this is the briefing. i'm sally bundock. our top story: decision—time for the british government on brexit. ministers are set to consider the draft divorce deal. and i'm philippa thomas live in westminster, where we'll look at a possible breakthrough. the biggest moment since the uk vote to leave injune 2016 and the hurdles that stand in its way. rescuers hunt through the wreckage for dozens missing after the california wildfires. the death toll rises to over 50. a debate in the czech republic. will it become the first former eastern bloc country to legalise gay marriage? house prices are set to boom and 55,000 newjobs will be created. we weigh up costs and benefits of amazon's move to new york and virginia. a warm welcome to the programme,

briefing you on all you need to know in global news, business and sport. and you can be part of the conversation. remember the dog on the trampoline? the christmas advertising war is off and supermarkets are slashing prices to lure shoppers. what persuades you to part with your cash? will you be spending more or less this year? tell us what you think — just use the hashtag #bbcthebriefing. it isa it is a critical day for the uk government. in a few hours‘ time, the cabinet here in the uk will meet to discuss the draft brexit agreement, which officials in london and brussels finalised on tuesday.

prime minister theresa may is seeking her colleagues‘ support for the deal. that would pave the way for the document to be formally signed off at a special eu summit at the end of the month. let's go over live to my colleague philippa thomas who is in westminster. so, this is it, i guess, as far as theresa may is concerned and she really needs her cabinet on board. absolutely. good morning from westminster, where it is sam, that the meeting is taking place at 2pm, but there is a lot to do in between. theresa may started seeing members of her cabinet, the top government ministers, here in the uk last night. 0ne ministers, here in the uk last night. one by one she has been trying to persuade them to accept the compromise deal that she has struck, that has been technically agreed between officials here in the uk and officials of the eu. at it is tough. cabinet has two degree and

then parliament has two agree and within her cabinet, within the government conservative party, as you know, there are ardent brexit tea rs, you know, there are ardent brexit tears, those who believe we should be staying in the eu, not least for the british economy and there are those who can be persuaded either way. some ink they would rather have stayed in the eu, but the people spoke two years ago and now brexit isa spoke two years ago and now brexit is a duty of government. she has cabinet colleagues of every shade of opinion, they will all be unhappy with some aspect of the deal because it isa with some aspect of the deal because it is a compromise. so a lot of persuasion under way and i guess what theresa may is thank you her ministers is, i have done the best i can, the alternative is no deal, do you really want the british people to go through that? the latest from my colleague now. 0ne one by one, ministers went to downing street last, a chance to look at this draft in private before

deciding whether to back it later today. have you been twisting any arms? while some might be confident, others are seen to have reservations about the terms of departure that officials have drawn up. even before the details were announced, brexiteer tories were briefing against it. one even warned he could withdraw his support from theresa may. i haven't spoken to sir brady, but it comes at the point where the individual and the policy become interconnected and it will be hard to carry on supporting the person carrying this policy. and those who backed to remain have concerns, this was a rally last night for those who wa nt was a rally last night for those who want another public vote. was a rally last night for those who want another public votei was a rally last night for those who want another public vote. i would accept a deal that will totally undermine our credibility and the whole of the rest of the world because even if some people in my party cannot see this as a bad deal, eve ryo ne party cannot see this as a bad deal, everyone else around its entire planet can. the prime minister one

—— must win the backing today if there is good to be a meeting of eu leaders later this month to finalise the deal, some are calling for calm. a lot of progress has been made. the united kingdom has worked extremely ha rd united kingdom has worked extremely hard negotiating to take this agreement forward, now for the cabinet to discuss if all you got is a good dealfor the uk. cabinet to discuss if all you got is a good deal for the uk. if the cabinet and the eu agrees, then it is up to parliament. labour and the dp on who support trees a's party relies, say they are likely to vote this down. this whole process is still uncertain. is still uncertain and of course, we haven't seen the text. as i say, cabinet ministers are being briefed, talking to the prime minister theresa may one by one. we have not seen the text but we know the nature of her compromise which may involve the uk staying inside the eu customs union, that will anger brexiteers,

