the deal he renegotiated? i don't think there is any appetite for renegotiating the withdrawal agreement, the non—binding political declaration that goes with it could perhaps be tweaked a little bit. but no major changes. if it does get through parliament here, then it also has to be ratified in the european parliament. the signals from there rather they are relatively happy as long as citizens‘ rights are clarified. only if we get through all of those processes do we get to the 29th of march next year, when we will leave the eu. then, of course, the transition period begins, 21 month at least when everything will stay the same. and it‘s important to remember that it is only after the 29th of march next year that formal negotiations on the future arrangement, what everyone really wa nts to arrangement, what everyone really wants to know about, can actually begin. chris, thank you very much. that statement from the prime minister to mps that statement from the prime ministerto mps in that statement from the prime minister to mps in the commons on her brexit deal is at 3.30, with full coverage on the bbc news channel. time for a look at the weather. here‘s chris fawkes.

we have quiet and still conditions at the moment across many areas of the uk. this picture was sent to us from topsham in devon, the quiet before the storm, because we will see a change in weather patterns of the next few days, with these areas of low pressure lining up in the atlantic. they will be moving towards the uk over the next couple of days. today, most areas will have a dry afternoon apart from eastern coastal areas of scotland and england, with showers here. but because there was not much win to move those showers along, the showers will stay near to the east coast. we are seeing showers working into the southern counties of northern ireland. but there are brea ks northern ireland. but there are breaks in the cloud. we still have fairly cool air with us. this evening, showers could turn heavier across eastern scotland. some breaks in the cloud. where that happens, we will see temperatures dipped below

freezing. but where we keep the cloudy weather, temperatures are between one and three degrees overnight. later, we will see rain moving into the south—east, with a different day across the western side of the uk for tuesday. wet weather for the south of england, wales and northern ireland. as the wet weather moves in, the wind will turn ina wet weather moves in, the wind will turn in a south—westerly direction. that will drag in much milder air. but ahead of our weather front, nine in london and eight for norwich. the weather is going to feel similar east of the weather front to how it feels this afternoon. still a number of shows affecting more than the eastern coastal areas of scotland. for the middle part of the week, we have low pressure steaming in of the atlantic. this one has packed isobars. it will be a windy day on wednesday, with gusts potentially reaching 70 miles an hour around the most exposed coasts and hills in the west. we could see some disruption. the heaviest rain will be across

northern ireland and scotland. the south—westerly winds were also dragging much milder conditions nationwide. as we go through wednesday afternoon, temperatures may climb to 15 degrees in belfast and london. so a big change and a bigjump in and london. so a big change and a big jump in temperatures. those strong winds will still be around, particularly across scotland into thursday. there will be further bouts of wet and windy weather to come into the weekend. but temperatures will stay on the mild side, for most of us well into double figures. so a big change in the weather is on the way, from the cooler conditions we have at the moment, to something much more wet and windy, but a lot milder as well. that‘s all from the bbc news at one, so it‘s goodbye from me and on bbc one, we nowjoin the bbc‘s news teams where you are. good afternoon.

england have beaten sri lanka to win the series 3—0 and claim an away whitewash for only the third time in history. it was closer than many expected on day four. but jack leach played a significant role, producing a stunning run out as well as taking three more wickets to bowl sri lanka out for 284 in their second innings, giving england the win by 42 runs in colombo. the last time england swept an away series involving three or more tests was 1963. it was a really good game of cricket. it took a moment of brilliance from jack leach, throwing a throw—in from 60 yards to hit the stumps. that changed it around. in these conditions often one wicket brings two and that was the case. i was struck by the look of relief on joe root‘s face when the last wicket fell. they go very close indeed.

