacking the rights of head

teachers to exclude, but the chair, robert halfon, insisted that was not the case. these are the pupils the committee is concerned about. pupils with special educational needs, who schools exclude because they can‘t meet their needs, or without having even tried to meet their needs. pupils whose results may negatively impact on their school‘s progress 8 score and so are encouraged to move to a different school. victims of bullying, who are moved to internal exclusion. pupils who are excluded for minor infringements of a uniform policy. we‘re concerned that both these pupils and their parents are vulnerable to poor choices, hasty decisions and a lack of knowledge about their options. and to be clear, we do not say that schools should not exclude pupils. we do not say that schools must include pupils who are violent and dangerous and pose a threat to the safety of the school. but we do say that schools should be inclusive. they should support children with additional needs, not off—rol or exclude them without trying to

meet their needs... he said there were real weaknesses in alternative provision. children in alternative provision deserve to be taught by inspirational teachers. many are. but too often, alternative provision has been seen as a poor relation. we think that trainee teachers should experience an alternative provision or special schools setting, and that mainstream schools should buddy with alternative provision schools, so that they can share expertise, experiences and training between them. the point of providing state—funded schools is to get children into them, keep them there and educate them. the idea of off—rolling children seems to have blossomed quite dramatically in the last couple of years. and the minister, in giving evidence to the committee, said that the process of off—roling was illegal, unlawful. can we also ensure that that process is brought to an abrupt end? because we actually have to make sure that youngsters are getting

the real opportunities that they should get, and notjust be palmed off, euphemistically home—educated. because, quite frankly, there is some very good home education going on, but it's very rare, and the growth in what has been called home educationjust can't be sustained as an educational process. the number of children excluded in my county of norfolk are shockingly high. and often, children excluded are then put on a waiting list for other provision because all the units are full up. and when we know, as the honourable member indicated, that it's children from disadvantaged backgrounds, children with special educational needs, children with mental ill— health, and those also who have experienced adversity in their lives of various forms, are disproportionately affected by this propensity to exclude, it's really vital that we change the way this operates in this country. what we need to do is learn from the examples of best practice

in those schools which seem to succeed and not use exclusions as a first resort. because it seems to become a first resort, rather than a last resort. this is the first day in parliament. don‘t forget you can find previous editions of the programme on the bbc iplayer at. labour has called for an investigation into russia and the... they are after all style investigation/ robert mueller. facebook broke the law. as the

minister has alluded to, with numerous investigations by multiple regulators and police authorities, isn‘t it now the time and in the public interest and the national interests to have a robert mueller style enquiry into the conduct of the eu referendum that also examines the eu referendum that also examines the role played by the russian state. he raises very serious issues and there is no doubt that the law as it stands has been up dated. the ico have much increased powers and it will be encouraged to use them and there is no doubt that these serious matters concerning the european referendum will be investigated but it is not a matter for my department. tom watson later took up his case for social media

giants to be more accountable. the problem seems to be that the government as a whole is either unwilling or unable to deal with the market dominance of the big tech giants. 0n market dominance of the big tech giants. on this side of the house, we believe these companies are running rings around governments, legislators and regulators and the reasonably for example than mark zuckerberg refusing to appear before the select committee. even rupert murdoch did that. is it time now right for a new single, powerful regulator to take on the big tech giants and redress this imbalance of market power? the other aspect of this that was not mentioned is the range of on line hubs where we can

expect more assistance. there are a range of areas expect more assistance. there are a range of areas we expect more assistance. there are a range of areas we need to think about this. the tech economy has changed dramatically and the tech companies power has changed dramatically. whatever actions of this government and this country takes me to be thought through. they will be substantially attacked and secondly, i hope they will be an example to the world on how to do this and it will only be so if we thought through them properly, it designed carefully so they can be robust under scrutiny. jeremy wright. ministers have been told to come up with creative alternatives to london‘s night crime epidemic including banning offences from social media. —— offenders. police have been logged nearly 1300 knife attacks. the mp sarahjones said

harsher sentences were not working. 40% in 2010 to almost 70% today and get into the last five years knife crime has been on shocking increase suggesting that harsher sentences simply are not the answer. can we look at two things that creative alternatives to prison, such as banning young people from social media is easing to incite violence and secondly education and rehabilitation to keep young people out of the prison system.” rehabilitation to keep young people out of the prison system. i know the honourable lady has a key interest in the issue. i do not think there isa direct in the issue. i do not think there is a direct correlation. we have seena is a direct correlation. we have seen a rise in knife crimes and it is right that we have approached the issue of possession more seriously but i take on board the point about

causation. i deeply impressed with work being done with young people and it is intervention in an early stage which can help. and it is intervention in an early stage which can helpli and it is intervention in an early stage which can help. i know the government have been looking at hospital admissions falling in 12 years. can you let us not what policies can be included? glasgow is an excellent example. only last month i spoke to scottish law office rs month i spoke to scottish law officers about their experiences and lam deeply officers about their experiences and i am deeply interested. mps spent the afternoon on debate entitled