some remainers will think if we stay in the customs union why do we stay in the customs union why do we stay in the eu itself? a lot of haggling but we have got the alternative that theresa may is going to say, no deal, crashing out of the european union and she is determined that there won't be the alternative of a second vote of indeed staying in. i will have more in a few minutes. we will have more in a few minutes. we will talk to philippa later. around a hundred people are still missing in california and the worst wildfires in the state's history look unlikely to be under control before the end of the month. it's now confirmed 50 people have died, but that number is expected to rise. the fires have broken out across california. at least 7000 homes and other buildings have been destroyed. most of those who died were in and around the town of paradise, which is pretty much gone. dave lee is there for us. get back here.

this is the inferno faced by one mother and son as they escaped the deadliest wildfire in californian history. we were out of that by 10:37am, with thousands of people behind me, so... how did it feel to know you were safe? relieving, guilty, terrified for the people behind me, i know there was a lot of elderly in the community that probably wouldn't make it out. five days on, this is what's left of their home. the harrowing process of trying to find and identify bodies here has now begun. search teams think it could take many weeks. what will also take time is fully understanding what happened here, and why this fire was able to get so out of control. 500 miles south of where we are, fires are continuing to flare, like this one near lake sherwood. fire officials say gusty winds could easily kick—start more flames. the danger is far from over.

if you're being held back, it's because your life and the lives of your family and neighbours are still potentially endanger. there are rare glimmers of good news. some of those who were ordered to evacuate in the south have been able to return to their homes. there is no such prospect for the people of what was once paradise. dave lee, bbc news, in northern california. let's brief you on some of the other stories making the news. the un security council has failed to agree on how to address the recent flare—up in violence between israel and the palestinians in gaza. hamas has said it will observe an egyptian—brokered ceasefire if the israelis do. israel says it will continue its air strikes on gaza if necessary. the lawyer representing the mexican drug lord,

joaquin ‘el chapo' guzman, at his trial in new york has claimed his client is a scapegoat. his lawyer claims the real leaders of the sinaloa cartel are still living openly in mexico and have bribed the current and previous mexican presidents. president enrique pena nieto and his predecessor felipe calderon have rejected the allegations. the latest ebola outbreak in the democratic republic of congo may last until the middle of next year, according to a senior official with the world health organisation. a dense and mobile population is making the virus hard to contain. the outbreak has already killed more than 200 and is now the worst in the drc‘s history. after a year of bidding by cities and towns across america, amazon has announced it's picked new york and northern virginia, next to washington dc, as its second headquarters, which will be split between the two. the world's biggest online retailer,

whose main headquarters is in seattle on the north—west coast, will be hoping to gain a recruiting edge over silicon valley tech firms. dr stephanie hare is an independent analyst. shejoins me now. people have been waiting, cities, evenin people have been waiting, cities, even in canada as well, for this announcement for weeks and weeks. a happy and pitching to say why they should be the place to have their city as the new amazon hq. it has its benefits. there is a bit of a beauty pageant and what is really interesting is that panasonic tried to get different us cities to give sweeteners, come stay with us, we will give you tax break and incentives and benefits. 0n will give you tax break and incentives and benefits. on one hand thatis incentives and benefits. on one hand that is not great necessarily, because a lot of communities are cash strapped and amazon are really rich. you can understand why, because of what it rings. when they

say our second headquarters is in your city, that brings a lot of wealth, jobs. but there are other issues. suddenly you have 25,000 jobs created in an area, a lot of families and households, not infrastructure for it. and it is not fair that those jobs are not filled by people from bacteria. in new york thatis by people from bacteria. in new york that is as sticking point. —— that area. it will be people from the burrow of queens and also people shipped in from all over the us. what is interesting about north virginia, that is to get —— that is signalling the owners commitment to the washington, dc area. amazon has signalled it is happy to do business with the us government when talking specifically about the department of defence, unlike other silicon valley companies that their workers have been protesting against, such as autonomous weapons. he has made a commitment there are and amazon web

