the front page of the ft online is looking at the news that us stocks fell sharply in late trading on wednesday, wiping out the last of this year's gains on swelling concerns about a slowdown in the global economy. and finally, bbc news online, with many others out there, has the story about a uk police force's search for a ross geller "lookalike" thief. the friends actor david schwimmer responded with a video of himself carrying beer in new york with the caption: "officers, i swear it wasn't me." the very alike, it has to be said. bat they do look very alike. with me isjoseph sternberg, a columnist at the wall street journal. let's get stuck in. we'll start with the new york times in its coverage of what is happening with regards to those pipe bombs, et cetera. it talks about the intense search for who is behind this but at the same time, how this brings to the fore this issue of the lack of stability and politics in the us. right. two points realistic out to me here, one

is that we are just in this state of limbo in terms of information about what is actually —— what has actually happened here and you might be behind it, the new york times points out that there is even a question about the actual nature of these devices and whether they were intended to be active on the web it was intended to be some sort of hoax. on one hand, you had this quest for information and facts about what is happening that you do also have this border discussion, especially just for the mid—term election coming up in less than two weeks about the tone of us politics and the fact that it seems so alarmingly plausible that this could be politically motivated. —— whether it is. politically motivated or not, those who have received these devices, or they have not necessarily receive them, but the attempt is on the likes of barack obama, hillary clinton, george soros, who is a pro— democrat, people who seem to be somewhat critical of the trump administration, the new york times i would imagine would be stepping up

their security as well, this particular newspaper. right, because i think there is an awareness increasingly on the part of the public and a lot of media organisations that this thread is up there, but it is very alarming to hear that this might actually be a real threat, that it might have escalated in some way. and bill de blasio, the mayor of new york is saying we are going to step up every effort to counter this, it is an effort to counter this, it is an effort to counter this, it is an effort to terrorise, we will not allow terrorism to change us. it will play on the minds of those in the run—up to the mid—term elections in on many levels, in terms of where they have come to in the us when it comes to politics and how toxic, many would argue, it has become since the last election. right, although i would actually go back before the last election because yeah, ithink before the last election because yeah, i think it is almost a mistake to be so distracted by trump, although he has done more than his fairshare to although he has done more than his fair share to cause deterioration in the tone in us politics. but the

reality is that people on both sides of the aisle for a long time had been on this downward glide path and i think that the problem is that kind of political rhetoric does sometimes have consequences and sometimes have consequences and sometimes very serious consequences. 0k, sometimes very serious consequences. ok, we shall watch this space of course. the new york times there. let's move on to the metro, a free newspaper in london, that many people read as they move into the capital. talking about civility in politics, we have had ourfair share of in recent weeks, and theresa may, the british foreign minister, talking to the 1922 committee, which isa talking to the 1922 committee, which is a committee of backbenchers of her own party, the conservative party, and many of them, some of them, anonymously said the press they might like you to her prior to this meeting. i would imagine she was not looking forward to this one. right. |

was not looking forward to this one. right. i meanfirst was not looking forward to this one. right. i mean first few have this bizarre phenomenon when it seems like every weekend hours bringing us rumours of some new kind of leadership challenge that may or not develop and nothing ever does, so i think that they will come a time when members of the conservative party who are unhappy with theresa may's approach to brexit had to step up may's approach to brexit had to step up and offer their own alternative, but the kind of anonymous rhetoric that you are talking about, some of those really grotesque statements to the press, i mean it is disgraceful. people need to either step out into the light and launch a legitimate leadership challenge, or stop sniping anonymously from the sidelines with this very violent talk to stop white absolutely, it has been quite something in the last week or so. -- absolutely. this headline implies that in the last week or so, she has silenced the tory haters, many would say actually maybe she hasn't but because of the backlash that has been received in

recent days supporting her, because of the awful suggestions that were made anonymously to the press about what they might like to do to theresa may, that the tables have turned a bit. i do not doubt that there is an element to that and i think there is also a reality that people are discovering that whatever grapes they have with her approach to brexit, there are not really many viable alternatives out there. no one seems to be prepared to step out into the open offer one. we shall watch this space. arab news has this picture of crown prince mohammed bin salman on the front page, this so—called davos in the desert is under way, it is this investment conference, many have pulled out of it. we have highlighted and talked about his speech which talks about how the middle east can be the new europe. this has been completely overshadowed by what happened to the saudi journalistjamal overshadowed by what happened to the saudi journalist jamal khashoggi. right, and look, the region is not going to be the new europe until it

settles some of these political problems and human rights abuses that are common both in saudi arabia and other parts of the region, and i think that that episode just goes to show that you cannot rely on one reforming politician to fix the economic side without expect things, without needing some changes in the political side as well stop right but nevertheless, many world leaders and big business leaders have still gone to this event in saudi arabia because whatever you think about what happened to jamal khashoggi, saudi arabia is the huge source of income, for the uk, the us and many other economies. -- but whatever you think. that is certainly true and you can second—guess the sidelines where the executives should be moving in or should not, ithink where the executives should be moving in or should not, i think the broadest point for the business world to consider is that you are going to continue facing political risks and also business risks from doing business in saudi arabia as long as the political situation

