a very warm welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america between the us and north korea, and around the globe. following the failed summit in vienam. my name's mike embley. a disagreement about lifting our top stories: economic sanctions dashed hopes for progress on denuclearising after the collapse of the us—north korea summit, president trump points the finger, saying pyongyang wanted the korean peninsular. all sanctions lifted — something he could not accept. despite washington's optimism, pyongyang insists its position you always have to be won't change. on his way home from vietnam, prepared to walk. president trump told troops i could have signed an agreement in alaska that us—backed forces have today, and then you people would have said, "oh, now retaken100% of the so—called what a terrible deal, caliphate, once held by the militant what a terrible thing he did." no, you have to be prepared to walk. group known as islamic state. but that's been flatly contradicted by north korea. it says it was only asking for some the us is offering a reward of up of the sanctions to be lifted. to $1 million for information translation: if the united states leading them to hamza bin laden, removes partial sanctions, son of osama bin laden. we will permanently and completely officials believe he was groomed dismantle all the nuclear material as his father's successor production facilities and is emerging as a key leader of the islamist militant group al qaeda. it's thought he's on the in the yongbyon area. afg han—pakistan border. it's about 2:30am. you're up to date on the headlines.

time for thursday in parliament. hello there, and welcome to thursday in parliament. coming up on this programme, the head of the civil service defends government planning for a no—deal brexit. hope is not a plan, we have to have a plan that is resilient, as best we can, against the kind of disruption that could happen because it is not yet guaranteed that it would. mps demand ministers take urgent action to tackle global warning. these extreme weather events are not to be welcomed and they are not good things and are signs that something has gone horrifically wrong. and are people being priced out of london's west end theatres? it is becoming too expensive for

anyone to come to these major plays. but first, the head of the civil service says he is worried about the ability of ministers to express their views in confidence in cabinet. last week three ministers wrote a newspaper piece saying they's support extending the timetable for the uk to leave the eu, to prevent leaving without a deal. separately, theresa may's plans to give parliament a series of votes in mid—march on the next steps were leaked to the press. he was asked about the cabinet divisions. can you recall a time when disputes between ministers where being aired so openly as they are at the moment? i do not think there is an exact parallel mrjones, as we discussed last time i was here, there are two political manipulators to it. one that decisions want taken, whether ministers participate in the cabinet decision or not i've then all ministers are expected to abide by those decisions. that is the part that is best known. the part that is less one mount which we discussed last time,

ministers can, are entitled to expect and are indeed required to exercise full candour and debating those issues before a decision is made. and expected to do so in confidence. of course the area in my view of collective responsibility under most pressure is the breakdown in the confidentiality of the discussion. that is an issue that we will have to address as we work our way through this. the committee moved on to no deal planning. there are ships at sea that takes six weeks to get here and they get to our ports and they do not want have paperwork to have in place to dock and get the goods on shore, we should have this two years ago,

no deal was a real possibility two years ago and we should have planned for it then. there is an overall point, the overall approach that we have taken is continuity by the uk, so people bringing goods to the uk will be able to enter the uk under the same arrangements as they are and that is the overall principle and you can look over in detail and ships set off six weeks ago arrived and the uk after the 29th of march and will be able to off—load their goods. the issue is fundamentally about whether that is going to be true outgoing. is it the case that france has been seriously worried about losing trade to other eu nations especially from calais and they will do everything possible to make sure that they won't flow through calais both ways and carry on as they do now? yes. and secondly, isn't it the case that the eu has a gigantic trade service with britain and must come through the sports and they are

going to do everything possible to make sure that trade surplus continues? that of course is a dependency upon the eu. they have a series of rules and regulations that they have to apply, it is a commission, not a national competence and they have so far told us that they will apply those rules and regulations. i agree with your point about the interests but that is a judgement, what we have to do as we have said all along is make responsible preparations for a reasonable worst—case scenario, and case those things do not occur. a phrase i have used a lot around whitehall, in many circumstance, a hope is not a plan. we have to have a plan that is resilient, as best we can, against the kind of disruption that could happen, because it is not yet guaranteed. if that was a situation for