services provides cloud compute in for the cia. —— services provides cloud compute in forthe cia. —— imputing. —— computing. and stephanie will be back in about half an hour to review the main stories being covered by the global media. let's now move on. for the first time, the czech parliament is set to debate same—sex marriage, with a proposed amendment to change the civil code. if the bill eventually becomes law, the czech republic will become the first former eastern bloc to adopt gay marriage. slovenia recently introduced a similar law, but it was later overturned in a referendum. from the czech capital, rob cameron has this report. prague, a place were gay and lesbian people have felt safe all decades. is ill gdp the festival has been going for almost 20 years. certainly the czech republic is one of the most sexually liberal countries in europe, but unlike western europe, where same—sex marriage is now a legal reality almost everywhere,

here the issue is still unresolved. well, i believe that the gay people in czech republic should get married. i believe that is their civil right. i am kind of critical about how it limits, reduces the debate about queer rights and discriminations, there are so many more issues than marriage. this man leading the campaign for same—sex marriage, he married his partner in the netherlands but when he went to the netherlands but when he went to the authorities, they refused to recognise it. that is exactly how you feel that this state treats you unequally. i believe that we are entitled to equal treatment and equal in treatment includes marriage, not partnership or registered partnership. is not the domain, is how society treats are. and even though he and his collea g u es and even though he and his colleagues have been able to win over almost five dozen mps to support same—sex marriage, here in parliament, many are unconvinced.

translation: europe is dying out. no country in europe is replenishing its population in for the nation to grow. children are not being born in europe. so i think we have to protect marriage as a union between a man and a woman. there is no surprise there is a petition amongst the more traditional, conservative elements of czech society. but even within the czech lgb geek community itself, not everyone sees the right to marry as a priority. this man is a successful businessman who recently stood as the first openly 93v recently stood as the first openly gay candidate for the maher of prague. lot of people, and i mean a lot gaze, they don't need this to be called marriage. we clearly exist on the same semantic expression, then we will lose other things that are much more crucial. there is the guarantee that bill will make it

past the first reading, but for this former communist country, it could mark a historic first step. rob cameron, bbc news, prague. keep it with the briefing. still to come: after cruising through his opening match at the atp finals in london, novak djokovic heads out for his second challenge. the bombastic establishment outsider donald trump has defied the pollsters to take the keys to the oval office. i feel great about the election results. i voted for him because i genuinely believe that he cares about the country. it's keeping the candidate's name always in the public eye that counts. success or failure depends not only on public display, but on the local campaign headquarters, and the heavy, routine work of their women volunteers. berliners from both east and west linked hands and danced round their liberated territory. and with nobody to stop them,

it wasn't long before the first attempts were made to destroy the structure itself. yasser arafat, who dominated the palestinian cause for so long, has died. the palestinian authority has declared a state of mourning. after 17 years of discussion, the result was greeted with an outburst ofjoy. women ministers, who'd long felt only grudgingly accepted among the ranks of clergy, suddenly felt welcomed. you're watching the briefing. the headlines: rescue crews are searching for more than 200 people reported missing in california's deadliest recorded wildfire. and our top story today. prime minister theresa may has called a meeting of her cabinet to approve a draft agreement on brexit. it would then have to be agreed by other european union leaders

and the british parliament. let's bring in more detail on that. and re—join the bbc‘s philippa thomas at westminster. long road ahead is still but they are calling it the breakthrough, theresa may. tell us more about the day ahead. it is decision day for the top ministers, cabinet ministers here in the united kingdom. they will all be meeting with theresa may, she will have seen them one by one to try to persuade them that frankly, at her deal is the only way through to avoid the uk crashing out of the eu without any deal at all. let's talk now the tony travers, he isa let's talk now the tony travers, he is a professor in the government department at the london school of economics, and you often help us look at the deals on offer, what politicians are saying. i suppose one of the things we should note is that we do not know what is in this deal, they we probably know the principles behind it stop white