england have been the better team throughout the series and they were good for their win. ireland coach joe schmidt will step down after next year‘s world cup, and he‘ll be replaced by andy farrell. schmidt‘s taken the team up to second in the world rankings, and they‘re one of the favourites for the tournament in japan. farrell has been ireland‘s defence coach under schmidt, after holding the same position with england up until the 2015 world cup. it‘ll be his first head coach role, taking overfrom the new zealander who has acomplished plenty with ireland. two championships, one grand slam, a winning series in south africa, beat the all blacks twice. i think the fantastic thing aboutjoe is he is leaving irish rugby in a much better place. he will commit to making sure there is a contingency plan, that he is breeding new coaches who come in and ensure this irish team is going on to continue to try to be competitive at the very top level. lewis hamilton has welcomed all challenges to his formula one title next year. the mercedes driver dominated the field in 2018 to win his fifth world championship.

but expects his main rivals to be contesting a little more when they get back to racing. i really welcome the competition. we welcome the competition as a team. we hope they are there because it willjust add to the spectacle if there was a six way battle between the ferraris, red bull and mercedes. that would be much closer than it has been. say, for example, with sauber ferrari. formula 3 driver sophia florsch says she‘s happy to be on her way home, after the high—speed crash that left her with a fractured spine. she said she was overwhelmed by the support she‘d received from fans around the world, and thanked the hospital staff. floersch crashed at around 171 miles an hour in the macau grand prix eight days ago, and needed an 11—hour operation to repair her spine. she said she celebrated her "second birthday" on the day of the crash and was starting a new chapter. sir nick faldo has criticised phil mickelson and tiger woods‘ $9 million showdown at the weekend.

mickelson claimed the winner—ta kes—all—prize in the matchplay event in las vegas. it was called the match and it‘s divided opinion among golf fans and players too. faldo, a six—time major champion, says ‘everything was wrong‘ with it. it was just an exhibition for a ridiculous amount of money. when they sent the photograph out with them both caressing 9 million, it was, hang on a minute, this is not oui’ was, hang on a minute, this is not our sport. this was an exhibition. it was the wrong time. if this was 2006 it could have been a real grudge match. but this is two guys who actually get along. the real golf of the ryder cup, tiger and phil couldn‘t get a point. that‘s all the sport for now. you can find more on all those stories on the bbc sport website. much more reaction from colombo on

the tense but important victory for england against sri lanka. that‘s it from me. thank you. a british academic who was jailed on spying charges in the united arab emirates, is out of detention and on his way to the british embassy in the uae. there has been some confusion about matthew hedges‘s position following that announcement of his pardon earlier this morning. we were not sure if he had been released from jail yet or when it would come. we are now being told he has been released from prison, according to a family spokesperson, and he is on his way to the uae embassy. he will potentially be reunited with his wife as early as later today or tomorrow. here‘s how the uae government made the announcement of the pardon earlier this morning. all countries react strongly to the act of spying, as they should. we reserve the right to protect our country

from any external threat. the sentence that we handed down to mr hedges is fair considering the crime he committed. having said that, in a world of mounting threats, we recognise just how important it is for like—minded countries to work with rather than against one another. this belief in working together was embedded by our founding father, sheikh zayed bin sultan al nahyan, may god rest his soul in peace. and we still follow the path today. continuing our traditions, established by his highness sheikh zayed, and as part of our national day of celebration, the president of the uae, his highness sheikh khalifa bin zayed al nahyan, may god bless him, yesterday has granted precious clemency to 785 prisoners across the uae to mark the 47th anniversary of this great nation. in response to a letter

from the family of mr hedges requesting clemency, and in consideration of the historical relationship and close ties between the united arab emirates and the united kingdom, his highness has decided to include mr matthew hedges among the 785 prisoners released. mr hedges will be permitted to leave the country once all the formalities are complete. well, matthew hedges‘ wife, daniela tejada, said she couldn‘t wait for him to return home. here‘s what she had to say, when she spoke to radio 4‘s today programme this morning. to be honest, i wasn‘t expecting it. it took me by surprise. i am just so happy and so relieved and really incredulous that this is all happening, finally. it has been an absolute nightmarish six, seven months already. i cannot wait to have him back.

