a deal before the brexit deadline on october 31st now looks extremely unlikely, as talks in brussels fail to make progress. borisjohnson appeals to eu leaders to accept his proposals — but a downing street source says a deal now looks essentially impossible. the prime minister spoke to angela merkel this morning. number ten says she dismissed the latest plans, but, this afternoon, michael gove said it's up to brussels. and in setting out these proposals, we've moved. it is now time for the eu to move, too. if it does, then there is still every chance that you can leave with a new deal. the stark reality is that the government put forward proposals that were designed to fail and it still won't take responsibility for own actions. there's been an angry reaction from brussels. the european commission president,

donald tusk, accused borisjohnson of trying to win what he called a "stupid blame game". also tonight... the parents of this ten—year—old boy who died after contracting hiv from contaminated blood products almost 30 years ago tell a public inquiry of their heartbreak. there is a little boy of eight, nine, telling you he's so frightened and you can't take that away. the impact of knife crime on its young victims — more than 20,000 were injured last year alone and, for many, the trauma continues. and britain's best building — an opera house, a council house and one made from cork. just some of the buildings up for the presigious up for the prestigious stirling prize tonight. and coming up on bbc news, we look ahead to tomorrow's crunch clash for scotland at the rugby world cup as they take on russia in their quest for quarterfinal qualification.

good evening and welcome to the bbc news at six. a deal with the eu by the end of this month in time for the brexit deadline now looks extremely unlikely. downing street says brexit talks are close to breaking down after what was described as a "challenging" phone call between the prime minister and the german chancellor this morning. a source at number ten says angela merkel made clear that a brexit deal was overwhelmingly unlikely unless northern ireland remained in the customs union indefinitely. there was an angry response from brussels as the eu's top official, donald tusk, warned borisjohnson not to become engaged in what he called a "stupid blame game". our political editor laura kuenssberg reports. there is nothing about this process,

nothing about this government, that ta kes ste ps nothing about this government, that takes steps in the usual ways. will the break to talk spring is to collapse? early this morning, before the cabinet arrived for their weekly meeting, the prime ministers spoke to angela merkel for half an hour. number ten sources told me she said a brexit deal is overwhelmingly unlikely. have we reached the end of the road with getting a deal? after the road with getting a deal? after the call, without discussion in cabinet, downing street's unofficial conclusion, the talks are close to breaking down. good morning, how are you. not at all, going very well. brussels tend to do the deal is when things go down to the wire, that has always been the way, the offer is there, it is up to them to take it. everyone wants a deal, we would like to have a deal but the eu knows we are absolutely going to be ready without a deal and we are going to leave on the 31st. in contrast to any traditional political formality, number ten talked about the detail of the call with the german leader, saying angela merkel suggested it was almost impossible to do a deal

u nless was almost impossible to do a deal unless northern ireland stayed in the customs union, following eu rules. that has always been ruled out by the government. germany would not confirm the contents of the call. but with no change in position, the chances of a deal this month seem almost gone. but listen to this. the irish foreign minister suggesting to the prime minister if there is no deal, it is not us, it is you. a deal is still possible, but there needs to be a will on both sides to get us there. a no—deal brexit will never be island's choice, it will never be the eu's choice, it will never be the eu's choice —— macron choice. if it happens, it will be a decision made by the british government. and then a tweet to boris johnson from the by the british government. and then a tweet to borisjohnson from the eu council president, saying he was entering a stupid blame game.

despite the hostility, though, the uk's negotiator david frost swept into brussels today for more talks. why are you here, mr frost quizzed about what is the point of these talks? with the opposition accusing them of pushing them to the brink. they put these proposals on the table that were never going to work, they were designed to fail and instead of reacting and changing their proposals, they are now collapsing the talks and engaging in a reckless blame game. forget that he said, she said. in a way, it is a simple stand—off. boris johnson wa nts a simple stand—off. boris johnson wants a different deal with the eu that would mean different customs systems on either side of the irish border, but the eu believes that is not a realistic without serious disruption so is saying no, and that means it is extremely unlikely an agreement can be reached in time for the uk to leave the eu with a deal at the end of this month. both

