hello, this is bbc news with ben brown. the headlines. theresa may will ask mps for more time to rework her brexit plan — but labour accuses the prime minister of trying to run down the clock. the work and pensions secretary amber rudd warns company bosses they could be jailed for up to seven years if they "wilfully or recklessly" mismanage their employees‘ pension scheme. kurdish—led forces — backed by the united states — have launched a final push to defeat the so—called islamic state group in syria. the scientist who discovered the link between eating too much processed meat and bowel cancer accuses the government of not doing enough to encourage people to cut their consumption. the duke of edinburgh gives up his driving licence, weeks after he crashed his car near the queen's sandringham estate. and a little monkeying around at belfast zoo — visitors were surprised to find a chimpanzee wandering outside its enclosure after it managed to make a ladder out of branches to escape its pen. now dateline london.

with carrie gracie. a state of the union address at last, but what did it tell us about president trump s next two years and plans on fighting for four more? and seven weeks to go till b day. is anyone going to blink and if so, who? with me today: polly toynbee, columnist for the guardian newspaper american writer and broadcaster jef mcallister, agnes poirier of weekly french news magazine marianne. and stefanie bolzen of german daily newspaper die welt. to fire and fury, locked

and loaded we can now add greatness or gridlock?and revenge, resistance and retribution or co—operation, compromise and the common good. beyond the president s passion for alliteration, what did we learn from the state of the union? well, i think we learned that he actually does have speech writers. they must have been relieved that he read it. finally, it was competently done, it was a little too long, especially for him. presidents, which for donald trump is probably an impressive achievement. it seemed to me to be confrontational, he talked about all those nice things about cooperation and you could see nancy pelosi behind him going clap, clap, sure, buddy. i would like to see it. when you do it, please call me.

he talked about abortion, the wall, socialism. it is essentially what you expect from donald trump. he was tweeting meanly before and after. all the women representatives in white saying here we are and that is the reality of what he faces. he is 90% approval in the republican party, still. he has 39% approval in the country. if he is going to continue to try to be president, he goes to play with his base, continually, talk about socialism, the democrats harassing him, and i don't think we are going to see an awful lot new, except for what the investigations developed for him. we will come back to the investigation. you hear a vision, a bid for more years? definitely a bid for four more. but there has been from day one. i don't think anyone thought this man was going to walk

away. in terms of a vision, it is this vision of constant division, my lot against your lot, absolutely not, and if this was a moment for reconciliation of any kind, it is beyond him. it is impossible. he did talk the language. yes, he started with that. but every single issue he raised, right down to abortion, you can't get much more incendiary than that, was designed to divide. the thing is his base has shrunk since last time. after all, he didn't quite get a majority of the popular vote last time. and his base has shrunk considerably since then. can he win in their election just on that? —— another election. perhaps he can. perhaps he can summon up morpheus. there were outright lies. for instance, when he said a crimewave from the caravans of people coming up

through south america to the mexican wall, causing a crimewave in america, actually those are the people that commit fewer crimes statistically. that has never worried him. maybe it can work again. he did make some accurate claims about prescription costs and economic growth in the country. it was not all contested material. he has been very lucky on growth and job growth, phenomenal as it has been in this country. you are not going to give him any credit for that? it is hard to know exactly what he has done to create that but there it is, on his watch. it does look as if it is going to peak and maybe about to tip over, we don't know. the trade war that he started with china is potentially going to undermine that good economic stuff, we shall see. agnes, what did you gather from the speech?

well, it is good that he has speech writers that can actually write. but we know who he is. we know from his never—ending tweeting, so the disconnection between the words, he is a champion of women suddenly, he is riling against anti—semitism, while we know he defends anti—semites. it is a collective hallucination. we know it is untrue. and we know it is just a front. and what i was very triggered by, you talked about nancy pelosi doing her clapping, and apparently it is called the hate clapping. which i find terrible because the level of violence we see in american politics, and in brexit land, britain, and in france with the yellow vests and in italy and elsewhere, if you don't want to clap, you don't clap, but you don't do that hate clapping which is even more violent.