companies, what about individuals? where are they ready for a no—deal brexit? uk citizens travelling to the eu and not doing things like renewing eu passports, which they are not applying for green cards or international travel permits. is this an indication that the government has maintenance messaging is failing? —— is this an indication that the government's messaging is failing? and, that being the case, what is the government going to do to improve its messaging? i do not think it is an indication of that and i think the reason for that is that individuals and citizens and businesses are making their ownjudgements — the information is available. we have been putting it out on the website for several months and that has now been complemented by some radio advertising

and we have plans to bring through some television advertising as well so there is a communications campaign and of course citizens and businesses are aware of that but they also look at the front pages and the news bulletins and make a judgement, their ownjudgements about the likelihood of no deal on the 29th of march and that would influence their judgements about the extent to which they need to make personal preparations to do so. i wonder how many of us have renewed our passports are a family i wonder how many of us have renewed our passports or family passports not because... it's because the change would be the need to be valid for six months after the date of return, which is not the case now, or green cards, or stickers and number plates for international driving permits and everyone is making their own judgements about these things and whether it is urgent or necessary yet. sir mark sedwell there. the day in the chamber had started with brexit questions. labour pressed ministers over theresa may's concession that the timetable for the uk leaving the eu, the article 50

process, could be extended to prevent no deal. would ministers back a delay? there is significant cross—party support to ensure we don't leave the eu without a deal. now, on tuesday, the prime minister promised that if her deal failed to win support by the 12th of march, the government would give the house the chance to reject no deal the following day. so, can the secretary of state succeed where the minister for the cabinet office failed yesterday by telling the office how the government will vote on such a motion? i do admire the way he put a question that has been put to prime minister and put to the chancellor of lancaster and i very much echo the replies that they gave to the house there. the way to and uncertainty is not to go back on your manifesto — not yours, mr speaker — but to go back on the labour party's manifesto and have a second referendum.

all a second referendum will do is prolong the uncertainty. we may get the same result with a further level of uncertainty as he got there a second referendum. what we need to do is back the deal, move on and give businesses as he and i agree the certainty they need. in the event at the withdrawal agreement being defeated a second time, the government must be committed to voting in favour of a no—deal brexit. otherwise, it will have, in effect, taken the no deal off the table, won't it? another conservative poked fun at those who feared no deal. does my right honourable friend agree with me that if a no—deal brexit was really akin to the arrival of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, then members on all sides of this house would be rallying behind the prime minister to support that deal that will get us out by the end of march? but the snp's david langdon criticised the mantra that the best

way to get out of no deal was to supprt theresa may's plan. it's not quite as simple as that, because surely the best way of taking no deal off the table is for the government to just say they are taking no deal off the table. so why then last night, when the snp put an amendment to parliament that they want theirmps, including scottish tory mps, to walk through the lobby and not take no deal off the table? well, firstly, we want to get a deal over the line, second, can ijust remind the honourable member member what this house voted for or against yesterday? they voted against an snp amendment by a majority of 36. interestingly, this now means if you were to take the result of this literally, mr speaker, that there is a majority of 36 in this house for keeping no deal on the table. a labour mp made a promise to the brexit department, even if it did not last long. i have to say, i feel really sorry for the secretary of state and his poor little team. laughter it is going to be tuesday on next tuesday and i will have a resolution every