sides, number ten and the eu, wanted to leave the door at least a fraction open. in public, no one wa nts to fraction open. in public, no one wants to be the first to call the whole thing off. is a still possible? but behind the scenes, it is a different order. downing street does not expect to shake on a deal next week. laura kuenssberg, bbc news, westminster. our europe correspondent, damian grammaticus is in brussels. this tweet from the european council president donald tusk, you get a real sense of the frustration in brussels. yes, you do and there is real frustration and concern right across the eu. i think frustration that we are so long into this extension that was granted to the uk and so close to the end and still so farfrom any and so close to the end and still so far from any sort of resolution. and i think the eu is frustrated because they feel that time has been used up, they feel that the deal that has finally been put on the table clearly doesn't respond to what the eu thinks needs to be addressed on the island of ireland, so you have

different reactions. you have donald tusk, this more emotional, less diplomatic character who tweeted out today that response. elsewhere, you have a different kind of response. in germany, silence. angela merkel does not want to get drawn into this sort of briefing war, this blame game. we heard from a close ally of hers that her position has not changed, the eu view is that it wa nts a changed, the eu view is that it wants a deal and it has to be a deal that protects the peace process in northern ireland and that is what was repeated from the irish side as well today, that said it is the uk that wants to change things that have been negotiated over the last couple of years, therefore the uk has to come forward with proposals that meet the requirements of what is needed to protect piece on the island of ireland and to deal with all of the border issues. simon coveney, the irish foreign minister, saying today that he did not want to get sucked into a blame game but he said ireland would not respond under pressure. so, yes, frustration and

time running out. laura, if, as you say, a deal is looking unlikely by the 3ist, deal is looking unlikely by the 31st, what now? in the last couple of hours, the prime minister has talked to the irish leader lee over radtke and we are told the talks we re radtke and we are told the talks were friendly, both sides re—their sides —— ireland's. politics has been strange over the last two yea rs, never say been strange over the last two years, never say never and a deal is not completely off the table but it seems a vanishingly unlikely that we are going to get into that position with the time left. it is only a matter of days since the prime minister put his new proposals on the table in brussels and quite clearly they are simply not changing hearts and minds and they are simply not on course to be able to get to a conclusion. what the prime minister would like to do, if there isn't a conclusion, is take us out of the european union without a deal at the end of this month. remember his 31st of october do or die deadline that he imposed on his own government.

but the flip side of that, of course, is that this place has voted to make that as hard as possible. there is a majority in parliament thatis there is a majority in parliament that is determined to stop us taking us that is determined to stop us taking us out without a formal agreement in place —— stop him. in number ten, they still hope, they still claim there may be ways that they can actually take us out at halloween, whatever the law now says. after all, political pressure is a different thing to a government which says it wants to follow the letter of the law but may look for political exits. but as things stand tonight, boris johnson is political exits. but as things stand tonight, borisjohnson is blocked in by parliament and blocked in by brussels with no obvious way out of all of this. laura kuenssberg, thank you. if a deal can't be reached in the next few days, it's still not clear what will happen on october 31st — the day we are set to leave the european union. preparations are continuing for a no—deal brexit and, today, the man in charge of that, michael gove, admitted that if a deal can't be reached in the next few days,

even with every possible preparation in place, risks and challenges still remain. today, the leading economic think tank — the institute for fiscal studies — warned a no—deal brexit could see the national debt rise to levels not seen since the 1960s. our economics editor faisal islam reports. as a brexit deal looks increasingly unlikely, the planning for and consequences of a no—deal brexit and its immediate impact on trade up and down the country matter more than ever. the government is yet to update its numbers, but the likes of the institute for fiscal studies has. the ifs predicts that our public finances will be heavily impacted by a no—deal brexit, that the level of our annual public borrowing, the deficit, would double over the next two years, approaching 100 billion again and that the total stock of our borrowing, the national debt, would reach a level that hasn't been seen in over half a century. i think if we had no—deal the economy would grow very little, if at all, over the next two

