, drake welsh government. mark drake that has been the brexit minister for the welsh government and it has been his job to make the case for wales at the very many meetings he has had with the prime minister's brexit officials. the point of view from the world cup meant as it has tried to have a strong voice at every turn. the priority has been to remain in the single market in the customs union to try and protect the welsh economy and the welsh exports to the european union. the worst government has been facing criticism about failing to show leadership in response to theresa may postbag brexit. brexit will certainly be at the top of the new first minister's and tray. responding to the events in westminster to light, he has tweeted. the credibility of the prime minister is shot and she should extend article 50. our wales correspondent sian many thanks. lloyd is in cardiff. thanks to sarah in edinburgh, we'll be back here in

downing street a little later. and emma in belfast. but let's take a look at the day's other main stories with sophie. donald trump's former personal lawyer, michael cohen, has launched a blistering attack on the president as he was sentenced to three years in prison for lying to congress and breaching election campaign rules. cohen had admitted organising payments to two women who claimed to have slept with mr trump. he also admitted providing false information about contacts between the trump campaign and russia. cohen told the court his job had been to cover up his boss's dirty deeds. president trump has denied any wrongdoing. nick bryant reports. michael... ! michael cohen used to boast he was donald trump's pit bull but he arrived at this courthouse in manhattan, his family at his side, ready to sink his teeth into the president. speaking before he was sentenced, he delivered an excoriating address — one that immediately entered the history books of the trump era — one that made it sound as if his former boss was the true guilty party.

at times fighting back tears, michael cohen said he had been in a state of mental and personal incarceration since first working for donald trump. he said the president was right to call him weak because he had covered up what he called his dirty deeds out of a sense of blind loyalty. he said there was little to admire about donald trump. he apologised to the american people and he said he would give as much information to the special counsel robert mueller as he could truthfully give. the courtroom artist caught the anguish on his face as he admitted that his own weakness had led him to choose what he described as a path of darkness over light. thejudge sentenced him to three years in prison. cohen told the court, "today's the day i am getting my freedom back." the words the media should be using to describe mr trump are generous, compassionate, principled... these were the days before he unshackled himself from donald trump, when he revelled in his role

as his personal fixer — the man who supposedly made problems go away. and that is what he hoped to do by making hush money payments to two women, including porn star stormy daniels, who claimed to have had sexual liaisons with mr trump. those payments violated campaignfinance laws and federal prosecutors said last week they were directed by donald trump in order to avoid a potential sex scandal ahead of the 2016 presidential election. cohen was also sentenced for lying to congress about his discussions with kremlin officials about a proposed trump tower in the heart of moscow. recently, donald trump described his former right—hand man as weak and not very smart. but tonight he was unusually reticent when asked by reporters to his reaction to cohen's speech. mr president, did michael cohen cover up your dirty deeds? what dirty deeds is he talking about, mr president? and with that, the door was shut on reporters. but those meddlesome questions just won't go away. nick bryant, bbc news, new york.

it was jaw—dropping to be in court today, especially pertinent were the words of a lawyer from robert mueller‘s special counsel team who said michael cohen was continuing to give them credible information about what she described as core russia related issues. those will be worrying words for the white house because the man who once said he would take a bullet for donald trump does potentially pose a threat to his presidency. nick bryant, thank you. hundreds of police are still hunting the gunman who escaped last night after killing three people and injuring 13 others at a christmas market in the french city of strasbourg. there are fears the gunman may have crossed the border into germany, where the security forces are also on alert. investigators say it was an act of terror. damian grammaticus reports from strasbourg. this is a city on alert. hundreds of police and soldiers on a manhunt for a killer. but where did he go? even the nearby border watched

to stop him slipping away. cherif chekatt, the suspected gunmen. the suspected gunman. police now appealing for help finding him. he'd opened fire near the christmas markets. this is the old heart of strasbourg. people barricaded themselves inside. screams among his victims, a tourist from thailand, here on holiday with his wife. cherif chekatt, 29 years old, has been in prison, has 27 convictions for crimes like robbery, and was already on france's terror watch list. "the shooting went on for 30 or a0 minutes," this man says. he filmed police scrambling for cover and says he knew the gunman. "yes, he was in prison here and in germany too," he says. outside the shop where he took cover, ali told us he saw chekatt go

past shooting and recognised him as they'd been in prison together. "i saw people running, running," he says. "police running, too." "everyone was saying there were gunshots." so now, strasbourg's famous christmas market has been shuttered, all business stopped. the christmas market is one of the big attractions that draws visitors to strasbourg. we don't know when this one will reopen. france has been put on the highest level of alert and the government says that security will now be stepped up at christmas markets across the country. damian grammaticas, bbc news, strasbourg. who'd recently given birth at edinburgh royal infirmary. amanda cox reportedly collapsed when she got lost after visiting her premature son

in the neonatal unit. her death is being treated as unexplained, but not suspicious. the future of team sky — which provided britain's first tour de france winners, is in doubt. the broadcaster sky has announced that next year it is ending its sponsorship of the team. team sky has dominated cycling for nearly ten years and won eight grand tours, including last year's tour de france. scotland's finance secretary has revealed his draft budget, announcing he won't follow the lead of the uk chancellor, philip hammond, who increased the higher rate income tax threshold to £50,000. derek mackay said the higher rate threshold would be frozen atjust over £43,000. 0ur scotland editor sarah smith, reports. the news that most people in scotland will not have to pay any more tax should bring a little cheer to the christmas market in edinburgh. higher earners here already pay more tax than people in the rest of uk and that tax gap just got bigger. the scottish government do realise if they were to raise income tax too much, that could encourage higher earners to leave scotland but they don't think they've reached that point yet.