global britain. it was all about the uk placed itself in the new world where the old structures no longer existed. we need to be clear. we need an assessment of our place in the world and be clear about what we are going to do to maximise our position into the future and that means understanding who we are and what we want. because we have a real choice here. either we choose to shape events or we will be shaped by then. i can tell you very clearly that that many people today do not believe in the devil, they did not believe in the devil, they did not believe in the evil of war coming back to europe, in the dangers of undermining the international system, they believe that rules in some ways are optional, the truth is that they are simply not. i can tell you this because i have seen myself and the cost of it having been to

baghdad and it‘ll class homes that we re baghdad and it‘ll class homes that were wealthy areas into which people lived in very civilised societies in the 60s and 50s. having been to kabul and seen family photos of people showing their daughter is going to universities in miniskirts and our living with the reality of fundamentalism, barbarity and war. i can see clearly that just fundamentalism, barbarity and war. i can see clearly thatjust because you do not believe in the devil does not mean he does not exist and is not mean he does not exist and is not mean he cannot return. we are looking to build capacity and peace in other countries. venice and gender equality. all of those things most of which we have by right here. whatever whenever we make decisions around global britain, we need to hold those values in the forefront and that is what the sn p will be

doing. i was struck by the colossal scale of asian investment. the debt arrangements are causing concern in different regions. there is much more to say in the coming months on this but i eat sent an increase appetite about legal certainties. as countries look to diversify away from this approach, which has been presented as no strings but is now revealing conditionality.” presented as no strings but is now revealing conditionality. i have recently seen modelling of what the world would look like when the earth warms by four degrees and welcome 1.5 degrees limit in the paris accord. in a world that would eventually reach full degree

increases, the main areas of habitation for humans is essentially canada, north europe and russia. the us, asia, china, southern europe will become an inevitable. what does that mean for old institutions? the leader of the comments tells mps what is on the agenda for business. her labour opposite number wondered why there was so little on the agenda given one minister had warned there was so much legislation to get through that recesses could be cancelled. if a government looking at the possible cancellation of recesses and, if so, which ones? 0ne of the newspapers said, christmas is cancelled. there is no plan to cancelled. there is no plan to cancel recesses. business managers are looking carefully at recess and we are very much on the front foot in organising the secondary legislation as well as the passage

of primary legislation to make sure all members will have the right amount of scrutiny time in this place at the same time they have the opportunity to carry out their constituency work and have a bit of a break from time to time. we did learn a few things in the course of the recess. it does not look like we are possibly heading for this inaudible and the government is increasingly lapsed in that process. we know nothing about other things but we have found that eu negotiators that are while seeing right around the uk while the honourable member is doing a quick step while this government can barely muster a cha—cha—cha. can we have a debate about meetings with ministers. i have spent a bit of my

recess looking at the many photographs of scottish members of parliament with ministers and secretary of state. i have now written to all of these ministers insisting on a meeting to discuss critical issues in my constituency is. i have not had the courtesy of one such meeting yet. we begin to see a politicisation? if that is the case, what are the issues for the ministerial code? thank you, mr speaker. i have to take issue. the prime minister can dance and other just like to draw his attention to the all party parliamentary scottish country dance and he might like to invite her along to that. i can see some new bonding going on. it would

be fantastic. he talks about uk ministers not available to him and i am happy to meet him any time he likes was not i will definitely take my photograph taken with him. i would did delighted. and in particular if we were dancing together. an unusual offer for the snp minister. join me on friday night at 11 for our round of the week at westminster. at the back at what has been happening after the summer break. you can also follow me on twitter. now, goodbye. a bright and busy picture. we have

some reina leftover across northern and eastern scotland which may drift down. a lot of that rain heading out to sea during the afternoon. some fairweather cloud and the chance of a few showers but will the most part dry. in the south, warmer than yesterday. a lot of that cloud melting away. not much rain left but as the night goes on, the cloud increasing and outbreaks of rain coming in from the atlantic. friday night into saturday morning, not as cold. as head into the weekend, it looks that we will see a spell of cloud and outbreaks of rain pushing eastwards. could affect southern parts of northern ireland and scotland. brighter conditions to the north. southern england can stay dry. a very warm welcome to bbc news —

broadcasting to our viewers in north america and around the globe. my name‘s mike embley. our top stories: live in montana and rallying his base. president trump speaks to reporters —— supporters as critics reporters —— supporters as critics report his policy—making is out of control. confrontation at the un. russian and british diplomats trade accusations of criminality and deceit over the nerve agent poisoning of a former spy. they tried to murder the skripals. they played dice with the lives of the people of salisbury. they work in a parallel universe, where the normal rules of international affairs are inverted. and british airways is investigating the theft of bank card details from its website and its mobile app. hundreds of thousands of customers have been affected. and tributes to an icon. after an acting career that spanned six decades,