do you know when you will see him? i don‘t know yet. the news has just been announced and we‘re trying to coordinate the details. i‘m trying to see if i can go and pick him up. we‘re absolutely elated at the news. what was the last time you saw matthew and what did you think then? i saw him on the day of his hearing, and sadly the last time i saw him we were both walking out of the court room. we weren‘t able to say goodbye. so i‘m glad that it will not be long till we say hello again. radha stirling is a human rights lawyer and ceo of detained in dubai. she also advised matthew‘s wife to take his case public by going to the media... earlier radha told me how his life

could be affected by this for years to come. we are surprised it didn‘t happen sooner, actually. in many of these cases, if the british government has intervened at an early stage, they could have actually prevented the conviction from happening in the first place. the fact that he has been pardoned is a way for the uae to almost say he was guilty, we‘re pardoning him to impress the uk but in reality, they have released a video showing matthew hedges allegedly confessing to the allegation of being a spy. but i see that as, if he were a spy, i don‘t think that he would have confessed, especially in the absence of torture in this case. the foreign secretary has said there is no evidence against matthew hedges for the allegations and now he has a criminal conviction and life sentence, which can actually affect his ability

to travel in future. it seems he has been, like many other british, been subject to wrongful allegations, wrongful detention in the absence of any true form of evidence against him. and there is no way for him to achieve any sort ofcompensation from the uae government for his treatment. do you think would have been a way of handling this differently if the british government had acted sooner? i think they could have acted sooner but it‘s really when the international spotlight is on the uae that they respond to such requests. in previous cases we have dealt with, as soon as the press is focused on the uae and human rights abuses and that is affecting their tourism and investment, that is when the uae government get involved and issue pardons or if people have not been convicted yet, like jamie harron, theyjust intervene and immediately release that person. i know you advised daniela

tejada to take this case public because it is the case, is it not, that the british government wants more of a softly softly approach and advises families to keep a low profile initially to not rock the boat, perhaps? absolutely. i think the foreign office has advised several people i been in touch with, and probably more, not to go to press. and i think that advice is completely in the interests of the diplomatic relationship between the uk and uae and certainly not the best advice for citizens who have been detained. people who do not go to the press can end up actually serving these life sentences or several years in prison when they could have raised it to the international press and been released like the otherss. it is terrible advice not to speak out about human rights abuses. looking to the future, obviously it‘s a great relief for his family that matthew hedges is coming home, but you‘re outlining these criticisms of the uae‘s legal system. with a compromise like this,

does this mean nothing eventually changes, that there is criticism levelled but no great diplomatic moves that will ever see an alteration to the legal system or the way the uae behaves? certainly, the relationship between the uae and uk as far as detainees are concerned has been working the same way for the decade i‘ve been operating with detained in dubai. and this pardon is insufficient, in my opinion, for the uk to continue these relations as they have been because it will happen again and again and again. rada sterling, the human rights lawyer. in a moment we‘ll have all the business news. but first, the headlines on bbc news. theresa may chairs a meeting of the cabinet as she begins a campaign to sell the brexit deal, insisting it‘s the best one available matthew hedges, the academic jailed on spying charges in the united arab emirates, has been pardoned, and could be home tomorrow. ukraine‘s parliament

is to decide whether to bring in martial law, after the capture of three of its naval vessels by russia i‘m vishala sri pathma in the business news. carlos ghosn has been sacked as chairman of mitsubishi motors, after his arrest injapan over misconduct claims. it follows a similar move by nissan last week, amid claims he falsely understated his salary and used company money for personal gain. mr ghosn, who headed an alliance of renault, nissan and mitsubishi, has denied the allegations, according to media reports injapan. rail passengers who are unhappy about how their complaints have been handled, will be able to appeal via the dispute resolution ombudsman, a new independent service launched today, which is designed to hold companies to account. this follows widespread disruption on the railways this year which has angered many passengers. figures show 28% of people who made a complaint to a rail company in 2017/18 were satisfied