now is not the time to cut tax for the highest earners at the expense of our public services. instead i will be using the additional resources raised through my tax decisions in this budget to support our public services and ensure our health service gets all of the additional money they were promised. today's budget proposals mean anyone earning £24,000 year will pay £20 less than tax payers in the rest of the uk. those on £44,000 a year will pay nearly £300 more while anybody earning £80,000 a year must pay £1,844 more than those outside scotland. the scottish government will spend the extra £68 million raised on health, education and economic investment. there was no requirement for the tax risees we have seen today. while people are paying more in taxes, they will face poorer, local services.

this is a pay more, get less budget, presiding officer. to pass the budget the snp will need some little helpers. they must negotiate the support of at least one more party to get it through the scottish parliament and the government warned they may need to revise the budget if the uk leaves the eu without a withdrawal deal. sarah smith, bbc news, edinburgh. that's it from me. back now to huw in downing street. tonight's test for the prime minister, the vote of confidence which she won by a margin of 200 to 117, is just the latest scrap really in a very long—running internal conservative party conflict over the uk's relationship with the european union. labour also has its divisions on the issue, but it's conservative prime ministers, from edward heath to margaret thatcher to john major to david cameron, who've been buffeted by the europe question. 0ur correspondent james robbins considers the troubled path that's led to today's events. britain, and in particular

conservative prime ministers, have agonised over europe for more than 60 years. agonised over going in, then over being in, now over getting out. but the divisions this time look unprecedented in scale and, to some, they're doing britain real damage. certainly the mess is in the spotlight and the whole world is looking on pretty appalled with good reason because there are points when a country looks ungovernable and it looks to the rest of the world, i think, like one of those. so, how did we get here? when the original six members of the european community signed their founding treaty of rome in 1957, britons saw it as an irrelevance to its post—imperial destiny. # it's a crazy feeling...# in britain, wartime austerity was giving way to the promise of prosperity. but that same year, the first british colonies were celebrating independence and britain was struggling to find a role. by the 19705, a new alliance with

our european neighbours beckoned. officially we became members at midnight local time. britain under the tories finally joined the common market. is europe stronger with britain a member? yes. and once upon a time, even margaret thatcher was a euro enthusiast, campaigning in the 1975 referendum. but as prime minister in the 1980s, she became increasingly hostile to sharing more sovereignty. no, no, no. but her own downfall was accelerated by deep tory divisions over europe. in the 1990s, her successor john major could not turn the rising sceptic tide. he won opt—outs for britain including the euro in the maastricht treaty but that wasn't enough. fast forward to this century and, in 2016, david cameron tried to see off a growing threat to his party from the right by betting

on a referendum. he lost. the british people have spoken and the answer is we are out. i do not think it would be right for me to try to be the captain that steers our country to its next destination. theresa may took over but through the tortuous brexit negotiations, she's often found her own party harder to deal with than the governments of europe. the leading historian of post—war britain sees an unprecedented level of national division. the way the votes fell in the referendum illuminated very starkly the very great differences in lives and life chances across our kingdom. we are a people that no longer knew ourselves. it is stress testing our party system desperately and if parliament can't cope with the stress of this we are in deep trouble. for theresa may the great political challenge remains — how to extract something from europe while trying to reconcile all the divisions at home. james robbins, bbc news.

laura kuenssberg is here. so the vote is out of the way, brussels tomorrow, the process sta rts brussels tomorrow, the process starts again and the challenge of this brexit saga really hasn't changed. it hasn't changed but i think it has become more difficult. if you are watching at home tonight thinking, so what, she won, and it sounds like she won quite co mforta bly, sounds like she won quite comfortably, she is still in downing street in no 10 tonight and will still be going off to brussels tomorrow appearing with all of those diplomatic handshakes trying to work ha rd to diplomatic handshakes trying to work hard to get some kind of compromise that can get through parliament. but all of this matters because even though they cannot be another challenge in this way against the prime ministerfor challenge in this way against the prime minister for another year, her authority has taken a real knock today, the result was worse than downing street had hoped and it was also something they thought would never actually come to pass. this threat has been dangled behind theresa may for a very long time now and this was a moment where it

became real. it was suddenly all out in the open instead of being that conservative muttering behind closed doors about whether or not they really would have the numbers to force a contest like this. so, this has been a very bad day for downing street, no question about that, and she is in a very difficult position just at the moment when she needs everything she has to try to get some kind of compromise with the eu and then get it through parliament. and her party is in gridlock over what the best thing to do is about brexit. and, frankly, there is no sign ofan brexit. and, frankly, there is no sign of an easy escape for her, or for them, orfrankly sign of an easy escape for her, or for them, or frankly for the rest of us for them, or frankly for the rest of us who are all passengers in this long—running tory drama. us who are all passengers in this long-running tory drama. we will talk again tomorrow. laura kuenssberg, our political editor. there's more on newsnight on bbc two, and here on bbc one in a moment, the news where you are. but we leave you with some of the memorable words and images, from this latest series of dramatic events here at westminster — which does contain some flashing images. from downing street, good night. does this house want to deliver

brexit? laughter three, two, one... cheering is the vote definitely 100% going to happen? yes. if we held a vote tomorrow the deal would be rejected bya tomorrow the deal would be rejected by a significant margin. we will, therefore, defer the vote scheduled for tomorrow. the government has lost control of events and is in complete disarray. dramatic music. other mps will think carefully about whether to may is the right person to lead us. a ballot will be held between 6pm and 8pm.