day to be a little nicer to them. for the whole of lent! because the fact of the matter is, they are carrying the cann that is being kicked down the road by the prime minister and the cabinet, and the fact of the matter is, the truth that has not been articulated this morning, is that the mess we are and is the government's mess! it is the tory party's mess. they called the referendum, they got it wrong and now the british people, the british businesses that i represent are paying the penalty. why doesn't he get up, speak up for britain and sort out our businesses who are terrified of investing in this country? well, the honourable gentleman is really enjoying himself today. he's really enjoying himself today! minister! i should have what he had for breakfast, mr speaker, more often. however, unlike the honourable gentleman, i am pretty aware what my constituents voted for back injune 2016. i'm pretty sure they wanted

to leave the european union, i'm pretty sure they're very pleased with the sovereign wealth fund saying they're going to invest billions of pounds in our country going forward. i think he should be positive about the future of the country and not such an eeyore. you are watching thursday and parliament, with me, alicia mccarthy. and, don't forget, you can follow me on twitter @bbcalicia. five defence bases that had been earmarked for closure will now be kept open. the defence minister, tobias ellwood, told mps the changes followed months of rigorous analysis that reflected the assessment of the rapidly changing threats faced by the uk. among those reprieved was royal marines in devon. the defence estate is the rock which our armed forces revolve. it is the place our brave men and women work and train and deploy from. it is where they are educated, where they exercise and where they rest.

but, as i said in the house before, over many, many decades, the defence estate has grown so large and now accounts for 2% of the uk's landmass. this, mr speaker, is unwieldy, it is too expensive to retain in its entirety and often is in the wrong place, so no longer fit for purpose. and that is why some bases are being given a stay of execution and others a permanent reprieve. first we have decided that five sites will be part of a phased withdrawal and disposal. they are prince williams of gloucester barracks, vining barracks, raf henlow, churwell station and raf houlton. these facilities these facilities will will now close several years later than originally stated, and in some cases, units staying in place throughout that period. next we have assessed that five other sites originally marked for disposal will now be retained. they are norton manna camp,

the royal marines condor airfield, the royal marines chivner, mod woodbridge, rockfort barracks and raf molesworth. which will continue to be used by the united states visiting forces. given that so many sites act as a clear symbol of the armed forces in their local areas, can i ask the minister if the department has considered the effect that these closures could have on recruitment? it is particularly true for reservists, who obviously rely on facilities being within a reasonable travelling distance of where they live. so is he concerned that closing sites that host reserves training could cut off opportunities for recruits and retain these personnel? members of the armed forces, as the select committee will know, and the chair this in the rightful place, when the ombudsman of the armed forces raised the issues at the defence select committee this week, the highest issue they face relates to terms and conditions. so that's money, and

the way in which members of the armed forces live. can the minister assure that closures are operationally led and not cost cutting as a result of the treasury handing the mod a pensions bill that the commons would estimate as £3 billion over the next spending period? i did mention that it is operationally led, but there are cost savings to be made, huge pressures that are on the defence budget, means to say that we need to find better ways of making efficiencies. and as i've said before, 2% of the uk land is owned by the mod. many of that is surplus to requirement, we do not need it and we have duplicate assets in different places. it's best to try and bring those together and help them, but without losing sight of the fact that in some places, you do need to keep assets for reservist functions and cadets as well. can my honourable friends say more, right honourable friends, say more about what we are doing to improve accommodation for our armed forces personnel, and where there are barracks where significantly more people

are stationed there, what more we can do to support local areas with things such as school places? one of the reasons why recruitment is important is because we're building accommodation, that youngsters today that are looking around, expect. when ijoined the armed forces, you could end up with eight or 20 people in one room, now people want their own accommodation, they want their own cooking facilities, they want wi—fi, they expect these sort of things and if they're not there, they will not sign up and that's the standard accommodation that we're now building for our armed forces. tobias ellwood there. no, mps called on the government to take urgent action to slash the uk's carbon emissions further, to help prevent catastrophic climate change. opening a debate in the commons, a liberal democrat said 2018 had been the fourth hottest year on record. and she pointed to this week's record high temperatures for a winter month.

