is saying ; f.‘{ arr. tjnil is saying about a what mr hammond is saying about a very large bill? european negotiators like to talk about how within the brexit negotiations, there has been quite a lot of magical thinking. some of that magical thinking. some of that magical thinking. some of that magical thinking has basically been if there is no deal, we will not have to pay the eu anything. and here his film is philip hammond having some real talk, saying that we cannot just walk away from something we signed up two decades ago, and have no financial obligations whatsoever. it is a little bit like saying just because you don't like your house, that does not mean you can walk away from your mortgage, move different house and not be with the other one. is a clear how he can apparently say this, when for example, dominic raab can say that we will not pay that u nless we can say that we will not pay that unless we get a deal? obviously this is problematic for them, and the telegraph story is based on a cabinet meeting today in which they we re cabinet meeting today in which they were delivering legal advice he

received from the treasury, suggesting that you cannot just walk away from things like pensions and projects, eu projects that they sign up projects, eu projects that they sign up to. the telegraph's spin on it is that hammond was reluctant to reach this conclusion, but this is the legal advice he received. but the interesting picture in the context of this is that many levers, particularly the hard brexiteers who are starting to feel that leaving without a deal would be not such a bad thing after all, one of their reasons for wanting to do it that way is because they would not have to pay the £50 billion in the eu, and hammond is not subtly reminding that that is not the case, and that leaving would not only be that for the economy, but the prize for them for of money would actually come to

fruition after all. cabinet meeting, is quite interesting, in some ways is quite interesting, in some ways is good news for theresa may because they can be billed as a crunch cabinet meeting where several of her senior ministers, brexiteers could resign. the bad news is that they have not got it because there is nothing to sign over. the brexit deal in brussels fell apart over the weekend. with the story, those are very pro brexit persuasion are no philip -- very pro brexit persuasion are no philip —— fans of philip hammond anyway. but what he is reminding them of is the fact that this is a legal obligation. so brexit is essentially both a legal and a political question. there are legal issues, also political issues. a lot of brexiteers talk a lot about the political issues, but conveniently ignore the obligations that britain has to the eu. i don't think red would want to get into a

circumstance in which they would get sued for not making the payments to the eu. take us to the ft, there is a story inside here, more brexit talk, this is michel barnier may moving a bit? the background of this is there were talks with brussels over the weekend, which at officials level reached a technical agreement on both sides on how they could address the problem of the northern ireland backstop insurance policy, should the to size failed to reach an agreement on future trade deal —— the two sides. theresa may is appearing in front of the dinner at the dash in front of the 27 eu leaders tomorrow to make a pitch to them. this story in the ft appears to be the details of the deal the two sides were closing in on before dominic raabjetted two sides were closing in on before dominic raab jetted over to two sides were closing in on before dominic raabjetted over to brussels at the last minute, and for

political reasons, ripped up the deal that had happened. what michel barnier has said he is open to is the possibility of extending our transition from leaving the eu, which is currently a 21 month process by a year, in turn for the government receiving a 2—tier backstop to avoid the border with northern ireland. the key to this is that the uk want... bit eu has half as this has had to say if that fails, it is really compliment, but the key point is that is offering a way out. theresa may's problem is the cabinet made perfectly clear, that they could not accept a 2—tier backstop. does is take us significantly into new territory?” would have to say michel barnier is offering a suite or in the deal, but the sweetener is not very good. he

is essentially offering three years to get a deal done. and trade deals tend to take much longer than that. if we remember the treat deal that the eu negotiated with canada from negotiations and implementation took about eight years. that was canada. and is frustrated by the speed of this process as it is will not take a great deal of heart in it lasted longer. no. brexiteers describe it as they would have to put up with freedom of movement, all things they don't want to do, but would not have any say in the rules. and also during that period, they would have to renegotiate how much of that £36 billion we would have to pay. let's go to the front of the ft, this ta kes go to the front of the ft, this takes us to the crisis in relations with saudi arabia? the american

secretary of state jetted to saudi arabia to try to mitigate the crisis that has engulfed saudi arabia. especially in relation to the west, there was the murder of a saudi critic of the regime, allegedly her i should point out, it in turkey. in the united states seems to be doing something of a pr offensive with saudi arabia to take some of the heat away from this. both sides need each other in the region, so the united states really needs saudi arabia not only for its oil reserves , arabia not only for its oil reserves, as it attempts to move away from the arabian oil reserves, as sanctions come in but it also needs a political ally in the region. saudi arabia needs the united states because it buys arms from the united states, as well as countries like britain. and this is a crisis that will not go away for

saudi arabia, and this move seems to be an attempt to take the heat off of it. that photo obviously captures the moment mike pompeo is talking to the moment mike pompeo is talking to the current prints —— crown prince, who is turning into a key figure? your member how he took over to britain and echo adverts showing this brief new face of saudi arabia, modernising, doing things like lifting the ban on women driving, and they have been key to have this —— keen to have this brick —— rebranding of the kingdom. this whole affair is damaging to them, it has shocked the saudi regime as to how seriously the western culture has taken the. for the white house, as opposed to the senate, there was quite strong voices coming out of the senate who were highly critical? some congress people have called on potentially sanctions on saudi arabia. that is a massive dilemma for the administration, because