it was overstated, i think. it was quite classy. it was not classy, you don't clap if you don't want to clap. you don't do this strange thing like this. she was sending daggers. and i am a fan of hers. but this level of subtext of violent subtext is scary. a french person can find violence in a subtext that an american does not see. whose hallucination do you belong to? the gesture of the women standing up in white was magnificent. that was a gesture of peace and humour and wit. he did not expect it. he said we have got more women in work than ever before. it was more women in the house than ever before that was great. that was a striking moment what about the message to the outside world from the speech?

did you hear anything for europe? europe looked at the speech and the things that were not in there. he mentioned nato only once, which anyway might be a good thing because especially in germany they were expecting he might say the germans have to pay more into nato funding. he didn't say that but at the same time, the us pulled out of the imf treaty and that is the context of the speech. and that is... intermediate nuclear forces. it is suspended. the russians are not sticking to their side of the agreement. they have announced they will put money into another missile. from central europe, especially germany, this is now

putting finally completely into question post—cold war order. germany and france have to look at themselves and say, what are we going to do with our defence? is there a point that old order is dying, germany like everybody else has to live in the 21st—century? some of donald trump points are fair, and they? there was a poll out yesterday in germany which i think is really striking which was saying that the majority of germans feel more threatened by the us than russia. this is a problem for the german government, where to position itself now. it is clearly showing the old order is falling apart. let's go round and try and find some positives. the impending summit with kim jong un, the second after last june in singapore. do you think that this can provide what donald trump's envoys are calling concrete deliverables on the dismantling of nuclear armaments? i have been covering the korean nuclear matter for 25 years and we always get to this point. i can't really believe that they are going to cut a deal that is real. i think the whole

nature of the regime depends on the support of the people, it is their bid for greatness, it is what they think keeps the americans from destroying them full despite all the happy tour, which is great, better than a wall, i have a hard time seeing what the us can give that will make it possible or desirable for him to give up his regime guarantee card. is there a risk that donald trump when he realises that nothing has happened and actually he has been taken for a full, does it actually become more dangerous? i sort of doubt it. i think he will properly pocket whatever is given to him and say does a great victory and move on. that is what he has to do. he really does not want a war. he has threatened one and he has got happy talk and that is working for the television cameras. if he did succeed in making progress on the trade war with china, on something to help venezuela out of its humanitarian, critical crisis and getting troops out

of afghanistan, is that an issue on which the world could kind of group behind him and that bipartisan support could come in in the us? i think the pulling out abruptly out of the middle east, out of syria and iraq, and afghanistan is quite frightening. and you see... there is some isis left and you see how much danger there is — the taliban are talking and they are sort of talking peace, but really he should listen to the experts and his generals who say don't going till the time is right, held this peace process along. if he gets out of it with no problem, americans will be glad but it is high risk. he is not believable on anything.

even his own administration. we should listen and he should listen to his own administration. we are just waiting and hoping for the best. you are not doing the hate clap but you are sitting on your hands. if i don't want to clap, i don't clap. we know what he is going to campaign on into years' time for his real action because this creeping socialism menace he is talking about is interesting because it puts the democratic party in a difficult position because they are now thinking about who they are going to present and of course socialism for the americans, for us it comes naturally, it means health care, universal health care and free education, what that is what we have in france and we are not a socialist republic, but i think that is the next battle, political battle in american politics and that is interesting to see.

just before we move on to events closer to home, jeff, you mentioned the mueller investigation, is it going to give him two more years to get to that point where he goes for re—election? i wish i knew. and it is also the southern district of new york independently prosecuting parts of his business empire, possible dirty money from russia, his own inaugural committee that took double the money obama's did and there is a lot of money sloshing around. and yet in the state of the union address, he talk talked about predictors partisan investigations. is that presidential pressure going to allow mueller to carry on? is he going to put one foot in front of

the other? that is what he has been doing so far. hejust does indictment is, he does not leak. they have all been solid so far. they have gotten close to the president. if he has the evidence, he will follow it. i would say to be close to the end of the year and there may be things, donald trump and republicans will be worried about that. so far, he has been the impregnable shield. let's leave the us and come back to the uk and europe. another week in the brexit countdown. one eu leader talked of a special place in hell for brexiteers without a plan and the british prime minister shuttled busily between belfast, brussels and dublin but ended the week as she began? uncomfortably jammed between a rock and a hard place on the irish backstop. or am i misreading the situation? it is a special place in hell for everybody involved in this process.