the lovely weather was lovely, was it not? but do we not remember last year, the beast from the east? these extreme weather events are not to be welcomed, they are not good things, they are a sign that something has gone horrifically wrong. there is no more time left for delay, the government needs to urgently show that they are serious about tackling climate change and enshrine a law, net zero, before 2050. we must have a clear strategy that we can all get behind. leila moran agreed, saying the uk should have a target of zero carbon emissions. leading climate scientists at the ipcc have warned that unless we take urgent action, we have just 12 years before global warming rises above the maximum limit of 1.5%, after which the risk of droughts, floods and extreme heat increases significantly. the green mp argued climate change was here now and said that the government's response to what she called the climate crisis was nowhere near ambitious enough. since 2010, almost every sensible

climate measure has been torched, zero carbon homes scrapped, onshore wind effectively banned, solar power shafted, the green investment bank flogged off, fracking forced on local communities. and while many honourable members are across the severity of the situation, the policies proposed are not good enough either. it is not possible to tackle the climate price, crisis and expand it is not possible to tackle the climate crisis and expand airports or build new runways. we cannot tackle climate change while pouring billions of pounds into the north sea oil and gas. we can't tackle the climate crisis by checking billions into new roads. and we can't tackle the climate crisis when the economy is built on the assumption that precious minerals, fresh air, clean water can magically regenerate themselves in an instance. that somehow the earth will expand to meet our ever expanding use of resources. last year saw a record amount of power generated from renewable

sources, with over 30% coming from renewables, a much quicker transition to electric vehicles, something we really need to push on, will mean more jobs and more investment. supporting nuclear technologies will mean jobs and investments, and that transition will happen whether we like it or not and it is the old story of the whale oil. in 1850, every home in america was led by whale oil but years later, edwin drake struck oil and we had the oil industry and almost immediately after the oil rush began, the whale oil sector simply evaporated. i am astonished that i run out of customers, before i ran out of whales. that is what is going to happen. we published the green growth strategy, the most comprehensive document i have ever seen from the government, setting out policies and proposals to be carbonized across our economy, setting out policies and proposals to decarbonize across our economy and i am happy to say that we delivered almost all of the action points

and commitments we have made so far. we know we have to do more and we will do more and we actually have to go further than those budgets, which i think is the point of the debate today. as the debate got under way, the news broke that the environment minister and brexiteer george eustace had quit the government over theresa may's promise to allow mps a vote on delaying brexit if her deal is rejected. a labour mp thought a former environment minister, richard banyan, should be on standby. can i advise him to keep his mobile phone switched on, given the news that the fisheries minister has just resigned? they may be looking for a new fisheries minister, he hasjust gone, so it may be his lucky date yet again. in the great tradition of reusing and recycling ministers, ican think of no finer replacement. i am very grateful to the honourable

lady and i cannot get away and i cannot allow her to get away with that, if she thinks it is a privilege or a delight to be a fisheries minister at present, she must be dreaming in ways i know she is not capable of. now, he demanded to know why two northern ireland fishing boats have been impounded by the irish navy. the boats were detained on wednesday for alleged breaches of fishing regulations. i see that today too, northern ireland registered fishing boats and their crews have been seized by the irish government and escorted to an irish port and arrested without a huge amount of justification. it does seem to me that i would assume that the government would've wanted to come to the house to make a statement. and if it was planning to do that, he wanted to know why not? a dup mp was also concerned. i also am appalled at the actions of the republic of ireland government, seizing boats belonging to this great nation of the united kingdom of great britain and northern ireland, and the fishing boats are very clearly british fishing boats, they were illegally seized in waters that are disputed. waters that belong to this great nation, this british nation. and he said he'd ask the speaker