with the outcome. and the government‘s brexit deal will leave the uk £100 billion worse off by 2030, and gdp 3.9% lower, the equivalent of losing the economic output of wales or the city of london. that‘s according to a national institute of economic and social research study out today, which was commissioned this by the people‘s vote, an anti—brexit campaign group that wants a second referendum. (stab + cam 5) afternoon, welcome to the business news. now every industry wants something from the brexit talks, not least the fishing business. fishing itself is a relatively small part of the uk economy — contributing less than half a percent to annual economic growth. but it‘s hard to think of many sectors that will be more heavily impacted by brexit. for nearly 50 years, the common fisheries policy has dictated where? uk fishing boats can operate and how much they can catch. ?it has also given eu nations access to? british territorial waters. ? many fisherman voted for brexit, to stop eu trawlers accessing british waters — but its not entirely clear now

whether that will happen. the prime minister said her deal would take the uk out of the cfp, however a document published online made clear the remaining eu members were still seeking to negotiate continued access. joining us now is barrie deas, the chief executive of the national federation of fishermen‘s organisations. thank you forjoining us today. first, your view of the withdrawal agreement, what do you think of it? i think it‘s important. i think it isa i think it‘s important. i think it is a first step though. fishing is slightly different because as the uk leads the eu it automatically becomes an independent coastal state and can negotiate its own fizzing arrangements and control access to oui’ arrangements and control access to our waters and renegotiate the distorted quota shares that we‘ve suffered for the last a0 years, as he said in your introduction. it is clear the eu will resist this very

strongly. and it‘s very obvious why they would resist it. they benefit so much from the disproportionate access to uk waters. what preferential trade access will you lose if the uk doesn‘t allow some eu fishing boat into british waters? lose if the uk doesn‘t allow some eu fishing boat into british waterwm fishing boat into british waters?m is certainly not know trade. trade would continue but it would be under tariff arrangements, not that different from norway. nowhere is an independent coastal states and negotiate quotas with the eu now. what you mean losing any preferential trade access?“ what you mean losing any preferential trade access? if it goes through you could envisage fishing products being subject to tariffs. it doesn‘t make economic sense because there are people in the supply chain within this country and within europe that depend on this flow of fisheries products. it is where the politics would

potentially intervene. that is where they could be a problem. i don‘t think there is any point disguising that. on the other hand, the fishing rights arrangements have been so weighted against the fishing industry that people way beyond the fishing industry see this is something that must be addressed as a matter of urgency. if you get your way, if european union votes are —— bolts are not allowed into british seas to fish, europe is a big customer. you are not one customer. are you worried that that might slightly sour relations?” are you worried that that might slightly sour relations? i don't think it is realistic to think that we own access of eu vessels into british waters. there is no automatic access. that is very important. wherever there is a quid pro quo would benefit, you could consider a certain amount of access.

that is one point. the other side of the coin is quota shares. english channel cod is the most extreme example. uk shares 9%, french shares 8a%. it is that kind of extreme distortion that needs to be addressed. thank you very much. let‘s look at the markets. the pound is holding up against the us dollar this morning after the securing of eu approval for the uk‘s withdrawal agreement bolstered investor appetite for sterling. nevertheless, despite the generally positive market sentiment surrounding the withdrawal agreement, the pound did not quite bounce back as expected this morning leaving some analysts a little puzzled as to the lack of movement. it‘ll be interesting to see what happens the week. thank you. let‘s return to the news that the ukrainian parliament, the un security council and nato ambassadors have all been convened for emergency meetings today, in response to russia‘s seizure

of three ukrainian navy vessels off the coast of crimea. taras berezovets is a former ukrainian government national security and defence advisor, and earlier he told my colleague ben brown, how tensions have been building between the two countries. well, the situation in the kerch strait had been deteriorating since 201a when the russians illegally annexed the crimean peninsula. and obviously, was the situation predictable to the ukrainian government? absolutely. and one of the reasons why these three naval vessels have been deployed in the azov sea was actually because of actions which the russian government and the russian fsb and russian fleet have been taking in azov for the last month. they have been blocking both ukrainian and international vessels which were going to ukrainian ports berdyansk and mariupol, and for that reason, losses of ukrainian government and international companies have been huge.