trump has imposed sanctions on iran. the iranian sanctions in a way are only effective if the united states can get oil reserves from saudi arabia. and those are the proxy closers in yemen, as well. john perko? they say he has to quit after the inquiry. this is a simplification of what has happened. an independent report published yesterday by dame laura cox and allegations of bullying, abuse and harassment which have clocked up that cropped up over the last year, she recommended that a series of measures, including suggesting that the current leadership on the house of commons, which name the speaker —— did not name the speaker

specifically... there was an urgent question about this today in the house of commons, whichjohn bercow chaired, a series of mps standing up and suggested he needed to go while he sat there chairing the debate. the claim for him to quit it was something we reported on the summer when he was under pressure for the same reasons then. and friends of john bercow suggested he wanted to see through the brexit processjust as it was fiendishly complicated, and that he really was the only one capable of managing that, therefore wanted to stay on for at least a year. so there has not been a renewed promise by him that he believed, and they are very keen to make it clear there is no link between these allegations, he has denied them, and his departure. but thatis denied them, and his departure. but that is how it has been framed by the paper here. let's move on to the guardian's front page, they have an exclusive about golden passports

pezzella for the past two decades, certain decades have sold their citizenships. this has turned into something of a $3 billion industry, and today the eu justice commissioner said this poses some serious security issues. essentially what can happen is certain countries, there are two in the eu, malta and cyprus, these countries effectively sell their passports. for a certain amount of money, perhaps a certain amount of investment or some period of time in which a person lives in the country, a person can buy a passport. these tend to be very wealthy individuals, many people from china and russia... in many circumstances, this is a fairly benign thing. wealthy people, people who are dissidents can buy citizenships in countries where they do not face of authoritarian

regimes. but there are also the bad people who get through this system, and that is what thejustice commissioner really seems to be highlighting today is the fact that there are gaps in the situation that need to be addressed.” there are gaps in the situation that need to be addressed. i will and by moving the camera to show the other bit of the front page of the guardian, there she is without time to talk about it, but that is the photograph of anna burns who has won the man booker prize. we just wanted to mark that before we completely leave the observation. that's it for the papers this hour. don't forget, you can see the front pages of the papers online on the bbc news website. it's all there for you, seven days a week at bbc.co.uk/papers. and if you miss the programme any evening, you can watch it later on bbc iplayer. thank you, pippa and charlie. you'll both be be back at 11:30pm. hello there.

on the whole, it looks like it's going to be quite mild through the rest of this week. it was a beautiful day earlier on across the southeast and east anglia, where we had blue skies and temperatures hitting 21 celsius. grey skies though, towards argyll and eearlier on today where we had very weak weather front, bring with it a little bit of drizzle. it's actually that weather front, there. we will find everything coming in from the atlantic over the next few days, but only very slowly, as these fronts tend to slow down as they approach our shores. and that's where we have the band of cloud and pockets of rain and drizzle at the moment. that's going to continue to push its way into england and wales. not much rain on that. most of the rain coming from these showers in the northwest, but even those who tend to fade away later on. a little bit of mist and fog, not as much as last night which is good news if you are travelling. temperatures 6—10 across the uk generally. double figures further south, especially underneath this cloud, which is stumbling towards the wash, east anglia and the southeast and towards west country, bit of rain and drizzle on that. behind that, though, we're looking at a deal of sunshine.

there will be a few light showers coming in around some irish sea coasts, most of them across the north and northern ireland and northwest of scotland. most of the temperatures, still quite warm for the time of year for england and wales, not quite those high temperatures in the southeast that we had today, mind you. it will cool down a bit actually overnight. this high pressure that is extending up from the southwest across the uk, so clearing skies, light winds, those temperatures are going to fall away. especially across the northern half of the uk, where we could see temperatures actually in rural areas and eastern scotland and in northeast england, just below freezing. not so cold across southern england and east anglia where we will still have a bit of cloud. that could spoil the day a bit here on thursday. we'll eventually see some cloud coming in through the northwest of scotland. otherwise, lots of sunshine on the way. temperatures may be a shade lower on stable with light winds and the sunshine should feel very pleasant for the time of year. as we look ahead to friday, the end of the week where we start with that area of high pressure and coming into it we have got this weather front again. everything slowing down, everything weakening as it runs into high pressure. most of the rain is going to be in the morning, and the northwest

of scotland up towards the northern isles. as this band of cloud and patchy light rain extends its way across scotland and northern ireland towards the north of england, we should get some sunshine following on behind. and ahead of it, some sunshine across most of england and wales after a little bit of early morning mist and fog. highs, maybe 18 celsius. this is bbc news. the headlines at 11:00: president trump says the saudi crown prince has assured him that the investigation into the disappearance of the journalist, jamal khashoggi, will lead to answers. the cabinet meets before tomorrow's crucial eu summit on brexit as brussels tells theresa may she needs to come up with concrete proposals to come up with concrete proposals to break the deadlock. a further delay to the rollout of the government's flagship welfare reform, it says to prevent claimants suffering hardship. and we'll be at the guildhall in the city of london to talk to anna burns, the winner of this

year's man booker prize. and at 11:30, we'll be taking an in—depth look at the papers with our reviewers pippa crerar from the guardian and charlie wells from the economist — stay with us for that.