if he could put a question to the minister about the incident in parliament on monday. now, is the cost of a trip to the theatre just too expensive? opinions varied when peers questioned whether enough was being done to make it easier for people to enjoy live performances, especially in london. many theatres in london operate schemes to encourage more people to attend performances through free or discounted tickets, and audience numbers have continued to grow. my lords, as the government is almost certainly aware, the west end theatre is thriving at the moment but the price of a decent seat in the stalls, for example, has nearly doubled in the last three years. it wasn't the producers who were benefiting he said, but the theatre owners and ticket sellers. the london theatre is already becoming too expensive for many regular theatregoers and i would like, i hope that the government will take this very seriously, because in fact, london, as we all know, one of the many reasons that people come to london

is because of the theatre and it's gradually going to become too expensive for anyone to come to any of these major plays. he suggested lord glasgow was talking about top of the range tickets. i think the average top ticket price is now over £100 but there are many examples of features that make a big effort to try and get cheap prices, like the warehouse for example, offers tickets under £25 each month. royal court theatre has discount nights, there are many examples where you can get seats in the theatre for much less than the top prices. some of us wonder what this has to do with the government, but in saying so, surely he should be promoting if people did not go to the theatre in london, shouldn't he be promoting the wonderful provincial opportunities that we have in this country, whether they be in manchester, in leeds, in york or newcastle, and indeed, in view of the question

from the noble earl, in glasgow as well? my lords, i completely agree with my noble friend. that's why the arts council spent so much money, an increasing proportion in fact outside of london and we agree with him and we are trying to promote the arts in general outside of london. a study by the national campaign for the arts that shows ticket prices in all areas of the arts are rising well above inflation because of the reliance on earning money from the public through ticket prices, with the result that the demographic is narrowed

and attendance falls overall and regional inequalities are exacerbated, will the government now consider increasing public funding to address these concerns? the government spends aboutjust under half £1 billion a year on the arts and also 860 million of tax relief on the creative industry, so i think the government is doing a fairly large amount already. it is very misleading to look at how a plane ticket prices, —— it is very misleading to look at how a headline ticket prices, it is true that london theatres are expensive, if you want the best seats in the stalls on a saturday night but it is possible to go to london for quite modest signs. putting on a live performance of any kind, particularly on scale is extremely expensive and very difficult to achieve, and it requires a great variety of skills and talents and the more we support it, the more likely we are to find homes for all our young people who might be looking to those industries forjobs. can the noble lord, the minister, assure the house that the funding to this sector through the arts council and the tax to this sector through the arts council and the theatre tax relief will be protected in the upcoming spending review? as far as the spending review is concerned, we will advocate as hard as we can for the arts.

finally, the date has been announced for the by—election in newport west, following the death of the labour mp. the election in the south wells seat will take place on april the 4th. mr flynn died earlier this month at the age of 8a. the announcement, known as moving the rate was made in the commons. i beg to move that mr speaker do issue his writ to the crown to make out a new rate for the electing of a member to serve in this present parliament by the county constituency of newport west, in the place of... sorry, in the realm of paul philip flynn, deceased. nick browne. and that's it from me for now, but dojoin me on bbc parliament on friday night at 11pm for our roundup of the week here in westminster, where i'll be asking two experts what next for theresa may after the latest round of brexit boats. —— what next for theresa may after the latest round of brexit votes. but for now, from me, alicia mccarthy, goodbye.

the weather is still relatively mild out there. i know we have lost the blue skies by day and that relatively warm weather we had but the temperatures are still above average for the time of year and by friday, there will be some sunshine around. not everyone will get it that there will be some areas which get some decent weather. through the early morning, a lot of cloud, mist and murk through the uk. nine degrees in london first thing, around four or five a little bit further north. tomorrow, where we going to get that sunshine? i think western areas, cornwall, devon, parts of wales, maybe the west of northern ireland. the further east you are in the central areas, that is where you are likely to be stuck under the cloud. double figures as far north as glasgow and edinburgh, so far north as glasgow and edinburgh, so not a bad day. the weekend is

looking very wet, very windy, expecting gale force winds about many western areas of the uk.