or three years, borrowing would rise towards 90, £100 billion a year, which is a very significant increase on where we are. if that happened, i think we would have to have another period of tax increases or spending cuts to get it back under control. the government stresses the opposite, at least immediately. more spending to support affected industries as it presented its latest preparation document praising the efforts made so far. of course, risks remain and challenges for some businesses cannot be entirely mitigated. even with every possible preparation in place. but the uk economy is in a much better position to meet those risks and challenges thanks to the efforts of these sectors and companies and the chancellor. but decisions now have been made on which taxes on imports are scrapped to keep consumer prices low and which of these import tariffs are raised to protect uk industry from competition. some farmers are not happy.

a no—deal is so very different because you look at the tarriff schedule and what would happen to agriculture in this country by taking on imports that are produced to lower standards. it's not rocket science but that's the betrayal farmers feel. both the political uncertainty and the possibility of no deal have hit business investment over the past three years which in turn has impacted how productive the british economy is. the expert economists behind this report say no deal will impact our trade with europe and lead to a smaller economy compared with brexit being reversed, for example, a gap of over 4%. it could be mostly eliminated if there was still a deal. the government points out that partly because of its preparations, even this prediction for the no deal economic hit has reduced, but it has not been eliminated. faisal islam, bbc news. the parents of a ten—year—old boy who died after contracting hiv

through contaminated blood products were given a standing ovation at a public inquiry today after describing the family's ordeal. lee turton died in 1992. his mother told the inquiry she believes the government knew the blood products being used were infected, as did the pharmaceutical companies, but that they did nothing. hugh pym has been speaking to lee's parents. good morning, son, merry christmas to you. are you all right? i got a stomach ache. huh? stomach ache. it was lee's final christmas. he was ten and only had weeks to live. he'd been infected with hiv because of his treatment by the nhs. i can't get to sleep. he was just four when his parents were told he had contracted hiv after being treated for his haemophilia with contaminated blood products.

he never had a childhood, he could never do the things other children did, that was all taken away from him. he used to say how frightened he was. and what can you say? you know, there's a little boy of eight, nine, telling you he's so frightened and you can't take that away. they said they were shunned by other parents. one teacher even refused to have him in the class. they were harassed by the media and felt they had to move. today, denise told the inquiry about lee's final days. they actually told us he had between two and ten days to live. sorry. so they said that... they said he had an infection on the brain. so we insisted that he went home that day, because that's

what he wanted to do. he kept asking to go home. we got him home, with a nurse and he lived for another eight days at home. in that time, he sort of... demanded that he wanted to go down and see the beach for the last time, so we managed to carry him down to the beach. i think the hardest thing is not knowing the truth about what happened and knowing that it's all been covered up. like other affected families, they hope the inquiry will finally get to that truth. hugh pym, bbc news. the time is 6:15pm. our top story this evening. as brexit talks in brussels fail to make progress, a downing street source says a deal before october 31st now looks extremely unlikely. and coming up, the fight

to find treatments for ms for the 100,000 people in the uk living with the disease. coming up on sportsday on bbc news, simone biles leads team usa to gold in the women's team event at the world gymnastics championships to become the most decorated female in world gymnastics history. more than 20,000 people in england and wales were injured by knives or sharp instruments last year and survived — some of the many victims of knife crime. and, often, they are left traumatised by their experience, struggling to return to education, training, or the workplace. clive myrie has been finding out what it has been like for one such survivor. this is a tale from a frightened city. meet gaddi. he survived a knife attack.

these guys, they came up to us and they said, "where you guys from?" and ijust froze, everything froze, i didn't know what to say. he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. assaulted on his way home from football practice. he's 15. i don't even remember them stabbing me here and stuff. and that is when he got me here. i was bleeding, i was bleeding and then i saw loads of blood pouring out and i was just holding it tight, squeezing it. this is gaddi recovering in hospital two days after the attack. a grateful family by his side. let him be alive, god, please let him be alive. i was praying for him to be alive with all my energy, all my... those were my feelings as a mum. so they are saying the best thing to do is to move out of the area. deprivation and a sense of hopelessness can lead some to join gangs, deal drugs, fight turf wars. but there's never any excuse