i think on the whole, the european negotiators and indeed the 27 other countries have been remarkably restrained and patient with us. we arrived there, we trigger this thing, we have no clue what it is we want, we waste all this time and rundown two years and they said there patiently saying, here are our roles, you helped to draw them out, britain was part of that process, we had a veto over anything you did not like. which of these options do you want? nothing happened and now we are right at the last moment and it is all of the possible options, none of them seem to be able to command a majority as yet in our house of commons. the danger is falling off a cliff edge in 49 days' time. nobody wants that. the only thing there is agreement about really is that we don't want that to happen. i am not surprised that they are quite politely beginning to lose patience. we will come back to the european angles in a moment but before i move

on from you, you are no fan of brexit, obviously, in and of itself, i take it that if there was a clear plan, you would say a plan is better than nothing? i think anybody would. except for the real extremists who actually want a no deal, but they are definitely a minority. the one thing there is an overwhelming majority for in the house of commons is for them not to be no deal. it is a negative majority. one issue that has bubbled up between the belfast and dublin access and all the conversations between political parties in northern ireland is this question of a possible or warning of a possible irish reunification. do you think that is realistic or another project fear? i thing it is further along the line but i do think it has brought ireland closer together in a sense in that they understand that any question of a hard border is absolutely catastrophic for both northern ireland, the poorest region in the uk, and for ireland, which would suffer hugely economically

if that was a hard border. theoretically, it brings it closer but we are miles from that. they cannot even agree on northern ireland on having a parliament at all. they have disbanded themselves. we are not close to that. the real issue is this fantasy... the european union has borders. it has borders because it is a single market and therefore has to have tariffs against people who are not in it. this was always an important border and we somehow dismissed it. the brexiteers who sold this idea kind of said, ireland is a minor issue, and it is the issue. it is a major issue right now. you spent quite a lot of time talking to politicians in brussels and in berlin. do you get a sense at the moment, coming back to that point about the patience of eu politicians, there was quite remarked vehemence, i thought,

in brussels last week. we had the special place in hell line but also quite a lot of the immense from other politicians about, we are not reopening talks. there are nuances of talks of course and the president of the european council does not talk for example for the german government and i heard a lot of voices that were not happy with those comments. i think they were quite flippant comments. you question why... that was the third or fourth time he has been putting out these kind of funny remarks but i think after that was the vote and there were such a big majority against the deal, only for a deal without the backstop. there was a little bit of movement i thought and... the vote in westminster saying they don't want this deal unless the backstop in northern ireland is taken out. i thought there was a bit

of dynamic but now it has hardened again because also you must see how many times theresa may has now travelled to berlin, brussels, with the same message, again and again, i don't want this and that, but she cannot say what she wants. the europeans are quite adamant to play the same game, running down the clock, and seeing who blinks at the end but the problem is, if you might solve this at the next european council, you still have to go back to the british parliament and to the european parliament and will they put the green light or not and if not, there is the possibly of a no deal. we have not talked about jeremy corbyn's letter. donald tusk said nothing happened this week. theresa may did not come with any plans or new ideas but there is something in jeremy corbyn's letter and it would resolve most of the backstop problem, which is to remain in the custom union. of course it creates some inner problems for the labour party because a lot of people in

the labour partyjust want a second referendum or are just plain remainers. but what he is proposing is a soft brexit. and there should be probably a majority in westminster for a soft brexit? i don't think you would get very many labour mps who in the end will vote for any deal of theresa may's at all. they regard any brexit as a disaster. when it comes to it, it is a bit of a false play. i don't think he himself would vote for any deal of theresa may's. he would go down in history has having helped brexit. brexit is entirely a tory project.