that's right. at the moment, or the reaction we're hearing at the moment, politicians and westminster very excited last night, it is all against the backdrop of almost all of them not having seen the detail of them not having seen the detail of what theresa may and her negotiators have agreed. this is going to be a remarkable day as more details become known and i expect will get more of a response, possibly resignations and the cabinet. at the moment, we are still working on an understanding of what will be in the deal. and i suppose the key thing we should remind our viewers about is the backstop. yeah, the backstop is the final and most difficult part of the final deal that has been struck, it is all about what happens to northern ireland and ireland and the border between northern ireland and ireland, and the border between them. if in the end of the uk leads them. if in the end of the uk leads the eu without a full deal on customs and indeed the single market, or indeed lee's at some point with none of that sorted out,

the backstop was that northern ireland or ireland would effectively remain inside the customs union, possibly the single market. —— leave. and if that happens, then there would be eight water down the north sea. it looks likely to include the idea of the whole of the uk staying in, so that the negotiations could be done. —— there would be a border. if this deal is done while not being a member of the european union, that clearly is a compromise that is going to anger the brexiteers. that is the thing, it this is the thing they have long feared when they start talking about being a so—called vassal state, having to take rules from brussels and the eu 27 because it is effectively still in the customs union and having no say in them, thatis union and having no say in them, that is worse they now realise that being in the eu, and that is something that remainers and leaders share actually. this is all going to

pay out today. —— leavers. share actually. this is all going to pay out today. -- leavers. another thing we should remind our viewers is that theresa may and the conservative party —— propped up by a small northern irish party. their view is likely to be what? aborted and the north sea, anything that breaks away northern ireland from the rest of the uk, great britain, and that will be very, very important. the fact is any cannot solve mps are very important now. it is the democratic unionist vote, some of the pro— brexit mps, some of the probe remain mps in the conservative party might not. you then looking at a world in which the labour party becomes important, can theresa may convince some labour mps to vote for the deal when it comes to vote for the deal when it comes to parliament in december? and all of this is going to be discussed not only today that this will take two

or three weeks, i guess, from now. thank you very much, and we will hear more from tony travers as the day goes on, partly about the role of the other party, a key role that could be played by the labour party say, a party that is currently divided over whether the uk should stay in the european union. here's our briefing on some of the key events coming up. in dublin, ireland's taoiseach leo varadkar will hold a meeting of his cabinet to discuss the draft agreement. this then, of course, 2pm uk time is when theresa may will gather all of her cabinet at number 10, hoping to seek their support on it. and later in brussels, ambassadors for the eu 27 will discuss their preparedness for a no deal brexit. of course, we'll be keeping you updated about the latest developments through the day here on bbc world news. thank you so much. yes, we certainly will keep you right up to date.

now it's time to get all the latest from the bbc sports centre. hello there, i'm tulsen tollett. coming up in your wednesday sport briefing... world number one novak djokovic heads out in his second match of the nitto atp tour finals in london. bangladesh and sri lanka are both looking for their first wins of the icc women's world t20. later on wednesday, world number one novak djokovic plays his second match in the nitto atp tourfinals in london. the serb takes on the bright new thing in the men's game, alexander zverev. both players won their opening matches in this year's tournament, while john isner will play croatian marin cilic in the other game, with both of those looking for theirfirst win. iam i am looking forward to that match, obviously the good thing about this tournament is that you have days in between matches, and you are guaranteed to pay three matches in the group. i have obviously put myself in a very good position in

the group with a straight set win, obviously playing at alexander zverev, who also had a straight set win today, so i look forward to them. bangladesh and sri lanka will both be looking for their first win at the icc women's world t20, when they head out to play in st lucia later. sri lanka saw their opening game against england abandoned without a ball being bowled due to the weather, and then lost their second match by seven wickets to south africa. while bangladesh are bottom of group a, having suffered consecutive defeats to reigning champions west indies, and then england in a rain affected match. in case you missed it, roger federer recovered from his first round loss to kei nishikori, beating dominic thiem 6—2, 6—3 at the nitto atp tour finals. after accounting for the austrian, the 37—year—old swiss now takes on kevin anderson in his final match. with one match to play, all four players in the group can still mathematically qualify, and it has the potential to get very complicated. it feels good, i am very happy that