for the savagery of a knife attack and the ease which some are willing to grab a blade. gaddi was attacked simply because he wandered into the wrong area. he's now left hospital and he's back at school, but bad memories persist. i can't sleep well at night, because sometimes i'm still up because i'm, like, paranoid. it's just like, i think about it and i don't want to sleep. so, you know, it's one of those things. so, today, he's meeting a caseworker from the st giles trust, a charity that helps victims of violent crime adjust to lives transformed. i just get frustrated sometimes. yes. and i'lljust be angry. like, "why me?" stuff like that. there was one, i came in on a tuesday and there were 11 new admissions. the st giles trust now has an office inside the royal london hospital,

where gaddi was treated. it means trauma experts can help stabbing survivors straight after surgery. hundreds in this hospital every year, thousands around the country, who are stabbed and survive but are traumatised. one consultant surgeon says they need compassion and understanding, not suspicion. we live in a society that judges these people based on their demographics and makings of their injury. nothing else. we pay no attention to their circumstances or their back stories, to what these lads are going back to. and we want them to be better, to be normal, to be fixed. and we're scared. and they deserve what happens to them. and, more importantly, we are going to tolerate it. and that can't be allowed to stand. you are lucky you are

still here with us. and don't forget the strain on families, too. moving away from this part of london, will that give you peace of mind? probably it will give a little bit of peace of mind... but there is a tension. i'm completely against it, to be honest, because i have football and i have school. it is not like they targeted me. i know, i know. it is not about me being safe, it's.... how do you know they didn't target you? i'm not involved in anything. why would they, attack an innocent person, mum? why? the dilemma of a loving family. one of many now being driven away by a violence that's staying put. clive myrie, bbc news. 13 men have been arrested as part of an international investigation into what's believed to be the uk's biggest ever drug smuggling operation. the national crime agency says 50 tonnes of heroin, cocaine and cannabis — said to be worth billions of pounds — was imported from the netherlands in lorry loads of vegetables and fruitjuice, before being moved around the uk over an 18—month period.

more than 100,000 people in the uk live with multiple sclerosis, a disease which affects the brain and spinal cord. the ms society says finding treatments for more advanced forms of the disease is crucial and it has launched a major campaign to raise £100 million for research. our correspondent caroline wyatt was diagnosed with the illness in 2015 and has this report. the human brain is complex and mysterious. a healthy brain has tens of billions of nerve cells, helping us think, walk and talk. but in a brain like this, affected by ms, the immune system attacks the fatty tissue that protects the nerves. the damage, shown by the red circle, is in the centre of the screen. as yet, few treatments exist to repair the damage done by the disease.

i'm heading to edinburgh, a leading centre for research, because scotland has one of the highest rates of ms in the world and no one is really sure why. there are some theories that it might be down to lack of sunshine, and so lower levels of vitamin d, or that it might have something to do with the genes brought over here by the vikings. corinne mather is 3a and her wife, sarah, is now a full—time carer. it won't be long now until we can see all the way down. corrine was diagnosed with ms when she was 27. it's first thing in the morning, have to assist me get out of bed, the clothing, washing, all of that. i very much just have to sit and watch as she runs around after me. karine now has the use ofjust one hand. i don't like to look to the future, because it's such a question mark. a few miles away at the university of edinburgh, neurologist anna williams is working on brain

stem cell research. the team here is examining how a damaged brain may one day be helped to repair itself. as we get older, our nerves die. that's part of ageing. but in ms that seems to be accelerated, and we want to be able to try and limit that either by keeping the nerves alive or keeping the supporting cells that keep them alive working better. that nerve damage now affect my hands, arms and legs, but could research being done in cambridge help? i've got my reporter mra ready. professor robin franklin heads the team that has discovered a safe, cheap drug that already exists may help regenerate adult brain stem cells. so how exactly could this commonly—used diabetes drug help people like me whose ms is progressing? it's well tolerated and widely available, and there is every reason to believe that the effects