and basically, the ukrainian government, according to official statement, warned russian side that these three vessels would be removed. what we see now today, apm kiev time, would probably, i would say it‘s 100%, will declare martial law for the next 60 days. which would effectively have immediate effect on the territory of the whole country. the russians, theirforeign ministry have accused ukraine of deliberately provoking this incident. moscow saying they will summon a senior ukrainian diplomat to complain about it. what do you think now will be the consequences of all of this? it‘s a good question, it‘s a good question. tonight we will see in new york an urgent session of the un security council and of course, the russians as usual will say that it is the ukrainians who should be blamed for this situation.

but to put it bluntly, ukrainian sailors, they did not open fire on russians but russians did. more importantly, it was not russian army which was involved in this incident, it was fsb. but we now saw, i think everybody saw video footage of this incident which was filmed from one of the russian navy vessels, and it clearly shows that they committed this act of aggression, absolutely, absolutely without any reason. because the naval vessel was rammed by russian naval ship which also resulted in severe injuries of three ukrainian sailors, and now as we know, three ukrainian military ships have been... have been relocated. the former ukrainian government national security adviser they are

speaking about those tensions continuing to develop between the ukraine and russia. theresa may has been chairing a meeting of her cabinet to discuss ways to rally support for her brexit deal, which was signed off in brussels yesterday. the prime minister will address mps in the house of commons this afternoon and we will bring you that live. simon mccoy will be the master of ceremonies. that will be this afternoon at around 3:30pm. stay with us for that. now the weather. chris fawkes has the details. thanks a lot. as far as the weather goes we have still got quite a quiet speu goes we have still got quite a quiet spell of weather around at the moment. still conditions as well. this was the scene earlier today in topsham in devonshire. trouble is brewing. out in the atlantic we have some areas of low pressure. they are

targeting the uk. we are going to see things turning more unsettled. milder in the next few days. before we get there, a number of showers going —— in eastern coastal areas of scotla nd going —— in eastern coastal areas of scotland and england. not moving too far inland. there is very little in the way of to push them along. you could see some rain in the this afternoon. a few showers for southern areas of northern ireland. still a little on the cool side for the time of year. as we go through this evening and overnight we could see some showers in eastern scotland. perhaps wintry over the hills. otherwise a tidy and cool night with temperatures down into low single figures. when we keep the cure spells, we could see some patches frost developing. on tuesday, quite a difference out west. a band of rain moving quickly into south—west england, wales and northern ireland. turning wet. the rain will be quite heavy. to the east of the weather front, but is

wa ry east of the weather front, but is wary of the cooler air. a big jump in temperatures from west to east. 12 degrees in plymouth. nine in london. that patter and continues as we move north. —— pattern. ifew showers in eastern scotland. temperatures seven to 8 degrees. as we head into the middle part of the week, the weather will turn a bit more stormy. an area of low pressure moving into the uk. that will bring some strong winds, probably strongest around irish sea coast. 60 to seven miles per hour winds on wednesday. and rain. a combination of rain and wind could cause some issues. the south—westerly winds also dragging in milder conditions nationwide. the colours on the map change. on wednesday afternoon, highs of 15 degrees in belfast and in london. those strong winds will

be buffeting the uk on thursday, particularly across scotland. further wet and windy weather will be with us. notjust through thursday, but looking ahead of the weekend, wet and windy weather swinging away. —— our way. hello, you‘re watching afternoon live, i‘m simon mccoy live in westminster. today at two: back my deal or risk uncertainty and division — theresa may attempts to persuade mps, after the eu signed off her brexit deal. she has secured the deal, a very good deal for the united kingdom, and whilst the eu supports her deal, critics argue theresa may faces the biggest battle of all in the commons. the numbers, they say, are strongly stacked against her. freed after a pardon — relief for his family after british academic matthew hedges is told he can go home — but the united arab emirates insists he is a british spy. ratcheting up the tension — ukraine‘s parliament is to decide whether to bring in martial law

after the capture of three of its naval vessels by russia. coming up on afternoon live all the sport with hugh ferris.