and why would labour back that when most people think it is going to cause as terrible harm? he is the only one to come up with... if you think you would actually vote for it himself. we saw some quite striking things over the past week, the bank of england again making warnings and some would say mark carney, the governor of the bank, is another fear monger. but he was saying there would be another downgrade and we have also heard details of free trade agreements which are not happening. do you think the economic fundamentals are going to start concentrating minds over the next few days? iam surprised they haven't already do some degree. i am surprised business has not been more forceful in combating it because big companies are really against it. we heard it from bae

systems and nissan in sunderland. there are the subtle hints but you don't get... we must stop it, but that is not who they are. this is the air going out of the tyres slowly for an economy. it seldom has the kind of dramatic reversals that will make the news cycle. i don't think it is a great place to invest. the pound is down. there are all these little tendrils that say this is not working, there are people not investing in this country, foreign investment is decreasing, all the signs are there, if you want to add them together and say this is not a good idea. we're not talking what the idea of brexit. that is still... most people's position is it is going to happen. across the political spectrum. but the no—deal brexit,

that fear is concentrating minds? everybody is using it for their own purposes. labour is using it against the tories. the tory moderates are using it against the erg people. the europeans are using it against the british. it is who breaks first. it could well be... i can see it because it seems so impossible but that nobody can figure out a way to stop it. a delay make sense, the easiest way to have a no a delay makes sense, the easiest way to have a no deal but people are religiously against it. britain has turned into a leninist country, rather than... ideology above all. it is in a civil war against that ideology. split down the middle. theresa may, last time we talked about the vote at the end of january, at that point she talked about another vote on valentine's day, which is this coming week. is that going to happen? there will be a vote of sorts. it is very peculiar. parliamentary procedure being what it is, there will be an option for

members of parliament to put down motions, technically they will be called amendments, on a whole lot of propositions. they could say, let's delay for three months, six months, nine months, they could say, but i don't think they will this time, let's have another referendum, they are delaying that because they want that to be the last option left when everybody has given up on everything else. i really sure about that? i am not sure it will happen. but the people who support another referendum think that is the only way it could happen. but there is still no majority for anything. i sometimes think there is a lot of wishful thinking about the second referendum. there is also a lot of wishful thinking in brussels. agnes was saying the enthusiasm in brussels for the labour proposal, customs union, do you think that is wishful thinking from those quarters? i think the more realistic position is to think there might be a softer brexit at the end of the day. the more wishful position

is that there might be a second referendum but the people who look into this see how difficult it is and it will be difficult just to get the legal process going to have a second referendum. theresa may are still saying at the end of this difficult week she will deliver and she will deliver on time. will she? no. i don't think she can deliver on time. i do not think that there will be a deal that parliament can agree by the 29th of march. i don't mean that further down the line she might not get something but she will have to be a much softer and more of a compromise... possible delivery but not on time. i think she should stop using all those words that don't mean anything anymore. when she says i am being very clear. she lacks complete clarity on the subject. she says she is to deliver. she's not going to deliver. it would be high time for british politicians and western politicians to actually say words and that are in that equation with what they are doing.

and just one last thing, british civil service is actually preparing, have you heard about project after? that is interesting. you should look into it. we will look into it next week. i think it is still possible. both. deliver something but not on time. that's it for dateline london for this week. we're back next week at the same time. goodbye. we have a couple of rain arriving in northern ireland. still that rain arriving across the north of scotland. hello there, it is not as windy today but it is cold we have some rain around as we head into the afternoon. the rain heading to south—east england, breaking up behind that. also a curl of rain arriving in northern ireland, because the winston reid in the far north of scotland. some sunshine during the afternoon.

wet and windy weather in northern ireland, heading into wales and southern england, gone by morning. the wet weather in scotland head southwards. wintriness over the northern hills. we are dragging down colder air, temperatures lower overnight a decent start to the new week, light when the unfair sunshine, patchy cloud here and there. a dry day, chilly for eastern scotland. double figures for south wales and southern england. this is bbc news, i'm ben brown. the headlines at midday. theresa may will ask mps for more time to rework her brexit plan and offer parliament another vote, but labour says the prime minister musn‘t keep running down the clock. it seems to me we are now at the point where we could have meaningful talks to get a deal between the main political party leaders, or the only way to break the impasse is a public vote, and that remains our policy. work and pensions secretary

amber rudd warns company bosses they could be jailed for up to seven years if they "wilfully or recklessly" mismanage their employees‘ pension scheme. kurdish—led forces — backed by the united states — have launched a final push to defeat the so—called islamic state group in syria. the scientist who discovered the link between eating too much processed meat and bowel cancer accuses the government of not doing enough to encourage people to cut their consumption.