that we have seen in the laboratory which have been so spectacular will translate into humans, but, of course, we now need to do trials to ascertain whether that is true or not. those trials will take years rather than months, karine, and many others, it is research that offers much needed hope. caroline wyatt, bbc news. an opera house, a council house and a home made out of cork. they are among the buildings in the running to win the stirling prize — the award for britain's building of the year. the winner will be announced in the next few hours, and as david sillito reports, sustainability and recycling are at the heart of all the nominations. it is a varied list. this is an opera house hidden in an old stable building. there is a visitor centre for the yorkshire sculpture park. a scottish distillery. and a huge redevelopment of london bridge station. i'd much rather work

here than any other station. i really would, because it's just lovely. and for the first time, a council house. so this is it? chloe smith took me on a tour of her new home here at the goldsmith street development in norwich. i'd have never have thought this would be a council property, from what i've lived in in the past to what i'm living in now, never did i think this would be council. never. but what makes this truly remarkable is the insulation. houses aren't even allowed letterboxes in case heat escapes. have you turned the heating on? twice, i think. twice in a year? since i've been here, yeah. but one building takes the green theme to a new level. this is a house made entirely of cork. the blocks are made from the by—product of wine corks, and there is no mortar, no plastic. the blocks are just held together by gravity, and so the whole house can be taken

apart and used again. i've been told that even an idiot such as me can have a go at doing a bit of construction. so, let's see. i think i've just built a wall. not brilliant, but that was about a minute, wasn't it? this isn'tjust a new design. it's a new building technology, and the architect behind it even did all the construction. was there a moment where you thought, what have i done? honestly, there were several days, dark days, when you wondered, yes. i wondered if i would get to the end of it, wasn't it going to be successful? yes. but it's paid off. now one of the six buildings of the year. the overall winner will be announced later this evening. david sillito, bbc news. time for a look at the weather. here's louise lear. the weather watchers have been

searching for the pot of gold. there's been so many rainbow pictures today, but that is because there have been so many showers, and there have been so many showers, and the heavy and frequent ones have been through scotland, merging through the day for longer spells of rain at times and across western scotla nd rain at times and across western scotland and northern ireland and a rash of pretty intense shower is moving into the south—east in the last few hours, but, the showers to the far north—west will continue because you are closest to this area of low pressure and this has been the story so far this week and we will continue to see plenty of showers the further north and west as we go, so sheltered eastern areas, quite a breezy night to come inafairamount areas, quite a breezy night to come in a fair amount of cloud, so a cold one and we will see over like lows of —— overnight lows of 10 degrees. we will start today the same as tomorrow, the frequent rash of showers to the north and west and generally the showers out to the west will start to filter a little further inland. some of you may miss them and keep the sunshine but with them and keep the sunshine but with the strong, blustery south—west

winds at times it will drive the showers through at pace, some of them heavy on the old rumble of thunder and capacity for some hail. it won't feel warm out there tomorrow, between 12 and 15 degrees at best. the low pressure stays with us at best. the low pressure stays with us but it looks like we could see more persistent frontal rain developing between thursday and friday, moving across the north of the country, potentially which means the country, potentially which means the areas like northern ireland and parts of north wales we could see more persistent rain but as we move into the weekend, it is a change again, and you need to keep abreast of the forecast for your plans because it does look like there is the potential for more heavy and persistent rain moving up through the uk. just where that rain is going to sit is still subject to change but generally speaking the story is it will stay pretty u nsettled story is it will stay pretty unsettled across parts of the uk the next week to ten days. that's all from the bbc news at six. on bbc one, we nowjoin the bbc‘s news teams where you are.

hello, this is bbc news. the headlines. a downing street source says a brexit deal is now "essentially impossible" following a phone call between boris johnson and germany's chancellor, but in the commons michael gove insists a deal can still be done. in setting out these proposals, we've moved, it is now time for the eu to move too. if it does, then there is still every chance we can leave with a new deal. european council president donald tusk warns borisjohnson it shouldn't be about ‘winning some stupid blame game". the parents of this 10 year old boy who died after contracting hiv from contaminated blood products almost 30 years ago tell the public