i showed a reaction after last march, so yeah, look, no matches easy here and it has been something i not used to the luzon come back and play again, but it was a good exercise, it was a great challenge for me and i am happy with my attitude, i am happy with how i played and it was good fun against dominic thiem. pakistan beat ireland by 38 runs in providence to win their first match at this year's icc women's world t20 and condemn the irish to a second successive loss. and pakistan captainjaveria khan scored an unbeaten 7a as her side posted a total of 139/6, while ireland struggled to build partnerships and fell short of the target, leaving them bottom of group b and facing an early exit. you can get all the latest sports news at our website. that's bbc.com/sport. but from me, tulsen tollett, and the rest of the team, that is your wednesday sport briefing. our thanks.

now let's have a little break from sport and talk about christmas. the christmas advertising war is off and supermarkets are slashing prices to lure shoppers. christmas advertising spend by retailers will be a record high of {6.4 retailers will be a record high of £61; billion and it has risen in the last eight years by 50%. this is the sainsbury‘s commercial but we have all sorts, tesco, it debenhams. they do sort of take centre stage. whenever you turn on your television, it feels like you see a christmas ad. tell us what you think about this. we have charles who says it looks like i'm spending more money this year, i get lured by the windowshopping. and i have noticed many have said we have noticed that prices have been hiked in recent weeks, only to bring them right down in the high street retailers in the run—up to christmas. tel is your thoughts. i will see you soon for business briefing. hello.

after the heavy, blustery showers many of us saw to start the new week, tuesday delivered us something much drier, with a good deal of sunshine. this was the scene on the north yorkshire coast during tuesday afternoon, a very similar picture in perth and kinross. but already some changes to the western side of the uk. this to the western side of the uk. frontal system push north this frontal system pushing its way north eastwards, winning outbreaks of rain. notice the squeeze in the isobars. some windy conditions as well, particularly for western coasts. we start wednesday on a wet notes, particularly across northern ireland, and north wales, north—west england, and the western side of scott. —— scotland. not just wet, but windy as well. let's take a look at nine o'clock in the morning. much of england and wales will be dry, some bright or sunny spells, but these black wind symbols are an indication of the wind gusts through wednesday morning. quite widely 1;0 to 50 miles an hour for many western coasts, and some heavy and persistent rain

across southern and western parts of scotland. warnings in place for that rain. the rain will be slowly pulling away north and eastwards, so turning drier across northern ireland, cumbria, central and southern scotland. eventually that rain clears away from northern scotland. behind it all, some spells of sunshine. a mild day, 15 or 16 celsius, particularly for the eastern side of scotland, given any sunshine and some help from the foehn effect. now, through wednesday evening, there will be a fair amount of cloud across parts of scotland. further outbreaks of rain arriving into the far west of northern ireland, and perhaps later in the night, across the western isles. elsewhere, it's dry. a mixture of variable cloud and clear spells, but could see some mist and low cloud developing. a little bit cooler where we keep clearer skies, temperatures down to four or five celsius. 0therwise, holding up to double figures. we are going to hold onto this mild air as we go into thursday. it'll be a mainly dry day for most. some outbreaks of rain.

disappointingly grimmie are times when the sun comes through, temperatures up to 15 and 16 celsius. as we go towards the end of the week, for most it stays dry. mist and fog will likely linger, and by the end of today, turning cooler. goodbye. —— the day. this is the business briefing. i'm sally bundock. business leaders will be going to number 10 to be briefed on the draft brexit withdrawal agreement today. but they say it will not change their contingency planning. house prices are set to boom and 55,000 newjobs will be created. we weigh up costs and benefits of amazons move to new york and virginia. and on the markets, a lot on the minds of investors. this is asia, the pound'sjumped on news of a possible brexit deal.

japan is weak as it says its economy contracted by 1.2% in the last