stays what it is. the financial times's homepage online, wall street wipes out us stock gains. it talks about the fact that there have been huge declines in the us, is carrying on in asia the moment. tech stocks are the big losers. that headline, wiping out the whole of visy‘s games is quite a strong headline, something that president trump would not like to hear this side of the mid—term elections. —— of this year ‘s gains. mid—term elections. —— of this year 's gains. the main street economy in america is really booming, we have had a series of phenomenally strong employment numbers, gdp growth is very good, as i think that part of the story here is the federal reserve is very slowly trying to find some way to normalise policy. you have a lot of uncertainty in the

markets as to how to price risk correctly given that the economy is growing but the federal reserve is changing. some would argue any way that this is just a correction that is going on here. the markets have been going on this sort of bull run foran been going on this sort of bull run for an extremely long time, breaking record at the record after record. it had to happen at some point. yeah, ithink it had to happen at some point. yeah, i think this is perhaps partly a consequence of the fact that main street and wall street became decoupled earlier in the cycle, there were long periods when the stocks were up and there was not the economic performance to support it. just very quickly, david schwimmer showing that he is a real sport because there is this person that is accused of, well, caught on camera in black will taking a lot of beers from a shop, and this is ross geller, who was from france, or david schwimmer the actor, doing his version of the event. saying it was not me, governor. yeah, what the

zist not me, governor. yeah, what the 21st story is ever there was one because you have the combination of the surveillance footage, as the police use new technology to try to apprehend the suspect, and then you have the celebrity angle. you had twitter users piling on with all of their in stroke. who would have thought that an event going on in a shopin thought that an event going on in a shop in black fall in the north of england would affect the massive celebrity in new york who would do his own version of the events? maybe thatis his own version of the events? maybe that is what is so wonderful about the story, that people even on twitter are still capable of having a little bit of fun every once in awhile. absolute, don't we love it? thank you so much for coming in, joseph. thank you for coming into the programme. good to have your company as well. we will keep you up—to—date, and we will see very $0011. up—to—date, and we will see very soon. provide. hello there.

sunshine on wednesday took temperatures very close to 20 degrees, but you can expect those temperatures to drop away over the next few days. and also through the day ahead, thursday, we're going to see a bit more cloud around in many areas. for most, it will stay dry, but not for all. on the earlier satellite picture, you can see the way this cloud has been streaming its way in from the north and the west. there will still be some breaks in the cloud, where we have breaks to start the day, particularly down towards the south, there could be the odd mist patch around as well. we go on through the day, we will bring areas of cloud in from the north—west, the best of the sunshine to the east of high ground, maybe to the east of the pennines, parts of east anglia and the south—east. all the while, we'll see some outbreaks of rain setting in across the north—west of scotland, some of this turning heavy late in the day, and those temperatures a little bit lower than they were on wednesday, 9—15 degrees. this rain across scotland will start to push its way south—eastwards as we go through thursday night, into the early hours of friday. not much rain around actually, as we see this weather system sliding into england and wales,

but behind it, quite a big change in the feel of the weather. the winds switch round to more of a northerly direction, and as you can see, we're going to start to tap into some pretty cold air for the end of the week. that air coming from a long way north. so, things are going to feel decidedly chilly. the remnants of our band of cloud and rain, a cold front continuing to slide across south—eastern areas early on friday. then we will see some spells of sunshine, but in areas exposed to this keen northerly wind, there will also be some showers, and yes, those showers will start to turn wintry across high ground in the north. temperatures 6—10 degrees at best. we stick with that chilly feel as we head on into the weekend. a biting northerly wind. a mixture of sunshine and showers, some of those showers wintry over high ground in the north, and the risk of some frost and some ice. but let's take a look at saturday. we'll see some sunshine, yes, but some showers pushing in across parts of eastern of england. one or two for west wales, the south—west of england, a few up to the north—west as well. one or two showers inland. many inland areas should stay dry with some sunshine, but temperatures ofjust 7—9 degrees.

then we add on the strength of that keen northerly wind, this is what it will feel like. it'll feel like one, two, three degrees in some places. not much change on sunday, but again. we'll see some spells of sunshine. the winds switch around to more of a north—easterly direction, that means most of the showers will be in eastern areas, not as many at this stage further west, but those temperatures still struggling, with highs of 7—10 degrees. good morning. welcome to breakfast, with naga munchetty and charlie stayt. our headlines today: president trump tells the media to "stop endless hostility" after explosive devices were sent to barack obama and hillary clinton. buying care "on the cheap" — councils are accused of not covering the cost for thousands of vulnerable older people. debenhams prepares to check out of nearly a third of its stores and reveal the biggest loss in history. the reds star against red star — mo salah reaches the 50—goal mark for liverpool in record time, as they win in the champions league. good morning. it is cloudier than it

was yesterday. later we see persistent rain in the north—west of scotland. behind